Go, "Crusher"! Go!

Repeat offenders could kiss goodbye to their vehicles forever, now the government's getting tough on illegal street racing. Prime Minister, John Key, says he wants boy racer cars off New Zealand's roads. The prized possession of a street racer could end up a crushed cube of metal under new laws.

The eyes have it...

Some boy racers taunt that it's easier said than done....difficult maybe, but Police Minister Judith “Crusher” Collins has set about earning her nickname. Under new laws, three offences - like burnouts and skids - over four years means the car is heading to the crusher. Illegal street racing kills on average 10 people a year and the government says the social cost of $30 million is unacceptable.
Hear, hear! Personally I'd not only crush their cars after an even shorter timeframe than four years, but I'd amend the laws so that boy-racers would have to push the crusher button themselves, and watch their “penis extensions” pulverised.
Or maybe adopt an Darwinian process: fence off an area where boy-racers can do their stuff, put some big strong telephone poles in there, park a few disused trucks and railway carriages as well...those who out-drive their or their cars' capabilities won't be bothering society again.
By the way, I've met Judith a number of times and aside from having eyes you could drown in, she has sincerity, commitment, integrity... if this initiative can be done, she'll do it!
PS - for more on this, check 'Richard Phelps' Lifestream (his May 2009 post).

Could They Somehow Be Related? #2

Yusuf Islam, the artist formerly known as Cat Stevens, has another damn nice-sounding album out: "Roadsinger".
However, when watching the video clip of the first single Thinking 'bout You, I was struck by the similarity between Yusuf and one of the guys from ZZ Top!
Now I'm not 100% sure whether the guy on the right is Billy Gibbons or Dusty Hill...or maybe The Artist Formerly Known As...!

Savings' Double-Edged Sword

Economists say the only way we can get our finances in better shape is to save more and spend less.
Economists also tell us that the way to get the country's economy stronger is to have people spend more - and therefore save less.
So basically we should all be spending more AND saving more.
Yeah, right…what a wonderful mixed message: the government encourages us to save, though its incentive-loaded KiwiSaver scheme – while at the same time wanting us to fuel the “return to the black” by buying stuff.
Call me a cynical ol' basket (you won't be the first!), but I don't feel it's my responsibility to spend and spend for the sake of the country's economy. I'm being very careful with my dollars, for the sake of my own economy: I do not intend to be a casualty of the recession.
Sadly, if the economy really does rely on people continually buying stuff they don't need, something seems wrong.
Or have I simply missed the point?

Building The Millennium Falcon

I was one of the original Star Wars addicts!!
When the first film came out, I saw it nine times in a fortnight! And for what it's worth, I still rate that first movie ("Episode IV: A New Hope") as the best of the series!
I adored Han Solo's awesome craft, the Millennium Falcon. Obviously I'm not the only one... a guy in Canada made a movie of the construction of his LEGO Millennium Falcon creation (be kind to him - he may not have a real life!).

His very clever 12-minute stop-motion film is complete with music, construction workers, stormtrooper attacks, character interaction, cleaning crews...you name it! The level of detail is amazing!

Yoko...Oh No!

In The Big Apple of Noo Yoik, USA, a new John Lennon exhibition is on at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Annex (til the end of 2009).
It features the usual memorabilia you'd expect from the life of a dead rocker – guitars, lyric-sheets, photos – but also a paper bag containing the bloodied clothing Lennon was wearing the night he was murdered in December 1980!!!

His widow Yoko Ono claims it was difficult to include it but thought it was important to let people see the effects of gun violence. That's her story.

Hmmm, let's see: bang, hole in body, blood pumps out, death...ok, we get it, Yoko. But should it be displayed as “art”? Interesting that she should focus attention on the gory objects at a press conference, yet the Annex doesn't mention it in its on-line publicity at all.
One might be excused for cynically thinking Yoko was once again capitali$ing on the memory of her dead husband. But can anyone remember anything original and worthwhile Yoko has ever done herself, away from John's influence? Oh, hush my mouth...

The Road To Nowhere...

Reality check: yes, there is a global recession. Same want to call it a depression. But there're individuals and companies around us, trying their best to stay positive and buoy up others at the same time.
Not far from me is a motor vehicle outlet, Albany Toyota, which until recently displayed a sign saying it was not participating in a recession. Nice motivation...10/10...then some vandal sprayed out the word "not". How puerile is that? How senseless!
Global news agency CNN is also trying to be positive, publishing it's Top "Road To Recovery" Stories. Again, a nice idea...unfortunately though, here's a snapshot of the positive stories for May 12th:
'US economy worse than expected''Billions wiped off UK rich list fortunes'

'Spain unemployment tops 17%'

'Reality hits with earnings angst'

'UBS to cut 9,000 more jobs''Asian economic outlook bleak'
'Global downturn is WWII-like'
'UK jobless figures hit 2-million'
'Dire economy shaking Zimbabwe'
'Police fear summer of recession rage'...
Gee, if that's the most positive news CNN can find, maybe I'll just exit the road and go strolling along the beach...looks like a far nicer view there!

Beach Party

New Zealand has been in the grip of damn cold weather over this last week, with ice-cold winds coming up from the Antarctic, lots of rain and thunderstorms.
And then today...jeez!

A tornado in Warkworth, several waterspouts around the country, cows struck dead by lightning, and coastal Bay Of Plenty experienced such a heavy hailstorm that the beach was white. Yeup, the white stuff in the pic ain't sand - it's hail! Merrymakers were having snowball fights by the waves while some surfers were being towed along the beach behind cars, boogieboarding through the ice!

Now check out the waterspout: experts say that monster was sucking water about 10km up into the sky! And look at the depth of hail around the red car parked on the street: that's right up over the wheels!

Bloody Expensive Beer Mat, Mate!

An Aussie mum is staring down the barrel of five years in jail in Thailand, over the theft of a $60 bar mat!
Annice Smoel was drinking in the Aussie Bar in Phuket with friends (2nd.May) when they played a prank on her, putting the beer mat in her handbag. Undercover police in the bar arrested her on the way out, and she spent four nights in a 4m x 4m jail cell. Charges are likely.
Moral of the story: don't drink in the Aussie Bar in Phuket - the cost of their beer mats is WAAAAY too high!! Fair suck of the sav, cobber!!
PS: 21 May 2009 - After behind-the-scenes arm-twisting, a 6-month suspended jail term and a $38 fine, Annice is Aussie-bound, to hubby and children x 4. That fine's less than the value of the mat - probably equivalent to two cocktails at the bar! So why didn't the bar owner simply waive all the hassle and bad publicity in exchange for his precious bloody mat returned?

Star Wars Day

What's so special about 4th.May? Was that the original release date for the first "Star Wars" flick? (Nope, that was May 25th., 1977, and I remember it soooo well! In fact, thinking no-one would ever make another movie like that again!, I saw Episode IV nine times in two weeks!!)
The 4th of May's just a harmless lil' bit of fun, based on the month and the date, and how "May the 4th be with you" sounds so much like "May the Force be with you"...yea, ok, you get it...
Isn't it nice sometimes to enjoy something both silly and harmless, in a world that's too often neither.
So: Star Wars Day it is. See how many strange looks you get at work, when you speak to folk in that half-strangled back-of-the-throat Yoda-like voice...or perhaps a generic Chewbacca growl. For all they know, you could be saying: "Na-nu, na-nu, shazbot!"
But that's another story...