Divine Wind: First Contact

Hostilities between whalers and Sea Shepherd are underway.
SS ship Bob Barker found a Japanese harpooner Yushin Maru 3 in French waters 370km N of the Dumont d'Urville Antarctic base, but it's harpoon gun was covered so was not whaling at the time. YM3 left the French exclusive economic zone and is tailing BB in Australian Antarctic waters.
BB continues looking for the whalers' factory ship Nisshin Maru. It's the only SS ship currently operating after Brigitte Bardot was forced to return to Oz with hull damage: Steve Irwin escorted it while being tailed by security ship Shonan Maru 2 (the Ady Gil killer). BrBt (with only a skeleton crew) and SI arrived in Fremantle last night - storm damage will take several weeks to repair.
+ It was interesting how quickly the Oz Govt spanked SS for its aerial drones. It said an urgent environmental impact assessment was needed if they were to be used in Antarctic Treaty waters. Anyone going to the far south from an Oz port must file an EIA under strict environment protection rules. (An EIA = an assessment of the possible impact that a proposed project may have on the environment.) SS completed EIAs before leaving the Land of Oz last month, but Oz Antarctic Division mngr.Gillian Slocum emailed after the drones' existence became public, to say they hadn't been listed. (Ahhh, there's nothing quite like an official justifying their existence!) Approval was given on Wednesday. (Do the whalers file similar EIAs to cover their slaughtering and subsequent dumping of whale by-product in the ocean?)
+ Meanwhile, a Japanese town mayor says all the pre-sailing talk of beefed-up fleet security is bluff. The extra $29 million provided for this (controversially from tsunami relief funds) will be used to offset $24m debt and the only real change is that the whalers will get one extra escort vessel, through switching the role of Shonan Maru 2.
Mayor Tomoaki Nakao of the whaling port of Shimonoseki: "They don't need three harpoon vessels because I don't think they're planning to kill any more than 300 whales."

Wattie's Coming Home

Wattie's tomato sauce is as kiwi as pavlova...
'cept that it's been made in Australia for the past decade!
However, US food giant Heinz Wattie has called it quits at its factory in Victoria, and is bringing production back to the original Wattie's home in Hastings.
Heinz Wattie is a bug bug bug food producer here in GodZone with revenue topping $735m this past financial year, and $83m+ profit (up from $72m the year before). Heinz, with global sales of US$10.7b pa, bought Wattie's 20 years ago for about US$300m.
Tomato sauce production is coming to a bigger factory in Hastings than the Victorian one. But the exchange rate's also good and we also have generally lower wages, typically about 25% less than across the ditch.
Wattie's sauce is one of those iconic brands we all grew up with: most of us would never think of choosing anything else! And it's vastly superior to ketchup! But it's not just sauce returning: production of beetroot, sauce toppings and some canned meals too! The move'll add 10-15% to the Hastings factory's output.
Wattie's tomato sauce has long been made in NZ and controls about 60% of the market. Their tv ads (often featuring nationally-known personalities) are synonymous with thuh koiwoi woiy of loif. For a nostalgia trip, check out Wattie's HUGE collection of ads (especially the Indian corner shop owner who's "proud to be a kiwi coz I love my Wattie's sauce!").
LUV the ads! LUV the sauce!! It's classic Kiwiana!!!

Transphobic Tampons and Typhoons In Teacups

The world's gone bloody insane!
A typhoon-in-a-teacup's brewing over tampons.
A Libra tv ad's been labelled "transphobic": supposedly it implies transgender people are not REAL women coz they don't menstruate. (Transphobia = negative attitudes or feelings towards transsexual/transgender people.)
The tvc shows a drag queen and a blonde woman in a nightclub restroom putting on mascara and lippy, and adjusting their bras competitively. The blonde woman then pulls out a Libra tampon, leaving the drag queen to storm out of the loos in a huff.
The ad, with catchphrase Libra Gets Girls, has caught a cacophony of catty criticism on the company's Facebook page. One woman posted:
"I'm not sure what's more disgusting, the blatant transphobia or the inclination that a period is what defines a woman's femininity." Another poster wrote: "So, for the females who've gone through menopause or hysterectomies, I suppose Libra failed to 'get those girls'? Having a campaign where some snooty-nosed woman resorts to whipping out her feminine hygiene product in the face of someone who doesn't have a menstrual cycle therefore rendering her a winner, is in bad taste and poor form."
Male supporters defend the ad, saying the criticisms are PC gone crazy. But females say the ad was probably written by men who, obviously, neither menstruate nor buy Libra products.
Well, duuuhhh! Excuse my ignorance...but I don't think transexuals use tampons either! They may have had a cut'n'tuck, darlin', but surely medical science can't make them menstruate...?
Here's the ad: see what you think.

PS: 04 Jan.2012 - After moans from people with no sense of humour, Libra has pulled its ad! Officials issued an apology, saying: "It was never intended to upset or offend anyone. Independent research was undertaken and the advertisement viewed positively during testing."
So here's the thing: if the ad tested THAT positively, and there was no deliberate slight...then why pull such a good ad for the sake of a few limpdicks???!!!
PS: 05 Jan.2012 - Here's the response from the character used in the ad, who is NOT transgender at all but a gay drag queen and very proud to have been in the ad!