The experts on nuclear dangers are crawling out of the woodwork.

liligans So you think you're cultured?, Society, T.V, totally absurd, What Pisses me off

As if reports about the potential threat of a nuclear meltdown in Japan aren’t enough to drive me to despair, enter The Experts.

Every news bulletin unearths its own expert on the situation at Fukushima. He is usually from some obscure university such as the School of Miscellaneous Panic Studies in Antarctica. The interviewer asks him for his considered opinion based on his considerable knowledge of nuclear power only to hear:- “Well, it’s too soon to tell.”

The desperate interviewer prods Dr Mumbles for an atom of information, a sound byte perhaps? but no, the expert pleads ambivalence. “We don’t have enough information as yet,” he explains. “I would be loathe to predict the outcome of this situation.”

“But the situation looks pretty grim, doesn’t it, Dr Mumbles?” prods the interviewer.

“Well, yes… and no, although it’s too soon to tell,” Dr Mumbles responds. “It all depends on…”

“Thank you, Dr Mumbles,” interrupts the interviewer before going back to shots of the steaming nuclear reactor.

“That was Dr Mortimer Mumbles from the University of Antarctica expressing concern over the extremely grim situation at Fukushima.”

What was all that about? I ask myself. They could have interviewed me, and I would have said “Dunno, but it ain’t lookin’ good.” But I wasn’t asked because I don’t have the cachet, the info, the insight, the expertise. My dunno would lack credibility, I guess. However, it is comforting to know that I’m not alone.

Why we were wrong in buying the latest Series 5 BMW

liligans So you think you're cultured?

In June of last year we decided to replace our nine year old Series 5 BMW. It had been an excellent car and so we were confident that the 2010 release of the Series 5 would be as good if not better than what we had.

Mistake No I.
We made an assumption because of BMW’s elite reputation. The new model was released in June and in fact we bought it from the showroom before we could test drive it. Quite honestly, had we test driven it we would not have bought it. Our mistake.

Mistake No2.
We had test driven a Lexus and were very impressed by its performance. I have personal experience with a Lexus and love it and yet we thought that we should stick to BMW since it had given my husband many years of happy driving.

So there you are. It was all on the toss of a coin really. From the minute we began to drive the BMW, the Professional Navigation System got on our nerves. Please refer to a post of mine in December 2010 which explains what was annoying about it.

The car was noisy and bumped a lot in the streets of Melbourne. BMW told us that the streets of Melbourne with the tram lines are responsible for this problem. The passenger seat headrest was uncomfortable and when we returned to BMW they told us that unfortunately nothing could be done about it.

What really decided things for us is our recent trip to Sydney from Melbourne and back again. The BMW was easy to drive. It has power and we can’t fault that.

But I had to place a travel cushion behind my head so that the headrest would not annoy me. I never had this problem in the previous BMW. The Navigation System informed us that we off the highway when we obviously were on it. Plainly, the maps were out of date.

Anyhow, when we arrived back home after doing 2000kms, we finally concluded that we had been wrong to buy this latest model BMW. We could not tolerate the stupid navigation system that informs you of the latitude, altitude and longitude but does not tell you which suburb you are in.

And yes, we had complained to BMW about the headrest, the navigation and the bumpiness. We even wrote to BMW Australia.

Conclusion:-

We traded in this nine months old car and bought a Lexus GS 300. Life’s too short to have to persist with a poor decision. The Lexus has a great and informative navigation system, the headrest is perfect and I even have a lumbar support for me in the passenger seat.

And guess what? For some mysterious reason the streets of Melbourne have become less bumpy and noisy. Amazing…

David Jones department store needs to lift its game

liligans What Pisses me off

Retailers are complaining that online shopping has affected their profits over Christmas. They say that it’s not fair that they should have to pay a GST (Goods and Services Tax) which raises their costs while overseas internet sellers don’t have to pay this tax. All this is true. And yet…

What retailers have in their favour, supposedly, is that their goods can be viewed and tried on there and then in the store. This is a definite advantage, since the disadvantage of online shopping is that you are depending on a photo and description of the product. The other disadvantage of internet shopping is that it is a nuisance to return an unsuitable purchase. Wrapping the item, going to the post office and paying for postage is a drag.

So what one is paying for in a store is personal service. It should be easy, therefore, to return a faulty purchase. Continue reading →

What is Sweden good for?

liligans So you think you're cultured?

I’ve just finished watching a programme about Abba and found myself wondering what else Sweden is known for. It took me a while but I thought of Ikea. Whether that’s good or not is debatable, but I had problems with coming up with more than Stockholm Syndrome, and unsurprisingly, Seasonally Affected Disorder. And then there are the high taxes, which lead to a mass exodus of high-earning Swedes.

Some deeper reflection on the subject and I remembered Coleslaw and Smorgasbords. And that just about summed up Sweden for me. Oh yes, there’s also its policy of neutrality during the Two World Wars, similar to Switzerland’s.

Why bother with books or bookshops?

liligans Literature, So you think you're cultured?

This morning I decided I wanted to reread some of O.Henry’s short stories. I reached for my copy of his Complete Works and found it was heavy to hold. So heavy that I had to sit down with the hardcover copy I own because my hands were straining under its weight. As were my eyes because the print was so tiny it was uncomfortable to read. I usually have no problem with seeing normal print but this collection was impossible to enjoy.

So I went online to Amazon.com, downloaded “The Complete Works of O.Henry” for $1.99 to my Kindle electronic reader (E-Reader for short) and now I have no problems with the bothersome weight of hardcover books or microscopic fonts.

I am surprised by how I much I enjoy my Kindle because I’m not a naturally technical person. But I had to make the decision to give it a go when I found that the paperback edition of Dickens’ “Little Dorrit” was too awkward to manage. Holding it was a drag and turning the pages was cumbersome if you were trying to read in bed.

The Kindle is easy to use, easy to hold and can store a great number of books. Holding it in bed with one hand is a cinch, turning the pages is effortless and you can make the font as large or small as you wish. It is also marvellous for travelling or when you are sitting somewhere and waiting for an appointment.

I could go on forever about its virtues, but what I really want to say is that books cannot compete with the E-reader. No printing expenses, no transporting of books, no storage in bookshops and how about the price?

Books in Australia are ridiculously expensive and have always been dearer than overseas because of some arrangement with publishers. The end result of that arrangement is that the public has been ripped off for years. I used to go wild in the U.S and buy as many books as I could fit into my luggage because they were half the price that they cost in Australia.

Buying books online was the next step for me and I indulged in it. Did I want to support Australian publishers? Not for one minute, since they were quite prepared to charge us the Earth.

When E-Readers were introduced I did not rush out and buy one immediately. I thought about them for a while. Finally, I decided that the time had come to try one. And I haven’t been sorry. Now I can get all the famous literature for free because it’s out of copyright. I even pay for some books e.g “The Finkler Question” which won the Booker Prize this year. It cost $5.75. Wow!

There are several brands of E-Readers on the market and some have more features than the Kindle. I just happen to have chosen the Kindle for the time being. But even better E-Readers are coming and when they do I will not hesitate to invest in one. It’s still much cheaper then paying for the hard copy.

I imagine that the smaller I-Pad with illustrations and internet would be worth considering. At the moment the I-Pad is a bit too heavy, but if Apple can make it smaller and lighter as they have been suggesting I would be keen to get one.

Meanwhile, I will cuddle my Kindle in comfort.

What is wrong with the 2010 BMW Navigation System?

liligans So you think you're cultured?, What Pisses me off

Imagine you are driving along the streets of Melbourne, Australia. You would like to know where you are. What suburb are you in?

If you are in the latest model of the BMW Series 5, forget it. The main screen will not easily display the suburb or the street you are in. To find out the name of the street you have to look at the adjacent split screen because the main screen will not give you that information. Moreover, neither screen will tell you what suburb you are in.

So you are stuck with only knowing that you are in High Street, Melbourne, for example, but this street is so long and cuts through so many unnamed suburbs that you are none the wiser. “High Street, where?” Malvern? Toorak? Prahran” Hawthorn? And then there’s the problem of other High Streets scattered all over Melbourne

Sure, the system can navigate you to a selected destination. It can even tell you what your altitude, longitude and latitude are, so that a search party may find you in the wilderness. BUT if you are just taking a normal drive in a city or town, then the screen will not tell you what suburb you are in.

This is very frustrating since we would like to know where we are. We don’t care whether we are 30 metres above sea level. Of what use is that to us for everyday driving? And why have the main street names on the screen been changed to numbers? Why do we have to look at the adjacent screen to translate what S21 or S26 refers to?

Ironically, in our previous Series 5 BMW we could look at the screen and read the name of the suburb and the street that we were in. In other words, we knew where we were and we knew which was the neighbouring suburb. After all, location, in my opinion, is just as important as destination when you are driving. Oh how I miss that!

I also miss the pleasant voice on the earlier model navigator. The current one is robotic and offputting. It always makes me bristle with an urge to stand to attention and click my heels.

I have no idea why BMW went backwards in this latest Professional Navigation System. They wanted a change, I guess, but not all change is for the better.

The rest of the car’s features are good. It’s beautiful to look at and drives well, but the problem with the navigator is constantly there, in your face, reminding you of its failing.

We have complained to BMW Australia and they told us we are stuck with it. What a pity!

Good riddance to FIFA World Soccer 2022!

liligans So you think you're cultured?, What Pisses me off

I wish that Australia had not fallen for the bribery fest of bidding for the FIFA World Soccer competition in 2022. I wish that Australia had decided not to suck up to the selection committee. Instead, it should have taken the moral high ground and refused to pay for all those those greedy demands of the selectors. The entire process has an unpleasant stench about it.

We stooped to conquer and were outbid by those nations who were prepared to pay more to hold the soccer matches in their country. Surely, something that has to be bought from people who have demonstrated a lack of moral principles, should be rejected.

I would like to think that Australia is above such activities.

If you have to buy someone’s vote then you really can’t trust that voter. How do you know that the nation which has been bribed will not betray you? Well, you don’t know and that’s what happened to the U.K and to Australia. And I say it serves them both right.

What we have learned from the FIFA fiasco is that the selection process should be changed if the stink of corruption is to be eradicated. In future, perhaps a few interested nations who can provide the facilities should throw their names into a hat and then the winner will be randomly drawn out of it. This should offer poorer nations who love soccer a fairer chance at the “coveted prize”.

Better still, isn’t it time we grew up and stopped competing over stuff that’s as trivial as hosting a ball game? The cost of selling your soul for that privilege is way too high.