Massive Barnaby Joyce facepalm just now on Twitter, with this tweet, followed by this tweet from Tony Burke, the target of his attack:
Pwned Barnaby!
I wonder if he is really at the almond orchard?
With the V8 Supercars set to race at the new Circuit of the America's in Texas in 2013, and suggestions that the event may follow a similar guest driver format to the Gold Coast 600 – except using exclusively American drivers – a question comes to mind…
…how would a NASCAR driver do in V8 Supercar?
I think they would do extremely well, and in fact it has already happened.
Of course, Boris Said has had a few runs in our cars, but what about the top drivers? Here’s Dale Earnhardt Jr testing a PMM V8 Supercar at Queensland Raceway in the 2008 off-season.
For a first drive, not bad – the car still had the old H-pattern gear shift, was almost certainly running on old tyres, and was on a track Earnhardt had never seen before.
Jimmie Johnson in a HRT Commodore versus Carl Edwards in an FPR Falcon?
Yes please!
Despite the fervent opposition to the National Broadband Network (NBN) from the Federal Coalition, in recent weeks the Victorian Coalition Government has repeatedly voiced support for the project.
At a recent announcement of an $85m plan to promote ICT within Victoria, Minister for Technology Gordon Rich-Phillips stated that the plan sought to “advocate the expedient upgrade of Victoria’s broadband capacity, including the National Broadband Network.”
On Friday, Rich-Phillips was at it again – this time at the launch of NBN Co's operations and discovery centres in Melbourne’s Docklands precinct.
“[Rich-Phillips] agreed that the state government’s support contrasted with the federal Liberal Party’s opposition to the NBN project. “This is not about party politics. We are the Victorian government and as a Victorian minister my job is to maximise the benefits of the NBN [for Victoria].”
Now of course, it is perfectly reasonable for the state and federal parties to have different, and even contradictory policies, but given Malcolm Turnbull opines that the economic justification for the NBN lays outside of what the Liberal Party would consider rational economic policy, it seems that not everyone in the party agrees.
Turnbull has been lambasted for his position, not only in the technology media, but also on his own blog where almost none of the comments against a recent NBN article supported the position he was attempting to alliterate.
During a recent appearance on the ABC Q&A program, Turnbull made not a single mention of anything to do with his shadow communications portfolio – (let alone the NBN) – throughout the entire program, sparking some people to theorise that he might be more interested in other political aspirations, rather than his present role opposite Stephen Conroy.
Respected telecommunications commentator Paul Budde stated at a recent ACS event that he believes that “savings from improved healthcare outcomes alone will cover cost to build the NBN”.
Recently on his widely read blog, reporting on a visit to Central Victoria he noted:
“I was very pleasantly surprised that I encountered no resistance to the NBN anywhere. On the contrary, the NBN had the absolute support of the close to 400 leaders I met during this trip. The reason that I mention this is that the people in regional Australia are often slightly more conservative than metro dwellers; however it appears that very little of the current political discord is affecting their interest in, and support for, the NBN.”
It seems that too many of the arguments against the project Turnbull believes in, just aren’t holding up in the real world.
Turnbull should stop fiddling with his iPad and start listening.
If you were going to build a scarecrow in the garden of a hospital rehabilitation ward – how would you do it?
In a wheelchair of course!
There’s been some suggestion floating around in recent days – (particularly on Twitter) – that it was I who coined the phrase “Noalition” that was used by Anthony Albanese in the House of Representatives on Wednesday, to describe the opposition coalition, and their “negative” behaviour.
As much as I would love to – (and easily could) – play along and let people keep thinking that I thought it up, I’m too honest for that.
The bottom line is I don’t know who coined it. I saw it used on Twitter last week, but now cannot find the original tweet – it’s either been deleted, or Twitter isn’t letting me search far enough back for it.
It does appear that I am responsible for spreading it around online enough that it came to Albanese’s attention on Tuesday, and I guess that is something I can hang my hat on.
For the record, I’m traditionally a conservative voter, but I find the current opposition almost impossible to support. Constant negativity is not the way to drive policy forward in Australia.
Equally for the record, I didn’t coin “Noalition”.
But it’s funny, and I love it!
Seems in the wake of Kyle Sandilands calling a news.com.au reporter a “fat slag”, and Holden pulling their sponsorship from Sandilands’ radio show as a result, that someone at News Limited may have wanted to subliminally call him a girl?
Jason Richards – who stepped down from driving the #8 Team BOC Commodore a year ago to fight stomach cancer – made an appearance at Sandown today, and took a moment to speak to the television audience about how his fight is going.
Alas, it sounds not to be going so well at all.
Get well Jason…the whole V8 Supercars community is behind you…but it was great to see you up and about.
It is often stated by people who do not understand, that motor sport is not really a sport, that all competitors do is drive an engine around in a car all day, around and around in circles. Of course, racing drivers are among some of the fittest athletes on the planet.
And some of the bravest. For example, have a look at some brief wet weather highlights of the most recent V8 Supercars event, held today at Sandown International Raceway:
Many motor sport categories involved in banked oval track racing – (such as NASCAR) – due to higher centrifugal forces, are suspended when it rains. Many road racing series stick it out with wet weather tyres.
Bravery to the extreme.
