| Re: People from down under [message #470075 is a reply to message #470027] |
Sat, 07 August 2010 23:44   |
rleishman
Messages: 3728
Registered: October 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Funny story. Back in the '80s I gave a friend an audio cassette so I could - er-hem - keep an off-site backup of a couple of his albums for him. On Side A was Pavlov's Dog - At the Sound of a Bell, and on Side B was David Gilmour's (of Pink Floyd) Self Titled Solo Album. The off-site backup service I provided was in-fact full-service; I would periodically listen to the backup to ensure that sound quality was still acceptable.
Now there's two notable characteristics about Pavlov's Dog's early albums: 1) David Surkamp would sing the vocals in a near-falsetto (high) voice, and 2) Very short albums - about 35 minutes.
I once made a point of telling my friend - whilst at his place - that he did well to find two so well-matched albums to put on the same cassette: BOTH short and falsetto. "Huh, the self-titled Gilmour album is fully 45 minutes, just fits on the tape", "Well you must've drooped a couple of tracks, cos mines just over 30 minutes". To get to the bottom of it, he started playing the album.
Turns out for the past 2 years I'd been listening to David Gilmour recorded at 45rpm
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| Re: People from down under [message #487120 is a reply to message #486765] |
Wed, 22 December 2010 20:07 |
rleishman
Messages: 3728
Registered: October 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Did Oprah's trip to Australia get much international coverage in the USA and elsewhere? It's been a somewhat divisive issue here - the fact that we (Australian taxpayers) spent money sucking up and pandering. From all reports, it was only a few million bucks - an amount that a premium brand would HAPPILY pay an A-list celeb to endorse their product. We not only got hours of glowing endorsement, but it was then delivered to tens of millions of potential customers at no additional cost. Given that a 30sec slot during Superbowl costs 3M to reach 90M Americans, I reckon we got a pretty good deal.
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| Re: People from down under [message #487121 is a reply to message #487120] |
Wed, 22 December 2010 20:40 |
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Barbara Boehmer
Messages: 9090
Registered: November 2002
Location: California, USA
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I didn't now that Oprah went to Australia. I didn't see anything about it on any of the internet sites that I routinely browse, such as the online version of the local newspaper (Press-Enterprise).
I wouldn't know if there has been television coverage, since I have been without television lately. I ordered a little portable digital 7" television that is very versatile and I am hoping that it gets delivered tomorrow. It has a rechargeable built-in battery, ac wall adapter, car adapter, input for dvr, built-in antenna, built-in folding stand, and a place to plug in earphones. I figure I should be able to find a way to watch television again whether the power is out at the time or whatever.
As much as I hate it when it is hot, I am sure getting sick of the rain. I made a brief trip out to a pet food store and grocery store yesterday and had a hard time finding roads that were not flooded to get there and back. There were a lot of road closure barricades and a few places that just said flooded but weren't closed. In most of those places where it just said flooded, there were a few cars stopped. Everybody would wait for somebody else to try and see if they made it. I drove through two of them. The trick is to get enough speed to get through without getting stuck, but to go slow enough that water doesn't get into your engine and stall it. After reading all of the reports in the online newspaper today of people that got stuck trying to do what I did in the same spots, I now realize that I probably should not have done that. I don't even have a big vehicle, just a little car. Since it kept raining today, it got worse, so I spent the whole day at home. I could use some of your Australian summer and some barbecued shrimp about now.
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| Re: People from down under [message #488881 is a reply to message #487121] |
Tue, 11 January 2011 23:42 |
rleishman
Messages: 3728
Registered: October 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Barbara Boehmer wrote on Thu, 23 December 2010 13:40I didn't now that Oprah went to Australia.
Apparently the TV episodes are going to air next week in USA. I thought they would have played them immediately.
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| Re: People from down under [message #493765 is a reply to message #468402] |
Wed, 09 February 2011 16:24 |
rleishman
Messages: 3728
Registered: October 2005
Location: Melbourne, Australia
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Senior Member |
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Littlefoot wrote on Fri, 30 July 2010 15:40 The Aussies themselves have too many great white sharks around their beaches, so ... tempting, but no.
Ha! I knew I would be vindicated!
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2011/02/09/3134652.htm
USA - Total coastline 20,000km - 36 shark attacks
AUS - Total coastline 60,000km - 14 shark attacks
Statistically speaking, Australia is an AWESOME place to go to avoid shark attack. Not as good as Croatia, I grant you, but still...
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| Re: People from down under [message #493808 is a reply to message #493772] |
Thu, 10 February 2011 01:25 |
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Littlefoot
Messages: 21808
Registered: June 2005
Location: Croatia, Europe
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Senior Member
Account Moderator |
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Croatia - Total coastline 5835 km (which includes islands) - 5 dead people (confirmed shark attacks) since 1934.
Statistically speaking, Australia is not as good as Croatia 
Articles I found say that most attacks happened before 1970 because tuna fish spent time near the beaches, so sharks came to feed. Since 1970s, tourism became popular and many people actually came to the seaside, swam in the sea and found themselves eyes to eyes with sharks. However: tourists scared away fish (which prefer quiet environment), so - as fish went away, sharks went away too.
The last shark attack was a couple of years ago, close to island of Vis (we spent summer holidays there in 2005, no sharks) - it was a scuba diver who caught a fish, there was blood in the sea that attracted shark's attention. He survived.
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