The Feast of All Fools Friday

Fiona Uncategorized

Metro

Of course, the Brits claim to be the ones who made it an annual celebration:

English pranksters started playing practical jokes on one another on April 1st from at least 1700.

Anyone who is successfully fooled before midday is known as a ‘noodle’, ‘gob’, ‘gobby’ or ‘noddy’ while anyone doing the fooling after midday is considered a fool themselves.

and over the years there have been some extremely clever April Fools’ Day pranks – the spaghetti tree being a prime example:

Then there was the Republic of San Serriffe

Chiefa Coins

not to mention Australia’s own Great Sydney Iceberg:

Ninemsn

From across the ditch (and specially for Kaffeeklatscher) comes this interesting scientific study:

The Sheep Albedo Hypothesis

RealClimate.org detailed the work of Dr. Ewe Noh-Watt of the New Zealand Institute of Veterinary Climatology, who had discovered that global warming was caused not by a buildup of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, but rather by the decline of New Zealand’s sheep population. The reasoning was that sheep are white, and therefore large numbers of sheep increased the planet’s albedo (the amount of sunlight reflected back into space). As the sheep population declined, the ground absorbed more solar radiation, thus warming the planet: “It can be seen that the recent warming can be explained entirely by the decline in the New Zealand sheep population, without any need to bring in any mysterious so-called ‘radiative forcing’ from carbon dioxide, which doesn’t affect the sunlight (hardly) anyway — unlike Sheep Albedo.”

Noh-Watt also warmed of a potentially destabilizing feedback mechanism: “As climate gets warmer, there is less demand for wool sweaters and wooly underwear. Hence the sheep population tends to drop, leading to even more warming. In an extreme form, this can lead to a ‘runaway sheep-albedo feedback,’ which is believed to have led to the present torrid climate of Venus.”

However, skeptics disputed the Sheep Albedo Hypothesis. Steve Ramsturf, spokesman for the New Zealand Sheep Farmers Guild, was quoted as saying, “Baaah, Humbug. No matter what goes wrong with the world, they’re always trying to blame the poor New Zealand Sheep Farmer.”

Brilliant Buckets

As it is now past midday all around Australia, no Pubster runs the risk of being a noodle, gob, gobby or noddy, nor would any of us be so foolish as to try a prank.

Our Dear Leader may be in a different category.

Therefore, at RNM 1953’s excellent suggestion, let’s have a go this evening at suggesting the most ridiculous policies brainfarts waffles may emit over the next 13 weeks.

Have fun!

Specially for Gigilene . . .

Sky Dancing

428 thoughts on “The Feast of All Fools Friday”

  1. Eden-Monaro is his first stop, an attempt to fend off Mike Kelly. Then it’s on to National electorates, no doubt he wants to shore up support for his ultra-conservative backers.

    Is he trying to save the seat or make the Libs lose it?

    • I suppose he thinks he’s saving it. More likely to send votes back to Labor.

    • Depends on whether which of these scenarios is the most likely

      a) Abbott, like Rudd before him, has deluded himself into thinking that he is the one true saviour or,
      b) Abbott knows he is political poison and is using this to enact retribution on the party that dumped him by causing them to lose.

      either way there are probably some in the right wing who will be wishing that he goes away as if the Libs lose, the “moderates” will try and blame the right and say “If only Abbott buggered off then we would’ve won.”

    • Eden-Monaro is held by Liberal MP Peter Hendy.

      Hendy supported Turnbull in the leadership spill. Even worse/better, the meeting held by the plotters the night before Turnbull challenged took place in Hendy’s Queanbeyan home

      So Abbott will definitely be there to make mischief. He will want Hendy out, he won’t care if Labor takes back the seat.

      Let’s keep in mind the vital fact – Abbott owns Pollie Pedal, it was his idea, he organises it and most important, he chooses the route – to his advantage.

    • Eden-Monaro is one of those electorates affected by the redistribution. In Hume 2013, the Yass booths were the only booths in Hume to swing towards Labor. The Yass booths now go into Eden-Monaro.

      2013 ALP candidate Michael Pilbrow, whose base was in Yass, told me that he expects Yass to be pivotal in Labor recapturing E-M. Many Canberra workers commute from Yass.

    • We door knocked Yass the other weekend for Gonski and got very positive reaction, agree with Mick who is a good bloke and did well to swing Yass to Labor last time against Anus Taylor.

    • Likely option a). Abbott has already deluded himself that he was a successful PM, and he aims to prove it, probably without the blessing of party strategists.

  3. Mark di Stefano is doing it wrong. Watching every episode of House of Cards sounds long.

    My mobile phone’s battery lasts longer between recharges than Turnbull’s tax plan did.

  4. Do we have ministers or just a group of badly behaved two year olds? So much sooking and pouting. So much foot-stamping and finger-pointing. So many lies and accusations. And these are the ‘adults’ in charge?

    COAG: Ministers defend Malcolm Turnbull as Bill Shorten labels income tax plan a ‘humiliating farce’
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-04-02/ministers-defend-pm-as-shorten-attacks-'humiliating'-tax-plan/7294586

    Ley slams state premiers over tax plan
    http://www.9news.com.au/national/2016/04/02/09/25/turnbull-s-humiliating-defeat-over-tax#c2O7Vtow1pMCg0RC.99

    Australian defence minister accuses Bill Shorten of hypocrisy over shipbuilding
    http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/apr/02/australian-defence-minister-accuses-bill-shorten-of-hypocrisy-over-shipbuilding?CMP=soc_568

    • My Dad hid behind the ladies once. He was travelling from Spandau to Delft in 1943 with no authorised leave, travel papers or money. Hid under a seat in a train where ladies in long dresses were sitting.

      Did get caught, of course, one week in a punishment camp.

      Homesick.

    • Sounds quite an adventure. Thank goodness he managed to escape relatively lightly.

      Your father is in good company , another long skirt utiliser. The “kamate” haka of the All Blacks was written by a famous chieftan telling of his escape from what looked like certain death at the hands of his enemies. Hence the opening lines “It is death it is death. It is life, it is life.’ .He escaped by hiding in a small food pit and then getting a woman with a long skirt to sit over him. Maori warrior culture values cleverness and pulling a swifty on enemies as much as physical bravery.

  5. Put an El Nino together with climate change and you get this –

    We are shattering records up here in Port Macquarie. March was the driest March on record, with rainfall of just 27.8mm. Things still look lush and green, thanks to some reasonable rain in February, but we are way down on the average for the first few months of the year, just over half the average. Normally the first three or four months of the year are the wet season here, with winters quite dry. If we don’t get some decent rain soon there will have to be some serious water restrictions during winter.

    Not only that. The March average maximum temperature was 1.4C above average and the average minimum was 0.5C above average.

    There’s more. Today’s maximum was 32,1C. The highest on record was 29.8C in 2012 – until today.

  10. Oh well..best go do the horses..We got the pregnant mare back yesterday..She’s been laying the law down to the other two already…she’s the boss!

    Bath night again…doesn’t the month come around quickly!..

    Then it’s crank up the indoor barbi’ and scorch a coupla’ porterhouse s’ and bruise a bottle of sauv’ blanc plonk! I’d have yers over for a chat, but we’re all too far away!

    Copyersall later.

  12. Oops!

  15. Gravel,

    That’s the conclusion I’ve drawn. Maybe he forgot to submit his papers.

    • That’s the gist of it.

      Apparently he has opened a campaign office before he has been selected. Bananaby will be the only Nat up for preselection, but Tony Windsor says the Nats will most likely have a stooge run as an independent, to try to get more votes the sneaky way.

  17. Well i’m glad that has been cleared up – the kerfuffle about premiers signing in the wrong places yeserday.

    As I thought –

    • Pocock is certainly one out of the box in so many ways. Big thumbs up to the chap.

  24. Jobs – and millions – for the mates.

    Saw this on Twitter.

    Here’s the story –
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/former-refugee-paid-to-promote-duttons-antirefugee-telemovie-20160401-gnwfy6.html

    Turnbull has been buddies with Saad Moseni, the chairman of the Moby Group, since at least 2014.
    He mentioned his video interview with Moseni in his newsletter two years ago. He has done another video interview with him, maybe more.
    http://www.malcolmturnbull.com.au/media/march-enews

    Now we just need to find out which mates got the millions the damn movie cost us. For what it cost they could have used Nicole Kidman as the star.

  26. Leone,

    I would have preferred Cate Blanchett, but she would probably have declined with (being a polite woman) thanks.

  27. Despite what all the media wankers say Labor may well be returned next election. If they do I hope they are a lot more disciplined then last time.

    • I also hope they have a long list of RCs ready to go. Expose once and for all the crookery of Tory bustards.

  28. Joe6pack,

    I think they will be.

    For one thing, they won’t have Rudd on board. That’s a matter of huge relief, not only because of his personality problems but because he really did not understand the relationship between the Party and the union movement (did he see himself as the Tony Blair of Labor politics – Kool Australia?).

    For another thing, some of the Party’s real troglodytes have retired or will be doing so.

    For another another thing, they have a solid cast of intelligent MPs who’ve been through the fire, who know how to work co-operatively, and who have shown themselves to be more than up to the job of putting Australia back together again.

    I hope they get the chance to show what they can do.

    • And – not that the average voter will care – Labor has policies, lots of them, good ones, while the government has nothing. Not a thing.

  29. They sure as hell seem to have discipline since the last election. Not too many “natives getting restless’ when “Get Shorten” , “Kill Bill” and “Why does this man bother?” was all the go with the presstitutes.

    Vote 1 Combet ! 😦

  30. Kaffeeklatscher,

    I’m happy with Mr Shorten. He’s always across his brief (unlike Mr Combet on occasion) and plays the long game very effectively.

    • Shorten has done WAY better than I thought he would and deserves to get the top job. He has grown into the job………..unlike Abbott and Truffles , I became a convert from Albo pretty quickly though as it struck me that after all the fireworks and stuntathons in recent years steady calm Bill may become just what the voters want after the Abbott frenzy.

      Combet may have had shortcomings but I became a fanboi 4eva after seeing him up close during his late night visits to the Freo picket lines during the wharfies dispute. Now there was someone who could negotiate under the toughest of tough situations as he dealt with ruthless buggers from both sides.

    • Kaffeeklatscher,

      Both Combet and Shorten have that ability to negotiate under fire. I think what sways me more towards Shorten, however, is his ability to master any brief to the most intricate detail. Combet doesn’t quite have that except for areas about which he is passionate.

      The shadow cabinet is pretty good and certainly a heck of a lot better than the chumps (mostly) on the coalition side. Sure, there are a few people I’d fling over the side, and more than a few (e.g., Wayne Swan) whom I’d bring back at the drop of a hat. Almost all of them, however, have intelligence, integrity, passion, and commitment plus a genuine understanding of what it is that Australia needs to be an equitable, successful nation.

  33. A word to describe Scrott interviews ” blateration n 1656 -1864 babbling “

  34. Fiona

    I’m well on the Bill train. He played The Oaf like a fish . Done in the face of virtually wall to wall antipathy from the meeja pond scum.

  35. I would give something to be a fly on the wall when Scrott launches into speaking in tongues of a Sunday.

    (Wonder if anyone has ever recorded him on their handy little phone? – that could make a motza on various sites!)

  36. Kaffeeklatscher,

    Shorten is a seriously good player. He lets the opposition trip themselves up. Then he gives them a (not so gentle) push.

    He also doesn’t leave the field until all his troops are accounted for and cared for (the Beaconsfield Mine disaster – where not a single Howard Govt MP turned up).

    That probably won me more than anything else he’s done.

    • Same here.

      I was never one of the ‘We want Albo’ crowd. Albo is a good performer in parliament, but he is not leader material. I’ve said before that Krudd’s parting gift to Labor was the poisonous decision, rushed in without being taken to a vote, for leaders to be chosen by a combined membership and caucus vote. The decision to go with Shorten caused bad feeling among the Albo supporters, who still whine about it on social media. Just as Krudd intended. I’d say he meant Labor to collapse from all the division and sniping he hoped his voting idea would cause. A ‘look where you ended up without me’ revenge thing. He underestimated Shorten, as many others still do.

      Caucus work with potential leaders every day, they know who is capable and who is not. That’s why they went with Shorten and over-ruled the membership vote.

  38. Leone,

    I couldn’t agree more.

    Besides, I want him to depart in a state of abject and utter humiliation.

    Couldn’t happen to a nicer chap.

  39. Leone,

    I am really hoping nobody can find a comment where I backed Albo over Shorten.

    If I did, I eat humble pie.

  41. Kaffeeklatscher,

    I think – being the prudent feline I mostly am – that I stayed out of that particular catfight.

    However, I’m delighted you now appreciate Mr Shorten’s qualities.

    In many respects, they are not unlike FPMJG’s.

  42. Two Labor people whom I really miss are Greg Combet and Craig Emerson (in alphabetical order).

  43. Yes, of course I miss Nicola Roxon and Anna Burke, but I deeply understand the personal pressures they were enduring.

  44. Fiona

    I mainly backed Albo because of anger at the NE and the barbarians overrunning the place, I wanted someone to “Fight Tories” . Going The Biff though is playing on the NE’s turf , it is his oxygen his drug of choice. Albo would have supplied heaps of that for the NE but what was really needed got delivered by Bill. Deny the addict his drug and sit back as withdrawal symptoms do him in.

  49. Stasia doing well

    Queensland’s minority Labor government has an election-winning lead and the premier is well ahead in the popularity stakes, a new poll shows.

    The Morgan poll of 821 Queensland voters shows Annastacia Palaszczuk’s government has regained its two-party preferred lead over the Liberal National party, 52% to 48%.

    That’s a 4% improvement for Labor on the last poll two months ago.

    Labor’s primary vote is also up by 1%. But the LNP’s has fallen by 5.5%, with most of that support flowing to the Greens.

    Palaszczuk is also well ahead of the opposition leader, Lawrence Springborg, in the preferred premier stakes – 63.5% of poll respondents backed her over him.

    http://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2016/apr/02/queenslands-labor-government-regains-two-party-preferred-lead-over-lnp-poll-shows

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