Freeview is very misleading

Have you seen the hundreds of TV ads about the so-called 'free-to-air' digital channels coming to a TV near you soon?

A parody of the Freeview TV commercial was removed from YouTube due to a ‘terms of use violation‘, but it’s creators have said their Mash-Up is fair comment and thereby the use of it is fair use.

For those who haven't worked out the meaning behind the Freeview campaign, which has been confusing and mis-leading,

“Freeview is a free service – so there is no comparable offer,” Robin Parkers says. “It will be up to the viewers to decide on the success of Freeview once the remaining channels launch.”

However with a $40 set top digital box from any retailer around Cairns, you can view all the same channels Freeview is promoting. It's a non-service. It's a Claytons offer.

"Get ready for more of the same" and "you can watch sports you’ve never heard of, news you can’t understand and even question time – yes, mother f****ing question time – all in crystal clear standard definition", the parody video says, taking off the TV Freeview advert.

Freeview promotes "15 channels" as their cornerstone. However, you won't see 15 new channels. They get this number by adding up all the different version relayed of the same channel. This includes HD and SD.

“What is exactly is Freeview really?” is the question many ask. Well, it’s just an advertising campaign, and a misleading one at that.

Watch what the clever clogs have done with their the parody of the nauseous TV advert. It's YouTube (below) or, if removed, try the mov file here.

A fair share for Cairns

The election's been called. The media releases are starting to fly.

I've asked for Desley's and Steve's, but they haven't added me to their list yet. They should simply email me here. Let's hope they do.

Joel Harrop, who's standing for Cairns on the LNP ticket, says the early State election should focus on a fair share for Cairns.

“Despite having the Tourism Minister as a local member, Cairns has not been receiving its fair share for the last eleven years of the Labor Government,” Harrop says.
“Funding to Tourism has been cut back and Labor plans to dramatically increase licence fees for venues that want to open after midnight.”

He says Desley Boyle has served the people of Brisbane and let down locals in our community.

Harrop, and LNP's king hit in Cairns is to build a new hospital. “Health services have been long neglected in Cairns. This will ensure the residents of Cairns receive the health they need and deserve. It will also create many construction jobs while it is being built.”

I have to agree with anyone who says to move and build a purpose-built facility. The current location and add-ons that is currently being undertaken, is a mess.

Joel Harrop was also shocked at the way the election was called. "It highlights the disregard Labor has for proper process and democracy in this State," he said after the Premier first announced the election on YouTube before going to seek the State Governor’s approval.

"This is extremely arrogant, and sidelines the Governor’s proper role in our democracy,” Harrop says.

Undoubtedly the other major focus of this campaign needs to be the state of the finances in Queensland. You would run your own home like this. Just after the Treasurer announced the poor state of the balance sheet, Anna Bligh said that she will "not let up from borrowing to continue the infrastructure programme."

Queensland's debt is now over $60 billion.

“Queensland now has the worst credit rating in Australia – worse than New South Wales, which is an acknowledged basket case," Joel Harrop says. "The Labor Government’s mismanagement of the Queensland economy, and failure to put money away during the good times means that Cairns is going to miss out on essential expenditure.”

We have an interest bill alone of $200 million dollars a year on Labor’s $1.5 billion deficit.

The LNP say that Labor has put the State from boom to bust in less than a year. They accuse the Government of not putting anything away when times were good and mining royalties were flooding in. Now the State is broke.

Anna holds back tears on YouTube

I'm back

Mum told me never to start a letter with an apology.

With that in mind, I won't say sorry for not being very active on CairnsBlog over the last couple of weeks. I note that Byrne's right-hand soldier Dennis Quick's Cairns Watch has been offline for some time now. "Just wait a day or so. I’ve been taking a sabbatical," Dennis told me a week ago.
I've been distracted with other priorities - like some urgent wet season preparation around my properties. Building awning and attending to a raft of other wet season band aids, that should have been completed prior to 2008 - however I was distracted somewhat back then, with some professional mud-slinging for the Council election. We got Val in. Remember her?

Like almost every other resident, there's been a lot of water under our bridge of late. The weather has been causing havoc. Flooding like we've not seen for many years all over Queensland. Bush fires beyond belief in Victoria and New South Wales.

Local self-appointed environmental policeman, Terry Spackman, has been busy filming various dodgy developments around the region. I'll get these up on the CairnsBlog Tube channel to share shortly. There's still lot's to be kept an eye on after Council took over the environmental protection responsibilities from the EPA. So far, we're not impressed.

The newly formed LNP is slowly starting to emerge from the shadows, just wish they got a new leader with an inch of charisma. The jewel in the Far North's political crown, the prized seat of Cairns, held by Labor for 33 million years, is being contested by Joel Harrop, who's already knocking on doors across the electorate. He's also got a website up and running. Just bring back your videos Joel, we miss that dimple.

It's more than I can say for Wendy Richardson who is running for Barron River and Vic Black for Mulgrave. Craig Batchelor will contest Cook, against Labor's Jason O'Brien.

It's going to be the match of the year, without question. Promise not to leave you alone for too long.

Someone's watching

Someone was watching the story last week on CairnsBlog about the beach dumping.

After huge loads of vegetation waste was dumped in beach car parks, north of Palm Cove, I published photos of the illegal dumping. It undoubtedly had to be a commercial operation, given the size and amount of waste.

Paul from Palm Cove telephoned me today and reported that the entire lot has been removed. By whom, we don't know. Maybe Cairns Regional Councillor Rob Pyne took up the challenge and asked his road gang to deal with it. Whoever did, thank you. Next time, I hope someone catches and prosecutes these blighters.

And in other pleasing news, the Fearnley Street drain mess that Molly helped me publicise back in October, has also been attended to. "Fearnley Creek Drain is no longer a shame," Molly says. "It's all beautifully repaired, safe and ready for back to school. A very smooth ride now." Council has been back to the site on at least three occasions, cleaning up the city eyesore.

Finally, I'm very happy to report that after numerous reports and videos exposed on CairnsBlog, a number of measures have been installed to prevent or limit sediment run off at Phil Hartwig's massive steep development at the top of Foley Road, Palm Cove. I know Councillor Paul Gregory took a particular interest in this one, as did Councillor Julia Leu.

Along with the Fiona Tulip and the Combined Beaches Residents' Association, Terry Spackman and myself spent a great deal of time monitoring this site late last year. This development went under the Council and EPA radar for more than a year. Even though the Residents' Association wrote to the State Government and communicated it to the Federal False Cape inspection team, nothing was done. It was only after we filmed run-off in October, following a small rainfall, that the unfolding disaster got the attention. Channel 7 ran the footage, that was first aired on my YouTube channel.

Council has subsequently sent staff to the Foley Road site and now initiated a new fine regime for developers and land owners that cause sediment run off with no preventative measures in place.

Free Hugs

There has to be a reason why this Aussie vid is our most viewed YouTube ever - in Oz that is (the most viewed video ever is Judson Laipply's Evolution of Dance at 108 million views!)

With 36 million views and 67,000 comments, it's not only a good way to end the year, but a great way to start 2009.

Joel's right of reply

Joel Harrop is barely old enough to ride a bike, yet he's running against Desley (at least we think Desley is running) with the LNP for the State seat of Cairns in next year's election.

Joel is keen to debate, listen and learn about what everyone's been missing in their elected representative. He wants to regain the lost respect that the community has in politicians. It's a big job, and at 3 foot six, is he up to it?

Joel joins our regular stable of irregular writers here at CairnsBlog. He's not being paid to say this. Nor are we. Damm.

In response to my Youtube video published CairnsBlog, Barry Daniels wrote...

• “Well Joel, the only thing that I noticed was the wind gusts from behind, maybe you should have mckenzie standing behind you, he is a good plug for your misguided political beliefs or wear some undies so as the gusts don't interfere with your crap. Lillian, joel can't give you his CV, as he stated on the plug's talkback, IT IS TOP SECRET, go away you five minute wonders.”

He then went on to write in a following comment:

• “C'mon Joel, Let us all know what your top secret of life is, and while you are at it tell us how you will control the beauro's whenever you think you will be a minister.”

When I read these comments, my initial thought was surprise. This was a person who I hadn’t even met who seems to have a deeply seeded grudge against me. I considered that perhaps this was the Labor party assigning a blogger to try and embarrass me. However, as I thought about it further, I settled on the belief that this is someone who has no faith in the political system and does not trust me because I claim to want to make things better.

I gave him a ring this morning and we had a quick chat. He explained that he is “tired of all the political crap” and has a lot of problems with the former National Party. I accept that. The LNP is a newly formed party, and while it does have a history, we are looking to the future. Key issues we are addressing include Health Care, Law and Order, Education and the Environment.

All of these areas have be blatantly ignored by the current government. Don’t believe me... Health Care: over the past 5 years, we have gone from 20% of people waiting more than 8 hours for a hospital bed to over half and it gets worse every year, Law and Order: the LNP put up a bill to have vandals clean up their mess and Labor blocked it.

Last year 26 juveniles were convicted of rape and only 9 of the convicted people were given a jail sentence, Education: Years 3 & 5 have the lowest levels reading, writing, spelling, grammar and numeracy in Australia, Years 7 & 9 are below national averages for each of these categories as well, Environment: Their track record on the environment is so poor that the Greens Party has released a statement encouraging Green Branches not to give the Labor party preference votes.

Mr Daniels went on to say that he didn’t really want to speak to me about his views, or make any suggestions. So that said, following is my response to Mr Daniels comments.

• Hi Barry,
  
  I don't have a top secret life, but I know what you are referring to. For the benefit of those who don't, the day after I was Pre-Selected as the Cairns Candidate for the LNP, I was interviewed by several media outlets, including the Mackenzie show.
  
  Mackenzie asked about my background, which is a mix of banking and the military (I discuss this in more detail in my first video blog, which is on Youtube.) He was curious about my time as an Army Officer and the topic of overseas service was raised.
  
  I discussed my overseas service in broad terms, but was unable to provide some details. When he asked why I couldn’t disclose this information, I responded that the information was subject to Defence classification and that I couldn’t discuss it. Information is not released by the Australian Government if it would place Australian Service Personnel’s lives at risk or compromise the operation. Examples of this information can include locations, times, numbers of people...
  
  To your second question... The biggest issue with government in FNQ is that the pollies don’t represent their electorates. I have been discussing this issue at length with Lawrence Springborg and several Shadow Ministers, all of whom are in full support of my commitment to put the electorate first. Cairns, as well as the other seats in the region, need strong representation. The LNP leadership recognise the importance of electoral representation and fully support my position.
  
  With respect to the different departments, each needs a different approach. For example, the LNP won’t address Law and Order in the same way we address Health Care, Education or the Environment. Each individual portfolio will have its own tailored plan to address the substantive issues.
  
  To help explain how we will address these portfolio issues, I am putting a series of video blogs together. Furthermore, I’m responding to people who are asking me tough questions. I believe in having this interaction with the public, and if I’m successful in my campaign to be the next Member of Cairns, I will continue this open dialogue.
  
  Thanks for the questions,
  Joel Harrop

FOOTNOTE: Joel is old enough to ride a bike. He's also taller than 3 foot six. Just.

Joel's porn channel

Liberal National Party Cairns candidate Joel Harrop, joins the political debate online, with his first chat to the people.

Here's Joel's You Tube channel, or you can email him here.

Cheat Easy: Who said ethics aren't fun?

Syd Walker asks you to wake up and smell the fuel, and sort out your carbon emissions. Golly good idea I say.


If I lived in Cairns, I’d get along to the next meeting of Cairns Action for Sustainable Transport.

They meet 2nd Tuesday of the month at Tramways, Cape York Hotel, Spence Street. Meetings run from 7pm to 9pm.

CAST is showing some interesting movies.

Unfortunately, in the absence of an efficient modern rail system between Kuranda and Cairns, I’d rather not spend up on fuel to get there and impose an unnecessary extra burden on the planet.

Luckily the short movie is on YouTube. It's from the founders of Cheat Neutral as they take their message to the BBC, Parliament and the high street to convince us to take them seriously.



Here’s another beauty Ethical Man & Carbon Offsetting, and this one Plane Stupid meets Ethical Man.

After nine months, it seems to me that the Rudd Government’s climate change policy centres around a scheme that’s essentially a bonanza for accountants, consultants - and a recipe for more long years of business as usual.

This Government came to power with a clear mandate for action on climate change. But where’s the serious debate about when and how Australians make rather obvious changes to our way of life, industry and transportation systems? Where are the plans? Why aren’t we spending Federal surpluses now to become good global citizens and safeguard our well being in a low-emissions future?

There are many changes it’s to our obvious advantage to make - with the least possible delay. I believe a decent rail system in FNQ is one of them.

Good luck to Cairns Action for Sustainable Transport! I’m with you in spirit! But I'll keep myself busy.

I'm setting up my own local carbon emissions trading enterprise. It's called Cheat Easy'.

All plane-hopping gas-guzzling guilt-ridden residents of FNQ are welcome to send me cash to offset their emissions - and I offer special deals for international visitors.

Send Cheat Easy $50 - and I won’t cut down a tree for three months. $300 and I’ll junk my cludgy old monitor and buy myself a nice big flatscreen! For the really guilty, I do recommend the annual $50,000 mega-credit. It funds my switch to a new hybrid car.

All Cheat Easy customers receive emissions-free electronic certificates for carbon credits purchased.

It's a win-win-win deal! Who knows, you might even find another punter to buy them off you at an inflated price!

Cooking popcorn with your mobile

PS: It's a hoax

Where the Hell is Matt?

14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands, and 15 million views on YouTube. If you've got a decent broadband connection, click "watch in high quality" underneath the video. It all started with his first video in 2005. Here's the full story, and the out takes vid.

How a geek changed the world

8:30pm on Tuesday evening on SBS, the hour-long landmark BBC interview with Bill Gates is screening.

After 30 years at the helm, he talks about life after Microsoft, and spending his 24 billion dollars in 'retirement'.

And the numbers are out of this world. Microsoft produced 3 billionaires and around 10,000 millionaires, mostly software writers, and for 13 years in a row, Gates was the richest man in the world. He's now worth around $58 billion. Microsoft makes around a billion dollars profit a week. Here's his amazing timeline, and that Internet memo that changed the course.

If you miss it, it's on YouTube, in seven parts...

• Bill Gates Part 1, Bill Gates Part 2, Bill Gates Part 3, Bill Gates Part 4,
  Bill Gates Part 5, Bill Gates Part 6, Bill Gates Part 7.
  

Kiwi Top Gun

Tim Costley, a Kiwi Air force pilot, has created a smash on YouTube, but as a fellow Kiwi, I cringed when I watched it.

Tim is based at the central North Island Ohakea Air Force base. He ad-libbed a song in a Townsville mess hall, and now has his own following on the net. He even released the song on iTunes.

It started when some Aussie pilots asked him to sing a song about them.

"I consider it more of a documentary than a song,'' he said. ``They're an easy target. But, yeah, I just made it up as I went. It's all satirical. There's always been plenty of banter between Huey and jet pilots. Unfortunately for them we're better looking and much smarter.''

Tim says he hopes to recoup the $35 it cost to make the video.

World press freedom day

If you have a minute or two to spare on Saturday 3rd May, you're invited pop in to FUSION Organic Cafe, corner Aplin & Grafton Streets.

There you can sign, write or donate, to the 'Uncensor' project to protest the limitations on the media (including internet) in China.

It is part of Amnesty Australia's focus this year on issues of human rights in China.

Cairns-based Dr Carole Ford says that many countries do not have the freedom of speech that we enjoy in Australia. In China people are in prison for using the internet to send out information on human rights abuses.

Access to many news websites is blocked. 30 journalists and at least 50 internet users are known to be in jail in China right now. Many are beaten and tortured to extract ‘confessions’.

Whereas in Cairns, you used to only get sued every five minutes from the previous mayor for raising issues about city councillors travelling to China!

Reporters Without Borders ranks China's media situation as 'very serious', the worst ranking on their five-point scale. China's Internet censorship policy is labeled as 'pervasive' by the OpenNet Initiative's global Internet filtering map, also the worst ranking used.

China's Internet censorship is regarded by many as the most pervasive and sophisticated in the world. According to a Harvard study, at least 18,000 websites are blocked from within the country. Banned sites have included Wikipedia, Google, YouTube, Flickr, and even the BBC.

You can get more info from Janet Walder or telephone her on 4053 3426

A gin in the evening

I'm a huge fan of the good old fashioned talent quest.

I had my early fame, if you could call it that, with cabaret magic. I chopped people in half and even had a stable of white rabbits and doves. It was a kid's dream to be a magician. I idolised the early performers and magicians that graced the telly, and had the joy of performing professionally around New Zealand. I even performed in Japan and Hong Kong. Oh, those were the days.

So, after years of Idol, It Takes Two and a raft of other tedious shows that are monotonous and repetitive, the second season of Britain's Got Talent has started on ITV in the UK last week.
Australia's version will start on 7 shortly.

Last year, instant celebrities were made out of 6 year old Connie and mobile phone salesman Paul Potts, after their videos landed onto You Tube within minutes of their TV debut.

This week, a lot of attention has been given to Aussie Steve Cousins with his crazy balloon act, however my fav so far is the amazing dog Gin.

Barack race speech

Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are neck and neck as the USA presidential candidate race draws to a close. With over 2 million views on YouTube, it's easy to see how quick the pendulum swings in favour of either candidate.

This will be recorded as one of the great speeches of recent times, certainly in the evolution of US politics. You can read the transcript, or view the speech below.

Maybe it's just a dream, but I would have loved to have seen such passion and vision expressed in our recent local election campaign. This is when politicians shine.



And here's Jon Stewart of Comedy Central's The Daily Show analysing the speech...

Better late than never

Today I received in my letterbox Councillor Paul Freebody's new election leaflet, along with a note.

I'm not in Paul's Division, so I appreciate the effort he went to to get it to me.

"KiwiFruit,
Hot of [sic] the Press! Be a good boy and post it up For Me.. Regards, Paul."

After his first attempt, this version is well-designed, and clearly shows that Paul's serious. About time.

After Kathy Plath and Paul put our their appalling leaflets a few weeks ago, then viciously defended them in the Cairns Post, it's nice to see that he has listened to someone.

I mean Paul, you have to admit, the first one was shit. It wasn't the printer's fault at all, as you claimed on WIN TV. It was an amateur effort and you and Kathy rightly deserved a big fat raspberry.

Paul did try to explain to me how the first brochure came about. We were in the foyer of the District Court. He was there defending his actions after allegedly defaming people, and I was there for the Court House Cafe sandwiches.

Paul went on about the printer had two versions and had been working all night long.. and.. well, I got confused as there was a bit of talent walking past. The point is, that there is only one person responsible for a leaflet, and that's the person that ordered it. This is the point that his opponent in Division 4, Cairns 1st's Kirsten Lesina was making.

Paul also has told me that he didn't request his WIN TV interview be withdrawn from our YouTube channel, however that's very hard to stomach. Who else would have requested such action?

Paul, where do I send the kiwifruits to?

UnityTube

They've done it!

Unity have done a series of Vids on YouTube.

Here's Kev chatting to us about tropical housing...

NotFreebodyTube.com

Yesterday, I received notification from YouTube that it had received a request from WIN TV to remove a video of about Councillor Paul Freebody, a mate of Mayor Byrne's and candidate for re-election in Division 4.

This had been featured on WIN TV News Cairns, in early February.

And rightly so. I mean it was rather embarrassing. The things Paul said about Kirsten Lesina made him look absolutely foolish. I wouldn't want that online if I'd said that on camera.

This saga is all about Paul Freebody's election leaflet.

Here's the email I got...


And here's the transcript of the video...

• Paul Taylor, WIN TV Studio:
  Dirty politics has crept into the far northern election campaign.
  While some confutes have already been defaced by vandals, one candidate has come under attack for a mistake-riddled Unity flyer
  
  Amber Austin-Wright (reporter):
  When it comes to local politics it really comes down to the nitty gritty.
  
  Kirsten Lesina, Cairns 1st Candidate:
  Well, he released the first flyer that had at least 15 spelling and grammatical errors, as well as errors about the boundaries.
  
  Cr Paul Freebody:
  I know she’s only 21, and she’s young and needs to do a bit of growing up.
  
  Reporter:
  Cairns 1st candidate Kirsten Lesina, has attacked her rival, Paul Freebody for his latest campaign flyer.
  She says it incorrectly states the suburbs that make up Division 4. He’s blaming it on the print man.
  
  Cr Paul Freebody:
  The first version sent out was really just to get the colour background. The final version that was sent to him on the Thursday night for printing and unfortunately he made an error and he’s very apologetic about that.
  
  Reporter:
  But she’s not convinced.
  
  Kirsten Lesina:
  You can’t blame so many mistakes on printing errors, especially errors with the boundaries. That wouldn’t have been anything to do with the printer, that would have been to do with the person that designed it, which was Paul Freebody.
  
  Reporter
  Mr Freebody has branded her swipe a cheap political stunt. But he’s not the only one in the firing line.
  
  Dianne Forsyth, Cairns 1st Candidate
  They were out at 6 o’clock at night and by eight o’clock I had a phone call to say that three of them had been defaced. Quite horribly in fact.
  
  Reporter
  One thing’s for certain it’s shaping up to be a dirty campaign.
  
  Cr Paul Freebody
  What I say is Kirsten, focus on what’s good for the community, and don’t get into gutter politics. You’re better than that love. I know you’re young. I know you’re ambitious. Don’t go down that path.

Paul, I'll see you in court. (weather permitting)

Most popular

Here's our most popular articles from CairnsBlog over the last 5 months...

1. Who paid for the Byrne Election Campaign in 2004? (23,823 views)
2. $261,866.15 buys you a good time (21,780, views)
3. Potted History: the Devil we Know - Part 2 (17,468 views)
4. Cairns City Council - 2004 / 2008 Election Analysi... (17,018 views)
5. Mareeba Council, Myola and the Mushroom Treatment (16,998 views)
6. Time to Face the Music (14,042 views)
7. What does the death of Johno’s mean for Cairns? (12,641 views)
8. Joining the Smelly Dots (12,147 views)
9. CairnsBlog You Tube channel (11,331 views)
10. False promises, dirty pictures (10,793 views)
11. Potted History: the Devil we Know (9,014 views)
12. Cairns Plan amendments fails community over hillslopes (9,004 views)
13. KB's back, and he's not happy (8,446 views)
14. Deirdre leaves a voicemail (8,284 views)
15. Full Candidate listing (7,985 views)