Tractors 4 - Farmers 0

Another one bites the dust
Another one bites the dust
And another one gone, and another one gone
Another one bites the dust

~  Queen     

When I made my last post on tractor deaths (here) I didn't think it would be so soon that I'd be reporting another.

Here is the story as reported on tvnz.co.nz:    http://tvnz.co.nz/national-news/man-killed-in-waikato-tractor-accident-5390346 

Q: When are Farmers going to learn?      

A: Never. 

*sigh*                       

Jesse Ryder vs. Scribe

What we doin' when the? 

What we doin' when the? 

What we doin' when the Fatboy's slippin'? 

Norman Quentin Cook (aka Fatboy Slim) "Gangster Tripping"

Scribe (real name Malo Luafutu) has 'outraged' the media for questioning what Jesse Ryder did to provoke the attack which hospitalized Ryder last week.

Scribe tweeted on the weekend: 

"I'd like to know what Jesse Ryder did or said. Cantabrians don't beat people up for no reason #Crusader."

"I'm not making excuses I genuinely would like to know what started the whole thing. No-one gets beaten up for nothing." 

 Great question.   What was Ryders' part in the affair?  I'm sick of the media fawning over him because he is the famous injured party.  Time to start asking the tough questions of Ryder.

Ryder has had very public issues with his inability to drink sensibly and hold his tongue when inebriated. Remember his petulant outbursts ("Do you know who I am?") when receiving treatment for a hand badly cut in a drunken incident?  More >> Jesse Ryder - opinion piece (Stuff.co.nz)

I have no doubt that Ryder's interaction with the accused in some way prompted the attack.  In this respect I agree with Scribe; it would be interesting to know what was said.  Of course this in no way condones the out-of-proportion violence which followed. 

The court case will be fascinating.  I'll look forward to the media giving just as much air-time to Ryder's alleged conversations with the accused. 

As for Prime Minister John Key chiming in about this "sinister" attack.  Get on with running the country John!

What we doin' when the? 

What we doin' when the? 

What we doin' when the Fatboy's slippin'?

Sometimes the Wolf

This is Quality Prince.

Quality Prince was a thoroughbred gelding born on 25 October 1987.  He raced 95 times for 12 wins, 12 seconds and 14 thirds, earning total prize money of $125 000NZ.

I was this horses' owner for the last four years.  The amount of money he won in his career was unimportant to me.  I loved this horse and renamed him Deamo (Latin: I love you).  He taught me to trust horses again and took care of me when we went riding together.  He was always so sweet and accepted my less than perfect seat and my contradictory aids.

Deamo suffered a paddock accident on Friday 22 March 2013.  He fell heavily against a fence post while cantering and fractured his pelvis.  The Vet was called and the diagnosis made.  We were out of options and he was in terrible pain.  We had the Vet euthanise him humanely in his paddock.  He was 25years old.

Our equine dentist, Allan,  once told me...

"In a herd environment, horses that are old, sick and the lame fall behind the rest of the herd.  There they become prey to wolves and other large predators.  This is the natural way horses die in the wild.

We take horses from their natural surroundings and remove the threat of predators.  In doing this we accept that sometimes we have to play the part of the wolf."

Because we loved Deamo, we had to be the wolf last Friday.  He died peacefully in the arms of my partner, with her tears on his neck and her words of love in his ear.

We will both miss this wonderful horse. I couldn't have asked for a better equine friend.

Tractors 3 - Farmers 0

Last month I posted a piece on the natural selection of tractor drivers (Read it here).

Unfortunately another non-fatal but serious accident is being reported this morning on the Stuff website (http://www.stuff.co.nz/national/8455122/Mans-leg-run-over-pierced-by-tractor).

Honestly.  Run over by a tractor? You've got to ask what's going on down on the farm.

"Didn't see it coming Officer."  Yeah, right.  It's a huge, noisy piece of machinery.  Perhaps it was in your blind spot?

I'm constantly amazed by the stupidity of the farming community.  They just don't seem to get how dangerous their equipment is and how vulnerable they are.

"It won't happen to me..."  It often does, with fatal consequences.

Like the guy who got into his own grain hopper and was subsequently asphyxiated and/or crushed by the weight of his crop.  A short length of rope tied to the top of the hopper would have been enough for him to extract himself.  Instead the lack of common sense was fatal.

Obviously, there will be more to come in this series of posts.

Plain Talking - March

An exchange on National Radio's Afternoon show between Penny Ashton and Steve McCabe:

Steve:  The Pope's a Jesuit!
Penny:  What's a Jesuit?
Steve:  God's riot police.

The full show is available online and downloadable in various formats thanks to the wonderful interactive website of National Radio.  The link below will take you to the relevant page.

http://www.radionz.co.nz/national/programmes/afternoons/20130318

The link to look for is part two of the panel discussion

The Panel with Penny Ashton and Steve McCabe (Part 2)

Topics - Pope Francis has appeared before some 150,000 pilgrims massed in St Peter's Square for his first Angelus prayer and asked the faithful to pray for him. 'Younger Generation Lags Behind Its Parents In Wealth-Building', says the New York Times headline. (26′36″)

Zac Guildford's confession + reaction.

"I'm an alcoholic" ~ Zac Guildford (14/3/2013)

"We know" ~ Most of New Zealand


Unfortunately we do know.  This sad story is repeated again and again with promising young sports stars demonstrating that they are ill equipped to handle the fame and fortune bestowed upon them.

Jesse Rider, Norm Hewitt, Andrew Simons have all had their demons.  Not to mention (because we can't) the numerous high profile sports stars who have been charged with drink-driving, assaults and drug use.

It's the measure of the man (and women) as to how they deal with their demons.  In particular, Norm Hewitt salvaged his mana and career from a very high profile incident which threatened to derail him personally and professionally.  I have absolute respect for the man.

(photo Otage Daily Times)

I am no longer a follower of rugby (I seriously question the sponsorship and drinking cultures that surround the sport these days).   This said, I do hope Zac becomes the man he was meant to be and can regain our respect and his own respect for himself.

Herp-Derp I like a laugh

Some world weary software developer has unwittingly focused the news eye on him/her self with this little blunder involving our EFTPOS system.  Affected EFTPOS (Electronic Fund Transfer - Point Of Sale) terminals occasionally displays a weird message that says

"Herp-Derp Eftpos"

I've done a bit of software development and still keep my hand in to keep my C# skills up to date.  I suspect the poor developer has simply overlooked a temporary piece of code when rolling out the latest update of the software.

This isn't a hack or a piece of malicious code, it's probably just something the developer wanted to return to and clean up later.  I regularly use terms like HFO in code to make certain conditions true in code.  In my case HFO stands for When Hell Freezes Over - in other words, never, or repeat this code until I tell you to stop.

I'm also fond of dropping "Flux Capacitor" into code as a variable which can take any and often unexpected values.  The Flux Capacitor was the significant bit in the De Lorean from Back to the Future films.

Of course developers always intend to return to these bits of nonsense, but can occasionally overlook them (as, I suspect, in this case).

The best bit of this story is not the unusual message, or the rush to roll out an upgrade, but the sang-froid attitude of the retailers.  You gotta love 'em.

Full story on stuff.co.nz:  Eftpos prank unnoticed for weeks