Paul Wiggins: copy editor in Australia

you can finde me elsewhere

2008-09-11T16:03:00.002+10:30

I am now on friendfeed as part of social media research, apologies to those wondering why the subscriprion. Feedfriend newbie

What happened next department ...

2007-08-01T05:53:00.000+10:30

blacktownsun.com.au

macarthuradvertiser.com.au

camdenadvertiser.com.au

wollondillyadvertiser.com.au

fairfieldchampion.com.au

hawkesburyindependent.com.au

hillsnews.com.au

thenorthernnews.com.au

liverpoolchampion.com.au

penrithstar.com.au

southwestruraladvertiser.com.au

theleader.com.au

stmarysstar.com.au

I do not agree with much of this

2005-05-18T03:18:00.000+10:30

http://visualeditors.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=19686#19686

But have a look anyway

My small town

2005-04-06T16:02:00.000+10:30

Spice up your sports pictorials with a crowd shot. Here's a good one from the a NSW bowls match.

Quirky is good.

Marketing ourselves

2005-04-06T14:35:00.000+10:30

Another Sydney newspaper group has produced an online video explaining it's demographics. Look for the link at the right of one of their web pages
I'm not to keen on the box moving about the map though.

Something worth remembering

2005-03-30T13:42:00.000+10:30

I found this nifty quote on the web page of ABC Television's Media Watch:
Being a newspaper columnist is like marrying a nymphomaniac - it's great for the first two weeks."
- Lewis Grizzard (1947 - 1994)
This former columnist can verify all of the except for the bit about marrying.

Brain food

2005-03-02T13:54:00.000+11:00

One of the reasons I'm in this game is the childhood association of takeaway fish and chips being wrapped up in newspapers. Ah, the romance of it all. Some years ago this was banned because of concerns about contamination from printing plates and ink refined from crude oil. Now that we use plates made with lasers and put non-toxic inks through the press can't we restore the practice?

Double plus ungood

2005-03-02T13:30:00.000+11:00

Newscom.au reports: "BEFORE Christ" has been written out of some history books in NSW schools and replaced with "Before Common Era" in political correctness gone mad, the State Opposition said today. Details here.

About our papers

2005-03-02T13:07:00.000+11:00

Nifty profiles of the community papers I work on are now available at http://fcnonline.com.au/newnswoffices.asp The other gig is a day a week at the Illawarra Mercury, a regional daily.

Wikipedia warning

2005-02-09T11:06:00.000+11:00

I'm seeing more stuff on the internet citing Wikipedia as a source. Let's be pretty clear that it is not an authorative one.
User beware.

1966 Encyclopaedia of New Zealand

2005-02-09T10:58:00.000+11:00

This three-volume work, from which I learnt so much as a lad, is now online.
No cracks about the country not being part of the modern world please.

State of the Student Press

2005-02-03T14:24:00.000+11:00

Mediawatch.co.nz has interviewed Chris Trotter, an erstwhile student press rival and later colleague on The National Business Review. In the same item they talk to the present editor of Salient, a paper I contributed to between 1980 and 1987.
Tell it to young folk nowadays and they won't believe ya.

Why?

2005-01-30T17:21:00.000+11:00

Rather than taking advantage of many of the lovely parks and beaches on the South Coast, a bridal party is having a photographic shoot in the driveway of the Illawarra Mercury building.
First time I've ever seen a subs desk stumped for an answer.

Great news

2004-12-09T13:40:00.000+11:00

Mike Jarboe, an upstate New York copy editor of some wisdom and wit, has launched a blog, That's Nice, Cheeks
That lifts my mood on what has been a miserable day.

Goals achieved

2004-11-22T23:26:00.000+11:00

It's all good.
Time for stickcricket.com

Adjectives

2004-11-12T10:41:00.000+11:00

Doug Fisher's Common Sense Journalism blog has a November 2 post about ''hotly contested'' elections. It's good stuff.
Adjectives are the enemies of nouns.

So far, so good.

2004-11-12T10:36:00.000+11:00

Day one of the Leader's redesign and new computer software has gone well.
A credit to those people who planned the exercise. Less haste means more speed.

The world moves quickly.

2004-11-10T17:26:00.000+11:00

Tomorrow the Leader moves to a new version of our pagination program. Among other things it measures the depth of modules in lines rather than centimetres. We also implement a redesign basically in one go.

The joyful news here is that I feel relaxed and comfortable about it. The plans seem well laid.

Top me if you've heard this one before dept

2004-11-10T17:23:00.000+11:00

A colleague asks why the word abbreviation is so long and phonetic isn't spelt with an f.

This arises in connection to my culling of abbreviations in copy.

Welcome to the world

2004-11-09T17:17:00.000+11:00

From news.com.au

NEWS Limited chairman Lachlan Murdoch and his wife, Sarah O'Hare, have announced the birth of their son, Kalan Alexander Murdoch.Kalan was born at 2.44pm today at the Mater Hospital, North Sydney, weighing 8lbs 6ozs.

Think I'll call him sir.

Parting is, this time, sorrow.

2004-11-05T16:50:00.000+11:00

There are my last key strokes on a computer tha has served faithfully for the past four years. A new fancy one complete with bells and whistles that I have been trained for arrives on Monday.
Sounds like a good reason to have a beer.

a capital idea

2004-08-31T02:49:00.000+10:30
above all else if you are a copy editor or a subeditor do read nicole stockdale she writes a capital idea blogspot pardon the lower case

Thanks blogspot.com

2004-08-22T20:48:00.000+10:30
At the moment you'll see a button inviting you to go to a random page.
Try it. It's fun.

Just like the good old days

2004-08-19T15:38:00.000+10:30
The Sydney metros are meking substantial changes between editions as Olympic news comes to hand.

Good to see

I'm back

2004-08-17T15:51:00.000+10:30
After a time out to deal with some professional and personal matters, daily postings will resume.

Emphasis reverts to copy editing and away from html, although I will be starting to write source code from scratch as well as copy and pasting.

Don't look!

2004-06-14T13:41:00.000+10:30
An updated photo may be found here

The start of a photo album blog

Rich reading.

2004-06-11T13:58:00.000+10:30
Rich Boudet from the Arizona Daily Star has begun a blog, sportsdesigner You can find his portfolio here.

I will repair those useful opion links when time allows.

Foolish boy

2004-06-11T13:39:00.000+10:30
I've just signed up for the Fairfax employee share program.

First thing I've ever bought online.

Missing links

2004-06-07T13:06:00.000+10:30
I have pencilled in some time to restore these this week.

Love yous all

Still in the dark.

2004-06-07T10:09:00.000+10:30
The flourescents are turned off until we can get them better positioned.

Restful, though not enlightening.

Astonishment from Leader's chief photographer

2004-06-07T10:07:00.000+10:30
Wiggins has got a clean cup!

Frussin' russin' cussin' cleaners!

A name change

2004-06-03T00:05:00.000+10:30
Point made.

Joke past use-by date.

Links

2004-06-02T13:37:00.000+10:30
I've accidently deleted them and will restore later when I get time.

For DM's benefit, here's an earlier draft of code I have on file.

[!-- Sidebar --]
[div id="sideBar"]
[!--

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Add things to your sidebar here.
Use the format:

[li][a href="URL"]Link Text[/a][/li]

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

--]

[h6]People whose opinions are useful[/h6]
[ul]
[li][a href="http://tommangan.net/printsthechaff/"]Prints The Chaff[/a][/li]
[li][a href="http://testycopyeditors.org/"]Testy Copy Editors[/a][/li]
[li][a href="http://theslot.com/"]The Slot[/a][/li]

[li][a href="http://nstockdale.blogspot.com/"]A Capital Idea[/a][/li]
[li][a href="http://lists.topica.com/lists/ACEStalk/read"]ACES board[/a][/li]
[li][a href="http://copymassage.blogspot.com/"]Copy Massage[/a][/li]
[li][a href="http://www.newsdesigner.com/blog/"]News Designer[/a][/li]
[li][a href="http://willcopy.blogspot.com/"]Stylin' and Smilin'[/a][/li]
[li][a href="http://www.timporter.com/firstdraft/"]First Draft[/a][/li]
[li][a href="http://www.editorsweblog.org/"]editorsweblog.org[/a][/li]
[li][a href="http://adversepossessor.blogspot.com/"]adversepossessor
[/a][/li]
[li][a href="http://www.plainenglish.co.uk//"]Plain English Campaign
[/a]

[/ul]

Do'h!

A thank you

2004-05-31T12:09:00.000+10:30
Tom's Print the Chaff blog has been most interesting reading. He now feels he needs to move on.

Undoudtedly his words of wisdom will pop up in other forums.

Template change

2004-05-31T12:07:00.000+10:30
It looks good on my large monitor and prints out out neatly on A4 without the background. Archives, links and previous posts are now on the left.

I've given up on the news ticker.

On the move

2004-05-28T12:51:00.000+10:30
I'm about to do the last two pages from our offices in Forest Road, Hurstville.. Next Monday sees me at Rockdale

I'm feeling a twinge of nostalgia.

Lack of ticker

2004-05-25T18:03:00.000+10:30
Ticker offline while I plan and learn coding for a subtle format change.

Back soon

About the news ticker

2004-05-24T13:43:00.000+10:30
It's from 7am.com.

It's basic, but free.

The Big Dry

2004-05-24T13:03:00.000+10:30
Great excitement here because a reader reports having to use windshield wipers at lunchtime.

Dams are at about 50% of capacity

Danto link

2004-05-23T16:25:00.000+10:30
This is now fixed.

Thanks Danto and DM

Heard on the street

2004-05-21T15:08:00.000+10:30
I have to go to a sale.

No, the operative word is I want to go to a sale.

Young ones are getting far too perceptive

2004-05-21T14:32:00.000+10:30
A reader of The Earley Edition makes this observation:

Mil:
I figured out Paul Wiggins's secret to his short and sharp blogging style: hyperlinks...

(",)

Guilty as charged, your honour.

Smart thinking 99

2004-05-21T14:27:00.000+10:30
I've repaired the faulty link to Mark.

Spot the hidden hyperlink on this post.

Page links

2004-05-21T14:07:00.000+10:30
A quick round up:
Earley edition link corrected to give correct entry point.
I an having having difficulties with link to Danto, Clay, and Mark Harrison that previously worked, though the hyperlink in the body copy does.

Can anyone shed light on the matter?

VisualEditors.com

2004-05-20T16:14:00.000+10:30
This bulletin board has been up and running for a couple of months and is a brainfood feast. It is a smorgasbord of the arcane and the snarky.

Copy editors advisory: contains cheesy bits.

Good to see

2004-05-20T12:19:00.000+10:30
This in my editorial internal mail: Hi all,
In our Tuesday edition we ran a small piece about the fall in food
donations at Anglicare. Many St George & Shire families are doing it
really tough this winter so we've decided to help them out. We are
collecting donations of non-perishable food which will be sent to
Anglicare. Please donate whatever you can spare to someone who
might otherwise go hungry. Donations can be left on ......s desk
[they will be collected by Anglicare on Thur May 27]. Thanks in advance!

Journos all a bunch of goddam tree-hugging communists!

Blogland grows

2004-05-20T11:13:00.000+10:30
Latest blog to catch my eye belongs to Harrison Goodman, a
newspaper designer from Fredericksburg, Virginia. A hearty hello.
When I get time I'll separate the copy editor links from the designer links.

A photojournalist's blog

2004-05-19T15:08:00.000+10:30
Mark Hancock writes about matters that touch the lives of copyeditors and page designers.

A link will be added at right sometime after I have completed today's duties.

Not born yesterday

2004-05-18T02:24:00.000+10:30
A gent looked over my shoulder today at an internet cafe. He penetrated one level of security.

But no further

Buy this book

2004-05-17T17:39:00.000+10:30
Mr Walsh knows his trunks from his tails.

And the nails of tales

And is another thing.

2004-05-17T13:06:00.000+10:30
Those of you who believe you can't start a sentence with the word and are referred to Genesis 1:

Genesis 1
1 In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
2 And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
3 And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
4 And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
5 And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
6 And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
7 And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
8 And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
9 And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
10 And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.
11 And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was so.
12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
13 And the evening and the morning were the third day.
14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.
20 And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.
21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.
24 And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature after his kind, cattle, and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind: and it was so.
25 And God made the beast of the earth after his kind, and cattle after their kind, and every thing that creepeth upon the earth after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
26 And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.
29 And God said, Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you it shall be for meat.
30 And to every beast of the earth, and to every fowl of the air, and to every thing that creepeth upon the earth, wherein there is life, I have given every green herb for meat: and it was so.
31 And God saw every thing that he had made, and, behold, it was very good. And the evening and the morning were the sixth day.

King James Version, one of several available online at Bible Gateway

And so this post ends.

For my own good.

2004-05-17T09:14:00.000+10:30
My employer is offering free influenza vaccination.

Smart move

Some academic reading for you

2004-05-14T16:36:00.000+10:30
The State of the News Media 2004
I've read next to nothing of it, so have no opinion on its content.

Real estate section crops.

2004-05-14T16:32:00.000+10:30
Cardinal rules for cropping:
a) more house, less sky
b) for interiors keep in as many light sources as you can.

Excellence can be applied to even the most mundane of chores.

Tip for reporters, even on small papers.

2004-05-14T16:30:00.000+10:30
The more you get into the habit of turning the press release upside down before writing the more effective you will be.

And the faster you will become at it.

Some self-indulgence

2004-05-14T16:26:00.000+10:30
One turns 44 years of age today. The evil reporting staff did five things to mak the occasion.

Memo to self: Increase the testiness factor.

Shucks

2004-05-13T12:56:00.000+10:30
A kind gentleman has described these posts as taciturn.

I've had too many years as a headline writer methinks.

The Earley Edition

2004-05-13T03:09:00.000+10:30
Dave from NSW is up and running

Earley Edition's editor, Dave, pores over HTML code. "It's not procrastination if it's for a good cause," he said.

About Me
name: Dave
age: 25
occupation: poverty line student
dream job: poverty line journalist

He gets a gong

Postscript: Dave is from Queensland, the state where they have 12 toes.
He still gets a gong.

Shooters. We have shooters

2004-05-13T03:01:00.000+10:30
I am impressed by the blogspot update. Fully sick, as they say in the classics. What I have not figured out yet is how to upload jpeg file to profile.

Federal Budget

2004-05-12T21:53:00.000+10:30
The government has given me a substantial tax break.

I'd rather it was spent on health, education and welfare.

Worth a look

2004-05-12T14:05:00.000+10:30
There's a nifty list of over-used science fiction cliches here.

Thanks to Tom for the link.

About the body type

2004-05-12T11:44:00.000+10:30
Body type is a work in progress and will be improved when I get some time.

I'm incorporating the Blogspot comments default, so previous comments are no longer there

About the blog colours

2004-05-11T15:59:00.000+10:30
They will be all over the place and ugly over the next few days as I work on the coding.

A work in progress, will declare it over when over.

Federal idiocy: time to pick and stick

2004-05-11T14:51:00.000+10:30
More mucking about from the Australian Federal Government.

Must be an election in the air

Keep your love forever young*

2004-05-10T11:11:00.000+10:30
A great weekend, now back to business.

I did but see her passing by ... **

*Powderfinger lyric
**Sir Robert Menzies 1963 see film clip

note revised, corrected link

It's not official until it's in the paper.

2004-05-07T15:40:00.000+10:30
Tom Mangan starts off an interesting post at Prints the Chaff with the following observation:

Last Saturday I saw the San Francisco Giants defeat the Florida Marlins. I knew the score but I had to read the Merc's account of the game in Sunday's paper. I'm habitually going to the Internet Movie Database or Rottentomatoes.com to read reviews on movies I've already seen.

I imagine most avid readers have similar tendencies; we read for the joy of translating and digesting the written word, but also because it validates our experiences.

Quite right. I feel great sadness for folk who deprive themselves of this pleasure.

About the poll

2004-05-06T14:53:00.000+10:30
Thanks to the fine organisational skills of a colleague I have a bit of time up my spleeves today to ponder HTML mark-up and have some fun at the same time.

Thanks, Deb

The Getty of Wisden

2004-05-06T13:40:00.000+10:30
Those seeking to understand that there is a nexus between cricket and serenity, see this item in The Bulletin. It's by Tim Blair, whose blog spot can be found here.

Sadly there is just one cricket reference in the Bible:

Leviticus 11
21 quicquid autem ambulat quidem super quattuor pedes sed habet longiora retro crura per quae salit super terram
22 comedere debetis ut est brucus in genere suo et attacus atque ophiomachus ac lucusta singula iuxta genus suum
23 quicquid autem ex volucribus quattuor tantum habet pedes execrabile erit vobis

Fan page ethics

2004-05-06T12:00:00.000+10:30
The webmistress at rowanatkinson.org has an ethics page on her site.

Most interesting

gmail

2004-05-04T16:23:00.000+10:30
I've signed up for this, even though my browser doesn't yet support, just like the Hotmail and Yahoo address using my full name it might prove handy one day.

Unfortunate name though (theirs not mine)

This doesn't happen often

2004-05-04T15:55:00.000+10:30
A reader rang to ask if they could take a headline I'd written in and use it in another context.

I said yes. If I wanted to get snarky, Mr Shakespeare and the evangelists might come after me.

Nevil Gibson's Editor's Insight

2004-05-03T10:05:00.000+10:30
Those of you wishing to understand a little about New Zealand could do worse than visit this page.

Nevil is the editor in chief of The National Business Review and his insight is bloggish, though not labelled as a blog.

He once had a dog called Scoop.

This from this morning's Sydney Morning Herald

2004-05-03T09:50:00.000+10:30
Sitting on Central Station on Friday, Michael Brown noticed that, according to the recorded announcements, trains to the Rugby World Cup 2003 are still departing from platform 11.

Business as usual at CityRail

Point size of interest

2004-04-29T16:31:00.000+10:30
Multifocals arrived today. I had forgotten how large 9.5pt type really is.

But I will still resist the temptation to go any smaller on serif body type.

Something others have done

2004-04-29T03:25:00.000+10:30
I'm pleased to say the community has chipped in for a funeral fund for the lady Pat Stringa wrote about.

I love this town

The world was a better place today

2004-04-29T02:34:00.000+10:30
I managed to be what people call a mentor. Nobody will know.

How good is that?

What the!

2004-04-28T11:42:00.000+10:30
A survey for the World Editors Forum reads inter alia :
Do you want we create new categories ... Globally, do you find the blog interesting for your job?

Woops.

It's Monty Python's Flying Circus!

2004-04-28T11:22:00.000+10:30
A US copy comrade has referred me to The Batsmen of the Kalahari after I gatecrashed the Baseball Forum at Testy Copy Editors.

Very politically incorrect but the boys insulted everyone, including Poms.

Anzac Day Part II

2004-04-25T21:34:00.000+10:30
Next person who says veterans were blown away by bigger numbers at remembrance marches, please see me after class.

From darkness, light.

Anzac Day

2004-04-25T14:32:00.000+10:30
Today is Anzac Day, the 89th anniversary of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps' landing at Gallipoli, Turkey.
I took the Australian flag someone had unthoughtfully attached off the sprig of remembrance before Dawn Service - I'd never seen one on a sprig before.

A day of sadness.

It begins

2004-04-22T00:31:00.000+10:30
Sydney readers, please note following address:

sydney transport

please note rules of engagement

Info from Australian Journalists Association

2004-04-16T12:24:00.000+10:30
Free Speech Muzzled - In a similar vein to our Orwell Awards, the US Muzzle Awards given to Free Speech Violators were awarded last Tuesday. The Secret Service won a Muzzle for investigating whether Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist Michael Ramirez of the LA Times could be charged with "threatening the life" of the US President for a cartoon depicting a man pointing a gun at Bush. Nominations for the Australian Orwell Awards are now open for both national and international violators of Press Freedom. Enter your nominations at orwells.alliance.org.au.

Ruff stuff

Some days are diamonds, and some are stones.

2004-04-15T13:22:00.000+10:30
Terrible things happen to people and we write about them. This front-page story in our paper (the St George and Sutherland Shire Leader in this instance) this morning moved me more than any since the anniversary of the Bali bombings.

A sad ending for a kind-hearted lady who loved animals

Died alone in unit

By PAT STRINGA

Bernadette James lived for her many cats, which shared her small Department of Housing unit in Mortdale.

Mrs James, 63, also known as Bernadette Richards, died about five days ago in her bed, alone except for her beloved pets.

It wasn't until neighbours called police about the stench coming from her unit, that her body
and 12 cats were found.

Hurstville Council's animal welfare officers removed three cats from a small second bedroom, one cat roaming about the unit and another eight that had been locked in cupboards and wardrobes.

Neighbours in the well-maintained block said Mrs James's son and daughter had died about five years ago.

They said she had become a loner in the last three years and rarely left the Station Street apartment, except for doctors' appointments or to buy groceries.

However, the normally quiet grandmother became very upset a few weeks ago when the RSPCA visited her unit to check on the condition of the cats.

Two weeks ago she sent a letter to a neighbour, Jackie Wilson, accusing her of contacting the animal protection group.

``Watch out you don't suffer a tragic loss,'' Mrs James wrote.

``The only reason I get out of bed is because of my pets.''

Mrs Wilson, who denied she had contacted the RSPCA, said her carpeted unit had been full of fleas for years because of Mrs James's cats and the smell of cats' urine and faeces often had been overwhelming.

``But it's still a very sad ending. I feel very sad,'' she said.

Friend Allan Leister said Mrs James was a ``kind-hearted lady'' and a loner.

``She was a lovely lady who lived for her cats,'' he said.

``She used to take in stray cats. She didn't go out much, just to buy groceries and cat food.''

Nearby shopkeeper Rima Obeid said Mrs James had not been in her store for about three years.

``But before that she used to come all the time and tell me about her animals,'' Ms Obeid said.

``I used to see her on her balcony with a lot of her cats. She was a lovely lady, but I assume she got very sick because she was very frail in the last few years.''

Police said there were no suspicious circumstances relating to Mrs James's death.

The council's head animal officer, Wayne Asplett, said the 12 cats were all very well looked after.

RSPCA deputy chief inspector David O'Shannessy said an inspector visited the unit on March 12.

``At that time there were fewer than 10 cats in the unit .... and because of the conditions in which they were kept there was no concern,'' Mr O'Shannessy said.

He said the RSPCA could only act if there was a problem under the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act.

At the time of the visit, there was no breach of the act.

Our blessings, we should count

Design inspiration

2004-04-14T10:44:00.000+10:30
Hats off to News Designer which now has hyperlinks to front page thumbnails of the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, the International Herald Tribune, the Globe and Mail, the Guardian, El Mundo, Le Monde and Die Welt.

A world at our fingertips

A changing world

2004-04-14T10:37:00.000+10:30
With a $US146 prepaid mobile phone, I can access large parts of the Net - and this site's a breeze - for $0 (which converts oddly enough to $US0) while drinking beer.

How good's that!

The cyberworld of September 11 2001

2004-04-13T16:39:00.000+10:30
I was wondering this afternoon how a September 2001 blog written by a journalist would read. Here's one.

Note the Sept 27 reference to Monty Python's Camelot

From the only in Australia files ....

2004-04-13T14:22:00.000+10:30
This from the Leader this morning, partial coding left in intentionlly.

It all went from baaed to worse lw-3

tagPicture1

tagCaption1Bold text #bb normal face text #bb Photo credit

WHO SAYS SHEEP ARE STUPID?BBThe Sharks couldn't take a trick during Saturday night'sntsI 10/4nte NRL
game against the North Queensland Cowboys at Cronulla. Not only did the home side finish well behind
on the scoreboard, but the half-time entertainment of a sheepdog trial also turned into a farce when
the sheep completely outpointed the kelpie who was supposed to be rounding them up. Eventually,
the sheep tired of the chase and jumped into the truck all on their own. bbJOHN VEAGE

tagPicture2

Pardon the heading, it's almost as bad as the one I just wrote: Go the Pope bloke! for a review of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind

Web search tip

2004-04-13T13:02:00.000+10:30
When you want to focus on matters related to Australasia get yourself out of google and into yahoo.com.au. This portal gives the ability to adapt your search to a world .au or .nz focus.

I'll be out of a job if I keep sharing things like this.

Taken totally out of context

2004-04-13T00:45:00.000+10:30
This from a sensible person on Easter Sunday quoting somebody ...

"I was a terribly arrogant sub," she says. "I used to move whole bits around. Now, of course, I can't stand for my writing to be changed.

It's de ja vu again.

Ménières

2004-04-12T12:43:00.000+10:30
Maxine has this illness. And thus my blog silence for the past few days.

Every day you still have hearing is a good one.

While I'm in a non-grumpy mood.

2004-04-06T23:17:00.000+10:30
This post from The Slot so overwhelmed me that I've been reading much online opinion from a variety of people since.

Better than interviewing your typewriter.

Photographers

2004-04-06T23:06:00.000+10:30
At the risk of renaming this the I Like Tom board, his post at Prints The Chaff about photograpers contains the following words: proud to work with people.

Hey shutter upaya face.

I think the V stands for Veritas.

2004-04-06T11:00:00.000+10:30
Well-seasoned columnist Peter V O'Brien, an erstwhile colleague, would like to see companies cut the verbiage. Here's his column in New Zealand's National Business Review.

Sorry about all the wordplay on the headlines, Peter.

A tribute

2004-04-06T00:13:00.000+10:30
We hold these Truths to be self-evident, that all Men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.

The tolerance - and the patience - of the people listed at the links on these page delights me.

Irritating as hell.

2004-04-05T16:18:00.000+10:30
Sydney's Daily Telegraph has been thundering against recent court judgments.

The tone is shrill and the analysis shallow.

Rocket scientists, not copy editors

2004-04-03T08:53:00.000+10:30
I've just watched a NASA video presentation about the Mars rovers' journey. It's one of a number of interesting items available on the SMH's multimedia links page. One hates to be pedantic about groovy sound effects, but in space no one can hear your stages separate.

I fibbed. Pedantry is fun.

Pardon our Kiwi accents, though I've lost most of mine.

2004-04-03T08:01:00.000+10:30
Those of you that analyse broadcasting and who have a fast Internet connection might be interested in Paul Holmes' April 2 retrospective of his 15 years on the box.

By way of introduction, this from Television New Zealand:

April 3 2004 marks the 15th anniversary of the Holmes programme making it New Zealand's longest running news and current affairs programme... (Note the standard NZ spelling on last word.)

Thank God for newspapers.

The Way The World Is 101

2004-04-03T07:18:00.000+10:30
Tucked away in the comments section of Tom's Print The Chaff is this observation about recent saddening events in Iraq ...

If you think the media wants something more than a audience to tell a story to, you're gonna see more than is really there.

People do nutty stuff, we write stories about it; they're remarkably reliable.

Well said, Tom.

The vison thing.

2004-04-02T16:39:00.000+10:30
My optometrist has prescribed multifocals. I'm left wondering how much 23 years in front of cold-type typesetting machines and pagination screens has affected the matter.

Retail therapy time.

Fuel prices

2004-04-01T14:01:00.000+10:30
There's an interesting debate at Testy Copy Editors about when a record price is a record price.
Here's an Australian take on the matter from this morning's issue of our paper.

The US media has recently reported huge increases in the cost of fuelling the world's biggest and thirstiest cars. They bemoan petrol hitting $US1.80 a gallon. That equates to about 63 cents a litre. Sad, ain't it! [Sydneysiders pay 90 cents to 96 cents a litre at the moment]

Thus the expression, ''On ya bike son!''