Short Thought #1

A new series of posts on current news items and my thoughts on them.
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Eleven people die in Slacks Creek house fire, south of Brisbane

BODIES have been found in a Slacks Creek home after a fire overnight that claimed 11 members of an extended family.
The fire reportedly started just after midnight in the home, in Wagensveldt St in the suburb of Slacks Creek, that was occupied by two Pacific Islander families.

This is tragic absolutely tragic, and my thoughts and prayers go out to the two survivors and the entire extended family, as well as friends, neighbours and the rest of the local Pacific Island community.

There really isnt anything you can say other than that.
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High bus fares drive commuters away, but Translink are set to raise them another 50 per cent

BRISBANE bus commuters are being driven away by high fares, Brisbane Lord Mayor Graham Quirk says, and more pain is on the way.

What can I say the State Government through Translink have screwed the public transport network in South East Queensland right royally.

With a single zone adult fare set to rise from $2.65 to $4.04 by 2014 this is simply ludicrous, how are people supposed to be taking public transport if the state government is pricing it out of the reach of the ordinary person?

Cr Quirk has some good ideas about curbing the rise in costs but I dont think they go far enough, if the state government cares about getting people onto public transport and vehicles off the roads then they should do something to stop the rising costs that make Translink one of the most expensive public transport providers.
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Channel 9's live crosses to reporters from news chopper straight from Frontline

IT'S the type of thing that happened in the fictional current affairs show Frontline.
Host Mike Moore would cross to a reporter who was allegedly in a hostile zone, but was really nowhere near danger.
Fiction became reality last weekend when Channel 9's weekend news bulletins crossed to reporters in a helicopter allegedly hovering over the Daniel Morcombe search site "near Beerwah".

What can I say, how in this day in age with all the modern technology about and the fact your competitor is just a few hundred meters away on the same hill, can you expect to get away with a live cross to a helicopter sitting outside your studio?

Once again Channel 9 fail - thats twice now on this blog I've pulled up Ch9, and both times they appear to be faking things to get ratings ...

If you want news you can trust watch Ch7.
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Aus media groups to boycott World Cup

In an unprecedented move, Australia's leading news media organisations have informed the International Rugby Board that they will not be seeking accreditation to cover the World Cup in New Zealand.

So News limited, Fairfax Australia and the Australian Associated Press agency have all announced they wont seek accreditation for the world cup.
Their New Zealand counterparts are covered by a governmental law introduced when hosting was announced so they are fine but they share the concerns of their Australian counterparts.

For an organisation who is trying to globalise their game and match FIFA, the IRB have really shot themselves in the foot with these harsh conditions and rules.

My opinion Rugby Union is a game that will only flourish in the Home and SANZAR nations and wont grow because its governing body is doing everything it can to prevent widespread coverage of their sport and their show piece tournament.

I smell a (ratings) rat

The good thing about Australia and New Zealand is they are basically the same country when it comes to tv shows, with free to air networks on both sides of the tasman, showing each other’s locally produced content.   

So back in 2003 I was swept up in the same “block” fever that hit Australians, following the fortunes of the couples as they fought to renovate the building and win, and the presentation skills of Jamie Durie.  I even followed with interest the legal fight between Ninox Television (creators of Dream Home in NZ) and Nine over copyright infringement.

Like others I followed Jamie from the block to backyard blitz, before he dropped off the Aus/NZ radar when his career took him to the USA, appearances on Oprah and shows on cable networks.

So now living in Australia it was with interest I started to watch Top Design, Jamie’s new offering on Nine, one which has been successfully used in America, on the Bravo Channel (although its original run was only two seasons 2007-2008).   

Interestingly enough Top Design runs on Nine immediately after The Block, and in competition with The Renovators on Ten, although The Renovators seems to be running into ratings issues.

Episode 3 (S01 E03 airing on July 27^th) caused some controversy amongst social media pundits as it featured a challenge involving restoring/designing a chair and then creating a room with the chair as centrepiece.  This resembled a very similar challenge on The Renovators which aired two days prior on July 25^th (S01 E02).  It was also this episode when Jamie announced that 3 “intruders” would join the remaining contestants on Top Design.

Episode 4 (S01 E04 airing August 3^rd) introduced us to the 3 “intruders” Karl, Chris and Katrina.  Now Chris and Katrina seem to be genuine contestants but there was something about Karl and his attitude to the competition and fellow contestants that made him seem not so real.  Karl announced he was there to shake up the competition and wasn’t there to be a “Mr nice guy”  According to his bio Karl is a furniture maker.  In the two episodes Karl was involved in he fought and bickered with the contestants he was paired with and caused no end of pain for them.

Karl galvanised people with the general consensus on twitter (#TopDesign) that he was a nasty piece of work, with multiple people calling him a fake and questioning every part of his role on the show right down to even if Karl is his real name.

Now I too believe Karl wasn’t a real contestant but someone brought onto the show to shake things up and show the judges how the designers work under pressure and with difficult people.  This was confirmed in last night’s episode (S01 E05) where at elimination Jamie sprung a double elimination on the contestants.   

After eliminating Katrina, Jamie brought the double elimination into play and started talking to Lisa about her responsibility for the bad design that caused her team to come bottom and Katrina to be eliminated.  It was at this point that Karl jumped in and said that he wasn’t one to spill his guts on national television, but he had a close family member suffering a severe illness and he would rather sacrifice his place on the show to assist that person, than see Lisa be eliminated, as he felt she had more to offer.

Jamie was too quick with his responses which sounded to well-rehearsed and scripted to have been genuine and on-the-spot as it were.  Karl was then “eliminated” and Lisa kept her spot.

I believe this was a huge play to win ratings and audience share, as there were too many irregularities and for want of a better word holes, in the whole performance of Karl, and especially in the way the “double elimination” played out.

I am interested to hear your comments on this post, if you’re a Top Design fan, team Karl or team Robert, and if you think Nine stried to sneak a “ratings rat” into their show.