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The Age website is giving good coverage. The Herald Sun, as per usual, is ramping it up for all it's worth.
Well, part of the non-media speculation has a lot to do with Malala Yousafzai being given honourary citizenship here tonight. But, until it's over, when the Prime Minister and police services tell us what they know/suspect.
Darcy wrote: "Well, part of the non-media speculation has a lot to do with Malala Yousafzai being given honourary citizenship here tonight. But, until it's over, when the Prime Minister and police services tell ..."I saw that and realised that was probably the reason for the terrorism speculation.
Mark wrote: "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/world-..."good grief. They really are going into overdrive.
I believe the media has been waiting with wetted lips for an event like this to happen in the Western world.
As a Canadian, it's been horrific watching the situation unfold for the past 9 hours... The Canadian parliament is a place that's accessible and open to the public-- quite different from the White House. It really felt like an attack on the welcoming nature of parliament hill. My thoughts are with those affected.Thankfully the news reporting here has been very professional, void of wild speculations. The interesting thing is that the name of shooter was released by American media before Canadian media... Not sure what to make of that.
I think the reason that The White House is so different is because it is the principal residence for the President of that country. Needs a big fence around it to protect him and his family and staff.In my country the Parliament is open and welcoming too. I think most Commonwealth heads of state are housed away form their principal place of work.
This situation could be replicated in any of our countries. A gunman/s could walk into our memorial places too and do this.
It is sobering.
As Margaret pointed out. Lee Rigby was beheaded on the streets of London last year. These kinds of hate crimes are frightening and difficult to comprehend.
Didn't Canada have a gunman situation like this earlier this year? Or late last year? Not a religious thing, but a gunman on the loose.
We actually have gunmen on the loose more often than many might think. Same here, our Prime Minister does live at a separate location from the Houses of Parliament, at 24 Sussex.
Speaking of which, he called the gunman that was killed a terrorist and linked it to a murder of another soldier earlier in the week and Canada's participation in the air-strikes against ISIS/ISIL. So there we have it.
Yes, there we have it. Something for all our countries to worry about.As Australia has been heavily involved in air strikes on IS we are being threatened left right and centre by extremists. Our only saving grace may be our isolation. Hard to get into our country unless you fly in and you need a passport for that. Which gets you on our radar.
On a lighter note. I think the Atlanta Falcons need to go back to school and learn some geography..http://www.news.com.au/sport/breaking...
Not just the Falcons. I showed my husband that article and he didn't understand what I thought was so funny about. Oh dear.
Terri wrote: "On a lighter note. I think the Atlanta Falcons need to go back to school and learn some geography..http://www.news.com.au/sport/breaking......"
It's like there's no such thing as Google maps, which may not get it right from doorstep to doorstep, but does get cities pretty much right.
Maybe the person who drew that map was the same one that did the one for Apple and their new Iphone pre-sale promotion in Canada.
I think it is only a matter of time before something like that happens here! I really do. My heart goes out to the family of the soldier, who was just doing his job. It's a cowardly act.
Lisa wrote: "I think it is only a matter of time before something like that happens here! I really do. My heart goes out to the family of the soldier, who was just doing his job. It's a cowardly act."Amen!
I think that soldier was guarding what is the equivalent in the U.S. of the Unknown Soldier. What a senseless, cowardly act. Please eliminate this filth...someone, somewhere!!
Terri wrote: "On a lighter note. I think the Atlanta Falcons need to go back to school and learn some geography..
http://www.news.com.au/sport/breaking......"
LOL! Yes they do....they are Falcons after all
http://www.news.com.au/sport/breaking......"
LOL! Yes they do....they are Falcons after all
Gretchen wrote: "Not just the Falcons. I showed my husband that article and he didn't understand what I thought was so funny about. Oh dear."Oh my. :] On the upside. I guess your hubby now knows London isn't it Spain. There's a positive to come out of it. Mr Gretchen has polished up on his geography.
How awful. Of the nearly 2000 books I have on GR I have just realised that I have only read approximately 600. I know I added a lot from my personal library that I read ages ago and don't remember enough to mark as read and rate. I think there would only be 50 of them though.
How will I ever get within range of mount tbr?? I can't even get out of base camp!!
Terri wrote: "How awful. Of the nearly 2000 books I have on GR I have just realised that I have only read approximately 600. I know I added a lot from my personal library that I read ages ago and don't remember..."
Welcome to the reality of the uber-reader :P
I don't understand why the Canadians take their passports. Better to have them over in Syria than in Canada.
Terri wrote: "How awful. Of the nearly 2000 books I have on GR I have just realised that I have only read approximately 600. I know I added a lot from my personal library that I read ages ago and don't remember..."
Story of our lives, sistah!!
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Mr. Gretchen, haha!!
Terri wrote: "How awful. Of the nearly 2000 books I have on GR I have just realised that I have only read approximately 600. I know I added a lot from my personal library that I read ages ago and don't remember..."
Hey thats not toooo sad, tis only about 3:1 ratio, same as me so we'll stick together eh?
What about that Mark fellah..... about 10000 to reads init? Mark? ;D
I go through the list periodically and weed out titles I'm no longer interested in. Maybe they were added merely on impulse in the first place...
I do the same Jane.Though, to be honest, the ones that get weeded do tend to be ones I've entered giveaways for.
I usually don't add a book to my TBR unless I am 100% certain I can access a copy.
Some I own, some are library reservations, others are on my Book Depository wishlist.
Andy wrote: "Terri wrote: "How awful. Of the nearly 2000 books I have on GR I have just realised that I have only read approximately 600. I know I added a lot from my personal library that I read ages ago and ..."
7786, to be precise and read 2444+ as I keep finding books I read years ago.
Theres never a phantom raspberry blower of old London town when you need one. ;)
I weed out titles quite often but that never seems to help, I just add more!! I've only got 997 books on my TBR. I usually don't start to feel out of control until it goes over 1000 so I've still got 3 books before it starts to bug me!! :)
Mark wrote: "Andy wrote: "Terri wrote: "How awful. Of the nearly 2000 books I have on GR I have just realised that I have only read approximately 600. I know I added a lot from my personal library that I read ..."
Buawahahahahahahahahaha.
Oh God! That Two Ronnies serial was priceless. :D
I loved The Worm that Turned.Diana Dors was hilarious. :D
And the Charley Farley and Piggy Malone serials were hysterical as well.
Mark wrote: "Yep, mind the worm that turned was another good one. Lols"classic Brit comedy for a Saturday night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwaEP...
& same to you ;D
Andy wrote: "Mark wrote: "Yep, mind the worm that turned was another good one. Lols"classic Brit comedy for a Saturday night
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OwaEP...
& same to you ;D"
lols.
Matt wrote: "I don't understand why the Canadians take their passports. Better to have them over in Syria than in Canada."Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. :) In Syria they lose them. Keep them in your country and you can monitor everything they do and say.
I don't feel so bad about my huge tbr today. Something Dawn said reminded me of something. I do the group read polls! I am constantly adding books to my tbr for that reason. They aren't books I will necessarily read. A large portion of them are books that I need in my hist fic pile so I can go through it for inspiration on the months that I am stumped for poll books.
Ahh. *relaxes* mount tbr not so scary now.
Halleluyah. A little rearranging of the wifi router and suddenly I have full wi fi in the office. I've had poor wifi in the office since I got wifi put on a few years back.
Wifi drop outs are probably THE most annoying thing about the 21st century!
As are expensive laptops with weak wifi adapters in them. You pay all that money, the least they could do is add in a decent wifi adaptor.
Or maybe they are too worried about giving us cancer to add strong wifi to laptops. :]
Terri wrote: "Matt wrote: "I don't understand why the Canadians take their passports. Better to have them over in Syria than in Canada."Keep your friends close and your enemies closer. :) In Syria they lose t..."
Yeah but it backfires when they kill your own citizens.
Margaret wrote: "I do the same Jane.Though, to be honest, the ones that get weeded do tend to be ones I've entered giveaways for.
I usually don't add a book to my TBR unless I am 100% certain I can access a copy..."
Sometimes I'll put a kindle-only book on, hoping someday it'll come out in paperback. [If it is eventually issued in paperback, I'd hope they'd clean up the typos and proofing mistakes.]
Terri wrote: "Halleluyah. A little rearranging of the wifi router and suddenly I have full wi fi in the office. I've had poor wifi in the office since I got wifi put on a few years back...."
Sorry to hear you were having issues. There are free utilities that let you track wifi signals better. I've found several common problems. Cheap routers are one of the biggest causes. They save money with one cheap chip that does all the work. Mine would work fine until the kids came over. One more connection & everyone would crawl.
Everything seems to use 2.4ghz; phones, wireless keyboards/mice, printers, & more. Signal interference is awful. Big monitors & TVs can block the signal, too. Blue Tooth is very close to the same frequency & can cause problems. Switching to another channel can help, but there are so many devices & many crap all over the spectrum. I finally put in 5ghz wireless in some places & it works much better. Older laptops that don't support it can use a tiny USB fob that works great. It does eat a port, but they're so small you don't have to remove them when putting the laptop in a bag, usually.
Crappy antennas in the router itself. I like external antennas. Moving them can make a huge difference. Older laptops often have their antennas fail or get weak due to the wire that runs from the base of the laptop to the antenna which often runs around the screen, too.
It's a mess. Good luck!
Last night was Symphony night - the guest conductor and soloist was Alexandar Solzhenitsyn's son Ignat. He really was quite good in both roles. It was interesting to watch him conduct the symphony from behind the piano. (He performed Mozart's 18th Piano Concerto).
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It clearly looks like it is religion driven, (based on the image of the shooter showing over here) but it may not be terrorism. Could be just copycat hate crime. Some loose canons doing their own thing in the name of Islam.
We had a bunch of arrests over here a few weeks back. They busted open a terrorism organisation here that had been under the direction from IS in the Middle East. They were only days away from grabbing an innocent off the street in Sydney and Brisbane and beheading them in public while filming it for you tube.
These crimes were definitely going to be acts of terrorism, as opposed to a few zealots getting together for a killing spree and terrorising.