A safety warning courtesy of the Australian Bureau of Statistics:

• 31 Australians have died since 1996 by watering their Christmas tree while the fairy lights were plugged in.
• 19 Australians  have died in the last 3 years by eating Christmas decorations they believed were  chocolate.
• Hospitals reported 4 broken arms last year after cracker pulling incidents.
• 101 Australians since 1997 have had to have broken parts of plastic toys pulled out of the soles of their feet.
• 18 Australians had serious burns in 1998 trying on a new jumper with a lit cigarette in their mouth.
• A massive 543 Australians were admitted to casualty in the last two years after opening bottles of beer with  their teeth or eye socket.
• 5 Australians were injured last year in accidents involving out of control slot cars.
• 3 Australians  die each year testing if a 9V battery works on their tongue.
• 142 Australians were injured in 1998 by not removing all the pins from new shirts.
• 58 Australians are injured each year by using sharp knives instead of screwdrivers and finally:
• 8 Australians cracked their skull in 1997 after falling asleep (passing out) while throwing up into the toilet.

If you’ve never seen this uniquely Australian phenomenon, watch the video and be amazed at what Mother Nature can create… Gives a whole new meaning to “Cloud Surfing”.

Australian Cloud Formations

5 Important Considerations When Comparing
Income Protection Insurance Quotes

If you’re looking at taking out your first income protection policy, there are 5 things to focus on whilst making your comparison:

#1 Are You Comparing Apples with Apples?
You’ll need to make sure that you’re comparing quotes for income protection policies with the same features. Make sure that you choose the same:

• Value type – whether Agreed or Indemnity Value
• Waiting Period – 14, 30, 60, 90, 180 or 365 days
• Benefit period – 2 years, 5 years, to age 65, or other options
• Included options – some policies include options in the base price that other policies ask you to add as an extra. For example, some companies offer superannuation guarantee contributions as part of the standard offering, for some you have to pay extra.

#2 Think About Your Entire Insurance Profile
Many companies offer a discount if you have three or more insurance policies with them. Grab a quote to determine your overall position if you were to switch your car and home insurance over to your new income insurance provider, and get the discount. This is usually around 10% – not to be sneezed at!

#3 Check the Difference Between Stepped and Level Premiums
If your potential policies offer both stepped and level premium payment options, make sure you get quotes for both. Level premiums offer much better value if you’ll keep your policy in the long term (usually 10-15 years or more); otherwise stepped premiums are better.

#4 Check How Much You’ll Pay in the Future
If your insurance is very cheap now, but will be exceptionally expensive as you age, it may not be the best overall value. Ask each company for quotes at the oldest age you expect to have your income protection insurance.

#5 Compare Retail with Superannuation-Based Policies
Many superannuation funds offer income protection insurance to members. You should compare both standard retail and super-based policies, as each can suit different circumstances.

While super-based policies generally offer a limited range of options, they can be cheaper for people who have existing health issues.

If you are looking for flexibility in your plan, or you are relatively young, healthy and a non-smoker, you might find the retail income protection offers better value.

In a recent edition of The Economist Magazine, Pankaj Ghemawat of IESE Business School in Spain points out that many indicators of global integration are surprisingly low. Only 2% of students are at universities outside their home countries and only 3% of people live outside their country of birth.

Only 7% of rice is traded across borders. Only 7% of directors of S&P 500 companies are foreigners—and, according to a study a few years ago, less than 1% of all American companies have any foreign operations.

Exports are equivalent to only 20% of global GDP. Some of the most vital arteries of globalisation are badly clogged: air travel is restricted by bilateral treaties and ocean shipping is dominated by cartels.

So what are your thoughts about the world being flat and accessible to all?

Is it just globaloney?

I had the pleasure of spending a few days in the Barossa Valley and came across this sign at the Whistler Vineyard. Priceless Aussie Slang!

Bloody Big Dam Walk - Tell it like it is!

The reason we were there is because they have a Kangaroo sanctuary where young orphans are brought and cared for. Our favorite was “Buttons”…

Buttons - The orphaned Kangaroo at the Whistler Vineyard sanctuary

Petrol prices got you down? Maybe this gauge would be more appropriate! I don’t think it’ll make you feel better, but at least it’s more accurate!

This is a photographer shared with me, Max Ucherek of Sydney….

“I always tell the story that I’m only really working as a photographer when I’m pressing the shutter button, all the rest is idle or down time. The exposure time normally only lasts 1/250 sec and if I take 1000 photos at a typical wedding I’m really only doing 4 seconds of work. The rest of the time I’m just having a chat or waiting for the next photo opportunity. Charging $2000 for a normal day:  $2000 / 4 seconds works out at $1.8 million per hour. I’m cheap at half that rate.”

“If I use an exposure setting of 1/1000 of a second I’ve just quadrupled productivity or my $ rate but I don’t want customers to think that they are not getting their money’s worth of my time.”

The Internet is full of spam – most of it useless ads for viagra and other sexual dysfunctions. But some spam is junk mail people with nothing better to do than sending it to all their so-called ‘friends’…

Then there is the pearl that rises above it all – the gem that shines bright as something different, unique and special.

Today’s blog post is one such gem – a collection of the best photos from National Geographic for 2010. It was sent to me by Toni Fitzgerald of Purpose Marketing in Sydney.

I posted them on my iWeb Antimimeticisomorphism site that you can access by clicking the hyperlink.

Once there, click on Cool Photos and scroll to the bottom, where you’ll find the album of the photos.

So that’s today’s quick lesson – collect content from ALL sources. Pay it forward by giving your sources valuable link juice and entertain your readers all at the same time.

It’s a win-win-win proposition!

Australia needs more engineers and nurses. If you have engineering or nursing skills, you’ll want to click on these hyperlinks to find out more.

We all need to do our share of keeping this beautiful country clean. Clean Up Australia Day is a great initiative that you should seriously consider participating in.

T other
E veryone
A chieves
M ore

We have received a number of requests for help and information at this time of recovery and repair from the terrible flooding events in Queensland and Victoria.

Here is some good advice from the Kroll Ontrack Data Recovery experts.

1. Do not attempt to power up equipment damaged by water. If water has infiltrated the hard drive or electrical components, electrical power can leave the hard drive unrecoverable and it can become dangerous to anyone handling the hard drive.
2. Do Not Dry the Hard Drive. Whenever media is damaged by water, the first instinct to remedy the situation and try and dry it out. However, the contaminants contained in water are often not visible to the human eye and will damage the media irrevocably. Residue left on the hard drive platters and circuit board corrosion will need to be treated by in-lab professional engineers.
3. Keep the hard disk wet until you get professional help. Although it sounds paradoxical [crazy], keeping a hard drive wet aids the data recovery. Kroll Ontrack recommends placing the hard disk in a sealed container or plastic bag to prevent it drying out until professional engineers can dry the platters and other components in a sterile environment.
4. Never assume that data is unrecoverable. No matter what it has been through data can sometimes still be recovered. Amongst the most remarkable case histories is NASA’s Space Shuttle Columbia hard drive which plunged into a lake after travelling for 39 miles through space. Kroll Ontrack engineers managed to recover 99 per cent of the information stored on the drive.

Special Data Recovery Service Option

Kroll Ontrack is also providing a heavily discounted flat fee of $850 per hard drive for desktop, laptop, notebook and external hard drive recoveries. [The usual price for this service can range up to $2,400 per drive.]In addition, Kroll Ontrack is offering a 20% discount on recovery of servers, Storage Area Networks (SANs), VMware and tape media.

Kroll Ontrack Australia – Business As Usual

We were lucky our data recovery cleanroom is in West End, Brisbane and whilst the water came very close we were unaffected by the floods. We are the only data recovery company in Australia to offer a full suite of recovery solutions, enabling data recovery anywhere, anytime for any operating system, storage or media type and cause of data loss.

Every once in a while I come across information like this that makes you stop and wonder…  Your mobile phone can actually be a life saver or an emergency tool for survival.
Check out the 5 things I bet you didn’t know you can do with your mobile phone

Mobile Phone Tip #1

The Emergency Number worldwide for  Mobile  is 112.

If you find yourself out of the coverage area of your mobile; network and there is an emergency, dial 112and the mobile will search any existing network to establish the emergency number for you, and interestingly this number 11 2can be dialled even if the keypad is locked. Try it out. Read More »»

This year’s Australia Day can be extra special if you give generously to the Queensland Flood Victims via the following organisations.

Ray Keefe of Successful Endeavours of Melbourne sent me the link to the Queensland Government Flood Relief effort.

Brendan Rigby of Inspire Fitness also of Melbourne suggests the Australian Red Cross.

Without wanting to sound alarmist, it’s a good idea to take water and mud samples and keep them for future testing – just in case a health issue arises in the future. With the widespread area of the flooding, you just don’t know what’s in the water or mud.

Better safe than sorry. At least with a sample you’ll have much needed proof to make a claim or more information to treat the condition.

Within the next few days and weeks you will probably start receiving emails from unscrupulous Internet Marketers promising to donate proceeds of the sale of their products to Queensland flood victims. Without meaning to sound too cynical and jaded, be wary of their intentions – in my view they are inauthentic and opportunistic (to say the least).

I know they claim they will donate the money, but seriously, how will you ever know it’s been done?

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t support and contribute – just make sure the organisation is reputable and trustworthy or even better – donate directly to someone you know that needs the help.

You could physically go and help them dig, clean, paint, re-build. Ofter to pay for some of the supplies… Then you KNOW the money is put to good use. If you can’t make it, send a son, daughter, cousin, friend, or someone who’s in-between jobs. Pay for their flight, accommodation, etc. If you’re a trades person, offer your services – maybe even send some staff to the region affected.

Be creative, be generous.

If you know any worthy and reputable organisations or fund raising projects that deserve more publicity, please place a comment on this blog and we’ll make sure to let everyone know about them.

The flooding in Queensland is devastating, especially now that it’s hit Brisbane.

If you’re based in Queensland, we hope you’re on high ground, safe and dry.

We came across this photo that had a sense of irony about it… We thought we’d share it.

I recently traveled on a Virgin Blue flight and one of the articles stood out. We might think that recycling is simple when it’s not that that black and white. Click on the hyperlink to read about whether or not you’re as green as you’d like to think you are!

While I have you here – whenever you come across something valuable or interesting make a note of it and make sure you blog about it. In this case the CONTENT is valuable, but also the delivery mechanism – the ONLINE MAGAZINE is great don’t you think? Easy to navigate, it almost feels like reading the actual magazine… I can’t wait to read it on my new iPad!

Fire Prevention Tip

This photo was taken at the scene of a house fire that occurred recently. I am not sure of the source of the original message.

 It seems their house burnt down.. nothing left but ashes. They had good insurance so the house will be replaced and most of the contents. That’s the good news.

However, they were sick to their stomachs when they found out the cause of the fire. The insurance investigator sifted through the ashes for several hours. He traced the cause of the fire to the master bathroom. He asked the owners if they had plugged anything in the bathroom. They listed the normal things… curling iron, blow dryer.

The investigator kept saying, ‘No, this would be something that would disintegrate at high temperatures’. Then they remembered they had a Scented Plug-In, in the bathroom.

There have been more house fires started with the plug-in type room fresheners than anything else. The plastic they are made from is THIN. In most cases there is nothing left to prove that it even existed. In this case, when the investigator looked IN the wall plug, the two prongs left from the plug-in were still in there.

The owners of the house mentioned they had one of the plug-ins with a small night light built in it. They had noticed that the light would dim and then go out. They would walk in to the bathroom a few hours later and the light would be back on again.

The investigator said that the unit was getting too hot and would dim and go out rather than just blow the light bulb. Once it cooled down, it would come back on. That’s a warning sign


, but you know what? I’d just avoid the risk altogether and not use a plug-in air freshener!

Last month, an important a world survey was conducted by the UN. The only question asked was:
“Would you please give your honest opinion about solutions to the food shortage in the rest of the world?”

The U.N. Survey was a HUGE failure because of the following: Read More »»