Jimmy's weblog

Sydney Opera House and steps

Sydney Opera House tiles

Sydney Opera House tiles

Yachting on Sydney Harbour

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Sydney Harbour Bridge

Just a week or two after Brad McGee became the first Australian to have held the leaders’ jerseys in the three major tours, Michael Rogers has just become the first ever rider to win three elite time trial world championships. Even more impressively, Rogers has won his three titles in consecutive championships.

And my mate (am I allowed to call him that?) Pete feels like he’s Prime Minister of Australia.

When asked on the Nine Network’s Today program yesterday if he was ready to lead the country, Mr Costello said that, as Treasurer and deputy Liberal leader, “I feel in a sense that I do lead in this country”. “I have done 10 budgets, I have been responsible for the economy and people’s jobs and mortgage interest rates for the last nine years, so I feel in many respects I do.”

Unfortunately for both of us, there’s a big difference between feelings and reality.

Congratulations to Bradley McGee who claimed the overall lead of the Vuelta a España after finishing a close second to Italy’s Leonardo Bertagnolli on day two of the Spanish tour.

McGee becomes the first Australian ever to have worn the leader’s jersey from all three Grand Tour cycling events, adding the Spanish Jersey de Oro (Golden Jersey) to his wardrobe which already contains the French Maillot Jaune and the Italian Maglia Rosa.

Now admittedly supermodels aren’t the first people we turn to for intellectual consistency, but surely we can expect something less than complete hyprocrisy?

Another famous model, Megan Gale, also in Melbourne yesterday, defended the fashion industry, saying people should focus on their own bodies and not try to look like fashion models.

“I think that less focus should be put on the fashion industry in terms of the images that they portray,” she said. “Not just the fashion industry but film, singers … the entire entertainment industry is being blamed for it.”

Admire us, but no copying

Kama’s liposculpture goes ahead

Kama is an aspiring actress who believes that roles are not coming to her because she does not have the right image. She has tried to reduce her thighs through diet and exercise, but some stubborn areas of fat remain.

Holly comes down to size

Following last week’s assessment by Dr. Jeremy Hunt and her subsequent hairdressing transformation, Holly completes her makeover. Dr. Hunt removes her D-cup implants, before closing up this incision and making another for her new, above-the-muscle C-cup implants.

Continuing the stories started in the last episode of Body Work, this week Megan Gale follows our people who are in search of a brighter and better version of themselves

This week in Bodywork, featuring Megan Gale as presenter (previous stories include: Rowena’s Botox and Restylane, Steve’s phalloplasty, Lisa’s tummy tuck, Iona’s Botox & Restylane and much more…

A day or two after Apple celebrates selling its 500,000,000th song, it seems appropriate to ask why Australia is yet to ? According to the Bulletin Magazine, it’s Sony’s fault.

A head-butting exercise between two digital-age mastodons is blocking Australians from getting their own iTunes Music Store. The iTMS, which has sold close to half a billion songs since April 2003, is the only way the world’s 15 million iPod owners can legally buy downloadable music. The United States, European Union and Scandinavia all have an iTMS. Australia doesn’t, and the reason is because SonyBMG Music is holding out.

“There’s one reason why Sony is holding out,” says a prominent music industry pundit. And that’s because Sony’s also a hardware company and they want to push their own proprietary digital format.

So Sony is holding out because it’s trying to push its own ATRAC encoding format over Apple’s AAC? Just kidding.

Sony, according to industry sources, is holding out over price. Apple is also concerned about price, but for a different reason. Sony and all record companies exist to make a profit from their artists. Apple’s not interested in creating entertainment. The iTMS exists for one reason: to lock in and drive customers towards the iPod, which accounted for 31% of Apple’s revenue in the last financial quarter.

Despite the article claiming that there are two “only one reason(s) why Sony is holding out”, neither makes sense to me. Whether the delay is a dispute over encoding or pricing, why is Australia the only country affected by this? Perhaps there is a reason for Sony to negotiate harder here, but what is it?