[LINK] Roadshow loses King appeal and Dodgy Metaphors

[TKoltai]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au 
> [mailto:link-bounces at mailman.anu.edu.au] On Behalf Of Stephen Wilson
> Sent: Saturday, 21 April 2012 9:07 AM
> To: link
> Subject: Re: [LINK] Roadshow loses appeal
> 
> 
> On 20/04/2012 10:07 PM, TKoltai wrote:
> >  Shooting the messenger has been frowned upon since Greek times.
> >
> >  Failing to adhere to this very logical basic tenant of 
> communications  
> > tends to open the doors re responsibility of other carriers, e.g.:  
> > water mains ...
> 
> If a water company knows that people are contaminating the water by 
> getting into the pipes, and if the company could do more to 
> secure their 
> pipes but did not, then they could be held to be liable.  And if the 
> water company's revenue was bolstered by the contamination 
> (in much the 
> same way that, so I'm told, 50% of iiNet traffic was file 
> shares) then 
> their inaction could be shown to be self-interested.
> 

WOW.. People getting into the pipes ... I don't see that quite
happening, but I'll try and get close to it. Although for obvious
national security reasons this is not really an example we could or
should discuss in detail, however; 

In 1995, a Fox/Dingo* that had taken a poison bait crawled into a tunnel
that contained cool running water and waited to die.

When it did, it poisoned the Sydney Water supply for nine weeks before
it's decaying gastroenteritis causing remains were discovered and
removed.

The resulting thousands of lost man days, tourism dollars, and deaths
from this one fox/dingo were never ever charged against the operators of
the [censored] water catchment area yet they fenced and capped
kilometres of open channel and tunnel entrances to prevent a recurrence.

There was not one single lawsuit from Medicare or in fact any
corporation against Sydney Water for what must have amounted to millions
of dollars of GP consulting fees and the remedial prescribed drugs.

Today, our dams, water catchment areas and even pipes are under constant
bombardment from flying gastro carrying Fauna and even certain types of
Flora. Some of the older pipes are made of lead, some of the pipes have
root encroachment with toxic groundwater seepage.

There is no way that Sydney Water can protect every delivery point
against all of these potential threats. So many of the public have
turned to bottled water, or installing home water filter systems and
individual problems are fixed by a number of stakeholders when
discovered.

The case against iiNet is akin to attempting to use the courts to
prevent fruit bats from defecating whilst overflying catchment areas.
PR value in justifying lobbyists existence and single-minded dedication
thereby validating renewal of tenure for next year?  High, 
Actual effectiveness in reducing crap levels in water, nil.

My argument was on behalf of every flying fruit bat in NSW... The
freedom to do ones business anywhere without a Park Ranger running
around underneath each fruit bat with a large bucket is a God given
right and should remain so.

> I'm not taking sides on the iiNet case, I really don't know 
> much about 
> it, but my Dodgy Metaphor Detector went off on Tom's comparison.  I'm 
> sure the iiNet defence was more subtle than the slogan "dont 
> shoot the 
> messenger" even if it is ancient.

Dodgy ? Ahhh, a synonym for smelly, fishy, crappy... As in the waste
output of a Flying fox. Got-it.

Thanks for the heads-up.

* [Fox/Dingo, the result was reported by some news sources as a Dingo,
and by others as a Fox.]

TomK