Lest it should be thought that the 'time dilation phenomenon' differentially affecting post recency flagging is only of the order of 15 to 20 minutes in advance of real OLO time, I should refer to a post I made when I first noticed this problem. See: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=6276#91981 . There is another post of mine a little further up that thread for anyone who is interested in a comment more pertinent to the article. See: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=6276#91345 . I was on that thread for a reason.

The time dilation on the post to the "Rupert was right to worry" article thread was of the order of at least 50 minutes, as opposed to the 18-20 minutes observed on the topic "if there were no secrets ..." just yesterday.

Could some sort of jealousy of bloggerdom on the part of, well, other more established media, or media corporate entities, be motive sufficient to attempt computer cracks of a site like OLO? I wonder what Tim Dunlop would think?

Or could it be unidentified Fat Controllers attempting to fast track political expresses around the figurative political rail network just practising their skills? Better tread softly, warily! Better that than to Die Bold, as in the second poster, by exploiting imagery. See: http://homepage.mac.com/rcareaga/diebold/adworks.htm

BTW, it looks like the fourth post on the "if there were no secrets ..." topic might have been a bit of a barbecue stopper. That would be a pity. What do you think viewers? Here's the link: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?discussion=973#17104

I must make a mental note on a piece of paper to compile a cattledog of barbecue stoppers.

Speaking of barbecue stoppers, I wonder whether this post will turn out to be one? See: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=6284#92471 . No, I can't see it. Its not like these two:
http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=6306#92286

Back to paranoia. Tick, tick, tick, ..... .

Forrest
Sorry I didnt see you post. Look I think the main thing is clear we both agree to a fair go for all.
I left a message for a new poster to let her know the tag on her thread- Live Exports from tassi was not working.
I suggested she let OLO know.
I am pretty sure its working now. I suppose with such a big sytstem things are bound to go wrong from time to time so we we should not jump to any conclusions.
I did see something a few minutes ago and must go back and look.
it was just before I thought to pop down and see how you were going with your thread.
I thought I saw an new thread open on hicks.
I went in and here was a comment I had made ages ago.
Maybe I am suffering from lack of sleep.
I will go back and look again and let you know.
I would like to also add I have read many of your comments and although we may not agree on some issues I by now way hold that against you.
Your comments are also often agreed with on several issues.
Probably more than not

Dear, dear. The clock on this thread was out again on Tue 4 Sep 2007. Time dilating all over the place. The 13th post in the thread was timestamped "Posted by Forrest Gumpp, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 7:59:17 AM". A screenshot taken at 0938 that morning on my computer shows the posting recency flag standing at "2 hours ago". The red flag being taken down at least 20 minutes early.

The same sort of thing was happening in the article discussion area. The 8th post to "Canning Federalism-the Liberals' legacy?" was timestamped "Posted by Forrest Gumpp, Tuesday, 4 September 2007 9:25:47 AM". A screenshot taken at 1101 of a newly refreshed page shows the posting recency flag standing at "2 hours ago", the red flag having come down around at least 25 minutes early.

BTW, it looks like the 7th and 8th posts to "Canning Federalism-the Liberals' legacy?" were barbecue stoppers, after all. See: http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=6284#92471 . Last post was two days ago! Sorry, Klaas. I wonder if Justice Kirby has looked at them yet?

As a matter of interest, an article was published in yesterday's "The Australian" newspaper in the Higher Education section under the headline "I am the one who has been humiliated" by Michael Noonan. See: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/highereducation . It deals with an academic dispute over Michael Noonan's PhD thesis "Laughing at the Disabled".

(This has also been a long-running OLO discussion. See: Philistines of relativism at the gates : Comments http://forum.onlineopinion.com.au/thread.asp?article=5730 , if you are into that sort of thing.)

The article reminded me of something that nearly happened in 2004, something very relevant as a footnote to the current article discussion "The States are Redundant", see: http://www.onlineopinion.com.au/view.asp?article=6297

So I'll just use this thread as a little OLO blog to tell this story while I wait for other instances of time dilation affecting the red posting recency flags.

The States of the Nation: A Parable for Our Time - Part 1.

There once lived a man in the land of Oz whos name was Joh.

Indeed, Joh still lived and breathed during the run-up to the Federal elections of 2004. But Joh was old and full of years, having long passed his threescore years and ten. He was not senile, as many of the Public Purveyors of Lies had for many years past tried to make out that he was. But he was sick, and near to death. Joh had Parkinson's.

It had come to pass that at around the same time as the 2004 Federal elections approached, and on the little rectangular boxes widely used by the Public Purveyors of Lies to inform the populace of things that were deemed to be 'news', there was lots of time for additional moving pictures called 'ads'. And Parkinson's NSW ran some ads at this time featuring actual sufferers from the disease making fun of themselves and their disabilities. The idea was that the ads would help raise money for the Foundation. Some thought them in bad taste, but they worked!

Now rumour has it that at this time there was a plan that Joh would help Parkinson's NSW get lots of free publicity. Joh, having been a very public man for the greater part of his long life, although he had a different State of origin to NSW, had a very high profile, even on the little rectangular boxes where lies were constantly told about him. Indeed, he had helped many throughout the community through those very boxes, just with his frequent exhortations not to worry about this, or that. He could get publicity, all right, and he knew exactly how.

For some time past, Joh, along with many other Australians, had been very concerned to see Malcolm Turnbull, who not so long before had led the charge to turn Australia into a republic (thereby, effectively, destroying the States), branch-stack his way to becoming the endorsed Liberal Party candidate for the Division of Wentworth.

TBC

The States of the Nation: A Parable for Our Time - Part 2

Joh, as was well known, was a man of faith. There had indeed been a moving image of him conveyed over the little rectangular boxes not long before, in which, sitting in his wheelchair, he had observed that he was "at the end of this life, at the edge of the life to come." He was looking death in the face, and not blinking.

The rumour has it that it was suggested to Joh by a certain discomforter that there was nothing in the law standing in the way of his nominating in the Division of Wentworth when the elections were called, notwithstanding his age and condition.

Indeed, Joh's perceivable proximity to his end was the very thing that would have focussed public attention upon an otherwise foregone conclusion of a 'contest' in the Division of Wentworth. Parkinson's NSW would sure get some publicity, not that Joh's candidacy would have been taken as a joke. You see, had Joh nominated, and then fallen off the perch, so to speak, between the close of nominations and polling day, Malcolm Turnbull's whole intended shoo-in entry to the Federal Parliament would have been in tatters.

Joh's quite foreseeable death in those circumstances would have brought into action the provisions of Sections 180 and 181 of the Commonwealth Electoral Act. Under the provisions of Section 180, with Joh's death, the election in the Division of Wentworth would have been deemed to have totally failed. The Governor-General would have been required, under the provisions of Section 181, to issue a writ for a supplementary election.

One of the implications of the holding of a supplementary election would have been that the electoral clock would have had to be started all over again in the Division of Wentworth. From Malcolm Turnbull's point of view this would have been a profound embuggerence. Just for starters, the whole matter of Liberal Party endorsement would have to have been revisited.

Parkinson's NSW would have been laughing!

TBC

The States of the Nation: A Parable for Our Time - Part 3

Given that Joh would always have been one for going out with his boots on, one has to wonder why this Parkinson's NSW publicity stunt did not actually transpire. It would almost certainly have been a great temptation to Joh, as a bloke who had turned his back on his superannuation entitlements when he retired from active public life, and subsequently faced down trumped up perjury charges intended to blacken his name to those that remembered him.

It may well have been that, true to form, Joh refused to deliberately commit a public mischief. For Joh's discomfitors had come to the knowledge of vast unforeseen electoral consequences should Joh have received his call-up between the close of nominations and polling day here in Oz, in the context of contesting the election in the Division of Wentworth.

As already mentioned, Section 181 of the CEA required that the Governor-General, in circumstances of such death of a candidate, issue a supplementary writ forthwith. Sub-section 2 of Section 154 of the CEA is absolutely and unequivocally specific that only eight writs shall be issued with respect to elections to the House of Representatives at any general elections.

This latter provision had been introduced in amendments made to the CEA in 1990, amendments sought by the Australian Electoral Commission itself, to which the Parliament subsequently agreed.

The AEC had sought these amendments after the DROs had threatened to refuse to certify the rolls which were to constitute the certified lists upon which the 1987 Federal elections were to have been conducted, rolls over the preparation of which the DROs had had no control. The Central Office of the AEC had, prior to these elections, usurped the function of roll keeping from the statutorily appointed officers, the DROs, by adopting a legislatively unsanctioned form of centralized roll-keeping.

Prior to 1990, the Governor-General, on the occasions of general elections, had issued a writ in respect of each electoral Division to that Division's DRO.

TBC