Big news from the nation’s much-loved weather predictors this week with the Bureau of Meteorology (BoM), announcing it’s booked a ticket on an outer space adventure to send a string of weather-watching satellites into orbit to collect weather-wise data that promises to upgrade the art of weather forecasting like never before.
Hurtled into the atmosphere on a rocket out of America last week, the new system wouldn’t be complete without a suitably Dr Who abbreviation, and the already explosively acronymed BoM has certainly obliged.
The state of the art new system has been titled the ‘Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate’, otherwise shortened to the oh-so-appropriate COSMIC for short.
That is one abbreviation that is clearly out of this world!
Tax attack
Revisiting the outbreak of cleverness revealed by the Australian Taxation Office now when it reported last week that a chef had ‘cooked’ her taxation returns with the ATO showing that its unexpected foray into funniness wasn’t just a one-off payday.
Announcing a crackdown on taxpayers claiming returns on work-related car expenses this week, the Office pulled out another wisecrack of wisdom to make sure its message was getting across.
“ATO puts the brakes on dodgy car claims” it declared, effectively saying it all.
Such fun and games almost make paying taxes a pleasure!
Lost activities found
Fun response to our call for ‘lost activities’ last week, prompted by our musing that there must have been a pastime of ‘passenging’ in the dim dark past to account for the inclusion of the word ‘passenger’ in our living language.
Do people still ‘passenge’ we asked?
First to respond was Peter M of the federal Department of Human Services who found a similar conundrum in the literary exchange between two booklovers.
“So, do you enjoy Kipling?”, Peter quoted one inquisitive booklover asking another.
“I don’t know,” was the reply.
“I’ve never Kipled!”
Spot on, Peter. Well worth the fabulous PS-sssst! Pack (Book, pen and T-shirt prizes) on its way to you soon.
And not to be outdone, tha anonymous DD of Tasmania raised more questions that she or he answered.
“Why isn’t an acrobat and acrobatter?” DD queried.
“Does a badger badge? Does a barrister barrist and a bounder bound?
“And who’s ever seen a character charact?”
All worth questioning D, and well worth asking.
Still time for more contributions, just send your thoughts to [email protected] and you too could become a PS-sssst! Packer, or not, like the anonymous DD.
Rieu reminder
A reminder now that Rama Gaind’s regular giveaway is half-way through a giveaway to give away all giveaways with the national offer of exclusive free tickets to the upcoming theatre screening of Dutch maestro André Rieu’s 2019 Maastricht Concert Shall we Dance? being shown nationally across the country on 27 and 28 July.
The redoubtable Rama has secured free double tickets for lucky readers of each of PS News’s nine editions – National, NSW, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia, Western Australia, Tasmania, ACT and the Northern Territory – with the invitation to play included in her PS News review of the Rieu spectacular right here.
There’s still time to join in the competition, simply visit Rama’s Rieu Review at this PS New link and try your luck. It’s free, fun and you have to be in it to win it – wherever you are!
Good luck.
Boarding glory
And finally, another month goes by which means another parade of virgin subscribers have joined the growing PS News family keen to keep up to date on what’s happening in Public Services all around Australia, and it’s our pleasure to deliver it to them.
This June just gone saw us welcome 912 new subscribers to the PS News readership team, every one of whom can look forward to our personal attention in the months and years ahead.
As PS-sssst! has said more often than not, as long as you all keep reading PS News we’ll keep bringing it to you for free, and after nearly 14 years of uninterrupted, acclaimed and dedicated service, we’re looking into a future that looks even better than the future we looked into in the past.
So to every new subscriber we say “Welcome Aboard”. Now let’s go somewhere!
Till next week…..
