Clancy . . . overflow . . . the best bits . . . funnies
Half the 150 Kiwi firms questioned in an international annual survey said a lack of skilled workers was their biggest barrier to expansion. With Russians it was 48 per cent and 45 per cent of Australian businesses said they were struggling to get enough skilled labour.
The New Zealand experience makes sense when it is correlated to the fact that at 3.6 per cent, the Kiwis have the lowest unemployment rate in the OECD.
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There’s no shortage of skilled volunteers to populate the board of management of PrintEx07, the Sydney booth-style trade show. Conceived by the Graphic Arts Merchants Association of Australia (GAMAA) as a sort of younger sibling to PacPrint in Melbourne, PrintEx07 will be the third outing since the inaugural show in 1999. Stepping forward to take their places on the board are
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Necessity is the mother of invention and local photography and media company, F8, found it needed a way of tracking its print jobs online and to create adverts easily. It developed Adtracker and after a year has decided to go public with its system. If you want to check it out for yourself go here: www.adtracker.com.au
Username = admin
Password = Test
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Temporary hiatus is how the mothballing of one of MAN Roland’s manufacturing plants is described. The German press manufacturer’s Geisenheim plant is being closed – or put into temporary hiatus – even as the company pursues labour negotiations at its Mainhausen facility with the aim of reducing production costs and improving productivity. The two threatened production facilities operate as satellites around the main MAN Roland Offenbach sheetfed plant.
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Xerox continues to lay claim to be a leading light in the printing industry with market share, throughput and revenue. In recent years it has rivaled the traditional German offset press manufacturers in profile at major exhibitions. At our own PacPrint in Melbourne Fuji Xerox is one of the largest exhibitors, while its sister company, Xerox, has announced that it has boosted its floor space at Ipex 2006 in the UK by almost 50 per cent.
And it seems only yesterday they were being sidelined as copier companies.
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And finally . . . the good Dave Allen passed away last week. Here’s one of his yarn’s, which works best if you imagine the man himself telling it, complete with glass of whisky, cigarette and knowing smile.
It seems there was an Irishman wanting to buy himself a horse. So he went to the open market, which is a place in Ireland where people sell things, among which are . . . horses. He saw one that he liked and asked the price. Paddy, who was selling the horse said to him, "Well, now, I'll be sellin' you this horse but I feel there's something I need to tell you first." The man wanted to know what that was. Paddy said, "Well, it seems he has a strange habit of wantin' to sit on bananas." Now, the man thought Paddy was crazy! "Sit on bananas?" "Yes," Paddy said. "Seems he likes to sit on bananas." Now the man thought about this and realizing there weren't all that many bananas in the whole of Ireland figured it was a good barging and he bought the horse.
As soon as he'd paid for the horse, he got on it and began to ride. Well, it was a good horse. It galloped across the market, it leaped over the hedges, it ran down the roads and jumped the fences and soon it began to approach a narrow stream. The man thought, "This is a grand horse. Surely it'll clear this small stream." When, all of a sudden, just as its hooves touched the water, it promptly came to halt and sat in the water!
The man went flying through the air and landed in a bush. He ripped his coat and put a nasty gash in his arm. But he pulled the horse up and got back on and galloped across the meadow, ran up the road, jumped the fences, leaped over the hedges and galloped across the market until he stopped it right by Paddy!
The man jumped off the horse and began to yell, "What sort of a stupid animal did you sell me?" "Well," began Paddy, "I told you she was a bit strange ... that she liked to sit on bananas, didn't I?" "WHAT?" shouted the man? "Bananas? I galloped her across the market, I leaped her over hedges, ran her up the road, jumped her over fences and when I came to a small stream she stopped dead in her tracks and sat in the water! I tore my coat and gashed my arm!" "Ooooh," began Paddy. "I forgot to tell you ... she also likes to sit on fishes ..."