Spoilers

Mountings for the RPO8s rear spoiler.

Semi conductor

A year ago, Hans Vonk conducted the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra in a production of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. During the final movement of Beethoven's Ninth, there is a large pause in the Orchestration where only the chorus sings.

Four bass players, feeling they could use this break to get out and stretch their legs, slipped off backstage and proceeded to go outside to smoke a cigarette and take a little nip from a bottle one of them was carrying.

Well, they lost track of time and became quite inebriated. Finally one of them says, "Say! We should really be getting back in... It's almost time to play our part."

"Don't worry," confided one of the other bassists with a wink. "I've fixed it so that we have a longer pause... I tied together the last parts of the conductor's score before our part begins!"

All the bass players had a good chuckle and took a few more swigs and headed in. Once they popped back on stage, they saw that conductor Vonk was absolutely furious. After all, it was the bottom of the Ninth, the basses were loaded, and the score was tied.

China takes steps to curb passion

BBC News:

China is changing the way it runs compulsory dance classes, introduced to tackle child obesity, because parents fear their children may fall in love. Sports officials say they will now encourage students to dance in large groups or by themselves.
Some parents had expressed fears that if boys and girls danced hand in hand they might fall in love and put their studies at risk. The lessons will start in September amid concerns over physical inactivity.
Obesity on rise
The Ministry of Education announced last month that seven dance steps, including the waltz, would begin in primary and middle schools. The State General Administration of Sports says changes had been agreed to calm fears of parents who hold traditional values. Administration official Yin Guochen told the Shanghai-based Oriental Morning Post: "The [children] don't have to dance with specific partners, which will be more easily accepted by both students and their parents.
"Four students will be grouped together to perform the waltz and they will change partners regularly as soon as one song finishes. This way, the risk of young love will be lowered." Chinese officials have expressed concern at growing obesity levels in children.
In a report last year, medical Professor Wu Yangfeng said that in the 15 years between 1985 and 2000, the number of overweight and obese children had increased 28-fold.
One-fifth of the world's overweight and obese people live in China and the numbers are rising dramatically.

Spoiler bracket

And what did the spacers mount on to ?

This is the factory mounting bracket, under the boot lid for a spoiler of an XA hardtop.

Skunks

A family of skunks was trapped in a thicket, surrounded by a pack of hungry wolves that were edging even closer. The Mother skunk calmly instructed her young: "Quickly children, let's put our heads together!" After they obeyed, forming a circle, she continued, "Now—Let us spray!"

Life

"When life kicks you, let it kick you forward." --Kay Yow, college basketball coach

Spoiler spacer

This is a genuine Ford spoiler spacer. Note the stamped Ford part number.

Walk a mile

Never criticize someone unless you walk a mile in his or her shoes, and then when you criticize them you'll be a mile away and have their shoes!

As Tall as You Want to Be

…..by Denis Waitley

When he was two years old, this adopted child of two college professors suddenly and inexplicably stopped growing, and his health started to fail.
A team of doctors gave him six months to live after they diagnosed him as suffering from a rare disease that inhibits digestion and nutrients in food. Intravenous feedings of vitamins and supplements allowed him to regain his strength, but his growth was permanently stunted.

Confined to hospitals for long periods of time, until the
age of nine, he quietly plotted his revenge on the kids who taunted him and called him "peanut." He recalled many years later that subconsciously "the whole experience made me want to succeed at something athletic." Sometimes his sister, Susan, went ice skating at the local rink, and he would go along to watch.

There he stood, a frail, undergrown kid, with a feeding tube inserted through his nose and down into his stomach. When he wasn't using it, one end of the tube was taped behind his ear. One day, as he watched his sister whirl around the ice, he turned to his parents and said, "You know, I think I'd like to try ice skating." Talk about two adults, looking at their life-threatened child, with glances that were beyond belief!

Well, he tried it and he loved it, and he went at it with a passion. Here was something fun at which he could excel, where height and weight weren't important. During his medical check-up the following year, the doctors
were startled to discover that he had actually started growing again. It was too late for him to reach normal size, but neither he nor his family cared. He was recovering and succeeding. He believed in his dream, although he had little else to hang on to.

None of the kids taunt him and tease him today. Instead,
they all cheer and rush to get his autograph. He has just completed another dazzling performance on the world professional ice skating tour, with a long string of triple jumps, complicated manoeuvres, and athletic moves, capped off with a racing front flip that brought him to a sudden stop inches from the audience.

Although he has retired from professional skating, he remains a coach, mentor and commentator revered by everyone in winter sports. At five feet three inches and 115 pounds of pure muscle and electrifying energy, former Olympic gold medal figure skating champion, Scott Hamilton stands as tall and as proud as any winner. Scott's size didn't limit his faith and reach. Don't let doubts and critics limit yours.

This doesn't mean that you'll close almost every sale or get promoted in record time. Scott Hamilton certainly didn't hit every triple-axle jump he ever attempted, especially during the initial learning phase. Success in developing any skill requires a basic trust in your ability that should never be allowed to waver. You can stand tall, no matter how small!

Spoiler bits

This is the factory rear spoiler as fitted to an XA GT RPO.

Notice that the spoilers sit on the bootlid on shaped aluminium spacers. The uprights for XA and XB’s are different from that of XY’s in that the boot lid is at more of a slope on the later cars, and far flatter on the earlier body shape Falcon.

Ever wonder?

- Why the sun lightens our hair, but darkens our skin?
-
- Why women can't put on mascara with their mouth closed?
-
- Why don't you ever see the headline "Psychic Wins Lottery"?
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- Why is "abbreviated" such a long word?
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- Why is it that doctors call what they do "practice"?
-
- Why is it that to stop Windows 98, you have to click on "Start"?
-
- Why is lemon juice made with artificial flavor, and dishwashing liquid
- made with real lemons?
-
- Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?
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- Why is the time of day with the slowest traffic called rush hour?
-
- Why isn't there mouse-flavored cat food?
-
- When dog food is new and improved tasting, who tests it?
-
- Why didn't Noah swat those two mosquitoes?
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- Why do they sterilize the needle for lethal injections?
-
- You know that indestructible black box that is used on airplanes? Why
- don't they make the whole plane out of that stuff?
-
- Why don't sheep shrink when it rains?
-
- Why are they called apartments when they are all stuck together?
-
- If con is the opposite of pro, is Congress the opposite of progress?
-
- If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?

Effort

"There is nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." Peter F. Drucker, writer, professor and consultant

Spoilers

XBs were similar in spoilers to the XAs.

Only in America

1. Only in America......can a pizza get to your house faster than an
ambulance.

2. Only in America......are there handicap parking places in front of a skating rink.
3. Only in America......do drugstores make the sick walk all the way to
the back of the store to get their prescriptions while healthy people
can buy cigarettes at the front.
4. Only in America......do people order double cheeseburgers, large
fries, and a diet coke.
5. Only in America......do banks leave both doors open and then chain
the pens to the counters.
6. Only in America......do we leave cars worth thousands of dollars in
thedriveway and put our useless junk in the garage.
7. Only in America......do we use answering machines to screen calls and
then have call waiting so we won't miss a call from someone we didn't
want to talk to in the first place.
8. Only in America......do we buy hot dogs in packages of ten and buns in
packages of eight.
9. Only in America......do we use the word 'politics' to describe the
process so well: 'Poli' in Latin meaning 'many' and 'tics' meaning
'bloodsucking creatures'.
10. Only in America......do they have drive-up ATM machines with Braille
lettering.

Failure vital for learning: teachers

The Australian: Justine Ferrari, Education writer

THE denial of failure in classrooms leads to lower expectations among teachers and reduces the intellectual challenge to students. In a submission to the Senate inquiry into academic standards of school education, the Council of Professional Teachers of Victoria argues that failure is part of the learning process, and claims it is missing in the 21st-century classroom.
The council defends teachers against charges that the profession is the cause of any perceived decline in standards, saying the constant change in curriculum and pedagogies compromises the quality of teaching. "Teach, from an early age, that some failure can be formative," the submission says. "Failure can help to develop resilience. Do not endorse inadequate effort. Encourage self-knowledge for the most effective teaching and learning strategies. This must be the very essence of community teaching."
The council is the peak body representing more than 40 professional teaching associations with more than 30,000 members in Victoria. After appearing before the Senate inquiry this week, the council's executive officer Olwyn Gray said students were being let down by the lack of intellectual challenge in their classrooms, and that the notion of intellectual risk was increasingly foreign to parents and students. Ms Gray said students had an expectation they would always succeed, which was not how the real world worked. "Life isn't a level playing field. I don't want to condemn children to an underclass of underachievers but they need to strive, to say I did well this time and this is the next hurdle," she said.
"If teachers work successfully with students who fail a particular task, you're helping these children develop resilience. "When a child fails, they go back and say, 'OK, I'll try another tack', and find they learn better a certain way. With a stronger degree of self-knowledge brought about by failure, you're not so depressed when you can't do something; you go back with resilience and it helps you take further intellectual risks."
Ms Gray said Australian students performed well on international assessments of competence in different subjects, but did less well in tests placing greater emphasis on rote learning, particularly compared with their counterparts in Asia. So many reforms were imposed on teachers, she said, and these were often viewed as being change for change's sake and left no time for teachers to contemplate and refine what they did: "Teachers are just reeling from it -- you get used to the vocabulary and methodology of one thing and then you're on to the next. People get cynical."
Ms Gray said her belief was that the problem started in teacher training courses, which were too theoretical, emphasising different theories of learning rather than providing a range of strategies for different students. "Teachers need to learn a variety of methods for a variety of students because students learn in different ways," she said. "Rote learning is one way -- you need to learn phonic combinations of letters and sounds that way, and the times tables. "But they're the basics, just building blocks."

Spoilers

The factory XA rear spoiler was now alloy, and the dealer fitted one was aluminium from Motorcraft. The front factory spoiler was plastic, and broke very easily, hence there aren’t many genuine front spoilers around.

Too much time on the computer

You know it is time to reassess your relationship with
your computer when....

1. You wake up at 4 O'clock in the morning to go to the bathroom and
stop to check your email on the way back to bed.

2. You turn off your computer and get an awful empty feeling, as if
you just pulled the plug on a loved one.

3. You decide to stay in college for an additional year or two, just
for the free internet access.

4. You laugh at people with 28.8 modems.

5. You start using smileys :-) in your snail mail.

6. You find yourself typing "com" after every period when using a word
processor.com

7. You can't correspond with your mother because she doesn't have a
computer.

8. When your email box shows "no new messages" and you feel really
depressed.

9. You don't know the gender of your three closest friends because they
have nondescript screen name and you never bothered to ask.

10. You move into a new house and you decide to "Netscape" before you
landscape.

11. Your family always knows where you are.

12. In real life conversations, you don't laugh, you just say "LOL, LOL".

13. After reading this message, you immediately forward it to a friend!

Amazing

Happy birthday!

Our youngest turns 8 today!

Bad taste

Q. What do you call a man with no arms and no legs under a car?
A. Jack!

Multi-tasking

Spoilers

XYs also copped the front spoiler treatment.

Two old men

Two elderly men were sunning themselves on a Miami Beach when they started a friendly conversation.
"I was able to move here to retire in Miami after my business burned to the ground," the one man said. "The insurance payment sure came in handy."
The other replied, "I'm here living from an insurance claim when my factory was flooded out."
The first man pondered for a few seconds and then asked, "How do you start a flood?"

The Skills We Learn Today

by Forrest Stone

Whenever teachers ask me stuff
I have no clue about
I stutter, mutter, sputter, utter
nonsense my way out
It's really quite a clever trick
they leave me there to snore
after I've made such noises
no one's ever heard before
Years from now when I'm pursuing
the career I'd like to ride
all the way to easy street
to be admired far and wide
The same approach, I'm sure,
will keep those big wheels a'turning
and I'll look back and thank my teacher
who let me wriggle out of learning

Spoilers

Front spoilers were also fitted, like on this XW.

Stamp

Q: What does a stamp say to an envelope?
A: Stick with me and we'll go places.

THE JOY OF BEING A PRINCIPAL

You know Lana in Room 5, well I’m her sister but I’m a boy".
It’s gems like this that lighten a Principal’s day and remind us of the main reason why we do this work – to provide the best possible education for children. In the midst of winter, and a cold one at that, it seems fortuitous to raise spirits by thinking about the many good things about being a Principal.
Principalship must be one of the most interesting and challenging jobs to be found. There are many days when Principals long not to be interrupted, just so some ‘work’ can get done. ‘Work’ usually means paperwork, the administrative compliance type reports that take so much longer to do than they should because of the constant interruptions. Principals carefully plan their day in the knowledge that on most days very little will be achieved. Many of the interruptions will be problems and will nearly all concern ‘people’ issues involving staff, children or parents that the Principal will be expected to solve. Some issues will be easily resolved, others will take much longer and may never be completely solved but the Principal will aim to do everything possible to negotiate and mediate in order to maintain a level of stability in the school. It is always difficult to explain the Principal’s job to anyone outside the profession. After all, it is part educator, part counsellor, social worker, handy person, first aider … As Principals we not only multi task but are able to switch roles at a second’s notice with ease. Many people would envy this variety in our lives and the many skills we have the opportunity to develop.
Self-management has empowered Principals to make a real difference to all aspects of school leadership. Principals are charged with developing a vision for the school and working with others to implement it. This is an inspiring opportunity that few leaders in other organizations of a similar size are given. A school vision usually relates to ways to maximise the learning opportunities and outcomes for children. A new era is dawning. Already we can sense a shift in emphasis in our education system from management accountability and compliance to the development of high quality learning and teaching programmes. The new NAGs, the ERO Review, the Literacy and Numeracy Initiatives and the Curriculum Stocktake all reiterate this focus. This is good news for people in schools, especially Principals. Now we can re-focus on the real purpose of our work, children’s learning. It is exciting to guide the development of programmes that enable children in our schools to make significant progress and to celebrate this with the children, the staff and parents.
There is no doubt that interpersonal connections with those around us can be the greatest stress in the job. Many sleepless hours are spent rehashing conversations and planning subsequent ones. On the other hand, for every negative experience, there are many positive ones that can uplift us if we let them. It is unfortunate that many of us tend to focus on the negative and forget those who show their positive appreciation with a smile, a warm comment or a thoughtful message.
Self–management has extended the Principal’s role in leading the professional development of staff. It is exciting to see the growth of confidence and skill in beginning teachers as they learn to cope with the interpersonal challenges of today’s schools, the over-crowded curriculum, the administrative demands and especially the children with behavioural problems that simply do not respond to the praise/ignore strategy that many young teachers have been taught. For Principals, the professional growth and learning of these young teachers is as important to us as that of the children in our classes. We learn to ‘capture the moment’ to suggest new approaches and affirm their progress.
Parents can also provide a source of support. When the governance/management partnership is working well, a school can accomplish great things. Examples of this are often in the amazing property developments that have been achieved by many schools. In other issues, there is also often a feeling of pride in school achievements as the staff and parents work together to overcome challenges and contentious issues for the good of the school as a whole. This of course does not always happen and it is a sad indictment on the system when principals say "I’m lucky, I’ve got a good Board". It should not be a matter of luck but simply as a consequence of working hard together for a common goal.
Parents can also be a source of fun as well as information. Schools need parent support when working with children with learning or behavioural needs. In these cases, often a sense of camaraderie develops in the teacher/parent relationship. One such example was in a school that was having a "P Day". For this event, children were to come to school dressed in something beginning with P. Jane, mother of Tom, called into the Office especially to let the Principal know that she was sending her son Tom with a can of fly spray so he could be the pest that he was. On the day, Tom came in his pyjamas as did many others but the Principal could not help smiling at Jane’s creative idea.!
Perhaps our greatest rewards come from the mouths of our children. One Auckland Principal was recently especially honoured when on Friday afternoon 5-year-old Johnson wished her to "Have a Happy Birthday on Monday". She replied that it wasn’t actually her birthday on Monday. He replied that, "Yes, it is, it’s the Queen’s Birthday on Monday". Needless to say, that young boy will go far!
Far too often we become weighed down with the heavy demands of our job, the relentless pace of change and the sad and the unexpected. We forget to celebrate those special moments that are very much a part of being a Principal.

Spoilers

The XY spoiler was also called a "wing". I don't know why...

:)

Work time

A blonde called her new boss to explain there was a problem with her check.
In checking the timesheets the boss noticed that she had not punched in since her first day of orientation. He tried to explain that her check was right since she had only worked the one day for the company.
The blonde went on insisting that her check was short, and that the company apparently had problems with their math in figuring out her check. She asked her boss how many days were in a year.
He said there are 365.
She asked if he knew how many weeks were in a year.
And he replied there are 52.
She went on to say that since there are 52 weeks per year in which she had 2 weekend days off per week, leaving 261 days available for work.
Since she was scheduled to work 8 hours a day, she spent 16 hours each day away from work, and that added up 170 days, leaving only 91 days for work.
She went on to explain that during the day she spent in company orientation she learned that the company allowed her 30 minutes each day for her two coffee breaks, which counts for 23 days each year, leaving only 68 days for work.
Orientation also informed her that she would be given a 1-hour lunch each day, which used up another 46 days, leaving only 22 days available for work.
The company also allowed 2 days per year for sick leave, leaving her only 20 days per year to work.
The company additionally allowed her to be off 5 holidays per year, bringing her available working time down to 15 days.
Then there were the 14 days vacation the company so generously allowed all employees which leaves only 1 day for her to work ... and well, the boss has already conceded that she did time in and out on her orientation day, so would he please get her check corrected. And if it would be easier for the accounting department ... they could go ahead and make it out for her yearly salary, since she had obviously already put in her share of work for that year.

‘How to put real value into schools – Teachers do it every day’

Article by the Director General EDUCATION AND TRAINING, MANAGING DIRECTOR OF TAFE NSW, Michael Coutts-Trotter, in the Daily Telegraph
Imagine you arrive at work to find a dead body hidden behind a curtain and being attended to by police. It’s a stranger who has committed suicide. Now imagine you’re a school principal and 600 young children will arrive in the next half an hour. What are you going to do?
The principal of a public school, who was recently confronted by this, chose not to close the school but instead to invite the children and their parents in, deciding it was better to help the children understand what they’d seen than let rumour and imagination take hold.
She and her staff gathered them together and talked with them about what had happened.
Think about that. With no notice, you’ve got to talk to children as young as five about loneliness, depression and suicide. You’ve got to help them feel safe and to learn something that will protect them, or another child, from depression.
What that principal and her staff did that day, and later, was all about values: lived values that provide a model for students and the community.
There’s a lot of drivel, and worse, said and written about a supposed lack of values in public education.
Values education can’t be taught from a textbook. It doesn’t hang from a flagpole.
It comes from a deep examination of our proud and complex history. Those Australian values have to be lived by school staff, who by their decency, self-knowledge, generosity and, yes, by their love, help to teach our children how to live well.
Understanding and respecting everyone’s worth and difference is the bedrock of a successful community.
The Beverly Hills Intensive English Centre, which receives new students from around the world, recently took teenagers from the Sudan, Palestine, China, Lebanon, the Philippines and India out to Coonabarabran High School where they stayed in the Warrumbungles, watched Aboriginal students dance and learnt how to shear a sheep.
In the wake of the Cronulla riots, many Sutherland Shire schools arranged exchange programs with schools with high Muslim student enrolments. These visits challenged stereotypes of all kinds and helped create unexpected friendships.
Is that values education? You bet it is.
In schools everywhere in Australia there are children who come to school without having eaten. At some NSW public schools, teachers and school staff, at their own expense, give a very few children a good breakfast, because you can’t learn if you’re hungry.
That’s wonderful. But what’s even better, those teachers expect their students to excel academically.
At the ANZAC memorial in Hyde Park a crowd is gathered to remember the contribution of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander veterans.
Among the throng are public school children, some Indigenous, some not - all brought there by their teachers to see, to hear and to learn more about our history, to examine the past, to accumulate facts and context to better understand the present.
Public education teaches values that inform decision-making, that equip the conscience and supply the courage to do the right thing.