'Super' chocolate; slogans; Hazards of aeroplane towing

I'm not sure if this story is good news for chocophiles or bad. Actually, some of the work they're doing sounds like it could be quite useful in more general spin-offs.

Super chocolate being developed for army
"Scientists from the Defence Science and Technology Organisation (DSTO) at Scottsdale in Tasmania are working on a new ... vitamin-packed dark chocolate that won't melt in the heat of battle and will last for years (AAP)"
au.news.yahoo.com/ 070504/ 2/ 13cp1.html

I also note that the Cadbury chocolate factory 'betweeen the mountains and the sea' has for long been a tourist attraction in Tasmania.

T-shirts & bumper stickers that actually say funny things
T-Shirt catalogue: www.instantattitudes.com/shirts.html
Bumper stickers: http://www.instantattitudes.com/lists.html (subdivided into subject sections)
The Complete List, Everything, The Whole Enchilada, Too Bloody Many Stickers: http://www.instantattitudes.com/complete.html

Includes "If all the world's a stage, I want better lighting!"
http://www.instantattitudes.com/gifs/bs322.gif

Totally unrelated, this may amuse news.bbc.co.uk/ 2/ hi/ south_asia/ 6620461.stm Boeing 737 stuck in city road (in Chembur, Mumbai)

The decommissioned aircraft was being driven through the city at the weekend when the driver got lost and then abandoned the plane.
It appears that after taking a wrong turn, the driver found himself facing a flyover that was too low for him to take the plane under.
The driver has not been seen since and no-one is assuming responsibility for the 737...

Lipidoptera

This sounds like an example of Lipidoptera, from the ABC Canberra site »
Would you like bogong moths with that? (by Caroline Salisbury, Friday, April 20, 2007)

"The high fat content of bogong moths – 38.8 grams of fat for a 100g portion, more then [sic] three times that of a hamburger, provide an energy dense food for indigenous groups in cold climates".

100g (nearly 4 oz) is the standard amount used on food packaging here to list the amount of things like sodium, fats, sugars, kilojoules, etc. I think you'd need a fair amount of moths to make that up, but in season there'd be feasts.
(Bogong's behaviour is the reason I know the words aestivate, and estivation.)

The rest of the article is quite interesting, about getting standards for eating bush tucker during kidney disease, and the problem of good food in remote areas.

According to Don Herbison-Evans, "a Bogong was unjustly blamed for embarrassing Yvonne Kenny while she was singing the Olympic Hymn in the closing ceremony of the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games, as it landed for a while on her [dress]. In fact there were several moth species including Bogongs attracted to the brilliant arena floodlighting that evening, and the one on Yvonne's dress appeared actually to be a hawk moth of the species Hippotion scrofa."

List of Links
Factsheet: www.csiro.au/ resources/ ps1qn.html
CSIRO pic: www.ento.csiro.au/ ecowatch/ Primary/ butterflies/ pages/ bogong_cluster.htm
Basic Entomology (Sydney Uni): bugs.bio.usyd.edu.au/Entomology/ importance/ imagePages/ bogongMoth.html
Family info fr CSIRO: www.ento.csiro.au/ ecowatch/ Lepidoptera/ noctuidae.htm
ABC scribbly gum on Moth migration: www.abc.net.au/ science/ scribblygum/ november2002/default.htm
page on Unique Australian Animals site: home.iprimus.com.au/ readman/ bogong.htm
Almanac, a big page with assorted November information: www.wilsonsalmanac.com/ book/ nov26.html
short piece from Wildlife of Sydney site: www.faunanet.gov.au/ wos/ factfile.cfm?Fact_ID=204

Mister Rogers' Neighbourhood

The "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" show either never made it here to Oz, or wasn't very big. (Play School - based on a UK show, Mr Squiggle - "the longest running pre-school children's television program in the world", and the franchise of Romper Room (museum material) are/were our TV classics (The Argonauts for radio)) I think it was back in 2003 when he died and there was a fair fuss, with people remembering their experiences, that I first heard of him. It does sound like a worthwhile show. I wonder if there are recordings around?

I found a clip of his 1969 testimony before a US Senate Committee, supporting PBS (video.google.com/ videoplay?docid=2883185966575573317). It's called "Won't You Be My Neighbor?" A bit about 4:30 in is about settling arguments, he recites song lyrics at around 5:30 "What do you do with the mad you feel?"

Thought - one of many

There are some oddities in the perspective with which we see the world. The fact that we live at the bottom of a deep gravity well, on the surface of a gas-covered planet going around a nuclear fireball 90 million miles away and think this to be normal is obviously some indication of how skewed our perspective tends to be,
— Douglas Adams, Digital Biota Cambridge speech, 1998 (www.biota.org/ people/ douglasadams/ index.html)

Quoted in Richard Dawkin's eulogy for Douglas Adams in 2001 (see edge.org/ documents/ adams_index.html )

For Easter; remembering loss, sacrifice & a humble heroism: Mbaye Diagne

At Easter, we remember loss & sacrifice, and heroism of a humble kind. From Obsidian Wings "when you find a saint, you should reflect on his life, try to learn from it, and do him honour":

April 06, 2007

Rwanda: Genocide And A Hero

by hilzoy
obsidianwings.blogs.com/ obsidian_wings/ 2007/ 04/ rwanda_genocide.html

Thirteen years ago today, a plane carrying Juvénal Habyarimana, the President of Rwanda, and Cyprien Ntaryamira, the Hutu president of Burundi, was shot down. This event started the Rwandan genocide, which lasted for about three months. During that time, about eight hundred thousand people were killed, many hacked to death with machetes. To commemorate this, I want to repost something I wrote two years ago.

**********
Instead of writing about the genocide, I want to focus on Mbaye Diagne, a Senegalese military observer who was profiled in the excellent Frontline program Ghosts of Rwanda. His background was unremarkable: according to the profile on the Frontline site, "Capt. Mbaye, a devout Muslim, was one of nine children from a poor family on the outskirts of Dakar, Senegal's capital. He was the first in his family to go to college. After graduating from the University of Dakar, he joined the army and worked his way up through the ranks."

But what he did during the Rwandan genocide was extraordinary. Again, from Frontline:

""A real-life Cool Hand Luke…"
"The bravest of the brave…"

"...the greatest man I have ever known..."

These are the words of those who knew Capt. Mbaye Diagne, a young Senegalese army officer who served in Rwanda as an unarmed U.N. military observer. I have never heard another human being described in the way that those who knew Mbaye describe him: he was, as one of his colleagues told me, "the kind of guy you meet once in a lifetime."

He was a hero.

From literally the first hours of the genocide, Capt. Mbaye simply ignored the U.N.'s standing orders not to intervene, and single-handedly began saving lives. He rescued the children of the moderate Prime Minster Agathe Uwilingiyimana, after 25 well-armed Belgian and Ghanaian U.N. peacekeepers surrendered their weapons to Rwandan troops. The Rwandan troops killed Madame Agathe (and, later, ten Belgian peacekeepers), while the unarmed Capt. Mbaye — acting on his own initiative — hid the Prime Minister's children in a closet.

In the days and weeks that followed, Capt. Mbaye became a legend among U.N. forces in Kigali. He continued his solo rescue missions, and had an uncanny ability to charm his way past checkpoints full of killers. On one occasion he found a group of 25 Tutsis hiding in a house in Nyamirambo, a Kigali neighborhood that was particularly dangerous. Capt. Mbaye ferried the Tutsis to the U.N. headquarters in groups of five — on each trip passing through 23 militia checkpoints with a Jeep-load of Tutsis. Somehow, he convinced the killers to let these Tutsis live."

Here's an interview with Gromo Alex, the head of the U.N. Humanitarian Assistance Team in Rwanda:

" — "Who was Mbaye Diagne and what was he doing?
He had access to most of the areas … the military or gendarme or presidential guard. He covered all the territory, knew most of the people in the command structure. But fairly early on, we could see in this back room in the Amahoro hotel [that] large groups of people all of a sudden appeared and [the] next day were gone. We began to put together that Mbaye was bringing people from all over to the headquarters and then evacuating them or having them picked up and taken to safety elsewhere. And I don't even know the numbers of the people that he saved. But a lot of people know who he is. A lot of people were saved by him, and not just Rwandans but famous journalists. I think they were put in positions where their lives were pretty close to an end, and he stepped in and saved them. (...)

— But wasn't it against orders to go out and start saving people?

Yeah, it was against orders, and the orders were not to intervene in the conflict. Mbaye ignored those orders, and at the same time his general [Gen. Dallaire] knew what he was doing, never stopped him.

… I would think that the general saw him as some expression of what we were supposed to be doing. … But here's someone who stepped out of line and [the general is] not going to discipline him because he's doing the right thing. And he saved at least hundreds of people. And we're talking about saving hundreds of people three or four at a time. So you imagine y'know, when we talk about the 23 checkpoints. And you take even 200 people, you divide it by the maximum 5 -- that would mean he [would] have 5 people in a vehicle, which is too conspicuous too. So he would do it in smaller numbers so that he wouldn't draw so much attention to people. But he'd go through all these checkpoints. And at every checkpoint you have to explain yourself. ...

— How would he get through?

That's just the way he was. People laughed. Even they have, or had, some attachment to a real world where there's real laughter. Even in all this gore, hatred; as long as you can have that brief glimpse of his smile, or laugh about something that's good, you'll grab onto it. And with Mbaye I think that's what everybody did. At all those checkpoints, they all knew him. …"

Unfortunately, he was killed at a checkpoint. Gromo Alex again:

"[Once] it was time to leave, the plan was that we were all just going to leave at the same time. … Then Mbaye said no, [because] he had some other things to do. It turned out that he was making arrangements to go get some other people. … But he had to go to headquarters first. So we went down the hill to ICRC. … We stopped there for a couple minutes. …
So we're coming up the hill and hear something on the radio. … We heard it was [Mbaye] had, I guess, pulled up a minute after we'd gone to the bridge, the last checkpoint. A mortar had landed behind his car and shrapnel came through the back window and [hit him] in the back of his head, and apparently killed him instantly. …

This was the day that General Dallaire had gone to Nairobi to meet with some U.S. congressmen to convince them of the gravity of the situation. [So] we're stunned, and we're trying to figure out what's happening, what we can do. People are talking about going [and] getting his dress uniform. They're calling around for a body bag. But there's no body bag. Not a body bag in the whole U.N. The ICRC doesn't have any body bags that they can spare. At this time, we're starting to put together and we're saying, you know, "Here's a guy who gave his ultimate, did everything, and we don't even have a body bag to show him some respect." So we're scrambling [and] people are asking us -- we're the humanitarians, we can get some plastic sheeting, we can make something. I can't even remember [the details]. It was kind of a daze. …

We had some UNICEF plastic sheeting, and we had some tape. Mbaye's body comes, and he's a big man, tall, big feet. He's on a stretcher now. Nobody knows exactly what to do, but we're going to make a body bag. … You want to do it right. You want to … zip it, [but] you got this U.N. light blue body bag, and we're going to make and fold the edges over. We're folding them up, and the creases aren't right, because his feet are so damn big. … You don't want that for him. You want it to be, like, just laid out perfectly, so that when people look at him, they know that he was something great."

While my government was devoting its energies to figuring out how to describe what was happening in Rwanda without using the word "genocide", Mbaye Diagne just saw what had to be done and did it, at the cost of his own life. He is one of my personal saints. I think that when you find a saint, you should reflect on his life, try to learn from it, and do him honor. If anyone agrees, link to this post: Mbaye Diagne and what he did deserve to be better known.

Posted by hilzoy at 11:07 PM

Tourist-eye View

Sapphire Princess AU&NZ cruise 2007 (YouTube home movies)

A short film; A sad memory

Doll Face
fraser.typepad.com/ frolix_8/ 2006/ 12/ doll_face.html
(via Pharyngula)

Sorry for long gaps in posting, for anyone who cares. A combination of not feeling too good, and having to use times when I am for catching up on a lot of stuff in Real Life. Plus some being distracted by the "ooh, shiny!" web factor and not getting around to blogging it. Some sad memories tonight; sometimes it seems time flies, and other times memories can be so real and strong and present.

In midst of life is death, and life goes on
And that's the hardest thing, for those who stay
For love and spring and work get in the way
Are consolation, balm, but still you're gone.
We live life day by day, and days accrete
To bury you in stratigraphic time
Remembered in a place, a new-found rhyme,
Caught in the finished past, enclosed, complete.
We rage in helplessness at time and death
But onwards is the one direction left
The hope of future joy, although bereft,
For we must dare to live, while we have breath.
(On Easter morning, roll away the stone
Behold the empty tomb: but still alone.)
   — Jo Walton

Go your own sweet way

There's a New South Wales State Election on this Saturday (24th March, 2007 — last day of Daylight Saving). I get quite frustrated by all the discussion of 'preference deals' and people saying they "won't vote for X because they have preferenced Y" and they don't want to vote for Y.

One of the good parts of the Australian voting system is that YOU choose your preferences (especially in the Lower House (Assembly)), no matter what the different parties say on their How to Vote cards. [This applies to the Federal elections too, with some details being different between different States and between Federal and State electoral law.]

YOU CAN NUMBER ABOVE THE LINE NOW for the Upper House (Council). This is a welcome recent change, where before 'preference deals' did actually determine flows of votes in the Council election where — as most did because of the large number of candidates — you were only allowed to put a "1" 'above the line', in the box for your first-preferred group, and no more, or you had to number all the candidates separately 'below the line'. (This model was brought in after an election where the ballot paper was described as 'a table cloth'. I think there were 168 candidates that year; a big jump from previous ones.)

You *don't* need to fill in all the 362 boxes without error, despite the satisfaction of putting certain persons #362. [NOTE: To get listed together as a 'Group' with your own column you need at least 15 candidates. I think this has helped cause the even greater number of people. Perhaps we can persuade a change, so a group of 5 or 10 candidates can get their own listing.]

OTOH, in the last few elections, trying to decide between the despicable which I despised most was quite difficult. Who to give the final place to?

Also, if you want to put several 'independent' Upper House parties before the major two, find their names out at the elections.nsw.gov.ausite and search out both their listed preferences there, and whatever you can find of their own online presence to see if you think they're a good-sounding front for possibly the exact opposite of their name, like some of the 'parties' produced for the previous election seem to have been.

Good Media: 100 Centre Street

Something reminded me how much I really regret there not being a substantial set of DVD, or even VHS episodes of 100 Centre Street (the address of the central criminal courts in New York City). I remember it dealing with some of the reasons why things work out as they tend to do in the US courts, and other related parts of the system. If it had got beyond 2 seasons, maybe there'd be more chance of it getting repeated. even tho' the Sidney Lumet sympathies have been unfashionable for some years.

[Note, if anyone, anywhere sees it on a TV schedule, spread the word wide, and for goshsakes, start recording it ASAP, before it disappears. Bugger the legalities. It would be sad to have another 'O! What a Lovely War' situation.]

Ready for St Valentine's Day?

Order your own 'personalised' romance novel - free sample on this page - I suspect you could do some creative work on the system to get rather amusing results.
http://www.bookbyyou.com/lovesnextdoor/demo.asp

These could be useful in the case of painful Customs inspections (www.theregister.co.uk/2007/02/05/immigration_search/)
The Yugoslav lexicon of swear words --
http://www.ce-review.org/00/41/nezmah41.html
"At the Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts, people working on a dictionary of the literary language threw all of the notes they had containing swear words into a special box. There was actually a directive which read: 'If you come across a swear word, throw it into the yellow box.' Linguists of course are on the hunt for this mysterious yellow box."

Similarly, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quebec_French_profanity

Some possible uses for melaleuca paperbark, as done by older Russian cultures with birchbark.
http://gramoty.ru/

List of birchbark documents, translation from Cyrillic to English by Google.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/2tukh6 ( or http://tinyurl.com/2tukh6)

Original list
http://gramoty.ru/index.php?key=bb&date%5B%5D=all&city%5B%5D=all&excav%5B%5D=all&safety%5B%5D=all&cath%5B%5D=all (OR http://tinyurl.com/3d9dq8)

Richard Sweeny and his Paper Sculptures

American Inventor Spot Inventive Art: Richard Sweeny and his Paper Sculptures
Some very nice photos of some fascinating objects, and explanations.

Scary Mary

A trailer for 'Mary Poppins' that brings out the darker side. The books are rather scarier than the film, so this redresses the balance.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=2T5_0AGdFic
This is the original version, made by Chris Rule, with assistance by Nick Eckert.

Women in Science - a study in progress

Found elsewhere. Just spreading the news for the moment.

there's an author writing a book with a tentative title of Where the Girls Aren't: What's Holding Women Back from Careers in Science? who is looking for interview subjects: both women who have left science-related disciplines and those who are still there.

More details at www.nasw.org/users/lhall/wtga.html

Happy New Year!

2007 - The year with a licence to kill!
In Sydney, perhaps we were referring to "Diamonds Are Forever"?

(Photo by James Bridgewood)

New Years Eve Photo galleries at SMH
World celebrations; Sydney midnight; Sydney early fireworks

Wired for Sound (is the cliche headline)

Music of the Hemispheres
By CLIVE THOMPSON
Published: December 31, 2006
www.nytimes.com/ 2006/ 12/ 31/ arts/ music/ 31thom.html

Why are we so good at recognizing music?”
... Dr. Daniel Levitin has devoted his career to exploring this question. He is a cognitive psychologist who runs the Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University in Montreal, perhaps the world’s leading lab in probing why music has such an intense effect on us.

“By the age of 5 we are all musical experts, so this stuff is clearly wired really deeply into us,” said Dr. Levitin, ... surrounded by the pianos, guitars and enormous 16-track mixers that make his lab look more like a recording studio.

Dr. Levitin is an unusually deft interpreter, he recently published a layperson’s guide to the emerging neuroscience of music,“This Is Your Brain on Music” (Dutton).

Christmas and Nostalgia on YouTube

Several clips of one ad (sung by Ben Robinson). It's apparently a parody of a classic UK Christmas show. We aren't at all familiar with it here, though I recognise the tune from BriTV references to it, and many of the scenes they fly past. I'm informed one I scene don't know is the Falkirk Wheel (photos & some info at www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/ falkirk/ falkirkwheel/), a modern rotating boat wheel.

www.youtube.com/ watch?v=bVjWiT-zmvs
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=tLZBfU5H1yM — This one has the lyrics to the advertisement
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=GM5eMnj2Pkw
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=AbNoPiROsS8

John Lennon's Beautiful Boy, set to video filmed at Lennon's house at Cold Spring Harbor on Long Island in April of 1980.
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=l_imwld_WzI&NR

Sarah's Sister — a Christmas story, written to make people cry
www.scalzi.com/ pastlives/ archives/ 2005/ 11/ sarahs_sister.html

Tenth Anniversary: Carl Sagan Memorial

http://nicksagan.blogs.com/ nick_sagan_online/ 2006/ 12/ dad.html

Though he worried about the state of the world from time to time, it never stopped him. And when we'd talk about what things might be like in twenty-five, fifty or a hundred years, he said he knew there would be difficult challenges ahead, but he believed we were up to the task. He believed in human ingenuity and compassion, in thinking long-term instead of short, in putting our many differences and superstitions aside. He believed in a better tomorrow. He believed in us.

www.donaldedavis.com/ PARTS/ SAGAN.html

Carl Sagan died on December 20th, 1996 at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, with wife Ann Druyan and other family members at his side.
To many of the space artists Carl Sagan was known as among the greatest patrons of our art.
He crossed the substantial gulf between scientist and public educator. His career spanned the transformation of the solar System from tiny telescopic objects to places seen and understood from human and mechanical experience. Unveiling this reality of our cosmic situation was part of his life, and spreading the appreciation of these truths and their implications was another aspect of his life.

Giant Blog-o-thon Memorial Meta-Post by Joel Schlosberg
Links to many places that have posted something about Carl Sagan on this anniversary.
joelschlosberg.blogspot.com/ 2006/ 12/ carl-sagan-blog-thon-meta-post.html

Shadow on the Morning

This morning on the way to work I was attacked by a large umbrella out on the footpath, very like this one. It was a cool, windy morning and the people had just put it up and left it without anything holding it down. Maybe they were inside getting weights. Thankfully I say that a passerby ran in to help, then the people from the shop dashed out and dragged it away.

Let me urge you to first put the weights on an umbrella before opening it.

IMG_3366 - night umbrella
Originally uploaded by Mezza.
Sydney by Night - a restaurant umbrella on East Circular Quay

Next, the Rumpole Version? Pigeons; Paris & ... ? hmmm

Another history archive online from the UK (see 'Standing on Shoulders' 25-Nov-2006, below)
The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, London 1674 - 1834
www.oldbaileyonline.org

A fully searchable online edition of the largest body of texts detailing the lives of non-elite people ever published, containing accounts of over 100,000 criminal trials held at London's central criminal court.

Contains 101,102 trials, from April 1674 to October 1834
[1834 to 1913 Proceedings Digitisation Project Underway]

Additional Eighteenth-Century Sources to be Digitised in New Project
We have received funding from the Economic and Social Research Council to digitise a wide range of related printed and manuscript sources to create a comprehensive electronic edition of primary sources on criminal justice and the provision of poor relief and medical care in eighteenth-century London. This project, 'Plebeian Lives and the Making of Modern London, 1690-1800', will make it possible for the first time to reconstruct how 'ordinary' Londoners interacted with various government and charitable institutions in the course of their daily lives.

(It's planned to be completed in 2010.)

A place to stay in Paris :) ... in my dreams, in my dreams ...
The Hotel Lutetia: www.lutetia-paris.com/anglais/index_f.html

Pigeons of Kingston (Surrey, UK) Under the Gun
An online forum/comment thread to a local story that shows ... well, it's cold and dark outside in the UK this time of year -- www.surreycomet.co.uk/ mostpopular.var.1039169.mostviewed. marksman_called_in_to_kill_kingstons_pigeons.php


Suck it and see: www.chrononhotonthologos.com

Bleak

Bleak
Originally uploaded by kerch.

. . . or glorious. Something approaching the experience of the Sublime, perhaps — something that Lessons of Darkness (Lektionen in Finsternis) most definitely touches.
The summary includes "What must have been like hell itself is presented to the viewer in such beautiful sights and beautiful music that one has to be fascinated by it." which is a very good summary.

Standing on the Shoulders: A Wonderful Resource

The Royal Society Digital Journal Archive, dating back to 1665 and containing more than 60,000 articles, is now available online at www.journals.royalsoc.ac.uk and is FREE to access until the end of December 2006. Following this it will continue to be free as part of any of the Royal Society's new journal subscription packages.

The Royal Society Digital Archive is easily the most comprehensive archive in science and contains some of the most significant scientific papers ever published. The development of the digital archive means that the Society's online collection now contains every paper ever published in the Royal Society's journals, including the entire back catalogue of Philosophical Transactions since 1665, the longest-running international science journal in the world.

It provides a record of some key scientific discoveries from the last 340 years — some examples:

Robert Hooke, preserving animals by blowing through their lungs with bellows - 1667
Isaac Newton's reflecting telescope - 1672
Benjamin Franklin’s legendary kite experiment, drawing down lightning and showing its electrical nature - 1752
Edmund Stone’s observations on Willow bark, leading to the discovery of Aspirin - 1763
Daines Barrington’s account of a very remarkable young musician (Mozart) - 1770
Joseph Priestley's discovery of oxygen - 1775
The Method Taken for Preserving the Health of the Crew of His Majesty's Ship the Resolution during Her Late Voyage Round the World. By Captain James Cook, F. R. S. Addressed to Sir John Pringle, Bart. P. R. S.
William Hershel's discovery of Uranus - 1783
William Henry Fox Talbot’s first account of photography - 1839
Richard Owen's discovery of Archeopteryx, the earliest and most primitive known bird fossil - 1863
Thomas (TH) Huxley's Remarks upon Archaopteryx lithographica, correcting Owen & making his early reputation - 1864
Arthur Eddington’s solar eclipse observations, confirming Einstein’s general theory of relativity - 1919
Fleming's report of discovering the effect of penicillin - 1922
Crick and Watson's report of the structure of DNA - 1954

The Panglossian paradigm (via)

Digital Archive FAQs


Subscription Packages
The Physical Sciences Journal Archive
The Biological Sciences Journal Archive
The Notes and Records Journal Archive
The Biographical Memoirs Archive (formerly Obituaries)

Tentacles of the communications octopus

Ahh, people ... AdVerbatims (adverbatims.blogspot.com), described as " a hooting good collection of design-related overheards" by India, Ink (indiamos.wordpress.com). She saw it at Graphic Design Bar (www.graphicdesignbar.com), who got it from Veer (blog.veer.com).]

Creek dries

On October 30th, 2006 Chris Clarke put Creek Running North into a posting hiatus. It's sad, but looking the final Gone fishin', and at other recent posts & comments you can see good reasons. More happily, at least for now it's staying online to read. So go & do that while you can.

Tibet: A photo from Flickr

TIBET
Originally uploaded by PEDRO SARAIVA.

Such lovely colours and rhythmn in the accoutrements, and a nice little by-play in the humanity. (from the threeheadedblog)

NZ News: Hide your insulin

Airline's medicine ban leaves passenger in coma
www.nzherald.co.nz/section/print.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=1040860
New Zealand Herald - National News
Wednesday November 1, 2006
By James Ihaka

A diabetic man fell into a coma because airport staff refused to let him take his insulin on board a flight from Auckland to Christchurch.

Qantas yesterday apologised to Tui Peter Russell, who had a severe attack on the plane and was in hospital for two weeks.

Mr Russell said check-in staff at Auckland Airport told him he could not take his medication on board because it was dangerous...

... or maybe not
No hospital records for 'comatose' airline passenger
www.nzherald.co.nz/ section/ story.cfm?c_id=1&ObjectID=10408778
Thursday November 2, 2006
By James Ihaka

Doubts have emerged about the coma a diabetic said he suffered on a flight from Auckland to Christchurch...

Halloween special on Astronomy Picture of the Day
antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap061031.html

Not a good Vegemite substitute

A new fast food is making its debut at U.S. fairs this fall: fried Coke. Abel Gonzales, 36, a computer analyst from Dallas, tried about 15 different varieties before coming up with his perfect recipe — a batter mix made with Coca-Cola syrup, a drizzle of strawberry syrup, and some strawberries.

Balls of the batter are then deep-fried, ending up like ping-pong ball sized doughnuts which are then served in a cup, topped with Coca-Cola syrup, whipped cream, cinnamon sugar and a cherry on the top.

Gonzales said the success of his fried Coke had inspired him. Next year's fair-goers can look forward to fried Sprite or — for those watching their weight — fried diet Coke.

"We are trying to cut a lot of the sugar out of it. It has less calories but it's still very, very sweet," he said. – (Reuters)

Free Trade Agreement?

America bans Vegemite
October 21, 2006, from The Sunday Times
www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,20623973-2,00.html
www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,20623014-948,00.html

THE US has banned Vegemite, even to the point of searching Australians for jars of the spread when they enter the country.
... Vegemite has been deemed illegal under US food laws. [It] contains folate, which ... America allows to be added only to breads and cereals.

Evanescence & Solidity (again)

"Bleigiessen", a seven-storey high sculpture by Thomas Heatherwick at the Wellcome Trust, Gibbs Building, 215 Euston Road, London, NW1 2BE
some pictures
www.flickr.com/photos/electricsprout/255666808/
www.flickr.com/photos/loplop/245495378/in/photostream/
www.tom-carden.co.uk/2006/01/28/bleigiessen/

Fluffy, White, not necessarily harmless

Clouding the Mind ...
pic1.funtigo.com/ valuca?g=25544746&cr=1
Many beautiful & fascinating photos here. A few of them are from a World War I German 'Cloud Atlas' produced for pilots, others are from sites around the world. Many of the lenticular clouds look extraordinarily artificial.

... One Way or Another
"one step closer to that marshmallow-armed society we all dream of" [Ed - of which we all dream?]
www.stupid.com/ stat/ MLLW.html

Loss: John M Ford

The writer of the poem below died suddenly, shortly after the equinox, a quarter of the year before Christmas Day at the age of 49. He left a sad gap in my online life, and a much bigger, painful, rent in others' lives. I mourn his passing, condole his family & friends, and cherish the works he left us.

Obituary: tinyurl.com/oeouj — This is a free Usenet posting (groups.google.com/ group/ alt.obituaries/ msg/ 0a7495d51f3af0de) of John Clute's obituary in The Independent (news.independent.co.uk/ people/ obituaries/ article1772294.ece)

Sestina, from a main centre of information and remembrances (nielsenhayden.com/ makinglight/ archives/ 008033.html).