Apology Again

Not putting much here right now. Haven't given up. Life goes on, so far.

Hate Crimes

One quote from a recent American Terrorist story jumped out. From my local paper's report (‘Gunman says murder of abortion doctors was 'justified'’), via Associated Press, also in variations from several sources

"The anti-tax stuff came first, and then it grew and grew," said Lindsey Roeder … he became involved with the Freemen movement, an anti-government group that discouraged the paying of taxes.

That story seems to be getting more publicity than this one: ‘British hostage executed by Islamists in Mali’.

It'll be interesting to see how the Tiananmen Square massacre 20th anniversary, and some other anniversaries are remembered in the next few weeks.

Two Anniversaries: the Effluxion of Time

From comments on a review at Rixosous of The Mayor of Castro Street, by Randy Shilts.

Today is the 30th anniversary of the White Night Riots, which occurred when Dan White was given a ludicrously low sentence for the murders of Harvey Milk and George Moscone.
Tomorrow is Harvey Milk's birthday. He would have been 79. It's hard to imagine.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | May 21, 2009 at 12:22 PM

Watchmen Widget

Leviathan's Underbelly: TV

I've mentioned John Birmingham's book Leviathan* (Assorted links) before (5 June, 2005). Here's one of the chapters, expanded and filmed. Also see the works of Rupert Kathner

Underbelly: Back where it all began - SMH TV & Radio - Entertainment:
"Sydney had been corrupt since the Rum Corps, but in the 1970s it exploded. A cell of bent detectives effectively franchised crime using 'pet' criminals. People such as Lennie McPherson, a safebreaker but no mastermind, became a Mr Big after police gave him the 'green light'. Arthur 'Neddy' Smith, a violent thug, became a protected mob leader. The smooth George Freeman made millions — so brazenly he was once photographed at Randwick races with the chief magistrate.

But there were a few honest police — and they had to break the law to prove it..."

* Leviathan: The Unauthorised Biography of Sydney A RIVETING HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY OF A REMARKABLE AUSTRALIAN CITY “Combining intensive research with the pace of a techno-thriller, John Birmingham creates a rich portrait of a city too dazzled by its own gorgeous reflection to care much for what lies at its dark, corrupted heart. … Birmingham drills beneath the cover story of a successful multicultural metropolis and melts the boundaries between past and present … Beneath the shining harbour, amid the towers of global greed and deep inside the bad-drugs madness of the suburban wastelands, lies Sydney's shadow history. … Illuminated by wild flashes of black humour, violent, ghoulish and utterly compelling, Leviathan is history for the Tarantino generation.” ISBN: 0091842034; ISBN: 9780091842031; ISBN: 0091832616

A Minnesota January — Things People Do When It Gets Cold

Still Too Cold To Go Birding (15th January, 2009)
www.birdchick.com/ 2009/ 01/ still-too-cold-to-go-birding.html
There's a video of unusual banana use, and stories of bubbles and spray.
Elsewhere, there's ‘Is it cold enough for you’ (by dmilstein) showing the effect of cold air on hot water.
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=F-ugVrA8e5M
which led to matociquala
2009-01-16 05:13 pm UTC (link) saying

“When I was a kid, I remember it would get so cold we'd throw boiling water out the door and freeze it to make hot ice. Got so cold one night the fire froze--we kept it in the icehouse and chipped pieces off it for years, to warm our coffee.

Gotta handle it with tongs, though.”

More videos of the hot water throwing
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=Qlwhk2ozb50

Humanist Podcasts through December

New Humanist Advent Calendar Podcasts (link to list)

From Monday, 1 December 2008 to Wednesday, December 24th, these were posted up day by day. There's a short entry and an embedded player in the blog, or you can listen directly to the MP3 file. Each interview subject was asked to pick a scientist or philosopher or writer who they'd suggest be commemorated by an annual day, rather like Christmas, and also any invention through history they'd like for a Christmas present.
Advent Podcasts Day 1: Stephen Fry (post)
MP3: media.switchpod.com/ users/ newhumanistmagazine/ 01DecStephenFry.mp3

Advent Podcasts Day 2: PZ Myers (post)
MP3: media.switchpod.com/ users/ newhumanistmagazine/ 02DecPZMyers.mp3

USA Today: Car Smashes in the Snow

Ouch - two car crashes survived. Photos shared from Flickr. ~*Leah*~ [untitled] & Lauren takes Pictures, Day 198 of 365

SMH Obituary - Dacre Smyth, 1923-2008

www.smh.com.au - A poetic observer, unwittingly, of Hiroshima:
www.smh.com.au/ text/ articles/ 2008/ 12/ 10/ 1228584924971.html
Smyth was on HMAS Norman 160 kilometres east of Japan on August 6, 1945, when another officer called him on deck to see a 'spectacular sunset'. Smyth immediately wrote a poem, of which the second verse says: 'No cloud, I say, but yet the sun did light/ On towering columns all unreal yet huge/ Which waved and shuddered in grotesque delight/ In myriad hues of ghostly subterfuge.' Unknowingly, he was describing the aftermath of the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Dacre Henry Deudraeth Smyth, who has died in Melbourne of prostate cancer at 85, was born in London into a family linked directly to the kings of England Henry III and Edwards I, II and III. The family also had some claim to being related to Pocohontas, the Indian who saved the life of Captain John Smith, the founder of Virginia.

Smyth's mother was Anna Maria Story-Maskelyne. His father, Nevill, was awarded a Victoria Cross under Lord Kitchener at the Battle of Omdurman in Sudan in 1898, and was considered unlucky not to have won a second VC during the Boer War. He went on to command the First Australian Brigade at Gallipoli, leading him to emigrate with his family in 1925 and settle on a sheep property, Kongbool, near Balmoral in Victoria's Western District.

Nevill Smyth's first cousin, Lord Robert Stephen Smyth Baden-Powell, was a hero of the 217-day siege of Mafeking in the Boer War, and founded the Boy Scout movement, of which Smyth became a leader in Victoria.

Post-Election Musical Thoughts

DEMOCRACY

It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.

     —Leonard Cohen

www.musicsonglyrics.com/ L/ leonardcohenlyrics/ leonardcohendemocracylyrics.htm

The Burns Sisters sing it on their
'Wild Bouquet' album.

OH NOES! RUN! RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

Panic Now


more animals

Satellite Photo Maps and 'Reality'

1) My home is on a busy & important road, running straight for over a mile along the top of a ridge next to central Sydney. On my first use of Google Street View, like everyone else looking for my place, it was in the only block along the whole length missing.

2) Walking in a new area of the city I discovered a tiny hidden oasis right off a big busy main road. Two little angled lanes of brick terrace houses lined with tubs & pots full of plants, with at least two friendly cats and, in the point of the triangle formed by the lanes, a minuscule park — lawn, flowerbeds, tables & benches. On Google Maps the park is invisible, covered by two leafy trees. Shocked, I realised since the photo was taken both have died, still standing as bare skeletons I'd barely noticed.

Links on Compulsory Voting

Here's a link to the Australian Electoral Commission's very brief summary page on Compulsory Voting. This links to more detailed PDF documents (1-short, 2-fuller. See also Informality. For excruciating detail see Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918). It covers the Federal law, the States have their own (NSW, see legislation: Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Act 1912 No 41, Div 13), and each also (fairly loosely) enforces it for local Council elections.

Life (sort of) Imitates Snow Crash

Pizza man fined for delivering very fast fast food
September 17, 2008, 3:29 am
(Reporting by Pauline Askin, Editing by Michael Perry and Miral Fahmy)

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian pizza delivery man gave fast food a new meaning when he was caught, and fined, for driving 53 km (33 miles) over the speed limit.

The 20-year-old man, driving on a provisional driver's license, said he was speeding because he was 20 minutes late with his delivery in the tropical northern town of Townsville.

Police clocked him driving at 131 kph (82 mph) in an 80 kph (50 mph) zone on Saturday, but waited for him to deliver his pizza before booking him.

On his return journey to the pizza shop, he was caught speeding at 133 kph in the same zone.

Police sergeant Brendan White said on Tuesday the delivery man, who was not named, was fined AU$1,520 (US$1,226) and lost his license for 15 months.

Nice Noises

MP3 extracts of Richard Einhorn's music - composer of Voices of Light, etc,
www.richardeinhorn.com/ Audio/ AudioIndex.html
Voices of Light link www.richardeinhorn.com/ VOL/ VOLHomepage.html
And another space … listen.to/ whitenoise

YouTube clip called Kaamelott - The perfect fifth. It seems to be part of series called Kaamelott, I think. I did LOL (quietly (LQ?)) at 'diabolus!', remembering being told about it in music class in my childhood.

What Cannot be Knitted or Crotcheted?

Knitted Tardis (don't let the BBC hear, tho'): TARDIS Knit Plush Pattern Instructions, and Pattern Graph; Knitted Tardis Flickr set; and Instructables page: The Tardis - knitted. I would love someone to bring one along to the Sixth Annual 702 ABC Sydney Knit In for the Wrap With Love charity (the Big Day is 1st August this year), 'cos our ABC is & has been the Dr Who purveyor in Australia since the show's beginning..

Mud of some sort or another

Someone mentioned mud, and I immediately sang in my mind “mud, mud, glorious mud” – from ‘Hippopotamus’ by Flanders & Swann.

Mud is something they'd love to find on Mars — see HiRISE images of the Phoenix landing site at www.planetary.org/ blog/ article/ 00001472

Mud also plays a small, but vital role in the film The Ballad of Cable Hogue

And for a picture that evokes quite different emotions, GW Bush officiating at an Air Force Academy graduation ceremony

Some English language alphabets

John Higgins's silent alphabet

A as in BREAD
B as in DEBT
C as in INDICTMENT
D as in HANDKERCHIEF
E as in GIVE
F as in HALFPENNY
G as in GNAW
H as in HOUR
I as in FRIEND
J as in MARIJUANA
K as in KNOW
L as in CALM
M as the first M in MNEMONIC
N as in AUTUMN
O as in PEOPLE
P as in PSALM
Q as in COLQUHOUN (a Scottish surnamepron “Cull-hoon”)
R as in FORECASTLE
S as in ISLAND
T as in CASTLE
U as in GUARD
V as in MILNGAVIE (a Scottish place name pron “Mull-guy” or “Mill-guy”)
W as in WRONG
X as in SIOUX
Y as in PEPYS
Z as in RENDEZVOUS

www.marlodge.supanet.com/ museum/ silent.html

Sites showing the 'spelling-out' alphabets (also called phonetic alphabets, not to be confused with the kind of phonetic alphabets used to show pronounciation)
Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whisky, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu
morsecode.scphillips.com/alphabet.html
www.businessballs.com/ phoneticalphabet.htm
Wikipedia: Spelling alphabet
Wikipedia's disambiguation page: Phonetic alphabet

Another Death; Another Good Legacy

It wasn't that far back that Paul Scofield was brought to my mind in relation to discussing Thomas More (in the 'William F Buckley, dead' thread). I watched a few online clips from A Man for All Seasons. Now he joins our other recent losses, leaving, we are comforted, a legacy we can continue to benefit from.

From The Guardian, their obituary, personal remembrances, comments from the public; and also the NY Times obit.

[Follows the recent unexpected sudden and early death of Anthony Minghella, the less-surprising, but still memorable taking away of Arthur C Clarke — much-discussed over at Making Light: Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008, with many links and recommendations for reading.]

Sigh. Six Apart, further apart

Darkrose (you are so good to me eggplant mike) has put up a translation of an interview with LJ's recent owner (a Russian). It's not happy reading.

http://darkrosetiger.livejournal.com/ 373663.html — The Rodney McKay Principle of Consumerism as applied to LiveJournal

Solastalgia: homesickness you have when you are still at home

Researchers identify new syndrome
Wednesday 6 September 2006
www.newcastle.edu.au/ news/ 2006/ 09/ newsyndrome.html

Researchers from the University of Newcastle, Australia have discovered a new type of syndrome affecting potentially thousands of people who have lived through human-made environmental change such as open-cut mines, and natural disasters such as drought and cyclones.

Researchers, Dr Glenn Albrecht (philosopher, School of Environmental and Life Sciences) and Dr Gina-Maree Sartore, (psychologist, Centre for Rural and Remote Mental Health) said 'solastalgia' is a lack of solace in one's home environment caused by the impact of negative environmental change. Dr Albrecht described solastalgia as the "homesickness you have when you are still at home".

They have researched the impact of the drought and open cut mines in rural NSW and say affected people feel melancholia or homesickness, and loss of a sense of place …

Outwitting History: A Book-Rescuer's story

Amazon.com: Outwitting History

The Amazing Adventures of A Man Who Rescued A Million Yiddish Books, by Aaron Lansky "Lansky and his fellow dreamers traveled from house to house, Dumpster to Dumpster saving Yiddish books wherever they could find them—eventually gathering an improbable 1.5 million volumes, from famous writers like Sholem Aleichem and I.B. Singer to one-of-a-kind Soviet prints."

Analysing Raising Arizona

The House Next Door (mattzollerseitz.blogspot.com)

H.I. Pulls the Pin (10th October, 2007)
Raising Arizona's universe exists somewhere between a Sam Shepard play and Chuck Jones' 'Dripalong Daffy.' H.I (Nicolas Cage) and his barren, ex-cop wife, Ed (Holly Hunter), participate in wild car and foot chases, throw roundhouse punches that would have knocked John Wayne's eyeballs out, and speak in courtly sentences that mix pop psychology, cornpone aphorisms and odd, poetic rhythms. ('Biology and the prejudices of others conspired to keep us childless.')

A poetic review of Kahlil Gibran

From FIRST THINGS: A Journal of Religion, Culture, and Public Life
On the Recent Publication of Kahlil Gibran’s Collected Works
by Alan Jacobs (c) 2007 First Things (November 2007).

One very small extract:

So again I turn and I say to you,
Pass by the Collected Works of Kahlil Gibran,
Touch it not nor gaze upon it,
But go about your ways in peace of heart and with thanksgiving.

Promachoteuthis sulcus

ectoplasmosis � The Dream of the Husband of the Fishmonger: "The Dream of the Husband of the Fishmonger"

Promachoteuthis sulcus: "Promachoteuthis sulcus (first known as Promachoteuthis sp. C on this page) is known from a single, small (25 mm ML, sex unknown) but distinctive individual from great depths in the south Atlantic Ocean."

Relaxation and Enjoyment

I've had a lot of enjoyment looking through the list of 50 Greatest Cartoons

It includes, naturally, "What's Opera, Doc?" (pedantry), and Rabbit of Seville? (Una la volta!)

Mysterious Typeface Change

'For some most mysterious reason, this isn't the blog I once knew'*. Unaccountably and apparently of its own accord, the Title, Headings and Body changed from a serif to a sans-serif typeface. At the moment the sidebar Text and Headings seem to have retained their original serif selves. Who knows how and/or why.

I've checked through the template file and can't find any reason. Adding in specifications for assorted serif faces doesn't seem to have made a difference. The template may need "upgrading", but that will mean it loses a lot of the customization I've spent so much time on. It will all need to be re-done. I don't feel up to spending that time, concentration & energy all over again at the moment.

UPDATE: Viewing this blog on other machines shows it still with the approved, preferred, desired, serif typeface. So I dunno. Am leaving it alone now in case I make it worse.

* Music, sung (not very good version, RealPlayer); lyricses

Lake George in Others' Eyes

Lake George. A popular name. There are a number around the world. We have a few (4) in Australia, but I think the most famous, or notorious, is the one in NSW, near Canberra. Tho' as one of its photographers on Flickr says: "traditional definitions of 'lake', 'river', and the like don't really hold in Australia".

Lake George's Geomorphology; A brief but clear description down near the end, around Figure 7. (In the context of the detailed broader geological area). Also (cautiously) check out the Wikipedia article. From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Getting to the bottom of the Lake George mystery
by James Woodford
November 30 2002
www.smh.com.au/ articles/ 2002/ 11/ 29/ 1038386313869.html

People's Pictures of Lake George

LAKE GEORGE

LAKE GEORGE
Originally uploaded by fotonchop

This lake has a fence in it. An old photo, with water.


Lake George NSW Australia

Lake George NSW Australia
Originally uploaded by sandown

Lake George around 1980, wet version. A now-rare photo of Lake George with water — quite a substantial amount of it too.


lake george

lake george
Originally uploaded by omnia

Sunrise behind the wooded ridge.


Australia - Lake George

Australia - Lake George
Originally uploaded by Celeste33

Lake George isn't in official "big sky country", but sometimes it's just there anyway.


Lake George from its western shore 180d panorama

Lake George from its western shore 180d panorama
Originally uploaded by robt

Panorama and an indigenous opinion, driving north from Canberra


Golden Summer, Lake George

Golden Summer, Lake George
Originally uploaded by carlmonus

Art & Life. This lake has livestock.


Lake George (dry lake) just outside Canberra

Lake George (dry lake) just outside Canberra
Originally uploaded by Aschaf

Mmm. Brings back some of my favourite memories travelling along the border of the lake towards sunset. Just gorgeous.


lake george, canberra

lake george, canberra
Originally uploaded by tEE.bEE

Another enduring memory, the pale straw colour of the broad flat grassy plain.


LakeGeorge

LakeGeorge
Originally uploaded by totalisator

How lovely it is to watch the clouds come and go, and the shadows and light changing across the 'lake bed' and mountains.


Lake George in sombre mood

Lake George in sombre mood

A very dramatic version of Lake George by Chris Lane, used with a newspaper story about conflict in the area. 'Gales buffet turbine project', by Wendy Frew in April, 2006



PoD — Lake George

PoD
Originally uploaded by The Department

Lake George under fluffy clouds in a high clear sky


DSC_0016 - Lake George mistier, greyer

DSC_0016
Originally uploaded by DC Maggie

This lake has a road across it. Lake George under a mistier, greyer kind of cloud.


Lake George - dry and sheep grazing in distance

Lake George - dry and sheep grazing in distance
Originally uploaded by China Shutter Bug

Even more livestock on the lake.


I tried to make a Flickr set out of other people's Flickr photos, couldn't work it out. Tried to set up a link for a search for "George" in my Favourites set, but that only works for me and when I'm signed in. Can't just put in the general "Lake George" and Australia search unless you too want to sort through the hundred or so.

So I'm trying to set up a type of set (heh) by making an entry here with thumbnails of my selected images, which I can link to. An advantage is that I can include non-Flickr images. It'd be nice to have it as a table with 3 or 4 thumbnails across, but for now I'll just have to go with the standard image uploads that Blogger has.

Bogong Moth season in Sydney 2007

Bogongs – first the recipe, now the film!
10 Oct 2007. ABC Sydney. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation):

It's not just the young and foolish attracted to the bright lights of the big city. Swarms of Bogong moths have descended on Sydney during their annual seasonal migration from southern Queensland and northern New South Wales to the alpine region as they migrate to escape the summer heat.

The Herbison-Evans/Crossley story on Agrotis infusa: http://linus.it.uts.edu.au/~don/larvae/noct/infusa.html

Short report with nice pictures from TV news


Long rambling description from a recent resident. Very "actuality"-style camerawork. She seems rather freaked out by the poor little harmless, helpless Agrotis infusa (CSIRO).

Portrait of a Young Man

Charles Darwin painted by George Richmond in the late 1830s, not all that long after the voyage of The Beagle.