moon phases

Started this before change to "New Blogger", as backup in case of trouble with digiphoto blog "In a Small Dark Room", or rants & links blog "Hello Cruel World" . Useful - at one stage Dark Room was there, but like the astrophysical Dark Matter, we could't see it ... better now, but kept Just In Case.

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There is nothing. There is no God and no universe, there is only empty space, and in it a lost and homeless and wandering and companionless and indestructible Thought. And I am that thought. And God, and the Universe, and Time, and Life, and Death, and Joy and Sorrow and Pain only a grotesque and brutal dream, evolved from the frantic imagination of that same Thought.
Mark Twain (letter to Joseph Twichell after his wife's death)
[me, on a bad day]

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WRITER'S LINKS
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Absolute Write is one of the leading sites for information on writing and publishing, especially the scam versions thereof. It has a broad, deep online community with an enormous message base going back years. Now it needs help. See the details and discussion here
Preditors and Editors
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On the getting of agents
Writer Beware
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Writer's Net

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(and my Wish List)

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Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is now in Australia
So a topical repeat of some previous posts -- see January 11, 2003 and June 17, 2003

Particularly this: home.clara.net/andywrobertson/wolfemountains.html
Gene Wolfe's essay on what The Lord Of The Rings means to him.

The Best Introduction to the Mountains
by Gene Wolfe
...
With that preparation I entered the Mills of Mordor, where courtesy is weakness, honesty is foolishness, and cruelty is entertainment
...
It is said with some truth that there is no progress without loss; and it is always said, by those who wish to destroy good things, that progress requires it. No great insight or experience of the world is necessary to see that such people really care nothing for progress. They wish to destroy for their profit, and they, being clever, try to persuade us that 'progress' and 'change' are synonymous ...

I do not agree with all his attitudes (browse through this blog to get a feel for mine if you are interested), but do sympathise with quite a few, rather like my attitude to Tolkien, parts of which, even in my early teens thirty years back, quite set my teeth on edge.
Perhaps it's because of the slightly fraught relationship between Great Britain/Europe and Australia (there are hints of a similar affect between the USA & the 'Old World', but it is distinctly different too).
Perhaps it's because I was (still am) female.

Nearby may be found other bits of Andy W Robertson's site, such as: DSL Notes on Content and home.clara.net/andywrobertson/docindex.html

Meanwhile, others have been busy *** MAJOR MOVIE SPOILERS ***
Return of the King Scene-by-Scene
cafe.cic.hull.ac.uk/~icb03rt/rotk.html
www.livejournal.com/users/karadin/63529.html

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 10:24 pm

 
 
www.snopes.com/holidays/christmas/boxing.asp Deals well with the much-disputed origin of the name "Boxing Day"

It even got into Parliamentary debate in Australia:
www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/Prod/Parlment/HansTrans.nsf/ all/CA256D110020B6CD4A2564350022CDCE
Mr ZAMMIT (Strathfield) [3.53]: The Minister for State Development, and Minister for Arts spoke about Australia and New South Wales being part of a global economy. Nothing brought that home to me as much as when I visited China about 10 months ago with the former Premier. When we visited a very large factory the first question I was going to ask the factory manager was what he paid his staff, but instead I asked him , "Do you give your staff holidays?" He replied, "Holidays, yes, every Sunday." This is part of the working world and the global economy against which we have to compete ...
[Page 5689]
... I have a definition by Rabbi Brasch of how Boxing Day began. He says:

The custom originated with the Romans and their feast of Saturn, during which they gave each other presents as an expression of the merry spirit of the celebration of the winter solstice.

[This I see more as one of the existing customs Christmas is based on. Remember, Christmas is not Jesus' birthday, it's the celebration of this birth. This was more familiar to people in older times, when people had name-days rather than birthdays. I have an adopted friend whose parents picked a day for his birthday, not knowing the actual one.]
... The definition of Boxing Day in The All-Australian Calendar Book says:
Boxing Day probably takes its name from the fact that on the day after Christmas in Britain, the alms boxes which had been placed in the churches over the Christmas period were opened. The contents were distributed to the poor. On the same day, apprentices and servants broke open small earthenware boxes in which their masters had deposited small sums of money. In large households, the family may have used this day to distribute Christmas boxes to their staff.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 10:41 am

 
 
nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004250.html
Posted by: Faren Miller on December 14, 2003 10:48 AM
... And soon, I'll take more time out to gleefully peruse my birthday present (given early so I could appreciate it on the weekend instead of Monday when my time will be much more limited), the Kino Video 5-DVD set of the birth of cinema, "The Movies Begin." 133 complete motion pictures. As I told Cathy, even if I only enjoy 128 of them, it's still perfectly swell ...

terryblogh.blogspot.com
Sunday, November 09, 2003
Meditations While Making Analog Digital
The Project is going ahead apace. Converting my old videos to VCD (and eventually DVD) requires a shitload of ones and zeroes, but I'm rediscovering some interesting stuff on the video shelves. You see I stack them vertically and two deep on the current white Ikea bookshelves and with around 1400 movies there, it's dead easy to forget what is in the back row of each shelf.
I'm trying to prioritise the digitisation on the basis of entropy. The movies most likely to be going to shit get first go. (And also, Sally's videotapes of The Goodies which include episodes that weren't on the recent DVD release... a promise is a promise.) All this requires a bit of rummaging around the shelves and the occasional discovery of videos I had forgotten I had. Stuff like these:
Sixty minutes of five minute episodes of the old Trans-Lux cartoon series The Mighty Hercules.
Dave Friedman's The Erotic Adventures of Zorro and
The Long Swift Sword of Siegfried.
Richard Franklin's Road Games,
a copy of Goodbye Paradise signed by Ray Barrett (I'm still not sure if that is Pauline Hanson playing an extra in that nightclub scene),
a triple pack of Chips Rafferty movies -- Bitter Springs, Eureka Stockade and The Overlanders
and a whole bunch of lesser 1970s blaxploitationmovies.
So while the digitisation is a lot of pains-taking hard work, there are rewards. Maybe one day I'll even find the time to sit down and rewatch some of these flicks.

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/ archive/2003/12/15/DDG923MBEI1.DTL
Call them what you will -- obsessive compulsive eccentrics, materialist philosophers or pack-rat artists -- collectors' 'unruly passions' make sense of our world
Monday, December 15, 2003
Steven Winn, Chronicle Arts and Culture Critic
... For some, the collecting impulse morphs into self-destructive hoarding -- newspapers are a common target. Elias Aboujaoude, a psychiatrist at the Stanford School of Medicine, says hoarding occurs in 5 to 15 percent of patients diagnosed as obsessive compulsive. "I don't want to pathologize collecting," says Aboujaoude. "Almost everyone is
attached to a certain kind of item."
With hoarders, he says, insight-based therapies are largely ineffective. "My experience is that folks who can identify the root causes, some missing relationship in their lives, have not been able to control the behavior."
Collecting, hoarding's socially sanctioned cousin, may finally resist scrutiny and causal dissection as well ...

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/ archive/2003/12/13/DDGHU3LI8B1.DTL
Writer and raconteur John Baxter collects books as a form of self-expression and as a way to savor -- and live -- the good life
Saturday, December 13, 2003
James Sullivan, Chronicle Pop Culture Critic
For this film biographer, longtime BBC commentator and incurable book hound, books are much more than mere vessels of information. They are treasurable objects utterly essential to the good life, worthy of scouting trips to the four corners of the globe and the joyful surrender of vast sums of money ... and the beloved science fiction of his youth in the Australian bush.
The first of Baxter's proposed four volumes of memoir on his lifelong mania, "A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict" (St. Martin's Press, $24.95), has just been published in America following widespread acclaim in England and Europe.
Now living in Paris,...

ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~melindag/psdmain.html
homepage for the University of Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary Project

www.eee.bham.ac.uk/cuneiform/
The Cuneiform Database Project (Some is under construction)

early-cuneiform.humnet.ucla.edu/
Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (A joint project of the University of California at Los Angeles and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin)

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 8:34 pm

 
Bartlett Beat-Up / Partial Competition Policy  
Part 1
What an extraordinarily overwhelming fuss being made about such a completely minor thing.

From all I've heard or read: Late at night (~10:30pm) on the last day of Parliament, probably after drinking at end-of-year parties, a couple of adults of similar size, tho' from different political parties, had a petty argument. It was apparently loud on both sides & swearwords were used (not sure if mutually). It did not last a long time. No blows were exchanged, although apparently B shook F by the arm.

Will the one who has never, ever, shouted at someone, or had a robust disagreement over their whole adult life please step forward, stone in hand.

The Aust Democrats have much bigger problems. Perhaps that is why all the vultures have descended into this amazing storm in a polystyrene party cup.

Part 2
This 'competition policy' - all anyone has mentioned is to do with sale of alcohol. Was anything else covered in it?

I am concerned because a lot of people have been talking about the US/Oz Free Trade Agreement discussions on a few subjects, such as pharmaceuticals, film (&c), and primary products.
If you look at the ideology in it, it also tries to discourage things like government support of public transport and public schools - any kind of mutual social support pretty much. Does the 'competition policy' work towards things like that too?

Bartlett references online
(Note that they all mention alcohol, but I think depression was another major part in the incident)
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/ story_page/0,5744,8147645%255E2702,00.html
One drink and Bartlett for the road
By Matt Price, Adrian McGregor and Terry Plane
December 13, 2003

dailytelegraph.news.com.au/ story.jsp?sectionid=1338&storyid=637093
dailytelegraph.news.com.au/ printerfriendly.jsp?sectionid=1338&storyid=637093
Bartlett affair a storm in a glass
December 15, 2003
FEW things could be sadder than Kevin Rudd's sobbing depiction of the loneliness of the committed politician.
Labor's foreign-affairs spokesman last week painted Parliament House as a place of cruelty and sterility.
"You could die in your office in Parliament House and not be found until a month later," he said ...

www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/ story_page/0,5478,8119024%255E662,00.html
Bartlett: I will not step down
Gerard McManus
10dec03

www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/10/1070732283648.html
Redemption for Bartlett would offer many hope
December 11, 2003
People with alcoholic problems deserve proper treatment - not daggers, writes Miranda Devine.

www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/07/1070732065437.html
Bartlett sorry over clash that brought disrepute to party
December 7, 2003 - 6:11PM
Australian Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett today admitted he had brought his party into disrepute by abusing and manhandling a Liberal senator in Parliament.
Senator Bartlett today appeared in public in Brisbane to again offer an unconditional apology to Liberal Senator Jeannie Ferris, with whom he had a physical and verbal altercation in the Senate last week

www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/06/1070625578795.html
Bartlett to take leave over fracas
December 6, 2003 - 8:05PM
Australian Democrats Leader Andrew Bartlett has stood aside as a result of his altercation with Liberal Senator Jeannie Ferris this week.
The incident left Senator Ferris nursing an injured upper arm ...
Senator Ferris had written to Senate President Paul Calvert to complain about the incident, which occurred on the floor of the Senate chamber after a division.
"Senator Bartlett was angry with me because I had gone around to attempt to retrieve five bottles of wine which he had taken back to his office from the coalition Christmas barbecue," Senator Ferris said.
"As he was crossing over from a voting position, he grabbed me and started to scream at me.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 5:18 pm

 
 
GROUND FARCE 1
Nov 23 2003
Queen's fury as Bush goons wreck garden
Exclusive By Terry O'Hanlon
THE Queen is furious with President George W. Bush after his state visit caused thousands of pounds of damage to her gardens at Buckingham Palace.

Royal officials are now in touch with the Queen's insurers and Prime Minister Tony Blair to find out who will pick up the massive repair bill. Palace staff said they had never seen the Queen so angry ...
The rotors of the President's Marine Force One helicopter and two support Black Hawks damaged trees and shrubs that had survived since Queen Victoria's reign.
And Bush's army of clod-hopping security service men trampled more precious and exotic plants ... [then there's the flamingos (yes, flamingos)]
... "The lawns are used for royal garden parties ... But 30,000 visitors did not do as much damage as the Americans did in three days ...
LINKS: www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/ content_objectid=13652625_method=full_siteid=106694_ headline=-GROUND-FARCE-1-name_page.html
OR
www.sundaymirror.co.uk/ printable_version.cfm?objectid=13652625&siteid=106694

[Below (Nov 24, 2003) is another extract about the UK visit by Bush II]

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 3:08 am

 
 
www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/ content_objectid=13652625_method=full_siteid=106694_ headline=-GROUND-FARCE-1-name_page.html
OR
www.sundaymirror.co.uk/ printable_version.cfm?objectid=13652625&siteid=106694

GROUND FARCE 1
Nov 23 2003
Queen's fury as Bush goons wreck garden
Exclusive By Terry O'Hanlon
THE Queen is furious with President George W. Bush after his state visit caused thousands of pounds of damage to her gardens at Buckingham Palace.

Royal officials are now in touch with the Queen's insurers and Prime Minister Tony Blair to find out who will pick up the massive repair bill. Palace staff said they had never seen the Queen so angry ...
The rotors of the President's Marine Force One helicopter and two support Black Hawks damaged trees and shrubs that had survived since Queen Victoria's reign.
And Bush's army of clod-hopping security service men trampled more precious and exotic plants ... [then there's the flamingos (yes, flamingos)]
... "The lawns are used for royal garden parties ... But 30,000 visitors did not do as much damage as the Americans did in three days ...

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 8:30 pm

 
 
ask.yahoo.com/ask/20031202.html
Tuesday December 2, 2003
Dear Yahoo!:
Why don't cigarette companies list their ingredients?
Addicted
Midway, Arkansas

Dear Addicted:
According to the CDC, current regulations require tobacco companies only to disclose levels of tar and nicotine on cigarette cartons. It would take a very large carton, however, to completely list the 600 odd additives contained in a single cigarette. Some of these include butane, formaldehyde, arsenic, ammonia, methane, and acetone.

Federal laws dating from the '80s require cigarette companies to submit their ingredients to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Bowing to increasing legal burdens, in 1994 six major cigarette manufacturers came public with a list of commonly used additives. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services stated that "although these ingredients are regarded as safe when ingested in foods, some may form carcinogens when heated or burned."

You can view the ingredients of Philip Morris tobacco products on the company's web site ( www.philipmorrisusa.com/ product_facts/ingredients/ brand_by_brand_ingredients.asp). You can view a similarly lengthy list of additives used in RJR Reynolds cigarettes ( www.rjrt.com/TI/TIcig_ingred_summary.asp). More than 40 of the additives listed have been known to cause cancer.

The Yahoo! Full Coverage page ( news.yahoo.com/ fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=health&cat=smoking) dedicated to smoking issues features a number of helpful resources, including a fascinating Flash animation from NOVA on the Anatomy of a Cigarette ( www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ cigarette/anatomy.html). Most cigarette filling is comprised of "reconstituted tobacco," which is a pulp product made from tobacco plant detritus that is chemically treated, died, and cut to resemble leaf tobacco.
[NOTE: Some long URLs have had spaces inserted so they'll wrap & not cause layout problems. The links themselves should work, but if you copy the visible section, remove any spaces.]

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 8:27 pm

 
Following a discussion after the change of Labor Party leaders  
I was very disappointed to hear someone as experienced & intelligent as Antony Greene get sucked into the twisted logic* of the current political ideology.

Yes, people 'aspire' to, for instance, have a good education for their children. But what the idea used to be was that (like Medicare) _everyone_ is entitled to have a reasonable, good education, _everyone_, having benefited from all the previous generations, contributes to the education of the current crop of children. If there is some special social or religious reason you want something different, then you may pay extra for that, but the majority learn together, each according to their talents.

The present ideology puts the general public good at the very bottom, along with the world (or 'environment'). To almost quote what was said "If you want a good education, send your children to a private school." Thus we end up a divided & fractious society, Catholics there, Anglicans here, Muslims off there, etc, etc.
Suspicious & fearful, closeted off in our own mental (perhaps eventually physical) gated communities & wonderful prey to the political types who feed on that kind of energy. Remember the countries where groups who'd lived together for a century or more were torn apart by this kind of divisive policy, even in Europe

The same with medical treatment - if Kerry Packer pays his taxes he is as entitled to use the general ambulance service if, say, he has a sudden heart attack as anyone else is. He doesn't have to pay for a private one to trail around after him just in case. And we all benefit because there's a well-supported service. Again, the same applies to a good public transport system instead of continual cutbacks, with tax support for private cars & roadbuilding.

If you rip the guts out of the general public services - transport, health, education, social support for those in difficulty - grind down those who are trying to work in them, treat the passengers, patients, pupils, people, who use them without respect, as 'no count trash', naturally those who are able will probably move away. And those who can't? It's axiomatic if you treat people like garbage, they won't love you or treat you well either. Getting respect means giving respect. So you end up in a vicious circle of increasing 'public squalor', driving more away.

*TWISTED LOGIC:
ENVY: If you say a policy or set of behaviours is greedy, selfish, short-sighted & very destructive, this is called 'envy'. That's obviously wrong, since 'envy' means you want what the other person has. What you are actually doing is 'aspiring' to a _better_way_ of doing things, benefiting yourself perhaps, but society & the world most importantly.

ASPIRATION: If you want to imitate the people who are doing destructive, selfish & short-sighted things, you are called 'aspiring'. I call this 'envy'. You may 'aspire' for yourself & your family, like the Suharto family did - the well-known phrase is "bugger you Jack, I'm alright" - but without caring what the consequences are for anyone else.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 11:50 am

 
 
There's a lot of excited people next door in New Zealand tonight where the
big final Lord of the Rings film is having its world premiere. Alas, the
Big Island (or the Western Isle as we are - very rarely - called by some
Kiwis) here (or Oz as we sometimes call it) has to wait, like the rest of us
here on this 'isthmus of a middle state' until St Stephen's Day.

I hope that they did end up putting just some of the 'Scouring of The Shire'
in the coda. It really is, in one sense, pretty much the major point of the
rest, bringing us face to face with everyday, banal evil stripped of glamour
& magic.
The kind we, sadly, often encounter in the selfish & destructive behaviour
of people around us, and then have to decide whether to, say, 'blow the
whistle' on fraud or cheating, like Mr Wigand or Ms Brockovich, or that lady
- was it Enron or one of the other big companies? Both in the book and in
real life they are often left damaged & sadder, rather than the triumphant
heroes in so many stories. Perhaps it was Tolkien's war service that showed
him that so clearly.

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving (drinking "Turkey & Gravy Soda"?)


More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 10:11 pm

 
 

One Month to Christmas

2003_11_09_sursumcorda_archive.html#106874536012177992
One Pilgrim's Walk - A view of the world from ground level
Saturday, November 15, 2003
Man stuff
... My word, the uproar that one little post can start -- and fortunately it wasn't mine.
A post by one Kim du Toit (I don't feel like giving him the link -- just google the name if you must) titled “The Pussification Of The Western Male.” has caused a bit of approval or dissaproval [sic] across the blogosphere recently. A number of people have made excellent responses that I agree with ...
That's what I can think of at just this point. My main reaction is that if you have to be spending your time worrying if you are a real man, you have a problem.

MORE ON MEN at at Sursum Corda (http://sursumcorda.blogspot.com/ ) Topical musings from a Catholic perspective
2003_11_09_sursumcorda_archive.html#106874536012177992
(also refers to Sergeant Stryker - http://www.sgtstryker.com weblog/archives/004044.php#004044
on the same subject ).

"du Toit, du" from one of my Highly Recommended Blogs (on a site that also has non-blog sections), Making Light (http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight) Theresa Neilsen Hayden's comment at /archives/004023.html#004023 (complete with photo).


More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 8:23 pm

 
 
My late partner and I had returned from our 'trip of a lifetime' to Europe at the start of July 1997 and we were living together in the short years before I fell ill and my father died. It was the weekend after my birthday, we were going to the North Rocks shopping centre for the computer markets, and would do the general shopping there as well.
The car radio news said there'd been an accident and she'd been injured. This was rippling through the people in the centre. Then someone said she'd died. I tend to keep my little transistor by me and tuned into the later news and it confirmed she'd died. It was a bit of a shock, and I wondered how it would change things.
It was totally unexpected that there would be such a strong reaction. I was shocked that people would be feeling so strongly

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 11:07 pm

 
 
What with the Kennedy assassination, Dr Who anniversary, & a number of others, it reminded me of this letter that I sent some while back to the Sydney Morning Herald. It didn't get published.

The recent discussion on whether to keep some part of Singapore's Changi prison as a memorial to the 87,000 POWs of many nationalities who passed through it, often to much harsher locations scattered through South-East Asia, reminded me of other, closer, memorials.

Three months ago there was disturbance at the destruction of a memorial to victims of the Luna Park Ghost Train fire. (Ghost Train memorial tree haunts developers, July 14 2003 www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/07/13/1058034877881.html)

It is now 25 years since three died in the still-unsolved Hilton terrorist bombing in February 1978.
During work before the 2000 Olympics the memorial stele on George St was changed to an inset plaque, unprotected from being trod underfoot, having suitcases dumped on it, etc. Now it's disappeared under all the new concrete and hoardings put up for the renovations. Does anyone know what's happened to it?

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 9:42 pm

 
 
My late partner and I had returned from our 'trip of a lifetime' to Europe at the start of July 1997 and we were living together in the short years before I fell ill and my father died. It was the weekend after my birthday, we were going to the North Rocks shopping centre for the computer markets, and would do the general shopping there as well.
The car radio news said there'd been an accident and she'd been injured. This was rippling through the people in the centre. Then someone said she'd died. I tend to keep my little transistor by me and tuned into the later news and it confirmed she'd died. It was a bit of a shock, and I wondered how it would change things.
It was totally unexpected that there would be such a strong reaction. I was shocked that people would be feeling so strongly

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 3:17 pm

 
40th Anniversary JFK in Dallas - one memory  
40th Anniversary JFK in Dallas - one memory
John Fitzgerald Kennedy, 35th President of the United States shot dead this day in 1963. I was less than 10 years old, but interested in world affairs.
It was Saturday, late spring/early summer. and mother - who worked during the week - and I were going to the beach. We were on the bus when mother said something like: 'Did you hear President Kennedy was assassinated?" I was stunned & griefstricken. Hoping against hope, I asked if that meant he'd been killed (maybe it was just that he'd been shot by someone trying to kill him). "Oh, yes".
Talking to others of my age, very few of them seem to have really experienced or felt or remembered this the same way. Surely I can't have been the only Australian primary school child who had followed & admired him? I think many of my nightmares of a similar date might have been due to things like the Cuban missile crisis.

Altho' I remember the horrific year of 1968, it is more of a blur of one terrible thing after another, starting I suppose in December 1967 when Harold Holt disappeared/died, then going through the assassinations and riots in different countries. There's not a lot of other worldwide events that 'set' quite that way. John Lennon's shooting is apparently important to many people.
Interestingly, despite my not following her story particularly, and not having that kind of sick guilt that I think drove much of the hysteria about it, I do remember the circumstances of hearing of Princess Diana's death, now 5 years back. I might tell you that in a later post, since I'm not sure if I posted that on the anniversary in August.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 2:39 pm

 
Fever Pitch (TM Nick Hornby) in Sydney for the Rugby World Cup  
From http://whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/
O/OrwellGeorge/essay/ShootingElephant/sportingspirit.htm

From the Essay Collection Shooting an Elephant
“I Write as I Please”
The Sporting Spirit
1945
George Orwell

includes this classic passage

.... <bigsnip> As soon as strong feelings of rivalry are aroused, the notion of playing the game according to the rules always vanishes. People want to see one side on top and the other side humiliated, and they forget that victory gained through cheating or through the intervention of the crowd is meaningless. Even when the spectators don’t intervene physically they try to influence the game by cheering their own side and “rattling” opposing players with boos and insults. Serious sport has nothing to do with fair play. It is bound up with hatred, jealousy, boastfulness, disregard of all rules and sadistic pleasure in witnessing violence: in other words it is war minus the shooting.

Instead of blah-blahing about the clean, healthy rivalry of the football field and the great part played by the Olympic Games in bringing the nations together, it is more useful to inquire how and why this modern cult of sport arose. Most of the games we now play are of ancient origin, but sport does not seem to have been taken very seriously between Roman times and the nineteenth century. Even in the English public schools the games cult did not start till the later part of the last century. Dr Arnold, generally regarded as the founder of the modern public school, looked on games as simply a waste of time. Then, chiefly in England and the United States, games were built up into a heavily-financed activity, capable of attracting vast crowds and rousing savage passions, and the infection spread from country to country. It is the most violently combative sports, football and boxing, that have spread the widest. There cannot be much doubt that the whole thing is bound up with the rise of nationalism—that is, with the lunatic modern habit of identifying oneself with large power units and seeing everything in terms of competitive prestige. Also, organised games are more likely to flourish in urban communities where the average human being lives a sedentary or at least a confined life, and does not get much opportunity for creative labour. In a rustic community a boy or young man works off a good deal of his surplus energy by walking, swimming, snowballing, climbing trees, riding horses, and by various sports involving cruelty to animals, such as fishing, cock-fighting and ferreting for rats. In a big town one must indulge in group activities if one wants an outlet for one’s physical strength or for one’s sadistic impulses. Games are taken seriously in London and New York, and they were taken seriously in Rome and Byzantium: in the Middle Ages they were played, and probably played with much physical brutality, but they were not mixed up with politics nor a cause of group hatreds ... <bigsnip> ...
... I do not, of course, suggest that sport is one of the main causes of international rivalry; big-scale sport is itself, I think, merely another effect of the causes that have produced nationalism. Still, you do make things worse by sending forth a team of eleven men, labelled as national champions, to do battle against some rival team, and allowing it to be felt on all sides that whichever nation is defeated will “lose face”. <snip>

A good source of Orwell's works (& others')
whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/O/OrwellGeorge/
Another source of Orwell's works
www.online-literature.com/orwell/

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 8:47 pm

 
 
www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/02/13/1044927734624.html

The rule of law: You'll miss it when it's gone

By Margo Kingston
February 13 2003

Webdiarist Tamsin Clarke agreed a while ago to write a piece for Webdiary on the State Government engineered collapse of the rule of law in NSW development. This has resulted in vandalism by lawless developers, because they know the law - and the conditions of development they've agreed to - will not be enforced by the State. They also know that most citizens don't have the money or the time to force developer compliance and can be intimidated by threats to sue for defamation and the like.

However the pending war on Iraq saw Tamsin write a piece on the widespread attacks by governments on the rule of law - the foundation of democracy - in general, with the threat by the United States, Britain and Australia to invade Iraq in defiance of international law the latest, and most dangerous, example. Tamsin argues that we've taken step two in the march towards fascism, and urges citizens to fight back before it's too late.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 9:19 pm

 
 
Not sure whether to laugh or cry or sit staring into space or what.
Found letter in my mailbox on the way to work, saying:

"We confirm the application for payment of superannuation and death or invalidity benefit for the late C--- K--- has been approved.

Please find enclosed two cheques ..."

I was tempted to dash back into town and put it straight into his Credit Union account.

At this stage have $290 in my own account, $203 of which is from a Medicare payment and $67 from MBF Health Insurance.
On Friday am expecting ~$1800 monthly pay. Now, $550 of this is for my living expenses & some ~$1900 more is committed to Chris' bills, of which $1000/mo is one Visa Card debt, probably down to ~$10,000 by now. There is another Bankcard debt for $4500-$5000 hanging fire.

And people wonder why I sometimes lose patience & shout when mother interrupts my letterwriting or other work for the eleventy-first time in a morning to ask me a question I've answered eleventy times in the last few hours.

I could bank it in the Credit Union estate account and then get cheques for the two credit card bills. Clear them right off the slate <hand trembles>

That should leave some few thousand in that account, from which one set of mortgage payments are deducted.
I can then put 1/3 or 1/2 of that into the other bank account for the other mortgage, which is in arrears by around $2000, pay out those arrears & leave a cushion to pay out the surplus ongoing monthly payments above the receipts.

This would bring my current expenses for Chris' bills down to only ~$900/mo, and keep mortgage payments going for several months (especially if the place stays rented and free of further unexpected repair bills). Without that $1000/mo, paying the quarterly council & water rates on everything and electricity & phone for his house become much more affordable.

The surplus mortgage payments are still a struggle, but I can't really renegotiate/pay off any substantial amount until the large superannuation payment comes through.

If the insurance (about a year's wages) does come through before the next superannuation, I could pay my friends & mother some of what I owe them for the emergency help in the last eighteen months. If it looks like the larger super payout will take much longer, however, it might be an idea to put most of the insurance into the mortgages. On the other hand it might be better to keep a fairly large chunk in liquid form in the estate account in case of something unexpected. So many unexpected expenses have turned up in the last year or so - not just medical & funeral & legal ones, but all sorts of things raining down like frogs from rainclouds.

Once the large payout comes <thinking positive, no 'if'>, there should be enough to partly pay & renegotiate the mortgages so that there aren't surplus payments beyond income. Then I'll know how much is left from that to repay those personal debts and should be able to see if my own personal savings have anything left. By golly, the rainy day certainly arrived that I had them for. Not all that optimistic about future weather conditions, so having some left over would be really quite good.

Should I wait until tomorrow morning? It makes me jittery, the only times I've had this much liquid assets on me were around August 1980, when I paid for my house (1/4 my funds, 3/4 the bank's), and a cheque for what I lent C--- in 1999 (about half the price of the house, and all my own money).

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 1:12 pm

 
From the first 9/11/2002 Kristallnacht entry  
(In Australia 9/11 is November 9th)

Remember Kristallnacht - 9/11/38

Two sites of many
www.remember.org/fact.fin.kristal.html
www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/kristallnacht.html

November 9th is still a pertinent anniversary: "Kristallnacht
- the Night of Broken Glass".

In 1938, incensed by hearing of his family in Germany being forced into
"relocation camps" in the November snow under Nazi laws, an adolescent
Jew in Paris shot and killed a German diplomat.

Goebbels used this for propaganda about conspiracies against
Germany, inciting Germans to "rise in bloody vengeance", culminating
on the long winter night of November 9th in organised widespread
violence. Non-Jews who protested were beaten. Police and firemen
watched people brutalized, buildings smashed, looted and burnt.
Morning footpaths were impassable under an icy glittering crust of
broken glass and ashes.

Lack of public protest encouraged the Nazi government to pass even
more repressive laws in the next few months. Prominent Germans
who protested were arrested. Ordinary Germans who protested
were beaten up.

Can we hope that we've learnt from last century's several examples
of disasters wrought by stirring up - for power, for gain, for dogmatic
religion or ideology - the darker side we all have?

From www.us-israel.org/jsource/Holocaust/kristallnacht.html
what disturbed the German populace was less the sight of synagogues burning (fires take place all the time, after all -- it depends on the scale) than of the savage and wasteful vandalism that confronted bystanders everywhere, disrupting the clean and orderly streets (to say nothing of consumer convenience). What was indeed memorable was the sheer quantity of broken glass. A third point was the economic outcome of this massive breakage. Germany didn't produce enough plate glass to repair the damages (synagogues did not have to be replaced -- quite the contrary). The result was twofold: the need to import glass from Belgium (for sorely needed cash) and the outrage of indemnifying the Jewish community to pay for the damages.

Labels: anniversaries, history

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 9:27 am

 
A Competition for tickets to a David Suzuki talk - write what you do for 'the environment'  
Although, as an average Australian inner-city wage earner, I have carried out the usual environmentally-aware procedures: saving & re-using clean & waste water; keeping my house small, without a/c & re-using materials in renovation; my (tiny) garden low-water, animal-friendly & pesticide-free; composting & recycling waste; air-drying my laundry; not owning a car -- in my most important environmental endeavours I feel my neighbours & I have been quite unsuccessful.

Despite years of very much untrained, fitted-around-work unpaid work by my neighbours & I, we were unable to gain enough support among those who can influence events (as opposed to inhabitants or the planning department) to get local amenity &/or future sustainability as basic & important considerations in the redevelopment of our suburb. Profit is all.

GreenPeace was a help at first, then went off to try & influence the Olympic site. From my experience of it, and what I've heard & read, even they -- trained, full-time paid advocates -- were well-circumvented.

For public consumption lip service was paid, but it's results that count, and after years of glossy brochures & protestation that it would be a 'model inner-city development' our suburb is now held up as an example of what to avoid, used to strike fear into people elsewhere: "If we let them do X, this place will end up like [mine]".

Mr Suzuki's recent book of good news did help me in my despair for the future of my beloved city & country. But I mourn bitterly what has been destroyed, and sometimes grudge hope that can keep your heart sore when that anaesthetic poison can insulate you from the pain of caring.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 10:50 am

 
 
There was a similar PR campaign for the film "A.I.", it began with a credit for "Jeanine Salla, Sentient Machine Therapist:" imdb.com/title/tt0212720/crazycredits in the film.

If you Google "Jeanine Salla," you get bangaloreworldu-in.co.cloudmakers.org/salla/default.html.
You can link from her site to trip down a rabbit hole into a fictional world with sentient houses and androids that create genetically enhanced humans.


More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 7:16 pm

 
 
Metacortechs/Meta-cortex
This is supposedly the company that Neo works for in The Matrix.
www.metacortechs.com
Starting in late September, MetaCortechs's site became active. The WB (Watchowski Brothers) created an authentic-looking hosting company to host MetaCortechs's site, as well as several other sites that were created by MetaCortechs "employees".

free.pages.at/areku/meta/htm/introduction.htm
www.cs.uiowa.edu/~mlpatter/matrix
www.bole.ca/matrix/index.php
forums.unfiction.com/forums/index.php?c=13 (Unfiction.com’s forum for Metacortechs)

As of October 4, these are the websites that are related to this stunt:
www.underscorehosting.com (the fake company set up by the WB to host all these Matrix-stunt-related websites)
www.little-boxes.net
www.metadex.net
www.paranormaljournal.org
www.paintover.net
www.theaquapolis.com
www.sheismissing.info
www.heismissing.info
www.underscorehosting.com
www.cascadevortex.com
www.leiphe.net


More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 7:15 pm

 
 
It's not looking good for the final Matrix movie. Importantly, how will this affect the spin-off stuff? They seem to be quite heavily into that (see, for instance the online material referred to in these Matrix Essays posts: Metacortechs1; Metacortechs2; Metacortechs3 )

www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/04/1067708215499.html
Drubbing for Matrix finale
By Garry Maddox, Film Reporter
November 5, 2003

Matrix magic gets Sydney gala finale (Report on the Sydney Morning Herald website) www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/11/01/1067597198299.html

Just a piece on Keanu arriving back in Sydney, saying he likes it here. It talks about the filming here, & the other people arriving for the Sydney premiere.

www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/31/1067566068584.html

Neo romantic
November 1, 2003

Sci-fi SNAG . . . Keanu Reeves with love interest Carrie-Anne Moss in Matrix Revolutions [picture].

Flying calamari can't compete with falling in love, Keanu Reeves tells Phillip McCarthy.
Keanu Reeves doesn't own a computer and has no plans to acquire one.
"I don't use the internet.
I don't send email. I don't have a secret identity," the star of the Matrix trilogy says. "You don't have to be a computer geek to be interested in the subjects these movies raise," he says...

The usual local interview - he talks a bit about the next movie he's doing Constantine. I thought with all hte Alexander the Great movies around it might be about the Roman emperor, but it's apparently a contemporary detective story based on a comic/graphic novel.


Because "Matrix Revolutions" is having a global release fairly much at the same instant, apparently the Australian release will be at 1am on November 6th (Thursday week). Bleah.

Something similar happened with the latest "Harry Potter" book. There was an embargo on opening the cardboard boxes with them inside until a particular global instant. Lots of children were all dressed up & attending events at bookshops at some quite peculiar times. It did make it quite a special event for them, I suppose.

It has, over the years, become something of a badge of pride amongst Australians that to see various world events we have to be up at all hours, and organise ourselves around them. It was quite a shock during the 2000 Sydney Olympics to have things happening during 'normal' times of day.

The bit that has me rather puzzled is there being an "Australian Premiere" on the Sunday afternoon before (November 2nd). So, why the big fuss about everything being simultaneous a few days after? Why not have the openings rolling around the world with the terminator, like that big Millennium dawn celebration they did (somewhat prematurely) at the start of 2000?

... and also related to time zones - both natural & as altered by society
Saturday, October 25, 2003
Spring Forward - Fall Back
Clocks go back one hour tonight in the UK, from BST (GMT+1) to GMT. So that's it for another summer!

La! And we are just 'springing forward' into our daylight saving. Hmmm ... does this mean Australia is closer, temporally speaking, to the UK or further away?
We now have Eastern Summer Time in NSW, Victoria, Tasmania & ACT; Eastern Standard Time in Queensland; Central Summer Time in South Australia; Australian Central Time in the Northern Territory; and Western Standard Time in Western Australia. That's 5 instead of the usual 3 zones.
Our national broadcaster, Radio National - part of the ABC - now has to do some very complex things to keep its programs going out over the whole continent.
comment link to Bill Cameron comment

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 7:03 pm

 
 
Remember the entry about more affidavits? Well, during phoning, writing, copying, etc, also checked tax situation.

I think that one reason to work hard at establishing myself (yet again) as his legitimate de facto [is that an oxymoron?], rather than getting his superannuation paid into an Estate Trust (and straight out again to pay the debts), is that "the funds in the hands of dependent beneficiaries are free of tax". The spouse, de lege or de facto, is defined as a dependant - you don't have to worry if you earnt some money yourself.

As it is, the combined superannuation payouts will just about cover the debts - both the ones outstanding at his death & ones since - so if a large chunk is subtractedby tax, that leaves me, relict, sick, insecure & generally in a considerably worse situation than before.

At least if the debts are covered, I'll only be in a somewhat worse situation, mostly because of my permanent health disability and the worries about needing money to pay for mother's care as she deteriorates. But I wouldn't have a continual drain from continuing to pay debts in arrears.
As I've said many times, I am just so thankful that we are in Australia. Though things are getting worse in our health & aged care systems, it is much better than some of the others around the world. Although I couldn't have gone on without my friends, many workers in the system have been very helpful, and supported mother & myself.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 4:33 pm

 
 
www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/10/24/1066974326179.html
It was all over in a flash of security badges
October 25, 2003
Richard Glover

It was like the visit of the boy in the bubble as the hermetically sealed President was whisked through Canberra ... No one's done a country quicker since the old days of the Women's Weekly Tour of Europe, in which, legend has it, they got Italy down to 3 hours, including lunch and a loo-stop. ...

Of course, the President did address Parliament ... warmly thanking us for being birthplace to the new Californian governor-elect ... In thanks, the whole Liberal Party broke out in a spontaneous display of alpine yodelling, while the Labor back bench made a human pyramid - neatly accommodating those who wished to crouch backwards, those who wished to bow, those who wished to scrape, and those who wished to stand to attention singing The Internationale ...

Yet, since no one got near the President, can we be sure he was even here? Saddam Hussein had body doubles, why not Bush? Why else did they keep everyone a few kilometres back? ...

Late in the day, on the way up the War Memorial steps, three Aussie bush flies made heroic attempts to make contact, but the President's security patrol took them out, using a combination of mace, ju-jitsu and grenades. At least they got closer than any of the Aussie journalists.

On a More Serious Note
www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2003/08/21/1061434983337.htm
How Margo Kingston saw it in 1998
Date: August 21 2003
An extract from Margo Kingston's 1999 book Off the Rails: The Pauline Hanson trip.
Chapter 18: We're all poor lean people and we're bangin' on your gate
DAYS 28, 29 AND 30


More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 8:19 pm

 
 
A friend pointed me towards this column - I've seen good work in this site before, by a different writer.
Please Become More Selfish
By Mark Morford, SF Gate Columnist

(This link is mentioned in the column above Anyone But Bush by William Rivers Pitt (truthout))

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 7:20 pm

 
 
Whoo-hoo! Looks like The Ascent of Man DVD is on its way
(Here is a reminder of why I want it.)
An earlier post of this in Hello Cruel World

The Danger of Knowing for Sure

A special joint edition of The Millenium Project and Quintessence of the Loon
September 12, 2001



I can remember the first time I saw the image at the right of the screen. It comes from the television series The Ascent of Man and the particular episode was called "Knowledge and Certainty". It shows Jacob Bronowski reaching into a pool of black mud, black because it contains the ashes of people murdered as the result of an insane belief system. In the middle of the 20th century civilisation was threatened as an entire country seemed to go mad, and millions of people died as a result. A new word was invented [OK, no - he may mean "genocide".], "holocaust", to describe something which even today almost defies belief - that someone could propose, and execute, a plan to destroy a large part of the world's population simply because they had the wrong genealogy - their parents and ancestors were the wrong sort of human.

Some people thought that Bronowski was making a play on the words in the series title and showing that, as well as an ascent of humankind towards civilisation, there was always the possibility of a descent back into primitivism and savagery. This point was certainly being made, but the main idea was contained in the title of the episode - "Knowledge and Certainty". Bronowski was making a distinction between science and non-science - between knowing something with confidence and knowing something with certainty. The Nazis knew with certainty that they were right. Science, and its handmaiden skepticism, is based on the principle that knowledge is testable and that ideas and beliefs can be rejected and replaced if they can be demonstrated to be wrong or outdated. It is a process of continuous learning. Yes, science can have bad outcomes, but those bad things can be challenged and changed if necessary. When ideas cannot be challenged then learning, improvement and the correction of mistakes are impossible. There is no way back.

On 11 September, 2001, civilisation was again attacked when hijacked aircraft were flown into the two towers of the World Trade Center in New York City and the Pentagon, and again we were presented with indelible images that will stay in our minds forever. At the time of writing, the people behind this atrocity are unknown, although there are suspicions and clues. For my purpose, however, it does not matter who did this or whether the motivation was political protest, religious bigotry, racism, extortion, whatever. What is important is that the people who did this were absolutely certain that they were right. The hijackers entered the planes in the certain knowledge that not only were they going to die themselves, but that they were going to kill an unknown number of strangers, people who had never harmed them in any way. It must take a special kind of madness to train for months for a suicide mission, to be so absolutely certain about your belief that there is nothing that could change that belief, regardless of the consequences to you or anyone else.

You might say that I am talking about extremes here, just as it would be extreme to use the examples of human behaviour that we have seen over the years in Cambodia, Rwanda, Ireland or the collection of tribes that used to be called Yugoslavia. Yes, they are extremes, but they are all examples of the failure of rational thought. It is not just civil wars, however, that exemplify the problem. Agricultural production was damaged for decades in the Soviet Union because ideology decreed that the science of genetics be rejected, and the same country held on to an inefficient economic system long after its faults and weaknesses had been demonstrated. People are campaigning against the development of an AIDS vaccine because they think the loss of millions of lives is irrelevant when placed against their belief that all vaccines are evil. Others hang on to ancient superstitions and medical systems with no proven effectiveness and proudly state that these things must work because they have not changed for centuries. Countries with enormous natural and human resources are held back by religious traditions which may have been appropriate when armies fought with spears. People have their savings stolen daily by liars who pretend to contact their dead loved ones or who promise miracle cures for incurable diseases.

Skepticism is sometimes confused with cynicism. Skeptics are seen as people who don't want to believe anything. This is incorrect - skeptics, like scientists, are people who just want to be confident that what they believe and know is the most likely thing that accords with reality. Put another way, a skeptic is someone who likes his facts to be correct. It is difficult to change long-held beliefs and it can be distressing to find out that you have an emotional investment in something which is wrong. Sometimes, however, it is just necessary to put away childish things, because there can be real danger in knowing things that just ain't so.

Peter Bowditch
September 2001

It ain't so much the things we know that get us into trouble. It's the things we know that just ain't so.
Some people know that Artemus Ward said this; some people know that Josh Billings said it;
some people know that Mark Twain said it; some people know that Will Rogers said it;
before I looked it up, I knew that Ralph Waldo Emerson said it.

When I was a child, I spake as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child: but when I became a man, I put away childish things.
1 Corinthians 13:11

Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.
1 Thessalonians 5:21

I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.
Oliver Cromwell, 3 August, 1650

www.ratbags.com/skepticism
Text copyright © 2001 Peter Bowditch


www.ronrecord.com/Quotes/bronowski.html
Jacob Bronowski Quote From the "Knowledge or Certainty" episode from the 1973 BBC series "The Ascent of Man", transcribed by Evan Hunt (extracted)

... It is said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That is false: tragically false. Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. *This* is where people were turned into numbers ... And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality--this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.

Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known; we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge or error, and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we *can* know although we are fallible ...

Labels: bronowski, history, science, tv

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 6:52 pm

 
 
www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/09/17/1063625088499.html
Review of Bad Boys II from the Sydney Morning Herald
By Paul Byrnes
September 18, 2003
He doesn't like it.
But I rather like the review.
Odd how sometimes unpleasant things can cheer you up.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 2:41 pm

 
 
More bad news. The other people want four statutory declarations about the relationship between Chris & me.
They refuse to send superannuation to the estate, but want to pay to me personally -- hope they will pay it into the Estate Account, because it can go straight from there to pay his crushing debts -- but then they want all this proof. That is more proof than the Supreme Court needed!
Now have to find if I can find copies of all the affidavits & so on, and add a few extra ... bloody painful it is.
For goodness' sake, everyone, make out a will. The pain you put people left behind through is an unkind legacy indeed.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 5:17 pm

 
 
Following Friday, 19th September up: For one of the "two very very important things" they wrote back, asking for yet more documentation! One of which they had specifically said on the form I filled in, that they didn't want me to send (i.e., they said, "don't send [this] send [something else] instead, which I did").

!@#*^&#%?(*@%&#@)&?%!!!

It may, of course, be possible that:

It's part of a cunning scheme to keep Australia Post (formerly known as the Postmaster General's Department before they split it into separate mail & telephone parts) going. All this stuff is sent by Registered Mail with an extra fee for delivery acknowledgment (you can also pay extra fees for extra insurance & person-to-person delivery, but you have to draw the line somewhere - possibly quite tightly about certain necks...);

It's part of a scheme to keep the (semi-government??) body they're in looking busy so they don't get "rightsized" into the unemployment pool - cold, dirty & carnivore-infested bog that it is.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 1:27 pm

 
 
The continuing ignoring of all this, the continual need to repeat & repeat & still never seem to get anything substantial happening is one of the things that wipes out my attempts at Anger Management (& despair avoidance).
How many substantial increases in the coverage & convenience of public transport do you remember, despite everyone mouthing platitudinous support statements?
How many times have authorities said "we've learnt from our mistakes of the past", and just repeated them, over & over & over - despite hundreds of apparently powerless consumer/voters telling them over & over & over what problems happened before & will reccur?
<seethe>
Transport and health: en route to a healthier Australia? , Chloë Mason, 6 March 2000, Medical Journal of Australia 2000; 172: 230-232

ABC Archive listing March 2000
www.abc.net.au/science/news/ScienceNewsArchive2000_March2000.htm

Leave the car at home (ABC Science 6-Mar-2000)
www.abc.net.au/science/news/stories/s107641.htm

www.abc.net.au/science/news/enviro/EnviroRepublish_107641.htm

Environmentally responsible motoring? (& related stories) 17 October 2001
www.abc.net.au/science/news/enviro/EnviroRepublish_392350.htm

www.abc.net.au/science/news/enviro/EnviroRepublish_768017.htm ... The reason for the surprising disparity is that cars always have a passenger in them (the driver), whereas public transport runs at an average of only 25 to 30 per cent capacity ...

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 6:45 pm

 
 

Friday

Good News I Think
Well, had a real strong push over the last week and managed - I think - to obtain all the assorted documents needed, make all the copies needed, get all the copies certified, find & assemble all the data needed, fill in all the forms with it correctly, and then both submit the forms at the office and post the other by registered post. Had some of these before, but needed to fill in the gaps and, as the saying goes (or at least went), "get my act together".

Used up much of my personal goodwill with some people, most of my energy, an awful lot of time & travel & not inconsiderable money. But that's two very very important things started. If all goes well, these will let me take a number of very heavy weights off my poor sore back and lift onerous burdens from a flagging spirit. Very great thanks and gratitude to those who helped & harried me onwards.

Saturday

Slept for about 14 hours after feeding mother, then got up to do the week's shopping & housework.

Fell into bed again that evening but perhaps because of the earlier long sleep had a very broken night. Before when I haven't been able to sleep I've got up and done some blogging or other kinds of work, but I don't want to get back into the turned-around daily rhythm, so just stewed in bed.

Sunday

A Kind of Rest
Luckily weather is neither too steamy nor too frosty right now for sleeping comfortably, but fell asleep, woke again, drowsed again, slept; woke; slept; woken abruptly by phone call, otherwise I might have slept until noon. Anyway, ended up being pushed to Art Gallery to see exhibition I've been trying to get to for a month or so. It's been far too long since I got there.

This exhibition is called "Seasons", subtitled "Transience in Japanese Art". There are large screens, wall scrolls, kimonos, hand scrolls, printed book pages, painted porcelain, lacquerware, all with a seasonal theme. The trick with this particular one is that for the first month of the exhibition all the Spring and Summer items were displayed (while we were in winter), and they are changing over this week (Vernal Equinox) to the Autumn and Winter displays for the second month. Being a special exhibition, you have to pay to go into that part of the gallery, but having paid to go into the first part, you can hold onto your ticket and use it to see the second part. I succumbed to the catalogue because I do really have a thing for Japanese art, but again there was a bonus because a CD-ROM was included. Some other exhibitions I've seen they are sold separately.

My friends weren't as interested so louched around the rest of the place and the park outside (Domain) until closing time when I was gently eased out the doors. Then we walked down through the Botanic Gardens to Mrs Macquarie's Chair, sat by the harbour and watched everything around shimmering into dusk & twilight before I caught a bus home.

Monday

No News, Really
Alas, today after that rather exhausting three days, despite being awake and (eventually) strong enough to chivvy mother down the street for a combined walk and bank-visiting, bill-paying trip, the brain was not quite enough in order to actually pay the blasted bills! Got the money into the right accounts, took envelopes, bills, cheque-book, but because of hitch had to 'race' back home with mother - at mother's top speed around 0.75kph (1/2mph) - then speed back before bank closed. Somehow as I left it, total purpose of trip somehow slipped out of neural net. Should have just gone out by myself as originally planned. Even if I'd forgotten on the first or second outing, I would have time to get there and back before the places closed. Since a few of the bills are now rather overdue, I must do it tomorrow on the way to work.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 11:24 pm

 
Quick Apologetic Note  
Sorry for gap, but it will continue for a bit. Having computer disconnection situation. Also concentrating on getting some important non-world-problem-solving (but self-problems-solving I hope) stuff done which takes quite a bit of time & concentration I can't devote to this.
If this stuff gets fixed by the end of the year (or even sooner!), it'll be a huge load of stress off me.
Then I'll just have to find something different to worry about instead :)

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 6:18 pm

 
 
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Turkey
Ukraine
United Kingdom
United States of America
Uruguay
Uzbekistan
Venezuela
Yemen
Zimbabwe

This site is produced and maintained by the U.S. Department of State's Office of International Information Programs.
[Apologies: I've tried to put this into a table so it fits into columns, but it doesn't work well nested within the blog template table.].

This information is the original list. Looking at other lists later on, the total varies, tho' one is 68 different countries. I will put the links in to my research at some stage.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 4:41 am

 
Missing Birfdaze  
Gee. I put a bunch of stuff about Goethe & Donald O'Connor & so forth up on my birthday - they all share my birthday, or are things with a relationship to that date. They've all disappeared!
Hope this isn't a bad omen. At least the other things that are on Hello Cruel World about August 28th are there.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 3:55 am

 
Might be useful - some anti-worm instructions  
W32/Blaster-A disinfection instructions and FAQ
At the time of writing, W32/Blaster-A </virusinfo/analyses/w32blastera.html>
(also known as: W32/Lovsan.worm, W32.Blaster.Worm, WORM_MSBLAST.A) is
spreading in the wild. W32/Blaster-A is a worm that scans networks looking
for computers vulnerable to Microsoft's DCOM RPC security exploit. On
finding a suitable victim the worm causes the remote machine to acquire a
copy of the worm using TFTP, which is saved as msblast.exe in the Windows
system folder.
1. How do I prevent W32/Blaster-A spreading on my network?
2. How do I remove W32/Blaster-A automatically?
3. How do I remove W32/Blaster-A manually?
4. Which systems are affected?
5. How did my computer become infected?
6. Background technical information
7. Where should I put the W32/Blaster-A virus identity (IDE) file?
8. My computer is continuously rebooting, how can I download RESOLVE?
1. How do I prevent W32/Blaster-A spreading on my network?
Network administrators are strongly advised to perform the following
operations to limit the impact of the worm
* Download and deploy Microsoft patch MS03-026
W32/Blaster-A exploits a vulnerability that can be patched. To read more
about the vulnerability and download the patch for deployment, go here
www.microsoft.com/security/security_bulletins/ms03-026.asp. On
standalone computers, update with all relevant security patches from Windows
update www.windowsupdate.com.
Administrators are advised to deploy the patch to internet enabled
workstations and internal company networks, paying particular attention to
proxy/gateway computers.
* Rename tftp.exe
The worm utilises tftp.exe, a Windows native program. If tftp.exe exists on
your network, and you have no business need for it, rename it (e.g. to
tftp-exe.old). You should not delete it as future legitimate software may
require it.
* Block traffic to certain ports on your firewall
Administrators should block incoming traffic on the following ports:
* tcp/69 (used by the TFTP process)
* tcp/135 (used by RPC remote access)
* tcp/4444 (used by this worm to connect)
This should primarily be implemented on your internet
firewall. Where appropriate, you should also block access to these ports to
prevent access from potentially infected non-trusted networks.
<<...OLE_Obj...>>
2. How do I remove W32/Blaster-A automatically?
W32/Blaster-A can be removed from Windows 95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP computers
automatically with RESOLVE
* download the RESOLVE W32/Blaster-A self-extractor
www.sophos.com/misc/blastsfx.exe and double-click it (the contents
will extract to C:\SOPHTEMP)
* select Start|Run then type cmd (on Windows 95/98/Me type command) to
open a command prompt
* click OK
* to remove the worm non-interactively type
C:\SOPHTEMP\RESOLVE.COM -DF=BLASTERA.DAT -NOC
and press the Enter key
* .
The above process will remove the infected file from memory, clean the
registry and remove the infected file from the system.
After removing the worm you should install the patch mentioned above.
You can find detailed instructions on running RESOLVE in the notes enclosed
in the self-extractor.
To remove W32/Blaster-A on other platforms please follow the instructions
for removing worms. >/support/disinfection/worms.html<
<<...OLE_Obj...>>
3. How do I remove W32/Blaster-A manually?
To remove W32/Blaster-A manually on Windows 95/98/Me and Windows NT/2000/XP
* ensure you have installed Microsoft patch MS03-026
http://www.microsoft.com/security/security_bulletins/ms03-026.asp and
implemented as many of the steps mentioned above as is feasible.
* press Ctrl+Alt+Del
* in Windows NT/2000/XP click Task Manager and select the Processes
tab
* look for a process named msblast.exe in the list
* click the process to highlight it
* click the 'End Process' (in Windows 95/98/Me 'End Task') button
* close Task Manager.
In Windows NT/2000/XP you will also need to edit the following registry
entry. The removal of this entry is optional in Windows 95/98/Me. Please
read the warning about editing the registry </support/faqs/tpti.html>.
* At the taskbar, click Start|Run. Type 'Regedit' and press Return.
The registry editor opens.
* Before you edit the registry, you should make a backup
</support/faqs/tpti.html>. If in doubt, contact your network administrator.
Incorrect editing of the Windows Registry can cause system failure.
* Locate the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE entry:
HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
in the righthand pane select
windows auto update = msblast.exe
and delete it if it exists.
* Close the registry editor.
You should reboot your computer and repeat the above process to ensure all
traces of the worm have been removed from your system.
If you have any problems removing W32/Blaster-A after following these
instructions, please contact technical support >/support/queries/<.
To remove W32/Blaster-A on other platforms please follow the instructions
for removing worms. >/support/disinfection/worms.html<
<<...OLE_Obj...>>
4. Which systems are affected?
* Windows 95/98/Me and Windows NT/2000/XP are potentially affected
* Apple-based workstations, Unix and other platforms (including PDAs
and games consoles) cannot be infected with W32/Blaster-A
If a W32/Blaster-A file is found on a computer, it has been dropped there by
an infected computer, or it has been executed locally.
<<...OLE_Obj...>>
5. How did my computer become infected?
W32/Blaster-A scans the internet and local networks looking for computers
vulnerable to Microsoft's DCOM RPC security exploit
http://www.microsoft.com/security/security_bulletins/ms03-026.asp. When it
finds one it causes the remote computer to use TFTP to download a copy of
the worm. This is saved as msblast.exe in the Windows system folder and the
registry on that computer is changed so that the worm will be run when the
computer restarts.
<<...OLE_Obj...>>
6. Background technical information
The TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol) process uses port 69 by default.
Blocking access to this port will prevent outgoing TFTP requests. RPC
(Remote Procedure Calls) packets normally connect on port 135, preventing
access to this port will stop infected machines requesting connections.
Computers infected with W32/Blaster-A will attempt to connect to port 4444
and send a command to initiate the transfer of msblast.exe and start it.
Blocking access to this port will prevent the attacking machine connecting to the victim computer.
<<...OLE_Obj...>>
7. Where should I put the W32/Blaster-A virus identity (IDE) file?
If you have a single computer:
* Windows NT/2000/XP -> C:\Program files\Sophos SWEEP for NT
* Windows 95/98/Me -> C:\Program files\Sophos SWEEP
then reboot the computer.
If you are maintaining a network, see How to use virus identity (IDE) files
</support/faqs/usingides.html<.
<<...OLE_Obj...>>
8. My computer is continuously rebooting, how can I download RESOLVE?
Often when a computer is infected with W32/Blaster-A it restarts every few
minutes, usually with a message similar to "Windows must now restart because
the Remote Procedure Call (RPC) Terminated Unexpectedly". This prevents the
required patches and files from being downloaded.
On Windows XP you may be able to prevent the computer from rebooting by
turning on the inbuilt firewall.
To do this:
* go to Network Connections,
* click on your internet connection (LAN or dial-up),
* on the lefthand window click 'Change settings of this connection',
* click Advanced,
* click 'Protect my computer.....',
* you will probably then be able to download the files you need.
Where possible, download the RESOLVE W32/Blaster-A self-extractor </misc/blastsfx.exe< on another computer. Save it to floppy disk and run the self-extractor on the affected computer.
If you cannot download on another computer, disable Distributed COM to prevent this rebooting.
Windows XP
* Select Start|Run and type
dcomcnfg.exe.
* Select Console Root|Component services.
* Open the Computers subfolder.
* Right-click on My Computer|Properties.
* Click the Default Properties tab.
* Deselect 'Enable distributed COM', click Apply then click OK.
* Restart the computer.
Set the options back to normal after applying relevant patches and IDEs.
Windows NT/2000
* Select Start|Run and type
dcomcnfg.exe.
* Select the Default Properties tab.
* Deselect 'Enable distributed COM on this computer', click Apply then
click OK.
* Restart the computer.i
Set the options back to normal after applying relevant patches and IDEs.
Windows 95/98/Me
Clean boot or go into DOS Mode (Windows 95/98) and use SWEEP with the W32/Blaster-A IDE to disinfect.
Use a firewall or disable 'File and print sharing' to protect the computer from further infection.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 3:51 am

 
The Millenium Project - Quintessence of the Loon  
The Danger of Knowing for Sure
A special joint edition of The Millenium Project and Quintessence of the Loon (September 12, 2001)
Skepticism; Jacob Bronowski on "Knowledge and Certainty"; the attacks of September 11th, 2001.
As we reach the 2nd anniversary of the beginning of the Tampa Incident in Australia (dampen my birthday for a while, that will) and come towards 2nd and 1st anniversaries of the "9/11" attacks and the Bali Bombing, a reminder that not all the responses were as polarised & unthinking as some seem to say they were.


www.ronrecord.com/Quotes/bronowski.html
Jacob Bronowski Quote From the "Knowledge or Certainty" episode from the 1973 BBC series "The Ascent of Man", transcribed by Evan Hunt (extracted)

... It is said that science will dehumanize people and turn them into numbers. That is false: tragically false. Look for yourself. This is the concentration camp and crematorium at Auschwitz. *This* is where people were turned into numbers ... And that was not done by gas. It was done by arrogance. It was done by dogma. It was done by ignorance. When people believe that they have absolute knowledge, with no test in reality--this is how they behave. This is what men do when they aspire to the knowledge of gods.

Science is a very human form of knowledge. We are always at the brink of the known; we always feel forward for what is to be hoped. Every judgment in science stands on the edge or error, and is personal. Science is a tribute to what we *can* know although we are fallible ...

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 1:09 am

 
 
From kristye.blogspot.com - I'd better not comment on this; just let you contemplate the scene you've imagined from this entry ...

Adequately Essential
Sunday, August 17, 2003
oh yea and I dropped my portable phone in the tub this morning while I was shaving my legs.

¶ 5:32 PM

Is Australia keeping up with World's Best Practice in "Railroading the Punters"?
Suruj Dutta's Railway Tales from the United Kingdom show the standards are being kept high.
I note he also has been feeling very Orwellian chills in the last few years' events.


www.surujdutta.com/HTML/blogger.html

Pyschobabble

Saturday, August 23, 2003
Suruj / 8:33 PM [postCount('106166721601472337')]

The August Bank Holiday weekend is the busiest of the year. There are the Reading and Leeds music festivals, the Notting Hill Carnival and dozens other sundry events across the country. Its also the last summer bank holiday, so thousands flock to the beaches for a last weekend in the sun.

So what does the Strategic Rail Authority (SRA) - nee Railtrack ( www.railtrack.co.uk ) - do to make people's journeys easier ? Why, shut down three of the busiest lines in Britain, of course! ( news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/3175471.stm ) The Great Western Main Line is closed between Reading and Paddington, the West Coast Main Line is closed between Hemel Hempstead and Milton Keynes. And for the convenience of the thousands of Britons returning from Mediterranean holidays, the Stansted airport to London line is closed as well.

Unfortunately, I had an appointment in London today, and since my car is on the fritz, I had to fall back on the trains. The Newbury - London journey, which takes me an hour and fifteen minutes even on a slow train, stretched to five bloody hours on a Southwest Trains service to Waterloo. Everything that could possibly go wrong, did. A cracked rail was discovered somewhere in Surrey, and we had to wait ages at Ascot before we were allowed to proceed. A signal failure at a crossing meant another wait, and while we were waiting the train's onboard computer crashed, automatically locking the doors and turning of the lights and airconditioning for few panicky moments. The last straw was when a deer decided to take a leisurely stroll on the tracks, and we had to follow it at a crawl for miles !! I am no expert on the subject, of course, but I am fairly certain that if a bunch of mentally retarded chimpanzees were told to run the country's railways, they would probably do a better job than the lot at the SRA.

Worse, stuff like this is going to keep happening for the next 10 years, we are told. That is how long it takes, apparently, to carry out a few track and signal repairs !! Isambard Kingdom Brunel laid the entire West Coast Main Line in a week (or was it 3 days) in the nineteenth century. He must be turning in his grave now.

Saturday, August 09, 2003
Suruj / 1:17 PM
I guess I should make a small footnote about my last couple of posts. I've been reading George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four and my mind seems to have passed on to a really dark place. Not that I had a very bright view of the human race anyway.

What I find most depressing are the echoes of many of the ideological constructs in today's post-Communist world. The spin in the American media and (to a lesser extent by the British government) to justify the war with Iraq, for example, could easily be mistaken for a Ministry of Truth production. The Total Information Awareness (TIA) initiative and the ever-greater intrusion of the government into people's private lives; how is that different from the Thought Police ?
<snip>
Meanwhile, Perle, Wofowitz, Rumsfeld, Cheney and their cronies at the American Enterprise Institute (a.k.a the Ministry of Peace) are deciding whether they should go to war with Eastasia or Eurasia next. The Department of Homeland Security, aided by the Murdoch-press, help maintain a sense of insecurity to keep the war frenzy at a fever pitch. This also makes the American people more willing to give up even their most-cherished freedoms in the name of security.

Freedom is Slavery. War is Peace. Ignorance is Strength.

Chuck's Blogumentary

Wednesday, August 13, 2003

I'M A REAL WINNER
You heard it here first, folks. I won the coveted virtual seven-piece Ratchet Up tool set for finding the coolest conceptual clock. I chose the incredible Ambient Orb Device ( www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/lights/5da2 ), which quietly changes color based on the weather or your stock portfolio, or whatever you want. Wouldn't it be cool if you could correlate it to a biological function? Like how hungry or horny I am? I would want a giant one perched on our house. Giant red orb = CHUCK IS HORNY. Giant blue orb = CHUCK IS FRIGID. Giant rainbow orb = CHUCK WANTS GAY PORN. And so on.

I AM ONE WITH THE MAGNETOVERSE
Today I had a CT scan ... I was inserted into a large white ultramagnetic doughnut - straight out of 2001 ... the hyperdoughnut scans cross-sectional slices of my head. My mind drifts... This is everything I've ever wanted. The contents of my head can now be preserved and studied by scientists around the world for ages to come. The mystery of my genius will slowly be revealed and celebrated. I am, at last, immortal.

posted by Doktor Millennium

Another kind of Immortality
Over the last year and a half I had a few CT scans (and a buncha other
stuff). One in particular was a thing they do before you have a course
of radiotherapy. The RT machines now have this method where they shoot
the rays through you from three different angles which intersect where
the tumour is, so your healthy tissues around it only get 1/3rd of the
dose it does. You get put into a special cradle for whatever the body
part is (the ones for heads are a bit spooky-weird) and they tattoo
little dots for the laser-sighting beam so it's lined up precisely for
every treatment (which goes on for many weeks).

They get a very accurate closeup view of the area and create a 3D
computer model of your insides to work out the exact angles & strength.
This is stored in the hospital system for perpetuity (historic records!). Like Chuck/Doktor Millennium & Henrietta Lacks* I can feel proud a part of me is preserved for the future. Only problem is that while his is a pretty classy bit to preserve, my gift to posterity was a rectal cancer :(

*For Henrietta Lacks' story - see different versions at:
www.umich.edu/~urecord/0001/Apr23_01/2.htm
www.jhu.edu/~newslett/02-21-97/Features/Beyond_her_years.html
www.hclc.sailorsite.net/HistoricalWebpages/Hlacks/HLacks.htm
www.louswebsite.com/12.html

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 6:38 pm

 
 
It's just been announced that Idi Amin has died. Peacefully & with the best of care, after a long comfortable retirement.
Charles Taylor must be comforted by that. I wonder if Baroness Thatcher will visit & offer her condolences to the grieving family & friends? After all, she's been such a tower of strength for others.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 5:06 pm

 
Meanwhile, back at the ranch ...  
OK. Things seem to be working out - still a bit fluid.
Current situation:

1. Hello Cruel World [HCW] still has new ('temporary') template (it's not bad following some modifications.) It may stay.


2. In A Small Dark Room [Darkroom] was overwritten by the old HCW template, but has been restored to an older version of its proper template


3. Another Dark Little Corner [Corner] (i.e. where you're reading now) has the old version of the old HCW template.

I'm sure that's perfectly clear to you all :)
(Assuming here that anyone is at all interested in this. Maybe one day the forensic psychologists will be combing through this stuff looking for clues to what led to the incident ... )

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 4:44 pm

 
 
I've substituted one of the NewBlogger templates temporarily for the missing HCW one, as without one at all, you can't publish any new posts.
So, if you're looking at Hello Cruel World , just admire the content, rather than trying to be swept away by the colour & movement & general gorgeousness of the thing :)
"She has a lovely personality."

Hey. Just listening to someone talking about situation in California with new "recall" election.
We thought we had troubles with the 'tablecloth' ballot paper for the New South Wales Upper House.
There are apparently about 250 candidates for the Governorship of California. AND THEY HAVE FIRST-PAST-THE-POST VOTING. Omigoddd!
In Australia we have preferential voting, where you number from 1 to however many (more explanation in another post if I get to it). If no single candidate gets a majority of "first preference" votes, the lowest candidate gets knocked out of the running and their votes are distributed according to what their second preference is.
Example: if there are two left-leaning & one right-leaning candidates, and the vote splits, say,
L1 - 25%,
L2 - 35%,
R1 - 40%;
A first-past-the-post system would give the election to the 40%, even though the majority of the voters voted against him or her.
The Australian preferential system would distribute the votes of L1 - probably most would prefer the other left candidate to the right one, say 80/20. On redistribution, the remaining two would have:
L2 - 55%
R1 - 45%
So in general (there are all sorts of examples that might do funny things) this means the preferences of the electors are more fairly represented.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 3:40 am

 
 
Worrying. There may be some problems over at Blogger/Google/Pyra. The last few times I've tried to publish entries, an error message comes back like "There Were Errors in Publishing. 550 Could not open: No space left on device." I assume that's on their side, not mine (tho' I do have space "issues"). And you get hung up in some sort of loop, and can't get out of Blogger properly.

Two posts from an excellent (now closed-off) commentary.

A Hail of Dead Cats

A weblog by Don Arthur ( donarthur at myownemail.com )

Saturday, November 30, 2002
Too green on one side, too dry on the other - Adele Horin looks for a way forward in the debate over poverty

Wednesday, November 27, 2002

News from Planet Janet


More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 12:52 am

 
 
Sent notification of problem to Pyra/Google/blogstaff. No reply so far. They were helpful with other problems earlier, but there's a lot happening for them right now.
Had spent several nights polishing & modifying the template recently, adding features & improving style (well, what I like anyway). Naturally, altho there is a backup on my machine of the original template (& perhaps one of the earlier trial modifications) I can't find a copy of the template as it was. Not looking forward to having to remodify the old one all over again & reinstalling it.
I've tried to modify the template for this blog & it's been quite difficult. I'm not very happy with the look (there's only a small selection available on the New Blogger).

Sigh. Aren't there enough difficult things in life without all this being added too?

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 1:30 pm