Another Dark Little Corner


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.


Your ABC

Click here to find out why.


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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2004-12-30
 
Indian Ocean Tsunami Animation from NOAA  
Indian Ocean Tsunami Animation from NOAA

> From: Toby Fiander (bigpond)
> Date: 29/12/2004 23:51:27
> To: SCIENCE-MATTERS (a) YOUR ABC NET AU
> Subject: Re: tsunami graphic
>
> NOAA has quite a nice graphic of the tsunami, including a semi-realistic
> attempt at showing the reflection, diffraction between islands and so on.
> If you have a dial-up connection, it is going to take a bit of downloading,
> but it is probably worth it:

pmel.noaa.gov/tsunami/Mov/TITOV-INDO2004.mov


More ...

 
A 'friend' is tempting me with Macstuff  
From
Re:Maines
www.maines.org/blog.html
Rebecca Maines babbles aimfully.

http://www.maines.org/2004/11/unsolicited-testimonials.html
Unsolicited Testimonials - Saturday, November 13, 2004
I like to ruminate, particularly about fiction in progress, in a spiral notebook. This means I have stacks of notebooks, organized in no way except chronological, and no way to find specific ruminations when I want them. Which is why I have switched to NoteBook on my laptop. It looks like good old-fashioned spiral notebook pages . . . except they can be organized, searched, rearranged, etc. (And I don't know about you, but my typing is way faster than my longhand scribbling.) Works like a scrapbook, too; you can paste in text, pictures, charts, etc. from other applications, web links, whatever (e.g., the kind of stuff a writer accumulates while doing research). It's a wonderful tool for outlining a novel (which I am doing right now; 70,000+ words in, I finally realize I need an outline to figure out what the hell I'm doing . . . oy), keeping track of research, notes, ideas, web pages, and just jotting things down and being able to have a prayer of finding them again. Mwahahaha--there's no PC version; it's only for Macs. (Me and my cult faves: Mac, Saturn, liberalism . . . Joooooiiiiinnnnnnn usssssssss....)

http://www.circusponies.com/pages.aspx?page=products


More ...

 
Indian Ocean Tsunami - Weblife contribution  
Web users pitch in to global relief effort
www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/Web-users-pitch-in-to-global-relief-effort/ 2004/12/29/1103996613979.html
by Jesse Hogan
The Age Online
December 30, 2004

As distressed Australian relatives trawl the hospitals of tsunami-affected countries, the internet is proving an unlikely tool in their quest to find friends and relatives.

With telephone hotlines often engaged and the language barrier making information-gathering even harder, many of the most valuable volunteers helping reunite people have not even had to leave home to do so.

A dedicated band of internet bloggers and website creators are providing people around the world with phone numbers for hospitals and embassies in tsunami-affected countries, and a database of missing people ...

Locally, some news websites have urged overseas readers to submit stories and pictures of the tsunami, with ABC Online providing a collection of eyewitness accounts. The Age Online has done likewise, and has created a bulletin board for people trying to contact relatives overseas ...


Disaster blogspots
www.smh.com.au/news/Technology/Disaster-blogspots/2004/12/29/1103996614109.html
Compiled by Jesse Hogan
December 30, 2004


Websites providing information on victims and survivors of the Asian earthquake and tsunami.

tsunamihelp.blogspot.com
A detailed blog that offers list of aid agen cies responding to the disaster, how to donate, and a list of contact numbers for emergency services in each country.

www.lankapage.com
A site for Sri Lankan expats that details the situation in Sri Lanka.

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/4130565.stm
Many postings from people looking for loved ones.

www.disaster.go.th
Mostly in Thai, but has English link to a regularly updated list of hospital patients.

www.p-h-u-k-e-t.com/forum
Messages from Scandinavians looking for relatives dominate this site but it has a section devoted to Australians.

2bangkok.com/quakes.shtml
Regularly updated mix of local news reports and Thai Government information.


More ...

 
Indian Ocean Tsunami - Donation info, &c  

Who to call and how to help


www.smh.com.au/news/Asia-Tsunami/Who-to-call-and-how-to-help/ 2004/12/29/1103996616211.html
December 30, 2004

Foreign Affairs help lines
The Department of Foreign Affairs has two toll-free help lines. The first is for people concerned about relatives or friends in tsunami-affected areas: 1800 002 214. The second is for Australians in disaster zones who need help from embassy staff: +61 1300 555 135 or 6261 3305.

Travel advisories
From the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (I've cut a lot - check yourself for advisories)
Thailand: ... A temporary consulate has been established at the Hilton Hotel, Phuket to assist Australians in the surrounding islands and can be contacted on +66 76 370 672 or aus-phuket@inet.co.th. Phuket Airport is operating and travellers are encouraged to leave by commercial flights. A Department of Immigration and Indigenous Affairs officer will be at Phuket Airport to provide travel documents to Australians who have lost their passports...
Maldives: A British team has set up an emergency consulate at the Iskander school in Male. An Australian official will join these consuls for any Australians in the Maldives who require assistance...

More information and updated advice from the department at www.smarttraveller.gov.au

Donations
PLAN: Vist www.plan.org.au or call 1800 038 100.
CARE Australia: 1800 020 046 or www.careaustralia.org.au
Australian Red Cross: Call 1800 811 700, visit www.redcross.org.au or post a cheque to GPO Box 9949 in capital cities.
Oxfam: 1800 034 034 or www.oxfam.org.au
Medecins Sans Frontieres www.msf.org.au
UNICEF: 1300 884 233, 1300 732 240 or www.unicef.org.au
World Vision: 13 32 40 or www.worldvision.com.au
Baptist World Aid Australia: Call 1300 789 991, by mail to Baptist World Aid Australia, Locked Bag 122, Frenchs Forest NSW 2086, or www.shareanopportunity.org
Caritas Australia: 1800 024 413 or www.caritas.org.au

Some banks are also allowing donations to be made to various charities at their branches.


More ...

2004-12-28
 
It does get lonely in bed sometimes, but ...  
A very special form of plush bed-companion
/www.kropserkel.com/horsehead.htm

www.kropserkel.com/artifact.htm
Kropserkel
Conceptual Design - Engineering - Fabrication - Execution
ARTIFACTS AND ART FORMS
Welcome to our online gallery workshop and collection of elaborate costumes, props, and all that is incarnate magic! Here you will find the obsessed over tangibles of the celluloid, and the creative efforts to enhance, distort, and conceal the human form within. From electronic life forms to anime art: We invite you to explore our site where we pay tribute to what we call 'kinetic art' and 'prop culture', a modern art expression for the twenty-first century.


More ...

 
Assorted aspects of the Christmas Season  
Thel has pointed out "another one of those creative Ebay auctions"
Horizon Air Collectable Fine China, My Christmas Bonus (eBay Item 3770539257)
You are bidding on my Christmas Bonus!
I am an Aircraft Mechanic, and the company I work for, Horizon Airlines, has blessed me this year with a wonderful Collectable coffee mug. It is made of Fine China. I know this to be true, because when I turn it over, it says china, in fine letters. It is adorned with printed images celebrating our sacrifices to the Company, thanking us for our hard work at the Company, and even takes credit for our skill and knowledge.
It comes with 1 piece of chocolate candy wrapped in golden foil. The cup originally came with 5 pieces of chocolate candy wrapped in golden foil, but my kids ate 4 pieces before I could stop them ...
You see, when a Company like Horizon Air makes a little less than a BILLION dollars a year in revenue, we understand that a ham, turkey, or even a 7-11 gift certificate could potentially wipe out a Director or VP Holiday bonus, resulting in Christmas Tree Chaos. Therefore we do without. Year after year we are snubbed with $5 Blockbuster gift cards, or unsellable, poorly written, meaningless books about the Airline itself. The Mechanics at Horizon Air have had no raises in years, but thankfully the raises and bonuses never end for our upper management ...


Scared of Santa photo gallery
(43 examples)
Nothing says Happy Holidays like a photo of sweet little toddlers screaming at Santa. The first 25 photos in this gallery are from the Chicago Tribune's "Scared of Santa" contest in 2003. All the rest of the photos were submitted by SouthFlorida.com readers this year. Enjoy!


Fine Cell Work - UK Prison inmates doing work to earn money. Possible pressies?
finecellwork.co.uk/products/index.html (Home Page)

finecellwork.co.uk/inmates/gloria.html - one example


Tris McCall's analysis of Christmas songs, written from the perspective of an atheist who takes Christianity very seriously.
www.trismccall.net/pop_music_abstract_xmas.html


More ...

2004-12-25
 
... and Merry Christmas to all (no connexion to the entry)  
Cutenessess:
www.flickr.com/photos/arizonasue/2011553
flitter6 12-01-04 & flitter7 12-01-04

both from the work of www.flickr.com/photos/arizonasue

Well, some could call this cute:
www.deviantart.com/deviation/6851238 (boots)
or just appealing
www.flickr.com/photos/drswan/2502044 (ice posies, goosegoose)

Acute:

( including, for instance www.deviantart.com/deviation/7118765 )
and others at
ftp.users.bigpond.net.au/wulfius/myart/politics.htm, such as UStralia

SPAMBLOGS
Just spotted in "latest published blogs" list.
Chester Hill's blog - chesterhill6778 blogspot.com
Jeremy Robert's blog - jeremyrobert3609 blogspot.com
Ivy Fox's blog - ivyfox4184 blogspot.com


More ...

2004-12-22
 
Not only Australians had to adapt European Christmas customs  
nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/005917.html#70487

It's hard being traditionally Scandinavian when you're living in Sonoran desert. We had no rødgrød (no berries) and no straw goat (no straw). Some people made decorative snowmen for their front yards by sticking a broomstick in the ground, then impaling one large, one medium, and one small tumbleweed on it. They'd spraypaint the tumbleweeds white and add other details as seemed good to them.

www.samkass.com/theories/RPSSL.html -- Adds two to Game of Three to make Law of Fives

Board Game to set the teeth on edge.
www.mapletreepublishing.com/mortality.htm

Mortality is an uplifting LDS board game about life rather than strictly a "church" game. It isn't made to teach a list of "facts" about the gospel. Instead, gospel principles are woven into the very fabric of the game. It doesn't give any advantage to the scriptorians or historians. Succeeding at the game requires cooperation, caring for other players, knowing how to build a solid foundation in one's youth, and an understanding of how faith and testimony help you endure trials, and any player who approaches the game in this manner can win

Another. This one agricultural:
www.growopgame.com/html/the_game.html

And some literary brainstorming, extracted from a mother lode of same:
nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/005953.html

No question, the boys and I were in a tight spot. We'd been in plenty before, of course, sitting around watching our ride home fall to pieces down on the strand and taking a long crawl into a deep bottle just to see what was on the other end. That, along with the occasional dance with the crowd of toughs up the road--the kind of dance that paints the floor a shiny red and makes the crows fat and happy--had left us feeling confident we'd seen it all before. We hadn't, not by a long road. This time, this time the boys and I could tell it was different. Because Pretty Boy was in a rare taking, and this was no garden-variety snit, easy material for a quip and a chuckle at tomorrow's game. This was a killing rage, the kind with a dame at the heart of it. The kind that would see more than a few of the boys turning cards at Old Scratch's table before it burned itself out. The kind that makes the broad sing.
Trent Goulding

nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/002175.html#13758
JRRwocky
Twas Bilbo of the hairy toes
Did send good Frodo on his way
With Gimli, Sam and Boromir
And the ring wraiths at bay.
Beware the shiny ring, my friend--
Its gleam's the bait, your soul to lure.
Resist its blandishments, or end
In furious Barad-Dur!
He took the eldritch ring in hand;
Long time the northern fires he sought.
Then wrested from his friends was he
And to the foe was brought.
But as his friends were saving him
The ring itself, with evil bane
Went weaseling past his conscience true
And ate into his brain.
I'll rule! cried he, and raised it high
But Gollum took it in the fire.
They watched him burn, then home did turn
And went to scour the Shire.
And is the One Ring gone at last?
The Fellowship has won its quest!
With misty eyes, they said goodbyes,
And Frodo headed West.
Twas Bilbo of the hairy toes
Did send good Frodo on his way
With Gimli, Sam and Boromir
And the ring wraiths at bay.
--Kip


More ...

2004-12-19
 
Stillwell Slopes  
Stillwell Slopes Dreaming
www.castlemagic.com/color.html

Between Marulan and Goulburn, on 25 acres of hillside above the stream, overlooking the valley & facing the forested slopes opposite ...

OK, it might not have "alpine firs and wild mountain huckleberries", or "deer, elk, and moose roaming".

"The full moon shines through basalt pinnacles and lights up the bedroom at night." (Will have to check on the lunar visibility, also not sure what the local rock is. There are granite quarries in the area as well as some historic sites from convict days. )

www.marulan-nsw.com.au/tourism.htm

igoulburn.com/browse.asp?cid=655&sid=14&caid=0&cpid=0
igoulburn.com/browse.asp?cid=1735&sid=14&caid=0&cpid=0
igoulburn.com/browse.asp?cid=1731&sid=14&caid=0&cpid=0
igoulburn.com/browse.asp?cid=1734&sid=14&caid=0&cpid=0

Marulan is spot on the 150 degree east meridian of longitude. The district surrounding Marulan is home to some of the shire’s most rugged scenery.
The spectacular Gibraltar Rocks at Brayton are only a 20 minute drive west of Marulan. The village of Tallong is 10 minutes off the highway, east of Marulan and is home to Badgery’s and Longpoint Lookouts. Both have picnic facilities and give breathtaking views of Bungonia and Shoalhaven River.
Tallong is home to the little known convict built dungeons- ask at the general store for directions.
Bushranger John Dunn, of the Hall gang, shot policeman Sam Nelson at Collectors’ Kimberley’s Inn, operating today as the Bushranger Hotel.
Convict history abounds this corner of the Shire, with remains of the Towrang Stockade located just of the Hume Highway, 10 minutes north of Goulburn. Park at the Derrick VC Rest Area and take a short walk to discover a perfectly preserved convict built bridge, part of the original Great South Road which opened up the area. Across the highway the remains of the powder magazine and early graves can be discovered.

Note: Castle Magic is a USA site, naturally.
* "You may purchase small castle keeps for $200,000 to $500,000, medium sized castles for $500,000 to $1.5 million, and a large full sized castles from $1.5 million to $10 million.
* Custom Castle Building Prices: From $120 to $240 per square foot for a basic simple castle, or $300 to $600 per square foot for elaborate castles.
* 10' Outer defence or courtyard walls: around $250 per lineal foot.
* Cathedral or Great Halls: around $235 and up per square foot.
* All prices include: solid stone castle, handcrafted windows, handcrafted doors, real stone fireplaces, hidden electrical, hidden plumbing and plumbing fixtures, built-in appliances, custom hardwood and/or stone flooring, custom granite and hardwood cabinets, floor heat system, hidden central vac, drawbridge, portcullis.
* All prices exclude the cost of land, permits, utility connections or fees, fancy lighting fixtures, and roads."
"I usually spend twice as long building a castle when compared to building a common structure. For a small castle, say 4500 square feet, you should allow one to two years. For a large castle with inner and outer curtain walls, you should allow five years or increase the amount of labour and funds used. On the bright side, your castle will last for generations and increase in value over time."


More ...

 
 
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/ north_yorkshire/4074685.stm
Church anger over 'devil' Santa

news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3850270
Mon 6 Dec 2004
Church Outrage at Christmas with the Devil

www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx? SectionID=55&ArticleID=900568

Instead of the usual Father Christmas, visitors to Satan's Grotto at York Dungeon are greeted by a man dressed as the Devil with a red face and horns ... As well as meeting the alternative Santa, visitors to the grotto are handed "gifts" such as severed fingers, and can write on a scroll to sign their souls away.
On its website the dungeon says the festive attraction includes elves impaled on spikes and robins roasting over an open fire with Santa being put in a witch's cauldron and boiled.
Similar ghoulish grottos have also been set up at Edinburgh and London Dungeons ...
A spokesman ... said the alternative grotto had been running for many years. "There are many people who are tired and weary of the commercial aspect of Christmas and for those people our attraction comes as a light relief. It is all tongue-in-cheek and our visitors love it."


More ...

 
 
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/ north_yorkshire/4074685.stm
Church anger over 'devil' Santa

news.scotsman.com/latest.cfm?id=3850270
Mon 6 Dec 2004
Church Outrage at Christmas with the Devil

www.yorkshiretoday.co.uk/ViewArticle2.aspx? SectionID=55&ArticleID=900568

Instead of the usual Father Christmas, visitors to Satan's Grotto at York Dungeon are greeted by a man dressed as the Devil with a red face and horns ... As well as meeting the alternative Santa, visitors to the grotto are handed "gifts" such as severed fingers, and can write on a scroll to sign their souls away.
On its website the dungeon says the festive attraction includes elves impaled on spikes and robins roasting over an open fire with Santa being put in a witch's cauldron and boiled.
Similar ghoulish grottos have also been set up at Edinburgh and London Dungeons ...
A spokesman ... said the alternative grotto had been running for many years. "There are many people who are tired and weary of the commercial aspect of Christmas and for those people our attraction comes as a light relief. It is all tongue-in-cheek and our visitors love it."


More ...

2004-12-15
 
 
The nativity scene at Madame Tussaud's in London reportedly features an all-celebrity wax cast. [Or possibly an all-wax celebrity cast.]
www.thisislondon.co.uk/til/jsp/modules/GalleryPopup.jsp?itemId=15154511&imageId=3
www.thisislondon.co.uk/til/jsp/modules/GalleryPopup.jsp?itemId=15154511&imageId=0
David Beckham plays Joseph, with David's wife, Victoria, filling in as Mary. George Bush and his buddy Tony Blair are two of the three gift-bearing wise men. Samuel L. Jackson, Hugh Grant and comedian Graham Norton are the three shepherds with Kylie Minogue, as an angel, hovering above the crowd.

www.thisislondon.co.uk/news/articles/15165055?source=Evening%20Standard&ct=5
A spokesman for the Vatican said the display was "if not blasphemous then certainly in very poor taste" while one senior Church of England bishop's spokesman labelled it "an outrage" ... A spokesman for Madame Tussaud's said: "It is not our intention to offend anybody and we are sorry if we have indeed offended people. ... The display is supposed to be something funny for the festive period. We will be monitoring the reaction and will make a decision on whether it stays."

Mmmm ... a seductively-posed angel hovering above you that looks like Kylie in a thin, clinging white silk gown? Yup, can see the attraction there.

Having heard that someone is having a "Satan Claws" instead of a "Santa Claus", where children queue up & get a small, but perfectly gruesome, present from someone dressed as a demon, I reckon that for a real publicity stunt next year, they should set up a Crucifixion scene using figures from their Chamber of Horrors.

Am stopping short of suggesting they be used for the Nativity scene; some of the hardline fundamentalists would probably firebomb them after that.


More ...

2004-12-09
 
 
John Williams follows the trials and tribunals of Savoy Publishing's Lord Horror, the first novel to be banned in Britain for over twenty years
A shorter version of this feature appeared in GQ, May 1996

www.abel.net.uk/~savoy/HTML/gqart.html

Lord Horror ( www.abel.net.uk/~savoy/HTML/lhorror.html) is a kind of deliberately scatological, very William Burroughsian fable, the story of Hitler and his allies living on in an alternative Britain. Colin Wilson said that 'as an exercise in Surrealism it compares with some of the best work that came out of France and Germany between the wars', and the British sci-fi writer Michael Moorcock was a key witness at Savoy's appeal against the ban.
"I liked Lord Horror a lot," he confirmed, when I called him up at his current home outside Austin, Texas. "I've already been to the court to defend it. I think it's telling the truth in its own horrible way, and that's what I like about it. Compared with other satire it has a more powerful and directed anger. It takes everything beyond the limits."
Taking everything beyond the limits, however, clearly doesn't appeal to the Manchester Police force. For though the appeal succeeded in having the ban lifted on the novel itself, Savoy are currently back in court to defend a series of Lord Horror comics www.abel.net.uk/~savoy/HTML/horrpage.html — spin-offs from the book — which have once again been seized by the police and charged with obscenity
...
John Coulthart. He's the artist responsible for the key item on trial here today, an adult comic called Lord Horror: Hard Core Horror No 5 www.abel.net.uk/~savoy/HTML/hch5.html.
The culmination of a series depicting, like the novel, a parallel universe version of World War II, Hard Core Horror No 5 attempts to take on nothing less than the Holocaust. To this end Coulthart has produced a series of dark, vaguely H R Giger-esque tableaux of Auschwitz, rendered as a decayed death factory. The pictures have spaces for options, but they have been left blank. Words, the artist seems to say, are not enough. Nor, in the end, is art: the last pages of the comic are simply photographs of some of the camp's dead victims. The effect is certainly upsetting. But obscene? Only to the extent that the Holocaust was obscene. Which is why Savoy has been able to attract top civil liberties lawyers to its case.
<big snip>
By the end of 1980, the Manchester Vice Squad had made over forty raids on the Savoy shops, carting off stacks of soft-core magazines, horror magazines, comics and novels, including The Tides of Lust and The Gas. But far from making the Savoy team contrite, the raids simply enraged them, and they responded to the perceived harassment by publishing Jack Trevor Story's Screwrape Lettuce, a gleefully pornographic and scabrously anti-police fantasy.

Finally, in May 1982, the case came to trial. Their barrister stepped down the day before the trial, leaving the case in the hands of a substitute who knew nothing about it. The books were indeed found obscene, and David Britton was sentenced to twenty eight days in prison. And not just any prison: Britton found himself lobbed into Strangeways just as a long hot summer of prison rioting was chiming up ....

The experience of sitting in a cell while his neighbours were busy setting their own cells on fire was one that, not surprisingly, affected Britton deeply. But rather than resolving to be a good boy and never bother Anderton's vice squad again, he began work on the multimedia extravaganza that has kept Savoy knee-deep in legal battles since — Lord Horror.
"After Dave's prison experience," says Butterworth, "his dark view of humanity got even worse... I had been facinated [sic] by the Third Reich — trying to get at the core of how it happened. I'd started a novel about Hitler in an alternative universe — but then Dave came up with the more original idea of using Lord Haw-Haw ... as the central character, renaming him Lord Horror — which seemed to me to be much better."
...
And so life and art were entangled — PJ Proby was a crazed, violent, racist drunk, touched by greatness. Who better to play Lord Horror, a crazed, violent, rascist embodiment of our worst nightmares, yet touched with awful charisma. So Proby recorded as Lord Horror and the spirit of Horror would in turn inform Proby's own recordings.

Almost everybody in the industry hated these records, the indies wouldn't touch them with a bargepole. Not that Savoy helped their own cause much by pulling such witlessly provocative stunts as crediting the backing band as the Savoy Hitler Youth Band. The Savoy team however take a perverse pride in reproducing such negative testimonials as this billet doux from then rock critic Richard Williams: 'I don't know who you are or what you want, but please don't send me any more of this trash'.

Still, the music world is used to being shocked, almost expects it, so it wasn't until Britton and Butterworth made a return to publishing that they really managed to provoke a rise. The summer of 1989 saw a Lord Horror offensive, with both the publication of the much-delayed novel and the launch of the Lord Horror comics: the ultra-noir Hard Core Horror series and the deliberately offensive, satirical spin-off Meng & Ecker.

Controversy was immediate. "One week after the novel was published the police were desperate to get hold of it. There's the character called James Appleton, who's obviously meant to be a caricature of Anderton," says Butterworth. "We took Anderton's speech about gays swirling about in a cesspool of their own making and reprinted it using 'Jews' instead of 'gays'. And he didn't like that at all ...

... [They] managed to get civil liberties group Article 19 interested in Savoy's
plight, and an appeal against the banning of Lord Horror was launched. Geoffrey Robertson QC, who had defended Oz in the early Seventies, agreed to take the case, and on July 30, 1992, the case was heard and the novel was cleared.
Meng & Ecker, however, was still held to be obscene, "because it was luridly bound and therefore [more] likely [than the novel] to attract attention from the less literate," said the judge. Butterworth noted patronising echoes of the Lady Chatterley prosecutor's celebrated question to the jury: "Would you let your wives or servants read this?"

This article brings it up to date to 1996. Not certain what's happened since then.
It was referred to as an example of what was possible in the UK, as opposed to the USA, and now what it looks like US Customs is working on -- www.cbldf.org/pr/archives/000237.shtml

ICK! And speaking of horrific ideas:
simbaud.blogspot.com/2004/12/his-first-straight-horror-movie-since.html

www.antipope.org/charlie/blosxom.cgi/2004/Nov/27#wartime-46
Cost of war
Sat, 27 Nov 2004

And a different type of maths
www.mathpuzzle.com/

The Poppy Seed Bagel theorem
www.vanderbilt.edu/news/releases?id=15880 was recently in the news at Vanderbilt.

Google has launched Google Scholar scholar.google.com. I'll have to see how well it compares to CiteSeer and arXiv.org.

Also: The Google Blog
[ http://www.google.com/googleblog/ ]


More ...

2004-12-08
 
Seen recently at Berchtesgaden  
Ever read Terry Pratchett's Hogfather? Excellent for Christmas, or midwinter. I think these are the critters that all the noise & light are there to shoo away in those long dark days.
www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/12/07/1102182298316.html






Krampusse, Buttenmandl and St Nicholas


Google Image searches for "Krampusse" (~1,700 results) and "Buttenmandl" (considerably less) bring up some good gruesome pictures. Threre's even a www.krampusse.com

There's been a fuss recently about whether the Sydney City Christmas decorations are up to scratch. I've been wondering if I should point out to all the people saying that in London, Paris, New York & so forth they have all these lights, that at Christmas time those cities are only getting maybe 4 hours of daylight. And not always very bright sunlight at that. Cold, slushy, grey & grim.


More ...

2004-12-05
 
Some Typeface Links + Paranoia?  
Some Typeface Links
Links to some specialist typefaces/fonts. From a place where you can get a special Old English font/typeface
www.engl.virginia.edu/OE/junicode/others.html

scholarsfonts.net/index.html

bibliofile.duhs.duke.edu/gww/fonts/fonts.html
This person has also written a set of programs: bibliofile.duhs.duke.edu/gww/FreeWare/MyToys.html to interconvert between Macintosh NFNT resources and Adobe's BDF (Bitmap Distribution Format), which might be useful to people interested in such things.

And, for something completely different, these: Paranoia, or possibly useful? - You decide:
nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/005763.html
www.equipped.org/


More ...

2004-12-01
 
Truth Lite; Faux Truth, &c.  
Operating in the Post-Truth Environment (Truth Lite; Faux Truth, and Beyond)

Jim Hightower's Weblog
Tuesday, October 26, 2004
Posted 10:22 AM by Jim Hightower


hightower.fmp.com/weblogitem.php?id=1587
When Presidents Lie
By ERIC ALTERMAN: The Nation, October 25, 2004
... Under President George W. Bush, Americans entered an era of politics in which the value of truth, for all practical purposes, became entirely contingent. Whether its citizens were aware of it or not, the presidency now operated in a "post-truth" political environment...




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2004-11-27
 
The more things change ...  
Isn't there an old saying that goes: "The more things change, the more they say the same"? The French have it too.

With the current kerfuffle about problems with the New South Wales rail system, when, searching for some important legal papers, I stumbled across these comments in a collection of old songs, I thought some people might also find them illustrative of Santanya's saying that "those who forget history are condemned to repeat it." Note the date below.

If I can wrench some time and mental energy away from burgeoning "urgent & important" demands I may be able to write about how better public transport is an important part of answers to a large number, perhaps a majority of the problems discussed in "the meeja".

www.crixa.com/muse/tot/index.htm
AUSTRALIAN RAILWAY STORY
A Continuing Project: Concerning the Culture Associated with Australian Railways.

Objective
Further the collection and documentation of songs, poems and stories that reflect on the contribution railways have made (and continue to make) to the social history of Australia

unionsong.com/muse/tot/voices/voices16.htm
Railway Voices a CD of Australian railway workers stories with songs and poems

Brian Dunnett electrical fitter, Loco Workshops, Chullora
Undoubtably the 1970 period which led up to the election of the Wran government was the first real occasion that the public actually got itself involved in the debate about public transport. The argument between road and rail lead to the closing down, in the 1960s, of our tramway system, and that appeared to be the way in which rail as a whole was heading. The thing that intervened in that process, and as encouraged people to look again at rail as a system and a more efficient means, both of moving people and certainly bulk goods, was the energy crisis, the environmental questions that arose in the 1970s. People were in fact forced to look at the enormous increase in the usage of diesel and the cost, not only the cost factors involved but, but the energy crisis dominated a lot of the debate. It was stirred on here, I think, by the Green Ban movement in Sydney and elsewhere that it created a basis of interest about well ... what do you do with your cities?
...
Now what ... what had occurred was the NSW government, Askin, brought to Australia a British expert, so called expert, Phillip Shirley, who had been connected with the British run-down of rail and that government was quite openly speaking about 10,000 jobs. The repercussions of that within the union movement was enormous, very sharp divisions, and it was the railway unions that discovered that they had some unity of interest with the public, that formed the "Save Public Transport Committees". Granville had that effect of bringing home what railway workers had been saying, that if you neglect a system, if you don't spend money on maintenance, if you don't do the right thing, well then you're in for trouble.

TRAIN TRIP TO GUILDFORD
A song by John Dengate (1975)
John Dengate - guitar and vocals.


Waiting, waiting for the twenty past four to arrive;
Mate, the twenty past four doesn't run any more,
The next train's the quarter past five.

Time means money, they say,
And I must get to Guildford today
Did he say platform nine for the Liverpool line?
Do I have to change trains on the way?
Indicator, please won't you indicate soon
With your little round light that this platform is right;
I've been waiting at Central since noon.

This old fellow here next to me
Caught the bus up from Circular Quay;
He scratches his arse with his pensioner's pass
But he's on the wrong line for Narwee.

Waiting, waiting, for the twenty past four to arrive;
Mate, the twenty past four doesn't run any more,
The next train's the quarter past five.
Come on you timetable mob, I'm desperately short of a bob,
I'm in my good gear and I'm right off the beer
And at Guildford they say there's a job.

Indicator, please won't you indicate soon
With your little round light that this platform is right;
I've been waiting at Central since noon.

The service is worse than a fraud And the fare's more than I can afford
But I'll never complain - here comes the train
to Guildford And now I'm aboard.
But it's Wentworthville, Pendle Hill;
We're rattling towards Emu Plains.
I should have got out when I heard someone shout
At Granville, "You have to change trains."

Waiting, waiting for the twenty past eight to go back,
But the twenty past eight is half an hour late
And I think I'll lie down on the track.


More ...

2004-11-25
 
150 Years of Licensing  
150 Years of Licensing
I wonder if this Victorian group protesting about licensing laws was marking the sesquicentenary of the Eureka Uprising?

[GET EXPLANATORY LINKS; EUREKA LINKS]


More ...

2004-11-24
 
Holy Rarebit, Batman!  
Holy Rarebit, Batman!
Apparently the grilled cheese on bread with the image of the BVM has been sold to a casino for $US36,000.

"tragic microfilm accident"
www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/ week_2004_07_18.php#003197

It's possible to 'merchandise' most things:
www.idiots4bush.com/t_shirts1
www.pbase.com/alexuchoa/favorites

Pretty Pix, to relax a bit with - Alex Uchoa is a Brazilian photographer.
www.pbase.com/alexuchoa/favorites


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2004-11-16
 
Cargoweasel helps us chill out  
Cargo - at www.livejournal.com/users/cargoweasel
November 8th, 2004
Time: 12:35 pm
Subject: Order
Two interesting links of visual beauty today. Enjoy.

Hough waves ( www.hough.no) are designs based on the Hough transformation algorithm ( homepages.inf.ed.ac.uk/rbf/HIPR2/hough.htm). They are sold in the form of photographic prints.

Squidfingers ( www.squidfingers.com/patterns) has a repository of 140-odd pixel patterns in GIF format, from the modern to the arabesque.


More ...

 
Power of Nightmares (BBC Documentary) transcript site  
www.acutor.be/silt/index.php?id=573
Transcript of The Power of Nightmares
I contacted the BBC through their web site to try and obtain a legitimate DVD of the documentary, and got the following response:
Thank you for your question/questions regarding Power of Nightmares.
At present we do not have any information relating to whether the programme will be re-broadcast. Unfortunately the resources to show previous episodes are not available at present.
Due to resource limitations the programme’s transcripts are not available.
We regret that there are currently no plans for the programme to be released on DVD. However, you may be interested to visit the programme’s web content: news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/3951615.stm

Regards
Anthony Simon
Assistant Editor, Current Affairs Interactive

[S]omeone has posted a DVD encode to usenet, alt.binaries.multimedia abvcd.how.to


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Post-Election: Major bugs in Diebold vote systems  
washingtontimes.com/upi-breaking/20041112-112037-7263r.htm
Major bugs found in Diebold vote systems
Washington, DC, Nov. 12 (UPI) -- The voting machine controversy likely will linger after a look at the systems source code software from Ohio-based Diebold yielded reports of numerous bugs...
... The Digital Encryption Standard 56-bit encryption key used can be unlocked by a key embedded in all the source code, meaning all Diebold machines would respond to the same key.

Rubin, his graduate students and a colleague from Rice University found other bugs, that the administrator's PIN code was "1111" and that one programmer had inserted, "This is just a hack for now."

The implication is that by hacking one machine you could have access to all Diebold machines...


More ...

2004-11-13
 
Remembrance Day  
Sometime before next Anzac Day I will try to write the piece on Australian War Memorials I have in mind to put some flesh on the casualty figures, but here is an unofficial site about the local memorials. The official site is www.awm.gov.au, which has some excellent resource.
This link commemorates some Voices lost to the world of arts in The War to End Wars
(Two earlier
posts on Remembrance Day.)


More ...

 
Mohandas Gandhi & Joe Hill  
I have been following (lightly - life gets in the way sometimes) some of the reaction in the US & elsewhere amongst like-minded citizens to the election success of Bush (& Howard).
It's usually agreed that putting as much effort into making sure that electronic voting, voting, ballot security & vote counting in the "First World" is as scrutinised & secure & independently overseen as the system developed for paper ballots in countries with former records of rigging & cheating is worth putting effort into.

But many are also looking at examples like, say, Gandhi, where he said, more or less: "We can't fight them with force, both because that's the wrong way to achieve our aims anyway, and also because they're better at it & we won't win.

We can try, in some circumstances defying & working against them directly, but that must only be where there is no alternative - and it might serve our cause rather than harm it.

What we should try to do is ignore them. Work around them. Do our own thing our own way rather than fall in with their system. Show that we can do things our way, with our systems, and with better results. Show the people they needn't be dependent on the ones who say 'bend down and serve us, let us make you suffer, because you will suffer even more without us', then their support will crumble from within."

Or as Joe Hill put it more succinctly: "Organize!"


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C.S. Lewis on Theocracy, 1946  

Why I am a Democrat (C.S. Lewis)

I am a democrat because I believe that no man or group of men is good enough to be trusted with uncontrolled power over others. And the higher the pretensions of such power, the more dangerous I think it both the rulers and to the subjects. Hence Theocracy is the worst of all governments. If we must have a tyrant a robber baron is far better than an inquisitor. The baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity at some point be sated; and since he dimly knows he is doing wrong he may possibly repent. But the inquisitor who mistakes his own cruelty and lust of power and fear for the voice of Heaven will torment us infinitely because he torments us with the approval of his conscience and his better impulses appear to him as temptations.

And since Theocracy is the worst, the nearer any government approaches to Theocracy the worse it will be. A metaphysic, held by the rulers with the force of a religion, is a bad sign. It forbids them, like the inquisitor, to admit any grain of truth or good in their opponents, it abrogates the ordinary rules of morality, and it gives a seemingly high, super-personal sanction to all the very ordinary human passions by which, like other men, the rulers will frequently be actuated. In a word, it forbids wholesome doubt. A political programme can never in reality be more than probably right. We never know all the facts about the present and we can only guess the future. To attach to a party programme — whose highest real claim is to reasonable prudence — the sort of assent which we should reserve for demonstrable theorems, is a kind of intoxication.

--C.S. Lewis, 1946

PDF: oddlots.digitalspace.net/downloads/democrat.pdf
"A Reply to Professor Haldane" in "Of Other Worlds: Essays and Stories"
Danny's Blog Cabin
www.brendoman.com/danny/archives/006596.html
May 26, 2004
Church and State: Keep Them Separated
(article written for June 2004 church newsletter) quoted & explained part of this. It's also a good current-day explanation from the Christian side of the dangers of confusing religion & politics too much, as Lewis' was a half-century ago.

I may later add in something about CS Lewis & his works & relationship with JRR Tolkein & others in their group. Or you can go & look that up yersel :)


More ...

2004-11-11
 
News Just Through: Arafat's Death Announced  
News of Arafat's death has just come through.

Is this a turning point? Which way?

We are all rowing forward into the future, only able to see where we've been in the past.


More ...

 
A Poem After War  
Back
They ask me where I've been,
And what I've done and seen.
But what can I reply
Who know it wasn't I,
But someone just like me,
Who went across the sea
And with my head and hands
Killed men in foreign lands...
Though I must bear the blame,
Because he bore my name.

Wilfred Gibson (1878-1962)
www.warpoetry.co.uk/FWW_index.html


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Armistice Day  
Early Remembrance (1); pre-dawn 11/11/2004

Extracts from a small thing for Armistice/Remembrance Day, which I thought had a few aspects people may find good to think upon.
A life in three centuries November 11, 2004, by Jonathon King
Age shall not weary Peter Casserly. And, rather than being condemned by the years, time has made him a record breaker. He is Australia's oldest known man for one. Next, of the 331,000 Australians who fought overseas in World War I he is the sole surviving serviceman from the Western Front. For good measure, he appears to have notched up the country's longest running marriage - lasting 80 years and 10 months before his wife Monica died at 102 in August ...

"The passing time never changed the loveliness of my wife for me. She remained a beautiful blessing throughout our long marriage. But you know what my secret is ... Rum!

"I tell you they gave every soldier two issues of rum each day on the Western Front, but I knew my way around and used to get three and I've been drinking rum ever since - I'm still drinking it. It's a sure cure for the flu. If you feel it coming on, take some rum and in two days it's gone."...

Casserly was born just north of Perth on January 28, 1898, and has the birth certificate to prove [at 106] he's the oldest man in Australia.

A man of three centuries, the world into which Casserly was born is now long gone. Also born in 1898 were one of the discoverers of penicillin, Howard Florey; Charles Kingsford Smith's co-pilot Charles Ulm; billiards champion Walter Lindrum and the artist Sali Herman. There were only 3 million people living in the Australian colonies over which Queen Victoria ruled ...

After the war, Casserly helped with clean-up operations until his discharge on September 11, 1919. On his return he worked as a wharf labourer, timber cutter, sailor and fisherman before establishing a wood yard and then cray fishing business. He won a bravery award for saving the life of a swimmer who had got into difficulties...

Although Casserly returned to the Western Front with veterans for the 75th anniversary of the armistice in 1993, he always opposed subsequent wars and has only marched twice on Anzac Day - in 1917 and again this year.

Early Remembrance (2); pre-dawn 11/11/2004

Some poems of two wars
World War One Poets on the Battlefields: Blunden; Brooke; Owen; Sassoon; St Quentin; Ypres
Wilfred Owen
"Damn all war mongers who lie to the young so they volunteer to kill + to be killed"
Links:
http://www.1914-18.co.uk/owen/ (Wilfred Owen Association)
http://www.pitt.edu/~pugachev/greatwar/owen.html
http://www.everypoet.com/archive/poetry/Wilfred_Owen/wilfred_owen_contents.htm

Paul Eluard

Early Remembrance (3); pre-dawn 11/11/2004

Some non-poetry of two wars: Article (for members); Article (for members)
(Casualty figures 1914-1918; 1939-1945)
Until I can work out something grand & good -- this puts it into millenial vistas -- it looks like the only way you can look at these latter two is to download them. Any suggestions for simple conversions of complex Excel spreadsheets to, say, HTML tables?
I will try to write the piece on War Memorials I have in mind to put some flesh on the figures. This link commemorates some Voices lost to the world of arts in The War to End Wars.


More ...

 
Shock-voting?  
www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll/572.html?mode=reply
I know, it's easy to snipe as I sit here in Canada, as immune to unpleasant affairs abroad as a Belgian in 1933 but I'd like to issue a very special Adrej Waidja Stakhanovite* Award to the Republican voters of Gahanna District in Franklin County, Ohio, where 4,258 of the 638 people who voted voted for Bush. I think the old Soviets only ever managed to get turnouts 99% in favour the chosen candidate. Exceeding the actual number of voters has to count as something extraordinary.

*Or possibly Aleksei Grigorievich Stakhanov (Алексей Григорьевич Стаханов) - from en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aleksei_Grigorievich_Stakhanov, see also en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakhanovite about the "model Soviet worker" (or shock-worker) movement.


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2004-11-09
 
The First 9/11 - Broken Glass & Ashes  
(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: ,



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Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America
by Barbara Ehrenreich

(UK Edition) Nickel and Dimed: Undercover in Low-wage America

The Working Poor : Invisible in America by DAVID K. SHIPLER

www.inthesetimes.com/site/main/article/cold_turkey/
Features > May 10, 2004
Cold Turkey
By Kurt Vonnegut

Many years ago, I was so innocent I still considered it possible that we could become the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of ...


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2004-11-08
 
Deep & Meaningful (and other barriers)  
From a discussion on a subject like unto one my friends & I have discussed

nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/005515.html
Graydon ::: September 10, 2004, 09:54 PM
Prosperity and civilization *do* manage to obscure some basic truths, the learning of a hard life.

One of the most basic of those truths is this -- you cannot kill fear with an ax. You cannot kill fear at all; fear is a thing in your heart, and if you cut your heart out, you are dead, and the shape of fear is dead with you.
I have said before the that American Radical Christian Right isn't, that they're fundamentally atheistic. One of the great teachings of Christianity is that you do not need to fear. With faith, all things are possible; in the love of God, the just and the pious are sure of their reward.


For people who ought -- in the certainty of their faith, and the power of their conviction -- to have no fear at all, they're creatures chained to terror, a terror of losing money, place, and material power. None of those are of themselves bad things; like all things else, what matters about them is what you do with them.


If you need, to build a cage for fear, to brick up the broken knowledge that money is not the same thing as goodness, to not believe that wealth is neither virtue nor the reward of virtue, that the wonder and the glory that is the material world can be understood and used to change all things for the better, to keep all those things away from the certainties of a distant childhood and the fear of surrendered power -- because, God knows, no one would any sense would trust and surrender power to them, and there are none better than them in all the world -- then you will, in whatever haze of deception, come to prefer to destroy your civilization, rather than endure the change that comes from peace and prosperity and letting everybody get at opportunity.


One of the ways you do this is break the machinery of government; treat the public sphere as a mechanism for mass theft, as a machine for making wealth equivalent to virtue, as a device for oppression -- price supports backed up with military power, that ancient doom of empires. So you remember that repetition creates belief -- it does; the insides of our heads are the lands of magic -- and repeat what you want to be true, because if it isn't, then, well, you're a liar and a coward and a skinflint son-of-a-bitch, a stranger to generosity and hope and courage.


All courage isn't found in the service of arms -- ask anyone who has been honest with their children about something they're not proud of, or who has done the right thing at personal cost -- but, well, look at the Right. Not the followers -- it's a ghastly set of certainties, but people will follow any certainty in which they come to believe -- but the folks out front, burning down the house? ...


The comment under
Randolph Fritz ::: September 10, 2004, 08:03 PM
also reflects something mentioned previously
no investment--not equities (stocks), debt securities (bonds), not cash, not gemstones, not precious metal--is certain. Your IRAs and 401(k) may turn into so much worthless paper. And they all depend on policy to maintain their values. When the SEC stopped doing its job, fraud in the securities markets (Enron!) made many stocks into so much worthless paper. Debt securities depend on the rate of inflation--the inflation that is likely if W. Bush is reelected will devalue them dramatically. Investments in any currency depend on international trade policies; it is likely that the dollar will not be the world standard of value in 20 years and there will be many losers in the resultant capital shifts. Metal and gemstones are only valuable as long as most people hold them; in hard times, many people will try to sell and the value will drop.

It all depends on policy--every penny of it. And, since it does, I think it makes good sense to make policy that protects everyone, rather than the minority of lucky investors.


The odd thing is, I'm sure that you--and just about any savvy investor--is aware of the facts I mentioned above. But, somehow, when it comes time to make policy, many of us forget.

and you'll probably notice that
PiscusFiche ::: September 11, 2004, 11:25
puts an example that follows my argument -- concluding "Times are changing, and the more we cooperate, the more able we are to weather it."

At 12frogs.com
September 12, 2004 The Worst Part Is I Don't Want Help

  • "I have gone on reading binges of an entire book or more in a day."
    "Sometimes I avoid friends or family obligations in order to read novels."
    "I have neglected personal hygiene or household chores until I had finished a novel."
    "I have spent money meant for necessities on books instead."
    "I have wept, become angry or irrational because of something I read."
    "If you answered 'yes' to three or more of these questions, you may be a literature abuser

  • .
    Affirmative responses to five or more indicates a serious problem."

    Large Killer Tracheophytes

    Silent Killers: The True Story Of Deadly Trees
    By Gene Weingarten Washington Post Staff Writer
    Wednesday, January 7, 1998; Page C01

    America was stunned this week by the tragic deaths of Michael Kennedy and Sonny Bono, who lost their lives to a silent killer.
    Trees. [etc.]

    [also see (Hughes, Sylvia; "Antelope Activate the Acacia's Alarm System," New Scientist, p. 19, September 29, 1990.) summarised at . This is only a "killer" because the antelope are artificially confined by humans.]

    Flagging & Surveying Tape

    Used for surveying, mapping, forestry, tagging, roping off an area, or any other marking application. Also available in biodegradeable & printed versions; Pre-Made Aerial Targets

    Printed Tape
  • KILLER TREE W/ CROSSBONES (Glo Orange)
    SKULL AND CROSSBONES (ONLY) (Glo Orange)
    DANGER DANGER (Glo Orange)
    PROPERTY LINE (Glo Pink)
    WETLAND DELINEATION (Glo Pink)
    PEST MANAGEMENT (Glo Pink)
    Spot fire (Glo Orange)
    WETLAND BOUNDARY (Glo Orange or Glo Pink)
    TIMBER HARVEST BOUNDARY (Glo Pink)
    RIPARIAN MANAGEMENT ZONE (Glo Pink)
    STREAMSIDE MANAGEMENT ZONE (Glo Pink)


  • Other brands
    Identi-Tape Inc
    www.contractorstools.com/keson_m2_flag_tape.html

    Photo-luminescent Tapes (Glow-in-the-Dark)
  • Comes in high-intensity photoluminescent and long-life phosphorescent types.
    Camouflage Tapes
    Chart & Map Tape
    Color Coding Tape
    Duct Tape
    Flagging Tape
    Fluorescent Tape
    Gaffers Tape
    Gear-Tape (Identi-Tape)
  • (Gear, Instrument, & Cable Identification Tape) - This colorfully striped high temperature proof (300 ?F ) vinyl tape is for identification of climbing gear, surgical instruments, small tools, wires, cables, and hoses. It is sterilization proof and won't fade, wrinkle, peel or become gummy.)
    Label Tape
    Masking Tape
    Plastic Vinyl Tapes
    Safety Reflective Tapes
    Symbols & Stripes
    Harness Tape

    www.livejournal.com/users/crevette/113659.html
    [WARNING!] Review: Night Travels of the Elven Vampire
    (After reading 98 3/4 pages of complete and utter badness) ... This is my favorite half paragraph in the book.
    Glowing red eyes looked at her, and she turned her eyes away from the sight of the glowing orbs. Each one stood at least seven feet in height, and must have weighed around six hundred pounds. They were covered in fur, had pointed ears, a snout and large sharp teeth. They stood on legs the size of tree trunks.

    As an aside, there is a sequel in the works for this that is going to be rated NC-17. I can tell you right now that if I read any kind of porn written by this woman it will make my genitals shrivel up and retreat into my spleen, and I'll have to just pollinate for the rest of my life.


    Now, that might make this somewhat more understandable? Or not?

    The Rapture Index
    www.raptureready.com/rap2.html
    The Rapture Index has two functions: one is to factor together a number of related end time components into a cohesive indicator, and the other is to standardize those components to eliminate the wide variance that currently exists with prophecy reporting.
    The Rapture Index is by no means meant to predict the rapture, however, the index is designed to measure the type of activity that could act as a
    precursor to the rapture.
    You could say the Rapture index is a Dow Jones Industrial Average of end time activity, but I think it would be better if you viewed it as prophetic
    speedometer. The higher the number, the faster we're moving towards the occurrence of pre-tribulation rapture.

  • Rapture Index of 85 and Below: Slow prophetic activity

  • Rapture Index of 85 to 110: Moderate prophetic activity

  • Rapture Index of 110 to 145: Heavy prophetic activity

  • Rapture Index above 145: Fasten your seat belts


  • Antichrist Photo Gallery
    www.raptureready.com/photo/antichrists/rap83i.html

    Ummm ... www.ericawebb.com/091601


    More ...

    2004-11-07
     
    After the Ball is over ...  
    ttp://smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/28/1098667914319.html
    Saudi Arabia sees Bush victory as lesser of two evils
    By Ed O'Loughlin, Herald Correspondent in Riyadh
    October 29, 2004

    Whatever the realpolitik calculations, on the emotional level relations between the US and its Saudi guarantors of cheap petrol - always unsentimental - have never been worse.

    While Muslim fundamentalists continue to preach against the Great Satan, America's natural constituency among liberal and reform-minded educated Saudis has been alienated by what it sees as hostility towards Arabs since the September 11 attacks.

    Over the past three years tens of thousands of young Saudis have returned home from US universities to escape official or unofficial harassment or because of difficulties in renewing study visas.

    "After 9/11 they say that all Arabs and Muslims are terrorists," said the editor of Arab News, Khalid al-Maeena, whose son recently returned from a US university without graduating. "This has made young Arabs turn against the West. They like to listen to Ricky Martin and Mark Anthony and have coffee at Starbucks, and yet their sentiments are increasingly anti-American."

    "Saudis love the West and they hate it," said Mansour al-Nogaidan, once a leading Islamic hardliner and now a liberal dissident. "They love Western civilisation but they hate it because they feel inferior. They hate the thought that it is stronger than we are, that it is up while we are a long way down."

    Man tries to convert lions to Jesus, gets bitten
    46-year-old leaps into den at Taipei Zoo, calls beasts to Christianity
    [There is video of this - watch TV news.]
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6396422/
    Updated: 5:51 a.m. ET Nov. 3, 2004
    TAIPEI, Taiwan - A man leaped into a lion’s den at the Taipei Zoo on Wednesday to try to convert the king of beasts to Christianity, but was bitten in the leg for his efforts.
    “Jesus will save you!” shouted the 46-year-old man at two African lions lounging under a tree a few metres away.

    “Come bite me!” he said with both hands raised, television footage showed.

    One of the lions, a large male with a shaggy mane, bit the man in his right leg before zoo workers drove it off with water hoses and tranquilizer guns.

    Newspapers said that the lions had been fed earlier in the day, otherwise the man might have been more seriously hurt ... or worse.

    Copyright 2004 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved.

    Many good useful & hopeful things (as well as rage, despair, &c.) on the "Bad morning" thread at Making Light -- http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/005687.html

    I really thought that today would be the beginning of our recovery from the current low point. But I guess we have lower to sink. Doesn't mean we won't rise again eventually.


    And in my right hand I hold my sorrow
    And with my left hand I reach for joy
    We all are soldiers whether we fight or fall
    No one can run from the scorns of time

    "Scorns of Time", on the Simple Path album, by Irene Kelley and Claire Lynch

    Alison ::: November 03, 2004, 04:39 PM
    ( http://nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/005687.html )

    What I resent most about this election is that 80% of the people who based their decision on "moral values" voted for Bush. Since when did the Republican Party become the last bastion of morality? Well, because they say they are and Democrats are resistent to portraying themselves that way.

    These people who voted for moral values believe that abortion is murder and that homosexuals are out to wreck their marriages, but not that every child should be adequately educated or that the elderly should not have to choose between their prescription drugs and their food for the month. The reason they focus on abortion and homosexual marriage is that someone told them who was to fear and what was to blame for their problems in life ...

    What I keep coming back to is an article I read last year about how conservatives use language to dominate politics. The link:
    http://www.berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2003/10/27_lakoff.shtml

    There must be a way to make people see that bombing terrorists only breeds more terrorists, that depriving children of education creates crime and that allowing everyone the same rights does not somehow dilute or diminish those rights. In other words, have to talk to the other side. Unfortunately, we first have to figure out how to use words they can hear.


    More ...

    2004-10-24
     
    Photos of Australian Landscapes - SMH Galleries  
    Photos of Australian Landscapes - SMH Galleries
    www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/18/1097951603237.html

    Midwinter on the Main Range in the Snowy Mountains. The steep faces of
    Sentinel Ridge and Watson's Crags offer the finest skiing Australia has to
    offer. Unrivalled scenery, zero crowds and no lift queues (then again, no
    lifts either, and a hell of a hike back to the top ... )
    Photo: Andrew Martin
    Also see: www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/19/1097951677187.html and
    www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/20/1097951735119.html, or

    NOTE: If you're looking at Michael Meryment's photo of the waterfall at Kanangra Walls in
    this gallery, check the person abseiling about halfway down the photo, on
    the right ( www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/18/1097951604775.html).

    In Sydney suburbs --
    St Ives: www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/20/1097951743850.html
    Dobroyd Head: www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/20/1097951742774.html

    For some reason there is a suburb called Dobroyd Point, near Haberfield or
    Leichhardt, in Sydney which is not at all near the peninsula on the harbour
    called Dobroyd Head, near Clontarf or Balgowlah Heights! Here is an aerial
    photo showing Dobroyd Point, the suburb, and you can see that the view
    between the heads shown in the photo above is round quite a few corners from
    it, and well beyond the city buildings seen in the background.
    www.airviewonline.com.au/stock-photographs/photodetails.asp?ID=2228
    (This brought back memories of working for my Biology thesis, and here is
    some of the stuff from the Sydney University SOBS as it is more currently:
    www.bio.usyd.edu.au/hochuli/article.htm ,
    and
    www.bio.usyd.edu.au/SOBS/RESEARCH/FACILITY/JOHNRAY/Johnray.html )
    This shows you something about Dobroyd Head, from a visitor's perspective.
    www.stuharris.co.uk/apple_oz/spitman/spitman.html He doesn't mention
    Clontarf Beach being the site of an early attempted political
    assassination, where a mentally-unbalanced Irish migrant called Henry
    O'Farrell shot the then Duke of Edinburgh
    (Alfred -- see
    www.wordiq.com/definition/Duke_Alfred_of_Saxe-Coburg-Gotha ) on the
    first Royal Visit to Australia in 1868 -- see
    www.shoalhaven.net.au/~cathyd/history/prince.html. Fortunately, the
    bullet bounced off his braces. We swiftly pointed out Henry was visiting
    from Melbourne, but despite his obvious derangement, he was fairly summarily
    tried & executed.

    Am fond of the story that goes with this picture of Cox Bight on the South
    Coast Track, Tasmania:
    www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/19/1097951665813.html
    Been here! www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/19/1097951666139.html
    (Part of a longer story of mine.) And here:
    www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/19/1097951678102.html (see also
    www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/20/1097951740480.html for a different
    view). And this one scarcely touches the wonder & beauty of Barrington Tops
    -- www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/20/1097951734794.html.
    These are something I had to take when I was visiting Western Australia.
    It's a sight you can't see from the Eastern States -- very few of the water
    lakes are big enough to not have anything on the horizon, though if Lake
    Eyre in the centre-south (the lowest point on mainland Australia), usually
    just salt flats, is full after a flood year it might be possible.
    www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/19/1097951676988.html
    www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/19/1097951677368.html
    Oops: Looks like at certain angles in the geology you can get the effect.
    But it's rare <ahem>, e.g. Stockton Beach, Anna Bay (I believe this is near
    Newcastle, NSW)
    www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/19/1097951678108.html

    These show the more common effect:
    www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/20/1097951743386.html
    www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/20/1097951729789.html
    www.smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/10/20/1097951742843.html

    Explanatory story re SMH collecting these.
    www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/10/18/1097951590937.html

    Restoring Faith in Humanity, One Story at a Time
    www.heroicstories.com/


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    2004-10-13
     
     
    I was truly shocked at this story, at www.klas-tv.com/global/story.asp?s=2421595 -
    Voter Registrations Possibly Trashed, about "Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes", saying that "The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee." That, if true, is just banana republic stuff.

    It does completely make my jaw drop, that people's voting registration can possibly go through an unaccountable & possibly partisan group rather than an independent body of some kind - especially if you actually register as being of a particular party. This has always worried & puzzled me about that system, presumably based on the older English system which didn't have secret voting (an innovation from Australia in the nineteenth century).

    So why have a secret ballot at all? Why bother with elections or voting -- just ask people to change their registration from one party to another when they change their mind? (I gradually came to understand that you could register as something, but vote differently. I read somewhere that it's possible to register as independent, or something non-partisan -- I personally am somewhat neurotic about disclosing who I vote for, after the fight to get a truly secret ballot to help stop some kinds of oppression, so I'd have to do that -- though you could probably work it out from my opinions, if you cared.)

    Here are some extracts from the story:

    http://www.klas-tv.com/Global/story.asp?S=2421595

    http://www.klas-tv.com/global/story.asp?s=2421595&ClientType=Printable

    Eyewitness News
    klastv.com
    Las Vegas, Nevada

    George Knapp, Investigative Reporter
    Voter Registrations Possibly Trashed
    (Oct. 12, 2004) -- Employees of a private voter registration company allege that hundreds, perhaps thousands of voters who may think they are registered will be rudely surprised on election day ... Anyone who has recently registered or re-registered to vote outside a mall or grocery store or even government building may be affected ...

    The focus of the story is a private registration company called Voters Outreach of America, AKA America Votes.

    The out-of-state firm has been in Las Vegas for the past few months, registering
    voters. It employed up to 300 part-time workers and collected hundreds of registrations per day, but former employees of the company say that Voters Outreach of America only wanted Republican registrations.

    Two former workers say they personally witnessed company supervisors rip up and trash registration forms signed by Democrats ...

    [a former employee] managed to retrieve a pile of shredded paperwork including signed
    voter registration forms, all from Democrats. We took them to the Clark County
    Election Department and confirmed that they had not, in fact, been filed with the county as required by law ...

    We attempted to speak to Voters Outreach but found that its office has been rented out to someone else.

    The landlord says Voters Outreach was evicted for non-payment of rent. Another source said the company has now moved on to Oregon where it is once again registering voters. It's unknown how many registrations may have been tossed out, but another ex-employee told Eyewitness News she had the same suspicions when she worked there ...

    The company has been largely, if not entirely funded, by the Republican National Committee. Similar complaints have been received in Reno where the registrar has asked the FBI to investigate.


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    2004-10-12
     
    Life is pain, Highness. Anybody who says differently is selling something.  
    Life is pain, Highness. Anybody who says differently is selling something. -- The Princess Bride
    Not unlike my feelings - brainsnap.com/node/83

    A little cheery thought on a really bad night -- extreme spelling correction.

    U.S. nuke city to correct Einstein misspelling
    Fri 8 October, 2004 03:20
    http://www.reuters.co.uk/newsPackageArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=598840§ion=news


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    2004-10-07
     
     
    dra
    You are Form 5, Dragon: The Weaver.

    "And The Dragon seperated the virtuous from
    the sinful. He tore his eyes from his sockets
    and used them to peer into the souls of those
    on trial to make a judgement. He knew that
    with endless knowledge came endless
    responsibility."


    Some examples of the Dragon Form are Athena
    (Greek), St. Peter (Christian), and Surya
    (Indian).
    The Dragon is associated with the concept of
    intelligence, the number 5, and the element of
    wood.
    His sign is the crescent moon.

    As a member of Form 5, you are an intelligent and
    wise individual. You weigh options by looking
    at how logical they are and you know that while
    there may not always be a right or wrong
    choice, there is always a logical one. People
    may say you are too indecisive, but it's only
    because you want to do what's right. Dragons
    are the best friends to have because they're
    willing to learn.


    Which Mythological Form Are You?
    brought to you by Quizilla


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    2004-09-22
     
    To Compare Bush and Blair  
    [Headline & details - needs filling in]
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/18/nwar218.xml
    [Headline & details - needs filling in]
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/18/nwar118.xml
    [Headline & details - needs filling in]
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/opinion/main.jhtml?xml=/opinion/2004/09/18/dl1801.xml
    [Headline & details - needs filling in]
    http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/09/18/nwar18.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/09/18/ixnewstop.html

    [USA person at barbyawp.blogspot.com/]

    I'm not blaming Blair for George's decisions: George's decisions are George's
    responsibilities (and our burdens). But Blair could have delivered a Patton
    slap: do it, and you go without us. It probably wouldn't have stopped George,
    but in a best possible scenario, it may have slowed the unholy rush to war,
    given Hans Blix time to conclude what David Kay found out a year and many lives
    later (there were no WMD), and thus exposed George's true reason: "F*** Saddam!
    We're taking him out!"

    Equally reasonably, George & Co. could have gone off quarter-cocked (as opposed to half-cocked) a year earlier — but without the quasi legitimacy Blair engineered. But then we would be having a very different election campaign.

    barbyawp.blogspot.com/ 2004_09_01_barbyawp_archive.html#109542631379759423
    I'm going to get the quote wrong, but I thought the most compelling moment in
    Fahrenheit 9/11 was this:

    "I'm constantly amazed that those who have the least are willing to give the most."

    And I'm constantly amazed at how those that have the most are willing to sacrifice those who have the least.

    http://slate.msn.com/id/2106833/
    Do As I Say
    Bush lets down his Guard.
    by William Saletan
    Posted Thursday, Sept. 16, 2004, at 10:42 PM P

    http://moonlitcynicism.blogspot.com/ (A travel blog - just nice 'n' normal. They're heading for Australia later on; currently in Ukraine.)

    YUP - Good Stuff Here!
    http://www.pbs.org/now/printable/transcript_hough_print.html


    More ...

     
    good stuff garnered  
    This looks like there's some good stuff to be garnered.

    Figures of Speech
    (Turns of phrase, Schemes, Tropes, Ornaments, Colours, Flowers)
    http://humanities.byu.edu/rhetoric/Figures/Figures-Groupings.htm
    Overview
    Like wildflower seeds tossed on fertile ground, the figures
    of speech, sometimes called the "flowers of rhetoric" (flores
    rhetoricae
    ), have multiplied into a garden of enormous variety over time.
    As the right frame of this web resource illustrates, the number of figures of
    speech can seem quite imposing. And indeed, the number, names, and groupings of
    figures have been the most variable aspect of rhetoric over its history.


    An interesting pattern for next Fat Tuesday? Think of some groovy yarns to use.
    http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEfall04/PATThallowig.html

    This could be good for fun in the backyard -- especially if the backyard is as large as Hawksview @ Guildford
    http://www.crazyape.com/product.aspx?CategoryId=60151&ProductID=137932

    Also, the Preparing for Emergencies website (UK version)
    http://www.preparingforemergencies.gov.uk/

    Which should get you into the right frame of mind for this cheery little piece
    http://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/21/national/21cameras.html
    In Chicago, they are taking away your right to wander in circles:

    Chicago Moving to 'Smart' Surveillance Cameras
    By STEPHEN KINZER

    Published: September 21, 2004
    ...
    Police specialists here can already monitor live footage from about 2,000 surveillance cameras around the city, so the addition of 250 cameras under the mayor's new plan is not a great jump. The way these cameras will be used, however, is an extraordinary technological leap.
    Sophisticated new computer programs will immediately alert the police whenever anyone viewed by any of the cameras placed at buildings and other structures considered terrorist targets wanders aimlessly in circles, lingers outside a public building, pulls a car onto the shoulder of a highway, or leaves a package and walks away from it. Images of those people will be highlighted in color at the city's central monitoring station, allowing dispatchers to send police officers to the scene immediately ...
    City officials ... have raised the possibility of placing cameras in commuter and rapid transit cars and on the city's street-sweeping vehicles.
    "We're not inside your home or your business," Mayor Daley said. "The city owns the sidewalks. We own the streets and we own the alleys."


    Meanwhile, back at the Skywalker Ranch; in relation to the reworking George Lucas (Inc) has done on the earlier Star Wars films re-releases, Jonathan Vos Post (someone who's made many contributions to maths & literature) has pointed out this, which Aldous Huxley wrote in regard to a later edition of Brave New World:

    To pore over the literary shortcomings of twenty years ago, to attempt to patch
    a faulty work into perfection it missed at its first execution, to spend one's
    middle age in trying to mend the artistic sins committed and bequeathed by that
    different person who was oneself in youth - all this is surely vain and futile.
    And that is why this new Brave New World is the same as the old one. Its defects
    as a work of art are considerable; but in order to correct them I should have to
    rewrite the book - and in the process of rewriting, as an older, other person, I
    should probably get rid not only of some of the faults of the story, but also of
    such merits as it originally possessed. And so, resisting temptation to wallow
    in artistic remorse, I prefer to leave both well and ill alone and to think
    about something else.


    More ...

    2004-09-21
     
    Jargon Revue  
    www.jargon.net/jargonfile/h/HanlonsRazor.html

    Hanlon's Razor /prov./ A corollary of Finagle's Law www.jargon.net/jargonfile/f/FinaglesLaw.html, similar to Occam's Razor, that reads "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity." The derivation of the Hanlon eponym is not definitely known, but a very similar remark ("You have attributed conditions to villainy that simply result from stupidity.") appears in "Logic of Empire", a 1941 story by Robert A. Heinlein, who calls it the `devil theory' of sociology. Heinlein's popularity in the hacker culture makes plausible the supposition that `Hanlon' is derived from `Heinlein' by phonetic corruption. A similar epigram has been attributed to William James, but Heinlein more probably got the idea from Alfred Korzybski and other practitioners of General Semantics. Quoted here because it seems to be a particular favorite of hackers, often showing up in sig blocks www.jargon.net/jargonfile/s/sigblock.html, fortune cookie
    www.jargon.net/jargonfile/f/fortunecookie.html files and the login banners of BBS systems and commercial networks. This probably reflects the hacker's daily experience of environments created by well-intentioned but short-sighted people.
    Compare Sturgeon's Law www.jargon.net/jargonfile/s/SturgeonsLaw.html.

    Finagle's Law /n./ The generalized or `folk' version of Murphy's Law www.jargon.net/jargonfile/m/MurphysLaw.html, fully named "Finagle's Law of Dynamic Negatives" and
    usually rendered "Anything that can go wrong, will". One variant favored among hackers is "The perversity of the Universe tends towards a maximum" (but see also Hanlon's Razor www.jargon.net/jargonfile/h/HanlonsRazor.html). The label `Finagle's
    Law' was popularized by SF author Larry Niven in several stories depicting a frontier culture of asteroid miners; this `Belter' culture professed a religion and/or running joke involving the worship of the dread god Finagle
    and his mad prophet Murphy. Some technical and scientific cultures (e.g., palaeontologists) know it under the name `Sod's Law'; this usage may be more common in Great Britain.

    Sturgeon's Law /prov./ "Ninety percent of everything is crap". Derived from a quote by science fiction author Theodore Sturgeon, who once said, "Sure,
    90% of science fiction is crud. That's because 90% of everything is crud." Oddly, when Sturgeon's Law is cited, the final word is almost invariably changed to `crap'. Compare Hanlon's Razor www.jargon.net/jargonfile/h/HanlonsRazor.html,
    Ninety-Ninety Rule www.jargon.net/jargonfile/n/Ninety-NinetyRule.html. Though this maxim
    originated in SF fandom, most hackers recognize it and are all too aware of its truth.

    Ninety-Ninety Rule /n./ "The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time." Attributed to Tom Cargill of Bell Labs,
    and popularized by Jon Bentley's September 1985 "Bumper-Sticker Computer Science" column in "Communications of the ACM". It was there called the "Rule of Credibility", a name which seems not to have stuck.

    misfeature www.jargon.net/jargonfile/m/misfeature.html /mis-fee'chr/ or /mis'fee`chr/ /n./ A feature that eventually causes lossage, possibly because it is not adequate for a new situation that has evolved. Since it results from a deliberate and properly implemented feature, a misfeature is not a bug. Nor
    is it a simple unforeseen side effect; the term implies that the feature in question was carefully planned, but its long-term consequences were not accurately or adequately predicted (which is quite different from not having
    thought ahead at all). A misfeature can be a particularly stubborn problem to resolve, because fixing it usually involves a substantial philosophical change to the structure of the system involved.


    More ...