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
Absolute Write Paypal donation button:

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
Everything you wanted to know about literary agents
On the getting of agents
Writer Beware
Miss Snark
Writer's Net

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(and my Wish List)

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Recipe: Almond-Vanilla Crescent Biscuits  

Almond-Vanilla Crescents

Delicate, crescent-shaped butter biscuits, an Austrian specialty. Substitute toasted and finely ground hazelnuts for the almonds if you want to try something different.
[NOTE: This is written in American. I will have to check what, say, 350F is in Celsius, how much a stick of butter is, and check if the standard US cup is the same as an Australian cup.]

Preparation time: 20 minutes
Baking time: 12 minutes
Yield: 2-1/2 dozen

1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup finely ground almonds
1/3 cup superfine sugar
Pinch of salt
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cold
2 egg yolks
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Icing sugar for garnish

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line a biscuit tray with greaseproof paper.

In the work bowl of a food processor fitted with the steel blade, combine the flour, ground almonds, sugar, and salt. Pulse briefly to blend. Cut the butter into small pieces and add to the flour mixture. Pulse until the butter is cut into very tiny pieces, about 15 to 20 pulses.

(To use a mixer and mixing bowl, soften the butter to room temperature. Beat the butter in the mixing bowl until fluffy, about 2 minutes. Add the sugar, and cream together well. Combine the flour, ground almonds, and salt. Add to the butter mixture in four stages, blending well after each addition.)

In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the egg yolks with the vanilla and add to the flour mixture. Process or mix until the dough forms a ball, about 1 minute.

Pinch off walnut-size pieces and roll on a lightly floured surface into 8mm-thick ropes about 10 cm long. Bend the ropes into crescent shapes and place them on the biscuit tray, leaving 5 cm between them.

Bake for 12 to 15 minutes, until golden and set. Remove the biscuit sheet from the oven and transfer the biscuits to racks to cool. Dust the crescents heavily with icing sugar. Store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to a week. Freeze for longer storage.

Per serving: Calories 86 (From Fat 53); Fat 6g (Saturated 2g); Cholesterol 22mg; Sodium 6mg; Carbohydrate 7g (Dietary Fiber 1g); Protein 2g.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 4:28 pm

 
Charity may begin at home, but it must go elsewhere  
Oxfam Unwrapped (Oxfam Australia - formerly Community Aid Abroad)

How it works

Oxfam Australia works in 25 countries around the world, and this catalogue only contains real items that we use in our work. When you buy a gift from Oxfam Unwrapped your donation will be used to fund projects that involve the very item you buy. This makes sure that your donation has the biggest possible impact on the lives of people living in poverty.

Your friends will receive a card detailing the present you bought them and the real item goes to those who need it most.

And because you're helping Oxfam Australia fight poverty, your purchases are also tax deductible. You will receive a tax receipt either via email or by post.

Places that examine/audit charities

AID/WATCH: www.aidwatch.org.au
The Tithing Tree: www.thetithingtree.org.au

Other Alternative Gift-giving Systems

The Smith Family: www.smithfamily.com.au
Care Australia: www.careaustralia.org.au
Cambodia Trust: www.cambodiatrust.com/history.htm
Street Voices and the KOTO Restaurant in Hanoi: www.streetvoices.com.au/whatis.htm
TEAR Australia: www.tear.org.au
Opportunity International Australia: www.opportunity.org.au
Asylum Seeker Project At Hotham Mission: www.hothammission.org.au
Tabitha Foundation (Australia): www.tabithafoundationaustralia.com

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 5:41 pm

 
Yet another use for eBay  
Layne's Legacy, by Beading for a Cure.

Layne's Legacy is an annual beading challenge dedicated to raising money for the National Colorectal Cancer Research Association (NCCRA) in honor of our friend Layne Shilling, who lost her battle with colorectal cancer in November 2002. The premise of the challenge is simple: participants purchase a kit which contains a variety of beads. Each kit is identical.
The completed works are as varied as the beaders who created them. In the past we have had jewelry, sculptural work, and decorative items.

When the projects are all finished, they are auctioned off on eBay and all of the proceeds (minus operating costs) go to the NCCRA, donated in Layne's name. This is our way of honoring the memory of a wonderful beader and good friend.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 8:09 pm

 
November 11th, Remembrance Day  

Lamentations

I found him in the guard-room at the Base.
From the blind darkness I had heard his crying
And blundered in. With puzzled, patient face
A sergeant watched him; it was no good trying
To stop it; for he howled and beat his chest.
And, all because his brother had gone west,
Raved at the bleeding war; his rampant grief
Moaned, shouted, sobbed, and choked, while he was kneeling
Half-naked on the floor. In my belief
Such men have lost all patriotic feeling.

- Siegfried Sassoon

From First World War Poetry Site www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/ltg/projects/jtap

Sassoon's Declaration against the War

"I am making this statement as an act of wilful defiance of military authority, because I believe that the War is being deliberately prolonged by those who have the power to end it. I am a soldier, convinced that I am acting on behalf of soldiers. I believe that this War, on which I entered as a war of defence and liberation, has now become a war of aggression and conquest. I believe that the purpose for which I and my fellow soldiers entered upon this war should have been so clearly stated as to have made it impossible to change them, and that, had this been done, the objects which actuated us would now be attainable by negotiation. I have seen and endured the sufferings of the troops, and I can no longer be a party to prolong these sufferings for ends which I believe to be evil and unjust. I am not protesting against the conduct of the war, but against the political errors and insincerities for which the fighting men are being sacrificed. On behalf of those who are suffering now I make this protest against the deception which is being practised on them; also I believe that I may help to destroy the callous complacency with which the majority of those at home regard the contrivance of agonies which they do not, and which they have not sufficient imagination to realize".

The War Poets, Robert Giddings (Bloomsbury, 1990), p.111

There are poets even now, today speaking about war and the individual cost of war. I invite you to take a look at www.voicesinwartime.org

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 10:55 pm

 
What you always suspected was true  
Journal of Personality and Social Psychology
Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments

Justin Kruger and David Dunning
Department of Psychology
Cornell University

www.phule.net/mirrors/unskilled-and-unaware.html

Abstract
People tend to hold overly favorable views of their abilities in many social and intellectual domains. The authors suggest that this overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it. Across 4 studies, the authors found that participants scoring in the bottom quartile on tests of humor, grammar, and logic grossly overestimated their test performance and ability. Although their test scores put them in the 12th percentile, they estimated themselves to be in the 62nd. Several analyses linked this miscalibration to deficits in metacognitive skill, or the capacity to distinguish accuracy from error. Paradoxically, improving the skills of participants, and thus increasing their metacognitive competence, helped them recognize the limitations of their abilities
© 1999 by the American Psychological Association
For personal use only--not for distribution
December 1999 Vol. 77, No. 6, 1121-1134


www.superdickery.com/seduction/3.html

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 7:01 pm

 
9/11 Returns: Stari Most at Mostar  
I'm wondering if it is simple coincidence that this 1993 outrage against a physical symbol happened over 8th & 9th November (see my other posts on The Other 9/11, Kristallnacht). I can't currently find the excerpt I thought I'd quoted before of this piece. For the record, here is the whole article, from another websource.

From: Andras Riedlmayer <riedlmay@fas.harvard.edu>

[O]n 9 November 1993, the Old Bridge (Stari Most)
in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina, was destroyed by artillery of the Croatian
Army (HV) and Bosnian-Croat paramilitary forces (HVO), under the command
of Gen. Slobodan Praljak, a former Croatian Deputy Minister of Defense
dispatched from Zagreb. Eyewitnesses report that the barrel of a tank or
heavy artillery piece was aimed through the window of a ruined house on
the crest of Stotina hill, at the foot of Mount Hum on the west bank of
the Neretva River. A sustained barrage of shells fired on 8-9 November
1993 eventually succeeded in blasting away the stonework supporting
the 436-year-old bridge, which residents had vainly tried to protect
with mattresses and old automobile tyres. The ancient bridge collapsed
into the river, as HVO soldiers celebrated with a fusillade of gunshots.

DESTRUCTION OF OLD BRIDGE SEEN FROM TWO ANGLES: http://sense-agency.com/en/stream.php?sta=3&pid=9676&kat=3

Distruzione del ponte di Mostar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aiO_UqAV0Ng, from bottegasarajevo on YouTube

UNESCO has termed the destruction of the Old Bridge an "act of barbarism."
At a June 2002 ceremony marking the laying of the first stone in the
reconstruction of the historic 27-meter soaring arch over the Neretva
River, Italian President Carlo Azeglio Campi was equally blunt, saying,
"The destruction of the bridge was an insult for human culture."

The New Republic
December 13, 1993

FALLING DOWN
A Mostar bridge elegy
By Slavenka Drakulic

    I have three photos of Mostar in front of me. One is a postcard, a sepia-colored photo printed on poor, cardboardlike paper. It is dated September 1953, when my father sent it to us on his first visit to Bosnia-Herzegovina. In the center of the photo is the Old Bridge — all postcards of Mostar have that bridge on them, of course — and a part of the old city. "I think of you as I walk over this beautiful bridge," he wrote to my mother and me in Rijeka, Croatia. I can imagine him walking there on a warm autumn day. Coming to the middle, to the place where young boys used to jump into the river to prove their courage, he must have leaned over the stone railing and looked into the Neretva below, quick and silent as a snake. He must have stopped there, overwhelmed by the elegance of the stone construction. When his hands touched the bridge, he must have felt its smoothness and warmth, as if he had touched skin instead of stone. It was as if the bridge had a life of its own, a soul given to it by the people who had crossed it in its almost 400 years of existence. It was erected in 1566 during the Turkish Empire and, the story goes, the stones were stuck together with mortar that had been mixed with the whites of eggs.
Serbs and Turks, Croats and Jews, Greeks and Albanians, Austrians and Hungarians, Catholics, Orthodox, Bogumils and Muslims — all had stopped at the same spot, rested on the same stone. I was 4 when he wrote that postcard, and I know that he was certain that one day I would see and
touch the Mostar bridge, too.

    My father was wrong. I did not make it. I foolishly thought the bridge would be there forever. So, I never went to Mostar, never walked from one bank of the river to the other. The bridge that saw so many wars, survived so many years, no longer exists. It collapsed in a second on November 9. All I have to remember it by are these three photos: before, during and after. And I wonder what my father, dead for years now, would have said if he had seen this other photo, the last before the bridge was destroyed. Would he recognize it, ragged and pitiful as an old beggar, with a makeshift wooden roof, black automobile tires and sandbags piled in a futile effort to protect it from the occasional shelling that had started with the war?


    When the bridge collapsed, it was Tuesday morning. A pleasant, sunny day, much like the one when my father visited Mostar. The town is only about seventy miles from the Adriatic sea, so winter comes rather late. The bridge had been shelled since Monday afternoon. People who saw it say its collapse did not last long: at 10:30 a.m. the bridge just fell. As I look at the second picture, I try to imagine the sound of the Old Bridge falling down. A bridge like that doesn't just disappear; its collapse must have sounded like a swift, powerful earthquake, the kind that people in Mostar have never heard before. Or maybe it sounded like an old tree splitting in two — a hollow crack followed by a long silence. Whatever the sound, the river swallowed it in a single morsel. A while later, it was as if the bridge had never existed.


    The third photo of Mostar is one I cut out of a newspaper and carry around with me. It is in color and, paradoxically, the most beautiful of the three that I have. The sun shines over the rooftops of the old city, painting the stone houses white. The slightly swollen river, a rich, deep green, rubs along its banks like a lazy, satiated animal. Absent from this beauty, however, is the bridge. There's the beginning of its long stone arch, but if that portion were only ten feet shorter, there would be no trace of the structure at all. Only the sheer logic of the place, a feeling that a bridge belongs there, over the river, between two halves of a medieval town, tells us that something is missing. It's
been a little more than two weeks, and I'm still surprised when I look at the photo. When I remember what is no longer there, I feel a spasm in my stomach, a knot in my throat. I feel death lurking in its absence.


    I've heard that people in Mostar, even adults, cried when they saw that the bridge had fallen. I believe the reports, for I have seen people who are not from Mostar cry as well. An elderly journalist. A lawyer. A singer, who wept for the first time since the war started. Not so long ago the newspapers published photos of a massacre in the Bosnian Muslim village of Stupni Do. One picture showed a middle-aged woman with a long, dark knife-cut along her throat. I don't remember anyone crying over that photo or others like it. And I ask myself: Why do I feel more pain looking at the image of the destroyed bridge than the image of the woman? Perhaps it is because I see my own mortality in the collapse of the bridge, not in the death of the woman. We expect people to die. We count on our own lives to end. The destruction of a monument to civilization is something else. The bridge, in all its beauty and grace, was built to outlive us; it was an attempt to grasp eternity. Because it was the product of both individual creativity and collective experience, it
transcended our individual destiny. A dead woman is one of us — but the bridge is all of us, forever.


    The war in Bosnia-Herzegovina is well into its second year now. You would think that nothing new could happen, that, after the concentration camps and the mass rapes, the ethnic cleansing and the slow, cold death of Sarajevo, there would be no room left for imagination. But this war seems to have neither rules nor limits. Just when you think nothing could possibly surprise, something happens — even more violent, more painful, more surprising than before.

    Finally — who did it? The Muslims are accusing the Croats, the Croats are accusing the Muslims. But does it even matter? For four centuries people needed that bridge and admired its beauty. The question is not who shelled and demolished it. The question is not even why someone did it — destruction is part of human nature. The question is: What kind of people do not need that bridge? The only answer I can come up with is this: people who do not believe in the future — theirs or their children's — do not need such a bridge. For me, this is the chilling measure of the photo of Mostar without its Old Bridge. This is why I would say that those people — whoever they might be — do not belong to this civilization, civilization built on the idea of time, civilization built on the idea of a future. Even if they rebuild the Mostar bridge and reconstruct it meticulously, they are barbarians.


    Holding the old postcard in my hand, I regret that I have not been there. My father is dead. The sepia color is washed out; the existing postcards of Mostar with the Old Bridge in the middle will probably disappear, too. My daughter will only remember a story about a beautiful stone bridge that, once upon a time, existed in a far away country shattered by a long, long war. And I myself have no memory of my own of the bridge now, when I need it the most.




Slavenka Drakulic is the author of The Balkan Express: Fragments from the Other Side of War (W.W. Norton).

PHOTOS of Mostar's Old Bridge (Stari Most) before the 1992-95 war,
and of its reconstruction in 2000-2004. (Click small thumbnails to reach the large-size images)

Stari Most, Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina: www.archnet.org/ library/ images/ thumbnails.jsp?location_id=10722

Also see a couple of article extracts at this page: unconqueredbosnia.tripod.com/ Mostar3.html

Labels: buildings, history, memories, mourning, oral history, war

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 11:33 am

 
 
So what happens when the cat reprograms it, and makes himself sick?

From VCR to cat feeder
news.com.com/2300-1041_3-5913876-1.html
English inventor James Larsson's "programmabowl VCR" project. (Credit: Make magazine)

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 8:07 pm

 
Is there Intelligent Life on Earth? Opinion varies ...  
The Abstract Factory

abstractfactory.blogspot.com/2005/10/only-debate-on-intelligent-design-that.html
Tuesday, October 18, 2005
The only debate on Intelligent Design that is worthy of its subject

You might also see the new theory of Intelligent Division at polymathematics.typepad.com/polymath/2005/10/post.html

There was a nice piece at The Onion a while back on ; the one true answer to the unproved & speculative Theory of Gravity.

Intelligent Falling
http://www.theonion.com/news/index.php?issue=4133&n=2
August 17, 2005 | Issue 41•33 www.theonion.com/content/index/4133
... Proponents of Intelligent Falling assert that the different theories used by secular physicists to explain gravity are not internally consistent. Even critics of Intelligent Falling admit that Einstein's ideas about gravity are mathematically irreconcilable with quantum mechanics. This fact, Intelligent Falling proponents say, proves that gravity is a theory in crisis ...

timmerca.com/document/1427/
Spider on the car

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 7:08 pm

 
Travel Advisory  
Find a photo of this chap. Put it in your ticket-holder, passport folder or the like. If you are travelling anywhere, keep a weather eye out and, if you recognise him travelling with you, cancel your trip and head in the other direction immediately.

Survivor's tale takes another twist as he fights for life
By Dan Proudman, Sydney Morning Herald, October 5, 2005
www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/10/04/1128191720163.html
He has beaten Mother Nature, battled through a plane crash and survived a heart attack.
Now, for the fourth time in seven years, Tony Purkiss, a Newcastle (NSW) father of two, is facing a fight for life after being critically injured in the October 2005 Bali bomb blasts.
Last night Mr Purkiss was due to have a surprise visit from four of the crew of Solo Globe Challenger, with whom he survived the 1998 Sydney to Hobart yacht race, with a serious head wound and a broken leg.

UPDATE this may be a picture. He is described here as "Biggles" Purkiss - from the Solo Globe Challenger site photo gallery at ( sailsolo.com/photo_gallery.html ) This site includes descriptions of their experience during the 1998 Sydney to Hobart Race, during which 6 sailors died and many were injured.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 8:12 pm

 
Hiatus  

Hiatus

Due to much clamour & wails of despair & loss from the thronging crowds of my distressed blogfans, <ahem>, I am just dropping this note in to say that this hiatus is just one of those gaps that strike blogdom. I have every intention of continuing -- there is even some material I've been collecting in my blogpile for entries. "Life" tends to get in the way sometimes (& sleep & all that other stuff).

I might just drop in the odd bit, but it'll be a while before anything substantial gets put here ... not that there's anyone out there looking ... we just float these pieces of our inner life out into the void like Walt Whitman's spider spinning out its parachute silk, hoping one day that someone, somewhere will connect with our thoughts and know that someone once lived here.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 3:23 pm

 
Yet Another "I told you so"  

Average workers miss out on PM's wages bonanza

www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/08/28/1125167552299.html (text version)
www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/08/28/1125167552299.html
Date: August 29 2005
By Nick O'Malley Workplace Reporter

The massive wage increases generated by Australia's prolonged growth spell have gone largely into the pockets of the rich, challenging the Prime Minister's claim that average workers have enjoyed a real 14 per cent pay rise since 1998, research shows.

Mr Howard made the figure a central point of the last election campaign and has used it to justify his planned industrial relations reforms.

But research by the University of Sydney's centre for industrial relations research, acirrt, has found that only the top 10 per cent of wage earners saw a rise of anything like that, enjoying an increase of 13.8 per cent between 1998 and 2004.

According to acirrt's research, based on Australian Bureau of Statistics figures and commissioned by Unions NSW, the average wage rise has been 3.6 per cent, while the median is 2.6 per cent.

The bottom 20 per cent of income earners had an increase of just 1.2 per cent.

Some workers in highly-skilled and well-paid occupations saw their pay rates rise but their earnings fall as they lost working hours. Casuals experienced far higher wage rises than permanent staff.

John Robertson, the secretary of Unions NSW, said the research revealed that those who had received the lowest real wage increases were those most dependent on minimum wages and collective bargaining. "In this context the proposed industrial relations changes will only add to the disparity between the winners and losers," he said ...

Other research, conducted by John Shields of Sydney University, found that over the same period the incomes of the 50 highest-paid Australian chief executives had increased by 194 per cent between 1999 and last year.

Dr Shields said it was likely the executives' pay had increased by up to 230 per cent if earnings from share options were taken into consideration.

Also see Ross Gittin's column in the same publication:

Why labour market 'flexibility' can be bad

Date: August 29 2005
www.smh.com.au/text/articles/2005/08/28/1125167552433.html (text)
www.smh.com.au/articles/2005/08/28/1125167552433.html (fancy)

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 1:01 pm

 
Lucan - I'll fill in the Other Lucan sometime if'n I get to it ...  
When I hear/read the name "Lucan", memories of this case are my first reaction. The Seventh Earl of Lucan has not been seen since the night of November 7th, 1974, when his children's nanny was beaten to death with a piece of lead pipe, and his estranged wife was attacked [She staggered for help to a pub called The Plumbers' Arms; would you write that?]. Some months later an inquest jury declared him guilty of murder. He was officially declared dead in October 1999 so the family could settle inheritance & so forth, but speculation, rumour & theorising continues.
This spot has a pretty good summary of the history for the 20th anniversary last year, and links, such as Lord Lucan.com, The Lucan Review, and Last Person [known] To See Lord Lucan Alive Dies (in September 2004).
You can find a whole lot more -- about 22,400 results in the UK for "Lord Lucan" on google.co.uk, for instance. I think I'm not unhappy that I've never heard of the other Lucan mentioned above. (Lucasian OTOH, leads to a whole other universe ...)

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 9:09 pm

 
love mitten???  
A truly extraordinary reference page at Wikipedia: Body parts slang

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 10:17 pm

 
Good News on Refurbished Hilton Memorial  


Hilton Memorial (IMG_3924a-crop)
Originally uploaded by Mezza.

Hilton Memorial (3924a-crop) "To the memory of Alec Carter, Arthur Favell and Paul Burmistriw, two city council garbagemen and a 1st class police constable, who were killed here as a result of a bomb explosion on 13th February, 1978. Forever in our thoughts. Your workmates."

Restored memorial plaque to the 3 dead in the Sydney Hilton Bombing, after major refurbishment of hotel.


Update February 2008: Some of the coverage of the 30th Anniversary (no photo of the new memorial yet):
ABC News – Sydney Hilton blast to be remembered 30 years on (www.abc.net.au/ news/ stories/ 2008/ 02/ 13/ 2161121.htm)

Sydney remembers Hilton bombings
February 13, 2008 - 4:35PM
news.smh.com.au/ sydney-remembers-hilton-bombings/ 20080213-1s0q.html

A smile, a morning hello and their world exploded
David Humphries with Paul Bibby
February 14, 2008
www.smh.com.au/ articles/ 2008/ 02/ 13/ 1202760398954.html
www.smh.com.au/ news/ national/ a-smile-a-morning-hello-and-their-world-exploded/ 2008/ 02/ 13/ 1202760398954.html

TIME and counselling have eased her pain, but Rosamund Dallow-Smith's campaign for justice is no nearer success than at any time in the 30 years since serendipity spared her life by inches but ruined innocence around her.

"I had just walked past him, smiled at him, and taken just my first step inside the staff entrance when I heard this enormous explosion,"

City of Sydney Re-dedicates Plaque Commemorating Hilton Hotel Blast Victims (Sydney City Council site)
12 February 2008
www.sydneymedia.com.au/ html/ 3513-city-of-sydney-re-dedicates-plaque-commemorating-hilton-hotel-blast-victims.asp

Sydney Hilton Hotel blast commemorated
February 13, 2008 - 7:44AM
news.theage.com.au/ sydney-hilton-hotel-blast-commemorated/ 20080213-1rwb.html

Remember the Hilton bombing
by Premier Morris Iemma
February 13, 2008 12:00am
www.news.com.au/ dailytelegraph/ story/ 0,22049,23202422-5001031,00.html

Articles : Scams and Scoundrels
The Hilton Fiasco
by Ben Hills
12 February 1998
Publication: Sydney Morning Herald
www.benhills.com/ articles/ articles/ SCM38a.html

Current Wikipedia version of Sydney Hilton Bombing

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 10:02 pm

 
Bit of a shock, this  

Which Harry Potter character has the same personality type as you?

Harry Potter Personality Quiz by Pirate Monkeys Inc.
[The Quizmaster says: "I've seen several people who come up as INTP who are upset that they got Voldemort. I'm not saying INTPs are evil. But personality type should be neutral - people of any personality type can be good or bad."]
Gillian Rhett's impression of He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named

This test is based on the principles of the Myers-Briggs Personality Typing system. I made up the questions myself but they're similar to (and influenced by) the questions you'd find on any other Myers-Briggs-based test.
All Possible Results: piratemonkeysinc.com/allresult.htm

Explanation of Results:

This type of personality test uses four indexes of personality and the combination of the four is your personality type. The first index relates to how you interact with other people and can be Extroverted (E), meaning you're more outgoing or Introverted (I), meaning you keep more to yourself. The second relates to how you make decisions; whether you're Intuitive (N), getting answers from within, or you rely on Sensing (S) information from your surroundings, using your five senses. The third relates to whether you're more emotional and Feeling (F) or rational and Thinking (T). The fourth relates to whether you prefer things to be organized, meaning you're Judging (J), or you prefer things to be more unbound, meaning you're Perceiving (P).
For more information about real, scientific personality typing, visit the Kiersey Temperament and Character Website.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 1:53 pm

 
"A Sad Mistake": Shoot-to-kill without warning  
Shoot-to-kill without warning - Sunday Times - Times Online
www.timesonline.co.uk/article/ 0,,2087-1715340_1,00.html
The Sunday Times - Britain
July 31, 2005
jon Ungoed-Thomas and David Leppard

Shoot-to-kill without warning

...
The killing of de Menezes was a terrible error that has devastated his family and threatens to sap police morale at a critical time in the war on terror. It now threatens to become a cause celebre among human rights activists ...
The Independent Police Complaints Commission is studying CCTV footage that caught de Menezes’s last moments. What is already clear is that the initial accounts of his death on July 22 were wrong ...

The man, according to the police, was suspect because of his “clothing and behaviour”. He had been followed from a house that had been under surveillance. When he was challenged at Stockwell, he ignored instructions and ran. He had vaulted over the ticket barrier and was wearing a dark bulky jacket that could disguise a bomb.

One witness had de Menezes as an Asian with a beard and wires coming out of his torso. The truth is more mundane. De Menezes, an electrician, was travelling to north London to fix a fire alarm.

He was not wearing what witnesses called a “black bomber jacket”, but a denim jacket. It was about 17C and his clothing would not have been out of the ordinary.

He did not vault a ticket barrier, as claimed. He used a travelcard to pass through the station in the normal way. His family believes that he may have started to run simply because he heard the train pulling in — something Londoners do every day. Indeed, a train was at the platform when he got there ...

Lee Ruston, 32, was at the bottom of the escalator that de Menezes ran down. He believes that he heard every word said by officers.
According to him, officers did not say the word “police” or offer de Menezes the prospect of arrest. “I heard a voice shouting ‘get on the floor, just get on the floor’. Another voice said the same, ‘get on the floor’. I then heard the crack of gunshots,” he said ...
De Menezes lived in a block of flats which was under surveillance because of its links to the terror attacks, but what was the evidence that he was a specific risk? ... was [he] killed because of ... the misfortune to live at an address linked to terrorism[?]
Blair said that the public should also appreciate the bravery of the officers, who surrounded a suspect they thought might blow himself up.

As one officer said yesterday: “They’ve done a good job for their country. But of course, they are very sad.

“They thought they were acting in the best interests of everybody and on the information they were given. It’s a very sad thing, isn’t it.”

Additional reporting: Michael Smith, Andrew White

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 1:56 am

 
Apache helicopter night attack - Follow up  
Someone on a mailing list I'm on sent this message:

Hi folks,
In recent times a video clip was circulating about what appears to be an unprovoked attack on innocent Iraqi farmers at night fixing a broken down tractor during seed bed preparation. The version that I received at the time showed the tractor with a glowing exhaust and the tyre treads could just be made out along with the seed bed pattern. It is portrayed in accompanying text as being filmed from a plane but no plane could hold such a steady position it has to be a helicopter, someone is playing games.

I have just received another copy of this video clip that appears to have been significantly edited not only in video but voice over. The tractor has virtually been eliminated and it is portrayed as insurgents setting up a road side bomb yet they are moving in a field and no roadway is visible but they forgot to edit out the reference to the field. This looks like a whitewash to me. I am no supporter of fundamentalists but I would hate to fight alongside the Americans, "collateral" damage seems to be a pastime.

If anyone who obtained the original copy would like a copy of this version let me know.

Hard to find. Best I have - very large, about 35 Mb is at

users.rcn.com/sitzkrieg/war/ called Apache_kills_in_Iraq.mpeg
( http://users.rcn.com/sitzkrieg/war/Apache%20Kills%20in%20Iraq.mpeg )

Most other links are 404 or aren't operating in other ways, or perhaps my rather dicky machine can't handle them, but here's what I've found -- people might be able to make use of them:

This is a discussion thread which had a number of different links to different copies and versions:
joi.ito.com/archives/2004/01/29/ disturbing_image_from_iraq.html
Most seem to be inoperative, but there are some hints and pointers in amongst the rabbitage.

Documentary: Iraq - On the Brink, Ross Coulthart, Nick Farrow (see transcript) had the footage, and the transcript gives the sound accompanying the vision. (My computer has no sound.)
www.journeyman.tv/?lid=14772

www.footagehouse.com/ night_vision.htm - this has assorted footage of other things, possibly interesting from several viewpoints, showing "night vision".

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 11:00 pm

 
bar hostess (also called entertainers)  

bar hostess (also called entertainers)
www.davidappleyard.com/japan/jp33.htm
The hostess, I learned, was the modern equivalent of the geisha, a centuries-old and highly venerated profession that attracts Japanese girls like a vocation. Geishas are the embodiment of that enduring Japanese icon: feminine perfection. They exist to serve men and preserve the
traditional arts such as singing, dancing and playing classical instruments like the shamisen.
Her modern counterpart, the bar hostess, has exchanged silk kimonos for cocktail dresses, and the shamisen for a karaoke box. She is considerably less expensive than her predecessor yet she shares the same values: to be the feminine ideal, to entertain, to listen, to be serious, to dazzle with
her wit and charm. It is not considered a demeaning job. Certainly no sexual favours are expected - just mild flirtation, perhaps a glimmering eroticism...
Hostess bars, I learned, abound in their thousands in Japan ... Western girls, particularly of the blonde-haired, blue-eyed variety, are considered a special treat and a myriad bars boast them like a range of exotic fruit ...
There was Danielle, a skinny American with flaming red hair. She had just graduated and was hostessing to repay college loans. Anna and Femka, two marvellously tall Dutch girls saving for another season of going gaga in Goa. Sophia, a sexy Swede, with an unrealized dream to be a model and legs
that undulated from beneath her skirts, and Domarra, an Italian linguist perfecting her Japanese.
Our guests arrived. A group of Japanese salarymen, that is businessmen, on a corporate razzle... Assiduously we catered to their every need; we topped up drinks and clinked ice cubes in glasses, we lit their cigarettes, and intermittently, unwrapped a sweet to delicately pop into a guest's mouth ...
We were perfect young ladies. Never so inelegant as to cross our legs, lean back in our seats, bite our nails or play with our hair. Never so rude as to divert our attention for a second, our admiring gaze for an instant from these latter day Samurai who, weary from another day fighting for Japan's economic miracle, would look to us adoring gaijin girlies to ease away their tensions...
This was a "decent" bar... The only thing we were to massage was ego ... Our guests frequently asked us to sing karaoke ... You can double, triple the basic rate with tips earned for anything from being wined, dined or complimented to singing a soulful ballad or performing an exotic belly dance. The job can be as risqué as you want it to be and consequently you can earn as much money as you like. A woman able to handle the masquerade and approach the whole affair as some peculiar brand of performance art can make a killing ...
As a teacher and through living with a Japanese family I saw women treated in a different way. Marriages, which are often arranged, are an economic necessity. The family is like a small business, producing the next generation of mothers and salarymen. In the most sinister privatization of all, the chemistry in human relationships seems to have been disentangled, set apart and sold as a service. Instead of relaxing at home with their families, Japanese salarymen go out in droves to relax with strangers ...
I'm glad I had a short stint at hostessing. It gave me first-hand experience of an aspect of Japan that is often missed by travellers. I was surprised ... [that] my need to be appreciated for everything I am as a woman, rather than just one feminine façade, was more intense than I had ever really known. Hostessing helped me to work out what I don't want with my life.
©Sarah Dale 2004
www.imdb.com/title/tt0066735/usercomments

www.japan-guide.com/forum/disreadisplay.html?0+10839
Hostess are not prostitutes! some bars are dodgy, but in expensive bars where the richest man in the city drinks, nothing happens!
a hostess is paid to sit there and pour drinks and talk with a customer, its the hostesses decision whether she wants to meet him out of work. Being a hostess is a good way to earn money, you get tips from customers
as well, and its also your choice to drink with the customer. Just because your a hostess doesnt mean you have relationship problems, some foreigners do it to get better at japanese and that is all!

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 11:38 pm

 
Australia's First Terrorist Bomb Refurbished out of History  
Australia's First Terrorist Bomb Refurbished out of History
Have Australia's first terrorist bomb deaths in February 1978 been forgotten?
The Hilton bomb hasn't been mentioned discussing terrorism over the last few years.

In pre-Olympic works the memorial stele was flattened to a disregarded, walked-upon street plaque. In 2003 the 25th Anniversary went unremarked. No murmur was made when the plaque disappeared under renovation hoardings in that same year, despite a fuss in July of 2003 over a memorial to Ghost Train fire victims destroyed renovating Luna Park.

Now the Hilton is re-opening, the hoardings removed. I searched the footpath and visible entrances in George St where the explosion happened. Nothing. Wiped away like Stalin's victims in Soviet photos.

Why? Shame because the dead found no justice? Denial? Carelessness? Perhaps just that; no-one cares. In 2032 will we remember the blackened, gutted bodies of last Thursday?

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 9:40 pm

 
Another rejected Letter to an Editor  
Another rejected Letter to an Editor, responding to a recent meeting and speeches — sent on Wednesday 6th July, 2005

Stirring it was on that stage to hear our headman, Bob Carr, at Hillsong defend diverse Australian life!

And heartwarming to hear the Christian crowd acclaim the need for Hindus, Moslems, Buddhists, Sikhs and all to be equally regarded as having worthwhile ways for humans to live and interpret the world, if we are to survive together on this fragile shell of habitable biosphere.

But saddening also the silence for those whose values and morals stand as firm-footedly strong on a non-religious base.

Also run as an exercise in the old-style declamation, keeping as far under the 200-word limit as possible.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 3:33 pm

 
JESUS The Monster Truck  
JESUS The Monster Truck

JESUS the Monster Truck

2003 Tour "America Kicks Ass"

In Competition for the
International Semi-Regional State Divisional County Sectional City Wide Title

Come see the
CAR CRUSHING HIGH HOPPING
FREE-STYLING SOUL-SAVING
Action!!

Watch as JESUS crushes and destroys all of his enemies
then finshes them off with the STIGMATA BLASTER©*
All in the name of GOD!!!

* Stigmata Blood may irritate skin and cause minor rashing
_______________
Holy Mary Mother of GOD...it's Ladies Night!!!

The JESUS Racing Team Presents

The MOTHER of all Monster Trucks!!
Little Miss Mary
The Immaculate Concept Truck
________________
So, you do not like JESUS or MARY?
Then why don't you go to HELL!!!!

Introducing The HELL EXPRESS Ride Car. Catch up with Judas, Pontius Pilate, Adolf Hitler and Jeffrey Dahmer. Then get down on your knees and pray....
that Mom and Dad will let you have a second ride!!
__________________
Now on tour with Monster Truck Ministries!
Reverend Leroy's Drive-by Bikini Baptismal and Mobile Chapel
___________________
Kids bring your bibles and get them autographed!
Signatures 5$ each

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

 
Airplane Graveyard DMAFB aka The Boneyard  
Airplane Graveyard DMAFB: "B-52 Airplane Graveyard DMAFB
The Famed Airplane Graveyard / Bone Yard at Davis Monthan Airforce base in Tucson Arizona. Hundreds of B 52 Bombers await the smelter, as per the Salt 2 (Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty) treaty with Russia. These bombers were laid out and chopped into pieces with a giant crane controlled guillotine. They were left in this state so they could be photographed by Russian Spy satellites for proof of compliance with Salt 2. Shot in 1994 this photograph shows an important part of Cold War History. After a few months trucks hauled away the scrap metal to be recycled at the local smelter. These famous relics are most likely beer and soda cans now"

More Airplane Graveyard Pages
F-4 Phantom Cockpit - http://www.virtualtucsonmagazine.com/vtmsections/valleypages/f4grave.html
Airplane Graveyard II - http://www.virtualtucsonmagazine.com/vtmsections/valleypages/grave2.html
Graveyard Treasures For Sale - http://www.av8aviation.com/airtreasure.html
Aviation Related Links
Titan Missile Museum - http://www.virtualtucsonmagazine.com/vtmsections/valleypages/titan.html
Pima Air Museum - http://www.virtualtucsonmagazine.com/vtmsections/valleypages/pima.html
F-86 Crash Site Mt Lemmon - http://www.virtualtucsonmagazine.com/main/mountains/f86_airplane_crash.html
Airplane Graveyard Gallery - http://www.virtualtucsonmagazine.com/main/arts/vtmgallery/gravegallery1.html

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 2:13 am

 
 
More Airplane Graveyard Pages
F-4 Phantom Cockpit - http://www.virtualtucsonmagazine.com/vtmsections/valleypages/f4grave.html
Airplane Graveyard II - http://www.virtualtucsonmagazine.com/vtmsections/valleypages/grave2.html
Graveyard Treasures For Sale - http://www.av8aviation.com/airtreasure.html
Aviation Related Links
Titan Missile Museum - http://www.virtualtucsonmagazine.com/vtmsections/valleypages/titan.html
Pima Air Museum - http://www.virtualtucsonmagazine.com/vtmsections/valleypages/pima.html
F-86 Crash Site Mt Lemmon - http://www.virtualtucsonmagazine.com/main/mountains/f86_airplane_crash.html
Airplane Graveyard Gallery - http://www.virtualtucsonmagazine.com/main/arts/vtmgallery/gravegallery1.html

Whatever: Sympathy for the Publicist

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 2:18 am

 
 
Oh No! Pharyngula has snapped! He's holding a hostage!!

And strange images have been seen in on the USA rail system.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 1:23 pm

 
Sounds of history (smh.com.au)  
"Sounds of history"
By Helen Bradley, May 28, 2005 (Icon)

Before TV there was the radio. In the evenings, after dinner, everyone would pull up an easy chair around a radio in the living room and listen to the news of the day or the antics of the characters in their favourite radio serials.

Thanks to the internet and installed audio players on your computer, you can take a trip back in time to revisit some of the sounds that made history.

Historic broadcasts
To take a trip down memory lane, whether you remember these clips because you heard them in their original context or if you're just wondering what all the fuss was about, visit the History Channel's audio archives ( www.historychannel.com/speeches/archive1.html ).

Here you'll find four pages of links to audio clips of speeches and interviews including those of Neil Armstrong as he took his first steps on the Moon, King Edward VIII's abdication speech, Thomas Edison on the development of electricity and even the inimitable Mae West talking about men, women and diamonds and speaking her famous line: 'Come up and see me sometime. Anytime. The sooner the better.'

There are also excerpts from the rousing WWII speeches of Winston Churchill at the BBC's history site ( www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/ wwtwo/churchill_audio.shtml ).

Serial bytes
One of the radio serials that kids in the US listened to around the same time Churchill was making his speeches were the antics of Captain Midnight. At the Radio Days archives (www.otr.com/cm_archives.shtml) you'll find MP3 audio files of nearly 60 early episodes of the Captain Midnight radio show which ran from 1938 until it finally morphed into a TV series. Each episode kicks off with ads for the Captain Midnight New 1940 Flight Patrol that kids were encouraged to join.

There are excerpts from two popular Australian radio serials Blue Hills and Argonauts Brains Trust (in addition to the calling of the 1932 Melbourne Cup) at the ABC's site ( www.abc.net.au/archives/av/radsamp.htm ).

Classic voices
If the classics are more your interest, you can hear excerpts from Chaucer's Canterbury Tales and From the Legend of Good Women read by professors in Middle English ( academics.vmi.edu/english/ audio/audio_index.html ). They emphasise the pronunciation of the texts and, if this is confusing, there are also transcripts of what is being read so you can follow along at the same time."

And other stuff:
USBGEEK.COM Goodies of all Gadgety types
Whatever: Sympathy for the Publicist (from John Scalzi's blog - publicist as Giant Weenie)

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 3:11 am

 
Shroud  
Buried my mother on Friday, 3rd June, 2005.


More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 11:15 pm

 
Dangerous Books, Trustworthy Aussies  
Again: Dangerous Books?

Barista, on January 03, 2004 -- paper/death/sound
Connects last year's story about ""a man ... rescued after being trapped for two days under a mountain of reading material in his [New York] apartment" with the "strange death of Charles Valentin Alkan"
Another biographical link: Charles-Valentin Alkan (November 30, 1813–March 29, 1888) was a French composer and one of the greatest virtuoso pianists of his day. His compositions for solo piano are among the most difficult ever written and are relatively rarely performed.
And a couple of more places where his music is discussed
All About Alkan
Copyright © by Fred Flaxman, 1997 (also another All About Alkan, with musical examples)
You say you've never heard of Charles Valentin Morhange? OK, I admit he was better known as Alkan. If that still draws a blank, shame on you. You may have made it through the S.A.T.s, college and grad school. But you would never pass the O.C.T.s -- the Obscure Composers Test.
Alkan had nothing to do with the proposed merger of Alaska and Kansas. Nor is Alkan the new name for the Aluminum Can Company, although it should be. No, Alkan was a French pianist and composer (1813-1888). He is known by musical scholars and CD maniacs alike for his highly original, kooky compositions, his sense of humor, and the way he died -- or didn't die -- depending on what you read.
Ten years after this recital was recorded, this is still some of the most hair-raising piano playing committed to disc and perhaps the best thing pianist Marc-Andre Hamelin (right) has done to date.. Alkan was one of the certified wackos of classical music. A contemporary of Franz Liszt who could supposedly outplay him any day of the week, he became a recluse in Paris after a short but highly successful concert career, keeping a virtual menagerie of exotic pets in his apartment until his sudden death.


And for all the non-usians out there who get slightly irritated by references to obscure US personalities, here's 100 Aussie names you can throw around to confuse USians. (I've heard of nearly all of the list, tho I don't know anything about quite a few): Readers' Digest Australian Trust Survey
Meanwhile usians & other non-Ozzies can make yourselves sound familiar with Oz affairs, if you so wish. Impress your friends! Break the ice at parties!!

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 2:52 am

 
We all used to say "only in America" ... Media Circus Schapelle: The Corby Case  
Making Light Open thread 40, starting May 02, 2005
We all used to say "only in America" ... There was a story linked to the particle (April 14, 2005) involving a camel suit which an airport baggage-handler took out of a travellers' bag and wore out on the tarmac. (Tho' this didn't wear it out. <g>) This is the best summary, but I think you have to register/subscribe to see the full story: Too much baggage May 14, 2005 by Neil McMahon.
It was about a young woman in a group travelling from Australia to Bali in whose unlocked bulky boogie board (sports) bag a large bag of marijuana was found. This can be a capital (firing squad) offence in Indonesia. She is claiming it was -- unknown to her -- put into her bag as part of an ongoing arrangement to smuggle goods between domestic airports, and that it had missed being taken out. There is at least one report of a man who phoned the consul in Bali having found a bag of grass in his luggage on arrival at his hotel and being advised to quickly dispose of it and not report it.

The whole thing has blown up into an incredible scene, rather along the lines of The Big Carnival (aka Ace in the Hole). Maybe it could be pitched as "OJ meets Elian on the Midnight Express"? It has ramified into some serious matters involving home affairs (like the extent of corruption in airport staff, with a cocaine smuggling ring just arrested and many passengers reporting they lost valuables from their cases in transit), international incidents (e.g., interfering in overseas criminal trials,
death threats to Indonesian diplomats in Australia, groups at the court picketing in favour of the death sentence), websites, petitions, many assorted polls, T-shirts, songs being written, etc, etc, while a rich, if possibly dodgy, businessman has taken up her cause.
The Indonesian and Australian judicial systems are fairly different so there's a lot of room for confusion, and also the rules about the kind of media coverage and the legality of commenting on sub judice cases seems closer to the US free-for-all than the more restrictive Australian rules. (It just goes on ... This is the latest Schapelle Corby update).

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 8:10 pm

 
 
FanFiction.Net : The Game of the Gods
Just to note that to look at the other stories, dextrously you pick them from the drop-down list - available at the top and bottom on the right hand side. To add a review, sinisterly, you use the link at the left hand side :)

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 4:30 am

 
 
Branch from the past discovered in Catskills: -- timesunion.com --

State Museum employees unearth massive fossil of prehistoric flora
By PAUL GRONDAHL, Staff writer
Tuesday, May 24, 2005
ALBANY -- Earth's oldest tree wouldn't turn heads at your local garden center these days.

It was spindly and stood up to 30 feet tall. Its trunk was studded with nubs of dead branches. Its crown hadn't evolved into leaves yet -- it featured a web of twiggy appendages. It produced spores instead of seeds.

Any aesthetic shortcomings might be forgiven for a tree that's 380 million years old.

The prehistoric flora, which resembles a stunted modern-day tropical palm tree, predated the dinosaurs by about 160 million years...

Ummmm ...
www.jewmilk.com/tarzanrubberband.htm

Chill-out city :) - probably better with sound & faster connexion
drinkingwithbob.blogspot.com/

Abusing Amazon images
aaugh.com/imageabuse.html

Ethical Considerations
Abusing Amazon images for decorative art on your own web pages makes use of Amazon's processor and bandwidth. While Amazon is generally good about letting people use their systems for interesting projects, it should be remembered that they make access available in order to ultimately sell more stuff.

My recommendation for those who want to use Amazon's services without being a total leech is to either save a copy of the resultant image and host it directly, or be sure to include a link to the Amazon sales page for the product depicted.

Again: Ummmm ... www.dazereader.com/24000824.htm

Two hurt in mock light sabre duel
news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/beds/bucks/herts/4575291.stm
Two Star Wars fans are in a critical condition in hospital after apparently trying to make light sabres by filling fluorescent light tubes with petrol...

This could be seen as slightly related to the previous story.
FanFiction.Net : The Game of the Gods
Just to note that to look at the other stories, dextrously you pick them from the drop-down list - available at the top and bottom on the right hand side. To add a review, sinisterly, you use the link at the left hand side :)

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 4:26 am

 
Unintended? Consequences (or Back to property suffrage eventually?)  
The new Australian industrial relations regulations take jury duty, among other things, out of awards. With unfair dismissal being encouraged now, does this mean there will be no way for society to legally discourage your employer firing you out of hand for upholding your right, and responsibility, to serve on a jury?

Another example: last year in the USA a Bush-supporting employer fired a long-term worker who wouldn't remove the Kerry-supporting sticker from her own car. Despite disapproval, and our opinion that the US is litigation-mad, I heard no suggestion there was any legal difficulty with it.

"Much of the labour law which ... evolved in the 20th century ... stems from an experience-based perception that the market constraint is not a sufficient protection." -- Keith Hancock, senior deputy president, Australian Industrial Relations Commission (1992-1997)

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 9:10 pm

 
urban cartography  
urban cartography: FoundCity in Super Beta

Should you find a point of interest in Manhattan that you would like to share with others, simply folkmap it via cellphone on FoundCity.net:

Using folksonomy tags, people in the city can index what they find interesting about the city, in order to bookmark it for themselves as well as to reveal it to other people. Folkmapping allows you to both keep track of the things you stumble across in your daily adventures, as well as compare notes with other people in your city, to learn more about your surroundings and discover interesting things you may have been missing out on. And as you do it, you contribute to a growing index of space that becomes more interesting with each new entry.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 2:13 am

 
Happy Furry Friday  
"I go not out, it is stormy and it rains" ... and haven't we all had that urge?


More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 2:05 am

 
 
You may not have heard of the latest twist of the knife -- pull on the choke-chain? -- that the Land and Property Information Office tried last week.

I happily believed that, having finally paid off the mortgage (By golly, the mortgagor did seem reluctant to let go, they faffed about for ages in all sorts of ways. Extracting the last drop of interest income, I guess.) and got the Certificate of Title in my sweaty grasp at last, then filled in all the official forms and assembled all the other documentation and ID the same way that I did for his house, there would be no problem with transferring the title from Christopher's name to mine. Last time it took a few visits, but thinking I had learnt the ropes from that, I entered the large, light reception hall with its soothing classical architecture and walls the colour of sun on wheatfields unworried, and took a numbered ticket to await a smooth transaction.

But the eyes of the guardian of our territorial integrity, regarding me closely across the matt grey plane of his melamine desktop, vast and cool and unsympathetic, caught on a snag in the flow of rippling paper. Though it had not been a problem before, and I had the certificates, and the Letters of Administration, and various forms of identification, there was nothing to say that the person "XZ" named on the Letters of Administration -- I don't know why they didn't put my full name -- was the same "XYZ" who had filled in the Transmission Application form and was sitting before him. It could have been the different addresses, some with my own home address while others had my mother's, where I spent much time caring for her.

So. I now have to supply a Statutory Declaration to declare my identity. It has been a bit of a public issue recently: people being detained or deported wrongly, and mysterious soaking wet amnesiacs playing pianos in Britain; maybe people've become more alert to it. Oh well.

He kindly gave me a couple of Statutory Declaration forms and I was sent back into the gloom of a damp Sydney day to attempt to affirm my selfhood; one of the great and ancient philosophical questions: "How do I know I am?" The simple declaration Cogito, ergo sum is not legally sufficient, it appears. Or perhaps the question here is: "How do you know who I am?"

Anyway, here is first draft of the Statutory Declaration.

---

I declare that I am the [Full Name] born at the [Hospital Name], [Suburb Name] in Sydney, Australia on [Date of Birth] from the union of [Mother's Name] and [Father's Name].

I furthermore declare that I have always been, am still, intend to continue to be, and was at the time the selfsame [Short Name] who, as his next-of-kin and bereaved spouse under law, was appointed Administrator of the Estate of the late [Name of Deceased] by the Supreme Court of New South Wales on [Date of Letter] (Document No [Number/Year]).

Moreover, I also declare that, since my frail and aged mother needed care after the death of my father, for some years I have resided partly at my own house, [Home Address], as shown on my NSW Driver's Licence and other documents, and partly at my mother's flat [Family Address], as shown on the Letters of Administration. For many more years, I have used my Post Office Box [Postal Address] as a secure and central place to collect my mail.

---

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 9:34 pm

 
Struggles of a Suburban Guerilla; Nubile-Only Women; The Gates and A New Rendition  
Suburban Guerilla
Ghost Story (note my earlier comments about the things I'm thankful for - I'll have to put the link(s) up here)
Oil for Food
Pictures of Pictures of Christo's The Gates

bodyandsoul.typepad.com/blog/2005/05/render_unto_uzb.html Rendition means a new thing now.
An Australian Version
Torture, Anyone? (Margo Kingston's Webdiary, 17th May, 2005, on the SMH website)

Sisyphus Shrugged
the trophy wife creation act
Language is important. It doesn't really matter what you meant to do with the law. It matters what the law says.
What the House and Senate versions of the Unborn Child Pain Awareness Act (USA) say is this

WOMAN - The term `woman' means a female human being who is capable of becoming pregnant, whether or not she has reached the age of majority.

So?
So there's been a lot of legislative activity lately centered around defining marriage.
Marriage, many of our states have decided, is exclusively a compact entered into by a man and a woman.
Well, woopsie. Congress has decided that legally, once you hit menopause, you're not a woman any more.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 2:14 am

 
Online Quiz Result: I am John Brunner  

I am: John Brunner His best known works are dystopias -- vivid realizations of the futures we want to avoid.

Which science fiction writer are you?

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

 
Google Hacks - Random Image  
Google Random Image
This is a little javascript code that scans the html of the page it is on and uses that to find a matching image on Google Image Search, which is then displayed. This way you can always have a fresh image on your site/blog.

... The current applet shows the results of a Google image search using a random word longer than three characters from the site it sits on. You can easily change this 3, it sits in a rather obvious place. The script works on IE 6, it doesn't on Mozilla, which is really too bad, as it is my main browser. Let me know if you can fix that. The script retrieves a new image every 60 seconds.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 2:21 am

 
Google Hacks - Google News Map  
Google News Map
I was working with World 66 the open travel site with some mapping stuff and got a list of countries and their coordinates. Why not parse Google News, find the first name match and draw a map with the latest headlines on the coordinates of the countries.

I buffer the results for 10 minutes and use absolute positioned divs to get the urls to appear on the right spot, so it might not work on all browsers out there. I use Firebird 0.7 and I also tested on IE 6. Should work on other Gecko's too. If a headline doesn't fit, I retry one time with y = y - boxheight, so any country can have at most two headlines.

I also did a standalone version which displays its results in a windows using TkInter. Should work on your OS of choice, but let me know if not. Extract the zip file into a directory and run the showMap.py"

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 2:18 am

 
Google Hacks - Land Geist  
Land Geist: "Land Geist is a combination of Googles Zeit Geist, Google Mind Share and Visited Countries. For keywords like 'war', 'poverty', 'party', this project shows which country (names) have the highest relative scores (google shares). I.e. 35% of all pages with the word Iraq on them, also contain the word War, making Iraq leader for war, just after Afghanistan and North-Korea. The axis of evil appear therefore in red.

One conclusion I drew early in this project, is that Google was not my search engine of choice for this project. Google doesn't count very well, which bodes ill for measuring mind share. Google claims that 8% of all pages on the internet that contain 'united states', also contain 'cheese', which is about 8 times as high as other search engines.

So I settled for AllTheWeb, a search engine I use when Google doesn't do what I want. I created the scripts, ran the measurements, but the results were kind of weird. Iraq scored very well on war and povery, which is explainable, but also on sex. Something was weird. You can check the results of this experiment out your self.

I thought it probably had to do with the fact that Iraq suddenly had become very popular, so it would appear on less serious pages, but Hjalmar Gislason mailed me with a better explanation: Iraq appears a lot on big pages with lots of comments, because people have opinions about the country, so a lot of other words also appear on these pages. He suggested using the NEAR keyword, to count only the 'sex' occurences that were near Iraq.

Neither AllTheWeb, nor Google supports the NEAR keyword, but Altavista does. So I retooled the thing to use Altavista and you can view the results below. If you would like a keyword to be added, drop me a line. The whole thing takes 10 minutes, so doing it online is probably not a good idea."

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 2:16 am

 
Google Hacks - Mapped Web  
Mapped Web
Physical distances are not the same as psychological distances. Physical distances are easy enough to measure, but how do we go about measuring psychological distances? The Mapped Web does this by taking the chance that given a page contains the name of one country it will also contain the name of another country as a measure for psychological distance. The resulting images show us how close countries are to each other in psychological terms.

This procedure can be extended to create maps for specific areas by including extra search terms. Look at all the pages on the Internet with the word War on them, which countries correlate? Probably countries that have something to do with each other in wars. The images below picture some of the relations between countries in this way.

A 200x200 matrix with the relative frequencies of country name combinations represents actually a 200 dimensional space with the countries as dots in between them. The trick is to reduce this amount of dimensions to two so we can actually plot something. This is usually done by a technique called Principal Component Analysis, where two new axis are constructed that represent the lot in the best possible way. The program here uses a different technology, the sammon algorithm. Here we just start with a random initial configuration. Over a number of iterations, we move the countries in the directions where they want to go, i.e. they are attracted to countries which they are closer to according to the matrix than according to the configuration and are repulsed by countries are too close to.

The results are the maps below. You can download two scripts, generateMatrix, which takes one parameter, the keyword, and generates a text file with the distances matrix for that keyword and stressOptimize, which generates the map. The latter uses the brilliant VPython visualization. The nice thing is that it is animated during the iteration, so you see what goes on. This project was largely done together with Ernst Wit, a fellow Savage Minder, who also came up with the initial idea.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 2:14 am

 
Budget 2005: Tax Cuts - Squandering our Future  

Tax Cuts - Squandering our Future

Australia is living off two great sources of capital laid down earlier, but we are not renewing or building them up - a bad sign for the future. The bulk of any surplus should be re-invested in these, to help tide us over future difficulties.

One is our natural resources: fertile topsoil, clean fresh water, fisheries & so forth. Only recently I think there was an estimate of $10 Billion to restore them to function on a long-term, sustainable basis after the damage done over a couple of centuries.

The other is the massive public (& private) investment in our infrastructure: water & sewerage systems, transport (not just roads) for goods & people, energy generation & distribution, as well as health systems, education & other vital parts of our society's structure. Many were developed from mid-to-late Victorian times into the first half of the 20th Century, & have barely been maintained since.

Now we have a chance to repair & improve these, learning from earlier mistakes. This is what will give a good foundation for our descendants to improve their lives, instead of scraping by, regretting lost opportunity.

Like the mutual building sculpture above Martin Place showing how a man can't break the bundle of sticks bound together, though each could be broken with ease one-by-one, the point of government is to bundle together our money and effort to do the things that singly are very difficult (how many of us can buy or build a new train or hospital?). And private companies are run for profit, not to provide a service.

For instance, a well-built sustainable water collection, distribution & purification system will take some maintenance over time, but will last without huge extra investment. The same for improving energy or transport systems (eg fixing/rebuilding bridges or taking freight off roads, which reduces road damage bills). A big push into reforming (in the genuine use of the word) agricultural practices & land-use, or ways of building cities can lay a good foundation for centuries of advance instead of continuing decline.

An educated person might be lost to their particular profession, but it's not likely they'll lose all their skills, they may return to it, otherwise they'll probably go to a different, but still skilled & worthwhile job. I've lost my skills as a biologist & medical researcher over the last 20 years, but work in a useful skilled job in a different field (though I'd prefer to feel I was contributing more to society &/or the world).

If 12% of Australians are in the current top tax bracket, 88% are lower. The majority of us know that if we strike trouble - like my recent medical & family crises - we will need social support. Not just trustworthy & affordable health care, but someone to help the aged mother I care for, meals on wheels, community nurses who aided my convalescence, etc.

Even if you have help from family or friends, that other support stops the total ruination that you too often see in both the third world & the US when a crisis hits someone. That's why there's community support for spending on services - even if people doubt that spending will go towards what they most value.

There could be a lot more said on this, which I won't go into.

EXCEPT those who say: "You'll spend it all and we won't have anything left when there isn't any surplus."
NO! I wrote about putting the investment into things, both physical & social that will stay.

AND: for the furphy about "Oh, these are State, not Federal issues".
Just where do the States get the majority of their funding? Most of the money is collected by States and by the Commonwealth, put into the "kitty", then split up & distributed, some via State, some via Federal, trickling down to Local government. Remember that fuss last year about NSW's share being cut? There are also several bodies which co-ordinate Commonwealth & States to look after particular issues either nationwide or like the Murray-Darling or Great Barrier Reef.

2004 Budget; same problem (4-May-2004)
A couple of related posts: Uses of Universities (13-May-2004); Annoyingly repetitive tax rate misconception (12-May-2004); Public good; public lands; public service - see my contribution

Labels: information, money, society, tax, Taxation, thoughts

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 8:01 pm

 
 
Sign-language interpreter told `the truth' on state TV about Ukraine's election
By Nora Boustany
The Washington Post
Posted May 1 2005
Dmytruk, 48, today interprets sign language for Ukraine's state-run television.
Her face and hands appear in a little box at the bottom of the screen as she sends out the news on the mid-morning and early afternoon telecasts to the hearing-impaired.
During the tense days of Ukraine's presidential elections last year, Dmytruk staged a silent but bold protest, informing deaf Ukrainians that official results from the Nov. 21 runoff were fraudulent.
Her act of courage further emboldened protests that grew until a new election was held and the opposition candidate, Viktor Yushchenko, was declared the winner.
... "After every broadcast I had to render in sign language, I felt dirty. I wanted to wash my hands."
The opposition had no access to the state-run media, but Dmytruk was in a special position as a television interpreter to get their message out.
On Nov. 25, she walked into her studio for the 11 a.m. broadcast ... The newscaster read the officially scripted text about the results of the election, and Dmytruk signed along. But then, ... In her own daring protest, she signed: "I am addressing everybody who is deaf in the Ukraine. Our president is Victor Yushchenko. Do not trust the results of the central election committee. They are all lies. ... And I am very ashamed to translate such lies to you. Maybe you will see me again," she concluded, hinting at what fate might await her. She then continued signing the rest of officially scripted news.

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 9:35 pm

 
 
From that New York Times article : "science fiction has evolved since the days of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne". I submit an overlooked section from page one of War of the Worlds , it begins with the well-known bit, but continues on to something quoted a lot less often:

With infinite complacency men went to and fro over this globe about their little affairs, serene in their assurance of their empire over matter. It is possible that the infusoria under the microscope do the same ...
[famous quote] Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us ... [/famous quote] ... The immediate pressure of necessity has brightened their intellects, enlarged their powers, and hardened their hearts. And looking across space with instruments, and intelligences such as we have scarcely dreamed of, they see, at its nearest distance only 35,000,000 of miles sunward of them, a morning star of hope, our own warmer planet, green with vegetation and grey with water, with a cloudy atmosphere eloquent of fertility, with glimpses through its drifting cloud wisps of broad stretches of populous country and narrow, navy-crowded seas.

And we men, the creatures who inhabit this earth, must be to them at least as alien and lowly as are the monkeys and lemurs to us. The intellectual side of man already admits that life is an incessant struggle for existence, and it would seem that this too is the belief of the minds upon Mars. Their world is far gone in its cooling and this world is still crowded with life, but crowded only with what they regard as inferior animals. To carry warfare sunward is, indeed, their only escape from the destruction that, generation after generation, creeps upon them.

And before we judge of them too harshly we must remember what ruthless and utter destruction our own species has wrought, not only upon animals, such as the vanished bison and the dodo, but upon its inferior races. The Tasmanians, in spite of their human likeness, were entirely swept out of existence in a war of extermination waged by European immigrants, in the space of fifty years. Are we such apostles of mercy as to complain if the Martians warred in the same spirit?

I wonder if that theme will get referred to in the new film version ?

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 9:51 pm

 
 
When the Hubble Space Telescope rocketed into orbit aboard the Shuttle Discovery on April 25, 1990, the world of astronomy was forever changed for the better
Anniversary Feature
www.nasa.gov/vision/universe/watchtheskies/hst15.html

Four Famous Photos
www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_314.html

Register for MyNASA and get the NASA information you want. As a member you can customize your MyNASA page with the NASA channels and content that interests you. Members can also bookmark articles and features throughout the NASA.gov portal for quick access during future visits.
mynasa.nasa.gov/portal/site/mynasa

In German ... www.astronomie.de/sonnensystem/entwicklung.htm

[tag: science] ; [tag: astronomy] ; [tag: space]

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 8:16 pm

 
Cats, Butterfly weight, Haiku Earrings, Schiavo subtext, etc  
How not to get a good nights sleep
www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll/75978.html
New rule: before strapping on the CPAP mask, check to make sure that no cat has thrown up in it.

Sleeping Cats
www.livejournal.com/users/james_nicoll/75445.html
... was experimenting with sleeping next to me last night, so I didn't get much sleep ...

...
Having seen RESIDENT EVIL 2
... It's not a horror film. It's a video game film. You can always hit replay on a video game so there's no element of tension, no possibility of permanent loss.
I've proposed what I call "Less Virtual Than It Looks Reality" games (in which the dangers to the character in the game are translated into real danger to the player) to various companies but they all lacked my visionary nature. They call it "negligent homicide" but I call it "artistic vision."

In breaking news: Fox announces PONTIFF!
CNN is reporting that Fox has signed a deal with the Vatican for the next big reality show, PONTIFF!. This will use the format of shows like SURVIVOR and THE APPRENTICE, mapped onto the selection process for the next Pope.



susiebright.blogs.com/susie_brights_journal_/2005/04/andrea_dworkin_.html
April 11, 2005
Andrea Dworkin Has Died

www.faultline.org/place/pinolecreek/archives/002241.html
www.faultline.org/place/pinolecreek/archives/002239.html
Vanessa cardui
I watch the painted ladies flying north.
Hundreds of the butterflies pass me in any five-minute period. They’ve been headed north for some weeks, nourished by a spectacular
growth of annual flowers in the Mojave and deserts south ... It's really rather impressive. This blizzard of orange and black crepe crossing mountains, desert valleys, going from country to country, no luggage nor passport, orange and black wings thinner than crepe and fueled by tiny sips of flower, and they're moving faster than I can run. Each is just slightly more substantial than a thought, maybe a tenth of a gram of chitin and water and light. But probably ten thousand butterflies will pass me on my hike, a kilogram of flying stained glass shards. My hike covers five and a half miles. Extrapolate from there: many tons of butterflies are moving north in California today.
Butterflies hate cameras, I find. With the lens stowed safely in my pack the painted ladies linger in my gaze ...
When stealth and slyness fail, a cheating hunter uses bait. I park myself near a black sage in flower ...


Philadelphia Flower Show, 2005. Photos - very large.

Haiku Earrings
www.livejournal.com/users/davidgoldfarb/3747.html
The concom got Elise Matthesen to come out and sell her jewelry. On Sunday she did haiku earrings. This is the process:

Elise lays out a bunch of small earrings on her table.
You pick out one or a pair and bring it to her.
She gives you a title.
You write the haiku that has that as the title.
You put the haiku where the earrings were.
Now you own the earrings.
Optionally you grant her the right to reproduce your haiku in a chapbook and/or a card to be strung on a necklace.

My earrings had two beads: the upper was an oval with pointed ends, a shiny yellow, with a picture of an oval-shaped leaf, strung through one
end; the lower a clear blue faceted ball.

I took them to Elise. She asked me, "Silly or serious?" (I found out later that she had asked someone else, "Ancient or modern?".) I chose serious, and received 'The Price of Immortality'.

The Price of Immortality

Yellow leaves in blue
Water are carried away
And never touch me.

I read this to Elise. She smiled. "Yes," she said. "That's the haiku that goes in that place."

Farthing, Jo Walton -- A beta read, gloat gloat. This is supposed to be out sometime this year from Tor Forge, but I haven't seen it on their
schedule yet. A mystery novel set in an alternate timeline where Rudolf Hess actually managed to make peace between Nazi Germany and the UK. Very powerfully written, one of the best books I read all year.
www.scratchings.net/

David Scott Marley
www.livejournal.com/users/wild_irises/

Debbie N.
www.livejournal.com/users/therealjae/
10:28 am - The New Yorker killed Terri Schiavo
Apparently, I'm not allowed www.canoe.ca/NewsStand/LondonFreePress/ News/2005/04/04/981625-sun.html to make public entries about the thing I really want to be talking about today (is blogging journalism? is a livejournal a blog? my head hurts.), so I'll take on the New Yorker instead. One of the things that's struck me about all of the verbiage devoted to the Terri Schiavo case is that there's been very little mention of how she was reduced to a permanent vegetative state in the first place. Amidst the discussions from both left and right about whether a brain cavity filled with spinal fluid actually qualified as "life," why is "look, bulimia can kill you!" not being shouted from every rooftop? As one of the few publications that actually mentions the disease in conjunction with Schiavo, the esteemed New Yorker might have an answer for us. Hendrik Hertzberg writes, in the column "The Talk of the Town" for the April 4th issue (emphasis mine):

Terri Schiavo was born on December 3, 1963, near Philadelphia, the first of three children of Robert and Mary Schindler.
As a teenager, she was obese -- at eighteen, she weighed two hundred and fifty pounds -- but with diligence she lost a hundred pounds, and by the time she married Michael Schiavo, in 1984, she was an attractive and vivacious young woman. By the end of the decade, she had moved with her husband to Florida, was undergoing fertility treatments, and had slimmed down further, to a hundred and ten pounds. On February 25, 1990, Terri suffered cardiac arrest, leading to severe brain damage. The cause was a drastically reduced level of potassium in her bloodstream, a condition frequently associated with bulimia.

Do I really even have to subject this to an analysis? Perhaps I do. All right, then. The above paragraph implies not only that a young woman who weighs two hundred and fifty pounds can be neither "attractive" nor "vivacious," but also the inverse, i.e., that losing a hundred of that two hundred and fifty pounds will automatically make you both of these things, even if you lose that weight through bulimia. Even worse, it reduces bulimia -- a disease in which people starve themselves by self-induced vomiting or abuse of laxatives -- to "diligence," and praises a dead woman for having the disease that killed her. A disease which it goes on to mention in the *very same paragraph*. Never mind that many healthy young women exist who are attractive, vivacious, *and* fat. Never mind that a young woman with bulimia, a disease which, among other things, causes feelings of ill health, is most likely anything but "vivacious." Never mind that one of the U.S.'s foremost magazines turned an opportunity to educate people about bulimia into a subtle propagation of the demonstrably false ideology that arguably killed the very person they were writing about. Never mind that the truth about what science has learned about fitness and fatness -- that there is no provable relationship between so-called obesity and poor health -- is out there for anyone who wants to read about it:






http://spinnendevriendjes.blogspot.com/
Dutch language blog about my daily life and my cats

More ... [permalink] posted by Mez at 8:11 pm