Repeater
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Repeater

  Wednesday, 31 August 2005


You normally need extreme cold or very high pressure to produce hydrogen from water. This technique eliminates the need.
Why is this important?
A hydrogen based economy could save the planet.
At least until we run out of water.

[Scientific American]
10:05:30 PM    
comment []

venial

capable of being forgiven; excusable

[Dictionary.com Word of the Day]
9:55:38 PM    
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Adam C. Engst (~290 words)

iPods are everywhere, and according to a posting on the PestNet discussion list forwarded to us by loyal reader Frank Streeter, some unsavory characters are using the iPod to move around the world. The bad guys in this case were Singapore ants - Monomorium destructor. They infiltrated a packaged iPod sold in an airport duty-free shop, and an individual returning from Fiji to New Zealand purchased the iPod on his way home. Upon arrival, however, he discovered the ants, and, acting on instructions from the authorities, put the iPod and packaging in his freezer to kill the insects (I presume the iPod emerged unscathed, though its fate wasn't mentioned).

Gets back to the original meaning of bugs really, doesn't it?

By ace@tidbits.com (Adam C. Engst). [TidBITS]
9:54:01 PM    
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I've just got home from The Gov, where I saw (and recorded on our field recorder) the TAFESA North finals for the National Campus Band Competition. This Comp is a big deal. Jebediah came to national notice in this comp. There were five bands, all excellent in their way.
First up was Zenyth of Absence, who played an excellent set of contemporary sounds with more than a nod to the prog rock of my youth.
The Battery Kids followed, and were also excellent. I love everything about this band. It too sounds a little on the King Crimson side (more recent KC that is), but is much more modern in approach than the intricate Zenyth of Absence.
Torniket were next; they are a punky, funky band with one of those mike down the throat grunty singers. They had great stage presence and energy, but frankly I'm too old for this style...
Then all boundaries were attacked, boarded, seized, and razed to the gunwhales, when Ventolin put on an extraordinary 25 minutes of free improvisation (okay, they obviously had a plan, but improvised within it), with ranting, shouting, chanting and howling from the two vocalists. To call them singers would be unfair to them and, indeed, to most singers. It was difficult to tell who they were, as they all wore masks and disguises of various kinds, but I'm pretty sure they were an expanded (?) version of last year's winners, Sledgehammock.
Last came Mr Fiction, a more conventional singer and power trio
rock combination. The songs were in a range from aggro throaty rage (a la Torniket) to a kind of power pop, exemplified by a song written by the drummer, Andrew Goulding. For me, this lack of consistency in style was a problem, but it didn't seem to be a problem for the judges, who included old chums Charli Holoubek (guitar with Gumbo Ya Ya), Dino La Vista (singer and all round music guy) and Darrell Cole (live sound mixer). There was another one, Daniel someone. I didn't know him.
Mr Fiction won, with The Battery Kids also going through to the State finals.
Had I been sole judge, Battery Kids would have won and Zenyth would also have gone through.

12:55:29 AM    
comment []

evanescent:

fleeting

[Dictionary.com Word of the Day]
12:06:22 AM    
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  Tuesday, 30 August 2005


Driving home at 5.30 along the Salisbury Highway I thought I was about to drive into a hazy brown wall. Suddenly I hit it; it was dust and stones the size of pigeon's eggs flying through the air at speed! My car was completely battered. Ahead I could see high tension wires whipping in the wind. They were shaking off their reinforced horizontal insulators. These are 3 metre pieces of timber wrapped with striped fabric. They came flying through the air, landing in front, beside and to the reart of me. I was not hit once.
A few minutes later, on Military Road, I saw a steel road sign just catching the wind at such an angle that it was literally shaking itself to pieces. The rivets were popping!
A minute later all the traffic was stopped and diverting itself because of some power lines that had shaken so hard that the stobie pole they were attached to had sheared off at ground level and fallen across the road!
Imagine how pleased I was at the notion of going out again in an hour or two.

11:56:12 PM    
comment []

5.25" floppies make great CD sleeves. Cory Doctorow:

This is a great crafty tip for those of you with a box of old 5.25" floppy discs lying around: slit them open and use them for CD sleeves!

Link

(via Make Blog)

[Boing Boing]
11:35:33 PM    
comment []

I did a clever thing. I organised a day at home, sort of in lieu of the weekend in Robe. This meant I could sleep in after the hectic weekend, do some work for TAFE, do some practice, and, in the middle of the day, take Felicity to the cinema.
Good idea, right?
Yes it was. But I'm so stupid.
I often wonder whether I am slightly autistic. I don't seem to understand human emotion, or feel emotions that others do when in the same situation I'm in. I also often fail to see how people will react emotionally to my actions. And when people do experience any emotion whatsoever, I might not understand it, or recognise that an emotion has been expressed. I'm so stupid; or is it that I'm emotionally retarded?
It's all about the film I took Felicity to, Look Both Ways. Don't get me wrong, it's a lovely film. Actually, it's a perfect film.
It's set near where I live. It's a beautiful, mature, warm story, using animation in a really unusual and intelligent way.
The cinematographer was Ray Argall, whom I knew briefly in the mid-eighties. In fact I was in one of his movies, part of a television series he did. I think the one I was in was called Rock School. It was about work I was doing at the time writing and being MD for musicals for kids. One of the kids in that film was a student of mine, the 14 year old Bruna Papandrea, who later went on to become a producer, nominated for an AFI award no less, for Better than Sex. She got into the industry directly by association with Ray.
So if Look Both Ways is such a great film, why am I an inconsiderate, semi-autistic piece of dirt for taking Felicity to it?
Because, at heart it's about death, cancer, death by cancer, how death affects people, how cancer affects people, unwanted and wanted childbirth, new relationships, the breakup of old relationships and more death.
Considering what she has been through in the last year, that is, just about every theme of the movie, only an idiot would have taken her to this film.

5:47:08 PM    
comment []

I can't believe i missed this! Years after swearing he would never buy another, Dave Winer has bought a Mac.

5:33:55 PM    
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  Monday, 29 August 2005


Today was Felicity's birthday so we and the kids went to yum cha in the morning for some speed eating and gallons of tea. Everyone came back to Henley Beach for a snooze, except I took the opportunity to do some more practice. Then Felicity and I staggered up to Henley Square, to the Bacchus, to meet friends Gay and Steve, and to see the Hiptones.
The band was excellent, as usual, the company delightful (except that they are smokers), and of course we all drank far too much
Many semi-drunken truths were revealed and discussed; fortunately none will ever be remembered. Gay is one of many people I know who were artists, made too little money, took day jobs, and now, later in life (Gay is my age), has quit her job and is returning to art. Good on her, and all the others I know who are doing this.
Gay and I did discuss my inability (sometimes) to recognise important emotional cues from people I care about, which had some interesting reverberations the next day.

10:25:21 PM    
comment []

unctuous

marked by a false or smug earnestness or agreeableness

[Dictionary.com Word of the Day]
10:19:49 PM    
comment []

Okay, I've recovered from the self-pity of the Friday night gig. Actually I really did do all right. I just go along with Miles Davis when he said he thought he only played four good notes a night. And that was a good night. Even so I spent hours Saturday practising, atoning for sins imagined and real. I considered going to the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel to see my friend Ralph Franke play, but I was pretty tired, and I wanted to keep practising, so I stayed home. I worked my bum off.
10:11:24 PM    
comment []

  Saturday, 27 August 2005


Researchers Find That Carbon Dioxide Does Not Boost Forest Growth

Levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, a potent greenhouse gas, have been on the upswing over the last century. How the earth's plant life, particularly trees, will react to the change remains unclear. Some researchers have proposed, however, that the rising concentrations will spur plant growth and thus allow them to store additional amounts of carbon dioxide, thereby mitigating the atmospheric increase to some degree. Now a report published in the journal Science disputes this claim. A four-year study of a forest in Switzerland indicates that additional carbon dioxide does not boost tree growth.

[Scientific American]
1:39:04 AM    
comment []

I've just got home from a strange gig. I once used to make a decent bit of my income from freelance playing, just waiting for the phone to ring for a scratch band or filling in for someone who couldn't make a job for one reason or another. Much of this work dried up for me long ago, but the odd one still comes in.
This one was from my fellow TAFE lecturer Tony Lillywhite (see The Robe Trip and The Robe Trip Part Two) who has been working with this band for three gigs over three months at the No Liez nightclub in Adelaide.
The band itself is excellent, but the singer, in spite of her, er, maturity, is very inexperienced, and just doesn't have a good grip on the essentials. She didn't follow the form of songs, didn't always know what key she did songs in, didn't communicate well with the band, and called tunes for which we had no charts.
This last matter was no real problem for the band. Tony knows all the standards in any key on piano, and the excellent tenor sax player, Derek Pascoe, does too. Tony has worked with drummer, Frank Fragomeni, often enough for them to know what's going on in intros and endings. Alas, in spite of years of work, I have always drifted back to arranged reading gigs, or rock gigs, and I never seemed to have thoroughly learned more than a few standards. So it was a problem for me. I don't mind winging it - in fact I like it - but I don't have a good enough ear to be good at it. The others seemed pleased enough with tonight's efforts, but I get a bit depressed at my inadequacies.
Then there were my solos! Again, kind words are said, but really, what crap I played. Not only did I play crap ideas, I played them badly. Where did my chops go? Well I know the answer to that. I don't practice enough. And my hand hurts. I'm pretty sure I broke my left thumb about four months ago, but I never did go to the doctor, or even bind it to let it heal.
What an idiot.

1:29:19 AM    
comment []

  Friday, 26 August 2005


Aussie Evans takes seventh stage.
Australia's Cadel Evans wins the seventh stage of the Tour of Germany.

[BBC Sport | Other Sports | Cycling | World Edition]
12:16:19 AM    
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Mark Frauenfelder:

Picture 1-23 Larry Jens Anderson is selling great embroidered "Gay Merit Badges" for $20. Shown here: "Flaming Faggot."

The thing I really love about this badge is that it illustrates exactly why gay men are called faggots. In earlier times they were burnt at the stake with faggots of wood by loving christian people concerned with their eternal souls. Ho, ho.
In Italian there is a term for gay men, finocchio, which literally means fennel, for the same reason. Dry fennel stalks are excellent for setting fire to homosexuals.
Oh, the humanity!
Link (thanks, Garth!)

[Boing Boing]
12:13:37 AM    
comment []

Peccadillo: a slight offense; a petty fault.

[Dictionary.com Word of the Day]
12:07:42 AM    
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Australian scientists have discovered that meteors leave behind massive clouds of dust.

[ABC News: Science and Technology]
12:04:48 AM    
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Injured Aussie cyclists fly home. Cyclists Alexis Rhodes and Louise Yaxley return home after suffering serious injuries in a fatal road accident. [BBC Sport | Other Sports | Cycling | World Edition]
12:03:12 AM    
comment []

  Thursday, 25 August 2005


I know this is a little late, but it can't go without mention.
One of the most important things he did was tie the synthesiser to a keyboard interface. Earlier synths had punched paper tape for programming. On the advice of a friend, Bob Moog (rhymes with "vogue") decided to use an interface that most musicians were already familiar with. The rest is history.

Robert Moog, whose name became synonymous with electronic music in the 1960s and 1970s through the invention of his self-named synthesisers, has died in in the US, aged 71.

[ABC News: Entertainment (with Mpeg1)]
11:53:53 PM    
comment []

The National Campus Band competition heats for TAFESA North were held on Monday and Tuesday nights at Jack's Bar at the Salisbury Hotel. I was exhausted after the Robe trip so I didn't go, but some of my multimedia students went, and used our new digital field recorder to record (they filmed too) the Tuesday night. The recordings were excellent. It was particularly pleasing that any band that had any of our music students in it got through to the final. Not only that, but the only band that was made entirely of our music students, Zenyth of Absence, got the best reaction of the night. The other finalists were Ventolin, Torniket, The Battery Kids and Mr Fiction.
The finals for TAFESA North are next Tuesday at the Governor Hindmarsh Hotel. I will go to that. In the five or so years we have been entering this competition, one of our bands has won the state final all but once, has come second once, and has once won the national final once. It is a strong validation, in most cases, that we are doing something right.

11:34:09 PM    
comment []

In our weekly concert practice session this week, one band could not play because of a last minute emergency, so we filled the time by having the Robe trippers report on what they learned. They said all the expected things, emphasising the teamwork required, the sheer effort of three setups and breakdowns in two days, the stamina required to perform so much music, the shared intimacy that road trips engender. if you don't murder your companions with an axe, you find yourself in a loving relationship with your confederates that lasts a lifetime.
Some had also said privately to Tony, and some to me, how much they appreciated playing with me, because they've never really heard me play before. I think I was a bit of a surprise. The boring old fart arranging teacher plays like an animal!

10:56:44 PM    
comment []

  Wednesday, 24 August 2005


I've just returned from Robe, where the 2nd year diploma band from Salisbury TAFE ran workshops for a band from the Kingston Community School on Sunday. As well as this, they played at the Robe Hotel on Saturday night, and the Caledonian Hotel on Sunday night.
The students ranged in age from 20 to the early 40s. The two lecturers who went, are of course, in their quite late 40s (50 very soon in my case).

The Robe Hotel gig was a cracker. The band is very used to performing short sets from 3 songs to maybe 20 minutes. Here they had to play for three and a half hours. At TAFE they had to be careful about sound pressure levels. Here, when someone called for Cold Chisel, they had to rock out, no matter what they were playing. I'm pleased to say they learned quickly.

The students were absolute troopers. They learnt so much that we can't teach them. Only drunk punters can teach you how to play in pubs.

It was a great success; both pubs want the band back for the summer season, and are prepared to pay. Because of the restrictions of the educational process, the students could not be paid on this trip, but the pubs fed them and gave them free booze.

The kids from Kingston Community School were gorgeous and so open to learning tips for developing their musicianship it was very rewarding and humbling for our students.

The TAFE students also gained, I think, a respect for the experience of the lecturers, me included, who went with them. After all our trying to get them to quiet down in so many venues and situations, it was Tony Lillywhite and I who kept pushing the volume and intensity, because, ugly though it may be, that was what was needed in the pubs.

There was some interesting student feedback from the trip. I love it that one student reflected that if the music industry was this hard, touring was this tough, she was not sure she wanted to be part of it! On reflection, she thought back on the fun, the love, the camaraderie, and decided of course she wanted to do this for the rest of her life!

We have received some feedback from the students from the workshops which has been very positive. We very much want to follow this up.

9:41:42 PM    
comment []

  Thursday, 18 August 2005


Alex is on her way home. Whether she stays in the Adelaide Hills or to Canberra to be rehabilitated by the AIS is yet to be seen.

[VeloNews: The Journal of Competitive Cycling]
11:12:08 PM    
comment []

It turns out our galaxy isn't just a boring old spiral nebula after all!

[Scientific American]
11:07:41 PM    
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'American Serengeti' needed to save large mammals. The best way to save the planet's large wild mammals facing extinction this century is the creation of a huge nature preserve in the US midwest, a group of leading biologists argue in this week's issue of Nature magazine.

Well, yeah. Bloody obvious, isn't it?

[ABC News: Science and Technology]
11:01:21 PM    
comment []

Original Unix gang gone for good.
Dept 1127 at Bell Labs has been disbanded. The list of former staffers is a who's who of geek greybeards.

[Paul Boutin]
10:57:52 PM    
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  Wednesday, 17 August 2005


I feel safer: Homeland Security vs. San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild. Mark Frauenfelder: Brian Stokes says: "I kid you not. My beloved San Francisco Bay Area Puppeteers Guild is under investigation by Homeland Security. According to their latest newsletter, its assets have been frozen ever since my friend and Treasurer Pam Brown resigned after 20 years and passed the miniscule nestegg to a new bank account a few months ago. The bank apologizes but legally can't do anything until Homeland Security determines this group of puppet fans and professionals is not planning to attack our country.

"This is the Guild where Jim Henson met a young Frank Oz and Jerry Juhl back in the 1960s. Not long ago, I was President, and before that, Secretary.

"But now our government thinks it's harboring terrorists." Link

As far as i'm concerned, it's official; the US government has gone gaga.

[Boing Boing]


11:30:35 PM    
comment []

Salon says fare:WELL.
Xeni Jardin: Salon just put The Well on the block: Link

I feel strangely sad about this. The Well was a big part of my early internet experience for a while there. It was a free-flowing, interesting community. Of course, they weren't charging for it in those days.

[Boing Boing]
11:07:39 PM    
comment []

  Tuesday, 16 August 2005


Babies on the no-fly list.

Cory Doctorow: The government's no-fly list of suspected terrorists contains many common names held by non-terrorists from all walks of life, including many babies. Babies who have names similar to known terrorist aliases are being held up boarding airplanes until their parents can prove that the infants aren't terrorists.
Sarah Zapolsky and her husband had a similar experience last month while departing from Dulles International Airport outside Washington. An airline ticket agent told them their 11-month-old son was on the government list....

Well-known people like Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Rep. John Lewis, D-Ga., and David Nelson, who starred in the sitcom "The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet," also have been stopped at airports because their names match those on the lists...

The TSA has a "passenger ombudsman" who will investigate individual claims from passengers who say they are mistakenly on the lists. TSA spokeswoman Yolanda Clark said 89 children have submitted their names to the ombudsman. Of those, 14 are under the age of 2.

Link

(Thanks, Owlswan!) [Boing Boing]
10:38:33 PM    

comment []

Macs safer than Windows, internet threats growing

For so long, the Mac has been virus free, and pretty secure from malicious attack. This saves people time and money and yet the IT MS hegemony rules. Why?

[The Macintosh News Network]
10:34:54 PM    
comment []

  Monday, 15 August 2005


pari passu

at an equal pace or rate

[Dictionary.com Word of the Day]
12:55:11 AM    
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  Sunday, 14 August 2005


The other kind of sonic blaster. Xeni Jardin:


Boing Boing reader Brian says,

After reading your earlier post about the LAPD using a "Sonic Blaster" I was reminded of a little gem from the Consumer Reports vintage photo gallery: "The Mattel Agent Zero M Sonic Blaster 5530 fires compressed air with a deafening blast. Our measurements top out at 157 dB--above a level that can do permanent damage to the hearing of an adult. We rate the toy Not Acceptable."

Correct me if I'm wrong, but is this not the single greatest children's toy ever created? I certainly would have been very, very happy.

The rest of the photo gallery is pretty interesting as well, actually, including things like Radio Sunglasses and a Portable Steambath.

You've got to love kids' toys that maim.

Previously on Boing Boing:

LA Sherriff Dept.'s new sonic blaster

RNC-NYC -- reported presence of long-range acoustic device (LRAD) at protests [Boing Boing]


10:02:09 PM    
comment []

stellarium.
yesterday, during swimming, i saw that there were two very bright spots next to the moon. so i tried to take a photo of it. only the one closest to the moon turned out half decent. using stellarium i could turn back the clock to yesterday and figure out that the one closest to the moon jupiter is, and the other one venus.

I love Tom Schuring's (aka clogwog) blog. His photos are lovely. There's a link to his site on the left here.


A picture named DSC_1999.JPG
the moon and jupiter


A picture named stellarium.jpg
[A Clogwog in Oz]
6:45:36 PM    
comment []

nugatory: Dictionary.com Word of the Day.

nugatory: insignificant; also, ineffectual.

[Dictionary.com Word of the Day]
5:12:30 PM    
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Cyclists' condition improving.

The condition of injured cyclists Louise Yaxley and Alexis Rhodes continues to improve.

Having been through the horrendous injury scenario with my own son four years back (which still has repercussions, and for which he is still being treated) I know what the families are going through.
Mind you Alex wasn't very sympathetic towards Kato at the time of his big smash.

[ABC News: Breaking Stories]
2:21:57 PM    
comment []

  Saturday, 13 August 2005


A few weeks ago I caught up with Paul Godwin, a guitarist I first met at Uni when I was studying jazz in the 80s, who now lives in New York. He was much younger than I was and he knew his shit.
I lost contact with him when I left Uni to get work around that time, but I met up with him some years later, when the DW Waldorf Swing Orchestra, the 13 piece band I played in, started using Chris Ferguson as our sound man. Chris used Paul as assistant. I was impressed with their work and hired them for the acoustic trio Hat Trick that I was with later.
I had played with tenor sax player, Dick Dawson,who was much older than us, but whom Paul and I had met at the same time, every week for ages, nutting out musical problems together, and after some years Paul decided to join us, and then Chris joined us on drums, and sometimes on vocals. We worked hard and learned lots.
We were very pleased to have played with Dick within days of his dying.
After Dick's death, the three of us continued, although the whole thing took on a different flavour and attitude.
Then one day Paul announced that he was moving to New York. So that was that.
Then, a few weeks ago, Paul returned to Australia briefly and met us at Chris's son Dylan's CD launch at the Jade Monkey. Dylan has this very interesting act in which he plays bass and sings. I heard his early experimentation and demos, and was dubious, but this show was excellent.
I've adopted a policy lately, in which I try to put together people I know from one area of my life with people I know from another area.
It came as a shock to me, that, even though Paul knew of Ralph and had heard him play, he had never met him, and had certainly never played with him. I was determined to get them together.
I got Paul to come to a Friday night session at the Bacchus where Ralph was playing with the Healers. Paul enjoyed Sav's playing, but loved Ralph's. I introduced them and they got on like a house on fire. They talked jazz and music and all the stuff we think is important. We then returned on Sunday night to hear Ralph play in a different band, much better, I have to say, than the
Healers. How could you go wrong with Jack Mahalis on bass, and James Meston on guitar and singing? Not to mention Ralph!
I tried to organise for Paul to attend one of the free improv blows that Ralph, Peter Thurmer and I had been having, but Paul was unavailable. Bummer.
But then it occurred to me that Paul, Chris, and I had already organised a rehearsal for Dylan's farewell, before he left for Germany. Maybe Ralph could do that, or even play at the party?
Well, that's what happened, but in the event Steve Todd played drums rather than Chris, who sang. But even then for what was supposed to be our last tune, When Sunny Gets Blue, Steve made his son Ben play.
Ben did a subtle, but essentially workmanlike job on the ballad.
For encore we called Donna Lee. This is a fast hard, bop tune. Ben was excellent. He was in his element!

Days later, Ralph asked how old
Ben was; he was very impressed.
He's 16. Was offered a gig with Cirque du Soleil; in fact he got the job, until they realised how young he was.
One of the consequences of my hooking Ralph up with Paul, is that, of course, Ralph has now been offered free accommodation in New York. He will definitely take this up!


11:29:41 PM    
comment []

Challenging masculinity makes men 'act macho'.

A new study shows that if a man is told he is not "man enough", he tends to overcompensate by acting macho.

I have to tell you, this doesn't work on me; I'm more likely to camp it up.

[ABC News: Offbeat (with Mpeg1)]
7:42:12 PM    
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Photography: Donald Weber.
Xeni Jardin: Image shot by Donald Weber, from the series The Underclass and Its Bosses, shot in Ukraine, 2005.

Wonderful photographs of dark matters.

Link to artist website.
(Thanks, Siege, who says "He's got a quiet eye, which is nice.") [Boing Boing]
7:28:03 PM    
comment []

tryst: an appointment (as between lovers) to meet.

[Dictionary.com Word of the Day]
7:21:11 PM    
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Monks run short of 'world's best' beer.

Monks at a Belgian abbey have run out of their famous beer after it was voted the best in the world.

In the middle ages, German and Belgian monks had an allowance of a gallon of beer a day. That's quite a bit. They would have been on a buzz most of the time. On the other hand, it meant that they hardly ever had to drink water. This saved them from many prevalent, fatal diseases. So they were able to fulfil their role as the guardians of civilisation throughout the dark ages.

[ABC News: Offbeat (with Mpeg1)]
7:17:12 PM    
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Castro celebrates 79th birthday.

Cuban President Fidel Castro - the world's longest serving political leader - is celebrating his 79th birthday today.

Had a cat named Fidel once; his companion was called Che. Che was killed by a car, and Fidel proved to have very little "fidelity".
He kept running away, until one day he didn't come back.

[ABC News: Breaking Stories]
5:34:31 PM    
comment []

Psychic fails to predict crystal ball fire.

A French amateur psychic's powers of prediction are under sharp scrutiny after his crystal ball started an inferno that burnt out his flat.

This is priceless!

[ABC News: Offbeat (with Mpeg1)]
5:29:04 PM    
comment []

Polar bear makes 74 km Arctic swim.

Scientists have tracked a tagged polar bear swimming at least 74 kilometres in just one day - and maybe up to 100 kilometres - providing the first conclusive proof the bears can cover such giant distances in the water.

[ABC News: Science and Technology]
5:54:52 AM    
comment []

ubiquitous:

being everywhere.

[Dictionary.com Word of the Day]
5:45:48 AM    
comment []

  Friday, 12 August 2005


Skin Cancer Rates on the Rise among Young People

Kids, the sun is dangerous; tan may be glamorous, but getting it can be fatal.

[Scientific American]
1:21:14 AM    
comment []

Stargazers spy asteroid with two moons.

Scientists have spotted an asteroid with more than one moon in the first discovery of its kind.

Double asteroids are fairly common, so scientists have been looking for years for multiple systems. Now they have found one.

[ABC News: Science and Technology]
12:19:24 AM    
comment []

  Thursday, 11 August 2005


I've just got home from another stimulating and exhausting session of wild improvisation with Ralph Franke and Peter Thurmer. We now have some good recordings of some of our work, which Peter has played to people who have been very positive in their response.

Ralph is talking about getting some gigs. They will have to be the poorly paid tryout gigs, Tuesday night at the Wheatsheaf, that sort of thing, but it will be interesting to see how it works with an audience and if it changes what we do. We have now peppered the sessions with a few standards and some actual pieces, some pre-written, and some with structures which I impose from the bass at the time of the performance. These are very encouraging experiments.

11:26:09 PM    
comment []

Oxford Dictionary hoovers lush new words. A host of new words have appear for the first time in the latest edition of
new Oxford Dictionary of English.

[ABC News: Offbeat (with Mpeg1)]
11:19:12 PM    
comment []

  Wednesday, 10 August 2005


My daughter saw a sale brochure from Big W the other day and noticed, among the DVDs on special, the complete first season of the best show I have ever seen on television. The best. Better than any other. No exceptions or doubts. The best. And she bought it for me.

So what is it? The Wire.

You've never heard of it right?

Of course not. Only two people in Australia watched it. Me and my sister, and she because I made her.
And I only found it by accident.

It was two summers ago, summer being the season TV stations put on all the filler shit they've been forced to buy to get the stuff they really want, the Seinfelds and such.

I scan the TV program guide to see what might be interesting, particularly in lean viewing times. I saw at 12.30 Tuesday night, surely the graveyard of television, two words, The Wire. I thought, "Interesting title", so I set the VCR. Next Tuesday came and it was on at a completely different time, 1.00 am or so. But I hadn't watched the first episode. I thought, bugger it, I'll tape this one too. Then the next Tuesday came and I hadn't watched either of the first two episodes! And the next episode was on at 2.00 am or some ridiculous time, because Channel 9 doesn't care about anything after the 8.30 slot, particularly if there is a sporting event on.

What to do? I was on leave so I made up my mind to sit down and watch the first two hours (if I could stand it) and decide then whether to go on taping the series, knowing full well that I might have to use a full videotape to capture each episode, because Channel 9's advertised times were always wrong (sport again I guess).

I watched, and was hooked from the start. Firstly the theme was the Tom Waits song Way Down in the Hole (which I had played with the band Cookin' with Chili) sung by someone whom I did not know, but it was a miraculous version. I later found out that it was The Blind Boys of Alabama.

It was a crime show, but unlike any I have seen, although, with good reason, it had similarities to Homicide: Life on the Street. Both were set in Baltimore, a city with a larger black population than white. Later I found that the creative team were the same.
Unlike most crime shows, the series did not solve one or two crimes in every hour long episode. The whole series was about one investigation.
Unlike most crime shows, the cops weren't entirely the good guys and the bad guys weren't all bad. It didn't blur the lines quite as much as The Shield does - the cops were generally not corrupt - but politics certainly played its part in dealing with crime.
The acting was superb, at least two key parts played by British actors, and showing their superiority.

I say again; the best I have ever seen. I particularly enjoyed one scene which achieved something I attempted, and failed at, years ago. I wanted to write a scene for a play in which almost the only word was fuck. In one episode these writers did just that, and did it with meaning, and it made sense in the context of the scene. It was wonderful. As with most episodes, I watched it, rewound the tape and watched it again. It was that good.

It was very difficult to watch the entire series, because it was impossible to predict what time it would actually air. You've never heard of it because it was never promoted or advertised. Channel 9 did not care about it. It has never been repeated; all kinds of other crap has.
In 2006 series four of The Wire will air in the USA. I saw the first series by accident two years ago. No other series has aired in Australia.

And that is why I hate Channel 9

Postscript: I'd love to see The Corner too.

12:48:14 AM    
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  Tuesday, 9 August 2005


Men do have trouble hearing women: research.

Men who are accused of never listening by women now have an excuse - women's voices are more difficult for men to listen to than other men's.

Then why do fighter jets use female voices for their alert messages?
Supposedly because of the psychological effect of the voices in gaining men's attention, based on the response to mother, and possibly the sexual imperative - I think we just have to accept that fighter pilots are pretty much all men.
But it wouldn't work if the pilots couldn't hear them would it?

[ABC News: Science and Technology
9:54:53 PM    
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  Monday, 8 August 2005


a bit of cross promotion.

i'm selling one of my best panoramic photo's on ebay.
A picture named LochArdGorgePanorama.jpg
Loch Ard Gorge on the Great Ocean Road

It's a cool photo.


[A Clogwog in Oz]
11:57:16 PM    
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parsimonious: frugal to excess

[Dictionary.com Word of the Day]
11:33:02 PM    
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In early June, the artists Gilbert and George were the toast of Venice, where the British pavilion was filled with a new series called "Ginkgo Pictures." By The New York Times.

I've always been fascinated by Gilbert and George, and quite coincidentally by Ginko Biloba. I planted one in a house I lived in in Albert Park. I hope it's still there. In 400 years it should be 100 metres tall. This is a tree that dinosaurs ate. I have seen a 100 year old specimen. It was tall, wild, and stunning. It had beautiful (stinky) fruit that the Persians (Iranians) were very fond of.

[NYT > Multimedia]
11:27:37 PM    
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Brain Region Tied to Regret Identified

I've always thought I could not sing My Way. Firstly, because I can't sing anything, but also because I always found these lyrics a huge stumbling block.

Regrets, I've had a few
But then again, too few to mention

I'm here to tell you that I regret something about my involvement with every human being I've ever known, and every situation in which I've known them. I've made mistakes I know can never be corrected, because the consequences have compounded over time, always with elements completely beyond my control. I'm not really talking about guilt, but regret is a much better word.

Maybe this research suggests I could have all my regret surgically removed. I would be free, but would I be me?

[Scientific American]
10:28:26 PM    
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Sunday's EuroFile: Bungling in Benelux; Basso wraps up Denmark; CastaÒo wins Burgos opener

Does Basso's win in the Tour of Denmark, suggest that, as runner up in the "Tour", he has become the successor to Lance Armstrong?

[VeloNews: The Journal of Competitive Cycling]
7:41:04 AM