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Peter Nixon
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Saturday, 28 January 2006
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australia day weekend.  thursday was australia day so we went for a surf. ended up at st. andrews where the swell was big but still good fun. we then decided to stay around for an arvo surf. unfortunately the swell came up a bit and the tide was wrong. it took me 10 minutes to paddle out, 40 minutes to not catch a wave and then 30 minutes to try to paddle back in against the rip. did see a dolphin surfing through the wave and made us look silly.
we stayed around for friday as well. st. andrews was out of control so we headed to pt. leo. alost caught a big kangaroo with the car along the way.
did get a nice surf at point leo. today was still a warm day and after a thunderstorm went past the cicada's started up. if you never heard cicadas make their noise then it is a bit hard to describe how loud they are, so here's a little bit of sound i recorded with my telephone.. and you can never find these little insects even if you are standing right on them. all in all a pretty good australia day weekend.. and the weekend hasn't even started yet :)
it's a good country..
I think I've said before that I'd never heard the Aussie term "clogwog" used for a Nederlander. (I am Australian BTW).
But my chum Dutch Harry was familiar with it.
I love the Clogwog's photography and his love of surfing, a sport I would love to love, but I've never got the hang of it.
[A Clogwog in Oz]
2:04:16 AM 
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Friday, 27 January 2006
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There is worrying news today about the high levels of a potentially carcinogenic chemical that is found in most kitchens.
Haven't I always said this? Haven't I?
[ABC News: Health]
4:19:44 PM
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Thursday, 26 January 2006
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Marijuana growers have gathered in Europe's pot-smoking capital for a trade show that is taking on the trappings of a major industry fair, complete with scantily clad models, glossy brochures and, of course, samples.
What a sensible nation. Sort of.
[ABC News: Offbeat (with Mpeg1)]
10:44:14 AM
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Cory Doctorow:
BBC Creative Research and Development have just released a stellar research report on gamers' habits in the UK -- how people from six to 65 play, what they play, why they play, and how they got to playing. It's a real eye-opener -- and chock full of stats-candy in sweet charts.
Contrary to popular belief, the gender split between gamers is
fairly even across all age groups. Although female gamers never
overtake their male counterpart, the figures are particularly
even in the youngest and oldest gaming groups. Between the
ages of 16-35 the ratio of males to females is slightly higher, but
the stereotype of a large gender gap in gamers - in any age
group - is untrue.
Females and males do however display some different prefer-
ences in gaming categories. Simulations and MMOGs perform
equally well with males and females, while RPGs and Strategy
fare only marginally better with males. Females then show
strong approval for Music/Dance, Puzzles/Board/Quiz, and
Classic games. Males show strong approval for Action-
Adventure, Racing, Sports, and First Person Shooters. Simula-
tions and MMOGs seem to be key to attracting audiences of
both genders equally: Sports and Shooting category games
generally hold the lowest appeal for females, although it should
be noted that this doesn't mean they have no appeal: 12% of
females play First Person Shooters.
Not what I would have expected.
1.2MB PDF Link
[Boing Boing]
10:25:15 AM
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Wednesday, 25 January 2006
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The Walt Disney Company has agreed to acquire Pixar Animation Studios in a $9.9 billion all-stock transaction that brings the leader in computer animation under the banner of the world's most famous name in cartoons.
This is huge!
How wealthy can Steve Jobs get?
And what is it with Disney? They can't persuade Pixar to make their movies, so they buy the company?
Steve ends up on the board; makes millions I assume, still has some power, and the famous Reality Distortion Field.
[ABC News: Entertainment (with Mpeg1)]
9:01:05 PM
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Friday, 20 January 2006
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A 74-year-old woman who had been blind for 25 years awoke in a British hospital after suffering a heart attack and could see again.
This is a bizarre story, and apparently true on the face of it; but it doesn't make me wish for a cardiac infarction should I find myself inexplicably sightless.
[ABC News: Health]
11:48:46 PM
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Fridge magnets may one day be able to fix bad grammar and change the words to something they think is more appropriate.
Swedish grammar is extremely complex compared to that of English; especially as Americans speak it.
So maybe it is no wonder that Swedish scientists want their fridge magnets to organise themselves grammatically.
[ABC News: Science and Technology]
11:09:55 PM
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My editor Josh Levin took it upon himself to conduct a thorough, methodical, exhaustive study of what's in the "unrated" versions of movies on disc. He arrives at "the great unrated DVD paradox: The uncensored version is often less raunchy than the cut you see in theaters."
Well it's nice to see someone do the tedious work required to compare minutes of naked bodies (female breasts in particular) to minutes of their absence...oh, I'm bored just thinking about it.
[Paul Boutin]
10:53:19 PM
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Soul singer Wilson Pickett dies.
Veteran soul singer Wilson Pickett, known for such hits as Mustang Sally and In the Midnight Hour, has died today of a heart attack in Virginia, his manager said.
Sadly, he hadn't really achieved much since the early 70s, but those early hits, with Booker T & the MGs, were gems.
[ABC News: Entertainment (with Mpeg1)]
2:45:19 PM
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The title would appear to say it all, but it is a surprisingly convoluted and interesting story.
That said, don't you wish you'd registered the domain name in 1994 when you could have for a few dollars?
[The Age Technology Headlines]
2:38:44 PM
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The creator of Dame Edna Everage, Barry Humphries, is featured in a new stamp collection issued to commemorate Australia Day.
The least the nation could do, I should have thought.
[ABC News: Entertainment (with Mpeg1)]
1:08:44 PM
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Cory Doctorow:
A mysterious man appears at Edgar Allan Poe's grave every year on his birthday, January 19, and leaves flowers and cognac as a memorial. It's not known who he is, nor how he gets in, and every year his ceremony gets more difficult as crowds of gawkers crowd around the cemetary, hoping to catch and unmask him:
"In letting people know about this tribute, I've been contributing to these people's desire to catch this guy," Jerome said. "It's such a touching tribute, and it's been disrupted by the actions of a few people trying to interfere and expose this guy."
The cryptic visits began in 1949. Jerome has seen the ceremony every January 19 since 1976. Poe was born in 1809.
Link
This is such a cool story; it's such a pity that people are likely to spoil what I'm sure is best left a mystery.
 [Boing Boing]
1:02:16 PM
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Wednesday, 18 January 2006
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David Pescovitz:
An African grey parrot named Ziggy tattled on the girlfriend of his caretaker, Chris Taylor. Apparently, Taylor and Suzy Collins were seated on the sofa in their living room when Ziggy began squawking, 'I love you, Gary." Seems that Collins had been cheating with a co-worker named Gary. Crushed by the revelation, Taylor bid goodbye to Suzy and, sadly, Ziggy. From CNN.com:
Ziggy even mimicked Collins's voice each time she answered her telephone, calling out "Hiya Gary," according to newspaper reports...
Taylor said he had also been forced to part with Ziggy after the bird continued to call out Gary's name and refused to stop squawking the phrases in his ex-girlfriend's voice, media reports said...
The bird has now found a new home through the offices of a local parrot dealer. Collins, who admitted the affair, said: "I'm not proud of what I did but I'm sure Chris would be the first to admit we were having problems.
"I am surprised to hear he got rid of that bird," she added to The Guardian newspaper. "He spent more time talking to it than he did to me."
The English, apparently, are the least faithful lovers in the world. Not that I'm making any judgement. How dare I?
Link (Thanks, Mark Pescovitz!)
[Boing Boing]
11:03:47 PM
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I've had to return to work a week early from my leave because of situations that had to be dealt with. Bummer.
Double bummer; on the 30 km bicycle ride home, I got about 8km and had a puncture. I had to phone home (I normally lose my mobile phone, because I hate the bloody things) to see if anyone could pick me up. I've tried to set myself up with pump and spare tubes, but I'm out of the habit after the holidays, so I had nothing.
I was on a highway, where a car can't do a U-turn, so I was determined to walk far enough to find a spot where a turn could be negotiated.
For anyone who knows Adelaide, I had broken down on the Salisbury Highway overpass over Pt Wakefield Rd. I wanted to walk the bike to Pt Adelaide (quite a distance), so I should have asked my rescuer to wait half an hour, but, as it happened, I managed to walk past a turn-off, so the return wasn't so bad. I'd walked nearly to South Rd.
Still, it's all good sweaty exercise, isn't it?
10:23:56 PM
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Tuesday, 10 January 2006
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I'm not sure where this comes from, but Peter Thurmer sent it to me.
11:42:33 AM
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David Pescovitz:
 My friend Mason Inman posted this photoshopped image on his blog in honor of his new spectacles. It literally makes my eyes tear.
Link
[Boing Boing]
11:13:53 AM
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USATODAY.com - Forget the mall. Forget the movies. Forget school. Forget even AOL. If you're a teen in America today, the place to be is the social networking site MySpace, which has virtually exploded in the past few months. In only two years, MySpace has shot from zero to 47.3 million members.
And don't think the bands of my ex-students aren't hip to this!
poetikooljustice
Free placement with the target audience. Gotta be good!
[Yahoo! News: Technology News] [Strive for the Minimum! Do It Now!!]
10:45:46 AM
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Although you might think that this blog was deep in the throes of an
existential crisis since July, you are only partly right. I have been
buried in my new project - launching a new physics magazine that people
are receiving the first print issue of today. The magazine is called symmetry and looks at the various dimensions of particle physics and how they relate to science, policy and culture.
You can read the entire contents of the magazine online or subscribe for print copies at www.symmetrymagazine.org
David Harris was once frequently quoted in this blog, but I lost track of him; I'm happy to say I've found him again. His new magazine is bound to be brilliant.
[David Harris' Science & Literature]
3:14:04 AM
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Can "pop"-ness be quantified? Is there a quality, inherent in the shiniest, rubberiest, squeakiest, squeeziest expressions of disposable culture, that can be distilled into pure essence of pop? If so, what is it? A product's giddy embrace of its instant obsolescence? An earnest attempt at mass appeal that stumbles unwittingly into kitsch or camp or brain-scalding weirdness? An unselfconscious delight in its wiles, counterweighted by a slyly self-mocking awareness of just how unconvincing its seductions are? All of the above? Where's Andy Warhol when we need him to Explain It All For Us with one of his brilliantly vapid aphorisms? [Shovelware]
3:01:52 AM
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Xeni Jardin:
In today's NYT, a fascinating interview with "father of acid" Albert Hofman, who turned 100 this week.
His work on ergot produced several important drugs, including a compound still in use to prevent hemorrhaging after childbirth. But it was the 25th compound that he synthesized, lysergic acid diethylamide, that was to have the greatest impact. When he first created it in 1938, the drug yielded no significant pharmacological results. But when his work on ergot was completed, he decided to go back to LSD-25, hoping that improved tests could detect the stimulating effect on the body's circulatory system that he had expected from it. It was as he was synthesizing the drug on a Friday afternoon in April 1943 that he first experienced the altered state of consciousness for which it became famous. "Immediately, I recognized it as the same experience I had had as a child," he said. "I didn't know what caused it, but I knew that it was important."
When he returned to his lab the next Monday, he tried to identify the source of his experience, believing first that it had come from the fumes of a chloroform-like solvent he had been using. Inhaling the fumes produced no effect, though, and he realized he must have somehow ingested a trace of LSD. "LSD spoke to me," Mr. Hofmann said with an amused, animated smile. "He came to me and said, 'You must find me.' He told me, 'Don't give me to the pharmacologist, he won't find anything.' "
Link. Image: Marc Latzel. (Thanks, John)
[Boing Boing]
2:33:34 AM
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Researchers at the Menzies Institute in Hobart, Tasmania, are exploring links between physical activity and emotional wellbeing.
I'll save them the time and money; people who exercise are mad.
There.
Bloody obvious isn't it?
[ABC News: Health]
12:21:41 AM
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Monday, 9 January 2006
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Around 10 million female foetuses may have been aborted in India over the past two decades because of ultrasound sex screening and a traditional preference for boys, according to a study published online in The Lancet.
As some gay friends of mine were complaining the other night when over for dinner, these same parents will be complaining when all the boys start having sex with each other because they can't find women!
And, on a slightly grosser note, when I read this headline, I read it as the m as the abbreviation for metres. Ten metre foetuses for gawd's sake!
[ABC News: Health]
11:42:53 PM
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Sunday, 1 January 2006
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Tasmania is set to become the first Australian state or territory to enforce indoor smoking bans in drinking establishments at midnight AEDT tonight.
Many people would not regard this as progressive, but I do. And it makes me think of the many ways Tasmania has changed. It went from the state of Australia with the most oppressive anti-gay laws to the most progressive in a heartbeat. It's still the only state in which the cultivation of opium and the production of heroin is legal (but controlled). True.
[ABC News: Health]
12:59:21 AM
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© Copyright 2006 Peter Nixon.
Last update: 28/1/06; 2:27:03 AM.
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