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Repeater
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Thursday, 30 October 2008
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An Australian National University PhD student says he is designing a new in-car navigation system based on insect vision that could keep older drivers on the road.
This really does sound promising; insects have (I presume) a fairly small amount of processing power in the brain, but they are very good at 3d navigation. Why wouldn't this line of research pay off?
[ABC News: Science and Technology]
10:03:37 PM 
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Companies should not dismiss social networking sites such as Facebook and Bebo as merely time-wasting, says a study.
The finding here is that what an employer may see as wasting time is possibly a benefit to the business through networking, intra-0ffice understanding and camaraderie, and worker satisfaction. Seems fair.
[BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition]
9:34:57 PM
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Wednesday, 29 October 2008
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The popular ballad 'Lady in Red' is poised to take on a whole new meaning, with a study published showing that the colour red makes men see women as hotter or, to put it more scientifically, more attractive.
Hmm, not so sure about this.
[ABC News: Science and Technology]
10:30:17 PM
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 Brandon McClelland, 24, was dragged to death beneath a truck driven by two white men in Paris, Texas last month. McClelland was black. The site of his death is about 200 miles from the location where James Byrd was murdered in a similar manner ten years ago. (Image at left: Jacqueline McClelland, Brandon's mother; photo courtesy Jesse Muhammad.)
McClelland's murder took place on September 16, 2008. Parts of his mangled body were found strewn along the highway at great distance.
First responders treated the case as a hit and run. The county district attorney's office denied the possibility of racist motivations, and said comparisons to the Byrd lynching were "preposterous."
The incident was reported in the local newspaper, which later followed with this editorial.
Some bloggers and news sites associated with the Nation of Islam [ * ] have been discussing the killing as a hate crime for weeks, and claim local law enforcement ignored key forensic evidence at the crime scene.
Howard Witt at the Chicago Tribune, who has covered related stories about racial injustice and hate crimes in this region, wrote about the case as a possible hate crime earlier this month.
The story of McClelland's death -- and allegations the investigation by (white) local police investigators was botched -- seems to be gaining broader attention after having been picked up by AP today: Another Dragging Death In Texas (Associated Press).
Snip from a related story about racism in Paris, Texas, also from Witt at the Chicago Tribune:
The public fairgrounds in this small east Texas town look ordinary enough, like so many other well-worn county fair sites across the nation. Unless you know the history of the place. There are no plaques or markers to denote it, but several of the most notorious public lynchings of black Americans in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries were staged at the Paris Fairgrounds, where thousands of white spectators would gather to watch and cheer as black men were dragged onto a scaffold, scalded with hot irons and finally burned to death or hanged.
One of the most widely-publicized lynchings of a black person in American history took place there 115 years ago. On February 1, 1893, former slave Henry Smith was tortured to death in front of a crowd of ten thousand (mostly or entirely white) people. Here is the New York Times article from that day, documenting the brutal details of his death in explicit detail.
The child[base ']s father, her brother, and two uncles then gathered about the Negro as he lay fastened to the torture platform and thrust hot irons into his quivering flesh. It was horrible[base ']Äîthe man dying by slow torture in the midst of smoke from his own burning flesh. Every groan from the fiend, every contortion of his body was cheered by the thickly packed crowd of 10,000 persons. The mass of beings 600 yards in diameter, the scaffold being the center. After burning the feet and legs, the hot irons[base ']plenty of fresh ones being at hand[base ']were rolled up and down Smith[base ']s stomach, back, and arms. Then the eyes were burned out and irons were thrust down his throat.
Another snip from that century-old NYT story, which presumed Smith was guilty, and deserved the lynching:
Whisky shops were closed, unruly mobs were dispersed, schools were dismissed by a proclamation from the mayor, and everything was done in a business-like manner.
ANOTHER NEGRO BURNED; HENRY SMITH DIES AT THE STAKE. DRAWN THROUGH THE STREETS ON A CAR -- TORTURED FOR NEARLY AN HOUR WITH HOT IRONS AND THEN BURNED -- AWFUL VENGEANCE OF A PARIS (TEXAS) MOB (NYT)
Update: BB commenter JWB nails it:
This must be viewed in light of the Ashley Todd incident this week. Todd made up a false story that a black man attacked her and carved a "B" in her face, ostensibly because she supports John McCain. In Paris, Texas, a hundred years ago, a charge like that would get a black man burned alive. Today it doesn't go quite that far but you could see the shadow of the lynch mob forming in the darker corners of the right-wing blogosphere when the Todd story first circulated.
The Southern Poverty Law Center has an interactive map of racist organizations and businesses (think: White Pride record stores, KKK branches) in this part of Texas, which you can view here. [ * ] Incidentally, SLPC also categorizes the Nation of Islam and the New Black Panther Party as "hate groups."
Previously on Boing Boing: The Last Lynching: Ted Koppel documentary on Discovery tonight
[Boing Boing]
9:56:41 PM
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The Richard Solo iPhone/iPod Backup Battery
If you read my iPhone 3G review, you know that my biggest complaint was with regard to battery life. The problem isn[base ']t that the iPhone[base ']s battery life is poor compared to other similarly-featured phones. The problem is that the iPhone pushes the limits of modern battery technology [~] what makes the iPhone great is that it can do so much, but doing that much consumes significant power.
There[base ']s an obvious trade-off between battery size/weight and battery life. I would actually pay more for an iPhone that was thicker and heavier but provided longer battery life. I don[base ']t think Apple should offer such a device (insofar as there are obvious benefits to maintaining the simplicity of the product line by offering only one form factor), just that if they were to offer such a device, I[base ']d have bought it.
Most days, when I go to bed my iPhone still has plenty of gas in the tank. The problem strikes on the days when I go commando [~] foregoing my MacBook Pro and using my iPhone as my sole connection to the Internet for the day. I no longer lug my laptop with me when attending a conference, for example.
I[base ']ve found that the only way to make it through an entire day like this is to find a way to recharge the iPhone at some point. However, the days when I[base ']m going commando are, by definition, the days when I[base ']m least likely to be anchored near an AC outlet for extended periods.
Several peripheral makers now make external battery packs that fill this need. The basic idea is that the battery pack holds an extended charge, and when you need it, you plug it into your iPhone (or iPod) via the dock connector port.
Back in August I bought the $50 Richard Solo Backup Battery. I ordered it directly from their web site. It[base ']s fairly small and holds a decent-sized charge.
You can see that it[base ']s sort of a dongle that, when connected to the iPhone, hangs off the bottom.
The other competing design concept for iPhone battery packs is to make them in the form of an iPhone case [~] something the iPhone sits inside rather than something that hangs off the bottom. Mophie[base ']s Juice Pack seems to be the leading example of this. I chose the Richard Solo dongle for two reasons: it[base ']s far easier to keep in a pocket when not in use, and (b) it was half the price ($50 vs. $100). A third advantage is that the battery dongles should work with any iPhone or iPod [~] the integrated battery/cases only work with single specific iPhone models.
Here[base ']s how it works. The Richard Solo Backup Battery comes with its own AC adapter. You connect the battery to the AC adapter via an included compact USB cord that plugs into the bottom of the battery. Left like this, the battery will charge. But you can also plug the battery[base ']s dock connector into your iPhone while charging [~] in this case, the iPhone[base ']s internal battery will charge first, and then the Richard Solo battery will charge. Thus, when traveling, you only need to bring the Solo AC adapter.
In practice, the Richard Solo Backup Battery seems to hold enough juice to add about 50-60 percent of a charge to an iPhone 3G. I.e. after running down the iPhone[base ']s internal battery to the point where I got the [base "]10 percent[per thou] warning from the OS, plugging in the Richard Solo Backup Battery and letting it charge the iPhone will restore it to somewhere around 70 percent capacity. It seems to take about an hour for a complete discharge.
You can also use it to slurp occasionally [~] plug it in for 15 minutes here and there throughout the day. And you can use the iPhone while the battery pack is plugged in [~] from the iPhone[base ']s perspective, it[base ']s just another power source connected to the dock port.
Is it an amazing amount of external battery power? No. But it certainly feels like $50 worth, and the power capacity seems commensurate with the physical size. And in my experience, it provides just enough extra power to make it through a heavy day of iPhone use.
My biggest complaint is that it ships with a junky plastic cap to cover the dock connector.
It didn[base ']t snap on very tightly even when brand new, and within a week or two, it started falling off while in my pocket. Earlier this month while on vacation, I lost it. You don[base ']t need the cap, but it somehow seems wrong to have the naked dock connector bouncing around in my pocket. A better design would be for the dock connector to be retractable, sort of like the blade on a box cutter.
Minor niggles include the supplied USB cable being too short, it being a little hard to tell at a glance which side of the battery is up, and a somewhat confusing array of LED lights that indicate when the battery is charging and when it is giving a charge.
The bottom line, though, is that it[base ']s the next best thing to having an iPhone with a longer-lasting internal battery.
John Gruber [Daring Fireball]
9:33:48 PM
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Monday, 27 October 2008
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While most people are being forced to tighten their belts, figures out today show the pay of chief executives has skyrocketed in the six years to 2007.
I have nothing to say.
[ABC News: Breaking Stories]
4:27:31 PM
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Saturday, 25 October 2008
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Clayton Cubitt tells Boing Boing,
Rachel Hulin (former photo editor at Nerve) is doing get-out-the-vote in battleground state Wisconsin, and documents this choice example of anti-Obama propaganda flyers being stuffed in mailboxes, in the guise of a letter directly from "Barack Hussein Obama II."
Wisconsin Day Two: Barack Hussein Obama II (rachelhulin.com)
[Boing Boing]
9:17:08 PM
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A Roman Catholic nun raped in the Indian state of Orissa, allegedly during a riot by Hindus, publicly denounces local police.
This is an appalling story; the police stood aside and watched.
[BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition]
8:56:06 PM
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The first astronauts sent to Mars should be prepared to spend the rest of their lives there, in the same way that European pioneers headed to America knowing they would not return home, says moonwalker Buzz Aldrin.
I've been reading "Gum" by Ashley Hay. It's a history of the eucalypt. Reading about the early Europeans in Australia makes you very aware that these people had in a sense left the planet forever. They were in as alien a place as could be imagined with no hope of ever returning. I've always assumed that space explorers would at some time have to do the same. Tough though. At least Australia has an atmosphere.
It will be interesting to see how long it would take for an analogue to Darwin's experience in Australia occurs on another planet. Darwin spoke to two young girls in Sydney and was shocked to find that, although they spoke, as he said, the King's English, when he referred to them as English, they strongly denied this saying, "We've never seen England. We're Australian."
[ABC News: Breaking Stories]
7:17:35 AM
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Thursday, 23 October 2008
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A Qantas flight between Brisbane and Adelaide landed safely last night without using air brakes because of a problem with the wing flaps.
Now for anyone who got the huge promo for Qantas in Rainman this has to be disappointing. Frankly, it is hard to deny the conspiracy theorists who argue that all Qantas's problems began with outsourcing of maintenance.
[ABC News: Breaking Stories]
10:15:51 PM
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A drug developed to treat leukaemia has ended up making significant strides in the battle against multiple sclerosis.
I have a lovely neighbour that was (she's moved, but not too far , so I still see her occasionally) who was diagnosed with MS kind of around a marriage breakup and other personal turmoil. She's doing well, but it's hard. It's a crap condition; bring on a cure, or at least a prevention.
[ABC News: Science and Technology]
10:03:35 PM
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Here[base ']s a 2003 San Francisco Examiner profile of [base "]Pixar University[per thou] [~] perhaps the model for Apple University.
This must have been so much fun.
John Gruber [Daring Fireball]
7:17:06 PM
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New figures show that nearly half of all adult Australians have suffered from a mental disorder at some point in their life.
I'm pleased to say that so far, mental illness is losing in my case. It's only a matter of time though.
[ABC News: Health]
7:04:22 PM
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Award-winning cartoonist and artist Bill Leak is in good spirits after regaining consciousness days after suffering serious head injuries in a balcony fall.
[ABC News: Breaking Stories]
7:00:54 AM
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Wednesday, 22 October 2008
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The rare appearance by the Apple CEO produces a few more pithy quotes than you would usually hear on an earnings call. Here are a few.
An interesting insight (?) into Steve and his views about Apple, the current economic crisis, and the future of Apple. I like the idea that Apple just can't find a way to make a cheap product that isn't, well, cheap.
[CNET News.com]
10:09:26 PM
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synecdoche:
figure of speech
Figure of speech doesn't quite cut it; I'm sure if you click through you'll get the full definition, but here is my take, for what it's worth. It's what you are doing when you say "All hands on deck!" You don't just want the hands; you want the whole bodies and intelligences. Head of cattle is another expression that is a synecdoche. It is the use of a word for the part to signify the whole.
[Dictionary.com Word of the Day]
8:56:48 PM
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Tuesday, 21 October 2008
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A Dutch university has set up a cafeteria/laboratory crammed with cameras and other monitoring devices to learn what influences the food choices people make:
Does it matter if the cheese slices are wrapped in plastic? If the bread is presented as a loaf or sliced up? Whether the salad is on a red table or [...]
[Freakonomics]
8:30:05 AM
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A new study suggests that the widely used diet supplements glucosamine and chondroitin may be ineffective in patients with arthritis of the knee.
But there have been other studies showing the opposite, I'm pretty sure. Australia's ABC website is bound to have them.
 [NYT > Health]
7:45:26 AM
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Monday, 20 October 2008
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It was a good ride today to work. Until...
I had gone about 26 km and was doing about 30 kph. Coming towards a set of lights I tried to dodge a truck stopped waiting for green that had not left me enough room to pass on the inside. I decided to head up a driveway just before the truck, to get on the footpath for a few metres, but as I turned the front wheel it lodged in a rut, and I fell heavily.
I was a bit confused, and, while I felt no pain at the time, during the day my head, face, neck, collarbone, arm and hip began to hurt. Since riding home the various contusions are now making themselves known, and my hands and wrists are also hurting.
I certainly understand from this why broken collarbones are such common cycling injuries.
10:35:30 PM
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Dr. Douglas Prasher, now an Alabama truck driver, is the real brains behind a US Nobel Prize win.
This sort of thing must happen all the time.
[CNET News.com]
10:17:51 PM
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Sunday, 19 October 2008
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There was a period, between the wars, when European refugees like Gropius stopped in Britain. This stimulated a brief flourishing of modernism resulting in the design aesthetic of London public transport, from the Routemaster bus (the only piece of British [OE]architecture[base '] that Corbusier liked) to moderne Tube stations such as Arnos Grove.
But the pinnacle [...]
[Smashing Telly]
11:07:05 PM
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Gerolsteiner joins T-Mobile and so many others pulling out of cycling because it is so corrupt and/or drug-ridden.
Let's not forget that the Germans will not now broadcast the "tour", and have indeed cancelled the tour of Germany.
FoxSports.com.au Oct 19 2008 4:38AM GMT [Moreover Technologies - Sports: cycling news]
10:25:50 PM
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This morning I headed off a little before 7 to meet my small band of comrades in Hutt St for a quick coffee, then a not so quick ride. I've only recently joined this group, which includes someone I've known since I was six years old and with whom I went to school and university, but haven't seen often for many years. It's nice to have re-established what was at times a close friendship.
The usual ride is from Hutt St to Glenelg, to Outer Harbour, to Pt Adelaide for a coffee, and then home. For me, door to door, this is a 71 km trip.
A fortnight ago (the last time I rode) my friend and I (it was just the two of us that day) went to Waterfall Gully, through St Georges to Glenelg, Outer Harbour, Pt Adelaide back to Hutt St. That day I had driven to Hutt St. That was 82 km.
Today, we were under pressure of time for one of us, but we wanted a different challenge. The idea is to prepare for longer summer rides. In particular, the Tour Down Under ride. So we headed south to Seacliff to get some hill climbing in. The plan was to go to Hallett Cove, but the combination of time and the need to pick up another rider at Henley Beach meant we couldn't go that far.
We also had to curtail the Outer Harbour leg.
So, Hutt St, Seacliff, Pt Adelaide, home - 72 km.
It was a lovely warm overcast day, perfect apart from a strengthening head wind on the way home.
9:31:33 PM
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From World of Wonder's WOW Report:
Artist Lou Cannizzaro went back to 96 St Marks Place in Manhattan 33 years after that location starred on the cover of Led Zeppelin's Physical Graffiti album.
Physical Graffiti -- return to the scene
 [Boing Boing]
9:05:14 PM
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bailiwick:
a person's specific area of knowledge, authority, interest, skill, or work
I love this word, because, I think, words are my bailiwick.
[Dictionary.com Word of the Day]
8:43:11 PM
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Sen. John McCain stepped up his rhetoric against his Democratic rival on taxes in his weekly radio address Saturday, comparing his plan to "socialist" programs.
They're saying this as though it were a bad thing!
[CNN.com]
2:48:31 PM
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On the heels of last week's unveiling of a new MacBook lineup, there's now buzz about an iMac refresh in time for the holidays.
[CNET News.com]
1:57:29 PM
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11-year-old unlikely to live after suffering burns to most of her body for being inappropriately dressed.
There could be more to this than meets the eye; what appears at first to be an outraged conservative Muslim going postal, may in fact be a pedophile trying to cover up his actions.
[The Sydney Morning Herald News Headlines]
1:36:02 PM
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US medics find the Bee Gees song, Stayin' Alive, provides an ideal beat to follow when performing CPR on a victim of a cardiac arrest.
It's a tempo thing.
[BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition]
1:24:51 PM
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Among the tombs is that of Marcus Nonius Macrinus, close aide to philosopher Emperor Marcus Aurelius, and the inspiration for the main character in the movie Gladiator.
Read full story for latest details.
[CNN.com]
1:14:11 PM
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The background:
In September he expressed doubts about co-leading the Kazakh squad with
Armstrong in 2009, telling the Spanish sports daily 'AS' that "some
difficult situations could arise in which the team would put him
first".
However, the 2007 Tour winner now says an Astana team meeting in November will erase any earlier signs of a possible division.
12:43:58 PM
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Saturday, 18 October 2008
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BAVENO, Italy - Former Giro d'Italia winner Ivan Basso said he has
paid his penalty after serving a two-year doping suspension and is
ready to challenge the world's top riders - including Lance Armstrong.
The 2006 Giro champion will make his return to professional cycling
Oct. 26 in the Japan Cup. His main objective for next season will be
the Giro, the second most prestigious stage race after the Tour de
France.
That will pit the Italian rider against Armstrong, who
announced this week that he will ride in the three-week Giro for the
first time as part of his own comeback after a three-year retirement.
Canada East Oct 18 2008 6:00AM GMT
[Moreover Technologies - Sports: cycling news]
7:44:00 PM
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Swimmers have been warned to swim between the flags as deadly sharks haunt Australia's popular east coast beaches.
I don't live on the east coast of Australia. I live in a gulf in South Australia, in the south of the continent oddly enough, although my local beaches are in the west. However, it is a reasonably shark infested part of the world. Actually, the great whites are always out there. The troubling thing for our coming summer is that fishers are reporting a persistent great white in local shores. As more swimmers go into the water the risk rises, although it has to be said, given the reported shark behaviours, swimming off the back of a boat out in a fishing area may be the only higher risk action.
[ABC News: Breaking Stories]
7:07:17 PM
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Important
While this article about The Wire deliberately contains as few actual spoilers about the show as possible, it does contain numerous links to pages with information that will tell you critical spoiler information about the stories and fates of the show[base ']s characters. The article also contains language and links that are very much not safe for work. Please proceed with caution on all fronts.
This is Merlin Mann writing about the BEST TELEVISION SHOW EVER MADE, and using the writing for it as a way into discussing good blogging.
It is really worth reading!
And it turns out that Merlin Mann also thinks it's the BEST TELEVISION SHOW EVER MADE!
Much has been written about the dense, literary quality of the show (read Kottke for context and great links), so it may not surprise you to learn I[base ']m one of the many people who consider The Wire to be the best series that[base ']s ever appeared on television; my wife and I have watched the first (and, in my opinion, best) four seasons at least three times.
5:20:57 PM
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Sounds like a fantastic party:
In 1980, Stanley Kubrick came to the Timberline Lodge to film one of the all-time great horror classics, The Shining. In the film, Jack Nicholson slowly loses his grasp on reality and loses himself in a hallucination of a 1920s era ball. Twenty-eight years later, Nike Sportswear and Fantastic Fest have joined forces to recreate the very same ball at the very same lodge.
Check out the photo of the Timberline Lodge on the about page, and compare to the composition Kubrick used in the film for this shot (and this storyboard).
John Gruber [Daring Fireball]
3:16:27 PM
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LAWS designed to protect the community from terrorism are being used to deny Victorians access to their police surveillance files.
Deputy Police Commissioner Simon Overland told The Age police
had asked the Government to amend FoI laws as part of the 2006
Terrorism (Community Protection) bill because requests for information
were almost always denied but time consuming to process.
Great quote from John Cain who says this exposes "the mad desire of the police to get all sorts of information
regardless of whether it is inaccurate, insensitive or inappropriate".
[The Age News Headlines]
2:53:48 PM
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The [British] government is acting to end the prosecution of so-called "Metric Martyrs" - traders who continue to sell goods using imperial measures.
The Poms are completely mental about imperial measurement. String 'em up if they won't use metric I say. I can't believe that even the EU has backed down on this. What a backward country.
[BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition]
2:28:58 PM
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Marilyn sez, "Astronauts returning from spacewalks have noticed a distinctive smell of fried steak on their space suits when they take them off. Who knew?!" Turns out, the cosmos is not vegan.
He said: "When astronauts were de-suiting and taking off helmets, they all reported quite particular odours.
"We have already produced the smell of fried steak, but hot metal is more difficult.
"We think it[base ']s a high energy vibration in the molecule and that[base ']s what we[base ']re trying to add to it now."
Space smells of steak, say Nasa
(Thanks, Marilyn!)
[Boing Boing]
6:46:06 AM
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Friday, 17 October 2008
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Oh, I know that there's this huge vogue today for making fake snot with molecular gastronomy techniques, a kind of gourmet fetishism for this basic, simple, honest farmland staple. I don't care. I like my fake snot like I like my text-editors: simple, powerful, and green. Lucky for me, About.com Chemistry's Anne Marie Helmenstine, Ph.D., has an old-fashioned, traditional folk-recipe for fake snot.
This is a gooey, gross variation of the traditional slime recipe, great for Halloween and other occasions requiring snot.
How To Make Fake Snot
(via Make)
 [Boing Boing]
7:24:37 AM
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Thursday, 16 October 2008
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Andy sez,
In a move that seems to be happening without comment from the Australian media, the Australian government is introducing a censorship regime ostensibly targeted at stopping teenagers accessing online porn.
But rather than being an opt-in system, it's "opt-out". I use the scare quotes because, and this is most insidious part, you can't actually opt out - you can merely be placed on a alternative blacklist which, instead of blocking "content innappropriate for children", block any material deemed to be illegal.
The fact that it will likely reduce everyone's internet performance is secondary; It will most likely incorrectly block 1% of sites, and now what you are allowed to view online is determined and controlled by the state (although most likely quite inaccurately).
The rationale is that since they're setting it up anyway, they're morally obliged to block traffic deemed illegal:
"Illegal is illegal and if there is infrastructure in place to block it, then it will be required to be blocked [base ']Äî end of story."
I don't think I need to go into too much detail about the potential threat to our civil liberties.
People of Australia, please write to your MPs to voice your opposition to this.
No opt-out of filtered Internet
(Thanks, Andy!)
Go here and here if you want to do something about this.
 [Boing Boing]
10:43:36 PM
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There is concern at Whyalla in South Australia that dolphins are being lured with fish, then attacked by local youths.
I thought I'd better post this because we don't usually get much news about dolphins.
[ABC News: Breaking Stories]
8:54:33 AM
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Wednesday, 15 October 2008
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Kids, you just have to see this; it's not our Australian Paul Keating, but an advisor (briber?) of McCain.
It's from Dave Winer's blog.
Keating economics
11:25:45 PM
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The University of Tasmania has been given more funding to allow further studies into the deadly facial tumour disease afflicting the Tasmanian Devil.
I thought I'd better post this because we don't usually get much news about Tasmanian devils.
[ABC News: Science and Technology]
8:44:45 PM
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A quick biosecurity response to the presence of a deadly abalone disease in Tasmania is being credited for saving the $100 million dollar industry.
I thought I'd better post this because we don't usually get much news about abalone.
[ABC News: Science and Technology]
8:40:58 PM
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The ABC is dumping a raft of radio programs as job cuts begin to bite.
Aaaargh! This is awful!
Check out what's to go:
ABC Radio National has announced several programs will be axed as part of major changes to its 2009 schedule.
Among those listed to go are the Religion Report, Media Report, Sports Factor, The Ark, Perspective and In Conversation.
The shows will be variously replaced by a program that looks at the
history of news events, another that will focus on current world trends
of globalisation, communication technologies and the shifting cultural,
social, political and economic responses.
Another replacement program will feature Julie Rigg's film, culture
reviews, and interviews. This will replace Sports Factor on Fridays.
Radio National manager Dr Jane Connors says current programs Radio
Eye and Street Stories will also finish later next year, but she says
the changes allow Radio National to "convert a small number of
positions into roles with a stronger online and digital editorial
focus". While I'm not particularly committed to religion or sport, The Religion Report and Sports Factor are among my favorite listening. Stephen Crittenden of The Religion Report is such an intelligent broadcaster and interviewer. And Radio Eye is wonderful listening, although I always listen to the podcast for high quality stereo rather than the AM broadcast. I'll miss In Conversation too.
[The Sydney Morning Herald News Headlines]
8:27:30 PM
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Amazing!
No aliens have landed. Apple shows new versions of MacBooks. Apple goes to the LED displays finally. Microsoft finally gives Windows 7 a name! LCD to be huge market by 2012. Doing Google searches may improve brain function. Yeah, right. Free wireless broadband takes a turn. Have patch releases sunk Microsoft stock? Researcher says yes. Google web accelerator not working. Samsung plans to re-enter the USA PC market. God, why?
Click to listen:
[CURRY.COM]
8:15:08 PM
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Tuesday, 14 October 2008
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I just invented a new acronym: President Obama Of The United States.
Knock wood. 
Okay it really looks like he's going to win, forgive me for saying that, I know it's not a good idea, and I don't really believe it but just in case...
I saw this picture on the wall in a scene in last night's 60 Minutes. Leslie Stahl is interviewing Ray Odierno, the new US commander in Iraq. He was showing off some new technique of hunting down the bad guys with drones, very impressive, except I just watched Generation Kill on HBO and I can't help but wondering if it's a fraud and a hoax. Anyway. On the wall is this portrait of President Bush superimposed on the American flag with the Statue of Liberty in the background.
Whuh?
That's pretty outrageously out there.
So when my guy Barack, POOTUS, is in the White House and the wingnuts are giving him shit about how he seems to be enjoying the trappings of the presidency, I'm going to ask them to have a look at this picture and see if Dubya wasn't just a teeeeeny bit over the top here.
I've followed Dave Winer forever; he was the first blogger. Originally I got email collections of his thoughts from my brother (in those days internet connections were only available in universities in Oz, and he was a computing/applied maths geek), and eventually Dave developed a way to broadcast his thoughts. Dave is my age and has made his millions several times. I'm still working on my first few dollars. Dave's political stance is definitely not mine, but it is always well argued and I have to consider it.
He developed a product called Frontier which used the scripting capabilities built into the MacOS, and later in Windows. (Correct me please). The software for broadcasting (as he thought of it then; podcasting was a later and Apple biased term), and this he called Radio. It's now known as Radio Userland, and is the platform on which I produce this nonsense.
[Scripting News]
9:33:53 PM
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Monday, 13 October 2008
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I've been trying to resurrect this blog for some time. I think I have a chance now. I'm ironing out the bugs. To my two or three readers, patience please. I'll get it together and eventually it won't just be repeats of news items.
11:52:51 PM
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Official report offers no information about how Britt Lapthorne died.
[The Sydney Morning Herald News Headlines]
While they are not actually contradictory it is interesting how different these two headlines about Britt Lapthorne's fate appear.
11:02:05 PM
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The results of the autopsy on the body of Britt Lapthorne found off the coast of Croatia last week have been passed on to her family.
[ABC News: Breaking Stories]
10:54:09 PM
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An increase in the rate of knee and hip replacements has been linked to Australia's obesity epidemic.
[ABC News: Breaking Stories]
10:40:49 PM
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A scientific study for the European Union found that listening to personal music players at high volume can threaten permanent hearing loss.
[NYT > Health]
9:02:32 PM
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Sunday, 12 October 2008
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Thursday, 9 October 2008
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Wednesday, 8 October 2008
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NewsFactor - Apple may not have reached its goal of selling 10 million iPhone 3Gs yet, but the company has spurred a large number of consumers to abandon their carriers and flock to AT&T, the exclusive mobile carrier for the iPhone in the U.S. [Yahoo! News: Technology News]
10:48:02 AM
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Tuesday, 7 October 2008
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Catholic-run hospitals have been accused of refusing to refer sexual assault victims to rape crisis centres that prescribe the morning-after pill.
I can understand why the Catholic church might take that position, but really, the experience of the '60s when Catholic women flocked to the pill should tell them something.
[The Age News Headlines]
9:30:02 PM
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(Thanks, Bill!)
[Boing Boing]
1:57:10 PM
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Things are not going well for John McCain. His side has lost
both debates by large margins. His recent stunt dealing with the
financial crisis was seen as such and actually may have
complicated and disrupted negotiations. Barack Obama has a...
[morons.org headlines]
11:04:42 AM
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Report: 1 in 4 mammals face extinction. Nearly a fourth of the world's mammals are threatened with extinction, a leading international conservation group said Monday as it unveiled its latest global study of the problem.
[CNN.com]
10:45:48 AM
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A mouse species, which was though to have been extinct for 150 years, has been found living in a drought-ravaged national park in New South Wales' far west.
I'm not sure that the world needs more mice, but it is always exciting when a new or lost mammal is found. Or rodent I guess.
[ABC News: Science and Technology]
10:05:49 AM
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Am I back?
9:58:34 AM
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Test
9:28:45 AM
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© Copyright 2009 Peter Nixon.
Last update: 13/4/09; 4:44:45 PM.
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