I have been extremely remiss in not yet acknowledging the anonymous owner of this site, where I've received a reasonable amount of traffic from in recent days. So cheers for the linkage, O citizen of the world...
6:26 PM | link
Johnny and Edgar Winter not happy about being turned into half-men, half-worm creatures.
5:48 PM | link
Just how many Saddams are there?
THE ZDF PUBLIC television network, working with a German coroner, said Thursday that it took photographs and film clips of Saddam in its archives and used facial recognition technology to determine that men said to be him were lookalikes.
“In the film sequences since 1998 only the doubles appear,” said Dieter Buhmann, a Homburg coroner. “He himself has not been seen again.”
But in the program, ZDF said the original Saddam reappeared on Iraq television on Saturday.
Next: Al Qaeda claims that wasn't really Osama bin Laden in all those videos that kept appearing after 11/9/2001.
5:45 PM | link
LL Cool J endorses Republican party. Next: LL Cool J releases comeback single, "Dubya Said Knock You Out".
5:20 PM | link
Judge hires round-the-clock armed guard after inmate places voodoo curse on him.
State Supreme Court Justice Abraham Gerges, 68, started getting the protection a week ago after officials learned the convict asked a friend find a voodoo priest to cast the deadly spell, sources said.
"This threat is being taken seriously," one source said.
What a shame the same can't really be said of the judge...
5:18 PM | link
God bless the Official Monster Raving Loony Party. Nice to see the death of Screaming Lord Sutch hasn't stopped them.
5:16 PM | link
Kelly Jane Torrance on Glenn Gould.
Michael of the 2 Blowhards has a nice item on Gould, with plenty of links. While I adore the Blowhards, I must disagree with Michael on Thirty Two Short Films about Glenn Gould. I just saw this film last night. Michael calls it a “fab intro” to the pianist. I watched it partly to learn more about the man on the eve of his birthday, but found myself disappointed. [...]
The movie is Canadian, and it shows—it’s unconventional. Some of the films contain no action, for example. “Forty-Five Seconds and a Chair” comes early on, with Gould in a chair looking at the camera while we listen to Bach’s 2 Part Invention #13. “CD318” features Bach’s Prelude #2 from the Well Tempered Clavier Volume 1 while we see the inner workings of a piano being played. Another section features the 1969 animated short Spheres. These odd interludes are not such a bad idea. They are striking, and the emphasis on the music helps get the viewer in a receptive mood for a movie about someone for whom music was all. But the rest of the films don’t have the substance to sustain the movie.
Thirty-Two Short Films disappointed the hell out of me when I saw it, and if I'd known Kelly was planning to watch it for insight into the man, I'd have told her to give it a miss. The Norman McLaren animation was by some distance the best thing about the film for me. Glenn's own writings are much more revelatory...
5:03 PM | link
Official: blind people may fly planes and be air traffic controllers. Um... don't you need to be able to see where you're going when flying a plane? Insane.
4:37 PM | link
Christian school suspends cheerleaders after catching them having fun. What the hell is a Christian school doing with cheerleaders anyway?
4:35 PM | link
Mayor of Washington DC admits roadside speed cameras are there to make money. I fail to see why this should be considered revelatory—I don't think I ever thought speed cameras didn't have their revenue-raising side—though I suppose it's nice of him to admit it...
4:33 PM | link
Amazon under fire for not censoring a book. This is the book, and these are the complainers. Andy from World Wide Rant comments:
Actually, even though the book is number 1,211 on the Amazon Sales Rank list (most likely due to the exposure people like Focus on the Family are giving it), there are only seven reviews of the book. If it's a dating service, it's not a very effective one. Can anyone say "scare mongering?" I knew you could.
...Focus on the Family isn't interested in the actual persuasive power of the book, but want to use boogey-man scare tactics to convince their sheep to censor the thoughts of others with whom they disagree. Although, oddly enough, a search of their site turns up nothing on the The Turner Diaries, an arguably much more influential and harmful work (just ask the people of Oklahoma City).
Former Belgian PM forced to prove his eligibility for pension. Cool. I think this should be applied to politicians here, and the bastards should be made to demonstrate why they deserve the big payouts and things they get on retirement...
4:07 PM | link
Interesting political happenings in Burma.
The shadowy reign of one of the world's most durable and reclusive dictators has ended with the death sentences passed on the son-in-law and three grandsons of Burma's General Ne Win for their alleged role in a bizarre plot to topple the country's military regime.
While the 92-year Ne Win has not been directly implicated in the supposed conspiracy, he remains under effective house arrest and the humiliation of his family is seen as a declaration that his dominance of Burmese politics for most of the past four decades is finally at an end.
"The generals who are now in charge in Burma - the men who owe their power to the old man - are making a statement that his era has come to a close," said an analyst of Burmese affairs.
I know next to nothing about the history of Burmese politics, beyond the fact of its being a military government. So I'm just wondering what this actually means, since I take it that General Ne Win or no General Ne Win, the place is still a military state. What actual improvements have been or are going to be made by doing this by bumping off the assorted Ne Wins?
3:57 PM | link
Phillip Adams on religion and science. I normally find Adams terribly tedious, and this piece is infected with his usual smugness, but he really is fighting an idiot here, so it's fun.
3:42 PM | link
Don Arthur and Liam Walter, are either of you planning to update your blogs in the near future?
3:26 PM | link
Michael Atkinson grumbles about filmmakers finishing off other directors' cast-offs and incomplete things. Big deal, Michael. It's not like this sort of thing hasn't been going on for centuries in other art forms...
3:23 PM | link
It only takes an Emmy award to change their minds: for all the talk of the new season being their last, Friends might go back into production since they scored at the Emmys last week. Just what we needed, eh? You'll pardon me if I continue to leave my TV switched off.
3:16 PM | link
FUCK. Predator was on Ch.7 tonight and I've only just found out. Missed most of it.
10:10 PM | link
Naqoyqatsi. Messrs Reggio and Glass return with another film, whose title translates as "War as way of life" or something. Amusingly appropriate, given the current times...
9:28 PM | link
A team of scientists grew accurate versions of natural teeth in a laboratory, raising the possibility of an eventual replacement for manmade implants such as dentures, bridges and crowns.
The scientists, based at Forsyth Institute, were reportedly the first to grow such a complex tooth structure from a collection of individual cells.
``This is very exciting, and I don't think it's expected,'' said R. Bruce Donoff, dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine.
Researchers said it would be at least a decade before the technique could be used to help patients.
A decade? But I don't know if mine will last that long!
9:20 PM | link
The Lefty Libertarian ponders just what a lefty libertarian is.
The essence of the Lefty Libertarian credo is this: Libertarianism not because it's in some way closer to "natural rights", but because it is probably better for everybody. Libertarianism motivated by the desire for the people, as a whole, to be happy as, just as socialists or communists want the people as a whole to be happy, but wise to the problems which have often made socialism into an unholy nightmare when put into practice. Libertarianism via humanism, basically, rather than libertarianism via selfishness.
Does that make any sense to you? A libertarianism formed around a desire for human welfare rather than the cult of the individual? That is what I want.
I'm with that. There's more in this vein. Well worth reading.
9:14 PM | link
"No, I don't really want Stonehenge dismantled, I just want publicity for my new play."
8:44 PM | link
Speaking of censuses, I neglected to link to this wondrous tale:
Details of imaginary people were added to the 2001 Census to make it more complete, the head of the Office of National Statistics has admitted.
It follows a story first reported in The Guardian newspaper that officials had "made up" the details of residents including where they lived, their age, occupation, income and children.
The census had an 88% response and Len Cook, registrar general of the Office of National Statistics, said they had used "standard sampling techniques" to redress the balance.
"It would be absolutely wrong to use the term 'made up'," Mr Cook told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.
"We used sampling methods which are quite orthodox."
I'll admit my grasp of mathematical matters is tenuous in the extreme, so statistics is obviously not my strong suit... but filling in a gap of a million people? That sounds like a lot of compensation going on. What matters in a census, having something to say about absolutely everyone regardless of whether or not it's true, or having accurate information on all the people who filled in the form? Cos however orthodox the methods, if you're filling in that many details for that many people, you will have errors. Wouldn't it be better and more honest to say these are the figures for the 88% of people who did respond and the other 12% remain necessarily unknown?
8:41 PM | link
So China was to blame for Sept. 11? No shit. Is there anyone else out there who'd like to take credit for Sept. 11? The IRA, perhaps? Greenpeace? The Boy Scouts?
8:30 PM | link
In 1958, William Higinbotham, then head of BNL's Instrumentation Division, designed what may have been one of the first video games. Back then, Brookhaven had visitors days in the fall, and thousands of people came to tour the Lab and see exhibits set up in the gymnasium. Higinbotham's game was an illustration of what the Instrumentation Division could design and build.
"I knew from past visitors days that people were not much interested in static exhibits," said Higinbotham, "so for that year. I came up with an idea for a hands-on display – a video tennis game."
There's an accompanying bit of RealVideo to go with the article. Doesn't say if it's from the period or not, but I assume it is... looks remarkably like the old Activision tennis game we used to have about twenty years ago. Now THERE was high-tech!
8:28 PM | link
Hooters Air blown out of the sky. As it were.
8:07 PM | link
Man disciplines stepson with stun gun.
Moody, 27, who recently quit his job as a truck driver, acknowledged Wednesday that he had resorted to the stun gun when other disciplinary methods failed.
"I felt I did the right thing," he said. "The belt didn't work; this did. It hurts less than the belt.
"I've whipped his ass so hard that it left marks. That just didn't send the message and this did."
Do you reckon this bloke didn't receive enough love or something when he was a child?
8:02 PM | link
Holy shit, I just discovered Bob Geldof invented the Survivor TV program. I never knew that before and am perfectly astonished. The article is really about him suing the producers of some other show he claims ripped the Survivor concept off, but I just wanted to register my amazement...
7:35 PM | link
Via Robert Corr: Businessman dies fleeing furious dog owner. Hilarious.
7:26 PM | link
Stanley Gudgeon investigates the Herald's letters page.
Given that the five authors who can be identified with any degree of certainty are two minor hacks (Lynch and Clark), a writer with a psychological disorder (Oakes-Ash), a spotty youth (Cowan) and a political failure, it is abundantly clear that what the Herald appreciates most of all are letters from people just like the journalists and editors who receive them.
Regrettably the Professor does not explain precisely how this sets the Herald apart from any other media outlet, or for that matter just about any media figure. Who doesn't really want lots of people to agree with them? Who doesn't really want people to reinforce their opinion, make them feel like they're correct, rather than pick it apart and demonstrate why they're wrong?
7:22 PM | link
Via Jason Soon:The Hemispheric Dominance Test. Amusing, given the left/right brain thing going on in OzBlogdom recently. I came out ever so slightly inclined to the right side of my grey organ.
You seemed to be comfortable using strategies for both sides for the brain. Your preference may be situational and apparent mainly when stress in a factor.
That seems about right. We've been doing a class called Effective Workplace Relations at TAFE which has featured various quizzes and things of this sort, and this has only reinforced my dislike of either/or tests. Usually my answer to a question will depend upon the situation to which it's applied, and I don't like having to pick an either/or answer because I know it won't apply in all cases...
7:14 PM | link
Christopher Hitchens quits The Nation. Apparently it was getting too liberal for him or something. Well, despite what some conservative critics bleat, I'm sure there's plenty of illiberal media outlets for him if that's a concern...
7:06 PM | link
Former politician uses newspaper op-ed page to curse former politicians who use newspaper op-ed pages.
6:38 PM | link
Brian Wilson's Australian tour up in the air.
The young promoter of the concerts, Ben Beath, was this week charged over an alleged $19 million fraud, casting doubt on the eagerly awaited tour by one of modern music's most influential figures. It would be Brian Wilson's first performance in Australia since a Beach Boys' visit in 1978.
The shows are scheduled for the Melbourne Concert Hall on December 17 and 18. More than 1700 $90 tickets have already been sold.
Someone says in the article that another promoter could pick up the slack and take over the shows, but with only a couple of months left I don't know... not that I was planning to go see the old boy myself, but if I had been I'd be in a righteous fury over this.
6:18 PM | link
Costello refuses to discuss whether a war tax is in the works. Which is as good as saying that yes, there will be one. They imposed one for the East Timor action in 1999, so why not this one too?
6:13 PM | link
State of California files $2m lawsuit against spammers. How nice of them. What a shame that most of the spam I get in my Yahoo mail is actually from somewhere or other in Asia. How does California intend to deal with them? Maybe W. should just declare war on the whole of Asia along with everyone else...
6:12 PM | link
Russian film world fears the worst for Sergei Bodrov.
Russia's film world is fearing the worst after actor Sergei Bodrov's disappearance in an avalanche in the mountains of the North Caucasus.
The 31-year-old, who by a tragic irony came to fame with his role in Prisoner of the Caucasus, was shooting on location when he and many of his film crew were caught up in the terrifying landslide which is believed to have claimed scores of lives.
6:07 PM | link
Tom Hanks to remake The Ladykillers.
Actor and director Tom Hanks is being lined up to star in a remake of classic British comedy The Ladykillers.
Hanks is set to play the ringleader role made famous by Sir Alec Guinness in the production, according to Hollywood trade daily Variety.
No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. This cannot be allowed to happen. How can you possibly improve upon Sir Alec's dentures in that film, for fuck's sake? The teeth have one of the best roles in the film!
6:06 PM | link
Luc Besson's Big Blue finally released in Italy. Apparently the story was based upon two actual people, one of whom objected to his cinematisation and succeeded in getting an injunction against it ever being screened there, at least until now.
6:02 PM | link
Blogcritics troll alert (also to be posted at Blogcritics)
I was somewhat disturbed to find my name being taken in vain at Blogcritics today. Looking through my counter stats, I found a referral from Aaron Haspel's J.D. Salinger essay (linked in an earlier post), where in turn I found the following comment:
So you've read Ian Hamilton's biography of Salinger, plagiarised a few lines and ideas and thrown it all together to make this little essay. At least Salinger was original.
This was signed by myself, or rather by someone posing as me. I've already informed Aaron of this and his response has been most gracious and understanding. (I intend to inform Eric Olsen and Glenn Frazier as well.) Further, I'm taking this opportunity to publicly declare I did not post the above comment. I know next to nothing about Salinger, least of all the fact that someone called Ian Hamilton wrote a biography of him. Having never read a book I have never heard of, I am obviously not in any position to accuse someone of plagiarising it. I am not impressed by this episode at all and will not tolerate anyone else trying to pass themselves off as me for the purpose of creating strife.
5:34 PM | link
Satirical website torched. Think Of The Children got axed after an informal request from UK police. Not even a formal order. Although at least one poster at Metafilter finds it all a bit strange...
10:14 PM | link
Make your own W. speech. Requires Flash.
10:04 PM | link
Is it just me or is Blogspot out to lunch again?
9:51 PM | link
The executioner's tale. I don't think I ever really needed to know the best way to guillotine a person, but I do now.
9:47 PM | link
Spice Girls to reform? So much for those solo careers, eh girls?
9:38 PM | link
"There'll be no expressions of would-be hip white pseudo-Rastafarianism at this school, young lady."
9:37 PM | link
W. accused of "politicising" the impending war with Iraq.
Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle accused President Bush on Wednesday of playing politics with the debate over war in Iraq, and demanded the commander in chief "apologize to the American people."
"We ought not politicize this war," Daschle, S.D., said in blunt remarks on the Senate floor less than six weeks before the midterm elections. "We ought not politicize the rhetoric about war and life and death."
I normally find it hard to come out on W's side, but here I must, for Tom is just talking bollocks. I mean, shit, Tom, how many wars can YOU think of that haven't had some sort of political underpinning? How do you intend to depoliticise this one?
9:33 PM | link
The return of Guns n Roses. Of course when they released a new song a few years ago on the End of Days soundtrack hardly anyone noticed, cos they were too busy waiting for the new album. Incidentally, Axl, how many more final touches is this fucking album going to have?
9:29 PM | link
Bank robber foiled by his own shoddy handwriting. Oy. Given how bad my own scrawl can be, I evidently better not take up bank robbing as a hobby...
9:26 PM | link
Nova Scotia: solving literacy problems by basically ignoring them.
The Nova Scotia government plans to introduce standardized literacy tests for Grades 6, 9 and 12.
But it won't stop people from graduating if they fail the last one.
Deputy Education Minister Dennis Cochrane said some graduates will receive an "adjusted diploma" that alerts potential employers about their short-comings.
Makes you wonder why they're even bothering to have the tests at all. Sounds to me like a great way of dealing with people's reading problems...
9:16 PM | link
Woman loses eye in gun accident, 30 years after losing her other eye in an entirely different gun accident.
9:13 PM | link
British TV, meanwhile, takes ambulance-chasing into another dimension.
Television producers were accused of "sick ratings chasing" yesterday after announcing a search for a terminally ill person who would allow their body to be dissected, rebuilt and exhibited by the scientist behind the controversial Body Worlds exhibition.
The process is described as an attempt to correct fundamental "design flaws" in the body. But controversy has surrounded the publicity material for the programme, which will probably be shown on Channel 4. A press release from the Mentorn production company described it as the "ultimate makeover show" - a reference to a genre that includes series such as What Not To Wear and House Doctor.
What are they going to do, bring the poor bugger back to life? Cos if you're going to talk about it in those terms, death is surely the ultimate design flaw and example of planned obsolescence...
9:09 PM | link
How American media gives short shrift to dissent.
Then yesterday, wonder of wonders, Medea Benjamin and Diane Wilson, two ordinary-looking women, stood up and interrupted U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, who was making his case against Iraq before Congress. \
"Inspections, not war!" they cried, before being hustled away by Capitol police.
Both CNN and MSNBC replayed the scene, remarking on how Rumsfeld recovered "with aplomb" in "a quick comeback" about how the women would not be able to express their opinions in Saddam Hussein's country.
Later CNN interviewed the two women, all but berating them for interrupting the proceedings.
Eric Olsen was hoping for a giant burst of posts to Blogcritics today, at least one from each person in 24 hours. I don't think he made it yet, but a good effort nonetheless (I saw a notice mentioning something about reaching a hundred posts). A sample:
Mary Margaret O'Hara releases new album, no one notices.
A short history of the electric guitar.
Aaron Haspel is well and truly over J.D. Salinger.
Russ Fischer evidently liked Hannibal as little as I did.
What happened to the letter H?
Oliver Willis on the muddy election trail.
8:58 PM | link
Wendy Lesser ponders the art of translation. I had an essay like this myself once, and I agree, translators do have a vital part in the presentation of a work. Alexander Pope's Iliad is not Robert Fagles' Iliad even though both come from the same source (i.e. Homer's Iliad). Still, though a translator can put you off an author, there are times when they can't help it... initially I wasn't sure whether my aversion to Tolstoy's War and Peace was the fault of the translator (Rosemary whatshername that does the Penguin Classics versions) or Tolstoy himself. Having attempted another translation of it (the one approved by Tolstoy himself), I decided no, the book really is as dull as dogshit in whoever's words...
8:33 PM | link
Booker Prize judges rail against the sort of pretentious literary fiction they have to judge.
And, in what was almost a communal cry for mercy, the judges appealed to publishers, who can submit two books a year from each imprint, to send them some funny books for a change.
Salley Vickers, the novelist and analytical psychologist, complained of "too many big male books", and said that it was the "sheer portentous" nature of so many of the 130 odd novels they had to read that she could not stand.
"Let's have some of the smaller, finer, books from publishers," she said.
For all their revolutionary rhetoric, their shortlist of six struggled to shake off the old Booker formula: a few old reliables (William Trevor and Carol Shields), a dash of exoticism (Rohinton Mistry and the lesbian eroticism of Sarah Waters), and a purgative dose of gritty realism (Tim Winton). As it happens, the most notable absentee - Zadie Smith - was female, and encumbered with the added handicaps of having written a funny and popular book.
How KaZaa frustrates the RIAA. I'm actually a little surprised to discover KaZaa is Australian-made. It has offices in several other countries, though, so if the recording industry does choose to take them on, apparently they intend to just move somewhere like the Netherlands where the laws will make it harder for them to be caught.
8:20 PM | link
"Here's the deal: you return our stolen goods, we'll let you have your finger back."
It's the second time in recent months Sussex police have found a severed finger. The first was next to a broken window after a house raid in Lewes in July.
A police spokesman said: "Thieves traditionally win themselves the nickname of Fingers. In these cases Finger-less seems more appropriate."
I'm sure I'm not the only person wondering how the fingers got cut off in the first place...
8:09 PM | link
People queue for hours to have their genitals photographed.
The group, aged 18 to 75, had agreed to pose for a Canadian TV show called Sex With Sue. [...]
She told the Ottawa Citizen: "There was such a variety as well, from all walks of life. I just wanted to make sure the black man was represented, know what I'm saying?"
The black man is no doubt thrilled, too.
8:06 PM | link
The Onion really had something with that Who Wants To Eat A Meal? TV show story.
A German TV network has been criticised over a game show in which some of the country's four million jobless people compete for a job. [...]
One job will be given away each week and at the end of the programme the last two will be filmed in real job interview for the vacancy.
Once again reality proves to be stranger and sadder than satire, and satire proves to be not too far from the real thing...
8:04 PM | link
Arnold Schwarzenegger not keen on that statue of him.
Arnold Schwarzenegger says his home town shouldn't build a statue of the Terminator, but use money to help the poor instead. [...]
Schwarzenegger has told city officials in a letter he is honoured by the idea but says the money should be used for more worthy causes.
I'm surprised he didn't suggest it be donated to help him campaign as a governor or something for the Republican Party.
The Daily Mirror reports the city's mayor, Alfred Stingl, saying he liked Schwarzenegger as a person and not as a statue.
You could tell the difference?
8:01 PM | link
Thank you Tim Dunlop for taking some of the ellipsis points out of your blog subheading, now it doesn't scroll all over the page like it used to... Tim also offers his own thoughts on the left/right brain thing...
7:55 PM | link
The new broom at Triple J. I'll believe it when I hear it.
7:46 PM | link
Students riot at Bondi. Fucking private school students! Proof, were it needed, that sending your children to expensive schools does not necessarily turn them into better people than the plebs who go to the public schools...
7:44 PM | link
Can't find a proper link for this story, but 'twas the most interesting thing I read in the paper today... Auburn council closed down the children's film festival after the screening of a film called Something About AJ (more info on same here). The film takes an apparently rather dim view of an affair conducted by the Dept of Community Services and based upon the actual lives of the filmmakers, and accusations of censorship are being levelled by festival organisers. The production of the film was fraught with some interesting and strange difficulties (recounted here); Filmnet in particular seem to have had some sort of vendetta against the producers of the thing. Now this happens.
I don't know what to make of it all, who's telling the truth when it comes to the allegations Filmnet has made, but in this case at least I don't think the council is going to come out of this looking good. For a start, it is a kid's film festival. Apart from that, there's their excuse that the festival didn't have classification clearance from the OFLC before going ahead, though reportedly they'd earlier told the organisers it was indeed the fault of the AJ film. This means that either 1) they pulled the festival because of the classification thing, in which case they were incompetent (how, after all, do you let a film festival go ahead and run into its second day before noticing it shouldn't be doing that), or 2) they really did pull it because of AJ, in which case they're just outright lying. The development of this one could be interesting to behold.
7:33 PM | link
John Quiggin and Ken Parish seem to going on about left versus right brains this past couple of days in order to draw some sort of distinction between left versus right-inclined bloggers. Comes at a sort of amusing time, since the book I've been struggling my way through recently is Julian Jaynes' Origins of consciousness in the breakdown of the bicameral mind, which takes a particularly interesting view of the split between the left and right brains, though not of the sort Messrs John and Ken have been expounding...
6:35 PM | link
Do you think Tex isn't looking forward to the local premiere of Crossing Over With John Edwards? I don't know. From what I've heard of Edwards and his show, it does just sound like one of those programs exploiting people. But I do think the universe is a somewhat stranger place than the hardcore rationalists give it credit for being, even if the strangenesses are just due to natural laws we've yet to discover...
6:28 PM | link
Bill O'Reilly determined to get to the bottom of Sept. 11 "prediction". Via Bernard Slattery, who has an evident fascination with this story himself. Just looking through it, I had to wonder: does O'Reilly talk over the top of his guests like that all the time? Fucking annoying to read, must be hard to listen to as well...
6:17 PM | link
Australia's most powerful people. I daresay it says much about, if not much for, this country when a talkback radio host and the minister for (doing his damnedest to stop all) immigration are deemed to be the two most culturally significant people in the land.
Mr Ruddock shot to second spot behind broadcaster Alan Jones on a list of the most culturally powerful, and to fifth among the most overtly powerful, after being unsighted in either ranking a year ago.
Obviously it doesn't take much to get onto these lists...
6:10 PM | link
And happy birthday to Ken Parish as well. I would've noted this yesterday when it was his actual birthday, except I didn't discover this until about five minutes ago.
10:36 PM | link
US senators fear Arab-Israeli war. As opposed to the suicide bombings and military attacks and what not currently going on?
4:43 PM | link
W. lowers US terrorist alert. Still, no sign of the paranoia being lowered yet, when the poll accompanying the article asks whether you think this is a good thing because it means there's less of a threat or a bad thing because it sends a signal to the terrorists that the US has its guard down, and 76% of respondents have picked the latter.
4:25 PM | link
Ian Jewell, the contracts services manager at the time, said yesterday: "I was going through the invoice for Allscan and decided to check the details of the contract.
"It clearly stated that loo rolls should have 320 sheets, but my colleague happened to have one of the rolls with him and it was only 200 sheets.
"I know it doesn't sound like much, but every year the council uses an estimated 40,000 loo rolls of 320 sheets each. That's a lot of paper. " Mr Jewell also noticed Allscan had been wrongly making a 10 per cent service charge on the deficient rolls.
Together the errors meant the council was spending a lot more than a penny. Some £5,000 of council money was going down the drain every year.
Well, shit (no pun intended). And the council were going to buy those ivory backscratchers as well!
4:21 PM | link
Israeli scientists say not to get stressed about stress.
Report after report has detailed the post-traumatic stress suffered by the U.S. population after the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington, but a study published in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine suggests it may be better to suppress those feelings.
"The findings of this study suggest that a repressive coping style may promote adjustment to traumatic stress, both in the short and longer term," Karni Ginzburg of the Bob Shapell School of Social Work at Tel Aviv University in Israel, who led the study, said in a statement.
Yep. Like the song says, "Don't cry out loud"... just bottle it all up, and wait until the time comes for you to go up to the water tower and take random potshots at passersby with your Kalashnikov.
4:16 PM | link
Norwegian mayor unamused by pisspot royals.
The dinner was held during an official visit to Kvam township by Crown Prince Haakon and Crown Princess Mette-Marit. Mayor Martin Vik felt obliged to hold a gourmet dinner in their honor at the gracious old Sandven Hotel in Norheimsund.
Now Vik faces the proverbial morning after. Newspaper Bergens Tidende reports that the hotel sent him a rather large bill that included 63 bottles of fine wine.
4:11 PM | link
The price of silence: Mike Batt forks out to John Cage's estate.
British composer Mike Batt found himself the subject of a plagiarism action for including the song, "A One Minute Silence," on an album for his classical rock band The Planets.
He was accused of copying it from a work by the late American composer John Cage, whose 1952 composition "4'33"" was totally silent.
On Monday, Batt settled the matter out of court by paying an undisclosed six-figure sum to the John Cage Trust.
Of course, just when I thought this whole affair could not have possibly got any sillier than it already was, Batt just had to top it with the following quote:
"Mine is a much better silent piece. I have been able to say in one minute what Cage could only say in four minutes and 33 seconds."
There are indeed no words for this sort of idiocy. "Whereof we cannot speak," etc...
3:57 PM | link
UK caught selling potential nuclear material to Iran. There's somewhere else for W. to invade once he's wiped the floor with Iraq and Germany...
3:54 PM | link
Love thy police force... or else. Jaw-dropping.
3:53 PM | link
Finnish well on the way to becoming the new official language of East Timor. Oh all right, no it isn't. An interesting tale, though...
3:48 PM | link
Photography of national monuments deemed a threat to the nation.
The Discus Thrower happens to be near the Triborough Bridge -- though the one photo Lee managed to take shows no signs of the structure. The policemen's rationalization is that Muslim terrorists often take photos of their intended targets as part of the preparation for bombing attacks on public monuments. This is how they justify a blanket prohibition on photography by American art historians. [...]
Surely, you might argue, some restrictions must be accepted because of the war. I agree -- but what war is that?
Want to join a class action against the major record labels? Just buy one of their CDs that doesn't work in your computer's CD drive.
3:24 PM | link
It's Glenn Gould's 70th birthday. God, to think this is me only just discovering the fact. The CBC is celebrating the anniversary in due fashion, but Robert Everett-Green ponders what sort of a legacy he really left.
3:12 PM | link
Small press publishers unamused by calls for censorship.
Despite recommendations that were more than a little vague, the column prompted an extended and pointed response from Pat Schroeder, who wrote, in part, "If we agreed to suspend the First Amendment and broadly criminalize the dissemination of 'dangerous information' in books, where would we begin? With information about chemical and biological agents? Where would we end? With schedules of commercial airline flights?
"Who would determine what constitutes 'dangerous information?' The Justice Department? The Defense Department? The Director of Homeland Security? What criteria would be used for making such determinations?"
Nicholas Kristof's original column is here:
In the 1990's the Senate several times passed measures that would have banned weapons cookbooks. But because of concerns about constitutionality, the final version that became law in 1999 was neutered. It allows prosecution only if the publisher intends for the information to be used to break federal laws. That is usually an impossible test to meet.
We rightly complain about weapons proliferation by China and Russia. But we also need to confront the consequences of our own information proliferation. Our small presses could end up helping terrorists much more than Saddam ever has.
Yeah, Nick, small presses are the enemy, all right. It's not like major media such as the paper you write for yourself would do anything as subversive as publish W.'s plans for invading Iraq or anything like that...
3:05 PM | link
Vatican scientists accused of "destroying" the Turin Shroud.
Scientists performed a secret restoration of the shroud -- which supposedly wrapped the body of Jesus after his crucifixion -- during which they cleaned and restored the burial cloth. This may have caused potentially important dust and pollen molecules to be lost forever.
It is feared the process could compromise the possibility of ever conclusively carbon-dating the shroud, which believers claim bears the image of Christ after his body was cut down from the cross.
What? The Catholic Church do something to hamper the progress and dissemination of knowledge? What an outrageous claim! Sigh. I don't know why they never just burnt the fucking thing; that way no one would ever know one way or the other and faith could go on unharmed...
2:56 PM | link
Not one but two stories of sex on the move.
2:34 PM | link
Vanessa Mae likens herself to Marilyn Manson.
Bullshit. If there's one thing the ertswhile Brian Warner will never be accused of, it's originality. And there's barely a public move or statement he's made that could not be called obvious and crass. Personally, if you want to draw comparisons between those two, I think you'll find it in the ill-advised use of make-up...Mae says she thinks she and Manson are "original and interesting," not "boring or obvious".
2:31 PM | link
Duelling: coming back into fashion?
2:21 PM | link
US, Germany no longer friends after "Hitler" remark. Fuck, George, just invade them too. Take a stand! Show them you won't be talked to like that!
2:13 PM | link
Blogspot must be having some sort of snit at the moment, cos I'll be damned if I can get into a single Blogspot site. Amazing just how much of my Net-surfing gets wiped out as a result...
2:11 PM | link
And another review by me at BlogCritics. This one's actually new, though, I just saw this one this afternoon (went into Cinema Paris following class).
Hello to the numerous people who've swung by here over the past couple of days from Sasha Castel's site... hope the site has entertained you and sorry that posting has been minimal over the past couple of days. Unfortunately I'm still not in much of a blogging mood, but hopefully things will resume some approximation of normality tomorrow. Hello too to whoever came by looking for this... may you find whatever the hell it is you're looking for, if even you know what it is.
Happy Birthday Gaz! Sorry for saying "it's all downhill from here", that was unwarranted... it doesn't go downhill until about 23 or so.
8:12 PM | link
Bugger it, I just can't be bothered today. Come back tomorrow, I may be in the mood for it then.
4:38 PM | link
Courtney Love decides she's got over her litigiousness towards Messrs Grohl and Novoselic.
4:17 PM | link
The problems of making authors write on demand.
The question that fundamentally interests me, and I would hope readers of new books, is this: does the current pressure on publishers to deliver dividends to shareholders result in a publishing industry which pours out books—more than 120,000 different new titles last year both fiction and non-fiction—which are less "good" than they could be (and there is even pressure on the few poets who sell to deliver up new collections sooner rather than later)?
Authors write books for almost as many reasons as readers read them. Historically, writers have written because they have had a compulsion to do so and, assuming they could afford to continue, money hasn’t—on their side—entered the equation.
And where then does that leave the pulp magazines of the 1920s and 1930s, not to mention the SF mags of later decades? Money and writing to order has rarely not entered the equation...
4:07 PM | link
Who's to blame for Sept. 11? (Sorry, but I will not call it 9/11.) Amusing, and sadly true...
3:57 PM | link
Mel Gibson's new film to be entirely in Latin and Aramaic.
Gibson, a devout Catholic who has titled the film Passion, said filming in the ancient languages would lend the movie greater authenticity.
"For me that's more real and hopefully I'll be able to transcend language barriers with filmic storytelling," Gibson told ABC News, which reported the story on it website.
Of course, Mel, if you REALLY wanted to do that, you'd just shoot the thing silent without spoken dialogue at all. Plus you'd cut down on the cost of dialogue coaches teaching all the performers how to speak two languages no one speaks any more. What about the crew, are they all going to speak Latin and Aramaic on the set too? "Silentio in camera!"...
3:22 PM | link
Don't know what blogging if any I'll do today. Got homework to be getting on with, so that might have to take precedence.
5:26 PM | link
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About this site
Amazon.com wishlist
Links
I have various reasons for linking the sites below (a link rarely constitutes a 100% endorsement, of course). I'm usually happy to link to anyone who specifically asks, or anyone who links to me. I reserve the right to remove any link at any time for any reason.
1. Local heroes
The Age
Angela Bell
Bernard Slattery
The Bitchin' Monaro Guide to Politics
A Bright Cold Day In April
Catallaxy Files
Chris Textor
Don Arthur
Gareth Parker
John Quiggin
Ken Parish
Richard Baillie
Robert Corr
Scott Wickstein
Shannon Davies
Sydney Morning Herald
Tim Dunlop
2. Strange news from other stars
Ananova quirkies
ArtsJournal
Blogcritics
Daily Rotten: Weird News
Dave Tepper
Dave Trowbridge
Fark
Fortean Times
Gary Farber
George Kelly
Jason Rylander
Jeff Cooper
Jim Henley
Jim Schwab
The Lefty Libertarian
Lynn Sislo
Mac Thomason
Metafilter
Philosophy and Literature
The Rittenhouse Review
Sasha Castel
Ted Barlow
3.Non-blog/news links
I have a very extensive collection of links not specifically related to blogging. I keep them on an entirely separate page here.
What the critics have said
"short tempered, rude, sarcastic and generally unable to cope with authority figures"
-Martin Forrester-Reid (former employer)
"formidable"
-Gareth Parker
"outstandingly quirky"
-Jason Soon
"prolific"
-Bernard Slattery
"pithy"
-Jim Henley
"excellent"
-Dave Trowbridge
"my Australian pal"
-Eric Olsen
"Who?"
-Glenn Reynolds
