Monday, October 31, 2011

Contextual memory

I had forgotten I knew the word ... but as soon as I saw the white pencil under the chair at Zarraffas I thought "someone's dropped their chinagraph"- it's been a while since I even saw one - years ... decades - when I was doing my media degree and we used them for marking radio tape (goodness - that really is a very long time ago!) it is amazing how memory works though, isn't it - we can totally forget we know something until something like that happens. I wonder how much else is rattling around in my brain without me knowing about it?

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

Pioneer One

I have found a science fiction series on the web which is available free of charge but donations are welcome because it is funded from viewer contributions. It's called h and tells the story of a downed Russian spacecraft which has supposedly returned from Mars carrying a passenger - a young man born on Mars (the first Martian to set foot on earth? - although he hasn't actually yet because he's been confined to a hospital bed after being carried from the crash site) and sent back to Earth as the Martian colony runs out of resources. That's the gist of it anyway. It's billed to run three seasons - only one of which is currently available - and while it has been an interesting look into the creative team's vision it has proved a little difficult for those of us without a good memory for faces. Over the course of the production at least two (I think) of the main actors have changed - either totally - or dramatically (heh heh) changed their appearance. I know, I know ... go with the flow - and I am, and looking forward to the next episodes when they are posted.


Tuesday, October 25, 2011

Nature or nurture or neither?

Boy pleads guilty to killing with axedeclared the headline and I couldn't help wondering if this was about Ivan Milat's relative who took a teenage friend into the Belangalo State Forest (scene of murders for which Milat is currently serving prison time) and murdered him with an axe. The whole thing does raise the issue of nature or nurture - and that if either or both of these influenced the boy to violence.
Yesterday the teenager pleaded guilty in Campbelltown Children's Court to the murder on the night of November 20 last year. David Auchterlonie's grandmother, Sandra, told the Herald last night she was still trying to find any relief in the fact that ''the evil seed of Ivan Milat had finally pleaded guilty''.
Sydney Morning Herald