In the bag

This is intriguing. Both in it being "capable of arousing interest or curiousity" and "disturbingly provocative". I noticed the ad last week but filed it away somewhere in the back of my brain - but here it is again in today's paper: Forensic Medicine. A one-night a week Certificate course - no entry requirements or exams - over 25 weeks - covering the basic elements of forensic medicine, and open to the general public. As the toe tag on one of the two feet in the ad reads: "What happened? Who is the person? When did he die? How did he die? And possibly, who did it?! Fascinated? Then this certificate course is for you."
The course is being run at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital, Sydney, and information packs are available by calling (02) 9554 3100 between 10am and 4pm Monday - Friday. (I'm calling for mine today - and I'll be looking for my book on forensic medicine that I have secreted away somewhere in the bookshelf. Well, it can be a fascinating subject!)

Name game

Today mark's the 72nd anniversary of the granting of US Patent 2,071,250 for "Linear Condensation Polymers". Without /it them, the nylon toothbrush (1938) would not have been possible ... because "nylon" wouldn't have been around - by that name at least. We know the patent was applied for in 1931 but the origin of the name "nylon" is unclear. Wikipedia carries a couple of theories including that if inventor Wallace Carothers had his way it would have been called "No-Run" (which is how cartoon dog Scooby-Doo might pronounce Nylon). According to the WordBook and SlovoEd dictionaries the word Nylon was coined in 1938 - the year following Carother's (lemon juice and potassium cyanide) death following a lifetime of depression and a belief that he had no ideas left (according to Wikipedia). Carothers had earlier invented neoprene - as found in wet suits and laptop pouches.
But back to nylon: on another website (PBS) it's suggested that nylon was patented in 1935 before hitting the market in 1939 - which just goes to show, you can't be sure who to believe on the internet. As they say ... hours of fun.

No comment

I wasn't aware that there was a Gizmodo Australia site until earlier this week; and was excited because here was a place to go for home-grown comment. Of course, you have to take the following into account, as quoted from the site: Gizmodo Australia moderates comments to avoid spam and abuse. We're looking for comments that are interesting, substantial and/or highly amusing. (My emphasis - but only because it's scared me off!)

Two sides

It seemed like a nice enough story and one that I thought I would read because it screamed "good news". The NY Times story "A Ring, a Grate and a Rescue" told of a "blogger ... thrilled after workers retrieved her college class ring, which appeared to be lost in Time Squares." I'd read about it on an RSS feed so went to find the actual story for the full details - except I didn't have the URL so I Googled the blogger, Jean J. Hsu, saw a link to her blog and thought I'd check it out there. It would have been better to stick with the original plan - because on her blog, Essential Luxuries, Ms Hsu tells how she is less than impressed with the NY Times piece and the reaction to it, and to her original blog about the incident. Not quite the "good news" story I was looking for but quite an interesting look at human nature.

Chinese food for thought

It could just be one of those stories that circulate on the internet and are better suited to the urban legend site snopes.com but I couldn't find this story there when I checked just now. There are allegedly 40 "death buses" currently operating in China, replacing firing squads as the preferred execution method. They've been in use since 2004 and as well as carrying out the execution by lethal injection, and streaming video of the death to watching officials, it's rumoured that the execution buses facilitate the harvest and sale of organ - a criticism that was levelled soon after the buses began operation. USAToday carried the story back in June 2006 so I'm not quite sure why it's been posted as on the Gizmodo site this week, referring to the "new" buses.

Ipso facto not exacto

It's nice to have "facts" at your fingertips thanks to the internet - but it can propagate mis-information. Case in point: the correct name of the new German minister of economic affairs - Mr. von und zu Guttenberg. His full name is Karl Theodor Maria Nikolaus Johann Jacob Philipp Franz Joseph Sylvester Freiherr von und zu Guttenberg. All good so far, except at some point before he was appointed, someone changed his Wikipedia entry to add the name Wilhelm (between Philipp and Franz). When German and other media reported his appointment Wikipedia was among sources checked, so the incorrect full name was used in some cases. Meanwhile, back at Wikipedia, the change was reverted, and the call went out for a check on what Mr von und zu Guttenberg's correct name was. This shouldn't have been a problem - facts at fingertips remember - unless you're checking with one of the media outlets that had picked up the incorrect name from the Wikipedia entry. So, says an article in SlashDot, the circle was closed: Wikipedia states a false fact, a reputable media outlet copies the false fact, and this outlet is then used as the source to prove the false fact to Wikipedia. And thus it would be easy to slip into the mis-information age aka ipso facto not exacto.

R&D suffers

Microsoft was recently awarded its 10,000th patent so you think people would be happy to be invest in a company that places such a high premium on innovation. Not so much. SlashDot reports that Microsoft shareholders are cross that the company is spending billions of dollars annually on "pointless" R&D - when Apple is making the same revenue gains with one-tenth the spend on research. Not sure how the news that the entire Flight Simulator development team at Microsoft being let go will be received by them. Meanwhile, over at Sega, the development budget has been slashed by 20% and other cost-cutting measures are being put in place.
Of course, you have to wonder if all R&D and innovation is worthwhile. Designer Steve Lee has come up with what he calls the "most pretentious keyboard in existence ... but it's damn nice looking" ie he's taken to a new Apple keyboard with a can of paint so he has a completely white keyboard with some character but no characters. Probably works best if you're a touch typist (as he is).

Multiskilling

Browsing the job ads this morning I came across this one "Driver MR/Chicken Catcher". The successful applicant will be an "experienced chicken catcher with MR licence required to drive crew truck and catch chickens at farms, 5 nights per week". What exactly does a chicken catcher do? According to an article in Brisbane's The Courier Mail last year, chicken catchers catch barn chickens which are then sent to the abattoir. It is a disappearing art and good chicken catchers are apparently hard to find; so much so that mechanical chicken catchers have been developed - first the chicken vacuum which was discontinued after protests from animal rights groups, and now another, which sweeps the chickens onto a metal ramp and whisks them along a conveyor belt to cages. Chicken catching happens at night and a good chicken catcher can apparently make up to $80,000 a year. Who knew?

Time's up for Palm OS

Word on the Engadget site is that Palm has decided to concentrate on webOS and Windows Mobile rather than furthering the Palm Operating System (OS). It's a shame because this was the OS that converted me to PDAs and hand-held computing. For once, here was a system where you could have your information saved automatically when you switched between applications; here was a system where you could write on screen and have your handwriting (as long as it conformed to Palm's Graffiti system) converted to text. It will be missed.

iPod for books

Amazon has announced the new version of its electronic book reader aka Kindle 2. In reporting its release, BBC Online said “The increased storage capacity brings Kindle closer to the idea of being an iPod for books.” Of course, you could just invest in an iPod for books – aka the iPod Touch, although the iPhone has the same capability. Sure, the screen’s a little smaller than the Kindle’s, but it’s got loads more memory, comes in colour, and lets you run other applications on it as well. Also, chances are you can wander into most stores and pick one up today rather than having to wait (and some suggest, wait and wait) for Kindle delivery. One drawback though: you won’t get access to the Kindle-exclusive Stephen King-offering which reportedly features a … Kindle. And did I mention the Kindle 2 (2GB) costs US$359; the iPod Touch (16GB) US$299 or (32GB) US$399. (I've quoted US dollar prices since I'm not sure when the Kindle 2 will be available outside the US.)
And to be fair, I'd better mention something else: the Kindle 2 has introduced text to speech - so you'd also get a kind of talking book too - although it wouldn't be anything like a human voice reading to you. The US Writers/Authors Guild is upset about this, claiming that owning a Kindle doesn't give you the right to read a book out loud - that's an audio right (which probably costs extra!).

Concerns both grave and acute

In a moment of frivolity, I was transcribing a passage from the book "Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close" to send a pal from BookClub and realized that I had no idea where to find accents on the computer keyboard to put the accent on some French. I checked the MS Word help function, the on-screen keyboard, the internet etc etc without luck (ALT+something or other didn't work) until finally I realised that all I needed to do was copy one from somewhere else on the web and paste it in. Voilà: é

Self-help

Stephanie Meyer (not that one ie the Twilight Series) has taken self-help to a new level by delivering her own baby in the car on the way to hospital. Formerly an emergency doctor with The Gold Coast Hospital, the now GP Meyer had expected a longer labour - based on a 23-hour labour with her first child, Caleb. Not so ... on the 5-minute drive to the hospital, she had her husband pull over to the side of the road so she could deliver the as-yet-unnamed baby boy. Once delivered, her husband helped by loosening the umbilical cord from around the child's neck and they continued to hospital - before returning home 3 hours later.

Poor timing

The Snake cartoon in today's The Daily Telegraph has two panels. The first shows two crocodiles, mostly submerged in water: Croc #1: "Have you ever been married", Croc #2: "Nar, but I like kids!". In the second panel Croc #2 continues: "But I don't think I could eat a whole one". The timing is unfortunate as only last week in northern Queensland, a 5-year-old boy disappeared from a river bank, presumed taken by a crocodile as his 7-year-old brother watched on. A report I read yesterday suggested the crocodile had originally lunged toward the older brother, but the younger one had jumped in front of his sibling, trying to distract the crocodile. Other reports suggest the 5-year-old followed his dog into the river and was taken then. The search for the boy continues.

Birthday greetings

Today marks the 200th birthday of Charles Darwin, "evolution by natural selection" theoriser, as published in 1859 in On The Origin of Species. But what gave him the idea? In a new book, Darwin's Sacred Cause, co-authors Adrian Desmond and James Moore argue that Charles Darwin was motivated by a loathing of slavery, and the desire to see its abolition , perhaps fueled by the cruelties he witnessed on his travels. A BBC article on the book can be found here and it also includes a link to an interview with the authors.

I am extremely ... surprised

Gizmodo today carried an article about Google search capabilities. If you go in Google in Firefox and type "I am extremely ........." with ......... being the condition you want to search - Google will return the numbers. So, I went in to have a look - not believing that there could be 4,750,000 pages with "extremely depressed". Nope .... by the time I got there it was 4,480,000. Tired had dropped from 12,300,000 to 8,530,000; and there were 14,000,000 results for happy - which I'm still pondering since they were running at 769,000 with the Gizmodo results. Hmmmm. Between the searches, extremely terrified of Chinese people had dropped from 303,000 to 85,600. Why is it so?

Not 1984

Lynne Brindley, CEO of the British Library, is concerned that our memories are being erased - website by website. As an example, when President-Elect Barack Obama took office, all references to former President Bush were erased from the White House website. Another? Many websites for the 2000 Sydney Olympics disappeared as soon as the Games were over.
SlashDot reports Ms Brindley sees the British Library's role, and that of other similar institutions, as being responsible for preserving "history" including websites - the same way hard-copy print works are preserved. So, the British Library plans to create a comprehensive archive of material from the 8M .uk domain websites, as well as collecting and archiving material relating to the London 2012 Olympics.

Time please

It's not often I read a review of time management books that's entertainng, funny and informative - but Chris Hardwick has managed to combine all three in his recent Wired offering "Diary of a Self-Help Dropout: Flirting With the 4-Hour Workweek". In it he reviews books by three time management gurus by trying their systems out. Excellent work and well worth a read.

Star talk

Tired of using your unexciting headset for internet calls? This may only appeal to Trekkies but a new Skype/VOIP phone has hit the market. It looks like one of the original StarTrek communicators - and if you can't remember what they look like (and you call yourself a Trekkie?) you'll be able to check it out when StarTrek the Original series is launched on Blu-Ray on April 30. If you can't wait that long, follow the link to the Engadget story which has a pic.
The good news is that the USB-powered "phone" comes complete with Velcro backing so, when you're not using it, you can position it in a prominent place for passers-by to see and admire.
And on the subject of StarTrek, it seems that Gene Roddenberry and his recently-deceased wife Majel Barrett (a crew member of the original Enterprise; the voice of the Enterprise in later incarnations; and Counseller Troi's mother in StarTrek: The Next Generation; and cast in other Roddenberry works eg Earth: The Final Conflict) will soon be blasting off into orbit - hopefully never to return. Their ashes will be sent far enough into space so they will not fall back to earth, the way Gene's did the last time he = and I think Scotty as well - was sent off.

Hearts and Harlequins

As a special Valentine's Day offering, Fictionwise - the eBook company where I obtain digital content - is offering, among other things, 15 free Harlequin titles.  Normally I would jump at the chance of free books but I'm just not sure I can reconcile myself to what I regard as such blatantly romantic content.  Will there be a storyline besides person meets person? Or am I confusing this with Mills & Boon (do they still exist - and are they still colour-coded based on degree of steaminess?).  Will I permit myself to be swayed by their blurb?  Would you?  From Regencies to vampires, from sexy suspense to heartwarming reads, Harlequin has a romance for every mood and every heart!

Still it does represent an opportunity for people who want to give eReading a go the opportunity to try other content than the free eBooks Fictionwise usually has on site.  

This being said, I am enjoying the girl meets vampire tale I recently downloaded ie Twilight by Stephanie Meyer.

Cube solver

A couple of weeks ago there was news of a man who had finally solved Rubik's Cube - 27 or so years after he started working on it. That's a long time to persist with something and he was probably very pleased to finally cross this off his "to do" list. Hopefully he also made time to concentrate on "life" as well during that time - because much can happen in over a quarter of a century. For anyone taking up the task today and not opposed to seeking a hint or two along the way, a program for helping solve the puzzle of this colourful cube is available for purchase for use with your iPhone or iPod Touch from Apple's iTunes Application Store.

Troubled times

Things must be bad on the economic front - word is that Google has reported its first-ever drop in quarterly profit. But the other word is that they are faring much better than expected in the "economic storm". (Source: Topix Computers)

What's in a name?

Research just out from England's Newcastle University suggests that if you want your cow to give more milk, you have to give her a name. Cows with names like Daisy, Gertrude or Buttercup give more milk - up to 284 litres a year more - than no-name cows. While calling for "the personal touch", the study does not say if the actual name itself eg Bruiser, Pig-Face or Jericho could influence milk production (or not).

Sighting

It makes total sense that a passing spacecraft would stop for a look at the Inauguration activities for President-Elect Barack Obama last week. Why then is there such surprise that a UFO was captured on video over Washington during the ceremonies? The footage I saw, attributed to CNN, shows an object speeding from right to left, in the distance, behind the Washington Monument. Attempts to view the fly-by in slo-mo failed to identify the object as more than a blur.

Doubt

We saw "Doubt" (starring Meryl Streep and Philip Seymour Hoffman) this afternoon and thought it was excellent. As well as the human characters, there was an additional character - the weather - very reminiscent of the landscape/weather influences in E Annie Proulx's work. The film is dedicated to a Sister Margaret McEnree SC- who was formerly known as Sister James (the name shared, or perhaps of, a Nun in the film). Rating: 4/5 - well worth a look even though others have suggested it is too much like the one-act Pulitzer Prize winning play by author-screenwriter-director John Patrick Shankey from which this work hails. What is in "Doubt" -did he or didn't he; will she or won't she; has she or hasn't she? Much to ponder post-theatre.

Memories

Working my way through a backlog of receipts as I do my tax, I chanced upon one dated 14 Jan 2003 for my first digital camera (as funded through the sale of a Palm I had won in a newspaper competition). $529 for the Casio EXS1 - a 1.2MP beauty which is still doing good work with another owner (Hi T!).

Just the ticket

House on the market and not selling? You might want to investigate Traude Daniel's method of "selling" his villa in Austria - it was 1st prize in a raffle he organised. The 9,999 euro99 (approx AU$200) tickets sold out within days - which you might expect for a luxury villa worth euro830,000 (approx AU$1.6 million). Difference between villa value and ticket revenue = euro159,901 (approx AU$316,000) in Traude's favour, leaving a tidy sum left over after expenses - and no worry about buyer finance falling over.

Quotable quotes

In the Movie section of the Daily Telegraph today I found this:
"We both came from [struggling] working-class families - people often don't believe that with me, because I speak nicely - but that is the case." The speaker - Kate Winslet - referring to herself and Leonardo DiCaprio.
Now, I'm not sure but the "struggling" would seem to be an editorial insert for clarification ie all working-class families "struggle" - but who knew this would affect each family member's verbal ability, vocabulary and acumen? Is this a bit of a stretch or is it a recognised phenomenon? More research needed.

Goodbye, Will Robinson, Goodbye

Bob May was an integral part of the 1960's TV classic "Lost In Space" but we never knew what he looked like - and even the photo accompanying news of his dealth on the weekend showed him in costume as ... The Robot. He used to joke that he got the job because he fit into the robot suit - which was apparently not that far from the truth: he was on set when someone sent him to Irwin Allen (the show's creator) who told him if he could get into the suit, the job was his. Although he worked on many other shows including "The Time Tunnel" and "McHale's Navy", the Associated Press article I read reported he was particularly fond of his role as The Robot and considered the suit a "home away from home" - and from time to time, on breaks, smoke could be seen coming from the suit which was too cumbersome to remove for short periods.

Oops

Police in the US are searching for a shoplifter who allegedly left a store with 6 designer Dooney & Bourke purses shoved down her pants. When she was approached by a guard outside the store, a car pulled up and the woman attempted to get in, but fell out and was run over by the vehicle. She recovered quickly and jumped onto the front of the vehicle, only to fall off and be run over a second time. On the third attempt the woman made it into the vehicle which drove off. Although The Associated Press article didn't say as much, it seems the police may be hopeful of tracking the woman down - based on a description of her, a cheque she dropped at the scene, and the vehicle's registration number.

Big news

Remember the giant keyboard that Tom Hanks and Robert Loggia jumped on in the 1988 film "Big"? Well, if you've harboured a secret hankering to have a go on the Walking Piano built by Remo Saraceni, and you're planning to visit Philadelphia's Please Touch Museum - you can. The couple who bought the 16-foot keyboad after the movie's release are gifting it to the museum and it will be on display from next month. Chopsticks anyone?

Word usage

Doing the crossword today, I am across the clue "Marriageable" - which turned out to be NUBILE. According to the Wordbook (Princeton University) dictionary nubile is an adjective meaning "of girls or women who are eligible to marry". This is not the meaning I had ascribed to "nubile" - I had thought of this as "buxom" - as in healthily plump and vigorous with pleasing curves. But apparently not so either - according to Wordbook, in 1973 nubile was first used in sense of "sexually attractive". As the Readers Digest used to say, and probably still does, "it pays to increase your wordpower".

Down to earth

I was feeling pretty pleased with myself for more than halving the time it took me to complete the Astraware Fiendish Sudoku of the Day - until I submitted my score online and came back to earth with a resounding thud. I can only aspire to get the most difficult puzzles out by hand in less than a minute!

New Technology

While in Queensland recently, we saw Skype in action with some friends calling relatives in Turkey. It was amazing to see folk we haven't seen in years, on the other side of the world, and to have a guided tour of their Christmas decorations. So today I set myself up as a Skype user - and can't wait to use it myself. I wonder if I know any of the 8,597,949 other people currently online.

Readers Digest

I noticed a magazine called "Waiting Room" in a doctor's surgery the other day but wasn't adventurous enough to check out how old they were. No such problem this evening in checking out the newly arrived Reader's Digest magazines that have appeared in the lounge at the hospital where we've been visiting a mate - the dates were, in order, July 1994, March 1999, April 2000 and October 2001.

Greatest gift

We had just arrived at my partner's brother's place after a 10-hour drive (and a 4.30am departure) when they suggested perhaps we would like a nap after our journey. We could have kissed them with gratitude - and for keeping the children "on hold" until we surfaced, fresh and ready to face the world, 90 minutes later. This is the nicest present we have received in a very long time.

Lost brothers

I was surprised the other day to find out that D, who I have known for many many years, had not realized that I have two brothers not one. Not quite sure how that could have happened because you'd think that would be something that came up in conversation from time to time. So imagine how I felt when talking with a friend of many many many years standing when she mentioned that both her brothers were coming to her for Christmas lunch. "Both?" I blurted - thereby signalling quite well that brother #2 had escaped my attention! Almost makes me want to do a random poll to see who else out there is hiding siblings.

Shoes and socks

I admit it. I am one of the people who has visited a website where shoes are thrown at a facsimile of George Bush. I didn't know what it was until the site opened (the link was sent to me by a trusted friend) and I was surprised that once there, the visitor's role was not to throw the shoes but to move President Bush across the screen as the shoes are tossed at him. Each time a shoe hits Bush, you lose one of your four lives - and your efforts are timed. All sounds innocent enough but from the way the game is scored, and I realize I might have misunderstood the purpose of the game, it seems you get a higher ranking the faster you get him hit. This is really quite hard and counterintuitive as you would see if you visited the site. There is also a similar shoe-tossing site which has reportedly had almost 1.5 million visitors - where you do get to do the shoe-throwing - and which has the ranking of the Top 25 Bush-Shoeing countries. The top 3, when I was there a few minutes ago, are the US, France and ... Australia.

Ante up

Why can't real life be like television If it were, some maths whiz (or is that wiz - as in short for wizard) could do a "Numbers" and work out where the next ATM "bam raid" Is most likely to take place - and be in the running for the $100,000 reward. Or, given how little some of the raids have reportedly netted, it would make sense for one/some/all of the gang members to find themselves a patsy, set them up, point the police to the time and place, and claim the reward themselves. Of course that could blow up in their faces too but it would seem safer than pumping a volatile gas into a big metal box (aka ATM) and blowing it up.

Taking the fun out of Facebook

Carmela Rita Corbo and Gordon Kingsley Maxwell Poyser have reportedly revised their Facebook status - with one dropping their profile and the other updating their account to keep the public out according to The Daily Telegraph. This follows them being served legally-binding documents via their Facebook accounts as ordered by Australia's Supreme Court. This could signal the end of Facebook's fun run as a social networking site - and makes it 12th time lucky for those trying to serve the documents to the couple who have reportedly defaulted on a $154,000 loan.

Curtain call

German actor Daniel Haoevels may not have been from the "realism" school of acting previously, but he has now been "initiated". According to the University of Southern Queensland:

Realism was a style of theatre established before the turn of the 20th Century that attempted to put the theory of naturalism into practice. It looked at putting 'a slice of life' onstage and also creating verisimilitude, that is, an overall harmony among all elements of the production. Realism focuses upon method acting, which means the actors became the characters, and creating a piece of theatre that rings true of life itself, whereas Brechtian acting demands a distinct detachment between the actor and the character.

"Slice of life" is right - given that Daniel slumped to the stage after cutting his throat with a fake blade - but this wasn't exceptional acting - it was more because what he actually slit his throat with was a real knife. Investigations are continuing as to how this could have happened; was it foul play by another who wanted to "stab him in the back" so-to-speak - or an accident - that the props were switched? Daniel survived the attack.

Phone tag

Macquarie Bank has started laying off workers with the tap on the shoulder saying "you're out" coming via a phone call. Word around the bank is that people have stopped answering their phones.

Jesus saved

Not sure if it's the same one I blogged about last December 26 but in Florida recently a Baby Jesus stolen from a Nativity scene was recovered when local law enforcement officers tracked the GPS device mounted inside the statue. Last year's blog told of a New Baby Jesus being fitted with a GPS after the previous Baby Jess was stolen, despite having been bolted down. An 18 year old woman has been arrested for the latest theft. Probably not surprisingly, reports suggest that a slew of US churches and synagogues are now taking up a security firm's offer of a free GPS to keep their Saviours safe.

Keep your shirt on

Here in Australia we say "keep your shirt on" - usually in a slightly impatient tone - when people are trying to rush us for no apparently good reason - often in traffic. But perhaps this could be seen as more literal advice for some drivers in the US and Australia after last month (it's taken me this long to remember it and look up the details). Police attending an accident where a car had rolled at Hastings, Vic, found the driver and passenger were naked. It didn't say if they were wearing seatbelts. The names of the 18 year old female driver and her fatally injured, naked 19 year old male passenger were not released. There were reportedly no suspicious circumstances.
Meanwhile, in California a couple of days earlier police had apprehended a drink-driving suspect after his van hit a car. It was only after tasering him (can "taser" be a verb and is it safe to hit someone in control of a motor vehicle with driver with a Taser - and was the vehicle moving at the time - and if it wasn't, why did they have to Taser him?) that they discovered he was driving his car "completely" naked. Given these reports were truly within a couple of days of each other, does this mean some kind of global naked driving ritual has been uncovered? And if so, is it something that happens all the time - or just for special occasions?

Goodonya

In the midst of all the doom and gloom of the world financial meltdown/crisis comes some lighter, brighter news. There's a new website - www.goodonyaaustralia.com.au - which looks at spreading positive news about business and people to help counter the bad news stories currently overloading the media. If you join the site, as well as being able to make a positive contribution, word is you can also have access to some discount offers.

Safety first

In a story reminiscent of the official who gallantly drank water from the Seine to prove it was safe and potable - and died a few days later from drinking the water - comes news of a police chief is southwestern Ohio who shot himself in the thigh after giving his daughter a lesson in gun safety. Names are missing for both victims - which is surprising given the amount of time I've just spent on the net looking for the Parisian event details - if you know, please pass it on.

People's Court

How much information from criminal cases should be made available to the general public - and at what point of the proceedings? A recent story from the US tells of details of a case in progress being posted to their Facebook account by one of the jurors - who was asking visitors to "vote" on whether they thought the accused was guilty or innocent because they were undecided. The court was alerted and the juror removed from the case.
Closer to home, here in Australia, supporters of Gordon Woods are planning to post details of his case on the Internet so people can make up their own minds as to whether Woods really is guilty - as found by the jury.

Snap shot

... or let he who is without sin cast the first (st)one. Golfer John "Wild Thing" Daly caused a bit of a ruckus today when he smashed a fan's camera against a tree during the Australian Open. The fan was understandably upset and contends he did nothing wrong - and that he did not provoke Daly by taking a quite close-up photograph of him, apparently with flash, as he left the course to retrieve a ball. Golf Australia, organizers if the tournament, are taking Daly's side, saying his "brain snap" because his eyes were stinging from the flash, would not have happened if the fan had followed the rules and obeyed the NO CAMERAS / PHONES edict. Hard to know where the fault lies really, isn't it?

Time after time

2008 has seemed like an interminably long year probably because it was a leap year (remember that?) - and it's not over yet. Official timekeepers are going to add yet more time - a leap second - onto 31 December to compensate for the Earth's rotation slowing - just a little, but enough to open the possibility of the "atomic clock" and other/real time falling out of kilter. It's just as well that the Boxing Day release of movie re-make "The Day The Earth Stood Still" is not based on a true story otherwise it would be hard to know where we stand.

Games people play

I am very much enjoying WordFreak Free from the Apple App Store where the player needs to deduce a five-letter word (all letters different). You get the starting letter and then try to work out which letter goes where by guessing five letter words: red means the letter is in the right place, yellow means the letter is in the word but currently in the wrong place. Hours of fun - as evidenced by the high scores on the game's website.

Same old song

... well- not really. Auckland City Council has introduced new rules for Buskers. They must have an annual licence but it's free as long as they adhere to the new Code of Conduct - a key feature of which is that their repertoire must have sufficient material for them to perform for at least an hour without repetition. Maybe they do it differently there - or maybe it's to protect people who live and work in close proximity to their "spots" - but the trick with busking seems to be to set up in high volume traffic areas - with (lots) of passing people traffic - preferably with small-ish change burning a hole in their pockets - and who are long gone before you're back to the start on your three-song-cycle (again).

Tech wars

Following the recent militant attacks in Mumbai, and apparent surprise that the terrorists had used mobile phone technology - I think I read somewhere that they used Blackberrys - today's news from Wired that the US military are working on a missile that would "fry" electronic gadgets comes as little surprise. What will be very interesting is how they will take out only the devices of "non-friendlys" as they target gadgets used for "military, industrial, civil and asymmetrical" purposes.The differentiation is important, of course, because gadgets like mobile phones and Blackberrys allowed civilians caught up in the Mumbai attacks to get real-time information to help them stay out of harm's way.

Drawing the line

Some time ago on this blog I pondered whether a photo of two folk made from Lego and being "intimate" constituted pornography (and if I didn't, I meant to). According to news report today, a ruling on a similar but cartoon depiction has been made in the NSW Supreme Court where a man has been found guilty of child pornography after an animation depicting characters from the Simpsons was found on his computer. The reports suggest Bart, Lisa and Maggie were engaged in sexual acts but there was also reference to a mother (Marge?). Alan John McEwan was fined and entered into a two-year good behaviour bond - and told that, had the images portrayed "real" children, he would have bren jailed. MobileMetro reports McEwan had argued that cartoon characters were not people but was told by judge Justice Michael Adams that the law was in place to deter the production of cartoons that could "fuel demand for material that does involve the abuse of children".

Have hammer ...

If you have an hour or so to spare and want to experience what it was like in the "good old days" when radio ruled the earth, go online and secure a copy of Escape's Earth Abides - a dramatization of George R. Stewart's novel about post-apocalyptic Earth. The hero of the narrative is Isherwood, an ecologist, and he and others he joins with along the way forge a way to the future with Ish's hammer as their guide.

D'oh to Bold move

In a move that has angered some, including mothers who think the timeslot inappropriate, a local Sydney television station has replaced its 6pm re-runs of "The Simpsons" with "The Bold and the Beautiful". I was quietly confident that this move would be met with stony silence and viewers staying away in droves - leading to a station re-think - but not to be. The bold Bold move has resulted in increased ratings for the soap - 20% higher than usual - due it seems to "working professionals" being able to watch in real time rather than having to timeshift by taping it for later viewing. So with figures like this, chances are those yellow people will not soon be moved back into the 6pm timeslot ... providing yet another reason to attach a DVD player to the television!

Original Gizmo

If you're a big fan of Gizmo - the animatronic puppet used in Gremlins - or of the Luke Skywalker light sabre - they're among the memorabilia you can take home - for a price - from the Profiles in History auction next week (11 December). Other goodies on offer: C-3PO's face, hands; the original Jor-El Tunic worn by Marlon Brandon in Superman The Movie; and Indiana Jones' hat and whip from the Temple of Doom. Me for mine - I want the 82-inch (7 ft; 2+m) flying saucer from Forbidden Planet.

Late note

Yahoo US News reports that if you're delayed on the New York City subway, you can get a "late note" for your boss or teacher if you're a student. It takes a while for the note to be sent - but at least it's some acknowledgement of the disruption to your life because of disrupted rail services. Chances are that a similar system will not be introduced here in NSW ... there are enough disruptions that the powers that be who run the rail system could go broke. Okay, that might be a little harsh but it really can be a problem - and that's not even touching on the overcrowding and general timetabling issues!

Question of colour

Whenever people tell me they've bought a new car, I ask them what colour. There has long been anecdotal evidence that lighter coloured cars are safer - and we can now all breathe easier because a study by NRMA Insurance here in Australia has confirmed this - with light or brightly coloured cars about 10% less likely to be involved in crashes at dusk, or dawn, or other times when visibility is low. The safest car colours are white, yellow, cream, beige and red. Not so good in low light situations - green, black, blue and silver. As reported in The Daily Telegraph, the study also found there was a correlation between car colour and the severity of accidents - with the average cost of repair for lighter coloured cars being less than for darker coloured cars. But alas, Adam Macbeth, NRMA spokesperson, is reported as saying that colour is not usually a factor considered when people purchase a vehicle - 9% of NSW buyers considered the colour and look of the car the most important feature.

Under the sun

The BBC News recently carried a story about Santa Coloma de Gramanet in Spain which is installing solar panels at its main cemetery in a move to generate power for homes. While the scheme, first proposed a few years ago, met with some opposition from families of local residents, it has proceeded with the panels installed, unobtrusively, atop masoleums in the cemetery. The panels currently cover about 5% of the cemetery's area, but there are plans to install more. The cemetery's solar park is currenlty the largest of the city's five solar parks, with the others mostly atop buildings.

Positions vacant (for a reason)

Next time you're thinking about possible job outlets, you could spare a thought for these two (now missed) opportunities - neither of which appeals to me:
* Taser (electric shock delivery) test subject
* First taster for for the NASA $US154 million water recycling system which is designed to convert sweat, moisture and urine into potable (drinkable) liquid. (Which reminds me of the slogan for the original Aliens movie: In space, no-one can hear you scream! - or something like that)

Black Friday

Here in Australia (and possibly other parts of the world) Black Friday is when the 13th of the month falls on a Friday. Imagine my confusion then when earlier this month I kept reading about the upcoming Black Friday in the US. Last I heard they were working on the same calendar as us, even if they are a day behind. A quick look on fount of (all) knowledge Wikipedia suggested Black Friday was actually the Friday after Thanksgiving, so called because it was seen as the start of the Xmas shopping season and the start of retailers profitable or "being in the black" period. Black Friday is also said to have been so named following the first recognition of the super sales day in Philidelphia where record numbers of vacationing bargain-hunters blocked roads and caused enormous gridlocks - "Black Friday". But regardless of the origin of the nomenclature, Black Friday lived up to its name this year with one 34-year-old Wal-Mart employee in New York trampled to death trying to hold back a horde of eager shoppers; and two men killed when they shot each other in a crowded Toys-R-Us store reportedly after their women folk started arguing.

Definitely too much information

Maybe it's just my sometimes uncharitable view of the world and some of the people in it but it seems to me that if you open your door late at night to a stranger who appers to be at the wrong house - and then he pulls out a sharp object (screwdriver?) and cuts you on the face and you counter by smashing him with a baseball bat - it seems that this is not something you want appearing in the press - together with your photo and/or name and location. "Did she do the right thing [chasing him off with a bat]?" is a vote and debate topic in today's The Daily Telegraph. Maybe the question should be whether attack victims should have their details published making it easier for an attacker, or a grudge-holding person (who couldn't previously remember who had hit them maybe because they were drunk or high), to find them.

Too much information

We were warned about it when studying Psychology but I don't think it had a name then - the syndrome where first year university students develop all kind of "illnesses" through their exposure to information in text books about those illnesses. Well, now there is a name for it - or its counterpart on the web - cyberchrondia. Cyberchrondia is defined in a study by Ryen White and Eric Horvitz as "unfounded increases in health anxiety based on the review of web content". And there is no shortage of medical sites or content on the Internet - some of which is incredibly helpful for getting more information about a specific condition- including, in some instances, suggestions for questions to ask your doctor.

Dying wish

Andre Tchaikowsky's dying wish was to take part in "Hamlet" and finally, a quarter of a century after his death from cancer, he has made it from concert pianist to Yorick the court jester whose skull is held aloft after being unearthed by a gravedigger. David Tennant (aka Dr Who) did the "holding aloft" in 22 performances of the play in Stratford-upon-Avon - birthplace of playwright William Shakespeare and primary venue for the Royal Shakespeare Company. The stage appearance has been a long time coming, though, with Tchaikowsky's skull held in the costume store since it's handover to the Company. (The Daily Telegraph)

Life span

A Pal (thanks D) shared the following average life spans for cats with me today:
- Feral cat = 4 years
- House cat that goes outside = 6 years
- House cat who stays inside = 24 years.
We currently have two house cats - one who spends a bit of time outside (14 years) and one who spends the majority of her time inside (16 years). We're counting on both of them to skew the statistics - a lot!

Art imitating art

For reasons slightly beyond my control, I have recently finished reading S's bookclub's novel for this month - and hated it - and have no-one to blame but myself ... since I chose it - casting the deciding vote when the group was split. I had had the deciding vote once before (Water for Elephants) - sitting nearby but not participating I had suggested that if the vote was tied, I could cast the decider because I usually listened to their discussions. This time the deal was I could decide as long as I read the book. I agreed and chose the one I had heard about, knew was available in electronic book format, and that I had already been thinking about reading given the publicity it had received after being chosen as an Oprah book. Alas, The Story of Edgar Sawtelle did not live up to my expectations. (Oh no - it has just occurred to me that I have inflicted this read on the bookclub; it will be interesting to see if this is the last choice I get to make.). A mate of mine once said that if you copy someone else's work, it's stealing; if you copy from two works, that's research. In this case though, I don't feel like giving Edgar's author the leniency - not when this, his first novel with a ten-year gestation period, is being touted as the Great American Novel and as a great work of imagination ... a classic in the making. And it could have been all these things - and may be for some - if there didn't seem to be such a reliance on other people's work.

Behind closed doors

The campaign against violence against women is in the news at the moment - and high time too as research shows that half of all women will be victims of physical violence or sexual abuse during their lifetime. Interesting timing for another story - about a television identity who has been accused of abusing a former girlfriend. His female co-host has now come forward to defend him saying the alleged verbal and emotional abuse was completely out of character and - in her opinion - "just not true". Truth of the matter could be that we all have moments of doing things that are "out of character" - which we are not proud of - like name-calling (my pet hate) which IS abusive. I once stopped the car and invited the friend travelling with me to exit the vehicle for name-calling. While the old saying "sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me" comes to mind, it also stands to reason that if name-calling didn't have the capacity to affect people - this phrase would never have been coined. The other thing is that none of us knows what goes on "behind closed doors" and while reports of her new partner banning your sister's friend and primary support in past times from her house may have overtones of isolation - it could be a perfectly reasonable and well-meaning directive. Or, more's the pity, it may be that some women don't realize what abuse is, because the've become so used to it.

Dope

I skipped over the report about "Outcry over teen drug tips booklet" in today's paper and settled instead on one entitled "Expert tips for children on how to speed dangerously" - which I took to be an ironic piece. I was baffled by the in-article advice which urged readers to pay for their food, rent and bills first - and a couple of other tips that had nothing to do with cars - including "don't buy drugs on credit". The penny finally dropped that the article was about "speed" (the drug) rather than "speeding" - and then the article made a whole lot more sense. Funny how we can skew/influence content by bringing preconceptions to our reading.

Face painting

Happy faces have sprung up on a number of hay bales in northern NSW. The bales - no, not rectangular bales - you know the ones where they roll up the hay into big "logs" which are covered in plastic - had their ends painted with the smiley faces a week ago - some with eyes open, some with eyes closed. According to The Daily Telegraph, Landowner Tony Nell said it was artistic and a bit of a laugh, especially with the world in economic turmoil. In all, about 30 of the 200 bales on his property were targetted with the smiley faces.

Bacon bit

Not sure what to get that person who has just about everything? Well, if you're in the UK then you can forget about getting them a Vosges Mo' Bacon Bar because the only stockist there, Selfridges, has temporarily sold out of the world's first bacon chocolate bar. The earliest net reference I can find to this "tasty" morsel is from August last year so it's not "new" but itseems to have hit the news and blogosphere because the 3oz/£6/bars sold out within 48 hours of going on sale at Selfridge's four stores. An urgent order has been placed for more stock. So what makes The Mo' Bacon Bar have people coming back for mo'? It could be any of the main ingredients ... chunks of applewood smoken bacon, milk chocolate or smoked salt. Mmmm - way too many flavours for me - and too imaginative a combination - but obviously lots of people out there like them. Wonder if they have them here?

Wanted: Pied Piper

Hamelin, as featured in the fairytale of the Pied Piper, has a rodent problem - again. According to a Courier Mail report, instead of coming in groups of 20 to 30 - usual rat pack size - the rats overrunning Hamelin are advancing in packs ten times that size. A makeshift rubbish dump on the outskirts of town is being blamed for the infestation - in numbers European media are reporting as matching those experienced during the Great Plague in 1284 - supposedly the basis for the Pied Piper "events". There was no mention of proposed payment methods for a new Piper if sought by the City but given current global economic conditions, if I was a Hamelin child I'd be cranking up the volume on the MP3 player to drown out the melodies of any disgruntled pipers who might be passing.

Practice makes perfect

First Timothy McCormack was accused of faking credentials to work as a maintenance engineer on Qantas aircraft. Now he's accused of forging the character references he provided in support of his bid for a lesser sentence for forging. None of the referees had been approached by McCormack whose barrister has now won an adjournment to investigate if McCormack was a pathological liar. A news.com.au online report suggested the magistrate found the fakes easy to detect -they were all typed and formatted the same way and were signed by the same hand. Pathological liar or a slow learner? Hard to say but I am reminded of something I was once told: Only perfect practice makes perfect. Maybe that's something Mr McCormack may have time to ponder if he finds himself unable to engineer his way out of spending time in the "big house".

Room with a view

Today marks the 39th anniversary of the death of Australian artist and writer Norman Lindsay. While some of us remember him best for his children's classic "The Magic Pudding" others will have other memories: like visiting the Norman Lindsay gallery in the Blue Mointains on a close-to-first-date and only then discovering, when entering a room displaying them, that Mr Lindsay had also made a name for himself - and shocked the nation - with his erotic paintings.

Local currency

A quote from a story on the sad state of affairs in Mebourne in The Daily Telegraph: "After nine o'clock you can get anything you want for a packet of cigarettes". Does this mean it's very difficult find cigarettes so the seller can charge whatever they like - or that you can buy anything with a packet of cigarettes? Or both? I read the story in hopes of finding out what colulmnist Malcolm Farr meant, but I am still unclear.

Twilight (time) zones

You may have heard the song with the words "it's twilight time"; it may even be called that. But who knew that there are actually three twilight each day (counting only those that happen when the sun is setting) - Civil (the period between day and night when it is possible to conduct outdoor activities without artificial light); Nautical (the horizon is still visible allowing navigational readings to be done accurately) and Astronomical (stars and other point sources visible but not nebulae and galaxies).. The differentiation is based on how many degrees the sun is below the horizon - Civil - less that 6; Nautical 12-6; Astronomical 18-12. (With thanks to Wikipedia - which also notes the differentiation is important because the penalty for some crimes (presumably in the US) eg burglary is greater if they are conducted outside of daylight hours.)

Video driving

If video driving games breed irresponsible drivers - as has recently been suggested - why is it that some insurance companies are reportedly considering offering reduced premiums to drivers who play video games? There is, of course, a catch. The offer would be made to older gamers (not sure how old is old) because gaming is supposed to increase mental agility. There could be another reason: if you're gaming, you aren't on the roads (hopefully).

Wide open spaces

On our recent trip to outback NSW we had to pull off the road at one stage to allow three trucks carrying massively wide loads to pass. It was amazing to see as the loads took up both sides of the highway. But that's nothing compared to what we might have seen if we were making the trip now. A report in today's The Daily Telegraph has a swarm of locusts 6km long and 170m wide in the Condobolin area. At this stage this swarm, and others around the state, are "low density" but to be on the safe side here in droughtstriken NSW, aircraft are on alert to poison the swarms if they get larger or thicker.

Getting a "hit"

New research from the University of Chicago suggests the area of the brain associated with rewards "lights up" when bullies see someone inflicting pain - they get a "hit" from the hit. The same response is not recorded in people wihout aggressive tendencies. The report I read in The Daily Telegraph did not list the participant demographics so it is difficult to know whether the results can be generalized to the population as a whole. But, according to Psychologist Dr Helen McGrath from the National Centre Against Bullying, if the study proved a link between "reward" and pain this showed bullying was a learned behaviour - and the Government should continue to fund early intervention. Tthere are apparently programs that start with four-year olds out there - which is just plain scary on so many levels.

Career opportunity

I'll have to hunt down the actual article but one of the items in the "what's news" quiz in one of the local Sydney papers was; How much will Wyong Councl pay for information leading to conviction of a graffiti vandal? A: $10,000. Not quite sure what they would need but it seems that a person with a camera and time on their hands in the right location might be able to tap into a new income stream here. The question though is: what is graffiti - and when Is graffiti not graffii but art, social expression or free speech? Hmmm. Seems there could be some questioning of societal norms here but possibly lots of people might agree that those people with paint cans who simply repeat/practice their tags in public spaces may not actually be making valid comment/contribution unless it's a visual metaphor for an ongoing search for identity. (Wyong is a little ways away; I wonder if the local council offers a similar bounty.)

Old fashioned fun

Gizmoso reported last week on one of the latest entries in the [US] National Toy Hall of Fame - the stick. Other entrants this time included the Baby Doll and the skateboard. They join existing classics including Mr Potato Head, Crayola Crayons ... and the cardboard box (inducted 2005). The stick was chosen because it has been a staple of imaginative play for a long time - what did you use your stick for ... horse, gun, broom, balance pole ...? - and because everyone - man and beast and Mr Garrett from South Park - plays with one.

(Not so) Merry Xmas

The Grinch is alive and well - both here and overseas. The Croatian Prime Minister has, according to BBC Online, banned State-run firms from having Christmas parties and giving presents due to the credit crunch. Closer to home, The Daily Telegraph reports thieves have stolen $15,000 worth of Xmas decorations from the yard of a house on Queensland's Gold Coast. The decorations formed part of the Turner family's entry in the Gold Coast City Council Christmas Light Up competition which they won last year. The family spends $50,000 and three months annually working on their display - with proceeds donated to the Gold Coast Hospital. Be on the lookout for two larger-than-life fiberglass Santas, a sleigh and nine reindeer.

Cyber-self

Amy Taylor and David Pollard are divorcing three years after they met, fell in love and married - all on the Internet. As well as their cyber-wedding on Second Life (a computer generated world where your cyberself aka avatar can interact with other avatars) the couple also had a real world registry office wedding. But their life has taken an unexpected turn - unexpected for everyone but them I suspect. Amy found out that David was cheating on her - having sex with a Second Life prostitute. Even though Amy hired a cyber PI to look into the matter, and despite her hurt, she and David, still insisting he had done no wrong, patched it up and all seemed well until she soon after discovered he had allowed his avatar to become intimately involved with another, female, avatar in Second Life. When confronted David confessed he had been talking with the player for a couple of weeks and that their marriage (that is David and Amy's) was over. The next day she went to a real world solicitor to file for divorce.
On reading this tale I found myself wondering about people living their "other" life in Second Life. Where do they find the time? What do they do there? And how do they decide on their avatars - and whether they are going to resemble their real life identity at all: case in point - David and Amy's avatars bore very little resemblance to them in real life. But maybe that's the point in a youth and beauty conscious world ... chances are that if you're unemployed, middle-aged, bald and not in peak physical condition, and you get a choice, that's not the image you're going to choose to project to a pretend world.

One, two, three ...

I was listening to Dr Karl Kruszelnicki's radio program the other day and mention was made of the number of hairs on a human head - 100,000. (I have to keep telling myself that Homer Simpson's three hairs don't count because he isn't real.). The question I have is how do they know what the average number of hairs is - did someone actually count them ... strand by strand, or make an estimation based on weight of a sample and coverage area. And if you wanted to question their figure how would you go it? Does the total vary between races? Genders? Ages? Depending on your diet? Oh wait - that would be to do with texture of your hair rather than how much hair you have - as in "eating your crusts will make your hair go curly" - and if they're wrong about that, could they not be wrong about the number if individual strands as well?

What's in a name

Mlckey Mouse officially turns 80 next week - but would he have enjoyed such success and longevity had Walt Disney named him "Mortimer" instead? We'll never know of course but somehow Mortimer Mouse isn't quite as catchy - and certainly doesn't scan well with the Mickey Mouse Club opening song. And to think that the world may never have had Mickey. According to today's The Daily Telegraph, Disney chose Mickey after he lost his biggest star - Oswald the Lucky Rabbit - in a trademark dispute. Disney had considered a horse, dog, cat, frog and cow before deciding on Mortimer Mouse - but Disney changed the character's name after his wife told him she "disliked" it. Happy birthday M. Mouse!

Special delivery mail man

German police are today searching for a prisoner who escaped by mailing himself out in a 120cm by 150cm carton. Described as "tall and broad-shouldered" the convicted drug dealer had been working with other inmates on stationery and when their shift ended he climbed into a cardboard box and was taken out of the prison by express courier. Shortly after the truck left the prison, he escaped by cutting a large hole in the tarpaulin of the lorry and jumping off. According to the BBC report I read, the driver, on noticing the tarp flapping in the wind investigated and alerted prison officials. The prison Warden, not surprisingly, said the incident showed that security needed to be beefed up urgently.

By the book

Doing some reading on the internet about "The Story of Edgar Sawtelle" I discovered an interesting feature at an online bookstore (not Amazon but it also does have this feature although you have to be logged into their site to use it). At the Harper Collins site you can browse inside a book - i.e. you can "search" and even read some sections of the (available) book/s online - which means the book could be available electronically - for those of us who prefer to carry our books on a "device" rather than in paper form. While I am more of a device person myself I was forced to read an actual book recently and it seems that this format does have an advantage of sorts - it let's other people know you are reading rather than playing games or social networking. I've also commented on this blog previously that it could be good advertising for the author if there was some way to "show" what you were reading on a device - similar to the bookmark you can printout from one of the Edgar Sawtelle sites I visited yesterday. Hmmmm - I can see it now - tiny little dustjackets for your electronic handheld reading device - mine currently being my iPod Touch. Which reminds me - Apple here in Australia have recently started advertising the Touch on free-to-air TV as being "fun" and showing a whole slew of games - this fits in well with recent overseas news that Apple is going to push the Touch as a gaming device - although its use as a reading device should not be undervalued.

Dead Unlucky

A Brazilian woman on her way to her husband's funeral was killed when the hearse in which they were travelling was involved in a traffic accident. The coffin hurled forward and hit her in the back. Her son and the driver suffered only minor injuries.

Word play

Words are wonderful. Take "pauper" fo example - which tells you what it means: poor (pau) per(son). Porpoise doesn't work the same way though - meaning neither bad posture nor unfortunate kitty.

Unarmed bandit

From today's The Daily Telegraph - but undoubtedly this story will be all over the "odd" news today:
Munich: Baffled police are hunting a handy thief who managed to steal a 60cm TV from a shop in broad daylight - despite having no arms. The limber bandit had two accomplices clamp the television set to his body before they strolled out of the shop in Munich, Germany. Staff had no clue until they noticed a TV was missing from its stand, then saw the heist on CCTV recordings. A police spokesman said: "It's hard to believe the sight of an armless man walking with a TV clamped to his body did not get anyone's attention."

Shiny guy

Reading about the Star Wars exhibit starting at Sydney's PowerHouse Museum this December, I remembered an article I thought I'd clipped in the last couple of days which referred to things noticed by children. Try as I might I am unable to locate it but the general gist was: in Star Wars the shiny guy worries a lot.

Fencing

It's not often that I find myself agreeing with the Daily Telegraph columnist Piers Akerman but I found I was this morning. He wrote about Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's announcement that his Government would lead an international push to end capital punishment globally. The timing is interesting - coming only hours after the men convicted for their part in the 2002 Bali Bombing (in which nearly 90 Australians were killed) were executed by firing squad. Piers Akerman wrote: "the timing of this mission reeks of gutlessness, hypocrisy and political opportunism". While I would not have put it quite that strongly, I had wondered about the timing - especially as, understandably perhaps from a political standpoint, the Rudd Government did not seem to be campaigning against the death penalty for the Bali Bombers. This is not the forum for a debate on capital punishment but it does seem that it is a very personal issue which everyone needs to take some time to think about and reach their own conclusions rather than simply following the party line of the Government of the day.

Gun Number

Watching a television commercial for the Australian military the other day, I was surprised to see that there was no mention of the "enemy". In it, a young man talked of his role as a "gun number" where he and the others in his team could have their artillery gun in place and ready to fire within a couple of minutes. Sounded easy ... although they themselves were not under fire at the time - and there was no suggestion that those recruited via the ad (for that was its purpose) would have to perform in combat conditions - yes, yes, you'd think people would work it out but it just seems this isn't (whole) truth in advertising.

Google time

Ever since we went into early daylight saving time last month, I have been unsure of the time. I used to be able to confirm the exact time by ringing a number which gave the time -The Talking Clock - but I've decided there has to be another way - like the Internet. There was a site called timeanddate.com which gave time zones from around the world - but there's an easier way. It's Google. Just do a search on "time" and it will show your local time zone - not quite sure how it knows where you are though, probably it has something to do with your IP address or some such detail. It would be interesting to see if it worked when you are accessing the net through a corporate server to see if it could still correctly identify your time zone. (Orr - hi there - if you're still reading, this might be one for you.)

Weddings

One in three weddings end in divorce - so what makes the difference in the other two-thirds? And does it mean that the rest of marriages end with the death of one (or both) spouses? And what of de facto relationships -what is the "success" rate? Is there any credible research in this field - especially as the rate of marriage generally is supposed to be decreasing?

A lot of lolly

Today's The Daily Telegraph tells of the 50th anniversary of the Chupa Chup - which, although not the first lolly on a stick, has probably become the most recognisable - aided by its appearance in Telly Savalas' mouth when he played the famous Chupa-Chup-sucking detective, Kojak*, way back in 1975. (Hands up anyone else who feels old realising they watched the initial series run over 30 years ago!) What I hadn't known about Chupa Chups was that it was Salvador Dali, in 1969, who was commissioned to design the wrapper for the Chupa Chup, or that they were the first lollipops in space, sent to the Mir space station, when requested in 1995 To celebrate the 50th anniversary of this lolly-pop, Chupa Chups Lane will open in Oxford Street Market, Bondi Junction (NSW) today until 17 November. It will feature art works, light boxes and installations. There was no word in the report whether Chupa Chups will be on sale in situ or available gratis.
*The producers of Kojak had apparently come under fire because of the hero's smoking habits; they had him quit smoking and suck lollipops instead.

Fire works

Come Christmas each year, I like to tie some tinsel to the car's aerial so I can find it in crowded car parks. But if you're not the tinsel kind, Gizmodo reports that there is an alternative. What could be a better way to find your vehicle than having a holographic fireworks display "go off" over it - the Fireworks Locator System? Of course, this will probably work better while you're the only one in your neighbourhood with one - otherwise it could be a multi-pyrotechnics display because, and you know it's true, if some folk had one of these they'd be setting it off all the time regardless of the distraction it might prove to passing pedestrians and drivers - which is exactly why I'll be sticking with tinsel.

Naming rites

Obama may have been named the US President Elect this week but it doesn't stop there. Word from the BBC is that babies throughout Kenya (birthplace of Obama's father) are now being named Obama in his honour. .

On time

A recent report on the BBC News online tells that the Vatican is reintroducing "clocking in" for its employees to improve time-keeping and efficiency. This brings to mind the old Curia story: when asked how many people worked on the Vatican, Pope John XXIII replied "about half".

Just the shot

Arriving at my local coffee shop this morning, I couldn't help but notice various signs declaring "Sam's Gone Mad" - and listing 3 specials. When I asked Sam about it, and whether it was because business was not booming he said it was for a number of reasons - but primarily to lift people's spirits. "Usually, this time of year, there's a buzz [in the lead-up to Christmas] but people's morale is down." He's also planning to introduce random spot specials eg $1 coffee. The Post Cafe is in Marrickville Rd, Marrickville, and was well worth a visit even before Sam went mad! But isn't it fantastic to see such a positive grassroots response to changing conditions!

Man on (a) high

In Adelaide yesterday, circus performer Roy Maloy took 11 tries to do what others would consider to be either the stuff of dreams - or nightmares - when he walked 5 steps on 17-metre stilts. Yes ... that was 17 metres - or 57 feet - making them higher than a four-storey building. His previous successful attempt was on 5m stilts. He will have to wait to see if this attempt secures him a world record but remains fairly grounded and down to earth in terms of his achievement - today's The Daily Telegraph reports Mr Maloy as saying: "I was more convinced that I was going to die than at any other point in my life, so I'm really thrilled." Over on the ABC site, they report Maloy was assisted in the death-defying record attempt by the city's fire brigade: "As we were up there, I was holding on to two guys and I turned to one of them and said, 'You know that you are all that's separating me from life and death right now', and he said, 'Look I don't need that pressure'."
I haven't yet been able to find a photo but am hoping footage of the feat will pop up on YouTube sometime soon. In the interim, YouTube does have Roy's video diary of preparations for the record attempt and only by watching that did I truly appreciate the heights this man had reached!

Sculpture 08

Sculpture by the Sea 2008 finished today and we were lucky enough to get there on Friday. Pics are posted at 101-Journeys (and there's a link there to a slideshow of the images).