Joe Bloggs

'If it bleeds, it leads'

As promised here is the link to the transcript of the radio programme I was listening to in Australia about Africa and its image abroad as potrayed by the world's media. You'll need to scroll down to the first referece to Gwen Ansell and read from there. She says, "I think in some countries Africa is no longer a news priority, and in those same countries I think there is still a clinging to a rather old-fashioned set of news values, in which ‘if it bleeds, it leads’. And the only stories that get in are the big stories and the big stories are defined by being bad stories".

Can you tell a geek from a hacker?

Or put another way - can you tell a coder from a cannibal. A site that asks you to take a look at pictures of people and see if you can tell a computer programmer from a mass murderer. So, Coder or Killer?

I got 7 out of 10!

For you Amis fans

An interview with the man in which he says his, arguably more famous, father Kingley was a harsh critic of his work, "he sent my novel Money twirling through the air the moment I appeared as a minor character in it, because that's buggering the reader about" and other stuff. I doubt I'll be blogging them, but with publication of his latest novel Yellow Dog imminent, you can expect a lot more interviews ahead. Here's a website that will probably help you keep in touch if you are interested.

Japanese Lesson 2

只今 (tadaima): 'Hello, I'm back'. Used when one returns home whether it be after a few hours, days, months or years.

Japanese lesson

移動日 (idoubi): a 'travel day' as in when the Hanshin Tigers play a series of games in Hiroshima against the Carps and then move to Tokyo to play the Giants. The day between the games in Hiroshima and Tokyo is called an 移動日.

(I'd be interested to hear if you could see three distinct characters or just some gobbledeegook?)

Totally cool

Photos of Mars.

Public Radio again

I've talked about Public Radio before. If you have an interest in news and current affairs I really don't think you will find anything better than the publically funded broadcasters - at least in the 'free world' anyway. The Internet is a wonderful source of information when you know what you are looking for, but public radio brings to your attention a myriad of subjects you would not necessarily think to look for.

I was listening to an excellent program on Radio National (the Australian Broadcating Corporation's specialist journalism and arts network) in the car this morning where they were discussing Africa and how it is projected to the outside world by the media. "If you relied on the world's media, your understanding of Africa would be limited to occasional heroes and daily disasters. A continent of millions reduced to the famous and nameless." Very unfortunate, but very true and Africa isn't alone. How much do we really know about South America or even Asia? I can appreciate that we don't have the time to discuss/read/listen about everything that goes on in our world, but a little more balance and depth and more global news on peak time TV and radio really wouldn't go amiss. At the risk of sounding like some wishy-washy liberal I do think it would lead to a greater understanding of why our world is what it is, and that in turn lead to less conflict. (OK, that does sound wishy-washy, but knowledge is power.) A transcript of the programme I was listening to will appear here soon. I'll make sure to highlight it again when I see it there.

Rug re-thinks and the OED overlord

If Edward Norton is my favourite young actor, his literary equivalent has to be Martin Amis. The latter isn't young any more, but he's not a fogey either. It seems his latest book (out next week) is creating quite a brouhaha. The Observer reviewer loves it, the Telegraph guy thinks it stinks, and the New York Times sits on the sidelines and frolics in the fracas.

Read all three articles and you'll get a good idea of the genius that is Amis. As Fischer says in the Telegraph, "Amis is the overlord of the OED". He is. Douglas-Fairhurst in the Observer gets even closer to the man "Like all great writers, he seems to have guessed what you thought about the world, and then expressed it far better than you ever could". And from the final paragraph of the NYT "If you're as clever as (Amis), and as successful, you don't much care about what someone like Tibor Fischer says". Or what anyone else says either I suspect. I've always thought of Amis as the natural successor to Dickens - or at least the late 20th century equivalent to the great man. Read London Fields and you'll know exactly what I mean. He has a connection with the common man that I haven't found in any other living author. Money, though, is my favourite. I always think of it when I go for a 'rug re-think'. Off for one today.

If you're not already registered on the NYT (you should be!) use bloggsjoe as your user name and bloggsjoe as the password.

Burning Man

From what everyone says, there are no words to describe Burning Man, but they've had a good try on their website. That it's arty-farty is not in doubt, but even less in doubt is its uniqueness. The website says "some 25,000+ people make the journey to the Black Rock Desert for one week out of the year to be part of an experimental community, which challenges its members to express themselves and rely on themselves to a degree that is not normally encountered in one's day-to-day life." I know two people who are total devotees of the festival and I'm going to try and get them on here for their comments, but unfortunately I think they are attending the event now (it's on from 25 August to 1 September) so I may be too late. Arty farty or not, I want to go one day. Here's the Wired article (for a better summary) that prompted me to write about it.

You gotta love the Beeb

I could have an entire category with that title and well you just gotta! They've started name-calling and not a moment too soon. The controller of BBC1 has called Rupert Murdoch a "cultural imperialist". Apparently Murdoch's British Sky Broadcasting thinks that the Beeb should be forced to sell its most successful programmes to commercial channels. Yes Rupert, and which ones do you want to get your slippery hands on? (Interestingly, and I guess evidence to support the fact the Beeb isn't perfect, I couldn't find any mention of this story on their own site.)

The linked Independent article also talks of the "increasingly close relationship between the Government and Mr Murdoch's British newspapers", something I do have a great deal of trouble stomaching. I appreciate Blair thinks he is fighting for his political life, but to get into bed with your enemy smacks of desperation. Leave the Beeb alone!

Word to the wise

My buddy DJ has just posted on his site about the embarassments the British government is facing as a result of the personal information stored in Microsoft Word documents. If you share Microsoft Word documents and don't want people reading things you thought you deleted etc., you might want to read what DJ writes here to protect yourself.

Update: Read DJ's comments below to gain access to his site.

A god-awful small affair

A tennis ball at 528 meters. That's how small or, depending on your point of view, how big Mars is appearing in the night sky at the moment. Furthermore, it is as close as it has been in almost 60,000 years. We saw it bright in the sky last night when we came out of the cinema and it really isn't very difficult to spot. Just swivel southwards and look for the brightest dot in the sky. Mars has, of course, been in the news quite a bit recently and in answer to David Bowie's question, the collective wisdom seems to be there is no life on Mars.

The L.A. Job

Remember the Italian Job? All those minis coming down steps and a big robbery and getaway? Well they've re-made it and set it in Los Angeles. At last a movie this summer that didn't fall below (admittedly low) expectations. Don't expect any intellectual sustenance, but if you like a good old gold heist and kick-ass getaways this new Italian Job might be the movie for you. And what about Edward Norton - is he the best young actor treading the ... er ... flitting across our screen at the moment or what? He's certainly my favourite.

Listen to Henry

I really wanted to bring you a clip from Olivier's Henry V, but all I could find was this Branagh version. Olivier's voice soars and it isn't just posterity that lends it a gravitas that even Ian McKellen (the best of the living bunch) can't match. Rent the video - you'll see what I mean. This file won't stay up forever - it all depends on my bandwidth limits. See if you like it.

Fair and Balanced

You'll like this one. My favourite TV network in the States has just had a request for an injunction on a book which uses the the words "Fair and Balanced" in its subtitle, thrown out of court. "There are hard cases and there are easy cases," the judge said. "This is an easy case." He added, "It is ironic that a media company, which should be protecting the First Amendment, is seeking to undermine it". Nothing ironic there at all. Taken in context i.e. the way they report at Fox, fair and balanced is just as oxymoronic as "We Report. You Decide". Apparently, Fox trademarked the words "Fair and Balanced" back in 1998 and don't like anyone using it anywhere. Here's Fox's own version of the story ... remarkably fair and balanced - and I'm not being facetious.

St Crispin's Day

No it isn't. Not today anyway, but we've got a crappy movie on TV and a soldier on a training field just gave the whole St. Crispin's Day speech from Henry V. I have a sort of soft spot for Henry V because I remember quoting it in a Japanese economic history question in my finals at uni. (Saw Branagh play the part on stage at Stratford as well - his first step to stardom - it was OK, but not one to write home about.) Anyway, here's the speech - don't ask too many questions, just enjoy it for the poetry. I really should put more Shakespeare on here.

This day is called the feast of Crispian:
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when the day is named,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian:'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars.
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispin's day.'
Old men forget: yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember with advantages
What feats he did that day: then shall our names.
Familiar in his mouth as household words
Harry the king, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester,
Be in their flowing cups freshly remember'd.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remember'd;
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition:
And gentlemen in England now a-bed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Ringo's alive ... so they say

I know the immigration authorities at any airport in the world these days are tough - if you don't have the proper visas or if they think you look suspicious you're usually out on your ear, but to be refused entry for failing a Beatles quiz seems a bit extreme. Maybe the UK is awash with tourist dollars or, in this case, Brazilian reals, but just because tired tourists who want to attend a festival celebrating the lives of the fab four don't know too much about them (one of them, for example, thought Ringo was dead - and for the contribution he has made to music in the last 20 years he might as well be) seems very dubious grounds to refuse someone entry. Maybe the authorities had been reading about the Sierra Leone footballers who have asked for asylum in Finland and feared something similar from the young Brazilians. Is there a shortage of samba players in England? Either way, one hopes the Brazilian authorities don't take the same attitude towards visitors to the Carnival in Rio.

Internet Terms

OK, here's another link the less web-savvy amongst you might want to bookmark. A fairly comprehensive Glossary of Internet terms.

Here's how they define a blog:

A blog is basically a journal that is available on the web. The activity of updating a blog is "blogging" and someone who keeps a blog is a "blogger." Blogs are typically updated daily using software that allows people with little or no technical background to update and maintain the blog. Postings on a blog are almost always arranged in cronological order with the most recent additions featured most prominantly. (Can't vouch for their spelling though.)

What is a blog?

I do get asked this a lot (I'm sure most bloggers do), so here's the Guardian's definition of them.

The real down under

When I was at university in the north of England I was very definitely classed a southerner - the north/south divide being quite strong in England - but on a hemispheric scale I'm definitely a northerner. Fancifully wondering what was happening on the other side of the world, my instinct was to look for news on the Tierra del Fuego. The fact is right now I'm probably closer to South America than to any other continent apart from Asia, and the other side of the world from here is probably Iceland. Unfortunately, all the news from the Fuego is in Spanish, but it's only a hop and a skip to a British protectorate and I was surprised to find a comprehensive news site for the Falklands Islands. Remember this is a pair of islands that had a population of 2,379 in 2001 (plus 1,700 British military personnel) and, as anyone who followed the war back in the 1980s knows, there are waaay more sheep than people - like 700,000 more! So what need for such comprehensive coverage and detail? One can't help thinking that it is all one big PR effort to make sure there isn't a name change to Malvinas anytime soon. (Some more Falklands facts here.)

Oh and the news? There's a good old high seas chase going on in the southern oceans at the moment (the Aussies are chasing an Uruguayan-flagged ship that has a catch of Patagonian toothfish caught illegally off Australia) and the Falkands may join the chase.

Take a bus

Whoops! more old stories, but things take time to filter through when you're down under. Well that's my poor excuse anyway. I thought some of you might enjoy the irony of this story about Toyota asking employees to catch the bus to work because the roads around Toyota city are getting congested when workers come to work in the morning. I don't like Toyota - I've been to their main plant and let me tell you working on the line did not look like a party. A subsidiary of their's also made my Japanese brother-in-law redundant in a very Japanese way by moving him from engineering to sales after more than 20 years of service - yes of course he left of his own accord when it was obvious that he wasn't a salesman, but they knew that would happen. Nevertheless, I think they should be commended for this latest effort. Owning a car doesn't obligate anyone (Toyota employees included) to use it everyday. Furthermore, I just saw a nicotine help-line number emblazoned on a tobacconist's wall and saw a similar number for 'Gamblers Anonymous' at the Casino last week. And why not? One could make a case for saying that this a little like being helped by someone who has just mugged you, but there are times when that help may save you from a greater evil.

Making money from blogging

A sleepy day here and all I have to offer is this old Economist article about the 'economics of blogging'. The conclusion seems to be that if money is to be made from the "geeky world of blogging", it won't be in charging for blogging software, but rather targeted advertising. Can't see that myself. If anyone is making any money out of all this it is the webhosts. The really successful blogs might make some money from advertising, but the whole nature of blogging is small-key. Most people consider their blogs successful if they get 100 regular readers - I'd be happy if 10 of my readers identified themselves. Now there's a challenge. ;+)

New for Old

Last month I wrote about museums returning ancient artefacts to countries of origin and asked if the British Museum would return the Elgin Marbles to Greece? The Greeks are moving full speed towards building a museum to house the Marbles within sight of the Acropolis and in time for the Marbles to go on show during the 2004 Athens Olympics. However, the construction of this Acropolis Museum is attracting considerable criticism from Greeks themselves. Protesters argue that the location of the museum is on an ancient site worthy of its own protection and that the Greek government is breaking both its own laws as well as international laws designed to preserve ancient sites.

Although the main building is likely to be completed in time for Olympic athletes and visitors to view next August, whether the British Museum will return the Marbles is another question. They are standing firm and will probably refuse a request to give them back even on a loan basis. The idea of a loan is amusing though. Can you imagine the Greeks giving them back once the loan period expired?

Party Whip

In the UK parliament the party whips try to ensure that every member from their party turns out to vote. In Ecuador they appear to take the term literally. A congressman was "was stripped to his underwear, doused with cold water and lashed with nettles", for not toeing the party line. I bet Tony Blair wishes he had the same powers in the UK sometimes.

Casino Royale

A very timely article in Wired Magazine about how casinos are trying to increase already loaded odds further in their favour. Timely, because my recent guests wanted to go to a casino and we duly went on Saturday evening. The article says that in blackjack the house/banker/dealer has an edge of about half a percent and the casinos are using new tracking technology to keep ahead of card counters. A card counter keeps track of the cards as they're dealt, and bets based on the cards his system predicts will hit the table next. "Traditionally, counting strategies dictate that counters bet high when more high cards remain as a larger number of unplayed high cards gives an advantage to the player." The new technology keeps a much better (i.e. exact) track of the cards already dealt and much more, triggering an alert when it "detects a player continually adjusting his betting pattern coincident with a preponderance of undealt high cards". What do the casinos do when such an alert is triggered? Kick the player off the table. The casinos in Las Vegas have been told they can't use the technology to count cards but they say they are only using it to keep better track of the high rollers to whom they provide various freebies like drinks/hotel rooms/meals and show tickets. Hands up everyone who believes that.

I did well at the blackjack table. :+) 5 wins and one draw out of 6 games played and came out $60 up. My guests all won as well. Neverthless, casinos, however plush, are seedy, sordid and sad places. You see very few people looking as if they are enjoying themselves and when one knows the odds are stacked against one ... well ... what's the point? I won't be going back.

No dumb feeding machine

I've told a few people (those who don't read this blog) about my encounter with a shark on the Reef last week and I guess it is not surprising that most recoil with horror at the prospect of meeting one in the water. For myself, that tinge of fear added to the "coolness" of the experience and I'd certainly hang around longer next time. A quick Google trawl on shark attacks and the like hooked this book review which says that the little we do know about the biggest shark of them all, the great white, suggests it is not some dumb feeding machine, but rather "a skilled and stealthy predator that feeds with both ritual and purpose". Humans, apparently, do not have enough fat content to interest them. Not that I met a great white or anything, but it would seem that sharks are not very different from most other species of life on this planet i.e. don't mess with them and they won't mess with you.

Whitefella thang

The winner of the 20th Telstra National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Award has a point when he says the Aboriginal art industry is " ... controlled by white people ... the dealers, the buyers, the gallery owners. It's all white and is presented from their perspective -- and then they have the cheek to attach the spirituality of the Aboriginal people to it."

Aboriginal can be stunningly beautiful, but one does see it appropriated by all sorts of groups and entities. Take a look, for example, at the logo of Australian Airlines, and yet I didn't see a single Aboriginal member of staff on the ground or in the air last month when I flew the airline. That logo looks like a total rip-off of Aboriginal art and appears to be conveying the message that somehow the airline is in touch with that side of Australia ... or am I giving them too much credit? Either way, I think the winner of the abovementioned award has a right to complain.

Thinking under a totalitarian regime

Following on from the 'Powerhouse' entry yesterday, here is a thoroughly thought provoking interview with an Iranian intellectual, Abdolkarim Soroush, on the problems of research in the sciences and freedom of thought generally under totalitarian regimes.

In response to the point that "science has done well under totalitarian regimes in China and the former Soviet Union, and even under some fairly unpleasant governments during Islam's 'golden age of science' between the 9th and 13th centuries...", he replies "Let me make a distinction between empirical research and thinking per se. Thinking needs a free environment. Empirical research, where you have a well-defined project with official approval, can indeed flourish even under a totalitarian regime, because scientists can still meet other scientists, read the literature and publish. But it is impossible to advance new theories - particularly in the social sciences - when you are under the influence of a particular view, or under the pressure of a particular dogma.

And I disagree with you about Islam's golden age. Totalitarianism is absolutely a modern phenomenon. In the past, kings were despots but they were not totalitarian. They weren't able to put their hands on science and philosophy. There was no widespread plan to limit scientists, philosophers and other academics. If there were restrictions, they came from religion or fellow philosophers rather than the political system."

Well worth a read.

Defining Moment

I'm not quite sure what was being defined, but I saw a shark in the water today and it was ... choose your expletive (because sometimes there's nothing like an expletive) ... brilliant. We were about 200 metres from the shore and in about two metres of water with coral reef all around us. Some two meters or so in length, it came to within about 3 meters of me. Reef sharks are not dangerous - on the whole - but I was still glad when it moved away. We'd seen a large turtle earlier and followed it for quite a while, but that shark will live in the memory for a long time. Magic.

Powerhouse of Ideas

A four day conference on the "most confronting ideas and challenging solutions in justice, education, design, culture, population, society, science, technology, spirit, business, sustainability and communication". Ideas at the Powerhouse runs until Sunday in Brisbane. A conference to encourage thinking. Now there's an idea.

Hand signals for 'charades'

It usually gets played at Christmas in an attempt to entertain the children, but, more often than not, adults take over and have most fun with the party game 'charades'. Here's a site where they've put up some pictures of hand signals which you can use should you get asked to do any mimes on 'peacekeeping' or maybe 'searches for weapons of mass destruction'. I particularly liked the signal for 'male'.

(The linked site may take a little time to load if you are on a slow dial-up connection.)

Sassi Cucina

Some important guests arrived in town yesterday and I took them off to Port Douglas. Pretty much a one horse town and that one horse is Mr. Tourist, but it's worth a visit for Sassi Cucina alone. A delightful restaurant that will have you writing home (or blogging!) about the Adriatic cuisine that they serve so refreshingly well. The lemon and mustard sauce bed that the charcoal grilled tuna lay on was a sumptuous experience for the tongue and the lobster one of our group had was just ... mmmm.

(No pictures - ahhhh! - but that's what comes of having to make two trips to school in the morning because a certain 11-year-old forgot his ingredients to make pizza in class, resulting in me forgetting the camera in the rush. You'll probably be able to read about the pizza on his blog in a day or two.)

What comes down ...

Who fancies rebuilding one of the most reviled symbols of the Cold War? Specifically ... the Berlin Wall. All 29 miles of it. In plastic. No? Oh come on, it might be fun. The people behind the idea want to do it in time for the World Cup in 2006 and keep it up for two months. I like the reverse symbolism behind their idea: "The World Cup shows all nations can communicate and cooperate with each other while the wall separates. Today there are still several divided nations, such as the Koreas, Israel and Ireland, and we want to remind people of both the past and the future in a meaningful way. Walls are not just physical, but also exist in your head." Though I'm not sure how far their 'World Cup communication and cooperation theory' would hold up if, say, Israel and Iran got drawn in the same group!

Not safe anywhere

In Japan we expect one good shake of the earth every year and minor shakes on average once a month or so. I had no idea they had seismic faults here in Queensland though. The Townsville Bulletin reports of an earthquake that had its epicenter 100km offshore and measured 4.5 on the richter scale. I think the Japanese would consider 4.5 a ripple rather than a shake, but it does so much depend on what you are used to and where you are when it hits. The higher up you are, the more you feel it and any shake at all takes on a whole different meaning when you're a house owner - earthquake insurance, in Japan at least, is expensive and not comprehensive.

Townsville is about 350km south of Cairns.

Here we go again

Do you think the people she helped in Calcutta really cared whether Mother Teresa was Albanian or Macedonian? Of course, unlike those names I listed in my August 8 post, there are those that question the saint-to-be's greatness and saintly status.

Lagoon

I know the UK has been having some warm weather - well it only falls into the 'warm' category if you live anywhere that shares a latitude with Spain (I'm actually thinking Japan here, not Australia ... obviously) - and here in Cairns they have a facility that Brits would die for just now. The Esplanade is a pretty spectacular project and the Lagoon (click on the photos for larger images) is the centerpiece of the whole development. It spans some 4 hectares and is capable of accommodating 1000 swimmers at a time. Furthermore, it is open from dawn to dusk and ... wait for it ... it's free for locals and visitors. Ace!

Nagasaki 1945-2003

It's a sad indictment of me (I'm a day late) and of the way Nagasaki has been relegated to a position off our radar screens just because it was the 2nd city to be devastated by a nuclear bomb. Hiroshima has editorials written about it, while Nagasaki is a news item.

Here's a link to the Nagasaki A-bomb museum.

Fat French Fries (and burgers)

Anyone who has heard me wax lyrical (or just blab on about) Italian food, usually feels the draught of the scorn I pour on the reputation of the French as Europe's premier food country. Well guess what, McDonald's France is the best performing European subsidiary of the U.S. company and obesity is on the rise there - in line with U.S. rates of growth in the area. One U.S. academic quoted in this Financial Times article suggests increasing rates of obesity around the world has something to do with "increasing defiance of adult guidance by the young", and a French academic seems to concur by saying "Today, French schools have a self-service system inherited from the US, which is good because it promotes choice but bad because children simply have no idea what they should eat."

I'm sure obesity is on the rise in Italy (no data to support it, but they are such large eaters), but they just have more fun en route.

Degrees of separation

You are only five to seven emails away from contacting anyone in the world. That's exactly how far you were away from that same person when email didn't exist and the Post Office was in charge of delivering all our written communications. That, at least, is the conclusion a researcher at Cornell University has come to after a massive experiment involving 60,000 people from 166 countries. I'm sure I'm less than 6 people (the average) away from the Queen of England, but what would happen if I wanted to contact a tribesman in the Kalahari desert?

I'm not sure if it is related, but you can join an experiment that is proving the same point.

Knickers to it all

I think we would all agree that 'greatness' is universal. It knows no borders. Shakespeare, Beethoven, Einstein, Dickens, Curie, The Beatles, Austen, Mandela, Tolstoy et al, may have achieved their status as a result of their specific background and nationality, but what they left the world not only transcends boundaries, it is no longer the sole possession of any group or city or nation. Their legacy belongs to the world. So, why was the BBC so intent on trying to find Great Britons and why are Austria and Germany getting their collective knickers in a twist about whether Mozart was Austrian or German? I can understand the desire for emerging nations to strut their stuff on a world stage (the Japanese go absolutely wild about Nobel prize winners and the Aussies will laud you to heaven if you win a gold medal at something ... anything!), but for heaven's sake let's leave the real greats out of all this jingoistic claptrap.

Ninja - kind of

A weird and amusing(?) site on Jewish Ninjas. And if you go there, you'll want to know more about shuriken. Well if you're interested in ancient Japanese arts and the weapons used by the original ninja you will.

Amazing...ly dumb

OK, let's get down to business. Spam is NOT luncheon meat. It is all those annoying and unrequested emails you get from companies and individuals purveying anything from "free testing software" (that's the latest one to hit my inbox) to pills for enlargement of various parts of the body and, of course, the almost lovable Nigerian 419 scam. Like most people you probably think these companies will go away for the simple reason that "surely no one can believe the nonsense they peddle". Think again. Seemingly intelligent people - that's if one assumes it takes intelligence to manage a $6 billion fund or run a company that sells aircraft parts - buy stuff from spammers. This article suggests a company called Amazing Internet Products has grossed half a million dollars since 4 July selling bottles of penis pills. Clearly it pays to be a spammer and even more clearly there's more than one born every day.

Modern History

Old Net hands will have seen this before, but if to you spam is still just a fancy name for luncheon meat and Napster came and went and all you think you missed was some new fangled betting scheme for the racetrack, then you might find this Internet Time Line amusing.

Buckle up!

Latest research suggests that fatter people are more likely to die in a car crash than thinner people. Why? Well they fall asleep at the wheel, they're difficult to get out of crashed vehicles and cars are just too small for them! If this is really the case one should be able to extrapolate the data and say there are more accidents in countries with greater incidences of obesity. No mention of that in the Beeb article though. You thin people aren't totally out of the woods though, the research found "thin people were less protected by body fat so had an increased risk of bone fractures, which could raise their injury rate". Buckle up indeed!

Hiroshima 1945-2003

Mayor of Hiroshima: "The world without nuclear weapons... that bomb survivors have sought for so long appears to be slipping under a thick cover of dark clouds that they fear at any minute could become mushroom clouds." BBC Article.

We really are no closer are we? If you ever come to Japan (or live there) the Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum is a must-visit place.

Filthy lucre

An old Danish proverb has it that "fish and guests smell at 7 days old" - don't quote me on it, but it is something like that. So what about money? Here's a Reuters story about the trouble with smelly money in Bangladesh. "The notes are losing their usefulness as currency because people are becoming unwilling to take them, central bank officials say. Fish-market traders, for example, have found that their customers are demanding coins as change." Filthy lucre? Totally new definition.

Bet the future

So how do you fancy betting on possible terrorist action? Well you can't because U.S. legislators have already canned the idea to create a futures market to help predict terrorist strikes, but the theory behind the idea was that "market mechanisms are more accurate than asking people their opinions because they're putting their money or reputation on the line," and this gives people "an incentive to reveal what they know." If you read on, the proponents do have some good points, but I don't like the idea. In the end it's still about people trying to make money from potential heinous acts. Furthermore, the markets can only handle preconceived ideas and would not have been able to predict innovative strikes like 9/11 i.e. defeating the very purpose that the idea probably sprang from.

However, one thing leads to another and there are plans (by different people of course) to float a market on what the American government is up to. For example, you will be able to bet on "which country the White House will threaten next?" or "who the next foreign leader to move off the CIA payroll and onto the White House's 'most wanted' list will be?" Is it double standards to say I like the idea of this one much better?

Shut up and hold on

A local radio station had a "what's the whackiest car sticker you've seen lately" spot yesterday. (This is a small town remember.) Anyway, "wine me, dine me, 69 me!" was considered very passé and I only listen in the car so I don't know how much whackier they got. I did, however, see one today which made me smile. "Get in, sit down, shut up and hold on." Not exactly appropriate to life in Cairns, but maybe to some of the adventure sports that they get up to here like sky diving and ballooning and white water rafting.

Number Plates - 3

Western Australia is probably the furthest state from Queensland and so it isn't surprising I see very few WA plates around, but I thought I would at least see one with a slogan on it. No.

I saw the Queensland number plate while driving and didn't think I'd get a chance to snap it, but got lucky when I saw it on a car parked outside the video rental store. I wonder if this particular plate was in response to all the 'Y2K' computer hype or if the Queensland Department of Transport had someone literary in charge at the time because it brought to mind the gloom of the fin de siècle that gripped European nations (and specifically France) at the end of the nineteenth century, and the literature that reflected the mood at the time. A feeling of world weariness and despair.

To go off on a complete tangent to number plates, Y2K computer glitches aside I did think the 20th century went out with a bang and lots of positive vibes. Economies around the world (let's conveniently forget Japan for now) were doing well and there was a general feeling of indestructability around. Totally false sense of security of course. Not only was the U.S. economy about to take a hit of juggernaut proportions, but the world first took the hit of an ultra conservative U.S. administration being elected and then the events that fuelled the rage of that administration and prompted it to go further, and even more dangerously, right. The 20th century got off to a bad start, but a strong case could be made for saying the 21st century has fared even worse.

For when you need that extra point

The average eraser has eight corners. This eraser from Japanese company Kokuyo (Japanese language site) has 28 pinpoint corners. So? Well for designers who still work on paper, a sharp corner is indispensable for erasing small mistakes and the corners of the existing 8-point eraser get round too quickly. Ingenious? Award winning!

Lottery shoes

10  14  19  24  28  30

2  13  17  28  42  45

10  19  28  35  36  40

2  19  24  25  29  43

Lucky numbers? One cobbler (do they still call them that?) is hoping so. We went to get Milan's shoes fixed (a gaping hole at the front) and were initially quoted A$10 (about £5). He said it would take about 10 minutes and asked us to come back later. When we returned he said "you're alright", meaning it was gratis. Rather taken aback by this act of kindness in one of Cairns' bigger shopping malls, we bought him a A$2 lottery ticket for the A$19 million Gold Lotto draw to be held tonight. Check to see if he won!

Cashiered

This Reuters report surely must have got garbled in the translation from Spanish. At least one hopes so, but a foreign-backed supermarket in Argentina is apparently making its cashiers wear adult nappies (diapers) in case "cold, nerves, pressure or stress" provoke incontinence. I would have thought Argentina's recent economic problems meant that there was plenty of time for workers to take breaks - rampaging inflation usually translates to people having less money to spend - but human indignity (and our ability to inflict it on others) really seems to know no bounds. :+(

Hey Mum! It's the dustbin men

Clockwise: The bins as they looked after they had emptied the green-top bin which holds normal (i.e. probably combustible refuse), but not the yellow-top re-cyclables. Then you have the bin-truck in all its functioning glory. Prepare. Tip. Release. You can see in the first picture that the other side of the street had their yellow-top emptied earlier than ours. They collected our side of the street quite late today and hence the photos. (Click on the photos for a larger view.)