I remember this subject was discussed earlier, under the two posts: More astroturf (June 10, 2005) and Common fraud (December 03, 2004), and perhaps elsewhere hereabouts.
The 21st annual Sydney City to Surf Fun Run (~60k entrants) was on this morning (along with a Gay Marriage March and a Science Pride event for the start of Science Week -- the team of married gay scientists running in their veils, labcoats & pink shoes was a cheering sight*), so our chilly weather kept them from overheating. This is some kind of comfort, I suppose, as I huddle in my sheepskin slippers & warmest nightclothes tonight.
Last week I sent these to an American acquaintance, in case the pix might help cool her down (I wonder if that's part of the Penguin popularity?): Freak snow blankets southern Australia; The big chill is set to continue; Snow falls in Melbourne -- For some reason there's a picture of snow in Canberra** on top of a story about Melbourne (**Fresh snow cover on the Brindabella Mountains behind Canberra and Parliament House Photo: Andrew Taylor)
Winter Wonderland -- photo taken near Oberon, next to Blayney, where I saw snow in December!! while trying to sleep on the old overnight Sydney-Broken Hill train. Snow over Victoria -- has some nice photos
Reader Photo Galleries
Victorian Snowscapes (NOTE: This is a tree-fern NOT a fir-tree); Surprise snowfalls
Four seasons in one day (August 11, 2005), by Shirley Stackhouse
"Some places have proper seasons; we have weather. Last winter seemed colder than usual - remember frosts on the frangipani? Then there was that cold spell in January.
"In Sydney, we had a cold spell in early autumn, plus some good rain. Then conditions went back to warm and sunny. Confused plants, such as roses, thought we had had winter and it was spring and kept growing. Spring will still come in September, but don't pack your blankets away."
[*non-core report]
Yay! Cap'n Scarlet was my fave too. I specially liked the Mysterons - high quality SFX <g>
The DVD box set is around, and I was going to buy it for my birthday (same as Goethe, Tolstoy, Charles Boyer, Donald O'Connor; St Augustine's Day), but pre-ordered Civilization and Ascent of Man box sets instead, which are arriving in Oz this week! <thrill>
There was a definite squeee!!! in the air when I saw them, stifled respectfully by possible disapproval from the shade of Lord Clark (Sir Kenneth to his chums) -- though his most (in)famous book is "The Nude".
Apart from the lips, the orcas liked to take the tongue of whalers' kills. The town of Eden, ~500k south of Sydney on the Far South Coast of New South Wales, is on Twofold Bay. It's the last big settlement before the Victorian border if you're travelling the coastal route Sydney-Melbourne. Whaling and sealing were a very early substantial industry around Australia, and survived into the 20th Century. Some whale jawbones displayed around Sydney Harbour have only been removed in the last couple of decades.
The story of the "Killers of Eden" has been put into at least a couple of books, Killers of Eden: The Killer Whales of Twofold Bay, by Tom Mead. and Killers in Eden, by Danielle Clode.
Here are the local Eden Community Access Centre History of Eden page, and one for the Eden Killer Whale Museum.
And some stories from the ABC Site:
Ockahm's Razor: Killers in Eden Broadcast Sunday 3 November 2002, with Robyn Williams; Whales, Fish & Sealions Andrew Trites on the Science Show, Saturday 29 May 2004; Eden Killers Radio National Breakfast, 8:24am - Tuesday 30 July 2002, with Danielle Clode
May I draw this poetic tribute, from an online site for local North Scotland communities, to your attention ...
ADDRESS TO THE HAGGIS PAKORA
– by Lorna M. Angus
Fair fa' yer honest sonsie face
Great chieftain of the curried race ...
Another is on the second page at [PDF]
Since 1997, when my partner & I were shocked & amused to find garlic haggis balls in a caff on the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, there has been an evolutionary explosion, apparently. (Recipes here include 'creamy clap shot'.) The influence goes in both directions, as mostly happens. There is a report of a "Pakora Bar, at Sandgate (Ayr)" with "many different types of pakora e.g. haggis pakora, smoked sausage pakora, pork chop pakora", and a black pudding pakora in Paisley.
Mina W: If it's not too late; try not to read about "All you zombies" (Heinlein) before you read the story. I would like to hear someone's fresh reaction to it.
I thought people here might find some frissons of familiarity in the answer to this question:
Dear Yahoo!:
How can I get a short story sold and published in a magazine?
http://ask.yahoo.com/ask/20050725.html
BTW, our local late-night news program had a special post-midnight screening, with Paul Scully-Powers - the first Aussie astronaut - commenting on the live coverage of the launch of Discovery. He seemed quite impressed by the view from the camera attached to the fuel tank. Off to bed now, knowing they *finally* got off safely.
Madeline: from the sound of it, you don't live in a crowded neighbourhood or a block of flats. Many people do. I have to go to the Opera House or Recital Hall or suchlike to get full volume.
Am watching the end of the Tour de France race on TV, and I have the sound just loud enough to get the atmosphere, with the closed caption on to catch any useful information from the commentators, because it's about half-past midnight. (I'm not a big sport-watcher, but I go on a nostalgia binge, remembering happier times, as they ride through Paris on the final laps, and the spectacle is an extraordinary one.)
Just to carry forward the thread of people mourning missing meetings. For some years I've been hoping that Neil Gaiman would visit Australia so I could hear him, rather than simply read his journal, & perhaps meet him briefly across a printed page.
He's here this month. He came to Sydney for 1 day. Guess which day I am booked immovably into hospital for some follow-up work after the cancer a while back? Right.
Oh well; I hope someone takes him on a trip either into the hinterlands and wilds, or some of the stranger non-natural parts while he's on the Great Southern Land.
Nigeria has issues beyond sending spam. The first 3 stories are one case, the last is another. Nigerian man sentenced to stoning for gay sex ABC Online, Australia - 8 Jul 2005 (Short piece)
Nigerian faces death by stoning for gay sex PM - Thursday, 14 July , 2005 (Transcript of longer radio piece) ... Nigerian women have also had their sentences overturned. But for men involved in homosexual sex, there's been little response ...
Nigerian man sentenced to death after admitting to gay sex Southern Voice Online, Friday, July 15, 2005 (printer-friendly version)
Gay Nigerian men face being stoned to death Mail & Guardian Online, 13 July 2005
How many countries are iTunes available in now?
I believe they aren't in Australia -- there was a rumour earlier this year, but it didn't turn out.
So any popularity would have to be defined as in what markets.
Knowing from previous exchanges in & around this area, that there might be a fair amount of interest in medicaments here, I wondered if this might create a bit of a stir.
Bitter pill poppers cut costs by Mark Coultan [Sydney Morning] Herald Correspondent in New York (July 20, 2005)The US has the highest prices for medicines in the world, so five American states have decided to import them from Australia ... Under US pressure, the Canadian Health Minister, Ujjal Dosanjh, recently announced moves to restrict the export of personal prescription drugs ...
The scheme, I-SaveRx, operates in Illinois, Wisconsin, Kansas, Missouri and Vermont and allows residents to buy cheaper drugs by having prescriptions, written by American doctors, filled in other countries, including Canada, Ireland and Britain ... Australian drugs [are], on average, 51 per cent cheaper than in the US. Canadian drugs are 31 per cent cheaper ...
It is illegal to export Australian drugs subsidised by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme but other drugs are often cheaper in Australia because drug manufacturers have to compete with PBS-approved medicines.
The combined population of the five US states participating in the I-SaveRx scheme is more than the population of Australia and a potentially large market for Australian drug manufacturers and pharmacists.
Recent news — in a more prosaic form — of some pertinence here:
Nigerian woman in bank scam jailed ( www.eastandard.net/hm_news/news.php?articleid=25425)LAGOS, Sunday A court convicted a Nigerian woman of helping defraud a Brazilian bank of $242 million in the West African country’s biggest international fraud case
Amaka Anajemba was convicted on Friday, sentenced to 2 1/2 years in prison and ordered to give up $25.5 million in cash and assets — including houses in Nigeria, the United States, Britain and Switzerland — to help repay the bank ...
Nigeria has earned global notoriety as a base for criminals arranging "advance fee" or "419" scams, named after the section of Nigeria’s criminal code that prohibits the schemes. The Brazilian bank case is the biggest ever publicly disclosed in Nigeria.
419: Anajemba Jailed for 30 Months ( allafrica.com/stories/200507170023.html)Vanguard (Lagos) July 16, 2005 - by Wahab Abdulah & Jesukri Imoni
Eighteen months after her arraignment with two others for conspiring to swindle a Brazilian bank in the biggest ever Advance Fee Fraud offences, 37 year-old widow, Mrs Amaka Martina Anajemba was yesterday convicted after pleading guilty to the charges preferred against her by the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC). She will spend two years behind bar and forfeit all properties acquired through the fraudulent means.
John M: the construction "Keynes-Lite" could also be an interesting one <thinks: I should be thinking of interesting stuff to write, but soon I won't be able to walk thru' here if I don't do some cleaning>
Ms Croft, those footnotes tripped some synapses. Has anyone seen a Frank Herbert version? Perhaps Dumbledore as Liet Keynes (sp?), Hermoine as Princess Irulan, ...
"People used to speculate about a thought that destroys the thinker ..." -- there was a Monty Python sketch about a British secret weapon (WWI? WWII?) which was a joke (in German) that would cause the Germans hearing it to die laughing (or at least be incapacitated), as the British troops advanced, reciting it phonetically from a printed paper.
** SPOILER ** And of course there's the final episode of The Prisoner, when Patrick McGoohan asked the computer that oversaw the resort-prison a question that overloaded its circuits, so he could escape in the confusion. ** END SPOILER **
RiceVermicelli; glad to be of service. It brought back some nice memories.
The Queensland University of Technology's School of Advertising, Marketing and Public Relations is developing its own particular version of Duke Nukem: All the fun of shopping, coming to a screen near you (by Mark Todd)Today soap powder, tomorrow ... who knows, politicians maybe? [Sigh. I had an ancestor named Patti after Adelina Patti, the famous singer. Not sure how she'd feel about this Prof Patti.]
It may be be one of the world's most boring video games but a virtual-reality supermarket created in Brisbane is exciting marketers for its potential to predict what people put in their shopping trolleys, and why.
Test shoppers sit before a three-metre high screen, wrapping around the viewer in a 180-degree arc. Using a mouse, the shoppers prowl a single supermarket aisle browsing, picking up, putting back and finally choosing virtual products ...
The virtual supermarket was also less costly and time consuming than trials conducted in the field or in specially designed test studios.
"There's a huge difference between what someone in a focus group says they may buy and what they actually buy," Professor Patti said. "In the virtual reality environment, they actually choose something."
The program also records the products a consumer looked at on their shopping spree, but did not buy...
The Tough Guide to Regencyshire: a collaborative work ( www.livejournal.com/users/lnhammer/20106.html ) Posted in Sidelights on February 7, 2005 01:21 PM
Quick correction to link above: this is probably the address Mr Vos Post meant to put for the link to TIMELINE COSMIC FUTURE
UTS is in my vicinity, so mebbe I could slope along and have a squiz at the Futurians. Haven't done much since Science in the Pub shut down and life got ... interesting. If so, I'll try to report back.
Happy Bastille Day, all you cheese-eaters! And best of luck to Discovery & all who sail in her.
Apology & Correction In my comment earlier I repeated without careful investigation a figure from a somewhat dodgy source for the number of Australians in London. I think that figure is probably something like all the Aussies in the UK (possibly including tourists during an average year), since a more accurate source <ahem> (AFAIK) has since come up with a figure of around 100,000 Australians living in London. One nice touch is that the major telephone company Telstra (formerly public, now half & half) has given large discounts to calls made to the UK by people here checking on friends and family. I have no idea how this was implemented, but that's what the PR said. Other companies may have followed suit, and I've a vague feeling that Qantas is being nice too.
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