Black Forest cake

When I lived on campus at university, it was a time when most of us turned 21. Somehow, I ended up making birthday cakes for several friends. It was Black Forest cake, or a variation of it, using packet mix chocolate cake. I became quite renown for my triple layer twenty-first birthday Black Forest cakes.

I've now found a great recipe that was shown on tonight's Food Safari on SBS. Recipe by Martin Boetz

Legendary around the world, the Black Forest cake epitomizes Germany’s love for a huge selection of indulgent cakes! Layers of buttercake, chocolate cake, morello cherries, cream, chocolate custard and kirsch make this a decadent dream-come-true for all cake lovers.

Ingredients

Butter Cake
300g butter
300g caster sugar
300g flour
6 eggs
1 ½ tsp baking powder

Chocolate Cake
250g chocolate
250g sugar
1 ½ cups flour
6 eggs
180g butter

Chocolate Mousse
4 egg yolks (80g)
200g unrefined caster sugar
100ml whole milk
150g top quality dark chocolate
Generous pinch of table salt
200ml whipping cream

Chocolate Ganache
95ml whipping cream
1 tsp glucose syrup
Pinch of table salt
95g top quality dark chocolate
20g unsalted butter

Cherries
1 jar of whole sour cherries (Morello)
1 vanilla bean
1 tbsp sugar

To Build Your Black Forest Cake
All of the above - ie. 2 x butter cake, 2 x chocolate cake, the chocolate mousse, cherries, cherry syrup and the chocolate ganache plus:
Freshly whipped cream
Shards of dark or milk chocolate (this is your ‘forest’)
10 whole fresh cherries that have been soaked in Kirsch for 1 week

View conversion table

Preparation

Butter Cake
Cream the butter and sugar. Add eggs one by one and fold in flour and baking powder. Pour into a greased baking tin & bake at 180°C for 55 minutes.

Chocolate Cake
Melt chocolate and butter together, then beat the eggs and sugar together and fold the cool chocolate mix through. Sift the flour and fold into the chocolate mix.
Pour into a greased baking tin and bake at 180°C for 1 hour.

Chocolate Mousse
Beat the egg yolks with the sugar for 5 minutes, or until stiff. A food mixer with a paddle attachment can be used for this.

Gently warm the milk in a small pan. Remove it from the heat and stir in the beaten egg yolks. Return to a medium heat and cook for a further 2-3 minutes, stirring frequently. Use a digital probe to monitor when the temperature of the mixture reaches 80°C and remove from the heat.

Finely chop the chocolate and place it in a medium sized bowl. Pour the warm milk and the eggs over the chocolate and stir until the chocolate has melted. Add the salt and leave to cool.

Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Fold the cream into the cooled chocolate mixture.

Chocolate Ganache
(Martin uses the mousse recipe from the Heston Blumenthal book but any basic mousse recipe is fine to use.)
Gently heat the cream, glucose syrup and salt. Break the chocolate into a bowl then stir in the warm cream. When the chocolate has melted entirely, add the butter and stir until that too has melted. Spoon the mixture into a piping bag and place it in the fridge for at least an hour to stiffen.

Cherries
Drain a jar of whole sour cherries (morello cherries), keeping the juice in a saucepan. Add a vanilla bean and sugar and reduce to a syrup.

To Build Your Black Forest Cake
Start with a layer of butter cake (one half of the butter cake cut across the diameter)
Splash cake with Kirsch
Pipe a layer of mouse around the outside of the cake (you are building a wall to keep in the cherries)
Add the cherries within the confines of your ‘mousse wall’
A layer of chocolate cake
A layer of cream
Another layer of butter cake
Pipe on another layer of the Mousse Wall and then add cherries
Another layer of chocolate cake
Another splash of Kirsch
Then another layer of cream
Another layer of butter cake
Topped with another layer of mousse (but this time fill the mousse over all the cake – no wall and no cherries)
Final layer of chocolate cake
Pour ganache over the top
Add topping of chocolate shards and whole cherries (preferable fresh ones that have been soaked in kirsch for 1 week)

Let set and settle for 3-6 hours.

For my own 21st birthday, a friend made a carrot cake for me - still one of my favourites.

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I returned to the dentist this morning for the fitting of my ocular splint. Dental care has now become an important part of my daily routine.

Gaius

Gaius was a common Roman given name, or rather praenomen (only used by immediate family).

One of the most famous Gaius was Gaius Octavius Thurinus, who after adoption by by his great-uncle Julius Caesar in 44 BC became known as Gaius Julius Caesar Octavianus.

There are very few fictional characters called Gaius. There is Dr Gaius Balthar in Battlestar Galactica, and more recently Gaius (only one name), the royal physician in the new take on Merlin.

Gaius is a cool name. There should be more baby boys named Gaius.

Indeed, more Roman names should be brought back to common usage, like

• Flavius
• Lucius
• Tiberius
• Titus
• Gallus
• Agrippa
  

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Happy Tuesday!

Banksy work destroyed

I first wrote about Banksy earlier this year and mentioned his work called 'Little Diver' in Melbourne (painted in 2003).

Unfortunately, some vandal has destroyed this work. See The Age

The painter painted: Melbourne loses its treasured Banksy

Janae Houghton
December 14, 2008

The Little Diver by Banksy (right) and after the vandals struck (left)

HE IS a small, faceless man and was supposedly well protected with a piece of perspex plastic, but famous laneway graffiti artwork 'Banksy's little diver' has been destroyed by vandals.

It is believed the less-than-one-metre-tall grey figure, wearing a duffle coat and diving mask, was stencilled in 2003 when the famous British graffiti artist known just as Banksy visited Melbourne.

The little diver lives on a wall, surrounded by rats and rubbish, on the back of the Nicholas Building on the corner of Swanston Street and Flinders Lane.

A piece of screwed-in plastic, paid for by the building's owners, has protected him from the elements and damage since April this year.

But someone has ruined the iconic little diver, by tipping silver paint behind the plastic protector and tagging 'Banksy woz ere' on the plastic, potentially ruining the artwork forever.

Earlier this year, the little diver's potential value went up when another Banksy artwork on a London wall was sold for £208,000 ($A472,528) on an eBay auction.

Banksy, the elusive street artist, keeps his identity secret and hardly ever gives media interviews.

Fans and buyers of his works include Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt and Christina Aguilera.

http://www.banksy.co.uk

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Banksy

What makes this senseless act of vandalism even worse, is that the vandal knew it was a Banksy.

Even so, Banksy would have been aware of the risk in leaving art in such publicly exposed places.

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This week is going to be a very strange one at work.

imitation is the sincerest form of flattery

The Times (UK) has reported that a wealthy Bangladeshi plans to build an exact replica of the Taj Mahal at Sonargaon, 20 miles north east of Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh.

December 12, 2008

No love lost over Bangladesh's copycat version of the Taj Mahal

Rhys Blakely

The construction of an exact copy of the Taj Mahal has sparked a diplomatic fracas between India and Bangladesh - raising the vexing issue of whether or not it is possible to claim copyright on a building.

The row began after Ahsanullah Moni, a wealthy Bangladeshi film director, gave the first glimpse of his copy of the Taj Mahal this week.

The project has cost about £40 million and is being built about 20 miles northeast of Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital. But the Indians are upset. “You can't just go and copy historical monuments,” an official at the Indian High Commission in Dhaka told a reporter this week.

“Someone will go out there and have a look. This [the original Taj Mahal] is a protected site we are talking about, so we need to find out if it really is the exact size.”

Deepak Mittal, a spokesman for the High Commission, confirmed to The Times that the matter was being investigated. “We have heard about this new Taj. We are checking the details,” he said.

For their part, Bangladeshi officials are incensed by suggestions that the Taj Mahal - which was built by the Emperor Shah Jahan in memory of his favourite wife, Mumtaz Mahal, and completed in 1653 - is protected by some sort of copyright.

“I'm not sure what they are talking about,” one said. “Show me where it says that emulating a building like this can be illegal.”

To make his Taj, Mr Moni imported marble and granite from Italy and diamonds from Belgium to add to 160kg (350lb) of bronze. He hopes that his version of the mausoleum will attract tourists to Bangladesh, a country that is well off the beaten track for Western holidaymakers.

Construction work began five years ago, but Mr Moni says that he came up with the idea in 1980 when he first visited the real Taj in Agra, northern India.

He said that his homage had been built because most people living in Bangladesh - where nearly half of the population exist below the poverty line - cannot afford to travel to India to see the real thing.

“Everyone dreams about seeing the Taj Mahal but very few Bangladeshis can make the trip because it's too expensive for them,” he said.

Mr Moni first visited the original in 1980 and has made six return trips. So enamoured was he of the site that he hired a group of architects and sent them to India to measure it.

He said: “I used the same marble and stone as in the original Taj. We used machinery, which is why it took less time. Otherwise it would have taken 20 years and 22,000 workers to complete it.”

Last night Mr Mittal, at the Indian High Commission, did concede that the replica was unlikely to detract from the magnificence of the original.

He also admitted that visitors were unlikely to mix up one with the other. “A copy is a form of flattery, I suppose,” he said.

I seriously doubt that the Indian government can prevent a replica being built. I wonder if all those scaled down replicas of famous monuments in Las Vegas were built with any form of licence or permission.

Bollywood has been copying Hollywood productions for years and counterfeiting pharmaceuticals. The Indian government cannot start taking a high moral stand now.

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Today was a real do nothing day. Just like yesterday.

Triskaidekaphobics' avoidance or certain real estate

Triskaidekaphobia is the irrational fear of the number 13. A few hotels do not have a 13th floor, although many do. BBC News has reported that triskaidekaphobia even affects real estate.

Would you buy a number 13 house?

The housing market has slowed but if you're trying to sell a home which is Number 13, then superstition makes it even harder to shift, says Chris Bowlby.

There are many things that might sway our decision about where to live, some more trivial than others.

But surely the house number cannot be that important?

And yet in our age of sophisticated property research, and careful financial calculation, houses are rejected by many potential buyers simply because they are numbered 13.

The problem is apparently so great that some local authorities in the UK are banning the use of number 13 in all new property developments - while others are determined to hold out against this official blessing for ancient superstition.

In the picturesque Worcestershire town of Bewdley, local estate agent Linda Hayden says there are two house that have proved especially hard to shift, even allowing for the current property downturn. One has been on the market for about a year and she believes the fact that it is a number 13 is the reason why.

"How bizarre," she says with a shake of the head. "We are a society that can justify most things in life, and yet we're still frightened by superstition that living in number 13 is not where we'd like to be".

Such has been the local aversion to "unlucky" houses that the district council, Wyre Forest, has in recent years banned the use of number 13 in all new developments. Local councillor Stephen Clee resolutely defends the policy.

"We have to listen to what the people say," he says. "The local community were saying to us, 'we don't like living at number 13, so can we do something about it?'"

Wyre Forest is not alone in this - 13 is not used for new houses in authorities ranging from Herefordshire to Lewes in Sussex. West Wiltshire has also introduced a ban, blaming it on advice from the Royal Mail - a charge an indignantly rational Royal Mail spokesman has denied.

Others are holding out against the onward march of officially-approved superstition.

West Norfolk council's policy on street numbering states baldly that "there should be no sanction given to the avoidance of any numbers, for example 13".

Minister of superstition

And in Edinburgh, the city council upholds the strictest traditions of Scottish enlightenment by stating severely: "In all instances the number 13 is never omitted."

So if you want to avoid living at number 13, it all depends on where you are lucky - or unlucky - enough to live. Alternatively, if you opt deliberately to buy a number 13 in some parts of the country, you might get a bargain.

And other countries are just as superstitious. In Japan, hotels, hospitals and apartment blocks often skip the unlucky number four. And in the US, skyscrapers often omit a 13th floor.

It would all puzzle the Victorians, whose 1840s legislation on street numbering, designed to bring order to chaotic urban sprawl, still sets the broad outlines for policy today - though local authorities like to assert their autonomy.

Perhaps a new national policy is needed, maybe a minister for the regulation of superstition, with an office close to the centre of government power?

He or she could be based in a new building in Downing Street, which has house numbers 9 to 12 but curiously, nothing to follow.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/uk_news/magazine/7779212.stm

Published: 2008/12/12 13:11:07 GMT

See also video from BBC - Sixes and sevens over street numbers

This is one of the silliest things I have ever read. There is nothing wrong with living at a number 13.

On the other hand, a house at the end of a T junction should be avoided. The front door could face oncoming traffic.

Also houses where the the front and back doors align are bad feng shui and allows energy to pass right through.

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Today has been a lazy day.

worse than lost in translation

For some reason, I found this story very schadenfreude. From (UK) Daily Telegraph on 9 December 2008

Advert for brothel mistaken for classical Chinese poem

A respected German scientific magazine has been embarrassed to discover it printed a Chinese-language advertisement for "jade-like girls" and "coquettish and enchanting housewives" across its front cover.

By Richard Spencer in Beijing
Last Updated: 7:49AM GMT 09 Dec 2008

The striking white-on-red text was intended to show off the Chinese focus of the official journal of the Max Planck Institute.

The editors, who thought they were printing a piece of classical Chinese poetry, said they ran it past "a German sinologist" to make sure.

In fact, the text appears to be a flier for a Hong Kong or Macau entertainment centre.

It says two new "directors" have been appointed to oversee a series of "matinees". They will personally lead "jade-like girls in the spring of youth, beauties from the north" - the north of China is a popular recruiting ground for Hong Kong and Macau prostitutes. It also has "housewives whose performances are coquettish and enchanting".

The magazine cover has circulated on Chinese blogs, causing amusement and a certain amount of schadenfreude.

Many English-speaking Chinese are keenly aware that poorly translated signs and restaurant menus here are a perpetual source of amusement for foreigners, with a number of popular online and published collections, such as www.engrish.com

Government-led attempts to spare the nation's blushes are matched with vengeful glee by tattooists who cash in on the current, David Beckham-led craze for Chinese characters by inscribing young backpackers' bodies with slogans such as "A fool and his money are easily parted" or crude sexual invitations.

On the other hand, Chinglish is hitting back due to attempts to use translation software to improve matters.

In one celebrated case, a rash of English-language signs featuring the prominent and inexplicable use of the F-word was discovered to be the fault of a piece of translation software that failed to distinguish meanings of the character for "to do", which carries the same sexual double entendre in Chinese as it does in English.

Particular online delight has come from the discovery of a restaurant whose sign gives its English name as "Translate Server Error".

How the "German sinologist" came to mistake a strip club advertisement for a piece of classical poetry has not been made clear. An apology for the cover's "inappropriate content" to Chinese subscribers from the Max Planck Institute said: "To our sincere regret, it has now emerged that the text contains deeper levels of meaning, which are not immediately accessible to a non-native speaker."

Chinese readers however suspect a practical joke, at best, if not a calculated insult to the pride of the Chinese nation.

And the illustration


I've always wondered about non-Chinese language readers with tattoos of Chinese characters in order to be fashionable. I wonder if they realise the meaning of the words.

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Dubai Towers - Dubai

Dubai Towers Dubai is currently under construction in Dubai by developer Sama Dubai.

A series of four towers, inspired by the movement of candle light, the tallest will be 400 metres when completed in 2009.



In the meantime, Dubai municipality is cracking down on expats sharing rental properties, who do so due to high rents.

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I wonder why I find Gossip Girl addictive.

questions about Santa Claus

I'm surprised that Santa Claus has not been apprehended for questioning yet, when he visits Australia.

There are a number of questions that require answers.

1. As Mr Claus intends to work in Australia, delivering presents and lumps of coal to children, did he apply for a work visa, and if so, was he granted one?

2. Does Mr Claus enter Australia at a designated border control - either airport or seaport?

3. Does Mr Claus pay customs duty and taxes on the goods that are outside of the allowable duty free allocation?

4. Are the reindeers quarantined upon arrival given the risk of foot and mouth disease in live deer imports?

5. Where Mr Claus enters Australia prior to his delivery of presents, and offers children to sit on his knee - has he had a police check to ensure he can be trusted to work with children?

Of course, there are even more questions about the status of the height-challenged staff working in Santa's workshop. There have been allegations that they are indentured slaves.

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I finished painting the side gate/fence this evening.

Rolex and Volvo on the high seas

I've been following the Volvo Ocean Race for sometime now, when it used to be called the Whitbread Round the World Race many years ago. Really, sailing should be the sport of kings, not horse-racing.



In 2005/2006, Melbourne was a port of call from mid January to mid February 2006. I should have travelled then, to check out the yachts.

For the 2008/2009 season, the yachts are currently in Cochin (India).



Though, there is still some way to go, the current leader is Ericsson 4 - also the favourite to win.

Ericsson 4


The Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup is another major ocean race, with much bigger yachts.

Ranger (Cayman Islands) - overall winner in the Cruising Division of the 19th Maxi Yacht Rolex Cup


Another magnificent looking yacht was Moneypenny (USA) which competed in the Mini Maxi Division


Though I would never go on a holiday cruise (but perhaps never say never), I did almost enlist in the navy once.

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Today, I fixed the gaps under the side fence/gate by screwing two 10 cm wide wooden fence palings joined together and did some more painting of it.

'no eating' signs

Here is a list of common and universal 'no eating' signs.


The durian sign and the fine in dollars indicate that this is probably a sign in Singapore









I have seen some of them locally.

What I don't understand, is why food is always represented by a burger. Burgers are not a common food eaten by most people in the world.

The signs with a knife and fork are also common.

So, if people are not eating burgers, but something else, perhaps they should ignore the sign. Furthermore, people eating with their hands or chopsticks should also ignore the knife and fork sign.

For 'no eating', a far more appropriate sign would be a picture of a plate or bowl with lines showing there is something in it, without identification. Otherwise a bowl of rice - more people in the world eat rice, than hamburgers.

A 'no eating' sign with a picture of a hamburger is yet another culturally inappropriate export from the United States.

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I need to keep going with the yard chores.

as one sinks, another rises

Last month, many media outlets (including CNN) reported that Maldives is looking for a new homeland in order to relocate its people as its many islands will eventually be submerged by rising sea levels due to global warming.

the capital, Male is on one island and protected by a sea wall


Meanwhile, developers in Dubai are reclaiming land from the sea in the form of designer islands such as Palm Islands and The World.

Palm Jumeirah


Perhaps the Maldives could buy into an island development in Dubai, before that too sinks.

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The weekend couldn't come fast enough

Rex in Rome

Kommisar Rex (Inspector Rex) moves to Rome in season 9 (season 11 in some countries).



Tonight's episode on SBS TV (Australia) was the first of the new series. In it, Italian detective Lorenzo Fabbri visited Vienna on a case. Strangely, he spoke in Italian in Vienna, while the usual German speakers were dubbed into Italian.

Strange, as any global traveller will note - an Italian visiting Austria, is most likely to communicate in English as the neutral language.

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I can't wait for the weekend.

when doing a funny dance will make you money

Back in July, I wrote about Matt Harding ("Where the Hell is Matt?") who did the funny dance around the world.

It seems that Matt has been able to make a living out of his antics. Reported in The Age

Dancing Matt profits from YouTube jig

Matt dancing in Bali for his new global ad campaign with Visa.

Asher Moses
December 1, 2008 - 12:47PM

YouTube's most enduring star, Matt Harding, has turned a goofy dance he devised in a Brisbane office block into a global marketing colossus, which now includes the lucrative speaker circuit and a book deal.

Like reality TV winners, most YouTube stars are back to their day jobs within months but Harding has kept his jig going for four years since he appeared in his first web video.

During that time he has been paid to travel to the four corners of the globe three times, simply to be filmed dancing badly at various locations and in front of some of the world's most famous landmarks.

Now Harding, 31, is the face of a new global marketing campaign by Visa, which has been running since late last month on television in eight countries, including Australia.

In an email interview, Harding said he had also been hired to appear in several travel agency advertisements and by Google to create a new layer for Google Earth, showing off his favourite dancing locations.

He has also appeared on hundreds of talk shows around the world - including The Tonight Show With Jay Leno, the Jimmy Kimmel show and The Tyra Banks Show - and is frequently paid to speak at events and conferences.

"Speaking has become an unanticipated side occupation that I very much enjoy. I'm not very good at it, but I'm learning a lot," Harding wrote in his online journal after returning from a speaking engagement at a gathering of animal-feed salespeople in Minneapolis.

By May, Harding said he would have his first book in stores and he has not ruled out travelling the world again to make new clips.

He said the book would be a collection of anecdotes about making his videos.

Asked how long he expected to be able to milk his internet celebrity for cash, he said he had no idea.

"I don't pursue projects like this. I just make the videos and sometimes other cool opportunities come along," Harding, who keeps his earnings close to his chest, said.

For the Visa project, the financial terms of which have not been disclosed, Harding travelled to China, Indonesia, Japan, Singapore and Vietnam for two weeks with his girlfriend, keeping a diary on his blog.

"It was sort of like a paid vacation," he said.

But that's nothing compared with the travelling the pair did for Harding's latest YouTube video, which went up five months ago and has already garnered 13 million hits.

For the 4½-minute clip, Harding spent 14 months travelling to 42 countries. He did his geeky jive with Bollywood dancers in Gurgaon, India, with humpback whales in Tonga, with lemurs in Madagascar and even in zero gravity in Nellis Airspace, Nevada.

That trip began just months after Harding returned from a world tour of 39 countries for his second internet video, which was published on YouTube in June 2006 and has notched up 12 million views.

Unlike most viral web hits, Harding's popularity has increased with time. The 2006 video took a little over two years to reach 10 million hits but the latest one passed that mark in 83 days. Both were sponsored by Stride gum.

After high school, Harding, following his dad's advice, decided to skip university and become a video game developer. His career took him to Brisbane's Pandemic Studios in 2000 for 2½ years. I was there that he devised his now famous jig.

His first video, filmed while travelling with a co-worker and published on his website in January 2005 before the days of YouTube, was made simply as a running gag for family and friends but quickly spread virally across the web. It was viewed about 2 million times.

It's great that he can earn a living from something he enjoys, no matter how silly


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I went to the dentist this morning. My credit card is severely dented.

Melbourne - soon to be a bogan free zone

The City of Melbourne has a new Lord Mayor following recent elections.

In an interview with radio 3AW, he said he wanted bad buskers and bogans out of the city.

I think he forgot about emos.

Flinders Street train station is usually full of bogans


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The weekend went too quickly.

Jørn Utzon 1918-2008

Jørn Utzon (9 April 1918 – 29 November 2008)



Utzon gave Australia and the world one of the most iconic buildings of the 20th century, finally World Heritage listed in 2007 (I also blogged about this at the time).

The Sydney Opera House constitutes a masterpiece of 20th century architecture. Its significance is based on its unparalleled design and construction; its exceptional engineering achievements and technological innovation and its position as a world-famous icon of architecture. It is a daring and visionary experiment that has had an enduring influence on the emergent architecture of the late 20th century. Utzon's original design concept and his unique approach to building gave impetus to a collective creativity of architects, engineers and builders. Ove Arup's engineering achievements helped make Utzon's vision a reality. The design represents an extraordinary interpretation and response to the setting in Sydney Harbour. The Sydney Opera House is also of outstanding universal value for its achievements in structural engineering and building technology. The building is a great artistic monument and an icon, accessible to society at large.

Reported by Associated Press

Utzon's earliest buildings were private homes. It came as a surprise to many when he won the competition for the Sydney Opera House in 1956. The building, with its distinctive white roof shells resembling sails, is perched on the edge of Sydney Harbour.

Utzon received the prestigious Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2003 for his design of the opera house. The jury singled it out as among the most iconic buildings of the 20th century, saying it "proves that the marvelous and seemingly impossible in architecture can be achieved."

See also
- Sydney Morning Herald
- ArtDaily



It is still one of my favourite buildings. I love going to the opera there. Aside from the superb performances by Opera Australia, being at the Sydney Opera House is part of the experience.

Perhaps I should forgo a football game next year and go to the opera instead.

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Aside from some gardening and having Kim over for dinner, this weekend has been a restful one.

nothing

Today's post is about nothing.

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Kim came around for dinner tonight, which was lamb shanks, mash potato and sweet potato, and broccolini. After dinner, we watched Goal 2 - continuing the rags to riches story of Santiago Muñez.



film trailer

giving thanks for fungi

Seriously, without fungi, the world would be different. The antibiotic penicillin for one. See BBC.

I like how apart from penicillin, people are also dependent onVegemite and Marmite.

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Thank goodness, it's the weekend now.

moralising human nature

An interesting book review published in The Nation

A few years ago, in the course of researching her dissertation on changing sexual mores in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a young Iranian-American anthropologist named Pardis Mahdavi stopped by the Ministry of Education in Tehran to inquire about the country's sex education curriculum. Another visitor happened to be there. An older woman named Mrs. Erami, she was covered head to toe in the most conservative form of Iranian hijab: the tentlike black chador, held in place by the wearer's teeth such that it obscures half the face. Under her chador, Mrs. Erami wore another voluminous layer of hijab, including a hoodlike head scarf and a long, loose coat. Hers was the uniform of the government faithful, the traditional-minded and the sexually puritanical--the very image of the older generation that Mahdavi's main research subjects, Tehrani youth, rebuffed with their outsized vanity and sexual libertinism.

But Mrs. Erami had come to the ministry on a mission related to Mahdavi's. She taught courses on health, puberty and relationships at a Tehran high school, and she had come to talk to the minister about her frustration with her students' unwillingness to discuss sexual matters frankly with her. In a country where premarital sex with multiple partners is increasingly common but remains culturally taboo and punishable under the law, this severe-looking, chador-clad woman was, at a glance, hardly the person in whom one might feel comfortable confiding one's illicit activities or seeking intimate advice. Mahdavi didn't even feel comfortable letting the older woman see her nail polish, which is illegal but commonplace in Iran. Nonetheless, Mrs. Erami could not understand her students' reticence. "They are so difficult," she told Mahdavi. "I can't get them to talk to me, but I know what they are doing and what they are not doing. I had a teenage daughter myself, and I know that they are having a lot of sex, but not doing it right. I just can't get them to talk to me about it."

Mrs. Erami, it turns out, is one of the more dramatic products of the generational upheaval in Iranian attitudes toward sex. A conservative Muslim, she was not sympathetic, some years before her encounter with Mahdavi, when her gay son came out of the closet. Her husband threw him out of the house. When their unmarried daughter announced that she had a boyfriend, Mrs. Erami slapped her and called her a prostitute. The daughter left home that day, never to return. And so the Eramis lost both of their children over their unwillingness to accept sexual behavior that had become the norm not only globally but even within many circles inside Iran. A year later Mrs. Erami's husband died, leaving his wife entirely alone and flooded with regret. That was when she devoted herself to sex education reform, both as a teacher and as a campaigner within Iran's education ministry.

cover of the book Passionate Uprisings (Amazon.com)

I love irony. Repress people's human nature and they will try to express it in an extreme manner.

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Emily didn't come around for dinner last night, so I had baked beans on toast.

dog mansion or mad house?

One might think that a person who would spend a fortune on the comfort of her dogs while she is away is devoted to them. See Daily Telegraph (UK)

Luxury £1.4 million doghouse built for two great Danes

By Graham Tibbetts
Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 24/11/2008

The dogs' owner, a surgeon, has asked her builders to design her house in the Cotswolds so that it can provide all the essentials her pets will need when she is away.

The entry system uses retina scans to verify the animals' identity and cameras will allow the owner to watch their movements from another room or via the internet.

Automatic dispensers will ensure the drinking and eating bowls - both self-cleaning - are filled with just the right amount of chilled, filtered water or dry food.

There will also be a spa bath and the climate of the house can be controlled remotely over the internet.

The home is being made from zinc, glass and limestone and will occupy two plots of land on an estate in Gloucestershire.

Jeremy Paxton, owner of Conservation Builders, said: "I have been very actively involved in this project.

We specialise in building unusual homes and bespoke houses.

"It's a very interesting house with fabulous architecture and unusual requirements."

He added: "Most houses are build with human specifics in mind then animals fit in around that, but this is the other way round.

"There is even a spa bath with a saline treatment built in because it's good for their coats."

No matter how much comforts she has built for her Great Danes, she is sadly misguided. Her intentions are thoughtful, but I think she has missed the point.

Her dogs would be much happier with human company to provide their meals, walk them, groom them and most importantly, talk to them.

£1.4 million will also hire the best live-in carers while she is away.

On the other hand, if she is going to be away that often, then she needs to think about whether her Great Danes are better off in another home, where they will have more regular human company.

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All that frenetic activity both at work and home has finally caught up with me. I fell asleep on the couch after work today.

books - finished reading

The Islamist by Ed Husain (Penguin 2007)

A very insightful book that is also very well-written. It should be read by everyone, especially those who pigeon-hole all Muslims as potential terrorists. This is not the case. There are extremists in every religion - radical Christian fundamentalists do as much damage to society with their hate.

Buddha would have no bar of it...

Yet another so-called 'Buddha Bar' has opened, this time in London.


Photograph: Sophia Evans (Guardian)

What is really wrong with the London venue placing a statue of Buddha there is that people on the upper level are looking down on Buddha. Goes to show really, how thoughtless and ignorant the proprietors are and totally not having any understanding.

A number of so-named 'Buddha-Bars' already exist, located in Paris, Subiaco (Western Australia), Adelaide, Byron Bay (New South Wales), Waikiki Honolulu and New York city, with many more elsewhere.

Misappropriating a religious symbol as interior decor with no connection to its religious teachings is highly offensive.

If the proprietors of these venues that serve alcohol are Christian, would they have statues of Jesus inside their bars and restaurants? No, of course not. It would be disrespectful. Catholics would be highly offended if a bar serving alcohol was called 'Virgin Mary Bar'.

Not only culturally inappropriate, but also highly insensitive.

A suitable response would be for monks and worshippers from the local Buddhist communities to enter these places without a reservation and to start burning incense and chanting and praying. After all, there is a statue of Buddha on the premises, so it must be a temple.

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Today was a horrid day weather-wise. I discovered a bank cheque in unopened mail from June this year. Oh, I must open all my mail on time.

the point of daylight saving

Most of Australia is on daylight time at the moment. I prefer it, as there is more daylight at the end of the day to do things, especially for folks who work in offices every day. It is amazing what one can do in one hour of daylight.

I always thought that daylight saving was about saving energy. Matthew Kotchen and Laura Grant thought otherwise and wrote in the New York Times

November 20, 2008

Op-Ed Contributor

What’s the Point of Daylight Time?

By MATTHEW J. KOTCHEN and LAURA E. GRANT

Santa Barbara, Calif.

WHY do we — along with 75 other countries — alternate between standard time and daylight time? Although many people believe it has an agricultural provenance, daylight time has always been a policy meant to save energy. As Benjamin Franklin argued, if people moved up their summer schedules by an hour, they could live by “sunshine rather than candles” in the evenings.

Energy conservation was the motivation for daylight time during World Wars I and II and the oil embargo of the 1970s, and it remains so today — even though there has been little scientific evidence to suggest daylight time actually helps us cut back on electricity use.

Recently, however, we were able to conduct a study in Indiana, where daylight time was instituted statewide only in 2006. Before that year, daylight time was in effect in just a handful of counties. This change of policy offered a unique, natural experiment to measure the overall effect on residential electricity consumption. We could compare the amount of energy used by households in the late-adopting counties during the two years before they switched to daylight time with the amounts they used during the year afterward — while using counties that always practiced daylight time as a control group.

We found that daylight time caused a 1 percent overall increase in residential electricity use, though the effect varied from month to month. The greatest increase occurred in late summer and early fall, when electricity use rose by 2 percent to 4 percent.

Daylight time costs Indiana households an average of $3.29 a year in higher electricity bills, or about $9 million for the whole state. We also calculated the health and other social costs of increased pollution emissions at $1.7 million to $5.5 million per year.

What explains this unexpected result? While daylight time reduces demand for household lighting, it increases demand for heating in the early spring and late fall (in the mornings) and, even more important, for cooling on summer evenings. Benjamin Franklin was right about candles, in other words, but he did not consider air-conditioners.

In regions of the United States where demand for air-conditioning is greater than in Indiana, this spike in cooling costs is likely to be even greater. Arizona, one of the hottest states, may have it right; it does not practice daylight time.

Eliminating daylight time would thus accord with President-elect Barack Obama’s stated goals of conserving resources, saving money, promoting energy security and reducing climate change. At the very least, we should abandon the notion that we are saving energy while enjoying the extra hour of sunlight on hot summer evenings.

Matthew J. Kotchen is a professor of economics and Laura E. Grant is a doctoral student in environmental science and management at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

A flaw with their argument is latitude and basing a study on just one state.

I prefer the morning to feel like the morning and not feel like the sun has been up for hours. Anyway, I like dawn/sunrise. It is the most peaceful part of the day. I'd rather see it at 6am than 5am.

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It was a cold and rainy day.

whales - part 5

A former Japanese government official has admitted that there is no point in continuing with whaling. Exclusively reported in the Sydney Morning Herald

Tomohiko Taniguchi was the official voice of Japan for the last three years. The spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Tokyo fronted the international media every day to answer, avoid and argue questions. Of the hundreds of matters he dealt with, the one he dreaded most was defending Japan's whaling program. It was part of his job to defend official policy.

"I was being summoned by CNN, BBC and ABC on this issue far more than any other issue," Taniguchi says. "I hated this issue because there's no point in Japan sticking to its position," he tells the Herald in flawless English.

No point? Today Taniguchi is an adviser to Japan's Minister for Foreign Affairs. But, since July, he is no longer an employed official, so he is free to speak his mind. And he does.

"The Japanese whaling industry generates revenues of 7.5 billion yen a year, which is $120 million at the current exchange rate. It's tiny."

...

"Japan has nil national interest in the whaling industry," Taniguchi continues. "The stake for Japan is near zero. If Australians criticise the Japanese auto industry, Japan must do everything possible to protect the auto industry. This is not the auto industry."

He is writing a long piece for a Japanese magazine, Wedge, to ask Japanese to consider the balance sheet of national interests. On the other side of the ledger, he contends, "this issue is doing substantial damage to Japan's image in Australia, the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand," the entire English-speaking world.

...

Taniguchi hopes the whaling industry will fade away. Whale meat is not a big seller, an uneconomic activity. About 80 Japanese parliamentarians support whaling, but it is a core issue for only six to eight. With the Government's deficit worsening, the annual subsidy becomes harder to defend. But Taniguchi advises Australia, and others, not to press too hard, lest this only entrench Japanese political support for whaling.

...

Many countries have an ugly blemish that mars the total image and makes other peoples recoil in distaste. China has Tibet, the US has Guantanamo Bay, Turkey has Armenian genocide, and Japan has whaling. Uneconomic and increasingly costly to Japan's image, Taniguchi expects it will disappear in a few years. But in the meantime, he fears that escalation could damage the interests of Australia as well as Japan. "Japanese children would be horrified to learn that Australians routinely kill and even eat kangaroos, which they think are much cuter than whales."

Australians aren't against whaling because whales are cute! Kangaroos are not an endangered species, and provided they are harvested humanely, provide a good source of non-greenhouse generating protein in a sustainable manner.

Kangaroos are also confined to Australia, and do not cross global oceans and thus not a global concern, unless of course they are endangered or killed inhumanely.

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It has been another long week at work. This morning, I had multiple urgent tasks to be completed in the morning. No problem, but I deserve another holiday soon!

Tonight, I watched the Resident Evil: Extinction. The third in the series of movies about zombies and based on a computer game. I still don't understand the scientific logic of zombies. If zombies are technically dead and decomposing, why do they need to eat?

BNP - oh what irony

The Guardian yesterday reported that

The entire membership list of the British National party has been posted on the internet, identifying thousands of people as secret supporters of the far right and exposing many to the risk of dismissal from work, disciplinary action or vilification.

The BNP leader, Nick Griffin, claimed today that he knew the identity of the person who published the list, describing him as a "hardliner" senior employee who left the party last year.

In an ironic twist

The BNP leader admitted the party was relying on the Human Rights Act, based on EU legislation, which it opposes, to try to protect the privacy of its members.

A party that wishes to deny the rights of others now wants to use the same protection for themselves.

image from LOLGRIFFIN


I hope the names are leaked even further. Perhaps then, these misguided people will understand how it feels to be on the receiving end of hate.

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Nothing to report today.

Australia... more than the outback

Baz Luhrmann's film Australia premiered last night to much hype. There is a quintessential image that is always invoked in film to represent Australia.

The outback.

Telstra advertisement featuring verses from the song 'I am Australian' written by Bruce Woodley (of the Seekers)


1998 Qantas advertising featuring the song 'I still call Australia home' written by Peter Allen


Interestingly, it took a foreign film director to point out that most Australians have little association with the outback. From a review for his film Newcastle in the Sydney Morning Herald

WHEN Dan Castle set out to make an Australian surf movie, the US director expected such a surf-crazed country would be replete with gnarly surf films. Yet all he found were two films: Blackrock (1997) and Puberty Blues (1981).

Castle was "astounded and dumbfounded", he says. "Not just with the lack of surfing movies but with how few coastal films are made in Australia."

Why the reaction? "About 98 per cent of your culture, of your society, lives along the coast somewhere, yet every film-maker goes to the outback to make films about Australia.

"OK, that's a part of it," Castle qualifies. "But the psyche, the lifeblood of Australian culture has been, and always will be, on the coast. The myth of Australia might be in the outback but the drama of everyday lives is definitely on the coast."

Yet, when most Australians refer to the middle of nowhere, they think of the outback, in particular, the back of Bourke as a place they do not really want to visit. Woop Woop really. Yet images of the outback are etched into the national consciousness.

See also

- Qantas campaign, I still call Australia home since 1997 (The Inspiration Room)

- original song 'I am Australian' performed by The Seekers


- trailer for film 'Newcastle'


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Happy Wednesday

over-rated words 2

Over-used by the media, the word decimate is still used incorrectly.

Decimate comes from the Latin decimat, past participle of decimare meaning to take a tenth.

Most of the time, the media really means destroy. They should just say so, or use other words like annihilate, exterminate, destroy, or devastate.

Somebody please make them use a dictionary.

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This week should be a better one at work.

listen or read?

The BBC recently published an article called 'Can you listen as well as you read?', which I found interesting.

I would rather read a speech than listen to it. I lose attention while listening, as my brain switches off from time to time. Besides, I read much faster than people can speak and am impatient.

Still, I think neuro-linguistic programming is a load of rubbish based on dodgy pseudo-science.

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Today was a busy day, but I managed a late afternoon nap.

Tonight, the ABC screened ITV's remake of A Room With A View. What a waste of a production. There was no point in making another version when the excellent Merchant Ivory production is timeless, and now a classic, and definitely one of my most favourite films of all time.

The original and the best

from knackers yard to a decent life

I found this story about a mare who was rescued before she was due to become pet food very touching. From the Sydney Morning Herald.

The $600 mare and her $100,000 foal

Dam fine … owner Rebecca Bates leads Decency and foal Tyra, believed to be worth about $100,000 each thanks to their impressive pedigree.
Photo: Paul Harris

November 14, 2008

A horse once destined for the slaughterhouse is repaying the faith of its canny owners, writes Phil Wilkins.

Viewed's win in the Melbourne Cup had its annual reverberations across the thoroughbred industry, not least for a mare named Decency, now found at Woodwinds Farm in the mountains behind the Gold Coast, having been rescued two days before she was to be slaughtered in a dogger's yard in Brisbane.

Early last year, the powerful brown mare - who has a terrible scar extending from mid-belly to her flank after she was impaled on a stake while squeezing through a gate with other horses - was discovered in abattoirs by an astute young woman named Rebecca Bates, who was searching for a riding horse for a friend.

There was something about the doleful animal standing at death's door that attracted Rebecca's attention, something that caught her horse lover's eye.

She returned home and told husband Shannon: "I can't get this mare out of my head. She's so lovely, so quiet, so nice to ride. We have to save her. I've got a feeling there's something good about her pedigree."

They purchased her. Normally, a sale of her dubious circumstances would cost $400, but she was such a big mare, she cost $600. For want of a better name, they called the unknown, unnamed acquisition Mary, as in mare, mare Mary. They took her back to Woodwinds Farm, a fertile, 40-hectare stud - formerly a dairy farm until deregulation of the industry and drought forced the family to close down the bails - in the picturesque Numinbah Valley on the northern side of the range wrapping around Mt Warning.

Pursuing Rebecca's hunch, they began research. The mare's brands made her traceable through the Australian stud book, and to their delight they discovered she was New Zealand born and bred from a reputable stud farm, that she came to Australia as a yearling and was, in fact, the daughter of the well-credentialled stallion Defensive Play from an obscure mare named Lovers Knot. The word was around about her abattoir fate. "Mary" was listed as dead.

Further research authenticated Mary as the thoroughbred mare Decency, leaving unanswered the reason for her sad decline to the point she had been about to be put down for dogs' meat. The suspicion was she had a history of slipping foals, further complicated by her terrible belly wound. The Bates basically discounted her for breeding purposes and regarded her as a sale proposition to a nearby riding school.

The day before Decency was to be inspected for purchase by the trail farm operators in July last year, a quail burst out of the grass, startling her and sending her tumbling down a bank, leaving the mare with a fractured wither.

"She was so sore it put paid to her becoming a riding horse," Rebecca said. "We nursed her through the injury, and I looked at her and said, 'You don't want to leave us, do you? You just want to stay here. But that's all right. You're a lovely, big girl."'

In August last year, equine influenza struck, slamming shut all property gates, preventing movement of horses in Queensland and NSW, with Numinbah Valley classified as a buffer zone, further delaying the normalisation of horse transport.

The family's ambitions of utilising the new stud's two stallions for servicing mares flew out the window.

In desperation, they covered Decency with Tanabota, their Redoute's Choice-sired stallion.

Shortly after servicing, Rebecca took the mare for a short ride and came back, declaring to her mother-in-law Erica: "I've had a talk to Mary. She's going into foal. We'll be all right."

By October of last year, Decency was confirmed in foal. The following month, Efficient won the Melbourne Cup. Efficient was foaled by a mare of Defensive Play, the stallion that sired Decency. Now Decency has her own strapping brown filly foal, nicknamed Tyra, bouncing at her side.

"Decency could not be a better name for her," Rebecca said. "She has a wonderful temperament. She's a wonderful dam, everything about her. She's a totally decent mare."

Browsing through the weights for this year's Melbourne Cup, Shannon Bates spied the nomination of the five-year-old stallion Viewed, trained by Bart Cummings. Glancing at his breeding, he saw something that made his head spin. Viewed was out of Lovers Knot, the same mare that threw Decency.

So, if cheering was prolonged as Viewed and Bauer duelled along the Flemington straight, and joyous for Lovers Knot's canny owner-breeder Ian Johnson from Finch's Crossing Stud on the Hawkesbury River when Viewed muzzled his way to the Cup, it was even more thunderous in the community hall at Numinbah Valley as locals celebrated their "connection" with Viewed in the Cup sweep. "Having Defensive Play as her sire was our first payback for saving Decency, and then learning she was from the same dam as Viewed was our second payback," Erica said, still glowing in the reflected glory of the Cup, and brandishing a $5 each-way betting ticket that returned her $239.

So, the $600 rescue fee has been more than justified. How much more? One bloodstock agent suggested the broodmare value of Decency, now 11 years old, at about $100,000. Her foal, he thought, depending on her soundness, was also in the vicinity of $100,000. Such is life in the horse breeding game.

I still find it disturbing that some animals, once they have no 'economic' value, are killed. Rebecca Bates saved a life and now good fortune smiles on her. It is surely more than mere coincidence.

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It has been a very long week at work.

Naomi Klein on the Wall Street debacle

I wrote about the Wall Street mess on 21 September, referencing an excellent article from US News & World Report.

Naomi Klein has now written an excellent commentary in Rolling Stone magazine. Worth a read.

and a very apt illustration


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Today was a rather long day at work.

Philippe Starck about 'why design?'

Philippe Starck is considered to be one of the world's best designers. He has designed bathroom fittings (sinks, bathtubs, toilets, taps for Grohe), a mouse for Microsoft, furniture, interiors such as hotels and for Eurostar, toothbrushes, lamps, shoes, vehicles, etc.

In March 2007 he gave a talk to the TED conference Technology, Entertainment, Design).

He was also funny.

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Happy Wednesday.

it's a monarchy, stupid!

According to the Daily Telegraph, only 17 per cent of Brits want Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall to be Queen.

Public support falls for Queen Camilla

By Andrew Pierce

Last Updated: 12:01am GMT 10/11/2008

A Daily Telegraph/YouGov poll commissioned to mark the 60th birthday of the Prince this Friday showed that only 17 per cent wanted the Duchess to become Queen.

When the same question was asked on her 60th birthday in July 2007, the number in favour was 28 per cent. The drop in popular support will be a blow to the Prince, who wants his wife to also become his Queen on his accession.

The Duchess, 61, who performs only half the number of engagements as the Queen who is 82, will now be under pressure from within the Royal household to take a higher public profile.

The Duchess accompanied the Prince on a 10-day trip to the Far East at the end of last month but before they left it was announced she would not complete the final leg, to Indonesia, because of the heat and humidity.

When the marriage of the Prince and Camilla Parker Bowles, his long time companion, was announced in February 2005 a statement was released by Clarence House which tried to resolve the accession issue.

The statement said it "was intended that" the Duchess would be known as Princess Consort when the Prince succeeds to the throne. The statement was immediately challenged by constitutionalists and historians who argued that the wife of the Prince was automatically the Princess of Wales and on accession the Queen.

However, the new poll has delivered better news for the Prince who celebrates his birthday with a private dinner and concert at Buckingham Palace for members of the Royal Family on Thursday.

There will also be a party on Saturday for 200 friends at Highgrove, his Gloucestershire home, hosted by the Duchess. Rod Stewart will provide the cabaret.

In the poll, when asked if the Prince should succeed the Queen, 42 per cent were in favour compared to 35 per cent who thought Prince William should be the next King.

When the same question was asked in 2005 the positions were reversed with only 31 per cent backing the Prince with 42 per cent preferring his eldest son.

The poll also revealed strong backing from the public for the Prince to continue to speak out on issues such as global warming, genetically modified food, and organic farming.

Asked if he was right to speak out publicly on controversial issues, 68 per cent were in favour with only 24 per cent against.

More than half those polled thought he was doing a very good or "pretty" good job with 48 per cent regarding him as a force for good in the UK.

What a stupid poll.

Hello? It's called a monarchy. The people have absolutely NO say on the matter. Why poll them? They do NOT get to choose.

These people cannot have their cake and eat it too. If they want to have a say and choose the affairs of their head of state, then go republic.

Bloody hell! When will people ever learn?

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Today was a very busy day at work, and then some.

over two billion words in the Oxford English Corpus and some of them are rubbish

The Oxford English Corpus is at the heart of dictionary-making in Oxford in the 21st century and ensures that we can track and record the very latest developments in language today. By analysing the corpus and using special software, we can see words in context and find out how new words and senses are emerging, as well as spotting other trends in usage, spelling, world English, and so on. Using the corpus enables lexicographers to examine one word in detail by looking at all the different contexts in which it occurs.

The OEC now contains over two billion words. Some of these are just rubbish. One misuse that particularly irritates me include

Could of and would of

The Oxford English Corpus contains about 1,000 instances of could of and would of, as in I would of stopped her. About 850 of these occur in representations of direct speech (mostly from the Fiction domain, but also from interviews and courtroom transcripts).This leaves 150 instances of could of and would of as a genuine written form compared with 4 million instances of the standard English syntax would have and could have. However willing we may be to convert have to of in spoken English, the corpus shows that the habit has not spread into written English.

Jeremy Butterfield has collected words that are annoying in the book Damp Squid: The English Language Laid Bare.

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I was up very early this morning.

over-rated words 1

Used a lot in literature. Impressive the first time, but exceedingly pretentious thereafter.

Cacophony

Note to authors - you weren't the first to use this word, and if you read widely and were so impressed with it that you'd use it. Don't.

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Today was a busy day. I used to veg on weekends, but now spend most of it on home projects.

the first dog dilemma

Oh dear. The world's media and cyber-space are now focussing on which breed of dog the new President will adopt. From Associated Press

Who should be the first dog? Here are candidates

By LINDA LOMBARDI – 8 November 2008

WASHINGTON (AP) — Among the offices Barack Obama has yet to fill, one has a special importance to his family: first dog.

At his first postelection news conference on Friday, the president-elect called choosing a dog a "major issue" in the Obama household and a hot topic on his Web site.

"We have two criteria that have to be reconciled. One is that Malia is allergic, so it has to be hypoallergenic," he said. "On the other hand, our preference would be to get a shelter dog, but a lot of shelter dogs are mutts like me."

Add to that the strain of the inevitable attention that comes to a cute pup in the White House. On Thursday, President Bush's normally docile Scottish terrier Barney bit a Reuters reporter on the right index finger.

So, how to choose?

No breeds are completely hypoallergenic. However, some breeds have a tendency to cause fewer problems — mostly those that don't shed and need to have their coats trimmed regularly, or those that tend to shed less, said Stephen Zawistowski, an executive vice president for the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals.

Relatively common no-shed breeds include poodles, bichon frise, Portuguese water dogs and Maltese, but these breeds need professional grooming, which can be expensive. Other breeds that have a tendency to shed less are Schnauzers, Westies (West Highland white terriers) and Scottish terriers, Zawistowski says.

Purposely bred crosses like goldendoodles also have the no-shed coat, but random-bred mixes of dogs like poodles will also tend to have that coat, Zawistowski says.

The Obamas could adopt from either a shelter or a breed-specific rescue group. Gary Weitzman, director of the Washington Animal Rescue League, says that right now about a quarter of the 250 dogs in their shelter are purebred, but the number can be higher.

"In September we had 78 dachshunds — we'd just done a rescue from a dachshund puppy mill," he says.

An ideal first dog should also be good with kids and visitors. One advantage to adopting an adult dog is that personality traits are fully developed and good temperament testing can help choose a dog that's suitably sociable.

If the kids insist on a puppy, it's harder to predict. Almost any breed of dog can do well with children if raised with them.

Stanley Coren, a psychologist who has written a series of best-selling books on dogs, recommends breeds including beagles, cocker spaniels, golden retrievers, Labrador retrievers and poodles for families. But whatever breed is chosen, a puppy will need intensive socialization.

"Start introducing it to what it's going to be dealing with around the household," says Zawistowski. That includes children, but dogs can also be afraid of anything — men with mustaches, people with hats — if they're not used to them, he notes. "Those Secret Service guys look intimidating even on television."

A new dog can be a daunting choice, especially when made in the spotlight. But it's worth it — and for more than just the kids.

"I'd like to know that President Obama has a dog," Zawistowski says. "When he has a bad day, what's better than having a dog walk over and say, 'Hey, things aren't so bad?'"

There is one breed that will be out of the question. A pitbull terrier, particularly with lipstick.

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Today was a busy day, mainly focussed on outside activities. I did manage to have an afternoon nap on the couch though.

Africa is a continent made up of lots of countries

Just in case anybody else isn't aware...



Why would anybody make this up?



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So glad the work week is over.

the doctor will leave the house... err Tardis

The BBC has reported that David Tennant will be quitting the role of Doctor Who in 2010.

Oh.

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Happy Thursday.

hope and change

Congratulations to President-elect Barack Obama.

The rest of the world watched this election very closely and sighed with relief.

President Obama has charisma that even surpasses JFK.

Results map from CNN

Strangely, my favourite places are in blue. Always blue. I'll be sure never to visit Alaska.

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Today was a hectic day at work. My crisis management skills were put to heavy use.

when two Chinas need each other

Aside from the US presidential elections, an historic diplomatic event occurred. Reported by Reuters

FACTBOX - Taiwan, China sign trade, transit deals
Tue Nov 4, 2008 8:01am GMT

(Reuters) - Top officials from Taiwan and China signed deals on daily direct flights, new cargo routes and food safety Tuesday during Beijing's highest-level visit to its political rival in 60 years.

China negotiator Chen Yunlin and his Taiwan counterpart, P.K. Chiang, signed the following agreements to increase trade and tourism between the two longtime political rivals:

-- Daily direct China-Taiwan charter flights, up from Friday through Monday now and totalling 108 per week, to smooth passage for Taiwan investors in China and bring in more Taiwan-bound Chinese tourists

-- New, shorter direct Taiwan-China flight paths to save time (existing direct flights must detour through Hong Kong airspace for security reasons)

-- Sixteen new Chinese airports, in addition to the current five, that can accept direct flights to or from Taiwan

-- Sixty direct cargo flights per month between Taiwan and China, cutting out third countries or regions per the current practice mandated due to sovereignty concerns

-- A launch of direct sea cargo routes between 11 Taiwan ports and 63 China destinations, sparing costly detours, required due to sovereignty concerns, for Taiwan investors with China factories

-- An introduction of direct postal links between five Taiwan stations and eight China stations, reducing delivery time from the current seven to 10 days by sidestepping third countries

-- A framework to handle food safety issues by quickly notifying, removing and investigating tainted products, in light of China's contaminated milk powder scandal that has prompted product recalls around the world, including in Taiwan.

(Compiled by the Taipei Bureau)

An agreement is usually between two equal sides with national flags on the negotiating table. I wonder if Taiwan signed as Chinese Taipei and had to acknowledge that it was not a national government but a province.

Interestingly, some people in Taiwan were also sensitive to the issue. See Taiwan News article.

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Today was a public holiday. I meant to do much more at home, but it was mostly relaxing and not on the couch. Just more spring cleaning.

PPP indices

I always found the Economist Big Mac Index rather interesting as a measure of purchasing power parity and variations on the true market value of a country's currency.

The CommSec iPod index is also an interesting measure of the implications for trade as a result of currency exchange rates.

Aplia suggested an iTunes index.

The thing is, the 'market' does not set the prices of those items so that they could also fluctuate along with currency exchange rates. Rather, prices are set by the producer/manufacturer.

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Happy Monday!

Europe's biggest - Westfield London

The largest indoor shopping centre in Europe opened in London on Thursday.

Sarah Bell of BBC News wrote about shopping centre design. Kathryn Flett from The Observer/Guardian wrote about trying to avoid spending money.

Westfield is an Australian company. The mall next to my work building is a Westfield. It needs to be razed to the ground and re-designed. It is an ugly monstrosity.

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Today was another busy day. Thankfully, I had time for an afternoon nap.

headline of the month

I enjoy reading word play (puns) used in newspaper headlines. After all, writers also need a bit of fun.

This one from the Northern Territory News was very clever.

Gypsies, amps and thieves

REBEKAH CAVANAGH

October 29th, 2008

ROAMING Irish gypsies have targeted power-stricken Territorians by selling them dodgy generators that could be fatal.

I might assume that younger print journalists are unfamiliar with old Cher songs, so it was probably a quick-witted editor.

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Today was a very busy day. I was up at 6am and the front door had one coat of paint by 7.30am.

Nell, Declan, Olivia and Kim came over for dinner. Technically Olivia did and didn't as Nell brought over her own baby food. I made roast rolled shoulder of pork (marinated in the soy, preserved lemon and marmalade mix that I usually use), roast sweet potato and beetroot, with blanched asparagus.