The fifth Brisbane zombie walk occurred yesterday. Unfortunately, regular zombie reporter for the ABC, Gary Kemble, was unable to attend. Brisbane Times (Fairfax) reported that some 10,000 zombies shuffled through Brisbane yesterday. Excerpt
The Brisbane Zombie Walk 2010 attracted police car escorts and caused minor traffic delays as about 10,000 people dressed in fake-blood splattered costumes and moaning for brains walked from Wickham Park to Fortitude Valley.
“I do this every year,” said zombie walker Ged Maybury, of Logan, who only started making his costume on Saturday.
“I'm trying to catch up (with the crowd) but I keep having to stop for people to take my photo.”
Paige Vickers heard about the event from her flatmate.
She caught the bus into town covered in red food dye mixed with glucose syrup.
“I didn't care. Half the bus was filled up with zombies. There's thousands of us here,” she said.
Meanwhile blood-splattered bride Vanessa Campbell and her friends found yesterday was a nice day for a white - and red flecked - wedding.
“Who doesn't love dressing up?” she said.
The annual event raises money for the Brain Foundation Australia but organisers say the walk is also for fun and for those “obsessed with the living dead”.
Today, Australia's multilingual/multicultural network Special Broadcasting Service (SBS) marked its 30th anniversary of television broadcasting. Its first full-time television transmission began at 6.30pm on 24 October 1980 as Channel 0 in Melbourne and Sydney. The late Mr Bruce Gyngell, who first introduced television to Australia back in 1956, welcomed Australians to the new channel. See below
In 1985, the network then known as Channel 0-28 was renamed SBS and began to expand its coverage nationally.
Today, aside from some local productions, SBS rebroadcasts programs from all over the world, fulfilling its former slogan from 1983 of 'Bringing the world back home'. With the onset of digital broadcasting, there are now two channels, SBS One and SBS Two, with Three and Four reserved.
The news schedule this morning on SBS One looked like this
07:00 Hungarian News from Duna TV (DTV) Budapest
07:30 Latin American News via satellite from Television National de Chile, in Spanish
08:00 Polish News Wydarzenia from Polsat in Warsaw via satellite
08:30 Dutch News via satellite from BVN
09:00 Portuguese News via satellite from RTP Portugal (Lisbon)
09:30 Urdu News from PTV Pakistan in Islamabad
10:00 Maltese News from Public Broadcasting Services Limited, Malta
On weekdays, the news schedule on SBS One includes news from YTN Korea, NHK Tokyo, TVB Hong Kong, CCTV Beijing, DW Berlin, RAI Rome, ABS-CBN Manila, RTVE Madrid, ERT Athens, FT2 Paris, NDTV India, DRTV Dubai, NTV Moscow and TRT Turkey. All up, there are news bulletins from 26 countries in 25 languages.
Tonight, on SBS One is a French film Un vrai bonheur (The Wedding Day) and on SBS Two, two more French films Ensemble, c'est tout (Hunting and Gathering) and La maison de Nina (Nina's Home). During the coming week there are films from Spain, China, Italy, Israel, India, Croatia and Norway. All films are subtitled in English.
Some of the regular series broadcast on SBS that are popular include Kommissar (Inspector) Rex from Austria (in German with English subtitles), police drama Rejseholdet (Unit One, from Denmark, in Danish with English subtitles) and the American South Park, which is deemed too offensive to be shown on the commercial stations.
SBS is wonderful in reminding us that we in Australia are just a small part of a larger world and indeed that Australians come from all parts of the world.
30 years on, SBS television is as relevant as ever if not more so. It is unique in being the only national (public-funded with some advertising revenue) multilingual/multicultural broadcaster in the world.
The Sept. 11 attacks, the Iraq war and suicide bombings worldwide have changed not only the way we live but the way we look at those around us, especially Muslims. "Islamophobia" has entered the American vernacular, and the anti-Muslim attitudes and prejudice it describes remain common.
But what if you witnessed "Islamophobia" in action and saw someone being victimized because of someone else's prejudices? What would you do?
As the father, of a soldier just returned home from serving in Iraq, said "every person deserves to be treated with respect and dignity".
Terry Durack is a well known Australian food reviewer/critic. He was the Sydney Morning Herald's chief food reviewer and editor of The Sydney Morning Good Food Guide for many years before leaving Sydney in 2000 to work in London as food critic for The Independent. He returned to Sydney with partner Jill Dupliex (who was food editor for The Times) in 2009, again as food reviewer for the Sydney Morning Herald.
While there are some pricey ones, most are relatively reasonably priced, if not cheap. I like these and will add them to my list of things to do in Sydney
4. Wagyu burger and Martinez cocktail at Rockpool Bar & Grill
Every great bar has its perfect order. Here, it's the wagyu burger and a Martinez, the not-so-dry precursor to the dry martini. Settle into a dark leather chair in the lovely dimly lit bar – you'll need a candle to scan the menu – and hit on David Blackmore's full-blood wagyu burger with Schulz house-smoked bacon, gruyère cheese, Zuni pickle (zucchini and red onion) and relish ($22). Match it with the Martinez ($19), made of sweet vermouth, Tanqueray gin, bitters and a splash of maraschino. 66 Hunter Street, city. Phone: 8078 1900. rockpool.com.au
28. Pho dac biet from Pho Pasteur
The decor and service are basic but the special beef noodle soup ($9.50) is just that – special, with its silky rice noodles, slices of beef, tripe and translucent tendon awash in an aromatic broth. 295 Chapel Road, Bankstown (also at Haymarket and Parramatta). Phone: 9790 2900.
34. Xiao long bao dumplings from Din Tai Fung
Half the fun is watching the white-gowned, white-masked staff make these little porkand soup-filled dumplings ($8.80 for six) in the seethrough kitchen while you wait for a table. The other half is eating them. World Square, 644 George Street, city. Phone: 9264 6010. dintaifung.com.tw/en/index.asp
35. Tonkotsu ramen from Gumshara
It's worth hanging around once you've put your order in for this seriously thick, lipsticking pork broth swimming with ramen noodles ($12) just to watch chef Mori's assured technique as he swirls broth, strains noodles and tucks in barbecue pork and soft-boiled egg at speed with utter concentration. Eating World, 25 Dixon Street, Haymarket. No phone.
36. Hainanese chicken rice from Temasek
The uninitiated may ask what is so special about a simple Malaysian dish of chicken served with a bowl of the broth in which the chicken is poached, along with a mound of rice cooked in the same broth ($12). Temasek's regulars know better. 71 George Street, Parramatta. Phone: 9633 9926.
There were others on Durack's list that did not take my fancy, such as the famous pie with mushy peas from Harry's Cafe de Wheels (number 30 on his list). I tried it once but found the cold mushy peas unappealing.
I speak German like a country hick from the south - Bavaria. Needless to say, many Germans from the north, especially Berlin, and proper Hochdeutsch speakers treat Bavarians and Austrians with bemusement.
In late 1994, the first direct rail service between London (Waterloo Station) and Paris (Gare du Nord) and Brussels (Midi/Zuid) commenced. Named Eurostar, the train travelled under the English Channel through the newly built Channel Tunnel.
Since, then the Eurostar service has had a monopoly in the use of rail services through the tunnel with the London terminus switching to St Pancras Sation.
New EU legislation has opened up the route to competition with Germany's Deutsche Bahn (DB) rail operator pushing to compete with Eurostar.
An ICE (Inter City Express) train arrived at St Pancras Station today on a test run.
DB hopes to offer services in time for the London Olympics in 2012, with regular services from 2013. A journey from London to Frankfurt would take five hours.
In August, I wrote that Hipsters are today's alternative counter-culture fashionable wannabes.
Alex Rayner in The Guardian wrote about why people hate hipsters "Hipster-hate blogs are multiplying online. But who are these much-maligned trendies – and why do people find them so irritating? Perhaps we should learn to love our skinny-jeaned friends instead" Excerpt
Nevertheless, from London to Lima, Sydney to Mexico City, detractors might not know exactly what a hipster is, but they do know what they don't like: a tiresome sort of trendy, ostentatious in their perceived rebellion, yet strangely conformist; meticulous in their tastes, yet also strangely limited. Squatting somewhere between MGMT, The Inbetweeners and Derek Zoolander, this modern incarnation is all mouth and skinny trousers.
Read more (the article has numerous links to interesting websites).
Since 9 September 2010, a video mocking hipsters has received over three million views.
Hipsters are surely the new Bohemians, except that they are cashed-up and more self-centred. So did emos evolve or are do they still exist and missing the attention?
AlpTransit Gotthard AG, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Swiss Federal Railways (SBB-CFF-FFS), is currently building the world's longest railway tunnel. From their communiqué of 15 October 2010
World record on the Gotthard: The longest railway tunnel in the world has become a reality. On 15 October 2010 in the east tunnel, 30 km from the north portal and 27 km from the south portal, the final breakthrough of the Gotthard took place. At about 14:30, the tunnel boring machine, drilling from Faido, broke through the last metre of rock on the route to Sedrun.
The tunnel breakthrough was highly accurate. At 8 cm horizontally and 1 cm vertically, the deviation was very small. In his speech, Federal Councillor Moritz Leuenberger expressed pleasure, but was also moved by this important milestone on the Gotthard: “This breakthrough is a symbol of what policy can do, when we make it together,” he said. The new base tunnel will make Swiss – and also European – transport policy more sustainable. Renzo Simoni, Chief Executive Officer of AlpTransit Gotthard AG, singled out the numerous miners in his thanks. “Through their years of tireless commitment, they have made this world record possible. The miners are the heroes of today’s celebrations.”
Guests and miners are very happy
At the breakthrough point deep inside the mountain, a little over 6 km south of Sedrun, about 200 people, including Transport Minister Moritz Leuenberger and other guests of honour, witnessed the breakthrough by the tunnel boring machine. About 3500 miners and others involved in the project, including current and former engineers, planners, geologists and surveyors, followed the breakthrough on big screens at various venues: the Sedrun workshop, the Faido multifunction station, the north portal in Erstfeld, and the KKL in Lucerne. Swiss TV broadcast the event live throughout Switzerland and internationally
Importance for transport policy
The 57 km Gotthard base tunnel traverses the Alps, connecting the north portal in Erstfeld (Canton Uri) with the south portal in Bodio (Canton Ticino). With a rock overburden of up to 2500 m, the Gotthard base tunnel is also the most deeply set rail tunnel in the world. Together with the 15.4 km Ceneri base tunnel, the Gotthard base tunnel will provide a level track through the Alps. The base tunnel through the Gotthard is the core of the new rail connection. It is planned to become operational by the end of 2017. This will markedly improve passenger and freight transport at the heart of Europe: it will favour the shift of north-south freight traffic from road to rail, and shorten the journey time from Zurich to Milan from 3 hours 40 minutes to 2 hours 50 minutes. With the New Rail Link through the Alps (NRLA) on the Gotthard and the Lötschberg, Switzerland is contributing significantly to bring the people of Europe together – something the EU acknowledges.
Building the Gotthard base tunnel
The Gotthard base tunnel consists of two parallel single-track tubes, which are connected every 325 m by 40 m galleries. Overall, the tunnel system of the Gotthard base tunnel, including all tubes, shafts and galleries, measures 151.8 km. One and two thirds of the way along, at Faido and Sedrun, there are multifunction stations, which serve as emergency stopping points and places to change track. The Gotthard base tunnel was built simultaneously in five sections: Erstfeld, Amsteg, Sedrun, Faido and Bodio. The first works were carried out back in 1993, with the Piora exploratory boring, and from 1996 to 1998 with the blasting of the access shafts in Sedrun, Faido and Amsteg. Since 2001, the main lots have been constructed. The final breakthrough in the west tube is planned to take place in April 2011.
The previous longest railway tunnel was the undersea Seikan Tunnel at 53.85 kilometres (33.46 miles) linking the Japanese islands of Honshū and Hokkaidō.
In comparison, the Channel Tunnel (under the English Channel) is 50.45 kilometres. The proposed Gilbraltar tunnel linking Europe to Africa (via Spain and Morocco) would be 40 kilometres.
Travelling through the mountainous Swiss Alps by rail or car is a wonderful experience, through tunnels that are marvellous feats of engineering.
According to The Times of India (reported by Reeba Zachariah), Mr Mukesh Ambani, chairman of Reliance Industries, India's largest private sector company, with a personal estimated wealth of US$27 billion, is set to move into his new mansion. With a price nearing US$1 billion and named Antilia,
the 27-storey building completed after seven years of labour, has three helipads on the top floor and has been billed as the most opulent home of an individual anywhere in the world.
The glass tower that stands 570 feet tall features a swimming pool, a health club, a salon and a mini-theatre. The first six levels comprise the garage where more than 160 cars can be parked. Atop the parking lot is Antilia's lobby, which has nine elevators.
The lobby leads to numerous lounges, powder rooms and a ballroom. The top floors, with a sweeping view of the city, are where the 53-year old business magnate, his wife Nita and children Akash, Anant and Isha will reside.
Further reported in The Times (republished in The Australian), Rhys Blakely made a poignant observation
Looking over a city where more than half the population lives in slums, it is a soaring monument to the growing chasm dividing India's rich and poor.
For many, however, the gleaming tower will be an uncomfortable reminder that India's economic renaissance has delivered extraordinary benefits to a handful of hugely wealthy "Bollygarchs" but little to the 800 million Indians who live on not much more than $2 a day.
Mumbai suffers from a chronic shortage of quality homes, and visitors arriving at its airport are greeted by a seemingly endless patchwork of mottled tin and blue tarpaulin - the construction materials of the city's slum-builders. For decades, the slums have existed next to the luxurious bungalows and high-rises of India's super-rich - but not even the maharajas of past centuries exhibited the opulence of Mukesh Ambani, critics say.
Yes. It is possible to have too much money. Such ostentatious displays of wealth in the face of poverty is a matter for residents of Mumbai to discuss.
Last week, I wrote aboutLast Minutes with Oden and the Vimeo Festival. It was one of the finalists across a number of categories.
During the festival this past weekend, the film was awarded Best Video along with $25,000 towards new work. Blogged by Blake Whitman for the festival and awards team
When Eliot Rausch stepped up to the podium to accept the award for the Documentary category, his shock and appreciation were obvious. Later, when he returned to accept the award for Best Video and the $25,000 grant towards his future work, his genuine gratitude moved us just as much as his film.
Dame Joan Sutherland (7 November 1926 - 10 October 2010)
She was one of the finest sopranos in the world and in history. Luciano Pavarotti, who worked with Dame Joan in numerous operas, described her as having the "the voice of the century".
The Australian Prime Minister issued a statement (in the third person)
The Prime Minister today joined Australians around the nation to mourn the death of Dame Joan Sutherland - a great Australian and one of the nation's greatest voices.
Dame Joan Sutherland died peacefully at the age of 83 with her family by her side in Switzerland.
Dame Joan will be remembered by opera lovers for her extraordinary performances that kept audiences around the world spellbound.
She was widely regarded as one of the finest opera singers of the 20th century, so much so that Luciano Pavarotti once described her as 'the voice of the century'.
The Prime Minister said it was right for the nation to also celebrate the life of Dame Joan who made a tremendous contribution to her nation, to opera and the arts.
Dame Joan touched the lives of so many people around the world, yet never lost sight of her Australian upbringing and her many admirers at home.
She was generous in teaching and supporting new generations of singers and musicians, and until recently could be seen in the audiences of productions in Australia.
The Prime Minister offered her condolences to her husband Richard, son Adam and their extended family at this difficult time.
Born in Sydney in 1926, Dame Joan made her British debut in the Magic Flute in October 1952. Her 40 year career included a 19 minute standing ovation for her performance in Donizetti's Lucia di Lammermoor in 1959.
She was made a Dame of the British Empire in 1979 a Companion of the Order of Australia in 1975, Australian of the Year in 1961 and received an Order of Merit in 1991.
Amongst my favourite opera recordings are those with Sutherland in Lucia di Lammermoor and La Traviata (both with Pavarotti).
Tens of millions of individuals across Northern America are banned from outdoor line drying by the very communities they live in, forcing them to turn to the dryer. Homeowners who break the rules are fined, sued and even foreclosed on. This ban is not only infringing on civil rights, it's contributing to the environmental and energy crisis. The dryer is responsible for 6% of the average household's energy bill and it costs residential ratepayers in the US an estimated $5 billion annually.
The right to dry movement embodied by Project Laundry List was founded following a speech by former Australian Dr Helen Caldicott.
The concept of not being allowed to dry clothes outdoors is unthinkable in Australia, where the rotary clothesline known as the Hills Hoist was invented.
Michael Jackson scarecrows get Taiwan birds to beat it
Similarly, from ABC News (Australia) reprinting the article from Reuters but modifying the headline (they are good with puns).
Jacko scarecrows get birds to beat it
The story was about a rice farmer in Taiwan dressing a scarecrow as Michael Jackson. Reuters could have had a bit more fun but only gave one more fun sentence.
But not everyone in the family thinks the scarecrow idea is a thriller.
Most people know about a pride of lions, a flock of sheep, a herd of cattle, a school of fish, an army of ants, a bunch of flowers, a swarm of bees, and a coven of witches in describing a collective.
Logically, a bunch of roosting owls might be described as a school of owls but no, they are a parliament. Perhaps the school came from Harry Potter.
Collective nouns are now rarely used except for the most common. Lists of collective nouns can be found here and here.
Over 8-9 October (this weekend), Vimeo is hosting the Vimeo Festival in New York City. Viewers can view finalists in each category (five in each of narrative, remix, original series, documentary, music video, animation, motion graphics, experimental and captured) and vote for them.
The Best Video Award will be selected from across all the categories and the winner awarded a $25,000 grant to produce new work.
Last Minutes with Oden by Eliot Rausch, Lukas Korver and Matt Taylor of Phos Pictures is one of the five finalists in the documentary category.
The Curtain Fig Tree (strangler fig species Fichus virens), just outside the small township of Yungaburra on the Atherton Tableland near Cairns (in north Queensland, Australia) has been a tourist attraction for many generations.
The Ig Nobel is awarded to researchers, whose research should not be repeated. The 2010 winners, announced on 30 September 2010 at Harvard University were
ENGINEERING PRIZE: Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse and Agnes Rocha-Gosselin of the Zoological Society of London, UK, and Diane Gendron of Instituto Politecnico Nacional, Baja California Sur, Mexico, for perfecting a method to collect whale snot, using a remote-control helicopter.
REFERENCE: "A Novel Non-Invasive Tool for Disease Surveillance of Free-Ranging Whales and Its Relevance to Conservation Programs," Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, Agnes Rocha-Gosselin and Diane Gendron, Animal Conservation, vol. 13, no. 2, April 2010, pp. 217-25.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Karina Acevedo-Whitehouse, Agnes Rocha-Gosselin, Diane Gendron
MEDICINE PRIZE: Simon Rietveld of the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and Ilja van Beest of Tilburg University, The Netherlands, for discovering that symptoms of asthma can be treated with a roller-coaster ride.
REFERENCE: "Rollercoaster Asthma: When Positive Emotional Stress Interferes with Dyspnea Perception," Simon Rietveld and Ilja van Beest, Behaviour Research and Therapy, vol. 45, 2006, pp. 977–87.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Simon Rietveld and Ilja van Beest
TRANSPORTATION PLANNING PRIZE: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Atsushi Tero, Seiji Takagi, Tetsu Saigusa, Kentaro Ito, Kenji Yumiki, Ryo Kobayashi of Japan, and Dan Bebber, Mark Fricker of the UK, for using slime mold to determine the optimal routes for railroad tracks.
REFERENCE: "Rules for Biologically Inspired Adaptive Network Design," Atsushi Tero, Seiji Takagi, Tetsu Saigusa, Kentaro Ito, Dan P. Bebber, Mark D. Fricker, Kenji Yumiki, Ryo Kobayashi, Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Science, Vol. 327. no. 5964, January 22, 2010, pp. 439-42.
[NOTE: THE FOLLOWING ARE CO-WINNERS BOTH THIS YEAR AND IN 2008 when they were awarded an Ig Nobel Prize for demonstrating that slime molds can solve puzzles: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Ryo Kobayashi, Atsushi Tero]
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Toshiyuki Nakagaki, Kentaro Ito, Atsushi Tero, Mark Fricker, Dan Bebber
PHYSICS PRIZE: Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest of the University of Otago, New Zealand, for demonstrating that, on icy footpaths in wintertime, people slip and fall less often if they wear socks on the outside of their shoes.
REFERENCE: "Preventing Winter Falls: A Randomised Controlled Trial of a Novel Intervention," Lianne Parkin, Sheila Williams, and Patricia Priest, New Zealand Medical Journal. vol. 122, no, 1298, July 3, 2009, pp. 31-8.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Lianne Parkin
PEACE PRIZE: Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston of Keele University, UK, for confirming the widely held belief that swearing relieves pain.
REFERENCE: "Swearing as a Response to Pain," Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Kingston, Neuroreport, vol. 20 , no. 12, 2009, pp. 1056-60.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Richard Stephens
PUBLIC HEALTH PRIZE: Manuel Barbeito, Charles Mathews, and Larry Taylor of the Industrial Health and Safety Office, Fort Detrick, Maryland, USA, for determining by experiment that microbes cling to bearded scientists.
REFERENCE: "Microbiological Laboratory Hazard of Bearded Men," Manuel S. Barbeito, Charles T. Mathews, and Larry A. Taylor, Applied Microbiology, vol. 15, no. 4, July 1967, pp. 899–906. <http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC547091/?tool=pubmed>
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Manuel S. Barbeito was unable to travel, due to health reasons. A representative read his acceptance speech for him.
ECONOMICS PRIZE: The executives and directors of Goldman Sachs, AIG, Lehman Brothers, Bear Stearns, Merrill Lynch, and Magnetar for creating and promoting new ways to invest money — ways that maximize financial gain and minimize financial risk for the world economy, or for a portion thereof.
CHEMISTRY PRIZE: Eric Adams of MIT, Scott Socolofsky of Texas A&M University, Stephen Masutani of the University of Hawaii, and BP [British Petroleum], for disproving the old belief that oil and water don't mix.
REFERENCE: "Review of Deep Oil Spill Modeling Activity Supported by the Deep Spill JIP and Offshore Operator’s Committee. Final Report," Eric Adams and Scott Socolofsky, 2005.
<http://www.boemre.gov/tarprojects/377.htm>
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Eric Adams, Scott Socolofsky, and Stephen Masutani
MANAGEMENT PRIZE: Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo of the University of Catania, Italy, for demonstrating mathematically that organizations would become more efficient if they promoted people at random.
REFERENCE: “The Peter Principle Revisited: A Computational Study,” Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo, Physica A, vol. 389, no. 3, February 2010, pp. 467-72.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Alessandro Pluchino, Andrea Rapisarda, and Cesare Garofalo.
BIOLOGY PRIZE: Libiao Zhang, Min Tan, Guangjian Zhu, Jianping Ye, Tiyu Hong, Shanyi Zhou, and Shuyi Zhang of China, and Gareth Jones of the University of Bristol, UK, for scientifically documenting fellatio in fruit bats.
REFERENCE: "Fellatio by Fruit Bats Prolongs Copulation Time," Min Tan, Gareth Jones, Guangjian Zhu, Jianping Ye, Tiyu Hong, Shanyi Zhou, Shuyi Zhang and Libiao Zhang, PLoS ONE, vol. 4, no. 10, e7595.
WHO ATTENDED THE CEREMONY: Gareth Jones
Banned Books Week (BBW) is an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. Held during the last week of September, Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted bannings of books across the United States.
Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week. BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them.
The books featured during Banned Books Week have been targets of attempted bannings. Fortunately, while some books were banned or restricted, in a majority of cases the books were not banned, all thanks to the efforts of librarians, teachers, booksellers, and members of the community to retain the books in the library collections. Imagine how many more books might be challenged—and possibly banned or restricted—if librarians, teachers, and booksellers across the country did not use Banned Books Week each year to teach the importance of our First Amendment rights and the power of literature, and to draw attention to the danger that exists when restraints are imposed on the availability of information in a free society.
The focus of the US Banned Books Week is probably more about local libraries making decisions to remove certain books that are not actually illegal.
No book in Australia had been banned since the 1970s, except for one about euthanasia, which was refused classification in 2007. Other books would be refused classification based on related laws on criminal activities, making them illegal.
It is timely then to remember what happened on 10 May 1933.
Nazi youth groups burned around 20,000 books from the Institut für Sexualwissenschaft and Humboldt University; including works by Thomas Mann, Erich Maria Remarque, Heinrich Heine, Karl Marx and H.G. Wells. Student groups throughout Germany also carried out their own book burnings on that day and in the following weeks.
There is now a memorial/plaque at the site of the book burning (in Bebelplatz, Berlin).
where books are burned, in the end people will burn - Heinrich Heine, 1820
I visited this site some years ago, which made me quite sad.
Two days ago I wrote about reported plans by the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOS) to consider the appointment of an ambassador as a point of contact for visiting intelligent extraterrestrial lifeforms.
While I politely questioned the logic cited as the reason, I should have expressed greater skepticism.
AFP has now reported, quoting UNOOS, that the story was utter nonsense.
L'Unoosa, dont le siège est à Vienne, réplique ainsi à un article publié par le quotidien britannique Sunday Times: "L'article du Sunday Times est une absurdité", a déclaré l'agence onusienne dans un communiqué.
"La mission du Bureau pour les affaires spatiales est définie par l'Assemblée générale des Nations Unies et il n'y a pas de projet de modifier la mission actuelle", a ajouté l'Unoosa.
It will be interesting to see how The Sunday Times (UK) that reported on the original story responds.
Back in March, I wrote about (television) news by formula including Charlie Brooker's mock television news reporting by formula.
Martin Robbins, writing in The Guardian, has revealed the formula used in scientific reporting. Excerpt
This is a news website article about a scientific paper
In the standfirst I will make a fairly obvious pun about the subject matter before posing an inane question I have no intention of really answering: is this an important scientific finding?
In this paragraph I will state the main claim that the research makes, making appropriate use of "scare quotes" to ensure that it's clear that I have no opinion about this research whatsoever.
In this paragraph I will briefly (because no paragraph should be more than one line) state which existing scientific ideas this new research "challenges".
If the research is about a potential cure, or a solution to a problem, this paragraph will describe how it will raise hopes for a group of sufferers or victims.
This paragraph elaborates on the claim, adding weasel-words like "the scientists say" to shift responsibility for establishing the likely truth or accuracy of the research findings on to absolutely anybody else but me, the journalist.
In this paragraph I will state in which journal the research will be published. I won't provide a link because either a) the concept of adding links to web pages is alien to the editors, b) I can't be bothered, or c) the journal inexplicably set the embargo on the press release to expire before the paper was actually published.
"Basically, this is a brief soundbite," the scientist will say, from a department and university that I will give brief credit to. "The existing science is a bit dodgy, whereas my conclusion seems bang on" she or he will continue.
I will then briefly state how many years the scientist spent leading the study, to reinforce the fact that this is a serious study and worthy of being published by the BBC the website.
Read more. Robbins also reveals the purpose of subheadings and the comments following the article are definitely worth reading.
According to The Guardian, "Martin Robbins is a Berkshire-based researcher and science writer. He edits The Lay Scientist, a community blog about science, pseudoscience and evidence-based politic."
So not even the BBC is infallible. Just as well I usually check for original media releases from research organisations.
The Daily Telegraph (UK) and Sunday Times (UK, reprinted in The Australian) reported that the United Nations may appoint an ambassador as a point of contact for visiting intelligent extraterrestrial lifeforms.
Apparently, the proposal was prompted by the recent discovery of hundreds of planets orbiting other stars, increasing the likelihood of discovering extraterrestrial life.
Interesting logic, considering that those hundreds of planets have always been there despite not being previously detected by humans.
The 2010 season AFL grand final was on this afternoon. Collingwood Magpies and Saint Kilda played both drew at 68 points apiece at full time. There was no extra time. Both teams now have to go through it all over again next Saturday.
Both players and supporters expressed the same feeling.
Photo by by Quinn Rooney/Getty Images (via PicApp)
A clip of a duet between Elmo and Katy Perry was planned to go to air. A preview was provided on YouTube (both Sesame Street and Katy Perry channels). Following complaints from some parents, the video was removed from Sesame Street's YouTube channel and will now not air. The basis of the complaints was that Ms Perry's clothing was too revealing. Here is the clip.
Sesame Street has a long history of working with celebrities across all genres, including athletes, actors, musicians and artists. Sesame Street has always been written on two levels, for the child and adult. We use parodies and celebrity segments to interest adults in the show because we know that a child learns best when co-viewing with a parent or care-giver. We also value our viewer’s opinions and particularly those of parents. In light of the feedback we’ve received on the Katy Perry music video which was released on You Tube only, we have decided we will not air the segment on the television broadcast of Sesame Street, which is aimed at preschoolers. Katy Perry fans will still be able to view the video on KatyPerry.com.
"Aimed at preschoolers", so perhaps the clip could have been focus group tested for those preschoolers' reactions, NOT their parents. More than likely, those same preschoolers would not have even noticed anything of concern raised by some parents.
It is a shame that adults read sinister meanings into perfectly innocent situations.
I've written a number of times about bottled water and the ethical question about the cost to the environment.
On Tuesday, a drinking fountain that dispenses chilled and room temperature tap water either still or sparkling/fizzy was opened at a park in Paris. From AFP, excerpt
PARIS — "La Pétillante", première fontaine publique distribuant de l'eau gazeuse en France, a été inaugurée mardi dans le jardin de Reuilly (XIIe arrondissement) à Paris, avec une dégustation offerte à 200 écoliers, a-t-on appris auprès de la régie municipale Eau de Paris.
Ressemblant à un kiosque, cette fontaine publique distribue de l'eau tempérée, de l'eau fraîche, mais surtout, pour la première fois, de l'eau pétillante.
The water comes directly through Parisian water pipes. This is the first facility to chill the water and add carbon dioxide to render it sparkling. It is expected to decrease the use of bottled water. Hopefully, there are plans to add kiosks offering chilled sparkling water to other locations and not just in parks.
Directed by Trish Sie and OK Go Produced by Shirley Moyers Canine participants courtesy of Lauren Henry and Roland Sonnenburg and their team of trainers from Talented Animals
September is Save The Koala Month and this year the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF) is hoping to celebrate it with koala lovers from all over the world.
With wild koala numbers estimated to be less than 80,000 and possibly as low as 43, 000 the AKF is asking everybody to help raise awareness of the plight of our much loved, globally famous and rapidly disappearing national icon by taking an active role in Save the Koala Month.
“Our focus this year is an online campaign to minimize costs and our impact on the environment by encouraging everyone from all around the world to visit savethekoala.com to find out how they can help” said Ms Deborah Tabart OAM CEO of the Australian Koala Foundation.
“We have made it easy to donate online with the introduction of Pay Pal and to show our appreciation we are emailing people who make a donation over $30 a beautiful personalized thank you certificate featuring Hilda, one of our cutest foster koalas” said Ms Tabart
Businesses who want to help out can put a very cute “Donate Today” button on their website that directly links to the Save The Koala Month donation page.
“We are encouraging people to join our Facebook fan page Save the Australian Koala and for those who prefer face to face social networking and fundraising we want you to get creative…make cupcakes for work, hold a cuppa for koalas morning tea, a Sausage Sizzle, Garage Sale, Dress Casual for Koalas, swim, run, bike ride for the Koala.
“Every little bit helps us raise much need funds and awareness for the plight of the wild koala” Ms Tabart said.
Supporters can register any fundraising event with the AKF for free and will receive images to help them promote it. Remember whatever you can do will really help.
All Save the Koala Month activities are listed on the Australian Koala Foundation’s website www.savethekoala.com
From Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM) news release
Sept. 14, 2010
MEDIA CONTACT: Vaishali Honawar | 202-527-7339 | vhonawar@pcrm.org
Provocative Commercial Targets McDonald’s High-Fat Fare Doctors Link Washington’s Heart Disease Rates to High Concentration of Golden Arches, Other Fast-Food Outlets
WASHINGTON—A provocative fast-food commercial set in a morgue will air during The Daily Show and local news broadcasts Sept. 16. The ad, produced by the nonprofit Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), takes aim at McDonald’s high-fat menu, with the goal of drawing Washingtonians’ attention to the city’s high rates of heart disease deaths and its high density of fast-food restaurants.
“Our city’s addiction to Big Macs and other high-fat fast food is literally breaking our hearts,” says Susan Levin, M.S., R.D., PCRM’s nutrition education director. “It’s time to tackle the district’s heart disease problem head-on. A moratorium on new fast-food restaurants could be a critically important step toward fighting this epidemic.”
A PCRM survey shows that Washington has more McDonald’s, Burger King, and KFC outlets per square mile than eight other cities with similar population sizes. Offerings at these restaurants include high-fat, high-sodium products such as McDonald’s Double Quarter Pounder with Cheese Extra Value Meal, which has 61 grams of fat and 1,650 milligrams of sodium.
McDonald’s, the world’s largest fast-food chain, serves a long list of high-fat, high-cholesterol items and offers almost no healthful choices, according to an analysis by PCRM dietitians.
Heart disease kills more than 1,500 residents of the district each year. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the age-adjusted death rate from heart disease in the city is the second highest in the country, above high-obesity states like Alabama, Kentucky, Oklahoma, and West Virginia.
Studies, including one from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, show that people who consume fast food are at a higher risk of obesity, a key risk factor for heart disease. Regular consumption of high-fat, high-cholesterol foods increases the risk of heart disease, and studies have found that even a singly fatty meal can raise blood pressure, stiffen major arteries, and cause the heart to beat harder.
The commercial will air in other fast-food addicted cities with high rates of heart disease over the following months.
Founded in 1985, the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine is a nonprofit health organization that promotes preventive medicine, conducts clinical research, and encourages higher standards for ethics and effectiveness in research.
“This commercial is outrageous, misleading and unfair to all consumers. McDonald’s trusts our customers to put such outlandish propaganda in perspective, and to make food and lifestyle choices that are right for them.
If that was the case, McDonald's could try and sue PCRM. However, there is no such thing as good publicity in the case of fast food chains. The response from McDonald's appears to use the same logic that tobacco companies use, without having a counter argument.
Rearing chickens was once common in Australian suburban backyards. Chickens were kept as a steady source of fresh eggs. After nearly a generation's absence, keeping chickens has yet again become popular, particularly in the last few years.
Unfortunately, chickens tend to poo everywhere. A smart entrepreneur supplying chickens in the Brisbane area has come up with a chicken nappy. From City Chicks - product information
The perfect accessory for the city chicken. Straight from the catwalk to your home. Our chicken nappies are designed and made to fit most chickens. The nappy is made from pure cotton so it shouldn't irritate any delicate bottoms.
These look ridiculously hard to put on but as long as you have 10 fingers and sense of humour, you will be fine. They come with full instructions on how to put on and we are only a phone call away. I can talk you through my adventures like my escaping white hybrid running down the driveway with her nappy hanging from her neck. That is what happens when you want to work with highly stressed models. I settled in the end with my isabrown, Luscious Legs as my model.
The nappy has a little plastic bag cut to fit and safety pinned to the top of the nappy. This gets thrown away once full and replaced with another bag. Each nappy comes with 1 bag. You also receive an instruction sheet on how to cut the bags so they fit your nappy.
The nappy is fitted by lifting the long strap over the head and then secured to the 2 long flaps on the back of the chicken. The instructions on our sheet are clear and helpful.
Very stylish! Presumably, there are instructions concerning when the chickens wish to lay eggs.
In late July, I wrote about the Spain's regional Catalan parliament banning bullfighting, effective from 2012.
Yesterday (Tuesday), the Spanish town of Tordesillas 'celebrated' the Torneo del Toro de la Vega (the tournament of the bull in the meadow), the ritual sacrifice of a bull.
A lone toro (bull) named Platanito was driven by horsemen wielding spears across the bridge over the river Duero from the town to a meadow (vega). Surrounded by horsemen, lancers then compete to wound and kill the bull.
On Sunday, PACMA staged protests against the event, which dates back as early as 1453 before the advent of organised bullfighting towards the end of the 17th century.
As I've mentioned previously, how can decent human beings torment and torture an animal for fun and maintain their right to continue doing so because of tradition?
Drake Bennett wrote a great article in the Boston Globe called 'How animals made us human: What explains the ascendance of Homo sapiens? Start by looking at our pets.' Excerpts
...human beings are a distinctly pet-loving bunch. In no other species do adults regularly and knowingly rear the young of other species and support them into old age; in our species it is commonplace.
Particularly
[they] live with us, eating the food we give them, interrupting our sleep, dictating our schedules, occasionally soiling the carpet, and giving nothing in return but companionship and often desultory affection.
What explains this yen to have animals in our lives?
An anthropologist named Pat Shipman believes she’s found the answer: Animals make us human. She means this not in a metaphorical way — that animals teach us about loyalty or nurturing or the fragility of life or anything like that — but that the unique ability to observe and control the behavior of other animals is what allowed one particular set of Pleistocene era primates to evolve into modern man. The hunting of animals and the processing of their corpses drove the creation of tools, and the need to record and relate information about animals was so important that it gave rise to the creation of language and art. Our bond with nonhuman animals has shaped us at the level of our genes, giving us the ability to drink milk into adulthood and even, Shipman argues, promoting the set of finely honed relational antennae that allowed us to create the complex societies most of us live in today. Our love of pets is an artifact of that evolutionary interdependence.
Though the thesis is that it is our 'exploitation' of other animal species that may have made us human, it is also how we treat animals that make us humane.
Last month, I wrote about twin pandas being born in Japan. Zoo Aquarium Madrid in Spain recently announced the birth of twin panda cubs. They were born to Hua Zui Ba on 7 September 2010 and were conceived through artificial insemination.
Madrid Zoo also filmed the births, which is amazing to see.
Two small asteroids in unrelated orbits will pass within the moon's distance of Earth on Wed.
September 07, 2010
PASADENA, Calif. – Two asteroids, several meters in diameter and in unrelated orbits, will pass within the moon's distance of Earth on Wednesday, Sept. 8.
Both asteroids should be observable near closest approach to Earth with moderate-sized amateur telescopes. Neither of these objects has a chance of hitting Earth. A 10-meter-sized near-Earth asteroid from the undiscovered population of about 50 million would be expected to pass almost daily within a lunar distance, and one might strike Earth's atmosphere about every 10 years on average.
The Catalina Sky Survey near Tucson, Ariz., discovered both objects on the morning of Sunday, Sept. 5, during a routine monitoring of the skies. The Minor Planet Center in Cambridge, Mass., first received the observations Sunday morning, determined preliminary orbits and concluded that both objects would pass within the distance of the moon about three days after their discovery.
Near-Earth asteroid 2010 RX30 is estimated to be 32 to 65 feet (10 to 20 meters) in size and will pass within 0.6 lunar distances of Earth (about 154,000 miles, or 248,000 kilometers) at 2:51 a.m. PDT (5:51 a.m. EDT) Wednesday. The second object, 2010 RF12, estimated to be 20 to 46 feet (6 to 14 meters) in size, will pass within 0.2 lunar distances (about 49,088 miles or 79,000 kilometers) a few hours later at 2:12 p.m. PDT (5:12 pm EDT).
Surprisingly, the objects were only detected a few days ago. What if the projected trajectories had been set for a collision with the earth? Surely a few days notice would not have provided sufficient warning if that had been the case.
So the story goes like this. Victorian Labor MP Don Nardella recently received a letter from a very cross constituent who took him to task for not paying enough attention to his 'people' or parking in a no standing area or wearing the wrong tie or whatever. Contained within the presumably passionate missive was the accusation "You seem to not want to help anyone except the immagration people".
Mr Nardella, offended by both the implication and the spelling, penned the following reply: "My advice to you stands from my initial email reply. Learn how to spell 'immigration' before using the word again".
Of course, Hardy did not suggest that the correspondent might be racist but it was a good lead-in to the rest of her article citing other examples. Mr Nardella, responding to the Herald Sun newspaper, defended his response
"Obviously there's a slur there," he said.
"I felt pointing out her spelling mistake was the gentlest way ... to say that her comments were inappropriate."
Perhaps Mr Nardella should have been more blunt.
Back to Ms Hardy's article - read more here. She does have a point. More often than not, the most intolerant people, dare we say bigoted, are usually the least literate. Says a lot really.
Last year, I wrote about Australian soldiers in Afghanistan not being satisfied with the meals being provided by the Dutch. In the same post, I also wrote about the Australian pre-packaged ration packs.
Ashely Gilbertson, in The New York Times, recently wrote about the pre-packaged rations, comparing those from different countries. Excerpt
The menus and accompaniments are intended not just to nourish but also to remind the soldier of home. Some include branded comfort foods — Australians get a dark-brown spreadable yeast-paste treat called Vegemite, for example — while others get national staples like liverwurst (Germany), or lamb curry (Britain’s current culinary obsession).
Some of the contents are practical. Italians get three disposable toothbrushes per day of combat. Americans get pound cake, which military folklore says reduces the need for toilet breaks.
Read more. See also photos of the packs from a number of different countries. Some of the other packs look appealing, but I would stick with the Australian one. The others don't have Vegemite.
FREELENS Galerie, in Hamburg, Germany is exhibiting photographs by Jesco Denzel about Gitans in St. Jacques, a quarter (or neighbourhood) in Perpignan, France. From Christoph Twickel, writing in Der Spiegel
Perpignan, population 120,000, is hardly a must-see on the European tourist circuit. At most, travellers might change trains here on the way from Paris to Barcelona. But the town is home to one of the few quarters in France where Gitans -- as Roma are called in French -- have found a permanent home.
Rejection
They have been there for almost two centuries. In the 15th century, Gypsies arrived on the Iberian peninsula from India via a part of Greece known at the time as "little Egypt." The Spanish referred to the newcomers as "Egiptanos," which eventually became shortened to "Gitanos" -- and in France to "Gitans." Following the French Revolution, Roma began settling on the Mediterranean coast including, in around 1920, in the St. Jacques quarter of Perpignan.
Although the Gitans in St. Jacques are not directly connected to the Roma who are currently being deported from the country by French President Nicolas Sarkozy, discrimination and integration have long been defining issues in their lives. They are all citizens of France, but poverty and illiteracy have been their constant companions. Photographer Denzel noted that the Gitans in St. Jacques prefer to stay among themselves, in part because of the rejection with which they have been confronted by French society.
Anh Do nearly didn't make it to Australia. His entire family came close to losing their lives on the sea as they escaped from war-torn Vietnam in an overcrowded boat. But nothing - not murderous pirates, nor the imminent threat of death by hunger, disease or dehydration as they drifted for days - could quench their desire to make a better life in the country they had dreamed about.
Life in Australia was hard, an endless succession of back-breaking work, crowded rooms, ruthless landlords and make-do everything. But there was a loving extended family, and always friends and play and something to laugh about for Anh, his brother Khoa and their sister Tram. Things got harder when their father left home when Anh was thirteen - they felt his loss very deeply and their mother struggled to support the family on her own. His mother's sacrifice was an inspiration to Anh and he worked hard during his teenage years to help her make ends meet, also managing to graduate high school and then university.
Another inspiration was the comedian Anh met when he was about to sign on for a 60-hour a week corporate job. Anh asked how many hours he worked. 'Four,' the answer came back, and that was it. He was going to be a comedian! The Happiest Refugee tells the incredible, uplifting and inspiring life story of one of our favourite personalities. Tragedy, humour, heartache and unswerving determination - a big life with big dreams. Anh's story will move and amuse all who read it.
About Anh Do
Anh Do is one of Australia's leading comedians. He has also acted in television series and films, written screenplays and is a sought-after keynote speaker.
Read the first chapter (download PDF) from Get Reading!
This was a very compelling read, by one of Australia's best known comedians.
The misuse of scientific terminology continues unabated. One of the most common is DNA, as in 'DNA of advertising', 'DNA of customer experience', 'DNA of relationships' etc.
DNA is abbreviated from deoxyribonucleic acid. DNA is made of nucleotides and codes genetic information.
Instead, use 'blueprint' or something similar if that is what is intended.
Using scientific terms for non-scientific matters doesn't sound clever. It is idiotic.
