Gordon Ramsay and the Kitchen

Wow the wowsers are not just in the ALP

Ramsay's potty-mouth prompts changes | The Daily Telegraph

I must say I was stunned when I first saw and HEARD the show. Then I realised some very strong manager and leadership and taste statements were being made. One could hardly blame him in the New York India restaurant with cockroaches in the freezer and in the tomatoes from which servings were being made to customers. And then there was a seafood place in Brighton and the owner replied in similar language BUT then realised Ramsay had a track record of getting things fixed and tried the Ramsay suggestions.

I guess the language got people watching the show whereas " I say old chap I think your cleaning up skills leave something to be desired" would hardly attract watchers.

Gordon you have fans - you can stop swearing now.

Funny we had a weekend away and I found myself with a seat overlooking the chef and sous and also the pizza chef. The food was excellent and I think Gordon would have been impressed.

Phar Lap was poisoned

It's official: Phar Lap was poisoned - Horseracing - Sport - smh.com.au

but I read it as his own trainer and a remedy meant to help the horse

Must stop watching Fawlty Towers etc

Bump in the night's no joke - Unusual Tales - Specials - smh.com.au

A man who laughed too hard at a comedian on TV ended up being pepper sprayed at his home by UK police and spending the night naked in a cell.

Chris Cocker, 36, from Blackburn, laughed so hard while watching BBC TV's Have I Got News For You that he fell off the sofa, the BBC reported.

A neighbour in the flat below heard the thud and called police.

"I fell off the settee in hysterics and hit the floor and got myself up and started carrying on watching the telly and the next thing I know there was a knock on the door," Mr Cocker said.

The knock was from police officers, but Mr Cocker was not happy to see them and refused to co-operate."The bit where I lost it the most was when I shut the door and the policeman had stuck his foot in the doorway and was refusing to let me shut my own front door," he said.

Police then pepper-sprayed Mr Cocker, bundled him into a police van and took him to a police station where he said he was stripped naked and made to spend a night in a jail cell, the BBC said.Lancashire Police said the officers used the pepper spray after fearing for their safety when Mr Cocker became aggressive.

Coffee is really a health food

Coffee drinkers safe from early death | The Daily Telegraph

Ramses II by Christiane Desroches Noblecourt

Ramses II : an illustrated biography by Christiane
Desroches Noblecourt
1996 - English language edition 2007.
The illustrations are magnificent.

I read this re my interest in Chronology - and posted this to Yahoo list on NC

I thought some dates that "the preeminent specist
on Ramses II" per jacket blurb provides might be
of interest.

Horemheb 1327-1295
(an illustration immediately alongside that text
says "reigned 1333-1306" I cannot understand that
as in text she goes on to say died 1295)

1295 Ramses son of Seti and Tuya would have been
in fifth year and would have seen crowning of Ram I

Seti takes 7 year old Ram II on expedition into
Canaan and Ram I makes Seti co-regent and then
dies just under 2 years after Horemheb with whom
he shared the rule.

Year 7-8 of Seti a peace treaty with Muwatallis
and in the ensuing time of peace Seti makes Ram II
co-regent

Year 14-15 of Seti when nearly 50 he dies and Ram
II just turned 25

Fifth year of Ram II when 30 his second Syrian
expedition and Battle of Kadesh

69th year when 92 he dies in 1213 - she discusses
up to 14th Jubilee celebrations.

Perhaps her opinion of events and years of reign
help discussions

--------
Christiane tries to discuss placing Exodus at time
of Ram II and suggests year 7 when he and
Imenherkhepeshef (eldest son) were on a dual
punitive expedition into Edom and Moab. "Clues
though are few and far between". (I'd agree with
that I just cannot see Ram II the Great as Pharaoh
of Exodus)

Much discussion in book on eldest changing name
later as Imen... disappears from the record. Of
course if he was the first born at the time of
Exodus then he was not around ......

What I have just read - May 2008

8 Jun 2008 S831180005 Fighting techniques of the Medieval world equipment, combat skills, and tactics / Bennett, Matthew. Renew

8 Jun 2008 S755447000 Genesis of the Pharaohs : dramatic new discoveries that rewrite the origins of a / Wilkinson, Toby. Renew

10 Jun 2008 S867675001 The Black swan : the impact of the highly improbable / Nassim Nicholas Taleb. / Taleb, Nassim Nicholas. Renew

What Am I reading and watching

14 Jun 2008	S885707000	Family tree magazine : Vol. 24, No. 6, Apr 2008. /
14 Jun 2008	S856048004	Inspector Rex. Series 7 [videorecording] : a cop's best friend / writers Peter H / Hajek, Peter.
14 Jun 2008	S838530004	Jericho / writer, Stewart Harcourt ; director, Nicholas Renton. / Harcourt, Stewart.
14 Jun 2008	S818370009	The life aquatic with Steve Zissou / written, produced and directed by Wes Ander / Anderson, Wes.
14 Jun 2008	S817517006	Together / directed by Chen Kaige. / Chen, Kaige, 1952-
28 Jun 2008	S860627009	Coffee basics : a quick and easy guide / by Kevin Knox and Julie Sheldon Huffake / Knox, Kevin.
28 Jun 2008	S866714009	Inside Hamas : the untold story of militants, martyrs and spies / Zaki Chehab. / Chehab, Zaki.
28 Jun 2008	S877649004	Still lost in translation : more misadventures in English abroad / Charlie Croke / Croker, Charlie, 1966-
28 Jun 2008	S800419004	The mighty Hood. / Bradford, Ernle.
28 Jun 2008	S868051004	Wikis for dummies / by Dan Woods and Peter Thoeny ; foreword by Ward Cunningham. / Woods, Dan, 1960-

Motya : unearthing a lost civilization. by Gaia Servadio

Motya : unearthing a lost civilization. by Gaia Servadio


Gaia is an Italian journalist who wrote for L'Ora who bravely tackled the Mafia . Her book is about her personal trips to Motya. A Punic city destroyed by the Greeks on an islet off Sicily with a sea covered road connected to the main land. Her story covers Joseph Whitaker who inherited a wine firm trading in Marsala - a very heavy dessert wine. Joseph purchased Motya and started digging for Carthaginian remains as well as collecting and stuffing birds. The family had some trouble with the mafia and the fascists . A rambling book but very interesting on the British running businesses in Sicily.


Gaia has a theory that the Carthaginians practised sacrifice of first born children because young women had to become temple prostitutes and when they married the father was not always clear. No wonder the Bible condemns the Canaanites.

Farewell: Charlton Heston

Actor Charlton Heston has died | The Daily Telegraph

Charlton Heston dies - Film - Entertainment - smh.com.au

Charlton Heston's key movies - Film - Entertainment - smh.com.au

Charlton Heston Takes Some of Sci-Fi's Best Lines to the Grave | The Underwire from Wired.com  What a titan - all those images I have of him in all those roles.  Just thinking of one - Ben Hur - in chains and he takes a drink from a man and we realise it is the Lord.   Now he is not lending his power to NRA - can America now do something about guns  

Chicken Laksa

In Wok
400g chicken breast diced
1/2 teaspoon crushed garlic
1 teaspoon crushed ginger
4 minutes
toss in 1/2 cup carrot in strips
1/2 cup capsicum strips
2 minutes

add
1 cup bean sprouts
1/2 cup shallots sliced
1 tablespoon fresh coriander chopped
1 teaspoon meongrass in jar
3 teaspoons massaman curry paste
1 teaspoon tumeric
2 teaspoon chicken stock powder
1 cup water
1 teaspoon coconut essence
1 1/2 cups Singapore noodles

MIX WELL

Combine
1 of 375 ml evaporated light milk
1 tablespoon cornflour
add to dish

Simmer 5 minutes
Serve

FROM    "Annette Sym Too Good to be True"

Blueberry flapjacks

Batter
1 can blueberries save juice for sauce
2 egg whites - avoid yolks 6 g fat -

1/4 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon vanilla essence
1/2 cup skim milk
1 cup self raising
1/2 teaspoon bicarbonate soda
cooking spray

Sauce
Juice and 1 tablespoon cornflour
keep stirring on medium heat

BATTER
Beat egg whites and sugar add essence and milk
fold flour until combined
fold berries

spray oil in pan
pour in a round shape and cook 2 minutes 

PM off on Overseas Trip

before he left I heard the PM say that he expected to have important discussions with the PRESIDENT OF THE USA. He would have his photo taken with him. Our country will be taking a much stronger place in world affairs and could be expected to stick our noses into all manner of things. We will of course tell everyone what they should do to fix their global warming.





Rudd defends timing of marathon trip | The Daily Telegraph

I wonder what crisis will occur next week that Julia will somehow waffle through.


First Day

Rudd's troop withdrawal leaves Bush alone on Iraq - National - smh.com.au

Well I agree sure is time to pull troops out - what with the Iraq government starting a civil war in Basra. But I hardly think the number of troops really would be noticed and won't we be
leaving some as security for our diplomats etc. Glad to see we are still there to help the Afgahnis.

It's stuff "Mr Rudd said sparing "working families" the full brunt of the global financial crisis was the uppermost reason for his two-and-a-half weeks of talks with the world's most senior business, political and economic leaders." What is this Working families that he talks about - does he mean he excludes a lot of the population.

I did like "Dr Nelson and others were engaging in "short-term political point scoring", he said."
Wow is he above criticism

Richard Widmark, Actor, Dies at 93 - New York Times

Richard Widmark, Actor, Dies at 93 - New York Times

Richard Widmark - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Forgive me Richard this amazed me - I just did not know you were still around. Then I read on Wiki that he was never on a talk show - last film was 1991 - so no wonder he dropped from view

To me he was the greatest villain I ever saw. He just oozed badness.
But then he could also be a most noble hero.
His classic films were in the late 1940 into 50s


Great picture of him as psychopathic killer from 1947 “Kiss of Death”. Yes and that's Victor Mature behind Richard.

The intensity was always there - "The Bedford Incident" said so much about the Cold War stupidity of vessels running around with WMD

And this says a lot about the man:
Widmark was married to his first wife, writer Jean Hazlewood, for almost 55 years, from April 5, 1942 until her death on March 2, 1997

Emily Perry dies at 101

Humphries pays tribute to 'Madge' | The Daily Telegraph
"Barry Humphries realised immediately Emily Perry was a star."
I loved Madge Allsop - she was the best straight "man" I've ever seen and as Barry says he tried to make her laugh. It seems she was 80 when she first played Madge - amazing.

Recently we saw Barry on the last Michael Parkinson and it was right Dame Edna was there at the last he brought tears to my eyes on many Parkinson - the Gloria Swanson (was Gloria confused about Dame Edna?) - Barry and the Russian Salad in that brown paper bag on the aeroplane.

Ah Madge wasn't on those shows - perhaps she was home laughing - Thanks Emily

Plastic Bags

Plastic bags join endangered list - Environment - smh.com.au
Garrett who can do a tourist trip to Antarctica is now proposing to ban Plastic Bags or impose a levy on using them. Inference is that the article is talking about the ones that supermarkets "give" us with our groceries. years ago stores had a rack with old cardboard boxes and we struggled to find ones to fit our shopping. USA stores always "gave " nice big solid paper bags but here the stores decided plastic was cheap. Presumably these are now costing.

But what is position on the plastic bags we buy in the stores - big bags for the rubbish bin - little bags for freezers etc? Are these different because we pay directly for them?

Currently we use the shopping plastic bags for our rubbish - in future should we place the rotten stuff directly in the Otto and make it more smelly?

Bunnings I would presume stopped plastic bags as a cost saving for themselves. And I must say their prices are much better than the BBC stores that used to be in the same premises.

The supermarkets continue to confuse us on prices - rollback ie buy two - a ridiculous 4c off fuel. Or spend at high prices in the petrol station and get another 2c . Spent over $200 in Woolworths at Carlingford the other day and still got ONE only docket for 4c off. And let's see where are the Woolworths petrol stations - one north of Thornleigh -one down Epping Road - none at Carlingford. 4c off 40 litres - not even a coffee. What does it cost for them to run this ???

And they worry about the cost of plastic bags!!

Watch out Kevin's back

Frankly I was wondering what was happening - all the hype about Work around the clock and then he disappeared and Julia did all the talking. Well SMH has all the news

Get set for Kevin08, Australia: PM's back, best you look busy - National

I was also shocked to see an aircraft land in Antarctica and off step Garrett. Talk about Stunts. perhaps he was there looking after the whales. Now this sending a ship to keep an eye on the Japanese whaling fleet - checking for what? Are the Japanese doing anything that is actually illegal. Is what Greenpeace doing legal?

Is Internet Banking safe - Is Facebook safe - Phishing

I am amazed that I get so much spam that are fake notes from financial institutions. As I use Thunderbird -with text only I immediately see that the links to banks are fake. In HTML these notes would look fair dinkum. I get notes from all manner of "fake" banks - and also PayPal and eBay. None from the company themselves.

Now this excellent article tells me that people do respond to these emails.
Is internet banking safe? - Security - Technology - smh.com.au
Do have a read some helpful stuff re online banking.

Then other ways of getting your VITAL details - at sites like Facebook
BBC NEWS | Technology | Cyber thieves target social sites

And beware pages that want your password in Facebook - check URL is still facebook
Phishing For Facebook

Oh and if a note I trust arrives in TB and I want to see in html I have installed the addon
ShowHTML and one click and all looks good.

SearchWP and Google search

Georges-Etienne Legendre - SearchWP
is a aid to searching from the Firefox search box - it puts your search words available in the search results. They will be listed on the toolbar so you can click to find each word in the pages. Also you can click a highlight button to get them in colour.

Georges-Etienne Legendre - SearchBox Sync
SearchWP only works if you use the Firefox search box - if you use say Google search direct well install Sync.

I did not want google toolbar as it clutters up the browser with features I find hard to see the point of. I do have Google desktop and use the taskbar search box so Sync is most useful.

Both addons work for other search engines

Assignants

In essence bring back the assignants


A History of Money: From Ad 800 - Google Book Search

The French Revolution

Genetically Modified - help

yesterday on SBS a very frightening doco on Monsanto and GM crops and their attempt to patent pigs. What I understood was Monsanto supply GM feed and this puts certain genes into pigs. If your pigs have these genes then you MUST pay a licence fee. A German farmer was DNA testing pigs in Germany and showing that pigs already naturally had these genes. He was hoping that Monsanto did not have the patent granted.

The program was also making the point that having GM crops on a farm next door could mean that your crops would get contaminated and then you should be paying a license fee.
And then we don't know what effect these GM crops have on us or animals. Farmers were saying their herds had serious fertility drops.

And now the next day in NSW and Victoria

State drops ban on GM canola crop - Environment - smh.com.au

Best I can say is stop using food with Canola present

Final Election Thoughts

A chance to rebuild, after a decade of moral erosion - yes of course an article by Paul Keating.

In which amongst a lot of other nonsense - he says

"He (John Howard) also trod on the reasonable constitutional progression to an Australian republic, even when the proposal I championed had everything about it that the Liberal Party could accept. A president appointed by both houses of Parliament; meaning by both major parties, while leaving the reserve powers with the new head of state as the Liberals had always wanted. The price of Howard conniving in its defeat probably means we will ultimately end up with an elected head of state, completely changing the representative nature of power and of the prime ministership and of the cabinet."

Sorry Paul the people clearly showed that if there was to be a Republic that they wanted to elect the President not leave it to the pollies. That is why the Republic push failed.

-------

Back to Kevin - I really find offensive the Ad - I will stay the Limit - whereas Howard will hand over to Costello - so where is your choice. Well we know the choice - it is Howard followed by Costello - no secret.

In 1991 I went to India for six weeks - when I left Hawke was PM - when I returned Keating had pushed him out.

I had no news in India and I was shocked. What choice did the people have there? I fail to see the issue Kevin! How do we know the ALP won't do it again?

---------

The dumb fake brochure stunt of course is nasty for John. And he has disowned it several times. At the Press Club on TV today I was pleased to hear journalists groaning when yet another "respected" reported asked a question on an issue that had been done to death.

A big thank you to John Howard for being my local MP for so many years and PM since 1996. Looking right back you impressed me when you took such prompt action on personal gun control.

Many Blessings for Saturday


Friday night - I'm watching Bob Carr saying all the things he thinks that John did wrong - and this from the man that gave us the lousy tollways and then walked off the job. Did he tell us he was going to leave the job at the previous election. Did the Labor premiers in Victoria and Queensland give notice at the election that they would retire young. Come on Labor John is saying he will retire so stop the NEGATIVE nonsense.


Why has Kevin shot himself in the foot over the change the constitution to recognise our indigenous people?

Nous sommes tous des assassins

Many years ago I saw Nous sommes tous des assassins (1952)
which was about the horror of using the portable guillotine

And in England a man was hung because an accomplice in a crime shot someone but as he was underage he lived.

Capital punishment is not good

HTML editors - some thoughts on WYSIWYG tools

Research in Feb 2007

I am thinking of future and whether I will go Linux/Ubuntu etc or MacBook

Currently my web sites are written with Frontpage 2000

Sorry purists I want WYSIWYG

This is very sophisticated - I will use to check my html - HTML-Kit - http://www.chami.com/html-kit/

This is helpful
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_WYSIWYG_HTML_editors>

some of these look quite powerful but Html only

AceHTML, a Free HTML Editor
http://software.visicommedia.com/en/products/acehtmlfreeware/?id=51

openbexi - very much Beta - strange looking colours - maybe if they
release a working version

http://geniisoft.com/showcase.nsf/WebEditors
well worth exploring - lists many editors I have not checked yet

http://www.openwebware.com/products/openwysiwyg/
- hard to install meant for experts in CMS and Java

And I am bookmarking these for future thoughts
http://quanta.kdewebdev.org/bugs.php
http://aptana.com/
http://tinymce.moxiecode.com/documentation.php

http://www.mozilla.org/projects/seamonkey/
I tried- bit lost as why it has email etc when Mozilla has TB and FP
Now I worked out NVU is a development from it so I am uninstalling

Xstandard - the free lite version does not enough features - the Pro for
example has Split Table Cell - but why buy

Dynamic HTML Editor
http://www.dynamic-html-editor.com/en_download.asp#dhefree
I tried the 1.9 version - appears to be rubbish
would not open an Html file appears to want some file of its invention
to me that is Goodbye

Tried trial version of Adobe Contribute - it appears to have a special
group network purpose and restrictions such as Template comes from
Dreamweaver - you might as well pay the extra for Dreamweaver

This is for MAC - so if I go MacBook I will have iWeb but if not quite
for my major webs - I might try this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RapidWeaver

So I'll keep looking at NVU - no recent release but seems to work.
Kompozer is supposed to be NVU with some bug fixes

Does allow Template - but I have to learn how to use - currently I use
include page in FP

Does not have image mapping tool for hotspots like FP but does allow
insert of the code - and in image properties has a Image Map remove
button - strange way to do things.
So I need Image mapping - Gimp is supposed to do it - Xnview has a help
page but nothing clear on how to do

November 2007 Some new stuff I will look at
Writing this away from home so not yet downloading

http://www.aptana.com/products/studio_community.php sounds very functional - except HTML editor only not WYSIWYG

http://www.sitestudio.tk/ - no longer developed but write up sounds good and there are downloads - however no help to explain - nothing intuitive about it - Don't bother with it

http://www.karelia.com/ SANDVOX - has try it

http://www.apple.com/ilife/iweb/
iWeb is not a major tool - its really just Apple's interface to .MAC .
You could use it to create another web site but you cannot import already created web pages.
and you need to backup the Domain file else if you move machines etc you will not be able to use iWeb to edit the old pages.
This is an excellent summary Practicalmadness by David Demaree | Regarding iWeb

http://www.softpress.com they have a Freeway XLE free to try and discounts - I got a Serial number for XLE but where is download - so I set a note asking - and it looks like it is a fresh web site - you cannot import - well I have asked that too

http://www.panic.com/coda/ I think there is a free trial - HTML editor only

http://www.virtualmechanics.com/downloads/index.html

Pakistan and What is a Terrorist

Imran Khan faces terror charges after Islamist rivals halt protest

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/asia/article2872356.ece

The news from Pakistan is most disturbing. USA ally can't find Osama BUT can flood the streets with baton wielding police.

Musharraf was speaking about people "trying to upset govenment" - well of course when its someone desparately hanging on to power. And now the great cricketter is arrested.

I have not been to Pakistan but I have been to Bangladesh and the Pakistan generals tried everything to keep control there until India said LEAVE. Who is going to tell Musharraf to leave. Come on George.

CNET.com.au has FREE music

I subscribe to Cnet through Bloglines - very good for Aussie reviews of technical stuff

and today they start FREE Mp3 downloads

and it is all sorts of music including Classical with Opera and Hip Hop

Get free MP3s in our Music Centre - News - Music Software

Watch your download usage numbers - I am on peak period with Optus so 12 midnite to 12 noon

Curse of the Golden Flower

Curse of the Golden Flower - in Chinese
Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia (2006)

is an interesting film.
I watched a few minutes of a daft martial arts the other day. The monks had a fighting sticks and managed to get the bad ones to bite the sticks so hard their teeth were stuck in the stick. Yuk!

Anyhow I saw Golden Flower on library shelf and was passing by but it looked different and it is. This is more like real history. The plot is not  actual rulers but as maker Ziang Yimou says it tries to show what feudal China was like. The plot is a combination of King Lear and Hamlet as described by Chow Yun-Fa who plays the Emperor

Ziang mentions a proverb "Gold and jade on the outside, rot and decay on the inside." So the film is very opulent - lots of gold and bright colours. Yet very dark deeds going on in the background. The Palace is presented magnificently just as I imagine the Forbidden City might have been like at the heights of its splendour. Although the film is set before it was built. I remember looking into the great hall and my amazement that it would have been filled with all these women and their own sleeping "area". Golden Flower is full of scenes showing how all these people might have operated. The

The battle scenes are not utterly realistic  although they say they were trying to be .  The weapons do kill though and  you can see they are not using those silly flying routines. There is something like a Roman Turtle - a group of men surrounded with shields.

The main courtyard is covered with chrysanthemum as that festival is taking place. Just see what happens to the flowers in the battle and then afterwards.

The Acting is very good.  None of those silly looks of the  martial arts films - these people are real. Well worth seeing

The Apocalypse of Ahmadinejad

This is further to my post: Iran - Ahmadinejad - Nukes

The Apocalypse of Ahmadinejad Book

He stands only five foot four and smiles incessantly. But behind that charismatic persona beats the heart of a genocidal terrorist. In his provocative, well-researched expose' of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, prophecy expert Mark Hitchcock unveils the insidious agenda behind this radical Shiite's regime: Ahmadinejad plans to hasten the return of the Islamic messiah by ushering in his vision of the apocalypse.
His ultimate goal is to bring the Mahdi, or Twelfth Imam, out of hiding. And he plans to do so by arming his country with nuclear weapons, then exporting the Iranian revolution to the world by destroying Israel and the United States.
But there's a bizarre twist to Ahmadinejad's nightmarish intentions: This ardent zealot may well be part of God's plan to set the stage for a scenario prophesied more than 2,500 years ago.
Mark Hitchcock presents compelling evidence that Ahmadinejad's actions, including his alliances with Russia and many of Iran's neighbors, have placed his nation -- and the world -- on a collision course toward the war of Gog and Magog. (208 pages)

I just love the "well researched" - REALLY - more like a lot of imagination at play from that synopsis.
I did know that Shia belief included the return of the Iman and that Ahmadinejad appeared to believe in this also
from Shi'a: The Hidden Imam

Imam Mahdi will return at the head of the forces of righteousness and do battle with the forces of evil in one, final, apocalyptic battle. When evil has been defeated once and for all, the Imam Mahdi will rule the world for several years under a perfect government and bring about a perfect spirituality among the peoples of the world. After the Imam Mahdi has reigned for several years, Jesus Christ will return (raj'a ), as will Husayn and others. It is the return of the dead that falls under the Doctrine of Return; the Mahdi will only appear to humanity.

Note Jesus is included in this - but this is the Jesus of Islam - not to be confused with the expectations that Christians have for the Jesus of the Holy Bible. Why does Shia belief so correspond to Christian Second Coming of Jesus?

I do not think that Iran is part of the Bible's End Times prophecies. This whole book smacks of Nostradamus who was supposed to had a remarkable vision that there would be "trouble in Persia". There has always been trouble in Persia - it is placed at such a crossroad in the Middle East.

By the way that book is AUD$16.95 at WORD Bookstore Australia - I will not be buying

George Orwell - (Eric Blair) 1903-1950

Neil has just blogged on: George Orwell exposed!
Mainly that conservtives often quote Eric and how he changed from being a communist whereas he may have rejected dictators like Stalin but he did remain a Socialist and supporter of the Labour Party.

Do read George Orwell - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

I am pleased to say I own at least one first edition of something and it is:
George Orwell: The English People. Publisher: 'Collins'. GB, London. 1947
A wonderful short essay on the English as he saw them.

A quote follows

during the Jubilee (George V) the rather servile slogan "Poor but Loyal." Other
slogans, however, coupled loyalty to the King with hostility to the landlord,
such as "Long Live the King. Down With the Landlord," or more often,
"No Landlords Wanted" or "Landlords Keep Away." It is too early to say
whether royalist sentiment was killed outright by the Abdication (1936) , but
unquestionably the Abdication dealt it a serious blow. Over the past four
hundred years it has waxed or waned according to circumstances. Queen
Victoria, for instance, was decidedly unpopular during part of her reign,
and in the first quarter of the nineteenth century public interest in the
Royal Family was not nearly as strong as it was a hundred years later. At
this moment the mass of the English people are probably mildly republican.
But it may well be that another long reign, similar to that of George V,
would revive royalist feeling and make it-as it was between roughly 1880
and 1936-an appreciable factor in politics

George wrote that in 1943 I suppose as surely by 1947 it was clear that George VI had revived royalist feeling with his two lovely daughters and the way the family behaved in WW2. And here we are 60 years after the book with a Queen who has reigned 54 years. I wonder what George would say now about republican position in England.

His great book was Nineteen Eighty-Four which in many ways was set in the dismal England of 1948 under rationing and with a Labour government . Recently we had a discussion on Movies and Neil and I both set Brazil (film) high on our lists. Made by Terry Gilliam in 1985 and obviously based on Eric's 1984 even though Terry says he never read the book. The office computers are modeled on 1948 Television sets and even show black and white cowboy films. An enormous romp of a film. See it. And perhaps first read the book and the Richard Burton film of

I got to the book through television the 1954 TV programme in which Peter Cushing was brilliant as Winston Smith - alas then Peter went on to a career as vampire killer.

The other well known book from George is Animal Farm- well worth reading - don't bother with the cartoon film. In this parody of Stalin and what happened to the Russian revolution Eric shows what changed his attitude to politics.

Of course Eric died at age 46 - at that age I myself was still supporting the ALP - if he had lived would Eric have changed?

On Neil's comment "The Road to Wigan Pier" is mentioned that and other books are on line from that link

On-the-spot fines for minor offences

From Keeping a Watch on the NSW Government

Minor Offences ? We ain't talking jay walking.

Poll shows only 70% of Germans are sane

Just as Neil was discussing at One Salient Oversight: Hitler was not an Atheist
up comes this terrible poll
Nazis not all bad, 25% of Germans say - World - smh.com.au
"Those who grew up directly after World War II, now aged 45 to 59, were the least enthusiastic about the Nazi era, with only 15 per cent responding "yes"." But that's still 1 in 6.!!!

It seems it all started because some "a popular talk show host was sacked for praising Nazi Germany's attitude towards motherhood."
That is unless she was Jewish or a Gypsy or a Slav or anyone else the Nazi hated.
Hitler decided to show high regard for "traditional" values so people could say stupid things like "but he loves motherhood".

Don't young Germans understand what happened back then.
A year ago just to remind myself of what it must have been like. I read
The Third Reich in Power, 1933-1939 - Richard Evans - Penguin UK

'Do you know what fear is?' an elderly worker asked an interviewer some years after it was all over: 'No. The Third Reich was fear.' Yet terrorism was only one of the Third Reich's techniques of rule. For the Nazis did not just seek to batter the population into passive, sullen acquiescence. They also wanted to rouse it into positive, enthusiastic endorsement of their ideals and their policies, to change people's minds and spirits and to create a new German culture that would reflect their values alone.

It seems many people are still deluded.

ImgBurn - burn CDs and DVD

The Official ImgBurn Website

ImgBurn is a lightweight CD / DVD / HD DVD / Blu-ray burning application that everyone should have in their toolkit!

They are not joking

ImgBurn supports all the Windows OS's - Windows 95, 98, Me, NT, 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista (including all the 64-bit versions). If you use Wine, it should also run on Linux and other x86-based Unixes.

Who needs Spies anyway

Desktop naval gazers know a sub when they see one

Mind boggling what Google can do

I remember Hugh Trevor Roper (he was one of guys duped by Kim Philby) saying "you don't need spies just read their newspapers". Of course as well as being wrong about Philby he also authenticated the Fake Hitler Diaries but I think he had something about reading what the other side puts into print. Mind you an SIS officer in that part of the organisation penetrated by communists has to be a worry - they were always shoving him on TV as an expert. The whole affair just astounded me. Ian Richardson made a good Anthony Blunt. It showed what a mess "security" was. Didn't they know that the earlier runaways had these guys as friends.

Just amazing google even knows where I live

View Larger Map

Israel and scripture

Israel And Scripture In Correct Context « Matthew Manchester

GTD getting things done - MAC focus

Basics4Mac - Using Exposé to Located Your Hidden Windows

Basics4Mac - GTD Makeover for Your Desktop

Audio - my old LPs and Cassettes

Linux.com :: Digitizing records and tapes with Audacity

It works well - 2008 and I have a record plater hooked in and I am away

Play Dough Recipe

2 cups plain flour
1 cup salt
4 tablespoons cream of Tartar
2 tablespoons cooking oil
2 cups water
colouring

Mix together
Cook stirring all the time
cool slightly and kneed until smooth
add a drop of oil of cloves or peppermint

store in airtight container in fridge

a plastic rolling pin

a large plastic knife

anything they can use

This has served us well for years

and there are more suggestions here

Play Dough Options | Recipe Index

Free Burma

We were in North Thailand in 1998 with a day trip across a bridge into Burma. It seemed to me as poor as some parts of India. So what are these generals doing?

MAC possible software to install

Synium Software


includes MacFamily Tree

Needful Things: Services from DEVONtechnologies

They have some useful looking programs and "addons" I am now evaluating

Firefox Running Slow?

Firefox Running Slow? Make It Fast Again Without Re-Installation at Digital Inspiration - Software Reviews, Internet and Technology Guide

Something to Install or use on net ?

WebRunner - MozillaWiki

Kwoff - an Australian social news aggregator | Lifehacker Australia

Localise settings for NetStumbler | Lifehacker Australia

Share a Printer on Your Home Network | Lifehacker Australia

Create No-Code Mashups with Yahoo! Pipes - 4. Check It Out!

Send Snail Mail via Email with Postful | Lifehacker Australia

Twitter

Guns and Rifles

Neil Cameron has just published a good comparison on

M16 vs AK-47

Back in the 1950s I fired as well as The .303 Lee Enfield Rifle watch the kick - whoops a shoulder blade.
The WW2 Bren light machine gun a delight no kick - could wander sideways as only a bipod But I could get small groups by firing shorts bursts. (the USA had the BAR - Browning Machinegun).

Also the Sten a very low cost sub machine gun - it really drifted to the side - I used it like a hose - spray the bullets around. Wiki has a picture of Churchill firing from the shoulder - Winnie was a soldier but that was probably a propoganda picture - best I found was holding it at the waist tucked well in. So many WW2 movies (I remember Alan Ladd in the Red Berets) showed people holding the magazine at the end with left hand. NO NO! That would cause a jam.

Talking about recoil and how to hold - Ak47 I see being fired from shoulder - held very well and also from the waist. Then watching some films of training the Iraqis in entering eneny buildings, they have the butt up high on the shoulder like USA weapons. I don't think that is sound practice. Ak47 is not that stable.

yes the AK47 is a WMD - I saw designer recently saying he does not worry and still sleeps nights not his fault how wide spread the gun is.

Big thing with M16 they said on Discovery was the way the butt goes straight from the barrel - avoiding the curved stock stops the tendency to jerk the gun when firing. So point and shoot and it goes straight.

However as you say the AK47 is a more robust field weapon

I see a range of weapons in use by US in Iraq - as well as M16. Blokes lugging around M249 Squad Automatic Weapon the fire power must be good.
I wonder if the CQBR - Close Quarters Battle Receiver is working out.

Clutter

Al Gore rocks multiple monitors

This looks like a lovely work arrangement - is it 3 big screens - but look at the desk - I am trying NOT to be like that - it is hard.
I don't think this works either Tina Fey organises with Post-Its
but least it gets you looking at Lifehacker Australia | Tech tips to help you at work and play
as well as things about putting power boards and cables in boxes with holes drilled
and they had a post to
Getting Things Done Guru David Allen and His Cult of Hyperefficiency

The essence seems to be

THREE RULES

1. Collect and describe all the stuff. Everything must be inventoried without distinction or prejudice. Errands, emails, a problem with a friend: It all must be noted for processing. Small objects, such as an invitation or a receipt, go into a pile. Everything else can be represented with a few words on a piece of paper ("find keys," "change jobs"). Once the stuff is collected, processing begins. Anything that requires two minutes or less is handled on the spot. The remainder is governed by the second rule.

2. All stuff must be handled in a precise way. Allen offers dozens of clever tricks for classifying, labeling, and retrieving stuff. Expert users of GTD never leave old emails cluttering their inbox, for instance. Nor do they have to rifle through a bunch of paper to see if there's anything crucial they've left undone. Emails to be answered are in a separate folder from emails that merely have to be read; there's a file for every colleague and friend; stuff that must be done has been identified and placed on one of several kinds of to-do lists. Allen calls his to-do lists next-action lists, which are subject to the third rule.

3. Items on next-action lists should be described as concretely as possible. Breaking down stuff into physical actions, Allen says, is the key to getting things done.

I know these arer so similar to other systems but something has to work

Whoops that is TWO minutes - now for something else

Phones - VOIP - Skype

Optus is getting unrealistic on price

I am starting to look at land line options

Skype starter kit: update - from Cnet.au


Engin

GoTalk launches unlimited VoIP calls to mobiles | APC Magazine

Talk is cheap and easy - Troubleshooter - Opinion - Technology - smh.com.au

Coffee

Perhaps this is the way to go

The coffee Premium Blends and the Art of Espresso by Nespresso (Australia)

little buckets of coffee ready for a cup and price 64 cents to 69

machines can be inexpensive


Must check what the forum has to say Coffeesnobs

3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Brain Power

3 Easy Ways to Improve Your Brain Power - Dumb Little Man


I am trying the mouse with the Other Hand - phew - cut&paste is tricky but perhaps this will work

Window free stuff I might install

Lightning - Project Home Thunderbird Calendar

Defrag Individual Files with Defraggler | Lifehacker Australia

MediaCoder - more than a universal audio/video transcoder


Winamp Media Player Overview

Monitor Your Bandwith Usage with SurplusMeter | Lifehacker Australia

Burn CDs and DVDs with CDBurnerXP | Lifehacker Australia

These look good

Sumatra PDF viewer by Krzysztof Kowalczyk

Documentation Project | GnuCash

those from OpenDisc and they have more

AppSnap - get your apps in a snap

Get your photos on the Web for free - Internet Applications Software

Top 10 Free Video Rippers, Encoders, and Converters | Lifehacker Australia some of these I have

MAC Photo Editors and iPhoto

iPhoto has a major limitation to me - you can import photos from an External hard drive but when the External is not connected iPhoto is liable to go into "not responding" and you have to Force Quit. Yuk that is not good.

Seem to be a couple of solutions - which instead of one big Library, allow you to have several
Fat Cat Software - iPhoto Library Manager
but I see many comments that prefer iPhoto Buddy so I am installing

looking at iPhoto library I can see that my external photos are there but only as 4kb thumbnails presumably linked to the external if that is connected. It will take a while to sort out which is my fully imported folders versus these thumbnail only. Yuk I like to be able to easily backup my folders . And I was a Master folder and a Working folder. I want to keep the Masters in their raw condition.

So I am also looking into other editors for MAC OS X

which also have a library approach - ie a preview pane with all the photos and then select the ones to edit


Download ImageWell Now - It's Free!

hmmmm - has an interesting interface - not sure it has clicked with me


Welcome to GIMPShop dot Net

The GIMP under X11 but seems to blend well - powerful photo editting - a kind of preview pane -


Overview | digiKam - KDE Photo Management Linux but rumours a OS X version coming

Seashore A shortened version of GIMP - similar comment to Gimpshop

So iPhoto is still looking like the housekeeping program - it preview pane with Zoom etc works well - I 'll see if the Buddy program solves the MONSTROUS Library "issue". Everything says it does and that it should load faster as no LARGE library

Xee 2.0 - MacUpdate

Xee takes over from Preview - says it handles multiple files - use mouse scrowl wheel and crops - just installed will see

Lifehacker is a most interesting RSS

I have them on my Bloglines and picking up all manner of useful stuff

Just read on how to put a power board into a box with holes on top so all my charging stuff in one uncluttered place

clutter | Lifehacker Australia

Lots more

Mirror Your Mac on a Bootable External Drive

Mirror Your Mac on a Bootable External Drive | Lifehacker Australia

Geek to Live: Complete, free Mac backup - Lifehacker

The Happiness Project: A simple, easy, cheap way to fight the clutter that appears on your desk.

The Happiness Project: A simple, easy, cheap way to fight the clutter that appears on your desk.

I like this - one pad , write all things for that day on it- do something with the page at the end of the day.

I'd say a Book and you can tear/rip pages out.

Phone numbers make sure you write WHOSE - so often I find a number on a paper and no idea who it was

How to Turn Cheap “Choice” Steaks into Gourmet

Saw this link on intriguing item on Lifehacker Australia

How to Turn Cheap “Choice” Steaks into Gucci “Prime” Steaks

It involve "soaking" the steak in SALT and up to an hour and then washing it off.
Might be worth trying

Pullquotes

I always liked how my son's wife Joy of Lankshear Design when setting up magazine articles uses pullquotes.

Pullquotes are Cool

A poster on FrontPage-L Resources highlighted
Snazzy Pullquotes for Your Blog — Pearsonified
which looks really cool. But I had trouble getting it to work

Then I found a simpler version Increase Your Blog’s Readability
which worked straight off. Not sure why that worked and other was difficult as the pullquote tags look the same.

The first blog I used it on was GO Russell - What are you doing Morris

GO Russell - What are you doing Morris

Well done South Sydney Club

The news is saying that Russell Crowe and Peter Holmes a Court are removing pokies (one armed bandits) from the South Sydney club. That is tremendous Russell and Peter - I do pray that your club succeeds. Pokies just take money away from people.


Note: When I worked at Rosebery in late 1970s I did go to Souths for lunch and won a big jackpot ($50) on a Friday on which I was going on vacation so it was most welcome. BUT although winning is most pleasant - losing is the pits.

Back then they did a great seafood buffet - I can remember the Balmain Bugs. And I gather the new club will provide great food.

Not so good State Government

This same day NSW Premier Iemma is allowing Keno into pubs.
Keno is appalling - the odds so favour the people who run it. Its an annoyance in clubs as the TV screens are continually pushing its nonsense. Now pubs - is there no end to State Government Greed - note State Governments are ALP which is supposed to represent the 'workers'. Hardly this is exploiting the workers and the retired. Morris said the revenue from Keno - would enable the clubs (presumably he meant pubs) to continue to provide the services they currently provide. Well of course it will Mr Iemma except they will make more profit - which is the name of the "game".


The same day Kev Rudd could not enunciate the correct tax thresholds - neither could I but I am not putting myself up as a potential Prime Minister

Then next morning
Now you can gamble at the corner store - National - smh.com.au
Lottery and Scratch tickets in 7-11 stores
Includes Iemma saying the ALP state government has reduced the number of pokies in the state but he did not have any details of numbers or how etc.

2 days later
Seems that Iemma got it wrong - the Minister is allowing more pokies

Overhaul opens way for pokies and hours - National - smh.com.au

Jottit

My Jottit

and I agree with the title of their message

That was easy!

Here's your new site. Be sure to bookmark it so you can find it again. To change it, just press the edit button at the bottom of the page. Enjoy!

and this is all it took

I am just trying which I read about on rojo.com At http://jottit.com/ a box appears in which I am typing and I am about to click "create a page" let's see

And up came my page and I selected a password and then its either public or private or open to all

And I just changed the URL

Ron's Jottings: Home

http://ronlankshear.jottit.com/

Kingdom of Heaven - a film I wanted to see

Bio - Kingdom of Heaven (film) Wikipedia RSS Feed
A detailed study of the film and I must agree the acting is good especially the King (Baldwin IV) and Saladin. The people all appear to be historical. Baldwin V was it seems in the film but disappeared in the cutting. The siege of Jerusalem is great spectacle.

Kingdom of Heaven - Wikiquote
has this

Saladin:: Will you yield the city?

Balian of Ibelin:: Before I lose it, I will burn it to the ground. Your holy places - ours. Every last thing in Jerusalem that drives men mad.

Saladin:: I wonder if it would not be better if you did.

Sort of sums up the issue - the film closes with a line about 1,000 years later and Jerusalem still driving men mad.

The film's message appears to be that the religions who value Jerusalem all should be able to live together. Muslim do use similar words to Christians when talking about their God. And the film discusses what is the purpose of life. Seems to be summed up in this quote

Hospitaller: I put no stock in Religion. By the word of religion, I've seen the lunacy of fanatics of every denomination be called the "Will of God". Holiness is in right action and courage on behalf of those who cannot defend themselves. And goodness - what God desires - [pointing at his head then heart] is here and here. By what you decide to do every day, you will be a good man [smiles] or not.

So depends on your world view - what am I trying to do whilst here on earth. Do you think there is life after death? Do you believe in a God? Are you forgiven?

Why not check out Ron Lankshear's Faith Page

DiffMerge

SourceGear | DiffMerge | downloads

DiffMerge is an application to visually compare and merge files for Windows, Mac OS X and Unix.
One feature also interests me
Folder Diff. Performs a side-by-side comparison of 2 folders, showing which files are only present in one file or the other, as well as file pairs which are identical or different.

Just downloaded and tried and it looks good
Could be great for keeping my external HD and Macbook and Desktop in sync

Our Election - just in case not enough on the tele already

2007 Australian Federal Election Google

Federal Election.com.au - warning it talks to you

Yum Cha and the election

Different brain function between ALP and the Liberals

Brain function different between liberals, conservatives: study - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

This is interesting on How research can be fudged.

And of course the Word Liberal versus liberal

Jihad - what does it mean

A jihad for understanding. 15 Aug 2007. ABC Central Victoria. (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

This tells me that Ms Chopra says it's upsetting that Muslims have to suffer because of other people's ignorance about Islam.

She says the word jihad does not mean 'holy war', as is often reported. Instead, she says it means 'struggle' and most Muslims understand the word on a personal basis.

Well I keep hearing that from Muslims - one on 702 the other day I think from Islamic Council. And to some it may well mean spiritual struggle as in not having food breaks in Ramadan. However there are clearly Muslims who mean it as Holy War in the sense of actual violence.

In the same way in the Middle Ages c1100 AD Christians used to go on Crusades which meant getting back Jerusalem from Muslims by war. In WW2 the media talked about Crusade in Europe ie the war against Hitler. Please note that was not a usage by Christians. However nowadays to Christians having a Crusade means having meetings at which the Good News about Jesus Christ is presented. Christians do not now use the word Crusade to mean an active war.

So Muslims I do urge and pray that you do stop the Jihad of a Holy War and concentrate on seeking a spiritual answer to the problems of life.

Jihad - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
and also
What is Jihad? - article by Daniel Pipes
and also
Jihad: The Fight Over Meaning: Harvard student's commencement speech on jihad causes controversy

What is the the truth on Charles and Diana

September 2007 have a ghastly cold and got a lot of humour from reading Sarah Goodall "The Palace Diaries". It is very racy but I wanted to find out what a Palace secretary knew about events. Not a lot I gather . Most of what Sarah passes on to us is gossip from "friends" that she keeps anonymous. Such as she says Diana had a lot more blokes but she only tells us the ones already published elsewhere. After all she started there in 1988 after the marriage had already broken down so could not have observed the "reasons" and being in the office in her early days did not see much of the Boss and Bossette anyway.

Much of the book is about Sarah eating and drinking having various affairs which may all be "fiction" well the names are anyway. And how badly paid she was but she stayed because of her love of the status etc.

A long review with quotes in the Scotsman and an interview in the Shropshire Star
Sarah is from Shropshire and article does say that her father was not pleased with the book and I can well understand that he would be not be pleased.

I like this brief review in Aristocracy Anecdotes it fits well with the tone of the book

Sarah received the MVO member of Royal Victorian Order for her work and then a year later and after 12 years gets sacked. She seems to think Camilla took exception to her familiarity with HRH. Perhaps this has more bearing
Re A case that Charles took to stop some publication of his "private papers"

on Page 143 she recounts a commitee that she kept minutes for but due to the drinks was often too tipsy to remember "who said what about what and to whom". The whole book could be like that too.

I did like the story of her falling asleep at a film show in HRH's lounge room - a large G&T at fault. Anyhow next morning Charles much amused says how everyone was amazed that she took her earrings off put them on a side table and then went to sleep.

Sarah seems to like Charles and thinks that Diana let him down and that Camilla is good for Charles. It is hard to say which version of all that is the real Sarah.

I had to look up references to Sarah - at first I thought the book could be a satire and I was slightly amazed to find that Sarah is real. Whilst I was checking her I found this story
More on what a ghastly choice Diana made in James Hewitt
whereas This seems to quench that story

So Diana remains a mystery in the sense of Why was there a marriage breakdown - whose fault was it. This seems a good summary on what was Diana really like

Whatever else her sons said it all at the recent memorial service. Bless them.

Farewell - Luciano Pavarotti

I saw a news ticker this morning that he was seriously ill and then on 702 driving home they were giving tributes.
What else can I say but that
Luciano Pavarotti was the BEST I have ever heard.

A quote from Placido Domingo
"I always admired the God-given glory of his voice - that unmistakable special timbre from the bottom up to the very top of the tenor range,''

Peace in Palestine

August 2007 I read Palestine : peace not apartheid / Jimmy Carter.

Yes the Jimmy who was President of USA 1977-1980 and who negotiated with Anwar Sadat and Menachem Begin to obtain the Camp David accord which brought peace between Israel and Egypt.

Wiki repeats the first points that Jimmy makes in his Summary chapter

[1] Some Israelis believe they have the right to confiscate and colonize Palestinian land and try to justify the sustained subjugation and persecution of increasingly hopeless and aggravated Palestinians; and
[2] Some Palestinians react by honoring suicide bombers as martyrs to be rewarded in heaven and consider the killing of Israelis as victories.

It is hard not to agree with those points. Recently I saw a doco and a Jewish West Bank settler was very strong on her rights to be where she was. But UN Resolution 242 is clear on withdrawal to 1967 borders and Israel really has to face up to that. What those borders are in detail should be open to negotiation.

And then I just do not understand the "mad" behaviour of some Palestinians. I just cannot accept their continued resort to such extreme violence.

I knew about the Wall that Israel has been building and thought it divided Israelis from Palestinians BUT Jimmy writes that the Wall is not just one line but several and that it goes around Palestinian villages and separates them from their farms. And is also along the Jordan valley. This does not sound a reasonable project at all.

Jimmy lists key requirements for the Roadmap to Peace
a. the security of Israel must be guaranteed
b. the internal debate within Israel must be resolved in order to define Israel's permanent legal boundary
c. The sovereignty of all Middle East nations and sanctity of international borders must be honoured

My only trip to Israel was in 1965. Christine and Ron met on a cruise that stopped at Haifa and we were getting to know each other during a few days in the Holy Land. Old Jerusalem was then part of the Kingdom of Jordan and off bounds for tourists in Israel. We did visit Galilee and Nazareth and Capernaum. The Arabs we saw in Israel seemed to be at peace. Although I understood about the Palestinian refugees and that problem seemed to me to be caused by the surrounding Arab nations who encouraged the war against Israel and then when the war was won by Israel took over land that might be considered Palestinian and treated the Palestinians ,who had fled from territory that was now Israeli because of the war they wanted, as refugees rather than as fellow Arabs.

Israel seemed to be under threat from its neighbours and around Lake Tiberius it was awful that Syria could shell them the Golan Heights. Then 1967 it looked like Egypt and Syria were going to attack Israel and we now know of course that Israel decided to attack first and were able to seize so much land including Jerusalem. Some land was given back but so much remains under Israel control.

None of this has easy solutions - Israel "needs" the Golan Heights for security and Jerusalem it would be unthinkable for them not to be there. Note: Islam has authority over its mosques on Temple Mount. But the other land looks like it needs to negotiated and not gradually settled. Jimmy makes a strong case.

Winter Lunch in Sydney

Doyles-on-the-beach at Watson Bay have a fantastic
winter-special fish and chips with chowder soup and a glass of wine for 23.90



Today we went with our friends Trish and Ernie and Rob and Janene and Paula who with Alan has been to Narooma. Paula is famous for getting a posed shot of Bill Connolly when he was at Bermagui filming "The man who sued God" - he very charmingly said "as long as it is for personal use only".




And Ernie took a group shot - that's Trish on right next to me and then Rob across from Janene and Chris and Paula


Last week we were freezing and today in the last week of the winter special it was up around 27c. Wonderful sunny day - I took a coat but just carried it. We went by ferry from Meadowbank to Circular Quay and I was surprised that the Supercat from Quay to Watson Bay was only 17 minutes.

The food etc was superb.

And Lo and Behold Clive James appeared for lunch - he had a film crew so perhaps he was interviewing or a doco on winter special lunches

Click above for the few photos I took. Trish will have some better ones. But mine show the wonderful day and the trip back around 4pm still warm - what will Summer be like!

The triumph of the airheads

I just finished reading
The triumph of the airheads : and the retreat from commonsense / by Shelley Gare

A great Australian book on the nonsense in our modern world. Very broad ranging covers a lot of issues.
SMH an overview
The Australian has Shelley's blog
also an extract)

DO READ IT!

Some quotes:

George Bush re wire tapping "Half the time they say I am isolated and don't listen. Then when I do listen they say I need a warrant." Shelley recalls Hurricane Katrina and I guess that is when my "respect" for George started to erode. How could he go on a vacation! Where were the helicopters to move people away from that Superdome?

A few years ago I remember spam email offering a "Paris Hilton Video" which I guessed was something filmed secretly at a hotel in France. I just did not know there was a young woman of that name. Now I keep hearing about her and her strange clique. And as you might expect Shelley devotes a lot of her exploration of Airheads to folk like Paris - one item being a quote from Naomi Wolf via Vanity Fair.

" It's almost like white noise in an overstimulated environment. Paris Hilton is like a palate cleanser. She's like, as semiotics would say, an empty signifier, so you can project absolutely anything onto her, which is the perfect situation for branding." (more here).
Shelley remarks "Now we take Paris more seriously than she takes herself"

Shelley mentions the great Ray Bradbury book Fahrenheit 451- "but that nowadays there is no need to burn the books if no one can read them" and just today Sky News reported a survey that something like 25% of Americans had not touched any book in a year!

Do make Airheads one of the books you try. Warning No Solutions are offered!

Yum Cha and the election

Well I have been reading that Maxine has 47% of Bennelong and John only 44%. This based on a survey of 800 locals. I note that last election the Christian Democrat preferences got John over the line.

Anyhow Brendan and Ron went to Eastwood for Yum Cha today. As always the old Commbank building was absolutely packed. But what shook me was that the walls were covered with ALP posters - we were surrounded with large portraits of Maxine and Kev. I have never known a restaurant to do that before - I mean really support one side in an election.

Just finishing a BBQ pork bun and in came a party of folk with Maxine - they sat a couple of tables away. Will John be there tomorrow? He has a office outside in the Mall - presumably just for the election.

And a story hot from the ABC Howard outlines fifth term plan in which it says
"New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma says Mr Howard is simply electioneering by threatening more federal takeovers of state responsibilities." After the local council turn around in Queensland it sounds like a good idea.

The restaurant posters say "Maxine a strong voice for Bennelong". Can she get the Premier to stop the plan to make motorists use the Lane Cove Tunnel by chopping off lanes on Epping Road? What will she do for Bennelong?


Now Kev - 2 headlines I saw today

Rudd announces hospital takeover plan - Opposition Leader Kevin Rudd has signalled that a federal Labor government would be prepared to take over the running of hospitals from the states.

Tas hospital takeover an election stunt: Rudd - The Federal Opposition has accused the Howard Government of cherry picking electorally important hospitals for funding, rather than dealing with the broader issue of health spending.

One person's policy is another person's stunt!

One qoute: Queensland Premier Peter Beattie praised Mr Rudd's plan in State Parliament.
"It's the sort of thing that the Queensland Government has been demanding for years," he said.

I bet if Howard rather than Rudd - it would be "they are taking us over" .

Alternative Gospels

Recently I have read two books on what might be termed Alternative Gospels.

Have just finished
The lost gospel : the quest for the Gospel of Judas Iscariot by Herbert Krosney.
Click image for some detail and visit the Wiki Article


I thought the book was comments on the content and of the Judas codex but instead it was an adventure story about how it was found and finally got to be published. The book keeps declaring the codex to be a most important document especially as it turns our ideas of Jesus and Judas upside down or something like that.

Following the book along it details some Egyptians involved in its discovery. Except what is said about is vague and it says false names are used. So are these details correct?

Then the main Egyptian dealer puts the codex in a safe deposit box somewhere in a suburb along the Long Island turnpike. He leaves it there for 16 years. Basically the events described become like a farce and the people involved treat the codex quite strangely for something they describe as so earth shattering. The codex falls apart over the time its floating around amongst all these dealers etc. Finally in the last couple of chapters the codex gets put back together - however some of it is still "lost".

The early Christian writer Irenaeus comdemned the Gospel of Judas as a fraud and heresy. He was talking about a book in Greek. This codex is in Coptic - ah they say it is a translation. But even if it is the book Irenaeus meant then it is still a fraud and a heresy. The Bible is clear that Judas died soon after he betrayed Jesus - so how were the details in the book passed on? The Bible is also clear that Jesus knew what Judas was doing but does not indicate that Judas was given the task - it was rather that his own nature took him along that sad path.

This book is not earth shattering - we could do without it.

Further November 2007
Rice University professor debunks National Geographic translation of Gospel of Judas
April DeConick contends that the Gospel of Judas is not about a "good" Judas or even a "poor old" Judas. It is a gospel parody about a "demon" Judas written by a particular group of Gnostic Christians who lived in the second century.

and more on how Judas written in the "gospel" as "daimon" was translated initially as spirit rather than demon see Judas is a 'demon' in new read of gospel

Yes that's right we don't need it


Now previously I read The missing Gospels : unearthing the truth behind alternative Christianities by Darrell Bock.

An excellent detailed overview of the texts found at Nag Hammadi in 1945 . These texts are some of the material used in the Da Vinci Code and some other books as examples of early Christian thought that is different to now and that the Church destroyed these other ideas which were really viable Christian alternatives. Darrell shows that these ideas were not in main stream Christianity at all. They were not there at the beginning and were later concepts from people who were trying to change things.
The Alternative Christianity is not Christianity and
are not worth the re-discovery - so whether it is the Gospel of Judas or Thomas or Philip etc - ignore it - stay with Matthew, Mark, Luke and John.

Please visit Ron's Faith page

Safari vs Firefox versus MAC

Now that I have a Macbook I started to look at using Apple's Safari browser.

It is reputed to be fast. So I might use for some things. It seemed to handle banking aok.

However I tried to write a blog and found that the edit page only had 2 of the icon functions I get with firefox when using Blogger!!! Just the image and ABC functions

So on a Mac you do need both browsers

Do we offend Muslims?

I think this Slate article offers some good points re causing offence

Here is Daniel Pipes on the various head garments for Muslim women

• These are the four
  
• The hijab (a hair-covering)
• The jilbab (a garment that leaves only the face and hands exposed)
• The niqab (a total covering except for the eyes)
• The burqa (a total head and body covering)

I have been amazed at women who convert to Islam and this program may have some clues. SBS TV August 2007 will air "Margie (Connor) demystifies Islam on the small screen" a woman from Victoria becomes a Muslim.

Then there is this woman
Ayaan Hirsi Ali » The western world would be wise to recognize the realities of Islam, a religion laid down in writing over a millennium ago with violence and oppression at its heart.

Matt Jones on Blogging-the-Quran which may help with understanding Islam

Actually the blog is on Hotair so perhaps visit them Hot-air-introduces-blogging-the-Quran

But how come you can come to an understanding with people who have the following aims?
Indonesian group rallies for world Islamic rule More than 70,000 members of a Muslim group have held a rally in Indonesia calling for a caliphate - or Islamic rule - to govern the world. The supporters of the Hizbut Tahrir group filled up most of an 80,000-seat sports stadium in the capital Jakarta, waving flags as they heard speeches saying it was "time for the caliphate to reign".

General Custer and Errol Flynn and soldiers in battle

Recently re-watched Errol Flynn as Custer see
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/They_Died_with_Their_Boots_On

Always like an Errol Flynn movie - what a great Robin Hood and his exciting "The Charge of the Light Brigade". But strangely all these films were historical nonsense. The Wiki article recounts what was wrong with the Custer film. Although I do think the section on the Civil War was fairly on the ball - he did succeed because he was flamboyant.

Last year I saw Battlefield Detectives on the Archaeology of the Custer Little Big Horn battle and also read
Legend into history ; and, Did Custer disobey orders at the Battle of the Little / Kuhlman, Charles, 1872-1959. which discussed the topography of the battle in great detail. No I don't think Custer disobeyed orders. He would have been expected to attack if he came across the Indians. He just did not realise how many there were.

This is a great narrative on Custer and the course of the Battle

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-vetscor/1643759/posts

Note in the Flynn film the Indians make a final charge on mass across the circle of Custer's men. It did not happen. I remember seeing that "clip" from the film being used in other films. One was in colour and the battle was being looked at through a telescope which showed the old "clip" in B&W - I was most amused - I did not know telescopes did that......

Years ago I remember reading that the Indians had better rifles than the Cavalry. One surviving officer recounting that his saddle was struck by a bullet even though as far as he was concerned the Indian who fired was out of range of the Cavalry's carbines.

Yet the modern data is the single shot Springfield carbines did out range the Winchester repeating rifles that many Indians had. Perhaps the officer was mistaken and the Indian who fired at him had a longer range Sharps. Yet the article above credits the Winchester with greater range than the following articles which seem to me to be fairly definitive on the weapons and their effectiveness
http://www.lonestarrifle.com/Custer.html

http://www.westernerspublications.ltd.uk/CAGB%20Guns%20at%20the%20LBH.htm

The first also goes into the confusion and chaos of battle and how reluctant men are to kill even the enemy. It contains comments on the Battle of Gettysburg - in which it well known weapons were found after the battle which had been reloaded on top of undischarged rounds. The soldiers concerned did not even know their weapons had not fired and loaded again.

As I was composing this blog - our friend Neil published a general comment on war
Soldiers-who-dont-shoot-and-those-who-do

His source continues the point that soldiers don't really want to shoot and kill.

So Big Horn - Custer split his force and attacked an overwhelming number of Indians who were armed with rifles that could hurt his force. Custer's 7th Cavalry was not the elite highly trained force that Flynn's film implied. There is a strange comment on one of sites that the Springfield which was a single shot with a funny find of extractor ejector could with training be fired at 15 shots a minute - I find that hard to believe and the number of rounds found by archaeologists around the firing positions does not bear that out. The Cavalry did take up their planned firing lines - not a mass group altogether as in the Flynn film. But I think it was more individual fire not the controlled volleys the British used so effectively say at Rorke's Drift as seen in the Zulu film see Zulu: The True Story

The British won the Battle of Quebec because their training enabled musket fire at three shots a minute versus the two of the French army. Soldiers have to be trained to fire fast - it is the number of shots that decide battles.

A classic film "The Three Feathers" had a nonsense re Kitchener at the Battle of Omdurman in the Sudan. (Sudan was a problem a 100 years ago and still is). Kitchener says the immortal words 'Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes". In fact the British rifles at that time were effective at a long range and they were killing the enemy horsemen when they were over 1000 yards. If Custer's men had had such weapons and training they would most likely have won. But their government armed them with a cheap single shot carbine so as to save money on ammunition. The Americans obviously do not make that kind of mistake nowadays.

Farewell Michelangelo Antonioni

Wrote the blog on Ingmar and then next day found that the great Italian film man died with hours of Ingmar.

http://www.slate.com/id/2171432/fr/rss/

Michelangelo made films that were difficult to understand BUT they were sure interesting. Monica Vitti was so good in the first films of his that I saw.

Then he was making films using English players. "Blow-up" had so much strange stuff. Was there a murder? and the ending with David Hemmings picking up the "imaginary" ball to throw back to the people miming a tennis match. Zabriskie Point I was completely at sea - what was it about but the scenery.