now that Peter Garrett has entered politics (and left music..) i guess i must lay a fond dream to rest.
i now face the reality that we will never see a Peter Garrett vs. Michael Stipe dance-off.
think about it ;) Moby could adjudicate.
Nodwick, ep 176: We are the shadow that comes in the night and says 'ARRR!'
German scientist Meinhart Zenk [has proven a] theory that the human brain naturally produces morphine.
Wired News: Don't Mess With Librarians: While mainstream media have blandly stood by as the free flow of information is threatened, some librarians have been agitating.
The Observer | International | Why I've fallen out of love with Australia: With Prime Minister John Howard predicted to win October's general election, Bill Condie analyses the climate of intolerance and racism which has soured his home country
. (link via belegdel)
Minor rant ahead.
I don't think racism is quite so rampant as this piece suggests, or at least I don't think it has increased the way this suggests; and I'd be interested to see this person's views on racism in Britain. But the sad fact remains that Australia is sliding into xenophobia, a widening rift with its indigenous population and an increasingly stark class system.
After a flawed referendum, Australia has returned to its subserviant colony role within the Commonwealth; even while a series of Prime Ministers have kissed up to the USA. Our fate is now linked to that of the largest, most aggressive and hated nation in the world. We have become a target of America's enemies and yet we have rewarded the US by agreeing to a one-sided Free Trade Agreement.
We have bought into the worldwide fear of terrorism which has served primarily to excuse massive losses in civil liberties and increased military expenditure. Combined with our own apathy and consumerism, we must be the most docile electorate in the world - except America, maybe. At least voting is compulsory, making our elections less vulnerable to well-organised lobby groups; admittedly a bittersweet fact.
We've been suffering under a PM who blatantly lies whever he feels like it. Who knows where our tax dollars go, because the quality of state-run services like health, education, welfare and communications are horrendous, with increasing levels of privatisation feeding the rot.
Why aren't more people in Australia mad as hell?
It will be a difficult policy to sell for Labor, mainly because it is complex and a radical repositioning of the principles of school funding.I disagree - how the fuck is this complex? Labor wants to take money from the 67 richest private schools—we're talking about schools which charge more than $12,000 per year, per student—and give it to the poorer schools, while also increasing funding for public education. What is complex about that? Howard is an elitist fuck who knows he and his family will never need publich health or education, and it shows in his policies. Meanwhile people are arguing that Labor's policy is 'penalising parents' for paying for private schools - actually, that's only the case if they are being massively charged by the school they choose. Private schools with lower fees don't get funding taken off them. So actually this is putting pressure on schools to lower fees to keep the government funding.
Two generations ago the entire Korean peninsula was one of the poorest places on earth, today the south at least, is one of the richest countries. And on one measure, internet connectivity, it is streets ahead of anywhere else. ... Compare South Korea's experience to Australia's. We have dropped in rank in levels of broadband penetration in each of the past five years, and are now ranked 21st in the OECD.Thank you, Mr Alston. Thank you, Telstra. Australia's flagship broadband products are still measuring downloads in megabytes-per-month, charged massively or shaped down to modem speeds after that despite huge setup fees and high monthly costs (abysmal value for money). The automotive equivalent would be to have everyone buying Model T Fords at $50,000 a pop.
[L]ions growled and snarled as a man scaled the fence of their enclosure at Melbourne Zoo yesterday.Crowd should have chanted: "Darwin! Darwin! Darwin!"
Opposition Leader Mark Latham today promised $2.4 billion for the nation's schools while taking $520 million from Australia's richest schools to help pay for the package.Rather than commenting one way or the other, I want to get you to think of this idea: what would life be like if state-run education and health services were just as good as private options? Would you have to work yourself so hard to pay for everything? No. Would it mean the government had done what it was supposed to do? Yes.
America's 10-year-long ban on ownership of military-style assault rifles expired on Monday night.It's been said: anyone who needs an Uzi to shoot a rabbit shouldn't be allowed out of the house without adult supervision. They sure as hell shouldn't be given a sub-machine gun.
[The] match between North Queensland and Brisbane will be played at Dairy Farmers Stadium.
US talk show host Oprah Winfrey has celebrated the premiere of her 19th season by surprising each of her 276 audience members with a new car.Now that's a drawcard. Not much else would make it seem like a good idea to sit in that audience...
The Need for Web Design Standards (Jakob Nielsen's Alertbox): Unfortunately, much of the Web is like an anthill built by ants on LSD: many sites don't fit into the big picture, and are too difficult to use because they deviate from expected norms. Several design elements are common enough that users expect them to work in a certain way.
Keep in mind that Jakob has become focussed on e-commerce sites which need to capture users in seconds and then extract money from them. He doesn't address the issue that people are frequently accessing sites which are the only source of certain information. This would back up his statements to a great degree.
I've already blogged some of these, but a conversation at morning coffee prompted me to collate them into one post.
personal diary in hell. How an office job can be turned into torture by having to work with an utter moron. The author's ability to turn a phrase lends biting wit to a situation which would make me scream.
Most of these are net nutshells. You've probably seen most of them before. But they serve as a reminder that the net is an endless canvas which allows anyone to publish what's on their mind. The fact that millions do it has obscured the fact that thousands are actually good at it and a smaller number are truly incredible.
A PALESTINIAN television journalist was killed today as he was giving a live report to camera on deadly clashes between US forces and insurgents in the heart of the Iraqi capital.This is the difference between "collateral damage" and the grisly death of a non-combatant. You can't dehumanise the victim when they get killed on a live TV feed.
'We're getting very close to moving this game to Townsville thanks to (Aussie Stadium CEO) Jamie Barclay and the guys at Aussie Stadium,' NRL chief executive David Gallop said.Never thought I'd see the day where Gallop would do something like this for Queensland teams. Great work by the Cowboys, pity the Broncos couldn't get a win - I swear they lose on purpose whenever I go see them play :(
The Government has not disputed a Labor estimate that there are more than 40 university courses costing full-fee paying students $100,000 or more, which Labor says, along with any move to lift the loan ceiling, would merely put more students deeper in debt.
Labels: coffee
Rallying cry for web developers: "We've upped our standards; up yours!"
From Photo Matt | RSS Bandwidth Usage. Probably unintentional, but funny.
Artists who featured in the Australian top 10 in the final week of August had recorded a total of 40 albums among them, or an average of four each. That number drops to 28 albums (an average of three each) if you discount a dozen albums by the Finn brothers in various other bands.An interesting article discussing the effect that the current nownowNOW attitude is having on pop culture. For example, everything is getting short-lived and superficial. Artists don't make it to six or seven albums, since the market will move on to the next artist much sooner than they can get the material out there. Although the article observes that the new market makes room for a variety of genres, it doesn't also observe that the industry doesn't act that way. Smaller genres are fucked for airplay since they don't make big money, really fast. So they don't get a decent run.
George Bush ignored a direct order from his superior in the Texas Air National Guard in May 1972 to have a medical examination that was necessary if he was to remain a qualified pilot.See, Dubya is a spoiled rich brat who expects everything to go his way. If he "doesn't wanna" he just gets Daddy to fix it. We let this fucker control the largest military force in the world. I wonder how he'd take it if someone ignore one of HIS orders.
A puppy reportedly saved its own life when its paw slipped and tripped the trigger of a gun that its US owner planned to shoot it with.You can identify the puppy by checking out its food bowl, which has "Bad Motherfucker" on it.
tantek/log/2004/09 | Ten CSS tricks - corrected and improved. Tantek Celik critiques the article Ten CSS tricks you may not know : evolt.org, Code.
Tired of using Lorem Ipsum for dummy text in your latest masterpiece? This text generator has been developed based on years of careful research and is guaranteed to improve even the most lacklustre of designs.Uses TV intros instead of lorem ipsum text.
Guardian Unlimited Film | News | In a secret Paris cavern, the real underground cinema: Police in Paris have discovered a fully equipped cinema-cum-restaurant in a large and previously uncharted cavern underneath the capital's chic 16th arrondissement. Officers admit they are at a loss to know who built or used one of Paris's most intriguing recent discoveries.
Found via reagan, via jwz, hell it's the net... ;)
Joel on Software - It's Not Just Usability: But there's a scary element of truth to it-scary to UI professionals, at least: an application that does something really great that people really want to do can be pathetically unusable, and it will still be a hit.
[ws] Color Scheme Generator 2. Auto-generates compatible colours.
Pizza Party - Command Line Pizza ordering program. I'd poke fun, but having ordered pizza for a medium sized group before now I've pondered something similar from time to time - punch in everyone's preferences and let the script figure out which toppings/bases are compatible.
Seriously... ever seen what happens if no veggie pizza turns up? Vegetarians can be vicious.
Deputy Prime Minister John Anderson has reaffirmed the Coalition's plans to sell the rest of Telstra.So, anyone out there thinking of voting for the Coalition, ask yourself this question: has your line rental gone up lately? Has your phone service improved? Does your broadband package have an archaic 200meg download limit? Has the partial privatisation of Telstra already made things worse than ever before?
Forget leafleting the neighbourhood, writing to newspapers or baking scones for party fund-raisers. Today's political campaigner is more likely to be at home on the phone next to the radio, trying to get through to one of Sydney's talkback programs.It's amusing that they can be spotted because they are so much more articulate than the average caller. Well, I say amusing... sad is another word...
South Australian Energy Minister Pat Conlon will today launch construction of Australia's largest wind farm, at Wattle Point on the state's Yorke Peninsula.Hurrah for cleaner energy.
[Atari] plans to reissue scores of its classic titles from yesteryear on a single disc that can be played on the game consoles Xbox and PlayStation 2.Sweet! Now I just need all my old control deck era Nintendo games and I'll be set...
Professional crime-solvers tell the whole truth about what they do at work - and what they think of their TV counterparts.
Hi everyone. Gather 'round.
I'd bet quite a bit that you haven't noticed the changed content wayyyy down the bottom of this blog, and hey that's fine. If I wanted it to be in your face it'd be at the top.
Part of that content is a "get rid of internet explorer" section, with links to Opera and Firefox. This was inspired by IE being so crap, but also prompted by a nice guy over at the Mozilla foundation dropping me an email (who know how, but to my surprise he'd noticed the has microsoft finally noticed that people are pissed off with IE6? post). Asa asked so nicely, how could I refuse? ;)
Basically, if you use IE I want you to try a different browser. Opera and Firefox are both excellent choices. If you use Opera, be sure to go into Preferences and set it to "Identify as Opera" since otherwise it will turn up in server logs as IE6 - thereby shooting itself in the foot. Server admins need to know what you're really using!
But ditch IE. It's a piece of shit.
Labor's longest serving prime minister accused Mr Howard of being an American lackey who had damaged Australia's international standing.It's kind of amusing when old pollies come out and take a swing. Even when I agree with them, my reaction is still 'oh, you're still alive are you?'.
Smokers will be banned from all Queensland pubs, clubs and outdoor eateries from mid-2006...Damn, we have to wait that long? This can't come soon enough. Now if only we can make it a capital offence to flick cigarette butts out of cars, we'd really be getting somewhere. Tip to smokers who do that: the world is not your fucking ashtray, fuckers. Neither is my radiator.
Vinyl records are disappearing - again. Club-goers are in a spin as DJs finally throw out their LPs in favour of CDs and digital music, writes Bernard Zuel.Holy war. Frankly, if you've ever carried a crate of records more than a few metres you'll understand why people have swapped to CDs.
A panda in China who became pregnant after watching sex education videos has given birth to twins.Good news for the world's panda population. Still seems a little weird that they were able to source sex videos for pandas...
When car modification goes to the next leve: turning a Honda NSX into a Ferrari F50. Well, making it look like one anyway.
'What is the guilt of those children? Why should they be responsible for your conflict with the government?' Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, Egypt's highest-ranking imam, railed during Friday prayers in the Egyptian town of Benha. 'You are taking Islam as a cover and it is a deceptive cover; those who carry out the kidnappings are criminals, not Muslims.'
Prime Minister John Howard today announced a $1.8 billion measure to increase the Medicare rebate for all patients.Doesn't say how the government will pay for it. Probably via increased tax.
Jamiroquai singer Jay Kay will appear in court today to hear if he is to be banned from driving.If he is banned, Jay will have brought it on himself. He should have kept this sort of thing on the track - he can afford it after all.
Muppets Dr Bunsen Honeydew and his assistant Beaker defeated Dr Strangelove, Dana Scully of X Files fame and Star Trek's Mr Spock to be voted Britain's favourite screen scientists on Monday.
The Banality of Google (Ftrain.com): And Satan said, 'I will give you an algorithm to rank pages based on links.' And they were like, 'you totally read our minds! Did you go to Stanford?'
Note: irony accepted. This is posted on Blogger and comments will go to a Gmail account. Plus, according to this blog's access logs, you probably got here via Google.
[The moron chimp] has formally accepted the nomination from the Republican Party to run for his second term as President of the United States.Please, Americans, I beg you, don't vote this fuckwit back in.
Monkey Dubbing - Dubbing The 13 Unseen Episodes in 2004: The 13 unseen Monkey episodes, that were skipped during the dubbing of Monkey episodes in the late 1970s, have now been dubbed into English finally.
Banksy, a street artist who takes it to the next level.
Labels: street art
He has told a Senate committee today he feared losing his job if he revealed details of conversations with the Prime Minister.
The frenetic pace of change in the IT world makes it hard for universities and other tertiary institutions to keep pace, writes Beverley Head.Uni degrees should teach you how to learn current skills and equip you with inter-personal skills which will remain current. By the time a curriculum can teach a specific technology, that tech is hideously out of date. Better to have practical units within a modular structure; and review those prac units every semester (yes, every semester).
SENIOR Telstra executives including the company's top legal officer and internet chief will be grilled by the competition regulator this week, as hostilities escalate over allegations of predatory internet pricing by the telco.
Police in Germany say two young lovers so annoyed their neighbours with a noisy sex session that police had to ask them to lower the volume.
Thorfinn - Vote the Bastards Out. A detailed, lucid post covering many of the reasons why Australia needs to vote out the Liberal party and John Howard with it.
While I'm at it, you should confirm your enrolment. If you have moved since the last Federal election but you have not updated your details, there is a good chance you will need to re-enrol (they seem to have done a bit of a purge recently). The closing date for re-enrolment is Tuesday, September 7th. So don't wait.
Update: Vote the Bastards Out makes reference to The Lyons Forum, which makes for interesting reading.
Web users want instant gratification and have little patience for the mystery approach's detours and puzzles. ... Surfing to check out cool sites is a thing of the past.Every so often, I agree 100% with Jakob Nielsen. This is one of those times.
It's a well-known fact that the Internet Explorer (Win) browser has a wide variety of display bugs. ... Although a full understanding of how IE 'gets it wrong' is a full-time job, it is possible to get by with a modicum of bug fixing tools, which is what this article is going to teach you.Basically this article gets into the problem of where to start when your design isn't working in IE6.
