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Tram Town
Friday, September 29, 2006
 
Category: Blogs
The good folk at Diogenes' Lamp are on fire. First they mention some comments by big Peg Whitlam. Following that is a short memoir of a cold war child which rings true for this "just" cold war child. On top of that, a bit about the real Tokyo Rose. Great work, Charles!
Jack, I sometimes think Diogenes' Lamp should be your homepage.

 
Category: Parades
We went to the Grand Final Parade and it was the least spectacular spectacle I have seen since the Fairy Gay Penguin Parade. It was due to start at 12:15 and we were in position outside the concert hall at 12:10. At 12:13 the Army band struck up Up There Cazaly and at 12:25 the last of the parade passed our viewing point. We sort of had another reason to be in town but it was still a bit of a disappointment. They could at least have had Strauchanie on the job.

 
Category: Fillums
The boys and I went out to Sunshine Teraplex to see Monster House in 3D and we were quite impressed. The story wasn't really bullet-proof but the overall production was rich enough that you could overlook that. The 3D was much like most 3D in cinemas: it was quite good until they decided to go too far and then our natural focussing reaction to narrowing binocular angle made the whole thing look wrong. Still, I'm glad we paid the extra to see it in 3D.
7.0/10.0 If it hadn't had the 3D aspect we would probably have gone to The Wild. Who knows if we would have enjoyed it.

 
Category: Music
What about the magnificent story about the man who wrote "Itsy Bitsy Teenie Weenie Yellow Polka Dot Bikini" reading about his death in an obit in a newspaper? You couldn't make this stuff up!

 
Category: Names
When John Wren's Motordrome was demolished in 1933, the oval it surrounded remained and was used for football. At the time, Frank Beaurepaire was on the Amateur Sports Ground board and he suggested the name Olympic Park. We're now apparently celebrating the 73rd anniversary of the demolition by renaming Swan Street Olympic Boulevard.
[Some of the information in this post comes from the book Football Grounds of Melbourne by Santo Caruso, Marc Fiddian and John Main. It is a terrific read. I got it from Melbourne Sports Books in Flinders Street (which is in imminent danger of being renamed Hideous Street due to its proximity to Federation Square).]

Thursday, September 28, 2006
 
Category: Latham
Mark Latham has released another book which I will not read. Former Labor minister Barry Cohen marks the release with a story about his mention in Latham's last book. It's a good read and includes this observation about his (Cohen's) wife...
As he departed, the First Lady hissed through gritted teeth: "If that bastard ever becomes leader of the Labor Party, I'm voting Liberal." She kept her promise. Fortunately for Australia, she was not alone.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006
 
Category: Nukular
Michael Medved had a chance to spend about 90 minutes with G. W. Bush and found him to be charming and... able to pronounce the word "nuclear". Who knew?
It's a good read, Jack.

Tuesday, September 26, 2006
 
Category: Music(?)
I'd missed the fact that Robert Fripp performed some of the "sounds" for Windows Vista. I find this even more interesting due to Brian Eno's involvement in Windows 95. (embarrassing as it may be, this is still one of my favourite records)

Monday, September 25, 2006
 
Category: Racism
From the Unhinged Kingdom via Tim Blair comes this story of a driver who "spent two nights in jail after being accused of 'revving his car in a racist manner'".

Sunday, September 24, 2006
 
Category: DDT
Steven Milloy is promoting the notion of putting William Ruckelshaus into jail for his digraceful behaviour when he was the top dog at the US Environmental Protection Agency. I say Ruckelshaus should at least be humiliated in public.
As a matter of interest, Steven has an interesting page with 100 things you should know about DDT.

Saturday, September 23, 2006
 
Category: Hygiene
Wash ya hands, Geoffrey! With the squid Geoffrey! (very old advertisement reference)

 
Category: Fashion
Some folks might need half a suit'n'tie to get their job done -- me? I'd be happy with half a brain.

 
Category: Music
Weird Al's at it again.

 
Category: Warmening
This article, published in the UK Daily Telegraph in May last year, tells of attempts by the Royal Society to crush dissent. Anyone who has read anything on the history of science will be hearing alarm bells ringing loudly.
Go ahead, Jack, read it!

Thursday, September 21, 2006
 
Category: Enterprise
Umm, I'll fix your PC if you let me get to second base (by passing first I imagine) (Racey concepts warning)

Wednesday, September 20, 2006
 
Category: Rubbish
Does my bum look big in this camera?

 
Category: April Fool's Day
AFL puts its energy into greener goals
From Andrew Demetriou:
"The AFL will be the first sporting league in Australia to reduce its carbon footprint to zero … the football public will soon be able to support their club and help the environment at the same time."
Surely this can't be real!

Tuesday, September 19, 2006
 
Category: Nostalgia
Food-o-mat and many other photo's of (I guess) 50's American supermarkets.

Saturday, September 16, 2006
 
Category: Cult
Or possibly (most certainly) commercial promotion (courtesy of Tim Blair) Borat has a blog! (when in doubt, think Ali G. (well worth a look through I'd imagine)

 
Category: Again
We had the 12-yo on the pill last year and this year a 14-yo. This time the mother made some very important points:
"They have undermined my authority as a parent," she told the Herald Sun.
"My main issue is, we have to consent to everything, like school bus trips. Why not something like that? It is major."
"I cannot take someone else's child and get contraception. What makes the school think they can?"
The mother said she did not believe her daughter wanted the implant.
"But this was a really pushed issue by the school nurse," she said.
"They are forcing the children behind the parents' back. This school is making us look like monsters, and we are not."
The mother said she was also worried about potential health problems. "What if a child had a reaction to it?" she said.
"The parents would not know what was going on."
Maybe you do believe contraception should be dispensed for young girls without parents' knowledge, but the simple question should be enough: What if a child had a reaction to it? We are expected to take all sorts of resposibility for our children (rightly so) but it is assumed that some basics can be taken out of our hands.
Disgusting!

 
Category: WHWTMSITW
Geniuses get fewer hangovers
New research by Scottish scientists suggests that smart people are less likely to repeatedly experience the excruciating headache, nausea, dry mouth and sensitivity to light and sound that can follow a heavy night out.
Who's paying for this silly research?

Friday, September 15, 2006
 
Category: tSTSDtABCtB*
Jennifer Marohasy's blog has some interesting discussion on the ways of the Four Corners folk. To quote Roger Underwood:
Sixteen years after The Wood for the Trees program I am still unable to watch Four Corners; indeed I have not been able to watch any television current affairs programs since then without a feeling of betrayal. I have seen how the journalists work, experienced first-hand the editorial trickery, the deep bias, the loaded questions, the uncritical acceptance of absurd nonsense from people with the 'right' ideology, and the selective interviewing.

*the Sooner They Shut Down the ABC the Better

Thursday, September 14, 2006
 
Category: Small
The successor to Big Ad is up here. By the time you all read this it will have been seen by every single internet user.

Wednesday, September 13, 2006
 
Category: Apple Hacks
Mac Pro upgradeable to Kentsfield and Clovertown. Gosh! (I'm not really sure what that means)

 
Category: Viromunt
From yesterday's Oz comes another article from William Kinninmonth subtitled "Global warming militants don't know what they're talking about".

 
Category:Apple
New iPods and iTunes and a telly thingy.

Tuesday, September 12, 2006
 
Category: Warmongering
Memo to the Left: That heat you're feeling isn't global warming. It's global Islam. It's real, and it's getting closer.
That article (which I was pointed at by Tim Blair) was from a fascinating site called California Republic. It is going onto my regular reads list now!

Monday, September 11, 2006
 
Category: Things I don't understand
It's been a while since I didn't understand something but this is an absolute corker!

 
Category: Cars
My 1987 dual-fuel Magna went to God a coupla' weeks back (apparently 1st gear failing is a bit of a deal stopper in automatics). I now have one of these (although, to be fair, my steering wheel is on the right). It has the personality of a block of wood but goes like the clappers!

 
Category: Fetish
I'd never pay $US299 for a pair of sheets! Oh Bugger! I think I may've missed the point.

Friday, September 08, 2006
 
Category: Over 05
Prior to the Targa West, Brocky's last competitive appearance was at Goodwood in a Corvette Stingray. The Stingray didn't kill him.
Peter Brock, legendary Australian Touring Car Champion, will drive a Chevrolet Corvette Sting Ray (Royal Automobile Club TT Celebration) and a Holden FX (St Mary's Trophy).

 
Category: RDC
Details are a little light on..Brocky killed in car crash.

Thursday, September 07, 2006
 
Category: RDC
That Bowen Bloke has pointed to an article written by that Dilbert Bloke about that RDC Crocodile Bloke that was subsequently pulled for some reason or other. Daniel reprints it here. FWIW

Wednesday, September 06, 2006
 
Category: Quotes
My friend Ron and I were trying to source a particular IT quote for a paper we're doing at UWS soon. It turned out to be that Cringely man but Ron came across this which is a pile of rubbish but (at least) several readers may like.

 
Category: Recently Born Celebrities
It's a boy, Mrs. Kiko, it's a boy! Let the conspiracy theories begin.

 
Category: WHWTMSITW
Ads for junk food likened to pushing cigarettes
How much trust should we place in scientists with this attitude? You have to wonder how hard these people have been hit with the silly stick, don't you?

Tuesday, September 05, 2006
 
Category: Celebrity
I'm vaguely intrigued by David Tench Tonight -- I'd really like to know more about the technology and the thinking behind it but. (I'll make some discrete enquiries given it's pedigree)

 
Category: Diabesity
I'd somehow missed this article in Sp!ked last year entitled The Obesity Myth. Good read.

Monday, September 04, 2006
 
Category: RDC
I've just heard that Steve Irwin has been killed by one of the creatures he so loved. Vale. (But, I heard it on /.). How does that work?
UPDATE: I said to my staff that an Australian TV Personality had been killed by one of the creatures that they'd loved so much. And my boy Ian said, quick as ya like, "Not Gretel Killeen!"

 
Category: Culture
The Wikipedia entry on Ron Popeil has made it easier for me to catch on to some of those puzzling popular culture references on Futurama and the Simpsons. I read it from start to finish.

Sunday, September 03, 2006
 
Category: The Future
Men drive, Women wait and we all wear funny clothing.

 
Category: Entertainment
Wrasslin' for Jesus! Praise the Lord (and pass the Stanislavski)
At the beginning of some shows, Cliett is strapped to a massive wooden cross on stage as piercing music is played.
Poor choice of adjective I'd reckon!

Friday, September 01, 2006
 
Category: Fallibility
As anyone who knows me knows, I'm no great supporter of the church of Rome but I have always had a bit of a problem with those who would choose to link Karol Wojtyla with African AIDS deaths. This article at Tech Central Station is a good one stop refutation of that link.
Oh, and BTW, I would not like this post to be taken as being anti-condom. So there!

 
Category: Biol.
There was a big fuss made last week when:
a Massachusetts company declared that it had mastered a technique for creating "ethical" embryonic stem cells which could break the logjam in America's stem cell politics.
I didn't see any such fuss when the claims were debunked. I never really saw that extracting a cell from an eight cell embryo would be seen as ethical behaviour by people who object to stem cell research anyway, but that's another story.
Oh, and by the way... WHWTMSITW.

 
Category: Scalping
Perhaps it's an unappealing notion to many, but I think that outlawing scalping is an assault on property rights. On top of that, cancelling and re-issuing tickets looks like profiteering on Cricket Australia's part. On top of that, what if the original ticket holder died and the executors of the will sold his ticket to the highest bidder? On top of that, only a tiny proportion of the scalping is going to be "caught" so they are enforcing a law selectively. On top of that, Cricket Australia does its own "auctioning of tickets" to corporate customers but claims some sort of high moral ground when individuals try to do so. On top of that, who the heck would want to go to a game of cricket, anyway? Cricket makes soccer look interesting!


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