Thursday, December 24, 2009

Human Rights in China

Timed to coincide with Christmas in order to further sideline Western interest, the Chinese government is putting one of the writers of Charter 08 on trial on the charge of inciting to subvert state power, a charge which is routinely used to jail dissidents and carries a penalty of up to 15 years incarceration.

Charter 08 is translated in full at Human Rights in China

On December 25th, the court sentenced Liu Xiaobo to 11 years imprisonment.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports:
"Liu, a former Beijing Normal University professor, spent 20 months in jail for joining the student-led protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

More than 300 international writers, including Umberto Eco, Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood, have urged his release."

Merry Christmas, Mr Lui.

Wednesday, December 23, 2009

Vale Rain Man

Kim Peek died on December 19 aged 58. Vastly more complex than the character portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, the savant was the subject of many studies which concluded that he was a genius in "at least 15 subjects, including music, geography, history and mathematics."

His long-term effect on the understanding and treatment of the "different" has been immense.

The Real Rain Man

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Speaking of Pixies

Ten years ago a client made me a present of the latest technotoy, a dinky little digital camera which took pictures all of 640 pixels wide.

This one's a bit bigger. It's a panorama of Dresden constructed with 1665 images of 21 megapixels each using a very powerful computer to produce the largest picture the world has yet seen - 26 gigapixels. Or the equivalent of maybe 400 trillion of my 1999 snapshots.

You don't have to spend the next 8 weeks downloading it - they've used some equally clever zooming software to allow you to see it on a fast web page.

http://www.dresden-26-gigapixels.com/dresden26GP

Friday, December 18, 2009

Christmas Treats

There certainly is some weird stuff out there. If you're bored with Scientology, try this:
Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

An exchange with Dr Death:
You've heard of the dyslexic insomniac agnostic who lay awake wondering if there really was a Dog, but how about the dyslexic devilworshipper who sold his soul to Santa?

Strains of Twilight Zone music in the background...
I have three close relatives named Diana, Nadia and Aidan, none of whom were named in reference to one of the others.

New Year's Resolution: Stop listening to Aimee Mann four times a day.

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

White Mouse

The Lambrettaholic of the previous post knew all about Nancy, as it turned out. This morning he turned up with The White Mouse. So boo sucks to the unbelievers who doubt this synchronicity thing. I mean, what are the odds that the one person I write to about a relatively obscure book has an even more obscure autobiography by its subject and happens to live close enough to include it with delivery he'd planned to drop in to me the following day?

Not sure if I mentioned that as well as having a friend who lived next door to Nancy's Neutral Bay house in Holdsworth St - Stewart, from whom I bought the killer Lambretta - I attended the church across the road, St Augustines, where she had taught Sunday School and I also went to Neutral Bay Public School, referred to in the Peter Fitzsimons book as Intermediate.

Quote from a North Sydney gov.au document:
The growth of the Neutral Bay district in the federation era led to severe overcrowding at the school. The demands for extensions to the school were eased in 1937 when the Neutral Bay Girls Intermediate School was transferred to the newly formed Cremorne Girls High School in Murdoch St and the Intermediate Boys High School moved to Mosman.

Monday, December 14, 2009

White Rabbit

There I was, gazing out from the departure lounge at Newcastle airport thinking of not very much other than the fact that Jetstar had cancelled my flight and had kindly arranged to put me on another which would take me to a different destination and I'd get home around 6 hours late when there, before my unbelieving eyes, just metres away and surrounded by paddlepop wavers, baggage tractors and huge noisy airplanes was a cute little white rabbit. It ignored me too.

The connection is somewhat tenuous, but bear with me...

I had written, a day or so earlier, to a friend who'd just bought and sold an Indian-made Lambretta:
Hearty congrats on the Lambrindian deal. Can't believe anyone would pay that amount of money for a sheetbox like that. I paid $5 (or maybe it was five pounds) for my first (and last, thank God - it tried to kill me) Lambretta.

Ha, just remembered who that was I bought it from. Stewart, who lived in Neutral Bay in the house next door to the one Nancy Wake grew up in, lest I'm much mistaken. "Nancy Wake" is the book I've brought with me this trip. There's that magic Jungian word again!

And? So? Nana nana intro music, please...

White Rabbit was the code name for one of Nancy's colleagues, Yeo-Thomas. During Nancy Wakes' first stint in the Resistance the Gestapo's code name for her was White Mouse. I had just looked up from reading Peter Fitzsimons' biography when I saw the rabbit.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Entour Flocking Rage

Not really into it, my ears pricked when I heard Ari say something like "I hear Tom's going for ten cents on the dollar". This was an episode somewhere around the end of season three, I think, and I thought I was listening to some crass adolescent blather about rock stars. I watched some more, and HBO's Entourage began to grow on me. Fast. If you're of the opinion that all American TV is merde, mostly unadulterated at that, you might change your mind if you see some of their top shelf stuff. In addition to the two series recently aired on ABC - The United States of Tara and The Wire, this highly entertaining take on the world of moviemaking is full of fast paced cutting dialogue and enough decolletage to make your eyes water.

Here's a couple of quotes:
Terrence: If you change your mind, you know where I am.
Ari: Clubbing baby seals somewhere?
Craig: Hi mister Gold! I'm Craig. HR sent me down here to fill in for Lloyd.
Ari: Great.
Craig: Yeah, I really look forward to helping you out. Uh.. Do you know when he'll be back?
Ari: You want the truth?
Craig: Sure.
Ari: He won't. I killed him. I shot him and I buried him beneath my desk. Any more questions?
Craig: No.
Ari: Good. Now get out of here before I kill you too.
Marlo: Get back together? I'd f**k Hammas before I'd f**k you again!
Drama: Is this guy Masad or what?
Turtle: Aren't all Israelis?

More quotes from the series

Wednesday, December 2, 2009

Scientology "Intimidating and violent"

A former Scientology leader says bullying is widespread in the church, writes SMH reporter Nick O'Malley.
http://www.smh.com.au/national/intimidating-and-violent-defector-20091201-k3y2.html