Self-Mutilation

This chap went to some extremes to save himself - he hacked off his own arm. http://www.smh.com.au/world/trapped-worker-hacks-arm-to-save-himself-20100611-y0tb.html

It has happened before. In WWII, a commando trapped in an ice cave used a pen-knife to carve off his own toes when they became gangrenous. He survived the experience, returned to England, and once more dear friends unto the fray. We Die Alone by David Howarth. The amputation is a small episode in a great adventure of which he was the sole survivor.

Two more such self-amputations are described here:
here

Morning Glory 2010

Diane Davey flew her MotorFalke to the Gulf of Carpentaria to catch the elusive Morning Glory and was one of the very few to succeed this year. She and Erich Whitstock found a system right at the end of the season. She was interviewed on ABC radio.

http://www.abc.net.au/local/photos/2010/10/11/3034962.htm

Diane's blog:
http://morningglory2010.blogspot.com/

When I Grow Up...

I want to go loop the loop...

Clever Girl

Late night TV, glanced at whilst passing thru kitchen, interesting... rivetting... thought provoking. I looked her up, this rather erudite blonde.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Greenfield,_Baroness_Greenfield

Outsider

Whilst in Switzerland recently I discussed briefly with my host French authors including, specifically, Camus.

Tonight I was trying to run a digital copy of The Battle of Algiers - it required a subtitle file which I eventually found, downloaded and got working. Pausing for a cuppa, from the kitchen I could see on TV Russell Crowe on what was obviously The Book Club on ABC, too good to miss. They were discussing a Camus - The Outsiders (L’Étranger). The book is set in Algiers.

Yeah, sounds lame I know. But the Camus reference had been bugging me for weeks until this little episode occurred - for me, it was a sort of explanation. Ah, Jeez, I'm not making it at all clear, am I...

Justice (II)

Criminal Justice, a BBC 5 part drama televised on the ABC in two parts this month was compelling television.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00n85yb

And while I'm harping on about British television, let me mention Prime Suspect. Helen Mirren stars as DCI Jane Tennison in seven productions made over a period of some 15 years - 1991 to 2006. Not for nothing was she knighted.

"My street cred is gone." Dame Helen Mirren on becoming a dame

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prime_Suspect

Justice

Judgement has been brought down on the Beare Technology case - the Sixstroke engine. The judge uses the term "misleading and deceptive conduct" numerous times in her judgement which finds against Alan Casey and Jack Brabham Engines, and for Malcolm Beare, the inventor of the Sixstroke Engine.

http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/cases/cth/FCA/2010/872.html