An open thread, where at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like.
39 Responses to “Saturday Salon”
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Given it’s still Friday in Perth, does my “First” actually count?
I’ve never let SA time get in the way of a First!
Via William Bowe @ Pollbludger, lastest Westpoll and it looks terrible for Troy Buswell.
http://www.pollbludger.com/892
PC, you can be first.
For no other reason than I’ve been watching stupid stuff on YouTube, I think the quote of 2008 goes to Matt Lattanzi, ex-hubby of Olivia and father of Chloe. In response to his daughter’s angst about her singing performance on a reality TV show (and Chloe is one angsty young girl) he says the following:
“That’s why I live in a tepee”.
It made me laugh out loud. As for Chloe’s singing, well, a few more lessons would come in handy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qWa-K8xHUos&feature=related
The Italian Government plans to carry out ethnic fingerprinting of the Roma and Sinti minorities (Gypsies). Apparently it’s legal because Italian courts have ruled that all gypsies are thieves.
Cremation (or any sort of carbon residue) is a girl’s best friend ….
Or Turn carbon capture into diamonds!
In life and death, some diamonds are forever
http://www.theage.com.au/news/fashion/blife–styleb-in-life-and-death-some-diamonds-are-forever/2008/07/11/1215658126661.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1
Diamonds are not the only form of carbon that can be created by existing technology! All living things have a significant proportion of carbon; all plants a very significant part. A world which can put a man on the moon & a robot on Mars can, with a bit of innovative science & technology, convert any form of carbon into any other form of carbon; so, essentially, all forms of carbon are, or are potentially, renewable!
So perhaps all those coal-fired power stations aren’t a problem; we just need effective carbon-capture systems …
Although we probably need a couple more Lucas Heights to do it.
The Indians (& probably Pakistanis, tho I’m not sure of them) already use their atomic stations (& CMC-style laser cutting tools) to “improve” gem-fields’ rubble into cheap wearable emeralds, rubies, sapphires etc - which you can easily buy on Ebay so we can stay non-nuclear, as long as we can find an effective way of shipping carbon-capture to Asian reactors.
Ah, the power of positive thinking!! or
We SciFi fans from the 40s & 50s- an optimistic lot who saw our wildest imagining come true with the first moon landing, the first transplant surgery , tiny personal internetted computers, Dolly the cloned sheep, & the beginnings of identifying the source of and using mind-powers - know that there are solutions to all human problems and humans to invent them; as long as we have stay optimistic and believe that there really are no limits to the onward march of human development!
Oz, the link on the Gypsies isn’t working.
Shades of Mussolini. But it is Belesconi, John Howard’s good mate.
What about the American economy and strange names?
First there was “Fannie Mae” in trouble then “Freddie Mac”.
Now a pretty ordinary excuse for a name “Indymac” looks to be in a ditch.
http://www.nydailynews.com/money/2008/07/11/2008-07-11_indymac_mortgage_bank_fails__collapse_2n.html
Why couldn’t it have been “Jethro Jeans” or something?
Have ordered a Visa Debit Card from my bank so I can further indulge my vice of buying books, buy putchasing hard to get books on teh net. Thought about getting a credit card, but as I’m on a pension decided the combination of me + books + impulse buying woud probably be disastrous. Presume Amazon is the best place.
Any tips/advice/warnings would be greatly appreciated.
Amazon gets things back pretty quicky, Paul (although things seem to come quicker from the US than the UK).
Credit Card………………argghhh. Wish I’d never got one.
Booktopia’s very good as a local alternative with good customer service:
http://www.booktopia.com.au/
And Alibris is good value for 2nd hand and out of print books:
http://www.alibris.com/
Paul Burns,
Great idea. One of the best things I ever did was getting a Visa debit card. Not interested in credit cards they’re for saps (sorry) but the debit cards are using your own money in your account. I use it purely to but things online from around the world CD’s/DVD’s/Books etc. Right now if you want to get things at great prices Amazon (the US site, Amazon.com) is where to go. Really cheap books there that are a fraction of the price sold here. They’re the biggest online retail company in the world but they’re are plenty of others and Visa is taken just about everywhere.
Just slot the word “currency converter” into Google and then start looking at all the endless opportunities to pick up bargains. I think it’s about $US6 needs to be factored in to each item for shipping which is still cheaper than here but if like me you say just do a bulk order once every say 1-2 years consisting of around 10-12 items you’ll find in essence you’re getting about 2-3 items for free versus what you’d pay here.
The only problem I have with Amazon is the way they treat unions and their employees especially in the US but they’re a billion dollar company without your business so…
Thank you all for your help.
Fascinating when one does a book search on the American Revolution how often that awsome organisation The Daughters of the American Revolution comes up.
I will, of course, refine my searches, and I already know about five or so of the out of print books I want that aren’t procurable from bookshops.
Much thanks.
There are a few sites which search across all/most of the big online booksellers (new and secondhand, Amazon, Abebooks, Alibris, Powells, etc) as well as some of the smaller ones. A couple I like are booksprice.com http://www.booksprice.com/ and BookFinder.com http://www.bookfinder.com/ . They list all the results one the same page, convert to prices in $AU and include shipping price to Aus — easier than rummaging through half a dozen websites. Just testing on a book I must get around to ordering, BookFinder finds considerably more copies (ranging from $30 to $278!!!), but booksprice has the cheapest one ($28). YMMV!
Again, thanks all. Have saved the various links to my desktop.
Have just been scrolling through the American Revolution/Revolutionary War books on Amazon and have been driiling. Didn’t dare much before as I didn’t have a card to buy them with. Will have to be careful.
Meant drooling.
Paul,
Abebooks is a treasure trove as well – entirely 2nd hands and remainders. The shipping cost is often far more than the book price.
Ever wondered what environmentally friendly selective logging would look like? Take a look”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CD2V8GFqk_Y
And if you pondered what the world would do without wheels, here is a preview
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y2KkGFuRLew
Next thursday I turn 70 [bows] and of course that means I’m a cancer tiger. Also there’s a full moon for us crabs to really worry the neighbors. The local pub’s putting on a turn friday night and Squashed Frogs leader Dave is looking after boogie requirements. Three daughters a son umpteen grandchildren and one greatgranddaughter are trekking over from the Adelaide Hills.So if you’re lucky enough to be in the Grampians as I know so many South Aussies are for the last week of the school holidays, and you don’t go home ’till the weekend then call in to the Halls Gap pub, it’ll be a great night.
Buswell might need to start sniffing out some new chairs, ay Frank?
For books still in print I always try the Book Depository first because they have free international shipping for everything. So even though you’re paying in pounds it is almost always cheaper than Amazon. Very prompt delivery too.
http://www.bookdepository.co.uk
[Buswell might need to start sniffing out some new chairs, ay Frank?]
Yep, and in a shocking Revelation, Kevin Rudd uses foul language while in his office.
http://www.news.com.au/perthnow/story/0,21598,24009354-5017005,00.html
@Frank, Troy “sniff sniff” Buswell doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of being Premier.
[@Frank, Troy “sniff sniff” Buswell doesn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell of being Premier.]
Of course not, it’s only Paul Armstrong who has dreams of that happening, along with 6PR and the Sunday Crimes
What a pity, zorronsky, that you’re in S.A., as next Thursday is the day that I turn 43! No great plans, though, as I’m in the midst of studying for an examination on the 21st.
Zorronsky, I remember the Halls Gap pub — I finished up having a small head-clearing ale there one afternoon after I got disoriented and took a wrong turn out of Ararat. Happy birthday for Thursday!
Paul Burns [7]:
Hey. fair go. Mussolini had plenty of faults but [prior to being “rescued” and turned into a puppet ruler by the Nazi Germans] he wouldn’t have done this to the Gypsies. That evil Berlesconi - and his Southern Hemisphere acolyte - have a lot to answer for.
Zorronsky [19] and Terangeree [25]:
Hapy birthday to you, happy birthday to you ….
Graham,
I’m glad you put in the qualification. I haven’t read widely about Italian Fascism anywhere near as much as I’ve have on Nazi Germany, and mainly through the Ciano Diaries + some biographies and one or two specxific histories. I admit I have a particular animosity towards Mussolini because he betrayed Italian Socialists. But as I understood it, after the German occupation of Italy the Fascists co-operated in the implementation of the Final Solution, albeit very half-heartedly.
There’s been very little material on the Gypsies until recent years. They are the forgotten victims of the Holocaust.
That Belesconi does this doesn’t surprise me in the least. No wonder Howard found him so entertaining.
All, re this latest book, Howard’s End.I’d rather have a PM like Rudd (if I must have a mainstream PM) with a foul mouth who rells the truth and keeps his promises, than a PM like Howard who never swears and always lies.
Ih, and tarangaree and Zorrinsky, Happy birthdays.
May you drink much and not get hangovers.
“I’d rather have a PM like Rudd (if I must have a mainstream PM) with a foul mouth who rells the truth and keeps his promises, than a PM like Howard who never swears and always lies.”
What he (Paul Burns) said.
Should be tells the truth, btw.
It has been the accepted wisdom, amongst many (myself included) that the best way to limit the spread of radioactive contamination (from so-called “civilian” as well as military use of uranium - a difference I have never believed was a reality), we should leave it in the ground. By taking the so-called “moral high-ground” we would be preventing the nuclear cycle from getting at least too far advanced.
And the rest of the world would look up to us for our refusal to be bribed into corrupting our values and destroying the environment both at the same time.
Is there a parrellel to the debate about exporting coal - whose use, we all know, is producing horrendous damage to the gloabl environment?
Has any body mentioned this sacred cow? Or is the suggestion of leaving it in the ground just too bizarre?
Are the shock-jocks onto this - even if it is only to sneer at those concerned about the environment? Is anyone in the environment movement promoting this as a serious option?
There wouldn’t be much green-back gases coming out of the stock market, government coffers and “working families” hip pockets with the resulting economic flow-on!
Have I missed this debate? Is this a straight-forward carbon trading scheme in one hit?
Where are you Mr Garnaut on a Sunday night?
Grouchy Language Nerd/Speak the Speech, I Pray You Dept. …
Has anybody else noticed (well certainly you’ve noticed, what I really meant was, is anybody else as annoyed as I am) the increasing, and increasingly obtuse, mis-handling of the word “refute” to mean something like “flatly deny the charges [without issuing a detailed actual ‘refutation’]”? People now say and write things like, “I totally refute that accusation” without spelling out logically what’s wrong with the accusation to begin with. They seem to think ‘refute’ is some weird variant of “refuse” or “decline”. It’s strange and bodes ill — not just for language precision, but also for clarity of thinking.
Bad is the world, and all will come to naught,
When such ill-dealing may be seen in thought.
– The Scrivener
I blame the Left. Go ahead, refute me.
Re: book buying. I’m an Aussie and I usually prefer to buy off local retailers. My favourite is The Nile (www.thenile.com.au). Cheaper and faster than the overseas options.
Credit cards are indeed the bane of my life too. I’ve been suckered by the frequent flyer points I get.
Re bookfinding.
Brett, have already found a primary source on Gibraltar at a reasonable price which I haven’t been able to ger, from a London bookseller. Will probably order next week.
Everyone,I’m assuming there’s little problem with all these booksellers. Please tell me it is so, as I’m probably going to lash out bigtime. Though it might not be good for my local book seller.
Have been also looking closely at the primary sources on the Hessians in North America for another chapter - mainly Hesse-Hanau, but I can’t make up my mind on them yet. (that’s the trouble with history, you have to read everything, just in case it might be useful.)
j_p_z
the practice has been rife amongst Aussie journalists for at least 10 years I’d reckon.
“Mr Latham refuted the criticism.”
No, he disagreed with it, or denied the accustaion, or criticised his critic, or …… It seems possible that the journalist doesn’t know what “refute” means.
Journalist could write “attempted to refute, by … [citing action of the attempter, or the argument put forward by the attempter]
cheerio
“Resile” was another one, but I haven’t heard it for a while. Though I think their usage, in this case, was correct. Ine of Nifty’s innovations, as I recall.
Well, blow me down: old Girl Germs has got herself in the news again http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24014950-2702,00.html
who’da precicted that, eh?
In breaking news, old Girl Germs has got some publicity: http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24014950-2702,00.html
who’da guessed that might happen, eh?