An open thread, where at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like.
Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
Larvatus Prodeo is an Australian group blog which discusses politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
» SUBSCRIBE to LP updates.
Surely not?
I came across a cover version of “Fleet Foxes”.. Tiger Mountain Peasant Song. I gather that the two girls are big fans of the band and just strung this one together.
Their talent is extraordinary in MHO.
I don’t know if anyone has read the terms of reference for the Royal Commission into the Victorian bushfires, but they nowhere mention climate change policy, which should be examined as a significant measure in the prevention of more frequent and severe bushfires over time.
While the Climate Institute has already signalled its intention to engage the inquiry on this level, it will be interesting to see just how much air-time climate gets, given its omission from the terms and the political awkwardness for the state and federal governments – Penny Wong and Brumby himself implicated climate in the heatwave conditions that set the scene for the fires. More at my blog.
Only about a week of summer left. Hooray! What a summer it’s been.
Quiet weekend. Osacrs are coming up but I suggest a visit to a French film: The Class or I’ve loved you for so long. My takes on these are at Cinema Takes
Enjoy!
I propose that certain life skills be mandatory additions to all high-school curricula: not just driving, cooking, home maintenance, balancing a budget, changing a baby and filling in a tax return, but also (a) basic skills in the arbitration of family disputes and (b) how to get a gecko out of the washing machine.
Ways to get a gecko out of a washing machine that have worked in the past:
a) Inform the gecko that Gecko and the Bunnymen are doing a re-union concert in Sydney; the gecko will immediately leave for Sydney.
b) Tell the gecko that Brazil is losing to Geckoslovakia in the World Cup semis; the gecko will hurry down to the nearest pub.
c) If you own a newer-model washing machine, simply press the button labeled “Transport Gecko Through Space and Time.”
PC – be thankful you have a delightfully cute critter fouling your whitegoods (assuming it’s alive). My little darling Tina thought our front-loader was a good spot to leave us her latest rodent tribute. I am SO FUCKING GLAD I spotted it before loading up a wash.
d) Remind Gordon that we no longer have any time for his greedy little ways and it is time to make room for the rat.
This could be a good time to honor Sigmund Freud who famously linked feces with money. ( Filthy lucre ) Then later – perhaps after realizing he could charge by the hour for psychoanalysis – revised that notion to feces as love. Here’s mud in your eye Sigmund Freud. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
joe2 @ #9
I thought Gordon and Ratty were ‘close’ mates?
FDB, yes, the rodent takes some beating. I assume that it was (a) dead and (b) at least partly dismembered?
Not the first domestic gecko crisis round these parts. There was the time the R/C split-system aircon outside unit went on the fritz (in the middle of winter, naturally) and the aircon man discovered that its computer had been fried by a very tiny one that had somehow got inside (also fried, of course). And then — another tragedy — there was the time I took a load of towels out of the dryer and a little dessicated, mummified corpse fell out of the folds.
This latest poor little sausage’s suction-pad feet were no match for sheer cliffs of stainless steel, so it had fallen down into the bottom of the drum and couldn’t get out. For those of you who may have this problem in the future, drop a Chux Super Wipe down there and then annoy the gecko till it climbs onto the cloth, whereupon it will (if you’re lucky) be grateful for a bit of traction at last and cling to the cloth while you lift it out and drop it on the floor. Painless extraction, soft landing, no tail drop, score Buddhist points, tell story on Saturday Salon and acquire permanent Gecko and the Bunnymen earworm. I will be saying that to every gecko I ever see in future — and round here it’s all gecko all the time.
Yo Darrin @3
I’d suggest “causes and circumstances” is sufficiently broad enough to encompass climate issues if the Commissioners feel so inclined.
Writing Royal Commission terms of reference is a bit of an art form in itself. Especially when its quite possible the Commission findings could backfire on the government that called for it in the first place.
As to removing uninvited geckos from the premises, it should be done with care otherwise it can become a two stage operation. “Oh yuck! The tail’s still moving!”
Mist. low cloud & drippy rain, the flora burgeoning beyoind credence – grapes matured from hard green to soft purple in a brief, two day sunny interlude.
Now it’s a race with the various parrot tribes, who’ve already stripped the blackberries.
Behemoth@12
The findings might well prove embarrassing for the government. However, if the purpose is to find the truth and prevent future fires, climate change should be in there as a specific area for inquiry, as are other specific areas such as fire response and communication. It can’t be left to the inclination of the Commissioners – that is precisely my point.
“I thought Gordon and Ratty were ‘close’ mates?”
Yer, forgot about that hannah’s dad @10
Not so, our Kev, who was quoted as saying “….today we are still cleaning up the mess of the 21st-century children of Gordon Gekko.” Messy little buggers.
We’ve just been to see Milk. My wife loved it. I said I thought it was a little emotionless and she couldn’t believe we were watching the same movie!
But I didn’t get any sense of the struggle, the fight, the passion involved.
I thought Sean Penn was OK, but Academy Award material?
Apparently Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church are coming to picket the Bushfire memorial service at Rod Laver.
http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1009283/Anti-gay-protesters-to-picket-bushfire-memorial
Priceless. Hewson blasts $weetie
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/you-missed-your-chance-peter-20090221-8e70.htm
Tragedy was Hewson would probably have made a reasonably good PM purely on the basis that he does have a heart. That means that we wouldn’t have had to suffer Howard for so long. (O Tempora O Mores, O Runtus Rattus: O for a time machine.)
Its a great read, Peter K. Spot on too. Here’s my favourite bit – how useless he is without treasury: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/disloyal-lazy-no-balls-its-time-to-move-on-peter-20090221-8e6v.html?page=2
I also doubt that you have the skills, experience or self-confidence to have accepted the obvious job for you, having decided to stay on after losing the last election: namely, shadow treasurer. You’d be lost without Treasury. You may have delivered 11 budgets, but ask yourself honestly how many of them were actually yours, rather than Treasury’s. I am told that Treasury is now drawing a sharp contrast between your little interest and involvement and that of Wayne Swan.
… How come the speaker delivering the most appropriate piece at the memorial service is the British Royal Family rep? How sad – and that there’s more than a little jingoism from the pollies …
LOL! It’s brutal:
I wonder if these idiots will have the arrant stupidity to turn up and most likely have the crap beaten out of them. At the very least, they should be held up to very prolonged public ridicule and pelted with rotten fruit and veg. Bring back the stocks!!!
I condemn all public massage and wish it to be banned.
That bloke, with the hairy back, I saw this morning at the market, was engaged in something that should have had a warning sign attached. He has gone and spoiled it for everyone.
Whoops, post 24 was meant to be over yonder at the condemnables thread.
Thanks Peter @ 19 – what a pile on!
Oh, happy days.
(On all evidence to date, there will be another merchant banker and Member for Wentworth losing another election in the not-too-distant future. The sightly cursed jewel of Wentworth will strike again, huh!)
One can see why Keating had a lot of time for John Hewson. Havng been a merchant banker doesn’t necessarily disqualify one from the human race, after all! Looking at Hewson one can’t help contrasting him with Turnbull who has lost the golden glow of self confidence, prosperity and good health which was part of his charisma less than two years ago. Obviously merchant bankers are not cut out for party politics and I can’t agree with you, Peter K, that Hewson would have made a reasonably good PM, though yes, he does have a heart. I always liked his style and straightforwardness, though I think that neither neither he nor Turnbull are good politicians by nature. It’s good for us all and probabaly the Liberal party in the long term that Hewson has stuck around and become such a sound commentator.
“Obviously merchant bankers are not cut out for party politics….”
Hey, what about John Key the kiwi?
I’m having a gecko plague at my place, I’ve become quite expert at getting them out of the weird places they seem to get themselves with no tail drop-age. I just pick them up. There was a baby one in the bath last night, and a big one, a real beauty behind the curtains in the spare room – I left that one there, since it seemed perfectly happy. I once left the water in the bath, to bucket out on to the garden the next day, and the next morning there was a gecko floating..I felt so bad, but I carefully got it out and was going to give it a burial when the phone rang..this proved quite lucky for the gecko, because when I returned the gecko, which I was sure was dead, was nowhere to be seen.
Last week I found a giant huntsmen, very much alive in my washing machine..i just left it, and hoped it would move on because it was going apeshit, running around in there…eek.
Today I’ve been out killing feral olives..I had planned to go out for a coffee afterwards, but I split my dacks while I was under a tree, and I was wearing daggy undies…so now I’m home pretending to be doing the invoices for work.
furious balancing, my skin still crawls at this, but my mother used to pluck huntsmen out of her galvanised iron wash troughs. They stood under a gum tree and she had to depopulate them before she could do the washing!!!
She also kept a pet huntsman in the kitchen. In the summer, it would canter down the wall to the sink for a drink of water which she provided. Gah!!!!!!
I have never shared her affection for the things, just hearing them careering over the ceiling after blowies, mozzies and such gave me sleepless nights.
Spiders! Eergh! I had a little money spider that came out of a book when I opened after several years, Spiders! Sqush ‘em, I say.
Joe 2 – early days yet for John Key. Though point taken.
OMG Alex Doonesbury is shovel ready
opps link http://www.doonesbury.com/strip/dailydose/index.html
Paul @ 31, money spiders wouldn’t be so bad if the little sods worked! Son #2 shares your philosophy on spiders an leaves the evidence all over the walls!
Jane @ 35,
Yeah, Jane. Unfortunately, because I go barefoot most of the time in summer, I have to find a shoe to put on my hand to squash the spiders against the wall. Sometimes they’re too quick. (I was bitten by one yesterday – itchy hand as a result, but it will go away – I must be near immune after all these years.(It could’ve been an ant, I suppose.) Fortunately no trapdoors, funnelwebs or redbacks, though New England does have a very nasty funnelweb around. Fortunately I’ve never seen it.
I also squash them with newspapers and index cards, but never use any of my books to do the dirty deed.
Well, I love spiders. Don’t really dig touching them, but I love having them around. Watching them hunt, build their webs… what’s not to like?
You’re all a bunch of sissy babies. And no, that wasn’t me screaming in abject terror in King’s Park that time in 1999 after riding my bike through the centre of a massive Orb Weaver’s web at dusk and having the bloody great thing run panicked laps around my head, face and neck for what seemed like five minutes while I thrashed around trying to dislodge it. And no, I don’t still have nightmares about it.