An open thread, where at your weekend leisure, you can discuss anything you like.
Life, Culture and Politics from BrisVegas
Larvatus Prodeo was an Australian group blog which discussed politics, sociology, culture, life, religion and science from a left of centre perspective. more»
ha! first! I’m drunk, and it’s not even saturday yet. Tomorrow (that is, on saturday) I will be preparing for ??(hanami), the cherry blossom viewing festival, which means I have to buy blue sheets and raw prawns and make a salad and buy booze, so that on sunday we (that is, 14 us’s) can sit under a cherry tree in the 10 degree heat, and drink and look at cherry blossoms.
under the blooming cherry tree, I sold you and you sold me…
sg, that sounds gorgeous, even if the preparation is a bit stressful. Why are the blue sheets considered necessary?
Don’t come the raw prawn SG
I was also intrigued by the blue sheets.
I’m lamenting the lack of discussion about the contents of the leaked ACTA document in the Australian media. Shouldn’t be surprised but even the ABC?
Lessig slams it in the Washington Post.
So Abbott wants the Australian government to go easy on Israel for its forgery of Australian passports.
OK, Tones, answer these questions:
What would an Abbott government do to reinforce the credibility of Australian passports in the light of Israel’s breach of Australia’s national sovereignty?
Failing any useful action on your government’s part, what would your government do to enable anyone to travel on whatever documentation we might purchase from a skillful forger of passports?
Pay attention Abbott. Any aspirant PM who accepts Israel’s arrogant and dangerous misuse of Australian sovereign identity is a traitor.
Great piece on Abbott by Mike Carlton in the SMH today.
http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/politics/is-that-a-pretty-pollie-hiding-behind-the-budgie-smugglers-20100326-r2z8.html
Perhaps we could formally collaborate in all their extrajudicial killings, Tones. Maybe offer them full access to our suite of passport services. Heck, maybe we could just give up being an independent sovereign nation while we’re at it.
Abbott’s caul to go easy on Israel for their forgery and theft (crimes you could be hung for in !8C England, btw) of Aussie passports is yet another example of the man’s moral turpitude. You didn’t expect this from him?
And as for Tones being a gay icon. All the gays I know are left-wing. They’d rather die than have a picture of The Hairy One on their bed-room wall.
I’ve posted another piece on tor.com that I’m quite happy with, check it out, if you’re interested in victorian illustration on a saturday morning.
A really shitty story. Via Shakesville.
Can we give Abbott Israeli citizenship and repatriate him?
hanami is great – we’ll go down to the river and there’ll be families, businesses, friends and couples getting hammered from the sea to the mountains, all sitting under the cherry blossom trees. Some of them will have brought their own grills (apparently this year that includes us!), massive plates of sushi, eskis full of beer, and the whole lot of them will be completely rat-arsed drunk. Sometimes there’s a proper festival, for example in Tottori they had Tokugawa-era shooting reenactments and a palanquin race (the participants in which were mostly drunk).
And all these people will be sitting on blue plastic sheets. It’s a rule that stretches back to the Heian era, you can read it in The Tale of Genji
Exceptions to the blue sheets are allowed if you have children, in which case doraemon-themed sheets are acceptable.
I think the real reason that blue sheets are essential is that you can buy them at the 100 yen stores. Also, the other essential rule is that you have to take your shoes off when you sit on the sheets. So each party has a little line of shoes next to their sheet.
Also apparently this year in steamy Beppu they’re going to set a hill on fire. But that’s next weekend.
I’m really concerned about the governments plans for internet censorship. I believe the indivudual and parents should have the choice whether they have an internet filter or not and they can install their own if they wish to have one. I am also very surprised that the government plans to have complete control over which websites are barred and there will be no public information about what websites have been listed, giving the government the power to whatever they wish with this power. I think this is a very dangerous precedent and is identical to what we see on some dictatorships today. Is this really the path we want our nation to take?
patrickg @ 9,
I very much enjoyed that. After I read it I went on a browse at othe Beauty and the beast pictures. Most enjoyable.
There’s one I remember from my childhood, which was an illustration of the vewrsion of Beauty and the Beast given in Arthur Mee’s Childrens’ Encyclopedia, of the dying Beast in Beauty’s arms. It was a black and white reproduction, so I don’t know if it was originally coloured.I didn’t recognise it either b/w or coloured on-line anywhere. (Mee’s Encyclopedia was where I also saw Millais’s Ophelia painting, also reproduced in black and white.)
Lewis Hamilton, some idiotic racing driver who’s in Melbourne for the Grand Prix, got arrested last night for doing burn-outs on Lakeside Drive. Too stupid to know the difference between a racetrack and a public road. How much longer does Melbourne have to put up with this crap? Please Adelaide, take it away from us.
If they impound his car do they also withold/endorse his licence wherever issued and does that cover Albert Park race track? Just hopin’
I live in Sydney.
Where Kristina Keneally is premier. 
We can hope Pablo, but I don’t think that will happen.
Actually, I live in Armidale. {Runs and hides.]
Seriously though, I feel sorry for you poor Melbournians. I can’t think of many other things that would be worse.
Ron Walker comes to the rescue of Hamilton with one of the lamest excuses I have ever heard, while denying that he is making one.
http://www.sportinglife.com/others/news/story_get.cgi?STORY_NAME=others/10/03/27/AUTO_Australian_Hamilton.html
I also heard on radio that Sydney will attempt to steal the Grand Prix from Melbourne. Ha, Ha, Ha. How mad can you get!
Some good news in the washup of the SA election.
PC, That is good news.
(And as a consequence FF is on the way out?)
joe2,
Wasn’t Sydney rying to get some insane motor-racing event when Reece was premier. I gather it died in the arse for some stranged reason.
I’m just back from the launch of the Th!nk3: Developing World blogging competition in Brussels. It aims to promote the UN Millennium Development Goals and their 2015 targets.
Any help in spreading the word would be greatly appreciated. I would also appreciate any help in finding and telling relevant developing world stories, particularly those with an Oz connection.
More
Fine, you stole it, you can keep it. It’s bad enough having the fucking Clipsal 500 in Adelaide. Or you could let Sydney steal it from you. That’d be win-win, surely.
Helen @ 10, that’s what you get when you practice industrial agriculture.
“joe2,
Wasn’t Sydney rying to get some insane motor-racing event when Reece was premier. I gather it died in the arse for some stranged reason.”
Not sure about that Paul. But I found a link to plans by the present NSW government to try and take the Grand Prix race from VIC for years ahead. It is a giant lemon and is only run at great taxpayer expense. With the financial difficulties NSW is already in they would have to be crazy to take it on.
http://news.ninemsn.com.au/national/1032751/sydney-enters-race-to-host-australian-gp
Please, please take it Sydney.
Why are they persecuting Lewis Hamilton?
He was just being authentic.
It’d be great if Kelly Vincent is elected to the LC. I’ve heard her interviewed a couple of times now and I think she’s fantastic.
I enjoyed your piece, patrickg. I really like that Dulac illustration. For some reason I found myself thinking about the comic book series [later an animated series] “The Mexx”. I’d never really recognised it as a Beauty and the Beast type story because there is so much other stuff going on in that series, but at it’s core it is, of course, very much based on the Beauty and the Beast theme.
sg: Happy Cherry-Blossom Viewing – didn’t know about the blue sheets (beats getting snow through your kimino, I suppose)..
Well folks, had a busy day helping a nice elderly lady shift from here to a house down on the coast; luckily, she s moving into her family’s house. How’s that for a nice change from the usual “granny dumping”?
Just dined at friends’ place (using their computer and – Rechabites and other Temperence people, please avert your eyes for the moment – now we are working our way through a nip or so of 18y.o. Chivas Regal, 30y.o Glen Fiddich (almost empty), Gold Label J.W. (only a wee dram left), Douglas Laing’s Mortlach single malt, Old Pulteney …. a drop of Black Sambuca, a slurp of S’ljivovica and a touch of Mr Pickwick Tawny Port as a night cap. (Stuff the coffee, it keeps me awake). Wonder what the rich people are doing …
Graham,
The rich people are drinking beer.
low-carb beer.
poor buggers.
Helen #10 Did you see the ratio of cows to land? These are huge feed lots. The slurry should be transported regularly and sprayed on forests.
Brill speech by Brownie in the UK. Give the man a chance. Finally gets an opportunity to demonstrate his true self…after the bane…burdenin’ of the hijacked Blair years.
Brownie won’t let Britian down…I feel it in my bones.
I see the REBEL.
N’
Local Hero “Going Home”
Let Brownie go HOME. Bring it
N’
Melbournians, Adelaidistas, Sydneyites! You forget that the Gold Coast hoon-fest recently went belly-up. I would expect Anna Bligh to swoop in with a bucket of privatised-railway money and take that F1 GP off your hands. It will ‘unQueenslander’ to oppose it up here.
But at least it will be on the Gold Coast and not anywhere that really matters.
Helen’s link at 10 is a testament to American stupidity. The manure is supposed to go back on the fields. A bow and hunting arrow would pierce that liner nicely from shore.
And in another testament to Ammerican stupidity saw a short clip this morning on Jamie Oliver’s first attempt at changing eating habits in America’s fattest town. Showed kids eating pizza for breakfast at school.
SA is Australia’s fattest state, it’s official. Surprisingly, Murray Bridge is not Australia’s fattest town, Broken Hill is.
Thanks Paul and St Furious. I’m genuinely impressed you couldn’t find that illustration online, Paul; the enthusiasts on Beauty and the Beast particularly have uploaded a host of images – it speaks to its rarity.
St Furious, I loved The Maxx, such an interesting show. Interesting *serious* animation seems to have dried up in the west, now, with mainly adult-swim comedy stuff replacing it. There’s still a tonne of fantastic anime out there, though.
Piers the Cane-Toad was particularly vile on Insiders this morning. I just shouldn’t warch the show when he or Bolt are on it.
A short extract from chapter 5 of my book, published on my blog.
http://beingahistoryheadandotherthings.blogspot.com/2010/03/on-morning-of-16-june-1775-though.html#comments
Enjoy.
Apparently, the LNP in Queensland has been watching that Blackadder episode about Pitt the Toddler.
LNP slammed for preselecting a teenager
Wyatt Roy, 19, will stand in the seat of Longman, north of Brisbane, after being formally endorsed by the LNP on Saturday for this year’s federal poll.
Mr Roy has deferred a political degree at university for his tilt at politics.
So, the boy is an economic genius, then Fran? I don’t think so. Looks teribly wert behind the years to me. Though, I shouldn’t beagist. OTOH, it is the LNP we’re talking about so I guess anything goes.
What was the ditty about Pitt the Younger when mad King George appoined him?
He was certainly a classic catspaw and corrupt to boot, as was almost everyone in British parliament at the time.
I doubt the LNP’s bod will get the chance though. They haven’t given him a rotten borough to get him in.
I was amused by this episode of Blackadder though.
Jesus Christ – this kid will be nothing but authenticity.
Fran, I wouldn’t have thought Pitt was corrupt. Sure, he used patronage to reward his supporters, and to some extent relied on the support of corrupt men who were skilled political fixers. but so did the king. And no-one would have argued George III was corrupt – stubborn, stupid, close-minded, yes, but corrupt, no. Pitt the Younger was an acoholic and almost totalitarian with his internal security measures after the French Revolution. But corrupt, no. Indeed, I was under the impression that he was admired for his political probity and high principles, and that he brought reform of the national accounts so they were beyond abuse in several areas, notably the navy and I think,forests and customs and excise. And, in terms of managing the mercantilist system, he was a bit of an economic genius.
How did he get into parliament in the first place Paul?
And if the use of patronage isn’t corrupt, it’s hard to know what the word could mean.
I suppose if you have an absolute king, nothing he or his servants do is corrupt … then again, if the king can’t be corrupt, then calling anyone else corrupt seems silly.
OTOH, if you think the kinds of concepts of fairness and equity ought to have applied then, then Pitt (and of course the bulk of the British ruling class) was certainly corrupt.
That, Fran, is ahistorical thinking. When a system of political, military and naval patronage that works well is accepted by the whole of society, (insofar that the lower orders as they were called, ever thought about it at all, except when the price of bread was too high)and not perceived as corrupt; when there was little push for parliamentary reform except for Wyvill’s Yorkshire Association, which fizzled out through lack of interest after a few years; and when it is reasonably clear that except for his home security measures during the French Revolutionary/Napoleonic period, Pitt’s Governments were a great improvement on those immediately preceding him (and even they tried, not that successfully to curb corruption in India). Sure, he was virtually appointed rather than elected to Parliament, but there were relatively few elections except in freehold seats like Wsetminster, or when say, Tories tried to supplant Whig-controlled city corporations. Universal manhood suffrage didn’t occur til 1832 – it took nearly thirty years for Parliament to get the numbers to vote for it. As I understand it (though I’m not checking any Pitt biographies here) Pitt was one of the people who got that moving. Until political reality hit him in the face (namely that if he persisted Fox would end up one up on him, and Pitt would gain very little) he was certainly sympathetic to Wyvill and his push for parliamentry reform.
In this context, one has to be very careful with terms like ‘corruption’.
If someone hides or plants illegal drugs among your belongings, then for all practical purposes the law says you’re guilty. The Herald Sun has decided that’s the way it should be. I’m trying to keep the issue alive with the article “The worst drug-criminals are legislators“. (Alternative title: “Solving the drug problem is as easy as 1,2,3″.)
Paul said:
What an a-historical paradigm. Societies that are based on property holding classes holding exclusive political power don’t wonder what “the whole of society” accept. Indeed, it is not clear that they would even know what you meant by “the whole of society” since they tried to have as little to do with people who had no property.
There are virtually no references to the sentiments of semi-literate peasants or apprentices in the literature of post-Cromwellian England, though occasionally one reads of provisions for clearing people lying dying or dead in the streets out of alleys and doorways in the local ordinances.
In those days, the ordinary folk were considered more like what we would regard as somewhere between waste products and useful junk. The more liberal amongst the ruling classes favour rehabilitation and recycling. Some even thought shipping them to “New South Wales” might be a pretty good idea.
Fran, was this too subtle?
“(insofar that the lower orders as they were called, ever thought about it at all, except when the price of bread was too high)”
Not really Paul, but if you will pardon me for saying, so, it seemd a little understated, and not clearly germane to the argument you were putting — more of a disclaimer really.
Consider this. In the latest scandal coming out of the UK, a number of Labour Party hacks were entrapped offering to become cabs for hire for lobbyists (who were actually from the Sunday Times.
It’s most doubtful that many of the Sunday Times respondents could even name the various key figures in British parliamentary history since the “mother of parliaments” had one, and less likely still that they would know what this meant. Diddling your taxes or expenses is pretty petty corruption compared with trading in parliamentary seats.
The broader point is though that contemporary ideas about corruption start from an essentially secular, democratic and pluralistic ideal of governance of ideas like legitimacy and popular mandate and accountability.
In the time of Pitt, these things were honoured entirely in the breach so the whole thing was rotten to the core — or as the saying goes — the fish stunk from the head.
FRan,
While I tend to be in that school of historians who thinks the convicts were generally the scum of the earth, there is absolutely no doubt they were extremely resourceful. cf Portia Robinson’s Women of Botany Bay, the Old Bailey trial records, – literacy among the lower orders in Georgian London was far more extensive than you suggest, and canny bourgois booksellers catered for them quite purposively. As for apprentices and the lower orders leaving no record, you could start with the memoirs of Francis Place for one.There are quite a few others, but I’d have to look them up in bibliographies, and I’m sort of doing things.
That’s all very well Paul. As they say, absence of evidence is not evidence of absence. My point was about the mindset of the ruling class rather than the literacy of the lower classes.
Let us be clear though — the notion that most adults ought to have a say in their governance is well under 150 years old, even in the west.
Fran, your former comment crossed.
And I’m back, because I’m momentarily in the midst of a boring note-taking process which will help me compile a one paragraph bio of William Howe, and this discussion is much more interesting.
First re Pitt. It was, I suggest, a matter of comparisons. The previous government of Robert Walpole “Old Corruption’ , the Robinocracy – in the 1740s was considered much more corrupt. Pitt the Younger’s Government, and for that matter more arguably, the Pitt the Elder/North Government up to the end of the American War of Independence were certainly less so and notable for their attempts to curb it, whether this was pecuniary corruption in say, India, or even electoral corruption in England.
Re the lower orders, they made their feelings felt by rioting. Except for the anti-Catholic Gordon Riots of 1780, which were a special case,and more frightening because of the 1789 example of the storming of the Bastille, as certain amount of mass public disorder was permitted as a way for the voteless to get their message across to the ruling class.
Perhaps, Paul, the term “corrupt” is inadequate. Maybe we should simply use terms like venal, autocratic, elitist, arrogant, capricious, ignorant, callous and repressive to describe rule in those days. With a profile like that, bearing in mind the second best rule, “corrupt” is their best attribute.
Fair enough. Will admit as an historian I get caught up on on the precision of terms. (Some definitionas run into pages and pages.)
I’ve always liked this journo/critic.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/03/29/2858429.htm
Good to see the apple hasn’t fallen far from the tree. Her grandad would be proud.
“that’s what you get when you practice industrial agriculture.”
And when idiots run farms. This guy is running a feedlot dairy which, in the US, are mostly based on soybean and maize…
His neighbour grows soy beans and maize, requiring the application vast quantities of water soluable NPK fertiliser, all the while complaining about the stink and pollution from his neighbours dairy effluent…
Yet it hasnt occured to either of these clowns that they could swap products and save a sh!tload on inputs, make more money, reduce pollution, improve their soils, beat the taxman and NOT infuriate or offend their neighbours.
Oh well, just more opportuniity for those of us in agriculture who have a few braincells to rub together!
Hi, son.
This afternoon I successfully made peanut sauce for the first time.
1/2 cup of crunchy peanut butter + mild sweet chilli sauce
1/2 cup of boiling water.
Stir till peanut butter dissolves.
Use a large mug.
Last time I tried this I didn’t use enough peanut butter. This time it was a success.
Good call Duncan.
Cheers Jules.
G’day Dave, did you get that casting done on the weekend?
No, not enough lead (and an interruption).
Paul, that peanut sauce reminds me of something I did when I was out in the scrub with a couple of pork chops that were … um … stale.
It’ll cover a multitude of sins.
DI (nr) @ 64,
Tastes lovely. Had it on boiled rice. Contemplating adding a little bit to pasta with blognaise sauce (latter tinned) this afternoon. Or maybe more boiled or steamed rice. Depends on what I feel like cooking.
Might add turkey leg stockpot with heaps carrots, celery, mushrooms, baby potatoes and 2 tins of Italian tomatoes was an enormous success, tasted much better than chicken stockpots and lasted till yesterday, exactly a week.Might try the duck after all. (Presumably Woolies where I now shop has an even greater range of poultry.
Must try rabbit some day – now, that IS hard to find.
Paul, peanut sauce is a terrific ingredient to add to pumpkin soup. Especially with that sweet chilli already included in the mix. This is a large scale catering trick that I pass on here. You only add a dash enough to taste it in the background, not overpower.
joe2,
Will try that when winter comes on. (Its not that far away up here. We get it a month early in New England. I’m sure vegetable soup-packs appear in super markets here earlier than anywhere in Australia other than Tasmania. (Tasmanian friends constantly regale me with stories of people freezing to death in Hobart, and swear they would never be able to stand it if they had not first acclimatised in Armidale. (or Guyra.)
Paul, I think rabbit these days is farmed, and expensive yuppie-food. (Apparently, modern consumers don’t like the gamey taste of wild rabbit.)
Interesting: US State Department officials have “raised the issue” of Conroy’s net filter with their Australian counterparts, since the Obama administration favours an open internet worldwide.
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/stephen-conroy-and-us-at-odds-on-net-filter/story-e6frg996-1225846614780
This is all to the good, it seems to me.
Not good for Conroy. Not to worry. Some-one will leak the blacklist. And then …
“Must try rabbit some day – now, that IS hard to find.”
This is why on the seventh day, God created the shotgun.
And on the topic of delicious rabbits…
SSAA Hunting and Conservation Branch of SA
http://www.hunt-cons.asn.au/
You could always mug your cat, Duncan. He seems to always have a rabbit clenched in his tiny jaws.
I saw one whole rabbit in a cryovac bag at the IGA for 26 Dollars…”yuppie food”, indeed.
Oh, for the days when it used to be the food of the poor.
[Grumbles: My world has changed too much; why can't people call me Iron Man?]
Peanut sauce is a bit rich. The peanut bit, not the chili. What should I cook to eat with it? Seriously.
Chicken satay and rice, Paul. Forget about the sticks and cook up chicken pieces in peanut oil with red onions, capsicum(red and green) and pineapple pieces just to shit the food snobs off. Yum.
Thanks, joe2. Sounds great. I’ll try it. get the ingredients tomorrow.
http://theland.farmonline.com.au/news/nationalrural/agribusiness-and-general/general/un-staff-admits-flaw-in-report-on-meat-and-climate-change/1788274.aspx?src=enews
.
I’m sure all interested parties are looking forward to the report later this year.
From the article linked to-
“Boyle added that “AMI looks forward to FAO’s completion of a more comprehensive analysis of emissions from global food production at the end of this year.”
.
The better the accuracy with which sources of eCO2 production are identified and quantified the more likely the success of reduction methodologies.
The transfer or rebalancing of responsibility still runs into the problem of the increasing global population and the urge among the populations of the lesser developed countries to enhance their consumption( including of an expanding array of foodstuffs ) as an outcome of a perception that to do so means they have a better standard of living.
In Australia how should be view this ? Are we going to be able to export foodstuffs or is it better for each country to become food self sufficient and so internalise their eCO2 accounting? Is it reasonable to restrict the access to markets of a sustainable farming enterprise which produces excess tothe needs of a domestic market?
Oh, noes!
Me Saturday nights is rooned!
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8588941.stm
I suppose this is banal but I am always especially bothered at holiday times by road trauma. It’s such an enormous waste of human life and so eminently preventable, In addition to the deaths, there are the life-altering injuries which impose misery all round and cost on the community.
Every holiday season and every weekend it’s a case of the same old same old, with people, including those doing nothing wrong, cut down as a result of the same irresponsible conduct. Police warn of the consequences of reckless driving but not nearly enough of those who should be paying attention act on this and avoid drink driving, speeding or doing excessively risky stuff.
One often hears about how horrible a nanny state would be, but personally, provided the nanny is a good one and able to stop us doing stuff that seriously prejudices the life chances of ourselves and others I’m inclined to go with it.
It seems clear that the mere risk of death and injury is not a sufficient deterrent to some and perhaps most, probably because they don’t think the risk applies to them at the time they make the decision. The sanction system need not be as harsh as it is now, IMO, but it needs to be certain.
I’d favour a system which tracked drivers decision-making in real time, issued warnings when they were approaching a relevant speed limit and when they exceeded for more than 5 seconds, fined them and shut down their engines progressively and then left them at “nursing power” for 30 minutes. I’d also like people to have to undergo vehicle administered breath tests and supply biometric data to start vehicles. If people knew there was no prospect of breaching and getting away with it, most would change their behaviour and the culture would change too.
Yes people would kick up a stink. Big brother is watching would be the catch cry, but IMO, this would be much the lesser evil. Some tens of thousands of people each year in Australia whose lives are blighted by the “road toll” would not suffer. People who now run up huge fines would no longer get them. Casualty sections of hospitals would contain a far greater proportion of people injured otherwise than in road accidents and brain trauma and spinal units would be freed up.
Roll on the nanny state.
Australian troops are propping up this man’s puppet regime.
Yep. We sure are. Quite agree with your implied disgust, Katz.I been telling people this for ages – not so much on LP; have only made one or two comments on it. Its too upsetting to think about it. Of course, the alternative would be just as bad, I suppose (ie, the fundamentalist Taliban)but we’ve got no business over there anyway. I sort of resent our felows are getting wounded and possibvly killed for this Karzai bloke. A lot.
Tried to watch The Night of the Hunter. Had to stop. Will try again some time in the future.
Karzai isn’t even an alternative to the fundamentalist Taliban, as he’s taken on several warlords as allies who are either Taliban or at any rate some stripe of fundamentalist Wahabist reactionary leaders.
Helen @ 85
Well that makes Afghanistan even more of a mess.I’ve alway objected to us being there, if only for the pragmatic reason, given the place’s history, that we would get well and truly whipped. With the current outbreak/continuation of corruption, the idea of this being a “good” war (as opposed to Iraq being a “bad” war, is even more of a nonsense. (though I have to admit initially I fell for that one.)
For those interested in some background to the cureent Afghan regine
Afghanistan: The World’s Number One Narco-State?
Paul, I hope you got as far as the beautiful song sung by little Pearl as she and John float down the river in the moonlight.
I didn’t, Laura. Got up to where the mother has disappeared. As I said, will try again. In daylight and when I don’t have a couple of deadlines hanging over my head. Still have the Jessica Lange version of Streetcar to watch as well.
PS. Wouldn’t mind getting a DVD of The Glass Menagerie sometime.
I laughed at this comment a few moments ago on Twitter…
Just about summed up the evening, I would say.
Speaking of #qanda on Twitter, lots of you do seem to be out there live-tweeting each week’s show, and why not? Should we have a dedicated #qanda thread on LP every Monday evening to play with as well?
An interesting analysis of the Tea Party movement in the US and its likely non-impact on Congressional elections, for those of you who follow this sort of stuff.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5j3ciRoOXH6gStHBpzR–t9t1rmxAD9ET21C80
And my friend caught up in the US West Coast earthquake is okay. Like being in a rocking boat for 40 seconds. Much less dangerous than funnelwebs, taipans and blue octopus, he reckons.
Breaking news cobbers.
Malcolm Turnbull will not stand at the next election according to a very recent report. No link yet.
So far the ABC is the only major Australian news organisation covering this story: Leaked video shows gunship killing journalists.
The attack took place in Eastern Baghdad in 2007, the US military has always been claimed that the civilians were insurgents. Some military whistleblowers leaked video and audio to Wikileaks, who have put it up an overview, transcripts and supporting documents on collateralmurder.com
The video is horrific. Warning: graphic violence.
HELP! I’m on Mozilla Firefox and some how I’ve managed to remove my toolbar that has things like View, Find, Edit etc on it completely. (Was jiggling round trying to turn bottom bar into side bar.) Could some kind soul tell me how to get it back?
Have you tried hitting F11?
Thanks, Fran.
Soret of works. Makes screen bigger and if I right click it seems I can get most of the functions back. Still, I’d like to restore the toolbar.
I can’t get a current version of Firefox now cos my OS is too old – Boo! – but generically, with a lot of things, you’ll find Toolbar options from the “View” menu. I could be wrong as I don’t have a FF version here to look at but it won’t hurt to have a look.
Have downloaded Opera which works perfectly well with my ancient OS; Up yours Firefox! (And no, I can’t afford to replace the OS, and no I can’t be arsed to work out Linux at this point in my busy life.)
Trouble is my View Menu, along with all the others has disappeared inside the conmputer somewhere, I think. Thanks, anyway, Helen.
On another topic, I wonder how long before this intellectual tomfoolery appears in Quadrunt?
http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/feature/2010/04/05/glenn_beck_s_historians/
Tigtog I watched that disturbing video@95 and have since heard a little bit more about it on R.N.
WTF? When they are next asking Mr Rudd about his Easter egg choice or some other crap maybe they could ask him if he has seen it. This should be the footage that turns the corner on our involvement in this mess.
1 million views and rising. Let’s hope it does the trick. This is what the yanks are doing in our name, folks, and we should want out.
joe2, I just saw some modern folk art on the subject:
You can see a larger version of this on (ahem) poobumwee’s Posterous where it first appeared.
Okay, this is great, yet disturbing, in its own way. One for the cat lovers.
Ah, but whatever caught its interest apparently went away, cos le chat was about to sit down or stand up at the end.
Yep, what the cat was looking at must have been so enthralling.
A dog would’ve barked.
Had a slightly drama-filled night last night. About 6 o’clock about six of the Aboriginal kids who live in the house next door came round to my flat to inform me there was something wrong with the old fella a couple of flats up. I went up there, and he had had a fall from an attack of Parkinson’s Disease. Rushed home and rung the ambulance, then back to his flat where another neighbour got him on his feet. I tripped over on the concrete curb and landed on my hands and knees but i wasn’t hurt. Together we looked after the old guy till the ambulance came. But they didn’t take him to hospital.
The kids wanted to come in and use my computer so I let them. I know I’ll probably regret this as they’ll now hassle me all the time to use it. Butat least they might stop tearing up the mail, smashing bathroom windows, slashing tyres etc for a little while. (I have to admit I do quite like the scamps.)
The ambulance was there again at the flat up two doors this morning when I was woken quite early by exceedingly loud music from the flat next door. Not happy, sent an e-mail to the agent who has warned him about his very loud music. Apparently there’s been complaints from almost all the flats. So, he’ll be out on his ear.
I don’t mean to be a wowser, Mark. But internet gambling? Bit of a dubious ad isn’t it?