Congrats to 8 Ball

Me mate Eight Ball Aitken is the Week Two winner on USA's IndiMusic TV http://www.indimusictv.com/season03/s3_8BallAitken.cfm/ with his clip for 'Hands On Top Of The Wheel'. Check it out. More of his songs, including his new single, at http://tinyurl.com/y93wl9p.

Halloween before it was commercialized

Halloween was already an ancient festival of souls 2,000 years ago. It has long been commemorated in countries from Ireland and Poland to Mexico and the Philippines (where trick-or-treating is called Nangangaluluwa, and your chickens are in danger of being purloined).

Halloween customs are relatively new to Australia, but are rapidly establishing themselves. When you come to think of it, every old, cherished custom was once a new-fangled idea, even in the BCE.

The ancient Druids of Britain and Ireland, whose mysteries held sway for centuries before the Romans came to those islands, celebrated a spooky night on October 31. These pagans – Druids, and the Celts in general, of whom they were the priestly class – called it Samhain. In the Northern Hemisphere, the day which falls slap bang between the Autumn Equinox and the Winter Solstice, is November 1. The eve of Samhain, October 31, was the night the lord of death was said to judge the souls of the departed.

What you could have expected on Samhain eve if you were a suburban Celt or Briton in 300 BCE, was to go to the mall bonfire and watch a neighbour being roasted alive, while you nibbled roast chestnuts with your diet cola. This was an 'end of summer' ceremony, and the druidic priests built a bonfire (bone-fire) to represent the sun which they wished would return, dispelling bitter cold and famine ...

Wilson's Almanac free Halloween e-cards & Samhain e-cards

Categories: calendar-customs, halloween, e-card, samhain, pagan, christianity, celtic

Hay sang Kookaburra in live Down Under

"EIGHTIES rock legend and Men At Work lead singer Colin Hay yesterday admitted singing the words to the children's folk song 'Kookaburra' during live performances of the band's anthem 'Down Under'.

But in another toe-tapping day in the Federal Court, Hay couldn't recall more than the first line of 'Kookaburra' when asked to give a rendition.

The star took his guitar into the witness stand to give evidence at a hearing to decide whether he - along with fellow songwriter Ron Strykert and record company EMI - owes unpaid royalties to Larrikin Music, the owner of the copyright to 'Kookaburra' ..."
Source

Categories: music, rock-music, australia, copyright

What the heck is permaculture?

"Permaculture's popping up all over. It's really catching on with young green activists like Juno star Ellen Page, who recently took a break from Hollywood to talk on the Ellen DeGeneres show about her experiences studying permaculture design in an eco-village near Eugene, Oregon ...

"But what the heck IS permaculture ...?

"Permaculture is an ecological design system based on deep observation of nature, and can be applied to gardens, farms, landscapes, homes and also to 'invisible systems' like communities, economies, societies, our psyches and even our spiritual practices. It's a path towards sustainable living that is patterned on the way nature works, and can be applied in rural, suburban and urban areas.

"Permaculture was invented in Australia in the 1970s by Bill Mollison and David Holmgren and is just now really catching on around the planet ..."
Read on at Huffington Post

Categories: permaculture

Miscarriage of justice for Lindy Chamberlain

1982 Lindy Chamberlain was convicted of murdering her baby daughter, Azaria, at Uluru (Ayers Rock), Central Australia, and her husband Michael was found guilty of being an accessory after the fact. On June 2, 1987, they were exonerated -- a dingo really did take her baby. The Chamberlain story became the basis of the movie, Evil Angels, released in some places as A Cry in the Dark.

The story involved some very poorly conducted forensic blood tests – on a substance that later proved to be not blood at all, but a spray-on material used in the normal manufacture of a car. Lindy Chamberlain and her husband Michael survived years of assault by media and the law. Despite the weakness and outlandishness of the case against them, and perhaps due to a tabloid media witchhunt, a considerable number of Australians believed Lindy and Michael Chamberlain guilty ...

Categories: australia, law, legal, crime, uluru

Folklore and origins of Halloween

http://www.wilsonsalmanac.com/halloween.html tells the story of the lore and origins of Halloween, and the Australian experience. Links also to Halloween party treats.

Categories: halloween, calendar-customs, folklore, history, australia

We are not Americans

Mother Earth News, a long-established and highly respected journal in print and online, and one of my favourites, is one of countless publications with vast international paying readerships, that nonetheless speak to their readers as though they were Americans.

For example, Reeve O'Neill writes: "Winter, although it can be harsh at times, especially in certain parts of the country ..." (Source) Which country, Mama -- Syria? Nigeria? Guatemala? The Maldives? US citizens constitute 5 per cent of the population of the world. Please take note of the other 95 per cent, Mother and other American magazines, websites and ezines. For more than 30 years, Mama, you've happily received my money at Australian newsstands, all the while calling me an American, and this is the first time I've pulled you up on it.

Categories: usa, magazine, publishing, ezine, internet

Resignation letter of Matthew P Hoh

http://tinyurl.com/yksyqm2 shows the resignation letter submitted by Matthew P Hoh, a senior US civilian official in Afghanistan.

Categories: al-qaeda, afghanistan, us, military, war-on-terror

The Isia, ancient Egypt (Oct 28 - Nov 3)

Today is the first day of the ancient Egyptian Isia festival. This was a week-long Autumn festival commemorating the mythological search of Isis for her son/lover Osiris in order to restore life on earth. The festival has a connection with the Eleusinian Mysteries, rites of ancient Greece centuries later.

Isis and Osiris are archetypes bearing a similarity to other divine dualities such as Ishtar and Tammuz (Damuzi), Venus and Adonis, Mary and Jesus Christ. The Egyptian myth is believed to have influenced Christianity.

According to one legend, Isis, mother and consort of God, Lady of Heaven (Heq) collected the dismembered parts of her husband's body and united the fragments by magic powers. On the last day of the Isia, after an enactment of the story of the death of Osiris at the hands of his brother Set (Seth), the people followed the mourning cortege of Isis, to her temple ...

Deities of many cultures in the Wilson's Almanac Book of Days

Categories: ancient-egypt, mythology, calendar-customs

John Cleese turns 70

1939 John Cleese, British actor, comedian (A Fish Called Wanda; Life of Brian; and two Harry Potter movies). His family's surname was previously 'Cheese', but his father, an insurance salesman, changed his surname to 'Cleese'.

Cleese and then-wife Connie Booth collaborated in the legendary television series Fawlty Towers, which, despite running for only 12 episodes, remains highly popular today.

Categories: showbiz, tv, uk, humour, humor

Video of Bellingen flood Oct 27 '09

Video of Bellingen flood Oct 27 '09
Originally uploaded by Pip_Wilson

Shot from north side of submerged Lavenders Bridge. Fourth flood in 2009, the others being in February, March and May. There was also one in September, 2008.

I'm a member of the Rainbow Region Flickr group for North-eastern New South Wales.

Categories: bellingen, weather

Angam Day, Nauru

The people of Nauru celebrate Angam Day to commemorate the birth of the 1,500th Nauruan citizen at the end of the epidemic in 1920s. The Nauruan word angam means: 'jubilation', 'celebration', 'to have triumphed over all hardships', 'to have reached a set goal' or 'coming home'.

Nauruans experienced a dramatic drop in population in 1920 due to the influenza epidemic. The total number of Nauruans decreased dramatically, reaching a level of only 1,068 people. This appalling 'demographic drop' caused fear for the continuing survival of community.

The effect of this flu on the Nauruans was most ravaging because the epidemic erupted in a population that was just recovering from another disaster, a dysentery epidemic. This disease had been brought to Nauru by Chinese laborers, for whom quarantine was not sufficiently enforced, and, in 1907, 150 died of dysentery.

The health situation was in a precarious state; beside the loss of people, there was debilitation, weakening those who had escaped death. After this catastrophe, it took twelve years for the population to again reach the level of 1,500.

It was not until October 26, 1932 that the 1,500th Nauruan – a baby girl called Eidegenegen Eidagaruwo, was born. There was a great celebration and the event was commemorated by declaring the day a public holiday, called Angam Day – because it had achieved the hope of all Nauruans ...

Categories: nauru, pacific, calendar-customs

The bizarre Gil Pérez teleportation case

1593 On the evening of October 24, one of the strangest occurrences in history took place in Mexico. Or, so it is said.

A Guardia Civil soldier, Gil Pérez, appeared suddenly in a confused state in the Plaza Mayor (the principal square, pictured) of Mexico City, wearing the uniform of a Philippine regiment. He claimed that moments before finding himself in Mexico he had been on sentry duty in Manila at the governor’s palace. He admitted that while he was aware that he was no longer in the Philippines, he had no idea where he was or how he had got there. He said the governor, Don Gomez Pérez Dasmariñas, had been assassinated.

When it was explained to him that he was now in Mexico City, Pérez refused to believe it, saying that he had received his orders on the morning of October 25 in Manila and that it was therefore impossible for him to be in Mexico City on the evening of the 24th. The authorities placed Perez in jail, as a deserter and for the possibility that he may have been in the service of Satan ...

Categories: mystery, paranormal, mexico, philippines

Town became Morse beacon to lost plane

1934 In the early hours of the morning, the town of Albury, NSW, Australia switched on and off its street lights, spelling out the town's name in Morse Code, to aid a lost Dutch plane flying in a fierce electrical storm with torrential rain.

The KLM aircraft DC2 Uiver, part of the 1934 MacRobertson England-Australia Air Race, was thus able to make a successful landing on the town's boggy racecourse, which was lit by the headlights of some 70 vehicles called to the location by the local radio station. The next day 300 Albury citizens put their muscles to the next part of the rescue mission, by pulling the stranded DC2 out of the mud ...

Categories: australia, history, aviation

Mozilla puts toe in water with Raindrop

Mozilla's launch of Raindrop put it at only V.01, so this alternative to, and development from, email has a long way to go. But it looks interesting.

From the site:

"What does a conversation on today’s web look like? Email used to house the bulk of the conversations that took place on the internet, but that’s no longer the case today. In today’s world people use a combination of Twitter, IM, Skype, Facebook, Google Docs, Email, etc. to communicate. For many of us this means that we have to keep an eye on an ever-growing number of places we might get new messages. As a result, we never know that we’ve actually processed all the important messages, because our email has been by noise which obscures the real messages from real people."

Mozilla Raindrop: Is the Intelligent Inbox Coming?

Categories: mozilla, email, internet-resource, social-media

A big week in the book trade

A good article from the blog of San Francisco literary agent Nathan Bransford of Curtis Brown: And Then Everything in Publishing Changed All At Once ... Or It Was More of the Same.

Categories: book, publishing, e-book

Stop Bellingen Council's planned population explosion

Another three hundred,
Three hundred houses,
And later three hundred more.
Then another three hundred
Will be urged out of greed
And each acre they'll bleed
Till this place won't be this place any more.

Babe Ruth said of a restaurant
"Don't go to that place. It's too crowded --
Nobody goes there no more."
And so of our town;
Bring in thousands and thousands
And all will lose what they came here for.

Bellingen Shire's conservative Shire Council is promoting the subdivision of enough land to squeeze in another 300 houses in the town area. If an average of just three people live in each house, the village's population (estimated at about 2,500) will almost overnight grow by 900, or a mind-shredding 40 per cent. And that will not be the end of it. Bellingen's characteristic sense of community is under threat, to say nothing of its natural assets.

Councillors, real estate agents and those making a beeline to the bank will ultimately be complicit in the planned destruction of the very things that attract people to this beautiful area in the first place, and will kill the goose that lays the golden egg if not out-strategized.

"Mayor Mark Troy said that draft plan was the principal framework underpinning the future growth and development of the Shire.

"'The draft plan is the culmination of several years of strategic planning work undertaken by Council, including the Bellingen Shire Growth Management Strategy 2007,' Cr Troy said." Source

Growth management? Management of cancer is designed to prevent the growth of cells that will lead to the death of the patient, not to promote such unrestrained growth.

The draft plan is now on exhibition until December 4, 2009 at Bellingen Shire Council Chambers. I, for one, will be making a written submission and I urge other locals to do so.

Categories: bellingen, population, conservative

Rudd has head in three places at once over population

Power and wealth interests want a big Australia, and they will be greeting the news that planners are projecting a staggering 60 per cent growth in this country's population over the next 40 years.

On the ABC's 7.30 Report on Thursday night, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd favoured strong population growth. "I actually believe in a big Australia. I make no apology for that," he said. "I actually think it's good news that our population is growing." Did ever an ostrich get so much sand on its neck? It's a tough act to follow: a man with his head in three places at once.

Categories: population, australia, rudd

National Mole Day, USA

Mole Day is celebrated among chemists on October 23, between 6:02 a.m. and 6:02 p.m (i.e. 6:02 10/23 in an American date style). The time and date are derived from Avogadro’s number, which is 6.02×1023, defining the number of molecules in a mole, one of seven basic SI units.

Categories: science, calendar-customs

No doubt that's how Wilson Tuckey would do it

Right-wing Australian politician, Wilson 'Iron Bar' Tuckey, outdid even himself yesterday by claiming that the preferred mode of entry into Australia for terrorists would be concealment among 100 asylum seekers aboard a refugee boat. If it were me, I'd catch a plane rather than risk both my life and my perverse mission aboard a leaky vessel crossing hundreds or thousands of miles of terrifying ocean. But, then, I'm not Wilson Tuckey -- and, like 22 million other Australians, very glad of it.

Categories: refugee, rightwing, conservative, australia

The Great Disappointment of 1844

1844 This was the predicted day that Jesus Christ would come again to make the Last Judgment, according to William Miller (1782 - 1849; pictured), an American Baptist preacher, respectable farmer and keen amateur student of scripture, and founder of the Millerites and from it, Seventh Day Adventism ...

... as many as 100,000 followers gathered in makeshift temples and on hillsides to "meet the bridegroom". When midnight came and Christ had not returned, people grew restless, and some walked out. Some even rationalized that allowance must be made for differences of longitude between Palestine and the USA ...

More failed prophecies, in Wilson's Almanac

Categories: religion, christianity, prophecy

Community Radio Bellinger recovers from devastating floods

Not only did one of Bellingen's three floods in 2009 inundate the mudbrick radio station 2BBB-FM Community Radio to about 6 or 8 inches, the transmitter up the mountain at Dorrigo was knocked out by 900mm of hard rain in four days. But a new one is on the way, to coincide with the refurbishment of the building.

Read more

Categories: bellingen, community, radio

Levitate the Pentagon

1967 [October 21 - 23] Vietnam War: More than 100,000 anti-war protesters gathered in Washington, DC. A peaceful rally at the Lincoln Memorial was followed by a march to the Pentagon organized by the National Mobilization to End the War in Vietnam (MOBE). The demo was attended by 100,000 people.

Yippie leader Abbie Hoffman organised an 'Exorcism of the Pentagon', in which he led over 50,000 people to surround the Pentagon in a humorous effort to levitate the building by their combined psychokinetic energy. When arrested (along with 682 others), Hoffman gave his name as 'Abbie Digger'. American novelist Norman Mailer was also arrested on this weekend of anti-Vietnam War protests ...

Image above is from this article on the event

Categories: usa, vietnam, war, peace, yippie, activism

Monty Python reunited

http://tinyurl.com/yhjeh3h Some funny bits in these new clips. Thanx Lynn.

Categories: monty-python, comedy, humor, humour, youtube, video

Go Rimbaud

1853 Arthur Rimbaud (d. November 10, 1891), French poet ('Poésies'; 'Le bateau ivre'; Illuminations) and lover of poet Paul Verlaine, who shot him and was sentenced to two years in prison. Rimbaud's main work was written in his youth; he published his first poem at age 16.

Rimbaud wrote Une Saison en Enfer (A Season in Hell) in prose, widely regarded as one of the pioneering instances of modern Symbolist writing.

The precocious boy-poet of French Symbolism wrote some of the most remarkable poetry and prose of the 19th Century before he abandoned writing at the age of only 20 and took up gun-running in in Harar, Ethiopia. Rimbaud developed right knee synovitis which degenerated into a carcinoma and the state of his health forced him to return to France on May 9, 1891, where his leg was amputated on May 27. He died later that year, in Marseille, aged 37.

Rimbaud influenced many artists who followed, including: French poets in general, the Surrealists, the Beat Poets, Henry Miller, Anais Nin, William S Burroughs, Bob Kaufman, Pier Paolo Pasolini, Hugo Pratt, Mário Cesariny de Vasconcelos, Sérgio Godinho, Klaus Kinski, Jack Kerouac, Philippe Sollers, Patti Smith, Bruce Chatwin, Penny Rimbaud, Jim Morrison, Bob Dylan, Richard Hell, Joe Strummer, John Lennon ...

Categories: france, poetry

The death of King John

1216 Death of King John of England (b. 1166 or '67) – he whom the rebellious barons forced to sign the Magna Carta in 1215. His nine-year-old son succeeded him and became King Henry III of England (1207 - '72).

Numerous, if fictitious, accounts circulated soon after his death that he had been killed by poisoned ale, poisoned plums or a "surfeit of peaches". However, the truth is probably that, while in retreat from the French invasion, John crossed the marshy area known as The Wash in East Anglia and lost his most valuable treasures, including some of the Crown Jewels, to the unexpected incoming tide. This dealt him a terrible blow, which affected his health and state of mind, and he contracted a fatal case of dysentery. He was buried in the cathedral in the city of Worcester.

Categories: england, history, monarchy

Underwater city may have inspired Atlantis myth

"The secrets of a lost city that may have inspired one of the world's most enduring myths – the fable of Atlantis – have been brought to light from beneath the waters off southern Greece.

"Explored by an Anglo-Greek team of archaeologists and marine geologists and known as Pavlopetri, the sunken settlement dates back some 5,000 years to the time of Homer's heroes and in terms of size and wealth of detail is unprecedented, experts say ..."
Lost Greek city that may have inspired Atlantis myth

Atlantis page in Wilson's Almanac Scriptorium

Categories: atlantis, mystery, greece

UK court order: release torture allegation details

"Seven secret paragraphs detailing the alleged torture of a former Guantanamo Bay detainee should be disclosed, Britain's High Court said Friday in a decision that could illustrate how deeply Britain was involved in the Bush administration's war on terror."
UK court order: release torture allegation details

Categories: war-on-terror, torture, usa, uk, guantanamo

Horn Fair, Charlton, near London, England

The Horn Fair was held for three days annually from today, St Luke's Day, and was named after the custom of carrying horns and wearing them. A foreign traveller in 1598 wrote that there was at Ratcliffe, nearby, a long pole with ram's horns upon it, representing "wilful and contented cuckolds". The horned man, or Green Man, was a representation of the ancient horned god, Herne (who derived from the Celtic horned god Cernunnos), and it is interesting to note that the fair, now held at Hornfair Park, was formerly held at Cuckold's Point, East London.

At the fair there was a procession, which went three times around the church, of people wearing horns. There were many wild practices, such as whipping females with sprigs of furze, giving rise to the expression "all is fair at Horn Fair". Men would often wear women's clothes ...

Categories: calendar-customs, uk, deity, folklore, festival

Microsoft exposes Firefox users to drive-by malware‎

Microsoft exposes Firefox users to drive-by malware

Categories: firefox, malware, internet, microsoft

Maldives cabinet meeting underwater

"Members of the Maldives' Cabinet donned scuba gear and used hand signals Saturday at an underwater meeting staged to highlight the threat of global warming to the lowest-lying nation on earth."
Source

Watch associated news clip

Categories: maldives, climate-change, global-warming, environment, activism, action

Skeptic no longer

Tonight I drizzled Heinz tomato ketchup over my shepherd's pie TV dinner and it spelt 'GARY'. Truly. Obviously automatic writing and a message from the other side. I've known several Garys, so maybe one is dead, or a live one is trying to contact me. Also, a guy called HEINZ was actually at my house less than a fortnight ago! Uncanny. Apologies to all the people I've called 'loony toons' and 'dupes' during my life. You were right, I was wrong. But maybe that "was meant to be". After all, "we are here to learn lessons".

Categories: spiritualism, skepticism

Genius inventor kills love rival

1874 California, USA: During a social event, British photography pioneer Eadweard Muybridge (1830 - 1904; pictured) took out a pistol and to the horror of the assembled guests, shot and killed his wife's lover. (One version says that Muybridge shot Major Larkyns at the latter's door.)

Muybridge was found guilty of the crime, with no conviction recorded, becoming the last person in California to escape a sentence for murder, except by reason of insanity. Despite 'getting away with murder', Muybridge was disgraced in San Francisco and he soon left on a trip to Panama and Central America ...

Categories: photography, law, legal, crime

Do I give a damn or a dam?

http://tinyurl.com/ykxqxl4 reveals an old debate about whether the expression is 'not give a damn' or 'not give a dam'. Many etymological aspects are very ably covered in this quite erudite forum. I used to go with 'dam', but think now I'll stick to the OED's 'damn' unless persuaded otherwise. They probably have the best researchers.

Categories: english, language

Some of today's youth need a kick up the arse

On Wednesday I was accompanying in a mall an 88-year-old woman, who walks uneasily with a walking stick. She wanted to sit down, and politely asked a well-presented girl of about 14 if she might sit next to her on the 2-seater lounge. The brat said, "No, I'm waiting for a friend". I remonstrated with the brat, who still refused to allow the old lady to sit in the vacant seat. "So," I naturally said, "then YOU'D better stand up for her instead". At an adjacent sofa, an elderly man stood up and gallantly offered my friend his own seat. I said, "Thank you, but I really think the youngster should stand", to which the old bloke smiled and said, "I'm young!" The girl clung like a barnacle to her seat, but I kept needling her till she walked away in a huff ... I think without the slightest shred of shame, or even understanding. I'm seeing this kind of barbarism more and more in young people.

Categories: children, youth, youth-culture

The Lion Sermon

Each year on October 16 at St Katharine Cree Church, Leadenhall Street, London, a sermon used to be preached to commemorate 'the wonderful escape' of noted fishmonger, royalist and Lord Mayor of London (in 1646), Sir John Gayre, from a lion that he met in the desert whilst travelling in Turkey (Brewer says while shipwrecked on the coast of Africa; some sources say Arabia).

While Sir John knelt and prayed, the lion approached and sniffed him, circled him, then left him alone. In gratitude to God, Sir John bequeathed, by a will dated December 19, 1648, £200 for the relief of the poor on condition that a commemorative sermon was preached annually at the church, and this sermon traditionally contained verses from the Book of Daniel, in which the prophet Daniel was similarly spared being devoured by lions in their den ...

While Gayre might have knelt before a lion, history records that he would not kneel "as a delinquent" before the House of Lords. However, it was for High Treason (charged with having "traiterously and maliciously complotted, contrived, and actually levied War, against the King, Parliament, and Kingdom") that on September 25, 1647, with three of his aldermen, he ended up a prisoner in The Tower ...

Pictured: Daniel in the Lions' Den, by Briton Rivière (1840 - 1920)

Categories: uk, history, folklore, calendar-customs

The Aristocrats

'The Aristocrats' is the the most famous, filthiest, most disgusting dirty joke in the world, and it's different in every version ever told. It's a legend among American comedians, who tell the joke, but only offstage. If you can take it, go to Google Video http://video.google.com/ and type in 'The Aristocrats', but don't say I didn't warn you.

Categories: humor, humour, google, video

Beware of Preservative 202

What a day! I thought I was going to die, and I was pretty much unconscious for about 12 hours or more. The doctor in Emergency diagnosed it as an atypical asthma attack, and agreed it was probably brought on by Preservative 202, from drinking nearly a litre of 'Orchy' brand orange juice yesterday. So, beware! I was able -- barely able -- to phone Misty, who came with our friend Leo and drove me to hospital, and I was pretty much OK 30 minutes later after the docs gave me Ventolin. And I was prescribed some medication, which I'm taking. I still feel really lousy, but not at death's door.

Horse racing radio station

Today I accidentally landed on a radio station that is dedicated to horse racing, and I really enjoyed it -- me being someone who has never watched a horse race or bet on a horse. I found it a really funny and interesting experience, and I listened closely for an hour or two.

The jargon is wonderful. I didn't understand half of what was said, but was still captivated by the colourful words.

Apparently horse racing is very popular in Australia. I don't quite get it -- I can't imagine anything much more boring than watching animals racing around an oval, or a worse way to lose money than by gambling. (Only boxing could be more execrable.) But good luck to those who enjoy it, and I mean that sincerely. The jargon is really intriguing and funny, and I had a hoot listening to it, baffled as I was.

I've only ever known one person who likes to watch horses racing each other, and bet on them -- he's an aggressive buffoon who I recently had to warn (with a strong threat of prosecution) against defaming me. I think he watches horse racing every day, and it was only today, when I listened to this radio station, that I could begin to appreciate why he would do such an odd thing -- and I feel better disposed towards him, despite his criminal aggression against me, which I forgive but won't accept any more. There is something about the jargon of horse racing that sucked me in. It's kinda fascinating.

Mafia Wars

Every day on my Facebook (http://facebook.com/pip.wilson) I get messages and invitations regarding something called 'Mafia Wars'. Ugh!

I don't even know what it is, and I'm not cracking my neck to find out. The ad for this strange thing says "It takes more than a code of honor to be a mobster. It takes cunning, deception, ruthlessness and greed. Sounds like fun, doesn't it?" Well, no, actually, blokes. It doesn't. It sounds about as much fun as a rectal examination, and about as useful as tits on a bull.

Categories: facebook

Oh my God

You increase the size of the US military, and escalate the Afghan War and occupation of that country, and still win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Still, Obama has divested $180,000 in personal holdings of Sudan-related stock, so maybe he's not another complete American plurocratic disaster. One can only hope.

Categories: obama, nobel

It was the OJ after all

I had a very interesting enlightenment today. I've been quite ill for some time, with asthma and a general illness that I couldn't understand, but which has been really debilitating. A couple of times, even today, I nearly checked into hospital. I tried all sorts of things to get well. I thought I might have Ross River Fever (a mosquito-borne disease found around here), or maybe I was just dying. Honestly, I thought I might cark it. The dust storms have given me asthma, but I suspected that something else was also to blame.

Then, today, I looked at the label of the orange juice (Orchy) that I've been drinking a lot of in recent months, and I found that it contains Preservative 202 -- and apparently I'm terribly allergic to it (not to the medicinal dose of Smirnoff that sometimes I add to enliven its spirits). I looked up Preservative 202 on the Internet and it says that it causes asthma in some people. When I realized this, I tipped the orange juice down the sink, and about 6 hours later I started to feel well again, for the first time in months. I feel fine now. I can breathe, and don't have to stay in bed all the time. I was really, really fucking sick for ages, and I have got better since I turfed the Orchy. Fuck these chemicals -- they should put warning labels on foods & drinks that contain them.

Categories: health

Leif Erikson Day, Norway, USA and elsewhere

Leif Erikson, known as Leif the Lucky, the alleged European discoverer of America some 500 years before Christopher Columbus, is commemorated in Norway and the USA.

President William J Clinton proclaimed October 9, 1997 Leif Erikson Day.

Categories: usa, norway, calendar-customs

Yahoo Geocities dies this month

And I don't hear howls of remorse and misery. http://tinyurl.com/yfkoyns

Categories: internet

Strategic disempowerment

After 3 or 4 decades of being verbally abused and hissed at on the rare occasions I've accidentally used the terms 'girl', 'lady' or 'chick', I'm wondering when women will stop using these terms themselves! It's very frustrating and annoying. Is this abuse and double standard just strategic disempowerment of males?

Categories: sexism, language, feminism

Paul Hogan turns 70

1939 Paul Hogan, AM, Australian comedian and actor.

Paul 'Hoges' Hogan is perhaps best known in Australia for popularizing three myths about Australia: that Australians are rural dwellers (in fact, Australia is the most urbanized nation on the planet); that Australians call prawns 'shrimps' (in fact, they call those crustaceans 'prawns'); and that Australians cook prawns on barbecues (a practice generally unknown prior to a successful series of US advertisements featuring Hogan, and fabricated by a copywriter at the Australian advertising agency, Mojo).

The star of Crocodile Dundee (1986) was born in the opal town, Lightning Ridge, NSW and was 'discovered' by TV while employed as a rigger on the Sydney Harbour Bridge – two Aussie icons side-by-side. Hogan made his name as an occasional comedian on Michael Willesee's A Current Affair program on TCN-9, and soon was granted his own show, The Paul Hogan Show, an excruciating, Benny Hill-like compendium of corn ...

Categories: australia, biography, movies