A couple of lazy bloggers posting links and lists about Melbourne, Theatre, Audio, Politics and any other thing that suits us at the time.

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Category: April Fools' Day
Tim Blair announces that he is going to be co-hosting Media Watch.
posted by Semi at 7:47 AM

 
Category: Apple
Mark has some interesting scatterlogical history on the fruit company in his 31/3/4 post. Believe it or not I'm not sure that I knew all of this.
posted by DB at 9:59 AM

 
Category: Music
More on the Yamaha voice synthesis product. I like the remark: "And if she ever gets into a contract dispute, there're always the control, alt and delete keys".
posted by Semi at 9:12 AM

 
Category: Thorpe
Andrew Bolt wanders off a little bit in the middle of this article about Ian Thorpe, but he manages to reflect my thoughts nonetheless.
posted by Semi at 6:56 AM

 
Category: Gilligan...
the one from the BBC, you know, the "sexing up" guy. He wrote a bit over a week ago that the war was not so unjust as you might have believed if you listened to the doom-mongers. I wish we could get at the original article.
posted by Semi at 6:41 AM

 
Category: Education
Tim Blair pointed me at a truly authentic account of physics practical classes on Natalie Solent's excellent blog (which I should visit way more often).
posted by Semi at 6:28 AM

 
Category: Israel
Victor Davis Hanson provides a moral comparison entitled When should we stop supporting Israel?. Well worth the read but it will probably only be there for a couple of weeks.
posted by Semi at 7:10 AM

 
Category: Poetry
Never understood it, me. But this one's a bloody cracker. Heck, Dave's place is chocka with good stuff. How could you but love the Paterson piece starting:

I had written him a letter which I had, for want of better
Knowledge, sent to where I met him down the Lachlan, years ago,
He was shearing when I knew him, so I sent the letter to him,
Just `on spec', addressed as follows, `Clancy, of The Overflow'.

And an answer came directed in a writing unexpected,
(And I think the same was written with a thumb-nail dipped in tar)
'Twas his shearing mate who wrote it, and verbatim I will quote it:
`Clancy's gone to Queensland droving, and we don't know where he are.'

And, ignorant as I am I didn't know of Jack Mathieu, this perfect couplet (am I using the correct terminology?):

And he looked as full of knowledge as a thirty-acre college

I can't love the midi music that plays at some points in the journey, though.
posted by Semi at 4:11 PM

 
Category: Pugilism
Do we really need to spend truckloads of money on DNA testing - can't we just count how many times they get hit in the head?
posted by w-class at 8:29 AM

 
Category: Food fight!
Tim Blair pointed me at an article in the Spencer Street Soviet about some UN-administered money that appears to have gone astray. The SSS article was based on some work by Claudia Rosett. She sure didn't waste her research on this one as similar horrific stories appeared in The Wall Street Journal and The National Review, the latter titled Kojo & Kofi - Unbelievable U.N. stories.

Corruption in the UN is no "dog bites man" but another issue came up in the SSS article. Apparently, during a kitchen staff strike at the UNHQ in NYC, the UN staff ransacked the cafeterias. Or not. Maybe they did only cause $8,000 of red ink in the UN books but it's much more fun than the billion-buck story.
posted by Semi at 6:05 AM

 
Category: Recycling
Outhouse Springs claims to be producing America's only recycled water. Unfortunately it is only available from a small group of twenty four Piggly Wiggly stores in the Charleston area.
posted by Semi at 7:56 AM

 
Category: Fillums
Hmmm, The Passion of the Brian?
posted by DB at 9:04 AM

 
Category: Telly
Happy Birthday three-beam shadow mask tube.
posted by DB at 9:01 AM

 
Category: Web
The World's Longest Alphabetical Email Address.
posted by DB at 8:28 AM

 
Category: Correctness
DB was a bit surprised that I had not posted on on the politically correct change to sign language. I had wrongfully assumed that everybody reads John Ray's PCWatch where he noted the change here. He also noted some interesting incidents pursuant to the "I'm a white, heterosexual male... I couldn't be more guilty if I'd done something wrong" school of thinking. For further reading, see Daphne Patai's book Heterophobia.
posted by Semi at 3:23 PM

 
Category: The list
Helping fund a big spending president's re-election campaign would be questionable but Dubya is the least socialist candidate so Kelsey Grammer goes on the list.
posted by Semi at 7:33 AM

 
Category: Ep. III
Rejected Titles for Episode III.
posted by DB at 9:33 AM

 
Category: Extraterrestrials
I've been running SETI@home for a number of years now and still haven't found a goddam thing. Looks like I've got famous company. Hope he's luckier.
posted by DB at 9:19 AM