Month: March 2006
I’m raising 1337 h4X0r2
(1337 h4X0r2 = leet haxorz = elite hackers ;)) There was a phone message waiting for me when I got to work this morning from Alex. She was trying to install the game Zanzarah, which we own, at home, and couldn’t find the disc’s case. The case has the serial number code that is needed…
Our Scars, Our Selves
When she was 2, Cassie decided to copy what Daddy did in the morning and shave. She didn’t have quite my expertise at that point, and cut her top lip. It bled frighteningly much, but wasn’t really that big a cut. She has a tiny scar at the centre of her upper lip that she…
English (not freakin’ USA)
OK, it’s just a niggle, really, and not all that important. But so many web sites and software packages do it these days that it’s driving me nuts: when you choose which language you want to use there’s a list that has French, German, Chinese, Lithuanian, etc, and then the only English option is ‘English…
Artistic endeavours
Spent a big chunk of this morning building a WordPress blog to be used as a Noticeboard for a site that other people built. Actually, all the WordPress stuff was done weeks ago – today was all about the fact that they wanted this page to look exactly the same as the rest of the…
Another Bravus
Doing the good old ‘vanity google’ again last night, and found this guy. It’s not me, although he has the same nickname and is also a gamer: http://bravus.livejournal.com/ Wonder whether he ever vanity-googles…
How It Looks
Here’s a rough look at what the cover of my new book will look like. There’s a little tweaking to be done on the front cover yet, and the little bio text on the back will line up with the rest of the blurb in the final version, but this should give you the idea.…
Target Practice
http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/raaf-precision-strike-sinks-heroin-freighter/2006/03/23/1143083906863.html From The Age: THE North Korean freighter used to smuggle 150 kilograms of heroin into Australia three years ago now rests on the ocean’s bottom, destroyed by a pair of laser-guided bombs. RAAF F-111 strike bombers from Amberley in Queensland were dead on target with two 900 kilogram precision guided bombs as the 3500…
Christians for Torture
I just can’t even comment on this: … Andrew Sullivan introduces us to another new tribe in the big tent: Christians for Torture. Crunching the numbers on a recent Pew poll, Sullivan discovers that 57 percent of the people who describe themselves as “secular” say that torture is either never or rarely justified. Only 49…
Up There With The Asteroid
I guess in a way it’s not such a surprise… but it should be shocking to us. Humans are leading to a wave of extinctions of other species on the earth that is unprecedented since the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. We’re not quite sure what caused the dinosaurs’ extinction (besides the Far Side cartoon…
Irony Part 2
From the Melbourne Age newspaper today: Bush calls Howard with cyclone tips PRIME Minister John Howard was in the middle of a radio interview early yesterday morning when the White House rang to say President Bush wanted to talk to him about cyclone Larry. President Bush, who took a hammering in the United States over…
Irony, Metal and Age
So, I was posting in a kind of ‘what are you listening to this month?’ thread on the William Gibson Board and said: As to what I’m listening to at the moment: I know, I seriously must be getting old. But this is my classical music. It’s just funny to me that, to most of…
Renewable Energy Can Replace Oil
(still on hiatus, honest! had to share this, though) http://www.salon.com/tech/htww/index.html?blog=/tech/htww/2006/03/08/renewable/index.html
Opeth in Edmonton
So, we waited outside in the cold in a long line-up for about 40 minutes or so. Most hadn’t brought jackets because we didn’t want to coat-check, so there was a fair bit of shivering in the line (it was about -1 so not too bad). That meant I missed probably half of Dark Tranquility’s…
I, Nanobiobot
(of course as soon as I announce a hiatus there suddenly are numerous things about which I need to blog! consider this just punctuation in the hiatus – I’ll tell you when I’m back for good) This article from Salon about the future of nanotechnology/biology and the end of the human race is scary, exhilarating,…
Short Hiatus
Hi All You’ve probably noticed that my posts have been less frequent lately… a few a week rather than one most days. Partly that’s because I’m working very hard on publishing a bunch of books and papers. Here’s what I’ve either sent off to publishers and journals already or will over the next month and…
The Disclaimer
I wrote this last year in a different context, and it may be stronger on the religious side of things than I usually get in this blog, but particularly in the context of the last couple of posts, and also some feedback from others where it seems I might have come across as thinking I…
Care For Kids, and Society Will Care For Itself
One more reminder that the right thing to do is also the successful thing to do. This article from the Melbourne Age talks about a major study that was done that shows each dollar that’s invested in quality care and services for children (that includes care provided by their parents, not just daycare centres) has…
Circle of Influence
This is not a brag, just a musing about why I do what I do, and why I think it’s a worthwhile thing to do. (And I’ve already said, probably ad nauseum, that my real legacy in the world is my kids.) I teach on average about 25 teacher education students a year, and will…