My three year-old is staking out a claim on my computer, wanting new things to do.
At the library, I saw some kid playing this on a library computer so I came home and googled a few words I'd seen on his screen.
For your amusement if things at work are a bit slow: Parking Challenge
Don't go parking in the handicap spots, now!
I had a slight grin and a little twinkle in my eye when I read this story a moment ago.
Mr FD is giving me a GPS for my car as my Christmas present. He knows that I have no sense of direction and I am quite convinced that he hopes that should I ever decide to run away, that I can run, far, far, away.
'k, these aren't affecting me over Christmas, but it's not half pissing me off that it's filling the news.
So far, all I have seen is stroppy people who are being paid 2 x the wage of cabin crew on a certain...pure...untouched...intact airline - you know who I mean, right? The founder likes hot air balloons - moaning that they are facing pay freezes, possible pay cuts and cutbacks of 1 person per flight.
Fine, there's changes to your contract, but let me put it to you this way. You STILL have a job. It's difficult to find employment these days so be happy that you still have it.
I personally would be willing to offer up my services to this specific airline. I'll take holidays at work, or even time unpaid for 2 weeks, if I could have these people's wages to do their job for the 12 days of strikes. I'm pretty sure there would be others willing to give up their holidays for 2 weeks paid flights around the world. Let me at it.
Years ago, on previous picketlines people like me would've been called scabs. Yeh, ok, call me a scab but at least I will have a nice tan for Christmas.
Anyone willing to walk out of a job on strike deserves to be brought up on misconduct charges (I know, unlikely what with union backing etc) and sacked. I'm pretty sure there are people out there who would desperately love a job and be willing to go through the security checks and avail themselves over this 12 day period, if not permanently.
Logistically speaking, it'd be impossible to have the checks done in time which is a shame. I'd have been right up for that sort of extra cash over Christmas.
So, Mr Walsh, if you're listening you can contact me via my blog. I'm ready and waiting. Christmas ruined for 1 million people? I feel sorry for those family and friends going through this stressful time.
I was a regular donor at one point.
My dad had an accident 17 or 18 years ago now, one which he will never fully recover from. The damage to his leg and nervous system was too severe, and everything combined has led to various other illnesses and system failures within his body. When the accident happened there was a large amount of blood loss - basically his leg was severed half way down his shin - blood which of course had to be replaced. If it weren't for blood donors he would've been gone there and then.
Because of this, and the fact I was only 12 or 13 at the time, I couldn't give blood then so I waited until I had left school and tried to donate. However for one reason or another I wasn't old enough - a fact which annoyed me no end as I went through the finger prick stage and everything; that's the worst bit! - and so I waited until I was legally able to give and returned. For the first few years I was regular, then I moved house and finding a new place to donate slipped my mind, but I eventually did.
Anyway, all this rambling is culminating in the fact I was turned away from a session in 2007; essentially my last session. I had a low haemoglobin level, and my iron levels were shot. I couldn't donate because they wouldn't let me. They told me to give it a year which I did. However I didn't go back because of things that were going on in my life. I was going through a divorce and moving house, trying to pay for 2 properties (there are reasons, none of them pleasant) and all of this resulted in my counts still being low so I couldn't return.
A few days ago I got a SMS message from the NBS telling me there was a session in Eccles on Wednesday 16th December and asking would I please try and attend. I kicked my own ass and attended the session yesterday, had to almost re-enroll as I am now classed as a new/returning donor and eventually got to the finger-prick stage. That done, blood tested (it sank like a stone - a good sign!) and before I knew it I was back on those wonderful stretcher/table things with my arm over the edge and my vital fluid leaking from my veins into a new design (looks and feels cheap, and the technicians taking the blood apparently don't like them too much) baggy. I have a good bleed rate and I was done before I knew it.
I feel better for giving it. Felt a bit woozy yesterday afterwards as it's been so long since my last session but still the fact remains I am back in the saddle again.
I blame the unhappiness of my marriage on the fact I was turned away from my 2007 session. I wasn't eating or drinking like I should be, nor was I looking after myself properly. I'm happily divorced, engaged to a lovely new girl - the mother of my son - for those who don't already know, and it seems like I am finally getting things together.
Now all that remains is to leave this crappy country and settle somewhere I know we will all be happier.
Long time no see - Missed you lot :)
1. Overheard;
"Happiness is somewhere on the scale between boredom and
fear"
I personally do not think it is possible to define happiness in a
nutshell. Maybe the closest is Martin Seligman's assessment
of what is required;
"Something to do.
Someone to love, and
Something to look forward to."
2. Mrs GOF has three watches. (don't ask me why....it's secret
womens business) She doesn't wear them all at the same
time which is a comforting indicator of her sanity.
None of them cost more than $20.
The $14 one, which she likes the best, recently required a
new watchband which cost $22 and a replacement battery
($18).
Then she lamented;
"Why, when I own three watches, do I keep running out of
time".
3. "Odors released by stressed rats produce opoid analgesia
in unstressed rats"
(M.S. Fanselow "Behavioural Neuroscience" 1985)
I just thought your life would be more complete with this
knowledge.
4. A caller on talkback radio;
" Why do we destroy high-grade Earth, in exchange for low-
grade ore."
5. "Ugliness has more going for it than beauty......it endures."
(Charlotte Gainsbourg)
6. My unenviable mathematical credentials have already been
established here in The Bucket.
However, some simple arithmetic, after recent events
around the world, make it clear that probably at least one
person out of my Vox neighbourhood has had sex with Tiger
Woods.
GOF is immune from making any declaration, either because
he didn't, or the fine print in his $5 million settlement prevent
him from speaking out.
Anyone else care to make any admissions?
The Seventh Day of Christmas – Seven Swans a Swimming
December 31.
Officially it is the last day of the calendar year. However, New Year’s Day was not always celebrated on January 1st. In ancient Rome, the year began on March 1st. Later, in many countries of Europe, the year began on March 25th, the Feast of the Annunciation. The change to January 1st was gradual. Scotland changed in 1600, and England changed when the Gregorian calendar was adopted there in 1752. So basically, to my way of thinking, New Year’s resolutions don’t have to be made on the New Year, they can be made any time – and we shouldn’t feel like we need to make them if we don’t want too! Philosophy according to Flamingo Dancer!
The Egyptians believed swans represented immortality. The Greeks priests , who worshipped the goddess of agriculture, Demeter, were believed to have been descended from swans. The Greeks also associated the swan with wisdom and creativity as they considered that bird related to the nine Muses. It is said that when Apollo was born at Delos, the event was marked with flights of circling swans. It is in the form of a swan that Zeus assaults Leda and in so doing, engenders the twins, the Gemini, Castor and Pollux, who hatched from eggs and also their sisters, the tormented Clytemnestra and the fatefully beautiful Helen, whose elopement with Paris caused the Trojan War.
The myth of a swan who turns into a young woman is known as the motif of the Swan-Maiden, and it appears in both eastern and western cultures. Women who turn into birds and vice versa are popular themes in folklore and literature, too.
Many celtic beliefs centred on the belief that loved ones became enchanted and turned into swans with gold or silver chains around their necks. The transformation took place during the Samhain festival when the gates of other worlds open up and souls are free to pass through.
Therefore, in Indian mythology, the swan (Skt. hamsa) embodies the union of Garuda and Naga, and since those two are enemies, it also stands for the highest wisdom teachings concerning the union of opposites.
Tales of the Thousand and One Nights includes the story of Hasan of Basra, who visits the place of the bird-maidens. When they take off their feather garments, they become beautiful women. Hassan hides the clothes of one of them in order to keep her as his wife, but she manages to regain her feathers and flies away. Hassan sets out on a quest to regain her, and after many adventures finally succeeds.
Sweet Mikhail Ivanovich the Rover is a Slav tale that begins as Mikhail is about to shoot a swan that warns him "Shoot not, else ill-fortune will doom thee for evermore!" When the swan lands, she turns into a beautiful maiden but when Mikhail tries to kiss her she warns him that she is an infidel. However, if he takes her to the holy city of Kiev so that she might be received into the Church, he will then be able to marry her.
In a similar South German folk tale, a swan again speaks to a forester who is about to kill her. In this instance, she says that if he can keep the secret of her existence for one whole year, she will be his but of course, he fails.
In the religious tradition, seven swans a-swimming represents the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit:
1. Prophecy,
2. Ministry,
3. Teaching,
4. Exhortation,
5. Giving,
6. Leading, and
7. Compassion
Romans 12:6-8
Baby swans (an ugly duckling) grow to become a beautiful swan and Christian growth is when the gifts of Holy Spirit are practiced.
Leonardo da Vinci painting of Leda with The Swan and their children:
http://www.leonardo-da-vinci-biography.com/images/leonardo-da-vinci-painting-leda-and-the-swan.jpg
How freaking awesome is this, eh? Now if only we could send people out to explore this new world. What would we find? Hell, who would we find? I mean, I know it's warmer than Earth, according to the scientists, but we have species who can live in the coldest and hottests places on Earth and survive. So why not there, right?
Can you imagine the potential diversity of life on this new planet? Would they have intelligent life? Would they be larger than Humans? Or smaller? Would they walk on land? Or swim in their vast seas? So many questions, and little we can do to answer them at this time, unfortunately. Here is the article:
Okay, so the atmosphere wouldn't support humanity without a suit, but still, life is quite adaptable and this world appears to have the necessary ingredients for life. Even if it's barely a single cell.PARIS (AFP) – Astronomers have discovered a new Earth-like planet that is larger than our own and may be more than half covered with water, according to a study published Wednesday in the science journal Nature.
The so-called "super Earth" is about 42 light years away in another solar system and has a radius nearly 2.7 times larger than that of our planet, according to the study by the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics.
The discovery of the planet, called GJ 1214b, represents a "major step forward" in the search for worlds similar to the Earth, added the University of California's Geoffrey Marcy in a commentary also in Nature.
The "newfound world" is too hot to sustain life as we know it, said the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre for Astrophysics in a statement.
Its density suggests however it "is composed of about three-fourths water and other ices and one fourth-rock," it said. "There are also tantalising hints that the planet has a gaseous atmosphere."
Its temperature is estimated at between 280 and 120 degrees Celsius (536 and 248 degrees Fahrenheit) with its host star about one-fifth the size of the Sun, according to the scientists.
"Despite its hot temperature, this appears to be a waterworld," says Zachory Berta, a graduate student who first spotted hints of the planet's presence.
"It is much smaller, cooler and more Earthlike than any other known exoplanet," he said in the statement.
An exoplanet is one outside of our solar system.
Berta said some of the water would likely be in crystalline form that exists at pressures greater than 20,000 times Earth's sea-level atmosphere.
Its temperature is much lower than that on the only similar discovery, called CoRoT-7b, which revolves around a star that is much hotter, the scientists say.
The CoRoT-7b has a density close to that of the Earth (5.5 grammes per cubic centimetre) and seems to be rocky, while the new discovery appears to be much less dense (1.9 g/cm3).
"To keep the planet's density that low requires that it contains large amounts of water," said Marcy. "It must contain a huge amount of water, roughly 50 percent by mass."
The "wild card" is the make-up of the gases on the planet, he said.
The planet orbits every 38 hours around a small, faint star that was first spotted by eight ground-based telescopes no larger than those used by amateur astronomers, the Harvard-Smithsonian Centre said.
Its relative closeness makes its possible to study it to determine its atmosphere.
"That will make it the first super Earth with a confirmed atmosphere -- even though that atmosphere probably won't be hospitable to life as we know it," said David Charbonneau who heads the research team.
Until next time...
-Wil
Tim Minchin says it all for me. Listen to the end ... I cried. I mean, I might have cried if Flamingo Dancers cried, and we don't. So don't even think I did...
I miss my Dad.
http://www.news.com.au/couriermail/story/0,23739,26497660-952,00.html
Cruise control driver runs down his critics
THE driver stuck on cruise control at 100km/h on the Eastern Freeway and EastLink has lashed out at those casting doubt on his story.
"You weren't in the car," Chase Weir said. "If anyone can fake a 000 call and all that screaming, show me how."
Readers swamped the Herald Sun website and talkback radio to also ask why the Ford Explorer driver didn't turn off his engine or shift the gear selector into neutral.
Click here to listen to the dramatic 000 call extract
Mr Weir told police the ignition key would not move and that he could not put the car into neutral.
On trying to brake, he could not slow below 80km/h.
The 22-year-old Queenslander's ordeal began at 12.40pm on Tuesday when he was unable to slow for his Eastern Freeway exit.
It ended just over 30 minutes later on the Moorooduc Highway at Frankston, when he finally managed to stop the vehicle using the handbrake and the brake pedal - on the wrong side of the road.
Police considered radical measures to stop Mr Weir.
But it was Sgt Marnie Goldsmith who in effect rescued him, talking him through his panic after he dialled 000.
Mr Weir thanked her in person.
Sgt Goldsmith said: "He shook my hand and I said 'I can give you a hug'."
Mr Weir said it was only her calm response that allowed him to keep his head.
"She was saying, 'the car won't stop but you're still OK'. I was panicky, but she kept me calm."
She explained: "I just said 'I'll tell you when it's time to panic and we're not there yet'."
Emergency Services Telecommunications Authority operator Jay Kemp, who co-ordinated the response, said: "There is no standard procedure to stop a car stuck on cruise control. It was extraordinary."
The first police unit to reach Mr Weir thought it would all end in tragedy.
Sen-Constable Steve Warr and Constable Stephen Glenk from Doncaster kept other vehicles away from him.
"We knew the traffic would bank up and we wanted to end it prior to Frankston," said Sen-Constable Warr.
"We discussed about 50 different options, from using our van or a truck to stop him, using the guard rail, or running him into a paddock.
"By the time the last 3km came up, it was too late. I thought there were going to be fatals. I said over the air - 'It's going to be bad'."
The Explorer will now be examined by police and Ford. Mr Weir claims six Australians have contacted him on Facebook to claim similar issues with their cars.
National Motoring Editor Paul Gover writes: If you are faced with a jammed accelerator, or a stuck cruise control, do not panic. Firstly, push down very hard on the brake. If it doesn't release the accelerator, don't panic.
If it's a manual, push down on the clutch, which should disengage a cruise control, or knock the lever into neutral. Do the same for an automatic, but go gently on the shifter.
Selecting neutral will disconnect the engine from the gearbox and allow you to brake to a stop.
If you cannot get into neutral, try turning the engine off (do not lock the steering). You should be able to steer and brake to a stop.
In the absolute worst case, do as Mr Weir did to stop.
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