Wednesday, May 28, 2003
The View from the TopOur lad Sir Ed was there first (a step or two ahead of Tenzing, although both acknowledge that they themselves consider this point a moot one), and this year marks the 50th anniversary of the feat. Check out this excellent article at Salon that takes a look at his climbing career, and this one, that chronicles one of his earlier achievements. # |
Booze improves judgement
I always thought I was wittier, more astute and generally a better decision maker when drunk. Apparently I was right... Alcohol may actually lead people to be more cautious in their decisions rather than impulsive, according to a surprise finding by psychologists at Queen's University in Kingston, Ont. "It contradicted what our intuitive assumptions would be, because people think alcohol makes them more impulsive," said Catherine Ortner, a Ph.D. candidate in psychology, who conducted the study. » Full story here # | Tuesday, May 27, 2003
All Blacks: Enterprise Crew in disguise?Is it just me, or is John Mitchell's selection policy for the the All Blacks based around the players' resemblance to characters from Star Trek: The Next Generation?   Jean-Luc & John Mitchell   Riker & Reuben Thorne   Worf & Tana Umaga   Data & Christian Cullen Yeees, I know, Cully isn't in the squad as of now, but he'll be back... And the Riker/Rueben resemblance is even more striking now that the All Black captain has got his carefully shaved beard action on the go, mimicking the hirsute look that Riker got going after season 2 of TNG. Couldn't find a pic of the AB #6 with the new look, though, so had to run with this, older comparison... # | Friday, May 23, 2003
 Water flowing uphillThis is pretty cool. An English inventor has made a Escher-like fountain that creates the illusion of water running uphill in an endless cycle around a four-ramped square. Brilliant. I want one. # | Wednesday, May 21, 2003
 The First RaveSoon after the machine had been set in motion, the crowd had begun to move their feet in time with the beats produced. It was, Quincey enthused, like watching blades of grass in the wind helplessly succumbing to a higher force of Nature. Driven by the thunderous rhythms of Hoovenaars tremendous "drum machine" the crowd - academics and dockers, architects and cobblers - were whipped into a frenzy, dancing and screaming like savages until sunrise, when the Machine finally ground to a halt with a suffering hiss. 1980? 1990? No way -- 1894! The first drum machine was apparently invented and unleashed by Professor Guus Van Hoovenaars of the Stuttgart Institute. And not only that, the unveiling of the machine was held at a secret location and had a full light show. Niiiice. Read more here. (grain of salt required). # | Friday, May 09, 2003
MixermanAh, dagnabbit. Another idea for a great novel whipped out from under me. And, as always, fact is funnier than fiction. # |
Nobel Peace Prize for, uh...?
Really? Bush and Blair nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Presumably for, um, their sterling efforts at staving off conflict in the Middle East. Oh, wait on, that was in another strand of reality. # | Wednesday, May 07, 2003
Mother's Day!Looking for something appropriate to play when you go around with the chocolates and new slippers? Errr, perhaps not... # |
Helen Clark in Europe
Our venerable leader has been pressing the flesh (and getting the flesh kissed) around Europe over the last couple of weeks, doing a bit of PR post-Iraq conflict to make sure that, should the USA get all sniffy with us over our lack of enthusiasm to join the 'Coalition of the Willing', we'd have a few old mates back on the continent that might be more responsive (and politically likeminded) to calls for some relaxed trade rules. She really is rather good. While Bill English continues in his attempts to snaffle the redneck element of the NZ voting population away from the likes of Winston Peters (with his call for the abolition of the Maori Seats, and 'one standard of citizenship'), Helen has been getting on with the job of firming up our international relations at a time when some nations seem to have forgotten who their 'mates' actually are. Unemployment is down (indeed, the problem seems to be filling jobs), growth is good, the surplus is still there, other than traffic and continuing education and health issues, things seem to be as good as they've ever been down here in godzone. Still doesn't stop her catching some flak though. The Guardian printed a story about the PM stating that Britain and America they might live to regret unleashing the "law of the jungle" through their war in Iraq. It was quickly picked up here by One News and the Dominion Post (funnily enough, the One News article, which ends up on the Nzoom megasite, has now been tagged as DON'T RELATE TO THIS STORY, but some stories are still doing just that). But good old Russell Brown over at publicaddress.net pointed out the PM never used those words (despite the quote marks), and that the whole story was something of a beat up from journos who should have known better. Russell also published an email from the original author of the Guardian piece here, in which the UK journos responsible for the initial muck-up come off seeming a little, uh, disingenuous. Anyway, this entire post was kick-started by the amazing lack of coverage (other than the Guardian's 'jungle' piece, which probably only caused a ruckus back here in NZ) that Helen's visit has been making in the world media. Obviously, John Howard is grabbing some of the limelight with his stay at the ranch, and Dubya himself has upped the stakes of leadership photo opportunities with his shenanigans, but our PM's European sojourn has registered as but a faint blip on the mainstream world media's radar. Oh well. If the big newspapers aren't interested, then I'd be thinking the terrorist threats that occasionally hit the headlines here in NZ are more the work of bored, slightly sociopathic individuals, than actual, bomb-toting jihadists. Or that's the hope, anyway. # | |
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