Tired with using a straight wine bottle? Using a carafe but bored? Well, try a carafe that looks like the branching air tubes in your lungs! Courtesy of Etienne Meneau.
Enjoy freakishly complicated animated mechanical sculptures? Artist Choe U Ram had an exhibition at The Bathhouse Gallery in Japan. Images and limited text in English, complete with a link to a Google-translated Japanese site, courtesy of Gizmodo.
Like futuristic concept art with more than a hint of H R Giger/Anime/Steampunk distorted weirdness? Proceed to Digital Manipulation, the website of highly weird artist William B. Hand. You will not be surprised to find that he lists Giger, H. P. Lovecraft and Heironymous Bosch among his influences.
Friday, 4 July 2008
Wednesday, 2 July 2008
Hurrah! The voice of rationality!
Thanks to Richard Dawkins' website, I have just now read a rather interesting column from British newspaper The Independent.
Interesting because it spells out, clearly and lucidly and in a way that I challenge people to misinterpret and start hollering about, why it is that sometimes religions desperately need to be discriminated against. Unfortunately it doesn't cover "stupidity", "deception", "confidence tricks", "emotional or spiritual blackmail", "preventing progress in medicine and other sciences" or other perfectly legitimate complaints against large religious organisations or movements.
But, from the point of view of a society, it does finally point out where tolerance becomes stupidity because the world just stops working. My Aikido master once told us that although he tries to practice harmony with all people, he can be extremely intolerant because sometimes that's necessary. Well, yes.
My favourite example of this sort of excessive tolerance so far is the Islamic medical students in Britain who refused to have contact with naked women. Someone actually tried to discuss alternative methods of examination so that they could keep their beliefs but still pass the course. And then practice as doctors, but only on half the population.
Say it with me: "The stupid, it hurts!"
Link to the article posted on richarddawkins.net
Link to the article's original home with The Independent
Interesting because it spells out, clearly and lucidly and in a way that I challenge people to misinterpret and start hollering about, why it is that sometimes religions desperately need to be discriminated against. Unfortunately it doesn't cover "stupidity", "deception", "confidence tricks", "emotional or spiritual blackmail", "preventing progress in medicine and other sciences" or other perfectly legitimate complaints against large religious organisations or movements.
But, from the point of view of a society, it does finally point out where tolerance becomes stupidity because the world just stops working. My Aikido master once told us that although he tries to practice harmony with all people, he can be extremely intolerant because sometimes that's necessary. Well, yes.
My favourite example of this sort of excessive tolerance so far is the Islamic medical students in Britain who refused to have contact with naked women. Someone actually tried to discuss alternative methods of examination so that they could keep their beliefs but still pass the course. And then practice as doctors, but only on half the population.
Say it with me: "The stupid, it hurts!"
Link to the article posted on richarddawkins.net
Link to the article's original home with The Independent
This is absolutely ridiculous
There has been, down in sunny (joke, but I say it with love) Tasmania, a bit of a mess going on with the psychiatric ward at the Launceston General Hospital. I've only been keeping half an eye on this story and can't remember the details, but poor management, inadequate staffing and various predictably bad consequences as a result tend to feature prominently.
As part of dealing with this they will be taking the magnificent and world-changing step of (drum-roll please):
Renaming it.
Oh, you have got to be kidding me. I'm sure there are negative connotations attached to "Ward 1E" now, but changing the name? What will this solve, exactly? And how?
Yes, I know that labels are important, but I also believe that they're not nearly so important as people would like to think (Insert nasty joke about having an Arts education). I know people who still refer to Centrelink as the DSS or "Social Security". I still refer to that architecturally atrocious hotel down on Hobart's waterfront as the Sheraton despite the fact that it was changed to the Grand Chancellor when I was still in high school. It may be something else again now. I'm betting that in years to come there will still be people who hear whatever the new name is, laugh bitterly and so "Oh, that fucking psych ward?"
Here's my piece of advice, totally free: Fix it first. Changing the name while there are still problems will just attach negative connotations to the new name. Changing the name afterwards will do about as much good, but what the hell, you never know. It might work when all the current staff and patients are dead.
Link to the ABC News story.
As part of dealing with this they will be taking the magnificent and world-changing step of (drum-roll please):
Renaming it.
Oh, you have got to be kidding me. I'm sure there are negative connotations attached to "Ward 1E" now, but changing the name? What will this solve, exactly? And how?
Yes, I know that labels are important, but I also believe that they're not nearly so important as people would like to think (Insert nasty joke about having an Arts education). I know people who still refer to Centrelink as the DSS or "Social Security". I still refer to that architecturally atrocious hotel down on Hobart's waterfront as the Sheraton despite the fact that it was changed to the Grand Chancellor when I was still in high school. It may be something else again now. I'm betting that in years to come there will still be people who hear whatever the new name is, laugh bitterly and so "Oh, that fucking psych ward?"
Here's my piece of advice, totally free: Fix it first. Changing the name while there are still problems will just attach negative connotations to the new name. Changing the name afterwards will do about as much good, but what the hell, you never know. It might work when all the current staff and patients are dead.
Link to the ABC News story.
It's hell having any knowledge of language
You keep noticing when other people fuck up.
Particularly, you keep noticing when other people in positions of public notice fuck up. My father once wrote a letter to the Hobart Mockery, sorry, Mercury, offering to pay for a Real Estate Agent to undertake an Adult Education course in English. The offer was not taken up.
I have just been perusing disability concessions applications, and stumbled across the following gem from the Queensland Department of Transport, on the application form for the Person with Visual Impairment Travel Pass (bet you didn't know there was one, did you?):
"Veteran Affairs' - Blind Pensioner Concession Card".
Ignoring the callous and casual usage of capitalisation, note "Veteran Affairs'". That apostrophe is possessive, not contractive (is that a word?). It means that this fragment of apparent English is to be interpreted as "The veteran belonging to affairs". The actual department is "Department of Veterans' Affairs", which is correct: "The affairs relating to veterans".
It's this sort of casual mistake which makes me lose all hope for the future of human civilisation as we know it.
Link to the VIP (and there's another callous misuse of vernacular) Travel Pass web page.
Link to the actual DVA.
P.S.: If anyone wishes to take issue with any point I may have made in this post: The comments section is below. Please correct me.
Particularly, you keep noticing when other people in positions of public notice fuck up. My father once wrote a letter to the Hobart Mockery, sorry, Mercury, offering to pay for a Real Estate Agent to undertake an Adult Education course in English. The offer was not taken up.
I have just been perusing disability concessions applications, and stumbled across the following gem from the Queensland Department of Transport, on the application form for the Person with Visual Impairment Travel Pass (bet you didn't know there was one, did you?):
"Veteran Affairs' - Blind Pensioner Concession Card".
Ignoring the callous and casual usage of capitalisation, note "Veteran Affairs'". That apostrophe is possessive, not contractive (is that a word?). It means that this fragment of apparent English is to be interpreted as "The veteran belonging to affairs". The actual department is "Department of Veterans' Affairs", which is correct: "The affairs relating to veterans".
It's this sort of casual mistake which makes me lose all hope for the future of human civilisation as we know it.
Link to the VIP (and there's another callous misuse of vernacular) Travel Pass web page.
Link to the actual DVA.
P.S.: If anyone wishes to take issue with any point I may have made in this post: The comments section is below. Please correct me.
Tuesday, 1 July 2008
How not to sell a safety campaign
At the moment, the front page of Queensland Transport is advertising their motorcycle safety campaign using a little graphic that cycles through various shock-horror statistics.
One of which is "In over 83 percent of fatal motorcycle crashes the rider was considered to be at fault."
Hands up all those who really think the response from riders will be "Oh no! What can I do!?" instead of "FUCK YOU!"
Bonus points for not including anything which might suggest that other road users may need to pick up their act.
In other news, riders who crash on some roads can be guaranteed that they will be killed by the safety furniture, but will probably still get blamed for their own limb-rending impalement.
Link to Queensland Transport (as if they deserve it)
Link to Netrider report on below-standard safety barriers.
One of which is "In over 83 percent of fatal motorcycle crashes the rider was considered to be at fault."
Hands up all those who really think the response from riders will be "Oh no! What can I do!?" instead of "FUCK YOU!"
Bonus points for not including anything which might suggest that other road users may need to pick up their act.
In other news, riders who crash on some roads can be guaranteed that they will be killed by the safety furniture, but will probably still get blamed for their own limb-rending impalement.
Link to Queensland Transport (as if they deserve it)
Link to Netrider report on below-standard safety barriers.
Possibly the most annoying thing that tech support can do
Not finish the job.
At work we have just managed to get (I'm not sure if we were saving up, or got one of the three million tiny grants that community organisations can apply for) a new photocopier. Which is much shinier and more capable than the last one, and will hopefully print at a speed greater than continental drift.
But I don't know that because (drumroll please) although it's plugged in and turned on and photocopying, nobody's computer is yet connected to it.
Which means that the only way to print is to use the colour laser printer which is, I'd guess, about seventeen times more expensive.
Nice job.
At work we have just managed to get (I'm not sure if we were saving up, or got one of the three million tiny grants that community organisations can apply for) a new photocopier. Which is much shinier and more capable than the last one, and will hopefully print at a speed greater than continental drift.
But I don't know that because (drumroll please) although it's plugged in and turned on and photocopying, nobody's computer is yet connected to it.
Which means that the only way to print is to use the colour laser printer which is, I'd guess, about seventeen times more expensive.
Nice job.
Possibly the most annoying thing that tech support can do
Not finish the job.
At work we have just managed to get (I'm not sure if we were saving up, or got one of the three million tiny grants that community organisations can apply for) a new photocopier. Which is much shinier and more capable than the last one, and will hopefully print at a speed greater than continental drift.
But I don't know that because (drumroll please) although it's plugged in and turned on and photocopying, nobody's computer is yet connected to it.
Which means that the only way to print is to use the colour laser printer which is, I'd guess, about seventeen times more expensive.
Nice job.
At work we have just managed to get (I'm not sure if we were saving up, or got one of the three million tiny grants that community organisations can apply for) a new photocopier. Which is much shinier and more capable than the last one, and will hopefully print at a speed greater than continental drift.
But I don't know that because (drumroll please) although it's plugged in and turned on and photocopying, nobody's computer is yet connected to it.
Which means that the only way to print is to use the colour laser printer which is, I'd guess, about seventeen times more expensive.
Nice job.
Spellcheckers: Yet more reasons they're brain dead and shouldn't be trusted
I have just, in Microsoft Word 2008, realised that I had written "If yo use an accountant" and the "yo" hadn't been flagged as incorrect. That's odd, I thought...
A brief search of the Help later lead me to editing my custom dictionary, and I had not, at some point in the past, incorrectly added "yo". Which means that this particularly obnoxious piece of street slang has made it into the standard dictionary.
I thought it was Word, not Word-Up.
A brief search of the Help later lead me to editing my custom dictionary, and I had not, at some point in the past, incorrectly added "yo". Which means that this particularly obnoxious piece of street slang has made it into the standard dictionary.
I thought it was Word, not Word-Up.
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