Rambler - Gleaning in Fallow Fields

Disturbing Wall Art in Berlin

Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:24:21 GMT

Altho' this Daily Mail article, linked at end, has a different main subject – starting with Nicolas Sarkozy's confused recollection of his part in the fall of the Berlin Wall & continuing with general reflections on that event & its 20th Anniversary – there was a background in an accompanying picture that I found striking, disturbing &, unfortunately, memorable (brain bleach wanted). It's the first modern picture after two historic ones. (Second weird note: Why did they make the 1989 photo sepia?)

WARNING! This picture may disturb some readers. DO NOT PROCEED IF SENSITIVE.

It's a mural in the East Side Gallery in Berlin featuring Leonid Brezhnev & Erich Honecker

http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2009/11/08/article-1226161-07234620000005DC-715_468x302.jpg (UPPA Photoshot)
OK. You can look again.

The newspaper story, parts of which you might like to read. There are other photos too.

Sarkozy reinvents history
By PETER ALLEN
Last updated at 5:45 PM on 09th November 2009

www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/ worldnews/ article-1226161/ Sarkozy-posts-Facebook-image-hacking-away-Berlin-Wall-night-came-down.html

American Poem

Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:30:11 GMT

I AM the people—the mob—the crowd—the mass.

Do you know that all the great work of this world is
done through me?
I am the workingman, the inventor, the maker of the
world's food & clothes.
I am the audience that witnesses history. The Napoleons
come from me & the Lincolns. They die. &
then I send forth more Napoleons & Lincolns.

I am the seed ground. I am a prairie that will stand
for much plowing. Terrible storms pass over me.
I forget. The best of me is sucked out & wasted.
I forget. Everything but Death comes to me &
makes me work & give up what I have. & I forget.
Sometimes I growl, shake myself & spatter a few red
drops for history to remember. Then — I forget.

When I, the people, learn to remember, when I, the People
use the lessons of yesterday & no longer forget
who robbed me last year, who played me for
a fool — then there will be no speaker in all the world
say the name: "The People", with any fleck of a
sneer in his voice or any far off smile of derision.

The mob—The crowd—The mass—will arrive then.

— Carl Sandburg

So, it's Rio for 2016 Olympics

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:13:09 GMT

When the human world & its damage to itself & its planet gets too much, sometimes looking at a bigger picture can distract us from our distress & despair. (NB: Need better, official links for these two.)

Mysterious Mercury reveals more surface secrets to Messenger spacecraft

The Messenger team were hoping to take close-up pictures of other features glimpsed during the first two fly-bys, but an unexpected signal loss just four minutes before making the closest approach meant the craft went into safety mode. When returned to operational mode, it reported all systems were functioning normally again. [Conspiracy theorists will love that.]
Messenger will now enter into orbit in 2011 after it used the planet's gravity during the latest fly-by to help slow it down … Before the current Messenger mission only 45 per cent of the planet's surface had ever been glimpsed, using the Mariner crafts in the 1970s.
Now after three flybys in 2008 and 2009, around 95 per cent of the surface has been imaged. Only a few small sections around the poles have yet to be covered.
The team are hoping to answer six key questions about Mercury: Why is it so dense? What is its geological history? How does its magnetic field work? What is the structure of its core? What are the unusual materials at the poles? What volatile materials are there?

and Turbulent Milky Way revealed in new light using British space camera

An image of a Milky Way region in the constellation of the Southern Cross has been constructed from individual SPIRE (UK-led camera) and PACS images in the European Herschel Space Observatory. It shows 'a very turbulent process', constantly forging new generations of stars. … Herschel, which launched in May, was designed to view the universe at far infrared wavelengths and carries the largest telescope ever flown into space … providing astronomers with information about how much material there is, its mass, temperature and composition, and whether or not some of it is collapsing to form new stars. The two instruments have imaged an area around 16 times as big as the size of the moon as seen from earth. … Large areas of the milky way will be systematically surveyed by Herschel in this manner, helping astronomers to unravel the mysteries of star formation.

OTOH, this world is the only one we know of that has mind, thought, feeling, art & created beauty, or the capability of appreciating any of the natural beauty we find.

Extraordinary Origami (there's amazing things here)
www.dailymail.co.uk/ news/ worldnews/ article-1217194/ Origami-master-Sipho-Mabona-art-creating-paper-butterfly.html OR tinyurl.com/ye4l48c
Which can be another thing adding to the despair, when contemplating what damage we're wreaking, despite so many people trying to stop it.

Another comfort is cats:
Duststorm Boo ("one angry orange kitty!")
www.flickr.com/ photos/ velvetink/ 3946361231/

On Mount Olympuss
pics.livejournal.com/ serge_lj/ pic/ 0007ss5x/ g1

Agatha on desktop
pics.livejournal.com/ serge_lj/ pic/ 0005fth6/ g1

Cats Learning to Swim (somewhat dodgy)
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=tu6fVdAFGSI

i are cute kitten
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=_ZSbC09qgLI

Sharing a bath with Woody
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=sGrQV23TTUY

Cat Shower 2 (Woody Style)
www.youtube.com/ watch?v=8KswnjMa-MQ

From envy of the shelf-room of Neil Gaiman, seen at Gaiman's Bookshelf Details, at Ron Brinkmann's blog, Shelfari, we go all gooey seeing his cat posing there

The Antiquity of the Novelty Song

Mon, 21 Sep 2009 19:31:30 GMT

An odd thing I discovered while searching for details of a quite different nursery song for someone.
Nursery Antiquities, from Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales by James Orchard Halliwell

"The following has been traced to the time of Henry VI., a singular doggerel, the joke of which consists in saying it so quickly that it cannot be told whether it is English or gibberish:

"In fir tar is,
In oak none is,
In mud eel is,
In clay none is,
Goat eat ivy,
Mare eat oats."

(Assuming you all know the song "Mares eat oats"?)

Found Sonnet - to be kept for a more proper time

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:31:31 GMT

Sonnet

If I should die some night and never see
Dawn's light, my email, and my morning tea,
I face the thought with equanimity,
In fact, it would be worse for you than me.
Not that I want to die and turn to clay.
I'm only half-way through, I want to stay,
I want more years, more books, more chance to say
I love my life, my work, my friends, my day.
But I would know for sure the mystery
Perhaps go on to live again and grow
But even if there's nothing, I would know.
My death I view with calm philosophy
It's other people's death that makes me rage
Weep, grieve, and curse, demand another page.
– Jo Walton

Apology Again

Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:37:18 GMT

Not putting much here right now. Haven't given up. Life goes on, so far.

Hate crimes; More anniversaries

Wed, 03 Jun 2009 13:09:23 GMT

One quote from a recent American Terrorist story jumped out. From my local paper's report (‘Gunman says murder of abortion doctors was 'justified'’), via Associated Press, also in variations from several sources

"The anti-tax stuff came first, and then it grew and grew," said Lindsey Roeder … he became involved with the Freemen movement, an anti-government group that discouraged the paying of taxes.

That story seems to be getting more publicity than this one: ‘British hostage executed by Islamists in Mali’.

It'll be interesting to see how the Tiananmen Square massacre 20th anniversary, and some other anniversaries are remembered in the next few weeks.

Two Anniversaries: the Effluxion of Time

Thu, 21 May 2009 19:18:12 GMT

From comments on a review at Rixosous of The Mayor of Castro Street, by Randy Shilts.

Today is the 30th anniversary of the White Night Riots, which occurred when Dan White was given a ludicrously low sentence for the murders of Harvey Milk and George Moscone.
Tomorrow is Harvey Milk's birthday. He would have been 79. It's hard to imagine.
Posted by: Susan de Guardiola | May 21, 2009 at 12:22 PM

Leviathan's Underbelly on TV

Wed, 11 Feb 2009 00:54:07 GMT

I've mentioned John Birmingham's book Leviathan* (A s sorted l i n k s) before (5 June, 2005). Here's one of the chapters, expanded and filmed. Also see the works of Rupert Kathner

Underbelly: Back where it all began - SMH TV & Radio - Entertainment:
"Sydney had been corrupt since the Rum Corps, but in the 1970s it exploded. A cell of bent detectives effectively franchised crime using 'pet' criminals. People such as Lennie McPherson, a safebreaker but no mastermind, became a Mr Big after police gave him the 'green light'. Arthur 'Neddy' Smith, a violent thug, became a protected mob leader. The smooth George Freeman made millions — so brazenly he was once photographed at Randwick races with the chief magistrate.

But there were a few honest police — and they had to break the law to prove it..."
* Leviathan: The Unauthorised Biography of Sydney A RIVETING HISTORICAL BIOGRAPHY OF A REMARKABLE AUSTRALIAN CITY “Combining intensive research with the pace of a techno-thriller, John Birmingham creates a rich portrait of a city too dazzled by its own gorgeous reflection to care much for what lies at its dark, corrupted heart. … Birmingham drills beneath the cover story of a successful multicultural metropolis and melts the boundaries between past and present … Beneath the shining harbour, amid the towers of global greed and deep inside the bad-drugs madness of the suburban wastelands, lies Sydney's shadow history. … Illuminated by wild flashes of black humour, violent, ghoulish and utterly compelling, Leviathan is history for the Tarantino generation.” ISBN: 0091842034; ISBN: 9780091842031; ISBN: 0091832616

A Season of ‘New Humanist’ Podcasts & Entries

Sun, 28 Dec 2008 04:57:31 GMT

Car Travel in the Snow (USA)

Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:01:43 GMT

Ouch - two car crashes survived. Photos shared from Flickr. ~*Leah*~ [untitled] & Lauren takes Pictures, Day 198 of 365

SMH Obituary - Dacre Smyth, 1923-2008

Fri, 12 Dec 2008 22:37:00 GMT

www.smh.com.au - A poetic observer, unwittingly, of Hiroshima:
www.smh.com.au/ text/ articles/ 2008/ 12/ 10/ 1228584924971.html
Smyth was on HMAS Norman 160 kilometres east of Japan on August 6, 1945, when another officer called him on deck to see a 'spectacular sunset'. Smyth immediately wrote a poem, of which the second verse says: 'No cloud, I say, but yet the sun did light/ On towering columns all unreal yet huge/ Which waved and shuddered in grotesque delight/ In myriad hues of ghostly subterfuge.' Unknowingly, he was describing the aftermath of the dropping of an atomic bomb on Hiroshima.

Dacre Henry Deudraeth Smyth, who has died in Melbourne of prostate cancer at 85, was born in London into a family linked directly to the kings of England Henry III and Edwards I, II and III. The family also had some claim to being related to Pocohontas, the Indian who saved the life of Captain John Smith, the founder of Virginia.

Smyth's mother was Anna Maria Story-Maskelyne. His father, Nevill, was awarded a Victoria Cross under Lord Kitchener at the Battle of Omdurman in Sudan in 1898, and was considered unlucky not to have won a second VC during the Boer War. He went on to command the First Australian Brigade at Gallipoli, leading him to emigrate with his family in 1925 and settle on a sheep property, Kongbool, near Balmoral in Victoria's Western District.

Nevill Smyth's first cousin, Lord Robert Stephen Smyth Baden-Powell, was a hero of the 217-day siege of Mafeking in the Boer War, and founded the Boy Scout movement, of which Smyth became a leader in Victoria.

Post-Election Musical Thoughts

Thu, 06 Nov 2008 10:39:48 GMT

DEMOCRACY §

It's coming through a hole in the air,
from those nights in Tiananmen Square.
It's coming from the feel
that this ain't exactly real,
or it's real, but it ain't exactly there.
From the wars against disorder,
from the sirens night and day,
from the fires of the homeless,
from the ashes of the gay:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming through a crack in the wall;
on a visionary flood of alcohol;
from the staggering account
of the Sermon on the Mount
which I don't pretend to understand at all.
It's coming from the silence
on the dock of the bay,
from the brave, the bold, the battered
heart of Chevrolet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the sorrow in the street,
the holy places where the races meet;
from the homicidal bitchin'
that goes down in every kitchen
to determine who will serve and who will eat.
From the wells of disappointment
where the women kneel to pray
for the grace of God in the desert here
and the desert far away:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.
It's coming to America first,
the cradle of the best and of the worst.
It's here they got the range
and the machinery for change
and it's here they got the spiritual thirst.
It's here the family's broken
and it's here the lonely say
that the heart has got to open
in a fundamental way:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.

It's coming from the women and the men.
O baby, we'll be making love again.
We'll be going down so deep
the river's going to weep,
and the mountain's going to shout Amen!
It's coming like the tidal flood
beneath the lunar sway,
imperial, mysterious,
in amorous array:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.
I'm sentimental, if you know what I mean
I love the country but I can't stand the scene.
And I'm neither left or right
I'm just staying home tonight,
getting lost in that hopeless little screen.
But I'm stubborn as those garbage bags
that Time cannot decay,
I'm junk but I'm still holding up this little wild bouquet:
Democracy is coming to the U.S.A.
Sail on, sail on
O mighty Ship of State!
To the Shores of Need
Past the Reefs of Greed
Through the Squalls of Hate
Sail on, sail on, sail on, sail on.
—

Leonard Cohen

The Burns Sisters sing it on their 'Wild Bouquet' album .

www.musicsonglyrics.com/ L/ leonardcohenlyrics/ leonardcohendemocracylyrics.htm

OH NOES!! RUN! RUN! RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:59:23 GMT

Panic Now

more animals

Satellite Photo Maps and 'Reality'

Wed, 01 Oct 2008 21:51:38 GMT

only

2) Walking in a new area of the city I discovered a tiny hidden oasis right off a big busy main road. Two little angled lanes of brick terrace houses lined with tubs & pots full of plants, with at least two friendly cats and, in the point of the triangle formed by the lanes, a minuscule park — lawn, flowerbeds, tables & benches. On Google Maps the park is invisible, covered by two leafy trees. Shocked, I realised since the photo was taken both have died, still standing as bare skeletons I'd barely noticed.

Links on Compulsory Voting

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 10:38:57 GMT

Here's a link to the Australian Electoral Commission's very brief summary page on Compulsory Voting. This links to more detailed PDF documents (1-short, 2-fuller. See also Informality. For excruciating detail see Commonwealth Electoral Act 1918). It covers the Federal law, the States have their own (N S W, see legislation: Parliamentary Electorates and Elections Act 1912 No 41, Div 13), and each also (fairly loosely) enforces it for local Council elections.

Most of the fines aren't too large, and the penalties don't seem to include gaol time. NSW is keen on removing driver's licences for non-payment of fines, tho'. If you don't know it's happened, driving without a licence is fairly serious, & can mean you're not insured, which could be very serious indeed.

Life (sort of) Imitates Snow Crash

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 16:47:47 GMT

Pizza man fined for delivering very fast fast food
September 17, 2008, 3:29 am
(Reporting by Pauline Askin, Editing by Michael Perry and Miral Fahmy)

SYDNEY (Reuters) - An Australian pizza delivery man gave fast food a new meaning when he was caught, and fined, for driving 53 km (33 miles) over the speed limit.

The 20-year-old man, driving on a provisional driver's license, said he was speeding because he was 20 minutes late with his delivery in the tropical northern town of Townsville.</br>
Police clocked him driving at 131 kms (82 miles) in an 80 kph (50 mph) zone on Saturday, but waited for him to deliver his pizza before booking him.

On his return journey to the pizza shop, he was caught speeding at 133 km in the same zone.

Police sergeant Brendan White said on Tuesday the delivery man, who was not named, was fined A$1520 (US$1,226) and lost his license for 15 months.

Nice Noises

Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:42:42 GMT

MP3 extracts of Richard Einhorn's music - composer of Voices of Light, etc,
www.richardeinhorn.com/ Audio/ AudioIndex.html
Voices of Light link www.richardeinhorn.com/ VOL/ VOLHomepage.html

And another space … listen.to/ whitenoise

YouTube clip called Kaamelott - The perfect fifth. It seems to be part of series called Kaamelott, I think. I did LOL (quietly (LQ?)) at 'diabolus!', remembering being told about it in music class in my childhood.

What Cannot be Knitted or Crocheted?

Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:12:19 GMT

Knitted Tardis (don't let the BBC hear, tho'): TARDIS Knit Plush Pattern Instructions, and Pattern Graph; Knitted Tardis Flickr set; and Instructables page: The Tardis - knitted. I would love someone to bring one along to the Sixth Annual 702 ABC Sydney Knit In for the Wrap With Love charity (the Big Day is 1st August this year), 'cos our ABC is & has been the Dr Who purveyor in Australia since the show's beginning..

Mud of some sort or another

Thu, 29 May 2008 06:52:09 GMT

Someone mentioned mud, and I immediately sang in my mind “mud, mud, glorious mud” – from ‘Hippopotamus’ by Flanders & Swann.

Mud is something they'd love to find on Mars — see HiRISE images of the Phoenix landing site at www.planetary.org/ blog/ article/ 00001472

Mud also plays a small, but vital role in the film The Ballad of Cable Hogue

And for a picture that evokes quite different emotions, GW Bush officiating at an Air Force Academy graduation ceremony.

Some English language alphabets

Thu, 01 May 2008 02:33:52 GMT

John Higgins's silent alphabet

A as in BREAD
B as in DEBT
C as in INDICTMENT
D as in HANDKERCHIEF
E as in GIVE
F as in HALFPENNY
G as in GNAW
H as in HOUR
I as in FRIEND
J as in MARIJUANA
K as in KNOW
L as in CALM
M as the first M in MNEMONIC
N as in AUTUMN
O as in PEOPLE
P as in PSALM
Q as in COLQUHOUN (a Scottish surnamepron “Cull-hoon”)
R as in FORECASTLE
S as in ISLAND
T as in CASTLE
U as in GUARD
V as in MILNGAVIE (a Scottish place name pron “Mull-guy” or “Mill-guy”)
W as in WRONG
X as in SIOUX
Y as in PEPYS
Z as in RENDEZVOUS

www.marlodge.supanet.com/ museum/ silent.html

Sites showing the 'spelling-out' alphabets (also called phonetic alphabets, not to be confused with the kind of phonetic alphabets used to show pronounciation)
Alpha, Bravo, Charlie, Delta, Echo, Foxtrot, Golf, Hotel, India, Juliet, Kilo, Lima, Mike, November, Oscar, Papa, Quebec, Romeo, Sierra, Tango, Uniform, Victor, Whisky, X-ray, Yankee, Zulu
morsecode.scphillips.com/alphabet.html
www.businessballs.com/ phoneticalphabet.htm
Wikipedia: Spelling alphabet
Wikipedia's disambiguation page: Phonetic alphabet

Another death; Another good legacy

Fri, 21 Mar 2008 03:29:33 GMT

It wasn't that far back that Paul Scofield was brought to my mind in relation to discussing Thomas More (in the 'William F Buckley, dead' thread at the Making Light blog). I watched a few online clips from A Man for All Seasons. Now he joins our other recent losses, leaving, we are comforted, a legacy we can continue to benefit from.

From The Guardian, their obituary, personal remembrances, comments from the public; and also the NY Times obit.

[Follows the recent unexpected sudden and early death of Anthony Minghella, and the less-surprising, but still memorable, taking away of Arthur C Clarke — also much-discussed over at Making Light: 'Arthur C. Clarke, 1917-2008', with many links and recommendations for reading.]

Sigh. Six Apart, further apart

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:56:07 GMT

Darkrose (you are so good to me eggplant mike) has put up a translation of an interview with LJ's recent owner (a Russian). It's not happy reading.

http://darkrosetiger.livejournal.com/373663.html — The Rodney McKay Principle of Consumerism as applied to LiveJournal

Outwitting History: Story of a Book-Rescuer

Sun, 16 Dec 2007 04:34:38 GMT

(Amazon.com) Outwitting History

The Amazing Adventures of A Man Who Rescued A Million Yiddish Books, by Aaron Lansky "Lansky and his fellow dreamers traveled from house to house, Dumpster to Dumpster saving Yiddish books wherever they could find them—eventually gathering an improbable 1.5 million volumes, from famous writers like Sholem Aleichem and I.B. Singer to one-of-a-kind Soviet prints."

This really turns my heart over, in a number of ways.

Guardian Unlimited Arts blog: Your photographs

Fri, 23 Nov 2007 23:36:05 GMT

Tina Maas: Queens Wood, near Highgate in north London, 2003. No image manipulation used
Photograph: Tina Maas/Guardian Unlimited