Taxi!

Well, there's an interesting story...

John Cleese, comedian extraordinaire, is flaunting his wealth. Well, not really.

He's just catching a cab.

From Oslo.

To Brussels...

For the geographically challenged among you, Oslo is in Norway, Brussels is in Belgium. That's three whole countries away from Oslo... Seriously, go look it up in Google Maps or something. :-D

Seems like a lot of people are grounded by that whole volcanic ash cloud thing, and are keen to get home. Mr Cleese intends to catch a train from Brussels to London.

Good luck with that, sir!
(Hope it's not already booked out...)

Quote of the Day

Well, here's an interesting one I found in a comment on Slashdot (yeah, I know, but you occasionally get intelligent people posting there...)

There is no right to be wrong, especially when you try to spread falsehood as unassailable truth (there is no such thing as an unassailable truth, truth should be attacked at every chance we have, just to make sure truth is REALLY truth, and not some pleasing falsehood that makes us happy).

The quote was specifically in reference to an argument about whether or not it's appropriate to attack religious people because they choose to believe that the earth was created just 3,000 years ago, thus the first part about spreading falsehood (specifically referring to the Intelligent Design crowd there, I think).

But the second part is, I think, an important statement. The only genuine truth is the truth that survives attack - and we're referring to 'scientific' or 'reason-based' attack, here, where we look at what makes up the truth, and what that means about the world, and how we can see whether that does in fact occur - rather than "attack" meaning "drown it out by screaming that it's wrong, wrong, WRONG, and that this other 'truth' is the only real truth".

So, if you were to ask me whether I object to people believing that $deity made the world, whole, a mere 3,000-5,000 years ago, I'd say no, I have no objection to them believing that. That's what freedom of religion is about - they have the right to believe whatever they choose to believe. Personally, I'd think they're very wrong, but if they choose to ignore the evidence out there, then there's not much I can do about it.

What I object to is them telling me that I cannot believe anything else.

It works both ways, folks. If you have freedom of religion, then so do I. So be happy in your faith. If you think someone is believing the wrong thing, then feel free to discuss it with them, and try to persuade them to your point of view. But remember - 'persuade' doesn't include telling someone that they are wrong and will burn in hell for eternity if they don't do things your way. It also doesn't extend to getting laws passed that will force them to do things your way, or to teach their kids your way. That's not conversion. That's corruption and enslavement.

Oh, and remember - science & religion don't mix. Really. They're about completely different things. It's perfectly sane to both believe in God and accept that science is helping us to figure out all sorts of fascinating things about how this wondrous universe works. They're not mutually exclusive at all, despite what some people seem to think.

I am a human pincushion...

Er, ok, maybe I exaggerate. I only got *one* needle today - the good ol' flu vaccination.

Supposedly, from what I hear, it's a type-A influenza vaccine this year, which shares some characteristics with the dreaded swine flu. So in a week or two, I might have some (minor) immunity, or at least resistance, to that one.

From what I've been hearing & reading, though, this swine flu thingy seems to be over-hyped.

Disclaimer: I'm not an expert on diseases, I'm an engineer fer cryin' out loud!

Okay, why do I think that?

1. There have been 13 officially confirmed deaths due to this particular flu. Lots of "suspected" deaths in Mexico, but their numbers keep getting revised downwards, as they do more analysis & testing;
2. The victims have been in poor health, or were elderly or very young (e.g. the sole non-Mexican victim was a toddler in the southern US);
3. Mexico City, where the outbreak was first noted, has 20 million plus inhabitants living in very close proximity, and there are only 300-odd confirmed cases and 12 deaths. To put that in perspective, there are estimates that "ordinary" influenza viruses kill a few hundred thousand people each year...

On the flip side, of course, we need to consider the potential threat:

• Normal influenza has a mortality rate of something less than 0.1% (i.e. less than one person in a thousand who get it will die from it, or from a secondary infection). The confirmed numbers so far for the swine flu suggest a mortality rate of at least 2.5%, which is comparable to the 1918 Spanish Flu, which killed millions worldwide.
• According to this article, "WHO has warned that it would be a mistake to be lulled into a false sense of security. The 1918 Spanish flu pandemic started mildly – and went on to kill 20 to 40 million people round the world."
• The level of health services in Mexico might be such that they're missing a large proportion of the infections, and the "possible suspected" deaths might easily be 10-20 times higher than the confirmed numbers (and similarly for the number of infections).

Ok. So. The media is doing it's usual big beat-up, but the threat is still there, I guess. A bit of reading reveals that the Spanish flu first emerged 12-18 months before the real killer strain swept the world.

Might be time to stock up on the tinned food!

Mmmm. I could do with a bit of Dynamite Chilli... :-D

That and some more flour - going to try to find somewhere that sells better quality flour than the usual supermarket stuff. Maybe some other ingredients, too.

Actually, that reminds me - I had Chicken, Szechuan style, for lunch today. Got it from the chinese takeaway down the road ("Yummy Yummy" - gotta love those names!). Pretty bloody good, if you ask me. A little too much zing, initially, but once I figured out it was a bad idea to breath in the chilli sauce, all was good. :-P

Interesting thoughts about existence and identity

Have a look at this movie:



I found it on the Dan's Data website, in a very interesting article about possible extension of human consciousness into computers, or duplication thereof... Some very interesting reading, it's highly recommended, especially the couple of "footnotes" at the bottom (which, as Dan says, contain more text than the article proper).

I particularly liked this bit, in a quote near the end:

"...waking consciousness is dreaming - but dreaming constrained by external reality"

It engenders some intriguing thoughts... I think I might have to buy that book to have a read sometime!

The credit crunch for dummies

Not a bad explanation - simplifies a few steps, but the gist of it is there, as far as I understand what happened.



Basically, a bunch of people decided to make money by selling mortgage-backed investments that were high risk, on the basis that when the mortgages defaulted, they could just repossess the house and sell it for a profit.

Except they did it so much, that they killed the market for property (especially as they had helped stoke the housing bubble by lending to just about anyone).

Ho-ly shit...

This story on the Herald Sun website tells it all.

84 confirmed dead. So far.

This picture from the ABC News website gives you an idea of what happened.


More photos here.

And some video.

It did WHAT?!?

Ok, I highly recommend reading
this story on the ABC news website.

Short version: Snake eats snake. Snake crawls out of snake's mouth. Both snakes slither away...

That's a good feeling

I logged into the internet banking site of our bank this evening to pay a phone bill. While there, I noticed that our mortgage balance is $536.67.

Credit.

(i.e. positive balance, money in the bank so to speak)
It's a good thing to know that the mortgage is paid off. We're not completely debt free (we have investment loans and some small amounts on credit cards), but at least the house is ours. Bought & paid for, in full! :D

Well, ok, the house is also security against the investment loans, but then, so are the investments we have. Which aren't worth anywhere near what they were a year ago, but the price/earnings ratios are just ridiculous at the moment (i.e. many shares seem to be very under-valued on the stock market). I expect the prices will eventually climb, a lot, and in the meantime any dividends we get will help to manage the investment loans. After all, in the past few years they've helped us pay off our house, a mere 20 years early... :D

What I did on my holidays

While spending Christmas in Sydney with relatives, we went to the zoo. Taronga Zoo, to be precise. While the weather was pretty crappy (very overcast & occasional showers), it was a nice visit. Unfortunately, crappy weather equals poor lighting for photos. Bummer.

The below are probably the best pics I took. Enjoy!

Typical Queensland Summer

So it's warm.

Although, it's somewhat atypical for queensland by being warm and dry.

Yesterday it was warm and humid, as evidenced by this photo taken shortly before sunset. Temps around 32-33º, with apparent temps a few degrees higher.



Today, though, we only got to 36ºC. Right now, according to the Bureau, it's only 31.9ºC, but the apparent temp is only 28.1º - yup, it feels cooler than it is. Part of that is because it's windy (although it was windy yesterday too), but a large part is because the humidity is only 32%. That's a bit drier than yesterday, when the corresponding figures were 30.0º, 30.1º, and 67%.

So it's warm, but not too much so.

I wonder if we'll hit 40º this summer? We often get a week of weather approaching or exceeding that in mid-to-late January...

Only in America, part 957

Ah-hahahahahahaha!

Found here.

They also have the Winerack - a sports bra that fits a whole bottle of wine - and the Cruzin Cooler (or, as we Aussies would call it, the esky scooter).

Actually, that last one would be handy for Friday arvo drinks at the office... :D

Randy Cassingham's This Is True

Hey, if you haven't seen these before, check out these videos from This Is True.



I've been a premium subscriber for about four or five years now, and before that I got the free edition on & off since about 1994 (not long after it first started). Well worth checking out, IMHO.

H minus 27hrs and counting...

H meaning "holiday", meaning two whole weeks where I don't need to come in to work.

I'm thinking that there might be a few hours of pure sleep wrapped up in there somewhere... feel like I'm running a bit short at the moment!

Waaaaaaay too much stuff to do before tomorrow afternoon. Don't know if I'll get it all done, but I'll have to try.

Fencing last night, again - was very wearying, due to not having been for a few weeks. Plus, fencing coach Barbara decided that instead of fencing first-to-five-point bouts, we'd fence 15-point bouts.

On top of that, Dr Trent decided that he wanted to fence epee with me, rather than foil. Normally I wouldn't mind, but the extra weapon weight made a difference last night. The muscles between my thumb & index finger are letting me know all about it today! Not to mention the arm & leg muscles - just under-used lately, I think. Must fix that, so it doesn't hurt so much next time!

After our brief holiday, Anthea has another appointment at the specialist to check out how her finger is going. We should be getting back to our regular gym visits in a week or so, although I think perhaps Anf wont be getting back into the boxing any time soon!

Actually, that reminds me of a story Trent told us last night - about a guy who had dislocated his thumb playing football. When the emergency room folks were going to put it back in, he said "Oh, no, I'm in the army, I'm tough, I don't need any anaesthetic!"

Thirty seconds later, after he'd gone successively white, then green, then thrown up, he decided he might have been mistaken.

Anyway.

Work calls. :-(

Beach volleyball in the rain...

Ok, so the previous post pretty much summed up my Sunday.

Now, here's Saturday for ya! Or some of it, at least. Some of the folks from ERM were playing in the Corporate Games at the Uni of Qld, beach volleyball, as the title says.

The first couple of games were ok - they lost one narrowly, won the second convincingly. Then the heavens opened...

The calm before the storm...


Freaky sunset cloudage. This photo is straight from the camera. Around about this time, the temperature dropped from about 22-23ºC down to about 15ºC in about five minutes. We were not prepared...


There were about 30 people crammed under our tent, most of us holding on to the roof to try to stop it blowing away... the Cardno one partially collapsed just after this photo.


The game must go on! Crazy people...


The ERM team in action after the storm had passed... (yes, that is a lightning bolt in the background)


BTW, this storm hit after the "severe weather warning" had been cancelled, as there were no more severe thunderstorms around. Good to know it wasn't "severe". I guess then we would have gotten wet on both sides, rather than just our backs.

Ouchies!

This is what can happen when you don't catch the ball properly when playing gaelic.



Not even during the game - happened during warm-up! Anf was very disappointed, to say the least. No more gaelic for Anf for a while, methinks...

Luckily no breaks, just a bad dislocation. When the staff at the emergency room go "Whoa!", you know it's a doozy...

It's saturday evening...

(just!)

We got home about 40 minutes ago - went to the Gabba tonight, to watch the Lions play the Swans. Not a bad game of AFL, although it started badly for the Lions when they let the Swans get three unanswered goals, and they never quite managed to recover from that - the margin in the end was less than two goals.

Caught the bus in from Eight Mile Plains (free ride because we were going to the game!), met up with some friends at the Chalk Hotel for a pre-game drink & bite to eat (and quite a bit of amusement watching the things people were getting up to there - no topless bodypainting today, though!). Then wandered over to the Gabba, grabbed out seats, and watched a couple of hours of footy.

From Row B.

Yes, that's the second front row. Behind the goals at one end of the ground. You could literally reach out and touch the players when they were down our end, it was that close. Makes for a great experience for about half the game. The other half, the action was all down the other end, and the eyes aren't getting any younger! Actually, it was usually the players in between that were blocking the view, so we'd resort to watching the big screen to see what was going on there.

Still, a pretty good outing. We thought we were going to get rained on, but that didn't eventuate, although it did get cold. Well, cold-ish. For Brisbane. :-)

Anyway, I'm off to play Warcraft for a while...