Category: General
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Avatar – the film
I took the opportunity a couple of days ago to see this film in 3-D at Melbourne’s IMAX (which currently boasts the world’s second-largest 3-D screen… and rates third for 2-D projections). Having been informed that a long queue forms for seating, I arrived early enough to be one of the first in the queue,…
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UN anti-Israel
Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict I’ve just (finally) read the 575 page UN document titled ‘HUMAN RIGHTS IN PALESTINE AND OTHER OCCUPIED ARAB TERRITORIES: Report of the United Nations Fact Finding Mission on the Gaza Conflict‘ (otherwise known as the ‘Goldstone’ report). There’s not really much to say.…
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Ringing Cedars of Russia
I first came across the series from full-page advertisements placed in the magazine Nexus mentioning (within the advert) that sales have reached over 10 million without advertising, and must admit that such advertising oxymoron did not predispose me to a favourable view of the publisher’s honesty: either they do not advertise and indeed sales spread…
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Play, stories, the brain’s plasticity, Obama’s Prison State and the ‘swine’ influenza ‘pandemic’
Quite a mouthful, that heading… and considering I also wanted to include something on synæsthesia, I’ve rather narrowed somewhat my ‘focus’! Swine flu pandemic Let’s begin with the last of these first: the flu ‘pandemic’ and the reaction to it by officialdom. I accept that when the first outbreak of this new influenza virus began…
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NAPLAN – or the demise of pedagogical principles
As you may be aware, next week is when Australian schools are under obligation to provide standardised tests to students in classes (or years) 3, 5, 7 and 9 who have not been withdrawn from participation by their parents (or by their school in very special circumstances in which this is permitted). For those who…
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being a car kinda bloke…
Cars…. and more cars Actually, I’m not much of a car-kind-of-bloke, but I do enjoy seeing and driving beautifully designed cars… and since the 70s, I’ve driven some pretty nice models. One that comes to mind is the Citroën SM. Of my personal favourites in terms of design are not necessarily those that have been…
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photographic delights
Every so often, I peruse Robert Mealing‘s site. And each time, there are new wonderful additions to the gallery. Here is someone who has a keen eye for balanced detail… his photography (and his thoughts – but that’s another story) well worth perusing. As an example, have a look at this incredibly sensitive and ever…
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Site updates
… I’ve only made some rather quick changes to this blog. What I’m very pleased about, however, are the updates (and moving over 70 pages) to the Newsletters of the Association for Tarot Studies (now at their own subdomain: Newsletter.TarotStudies.org, and the registration of steiner.edu.au (though I do need to do a fair amount of…
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Schapelle Corby not over yet!
When will the new government pick up the pieces left by the previous one with regards to leaving an innocent victim of a regime that has… let’s be sensitive in this description… ‘different’ values to our own and imprisons someone without a fair trial!? It’s about time that perhaps Australia looks at Israel in terms…
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Israel’s crisis
A number of years ago, I wrote a brief reflection which I titled ‘On the lie of suicide bombings: how to maximise support by presenting murder as suicide’ (this was prior to the establishment of this blog, but basically the equivalent, ‘published’ as ‘octant‘). If I can reflect a little on the worldwide current situation,…