Hello Cruel World

Monday, December 29, 2003

Maybe it's just the places I'm looking at, but there's been a real downturn in Matrix comment since the final movie in the trilogy come out. Are people feeling let down?
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/29/2003 01:26:00 pm

Sunday, December 28, 2003

Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King is now in Australia
*** MAJOR MOVIE SPOILERS ***
Return of the King Scene-by-Scene
cafe.cic.hull.ac.uk/~icb03rt/rotk.html

www.livejournal.com/users/karadin/63529.html

Something of a topical repeat of some previous posts -- see January 11, 2003 and June 17, 2003

Especially this: home.clara.net/andywrobertson/wolfemountains.html
Gene Wolfe's essay on what The Lord Of The Rings means to him.

The Best Introduction to the Mountains
by Gene Wolfe
...
With that preparation I entered the Mills of Mordor, where courtesy is weakness, honesty is foolishness, and cruelty is entertainment
...
It is said with some truth that there is no progress without loss; and it is always said, by those who wish to destroy good things, that progress requires it. No great insight or experience of the world is necessary to see that such people really care nothing for progress. They wish to destroy for their profit, and they, being clever, try to persuade us that 'progress' and 'change' are synonymous ...

I do not agree with all his attitudes (browse through this blog to get a feel for mine if you are interested), but do sympathise with quite a few, rather like my attitude to Tolkien, parts of which, even in my early teens thirty years back, quite set my teeth on edge.
Perhaps it's because of the slightly fraught relationship between Great Britain/Europe and Australia (there are hints of a similar affect between the USA & the 'Old World', but it is distinctly different too).
Perhaps it's because I was (still am) female.

Nearby may be found: DSL Notes on Content and home.clara.net/andywrobertson/docindex.html
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/28/2003 09:43:00 pm

Tuesday, December 23, 2003

Chunks of Lovingly Crafted Goodness
nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004250.html
Posted by: Faren Miller on December 14, 2003 10:48 AM
... And soon, I'll take more time out to gleefully peruse my birthday present (given early so I could appreciate it on the weekend instead of Monday when my time will be much more limited), the Kino Video 5-DVD set of the birth of cinema, "The Movies Begin." 133 complete motion pictures. As I told Cathy, even if I only enjoy 128 of them, it's still perfectly swell ...

terryblogh.blogspot.com
Sunday, November 09, 2003
Meditations While Making Analog Digital
The Project is going ahead apace. Converting my old videos to VCD (and eventually DVD) requires a shitload of ones and zeroes, but I'm rediscovering some interesting stuff on the video shelves. You see I stack them vertically and two deep on the current white Ikea bookshelves and with around 1400 movies there, it's dead easy to forget what is in the back row of each shelf.
I'm trying to prioritise the digitisation on the basis of entropy. The movies most likely to be going to shit get first go. (And also, Sally's videotapes of The Goodies which include episodes that weren't on the recent DVD release... a promise is a promise.) All this requires a bit of rummaging around the shelves and the occasional discovery of videos I had forgotten I had. Stuff like these:
Sixty minutes of five minute episodes of the old Trans-Lux cartoon series The Mighty Hercules.
Dave Friedman's The Erotic Adventures of Zorro and
The Long Swift Sword of Siegfried.
Richard Franklin's Road Games,
a copy of Goodbye Paradise signed by Ray Barrett (I'm still not sure if that is Pauline Hanson playing an extra in that nightclub scene),
a triple pack of Chips Rafferty movies -- Bitter Springs, Eureka Stockade and The Overlanders
and a whole bunch of lesser 1970s blaxploitationmovies.
So while the digitisation is a lot of pains-taking hard work, there are rewards. Maybe one day I'll even find the time to sit down and rewatch some of these flicks.

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/ archive/2003/12/15/DDG923MBEI1.DTL
Call them what you will -- obsessive compulsive eccentrics, materialist philosophers or pack-rat artists -- collectors' 'unruly passions' make sense of our world
Monday, December 15, 2003
Steven Winn, Chronicle Arts and Culture Critic
... For some, the collecting impulse morphs into self-destructive hoarding -- newspapers are a common target. Elias Aboujaoude, a psychiatrist at the Stanford School of Medicine, says hoarding occurs in 5 to 15 percent of patients diagnosed as obsessive compulsive. "I don't want to pathologize collecting," says Aboujaoude. "Almost everyone is
attached to a certain kind of item."
With hoarders, he says, insight-based therapies are largely ineffective. "My experience is that folks who can identify the root causes, some missing relationship in their lives, have not been able to control the behavior."
Collecting, hoarding's socially sanctioned cousin, may finally resist scrutiny and causal dissection as well ...

www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/ archive/2003/12/13/DDGHU3LI8B1.DTL
Writer and raconteur John Baxter collects books as a form of self-expression and as a way to savor -- and live -- the good life
Saturday, December 13, 2003
James Sullivan, Chronicle Pop Culture Critic
For this film biographer, longtime BBC commentator and incurable book hound, books are much more than mere vessels of information. They are treasurable objects utterly essential to the good life, worthy of scouting trips to the four corners of the globe and the joyful surrender of vast sums of money ... and the beloved science fiction of his youth in the Australian bush.
The first of Baxter's proposed four volumes of memoir on his lifelong mania, "A Pound of Paper: Confessions of a Book Addict" (St. Martin's Press, $24.95), has just been published in America following widespread acclaim in England and Europe.
Now living in Paris,...

ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~melindag/psdmain.html
homepage for the University of Pennsylvania Sumerian Dictionary Project

www.eee.bham.ac.uk/cuneiform/
The Cuneiform Database Project (Some is under construction)

early-cuneiform.humnet.ucla.edu/
Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (A joint project of the University of California at Los Angeles and the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, Berlin)
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/23/2003 08:29:00 pm

Tuesday, December 16, 2003

Not sure how accurate this is. Perhaps Frighteningly so
Not sure how accurate this is. Perhaps Frighteningly so
DNA

You are DNA. You're a smart person, and you appear
incredibly complex to people who don't know
you. You're incomparably full of information,
and most of it is useless.

Which Biological Molecule Are You?
brought to you by Quizilla

[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/16/2003 07:30:00 pm

Friday, December 12, 2003

hospital flaws
[Sally: There were 6 entries about the Aust Democrats - not 1, but still not many.]

I agree with Peter previously that the idea of just looking at the people who failed under immense pressure doesn't necessarily help finding how to ease the pressure.
But it's not just the State Health Department, it's the ideologues in Federal & State government (& the 'commentariat' as they sometimes call other members of the commentariat that they disagree with) who try to lower the standard in public health, education, transport, home building (recall the recent inspection scandal), etc, etc, in their push away from the system that people have been trying to build up ever since humans decided that "the war of all against all" was not conducive to what we hopefully call civilization.

Australia was, from say 1860-1970, a lesson that "Social Darwinism" did not create a good, humane, happy community; that "The Stain" could be erased (criminality was not necessarily in the blood) as ex-convicts & their children created decent lives; and that the people who worked to create the wealth for others could have a reasonable life while still supporting the old, young or sick, and without having to massacre the others who also live off that wealth.
Australasia was a happy contradiction to both types of totalitarians (Right & Left), as well as Laissez Faire (sp?) traders.
Now it appears that fanatics of economic 'reform' are able to destroy all this while blaming those that are struggling under their conditions
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/12/2003 01:59:00 pm

Thursday, December 11, 2003

Bartlett Beat-Up / Partial Competition Policy
Part 1
What an extraordinarily overwhelming fuss being made about such a completely minor thing.

From all I've heard or read: Late at night (~10:30pm) on the last day of Parliament, probably after drinking at end-of-year parties, a couple of adults of similar size, tho' from different political parties, had a petty argument. It was apparently loud on both sides & swearwords were used (not sure if mutually). It did not last a long time. No blows were exchanged, although apparently B shook F by the arm.

Will the one who has never, ever, shouted at someone, or had a robust disagreement over their whole adult life please step forward, stone in hand.

The Aust Democrats have much bigger problems. Perhaps that is why all the vultures have descended into this amazing storm in a polystyrene party cup.

Part 2
This 'competition policy' - all anyone has mentioned is to do with sale of alcohol. Was anything else covered in it?

I am concerned because a lot of people have been talking about the US/Oz Free Trade Agreement discussions on a few subjects, such as pharmaceuticals, film (&c), and primary products.
If you look at the ideology in it, it also tries to discourage things like government support of public transport and public schools - any kind of mutual social support pretty much. Does the 'competition policy' work towards things like that too?

Bartlett references online
(Note that they all mention alcohol, but I think depression was another major part in the incident)
www.theaustralian.news.com.au/common/ story_page/0,5744,8147645%255E2702,00.html
One drink and Bartlett for the road
By Matt Price, Adrian McGregor and Terry Plane
December 13, 2003

dailytelegraph.news.com.au/ story.jsp?sectionid=1338&storyid=637093
dailytelegraph.news.com.au/ printerfriendly.jsp?sectionid=1338&storyid=637093
Bartlett affair a storm in a glass
December 15, 2003
FEW things could be sadder than Kevin Rudd's sobbing depiction of the loneliness of the committed politician.
Labor's foreign-affairs spokesman last week painted Parliament House as a place of cruelty and sterility.
"You could die in your office in Parliament House and not be found until a month later," he said ...

www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/ story_page/0,5478,8119024%255E662,00.html
Bartlett: I will not step down
Gerard McManus
10dec03

www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/10/1070732283648.html
Redemption for Bartlett would offer many hope
December 11, 2003
People with alcoholic problems deserve proper treatment - not daggers, writes Miranda Devine.

www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/12/07/1070732065437.html
Bartlett sorry over clash that brought disrepute to party
December 7, 2003 - 6:11PM
Australian Democrats leader Andrew Bartlett today admitted he had brought his party into disrepute by abusing and manhandling a Liberal senator in Parliament.
Senator Bartlett today appeared in public in Brisbane to again offer an unconditional apology to Liberal Senator Jeannie Ferris, with whom he had a physical and verbal altercation in the Senate last week

www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/12/06/1070625578795.html
Bartlett to take leave over fracas
December 6, 2003 - 8:05PM
Australian Democrats Leader Andrew Bartlett has stood aside as a result of his altercation with Liberal Senator Jeannie Ferris this week.
The incident left Senator Ferris nursing an injured upper arm ...
Senator Ferris had written to Senate President Paul Calvert to complain about the incident, which occurred on the floor of the Senate chamber after a division.
"Senator Bartlett was angry with me because I had gone around to attempt to retrieve five bottles of wine which he had taken back to his office from the coalition Christmas barbecue," Senator Ferris said.
"As he was crossing over from a voting position, he grabbed me and started to scream at me.
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/11/2003 05:15:00 pm

Monday, December 08, 2003

Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectable, and to give an appearance of solidity to pure wind
evatt.labor.net.au/publications/papers/56.html
The times dictate republishing this classic essay.
Politics & the English Language
By George Orwell

A good source of Orwell's works (& others')
whitewolf.newcastle.edu.au/words/authors/O/OrwellGeorge/
Another source of Orwell's works
www.online-literature.com/orwell/
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/08/2003 08:12:00 pm

2003_08_01_matrixessays_archive.html#106005844476821328
Mention of Hello Cruel World in Matrix Essays
2003_06_01_matrixessays_archive.html#200419939
The still-visible part of my small contribution to Matrix Essays
I'm very disappointed that the comment threads on that site seem to have all disappeared. There was a lot of interesting development & speculation there. I may have some saved to my hard disc to read. If so I may work out how to post them here.
Interesting that it looks like one of my hopes seems to be working out -- see also list of three possible choices at the conclusion of Matrix: Revolutions
[Revolution can also mean "turning around", i.e. at the end of one revolution you have turned full circle back to where you began.]
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/08/2003 07:48:00 pm

People's lists of Ten Worst Movies
www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/002692.html#002692
(lotsa links to other places)

www.offthekuff.com/mt/archives/002686.html#002686
(list plus comments)

www.crookedtimber.org/archives/000926.html
('nother list)

www.sneakingsuspicions.com/a1130120603.htm#120503
(yup)

hackthematrix.blogspot.com/
Kinda funny idea on possible future development of Matrix franchise

[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/08/2003 07:46:00 pm

Tuesday, December 02, 2003

www.sundaymirror.co.uk/news/ content_objectid=13652625_method=full_siteid=106694_ headline=-GROUND-FARCE-1-name_page.html
OR
www.sundaymirror.co.uk/ printable_version.cfm?objectid=13652625&siteid=106694

GROUND FARCE 1
Nov 23 2003
Queen's fury as Bush goons wreck garden
Exclusive By Terry O'Hanlon
THE Queen is furious with President George W. Bush after his state visit caused thousands of pounds of damage to her gardens at Buckingham Palace.

Royal officials are now in touch with the Queen's insurers and Prime Minister Tony Blair to find out who will pick up the massive repair bill. Palace staff said they had never seen the Queen so angry ...
The rotors of the President's Marine Force One helicopter and two support Black Hawks damaged trees and shrubs that had survived since Queen Victoria's reign.
And Bush's army of clod-hopping security service men trampled more precious and exotic plants ... [then there's the flamingos (yes, flamingos)]
... "The lawns are used for royal garden parties ... But 30,000 visitors did not do as much damage as the Americans did in three days ...

[Below (Nov 24, 2003) is another extract about the UK visit by Bush II]

[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/02/2003 08:38:00 pm

Smokin'!
ask.yahoo.com/ask/20031202.html
Tuesday December 2, 2003
Dear Yahoo!:
Why don't cigarette companies list their ingredients?
Addicted
Midway, Arkansas

Dear Addicted:
According to the CDC, current regulations require tobacco companies only to disclose levels of tar and nicotine on cigarette cartons. It would take a very large carton, however, to completely list the 600 odd additives contained in a single cigarette. Some of these include butane, formaldehyde, arsenic, ammonia, methane, and acetone.

Federal laws dating from the '80s require cigarette companies to submit their ingredients to the Secretary of Health and Human Services. Bowing to increasing legal burdens, in 1994 six major cigarette manufacturers came public with a list of commonly used additives. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services stated that "although these ingredients are regarded as safe when ingested in foods, some may form carcinogens when heated or burned."

You can view the ingredients of Philip Morris tobacco products on the company's web site ( www.philipmorrisusa.com/ product_facts/ingredients/ brand_by_brand_ingredients.asp). You can view a similarly lengthy list of additives used in RJR Reynolds cigarettes ( www.rjrt.com/TI/TIcig_ingred_summary.asp). More than 40 of the additives listed have been known to cause cancer.

The Yahoo! Full Coverage page ( news.yahoo.com/ fc?tmpl=fc&cid=34&in=health&cat=smoking) dedicated to smoking issues features a number of helpful resources, including a fascinating Flash animation from NOVA on the Anatomy of a Cigarette ( www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ cigarette/anatomy.html). Most cigarette filling is comprised of "reconstituted tobacco," which is a pulp product made from tobacco plant detritus that is chemically treated, died, and cut to resemble leaf tobacco.
[NOTE: Some long URLs have had spaces inserted so they'll wrap & not cause layout problems. The links themselves should work, but if you copy the visible section, remove any spaces.]

[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/02/2003 08:24:00 pm

Following a discussion on the change in Labor Party leaders
I was very disappointed to hear someone as experienced & intelligent as Antony Greene get sucked into the twisted logic* of the current political ideology.

Yes, people 'aspire' to, for instance, have a good education for their children. But what the idea used to be was that (like Medicare) everyone is entitled to have a reasonable, good education, everyone, having benefited from all the previous generations, contributes to the education of the current crop of children. If there is some special social or religious reason you want something different, then you may pay extra for that, but the majority learn together, each according to their talents.

The present ideology puts the general public good at the very bottom, along with the world (or 'environment'). To almost quote what was said "If you want a good education, send your children to a private school." Thus we end up a divided & fractious society, Catholics there, Anglicans here, Muslims off there, etc, etc.
Suspicious & fearful, closeted off in our own mental (perhaps eventually physical) gated communities & wonderful prey to the political types who feed on that kind of energy. Remember the countries where groups who'd lived together for a century or more were torn apart by this kind of divisive policy, even in Europe

The same with medical treatment - if Kerry Packer pays his taxes he is as entitled to use the general ambulance service if, say, he has a sudden heart attack as anyone else is. He doesn't have to pay for a private one to trail around after him just in case. And we all benefit because there's a well-supported service. Again, the same applies to a good public transport system instead of continual cutbacks, with tax support for private cars & roadbuilding.

If you rip the guts out of the general public services - transport, health, education, social support for those in difficulty - grind down those who are trying to work in them, treat the passengers, patients, pupils, people, who use them without respect, as 'no count trash', naturally those who are able will probably move away. And those who can't? It's axiomatic if you treat people like garbage, they won't love you or treat you well either. Getting respect means giving respect. So you end up in a vicious circle of increasing 'public squalor', driving more away.

*TWISTED LOGIC:
ENVY: If you say a policy or set of behaviours is greedy, selfish, short-sighted & very destructive, this is called 'envy'. That's obviously wrong, since 'envy' means you want what the other person has. What you are actually doing is 'aspiring' to a _better_way_ of doing things, benefiting yourself perhaps, but society & the world most importantly.

ASPIRATION: If you want to imitate the people who are doing destructive, selfish & short-sighted things, they call you 'aspiring'. I call this 'envy'. You may 'aspire' for yourself & your family, like the Suharto family did - the well-known phrase is "bugger you Jack, I'm alright" - but without caring what the consequences are for anyone else.
[Could go on about this more, but the fridge has died and I need to clear the way for the new one. Had to take day off work, although over weekend we cleaned old fridge & threw out all the things I'd been building up for the Christmas/New Year break - Grrr]
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/02/2003 11:56:00 am

I was very disappointed to hear someone as experienced & intelligent as Antony Greene get sucked into the twisted logic* of the current political ideology.

Yes, people 'aspire' to, for instance, have a good education for their children. But what the idea used to be was that (like Medicare) _everyone_ is entitled to have a reasonable, good education, _everyone_, having benefited from all the previous generations, contributes to the education of the current crop of children. If there is some special social or religious reason you want something different, then you may pay extra for that, but the majority learn together, each according to their talents.

The present ideology puts the general public good at the very bottom, along with the world (or 'environment'). To almost quote what was said "If you want a good education, send your children to a private school." Thus we end up a divided & fractious society, Catholics there, Anglicans here, Muslims off there, etc, etc.
Suspicious & fearful, closeted off in our own mental (perhaps eventually physical) gated communities & wonderful prey to the political types who feed on that kind of energy. Remember the countries where groups who'd lived together for a century or more were torn apart by this kind of divisive policy, even in Europe

The same with medical treatment - if Kerry Packer pays his taxes he is as entitled to use the general ambulance service if, say, he has a sudden heart attack as anyone else is. He doesn't have to pay for a private one to trail around after him just in case. And we all benefit because there's a well-supported service. Again, the same applies to a good public transport system instead of continual cutbacks, with tax support for private cars & roadbuilding.

If you rip the guts out of the general public services - transport, health, education, social support for those in difficulty - grind down those who are trying to work in them, treat the passengers, patients, pupils, people, who use them without respect, as 'no count trash', naturally those who are able will probably move away. And those who can't? It's axiomatic if you treat people like garbage, they won't love you or treat you well either. Getting respect means giving respect. So you end up in a vicious circle of increasing 'public squalor', driving more away.

*TWISTED LOGIC:
ENVY: If you say a policy or set of behaviours is greedy, selfish, short-sighted & very destructive, this is called 'envy'. That's obviously wrong, since 'envy' means you want what the other person has. What you are actually doing is 'aspiring' to a _better_way_ of doing things, benefiting yourself perhaps, but society & the world most importantly.

ASPIRATION: If you want to imitate the people who are doing destructive, selfish & short-sighted things, you are called 'aspiring'. I call this 'envy'. You may 'aspire' for yourself & your family, like the Suharto family did - the well-known phrase is "bugger you Jack, I'm alright" - but without caring what the consequences are for anyone else.
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/02/2003 10:50:00 am

Monday, December 01, 2003

There's a lot of excited people next door in New Zealand tonight where the big final Lord of the Rings film is having its world premiere. Alas, the Big Island (or the Western Isle as we are - very rarely - called by some Kiwis) here (or Oz as we sometimes call it) has to wait, like the rest of us here on this 'isthmus of a middle state' until St Stephen's Day.

I hope that they did end up putting just some of the 'Scouring of The Shire' in the coda. It really is, in one sense, pretty much the major point of the rest, bringing us face to face with everyday, banal evil stripped of glamour & magic.

The kind we, sadly, often encounter in the selfish & destructive behaviour of people around us, and then have to decide whether to, say, 'blow the whistle' on fraud or cheating, like Mr Wigand or Ms Brockovich, or that lady - was it Enron or one of the other big companies? Both in the book and in real life they are often left damaged & sadder, rather than the triumphant heroes in so many stories.

Perhaps it was Tolkien's war service that showed him that so clearly. The story does not simply end as "and they all lived happily ever after".

I hope you had a good Thanksgiving (drinking "Turkey & Gravy Soda"?)
Mez
[permalink][comment] - posted by Mez @ 12/01/2003 10:16:00 am

This is my blogchalk:
Australia, New South Wales, Sydney, English, photography, reading, natural history, land use, town planning, sustainability.