Hello Cruel World
Tuesday, January 27, 2004
 
Some things do make you feel better. DO NOT EAT OR DRINK WHILE YOU READ THIS.
http://www.teemings.com/extras/truelife/scylla6.html
(Zany Brainy?)

www.teemings.com/extras/index.html Takes you to other nice places nearby.

The above can be found in the Humorous Posts finalists for the Koufax Awards

2003 Koufax Award Finalists Most Humorous Blog
wampum.wabanaki.net/archives/000724.html

2003 Koufax Award Finalists Most Humorous Post
wampum.wabanaki.net/archives/000723.html

List of categories & links to voting for the Koufax Awards
wampum.wabanaki.net/archives/000738.html
(slightly more information at wampum.wabanaki.net/archives/000731.html )
 
gavelkind (an unsatisfactory definition - gotta find those other links again)

Department of Economics
University of Bristol
Resources for the History of Economics
Henry Sumner Maine: Lectures on the Early History of Institutions
Ancient Divisions of the Family
Includes details of some gavelkind & other familial systems.

Connections to Some Other Interesting Sites from this site
[NOTE: Some are broken - I haven't hunted down updated links yet. If you're intrigued enough you could cast around to find either their new address or a replacement.]
www.ecn.bris.ac.uk/het/link.htm
The Avalon Project at Yale Law School (Recommended)
www.marx.org The Marx-Engels Archive
spartan.ac.brocku.ca/~lward The George Mead Archive {moved}
es.rice.edu/ES/humsoc/Galileo/index.html The Galileo Galilei Project
classics.mit.edu The Classics Text Archive
www.virginia.edu/economics The Center for the Study of Colonial Currency
www.history.rochester.edu/steam The Steam Engine Library (My Eyes! My Eyes!)
Cornell's Math Book Collection [WRONG - CHECK]
www.econ.duke.edu/Economists Warren J. Samuels Collection of Portraits at Duke
www2.unil.ch/cwp/index.html Centre d'études interdisciplinaries Walras-Pareto (Swiss University, in French)
Broken Links
www.dpipc.com/cdadesign/paine/archive.html The Tom Paine Historical Association [BAD]
www.utm.edu/research/hume/hume.html The David Hume Archive [BAD]
daniel.drew.edu/~jlenz/brs.html The Bertrand Russell Society [BAD]
www.msstate.edu/Archives/History The Historical Text Archive [BAD]
www.yorku.ca/dept/psych/classics Classics of Psychology [BAD]
www.wiso.uni-erlangen.de/WiSo/VWI/we/hall_of_.html Hall of Economists [BAD]
web.mrash.fr/labo/walras/walras.html Centres Auguste et Léon Walras [BAD]
attila.stevens-tech.edu/~rdowns Frederick W. Taylor Project
Auguste Comte and Positivism [BAD]
 
Some people are throwing doubt on the accepted story of the development of Penicillin - apparently the aliens did it (again)! Why is there so much doubt of what humans are capable of? [The history of penicillin] is a complex tale of accident, serendipity, oversight, conflict, the pressure of war, idiosyncratic personalities ...
So you don't believe the Universities of Sheffield ( www.shef.ac.uk/mbb/mbb-own/mbbhist0.html ) & Oxford, Howard Florey ( www.tallpoppies.net.au/florey/researcher/theperson/main-content.html ) and Ernst Chain?

These are two good sites - the BBC one gives lots of different aspects & details, the other talks about the different legends that build up about important events & people.
www.search-10.net/phpst.php?st=who%20discovered%20penicillin and
www.mja.com.au/public/issues/176_04_180202/gol10735_fm.pdf

And these are some fairly detailed descriptions of the work "from the horse's mouth":
www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1945/florey-lecture.pdf
www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1945/chain-lecture.pdf (chemical-tech)
www.nobel.se/medicine/laureates/1945/fleming-lecture.pdf(details of early work & warning of resistance)

www.findarticles.com/cf_dls/m1373/3_53/98754825/p1/article.jhtml (The German quest for penicillin.)
Monday, January 26, 2004
 
www.bpib.com/imagesmagfolder/imagesmag/

www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1130341,00.html
German trial hears how Iranian agent warned US of impending al-Qaida attack
Ben Aris in Berlin
Saturday January 24, 2004
The Guardian


www.physik.uni-halle.de/~e2od5/harz/brocken/
Photos of the snow & ice-covered forest on The Brocken in the Harz Mountains.

www.neilgaiman.com/journal/journal.asp
Neil Gaiman's Journal January 26th, 2004 (Australia Day)
... but I feel like my head is filled with cold porridge, except for my sinuses, which have carefully and delicately been packed with molten lead, ...

www.bbc.co.uk/london/panoramics/albert_bridge.shtml
BBC Homepage
England
London
» Panoramics

There are over 80 panoramic views of London now online!
Choose an area from our list below
Bridges along the Thames
Chelsea & Battersea
City of London
Docklands & SE London
East London
N London & Marylebone
West London
Westminster
Full list

www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/Launchpad/4375/downintro.htm

Welcome to the Unofficial Down Street Station Virtual Tour
The photos on this tour were taken on Wednesday 17th February 1999 on a tour organised by the London Transport Museum. I understand that an official virtual tour is being planned but in the meantime unless you are one of the VERY LUCKY individuals that can get a place on the real tour this is the best you can do.

I found the details of the tour by visiting the London Transport Museum web site at www.ltmuseum.co.uk

Pages created and photographs taken by Jonathan Hall ©1999
This site is member of the London Transport Web Ring

www.alternativearts.co.uk/mayfayre.htm
THIS YEAR: Sunday May 9th 2004
On Sunday 11 May 2003 the 28th Annual Covent Garden May Fayre and Puppet Festival will be held in the gardens of St Paul's Church, Bedford Street, London,WC2 - the actors' church - near the spot where Samuel Pepys first saw Mr Punch in England in May 1662.
Sunday, January 25, 2004
 
Lotsa news about Mars. Ambivalent myself.
Recommend Kim Stanley Robinson's trilogy Red Mars, Green Mars, Blue Mars. Apart from wonderful - fact-based - descriptions of the place, the story brings out a lot of the possible problems humans could bring to another "New World".
A very good 'hard' science fiction writer who does excellent character & story as well. There is just so much in these books, that I don't think I've got to all of it yet. I wonder how many of those 'classic' allusions I'm putting in myself?
 
www.world66.com/myworld66
My World66 is the page where you can store your own travel preferences and experiences.

For now, we offer you a little fun tool that allows you to select the countries you've visited and produce a map of the world with those countries in red. You can even put the map on your website or blog by simply pasting the code in the box.



or write about it on the open travel guide

Ah well. Except for the one trip with Chris to Europe (stopping off in Bangkok on the way), all my trips have been in Australia. Chris had also been to New Zealand (Aotoeroa (sp?)). Wonder what friend Mark or Alex's would look like?

anglicansonline.org/special/50.html

The Bible in 50 Words
God made, Adam bit, Noah
arked, Abraham split, Joseph
ruled, Jacob fooled, bush talked,
Moses balked, Pharaoh plagued,
people walked, sea divided,
tablets guided, promise landed,
Saul freaked, David peeked,
prophets warned, Jesus born,
God walked, love talked, anger
crucified, hope died, Love rose,
Spirit flamed, Word spread, God
remained.

(Oh well, I guess they couldn't fit one of the Marys or Ruth in only 50 words.)

http://clients.mapquest.com/ljsilvers/mqlocator
If "oceans are found on Mars" US stores of this chain will give 1 free Giant Shrimp to customers. You might want to look up a branch ... just in case
Wednesday, January 21, 2004
 
Cartoon: Look! Shiny!
smh.com.au/ftimages/2004/01/19/1074360692258.html
The Editorial Cartoon of the Sydney Morning Herald for January 20th, 2004. It just exactly reflects what I said some months back. They behave like a child dumping his 5-minute-old toy to grab a new one.

Alan Moir cartoon in Sydney Morning Herald, 20th January, 2004
Tuesday, January 20, 2004
 
www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/01/09/1073437468260.html
Taken by a crocodile
As told to Michelle Hamer January 12, 2004
Philosopher Val Plumwood survived a crocodile attack while paddling in a canoe in Kakadu nine years ago ...
... The experience also changed my overall theoretical outlook and had a big impact on the direction of my work. It forced me to rethink a lot of things - life, death, being human, and being food. Before the crocodile, I wrote about the value of nature, but after the crocodile, I started writing about how we see ourselves as outside nature, about the power of nature and our illusions that we can control it, that we're not embodied beings and are apart from other animals.
During the encounter I had a sense that it was all a dream, that it wasn't really happening. But I now think it's ordinary life and consciousness that is the dream. We don't understand ourselves as ecological beings that are part of the food chain - we're still fighting that knowledge ...

www.brushstroke.tv/week04_1.html
[More links between Howard & Bush - my link there, not his]
... This president exploits the basest instincts of his basest supporters and by doing so, is playing with fire ...
2004_01_01_rittenhouse_archive.html#107455920451425134
Monday, January 19, 2004
WORKING IN AMERICA TODAY
Or Not Working in America
[The examples in this article & the one it links to ( www.nytimes.com/2004/01/18/magazine/18POOR.html New York Times Magazine essay, “A Poor Cousin of the Middle Class,” by David K. Shipler ) are the sort of thing that makes me spit in disgust when I hear someone justify some obscene overindulgence or ripping of resources out of useful things to pour more wealth into the receptacles of the proto-Herr Vireks of the day by saying "I've worked hard for what I have".]
Monday, January 19, 2004
 
Michel Cluizel's Chocolat Noir Infini has been recommended: "Michel Cluizel Noir Infini is a 99% cocoa content dark chocolate. To call it dark though is an understatement - this stuff is as powerful as it gets, and strictly for the True Believer. It is normally purchased in individually wrapped, and often individually sold, small squares. If you see it, buy it immediately, as it is difficult to obtain.". Sounds interesting.
During shopping before Christmas I spotted a tea-flavoured chocolate, which sounded intriguing. Might go back & try it sometime soon.
 
books.guardian.co.uk/reviews/generalfiction/0,6121,1120179,00.html
The Fortress of Solitude
by Jonathan Lethem

Review by Adam Mars-Jones
Sunday January 11, 2004
The Observer

There's an assumption in much contemporary American writing that detail is a virtue in itself. Not so. Each detail has a definite weight, and unless it also has some spin on it, it is likely to be laid down as fatty tissue in the prose. Jonathan Lethem's detail is largely lifeless. It clogs the narrow arteries of his narrative.

www.philosopherswool.com/Pages/DebbieNewCards.htm
We are very pleased to present to you the award winning work of Debbie New.

Debbie grew up in Australia where she first began to knit. After University, marriage and motherhood, she and her family moved from country to country and finally settled in Canada. She holds degrees in Microbiology and Education, has worked as a musician and inventor as well as in the field of biomedical engineering, and is a mother of 8!

For the last nine years she has knitted seriously (and in jest) and shows her work and teaches around the world. She enjoys the non-traditional possibilities of knitting and has masterminded innovative freeform techniques, such as 'virtual knitting' and 'swirl knitting', to achieve striking effects in her work. She has won many awards for her 'knittings' and has been named Waterloo Region's Visual Artist of the Year - a surprising recognition for a knitter.
Be sure to look for Debbie New's brand new book 'Unexpected Knitting'.

www.giss.nasa.gov/tools/mars24/Mars24J.zip
Mars24 - Time on Mars - Download

The Mars24 package contains:
    Double-clickable Mars24 application.
    Equirectangular map file "marsmap.jpg".
    Martian landmarks file "marslandmarks.xml".
    Sample settings files with filename extension ".m24".
    A README file.
    A subdirectory called "help" which includes user documentation.

Saturday, January 10, 2004
 
Making Light: comment on "Why we hate America"

nielsenhayden.com/makinglight/archives/004261.html#004261

Why we hate America
We don’t, of course, but dweeblings from the far right keep saying we do. It’s a bizarre but persistent habit of theirs ...

contribution to Comments on this entry
"To announce that there must be no criticism of the president, or that we are to stand by the president right or wrong, is not only unpatriotic and servile, but is morally treasonable to the American public." -- Theodore Roosevelt

"My country right or wrong" is like saying, "My mother drunk or sober". -- G.K. Chesterton

"To be a patriot, one had to say, and keep on saying, 'Our Country, right or wrong,' ... Have you not perceived that that phrase is an insult to the nation?" -- Mark Twain
(Remarking on his opposition to the Philippine-American War, which " The War Prayer" is one lasting reminder of -- see earlier posts March 25, 2003 and October 10, 2002 )

In Far Horizons of July 1999 ("Babylon 5 -- Creating the Future" at www.rastus.force9.co.uk/B5Floyd.html ) Robin Floyd has a few pertinent things to say about some of the themes & messages in B5 (made 1993-1998 & with an episode called "The War Prayer" and a Ministry of Truth, among other references) such as choice & community. One is turning about the saying "Power can't be given, it must be taken" in a character's speech "Nobody takes power. They're given power by the rest of us".

Another piece which shows some themes have been with us for quite a while is Orwell's "Second Thoughts on James Burnham", 1946 (from Shooting an Elephant) also printed as a pamphlet "James Burnham and the Managerial Revolution"? It is about the ideas of an American who published, during WWII, The Managerial Revolution, The Machiavellians: Defenders of Freedom & an essay, "Lenin’s Heir" who, Orwell says, wrote along the lines
Capitalism is disappearing, but Socialism is not replacing it. What is now arising is a new kind of planned, centralised society which will be neither capitalist nor, in any accepted sense of the word, democratic. The rulers of this new society will be the people who effectively control the means of production: that is, business executives, technicians, bureaucrats and soldiers, lumped together by Burnham, under the name of “managers”.


www.counterpunch.org/tripp06142003.htm ("They Just Don't Want to Know: Of Dissidents and Dissonance" by Ben Tripp - Counterpunch June 14, 2003)
... the Founding Fathers (now Foundling Fathers, sorry guys) ... established a series of checks and balances to ensure that human weakness didn't get in the way of human affairs. We've done away with said checks and balances, mostly, and so the brilliant system of setting three separate branches of narrow self-interested shysters against each other, thus to ensure the common good will be served in the resulting scrum, has broken down.

How does this cause cognitive dissonance? Because people don't want to believe it, at any cost. They are desperate to believe it's all going to work out fine...

Thursday, January 08, 2004
 
Was FDR anti-American?
This is the sort of thing that one can point to if someone hearing you criticise some bits of what 'America' does (ie what certain people & bodies based within that country do), accuses you of being 'anti-American'. It addresses, from the heart of US power, some very current-sounding concerns despite being nearly 70 years old.

www.geocities.com/americanpresidencynet/nomafdr36.htm is one place that gives the whole text. These are just some pertinent extracts. The phrase about 'rendezvous with destiny' is often seen as prefiguring US involvement in WWII, but you can see here it's a different struggle he's mainly addressing.
Also note that the only mention of "God" is in a description of tyranny of the "eighteenth-century royalists" who "governed without the consent of the governed; ... denied the right of free assembly and free speech; ... restricted the worship of God; ... put the average man's property and the average man's life in pawn to the mercenaries of dynastic power; [and] regimented the people.". Although he lists the biblical faith, hope and charity as "stout supports of a nation fighting the fight for freedom", it is "Faith in the soundness of democracy in the midst of dictatorships".

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt
Before the Democratic Convention accepting nomination for President
Philadelphia - June 27, 1936

... it was to win freedom from the tyranny of political autocracy that the American Revolution was fought ...
... Since that struggle, however, man's inventive genius released new forces in our land which reordered the lives of our people. The age of machinery, of railroads; of steam and electricity; the telegraph and the radio; mass production, mass distribution - all of these combined to bring forward a new civilization and with it a new problem for those who sought to remain free.

For out of this modern civilization economic royalists carved new dynasties. New kingdoms were built upon concentration of control over material things. Through new uses of corporations, banks and securities, new machinery of industry and agriculture, of labor and capital - all undreamed of by the Fathers - the whole structure of modern life was impressed into this royal service.

There was no place among this royalty for our many thousands of small-businessmen and merchants who sought to make a worthy use of the American system of initiative and profit. They were no more free than the worker or the farmer ...

It was natural and perhaps human that the privileged princes of these new economic dynasties, thirsting for power, reached out for control over government itself. They created a new despotism and wrapped it in the robes of legal sanction. In its service new mercenaries sought to regiment the people, their labor, and their property. And as a result the average man once more confronts the problem that faced the Minute Man.

The hours men and women worked, the wages they received, the conditions of their labor - these had passed beyond the control of the people, and were imposed by this new industrial dictatorship. The savings of the average family, the capital of the small-businessmen, the investments set aside for old age - other people's money - these were tools which the new economic royalty used to dig itself in.

Those who tilled the soil no longer reaped the rewards which were their right. The small measure of their gains was decreed by men in distant cities.

Throughout the nation, opportunity was limited by monopoly. Individual initiative was crushed in the cogs of a great machine. The field open for free business was more and more restricted. Private enterprise, indeed, became too private. It became privileged enterprise, not free enterprise.

An old English judge once said: "Necessitous men are not free men." Liberty requires opportunity to make a living - a living decent according to the standard of the time, a living which gives man not only enough to live by, but something to live for.

For too many of us the political equality we once had won was meaningless in the face of economic inequality. A small group had concentrated into their own hands an almost complete control over other people's property, other people's money, other people's labor - other people's lives ...

Against economic tyranny such as this, the American citizen could appeal only to the organized power of government ...

... The royalists of the economic order have conceded that political freedom was the business of the government, but they have maintained that economic slavery was nobody's business. They granted that the government could protect the citizen in his right to vote, but they denied that the government could do anything to protect the citizen in his right to work and his right to live.

Today we stand committed to the proposition that freedom is no half-and-half affair. If the average citizen is guaranteed equal opportunity in the polling place, he must have equal opportunity in the market place.

These economic royalists complain that we seek to overthrow the institutions of America. What they really complain of is that we seek to take away their power. Our allegiance to American institutions requires the overthrow of this kind of power. In vain they seek to hide behind the flag and the Constitution. In their blindness they forget what the flag and the Constitution stand for. Now, as always, they stand for democracy, not tyranny; for freedom, not subjection; and against a dictatorship by mob rule and the over-privileged alike ...

... We do not see faith, hope, and charity as unattainable ideals, but we use them as stout supports of a nation fighting the fight for freedom in a modern civilization.
Faith - in the soundness of democracy in the midst of dictatorships.
Hope - renewed because we know so well the progress we have made.
Charity - in the true spirit of that grand old word. For charity literally translated from the original means love, the love that understands, that does not merely share the wealth of the giver, but in true sympathy and wisdom helps men to help themselves ...

... There is a mysterious cycle in human events. To some generations much is given. Of other generations much is expected. This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny ...

... In this world of ours in other lands, there are some people, who, in times past, have lived and fought for freedom, and seem to have grown too weary to carry on the fight. They have sold their heritage of freedom for the illusion of a living. They have yielded their democracy.

I believe in my heart that only our success can stir their ancient hope. They begin to know that here in America we are waging a great and successful war. It is not alone a war against want and destitution and economic demoralization. It is more than that; it is a war for the survival of democracy. We are fighting to save a great and precious form of government for ourselves and for the world.


Wednesday, January 07, 2004
 
www.kurzweilcyberart.com/
Raymond Kurzweil ( http://www.kurzweiltech.com/aboutray.html ), a name synonymous with the potential of machine intelligence, brings you the latest in CyberArt advancements with AARON, the Cybernetic Artist.
AARON is not your ordinary screensaver. Developed by Harold Cohen ( http://www.kurzweilcyberart.com/aaron/hi_cohenbio.html ) over a period of nearly thirty years, and productized [!!!] by Kurzweil CyberArt Technologies, Inc., AARON is the first fine art screensaver to utilize artificial intelligence to continuously create original paintings on your PC.
With his continued commitment to human assistive technology, Raymond Kurzweil is proud to introduce this breakthrough screensaver. AARON is offered as shareware! Download a free trial copy of AARON ( www.kurzweilcyberart.com/KCATaaron/DOWNLOADbasic ) and try it for yourself. If you decide to keep the AARON software, we ask you to register it. However, the product will not time out, and the payment requirement is based on trust.
AARON is offered as Shareware. You can download the product at no charge. After using the fully functional product for 3 days, if you wish to continue to use AARON, we ask you to purchase a registration key for $19.95. However, the product will not time out, and the payment requirement is based on trust. Included in the product is a Register function that enables you to make the payment.
To start enjoying AARON right now, just complete the form below (required items are marked with an asterisk) and click "Download."
www.kurzweilcyberart.com/poetry/rkcp_overview.php3

Ray Kurzweil's Cybernetic Poet
A screen saver that writes poetry, a Poet's Assistant that helps you write poetry (and song lyrics!), and 50 professionally - designed "poet personalities."
Upgrade to get the Poet Analyzer, the Poet Creator, and 50 additional poet personalities.
Find out how the RKCP can help you find rhymes, alliterations, ideas for the next word of your poem (or song), ideas for turns of phrase, and more.
The first version of Ray Kurzweil's Cybernetic Poet was written by Ray Kurzweil in the mid-1980s
NOTE: The free version of the software requires a PC running Windows95 or Windows98. WindowsNT and Macintosh are not supported at this time. The software has not been tested on Windows2000.

A Sampler of Poems by Ray Kurzweil’s Cybernetic Poet
www.kurzweilcyberart.com/poetry/rkcp_poetry_samples.php3
(The download page for the 'poet': www.kurzweilcyberart.com/poetry/rkcp_freedownload_request.php3 )

Portrait of an Artist as a Programmer
Review by Al Stevens
Copyright (C) Dr. Dobb's Journal, January, 1993
www.ddj.com/articles/1993/9301/
(needs registration to get to free parts or subscription to get to other parts)
Extracts from a review by a programmer of a book about this program, its author & its products: - at www.eha.boj.org/repositorio/sz/msg00023.html
"Aaron is not a typical image generator of what has come to be known as "computer art." Aaron does not generate geometric forms, certainly interesting, but infinitely repeatable. Aaron does not produce fractals, beautiful and random, but not representative of the items that comprise the world. Aaron is not a tool for painters, designers, draftsmen, or animators to be used as a medium to express the creative ideas of the human user. Instead, Aaron is a computer program with a software interface to a hardware drawing device that creates original pictures, each picture different from the others" ...
"The programming reader will find much with which to relate in Aaron's Code. We will ask questions, too, about issues that McCorduck does not address--or, at least, not adequately for us. Cohen wrote the first version of Aaron in Fortran on the CDC 3200. It is amusing to read of his discovery that batch debugging by passing card decks through the window to an unseen computer was less than productive. He solved the problem by getting hands-on access to a Data General Nova. Subsequent machines included the PDP-11 and VAX, with the current implementation a Micro-VAX. Sometime during those ports he switched from Fortran to the C language, which McCorduck calls a "trifle obsolescent." Today, all new development is proceeding in LISP on a donated LISP machine, reflecting the program's roots in artificial intelligence. All these ports suggest a revealing but unrevealed study in portability" ...
"It is not clear how extensively Cohen studied programming as a discipline beyond what he needed to learn to develop Aaron. He seems to have independently discovered certain established tenets of artificial intelligence, learning later that disciplines already exist that have covered those bases comprehensively" ...
"The first device was a mechanical turtle that wheeled around the floor on a mural-sized sheet of paper, raising and lowering a pen. The book suggests that Cohen built the turtle himself. He abandoned it for what appears to be a flat-bed plotter because the turtle, being cute, drew attention during exhibitions from the artwork it was drawing. Some pictures are said to be produced on a laser printer. The book says that the plotter, which it does not identify as such, is a "homebrew" device, suggesting that Cohen built it specifically for Aaron," ...
"[the] program that has the potential to be in many places simultaneously generating unique works of art. Does its ability to mass produce lessen the value of its creations? What is the test of quality? Aaron cannot critique or reject its own output. The program has no archival storage of past works. Its performance does not change due to experience, criticism, or acceptance. It does not repeat qualities that sell well and reject those that do not ... What are the consequences of works of art that the artist -- Aaron -- creates after the meta-artist -- Cohen -- dies? Who owns the creative rights to the work? If a pirated copy of Aaron creates a picture, is the picture a part of the pirate's contraband?"

"Aaron's Code: Meta-Art, Artificial Intelligence, and the Work of Harold Cohen Pamela McCorduck W. H. Freeman and Company, 1991 225 pages, $25.95 ISBN 0-7167-2173-2 "

Labels:


Tuesday, January 06, 2004
 
Hordes of Hoarders
Just a quick comment on the remark below about the story of the fellow in the New York apartment who was avalanched upon by the contents of his magazine collection or "hoard" (see Thu Jan 01, 01:50:04 PM ). In one of the stories it was described as a 10 foot by 10 foot apartment he paid $250 per month for. I must compare that to current Sydney rents. Does sound a touch expensive, since it didn't sound like a very flash place. Like, was this entire place a single 10-foot-square room? With toilet & bathroom facilities down the hall? Or was that size just the 'bed-sitting room', and he had his own amenities which didn't count in the description?

These are just a grabbed handful of the links from a search engine.
www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-junk31.html

There is a wonderful difference in tone between these next two reports of the incident. Interesting that, except for the ones which are pretty much just a copy of one of the others (e.g. from a wire service/news agency/whatever they're called these days), that different little bits of facts (?) come out in different stories.
www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/14782.htm
BOOK WORM SQUISHED
By MARK BULLIET and TATIANA DELIGIANNAKIS

www.iht.com/articles/123315.html
Recluse buried by paper avalanche
Robert D. McFadden NYT
Neighbors save New Yorker who never threw anything out

www.orlandosentinel.com/features/lifestyle/ orl-livhoard04010404jan04,0,5635066.story?coll=orl-living-headlines
Chairmen of the hoards
The case of a Bronx man trapped for two days under a huge pile of magazines and catalogs is the latest example of a most curious behavior.
By Nina Bernstein | New York Times
Posted January 4, 2004

"I had to squeeze inside my apartment," Patrice Moore, 43, said of his 10-by-10-foot room, which rents for $250 a month.

Let me just drop the name Sir Thomas Phillipps — yes, that's the spelling — here. Many of the New York and US comments mentioned the Collyer (Collier?) brothers, a famous hoarding story from the area.

Paul,
... your collective refrigerator door, your collective bathroom mirror ...
When the fridge died at midsummer just before Christmas, I did contemplate getting one of the groovy new ones they were advertising that had a mirror-finish door, since we don't have anywhere else to put a large mirror ...

... but I didn't think it worth the extra $1000, and it was too big for the space anyway. But it would have been both together. And if it was one of those internet-connected models (another $3000) that's the whole catastrophe!
Friday, January 02, 2004
 
www.perkins-observatory.org/2000.columns/1-30-2000
The Star of Stars
People often ask me why I love the stars so much, and I must confess the answer does not come easily. There is of course the pleasure of science, the technical knowledge of knowing how the sky works, where to look, and when to do it. However, the main joy of stargazing for me has always been aesthetic. The starry sky is beautiful beyond measure if you have eyes to see and a mind bent
on appreciating the splendor of the night.

No single star illustrates the simple but profound pleasure of astronomy than Sirius, the "Searing One,"...

groups.msn.com/MyBibleFacts
"A site to visit if
You love Bible Statistics
You enjoy Bible Lists or Bible Facts
You crave Bible Trivia
You relish Bible Oddities"
Thursday, January 01, 2004
 
Happy New Year
The template, much as I like it, is still causing these strange faults where the entries get turned into completely garbled codespeak of some kind (something to do with Unicode mixups ???).
I saw a nice one recently with a good layout (similar to the existing one) which (that?) I might be able to copy & convert to my preferred fonts, colours, etc. If I can just spot it again ...

Meanwhile I spotted a story about someone in a rather messy place who got in trouble. References in it also led me to a classic story about a pair of hoarder brothers - the Collyers - and their fate. When I have a bit more leisure time that I shouldn't be using cleaning up my place, I might put in the links here.
This is a quick one, with a good summary: www.roundabouttheatre.org/fc/winter02/dazzle1.htm

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 / . Lives in Australia/New South Wales/Sydney, speaks English. Eye color is hazel. I am what my mother calls unique. My interests are photography, reading, natural history/land use, town planning, sustainability.

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