The Blog - The Archive

   Catching up on some news...

Things that tickled my fancy in the last few weeks:

Confessions of a cabbie
A fun interview with a long-term taxi driver, talking about the drugs, sex and rock and roll of the taxi scene in Sydney over the years.
Finishing work at 3am had its own culture and if you went out afterwards for a drink you'd run into people from other service-type jobs - barmaids and chefs, etc. We all seemed to have a common purpose, to get smashed and into bed before sun-up. There was a certain camaraderie among that crowd.

I didn't even know we had volcanoes
Volcanic activity has been noticed at one of Australia's two active volcanos. Satellite photos show McDonald Island, around 4,000 kilometres south-west of Western Australia, is erupting for the first time since 2001. The eruption has caused the island to almost double in size.

The world's best beer is made by monks
The abbey of Saint Sixtus of Westvleteren in western Belgium is home to about 30 Cistercian and Trappist monks who lead a life of seclusion, prayer, manual labour and beer-brewing.

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   Some days I blog a lot...

Way back in High School, my drama teacher pointed out that she knew The Wiggles back when she went to uni and they were just bludgy students. I was always sure that so sure that she'd gone to UNSW, I never questioned it.

And then today, I randomly stumbled across a reference to the Wiggles on a news site that said they were formerly Club Mac early childhood students. And it turns out it's all true.

How very odd.

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   Personality Quiz...



Stability results were low which suggests you are very worrying, insecure, emotional, and anxious.

Orderliness results were medium which suggests you are moderately organized, hard working, and reliable while still remaining flexible, efficient, and fun.

Extraversion results were moderately low which suggests you are reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and secretive.

trait snapshot: introverted, irritable, feels invisible, observer, depressed, does not enjoy leadership, reveals little about self, dislikes large parties, feels undesirable, does not like to stand out, submissive, suspicious, emotionally sensitive, not a thrill seeker, solitude loving, likes silence, fragile, second guesses self, negative, unadventurous, fearful, weird, focuses on people's hidden motives, paranoid, phobic, dependent, cautious, avoidant, semi intellectual

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   Spiral Galaxies are the prettiest...

I don't often post science news, but Naomi (the astronomer quoted in the article) is a very cool person, and this is cool news. It turns out that our galaxy isn't a normal spiral galaxy like we used to believe, but a barred spiral.
Astronomers have produced the best image yet of what our home galaxy would look like to an intergalactic traveller far above the Milky Way. The new image, created by scientists using the Spitzer space telescope, an infra-red sister of the Hubble, shows that the Milky Way's spiral arms are linked at the centre by a straight bar, 27,000 light years long - 7000 light years longer than previously thought.

- Linkie

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   Guys, it's only a Mac! (did I really just say that?)...

People go crazy trying to get cheap iBooks
"People threw themselves forward, screaming and pushing each other. A little girl's stroller was crushed in the stampede. Witnesses said an elderly man was thrown to the pavement, and someone in a car tried to drive his way through the crowd." Some other guy beat people over the head with a folding chair, and a woman wet herself rather than get out of line. That's just crazy.

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   I don't normally play the meme game...

...but I wanted to know what Drew would say about me, and this is the cost.

1. Reply with your name and I'll respond with something random about you.
2. I'll tell you what song/movie reminds me of you.
3. I'll pick a flavor of jello to wrestle with you in.
4. I'll say something that only makes sense to you and me.
5. I'll tell you my first memory of you.
6. I'll tell you what animal you remind me of.
7. I'll ask you something that I've always wondered about you.
8. If I do this for you, you must post this on your journal. You MUST. It is written.

If no one posts I'll cry.

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   It's really not that hard...

One of the things I learned in Japan was that the rabbit on the moon that they refer to is the same one that I know and love, only they see it upside down. I had been told that the rabbit you could see in the northern hemisphere was different, somehow made up of different mare or something, and got confuzzled, but when I asked the Japanese students they told me the rabbit was standing on his head.

So when I was talking to a friend in the US tonight (love ya, Dev) and he asked about the rabbit, I knew it was time.

This is how you find the rabbit in the moon.
You take one moon (up the right way):
And you find the rabbit:
See? Not that complicated peoples.

Dev was kind enough to help me out with a problem I'd always had, so here's one more helpful guide.

This is how you find the man in the moon.


(Linkage to this page for the original rabbit image and this one for the man in the moon image.)

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