Kiss my gorgeous bald head Shane Warne

Fri, 2 Dec 2011 21:33:25 +1000

Just last week on the television I saw Shane Warne wearing a shirt which said: “No hair No life”.

For those of you who don’t know Shane Warne, he is a washed-up, philandering Australian ex-cricketer who now does advertising for a hair replacement company. He claims to have used their services to return his magnificent head of hair. I have no reason to doubt any of that.

They may have replaced his hair, but other cranial cells did not make it through the operation.

I’ll not bother you with any more of his self-absorbed inferiority complex issues except to make the argument that he and others, including the operators of the many vanity driven hair replacement companies, are all way too worried about how their hairline affects their manhood, heterosexual or otherwise. It’s such a shame that so called sportsmen like Warne send this childish message to impressionable young men, a pity and petty.

One of the smartest things I did was shave my head and leave it that way. It’s a great look and I know I’m in good company, just look at some of my brothers.

Not enough speaking in tongues

Fri, 2 Dec 2011 21:32:14 +1000

I grew up in a multi-lingual home: English, Macedonian and Greek, along with French at school.

I went to school in Montreal, more French, moved to Sudbury, still more French and then married my wonderful (Northern Ontario) soul mate, therefore more French.

Our son had not had any of his schooling in English until we moved to Australia seven years ago, where his school counsellor thought he was a “little behind in language skills” until we mentioned to her that this was his first education in English instruction. She changed her mind about his language skills.

Anyways I say all of this because the multi-lingual parts of my brain have turned to mush and I need to do something about it. Leaving Australia is not feasible, yet. So I’ve taken to downloading newscasts in Macedonian, and a few French Radio Canada podcasts to re-kindle my brain. I’ve also finally listened to, and will repeat, some Macedonian language tapes that I’ve converted to mp3 files. There are work books that came with the tapes, but I’ll get to those much later, if at all.

My real concern in this language issue is exactly how little regard, indeed disdain, many people here in Australia, or maybe just Townsville, hold for second languages. I’m not talking about just anyone who doesn’t speak a second language because of personal circumstances, many would love to immerse themselves in another language and culture. They are mournful of being unilingual.

My problem is with the ones who are proudly unilingual or feel that anyone speaking another language is plotting something criminal, none of which is particularly Australian, some Americans can feel the same, and Canadians too, which is a whole other issue, but I digress.

Anyways, I’m needful of more language based stimulation that is just around, in the local aether, on the street corner, stores, etc...

We did say a move is possible for 2013...

Patriotism does not copy over

Fri, 2 Dec 2011 21:30:39 +1000

As I’ve mentioned before I am not a nationalistic or patriotic kind of person. I find all forms of jingoism revolting.

Not long ago someone on Facebook posted a status update that was supposed to elicit nationalistic feelings of an “old Canada” we’re all pining for. The reality is that that specific diatribe was originally written by and for Americans. Somebody, quite likely not my Facebook Friend, tried to re-write it to suit a Canadian context.

It goes something like this (with the original status in italics), and you can replace Canada with any other nation, thereby throwing any of its veracity out the window:

"I don’t care if I offend anyone by this: I pledge allegiance to the flag of Canada & to the Commonwealth for which it stands, one nation, indivisible, & justice for all!"

Actually that's an American thing, not a bad thing, but not a Canadian thing. You might want it to be a Canadian thing, but it's not, that's why we're different. We don't pledge allegiance to our flag, move south if you'd like to do that sort of thing.

"...justice for all." Really, you think the people who promote these sentiments believe in justice for all? I don't, honestly.

"Not long ago a generation grew up reciting the Canadian anthem every morning in school with hand on heart."

Once again this is an American thing that some Facebook twerp decided to turn into a Canadian thing, though I'm sure people from other nations have latched on to it accordingly. No one recites an anthem, the line was supposed to be "recite the pledge of allegiance" so you could at least make an attempt to adjust the wording and not show yourself for being a lazy ass.

We sing the national anthem and it is still done today, sorry to burst your bubble, though in most places we simply play the song, but I've never attended or taught in a high school where we sang it, and that goes back as far as 1979. And what about the beginning of every sporting event? Have you not seen one lately? No national anthems? Not true.

And "hand on heart"? More garbage, we don't do that either so stop telling the world that it's stopped being done, it was not done to begin with. Maybe for a few older people, but for everyone else I know, nope, no hands and hearts ever.

"They no longer do that for fear of "offending" someone! This is my country; This is Canada, love it or leave."

My country? That country let people in with names like Ginsberg, Wong, Daicopoulos, D’Agastino, Singh, and Lim. And then wouldn't let them play hockey. Remember Don Cherry and the Swedes? Great Canadian eh?

"ITS MERRY CHRISTMAS...NOT HAPPY HOLIDAYS."

You can say or write Merry Christmas and the vast and huge majority of people really won't care including Jews, Muslims and atheists like me.

So you see, I still don’t have any place in my heart for jingoism.

Just build the damn thing will you

Sat, 3 Sep 2011 13:20:58 +1000

Last weekend was the JCU Open Day where the University shows itself to the local community. It’s a plug fest but all universities do it.

I remember enjoying the University of Guelph’s annual March Break open day, especially the cow with the stomach access - you’ll have to go look it up.

Anyways, the Physics department, all three of us (??) helped to do the physics show. Peter Ridd does it mostly, so I’ll have to get up to speed for the future, but that may require some commitment from the university with respect to my longer-term employment prospects. Afterwards, we headed outside to “man” the tents where Physics and Engineering were selling our wares... and that’s where it happened.

When I was the Editor for Australian Physics you can barely imagine the number of articles I’d receive that purported to prove Einstein wrong, or unite everything under the sun in one simple (and always non-mathematical) way. And when I write “everything under the sun” I’m not kidding: relativity, quantum, string theory, emotions, earthquakes, god, whatever... I’d say go have a gander at their work but that would only encourage them.

Then along comes this guy who’d like to have a word with me “...over something he’s been looking into.” Oh shit. That’s how it always starts. Everyone else around me took off like I farted in an elevator - they knew what was coming.

His shtick was “free energy” which is the new name for perpetual motion. It’s not unlike the way creationists changed their name to intelligent design trying to garner some credibility within science - it didn’t work there, it won’t work here.

I’m not going to get into what his idea was except to say it was wrong, they all are; and yes it is as simple as that. There is no freedom from friction or entropy and being dismissive of their premise is acceptable.

You see technology is a bitch. She has no loyalty to anyone. Rather than spending much time on his (or others’) ideas it’s always best to direct them to just build the damn thing. That’s where the shit hits the fan.

So here’s my credo with respect to free energy and it’s ilk:

If your idea is based on sound science, and is so simple that you’ve wondering why no one else has figured it out, then build the machine you claim will prove me (and all of physics) wrong. When you do, the world will beat a path to your door, you’ll become a trillionaire (literally) and will be able to tell your grandchildren about the losers like me as you dance on our graves.

Enjoy yourself... until then, just build the damn machine and leave me alone.

Another peasant attitude

Wed, 3 Aug 2011 19:34:49 +1000

I am not a fan of reality TV. It’s cheap television, literally and figuratively. No need for writers. Of the many that exist I despise cooking contest shows the most; but I do love cooking shows. For the longest time I’ve wondered why that split... until now.

It goes back to my peasant blogs. There were a couple of them. One on food and drink and one on technology. The answer: I’ve realized that I don’t actually enjoy talking about food and drink.

What I mean is that when I have people over for dinner I am not interested in talking about what I’m cooking, how I’m cooking it, better ways to cook, what’s to drink, who had what wine when and where, or why this particular wine is best for tonight (not to mention “...aren’t you glad I brought this wine tonight.”), here’s the list of the other wines we’ve had, etc... blah blah blah.

I’m not interested, at all.

To me the food and wine served at a meal is not there for a conversation, it’s there for the conversation. The food and drink is there to lubricate the people, if you’ll allow me to put it that way.

Think of it like a camp fire. The camp fire is not made for the purpose of having a conversation about how it was made, how best to make it, how we made it last week, etc... These topics may indeed enter into a part of the ensuing conversation, but it’s not the focus of the fire. The fire is there so that we may have a central point to gather around, in this case literally and so too with food.

We sit around one table eating together and facing each other, for the most part.

That’s the part I like.

The rest is dribble.