Remembrances of events can be two edged. Was it really twenty years since Tiananmen? Hard to believe all right. Twenty years ago those of us in the various “China watchers” groups in governments around the world were starting to think that the winds of change in China were spring rather than winter zephyrs, and that…
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Impressive for their precision but I do wonder if there was an anesthetic! National Geographic (where else?) story here. 16,986 total views, 23 views today
16,986 total views, 23 views today
Soft pink waist coats and mole grey jackets suggest something refined and gentle. The galah is anything but, especially when when it is jinking up the street with five its mates, showing off clever manoeuvres like teenage boys in their new cars. But they are the only signs and raucous sounds of life for a…
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“You on channel Miss Betty?” The silence out of the radio is accompaniment for the empty horizon. “You on channel Miss Betty?” Nothing. The microphone is dropped back into the console and we drive on, dust erupting and billowing behind us, saltbush blurring beside us. This expedition started with a sit in the sun on…
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Last weekend I watched my brother play with his son and thought “Thirty years apart is far too long”. There is pain in the realisation that it has been so long. Years never recovered. Years not shared. All valuable and constructive in their own way, and all filled with light and drama and satisfaction and…
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As much as I despise the culture of obsequious kowtowing to “the Empire” there are some icons that connect me to it in a more positive yet strange way. Some are old history books. Biggles stories are another connection – they formed up some perspectives as a ten year old which seem humourous now. Winston…
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As we walk up to an old stone Quorn church built in 1880… “Owyer goin Ron?” “Really well for an old bloke.” “Nah, you ain’t old, just slow moving. Meet my brother. He is here to help repair this guttering.” “Oh yeah? Where are you from?” “Sydney?” “Sydney?! To repair the gutter.” “All the way.”…
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Pronounced “corn”. No, I did not know that either. A dot on the arid landscape in South Australia ( 32°20’46.93″S 138° 2’23.85″E). I walk around the streets wondering what keeps people here. Maybe the clue lies with Gary and his wife who sit in the late autumn sun and sing out a cheery “owyergoing mate?”…
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Hey Dad, how come we (kids) never feature on your blog? Good question. If it’s just plain weird or bizarre then I am attracted to it – so you would think they would be a recurring theme. Maybe it is because the most exotic place any of them have resided is Ballarat. If they camped…
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While we are talking about remarkable things to do with skulls here is another skull penetration exercise which is even more amazing. Very clever people at Stanford University have wired up this mouse so that the deepest parts of its brain are directly stimulated by light. “Viviana Gradinaru, a graduate student has designed a hybrid…
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