Next Up on the Five-Day Forecast: Volcanoes
The next big California earthquake is on its way. Apparently the methods used by Dr. Keilis-Borok’s UCLA team is accurate within months, beating the Jeanne Dixons of the world by a significant margin. So Southern California should see a 6+ ‘quake by September. Fill the bathtub and stock up on canned goods and batteries.

Neighbourhood News
Last night I made a stab at attending a Meet-Up, but it wasn’t a successful outing as such. I did, however, stop in at the Hollywood Hotel around the corner from home on my way back, where I was made aware of an impending event that sounds vaguely intriguing: Thief’s Journal, a DJ party centered around William S. Burroughs. Maybe I could go and do my MC Burroughs routine: “Kit recruits a band of outlaws, known as the Wild Fruits. . . .”

Iran, Contras, and Political Favors
Why is anyone surprised Bush would appoint John Negroponte as ambassador to Iraq? This is the administration that back in 2002 made John Poindexter head of DARPA. (O.k., he resigned, but only after the casino plan got him laughed out.)

Somebody-or-Other's Country, 'Tis of Thee
There are numerous court cases regarding the display of U.S. flags where the decision supported the free-speech rights of the defendant’s choice to do so in a manner offensive to others. But that was before homeowner associations in community developments. So, you’re 65 years old, Australian, and move into a development where the community puts in a rule about hanging out flags: only the U.S. flag may be displayed. This, of course, significantly cuts down on the blight of cute banners with colorful butterflies on them and the like. It also prevents the display of flags from other countries, even if they’re allies of the U.S. with troops in Iraq. Well, you signed your agreement to the by-laws – present and future – when you moved in. Still, there are limits to the infringements on free speech that can be countenanced, and I think Windermere Gardens Villas or Del Boca Vista Mark II or wherever has gone into ludicrous territory here. Mrs. Hogberg is not likely to take the case to court, and I don’t expect the ACLU to turn up on this one either. Maybe there’s a nice retired lawyer living next door who’ll take on the homeowners association? Florida. Go figure.

Why Rice?
George W. Bush picked Condoleezza Rice as his National Security Advisor because she can pronounce the names of foreign nations and dignitaries that he couldn’t. As for national security advice, well, she never has had any that I can tell. Even Dr. Evil himself, Henry Kissinger, would go to Nixon and give advice, not just wait to be asked. We hear the Republicans say that government has to be run like a business; we’ve been hearing that for decades. Running a business into the ground is the speciality pursued by George II (he’s a failed oil tycoon, remember, and the Texas Rangers baseball club enriched him only because his rich buddies bought him out), so we shouldn’t be surprised he can’t pick decent staff. Dr. Rice may be smart, but I don’t see the evidence.

Postcript: I’ve read the transcript of Bush’s press conference, and I can’t say I thought the press offered the grilling I’d have preferred. I know he’s the President, but couldn’t they throw some heat instead of just lobbing the softballs? I mean, asking if there’s anything he regrets or if he’d apologize . . . nobody actually expected anything from that, did they? It’s the same song and dance from Bush to the same tired old tunes the press always plays. Everybody’s willing to go in swinging in the op-ed pages, but not so much in the press room at the White House. I guess they don’t want to be retired early, but where’s the story?

Innumeracy Ills
O.k., it's the English edition of a Russian newspaper online, and we all know nobody can spell on the internet. I'm sure it will be fixed sooner rather than later, but meanwhile, Mathimatically [sic] gifted people use all their brain, according to this Pravda article, while apparently newpaper editors only use the part that knows when it's lunchtime. The body of the article manages to use the correct spelling. I may not be able to balance my checkbook, but I can use a dictionary.

The MTA Should Have Said “Yes”
The Gothamist reveals that the IRT 2 train’s brakes produce the opening notes of “Somewhere” from West Side Story, but it turns out to be just a coincidence.

Re-Sign Me Up, Coach
A Bernie Mac movie? Yes, America! (Thanks, Mr. Poon.)

April
I don't remember how I got on the list, but for Poetry Month I get a poem in my Hotmail account every day from Knopf. I don't like all of them, but that's one of those things about poetry. So what? I do like quite a lot of what comes through, even though if I don't read them right away, they will pile up and start to clog the inbox.

Getting Busted for Becoming Your Dream
Made famous in 2000 as his “tag” was highlighted across the Harbour Bridge, and at the opening ceremonies of the Sydney Olympic Games, Arthur Stace was a sidewalk chalker, writing “Eternity,” the one word, in a distinctive script, across the city from 1930 to 1967. He endeared himself to Sydney by his art and will be remembered for decades to come, even though there is no lasting example of his work. For the entire period I lived on the Upper East Side, I was subjected to the empty platitudes and overbearing admonishments of James De La Vega, who scribbled the sidewalks of the neighborhood in chalk. Towards the end of those years, Mr. De La Vega had gallery shows in Spanish Harlem. Well, if “Become Your Dream” and crap about being wearing a suit to work making you a wage slave is art, that’s nice for him. Actually, it’s graffiti, even in chalk, when taken to extremes, and now De La Vega’s been busted well and truly for it. He’s also being called a muralist, and from the sound of things, he’s stepped up from the cheap, pop adages and bad line drawings to larger canvases and multiple colors. There’s a line between art and vandalism, and I think he’s crossed it. He says he’ll “consider refraining from painting illegally” in exchange for no jail time, but maybe he should have thought of that option sooner. Other graffitists have opted for alternative media. Graffiti philosophers, like Arthur Stace, just kept it simple and stayed out of jail.

Rolling, Rolling, Rolling
Another expatriate blogger in Sydney appears. Enjoyable content, scary bunny face.

Nobel Oblige
Every year, when the Nobel prize for literature is awarded, I make an attempt at gathering up one or more significant works by the winner and acquainting myself with the reason the prize committee made their selection. The prizes are a long way off this year, but last year’s winner, J. M. Coetzee, was one writer I felt myself already sufficiently familiar with not to go out and buy the latest books. I did, however, during my late period of unemployment, go back to Waiting for the Barbarians, one of his early works, because it’s a great favorite of mine and one I hadn’t been back to since it came out in the ‘80s. Around this time, M. had been saying she’d like to read the most recent volume, Elizabeth Costello, which I located at a second-hand shop during my job hunting peregrinations. She really, really like it, so we also located a copy of Disgrace and have borrowed a copy of Boyhood, Coetzee’s memoir of growing up in South Africa. I’ve only gotten through Disgrace, but our copy of Elizabeth Costello should be coming home soon, so once I finish Patrick White’s The Vivisector (he’s the Australian Nobelist, by the way), I’ll get on to it. Coetzee’s prose is deceptive. He reminds me of Hemingway in the spareness of his style, but he wears his heart on his sleeve, too, without making a great point of it. I’d say his writing is some of the most Human I’ve read in a long time. He lets you make your own judgments without withholding his own and in a tempered, natural language. He’s living in Adelaide now. I would welcome a chance to hear him speak, although he doesn’t apparently do that often.

Third Party Politics
Since the days of John Anderson, I’ve been attracted to the possibility of voting for someone outside the Democratic or Republican parties. To be accurate, that’s really just the Democrats, because I’ve never been seriously interested in voting Republican, but we can leave that aside for now. What have I gotten, other than Anderson, to vote for: Ross Perot, Steve Forbes, and Ralph Nader. One’s a nut, one’s a Republican in tax-reformist clothing, and the other is a wild man running on a sufficiently strong political base as to marginally disrupt voting patterns, but with that margin being enough to potentially derail an effective opposition to the present regime. I’m in full agreement with Dr. Dean’s editorial statement in the NY Times, including his statement that voting for Nader means “a vote for a candidate who has no realistic shot of winning the White House.” Despite Nader’s Presidential bid in 2000, one which left him with an insufficient margin for his party to receive matching funds this year, I do still believe a Third Party might become viable someday in the United States. It’s happened elsewhere, although it’s proved difficult to sustain. The Democrats here in Australia, for example, and the Greens, are both forces to be reckoned with both locally and nationally. I still recall when the Greens became a potent force in (West) Germany. Running for President, however, is not the best means to achieving political presence on the necessary scale. To adapt the old ecologicalist adage: act locally, think nationally. Building up a political base from which to launch a Presidential campaign is a necessary first step. Once enough of an effective presence has been established in State and local legislatures, Congress is inevitable, and the White House can be effectively pursued. I’d happily vote for alternative candidates (so long as I can agree to the platform they run on) especially if I believe they can make the changes they promise.

Republicanism
In 1999 Australia declined to pursue becoming a Republic. The debate’s back on, in large part due to Mark Latham, and this time things might turn out differently. Parliamentary politics are a bit alien to me, and I can’t say I like the idea of an appointed President. The present method of electing MPs, which utilizes the application of “preferences” strikes me as entirely workable. It’s one of the systems we heard about in the States in 2000, when George II usurped the White House, as a method for eliminating the Electoral College. Direct election of a chief executive is problematic in the States and in Australia because of population distribution, giving the preference to the eastern states in both countries. O.k., California, too. But only in the U.S. The preferences system or an Electoral College would balance this, and would allow the executive more potential for independent action over politicized appointment via Parliament. In any event, there’s no benefit to Australia to remain tied to England, especially now that the Governor General appears more and more to be a figurehead, one not even cutting a lot of ribbons these days. The most important thing the present committee can do this time is to try to assure that the process is not driven by John Howard’s rhetoric. He is a clever man and sidestepped the issue last time by recasting the referendum to the advantage of his agenda. Give the power to the people this time, and I think the outcome might be different.

Roads and Tolls
Holiday weekends are renowned for traffic fatalities, although this year’s Pascal period ended up at about half last year’s rate. Listening to the news reports of the “hoons” speeding through Parramatta at twice the posted limit and similar depredations on the traffic laws, it strikes me as no wonder that Mad Max and the Road Warrior were made here.

Spot-on
M. and I attended a screening of Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, the latest Charlie Kaufman screenplay project, in advance of the general release, and recommend it highly, as we do all the Kaufman movies. How telling is it that Kaufman's screenplay makes it his project regardless of the actors, the director, or the producers? Nothing is wasted here, including the use of Lacuna Inc. as the name of the company delivering the technology that makes the story possible; a nice touch, and almost thrown away, like a notice board in the Simpsons. The plot drives towards deeply layered understanding of human relationships. M. put it that we saw played out the fundamental truth that often what we like best about another person is precisely what drives us mad, too. As for Jim Carrey, I was surprised at how good he was as a serious actor in The Truman Show, mostly because I've never liked his comedy, but if that film had been written by Kaufman, it would have been a stroke-inducing revelation. Carrey delivers a heart-felt and nuanced performance that stands right up there with the best performances we've seen, including Bill Murray in Lost in Translation. Someday Kaufman will slip up and a mediocre piece will result, but it's going to be a long time before that happens.

Addendum: we also saw a preview for the Coen brother's upcoming remake of The Lady Killers, the old Alec Guiness movie, and even with Tom Hanks and a deep South setting, it looks like it ought to be a lot of fun. A Coen Bros. remake? A big step for them, and one I'll make a point of attending.

Noteriety or the Lack Thereof
Congratulations to Boswell (as she's known [except if you saw her real name on t.v. last night]), and The Swanker, who were featured to one degree on another on last night's Mondo Thingo, a program devoted to tracking the latest trends (even months or years after they've been trendy). Also prominently featuring Tim Blair, whose content I don't follow closely, it was nice to see some new acquaintances on the tube. So who's coming on the 21st? (And if the big guns out of the U.S. could be used, why not a humble little ex-pat in Sydney? N.b. to self: get better content.)

Competition
A Yank in Oz is a new one on me: another American 'blogger working out of Australia. Since he shows up on Anthony Hicks' Aussie Blogs site under NSW, I suppose he, too, is in Sydney. I'll have to dig through the archives for a bit to find out more. (He better not be stealing any of my traffic.)
Postscript: Hi, Scott, who'd've guessed? Well, that's what I get for posting before researching. Do you engage in non-Dean Meetups? Great content, by the way. I'm sorry your parents are terrorists.

The 73
‘Blogging reaches new . . . something or other. Now there’s a weblog devoted to riding the bus in London, specifically, route 73. I haven’t really thought about doing any more than the usual entries on commuting, although if I was paying attention, I’m sure I could have reported something similar to Cheryl’s conversation with her grandmother. Probably I need a digital camera and a site that let’s me post photos.

No-Fly Zones
Now that Hussein is out of power in Iraq, the Transportation Security Administration has established similar travel restrictions to those imposed in that country following the first Gulf War. The ACLU is bringing a suit to end the practice, claiming that insufficient safeguards exist to ensure passengers Constitutional rights. It’s an interesting problem. If airlines are simply complying with the TSA, a governmental body, then the case looks pretty much open-and-shut to me (unless they're using psychics, like they do in Florida). However, if this is a recommendation by the TSA that the airlines can comply with or not, then it appears more difficult. In the latter case, the airlines should have the right to refuse service to anyone they choose, and if there’s even the slightest possibility that the little old lady trying to board a flight to visit her grandchildren might be a suicide bomber, then she can just ride the bus or stay home. It’s the airline’s plane, and it cost them plenty to get it and run it. They can’t just have people blowing them up willy-nilly. In the former case, pre-screening would have to occur, with an appeals process through the courts, and well before the actual execution of travel plans. Instead of having to arrive at the airport three hours before your flight, you’d have to appear before a judge as soon as the docket was sufficiently clear to hear your plea. That should help the economy.

Iditarod
Congratulations to the University of Connecticut’s women’s basketball team. I have always enjoyed how the “UConn” team is called the Huskies, even though that should the Yukon’s team name – there’s got to be a connection. (Kentucky’s “Vols” always makes me think of a small rodent, even though I know it isn’t pronounced that way.)

The Wrong Debate
Once again, William Safire has got it wrong. He casts the present debate in terms of hindsight, mischaracterizes the antiwar movement, and addresses the dilemma facing the U.S. and its allies as a choice between moving forward or of treading water. That’s not it, which is probably why Tony Blair is on his way over to have frank words with George II. The debate may include assessments of the choices made by Bush and his administration cronies to ignore terrorism in favor of developing an agenda against Iraq, and the developing situation there (or collapse into chaos depending on your perspective) has to inform our present decisions for the future. Nevertheless, the debate is ultimately that of the population at large, not just the politicians sitting in judgment, and consists of trying to choose between fighting terrorism using all the methods available to us or simplistically opting for military force alone against nations regardless of their participation in supporting non-state terrorists. We have to choose between who do we bomb next and how do we defeat terrorism? Letting Condoleeza Rice off the hook doesn’t help the debate, much as Mr. Safire would prefer it. I really have to stop reading his column.

VBC Nod
How nice. Raymond Tomlin, a journalist in Vancouver, British Columbia, started a weblog in February and I’m already on his list of fellow travellers. This is gratifying especially in that Raymond’s ‘blog is very nicely done. I aspire to such a professional look. Content’s better than most, too.

Sea Camp
We watched Pirates of the Caribbean this weekend, at the sufferance of M., who was too under the weather to form even the will to object to the selection. Keith Richards, I mean Johnny Depp, played all his scenes as if a lifetime of drinking had left him with alcohol instead of hemoglobin, nicely offsetting Orlando Bloom’s earnest sincerity. Geoffrey Rush, on the other hand, is the one I’d guess got the most personal and professional satisfaction in the flick, his character having a nice balance of comedy and existential angst – the monsters are always the most interesting, even when they’re supporting characters. Master and Commander may have had the better sea battles, but it didn’t have any zombies.

2 April
I know the URL for the SMH story about Learner’s plates for yum cha carts has 31 March in it, but the dateline of the article is actually 1st April; so why is everyone reporting this straight? Are the perpetuating the gag, or have enough of them been cut off on their way to the laksa they think it’s worthwhile?

Sportin’ Life
What’s the difference between a bowl and a throw? It’s in the elbow, apparently.

Exile
One man, alone on an island, and virtually ignored by those who put him there. The refugee crisis in Australia continues to be a problem of embarrassing proportions.

Barbarism
I am deeply saddened by the events in Falluja. Beyond the horrific violence and medival behavior, beyond even my disgust and amazement that no one from the police or the armed services went in during or after the events there to address the immediate situation, what galls me is that we are in Iraq at all because Bush lied, Rumsfield lied, Rice lied, even Powell – who was supposed to be a balance to the rabidity of the Wolfowitzs et al. – lied. Kurt Brobeck, over at the Coffee Sutras, put it nicely: “Bush said he would not engage in nation building. So far he has kept that promise.” It can only get better, but I expect it will get worse first. 8 April, when Rice testifies, ought to be a storm.

Subscription
Every now and then I run across a nice surprise: Boswell includes me as a regular read. Thanks. Now stop reading my ‘blog (for now) and get back to work. Shameless time wasters, these ‘bloggers.

Jobs and Writing About Jobs
The new Shell-Economist essay contest opened today, with the topic: Export Jobs or Import Workers?, a timely topic here and abroad, with Telstra (the national phone system, partially privatized) sending call center jobs to India, much as other companies have done in the States (a practice immediately in disrepute and continuing to cause trouble). Because it’s sponsored by The Economist, a little America-bashing is in order, but since last year’s winner was “Interview with a Fungus,” I figure a little disingenuous idiocy may also be called for.

Adjusting for Inflation
Boing Boing had a post about Disneyland’s ticket price hike that included a neat little toy: an inflation calculator, so you can compare what things cost now to what they did back in the days when even then a dollar wasn’t a dollar – it sure isn’t now. Based on my best guess, in order for me to be earning comparably to what my parents pulled in back when they were putting us kids through college, I’d have to be making nearly three times what I am now. I’m very entertained, in a bleak, hopeless kind of way.

Orienteering
I’m a little surprised it’s taken me this long to hear about geocaching, especially since there are many people here who enjoy bushwalking. Essentially, you head off into the (semi-)wilderness and leave stuff behind for others to search for, sometimes including a tracking device meant to be reused in another cache elsewhere. There are also “event” caches, but if there’s no party when you get there, I suppose it’s because you were late. Or early. Because you need a GPS device, this is probably a long way from taking off. (It also reminds me of all those people in the 1990’s searching the continental U.S. for druidic runes.)

Newtown
Saturday, M. & I travelled across to Newtown, down King Street towards where we had first bid on an apartment, over a year ago, and which we lost out on because the developer was just using us to prod a higher bid elsewhere. Just as well, as M. remarked on our visit, since the King Street Krawl of traffic would have turned the balcony there into wasted space, provided a soot problem to rival NYC living, and made listening to music or television or just normal dinner conversation impossible. Newtown has a boundless energy, due perhaps to cheap(ish) rents and proximity to Sydney University, a few nice cafes, used book stores, funky clothes shops, etc., but it just makes me tired in the end. Go in, get what you want, get out. Erskinville and Camperdown offer more livable alternatives, but you are still restricted by how the streets are laid out, leaving all the living along Enmore Road, Parramatta Road, Cleveland Street, and King Street. It’s tough living without a grid, sometimes. Now that sleepy little Reservoir Street in Surry Hills is seeing some development activity, we have the promise of a bit more liveliness than the Royal Albert Hotel provides. We will have to endure the excavations, the crane work, etc., but the Silkwood development looks pretty posh, which is sure to bring up the neighborhood tone a bit more than the endless backpacker hotels do.

Serialization
The “Left Behind” series is drawing to a close: the Second Coming won’t be the final book, I’m sure, although once the New Jerusalem is established on earth, what will be left? I’ve had a similar desire to read these to the one I’ve entertained for reading the Scientology tome, Dianetics, but I really don’t want to encourage any of the groups involved, authors, readers, adherents, whomever.

Athens
With an 8-hour time difference, the upcoming Olympic Games will probably not be priority viewing chez Cross Words, and maybe with the Thorpedo out of the 400m, it’s just as well. Oh, he’ll still swim, and I’m sure he’ll do well. He’s a fine sportsman, Thorpey, and it’ll take some pretty big shoes to fit his feet, er, it’ll take, oh, never mind. Mainly, I find it a little disturbing that everyone keeps going on about Craig Stevens stepping down. Ian Thorpe had a false start there’s no room in the rules for, so Stevens goes to Athens in the 400. The Olympics are laughable enough over the amateur/professional divide without individual countries or competitors remixing the rules as they please. Advance, Australia, fairly.

Knee Bends
I read in the Wall Street Journal at least 10 years ago a column deriding the benefits of stretching, and it appears that opinion piece has been borne out. As a weekend runner at best, I’ve always found it difficult to get up and on the street for some miles (kilometres, here), and one of my strategies when I first took up the sport again was to eliminate the preliminaries: no stretching. I found initially that I was spending fifteen minutes or more going through a battery of exercises before I ever left the apartment, and while the extra time spend in physical exertion might have been beneficial, it wasn’t the kind I enjoyed; so I quit, and went straight out running. Now if I could haul my butt out of bed 30 minutes earlier of a morning, I could actually do some of the running.

Turn Again, Clover Moore, Lord Mayor of Sydney
Our preferred candidate took Town Hall with a significant margin over Labour’s candidate, Michael Lee, to a good deal of local satisfaction. It’s a fairly interesting turn of events, demonstrating what happens when a people’s party mismanages an effort at machine politics: the people get mad and turn against it. I’m very pleased that the majority of voters weren’t taken in by that full-time/part-time mayor nonsense. Now, when will Ms. Moore begin implementing those agenda items we liked so much?

Tick-Tock
The clocks wound back an hour Sunday a.m. (N.b., Mom & Dad: only 14+ hours from NC to NSW.) While there was more sun earlier this morning, there will be less later this afternoon, and there’s going to be more apparent darkness than before for a while. Nevermind. I like autumn, more even than spring. It rains less (not that that’s ever such an issue, unfortunately), and it’s a great relief to the body after all that summer.

Cable Programming
If you get BBC America, or if it turns up on your local PBS, watch State of Play, if only for Bill Nighe’s performance. It moves fast, some of the accents can be difficult, I could have dispensed with some of the side-plotting, but it’s an excellently cinematic piece of television.

Neville Chamberlin
The Howard government is painting Mark Latham’s intention to bring Australian troops home from Iraq by Christmas if he takes the Prime Ministership in the elections this Fall as a dangerous incentive to Al Qaeda, an act of political appeasement similar to what’s happened in Spain, if you’re listening to the Bush Administration that is. E. J. Dionne rebuts the Spanish election analysis on Working for Change (found clicking links provided by Outside Counsel, one of which pointed me to The Gotham City 13), and I think it’s worth reading in respect to Latham’s statement as well. The stated intention of the new Spanish government and Mark Latham, doesn’t represent appeasement, but reflects opposition to the sitting government’s behavior that put Australia in Iraq and a dissatisfaction with the relationship as its developed between this country and the U.S. We have to take the point seriously, however, that following Spain’s new direction could provide the answer to the question we’ve all been asking since the 1970’s: does terrorism work? Thomas Friedman’s column in the NY Times voices that fear effectively. Having gotten into Iraq, it would be wrong to get out without having accomplished the stated objective, or at least having stabilized the situation sufficiently for the Iraqis themselves to govern themselves (with or without democracy). But to do so in support of the Bush government’s policies only perpetuates the damage already done to the goal of eliminating terrorism. This is the moment for the U.N. to reassert its relevance, but I doubt its ability to do so. Australia has other, more immediately regional concerns, although there appears to be plenty joining Al Qaeda into the mix, and pulling its troops out of Iraq may be the right thing to do. I’d like to see the Americans able to come home, too, and I’m sorry that won’t happen for a long time to come.

Year of the Built Environment
Boing Boing has posted an item on an outfit called Loop.ph, who manufacture a variety of luminescent homeware: ”Digital Dawn” window blinds, ”Light Sleeper” bedding, ”Buried Light” wallpaper, and Temporal Light” wall tiles. Because black leather and chrome steel furniture isn’t enough. I see that they are not participating in any design shows here, despite the government’s declaration. I think there’s some terrific installation projects that could be done with this stuff, but living with it might be a little harder. Maybe just the tablecloth for now.

Because Choosing a President Should Be an Event Hosted by Ryan Seacrest
I want to be President, and I know America will SMS their vote for me, no matter what the judges say about my singing. Oh, yeah, wrong show. Anyway, with $200,000 and a chance to address the State of the Union (oops, wrong show again, that’s the real President), I know my tenure in the Oval Office is assured. I can beat all of these guys. Seriously, I’m just glad nobody I know is on the list.

Community Collegiality
I've added a new section of 'blogs, the idea being to focus on Sydney, of course, as the community to which I now belong. There are plenty of others out there, and I may yet add one or two as their content comes to seem more imperative to track for myself. (Others I can do without, despite their prominence; warblogs and political whinging - left or right - seem to have become altogether too hysterical to endure. In any event, they don't need any advertising from me.) In addition to Clarence Street, which keeps up an excellent compendium of Sydney life, and The Swanker (n.b., link amended), which appears to follow a more usual 'blogging arc, I've also thrown in Living in Australia, part of a global network of 'blogging news and views, organized by region, and Power Up, a intriguing new political resource I think is worth keeping an eye on.

The Decibels of Home
What? What did you say? I can’t hear you.

Power to the People
Howard Dean’s innovative use of the internet to help drive his campaign is particularly notable for the degree to which he, along with outfits like MoveOn and from my own experience Democrats Abroad (not to mention Expats Against Bush), have contributed to the expansion of on-line interconnectivity as a tool for effecting social change. A new entry is Power Up, an Australian forum for political discussion and resources. This may turn out to be an excellent resource for citizens here to organize and to discuss the issues in various local and national campaigns, some of which are already coming to a vote (i.e., the new Sydney super-council mayoral election next Saturday). I expect a tie-in to MeetUp would be worthwhile.

Nobody Asked Me, But
In MIT’s statistical survey of ‘blogging, I fall outside a number of the demographic categories, which is personally interesting, but I found it fascinating that “Australian” is reported as a separate ethnic group – that must be Aboriginal, I suppose, but how then 1.4%? Of “living in Australia,” the 10 ‘bloggers reported comprise 2.05% of the total by my calculation, and from what I’ve seen on-line, I have my doubts 68% aren’t Anglos. It’s MIT’s math, though, so I’ll have to take it as is; their math skills are better than mine.

What About Smith?
I know a student who could probably do with some extra cash.

Premier League
I’ve been thinking a fair bit about the NSW Premier, Bob Carr, especially after the mess with the trains, but most recently because of an essay in the most recent edition of the Griffith Review, but I mention all this more because of encountering the musings of the Swanker, a fellow Sydney ‘blogger, on Mr. Carr’s behavior in response to John Howard’s changes in federal allocations to the state. These two editorials bring home the point that it’s all well and good to have a philosopher king, but only insofar as he can get things done. Mario Cuomo, for example, the former NY governor frequently cited by Bill as a paragon of this political type, at least sought to raise the level of discourse in his jurisdiction, but I don’t find this quite so true of Bob Carr, for all his apparent erudition. Mr. Carr manages his government well enough, if that is the only goal required of a Premier, but not the state. His eye appears too focussed on the bottom line of the NSW ledger rather than on the product: a healthy environment, affordable lifestyles, quality health care delivery mechanisms, sustained or developing infrastructure (including mass transit systems), etc. His government is failing to keep up with its promises and slow to react to problems. When it does react, it is more likely to lay blame than to address problem itself. As Quentin Dempster points out in his Griffith Review article, “Media Rules in the Court of Carr,” re-jigging the Cabinet may shift attention, but ultimately resolves nothing. Bob Carr has time to fix the problem with his governance, but after the problems with the hospitals, the rail debacle, and the forced merger of the City of Sydney and South Sydney councils, he’d better start now rather than later.

Very Batman
The Stun Ring (found on Boing Boing) is a very nice piece of concealed weaponry, just right for my superhero fashion collection, but doesn’t come in my size.

Real Life Journalism
M. brought home a copy of the New Yorker, and even though it's a week out-of-date, I was immediately reminded how much I have enjoyed that magazine over the years, along with the Atlantic. I cannot think of two finer periodicals on the face of the earth, but subscription, let alone news agent prices are a bit beyond my budget right now. On-line just isn't quite the same, but it will have to do.

Fantasy Journalism
I have to think that I should either post less often or give up ‘blogging. If the statistics on Sitemeter mean anything, it’s that I’m not getting a lot of cross-referencing, and most of the searches I get are for puzzles. (I should probably stop using that word, too, as it’s only going to exacerbate the problem.) I don’t mine from any particularly unusual sources, so my “reportage” is unlikely to be fresh or particularly interesting to any of the people who are reading this stuff. Family I understand, and of the other known users, I also understand friends: they might want to catch up on what I’m up to on the other side of the planet; but what’s bringing in any of my fellow ‘bloggers or those who link in from them? Curiosity, I suppose, one-shots: there’s little enough evidence that anyone makes a return trip unescorted as it were. I’ve been trying to locate fellow Australian ‘bloggers, particularly in Sydney, but I don’t visit especially frequently, even if the content in some is notable. (Maybe I should pay more attention to the “Bloggies”, which have a category of best Australian or New Zealander ‘blog – except Pixelkitty isn’t posting, Scorpiogirl seems to be a national site with registration issues, Brainsluice is NZ, so Synapse better have won the award.) I think what’s really called for in my on-line life is, if not a reduction in the plethora of ‘blogging blather, a compendium of useful enthusiasms, something more along the line of Charlie Suisman’s Manhattan User’s Guide. Of course, since I’m not technically adept enough and don’t really have the time or the network to put something like this together, at least not without a major government grant and substantial subscriptions, I have to leave it to someone else. (In other words, this is a post of jaded carping. Sorry.) Of course, “SUG” as an acronym isn’t as good as “MUG,” which has multiple connotations (some more fortunate than others), so whoever takes up the challenge will have a little work to do just finding an effective abbreviation: Sydney Access Guide? Sydney Access Directory? Sydney User’s Monthly? Well, that one could work. Maybe I should contact Anthony Hicks to see if he’d get the word out.

PS: Nice scoop on the King Kong movie. If ever a tower looked climbable by a giant ape, it’s UTS.

Dining Out
I don’t understand: what’s happened to Martha Francis? Here’s a review of cheesecake in NYC, and this little Upper East Side storefront isn’t included. I never bothered with anything but the cupcakes from Yura & Co., and I don’t even know if Two Little Red Hens was open when I was there last, but that was only because I could count on the best slice I ever had from Martha’s daughter. Of course, my sentimental attachment might have some bearing on my assessment: this is the shop that provided the wedding cake for M. and me. Well, if I’m ever in the vicinity again, I’m going to 90th & 2nd first, then I’ll visit the Hens or Yura.

Immigration vs. Conservation
Anti-immigrationists and animal rights activists are working to form a coalition to take over the board of the Sierra Club. I can’t find the weblog I found this on first (Frogs & Ravens maybe?), but now that the NY Times is reporting the issue, it’s mainstream news, and I’d like to give credit for breaking the story where it’s due. Originally, this had been presented as the efforts of two extremist groups, but the Times report puts the slant a little differently, as anti-hunting/trapping activists working with accused racists. The Sierra Club has long been considered a mainstream environmental group because of their self-described reasonable stance regarding hunting and logging, so these days, when the environment is palpably under threat, it’s not surprising that more activist elements within the organization would seek to drive the Club into pursuing a course more in line with their own concerns. The anti-immigrationists, however, represent an outside stream with only an arguably environmental agenda and a decidedly racialist bias. Immigration may account for up to 45% of population growth in the U.S., but I’m not convinced that represents an overall increase in the next 100 years of over 300%, and neither am I convinced that immigration itself is within the purview of any environmental group.

Yo Ho
Friend Simon, who visited over Christmas, first presented me with the thesis that Johnny Depp based his pirate character on Keith Richards, so I publicly acknowledge the insight, even before I’ve actually seen the movie. All the more reason to go, I suppose, although I doubt Orlando Bloom used Mick Jagger to inform his character.

Targeting
Participation in the “coalition of the willing” has not made Australia an Al Qaeda target, but as Spain has experienced, it does make us a more likely victim selection, despite the sledging of Mick Keelty by Howard’s government. Federal Police Commissioner Keelty has backed off his original comments, claiming his remarks were taken “out of context,” but his clarification shouldn’t be taken as support for the Iraq war, which I believe has probably made Mr. Keelty’s job that much harder. It isn’t Al Qaeda I expect to act, but radical Islamists in Indonesia working with them. Because terrorism tends to feed on itself, eventually degenerating into factional in-fighting after a period of dramatic, outwardly-focussed actions, I believe Europe has more to fear than Australia, but the proximity to Indonesia and the Philippines remains worrisome for the same reasons. Australia, as an open, democratic society, is much more amenable to organizational activities by terrorist groups than the societies from which their members spring. It becomes that much more likely as a result that terrorists should also commit their crimes within their host countries than in those where their problems really lie. Unfortunately, it is part of the nature of these fundamentalist groups that they blame others for what they object to. They arise from societies that actively discourage freedom, innovation, and personal responsibility, and their religious focus excuses such repression. This is why they will eventually fail, too, but in the meanwhile, we’ve got to protect ourselves. Discouraging dissent in our own societies isn’t a good method toward that end.

Thus Spake
The search for the pre-lapsarian language continues. Having recently completed Umberto Eco’s Search for the Perfect Language, which examined European efforts over the centuries to reconstruct the language of God (originally presumed to be Hebrew) or alternatively to construct a universal tongue, I have a certain appreciation for these biological efforts, if only from an entertainment standpoint, for effectively appeased by such efforts as Paul Auster’s City of Glass. Is it possible to reconstruct an original language? What would we learn if we did? Would we be instantly understood by all the people of the world, like the apostles at Pentacost? Well, maybe not; we’d probably be limited to only such universals as “tastes great, less filling” or “fire bad, friend good,” instead of having our ears opened to some celestial speech permeating the created world.

It’ll Never Get Out of Committee
The fundamentalist agenda of the United States, in addition to opposing gay marriage and abortion, includes gutting the Constitution. (Brought to you by Metafilter.)

Blurring the Line
George II’s re-election campaign is using fake news in advertisements for its Medicare reforms, but without even the “I’m not a doctor, but I play one on t.v.” disclaimer. The use of press releases to direct media towards a particular bias in reporting an event is one of long standing, but this is beyond the pale. They are liars, and they are corrupt.

Alarms
As reassuring as it may be to know that various municipalities are conducting exercises to keep emergency crews capable of dealing with large-scale terrorism (notably, my old home town; my new city has and will again be running drills, too), it’s frustrating to know that right now there’s nothing to be done to prevent an attack. Al Qaeda doesn’t care about Iraq, you know, any more than they cared about Afghanistan per se. They live in the twelfth century at best and want everyone else back there with them. They will continue their crimes against the modern world until the populations from which they have come are raised up 800 years. That’s not going to happen soon.

Sorry
William Safire takes aim at Kerry’s characterization of the Bush/Cheney re-election machine as “the most crooked . . . lying group I’ve ever seen” and shoots himself in the foot. I expect more from Mr. Safire than this kind of whinging. Kerry was not insulting “tens of millions” of Republicans, and to ask for or expect an apology is disingenuous at best. Mr. Safire would like his readers to believe this is macho posturing unbecoming a presidential candidate, but I suggest instead the column is more in line with this criticism: it is undignified, it is feeble, it is insulting. Mr. Safire should be ashamed for using the prestige of the NY Times in this fashion.

Gardening
When M. & I moved here, one of the principles we knew we would have to address was that in a place like Sydney there is no reason not to live somewhere with outdoor space. In NYC it had been one of my ambitions to have a balcony, but in the end I elected a fireplace instead, that being the opportunity having presented itself to me and balcony-equipped apartments being more expensive, less available, and pretty much impractical for some significant part of the year anyway. Because we are in a hot country, a fireplace seemed extraneous to our needs, although in winter we have now learned that Sydney may regard itself as tropically situated, but it is not; without direct sun it can get distinctly chilly, particularly indoors, where the delusion of proximity to the equator has led to a general lack of central heating. Because of Australia’s schizophrenic relationship with the sun over the years, there are many apartment blocks without balconies immediately adjacent to those fully equipped, just as there are many houses with great expanses of decking and glass right next to those with tiny windows that don’t look like they were ever meant to open. We opted for a balcony, which has led to a housekeeping effort I hadn’t really anticipated: plants. It’s a swell balcony. There’s room for a (little) table and four chairs, the air conditioning condenser units (attractively hidden away in a large, louvered box we had built for the purpose), and a few plants. It turns out, however, that plants need light, and if they’re on our balcony, they have to be raised about three feet off the ground in order to get any. Ours is an enclosed balcony; not the kind that’s stuck on the outside of the building like a fire escape with no ladder, but a corner of a room, with one window facing south and one facing east. This has the advantage of being an outdoor space that’s quite cool in summer, but it isn’t particularly good for keeping plants, not to mention the prevailing winds here appear to be from the south, so it sweeps through the balcony quite steadily. One of our lovely plants is a yucca, a desert plant that can grow quite tall, but which is characterized by a stout trunk a few inches in diameter surmounted by a brush of long spiky leaves. It catches the wind beautifully, and if it was a sailboat it would have been in New Zealand ages ago. Instead, it falls over frequently, and we come home to have to reset it in its pot. I tried tying it to the rail, but that didn’t help as much as we thought it would. So this weekend’s major activity was spent in finding a new pot, some dirt, and repotting the yucca. Luckily, this activity afforded an excellent excuse to sit out on the balcony in the wind enjoying the satisfaction of a job well done along with a cold beer. I’m beginning to think we should have gotten a place with a yard, but it’s difficult to balance in my mind the extended need for gardening with the prospect of drinking more beer. I should probably give up the exercise. If you’re coming over, bring a six-pack.

Spain
I’m very sorry for all the murdered Spaniards and their families, and I hope the new government there will do everything in their power to care for them and to ensure no such event recurs. I hope the French and the Germans, among others, take preventive measures and that the kind of cooperation called for in the U.S. creation of a Department of Homeland Security, intended to ensure that intelligence and law enforcement were aligned and communicating (but also that it should be more effective than we’ve seen so far), and that such efforts can be accomplished internationally, because we’re all on the list, and we need to do something about it. The second war on Iraq is not an example of the best method for running a war on terrorism. The Cold War is probably the most useful model in ending this threat, but without any of the self-interested back-biting and shameful illegalities that went on during that period. Non-state organizations cannot be fought effectively with the methods of conventional warfare. The tools can be used – helicopters, cruise missiles, etc. – but they need to be employed differently than we’ve seen in Iraq. Afghanistan was an exception to this, as the government there elected to be entirely complicit in the goals of the new international terrorism; potentially other nations would fall into this error, in which case the option for open war remains. Nevertheless, we face a situation more akin to that of the days of pirates and the need for the international community to enforce peace in the shipping lanes: small bands of rogues who need to be tracked and stopped wherever they can be found. This can be done without having to resort to extralegal methods, although I won’t cry over any missed opportunities to put terrorists in a court of law. Countries like Pakistan, who claim to be allies and yet are acting against international interests, or Syria, who implausibly deny supporting terrorists, these are nations that need to be brought into compliance with the goals of a broader community than they presently serve (themselves). We have methods for doing this that were effective in the Cold War, too, such as international sanctions on the one hand and foreign aid on the other. There is much to give and to take away without having to force coups or drop bombs. We find ourselves at a kind of evolutionary crossroads: Neanderthal set against Cro Magnon yet again. The new species won because of its intelligence. It’s time to use ours.

Donovan’s Brain
When called upon to correct a brain in a jar, it’s important to do so privately, because those things have powers and you might get fried. I mean fired.

Just Say No
Now we all know just how effective abstinence really is. Why is America so afraid of addressing sociological problems with effective policies?

Number 13
There’s no such thing (almost) as a bad cup of coffee in this town, which is a good thing.

Because Dressing the Cat in Doll’s Clothes Isn’t Enough
Fake nails for kitty. Yes, they’re really for sale.

Class Participation
There’s a perceived problem in NSW schools: too few male teachers. A federal government proposal is being floated to amend the sex discrimination laws to provide “men only” scholarships to encourage more men to become teachers. Now that I’m working in the educational system myself, I get to have an opinion. Male role models can be few and far between for kids, and the schools may be a good place to start in providing access to exemplary men. Certainly, given the state of sports, with S(ex)MS cricketers, let alone the allegations presently under investigation in rugby, the behavioral ideals we’d instil in our children are unlikely to be found on the playing field these days. Politics doesn’t always offer the best examples either, but I don’t think unlevelling the playing field in education is going to help change that. The shadow minister for education, Jenny Macklin, is right that “the real barriers to men becoming teachers and staying in our schools are pay, career structure and status,” and giving out scholarships doesn’t change any of this. It may encourage a few more men to elect to pursue an education degree, but that doesn’t necessarily translate into more men at the front of the classroom. The educational system needs to be perceived as a talent pool, but more usually is seen as a dead end for dead-enders. It isn’t, any more than a liberal arts degree isn’t an education that provides skills applicable in business. If teachers are paid what they’re worth, that would help improve their perceived status in the community. I've considered this as a course of action for myself, at least to provide a place to go if my career stalls again, and the sad truth is that I can't afford it. I don't think I'd like it as a career either, or I'd have gone that way twenty years ago. But who says this is such a problem anyway?

Number 12
Because there’s no reason to stop adding to the list and I haven’t found anyone else to join in yet, another fabulous feature of Sydney is the Botanical Gardens, particularly the foreshore area from the Queen Elizabeth II Gate around Farm Cove and out to Mrs. Macquarie’s Chair. When you’re done with that, you can wander over to Woolloomooloo, a neighborhood particularly notable for its maximal use of the letter “O” (among other things).

In the Attic
They are creatures whose name says it all: Squirrels. I didn’t know Emerson was a fan. I guess he would have been operating before we knew about CJD.

Wormwood
Too bad the surgeons couldn’t remove his spleen, too.

Performance Enhancement
Speedo appears to be firmly out of the business of budgie-smuggler swimwear with its latest line of full-body suits, but there will still be those people on the beach whom it is better to ignore.

The Peasants Are Revolting
A shared pet peeve in our household is the ubiquity of those Che Guevara stencils. I’m relieved in a way to know that they are not just the logo of choice among (mostly) college students here, but do these people know whose face it is they’re wearing and what implications it has? Alberto Korda, the photographer who produced the original image, has said he doesn’t mind all the reproductions so long as are used to serve the ideals of the revolution, and with all the anarcho-syndicalists running around these days, maybe that’s what is taking place. But I doubt it.

Sydney, Continued
It may be too early to start another 10 places not to miss in Sydney, but it occurred to me last night that the Dixon House food court is one such less obvious of the city's amenities that should be on a list somewhere. No website, but anyway, yes, it is a food court, one of those places where vendors operating from cheek-by-jowl stalls serve out inexpensive meals quickly. This is not, however, your typical food court, as at some giant mall, where Pizza Hut and McDonalds dominate the offerings. This is Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Cambodian, Thai, Vietnamese, etc., all fresh, flavorful, and wokked out to you at incredibly low prices. The top dish: lahksa, a spicey Malaysian noodle soup. We only ever found one place in NYC that served it, and it wasn't very good. The lahksa at DHFC, on the other hand, is so good we can barely stand to go a week without one. Given the cafeteria ambiance and the close proximity of Chinatown, we usually get take-away. I admit I haven't tried the lahksa on offer anywhere else, but why bother?

RIP
Spaulding Grey is dead, apparently a suicide. It’s very sad. Swimming to Cambodia was terrific, and I regret never having gone to see him perform live, now more than ever. His work produced its imitators, but nobody I can think of ever matched the content.

Top Ten
I haven’t been keeping up with the Manhattan User’s Guide, but I did have to review their latest offering: a selection of 10 Great Things about the city as seen by some local ‘bloggers. Entertaining, and an interesting idea for some Sydney content. I don’t think there are any local ‘bloggers following this (mostly just Yahoo searches for crossword puzzles), so I’ll have to poll my friends. Is it fair to eliminate the easy ones?
1. the Harbour Bridge.
2. the Opera House.
3. Bondi. An obvious choice, but the surf is excellent, the sand is clean, and the amenities are all in place.
4. Thai food. Outside of Thailand itself, I’ve never had tastier, fresher southeast Asian food.
5. Mardi Gras. Sure, it was two weeks after everyone else had their parties, but this year 300,000 people turned up for the parade even in the pouring rain. Spectacular. I’m really glad they got the money to keep this up.
6. Govinda’s. Dinner and a nearly first-run movie in comfort and style, courtesy of the Krishnas.
7. Gleebooks. The best bookstore in the city.
8. the Sydney Swans. Does this count? Really, it’s AFL I enjoy. The Swans are therefore the default team for me. You can have one of the others.
9. Coogee Yes, another beach. There are a lot of them, and they’re terrific.
10. Sydney Explorer Bus Tour. It’s hop on-hop off, there’s a terrible taped commentary, but it goes places and lets you see things you might miss otherwise. Also the Bondi Explorer, which I’ve actually taken (twice now) and will probably take again.

Is It Bad to Enjoy a Comic Strip That Isn’t Even Published Anymore?
There are three games existing right now that bear a striking resemblance to Calvinball: one is cricket, because you can’t understand the rules and it has wickets; one is Australia Rules Football, because you can’t understand the rules and it uses flags; and the other is rugby, because you can’t understand the rules and people get really badly hurt sometimes. Sadly, none include the use of a mask. (Thanks to Metafilter, as always.)

What If They’re Vinyl?
The 100 albums you should remove from your collection immediately complied on Jaquaro is comprised of the blindingly obvious, some home truths, and many historical revisionist assessments. Nix Transformer or Hunky Dory? Are you kidding? And I’m keeping all the jazz I have on this list (no, I don’t have Bitches Brew, which only leaves the Coltrane anyway; says something, doesn’t it?).

Out
Eliot Spitzer has made what I think is probably the best response to the issue of allowing same-sex marriages that I’ve heard so far, short of granting the licenses that is. It’s not entirely weasely to leave it to the courts, even if it might seem that way at first glance, because he’s looking to the law the way it needs to be examined, and for which adequate methods of challenge exist toward changing it. Until George II legislates his version of morality, that is.

Whose Sydney
Sydney is divided into local councils, and the NSW government has just forced two of them to merge: South Sydney (where I live) and City of Sydney. The two council governments have been dissolved and elections will soon be held to form the new membership, including a new Lord Mayor. The rationale is simple: NSW wants fewer councils because they cost money. But there’s more to it than that. The NSW government is headed by the Labour Party, but City of Sydney was Liberal. By merging the city with South Sydney, a Labour bastion and more populous to boot, NSW hopes to force a Labour Council into place with their mayoral candidate, Michael Lee, thereby giving their development plans – for Sydney’s foreshore, for example – a nod-and-a-wink edge over any potential opposition and getting the tax revenue this will occasion. Bob Carr appears to be having trouble managing Sydney’s growth, and this council merger appears to me to give him an easy out. Development will be funded by the richer city tax base at the expense of the Labour Party electorate’s standards of living in South Sydney. Enter Clover Moore, an independent and perennial thorn in Carr’s side. If I had a vote, that’s where I’d put mine. I like the idea of spiking irresponsible development plans by an underhanded state government, and I like Moore herself, not least for her proposal to end the sale of animals in pet stores, a practice well-known for its cruelty.

The Factory Floor
I must have the most interesting job in the world that isn’t in IT but pretends to be while at the same time also not being part of HR. Is there even a name for what I do? So far there isn’t anything that makes sense, at least not to anyone who hasn’t made up the title in the first place. I’ve been a Human Resources Information System Analyst, but I’m not a systems analyst, which is a specific IT role; I’ve been a Business Process Engineer, but I’m not an engineer, which is someone who drives a train or has an advanced degree that I’m not even going to pretend to understand, although it sometimes involves building things, often bridges; and now I’m an HR Analyst, but I don’t do any recruiting, appointments, or “employee relations” (which is where you’d expect the analysis part, except it’s not that kind; you need a PhD to be an analyst, unless you’re just a social worker, and then you can do it with a Master’s). I like Business Process Engineer best, so far, because it sounds the most like something is getting done that isn’t just data entry. Of course, back when I started down this path, data entry was the biggest part of what I did, but that soon changed to getting the data back out in new and interesting ways. As this function became something businesses saw as valuable to their bottom line, lots of software was developed to help, one of the biggest now being “PeopleSoft,” which from the fact of their name should have been a dud, but they were clever, the software is pretty good, and they reputedly got their start by landing the U.S. Department of Defense as a client. Lots of little players are still out there, although following PeopleSoft’s acquisition of J. D. Edwards last year, it looks like the latest round of big-fish-little-fish is well underway. Sometimes, though, the big fish have eyes bigger than their mouths, as with Oracle’s attempt at a hostile takeover of PeopleSoft. Oracle, PeopleSoft, and SAP form the top three big-business ERP software providers, so it’s no wonder that the Justice Department has finally come out against the merger on anti-trust grounds. Given that many States are PeopleSoft clients and had filed suit themselves, I’m only surprised it took this long. At least it keeps me in business, even if no one knows what I do for a living.

Projection
If there’s any merit in digital photography separate from analog, it’s the ease with which projects like Sky Hi make it on to the internet. (Via Idle Type.) Well, that and The Lord of the Rings

School Days
Ah, March and the first days of autumn. The light, the air: I hearken back to the first days of a new school year. Sure, all the kids here have been back for two months now (and taking up more than their fair share of space on the trains, especially with those gigantic daypack bookbags they all carry now – don’t they know about wagging off homework?), but my senses have been blunted from years of northern seasonal change. That would be “honed,” but everything’s backwards now, not to mention undeciduous, so I’m left without some cues. Luckily, Australian school children all wear uniforms, so they serve a similar purpose to that of migratory birds: sudden flocks appear and you know a new school year has begun, just as you know winter approaches when the sky is studded with V’s of geese, starlings, etc. Now the air clears as the heat abates and a week of rain washes out the humidity of the summer. It will get warm again, but not those high-30’s temperatures that afflict even the Harbour and Beach suburbs, let alone the Outer West, and before long it will be possible to wear a jacket when going out in the evening. Football has started up, too, both “footie,” i.e., AFL and rugby, although it’s still pre-season for the Swans, et al. Before I lost my job last year, I had considered signing up for membership at the club, but it appears I’ll have to wait a bit before I go down that path. It doesn’t come with much besides cheap tickets anyway. Perhaps I’ll just head to a Rabbitohs match and round out my sporting experience of Australia.

What’s in Town
City Data offers demographic data about cities all over the U.S. Who would have guessed there was so much hazardous waste lying around in Bay Shore (but not as much as some places upstate)?

Downtown
I live just south and a bit east of Sydney’s central business district, but when I head for the harbour or the Opera House, I’m going “downtown.” That isn’t the way locals speak, but after so long in NYC, my sense of any city is predicated on direction. It’s all turned around, though, because “downtown” Sydney would be “uptown” if I oriented myself according to the cardinal points of the compass, which was certainly part of my thinking back in the States. I’m sure this is an idiosyncrasy; other cities’ residents probably orient themselves according to whatever physical features form directional landmarks. Because NYC, above 14th Street, anyway, is set out on a grid, north-south-east-west are relevant (essentially: the geophysical orientation isn’t precise). Still, north as “up” and south as “down” is a Eurocentric point of view, one that’s become commonly shared. Not by all, it appears, and I’d like to get one of these “upside down maps” (Metafilter, being fun and useful again) and reorient my mind.
Postscript: so-called upside down maps are available from the Map Centre in Parramatta by email. There are three: one small laminated version, and two paper wall maps, one with Steve Irwin but also a relief version on the reverse.

Water Purification
I love a sunburnt country as much as anyone, but the ongoing drought raises many concerns and causes much head-scratching over solutions. Grey water - the re-use of water from the shower, bath, or laundry, etc. - offers a good deal of potential for making more intelligent use of fresh water resources, so I was fairly excited to see this new toilet design on Beyond Brilliance, Beyond Stupidity. There are some ergonomic problems, but it's still good thinking.

Ballot Stuff
It’s times like this I’d like a scanner, but I’d probably go well overboard if I was putting pictures here as well as text. Anyway, I’ve now voted in the New York State Presidential Primary via absentee ballot, the instructions for which include (in English, Spanish, and Chinese) explicit examples of how to FILL IN THE OVAL on the electronically readable form. Why are the choices “Thomas Edison” and “Amelia Earhart” and why is the oval filled in for Edison? Is this an example of male bias in the political process or because Earhart was lost at sea and wouldn’t be able to serve anyway? Anyway, isn’t it fun that I get to vote for two sets of delegates? God only knows what will happen to the ¼ sent from Australia, but I’m sending Dean’s delegates in if my vote counts for anything. I am interested to know if I’ll automatically get sent a ballot for the November election, too, or if I have to request it specially: they appear to think I still live in NYC.

Death on Long Island
Oops, the movie is “Love and Death. . . .” But is it true that the Plum Island Research Center is the source of Lyme disease and West Nile virus in the United States? Did the ticks take the ferry? (From the Guerrilla News Network, whoever they are, via Follow Me Here.) Let’s spread rumors.

The Future Is Now
I hope you’ve got your stock portfolio in order and are following the recommendations on your 401(k), because if you’ve been counting on Social Security, you can stop now. Those of us twenty years or more from retirement who are paying in to the system cannot expect this program to survive long enough to see any of it back. Does that mean we’ll stop paying? Of course not. This is, essentially, an unfunded pension plan, and the money has to come from somewhere, and it surely won’t come from spending cuts on other programs, like going to war in Iraq. Bush’s stated position is an empty promise. Australia’s superannuation fund is likewise unfunded, but at least it’s also invested, so in a strong market there’s a chance for it to pay for itself. Not that it does.

Spheres of Influence
Unlike the last Haitian conflict, George II won’t send troops to assist the democratically elected President, Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in quelling the civil disorder that now threatens his government, at least not until the rebels have been subdued by Aristide’s police or they are successful and have overthrown him. Once a political solution has been achieved, then the U.S. may send the Marines. We’ve been here before, and for the same Haitian President, but like the 1994 election, the results in 2000 are contested, this time, it appears, popularly and against Aristide, and four years is a long time to wait for the situation to be resolved. I suppose the U.S. has been busy elsewhere since the last election, and our troops are spread a bit thinly these days. Still, it’s rather ungracious of us to simply say “Don’t even think about coming here” to the inoffensive people stuck in the middle. American policy toward legitimate refugees from even its immediate neighbors has been harsh and doesn’t look to open up any time soon.

Art and the Built Environment
Last night we attended the opening of a new media art installations show, Spikes, which is meant to explore the relationships between humankind, technology, and the environment. Our friend Astrid Spielman was one of the artists, with two installations, and as has been my experience, hers were the centerpieces, even if the weather didn’t cooperate with the one projected on the university tower. That projection, of a life-size tree growing in the Tarquin Forest of Tasmania, is the kind of installation art I particularly enjoy: it engages its audience, offering participation without requiring it. We’ll have to go back when the rain clears off, but it’s only there for a week. We also scored one of the show posters, very high quality, and I’ll have to see about having it signed before we frame it. Now what I’d really like is an Astrid Spielman solo show.

Stupid
Maybe I shouldn’t have said “stupid,” as it seems to have put some people on the back foot. The proposal by Orrin Hatch now being promoted by Arnold Schwarzenegger to allow a foreign-born President has at its root the desire to see a conservative Republican popularly elected (without the intervention of the Supreme Court, that is). My guess is that Senator Hatch doesn’t see George II lasting much longer and figures Arnie as having a good chance in 2008 (whether against Kerry/Edwards or Hilary Clinton, the latter of whom probably scares him very much indeed). That we have a clause in the Constitution prohibiting an alien President is really only there with the excuse that a generational commitment to citizenship is demonstrative of having the best interests of the Union in mind and so that no foreign prince could ascend the American “throne,” but I doubt Schwarzenegger would attempt to merge Austria and the U.S. or install a Hapsburg over us, so it may be that there are other, sufficient clauses in the Constitution to protect the nation from such eventualities. Godel may have formed a mathematical proof that the U.S. Constitution allows for the imposition of a fascist dictatorship, but again, despite his admiration for Kurt Waldheim, I don’t think Arnie’s going there, much as I suspect Hatch, Bush, Cheney, et al. of being desirous of such an alteration, in form if not in name. What I do think is pretty stupid, though, is that we continue to allow these things to happen. Schwarzenegger is a clever man – his political skills were honed in body-building competitions, where he was famous for being able to psychologically devastate his foes – but I doubt his skills as a chief executive. In fact, I think it gives him too much credit to suggest that he even had extensive input into his own campaign for governor. He is a tool: personable and willing, certainly, as is George II; but nothing more, as is the case with George II. Both men were elected and neither deserved it. Undermining the Constitution would continue the stupidity, whether by amending it to create a charismatic candidate from an Austrian actor or by the Supreme Court acting beyond the scope of its powers (let’s not even mention “activist judges,” o.k.?). Unfortunately – and this is the really stupid part – too many Americans don’t hold their representatives in government to a sufficiently high standard; they’re not even voting. The usual rule is that 10% of a population cause 90% of the problems, but we appear to be operating in the reverse. If only 20% vote, we can’t expect a worthwhile result. Davis may not have been much better in office than a carved block of wood and Gore may have exhibited campaigning skills of a similar order, but if we’re not more of us out there at every election and paying attention to what’s going on in between, we might as well have that dictatorship, fascist, Hapsburg, or Bush.

Bonjour
The Aussie lass is back in France, avec son chat.

Two Americas
Who’s right? Are globalization and the Bush tax cuts making Americans better off, or has the country put all its eggs in a 19th century basket only to have them whisked away to China and India? When telecommunications companies put their call centers in Calcutta and every toy on the market is manufactured in China, a pair of Rockports on sale probably isn’t enough to change my mind on the issue. Although I’m just as threatened by globalization as the next person, I also recognize it as inevitable. We can just allow it to happen as it will, or we can try to direct the course of economic events to benefit larger numbers of people. Bush won’t do the latter, because the former is more likely to work to his personal advantage, but maybe Kerry/Edwards will.

Comp. Lit.
Words Without Borders is making an effort at promoting literature of the non-English speaking world in translation, and there appears to be quite a lot here worth looking into (from Outside of a Dog, located via Outside Counsel. It’s surprising to me, though, that even with Chinua Achebe on the board, there’s nothing from Africa, despite all the Senegalese, Cameroonian, and other Francophone African authors. Perhaps it’s because Ousmane Sembene works in film these days, Camera Laye is dead, and Mr. Achebe writes in English to begin with?

Too Much Time Online
I’m not sure anymore how I found the Cassandra Pages, but I’ve been enjoying hearing about winter, among other things, the latest of which is a poetic rumination on the light in February. Very pretty, and a regular, now, as are (is?) the Coffee Sutras, which I enjoy as much for it’s name as for its contemplative entries.

Nickles & Dimes
Only 10 states out of 50 in the U.S. have a deposit bottle law on the books, a program not present in New South Wales, but one I’d like to see introduced here sooner rather than later. Bottlers are getting US$85 million in unclaimed deposits, so there’s probably enough to go around over and above the benefits to the environment and to consumers. The program is terrifically successful, by my assessment, and we’d surely benefit here, too, if I judge the number of empties lying around correctly. I’m surprised it isn’t more common in the U.S., for that matter. I remember when I went to Michigan, the first place I saw the recycling deposit law in action, the streets were cleaner, and once it was in place in NY, the entrepreneurial spirit that engaged so many of the city’s poor was nearly incredible. 5¢ doesn’t get you very far in many places, and twenty cans is only a dollar, so you need over 200 to get a pack of cigarettes. That’s a lot of bottles and cans, and you’ll need to spend some time and effort to amass that supplement to your dole check. Before bottlers and supermarkets cry poor, have another look at what’s required of them – they’ve adapted quite well, I’d say. Maybe it’s time to share.

The Golden City
Pictures of Sydney. My favorites vary in color and tone.

All the Cool Art Projects Are Taken
Why didn’t I think of this? Maybe because I don’t live in the Niagara-Mohawk area?

Bomb the Ionosphere
So now weather is a national security concern? Actually, I see the point here: environmental change will surely wreak havoc on areas already operating at a sufficiently marginal level in many respects, not least being agriculture, obviously, and people unable to feed themselves are going to want to go elsewhere, not to mention that there will always be those who seize wield power in order to benefit themselves alone, which will require despotism and will create even more refugees. The "Fortress Europe" problem will be exacerbated and expanded considerably, putting the more industrially developed on the receiving end of many, many poor and desperate people. It will also make those nations more likely targets of the wrath of the underpriveleged. Too bad about the Kyoto Accords now; I hear those Blackhawk helicoptors don't work so well in harsh conditions.

President Schwarzenegger Saves the Union
It makes me foam at the mouth when that body-builder steroid case opens his mouth, although I save most of my invective for the moronic Californians who put him in office, and now I have to listen to him push for a Constitutional amendment that could put him in the White House? Isn’t it bad enough to hear him compare gay marriage to assault guns and heroin? Is America getting stupider since George II or was this happening before?