Latest News
- North Korea's Kim pledges to remove nuclear weapons
- China builds lighthouse to back East China Sea claim
- Iran's resistance keeps up cat-and-mouse web game
- Chavez declares "electricity emergency" in Venezuela
- Ukraine awaits Tymoshenko concession or legal fight
- Yemen al Qaeda urges jihad, wants Red Sea blocked
- Palestinians set terms for talks as violence flares
- Pressure grows for Iran sanctions over atomic plans
- Haiti studies Colombian town for quake rebuilding
- Israeli police raid Palestinian refugee camp
- Study shows why it is so scary to lose money
- Shuttle Endeavour blasts off for space station
- Scientists find gene variant link to ageing cells
- Space shuttle launch reset for early Monday
- Shuttle set for Sunday launch amid space plan shift
- Arctic climate changing faster than expected
- Russian cargo ship docks at International Space Station
- Test of "artificial pancreas" offers diabetes hope
- Pluto turning brighter and redder, pictures show
- "Big Bang" collider may reveal mystery particle
- Sea Level Rises and Falls
- Arctic climate changing fast
- Alternative Energy Grows in Europe
- California's global-warming law Under Attack
- Genes. Spots and Butterflies
- Biodiversity loss matters, communication is crucial
- Biodiversity loss matters, and communication is crucial
- Arctic Ice not growing as fast as usual this winter
- Canadian Company Strikes Natural Gas - Off Israel’s Coast
- How to Feed the Billions
- Iran's resistance keeps up cat-and-mouse web game
- China plans online gambling crackdown
- Barnes & Noble's Nook e-reader to hit stores
- Disney, Google eye stake in China bus media firm
- Internet prompts the publishing itch in over-60s
- NetEase suspends new user registration for hit game
- Amazon reshelves Macmillan titles but not e-books
- China shuts down largest hacker training website
- Amazon reshelves Macmillan titles but not e-books
- Facebook removes Microsoft banner ads from site
- A tough act to swallow
- Tourist's texts to Greece save him in New Zealand
- Broadcaster fined over killing a rat on TV show
- No dressing down for banker in TV supermodel email blunder
- Critics trash McDonald's nationalist food bid
- Ancient dialect extinct after last speaker dies
- Woman seeks "Jessica Alba" makeover to win back lover
- Camel burger newest "healthy" option on Dubai menu
- Banker red-faced over racy photo
- Drunk driver had 49 children in 16-seat taxi
- Postions Vacant At ANTaR
- ANTaR Makes Australia Day Call for A Year of Re-commitment to Addressing the Unfinished Business of ‘Reconciliation’
- Remote Indigenous Services report welcomed
- ANTaR welcomes the end Perth native title litigation
- Concerns remain about the Northern Territory Emergency Response
- Racial Discrimination Act changes crucial to re-engage Aboriginal communities in the Northern Territory
- Forming alliances the only solution
- "A Better Way" for NT Aboriginal communities
- Sober up the man: the wife wins. Sober up the wife: the children win.
An Inconvenient Truth
I am a bit bored with wingnuts attempting to discredit Al Gore.
They tried to "bag" him for his role in getting the internet going. Well, bad luck, in the 1980s, the internet was just a few computers wired up in the Pentagon for research. As a senator, Al Gore sponsored the very first bill to turn it into a much wider “information superhighway.” Vincent Cerf, who is widely regarded as the technological founder of the internet, has publicly said that it is thanks to Gore that the internet is used by all of us today. So when Gore said in a 1997 interview that he “took the initiative” in making the internet possible, it was true. The other Gore “lies” have equally impressive truths behind them.
Site update
Well there you go!
I have just updated the site to the latest version of Drupal. The only thing left to do is to update the theme that is the base for the theming of the site. It's not a major issue so I'm putting it off for the moment...
Another page...
Hey! What's going on...
This is Tracey reading a book. Proving that she can leave the computer screen...
When she is onscreen she thinks it's important to keep an eye on...
Getup
Rant space
Given that every man, woman - and a range of what are obviously aliens - can write whatever they want to on the interblog, then, thought I , why not me.
I too can be opinionated and biassed. I may not approach the lofty peaks of self-satisfied bigotry of an Andrew Bolt or a Piers Ackerman but I can try...
Q & A with Dr Yu No Fat
Q: Doctor, I've heard that cardiovascular exercise can prolong life. Is this true?
A: Your heart is only good for so many beats, and that's it... don't waste them on exercise. Everything wears out eventually. Speeding up your heart will not make you live longer; that's like saying you can extend the life of your car by driving it faster. Want to live longer? Take a nap.
Q: Should I cut down on meat and eat more fruits and vegetables?
A: You must grasp logistical efficiencies. What does a cow eat? Hay and corn. And what are these? Vegetables. So a steak is nothing more than an efficient mechanism of delivering vegetables to your system. Need grain? Eat chicken. Beef is also a good source of field grass (green leafy vegetable). And a pork chop can give you 100% of your recommended daily allowance of vegetable products.
Q: Should I reduce my alcohol intake?
A: No, not at all. Wine is made from fruit. Brandy is distilled wine, that means they take the water out of the fruity bit so you get even more of the goodness that way. Beer is also made out of grain. Bottoms up!
Q: How can I calculate my body/fat ratio?
A: Well, if you have a body and you have fat, your ratio is one to one. If you have two bodies, your ratio is two to one, etc.
Comfort Butterfly
Ludwig sent me a link to the amnesty internationals campaign in support of the comfort women who were used as sex slaves during the second world war.
As a result I have created a couple of butterflies to show my solidarity. here it is if you want to make one the address is here.
The trouble with apture -Redux
Apture seems a fine way of doing a lot of fast linking to things like maps, encyclopedias and other reference materials.
The problems were solved (it was Firefox - updated version is good-o)
PS I've STILL got a picture of a finger monkey
A Paltridge in a pear tree
The Climate Change Denialists are scraping the bottom of the barrel now. They are touting Garth Paltridge as their latest weapon against the Alarmists.
I wonder how many of them have actually read anything that he has said - aside from the cover blurbs of course?
I haven't read his book. I have read extracts from it, have listenedd to him talking on the ABC, watched him on YouTube and read a few letters to papers he has written.
Apture back on track...
Apture is a newish technology that allows one to have inline references and links. We were having some problems integrating it with the editors we use on this site, as mentioned in a previous post. However it turned out that it was a browser issue. We upgraded to Firefox 3.5.2 and the issue went away.
The following Apture (embed) tells part of the story...
Oooh! My first blog entry...
This is my first blog entry on upstarts. I am using it to find out how to get rss feeds happening so that they cross over into facebook.
I really hope this works.
All this playing around has given us a better understanding of how facebook works at any rate so all is not lost. :-)
Pfoofing with Pfacebook
Working out what can be passed between our Drupal based website and Facebook is sort of driving me mental.
Well I was well there to start with you might say but nonetheless it is an exercise infrustration because both applications keep changing their codebase.
Persistence is not futile
We continue...
Stop censorship of the Internet in Australia
The Australian Federal Government is currently deciding whether or not to "censor" internet access in Australia.
I think that this is a very bad idea.
Getup are running a campaign to let the government know what people like me think about it. I encourage you to use their resource which I have embedded here.
Where has...gone?
Upstarts used to host two sites that still attract many enquiries:
1. "Whales of Australia" was a guide to whales and whale watching in Australia. It has not been maintained for nearly three years.
2. "IDEAS Magazine" was a magazine of social commentary. It has not been maintained for about four years. if you are trying to access previously viewed articles - or just want to know what it was about - a version from about 1998 is archived under the PANDORA project of the National Library of Australia. (http://pandora.nla.gov.au/nph-arch/O1998-Mar-12//http://www.upstarts.net...)
Art & Architecture
I'm not sure what's going on. Well in fact it is beyond not being sure; I absolutely do not know what is going on. I am presented by what purports to be art; but looks to me like a hurriedly completed assignment of early childhood. I have new buildings pointed out to me that apparently exemplify modern architecture; and all I can see is a purposeless experimentation with "Lego™" blocks.
Now that's all well and good but, as my daughter and I agreed, why fix what isn't broken? Driving around Canberra we can see many buildings that look good and are well sited. The East and West buildings on Anzac Parade are classically beautiful. But then we see new building - such as the ones near the Casino, that look like packing crates stacked up.
