The 26 of January is Australia Day but Australia Day is no 4th of July. Infact, I have grown a mild apathy towards it bordering on hostility in recent times. Australia day celebrates the landing of the First Fleet on Australia soil in 1788, only twelve years after the American Declaration of Independence was signed. … Continue reading »
The many ways to be a Punk
So I was sifting through the Reference section at the local second-hand bookshop the other lunchbreak ago when I came across Paul Dickson’s (1982) A Connoisseur’s Collection of Old and New, Weird and Wonderful, Useful and Outlandish Words. As the title aptly suggests, this book is a strange, weird and wonderful collection of words that have either been forgotten or … Continue reading »
The Curmudgeon Traveller: Battle Plans, France
Gone are the days of wanderlust, where I’d pack my bags and set off on an adventure with a wish, a prayer and a plane ticket. The haggling over change, the squabbles to turn on the taxi-meter, the inevitable Bali-belly and the self-medicated ‘more alcohol’ cure that never seemed to work have all but lost their shimmer in … Continue reading »
2011 in review – hoping to increase followers in 2012
The WordPress.com stats helper monkeys prepared a 2011 annual report for this blog. Here’s an excerpt: The concert hall at the Syndey Opera House holds 2,700 people. This blog was viewed about 10,000 times in 2011. If it were a concert at Sydney Opera House, it would take about 4 sold-out performances for that many … Continue reading »
BP stare-down Halliburton: Glass-houses maybe?
In September 2010 I blogged about The Impact of the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill, which has turned out to be my most viewed blog post to date. One thing that struck me when conducting my research was that each company involved in this catastrophic event blamed the other. What this showed, even to a dilettante … Continue reading »
Be a Happy Scrooge this Christmas
I was reading Peg-o-Leg’s Ramblings blog post, a humorous entry about last-minute gift ideas for the Ebenezer’s amongst us. She provided some hilarious suggestions, such as a library book accompanied by a lecture on the benefits of recycling; or a simple key, preferrable an old one, and definitely not a car key, to that special person … Continue reading »
Higher Education News Wrap Up 15 December to 21 December 2011
Graduate Careers Australia survey report Graduate Careers Australia released its annual survey data on graduate employment for 2011. (Summary of report here) Around 168,000 graduates participated in the survey, which extended to four months beyond graduation. Key finds are as below: 76.6 per cent of the 2010 National Class found work by May 2011 – … Continue reading »
IBM Next 5 in 5 2011: Mind Reading and other neat stuff
IBM Next 5 in 5 2011 I was checking out some LinkedIn news today when I came across this article by Daniel Terdiman, about IBM’s annual five-year technology prediction, where five “game-changing” innovations are presented for their anticipated impact on modern-day life. According to IBM, “[w]e access not just the availability of a new technology … Continue reading »
O Leader, Dear Leader: A Poem
Today the world awakes to the news that one of the last tyrants has died. Kim Jong-Il was famous for many reasons: Most favorite to me, and my warped humor, was his strange fascination with Hollywood and of course the highly amusing portrayals of him in Southpark - he appeared nothing more than a strange old Asian … Continue reading »
Great Grandfather’s Photos Found
A series of unrelated events last night led me to find some previously unknown photos of my Great Granddad. Last night a book arrived in the post, Sir Ken Robinson’s “Out of our Minds”. My wife wanted to know who the author was and, being from China, what all the “Sir” business was about. While … Continue reading »
