"Melbourne the food capital of Australia? Yes - and things just got a lot better." (Age)
I shouldn't read things like this when we're about to head into winter over here.
(And my lovely, lovely brother just humoured me by acting out sudo with me)
"The debate about religious freedom versus society's norms has strong similarities to a row that engulfed England in the 16th Century, says Steve Tomkins." (BBC)
"It is the 21st century, and we are all each other's Hummel figurines." (Wired)
Two blogs I have been enjoying lately are design dyke and boicozine. The Antimix Podcasts at boicozine are particularly excellent.
An article on the state of satire in Australia contained this line, which made me wonder exactly how bad are things over there:
"Because the Government and the Opposition agree - the ABC is too "leftist". This is a landmark moment in Australian political classification."
Winter is definitely coming. It's going to be grey and rainy and cold and damp and miserable for months. Last night's sunset was spectacular - the sky was filled with gold - but it was dark really early.
But, in cheery geek news, students in Australia are coming up with innovative applications for mobile phone-based technologies.
Blah blah blah. But maybe it'll keep the yuppies out of Hackney:
"'Hackney came bottom of all of the country's 434 local authorities in a survey that examined local crime statistics with environment issues, lifestyles, exam results and employment rates for locals,' said Phil Spencer, co-presenter with Kirstie Allsopp of Location, Location, Location" (Observer)
Another viewpoint via the BBC.
US in good taste shocker:
"The US has banned Vegemite, even to the point of searching Australians for jars of the spread when they enter the country." (news.com.au)
I love phpMyAdmin's Bookmarked SQL queries.
I found this snippet of sql that closes comments on blog posts that are more than 14 days old somewhere, but couldn't remember where. Luckily, I'd stored it as a bookmark on the SQL tab of the table interface.
And for reference, the code is below. Change the interval to suit.
UPDATE mt_entry SET entry_allow_comments = 2, entry_allow_pings = 0 WHERE entry_created_on < date_add(curdate(), interval -14 day)
Why yes, I *am* a grumpy old woman. Though I can't see how you could enforce it, given how scared Londoners are of talking to each other.
"A commuter has started a petition calling for a ban on playing music on mobile phones on London buses.
Tom Wright said he is fed up with being forced to listen to other people's music on public transport." BBC
Lovely news on a Friday afternoon:
"Australia's state of Tasmania has unveiled a AU$5m (£2m) compensation plan for Aborigines removed from their families as children by the government.
The proposed bill - a first of its kind in Australia - offers one-off payments to the so-called "stolen generation"." BBC
PostgreSQL vs. SQL Server, Oracle
I'd like to see a comparison with MySQL on similar terms, but that's possibly only because PostgreSQL admins tend to be more beardy and grumpy than any others. More rationally, I suppose MySQL tends to be a little more accessible and has become a de facto standard as part of LAMP applications.
It's a shame they don't expand on 'somewhat more limited' stored procedures, because they can be such an important DBA/developer tool, particularly in a multi-tier environment.
And while Microsoft have some good tools, they also have lots that suck. And Oracle's tools are ok but are supplemented by free or cheap third-party tools.
About time, too: "The train network in London is to adopt the Underground's zone layout to simplify the fare structure.
The move will pave the way for Oyster smart cards to be rolled out across the railway system from January." BBC
But on the other hand, poor old London: "Al-Qaeda has become more organised and sophisticated and has made Britain its top target, counter-terrorism officials have told the BBC." BBC
"The birds and the bees may be gay, according to the world's first museum exhibition about homosexuality among animals.
...
"Homosexuality has been observed for more than 1,500 animal species, and is well documented for 500 of them."" Reuters
"Advertisers love skinny models, but women see real body shapes as healthier, more credible and smarter, say researchers
...
New research has found that instead of being admired by women, excessively slender models are regarded as less ethical, knowledgeable and truthful than their larger peers" Observer
Cute story, if you like kids and stuff like that: "Albert Park Primary is one of more than 30 schools encouraging students to travel using some form of sustainable transport instead of the family car." Age
I'm back in London. It's a long trip back from Ireland by train and ferry, but it was nicer than flying.
One brother is back in Bristol, the other is staying with me for a few days. I said goodbye to Mum and Dad in Ireland, I'll probably see them as they pass through London on their way back home. They have to stay in Ireland until Mum has another x-ray so I'll know more after that.
The drive from Kilkenny to Wexford was quite nice. We passed through Inistioge, which is an almost-too-pretty village in a lovely valley setting.
We're in Kilkenny, and will head to Wexford tonight. We couldn't find anywhere affordable to stay in Rosslare so we'll get a mini-cab to the port from Wexford.
Last night I went out for dinner with my brothers and then we found a pub with live music (trad Irish). It was actually a pretty good night until the band finished and we went to the disco upstairs. I wouldn't last a week living in a small town like this, based on that disco. Still, the crowd in the pub was good value - there was a group of girls out for a night out who sang along to all the songs and actually offered more entertainment than the band.
We were in Cashel the night before, but I didn't get to see the Rock of Cashel cos Mum's cast was tight overnight, and her IV puncture was infected, so we took her to the hospital again. She's fine, but needs to be careful to keep her foot elevated all the time. Being Mum, she was trying to see and do too much still.
They'll probably have to head straight back to Australia after her x-ray appointment in Waterford on the 18th. She says they'll be back in Europe next year, but I'm not going to hold my breath.
What a day.
To put it in context, I was visiting Mum in hospital. She's broken a bone in her right ankle and is in a cast, but should be out tomorrow. They didn't need to operate cos they're trying to manipulate the bones through the skin first.
So much for touring Ireland! We might get to Borris and some of Kerry but it's going to be very different. It'll affect the rest of her holiday - no hiking in Eastern Europe for us - but at least she's ok.
We actually had a good day together, the nurses let me stay through non-visiting hours so we had a good catch-up.
The poor nun was in the bed opposite. She has dementia, and was distressed because she'd been waiting for an operation all day. The tubes into her arm and nose kept bothering her, and at other times she was desperately looking after some cotton swabs she thought were matches. It was pretty upsetting watching her, I hope she has her operation and gets some rest soon.
It's been a long time coming:
"Judges, police officers and prosecutors will attend sex-assault seminars under radical reforms to be introduced to NSW Parliament.
...
Industry experts believe an increase of 41 per cent in callers who were sexually assaulted as children shows victims feel they are now more likely to be treated with respect, the newspapers said." (Age)
"A waiter who looked like a guard from a hospital for the criminally insane would hand you a menu the size of a book of wallpaper samples. Slowly it would become clear that the items described did not constitute a list of items for sale, just a kind of collective folk memory of the entire Russian nation on the subject of food.
Trying to tease out of your server the one or two dishes that were actually available nearly always took longer than the process of eating dinner itself." BBC
It's about the old Russia, but I found that it still applies in the smaller cities of Ukraine.
I'm off to Ireland tomorrow. Instead of flying, I'm trying the Sail Rail deal. It's £45 return for a train and ferry from London to Rosslare, which has already saved me the cost of getting to an airport, let alone the flight and charges. It'll take longer, but I'll see parts of England I've never seen, and I don't have to squeeze into a Ryanair tin can, and I can take whatever the hell I like on board. If it's a rough crossing I may regret it but so far it's looking good.
I'll be travelling with my entire family, visiting places our ancestors came from. If I survive, I'll be back next Sunday.
Looking for more on "Is Not" led me to gridskipper melbourne and then to a blog about squid. Truly the internet is wonderful.
I wish I could see this: "Is Not is "uniquely Melburnian", its designers claim, because of the centralised, pedestrian-friendly nature of the city and the relative abundance of bill-postering sites." (Age)
Last night I went to see Self-sufficient at Foster Art, and the opening of the Kinetica Museum at Spitalfields. The Amorphic Robot Works wasn't working last night but should be today. Some of the pieces in the Upper Gallery were fantastic.
"A YouGov survey to be published tomorrow will show 3% of people have already stopped flying and another 10% have cut down because of concerns about climate change." Times
"We're Greenpeace, and we want a fresh green Apple.
Right now, poison Apples full of chemicals (like toxic flame retardants, and polyvinyl chloride) are being sold worldwide. When they're tossed, they usually end up at the fingertips of children in China, India and other developing-world countries. They dismantle them for parts, and are exposed to a dangerous toxic cocktail that threatens their health and the environment."
Write to Apple to demand they:
via greenmyapple.
I added this to the form letter part:
"I've been a Mac fan for a long time, and I was really disturbed to learn that Apple scored so badly on environmental impact. As much as I've loved my Macs, if I have to choose between my green values and my Mac, my green values are going to win."
A random search for 'yappy dog' lead to payattention.org.
wufoo.com for online form building seems pretty cool, though only basic functionality is free.