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Tue, 10 Jul 2012 01:42:51 +0000
Top Crowdfunding Site Rankings Revealed

Image representing GoFundMe as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

The best of the crowdfunding websites have been ranked and announced by the Internetʼs top crowdfunding reviewer website. Www.Crowdfunding-Website-Reviews.com has reviewed and ranked Leverage PR and EquityNet.com . "These are the No. 1 sites out there," said Howard Orloff, president and founder of www. Crowdfunding-Website-Reviews.com . "If you are interested in crowdfunding either as an investor or someone seeking funds, these are the companies for you. They do everything right." GoFundMe - Top crowdfunding site GoFundMe earned 5 stars for the thee ranked categories of traffic, customer service and usability. GoFundMeʼs often has a heavy traffic load, which can work against some websites because it slows response times. GoFundMeʼs servers are capable of handling the load, according to Crowdfunding Reviews. The forums and community at GoFundMe were ranked "best."GoFundMe" is the crowdfunding company to watch," Mr. Orloff said.

 

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Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:45:40 +0000
Found Objects, Worldviews & High On A Hill

Winter of 1946–1947 in the United Kingdom

Image via Wikipedia

High On A Hill


Couple of things have been on my list of things that I have been
considering posting to the list over the past few days. Some different
topics, some directed to different people, though to the group
generally as well. Because that's how it works, eh.

Generally and specifically.

Concurrently.

Somewhat like, if you will imagine, first and third, with a weather
eye on second position.

Some topics that were generated as responses to posts on list. Some
topics from my day-to-day experiences. Some topics that were bought up
by friends on and off the net as being issues for them in recent
times. So here these subjects float in and around my brain,
occasionally bumping into the mundane activities that needs must be
carried out, and floating out into a wider orbit ... they will be
back, as surely as the sun will rise in the morning. Or so I believe.

 

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Sat, 11 Feb 2012 01:45:40 +0000
On Tweakers ... And Steve Jobs

Tweaker

Cover of Tweaker

 

I loved this piece on Tweakers - no not the meth addicts (as the Urban Dictionary points out is the name for these poor unfortunates) but the other kind. The kind who are never satisfied and look to improve even those things that are working.


Annals of Technology

The Tweaker

The real genius of Steve Jobs.

by November 14, 2011

Excerpt

One of the great puzzles of the industrial revolution is why it began in England. Why not France, or Germany? Many reasons have been offered. Britain had plentiful supplies of coal, for instance. It had a good patent system in place. It had relatively high labor costs, which encouraged the search for labor-saving innovations. In an article published earlier this year, however, the economists Ralf Meisenzahl and Joel Mokyr focus on a different explanation: the role of Britain’s human-capital advantage—in particular, on a group they call “tweakers.” They believe that Britain dominated the industrial revolution because it had a far larger population of skilled engineers and artisans than its competitors: resourceful and creative men who took the signature inventions of the industrial age and tweaked them—refined and perfected them, and made them work.

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Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:23:01 +0000
So You Don't Want A Carbon Tax

Coal power plant in Datteln (Germany) at the D...

Image via Wikipedia

I wrote this in response to receiving a mass email from a friend, advocating for people to return to sender, information from the government on the carbon tax. We have seen these kinds of emails in the past and we will see them in the future, no doubt.

I replied to the original email that this was a sad thing to be passing on and received a reply that had concerns and repeated some of the usual claims that we have heard that are quite deliberately being promoted but are basically bogus.

This is my reply to that.

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Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:23:01 +0000
The Lotus Eater

 

By W. Somerset Maugham

Most people, the vast majority in fact, lead the lives that circumstances have thrust upon them, and though some repine, looking upon themselves as round pegs in square holes, and think that if things had been different they might have made a much better showing, the greater part accept their lot, if not with serenity, at all events with resignation. They are like train-cars travelling forever on the selfsame rails. They go backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, inevitably, till they can go no longer and then are sold as scrap-iron. It is not often that you find a man who has boldly taken the course of his life into his own hands. When you do, it is worth while having a good look at him.

That was why I was curious to meet Thomas Wilson. It was an interesting and a bold thing he had done. Of course the end was not yet and until the experiment was concluded it was impossible to call it successful. But from what I had heard it seemed he must be an odd sort of fellow and I thought I should like to know him. I had been told he was reserved, but I had a notion that with patience and tact I could persuade him to confide in me. I wanted to hear the facts from his own lips. People exaggerate, they love to romanticize, and I was quite prepared to discover that his story was not nearly so singular as I had been led to believe.

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Wed, 05 Oct 2011 02:23:01 +0000
Hold That Smile - The Victorians

proxy?container=accel&gadget=www.howtobearetronaut.com&debug=0&nocache=0&v=ipv1rho3la66hjhv618cqdocfs&rooe=1&html_tag_context=img&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.howtobearetronaut.com%2Fwp-content%2Fuploads%2F2010%2F06%2FLoveday-Lemon-520x819.jpg

When Joseph-Nicephore Niepce took the first photograph in 1828, his photographic plate required an exposure of eight hours. That exposure time was drastically reduced across the course of the nineteenth century, so that by the 1890s the Collodion process had cut exposure times to two or three seconds.

Nevertheless, a three second exposure meant that subjects had to stand very still to avoid being blurred, and holding a smile for that period was tricky. As a result, we have a tendency to see our Victorian ancestors as even more formal and stern than they might have been.

The Smiling Victorians Gallery

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Sun, 03 Jul 2011 00:24:50 +0000
Is It Time To Divorce Your Self?

Article-0-07ea6225000005dc-69_468x320

Following on from the previous post on Happiness it occurs to me that sometimes it is our lack of Happiness that is the prompt for many a divorce. "I am not happy ... so it must be somethng you are doing that stops me from being happy." So we build an argument to support this idea and we set about fixing the situation. Voila! A new life and a clean start.

 

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Sat, 19 Mar 2011 05:39:54 +0000
Breathtaking Photographs: The world around us.......

Amazing Scanning Electron Microscope Photos... Awesome! All these pictures are from the book ' Microcosmos,' created by Brandon Brill from London. This book includes many scanning electron microscope (SEM) images of insects, human body parts and household items. These are the most amazing images of what is too small to see with the naked eye.

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An ant, Formica fusca, holding a microchip

 

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Mon, 13 Sep 2010 03:18:42 +0000
43rd Parliament: The Gillard Minority Government

Julia Gillard

Image via Wikipedia

Introduction

In the three weeks which have passed since Australia went to the polls most of us have figured out at least the following two things: that the 2010 federal election resulted in a hung parliament and that hung parliaments are not a rare occurrence in Australian politics. In fact they are not a rare occurrence in democratic nations worldwide. Between 1945 -1992 twenty-seven per cent of governments formed in western Europe were minority governments[1]. State legislatures in Australia are often run under minority government conditions. A hung parliament is, however, a rare occurrence at the Federal level of Australian politics, having resulted only once in the last 70 years. Thus I find myself wondering what it will mean for Federal government policy and there legislative realisations, which is what this article aims to shed some light on.

Hung Parliament – The basics

Academic commentators broadly refer to two situations in which a parliament is considered ‘hung’. The first occurs when no single political party commands a majority in the House Of Representatives. The second occurs when no single political party commands a majority in the Senate. In the context of the Australian Federal Parliament post election 2010 we find ourselves in a unique situation in which both houses of the parliament are hung. It is not uncommon, it fact it is more common than not, that no single party commands a majority in the Senate of the federal parliament in Australia. What is unique about our current political climate it that neither of the major parties has secured a majority in its own right in the House Of Representatives. This in turn means that neither party can form government, as a party must have a majority of votes to pass bills into legislation. If a party cannot pass an appropriation bill it cannot fund its policies and thus effectively cannot do, well, anything. A party must also secure a majority so that it can survive a motion of no confidence, as convention dictates the alternative requires an election be called.

In such circumstances it is necessary for the major parties to join forces with or otherwise enlist the support of smaller party members or independent members in order to form government. In his 1997 article Ward outlines two common models according to which minority governments are formed. The first model involves a coalition agreement which unites one of the major parties with one of the minor parties. Such an agreement enables the new coalition to act as a single majority party, using its majority to pass an appropriation bill and its pre-agreed legislative program. The second model Ward outlines is a government which does not itself control a majority of seats in the lower house but receives assurances from independents or other parties that they will support it on supply and confidence votes. The federal Labor government 2010 has been secured through a unique combination of agreements which is roughly consistent with the first model.

 

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Tue, 25 Jan 2011 11:14:32 +0000
The Federal Government Agreements: Part 3 – Bandt and the ALP

Necessitas

Image by linkwize via Flickr

The 2010 Federal Election resulted in a minority Labour government. You may recall the seventeen days of negotiations it took before Julia Gillard and the Australian Labor Party (the ALP) could form government with the support of Greens MP Adam Bandt and Independent MP’s Andrew Wilkie, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor. During that time three agreements were entered into by Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan on behalf of the ALP. Those agreements now form the foundation of our federal government. This article, Part 3 of this three part series, addresses the high points of the agreement between Greens MP Adam Bandt and the ALP (the Agreement).

The Agreement

The Agreement, which was the first of the three entered into, is relatively short and uninvolved, consisting of only seven (7) clauses. It establishes the purpose of the Agreement and covers the core aspects of the coalition.

Again, the crux of the Agreement is that it ‘establishes the basis for stable and effective government’. Most of the clauses are identical to those in the other two agreements. It obliges Bandt to vote with the government to secure supply. It further expresses the desire of all parties that the government should reach the full term. It enables both Mr Bandt and Senator Bob Brown to put new policies to Minister’s and have them costed by the Treasury. Significantly however, it is not expressly stated that the Greens MP will retain the power to vote on each bill according to his conscience and the needs of his electorate as in the other agreements. The other major points of departure between the agreements are in Clause 3 which outlines the goals of the coalition and Clause 6 which outlines the areas of policy that are to be addressed.

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Mon, 03 Jan 2011 07:41:24 +0000
The Federal Government Agreements: Part 2 – Wilkie and the ALP

Chart of the Australian Labor Party two-party-...

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The 2010 Federal Election resulted in a minority Labour government. After seventeen days of negotiations Julia Gillard and the Australian Labor Party (the ALP) formed government with the support of Greens MP Adam Bandt and Independent MP’s Andrew Wilkie, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor . In order to do so three agreements were entered into by Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan on behalf of the ALP. These agreements now form the foundation of our current federal government and it is worthwhile exploring the significant parts of their content and consequences. This article, which forms Part 2 of this three part series, addresses the agreement between Independent MP Andrew Wilkie and the ALP (the Agreement).

The Agreement

The Agreement is relatively short and uninvolved, consisting of only eight (8) clauses. It establishes the purpose of the Agreement and covers the core aspects of the coalition.

As with the agreement explored in Part 1 of this series, the crux of the Agreement is that it ‘establishes the basis for stable and effective government’. Most of the clauses are identical to those in the Oakeshott/Windsor/ALP Agreement. It obliges Independent MP Wilkie to vote with the government to secure supply. However it is expressly stated that the Independent MP will retain the power to vote on each bill according to his conscience and the needs of his electorate. It expresses the desire of all parties that the government should reach the full term. It also enables Mr Wilkie to put new policies to Minister’s and have them costed by the Treasury. However the Agreement differs from the Oakeshott/Windsor/ALP Agreement in that two additional areas of agreement are covered; the Royal Hobart Hospital and Poker Machines.

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Tue, 23 Nov 2010 02:04:29 +0000
The Federal Government Agreements: Part 1 - Oakeshott, Windsor and the ALP

Paper scissors parliament

Image by National Museum of Australia via Flickr

In 1941 for the first time in Australian political history a hung parliament resulted at the federal level. On that occasion Labour Prime Minister John Curtin was able to form a minority government and went on to successfully lead the country until the next election, which he won by an overwhelming majority. However let us not forget that this was during the height of World War II, when Australia was under direct military threat from the Japanese. Now, almost seventy years on, the 2010 federal election resulted in a hung parliament. Despite the absence of a looming crisis or epic disaster neither the Australian Labor Party (ALP) or Liberal National Party (LNP) were able to secure a majority of seats in the House of Representatives.

As a result we now have a minority Labour government. After seventeen days of negotiations Julia Gillard and the ALP formed government with the support of Greens MP Adam Bandt and Independent MP’s Andrew Wilkie, Rob Oakeshott and Tony Windsor . In order to do so three agreements were entered into by Julia Gillard and Wayne Swan on behalf of the ALP. These agreements now form the foundation of our current federal government and it is worthwhile exploring the significant parts of their content and consequences. Arguably the most important of the agreements is the one with Independents Oakeshott and Windsor, so I address it first in this, Part 1, of this three part series.

 

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Tue, 05 Oct 2010 02:54:03 +0000
Politics, Betrayal and Sex: Politicians Move to Silence Bloggers

qandaIn a recent 'Q&A' program on the ABC, (Monday September 27 2010) an audience member posed the following question:

"In today's world anybody with an internet connection or an iPhone thinks they're a journalist and that they can - they can, you know, publish their opinions online or publish some sort of "gotcha" photo online without having to answer to the law or, you know, to anybody. Regardless of where something is published, don’t you think that we should know the identity of who is publishing material, at least so that we have a right of reply?"
(full transcript)

It is a shame that this question was asked so late in the program; only a short amount of time was allowed for responses from the panel and the issue surely deserves more attention. Tony Jones pointed out that the question is refers to the case of a public servant exposed as a blogger, but Stephen Conroy more pertinently pointed out that during the South Australian state election "... the South Australian attorney-general tried to say that people had to identify themselves on a blog during the South Australian election campaign News Limited led a writers' campaign to say this was censorship just by saying, hey, everybody else when the write has to say, "Political commentary" and identify themselves.

"Well over 1000 people had posted comments on the AdelaideNow website up to midnight last night - most vehemently against the Rann Government's legislation which will force internet bloggers and anyone publishing a comment on next month's state election to supply their real name and postcode."
Outrage as Rann Government, Opposition unite to gag internet election debate
Adelaide Now, October 5 2010

 

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Sun, 03 Oct 2010 04:46:10 +0000
Chasing Mummies: Archeology as Reality TV

Dr. Zahi Hawass at the British Museum - Speech

Image by vintagedept via Flickr

Dr Zahi Hawass the Egyptian archaeologist is well known to those who enjoy historical documentaries.  He is highly respected in his field and is the current Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.  I have always found his manner rather abrasive and have tended to avoid his offerings.  However, his new TV show program on the History Channel: 'Chasing Mummies' is quite a different affair; this is actually riveting and addictive television.  The producers of 'Chasing Mummies' seem to have recognised the potential of Dr Hawass' explosive temper and have harnessed it to great effect.

In one incident, Dr Hawass' assistant Casey Fitchner gets completely blasted by the good doctor for being late to work.  Later, while exploring inside the Stepped Pyramid, Fitchner asks if there is somewhere she can go to the bathroom.  Dr Hawass informs her in no uncertain terms that the pyramid is a holy place and of course she can't go.  Later, she can no longer resist the call of nature and wets herself on camera.  Dr Hawass' outbursts make Gordon Ramsey look kindly and avuncular.

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Sun, 22 Aug 2010 02:46:15 +0000
Some Final Thoughts On Election Eve 2010 #Ausvotes

Julia Gillard as Little Miss Piggy

Image by Leonard John Matthews via Flickr

SURPLUS

The only thing that we achieved in office under Howard was to accumulate a surplus. This felt good, and so we want to keep doing it because it makes us look good.

Scare Tactic: “Families know they have to spend within their means.”

Reality Check – Services and infrastructure needs to be keep up to date and able to accommodate changing needs of the population, and these things come with a price attached.

Families that are good with their money understand the difference between debt that invests in the needs of the family into the future and wasteful debt buying useless things they can’t afford and have no value over time.

For more explanation of the numbers and surplus and position of both, this is a good article that covers off on the detail:
Tony Abbott's economic action plan doesn't add up (The Australian)

National Broadband Network

We don’t really understand technology either how it works, or what the uses for it into the future might be, but we like to save money and the internet is a bit interesting but while it is nice to have it is not really important.

Reality check:

Uses for the internet are developing in ways that we cannot predict, but will fundamentally change the way that we do business. Reliable high-speed broadband is important particularly for remote Australia, and providing services to regional areas with our sparse population means that private companies are not likely to be motivated to deliver to remote areas.

While people are using wireless on their phones etc, this is not an indication that wireless technology is suitable for a national broadband network. The NBN is not about downloading games, or trivial matters, and it is more akin to building a freeway for safe, speedy travel, compared to using a two-lane suburban road to travel between major cities.

More details here from those involved in the rollout of the NBN and in a position to know the facts of the merit of the NBN and the financial aspects. Quigley openly slams Coalition’s broadband policy

 

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Mon, 02 Aug 2010 02:27:50 +0000
Australia's First Female PM: What a Crying Shame

julia_gillard_redheadsRemember the atmosphere that accompanied the Kevin '07 election campaign?  There was an enthusiasm, a vitality, a momentum that was almost comparable to Gough Whitlam's 1972 'It's Time' election.  Well, not quite; The 1972 election was an historic turning point in Australian political history.  While the elation many felt over Kevin Rudd's 2007 election was more to do with relief over the passing of WorkChoices and Howard's out of touch government it certainly had a strong 'It's Time' flavour.  There is no comparison between Kevin '07 and Gillard '10; the Gillard experiment shows every sign of being a huge debacle for Labor.

Remember Julia Gillard prior to the coup against Kevin Rudd?  She was feisty, articulate and inspiring.  What has happened?  Since becoming Prime Minister Gillard is barely a shadow of her former self.  Her statements lack sponteneity and sound like scripted press releases (mostly because they are).  There have been no significant policy announcements and Gillard's Prime Ministership has been marked by populist appeals to the lowest common demoninator.  This was particlularly evident in her stance on asylum seekers.  Policy announcements have been watered down disappointments; Gillard has continued Rudd's trend towards backdown and flip flop but has seemingly taken it a step further.  The environment, pensioners, immigrants and gays have little to be thankful for.  It is more than a little ironic that Gillard's populist appeals seem to have actually lost her more votes than they have won.

 

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Fri, 25 Jun 2010 02:34:01 +0000
Kevin 07 - Jonah 2010

rudd_mao

Image by liamalexander via Flickr

Kevin Rudd's  political 'execution' came as much as a shock to the public as it did to many politicians and the press.   Most had no inkling of the brewing storm.  We heard a the rumblings of a leadership challenge on Wednesday morning and had a new PM by the time we got to work.  Many have expressed sympathy for Kevin; watching him blubber on camera was excruciating.  Was Rudd bady treated by his party?   The Labor Party really had no option but to dump Rudd; annihilation at the looming election had become inevitable.

Some of us may miss Kevin Rudd a little, although most of us have lost any respect we ever had for him. Populism got Rudd to the top, and populism dragged him down. It seems so ironic and paradoxical; Kevin had unprecedented popularity, but his obsession with remaining popular ended up making him unpopular. It seems the electorate actually wanted someone with a little conviction, not someone who back flips as soon as it seems a policy might get an adverse reaction.

 

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Thu, 13 May 2010 05:34:09 +0000
Politics 101 Category: Dreams and the Supernatural

Malcolm Turnbull - Photo by w:en:User:Ada...

Image via Wikipedia

Well Malcolm has finished his adventure in government. He should now join a centre left think tank, or maybe the Sydney Institute, I am sure he is good buddies with Gerard Henderson. No doubt he will end up deep inside some corporate organ, God that sounds ominous. It is a bitter pill, the Abbott coup, especially as they were foes in the republic debate, and Malcolm lost that one too. Malcolm Turnbull was too clever by half for the Aussie parliament and what the Liberal Party has become. He is well out of that place. I find it hard to believe he is really friends with Abbott. Abbott is so fixated on immigration, when Australia's refugee arrivals are probably the lowest in the developed world. It should be a complete non issue and both sides should be grateful that the refugee numbers are so low. Northern Australia is hardly Calias or the Texas/Mexico border. Abbott obviously can't see this, he pitches low, in true Howard style. Abbott is so polarising and the rest, but have you seen his gait?

 

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Sat, 08 May 2010 04:16:21 +0000
Heckler exposes 'celebrities' thin skins

Time 100 2006 gala, George Lucas.

Image via Wikipedia

 

I recently watched a documentary on SBS TV called "Heckler". In this program, a series of well known entertainers and comedians recount their reactions to hecklers and also, that most loathsome of all television denizons: critics. Celebrities such as George Lucas, Bill Maher, Mike Ditka, Rob Zombie, Howie Mandel are interviewed.

Heckler is initially interesting as an account of how entertainers deal with the disruptions of hard core hecklers. Some deal with audience antagonists with skill, firing back one liners and making the disruption an amusing part of the act. Others become overwhelmed with rage and descend to exchanging obscenities; allowing the heckler to win in doing so. As the program progresses the focus is more and more on critics and how they are the lowest form of life.

 

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Mon, 26 Apr 2010 01:27:05 +0000
How to embed a TALKI forum into Joomla

talki easy to embed forumI recently tried embedding TALKI into my Joomla site.  TALKI is a forum you can embed with a short and simple line of code.  You can embed your own empty forum or use an example forum that is already filled with a number of posts.  I chose the latter option; it makes it look like people actually visit your site!  TALKI is a web 2.0 application in as much as: it allows you to sign in with Twitter, Facebook, Google, Yahoo, Open ID etc.  Your avatar is automatically imported, but that seems about it.  Apart from that, apart from the Wordpress plugin that is offered,  it's pretty much a straightforward forum.  If you want to go for the paid options more features are available, but If you have a website with PHP you are much better off installing a forum like SMF or PHPbb.  With a self installed application, you obviously have complete control over content, user management, attachments, add on extensions etc.; the whole shebang and completely free.

TALKI is a new startup and the developers are upgrading the system and fixing bugs.  Many users on the TALKI forum have suggested improvements to the system.  There is a section on the site that allows you to vote for particular improvements: http://talki.uservoice.com/forums/42301-general It is here that I noticed a number of users asking if there was a way to embed TALKI into Joomla.  I worked out a simple way of doing this when I messed around with the program; I posted the solution to the customer feedback forum.  To my great surprise, I found that my post had been deleted the next day.  I checked my original post on the embedded TALKI forum and some of my posts there had also been deleted! (I think I mentioned one of their links wasn't working).  No, I did not engage in any foul language, flaming or bad netiquette of any kind.  This is of course the main drawback with a forum like this.  Not only do you have no control over the style and formatting, you have no control of the content.

Since TALKI's admin has removed my instructions on how to embed it into Joomla; I will share them again here:

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Sun, 25 Apr 2010 04:06:03 +0000
Beowulf: A Quest to Kill God

grendels_motherRecently I have watched the Robert Zemeki movie 'Beowulf' numerous times. I actually know people who will readily admit to watching 'The Sound of Music' 30+ times so I'm not overly embarrassed to admit my own obsession. It is an enjoyable film, an amazing multimedia cartoon and a bit like watching a very long favourite music video. Some time ago I discussed issues in sexual politics I think the film raises in this article: Beowulf's Femme Fatale. As I have re-watched the film I have been impressed by the Zemeki's attention to detail; you just keep noticing new little details. One is a strong anti Christian undercurrent that appears at different points during the narrative.

In the very first sequence, Unferth (John Malkovich) stands urinating with a friend and explains to him how the whole Christianity deal works. The terms of the transaction; the acceptance as Christ as the one true good in return for immortal life are laid out in very stark terms by Unferth (a very unsympathetic character who repeatedly beats his servant in almost every scene he appears in). Several other less than positive references are made during the film. As Beowulf watches the carnage as his troops slaughter some Fresian raiders he remarks: "The time of heroes has passed. The Christ god has killed it and left the world with only weeping martyrs..."

Religion features in the original poem somewhat differently:

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Sun, 14 Feb 2010 05:37:35 +0000
How To Change Weblink Sort Order in Joomla

Joomla!
Image via Wikipedia

I've been adding new links to the weblinks section of my Joomla installation (Sliced Wikizine)for some time now and have managed to build quite a nice collection of very cool Web 2.0 type links in a range of categories (including: Animation Blogging Code Graphics Web Design Social Media Multimedia Writing and Online Tools ) One thing that always bothered me was that the new links I added always displayed last on the list of links. Of course, links can be manually reordered using the admin backend but I couldn't help thinking there had to be an easier way. Of course there is...

 

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Mon, 21 Sep 2009 06:25:20 +0000
The Weekend Eunuch

female eunuch"When I was in high school in the '70s, I was a member of a generation of girls lucky enough to benefit from the gains won for us by the feminists of earlier decades. We were told we could do and be anything we wanted. Yet, more than 30 years later, there are still some occupations and professions that many people regard as 'men's work'..." Editors Note by Judith Whelan, editor of the Good Weekend Magazine, Sydney Morning Herald. Whelan goes on to say that the 'women's issue' will contain stories on women in a range of jobs; a jockey. a pilot an engineer, a doctor and an umpire. It might well be true that many occupations and professions are still regarded as men's work, that the glass ceiling still exists and that equal employment opportunity rules go only part of the way towards redressing the imbalance. However, this belies the fact that Whelan's editorship of The Good Weekend may well have significantly hampered the feminist cause and moves towards equality.

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Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:51:38 +0000
The Da Vinci Scam

grailThe popularity of The Da Vinci Code  has spawned a great deal of controversy and also numerous television documentaries. These documentaries are usually hosted by Leonard Nimoy and pose an endless series of questions which are of course, never answered. Were Jesus and Mary Magdalene actually married with children? Do their descendants still walk the earth today? Has a secret society called the Priory of Sion existed since the time of the Knights Templar and do they hold the secret to the bloodline of Jesus Christ? Could the infamous quest for the Holy Grail relate to this secret? Did Leonardo Da Vinci know the answers to all of these questions and hide clues for the rest of us in his art?

Perhaps most important of all, is Dan Brown's book just a very clever scam?

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Fri, 05 Jun 2009 00:26:15 +0000
Ghost In the Machine

sharon stone's legsMost evenings my computer and I are inextricably linked, however while I work I like to have the TV on. It serves as audio visual wallpaper and is makes the atmosphere a little more comforting. Despite the fact that I only half watch out of the corner of my eye, I prefer to watch something at least semi acceptable. Lately, to my great surprise, my TV has been changing channels all of its own accord, usually to something I wouldn’t normally choose.

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Fri, 29 May 2009 16:26:40 +0000
Home entertainment agoraphobia
fish bowl with tvNot so very long ago, having a personal computer at home was unthought-of. The internet was just a twinkle in Tim Berners-Lee’s eye. Many people still watched black and white television and had never heard of cable. You might have been lucky enough to own an early video recorder if you were one of the few who could afford the exorbitant price tag. An even more select elite had early mobile phones; they had the prefix ‘007’, were the size of a brick and could not be taken out of your car. The closest you got to an interactive game was pong. No, I am not referring to a dark age hundreds of years ago; things were still pretty much this way until the end of the 1980s.

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Thu, 23 Apr 2009 20:27:01 +0000
Beware Wolves Wearing Gucci

cosmo coverMy initial plan was for this post to be about the rather bizarre and contradictory way womens' bodies are portrayed by the media, and with that in mind I set off to do some research. Three hours later, I still have no post, and also seem to have lost what little self-esteem I did have. My mistake was to venture into the realm of online publications for women, where, in very little time, I discovered I was far too hideous to ever be considered attractive by anyone other than than some desperate Quasimodo look-a-like. No really, it's true! I read all about it in Marie-Claire, Cosmo et al who were kind enough to alert me to a wide assortment of physical 'flaws'. Except, the logical part of my brain tells me they aren’t flaws, (I’ve been complimented on a couple which suggests they are attributes, no?) and that even if they were, it shouldn’t matter. So why does it? Why do I care about living up to some unattainable ideal set by faceless corporations who just want to make money?

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Tue, 21 Apr 2009 20:10:13 +0000
Relationship advice you really can't use
vintage sexist adRummaging around the internet, I came across this incredibly useful item in Cosmo entitled 'How to be a Good Girlfriend', and I'm jolly glad I did because knowing how to pander to the whims of my beloved is my raison d'être. Forget, all that stuff about being yourself, and being loved for who you really are; it's far more important to act completely out of character, at least, until you've got the wedding and a couple of babies out of the way. And of course, men are all exactly the same, so they appreciate this stuff too.

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Thu, 23 Apr 2009 07:28:44 +0000
Warhol's comfortable numbness
Andy Warhol AnimationAs Paris celebrates a new exhibition of Andy Warhol's celebrity portraits, I find myself wondering about Andy's legacy. Andy Warhol's seemingly endless series of serial artworks made one of the most cogent statements of the 60s. Works like 'Saturday Disaster' (1964 shows a series of repeated pictures of a car crash) comment on the idea that repeated exposure to violent images in the media makes people less sensitive. The 'Desensitisation by mass media' theory has been commemorated by an endless number of high school essays and articles by Marshall McLuhan (like this one, entitled numbness). The repeated images of Marilyn Monroe and Campbell's soup cans investigated the numbing effects of mass production and the interesting inconsistencies of low quality printing. Warhol's repeated images translate very well into celebrity portraits of people like Mick Jagger, John McEnroe and Tatum O'Neill, Blondie and Michael Jackson.

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Sat, 11 Apr 2009 09:54:06 +0000
Zeitgeist: Conspiracy or Internet idiocy?

zeitgeist movie
While Zeitgeist is an interesting and unusual film, the ideas it presents should be approached with some caution. Before taking my word for it, visit this site to watch the movie online: » click here to view

Zeitgeist abounds with conspiracy theories and makes a very good case against Christianity (according to the film; there is no record of Jesus as a historical figure; the story is more an astrological metaphor), and it also has a section attacking the central bank of the U.S.: financiers like J.P. Morgan intentionally precipitated the depression by calling in loans on mass for their own advantage, and the central bank continues it’s hegemony by providing the government with currency at interest that can never be repaid.

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Mon, 13 Apr 2009 14:41:07 +0000
Review: The Shopaholic series
A year or so ago I entered a competition on a website I visit occasionally not expecting to win anything, but, to my delight, a couple of weeks later I received an email announcing that I had won the above mentioned series of books! I was thrilled! But my joy was short lived. With hindsight, I suspect I may have been palmed off with the booby prize.

The Shopaholic series relates the oh so amusing (not) adventures of the eponymous heroine, one Becky Bloomwood, a woman who loves to shop. I had heard of these books and believed they would be right up my street, after all, I love to shop too. How wrong could I be?

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Mon, 13 Apr 2009 13:02:52 +0000
I'm Not a Maggot, I'm a Free Woman

A few years ago, following a suggestion from an online friend, I signed up for a thing called Flylady This is a group/organisation/cult which offers assistance to the housework reluctant. The idea is, they send you regular reminders, tips and advice to help you get into a routine and even (can this be possible) enjoy it. In theory it sounded great, but from the word go I realised Flylady and I were going to have problems. For some reason, she insisted on calling new members Flybabies. Call me pedantic, but putting the words 'fly' and 'baby' together conjures up an image of maggots, which aren't a thing I like to be equated with. Deciding that maybe this was just a little quirk of my own I overlooked the maggot label, and set out on my quest for domestic perfection. Step one was to shine my sink, which seemed a little basic, but was easy to do. However, from there onwards it was a bit of a downhill slide.

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Mon, 13 Apr 2009 11:05:01 +0000
Miss Naked Beauty: Judgement of Gok

judgement of paris

Miss Naked Beauty purports to promote the cause of ‘real women’. It’s contestants are supposedly vying for the opportunity of being ambassadors for ‘natural beauty’ and the idea that a woman doesn’t have to be young and thin to be beautiful; in the winner’s immortal words (in fact, I think all the girls said it) everyone is beautiful. We are invited to believe that the winners of this reality TV contest will form the grass roots of a movement in defiance of the odious fashion industry, which incessantly promotes impossible ideals of feminine beauty.

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xml Sliced - E-commerce - Sliced Wikizine

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 01:07:54 +0000
Six Signs Your Gadget’s Screen Sucks
Forget about speeds and feeds. Here are six surefire signs that laptop, phone or tablet display just won't cut it.

Source: http://feeds.digg.com/~r/digg/topic/tech_news/popular/~3/Kksy8QpcEZg/six_signs_your_gadget_s_screen_sucks

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xml Sliced - Opinion - Sliced Wikizine

Wed, 11 Apr 2012 01:45:40 +0000
Found Objects, Worldviews & High On A Hill

Winter of 1946–1947 in the United Kingdom

Image via Wikipedia

High On A Hill


Couple of things have been on my list of things that I have been
considering posting to the list over the past few days. Some different
topics, some directed to different people, though to the group
generally as well. Because that's how it works, eh.

Generally and specifically.

Concurrently.

Somewhat like, if you will imagine, first and third, with a weather
eye on second position.

Some topics that were generated as responses to posts on list. Some
topics from my day-to-day experiences. Some topics that were bought up
by friends on and off the net as being issues for them in recent
times. So here these subjects float in and around my brain,
occasionally bumping into the mundane activities that needs must be
carried out, and floating out into a wider orbit ... they will be
back, as surely as the sun will rise in the morning. Or so I believe.

 

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xml Sliced - Arts - Sliced Wikizine

Sun, 03 Oct 2010 04:46:10 +0000
Chasing Mummies: Archeology as Reality TV

Dr. Zahi Hawass at the British Museum - Speech

Image by vintagedept via Flickr

Dr Zahi Hawass the Egyptian archaeologist is well known to those who enjoy historical documentaries.  He is highly respected in his field and is the current Secretary General of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities.  I have always found his manner rather abrasive and have tended to avoid his offerings.  However, his new TV show program on the History Channel: 'Chasing Mummies' is quite a different affair; this is actually riveting and addictive television.  The producers of 'Chasing Mummies' seem to have recognised the potential of Dr Hawass' explosive temper and have harnessed it to great effect.

In one incident, Dr Hawass' assistant Casey Fitchner gets completely blasted by the good doctor for being late to work.  Later, while exploring inside the Stepped Pyramid, Fitchner asks if there is somewhere she can go to the bathroom.  Dr Hawass informs her in no uncertain terms that the pyramid is a holy place and of course she can't go.  Later, she can no longer resist the call of nature and wets herself on camera.  Dr Hawass' outbursts make Gordon Ramsey look kindly and avuncular.

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xml Sliced - Internet - Sliced Wikizine

Tue, 10 Jul 2012 01:42:51 +0000
Top Crowdfunding Site Rankings Revealed

Image representing GoFundMe as depicted in Cru...

Image via CrunchBase

The best of the crowdfunding websites have been ranked and announced by the Internetʼs top crowdfunding reviewer website. Www.Crowdfunding-Website-Reviews.com has reviewed and ranked Leverage PR and EquityNet.com . "These are the No. 1 sites out there," said Howard Orloff, president and founder of www. Crowdfunding-Website-Reviews.com . "If you are interested in crowdfunding either as an investor or someone seeking funds, these are the companies for you. They do everything right." GoFundMe - Top crowdfunding site GoFundMe earned 5 stars for the thee ranked categories of traffic, customer service and usability. GoFundMeʼs often has a heavy traffic load, which can work against some websites because it slows response times. GoFundMeʼs servers are capable of handling the load, according to Crowdfunding Reviews. The forums and community at GoFundMe were ranked "best."GoFundMe" is the crowdfunding company to watch," Mr. Orloff said.

 

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xml eponymous

Tue, 04 May 2010 02:28:14 +0000
Software Piracy
Copyright is a form of intellectual property protection for a variety of literary and artistic endeavours. Everyone who has used the internet has at one time or another copied material illegally. This is due to the popular misconception, that once material is posted to the internet it can be freely copied: this not the case. Unless the author of the material has stated that is available for public use, then permission has to be obtained from the author for the material to be used. File sharing sites, is another issue that ...

Copyright is a form of intellectual property protection for a variety of literary and artistic endeavours. Everyone who has used the internet has at one time or another copied material illegally. This is due to the popular misconception, that once material is posted to the internet it can be freely copied: this not the case. Unless the author of the material has stated that is available for public use, then permission has to be obtained from the author for the material to be used.
File sharing sites, is another issue that concerning copyright laws. These sites/programs allow people to share material over the internet, this allows for copyrighted material to be shared and copied form one person to another. Some people believe this is okay as there is no transaction of money for the material: this is not true. File sharing is one of the biggest problems concerning copyright laws on the internet as there is no way to monitor all the information being shared between people and block and copyrighted material from being sent.
Now days because it is so easy to share copyrighted material over the internet and it is so frequently done many people do not see it as a crime that affects the authors finically. Although many people would not steal a cd from a store, download free music from the internet is socially acceptable on the internet.
The reason why people copy and break copyright laws is because they don’t want to pay for it. What most people don’t think about while there waiting happily as their download finishes, is that they are part of a mass group that is stealing from the author. This author has probably spent many hours of work developing a program hoping that in the end he can share with all of us and maybe get paid, to earn a living so he can continue provide us with software we want and need. But all those people who pirate software and wish for everything on the internet to be free or cheaper, are really just saying , we value what you have created but could you just do it for free? Would you do your job for free? Or cheaper? Highly unlikely, but that being said people that claim authors aren’t protecting their material enough, well all that can be said about that is, if people really want something enough, they’ll do anything, even if it might cost them jail time or a $50,000 fine.

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Mon, 03 May 2010 23:12:12 +0000
The internet and the intranet
The differences between an intranet and the Internet for transmitting and receiving information in a communication system: The transmitting and receiving information in an intranet network is available within an organisation and its staffs while it is open to everyone in an internet network. The works in an intranet network can only be done by authorised people and supervised by the administrator. The intranet network is faster than the internet network due to limited number of people accessing the data and the internet has problems like serves broken down, lower bandwidth than ...

The differences between an intranet and the Internet for transmitting and receiving information in a communication system:

  • The transmitting and receiving information in an intranet network is available within an organisation and its staffs while it is open to everyone in an internet network. The works in an intranet network can only be done by authorised people and supervised by the administrator.
  • The intranet network is faster than the internet network due to limited number of people accessing the data and the internet has problems like serves broken down, lower bandwidth than the intranet.

Similarities:
The intranet and the internet have the same way of working.

  • The information stored can be accessed a distance away from the serves.
  • The information can be accessed at any time.
  • Support all kinds of Medias.

Intranet often has a connection to the internet and consists of many interlinked LAN. Firewall is used to monitor the flow of data in both directions to maintain the security of the organisation.

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Mon, 03 May 2010 13:16:18 +0000
LAN and Network Topologies
Local area networks (LANs) connect computers within a building or group of buildings on one site. LANs cover a small geographical area, and the computers are linked together by coaxial cable or fiber-optic cable. There are three main advantages in using a LAN: sharing limited hardware resources, such as printers, hard disks and modems sharing application software, such as word processing, database, spreadsheet and graphics programs Improved communication among users by sending electronic messages. Network topology is the physical arrangement of devices in a network. Some types of these topologies include: star, bus, ring, ...

Local area networks (LANs) connect computers within a building or group of buildings on one site. LANs cover a small geographical area, and the computers are linked together by coaxial cable or fiber-optic cable. There are three main advantages in using a LAN:
  • sharing limited hardware resources, such as printers, hard disks and modems
  • sharing application software, such as word processing, database, spreadsheet and graphics programs
  • Improved communication among users by sending electronic messages.

Network topology is the physical arrangement of devices in a network. Some types of these topologies include: star, bus, ring, mesh and tree topologies.

A star topology has a central computer with each device connected to it with a point-to-point connection. The central computer serves as s switch. It receives messages and sends them to the destination device. All traffic that transverses the network passes through the central hub which acts as a signal booster or repeater. However, if the central computer fails, then the network fails. It is also limited by the processing power of the central computer. It uses a time-sharing system that allocates a certain amount of CPU time for each user. It is the most common topology for a mainframe. There are two types of star topologies: Extended star and Distributed Star topologies.

A bus topology is an arrangement where all the devices are attached to a direct line called the bus. A terminator is required at each end of the bus cable to prevent the signal from bouncing back and forth on the bus cable. Each device has a unique identity and can only recognize those signals intended for it. Devices check the bus and retrieve their messages as data travels along the bus. A signal from the source travels in both directions to all machines connected on the bus cable until it finds the MAC address or IP address on the network that is the intended recipient. If the machine address does not match the intended address for the data, the machine ignores the data. Alternatively, if the data does match the machine address, the data is accepted.

Each device is considered to be connected to every other device and can communicate directly along the network to any other device. Bus topology is one of the easiest to set up and can still operate if one node fails. Ethernet and PowerTalk use a bus topology. It is rather inexpensive to implement when compared to other topologies as it consists of only one wire. However the low cost of implementing this technology is offset by the high cost of managing the network. There are two types of bus topologies: Linear bus and Distributed bus topologies.

A ring topology is an arrangement where all devices are attached so that the path is in the shape of a continuous circle. Each machine or computer has a unique address in a ring topology that is used for identification purposes. The signal passes through each machine or computer connected to the ring in one direction. Ring topologies typically utilize a token passing scheme, used to control access to the network. Data flow is in one direction, moving from device to device until the data arrives at its destination. The token ring network is the most common form of access for ring topology. By utilizing this scheme, only one machine can transmit on the network at a time. The computers connected to the ring act as signal boosters or repeaters which strengthen the signals that transverse the network. The primary disadvantage of ring topology is the failure of one machine will cause the entire network to fail.

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Fri, 30 Apr 2010 00:09:07 +0000
Copyright or the right to copy?
Copyright; ‘the exclusice right to make copies, license, and otherwise explot a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video; etc.:works granted such right by law on or after January 1, 1978, are protected for the lifetime of the author or created and for a period of 50 years after his or her death’. Copying or printing material from the internet that is copyright, is acceptable, however, the creator of the website must be acknowledged. The person must consider that before making copies of someone else’s work, it is encouraged ...

Copyright; ‘the exclusice right to make copies, license, and otherwise explot a literary, musical, or artistic work, whether printed, audio, video; etc.:works granted such right by law on or after January 1, 1978, are protected for the lifetime of the author or created and for a period of 50 years after his or her death’.

Copying or printing material from the internet that is copyright, is acceptable, however, the creator of the website must be acknowledged. The person must consider that before making copies of someone else’s work, it is encouraged that people ask permission from the site creator or administrator. Not only does this show that the person appreciates the hard work that the creator has put into creating the site, but also it will save the person from other problems associated with internet copyright to develop later down the track.

Plagiarism is the act of taking somene else’s work and submitting it as your own work. Though many people would consider that copying pages from a hardcopy such as a book to be plagiarism, a large number of people fail to recognise that copying material from the website and submitting that information as their own to be plagiarism. But what about sites that give people links to other sites that may have relevant information? “links” sites often plagiarise the most. These sites contain “links” to pages with relevant material with short descriptions of the site. They often don’t recognise the creator of the sites and they do not pay any royalty to the administrators or creators of these sites. They simply paste these ‘links’ into their own “links” site without giving credit to the site or the creator. In this case, the creators and the administrators of the site feel frustrated that the hundreds of hours of work they put in to create the website have simply ‘gone down the drain’ because another site or person has just stolen their work without their permission.

Clearly, people should be better educated about copyright and what they are allowed to legally print or copy. Furthermore, people should be educated about plagiarism. People should understand that plagiarism is illegal and morally and ethically wrong. Site Creators and Administrators should sue people who steal their work in order to deter others who may be thinking of plagiarising.

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Wed, 21 Oct 2009 00:19:14 +0000
the 7 people story
Image via Wikipedia The work I’m reviewing is a large-scale sculpture carved by a Chinese artist Lu Zhengyuan.  This website shows you a picture of this sculpture.  In this picture, you can see 7 people. An old aged woman lying in a simple and crude bed which seems like the one in the hospital. There are two men who standing on the right side of this woman looks like her sons. Then there is an old man squating in front of the bed and holding half a section of cigarette, maybe ...

Wang Hui, A Thousand Peaks and Myriad Ravines 1693
Image via Wikipedia

The work I’m reviewing is a large-scale sculpture carved by a Chinese artist Lu Zhengyuan.  This website shows you a picture of this sculpture.  In this picture, you can see 7 people. An old aged woman lying in a simple and crude bed which seems like the one in the hospital.
There are two men who standing on the right side of this woman looks like her sons. Then there is an old man squating in front of the bed and holding half a section of cigarette, maybe he is her husband. Except those four, on the left side,there are three people all standing there.  A women and two men.   Besides of them, It still have a bedside cupboard, a pair of slippers and a cuspidor in this picture. They all looks old-fashioned.

If you concentrate to their expression, you will discover they all looks unhappy even distressed. I think maybe that old woman is a patient who got a serious disease, her family want heal her illness but maybe they already got into a big amount debt and unable to pay for the hospital any more.

Actually, in China, it’s not a infrequent situation especially in the countryside. But nobody can change it shortly.
I think it’s because of the goverment. They should pay more attention to the civilians, the lower layer people. Help them and take care of them.
Anyway, I like this picture(sculpture). It’s true , lively and can stimulate people’s deep thought.

View the art work here >>

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Fri, 02 Oct 2009 04:22:59 +0000
Water
One day I made a dream. I dreamed that all the world’s water is from a tap. And the water is released into a golden brown. This shows that the precious water.

water

One day I made a dream. I dreamed that all the world’s water is from a tap. And the water is released into a golden brown. This shows that the precious water.

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Mon, 28 Sep 2009 11:49:08 +0000
The interesting and special Chinese art work
Friday we went to an art class gallery, a very interesting gallery called white rabbit gallery. When I go in later, I found that all the works were created by Chinese artists. My favorite works are the works of a painter named aiweiwei. His works a sense of great visual impact. I am like his work. Just like the black spots of his works, While forget the name of, but I remember very clearly that a large white sheet of paper there are many black spots and black spots to do ...

Friday we went to an art class gallery, a very interesting gallery called white rabbit gallery. When I go in later, I found that all the works were created by Chinese artists. My favorite works are the works of a painter named aiweiwei. His works a sense of great visual impact. I am like his work. Just like the black spots of his works,
While forget the name of, but I remember very clearly that a large white sheet of paper there are many black spots and black spots to do the same as if the water is very lively, if not those who did not allow me to move I really wanted to move under the Kantian is not liquid.
The overall impact of my gallery is very interesting. On the inside I saw a lot I even imagined the art style. The author’s innovative ideas is very strong and very courageous author. Although there are many works we need to go to a very solemn treated, but I think those are very innovative work.

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Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:35:06 +0000
Unique, Contemporary, Unseen Work.
The White Rabbit Gallery, this place is a like a museum for unique arts from China, a place for Chinese Contemporary Arts. Our Art class of Year 10 visited this gallery for an art excursion. We went there by train and by walking. When we had gotten to the gallery, we had just heard that we we’re the first school to visit the White Rabbit Gallery. We we’re then guided by a guide that had an enthusiastic expression towards all of the arts, like she had loved art all her life. Looking at ...

Twewy

The White Rabbit Gallery, this place is a like a museum for unique arts from China, a place for Chinese Contemporary Arts.
Our Art class of Year 10 visited this gallery for an art excursion. We went there by train and by walking. When we had gotten to the gallery, we had just heard that we we’re the first school to visit the White Rabbit Gallery.
We we’re then guided by a guide that had an enthusiastic expression towards all of the arts, like she had loved art all her life.
Looking at these art works that were sent in by China was magnificent. They were all so unique like they haven’t been touched or seen for decades. Seeing all these ideas coming from China shows how much meaning and thought they now put into Visual Arts.
Out of all the Galleries I have seen, this has been the most unique and special one of all. Inside this Gallery were art works like modern contemporary art. The art works ranged from such simplicity and all the way to the detail.

This artwork done by Joshua Garcia has been inspired by a number of unique artworks.

If you want to see some art works from the gallery, Click Here.

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Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:30:35 +0000
The Humorous of the Tragedy
The White Rabbit Gallery -A Chinese Art Gallery In Australia White Rabbit, it’s a home for contemporary Chinese art. Their aim is to exhibit highly engaging works of contemporary art from China in an accessible environment. The visit to the White Rabbit Art Gallery was really worth it. Each of the art works was very unique and inspiring. One sculpture I really liked was the ‘Traffic Accident’ made by Li Zhangyang. The artist used really bright and colourful colour for the sculpture though it’s an accident. In the Sculpture the characters looked so real ...

The White Rabbit Gallery
-A Chinese Art Gallery In Australia
White Rabbit, it’s a home for contemporary Chinese art. Their aim is to exhibit highly engaging works of contemporary art from China in an accessible environment.
The visit to the White Rabbit Art Gallery was really worth it. Each of the art works was very unique and inspiring.
One sculpture I really liked was the ‘Traffic Accident’ made by Li Zhangyang. The artist used really bright and colourful colour for the sculpture though it’s an accident. In the Sculpture the characters looked so real and each of them had a different expression and doing different things. The family of the man that had accident was extremely sad and crying helplessly. The busybodies are curious about what happened. Some of them even got out of their own cars and looking around the scene of the accident. The police hurried to the accident. If you just look the sculpture in the front you will think it is definitely a sad scene of an accident but if u turn o the back of the sculpture you will see something else. A thief is stealing the wallet from a person that was just had all his attention on the scene of the accident. We laughed when we first saw that but afterwards when we thought about it carefully we noticed something else. Some people actually take the advantage from the accident. That was really sad. The artist has visualised a scene of a tragedy that happens everyday in our life in a humorous way which was really fantastic work.
The experience of visiting the White Rabbit Gallery was special and fun.

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Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:30:20 +0000
The review of White Rabbit Art Gallery
The white rabbit art gallery is the Contemporary Chinese Art Collection, in Sydney and close to the Central Station for you to visit or you can go to the website (www.whiterabbitcollection.org) The HEJIA is the person that created the art work called APPLE IN LOVE. This art work had been creating in 2006. The picture is about the people in China who want to go to American. The art work is to shown people in China why do they want to go to American for, a better life for them because ...

The white rabbit art gallery is the Contemporary Chinese Art Collection, in Sydney and close to the Central Station for you to visit or you can go to the website (www.whiterabbitcollection.org)

The HEJIA is the person that created the art work called APPLE IN LOVE. This art work had been creating in 2006. The picture is about the people in China who want to go to American. The art work is to shown people in China why do they want to go to American for, a better life for them because on that time the Communist were control China and that why they want to escape.
The apple in love is really have a colourful colour, it a very wide picture, this picture use colour painting, the picture is very bright and standout.

I really love this picture because the character and the background that makes the painting look and the flower of Hawaii. I t make me feel like that is very fun.

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Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:29:55 +0000
TRAFFIC ACCIDENT REVIEW
The whole “White rabbit gallery” we been spend time walk around the gallery. There is one artwork that very impress me is TRAFFIC ACCIDENT. TRAFFIC ACCIDENT is Li Zhanyang art work. Li Zhanyang present this art as a normal accident which the kid got crash by Taxi but the thing I like is there are many people doing the different thing. Some people staring at the death body but some one is pee at the wall or the man stilling the other guy wallet. You can visit this art work ...

The whole “White rabbit gallery” we been spend time walk around the gallery. There is one artwork that very impress me is TRAFFIC ACCIDENT. TRAFFIC ACCIDENT is Li Zhanyang art work. Li Zhanyang present this art as a normal accident which the kid got crash by Taxi but the thing I like is there are many people doing the different thing. Some people staring at the death body but some one is pee at the wall or the man stilling the other guy wallet. You can visit this art work at “White rabbit gallery” or go on to the website (www.whiterabbitcollection.org).

            Li Zhanyang art work most of them is sculptures so is not colourful. The very important thing is detail because it is sculpture and it made from clay the entire model needs to have colour of it and the entire model look alive.

            When the first that I saw this art work it very simple and I think everyone can do it but I take a closer look and look around it better. This art work is personal idea no one can copy him. I think this art work is look not much beautiful but it look real and a lot of detail in every model.

 

 

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Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:28:37 +0000
The Best Art Gallery
When we arrive in White Rabbit Chinese Gallery Art, in the morning I saw a big confusing undies, I don’t know what’s on it but there is a story about the undies. There is a beautiful white lady and a big ugly monster that’s what I can say, because I forgot the story if it. It was an amazing undies art work. But there is more interesting art work in there. The art that they post in there are all interesting art work. All I can say is “I never ever ...

When we arrive in White Rabbit Chinese Gallery Art, in the morning I saw a big confusing undies, I don’t know what’s on it but there is a story about the undies. There is a beautiful white lady and a big ugly monster that’s what I can say, because I forgot the story if it. It was an amazing undies art work. But there is more interesting art work in there.

The art that they post in there are all interesting art work. All I can say is “I never ever seen like this before”. All of they art work is make me deeply think about it. I really love they’re art work so much, especially the big guy and the pig. There is an interesting story about that. When he was a child they’re family was poor but he was happy because he makes people happy.

The pig symbolise is the traditional name of a coin accumulation and storage receptacle; it is most often, but not exclusively, used by children. The piggy bank is known to collectors as a “still bank” as opposed to the “mechanical banks” popular in the early 20th century. These items are also often used by corporations for promotional purposes. Their shape is most often that of a little pig.

http://http://www.whiterabbitcollection.org/modules/about/

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Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:01:06 +0000
Magnificent Art Gallery .
White Rabbit Gallery. At first when I saw the building, I felt the lack of motivation. Suddenly, inside it was beautifully amazing. The colour white painted all over the wall make the inside simply wonderful. The simplicity made me say to myself that “this gallery is gonna (going to) make my day”. Chinese Contemporary art is a new form of Chinese art it is quite interesting. A wide range of experimental art and creativity of the artworks made me ponder about it. There are many various kinds of unique artworks in ...

so delicate.

"protection no pain"

White Rabbit Gallery. At first when I saw the building, I felt the lack of motivation. Suddenly, inside it was beautifully amazing. The colour white painted all over the wall make the inside simply wonderful. The simplicity made me say to myself that “this gallery is gonna (going to) make my day”.

Chinese Contemporary art is a new form of Chinese art it is quite interesting. A wide range of experimental art and creativity of the artworks made me ponder about it. There are many various kinds of unique artworks in the gallery but the one that stand out for me or my favourite art work is the “Baby Stroller” by the artist named “Shi Jinsong”. The creativity of this magnificent, metallic, sharp pointy little things hanging out on the artwork and the colour black painted all over it gave me the thought of the words Safety, Protection, and Delicate. Safety because babies should me protected. Protection because babies are delicate. Delicate because babies are fragile they’re too easy to cry or to feel the pain.

In my opinion YOU!yeah you, you should try this tremendous experience because its worth it and it is worthy to give an 10 out of 10 or a 100% score.

Location: White Rabbit
30 Balfour St
Chippendale NSW 2008
Australia
Site: http://www.whiterabbitcollection.org/modules/about/
Opening hours: Thursday – Sunday
10am – 6pm

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Wed, 23 Sep 2009 01:01:04 +0000
THE WHITE RABBIT COLLECTION
White rabbit , that is contemporary chinese art collection . The White Rabbit, a home for contemporary Chinese art. There is show the they website and sample some of the exciting works which are on display at the Sydney-based gallery. They collection of post-2000 works, offers an eclectic mix of media and styles, where everyone is sure to find something they enjoy. From Jin Shi ?? – Artists Date Tue 28 Oct 2008 – 16:27 EST Filesize 150.48 kB Filetype JPEG Image This picture shows us that in some Chinese people in poor areas, where they ...

White rabbit , that is contemporary chinese art collection .
The White Rabbit, a home for contemporary Chinese art. There is show the they website and sample some of the exciting works which are on display at the Sydney-based gallery. They collection of post-2000 works, offers an eclectic mix of media and styles, where everyone is sure to find something they enjoy.
From Jin Shi ?? – Artists
Date Tue 28 Oct 2008 – 16:27 EST
Filesize 150.48 kB
Filetype JPEG Image
This picture shows us that in some Chinese people in poor areas, where they live. They can only live in those little places, and worn. Have no place to shelter against the elements. Maybe they are all three meals a day of food and clothing issue, and their clothes have been worn. They live in such a poor living environment, compared to our life is very happy. We need to properly treasured.

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Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:50:11 +0000
NO ESCAPE
In my dream, it was me that sitting in a train. The train was weird because it is empty and cold. I’m going to my mother house by train I was sat in the train very long time it fast and never stop at every train station. I felt something is not right, so I try to find the way to get out of this train. When I stood up the train is stop I felt bit happy. I though “I still alive”, after that I get out of train ...

no-escape-copy

In my dream, it was me that sitting in a train. The train was weird because it is empty and cold. I’m going to my mother house by train I was sat in the train very long time it fast and never stop at every train station. I felt something is not right, so I try to find the way to get out of this train. When I stood up the train is stop I felt bit happy. I though “I still alive”, after that I get out of train but the train was stop at the village. This village is very weird it is an empty village no villager, quiet and strange. I was walk along on the street find the way back home. I saw the bow and arrow I picked it up. I saw a text on a bow it say do not shoot the bow, but I still shoot the arrow I shoot it to the bush.

I think it is a joke so I threw it away and I continue walking. I was walk in the village and looking for people that all I can do now, I go in side an old shop in the shop was very dirty and small and I though I will sleep in here if it was night, but in the shop the food or dink was very new and clean.

So I ate it because I’m so hungry and put some of it in my bag pack after that I fell asleep when I woke up again it was dusk the sky going dark it made me scare I’m going out side I was shock the I saw three big tigers out there and I though it saw me so I try to escape. I ran to the back of the shop I saw a big old train and I climb up to the roof and I sitting there and hiding but it not work the tiger still smell me I wait until the tiger is go away. I looked around I saw a store room with a cage. I ran as fast as I can but the tiger is faster and it bite me after that I awake.

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Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:50:08 +0000
My Super Power Imaginary
I was walking the place that I don’t know and then I hear the howl noise from somewhere around this place. After the dusk, smoke was disappearing and I saw 4 of the monsters flying up from the hill and I started to running away from the monster. I keep running and think about what I can do to fight with monsters. I was think that I can fight against the monsters with my imaginary power and I have good clothes because of my imaginary power. It is only 5 ...

dow
I was walking the place that I don’t know and then I hear the howl noise from somewhere around this place. After the dusk, smoke was disappearing and I saw 4 of the monsters flying up from the hill and I started to running away from the monster. I keep running and think about what I can do to fight with monsters. I was think that I can fight against the monsters with my imaginary power and I have good clothes because of my imaginary power. It is only 5 of ghosts and it not very big, so I turn around and use my imaginary power to fight them. The power that I use to fight was running faster, jumping higher, stronger etc. I kill the first guy with my super ball fire power and brew him away from me that just one brow. The second one fly in to me and use the black smoke so I can’t see him and then I use the power to make the smoke disappear and he was on the back of me and I use teleport and go behind him and slash his head off his shoulder. They are more of them and all of them are coming at me and trying to kill me. I got hit and fly away and I see the light. Alarm clock ring and I woke up. I said this need to be repay, see you next time.

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Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:50:01 +0000
Black and White (angel & devil)
In my dream I saw a blurry gray color moving trough like a cloud as it gets faster and suddenly it stopped. Then I saw a two mirror images, it was like a twins as I look at it carefully, it was a mirror image of me. When I looked closer there was a spark light appeared right in the middle, as it slowly turned brighter, which clear my mind and thought that I found something precious but all of the sudden there was a black dot gets larger and ...

black-and-white-jpgIn my dream I saw a blurry gray color moving trough like a cloud as it gets faster and suddenly it stopped. Then I saw a two mirror images, it was like a twins as I look at it carefully, it was a mirror image of me. When I looked closer there was a spark light appeared right in the middle, as it slowly turned brighter, which clear my mind and thought that I found something precious but all of the sudden there was a black dot gets larger and it became like a piece of black whirl pool. While it was turning into black whirl pool one of my mirror images turn white and one became black like a shadow. I looked both of the mirror images and both of them were very opposite and different it was like I have to choose one of the paths. Then I saw a huge flash of spark as it became darker, when I looked in middle, I saw a fully red colored diamond with no light, no black dot. It was like an evil or death was upon me. Then suddenly all turns as dark as a charcoal. I felt with fear and full of unconsciousness. As I woke up and knew it was a nightmare.

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Tue, 22 Sep 2009 01:45:44 +0000
Forsaken Land
When cold wind bowing my face, I wake up, it’s not my room. I feel cold. Where am I? I don’t know. How I get here? I don’t know. I fear……… what can I do? All I can see is a bright moon is the sky it’s so shiny more like a sun, but no mater how shiny it is the sky still like night, dark and green. In front of me there’s a lake, water is colour in red and blue, red like blood and blue like ocean. There many of swirl on surface of the ...

dream-of-a-dark-castleWhen cold wind bowing my face, I wake up, it’s not my room. I feel cold.

Where am I?
I don’t know.

How I get here?
I don’t know.

I fear……… what can I do?

All I can see is a bright moon is the sky it’s so shiny more like a sun, but no mater how shiny it is the sky still like night, dark and green.
In front of me there’s a lake, water is colour in red and blue, red like blood and blue like ocean. There many of swirl on surface of the lake suck in anything around it, what is under it? Where is the bottom of the swirl.
When I look far away from where I stand, there’s a castle, dark and twisty with black cloud around it. Build on a mountain. I look in to it, watching it. Then I here a horrible scream from that castle……..
Then I wake up in my own room.

Where I being?
I don’t known.

How I get there?
I don’t know.

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Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:53:06 +0000
ShAmAnIsM SeRiEs is comming
White rabbit gallery - is in Sydney  near City station The Art particular name is Shamanism Series. The particular artist name is Cang Xin., The artwork using is white, black. Materials used a pencil. Comparison of this artwork dark. This artwork is an abstract. I think the artists want us to know. If the human is a kind of food, we will feel sick. However, e.g.: it is chicken, duck, We will find that there is no problem,, I think this is a good artwork. We can know the feelings of others.

White rabbit gallery - is in Sydney  near City station

The Art particular name is Shamanism Series. The particular artist name is Cang Xin.,

The artwork using is white, black. Materials used a pencil. Comparison of this artwork dark.

This artwork is an abstract. I think the artists want us to know. If the human is a kind of food, we will feel sick. However, e.g.: it is chicken, duck,

We will find that there is no problem,, I think this is a good artwork. We can know the feelings of others.

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Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:53:02 +0000
Art review of the gallery”White Rabbit”
White rabbit gallery is in Sydney near city station!!! Shamanism series – variation 2005, Cang Xin Cang Xin- the artist of this artwork  This artwork is using dark colour. Like white, grey and black. Doesn’t use any colourful colour on it. This is painting, not a photograph. Is using pencil to draw it. The size of it is 250 x 200 cm. it is using Chinese culture like the BBQ pork shop. The idea of this artwork is the Chinese history, like when people die, what their life transform to. Like animal or human. So ...

White rabbit gallery is in Sydney near city station!!!
Shamanism series – variation 2005, Cang Xin

Cang Xin- the artist of this artwork

 This artwork is using dark colour. Like white, grey and black. Doesn’t use any colourful colour on it. This is painting, not a photograph. Is using pencil to draw it. The size of it is 250 x 200 cm. it is using Chinese culture like the BBQ pork shop.
The idea of this artwork is the Chinese history, like when people die, what their life transform to. Like animal or human. So now is like the market of the Chinese choosing their food. In Chinese history, have hell. When they die, they got to see the king of the hell. This king will order them to other animal or human. All not their choice. But now the artist show that they can choose. Have more freedom than before.
I feel impress of this painting than other. Because it is really show lot of feeling and history from the artist.
Overall, in the gallery all is around the Chinese culture and history. Some is about business, some is about the life. And the point come out.
Brian

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Tue, 22 Sep 2009 00:45:16 +0000
Review of the White Rabbit Gallery visit
 We went to the White Rabbit Gallery on Friday to watch some of Chinese artwork. It’s a new gallery in city and it’s very interesting. All of the artworks in the gallery have their own style and different feature used.  For example one of my favourite artwork done by Xu Zhongmin named egg shape. This artwork is mechanically with is the most interesting artwork I’ve even seem, a egg shape like model which many little figure was put in the middle of the model. This artwork has two visions; they’re different ...

 We went to the White Rabbit Gallery on Friday to watch some of Chinese artwork. It’s a new gallery in city and it’s very interesting. All of the artworks in the gallery have their own style and different feature used.

 For example one of my favourite artwork done by Xu Zhongmin named egg shape. This artwork is mechanically with is the most interesting artwork I’ve even seem, a egg shape like model which many little figure was put in the middle of the model. This artwork has two visions; they’re different in the types of figure that used. One of them used baby figure and the other one is the. All the figure’s post were different and it’s made by metal and they all in the colour of grey. Each of the figure and the background has done exquisitely; but this artwork is not just fill with beautiful figure. The point of this artwork is that when electricity is provided into the work, flashlight will be on and the bottom tray will rotate and bring the entire figure move around. When the movement and the flashlight are coordinated, figures will seem like running around the artwork. The affect looks like a 3D animation done the high technology computer. This artwork is published in a installation form and mechanization.

 I really appreciate about the way this artwork is shown and the affect of it. But it really makes me tried to look at the flashlight. You won’t know what is happening at the beginning because this work is placed in a dark room, but when the electricity is provided and also the flashlight is on and bottom start to move. I am sure that every will be surprise and understand how wonderful is the piece of work. Also when I think carefully, I start to admire the producer of this artwork . what I think is how can he think of the idea which using quite a great amount of figure to form this work, and using lighting and also the movement to make the those figure to move in a lively way. The middle part of the egg shape model is just like playing a video of 3D animation when the device opened.

 Finally, the features of this artwork is extremely fantastic, the effect is wonderful. Also the idea is originality. If I have to give a mark for this piece of work out of five. Properly I give five out of five for this artwork.

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Wed, 16 Sep 2009 11:18:28 +0000
The Flying Fish~
  My painting is one of many of my dreams. I that picture, and became the fish has always been a non-ordinary fish, is a fly fish. But I do not know that I do not know where fly I was born where they are. I can fly to fly forward to seeing a little light so I hope it lights chasing that took me to some interesting places. I am going to light flew one I do not know how to describe the place. is a very mysterious places are ...

 

0101-copy

My painting is one of many of my dreams. I that picture, and became the fish has always been a non-ordinary fish, is a fly fish. But I do not know that I do not know where fly I was born where they are. I can fly to fly forward to seeing a little light so I hope it lights chasing that took me to some interesting places. I am going to light flew one I do not know how to describe the place. is a very mysterious places are all the mountains are everywhere fog, vague can still see a castle. So the more I want to recover faster to catch up with that light .. But when I catch up quick, when I fell …
Bed of the original is just a dream ..

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]

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Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:13:55 +0000
a wonderful dream
Dream diary Yesterday, I have a dream. I dreamed I was flying in the sky. The sky is as blue as sappine. The cloud is in the heart shape and looks like cotton candy. There were lots of candy around me. The candy had different colour red, green, purple , yellow and pink . Suddenly , I saw a old man face from the cloudy , he was smiling at me and said welcome to the dream park, I am cloudy grandpa.

ok
Dream diary
Yesterday, I have a dream. I dreamed I was flying in the sky. The sky is as blue as sappine. The cloud is in the heart shape and looks like cotton candy. There were lots of candy around me. The candy had different colour red, green, purple , yellow and pink .
Suddenly , I saw a old man face from the cloudy , he was smiling at me and said welcome to the dream park, I am cloudy grandpa.

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Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:07:33 +0000
the planets
i dreamed that planets slowly coming towards me while im looking through the telescope with my dad. it was an amazing dream because the ring of the planets are beautiful i will describe it like its out of this world .

i-can-see-planets

i dreamed that planets slowly coming towards me

while im looking through the telescope with my dad.

it was an amazing dream because the ring of the planets

are beautiful i will describe it like its out of this world :D .

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Wed, 16 Sep 2009 01:03:33 +0000
sky of my dream
Sky, the sky dream     One day, when I got up. I am surprised to find me a pair of wings, white feathers. I will try to incite it. Then I have to incite the force of the new wings. I fly up, COOL ~~~~~~ I have been hovering in the sky, screaming. I am aware that I want the whole world has been as a pair of wings like angels, but I do feel fear, because now I am not the same as with others, not because it is very ...

dream-dairy

Sky, the sky dream

    One day, when I got up. I am surprised to find me a pair of wings, white feathers. I will try to incite it. Then I have to incite the force of the new wings. I fly up, COOL ~~~~~~ I have been hovering in the sky, screaming. I am aware that I want the whole world has been as a pair of wings like angels, but I do feel fear, because now I am not the same as with others, not because it is very like what others will see me!!
     Now, I am afraid, I have hope that I can hide my wings!

The most trouble in my time, I suddenly heard a shriek, Ms. ~ because of her children own a bike out of control, being the road to red, then I’ll fly past, in the critical time to save the child ~
I slowly put a wonderful reflection of the child to her mother, her mother moved to not know what to say.
I would like to turn away, I trembled from her mouth to hear “angel”

    I looked at themselves, I had become the uniform of white robes, shoot from the sky to join a very warm light, I looked up, I saw a door appeared in the sky, there are a lot of day beckons to me, I trying to reach a time when the ground suddenly out of my hand I held, I want to make wings and fly away I move, but I began to disappear in the wings, the feathers off a little bit of news, the ground began to collapse exposed the fire, I wanted to swallow up the same, after a sudden a hand with me, I will and I do not drop down to paragraph, I do not paragraph called the “ah ~~~~~~~”
   Pain, I woke up I found on the floor ~

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Wed, 16 Sep 2009 00:53:49 +0000
I Was Flying…
I had a dream When I was very young, I loved beautiful birds. The things I loved most were the wings. With wings, you can fly to every to everywhere you like. I like to stand on soft green grass, let breeze touch my face gently and have my hair flying, dancing quietly with the wind. I love that feeling. I can feel the same feeling as Rose when she was standing on the ship Titanic pretending to fly. I had the dream of flying. I dream I can fly up in the blue sky, ...

1225nw0if2g54

I had a dream

When I was very young, I loved beautiful birds. The things I loved most were the wings. With wings, you can fly to every to everywhere you like.

I like to stand on soft green grass, let breeze touch my face gently and have my hair flying, dancing quietly with the wind. I love that feeling.

I can feel the same feeling as Rose when she was standing on the ship Titanic pretending to fly.

I had the dream of flying.

I dream I can fly up in the blue sky, where all my dreams come from. I dream of flying to where all my dreams come from.

I had a rest on the clouds. They are soft and cool. Like gas. Like water. Like ice. They’re a mixture. But they are pure in my heart.

I had a race with the wind to see who is the better flyer. Sometimes it’s cool. Sometimes it’s warm. Sometime it’s cool. It often plays around me.

I was flying in the golden sunshine. It makes me the most beautiful colour.

I made friends with all kinds of birds. I want to play with them. They taught me many many things that I haven’t known before.

I was flying…

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Tue, 15 Sep 2009 01:41:43 +0000
Edmond’s dream
In my dream, I was in the hospital visiting my grandmother. A doctor is checking her body, and the doctor came and told us that “ the old lady died and please don’t be sad for that.’ My mother started to cry when she heard that, she tells us to go in. When I enter the room my grandmother was in, I come to a place which looks a old shop; but there gets no people and it seems start to collapse. I left the shop and find my parents, ...

edmonds_dreamIn my dream, I was in the hospital visiting my grandmother. A doctor is checking her body, and the doctor came and told us that “ the old lady died and please don’t be sad for that.’ My mother started to cry when she heard that, she tells us to go in. When I enter the room my grandmother was in, I come to a place which looks a old shop; but there gets no people and it seems start to collapse. I left the shop and find my parents, the street looks like just after war. I start to yell, and to see if anyone in and answer me. I start to get frightening because no one was in here, I head a sound from a house. The sound interests me and I start to find a way to get into the house. I find a room that the sound comes from, and found that the sound made by a clock. I look around the place to see if I can find anything that can tells me where I am now. I check the room clearly and noticed that it is my bed room, the sound comes out again but this time I weak up. I tell myself’ oh, it was just a dream.’ I felt my eyes was wet, I think it’s because I saw my grandmother’s death again in my dream. I look at the clock near my bed, OH MY GOD!!! It about 8:15 am, I am going to be late to school. I think that it must be that I turn my clock off from ranging and slept aging when I was dreaming.

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Wed, 09 Sep 2009 01:13:07 +0000
bn’s doodle4google.
Title of Doodle: technofuture Supporting Statement: its about Australia in much more higher technology in the future.

doodle4google

Title of Doodle: technofuture

Supporting Statement: its about Australia in much more higher technology in the future.

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Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:01:42 +0000
New planet !!!
I got plenty of dream, but in my mind. I got a dream that is really can’t forget. That’s I being a super hero. At that time, there are many bad things happen in the world. I try to help all the people to get out of these bad things. I start to give up this planet. Try to drive my super plane that can transform to three modes. To other galaxy to find out the planet that like earth. So all of us can have a great new start. ...

new planet I got plenty of dream, but in my mind. I got a dream that is really can’t forget. That’s I being a super hero. At that time, there are many bad things happen in the world. I try to help all the people to get out of these bad things. I start to give up this planet. Try to drive my super plane that can transform to three modes. To other galaxy to find out the planet that like earth. So all of us can have a great new start. But I travel about two year, I still can’t find any. I still didn’t give up finding out the planet. Finally, after one more year, I find out a planet that really matches with earth. Luckily, it is bigger than earth three times. So I decide to back earth and bring all people to come and have a new start. After I back to earth, I make many ships to travel to that new planet. And some of them are for the vehicle. And of course many history books, world history can’t leave when we leaving because still got many people that won’t know about what happen in the past. In the past, god creates the world; include the sun, object, and everything that we got. God ready the other planet for us because he knew that earth won’t satisfy people’s ambition. We use half year to travel to this new planet. Everyone is starting their new life. This time, also start many new ships that go to travel other planet. No one is worry about the past. Each of them all wants to have a new start. That’s right, that’s mankind. That’s won’t end, this journey will keep on. Because no one know what will happen in the future. So no one will give up of travelling discovering any new things in this big place that we even can’t imagine how big and how amazing is it. That’s the journey.

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Tue, 08 Sep 2009 01:01:11 +0000
My (fish’s) dream
I was a fish born with a ugly and funny face which fed by a human’s family. The father in this family look after me very well, but his son was an evil. Sometimes when his father was not at home. He took me out of water and stabbed my body with something shape. He never wash his hands when put his hand into the fishbowl, he was laughing horrified when he was doing such cruel things to me. One night, I dreamed myself as a person. I can play ...

My(fish's)dream

I was a fish born with a ugly and funny face which fed by a human’s family. The father in this family look after me very well, but his son was an evil. Sometimes when his father was not at home. He took me out of water and stabbed my body with something shape. He never wash his hands when put his hand into the fishbowl, he was laughing horrified when he was doing such cruel things to me.

One night, I dreamed myself as a person. I can play games with my friends, I can go to school and eat anything I like. Life was happy when live as a human. In a weekend’s morning, I woke up because of a scary dream, I dreamed myself as a fish treated roughly by a child and get killed at the end. I told this dream to my best friend, he showed an old newspaper article after he listened to me. The news was about a scary monster raided a high school aged child and killed by the child’s father, I was interesting in this topic and I started to read it detailedly. The monster was a variant fish because fed by dirty water in a family. The child admitted that he treated the fish badly; he knew that he put his dirty hands in the water and caused the variant. I shocked when I finished reading, that’s exactly what I dreamed last night. My head started to get painful and finally I woke up again.

I woke up and back to the fishbowl, I remembered that my human’s life was just a dream. The evil child came near my fishbowl and start to conduct his bully to me. I gazed his hand was dirty enough to pollute the water and I felt like I knew what was going to happen. The water became muddy, I felt painful and I woke up again.

This time I woke up in my bed room, it was the fist weekend in my term holiday. I get confused, I start to think about is that dream or where I am now is a dream. 

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Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:55:13 +0000
Doodle 4 Google-Future of peace
In the google logo, I put the rainbow as “G” represents peace and happiness. For the two letter “o” I put the oeace symble with the Australia’s flag represents Australia will always be the country of peace and the earth with different people holding hands around it. Means people around the world will always be friends and live a happy life together. For the “g” I put a kids hand holding a adult’s hand. Means children in Australia will always be take cared. And for “e” I put a white dove in it to represents peace in ...

googlelogo-future of peace

In the google logo, I put the rainbow as “G”
represents peace and happiness. For the two letter “o” I put the oeace
symble with the Australia’s flag represents Australia will always be the
country of peace and the earth with different people holding hands around
it. Means people around the world will always be friends and live a happy
life together. For the “g” I put a kids hand holding a adult’s hand. Means
children in Australia will always be take cared. And for “e” I put a white
dove in it to represents peace in Australia will be spread all around the
world. My wish for Austrlia will be peace and happiness with the world.

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Wed, 02 Sep 2009 01:20:38 +0000
Doodle 4 Google – Joshua’s Entry
In this Google Logo, the first letter “”represents the Aborigines, while the second “O”represents an Anzac wreath, it shows the respect and moral we have for a people that were sent to war. The letter L represents the Sydney Tower, but to me it represents technology, showing to the world how much Australia’s technology has towered to the top and the Background is a picture of an Australian Icon, Uluru, biggest rock in the world, this shows to people, Australia’s purity, how its been untouched, respected and worldy known for.

Doodle 4 Google - Joshua's Entry

In this Google Logo, the first letter “”represents the Aborigines, while the second “O”represents an Anzac wreath, it shows the respect and moral we have for a people that were sent to war. The letter L represents the Sydney Tower, but to me it represents technology, showing to the world how much Australia’s technology has towered to the top and the Background is a picture of an Australian Icon, Uluru, biggest rock in the world, this shows to people, Australia’s purity, how its been untouched, respected and worldy known for.

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Tue, 01 Sep 2009 01:23:23 +0000
day dream
My day dream I was at the veranda day dreaming. I experienced a visionary fantasy while asleep, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts. It is about music… Hmmm hmmmm the bang of the drum…sings through their guitar strings….. I hear voices singing….         Note: I made it a poem. Day dreaming Music makes me happy Music excites me Music put smile on my face For music fill the joy in fairytales Every strum on the guitar and every voice that fits It’s like an angle said “come with me, because you I will keep” The lyrics sat on the melody perfectly So if someone ...

muzik-day-dream

My day dream

I was at the veranda day dreaming. I experienced a visionary fantasy while asleep, especially one of happy, pleasant thoughts.

It is about music…

Hmmm hmmmm the bang of the drum…sings through their guitar strings….. I hear voices singing….

 

 

 

 

Note: I made it a poem.

Day dreaming

Music makes me happy
Music excites me
Music put smile on my face
For music fill the joy in fairytales

Every strum on the guitar and every voice that fits
It’s like an angle said “come with me, because you I will keep”
The lyrics sat on the melody perfectly
So if someone sings it, it will stand to the crowd beautifully

The wind softly passes by and the queen kisses the king
I can feel it; this is the moment that I will sing
But I can hear something… “WAKE UP!” someone scream
Now that was a noise not music anyway, I must say that was the best dream.

=BN=
27.8.09 8.30pm-10.30pm

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Wed, 26 Aug 2009 01:02:10 +0000
Fallen Darkness
I was soaring throughout the winds of the skies, above the vast blue seas, passed the horizons of over passing hills and mountains. It was a great view. When I was flying higher and higher, the sky suddenly turned into darkness, then I saw a light, there was no way out of this darkness the shrouded around me so I started to fly into the bright light that glowed beautifully towards me, that was the only way I could escape. As I flew higher and closer, the glowing light in ...

Ps'd By Heather Gu

Ps'd By Heather Gu

I was soaring throughout the winds of the skies, above the vast blue seas, passed the horizons of over passing hills and mountains. It was a great view. When I was flying higher and higher, the sky suddenly turned into darkness, then I saw a light, there was no way out of this darkness the shrouded around me so I started to fly into the bright light that glowed beautifully towards me, that was the only way I could escape. As I flew higher and closer, the glowing light in the distance between me and it was growing till I couldn’t see it anymore. Then I could feel someone around me, staring at me in a malevolent way. I was shocked and terrified deep in my heart. Then suddenly my wings started vanishing slowly, fading away. My wings were starting to become transparent, crystal clear, like it wasn’t there anymore. You could easily break it so easily by the slightest gentle touch of a feather. My wings couldn’t handle the weight of my body any more so I started falling down through the skies of darkness. Everything around me became like a blur and became blurrier the more I fell into this deep abyss. Then I just woke up…

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Fri, 21 Aug 2009 04:22:44 +0000
The Dream Bridge. . .
Ps’d by Joshua Garcia I was dreaming that I was walking down a deserted area with dirt that had cracked into dust. While I was walking down this area, I saw a bridge ahead. I looked around for anything else but still nothing was there but the bridge. So I walked steadily ahead and it looked like the bridge was sort of bending, wavy or is it maybe just a mirage that I was seeing right in front of me. The closer I got to the bridge, the more it had ...

Ps'd by Joshua Garcia

Ps’d by Joshua Garcia

I was dreaming that I was walking down a deserted area with dirt that had cracked into dust. While I was walking down this area, I saw a bridge ahead. I looked around for anything else but still nothing was there but the bridge. So I walked steadily ahead and it looked like the bridge was sort of bending, wavy or is it maybe just a mirage that I was seeing right in front of me. The closer I got to the bridge, the more it had twisted. I was starting to think if I would be able to even cross it since its twisted and demented. I had a feeling that there would be another thing on the other side of this bridge. So I took a step on to the bridge and already I felt a strange sort of feeling in the environment but it didn’t do anything and I continued. As I walked on, the bridge was twisting, and it was getting more difficult for as I took more steps. Further down the bridge, it looked like an ocean. I saw the bridge was coming to an end but then connected itself to the ocean, a roaring ocean. Up above at the skies, there seemed to be something flying, something huge, I tried to focus onto it and it was a griffon, I didn’t expect that but it was a magnificent creature, it was quite a look but I kept going forward. On both far sides of the oceans were just walls that lead to one path, one direction. It was the only way I could and that I couldn’t think of going back so I moved forward. I was in the middle of the ocean, when it was roaring directly at me, trying to give me fear and no hope. But I had the courage in my heart from friends and family to keep me going. I kept on going trying to see what was on the other side of the ocean but I couldn’t and then I woke up.

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Wed, 27 May 2009 01:11:28 +0000
Modern Mona Lisa
My art work is about Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The idea behind my work is to create a mysterious a modern, lovely,  new image from  the Mona lisa . My art work’s style is pop art .  Pop art is a visual art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States.  Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man, a man whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention.  The Mona Lisa (also known as La ...

850850-copy1My art work is about Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa. The idea behind my work is to create a mysterious a modern, lovely,  new image from  the Mona lisa .

My art work’s style is pop art .  Pop art is a visual art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States.  Leonardo has often been described as the archetype of the Renaissance man, a man whose unquenchable curiosity was equaled only by his powers of invention.  The Mona Lisa (also known as La Gioconda) is a 16th century portrait painted in oil on a poplar panel by Leonardo da Vinci during the Italian Renaissance.

I put a little of her background into a three-dimensional feel. But I want to have a different type of feeling, like vegetables.

I used Photoshop filters , eclosion and change colour

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Tue, 26 May 2009 01:15:09 +0000
Thirsty Spiderman
My art work is a picture of Vermeer’s Milkmaid. with spider man on the top of the left hand corner; it is in a pop art (comic) style. The style that I used is pop art , Pop art is a visual art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist’s use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of Fine Art. Johannes Vermeer  was the original ...

`My art work is a picture of Vermeer’s Milkmaid. with spider man on the top of the left hand corner; it is in a pop art (comic) style.

The style that I used is pop art , Pop art is a visual art movement that emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain and in the late 1950s in the United States. Pop art challenged tradition by asserting that an artist’s use of the mass-produced visual commodities of popular culture is contiguous with the perspective of Fine Art.
Johannes Vermeer  was the original artist.  He was a Dutch Baroque painter who specialized in exquisite, domestic interior scenes of ordinary life. Vermeer was a moderately successful provincial genre painter in his lifetime. He seems never to have been particularly wealthy, perhaps because he produced relatively few paintings, leaving his wife and children in debt at his death.

The name the original artwork is ‘Milkmaid’.  A milkmaid was historically a woman, usually young, who milked cows and supplied milk.  She also prepared the dairy products such as cream, butter, and cheese. The term is not a female equivalent of milkman.

To create this image I used the filter function –poster effect in Photoshop and I cut out the spider man form the poster and paste it in to the drawing –Milk Maid

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Fri, 22 May 2009 04:23:50 +0000
Modern Scream Freak Mona Lisa
As the idea behind of my work, my artwork uses two famous paintings: The Scream and The Mona Lisa. The first column displays the three original versions of art work that I used, the left top one is the pop art style of two works underneath combined together. The foreground in The Scream has changed to Mona Lisa’s face and looks like dancing in a disco like place which is my background. Rich colours have been used in the background, and it gives an opposite feeling to the original one. The ...

untitled-12

As the idea behind of my work, my artwork uses two famous paintings: The Scream and The Mona Lisa. The first column displays the three original versions of art work that I used, the left top one is the pop art style of two works underneath combined together. The foreground in The Scream has changed to Mona Lisa’s face and looks like dancing in a disco like place which is my background. Rich colours have been used in the background, and it gives an opposite feeling to the original one.

The little boy sits in the sky and is drawing on the clouds. The figure drawn by the boy is the Mona Lisa and the face is the person in The Scream; it appears as a kind of funny feeling. It’s one of the modern styles of artwork called Pop Art. Edward Munch and Leonardo da Vinci who were popular artists in the olden days created ‘The Scream’ and ‘The Mona Lisa’ which are now very famous.

I created this image in Photoshop using the clone stamp tool to change the face between The Scream and Mona Lisa. I also used layer styles to create 3D effects and filters to form different style, I used the brush tool to colour in the background to make the place look like an disco.

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Fri, 22 May 2009 04:22:21 +0000
Modern American gothic Napoleon
In this animation, I use few famous painting to create this” Pop Art”. Edvard Munch’s most famous painting, The Scream, is damaged beyond repair. And American Gothic is a painting by Grant Wood from 1930. Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass (1801). The background is The Third of May 1808, Francisco Goya, 1814. My art work is about want to put each century of art work put together. The different time. Different culture. Mix up together, the time they got war. Mean that the war always happen in the world. Nothing can ...

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In this animation, I use few famous painting to create this” Pop Art”. Edvard Munch’s most famous painting, The Scream, is damaged beyond repair. And American Gothic is a painting by Grant Wood from 1930. Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass (1801). The background is The Third of May 1808, Francisco Goya, 1814.
My art work is about want to put each century of art work put together. The different time. Different culture. Mix up together, the time they got war. Mean that the war always happen in the world. Nothing can change of using business.
American Gothic is draw by Grant wood. He is American painter. He is best known for his paintings depicting the rural American Midwest, particularly the painting American Gothic, an iconic image of the 20th century.
Napoleon at the Saint-Bernard Pass is draw by Jacques-Louis David. He was a highly influential French painter in the Neoclassical style, considered to be the preeminent painter of the era.
I use many feature to make this picture. Using Photoshop to do the effect. I have do about 15 layers to do this animate.

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Fri, 22 May 2009 04:20:49 +0000
Napoleon’s dream
My art work is about Napoleon Bonaparte. He’s on his way to heaven. When Napoleon was alive he wanted to take over the world. When he’s dead he still want to control the world but that can only be a dream for him to bring to heaven. The style of my image was surrealism. Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur. The original artist was Jacques-Louis David. He was a highly influential French painter in the Neoclassical style. The original art work was Napoleon Crossing the Alps. Initially ...

heather-animation-copy

My art work is about Napoleon Bonaparte. He’s on his way to heaven. When Napoleon was alive he wanted to take over the world. When he’s dead he still want to control the world but that can only be a dream for him to bring to heaven.

The style of my image was surrealism. Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur.

The original artist was Jacques-Louis David. He was a highly influential French painter in the Neoclassical style.

The original art work was Napoleon Crossing the Alps. Initially commissioned by the Spanish Ambassador to France, the composition shows a strongly idealized view of the real crossing that Napoleon and his army made across the Alps through the Great St. Bernard Pass in May 1800.

I mixed a picture of sky and a picture of steps together. Then I used magnetic lasso tool to take out the Napoleon and put the napoleon on the steps. It looks like He’s on his way to heaven. Finally I put a globe on top of Napoleon’s finger. It looks like the world is under napoleon’s control, but that can only be a dream.

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Fri, 22 May 2009 04:05:56 +0000
Collective invention: my version
My artwork is a picture of a half horse, half human creature in an original style. I have used the style of surrealism, a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members. Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities of World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s on, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film, and music, of many countries and languages, ...

dreamMy artwork is a picture of a half horse, half human creature in an original style.

I have used the style of surrealism, a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members. Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities of World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s on, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film, and music, of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, and philosophy and social theory.
The original artist was René François Ghislain Magritte. Rene was a Belgian surrealist artist. He became well known for a number of witty and thought-provoking images. He described his paintings as “visible images which conceal nothing; they evoke mystery and, indeed, when one sees one of my pictures, one asks oneself this simple question, ‘What does that mean?’. It does not mean anything, because mystery means nothing either, it is unknowable.”

The name of the original art work is ‘collective inventions’.A play on the image of a mermaid. If a woman can have fins for legs, why not an inverted version?

I’ve created my image by first taking some pictures from the internet like a dark forest background, a set of wings and a horse.
I manipulated it in the program Photoshop. I took the body from the original painting. Then I blurred the edges, to make it look real. Next, I’ve taken a horse, cut the head off, place it above the boby and blurred it to make it real as well. Then, I open the wings from the folder I’ve saved it. I cut the edges and blurred it too and put it into my image. Finally, I’ve changed the colour of the whole image with white and black.

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Wed, 20 May 2009 01:35:50 +0000
Cubist Napoleon
My artwork is a picture of Napoleon Bonaparte riding a horse. He was Emperor of France during the French Revolution. This style of art was originally realist but then I had edited it and photoshopped it into a cubist style, similar to the styles of the famous Pablo Picasso. The original artist is Jacques Louis David. He was mostly a realist style painter and has used subjects mostly from the French Revolution and from Roman and Greek times. He was a supporter of the French Revolution in 1789 – 1799, was ...

Napoleon Crossing the Alps "Cubist Style"My artwork is a picture of Napoleon Bonaparte riding a horse. He was Emperor of France during the French Revolution. This style of art was originally realist but then I had edited it and photoshopped it into a cubist style, similar to the styles of the famous Pablo Picasso.

The original artist is Jacques Louis David. He was mostly a realist style painter and has used subjects mostly from the French Revolution and from Roman and Greek times. He was a supporter of the French Revolution in 1789 – 1799, was a supporter of Robespierre and was behind Napoleon Bonaparte both being among the best-known and influential people of the French Revolution. These two people were that supported the murder of Louis XVI, king of France, Marie Antoinette 1755 – 1793, Queen of France and the murder of thousands of people.

Jacques Louis David being a supporter of this event is horrific. This shows a very questionable side to his character. Supporting Robespierre caused thousands and thousands of innocent people to be killed and guillotined for no reason at all when all of this was just to restore the balance between the rich and the poor.

The original name of the magnificent artwork is named “Napoleon Crossing the Alps”. This being painted in 1800 by Jacques Louis David after the wars of the French Revolution.

I used the tools from photoshop to edit this portrait. The selection tool was used in a rectangular template. In all the rectangles I created, I changed the contrast, brightness and shading, giving this edited picture more of an effect and look of cubist art.

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Fri, 15 May 2009 00:08:00 +0000
Hi-tech communications: for the better or worse
Some of the changes to society caused by communication systems include ATMs, EFTPOS, Bpay, voice mail, mobile phones, email, video conferencing, telecommuting and accessing information from the Internet. Some of the concerns include privacy, security, accuracy of data, changing nature of work, offensive material on the Internet, information overload and electronic junk mail. In my opinion, the greatest concern with communication systems is security and privacy. For example, electronic banking raises the issue of security. All banks are determined to make their online banking services safe from interference and to secure ...

Some of the changes to society caused by communication systems include ATMs, EFTPOS, Bpay, voice mail, mobile phones, email, video conferencing, telecommuting and accessing information from the Internet. Some of the concerns include privacy, security, accuracy of data, changing nature of work, offensive material on the Internet, information overload and electronic junk mail.

In my opinion, the greatest concern with communication systems is security and privacy. For example, electronic banking raises the issue of security. All banks are determined to make their online banking services safe from interference and to secure customer details. Data encryption is used to secure the data transfer between the customer’s computer and the bank’s computer.

On the other hand, the use of email, voice mail, SMS can make the communication more convenient and quicker. However, this new technology has restricted a person ability to have a rich knowledge and style of writing. For example, when using SMS, there are lots of abbreviation and shortcuts words and the language expression vague.
Also, offensive material available on the Internet such as pornographic, racist and violent material is a major concern. Children with Internet access can potentially view inappropriate material, either deliberately or unintentionally. It results the issue of Internet censorship raising in recent time.

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Thu, 14 May 2009 00:10:44 +0000
Should Offensive material be banned from the Internet?
My opinion is that offensive material should be banned from the Internet to a certain level but not to a greater extent. The Federal Government plans to introduce ISP-level filtering to provide a ‘safer’ internet experience for Australian families and are being met with significant resistance from people within the ISP community. This mandatory filter will be able to block access to “inappropriate” material and “unwanted” material, including “euthanasia websites”. Others types of material that are being considered for inclusion on the blacklist are gambling sites and all pornography sites. ...

iei_con_locked1My opinion is that offensive material should be banned from the Internet to a certain level but not to a greater extent. The Federal Government plans to introduce ISP-level filtering to provide a ‘safer’ internet experience for Australian families and are being met with significant resistance from people within the ISP community. This mandatory filter will be able to block access to “inappropriate” material and “unwanted” material, including “euthanasia websites”. Others types of material that are being considered for inclusion on the blacklist are gambling sites and all pornography sites. [1]

There are also various problems associated with blocking of all the offensive materials. New websites are emerging daily that contain highly inappropriate materials such as extremely violent content or child abuse pornography. The filtering of the net wouldn’t allow every single site which contains offensive materials to be blocked. In addition to the broad range of content that will be intentionally blocked under the scheme, trials show that an ISP level filter will accidentally block huge numbers of legitimate sites which can be a used as a resource for education, official or business purposes.

I personally believe that the pornographic materials should not be banned because it a major source of adult entertainment and some social issues might arise such as significant increase of depression in younger adults etc. Extreme violent content should be blocked completely because it creates a negative effect on children and teenagers, for instance, causing them to act in more aggressive or violent manner. The protection of children is vitally important and we must ensure that they are not exposed to inappropriate material on the internet. But this internet filter will only affect one third of internet traffic, because it does not apply to peer file sharing networks or email. In fact, users can very easily avoid the filter entirely using proxies or anonymising software.

The costs are likely to be higher and passed on to consumers. This scheme will also slow down the internet or may interfere with online commerce. A conclusion can be reached that there are more disadvantages in filtering the internet to ISP-level than advantages so the federal government should seek alternative methods to ensure that internet experience for Australian families are safe.

[1]. www.vicnet.net.au/community/issues/censorship/

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Tue, 12 May 2009 03:08:34 +0000
Our Vision: Help Us, Help Them
Download audio file (testing2.mp3) The theme is ‘The role of information technology in our school’. We are creating radio news coverage. The storyline is as follows. We, as students from Kogarah High School will be promoting a fundraising charity case to a school in Cambodia who live in a region suffering from extreme poverty. This fundraising will allow the school to purchase information technology. We will travel there, interview an English teacher and one of his students about how they felt about receiving these generous donations. We will be asking questions about ...

Download audio file (testing2.mp3)

The theme is ‘The role of information technology in our school’. We are creating radio news coverage. The storyline is as follows. We, as students from Kogarah High School will be promoting a fundraising charity case to a school in Cambodia who live in a region suffering from extreme poverty.

This fundraising will allow the school to purchase information technology. We will travel there, interview an English teacher and one of his students about how they felt about receiving these generous donations. We will be asking questions about how information technology will be productive, resourceful and influential in their society.

In Australia, information has greatly revolutionized schooling life and we should not take it for granted. Thus, this radio news coverage is hoping to persuade the general public that schools in Cambodia should have the privilege of being exposed to information technology.

By: Molis , Maggie and Lawrence

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Tue, 12 May 2009 03:01:24 +0000
‘The Keldin and Rocky Show’
Download audio file (download.php?filename=2008-11-29_interview.mp3) An interview by Keldin, Rocky and Chris

Download audio file (download.php?filename=2008-11-29_interview.mp3)

keldin_and_rocky
An interview by Keldin, Rocky and Chris

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Tue, 12 May 2009 01:41:56 +0000
The School Gossip Times
Download audio file (interview4.mp3) Three peers. One hope. One dream. To make the best radio interview ever… Well…we got close….*shifty eyes* In our radio interview, however, we chose to talk about the topic of the usefulness of network systems in our schools. We included a range of questions, including how effective network systems are in our schools and how the presence of network systems affects school work of Kogarah High School students. We discussed the relationship between computer network systems to education and literacy levels of the students of our school. We also debated on ...

Download audio file (interview4.mp3)

school_gossip_times

Three peers. One hope. One dream.

To make the best radio interview ever…

Well…we got close….*shifty eyes*

In our radio interview, however, we chose to talk about the topic of the usefulness of network systems in our schools.

We included a range of questions, including how effective network systems are in our schools and how the presence of network systems affects school work of Kogarah High School students. We discussed the relationship between computer network systems to education and literacy levels of the students of our school. We also debated on the advantages and disadvantages of network systems while keeping the interview at a typical “Kyle and Jackie O Show” radio style.

We interviewed the delightful pair of Brendan and Bruce from Year 10 to speak with us on this topic. While Brendan was very approving of computer network systems (listen to the podcast..you’ll understand), they both had a lot to share with us.

Enjoy!

Group Members: Sam, Jarryd and Zheng

(Each sold seperately, Batteries not included)

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Fri, 08 May 2009 00:22:32 +0000
Online shopping issues
Online shopping nowadays offer shoppers desired savings and is easy and convenient. However, it can be unsafe when personal information is accessed by an unauthorised person and credit card details are stolen.  Shopping online is enjoyable but there are concerns with security when paying for goods and services on the Internet.  Account details need to be safe from interference. Two measures that overcome security problems are: 1. Data encryption: is used to secure data during transmission where data is encoded, transmitted, and then converted to its original form. When there is inference in the transmission of data, ...

amazonOnline shopping nowadays offer shoppers desired savings and is easy and convenient. However, it can be unsafe when personal information is accessed by an unauthorised person and credit card details are stolen.  Shopping online is enjoyable but there are concerns with security when paying for goods and services on the Internet.  Account details need to be safe from interference.
Two measures that overcome security problems are:
1. Data encryption: is used to secure data during transmission where data is encoded, transmitted, and then converted to its original form. When there is inference in the transmission of data, the data is not recognised therefore can’t be accessed.
2. Backup: There is a greater risk when the data is accessible to multiple users over a network.  To prevent data loss, data destroyed or maliciously modified the security of data storage is essential. Reliable backup procedures are used to ensure the transaction has been accurately stored.

Personally, I think online shopping is convenient where the customer has access to a variety of products and items that can not be found in store. However, I advise people to be cautious of the site they’re purchasing on. It’s preferred to purchase on a site that is well-known and familiar, therefore your ensured to receive your purchased items and not lose additional money. It’s also useful to consider how your payment can be made. Sometimes credit cards are not ideal as some people may be insecure of their credit card details being accessed illegally, alternate ways can be considered such as money order, cheque bank deposit etc.
Reference:

http://www.globalsign.com/company/press/241108-safe-shopping.htm

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Sun, 01 Mar 2009 00:24:05 +0000
The Rocker Show: student laptops
Download audio file (laptops2.mp3) This podcast is all about Mr Rudd’s promise to give the students a free laptop. Featuring the rockers: Jorge “The rocker fellow”, Bon ” The Rocker Buddha” and Josh ” The Heavy Weight rocker”. In this podcast, we also talk about the effects of providing new laptops to each of the students for their studies. We invited Ms. Anggrahini as our guest to answer our questions especially the questions of our rocker fans that were protesting outside. I hope you liked our podcast. Listen and enjoy!!

Download audio file (laptops2.mp3)

This podcast is all about Mr Rudd’s promise to give the students a free laptop. Featuring the rockers: Jorge “The rocker fellow”, Bon ” The Rocker Buddha” and Josh ” The Heavy Weight rocker”. In this podcast, we also talk about the effects of providing new laptops to each of the students for their studies. We invited Ms. Anggrahini as our guest to answer our questions especially the questions of our rocker fans that were protesting outside. I hope you liked our podcast. Listen and enjoy!!

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Wed, 03 Sep 2008 23:36:04 +0000
IT Careers
Download audio file (school-it-podcast.mp3) In this podcast, we interviewed a teacher about the theme ‘The careers in information technology’. The interview is about the role and importance of IT.  We talked about demands of IT and how vast the IT industry is. We also discussed what the future possibilities of IT are. This will be useful for students who are struggling to achieve their goal at school and may decide to consider a job in the real world. We talked about jobs they might be interested in e.g. Computer Technician, Project analyst ...

Download audio file (school-it-podcast.mp3)

In this podcast, we interviewed a teacher about the theme ‘The careers in information technology’. The interview is about the role and importance of IT.  We talked about demands of IT and how vast the IT industry is. We also discussed what the future possibilities of IT are.

This will be useful for students who are struggling to achieve their goal at school and may decide to consider a job in the real world. We talked about jobs they might be interested in e.g. Computer Technician, Project analyst etc.

The main aim of this interview program is to encourage students to pursue their career in IT, considering the fact that the demand of IT at present is significantly high.

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xml  alexander's forum

Mon, 01 Mar 2010 22:51:15 GMT
How To Create a Microsoft Access Macro to Export Information to Excel or Word:
1.Click on the "Macros" option in the "Objects" menu.

2.Click "New" in the upper-panel of the database window to create a new macro.

3.Click in the "Action" field.

4.Click on the drop-down arrow and go to "MsgBox".

5.Go to the "Action Arguments" pane by clicking in the "Message" field or pressing "F6". To toggle to and from the "Action Arguments...

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Tue, 10 Nov 2009 00:18:12 GMT
Database Assessment Task 2010
Please find attached:  Database Assessment Task 2010  Roll Eyes

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Mon, 15 Jun 2009 01:20:15 GMT
Eponymous Blog
by Mr Alexander.  

Please visit our new class blog at http://www.liamalexander.com/edublog/

This blog has great IT articles plus a lot of interesting orginal art works.  We value your comments and ratings cool

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Sliced Wikizine: a collection of the best articles on technology, politics, lifestyle, entertainment by a range of authors

xml This Day in History

Tue, 21 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT
Rajiv Gandhi Is Assassinated (1991)
When his brother Sanjay Gandhi died in a plane crash in 1981, Rajiv Gandhi—then an airline pilot—was drafted into politics by his mother, Indian Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. When she was assassinated in 1984, he succeeded her as prime minister. In 1987, he sent peacekeeping forces to Sri Lanka in an unsuccessful attempt to end Tamil-Sinhalese violence. Following allegations of corruption, he resigned as prime minister in 1989. He was assassinated in 1991. How and by whom was he killed? Discuss

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Mon, 20 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT
Levi Strauss Patents Iconic Metal Rivet for Reinforcing Pants Pockets (1873)
If you are wearing blue jeans, chances are a version of tailor Jacob Davis's invention is hugging your hips right now. Davis did not invent jeans—that was the more famous Levi Strauss—but he did invent one crucial component: the copper rivets that reinforce the corners of the pockets, now ubiquitous on denim pants. Because Davis did not have the money to file the necessary patent paperwork, he wrote to Strauss—then Davis's fabric supplier—suggesting they apply together. How did Strauss respond?

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Sun, 19 May 2013 05:00:00 GMT
Nine-Year-Old Cynthia Ann Parker Kidnapped by Comanches (1836)
Parker was a young girl when Comanches raided Fort Parker—located in what is now Texas—and massacred its inhabitants, capturing her in the process. Raised by her captors, she was adopted into the tribe and went on to bear the last great Comanche chief, Quanah Parker. At first, Quanah led raids on frontier settlements, but after his defeat and surrender, he learned to live alongside his white neighbors and eventually became the richest Native American in the US. What became of his mother?

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xml Sliced - Animation - Sliced Wikizine

Mon, 24 Jan 2011 13:35:27 +0000
Voki: free animated talking avatars, use your own voice
enables users to express themselves on the web in their own voice using a talking character. You can customize your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of lots of other types of characters: animals, monsters, anime etc. Your Voki can speak with your own voice which is added via microphone, upload, or phone.

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Sat, 22 Jan 2011 10:57:25 +0000
Face Your Manga Face Your Manga: Make your Manga Avatar
gives you a chance to add originality and style to your world: create and print your face, turn it in a work of art and amaze all with an original gift.

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Fri, 16 Apr 2010 19:45:31 +0000
Alpoy: Avatar Creator and Animator
site where you can easily create and animate avatars. Create avatars from your photos, resize and rotate images. Then, edit your avatar, make them personal.

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Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:35:48 +0000
Wix: Make Free Flash Web Content in Minutes
Wix is an online application for creating and publishing stunning Web content in Flash. With Wix you don't have to be a designer or programmer to create gorgeous Websites and embeddable Web objects. Wix's drag & drop interface easily adds audio, video, images, text, animation, decoration, and so much more!

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Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:34:36 +0000
InstaSaver: Create Animated Slideshow Screensaver Online
InstaSaver is as easy as 1-2-3. Just specify the name, get photos from Flickr or upload your favorite pictures, and the screensaver with over 150 animation effects and transitions is ready. You will get a fully standalone distribution package that enables you to easily install and/or distribute your screensaver.

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Sun, 14 Mar 2010 08:32:42 +0000
MeMoov: Animation Studio online
Free Animation Creation service. Create and share user generated animation in minutes. no Animation skills needed. have fun animating and sharing quickly and easily

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Wed, 29 Apr 2009 09:28:59 +0000
DoppelMe
Free Dynamic Avatars. Create a cool graphical likeness of yourself, your friends, family or any group of people for use as an avatar in forums, instant messenger, blogs and almost anywhere else on the web.

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Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:52:28 +0000
Voki
Create a talking character online using your own voice. You can customize your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of lots of other types of characters: animals, monsters, anime etc. Your Voki can speak with your own voice which is added via microphone, upload, or phone.

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Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:49:07 +0000
GIFUP
Online gif animation and avatar generator. Simply upload images from your computer or get them from Flickr or any web site and let GIFUP do all the magic. You get your animated avatar, banner or GIF slideshow

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Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:45:05 +0000
GoAnimate
Animate online without having to learn to draw or install any software.

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Mon, 27 Apr 2009 09:43:01 +0000
DoInk
Draw and animate online easily, collaborate with friends and other artists by reusing props.

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Sun, 19 Apr 2009 20:38:30 +0000
How To Create a Flash XML Slideshow Player
Tutorial on creating a Slideshow application for a website or blog. This tutorial is very basic and uses pretty simple ActionScripting to get things done.

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xml Sliced - Blogging - Sliced Wikizine

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 06:17:55 +0000
Blogcastr - Broadcast Your Blog Live!
free, easy-to-use live blogging service for sharing cool stuff as it happens. From attending a sports game or concert to watching your favorite TV show, Blogcastr enables you to share what you are doing as you are doing it. It's a great way to create real-time conversation with friends.

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xml Sliced - Code - Sliced Wikizine

Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:31:14 +0000
WordOff: cleans nasty Word HTML, generates nice clean code
Wordoff applies the following rules to strip the cruft that is pasted into WYSIWYG editors from Word: * Attributes are removed for all elements except s * s and s are removed * Empty elements are removed * Consecutive line breaks are reduced to two

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xml Sliced - Graphics - Sliced Wikizine

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 09:14:05 +0000
Piwigo Photo Gallery
free and opensource photo gallery software for the web, built by an active community of users and developers. Extensions make Piwigo easily customizable.

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xml Sliced - Sliced Wikizine

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 08:21:11 +0000
Nice and Free CSS Templates
Incredible free easy tool for website layout! This site contains free css templates for your website - Just copy and paste and there you have a stunning website !

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xml Sliced - Social Media - Sliced Wikizine

Sun, 13 Feb 2011 07:05:48 +0000
TweetTwain - Virtual Social Media Manager
social media management tool for small and medium business allows multiple account monitoring and management. Cross posting between Twitter and Facebook along with other features like in-built url shortening, photo upload, direct messages, rss feed monitoring, brand monitoring, & more

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xml  Yahoo! Weather - Sydney, AS

Wed, 22 May 2013 12:00 pm AEST
Conditions for Sydney, AS at 12:00 pm AEST

Current Conditions:
Rain Shower, 17 C

Forecast:
Wed - Cloudy. High: 17 Low: 12
Thu - Rain/Thunder. High: 18 Low: 14

Full Forecast at Yahoo! Weather

(provided by The Weather Channel)

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xml Yahoo! News - Top Stories

Tue, 21 May 2013 23:06:18 -0400
Senate panel approves immigration bill

Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., right, confers with the committee's ranking Republican, Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, May 20, 2013, as the committee assembles to work on a landmark immigration bill to secure the border and offer citizenship to millions. The panel is aiming to pass the legislation out of committee this week, setting up a high-stakes debate on the Senate floor. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)WASHINGTON (AP) — Far-reaching legislation that grants a chance at citizenship to millions of immigrants living illegally in the United States cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on a solid bipartisan vote Tuesday night after supporters somberly sidestepped a controversy over the rights of gay spouses.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 23:01:46 -0400
Garcia, Woods take their shots at each other

FILE - At left, in a May 5, 2013 file photo, Sergio Garcia grimaces during The Players Championshop golf tournament in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. At right, in a March 25, 2013 file photo, Tiger Woods walks to the 16th green during the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament in Orlando, Fla. Woods and Garcia don't like each other, and are making no attempt to disguise their feelings. (AP Photo/File)VIRGINIA WATER, England (AP) — Tiger Woods and Sergio Garcia don't like each other, and they're making no effort to disguise their feelings.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 22:54:45 -0400
Search for Okla. tornado survivors nearly complete

Justin Stehan salvages photographs from his tornado-ravaged home Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Moore, Okla. A huge tornado roared through the Oklahoma City suburb Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)MOORE, Okla. (AP) — Helmeted rescue workers raced Tuesday to complete the search for survivors and the dead in the Oklahoma City suburb where a mammoth tornado destroyed countless homes, cleared lots down to bare red earth and claimed 24 lives, including those of nine children.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 22:47:39 -0400
Owner: Chinese boat's captain beaten by NKoreans
BEIJING (AP) — Gunmen wearing North Korean military uniforms released a Chinese fishing boat after holding its crew for two weeks, beating up the captain and stealing the vessel's fuel, the boat's owner said. He added that the hijackers did not get the 600,000 yuan ($100,000) ransom they had demanded.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 23:05:26 -0400
Garcia apologizes for "fried chicken" remark

FILE - At left, in a May 5, 2013 file photo, Sergio Garcia grimaces during The Players Championshop golf tournament in Ponte Vedra Beach, Fla. At right, in a March 25, 2013 file photo, Tiger Woods walks to the 16th green during the final round of the Arnold Palmer Invitational golf tournament in Orlando, Fla. Woods and Garcia don't like each other, and are making no attempt to disguise their feelings. (AP Photo/File)Sergio Garcia apologized for saying he would "serve fried chicken" while making a joke about having Tiger Woods over for dinner.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 22:33:07 -0400
Paille's goal puts Bruins on verge of East finals

Boston Bruins' Daniel Paille celebrates after scoring during the third period in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinals in the NHL hockey Stanley Cup playoffs against the New York Rangers Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in New York. The Bruins won the game 2-1. (AP Photo/Frank Franklin II)NEW YORK (AP) — Daniel Paille snapped a tie with 3:31 left in the third period, and the Boston Bruins put the New York Rangers on the brink of elimination with a 2-1 victory in Game 3 of the Eastern Conference semifinal series on Tuesday night.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 22:32:49 -0400
AP PHOTOS: Devastation, reunion in tornado wake

A soldier walks past the wreckage left when a tornado moved through Moore, Okla., Tuesday, May 21, 2013. The huge tornado roared through the Oklahoma City suburb, flattening entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds.(AP Photo/Brennan Linsley)Residents sift through the remnants of their homes and parents hug children outside a demolished elementary school. Emergency workers tend to the wounded.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 22:29:56 -0400
Cavaliers win NBA draft lottery again

Cleveland Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert congratulates his son Nick Gilbert after the team won the NBA basketball draft lottery, Tuesday, May 21, 2013 in New York. (AP Photo/Jason DeCrow)NEW YORK (AP) — What's not to like? Being in the lottery every year.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 22:24:25 -0400
Portland, Ore., voting on water fluoridation
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Oral health and politics collided Tuesday as Portlanders — proudly nonconformist and environmentally minded — decided whether their city remains the largest in the U.S. without public fluoridation.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 22:23:48 -0400
Man charged in death of missing Maine teenager

This June 2012 photo provided by the Penobscot County Jail via Maine State Police shows Kyle Dube, of Orono, Maine. Dube, 20, was charged Tuesday, May 21, 2013 with murder in the death of Nichole Cable, who was last seen May 12, 2013. Police say a body found in the woods on Monday night is likely that of the high school student. (AP Photo/Penobscot County Jail via Maine State Police)BANGOR, Maine (AP) — When 15-year-old Nichole Cable left home May 12, she told her family she was heading out to see someone she'd met on Facebook.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 22:19:46 -0400
North Korean leader sends 'special envoy' to China
PYONGYANG, North Korea (AP) — A "special envoy" for North Korean leader Kim Jong Un left Pyongyang on Wednesday for China, the North's only major political and economic benefactor. State media released few details, but the trip comes at a rocky time in ties between the allies.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 21:36:52 -0400
Twisters keep returning, but Oklahoma still short on shelters
By Mary Wisniewski and David Bailey (Reuters) - The people of central Oklahoma know all too well the destructive power of a tornado, but when a big one rolled toward the town of Moore again on Monday, residents had few basements and storm shelters to run to when the alarm sounded, officials said. Two elementary schools that were hit by the EF-5 tornado - the most powerful category - did not have "safe rooms" where students could shelter from the storm, and no applications for safe rooms had been made, Oklahoma Emergency Management Director Albert Ashwood told reporters. ...

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Tue, 21 May 2013 21:36:19 -0400
Library honors Carole King with US pop music prize

Singer-songwriter Carole King, performs during an event to honor her with the Gershwin Prize for Popular Song, at the Library of Congress, Tuesday, May 21, 2013 in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)WASHINGTON (AP) — Carole King isn't done with music — not yet anyway.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 21:23:40 -0400
Senate panel passes immigration bill; Obama praises move

Candidates hold U.S. flags during a naturalization ceremony to become new U.S. Citizens at Convention Center in Los AngelesBy Rachelle Younglai and Caren Bohan WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Senate panel on Tuesday approved legislation to give millions of illegal immigrants a path to citizenship, setting up a spirited debate next month in the full Senate over the biggest changes in immigration policy in a generation. President Barack Obama, who has made enactment of an immigration bill one of his top priorities for this year, praised the Senate Judiciary Committee's action, saying the bill was consistent with the goals he has expressed. ...


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Tue, 21 May 2013 21:23:11 -0400
Lawyer: Feds investigating Susan Powell case

Chuck Cox, left, describes the search for his missing daughter as he stands with attorney Anne Bremner during a news conference Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Seattle. Bremner said Tuesday there's an ongoing federal investigation into Susan Powell's disappearance. She made the announcement at the Seattle news conference a day after local officials in Utah said they had closed their investigation into the Susan Powell case. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (AP) — The lawyer for the family of missing Utah woman Susan Powell said Tuesday that even as local police close the active part of their investigation into her disappearance, federal authorities continue to review the case — a claim that was denied by the U.S. Attorney's Office in Salt Lake City.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 21:22:17 -0400
Biden: Jewish leaders drove gay marriage changes
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Joe Biden is praising Jewish leaders for helping change American attitudes about gay marriage and other issues.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 21:05:19 -0400
FBI ID's Benghazi suspects _ but no arrests yet

FILE - This Sept. 13, 2012 file photo shows a cameraman filming one of U.S. consulate burnt out offices after an attack that killed four Americans, including Ambassador Chris Stevens on the night of Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2012, in Benghazi, Libya. The U.S. has identified five men they believe might be behind the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year, and have enough evidence to justify seizing them by military force as suspected terrorists _ but not enough proof to try them in a U.S. civilian criminal court, the process the Obama administration prefers, U.S. officials said. (AP photo/Mohammad Hannon, File)WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has identified five men who might be responsible for the attack on the diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya, last year, and has enough evidence to justify seizing them by military force as suspected terrorists, officials say. But there isn't enough proof to try them in a U.S. civilian court as the Obama administration prefers.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 21:02:14 -0400
10 Things to Know for Wednesday

Jodi Arias addresses the jury on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, during the penalty phase of her murder trial at Maricopa County Superior Court in Phoenix. Arias was convicted of first-degree murder in the stabbing and shooting to death of Travis Alexander in his suburban Phoenix home in June 2008. (AP Photo/The Arizona Republic, Rob Schumacher, Pool)Your daily look at late-breaking news, upcoming events and the stories that will be talked about Wednesday:


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Tue, 21 May 2013 20:59:22 -0400
Canseco player-coach in indy league _ for a series
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Jose Canseco is back in the independent United League as a player-coach. At least for one series.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 20:58:28 -0400
Power of Moore tornado dwarfs Hiroshima bomb

An aerial view shows Briarwood Elementary with vehicles thrown about after Monday's tornado, Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Moore, Okla. At least 24 people, including nine children, were killed in the massive tornado that flattened homes and a school in Moore, on Monday afternoon. (AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez)WASHINGTON (AP) — Everything had to come together just perfectly to create the killer tornado in Moore, Okla.: wind speed, moisture in the air, temperature and timing. And when they did, the awesome energy released over that city dwarfed the power of the atomic bomb that leveled Hiroshima.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 20:47:58 -0400
Japan's trade deficit hits $8.6B due to weaker yen
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's trade deficit widened to a larger-than-expected 879.9 billion yen ($8.6 billion) in April as its weakening currency accentuated surging import costs.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 20:39:38 -0400
Obama voices support for Senate immigration bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says a far-reaching immigration overhaul approved by a Senate panel is largely consistent with his own principles.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 20:20:43 -0400
Jodi Arias asks for life term; jury deliberates

Jodi Arias points to her family as a reason for the jury to give her a life in prison sentence instead of the death penalty on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, during the penalty phase of her murder trial at Maricopa County Superior Court in PhoenixZ. Arias was convicted of first-degree murder in the stabbing and shooting to death of Travis Alexander in his suburban Phoenix home in June 2008. (AP Photo/The Arizona Republic, Rob Schumacher, Pool)PHOENIX (AP) — Jodi Arias begged jurors Tuesday to give her life in prison, saying she "lacked perspective" when she told a local reporter in an interview that she preferred execution to spending the rest of her days in jail.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 20:19:00 -0400
Japan's trade deficit hits $8.6 billion in April
TOKYO (AP) — Japan reports its trade deficit widened to a larger-than-expected 879.9 billion yen ($8.6 billion) in April as its weakening currency accentuated surging import costs.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 20:02:51 -0400
Dimon clings to JPMorgan chairman title, after fight

JPMorgan Chase & Co CEO Dimon speaks about state of global economy at forum hosted by the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) in WashingtonBy David Henry TAMPA, Florida (Reuters) - Jamie Dimon, chairman and chief executive of JPMorgan Chase & Co took an unusual step to fight off investors seeking more oversight of his activities - he hinted he might quit. And it worked. At the bank's annual meeting on Tuesday, JPMorgan shareholders voted down a proposal to strip Dimon of his chairmanship, giving the measure even less support than last year. Investors showed some unhappiness with the bank's management by only barely re-electing three directors who oversaw a massive trading loss last year. ...


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Tue, 21 May 2013 20:00:44 -0400
Police defend officer who shot NY college student

CORRECTS SPELLING OF LAST NAME -- In this photo copied from the 2010 Sleepy Hollow High School yearbook, high school student Andrea Rebello is shown. Police said Rebello, a junior at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., was shot and killed Friday, May 17, 2013, during a break-in near the college campus. (AP Photo/Sleepy Hollow High School)MINEOLA, N.Y. (AP) — The president of a New York police union defended an officer who accidentally killed a Hofstra University student during a standoff with an armed intruder, saying Tuesday the only person responsible for the woman's death was the gunman who held her hostage.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 20:00:35 -0400
Court strikes down Arizona 20-week abortion ban
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal court Tuesday struck down Arizona's ban on abortions after 20 weeks of pregnancy absent a medical emergency.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:58:16 -0400
Senate panel OKs changes sought by tech firms in immigration bill
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A Senate panel voted on Tuesday to make it easier for U.S. companies to hire foreign workers as part of a broad immigration bill being debated in Congress. The Senate Judiciary Committee voted for the amendment, which would loosen requirements that employers recruit Americans ahead of foreigners for high-tech jobs. The compromise was brokered by Democratic Senator Charles Schumer to win over Senator Orrin Hatch, a Republican whose support is seen as important to bring other conservatives on board with broader immigration reform. ...

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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:52:00 -0400
Exclusive: Bob Lutz, Chinese in bid to buy Fisker Automotive - sources

The logo of an extended rage electric vehicle Fisker Karma is seen at the start of an electric car rally in TallinnBy Deepa Seetharaman DETROIT (Reuters) - A boutique carmaker led by former General Motors Co executive Bob Lutz and China's largest auto parts supplier made an offer this month to buy cash-strapped "green" car company Fisker Automotive, people familiar with the matter said. VL Automotive and China's Wanxiang Group are looking to gain control of Fisker through a prepackaged bankruptcy. This comes alongside a separate push by investors in Europe and Hong Kong, including billionaire Richard Li, to buy out the U.S. Department of Energy's position in Fisker. ...


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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:51:46 -0400
Pentagon wants $450M for Guantanamo prison

FILE – In this March 30, 2010, file photo reviewed by the U.S. military, a U.S. trooper stands in the turret of a vehicle with a machine gun, left, as a guard looks out from a tower at the detention facility of Guantanamo Bay U.S. Naval Base in Cuba. The Pentagon is asking Congress for more than $450 million for maintaining and upgrading the Guantanamo Bay prison that President Barack Obama wants to close. (AP Photo/Brennan Linsley, File)WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is asking Congress for more than $450 million for maintaining and upgrading the Guantanamo Bay prison that President Barack Obama wants to close.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:50:58 -0400
Nick Jonas, Giuliana Rancic to host Miss USA
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Donald Trump's Miss USA pageant will be hosted by a Jonas brother and an E! News personality.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:50:34 -0400
Prosecutors consider using racketeering law against SAC: source

Exterior of Headquarters of SAC Capital Advisors, L.P. in StamfordBy Emily Flitter NEW YORK (Reuters) - Prosecutors are considering charging Steven A. Cohen's SAC Capital Advisors as a criminal enterprise engaged in a long pattern of insider trading in stocks, according to a person familiar with the matter. Prosecutors may use the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, most commonly associated with prosecutions against the mafia, to move against Cohen's $15 billion hedge fund company, said the person, who spoke on condition of anonymity. While this is one option under consideration, no final decision has been made, the source added. ...


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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:45:20 -0400
Lawyer: No background check done on Jackson doctor

FILE - In this March 5, 2009 file photo, Michael Jackson announces several concerts at the London O2 Arena in July, at a press conference at the London O2 Arena. An AEG Live accounting executive testified Monday, May 20, 2013, in a Los Angeles courtroom that the company spent $24 million on preparations for Jackson’s ill-fated “This Is It” shows, however never paid the singer’s personal doctor convicted of involuntary manslaughter because a fully-signed agreement was never obtained. (AP Photo/Joel Ryan, file)LOS ANGELES (AP) — AEG Live LLC did not conduct any background checks or supervise the doctor who was later convicted of killing Michael Jackson, a corporate attorney testified Tuesday in a lawsuit claiming the concert promoter was negligent in hiring the physician.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:45:11 -0400
Jury weighing Jodi Arias' fate adjourns for day

Jodi Arias points to her family as a reason for the jury to give her a life in prison sentence instead of the death penalty on Tuesday, May 21, 2013, during the penalty phase of her murder trial at Maricopa County Superior Court in PhoenixZ. Arias was convicted of first-degree murder in the stabbing and shooting to death of Travis Alexander in his suburban Phoenix home in June 2008. (AP Photo/The Arizona Republic, Rob Schumacher, Pool)PHOENIX (AP) — The Phoenix jury deciding whether Jodi Arias should be sentenced to life in prison or execution has adjourned for the day.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:43:04 -0400
A diversion in the air for 'Today'

Storm clouds build in the distance beyond tornado-ravaged homes Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Moore, Okla. A huge tornado roared through the Oklahoma City suburb Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)NEW YORK (AP) — Two charter airplanes carrying the "Today" show anchor team and their crew from Hawaii to Yellowstone National Park were diverted in the air to Oklahoma for coverage Tuesday of the catastrophic tornado outside of Oklahoma City.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:42:45 -0400
Coalition to last despite rifts, infighting - Clegg

Britain's Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the Liberal Democrats, Nick Clegg, arrives to deliver his keynote speech at the party's spring conference in BrightonBy Andrew Osborn LONDON (Reuters) - Deputy prime minister will take the unusual step of holding a news conference on Wednesday to say the country's two-party coalition will hold together until 2015 as he tries to stabilise a government beset by infighting and rifts. In a demarche that risks being cast as a sign of weakness by political opponents, Nick Clegg, the leader of the Lib Dems, will try to reassure voters that his alliance with Prime Minister David Cameron will endure until the next national election. ...


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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:42:41 -0400
Search for tornado survivors nearly complete

Justin Stehan salvages photographs from his tornado-ravaged home Tuesday, May 21, 2013, in Moore, Okla. A huge tornado roared through the Oklahoma City suburb Monday, flattening entire neighborhoods and destroying an elementary school with a direct blow as children and teachers huddled against winds. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel)MOORE, Okla. (AP) — Helmeted rescue workers raced Tuesday to complete the search for survivors and the dead in the Oklahoma City suburb where a mammoth tornado destroyed countless homes, cleared lots down to bare red earth and claimed 24 lives, including those of nine children.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:37:29 -0400
Mourners say Hofstra student's death preventable

CORRECTS SPELLING OF LAST NAME -- In this photo copied from the 2010 Sleepy Hollow High School yearbook, high school student Andrea Rebello is shown. Police said Rebello, a junior at Hofstra University in Hempstead, N.Y., was shot and killed Friday, May 17, 2013, during a break-in near the college campus. (AP Photo/Sleepy Hollow High School)TARRYTOWN, N.Y. (AP) — Some mourners are echoing the sentiments of family members, wondering if the accidental shooting of a Hofstra University student by police could have been prevented.


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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:29:30 -0400
Whole neighborhoods razed by Oklahoma tornado that killed 24

People look at the destruction after a huge tornado struck Moore, OklahomaBy Carey Gillam and Ian Simpson MOORE, Oklahoma (Reuters) - Rescuers went building to building in search of victims and thousands of survivors were homeless on Tuesday after a massive tornado tore through the Oklahoma City suburb of Moore, wiping out whole blocks of homes and killing at least 24 people. The death toll was lower than initially feared, but nine children were among the dead, including seven who died at Plaza Towers Elementary School, which took a direct hit on Monday in the deadliest tornado to strike the United States in two years. ...


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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:26:33 -0400
Thunder star Kevin Durant makes $1M tornado pledge
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Oklahoma City isn't just a place where Thunder star Kevin Durant lives these days. It's home.

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xml Yahoo! Buzz US: Top Stories

Wed, 20 Apr 2011 07:13:36 PDT
15 Most Stressful Jobs in the World

Everyone has a bad day at work now and then. But if you have one of these 15 Most Stressful Jobs in the World, even one bad day can get you or someone else killed. From EMT to Coal Miner to Ice Road Trucker, these are the jobs that will keep you up at nights!


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xml Herald Sun | Breaking News

Wed, 22 May 2013 02:48:47 GMT
Abbott offers no relief to unemployed
OPPOSITION Leader Tony Abbott says he has no plans to increase the dole because he doesn't want to encourage people to stay on welfare.

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more top stories

xml A Slice of Life

Wed, 26 Sep 2012 03:49:06 +0000
How to Create a Storify Slideshow from a Pinterest RSS Feed
It's very easy to create an embeddable slideshow sourced from a Pinterest RSS feed. This might be a feed of all your Pinterest pins, or pins from a particular board. To complete this (very) simple tutorial, you'll need a Pinterest account and a Storify account.


It’s very easy to create an embeddable slideshow sourced from a Pinterest RSS feed.  This might be a feed of all your Pinterest pins, or pins from a particular board.  To complete this (very) simple tutorial, you’ll need a Pinterest account and a Storify account.

  1. You need the URL of your Pinterest RSS feed.  Pinterest doesn’t seem to publish links to RSS feeds but they are there.
    Main Pinterest feed: http://pinterest.com/userid/feed.rss
    For a Pinterest board: http://pinterest.com/userid/boardname.rss
  2. Login to Storify and click ‘create story’.
  3. Make sure that RSS has been added to media sources.  Click the + to edit media sources
    storify screenshot
  4. Now add a title and description and you have created a dynamic Storify story which will update as you post new pins to Pinterest
  5. Enter your Pinterest RSS feed URL in the URL field
  6. Press Enter; a list of RSS items will appear.  Drag and drop the best ones or add them all
    storify screenshot
  7. Add a title and description, click ‘Save Now‘ and ‘Publish‘ and you have created your first Storify story.  You also have the option to add text and reorder items; just drag and drop.
  8. To create a slideshow, go back to your profile and open your story.
  9. Click the ‘Embed‘ button, set template to ‘slideshow’ then copy the code.

    Paste the code into your blog in html view; enjoy! :wink:
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Sat, 02 Jun 2012 03:14:27 +0000
Lingerie football: Y-front football would provide balance
Widespread protests have greeted an exhibition match to be played by 32 women from the US Lingerie Football League at Allphones Arena today. Names like 'Allphones Arena' and other venues such as 'Centrebet Stadium' might give you a clue that the single minded pursuit of profit motivates football leagues with little consideration for anything else. Sporting ideals of fair play and playing for the love of the game have taken a back seat to the rabid hunt for $$$ for some time...

Seattle Mist vs. San Diego Seduction of the Li...

Seattle Mist vs. San Diego Seduction of the Lingerie Football league game, 11Sep09. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Widespread protests have greeted an exhibition match to be played by 32 women from the US Lingerie Football League at Allphones Arena today.  Names like ‘Allphones Arena’  and other venues such as ‘Centrebet Stadium‘ might give you a clue that the single minded pursuit of profit motivates football leagues with little consideration for anything else.  Sporting ideals of fair play and playing for the love of the game have taken a back seat to the rabid hunt for $$$ for some time.  Should we really be surprised that a cynical exercise in promotion such as ‘lingerie football’ is about to take hold in Australia?  Feminists in the 60s and 70s may have burned their bras; women in this century happily wear little else to provide a spectacle for television cameras and provide a boost in ratings.  Germaine Greer would be turning in her grave if she was dead.

Perhaps we should be more surprised that anti discrimination laws in this country don’t cover this type of exploitation.  While there might be women queueing up to join the Lingerie Football League in Australia, there is no telling how far this type of spectacle sets back the cause for the status of women.  Commentators on programs such as 9′s Wide World of Sports might assure us that players in the lingerie league go through a rigorous selection process and that football prowess and athletic ability are the most important selection criteria; but they aren’t even fooling themselves let alone anyone else. Players are reportedly contractually obliged to accept ”accidental nudity”; we need not be in any doubt about the motives behind lingerie football (not that anyone actually was).

If anti discrimination laws in this country actually mean anything, why isn’t a male counterpart for female lingerie football made to be a requirement?  A Male ‘Y-front football league’ would surely provide just as interesting a spectacle and would certainly provide some balance, even if not in the same league as a ratings draw card.

Have your say: sign the petition

Stop the Lingerie Football League in Australia

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Tue, 17 Apr 2012 00:39:20 +0000
Dawkins vs Pell on #QandA: Dopey Questions from a Dopey Audience
Richard Dawkins has commented since this debate that he was disappointed in his performance, blaming partly his jet lag, but also “… the astonishing bias of the audience and, second, the interfering chairman.” During the debate, Dawkins repeatedly asked some members of the audience with credulity: why is that funny?  He really ought to have [...]

Richard Dawkins has commented since this debate that he was disappointed in his performance, blaming partly his jet lag, but also “… the astonishing bias of the audience and, second, the interfering chairman.”

During the debate, Dawkins repeatedly asked some members of the audience with credulity: why is that funny?  He really ought to have been able to answer his own question without thinking about it too much.

Right from the start when we were introduced, it was clear that the studio audience was dominated by a Catholic cheer squad. They cheered whenever the Cardinal said anything, however stupid and ignorant.

 

Richard Dawkins giving a lecture based on his ...

Richard Dawkins giving a lecture based on his book, The God Delusion, in Reykjavik (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Source: Why Evolution is True

Read the full transcript here

It is true that Tony Jones repeatedly ‘interferred’ in the debate.

Such an extreme audience bias was a little off-putting, but it wouldn’t have mattered so much if the chairman had allowed us to have a proper debate instead of continually racing ahead to get in another dopey question.

Perhaps Dawkins didn’t really understand the nature of the Q and A program when he accepted the invitation to participate.  Q and A is primarily about questions and answers and audience participation, however dopey.  In limiting the debate and focussing on audience questions, Tony Jones was really only doing his job.  This did however, prevent any serious debate getting underway.

This was frustrating as Cardinal Pell made a number of astounding assertions, such as stating that atheists can gain admittance to heaven, evolution is ‘probably’ true, that modern humans are descended from Neanderthals, and that gay people have an inherent flaws, like those intentionally included in an oriental carpet.  It was odd that Pell, the foremost Catholic churchman in Australia, was unable to adequately explain transubstantiation of the host and resurrection of the body.  Had Dawkins been able to take Pell to task on these points, it could have been a very interesting debate, but then Q and A is not intended to be a debate.  If that is the case, it is hard to understand why the ABC included only two panelists.  Why not include some panelists with some different perspectives? Some religious or atheist female or gay panelists could have made the exchanges more balanced and stimulating.

But back to the dopey audience.  What the ‘dopey’ audience in this Q and A highlight is the ultimate futility of Dawkins’ cause.  It was distinctly noticeable that all the ‘dopey’ comments and questions came from religious members of the audience, or from Cardinal Pell himself.  What Richard Dawkins doesn’t seem to realise despite all his erudition is that religious people don’t really want anything to do with the truth.

You can present the religious with all manner of well reasoned, persuasive and intelligent arguments and they will hold up a hand and stop listening.  Religion gives stupid people a blueprint for living and comfortable answers to all the difficult questions.  The last thing they want to do is think about such things.

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Fri, 07 Oct 2011 03:42:21 +0000
Time to rethink the Steve Jobs iShrines?
Isn't the recent outpouring of emotion over the passing of Steve Jobs taking things just a little too far? Midnight vigils at Apple stores? Shrines? Millions of tweets, blogs, articles conferring almost saint like status on the ex Apple CEO? Steve jobs certainly was a visionary. Yes, he had some wonderful ideas but contrary to popular belief products such as the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, while they may have transformed the consumer electronics market are not likely to solve world hunger, the energy crisis, the GFC, climate change or terrorism and wars.

steve jobs ishrineIsn’t the recent outpouring of emotion over the passing of Steve Jobs taking things just a little too far?  Midnight vigils at Apple stores?  Shrines? Millions of tweets, blogs, articles conferring almost saint like status on the ex Apple CEO?  Steve jobs certainly was a visionary.  Yes, he had some wonderful ideas but contrary to popular belief products such as the iPod, the iPhone and the iPad, while they may have transformed the consumer electronics market are not likely to solve world hunger, the energy crisis, the GFC, climate change or terrorism and wars.

Steve Jobs the man was apparently arrogant, selfish and inconsiderate.   While these attributes may well have helped him to find his path to success they would have been hardly likely to be endearing  to those that knew Jobs personally.  Apparently Jobs approached working relationships with a similar attitude, setting very high standards and regularly reducing to tears those who fell short of his vision.

Steve Jobs is commonly lauded as a visionary and innovator, but he is famously known for bragging about stealing others’ ideas. Possibly the most famous would be his visit to Xerox PARC in 1979. There he got his first glimpse of the mouse-driven GUI interface of the Xerox Alto, which was eventually to be implemented in the Apple Lisa and the Apple Mac.  Jobs has said that being forced out of Apple in 1985 was the best thing that ever happened to him, but it was as much his abrasive nature and his erratic and temperamental relationship with his team rather than his visionary nature that caused his downfall.  Source: Zednet

Considering this, it is rather strange that Steve Jobs will be remembered as a great visionary and innovator while Bill gates will almost certainly be remembered as the great borrower of ideas.  Steve Jobs did not write software or design chips and hardware; he employed others to do it for him.  The  highly restrictive model Jobs insisted on almost caused Apple to fade into irrelevance in the late 90s.  Apple computers are still expensive and very restricted in available software.  The limited nature of the new devices which have saved Apple from obscurity are in a way the key to their success.  An iPad is much more restricted in terms of software and user options than a windows PC but also less likely to crash.  Much less like a computer and much more like other consumer electronics.  iPhones and iPads may boast snazzy functions and elegant designs features but the restrictions mean they have been essentially dumbed down, making them more appealing to a mass market.  Your iPhone/iPad/iPod may be beautiful but it is essentially an intelligent fashion accessory.  Perhaps this is Steve Jobs’ true legacy.

So when you are holding your midnight vigil outside the Apple store or lighting candles in front of your iPhone shrine, just remember it is really your iPhone/iPad/iPod that you really love.  Had you known Steve Jobs personally  it’s unlikely you would have liked him very much at all.

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Thu, 06 Oct 2011 05:53:57 +0000
Andrew Bolt: more offensive than sex with a horse?
Many of us, including myself, may not agree with Andrew Bolt's views on this issue and many others. Whatever happened to the famous saying, sometimes incorrectly attributed to Voltaire which many in the legal profession are fond of quoting: " I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. "

andrew boltRecently, the well known columnist and blogger Andrew Bolt was found to have breached the Racial Discrimination Act.  Justice Mordy Bromberg found Bolt and the Herald and Weekly Times contravened the Racial Discrimination Act by publishing two articles on racial identity which contained “errors in fact, distortions of the truth and inflammatory and provocative language”, reported the Herald Sun.

Ron Merkel, QC, for the complainants, said there was no attempt by  members of the group to shut down freedom of speech or debate about racial identity issues.  Mr Merkel said Bolt was free to express his views on the subject but should not have chosen to attack the nine individuals he named in his columns and blog.

Many of us, including myself, may not agree with Andrew Bolt’s views on this issue and many others.  Whatever happened to the famous saying, sometimes incorrectly attributed to Voltaire which many in the legal profession are fond of quoting: ” I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it. ”

Yes, there are a number of errors in Bolt’ articles on this topic.  Is Bolt being prosecuted for publishing errors?  It is true that had the facts been presented accurately Bolt’s arguments would not hold much water.  For example, he questioned indigenous lawyer Larissa Behrendt‘s Aboriginality, incorrectly stating that her father was German and that she is somehow claiming benefits that should be the right of indigenous people of ‘purer blood’. In the sometimes heated court exchanges, Bolt took exception to the prosecution’s comparison of the debate and Bolt’s views to Nazi race laws, the Holocaust and eugenics.  Bolt argued those who chose to identify with only one part of their background over another were contributing to racism and came at the cost of less focus on the important issues of education, housing, health and poverty.

It is interesting to note that earlier in the year, Larissa Berendt attracted criticism after using her Twitter account to describe watching bestiality on television as “less offensive than Bess Price“, an Aboriginal woman in favour of the radical Northern Territory intervention. “I watched a show where a guy had sex with a horse and I’m sure it was less offensive than Bess Price.”

Ms Price told The Australian she was appalled by the comment. She accused Professor Behrendt, an Australian of the Year finalist, of trying to silence her because of her different views.  “I’m going to seek legal advice,” she  said. “This is worse than what she is accusing Andrew Bolt of.” source: The Australian

Ms Berendt replied: “The tweet has been taken out of context. I did not mean any offence to Bess Price personally and I am on the record with views contrary to hers on the intervention and she knows that.”

Andrew Bolt may well have made factual errors.  He may also be motivated by less than noble motives but that alone does not disqualify him from putting his views forward.  We often take it for granted that we live in an enlightened society where rights like freedom of speech are taken for granted, yet how many people have lost their jobs because they chose to air views critical of their employers on social media sites?

We may not yet fear the midnight knock from the KGB and banishment to the gulags but these are only the means of repression.  Is our society so different from totalitarian regimes in purpose?  That said, Andrew Bolt seems to have scored himself his own TV show in the aftermath of his court case ‘The Bolt Report‘.  Perhaps any publicity is good publicity.

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Tue, 04 Oct 2011 02:48:36 +0000
Mac vs PC: are you as free-thinking as you think?
Is your sense of style as creative, cool and free-thinking as you imagine? Pethaps 'PC' is really the cool one, not 'Mac'.

The two characters from the ads who personify ...

Image via Wikipedia

The image of ‘Mac’ and ‘PC’ have become one of the most recognisable dichotomies imaginable; PC is unfashionable, old fashioned, straight-laced etc. while Mac is of course creative , cool and free-thinking.  This advertising campaign has been so successful that many involved in creative fields think it impossible to edit images or audio on a PC.  This is of course garbage and has been debated ad nauseam for longer than most of us care to remember.  An operating system is an operating system and most software will work on most systems, regardless of the platform.  If you want to pay twice the price for your system, go for a Mac; it may actually be marginally more reliable and you will of course have the added bonus of thinking how creative , cool and free-thinking you are.  It is of course possible that you are a good less free-thinking than you imagine.

Long before the advent of the iconic Mac vs PC ads, over 90% of the world’s population took to wearing a uniform very similar to the guy on the right.  Running shoes, jeans and T-shirts have become  obligatory for almost everyone.  This kind of outfit makes an undeniably bold fashion statement; I’m not trying too hard, I’m relaxed, I’m being myself, I’m not conforming to outmoded fashion trends.

The problem is of course that most of us are conforming very closely to a fashion trend which may not be outmoded but is undeniably highly unimaginative, non creative and really very boring.

This in itself may not appear to be a problem, but it is evident that this kind of approach to style also tends to affect our thinking in general.  We are all too ready to go with the flow and follow the latest fad, consume the latest viral trend and formulate our opinions based on what the most influential shock jock advocates.  Hey, they’re on TV/radio and everyone else likes them, so they must be right, right?  Based on this way of thinking many can be influenced into politics which directly contravene their own best interests.

It is the guy on the left (PC) who is actually the non conformist.  It takes courage to make a fashion statement that says: I do care how I look, I refuse to wear what almost everyone else is wearing, I think daggy T-shirts and running shoes look incredibly boring and ugly.  He may also have retained the ability to formulate his own opinions and maintain the strength of his convictions.  He may not own the latest smart phone or tablet accessory but is much more likely to actually be able to effectively use whatever technology he does choose, even if this is something as uncool as an old fashioned personal computer.

 

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Tue, 12 Jul 2011 04:41:02 +0000
OMG I’m a GPS: 6 degrees of separation
Some time ago (26th December 2008 to be precise) I published an article entitled “OMG I’m a gay porn star” The article was about the unforeseen consequences of Googling oneself. My search discovered that I share my name with another ‘Liam Alexander’ who is a model on a site called ‘originaleuroboys’; a gay porn service. [...]

Gillard's stepdaughter poses for 'Zoo Weekly'Some time ago (26th December 2008 to be precise) I published an article entitled “OMG I’m a gay porn star” The article was about the unforeseen consequences of Googling oneself. My search discovered that I share my name with another ‘Liam Alexander’ who is a model on a site called ‘originaleuroboys’; a gay porn service. In the article I wondered if “this Liam is a real person…; quite likely he was dreamed up by two guys fantasizing on the phone”. However, I learned that this Liam is a real person after receiving this comment:

“Liam Alexander the porn star is for real. I was the photographer that did the originaleuroboys.com photoshoot with Liam that is now on originaleuroboys.com. To add the the interest in Liam take a look at our studio website http://www.7bluestudio.com because Liam features on the homepage larger than ever! Ben Willis, Director”

Another unforseen consequence of this post was the large amount of website traffic it generated. Here are some of the search key phrases that hit my site:

norwegian gay porn
gay služby
gay porn stars
life of a porn star
danish gay porn
finnish gay porn

I suppose I should have known that the title of this post was going to attract people searching for gay pornography but was unprepared for the volume.

Further more…

I have been aware for some time that there is yet another Liam Alexander; a professional photographer based in New York. I sometimes get emails obviously intended for him with messages like “great photo shoot on the weekend Liam, hope to catch up soon”. Of course I always dutifully forward the emails to Liam the photographer. His web address http://www.liamalexanderphoto.com/ and mine are similar and people understandably sometimes land on my contact forms rather than his.

Liam the photographer left these comments on the same post:

“ummm… yeah… i’ve noticed this as well… Hahahahahahahahahahah. kudos Liam… you almost out google me when you google me. but not for long… i will soon have the ENTIRE 1st page of GOOOGLE!!”
“PS if your getting any mail for me bro, please fwd it along! cheers! also i am married to your prime ministers “wildchild” daughter in law. Haha”

I Googled this and found that Liam the photographer is in fact married to Staci Child, the heavily tattooed daughter of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard‘s partner Tim Mathieson. Staci Child posed in a series of provocative shots for Zoo Weekly in September 2010.
I think that Liam the photographer’s work has a great deal of artistic merit. His work is innovative and interesting and is quite famous in his own right. Being connected to Julia Gillard confers and even greater claim to fame, yet Liam Alexander the photographer is still to eclipse me. When ‘Liam Alexander’ is entered into Google, results referring to me still fill up the first and second pages of search results.

Compared to Liam the photographer (and Liam the porn star) I am a complete nobody. (I am in fact a complete nobody compared to practically anybody). I outrank other ‘Liams’ on Google etc. because I am relatively active on a range of social media sites and I have put quite a lot of effort into applying SEO principles to my own sites.

I would be the first to admit that Liam the photographer is much more notable than I am and that his content is far superior to mine. If you want to outrank me on Google Liam you really need to apply SEO principles to your site or perhaps hire a specialist.

I am currently available :wink:

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Sun, 10 Jul 2011 01:13:07 +0000
Is Lord Monckton related to Marty Feldman?
Is Lord Monckton related to Marty Feldman? You could be forgiven for thinking that they are the same person; the similarity is positively uncanny.

marty feldman and lord moncktonIs Lord Monckton related to Marty Feldman? You could be forgiven for thinking that they are the same person; the similarity is positively uncanny. FYI, the gentleman on the left is Christopher Monckton, 3rd Viscount Monckton of Brenchley, deputy leader of the UK Independence Party and famous climate sceptic.  Pictured on the right is Marty Feldman, English comedy writer, comedian and actor who starred in a series of British television comedy shows, including At Last the 1948 Show, and Marty.

Both Monckton and Feldman are distinguished by their bulging eyes, a condition caused by Graves’ disease; an autoimmune disease where the thyroid is overactive, producing an excessive amount of thyroid hormones (a serious metabolic imbalance known as hyperthyroidism and thyrotoxicosis).

At a recent rally at Hyde Park Barracks in Sydney, Lord Monckton claimed that the carbon tax will destroy Australia.

“If this carbon tax goes through then it’s bye bye Australia, it’s been nice to know you,”

“You will become just another third world banana monarchy without even any bananas with the prices they’ve been charging for those at your supermarkets recently.”

“Julia darling, listen to the voice of Australian people gathered here in Sydney on this beautiful, sunny but rather cold day – we could do with some more global warming.”

The similarity between Monckton and Feldman goes beyond their looks; both are clowns.  Monckton’s irresponsible idiocy could hardly provide environmentalists with a better advocate.

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Sat, 02 Jul 2011 07:39:13 +0000
How To Fix an Overheating Laptop that Shuts Down Randomly
My Dell Inspiron 1525 started to overheat and shut down randomly just after the warranty expired.  The machine starts feeling very hot to touch shortly after it starts up.  Applications run slowly or display the ‘not responding’ message, then, with absolutely no warning, the computer suddenly shuts down.  Any unsaved work will of course be [...]

dusty laptop heatsink

image courtesy of Edmund Tse

My Dell Inspiron 1525 started to overheat and shut down randomly just after the warranty expired.  The machine starts feeling very hot to touch shortly after it starts up.  Applications run slowly or display the ‘not responding’ message, then, with absolutely no warning, the computer suddenly shuts down.  Any unsaved work will of course be lost.  I put up with this for a while; pressing Ctrl + S frequently I could manage to keep working and usually get over an hour of use in before the laptop shut down, but before long, the problem had become worse and I could only get the thing to run for 10-15 minutes.

I took my laptop to the local computer repair shop.  The technician told me that the problem was most likely caused by a faulty hard drive or faulty RAM.  When I came back to collect it, he told me he had installed a new hard drive, new RAM including an extra Gb and had upgraded the OS to Windows 7 (the 1525 came with Vista Home installed).  None of these measures worked.  He said that he had tried everything he could think of and that he couldn’t fix it.  At least he didn’t charge me for the privilege.This of course left me feeling very frustrated.  Dell won’t repair machines not covered by warranty and I was feeling like I had been conned.  Judging by the number of posts around on this problem this is a very common problem.  Thread like this one are filled with various solutions to this problem, most of which don’t get you anywhere.  They are also filled with angry comments and suggestions that users with this problem should take out a class action against Dell.  This is understandable but in actual fact, the problem is quite simple to fix and not the manufacturer’s fault, although they could perhaps provide a little more information on problems like this.

How to fix this problem:

Dell does provide this documentation on ‘Removing the Processor Thermal-Cooling Assembly‘. All you need is a phillips head screwdriver.

  1. Have a look at the diagrams and follow the instructions on removing the back cover
  2. Turn the computer over.
  3. Remove the eight captive screws securing the back cover and remove the module cover.
  4. Gently lift the heat sink (pictured above).  You don’t need to remove any screws to do this
  5. You are likely to find a great deal of dust trapped between the heat sink and the system board.  Remove the dust with a pipe cleaner or something similar.

That’s it.  I found a massive wad of dust under the heat sink.  Since I removed it my laptop feels cool to touch and has not had the shut down problem at all; I can leave it running all night and continue using it the next day.  It surprises me that an experienced and qualified computer technician didn’t try this first, or that Dell didn’t suggest this simple fix and maintain customer good will.

There are of course other issues which may cause problems such as this, but I would suggest that anyone experiencing this problem should try this very simple fix before doing anything else.

image courtesy of Edmund Tse

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Sat, 14 May 2011 01:51:24 +0000
Have You Sold Your Soul to Facebook?
Some time ago Facebook changed it’s image viewing feature.  There was some discussion at the time around the social media traps, many commenting that they weren’t in love with the changes but eventually this died away and most seem to have accepted the changes without thinking too much about them.  The problem is, sooner or [...]

A tag cloud (a typical Web 2.0 phenomenon in i...

Image via Wikipedia

Some time ago Facebook changed it’s image viewing feature.  There was some discussion at the time around the social media traps, many commenting that they weren’t in love with the changes but eventually this died away and most seem to have accepted the changes without thinking too much about them.  The problem is, sooner or later you realise that the changed layout means you can now only view images, you can’t actually download them.  This may seem like no big deal but the implications are actually quite sinister.

There are of course, ways to bypass the problem.  To download facebook photos you could simply install a FireFox addon such as the Facebook Photo Album Downloader 0.2 by Nic Holliday.  This will easily download whole albums from Facebook.  Photos are downloaded to the default firefox download location.  To download, right click on a link to a facebook photo album and select “Download Photo Album”

Another way is to view the source code of any photo page, do a find for the tag img src=, copy the link into a browser and download the image as you normally would.

Either method is of course potentially in violation of facebook’s terms of service (TOS).

“For content that is covered by intellectual property rights, like photos and videos (“IP content”), you specifically give us the following permission, subject to your privacy and application settings: you grant us a non-exclusive, transferable, sub-licensable, royalty-free, worldwide license to use any IP content that you post on or in connection with Facebook (“IP License“). This IP License ends when you delete your IP content or your account unless your content has been shared with others, and they have not deleted it.” http://www.facebook.com/terms.php

Providing that the images you are downloading are your own you are not doing anything wrong, but what this really means is that Facebook effectively owns anything you upload.  Again, most people accept terms such as this perhaps because they don’t place much importance on their personal snapshots.  But what if you actually uploaded some intellectual property which was worth something.  In the very act of uploading to Facebook, or practically any other website which allows the upload feature you are giving away a large part of your ownership rights.

A great many are easily seduced by the plethora of so called ‘Web 2.0‘ sites offering a dazzling range of online services.  While many of these may well have great benefits, it is always worth remembering that TOS can be legally binding documents and that most organisations reserve the right to change their TOS at any time. You may one day log on to the seemingly friendly, free social site you belong to only to find that you no longer own your content and your identity has been sold to advertisers.

Don’t laugh too soon, it may have already happened… :wink:

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Fri, 06 Jul 2012 02:48:29 +0000
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Wed, 22 May 2013 01:22:25 GMT
The Irish loophole behind Apple's low tax bill
LONDON (Reuters) - Apple's ability to shelter billions of dollars of income from tax has depended on an unusual loophole in the Irish tax code that helps the country compete with other countries for investment and jobs.

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Wed, 22 May 2013 00:00:39 GMT
Microsoft unveils Xbox One with Spielberg, Activision tie-up
REDMOND, Washington (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp unveiled the "Xbox One" on Tuesday, its first new gaming console in eight years, and its strongest push so far to dominate consumers' living rooms with an array of exclusive media content.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 23:22:34 GMT
Microsoft unveils Xbox One with Spielberg, Activision tie-up
REDMOND, Washington (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp unveiled the "Xbox One" on Tuesday, its first new gaming console in eight years, and its strongest push so far to dominate consumers' living rooms with an array of exclusive media content.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 23:10:08 GMT
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Tue, 21 May 2013 23:04:55 GMT
Is Sony un-Japanese enough to entertain change?
TOKYO (Reuters) - Few foreign activist investors have made much headway in forcing change in Japan, where a conservative corporate culture favors long-standing ties with banks, business partners and workers rather than shareholders seeking value.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 22:49:24 GMT
PayPal to increase marketing this year for offline push
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - PayPal, the online payment operation owned by eBay Inc, will increase marketing spending to support its push into physical stores, President David Marcus said on Tuesday.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 22:31:45 GMT
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Apple Inc Chief Executive Tim Cook made no apology on Tuesday for the iPad maker saving billions of dollars in U.S. taxes through Irish subsidiaries and told lawmakers that his company backs corporate tax reform, even though it may end up paying more.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 22:10:36 GMT
Ireland rejects blame for Apple's low tax rate
CORK/DUBLIN (Reuters) - Ireland said on Tuesday it was not to blame for Apple Inc's low global tax payments and had no special rate deal with the company after the U.S. Senate said it paid little or no tax on tens of billions of dollars in profits stashed in Irish subsidiaries.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 21:47:43 GMT
Some U.S. utilities say they're under constant cyber attack
WASHINGTON/BOSTON (Reuters) - Several power utilities say they face a barrage of cyber attacks on their critical systems, a report by two Democratic lawmakers found echoing warnings from the Obama administration that foreign hackers were trying to bring down the U.S. power grid.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 21:16:23 GMT
Court revives lawsuit vs Electronic Arts over video game image
(Reuters) - A divided federal appeals court has revived a lawsuit against Electronic Arts Inc by a former Rutgers University star football quarterback, who accused it of using his image in a video game without permission.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 20:30:58 GMT
Telecom Italia mulls mobile unit spinoff: sources
MILAN (Reuters) - Telecom Italia is mulling spinning off its mobile unit along with its fixed-line network to bring new investors on board, three people, including a senior political source, told Reuters on Tuesday.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:59:00 GMT
Sony to assess spin-off proposal for entertainment business: Nikkei
(Reuters) - Sony Corp is considering evaluating a proposal from top shareholder Third Point LLC to spin off part of its movie and music business, Japanese daily Nikkei reported.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 19:19:43 GMT
Intel CEO shakes up units, creates 'new devices' group
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Intel Corp's new chief executive, Brian Krzanich, has launched a sweeping company reorganization and created a unit aimed at growing its market share in mobile technology.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 18:43:25 GMT
France Tel to invest up to 50 million euro in Dailymotion: report
PARIS (Reuters) - France Telecom plans to invest between 30 and 50 million euros ($64 million) in its video-sharing website Dailymotion and begin a fresh search for a partner in the autumn, its chief executive said on Tuesday.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 17:49:00 GMT
Yahoo's rise in Asia offsets risk from Tumblr bet
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Yahoo Inc Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's $1.1 billion acquisition of blogging service Tumblr will be a test of her ability to revive the aging Web portal. Luckily for her, her performance may be graded generously.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 17:15:35 GMT
Some U.S. power companies say they face constant cyber attacks
BOSTON (Reuters) - Several U.S. power utilities say they face constant cyber attacks on critical systems, according to a report by two Democratic lawmakers amid warnings from the Obama administration that foreign hackers are seeking to attack the electric grid.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 16:55:37 GMT
BlackBerry shifting emphasis from smartphones to services
TORONTO (Reuters) - BlackBerry no longer owns the fast-paced, innovative smartphone world but the company, whose email-on-your-hip devices once revolutionized the industry, now aims to run it.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 16:52:10 GMT
Sprint raises Clearwire offer, not enough for some
(Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp raised its buyout offer for wireless service provider Clearwire Corp to $3.40 per share, but the new bid was not high enough to impress some investors.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 16:23:14 GMT
IT firm iGate sacks CEO over undisclosed relationship
MUMBAI/BANGALORE (Reuters) - IT outsourcing company iGate Corp sacked Chief Executive Phaneesh Murthy after a company sexual harassment investigation revealed that he had not disclosed a relationship with a subordinate.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 16:05:30 GMT
Intel CEO shakes up divisions, creates 'new devices' unit -source
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Tue, 21 May 2013 15:26:36 GMT
Yahoo buying Tumblr for $1.1 billion, vows not to screw it up
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Tue, 21 May 2013 13:39:30 GMT
Ericsson closes telecom cable manufacturing facility
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Tue, 21 May 2013 12:27:26 GMT
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Tue, 21 May 2013 12:10:47 GMT
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Tue, 21 May 2013 04:16:03 GMT
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TOKYO (Reuters) - Sprint Nextel Corp said its Japanese suitor SoftBank Corp granted it a waiver allowing it to consider a $25.5 billion rival bid by Dish Network Corp, as pressure mounts on SoftBank to sweeten its offer for the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 20:35:39 GMT
Microsoft unveils Xbox One console
Microsoft unveils the third generation of its video games console in an event at its headquarters at Redmond, Washington.

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Tue, 21 May 2013 21:48:29 +0000
Geekout on air: The Xbox One Edition
Xbox One
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Tue, 21 Apr 2009 11:04:33 +0100
New Games Section
A new games section has been installed at this location: http://www.gzone.liamalexander.com/ A large range range of free flash games is available, including classics like Prince of Persia, Asteroids, Pacman and Tetris.

Register to login, record your high scores and compete against other players

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Wed, 10 Dec 2008 22:53:25 +1100
Image Gallery Updated
The image gallery has been updated to the latest version of Gallery 2. (2.3) and includes many new and exciting features including panorama java applet, embedded video support and flash slideshow (pictured). This player can be embedded in amy web page or blog with a simple block of code. If you have a Gallery account with liamalexander.com, just add the id number of your album in the code and your images or videos can be displayed where ever you like. It's free to join so sign up now.  As you upload new images, they will automatically appear in the slideshow.

There are many other parameters that can be defined such as player dimensions, color, transition effects and playlists. We can also provide a player for other web image services like Flickr. Feel free to contact us to get the code.

follow these links for examples:

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Sun, 23 Mar 2008 15:09:55 +1100
Embed News Feeds
If you have a website, blog, myspace profile etc. you might want to try including this free feature: Live News Feeder; includes hundreds of news stories, music and jazz news, image, video and audio feeds. Content updates frequently; provides very interesting content and will attract a lot of traffic to your site. To include it, go to this page and copy the simple line of code: 

click here to get code

You can easily customize the width and height as you wish by changing the values.

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Sat, 8 Mar 2008 14:08:35 +1100
New Video Section
A large number of new vodcast channels have been added to the news section, displaying frequently updated content. Videos are streamed from the page, so no waiting for downloads.  Includes channels such as news, documentary, science, technology, arts, movie & TV, music, jazz guitar, sport and gaming.

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Sat, 8 Mar 2008 13:57:32 +1100
New Podcast Section
A large number of new podcast channels have been added to the news section. Includes voice channels such as breaking news, business, politics, sport, science and technology and music channels such as jazz, blues, pop, rock, electronic and hip hop.

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Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:00:32 +1100
free online games
A range of free online flash games is now available here: liamalexander.com/games

From classics like tetris, pacman, space invaders, chess and solitaire to cutting edge shoot em ups, racing and action games; it's all here...

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Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:57:44 +1100
Live News Section
Visit the new live news section at www.liamalexander.com/news. This section provides a large range of news feeds in popular categories such as top stories, technology, music, pod and vod casts and sports. The audio section allows you to listen to news via text to voice streamed media.

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Wed, 23 Jan 2008 23:52:08 +1100
free downloads
Visit the new downloads section at www.liamalexander.com/downloads. This section provides a range of highly recommended free software downloads in popular categories such as internet, games, photo, video and sports.

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Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:09:33 +1100
Band in a Box tips
Tutorials on specialised features of the Band in a Box program are now available: » click here This program has so many features that it can boggle the mind. Get expert tips and feedback on using this incredible piece of software.

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Sat, 12 Jan 2008 15:05:30 +1100
jam tracks
Free jazz jam tracks are now available at this location: » click here The audio is set up to stream directly from the site from a playlist and the tracks are also available as standard MP3 downloads. High quality chord charts in .pdf format are also available for each tune. crazy baby!

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Wed, 25 Apr 2007 04:34:21 -0700
music theory section
New features available in the music theory section: free online guitar chord generator, studies on the minor and major chord scales including tabs, notation and streamed audio and more... visit music theory

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Fri, 6 Apr 2007 17:55:05 -0700
new links section

A new links section has been added. Contains sections on code, javascript & php sources, great music, technology, news & education links. Get free navigation scripts, image slideshows and more. click to view

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Fri, 6 Apr 2007 17:50:17 -0700
online lessons

Free online tutorials in web design, animation, MS Office techniques & games. Clear, easy to follow instructions. Includes screen shots and video demos. click to view

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Sat, 24 Feb 2007 00:35:23 -0800
guitar solos
A guitar solos page has been added to the music section: exerpts from various songs in various styles minus the canary... listen

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Thu, 15 Feb 2007 01:05:06 -0800
new site map
added a site map with some nifty javascripts which imitates windows explorer.  Has expandable folders etc.

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Mon, 12 Feb 2007 02:31:54 -0800
new forum themes
forum: added the 'oxygen' and 'dilber multicolor' themes; users can define their own theme.  The 'dilber multicolor' theme allows users to select a range of theme colours from a drop down box on the home page of the forum; a very slick layout.

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Mon, 12 Feb 2007 02:31:03 -0800
forum update: new features
updated the forum to smf version 1.1.1; several new features available including karma and buddy lists.

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Sun, 11 Feb 2007 22:46:46 -0800
flash music section

music section: original tunes and jazz by alexander & friends; streamed via flash player

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podcast

more podcasts