The BBC Is Wrong

They said: Australia is suffering a "man drought"

My response: Then why am I still single?

Chaser Withdrawal Symptoms

I'm suffering from withdrawal symptoms.

I love The Chaser. They are so funny.

Who else would come up with the "eulogy song":



Or teach us about Current Affairs shows:



Or about the secret:



Or on how far you can take the "where the bloody hell are you?" slogan:



Well who?

I did see the stage show. But I miss being able to watch them right after Spicks and Specks.

The Grates - Teeth Lost, Hearts Won.

A couple of weeks ago now, I bought the newest album from The Grates.

Entitled Teeth Lost, Hearts Won, it's 13 more excellent songs from the Brisbane band.

They may not fit the adjective "see Birds of Tokyo review" but to compare them to the aforementioned band, or even someone say Bjork is wrong.

I suppose the flagship song is "Burn Bridges", that was the one that made the single, but it wasn't really the song that makes me love the album. It is a good song, I'll give them that, but it isn't my favourite or even in the top five.

You will find yourself most likely bobbing your head or clapping along when they are singing "Spent time making trouble, doing the right thing/ Spent time making trouble, what's the sum of everything..."

And do you know how I know. You're going to listen to the song. Because it's the single song, there is a film clip, and it's on youtube, and I can embed videos.



You will have to listen to the song before you leave this post.

The song that convinced me to buy the album probably was "Carve Your Name". It's similar to the last song, yet different. I'm sorry but I can't actually describe how the song is different. It's one of those songs that you'll dance to.

The next song "The Fun In Every Start". Is under a minute, but it's one of my favourites. This is in my top 5 for this album. It's a soft, sweet interlude between "Carve Your Name" and "Two Kinds of Right".

I think it's an excellent placement on the album. It breaks the mood well, consisting of just vocals and a piano and almost segues into the next song "Two Kinds Of Right" (which coincidentally is mentioned in the previous song).

"Two Kinds Of Right" is another song that is similar yet different to the first two songs. It's a song that you'll dance to. Not really a song that you can mellow out to. If you ever play this song on Audiosurf you will find plenty of high scoring spots.

"Aw Yeah", is sung in a similar manner to "Science is Golden" was in their previous album Gravity Won't Get You High. It's fast, it's loud, it's The Grates.

"Milk Eyes" is better described by Jmag. It's number 6 in my top 5 songs for this album.

My number 1 or 2 song is next. Another short song, "The Sum Of Every Part" is another mellow song. There is a video on Youtube from the band, I just don't think it does the song justice though. I guess that's what happens when it's played on a DS:



Where it sounds like there are supposed to be words, the lyrics are:

The winds of change rearrange our vision, tried to walk but I got no rhythm.
Temperatures change and spaces relax. Newspaper print left crime on my thumb,
You said it twice but I heard you just once. All of these thoughts like fingers and toes.
The sum of every part, the fear in every heart.

A 30 second clip from LastFM can be found here.

Next up "Storms and Fevers" (near my top 5 but not one) has a good beat to it. It opens nicely, and if you play it on Audiosurf you might find yourself trying to clear out the remaining blocks (for the 25% bonus) halfway through the song...

"Earthquake". Another fast song. Another loud song. It's an excellent song though.

Next though is the song that makes it hard to say what my number 1 song for this album is. "Not Today" isn't fast, it's far more mellow, but not in the same way "The Sum Of Every Part" is. With an opening of "If it's half as good in out there, as it is in here/I might have to change, everything I am" to the emphatically sung "But not today, no not today/Fuck your today, not going away".

"When You're Scared Of Dogs". It sounds very pop-y in a way. It has very distinct sections, and there are also the barks of dogs in the background.

"Let it Die" is another fast song. Not loud, but it's fast paced. It's one of the many songs with different instruments. This one sounds like it has a recorder in it.

The closing song is "The Biggest And Longest Adventure Ever". As the song says "Time's up, we better run away, before the night closes in, like it does every other day".

It ends with those lines being spoken by the band members. This is in my top 5 songs for this album.

Honestly though, my words can't do this album justice. If you ever get a chance go down to your music shop and get a copy of it. If you are in Not-Australia, then get it ordered in. You won't regret it.

The artist is The Grates. The album Teeth Lost, Hearts Won.

My Intellectual Limitation

According to this guy (at the time of writing going by the name AL) I am intellectually disabled because:

OK, then perhaps I was being too kind if you can't see the difference between a god, and God then perhaps it is some intellectual limitation, not laziness. Not a difficult distinction.

(That was the colour writing he used, my italics).

Basically I am intellectually limited because I don't see the following difference:

There is a huge difference between a god among gods becoming a man, and God Himself, the Creator, the First Cause becoming man.

I honestly don't see the difference. If anyone knows what the difference is, please tell me.

Wild Dolphins Tail Walking

I know it's not a very creative title, but I'm just nicking the title from the BBC.

You would expect that something interesting in the realm of science would appear in, I don't know, The Advertiser but it hasn't.

From what I can gather, Billie picked up the trick when she was taken to a dolphinarium when she was injured and she taught the other dolphins in the Port to do this trick.

I had better explain that sentence a little better.

Port Adelaide is home to the Port River Dolphins. This pod lives in the Port River and along the Barker inlet. These dolphins are the only wild dolphins that live within a city.

Naturally they are also something of a tourist attraction. I guess people can sort of ignore the rather ugly Port when they are looking at dolphins.

Anyway, the scientists don't seem to have a clue as yet as to why they are tail walking. I know that they wouldn't be getting food out of it from the tourists because you can't feed them. I suspect that the boats might have a little to do with it though, maybe helping to stir up fish or something so maybe they are trying to get more people out there so they can eat more.

I personally have no idea.

Billie, the dolphin mentioned in the story is a wild one, as all of the dolphins in the Port are. She is also one of the first dolphins to have been found there.

Either way, if you are ever in Adelaide, you should make the attempt to see the Port River Dolphins. There are also quite a few museums in the area that you can look at as well.

South Ossetia

I'm putting the snake post on hiatus for the moment.

I think that this is far more important then that.

On the same day that the world saw the opening of the XXIX Olympic Games in Beijing...




...The Army of the Russian Federation entered South Ossetia in Georgia.

It's funny how that works isn't it?

This occurred less then a day after a ceasefire between the Georgian government, and the Russian backed South Ossetian separatists.

Today however, there was more news of this new war.

The Russians bombed the Georgian city of Gori.

Gori is a Georgian city 25 km away from South Ossetia.

The eyewitness story reveals quite a bit, at least with what the Georgian people think.

From what I can tell the Russians entered South Ossetia under the pretext of helping the South Ossetians maintain their pretend country, they are in a similar position to Abkhazia.

I guess that means that bombing military bases on the other side of the country is there to protect the South Ossetians. Who apparently have Russian passports.

I think the Russians don't see the South Ossetians as a breakaway group any more. They see them as a Russian enclave within Georgia. I guess that their actions, if supported by the other states in the Russian Federation in the Caucasus, would score them some pretty big brownie points.

There is also quite a bit of political manuevering going on as well.

Georgia pulled their troops out of Iraq, which I guess would put pressure on the US to get this conflict over and everything sorted out because even though I don't know what the Georgian contingent is doing over there, but I'm guessing that the US probably needs them.

But what we really have to look at is that innocent people are once again being affected by the actions of a few groups.

What makes it more annoying in a way is that it runs completely contrary to the whole ideal of the Olympics. And what makes it even worse is that the area of land in question, South Ossetia, is considered to be part of Georgia by everyone except Abkhazia, which also doesn't exist, and the South Ossetians themselves.

The only conclusion that I really can draw from this is that Russia considers South Ossetia the same way that the US considers Taiwan (or as they are known in the Olympics, Chinese Taipei). They don't officially accept that it exists, but for all intents and purposes they do.

ARE YOU THE BRAIN SPECIALIST?

I'm still reading the snake article, which is really what I want to write about.

To tide you over though, maybe you should find the brain specialist.

A Snapshot Of The Mind

A person who until recently I had never heard of died.

His name was Jeffrey S. Medkeff. By the sounds of it he died from cancer.

He was the Blue Collar Scientist.

I will start by saying Rest in Peace.

However, I really want to talk about something that I felt.

It's a rather strange feeling reading posts by him on his blog. It's like looking at a photo of someone's mind. A mind that was living only few days ago.

That even after his passing, his thoughts remain on the internet intact, to float around forever, for anyone who wants to know what his thoughts on certain topics were to see them.

Leptotyphlops carlae

The BBC reported on the world's smallest snake.

Going by the name of Leptotyphlops carlae this pint sized snake was discovered on Barbados. It's about 10cm long, and females lay one egg with the hatchling being born with about half it's adult body weight.

They eat termites which really would explain their size, as each termite consumed would give more energy for the snake to use.

According to physorg.com there should be more information on this snake being published sometime today (I suspect closer to the end of the day over here) which should be an interesting read.

From the news reports they are saying that this is probably as small as you can get with regards to snakes. It probably becomes less viable from an evolutionary standpoint for a snake to get any smaller.

I'm still going to speculate here but I guess that has more to do with egg size then anything else. It probably is that if the snake was any smaller it would not be viable to reproduce because the young would be born with more of it's adult body weight until you get to a point where the mother is basically giving birth to an adult snake.

That would be too much of a strain on the adult and the population would be even more difficult to maintain then it already is.

I guess we'll just have to see with regards to what the discoverers think of this snake.

Solar Eclipse

Once again from the BBC, the Northern Hemisphere saw a total solar eclipse, or at least if you were in the right spots of Russia and China, and maybe Canada.

I've seen a total solar eclipse, and it is breathtaking.

I saw it back in 2004 when one crossed over South Australia. People were flocking to Ceduna, which was one of the few towns along the line where the eclipse looked its best.

However, my family and a few friends didn't go to Ceduna, which would have been packed.

We were up north. Just outside of Woomera, in the Restricted Area. One of our friends knew the owner of Wirraminna Station so we could enter the Restricted Area without any problems.

On a side note, if you have ever been to the Outback, you will know that it is a very beautiful, but deadly, place (and in our case, packed with flies, stupid annoying flies.)

We arrived a few days before the eclipse and saw some of the things that you could see and also set up our tents.

The day of the eclipse the small section of the Stuart Highway that was set up for people to view the eclipse was packed with people (we drove up to see).

We however saw the eclipse in our campsite, a secluded, wooded place in the middle of the desert. The red sands covering the ground. The small, stunted trees around us. There was nothing for miles.

The moon started it's transit over the sun, and when it reached totality everything was quiet. You could hear a pin drop. The Outback was covered in an odd blue hue (I remember clearly, that it was not black) and for such a short amount of time everything that mattered on Earth was meaningless.

As the moon moved away from the sun it was like a strange dawn over the desert.

And we all went back on with our lives.

Oldest Joke.

The BBC has reported on the World's Oldest Joke.

Apparently the joke is as follows:

"Something which has never occurred since time immemorial; a young woman did not fart in her husband's lap,"

It's not that funny. I guess the Sumarians were the Germans of their day humour wise. Or maybe I'm being too German here because I don't seem to get it.

I guess a Marsh Arab might get it, or maybe the funny is lost in translation. Or time. Probably time.

Read the article. It talks about the early days of British humour, with a joke from the Anglo-Saxon period, and I especially like the Roman joke.