This Tetris inspired street art (in Sydney, from Flickr) is awesome. I would like all my belongings to be Tetris inspired. Moving would be a breeze. Robyn would have to be chief moving consultant though – her Facebook Tetris score is still the best of my 600+ friends.
Ever wondered what the cover of your favourite movies would like as a classic novel. Well, here you go and here’s the Flickr set.
And here’s the visual homage to the movie I based the title of my blog on. Sad really.
This shirt is in keeping with my segway obsession. This is, I think, the third seqway related post I’ve made. I’d link the others if I could be bothered.
Runners up from the same site:
Mosquitoes are nasty little bloodsuckers. Not to mention carriers of dangerous disease. So how should we educate the public on the danger? Cartoon infomercials? How bout unleashing a swarm on unsuspecting conference delegates?
The Queensland Government is spending a bit of money educating the general public on the perils of Dengue fever. The longer TV ads feature warnings not to wear dark clothes. Apparently dark clothes attrack the little Aussie mozzie. Who’d have thought. Perhaps a resurrection of Don Spencer’s “Little Aussie Mozzie” song would have been an appropriate piece of educational propaganda:
What may not be the most politically correct piece of anti-mozzie propaganda – but was no doubt more effective – was a decision by Bill Gates to release a swarm of mosquitoes on an unsuspecting audience at a Technology and Design conference in California.
If like me you believe M&Ms are the superior candied chocolate snack you’ll be delighted to know you can now order your very own customised M&M. Maybe you’ve always been put off by your problem with symmetrical letters? Don’t like the “m” try F&Fs. Or a photo. Or a nice little chocolate candied sized message. Discovered thanks to Boing Boing.
UPDATE: It appears you have to phone them to get shipping to Australia rather than order online.
Here's what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
Driscoll talk gets twittered. Social networking and ministry converge.
This is apparently what a cow looks like after surviving a lightning strike. Incredibull.
Best of the interweb
There’s a bunch of interesting commentary on the current stimulus package and associated bickering. It’s stimulating, if you’re into that sort of thing.
The Libs are taking the high “unpopular road” looking to block it. Claiming they’re doing the right thing, while the Labor Party is politicking “like a scared soldier firing all their ammo at once” – not a bad quote there from Turnbull.
It’s a dangerous game keeping money from voters while calling for lower taxes. Looks a bit like protecting the wealthy. Trickle down economics. I know I’ll be annoyed if they block it.
If Rudd wanted to score maximum points out of this politically he should have gone with a much bigger figure than $950. Say $3000. Something the coalition would have to block, rather than just grandstanding. Then when they blocked it and triggered a double dissolution the coalition would have to try dislodging a popular PM, having just robbed the voters of $3000. Political suicide. How much is a vote worth I wonder…
Articles from the SMH are written by, or quote, the following people:
“Rudd, the fiscal conservative of last year, was attacking the Coalition government because it hadn’t cut spending enough. He promised to do more. He wasn’t worried about all those “neo-liberal” ideas on careful spending, balanced budgets and low debt. He was complaining it hadn’t gone far enough.”
Costello Re: the last stimulus package…
“If the purpose of the payment was to boost sales at Woolworths, the Government should have bought the goods and distributed them to pensioners and families. But it is a low-quality use of $10 billion.”
And more commentary from Annabel Crabb… on parliament yesterday…
“Hilarious nerd insults were exchanged.Rudd accused Turnbull of fancying Milton Friedman, and Turnbull retaliated by calling Rudd “Whitlamite”, the nastiest word in the Liberal nerd insult dictionary.
Then Lindsay Tanner accused Julie Bishop of having a soft spot for the Reagan-era economist Arthur Laffer.
Really, they all sounded like back row hecklers at a second-year economics open mike night.
Debate was then suspended for several minutes while a noisy band of protesters shrieked: “Human rights for all. Stop the intervention.”
In case you were wondering, they were not talking about the socialist state’s intervention in the free market.”
Even Top Gear’s Jeremy Clarkson, out here on an Australian tour, weighed in with this sterling commentary:
“”He (Rudd) genuinely looked terrified. The poor man, he’s actually seen the books.“[In the UK] we’ve got this one-eyed Scottish idiot, he keeps telling us everything’s fine and he’s saved the world and we know he’s lying, but he’s smooth at telling us.”
The last word goes to Economics columnist Ross Gittins – who explains that this stimulus is unusual but might work.
“But it will be the most anticipated recession we’ve had. Normally we get the recession and then the response to it. This time we’re getting the cure before we’ve seen all the symptoms.
Why? Because so much of the global recession we are caught up in emanates from the Wall Street debacle. Since the crisis reached its peak in October we’ve been able to see its consequences coming, like a slow-motion tsunami rolling across the Pacific.”
It has been remiss of me not to post about the best job in the world earlier. We had an embargoed briefing on the campaign from Tourism Queensland a while ago and I thought “this would be fun to blog about”… except we signed confidentiality agreements.
Tourism Queensland had to jump through massive HR hoops to run this campaign so they deserve all the coverage they’re getting. Even if they did have the little mishap with fake applications at the start. The message is reaching all corners of the globe. Osama Bin Laden has applied. But his application was rejected. Here’s the video:
Robbie Fowler has signed for the North Queensland Fury. You heard it here second.
That’s a graphical illustration of the typical path of the home consumption of a coffee snob. If you’ve skipped any of those stages good on you. The path from International Roast to roasting international beans at home is one filled with pitfalls and dangers.
The best way to traverse this is with the help of others. I’ve found the forum at coffeesnobs.com.au to be particularly helpful in my own personal coffee (r)evolution.
The forum was most helpful during the rebuild of Sheila, my Rancilio beastie.
I’ve collected a bunch of links to particular discussions that I think are vital to such a process.
1. Choosing a Grinder
2. Corretto
3. Buying used coffee equiptment – I’ve bought two grinders from this part of the forum, and been happy with both. I only bought the second because upgradeitis set in. Mostly because my other one was fine for home use, but I now roast beans for other people and take my machine to parties.
4. Plunger tips
5. Stovetop tips – you can get crema using a stovetop
6. Coffeesnobs glossary – helpful guide to finding your way around the forum.
This is something I would like to do when I have some spare time – but I also don’t want to electrocute myself. The Panasonic SD-200 breadmaker I use for roasting is annoying because you can’t just switch it on and make it spin. This modification adds a switch that just turns the motor on and off.
Other good coffee sites/articles:
“Ingredients for perfect espresso”
Knockbox – a forum moderated by the aforementioned Ministry Grounds (where I buy my green beans) Neil Atwood, good Australian alternative to coffeesnobs.
Home Barista – a world wide forum – mostly US centric. With a great “How tos” section
Whole Latte Love – full of reviews and stuff. Including this article on “rituals of espresso” that’s pretty helpful.
Coffeeparts – a great parts wholesaler who are more than happy to provide helpful customer service. I’ve bought a bunch of parts and paraphernalia from them.
Crema Magazine – an Australian coffee journal.
Cafe Grendel – a great coffee blog.
The Knockbox – another coffee blog run by an evangelical Christian who home roasts.
Here's what has excited me from the blogosphere today.
GimpShop is GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) dressed up as Photoshop.
Stupid RFID technology.
Having just posted about a weird medical condition yesterday I feel a bit silly doing it again today.
We’re tucking in to some freshly baked bread, fresh from the breadmaker, and I’m sure it has given me crazy hiccups. A quick google reveals I’m not alone.
How should I cure my hiccups?
Best of the interweb: