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The image of Sydney is similar to New York it is a city of a giant switchboard. It is very social in Sydney among the Japanese Canadian Polish friends who stage parties and friends keep introducing you to other friends …
AussieScan is a small Australian company that focuses on nothing but scanning photos, slides and negatives. We can scan 35mm, medium format and large format negatives and transparencies Jeff

The Grief of Others The Art of Struggle - A Short Life and Its Consequences
There is only one sin, only one. And that is theft. Every other sin is a variation of theft - The Kite Runner

Even at their moments of most intense grief, Cohen does not allow her characters to plunge into self-pity. She has faith in their resilience; or rather, she finds the bedrock of resilience beneath swampier emotions. Sometimes the very sources of guilt and shame — acts the individual would wish undone — are the means of building a bridge back to the trust and affection that have always lain under sadness. For all its deep-seated sorrows, this is a hopeful book, a series of striking vignettes illuminating the humanity of these. fully realized characters

• Sometimes i can hear my bones straining under the weight of all of the lives i'm not living - 7 Revolting Things About American Culture Amerika [The mainstream media is still the high culture of intellectuals: writers, readers, editors, librarians, professors, artists, art critics, poets, novelists, and people who think. They are the mainstream culture, even though you may be the dominant culture\The Wrong Side ; The poems are transparent (they need no mediation), yet they tantalise the reader with glimpses of an impenetrable self: so much yearning, so much debility; an eros that self-thwarts and self-finesses ]
• · And into the brown paper bag of my heart, Eddy slipped a smile. - from The River Why by David James Duncan. The book weighs profit and loss in terms of past and present, social and political developments. But its emotional core is in 'private grief / or private fears,' its struggle to reconcile an inner life with external pressures. Profit and Loss - private grief / or private fears ; You can still rely on Media Dragons for a reality check Cold River invented a poetry for its tale ; "You gotta look beyond, beyond the border to understand the history of your country Interview with CS Giscombe
• · · Women fall in love when they get to know you. Men are the opposite. When they finally know you they're ready to leave - J Salter - Such is the danger of first books, and the first poems therein: high expectations. Onward John Beer! Leave these barren fields, cropped and rotated to extinction. There are verdancies ahead that you and we have yet undreamt of. I can see a forest for Some Trees ; Stopping everything is something. Stopping everything and stopping all of that thing is something. Stopping everything and then doing nothing in stopping everything is something
• · · · So we beat on, boats against the current, borne back ceaselesly into the past - The Great Gatsby,Nick on resilience = I do not write memoirs. I do not write novels. I do not write short stories. I do not write plays. I do not write poems. I do not write mysteries. I do not write science fiction. I write fragments. I do not tell stories from things I’ve read or movies I’ve seen, I describe impressions, I make judgments. The modern man I sing - When I Look at a Strawberry, I Think of a Tongue; D]espite a love for teaching his students, their generation is not living up to the radical attitude his own almost took for granted. But nevertheless, there is a feeling of bathos. Of sorts an ode to possibility, The Poetry Lesson unfortunately leaves the reader feeling a little deflated. Entertained, yes, and wiser, for sure. But not exactly inspired
• · · · · "[Vasko] Popa thus offers us poetry that does something, that believes in an active language whose intention derives not from an author but from the power of words themselves, simultaneously avowed and disavowed in the impossible exactitude of the curse: ‘God give you a gold coin weighing a ton, so you can’t carry it or spend it, but have to sit beside it begging The Golden Apple: A Round of Stories, Songs, Spells, Proverbs and Riddles ; "[In L.A.] it felt like all the waiters and waitresses were on stage, waiting to be discovered—the smiles were megawatt but skin deep, and attempts at conversation often swayed very swiftly to auditions A Trunk Full of Random T-Shirts
• · · · · · "Freedom is what [Álvaro de] Campos seeks: ‘No! All I want is freedom!/ Love, glory, money – they’re prisons’, he exclaims in an untitled poem from 1930; and freedom is also what the heteronym bestows on [Fernando] Pessoa himself." Unlike a pseudonym, or an anonym, the heteronym is a wholly fabricated persona ; One has the sense of [Arthur] Rimbaud stringing together some of his favorite words to create in a breath a sense of rapturous identity. How does one become a genie? By making love to one.

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Happy Birthday Ruby

Although our hearts ache that we no longer experience the daily joy of living in the same house with our kids, we are comforted by Ecclesiastes 3:1:
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven.

Gabriella is in Praha - Prague - this week with my sisters and the rest of the family and my army days come back to haunt me as I was 19 like Gabbie when I was forced to serve 2 years of compulsory service. Many thanks to Janka, Lydka, Gitka and one and all at the good old Czechoslovakia for looking after my muse ;-)

Memories of Cold River Flows Prague’s Bad Dream
THE WEB SITE FOR Prague’s Museum of Communism instructs visitors to make their way to No. 10 on Na Prikope in the heart of the city:

We are above the McDonalds and next to the Casino.” Against these flashy consequences of the Velvet Revolution, the museum itself has a cramped, grubby feeling appropriate to the four decades of Czech life that it memorializes. During my Sunday-afternoon visit, I need to crane my neck over someone’s shoulder to read the display panels, and have to wait in a slow-moving line to reach the de rigueur piece of the Berlin Wall at the exhibit’s end. If for example, a girl received 20 dollars from a foreigner for a night of love-making, she could exchange it in the state bank for about one hundred and sixty Tuzex crowns, which she could sell on the black market for 800 Czechoslovak crowns, which equaled the monthly wages of a shop assistant

Bizarre story from Gabbie from Berlin where the police and British consul staff are trying to identify an English-speaking teenager who says he lived in German woods with his father for five years
• Postcard from an awakened city ...; [Lloyd Evans Tara FitzGerald’s beauty is fabulous. Literally, there’s something unworldly about the surfaces and contours of her face. It’s as if the codes of her biology had been transmitted to earth Out of this world; The brilliant foreignness of Australian crime fiction. It is a rare crime novel that doesn’t seem better in the first part, when we are still trying to find our bearings. Perhaps we want to feel the way we did as children, when the genre was so much more thrilling for being slightly over our heads. This is the good thing about Australian crime fiction: as an American, you are never completely at home in it. True, the suburban backdrops appear very familiar, and on the printed page the Australian variant of English is almost identical to our own. But the characters in these novels behave much more differently from Americans than do the Swedes in those Stieg Larsson books, and this never stops feeling odd. Among male friends an intensity of joshing camaraderie is in evidence that even our frat boys would find stifling. At first I chalked this up to over-imitation of Hollywood films, only to read in The Oxford Companion to Australian Literature that the Sunburnt Country has a true-life tradition of especially tight-knit “mateship.” Not for nothing did Australian prisoners in Japanese POW camps survive at a higher rate than American ones. Most other characters in these novels interact with a reflexive prickliness, and that includes husbands and wives; there is a constant effect of chips on shoulders. Stephen Knight, the leading expert on his country’s crime fiction, talks of “drily aggressive wit” without explaining the aggression itself. Down Underworld]
• · Our obsession with musical nostalgia is strangling pop. Nostalgia is now thoroughly entwined with the consumer-entertainment complex. We feel pangs for the products of yesteryear, the novelties and distractions that filled up our youth … The passage of our time has become indexed to the procession of rapidly obsolescing fads, fashions, celebrity careers et al. Has pop culture, uh, stopped? Why do the major musical developments of the past decade include Guitar Hero, reunion tours, hip karaoke, the rise of the tribute band, pop stars made entirely from bits of other pop stars, and Van Morrison re-performing Astral Weeks? Lady Gaga, bless her radical retro soul, is Cher after three weeks in Warhol’s Factory. Cee Lo is Motown with swearing. This month, even as Roger Waters breaks temporarily from his transglobal plod-through of Pink Floyd’s 32-year-old rock opera, The Wall, Roger Daltrey sallies forth with a production of The Who’s 42-year-old rock opera, Tommy. One salutes the unkillability of these gentlemen, one reveres their work, but, honestly. And wherefore this pile of rock docs and rock bios, these waves of compulsive historicization? The Making of Frampton Comes Alive! … The Making of The Making of Frampton Comes Alive! … The Making of The Making of The Making of Frampton Comes Alive! … Everything Old; Evil and us. Sloppy historical analogies, amateurish psychological speculations, oversimplifications, tired moral platitudes – we’ve gotten evil all wrong Evildoers and Us: The open secret: Everyone does something illegal
• · · Marvellous mashup - great literature and 80’s pop music! Long live the 80’s ; Klassikal Kozak of my Czechosloval Army days Alexander Lebedev, Russian owner of the Independent, lashes out at property tycoon Sergei Polonsky ; Marx was wrong: Capitalism, not communism, killed the bourgeoisie. Now there’s no escaping the mercurial market forces. Prepare for further upheaval A Point of View: The revolution of capitalism

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Compassion is something individual and voluntary. You cannot compel somebody to be compassionate; nor can you be vicariously compassionate by compelling somebody else. The Good Samaritan would have lost all merit if a Roman soldier were standing by the road with a drawn sword, telling him to get on with it and look after the injured stranger.
-Enoch Powell, Still to Decide

Outback Australia: “if you know Bourke, you know Australia” so wrote the famous Australian poet Henry Lawson in 1882. Art has a privileged status in the production of symbols of national identity even at Bondi Iceberg... A number of artists today look at the outback country and the life of the small inland town(s) with an entirely new eye. Behind their pictorial observations on the drovers, the rabbiters and the small selectors of the drought-stricken areas of the west is a seriousness of purpose that has brought home to us for the first time in paint a side of our country and people that unfortunately is too little understood and realised by the town dwellers, and up to now was not thought worthy of being put on canvas. Belinda Williams (not related to RM Williams) is one of the rare artists who is able to transport us back to Kakadu; Katherine, Kings Canyon corner of those breathtaking antipodean landscape Not so long ago, about the time Media Dragon invaded The Lake Eyre, Belinda was involved in a wonderful Australian project, Utes in the Paddock. “Utes in the Paddock” is the brainchild of Graham and Jana Pickles, graziers whose passion for the outback led them to start a Dorper Sheep Stud on their historic cattle station Burrawang West at Ootha near Condobilin. Each artist was presented with a Holden ute as our canvas, and Belinda created DrizAkubra. The outback is a never ending source of inspiration which continues to feed my desire to portray this element of the Australian countryside and community.
-Those who love Australia and the Antipodeans such as Media Dragon and Mal find their feelings reflected in the bold, sincere and deeply human records Bel has made of the landscape and its inhabitants, black and white.

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Happy Birthday Olek - Every culture has its coming-of-age rituals. A child is inducted into the adult realm through a transformative experience, whether it's becoming more steeped in religion or killing a deer or having a vision Coming of Age at Sweet 16

Anyone with a Blogger account and an interesting angle has the capacity to generate content and cultivate a sizeable following. As a result of this trend in developing personal digital brands through blogs and social media sites, there has been a shift in the types of new authors that publishing companies are seeking. No longer is the sole requisite for garnering a book deal simply a unique idea; individuals must bring their own leverageable audience to the table, whether through a social media fanbase on Twitter of Facebook, or through followers of a content site like a personal blog. This has had the effect of both widening and narrowing the types of individuals able to successfully attract publishing agencies.... Books will always be great branding tools, positioning an expert with potential to be a household name, but the rules have changed and a new marketing paradigm is taking precedent; social media experts with high volume platforms are fueling book deals How Successful New Authors Are Branding Themselves Through MEdia Dragons and Social Media

Cirque du Soleil’s Zarkana, which recently opened at Radio City Music Hall June 29, offered a “blogger” performance on July 20. The creative team is looking for “trend-setting bloggers who like theater, entertainment and/or New York cultural events” to attend a special performance of the new acrobatic spectacle A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Medicine Go Down

TIMOTHY GARTON ASH
Mass murder and the Internet
You can ignore jihad, but you cannot avoid the consequences of ignoring jihad. That was the first reaction of American anti-Islam blogger Pamela Geller to news of the terror attacks in Norway. When it turned out the mass murderer was an anti-Islamic terrorist, whose 1,500-page online manifesto was replete with material from anti-Islam writers such as her, she shrugged: “He’s a bloody murderer. Period. He is responsible for his actions. He and only he. There was no ‘ideology’ here.”

Bruce Bawer, the Oslo-based American author of a jeremiad about the Muslim takeover of Europe, was more thoughtful. Noting that Mr. Breivik, in his manifesto, quotes approvingly and at length from my work, mentioning my name 22 times, Mr. Bawer reflects, with decent dismay: It is chilling to think that blog entries that I composed in my home in west Oslo over the last couple of years were being read and copied out by this future mass murderer in his home in west Oslo.

• Online, you can easily find the thousand other people who share your perverted views ; [Yale's 'World Fellows' program a melting pot of elites. A Tunisian cyberdissident and a Russian blogger may not appear to have much in common, but they were brought together at Yale University in a program drawing elites from around the globe ; The agony of originality. Four thousand years ago, an Egyptian writer lamented his stale prose: “Would I had phrases that are not known.” If he was late to the party, what about us Heart Like a Wheel -The agony of originality; Nothing takes the heart out of a man more than the expectation of failure. - Robin Hobb, Assassin's Apprentice Blogger discovers whole fake Apple Stores in China ]
• · Blogger who chronicles every outfit becomes internet sensation - Poppy Dinsey sports everything from designer dresses to bikinis and pyjamas and now has so many clothes that her bedroom looks ‘more like a warehouse’ What I wore today ; Style Wax Poetic is a Los Angeles based blog written by Kristen Cohahan, which covers the latest in trends, fashion and music. According to her site, Style Wax Poetic was inspired to exist from the romanticized notion of fashion being a true art form of expression Style Wax Poetic
• · · Is it possible for a play to be so well known that there's no longer anything new to do with it or say about it? Yeah, sure. The plague of publishing these days is to mistake ubiquity for significance Knotted: How the Necktie Changed the World ; Big rejection numbers in publishing are not important. Big numbers in general are not important. No, the number to worry about is one. One. That's how many sentences you have to impress an agent or editor. Step aside, Dale Peck. When it comes to sheer brutishness, no book critic compares to John Wilson Croker, who wrote the review that killed John Keats. I've found out why people laugh. They laugh 'cause it hurts... 'cause it's only thing that'll make it stop hurting
• · · · The patent war. Nathan Myhrvold is a polymath with a knack for making money. Is his latest venture a shakedown of Silicon Valley?.. When Patents Attack; The politics of yuck. Sewage on a hot day is simply gross. Disgust, however, is actually quite complex. In fact, it’s dangerous... The politics of yuck
• · · · · "What a treacherous thing to believe that a person is more than a person." — John Green (Paper Towns) ;. We spend billions to live longer, yet give little thought to how to live longer, better. Here comes the silver tsunami.. Aging and innovation
• · · · · · The fields were fruitful, and starving men moved on the roads. — John Steinbeck (The Grapes of Wrath) Umberto Eco is fascinated by fallibility. His vast personal library includes the works of the errant Ptolemy, not the accurate Galileo Open Book: This is Not the End of the Book ; Teachers in Central Bucks schools could face strict new rules about what they can, and cannot, post online. The proposed policy comes after one teacher made national headlines for posting very controversial comments about her students. District looks at social media policy in wake of blogging teacher scandal

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Happy Birthday Sasha ...

Not Just another Birthday,
But quite a grand event,
And here, to greet you, Twenty-One,
These wishes are now sent..
May happiness go with you,
May all your hopes come true,
And in the most delightful ways
May life be good to you!
Happy 21st!!

21st birthday celebrations

When we remember that we are all mad, the mysteries disappear and life stands explained.
- Mark Twain, the New Shelton wet/dry

Let’s speak frankly, says Slavoj Žižek. The left hates me even though I am supposed to be one of the leading communist intellectuals A life in writing: Slavoj Žižek

The Spirit Is Willing, and So Is the Flesh The politics of self-immolation
Mohamed Bouazizi, Thích Quảng Đức, Jan Palach: Their willingness to die offers a repulsive and fascinating lesson in how to live

ORDINARILY, POLITICS is very much about living bodies—bodies assembled or scattered, hungry or well-fed, bodies migrating or accommodated. In a world without bodies, there would be no politics, and no need for them. Under extraordinary circumstances, however, a dying body comes to perform political functions that a living one cannot even dream of. In such cases, the sheer act of dying can generate among those who witness it an uncanny mix of awe, repulsion, and fascination, which could be best described as a form of power. A naked readiness to die—that’s something that defies human understanding, as well as our basic instincts. Thanks to the voluntary nature of their death, to their commitment to doing something that only very few of us would do, the performers of such acts somehow envelope themselves in an aura of election and transcendence. These people gladly trample on whatever makes human life possible: survival instincts, self-protection impulses, and fear of death. In so doing, the performers of voluntary death come to inhabit a territory where other rules apply and a different logic operates. And it is from there that some of them, like the Tunisian self-immolator Mohamed Bouazizi, come to dominate our imagination, win over our hearts, and, sometimes, even shape our lives.

• A Light for the Future: On the Political Uses of a Dying Body; [Inside the vision for the largest library in history A bookshelf the size of the world ; He lives every moment of his life to the fullest, so overusing the word ‘literally’ seemed like a Good character fit ]
• · arlier this month a blog post called 'Why I quit my job' written by CTV reporter Kai Nagata went viral. That blog was much more gracious than the one written by the Whole Foods employee, but it still touched some sore spots. In it, Mr. Nagata criticizes the state of Canadian TV journalism, including Sun TV and Conservative politics. He expresses his frustration with the fact that he wasn't allowed to express personal opinions as a reporter and said he now wants his opinions back. He ends it with writing: I'm broke, and yet I know I'm rich in love. I'm unemployed and homeless, but I've never been more free. Everything is possible. To quit your job with maximum drama, blog about it How the age of Google has accelerated the assault on the public sphere - It's rare that anything of substance comes out of the Aspen Ideas Festival, that annual orgy of techno-triumphalism and political self-seriousness, the bastard child of Davos and TED. But something odd happened when Eric Schmidt, until recently the CEO of Google, appeared at the high-powered mogul gathering in 2009 to speak about Google and the future of the American economy Search and Destroy The Googlization of Everything (and Why We Should Worry) ; White collar crime will be on the rise thanks to M Thru F and legal loopholes
• · · Drugs, sex, exercise – all tickle the brain’s pleasure circuits What doesn’t? ; What do their books reveal about feminism today What is feminism? "Simply the belief that women should be as free as men . . . Are you a feminist? Hahaha. Of course you are
• · · · Adventures in fandom. Opera is too often dismissed as out of touch, an elitist obsession of the wealthy. It’s that, of course, and so much more.. The Sopranos ; The old cliché is true: One person’s trash may be another person’s treasure. But let’s be serious: Thomas Kinkade’s cloying, dew-kissed paintings are, quite unambiguously, trash Thomas Kinkade: The Artist in the Mall ; Blog for the RepRap project at www.reprap.org - a project to create an open-source self- copying 3D printer
• · · · ·Dan Savage is out to save marriage. His pitch: Monogamy destroys families; infidelity can save them ; Married, With Infidelities ; What happens in the brain when we experience a panic attack?; In both "Friends With Benefits" (currently playing) and the previously released "No Strings Attached," casual sex is anything but casual Casual Sex: Is It Worth It? ; Ski resorts around the globe are a seething pit of sex, love and lies, and that's just the seasonal staff at ski school. Seasonal workers are a sure-fire way to get your heart broken, as the snow melts they're on their way with a "I love you but the season's over" line that's worn around the edges Sex, lies and love at the snow
• · · · · · Looking for love? There is powerful software for that ; After this memory I thought, “I don't want to be loved because I'm rich and famous. I just want to be loved.” I realized that if people only loved me ... Almost Famous: Re-thinking Being a Famous ADHDer, Part I

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Media Dragon have been married four years today. Time flies fast and if we think of it, as it still feels like we still deserve Just Married ... stickers
Traditionally the fourth year wedding anniversary is signified by fruits or flowers. They are meant to symbolize a blossoming and fruitful relationship. For the fourth wedding anniversary, the traditional anniversary gift symbols are fruits and flowers

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Based in Katherine in the Northern Territory since 2000 Top Didj holds something for everyone. FiDj stocks an extensive selection of Aboriginal paintings from the wider regions of Katherine and beyond. We were impressed with the Cultural Experience in its two-hour activities. We loved the way Manuel and Adriene both are part of Desert and Top End Aboriginal culture and we were able to ask questions about their culture whilst being educated on the significance of their painting depictions, weapons used and how they lived off the land. The highlight of the Cultural Experience and what sets it apart from other cultural experiences, is the painting styles which are demonstrated by the Aboriginal artists. We had the opportunity to complete a painting of our own. The artists, Manuel and Adriene, taught us how to paint such styles as cross-hatching and dot painting, which are famous in the Northern Territory. Manuel signed our dijireedoo Top Didj







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Aboriginal Art - The Time Traveller Nitmiluk aka (Katherine Gorge)
There's nothing like immersing yourself in the tranquility of such a wonderful place, and taking in the reflections and ambiance after a refreshing swim.

This entry is also a way of expressing Media Dragon's appreciation for the service and accommodations we received at Nitmiluk on 10 and 11 August 2011.
We have traveled extensively throughout the NSW. Queensland and Northern Territory...
Comparing to some of the accommodation in other states everything at the Nitmiluk was excellent! The staff at the front desk were warm, as well as courteous, responsive and helpful.



The dinner cruise was outstanding - all staff greeted and treated us on a personal basis and were prompt, courteous, and helpful; especially when they managed to deliver burrumundi in order to meet Mal's special requirements as slamon is something she cannot eat ... Rocky was on a day off but jumped on a boat and delivered a wonderful feast to the first Katherine Gorge where we were watching the sunset ... Housekeeping at the lodge and chalets were just above our expectations as we have stayed in the past at luxury accommodation be it nunneries, manors,headmistress cotages and we have never come across such happy and easy going staff ...

• One of the main Australia tourist attractions is of course the Australian Outback itself. But the Outback is a huge place. Most of the Australian continent could be classified as Outback. If you want to see "the great Australian Outback" you will have to focus on one part of it, you can't see it all... Endless Appreciation ; [Images of Art ;Dine under the stars in the tranquil surroundings of Katherine Museum. Watch the wallabies and hear the local wildlife in the surroundings reminiscent of an outback stockman's camp Camp Tucker ]
• · It is a loooong drive from Sydney to Darwin. We foud the drive itself attractive: the endless horizon, the sense of space and freedom, the everchanging landscape, the slow change from red desert interior to lush, green tropics... But not everybody agrees. It is a long drive, and there is not much on the way in terms of fauna and flora and storytelling ... Nothing compares to the thrill and adventure which is experienced meeting this hulk of the horizon which is so lone and impressive at Tatranka - also known as Mataranka where you will bathe in hot springs, and from there it's only 105 km to Katherine and one of my favourite attractions in Australia: Katherine Gorge. Northern Territory is recognized as real Australia ;To all croc and eagle seekers! If you want to see guaranteed crocodiles, the place to head is Yellow Waters and Ubir. Walkabout with Natasha - Bill's Ganddaughter
• · · Outback, mountains, jungle and scrubby outback-Australia is flat, it's vertical, it's soaking wet and bone dry. Choose the mainland or sail between any of 12,000 islands. ; Many of Australia's journeys bring you closer to the world's oldest culture. Having read a few books related to Aboriginal people and their culture-and having been highly fascinated, I was curious to interact with the native people. It's estimated that their culture and way of life has existed without outside influence for anywhere from 10,000 to 60,000 years, depending on different expert speculation. That blows me away, especially in this day and age. Arrival of the Europeans, especially the British colonists, in the late 1700's wrought havoc and decimation to a great number of Aboriginals. Who says all humans need to be brought into the 21st century? I find their culture beautiful and extremely harmonious with the flow of the natural world. Modern society has a lot to learn from many of their ways. Unfortunately, our superior attitude and lack of respect for those different from us stunts our ability to grasp the messages others are here to teach us. Australia's Red Center
• · · · From deserted islands to actual deserts, you'll find the perfect backdrop for romance in Australia.; DREAMTIME
• · · · · Waterfalls and Crocodiles! ; The seasons in Australia’s “Top End” come in two distinct flavors: torrential wet and mud-cracking dry. Teeming with wildlife, you’ll find 60 species of mammals including kangaroos, wombats, dingoes, possum, bats and dusky rats. The Park is also famous for its reptiles like the awesome and dangerous Australian Saltwater crocodiles (salties) that patrol many of the Park’s waterways. Watch for large monitor lizards (goannas) and colorful frill-necked lizards, too. ; Healing the past will not be achieved by alienating others. Invasion or arrival?; THE COW STARES AT ME AND I STARE BACK. Finally this huge example of a Brahman decides to move, and I'm grateful. Grateful that it's going to amble off the road and grateful that I didn't hit its bovine bulk at 100km/h. On this remote far north Queensland road, the results could have been catastrophic. Fortunately I've been warned, as graphic road signs alert me to the dangers of cars meeting cows head-on. On this part of the Savannah Way between Cairns and Karumba, the main dangers are cattle, kangaroos and the 50-metre-long road trains. NRMA Inspires Many People







Bill's Granddaghter, Natasha, who has some Scandinavian background:

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Australia: Red in the centre, blue on the outside with a ribbon of gold in between. And enough thrills and spills to turn any experience into a blockbuster. Whether that be trekking through the rugged heart of the Outback or exploring its never-ending coastline.
No adventure to the Red Centre is complete without a self-drive trek to the most famous rock in the world. Known to you and I as Ayers Rock, the legend of Uluru dates back 20,000 years, and what better way to go around it than on a camel? It’s most beautiful at dawn, but dinner at Uluru accompanied by the rock’s spectacular light show is simply awe-inspiring Epic adventures in high definition ; Wet, wild, wonderful ; Show-off croc likes to pig out

Wet, Wild, Wonderful FEAST FOR THE SENSES
Featuring running waterholes , rainforest canopies and exotic wildlife, the second day takes the agents to Australia's largest National Park - Kakadu. As some agents quiz Ted on the meaning of the Aboriginal art enshrined on the passing rock faces, others venture towards the Ubirr lookout to prepare for another glorious sunset. As the day draws to a close at the Gagadju Crocodile Holiday Inn - the only resort in the area - the agents exchange photographs before indulging in another feast of local produce and retiring to their cosy apartments to recharge for a final day of sightseeing in the Katherine Gorge.

As the agents wipe the sleep from their eyes for the early morning start, Ted explains how each Inspiring Journeys adventure is based on the four pillars of discovery, exploration, learning and relaxation. As the coach ploughs across the floodplains en route to our final destination, the agents agree they've explored and learned, and have no doubt the relaxation element is well and truly covered. The discovery element becomes apparent as we arrive at the Edith Falls shortly afterwards. Some agents opt for a short wander among the greenery, while others make the most of a final opportunity to have quick dip before the finale to the trip - a sunset dinner cruise along Katherine Gorge. As the boat gently chugs through crocodile infested waters, past towering sandstone cliffs, agents chuckle among their newfound friends and another delicious meal makes its way to the table. Cradling glasses of chilled wine, they share their experiences of the short journey and the tales they will choose to share with their clients. The general consensus was that the scenery, wildlife and dazzling sunsets were worthy of a mention, along with Ted's tantalising tales and broad grin. All of these, it was agreed, would whet the appetite of their clients.
Whatever the verdict, the agents were convinced Ted's warm character would continue to entertain many more travellers into the future as he leads from the front seat of the Inspiring Journeys bus.

• Inspiring Journeys ; [ NT Holidays: ; The Territory.com.au: ; Tourism Top End: ; Darwin City Council: ; Northern Territory Holidays: ]
• · It has been a cold and frosty start to the day across much of southern Queensland, with the mercury plummeting to almost minus 4 degrees Celsius in Roma and minus 3 degrees in Dalby and Oakey Charleville ; Roma ; Shivers

• · · At a fabulous party at the Aviation Institute last night, Festival Artistic Director Jo Duffy launched a fascinatingly diverse Darwin Festival program 11 – 28 August Festival ; This year’s program sets the scene for a sensational dry season of arts and culture with Jessica Mauboy in her first ever solo show in her hometown, the return of the wonderfully seductive Meow Meow, lively, feel good pop-rockers Little Red, dark, funny, risqué circus treats from Strut & Fret’s Cantina, US funny man Arj Barker, the simply stunning Drags Aloud with the Sistagirls, ultimate organ salesman and showman Barry Morgan, Jason De Santis’ mischievous and inventive pantomime Wulamanayuwi and the Seven Pamanui and auditory delights from ACO2’s Bach and Schubert ; Darwin is arguably Australia's most cosmopolitan city, boasting a population made up of people from more than 60 nationalities and 70 different ethnic backgrounds. Darwin's traditional owners, the Larrakia people, are prominent and active members of the community, and many still adhere closely to their traditional beliefs and customs Visiting Darwin ; On the job compo taken to new level: worker hurt during sex in hotel -An Australian government employee injured while having sex during a work trip has taken her fight for worker's compensation to the Federal CourT. The lawyer representing a woman who was injured while she was having sex in a hotel room during a work trip in rural NSW says his client was undertaking "normal behaviour" akin to bathing or sleeping and is entitled to compensation On the job compo taken to new level: worker hurt during sex in hotel‎
• · · · Eremita's Great Adventure Mataranka is a one-street town with a population of 400. The biggest attraction is the Mataranka Hot Springs Hot Springs in Mataranka ; Fran of Fran’s Devonshire Teahouse/defunct police station & jail renown (needless to say there was no such listing and all my entreaties to the operator that in a town of two residences and 6 - 8 people – she could not be too hard to locate, unfortunately went unheeded) Fran

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Steve on socializing banking - The book serves as a guide to executing innovation and reinvigorating the business of banking.

As social media use has become ubiquitous, industries have been hard at work determining how to best take advantage of the often-frequented social network communities. With Facebook at over 500 million active users, Twitter processing over 155 million tweets per day and LinkedIn with over 100 million registered professionals, it is no wonder organizations are looking for ways to leverage what social networks bring - people.

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Theatre is like politics; it's the theatre of the possible.
-Media Dragon

My hallmark as a writer has always been Faulkner's statement, from his Nobel Prize speech, where he said, 'the human heart in conflict with itself is the only thing worth writing about:

The gender stuff is just furniture. You can have a science fiction story with aliens and starships, you can have a mystery story about a private eye walking the mean streets, you can have a fantasy story with dragons and kings and sword fights, but ultimately any of these genres or the other genres are all about the human heart in conflict with itself. That's what makes fiction worth reading.
Time magazine said watching Game of Thrones ''is like falling into a gorgeous, stained tapestry … [that] takes our preconceptions of chivalry, nobility and magic and gets mediaeval on them.'' Meanwhile, the Los Angeles Times's Mary McNamara wrote that the series ''finds that rare alchemy of action, motivation and explanation, proving, once again, that the epic mythology remains the Holy Grail of almost any medium''. McNamara has since qualified her enthusiasm with a call for the show's producers to ''tone down the tits'', feeling that much of the nudity in Thrones was becoming gratuitous.

None of it is gratuitous in Martin's eyes. Asked if Thrones and its companion novels are significantly darker than most fantasy, which trends as a genre towards wish fulfilment, he turns to the classics. ''If you go back and look at Tolkien, the master of them all, there's definite darkness in Lord of the Rings,'' he says. ''There's a sadness to it, the passing of an age, the elves are leaving, magic is dying, these kingdoms of men are fading. There's a sort of twilight sensibility … It's not all happiness and dancing in the moonlight. Things have been lost … I responded to those elements, even when I read it at 13.''

The author, who has been famously cursed with the title of the American Tolkien, has an instinctual distrust of conventional happy endings, and the banality of black-and-white characters.

''All fiction, if it's successful, is going to appeal to the emotions. I don't think I'm a misanthrope, or gloomy. I think love and friendship are very important parts of what make life worth living. There is room for happiness.

''But that having been said, there are some basic truths. One of them is that death waits for all of us at the end … Another is the existential loneliness that we all suffer. While we interact with other human beings, we can never really know them.
''I think these things, that we feel on some deep instinctual level, make us feel the resonances in fiction.'' hese are not mere words. Martin is hard on his characters and his readers. His books are a dangerous world where nobody, not even your favourite hero, is safe. The tragic looms constantly in his work and millions of viewers, unfamiliar with the books, have now been subjected to those signature George Martin moments when watching Game of Thrones, the moment when that character you have come to love and cannot possibly imagine being lost, dies horribly, screaming.
Tragedy, he says, has always got more respect than comedy

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They both seemed to have arrived there with an extraordinary innocence as though a series of pure accidents had driven them together, so many accidents that at last they were forced to conclude that they were for each other. They had arrived with clean hands, or so it seemed, after no traffic with the merely curious and clandestine.
-Tender is the Night, F. Scott Fitzgerald (Book Cover Love)



Does Facebook spell the end of human interaction as we know it? Or is it just bad news for psychics, dating services, and women’s magazines? Henry Alford hopes some of Mark Zuckerberg’s romance-spotting superpower will rub off on the rest of us.

Get Outta River 'Where the River and Dogs Runs
It is no exaggeration to say that Trixie was the hand of God for Koontz. He recounts his difficult childhood, his dysfunctional father, and the many challenges that he had to overcome on the road to becoming a world-famous novelist. But with that fame came commercial caution: telling stories in the same old familiar way and a consequent dulling of his creativity.

Like all great writers, Koontz has the ability to transform the ordinary--his daily life with Trixie--into the funny, the moving, and the sublime. Trixie’s accidentally gashing him while they play fetch turns into one of the great set pieces of medical comedy as Koontz ends up in the emergency room with a lacerated hand. On another occasion Trixie’s saying “baw” for “ball”--straining to say it, but saying it nonetheless--becomes a memorable recounting of all of our attempts to communicate with beings from another species. And Koontz’s simply watching Trixie move, her lithe golden body shimmering and flashing in the sun, takes on the quality of the divine as he expresses what so many of us have subconsciously thought about our own dogs: “The more I watched her, the more she seemed to be an embodiment of that greatest of all graces we now and then glimpse, from which we intuitively infer the hand of God.”
Then came Trixie. With “baws” and balls, with warning him of fires and intruders in the house, with humor, with stoicism, and with unflinching love, she restored his diminished sense of wonder and impelled him toward taking new risks with narratives, themes, and characters, the very ones millions of us now enjoy.“Some dog, huh?” he says. “Some dog, yes,” we must agree, also concurring when he adds, “The only significant measure of your life is the positive effect you have on others.” For all of us who have had our lives made better by our dogs, or for that matter by any loving being, A Big Little Life is a welcome reminder of the power of love to turn our hearts into mirrors, reflecting compassion back into the universe--as Trixie most surely did for Koontz and Koontz now does for us.

• Trixie ; [Like Bessie of Cold River fame, Trixie is unique. She is a literary dog Two Girls ; Cold River tells the oldest story in the world, a story familiar to anyone who has read the Old Testament, Greek myths, or Shakespeare's tragedies. It's the story of full-force collision between an older generation's best intentions and a younger generation's intractable resistance ]
• · Faye Dunaway had a great line in the movie Chinatown. She said:
I don’t get tough. My lawyers do ; The economic blog Naked Capitalism has a fascinating post looking at some breathtakingly murky company business, in an investigation, via Panama, of New Zealand. We have known about New Zealand's role as a secrecy jurisdiction for some time, but have not yet researched it in any detail. That time will be coming soon enough. Before reading that post, take a look at this company registered at 9/22 Curran Street (pictured): Trillion Private Wealth Management Ltd. What does it offer? Well, for one thing, "protecting" your assets
• · · 10 Worst Horrible Movie bosses!; The death of News of the World is Rupert Murdoch’s current big trouble — but just the latest in decades of big trouble that haven’t noticeably harmed him. While his current scrape may look bad at first glance, chances are good he’ll escape unscathed yet again It's like Al Capone getting caught for extortion instead of tax fraud Welcome to the world of Nineteen Eighty Four: The U.K. scandal and Australia Is an independent inquiry and an independent regulator needed in Australia? In his brilliant novel Nineteen Eighty Four, George Orwell depicts a nightmare world of the future. The State is all-powerful
• · · · Simon Johnson, a leading U.S.-based intellectual, has written an excellent piece in the New York Times with the above headline. It concerns an issue we've written about several times in the past: that the tax system in many countries has encouraged a bias towards debt, rather than equity financing. The resulting indebtedness made the financial system more dangerous, and we are now finding out the consequences of this. The simple reason is that borrowing is, in many cases, tax-deductible, whereas equity financing is not. So instead of raising money through the stock market, say, they borrow it. And banks, of course, are among those over-borrowers. And this creates risks to society - a form of economic pollution. Johnson notes:
It is also ironic — perhaps even bizarre — that while we try to constrain how much banks borrow through regulation, we give them strong incentives to borrow more through the tax code ; What is your local or regional council doing?
• · · · · Inspiration ; Gooogle Loove ; Ah
• · · · · · I don’t know of any history of pulp fiction publishing in Australia in the sixties and early seventies 80s yes; The planet's booming population is a mega trend reshaping everything. Over coming decades our growing presence and rampant appetite for resources will shake up every form of life on earth. Writing for The Guardian, Robert Engelman paints a grim picture of what population acceleration means for the planet... Population Acceleration

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Money brings some happiness.
But after a certain point, it just brings more money.
-- Neil Simon

Tomorrow stared_ I can not afford to love Sydney
I give you private information on corporations for free, and I'm a villain ... Mark Zuckerberg gives your private information to corporations for money, and he's Man of the Year. Villain ; Man of the Year
- Julian Assange

Me fail? I fly! Read Annandale Blog Invest responsibly Hit the bottle of Cold River
Another great blog which deserves a wider audience in Annandale, Sydney Australia the world ….
Antony Beevor visited Sydney for the Writers’ Festival in 2007. His talk was interesting, and it evoked high-quality audience questions that came from a whole world of War History geekiness previously unknown to me. Although he’d recently published a book about the Spanish Civil War, it was Stalingrad that generated the serious senior fanboy passion.

We bought the book not much later, but didn’t start reading it until July 2008. Now here we are, in mid 2011 and it’s done! Notice I said ‘we’. The reason I took longer to read the book than Anthony Beevor took to write it is that I read it exclusively on long car rides, aloud to my regular driver, usually known on this blog as The Art Student. Apart from the reading being disrupted by our lamentable failure to do much travelling by car in the last three years (two return trips to Canberra, perhaps one southward, and just now north to Red Rock and surrounds), it was an excellent way to read this book.
The wonderful Barbara Ehrenreich said on her blog recently, ‘War has been, and we still expect it to be, the most massive collective project human beings undertake.’ Having just read about the sheer logistics of attack and counter-attack, siege and counter-siege at Stalingrad, I can only say, ‘True, that!’ ‘But,’ Barbara Ehrenreich continued, ‘it has been evolving quickly in a very different direction, one in which human beings have a much smaller role to play.’ If that’s so, we can only be glad of it. The human participants in Stalingrad endured almost unbelievable extremes of cold and hunger: men literally dropped dead from hunger, wounded soldiers froze to death by the cartload. They performed acts of understandable but almost unimaginable cruelty and callousness:

• Jonathan Shaw ; A tribute to a character who was a gracious presence in Annandale, and created a good bit of the visual environment for generations of Australians. Arthur Boothroyd [ Popular ; Media; Search; News ]
• · When we are headed the wrong way, the last thing we need is progress - The potential of human action to do good and evil is larger than it has ever been before. We might even be able to change human nature itself Perfection Is Not A Useful Concept ; I've worked with some serious slackers over the years. People who just could not, or would not, concentrate on the job they were being paid to do How Low Could Adrian eLBow?
• · · RARELY has Somerset Maugham's description of Monaco as 'a sunny place for shady people' seemed more apt ..." Ach, like many other Australian sport stars: Bernard Tomic will make a move to the fiscal paradise of Monaco … Tax havens are an affront against our sense of justice. It is unconscionable that the European Union accepts open tax dodging within its borders. Politicians are, at best, resorting to hand wringing. The highly publicized resolution of the G20 nations in 2009 has barely scratched the surface. Fairness is the most important and most elusive quality of taxation. Tax evasion is a clear breach of solidarity … and it was solidarity that brought down the elite monoculture, Berlin Wall … Iron Curtain Tennis ace Bernard Tomic seeks shelter in luxury tax haven ; FOR Pat Rafter it was Bermuda, and for Lleyton Hewitt it was the Bahamas, but could it be the Mark Philippoussis precedent Bernard Tomic is choosing to follow, along with his big cheque? Not by remaking the Poo's reality show, The Age of Love (there's some magic that can't be recreated), but by setting up camp in the tax haven of Monaco Slice of (tax) Haven
• · · · Chances are if you were born in the city you're not going to handle bad vibes as well as someone who hails from the country, according to a recent study. Get Outta Town; Liu has made an art form of disappearing by painting himself from head to toe so that he blends into his surroundings Hiding in the City
• · · · · The Prime Minister has today committed to publishing key data on the National Health Service, schools, criminal courts and transport. This represents the most ambitious open data agenda of any government anywhere in the world ; Search Glory of Media Dragon: the isveryimportant attribute Alexa the God of Search
• · · · · · We examine the international propagation of the financial crisis of 2008, and compare it with that of the crisis of 1931. MCMXXXI and MMVIII; An apology to Alastair Crook (sic) - A blog by Melanie Phillips posted on 28 January 2011 reported an allegation that Alastair Crooke, director of Conflicts Forum, had been expelled from Israel and dismissed for misconduct from Government service or the EU after threatening a journalist whose email he had unlawfully intercepted. We accept that this allegation is completely false and we apologise to Spectator makes spectacle of Mr Crooke

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We are lucky We are We. We are lucky to come across people like Dr Cope ...

Dr. Seuss has written a sweet poem called Did I ever tell you how lucky you are?

Anytime we start thinking that our job doesn’t pay us enough, our leg’s aren’t long enough, our house isn’t big enough, the town we live in isn’t exciting enough, our boss isn’t forgiving enough, our spouse isn’t rich enough…
You’re lucky you have a job, and legs, and a house. you’re lucky you have people in your life that care about you and want to see you succeed. you’re lucky you have free will; and the ability to mold your life the way you want it to be. you’re lucky you have people to encourage, friends and family to love, and a life to lead.

You’re lucky You’re You.
Acknowledging the things you’d like to address or fix in your life is healthy. changing the things you have the ability to change is even healthier.
but complaining or wishing for things which are completely out of your control,
is just plain silly.
You’re lucky You’re You.

As the friendliest and considerate President in my time in NSW Parliament, Johno Johnson, noted: In 1991 Dr Russell Cope, the Parliamentary Librarian, concluded 40 years of meritorious service Dr Cope is one of those living treasures that few institutions have ... Happy Birthday, Dr Cope



The Wisdom of Dr Cope, June and my parents is reflected in the story about Robert Redford who turns 75 next month. The all had the wisdom and courage to handle the truth! He still directs, only occasionally performs and remains, as always, protective of his private persona. One of the slogans I remember when I was a kid was, 'It doesn't matter how you win or lose it's how you play the game'," he says. And I realised over time that that was a lie and that in this country everything was about winning. That's when I was able to make my own films and concentrate on the subject of winning and how that affected human beings." In Surratt's instance, the effect was a seemingly unjust death after a trial in which her guilt or innocence was not truly tested. Redford points to Stanton's contravention of the US Constitution as his win, achieving what he thought would save the union at a fragile moment in its formative years.
"The fact that the rule of law was the only thing we had to hold this country in place morally I found an interesting story," Redford says. "This was an example of how the Constitution was rearranged to satisfy political interests at that time." The contemporary parallels are obvious but Redford invokes them anyway, pointing to the "constant threats" to the US Constitution through some "pretty big events in American history that were threats to the moral standing of our country", including McCarthyism, the John F. Kennedy assassination, Watergate and the Iran-Contra affair.
You have these patterns that have repeated themselves over time. And it's usually the same people, the same mentality, the same personalities that threaten that. . I find that interesting because I suspect that if we as Americans had a better value of history we wouldn't be repeating these things but I think we have a short-term memory.

Dodd-Frank - What If the Federal Reserve Can't Pull Any More Tricks From Its Sleeves? The Financial Printer Diaries: Tales of an Era Gone By - Part 1
A few months ago, I blogged a "Farewell to Bowne" and posted a poll about "your favorite financial printer moment." In response to the poll, 69% responded that free food was their favorite (no surprise!); 41% said tedious arguments over commas and periods; 19% said brushing up on proofing; 5% said good facetime with partners and 10% said sleeping in the bathroom.

In addition, I received many emails with specific memories, some of which are repeated below - please keep them coming and I will only blog them if you give me permission:
- My favorite memory is an experience done a hundred times melded into one memory: the clearing of the blue line, just before printing the final prospectus (you know, when nobody is left at the printer other than a couple of lawyers and accountants with sometimes a guest appearance by the junior analyst from the investment bank to make sure their name is spelled correctly on the cover of the 424). Ah, peace.
- My favorite story involves the hubris of a first-year associate from a large, very prestigious firm that shall go unnamed, in the early-ish days of constant cell phone use. This was about a decade ago, in mid-2000 or so, and it was dinnertime after the deal ended and I was having a brief meal before heading home, and he was having a few beers with a colleague before heading out, and we overheard him calling the front desk on his cellphone from the lunchroom and attempting to order a car, and totally confounding the front desk since he wasn't walking a few doors down to ask for the car or calling on the printer's phone, but using his cell phone. And he was a little tipsy. In the end, it devolved down to a "do you know who I am" moment on his part, after which he stated very loudly "I am a ____ associate", as if it was time for whoever was on the other line at the front desk to bow down to him and call that car - fast. That was an iconic moment, a classic "I don't want to be that entitled person" story.
- I spent many long hours at Bowne of Dallas, which had nice cushy chairs, a huge projection TV and free Pac Man and Ms Pac Man game tables (now that gives you the timeframe). Good BBQ for meals, too.
- I sure have a lot of good memories of lawyers, accountants and bankers working nights shoulder-to-shoulder at the printers in the '70's and 80's. In Cleveland, our printer was originally known as The Judson Brooks Company, which was later acquired by Bowne. We all knew some of the owners and most of the staff like family. They had a couple of cots separated by curtains in the back where you could catch a few hours' shut-eye before leaving for the dawn flight to DC with the SEC filing package. We did the red-lining on the plane. Many the nights I called my wife to let her know I would be working late and spending the night at "The Judson Hilton."
- Going to the printer was one on the best things about being a securities lawyer. Unlike everyone else in the world, financial printers loved lawyers and would do most anything to make them happy. I love you.

• Going to the printer was one on the best things about being a securities lawyer ; A Dearth of Whistleblower Complaints? ;
Link to WSJ List of Top 50 U.S. Banks: KeyCorp's CEO Beth Mooney; Worldwide financial meltdown or note women rule KeyCorp's CEO Beth Mooney ;
The Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act was signed into law one year ago today. Many significant provisions become effective today. Many more aspects of the law remain to be implemented through regulation. Happy Birthday, Dodd-Frank!
• • The Federal Register version of the final regulation identifies comments -- both pro and con -- which have been received by the OCC in response to the proposed regulation issued May 25, 2011.
Key points:
* The preemption shield has been eliminated for operating subsidiaries of national banks as well as op subs of federal savings associations.
* Federal thrifts can no longer avail themselves of "field preemption." Their preemption standard is the same as that for national banks.
* The OCC removed language from its 2004 regulations which differed from that articulated in the Dodd-Frank Act and in the Barnett Bank of Marion County , N.A. v. Nelson case (rejected language called for preemption of state laws that "obstruct, impair, or condition a national bank's powers) and substituted the language from Dodd-Frank and Barnett: calling for federal preemption of any state law that "prevents or significantly interferes with the exercise by the national bank of its powers."
* The OCC still contends that, although it is changing the language of its regulation, it did not need to repeal the 2004 regulations that were essentially "gutted" by Dodd Frank. The OCC opines that all the prior preemption determinations remain in effect because the Dodd-Frank standard is not limited to the "prevents or significantly interferes" standard, but rather encompasses all the reasoning of the Barnett case and the OCC's interpretation of that case, which OCC says remains unchanged. This is sure to provoke controversy.
* The OCC also contends that the existing categories of state laws that are preempted remain valid because they represent the OCC's review of the impact of each law. The OCC says that the Dodd-Frank requirement for "case-by-case" preemption determinations will only affect future preemption determinations.
* The final regulation revises the OCC's 2004 visitorial powers rule to conform to the U.S. Supreme Court opinion in Cuomo v. Clearing House Association, L.L.C. The new OCC regulations follow the Dodd-Frank provisions that make it clear that a state attorney general may bring an action against a national bank in a court of appropriate jurisdiction to enforce applicable laws. ; Several people asked what I thought about humor in legal writing, a topic I touch on in my Academic Legal Writing book. Here’s my thinking on the subject:
Humor can be valuable: It can keep the reader interested, put the reader in a good mood, and make the reader feel something of a psychological link to the author. Humor in article titles can also help the article be more eye-catching and more memorable. I still remember an article title I saw in the early 1990s, “One Hundred Years of Privacy”; this both communicated the article’s essence (a look back on the privacy tort a century after Warren and Brandeis first proposed it), and humorously alluded to the novel “One Hundred Years of Solitude.” Humor in Legal Writing
• • • The "ostrich defense," "idiot defense," or "Sergeant Schultz (I know nothing, I see nothing, I hear nothing) defense" is being asserted again -- this time by Rupert Murdoch in his testimony before the U.K. Parliament's Culture, Media, and Sport Committee yesterday. The "ostrich defense," "idiot defense ; Norwegian Terror Suspect Arrested Motives May Be Nationalist and Anti-Islamic
• • • Mary Lou Byrne is the project coordinator of Mosman Library's new interactive, online visual history project, Mosman Faces. The project will be launched next week as part of Library and Information Week Big day for book lovers at library ; Digital Librarians

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Sticks and stones may break your bones, but reading Murdoch’s apology will never hurt you

Murdoch apologizes

Ruper Murdoch is about to sell The Times' (No, he isn't) Dynasties - Murdoch;

The Salt of Media Life RIP News of the World: Adelaide -October 1843 – Global Cities - July 2011
Rupert Murdoch's News International empire in London is in crisis. The story, originally broken earlier this week by Vanity Fair, had the added benefit of steering the focus towards Mr Coulson who resigned as NOTW editor in 2007 when his royal reporter and a private investigator were jailed for phone hacking: he was rehabilitated last year by Mr Cameron as the prime ministerial communications director; Mr Coulson resigned early this year as new claims were made. Andy Coulson, the former aide to the Prime Minister, was editor of the News of the World when the newspaper paid police for information..."

Having been jailed in 2007 for hacking phones on behalf of the News of the World, Glenn Mulcaire this week pleaded for understanding. “I knew what we did pushed the limits ethically,” the private investigator told The Guardian. “But, at the time, I didn’t understand that I had broken the law at all.” Revelation piles pressure on Murdoch executive whilst advertisers boycott News of the World as scandal grows.
The focal point is the News of the World — now facing a spreading advertising boycott — and the top executives of its parent companies: Rebekah Brooks, chief executive of News International, and her boss, media potentate Rupert Murdoch

• Gotcha! The News of the World bites the dust. ; Fox News won't touch Murdoch story with a "ten foot turban Durbin [ RIP ; Rupert Murdoch-approved "journalism. 7 -7; ABC of Kremlinology ]
• · Crisis deepens at News of the World as police begin to review all high-profile child murder cases ; The day the prime minister was forced to act on phone hacking In media scandal, British debating how far is too far
• · · Tabloid 'hacked families of war dead' -The families of British soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan could have had their phones hacked by an investigator working for Rupert Murdoch's News of the World tabloid, according to reports this morning. Report: Rupert Murdoch's UK paper hacked into London 7/7 bombing victim's phones ; Glenn Mulcaire, a private investigator employed by the paper, in the days following the 2005 London bombings will heap further pressure on the title's owner, News International
• · · · Kremlinology with Rupert Murdoch: what do the Times paywall numbers mean? News Corp Kremlinology ; Back in 1995 Fry and Laurie parodied It's A Wonderful Life to show us what a world without Rupert Murdoch might be like. ..... The World without Murdoch as seen in 1995 - Boing Boing
• · · · · It’s hard to look at the news photos of Rupert Murdoch this week. Where once was a titan filled with jouissance now there is an unsteady old man reeling from a week of up-ending headlines and revelations. Even though the collapse only began a week ago, it seems like we can hardly remember the globe-girdling empire builder. Who Stripped Rupert Murdoch of Power? Social Media ; Like a getaway bandit trying to lighten his load, Rupert Murdoch keeps making frantic sacrifices in hopes of containing the phone-hacking scandal that’s now consuming his News Corp media empire.
• · · · · · According to a report by ProPublica and the Guardian, key members of the family that controlled The Wall Street Journal now say they would not have agreed to sell the paper to Rupert Murdoch if they’d known about the phone-hacking underway at the time at News Corp’s News of the World. “If I had known what I know now, I would have pushed harder against” the Murdoch bid, said Christopher Bancroft, a member of the family that controlled Dow Jones & Company publishers of the WSJ ; As the metastasizing phone-hacking scandal engulfs the senior-most reaches of News Corp., the Murdoch family, and the British government, a winner may yet emerge from the corporate wreckage: Roger Ailes In the Murdoch Hacking Scandal, Roger Ailes Stands to Gain