Author: admin-blog

Just how could the body be improved, if we humans had actually been designed? New Scientist readers tell. And YAY for a US judge, kicking the latest ID twits back to where they came from. Great discussion here at Slashdot.

Oh, and here’s a moment of weirdness. Back in 1997, I took a trip around the world for 7 months. In San Francisco, I stumbled across Robot Wars, then new and unknown. I didn’t have the entry fee, so I volunteered to help put together the arena in exchange for entry. Helped to paint the arena black, etc. Then I got to watch the whole thing from the rafters.

There was a fantastic robot called Blendo which ripped the crap out of everything else. Instantly. It looked like an unturned wok with blades underneath, was started with an electric drill with a nut-head, and stayed upright with a built-in gyroscope. Genius. Also, too dangerous to compete. It sent flying metal across the arena to be caught by nets above the audience, and so was disqualified.

Just read on this Mythbusters question-answering-session from Slashdot that those guys made Blendo. That’s how they were found by the producer (from Beyond 2000!) who created the show. Freaky, huh?

Enjoy your Xmas and New Year, everyone!

Yes, I used to do retouching like this, but follow the link as it shows you the before/after step by step. Retouching is a dark art. Not dark because it’s especially hard, but dark because it screws people up, gives us unrealistic expectations.

None of us are perfect. We all have skin imperfections. We all have bumps where we’d rather not, or bumps that aren’t big enough, and the sooner we get over appearance and treat each other as humans, the better off we’ll be.

Everyone’s blogging. TMBG are blogging. Ricky Gervais is blogging.

Sorry I haven’t been blogging as much as I’d have liked.

On the plus side, my several jobs have meant several Xmas parties. Four in the last two days and at least three more to come. Easily the most social time of the year, I think I’ve drunk more beer in the last two days than in the last two months. Because it’s been good beer (St Arnou).

And what’s in store? Video editing over Xmas/New Year. A whole week I can’t work much, so I’m taking advantage. Planning to sit around at home with N and Bianca, my mother’s lovely cat.

Oh, if you’re short a Xmas present, please go to riananderson.com and take a quick look at my mother’s book, which I designed. It’s out and people like it, which is all I’d asked for other than breaking even. Let’s see how that goes over time.

If you’re up on Saturday morning and want to rediscover your childhood (or help a child find theirs) you could do much worse than tune in to Super Robot Monkey Team Hyper Force Go!, everything you ever wanted from a Saturday morning cartoon show. The best line in the opening credits is: “As I was exploring the outskirts of the city I discovered an abandoned super robot”. It’s called Jetix in the Channel 7 guide. Enjoy!

Oh, backtracking. Last night I ran into my high school formal partner at a cool warehouse rooftop party in West End. That’s why you go to parties in West End, isn’t it?

There’s a weird vibe around town this evening. People acting crazy, driving badly. You know. On Triple J’s Hack I hear some statistics that make me furious. So angry I feel compelled to swear repeatedly, so little kids shouldn’t read this and everyone else has been warned.

The federal government (pack of arseholes, especially that turd Vanstone) pulled an election-winning stunt last time around; they convinced 77% of Australia to turn away a boat full of refugees. They succeeded in this xenophobic exercise because:

  • They lied about the refugees throwing their babies overboard to be rescued (it didn’t happen).
  • They called (still call) the refugees “boat people”. Thank that red-haired moron for pushing that angle.
  • Australia has a healthy racist streak.

    But 77%. Jesus Fucking Christ.

    Anyway, the stats which made me see red relate to what they’ve done to turn the boat away. The arseholes set up offshore detention centres (i.e. prisons) to complement the many we’ve already got onshore. It’s how much money they’ve spent on this horrible exercise. They’ve just decided that 25 of the 36 potential refugees are actual refugees. Big surprise. It’s cost them *millions of dollars per refugee, per year* to find this out. They’re now finishing off a new refugee prison on Christmas Island that’s costing $330 million. That’s not counting running costs. With maybe just 50 potential refugees this last year, it’s hardly worth it.

    It’s simple maths. Just let them all in. Even including any more refugees who might come, we can afford to put them all on the dole for life if we can afford this bullshit. Plus we’d actually be helping people and offsetting the very low Australian birth rate that the arseholes are so concerned about.

    This is not difficult stuff. So far we’ve had racism in action, and not enough swearing.