The Ant Rant

A new home and a new home...

2008-01-15T12:16:00.000Z

Well it has been a long time hasn't it?

After such a hiatus and such a twisty year, not only am I in a new home, it's time for a new blog home. So please jump over to ant.webwontok.com and I'll have all this old stuff and something new soon.

Cheers from Honiara.

Lao Tzu says...

2007-02-23T14:13:00.000Z

An ant on the move does more than a dozing ox.

Seemed relevant. And I like;

Born to be wild - live to outgrow it.

Perhaps this sums things up at the moment?

A good traveler has no fixed plans, and is not intent on arriving.
Lao Tzu

2007...

2007-02-10T05:28:00.000Z

Hello!

Christmas in Honiara, from Late 06 - Ear...

Welkam to 2007! Most of you were probably already there but some things happen slow here in the Sols...

Maree came back with me after my half way break. We had a manic road trip from Sydney (where we spent out time buying video cameras....), up to Blackwater (central Queensland) and then back to Brissie. 3000km is not the most relaxing way to spend two weeks, but it was ok and great to see the rels.

With my niece Esther, Late 06 - Ear...

Maree in Blackwater Late 06 - Ear...

Back in Honiara, we got on with improving our pijin, Maree learned an island dance (you've got to see the video below) and I worked. At work I got all obsessed with fixing (?breaking?) the computer network and building an intranet site (in Joomla!) for the hospital.

From Late 06 - Ear...

Maree's friend Late 06 - Ear...

Xmas long Solomons Late 06 - Ear...

In the line of duty Late 06 - Ear...

Time has flown and it is sadly time to leave the Sols. We have made stakka stakka friends here and it will be sad to not see them for a while. Happily Aspen has sorted out my year which will be approximately as follows:
Feb 19 back to Australia
Early April - East Timor to work in Dili for 3 months
Then back to Oz before returning to the Solomons in August for 6 months (if RAMSI don't get kicked out altogether...)

You can keep track of all of this on this calendar... "What country is Ant in?"

Honiara Late 06 - Ear...

Tomorrow Maree and I are off on an adventure with out friend Willy.

Willy Late 06 - Ear...

Willy is a wood carver who happens to have one arm. He is from Morovo Lagoon. We set sail at 7am to travel there and stay a few days in his village. Then we should be back to Brisbane on the 19th. Wish us luck!

Coffee vs Procrastination

2006-12-29T07:04:00.000Z

I have often used coffee to kick-start myself...
And I learned about the 'high-bridge' experiment at uni.

Now someone has put 2 and 2 together and gotten:

"How to get started on anything."

I love it, a 'trick played upon a trick.'

Useful Geek stuff... really.

2006-12-29T06:07:00.000Z

So while a newsy post is way overdue (and coming, honest!) here's the latest in Ant's geek bag of tricks;

The other day internet browsing from work was shaky - google.com wouldn't work but google.com.sb would... Now I am pretty sure that Google's servers have a high uptime, so this makes me suspect the domain name server belonging to the ISP - Solomon Telekom.

Then today I chanced across a more reliable solution - openDNS. Nothing to download, just change a couple of numbers in the network settings and bingo, better browsing.

Wanna 'backup' DVDs? - try the following:

Combines a few free programs so you can rip, shrink(if necessary) and burn DVD's.
Or try this solution from Lifehacker.

Skype is great, but.... it has become almost unusuable here in the Solomon Islands. Internet is a scarce resource due to high latency (satelite connections only out the country) and generally poor infrastructure. But whenever I compare it to Google Talk, GT wins hands down.

Google talk is better because:

Lower latency ie no six-second delay.
Has level meters in the interface so you can see your mic and speaker levels. This removes my worst Skype error - the one where the mic isn't fully plugged in.
Cool voicemail. If the receiver isn't there, they receive an MP3 of your voicemail in their Gmail account.
It integrates with chat in gmail.

Skype is better because;

It has computer-to-landline ability. This is still to come in GT - in 2007.
It has video. But I don't use that anyway.

So try it out by downloading here.

Trubl tumas blong Honiara.

2006-10-28T06:41:00.000Z

And since our last update...
(Click on pix for full size...)

Interesting times in Honiara.

It was all going nicely. The best way to accidentally find time for a beach swim is to be on a helicopter run to an outpost in a tropical idyl....

Work ticking over nicely. Enough patients to keep us from complete boredom. A really good team of people. The odd party, the odd pleasant restaurant meal.

Then the political temperature headed north like the fever of our malaria patients.

The history of recent politics in the Solomons is long and complicated. Unfortunately, due to a variety of often hidden reasons, the relationship between the Solomon Islands government and Australia deteriorated drastically, also raising tensions between the opposition and government.

Then a month ago, the opposition raised a motion of no-confidence in the government. Fearing a repeat of riots in April which destroyed a large section of the capital, the RAMSI police and army mounted a large operation to ensure any unrest was nipped in the bud quickly. We established first-response teams to wait at the parliament, just in case... Here’s me and the boys guarding the building...

The motion was well defeated, but the level of unrest rose. Gang violence, some targetted at foreigners resulted in out staff now being on movement restrictions and curfew. This limits the dining-out possibilities just a bit! While the overwhelming majority of the population seems to support the stability RAMSI has bought, Prime-minister Sogavare continues to threaten to expel the Australian contingent, which makes up the bulk of the 700-personnel contingent.

Where to now? For the Solomons, I’m not sure and nor is anyone else. A very interesting description was in the Sydney Morning Herald here. I really hope things cool down and this wonderful country can keep improving the lives of its wonderful people.

But for me, come Tuesday I am flying to Aus for a two week break where at last I get to see my beautiful Maree again! We’ll meet in Sydney and have an ipod-fuelled road trip to visit all the family in Sydney, Newcastle, Ballina, Brisbane and especially my new niece in Blackwater.

Then we’ll come back to the Hapi Isles for another three months, which will be even better with Maree here.

2006-08-30T06:44:00.000Z

Welkam to Honiara!

One month in and time for an update.

[Click on any photos for a bigger version :) ]

As you know, I’m working here for Aspen Medical, a subcontractor providing medical services to RAMSI.

Work is going well. The operation seems to be running more smoothly than twelve months ago and the current crew is great. We have nurses, paramedics, dental, radiographer, various support staff. Oh and some doctors. It is all set up to handle everything from a soldier with a sore tooth to a mass casualty event requring helicopter retrieval, surgery and medical repatriation. We now have a new manager who is very shy and retiring. OK that was obviously wrong – gday Mark (aka Captain Darling).

The millieu at the base is a bit different with the addition of a lot of soldiers who have big guns glued to their sides. These poor guys and girls appear very young and make me feel very old. You have to be young maybe to live in a tent in this weather.

Honiara has not changed that much in a year, except for the desolation of Chinatown and the casino in April’s riots. Both these locations are still bare, awaiting decisions on redevelopment.

Chinatown now

Lost the gamble - casino after the riots

Honiara by night

They have also had their second new prime minister in a year. The political situation is difficult to grasp. Their seems a general disatisfaction with leadership but systemic change creaks slowly. The fear is that disatisfaction will build and erupt violently again, as in April, but from my limited perspective things seem fairly stable at the moment.

And my perspective is limited. I have been trying to learn pijin, but progress is slow! It is such a fun language. My best phrase currently is Mi no save enisamting – I don’t know anything.

We mostly stay at the good old King Solomon Hotel. It’s pretty good (the locals call it the palace).

Currently however I’m temporarily at one of two houses rented by Aspen – originally titled the Pink House. I have renamed the I.N.K.P. HQ in the hopes of keeping some cred. It is pretty funny, reminding me of a transformer toy – we just keep waiting for the roof to lift off and the thing to emit lasers.

We have free-standing deck and an adjacent leaf-haus.

INK-P HQ

The Deck

Old Mate - Our Guard

And it’s all cyclone fenced with security guards. Very bizarre, but great for a party! We even chip in for a cleaner who makes the place spookily clean – even irons the undies! I’ll only be here for a nother couple of weeks though.

What else is new? The currency has devalued a little, so settling up at dinner is more colourful.

Sol-brew, the local lager, now comes in cans instead of bottles.

The traffic is getting worse.

The Taiwan vs China debate is always in the paper. (Solomon Islands is one of few countries that give diplomatic recognition to ROC; the PROC would like to change that).

The Honiara Hotel has a nice new pool to visit.

Another big change – I was only supposed to be here for 10 weeks, but I’ll now be here until February!! We were really hoping to visit Rami for a white christmas, but instead Maree will join me in November and we’ll be having a white-hot christmas instead. We’ll then go travelling and see where the year takes us. It’ll be my 35th so I would like it to be an interesting one! Poor Maree is stuck currently in London packing up our flat while working – to those who are helping her out:

Tanggio tumas fo eversamting iufala duim fo mifala.

Looking out to Savo - the dormant volcano.

So please come and visit... You might just love this place as much as I do.

Just a thought...

2006-08-11T10:47:00.000Z

	No anger inside means no enemy outside.
–Lama Zopa Rinpoche

What can happen in a month?

2006-08-03T23:12:00.000Z

Oh not much.

Sit in the front row at Wimbledon and be on the telly!

Visit Prague

And Barcelona

And fly across the world

Catch up with family

Then jet back to tropical Honiara.

What the...?

The chance to work in the Solomons came up again and was too good to turn down. So currently I am here until early Ocotber but sadly I am here by myself. Maree is currently working on a TV production in London and Newcastle, so painfully we are apart for a too-long period. Parting in the romantic surrounds of Heathrow Terminal 3 is not an ordeal I recommend to anyone. It was tempered though by the unexpected joy arising of knowing how much you love and are loved by someone. It was like the atmosphere on a mountain, where the altitude and atomsphere make for a vivid perspective and breathing difficulty!

Wimbledon
Maree took me to Wimbledon and I got hooked, even returning two days later. We got up at four thirty and trekked to Wimbledon. There you join the most organised queue you've ever seen, complete with stewards, catering and a printed “Guide to Queueing.” Its all very civilised, and Wimbledon is the most civilised sporting event I can imagine (except polo – but that's probably not my scene...).

I was a nice surprise on the second visit to score front row seats to watch Sharapova v Pennetta. A super match that let us wave to you all via the television camera that was admittedly trained on Sharapova right in front of us. And in the afternoon – how impressive to see Navratalova getting round the court in the open ladies doubles, totally revising my expectations of what we should all be doing at age 49!

Travel
With the Solomons calling we decided to squeeze in some travel; so first off to Prague.

Prague was amazing. Thanks to hotel mismangement, we managed to use three different rooms (in two hotels) in three nights. But what a magical city. It felt like a dramatic saint peered at you from every roof. The Charles Bridge is like an open air scultpure gallery and we certainly rubbed the statue that will apparently ensure we return to Prague.

Then we flew to Barcelona and met up with the wonderful Lan and Lewis for three days in the sun.

Getting aquainted with the work of architect Gaudi was seriously inspirational, and the Barcelonans sure know how to conduct a beach.

Solomons
So here I am again! Arrived in Honiara on Saturday afternoon. Humid but temps are currently relatively cool. Back to the old King Solomon hotel which has had a bit of a spruce up in parts so is looking pretty nice. My room is fantastic – balcony and a real mattress! And the staff are friendly as always.

Honiara looks relatively the same as a year ago, with the exception of Chinatown which has been relatively flattened. Only a few shops there remain standing, There seem to be a surprising number of new shops scattered around town. Plus there is a new ATM!

The hospital I work in supports the personal for RAMSI. The only changes in the hospital seem to be improvements, so that's good. There are a few familiar faces in the team. Only negatives are that I can't plug my laptop in at work now, though we still have a computer with Skype we can use there. Might be getting to know the internet cafes well!

Did the earth move for you too?

And just to trouble the worriers amongst you, I felt my first ever earth tremor the other night! All that happened was the sensation of the bed rocking a bit. I stuck my head out the door and no one else seemed worried, so I wasn't able to be sure it had even been one until the next morning. I must say it was a humourous feeling!

Just in case anyone wants to visit, I hear dolphin island is still operational! And here is some tempting food:

Chilli Mud Crab

Is eBay selling dead people?

2006-07-07T08:42:00.000Z

To understand this:

and this

You better read this

I was a bit worried about this:

Ich liebe Schweiz!

2006-06-26T14:13:00.000Z

We've just enjoyed a lovely weekend in Switzerland.

(Just click on any photo to see it full size or click on the slideshow link at the bottom of the page.)

Thanks to winning flights from the nice people at London City Airport, we were able to catch the DLR straight to the terminal and fly off. (Best bit is they only require check-in half an hour before takeoff - very good when your partner is running late!!)

Flying over the chanel I was amazed how narrow it is.

And so to Switerzerland, also known as Confoederatio Helvetica, and so the abbreviation CH.

At least, that's what they say, I believe the brchure which says it stands for CHocolate, CHeese and CHarm.

We started in the old town of Zurich whith a Swiss meal of cheese fondue and raclette. I've never eaten so much cheese, let alone survived. It has a digestively intimidating experience. But lovely!

After our meal, Zurich came alive as Switzerland had just qualified to move to the next round of the world cup. Let's just say people were a little excited.

Retreating to the hotel room to shelter from cheering and cheese, we were stoked to dicover Perfect Match still showing on a German speaking chanel.

Yes, the centre contestant is wearing lederhosen. No, I don't know why.

After a lovely breakfast that did indeed include some cheese, we explored Zurich, wandering down to the lake, which Maree investigated from beside, upon and under.

Click on the pictures to see full size.

We also visited Sprungli, the famous chocolate shop. Luckily, my levels of vitamin CH were still quite high and I couldn't manage much chocolate.

The waters of Zurich (and most of the rivers we saw) were clean and a fantastic colour. Even Zurich tap water tasted good.

Hilariously enough, I was suddenly asked if I was a nurse from Brisbane... It was a friend of a doctor I worked with at home - so it was nice to bump into Dr Darren again, currenly researching something in Munich. Small world.

Soon it was time to take a train through very scenic landscapes to Lugano in the South. Stunning scenery, clear waters, and a quick change from German to Italian.

I really liked the Swiss, who seem relaxed and very polite. Two women in our carriage placed plastic on the opposite seats so they could rest their feet on them.

Of course almost everyone spoke English in addition to their own languages. We felt quite shamed of our linguistic ability by the end.

Lugano

Descending the hill from the stazione at Lugano, you immediately appreciate the mediterranean feel. Not that I've ever been there either. We had a really comfortable hotel (padded walls!), and with the temperature in the thirties, the air-con was welcome. A while after we wandered through the piazzas and sought out an Italian dinner. This turned out to be typically Italian in some of the less celebrated ways.

But if our holidays revolve around food, breakfast was a new high. You won't believe it, but there was lots of cheese. And cold meats, pastries, etc etc but astoundingly enough, cups of melted chocolate. Not chocolate milk, just straight chocolate, with bowls of Swiss choc to dip in it... Yet we survived.

It was best we repent of our gluttony, so we visited an historic church featuring a fresco by a student of da Vinci.

And what to do then but swim? The lido was packed with sunbathers basking in 35 degrees.

Our train journey home took us again through the scenic Swiss countryside, and soon enough we were back in London, which was a little less grumpy than normal having also just won a World Cup match.

Next time I'm in Switzerland I'll visit the countryside and ski in the mountains, but until then... I'll eat more cheese.

View our Switzerland album (more photos than above) here. Or watch the slideshow here.

Sangria in the Park

2006-06-23T12:01:00.000Z

A lovely day drinking sangria in Battersea Park with friends.

All the photos are here. Thanks for coming everyone!

Mum and Dad's big adventure

2006-06-13T11:52:00.000Z

After Mum and Dad visited us in February they slipped in a quick cruise to Antarctica. Yep. My parents are suddenly adventure-eco tourists!

A DVD of amazing photos arrived this week so I thought I'd throw some on the new onetruemedia website and make a little film.

Hope you like it!

Science Museum

2006-06-13T09:43:00.000Z

I discovered where computer design has gone wrong at the science museum the other day.

Computers no longer have coloured panelling and vinyl chairs built in. Not like the Cray supercomputer:

No wire in this beast was more than four feet long. Here's a pic of the wires...

Also at the science museum, I saw this great pic of an early 80's intensive care unit. (Bart's I think).

Aside from the fantastic hat, I liked seeing the ventilator. Versions of this Siemens Servo are in use in London (First time I used one I wasn't sure where the pedals were). If you want one for $US1750 you can get one here though ebay have a simpler version for $7.22 here.

Fussboll

2006-06-13T08:34:00.000Z

Yes, there's a big football tournament on at the mo...

So as I was cancelled (again) at 06:30, Maree suggested I attend. Sarah and I dragged ourselves to the Walkabout, a chain af Oztrayan pubs which I had so far managed to avoid.

Here's a stitched photo of the pub:

I was predicting nil all for Australia v Japan. It was hard to see the screen properly, but the noise of the crowd let us know that Japan had scored. Bugger.

Eventually though Australia wreaked a savage revenge, 3-1 becoming the first nation ever to score three goals in the last seven minutes of a world cup match! Now isn't that a useless statistic?

And to celebrate sunny old London hits 30 degrees! There was nothing for it but to sit at home and listen to the crazy Italians go across the road go mental as Italia scored against Ghana.

England lacks toads

2006-06-12T10:59:00.000Z

But at least I can watch this great short film!

Nice animation guys! Full film info is here.

Thanks for the link Sarah!

Ant world cup

2006-06-07T11:34:00.000Z

You need to know that someone has found the time to convince ants to play football by using the effect of different foods on ant phermones to provoke 'team' bahviour. Full story here.

Who should America invade next?

2006-06-01T10:29:00.000Z

Ok I know many of you have seen this, but here it is again, from the crazy team at CNNNN.

And it that wasn't scary enough, try this.

Tax-eeee!

2006-05-31T14:09:00.000Z

I'm just finishing applying for a tax refund. The UK system is vastly different to Australia.

In case you didn't know, the UK tax year starts on April 6. Why?

The reason for the tax year running from 6 April to 5 April is primarily historical and has its origin in the switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar in 1752.
It had been calculated in the 16th Century that the Julian calendar had lost 9 days since its introduction in 46 BC. Most of Europe changed to the new, more accurate, Gregorian calendar in 1582, but this country continued with the old one until September 1752 by which time the error had increased to 11 days.

These 11 days were 'caught up' by being removed from the calendar altogether - 2 September was followed by 14 September. In order not to lose 11 days' tax revenue in that tax year, though, the authorities decided to tack the missing days on at the end, which meant moving the beginning of the tax year from the 25 March, Lady Day, (which since the Middle Ages has been regarded as the beginning of the legal year) to 6 April.

The dates were adopted for income tax on its re-imposition in 1842 and have not changed since. (Her Maj's Revenue & Customs)

Glad that's cleared up then.

Homeopathic humble pie

2006-05-30T18:51:00.000Z

I admit to subscribing to the 'evidence-based' view of medicine; treatment should be based on evidence from trials rather than what 'should' or 'might' work. And I have certainly spewed forth the odd rant on the merits of some alternative therapies. But the recent statements on alternative therapies from senoir NHS doctors on one side and Prince Charles on the other has produced some reading which is enough to make me calm down a bit.

For example, from one of my favourite rationalist sceptics:

We will have backache. We will get colds. We will be shy, and sad. And that is where homeopathy is valuable: often medicine can do little for these problems, which have become the focus of our health worries; and where medicine can do nothing, it should step aside. We may be tempted to offer drugs, as placebos at least, but drugs have side effects, and sometimes they're not worth it.
During the cholera outbreak of 1854, the London Homeopathic hospital had a death rate of 13%, rather better than the Middlesex hospital's death rate of 53%. Neither medicine nor homeopathy could do anything to treat cholera then, but medicine's attempts - bloodletting, for example - had dangerous side effects, and it's the same bargain today.
If you're treating the untreatable, if the NHS is there to serve up WHO's definition of immaculate well-being, then that's like trying to cure cholera in 1854: at least with homeopathy, the side effects only affect our intellect.
Ben Goldacre

Stern stuff, but a letter to the editor did even better:

As a GP, I don't buy into the artificial distinction between "western" and "alternative" medicine: there's medicine that works and medicine that doesn't work.

In the proverbial nutshell. While I would definitely consider acupuncture, but would never let a chirpractor near my back, I will happily eat a little homeopathic humble pie. (I just don't need any drops of their potions in it.)

Free Image Hosting

2006-05-30T14:25:00.000Z

While Flickr remains the coolest way to organise images on the web, a new, free, easy and unlimited service has appeared . AllYouCanUpload is quick and simple and backed by a big player (Cnet). Best bit is no sign-up required. I'd only use it for hosting images for use in blogs etc though. eg http://aycu14.webshots.com/image/973/1371916048500201425_rs.jpg

Via Lifehacker.

GooOs?

2006-05-29T11:33:00.000Z

Will we get a Google Operating System? (I'd call it GooOs)

The announcment of Google's photo management software Picasa being ported to Linux seems a little interesting.

I find three obvious barriers to (non-geek) adoption of Linux:

Too many people need to run (at least some) Windows-only applications.
Linux is not as user friendly as Windows, the geek requirement is too much.
Linux lacks ubiquitous driver support.

Enter some Google muscle.

Their implemenation of Picasa shows that Google are playing with WINE, an open source 'compatibility layer' allowing (some) Windows programs to run in Linux without a copy of Windows being installed.
Google are the geek-meisters of clean, usable interfaces.
Some Google-weight behind Linux could give enough impetus to the inclusion of Linux drivers for more peripherals. Remember the boost USB got when Apple (another minority player) made USB the standard interface for iMac?

Well who knows? I'd love to see a workable free OS for general consumer use; interent, multimedia, office.

Maybe the Picasa port is portentious proof of Google's OS aspirations? Or maybe it's just a couple of Google engineers using their twenty-percent time in geekland. We shall see...

A London of One's Own

2006-05-28T15:27:00.000Z

London, in print...

I have read enough descriptions, both fiction and non-fiction, to know that London does not fit on the page. London sprawls, mutates, deceives; wears one garb by day and another by night; smiles when the sun shines and grimaces in the rain. The weight of history lies heavy, and in an instant is cast off. London is like a lover in whom the very qualities you love are the ones you sometimes hate. Wherever you are in London you think, "This is the place, this is what it is like", and feel the unease of knowing that you are not in the right place at all.

Trying to get the measure of London is futile.

In a beautfilly written piece in The Guardian, Monica Ali takes a stroll around London with Virginia Wolf (hope Jen is reading). Seeing London through eyes separated by seventy years, a vision of London emerges which explains why one comes here.

"When a man is tired of London, he is tired of Life." The Samuel Johnson quote was etched into my head as a child from a poster at a family friend's house. Lately I confess to feeling quite tired of London; tired is the right word.

It is invigorating then, to sleepily read an article like Ali's and become a little reinvigorated with London. And life.

(Enjoy Ali's piece here.)

Solomon Islands bans Da Vinci Code

2006-05-26T09:35:00.000Z

The Solomon Islands Prime Minister has not let recent riots, breakdown of law and order and economic calamity stop him from keeping an eye on world events.

This week he banned the film The Da Vinci Code; even though the country has no cinemas!

I confess to having not read the book and have no intention to see the film. Possibly it merits banning on the grounds of poor taste, based on critical response in Cannes.

Attempts have also been made to ban or modify the film in India, the Phillipines, South Korea, Singapore and Thailand. The National Organization for Albinism and Hypopigmentation has also expressed concern, due to the movie's villan being albino. Sixty-seven films since 1960 have featured evil albinos.

(For the Dermatology in Cinema website, go to www.skinema.com. Seriously.)

2006-05-22T09:08:00.000Z

Should I be worried?

The Google ads on sites change as the content changes. These just popped up on my blog.

Ant Control Info
Get Info on Ant Control from 14 Search Engines in 1
www.info.com/AntControl
Ant pest control
Cleaning Machinery and Equipment Order online - next day delivery
www.screwfix.com

Bovvered?

2006-05-20T11:00:00.000Z

London is of course a lexical smorgasbord (ok, I made lexical up, but wot I mean eez, peepell ere speak rite odd some time).

Catherine Tate sums it up:

You can see more of the delightful Ms Tate (who asked the Queen if one was bovvered) here.

Dig those maps

2006-05-19T08:26:00.000Z

Google maps has spread to Australia, so the world can now see Mum and Dad's house.

But I know what you really want to see is where you would end up if you started digging a hole through the centre of the earth. Double click your start point on this world map and press dig here to see where you could get to.

Don't you love it when someone else stuffs up?

2006-05-19T07:52:00.000Z

So imagine... you are a data security geek due for a job interview at the BBC. Someone calls your name and you are whisked in for your interview.... live to air?

Poor Guy Goma was mistaken for Guy Kewney editor of Newswireless.net who was supposed to be commenting on the verdict in Apple Corp vs Apple Computer.

Apparently the unflappable Mr Goma assumed the whole thing was some kind of initiation prank. His own speciality is data cleansing, and (my source inside the Beeb tells me) was "a little upset that nobody asked him about his data cleansing expertise."
Newswireless.net

The BBC explains it all here. Just for fun, this is the real Guy's photo.

Look like ants?

2006-05-11T17:15:00.000Z

They look just like ants...

A FAA Radar track sequence of a bank of FedEx aircraft getting into Memphis as thunderstorms pass over the airport.

From airline pilot central via google video

I heart the tube

2006-05-10T11:12:00.000Z

The tube is probably my favourite London thing. Donning the invisibility cloak is such fun.

So if you heart tube too, check out the Going Undergound blog.

Hard work

2006-05-10T09:22:00.000Z

So yesterday I took the step of starting a serious website. I'm still keeping the topic under my hat, but thought I would log (for my own sanity) a few of the steps involved.

First their came the inspiration and ideas, then the days of thinking it was crazy. Gradually the idea solidified and refined. Unlike theAntRant, this site is to have its own domain, host and programming. So yesterday, I registered a domain (the dot com bit), selected a host and paid up (I got a years hosting for $US37 including domain registration! Contact me if you want the discount code). Hopefully I'll move an expanded bluebluewater.com onto the same site a bit later.

The tricky bit was selecting and installing content management software on my new server somewhere in the US. After considering Wordpress, Mambo and Joomla, I went with the mighty but intimidating Drupal, using an FTP client called Filezilla. The nice thing about all these programs is that they are open source - free to use and modify, maintained by the community. If this sounds ridiculous, consider that most of the internet is run on open source software - the servers that get stuff to you so reliably are mostly running open source operating systems and programs.

So as you can tell I'm deep in the geek; and my shift has been cancelled this morning, so it seems I'll be at it for another day!

Sign o the Times

2006-05-09T15:58:00.000Z

Do you like this new church?

Make your own here

What's next

2006-05-09T12:36:00.000Z

I have spent the last nine months working as an agency nurse. For those unaware, this is basically 'gun-for-hire,' working in intensive care units all over London, usually at short notice filling gaps in their staffing. It's not as satisfying as normal nursing as you have little continuity and are only ever briefly part of a team. And the last couple of weeks, the amount of work has dropped dramatically.

So when work (and ££$$) slow to a bit of a drizzle... hot to fill in the time. That's me at the moment, so I've come up a few ideas. Starting today on a new blog that is useful to people (as opposed to self-aggrandising pictures and rants). So I am wading into web hosts, content management software (drupal, me thinks) and domain registration. All tips welcome!

Here's a question. What do you wish the web could do? Comment away.

Where to for the Solomon Islands?

2006-05-03T10:01:00.000Z

Having worked briefly in the Solomon Islands last year, we have been watching the recent deterioration there with concern.

I won't claim any special understanding, but a few thoughts have crossed my mind.

The primary problem is usually labelled corruption. Yes, there are 'corrupt' officials in SI, but to simply label it corruption is misleading. The Solomon Islands (SI) traditionally functions on a system called 'wantok' (one-talk). Resources (land, food etc) are shared with one's wantok; those who speak the same language/dialect are considered kin and included in the allocation of resources.

This wantok concept has carried over to modern life.

"... young people drift off from isolated villages to the capital, ramshackle Honiara, on Guadalcanal - only to encounter severe unemployment. There is no Social Security, no free education; the newcomers fall back on wantok who have preceded them, and who are themselves usually established only precariously in the town." (Betty Birsky)

Wantok doesn't sound very compatible with western-style parliamentary democracy and modern 'capitalist' economy- you're not supposed to give that plum public service job to your cousin. The most efficient company is supposed to get the building contract. Having said that, the wantok system seems (to me) a good and honourable way of running a village. It's just incompatible with modern western structures and ideas. These western ideas are an introduced species, brought in by missionaries (SI vilages tend to ear-marked by one denomoniation or another) and colonialism.

Within the Solomons today, a spectrum of communities exist. Some villages live (wantok style) much as they have for centuries. At the other end is the capital Honiara, a melting pot of Islanders from throughout the country's 900+ islands trying to get a share of the very limited cake.

So the incompatibilty of wantok and western lifestyle is one factor contributing to SI's troubles.
Of course other massive external factors are at work:

SI is one of the few countries that give full recognition to the sovereignty of the Taiwan (Republic of China). There is now a resultant tug-of-war between China (PROC) and Taiwan for SI's favour, with associated allegations of vote buying and offical bribery.

SI's natural resources (logging, fisheries, gold, palm oil) are developed/exploited by foreign companies. The communal ownership of many areas and lack of education areas makes negotiation of land use difficult.

Under the immense weight of 'development' and 'globalisation' the continuing presence and increasing dominance of western lifestyle seems assured. It has been variously said that democracy is a foreign flower incompatible with Pacific soils. I don't know that this is true. I suspect however that in the Solomons it will take generations to bear fruit.

For on-the-ground coverage of Solomons events, try The Solomon Star

Where's your blog??

2006-05-01T10:23:00.000Z

Since starting this blog, I'm finding out how many friends and family have blogs, so I've started a link page to them here. (It's also at left if you lose it).

So please send me your blog address to.

And if you don't have one, maybe you should follow Maree's Dad and start one.

Forget PopIdol, this is GoogleIdol

2006-05-01T09:47:00.000Z

Plugins may be required to view parts of this post

So this is why the internet was invented!

Have you seen the 'Two Chinese Students' doing fantastically hilarious lip-sync videos of Back Street Boys songs (above)? Well now comes Brisbane-based site GoogleIdol which allows you to vote for similar videos in various categories. It makes use of Google Video, the free video hosting and streaming service. It's scary how much effort some people will go to...

(And scarier that other, sadder people will include these links on their blog).

My fave so far, from some crazy Europeans...

Elementary...

2006-04-30T20:50:00.000Z

We had a nice post-birthday visit to the Sherlock Holmes Museum, at the famous detective's address in Baker Street.

I had read a few of the Holmes stories recently to get in the London mood. The 'museum' dissuades no-one from believing Holmes and Watson actually lived there. All amounts to good fun.

You can read some Sherlock online here.

PS The museum website is worth the visit just for the music that accompanies the home page.

Very Important Question

2006-04-26T15:23:00.000Z

I have a question for you? Which of these men is bald?


Bald?	Not bald?	Baldy or not?

If this question seems of the highest irrelevance (except for my head-state), you might like to listen this show (downloadable MP3 for a few more days, or read the transcript) from the Radio National series The Philospher's Zone. This sort of paradox turns out to be present in all sorts of places, not least the question of when life begins...

Oh, and you'll also hear how all this relates to the art of reversing a trailer. Enjoy.

Google fanatic

2006-04-26T10:28:00.000Z

As you may know I am something of a google fanatic - like half the wired world, right?

I do get a bit evangelistic about the many extra things google can do beyond a simple search, like find a movie time, make a map, find a journal article, convert currency and send email updates of google search items... plus the free software they offer can be pretty cool (google desktop changed Mum's life!).

So I was impressed to see someone has written a guide so you can see how this all works. Apparently it's all done with mirrors.

Paddington Bear

2006-04-24T14:07:00.000Z

Thought you might enjoy these photos of Paddington Bear. We took them as part of a birthday present for my niece Janelle. Having bought a P.B. from Paddington Station, we thought we would follow him around for a while with the camera. He didn't let us down, it was a trick to keep up with him. The rest of the photos are here.

Paddington was a hit with Janelle in Oz. "Paddington is my favouritist toy now. I used to like my big pooh bear, but now it can only be my second favouritist."

Best of all, Paddington's photo adventures didn't stop. Soon enough shots of him started coming in from Australia; Janelle and her siblings were after him with their camera too.

Flick the switch to spring

2006-04-23T12:37:00.000Z

Kensington Gardens undergoing spring's transformation

WHAMMO! Spring is here. An antipodean's first English winter is regularly punctuated by the comment that summer makes it all worthwhile and that having four seasons is preferable to one.

Well I'm not sure about that, but on leaving the house yesterday I felt I had stepped into another country. The sky was blue, I didn't need a coat, people were everywhere outdoors and (most astonishingly) enjoying themselves! Sitting on the pavement outside pubs, ambling up the street and covering any open space like spilled poppy seeds on the kitchen floor.

All seemed so much happier, as if a massive switch had been flicked to "good vibes" and we all had special permission to be nice to each other.

Die Powerpoint DIE!!

2006-04-21T12:16:00.000Z

Ever been bored to death by a powerpoint presentation?

I came across this video of a presentation made at a software conference which demonstrated just how good this type of software can be - when used with some creativity and passion.

What a year it has been…

2006-04-18T21:54:00.000Z

Well it is almost a year since we left Brisbane town, and my hopelessness at correspondence has not improved. Still, I wanted to say hi to you all, tell you what’s been going on and start communicating again.

Solomon Islands

In May ’05 we headed to the Solomon Islands. I had a short contract to nurse for a company providing medical services to RAMSI (bit like a peace-keeping/government rebuilding setup). This was an extraordinary experience.

The Solomon Islands is a country of 900 islands with a diverse mix of cultures, complicated further by the introduction of Western religions and ideas. It is something of a melting-pot with ingredients at varying stages of change; some barely distinguishable from their initial form and others apparently totally transformed.

As a result of the recent ‘tensions’ between ethnic groups, the ‘islands lost in time’ were not quite as relaxed as one might expect a tropical paradise to be. Nevertheless, during our stay it was never got worse than a very slow simmer and we certainly gained a love and appreciation of the country and its peoples.

Work was fine. A full hospital had been arranged for army, police and other RAMSI staff, contracted by Aspen Medical (now famous for taking over the Caboolture Hospital emergency department). We provided everything from dental and GP services to operating theatre and intensive care! Most of the inpatient load was gastrointestinal infection or malaria. It was a very interesting team to work with (hi to all!). A highlight was a chopper flight to another island to replenish first aid supplies.

Patching up a pikinini on a village visit

Portable ICU and Operating Theatre

"Taem for guns hem finis nao!"

Aspen were good enough to provide accommodation at the King Solomon Hotel. Yes, staying in a resort was great, even with the burden deciding each evening where to dine. The staff at the hotel where so friendly and talented – seemed like each of them could dance as well as their regular duties. Traditional dance was a regular evening offering around Honiara. Maree even took some lessons.

Dining was fun, with a bizarre selection of restaurants including French, Japanese, Korean, “Chinesse Style”, and best of all, roadside chicken!

Whilst there we were able to get away for a few days to Maravagi resort. We won’t mention my panicked attempt to sink a canoe, but the few days of sitting, walking, snorkelling and general enjoyment was great. The photo below is my favourite, taken at the pier at dusk.

The other highlight of our stay was spending a day on the controversial Dolphin Island, where we were able to swim with and generally fall in with dolphins. Sadly, I hear this place has since been shut down.

Dolphins have the softest tummies!

(a few more photos are online here)

Quick return to Brisbane
We were then to have a quick stop back in Briz, which was extended somewhat by an unexpected drive to Canberra to replace a visa which from a passport which was accidentally washed…

Travelling
Then it was time to set off again. News of the London bombings had reached us at our farewell dinner in Honiara, so with a slightly tempered outlook we set of.

We stopped over in Bangkok (much visiting of tailors) and then arrived at 4am in Jordan, and promptly learned to drive on the wrong side of the road through the amazing desert landscape you can see in the background of this blog. We visited the stunning city of Petra and then spent a couple of nights at the sumptuous Marriott Dead Sea Resort, lapping up luxury and those unsinking waters. Our final night was spent under the stars enjoying belly dancer and shisha!

Petra

No right turn?

Then on to London

I was determined to be a tourist for my first few days, and we stayed at a fantastic hotel in Bayswater, taking in the sights. We then crashed at Myles’ place for a few weeks and moved to a lounge room in Mayfair! The lack of a decent shower got the better of us though and we eventually found a one bedroom place in Notting Hill. It’s nice to have our own space and we live near the Portobello Road Markets. And I haven’t bumped into Hugh or Julia once (thank God!).

Our place

And so here we are! London has been good and bad for us. I really enjoyed getting to feel the history of the place and fell in love with the British Museum. The work and money front has been more challenging. Working in UK hospitals can be pretty frustrating and agency nursing pay went down the week I arrived. Maree has had a very tricky time finding (paid) work in her industry. This all means funds are tight and so not much travelling has been done, and that’s why we came!

We have enjoyed visits from our family and had trips to Bath, Brighton, Lakes District and Scotland. Happily summer is coming, so our spirits may come up some more! We hope to still be living here for Carnival when hundreds of thousands dance in Notting Hill streets for two days of Caribbean fun.

Takes one, take two.

2006-04-14T16:45:00.000Z

Hello

Blog. I've started one before and managed, I think, two whole entries. But I'd like to try again. A funny mix of the mundane and eratic is to follow I expect, with hopefully a few piccies thrown in for spice.

As it stands, I'm sitting in London, listening to a replay of Late Night Live from Radio National Australia via the WWW. I like the web, which is partly why I want to contribute a chunk.