Jewellery casting methods for Vikings

This is a very interesting article written by someone who has not only researched the possible different methods used by the Vikings to cast their jewellery, but has also had an attempt at it, which is always a good way to fid out whether your assumptions are correct and/or easy.

https://exarc.net/issue-2018-4/at/viking-jewellery-mould-making-experimental-and-reconstructive-aspects?fbclid=IwAR39L-1meBzENYaHUAmO3udOUx6T7rx_sXTulrRWLUxdMlWbjp1wnG9H8_o

I recommend having it open in two tabs, as the page displays the figures down the side, rather than in line with text, which means that you have to scroll back up and down trying to find where you left off from to look at the referred image. Having it on two tabs allows you to much easily flick back and forth to the image and text spot you were up to.

Books Read 2019

Ah that time of year again, what all my readers of 0 have been waiting for, wha books I got around to reading in 2019. Not as many as I had hoped, as I had wanted to read all of JRR Tolkien's works, and even asked my friends via FB for suggestions as to order to read them in, but never got around to doing. But at least I still read some.

Quite interestingly in the last week of the year, I heard a couple of related examples of this sort of thing: on the radio I heard about a study conducted by people at a local university, who were looking at social media and photography. They took a bunch of people to one of the zoos that you can stay at, they could tell their family and friends where they were going, could take photos, but could not use social media for the time they were there which was a huge overnight stay. And the result was that they took less photos, and spent less time when taking photos.
    The same day, when getting home, I read a friend's post about how she found that tracking her reading through using an online app made it more likely for her to increase her reading (though she also found she hadn't read as much as she wanted).
      I found these two similar stories interesting as it really does show the increasing use of and combination (assimilation?) of stuff into the one place/implement. My friend is younger than I am and very much a telecommunication implement user, whereas I use my phone pretty much mainly as a phone, despite now having a smart one. Although I will admit that I have seen plety of people my age and older, using their phones in a likewise manner to her. She does however take public transport for work travel, whereas I, now driving to and from work, am reading less. I'll also admit that I read far less at home than I used to when I was younger, having become addicted to the computer and social media.

So onto the list, re-reads with asterisks:

1. The Fall of Gondolin - JRR Tolkien (?/12/18 -19/1/19)
2. Instruction Pour Dancer: An Annonymous Manuscript - Editors Angene Feves, Ann Lizbeth     Langston, Uwe W Schottermüller and Eugene Roucher (22-27/1)
3. Vespasian Tribune of Rome - Robert Fabbri (17-28/2)
4. Rebels and Traitors* - Lindsey Davis (25/3 - 23/7)
5. Pandora's Boy - Lindsey Davis (?/5 - 16/6)
6. Hogfather* - Terry Pratchett (25-26/12)
7. A Capitol Murder - Lindsey Davis (28/12 - 4/1/20)

                
Whilst not as many as in previous years, and not as many as I had hoped, more than I thought I had read (definitely helped by the unexpected reading of the TP book) and way more than last year (2018 that is). Book four took so long as I was reading it only at work during lunch breaks once I realised I had already read it.

Writing this prompts me to advertise Deadly Science - a very cool organisation which is sending science books and early reading material to remote schools in Australia, and whose organiser has been nominated for Young Australian of the Year, along with winning the state level. Will keep fingers crossed for him.

Will be interesting to see what 2020 is like reading wise. Not only did the idea of reading Tolkien's other works come into my head (for obvious reasons given the first book), but also through watching the TV renditions of works, was struck by the idea to read the original Poldark books, along with Vanity Fair and one other series, though I'm not sure if I'm imagining this other one or not. Looking back on previous read book posts to check formatting, I see that I had also wanted to read the James Bond novels and Moby Dick a year or so ago. Rather ironically, I arrived back from work  slightly early for a Christmas party being held at my physio's and decided to walk down to the local library ro borrow a book, only to find that I had missed it by about 12 days, and it was now closed for at least six months due to renovations. On the poster saying where the closest things it provided were, it did give two close libraries in other councils, though I feel that this may be more for use of internet & computers than for book borrowing, as it didn't give any specifics on that, in comparision to the local pool, which when it closed for rebuilding, gave you the option to use your paid for entrances at another pool run by the council, though in a different suburb or to keep it for the pool re-opened. So will be interesting to see if my council has reached agreement with the other two to give us free access, or whether we'll need to pay for membership.

Read well and lots.

Books Read 2018

So here it is, pretty much the only post I do, my books read. So, so few this year.

1. Jonathan Unleashed - Meg Rosoff
    12-20/6

2. The Fall of Gondolin - JRR Tolkien
     15/12 - 19/1/2019


    Wow, actually. I could have sworn I'd read more than one (as still reading the other) book this year, but that's all I had written down.
     Looks like I've been rather slack this year. Especially as I've been given a couple of books that I still haven't read, and book no. 1 I actually bought last Christmas. I will admit that this is partly due to the fact that I no longer catch a train to/from work, but now drive myself, so don't have the opportunity. However I will admit that the rest of it is due to the fact that I get stuck in FBland. So much for my hope/decision from last year to pay more visits to the library this year.
       Better luck for 2019?

Books read 2017

The list this year is pretty small, and the first time I've ever had more than one unfinished/given up on novel. Most of this was read on the train to and from work. Re-reads with asterisks

 1.  Uprooted (1-5/1)
      Naomi Novik
 2. The Graveyard of the Hesperides (5-10/1)
     Lindsay Davis
 3. Bhagavad Gita, As it is (9/? - unfinished)
     His Divine Grace A.C Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada 
I gave up on this one, because a lot of the introduction kept getting interrupted with bits from the author, and I kept nodding off on the train ride.
 4. Turtle Recall: The Discworld Companion... so far (?/5 - unfinished)*
     Terry Pratchett & Stephen Briggs 
I never finished this one as I left it behind on the railway station late at night after finishing work, and it wasn't handed in.
 5. Good Omens(17/8 - 5/9)*
     Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman 
I read this one on the announcement of the actors that would be playing the main characters, one of whom I was quite familiar with as an actor, to see how I pictured them through reading and if I could picture the actors as the characters. I could kind of agree with the one chosen to play one character, but based on simply the picture in the costume they'd decided to whack him into, couldn't agree with that.
 6. The Jane Austen Book Club (17/8 - unfinished)
     Karen Joy Fowler 
Didn't finish this one as this was lying around in the tea room at work,for a while, and then it vanished.
 7. Balthazar Jones and the Tower of London Zoo (16-25/10)
     Julia Stuart 
 8. Some buried Caesar & The Golden Spiders (26/10)
     Rex Stout
A double Nero Wolf story book, not burying the spiders with Caesar
 9. Love & Friendship: In which Jane Austen's Lady Susan Vernon is entirely Vindicated, concerning the beautiful Lady Susan Vernon, her cunning daughter and the strange antagonism of the De Courcey family (27-28/10)
     Whit Stillman
10. Artemis (29/10 - 7/11)
      Julian Stockwin
11.  The Pigeon Pie Mystery (8-15/11)
       Julia Stuart
12. Vindolanda (16-27/11)
      Adrian Goldsworthy 
13. Terry Pratchett's Discworld Imaginarium (25-31/12)
      Paul Kidby

Having now written them all up, with numbers, not as small as I thought it was at the start, though still smaller than I've had in previous years. I hope I read some more during 2018. I think I'll have to try and pay the local library a few more visits.

Citizen Science on frogs

If you're an Australian resident, the Australian museum has created an app to help with conducting a survey on frogs. You  can just send off the recording of the ribbit straight to the museum, or you can make your own ID guess, through listening to the possible ones in your area and water location type and then send it on. The museum will keep you in the loop with regards to what you send in to them. Very cool.

https://australianmuseum.net.au/frogid-project

Books read throughout 2016

Once again my list of books read for the year. I was able to use some of my time travelling to work this year. As always, the titles with asterisks are re-reads. No plays this year however. In this case the number of them is due to my re-read in order of all of Terry Pratchett’s novels as my respect and remembrance of him on his death the year before.

 1.   The Happy Return – C.S Forester  (3 - 10/1)
 2.   Feet of Clay* - Terry Pratchett  (4 - 7/1)
 3.   Hogfather* - Terry Pratchett  (7 – 11/1)
 4.   Jingo* - Terry Pratchett  (12 – 18/1)
 5.   A Ship of the Line - C.S Forester  (18/1 – 4/2)
 6.   The Last Continent* - Terry Pratchett  (18 – 23/1)
 7.   The Fifth Elephant - Terry Pratchett  (25-29/1)
 8.   Flying Colours - C.S Forester  (5 - 9/2)
 9.   The Commodore - C.S Forester  (10 – 17/2)
10.  Lord Hornblower - C.S Forester  (19 – 25/2)
11.  Hornblower in The West Indies* - C.S Forester  (26/2 – 3/3)
12.  Thief of Time* - Terry Pratchett (4 – 8/3)
13.  Carpe Jugulum* - Terry Pratchett (10 – 11/3)
14.  The Truth* - Terry Pratchett  (12 -17/3)
15.  Monstrous Regiment* - Terry Pratchett  (18 – 29/3)
16.  Going Postal* - Terry Pratchett (30/3 – 6/4)
17.  Good Omens* - Terry Pratchett  (7 – 13/4)
18.  Nation* - Terry Pratchett (19 – 27/4)
19.  Rebels and Traitors - Lindsey Davis  (29/4 – 27/5)
20.  A Blink of the Screen - Terry Pratchett (30/5 – 14/6)
21.  Dragons of Crumbling Castle and other tales - Terry Pratchett  (21 – 24/6)
22. Super Freakonomics - Steven D Levitt & Stephen J Dubner (2-11/12)
22.  Deadly Election - Lindsey Davis  (29 – 31/12)

So not a bad list. Most of it still due to my memorial to Sir Terry Pratchett from last year and I have now finished all his books. Whilst I know I stopped reading as often in the later half of the year, I know I read at least one more book towards the later end of the second half, but couldn't find it written anywhere. Maybe after I tidy up somewhat.
I still didn't get aroud to reading Jane Austen or The Hobbit or any of the original James Bond stories. I was watching one of those TV documentaries looking at things that started things and was struck by the thought that it would be interesting to have a read of Moby Dick, which I haven't before (or if I have, I've totally forgotten).

Ahh the irony

I had to laugh this morning.

There's this guy that has been getting off the train at the stop I get on for the last month or two, that I will admit I find kind of good looking. Now I'm always in precisely the same spot, he started off being up or down one carriage, though more recently has been in the same carriage. So when the train pulls up I'm waiting looking in, and he's standing at the door, at which point he looks away. He could be one of those people that that doesn't like to look people in the face, or it could be that it's because of how I'm dressed - baggy, casual clothing (as I work in a warehouse), in comparision to his suit pants and buisness shirt (which at my station at 6:30am is its own little connundrum).

Well today I was trying to catch an earlier train at a different station as my schedule is changing, but missed it, so got my driver to drop me back at my usual station for one last glimpse. So when the train pulls in, the door goes past, he's not at it, I grab my stuff and head for the next door, and there he is, so I let go an involuntary smile. His reaction, on the other hand, was more like, oh no not that annoying girl again. Well you can relax now dude, your senses won't be offended again, as you won't be seeing me any more. I wonder if he'll even notice.

Books read 2015

In 2014, I thought I'd like to re-read some books, Pride and Predjudice (Jane Austen) and The Hobbit (JRR Tolkien) were the only two that I could remember when I wrote up this post for the year's list and I utterly failed in that. This year there was much hype around James Bond, with a couple of documentaries and I thought it would be interesting to read the original novels. So on the note of plans for 2016, here are the results for 2015, with, as usual, re-reads marked with asterisks.

 1. Enemies at Home - Lindsay Davis (1-12/1)
 2. Raising Steam - Terry Pratchett (30/1 - 2/2)
 3. Hornblower and the Hotspur - CS Forester (3-6/2)
 4. The Long War - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (16-21/2)
 5. Arthur Phillip: Sailor, Mercenary, Govenor, Spy - Michael Pembroke (1/3 -11/6)
 6. Pyramids* -  Terry Pratchett (16-23/3)
 7. Truckers* - Terry Pratchett (28/3 - 2/4)
 8. Skulduggery Pleasant: The Dying of the Light - Derek Landy (23/4 - not finished)
 9. Hornblower and the Crisis - CS Forester (18/6 -8/7)
10. The Colour of Magic* - Terry Pratchett (9-17/7)
11. The Light Fantastic* - Terry Pratchett (19-22/7)
12. Equal Rites* - Terry Pratchett (23-28/7)
13. Truckers* - Terry Pratchett (29/7 - 3/8) Re-read due to the gap since March, so story would be fresh for Diggers 
14. Diggers* - Terry Pratchett (3-5/8)
15. Wings* - Terry Pratchett (6-8/8)
16. Mort* - Terry Pratchett (10-16/8)
17. Sourcery* - Terry Pratchett (2-4/9)
18. Wyrd Sisters* - Terry Pratchett (14-16/9)
19. Guards! Guards! - Terry Pratchett (18-22/9)
20. Pyramids* - Terry Pratchett (23/9 - 2/10) No clue of why the re-read, blame it on my poor memory and inattention to the list on the opposite page
21. Moving Pictures* - Terry Pratchett (2-26/10)
22. Faust Eric* - Terry Pratchett (27-30/10)
23. Reaper Man* - Terry Pratchett (31/10 - 9/11)
24. Witches Abroad* - Terry Pratchett (10-23/11)
25. Small Gods* - Terry Pratchett (25/11 - 9/12)
26. Lords and Ladies* - Terry Pratchett (9-14/12)
27. Men at Arms* - Terry Pratchett (14-17/12)
28. Soul Music* - Terry Pratchett (18-23/12)
29. Strata* - Terry Pratchett (24-26/12)
30. Interesting Times* - Terry Pratchett (27-28/12)
31. Maskerade* - Terry Pratchett (28/12 - 1/1/16)
32. Only you can save the World* - Terry Pratchett (29/12)
33. Johnny and the Dead* - Terry Pratchett (30-31/12)
34. The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents* - Terry Pratchett (31/12 - 1/1/16)

It's one of the biggest lists I had for years, and as you can see, it's very heavily dominated by one author this year - the inestimable Sir Terry Pratchett. On the announcement of his untimely death in March this year, I decided that I would do my own personal memorial to him, by re-reading all of his books. I only got half way through my collection though, so 2016's list might be flavoured somewhat with Pratchett as well.

Vale Terry - you've filled and brightened my world with your imagination and insight for a long time and I will treasure my (your) books as much as any pearl of the orient.

Jeanne Baret

The Australian National Maritime Museum recently published on their blog an interesting story about Jeanne Baret - the first woman to have circumnavigated the earth.

https://anmm.wordpress.com/2015/11/10/she-will-be-the-first-woman-that-has-ever-made-it/?utm_source=General+Public+eNewsletter&utm_campaign=8331b68c73-General_News_December_2015&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_7df72491fc-8331b68c73-145429493&mc_cid=8331b68c73&mc_eid=694125080f

I disagree with the comment at the end, from one of the people who named a new species of plant in her honour in 2012, though. The comment that she was "an unwitting explorer", seems to be ignoring her entire story.
Her partner/employer, Philibert Commerson, could have left her safely at home, but instead values her so much that he brings her with him and into an environment that requires the hardest of work from Jeanne to disguise her true self.

This woman was no unwitting traveller, dragged along by accident, but a willing participant in what was from the start a multi-year prospect. You just have to look at how she preserved the work done by Commerson and herself for years after his death and brought it back with her and her new husband to France; to see that she valued the work done and wasn't just the sidekick. This may not have been the intention of Tepe and may also have been taken out of context, but it's stuff like this we have to be careful of to make sure that deserving people aren't relegated to the shadows of historic endeveour.

The sound of tears gently falling

My heart is breaking yet again. One more person I've developed feelings for has looked past me for someone else. It's partly my own fault though - I didn't act on it because of a role he held had him interacting with someone of whom I'm unsure of their view towards me and I didn't want this to affect their working relationship.
From reading the comments it seems that other people were aware of the direction he was turning. Even though some of these are my close friends, so it's not like I'm in different circles to him, but I guess another part of the problem is that I'm not in those circles that often.

And considering that I've been of the notion that he doesn't actually like me, he just puts up with me because I'm friends with his friends, I shouldn't be that surprised or upset. But after having had these thoughts, the last time I saw him, he greeted me with such a tone in his voice that sounded like he was happy to see me, and when my back was turned, so he could have just kept on walking past me, which sent my poor head spinning round again. But I was struck by the thought today when deciding whether to screw my courage to the sticking plate next weekend (before I saw the news, ironically old) that he's just like me and is nice to everyone, and is not being in any way specifically nice to me.

So here I am, a broken, dusty old book, lying forgotten and unwanted on the shelf, my pages foxed with my tears.

Books Read 2014

So here again my list of books read for the year. 2014 saw a few occasions where I thought "I must read that book again", so it will be interesting to see if I get around to reading them this year. As usual re-reads marked with asterisks.

  1. Snuff - Terry Pratchett (1-5/1)
  2. Death in Kenya - M.M Kaye (13-17/1)*
  3. Catgrafika - Mike Margolis (19/1)*
  4. Death in Zanzibar - M.M Kaye (31/1 - 1/2)
  5. Death in Cyprus - M.M Kaye (3-13/2)
  6. Death in Kashmir - M.M Kaye (18/2 - 1/3)
  7. Ruddy Gore - Kerry Greenwood (27/3 - 3/4)
  8. Urn Burial - Kerry Greenwood (11/4 - 20/5)
  9. Raisins and Almonds - Kerry Greenwood (21/5 - 13/6)
10. Death before Wicket - Kerry Greenwood (27-29/6)
11. Away with the Fairies - Kerry Greenwood (4-11/7)
12. Cocain Blues - Kerry Greenwood (25/7)
13. The Lady Chapel - Candace Robb (11-13/8)
14. Skulduggery Pleasant: Armageddon Outta Here - Derek Landy (15-17/8)
15. Charmed Life - Diana Wynne Jones (25-26/8)
16. The first Rex Stout omnibus - Rex Stout (27/8 - 26/9)
17. Inspector Singh Investigates: A Bali Conspiracy Most Foul - Shamini Flint (10-11/10)
18. The Miniaturist - Jessie Burton (28/10 - 3/11)
19. The Long Earth - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter (27/12 - 3/1/15)

Books I felt I should read again:

Pride and Predjudice (Jane Austen)
The Hobbit (JRR Tolkien) - strictly speaking that came up in 2015 when I saw the final movie in the trilogy and couldn't remember where it had left off or most of the stuff (battle) that was in the film. But as it was within a week of new year's I'll put in in.

There were a couple more, but I can't recall them right now. 

Space Oddity

           I recently was given occasion to think of myself superimposed on the song Ordinary Man (by Christy Moore), but as solitary rather than ordinary - solitary man, nothing special, nothing grand.
           I think it was brought on by a friend asking me at an occasion, whether another mutual friend was with me. When she first asked, I actually first thought of another mutual friend with the same name, so wasn't sure why she was asking, but when I realsised who she was talking about, replied no (this is all split second stuff btw). At this my friend pulled an astonished face, as if this were some extraordinary thing, like we were joined at the hip and never went anywhere without each other, whereas whilst we are good friends, we don't spend that much time with each other.
          I've always been independant - I'd go to the office at school by myself for example, but had friends, and was sure that I would one day marry and have children. But with the past year I've had (and I think the couple of years before that) it's made me slightly depressed and wonder whether I have ever made a mark on anyone, or whether it's me that people can't mark.
          When I moved for work a couple of years ago, I decided to share as I had missed the company of my family the last time I had moved. Due to the layout of the house though, my housemate and I don't spend much time in proximity to each other, which was alright because at the time I had work and the ability to go over to my friends and to the activity I enjoyed. About a year ago though, I lost both, and whilst I could get lifts to certain things, I stopped seeing my close friend. Admitedly I never invited her over to my place that often, though on the odd occasion I did, she had work the next day and was too tired so wouldn't come. And she and another friend who used to come over to my place regularly stopped for good reasons, but then never came back when that reason was over.
          I've stayed where I am, rather than moving immediately back in with my family (in a different city), partly due to a few medical appointments and partly due to my feeling a failure if I do: not only do I not have a partner (and have only ever managed to have one) but also no job. In thinking about reasons to move back, have been that more of my long term close friends are in my home city, and yet just recently, two of those same friends forgot that it was my birthday and when another friend remembered and wished me happy birthday publically, after the general round of well wishes from those nearby, they didn't come up and wish me a happy birthday personally. Admittedly they did have their two young kids with them and may have been distracted somewhat, but it still hurt.
            Oh and remember that whole one partner thing? Well recently a friend kissed me, and when I contacted him a few days later, wanting to talk about it, as he hadn't called or sent a message, and was in the same city, he wanted to but wasn't able. Three months later, with still no message, I decide to push the issue and see if he wanted to catch up. He did, but after dinner and back at his place, no indication that he had any other interest other than friendship. So when I head off he asks if he can walk me back to my car. Remember what I said about the office at school? Well normally I would have said no, but thought that this time I should say yes to see what happens. So off we go - and when we get there I thank him for a good night, he opens his arms for a hug, we do so and then I stand on tiptoes to kiss him on the cheek, step back as I think I stepped on his foot, go back in, and I think he was aiming for the mouth, as he got just on the edge of my lips, but didn't kiss me again where he had meant (as had happened many years ago with the first man). And a week later and no contact.
           Now I know we're no longer in a time where it's the man that has to do the chasing for all to be seemly, but he made the first move, and I made it obvious I was interested and yet nothing more. Do I just ignore it and keep to my solitary self (a la the David Bowie title) and miss out on the chance of something good?

 From all of the above, I think it's fairly obvious that I'm not that cut off, though a friend did ask me to visit her on my way back home last as I was up for a wedding and I made my excuses, so there must be a part of me frozen in there somewhere and as the Proclaimers say, for every bit of love a part of you dies. I just don't know what to do, and had to get this down to express it somehow other than have it swim around in my head with images of me dieing in a car crash un-mourned apart from my family. Not that anyone reads this blog and will make a comment or suggestion on my torment.
           

Books Read 2013

It's rather late this year, but the end of 2013 and the start of 2014 has been a bit of a swirl, however here's the list of books I read in 2013, with plays in italics and re-reads with an asterisk:

 1. Platypus - Ann Mayal (24/12/12 - 12/1/13)
 2. Rousseau's Dog - David Edmonds and John Eidnous (25/1-21/3)
 3. Don Parties On - David Williamson (6/4)
 4. Secrets of a lazy French cook - Marie-Morgane le Möel (10-12/4)
 5. Single Spies: A double bill - Alan Bennet (25/5)

 6. Victory of Eagles - Naomi Novik (?/6-1/7) *

 7. The Matilda Women - Sue Rider (22/5)

 8. Explain Pain - David Butler and Lorimer Moseley (16/7 - 19/8)

 9. Clockwork Angel - Cassandra Clare (29/7 - 1/8)

10. The Fox on the Fairway - Ken Ludwig (6-11/8)
11. The Silver Linings Playbook - Matthew Quick (15/9)

12. The Maleficient Seven - Derek Landy (28/9)
13. Murder and Mendellsohn - Kerry Greenwood (8-10/10)
14. Gut Bliss: A 10 day plan to ban bloat, flush toxins and dump your digestive baggage
          - Robynne Chutkan M.D (1/11 - 23/12)

15. Imagine that... The history of technology rewritten - Micheal Sells (19-20/11)

16. The memory book - Everyday habits for a healthy memory - Judith Wiles and Janet Wiles (5-9/12)

17. The Crucible of Gold - Naomi Novik (25-26/12)

18. Dodger - Terry Pratchett (27-28/12)

19. The Ides of April - Lindsey Davis (29/12/13 - 1/1/14)

        So that's it - a total of 19. There may be one or two more that I've forgotten to note down (as I've edited this twice), but it's not a bad total.
         I was commenting to a friend recently that I don't read as many book as I did as a school kid, although I read more than I did last year which is good (even if that was due to having a few plays in there for 2013), taking me back up to the total of the years before; at the same time I think it was due more to having a bit more time on my hands due to health/work issues rather than a desire to read tearing me away from my computer.

Reading completed 2012

So here's my (rather late) list of books read over 2012. As with 2010 and 2011, the numbers in brackets is when I read them, day and month. Italics are plays (none this year) and they're all new reads for me, except for those marked with an asterisk which are re-reads.

 1. The Castlemaine Murders - Kerry Greenwood (16-27/2)
 2. The Careful use of Compliments - Alexander McCall Smith (28/2-14/3)
 3. Soulless - Gail Carriger (19-22/3)
 4. 10 Short stories you should read in 2011 (7/3)
 5. The Secret of Laughter - Shusha Guppy ( ? - 24/5)
 6. Platypus: The Extraordinary story of how a curious creature baffled the world - Ann Moyal (24/5-12/1/13)
 7. The Armoured Rose - Tobi Beck (4-5/7)
 8. Victory of Eagles - Naomi Novik (9/7)
 9. The Battle of the Galah trees - Christobel Mattingley (15-16/8)
10. The Pyrates - George MacDonald Fraser (28/8 - 2/9)
11. Axe for an abbott - Elizabeth Eyre (? - 26/11)
12. Tongues of Serpents - Naomi Novik (25-26/12)

As you can see I didn't read that many books this time round, though I have the feeling that there may be one or two that I've forgotten to write down.

Transit of Venus

Today sees the second of the pair of transits by Venus across the face of the sun for this century. The next lot will be in 115 years time. I was hoping to nick off to the Mt Stromlo Observatory during lunch, but that got sent down the drain, when I found out the manager was heading off for the rest of the day to do other stuff leaving me on my lonesome. Oh well, I'll just have to try and rig up something myself.

I was hoping that Mt Stromlo would let people take photos of it with their own camera using one of the Observatory's telescopes as I was able to do several years ago at Sydney Observatory when there was a solar eclipse (got some great photos of solar flares), but disappointingly it wasn't something they were offering.

Here's a couple of sites that let you see it or helps you to rig your own set up:

http://venustransit.nasa.gov/2012/transit/webcast.php

http://venustransit.nasa.gov/webcasts/australia/

http://nightskyonline.info/?p=3688


Well I got a nice snap of the sun disk through a rig such as that on the nightsky online page, but unfortunately, as the only binoculars I had access to here at the VIC were a pair of kids ones, with 1.5x magnification, I had no hope of the disc of Venus showing up.

Siiiiiiiiigh. A distinct Mad Scientist fail! I guess all I can do now is hope that they invent long life pills in the next few years or so.

Let me know if you had better luck than I did.

A trip to the the-aytre

I've just come back from seeing the brilliant Miriam Margolyes in Dickens' Women. She's a brilliant actress, and I think a lot of the humor comes from her facial expressions and body movements.
It made me wonder though about societal norms - as one of the characters she was doing before the intermission from Little Dorrit (I think) who was written as a revenge on an old love of Dickens' for the temerity of having grown old, she was thrusting and bumping her considerable bosom around which garned lots of laughs (from me as well), but I was struck by the thought would a thin actress have got the same laughs? Margaret and Barbara, the two elderly ladies I was sitting next to, didn't think they would have, but thought that it was alright because MM accepted what she was and used it to her advantage.

And talking of expectations - I totally failed in my hero worship after the show, when Miriam was giving her signature. The lady before me was talking to her about when she had seen her in other performances, and the lady behind me was engaging her with erudite talk about Dickens' work and characterisations, whereas all I managed to tell her was how much I enjoyed it and how good I thought it was. She very politely said that she glad I thought so and thanked me for coming (and was also kind enough to sign both the CD of the book and my program); but as I walked away I felt a little bit of a failure that I hadn't managed more. I guess it's because I like to think of myself as an intelligent person who can partake in decent conversation.

Whilst the show wasn't quite what I was expecting, I think due in part to the fact that I heard several interviews with her where she had gone into slightly more depth about Dickens and how the women in his life had affected him, and to the old book to performance conversion conundrum, it was still a brilliant night out and I reccommend it to anyone who happens to read this.
In regards to the BTPCC, I think the live performance in some ways is better than the written/spoken word. I bought the CD of the book for my mum, who wasn't able to make the performance, and I thought that the CD would be the poorer for the fact that you couldn't see Miriam's face pulling the expressions and grimaces of the chosen extracts. Thinking about this as I type, I guess the CD will have Dickens' written descriptions which she based her performance on in the first place, but that will be the listener's interpretation and not Miriam's, which I think is the listener's loss and the viewer's gain. It will be interesting to see what I think once I listen to the CD.

So if you get the chance, go and see it - 2012 tours dates can be found at the Dickens' Women website. I think you'll be glad that unlike Dickens, Miriam has made it (twice!) to Australia & New Zealand.

Something sciencey for the young ones

Found out about this through the NSW Association for Gifted and Talented Children - the Google Science Fair.

To quote the home page:

The Google Science Fair is an online science competition seeking curious minds from the four corners of the globe. Anybody and everybody between 13 and 18 can enter. All you need is an idea.

Geniuses are not always A-grade students. We welcome all mavericks, square-pegs and everybody who likes to ask questions. Simply upload your project here to win some life changing prizes.

Everyone has a question. What’s yours?

Books throughout 2011

Building on tradition, here is 2011's list of books read. The numbers in brackets is when I read them, day and month. Italics are plays and they're all new reads for me, except for those marked with an asterisk which are re-reads.

1. Nemesis - Lindsay Davis (2-3/1)
   
2. Tirra Lirra by the River - Jessica Anderson (4-7/1)
   
3. Skulduggery Pleasant: Mortal Coil - Derek Landy (13-14/1)
   
4. The Feng Shui Detective's Casebook - Nury Vittachi (?-20/5)
   
5. Mr Wong goes West - Nury Vittachi (20-24/5)
   
6. Black Powder War - Naomi Novik (24/5 - 18/6)
   
7. The Flying Cloud Season 1 - Paul Gaziz (16/6)
   
8. The Mystery of the Missing Masterpiece - Robin Bowles (20-22/6)
9. Catalyst - Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Anne Scarborough (23/6)
10. Catacombs - Anne McCaffrey & Elizabeth Anne Scarborough (24-26/6)
11. The Marvellous Boy - Louis Nowra (July)
12. The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun - J.R.R. Tolkien
    
13. Inns of Courts - Timothy Daniell (?-26/9)
14. Lettice and Lovage - Peter Shaffer (4/10)
15. Agatha H and the airship city - Phil and Kaja Foglio (Nov)
    
16. North and South - Elizabeth Gaskell (24/11-22/12)
    
17. The Empire of Ivory - Naomi Novik (26-27/12)
    
18. Mr Midshipman Hornblower - C.S Forester (27-29/12)
    
19. Lieutenant Hornblower - C.S Forester (31/12)
    

Hidden Details

I found this picture tonight when I was doing a search for celticly styled pelican images:

copy right Royal Observatory Greenwich

it's from a blog from the Royal Observatory at Greenwich and is the jumper from John Harrison's first timekeeper. Which means that it wouldn't be seen once the clock is assembled.

Wow! Is all I can say. It's such a beautiful detail.

Yet another opportunity to participate

And here's another opportunity for you to participate, though this one is limited to those who live in the ACT.

Due to rising rates in the ACT of chlamydia infection, the Australian Primary Health Care Research Institute at the Australian National University is running a trial program where women between the ages of 16 and 30 can get paid ten dollars for having a test at a participating pharmacy.

Quoting Associate Professor Rhian Parker from the SMH's article, chlamydia is "usually easy to resolve with antibiotics but because it has no symptoms it can go unnoticed, and so untreated, for years. The longer-term effect can be devastating, with two-thirds tubal infertility and a third of all cases of ectopic pregnancy attributed to the infection."

So if you're in the ACT, go to one of these pharmacies: Devlin's Garema Place, City Markets, Priceline and Pyes - in central Canberra and in suburban pharmacies in Hughes and Charnwood; take a test and look after yourself, as well as potentially helping other young women across Australia if this trial is deemed a success.