Mollys gone

Posted on 16/05/2010 by Greg

We had to get rid of Molly today :( she did some weird open mouthed kiss to Zander’s face and it was just a little disconcerting. I don’t think it was vicious but she’s a big dog and could still hurt the little ones. Sam also said she wasn’t comfortable with the way Molly looked at Zander. Mum and I took her to the RSPCA and they gave us a nice story about how they’ll find her a place in the country. I sat there with her and tried to remain calm so she wouldn’t sense my sadness but she knew something was up. She kept fretting. She’s a beautiful dog and I’ll miss her. I really felt like I’d abused her trust by taking her to the RSPCA. The decision was quick and I’m still coming to terms with never seeing my dog again. Sam told me that dogs are more resilient than we think and that she’ll be fine where ever she goes, which helped a little. She kissed the receptionist on the face when she was collaring her and then Molly disappeared on a new adventure, one without me :(

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The proposed Burqa ban

Posted on 15/05/2010 by Greg

The whole burqa debate has got me worried. What affect will a ban on burqas have on my freedom of fancy dress or my freedom of motorbike helmet wearing? This has all kicked off again after burqa clad robbers held up a post office in France. There have been hundreds of helmet clad and fancy dress clad robbers so are two of my favourite pass times at risk? I am already greeted with this sign at fuel stations.

Which amuses me because the type of person that becomes a robber isn’t likely to be the type of person who obeys signs, and if they were this sign would be more effective.

I gimped this scene to illustrate my point.

Who is the dodgy one? There are 6 anonymous people in this scene, Mr Guy Fawkes, the helmet clad woman, the burqa clad woman, the child with the pixelled face, the baby under the cover, and whoever is watching them all on the security cameras. It’s funny how governments and the media focus on the form of anonymity that best suits their agendas. It’s a great way to distract us from the issues that will actually affect us like peak oil and unsustainable population growth. I’m not pro islam, I think their imaginary friend is as crazy as that of any other religion, but I don’t think we’re in a position to throw stones. Our indecency exposure laws forbid women from exposing their chests in public yet men are free to do so. My solution is walking around naked with an electronic burqa (infrared LEDs on a head band which blind security cameras), that way I can piss off everyone but not get caught by the fashion police :)

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Vote for Policies and Windsors

Posted on 02/05/2010 by Greg

I came across an interesting site for the UK election. Vote for Policies suggests which party a user should vote for based on their selection of policies. The user selects issues that concern them, for instance Health, Education etc, and then is given a selection of the policies of the six major parties. The user does not know which policies belong to which party and at the end of the survey the website returns the party which best represents the users policy preference.

Would anyone be interested in working with me to set up a similar site for the up coming federal election? If I did it by myself I’m sure it would become a platform for socialist propaganda or turn in to a rant about how our politicians can’t tie Windsor knots.

One of these two will be our next Prime minister and neither can tie a Windsor knot :(

Yet this guy, a chick, and a teddy bear (I think he cheated) seem to do it just fine.

FYI Mr Rudd and Mr Abbott

See, I knew that would happen…

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Chat Roulette Fun

Posted on 29/04/2010 by Greg

Chat Roulette is a webcam chat site that matches you with a stranger. 25% of the time, the stranger is a guys waste but most of the time you get a face. I was getting bored with that so I decided to have a little bit of fun. I installed a virtual webcam (Webcam Studio) and downloaded webcam videos made by children on YouTube. Here are the results


This guy asked if I was a virgin…


At least this guy kept his underwear on

I had about 20 funny screenshots but only these 2 were appropriate for my blog. Most of the time it was a disgusted/concerned face that quickly hit the next button :)

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Professional sport is an oxymoron

Posted on 23/04/2010 by Greg

Wikipedia told me that;
“A sport is commonly defined as an organised, competitive, and skillful physical activity requiring commitment and fair play.”

Commercial sports pay their athletes to win games because winning games leads to profits for the private owners. The more games they win the more supporters they gain, the more supporters they gain the more valuable their advertisement space and the more merchandise they sell. Fair play doesn’t come into it, if it did, there wouldn’t be any need for referees (Yay for Ultimate Frisbee, the only true sport). I say that if professional football is a sport than so is being a postman.

FootballPostman
OrganisedFIFA, NRL, AFL, etc...Auspost, Royal mail, etc...
CompetitiveYes, you can get dropped from the teamYes, you can lose your job
Skillful physical activityYes, you must get a ball past some big blokesYes, you must get some letters past some big dogs
Requiring commitmentYes, 5 days a week trainingYes, 5 days a week 5am start
Fair playNo, the players are paid to winYes, posties work together to get the job done
And a final dig, purpose of organisationProfits for stakeholdersServe the public

Once the purpose of the sports club is profit the sports club ceases to exists. There are a few examples of football clubs that are not run for profit. Spanish football club Barcelona unlike many other football clubs, is owned and run by the fans. Barcelona FC also donate their very lucrative players jersey advertising space to UNICEF.

It might be a bit out there but I also think professional clubs corrupt amateur athletes. Amateur athletes may not be directly competing for individual profits, but if they play in a sport with big money they may be motivated by future profits. The competitive aspect of sport should not be aimed at your opponents, they’re there to challenge you to be your best. The purpose of the score board isn’t to beat your opponent, it’s purpose is to motive you to play your best.

There are so many examples of unsportsmanlike acts in Professional sports and it really annoys me. Here are just a couple;

Maradona’s Hand of God goal in the 1986 Soccer World Cup quarter finals.


Hopoate inserting his fingers into the backsides of opposition players in an attempt to unsettle and unclog them.

And don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying that this kind of thing doesn’t occur in amateur competitions, I’m saying that once it does occur it stops being sport. And if you’re chasing an inflated piece of leather around a field with a group of guys for non sport related reasons, then you’re just weird.

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Beer, killer tunnels, and wet hands

Posted on 22/04/2010 by Greg

I’ve given up on my “no drugs” crusade, society and cultural norms are against me :( I met my brother at a bar on Monday night and when I arrived there was a frosty Tooheys Old waiting for me. I then figured that Sunday will begin with ANZAC day traditions which is coffee and rum which is caffeine and alcohol in one hit! I figured my whole plan was doomed to failure, you win again society, I’ll do what I’m told. My weakness snowballed and I had a drink after work on Tuesday and a drink after frisbee tonight :s My “no drugs” crusade was an attempt to become a rational being by distancing myself from irrational culture (we drink the poisonous excrement of microscopic organisms, replace sleep with caffeine, and numb our bodies natural warnings with pain killers) but it is a difficult task. I think it’ll be easier to find a rational reason to use social drugs, I’ll get started on that instead :)

I’ve moved home but home has moved. My mum has moved to Newcastle and I’ve moved in while I’m still a uni bum finishing off my degree, 7 months left :) I travel down to Sydney for work, street mission sailing program, and Mac Uni frisbee which has clocked up some km’s on my new bike. Interestingly, my fuel efficiency has increased from 23.5km/L to 24.5km/L since my speeding ticket so yay for the fuzz helping the environment and probably saving me money in the long run! I’ve become accustomed to my new bike which has an engine 13 times larger than my scooter. It’s started to get colder and the condensation on the inside of my visor makes pretty rainbow pattern around lights and night. It creates a kind of rainbow tunnel towards cars headlights. It’s very pretty but I avoid the urge try and ride through these tunnels because I am well aware that at the end of the tunnel is a ton of metal travelling towards me at 200km/h.

I observed something very strange in the toilets the other day :0 A man entered, urinated, dried his hands with paper towel, and left… but the gentleman never washed his hands. Very disturbing.

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Islands to start a new country

Posted on 19/04/2010 by Greg

Have you ever wanted to start your own country on some island? Here is a list of possible territories to conquer.

Kermadec Islands

Population: Uninhabited except for the permanently manned Raoul Island Station
Currently claimed by: New Zealand
Climate: Sub tropical
Area: 33km^2
Location: Pacific Ocean, near New Zealand, 29°16′37″S 177°55′24″W
Conquering may be difficult. Although the islands have a small population, they are government funded so they will have reinforcements. The Island some sort of sanctuary for birds but so was New Zealand at one stage.

Tetepare Island

Population: Uninhabited
Currently claimed by: Solomon Islands
Climate: Tropical
Area: 118km^2
Location: Pacific Ocean, near Solomon Islands, 8°43′00″S 157°33′00″E
This island is the largest uninhabited island in the Pacific and some conservationists believe that makes it special and worth protecting. There are traditional owners also which may have something to say about you claiming their land. There were scared off by head hunters a century ago so the same trick might work again :)

Blasket Islands

Population: Uninhabited
Currently claimed by: Ireland
Climate: Mild, moist and changeable
Area: ~20km^2
Location: Atlantic Ocean, near Ireland, 52°05′21″N 10°32′49″W
This island was occupied until the mid 20th century. It is very close to Ireland and there are some archaeological sites on the island which the locals may want protected.

Antipodes Islands

Population: Uninhabited
Currently claimed by: New Zealand
Climate: Cold and yucky
Area: 20km^2
Location: South Pacific, south of New Zealand, 49°40′0.12″S 178°46′0″E
These islands are not very friendly, in the middle of nowhere and cold. Also these islands are again some sort of nature reserve.

Palmyra Atoll

Population: 4-20 scientists
Currently claimed by: the United States
Climate: Tropical
Area: 12km^2
Location: Pacific Ocean, South of Hawaii, 5°53′N 162°5′W

Nomans Land

Population: Uninhabited
Currently claimed by: the United States
Climate: Humid continental climate
Area: 2.5km^2
Location: Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of Massachusetts, USA, 41°15′18.00″N 70°48′54.00″W
No Man’s Land, pfft, this island was used as a practice bombing range for 50 odd years so there might be some unexploded ordnance, other than that it seems like a good candidate.

Acteon Group

Population: Uninhabited
Currently claimed by: France
Climate: Temperate
Area: ~4km^2 spread over 4 atolls
Location: 21°22′59″S 136°34′59″W
These atolls would be perfect for setting up a new country if they weren’t 230km away from the French nuclear testing site :(

Ducie Island

Population: Uninhabited
Currently claimed by: Pitcairn Islands, kind of part of the Commonwealth.
Climate: Not too yucky
Area: 2km^2
Location: Middle of the Pacific Ocean, 24°41′S 124°47′W
This island is my favourite for conquering, it’s in the middle of nowhere and no one visits it. It has a lagoon to harbour ships and hopefully fresh water though a Ghyben-Herzberg Lens.

Although not an island Bir Tawil is also worth a mention.

Population: Uninhabited
Currently claimed by: Nobody
Climate: Desert with rocks
Area: 2,060 km^2
Location: Border between Egypt and Sudan, 21°52′14″N 33°44′14″E
Neither country wants this land because it means giving up some other land. For a decent explanation check out StrangeMaps.

There are many possibilities, Wikipedia has a page on uninhabited regions which makes creating your own countries easier then ever! My country will be based on information anarchism; individuals will transcended their physical bodies and live forever through their works, much as Leonardo da Vinci has lived on though Lisa’s smile.

Some other interesting blogs which may be useful in creating a country
8 More Strange Places on Planet Earth
If you find any other useful links, please let me know

Posted in Miscellaneous, Philosophy, Travel | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Playing lazy security guard

Posted on 18/04/2010 by Greg

Have you ever wanted to play lazy arse security guard? The kind that doesn’t even leave his chair? By googling inurl:”viewerframe?mode=motion” you can! “viewerframe?mode=motion” is used in the urls of a massive amount of controllable webcams and the inurl: query searches for urls which contain it. Google, science bless it, has found a lot of them. Here are my favourites:

South Club Marina – You can watch the sunrise at a reasonable hour and zoom in on peoples boats.

Some Loch – I’m pretty sure this is some sort of loch, I’ve seen trams in the back ground too.

Pretty cityscape – I’m not sure where this is but it’s kind of pretty at night, this camera has crazy zooming abilities.

If you find any other cool ones, drop me a line :)

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I can email blog!

Posted on 16/04/2010 by Greg

This is a test to see if I have setup the postie plugin correctly. If so I will be able to post via email. I won’t let anyone know what the email address for automatic posting is because that could be dangerous :)

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Pocket Bike Fun

Posted on 13/04/2010 by Greg

I made this video after Dylan, Paul, and myself played with fire and pocket bikes.

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