Brief
I have no clue what is generally given as a sentence for arson, but those handed down in Nis, Serbia, for the 'burning of mosques' in March last year seem particularly light. They were prison terms of five months for one defendant and three months for seven others. Like the majority of Serbia failing to see a problem with men wanted for attempted genocide being upheld as heroes for the most part, sentences like this probably don't go a long way to reducing the likelihood of continuing religious and ethnic animosity.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/29/2005 01:05:00 PM || ||
Thursday, July 28, 2005
Bummer
I was running late to a lecture today, the first of the semester for this particular subject, so parked illegally to get there on time. I figured I'd take my chances, hoping this introductory lecture would be short. I should have just taken the course outline and skedaddled.
The lecture went for one hour, so I was out at around 11:03, back at my car at 11:05, to see I'd been ticketed at 10:55 to the tune of $50. It was no consolation to notice the ute in front of me had suffered the same fate. Stink.
So a soothing photo, to calm the nerves.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/28/2005 10:44:00 PM || ||
Wednesday, July 27, 2005
Can't be bothered
There's no business like show business, and I can't be bothered wasting my time with a post. So another picture it is.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/27/2005 08:16:00 PM || ||
Friday, July 22, 2005
Purty
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/22/2005 06:53:00 PM || ||
Mistake
Here's a tip. When you're going to burn stuff to a CD, save it to your hard drive first. If you've just been putting it in the as-yet-unburnt CD and the computer then rejects and spits it out when you hit "burn", say goodbye to 56 pics, PowerPoint presentation of said pics, and QuickTime movie of aforementioned pics. Bad word. Lesson learnt.the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/22/2005 06:49:00 PM || ||
Wednesday, July 20, 2005
Military Deaths
It was asked what the count is for military deathsin Iraq.- US - 1,766
- Britain - 92
- Other coalition countries - 94
- Iraqi - between 4,895 and 6,370 (estimates for military under Saddam)
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/20/2005 06:59:00 PM || ||
25,000
A new study reveals 25,000 civilians have "died violently" in Iraq since the US invasion. There was a report a while ago that said up to 100,000 civilians had died... or not. Perhaps I'm remembering that incorrectly, but I didn't think so. Anyway, the 25,000 number would also be seen by some as conservative, was the point I was going to make. It's not hard to imagine, given that an average of 800 Iraqis, civilians and police, die every month in suicide bombings, according to something I read yesterday.the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/20/2005 12:41:00 AM || ||
Saturday, July 16, 2005
To cast or not to cast
I've only done a few, but I've been a little obsessed with the podcasting of late... It's time consuming doing editing. I guess that's why you should do just a short commentary... anyway, I think I need to make a choice. If it's too time-consuming, just do podcasts, or just do regular blogging?I know, add VIDEO!
Surfing sand dunes 18 months ago. 1.2mb for 8 seconds of video enjoyment...
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/16/2005 11:59:00 PM || ||
Thursday, July 14, 2005
News briefs
Massacre horror at Kenyan school - 56 confirmed dead, 22 of them schoolchildren. Feuding ethnic groups have left dozens dead already this year. Why does it make the news now? Because 56 died at one time, and a lot of them were children. That's the only reason it's newsworthy, and that makes me angry.Children die in Baghdad car bomb - 26 Iraqis, almost all of them children, killed as "a car drove up to a US army vehicle and blew up as troops gave sweets to the children". What are going to be Iraqi civilian responses? More anger at US troops - they're the reason their children died. And so it makes me angry that extremists target children with that outcome in mind. I can see why US soldiers might get a little trigger happy after incidents like this.
Bomb suspect's family 'shattered' - One of the four suspected bombers was actually born in England, and all of them lived in Leeds. How does an aggressive immigration policy have any impact then?
Not a fun post, this one.
Director of London's Al-Maqreze Centre for Historical Studies Hani Sibai - There are No "Civilians" in Islamic Law;The Bombing is a Great Victory for Al-Qa'ida, Which "Rubbed the Noses of the World's 8 Most Powerful Countries in the Mud".
I don't want to say much, but you'll get my general sentiments by asking this, do they really disagree? When it condemns these attacks, is the Muslim community just paying lip service, or do they really disagree? Surely if they did someone would have said something before an 18 and 22-year-old found themselves the participants in a bomb attack in central London. I'll shut up now, but if you're interested, read today's post from Bren.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/14/2005 02:24:00 AM || ||
Wednesday, July 13, 2005
Car problems and a piano
This podcast was mostly recorded at my old school, outside Ross Roy, the family home of the landowners, built back in 1897. That's a photo I took today, and this is my podcast. Enjoy. (Here is a smaller file of the podcast, half the size, half the quality)
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/13/2005 07:19:00 PM || ||
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Listen to me!
I went and picked up my replacement MP3 player, and made another podcast. This one's a bit rambly, but it was 3am... take care mes amis.I think any more podcasts will try to be shorter, unless of course I'm doing something with interviews. You know, real radio. Anyway, have to run.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/12/2005 09:33:00 AM || ||
Saturday, July 09, 2005
A few things
What This guy saw would lead us to believe the bomb in London that blew up on the bus was a suicide bomber.Cheng Yonglin, the Chinese diplomat who has been in hiding since May, has finally been granted asylum in Australia along with his wife and daughter.
Radovan Karadzic, for those who don't know, was the Bosnian Serb leader during the Yugoslav conflict and is wanted by the war crimes tribunal in the Hague to face trial over the Srebrenica massacre in 1995, amongst other things. All of that was just a roundabout way to lead you to this - his son was arrested. That was a bit anticlimactic.
And finally, in Darwin a guy gets arrested while trying to make off with a fibreglass shark.
Oh yes, and I left one whinge out of my last post. I left my optical mouse at the coast (Kate's parent's) today, which severely slows down computer operation.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/09/2005 01:30:00 AM || ||
Friday, July 08, 2005
Grind
For some reason the microphone on my computer is stuffed, so there's no podcast for you. A loud fuzz is not cool; I can only faintly hear myself if I speak loudly directly into the microphone. Instead, I will only be able to give you one round of audio pleasure this evening. Pleasure, pain, what's the difference really?
I've just been playing with GarageBand on the Mac, and the track I've come up with I called organgrinder. I don't particularly like it's final, overall sound, but bits of it are okay. Let me point out, as your ears are assaulted, that I am entirely musically inept. All the music comes from preset sound loops in GarageBand that I've just forced together. In the hands of an experienced user, perhaps you could even make something bearable.
Things I would have tried not to bitch about in my podcast, but probably would have:
- The fact that my back is screwed, but I'm going to work to lift boxes till 1am anyway
- I then am getting up for a meeting at 8.30am
- My car's exhaust pipe finally busted a nut. Now it is exceptionally loud, and that needs to be dealt with in the morning
- Immediately following tomorrow afternoon's soccer game I'm going to lift more boxes for three hours
- I have to be at university from 8.45am Sunday until 5pm for a coaches training day so I can earn $40 a week telling little kiddies to run around after school
- Straight from there it's back to church to run the international service...
- And a major city getting attacked is headline news world over, everyone is devastated, but who gives a rat's arse about the hundreds and hundreds of Iraqi's who have died (for example) as a result of suicide bombings? Certainly the G8 leaders aren't standing shoulder to shoulder to condemn every one of those attacks.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/08/2005 07:20:00 PM || ||
London
I was on my way down the coast when my sister, who thankfully DOESN'T live and work in London now, called to ask if I was watching television. Having lived in London for 5 years, she still has a lot of friends there, one of whom works in Liverpool Street, where one of the blasts was. Thankfully, also none of them were injured. So I don't know what can be added. There are no news links I need to put in here, there will be nothing you haven't already seen.Podcast coming up shortly...
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/08/2005 05:34:00 PM || ||
Wednesday, July 06, 2005
Gerrard returns to Liverpool?
It's a little strange, and I hope it can be believed, but I'll just put the order of stories here.The first is from BBC Sport, and the time of the other stories are relative to this first one
- BBC SPORT - Gerrard in shock Liverpool U-turn - 09:11 UK
- Daily Mail - Parry waits for Gerrard auction - 1 hr ago
- Guardian Unlimited - Fury as Gerrard auction begins - 7 hrs ago
- The Scotsman - Gerrard stuns Liverpool with departure - 8 hrs ago
- The Sun - Gerrard: You're two faced - 9 hrs ago
It would be hard to describe how important Gerrard is to any title aspirations Liverpool have. It's fantastic news if he really is staying with the club now.
As for me, the third and deciding State of Origin is on tonight, starting immediately. Goodbye!
Update: Queensland go down like a French rifle, losing 32-10, while London get the 2012 Olympics over Paris. I'd look outside to check, but I'm pretty sure the sky is falling, and I don't want it landing on my head.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/06/2005 07:41:00 PM || ||
Gerrard leaving Liverpool
Liverpool reject a £32m bid by Chelsea for Steven Gerrard, Gerrard's agent says the guy doesn't want to be at Liverpool anymore, fans say his silence is a bad sign. On the one hand, he's only one player, they can afford to lose him and pick up other talent. On the other hand, he's arguably the best midfielder in the world... It really pains me to see him go play for someone else, but if it's what he wants, what can you do?the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/06/2005 01:31:00 AM || ||
Tuesday, July 05, 2005
The new black
So what's the coolest thing going around? Podcasting, apparently.The day after I unveil my first podcast The Australian's (newspaper) italive pullout has a double-page spread on the subject. The article isn't that great; its reason for being written is simply the release of the new version of iTunes that supports podcasting. I guess it doesn't tell me anything new because I've been madly reading how-to-podcast articles wherever I could find them as I tried to get that first one up and going.
In my podcast I mentioned radio stations going digital. Or more precisely, moving away from cassette tapes to digital recording. In last Thursday's (June 30, 2005) Media section of The Australian they also had what they called a 'special industry focus' on radio. One of the stories, "Industry overdue for digital dawn", spoke of radio's need and desire to switch to digital technology while being held back by slow decisions on government policy concerning the matter.
On the same page as that article was one about the success of podcasting of several Radio National programs that you can subscribe to through ABC Online. I was excited by the article's claim that the Media Report was one of those being podcast, and rushed off to subscribe. It is in fact not offered, which seems a little strange given this whole podcasting business can be described as a new form of media. Ah ha. I have just re-read the first two pars in the story.
Radio National's podcasting experiment has been so successful that another raft of specialist programs will be made available online from July 9.Seems I got a little too excited in my haste there, and will have to wait another four days. But the trend quoted in that story - 19,000 Radio National program downloads on June 19 to 74,000 last week - can also be seen in Feedburner statistics.
The popular 8.30 Reports - ...Media Report... will be added to the list of MP3-downloadable content.
Feedburner is a free service that manages syndicated feeds, over 60,000 of them, of which mine is one. An RSS feed basically allows you to read new website content (such as these blog posts) without actually visiting the site. Now, with podcasting, those feeds also allow you to listen to the posts, without having to manually download them. Their numbers show they've managed an increasing number of podcasts through their service, from 500 in November last year to almost 6,000 this May. With the media coverage podcasting currently receives (mainly thanks to iTunes) that number will inevitably climb even faster as we all jump on the bandwagon.
Now as far as my podcasting goes, I need to find a way to make it more 'professional'. A jingle to start with. Some interviews perhaps. I read about doing online interviews, and a way to record iChat audio directly into GarageBand. The problem is, I don't use iChat. I have just downloaded Skype, however, and will have to look into whether I can record audio through that. Perhaps an online interview with you could be on the cards, Mr Carlill?
Thanks for reading, and I'll keep you up to date with what's happening in podcasting at the earley edition.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/05/2005 01:35:00 PM || ||
Monday, July 04, 2005
Holiday pics
Here are the photos from my holiday. Not a lot went on that was good for taking pictures; no lazy days on the beach, girlfriend smiling in the sunshine, or dolphins and whales with a windswept lighthouse backdrop at Byron Bay. No, it was four days of rain, and one night of 500mm (20 inches) of the stuff.If I had taken my camera on our walk down the street you could have seen some cars pushing through deep water, but I didn't, so it's just two boring pics of the water level...
This was the front, after the water had subsided a bit. Earlier the sidewalk was not visible, more than half the trailer's wheel across the street was under water, and there was a line of debris a little higher than the last plant on the driveway, where the water must have risen to when the tide came in overnight.
The yard backs onto a golf course whose creek is usually over 20 metres away. Only 5 metres from the back fence is a raised tee. It was the final outpost at about 9.30 am, but within 30 minutes was also inundated. If the debris left hanging from the bridge the next day was anything to go by, the water level on the golf course rose by about 6 feet. Thankfully the rain stopped because the rise to the house, as seen in this pic, was not much more than the tee that had disappeared so quickly.
On the plus side, we got to spend a lot of time inside just lazing about. We went out and saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith one night, stayed in with pizza and Anchorman another night, I read The Da Vinci Code and got to spend four days snuggled with my beautiful girlfriend. All in all, a very enjoyable and relaxing holiday.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/04/2005 10:25:00 PM || ||
Broadcasting
My first podcast, for your listening pleasure. Take care all. I didn't expect the file size to be what it is, 1.9MB for 2 minutes of talking. Anyway, you can subscribe to this podcast through feedburner, and I believe it's http://feeds.feedburner.com/earleyedition that you need. Also, my geocities hosting only allows me 15mb storage, so that doesn't leave much room for podcasting...
Update: I changed the bit rate, so the file is 500kb, which is better.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/04/2005 09:51:00 AM || ||
Success
Linking the file in the actual post body seems the best way to go, seeing as it worked. I don't have a podcast to put up yet, but I will try one soon. The earley edition goes audio. Bring on visual and I'll corner the market! See y'all soon.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/04/2005 12:47:00 AM || ||
Podcast-Test4
One more time, with the linked mp3 here in the post, instead of in the title... this is somewhat ridiculous, and I'm obviously doing something wrong... another picture for you.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/04/2005 12:24:00 AM || ||
Sunday, July 03, 2005
Podcast-Test3
Let's try this one more time... Hey, here's a pretty picture to keep you occupied while we're at it.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/03/2005 11:56:00 PM || ||
Podcast-Test2
trying again, not working currentlythe earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/03/2005 06:28:00 PM || ||
Podcast-Test
This is not an actual podcast. This is a test to see if this works, as podcasting. Bear with me.the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/03/2005 06:07:00 PM || ||
Saturday, July 02, 2005
Zing zing
It's 5.25 am and I'm testing blogger's new photo blogging addition. No more hosting needed? Let's see.
Cool. This is a photo of a church in Greenwich, London, in 2002. Walking down some dark back alley with my sister in tow, I set up my tripod in a doorway and pointed the camera up trying to avoid the trees in frame and the local thugs thumping me and taking my new camera. Everything worked out just fine - if I say so myself.
I'm also trying to figure out how to do some audio blogging, but also podcasting, now that itunes supports this cool feature. I have four weeks of holidays, so why not diversify my media empire?
Zing zing is a reference to my current state of mind given the time of day and not having slept.
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/02/2005 05:21:00 AM || ||
Holi-deluge
I arrived back from my holiday today, a little later than expected. Kate and I had planned to spend time at Burleigh beach Monday, go to Byron Bay (90 minute drive) on Tuesday, Currumbin Lakes and the beach again on Wednesday, and return to Brisbane Thursday.That was the plan. Instead it was raining and cold, so we didn't go to the beach Monday, or Byron Tuesday. Instead we went and saw Mr. and Mrs. Smith on Tuesday, but vowed to go to Byron Bay on Wednesday regardless of the weather. The talk and bravado faltered at the sight of trees bending in the wind and continuing rain. It rained continually Wednesday, getting heavier and heavier as the evening wore on. Anyone in Brisbane/Australia will know what happened. Over a 24-hour period, the Gold Coast received 500mm (20 inches) of rain. Then the tide came in.
Waking up Thursday morning, Kate informed me we would need to leave within the next 10 minutes if we were going to get out of the street. This is where I would show some pictures if I could find my camera right now. To cut a long story short, we didn't attempt to get out of the street since the water was knee-high at the bottom of the driveway and thigh-high around the corner. The golf course behind the house was entirely inundated, and watching the tee closest to the fenceline disappear completely within 30 minutes was a little worrying. Instead, we went for a walk to check out just how high the water had risen, and to watch cars attempting to make it through the thigh-high water at the intersection a few houses down. I didn't take my camera with me on that walk, unfortunately.
As a city bus plowed through the water at the roundabout, the driver managed to lose an 8-foot long piece of silver sheeting. I waded in to retrieve it for him, more worried about others driving over it, and received the princely sum of $4 in thanks to go towards a beer. I'll put some photos on here when I find my camera.
That's all for now. It's 4.30 am, and it looks like I won't be getting any sleep tonight...
the earley edition - Posted by Dave @ 7/02/2005 03:57:00 AM || ||