jonno leaps

Here's the man in action. In suspension.

At least I can post images again now.

site has changed

I feel bereft - I accidentally lost my former profile in the switch of accounts - and all the friends linked to the page. I will send invitations out once more so that the blog can be re-peopled. Should still be possible to comment - I had just lost the technique of posting photos so had to make a move.

Speak soon
Diorissi
xxxx

Alice Springs

January Rain

Mama

Street bathing

the Locals

and they say life never lives up to fiction

Story from CBC news by Heather Mallick

HEATHER MALLICK
Action and overreaction in America
The U.S. penchant for strong-arm reactions
Jan. 15, 2007

For years, whenever I needed a writing kickstart I would read columnist and actor Stephen Fry's collected bits, particularly the Trefusis radio broadcasts of the late eighties.

Fry had invented Prof. Donald Trefusis, a raving old dotard of a philologist at Cambridge, who was invited to speak of modern times, of which he was entirely ignorant, to a BBC audience. This self-described gentle and biddable ancient creature would combine the finer points of philology (his 30-year feud with a rival academic about the root of the Papuan word redatt, which "as some of you may know means ‘unlikely to take part in evening games'") with random abuse. For instance, he deplored chirpy morning television shows. "Such an obscene orgy of vulgarity, baseness and ignorance I hope never to witness again," while praising the jolly gunplay of Starsky and Hutch.

The climax of the Trefusis broadcasts was his visit to New York City to study iotal elisions. Naturally he was arrested while discussing something called "crack" with a large importunate man in Greenwich Village. Trefusis took it as a tribute to his great brain that the cops kept calling him Wise Guy. "But the compliment is wearing thin," he told his listeners, "and I long for liberty."

And then, to my utter glee and horror, it all came true. It happened this month in Atlanta at a conference of the American Historical Association. One of the world's finest minds, Professor Felipe Fernández-Armesto, the famed Cambridge scholar of global environmental history, author of 19 books and the current occupant of the Principe de Asturias Chair in Spanish Culture and Civilization at Tufts University in Boston, decided to cross the street.

He was accosted by a young man who told him he was jaywalking. The professor thanked him and continued on his way. The man said he was a cop, the professor could see no evidence of a uniform (he later said the man was wearing a rather louche garment, a "jerkin" worn by someone affecting a raffish image; to me, it sounds like a bulletproof vest) and he asked the officer for his identification.

The officer took offence, kicked the professor's legs out from under him, smashed him to the pavement with the help of four other officers, crushed his neck, bloodied his head, yanked the slight 56-year-old man's arms behind him, handcuffed him and sent him to jail in a fetid paddywagon. The professor ("I do depend on my spectacles," he said later, which had gone in the ditch), had no identification beyond his Cambridge parking pass and was given no chance to explain himself.

Fernández-Armesto, the kind of man whose accent resembles that of the Queen in her Christmas message, whose suit has a matching vest, and who carries a watch chain, sat for eight hours in jail in the company of "sad, degraded or deranged" people, almost all of whom, as he pointed out in a YouTube interview, were kinder and more civilized than the police who had arrested him. Almost all were black, he said, which was evidence of racism. These people needed help, not locking up.

"Aging members of the bourgeoisie don't normally endure this," the professor said with a nervous, horrified giggle. "I was very much the odd man out."

As he explained, one of the aims of his life is to never give trouble.

"I am pathologically law-abiding."

One has an extra obligation to be so when one is the guest of a foreign country, he added. He hadn't known jaywalking was a crime that required bail of $1,371, which was eventually produced by a bail bondsman.

When he appeared in court the next day, he said three or four words, the court said "Huh?" and the judge realized that the arresting officer, Kevin Leonpacher of Niceville, Fla., had got the situation badly wrong.
Charges were dropped

The charges were dropped, Leonpacher is sullen (very much a "hominid," as the professor described him, "but that is an injustice to hominids"), the mayor of Atlanta has called the police chief on the carpet, Fernández-Armesto says he is not litigious, the American Historical Association is overcome with embarrassment, and I am a happy, albeit appalled, person because I have seen Prof. Trefusis spring to life after 20 years on the dry page.

What gladdened my heart was the response on YouTube.com. Young American downloaders were appalled by the Atlanta police blitzkrieg on a frail, older gentleman, and even defended Fernández-Armesto when one poster accused him of using "big words" to impress people. That noble poster even apologized (this never happens). Downloaders were gracious. They were angry that a visitor's basic rights and freedoms had been destroyed by thug cops. I swear, it is the young who will save that troubled country.

[Heather Mallick has a very personal style of news writing don't you think - almost blog-like, dare I say? Dxxx]

composite - and oh the flow... 

full energy 

wild with delight 

cricket

It's a wonderful thing [for those bitten by the asp] - wish I knew what it means...
Dx

Jonno takes a six-pack of wickets

Phanto reports



Yet another trip up the F3 although mercifully only as far as the Mt Colah exit this time.



Yet another toss lost and we are invited to field on a good but grassy wicket. After getting two wickets in the first five overs, things were looking good, but at 3/137 in the 32nd over Hornsby were staring down the barrel of a 200+ score (a score which they had also managed in their last game). Enter John Sutton, a man with more nicknames than wickets so far this season, Sutts, Sutto, Forest, Holden, Thunderbird, the Professor to name just a few.



Sutto produced a devastating spell of accurate bowling with good heat and was rewarded with the outstanding figures of 6/23 off 6 overs, including a purple patch of 6/7 off 20 balls, prompting John to recall some similar figures he recorded in the U12s back when the Beatles were singing about unusually coloured underwater craft. The highlight of Sutto’s wickets was a stunning c&b that would have decapitated a lesser man. Sutto’s figures of 6/23 were the second best figures ever for MUCC Masters (behind Dermie’s 6/17 earlier this year) and would have earned the big fells a pewter but for his 3rd grade century in December. After having had such a good day, the Professor can be forgiven for getting half way home and then remembering that he’d left his kit at the ground!



Sutts was well supported by Kenny (2 wickets), a man who has blossomed with his Skins attire (and a man who has been known to pause in front of the mirror for perhaps a little longer than would be considered normal enjoying the amplification and magnification effect that only Skins can provide).



Set a target of 167, we started well, never looked back and achieved the runs in 26 overs for the loss of only one wicket and also securing two bonus points. Forties were registered by Rosie, Clyney and O’Reilly with Hacksaw winning the strike rate with a quickfire 17* off 7 balls at the close. It was great to see legendary MUCC skipper Al Mahoney, visiting from Melbourne, join us for this game and special thanks also to the ever-reliable Marto for filling in at short notice. It remains a 50/50 bet as to which of these fine gentlemen will first achieve the 400 game milestone.

Bega holiday

quizzicalcontent

Hotel

Abe 'n Sand

Abe 'n Water

Jess in new sunnies

Laughing at rude words

in the Temple

Phil Rogers' pot - this much magic from wood ash and salt 

Replication of the Milgram experiment

Some controversy has just hit the psychology world as a TV show just recently got a psych involved in replicating the Milgram experiments where people once more show themselves remarkably able to continue on to levels of shock administration to a helpless learner (with a heart condition)- levels that were beyond anyone's expectations in the 1960s. But plus ca change....

However, now there is some concern that this experiment was done without ethical clearance. One commentator says - I suppose no-one really got harmed. [Hrmph. Only psychologically...

So if you want to watch the replication here is a link I was sent:
You can get a detailed web cast of the experiment and report if you go to
the URL below, but you have to put up with a short commercial first:
http://abcnews.go.com/Primetime/story?id=2765416&page=1

friend Melanie Sandford worked on this 

screening not to be missed

Don't miss the screening of "Growing Up & Going Home". A Film Australia Production in association with Iris Pictures and the New South Wales Film & Television Office.

Showing on SBS, Thursday 11 Jan 2007 at 8.30pm.

Phil Rogers' Pottery and his unjaded writing

Phil Rogers is one of the most remarkable potters I've ever stumbled across. His book on creating Ash Glazes goes to the heart of the dedication to exploration some potters find like a personal Ariadne's thread opening up in the world.

Among the beautiful photos are fragments of observations from people whose lives are earth, fire and glaze, as well as the most lucidly explained recipes and equations showing the elements of the glaze that matter. To me it isn't just an introduction to pottery, but to wonder, and to how to write about what grabs us.

Wish psychology had a fragment of the verve.

mind in the eyes test

The better link is this one.

http://www.questionwriter.com/samples/eyesquiz/

Dxxx

Trust Hormone?

I'm sure you are being bombarded with wishes that 2007 is the best ever - so add mine to the wish pile.

Rather than New Year Resolutions we had New Year Dissolutions - I must double my chocolate intake, swear amd cuss more, laugh raucously at my own jokes (in my own lectures adds Dave...), smirk knowingly while cycling...

My efforts to produce a smirk met with the kind of raucous laughter Dave was to reserve for his own jokes, (according to the Dissolution he drew from the bowl).

However, I feel that my capacity to generate smirks is not the full story about my non-verbal abilities after doing a test which assesses how readily one can read emotion on the basis of viewing the eyes only - have a go by cutting and pasting the link. The test is one by Baron-Cohen, and it uses (perhaps) some old Silvan Tomkins' pictures plus many luscious additions.

This is the full excerpt that Worldscience published:

* "Trust hormone" now tied to "mind reading" -- and
increasingly, autism:
An unusual hormone has a growing list of documented
powers, some of them surprising -- and intriguing to
scientists hunting autism treatments.

http://www.world-science.net/exclusives/061206_oxytocin.htm

And break those resolutions early, I say.
Dx