Bytes

Reader Comment

2013-05-21T01:29:00.002+10:00

An email from Byter Dianne, a friend of many years who now lives in her native Holland:

Hi Otto

Loved your article on the Dutch Shop.

The Dutch are very house proud and homes like your mother`s house are still very popular, not so much with the younger generation but mine looks like it. I promised myself that after moving in 2007 I would not fill it up so much again but slowly it does happen.

We call that "gezellig" which means cosy and most leave the curtains open with lampshades and candles everywhere so that people can look in and admire the cosy look and the beautiful art, clocks or whatever their taste is that is on display.

The Dutch are also known for their beautiful curtains and open windows and I find myself gaping at the lovely items they have inside, which is very rude according to how I was brought up but it’s so interesting. When I go to Amsterdam for the day they have the narrow streets and houses placed next to the footpath. No garden in between and there are some beautiful items in those old lovely houses.

Thanks for the interesting Bytes.

Take care

Dianne

Now that Diane has mentioned it, I remember the word being used by my parents during childhood. It is pronounced with that throaty Germanic and Dutch guttural “heh / ch” sound that English speakers seem to be unable to make or pronounce. The word gezellig is pronounced heh-sell-ick.

According to Wikipedia:

Gezelligheid is a Dutch abstract noun (adjective form gezellig) which, depending on context, can be translated as convivial, cosy, fun, quaint or nice atmosphere, but can also connote belonging, time spent with loved ones, the fact of seeing a friend after a long absence, or general togetherness. The word is considered to be an example of untranslatability, and is one of the hardest words to translate to English. Some consider the word to encompass the heart of Dutch culture.

The adjective gezellig can be used in a wide variety of situations.

For example:
A room can be gezellig. (meaning cosy or inviting)
A person can be gezellig. (meaning entertaining or pleasant)
A party can be gezellig. (meaning fun)
A visit to ones grandparents can be gezellig. (meaning togetherness)
A set of curtains can be gezellig. (meaning pretty or nice).

My mother in 2008 in her gezellig Dutch style home. It wasn't just this corner that looked like this, it was the entire house.

Monday Pics

2013-05-20T00:31:00.002+10:00

Some recent pics sent to me by mobile phone by my son Thomas . . .

- Richard Dawkins quote

"We are going to die, and that makes us the lucky ones. Most people are never going to die because they are never going to be born. The potential people who could have been here in my place but who will in fact never see the light of day outnumber the sand grains of Sahara. Certainly those unborn ghosts include greater poets than Keats, scientists greater than Newton. We know this because of the set of possible people allowed by our DNA so massively outnumbers the set of actual people. In the teeth of these stupefying odds it is you and I, in our ordinariness, that are here. We privileged few who won the lottery of birth, against all odds, how dare we whine at our inevitable return to that prior state, from which the vast majority has never stirred?"

Bonus Notes and Extras:

As regards the Loneliest Whale:

The whale is known as the 52-Hertz whale.

What is unique about this whale is the relatively high frequency range of its calls. Different species of whales call within their own range of frequencies – giant blue whales at 10-20 hz; the next biggest, fin whales, at about 20 hz, and sperm whales (the ones often heard on recordings) at 30-8 hz. This whale calls at 52 hz, comparatively high for whales.

The whale’s call was first heard in 1989 and it has been tracked since 1992.

No one has seen it and there is speculation that it could be a malformed or hybrid of a blue whale and another species. There have been suggestions that it could be the last member of an unknown species.

It is also believed to have matured since 1992 in that its voice has deepened slightly since then.

Its migrations and travels are unlike those of other whales, its movements being similar to those of blue whales but the timing being more like that of fin whales.

It is not definitively known whether the whales has a mate, has friends, or is really the loneliest whale in the world. Researchers have reported that the sounds seem to come from a single animal with no other whales present.

Whatever the answers, the whale keeps singing a song that only it knows and that only it hears.

As regards correlation not implying causation:

Pulitzer and World Press Pics of the Year: 1960 and 1961

2013-05-19T01:10:00.005+10:00

Continuing the list of the winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Photography, from inception in 1942; and the World Press Photograph of the Year, from inception in 1955.

Year:

1960

Award:

Pulitzer Prize for Photography

Photographer:

Andrew Lopez of United Press International

Photograph:

A series of four photographs of a corporal, formerly of Dictator Fulgencio Batista’s's army, who was executed by a Fidel Castro firing squad, the principal picture showing the condemned man receiving last rites.

Comments:

Andrew Lopez was born May 10, 1910, in Spain and came to the United States when he was 4.

In 1947 Lopez was awarded the Medal of Freedom, the highest award that can be bestowed on a citizen, for helping rescue several soldiers who had been caught in a German trap in World War II. General Dwight D. Eisenhower gave Lopez the award.

Lopez, who taught himself how to take pictures with a box camera, worked as a war correspondent in Europe during World War II and his assignments included Italy, Normandy and Germany.

The Cuban Revolution was an armed revolt by Fidel Castro’s and his Barbudos (“Bearded Ones”) guerillas against the regime of Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista between 1953 and 1959. Batista was ousted on 1 January 1959 and was replaced by Castro's revolutionary government. This government later reformed along communist lines, becoming the present Communist Party of Cuba in October 1965.

Lopez was present in Cuba in 1959 to record Castro’s rise to power On 17 January of that year he photographed a Batista loyalist kneeling and holding a crucifix as a priest blessed him and gunmen waited to execute him.

The Batista loyalist who was to be executed was army corporal Jose Rodriguez, known as “Pepe Caliente” (“Hot Pete”). Pepe had been tried in a war crimes trial where hundreds had gathered to testify as to his brutality.

According to photographer Lopez “The entire trial took two hours, (but it took only) one minute for three tribunal judges to condemn Pepe to death.”

Pepe was taken to a courtyard where he dropped to his knees as a priest administered last rites. The prosecutor, rebel major Willy Galvez, screamed at Lopez to stop taking pictures. “I was standing there arguing with him, and in the background I could see eight or nine Barbudos waiting for all this to end so they could get on with their business and shoot this guy.” The prosecutor demanded that Lopez surrender his film and Lopez handed over a roll. “I kept the one with Pepe on it," he said.

Lopez died in 1986 of cancer, having remained with UPI until 1983.

Year:

1960

Award:

World Press Photograph of the Year

Photographer:

Yashusi Nagao

Photograph:

“Tokyo Stabbing”

Comments:

12 October, 1960 and 3,000 people are crammed into Tokyo’s Hibiya Hall to hear socialist party chairman Inejiro Asanuma debate Prime Minister Hayato Ikeda on the US-Japan Security Treaty.

Asanuma was head of the Japanese Socialist Party and a supporter of the Chinese Communist Party, a stance which drew criticism from both the right and his own colleagues.

During the 1960 debate, Asanuma criticised the government for its mutual defence treaty with the United States. Right-wing students in the audience began to heckle and throw pieces of paper. Police rushed in and most of the press photographic contingent followed that melee, hoping to get some good crowd shots.

Nagao chose to remain on the stage. One student, the 17-year-old son of a Self-Defence Force Colonel, Otoya Yamaguchi, ran out of the police cordon carrying a samurai sword. Before anyone could stop him, he plunged his sword into Asanuma, pulled it out and speared Asanuma again through the heart. Less than three weeks after the assassination, while being held in a juvenile detention facility, Yamaguchi used his bedsheet to hang himself. More people attended his funeral than the state service for Asanuma.

Photographer Yashusi Nagao had frantically refocused his camera, by instinct, as Yamaguchi ran forward. Yamaguchi’s first strike had caused both to come out from behind the podium. As Yamaguchi prepared to thrust his blade into Asanuma a second time, Nagao took his award winning photograph using the last shot in his film pack.

Nagao’s photograph was published worldwide. It was awarded not only the prize for World Press Photograph of the Year, it also won the Pulitzer Prize for Photography in 1961

With the award Nagao was able to travel freely around the world, something that was difficult for Japanese citizens at the time. He died of natural causes on May 2, 2009.

1961 Pulitzer Prize for Photography: Nagao’s Tokyo Stabbing, as above.

1961 World Press Photograph of the Year: No award given

Clogs

2013-05-18T00:57:00.001+10:00

I love watching Antique Roadshow. That’s the program where a bunch of experts go to different historic locations in England and the local populations bring their antiques and knick knacks for assessment and appraisal. In one such show recently an old lady brought some porcelain clogs. The expert said that they were Dutch clogs, not Lancashire clogs and that they didn’t have irons. It started me wondering what that meant.

I was born in Holland and have walked in the bulky Dutch clogs, they are remarkably comfortable and not at all difficult once you get used to them. For anyone interested in a Sunday drive, there is a fascinating shop in Smithfield known as the Dutch Shop that sells all sorts of Dutch stuff – clogs, foods, furniture, rugs, knick knacks etc – and it also does coffees and a sitdown lunch. It is at 85 Market Street, Smithfield and well worth a visit. Read about it at:

http://www.notquitenigella.com/2009/09/11/the-dutch-shop-smithfield-how-the-carrot-got-its-orange-colour/

This is what my mother's house looked like, including carpets used as tablecloths and not a spare bit of space on the walls or floor.

In my naivete, I assumed that the use of clogs was confined to the Dutch. Not so.

Some information and trivia about clogs:

Traditional clogs are shoes or sandals made predominantly out of wood, and are associated with the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, Lithuania and Sweden.

Clogs can also be a type of heavy boot or shoe with sides and uppers and with thick wooden soles. They may have steel toecaps and/or steel reinforcing inserts in the undersides of the soles.

Dutch clogs form part of the national dress. Whilst mostly now promoted as souvenirs, quite a few Dutch persons still swear by them for gardening, foot protection, comfort and as best for foot health.

Clogs were not only cheaper than leather, they were safer against penetration and less likely to be adversely affected by snow, moisture and mud. They were long lasting and comfortable.

Clogs were also the everyday footwear of working people in England until the turn of the century. Unlike the Dutch clogs, which are made by carving wood into shoes, the Lancashire clogs have a leather upper and lace up like ordinary shoes. They have pieces of iron or steel underneath the wooden sole, like a horseshoe, to stop wear. Lancashire clogs are still worn as an industrial safety shoe in some industries, however, modern boots with man made soles have made them less common.

Lancashire clogs, leather uppers and wooden soles reinforced with clog irons.

Some more Lancashire clogs with irons, the irons being known as "caulkers":

The Industrial Revolution gave rise to the popularity of clogs in Britain, with workers in the mills, mines, iron, steel, and chemical works, workshops and factories needing strong, cheap footwear. The heyday of the clog in Britain was between 1840s and 1920s. Although traditionally associated with Lancashire, they were worn all over England, not just in the industrial North of England.

The Industrial Revolution likewise inspired the wearing of clogs in France, the French word for clog or wooden she being sabot. One explanation for the derivation of the word sabotage is that disgruntled workers allegedly threw their shoes into the machinery.

In England, the wearing of clogs gave rise to a popular activity of clog dancing, a form of dancing that eventually developed into tap dancing. It has been suggested that clog dancing originated with workers synchronising foot tapping with the rhythmic sounds made by the loom shuttles. The predominant style of Lancashire clog dancing was termed 'heel and toe.' Many of the steps emulate the sound of the shuttle and other parts of the cotton spinning and weaving machinery.

Clog dancing was a cheap form of popular entertainment. Not only was clog dancing common, it was danced on street corners, there were professional clog dancers and competitions, and proficient clog dancers could improve their situation by dancing professionally in music halls. Stan Laurel and Charlie Chaplin began their careers as cloggers.

Dancing clogs were termed 'neet' clogs, they did not have irons or rubbers on the soles and were lighter than the heavier working clogs. The uppers were usually highly tooled (decorated) and often coloured.

See a video of traditional clog dancing at:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xfHY8q3tpA

Note the similarities to traditional Irish dancing.

Dutch clog dancing has both similarities and differences to Lancashire clog dancing, see:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0ScLgkXGt0

One final note on Lancashire clogs. Men who wished to settle differences frequently did so by squaring off against each other by “clog fighting”. In Lancashire it was curiously known as “purring”, with a contemporary account as follows:

It is all up and down fighting here. They fought quite naked, excepting their clogs. When one has the other down on the ground he first endeavors to choke him by squeezing his throat, then he kicks him on the head with his clogs. Sometimes they are very severely injured.

—Chris Brady

Funny Friday

2013-05-17T05:45:00.000+10:00

Having posted some items recently about tattooing, what better subject for a Funny Friday. . .

Caution: some of the humour is risque.

A man in love with his new wife decides to have her name, Wendy, tattooed on his privates.

He then goes on holidays with her to the Caribbean.

Whist standing at a urinal next to one of the locals he looks down and notices the local also has the letters “WY” on his willy.

"Hey, couldn't help notice the tattoo" he says to the local. "Your wife's name is also Wendy?” he asks.

"No, mon" says the local. “When I get aroused it says WELCOME TO BARBADOS, HAVE A NICE DAY".

Whenever I go on the pull, I always look for a woman who has a tattoo.

I see a woman with a tattoo and I think "here's a bird who's capable of making a decision she'll regret in the future.

My son's just had a tattoo of a heart, a spade, a club and a diamond.

I'll deal with him later.

Limerick Corner:

I have read that the following limerick dates from the 1700's:

There was a young girl from Cape Cod
Who thought babies were fashioned by God.
But it wasn’t the Almighty
Who lifted her nightie,
'Twas Roger the lodger, the sod!

10 Henry Ford Quotes

2013-05-16T01:29:00.002+10:00

From Wikipedia:

Henry Ford (July 30, 1863 – April 7, 1947) was an American industrialist, the founder of the Ford Motor Company, and sponsor of the development of the assembly line technique of mass production. Although Ford did not invent the automobile, he developed and manufactured the first automobile that many middle class Americans could afford to buy. His introduction of the Model T automobile revolutionized transportation and American industry. As owner of the Ford Motor Company, he became one of the richest and best-known people in the world. He is credited with “Fordism”, mass production of inexpensive goods coupled with high wages for workers. Ford had a global vision, with consumerism as the key to peace. His intense commitment to systematically lowering costs resulted in many technical and business innovations, including a franchise system that put dealerships throughout most of North America and in major cities on six continents. Ford left most of his vast wealth to the Ford Foundation but arranged for his family to control the company permanently.

By the way...

Ford was also widely known for his pacifism during the first years of World War 1 and for being the publisher of anti-Semitic texts texts such as the book The International Jew. In 1924 Heinrich Himmler described Ford as "one of our most valuable, important, and witty fighters." Hitler praised him in Mein Kampf and, in 1931, described him as an “inspiration”, stating that was why he kept Ford’s lifesize portrait next to his desk. Although Ford declined requests to support the Nazi Party, he was nonetheless presented with the highest medal that Nazi Germany could give a foreigner, the Grand Cross of the Supreme Order of the German Eagle, in 1938 on his 75th birthday.

Ford being awarded the Supreme Order of the German Eagle by the German Consul in Cleveland. Ford was the first American and the fourth person in the world to receive this medal.

And Now For Something Completely Different. . .

2013-05-15T01:19:00.002+10:00

Whilst looking up something on the internet the other day I came across a bit of whimsy, the type of thing that we did when we were youngsters but which is still a bit of a giggle to do now.

The item read as follows:

Open your nearest book.

Go to page 73.

Go to the second paragraph.

Go to the third sentence.

This sentence will define your life.

I’m reading a book at the moment called The Battle of Brisbane, Australians and the Yanks at War, the story of two days of rioting and fighting between American military personnel and Australian servicemen and civilians in Brisbane in 1942. The battle was the culmination of resentments and tensions that had built up as increasing numbers of US soldiers were stationed in the city. It may form a future post on Bytes.

Knowing that a random selection of a line out of a book would hardly define my life, I nonetheless reached for the above book that was with me next to my laptop and I looked up the line on page 73.

It reads as follows:

“In the darkness, he tried to strangle her.”

I mentioned it to my wife and asked her to try it with the book nearest to her, a whodunit that she is currently reading, Stuart McBride’s Dying Light.

Her line reads:

“It should have been more than enough reason for him to dislike the pushy wee shite, but for some bizarre reason it wasn’t.”

Try it yourself with your friends.

And a couple of other giggles:

1. Pick a number between 1 and 10, not 1 or 10.

2. Multiply that number by 9.

3. You now have a 2 digit number. Add the 2 digits.

4. Take away 5.

5. If 1 = A, 2 = B, 3 = C etc, find the letter that corresponds to your number.

6. Think of a country’s name beginning with that letter, the first one that comes to mind.

7. Take the second letter of that country’s name.

8. Think of an animal beginning with that letter, the first one that comes to mind.

9. Think of the colour of that animal.

Comment: There are no grey elephants in Denmark

Tuesday Pics: 2 Artists

2013-05-14T03:21:00.001+10:00

Just as I was looking online at some of the artworks of French artist Francoise Nielle, an email arrived from Byter Leo with photographs of the works of Swedish photographer Erik Johansson.

The two couldn’t be further from each other: one uses oils and palette knives to create bold, vibrant, even aggressive, portraits that are striking and emotive. The other manipulates photographic images to create hi-tech humour and head-scratching whimsy.

Is one form better than the other? Which do I prefer? And why? That will wait for another day. What’s your take on the two?

Here is a potted bio on each and 5 of each of their works. . .

Françoise Nielly is a French knife-painter who is famous for painting vibrant and colourful closeup portraits of people such as Barack Obama. She was born in Marseille, brought up near Cannes ad Saint-Tropez and is now living in Paris. Françoise Nielly's artwork is typically vibrant, and detailed. A lot of her work is inspired by urban life. Françoise uses knives to paint her artwork as she seems to prefer the thick, clean brushstrokes created by them. Painting portraits is her speciality. As a child, she was taught by her father that there was "no room for mistakes", and this has potentially influenced the intricacy of her artwork. She layers her paintings with bright and contrasting colour.

- Wikipedia

See an interview with her, and more of her work, by clicking on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6hT_l3XyKo8

Despite a lack of formal training in photography or studio art — or even classroom instruction in Adobe Photoshop — Erik Johansson has become a master at the art of photo retouching in only a few years. His impossible landscapes seem alternately humorous and menacing, trapping their inhabitants in vexing circumstances beyond their control as if they're witnessing a break in the space-time continuum. Echoing the mathematical preciseness of M.C. Escher and the jocularity of Salvador Dalí, among others, Erik's photographs depict attractive, compelling landscapes where up is often down and perspectives are always misleading. His artistry is evident in the sheer realism that he manages to embed in his scenes, no matter how absurd.

- http://www.adobe.com/inspire/2013/02/interview-erik-johansson.html

See more works by Johansson at:

http://artpicsdesign.blogspot.com.au/2013/05/mind-blowing-photo-manipulations-by.html

Cut & Fold (2012):

"Inspired by the cut-along border of a magazine coupon, I wondered what a landscape would look like if it were peeled back along a road's dotted line like a coupon."

Groundbreaking (2012):

"I was curious how a landscape might behave like water. The couple in the rowboat is my simple way of conveying that idea."

Helping Fall (2011):

"Growing up on a farm with a big garden, I always disliked raking leaves. This is my humorous way of simplifying that chore."

Go Your Own Road (2008):

“I wasn't convinced this scene would turn out when I shot it. A friend simply dragged some fabric behind him and then I merged the road segment onto it."

Self-actualization (2011):

"I've always been inspired by the great Surrealist painters and wanted to incorporate painting into my photography."

Correction

2013-05-13T00:41:00.002+10:00

Byter Terry has pointed out that the flag pole at the top of Parliament House in Canberra is polished stainless steel, not aluminium as I said yesterday. He is right, mea culpa, I should have double checked.

The flag flown from the 81 metre flagpole is 12.8 m by 6.4 m, about the size of half a tennis court. The flagpole weighs 250 tonnes and is made of polished stainless steel from Wollongong. It was designed to be the pinnacle of Parliament House and is an easily recognisable symbol of national government. It is visible by day from outside and inside Parliament House and floodlit at night. The flag itself weighs approximately 15 kg.

- Wikipedia

Thanks Tezza.

Monday Quote

2013-05-13T00:20:00.001+10:00

“Played strong, done fine.”

- Jack Gibson

Peter Sterling with coach Jack Gibson after Parramatta defeated Manly in the 1983 grand final at the SCG in Sydney.

A young Jack Gibson, from his playing days

Jack Gibson (1929-2008) was an Australian rugby league identity – a player, commentator and most notably a coach. He played and coached in Sydney's top grade competition, the New South Wales Rugby Football League, and earned the tag 'Supercoach' after guiding Eastern Suburbs to premierships in 1974 and 1975 and later the Parramatta Eels to three successive premierships from 1981 to 1983. Gibson was highly regarded not only for his coaching record but also for his thirst for innovation. He introduced new coaching and training methods into the sport in the 1970s and 1980s, when first-grade rugby league was then still played and coached on a semi-professional basis.

Some of Gibson’s innovations include:

First to use a computer to evaluate player performance including being the first club coach to track and use individual player tackle counts.
His teams were the first to train with sides from other codes – he trained his team alongside soccer players and used Australian Football specialists as kicking coaches.
Introduced mascara under the eyes to reduce glare for night games under lights.
First to use weights-machines such as the Nautilus exercise machines.
First to use video extensively as a coaching device.
First to have players' fitness scientifically tested in pre-season with the "pinch test" (skinfold method).
First to insist upon his own integrated coaching team including co-ordinator (Ron Massey), fitness conditioner (Mick Souter) and injury treatment/rehabilitation (Alf Richards).
Made the up and under ("bomb") a potent attacking weapon used by both Easts and Parramatta under exponent John Peard.

Ten days before his death at age 79 he was named Coach of the Century by the Australian Rugby League.

According to coach Wayne Bennett:

"He's the most influential coach the game has ever had. He changed the face of our game in how coaches were perceived and how the game was played, and approached. That's his greatest legacy; he brought us out of the dark ages into a credible place in sport. As a person, I loved the guy. He had charisma. He had an aura.''

Coach Bob Fulton:

"He's done more for coaching than any coach since the inception of the game. He put football coaching on the professional roll of honour."

His phrase “Played strong, done fine” became his signature expression of praise. In Gibson’s eyes there was no higher accolade. Those four simple words are not, however, simply a form of post-match praise and comment, they can also be a goal for each of us.

Some More Australian Firsts, and Biggest

2013-05-12T01:56:00.000+10:00

Military firsts:

Louis Brennan - the underwater torpedo 1874:

Brennan invented the idea of a steerable torpedo in 1874 and patented the Brennan Torpedo in 1877. The Brennan torpedo is often claimed as the world's first guided missile bu guided torpedoes invented by others predate it. Brennan's torpedo, however, was much simpler in its concept and worked over an acceptable range at a satisfactory speed so it is more accurately called "the world's first practical guided missile". Brennan’s patent was purchased by the British War Office for a sum believed to be more than £100,000.

In 1903 Brennan patented a gyroscopically-balanced monorail system that he designed for military use and he successfully demonstrated the system on 10 November 1909. No matter how the monorail car leaned, the gyroscope prevented it from falling over and automatically righted any lean. Fears that the gyroscopes might fail prevented adoption of the system for widespread use.

Lance de Mole – the tank 1912:

Model of de Mole’s tank.

Inspired by travelling over rough terrain in the Australian countryside, De Mole developed the idea of a tracked armoured vehicle. Although the need for such a vehicle in warfare had not yet arisen, De Mole repeatedly submitted his proposals to the British War Office from 1912 for a “chain-rail vehicle which could easily be steered and carry heavy loads over rough round and trenches.” His design was ahead of its time but the British War Office lost the plans somehow, built its own and did not pay royalties. In 1919 a Commission acknowledged his concept and design to be vastly superior. He was granted £987 to cover his expenses.

The Biggest:

Australia is the largest island in the world.

The flagpole at Parliament house in Canberra is the largest aluminium object in the world.

The world’s largest cattle property is Strangeray Springs in South Australia. At over 30,000 sq km, it is only slightly smaller than Belgium.

World’s biggest gold nugget:

Bernhardt Otto Holtermann with the Holtermann Nugget, discovered in 1872.

Holtermann with mining colleagues, Holtermann being the seated figure to the left of the "nugget.

It was not strictly speaking a nugget, but rather a specimen or matrix, a vein of gold embedded in rock, in this case quartz. Holtermann was not the only finder but his name came to be associated with the discovery. A larger find was brought to the surface shortly afterwards but was broken up without being photographed. Holtermann tried to buy the find off the Star of Hope Gold Mining Company, in which he was a shareholder, for above market value but that was refused and the "nugget" was melted down for its gold. Holtermann left the company disheartened, settling in St Leonards, a suburb of Sydney. Astute investments made him wealthy, enabling him to pursue his interests of photography, patent medicines and politics, becoming the elected representative for St Leonards. He died on his birthday, 29 April 1885, aged 47, from cancer of the stomach and cirrhosis of the liver.

The world’s biggest alluvial gold nugget is The Welcome Stranger, discovered in Victoria in 1869. It was located 3 cm (1 inch) below the surface beneath a tree.

Miners and their wives posing with the finders of the nugget, Richard Oates, John Deason and his wife.

The nugget was too big to be weighed on conventional scales so was cut into three by the local blacksmith. The discoverers, Oates and Deason, ended up receiving a total of £9,381 for the gold, an amount estimated to be around 3,766,950 dollars (U.S.) in January 2013.

Following the find, Oates returned to the UK, married and came back to Australia. He bought a farm and raised 4 children, dying at age 79. Deason stayed on the gold fields and lost most of his fortune in bad gold investments. He did retain enough to buy a small farm and died in 1915 aged 85.

Dick Deason, grandson of discoverer John Deason, holds a replica of the nugget.

Stockholm Syndrome

2013-05-11T03:05:00.000+10:00

Two weeks ago my daughter asked me to do a Bytes on the origin of Stockholm syndrome, especially as regards its name. She and her work colleagues had been discussing it. I looked into it and wrote it last weekend, intending to post it this weekend. Then the captives in Cleveland escaped. The following post is not inspired by the Cleveland matter, nor is it suggested that those captives developed Stockholm syndrome, or in any way to diminish the horror of their situation.

__________

Stockholm syndrome is also known as capture bonding, trauma bonding and terror bonding.

__________

It is a psychological phenomenon in which victims display compassion for and even loyalty to their captors. The bonding may take the form of expressions of sympathy for the captors, defence of them and sometimes even positive assistance. Victims have been known to decline to escape when given the opportunity.

__________

Stockholm syndrome is named after a robbery of the Kreditbanken at Normalmstorg in Stockholm, Sweden. In 1973 during that robbery four bank employees were held hostage in a bank vault for 6 days by Jan-Erik Olsson and Clark Olofsson. During their captivity the victims became emotionally attached to their captors, rejected assistance from government officials at one point and even defended them after they were freed from their six-day ordeal. The world was shocked by photographs of them kissing and hugging their captors after release.

The captives during the robbery with their captor at right

During the siege in Stockholm

__________

Though the precise origin of the term Stockholm syndrome is debated, it is often attributed to remarks during a subsequent news broadcast by the Swedish criminologist and psychiatrist Nils Bejerot, who had assisted the police during the robbery.

__________

One commonly used hypothesis to explain the effect of Stockholm syndrome is based on Freudian theory. It suggests that the bonding is the individual’s response to trauma in becoming a victim. Identifying with the aggressor is one way that the ego defends itself. When a victim believes the same values as the aggressor, they no longer become a threat.

__________

According to a 2007 FBI publication, the conditions favouring the development of Stockholm Syndrome feature:

captors who do not abuse the victim;

a long duration before resolution;

continued contact between the perpetrator and hostage; and

a high level of emotion.

Experts believe that it is the intensity, not the length of the incident, combined with a lack of physical abuse, that is important in developing the Syndrome:

http://www.fbi.gov/stats-services/publications/law-enforcement-bulletin/2007-pdfs/july07leb.pdf/at_download/file

__________

The FBI publication mentioned above defines three characteristics of Stockholm Syndrome, although they do not always exist together:

1) Hostages have positive feelings for their captors.

2) Victims show fear, distrust, and anger toward the authorities.

3) Captors display positive feelings toward captives as they begin to see them as human beings

In essence, eventually, the hostage views the perpetrator as giving life by simply not taking it, resulting in bonding.

Another site has summarised the causes and characteristics of the syndrome as follows:

Individuals can apparently succumb to Stockholm syndrome under the following circumstances:

Believing one's captor can and will kill them.

Isolation from anyone but the captors.

Belief that escape is impossible.

Inflating the captor's acts of kindness into genuine care for each other's welfare.

Victims of Stockholm syndrome generally suffer from severe isolation and emotional and physical abuse demonstrated in characteristics of battered spouses, incest victims, abused children, prisoners of war, cult victims and kidnapped or hostage victims. Each of these circumstances can result in victims responding in a compliant and supportive way as a tactic for survival.

__________

Some other points made in the FBI article:

According to the FBI’s Hostage Barricade Database System, which contains data pertaining to over 4,700 reported federal, state, and local hostage/barricade incidents, 73 percent of captives show no evidence of Stockholm syndrome.

Nearly 96 percent of hostage and barricade situations in the United States are domestic in nature; involve suicide, attempted suicide, and domestic violence; and include subjects with an existing relationship. For Stockholm syndrome to occur, the incident must take place between strangers.

It is also an integral element that the hostage fears and resents law enforcement as much as or more than the captors.

Hostage negotiators often try to foster Stockholm Syndrome, even if it results in less likelihood of successful conviction, because it increases the chances of hostage survival.

__________

Some famous examples of Stockholm Syndrome:

Elizabeth Smart:

Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her home in Salt Lake City,Utah, in 2002 when she was aged 14. She was found 9 months later not far from her home in the company of Brian Mitchell and Wanda Barzee, who were eventually convicted of her kidnapping. Her abductors had not held her captive, as initially believed. Elizabeth Smart had walked in public, attended parties, and even refused to reveal her true identity when ﬁrst approached

by police. Perhaps, even more puzzling than her initial reluctance to escape was her apparent concern upon rescue about the fate of her captors. “What’s going to happen to them? Are they in trouble?” she asked. When informed by ofﬁcers that they likely would face punishment, she started to cry and sobbed the whole way to the station.

Patty Hearst:

Patty Hearst, the granddaughter of publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst, was kidnapped by the Symbionese Liberation Army, a left wing revolutionary group, in February 1974. During her 19 months captivity she was photographed participating in an armed bank holdup. She sent audiotaped messages to her parents denouncing their lifestyles, declared that she had joined the SLA and that she had adopted the name “Tania”.. She also took part in other SLA illegal activities. After being arrested and charged in September 1975, she alleged that she had been held in close confinement, sexually assaulted and brainwashed. It is considered that her case is one of Stockholm Syndrome. She was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment but this was eventually commuted by President Jimmy Carter. She was released from prison on February 1, 1979, having served 22 months and was granted a full pardon by President Bill Clinton in 2001 as his last official act.

Participating in bank holdup

Striking a pose for the SLA, an image that became iconic.

Jaycee Lee Dugard:

Jaycee was kidnapped in 1991 in California whilst walking from home to a school bus stop. She was 11. She was located after 18 years and her captors, Phillip Garrido and Nancy Garrido, received sentences of 431 years and 36 years to life respectively. During her captivity Jaycee had two daughters to Garrido, aged 11 and 15 at the time of her reappearance.

It is considered that her captivity is a classic case of Stockholm syndrome: she had many opportunities to escape but chose to stay, she defended Garrido and even lied to the police about her identity, the abduction and her relationship with Garrido.

Natascha Kampusch:

Natascha Kampousch was aged 10 when abducted in 1998 whilst on her way to school in Austria. During her 8 years of captivity by kidnapper Wolfgang Pnklopil, she was held in a small cellar underneath Priklopil’s garage. Like Jaycee Lee Dugard, in the later years of her captivity she had opportunities of escape but did not take them until she bolted one day whilst cleaning his car. She was then 18. Knowing the police were after him, Priklopil committed suicide by jumping in front of a train. Hearing about his suicide, Kampusch burst into tears and lit a candle for him at the morgue. She later stated "All I can say is that, bit by bit, I feel more sorry for him." She also later said that she saw Priklopil a "poor soul — lost and misguided." Although it has been suggested that she had developed Stockholm syndrome, Kampusch denies it, saying that people who use this term about her are disrespectful of her right to describe and analyse for herself the complex relationship she had with her kidnapper.

__________

Lima Syndrome

The opposite of Stockholm syndrome is known as Lima syndrome, the phenomenon where the hostage takers become more sympathetic to the plights and needs of the hostages.

It is named after the Japanese embassy hostage crisis in Lima, Peru where 14 members of the Tupac Amaru Revolutionary Movement (MRTA) took hundreds of people hostage at a party at the official residence of Japan’s ambassador to Peru. The hostages consisted of diplomats, government and military officials, and business executives of many nationalities who happened to be at the party at the time. It began on December 17, 1996 and ended on April 22, 1997.

Within a few days of the hostage crisis, the militants had released most of the captives, with seeming disregard for their importance, including the future President of Peru, and the mother of the current President.

After months of unsuccessful negotiations, all remaining hostages were freed by a raid by Peruvian commandos, although one hostage was killed.

Funny Friday

2013-05-10T01:48:00.005+10:00

Did anyone see the news item last week about the snooker player interrupted as he lined up a shot? For those who are not aficionados of snooker, let me make the point that it is considered on a par with cricket as regards tradition, reverence and the gentlemanly pursuit of the game. Silence during play is de rigueur. Regular watchers of the BBC show Pot Black may recall “Whispering Ted” Lowe’s softly spoken commentaries (He died in 2011 aged 90). It was therefore with some amusement that I read and viewed the news items about a member of the audience audibly breaking wind, not just once but twice, during a televised game as a competitor lined up a shot. On the second occasion the commentator offered the suggestion that a member of the audience may have been unwell.

See it by clicking on:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55b3Q_yLTzY

One other significant point wasn’t mentioned in any of the reports that I saw about the incident. The game was between Judd Trump and Ronnie O’Sullivan, with Trump being the player interrupted. The word “trump” is English slang for “fart”.

Which brings me to today’s Funny Friday contribution: A Fart From The Heart.

A previous post on fart jokes made the point that my good wife Kate was unable to appreciate the fine humour in them.

That post is at:

http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com.au/2013/03/funny-friday.html

Kate is not a wowser, far from it, but her attitude is (to my experience) typical of the female of the species, that women in general do not like fart jokes whereas men do.

A number of persons, male of course, contacted me after that posting to support my comments.

Byter Philip expressed his disagreement with my wife but did so graciously, at the same time indicating that his wife likewise is not of his opinion. The sisterhood sticks together. Here is his email:

Hi Otto,

At the risk of offending Kate before I have met her … in the 1960’s my father and brother and I used to roll around the floor laughing every single time he played a record featuring the “farting post”. (I think that was also the name of the record but I could be wrong.) Dad is now 90 years old and I have told him I can hardly wait to get my hands on his pile of 78’s when he kicks off, so I can find the “farting post” and play it over and over again … but only when Enid is not there of course.

All the best.

Philip

Byter Kieran even sent me another fart joke:

Hi Otto,

I like the double entendre for Leslie Nielsen’s modest headstone with “RIP” in it.

As for farting jokes, one of my favourites is similar to the lady requiring a new battery for her hearing aid:

A little old lady goes to the doctor and says "Doctor, I have this problem with gas, but it really doesn't bother me too much. My farts never smell and are always silent. As a matter of fact, I've farted at least 20 times since I've been here in your office. You didn't know I was farting because they don't smell and are silent."

The doctor says "I see, take these pills and come back to see me next week."

The next week the lady comes back. "Doctor," she says, "I don't know what the hell you gave me, but now my farts...although still silent...stink terribly."

The doctor says "Good!!! Now that we've cleared up your sinuses, let's work on your hearing."

Which is a perfect opportunity to add another to the pile, a favourite that I couldn’t post last time because of space:

In a small Egyptian village one Mohamad El Caribe sits down one night to a large plate of ful, the dish made of fava beans. The next day when he is at his stall in the marketplace he feels an urge to pass gas but he stifles it. The more he suppresses the urge, the more the pressure builds until, eventually, the pressure is released. The noise is so loud and so sustained that everyone stops, all activity ceases as the trumpet continues sounding. At end not a word is spoken. Instead stunned people in the marketplace stare at Mohamad. He slinks away to his humble residence, ashamed and humiliated. That night, under cover of darkness, he steals away and becomes a desert nomad.

As he grows old he would like again to see the place of his birth and childhood for one last time. He reasons that after this time everyone will have forgotten him and what he did.

Eventually he makes it back to the village and enters the marketplace where he finds that a large supermarket has replaced the stallholders. He stops someone and asks when the supermarket had been built. The man does some calculations in his head and replies “I will tell you. It was twenty years, 2 months and 11 days from when Mohamad El Caribe farted in the marketplace.”

This next one is more an audio joke so use your imagination:

Three Eskimo were talking about how cold it was when one mentioned that his igloo was as cold as he could remember. The Eskimo said, “Come to my igloo and I’ll show you how cold it is.” So the three men trodded off to the igloo and there they found a can of beer frozen solid.

The second Eskimo said, “My igloo is much colder than this; come over and see what I mean.” So they took off for the second Eskimo’s igloo to find that a fresh pot of hot coffee froze as it was poured into a cup.

The third Eskimo said, “That’s not cold, my igloo is so much colder than both of yours. Come over and see.” So they tracked through the snow to the third igloo where the Eskimo pulled down the furs on his bed. The other two Eskimo stared in amazement at 3 frozen balls that lay on the bed. The Eskimo lit a match and held it under the three frozen balls and they burst with a ‘fart,’ ‘fart,’ ‘fart.’

"Whoever smells it first, out of him it crept."

- Martin Luther

Some of you will know the common response to “Who farted?”, namely that it must have been the person who asked in that "He who smelt it, dealt it."

Here is a collection of responses, (“she” can be substituted for “he”):

He who observed it, served it.

He who detected it, ejected it.

He who said the rhyme, did the crime.

Whoever spoke last, made the blast.

Whoever smelt it, dealt it.

Whoever denied it, supplied it.

The person who speaks, is the person who reeks.

The smeller's the feller.

He who inculpated, promulgated.

The one who said the verse made the atmosphere worse.

Whoever's poking fun is the smoking gun

He who accuses, blew the fuses.

He who refuted it, tooted it.

He who pointed the finger, pulled the finger.

He who articulated it, particulated it.

He who deduced it, produced it.

He who is a smart-ass, has a fart-ass

He who sniffed it, biffed it.

The slanderer made the gland error.

He who eulogised it, aerosolized it.

Whoever made the joke, made the arse smoke.

He who rapped it, crapped it.

Whoever rebuts, it cuts it.

Whoever spoke it, broke it.

Whoever started, farted.

Whoever explained it, ordained it.

Whoever described it, applied it.

LIMERICK CORNER

Some flatulence limericks . . .

There was a young man from Sparta

Who was an incredible farter

On the strength of one bean

He’d fart 'God Save the Queen'

and Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata'

A flatulent actor named Barton

Led a life exceedingly spartan.

Til a playwright one day

Wrote a well-received play

With a part in for Barton to fart in.

Bruce practised on cabbage and fruit,

And would often remark “What a beaut!”

Till his wife barked out “Strewth!

Must you be so uncouth?

Can’t you just switch your arsehole to ‘mute’?

With the service only just started,

It couldn’t be the poor dear departed,

Who cleared half the aisle,

With an odour quite vile,

It must be the vicar who farted!

Bonus item:

If anyone would like to read an amusing, if somewhat gross, exchange amongst NASA’s Apollo 10 astronauts when they encountered floating human waste in their capsule, click on the following link:

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/technology/sci-tech/nasas-apollo-10-astronauts-encountered-floating-human-waste/story-fn5h1ywy-1226617372437

It has been described as “Close Encounters of the Turd Kind.”

The Human Computer

2013-05-09T06:04:00.001+10:00

Byter Maureen sent me the following email:

I think this piece In Memoriam would make a good subject for bytes. How did she do it?

Best regards,

Maz

In Memoriam

Shakuntala Devi was born in Bangalore, India, to an orthodox priestly Kannada Brahmin family. Her father rebelled against becoming a temple priest and instead joined a circus, where he worked as a trapeze and tightrope performer, and later as a lion tamer and a human cannonball. Shakuntala Devi was only about three years old when, playing cards, her father discover her amazing ability at number crunching.

Despite having had no formal education, in 1977 in the USA she competed against a computer to see who could find the cube root of 188138517 faster; Shakuntala won.

Later, she was asked to calculate the 23rd root of a 201-digit number; she answered in 50 seconds. Her answer—546,372,891—was confirmed by calculations done at the U.S. Bureau of Standards by the Univac 1101 computer, for which a special program had to be written to perform such a large calculation.

On June 18, 1980, she demonstrated the multiplication of two 13-digit numbers 7,686,369,774,870 x 2,465,099,745,779 picked at random by the Computer Department of Imperial College, London. She correctly answered 18,947,668,177,995,426,462,773,730 in 28 seconds - again, she was 20 seconds faster than a computer.

Ms Devi died last week at age of 83.

Thanks Mazza.

This is from another report:

Shakuntala Devi, who has died aged 83, lacked any formal education but possessed such an extraordinary ability to complete the most complex mathematical calculations in double-quick time that she became known as ''the human computer''.

As India's most remarkable mathematical prodigy, she had astounded friends and family with her numerical prowess since childhood. She once calculated the 23rd root of a 201-digit number in her head in less than a minute, and in June 1980, at Imperial College, London, accurately multiplied two random 13-digit numbers in a few seconds, a feat that earned her a place in the Guinness Book of Records.

Her ability to solve complicated arithmetical problems with apparent ease and astonishing speed had stunned observers since the 1970s, when her unexplained brain power made even sophisticated digital devices of the day seem inadequate by comparison. Witty and sharp-minded, she possessed exceptional powers of retention and appeared to harness the power of several mnemonic devices in her brain.

In 1988 she visited the US, where the educational psychologist Professor Arthur Jensen tried to unlock the secret of her abilities. At Stanford University he monitored her performance in several tasks involving large numbers and subjected her to a series of tests.

When volunteers wrote problems on a blackboard, Shakuntala Devi would turn around, stare at the problem and come up with the right answer, always in less than a minute. According to Jensen, in a research study published in the journal Intelligence in 1990: ''Devi solved most of the problems faster than I was able to copy them in my notebook.''

Jensen set her two problems, the cube root of 61,629,875, and the seventh root of 170,859,375. Shakuntala Devi gave the correct answers - 395 and 15 - even before Jensen's wife could start the stopwatch.

The study explored whether Shakuntala Devi's feats derived from some innate ability to manipulate large numbers or from practice. Her reaction times on simple cognitive tasks such as picking the odd man out were unexceptional, and contrasted sharply with her speed at arithmetical calculations.

Jensen suggested that she perceived large numbers differently from others. ''For a calculating prodigy like Devi, the manipulation of numbers is apparently like a native language, whereas for most of us, arithmetic calculation is at best like the foreign language we learnt at school,'' he wrote.

Shakuntala Devi was born on November 4, 1929, in Bangalore. Her father, refusing to follow the family priestly tradition, became a circus performer.

When she was three, Shakuntala began exhibiting precocious skill with numbers, and by the time she was five, could calculate cube roots. A year later she amazed mathematicians at Mysore University with her ability to solve complex mathematical problems in her head. But she had no conventional schooling, mainly on account of her father's travels with the circus.

While growing up in a run-down area of Bangalore, Shakuntala was able to retain large numbers of digits in her memory. This singular talent came to wider attention when she beat one of the world's fastest computers by 10 seconds in a complicated calculation.

A daughter survives her.

http://www.theage.com.au/national/obituaries/maths-ability-earned-human-computer-tag-20130430-2irec.html#ixzz2SjP4DUGa

An appreciation of the enormity of her talent is lessened by the sheer size of the numbers, by the inability of our minds to comprehend the numbers involved. Stalin famously said that the death of one person is a tragedy, the death of a million is a statistic.

I am hopeless at maths, always have been, hated it in high school. These days pushing buttons on a calculator occasionally is the extent of my advanced maths. Without a calculator I am like the primitive tribes that regard everything after 3 as “many”.

Nonetheless, I am impressed by the late Ms Devi, dubbed the Human Computer.

If the mind can do something like that, whether because wires are crossed or for some other unknown cause, what can it achieve if unlocked?

Yet minds also come up with 9/11, Boston bombings, the Cleveland captive girls . . .

Sad in so many ways.

10 Items on Attitude

2013-05-08T02:48:00.000+10:00

Tuesday Pics

2013-05-07T00:20:00.002+10:00

Not long ago I posted pics of parodies of Van Gogh’s De Sterrennacht – The Starry Night – one of his most famous works and the subject of a previous Bytes in its own right.

It is not only the palette that is painted blue and grey, there is also ink on skin. How good are some of these tatts of The Starry Night . . .

One question: why are most of the tattooees with Starry Night women?

On another aspect, even if you’re not an afficionado of skin art, think about the difficulty in reproducing a realistic copy of a well known art work on skin, using only a needle and ink.

Some other Van Gogh works turned into tatt’s. . .

and a Norman Rockwell artwork to finish off. . .

Another Gough Whitlam Anecdote

2013-05-06T01:42:00.001+10:00

Risque content follows:

Readers will know that I am an admirer of the wit and wisdom of former Prime Minister Gough Whitlam. Here is another, from Barry Cohen’s book Whitlam to Winston, which sadly is out of print.

Some preliminary comments:

There are two views on how the name Cicero should be pronounced. Commonly it is spoken as siss-ser-o, but there is another school of thought that holds that the traditional Latin pronunciation is either kick-er-o or keek-er-o. This is also the comment in Wikipedia.

The pronunciation of Cicero has been an ongoing debate for centuries. In Alexander Pope’s Dunciad (1742) the character Arstarchus comments:

"Tis true on words is still our whole debate

Disputes on me and te, or aut and at,

To sound or sink in cano o or a

Or give up Cicero to c or k"

Likewise the name Cockburn is pronounced as Ko-burn by some and as Cock-burn by others.

Prime Minister Gough Whitlam and Governor-General Sir Paul Hasluck

From Cohen's book:

A MATTER OF PRONUNCIATION

Speaking at the farewell dinner to Governor-General Sir Paul Hasluck in July 1974, Gough said of Sir Paul that ‘he was the greatest proconsul since Cicero’. In his response Sir Paul good-humourdly corrected Gough’s pronunciation of Cicero, pronouncing it with a hard C – KICKERO.

Some days later Milton Cockburn, respected Sydney Morning Herald journalist but at the time one of Clyde Cameron’s private secretaries, was sitting in the adviser’s box while a Matter of Public Importance was being debated in the House of Representatives. The debate over, he left the House and promptly bumped into the Prime Minister.

‘Who are you?’ enquired the Great Man.

‘I’m Milton Cockburn,’ he replied.

‘That should be pronounced CO’BURN,’ Gough informed him.

‘Well -- I don’t think that anyone who can’t pronounce ‘Cicero’ correctly should be telling me how to pronounce my name,’ replied the brash young adviser.

The eyebrows raised, the eyes widened and then, turning to his colleague Chris Hurford standing nearby, he gasped: ‘He’s a cheeky little c- - t isn’t he -- and that’s with a hard C.’

SOURCE: Milton Cockburn

Reader Comments

2013-05-06T01:26:00.001+10:00

Yesterday’s posting of the photograph that won the 1959 Pulitzer Prize for Photography drew some comments from Byters, as did the news photograph of a smiling William Seaman holding his winning photograph. These were the two photographs:

The caption below the smiling William Seaman reads as follows:

(As I have previously advised, the blog does not permit comments except by those who are subscribers. This is because of the amount of daily spam that gets posted each time I have opened up for comments. If you want to comment, subscribe: not only will you receive the daily item in your email, you will also be able to email me or post direct on the blog).

Kara wrote:

Good Morning Otto

The figure in the photo that I find most interesting is the boy in the striped t-shirt to the left of the woman (who appears to have just returned to the kerbside). Has he spotted a particularly interesting bug on the road or do his hunched shoulders, head down stance suggest, as they do to me, that he is struggling to cope with the scene or perhaps what he witnessed - no comfort seems to be forthcoming.

Re the big smile, I wouldn't be surprised if the photograph caused embarrassment to the original photographer in later years - while obviously very pleased with his success at the time I can imagine when looking back he too would think, like you and I, that the cheery smile and the image he is holding are slightly mismatched. Presumably the photo of a prize winner would have been published, more than a little distressing for the parents to see however long after the event.

Kara

Doug commented:

Hi Otto,

This picture always has a powerful impact on me. Your writing is excellent.

The picture contains such contrasts:

1. Boy's wagon compared to cars

2. Adults compared to children

3. Healthy children in the background compared to that very unfortunate dead child

4. Authority figures compared to their helplessness

5. Beautiful sunny day compared to this tragedy

The photographer smiling about winning an award based on the death of an innocent child is yet another contrast. It really is strange to see him smiling like that.

Great work as always. I really enjoy this series.

Regards,

Doug

Pulitzer and World Press Photos of the Year: 1959

2013-05-05T03:45:00.000+10:00

Continuing the list of the winners of the Pulitzer Prize for Photography, from inception in 1942; and the World Press Photograph of the Year, from inception in 1955:

Year: 1959

Award: Pulitzer Prize for Photography

Photographer: William Seaman of the Minneapolis Star

Photograph: Too late - the doctor walked away."

Comments:

Unlike the previous year’s winner of a young boy looking up at a police officer, innocent and joyous -

the 1959 image of a young boy and a policeman is sad and awful. The boy, under a sheet covering his lifeless body, lies alone on the street, his mangled wagon nearby.

According to the Pulitzer jury that made the award, it went to Seaman for his “dramatic photograph of the sudden death of a child in the street.”

Seaman had been driving the streets looking for a newsworthy photograph for his paper. At a red light he watched a young boy, Ralph Leonard Fossum, aged 9, with a red wagon try to cross the busy street.. Having a son of the same age, Seaman’s attention had been drawn to him and Seaman warned him nit to cross because of the danger. The young boy retreated back to the curb and Seaman drove on. Moments later he heard on the police radio that a young boy had been killed by a garbage truck. Fearing the worst he rushed back and found that it was the same boy he had just spoken with.

Seaman, born in 1925, had worked in a photographic studio whilst still at high school. In 1945 he commenced work with the Minneapolis Star and stayed with that newspaper until its closure in 1982. He was known for his action photography, especially his sports photographs. Following his retirement he took up oil painting, dying in 1997.

Some comments about the photograph:

This photograph would probably not be published today, as being too personal, invasive, graphic and sensationalist, especially in that it concerns the death of a young child. Contrast it, however, with some of the graphic images that were published after the Oklahoma and WTC bombings.

The doctor walking away, the police officer standing away from the covered body, writing in his notepad, the women at the side with their backs to the body, which lies alone and unattended, all makes the scene even more poignant and the little boy’s death so lonely and so sad.

Where were/are his parents?

The eye is led into the scene by the mangled remains of Ralph’s wagon and directed to the covered body, the centre of the photograph.

One final point:

There is no doubt that winning a Pulitzer is a great honour, but does anyone else question whether a big smile in front of that photograph was appropriate . . .

No World Press Photo award was given in 1959.

In case you missed it... Creepy Things Kids Say

2013-05-04T00:40:00.001+10:00

Reddit is a social news and entertainment website where users who have signed up as registered users can submit content, either as a link or by text. It is essentially a bulletin board and other users then vote items up or down as to the prominence given. The name Reddit is a contraction of read/edit and a play on “read it”, as in “I read it on Reddit”.

Recently Reddit invited readers to post items on the topic “What is the most creepy thing your child has ever said to you?” They were flooded with responses, 10,000 in less than 24 hours, and it has now gone viral. Here is the link:

http://www.reddit.com/r/AskReddit/comments/1d2v7i/parents_of_reddit_what_is_the_creepiest_thing/

For those who don’t have the inclination or the time (Old joke: They’re going to put a clock in The Leaning Tower of Pisa, it’s always had the inclination but not the time. Boom boom tish), here is a selection of the ones I liked:

I was tucking in my two year old. He said "Good bye dad." I said, "No, we say good night." He said "I know. But this time it’s good bye."

Not to me, but to his grandmother.

He was cuddling with her and being very sweet (he was about 3 at the time). He takes her face in his hands, and brings his face close to hers, then tells her that she's very old, and will die soon.

Then he makes a point of looking at the clock.

I jokingly asked: "What's the best way to get a girlfriend?"

7-year-old's response: "Tell her to be my girlfriend or she'll never see her parents again."

My 3 year old daughter stood next to her new born brother and looked at him for awhile then turned and looked at me and said, "Daddy it’s a monster..we should bury it."

I was on a bus recently and we were stopped outside a walk-in clinic. A little girl in the seat in front of me turned to her dad and said, "Death is the poor man's doctor." And that was that.

Why are you crying?

"Bad man"

What bad man?

"There." Points behind me at a dark corner of the room

Lamp on bookshelf next to said darkened corner falls off as soon as I turn to look.

She slept in our bed that night

I was sound asleep, and at around 6.00am I was woken up by my 4 year old daughter's face inches from mine. She looked right into my eyes and whispered, "I want to peel all your skin off".

The backstory here is I had been sunburned the previous week, and was starting to peel. In my sleep addled state however, it was pretty terrifying for a few seconds. I didn't know if I was dreaming, or what was going on.

"My brain is telling me to do things I don't want to do."

He's 4.

Edit : A little context. Like many kids, he has an imaginary friend, he has just correctly identified the imaginary friend as "my brain." So when he says "my brain is telling me to do things I don't want to do," he means "my imaginary friend wants to play a game that I don't want to." Now if only the game wasn't "burn them! burn them all!"

While changing my daughter in front of the open closet door. She kept looking around me and laughing. I asked her what was so funny. She said, "the man." To which I replied, "what man?" She then pointed at the closet and said, "the man with the snake neck." I turn around and nothing was there. I'm afraid to look into the history of my house to see if anyone hung themselves in the closet. At least she wasn't scared.

I work in a preschool. Creepy shit gets said and done all the time. The one that sticks out to me happened last year. There is a small kitchenette area in our classroom that the kids use during free time for playing house or whatever pretend games they think up. There was one little girl that I was keeping a close eye on, mostly because of how withdrawn from the other kids she was. I noticed she was playing with a babydoll in the kitchenette, rocking it back and forth and singing to it.

She then took the baby, shoved it into the play oven and slammed the door shut. She turned around, looked straight at me, and said, "Sometimes bad babies go in timeout" in the creepiest little girl voice I've ever heard before smiling and running off. That one kind of shook me.

edit: I've had a lot of people messaging me and telling me that I should keep an eye on her parents/suggesting she was abused. The concern is very heartwarming and I'm glad to see it but I can assure you that this was not the problem. She just enjoys saying outlandish things because she enjoys the reaction. It's pretty common for kids to do, this was just a more terrifying example.

My niece was sitting on the couch with a weird look on her face. Her mom asked her what she was thinking about, and she said, "I'm imagining the waves of blood rushing over me."

Turned out they had been at a local science museum with an exhibit on the circulatory system. One of the features was a walk among some giant fake blood vessels, and she was remembering that.

"So I shouldn't throw him in the fire?"

3 year old daughter holding her baby brother for the first time.

Getting my two and a half year old daughter out of the bath one night, my wife and I were briefing her on how important it was she kept her privates clean. She casually replied "Oh, nobody 'scroofs' me there. They tried one night. They kicked the door in and tried but I fought back. I died and now I'm here." She said this like it was nothing.

I was tucking my 3-year-old son into bed and asking what was his favorite part of the day... Son: "It was playing with that man." Me: "What man?" Son: "THAT man"

When I was about 3 we had a cat that had still born kittens. I asked my father if we could make crosses for them, which he did. As he was making them I asked:

"Aren't those too small?"

Dad: "What do you mean?"

Me: "Aren't we going to nail them to them?"

Dad: (after several moments silence) "We're not going to do that."

Me: "Oh."

A good friend of mine and her husband bought what is considered an 'old' house around here. (Western Canada...not many houses over 100 years old). They were renovating the basement one day while I was visiting. I was down there alone with their son, who was barely 2 at the time, and could not yet speak in full sentences. He took my hand and led me over to a brick chimney-like thing thing, with a rusty metal door on it. He looked up and said 'That's where the dead babies go.'

I was horrified. Firstly, because, like I said, the kid could barely talk, let alone say something like that. I doubt he even knew what 'dead' meant. I'm positive that no one would have told him that, and there were no older kids around that would have said that as a joke. Still creeps me out to this day.

While not something my own child has said, my younger cousin (around 5 at the time) once drew a picture of a a black monster, looked up at me, and said "He told me to draw this. He's coming for you. You better hide."

My daughter likes to come into our bedroom and wake me up by whispering into my ear, "There is no Aida, only Zuul" in this really creepy voice.

And the creepiest of all:

My daughter told me she wanted to live with me and my wife forever. She's 17

AAARGHHH!!!

Funny Friday

2013-05-03T04:39:00.001+10:00

Some risque and some non PC content follows. Venture on at y'own risk. . .

The following item came up in a conference with a barrister last night. I was aware of the first part of the story but counsel advised me of the additional part, which I had not previously heard. This one's for you, Nick . . .

George and Lenny decide to cross North America in a hot air balloon. However, neither were particularly experienced balloonists, and Lenny's mind quickly drifted from navigation to thoughts of how clouds look like cuddly little bunny rabbits. Upon realising that they were lost, George declared, "Lenny -- we are going to have to lose some altitude so we can figure out where we are."

George lets some hot air out of the balloon, which slowly descended below the clouds, but he still couldn't tell where they were. Far below, they could see a man on the ground. George lowered the balloon, to ask the man their location.

When they were low enough, George called down to the man, "Hey, can you tell us where we are?" The man on the ground yelled back, "Throw down $100 and I’ll tell you.”

They tied $100 to a weight and dropped it, whereupon the man yelled “You're in a balloon, about 100 feet up in the air."

George called down to the man, "You must be a lawyer." He yelled "How can you tell?" George answered "Because the advice you gave us cost a lot of money, is 100% accurate, and is completely useless".

The man called back up to the balloon, "You must be a client."

George yelled back, "Why do you say that?"

"Well," the man replied, "You don't know where you are, or where you are going. You got into your predicament through a lack of planning and could have avoided it by asking for help before you acted. You expect me to provide an instant remedy. The fact is you are in the exact same position you were in before we met, but now it is somehow my fault."

My neighbour knocked on my door at 2:30am this morning, can you believe that, 2:30am?! Luckily for him I was still up playing my bagpipes.

Statistically, 6 out of 7 dwarves are not Happy.

Paddy says "Mick, I'm thinking of buying a Labrador.” "Sod that," says Mick, "Have you seen how many of their owners go blind?"

I was explaining to my wife last night that when you die you get reincarnated but must come back as a different creature. She said "I would like to come back as a cow." I said "You’re obviously not listening."

The wife has been missing a week now. Police said to prepare for the worst. So I have been to the charity shop to get all her clothes back.

Local police are hunting the 'Knitting Needle Nutter’, who has stabbed six people in the village in the last 48 hours. Police believe the attacker could be following some kind of pattern.

Since the snow came all the wife has done is look through the window. If it gets any worse, I'll have to let her in.

I've been charged with murder for killing a man with sandpaper. To be honest I only intended to rough him up a bit.

After years of research, scientists have discovered what makes women happy.

Nothing.

Two women called at my door and asked what bread I ate, when I said white they gave me a lecture on the benefits of brown bread for 30 minutes.

I think they were those Hovis Witnesses.

Seven wheelchair athletes have been banned from the Paralympics after they tested positive for WD40.

A mummy covered in chocolate and nuts has been discovered in Egypt .

Archaeologists believe it may be Pharaoh Rocher...

IT'S A BOY" I shouted "A BOY, I DON'T BELIEVE IT, IT'S A BOY"

And with tears streaming down my face I swore I'd never visit another Thai brothel!!!

Two Indian junkies accidentally snorted curry powder instead of cocaine.

Both in hospital...one's in a korma.. The other's got a dodgy tikka!

Sailing results are in, GB took gold, USA took silver and Somalia took a middle aged couple from Weymouth.

An Englishman has started his own business in Afghanistan ! He is making land mines that look like prayer mats! It's doing well! Prophets are going through the roof!!

A boy asks his granny, 'Have you seen my pills, they were labelled LSD?'

Granny replies, “Bugger the pills, have you seen the dragons in the kitchen?!”

Limerick spot:

A rabbi from far-off Peru

Was desperately trying to screw.

His wife said, “Oy vey!

If you keep on this way

The Messiah will come before you.”

10 Factlets

2013-05-02T01:42:00.003+10:00

1. The middle name of US President Harry Truman (188 – 1972), who was President between 1945 – 1953, was simply the letter “S” – Harry S Truman. His parents chose "S" as his middle initial to please both of his grandfathers, Anderson Shipp Truman and Solomon Young. The "S" did not stand for anything, a common practice among the Scots-Irish.

2. In 1977, Australian driver Alan Jones scored a surprise victory in the Austrian Grand Prix. Initially officials were going to play the Austrian anthem but then realised that Australia and Austria were not the same country. Unfortunately, they didn't have the Australian anthem so instead a local drunk played "Happy Birthday to You" on a trumpet.

3. Australia was the second self governing country to give women the right to vote, in 1902. The first country to do so was New Zealand, in 1895.

New Zealand did not give women the right to be elected to parliament until 1919. Australia gave this right in 1902.

South Australia gave women the vote in 1895 and the right to sit in Parliament in the same year. Western Australia followed suit in 1899 and New South Wales in 1902.

The UK gave women over 30 the right to vote in 1918. Voting on the same terms as men did not happen until 1928.

Many countries gave women the right to vote after the end of WW1, among them the USA which gave the vote in 1919.

4. False eyelashes were invented by the American film director D.W. Griffith while he was making his 1916 epic, "Intolerance". Griffith wanted actress Seena Owen to have lashes that brushed her cheeks, to make her eyes shine larger than life. A wigmaker wove human hair through fine gauze, which was then gummed to Owen's eyelids. "Intolerance" was critically acclaimed but flopped financially, leaving Griffith with huge debts that he might have been able to settle easily - had he only thought to patent the eyelashes.

5. The YKK that you see on zippers stands for Yoshida Kogyo Kabushiki Kaisha which is the name of the founder of the zipper manufacturing company in Japan.

6. Homosexuality was listed as a mental illness with the American Psychiatric Association (APA) until 1973. It has since been removed and is now considered an orientation by the APA instead of an illness

7. In 2005, Advertising Age cited Ronald McDonald as the number two top-10 advertising icon of the twentieth century. The Marlboro Man was number one

8. At the same time the Star Trek series was beginning to create a loyal following, the Monkees were exploding onto TV sets. Consequently, Roddenberry created the character of Pavel Andreievich Chekhov (above) as a close approximation of the Monkees’ lead singer, Davy Jones (below) —with a Russian accent

9. The first nude scene in a major motion picture was of Australian swimmer and actress Annette Kellerman (1887-1975) in the silent film A Daughter of the Gods (1916). The scene takes place in a waterfall seuqence and was controversial as being superfluous nudity, notwithstanding that most of Kellerman's body is covered by er long hair. The film has been lost, only stills remain.

10. The ancient Greeks believed a blessing might prevent evil from entering your body during its unguarded state while you sneeze.

Our tradition comes from the black plague of 1665, when sneezing was believed to be one of the first symptoms of the disease. Infection meant certain death, and so the symptom was greeted with the prayer, “God bless you,” which through time has been shortened to “Bless you!”

Today, the phrase is still used after a sneeze.

10 Camo pics

2013-05-01T04:57:00.001+10:00

Byter Peter sent me an email advising that he had seen the following street art item in a lane in Alexandria and that he wondered whether I had mentioned it in any of the past postings . . .

Alexandria is a suburb of inner Sydney as well as a city in Egypt, and my initial thought on seeing the above pic was that English street artist Banksy had visited Sydney. The work is very much like his and he had visited Sydney and Melbourne in 2008, leaving some examples of street art in the process.

Was it a hitherto undiscovered Banksy, akin to finding a new Rembrandt?

Peter’s pic shows the tag “Camo” who, it turns out, has been quite active in the inner city suburbs of Sydney. Camo is a street artist who does a lot of stencil work, hence the resemblance to Banksy. He (or she) has his (or her) own Facebook page and that about sums up what I have been able to find out.

Here are some examples of Camo’s work, in suburbs such as Redfern, Alexandria, Erskineville, Rozelle and St Peters:

Bonus pic:

In looking into Camo’s work I also came across one by Fukt, somewhere in Camperdown (also a suburb of inner Sydney):

Ikea Earth... love it.

Btw, thanks Peter, I tried to respond to your email but kept getting bounce back messages.

Reader Opinions and Comments

2013-04-30T00:58:00.000+10:00

Yesterday I expressed the view that relatives of service personnel shouldn’t be walking in the Anzac Day march and wearing other peoples’ medals. I also said that in my opinion it was ruining the march. I invited comment as to whether others agreed or disagreed and I received a number of opinions of varying outlook, some quite spirited, all appreciated:

From Phillip:

Hi Otto.

On ANZAC Day I enjoyed lunch with the surviving members of my father's WW2 brigade and their relatives. 22 attended and I guess there were 5 real veterans at the table. I was there representing my father (who is still alive but not able to get into town).

Now to respond to your "gripe" ... personally I could not march on behalf of Dad. He was the one who endure the war and is entitled to wear the medals. I am happy to go to the Brigade lunch and pass on the news and stories to Dad but will stop when my father or the last vet has passed away.

Other people in that lunch group DO march and proudly wear their relative's medals. They believe they are ensuring the "Lest We Forget" message will continue through their participation and it is important to highlight that most are direct descendents of a WW2 vet.

Perhaps we should draw the line at participants with a direct single generation link to a veteran (or perhaps a minimum age), so that the ANZAC Day march does not eventually become just a parade.

From Maureen:

Anzac Day:

Couldn’t agree more. I would feel uncomfortable wearing medals of family who were service personnel.

The accolades are for those who earned them not for those just passing by.

I don’t watch Anzac March anymore either. It is becoming a group of smirking kids who should be cheerleading at the football.

I doubt you will get unanimous agreement. For those who wish to honour their relatives tell them to send money to Legacy.

Best regards,

Maureen

From Candice:

Morning Otto,

Has Mondayitis gotten to you, or are you really a grumpy old bastard?

If you think that these people marching in the parade think that the applause is for them personally, then I think you are missing the point of ANZAC day – Lest We Forget – as in, to remember them.

If we all took your opinion, in nothing short of a few years, we won’t have any diggers to march and applaud – therefore there will be no march at all if not for the ‘ring ins’. These people are marching in honour of their relatives (be it great or grandfather) and I for one am happy to applaud a photograph of a man I have never met, let alone the kid walking along with a photo of one.

I understand your comments are coming from a place of love for our ANZACs, but really?

It’s up to that Mohawk kid’s parents or relatives to explain to him why he was in the march, and in my experience, most kids seem to understand that the march is about their grandad or the diggers – not them. However, I will admit…. Some of the kids might actually enjoy being in the parade and having people wave and clap. They’re kids and they love attention.

Sorry, maybe I have Mondayitis but you did ask for opinions!

Some thoughts on opinions:

“You are not entitled to your opinion. You are entitled to your informed opinion. No one is entitled to be ignorant.”

- Harlan Ellison

"You have to listen to the people who have a negative opinion as well as those who have positive opinion. Just to make sure that you are blending all these opinions in your mind before a decision is made.

- Carlos Ghosn

"The fact that an opinion has been widely held is no evidence whatever that it is not utterly absurd."

- Bertrand Russell

"One often contradicts an opinion when what is uncongenial is really the tone in which it was conveyed."

- Friedrich Nietzsche

My Anzac Day March gripe

2013-04-29T02:49:00.003+10:00

Further to my post about Anzac Day, I would appreciate some feedback on a gripe that I have. Googling didn’t reveal any discussions on this particular issue.

Anzac Day traditions:

Before looking at my gripe, some background for the benefit of overseas readers.

As I mentioned last week, Anzac Day in Australia and New Zealand is the national day of remembrance for those who have died in wars, conflicts and peacekeeping operations. The name is an acronym for the initial letters of Australia and New Zealand Army Corps, the combined force which landed at Gallipoli in Turkey on 25 April 1915.

It is Australia’s most solemn and sacred secular day and is honoured as such. There are various traditions associated with observance of Anzac Day:

a Dawn Service at the memorials of all capital cities, suburban and regional towns, as well as overseas bases;
commemorative services at various places, including in schools;
the playing of the Last Post;
a minute's silence;
a march by service personnel, past and present, and those who served in the conflicts, accompanied by marching bands and brass bands;
a blind eye by the law to two up games (an Australian gambling tradition, betting on how coins will fall when tossed in the air) at the pubs and hotels.

Some pics illustrative of the above:

My gripe:

I have attended Anzac Day marches from when I was a young cadet in the St John Ambulance Brigade, a Zambuk on the sidelines to render first aid when needed. Over the years thereafter I continued attending to give the diggers, nurses etc a round of applause. It was only about 10 years ago that I ceased attending in person and began watching on TV.

In the last few years it has become increasingly common for young people to march wearing a relative’s medals and honours. Admittedly most wear the medals on the right side of their chest, as is the custom for those who have not been awarded the medals. The actual recipients wear theirs on the left side (the origin has been attributed both to the left side being over the heart and to keeping the right side free for a sash supporting a sword).

Young people – adolescents, teenagers and young adults - marching in the official marches has become so common that there is hardly any group that doesn’t have ring ins alongside the adults. Kids as young as 7 and 8 can be seen marching, carrying photographs, some waving to the crowd. Oftentimes they are teenagers, some walking in a dignified manner and some slovenly. Some have taken the trouble to dress respectably, some look as though they got dressed in the dark.

Call me a grumpy old bastard if you want to but, to me, these ring ins have no place in the march.

The applause for the marchers as they pass by is for those who earned the medals, for those who have served and those who are presently serving.

They are probably all very nice people and they are all probably genuine in wishing to honour their forebears by wearing their medals. I have no problem with that. But not to march.

Some pics that illustrate what I am referring to:

The caption for the last pic above said that the child was marching for his great grandfather, whose picture he carried. He has probably never met the man.

What particularly annoyed me last week was that during the TV broadcast of the march, the camera focused on a young boy aged about 12 or 13, with a Mohawk style haircut, black jeans and black shirt, sunglasses and a disinterested expression, waving at the crowd as he passed. He was also chewing gum. His body language and expression suggested that he accepted that the applause he was acknowledging was for him, rather than for the people around him who had actually earned the medals.

My wife stated that he was probably marching to honour one of his relatives. In my view, that makes no difference.

It pissed me off enough that I didn’t watch any more. I doubt that I will watch it again.

Your views?