Stop the world Mummy, I want to get off...

Obama IS Batman

2012-02-01T10:54:00.004+11:00

Don't believe the pipe

2012-01-28T22:30:00.001+11:00

Best.

Credit: marcos c.

Latest on TLL

2012-01-28T20:33:00.003+11:00

Rap News: Australia Day

2012-01-26T23:09:00.001+11:00

Nice.

Obama side of the moon

2012-01-26T22:39:00.002+11:00

One of those nights when you just start Photoshopping something and end up with this? Yeah, one of those.

Jeeves and Rooster

2012-01-24T20:32:00.000+11:00

Now that the construction of their home is complete, I can finally introduce you to our two new additions to the family: Jeeves and Rooster.

May they live long and healthy, and provide me with an unending supply of delicious cholesterol oblongs.

Star Wars Uncut

2012-01-22T00:40:00.002+11:00

Outstanding.

Building a chicken coop

2012-01-19T21:49:00.000+11:00

I'm finally getting around to making a nice little home for some chickens in our backyard. With a dachshund who is adept at digging and likely very interested in eating said chickens, this had to be done properly.

Step one: scoure the recycled building material yard and come up with an old screen door. Brace it and hang against garden bed.

Step two: assemble chicken coop that was given to us by my family for Christmas. Note cardboard chickens created by my six year old niece.

Step three: hammer in stakes to create first fence. Had to purchase a great big steel picket driver, which is super handy as I'm sure I'll have heaps of use for it with all my picket-driving projects in future.

Step four: run wire lines through stakes and tighten.

Step five: attach chicken wire, running it into the pen 30cm and staking along the ground to discourage naughty dachshunds and sneaky foxes.

Step six: do the same on the remaining three fences, dig in a concrete doorstop and plant native shrubs along front fenceline.

Stay tuned for step seven: purchasing the actual chickens.

A Brief History of Time

2012-01-17T22:49:00.002+11:00

Errol Morris did a documentary about Stephen Hawking and his theories on space and time. With a soundtrack by Philip Glass. Why did no-one tell me this!?

Finally, a desk.

2012-01-02T20:28:00.003+11:00

In yet another of those "hey wouldn't it be a great idea if we did this but oh yeah that baby thing which means we don't have any time or energy to do it" projects, I've finally built a proper desk in the study.

w00t.

In Caffeine We Trust

2011-12-29T11:20:00.000+11:00

This is amazeballs.

A DIY infographic on coffee consumption, with the genius medium of coffee on paper.

YES

via Laughing Squid

How to build a cubby house

2011-12-26T22:54:00.002+11:00

Get power tools

Get annoyed at power tools

Get someone else to show you power tools

Build base

Build walls

Have a rest

Build other walls

Obtain inspection by beagle

Ride broom like horsey

Cubby = finished!

Invite friends over, pass out.

Christmas

2011-12-17T11:23:00.003+11:00

TIME Person of the Year: the Hipster

2011-12-15T14:39:00.001+11:00

What the people of TIME really wanted to put on the cover.

Thanks to Barry for the idea.

Speak out: control arms now!

2011-12-14T14:02:00.000+11:00

Each year, hundreds of thousands of people are killed, injured, raped, and forced to flee from their homes as a result of the poorly controlled global arms trade. In July 2012 governments will come together to negotiate a global treaty to better regulate this deadly trade – and they must do so in order to save lives and livelihoods.

By adding your voice in support of a bulletproof Arms Trade Treaty, you demonstrate that there is widespread support for a strong and effective treaty. That’s why we are asking you to join us and SPEAK OUT to urge governments to CONTROL ARMS NOW.

By speaking out, you join the global call for a bulletproof Arms Trade Treaty that:

Stops transfers when there is a substantial risk that the arms or ammunition are likely to be used in serious violations of international humanitarian law or international human rights law, or fuel armed violence and undermine socio-economic development.
Holds governments accountable to existing standards of international law and the UN Charter.
Includes all conventional arms and ammunition, all transfers and all transactions.
Is enforceable and includes detailed guidelines for full implementation, reporting, international cooperation, compliance and accountability.

Take action now and SPEAK OUT TO CONTROL ARMS.

First published on Oxfam Blogs

Keep Up

2011-12-14T01:38:00.000+11:00

I'm pretty impressed with myself over this one. I done drewed a KeepCup in vector. Then I made a vaguely amusing joke out of it. Hah!

Keep Up T-Shirt

Sir David Attenborough sings What a wonderful world

2011-12-13T12:46:00.003+11:00

This is the greatest video in the history of the Internet.

Twine. WANT

2011-12-07T23:10:00.001+11:00

Twine : Listen to your world, talk to the Internet from Supermechanical on Vimeo.

Aerobie AeroPress Espresso Maker

2011-12-06T11:09:00.001+11:00

The Aerobie AeroPress Espresso Maker.

WANT.

I like coffee. I like fuss-free coffee. I like sitting at my desk coffee.

I also desperately like Vietnamese Iced Coffee, with sweetened condensed milk. Drooool.

Cards for Engineers

2011-11-30T23:42:00.001+11:00

Ever struggled to find the perfect greeting card for that special occasion? That’s likely due to the fact that you currently work as an engineer, and find it difficult to understand the gamut of so-called ‘human emotions’.

Well, worry no longer – now there’s the 'Cards for Engineers' range! These cards are specifically designed to get across your logical, practical thoughts on a range of everyday events, occasions and social interactions.

Please note - cards will still require human interaction.

South Africa and climate change

2011-11-28T13:59:00.000+11:00

Putting good food on the table can be a challenge for all of us. But for many people around the world, it is a constant worry just having enough food to feed the family.

For the women of the Western Cape in South Africa, the lack of secure employment and access to land, as well as the impacts of climate change, are making feeding their families increasingly difficult.

Watch our series of short interviews with women of South Africa, and how climate change is affecting them.

First published on Oxfam Blogs

Afghanistan - not all war

2011-11-17T17:08:00.001+11:00

via Trav

Should the UN Development Index be scrapped?

2011-11-17T16:48:00.001+11:00

For years, the United Nations have judged the world's progress by ranking each country on its Development Index. This scores each nation in terms of education, health, economic growth and other key factors. But one analyst is now questioning the future validity of this scale - particularly since it doesn't take into account whether any 'development' is ecologically sustainable.

Chuluun Togtokh is a professor of ecosystem and sustainability sciences at the National University of Mongolia in Ulaanbaatar and vice-chair of Mongolia's Global Change National Committee, and writes in Nature that:

I recalculated the index using the UN's published methodology, but taking per capita emissions into account. The resulting [Human Sustainable Development Index (HSDI)] gives some interesting results.

Australia, the United States and Canada fall straight out of the top 10: Australia slides from 2nd place to 26th, the United States drops from 4th to 28th, and Canada falls from 6th to 24th. Cultures that value moderation do well in this sustainability index: Norway remains in the top position, Sweden rises from 10th to 2nd and Switzerland moves from 11th to 3rd. But anyone who has visited the Nordic countries will recognize that moderation need not compromise a high standard of living. And for the first time, an Asian state appears in the top ten. Hong Kong rises from 13th place to 4th. Japan and South Korea, originally just outside the top ten, move down by only one or two places.

Noticeably, oil-producing countries and those with intensive oil use drop the most. The United Arab Emirates, Brunei Darussalam, Qatar, Luxembourg and Bahrain are no longer listed in the ‘Very High Human Development' quartile.

Using the HSDI, Mongolia advances slightly. My country is likely to become one of the fastest growing economies in the world, but the current HDI offers no encouragement for it to grow sustainably. Ulaanbaatar is already one of the worst capital cities in the world for air pollution. The country's water, forage and forest resources are depleted. Mongolia is at a turning point in environmental, social, economic, political and cultural development. We urgently need international collaborations to preserve our natural and cultural systems and introduce green technologies.

His HSDI rankings are available here (pdf). Now that Australia has put a price on carbon, we can presumably rise up from the 26th rung of this new scale.

What do you think? Should the UN update the rankings to take economic impact into account?

via io9
First published on Oxfam Blogs

Helveticards

2011-11-17T14:04:00.001+11:00

Helvetica-inspired playing cards. WANT.

via Laughing Squid

Constantly sick.

2011-11-17T13:37:00.001+11:00

I have never been sicker than since we had a child. It's like all the immunities that had built up over 28 years were a complete waste of time. My uncanny ability to consciously control impending sickness, or at very least delay it to a more appropriate collapse point was whisked away, along with decent sleep and a comfortable audible level in a home.

It's something that is often warned, but also too easily dismissed alongside other smarmy "you'll understand one day" parent's advice. Honestly, it's like parents delight in sharing their own torture with new or prospective parents. "Hey, we're having a baby" "Well, get used to no sleep!" Wow, how touching. Someone wants to share this great news with you and the best you can come up with is their upcoming sleep deprivation troubles? Nice.

Anyway, back to the sickness. I'm well aware that babies have a desperate need to build up immunities to survive the world. We are surrounded by germs, diseases, pathogens and other awesome creepy things. We have on average 1.2 kilograms of bacteria inside our own bodies, some of which are there to help, and some of which are there to make life hell. Over the last two years, I've come to know the latter quite well.

Of course, this didn't start straight away - straight out of hospital, babies are fresh and clean (aside from the obvious) and the transfer goes parent to baby in terms of soaking up germs. But once that kid hits daycare, oh boy. Daycare is like an Ellis Island for diseases. Fresh off the boat, with their cap in hand and dreams of new conquests in their hearts, every sickness under the sun floods in from homes in the area, eager to be shared around by hands, feet, lips, eyes, toys and clothes. And first stop after that? Home. With parents who, through sleep deprivation, work, family responsibilities and chores are exhausted, run-down and at their peak to be infected. Such a lovely system.

I used to be able to control this, and indeed trained my body to push through bouts of upcoming sickness, working on the basis that a full body collapse of a week was better than two weeks of sniffling. Granted, my job at Parliament allowed this - two weeks on, two weeks off. Collapse mode was better at home. Now, however, I am unable (and largely unwilling) to maintain that schedule.

And so, I fluctuate between somewhat awake, somewhat healthy and somewhat capable, to completely out of action and vomiting in the shower. Hooray!