Location, location, location

In the Egyptian desert near the Gilf Kebir region at co-ordinates (google earth, look for the end of two long ridges) 22d 1'6.03"N 26d 5'15. 76"E is this wonderful 45 metre wide and 16 metre deep meteorite crater in pristine condition, known as Gebel Kamil.


Scientists believe the impact was a 1.3 metre wide solid iron meteorite weighing 5000 to 10,000 kilograms hitting the earth at a speed exceeding 3.5 kilometres a second.
The impact would have generated a fireball and plume visible over 1000 kilometres.
This is considered a small impact event and the crater is important as, up to now, it was thought a metallic object of this size would beak into smaller pieces before impact. The fact that it stayed intact with the exception of an 83kg chunk found 200 metres away from the crater, means a change of thinking about the destructive power of small impacts instead of concentrating on larger "end of all life" events.

The crater was first noticed by Vincenzo de Michele who was studying earth satellite photographs for ruins of palaeolithic villages. And Egyptian/Italian expedition to the site was amazed to find it in such a well preserved conditon that even the splatter rays of ejected materials were visible. Crater ejecta rays don't go towards the centre of a crater but converge on a point at the rim or just outside it and are used to plot the direction and angle of impact.

Gebel Kamil is considered the best preserved crater so far discovered on earth. Looking at the image above, it is almost lunar like. It's also a young crater as the team found ejected bedrock material overlying prehistoric structures in the area. The geochronology is still being determined but it's les than 10,000 years old, maybe even less than 5,000 when the land became too arid for humans. If less than 5,000 years then it could have been witnessed by prehistoric people and archaeologists are hoping to fix the date by investigating nearby settlements.

The crater was discovered in 2008, explored in 2010. The research team collected over 1,000 kgs of metallic meteorite fragments. The more they collect the better to estimate the size of the meteorite but the market for meteorite rocks is booming and already bits of the Kamil impact are on the market. Once they disappear into private collections, the information they contain is lost to science.

As with archaeological looting, where an object is found, its condition and how many other fragments surround it, is vital to any study.

In trying to protect Gebel Kamil, the exploration team want it listed as a protected site by UNESCO with Egypt preserving not only the crater area but the fragments scattered over the surrounding area.

Tripping over penguins today

Penguins cupcakes and now, our Mary and Prince Fred feeding the little sweeties. Notice the large yellow thick rubber gloves they're wearing. Apparently penguins can get bitey in the presence of food or royalty.

I want another birthday

I've always loved reading Su's blog but now that she has opened her Delectable cake shops in Malaysia, it's more of a pleasure.

Really, who could resist Madagascar penguin cupcakes with the rest of the gang, as a birthday cake. I want another birthday and I want this cake or even just the penguins would do.

Today was good

Hey, I went all the way to Murrumbeena and back again without a panic attack.

Thank you to Metlink for hiding the bus stop to go the other way, good thing I'd downloaded the map. Would you believe it was right opposite an op-shop.

The other shop was an esoteric book shop and I loved the sign in the window.

I BELIEVE IN DRAGONS, LOVELY MEN AND OTHER FANTASY BEASTS.

Such a great heading for a blog.

I now have the fan belt for the dryer so you can bet on the weather becoming wonderful for leaving washing on the line.

Miss O'Dyne, I'll be heading your way next.

The wedding show review

I was looking for a wedding dress for this post and came across this site which is to weddings what CakeWrecks is to cakes. It's a scream.

Fortunately our Aussie brides were a lot more tasteful. I liked that the four girls last night all said how lovely the others looked as they were making their vows and most of the bad remarks were reserved for the food and that's the fault of the reception place.

First off was the $50,000 Hollywood extravaganza. The dress was bigggg as in Princess bride meets a giant pavlova without the strawberries and a strapless top with floating feathers. I loved her crystal hair ornament which wound around her hair and for the bridal dance and dance it was, she changed into a slinky white gown with a side split. Apparently the bride hadn't told the groom that in the middle of the dance, fireworks were going to go off, his expression, priceless. Bridesmaids, yeah well gosh and the happy couple tossed doves into the air after the ceremony. That's supposed to symbolise peace and happiness but usually symbolises a meal for some predator.

Second was our lovely Pagan couple. The other brides had no idea what a pagan was and had trouble wrapping their minds around a hand fasting ceremony. The bride wore a simple white dress with an olive green cloak. The guests were asked to bring a crystal and bury it in the ground of the wedding circle under a huge tree. Guest dressing was elegant Goth. After the ceremony, the bride jumped the broom and the reception began. The entertainment belonged to the bride and groom who did a routine of fire twirling in the dark, outside. Surprisingly their cake is the only one I remembered. That topped up $20,000.

Third bride thought she was a cert as she was being married on a tropical island. She'd used the internet for everything including finding the groom. The dress that was ordered was too small so she lost 38kgs to fit into it. If I knew it was that easy I'd be ordering a wedding dress tomorrow. The bridesmaids were dressed in a coral colour, strapless and short. The groom and his men were very formal in white shirts, black long shorts and black thongs. The reception area was plain but the food got top marks except for dessert which was a long table made up as a lolly bar. This effort came in at $25,000.

Our fourth bride went traditional then Bollywood. Her dress was a delicate but plain white satin, not strapless and a lovely lace trimmed veil. One of the other brides was in melt down at the no booze reception. The wedding guests all wore saris and the bride really shone when she changed into her outfit for the reception and dancing. The Indian and Fijian dancing was entertaining.
All up $36,000.

The girls were quite generous with their points but the winner was Miss Hollywood Princess in the meringue dress. Meh!

Some footballer got an award

And some just got frou-frou girlfriends. If this is the Twigley's idea of fashion, I just can't wait for the wedding dress. And what is with the hand on the hip? Every wannabe had the hand on the hip stance. The first thing every performer learns is what to do with the hands. Only 'The Duke' got away with a hip hand and only because he was usually carrying a gun in the other.

And who invited (or why were they invited) the blonde as comedy event and her jewell encrusted watch wearing gnome of a husband?

The view is grey

Grey skies, still wet washing, more washing to go out, it's cold, the trees are sad and the lorikeets woke up me at some disgusting time this morning.

The BrickOutHouse has two bulging discs and a high level of gout in his bloodtests due to an excess of Uric acid.

Now the hard part is getting him to Centreluck because he thinks he should work for his money.
He can't work but he's in that halfway stage of admitting he can't and should be asking for help.

This all goes back to the last four years of hell when he took any job available in the area to help with mum so he has had no full time work on a continuous basis. Unless we count the hellhole of cleaning industrial pumps in such noxious fumes and fluids that we didn't worry about his back because we thought his lungs were shrivelling. Yes, the hazmat gear was brought out every time there was an inspection by elf and safety but try cleaning the innards of a tiny heart shaped pump in great hazmat gloves. I digress but I'd still like to punch the bastard in charge.

He says he's been working for himself. That's true to a point because none of the idiots he does work for seem to have money when the job is finished. I found his CV when I was going through papers to throw out. The brilliant things he was doing as an apprentice at 19 still amazes me but thanks to workplace harassment, he ended up with a breakdown. Then, as now, he said nothing because he wanted to work. That's another on my list of 'punch the bastard in charge'

So Centreluck it is even if he sticks to saying everybody goes to them with a bad back but not everybody has the kind of X-rays he has. If it wasn't for bad luck, he'd have no luck at all.

And if we can fund Oprah Winfrey to bring herself and an audience of adoring imbiciles to tell the world about Australia then the government can fund a health card for a working man in need. Jeebus but I'm beginning to hate the cult of celelbrity in today's world.

Sporting events

I bet you didn't think you'd ever see that heading on my blog.

So Melbourne lost 49 million bucks on the Grand Prick!
But Jeffery piped up and said it was still worth it. Bollocks! Hospitals, Ambos, SES, CFA, all of them could have used a chunk of the 49 million. I won't mention the thousands in sweeties the Parliament has scoffed, lardarses.
I am in the process of sending an email to my local representative.
Give the fucking bloody car race to anyone stupid enough to want it.

Overseas, South Africa spent billions on sporting stadiums for the World Cup. They are now sitting idle and there is no money to spend on the upkeep so it's likely they'll be torn down. South Africa is in crisis with an AIDS epidemic that is ongoing and that money could have saved lives. Billions to watch neanderthals kick a bloody ball around a stadium.

Delhi Commonwealth Games are right around the corner. And so is the crop of mosquitos carrying Dengue fever due to the floods and continuing monsoon rains. Don't worry, officials are saying, everything will be dry by the time the athletes get here. Everything including the terrorists. But they have them under control as well, don't worry, we're checking everything. Never mind the crazy Australian journos who are showing the home country how easy it is to buy explosives for a bomb, they've just having a laugh.

Olympic Games for Britain in 2012, along with a possible wedding for Will and Kate right after the Queen's Jubilee celebrations. A smorgesbord of events for every home grown terrorist
cell in the Kingdom but at least the Queen will be paying for the nuptials.

I think it's time the world realizes that we have gone long past the time when these events could be staged for a groat or two with a pig in a poke thrown in for a sweetener. The world is in crisis with health care whatever country you put a foot in. Children are dying for want of clean water, simple vaccines, saline solution for gastro.

So the next time Mr. Brumby brings up staging the World Cup in Victoria, he'll be missing a vote and it might be the crucial one he'll need.

Four Weddings

It took me a long time to decide what to tag this post but it just had to be laughter.
I hate reality shows. They bore me to tears the exception being 'MasterChef' but then I only watched the last month of that and only for the food.

So why am I watching a reality show about weddings? That would be for the frocks, the bling and the cake and the snarking.

The idea is that four brides go to each other's wedding, give marks for the dress, ceremony and reception, the bride with the highest marks gets the ritzy honeymoon. I expected it to be extremely bitchy and nasty so was ready to switch to another show but it wasn't bad and the brides comments were kept to a minimum.

I felt I could comment on the brides, being fat myself so if the bride was, I could really snark.
I could comment on the ceremony remembering every horrible detail of my own. If my bouquet had concealed a wand, I could have done a 'Bellatrix' on half the guests.
I could comment on the reception since mine resembled a production of 'Dimboola' by the Fuckitupandgetpissed amateur drama club.

The first episode had the lot. The overly large bride who decided on a costume wedding and actually looked quite lovely in an Elizabethan style dress and I wish she had extended that to her everyday dress. Short black frock with electric blue corset on the outside was striking as a slash to the throat with a dagger. And if one does wear knee high stockings, make sure the dress covers them. Actually I liked the hubby who wanted a Babylon 5 themed wedding, go team B.
Next one had the works, fireworks inside, flaming pavlovas/cake and an Elvis impersonater.
The Asian girl had two ceremonies, ethnic and traditional which was held up when her father got lost along the way.
I can't tell you who won the first show, I walked to the kitchen for a drink and it was all over.
The girls comments were great, along the lines of OMG, I would not have/wear/eat that in a fit.
I thought what they wore to each other's wedding ceremonies should have been part of the contest. High heels to a garden wedding after rain, bwahaha.

This week's was just as enjoyable. $400 dress up to 60 grand wedding. I hope a friend of mine wasn't watching, the high end bride was wearing the same dress that will be worn next month. I'm sure she'll look a whole lot better than this bride. $400 bride was married at the beach with reception at the local pub. Tattoo bride should have held back on the champers until after the ceremony so got a little Bridezilla with the tending maids. Brides are starting to blend in my mind about now.

I'm looking forward to next week but what could possibly top a gold stretch hummer for the Bride before she changes to a horse drawn carriage. I used to think stretch limos were the height of gross until my first view of a stretch hummer. Nothing wrong with silk flowers until the bouquet is thrown and it disintegrates. Twining arms to sip champagne is a Hollywood myth of elegance. I may be mistaken, it might have happened when I wasn't looking, but I didn't see that ghastly US custom of the groom removing the bride's garter with his teeth and throwing it to the assembled male guests. And if there was a funniest home video moment, it was left on the editing floor.

Yes, I have to say it again, I'm looking forward to next week's show.

I'm not in a good mood

Just when everything seems to be going well, it all hits the fan again.

Two oldies dropped off the twig over the weekend, one being Gordy so Bingo is not going to be quite the same. Little Edna went too but the family gave mum her tray on wheels so now instead of the girls carrying all her craft stuff from room to room, they can wheel it. It doesn't seem to worry mum, she's too busy thinking of the outing to the Cranbourne gardens on the 22nd.

And the BrickOutHouse is in trouble with his health. The chiropractor put back the two vertebrae that were out but there is a problem with his hip, leg bones and toes joints all down the left leg. So blood tests yesterday and a catscan on Thursday. He is hunched over like an old man and in real pain but the cortisone might help that and finding out exactly what is wrong will help a lot more.

I'm not his mother but I did bring him up until he went to high school so I still worry. He shouldered his share of the nightmare four years with mum and he hasn't really had enough downtime to put it in perspective. If he's got an early appointment, he camps out on the sofa bed with the cat and sleeps like a log. I had more medical drama with him over the years than I did with my own kid and I never stop worrying about him because like all men, he's as stubborn as a mule about seeing a doctor until he's got one foot in the grave.

I was meant to be thin, beautiful, rich with no kids but instead I was born worrying about what was ahead of me. Perhaps it was better in the old days when the family ran into the double figures and no-one could keep track of who was ill or injured until they were on the way back to health.

My all time favourite

This was a real laugh out loud for me. I'm lazy blogging again, cooking, cleaning and falling asleep in the chair. I woke myself up snoring with my head nearly down to my knees. I don't usually do this until daylight savings. We're not up to that yet, are we?

Too lazy to post

And now for some education

That sweet pendant is mine, all mine. Only tiny but a lovely ammonite fossil with a mother of pearl flower. Ammonite fossils are all over the place. The cephalopods, named for the Egyptian ram horn God called Ammon, appeared in the seas 415 million years ago. They were survivors.
10% survived an extinction event during the Permian, flourished during the Triassic period then died, leaving only one species. They began to thrive again from the Jurassic period until the end of the Cretaceous period when all species died.
They lived in shallow waters, moving by jet propulsion and proper little predators they were. Mollusks, fish and other cephalopods would be stalked and chomped after the tentacles grabbed the prey drawing it to the jaws located at the base of the tentacles between the eyes. But there's always something bigger and hungrier, mosasaurs and other marine reptiles sank teeth into the shells and extracted the squid like bodies. The empty shells then sank to the sea floor to be buried in mineral rich sediment.


While ammonites are found every where, only in one place can the beautiful iridescent form of the fossil be found. Southern Alberta, Canada in the Bearpaw Formation which is a large marine formation of mostly shale approximately 70 to 75 million years old. The photo above gives some idea of the size of the ammolite fossils.

Ammolite is grouped into two general categories. Fractured ammolite as in the photo above is named for its stained glass appearance from the fossil being crushed in the sediment.

Sheet ammolite, on the other hand has little or no crushing so the colour is a solid mass of intense iridescence and is made into beautiful jewellery that constantly changes as the angle of light changes. The best stones can rotate 360 degrees giving a full display of colour. As with opals, the thicker the layer (3 to 10 mm) and the size of the piece reflects the price.

A bit of a blow last night.

"It was a dark and stormy night", and it went until this morning. I could hear things dropping and being blown around but I didn't bother going out.
The cat insisted on going out but after one whisker twitch in the door way decided that the kitty litter would do for the night.
I'm looking at brilliant blue sky at the moment but that wind is chill.
I wouldn't have even heard the storm if the cat hadn't kept waking me with a paw to the face.
The BrickOutHouse had been staying so he could get to the Chiro early before work.
This was the cat's idea of Heaven, cuddled up to its daddy like the old days.
But it's the weekend so he's back with the girlfriend and the bed is empty.
So I'm getting told that daddy isn't home and there's a storm and where's the warm body I've been curling up to.
After waking me up, she'd stomp off my bed and go to the other room and wait.
She's still in there, waiting.
I'm sleep deprived.

Gobsmacked, flabbergasted and fuming

Mummy boasting to Aunt Patty about beautiful grand daughter.

Aunt Patty boasting not so much since her lot have a collective IQ of about 20.

Aunt Patty says, "It's never bothered J that her grandchildren are coloured."

Coloured?

Irish, Sri Lankan, Scots, English, Dutch, French, German, American genes have gone to making up my United Nations grand daughters and I wouldn't have cared if they were purple with yellow spots and green feet.

Fucking coloured!!!

Aunt Patty is getting a white sheet and a flaming cross for Christmas.

Live blogging

I'm sitting at the computer, looking out of my big window and watching a baby kookaburra sitting on the fence four feet away. I've heard them over in the golf course but I've never seen one this close before. I can't go out with the camera because I don't want to frighten it in case there's food nearby.
I'm chuffed to see one so close considering that between Mirvac and Australand they wiped out most of the bush areas that belonged to the native birds.
It's just made my day.
I just hope it wasn't this little bird that was making the strange chirperting noises underneath my bedroom window last night but he looks healthy enough.
I wish I could walk on flat ground as easily as he's trundling sideways along the top of the fence.

The hardware curse

Not my computer, hardware like in Bunnings, bloody rotten Bunnings whose website would try the patience of a saint.
Lesson: never throw out the Bunnings catalogue.
You still see the same things on the website but try getting a price or actually going to the right section.
Stupid me expecting to see cisterns in the bathroom area.
I thought it would save me going down there and trawling the place and picking up all sorts of things I don't really need and not getting the things on my list.
And it will be freezing.
In summer it is suffocating heat and I always expect to see vultures lingering at the exits for the molten lumps of humanity that make it out of the hardware Gitmo.
I need cement, a new cistern, a ladder, a small patio table (green plastic), a bird bath top, just the top, a can of paint and a new-fangled phone to take a photo of the taxi driver's face as he tries to jam it all in the cab.
Perhaps I could ask for a driver who is hardware friendly.

The Formal

This is the gown grand daughter has bought for the Year 12 Formal. She'll look much better than the model, says grandmother. The colouring is just gorgeous and you all know they're two of my favourites shades. No doubt she'll manage to swan around in 5 inch heels and not fall down once.