NEVER MIND THE CHILDREN, THINK OF DIAL-UPPERS

I have been handcuffed to the computer for three days because of the snail speed of dial-up with seems to be getting slower. River sent me a program for removing Trojans which took 3 hours to download and messed up every other 'anti' program I had running. It was a good 'anti', River but I think it was too shiny for this old dear.



Microsoft kept trying to install IE8 every time I logged on. Adware wouldn't load updates and took 3 hours to scan the computer. AVG wouldn't load updates and took 5 hours to do a complete scan of everything. Spybot wouldn't load updates but only took 40 minutes to scan.



Total low grade infections/tracking cookies found, ten.



ZoneAlarm is working well. CCleaner is working well.



I've had all those on the computer for four years with updates but anything I try now seems to take forever to download, install and scan. The programs fight with each other, like kids in a sandbox.



I like XP, it's simple, functional, no frills and like a comfy pair of slippers. More to the point, I can work it, just.



It's the speed I'm having problems with. I just bought my Harry Potter ticket over the internet and it took 35 minutes to load all the pages I needed. It could have been less if I hadn't decided to change my seat and had to do everything all over again. Who'd have thought Gold Class would have been booked out until July 22? I was trying to avoid the popcorn munchers and drink slurpers so hopefully they won't be in the 10.30 session.



I realize I'm tempting fate but if there's a death in the family, I'm still going.

IDIOT OF THE YEAR

This is from our local paper:

A drunk driver crashed his car after accidentally stabbing himself in the leg with a knife while peeling an orange.

He blew five times the legal limit and lost his licence after his car careered out of control on Wells Road. He had consumed a cocktail of beer and spirit mixers.

The moral of the story is - never drink, drive and peel, it just proves three times over what an idiot you are.

I CAN'T BELIEVE I MISSED IT

ONE THOUSAND AND FOUR POSTS

FIREWORKS WOULD HAVE LOOKED BETTER FOR ONE THOUSAND

STILL WHO'D HAVE THOUGHT THE MOUTH

WOULD STILL BE GOING

OR THE BRAIN

MOONING

No, it's not me, that would be in the plural - moonings - considering how vast my mooning equipment is. I have a ringside window to the eclipse just above my computer. The moon is supposed to turn a grey colour, nothing dramatic and who could tell with the dirt on my window.

So just to annoy myself further this afternoon, I allowed the gerbil running this computer to download IE8. Did I complain about toolbars recently? Yes, I thought so and now I have toolbars up the wazoo.

There's the computer one in a pleasant green at the top.
The new IE8 plus google next.
Then the old favourites bar which I decided to drop until the new IE8 favourites menu appeared staggering under the load of must read blogs and made the mouse go zippy.
There is another Google search and nifty button bar.
And another address and IE8 button bar.
Down on the bottom, I've ditched the progress bar but kept the computer start up bar with the clock and all that other stuff.

The gerbil has also relayed my age to Microsoft who has brightened my life with extra bold type.
I thought I must have done this but no, appearances and themes still has me on standard not clear type.

My 'create post' page is also new and the labels are in different places, very disconcerting.

But I know why the buttons on the tool bars are annoying me. I'm a lefty mouser and the buttons are for righty mousers. Four years it's taken me to work that out. My brain grinds slow but exceedingly fine.

Totally unrelated to IE8 (I haven't read what tricky little things it has stored up for me but I have seen I can hide my porn travels) is the fact that I've just read a book and it has annoyed me almost as much as a tool toolbar. The author expects me to believe that the hero is a world authority on myths and legends but puts him in an aircraft flying over Peru and he suddenly sees the Nazca lines below and says he doesn't know what they are. Quetzacoatl and Kulkucan are the same myth, one belonging to the Aztec, one to the Maya and it takes half the book for him to connect them. Dan Brown, come back, all is forgiven.

The moon's not doing much considering for Leos it's supposed to be a life changing eclipse. There is one big change, I bought Gelati instead of ice-cream to top my apricots and yoghurt.

STILL CLINGING ON

There's nothing like a butterfly to make me happy especially when this one is making a re-appearance in British fields after nearly going the way of the Dodo.

The Bitch Queen of the Universe is living up to her name and making life difficult.

My sister said this morning that she hates our mother with a passion. I would like to be able to say the same but even a negative emotion like hate is beyond me. I don't think of her at all, not as my mother. She's merely someone who plonked down in the beanbag of my life and hasn't left.

I pay the bills, get the groceries but pleasantries have gone by the board. She has lied to me for the last time although 'lie' doesn't really apply to someone who lives in a lala land of her own making. She fabricates a reality in which other people believe.

I am not sleeping. I am eating far too much of the wrong foods. I found apples in the fridge that must have been on speaking terms with Eve. I shake all the time. I refuse to increase medication that took me three years to decrease. My blood pressure would power two people.
The empathy I used to feel for this woman has dissipated.

All I can think of now is how to cling to sanity until my life is my own. I can't even imagine what I will do with a life of my own.

CHRISTMAS IS A COMING FAST

And how do I know this? Because the Toy Sale Catalogues are out already. I saw this DeathStar and the boys would have loved it. I thought it was reasonable at $59.90 until I wiped my glasses and looked closer, $599.00 but a bargain since after the sale it will be $749.00. Recession, what recession?

They would have had it out of the box and assembled in two shakes but I have yet to put together a lego anything. I fail lego.

I did find a lovely present for Mother. What Mother wouldn't love a furry remote control tarantula at only $20.00, $26.99 after the sale. Ages 8 years and up. There is that little problem of her arachnaphobia though.

HERO OF MARS

Edgar Rice Burroughs' hero of Mars, John Carter is finally going to be filmed.
These books were my introduction to Science Fiction and I loved them so I'll be in line for the movie.


Taylor Kitsch, who played Gambit in X-Men Origins: Wolverine has been signed for Carter and Lynn Collins has been signed for the part of the Martian princess Dejah Thoris. Production is due to start in November and the film released in 2012. It could be a success, no Brad Pitt or Tom Cruise. I hope they use CGI's wisely.


Burroughs created John Carter in 1911 and the first book was published in 1917. After being mysteriously transported to Mars, where he finds various creatures and people, rescues Princess Dejah Thoris from the Green Martians and helps to save the planet from destruction. The Martians are a varied lot especially colour wise, red, green, yellow, white and black. And they like their world to be called Barsoom, not Mars.

WHEN IS A CHICKEN NOT A CHICKEN?

Yes, yes, I am still up and blogging at 'oh God O'clock' in the witching hours but I'm a bit over-stimulated (no, not the good kind) and it's 7's fault for insisting on putting 'Heroes' on at 11 instead of shifting some of those mediocre early programmes.

So when is a chicken not a chicken?
When it's in this product.

MASSEL

quality you can taste

Gourmet plus

Liquid stock

CHICKEN

• no animal content
• no added msg
• lactose free
• gluten free
• no preservatives

no trans fat

ALL VEGETABLE

Perhaps the chicken part is a genetically modified cardboard carton that magically imparts a chicken taste for all us vegetarians who don't eat chicken.

MOTHER NATURE TURNS IT ON FOR THE SOLSTICE

These images of the Sarychev volcano erupting were taken by scientists on board the International Space Station, 220 miles above the earth.


A column of grey and brown ash billows up through a round hole in the cloud cover. The smooth white cloud is caused by condensed air created from the rapid rising and then cooling of the air directly above the ash column




This white cap is called a pileus cloud.


The eruption, which began a week ago, is ongoing. The ISS has been tracking the ash cloud since it is only a few handred miles from one of the world's busiest air corridors and flights have been diverted to avoid sucking the abrasive ash into aircraft engines.

I ALWAYS LAUGHED AT THE THOUGHT OF A BARBED WIRE CANOE

I'm still sorting out stories and no-one has officially gone to each house and said it was safe to turn on pilot lights etc.

It was about this time last year that I blogged about the idiot down the back who has built a garage and concreted over the big sewerage easement. That time the SE water bloke told me that 20 houses were affected including mum's. Obviously they didn't follow through and do something about the drains. There were diggers everywhere and holes in the footpath but at least traffic was flowing so my taxi could get through.

I did find out that it wasn't the kitchen sink that overflowed in the 'detested neighbour of 50 years' house. Her toilet exploded with considerable force showering shite a considerable distance. Mother is still sniggering.

The Gas person overseeing the evacuation took several steps back as my sister lobbed 'F bombs' in my mother's direction when she wouldn't get in the wheelchair without her necessities, none of which were.

In Aunt Patty's opinion, sister should have gone back and got dry clothes for mother even with the imminent danger of explosion. That has not gone down well with mother who is still singing the praises of glorious daughters. I get a guernsey here because I bought her a new night dress today...with her money.

Aunt Patty went stuck her foot further in her big mouth by telling mother that the government are taking money off obese people so I'll lose because I'm obese. I haven't got to the bottom of that piece of crap (sorry, it's on my mind) so disregard until mother says Aunt Patty would be broke if the government started taking money from ugly people.

Mommie Dearest, sometimes you make my heart sing.

Sometimes.

DON'T MAKE A RUT IN THE ROAD INTO THE GRAND CANYON SO SAID MY STARS FOR THIS WEEK

The last few days have been a little strange to say the least.
Actually it's been brain sucking out through the ears strange.
Mother, of course.

But last night was not her fault.
I'm still trying to sort out exactly what went wrong after totally discarding Mother's version.

Neighbour next door notices sewerage coming up through the house toilets.
Rings South East Water who send a team to investigate.

(I should say here that Mother has been complaining about her toilet but because it involved the BrickOutHouse's girlfriend who she hates, we didn't take much notice.)

The team apparently ruptured the gas pipe. In the afternoon, night, light, dark, I haven't got that information.
So with sewerage there is now gas coming up through the toilets along with a lot of smell.

When I got the call, it was dark which is when that side of the street is evacuated in the lights of several fire engines. I wasn't there, I couldn't have got there since the roads were blocked off so I missed the excitement of getting mother out of the house.

I missed the wheelchair. I missed the looking for her flashlight (there weren't any lights apart from the umpteen fire engines which to mother didn't count). I missed the refusal to leave without all her medication. I missed the getting her and the wheelchair up one step into my sister's flat across the road which took two heaving and one pushing from behind.

I missed the three minute deluge which was the only rain for the day and night but hit her right on the head and got the heavers and pusher as well.

Sister made her a cup of tea to warm her up which she promptly dropped down her chest. Sister propped her in front of the split system air conditioner because no-one was allowed back into the house for dry clothes.

Panic stricken BrickOutHouse makes an appearance after running into the road block. Grandmother is safe but DIDN'T ANYBODY GET HIS CAT OUT? Defies commonsense and belts across the road to find the cat is sitting on the couch watching the pretty lights shinning in the window.

Neighbour of 50 years is playing to the gallery so an ambulance is called which she then refuses to use because they won't take her dog. Her house is apparently flooded with crap and my mother says it couldn't happen to a nicer person.

By 10.30 Mother is back home in bed but no gas fire or hot water.

It's 4.35 Wednesday and still no gas and no information as to when and if anyone is going to light the pilot lights and make sure all is safe.

Of course, all this could be a figment of my imagination.

I have a headache.

NIGHT SHINING

Still with the blue mood.

These clouds over Leicester in England are called 'noctilucent' clouds, Latin for 'night-shining' and are usually seen over the polar regions.

They form at an altitude of around 55 miles which is called the mesosphere and are made up of tiny ice crystals which are illuminated by the sun below the horizon.
These clouds have been photographed in Antarctica where they are having an effect on the ozone layer.

NASA launched a satellite in 2007 to study these clouds. There are three instruments on board, one takes pictures of the clouds, another measure the temperature of the mesosphere and how much water vapour and other gasses are present and the third sees how much dust from meteors enters Earth's atmosphere.

IT HAS A NAME AT LAST

Way back in May, this year, two bidders battled for 15 minutes to buy this rectangular-shaped blue diamond. The final bid was A$11.63 million to an anonymous buyer. The stone set a record price per carat at the auction at Sotheby's and a new world record price for a blue diamond.

Petra Diamonds mined it from the Cullinan mine in South Africa where most of the world's blue diamonds, of size and quality come from. This stone was mined in 2008, cut in 2009, mounted in a platinum ring and sent straight to auction.

The anonymous buyer has been identified as Joseph Lau Luen-Hung and as the first owner, has the naming rights. The blue diamond will be known as the 'Star of Josephine', all 7.03 carats of it.

FEAR THE ICE

The Greenland ice sheet, melting slightly but surely and letting loose its frozen secrets like this little purple bug.


Herminiimonas glaciei, has been buried under nearly two miles of ice for 120,000 years and researchers have brought back to life the dormant frozen microbes. It took them eleven and a half months to carefully warm the samples which then began to replicate.

The little purple-brown bacteria belongs to a rare family of 'ultramicro' bacteria that live in extreme environments (extremophiles, remember) and this group is really tiny.

While researchers have stressed that the bacteria was not harmful to humans, they also acknowledge that if it was harmful they would be hard to detect since they're so small they'd pass through the safety filters which are now in use in laboratories. Well, that's that covered.

The bugs were extracted from a core sample drilled from glacier ice. They filled a volume of 0.043 cubic micrometres and are thin rods with up to three long whip-like flagella.

The idea behind the study is to try and understand what life forms might be living in the extreme conditions on other planets.

Remember Mulder and the shape shifting alien bounty hunter who bled green acid blood in the frozen north and the alien virus? Then there was the episode of the wriggling worm thing at the Arctic base that crawled into the ear and latched onto the spine.

Why are we bringing back to life things we don't know which came from somewhere we don't know? And why don't I just stop watching old episodes of the X-Files?

HISTIOPHRYNE PSYCHEDELICA

Image by David Hall from Seaphotos.com

It's a face only a mother could love and was discovered off Ambon Island, Indonesia in January, 2008 by sports divers.

It was officially named as a new species. It's brightly coloured, 8 centimetres long, has a broad, flat face with forward-looking eyes and its DNA distinguishes it from other Histiophryne frogfish. It got the name of psychedelica because of the swirling stripes on the body. Those swirling bright orange, blue and white stripes remain whatever the background while other frogfish change colour to match the coral. H Psychedelica doesn't attract prey with a lure either, preferring to squeeze into tiny crevices in search of small fish.


It doesn't so much swim as walk on its leg-like pectoral fins but also hops to safety by squirting out little jets of water from gill-like openings at the back of its body that propel it along in irregular, arcing hops.

Apparently it didn't like being discovered since the 12 or so individuals disappeared in June, 2008. Divers are still searching for the elusive Psychedelica as researchers would like to know why it's so different from other species of frogfish.


X-Files, I tell you.

THE BIRDS

I'm used to being woken up by the stomping of blackbirds in blundstones all along the roof, digging out the moss to find insects and wormy things. So I mentally said thank you to the one I saw this morning as I trawled around the corner to get the paper.

Whatever he had in his beak looked like a cross between an anaconda and a basilisk. He landed on the nature strip ready for breakfast when a magpie swooped down and stole it, after giving Mr. Blackbird quite a wallop.

The maggie found a quiet nature strip further away for his ill-gotten snack just in time to be whacked in the back of the head by a kookaburra who swiped the morsel and took off for the trees over in the golf course.

All this happened in a matter of minutes. I fully expected David Attenborough to swing down out of a tree with one of his running commentaries.

The kookaburra was a big surprise as I have heard them but not seen one since Australand and Mirvac ran roughshode over the small piece of bushland we enjoyed.

I hope to wake up to the blundstones again tomorrow, the spouting obviously needs a good clean.

ADD THIS TO THE LIST OF THINGS WE DIDN'T KNOW

Antarctic is not all white ice and blue water. These are the Blood Falls at the snout end of the Taylor Glacier in the McMurdo Dry Valleys. The red colour is from iron oxide and colonies of microbes have been discovered just up from here.




They've been happily surviving in a briny pool approximately 5 kms wide, sealed more than 1,300 feet below the glacier ice for millions of years.
They've adapted to 'breathe' iron to produce energy and were discovered in the water slowly leaking from the glacier where the pools are buried. This water flows erratically and it's taken researchers years to collect enough to test.
The very salty water which doesn't freeze because of its extreme saltiness, was devoid of oxygen but loaded with elements of iron and sulphur.

Two species of living microbes have been cultured, Thiomicrospira arctica, which metabolizes sulphur and Desulfocapso sulfoexigens, which can live without oxygen but it's not yet known how many different species are living in the pool itself. Life forms like these are called extremophiles and many think these are what will be discovered on the planets in our solar systems.

Antarctica, alien virus, X-files, you all remember those episodes, don't you?

SWAROVSKI

Maria Callas was a Diva, a word that's been devalued these days (pop divas, I ask you!) Her voice could be a little rough and raw at times but her passionate acting in all her famous roles evened everything out.


On the 2nd of August, 1947, she debuted in "La Gioconda" wearing a crystal and pearl crown designed and crafted by the Atelier Marangoni of Milan. Maria, like a lot of singers, was superstitious and from that first triumph in Verona, always insisted on wearing the specially designed Marangoni and Swarovski creations for her stage roles. There was a golden wreath for the Druid Priestess in Norma, a renaissance-style cabochon crystal corsage for Anna Bolena and this magnificent tiara, necklace and earrings (weighing three and a third pounds) worn by Callas for her Metropolitan Opera debut in 'Tosca' in 1956.



Ennio Marangoni started to design and produce stage jewellery after WW2 and in the 1950s and 1960s created, for the Opera world wide, magnificent stage jewells using only crystals and pearls from the Austrian firm of Swarovski.

In 1956 Callas appeared on the 'Ed Sullivan Show' to sing selections from 'Tosca' but the crystals sparkled so brightly under the studio lights that she was only able to wear the earrings.

In 2008, the set was loaned to the Los Angeles Opera for a revival of 'Tosca'. Atelier Marangoni joined the Swarovski group in l999 and the company now owns this set of Callas jewells valued at $US85,000.

The set was designed to be worn during the second act of 'Tosca'. Floria Tosca is determined to sacrifice herself to the evil Baron Scarpia in return for the life of her true love, the artist Mario Cavaradossi. She sings the aria 'Vissi d'Arte' before she picks up the knife to kill Scarpia rather than submit to his demands.
This is the youtube of her Covent Garden performance but without this jewellery.
Http://www.youtube.com/watch?=1ZXwz0gj5fy

The Swarovski Company arranged an exhibition of her stage jewells which is travelling the world. "Maria Callas & Swarovski: Jewells on Stage" showcases her roles from 1947 to 1961 but unfortunately isn't likely to be coming to Australia.

I wouldn't mind a browse through the archive of the Atelier Marangoni which contains over 14,000 peices of jewellery and fashion accessories including more than 500 pieces of stage jewellery.

WHAT I REALLY NEED IS MORE BLING

Like these Swarovski crystal flash drives that River kindly sent to me.

And which would go perfectly with this elegant crystal mouse.
Or for my down in the dumps mood, a blast of crystal colour.
To go with this little item which is just crying out for Miss O'Dyne
to match it up with her travelling wheelie bag.

AND FROM RIVER, THE EXPLANATION

I'll go along with that.

IT'S THE CIRCLE SEASON AGAIN

Lucy Pringle has photographs on the new season's crop circles. I particularly like this one of a dragon fly.
Some circles are amateurish, some intricate enough to qualify for their 'ufo' status and some, in past years, have been done as advertising.
They look brilliant from the air but messy on the ground. Lucy Pringle studies the electro-magnetic properties of the trampled ground along with other researchers and the debunkers of all things 'mystical'.
If they're all done by planks strapped to the feet of pranksters then I'm very impressed with their precision and artistry.

I'LL TAKE A QUART OF SYMPATHY

Just in case you lot think my stress is just a minor glitch in my life plan.

I sat down this afternoon to finally sew up the hems on my new dresses which have been hanging on the wardrobe door for three weeks now.

Thread the needle, tension's fine, foot to the pedal.

Nothing, nada, no response. I can't believe it. The machine's just been repaired.

My feet are pedalling like crazy and nothing's moving.

Oh, I see, my feet are pedalling like crazy.

My electric machine sits on the old treadle machine and there are the feet, treadling away like crazy.

Pathetic, honestly.

I'M LIVING A DOUBLE LIFE

It didn't take long for ArseholesGasLimited to send out the confirmation letter for the increase in mother's direct debit. Two days as a matter of fact, so why haven't they still got my P of A after a month?

Mother is sick, urinary tract infection and is now on antibiotics so hopefully the hallucinations will slowly go away or fastly, bit hard to tell with her neural network.

What she's told the Bouvier sisters about me won't go so quickly. I really might have to belt one or both at the funeral.

So while I'm organising all the financial and health details of the old girl, I fail to look closely at mine. AGL didn't take my direct debit for gas out of my last pension or this one. Fortunately I got a cheery soul at the call centre and I didn't have the heart to rip his out. The direct debits are still being taken out on that end but it hasn't shown up on the bank balance.

Never mind Marlborough, around here it's Kafka Country.

TODAY IS.....

29th of May, 2009 and on the 29th of April, 2009 I faxed my Power of Attorney and the two AGL accounts I am supposed to have access to.

The call centre IN ADELAIDE hasn't been notified.

Would I fax through the PofA again?

It's already cost $6 of my pension to do this once but says nice call centre person, "we will give you a credit on the account".

Which would be fine if the call centre ever gets the faxes I'm sending there.

Now I'm going to email the file with an appropriate letter which I'm still trying to write without the blasphemies.

I'm wondering what happens if Mother drops off the twig, between them not getting the PofA and me becoming Executor of her estate.

NARACOORTE FOSSIL CAVE

The fossil cave part of the Naracoorte site is more developed than when I saw it way back when.
Information about all the caves is here .

WOW AND MORE WOW

This is the interior of Britain's biggest known cave chamber named Gaping Gill.
The main chamber is 476 feet long, 82 feet wide and 115 feet from floor to vaulted ceiling.


Cave enthusiasts were winched one by one down the gigantic pothole in Ingleborough, North Yorkshire - a descent that takes a full minute to reach the floor.


The cavern was formed by the action of a stream, Fell Beck, which flows from the flank of 2,373ft Ingleborough, the second highest mountain in the Yorkshire Dales, on to limestone rocks and roars down a dizzying 360ft drop in a natural fault line which makes it Britain's highest unbroken waterfall - twice the height of Niagara.

SPECTROSCOPY AND PIGMENTS

I've blogged about using RAMAN spectroscopy to analyze ancient Mayan paint pigments here .

Professor Vandenabeele also used this method at another Mayan site in Yucatan. The little know temple complex of Ek'Balam which variously translates as 'Black Jaguar', Bright Star Jaguar' or 'Star Jaguar' is near the more famous Chichen Itza.

Thirty three samples were studied from room 23 of the acropolis, the brilliantly carved facade is shown in the image below.


These samples were analyzed using RAMAN spectroscopy and several pigments were identified.
Haematite (reddish brown), Calcite (white), Carbon (black), Cinnabar (red) and Indigo (blue).


Indigo is an inorganic dye obtained from the plant of the same name and combined with Palygorskite clay makes the famous "Maya Blue" pigment which was sacred to the Mayans and I'll bore you to tears about it in another post.

CONSERVATION OF MENNA'S TOMB

It's three posts down.

I forgot to change the date.

Blogger does not forgive mistakes.

CRACKING THE MAYAN CODE

A very interesting program to watch especially after seeing "Angels and Demons". That Church aligned with State could think of wiping out a culture by burning not only their written and illustrated books but also the thousands of Maya in what was ethnic cleansing was not just a vision of the Catholic missionaries, all conquering nations did it. The Maya had a good go at knocking themselves off in the name of religion. The miracle is that from fragments saved and temples uncovered, researchers have opened up the Mayan world for us to appreciate the wonders worked without the aid of the wheel, or it seems, 'peace in our time'.

The image above was shown in the program. It's of a high-born lady piercing her tongue with a stingray barb then pulling a thorny vine through to give her blood as an offering. David Stuart was interviewed for the show but while it made mention of one of his major breakthroughs in translating the glyphs, another wasn't mentioned.

He re-interpreted a particular symbol at Copan which had been believed to mean "blood" to mean "clouds". As the program pointed out, many symbols could mean the same but here was a

subtle refinement in regards to the offerings to the Gods.

Bloodletting, usually by the Mayan nobility or elite was regarded as the most valuable gift they could give. This aspect of Mayan culture coincided with the evolution of a highly stratified class system. It was the express duty of the nobility to perform the rituals that kept the natural and supernatural worlds in balance. The Gods bestowed life, humans returned acknowledgment of the gift.

They pierced not only tongues but earlobes and in the case of males, genitals. After the piercing, the blood dripped onto sheets of bark paper which was then burned, transformed into clouds of smoke that the Gods took in as sustenance and returned as life-giving rain. Now you can see that subtle refinement of meaning.

And if you think I would take pleasure in the thought of some bloke shoving a stingray barb through his crown jewells followed by a thorny vine, well, shame on you.

bwahahahahhahahha.

Ripper.

HUBBLE

Everyone is familiar with the other Horsehead Nebula, the one with the black horse head shape against a red cosmic cloud, but this is the Blue Horsehead Nebula in the constellation Scorpius.

The last suttle mission to keep the Hubble up and running was worth every penny/cent when we get so much information from the telescope, better than planning manned flights to Mars or building bases on the moon.

REALLY, PEOPLE!

I watched the movie "Angels and Demons" and while not a world beater, I thought it was better than the "DaVinci Code". At least Tom Hanks' forehead was able to wrinkle and express itself without the gallon of botox he had last time. Female lead, forgettable or had a badly written part or Ron Howard doesn't like women. I liked the lace on the Cardinals.

Scientists are carrying on because they say there's no way that anti-matter could be contained the way it is in the movie. See that word there, MOVIE, not real life but make believe or suspend belief. I mean no single man could take the punishment that John McLean does in "Die Hard" the franchise but who complains about that. Same thing with Harry Potter, make believe, movie, entertainment, full stop. By the way the trailer for HP and the Half Blood Prince looks like the movie will be a ripper.

Moving on, I went to the early session and there were very few people in the theatre but they couldn't have made more of a pigsty of the place if they tried. I'd like to thump the bloke who left his popcorn packet (large) right in the middle of the steps going out, couldn't even put in on the seat. He couldn't have put it on the carpet, his popcorn was there. He had his mobile phone on several times, lit up like a Christmas tree, so how could he possibly miss his mouth.
Same with the two birds to the right of me, the only clear space near their seats was where their feet had been.

Mobile phones to the left of me, phones to the right of me. Why can't people sit for two hours without checking to see if someone loves them or is it a test to see how much I can hate them?
The first thing I do is turn off the mobile, really turn it off. That's what I'm there for, two hours of un-interrupted motherless enjoyment. And talk, shut up to the tarts in the back row or move down to the front where 10 rows would give me a buffer zone of silence.

And how desperate do you have to be to need a pee in the middle of two hours?

Roll on July 15.

CONSERVATION OF THE TOMB

Researchers found that at least three major previous conservation treatments were inside the chapel. In 1913, Ernest MacKay replaced a number of plaster fragments and fittled the ceiling with three light iron girders.

In 1914-1915 shows the plaster fragments set into the black muna (bottom pic from Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford). The top photo from 1966 shows the white repair plaster over the muna substrate to stabilize the fragments. In the 1980s/90s, polyvinyl acetate (a synthetic binder) was mixed with sand and clay to form a mortar in the existing white plaster areas. B72 (Paraloid) was also introduced to stabilize the paintings.

Over the years, the plaster and pinkish PVA had cracked becoming unstable and visually distracting. The previous fills also resulted in the creation of 'haloes' or yellow tidemarks around the losses. Samples of sand and sandstone powders were analyzed to see if they would produce adverse chemical changes in the lime plaster or with the original black muna plaster. After testing and examination with polarized light microscopy they were found safe to use. The colours of different sands were tested and a mixture of lime putty, local sandstone powder, light building sand and a local pinkish sandstone were decided on. The top photo shows the previous repairs being removed.

The loose materials of the fill have to be removed and the surface wetted with a brush to aid adhesion and to slow the drying rate. The sand and limestone putty mixture had to be applied quickly, taking care to avoid contact with the original edges.

The repairs were then cut back under light to ensure an even surface and that the mortar followed the plane of the wall. Then mortar was pushed into the edges of the original plaster to ensure good contact and mimic the original plaster surface.

It could be that in another 40 or 50 years or even less, these repairs will be removed to make way for a better conservation project. It's certain not to last the 3 thousand years the paintings have. All this stuff is probably copyright but sueing me will do you no good but since thousands read this blog, I won't charge you for the publicity.

ARCHAEOMETRY IN MENNA'S TOMB

Monash University will be hosting the 5th International Conference on Advanced Vibrational Spectroscopy in Melbourne, July 12th to 17th. One of the invited speakers is Peter Vandenabeele who is Research Professor in Archaeometry at Ghent University.

Archaeometry is the science of archaeology, using analytic chemistry, spectroscopy, (bio) organic chemistry, electrochemistry, physics, conservation science, museology, anthropology, history, history of art and archaeology. In other words all the post-Indiana Jones stuff.

The analysis of precious artefacts or art works which cannot be taken apart or damaged or even moved and micro samples of pottery and paint flakes are being undertaken by scientists using several non-invasive methods.

In 2007, Professor Vandenabeele worked on the Menna Tomb Project. Menna was a high official who served as an overseer of the Cadastral surveys during the reigns of Tuthmosis IV and Amenhotem III between 1419 - 1370 BC. His tomb at Thebes is one of the finest painted, non-Royal Egyptian tombs open to the public and the paintings decorating the walls are marvellous examples of what Egyptians could do with pigments and plaster.

The research team of scientists involved in the archeaometry phase used visual analysis techniques of colorimetry (visible, ultra-violet and near infra-red) x-ray fluorescence (XRF) and RAMAN spectroscopy. The aim was to provide a complete analysis of the organic and inorganic materials, that is, the paint pigments, varnishes, binders and plaster in the tomb. The results would show not only the ancient materials but later repairs by conservators that may be degrading the paintings.

This is the XRF machine built especially for this project. After a visual examination of the painting, points were selected for study and analysis. As all archaeometric processes work by using the effect of light wave lengths converted to spectral troughs and peaks, nothing touches the painted walls so pigments or matrix remain intact.

The x-ray fluorescence here has identified the elemental components of the sample of yellow and it's inorganic concentration. The highest peak is As (Arsenic) and the next is Ca (Calcium) with smaller concentrations of Fe(Iron) Sr (Strontium) which indicates the pigment is almost pure orpiment, an arsenic sesquisulphide (As2S3). ( don't ask what sesquisulphide is or you'll be made to google it yourself)

Preliminary findings show that the Egyptian artists worked with combinations of pigments in different mixtures, either mixed together and then applied to the wall, or laid on in washes to create transparency.

And in true Lord Hughes style, I'll be posting about the conservation of the tomb next, with photos.

I'M BECOMING A GARDENPHOBIC

There's probably a high-faluting latin word for gardenphobia but that will do.

A beautiful autumn day........in the garden.

Pray for the plants I've just put in. They were so safe in their pots until I came along.

Water crystals, hole digging, watering, back filling (gardeny term that) and I managed to drop both of them.

I think I broke their necks.

I gave up after that and sat in the sun and cleaned the brass goblets and sprayed them so I'll never have to do it again.

Now I have to hide them again.

Who wants to be reminded of their 21st birthday when they're rapidly approaching the umpty-first?

Besides the ex gave them to me. Why did I marry someone who gave me a present that I would have to clean until the day I died?

FOR POTTER FANS

This is 'Shell Cottage' from the set of 'Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows'. I think this is what I love about the films, how the setmakers (?) take words and make them into visions. I want it.

MORE BIREFRINGENCE

Katrina Putker's image of a dinner plate and cutlery won her third place in the Eureka Prize for science photography, 2008.


This time the birefringence was created by using the light passing through plastic which was manually stressed to enhance the overall effect. When light passes through certain types of material, it experiences two refractive indices, slow and fast wavelengths which creates the rainbow effect.


Ms Putker called her work, "Birefringence Binge"



I'm not sure how 'manually stressed' works, in my case it would be belting it with a geologist's pick.

JEWELLS OR CAKE OR JEWELLS OR CAKE, CHOICES CHOICES CHOICES

I don't know how Antoine managed to stay hidden at the back of the pastry window but that's the way I look when I see a shop full of goodies. I also get that look when I'm contemplating the fridge door, also covered in goodies. Thanks to Annie O'Dyne for the link.

IMPERIAL TOPAZ

Imperial Topaz is in the yellow-orange or reddish-orange (sherry) colour range and has been known since ancient Egypt and Roman times.
The name "Imperial" was given to Topaz in honour of the Emperor Don Pedro of Brazil in order to distinguish it from the heat treated amethyst-turned-citrine known as "golden topaz".
The true Topaz colour is natural and not heated or treated in any way and priced way above that of citrine. When viewed under incandescent light, the orange colour of an Imperial topaz takes on a pinkish hue.



Because of the value, the gem cutters will try to minimize the weight loss as they bring out the natural beauty but this also means that most crystals are a non-standard shape, leading to handcrafted settings instead of mass produced jewellery. The piece of loveliness above is a 7.81 carat stone surrounded by fourteen diamonds in a platinum setting. (drool, want, drool)

And all things lovely come from rough crystals like these.

PRECIOUS TOPAZ

This is a rare example of 'Precious' Topaz as the bi-colour is as it was in the original rough crystal. It is 13.35 carats in weight and measures 27 x 11.8 x 5.42 mm. The yellow pink tone is natural and has not been heat treated. The interior is flawless and it has been cut to enhance the bi-colour.
This exceptional colour is only found near the town of Ouro Preto in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

These faceted stones also come from Ouro Preto.

And the post wouldn't be anything without some bling.

MY MIND IS GOING BY JET PLANE, TRAIN, BUS, ANYTHING THAT WILL TRAVEL

I crawl over in the cold on Monday and storm out in a blaze of sunshine. Don't ask, you already know the usual reasons.

Tuesday was slightly better except it was the wrong day for the movie I wanted to see and in my post-mother hysteria, I really didn't need to watch Wolverine.

This morning was quite mind bending.

The BrickOutHouse went to bed at 3 a.m. and mother went to the bathroom and all the lights were out.
Even her torch wouldn't work.
She only made it back to bed by following the white patch on the cat.
Then the top light wouldn't work.
Then the DVD player came on by itself.
Then the TV came on by itself and turned itself off.
She still couldn't get the torch to work.
The room was pitch dark.
But she could see the street lights weren't working.

The BrickOutHouse was going to work and said goodbye. She told him about the lights.
He went to bed at 8 pm.
His electric clock was still working.
The power didn't go off.
He grabs the phone to tell me this and I tell him to check the torch to see if she has put the batteries in it.
Torch works fine.
Front door slams.

Mother says he doesn't know what he's talking about since he was asleep when the lights went out.

Would you like to hear about the egg exploding in the microwave?

Didn't think so.

Okay, I'll go back to working out what diagenetically related minerals mean or maybe I'll just go back to bed and put my head under the pillows.

I SAID I HAD A ROTTEN SENSE OF HUMOUR

AND SO DOES LORD SEDGWICK

IT'S BEEN A WHILE SINCE I MEMED

A – Age. Young enough not to care who knows it which doesn't mean I'm going to tell you.

B- Bed size A queen size. Room for me, my books, my walkman, notepads, cassettes (there's an age give-away) and the Butler’s tea tray.

C- Chore you hate. Housework, gardening, sex and saving money, breaking in a new Butler.
I couldn't choose one, they're all at the top of the list.

D - Dog’s name. Don't have one now but if I do buy one, its name will be Harold the Elk.
Thank you Lord Hughes.
Memo to self: see if the Butler would go for a name change.

E - Essential start to your day. Apart from sunlight streaming in the window, Earl Grey Tea, black, no sugar, served by the Butler.

F - favorite colour. Mulberry and black. It's the Butler's livery.

G - gold or silver. Yellow gold, not rose gold or white gold.
If you’re going for white gold you might as well go platinum and hang the expense.

H- height. Six foot 2 inches. It’s my meme, I can lie if I want to.

I – instruments. Poker machines.

J – job. Work? That’s what the Butler’s for.

K – kids. I’m allergic to anything under the age of consent.

L - living arrangements. Blissfully alone, except for the Butler.

M - Mum's name. My dad used to call her ‘Angel’.
It’s unprintable what I’ve called her in the last week.

N – Nicknames. Puhleeese, with my height and the Butler trailing behind, no-one would dare.

O - overnight hospital stay other than birth. There’s not enough room on this blog to catalogue. I’ll go with the first one before I was 12 months old. I had a throat infection which obstructed my breathing so the men-in-white carted me off to Fairfield Infectious Diseases Hospital without my mother in attendance. I was kept there for a week, no contact with family until my mother came and got me. She was never told what was wrong with me or what treatment I was given. And you wonder why I love the X-Files. Unfortunately I only found out after Fairfield was closed so now I’ll never know.

P - pet peeve. Comments about my weight. People smoking near me. People drinking too much and being obnoxious. Kids who barf on me. Football players who can’t keep it in their pants. Sam Newman who can’t keep his gob shut. Men who think women are inferior when we actually rule the world, albeit in secret. Creationists. (I would time travel them back to the dinosaurs to try living with them since they’re so convinced)

The list is endless. I’m a grumpy old woman.

Q - Quote from a movie. “We’re gunna need a bigger boat” That statement applies to everything that goes wrong. I love that film.

R - robot or human. With some blokes you can’t tell.
Pardon me while I go check the Butler.

S – Siblings. Sister but then I can’t be certain. I may have been swapped for an alien at Fairfield.

T - time you wake up. After the Butler arrives and before the tea goes cold.

U – underwear. Commando in the house, Bombay bloomers in the street.
I wouldn’t want to frighten the horses if I fell over.

V - Vegetable you dislike. Besides Sam Newman? Okra, chokoes, eggplant and sweet potato.

W- ways you run late. I am never late or the Butler gets fired.

X - X-rays you've had. Too many, I probably glow in the dark.

Y - Yummy food you make. I used to be a great cook but I’ve lost the knack except for a booze laden Christmas cake that can prove lethal. Fortunately the Butler seems to have been trained at the Ritz.

Z - Zoo favourite. I hate zoos except for endangered species but I love otters. I always head for the otters.

NEW THINGS, OLD THINGS

I can't remember if I said about my 30 year old glasses frames, that OPSM weren't all that happy about putting in reading lens and wouldn't guarantee the work and really were a bit snooty about my gold metal oldies.

Well, I bent over to take off my slippers last night and the new supplied and guaranteed frames fell apart and landed at my feet. I haven't had them six months. It only took 5 minutes to put them back together at the store but keep this date in mind in case they fall apart again.

At the movies, I saw the best ad ever but then I have a rotten sense of humour. Big party, bloke turns up with a box wrapped in ribbons. Says to the girl that he knows she's had a rotten time since Freddy (or whoever) went. She puts her hand in the box and squeals, 'Bowling ball!'. Not a bowling ball but Freddy the gerbil encased in a plastic bauble. Okay, I suppose you had to be there but it was funny. I think they were advertising Cadbury's chocolates but I was laughing to hard to remember.

MERCURY IS RETROGRADE

Stupid stars, I hate it when astrologers are right.

Half an hour after I posted on Tuesday, the phone and internet went off. It came back Wednesday morning and went off Wednesday night. It went off this morning but that was the man up the pole fiddling with the wires again. No internet banking then and call for a taxi on the mobile and pass the man fiddling with wires on a pole round the corner and down the street.

Phone and internet is back, for now.

AGL are now giving me grief. NO, we haven't got your PoA yet, it takes a while to come to the call centre. One more call with that remark, which I'll be making tomorrow, and the supervisor will join David in the padded cell. That belongs to the mother problem.

My problem was spelled out in three letters from AGL for the gas and two for the electricity. Apparently, they've been having billing troubles and have just caught up with the accounts. So if I'm having problems paying for this extra large bill, just ring our call centre and we'll come to some arrangement. Lucky me, I have direct debits which went down in each subsequent letter but I'm still in credit. So I'm waiting for any letters like this to arrive at mother's and then watch the mushroom cloud billow over AGL.

It's a good thing I spent yesterday sniffing a fresh can of brass cleaner or I mightn't be as mellow. Sorry Antikva if I sounded a little spaced out but who reads instructions about doing brass cleaning in adequate ventilation. My last brass cleaner wasn't loaded with LSD. But the brass is looking good and I've got 3 more goblets to go and only half a lung left.

I bought mother a duckdown doona for mother's day with her money. So I didn't shop for food, I can forage, but decided to visit today instead of tomorrow. I took off the bed, one heavy wool blanket, one heavy marcella quilt, two mohair rugs, one patchwork quilt and one bedspread and the thermal blanket, she was using that so her leg wouldn't fall out of bed. They weighed a tonne but lacked warmth which is why I put on the light thermal blanket but the control freak decided that was the one thing that was heavy on her legs. Give me strength.

I decided there must be a reason for her not being able to get to the centre of the bed, apart from sheer bloodymindedness because I make her do it, and somewhere along the line an over achieving housekeeper had removed the wooden blocks from the wheels on the bed so it was moving instead of mother.

With a sweep of the broom I found them and put them back. Made the bed with the doona, thermal blanket and mohair rug and made her get in it properly. She ate a custard tart, several painkillers and a cup of tea and passed out for two hours. I think she heard me say goodbye, all I could hear was, "I"m so warm, why didn't we do this before?" Because I still thought I might be able to find the $200 wool filled doona that's still MIA. I love Harris Scarfe, quilt was $90 off, bargain and a half if it shuts her up.

And the rest of the morning was filled with STAR TREK. Trek nerds, don't miss it on the big screen. Brilliant and I don't care if William Shatner was pissed off that he didn't get a guernsey and Nimoy did because he was part of the film and Denny Crane would have ruined it. The story has multi-layers, the special effects are tremendous and the actors were perfect. Love it, love it.

GIVE THE CLAP TO TELSTRA, SORRY, GIVE A CLAP TO TELSTRA

Telephone is fixed, for the moment, for this year, hopefully forever.

The fixit man could have knocked on the door before cutting the phone line with Ma on the other end of the morning hysteria call.

She thought the power went off and couldn't get her breakfast.

That took some explaining, about the difference between electricity and phone line.

It appears that during the 120kmh windstorm, the connection worked loose and water got in and started to short out the line.

But only my phone line.

There's a moral in there somewhere.

BLOG READING IS GOOD FOR MENTAL HEALTH

And on the other hand having no phone or internet since Wednesday night means increased blood pressure, shouting, throwing phones around and moderate to full-on depression.

Telstra call centre must have a large 'be afraid' star against my name by now as I'm treated very gently, WHEN THEY CAN HEAR ME THROUGH THE INSANE NOISE GENERATED BY THEIR PHONE LINE.

It was a dream to have a clear line this morning even with mother on it.

A big thank you to River. I finally got the coffee and vanilla slice, still fresh.

It is depressing to realize that without the internet and blogs, I have no interaction with human beings other than little old ladies in supermarkets and check-out chicks. (No offence River, my check-out chick is lovely).

So pardon my dust as I nick off and catch up with people who have a life.

And you all better be there where I left you. I regard a blog closure as being like a death in the family.