July 2005 Archives

When you're invited to a Rhetoric Conference, are you supposed to reply?

I figure a bit of shameless advertising on my blog is okay if I'm on the Advisory Board so here's the latest plug for the Ideas Festival!
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It happened again – an opportunity too good to miss – so the Ideas Festival is bringing Canadian JOHN RALSTON SAUL to Brisbane on Wednesday 24 August 2005 to present his ideas.

On this occasion the best available theatre is QPAC’s Cremorne Theatre, with only 300 seats, so we invite you - who have given us your details and asked to be kept up to date with Ideas Festival information to book early.

[Editor's Note: Or in the case of this blog, if you're one of my readers you get the opportunity to book early!]

JOHN RALSTON SAUL is an internationally respected commentator on politics, globalism and democracy. A critic of the Davos World Economic Forum, his recent provocative work argues that globalism, with all its failures, and despite its achievements, is dead.

Ralston Saul’s past works include The Doubters Companion 2002; On Equilibrium - Six Qualities of the New Humanism 2003; Voltaire’s Bastards 1993; and The Unconscious Civilisation 1997. He now investigates, in his new work The Collapse of Globalism: and the Reinvention of the World', the future of democracy and the nature, and rebirth, of nationalism.

John Ralston Saul is a provocative speaker. His concerns are for the effects of unbridled capitalism, for the losers, and for the need to now take action. This is a rare opportunity to hear and to question his ideas about our world and about our future.

OPEN TO ALL - BOOK EARLY

Ideas Lecture – JOHN RALSTON SAUL – 6pm, Wednesday 24 August 2005
Cremorne Theatre QPAC
Tickets on sale now – $15 + Qtix booking fee ($1.50)
Qtix - 136 246 - www.qtix.com.au
(This lecture will have sign language interpreters, Auslan)

Pass it on: John Ralston Saul is in Brisbane for one night – let your colleagues, family and curious friends know about this Ideas event.

John Ralston Saul is in Brisbane as a guest of the Ideas Festival, proudly presented by the Queensland Government with Major Sponsors Griffith University and Brisbane Airport Corporation and Sponsors Queensland Performing Arts Centre, South Bank Corporation, CPR Communications and Public Relations and Dot Dash.

NB: It is a coincidence only that this opportunity follows so closely the June Jared Diamond Lecture, the Ideas Festival is getting on with developing a challenging and full program of leading international and national speakers for the full Ideas Festival, 29 March – 2 April 2006. We aren’t planning to present regular Ideas Lectures in the meantime.

Thank you for your interest in Ideas.
Go to the Ideas Website for more about John Ralston Saul and the Ideas Lecture or go straight to Qtix to book now or Qtix phone 136 246.

There has been some rather exciting news in the past few weeks and the past 24 hours in particular, that I cannot elaborate upon until all details are resolved and contracts are signed, but let me say the future is looking very bright indeed.

Apparently everyone has simultaneously worked out that I finished up my latest consultancy last Friday and now I am swamped with new queries. Please folks, I am actually booked up this week with work, so if you can hold out till next week it'd be much appreciated. If you just want to catch up for a drink that's fine, but I'm afraid I'm going to have to say no to all new work between now and next week.

Have had a fabulous weekend in Sydney seeing my brother and sister-in-law for the first time in over a year, and celebrating my brother's birthday with him in their new home. Thanks to Andrew and Eloise for having me to stay and giving me such a relaxing and enjoyable weekend. Was just fantastic to see you both, and hope we will see each other again soon! Love you both! *many many hugs*

I always love spending time in Sydney. As the source of my earliest memories, Sydney will always hold a very special place in my heart, and I will never tire of the spectacular views of that magnificent harbour, from all headlands around the vivid, bustling and windswept city. Having said that, it's always nice to come home, wherever home happens to be. And this morning it's lovely to look out on the sunshine and the relaxing pace of Brisbane.

A very special birthday wish to my brother, Andrew, with whom I'm very happy to be spending the day, today. Love you heaps, big brother. Wishing you health, happiness, success and prosperity.

Congrats to Hamish Elton and his team for winning the Executive Roundtable inaugural Pressure Cooker competition last night, and thankyou for hosting drinks after the event! Was a great night and I was so glad to be part of it. Hamish - I hope you had a happy birthday, and I owe you a drink!

Commiserations to Martin Moore and his team, who performed so well, too. Truly, I believe a combination of the solutions presented would have been a fantastic result for the business owner. Well done all round.

I'm not sure either of the birthday people will read this but I did want to send a couple of birthday wishes today. To my friend, Melissa, who is the mother of my godson, Ethan, a very happy birthday to you, hon! Hope things in the workplace are improving and that you have a fantastic entry into the wonder that is thirtysomething! :-) Sorry I'm going to miss your party tomorrow night, but you know you'll be in my thoughts. *love and hugs*

And to Hamish, who is competing tonight in the BGSB Pressure Cooker competition, after being part of the winning team at the BCG competition last weekend, a very happy birthday to you, too! All the best for tonight, and I look forward to cheering all the teams on!

The man who played - was - Star Trek's inimitable engineer, Montgomery Scott, has passed away. A man whose Scottish accent never actually was Scottish, but who came to epitomise everything Scottish on screen, James Doohan was roguish to the core, riding the Star Trek wave like a Celtic hero, laughing over a cold one till his barrel-shaped body shook like a kilt in the wind, and fathering his last child at 80.

Let's all raise a glass to Scotty today, in the hopes that when at last he was beamed up there, he's giving them all he's got, Captain!

Wow.

EDIT: And yes, I have finished it.

Sad to say there's less to go of the latest Harry Potter book than I have so far read. I so love recreational reading days. Whether it's fiction or non-fiction, spending a warm winter's day curled up with a cup of tea, some musk sticks and a good book is about as close to paradise as you can get.

But as I read (and I have taken a few hours' break during the day, for meals and Kev dropping by for a visit - hence only covering about 320 pages of the 609 page book), I wonder whether there's a site that is ticking over with the sales figures of the latest Harry edition? Now there's an idea for a fabulous website, and an instructive example of the economic power of popularism!

Harry Potter, that is. Yes, I have my copy of the new Harry Potter book and am about to start reading. See you all on the other side!
:-)

(BTW - Big W has copies for $22.43. Cheapest in Brisbane, and huge numbers of copies available. Even so, get i nfast. You know they'll all be gone by the end of the day today.)

Implications aplenty arise from the decision to find website owners liable for content held on the MP3s4free site. And not all of those implications are pleasant for those among us who prefer an open forum.

Finally caught up with the slot on Brisbane Extra last week.

DOUBLE CHIN MANIA!!!!!

Why is it that someone who tops the scales at about 57 kilos can end up looking like porky pig? In any case, I managed it, and once again proved the camera does not like me at all. Nevertheless, at least what I said wasn't completely embarrassing.

Most of the people known to myself and my friends, who are presently in London have checked in and I am relieved to say, are okay.

Of course there eventually will be news from those who were not so lucky.

I'm going to forward a suggestion from an email I received this morning from my friend, Camilla, whose younger brother was less than 200 metres from the first blast....

For everyone to do today: Tell the people you care about the most that you love them today.

And when you've done that, go on with your lives. It's important we don't let the terrorists win, by giving in to fear.

Anyone with friends and family in London right now, you need to get them on the line. There's been a major explosion at Aldgate Station on the London Tube, and a bus has been ripped apart at Tavistock Place.

What's the bet this is terrorist action in response to London getting the Olympics in 2012?

EDIT: Of course it is timed with G8 meetings, but the news of getting the Olympics the night before only reinforces the fact that this is not a safe time in which we live :-(

My thoughts are with those who are aching for news of loved ones.

Okay so clearly the first things on my list were:
- Time
- Money
- Power
- The Usual Things That Ought Not Be Mentioned On A Family-friendly Blog.

But I figured that none of the above is easy for my readers to give.

So then I thought about some material things that I want and came up with several items but also thought these were a tad unreasonable as it would be tantamount to asking my readers to pay me for my blogging. (Don't even get me started on gift economies.)

Then I thought about some topics that have been under-discussed online, and while there are a truckload of topics that need further analysis, I don't have the time to read any more than I'm reading right now (see first thought), so I will leave that idea in obeyance until I have time to just sit and think.

And then it struck me: what I really want most of all is for my blog readers to tell me about themselves and their lives. I do know about some of my readers' lives through social gatherings, blogs and even email discussions, but often people think I know about their lives when in fact I really don't know as much as I'd like to know. (Actually what I'd really like to do is go out for a drink with you all at some stage and just chat about whatever comes to mind, but that's not always possible.) Getting out and catching up is really a great part of my life, and finding out about others' projects, interests and motivations is a life-long fascination for me. Of course, it's also a great excuse for a coffee or a drink, or even a bite to eat, and an escape from a life of all-work-and-no-play.

So: email me or comment on this post, telling me about your life, the projects you are working on at the moment, and your passions in life.

You read my blog because it interests you. Believe me when I say your life is just as interesting to me.

It's all happening today. Latest article based on an earlier post is up on On Line Opinion here: Businesses can't affrod to say 'can't'.

Just heard that the spot on Brisbane Extra is going to be on TV tonight. The lovely Kevin has promised to tape and capture for my dear mother who will have a fit if she doesn't get to see the segment.

According to Mark Bahnisch's blog, today is What Women Bloggers Want Day. I'm supposed to say what I want, and male bloggers or blog-readers are supposed to give it to me. Or at least that's how I think it ought to work. In any case I haven't thought clearly about what I really want yet so I'm going to have to come back to this later in the day.

But I do think the concept is rather attractive.

In other news, it's also my wonderful friend, Kevin's birthday today. Happy birthday babe. Love you heaps.

Thanks to Mark Bahnisch for a fab night catching up and being cynical about the life of an academic! Was great sipping red wine with you Mark! We must do that again, soon.

Also HUGE apologies to Immy, Westy, Creepy and Shan for not getting back to you all sooner. I miss you all, Immy, Westy & Creepy, and will get on to MSN when I have a chance, so we can catch up. My deepest apologies ... I'm not ignoring you - just flat out. Shan sweety, you probably won't read this, but have left messages on your phone. Want to catch up soon, hon!

Finally for the Brisbane crowd, if you have the time and the interest, tune in to Brisbane Extra during this week, if you want to actually put a face to a name. If I wasn't too dull, I may well be in a story on sms-ing some time this week.

I'm awfully proud of myself. I actually unclogged a bathroom sink with my new plunger.

JJ: Amateur Plumber.

Scared yet?

In a rather timely fashion I received two items of interest from Kevin and Tyson looking into the history and the future of information technologies.

Just an extraordinary piece of vision is the excerpt from Life Magazine from 3 August 1962, entitled 'Telstar, Telstar, Burning Bright' (see extended entry for the image of the full article). Arthur C Clarke was actually speaking of the satellite launched in the early 1960s, and predicting how such technologies were to be used in the future, but he has virtually flawlessly presented the nature of the use of the internet today. He accurately predicted email, electronic libraries and the need for information search engines, the growth of English as a digital language, and even a complete breakdown of censorship. Given the date of these predictions, prior to even Licklider's ideas about connectivity, such vision is absolutely remarkable.

On the other end of the spectrum is the predictive 'history' of media development in the flash presentation (you really do need broadband to watch this), suggested by Tyson. In this presentation, the growth of the internet, the development of Google and news aggregation techniques and the growth of 'consumer copy' (blogs, etc) is set against the fictional fading of a print media giant, The New York Times. A rather fascinating take on the future of news media production.

Great stuff. Thanks guys.