- introducing - Black Death! -

Ahhh, finally the plush toy industry is blooming again! Well at least these guys got my vote on the wackilcious register :D And thanks to Lin, I have my very own Black Death to bring with me everywhere I go! :D

At www.giantmicrobes.com you'll also find Black Death's physical cousin The Flu; the Ulcer that looks like that girl with the pearl earring; and the most agreeable Athlete's Foot on display. You can also find them at our UNSW University Bookshop! That's where Lin and I were canoodling them.

-Toothpaste for Dinner

- paint your pictures -

Grew a bit sick of our Colin so decided to repimp my desktop. Again, gimme a buzz if any of yous like our Jesse.

- paramodernism - Endo Shuuhei -

This commentary has come quite a long way, relatively. It began with the spontaneous purchase of the pocket Phaidon Atlas of Contemporary Architecture, and an intent on undertaking a more proper architectural pilgrimage this time that I would have a month in the Kansai area. Henceforth followed by my need to find Japanese articles to translate.

So Endo Shuuhei's toilet block came up.
It seems rather fashionable these days for architects to do funky toilet blocks. (Lacoste & Stevenson... Miralles-Pinós*...) And the premise behind Endo's concept was an attack at Modernism, to create paramodern-ism. Just as Modernism prescribed us the cocktail of post-beam-roof-wall, Endo decided to melt these down to form an amalgamated structure - blending wall with roof and out with in. He also used Escher as a precedent where figure/ground and in/out relationships are blurred to the point of complex confusion. A trompe l'oeil approach to architecture was borne in him.

It is intriguing that through questioning Modernity the product that eventuated was this selective Modernity. Prefabrication and mass production in corrugated steel to construct a convoluting envelop/space are a progressed way of selecting from past doctrines and granting it a renewed vigor.

I would love to say that they have broken down the respective specialties of structure and facade too but from the looks of things our friendly piloti still lingers and disallusioning proprietary components still render vertical walls necessary. It is a beautiful concept however I have a feeling I would be disappointed. Unfortunately our very real modular man is still upright.

We'll see, we'll see.

P.S. It's like an over-scissored ribbon!

>A text by Endo Shuuhei


*fine, fine. Changing rooms for an archery range.

- LAUNCH! -

It's official. I hereby unveil my photo journal: Schlepper

So far it only contains the Elizabeth Bay House exhibition that was launched tonight. A very exciting event indeed. Go check it out as we're co-contributors to the exhibit!

CHANGING SPACES
AT ELIZABETH BAY HOUSE
7 Onslow Avenue, Elizabeth Bay
4 OCTOBER 2005 – 30 APRIL 2006

"Bold cutting edge design to transform ‘the finest house in the colony'"

- Who Wants to Be a Hurricane? -

For every year, there is a pre-approved list of names for tropical storms and hurricanes. These lists have been generated by the National Hurricane Center since 1953. At first, the lists consisted of only female names; however, since 1979, the lists alternate between male and female.

Hurricanes are named alphabetically from the list in chronological order. Thus the first tropical storm or hurricane of the year has a name that begins with "A" and the second is given the name that begins with "B." The lists contain names that begin from A to W, but exclude names that begin with a "Q" or "U."

There are six lists that continue to rotate. The lists only change when there is a hurricane that is so devastating, the name is retired and another name replaces it.

-from About.com, image from smh

I checked, there is no hurricane Steven :(

at the Tilbury's

- words to think about 6 - common usage errors -

Following Steve King's blatant misuse of the word "anxious" today, I thought it prudent to offer this collection of Common Usage Errors (from my book Word Smart).

Anxious - This word properly means "filled with anxiety," not "eager." Don't say you're anxious for school to end unless the ending of school makes you feel fearful.

Common vs Mutual - Common means "shared"; mutual means "reciprocal." If Tim and Tom have a common dislike, they both dislike the same thing (anchovies). If Tim and Tom have a mutual dislike, they dislike each other.

Commonplace - In careful usage, this word is an adjective meaning "ordinary" or "uninteresting." It can also be used as a noun meaning a "trite or obvious observation" or a "cliché." It should not be used as a substitute for the word "common."

To say that French food is the best in the world is a commonplace.
It is common but neither interesting nor perceptive to say that French food is the best in the world.

Farther vs Further - Farther refers to actual, literal distance -- the kind measure in inches and miles [I know, it's American]. Further refers to figurative distance. Use farther if the distance can be measured; use further if it cannot.

Paris is farther from New York than London is.
Paris is further from my thoughts than London is.
We hiked seven miles but then were incapable of hiking farther.
I made a nice outline for my thesis but never went any further.

That vs Which - Most people confuse these two words. Many people who know the difference have trouble remembering it. Here's a simple rule that will almost always work: that can never have a comma in front of it; which always will.

There is the car that ran over my foot.
Ed's car, which ran over my foot, is over there.
I like sandwiches that are dripping with mustard [again, Americans...].
My sandwich, which was dripping with mustard, was the kind I like.

Which is used in place of that if it follows another that: "We were fond of that feeling of contentment which follows victory."

[I have received the comment that this is only an American English {if there is such a word} rule, and we Australians/NZers are exempt from this since we use British English. However is there substantial back-up evidence for this?]

- naughty naughty birdie -

Here's one for the creationists (in response to Lisa).

The Aquatic Warbler is the rarest songbird in Europe; it is also the most promiscuous.

The male birds are "continuously ready to mate and testing every female for her willingness to copulate." They have large balls, and have prolongated sex of up to half an hour to prevent other males from pushing in, and also allowing the female to gauge them better.

Here's the article that sums up the whole deal.

- open to the pubic -

It's a hoot.
From smh's Column8 today:

"The Galeries Victoria spelling may make 'one 'ell of a difference' to nationality, but perhaps it's just a case of misplacement," writes Tom O'Reilly, of Gerringong. "The missing letter may be located at Randwick racecourse, where a long-standing sign points to the existence of a Betting Pavillion."

- on penguins -

The animal kingdom's most famous gay couple has split up.[>story]

Silo and Roy, the cohabiting penguins of Central Park Zoo, are no longer an item.

Just like any other celebrity couple, it all ends in demystifying sadness. Now Roy is left staring at a wall.

It all started a while ago when Silo and Roy came out as a couple. To quote a quote from the New York Times:

"Roy and Silo, two chinstrap penguins at the Central Park Zoo in Manhattan, are completely devoted to each other. For nearly six years now, they have been inseparable. They exhibit what in penguin parlance is called "ecstatic behavior": that is, they entwine their necks, they vocalize to each other, they have sex. Silo and Roy are, to anthropomorphize a bit, gay penguins. When offered female companionship, they have adamantly refused it. And the females aren't interested in them, either."

When zookeepers noticed this, they gave them an egg from another mother who had no bird to care for it. Roy and Silo both took turns to sit on it until miraculously they hatched a bird. There was even a children's picture book based on this called "and Tango makes three."

Gay groups argued that if homosexual behaviour occurred in animals such as Roy and Silo, it was natural, and therefore the rights of homosexuals should be protected.

That all ended recently when Scrappy, a single female, newly arrived from California, caught Silo's eye. He started spending less time with Roy and stopped building a nest with him. Instead Silo promptly moved in with Scrappy and built a nest of their own.

This sent my our eyeballs rolling very fluidly.

---

Ever wondered how far a penguin can fire poop from its anus?
Me neither. This scientific investigation, along with many others just as pointless, was one of the many that were celebrated at the recent Ig Nobel Prizes at Harvard University. [>report]

---

A few years ago, the operators of an Australian penguin parade decided to build huge glassed-in viewing boxes along the route to give tourists a better view of the animals' daily ritual.

The penguins, curious creatures by nature, watched the costly building of these boxes, then suddenly changed their parade route, which made the new viewing areas obsolete. [>story]

---

"From the oyster to the eagle, from the swine to the tiger, all animals are to be found in men and each of them exists in some man, sometimes several at the time. Animals are nothing but the portrayal of our virtues and vices made manifest to our eyes, the visible reflections of our souls. God displays them to us to give us food for thought." --Victor Hugo

What animal(s) are you?

- the meaning of tingo -

Due to the amount of interest all of a sudden in lyrical, and in some cases, provocative, words in Japanese, it has occurred to me opportune to continue in this momentum for a while longer before it wears off.

Luckily for me someone else has done all the research and all I have to do now is to transcribe it.

You've all heard that the Inuit people (eskimos) have 100 words for snow; and it is not difficult to conjecture why the spoken idioms in Hawaii have dozens of words for types of bananas and sugar cane.

But it must be a fairly common affair if "to swap wives for a few days only" can be summed up as areodjarekout in Inuit; or that the word aguna in Hebrew describes how a woman is "bound" and unable to remarry because, even though the husband has deserted her, he will not give her a bill of divorce, or because there is no certifiable evidence of his death.

If you intend to play a lute for a cow, be careful when you're saying it in Chinese, because it means "addressing to the wrong audience." And while we're on the topic of cows, you might also want to take note when addressing them, because they go um-mooo in Korea; hamba in Bengali; and in Mexican Nehotel they go choka.

Malay is a wonderful language. It is excellent for describing body motions and various types of odd postures, such as kengkang, which means "walking with legs wide apart"; kapai, which is "waving the arms to maintain a stable upright position"; or bongking, meaning "to lie on the floor with arms and legs spread and one's bottom in the air." It is a very concise language. My dear Malaysians, please justify. I can see Lin doing the kengkang as she is met with a fit of kapai followed by a relaxing bongking to end the day.

The onomatopoeic word bakbuk (bottle) in Hebrew gets a notable mention too cos it's cool.

And back to the lyrical side of things, the French have the word serein for thin rain falling from a cloudless sky.

The book "The Meaning of Tingo" (which means, in Easter Island Pascuense, to borrow objects from a friend's place, one by one, until there's nothing left) by Adam Jacot de Boinod, is out now. I'm going to get it.

The above have been compiled from here. Go read the article, it's funny. Thanks Nonie for that :)

- pleasantries -

I was just doing my Japanese homework when I discovered another testimony to why I love the culture that much.

komorebi (木漏れ日) is the word in japanese meaning "sunbeam streaming through trees."

The image above was found by typing that word in Google Japan's image search. There is a whole array of "sunbeam streaming through trees" images... I can not for the life of me imagine what single keyword to use for an equivalent english search.

How can you not love such a lyrically rich language?

- words to think about 5 -

cavalier - thoughtless & not caring about other people's feelings or safety
whistle-blower - a person who tells someone in authority about something illegal that's happening
efficacy - an ability especially of medicine to produce the intended result; effectiveness
ombudsman - someone who works for a government or organisation and deals with complaints
aloof - describes an unfriendly person who refuses to take part; not interested or involved

contribute if you wish.

- trashy information 2 -

Those people who submit to Column 8 have way too much time on their hands...

There was apparently a 'mobile phone predictive text palindrome number challenge'...here are some of the submissions:

depressed 337737733,
discharge 347242743,
evaporate 382767283,
imitating 464828464,
possessor 767737767, and
represses 737737737.

Just when they were about to close the competition the following contribution was received, from a very keen Patrick Woods:
A MAN A PLAN A CAT A HAM A YAK A YAM A HAT A CANAL PANAMA, or
2626 2752 6222 8242 6292 5 2926 2428 2226 2572 6262.

........