signing off from albion

I went out last night and watched atonement at th palace centro - c/o babes in business (a great organisation if you are a business orintated female).
I really liked it. I have not seen many good movies lately. Good acting, intriguing twists, most bits were unpredictable. Nicely made (I am a sucker for fine detail) and great cinematography (i feel like a toss for using that word, but it is needed).
Good actors, and despite Keira Knightley being thinner than I normally like, damn she is hot.

It's been a lil while since I have ranted about traffic - but seriously - what has happened to brisbane?
So many bad drivers, either not indicating, just being asses, driving 20kms under the limit (you know thats illegal and you get fined for it)... and people not knowing how to drive in traffic.. You know if you take your foot off the accelerator you slow down, you don't have to speed up, then slam the brakes, continuously - or crawl and leave massive gaps that only allow 3 cars to get through a light.

If you are stuck for a christmas gift - consider giving a "gift of life" instead of wasting money on a token present.

CBM Gifts of life

is fun... not
AAARRRGGGHHHH

well, looks like my melbourne address will be burwood road, hawthorn... arrive 28/12 - removalists drop gear off 30/12

somehow, i manage to get a lot of free stuff.. a lot of crap mind you, but free. Today I scored another 2 1gb USB sticks and 50 dvd-rs.. making it a total of 9 free 1gb USB sticks I have received from companies...also anyone want a Halo 3 lanyard or wrist/sweat band?

damn evil - the potential of doctors.
an unsecured low interest $10k loan, approved in 5 hrs with just a photocopy of an intern contract.

"I'm getting tired bubba, might have to stop studying" is a pretty funny statement from someone already asleep.

I find this shirt



I wish my lawn was EMO so it would cut itself

Reasonably funny....

mmm ice cold red eye platinum...

p.s. removalists booked.. I am seeing phantom of the opera in melb on the 29th december aswell.

The ministry of sound annual 2008 (aus release) is one of the crappest MoS cd's i've ever heard..

I feel like listening to some good old hardcore dance, NRG, happy hard etc.. Any recommendations?

If you want to win the new mio c720T then go Here to view my entry, and get details on the competition. Feel fee to share it around - its run on a new site thats part of "ritchies room" a segment sponsored by Bing Lee stores down south.
1 of 3 c720T's have to go to an australian entrant (since mio aus is the one sponsoring it)....
not many people have entered so far, so go for it.. and pimp your link.

1) why is it so hard to concentrate

2) why isn't ibuprofen, caffeine or wine helping with my headache

3) I need to focus....

p.s. the coffee machine is for my "home office"... mm tax write off.

Our love of coffee led us to spend some money on a decent coffee machine.



The sunbeam EM6910.

anyone want our old $100 espresso machine.

Anyone interested in being the Mio customer representative and merchandiser for south-east queensland? (well all of qld really, but noosa - tweed heads). Own car required. ave 12hours/week, 45 "calls" per4 week cycle. One call involves about 50 minutes of training stuff how to use the device and dropping off merchandise etc. A bit of but kissing aswell.
It's not a bad job, I am only leaving as I am moving to melbourne to do my postdoc at MIMR.

Anyone after anything I own, chances are you can have it.
... and no daz, not steph.

Well another week goes by way too fast. The annual Jian Zhou lecture went ahead, with a different speaker as american airlines made the invited speaker miss his onnnecting flight.. Customs house is a nice venue for seminars though, even if not particularly needed. UQ did well in purchasing it.

Damn XP sucks compared to vista. struggling with this lappy.

Currently watching qld roar vs perth glory. I know its cheap to watch the A-league football, but I never remember when Brisbane is playing a home game. Since foxtel owns all rights there is crap all advertising on free-TV now aswell.

I really struggle selling tomtom GPS units at DSE now, even though people come in and ask for it.Garmin and Mio are so much better, but if people ask, its an easier sale to upgrade them to a better tomtom model then change their mind to a new brand. ahh sales, its so easy and requires no thought. I often wonder whether science is the right career. I know sales itself would lose my attention after a couple of months at full-time, but there is a lot of other stuff in that area.

For those geeks out there, if you want to know how to turn your mio into a full PDA, give me a buzz. I'm sad I know.

matt finally succumbed and joined facebook... who else out there hasn't joined yet?

I quite like pet sabotage and scrabble apps for it aswell.



so yeah - moving seems like the thing to do. A lot of people are giving brissy the flick. Next out of here will be alex, who despite hating americans, is choosing to live there.

Anyone want to move my stuff to melbourne for me? removalists are expensive and suck to organise.

kthxbi

my month of free platinum foxtel is over.. alas, i will survive without the excess crap.. going with basic + sports for a little while.. damn foxtel is crap.
also, ABC classic 106.1FM has its 100 top concero pieces starting tomorrow morning (sat) from 8 am.

ahh red eye platinum, how good you taste..
I have tried many energy drinks, and none compare.
p.s. dumbledore's gay

Lately, I have watched a bit of pro surfing (c/o foxtel). Its damn amazing to watch.The footage they can catch nowadays.. There's a lot more to it than it seems anyway.


So yeah, just watched Surfs Up. Cool movie. A few funny lines, great animation, several camios and they did damn well at capturing the surfing. The movements etc were scarily realistic. I think they must have been watching a bit of foxtel too.


so, anyone know a cheap removalist - my quotes so far suck, or seem quite cheap (and so I think must be from budget companies).

My posts have been somewhat negative lately, apparently. that will change.

so yeah - heard Geeban play at the lesbian's food hall on tues night (T'n'G). Twas cool.

The light saber (wii control+software for light saber sounds) featured... was mad.

Apart from that, I more than likely have a job sorted. The NHMRC gave bryan funding, so I need to get it sorted but a position is available at the Monash Institute of Medical Research, unless some massive high-roller scientist-type comes along.

On another note, this UQ international med student should be kicked out of both medicine and Australia.

i now have foxtel, for a while. Channels like NatGeo Adventure just depress me. All I ever really want to do is travel (with my baby by my side).

I love walking into a place, asking two questions, and then being offered a free coffee.
Elixir coffee, next to di bella, certainly ain't bad. Not doing retail there yet though, just wholesale.
so no, it wasn't merlo warehouse, where I am virtually guaranteed a free coffee.

I'd be tempted to buy a Wii for This Game.

So yeah, the Kerr site is still not working due to features turn off cause of warez hacking.... fun.

new domain - worldofannwn.net - wait for it.

Speaking of hacking - my mio c520 was "unlocked" c/o the GPSpassion forums to give me access to all the windows CE 5.0 features..
aka MS word viewer, excel viewer, ppt viewer, adobe acrobat viewer. I also installed the TCPMP video player - to play divx's/mp4 etc and an internet browser (I don't think steph will let me buy a sd-wifi card though). Unfortunately this loads the little CPU a bit and if its unlocked the text-to-speech starts stuttering occasionally. So I had to leave it as an unlock bootable SD-card, so I can run it as normal when demonstrating to store staff.

Did you know Mitac owns both Mio Technologies and Navman (land-based GPS, water-based is still brunswick corporation).
Mio is very up and coming though... new models out in 4-6 weeks including the a702 and the c720t.

Dia Hard 4.0 - actually enjoyable. Some parts obviously way over the top. Kind of humorous, but well worth watching.
Premonition - I don't like sandra bullock, but yeah not too bad. Interesting anyway.
NeXt - Not the biggest fan of nicholas cage's acting ability, but he certainly goes in interesting films. Quite good. A little different to most. Dissapointing ending, but I won't say anything about it. Jessica Biel wasn't too bad (acting wise).

Bourne Ultimatum - next to watch, I think.

I am now in my second, quarter of a century. I feel old.
But, times are a changing, and it's a good thing, i hink.
A flowing river, not a stagnant pond.
Now, Can I win it.

I remember once, as a very young kid, I was singing a song. Strokin' by Clarence Carter.

I didn't quite realise how dodgy it was at the time, and kept singing when my dad told me to shut up.He, of course, slapped me quite hard.

Quite a bit later in life, I wanted to hear that song again... damn the 90's were dodgy.

Click here to watch th film clip.

Every year harvey norman has a "supersized category conference" for the top sales staff/managers from stores around australia. 30 vendors are invited to hold stands and demonstrate their products to the staff (in 10 minute sessions, 10 peeople at a time etc). So Mio GPS had a stand with synnex (distributors). I got paid to stand there and occasionally rattle off specs.
I managed to pick up:
1x Playstation3 Hoodie/jumper
3x Mio polo shirts
1x mio soft softball
3x Mio pens (different types)
1x D-Link polo Shirt
1x Atari T-shirt
1x Atari hat
2x intel mouse pads (blue light and USB hub built in)
1x generic headphone/mic set from synnex.
A bunch of demo cd crap.

I also got paid to play a pre-release version of the new Need for Speed (xbox 360), Heavenly Sword (playstation 3) and PES 8 soccer (Atari/PC). Also paid to play with the new nikon D300 and some toys from canon.
an interesting break anyway.

played with an iphone yesterday. some dude was in and has an unlocked one (running on vodafone) to film the aus commercial.
sexy,
mio is also sexy, for the most part.

Some shots from the CRL sand mine on North Stradbroke Island (was there tutoring).



And my sister is a litle unique - her latest pets, hamlet and Maddi





Also, I am soon to be a pimp for Mio. Training in melb Thurs/fri - back sat night.

[Listening to: %T% - %A% - %B% (%D%)]

Wasabi peanuts and MS word... oh what a day.
Free 17" CRT monitor for someone.
superman energy drink is pretty average.
my tongue is burning.
deleting movies off my HDD - if you want the movie-list drop me a line.

I guess you could call me a coffee snob. I love a good coffee and know what I like.
It doesn't help that steph works at merlo and that gets me the good beans, or a good coffee when I go into james st.As much as that would bias me towards merlo, I still love grinders and di bella (or lavazza & vittoria made by the select few). Today on the way home I went into Merlo to get a takeaway. There were no parks (3pm, james st, understandable). I continued driving home to albion and passed di bella. For once, there was actually a park. I went in to get a T/A sk flat white, but they don't make it on your choice of blends any more. You are stuck with premium or their pick.
Their pick happened to be rainforest allianze something or other. A certified Fair trade agreement approved single-origin bean. As much as I love coffee, and like the idea of workers in the poorest countries having decent work conditions, I can't normally afford to stick with that choice. These beans aren't particularly more expensive though.
Unusual taste, nice (kid of rich, creamy but fruity) enough, but I probably wouldn't go it again.
It was free since I hadn't tried it before and the guy just gave it to me.
I don't really know the point of this story...

As much as a PhD depresses a person working on it, I have no totally lost enthusiasm.
I still love science. I still quest for knowledge and understanding. It still intrigues me and drives me further on.
I still want to work as a scientist - just not in the same project as my PhD :)
finished lab work, need to focus on writing better.
Any pointers on how to not procrastinate?

I have been sick for a while now, damn cold.
Must write thesis, llab work is done.
Finally starting to feel a bit better now... doesn't help having to work while sick.

the Content-free Encyclopedia.

I thought I should finally update my thoughts on Harry Potter and the Deathly hallows. Overall - quite good. It reads very differently to the other books and flows more as far as action etc is concerned. Must less descriptive and less character development (as it was not needed). A little short, but yeah. I did not like the last chapter, just seemed poorly written or something. The ending was rather predictable, to me anyway, but not bad. Possibly finished a little too happy for my liking, but perhaps that is an unwarranted sentiment. It is a childrens book, and easy reading for an adult, but unique in its own right.

p.s. parking at the PA sucks more than ever now!

Who's keen o hed out tomorrow night and watch the soccer? kickoff is 8.20pm.. after the bledisloe cup is finished.

poor duds simply referred to poor duddikin being a wuss. nothing else.
A few people thought I would post up a spoiler. I won't.. well maybe sat at 6.59am or something, just before borders opens their doors.

Well, deathly hallows definitely starts off differently than I expected... poor duds. and whats the deal with the number 7 in wiccan, they use it a lot. & occurs in nature a lot aswell.

For most of last week and this week I have been utilising my free 2 week transport pass (c/o of the bribes offered to staff at the PA hospital due to the lack of parking).
It's not particularly a good encouragement to use public transport when every single train I have caught has had an issue. Either arriving late, being overfill and having to squeeze in (because people won't move down from the entrance into the hallway), connections not matching up or just having to sit in a damn tunnel for 5-10 mins waiting, for no reason.
It took 30 minutes to go from central to dutton park (normally takes 12 mins). No explanation offered, no 'apologies for your inconvenience' or anything.
It's not all a result of the refurbishment to Brusnwick st station either (platform 3/4 closed, for like 6 months).
I've also had buses not turn up, and just dissappear from the electronic screens.
Awesome work Brisbane.

And what the hell are trams suppose to do to help this? It's too late, you can't add extra lanes for the trams, or special turns etc. There is nothing 'light rail' can do for the inner city now (preposed for newfarm - city - south brisbane) that more buses etc can't.
And don't get me started on parking in the "pa hospital parking distrcit".....

I should never have doubted the socceroos.

www.AbbeyTournament.com

mentally, I feel quite dead atm.

Buy it!

ahh RIC's, I forgot how bad the bathroom smelt.

comments

COMMENTS SHOULD BE FIXED....
oohh, i have a capslock key.

Ouch - we love sounds is $92, :(

KMH is playing on june 30th aswell, she's only $25 @ tivoli... hmm

Katharine Kerr's new book is out aswell, so I just spent $32...

I need to be a pimp on the side I think.

So. for the last 4 years I have worked on my PhD. The whole idea was that VZV or Varicella Zoster Virus (chicken pox / human herpes virus 3) blocks our immune system. The immune system works in different layers, I deal with the primary response, or the innate immune response. The innate immune response uses many 'cytokines' (natural antivirals/antibacterials i guess) to stimulate a change in the cells natural process. This stops the cell growth, and therefore stops the growth of the virus etc.
It's known VZV blocks interferon, the main cytokine of innate immunity.
My role was to identify the mechanism, and hopefully find the specific gene(s) that cause it.

I used a screening system to identify sections of the VZV genome that triggered this block. I then used a crapload of methods to identify what gene it was. I found it, so I think, and I analysed how. gradually accumulating data till it looks conclusive.

Over the weekend a dud from the US National INstitute of Health (govt funded lab, lots of money etc) published that VZV ORF63 (immediate early gene 63) blocks interferon alpha ?(a type of interferon). It's a crap paper, and he doesn't know how... only speculates from some very loosely accumulated publications. The guy that published just happens to be a guy that I asked for the VZVORF63 mutant virus he had, since it inhibited interferon. He said he'd give it to me. In the end I never got it, since I probably wouldn't have time to use it.. He never entioned then he was investigating a similar thing at the time, if he was then. He seems to have put this publication in rather fast.

Anyway, that is science for you. watch your backs. you will get screwed over.
* I don't know if he looked at orf 63 because of me, or if he was already looking at it. It's impossible to prove. I think it would have been anice courtesy for him to tell me he was lookig at it though.
At least my paper will be more conclusive, and hopefully have a proper mechanism (when I publish it), even though it won't make as good a journal now.

WOW - I haven't ranted on my blog in a while.

- merlo coffee warehouse - james st fortitude valley (take away only, you can only have a sit down coffee if buying beans).* [merlo]

- Denim, Southbank [lavazza]

- urban grind, west end- three monkeys, west end (depending on staff member) [vittoria]

- dolci saporro, sandgate rd clayfield [di bella]

- bay swiss, queens plaza, brisbane city

- cibo, chermside (most staff members) [their own blend]

- cafe xs, chermside (some staff) [di bella]- west end coffee house, west end [di bella]


* there are a lot of places that sell merlo coffee, some are horrible, others awesome. Try the different blends from the factory outlet and see.

Anywhere else you love to get your coffee from? There are others I can't think of atm...

occasionally god smiles one us all - twin rainbows -

No comments:

now that season1 is over (us) ... what am i going to do as my weekly procrastination.

so, the manager at Dick Smith city store asked me to bring in some media etc to display on the laptops. Keep it interesting, without using the generic MS stuff.
So I brought in a demo, the trailer for the new Harry Potter OotP game and a parkour VCD.
The VCD I took in was of "Jump Britain", a funky doco about parkour in britain, on some monumental buildings etc. The usual crew. Anyway, it attracted a lot of attention. Several people staying and watching large chunks of it.
Towards the arvo (sat) I was wondering why it wasn't playing.... Some PUNKS had STOLEN it.
they seriously stole my burnt VCD from the drive of a laptop on display.

So... if anyone is considering buying an XBOX 360 in the near future... let me know first.
My XBOX 360 from MicroSoft should arrive this week. :)

more tutoring on straddy. Labwork is crappy, over the PhD. Not long now though.
I dig this song.

An amazing short vid that summarises decades of science. Animated view of life inside the cell. I've seen it before, bu thought I'd share.

Who has my requiem for a dream DVD???

p.s. baltika 7 pilsner is quite nice.
p.p.s. HD SBS rocks.

For those of you that don't know BT, You should give him a try. His latest album, This binary Universe, has been out for a while but I have not really listened to it until now. It's somewhere between electronica and classical.
You will probably know his music from movies (the jackal, go, gone in 60 secs, tomb raider, fast'n'furious, american pie, zoolander, blade 2, the core, monster, stealth, domino) rather than albums (Ima, ECSM, movement in still life, Emotional technology, R & R, this binary universe).

Apparently I have not been keeping up to date with my net-side of life.
This update is basically for the sake of updating.
I haven't logged into myspace for like 2 months, DA for 3 months, same with flickr. Haven't submitted a photo in a bloody long time.
Life is busy. My microsoft job has virtually finished (2 extra days in may). I am supporting myself atm via a casual job for the IT staff here at the DI and just got a new casual computer sales type job. plus a few random bits on the side.
We have both been working lots. Labwork is almost done.
Very soon I will lose my mind as I write continuously.
The joys of a PhD.
It's dan's birthday today - happy b'day Dan.
I am tired.

It's a... Sony

so, I picked up my W880i today.

Just the first of my shots from sandgate.. tired. can't be bothered looking at any others yet.

Canon zoombrowser won't view photos across the network, only on th local machine, so I have to view them each manually in PS CS2.

They should have let the marriage go ahead - the boy would have slept with both his stepmother, and his step-sister then, instead of just mother and daughter.

So... a new computer (box only) running vista..
firstly - the comp.
Pentium D dual core 2.8Ghz (2mb cache x 2)
Gigabyte mobo - 800mhz FSB, 8channel realtek HD audio, intel GMA 950 graphics, gigabit lan.
1.5 gig DDR2 PC-4200 ram
18x super-multi DVD burner with lightscribe.
250gb seagate SATA 16mb cache.
random "deluxe" case.
Evil computer - $666.
good enought to write a thesis anyway.
so yeah, free windows Vista home premium, live onecare and office home and student c/o Microsoft Expertzone..

Vista installed fine - everything was compatible. All software I installed works fine (firefox, photoshop, itunes,etc).... except. Nero 6 and powerDVD 6 that come pre-loaded with the DVD burner aren't compatible. No patch instead you can upgrade ($30ea) to version 7 which supports vista. - pirating pursued.
My netgear router was not compatible with the combination of vista and Windows live messenger... turns out it needed a firmware upgrade. (A flaw thwt XP overlooked but vista caught)... RANDOM.
Only other issue was my new USB HDTV receiver (officeworks, $79 -sale finished now). Works fine in media centre but hss issues with the packaged software.. c'est la vie.
so yeah.. getting it sorted... now time to sort through my old pile o junk.

So i put a few Pictures up of my sister's wedding. Some are on Photoblog haven't looked through the rest yet.





While you are over at Photoblog, heck out Shez's wicked Le Parkour Shot.

The delay in posting is due to setting up my new computer ...

Office Ultimate 2007 for $75

So... microsoft has decided to try and wow the students of Australian Universities into buying MS Office 2007 ultimate. To do this, they can purchase it for $75 from www.itsnotcheating.com.au All thats required is a credit card and a university student email address.

$25 if you want a 1 year licence instead of a permanent licence. Single install only - unlike academic pro versions (3x)

I guess it is somewhat impressive that thy are offering a 95% discount for 3 months or something, since Ultimate costs $1150 RRP.

The question is why? - maybe they are trying to use uni students as a form of mass advertising. I know from my personal experience with office 2007, that once people start using it, and get use to it, they won't go back. It is actually damn impressive and so much easier.

Free 60 day trial is available from the microsoft website or the uni's It department (well i know UQ's ITS dept has it)

Maybe its just a way to force universities to accept office 2007 and support it... either way I think it will work.



While I think the new office is actually hot shit, I will be honest. this blog post is mainly to enter their viral-like competition. I want to win either the scooter, HP laptop or the phone (since my samsung D500 died last week and they won't repair it).

Spread the word - and get me a new phone!!!!!!

So on saturday i found out about the new harder regulations for traffic offences. Like failure to stop completely at a stop sign (for a second) is now $225 and 3 points.

Jason's Housewarming:

I uploaded a few shots of a lab BBQ Here.



I'm using photoblog as fotopic.net decided to start screwing with pics, resizing etc, despite setting it not to.

Exhausted...

You know something is wrong when you pick up your home phone to dial the hairdresser and press 0 for an outside line.<BR>
2 deaths to mention :<BR>
The screen on my samsung D500 - in optus getting repaired. If no answer from my mobile it's because the battery on my old Sony doesn't last long.<BR>
(Never had an issue with it before, worked perfectly up till then)<BR>
Liana's blog - blogspot/blogger and the Google account migration killed yet another victim' blog.

sunset over a baby spider's web.






2 is a crop from 1. Fotopic.net has resized them and screwed them over. hmm..

time to change image hosts for the random shots i guess

Rescue chopper:




In other news today, Sherry's PhD confirmation talk kicked ass. She did well.

http://samishra.wordpress.com/2006/11/08/getting-wbloggar-to-work-with-blogger-beta/
This works as long as the beta server is still active. will find the new adress soon enough i guess.

Inclusive language
From UQ's guide to inclusive language.

Instead of : | You can Say:

The Office Girls | The administrative staff

the tea lady | the attendant

manning the booth | staffing the booth

mankind | humankind, humanity

workman | worker

headmaster | prinicipal

the head of school and his staff | The head of school and their staff

woman lawyer | lawyer

A mother of 2 has been appointed | professor blogs has been appointed

tranny | Use the pronoun which represents the gender expressed. i.e. him or her, she or he.

I oftened wondered where the equity office spent all its money...

so the evil that is vista is out there.

I like it

but meh, my comp is too crap and dying massively. I styled xp though to have that scheme.

Anyone considering getting it - the upgrade edition is the exact same dvd as the full versions (32bits anyway) and the only difference is in your key.

On a completely unrelated note, when you install vista without entering a serial number (booting from dvd), it installs as a 30 day trial.

again, on an unrelated note. The upgrade editions search for an exisiting install of win 2k, XP or Vista installed (doesn't have to be activated); so yes the install program runs within vista, just run setup.

join the dots...

Vienna Cathedral

.

I also did a Toned version.



P.S. new blogger is a piece of shit. stupid google migration blocks me from being lazy and using a client. i wish i never migrated.

photoblog.

For those that are interested, I now have a Photoblog. Just random snaps, don't expect any decent photography on there. If I don't take a pic on that day I will try and process from raw one of my travel shots and put that up.

HP7

"2007 marks the tenth anniversary of the publication of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. The Harry Potter series has gone on to sell 325 million copies worldwide and been translated into 64 languages. The last book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, sold 2,009,574* copies in the UK on the first day of its release, making it the fastest-selling book of all time. All six Harry Potter books have been number one bestsellers around the world."

2 million+ copies in the UK on the first day for HP6. thats 1.54% of the entire UK population buying the book on its release date. (assuming only 1 copy/person etc). Lets see if the 21/7/7 will beat that record.

To put it into perspective, Raymond E Feist, one of the top 5 fantasy authors in the world has only sold 20 million books in 25years of writing.

Impressive stats by JK. if you followed wiccan beliefs you would almost assume she had bewitched the books to sell better.

KMH

Kate Miller Heidke and her backupband, transport. From a free live gig on brisbane square on sat.




Processed from raw, but unedited otherwise (except for the b/w).

Vista

So yes, Microsoft has successfully brainwashed me, and I think Windows Vista is cool.

Grossly overpriced and too many options (4 versions) but the OS is nice and simple, easy to use, intuitive, fast and sexy. Kinda like mac os X leopard.

Vista PearlTm and menu (not called startbar)	Instant search for shortcuts	command bar preview	FlipTm preview in alt+tab	Flip-3DTm preview in Win+tab

These shots just show off the pretty stuff available in windows vista home premium, business and ultimate. Some of it is available in windows basic - but the flip-3D^tm and transparency/glass is a part of windows Aero^Tm, which doesn't come in basic.

If you intend to purchase it from a shop, ask me which shops :)

usb bible

The entire old and new testament, king james version in english and spanish - all on one USB keychain.
$40 from jaycar.

Ok, thats a tad too far perhaps..but someone must be buying it or else it wouldn't be in stock.

opinion

Which of the three do you like the most? :

normal

b/w

desaturated

Vienna Cathedral btw.

camels

This is a cool pic.

funding

Why is there so little funding for phd students in research nowadays? More and more people wanting to go into research, especially fields like science, yet there are less scholarships available. Last statistic I checked an average research-based phd at UQ was 3 yrs 11 months. The australian gov't gives you 3 yrs worth of funding, with a possible 6 month extension (less extensions available then total number of scholarships). How does this work? why are most people screwed for the finale of their phd?
You of course can't get the 'newstart' allowance/dole being a full-time student, and can't get the youth allowance scheme as it is a post-graduate course.
It doesn't add up.
The government is also supposedly pumping all this money into science; well, not really. A lot of it is re-arranging funding, backing large inter-centre grants and placing most emphasis on outcome-based (translational) research.How are you suppose to achieve a safe, reliable outcome without the basic science underneath. They are trying to push a fast result, quick drugs, vaccines etc. Personally I'd like it to be proven safe and have a known mechanism before it reaches trials. If it doesn't, then that's how the UK scandal happens http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4807042.stm

anyway, don't really know why I am ranting.. just felt like it.
scanning plates is not fun!

2007, day 1

So, A new year has dawned. Damn time goes fast.
Today the Diamintina Institute is born, hopefull it will last (though under a better name).
Although it's only day 1 happy feet is in the running for crappiest movie of the year. I really didn't enjoy it. A few lines that cracked me up though.