authorblog

Monday, June 18, 2007

Trivia Pur$uit

Prince Charles once gave the Queen and Prince Philip a gift of plastic noses and fake moustaches wrapped in old socks. (Now we know what they do to while away the time at Buckingham Palace.)

It’s Enough To Make You Blubber

Whale Had A Nervous Tic (Tick-Tick, Tick-Tick)

Part of a 19th-century bomb has been found inside a whale. The fragment is part of a time delay bomb that was introduced in 1879 and manufactured until 1885. This suggests the bowhead whale may have swum its first strokes not long after the Civil War. Scientists say it is rare to find a whale more than 100 years old but believe some may reach 200. The nine-centimetre fragment was lodged in a wound inflicted about 1890.

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Jemima, Puddle Dux

It’s Like The Rain Of King Henry VIII

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

Gotta love the rain we’ve been getting. And here’s a shot, just to prove that inclement weather doesn’t put a dampener (okay, so that pun was unintentional) on photography. Every good Aussie has to be ready to have a barbecue at a moment’s notice, so I drove off to swap my almost-empty gas cylinder for a full one. All the local service stations have swap-and-go programmes, so you just rock up, give them your old bottle and pay for a full one and you’re away in a minute or so. The red, white and blue signage at this ``Switcheroo’’ station looked so incongruous reflected in the puddles on the concrete concourse, that I just had to get the camera out. There was one other element too - with the clear blue sky, it was like looking at an image concealed in an ice cube.

Yes, But Have You Voted?

These Are Laughter Lines, Not Crows' Feet

If you're looking for a blog that makes you laugh, then you can't go past YesBut Images, where all the humour comes from readers, in a neat interactive way. Every day the webmaster posts a photograph and every day people post witty captions, relevant to the image. The funniest captions are displayed on the site, with a live link to the blogs of those who contribute them. Now the blog has gone one step further - you can vote on the best captions of the week. To view the week's captions, simply go to YesBut Images and leave a comment with your winner and runner-up. Voting closes midnight (GMT) on Sunday 24 June.

Posh Spices

Fish 'n' Chips With Curry Powder, Guv

A celebrity British chef hopes to woo ``over-spiced'' Indian palates with her version of ``bland'' British food. Manju Malhi is in the Indian capital, New Delhi, to present a 40-part TV series promoting British cuisine. British cuisine has failed to tempt Indian tastes, but Malhi says she will right that wrong. ``British food is good if you know how to cook it properly,'' she said.

Hang Solo

Weeping Willowy Is The Essence Of Grace

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

The foliage on this weeping tree caught my attention yesterday afternoon. Not just because of the striking colours, but also because they formed such a graceful pattern. The horizontal frame is a handy close-up, but the vertical frame below makes use of the pattern on the adjacent building. The slender branches were an amazing blend of burgundy and maroon, and the rooster-claw protuberances are actually the news season's growth.

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Aussiejourno's Weekly Blog Awards

Free For All

Got Writer's Block? Here's A Fix

This week's been unusual because I've had probably a dozen messages from fellow bloggers, saying they haven't been posting as often as they'd like to. They say they haven't had time - or they've simply had writer's block. So it got me thinking about something that's been at the back of my mind for a while. I'd like to thrown open a Free Blogger Syndicate. If you'd like to reproduce one (or more) of my posts on a day when your own Muse has gone AWOL, go for it.

It's free. That's right, gratis, no charge, compliments of the management at Authorblog. Anyone who has been on Aussiejourno's Weekly Blog Awards can re-print a post without asking my permission. Similarly, anyone on my blogroll can re-print with asking me first. And if you haven't been on the Blog Awards or you're not on my blogroll, just leave me a comment with your url, tell me which post you want to use, and I'll get straight back to you. All I ask in return is a line saying ``Reprinted from David McMahon's blog'' with an embedded link.

Look At The Fog, Phileas

Would You Call That A Pea-Souper, Trooper?

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

These pictures were taken 24 hours ago, just after 8.30 Friday morning - that's Melbourne time, which is nine hours ahead of most of Europe and sixteen hours ahead of the US east coast. The fog was pretty heavy, as you can see - even the mid-size office skyscrapers were completely obscured. As the first picture shows, there's nothing visible beyond the cathedral spires. And the second shot (below) was just a fluke, because two birds flew low overhead while I was near the (Yarra) river. Instinctively, I just swung the camera up - and just about managed to get them in the frame. There's a Dickensian touch to the photograph, I guess. I was kind of expecting Oliver Twist or the Artful Dodger to turn up at any moment!

Trivia Pur$uit

Django Reinhart (1910-1953) of Liverchies, Belgium, became a famed jazz guitarist, despite having lost the use of two fingers of his left hand at the age of 18.

Every Mum Needs Her Space

Shuttle Footage On Chicago Baby Monitor

A Chicago teacher doesn't have to turn on the news for an update on NASA's space mission. She just turns on her video baby monitor. Since Sunday, one of the two channels on Natalie Meilinger's monitor has picked up black-and-white video from inside the space shuttle Atlantis. The other still lets her keep an eye on her baby. ``Whoever has a baby monitor knows what you'll usually see,'' Meilinger said. ``No one would ever expect this.'' Live video of the mission is available on NASA's website, so it's possible the monitor is picking up a signal from somewhere.

Friday, June 15, 2007

Opera Of The Phantom

Spending Time With The High Rollers

Photographs copyright: DAVID McMAHON

There's an air of reverence when you get the chance to photograph not one but two Rolls-Royces in a showroom. I rang Dennis Meehan, general sales manager at Trivett Classic Aston Martin, and asked if I could possibly rock up with my camera and spend some time shooting both beauties. Absolutely, he said. These are just two of the shots I took. Watch out for more over the next couple of days. By the way, they even popped the hood for me to get my head around the engine as well.

H€adlines & D€adlines

Cray’s Anatomy

Pointing out stories you may have missed: A rare blue lobster has dodged the dinner plate and will live out its days at Connecticut's Mystic Aquarium. The 1.5-pound (700 grams) lobster turned up last weekend in a trap set by lobstermen Steve Hatch and Robert Green at the mouth of the Thames River in New London. Hatch said he'd heard about blue lobsters but this was the first one he's ever seen. Aquarium curator Catherine Ellis said only one in three million lobsters are "true blue," meaning their colour is the result of genetics and not the environment. But she said that once cooked, they turn red like any other lobster.

News source: UPI.

Star Tech

Putting Photographic Memory To Good Use

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

I normally drop everything when I get a question from anyone who says he/she is new to blogging. This question is from a Melbourne-based blogger, Rudy.

Can I use photographic prints on my blog?

Want the good news, Rudy? That's a yes. If you have (or have access to) a scanner, this is certainly possible. Any document or print can be scanned, provided it can fit on a normal flatbed scanner. The prices of scanners have dropped drastically, and a lot of the home printers on offer also come with scanning facilities.

If you have any difficulty with the actual scanning process, let me know what imaging software you have on your computer and I can ``talk'' you through the steps. Once you've scanned the pictures you want, I'd suggest saving them to a common folder as well as backing them up on a USB drive or an SD memory card.

From this point on, you'd just have to click the ``add image'' icon when writing a new post on your blog. Then select the location (desktop, folder or removable storage device) and click on the image you want and hit the ``upload image'' tab.

The image I've attached here is one I took with a Canon EOS 3000 film camera. It was taken in the Old Town section of beautiful Quebec City, Canada. I was walking down a street when I noticed the figure of a Spanish conquistador. It was made of fibreglass, but stopped me in my tracks because it was so imposing. I shot it from this angle to get a good view of the amazing patterns on the ancient helmet , as well as to include the modern streetscape.

It was a difficult shot to take because the figure was in shadow while the background was in bright sunlight. But it shows you that even prints can be scanned and uploaded to a blog. Digital cameras are brilliant, but never throw away your prints.

Gourd, Better, Best

Pepsi Launches Cucumber Soda

The Japanese are staying cool as a cucumber this summer with "Pepsi Ice Cucumber" - a new soda based on the crisp green gourd. The soft drink, which hit stores on Tuesday, doesn't actually have any cucumber in it - but has been artificially flavoured to resemble "the refreshing taste of a fresh cucumber". The mint-coloured soda is on sale just for the summer and only in Japan. Pepsi trails behind industry leaders Coca-Cola (Japan) Company, with about 15 per cent of the Japanese cola market, and also faces stiff competition from non-fizzy bottled drinks like green tea and coffee.

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Rhyme And Treason

Toe The Line At Bart’s Blog

If you enjoy a laugh and if you chuckle at irreverence, then check out Bartraeke. He has launched a new game that is getting a fair bit of attention. He gives you the first few lines of a nursery rhyme, well-known song lyric or poem - and you can chip in and provide your own take on the last line. And because Bart is, well, Bart, you can be as funny as you want.

Profit And Gloss Statement

This Must be Charlie's Sheen

Photograph copyright: DAVID McMAHON

I was on my way down Waverley Road this afternoon when I noticed this tree. It didn't have many leaves on it, but the few that graced the branches just had this incredible colour. They looked as if they were made of some light metal that had somehow corroded. When I walked across the road to the tree, I also noticed that many of the leaves had a high-gloss surface, as you can see by the sheen on their surface (no, the image isn't digitally enhanced!).

The icy blue sky made a great backdrop in terms of sheer contrast. And when I say icy, I mean icy. How cold was it today? Not very, according to the mercury, which stood at about 11 Celsius for the day's top. But a colleague who skied in Canada in 20 below reckons he felt colder today. And he's a Kiwi. He would know, mate.

Far(t) From The Madding Crowd

Tiger Woods Supreme In Windy Conditions

According to Metro.co.uk, Tiger Woods doesn't just win golfing majors - he's pretty handy when it comes to off-course contests as well. CBS TV host and former Ryder Cup star David Feherty said four-times Masters champ Woods is just as competitive in wind-breaking contests. Feherty, 47, says he and Woods, 31, regularly hold contests to see who can let rip the most and the loudest. Feherty said: ``He doesn't allow himself to lose a thing, even our juvenile contest.''

Trivia Pursuit

The first escalator in Britain, installed in 1898 in Harrod's department store in London, had a clerk who waited at the top with a glass of brandy for each customer.

H€adlines & D€adlines

Buddhist Monk Wants World Peas

Pointing out stories you may have missed: A 24-year-old man who is the world's third holiest Buddhist has set up his own MySpace page. His Holiness Karmapa Trinlay Thaye Dorje, also known as the Black Hat Lama, revealed he spends his spare time listening to the Black Eyed Peas, surfing the internet and watching `The Simpsons'. His heroes are England cricketers Kevin Pietersen and Andrew Flintoff and he'd love to meet The Beatles and Elvis. His Holiness, the head of the Karma Kagyu school of Buddhism, says: "I spend much of the day studying Buddhism but I also have a PS3 and like surfing the internet and listening to music.'' He rationlises his many interests simply: "You can enjoy all the world's modern conveniences while still working towards the best personal behaviour. That is one of the things Buddhism teaches."

News source: Ananova.

authorblog

Monday, June 18, 2007

Trivia Pur$uit

It’s Enough To Make You Blubber

Sunday, June 17, 2007

Jemima, Puddle Dux

Yes, But Have You Voted?

Posh Spices

Hang Solo

Saturday, June 16, 2007

Aussiejourno's Weekly Blog Awards

Free For All

Look At The Fog, Phileas

Trivia Pur$uit

Every Mum Needs Her Space

Friday, June 15, 2007

Opera Of The Phantom

H€adlines & D€adlines

Star Tech

Gourd, Better, Best

Thursday, June 14, 2007

Rhyme And Treason

Profit And Gloss Statement

Far(t) From The Madding Crowd

Trivia Pursuit

H€adlines & D€adlines

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