A bit of flippancy

A bit of flippancy (as you will see a pun) for the weekend.

Being at the bottom of the world sometimes funny things happen, such as all of a sudden when you are typing the text will suddenly turn upside down; that is it will do a flip - really -

¡¡sıɥʇ ǝʞı1 - ʎ11ɐǝɹ sǝʎ

Made possible by a website http://www.fliptext.org/ - click to visit.

The Greatest

The death of Sir Ed made me think - who are the greatest New Zealanders of the past century.

My top three are Rutherford, Hillary and Upham. How you separate these great men is beyond me. Maybe that is the correct order.

Edmund Percival HILLARY, KG, ONZ, KBE (20 July 1919 - 11 January 2008)

When they use the word "icon" today they attribute it to some of very little stature on the World scence. Ed Hillary was a true icon. Easily the greatest New Zealander of my time. The important thing is what he did after Everest when he went on to demonstrate what a truly great humanitarian he was. Ed was a decent, common sense, humble Kiwi of the finest quality.

My memories of that year 1953 go back as a 12 year old in Auckland. It was a truly auspicious year. It was the year my mother won the N Z Bowls Pairs Championships, it was the Coronation and Hillary and Tenzing conquered Everest.

My parents owned a dairy in Symonds Street (No. 99 - now a Hotel complex) and everybody wanted to buy what till then was an unknown brand - Hillary's Honey. I can remember my first taste - it was great honey. And like Sir Ed I went to Auckland Grammar.

His statement upon returning to Camp to his lifelong friend George Lowe (and other Kiwi in the expedition) was typical Kiwi "Well George, we finally knocked the bastard off."

I see that his death has knocked the US Election campaign off the top of the Google News.

The flag at Scott Base has already been lowered to half mast.

A stuff up

I saw that Blogger has an option that you can view the pictures used in the Blog through Picasa. So I went and opened up the account but in my usual way decided I would do a bit of tidying up. So I went through and deleted some of the pictures held there before reading the box that said they would be deleted from the Blog.



Grrrr!!!

So I had to go back and resurrect some of the photos etc. So if any human on the planet ever delves into my Blog past they may find a few pictures missing.

Find it very interesting that most people seem to be on India's side in the dispute with Australia. Is it jealousy or just that even some Australians realise that their team is a bit over the top.

Light Bulbs

Another Soviet story I read.

Q - What was a used light bulb worth in the Soviet Union.

A - Nearly the same price as a new one. Why?

It seems light bulbs were hard to get in the Soviet Union but factories and work places had to have them. So the enterprising would take their dead bulb to work and surreptitiously swap it for the good one. In order to build up a stockpile of good bulbs at home or to sell them on the black market, dead bulbs attracted a value.

Sledging and more words

I was going to put in a couple of quotes I saw but events in Australia have overtaken me. And I don't mean the floods but the Indian tour. The result with Oz winning in the last couple of overs was incredible, but the following furore is taking the headlines.

I find it strange that a man can be found guilty of a statement that is basically (from what we read), a "he says - she says" situation. I see some Kiwi cricketers have said the Australian complaints seem to be a "calling the kettle black" situation as the inventors and proponents of sledging were Australia.

Wikipedia says - According to Ian Chappell "sledging" originated from Adelaide in an early 1960's Sheffield Shield season. A cricketer who swore in the presence of a woman was taken to be like a sledgehammer, and so called a "Percy" or "Sledge"—from singer Percy Sledge (whose song When a Man Loves a Woman was popular at the time). Thus, directing insults or obscenities at the opposition team became known as "sledging".

The outcome will be interesting.

Moving on - Quotes -

Some forms of success are indistinguishable from panic - Edgar Degas

I don't believe in astrology; I'm a Sagittarius and we're skeptical. - Arthur C. Clarke

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. - Arthur C. Clarke

I have always liked the final quote as it sums up my attitude towards science and the world. Once we thought nature was magic then science explained why things happened; people got sick = germs etc. This annoyed many of the establishment, which in those days was the religious leaders. This attitude that science and its ideas are anti-religious still pervades many groups today. I find it almost unbelievable that in the US Presidential race, when asked if they believed in the Theory of Evolution, some didn't. I don't think they, like President Bush who was quoted as saying "its only a theory", don't really understand what the scientific meaning and context of the word theory is. Maybe they should be asked if they believe in Atomic Theory and if they think "it is only a theory", ask them to stand under an exploding nuclear bomb.

Where in the world have I been

By chance I found this site www.world66.com which amongst many things allows one to create a world map of where they have visited. It tells me that I have been to 14% of the countries on the globe.