Word of the Day - Salinisation

The process whereby soluble salts accumulate within the soil.

That's just one of several definitions of the word I found with a simple Google search. Surprising really because, according to one well-known authority, the word either doesn't exist or it should be spelt salinization - I'm not sure which:

So, we could smile to read contestant Snezana declare that "Salinisation (sic) of land is one of the major environemtal (sic) crises facing Australia", and Kirra warn that "the biggest problem in our enviroment (sic) today is our lack of water".

At worst we'd have wondered how badly we teach English as Angelique demanded help for an "environmnet" in danger, and Natalia wept for an "enviornment (sic) that sustains us". (Andrew Bolt in The Hun)

And you might wonder whether it's really so much worse than when young Andrew was at school and somehow omitted to learn that salinisation is both a bona fide word in English and, in Australian usage, spelt pretty much as it appears in Snezana's declaration. At least, I think that's the case.

But I could be wrong about that - if so, I'm not the only one. All these people seem to be labouring under the same misapprehension. Someone ought to write to them and tell them, don't you think?

Another Fine Moment From Mr 38 Percent

Gary Ramage of The Australian* took the original photo - I doctored it a bit. I doubt that this little gesture from John Howard to his opposite number is going to go over too well with the 48% of voters who prefer Rudd as Prime Minister. It might swing a few of the 14% of voters who are undecided against Howard too. Sometimes it's surprisingly painful what a momentary lapse into infantile self-indulgence will cost you.

(via The Ostrahyun)

Oops!

Posting's been a little light on around here recently, hasn't it? That's because - partly thanks to some misguided encouragement in the comments on this post - I got sucked into mucking around with computer graphics big time. If you haven't checked them out already, you can see the results here, here, and here.

There's a fourth episode of The Indefatigable Wingnut in production - the first three frames of the comic have passed the Zeppo Bakunin chuckle test with flying colours but, nonetheless, I find myself in a bit of an embarassing bind.

All the action takes place in a so far nameless city - which might not be such a big problem. But not having a name for the arch villain of the piece is starting to bug me. Here's what he looks like:



Any suggestions?

Mad Monk Sighted at APEC

Sidekick Needed, Female or Adolescent Preferred

When a gigantic cone of light pierces the night, etching an eerie wingnut symbol against the night fog, somebody's got to answer the call. Here he is.

Rasputin Sighted Again!

Rasputin at a recent meeting with the Australian which never actually occurred and even if it did occur nothing much was discussed and the Prime Minister meets with lots of people, so there's nothing special in him meeting Rasputin, assuming that he did, which of course, he didn't.

Not a Photoshop

And nobody's claiming that it's art, either.

Still Life with Fugitive Banana

(Image produced with the GIMP).

More Elusive Than Elvis

Until now.

Sick, Twisted Puppy

By Request

A US Percy class nuclear submarine during an emergency surfacing drill. The distinctive bulge of the boat's Global Location And Navigation System is clearly visible at the bow.

Friday Dog-Blogging

Lesser Known Dog Breeds

Serengeti Giraffe Hound

Like its distant cousins, the greyhound, the pharaoh hound and the ibizan hound, the Serengeti Giraffe Hound is a gaze hound, bred for the sport coursing small game. The breed was established by the Rev James Huffington, an Anglican missionary to Africa in the mid nineteenth century and keen follower of the sport of coursing (he was, in his university days, a devoted beagler).

The Giraffe Hound's intended prey were marmosets, lemurs, and other arboreal creatures in cautious enough to descend to ground level. According to Huffington (whose testimony is generally considered unreliable) his dogs eventually excelled in the sport of hunting down and retrieving such game. To what end is not clear. Others are more skeptical of the breed's suitability for any purpose.

The Giraffe Hound is strictly an outdoor dog, and therefore unsuitable for anyone living in a flat or small unit. Despite the breed's appalling reputation for health problems - chiefly hip dysplasia and hypertension - it nonetheless enjoys some favour with those who hate cats and possums.

The Micro-Miniature Poodle (Nanoodle)

This controversial, recently recognised, breed has replaced the chihuahua as the smallest of the dog breeds. At less than 1mm in length from head to anus the Micro-Miniature Poodle (or Nanoodle) is barely visible to the naked eye.

The illustration is a scanning electron micrograph of a nanoodle sitting on a wooden porch.

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Friday Dog-Blogging

Another great moment from the career of Gympie Flyer,
Australian Racing Legend.

Albion Park, 1983 - despite a leg injury Gympie Flyer held the lead right from the start and finished first.

Believe It or Not

It must be a slow news day. According to the front page of today's Age, a man claiming membership of a non-existent group of disadvantaged Australians was awarded $525,000 compensation for events that couldn't possibly have happened but even if they did happen it was all intended for his own good and it's only by today's standards that anybody did anything wrong so any alleged harm he might have suffered was completely unintentional.

(Cross-posted at Larvatus Prodeo)

The Very Proper Gander

(A timely tale for a nation of hysterics)

Not so long ago there was a very fine gander. He was strong and smooth and beautiful and he spent most of his time singing to his wife and children. One day somebody who saw him strutting up and down in his yard and singing remarked , 'There is a very proper gander.' An old hen overheard this and told her husband about it that night in the roost. 'They said something about propaganda' she said. 'I have always suspected that' said the rooster, and he went around the barnyard next day telling everybody that the very fine gander was a dangerous bird, more than likely a hawk in gander's clothing. A small brown hen remembered a time when at a great distance she had seen the gander talking with some hawks in the forest. 'They were up to no good' she said. A duck remembered that the gander once told him that he did not believe in anything. 'He said to hell with the flag, too,' said the duck. A guinea hen recalled that she had once seen somebody who looked very much like the gander throw something that loked a great deal like a bomb. Finally, everybody snatched up sticks and stones and descended on the gander's house. He was strutting in his front yard, singing to his children and wife. 'There he is!' everybody cried. 'Hawk-lover! Unbeliever! Flag-hater! Bomb-thrower!' So they set upon him and drove him out of the country.

Moral: Anybody who you or your wife thinks is going to overthrow the government by violence must be driven out of the country.

James Thurber, Fables for Our Time and Illustrated Poems.

And to hell with the flag, too.

Breakfast Time for Kev

Word of the Day - Hubris

The picture says it all, really.

Saturday Dog-Blogging

Celebrating Gympie Flyer, an Australian Racing Legend.

A dog with more heart than Phar Lap.

Southport 1982 - Gympie Flyer coming home at full pelt.

Giving 'Em the Wrong End of the Stick

Nothing sets the blogosphere on fire like a good rant - like this splendid example of the genre from pommygranate.

Moved by recent events in Burnley, Lancs*, where Matthew Carter, a binman, has been forbidden to wear a St George Cross over his dreadlocks, pommygranate takes the angry stick to anyone who might approve of the ban:

I despise you for dreaming up and enforcing rules such as these. Rules that make people shake with anger and seek solace in the arms of truly unsavoury folk.

I despise you for making this man feel guilty about taking pride in his own country. (original emphasis)

The rant's being quoted, and linked, by such luminaries of the right as Bernard Slattery, who says:

This letter should be so widely read that whole floors of federal, state and local government offices are squirming with terminal embarrassment.

Rolling on the floor laughing their arses off is more likely, unless there's actually a secret Federal State or even local council Department of the Old Dart somewhere, that's actually been running the UK for years. A hidden politically correct leftist enclave of the bureaucracy, paying back the Mother Country for Gallipoli, Singapore and other assorted past wrongs, by making life for the English as silly as possible. And there's poor old Gordon Brown thinking he's running the country.

Elsewhere Harry Clarke's giving good rant on the Haneef farce:

The press and the infantile, leftwing blogosphere are having a field day making conjectures that foster views of the innocence or guilt of Mohammed Haneef...

Australia is fast becoming a nation of hysterics who rant over perceived injustices and perceived moves toward totalitarianism even when faced with a possible investigation of a threat of terrorism to our citizens. To the know-all peanuts who pursue this line: Let the AFP and the courts do their job. Have a non-adolescent level of patience and keep a sense of proportion.

Denigrating the AFP, indulging in conspiracy theories and, most importantly, trivialising the pursuit of terrorist saboteurs in Western democracies is irresponsible behaviour. (original emphasis)

Well, I have to agree with Harry on that first point - maybe we are becoming a nation of hysterics. The evidence of pommygranate's post and Harry's post certainly support that view. Read them and you might find yourself in hysterics too.

* - an English town not far from Manchester but the best part of 13,000 miles from Melbourne, Sydney, Canberra or any of Australia's provincial cities - such as Perth.

Movie Classics

A still from the long forgotten Australian silent film The Cabinet of John Winston Howard.