MikeFitz with overflow bit set…

As I wrote the previous post, there was an enormous Australia Day Pool Party/BBQ going on in my back yard.  #1 Son, Peter, has organised an Australia Day BBQ each year for several years now.  This year it was bigger than ever as both Andy and Robbie were here with their mates as well.

Triple-J’s countdown of the Hottest 100 provided the music.

I got to wash lettuce, slice tomato and onion etc for hamburgers and, later on, fill two wheelie bins with empties.

Update: 28-Jan-07
And speaking of Australia Day, you’ve just gotta love Sam…

Update: 1-Feb-07
Peter took a gazillion more great photos, Andy uploaded some to a flickr photo set, and John Blade recounts how much fun it all was…

Victorian blogger Ariel went to work this morning under a red moon. Only it wasn’t the moon; it was the sun smothered in smoke haze from bushfires.  February’s bushfires in early December - and the promise of worse to come.  Who’s causing this climate change?  It couldn’t be us!

• Mrs Fitz was in China in September and October 2006.  Every time I spoke to her on the phone, she had a hacking smoker’s cough - for several weeks.  She doesn’t smoke.  It was the air pollution.  She travelled extensively in China and the only place she saw clear sky was in Tibet.  Others have posted photos of the pollution in Shenzhen, just over the border from Hong Kong.
• An acquaintance who lives in the next suburb (our sons went to the same primary school) has relocated his furniture manufacturing operations from Australia to China.  He boasts about the cheap labour and lack of environmental regulation. (And he expects me to be impressed. Dickhead!)

Put these facts together, and it’s clearly we Western consumers who can make a difference to our planet.

Have we won or lost the battle to save our planet’s lungs, the Amazon basin?  It won’t matter soon, if we don’t stop contributing to China’s unfettered development.

Would my dickhead acquaintance bother manufacturing in China if he had to pay a carbon tax on the Australian coal burned to provide his cheap Chinese power?

Welcome to readers following up my comments in today’s Sunday Mail article “Iraq Diggers silenced” by Lucy Carne.  You may be interested in my earlier posts on this topic:

• Crackdown on MilBlogs? - Thu 21 Sep 2006
• 2/14 LHR QMI at the Ziggurat of Ur - Sun 24 Sep 2006

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Update Tue 12 Dec 06
Following Sunday’s article, there has been international commentary.  See:

• Milblogging.com: Australian Army bans soldiers from writing blogs, and
• DefenseTech.org: Aussie Military Bans Blogs

#3 Son finished high school on Friday, and Mrs Fitz is cheering loudest of all.  Special thanks with gold stars are due to two special teachers.  First, Bronwyn Masterman, whose dedication to her students, helped #3 son through so much of his final year.  Second, Jenny Middleton who has now helped all three of our sons to excel in their IT related subjects.  Thanks ladies, and may Googling your names reveal a thousand praises.

Fraser Island Beach House

I have just returned from a big day’s driving.  I deposited #3 Son and a pack of his (now ex-)classmates at my favourite place on the planet, Fraser Island, for the schoolies week.  Fortunately, there was a low tide in the middle of the day, so I could get on and off the island on the same tide.

I was prompted to write about this by fellow Brisvegas blogger, MadameBoffin, who wrote about the joy of watching her two-year-old nephew explore Brisbane’s Botanic Gardens.  It’s so important to let youngsters explore the great outdoors.  Otherwise, they grow up believing the four basic elements are concrete, steel, glass and electrical cables. 

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Shattered Shards Scattered; Satirical Scripts Shredded!

Really angry tonight! At the end of tonight’s episode of The Glass House, Wil Anderson announced that the year’s final episode on November 29 would be the last Glass House ever.

I smell political interference from spoil-sports who don’t enjoy satire.  Or maybe they don’t like the way The Glass House alerts many young people to political issues.  You know young people.  They’re the ones who generally don’t vote for 1950’s conservative values.

Sign or view the guestbook

The Glass House’s Guestbook is choked with hundreds of messages condemning the decision and supporting the cast and crew of the show.

Ashleigh has had a suitably angry rant over at Ashleigh’s Dump.  He points out that an ABC spokes-person said…

“We’re not axing the show but we’re not going to commission it next year.”

What’s the difference?  The effect on the viewing public is the same.  Oh wait!  One of them involves lower lawyers fees. 

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Do you have strong views on whether computer games, TV, junk food and academic pressure are impacting today’s children?  The ABC’s 7:30 Report may want to hear from you.

Click to enlarge

Back in March, my post Where does the TV your children watch sit on the ‘Redeeming Value vs Time Wasted’ curve? attracted a few comments and quite a few inbound links.  Maybe it was the fancy chart, I drew?  Maybe not.  (Stop laughing, Andy)

Recently my post drew a comment from Lesley Robinson, a Producer at the 7.30 Report.  Lesley writes…

The ABC’s 7.30 Report is working on a story looking at the impact of computer games, TV, junk food and academic pressure on child development. British author, Sue Palmer warns we’ve moved into an era of ‘toxic childhood’ where real food, real play and first hand interaction with the world are disappearing.

We’re looking for families to interview who have strong feelings about this issue - you might agree with Sue Palmer and try to ensure that your children aren’t exposed to ‘junk culture’.

Or you may think it’s all a bit of a beat up and think your kids are resilient enough to survive what the 21st century throws at them.

If you’d like to take part, please email Lesley Robinson, Producer at the 7.30 Report on: robinson.lesley@abc.net.au or phone 0408 970500

What about you and some of your Canberra mates, Mitch Denny? You started this discussion.

Who makes up these crazy headlines?  “Blogosphere shrinks planet!”  There’s another one.

I met blogger Joel Dullroy (a journalist in Estonia) by doing a small favour for his blogger brother in the Middle East.  It turns out that Joel is from Brisbane and moved to Estonia partly to see where the Estonian fragment of his heritage came from and partly just to be random.  He worked for several years for The Courier-Mail and now writes for The Baltic Times.  Joel writes under the name of Joel Alas because that was his Estonian ancestor’s name and it’s a lot easier for the locals to deal with.

I fell about laughing (Hey kids, that’s oldie-speak for “I ROFL’d.”) when I read his article on what happens when Estonian prison infrastructure cannot keep up with demand.

Three things caught my attention when I saw this image which I rescued from the rubble of Ben’s deleted blog.*  Don’t panic; it’s an officially-sanctioned photo, originally published on defence.gov.au.

Soldiers from the 2nd/14th Lighthorse Regiment, Queensland Mounted Infantry (2/14 LHR QMI) in front of the Ziggurat of Ur

1. Hey! That’s my old unit.

Yep. I was a cavalry troop leader in 2/14 QMI more than 30 years ago.  No wonder that picture caught my eye.  Of course, in those days the main vehicle we used was the M113.  Good luck, fellas!

2. The Ziggurat of Ur

The Ziggurat of Ur-Nammu is an icon of the Sumerian civilization in Mesopotamia and dates from 2100 B.C.  It has been extensively restored by the Iraqi Dept of Antiquities since it was excavated by Sir Leonard Woolley of the British Museum in the 1920s.  It is one of the most intriguing monuments still standing in Iraq.  Ur is also said to be the birthplace of Prophet Ibrahim (Abraham), PBUH.

3. Google Image of the Ziggurat

I wondered if I could find the Ziggurat on Google Maps? Well here it is.

Google Satellite Image of the Ziggurat of Ur

Click on the image above and look at the area around the Ziggurat.  Note the excavations of the ancient city.

The Ziggurat is just north of the massive US-operated Tallil air base.  Some Australian troops are stationed here.  On the satellite image, zoom out a couple of levels and then pan south until you will see the air base.  Note the odd crater in the ground, made around the time the previous users were persuaded to leave.

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* As soon as I noticed his blog was deleted, I quickly scoured Google’s cache and recovered what I could before it all goes back into the bit bucket.

Once again there is some confusion about exactly when Ramadan starts.

It is often said that the Muslim holy month begins on a new moon, but it’s a little more complicated than that.  As any astronomer will tell you, the new moon occurs at the precise instant the moon crosses the line from the sun to the earth.  However, for Muslims, the new moon starts when the local religious authority actually observes the crescent on the western horizon just after sunset.

In Lebanon, for example, Sunnis start fasting today, Shiites tomorrow.  Ramadan starts today in Saudi Arabia, but tomorrow in nearby Egypt.

Last year (2005), I was in Fez in Morocco and observed a partial solar eclipse at about 8:00am on Monday October 3.  (A total solar eclipse was visible from Spain, across north Africa and on to Somalia.)  By my reckoning, the moon had indeed passed between the sun and the earth and Ramadan should have been on.

But no, Ramadan in Morocco started 2 days later on Wednesday October 5.  Our guide, Radouane, was a very devout Muslim, a perfect gentleman and a very well educated person.  Still, he couldn’t understand that a new moon occurred at any time other than when his religious leaders told him.

PS. According to Geoscience Australia, this month’s New Moon occurred on Friday, Sep 22 at 11:45 UTC.

I have been following with interest the blog of Ben, an Australian army officer who is blogging from Iraq.  Sadly, in the past 24 hours, his entire blog was deleted.

Letter to Ben

Conscious of the threat from cyber-squatters, I beat them to it.  I immediately re-registered his URL and posted this letter to Ben…

G’day Ben,

I was disappointed to see your blog had been deleted.  (I’m guessing it was probably not done voluntarily.  Still, the need for military security is understandable and I’m sure everyone involved had Australia’s best interests at heart.)

But on a practical note, it’s unwise to completely delete a Blogger blog.  There are baddies constantly trawling Blogger looking for relinquished accounts.  When they find one, they will immediately re-register it.  They will then redirect all incoming links to their porn/fraud sites.

I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve taken the precaution of re-registering the site myself to prevent this.  Contact me, and I’ll gladly hand it back to you (after confirming ID, of course.)

Next time you are near Brisbane, say G’day.  I’d be proud to buy you a beer.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers — Mike

Why did this happen?

I suspect there was some fall-out from inappropriate videos on another (no longer serving) military member’s blog.  They may have been harmless enough on their own but the fact that they have been mentioned at the Kovco inquiry has made milblogs a politically sensitive issue.

Australia has lost a lot here.

It’s sad to see the demise of Ben’s blog.  There were no culturally-insensitive images or comments.  Quite the reverse; Ben’s posts were intelligent and insightful.  They gave a real feel for what life is like on the ground in Iraq today.  I myself was in Jordan at this time last year and I can vouch for Ben’s description of the heat haze and the grit in your teeth.

He also conveyed the excitement of putting all that training into practice.  As another commenter put it…

The blog was an excellent advert for the ADF.

Recovery

I have also quickly recovered as much material from Google’s cached pages relating to Ben’s Blog as I could.  I’d love to republish this but I don’t want a visit from ASIO straight away.

I’m waiting to hear from Ben.

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Update - 22 Sep 06
It appears the Australian Army’s PR unit have yet to formulate a policy on milblogs.

Comments are open on Ben’s mothballed blog. Please leave any suggestions on what should be allowed (or disallowed) on blogs by serving members or how they should be registered/approved or whatever. (As well as messages of support for Ben!)

I note that several of the commenters on Ben’s original Iraqi Letters blog were young men of pre-military age. To these young men, Ben’s blog was inspirational and a concrete example of the living Anzac spirit.

C’mon Australia, we cannot let Ben’s blog die.

Mike