Wednesday, August 7, 2013

Predicting the weather



Talking about the weather - snap frozen

Unfortunately she was thirty years out of date. What amazes me is that the weather forecasts are usually so right. It is even possible to have a reasonable stab at guessing what the weather will look like at different times of the same day. How can this be possible in such a short time? It’s just constant work improving data collection, improving models – it must be a science.

Monday, July 29, 2013

Floating world - a compromise between warring states

Floating world by an artificial lake

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Happily ever after - the bethrothal of royalty and popular culture

Republicans can gnash their teeth but the reality is that royalty has managed to do the swift manoeuvering required to move it from antique and declining relic to funky pop culture icon. The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee confirms this.


It’s true that fear of the guillotine certainly played an important role in inducing self reform – that’s not something to forget, survival is a strong instinct. But royalty has gone further than just tidying up a not so pleasant side of itself and reluctantly accepting the people as rulers. It has embraced them, even if a bit uncomfortably at times, and in doing so it has become part of the everyday.

Happily ever after
Last year I saw the Grace Kelly exhibition in Bendigo, which was a good example of how royalty adopted the movies to lift itself out of modern irrelevance and to make itself part of mass culture by becoming popular entertainment.