Sad Snowman

Someone very Christmassy

But he's obviously expecting the thaw already.

Beware the Canadian Lego People

Those of us that have recently purchased an item from the Lego Store in Canada have been greeted with the following image.

I'm presuming that the lumberjack-shirted and beaver-hatted 'Kel'(?) is specific to the Canadian market.  (He also needs a shave.  A kid's toy that needs a shave?)

Horrifying though he and his mademoiselle are, one dreads to think what the Australian or British equivalents might be...

James

Real 'Girl Power'

As ever, xkcd.

Marie Curie
Lise Meitner
Emmy Noether

Without women like these we'd be all the poorer.
James

Exams! With Guns!

But wait, there's more (journalists) piling in on the VCE exam SNAFU seen first here, with a great quote:

Yarra Valley Grammar student Shannon Dowling assumed she had not studied hard enough when she saw the robot. "I went through a thought process something like this, 'What's that thing? It's definitely a robot. But it's on my history exam, so it's not a robot. But it can't be anything else. LOOK AT THOSE GUNS!' I stared at the image long and hard. It was extremely off-putting because you just don't expect there to be a mistake on your exam, especially one like that."

Yes, Shannon.  I'm with, like, let's ask for people who can set the exam to the standard they mark it to, eh?  (Obviously after the 'look at those guns!' thought, of course.)  But don't worry:

New guidelines governing the use of internet-sourced material in exams will also be issued after an altered version of the artwork Storming the Winter Palace by Nikolai Kochergin appeared in the VCE History: Revolutions exam.

Or "That was embarrassing.  Can we not do that again next year?  There's bound to be journalists on us if we manage a third year running foul-up"...

James

Enhanced History Exam

Quite rightly, we all like to be able to laugh at the exam compilers whenever the rare chance eventuates.  Today we can share a particularly enjoyable example of an exam-board failure, thanks to The Age.

 This is not the correct image, grabbed by a VCAA drone off the interwebz rather than sourced properly.

"THE VCE exam body has been left red faced after a doctored artwork depicting a huge robot helping socialist revolutionaries during the Russian Revolution was accidentally included in this year’s year 12 history exam taken by 5700 students.

 This is the correct image.

"Storming the Winter palace on 25th October 1917 by Nikolai Kochergin, which depicts events during the October Revolution, which was instrumental in the larger Russian Revolution of 1917.
But when students opened their exam this morning they found an altered version of the work with what appear to be a large "BattleTech Marauder" robot aiding the rising revolutionaries in the background.
...
"A spokesman for the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) said the image was 'sourced and acknowledged by the VCAA as coming from the Internet'.
'The image has been altered but the alteration of the image won’t impact on the students’ capacity to answer the examination question,' he said.
'The VCAA will monitor students' answers to ensure that any student who has been distracted by the image will not be disadvantaged.'

 This is NOT history.  It is 'A BattleTech Marauder' - you know, made up.

"It is the second year running that the  Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority has been embarrassed by problems in its end of year exam papers.
Last year popular columnist Helen Razer accused the VCE exam body of plagiarism and breach of copyright after the English exam featured on tattoos by the Melbourne writer without her permission or acknowledging she was the author."

Tut tut tut...  Hey kids, don't lift stuff from random websites for your work, and use 'impact' sparingly.  Just like the VCAA.

James

EDIT:  'But Wait, There's More!'

You're *not* the centre of the universe

From the great xkcd, puzzled that an older civilisation would have got naming rights for much of the world, and understandably puzzled by using relative locations.

(And for those in the northern hemisphere, please also learn 'north' does not = 'up'.)

James

Fab! Fabbri

They're back (at the Mediterranean Wholesalers - see here) so we snagged some. We weren't able to go home in a Fabbri truck, seen on the Boston food website here:

But we found some fascinating Fabbri history here and here, the latter being the official website, which has a range of remarkable period advertising here.



Better than roses, pearls?  But of course!

James

Lancefield Show

Today was the Annual Lancefield Show, and we went along with Emma for a look around.  Much fun was had by all, and here are some highlights.  

Above, the aerial signal for all great oudoor events, the escaped helium balloon (crying child not pictured).

Bev and Emma discuss the finer points of sheep.

Fine cows, near and far.

Champion.  And don't you forget it.

'Snowball, The Killer' was his name.  (OK, I made that up.)

Much stunting on trailbikes.

Taking a moment from heading sheep.

Duck herding - apparently an effective way of training up sheepdogs, we've now been told.

Haircuts were available.

Though the tools and technique seemed based more on amount removed and speed, than the final 'look'.

 But the kids like to play with the wool.

Onto the crafts, not to be missed.  'Baby Jesus' & Team!  Rocking knitted beards, guys.

Under 5 vegitable monster contestant.  My 'simple, yet effective' awardee.

After a few too many of the wrong drinks, you've felt like that, right?

But don't worry, there's a cake from a young girl (12 and under) with a rainbow to make it all better!

"Look, mum, it's Teddybears on the beach!  And those Teddies are in the water!"  Ahhh.

Meanwhile, over on Easter Island, Maddyson (8) makes a break for freedom.

Now for the serious stuff.  The trees may be short, but the chopping was swift.

BIG chips flying...

Last blow.

Other boys (and girls) went over to the tractor pull...  Above is an Australian made Chamberlain Champion.  It were, too.

Everyone had a go.

The sliding water tank was a neat item.

Might need some work (or even paint).

Back to the woodchoppers, this was the start of the two-man relay.

And this was the second stage.  We had a great time, but tea was calling...

Pics by Bev & James, text by James.

The Letter for Today is...

... 'A'.

As modelled by Bev and Rita in Outside Auckland.

Walking Wounded

The young master had to have a small growth removed from his leg recently, and was given a full anaesthetic and enough morphine on the day to make the world a much slower, fall-y down place.  

Pats were particularly welcome.

He got a bandage, which was annoying of course, and worse, had to wear a plastic bag over it when going out in the rain.   He quickly learned to walk three legged.

However it's off now, and on Thursday he'll be allowed to run free - at the moment walks are all on the lead, as the vet doesn't want him to chance straining the stitches etc.

The vet also politely pointed out to the proud owners that at age seven, the Young Master is definitely now middle aged...

James

The Signs! The Signs!

If you're going to protest about English, recheck the spelling on your sign, there's a God who does nothing but strike spel.. spelli... writig on sines,

But that's an esy targit.  Here's some hil.. hillari..  funni signs from The Vine.  They've got 100 there, but here's an appropriate selection for our loyal readership.

Timely.

Ooooh, that's just typographically mean.

My favourite for so many reasons, but most of all for the very visible use of Tippex / Whiteout on a sign.  Elsewhere*, on the misuse of history front:

Uh...  You're not going to like this...

Meanwhile, in Canada's less frequented protest.  ("Hey, Doug.  That was against fat cats, not dogs, man.")

If nothing in the 100 makes you smile, your're probably dead.  Or holding a misspelled sign on a road somewhere...

All images via The Vine.

James

*Scarily this seemed to be possibly the only sign NOT photographed in the USA.

Time for Tea

Some Melbourne Chinatown teapots for Ross.

Live Augh Love

It's a worry if you cough in the middle of a light aphorism.

Bo-boom

Sorry we've been a bit absent, but here we are, back with an inappropriately timed drumroll (or two).



Thanks Rita and Animal.


PS: For those (like us) whose Spanish isn't up to stuff:
"Listen Buddy. All I wanna tell you is that you shouldn't do that. It's not nice, you understand? Look at me when I'm talking to you. This is my number, and if you bother me any more I'm gonna hit you so hard, it's gonna leave you stupid. Cool it."
Sounds so much better in Spanish, doesn't it?

Passing Roo

This chap decided to check out our front lawn this Sunday morning.

While people often assume roos actually frolic on Australian high streets, they don't, but a quiet country acreage is certainly fair game.

James

The Museum Time Bomb

Musée des Arts et Metiers as a catalogue and encyclopaedia No.1. Photo: James.

Following on from the Icebergs of Art & Artefact post, I've recently been reading an interesting essay [here] on the role and challenges of the modern museum, by James M Bradburne:

On the one hand, museums that have pursued their traditional educational mission have found that the education they are now expected to provide is increasingly “remedial”—directed at filling gaps in the basic education of an increasingly broad spectrum of users. Increasingly, public funding for museums is tied to meeting specific targets aimed at addressing issues of social inclusion. At the same time, confronted by data that show how limited museums are in providing primary education, the public purse is questioning its return on investment—museums are just too expensive to operate for the relatively brief educational encounter enjoyed (or not) by most users. The cost per visitor of a four-hour visit per year (if the museum is lucky) is out of proportion to the results of a similar investment in the classroom or in the media.

Many questions, much to think about in the context of the museum in society.

Musée des Arts et Metiers as a catalogue and encyclopaedia No.2.  Photo: James.

James