Tag Archives: culture

Australian Independence

It’s Australia Day… so, a timeline of thoughts. When did Australia achieve independance?

Soon afterwards, however, in Shaw (2003),[19] the whole Court (including Kirby) took a more comprehensive view: that the Australia Act in its two versions, together with the State request and consent legislation, amounted to establishing Australian independence at the date when the Australia Act (Cth) came into operation, 3 March 1986.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Australia_Act_1986#The_Act_and_Australian_independence

The three main steps to independence were 1901 – formation and recognition of a country. 1942 – Ability to contradict UK laws. And 1986 – UK unable to override Australian courts.

Grids. A story of 2001.

Back in 2000, a favourite geek/fan past time was Star Wars vs Star Trek. Who would win between the Enterprise-D and a Star Destroyer, and that kind of thing.

I eschewed that in favour of pure size comparisons. (there is no other kind of dick waving contest, right? ;) And created multiple images to handle multiple scales smoothly (something that many modern implementations of this idea, which whilst better in every other way, often fail to handle well).

My project faltered, in part from interest waning, and in part from difficulty in sourcing images and information in the 2001 internet.

However, I’ve dug up what I did, and presenting it for the first time in years…

Sci-Fi “Grids”

http://sta.sh/21qzlqpf2j29

Dating The Aztecs

This post is not about romantic dating, but chronological dating. It’s not about the Aztec culture, but about The Aztecs, the Doctor Who story.

(A story I watched while pursuing my epic attempt to watch all Doctor Who during 2013.  (follow along on twitter: https://twitter.com/WatchingDrWho =)

Within the story, Barbara identifies the body of the ancient high priest Yetaxa as having died around 1430, as all the tomb bling around him is from the Aztec “early period” (Aztec empire formed from an aliance in 1427). She confirms that Aztecs were a specialty of hers – which presumably is why she immediately robs the grave for a shiny new bracelet!

Apart from that though, the story is undated.
http://tardis.wikia.com/wiki/15th_century – list the Doctor and Companion’s visit as “Unknown date”.

The novelisation, for what it’s worth, dates it to 1507.

But I was wondering… can we date the episode more accurately than that, from other plot elements?

I think so… Continue reading

TNG: Condensed?

A friend recently noted he was lacking in cultural awareness of Star Trek:TNG, and so struck up a conversation about what eps should be watched.

And I got thinking about that. I watched all of TNG many years ago, and have long held the view that I wont watch it all again. Just not worth it, too many crap episodes. But there are many good episodes too, and so it solidified a thought I’d had for a while – to compile approximately a season worth of episodes from the 7 seasons produced, that would cover the best that TNG had to offer.

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Movember timetable

It’s that time of the year. Movember.

Anyone who has ever grown a moustache knows there are some key milestones in its growth, and anyone who has seen Movember come and go before will know that it, too, has its key moments.

But for the uninitiated in the ways of growing and wearing a mo’, here is a handy timetable that I have prepared… Continue reading

What is wrong with the Geek Pride Manifesto

So, May 25 huh? Geek Pride Day! Or… is it?

The wikipedia article on Geek Pride day lists a “manifesto” of sorts, or a “geek code”(see below) for Geek Pride Day…

…here it is:

Rights:

  1. The right to be even geekier.
  2. The right to not leave your house.
  3. The right to not like football or any other sport.
  4. The right to associate with other nerds.
  5. The right to have few friends (or none at all).
  6. The right to have as many geeky friends as you want.
  7. The right to be out of style.
  8. The right to be overweight and near-sighted.
  9. The right to show off your geekiness.
  10. The right to take over the world.

Responsibilities:

  1. Be a geek, no matter what.
  2. Try to be nerdier than anyone else.
  3. If there is a discussion about something geeky, you must give your opinion.
  4. To save and protect all geeky material.
  5. Do everything you can to show off geeky stuff as a “museum of geekiness.”
  6. Don’t be a generalized geek. You must specialize in something.
  7. Attend every nerdy movie on opening night and buy every geeky book before anyone else.
  8. Wait in line on every opening night. If you can go in costume or at least with a related T-shirt, all the better.
  9. Don’t waste your time on anything not related to geekdom.
  10. Try to take over the world!

So, I have a problem with this. Not all of it, and mostly the ‘responsibilities’ section…

But I get ahead of myself. Here is where I disagree with the rights…

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