This will hurt me...

Ezra is just about to split his very first neutron!

Flowers. Launceston City Park. July 2012. As you know, the Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (and RSS feeds.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning... Here's Peter Singer's take on an old theme: how far should the state limit our freedom to protect us from our selves? Shit Apple Fanatics Say... Anne Summers presents a rather disturbing account of the misogynistic attacks currently being waged on Australia's female Prime Minister (some NSFW content on this one). Minnesota Vikings' Chris Kluwe takes on anti-gay marriage politician. My favourite bit of his reply? "...I can assure you that gay people getting married will have zero effect on your life. They won't come into your house and steal your children. They won't magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster." Did you know that mor...

Hitler's bunker The best of Tasmanian design! Corner Tamar and Brisbane Streets, Launceston. July 2012. Sunday Top Five? Okay, here are the Top Five ? Cities That I Shall Visit On My Next Trip TO Deutschland! Berlin Hamburg Dresden Nürnberg Leipzig Kiel Köln Lübeck Regensburg

Oh Henry, what big EYES you have!

Run Ezra - run Ezra - Run! Run! Run! Run Ezra - run Ezra - Run! Run! Run! Bang! Bang! Bang! Bang! Goes the farmer's gun. Run, Ezra, run, Ezra, run. Run Ezra - run Ezra - Run! Run! Run! Don't give the farmer his fun! Fun! Fun! He'll get by without his Ezra pie So run Ezra - run Ezra - Run! Run! Run!

Henry and Ezra patiently receive a lecture on the mating habits of the Lesser Flamingo...

Left or right? Which way do we go?

Self portrait?

There is no there's no old piano playin' hot. As far as we could tell, there are no people laughing a lot. We most definitely did not see any eyeballs peepin' through smoky clouds. Oh, wait a sec'. Oh, it's a YELLOW door.

Henry admires the view.

Ezra has somehow managed to construct an experimental death ray that transforms sonic energy into a deadly weapon. It's been quite a disappointment.

Dinosaurs! Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. February 2012. As far as I can tell, this poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge is * NOT * about dinosaurs. As someone who regularly works without hope, I'm not certain that I agree with Mr Coleridge. Work without Hope , Samuel Taylor Coleridge All Nature seems at work. Slugs leave their lair - The bees are stirring - birds are on the wing - And Winter slumbering in the open air, Wears on his smiling face a dream of Spring! And I the while, the sole unbusy thing, Nor honey make, nor pair, nor build, nor sing. Yet well I ken the banks where amaranths blow, Have traced the fount whence streams of nectar flow. Bloom, O ye amaranths! bloom for whom ye may, For me ye bloom not! Glide, rich streams, away! With lips unbrightened, wreathless brow, I stroll: And would you learn the spells that drowse my soul? Work without Hope draws nectar in a sieve, And Hope without an object cannot live.

A couple of likely lads hanging about causing trouble. Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. February 2012. Another Thursday another (belated) Q and A stolen from Sunday Stealing. This week is apt, the The Not My Year Meme ! 1. Are you in a job that you truly enjoy? There are elements of my job that I find interesting, but on the whole, no, I am not in a job that I 'truly enjoy'. 2. If you could do any job in the world what would it be? To be paid to simply follow my own oblique areas of interest would be nice. As fluctuating as they may be. 3. If you could be a character in a novel who would you be? There are times that I feel like Capt. John Joseph Yossarian, but I'd much rather be First Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder. 4. When it comes to spending time with those you love, do you think it should be about quality or quantity? A bit of both. Just being yourself is what you should be striving for. 5. Is there a job/career you wanted but realized you couldn’t possi...

He doesn't bite. Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Launceston. February 2012. The Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (as well as erotic fan fiction.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning... How Gogol (and Chekhov and Dostoyevsky) explains the Post-Soviet World . An good in-depth piece on why Kevin Rudd challenging has done Julia Gillard a favour or two . I am firmly in the Che Guevara/ Fidel Castro open collar camp! Down with imperialist neckwear!!! Pickiness: The Secret Eating Disorder Nobody’s Talking About... A short consideration on Vaclav Havel's contested legacy . Come to Tasmania the Wonderland! An exhibition of beautiful Tasmanian tourism posters, 1920s-1950s , from LINC Tasmania collections. Catherine the Great was an impressive woman. Every World Press Photo Winner From 1955-2011 . Be warned though, it leans...

Ezra launches a space shuttle...

A shed. Iveresk Railyards, Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery. Launceston. February 2012. There's nothin' short of dyin', half as lonesome as the sound, on the sleepin' city sidewalks: Sunday mornin' comin' down. Comin' down from all day stuck in the garden landscaping the bugger, that is. 38 degrees Celsius. I've obviously offended someone in a past life... Which leads me to today's Sunday Top Five: My Top Five People Named Henry! Henry [Fitzgerald] McCracken . You might know this bloke... Henry [Joy] McCracken . Not to be confused with that [above] bloke... Henry David Thoreau . Civil disobedience bloke... Henry Every . King of Pirates bloke... Henry Miller . Pervert bloke in Paris...

The Blacksmith Shop. Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery, Inveresk. February 2012. Here, amidst the array of forges, hammers, furnaces and the earthen floor, it becomes possible to comprehend the raw energy and forces of the Industrial Revolution. A walkway guides you through this unique experience with the voices of workers and sounds of machinery. Combine this with the WhistleStop Tour where you'll see a blacksmith at work with furnace fired and machinery powering and this unique experience becomes one of sight, sound and smell. The Internet is a wonderful place filled with the rich and varied treasures of the world holds (as well as dancing hamsters.) The following are some things that I've had a look at in the last week. I call this: a Compendium of Click-throughs for Monday Morning ... Mapping global stereotypes... Are we surprised that Welthauptstadt Germania ['World Capital Germania'] - Hitler's wildly ambitious plan for a postwar rebuilding of Berlin - di...

Ezra is not too sure of the dinosaurs at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston. In his defence, the Allosaurus was rather intimidating...

Henry tests out the acoustic mirror on show at the Queen Victoria Museum and Art Gallery in Launceston. If you've never had the pleasure, acoustic mirrors reflect and concentrate sound waves. Thus, Henry can whisper something in this great big dish and a hundred metres away Ezra can hear everything that he says in another dish. Top stuff! They've blinded me with science...

Here is a monkey - a Japanese Macaque to be precise - with a lemonade Icy Pole . Most probably, this monkey has venereal disease. As soon as I tell you that, you will know that we must be in Launceston ! Launceston is an interesting city, it's record-breaking in many ways: Launceston was the location of the first use of anaesthetic in the Southern Hemisphere; it was the first Australian city to have underground sewers; the first Australian city to be lit by hydroelectricity; it is widely recognised as the " blockie " capital of Australia; and last (but certainly not least), it has the highest parentage of VD-infected Japanese Macaque monkeys living within its municipal boundaries. Take a bow Launceston!