This will hurt me...

I'm not quite sure of the location of the sun for this one Ez. Let's just take a few test shots and see how we go.

A pair of artists all right... The Museum of Contemporary Art, Circular Quay, Sydney. September 2012. Five MORE Words That We Need To Start Using In English! Boketto ( Japanese ) Do you ever find yourself gazing vacantly into the distance? The Japanese have a word for that. Glas wen ( Welsh ) Trust the Welsh to think of a succinct name for an insincere or mocking smile. Literally, it translates to "blue smile". Pana Po’o ( Hawaiian ) When you've lost something, and you're looking hard, do you find yourself scratching your head? If you do, then you've just pana po’o 'd! Kaelling ( Danish ) We all know this one. You know, that woman who publicly berates her children? A kaelling . Mamihlapinatapai ( Yaghan , Tierra del Fuego) You know that special look that is shared between two people when you are both wanting the other person to do something that you both want, but neither of you want to be the one to do it? That's mamihlapinatapai ....

WHO IS THAT TRIP-TRAPPING ON MY BRIDGE?!?!

Hands on science is really the only kind of science we're into right now.

Ezra takes over the world! Tasmanian Museum & Art Gallery, Hobart. February 2012. Those of you logging in today this merry Theme Thursday expecting me to wax lyrical about the distribution of a characteristic of a physical system or phenomenon, or a graphic or photographic representation of such a distribution or indeed list a broad sequence or range of related qualities, ideas, or activities will be sorely dissatisfied ! When I here the word SPECTRUM I think about a computer system that I have never seen in person, let alone used or owned. Yes, the Sinclair ZX SPECTRUM ! To explain, we must travel back to the heady days of 1986... NASA needed another seven astronauts; we were all let down by Halley's Comet; and we all suddenly discovered an obscure little place called the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. Unlike the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, we had a Commodore 64 home computer. At the time, the terminally slow cassette drive did not worry us (although we coveted floppy dis...

The two daredevils take risks the safe way, here they are travelling on a rickity old roller-coaster in virtual form.

Preparing baby Emperor Penguins for the frypan. TMAG, May 2010. Baby it's cold outside. Cold enough that we've been invaded by Emperor Penguins!

Inspired by the wealth of history contained with the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallary, Henry has decided that he wants to follow in the footsteps of the bloody idiots great Antarctic explorers of the early twentieth century. Consequently, I have fashioned him a sturdy yacht made out of an old bath, and will see him off next week. Godspeed, young man!

Here is the bag lady that lives on top of one of the museum buildings. Well, actually, I don't think that she's a bag lady. She's probably Athena , the Greek Goddess of Wisdom. I know that she isn't Diana Princess of Idiots Roman Goddess of Hunters, as she isn't carrying a weapon. It looks like she's carrying a load of very large grapes. Maybe she's Gefjon , the Scandinavian Goddess of Ploughing? It could be Princess Mary, I guess...

Whenever Ez goes to the local museum, he indulges one of his real enthusiasms: that for decapod crustaceans of all shapes and sizes. He loves crabs. Adores them. Cyclograpsus granulosus , Paragrapsus quadridentatus , Dittosa laevis , Mictyris platycheles , Pilumnus fissifrons and his absolutely , completely , utterly , UNQUESTIONABLY favourite of all, the good ol' Ovalipes australiensis !

I posted a photo last week (early this week?) of Henry exploring the delights of the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. It's not just Henry and fossils that happens there though, as Ez is showing signs of interest in a geological sense. NO you filthy buggers, G E O L O G I C A L . ROCKS , not ladies' bits . Get your minds out of the gutter. That said, the gutter is the best place to view the stars...

No it isn't CSI Henry . He's not looking for DNA traces on a bloodied hammer or anything of the sort. No, we are talking fossils. Deltopecten limaeformis, Trigonotreta stokesi, Paraconularia derwentensis, the gang is all here. Henry (and Ezra) have spent a lot of winter in the museum, you see. Warm, dry and full of stuffed things, it's not a bad spot to let them roam. If only we could convince Ezra to stop tackling the stuffed wombat...

I still have the robot on the job. Here you can see the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery . And here is a poem: Soliloquy for One Dead Bruce Dawe Ah, no, Joe, you never knew the whole of it, the whistling which is only the wind in the chimney's smoking belly, the footsteps on the muddy path that are always somebody else's. I think of your limbs down there, softly becoming mineral, the life of grasses, and the old love of you thrusts the tears up into my eyes, with the family aware and looking everywhere else. Sometimes when summer is over the land, when the heat quickens the deaf timbers, and birds are thick in the plumbs again, my heart sickens, Joe, calling for the water of your voice and the gone agony of your nearness. I try hard to forget, saying: If God wills, it must be so, because of His goodness, because- but the grasshopper memory leaps in the long thicket, knowing no ease. Ah, Joe, you never knew the whole of it... I like Bruce Dawe. He just my be my favourite Austral...