This will hurt me...

There are some very cruel people out there... Fairlight, Sydney. September 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... Gender equality is stymied by the persistent myth of merit. I have to say that I am bemused by the notion that the world ever rewarded merit? I've seen scant little evidence thus far... Clarke and Doyle explain how the financial system works (or not)... 15 Scathing Early Reviews of Classic Novels. I heartily endorse the slap give to The Catcher in the Rye ...

Just how many tigers are too many tigers? Melbourne Zoo, April 2011. I expect that three or four tigers probably constitutes too many tigers. Once you get beyond a couple, they start to bicker and argue, and the food they require to keep that healthy sheen and lustre to their coat becomes quite expensive. In fact, I’m just about ready to rule out those eight tigers I’ve been bidding for on E-Bay…. Sunday Top Five. Already? I’ve got it! Today’s top five is Five Words That I Commit To Using In Everyday Conversation In The Course Of The Next Week (And That You Should Too)! Anencephalous : “You see, the fundamental problem with that guy is that he is anencephalous. That’s the long and the short of it. Bloviate : “Her tendency to bloviate in times of crisis makes her completely unsuitable for leadership. Gobemouche : “His capacity to immediately identify and bring round every gobemouche in the room makes him a man worth knowing.” Ornery : “Yeah, I know him. He’s a particularly ornery fello...

For some reason, I think that this is a very Balkans-looking cat. I'm not sure what it is about this cat that makes me think "Balkans", but maybe it's the knowing grin and slightly world weary eyes. Contrary to such features however, the cat is in fact a la de da Battery Point cat! A resident of South Street, no less. I mentioned a month or so back how I'd discovered that nifty Facebook "Top Five" application, and how I was running off top fives or all manner of things. I thought that I'd share two that I created yesterday: Five people that Henry reminds me of: Cary Grant Maximilien Robespierre Catherine The Great Robert E. Lee Idi Amin Five people that Ezra reminds me of: Frederick the Great Mohandas Ghandi Alexander Hamilton Joan of Arc James Hird. So, no pressure on the lads then! I will note that Henry brings to mind Idi's more positive traits - force of will, determination, grit and so on - rather than his [ahem] more psychotic extravagan...

I must admit to not being a huge fan of the whole LOLcat phenomenon . The pedant in me has a tendency to get frustrated with the (deliberate, I hope) poor spelling and grammar. Of course, I have little time for textspeak or leetspeak or any such nonsense. Yes, I do understand that it is simply a new way of interacting and a genuine 'voice' of a subculture, I just happen to think that it is stupid, and makes the people who use it look stupid. Hence the LOLHenry that I created the other day, and have posted today. Aside from an inevitable dumbing down of the language (and the standard mode of communication itself), I resent that most LOLCats make felines look like a bunch of ignorant morons. As a unabashed fan of the feline (and apologies to any relatives of Phil Jaques reading this), I feel that the sort of simplistic, inane and poorly constructed nonsense most LOLCat discourse resembles is far more suited to dogs. The canine is infinitely more likely to speak in such a crude...