This will hurt me...

Me (or, something approaching Me). The corner of Campbell and Bathurst Streets, Hobart. September 2013. For this Tuesday Q and A (as I'm in real life steaming up the road and back to Campbell Town), I tackle another series from Sunday Stealing, the Massive Alphabet Meme, part one ! The Letter A Are you agnostic? I’m more atheist than agnostic, to be frank. What is your age? Chronological, ontological, pedagogical or psychological? That’s a difficult question to answer. What annoys you? Lots of things! Hypocrisy really annoys the hell out of me, though. The Letter B Do you like bacon? In moderation, I do. When is your birthday? It’s in May. Who is your best friend? I have three of them. They know who they are. The Letter C What is your favourite candy? Lollies? As in sweets? I like sour worms. Who is your crush? Crush? As in squash? I’d like to squash bad people. When was the last time you cried? A few years ago on the bus to New Town, as I reac...

Art #1. Bathurst Street Car Park, Hobart. February 2013. 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... This one explores the history of neurasthenia or “invalidism”, a curious mid-nineteenth-century chapter in the story of the emancipation of women . This one is a bitter-sweet collection of photographs of Afghanistan in the 1960s . Our local museum is now offering a collection of 100 objects that help us understand and explain Tasmania . The point of universities? "James' Giant Peach Transport Across the Atlantic" , a in the Journal of Physics Special Topics . "In the US since 1998, for every time a woman used a handgun to kill in self-defence, 101 women were murdered with a handgun." Women, Handguns, and Self-Defence: A Deadly ...

Public art or graffiti? Does it matter? In the lane-way off 99 Bathurst Street, Hobart. May 2012. Here's a book review. The Battle for History: Re-fighting World War II , essentially an extended literature review on the subject by British military historian John Keegan. Give that well over half a century has passed since the end of World War II; it strikes many as surprising that historians are still struggling to define it. I’m not sure why people are all that surprised, given the infinite angles and interpretations that can be applied to the events of the period (especially when one considers the ways in which the world was irrevocably altered). In assessing the general histories, Keegan manages to illustrate the extent to which our past – including how we think about it, interpret it and define it – dictates our present. Each chapter covers separate approaches to the topic, including overall histories of the war, biographies, distinct campaigns, the intelligence war, logis...