This will hurt me...

Next stop, Antarctica! CSIRO Building, Battery Point. June 2012. Wordless Wednesday.

The CSIRO crane under some morning cloud. April, 2010. Galveston. Scarborough. Wichita. Jackson. Lodi. Impanema. But there are no good songs about Hobart.

Ezra woke everybody up and three am this morning, and I couldn't get myself back to sleep. Fair dinkum, I needed a crane to lift me out of bed to get ready for work. Above is a photo of the CSIRO crane down here in the Salamanca district of Hobart. I cannot confirm or deny that this crane is used to lift up whales to measure and weigh their farts (thus helping solve the global warming/cooling conundrum). My wife wasn't allowed to watch much commercial television when she was a child, so her knowledge of pop culture references is limited, to say the least. I, on the other hand, had no such limitations. Thus my head is filled with all sorts of useless interesting and informative bibs and bobs of ephemera. This affords me many opportunities to scoff and shake my head at Jen's inability to identify my subtle reworking of J.J. from Good Times DY-NO-MITE! catchphrase or humorous "someone should blow those nuns up" that evokes the very best of Ted Bullpit. Of course,...

Here is the CSIRO's crane set against some ominous-looking clouds. Naughty clouds! Someone asked me the other day if Tasmania had a state nickname, or a state motto. My response was, "I think so". Of course, I had to look it up. A lot of people called us the Apple Isle at one time, but then Mother Britain got rid of all those tariffs protecting our apple industry, so we haven't been much of a dominant force in the world of apples of late. Tasmanian license plates used to proclaim us the Holiday Isle , but then they were changed in the late 1990s to Tasmania - Your Natural State . I know that Tasmanian's are very proud of the complete absence of breast augmentations here, but sticking in on every number plate may be a little over the top! Since early last year, the State have issued number plates expanding upon the theme, with Tasmania - Explore the possibilities now appearing on new plates. We are quite adventurous here in Tasmania ever since the success of the ...

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has a branch located about a three minute walk up the road from my work. This Marine and Atmospheric Research branch obviously has a reasonably high turnover of computer equipment, because at least once a month, a new skip appears filled to the brim with old computers, monitors, televisions and all manner of cords, wires, motherboards and who knows what else. I finally got over my shyness (and fear of being thought a terrorist/perpetrator of industrial espionage) to creep into the facility and take a few photos yesterday. Don't worry though, I didn't need to evade vicious guard dogs, scale razor wire or even jump a fence. I did, however, cross a road and walk through a car park. Yes, I managed to look both ways too. Now I know that there are some keen photographers here, so I would like to know what is the riskiest photograph that you've ever taken? Rampaging wallabies? Birthing wives? Hungry childr...