Adelaide Green Porridge Cafe

Tuesday, September 15, 2009

Wonky Veg: Nature's odd mistakes compete in Garden Organic's funny-looking vegetable contest - Telegraph

My own experience of carrot growing is more like this than the supermarket variety.

Monday, September 14, 2009

British PM says sorry for computer pioneer's castration

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has apologised for the treatment of World War II codebreaker Alan Turing, who committed suicide after being convicted and chemically castrated for being a homosexual.
Mathematician Turing led a team at Bletchley Park House north of London, which cracked the Nazis' Enigma code - regarded by the Germans as unbreakable - a move credited with helping to shorten the war and to save countless lives.
However, five years after the war he was convicted of gross indecency under laws that banned homosexuality and was sentenced to chemical castration involving a series of injections of female hormones.
The conviction meant Turing, a pioneer of modern computing, losing his security clearance and being unable to continue his work. In 1954 he killed himself at the age of 41.

Not much of a reward for his work during World War Two. Civil rights really have progressed a bit since the 1950s.

Sunday, September 13, 2009

Scotland set to feature in sequel to Top 50 World Cup Moments

Top 50 World Cup Disasters - The Movie

The degree of disappointment at the Scottish football team not qualifying for the World Cup in South Africa next year is only tempered by the many bitter memories from earlier campaigns. Too many individual and collective horrors to list.

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Photohunt: Electric

Lots of scary electric rides at the Royal Adelaide Show.

photohunt

Friday, September 11, 2009

NASA's Hubble photos

Astonishing

Skywatch Friday

Royal Adelaide Show 2009. Blue skies and rides, some scary, some fun.

More interesting sky stuff at Skywatch Friday

Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Manga manna for Laughing Magpie Shiraz

D'Arry Osborn is 82, lives on the land and until recently had never heard of Japanese manga comics. But he has a lot to thank them for.
What connects this old-fashioned winemaker in McLaren Vale and a commuter going home on Tokyo's subway?
Manga comics, of course, and in particular The Drops of God, a comic series extolling the virtues of a certain shiraz viognier blend hand- cultivated by Osborn and his family at the d'Arenberg winery.

Based on my own experience, d'Arenberg make excellent wines. Their distinctive diagonal red stripe make them easy to find. We got married at the winery over 10 years ago. Worth a visit if you are in McLaren Vale.

And Vale Mangas.

Spotted Dick Dessert Renamed By North Wales Council: Staff Change It To Spotted Richard | Strange News | Sky News

via news.sky.com

Still gobsmacked. I wonder how many meetings that took.

Tuesday, September 08, 2009

Tommy Cooper: Comic Genius

1. Two blondes walk into a building..........you'd think at least one of them would have seen it.
2. Phone answering machine message - '...If you want to buy marijuana, press the hash key...'
3. A guy walks into the psychiatrist wearing only Clingfilm for shorts. The shrink says, 'Well, I can clearly see you're nuts.'
4. I went to buy some camouflage trousers the other day but I couldn't find any.
5. I went to the butchers the other day and I bet him 50 quid that he couldn't reach the meat off the top shelf. He said, 'No, the steaks are too high.'
6. My friend drowned in a bowl of muesli. A strong currant pulled him in.
7. A man came round in hospital after a serious accident. He shouted, 'Doctor, doctor, I can't feel my legs!' The doctor replied, 'I know you can't, I've cut your arms off'.
8. I went to a seafood disco last week...and pulled a muscle.
9. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly. They lit a fire in it, it sank, proving once and for all that you can't have your kayak and heat it.
10. Our ice cream man was found lying on the floor of his van covered with hundreds and thousands. Police say that he topped himself.
11. Man goes to the doctor, with a strawberry growing out of his head. Doc says 'I'll give you some cream to put on it.'
12. 'Doc I can't stop singing The Green, Green Grass of Home' 'That sounds like Tom Jones syndrome. ' Is it common? ' 'It's not unusual.'
13. A man takes his Rotteweiller to the vet. 'My dog's cross-eyed, is there anything you can do for him?' 'Well,' says the vet, 'let's have a look at him' So he picks the dog up and examines his eyes, then checks his teeth. Finally, he says, 'I'm going to have to put him down.' 'What? Because he's cross-eyed?''No, because he's really heavy'
14. Guy goes into the doctor's. 'Doc, I've got a cricket ball stuck up my backside.' 'How's that?' 'Don't you start.'
16. What do you call a fish with no eyes? A fsh.
17. So I was getting into my car, and this bloke says to me 'Can you give me a lift?' I said 'Sure, you look great, the world's your oyster, go for it.'
19. Two fat blokes in a pub, one says to the other 'Your round.' The other one says 'So are you, you fat bast**d!'
20. Police arrested two kids yesterday, one was drinking battery acid,and the other was eating fireworks. They charged one and let the other one off.
21. 'You know, somebody actually complimented me on my driving today. They left a little note on the windscreen. It said, 'Parking Fine.' So that was nice.'
22. A man walked into the doctors, he said, 'I've hurt my arm in several places' The doctor said, 'Well don't go there anymore'
23. Ireland 's worst air disaster occurred early this morning when a small two-seater Cessna plane crashed into a cemetery. Irish search and rescue workers have recovered 1826 bodies so far and expect that number to climb as digging continues into the night.

Royal Adelaide Show 2009

Skippy Drugged with Theakstones Old Peculiar

The mean bastards who made Skippy have their evil ways exposed.

The hour-long documentary by independent production house Electric Pictures, which screens on ABC1 next Thursday, gives a remarkable insight into the pioneers of the local industry and how cultural values have changed in the past 40 years. It was a politically incorrect world in which men not only dominated the screen, they also ruled behind the scenes.
Women who worked on the show were treated like sex objects and made to wear miniskirts to work. The men would film up their skirts. On Saturdays, the women were ``allowed to wear slacks’’.
The animals didn’t fare much better: they were regularly plied with alcohol to make them perform for the cameras and kept in hessian bags so they would be disorientated when released.
Many of the main production roles were given to Englishmen because the Australians were seen as not quite as good at film-making as the Brits yet.

Obama born on Mars rumours debunked

From this article: "The chilling implication is that a large number of Americans believe the president has no right to be in office and has fraudulently maneuvred himself there."
How interesting that the exact same sentence could have been written after the 2000 election!

via timesonline.co.uk

Americas increasingly polarised political debate is getting pretty disturbing.

David Archer: Greenhouses of Aremia

via davidarcher.blogspot.com

Parts of Adelaide used to be farmed like this. Now they are subdivisions. Very hard to justify the water for this type of intensive horticulture. The aerial photo is amazing.

Ants create a lifeboat in the Amazon jungle - BBC wildlife

Incredible team work.

Monday, September 07, 2009

How Facebook Can Ruin Your Friendships

via online.wsj.com

Here's where you and I went wrong: We took our friendship online. First we began communicating more by email than by phone. Then we switched to "instant messaging" or "texting." We "friended" each other on Facebook, and began communicating by "tweeting" our thoughts—in 140 characters or less—via Twitter.
All this online social networking was supposed to make us closer. And in some ways it has. Thanks to the Internet, many of us have gotten back in touch with friends from high school and college, shared old and new photos, and become better acquainted with some people we might never have grown close to offline.

Blah Blah Blah.... You can guess what is coming next....

Facebook changed for me when my mum joined.

Auld Reekie Rants: Gonnae No...

via auldreekierants.blogspot.com

The last letter ever written by Mary Queen of Scots is to go on display for the first time in 30 years. The 422-year-old manuscript - written six hours before her execution - will go on show at the National Library of Scotland.

This is how it may have gone if written (typed?) today.

Hi Henri
How's tricks across the water? Hope you're well and not getting too much jib from that Sarkozy bloke. LOL.
Things aren't going so well here. The Edinburgh binmen have come out on strike again and the place is full of bloody tourists. And the trams? Jeez, don't get me started on that...
Anyways, I thought I'd better tell u that my tea's oot, so to speak. I'm sitting here in Northamptonshire just surfing the net and trying to chill. Which is difficult 'cos I'm for the chop in a few hours. That bitch Betty has finally decided to get rid and so I'm for the offski. I've just updated my Facebook page with Mary, Queen of Scots heading for the executioner's room and she's added Elizabeth I likes this...
The execution is live on Living TV. I don't think they get irony on that station. RAFL!

Could you do me a favour, m8? Could you make sure my servants get their wages? You know what the bloody Council's like and I would appreciate your help. Oh, and could you text Max Clifford? I thought he was sending the photographers from OK! magazine but there's no sign yet.
Anyways, I'm off now. Or at least my head will be in a few hours. LMAO!

TTFN

Mazza
xx

Ha Ha Mike Smith

People.co.uk - BIG FAT TRUTH ABOUT GILLIAN MCKEITH'S FOOD

via people.co.uk

Diet guru Gillian McKeith has made a fortune selling her own range of "healthy" food - but much of it has more fat, salt and sugar than mainstream brands she slags off on TV.
Multi-millionaire McKeith launched the nosh after she shot to fame by humiliating overweight punters on C4's You Are What You Eat.
The 49-year-old brags her food is healthier than its rivals on supermarket shelves.
But nutrition experts insist her claims are empty boasts and say they are "appalled" by her advice to wannabe slimmers.
McKeith - who famously likes to poke around in clients' poo - labels her products with her name, photo and the motto "Wishing you love and light".
She has urged Brits to shun scores of household name brands because of the amount of salt, fat, sugar, preservatives and other chemicals in them.
And she warns on her website: "Too much salt is reckoned to be responsible for about 35,000 heart attacks and strokes a year."
Yet her Organic Quinoa Flakes cereal contains twice as much salt as Coco Pops.
Her Organic Haricot Beans have more than twice the fat content of Heinz Baked Beans in Tomato Sauce.
Her "healthy" Goji Berry Bar has almost as much sugar as a Cadbury's Flake, while another food bar has more fat than a Snickers ice cream. And her Organic Hemp Bread Mix has almost four times the fat of a Kingsmill Great Everyday Thick Sliced White loaf.
McKeith has sold more than three million books thanks to her her food range and TV shows, which also include Supersize vs Superskinny on E4.
But the presenter, who owns a mansion in north London's plush Hampstead, is no stranger to controversy. Two years ago she agreed to stop calling herself a doctor because the qualification from a US college was not an officially recognised medical degree.
And her diet advice has repeatedly sparked outrage from dietary experts.
Amanda Wynne, of the British Dietetics Association, has said of McKeith: "We are appalled. It's obvious she hasn't a clue about nutrition."
And her colleague Kathy Cowborough said: "There are obviously health problems associated with getting too much salt, sugar and fat."
But McKeith's spokesman Howard White dismissed the criticism, insisting: "Gillian does not do nutrition by numbers.
"What she's proposing is a change of lifestyle - that's what it's all about.
"We have had hundreds - if not thousands - of testimonials from people around the world who Gillian has helped."
He added: "When you are different and you're against the medical establishment, there is a chance some people won't agree with it.
"But the bottom line is the average person who truly does it Gillian's way will be better off for it."

You have to be suspicious of Scottish people bearing gifts. Sounds like a Get Rich Scheme rather than a get fit scheme.

Michael Jackson Tribute by Scottish Falsetto Sock Puppets

Classic stuff.

Thanks Martin

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Bad Eggs?

We have our own chooks in the back garden, but I cannot speak for all the rest.

An analysis of data provided by the egg-producing industry has confirmed what most consumers have suspected for some time: it is doubtful that enough free-range layer hens exist in Australia to produce the number of eggs labelled and sold as free-range by retailers.
In the year to January 2007, the Australian free-range flock would have had to grow by more than 37 per cent to match the increased sale of free-range eggs recorded by the Australian Egg Corporation in its annual reports.

Steve Waugh hits last ball of the day for four to score Century.

I can remember watching this not to long after I moved to Australia. It made me realise what a religion cricket is in this country.

The Poms won the test anyway.

James Mays' Lego House

via theoriens.com

James May’s colourful Lego home, complete with a fully plumbed Lego loo, bath and giant bed, is finally taking shape.

If building work goes to plan, it will be the world’s first full-size house made entirely from Lego – and the Top Gear presenter has promised to live in it.

Not sure what to say.

Saturday, September 05, 2009

Photo Hunt Orange

Many orange things around our house.

An orange pot

Some orange kangaroo paws

Some orange burmese laquer pots

An orange barrow and compactor

An orange dog tag

Some morning orange sky

Scout scarves in the making

And here in South Australia, we have The Big Orange. Our photograph which we took of it recently in our travels was a bit blurred, so I am cheating and using an internet image. It is for sale if anyone wants to move here and live in an orange.

Orange you glad that is all over?

photohunt

50 things that are being killed by the internet - Telegraph

Very true. My daughter has being doing a project on Orangutans and the information that she was able to pull together in no time was amazing. Memories of hours in the library digging stuff up even at University for me. Plagiarism is going to be a huge issue for this generation.

Friday, September 04, 2009

THE MAGIC ROUNDABOUT - ORIGINAL BBC 1970's EPISODE

Seems The Magic Roundabout has been jazzed up and released to this generation of kids. Sad!. The originals, with their witty contemporary spin are still fresh and beautifully made.

Skywatch Friday

Spring has finally arrived, although the weather is still cool and variable. This was a view of a calm morning earlier in the week.

You can see more at the Skywatch Friday Site.

Thursday, September 03, 2009

Postman Pat Does Drugs - Bock The Robber

via bocktherobber.com

Ha Ha Ha Ha...

When I was growing up, the local tractor driver was incapable of constructing a sentence without a swear word. Seems Pat must be on the swear drugs.

Thanks Bock the Robber

14 Rare Color Photos From the New Deal Programme

via pdnphotooftheday.com

These photos make this era look glamorous. I am certain it was not.

Thanks @LeighSales

Rude Parrot spoils tea party

Thankfully I have no animals who can talk.

Thanks @Lady Banana

Wednesday, September 02, 2009

Marvel Disney mashups: how the merger will affect the characters you love - Telegraph

Spider Mouse and the like here we come.

Man drove Rolls Royce into Tesco - Telegraph

What Ho! I'm a trifle miffed old boy.

Robert Caton, 50, went to the supermarket to remonstrate with managers after the bed he ordered was delivered without a mattress.
Unhappy with their response he flew into a drunken rage before driving his 1983 Rolls Royce Silver Spirit through the store's plate glass window as shoppers and staff dived for cover.
Moments before he had asked a security guard how long it would take to evacuate the store.

Now I know why I have stayed married so long

How Fights Start

My wife sat down on the settee next to me as I was flipping channels. She asked,
'What's on TV?'

I said, 'Dust.'

And then the fight started...

******************************************

My wife and I were watching "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" while we were in bed. I turned to her and said, "Do you want to have sex?"

"No," she answered.

I then said, "Is that your final answer?"

She didn't even look at me this time, simply saying, "Yes."

So I said, "Then I'd like to phone a friend."

And then the fight started....

******************************************

Saturday morning I got up early, quietly dressed, made my lunch, and slipped quietly into the garage. I hooked up the boat up to the van, and proceeded to back out into a torrential downpour. The wind was blowing 50 mph, so I pulled back into the garage, turned on the radio, and discovered that the weather would be bad all day.

I went back into the house, quietly undressed, and slipped back into bed. I cuddled up to my wife's back, now with a different anticipation, and whispered, "The weather out there is terrible."

My loving wife of 5 years replied, "Can you believe my stupid husband is out fishing in that?"

And that's how the fight started...

******************************************

I rear-ended a car this morning. So, there we were alongside the road and slowly the other driver got out of his car. You know how sometimes you just get soooo stressed and little things just seem funny? Yeah, well I couldn't believe it.... He was a DWARF!!! He stormed over to my car, looked up at me, and shouted, "I AM NOT HAPPY!!!"

So, I looked down at him and said, "Well, then which one are you?"

And then the fight started.....

*****************************************

My wife was hinting about what she wanted for our upcoming anniversary. She said, 'I want something shiny that goes from 0 to 150 in about 3 seconds..'

I bought her a bathroom scale.

And then the fight started....

******************************************

When I got home last night, my wife demanded that I take her some place expensive... so, I took her to a petrol station.

And then the fight started...

******************************************

After retiring, I went to the Social Security office to apply for Social Security. The woman behind the counter asked me for my driver's License to verify my age. I looked in my pockets and realized I had left my wallet at home. I told the woman that I was very sorry, but I would have to go home and come back later.

The woman said, 'Unbutton your shirt'. So I opened my shirt revealing my curly silver hair. She said, 'That silver hair on your chest is proof enough for me' and she processed my Social Security application.

When I got home, I excitedly told my wife about my experience at the Social Security office.

She said, 'You should have dropped your pants. You might have gotten disability, too..'

And then the fight started....

******************************************

My wife and I were sitting at a table at my school reunion, and I kept staring at a drunken lady swigging her drink as she sat alone at a nearby table.

My wife asked, 'Do you know her?'

'Yes,' I sighed, 'She's my old girlfriend. I understand she took to drinking right after we split up those many years ago, and I hear she hasn't been sober since.'

'My God!' says my wife, 'who would think a person could go on celebrating that long?'

And then the fight started...

******************************************

I took my wife to a restaurant. The waiter, for some reason took my order first. "I'll have the steak, medium rare, please."

He said, "Aren't you worried about the mad cow?""

Nah, she can order for herself."

And then the fight started...

******************************************

A woman was standing nude, looking in the bedroom mirror. She was not happy with what she saw and said to her husband, "I feel horrible; I look old, fat and ugly. I really need you to pay me a compliment.'

The husband replied, 'Your eyesight's damn near perfect.'

And then the fight started.....

******************************************

10 most spectacular stunts of modern times - Telegraph

Never had any desire to do this sort of thing. Interesting psyche that drives personal danger. Or is that lunacy?