Cheap Therapy

So, anyone got any good mulberry recipes? Our tree was producing a crop every few days (I think it enjoys having the added nitrogen we give it :). We’ve just made a somewhat experimental jam

Ingredients
650 grams mulberries
1 lemon chopped (ours was a bit lemony rather than mulberry-y, perhaps try 1/2)?
400 grams sugar (then taste) (ours was also a bit too sweet, perhaps try less? I think they may be relying on sugar instead of pectin to thicken it)
250 mls water
8 tspns brandy

Method
Boil mulberries, lemon and water for 10 minutes.
Add sugar and bring to a rolling boil for 10 minutes.
Test on a chilled plate.
Skim, and remove lemon segments.
Stir in brandy.
Bottle in clean, hot bottles, and seal immediately.

The Department of Communications, Information Technology and the Arts (and whatever else they could fit in there) has a discussion paper available for comment on the structure of the (currently self-regulated) .au domain or by e-mailing aureview@dcita.gov.au or phoning 02 6271 7036.

Gotta love their other article “Teen abuse DVD a sobering reminder of the dangers of the Net”. You’d think DCITA might know the difference between the internet and a DVD.

It seems like there’s a wiki for just about everything these days, including Wikimapia for maps (although really it’s probably only one map in varying languages

For those who haven’t heard it yet, Bilby has been with us for almost a week now. She was born (depending on your definition of labour) after 6-8 hours of hard work (a bit less than Puggle), without gas, stitches or anything other than the bath, and mum and she are doing fine. Birth weight was 3.56kg, length 50cm. We were at the birthing centre for a little over 24 hours (waiting for the paed (sorry, for the KEMH demographic she introduced herself as the “baby doctor”) to come back try to find her femoral pulses again. The last paed we had used their stethoscope :). Feeding is progressing well after a bit of a reminder from the breastfeeding centre (the handy tip is that there’s a sucking reflex in hands and feet that you can try stimulating if you’re nursing Weight is being put on, and all fingers and toes are present, so we’re mightily happy once again.

Learning how to cope with interactions between Puggle and Bilby is probably the hardest part of the exercise. Puggle is very excited by her and has difficulty leaving her alone, giving her enough space, or coping with parental attention being diverted away.

As everyone asks, we’re still working on a name. More posts to come.

Because I’m thinking that more storage is in order (it’s easier to expand the capacity than to organise it

Notes:

• “?” means it wasn’t obvious from the ad
• USB2 devices are presumably external
• “?” interface devices are probably PATA
• “WD” probably is Western Digital, “ST” probably Seagate
• No responsibility taken for typos

Vendors:

Austin Computers

• 52 Frobisher Road, Osborne Park, 9201 2788
• 71 Winton Road, Joondalup, 9301 2488
• 31 Council Ave, Rockingham, Corner Goddard Rd, 9591 2333
• Cnr Albany Hwy and Nicholson Rd, Cannington, 9350 9498

NET Solution Computers

• 2/140 Russell Street, Morley, 9375 9666

Net Plus Computers

• 3 Hector St, Osborne Park, 9242 7288

All the cool lighting emplacements these days have those 12V halogen downlights. You could make them even cooler and greener by installing LED downlights instead.

Seen on a bumper sticker advertising a tattoo parlour: “Now not just for sailors and whores, get your own!”

It looks like Australians will finally be able to pay for the Sci Fi Channel as of December 1st. Assuming you’re one of the people willing to a) pay for TV or b) pay for TV your friends have already downloaded.

Thanks to our mighty government’s workplace reforms, as of 2007 University academics will be required to apply for their leave via the HR system, as are most general staff and employees elsewhere. Whilst this is probably right and proper (narrowing the gap between the privileges of the academic v the general staff, and bringing academic jobs in line with Real World(TM) HR practices) the likelihood is that as academics are still likely to take leave as they currently do, but not submit their forms for single days of leave etc (after all they’re not terribly well tracked to tell whether they’re not in their office because they’re taking a day off, at a conference or in the library doing research, for example).

The likely result of this is that academics will accrue large amounts of leave, which they will then be forced to take by HR. Of course they may be forced to take leave at times such as the middle of semester, which is likely to be quite inconvenient for any students of theirs.

According to TripleJ’s Hack, The State of California (which has some 36 million inhabitants) is suing General Motors, Toyota, Ford, Honda, Chrysler and Nissan for the damage their vehicles have done and will continue to do to the environment. This is probably partially in response to the automakers taking legal action against the State’s clean air legislation.

At the same time California and 9 other states are suing the US federal government for failing to class CO2 as a pollutant.

Presumably the Hack MP3 link will be here when it’s published.