I should not read the news.
We will probably never count the hundreds of millions of wild creatures who have been burnt or choked in the bushfires this summer. The survivors are now parched and starving amongst the ashes and the fires are still raging. Is the fate of the …
I ask that everyone give a thought to proposing at session at one (or both) of two great events on the Open Source and Free Software calendar: the FOSDEM Legal and Policy DevRoom and Copyleft Conf. Both CFPs close tomorrow!
I've been co-organizing the Legal and Policy DevRoom, along with my colleagues Tom Marble, Richard Fontana, and Karen Sandler for the last eight years. Copyleft Conf grew out of this event a few years ago because there was excitement by attendees for another on in Brussels after FOSDEM for more specific content about copyleft policy and licensing.
Just when we think the bushfires must have burnt themselves out they just keep on going. Every morning we are waking up to thick smoke. This was the view out our window yesterday morning and it is the …
The Let's Think About... booklet was published by Scarfolk Council Schools & Child Welfare Services department in 1971. It was designed for use in the classroom and encouraged children between the ages of five and nine to focus on a series of highly traumatic images and events.
Parents and teachers assumed that the booklet was based on psychological research but it had no scientific basis whatsoever. The booklet's medically untrained author was one of the dinner ladies from the council canteen before she was fired for attempting to slip strychnine into bowls of blancmange.
Despite the scandal, the booklet remained on the school curriculum for many years and the author was invited by the council to pen an updated edition from her prison cell in 1979.
Parents and teachers assumed that the booklet was based on psychological research but it had no scientific basis whatsoever. The booklet's medically untrained author was one of the dinner ladies from the council canteen before she was fired for attempting to slip strychnine into bowls of blancmange.
Despite the scandal, the booklet remained on the school curriculum for many years and the author was invited by the council to pen an updated edition from her prison cell in 1979.
Last year I was wondering which way to go in my work life. I started an oncology post-grad but quickly lost motivation. My cynicism around the higher education sausage machine got the better of me. I ended up doing Plan 2:
a year goofing off. I could work less; spend …
For decades fans have dreamt of stepping into the Whoniverse and experiencing all of its wonders and terrors first hand. Now finally that dream can come true, through the wonders of Virtual Reality in the fully immersive environment of Doctor Who: The Edge of Time. This VR game allows players the opportunity to pilot a Dalek casing from the inside, wield the sonic screwdriver and face off against the Weeping Angels. Full of action, puzzles and cinematic effects, the VR game also features Jodie Whittaker as the Doctor and Nicholas Briggs as the voice of the Daleks. While the feature… Continue reading
I was interviewed about the history of unemployment in Australia and, more specifically, the history of how Australia has treated unemployed workers. We haven’t always been so punitive. For about 25 years after WW2 unemployment was seen as a collective … Continue reading
Many readers will remember the two packs of Horror Top Trumps, which were first issued in 1978. What is not commonly known is that the first pack was recalled after 3 days only to be rereleased a month later minus one card: The Scarfolk card.
The card had proved so effective that, not only could it effortlessly beat every other card, it also killed the losing player within moments of the game ending.
Fury From The Deep is the latest missing Patrick Troughton story to receive the animated treatment and will be released next year. BBC Studios made the announcement on the Animations Panel at the London Comic Con at the weekend and a teaser has since gone up on the Doctor Who YouTube Channel. All six missing episodes of Fury from the Deep, the penultimate adventure from season five, will be animated in high definition in both colour and black and white. The release will also include the surviving clips from the serial, a new Making-Of, and other features still to be… Continue reading
Coffee Lawsuit Download
I made a PDF of the Coffee Lawsuit story I did (back in 2001). Check it out.
And don’t forget my kickstarter.
The Scarfolk Annual 197x.
I’m doing a kickstarter… check it out.
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/whistleblowerpapes/the-whistleblower-papers
After Chalkahlom mentioned Syncthing on the microblog the other day I think I have found a possible workflow for this blog. So here I am with a keyboard plugged into my phone…
R and I just spent a night in an Airbnb here in Byron Bay. The decor is straight …
Update in 2023: Careful readers will note that at the time I made this original post (which remains in full below), I did not disclose the precise circumstances of how I came to no longer be a Voting Member and an at-large Director of the Free Software Foundation (FSF) in October 2019. Because I was vague about the details, some pundits incorrectly reported that I resigned. I did not resign; instead, I was narrowly (by exactly one vote) voted out (of all my FSF roles) by FSF's Voting Members.
I was to meet my son for breakfast at the stipulated time. It was part of yesterdays ultimatum or perhaps pen-ultimatum. He was still in bed when I arrived to pick hm up. He had seemingly forgotten the acid words he had thrown my way the day before. We went …
This year’s Adelaide and Brisbane Supanova Pop culture conventions are set to have a little flavor of Who to them with the announcement that Mark Strickson is coming for both events. Strickson, who played Fifth Doctor companion Vislor Turlough in the 80s, is set to join Eleventh Doctor companion Canton Delaware (Mark Sheppard- who told the DWCA this week that two episodes and travelling in the TARDIS makes him a companion). The duo joins the likes of pop culture icons John Travolta and Jason Isaacs for the conventions to be held at the Adelaide Showground November 2-3 and the Brisbane… Continue reading
November 24 marks a very special occasion – exactly 40 years since the first-ever DWCA event in 1979. To mark to occasion the DWCA have an upcoming Day Event on the weekend just after the 40-year milestone on December 1. The event will be held at Club Burwood in Sydney. http://dwca.org.au/events/sydney-day-event-december-2019/ In preparation for the celebration, we’re sharing here Ashley Tuchin’s article Unconventional: A History of The ADWFC’s Doctor Who Parties which first appeared in Zerinza Volume 1. Zerinza Volumes 1 and 2 are both still available through the DWCA store. http://dwca.org.au/products-page/dwca-publications/ Unconventional: A History of The ADWFC’s Doctor Who… Continue reading
Unique in so many ways, this episode of Doctor Who has been missing from the BBC archives for years, with fans trying very hard to plug the gap. The DWCA tried to reconstruct it as text in their Zerinza special back in 1980, when Rosemary Howe novelised it as part of her adaptation of The Daleks’ Masterplan. In 1989 John Peel crafted an official Target novelisation, incorporating it into his two novel adaptation of The Daleks’ Masterplan. In 2000 the amateur video production company Loose Cannon created their own reconstruction of the episode using the audio soundtrack along with available… Continue reading