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Happy St Jozef's name to Media Dragons everywhere ;-)



Searching for Saint Jozef in Sydney

What’s the difference between story-truth and happening-truth? Where’s the line in nonfiction between cheating and distilling, artfulness and fabrication? What does it mean when a day of story-truth goes missing from history? It happened on 7/7 across the Morava River, where the soviet arrow of time was arbitrarily bent ... Fact Czechers

Has ever a fictional character so laid bare the horror of mortality as Ivan Ilych? Tolstoy was preoccupied with death – and his insights are now cropping up in medical journals How Tolstoy’s obsession with mortality became a teachable moment ; The Cold War warrior hypothesis. Men commit 90 percent of murders. The brutality is biological, in part. But power, not gender, determines belligerence...

Intellectual life in the Internet age. How to explain TED? It’s where the smart and the rich pretend they have something in common... Those Fabulous Confabs Surfing the Internet, says William Gibson, is like rummaging in the collective global mind. Somewhere there must be a site that contains everything we’ve lost...

The idiosyncrasies convey everything - Writers are “dildos for rent”; punk rock was a time before the “furry testicles of disco descended”: Has James Wolcott met a sexual allusion he doesn’t like?...
How does a fatalistic, damaged man cope after surviving a massacre? By embracing satire, and flashing a smirk at the absurd... Memoirs of a Voyeur - A firsthand account of the second-rate

“I will hate you till the day I die,” the thin-skinned Alain de Botton once told a reviewer. Now things are looking up. His self-help philosophy is catnip for the well-heeled in search of meaning.. No fire, no brimstone

Are you a mysterian? The more we know about the brain, the less we understand how it creates consciousness, says Colin McGinn. Maybe the mind is a puzzle that can’t be solved. All machine and no ghost?

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In Kezmarok and Vrbov there is a reference to an Irish based confirmation name so may the green and taxing colours fly everywhere on St Patrick's Day. St. Patrick, patron saint of Ireland, may well have been a tax collector for the Romans who fled to Ireland where he could have traded slaves to pay his way, according to new research by a University of Cambridge academic published on Saturday.

'Life is trouble,' Zorba continued. 'Death, no. To live--do you know what that means? To undo your belt and look for trouble!'
-Nikos Kazantzakis, Zorba the Greek

How does a fatalistic, damaged man cope after surviving a massacre? By embracing satire, and flashing a smirk at the absurd... Black & Cold Irony of life

Middle age has its cold consolations, one of which is the knowledge that you're not nearly as important as you thought you were, or hoped someday to become. I used to save copies of everything I wrote

High Tatra Mountains, once a byword for soviet ski sanitarium, has been transformed into a welcoming tourist destination. The section on High Tatra Mountains in my local bookshop Berkelouw in Sydney is not promising, not even Ariel is able to oblige. Other countries offer travelogues with evocative titles – Italy, for example, has Under the Tuscan Sun, Spain has Driving over Lemons and France has Return to the Olive Farm. Old Czechoslovakia, by contrast, has My Cold War River, The Trial (Der Prozess), The Castle (Das Schloss), Amerika and The Metamorphosis . All of which have rather less of a holiday feel to them. The only certainty in some parts of the old Czechoslovakia is the way words are formed entirely or mostly of consonants, such as the term for the certainty in life Death which SMRT.

Soeaking of death, If I were dying, my last words would be: Have faith and pursue the unknown end.

Slov-what-ia? Aren’t they at war? Ok, so wee, peaceful Slovakia isn’t among the most-touted destinations. Big mistake. Here, you can climb alpine peaks in East Slovakia like the High Tatras, explore a clifftop castle in Trenčín, ski in Malá Fatra National Park and sit in as many old-town cafés as your rear can stand in Bratislava. Having emerged from its frumpy, communist-era chrysalis in time to welcome a horde of low-cost carrier junkies, the increasing numbers of flights and EU membership have pushed costs up in the capital. Outside the city and you’ll find traditional villages, terrific trails and prices a fraction of those in Western Europe. The High Tatras is the highest mountain range in Central Europe outside of the Alps. There is also a high density of bears in the region. The Tatra is also the name of a Czech vehicle manufacturer
-Lonely Czech Mates
Friends read all about Freud Born and Bread along the banks of Morava River

Want to understand the states of the former Soviet Union? Scrap political science and get acquainted with Gogol, Chekhov, Dostoyevsky... and Imrich, the “broken-windows” theorist

Extreme skiing: Quelle catastrophe! In High Tatra witches too came to dance and play their pranks
The Tatras are the highest part of the Carpathian range of mountains that sweep through Central Europe. They run for 53km along the boundary between Poland and Slovakia, although the majority of the range is in Slovakia. The Tatras are not that high and only cover a relatively small area, but in terms of the beauty and diversity of the landscape, they are hard to beat...
In a letter to a friend, Windham spoke of sheer drops “terrible enough to make most people’s heads turn”, of bottomless crevasses, ice blocks “as big as houses”, and of witches who came to dance and “play their pranks” on the ice.

That letter, and its evocation of a landscape that was thrilling and threatening in equal measure, helped change our relationship with the mountains for ever. When published in London, it sparked a fascination with the Alps and made them an essential stop on the Grand Tour. Soon, artists and poets, including Byron, Wordsworth and Goethe, were flocking to Chamonix. Mary Shelley was so impressed by the Mer de Glace she used it as the “awful and majestic” location where Frankenstein meets his monster. Her husband Percy described the edge of the Bossons glacier as “the most vivid image of desolation that it is possible to conceive”. In his poem “Mont Blanc”, he looked up past the glaciers, creeping “like snakes that watch their prey”, to their source in the high peaks, a “city of death, distinct with many a tower, and wall impregnable of beaming ice”.

• Ice of Tatras is a world unto itself - Upon death, Christopher Hitchens was greeted by Orwell. Hitchens didn’t believe his eyes. “This is all a delusion, my dear boy,” Orwell told him, “but enjoy it while you can”... 'I know myself,' he cried, 'but that is all.' [The most exhausting thing in life, I have discovered, is being insincere. The debate about promoting democracy should be a practical one, so here’s the practical reality: Policy makers and scholars don’t know what they’re doing... ; Am I or am I not going to have a martini?” Charles Murray will have a martini. Wine, too. Why not? Sobriety isn’t a “founding virtue”Jozef Imrich Will have a Martini too ]
• · The advice of the elders to young men is very apt to be as unreal as a list of the hundred best books. One day an ebullient and prolific hacker vanished from the Web. Blog, Twitter feed, open-source code: gone. It’s called infosuicide ; Quelle catastrophe!, Beckett’s wife exclaimed when she learned that her husband had been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. She knew her man... Quelle catastrophe! ; Jeanne Proust was a nice lady, polite to her son. But she could also be niggling, infantilizing, and passive-aggressive. Yes, Marcel had mommy issues...
• · · So you want be a historian and reach a wide audience? Be like Barbara Tuchman and skip grad school–which would ruin you as a writer.. Media Dragon of Popular His Story ; Our mental lives depend on the brain, says Anthony Gottlieb, but our behavior is not best understood by looking inside it. NEURONS V FREE WILL
• · · · If art, culture and wisdom have taught us anything over the millennia – and cinema over its short, spectacular century – it is that we are all bewitched by what we shouldn’t be bewitched by. The attraction of human beings to the forbidden was established in the Garden of Eden and has thrived ever since. Look at us mortals today. Loving a safe and peaceful life, we look for the vicarious experience of danger and violence. We don’t want crime or murder in our lives, yet insist on them in our stories and movies. We hate or fear air travel, but thrill to screen stories about doomed airliners. Or doomed travel of any kind, including that by land or sea. Coming Soon ... ; For a moment, film criticism excited, surprised, and astonished. Think Ebert and Kael, both learned, literate, and smart, but never academic... When Critics Mattered
• · · · · · Everything can be bought and sold. As a result, society is more affluent – and more debased, says Michael Sandel... What Isn’t for Sale? ; Sales of two cities: how attitudes to buying and selling property vary in London and New York Sales of two cities ; The second last straw in affordable housing market rankings worldwide. Perhaps most remarkable has been the shift in Australia, once the exemplar of modestly priced, high-quality middle-class housing, to now the most unaffordable housing market in the English-speaking world Sydneyrella ; The choices that you make
Aren't all that grim.
The worlds I'll never see
Still will be around,
Won't they?
The Ben I'll never be,
Who remembers him? Overheard in Sydney
• · · · · · · Every week, Martin Kemp hears from people convinced they’ve found a lost Leonardo. One day someone really did. “I experienced a frisson”... Leonardo da Vinci ; The moral significance of people eating people. Cannibals are mental deviants, revolting curiosities. But they were once central to views of human nature. People who Eat People - Who is in 21st century cooking human flesh? The killing graph. A 46-year old statistician’s ability to quantify mass atrocities has launched a data revolution in the human-rights world.. The Body Counter

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Sometime in 1979 or 1980, a new phrase entered the Australian lexicon. Originating somewhere in the fertile imaginations of the Sydney legal or accounting professions, the evocative expression bottom of the harbour became known first in business circles, and then in the broader community, as a jocular euphemism for what later was determined to be the most formidable series of frauds committed in Australia in recent years. Twenty years later another phrase invaded the lexicon packed in Packer's Lunch tale . The Wickenby brand has been increased in the light of the Judge Bruce Lander founding that ANZ Vanuatu's customer information was transmitted to the parent bank's digital database in Australia, known as the global information warehouse (GIW). Therefore, the two notices to produce information sent to ANZ under s264 of the Income Tax Assessment Act sovereignty did not infringe Vanuatu's ; Two recent Project Wickenby-related court cases have reinforced community expectations that serious tax fraud should be treated sternly and appropriately, Tax Commissioner Michael D'Ascenzo said today. "Two appeal cases last week in the NSW Court of Criminal Appeal have resulted in successful outcomes for Project Wickenby, with even tougher sentences imposed and reaffirming the seriousness of tax fraud and evasion"

Over the barrel Media Dragons Under Fire
Bloggers Under Fire "tracks instances of bloggers , Internet users being threatened, arrested, harassed, harmed Bloggers Under Fire: "As activists and ordinary citizens around the world are increasingly making use of the Internet to express their opinions and connect with others, many governments are increasing their surveillance and censorship capabilities and taking legal or extrajudicial actions against bloggers and social media users. The threats to netizens are increasing. The Committee to Protect Journalists found in 2008 that 45% of all imprisoned journalists were arrested for activities conducted online. In their 2012 press freedom barometer, Reporters Without Borders cited 123 incidents of imprisoned "netizens" in twelve countries. Though the motivations of governments vary from country to country, the goal—to silence "threatening" voices—is the same.

EFF supports the principles of free expression laid out in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and believes that those principles must extend online. While our domestic work focuses on helping bloggers in the United States understand their legal rights, our international work focuses on the legal and bodily threats to Internet users in countries around the world. To that end, we have partnered with Global Voices Online's Threatened Voices project, which tracks individual cases of bloggers under threat or detention, to help shed light on this global phenomenon."

• Apart whilst still a part ; Writing, offered a form of therapy [Am I crazy? Perhaps.
However, three things generally happen as a result of their questions:
1. I learn in the process, usually in the pursuit of the correct answer
2. My perspective shifts and changes
3. We both end up with more questions, built on a rich set of shared experiences.
Three reasons why asking risky questions reduces risk ; The Oxford University undergraduate can currently speak 11 languages - English, Greek, German, Spanish, Russian, Dutch, Afrikaans, French, Hebrew, Catalan and Italian It's not all Greek to this student ; In contemporary media's never-ending mission to remind us how unexceptional our own children are, BBC News recently introduced us to a personable young super achiever named Alex Rawlings; Claims that it's all Greek to minister George Souris ]
• · Zeljko Ranogajec annually bets $1billion Secrecy surrounds his global operation He says his wealth a big exaggeration ; In 2007, Punting Ace.com estimated he outlaid $500 million on Australian racing every year, and accounted for nearly 5 per cent of total tote turnover across the country. ''That gives Zelyko essential control of tote prices in this country … he plays percentages and find [or creates] value. He is a numbers man, through and through.'' And he thrives on rebates ; Certainly they lived up to a personal interpretation of the title that came to pass at the Bondi Icebergs, the pool of turf wisdom. Warwick, Timmy and Lofty are life members of the Punt-Drunks Protective Association and Neil, the Betfair player, is perhaps more cerebral without the pokies bent
• · · We've all been there: trapped in pointless meetings where participants are afraid to speak honestly. We twiddle our thumbs through diplomatic PowerPoint presentations, waiting for the meeting to end so that the real conversations-which usually happen in private-can begin. 3 techniques to help coworkers at all levels interact more directly: break meetings into smaller groups; designate a 'Yoda'; teach 'caring criticism' Candor criticism teamwork ; By breaking down a meeting into its component parts and applying one of management's most recognized models, the author turns the art of a meeting into a science and offers constructive steps for that will turn any meeting into a true, value-creating exercise Smart workplace conversation: the knowledge economy's (new) organizational value chain ; The relentless "always on" work culture created by modern technology and job insecurity mean that most people (80%) continue to work despite being ill, with damaging effects on productivity and health Technology encourages work presenteeism claims research
• · · · The sum of virtues, values and traits equals good character, which, in addition to competence and commitment, is one of the 3 ingredients that make a leader effective and respected Developing leadership character ; Every leader needs to have smooth, productive relationships with those around him or her. But what makes for a rewarding relationship - and its opposite - has long been unclear or unknown until now. Neuroscience and the link between inspirational leadership and resonant relationships ; Specific skills executives should cultivate to tackle the challenges of the diversity of employee groups, technology and collaborative organisational structures: code switching between cultures; wielding digital influence; dividing attention deliberately 3 skills every 21st century manager needs
• · · · · Technology is shaping the way we live and interact with each other, but as it becomes an increasing central in daily life, researchers have begun to wonder about the affect it has on the happiness and emotional development of the next generation. Unfortunately, according to a recent study from Stanford University, it's not looking good... they're less happy and socially comfortable than their less connected peers ; IT'S a clock so accurate you need only reset it once every 14 billion years ; Days away from being billionaires, Gina Rinehart locks trust
for half a century
• · · · · · Judith Lucy is always glad when the new year starts. For many reasons, the festive season is, as she says, ''as enjoyable as an incontinent relative''. On a purely physical level, she might have one or two alcoholic drinks, so there are the hangovers to contend with. Life as a Bondi Beach babe; Judith Lucy ; What’s the meaning of monsters? They’re a moral compass: testing our ethics, shaping our politics, spurring science, and piquing our curiosity... Moral compass

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Inside every older person is a younger person wondering what happened.
- Jennifer Yane

Wishing you your happiest birthday yet
A birthday too special To ever forget Yullis.
So many wishes
So many smiles
Too many memories
Too few words
Like that ad in the FrenchFilmFestival - No wonder the world stops after all it's the golden age of French cinema ;-) To the world, you may be one person. But to me, you are the world ; Happy birthday to a person who is smart, good looking, and funny and reminds me a lot of myself ;-) Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time. To the nation's best kept secret; Our true age because we identify with the kids who are crafty and retro-adorable, the morals sound and the rural nostalgia impeccably groomed in War Of The Buttons (La Guerre des boutons) a harmlessly old-fashioned tale of youthful rivalries between two Slavic and Sikh villages in the 1960s. War Of The Buttons

Only in High Tatra Mountains - Is this the ‘coolest’ cinema in the world

Is this the ‘coldest’ story in the world?

CODA for Malaysian, German and British - Sharm: [By Peter FitzSimons aka THE FITZ FILES] Last year, TFF's cousin, Andrew Tink - the former parliamentarian who triumphed over throat cancer - told his wife, Kerry, that he was going to dedicate his new book Lord Sydney to her. She replied: ''That's very nice but I'd rather have a diamond.'' This year, when the book began selling very well, he told her the dedication would most likely outlast us by many years. Her reply was: ''That's still very nice but I'd still rather have a diamond.'' So at the launch at Parliament House on Thursday - with those present including the Governor, Marie Bashir; ministers Hazzard, Berejiklian, Souris, Smith and Parker; the lord mayor, Clover Moore; and Andrew's old sparring partner Paul Whelan, who drove down from near Maitland in atrocious weather - he presented her with a diamond. And she was gracious enough to say that she didn't need to put on her glasses to be able to see it. A rare jewel ;
Lord Of Sydney - Book Launch in Chatswood

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First day of autumn in Sydney and we are at an inflection point in history, a shift not just in our politics but our consciousness. revolutions

Many of us would admit that we spend too much of our time in cinemas watching French Film Festivals … Most of us would prefer to find a more efficient way to manage our time in life, but we love the way time passes while we watch others showing us how to live, laugh and lament …. During a time where cinema is focused on being bigger and louder than ever before, it's refreshing to come across a film like The Artist where telling a great story remains at the heart. Director Michel Hazanavicius stripped the film back to basics, preferring to film in black and white to 3D; using music to tell the tale in place of dialogue and sound effects… The Art of Storytelling The war of the Buttons; Presumed Gulty; A separation

Someone Like You Challenges for Real Bob Carr
Wiping clean and reinventing his personal slate is just the first of the tasks foreign minister Bob Carr must undertake.

Bob Carr will not only need to bridge the yawning chasm that opened up between Julia Gillard and Kevin Rudd and their respective offices, but he will alsoface a number of major and immediate challenges.
In trying to reconcile his blogging “baggage” with Labor’s formal foreign policy, Mr Carr should resist the temptation to emulate the Hawker Britton style of political spin and distraction that he mastered during his time as NSW Premier.
Already Mr Carr has sought to airbrush from history a number of his now rather inconvenient views. His description of the Dalai Lama as a “cunning monk”, and his warning that Australian politicians should not be intimidated into meeting “this theological politician” on his “too frequent visits”, have been removed from his website.
Mr Carr has also implored us to ignore his strident criticism of the Libyan intervention, considered by Prime Minister Gillard and former Foreign Minister Rudd to be among their finer foreign policy moments. His opinion that it was a “wrong headed amateur-hour intervention” of “towering stupidity” is now replaced by an admission that he was “completely wrong”.

• Only time will tell - The Carr coup [Carr felt qualified to talk about everything from National Gallery exhibitions of Renaissance art to Julian Assange and WikiLeaks ; Citizens and journalists are concerned about the prevalence of misinformation in contemporary politics, which may pollute democratic discourse and undermine citizens’ ability to cast informed votes and participate meaningfully in public debate. Academic research in this area paints a pessimistic picture—the most salient misperceptions are widely held, easily spread, and difficult to correct. Misinformation and Fact-checking: Research Findings from Social Science; Maria and I sang; danced at National Gallery during the Renaissance Appoggiatura ]
• · Scars and Stories is, at once, a beautiful and intensely irritating record. This music can be gorgeous, human, haunting, and affecting – and it can also be first class, self-indulgent nonsense Scars and Stories ；Poverty. It's a word at the root of much debate. What causes it? Who's accountable? How can we solve it? Now after twenty years of research, scientists are suggesting that 'toxic stress' in early life may be to blame, and preventing poverty may be as simple as giving a child a hug... HUG ;
This fraud begins around the birth of Charter 77. In 1977 a litre of diesel was free in the army of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic (Mark V also did not pay anything for his diesel or petrol in the hottest spot on earth the army barracks of Townsville) , "Star Wars" opened in theatres across the US, the maiden Apple II computers went on sale, a 25-hour black out occurred in New York City and 365 day blackout continued to place in Soviet Union. And, according to a SeattlePI.com article, that also was the year two men were in a bar fight in Baltimore, Maryland – and one man stole the other's wallet. He then proceeded to use the man's identity for the next 30 years. So, one guy stole another guy's wallet 30 years ago. You may ask: "How bad could it be?" Pretty bad, when you think that the victim's identity in this case is now tied to that of a career criminal Man who lived, committed crimes under stolen ID for 30 years sentenced
• · · In From Carr to Keneally respected experts analyse the four terms of Labor government in NSW: the premiers and their ministers, the political parties and their electoral fortunes; the role of independents; policies in all key areas; and changes in the bureaucracy, cabinet and parliament. From Karr to Keneally ; edited by David Clune ; Welsh heritage of Russell Grove Clerk Emeritus of the Legislative Assembly of NSW ; AS Barry O'Farrell approaches the first anniversary of his election victory, one thing appears to have survived the discredited Labor government: a political culture in which the loyalty of "mates" to each other trumps the public interest The casino scandal that blackens the Premier ; It has been a bruising week for the New South Wales Government as it approaches the anniversary of its first year in power The curious case of the Casino affair ; Questions about the characteristics of Members of Congress, including their age, education, previous occupations, and other descriptors, are of ongoing interest to Members, congressional staff, and constituents. Some of these questions may be asked in the context of representation, in efforts to evaluate the extent to which Members of Congress reflect their constituencies and the nation at large. In other instances, questions arise about how the characteristics of Members have changed over time, which may speak in part to the history of Congress. Representatives and Senators: Trends in Member Characteristics Since 1945
• · · · Ms Hesford helped write a book called NSW Legislative Assembly Practice, Procedure and Privilege and is regularly on hand during parliamentary debates to advise on procedure Procedural matters; The Rise and Fall of Nick Petroulias St Michael Investigations ; Ms Lorbek, the former lover of the disgraced Tax Office lawyer Nick Petroulias, had requested about $2000 in government child support this year. Instead, she received $2 million. And she spent it. Love child ; Other Scandals • · · · · · The suggestion that the best seller from Hornsby is based on former or current officers of the Crown is widly exaggerated ; Not a good look - Women keep looking in the 'wallpaper' and it is turning them off! Connecting the dots