Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
This small image doesn’t do justice. Go to NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day site for the full 3354-pixel wide version and spend a few quiet moments gazing at the breathtaking beauty of another planet.
This is the stadium-sized Victoria Crater, which the rover Opportunity reached a couple of weeks ago.
Somehow the news slipped by without us noticing, but some time in 1995 the one-billionth Internet user went online. There’s no central register of Internet users, so we don’t know who it was, or when they first logged on. But statistically, it was probably a 24-year-old woman in Shanghai.
In the time since then, the number has grown another 150 million or so, ball park. 36% of Internet users are now in Asia and 24% are in Europe. Only 23% of users are in North America, where it all started in 1969 when two computers — one in Los Angeles, the other in Palo Alto — were networked together.
’Pong says:
For the first time, my works are exposed in Australia. It is Walking the Street 06, an annual community event organised by Inner West Cultural Service. I am one of the selected artists who have their artworks installed in shop fronts along King Street South, which is from Newtown Station to Sydney Park. King Street, Newtown is one of the coolest shopping streets in Australia. In the event, the street is even more colourful with artworks from diverse artists. And it’s free!
China blipped up twice in a week. I stumbled upon Steward Brand’s summary of a speech by long-time China watcher Orville Schell, China: Giant Contradictions.
These days you cannot think usefully about China and its potential futures without holding in your mind two utterly contradictory views of what is happening there. On the one hand, a robust and awesomely growing China; on the other hand a brittle China, parts of it truly hellish.
And I received a poignant email which illustrates the personal impact of change in China.
Writing this, my 100th blog post, has set me a-thinkin’ about why. Why I’m writing a blog, yes, but also why I’m doing lots of things. Why I’m frustrated by the work I’m doing. Why I love Sydney (and Melbourne, don’t feel left out, folks). Why I get passionate about certain issues in the media.
Actually, I’ve been thinking about these things for some time, but writing this post focussed my thoughts. And while doing so, the word “values” turned up — twice. Once for the current public debate about “Australian values”. And again when my friend and colleague Zern Liew asked me to list my own “personal values”.
One for the diary: the Suwannakorn series of photographs by my better half ’Pong will be on display at the European Grill, 506 King Street, during Newtown’s Walking the Street Exhibition from next Saturday 7 October.
Personally, I’d much rather have seen some of the urban abstracts on display, but hey that’s my taste. Maybe I just don’t like blue. But then the choice was also influenced by the display space available in the venue.