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Canine Conscription

Today’s Odd Spot in The Age:

The German Army has called up a dead dog for national service. Helga Koehlke, 53, of Rostock, received an official army letter demanding that her pet Pekingese Tommy Jakob, who died almost blind in 2002, report for a military medical examination with his ID card and a pair of swimming shorts.

World's Hardest Sudoku

As reported today in The Age (thanks KJ) the world's hardest Sudoku has been uploaded to a players' forum on sudoku.com.

The puzzle -- known as "AI Escargot" or "AI Etana (Snail)" -- was created by Arto Inkala and it looks a little something like this:

Here's a blank Sudoku grid you can copy the puzzle onto if you're inclined to have a go at it.

Enjoy!

Annual diary anguish

The buying-of-next-year's-diary time is once again upon us and, as some of you may know, I usually go through much anguish as I review how this last year's diary has performed and as I try to predict which -- if any -- of my diary-based needs will change in the year to come.

No real anguish this year. I'm still happy with the Collins Sterling week-to-an-opening (A5) that has been my companion for two years running.

I was tempted by the new Moleskine offering (the large weekly planner)

but at three times the price and lacking Australian public holiday and other useful local information it doesn't quite beat the Collins Sterling, even with its uber cachet.

A quick game

If you still have time to waste after perusing the pussies, you may want to accept the hand-eye coordination challenge posed by this simple but highly addictive game (Click on the Union Jack in the lower left corner to see the instructions in English). Be warned: if you are someone who spends hours playing Solitaire or Minesweeper, Double Jeu is pretty much guaranteed to wipe out out whole chunks of your day, even though most games won't last longer than 20 seconds.

At first.

Uberpets: stuff on my cat .com

My attention has been drawn to stuffonmycat.com (thanks J + K), where you can see gems like these.

The next big (cartoon) thing

The Cartoon Network is calling for cartoon ideas and characters which they can turn into world premiere animated short films.

I nominate Dümmerth (powered by BARNABY).

Submissions forms are available HERE.

What say you, BARNABY??

Capsule Endoscopy

You know those miniature video camera capsules you can swallow to examine the inside of your gut as they travel through? Sounds much more pleasant than drinking barium or having a barium enema, right?

This article in eMJA -- Initial experience with capsule endoscopy at a major referral hospital -- describes the process:

Patients fasted from midnight, and in the morning swallowed the capsule endoscope with a glass of water mixed with simethicone (1mL), which helps eradicate small bubbles in the small bowel. After 8 hours, patients returned to have the recording equipment removed.

They don't elaborate further. One can only imagine . . .

Dog Bog Blog Post from Marrickvillia

If people aren't going to clean up after their dogs, doing THIS is the next best thing:

Political Poo Art (from Meredith's MARRICKVILLIA blog).

Heads up

Monarch cake shop (Acland Street, St Kilda) now sells its famous chocolate kugelhopf by the slice. The plum cake too.

That is all.

Marysville & the Yarra Valley

We've just spent the weekend poking our noses around Marysville, Buxton, Healesville and all places Yarra Valley. I could be wrong but I think it's my first trip beyond the city limits in about 6 months and I'm so happy to be well enough at the moment to do a small jaunt like this one.

We stayed just out of Marysville at a cottage within burbling distance of the river, along the road to Steavensons Falls.

I'd almost forgotten how lusciously earthy the world can smell; the real world of fern tendrils, humus, understorey and wet bark.

Other things very much enjoyed were:

• The wonderfully confusing sensation on my outstretched and upturned bare arm of a rosella's needle-sharp claws while its soft, plump, downy belly nestled just inches away as it pecked sunflower seeds from my palm

• Salivating upon seeing burlap sacks of raw coffee, a digitally controlled hot air coffee roaster and a Synesso espresso machine at Cellar Door in Healesville

• Mountain Ash smoked trout from Buxton (coming from someone who generally doesn't like seafood, this says a lot)

• Bruno's sculpture garden, gallery and workshop in Marysville

• The cherry tart from Marysville Patisserie

• Wandering around the waterfall

• Shitake chilli paste from Australian Harvest Fine Foods (especially combined with the semi-matured goaty goodness of Yarra Valley Dairy's chevre)

• Feeling my brain and body go limp with relaxation after the first spa bath in, well, a very long time

• The smoked smallgoods from a virtuoso butcher in Healesville

• Seeing J have a work-free weekend of relaxation, enough to shift into the sort of headspace where it's perfectly OK to bring home a bucket of Persian Fetta in olive oil and spices.
  

Most people return with photos of the places they've visited. We return with produce.

Winners!

Winners!!!

You buh-yewty!

(You know who you are)

Can you hear that . . . ? It's the sound glory makes as you bask in it.

The things people say

It's pet peeve time again.

It may start with the use of unnecessary and increasingly annoying phrases like "at the end of the day" and "in relation to", but please let's be clear about where this sort of thing leads.

Today's copy of The Age carried a story by Brendan Nicholson about the status of David Hicks and other Guantanamo Bay inmates. In it he quotes US ambassador Robert McCallum, whom he interviewed for the story:

At least 12 previously detained enemy combatants have reappeared on the battlefield and that has been confirmed by normal forensic evidence which could include, but would not necessarily conclude, DNA testing, photographs, medical records, things of that nature that allow forensic scientists to identify individuals . . .

Well, I'm open to learning new turns of phrase. At least that one was understandable. Can't really say the same about his next pronouncement:

There has not been to my knowledge any dispute that some of the individuals who have been adjudged to be no longer a risk to the United States, and have been released, have then been either apprehended and detained again or have been killed and then identified.

It could just be my simple mind . . . . Did anyone else need to draw a flow chart to extract the meaning from that sentence?

And finally:

Therefore it is indisputable, and I don't think anyone disputes it, that Mr Hicks qualifies as an enemy combatant.

To my mind, not only does this qualify Mr McCallum as unique among diplomats, I'd go so far as to say there's no-one else like him.

BBC Sudo-Q Quiz Show

A number of readers have connections in the UK so I thought I'd post this call for contestants from the BBC for a new quiz show called Sudo-Q:

Are you a fan of SUDOKU?

Do you enjoy general knowledge quizzes?

If you answered yes and are lively and outgoing then we want to hear from you.

The BBC are looking for teams of two people to compete in SUDO-Q - a fun and exciting quiz show presented by Eamonn Holmes If you are interested in taking part and are over 18 please contact

* phone: 09011 110 849(calls cost 25p)
* email: sudoku@bbc.co.uk

Uberpet of the moment: Toby

D says:

Here is my poor orphan dogger, Toby. Formerly a salty, seafaring pup from San Remo, he's now adjusting to a grittier, urban life of keeping it real on the mean streets of Yarraville.

Uberpet of the moment: Wilbur

Wilbur lives on mommamia's flickr photostream

World Championship Sudoku

For those of you with a Sudoku fetish or addiction, here is a copy of the world Sudoku championship final puzzle--courtesy of thetimes.co.uk


The winning time for this puzzle was 15 minutes. Why not have a crack at it and post your time as a comment.

Moving forward

Language like this (from a job advert on seek.com) threatens to numb my brain; that is, when it's not short-circuiting it entirely:

You will be researching the development and implementation of a range of social policy issues to create strategies for moving forward.

To this I say:

Going forward, we are strongly committed to ensuring enhancement in relation to written and verbal communication skills by limiting recent innovative approaches to expression -- currently extensively in evidence -- that have a negative impact upon language usage.

(i.e. I hope this trend passes quickly.)

Thirty-six words: only two tensed verbs!

Can you pick them?

Udderly amazed

"Moo-Arr! Westcountry cows moo in farmers’ accents!"

I simply can't let this pass without comment.

I have no problem with the fact (asserted by West Country Farmhouse Cheesemakers) that

West Country cows are wrapped up in cow coats and they are played classical music to help them relax whilst being milked.

I'm even ok with Glastonbury cheesemaker Lloyd Green's claim:

I spend a lot of time with my Friesians and they definitely moo with a Somerset drawl.

No problem there. Everyone has a right to express their personal observations.

What I find disturbing is Mr Frege Green's leap from anecdotal evidence to proof-by-analogy:

I’ve spoken to the other farmers in the West Country group and they have noticed a similar development in their own herds. I think it works the same as with dogs - the closer a farmer’s bond is with his animals, the easier it is for them to pick up his accent.

Of course! It's much easier to accept the world is flat when you realise it would roll straight off the backs of those turtles if it were round.

- - -

Reuters have reported on this, or you may have seen it on the ABC.

Gyuto Monks

The Gyuto Monks of Tibet are concluding their year-long "Good Karma" tour of Australia with a two week residency at the Incinerator Arts complex in Moonee Ponds (Victoria), which finishes this Sunday 27 August. If you live nearby and haven't met the monks on one of their previous trips (or even if you have) I encourage you to head over and take in the vibe. There are usually one or two monks working on the large but intricate sand mandala that, once it is completed, will be swept away and the sand poured into the river (or sea) after a colourful procession on Sunday afternoon.

I attended one of their half-day harmonic throat singing workshops during their residency at Gas Works a few years ago. I found it impossible to produce anything resembling the rumbling harmonic resonances that the three instructor monks managed to make sound like a monastery full of throat-chanting wizards and it didn't really help when one of the monks -- coming over to observe my technique and provide technical advice -- pointed at my throat, shook his head vigorously from side to side, then pointed at my navel, nodded and smiled. In what was surely the most gratuitous bit of translation for the day, the interpreter explained: "Not from here (throat). From HERE! (navel)"

What was I supposed to do with THAT?

Then the monk laughed, eyes a-twinkle.

(Translation: "Muhahahahahahaha!")

I swear for the rest of that day and into the evening every aeroplane flying overhead, every fridge motor running in the background, every truck I could hear driving in the distance sounded like those throat-singing monks.

----------------------------------------

Full details of the last few days of their program can be found HERE. This year's sand mandala will apparently look something like this:

[Image from www.tibet-initiative.de]