Monthly Archives: October 2011

misery dividends

Posted on October 31, 2011 by rustichello

The proposed poker machine laws seem fair enough to me. Mandatory pre-commitment is just a way of fixing a price tag to the gambling experience. At almost every point of sale retailers have to declare their price and purchasers get … Continue reading →

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still thinking ’bout the fall of Rome

Posted on October 27, 2011 by rustichello

Over the past several months I’ve written at length about Rome and its many reifications on television. Over the same period I have also read Thomas Harris’ novels on the life of Cicero, Imperium and Lustrum, and while these aren’t … Continue reading →

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masperization: misplaced forces of occupation

Posted on October 26, 2011 by rustichello

Occupations are a kind of denial. They occupy the space where the past used to be and prevent it from being again, at least momentarily. Occupations deprive the powers that be, or the perceived powers that be, of their zone … Continue reading →

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likin’ lichen: lobaria oregana

Posted on October 20, 2011 by rustichello

Lichen doesn’t do much to get people’s heart started. They don’t do marketing, they don’t do advertising, they don’t do networking but christ Lobaria Oregana does a super cool thing. What they do is provide for the basic continuation of … Continue reading →

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Innovation, eh? It’s never where you expect it.

Posted on October 17, 2011 by rustichello

I’ve been reading Music for Deckchairs’ post Waiting for disruption. The resulting chitchat regarding the connective tissue between having a product to test, evaluate, and reverse engineer and an idea spruiked in press releases regarding the game-changer joint-venture collaboration, OpenClass, … Continue reading →

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they’ll be toast: all blacks and wallabies

Posted on October 14, 2011 by rustichello

In the late eighties I was a football player, as a young man of a solid build in a small town I was in demand as someone who could catch, pass, run, and tackle. There was no genius to this, … Continue reading →

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favourite things III

Posted on October 7, 2011 by rustichello

 Just so we’re clear, I can’t really cope with dancing bears, more than all the horrible things people do to animals, bears dancing for entertainment distress me like almost nothing else. If you’re interested in stopping this bloody appalling practice you can … Continue reading →

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the struggle carries on: Blake’s 7 in Brewarrina

Posted on October 6, 2011 by rustichello

When I was about nine the local video store was raided by police for hiring and selling dodgy copies of things. I think, looking back, it probably only had counterfeit copies, we were a long way from the trade routes and … Continue reading →

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half-arsed over-gardening

Posted on October 5, 2011 by rustichello

There’s a scene way back in the early seasons of The Simpsons where Homer decides to be a good Dad. As you might expect it doesn’t really work out and at one point Bart says: “Dad, I preferred your half-assed … Continue reading →

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beyond the total perspective vortex

Posted on October 5, 2011 by rustichello

Buried somewhere in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy series is a joke about scale, it is in Life, the Universe and Everything I think, in which Adams describes a torture device called the Total Perspective Vortex: The Total … Continue reading →

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