Powerful Pigments

(Source: The Independent)

Powerful pigments: An exhibition dedicated to colour

Tate Liverpool's latest exhibition dedicated to colour is dazzling. But they could have thrown even more into the mix, says Tom Lubbock

Monday, 8 June 2009 RGE

• • EXTRA LARGE

JIM LAMBIE

Primary instinct: 'Zobop 1999', an installation by the Scottish artist Jim Lambie, is part of a new exhibition which celebrates the random use of colour

• MORE PICTURES

What does colour mean to you? "Little boxes all the same/ There's a green one and a pink one/ And a blue one and a yellow one/ And they're all made out of ticky-tacky/ And they all look just the same."

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/art/features/powerful-pigments-an-exhibition-dedicated-to-colour-1699067.html

Plastic fantastic

(Source: Sydney Morning herald)

In the midst of the northern Pacific Ocean is a liquid desert, a vast floating garbage dump, devoid of complex ocean life, prone to doldrums, seldom visited by fishing vessels, away from main shipping lines, and thus rarely seen by visitors.

It offers, by all accounts, a disturbing vision. Anyone sailing through this liquid dump will encounter, from horizon to horizon, concentrations of bobbing rubbish, in every direction, for day after day. Most of what is floating is not even visible, because it is plastic which has broken down into microparticles.

This degenerating soup is much larger than NSW and Victoria combined. It is about the same size as Britain, Ireland, France, Spain and Portugal. It has been created by a giant spiral of clockwise ocean currents, known as the North Pacific Gyre, which carries human-created garbage that is slowly collected and consolidated by wind and currents.

The phenomenon has a name: the Eastern Garbage Patch. It was first properly documented, quite recently, by a Californian sailor and ocean researcher, Charles Moore, after he took a shortcut by motoring his yacht through the doldrums on his way back from the 1997 Trans-Pacific Yacht Race. A second giant floating mass, created by the same gyre, has been discovered thousands of kilometres away between Hawaii and Japan. Together they are commonly referred to as the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Beautiful QVB

Beautiful QVB shopping mall in Sydney CBD brings two of my passions together: architecture and retail.

In the city

Spotted in Sydney, yesterday.

Goldilocks the Koala

(Source: Independent)

The koala who thought he was Goldilocks

By Kathy Marks in Sydney

Wednesday, 3 June

• • NORMAL
  • LARGE
  • EXTRA LARGE

AP

The koala might have been searching for food according to wildlife ranger, Cliff Harman

•  ENLARGE

A koala wandered into a Queensland holiday apartment and tried out several beds in a role reversal of the story "Goldilocks and the Three Bears", before curling up on its chosen one and having a snooze.

The three young women, who had rented the apartment on Magnetic Island, were unable to persuade it to move. They had first noticed the koala in a tree outside after checking in last Friday for a weekend break. They took several photographs, after which it descended on to their verandah and then joined them inside.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/australasia/the-koala-who-thought-he-was-goldilocks-1695491.html

Twin Sole Mates

Burwood mall. 

Biggles Takes A Dive

Result of a collision with a floodlight pole unexpectedly in the way.  (flight time:  35 secs, but spectacular). Back to the drawing board.

Cheeky Kiwi parrot steals Scottish tourist's passport

One tourist who now knows what a Kea is ...... 

Polly wants a passport - and isn't above stealing one.

A brazen parrot, which spotted a Scottish man's passport in a coloured bag in the luggage compartment under a tour bus, nabbed the document and made off into dense bush with it, the Southland Times newspaper reported on Friday.

The bird - a parrot of the Kea variety - made its move while the bus had stopped along the highway to Milford Sound in the South Island, and the driver was looking through the compartment. Milford Sound, which runs inland from the Tasman Sea and is surrounded by sheer rock face, is part of Fiordland National Park, a world heritage site and major travel destination.

http://www.livenews.com.au/news/cheeky-kiwi-parrot-steals-scottish-tourists-passport/2009/5/29/208219

Poisonous Komodo Dragons

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,,25504321-2702,00.html

THE huge carnivorous komodo dragon isn't just the largest living lizard, it also packs the biggest poisonous punch of any creature.

New research shows that the komodo dragon packs the biggest poisonous punch of any creature. Picture: Chris Kegelman

What's more, new research shows that the mega-meat eater probably inherited its "biggest" and "most venomous" mantle from its extinct Australian ancestor, the 7m-long dragon, megalania.

Adult male komodo dragons weigh in at about 100kg and exceed 3m in length. A typical meal weighs 30-40kg. Deer are common prey. While humans seldom fall victim to komodo dragons, earlier this year a dragon stalked a poacher for several days and then, with a companion, waited for the man, and caught, killed and ate him.

The Corner Office

A beautiful day at the office !

Quirky Newtown

iPhone - the New Babysitter ?

Spotted in a cafe in Cammeray.  She was pretty adept at it - but some parents seem to have more money than sense ?

MOTHER'S DAY AT WOOLLOOMOOLOO

We had a fabulous lunch at the Woolloomooloo Bay Hotel, opp. the wharf.  James and Katie have just announced their engagement, hence the shiny new ring - wonderful news.

Sid The Swinger

The Farm

Near Lake Clarendon, Queensland, about 45 mins west of Brisbane.

Lights

At our hotel and the South Bank Brisbane Buddha Festival.

South Bank

Along the banks of the Brisbane river.

Happy Birthday Buddha

Robyn taking out insurance for us by making a wish or two at the Buddha festival in Brisbane. 

The Treasury, Brisbane

Great lighting, taken on a beautiful mild evening.  The old Treasury building is now a casino and hotel.

Mooloolaba sunset

Sunset at the marina.  Dusk view from our hotel balcony.