In 1983 when I was doing year 12 or the HSC as it was called in Victoria then, we were studying a theme of ‘The Future’. Interestingly many of the books I read at that time and things I learnt have had big impacts on my life. We had to write an essay on what would happen if the oil ran out. One of my friends came up with what I thought was an amusing story about using methane gas from cow poo. We all cracked up and thought this was an amazing joke. I saw this a couple of months ago and wondered whether Greg was perhaps just a bit ahead of his time.
inhabitat: Poo Power:Could Cow Poo Power Your Home?

Snoskred recently wrote a very informative post on cows also, which reminded me of this Habitat article I’d saved. She asks “Everybody Loves Cows, Don’t They?” Well here’s yet another reason to be grateful for all that cows can offer the world. Read the comments as there are lots of interesting links.

Being Bee by Catherine Bateson

August 2, 2007

johblogs

reflection No Comments

Catherine Bateson
I have enjoyed many of Catherine Bateson’s novels. My favourite was ‘Painted Love Letters‘. She sensitively handles times of change and relationships for young people and creates such interesting and alive characters.

‘Being Bee‘
This latest novel tackles the stepmother and tells a tale of a father and daughter team including a new woman in the house. It has been shortlisted for the CBCA Awards 2007 for Younger Readers. It replaces the stereotypical wicked stepmother with a new type of stepmother who is flawed and annoying yet gradually appreciated. It was an enjoyable light read.

Mister Wong Winner

August 2, 2007

johblogs

reflection No Comments

I won an iPod! I am astounded. It has been quite a while since I’ve won any kind of random thing, like a raffle or such. I want to play with the toy I’ve won.

Mister Wong is a new social bookmarking site that originated in Germany. I received my invite to beta test, I was curious to see how something that started in a different part of the world, worked. It’s also available in Russian and Chinese.

I have found it easy to use and thought it would be useful as an online backup for my ever-expanding and cluttered bookmarks. After uploading them, I deleted a pile that I rarely use, yet couldn’t bear to lose track of since I knew I would need them once I did.

There has been some controversy about the name and stereotype evoked by the use of the name, yet it seems to have been addressed. Mashable wrote a review of the site last month: Mister Wong Launches Social Networking Tools in US, so if you want to learn more about Mister Wong, read it.

In the meantime I’m feeling quite grateful.

Navigation