Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Insects Galore

 

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A Barbara Stanwyck Moment

 

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Trivia Bits 12 February

 

  • 1930 Wimbledon Championships mixed doubles runner-up Daniel Prenn was of Jewish origin and was expelled from the Germany Davis Cup team and subsequently moved from Nazi Germany to England.
  • The planet Neptune is names after the Roman god of the sea.
  • The Tirari Desert is situated in the eastern part of the Far North region in the Australian state of South Australia being 15,250 square kilometres (5,888 sq mi).
  • The Battle of Mogadishu or more commonly referred to as Black Hawk Down was a 1993 battle between US Forces and Militia from Somalia and was later adapted into the 2001 film Black Hawk Down, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Ridley Scott.
  • Boccincini are small portions of Mozzarella cheese.
  • mX is an Australian free afternoon daily newspaper in the cities of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, targeted at commuters at inner-city railway stations, tram and bus stops, and major CBD intersections and was first published in Melbourne on Tuesday 6 February 2001.
  • Australian politician and former leader of One Nation, a right-wing political party with a populist, conservative and anti-multiculturalism platform, Pauline Hanson wrote the 2007 autobiography Untamed and Unashamed.
  • The 1989 novel The Pillars of the Earth was written by Welsh author of thrillers and historical novels Ken Follett.
  • The Lakes of Killarney are a tourist attraction in Ireland and consist of three lakes - Lough Leane, Muckross Lake (also called Middle Lake) and Upper Lake.
  • The figurehead of the German wooden frigate SMS Niobe , a three-masted, ship-rigged frigate that had a sail area of 1,650 square metres (17,800 sq ft), survives in the Naval Academy at Mürwik after the frigate was broken up in 1919.

Mystery of Antique Books

 

 

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Quotables 12 February

 

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Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Creative Flower Arrangements

 

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An Ava Gardner Moment

 

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Trivia Bits 11 February

 

  • Throughout U.S. history, different types of mail bags, used for collecting, carrying, categorizing, and classifying different types of postal material, have been called mail pouch, mail sack, mail satchel, catcher pouch, mochila saddle mailbag and portmanteau depending on form, function, place and time.
  • Slim Dusty, a hugely popular Australian Country singer and songwriter was born David Gordon Kirkpatrick in 1927 Kempsey, New South Wales.
  • Brussels is the de facto capital of the European Union an economic and political union of 28 member states that are located primarily in Europe.
  • The 2013 movie Captain Phillips starring Tom Hanks and Barkhad Abdi was directed by English film director, screenwriter and former journalist Paul Greengrass.
  • In February 2013, Cyclone Rusty battered the coast of Western Australia.
  • The 11th-century Japanese fictional work Shinsarugakuki, written by Fujiwara no Akihira (989–1066),.provides insights into Chinese trade, comic sketches, lion dances, puppets, rice-planting songs, and solo sumo wrestling.
  • In 2006, Carey Hart married entertainer Pink.
  • Polish symbolist painter Jacek Malczewski, born 1854, combined the predominant style of his times, with the historical motifs of Polish martyrdom, the Romantic ideals of independence, the Christian and Greek traditions, folk mythology, as well as his love of natural environment.
  • Netball in Kenya had a governing body called the Kenya Inter-racial Netball and Rounders Association, which only became the Kenya Netball Association in 1966.
  • The primary religion of Thailand is Buddhism.

Beauty of Aircraft

 

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Quotables 11 February

 

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Monday, February 10, 2014

Umbrellas on Rainy Days

 

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An Audrey Hepburn Moment

 

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Trivia Bits 10 February

 

  • FARC is a guerilla organisation based in Colombia - The Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia—People’s Army (Spanish: Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia—Ejército del Pueblo, FARC–EP and FARC).
  • Oliebollen are a a traditional food of the Netherlands and are variety of dumpling made by using an ice-scooper or two spoons to scoop a certain amount of dough and dropping the dough into a deep fryer filled with hot oil.
  • George H W Bush, the 41st President of the United States, was preceded by Ronald Reagan as President of the United States and was succeeded by Bill Clinton.
  • The prefix HMAS stands for His/Her Majesty’s Australian Ship, with King George V on 10 July 1911 granting the title of Royal Australian Navy to the naval forces of Australia and hence the ships styled with HMAS.
  • Canadian singer-songwriter, musician, poet, and novelist Leonard Cohen wrote the award winning Hallelujah in 1984 and since has been performed by almost 200 artists in various languages.
  • Fiji banded, Camphece spinytail and rhinoceros are types of the Iguana reptile.
  • The 14th-century Cloud Platform at Juyongguan situated in the Guangou Valley at the Juyongguan Pass of the Great Wall of China is inscribed with Buddhist texts in six different scripts: Lanydza, Tibetan, 'Phags-pa, Old Uyghur, Tangut and Chinese.
  • Dr Chris Warner is a main character in Shortland Street, a New Zealand prime-time soap opera centring around the fictitious Shortland Street Hospital and has been running since 1992.
  • Lampedusa, the southernmost part of Italy lies closest to the African country of Tunisia which is about 113 kilometres (70 miles) away.
  • Catherine Earnshaw is one of the main characters in Emily Brontë’s classical novel Wuthering Heights, written between October 1845 and June 1846, published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell.

Cakes to Make Monday Palatable

 

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Quotables 10 February

 

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Sunday, February 9, 2014

Movie Review ... Robocop

 

RoboCop_11Movie remakes can often be a mixed bag.  Many have soiled the reputations of their predecessors while others have enhanced them.  Fingers are always crossed they will be good with the strike ratio usually being negative.  A remake of the classic 1987 sci-fi film, ‘Robocop’ scores some decent goals.  Whilst never erasing memories of the original, it ensures it has its own jabs at modern society.  The high octane action is a bonus as it delivers a fine ode to an oft-quoted movie.

Critically injured during the line of duty, police officer Alex Murphy (Joel Kinnaman) finds his life changed.  Becoming a guinea pig for the massive military conglomerate OmniCorp, he is turned into a cyborg solider.  Gaining strength from his new mechanical body, he is tasked with protecting the Detroit streets.  Instead, he focuses his attention on OmniCorp’s wicked CEO Raymond Sellars (Michael Keaton).  Plotting to make billions from his robotic prototype, Sellars’ machinations meet their match from the robotic arm of the law.

‘Robocop’ travels its own road to its illustrious predecessor.  Whilst the story drags and has several plot holes, it provides an entertaining mix of action and drama.  Murphy’s dealings with a new life and his relationship with his family enables some depth amongst the expected gun-play.  Shoot-em-up Robocop certainly does with director Jose Padilha giving the action scenes pure intensity.  His sleek re-design of Robocop’s armour fits better with the night scenes making him seem a more lethal fighting machine.

Amongst the action the screenplay interweaves themes of media manipulation with skill.  Not only does Murphy fight against corruption but an easily manipulated populace.  This strand is reasonably well used even if often unsubtly over-scored.  The lack of consistency is a fault as Murphy’s hometown of Detroit looks a little too clean to be the ‘seedy crime city’ the script attempts to project. 

Whilst lacking much of the originals’ substance, ‘Robocop’ has enough of its own groove to make it interesting.  Easily walking the tightrope that remakes often travel with the need to close one’s eyes at another bad re-imagining is not needed.

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Movie Review Rating out of 10:  7

Movie Review by Patrick Moore

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Patrick Moore's Movie Review is an alternative look at movie releases in Australia.

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