Macadam Stories
4 September 2021
Macadam Stories, a 2015 film by French filmmaker Samuel Benchetrit, tells the story of four people living in a dilapidated apartment block on the verge on an industrial wasteland, each of whom are seeking connection, whether they know it or not.
Sternkowitz (Gustave Kervern) finds himself confined to a wheelchair after some exercise misadventure. He strikes up a friendship with a nurse (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi) who works nights at the local hospital, after he goes in search of food late one evening.
Charly (Jules Benchetrit), a lonely teenager, befriends Jeanne (Isabelle Huppert), a despairing actor, living across the hall, who’s struggling to find a new role.
Madame Hamida (Tassadit Mandi), meanwhile finds herself hosting John McKenzie (Michael Pitt), an American astronaut who’s capsule inadvertently landed on the roof of the apartment block.
While viruses, lockdowns, and self-isolation, are not a part of this story, all the characters here are cut-off in some way from the outside world. Macadam Stories is a hopeful, warming, film for our times.
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Why don’t booksellers suggest more women authors to men?
3 September 2021
Jane Sullivan writing for the Sydney Morning Heralds, asks why book publishers and sellers seem to predominately promote titles written by men to men. Why not the work of more women?
You might argue that booksellers and publishers are only reflecting what the research consistently tells us: while women are prepared to read books by both men and women, far fewer men are prepared to read books by women. Margaret Atwood, for example, is one of the world’s bestselling writers, but only 19 per cent of her readers are men.
If you’re looking for a few suggestions though, I can recommend The Lying Life of Adults, by Elena Ferrante, The Weekend, by Charlotte Wood, How Much of These Hills is Gold, by C Pam Zhang, Picnic at Mount Disappointment, by Melissa Bruce, and The Paper House, by Anna Spargo-Ryan.
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Robbie Arnott wins 2021 Age Book of the Year
3 September 2021
Tasmanian writer Robbie Arnott has won the re-booted Age Book of the Year with his 2020 novel The Rain Herron. Congratulations.
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Polly Pollet, Brussels based ballpoint pen artist and drawer
26 June 2017
If it’s artworks with attitude that you’re seeking, then look no further than the work of Polly Pollet, AKA the ballpoint ninja, a Brussels, Belgium, based ballpoint pen artist and drawer. More work can be seen on her Behance page.
Originally published Monday 26 June 2017.
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Deirdre Sullivan Beeman, surrealist figurative artist
30 March 2017
Deirdre Sullivan-Beeman is a surrealist figurative artist, based in Los Angeles. This work is titled Orphic Egg Girl, a wood panel painted with oil and egg tempera.
Tempera is a painting medium, often consisting of, yes, egg yoke. As a painting medium, egg tempera is long lasting, very long lasting. Artworks painted with egg tempera in the first century survive to this day. You learn something new every day. And who knows, people may still looking upon Orphic Egg Girl two thousand years from now.
Originally published Thursday 30 March 2017.
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Lena Macka Lyon France based illustrator and tattoo designer
21 March 2017
Lena Macka is an illustrator and designer of minimal tattoos, who is based in the French city of Lyon. She seems to work mainly in black and white, and shades of grey, but look through her illustrations, and you will see some colour works.
Originally published Tuesday 21 March 2017.
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NASA finds seven earth size planets, but are they anything like Earth?
24 February 2017
After days of keeping us in suspense about a new discovery, NASA let the cat out of the bag, in the early hours of yesterday morning. The TRAPPIST optic robotic telescope, located in Chile, recently identified a dwarf star, about forty light years distant from Earth, that is host to seven planets around about the same size as Earth.
Come on now, you didn’t think NASA was going to announce that an alien civilisation had been found, did you? This is still a significant discovery though.
Particularly as three of the seven bodies orbiting TRAPPIST-1 — the star also takes its name from the Belgian operated telescope — are within its star system’s so-called Goldilocks, or habitable zone. This is an area around a star capable of supporting life, that is neither too hot, nor too cold.
It is this bit that is especially of interest, as it means these planets may harbour water in liquid form, and, as a result, potentially life of some sort. And that is obviously an exciting prospect. But talk that we may one day be able to emigrate there is well wide of the mark, to say the least.
There’s a big difference between a planet that is earth-like, and one exactly like Earth. Such bodies are called an Earth twin, or Earth analog. For example, Proxima b, an exoplanet within the habitable zone around Proxima Centauri, the nearest star to the Sun, is considered to be earth-like, as it is a rocky, or terrestrial planet.
It might have some sort of atmosphere, and possibly there could be liquid water on its surface. But Proxima b may be far from habitable, at least as far as humans are concerned. As Proxima Centauri is a red dwarf star, which are relatively cool, Proxima b would need to be quite close to the star, to be within the habitable zone.
With that sort of proximity however, Proxima b would be tidally locked, meaning the planet’s rotational period matches the time it takes to orbit the star. The result here is only one side of the planet would ever face the star.
Therefore, the day side of Proxima b would be quite warm, whereas the night side would be extremely cold. The only spots that might be conducive to life, would be near the day-night terminator. Red dwarf stars themselves pose problems for any planets they host. For instance, they are prone to emitting powerful flares, which may have the effect of sterilising nearby planets.
Not so earth-like, after all. So while some form of life may manage to eke out an existence there, the environment would hardly be suitable for human occupation. The same conditions could well apply to the planets within the Goldilocks zone of TRAPPIST-1, given it too is a relatively cool dwarf star.
I think we might be waiting a long time indeed for news that a planet as habitable as Earth is found. In the meantime we should give thought to taking greater care of our own Earth. Clearly we’re not going to be rocketing off anywhere else in any hurry.
Originally published Friday 24 February 2017, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.
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Thilo Vogel, engineer, digital nomad, and portrait photographer
1 February 2017
Thilo Vogel describes himself as a photographer, engineer, digital nomad, and rooftop tent camper. That’s quite the mix. But check out his portrait photography. He certainly has a way of bringing out his subject’s — in this case Fabian Freigeist — individuality. Am I right, or am I right?
Originally published Wednesday 1 February 2017.
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Life on Earth is premature: that is why we are alone in the cosmos
4 August 2016
Since the Fermi Paradox intrigues me. Life on Earth is premature. A fluke perhaps. The universe is still relatively young, that’s why we haven’t detected signs of intelligent life elsewhere.
If we compare the present age of the universe, against its projected lifespan, possibly twenty trillion years, then it has an age comparable to an eighteen day old child, who would be expected to live for seventy years. Eighteen days. That’s pretty young.
The cosmos isn’t yet mature enough to be teeming with life.
The dominant factor proved to be the lifetimes of stars. The higher a star’s mass, the shorter its lifetime. Stars larger than about three times the sun’s mass will expire before life has a chance to evolve. Conversely, the smallest stars weigh less than 10 percent as much as the Sun. They will glow for 10 trillion years, giving life ample time to emerge on any planets they host. As a result, the probability of life grows over time. In fact, chances of life are 1000 times higher in the distant future than now.
Originally published Thursday 4 August 2016, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.
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Neil Mendoza’s amazing hamster powered hamster drawing machine
6 July 2016
The Hamster Powered Hamster Drawing Machine, created by Neil Mendoza, is exactly what it says it is. A drawing machine powered by what is effectively a running wheel for hamsters or mice.
I expect the hamsters or mice are pleased that their exertion brings about a little more than some exercise on their part.
Originally published Wednesday 6 July 2016, with subsequent revisions, updates to lapsed URLs, etc.
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