February 4, 2012

View from the office

Government House, Adelaide

I have four offices in Adelaide from which I work at various times. That requires me to carry four different electronic security passes for entry, which is rather annoying, but less annoying than forgetting to take one.

One of my offices looks over Victoria Square toward Gulf St Vincent. In fact, the sea is visible on most days, 10km away.

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Picture Australia

Picture Australia

Today I discovered the outstanding Picture Australia website.

According to the About page: Picture Australia is an internet-based service that allows you to search many significant online pictorial collections at the same time.

When you do a search on Picture Australia, thumbnail images are retrieved from participating institutions on the fly and inserted into the search results.

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Greek genocide

Armenian massacre

Barber shop visits are normally tame affairs, but today involved a rather heavy conversation with my hair cutter of choice in Mile End.

The 67-year-old Greek Cypriot, who is normally very quiet, today opened a conversation by asking if I had seen the news last week that France had condemned Turkey’s genocide against the Greeks. I hadn’t, although a web search reveals the French Senate voted to criminalise denying the mass killing of Armenians early last century was genocide.

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FEMEN Ukrainian protest group

Ukrainian feminist nude protesters

These striking pictures show confrontational protests by the Ukrainian feminist group FEMEN. According to Wikipedia, in Kiev there are about 300 active participants in the movement, which comprises some 20 topless activists and 300 fully clothed members.

Most of their early protests were in Ukraine, but they have since appeared in Russia, The Vatican, Paris and now in Switzerland.

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Gift vouchers and gift cards

gift cards

The Commonwealth Consumer Affairs Advisory Council (CCAAC) has invited public comment on a review of gift cards in the Australian market.

The issues paper seeks evidence and views about whether consumer detriment is caused by the purchase and use of gift cards by Australian shoppers.

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