Just write, right?

'Right, right, right Mr Deltroid!' said Alex.

You have to love Clockwork Orange. If you are a bit strange and didn't quite fit in with your society. Like Anthony Burgess didn't. Or me.

Anyway, I'm back - did you miss me? What an odd thing to do - ask a question to an unknowable possible reader.

Water, water hardly anywhere

Here in beautiful Melbong, garden city, famous for it's leafy eastern suburbs (and way less famous for it's dried out scrofulous north, west and south eastern suburbs) we are on stage 3A water restrictions. Stage 3A was invented to save the government from criticism by the leafy suburbs because it still allows them to water their gardens. You don't want to poke a sleeping dragon (it's the managerial belt - people who might even know how to do something political and not generally too fond of our 'Labour' government).

For people actually following the restrictions, this means you can only water your gardens using a system for 2 hours twice a week and by hand 2 hours twice a week and lawns may not be watered. The native plants are surviving, the pampered European and other introduced plants are doing it hard. Since Melbong is basically a European style city (in the world's driest continent), it's making the place look more than a little parched and frayed.

I was thinking about this as I installed a replacement water controller (the LCD display on the old one had failed and I had no idea what it was doing). It is my understanding (and experience) that over watered plants tend to have shallow roots and therefore become highly dependent on constant watering whereas lightly watered plants develop deeper roots so they can tap into whatever is left of the ground water (or they die). But watering systems can pump out a hell of a lot of water in 2 hours. So are we systematically weakening our gardens?

Or maybe the idea is to soak down to whatever roots the plants have and then leave it for a few days? Or maybe they went with the most complex rule they thought they could get away with and that citizens could understand? Considering we are in the tenth year of 'drought', down to 30% water storage (for 2 million people) and the CSIRO projects Victoria will get dryer and hotter, I don't hold out much hope for the lawn, unless people get seriously into water recycling (but this costs money and effort so I wont be holding out much hope). And anyway, we'd be better off planting carbon fixing plants like bushy shrubs and trees than lawn.

I suppose this means the lawn will become a status symbol rather than every man's right along with a quarter acre plot to waste.

American tourist to English Baronet while admiring his lawn: 'How do you get a lawn like that?' .Baronet: 'Cut it and roll it. Cut it and roll it. ,,, For three hundred years'.

I suspect we don't have that sort of time.

Zippy the fish head?

Fish oil hope for schizophrenia patients

A new study suggests that fish oil could be the key to a safe and effective form of treatment for young people with schizophrenia. ...
Seventy-six people completed the study and of the group, 41 were given fish oil tablets four times a day for three months. The rest were given a placebo.
Of the group that took the fish oil capsules, only two had developed a psychotic disorder after a year, while of the placebo group, 11 went on to develop some kind of psychosis. ABC

I can see where this might upset the mega pharmas, but stiff. Anything cheap that helps mental illnesses is worth a Nobel Prize IMHO (which isn't humble at all really). I bought a container today - not that I'm a twenty-first century schizoid man you understand but the oil seems to help lots of conditions that I do happen to have. So hoorah.

Toads get caning

Cane toad 'sausages' help wildlife
 abc

Cane toads are being turned into sausages in the Northern Territory as part of a research project to help save an endangered mammal. ,,,

"We basically give them food poisoning and after that they just won't touch it or they will sniff the toad, run away from it or bite it and spit it out."

Results show about a quarter of the quolls will avoid a toad after eating one of the sausages.

For anyone who doesn't know, this is a cane toad:



And this is a quoll.



Quolls are fierce little marsupial carnivores. We'd like to keep them. Cane toads are introduced poison squirting nasties that are taking over the top end of OZ. They eat anything smaller than they are or poison anything that eats them. New methods for their destruction are always being avidly sought. For example:

Cane toads for dinner?
abc

South-west Queensland meat processor John Burey is travelling to China next month to negotiate a deal to start exporting cane toads for human consumption. Mr Burey says the hated toad's poison is highly prized in Chinese medicine and the meat is also eaten in some parts of the country.

You really have to admire that sort of entrepreneurial style. I wonder if there is a market for free range rabbit in China? Not to mention feral goats, pigs, buffalo and maybe even camels.

Corresponding action?

China warns Obama not to meet Dalai Lama

China has warned the US president that it will harm ties between the two countries if he meets the Dalai Lama. Chinese Communist Party official Zhu Weiqun said there would be "corresponding action" if the meeting went ahead. BBC News

OK. What would be "corresponding action" to meeting this guy?



Maybe meeting someone the US officially loathes. Another inveterate troublemaker. Like:




You got to love the Chinese. Or else. In fact they are getting a bit snarky lately with their super powers.

The Mighty Trembesi Tree

Trembesi tree and climate change

Jakarta Post

The Trembesi tree, a native Latin American plant, will help Indonesia cope with climate change as it can absorb 28 tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year, a minister says. "In the next five years, trembesi trees will absorb huge emissions in Indonesia to tackle the climate change,"

You may ask: "What, pray, is a Trembesi tree and why is it so special?". I may answer: "I have no idea but I'm going to find out". So here goes.
Nope. Nothing much that's not in Indonesian. I wonder if someone should mention how much luck Australia has had with introducing foreign plants and animals. Serrated tussock anyone?
 OK. This is serrated tussock Nassella trichotoma. If you are a grazier in Oz you really don't want it.

Deaf, blind but not dumb

This is a test link to an article from Melbourne's Herald-Sun news fictorial. Not a particularly quality rag but worth a try.

Blind deaf grandma jailed for benefit fraud

I was hoping I'd see more than just the link. I particularly like the photo:

Not that I condone anyone rorting anyone's welfare system, there is something special about grannys,  even evil grannys, that makes this a heart springs story.

By the way, for non Australians (that is, nearly everyone), 'rorting' means 'ripping off'. In Australia rorting has been a way of life for many people for many, many years. This may have started with  our transported, criminalised (usually Irish or lower class English) fore-bares being landed in a not particularly lucky country dominated by a landed gentry hell bent on being bigger bastards than anyone else. Waves of immigration since the Second World War have added variations on a theme from a wide variety of countries.

But this is really about cutting and pasting. So I tried using SnagIt

Clearly she's had a tough time and the judge is being lenient by providing secure public housing. I am a bit curious how our welfare pit bulls managed to miss this for 19 years though.

Thus Spake Rzzrthustra

The occasional and mostly random thoughts of Rzzr will now appear here, mainly because other platforms I've tried do not suit blogging - you know who they are - youface, mytube and the like - they just don't have the appropriate literary tools. So here it begins.

Actually I wouldn't be all that surprised if mytube exists in the xxxosphere somewhere and if it doesn't, it probably should, if only because I proposed it and its vaguely amusing and lets face it: we all need a damn good laugh.

I had this idea that I would share my pick of Google News items and original (if not particularly well informed) commentary with the internet cognoscenti or whoever bothers to look at Rzzr Time for whatever reason, impulse or typing mistake.

A while ago I realised that I am uniquely suited to blogging because my attention span is so short (and always has been) that I can barely retain an idea for an hour let alone long enough to write anything substantial, hence the proposed ragbag of more bad jokes, trivia, esoterica and the odd serious comment. But first I might experiment with Blogger a bit to get used to it and set a few things up.