Dawes- That Western Skyline

The song hits you like a classic melody right out of the Big Pink, organic with a booming Levon Helm like drum beat and.  Wistful and powerfully delivered, its hard to realize that this world weary sounding singer is only 23, this song sounds absolutely timeless and well constructed, high praise for a band in its debut.

Wild Beasts- All The Kings Men

This band from England sounds like David Bowie came together with David Byrne of Talking Heads and decided to make a song.  It’s very well produced, interestingly arranged and features a great octave hopping singing performance, and you’ll find yourself humming along with that vocal intro before the songs over.

Dawes- When My Time Comes

Another great song by this new band, coming off like the best of The Band and Wilco and Springsteenesque lyrics and delivery with great classic rock arrangement instincts and a great distinctive voice, Dawes is my favorite band of 2009 and wait for the harmonies in the chorus, they alone are worth the download of this song.

A.A. Bondy- I Can See The Pines Are Dancing

This song is beautiful from the arrangement to the singing, every instrument is placed perfectly,  his voice comes out of the music like the sun breaking through on a cloudy day, a more tuneful Bob Dylan but just as good lyrically.

Cotton Jones- By Morning Light

Starting off with a great whistling intro that could rival Andrew Bird, the harmonies on this are beautifully placed, sounding like a duet between Sonny (from Sonny and Cher)  and Nancy Sinatra, this band knows how to use their reverb and the strings only add to the song, not take away from it.

Devendra Banhart- 16th and Valencia Roxy Music

Devendra has an immediately identifiable voice and his taste for arranging is magnificent, his melodies segue from style to style better than any since the heyday of Paul McCartney, the guitars are excellent and the song just keeps you guessing while still being catchy.

Vetiver- Another Reason to Go

Another new band bringing back classic rock style, this song burns like a slow Rolling Stones song from the Some Girls period, this songs got a great hook and its a really fun melody.

Cotton Jones- I Am the Changer

Like driving through a rainstorm at night, or spending late nights with a loved one, this song builds and burns at a perfect laconic tempo, the guitar is beautifully done and the singing and lyrics match the music to a t.  Yo La Tengo fans will also love this one. The organ and guitar swirls and the slow steady reverbed drumming, its almost like listening to a dream of a summer evening.

The Rolling Stones- Slipping Away

Mick Jagger wasn’t the only person in The Rolling Stones capable of writing and singing.  And this effort by Keith Richards is among the best in the Rolling Stones and criminally underrated.  Beautiful melody and harmony and just an all around great song.

Golden Silvers- Magic Touch

Straight out of England, Golden Silvers knows how to cut right to the heart with their straight forward hopeless romantic sentiments.  Witty lyrics, and great hooks and harmonies abound.  Love the arrangement on this one.

Golden Silvers- Please Venus

Another great song by this new band with a great synthesizer hook, again the harmonies are nicely arranged in the background and, if Queen was still around, this song wouldn’t be a far stretch for them to do, again the lyrics are well written and the singing performance is well done.

Christmas Island- Twenty Nine

If John Lennon had made a garage band instead of the Beatles they’d sound like this.  The self doubt in the lyrics is there, the chord progression as well as the vocal delivery, and its a great song on its own merits anyway.

E.L.O.- Sweet Talking Woman

Great arrangement, great harmonies, great hook, great song.

I hope you’re all having a wonderful Christmas.

We woke up to, you guessed it, more snow.  The forecasters had originally called for nearly a foot of the stuff, making it the 2nd such storm in two weeks.  I was worried because, with a fair amount of the first storm still on the ground, I’d have some challenge trying to find places to chuck another foot.

Fortunately, as the storm’s track resolved itself, it became apparent that we wouldn’t get the massive dumping first predicted.  Still we ended up with nearly 6″, and the warmer temps meant it was somewhat heavy.  But it provided me with nearly 2 hours of outdoor “refreshment” with the shovel.  But it’s a chore I really enjoy.

As we move on to something historical, we can’t really talk about the birth of Jesus Christ (even though it seems a given), simply because December 25th was the date chosen to celebrate his birth, not necessarily his actual birthday.  We also shouldn’t talk about General George Washington crossing the Delaware River and attacking the British and Hessian troops at Trenton in 1776 because, well, we’d just be repeating last year’s Christmas Day discussion.  No fair doing that.

So let’s talk about Christmas Island.  It’s a 50-square-mile chunk of rock that’s located about 300 miles south of Jakarta, Indonesia.  But it’s actually owned by Australia, which is more than 1,500 miles south and east.

William Mynors was a British captain and his ship, the Royal Mary, was owned by the British East India Company.  Many of you will remember this as the same company that caused so much controversy (and spilled tea) in the Colonies in the 18th Century.

Anyways, Mynors sailed by the island on December 25, 1643.  And lacking a better name, he named it after the day of its discovery, and Christmas Island came into existence.

It would be another 45 years before the first people would set foot on the island.  Eventually, it would be controlled by the British, who harvested its rich phosphate desposits.  Intrepid readers of this site will also recall that Christmas Island was occupied by the Japanese in World War II.

Anyways, so there you have it.  For what’s left of the day, have a safe, joyous, and blessed Christmas.

On December 25:

800 Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.

1000 Hungary was established as a Christian kingdom by Stephen I of Hungary.

1066  William the Conqueror was crowned as king of England, at Westminster Abbey.

1000 Baldwin of Boulogne is crowned as the first King of Jerusalem in the Church of the Nativity.

1130  Count Roger II of Sicily was crowned as the first King of Sicily.

 Detail of the mosaic with Roger II receiving the crown by Christ, Martorana, Palermo.

1223 St. Francis of Assisi assembles the first Nativity scene.

Painting by Jusepe de Ribera

1643  Christmas Island was founded and named by Captain William Mynors of the East India Ship Company vessel, the Royal Mary.

1814 At Oihi Beach in the Bay of Islands, Samuel Marsden preached in English to a largely Maori gathering, launching the Christian missionary phase of New Zealand history. Marsden’s service was translated by the Nga Puhi leader Ruatara.

1818 The first performance of “Silent Night” took place in the church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.

 Autograph of the carol by  Franz Xaver Gruber.

1821  Clara Barton, founder of the American Red Cross, was born.

 1865 Evangeline Booth, the 4th General of The Salvation Army, was born.

1870 Helena Rubinstein, Polish-born American cosmetics industrialist, was born.

1887 Conrad Hilton, American hotelier, was born.

1889 Lila Bell Wallace, American magazine publisher (Reader’s Digest), was born.

1890  Robert Ripley, collector of odd facts, was born.

 Ripley’s Odditorium in Hollywood

1899 Humphrey Bogart, American actor, was born.

1908 Quentin Crisp, English author, was born.

1913  Tony Martin, American singer and actor, was born.

1914 James Muir Cameron Fletcher, New Zealand industrialist, was born.

1918 Anwar Sadat, President of Egypt, Nobel laureate, was born.

1918 Ahmed Ben Bella, politician, first President of Algeria, was born.

 Ben Bella (right) after his arrest by the French army

1932  A magnitude 7.6 earthquake in Gansu, China kills ~70,000 people.

1941 Battle of Hong Kong ended, beginning the Japanese Occupation of Hong Kong.

1944 Kenny Everett, British entertainer, was born.

1947 The Constitution of the Republic of China went into effect.

1949  Nawaz Sharif, Prime Minister of Pakistan was born.

1949 Sissy Spacek, American actress, was born.

1950 The Stone of Scone, traditional coronation stone of British monarchs, was taken from Westminster Abbey by Scottish nationalist students.

1950 Karl Rove, former American presidential advisor, was born.

1954 Annie Lennox, Scottish singer, was born.

1963 Turkish Cypriot Bayrak Radio began transmitting in Cyprus after Turkish Cypriots were forcibly excluded from Cyprus Broadcasting Corporation.

1968 Apollo 8 performed the  first successful Trans Earth Injection (TEI) maneouver, sending the crew and spacecraft on a trajectory back to Earth from Lunar orbit.

1989  Nicolae Ceauşescu, former communist dictator of Romania and his wife Elena are condemned to death and executed under a wide range of charges.

1990 The first successful trial run of the system which would become the World Wide Web.

 The Web’s historic logo designed by Robert Cailliau

 

1991  Mikhail Gorbachev resigned as president of the Soviet Union (the union itself is dissolved the next day).

 

1991 Ukraine’s referendum was finalized and Ukraine officially left the Soviet Union.

 

Sourced from NZ History Online & Wikipedia.

Charles sent me this first day cover from the Christmas Island. It was issued on November 2, 2009.

Thank you for the nice FDC!

15. Times New Viking – Born Again Revisited [US]
So fucked it feels like it’s hurting your brain and damaging your speakers even when it’s down low. It’s Times New Viking, what do you expect? Received wisdom still maintains that Times New Viking are Yo La Tengo shooting their own tapes with nail guns from behind a particularly fuzzy curtain. But (as I’ve moaned before) the world’s postmodern now and there’s nothing external to a piece of art, so forget all about squeejeeing away the fuzz to get to the songs and simply embrace the abrasive, anarchistic catchiness of it. Even if it literally hurts to do so. City On Drugs, for example, is excellent, though fairly strictly to Rip It Off’s formula. Move To California, though is a darker, more serious Times New Viking channelling emo when it was the same thing as college rock. The sad fate of succeeding a classic album casts a shadow on Born Again Revisited, but not one it can’t at least answer to in its own right.

Further thought on fuzz-as-sauce vs. fuzz-as-intrinsic last year, and a live video from Whelans.

14. Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard – Em Are I [US]
If self-consciousness was music, it would be Jeffrey Lewis. Not quite as dark as neurosis and more constantly present than embarrassment. It’s in the shuffling, fuzzy acoustic arrangements, it’s in the nerdy comic-book cover art, but more than anything else, obviously, it’s in the lyrics. The motto inscribed on the theoretical title page of the multi-volume autobiography that is Lewis’ work is the unfunny punchline of the opening track slogans: “And I kept repeating it to myself to convince myself it was true – that everyone you meet is not better than you.” Not to say that there’s nothing more to Jeffrey Lewis than self-pity, because anyone familiar with anti-folk’s centre-pole will know that there’s nothing he says that isn’t simultaneously funny, sad and tuneful in a slipshod way. He has carved a singular career out for himself, and this could be the highlight. You’d think he’d be a little more cocksure, but then “going bald is the most manly thing I’m ever gonna do”. So maybe not.

A live review from Crawdaddy, and some weird BBC video.

13. Camera Obscura – My Maudlin Career [SCO]
Camera Obscura exist in a universe that somehow approximates what would happen if one was to superimpose the stylistic elements of the kitchen sink British 60s onto the modern day. In charity shop vintage, they present a honey-sweetened indie-pop sadness, filmed on grainy Super 8. These are not, as some have said, child-like love songs. They’re love songs that swapped cassettes and dog-eared books when they were younger and can’t rid themselves of dreams of tandem bicycle picnics. If an album that begins with the declaration “Spent a week in a dusty library!” is just to twee for you, that’s fine. But for some, the pillowy, melancholy sweetness will trigger a certain familiar strand of nostalgia for awkward moments and love that didn’t happen.

French Navy video and a Guest List.

12. HEALTH – Get Color [US]
Progressive is fine. Experimental is fine. Go that route if you like, but if you do it right, even the most close-minded club attendee is going to be sucked magnetically from wall-propping position to the middle of the dancefloor. That’s what Get Color means, then. Get Color in the sense of hewing pop music from slabs of noise, but also Get Color in the sense of bringing a whole new palette into play, of bringing innovation to people whether they want it or not. You won’t hear many albums as simultaneously abrasive and immediately appealing as this, so my advice is to put it on in the dark, as loud as it deserves, and get a little colour yourself.

This is the last paragraph and a half of the Trinity News review of this album. Die Slow is on it, and is so good it will blow you up.

11. Christmas Island – Blackout Summer [US]
2009 witnessed the rise of lo-fi, and its fall. Things move quickly now, probably too quickly, and that unfortunately means that if Christmas Island melt down in the Catalan sun, they’ll only have themselves to apologise to. Not that it really matters. Blackout Summer is the best sort of apathetic guitar pop, the kind where songs are literally called things like I Don’t Care and Weird You Out. With a sense of humour and a preference for reverb over distortion making this closer to So Cow than to Wavves, the eleven song set scans like a greatest hits compilation for an insidiously catchy garage band who never got past passing out tapes. Its twin highlights are Black Cloud – a proto-anthem about paranoia – and Dinosaurs – a lament for the passing of the dinosaurs. Without a raised eyebrow in sight.

The real Christmas Island is full of radioactive land crabs, not guitar pop.

Australia’s off-shore detention centre on Christmas Island is at capacity.  Authorities have expanded the centre’s capacity by erecting tents.

So far this year Australian authorities have intercepted 55 boats carrying approximately 2700 people. 1447 people are detained on the island.  The use of tents has reportedly expanded detention capacity to 1560.

The migrant flow is expected to slow in January with the onset of the typhoon season in the waters north of Australia.

Click here and here for articles.

The Republic of Kiribati is a group of islands nation located in the central tropical Pacific Ocean.

Most of the islands of Kiribati are low lying coral atolls built on a submerged volcanic chain and encircled by reefs.

Kiribati is located near the point at which the international dateline intersects the equator. The islands are in four main groups the Gilberts, Phoenix, Northern and Southern Line Islands and Ocean Island.

Rainfall varies greatly, ranging from 40 inches yearly near the equator to 120 inches yearly in the extreme north and south. Ocean Island, the central and southern Gilbert Islands, the Phoenix Islands and Christmas Island are also subject to severe droughts that may last many months.

Many of the people of Kiribati continue in the traditional ways of village life with their extended families. Most people live in small villages of 10 to 150 houses, which are generally built of thatch and provide good protection from the rain as well as good air circulation. The way of life is simple most islanders fish locally, grow their own food, and raise livestock. On the island of Tarawa, where the capital is located, life is changing as the urban population grows.

The Presidents Office, Parliament building and international airport are all situated on Bonriki. A number of war relics can be seen on Betio and visits to WWII battlegrounds and natural history expeditions can be organised.

Stretching for almost half the land mass of Kiribati, Christmas Island is covered in lakes and ponds and boasts some of the largest colonies of birds. Trips with studies of the local birdlife are available. Bird watching is popular, especially on Christmas Island where millions of birds swarm everywhere.

The main towns are London, Paris and Banana. Game fishing is extremely popular on the island.

There are also trips to see outrigger canoe races and dancing contests.

A community meeting house, where visitors may enjoy traditional dancing, singing and storytelling.

A fine way to get the whole picture of Kiribati is to take a flight seeing trip on board frighteningly small planes. Tours take in the islands of Abaiang, Abemama, Maiana and Tarawa, other islands can be visited on request.

The islands boast superb white sandy beaches and crystal clear lagoon waters. However, swimming in south Tarawa Lagoon is not advisable due to the extent of its pollution and extreme caution is recommended on ocean side reefs. There are excellent facilities for snorkelling and deep sea fishing. It is also possible to charter boats for sailing across the Tarawa Lagoon.

Our favorite Bay Area bookstore takes a look at old cocktail books.

Lit.

• Want a smooth divorce?  Read Moby-Dick.

• At The Millions, Emily St. John Mandel talks about writing on trains.

• Designworklife takes a look at German book publisher, Zeixs.

• If Sarah Palin is coming to your local supermarket to sign books, please get rid of the tomatoes.

• N+1 discussion between conservative writers Ross Douthat and Reihan Salaam.

• Shakespeare characters write letters to Santa.

• Q: Why did Lewis Carroll add the Cheshire Cat to Alice?

A: To make fun of math ideas floating around at the time. Duh.

• The best books the guys at Deckfight read in the year that is ending.

• Stephen Elliott is giving a lecture at WORD this Friday.

Jams.

• The Ramones, The Cramps, and The Mountain Goats: Peter Bognanni, we like your taste in jams.

• The Beets, Beach Fossils, and Christmas Island =’s favorite tour of earl 2010.

• Who doesn’t own Let It Be by The Replacements?  Slate discusses the albums 25th birthday.

• David Byrne has advice on funding the arts.

The big screen and little screen.

• Spiderman might not play Bilbo Baggins.

• Salon on why The Simpsons don’t matter anymore.

We love food.

• Nine raw chocolatiers at Cool Hunting.

• Cheese is awesome.  The Faster Times tells us why.

• If you just took away the pancetta, I’d consider eating this pizza for every meal.

Brooklyn.

• A dark piece of Brooklyn history took place 49 years ago yesterday when a TWA place crashed into the heart of Park Slope.

PLAN A: Morrissey @ Copley Symphony Hall. Still mopey. Still miserable. (Have you heard the chorus of “I’m Throwing My Arms Around Paris”? Someone buy this man a puppy. See below.) Still asexual. Still puts on a hell of a show. And when you’re done, head to the Ruby Room for Too Cool For Karaoke’s unofficial afterparty with a—you guessed it—Moz theme. BACKUP PLAN: BRAAIINS!, Whoa Hunx, Cowabunga Babes, Christmas Island @ Radio Room.

OTHER COOL STUFF:

Danko Jones, Genghis Con Job, Die Sabotage @ The Casbah.

Flowerthief, Jon Ji @ Tin Can Ale House.

Gilbert Castellanos Quintet @ Onyx Room.

Bebel Gilberto, DJ Lara Gerin @ Belly Up.

In case you are thinking of purchasing the new global version of Amazon’s Kindle for Christmas, be aware that there are still quite a few places that the global version will NOT work.  I was disappointed to find that the new version still will not work in my country.

Apparently the new global version will only work in SOME countries.   I thought it would be helpful to most expats to have a complete list of which countries it will, or will not work in (below).

It’s also interesting to note the PATTERN of groups of countries where the Kindle doesn’t work–some countries probably lack satellite coverage or delivery systems, while others probably don’t WANT readers to be able to download whatever they want by satellite.

STARRED (*) countries marked below indicate that Kindle needs to be ordered from a SPECIAL PAGE on the Amazon site.

The Global Kindle version DOES work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Aland Islands, Albania, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Australia*, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Boznia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Kenya, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Liberia, Leichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Moldovia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozembique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka,  Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands – British, Virgin Islands – U.S.,  Wallis and Futuna, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The Global Kindle version does NOT work in (as of Dec. 2009) the following countries:

Afghanistan, Algeria, Antarctica, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, Chad, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, French Southern Territories, Gambia, Guinea, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea – Democratic People’s Republic of, Korea – Republic of, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco (including the Western Sahara), New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Pitcairn, Qatar, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands, Sudan, Svalbard and Jan Mayan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uzbekistan,  Yemen.

Amazon's Global Kindle Reader

I heard that Amazon now has a global version of Kindle. I was disappointed to find this morning that the new version still will not work in my country.

Since I’ve wanted one for some time, but have been waiting until they got a version that would work in my country, I checked out their website this morning, only to be disappointed again. Apparently the new global version will only work in SOME countries.

In case you are thinking of purchasing the new Global Kindle for a Christmas gift this year, since the new version will only work in SOME countries, I thought it would be helpful to most expats to have a complete list of which countries it will, or will not work in.

STARRED (*) countries marked below indicate that Kindle needs to be ordered from a SPECIAL PAGE on the Amazon site.

The Global Kindle version DOES work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Aland Islands, Albania, American Samoa, Andorra, Angola, Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Armenia, Aruba, Australia*, Austria, Bahamas, Barbados, Belarus, Belgium, Belize, Benin, Bermuda, Bhutan, Bolivia, Boznia and Herzegovina, Botswana, Brazil, Bulgaria, Burundi, Cambodia, Canada, Cape Verde, Cayman Islands, Central African Republic, Colombia, Comoros, Congo, Cook Islands, Costa Rica, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Cote d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Denmark, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Ethiopia, Falkland Islands, Faroe Islands, Federated States of Micronesia, Fiji, Finland, France, French Guiana, French Polynesia, Gabon, Georgia, Germany, Ghana, Gibraltar, Greece, Greenland, Grenada, Guadeloupe, Guam, Guatemala, Guernsey, Guinea-Bissau, Guyana, Haiti, Holy See, Honduras, Hong Kong, Hungary, Iceland, India, Ireland, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jersey, Kenya, Kiribati, Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Latvia, Liberia, Leichtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macao, Macedonia, Madagascar, Malawi, Malta, Marshall Islands, Martinique, Mauritius, Mayotte, Mexico, Moldovia, Monaco, Mongolia, Montenegro, Montserrat, Mozembique, Myanmar, Namibia, Nauru, Nepal, Netherlands, New Caledonia, Nicaragua, Niue, Norfolk Island, Northern Mariana Islands, Norway, Palau, Panama, Papua New Guinea, Paraguay, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Puerto Rico, Romania, Russia, Rwanda, Réunion, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Samoa, San Marino, Sao Tome and Principe, Serbia, Seychelles, Slovakia, Slovenia, Solomon Islands, South Africa, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Swaziland, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Tanzania, Timor-Leste, Togo, Tonga, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands, Tuvalu, Uganda, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Uruguay, Vanuatu, Venezuela, Viet Nam, Virgin Islands – British, Virgin Islands – U.S., Wallis and Futuna, Zambia, Zimbabwe.

The Global Kindle version does NOT work in (as of Dec. 2009):

Afghanistan, Algeria, Antarctica, Argentina, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bouvet Island, British Indian Ocean Territory, Brunei Darussalam, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chile, Chad, China, Christmas Island, Cocos (Keeling) Islands, Cuba, Djibouti, Egypt, Eritrea, French Southern Territories, Gambia, Guinea, Heard Island and McDonald Islands, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Isle of Man, Israel, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Korea – Democratic People’s Republic of, Korea – Republic of, Kuwait, Kyrgyzstan, Lebanon, Lesotho, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco (including the Western Sahara), New Zealand, Niger, Nigeria, Oman, Pakistan, Palestinian Territories, Pitcairn, Qatar, Saint Barthelemy, Saint Helena, Saint Martin, Saint Pierre and Miquelon, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Singapore, Somalia, South Georgia and the Sandwich Islands, Sudan, Svalbard and Jan Mayan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tajikistan, Thailand, Tokelau, Tunisia, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates, United States Minor Outlying Islands, Uzbekistan, Yemen.

The head of Amnesty International, Irene Khan, has called on the Federal Government to stop offshore processing of asylum seekers and close the detention centre at Christmas Island.

”We very much hoped that, having taken care of the Pacific Solution, the Australian Government would also feel confident enough to close down Christmas Island,” she told the National Press Club.

”We don’t believe that holding asylum seekers at offshore centres of that kind actually deter asylum seekers from coming. If you look at the numbers arriving, they come when there are problems in the world.”

Ms Khan said it was not so much the attraction of Australia but push factors in countries of origin that created refugee flows. ”They are pushed out by serious political problems and by serious conflict,” she said.

Australia tended to panic in response to the arrival of boat people, and political leaders should avoid playing on people’s fears, she said.

”There is a lot of panic here. When you think that there are 3000 asylum seekers arriving in Australia, Italy received 30,000 last year.”

But Ms Khan praised the Rudd Government’s immigration policies as an improvement on the Howard government’s approach, citing the abolition of temporary protection visas, the closure of Woomera detention centre and the scrapping of detention debt.

Ms Khan suggested a multilateral approach was needed to deal with the problem, which had worked with the Cambodian and Vietnamese asylum seekers.

Negative attitudes to asylum seekers were not limited to Australia, she said.

”There is a retraction on protection of refugees and asylum seekers across the Western world … We know that hundreds of thousands of asylum seekers [coming from Africa] actually die in their efforts to get to Europe.”

Source: The Age

Australian territory of CHRISTMAS Island

stamp: 1 cent

year: 1968

fish: - Grammistes sexlineatus

.desert islands are so last solstice.

.the needles are not yet falling off the trees but that is no excuse not to drop the needle on these hyperlinked holiday hit parades.

.crucial youth presents crucial yule.Xmas indeed.

.tales from the crypt : have yourself a scary little christmas.

.the h. p. lovecraft historical society : a very scary solstice.

.monster christmas mash.

.a john waters christmas.

.a merry monster christmas.

.tiny tim’s christmas album.

.supposing none of these tickle your tinsel perhaps ren and stimpy’s crock o’ christmas or pebbles and bamm-bamm singing songs of christmas or mr. hankey’s christmas classics or the 3 stooges sing happy yuletide songs or dr. demento presents the greatest christmas novelty cd of all time.you were trying your best to avoid all the traditional rubbish the neighing bores living next-door are listening to as they tip back the alcoholic egg nog were you not?

Recent media reports suggest the Australian government is considering the option of transferring the Oceanic Viking to a detention centre in the Philippines, as the impasse involving 78 Tamil asylum seekers moored off a port in Indonesia heads into its third week. Considering recent natural disasters in the Philippines – combined with the fact that it is probably an even less desirable place for detention than Indonesia – it is fairly obvious any such deal is likely to be rejected by both those on the boat as well as the Philippine government.

Further reports state a request to New Zealand by the Rudd government to resettle some of the Tamils has been refused, with NZ’s Immigration Minister, Jonathan Coleman, stating, “The New Zealand Government does not believe that an ad hoc approach to dealing with individual cases like the Oceanic Viking will send the right message.”

To make matters worse, patience appears to be wearing thin in both the Indonesian government and military, with national spokesman for the military, Rear Marshal Sagom Tamboen, calling the Oceanic Viking an “uninvited guest”. An Indonesian Foreign Ministry spokesman has also repudiated assertions by PM Kevin Rudd that both countries have “infinite patience” stating, “We have abundant patience, we have already shown this. But we don’t have infinite patience. There is a difference.” This is despite confidence from Foreign Affairs Minister Stephen Smith that the Indonesian government will extend permission for the boat to remain in Indonesian waters past this week’s Friday deadline.

Despite the fence-straddling from the Rudd government in its “tough on people smugglers, humane on asylum seekers stance”, these recent attempts to effectively handball a politically damaging problem to our Pacific neighbours reveal a government that is running out of time and options. To leave these people – some of whom have already been legitimately recognised as refugees and have spent years in Indonesian detention centres – stranded in limbo for such a long period, while professing to acting humanely in their interests, reeks of contradiction. It merely adds to claims that this government’s main concern is with opinion polls (a recent Newspoll suggests 46 per cent think the government is “too soft” while only 16 per cent believe the government’s policies are “too hard”) and media image, and that it will go to great lengths in avoiding politically difficult decisions.

These recent statements from Indonesia have made it clear it does not want them back on their soil. Under pressure from local governments who do not want to be seen as capitulating to Australia’s demands and who view these people as an unwanted nuisance, Indonesia is not living up to its obligations in dealing with the asylum seekers.  It is also a gross neglect of duty by the Rudd government to ask other countries – who in accepting any such deal are likely to come under fire themselves domestically – to deal with a problem that it does not want to face. In trying to pander to the left and right of this issue, the government instead appears perturbed and uncertain about the correct path of action. If it is serious however about acting “humanely” towards asylum seekers, this path should be obvious. A decision to process these Tamils on Australian soil will undoubtedly have some negative political consequences – it will draw cries of invasion from the xenophobic far right, and be painted as a policy failure by the Opposition, who are desperate to deflect attention over the fact it is in tatters over the ETS (and who incidentally refuse to put forward any asylum seeker policies of their own). However, continuing this current farce will prove to be just as damaging for the government in the long term.

It is time for them to be brought to Christmas Island.

A Christmas Island, un’isola nell’Oceano Indiano, da ottobre a dicembre avviene un’imponente migrazione: più di 100 milioni di granchi rossi si dirigono verso il mare, attraversando città e insediamenti, per raggiungere le scogliere dove completare la fecondazione.

Ma questo è nulla in confronto a quello che succede in seguito: ogni femmina dà origine a una nidiata di 100.000 piccoli, che a loro volta si riversano su tutta l’isola…

Più in sotto trovate il filmato di questa incredibile invasione. E nel caso ve lo domandaste, no, i granchi non sono commestibili – contengono tossine altamente velenose che resistono anche alla cottura.

Chris Evans says the Christmas Island centre will continue to expand as more space is needed. (Photo: Scott Fisher, file photo)

The Federal Opposition says plans to increase capacity on Christmas Island to hold more asylum seekers shows Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has lost control of Australia’s borders.

The Federal Immigration Department says plans are in place to increase the capacity of the centre, but it has not confirmed reports it could be increased to house up to 2,300 people.

An influx of boat arrivals has led to the current capacity being increased from 1,200 to 1,400 by reconfiguring activities rooms.

Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull says Mr Rudd has to accept that his policy on border protection has failed.

“If his objective was to eliminate people smuggling then he has failed to meet his objective,” he said.

“His policy was a failure, it’s in chaos and it’s a shambles.

“And the doubling of the size of Christmas Island is a monument to that policy failure.”

But Immigration Minister Chris Evans says the Government will continue to expand the Christmas Island centre as more space is needed.

“In recent weeks we’ve seen a surge in arrivals particularly out of Sri Lanka as people seek to flee what they see as persecution there and as a result we’ve had to deal with increasing numbers,” he said.

“The Government is very much committed to ensuring there’s mandatory detention of unauthorised boat arrivals.”

Stalemate continues

Meanwhile, a stalemate between the Government and 78 Sri Lankan asylum seekers aboard the Customs ship the Oceanic Viking is entering a third week.

The asylum seekers are not budging, but neither is the Government, sending signals it is not prepared for this stalemate to go on.

Today some of the crew of the ship were relieved and it was due to be resupplied.

In a note tossed overboard the asylum seekers said they were being treated well, but would not leave the ship unless it went to Australia.

Through hand gestures they indicated they had been told by Customs officers not to talk with the media.

Through written messages tossed over board the group continue to press for the Government to consider their asylum claims.

Indonesia has granted the ship permission to stay in waters off the island of Bintan for another week.

Source: ABC

White Tailed Tropic Bird, originally uploaded by anthonli.

Nikon D40, Nikkor AFS 70-200mm VR with 1.4x TC

While the Golden variety of the White Tailed Tropic Bird (more commonly known as the Golden Bosun) is endemic to Christmas Island, the “plain” variety can also be found on the island.

The White variety is distributed throughout the tropic region of the Atlantic, Indian and Pacific Ocean.

Here’s one taken from Isabel Beach Lookout. See how clear the sea is, you can see the corals underneath.

Common Noddy, originally uploaded by anthonli.

Nikon D40, Nikkor AFS 70-200mm VR with 1.4x TC

Another of my surreal bird photos taken on Christmas Island. The Common Noddy here coming in with a twig in its beak.

It flew close enough that the sea is blurred into a beautiful green. I love the effect of my 70-200mm lense!

Red Crab at Hugh’s Dale, originally uploaded by anthonli.

Taken with Panasonic Lumix LX3

Hugh’s Dale is the only dale on Christmas Island that runs wet all year round. It is also at the end of my favourite hiking trail: moderately steep, but throughout the trek, you’d be surrounded by white-eyes, pigeons and crabs! Do watch out for the occasional spider that may build its web right across the path!

This picture could be taken at any place, but the red crab shows that it’s Christmas Island!

 

Christmas Island Sunset, originally uploaded by anthonli.

Taken with Panasonic Lumix LX3

This is a faux HDR image (meaning it’s done up using 1 JPEG, instead of the usual 3, and layered using photoshop elements). Many parts of the image still falls out of the dynamic range (the black areas), so it may not even be considered a proper HDR.

I personally prefer a more subtle effect to my HDR as opposed to the artistic rendering that is the rage currently.

A realistic feel of the scenery through the image, in this case, the artificial lights of the phosphate loading facility rivaling with the beautiful sunset as seen from the Sunset Lodge.

Brown Booby, originally uploaded by anthonli.

Nikon D40, Nikkor AFS 70-200mm VR with 1.4x TC

This is almost comic!

This brown boobie was just flying by when I starting snapping at it. Hearing my camera shutter, it turned to look at me.

I was lucky to grab a shot before it turned away.