I am glad Texas has returned, love their music!!

Chinatown (1974)

The hard-boiled 1930s private detective roared back into the movies in Roman Polanski’s stylish take on film noir.  Jake Gittes (Jack Nicholson) pokes his nose into a murder and almost gets it cut off, even as he falls for the victim’s widow (Faye Dunaway).  With a script by Robert Towne and haunting theme music by Jerry Goldsmith, the film was nominated for 11 Oscars, though only Towne won.

The Last Of Sheila (1973)

A year after losing his wife Sheila to a hit and run driver, Clinton Green (James Coburn) invites a group of friends (Richard Benjamin, Dyan Cannon, Ian McShane, James Mason, Joan Hacket and Raquel Welch) onto his yacht for a scavenger hunt-style mystery game that soon turns deadly.  The script was written by the unlikely pair of Anthony Perkins and Stephen Sondheim and was directed by Herbert Ross (The Goodbye Girl, Footloose, Steel Magnolias).

The Conversation (1974)

In between doing the first two Godfather pictures, Francis Ford Coppola wrote and directed this classic.  Gene Hackman plays Harry Caul, a surveillance expert who can bug any conversation and record it.  In the course of an assignment, he begins to suspect the couple he’s watching has been targeted for murder.  It’s an exercise in paranoia, but as the phrase says, “Just because you’re paranoid, it doesn’t mean everyone isn’t out to get you.”

Dirty Harry (1971)

San Francisco Homicide Inspector Harry Callahan became a pop culture icon the first time he asked a punk if he felt lucky.  Don Siegel’s tight procedural movie, loosely based on the still-unsolved Zodiac killer case, has Harry not only trying to stop a killer but having to battle with the Mayor, the Police Chief, and the D.A. who want to rein him in.  All the exterior filming was done on location, with the exception of the bank robbery sequence.

Murder on the Orient Express (1974)

Agatha Christie got the all-star treatment in Sidney Lumet’s version of this Hercule Poirot mystery.  A man is discovered murdered on the snowbound train of the title and Poirot is called upon to investigate.  Albert Finney was the best Poirot on film (though David Suchet owns the role on television), and the movie won Ingrid Bergman the last of her three Oscars.  It also launched a series of Christie adaptations in the 70’s and 80’s, but Murder on the Orient Express was the first and the best.

Frenzy (1972)

For the first time in decades, Alfred Hitchcock returned to England to film this movie, and he recovered some of his 1930’s mojo.  London is terrorized by a serial killer who strangles women with neckties.  Suspicion falls on Richard Blaney (Jon Finch) when his estranged wife becomes one of the victims.  As the noose closes around Blaney, Chief Inspector Oxford (Alec McGowan) begins to doubt they’re chasing the right man.  While it’s not in the same class as his movies in the 1950s (North By Northwest, Dial M for Murder, Vertigo), this film was the last flicker of brilliance from a director whose name has come to define mystery and suspense on film.

The Late Show (1977)

Robert Benton (Kramer vs. Kramer, Places in the Heart) wrote and directed this private eye movie that teamed Art Carney and Lilly Tomlin.  Carney plays a semi-retired P.I. who, with the help of a quirky client (Tomlin), investigates the murder of his partner.  Benton manages to blend in comedy while keeping the tension and mystery high.  Tomlin was nominated for an Oscar for her role, and the film won an Edgar award as the best film mystery of the year.

The French Connection (1972)

William Friedkin’s gritty police procedural, based on an actual NYPD case, won 5 Oscars, including Best Picture, Best Actor, and Best Director.  It also featured one of the best car chases on film, rivaling Bullitt.  Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider play cops who stumble onto a major heroin smuggler.  The cops who were actually involved in the case, Eddie Egan and Sonny Grasso, appeared in the movie and then made the move from New York to Hollywood.  Egan stayed on the acting side, playing cops in films and on TV series, while Grasso became a producer of TV movies and series, usually with a crime theme.

Night Moves (1975)

This is the third Gene Hackman movie on this list.  He reunites with his director from Bonnie and Clyde, Arthur Penn, to play Harry Moseby, a former football player turned private detective who’s hired by an aging Hollywood actress to find her runaway granddaughter (Melanie Griffith in her first movie role).  Unusual for a movie, Harry is oblivious to a deeper mystery swirling around him until near the end of the film, and doesn’t realize the person who’s behind it all until a final, shattering reveal in almost the last shot.

Farewell My Lovely (1975)

It’s rare when the remake of a classic can match the original.  Raymond Chandler’s Philip Marlowe novel was filmed as Murder My Sweet in 1944, with Dick Powell as the iconic detective.  (This was two years before Humphrey Bogart played the role in The Big Sleep.)  The 1975 version had Robert Mitchum as Marlowe, following a missing person case into a web of lies, blackmail and murder.  The movie actually stays truer to the source by including the seamier parts of Chandler’s story that couldn’t make it past the Production Code in 1944.  Strangely enough, there is a third, earlier version of the story; the plot was used in the 1942 B picture The Falcon Takes Over starring George Sanders.

http://www.walterosborne.com

Titles are important. There is something about the title of a blog post that I immediately find aesthetically pleasing, or not – it’s like I have an inherent attraction to what some titles have to say. What made you? This was the title of post; and before even reading, I listened to my mind erupt into a list of things, places, and people, that I believe have made me who I am today. So, in response to Sweet Mother Lover, I’ve begun my short list. It excludes people – only because I feel as if I can write an entire book on the people who have made me (another post, perhaps). So for now, here’s a short list of the places, things, entities, that have made me who I am:

Basketball. I think I learned everything that I could ever need to know about life from the 12 or so years I played this sport. Basketball taught me about discipline: it was a constant lesson in what it means to devote yourself to something. Some days, I was the poster child for discipline: practice, practice, practice. Other days, I had to learn the hard way about what it meant when you failed to commit yourself to the thing you swore would have your undivided attention. Basketball taught me that when I commit to something, I have an obligation to stay disciplined, stay focused, stay energized. Gah, I could honestly talk about basketball for hours, but I guess I’ll just list a few other things it taught me about: family, conflict resolution, passion, stepping up when it matters, what it means to be a leader. . .

St. Lucy’s. This is the place where I was transformed. The place where I was introduced to the idea that I was worthy, simply because I am alive. Is there any greater lesson in this world? My Senior year was a whirlwind of affirmations, finding myself, and falling in love with this place that had determined the way that I looked at myself and the world around me. Kairos, Baccalaureate, my Breakfast Club, laughter, tears, anger, love. . . these are the things that made me.

CCD. I cannot, in good faith, talk about what made me without talking about God, particularly how I came to God through my Catholic lens. I was baptized Catholic, and attended Catechism classes intermittently from the time I was in 2nd grade till I was confirmed in high school (my mom believed that I only needed to go during the “important years,” i.e. before first communion, confirmation, etc). Catechism, I think, brought out the very best and worst qualities in me. To start with the bad, from the time I was in 2nd grade, I developed a very strong sense that those people who didn’t go to Church every week – like I wanted to – were somehow less than me. My parents fell into this category. And so every week, if they weren’t going to Church, I would have my mom call my grandparents or uncle to take me. Bad: My passion for what I was taught in CCD turned me into someone who was arrogant, self-righteous, judgmental, and just plain annoying to be around (I thank God that my future held people – and stories – that would bring me back to earth). Good: What I learned in CCD set the foundation for my life as a person of faith, someone who was passionate about her developing relationship with God and wished to share it with others.

Gryphon Circle. This is the place where I have found my passion, the place where I am developing into a leader, a friend, and one who hopes to live in a way that is a service to others. Gryphon Circle, my service organization at school, has taught me things about humility that I don’t know that I would have learned otherwise. Gryphon is a constant reminder that every single person that I encounter has a story, has some need that I can fulfill, and something that they can offer me in return. Gryphon Circle is a constant reminder of the beauty that surrounds me, and that people – when they choose to share of themselves in the most honest of ways – are really and truly as beautiful as it gets in this world.

Cold Tangerines. I feel that any person who keeps a blog can probably pinpoint that moment when she realized that writing was the thing that centered her, the thing that made her feel most alive. This, to the best of my memory, was that moment, that event: the first time I read Cold Tangerines. It is my favorite book of all time, written by Shauna Niequist. It is full of faith and truth and honesty. And, in reading this book, I came to the realization that writing is what I wanted to do: Writing, as an act in itself, was what I wanted to do with my life. 

And, to name of few, those are the things that have made me. . .

My goal? Well, this is the difficult part I suppose.

But I have always been told to start small. . . so, my goal is to write about my reactions, questions, aha moments, or “my take” as they relate to at least a dozen blog posts before my semester draws to a close.

Here’s to the conversation. . .

This week on The Conversation there was an interesting article posted called Online students need more face-to-face time, not less.

It was basically highlighting the contrast between first time students’ reported lack of support and academic skills development and the online teachers’ expectations that online students should already know how to manage their time, research, ask for assistance and generally manage their own learning.

Having had my fair share of both on campus and online learning over the years; in my opinion, I much prefer online learning. I thought it may just be because most of my recent education has been done online and so it is what I am used to; but this year I am studying one subject on campus and I have to say, I am really struggling with this method of delivery.

I struggle with the unpredictability of my lecturer with regards to their provision of materials, and their flippant explanation of concepts. When I was studying online, materials were made available prior to Week 1 even starting and the content had been carefully considered and learning objectives were made clear to compensate for the fact that students would be reading them online rather than having them delivered by a person at the front of a lecture theatre.

I also struggle fitting in going to the physical university for lectures and tutorials with the rest of my life. While I acknowledge that I have made the choice to study and continue to work full-time, I have found it much easier to juggle online study with full-time work.

And the thing that really has me flawed with this on campus subject? I have to submit my assignment in hard copy to the lecturer’s physical office! Seriously? In this digital age?!

The article also mentions students’ ‘acute awareness’ of a lack of interaction between them and their online teachers, but I am actually acutely aware that when I sit in a two hour lecture with a room full of people, that there is no chance of any interaction with my lecturer in the paltry 5 minute break we get if I have a question or concern. Whereas online, classmates and the teacher are only an email or forum post away.  Responses are speedy, and because no-one is being put on the spot to answer a question there and then, the answers are much more comprehensive.

There is also a certain anonymity online that allows students to ask their questions without feeling intimidated that they are asking too many questions or asking stupid questions. I have noticed that I have refrained from asking questions during on campus lectures and tutorials for fear of being labelled ‘that annoying mature age student’.

Which brings me to the attitude of online versus on campus students. I have found my online classmates to be more collaborative, open and willing to share resources and ideas. My on campus classmates are standoffish and uninterested in doing more than the bare minimum.

Having said all of this, my positive experience with online learning may just come down to the education provider that I studied with. I may be lucky that they are progressive, thorough and have high standards for quality. Which now makes my standards for tertiary education much higher too!

What have your experiences been like with online and on campus education?

Image courtesy of David Castillo Dominici/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net

1.   The Godfather Trilogy (1972/1974/1990)

2.   The Conversation (1974)

3.   Apocalypse Now (1979)

4.   One from the Heart (1982)

5.   The Cotton Club (1984)

* * * 1/2 (Out of * * * *)

1.   Rumble Fish (1983)

2.   Tetro (2009)

Francis Ford Coppola is one of my favorite film directors, and Gene Hackman is one of my favorite actors. I love this movie too much. As soon as you start watching, you’ll get hooked to the very end.

The story tells of a man named Harry Caul, who is a surveillance expert. He is a private surveillance expert and only uses the equipment that he made on his own. He doesn’t work alone, however, he works with a man named Stan, who is his business associate. Harry and Stan’s latest job, is that they must spy on a young couple who they suspect is about ready to get murdered.

Hackman delivers one of the best performances ever. Harrison Ford, also has a small role in this film. What makes this movie so great is the writing. The film may be pretty quiet and slow pacing, but once you get it, the story will thrill you. There are tons of twists and turns, a few big shockers. Toward the end of the film, will get pretty scary. This movie is thought provoking and smart. It is also unpredictable.

I watched this movie on Netflix for the first time, a few months back, actually, and I freaking LOVED IT. This is definitely a masterpiece, and if you want to consider yourself a movie buff, this is a film you must see. It’s another one of those classics that everybody should have seen. It is Netflix streamable, so definitely check this one out.

Kev

“I’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse.”

This is probably the most iconic line EVER from a movie…and yes, from the greatest film ever made…so my only question is this: did “The Godfather”, Marlon Brando read that line from a cue card?

Yes, He Probably Did!

Look at this behind-the-scenes picture, from the filming of the movie…priceless! Robert Duvall holds cue cards for Marlon Brando to read – just one of the many legendary tales of making “The Godfather”!

“The Godfather” Behind-The-Scenes!

Film buffs rejoice “The Godfather”! It’s not only the greatest single film ever made, it also is one of the most dissected and analyzed films ever – especially from the Director, Francis Ford Coppola himself!

Based on the most popular book of the late 60′s, “The Godfather” immediately became the most popular film ever made – and won the Academy Award for Best Picture as well.

You know the plot: Don Corleone, the aging patriarch of an organized crime dynasty, transfers control of his clandestine empire to his reluctant son, Michael.

There are SO MANY incredible stories about the making of the film, starting with the behind-the-scenes antics of Marlon Brando!

Brando’s Transformation!

Marlon Brando wanted to make Don Corleone “look “like a bulldog,” so he stuffed his cheeks with cotton wool for his audition.

For actual filming, Brando wore a mouthpiece made by a dentist; this appliance is on display in the American Museum of the Moving Image in Queens, New York.

If you really want to immerse yourself in this film, there is the perfect way to do it!

The Epic Godfather On Blu-Ray!

Thanks to a phenomenal effort by Paramount home video, you can now go deep, deep, DEEP into the history of “The Godfather”…like this blu-ray release, an amazing collection including all three films, plus hours and hours of extras!

Here are just some of the extras that are included:

“The Masterpiece That Almost Wasn’t,” reviewing in detail much of what has been said about Paramount’s mistreatment of Coppola, about casting fights (Steve McQueen as Michael?), about the studio’s assumption they were getting a quick-and-dirty B-movie, and about producer Robert Evans’ determination to keep his choice of director and unlikely actors under his wing.

Also on the discs: “… When the Shooting Stopped,” a study of post-production on “The Godfather”, with several surprising and fascinating facts. And Coppola himself gives a fascinating talk on the commentary track as well…

“Leave the gun. Take the cannoli.”

There are so many great lines from the film – as well as great stories about the making of the movie, especially about the iconic cast: Marlon Brando, Al Pacino, James Caan, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton and John Cazale.

The Infamous “Horse Head” Scene!

And how about scenes like this one – when The Godfather makes a Hollywood Producer “an offer he can’t refuse”…

During rehearsals, a false horse’s head was used for the bedroom scene. For the actual shot, a real horse’s head was used, acquired from a dog-food factory. According to John Marley, his scream of horror was real as he was not informed that a real head was going to be used.

Cue The Cue Cards!

And yes, this is a photo of a scene where Brando takes his lines directly from Robert Duvall’s chest!

Marlon Brando did not memorize most of his lines during filming, and instead he read from cue cards during most of the film. Word was he also held a sandwich just out of camera range while shooting the dramatic scene at the funeral home where he sees Sonny’s bullet-riddled body…

And of course, Al Pacino and Diane Keaton became stars as Michael Corleone and his new wife, Kay.

Michael: My father is no different than any powerful man, any man with power, like a president or senator.
Kay Adams: Do you know how naive you sound, Michael? Presidents and senators don’t have men killed.
Michael: Oh. Who’s being naive, Kay?

James Caan Is Hot-headed Sonny!

Of course, James Caan also became a star as the hot-headed Sonny, who gets set up by his brother-in-law at a toll booth in Jersey…

Here’s a behind-the-scenes picture of the bullet angles for the blood squibs that have been put on Sonny’s face…

And don’t even ask about Luca Brasi…

Tessio brings in Luca Brasi’s bulletproof vest, delivered with a fish inside]
Sonny: What the hell is this?
Clemenza: It’s a Sicilian message. It means Luca Brasi sleeps with the fishes.

Luca Brasi Sleeps With The Fishes!

The best way to explore this collection is to watch a movie, then RE-WATCH it with the commentary tracks on, then watch the supplements! You hear plenty of stories like this:

How Francis Ford Coppola tricked Marlon Brando

Paramount executives were adamant that Brando not be hired to play Vito Corleone because of the actor’s reputation for problems on set. Finally, they relented by providing conditions that they thought could never be met, including that Brando give them a screen test.

Director Francis Ford Coppola told Brando he wanted to test equipment and get a sample take, very carefully not phrasing the filming as a screen test. When the take had been filmed, even Brando was happy with it, saying he thought he’d gotten the appearance of being “mean-looking, but warm underneath.” In later years, Brando said he’d known all along it was a screen test.

There are many more great anecdotes about the film HERE:

http://www.csmonitor.com/Books/2012/0202/The-Godfather-10-behind-the-scenes-stories-about-the-making-of-the-classic-films/How-Francis-Ford-Coppola-tricked-Marlon-Brando

Go Behind-The-Scenes Of “The Godfather”!

And here is a link to just one of the many behind-the-scenes videos available…a must for film buffs!

There are many more of these great features on the expanded blu-ray set, including additional scenes, tons of information about the making of the films, and yes, all three Godfather movies…

What An Oscar Run!

As you know, “The Godfather Part 2″ was the only sequel to ever win Best Picture, and Coppola took home the Oscar for Best Picture twice in three years, 1972 and 1974 – and he was nominated for Best Picture in 1974 as well for “The Conversation!”

If you don’t own all of these, you are not a real film buff, so get them now and enjoy!

My favourite sound in the world is the call of the guineafowl. It’s not especially melodious or pleasing to the ear, but in those shrieks and clucks and chrrrrrs are all the complex allure of Africa, infinitely lovely. Also hopelessly guilt-ridden and heartbreaking, for those of us whose ancestors arrived after a long hiatus from the place our DNA reminds us we all call the motherland on boats, uninvited.

There aren’t too many guineafowl left in Johannesburg. They need space and undisturbed grassland, and freedom from cats and dogs. I’ve never known them in the garden, until now.

A few months ago, a pair of them moved into my grandmother’s garden. I moved in with her after we agreed to get divorced, and somehow it never made a lot of sense to move out. The garden is one of the reasons I stay. I’d rather have ponds and trees and lawn than noisy neighbours and thin walls in a Summercon complex.

Where they came from, I don’t know. I assumed they were the domesticated kind, escaped from another garden. They stayed, clucking companiably with the eight Egyptian geese who also share our lawns. Every now and then my 87 year old grandmother, who hates the geese, likes to brandish a broom at them. It keeps her on her toes.

Later, one of the guineafowl disappeared and I worried that it had flown off, hit by a car, or attacked by a dog. Perhaps even been eaten. Today I understood why. She’d been sitting on eggs. This morning I saw the two of them together again. They were followed by eight chicks, exotically striped for camouflage. Striped little things peeping and shrieking in their parents’ twin wakes. They’re amazingly loud, when you get up close. On Monday, I watched remarkable Veldfokus footage of a duiker catching and eating guineafowl chicks; I hope ours stay safe.

The guineafowl chicks in my garden look exactly like this.

Their parents keep them hidden, which is wise given that Egyptian geese are known to attack and drown other birds. This afternoon, I found a weevil-infested box of couscous in the cupboard and scattered it on the lawn. Tomorrow, I will buy wild bird seed to help them along. They have a growing family to feed, and though we don’t use pesticides and patches of the garden are an overgrown paradise for birds, 2 acres of Bryanston probably isn’t enough.

I could read all sorts of signs into this. About Africa, and rebirth, and birds, which can fly – even guineafowl.  Or simply hold onto the fact that it is possible to take such pleasure in little things, in the endless, irrepressible exuberance of life itself.

I could not have asked for a better unniversary gift.

]]> http://scienceforlife365.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/day-215-rethinking-cancer/ Fri, 15 Mar 2013 03:52:48 +0000 sarahkeenihan http://scienceforlife365.wordpress.com/2013/03/15/day-215-rethinking-cancer/

Cancer is in my family, and that’s not unusual.

My uncle  - oesophagus cancer. My maternal grandfather – lung and stomach cancer. My paternal grandmother – breast cancer.

By way of treatment, all of these family members had combinations of surgery, radiotherapy and chemotherapy, with varying degrees of success.

Now, new therapeutic options for cancer are slowly starting to open up. These stem from a change in the way that scientists understand and study cancers.

In the past it was all about knowing where the cancer started, and to which organs it spread. Now, although the tissue of origin is still important to know, it’s the actual details of which genes have gone wrong, and how they are controlling the abnormal growth of tumour cells that can be of greater importance for treatment.

As medical research continues, there’s a very strong possibility that new treatment options will even move cancer from being a ‘death-sentence disease’ to one which can be controlled and managed for the remainder of one’s life.

For an up-to-date explainer of what cancer is, and how we treat it now and in the future, see today’s Conversation article by Dr Darren Saunders.

[photo shows my father as a toddler with his extended family in Western Australia in 1946]

By Margo Kingston
March 15, 2013

In this post we’ve linked to sane analysis and commentary on media reform. We’ve also asked you to nominate a fair, accurate and balanced MSM news story  - the criteria print media groups tell their self-regulation body the Press Council they strive for. If you can bear it, here is Crikey’s wrap of the print media reaction.

I have been told by an informed source that Murdoch’s media have gone troppo on strengthening self-regulation as a bait and switch tactic. On this view, freedom of the press is a smokescreen for their real objection, that the proposed new laws would seek to limit even more concentration of media ownership by rolling Foxtel into News Ltd. Murdoch also wants all cross media laws abolished. ‘They are playing different game to the one everyone is watching’.

So questions for Abbott, if anyone in the MSM can be bothered – do you support the governments proposals on cross media ownership and strengthening provisions to protect Australians from more concentration of media ownership?

Abbott is a puppet of Murdoch. Be afraid.

Anyone seen anything on what the media reforms would mean for the size and reach of Murdoch’s Australian empire? Is there anything out there?

Here are the sane pieces we’ve found so far. More nominations welcome.

ABC The Drum

Tim Dunlop: Consumers won’t pay for news they don’t trust

The Conversation

Terry Flew: Low-key Conroy proposals are media reform lite

Martin Hirst: From ‘hate media’ to another fine mess: How media reform got derailed

Susan Forde: Media reform: hysterical attacks on weak Conroy suggestions tell the real story

Crikey

Bernard Keane: The Stalinist nightmare of the media regulating itself

Bernard Keane: If you want to see government control of journalism, try this:

Matthew Knott: Freedom of speech at risk? How Conroy’s advocate could hurt

Magaret Simons: Minimalist media reform that only starts the job (Paywall)

NewMatilda

Wendy Bacon: Conroy’s All Or Nothing Media Reforms

Ben Eltham: The Media And The Arts Both Need Diversity

The Global Mail

Mike Seccombe: The New Growth Industry: Fact Creation 

The Failed Estate

Jim Parker: The Real Despots

Macro Business

Of comrade Cconroy and the loon pond

Fairfax

Elizabeth Knight  Shrill response to media reforms

The Australian Independent Media Network

Alan Austin: News Limited’s tawdry campaign proves Conroy’s point

ABC

Barry Cassidy: ‘Breathtaking’ reaction from News Limited

Richard Aedy: Reporting on yourself – Media coverage of its own reform and regulations

Climate change is creating warmer growing conditions in parts of the Earth’s northern regions, a new study has found, but experts warn that drought and heat wil soon cancel out the agricultural benefits.

The international study, published in the journal Nature Climate Change, analysed NASA satellite data and 30 years of land surface temperature records for 26 million square kilometres between the Arctic Ocean and 45 degrees north latitude.

“Higher northern latitudes are getting warmer, Arctic sea ice and the duration of snow cover are diminishing, the growing season is getting longer and plants are growing more,” Ranga Myneni of Boston University’s Department of Earth and Environment, said in a media release on the NASA website.

“In the north’s Arctic and boreal areas, the characteristics of the seasons are changing, leading to great disruptions for plants and related ecosystems.”

Of the area studied, up to 41% had experienced increased plant growth since 1982.

While warming climate may boost crop conditions in some regions, it also increases the risk of drought, heatwaves and pest outbreaks, the study found.

Dr Daniel Rodriguez, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Queensland’s Centre for Plant Science said the results of the study accord with what climate change scientists have been saying for some time.

“The good news is that this study provides clear evidence on modelled results present in previous reports,” he said adding that the warmer conditions had boosted Denmark’s commercial wine industry and doubled grain yields in Finland.

“The bad news is that this confirms that climate change is happening very quickly, as expected, and that even though some regions are going to have increases in productivity (though nothing is said here about changes in variability), in other places we expect these changes to be highly detrimental to food production,” said Dr Rodriguez.

“In the same issue of Nature Climate Change other authors indicate that for North America’s maize production, strong negative yield responses to the accumulation of temperatures over 30 degrees Celsius could also be expected as a consequence of increased air dryness.”

Dr Andrew Ash, Director of the CSIRO’s Climate Adaptation Flagship, said the early stages of climate change could also lead to increased crop productivity in some parts of Australia.

“But then a combination of declining rainfall projected for the mid-latitudes of Australia and increasing temperatures will negatively impact crop growth. You can initially get some good news but ultimately it’s a negative,” he said.

Within a couple of decades, the benefits of warmer growing conditions and increased carbon dioxide concentrations would be quickly outweighed by declining rainfall and heat stress on grain quality, he said.

“The big unknown in all of this is other factors like pests, disease and fire. There are still a great many uncertainties around the effects of climate change but very few of the likely scenarios are positive for agriculture,” he said.

This article was originally published at The Conversation.
Read the original article.

BRAND NEW ALBUM RELEASED MAY 20^TH 2013

SINGLE RELEASED MAY 13^TH 2013

LIVE SHOWS GLASGOW, LONDON & PARIS

In their 25^th anniversary year TEXAS release their brand new studio album ‘The Conversation’ through [PIAS] on May 20^th 2013. The album will be preceded by the single also called ‘The Conversation’ on May 13^th.

Texas’s eighth album, ‘The Conversation’ is their first in eight years and is the latest in a career that has seen the band sell over 30 million albums worldwide with a succession of multi-platinum albums ‘White on Blonde’, ‘The Hush’ and ‘Greatest Hits’. This overdue return in 2013 clearly redefines and confidently re-introduces the band afresh with tracks written and produced by singer/guitarist Sharleen Spiteri and bassist Johnny McElhone and featuring collaborations with singer-songwriter Richard Hawley and Bernard Butler.

‘The Conversation’ is an album splitting its seams with the joy of a long-proven pop force creating a collection of songs rich enough in melody and emotion to deserve filing beside the best of the band’s previous million-selling hits. The album was recorded in Glasgow, London and at Richard Hawley’s studio in Sheffield where the seven tracks he worked on went on to form the backbone of ‘The Conversation’: a perfect marriage of Hawley’s 50s rock’n’roll frills and the timeless Texas magnetism to cast-iron melodies.

Texas will launch the album with three live shows in Glasgow, London and Paris, full details here:

Full UK tour dates:

Saturday 9^th November York, Barbican

Sunday 10^th November Inverness, Leisure Centre

Monday 11^th November Manchester, Bridgewater Hall

Wednesday 13^th November Bristol, Colston Hall

Thursday 14^th November London, Hammersmith Apollo

Friday 15^th November Plymouth, Pavilions

Sunday 17^th November Oxford, Apollo

Monday 18h November Birmingham, Symphony Hall

Tuesday 19^th November Southend, Cliffs Pavilion

Thursday 21^st November Brighton, Dome

Friday 22^nd November Portsmouth, Guildhall

Sunday 24^th November Ipswich, Regent Theatre

Monday 25^th November Cambridge, Corn Exchange

Tuesday 26^th November Sheffield, City Hall

Thursday 28^th November Glasgow, Academy

Friday 29^th November Edinburgh, Usher Hall

Presale tickets are available from Wednesday 15^th May at 9am until Friday 17^th May at 9am. Tickets purchased during this period are available with an exclusive bundle option which includes a signed copy of the album.

General tickets are on sale from Friday 17^th May at 9am, from this period forward the bundle option remains but with the standard album.

Ticket information is available at http://www.texas.uk.com

Give it up for The Conversation.

Who knows why any sane person would buy a VW Scirocco in a shade calculated to make an otherwise good-looking car resemble an African giant bullfrog. Was it a special deal? Were they not prepared to wait for the colour they really wanted? In any event, the owner has clearly decided to hell with it, and made the car even more obvious with a curiously mismatched doucheplate.

Spotted in Woodmead.

Not really all that fine, really.

Photo from The Coversation – she likes it warm.

In 2009, I took a 2 week vegan challenge. Already a vegetarian, I cut out milk, cheese, eggs and other dairy. The first week was utterly depressing, and I suffered what I put down to withdrawals – growling belly, malaise and irritability. One evening I ate a whole tube of ‘So Good Soy Icecream’ and learned the true meaning of self-hatred. Truly disgusting.

The second week I felt like a spring lamb. I got some good recipes and tips from a friend who is actually a vegan, and sipped my soy lattes with the smugness of a newly-inducted insider.

I think I may have made it to 15 days before I decided cheese is just too good to pass up, but one thing I did carry on beyond the two weeks was a love of soy milk. Rich, nutty and sweet, perfect in coffee and tea.

Now that I am back at uni, I can’t really afford soy milk, but have recently developed a habit for organic unhomogenised full-cream milk. The first glass – if I can sneak it without my partner spotting me and shaking the bejezuz out of the bottle first – is a decedent, smooth delight, with a layer of fresh cream on top. I feel like I live on a dairy farm, scooping a glass straight from the barrel.

I have come a long way from the time when, in pre-school, we were taken to a peri-urban farm, dressed in shower curtains, and literally sprayed in the face by milk directly from a cow’s udder. I was so terrified that the milk was warm, that I ran away into the farm. This was the 90s. I also thought tomatoes came from a factory.

Suzie Ferrie from the Uni of Sydney has today written this piece comparing milk and soy on their nutritional credentials (both of similar nutritional value), following on from Judith Friedlander’s piece last year which looks at the environmental impacts of soy.

Calorie for calorie, looking at fossil fuel inputs and nutritional outputs, it’s pretty good for soy. Soy also requires less water, and produces less CO2 emissions to make. Remember, methane is worse than carbon! And if you’re drinking Australian soy, it will be GM-free.

However, the broader soy industry is being given some serious critiques – Micheal Pollan’s In Defence of Food talks about industrial agriculture associated with soy, mono-cropping, and the health risks of consuming soy in a large number of our supermarket foods.

Tim Flannery and others have written about ‘holistic management’ – the idea that it is beneficial to incorporate animals into our farms, better for the soil, cycling of nutrients, better for land management, and better for the animals. Joel Salatin, the energetic farmer featured in Food Inc, has also written on this. It’s intriguing, not enough for me to start eating meat, but enough for me to feel comfortable drinking organic milk.

As long as it isn’t warm.

I’m assuming the W is short for “white”. I was once called “cheap white trash” by a woman in a Sunninghill Summercon complex who assumed I’d taken her parking spot (the quote, in context, was “Go fuck yourself, you cheap white trash”). A red Suzuki Swift isn’t the obvious vehicle for this plate, which would be more appropriate on, say, an avocado green Ford Cortina, an orange Ford Focus ST or a blue Subaru WRX with gold rims. A Suzuki Swift is too ordinary and inoffensive.

Mind you, the doucheplate I had when I drove a black Fiat Stilo probably confused everyone. It was MARMITE GP, inspired by a name I used on a chat forum. Hey, I worked in advertising and I was trying to look more interesting.

What this guy’s excuse is, I don’t know.