Missing Man Found Dead in Outback

Another in a long list of Outback mysteries:

A body believed to be that of missing Victorian man Jason Richards has been found about one kilometre from his abandoned car in the South Australian outback.


[...]

The disappearance of Mr Richards, 28, was declared a major crime after he failed to arrive in his home town of Ballarat after leaving Darwin in June.

[...]

The man's burnt-out boat was found on a track near Pimba, south of Woomera, in June, and his pet dog turned up south-east of Glendambo about two-and-a-half weeks ago.

On Friday afternoon, a fox shooter discovered Mr Richards' ute in scrub about 10 kilometres south of Glendambo.

God Said We're Allowed to Enjoy the Fall of the Murdoch's

Yeah so I just got off the phone with God, and It said that we're all allowed to have a jolly good laugh at the Murdochs and Brooks and Morgan and the whole damned, evil lot of them as they all plummet from their towers into the smashing oblivion of justice or at least something like it.

So long, you evil bastards.

173 Acres For $1

One of those feel good stories. If you're a coal company:

In the dying days of the New South Wales Labor Government a profitable mining company was virtually given 70 hectares of crown land - land that’s supposed to be owned by the taxpayers, and the asking price was just one dollar.

Phil Stuart is the loser in the deal. He's the general manager of the Hunter Plant Operator Training School, a small not for profit heavy machinery training organisation that used the land for two decades, investing hundreds of thousands of dollars in infrastructure and buildings. Now it’s facing an uncertain future.

[...]

Instead the area was given to another tenant on the land - White Energy, a publically listed coal technology company worth $675 million.

Death Adder Left in Box in Cop's Yard

South coast, NSW:

A deadly snake has been left left in a box on the driveway of a police officer's house on the far south coast of New South Wales.

The off-duty officer found the death adder on his back lawn, and a box with derogatory words written on it was discovered on the driveway soon afterwards.
A forensic examination confirmed the snake had been in the box.

That cop had kids - so very wrong. Death adders are really, really dangerous. (Although I'm guessing maybe the name gave that away.)

White-Faced Heron, Tide Pools [updated]

 A few shots from local beaches.

This beautiful bird was walking around down by the collaroy tide pools. It was about three feet tall, and it's a White-faced Heron:

An interesting fact about these birds:

When breeding, the birds have long feathers (nuptial plumes) on the head, neck and back.

"Nuptial plumes." Sexy.

Here's a bit of Eastern Rock Lobster (mentioned previously here):

The Basement Gig

I played The Basement last night, opening solo set before three local bands. It was all very exciting, and it got my stomach bouncing a few times in the days leading up to the show, but, well, I was great. What can I say? I mean, for me, it's all about getting people wrapped up in a story or a laugh...before they notice how badly I play the guitar and sing. And that ain't easy! But I did it last night, from right out of the gate, and it was a damn good feeling. They liked me. They really liked me.

The Basement is truly a nice place. It's located in Circular Quay, very close the the famous Harbour Bride and Sydney Opera House. For all the hype about it, and everyone I've talked to has heard of the club - it has a bit of legendary status here - it is a very warm and altogether unintimidating room. It seats around 120, at tables, with service, and claims room for another 150 standing, but it's hard to picture than many people in this little space. The stage is small, only a foot high, tables surround it very intimately - you could easily be sitting at a table and be only six feet or so from a performer - there is wood everywhere, there is nowhere in the place where you couldn't see, and feel basically pretty close to, the stage, so, again, it's just a hell of a nice place. It is billed primarily as a jazz club, but they go way outside of that. Just a few of the acts that have played there:

Playing The Basement in July

I've gotten word that I'll be playing at the legendary Sydney club The Basement on Thursday, July 14—Bastille Day. There are four acts on the bill—Kooyeh, The Raw Tide, Bones And All—along with myself.

A review of The Basement here.

Update: They've updated to include this particular show - and didn't include my name in the ad. Oh well.

Cougar Sightings

Something you will never see in the news in Australia: Cougar sightings up in Ashland, Oregon, my old home:

More cougar sightings in Ashland parks have been reported to the city's Parks and Recreation department.

The Parks Department received two reports of cougar sightings on Wednesday, just weeks after a man reported seeing a cougar feeding on a deer carcass in Lithia Park on May 20.

I saw a cougar just once in my twenty years in Ashland, leaping two lanes and shoulders of the highway in front of the car in front of me on I-5 just north of the Ashland St. exit. Beautiful sight.

Good Tasmanian Devil News

I've blogged about the Tasmanian Devil face cancer epidemic—it's communicable!—before. Well, today, some good news:

Efforts to save the Tasmanian Devil have received a boost, with the first joeys arriving in an insurance population of the species at a Hunter Valley property.

A year ago 50 devils were released in a free-range enclosure at a property owned by media mogul James Packer, as part of a plan to produce a thousand disease-free devils by 2021.

The Devil Ark program is run by the Australian Reptile Park and spokeswoman Liz Vella says the ambitious plan is paying off.

"We have got several mums with babies," she said. 

Much more info at TassieDevil..com

State of Origin

There's a rather large - okay huge - Australian sporting event on tonight:

Described as "sport's greatest rivalry", the State of Origin series is one of Australia's and the region's premier sporting events, attracting a huge television audience and usually selling out the stadiums in which the games are played. Despite the existence of international tournaments and State of Origin being a domestic competition, it is frequently cited as being the highest-level of rugby league played anywhere in the world.

That might contain just a wee bit of Wikipedia bias. In any case, I'll be watching with the neighbor across the hall, Andrew - on his brand new 46-inch, HD, 3-D, death-ray capable flatscreen TV - and his folks and some friends, so this will be a significant Austrlian learning experience for me. I'll definitely be filing a report on it tomorrow. If I remember anything...

Aussie Dentist

Me: Tooth face neck hurt ow.

Aussie Dentist: Hmm. [needle needle] Let's just pop that sucker out.

Me: Rnph ow?

AD: Sure, why not.

[AD grabs pliers, stands up, leans over, reaches into mouth, pulls out right top rear wisdom tooth]

AD: Smell that. [holds freshly extracted tooth to my nose]

Me: GAH!

That was my first gone wisdom tooth. AD asked if I wanted him to use one of his dental drills to drill a hole through it so I could put some string through it and wear it around my neck. While I have no plans to wear my gone wisdom tooth around my neck, I said Of course.

That is one nasty looking tooth.

Cost of emergency visit, x-ray, tooth extraction, temporary filling in cavity exposed after extraction: $290 AUS (about the same as US dollars). That's possibly close to what it would cost in the U.S., not sure, but I think it's a bit cheaper.