Mish* Mash*

Mish-ap, Mish-andle

First up, the annual Miss Universe pageant blurb. The glorious spectacle is back on, this time in the Bahamas (or should it be "at the Bahamas". I'm bad with prepositions and happy to be corrected).

This year, the nod goes to Miss Japan aka Emiri Miyasaka and her national costume, or rather the lack thereof. The term 'national costume' has always been subject to liberal interpretations. For example, this year's Miss Ireland sashayed across the room in an Irish outfit consisting of a bikini and stiletto heels. The artistic touch was in the leprechaun hat which was nicely accessorised with the symbol of Ireland - the shamrock. Deep. In fact, she could have re-used her national costume in the swimsuit competition, but she would have to lose the pièce de résistance - the shamrock hat.

Miss Japan 2009's imagination was not to be outdone by Miss Ireland - have a look at this rocking outfit:



Apart from the obvious connection between the kimono and the land of the rising sun, I'm not sure that I see the relevance of pink stockings, pink panties, a garter belt and a come-hither, open-wide designed kimono. They could have at least made the stockings/panties polka dot red/white.


Mash, Mash-ed, Mash-ed Up

Plenty of mashed-up limbs and weary bodies after a impulsive day trip to Thredbo on Monday. Worse for the wear was Wayne who dislocated his wrist and duly ripped the ligament in his wrist after this attempt:

More mashed-up, unsightly fat bruised fingers after our basketball semi finals win (by a mere point). I suspect that my co-ordination is starting to decrease exponentially as I sail into the decade that shall not be mentioned.

Mish Mash

With all this pontification and lack of action on climate change, we might have to take actions in our own hands. Two brilliant ideas for your consideration - the first relatively is easy, the second requires a bit more forethought.
1. Peeing in the shower - saves on toilet paper too (Brazilian initiative)
2. Recycling metal parts salvaged from the dead, and/or recycling crematorium heat (Danish initiative).

64th Anniversary of Hiroshima Bombing

At 8:15am this day, 46 years ago, Enola Gay dropped "Little Boy" (a uranium bomb) on to the city of Hiroshima. 6th August was chosen because clouds had previously obscured the target. The target was chosen for military reasons and for its terrain. The Target Committee rated Hiroshima as an 'AA Target'. The Committee's clinical research into the suitability of Hiroshima as an atomic bomb target is summed up in the following paragraph (quoted from the minutes):

"This is an important army depot and port of embarkation in the middle of an urban industrial area. It is a good radar target and it is such a size that a large part of the city could be extensively damaged. There are adjacent hills which are likely to produce a focussing effect which would considerably increase the blast damage."

Boston.Com's The Big Picture has a good visual time line of the Hiroshima bombing.

I was in Hiroshima in February 2008. Something about the place and its plight really resonated in my psyche. The Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum was really very good.

The Digital World Kills Cultural Snobbery or Keen Connoisseurship

Wonderfully written article about the digitisation of mass media, and how this has affected our sense of self and inhibited our ability distinguish ourselves from others.

And here I was contemplating an embargo on books since purchased books just end up collecting dust and occupying precious space. 5 days of reading pleasure for years and years of storage/dust pain. That equates to a very small marginal utility
.

BUT ...

Alas, not only do books "furnish a room, to paraphrase the title of an Anthony Powell novel, but also accessorize our outfits. They help brand our identities. At the rate technology is progressing, however, we may eventually be traipsing around culturally nude in an urban rain forest, androids seamlessly integrated".

My embargo may actually lead to a human apocalypse a la Terminator!

The last paragraph is defining ...
"As all this space opens up—as the tokens of our cultural snobbery or keen connoisseurship (take your pick, depending on the degree of pretentious wankery you attribute to others) recede into the hideaway shelves and flash drives—what will refill it? “After two decades of defining ourselves in terms of our possessions,” Holly Brubach wrote recently in T: The New York Times Style Magazine, “we now need to figure out who we would be without them.” I suspect that once this downturn plateaus and shrinks in the rearview mirror, we’ll just stock up on other possessions, which will be arrayed and arranged to show off not our personal aesthetics or expensive whims but our ethics—our progressive virtues. A place where we could play host to Barack and Michelle and feel assured they’d find nothing amiss."

Lucky I already have Barack Obama's autobiography.