Online campaign gathers support for Myanmar's Suu Kyi

via edition.cnn.com

You can not be human and not fight for Aung San Suu Kyi's freedom. Maybe I'm setting the bar too high, based on the evidence of her imprisonment. But I refuse to believe that.

Posted via web from andragy's posterous

NY TIMES Book Review - This Child Will Be Great, by Ellen Johnson Sirleaf

Madame President

By HELENE COOPER

Published: May 15, 2009

In November 2005, Liberian women strapped their babies on their backs and flocked to voting tables all across their war-racked country to elect Ellen Johnson Sirleaf as Africa’s first female president. It was a seminal moment in the political history of not just Liberia but the entire continent, where patriarchal rule has long dominated, leaving African women on the sidelines to fetch water, carry logs, tend farms, sell market wares and bear the children of their rapists, while their menfolk launched one pointless war after another.

Times Topics: Liberia

Now comes “This Child Will Be Great,” a memoir by Johnson Sirleaf, the heiress to this line of long-suffering yet rock-strong women. Her father was a lawyer, a member of the Gola tribe who — as part of a common practice in Liberia — had been reared by one of the elite families descended from the freed American slaves who settled the country in the early 19th century. Her mother was the mixed-race daughter of a German trader who abandoned his Liberian wife and child, and was never heard from again.

In the complex spaghetti of Liberian society, Johnson Sirleaf was considered by outsiders to be from the elite class. She attended one of the country’s best private schools, moved freely within the upper echelons of its social strata, reported religiously to church on Sundays and traveled to America for college. But her native Liberian parentage meant that she also knew the other side of life, the side where a vast majority of Liberians lived for the 150 years before the 1980 military coup that violently splintered the country, ending the rule of the American-Liberian class, and eventually led to 13 years of civil war.

Johnson Sirleaf tells the story of an old man who, within days of her birth, came to visit to pay his respects. The man looked at the baby and turned to her mother “with a strange expression,” telling her, “This child shall be great.” Johnson Sirleaf refers to the anecdote elsewhere in the book, usually with irony; her family would wryly remind her of it when, for instance, she was trapped in a physically abusive marriage, or when she fell into the latrine, or when she was locked up in prison by one of the various madmen who ran Liberia, with no idea whether she would be executed, raped or released.

This is the incredible story of a woman who spent her life talking tough to the lunatics surrounding her. It is an accessible walk through contemporary Liberian history, told by someone who was somehow always in the center of the political storm; during the 1980 coup, Johnson Sirleaf, as the country’s minister of finance, was spared, while 13 colleagues were executed on the beach. After another coup attempt — this one aimed at the military strongman Samuel Doe — Johnson Sirleaf was taken prisoner and threatened with execution by the paranoid Doe. When Charles Taylor invaded Liberia in 1989, Johnson Sirleaf met in the bush with this wide-eyed guerrilla, determining for herself, she says, that he was “not at all grounded in the very real consequences of the path upon which he had embarked.”

“This Child Will Be Great” will most likely not appeal to every­one. Johnson Sirleaf, whom I have interviewed, refrains from the sort of emotional detail that might allow her life’s story to resonate with readers uninterested in the “who’s up, who’s down” scales of Liberian political parties. She throws a lot of abbreviations out there, and even Liberians may have trouble with some of them.

But Johnson Sirleaf admirably conveys the hopelessness of the everyday Liberian who still worships — futilely, it turns out — the United States, waiting for the day when America sweeps in to rescue a country founded by Americans. That day never comes, as “This Child Will Be Great” demonstrates again and again. But perhaps, in electing this no-nonsense, practical technocrat as the first woman to be their president, Liberians are finally ready to make a stab at trying to rescue themselves.

Helene Cooper, the White House correspondent for The Times, is the author of “The House at Sugar Beach: In Search of a Lost African Childhood.”  via nytimes.com

Related  First Chapter: ‘This Child Will Be Great’ (May 17, 2009)

This goes in the must read must post Woman Warrior collection!

Posted via web from andragy's posterous

Ailing Suu Kyi taken to prison: reports - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

via abc.net.au

Burma's detained opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi has reportedly been taken from her home in Rangoon to the notorious Insein prison.

A court will be convened at the jail to hear charges against her relating to a secret visitor to her home.

A spokesman for Ms Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy party says the pro-democracy leader will be charged over an incident last week where an American man swam across a lake and reportedly spent two days in her home.

The authorities caught him when he was swimming back.

Security measures have been been beefed up around her home as a result.

Ms Suu Kyi has been under house detention for 13 of the past 19 years since she won national elections in 1990.

Her latest home detention order is due to lapse in less than two weeks.
She has been suffering poor health in recent days.

Posted via web from andragy's posterous

Ada Lovelace Day - For My Daughters

I'm glad I tidied my feed reader in time to catch the post from Ideologically Impure that alerted me to Ada Lovelace Day from Suw Charman-Anderson who writes on Blogiculum Vitae amongst other places.

So, it's already March 24th and I'm unprepared to blog about women and technology. There are some amazing women, from Hypatia onwards. Choose my tech heroine? I've decided to #ALD09post about... myself.

Yesterday was the first Newtown Kids Science Club day for 2009. We did robotics. Organised by myself. Many parents at the school say to me... "but you're a science teacher... scientist... I couldn't do that!"

No, I'm not and yes I can.

It's time to put aside the barriers. Women in science. Women in sport. Same issue. This is for my daughters. They aren't all sporty. Some like pink. They don't all think that Ripley is a role model like I do. I have 4 children, 1 boy and 3 girls. They are all different.

I've done my share of gender neutral parenting. I'm sick of fixing my children. They are not broke or boys (bar one). It's time to fix their society. Daughter 1 was brought up on Punky Brewster and is now an adult and into burlesque. Daughter 2 was very Barbie, so we got her a pink laptop, a pink screwdriver and sparkly pink soccer balls. She's more like Sailor Moon now. Daughter 3 is a Dora girl, though where is Dora heading now?

I started coaching football (soccer) because I got mad that girls were expected to put up with being the only girl on the team. Never talked to. Never passed the ball. Trial by ordeal. Then IF they played better than the boys... "She's not a bad little player. She fits in well. She's like one of the boys."

No parent of a boy would put up with that! So rather than watch my not so sporty daughters drop out I started coaching. I have sparkly footballs and coach a 50/50 mixed team. No one minds a bit of bling mixed in with their blood sports. Just ask Beckham! Or any other gold boot wearing boy.

I also run the school science club. "But you're a scientist!" No.

I just want my girls to think that science and technology is something they can do, too.

We had a great day programming robots yesterday. My daughters had friends doing the same thing as they were. My son was in a class with girls. Win win situation.

... naturally enough, I'm now looking at the long list of wonderful women being posted about on the Ada Lovelace Day #ALD09 blogroll and "myself" (on page 16) sticks out like dog's balls. That's the point though. Let us all be empowered to be women in technology heroines - for our daughters!

Ideologically Impure rocks Ada Lovelace Day

It's Ada Lovelace Day today! Dedicated to women and technology! I can't do justice to the subject right now and it's just such a GOOD idea that I'm going to quote verbatim from Idealogically Impure's blog entry today. Thank you!

March 24th is Ada Lovelace Day, intended to encourage blogging about women in technology, increase the visibility of women in technology, all that good stuff.It’s named for Ada Lovelace, possibly the world’s first computer programmer (for all she was girl-shaped and even computers themselves were pretty pie-in-the-sky).

I don’t have a post prepped, unfortunately, so I just want to say that events like ALD are brilliant. A few years back I managed to take some Gender Studies papers at uni as a way of getting enough points to complete my degree. One of these was on feminist science studies, an area I’d never even heard about until the first day of class.

The very first lecture was basically a “Who’s Who” of women in science and technology. And when the lecturer went around the group, asking people to name prominent women scientists they knew of, we came up with Marie Curie and Beatrice Hill Tinsley (go Kiwi!). And that was it. Clearly having anticipated this, we then spent an hour going through a potted history of women who made amazing discoveries and formulated brilliant theories … who we had never heard about.

Women like Hypatia, whose death is sometimes used as a marker of the end of the Hellenistic Age. Women like Hildegard of Bingen, who was nothing short of brilliant in a crapload of different fields. Women like Caroline Herschel, a great astronomer and one of the first paid female scientists in England.

If nothing else, I can only recommend checking out Wikipedia’s handy List of pre-21st Century Women Scientists. If its size alone doesn’t surprise you, given how much we focus on the great men of science and technology, just check out what some of these people have managed to achieve despite the distinct disadvantage of being born female.

DIY Washing Machine - Progress Report

On Sunday night, I came home to this. :( washing machine needs service code 43 :( The washing machine quit working. Stopped. Ceased all activities.

We do the washing on the weekend. All 5 or 6 or 7 baskets of it. We fold it on Sunday night, if things are going swimmingly. Monday or Tuesday if not. And some weeks we're still fishing through baskets for something to wear on Friday. It's a pretty good indicator of how the rest of life is going.

I'm just going to add the Twitter feed and Twitpics from here on. But all I can say is thank 'heavens' I have google superpowers and a sonic screwdriver.

1 # utterly fragged after kids ALLDAY trampoline competition! Will reward myself with WoW if I can fix washing machine! *ignoring real work* 4:53 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
2 # antithesis of computerised appliances with obscure ailments = googling forums for service code fixits! We have SYNTHESIS . Now for SPINCYCLE! 4:56 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
3 # 140 chars is a bit of a stretch for me. LoL. I meant keeping it down to 140 chars. 4:57 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
4 # I don't like it if my personal screwdriver is missing... or in with the common tools! *is my precious! is yellow. has engraving!* 5:02 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
5 # If I can't find my own screwdriver then it's autoFAIL everything else following! 5:03 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
6 # See. My first FAIL. Tweeting my 'just googled it!' has blown my facade of general awesome at anything ness! 5:10 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
7 # Second FAIL. What grey cover? I can find a white one. A very dirty white one but I wouldn't call it grey to my face! 5:12 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
8 # Oh. Perhaps it's the grey cover under the white cover that I just unscrewed! 5:12 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
9 # Choice of two grey covers. One with lots of wires. Atleast I unplugged machine from power before starting open heart! 5:18 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
10 # it's down to the "remove switch from below computer, check for corrosion and rewire the yellow to the white one" sort of directions. NOLOL 5:20 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
11 # Anyone good with the insides of Fisher & Paykel Intuitive Eco machines? Service Code 43 5:20 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
12 # Have found balance switch! Unscrewed the computer and balanced it on chopsticks (short wires) . Need more light. Or glasses. 5:25 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
13 # if i could get my phone tweeting again i could twitpic! Another FAIL. 5:33 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
14 # oops. where is my phone? 5:34 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
15 # found phone but lot's of smoke down south newtown way! Prolly just exhaust fumes... Or burning car event. Or other burning issue? 5:38 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
16 # bluetooth not so good on this computer. Fixit days are never ending farkups. 5:46 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
17 # » link to TwitPic - Share photos on twitter DIY is a great excuse for a drink. Here is inside of our washing machine computer. 5:51 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
18 # this is successful chopstick cantilevering operation leading to relatively painless switch extraction » link to TwitPic - Share photos on twitter 5:53 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
19 # this is memo to self... yellow wire goes on this side! » link to TwitPic - Share photos on twitter followed by bout of twitter. 5:58 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
20 # showing kids how to use multimeter and making martini - more procrastination » link to TwitPic - Share photos on twitter 6:32 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
21 # finally dropping closed switch in vinegar bath » link to TwitPic - Share photos on twitter Tomorrow it may work again. Or not. It was already lose/lose. 6:34 PM Mar 1st from TweetDeck
22 # RT @Glebe2037: I say good morning and give you a Hello Kitty Death cake = » link to kittyhell.com 10:41 AM Mar 2nd from TweetDeck
23# Rinsed washing machine switch and put in dryer (still works) on shoe rack. Cat litter scoop quite handy. #diyawesome 10:44 AM Mar 2nd from TweetDeck
24 # Now the switch is dry. The moment of truth is nigh. starcee on howtomendit.com will live or die by this result. 10:52 AM Mar 2nd from TweetDeck
25 # hope i'm not wrong about the wires, cause i was wrong about which way was up. 10:53 AM Mar 2nd from TweetDeck
26 # we have ignition sequence. houston we have lights. holy shit! it's working! 10:54 AM Mar 2nd from TweetDeck
27 # oops, i seem to have misplaced one of the screws. but IT'S STILL WORKING! I have fixed the washing machine. I am god. 10:55 AM Mar 2nd from TweetDeck
28 # @michaelharries but will it enhance my reputation with Darnassus? 11:33 AM Mar 2nd from TweetDeck in reply to michaelharries
Now the Roomba battery is dying. Trials and tribulations of a Domestic Moddess.

Vale Nancy-Bird Walton 1906? to 2009

 

Nancy-Bird Walton in 1934 (Fairfax Archives)

Australian aviation pioneer Nancy-Bird Walton has died at age 93 in her North Sydney home. Full SMH article here.

She lived an interesting life and I'm exceedingly pleased that she saw some respect for her accomplishments within her lifetime.

Mainly though, I wonder which came first. The name Bird or the flying? Was it a self fulfilling prophecy? Or like my grandma, did she change her name to suit herself?

Vale Dorothy Porter 1954 - 2008

True original ... Dorothy Porter.
Photo: Steve Baccon

An extraordinary writer and warrior has died. I didn't know her but part of my surrounds has vanished and I don't know which I regret more, the empty shape or something else eventually filling it. Bloody breast cancer.

Her works live on but who and what she was were very important to anyone, any female, who savored words and wildness; australia, sex and cigarettes on the night wind.

I'm female
I"m not tough
droll or stoical.

I droop after
wine, sex
or intense conversation.

The streets coil around me
when they empty

I'm female
I get scared.

an excerpt from Dorothy Porter's mesmeric poem novel, The Monkey's Mask.

more from the world today (abc) "Poetry has always dealt with taboo material from way back. That's part of its sort of holy nature, its vocation is to tackle huge and morally ambivalent themes."
wikipedia "Porter was a self-described Pagan, committed to pagan principles of courage, stoicism and commitment to the earth and beauty." Perhaps the best definition of woman warrior I've found.
and sydney morning herald and herald sun "she was a grand theme person, a sensualist and romantic"

Remember the Mirabal Sisters - Day 1 of 16 Days of Activism

Three Mirabal sisters, political activists from the Dominican Republic, "The Unforgettable Butterflies" were assassinated on November 25th, 1960 on the orders of Rafael Trujillo, then leader of the Republic.

Mirabal sisters 25th anniversary of their death stamp. Wikipedia

16 Days of Activism is a period of global campaigning during which thousands of people and organisations all over the world take a stand against gender-based violence. The period commences on 25 November with the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women and ends on 10 December, World Human Rights Day. On 25 November we remember the three Mirabal sisters, political activists from the Dominican Republic who were assassinated on that day in 1960.

The 16 Days event, now in its 18th year, was started by the Centre for Women's Global Leadership. The organisation choose the campaign’s beginning and end dates – 25 November and 10 December, Human Rights Day – to highlight that violence against women is a human rights violation.

Scores of diverse groups and individuals – including Amnesty International – now take part in 16 Days, together calling for an end to all types of violence against women. Each year they organise events in more than 130 countries across the globe, including demonstrations, conferences, exhibitions and performances.

This year, Amnesty is calling on people to take action by contacting your local MP and urging her/him to push for sustained and meaningful Government commitment to a National Plan of Action to eliminat

Women Hold Fewer Top Jobs Than Before - POST FEMINISM AT ITS WORST

I've been arguing this for quite a while and no one believes the figures. Australia is resting on its laurels. (Hi Laurel) Although, I still argue that this is a global problem. Things haven't significantly changed for hundreds of years, feminism not withstanding, aside from women having the vote and better financial protection in law (better than nothing).

We permit a few women to operate in the top levels of power in a token way. These are often positions gained through connections, sometimes through utter uber bloke bloodymindnedness and usually at the expense of other women.

Even if not explicitly keeping the sisters down to protect your own job, then if you are a successful woman then you are used to excuse the lack of affirmative action that is now espoused by the head of the Business Council of Australia.

Katie Lahey … called for a national debate on quotas.
Photo: Quentin Jones

Katie Lahey, the chief executive of the council, which represents the heads of Australia's top 100 corporations, said promotion of women on merit had not worked.

"I've pooh-poohed quotas for years, but other strategies have not worked, and it's time for a national debate on quotas for women," she said.

I GIVE HER THREE SWORDS FOR SPEAKING OUT FOR AFFIRMATIVE ACTION FROM HER POSITION, TEETERING ON THE BRINK OF FOUR SWORDS BECAUSE THIS IS A VERY CONTROVERSIAL COMMENT! BRING ON THE ARGUMENTS AND DEBATE!

The rest of the SMH article follows...

THE proportion of women on corporate boards and in top management in leading companies has fallen, and the head of the Business Council of Australia has called for affirmative action quotas.
Katie Lahey, the chief executive of the council, which represents the heads of Australia's top 100 corporations, said promotion of women on merit had not worked. "I've pooh-poohed quotas for years, but other strategies have not worked, and it's time for a national debate on quotas for women," she said.

The 2008 census on women in leadership, to be published today, shows Australia has gone backwards in the promotion of women to executive management positions in top corporations and to boards.
The number of women coming through the pipeline in "feeder line" management positions is back to pre-2004 levels. Women who make it to senior roles are clustered in human resources and legal services rather than in operations, sales or finance, the usual routes to the top.

Where Australia once ranked second behind the United States in the number of top companies with a woman senior executive, it now ranks last in a list of comparable countries, including New Zealand, Britain, South Africa and Canada. The census is the fifth undertaken for the Equal Opportunity for Women in the Workplace Agency to measure the progress of senior women in the top 200 publicly listed corporations.

It shows the proportion of women senior executive managers - who directly report to the CEO - has declined to 10.7 per cent from 12 per cent in 2006 and is lower than in 2004. The number of women in these positions has fallen to just 182, down from 246 in 2004. While the size of executive management teams has fallen, women's representation has fallen faster.

Naseema Sparks, the incoming president of Chief Executive Women, which promotes the development and use of leadership talent, said "it's disgraceful". At the time of the census on February 1 there were four women CEOs. Women comprised 8.3 per cent of board members, a decline from 8.7 per cent in 2006, and barely higher than in 2004.

The number of top companies with no women executive managers had risen sharply since 2006, from 39.5 per cent to 45.5 per cent. And more than half the ASX200 boards had no women directors. The Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Elizabeth Broderick, said the most disturbing figure was the decrease in women in line executive management from 7.5 per cent to 5.9 per cent.

"This figure is particularly discouraging for younger women trying to climb the corporate ladder. Are we sending a message to women waiting in these feeder positions that their opportunities for advancement are drying up, and if so, why?"

A number of male-dominated mining, materials and energy companies have joined the ranks of the ASX 200 since the last census.

But Wendy McCarthy, a feminist business woman, said women had been graduating with first class honours degrees in geology and engineering for 25 years, "not in large number but with outstanding results, but they go back to academic life because the culture [in these companies] is unsustainable".

NOTE: my sister was THE top geology student in Australia when she graduated but eventually left both industry AND academia due to the harassment and lack of career path. She continually saw much less able male geologists getting offered better positions or promoted over her.

W-League Launch - i have man crush on matildas!

Well, it sounds pussy to say 'i have a crush on the matildas!' - why can't i have a big old 'man crush' to go with my man bag and my man hawk. enough of me, eh.


Girl power … Central Coast's Kyah Simon (front) leads yesterday's W-League launch.
Photo: Brendan Esposito

AUSTRALIA'S leading female footballers are heading home for the new W-League kick-off this weekend. Eight teams, representing the seven Australian A-League clubs plus Canberra, will compete in the first national women's league for four years.

All the leading Matildas from last year's historic World Cup quarter-final campaign are expected to participate in the 43-game competition spanning 10 rounds and a two-week finals series ending in January.

With the salary cap at just $150,000 per team, the women will be earning far less than their male counterparts. When the new pro women's comp in the United States starts next year, some of Australia's stars will be plying their trade in three different countries inside a year, as well as undertaking national team duties.

Star striker Lisa De Vanna will make a late start to the W-League with Perth Glory because of her commitments in the Swedish league, then head to the US next year.

"This is not only an exciting new era in women's football, but it's also another landmark for women's sport," said Football Federation chief executive Ben Buckley. "The women's game globally is growing in popularity and stature and is one of the few sports available for talented women athletes to represent their country from an early age.

"From a football perspective, the Westfield W-League will help in eliminating a competition gap for our top women players and better prepare them for international competition."

this SMH article is one of many this week featuring women football players. LOVE!

Matildas win ASEAN Championships 1-0

A tense final culminated in a 1-0 win to the Matildas against host nation Vietnam in the ASEAN Championships. We expected a great result from the side who made the quarterfinals of the World Cup and they delivered.

Lydia Williams, pictured above, had a very tough time in goal but kept a clean sheet! according to articles on The World Game site and other sources.

Seeing the players in action in the forthcoming W-League will be a treat! As far as I'm concerned, all Matildas, young or otherwise are worthy of 3 SWORDs. They deliver every day (for very little pay).

Roseanne Barr - 2 SWORDS - and a write up at deliberately barren

 IN response to Deliberately Barren's recent post on Roseanne Barr - generally speaking a very cool site that is scratching my itch regarding women, what and why?!?

That's pretty cool! Roseanne Barr gets 2 Swords of Awesome on my rather tough scale of services to women warriors everywhere.

I enjoyed reading her capsule version of the appropriation of religion and the female. A book I loved back in the Women's Press days was 'The Wild Girl' (or the Secret Gospel of Mary Magdalen) by Michele Roberts - published by Methuen.

You raise an interesting issue. What is barren? Can you have had and lost or relinquished children to be barren? What does society hate most - barren women or bad mothers? By bad, I mean as mildly offensive as outspoken, angry, non child-centred, professional or passionate women.

I'm too daunted to tackle the really bad mothers issue - women who kill! although abortion is considered part of that spectrum disorder.

A couple of years ago, I was planning to start a 'bad mother' blog but discovered that assorted pornographic sites had appropriated the idea.

Back on topic, I see barrenness, like feminism, as the willingness to witness. To not be a slave to biology and gender, to speak out and not apologize.

No great female artists? stay posted

can't finish this one today but as i listened to the offspring harmonize at government house today, the evocations of baroque musicians sent shivers down my spine.

Perhaps it was the larger than life sized portraits of men staring over my shoulders, but I found myself wondering if my girls (who were attracting attention but more for their looks than their music) would suffer the same fate as Anna Magdalene Bach, or Artemisia Gentilischi or any other great female artist.

Appropriated, denied or destroyed.

People in Glass Houses - Tanya Levin - 2 SWORDS

The best local cult book is by far, "People in Glass Houses" by Tanya Levin. Published in 2007, Tanya describes her slow path away from a fundamental (Hillsong) upbringing along with her attempts to understand the church. As she has an economics degree, it's scary reading.

You will never drink Gloria Jean coffee again. And do avoid the handmade organic twelve tribes produce at your local music festival aka Common Ground Cafe, but that's another story. Worse.

Still, Tanya, I take my hat off to you. That is one bad ass book you wrote. It is painful and personal and every bit gives a damn. You have pointed out all the things that are really really wrong with fundamental religions that are also so hard to pin down and examine.

I know i signed up for friday night youth club as a teenager and kind of went along with all the 'stuff' as long as there were cute whomevers... but after a while, it went from being a joke to ruling your life. And by then it's too late to turn around and back out.

Fortunately, I never quite stuck long enough... but it was close. I read your book and can feel the breath of hot demons down the back of my neck.

A more detailed and interesting review of People in Glass Houses is by Chris Saliba, WebDiary.

Dr Who's Companions POST SEASON FINALE

SCREEAMMMMMMM!

Donna Noble: you are now 1 SWORD of awful. You had me going there. For a while, I was thinking 4 SWORDS... maybe this is it, even 5 !!!! then...

Catherine Tate: you have 4 SWORDS of awesome for your rivetingly versatile performance as Donna Noble. You were BATHETIC at the end and became horribly stupidly trivial leaving me in tears. You reminded me of Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes




Rose Tyler: I'd retract your SWORD AWARD for that horrible last scene, where you find true love with the part human doctor but then, it's HIS fault. You know who!

Russell T Davies! Wow, I bet the swords have been out for you! I daren't read the forums. I really love your writing but why can't you stretch yourself a little bit. Go on and try out more different gender roles.

I guess The Doctor is so lovingly constructed as tragic father figure (western hero) that any other strong figure can not survive in the same series. That's why I say, "Hey, Russell, try a woman next time! AS THE DOCTOR!

Fly by Night - Frances Hardinge

Cheap book shops are one of the world's great mysteries and joys. Fly by Night by Frances Hardinge is the best book I've read for a long long time. It was on the discount table. Go figure.

An oddly ironic place given the nature of the book itself and the free exchange of ideas and literature.

Orphaned daughter of an exiled intellectual, Mosca Mye runs away from home, pausing only to collect her sidekick, a pugnacious gander, and to burn her uncle's mill to the ground in vengeful remembrance of things past. An overheard conversation sends her to rescue a travelling con-artist from the stocks, in the belief that he might prove useful to her, and together they leave the waterlogged village of Chough, where the petrifying springs bleach everything chalk-white, and head for a life of opportunity in the riverside towns and cities of the Fractured Kingdom.

.. from a rather sour review in the Guardian by Jan Mark. The Written Nerd has a more interesting review (to my mind) as he/she likes the book and is comparing two recent childrens works around the theme of censorship. Fly by Night and The Lost Colony by Grady Klein.

Strange Horizons' review by Farah Mendelsohn touches upon Fly by Night in a review for Hardinge's more recent book, Verdigris.

Macromantics and more early hiphop memories

That's right! I've been meaning to listen to more Macromantics cause I like what I've heard so far! 2 SWORDS for Romy Hoffman aka Macromantics.

I also dig Sneaky Sound System.

Ladyhawke seems ok too, but overated already?

Anyone remember Sound Unlimited Posse? They were awesome in a kind of daggy way.

Salt-N-Pepa - Let's Talk About Sex in Sydney

Do you remember when? I was always hoping for just a little bit more from these women. But Salt-n-Pepa really were the best around at the start of the hip hop and rap era. There still haven't been many other challengers. Isn't that sad!

Speaking of other challengers, I'm way out of date but all I can think of are Missy Elliot, Queen Latifah and Lauryn Hill.

Anyway, I can't quite bring myself to go along and relive the 80s to 90s but almost... Check out the show at the Enmore Theatre.

Don't forget this was when AIDS was a very very dirty word! Now if only the debate included prostitution, these girls would get 3 SWORDS but as it is I'm going for 2 SWORDS.

Tech and the City - Ella Morton AND BEING ALMOST 3 SWORDS

I love intrepid girl scientists. I also dig the feminist housewife movement (trying to rediscover the issues with irony). But I am most in awe when the kick ass 2 SWORD worthy fabulous women involved in either area get that little bit meta or mega or ideally BOTH.

Ella, Tech and the City was fun (finished June 07). I wish you had more stuff of your own and fewer consumer tech reviews. This may be inevitable with your move up from associate editor at ZDNet to Features Editor at Cnet.com.au. But I"m looking forward to less 'Choice' and more 'voice' from you. Because you have a great voice, Ella. I have 3 SWORDS just waiting for you.

About Ella Morton

Member since: June 2007

Hey ho, I'm the Features Editor for CNET.com.au. I focus on our video content, manage the portable audio category and review the odd phone when the mood strikes.

Outside nine-to-five, you're likely to find me rehearsing a play, misplacing expensive possessions and whiling away the last days of my fading youth on the Internets.

Ella Morton is interested in: Camcorders, Digital Cameras, Mobile Phones, MP3 Players and Software.