Just some yummies I've made

Some baking I did for my 21st

Pink butterflies

Italian themed cuppies for the World Cup

Blue cuppies for a friend

My first attempt at a pink slice!

Sprinkle cupcakes!

My First attempt at sugar cookies

Scavenger Hunt!

1. Where was the first University established and in which year?
   By using Bing search engine, I was able to stumble onto yahoo answers which lead me to the answer of Al-Azhar University in Cairo, Egypt, generally being considered to be the first university in the world opening it’s ‘doors’ in 969AD.
   http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060729054252AAiUY0V accessed on the 26^th of August 2011

2. What is Stephen Stockwell's band called and what does he play?  Can you name a couple of their songs?

Thanks to Bing again, I discovered that Stephen Stockwell’s band is the Black Assassins and he plays the keyboard, the website found through bing then linked me to the Black Assassins’’ website were I found a few of their songs: Death Comes to Townsville, Fear and Loathing in Toowomba, Going to the Wedding and Raspberry Cordial Blues.
http://www.blackassassins.net/Lyrics.html and http://live-wirez.gu.edu.au/Staff/Stephen/default.html accessed on the 26th of August 2011

3. What is the weight of the world’s biggest machine? How much did it cost to build?
   Again I searched through bing and found out that the Liebherr T 282B is the largest machine in the world. It’s a Earth-hauling truck and it weighs 203t tons – empty and its maximum operating weight is 592 tons. It costs US $3.5M
   
   http://www.bukisa.com/articles/40463_worlds-largest-machines-ever-built accessed on the 26th of August 2011
   
   
4. Who is Justin Bieber's lawyer, and what is the best way (quickest, most reliable) to contact the lawyer?
   
   
   
5. What is the cheapest form of travel from the Gold Coast to Melbourne?
   Ah if only Tiger airways was running! However, from my own personal travel experience, the cheapest form of travel long distance in Australia at least seems to be flying, you spend less on food than if you were driving and no petrol/hidden costs: So currently on webjet the flight from the Gold Coast to Melbourne would cost : $248
   
   http://travel.webjet.com.au/webjettsa/home.aspx?TripType=Return&CityFrom=OOL&DateOut=2011%2F8%2F26&CityTo=Melbourne&DateBack=2011%2F9%2F3&TravelClass=ECONOMY&NumAdult=1&NumChild=0&NumInfant=0&EntryPoint=Flight&RequestFrom=Outside
   accessed 26th of August 2011
   
   
6. Who is Hatsune Miku? What company does she belong to? What is her birthday?
   Thanks to Bing, I discovered that Hatsune Miku is 'character' from the Vocaloid Character Vocal Series synthesiser developed by Yamaha Corporation and is born on the 31^st of August 2007, and is owned by the Yamaha Corporation
   http://www.animevice.com/miku-hatsune/18-20703/ accessed on the 26^th of August 2011
   
   
7. Find a live webcam in Belarus. Find a place to stay in Antarctica.
   Thank you BING! http://www.webcamgalore.com/EN/webcam/Belarus/Minsk/498.html
   and http://www.safarinow.com/destinations/antarctica/hub.aspx
   accessed 26^th of August 2011
8. What song was top of the Australian pop charts this week in 1991?
   Thanks to Bing and the Take40 website I discovered that for this week was Bryan Adams – Everything I do, I do it for You was the top of Australia’s pop charts!
   http://www.take40.com/music/number-ones/date?day=26&month=7&searchYear=1991&Search.x=34&Search.y=17 accessed on the 26^th of August 2011
9. What type of car is used to make ‘Google Street View’?
   Again, thanks to Bing I found out that the car used to make ‘Google’ Street View’ is the VW Beatle !
   http://www.autoblog.com/2007/06/01/take-a-look-at-the-vehicle-thats-taking-a-look-at-you/ accessed on the 26^th of August 2011
10. Translate these questions into Spanish and then translate them back into English.
    Spanish:

¿Dónde estaba la primera universidad establecida y en qué año?

¿Lo que se denomina banda de Stephen Stockwell y lo que él jugar? ¿Puede nombrar un par de sus canciones?

¿Cuál es el peso de la máquina más grande del mundo? ¿Cuánto cuesta para construir?

¿Quién es el abogado de Justin Bieber, y lo que es la mejor manera (más rápida, más fiable) ponerse en contacto con el abogado?

¿Cuál es la forma más barata de viajar desde la costa de oro a Melbourne?

¿Quién es Hatsune Miku? ¿Qué empresa ella pertenece a? ¿Cuál es su cumpleaños?

Encontrar una webcam vivo en Belarús. Encontrar un lugar para alojarse en la Antártida.

¿Qué canción era tope de las listas de pop australianas esta semana en 1991?

¿Qué tipo de coche se utiliza para hacer 'Google Street View'?

Traducir estas preguntas en español y, a continuación, se traducen en inglés.

Back to English:

Where was the first University established and in what year?

What is known as Stephen Stockwell band and that he play? Can you name a couple of their songs?

What is the weight of the world's largest machine? How much is it to build?

Who is the lawyer of Justin Bieber, and what is the best way (faster, more reliable) contact with the lawyer?

What is the cheapest way to travel from the Gold Coast to Melbourne?

Who is Hatsune Miku? What company it belongs to? What is your birthday?

Find a live webcam in Belarus. Find a place to stay in Antarctica.

What song was top of the Australian pop charts this week in 1991?

What kind of car is used to make 'Google Street View'?

Translate these questions into Spanish and then translated into English.

This was found thanks to Bing Translator !

http://www.microsofttranslator.com/?ref=TThis accessed on the 26^th of August 2011

Rubber 2010

The film 'Rubber' that we viewed in the lecture despite being quite confusing or even boring, does set up the parameters for the Syd Field paradigm quite well. I think that the first plot point takes place at the beginning of the film when the sheriff is talking and telling the audience about the story they are going to see. My understanding of the plot point sequences is that the first plot point ‘sets up the movie’ and to me, it is either this scene or when the tire first starts moving. Rubber uses a number of different techniques to put forward the sequence of events that happen to the apparently psychic tire. Although the tire is an object with no thoughts, or expressions, the director has been able to successfully portray the tire’s purpose without those things. He has instead compensated with music, imagery, settings, support characters, and camera techniques. Through this he has challenged the typical convention of a narrative, buy eliminating the human characteristics, and instead as stated above given the tire human like qualities. The tire is learning and discovering and progressing in a similar way to that of a young child, while the audience is watching this transformation take place. The audience in this film features stereotypical characters of people who typically watch a film. I feel the theme of this film is hard to pinpoint, but from my knowledge of films and the readings from this week, I would say it is dealing with the concept of change and development as well as loneliness.

Tutorial Week 4 part 2

The terms and services for social networking sites like Facebook, MySpace, Twitter etc. are often disregarded by the millions of people who use and access these sites everyday. It seems that the majority of people assume that their privacy and best interests are being looked after by the company, so they continue to broadcast their life to the entire Internet through status updates, photos, ‘likes’ and of course ‘tweets.’ However, I’ve unfortunately seen ‘The Social Network’ and let me tell you, Mark Zuckaberg doesn’t care about maintaining our privacy. In order to participate and have a Facebook page, like with any program or social networking site, one must agree to the Terms of Use/Condition, but how many people would take the time to read these conditions? It is extremely important to understand these conditions before all of your private information is on the Internet. My understanding from reading these conditions is, once you give your information to Facebook, they have license to use your information and keep it indefinitely. Although, Facebook allow you to change your own Privacy and application settings, each page is automatically set to completely open privacy settings, meaning, unless the user is to look and physically change the settings themselves, your information is a free for all! After reading the Facebook terms and conditions, and honestly being slightly baffled by them, I eventually came to the conclusion that one has to be extremely cautious with the personal information uploaded to social networking sites such as Facebook. 

Did social media cause the British Riots?

England had not seen riots like these since the Brixton Riots in the 1980's, however, unlike these rioters the London Rioters had prime access to an array of social media outlets. Despite the easy access to social media, I don't think they caused the London Riots. There seems to be a huge underlying social aspect that has caused these riots. There seems to be no middle class left in London in my opinion, only a upper and lower class left. The huge social divide had caused a ever growing rift and it seems that they culminated and exploded over the police shooting of a man. Yes, social media was able to in some cases spread the word of the riots, but anyone could see from a mile away that riots were happening which makes it easy to join in, just like they did in ‘the good old days.’ I read an article on the ABC website, that I think really highlights the social reasoning behind the London Riots. This article was written by a social worker in the UK discussing the social system in England as a cause for the London Riots: Blame for riots turns to UK social system

Week Three Tutorial Task Part 2

There seems to be an array of obsolete new communication technologies such as BSB, Napster, MySpace, IRC, etc. However, having previously only ever used MySpace, a trend that has faded into the distance, I feel it is best that I write and research into this particular topic. I do wonder if one ever really knows why such things fall out of favor or even why it happens so quickly. Just recently the value price in MySpace has dropped dramatically when News Corp, who bought MySpace in 2005 for $580 million dollars, sold the website to Specific Media Inc for a mere fraction of the price at $35 million (Fixmer, A, 2011). This huge difference in selling price is a strong indicator of the quick and painful downfall that MySpace has faced over merely six years. Facebook has clearly dominated MySpace, and swept it almost out of existence. According to Gillet, at its peak in 2008, MySpace had attracted 75.9 million monthly visitors in the US, however that steadily declined and by May this year it only had 34.8 million. Gillet goes on to state, “Over the past two years, MySpace has lost, on average, more than a million U.S. users a month.” It seems that all these past MySpace users have found their way onto Facebook, who according to their own admissions have over 500 million registered users. Unlike MySpace, Facebook has felt a huge and rapid boom with it only taking five months for Facebook to attract an extra 100 million users, from 400 million to 500 million. This poses the question, will Facebook continue on its upward trend of will it too face the downfall that MySpace has and end up being almost obsolete with the invention of Google+ ? 

Reference:

Barnett, E 2011, MySpace by Numbers, http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/myspace/8243403/MySpace-by-numbers-how-it-compares-to-its-rivals.html. Accessed 12th of August 2011

Fixmer, A 2011, News Corp. Calls Quits on Myspace With Specific Media Sale, http://www.businessweek.com/news/2011-06-29/news-corp-calls-quits-on-myspace-with-specific-media-sale.html. Accessed 12th of August 2011


Gillet, F 2011, The Rise and Inglorious Fall of MySpace, http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/11_27/b4235053917570.htm. Accessed 12th of August 2011

Week Three Tutorial Task Part 1

• What was Stephen Stockwell's first article in an academic journal? What year?
   - Stephen Stockwell's first article was Kuranda Police Shooting
  
  
  Reference:

  Stockwell, S 1981, 'Kuranda Police Shooting' Legal Service Bulletin Volume 6 pp. 48 - 49 viewed 12 August 2011, via Library Database
  
  
• In which comic did Governor Slugwell appear? Which Issues? Give their full citation for the earliest. Where did you find this information? What database did you use?
  - Governor Slugwell appeared in the Comic Flaming Carrot Comics in issues no. 7, no. 10 and no. 11
  
  Reference:
  Burdon, B 1985, Flaming Carrot Comics no.7, Renegade Press, Burbank, CA.
  - Used the Griffith Uni Trial Database
  
  
• What is the latest medical thinking on the dangers of mobile phones? Provide a full citation.
  - The thought in this article is that Mobiles may cause cancerous tumours
  
  Reference:Nordmoe, Eric D, 2007, ‘Mobiles and Cancer: A Case of Phony Connections?’, Teaching Statistics, vol. 29 no.1, p 2.
  
  
• In Bladerunner, what is Leon's reaction when Holden asks him about his mother? Quote the 1982 draft script and provide a full reference.
  - He attacks Holden
  "Leon looks shocked, surprised. But the needles in the computer barely move. Holden goes for the inside of his coat. But big Leon is faster. His laser burns a hole the size of a nickel through Holden’s stomach. Unlike a bullet, a laser causes no impact. It goes through Holden’s shoulder and comes out of his back, clean as a whistle. Like a rag doll he falls back into the seat. Big slow Leon is already walking away, but he stops, turns, and with a little smile of satisfaction fires through the back of the seat."
  
  Reference:
  Francher, H 1982, Bladerunner draft script, Alexander Press
  
  
• What does Paul Soukup say Walter Ong saw as the main paradox in 20th century communication?
  - "That a society given so much to the use of diagrams and to the maneuvering of objects in space... Should at the same time develop means of communication which specialize not in sight but in sound"
  
  Reference:Soukup, P 2004, ‘Communication Research trends’, Centre for the Study of Communication and Culture, vol. 23, pp. 23.