Jax was kindly asking about the progress of my WordPress update – ah, if you were trying to read Philobiblon this afternoon sorry about that – while trying to backup a PhP database I managed to delete it. (Thanks Bluehost help desk for getting it back!)
I think I’ve more or less got a handle on what I’m supposed to be doing, but have done about as much file fiddling as I can take for the day – maybe the end of this week I’ll try to actually do the actual update.
Despite the rise of hideous American-style evangelical churches in the suburbs, fewer than half of young Australians believe in a god. Hopefully they’ll be joined by more of the young behind them and hopefully that will FINALLY mean the end of John Howard as PM. (He recently announced his intention to stand for a fifth term.)
He’s done such a good job on destroying Australia’s human rights – as illustrated by the treatment of child asylum-seekers, who have been thrust into detention, not given any help or support. Last year there was a small change made, so they would be only detained “as a last resort”. But now, the government is planning to change the law again, so they can be locked up in some Pacific Island hell, with little or no access to lawyers or support services…
Dozens of children were shipped to the island processing centres under the old “Pacific Solution” – whereby the navy intercepted asylum seekers before they had actually reached Australia. For the children processed offshore, the record of success in gaining refugee status has been much worse than for the children who made it to the mainland and were detained in centres in Australia. Of the 55 unaccompanied children sent to Nauru, more than half were sent back to Afghanistan, compared with none of the 290 unaccompanied children processed in Australia, Crock’s new book, Seeking Asylum Alone, reveals. The Government put the kids through hell in Australian detention centres, often over years, and none escaped emotional scarring. But in the end, they got to stay. It is not clear what happened to the children we sent back to Afghanistan.
Is it any wonder that young Australians are questioning “Christian values” such as Mr Howard’s….
The time when I should have really sorted out backing up my computer is long past, so I’m finally getting to it. Any experiences, suggestions welcome.
I’m planning to get a portable external hard drive which I can keep in a different place and backup the whole computer once a week.
I’ve now got about 20GB total on the computer (with a capacity of 140), so figure an 80GB storage will do for a long time to come.
I’m looking at say this Phillips from Amazon, which has Nero software which presumably should do all I need for a complete backup. (I’ve had bad experiences with Nero before, but perhaps it has got better?
Or perhaps I should buy a cheaper drive on eBay and also buy Norton Ghost, which some seem to suggest is THE solution. (But then I’ve had bad experiences with Norton too.)
Ahhh – computers don’t you love ’em.
(And for an encore tonight I’m planning to update my WordPress installations – one still running 1.5 and the other an early 2, but I believe if I install the latest I’ll solve the sending referrer problems … If you hear a faint screaming in the distance anywhere in Europe tonight it will probably be me. Any tips on this will also be welcome – I’m planning to work – carefully – off the Codex directions.)
The family of my 19th-century blogger, Frances Williams Wynn, was clearly of Jacobite sensibilities in earlier times, but she did not retain any lingering favouritism for the Stuarts. Today she’s sharing some family gossip about an incognito visit to London by Charles Edward Stuart in the 18th century, and making comments (less than favourable) about his character.
At the moment only a Bill to be presented to parliament, but it sounds like a great idea:
Women’s groups and rights activists have for long campaigned for reforming the judicial process that deals with sexual assault in a country where a woman is raped every 29 minutes.
The national capital, New Delhi, is the most unsafe Indian city for women, accounting for 30 percent of rapes, according to government data.
“This is a very positive step and will help get justice for the rape victim,” said Girija Vyas, chairwoman of the National Women’s’ Commission.
“Until now, male lawyers were able to threaten the victim and scare her. A woman judge will help build a sensitive atmosphere.”
The amendment would also allow the rape victim to have her lawyer with her during cross-examination. Earlier, this was in-camera, making it uncomfortable for the victim, Kumar said.
… no doubt you’ll be able to access the new online edition some time next week. As is becoming traditional in these matters, it was launched with much fanfare yesterday, and crashed under the strain.
In the meantime there’s a lively article on the Guardian that will tell you about what you can’t see.
In the meantime meantime, a site that is working, Jordanus: An International Catalogue of Mediaeval Scientific Manuscripts. “It provides information about mediaeval manuscripts written in Western Europe between 500 and 1500 A.D. which treat the mathematical sciences in the wider sense, i.e. arithmetic, algebra, geometry, trigonometry and mechanics.”
Hat-tip to Medieval Woman.
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