My current fixation with soap bubbles came about as a side-effect of some research I’ve been doing for my new animation project. To be specific, I was looking at how transparency and refraction work, and although I can easily see it in glass, I wanted something more organic and also less refractive. Hence bubbles. The animation, though, is more of a watery affair – mysterious and slightly eerie. Here are some stills. I’m in early stages just yet, but I thought you might like a sneak peak.

I also have some exciting news to tell you about one of my other works, but more of that in a bit.

Enjoy!

Ingredients:

•150ml Glycerine
•100g KY jelly
•1 level tspn sodium bicarbonate (baking soda)
•1½ cups detergent concentrate
•1 cup hot water
•Filtered water to make up 2 litres

Hardware:

•1 x 2 litre plastic bottle
•1 small bucket
•2 x 1 metre lengths of wooden dowel
•5m natural fibre string

Method:

Dissolve the sodium bicarbonate in the hot water. Carefully mix in ½ cup of the detergent, all the glycerine and the KY jelly. Stir until dissolved as much as possible. Pour about 1 litre of cold water into the 2 litre bottle. Slowly pour in the remaining 1 cup of detergent, taking care not to make foam. Very slowly add the warm glycerine/KY/detergent/water mix. Add water to bring to 2 litres.

Gently rotate the bottle until the contents are mixed as much as possible (there will probably still be undissolved NaHCO3 and visible threads of KY & glycerine – don’t worry). Leave the bottle to stand for 2 days.



Meanwhile braid the string into a loop about the size of a basketball and attach to the ends of the dowel like this:

After two days have passed, check the solution and make sure it is completely uniform – there should now be no visible traces of any of the individual ingredients.

Now, go to a park or a beach – somewhere sheltered and not too hot. Pour some of the solution into the small bucket and dip the string into it – make sure you get it nice and saturated. Now do this:

You might even be able to make one like this…

Science! Just because something isn’t imaginary doesn’t mean you can’t believe in it…

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Bubble photos by Violet Towne.

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The Guardian reports that publisher Penguin Australia has been left with egg on its face after it was revealed that a recipe for Tagliatelle with Sardines and Prosciutto from their book The Pasta Bible, called for the inclusion of ‘salt and freshly ground black people’. 7000 copies of the book have been withdrawn.

Penguin’s head of publishing, Robert Sessions, blamed the gaff on a spellcheck program, and said that proofreaders missed it because they were probably more concerned with checking ingredient quantities. ((Rather than the ingredients per se, I guess…)) Sessions called the mistake a typo, but I’m thinking that these kinds of episodes, where spellcheck programs offer whole alternative words to the one that is meant, should have a new name. Wordo? Hmm… a bit clunky… Suggestions?

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*Thanks to Violet Towne for spotting it in The Guardian and to my guest sub-editor King Willy for the fabulous headline.

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Recently I had cause to send some money to a friend of mine in the UK. It was not a lot – $150 reimbursement for a few pairs of trousers he’d had made for me in Vietnam. I wanted to make it easy for him, since he’d done me a big favour, so I thought I’d transfer it directly into his bank account and make sure I covered all his costs.

Off I went to my bank – one of Australia’s biggest and oldest establishments – gave them the details and asked them to do the deed.

Teller: It will cost you $28

Me: Oh well, I guess I expected it to be overly expensive, go ahead then.

Teller: What do you mean?

Me: Well, $28 for you to punch in a few numbers and do a transfer directly from my account into another account seems pretty excessive, but I expect that’s how you make your money. Go ahead.

Teller: That’s what it costs – the bank doesn’t make anything out of it.

Me: Oh, right. You’re telling me that this $28 doesn’t go to the bank, but is the cost of digital bits flitting across the internet to the UK?

Teller: Do you want to see the manager?

Me [sigh]: No, I’ll pay it, just go ahead.

She punches away at the terminal keyboard.

Teller: There’s a $250 minimum.

Me [incredulous]: What?

Teller: I can’t send $150. It’s $250 minimum.

Me: What? You’re telling me that right now, at the end of the first decade of the 21st Century, you, a major bank, can’t send $150 from my account to my friend’s bank account in the UK?

Teller: I can, but there’s a $250 minimum.

Me: And it will cost me $28 on top of that?

Teller: Yes

Me: So, let me get this straight: to send my friend $150 using my own banking service – the bank where I have had an account for over 30 years – I actually have to fork out $278 or you can’t do it?

Teller: Do you want to see the manager?

Me: Yes, I want to see the manager.

The teller goes and talks to a bald headed guy in another office (I can see them through a big glass window). He looks at me and goes back to some paperwork. He sees me see him look at me. The teller returns.

Teller: He’ll be with you in five minutes.

Me: What? I’m supposed to wait five minutes so I can make a complaint? In five minutes, I’m pretty sure I’ll have worked out another way to do this and you’ll have lost a customer. Does that concern you at all?

Teller: [Shrugs]

I leave. I drive home. I find that my friend has a PayPal account. I facepalm myself for not having thought of that in the first place. I transfer the money. It costs me nothing.

Later that day, when I’m doing some net banking, I log out of my account and am farewelled with this message:

Astonished? I think I can say that they completely fulfilled their service promise!




Glitch notices that I have two ‘cat’ ShooTags on my desk. Not only am I afraid, but so should you be.






In the last post we had a surprise visit from a proponent of ShooTag who, for some reason, opined in a lengthy diatribe that I would not ‘dare to bring yourself to publish (it) on your relentless “Ode to Yourself”‘. Au contraire my clueless friend. I’m not in the least afraid of your witless opinion. Indeed, I’ve decided to bring you to the front page of Tetherd Cow Ahead, where all might witness your risible babbling.

For those who missed it, this is the comment that ‘Kookaburra’ left:

Good Day, Mate! Greetings from your neighbor out in the bush. I have read the endless put-downs and verbal diarrhea you have so relentlessly put into this crusade against the shoo!tag product. It must be very, very threatening to you, for you to spend countless time and energy into trying to disclaim them. It makes people more and more interested in the product, since you seem to be so obsessed with it. I can only assume you are either:
1. A competitor in the industry of pest repellant’s.
2. Actually paid by shoo!tag to keep the controversy and interest in the product at a fever pitch.
Your undying attention and allegiance to this cause is kind of creepy, otherwise.
Anyway, because of all the attention, controversy and spotlight you have put on this product, I have just ordered the tags for myself, my horses and my dogs and will try them myself in the outback. The tags are being sold all over Australia, I have discovered…and in 5 other countries. I did my own investigating of the company, read a report where a major Venture Capitalist group has just invested several $100,000.00 in the company. Being a businessman, in the field of marketing, that does not speak to me as failure, or hoax, or voodoo. In closing, speaking to you from the heart – as a fellow Aussie, please do not makes all us blokes out to be so cruel, ignorant and close-minded. And since you obviously know so much about how this product does not work, please tell me exactly which tag you tested for yourself?
Apparently you have never had reason to use the tags, since you obviously never leave your spot in front of your computer monitor. Our country is vast and beautiful. Take a hike and clear your head and discover the beauty of actually LIVING your life, instead of trying to demean other’s.
Let’s see if you can dare to bring yourself to publish this on your relentless “Ode to Yourself”.

Well, as King Willy so quickly pointed out, it takes about an attosecond for a real Australian to see that the person writing this is not one.

For a start, we just don’t start conversations with ‘Good Day Mate’, especially in correspondence. You might proffer a cheerful g’day to someone on the street, and you might even call them ‘mate’, but as a written appellation… sorry chum, you screwed it on the first three words. You also conflate the two ideas of ‘the bush’ and ‘the outback’ speaking as if they are one thing. Any real Australian knows the difference between those two concepts, especially someone who lives in one of those places. Kookaburra‘s idea of how Australians behave comes from the same lame ‘How To’ guide that brought you Outback Steakhouse. Kookaburra also manages to spell ‘neighbour’ and ‘diarrhoea’ in the American fashion, something that he can’t blame on an American spellcheck because his incorrect spelling of ‘repellents’ ((Let’s not even mention the egregious apostrophe)) plainly demonstrates that he isn’t using any kind of spellcheck at all. I think this duplicitous behaviour is a pretty good indication of the kind of people we’re dealing with here

However, Kookaburra, since you evidently think you have some kind of point let me dispel some of the illusions under which you appear to be labouring: ((See how I spelled that with a ‘u’? That’s how we do it here, for future reference))

•I am obsessed with ShooTag.

The ShooTaggers shouldn’t flatter themselves that they are anything special. They are not my sole concern when it comes to pseudoscientific rubbish. If you’d bothered to read my blog at all, you would know that ShooTag is just one of the many daft ideas that comes under my scrutiny. I object to all people who use worthless, unscientific quackery to fleece other people. You might like to read my thoughts on free energy, ‘power’ bracelets, homeopathy and magic water to see what kind of company I consider ShooTag to be in.

•I somehow find the product/concept/discussion (fuck, I don’t know) threatening.

Er. What? It’s a dumb little piece of plastic that does nothing. How is that threatening to anything (except people’s wallets of course)? Or do you mean it’s threatening to my worldview or something? Ha. There are thousands of scams like ShooTag – I’m not so much threatened as just plain disappointed with the greed and stupidity of certain members of the human race.

•It makes people more and more interested in the product.

I sincerely doubt that. If they bother to read what I say, I think they get a very good idea of what kind of product ShooTag is. Indeed, aside from comments from people affiliated with ShooTag, I receive mostly positive affirmations of my exposure of this silly item.

•I spend ‘countless time and energy’ (oh, the trashing of the language – it hurts, it hurts…) trying to ‘disclaim’ ShooTag (I think the word you’re looking for is ‘declaim’).

And yet I manage to have a productive career, tend to a lovely family and get to the movies occasionally. How do I do it?! Maybe it’s because it only takes a second to refute such ridiculous claims? Yeah, that’s gotta be it.

•I am a ShooTag competitor.

No I’m not.

•I am a ShooTag promoter.

Now see, you’re really not paying attention.

•Interest in ShooTag is at fever pitch.

Bwahahahahaha! Whatever you say.

•I’m kind of creepy.

Is that meant to be an insult?

•The tags are being sold all over Australia and in other countries.

So are homeopathic remedies and bottles of ‘vibrational’ water. It doesn’t make them functional or useful.

•A major venture capitalist group has just invested ‘several $100,000’ in the company and that doesn’t speak of failure, or hoax, or voodoo.

Really? And you say you’re a businessman? As far as I can see it this means only one of two things: either the investors are completely stupid, or they’ve scoped the huge untapped market of gullible pet owners and are happy to rip them off. It’s hardly impressive. Having money has never meant a person either has scruples or is smart.

•I am portraying ‘us blokes’ ((This oleaginous chumminess is about as puke-making as I can imagine. I am not your mate, mate – you are ignorant, foolish and deceitful. I choose my company a lot more carefully)) as cruel, ignorant and close-minded.

I say this every time I tangle with you people (oh, let’s just give up the pretense – this Kookaburra person is quite obviously someone from the ShooTag cartel) ((The ShooTaggers are quite prepared to pretend to be other people in a number of other forums)): you can convince me instantly that your product is effective by just showing me your science. If your tag works, you can prove it beyond all reasonable doubt by having a third disinterested party do some controlled double-blind experiments. It’s a basic requirement of all new scientific principles to satisfy this one criterion. It’s not even a hard thing to do. And yet you are unable to offer up any such data. Why is that? Because there is none!

My mind will be changed instantly when I see such conclusive proof. I am, in fact, totally open-minded in that respect. Where I am close-minded is when you try and tell me guff about ‘trivector energy fields’ and ‘quantum fractal geometry’ and ‘Schumann Waves’ – all of which constitute high level nonsense. To anyone with even a little scientific knowledge you are quite plainly pulling all this stuff out of your ass. You don’t have the foggiest clue what you’re speaking about.

As for ‘cruel’ – show me on my blog where I’ve been ‘cruel’. Sure, I’ve had fun demonstrating your absolute lack of science acumen, but hey, if you’re making these outrageous claims you’d better be able to deal with criticism or you’re toast.

As for ‘ignorant’, well, let me refer readers back to this post so they can make up their own mind which of us is the one who has never read a science text book in their life.

•I should ‘take a hike in ‘our’ vast and beautiful country and clear my head and discover the beauty of actually LIVING my life’.

Cobber, I’ve plainly seen a lot more of this country than you have with your fake online Australian accent and your shabby virtual Driza-bone. I don’t know who you are ((Although I have a pretty good suspicion)), but your presumption in telling ME to take a hike is as pathetic as it is transparent. I have to ask what it is that you feel threatened by, to undertake these sad little masquerades to defend your product.

If it worked, the simple fact is that you wouldn’t care what a lone Australian blogger thought.

•I haven’t tested the tags myself.

Oh, stay tuned my friend. I’ve got some really interesting things to reveal about ShooTag.






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