interesting people, part 5 (Germaine Greer)

Happy Birthday Germaine Greer. She turned 68 today.

Ms Greer is one of Australia's foremost intellectuals, even though she lives in the United Kingdom now.

She is provocative and is sometimes full of it, but she makes people think.

She is also a renown feminist, having written the seminal feminist text, The Female Eunuch.

She was also an influential member of The Push, an intellectual movement in Australia.



*Don't forget to check out Shamus for The Ongoing Barks of a Well Read Dog (who is continuing Cammie's legacy)

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Oh what an interesting evening. I thought today was going to be regular. After work, my human came home as usual. Okay.

Tonight, Mary and Margaret came over. They had beer, then wine with haggis and mash (must be the leftover haggis from Thursday). And now Margaret is sleeping over in my other room. And she wouldn't let me sit on her lap at all!

Instead of just lounging on the couch, they were mostly outside on the deck.

Interesting people, part 4 (Derek Paravicini)

The last time I wrote about interesting people (or rather an interesting person) was back on 24 April last year.

Derek Paravicini is a pianist. He is also blind, autistic and has severe learning disabilities. He is also a genius savant.



His story is remarkable. He was born premature at 25 weeks and 'died' three times. At four years old, his talent was realised when he heard a piano being played and ran over and played the exact same music.

You can read more about him at
- UK Daily Telegraph of 17 September 2006
- Derek Paravicini (official website)

*For more kitty thoughts, check out Camilla.

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Splat is a cat who lives at the pet shop at the markets. When my human returned home from work today he asked me if I knew Splat. D'uh! Of course I don't know Splat. He lives in a shop, with rabbits and mice, and rats and goldfish. Hmmmm... perhaps I could go and visit him at the shop. Mice...

Anyway, not much to report today.

Interesting people, part 3 (Nelson Mandela)

All cats and their humans will know of Nelson Mandela, so I won't write much here. His prisoner number was 46664, which is now used in association with his Nelson Mandela Foundation.



Ingrid who came to visit me was telling me that she has met Mr Mandela. She is from South Africa. That would be amazing. Mr Mandela is in the same league as Mahatma Gandhi (leaving comparisons of political methodology aside).

Football - Round 5 - my team is thrashed! Here are the stats.

WEST COAST 4.4 13.9 17.14 23.19 (157) defeated
BRISBANE 3.2 6.3 8.10 12.12 (84)
GOALS: West Coast: Q Lynch 4, D Chick 3, A Embley 2, M Gardiner 2, A Hunter 2, A Sampi 2, M Seaby 2, D Banfield, M Braun, C Fletcher, A Hansen, P Matera, T Stenglein.
Brisbane: C Scott 5, J Akermanis 3, C Keating 2, N Lappin, M Voss.
BEST: West Coast: D Chick, B Cousins, A Hansen, C Fletcher, T Stenglein, C Judd, A Embley.
Brisbane: J Akermanis, C Scott, N Lappin, C Johnson, J Sherman.
Umpires: M Vozzo A Davis M Avon.
Official Crowd: 33,007 at Gabba.

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The catless Charles and Ingrid stayed overnight in my day bed (they came all the way from Sydney). It seems that Charles also has an allergy to me! They may not be adopted by a cat in the end. Hopefully anti-cat allergy pill will be developed very soon.

I was interested to learn that Charles went to high school with my human (and is my human's oldest friend, in terms of years known)! Charles and Ingrid got married in February, but my human missed the wedding, so he gave them a belated gift this time. Any cat who adopts them will be very lucky indeed (allergies notwithstanding).

keisercat@wildmail.com

Interesting people, part 2 (Peter Singer)

Peter Singer is the Ira W De Camp Professor of Bioethics, University Center for Human Values, Princeton University (part-time) and Laureate Professor, University of Melbourne, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics (part time).

He wrote the book Animal Liberation which set the animal rights movement in motion.

Peter Singer has also written on various other issues to do with life and death, and animal ethics etc from an interesting perspective. Cats and humans may not necessarily agree with everything he writes about (or says), but he is provocative which is not a bad thing. It makes us think about issues and to have an open mind.


Professor Peter Singer

You can read more about Peter Singer from his homepage and from Pablo Stafforini's Utilitarian Philosophers series: Peter Singer.

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Today was another warm day. I refused to eat potatoes for breakfast (even if they sorta taste like chicken, well I guess they would having absorbed all the chicken stock). So I had a tiny piece of ham instead.

I spent most of the day napping on the couch listening to ABC Classic FM. More diced potatoes for dinner (the bits of chicken are a bit too dispersed). Ho hum. I hope tomorrow is Wednesday as my butcher will be open. I hope I get some tinned fancy feast tuna for breakfast in the morning!

keisercat@wildmail.com

Interesting people, part 1 (Paul Davies)

Since my diary/blog started, I've written about some interesting things. Well, things that I find interesting anyway.

Some humans also have interesting and thought provoking ideas.

Professor Paul Davies, head of The Australian Centre for Astrobiology at Macquarie University in Sydney is one of the leading minds in astrophysics and astrobiology today.

My human says that one of the best books written on the Grand Unified Theory and Superstring Theory is Superforce by Paul Davies (even though it is about 10 years old now).

Professor Davies has interesting ideas on cosmology, other life in the universe, time travel etc.


Professor Paul Davies

You can read more about Professor Davies on his website.

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Today was a strange day. My human was home with me all day instead of going to work. When I want him to stay, he leaves. When I want to do my own thing, he stays. I pretty much ignored him all day and napped on my towel on the couch. I guess he wasn't feeling well enough to go to work.

Jack and Bad Cat's humans, Jess and Mans came by this evening but they didn't stay long as it was a "school" night (that is, go to work the next day) and my human needed his rest before going to work tomorrow. But they were here long enough to have vegetarian risotto (made with fresh onions, roma tomatoes, butternut pumpkin, mushrooms and asparagus and lots of freshly grated parmesan cheese).

I also enjoyed sitting on Jess' lap. I even walked across the dining table to get to her lap even though I wasn't supposed to (but there was no food on it by then). They listened to Rufus Wainwright (I will write more about him soon). Jack and Bad Cat have their own Caster pages (under my friends' list).


Rufus Wainwright - Want One CD cover

keisercat@wildmail.com