Corrections and additions welcome! Add them to the comments.

The story got off the ground thanks to Ben Grubb breaking it first on Tech Wired Australia. Particular thanks for providing some of these links go to Shaun Garrity, Rowen Atkinson, and elbisivni, twice! :)

First a quick list of links, then some extra content.

• 4020.net – NSW Photographer’s Rights: Australian street photography legal issues – including a PDF “Rights Info Sheet”
• OCAU – Overclockers – Photographers Rights, General Privacy, and Copyright in Australia – includes a nice list of links
• artslaw.com.au – Street Photographers Rights
• Taking shots in public places
• Sydney Alternative Media – discussion of a specific case

One of the best resources was the NSW Photographer’s Rights page at http://www.4020.net/words/photorights.php, where in a very extensive post on photographer’s rights, as well as general privacy and copyright issues, these legal points were raised.

“Unauthorised” photography in Australia has in fact been authorised since the 1937 High Court decision in Victoria Park Racing v. Taylor (1937) 58 CLR 479 (at p.496). This was reaffirmed recently in ABC v Lenah (2001) HCA 63, where the Court ruled that despite the passage of decades since Victoria Park, any concept of a “Tort of invasion of privacy” still does not exist in Australia.

As Justice Dowd put it with blunt clarity in R v Sotheren (2001) NSWSC 204:

“A person, in our society, does not have a right not to be photographed.”

In the comments at Tech Wired Australia, Tom McLoughlin pointed to Sydney Alternative Media, where he discusses in depth and provides correspondence in relation to a specific case where he helped with legal representation.

This response from Stephen Blanks, secretary of NSW Council for Civil Liberties, came after the story had already been published on couriermail.com.au, but it’s important to keep in mind that “police have or can be given special powers under anti-terrorism legislation”.
My emphasis added below.

Normally, members of the public have a right to take photographs and film incidents observable from public places and the police have no legal power or moral responsibility to prevent or restrict what they record, provided that the police are not hindered in their activities. Once images are recorded, the police have no power to delete or confiscate them without a court order, even if they think they contain damaging or useful evidence.

However, police have or can be given special powers under anti-terrorism legislation. It takes special knowledge on the part of any member of the public who may be the subject of a demand by police to not film them and to hand over the recording device to be able to work out if the police are legitimately using their special powers.

The NSW Council for Civil Liberties has received a steady stream of complaints from members of the public over the last few years about police demanding that photographs not be taken, including tourists photographing the Sydney Opera House and Bondi Beach.

Stephen Blanks, Secretary NSW Council for Civil Liberties

Other related news links:
Photographers bemused by police warning – ABC Jan 2006
Tourists told to delete APEC photos – ABC Sep 2007

I only have three images available for purchase in my portfolio there. Admittedly they’ve been there for quite a long time but I wonder if the hit rate is because of good keywords, because there are a large number of purchases comparative to views on one of the photos.

One of the images has been purchased by one out of every five people who have viewed it in the last 18 months, while the other has only seen 1% of viewers purchasing.

In the case of the second image, the higher number of views could be a result of more keywords associated with the image, and therefore less specialised searching allowing people with too many interests to view the image. In the first example, a specific few keywords means only people who want that kind of image are seeing it.

Anyway, I thought it interesting that so few photos added to iStockphoto are still giving some sort of a ‘return’, no matter how small.

John Moore, a photographer who was snapping pics just metres from Benazir Bhutto’s motorcade when she was killed, talks about the rally and that day.

The Assassination of Benazir Bhutto | The New York Times

Audio with random photos overlaid is not great. A slideshow with managed photo placement to associated narration is great. For a newsroom that thinks they can’t afford video (they can), well produced audio slideshows are a good way to make your readers more open to the future introduction of video content.

After the first volunteer had to have it pointed out that “racist, terrorism, Muslim” was probably not the vibe the Turkish artist was going for, we were subjected to a bit of long-windedness. Terms like disestablishmentarianism, and supercalafraj – okay, they weren’t thrown about, but everyone was trying for those big, impressive words.

My favourite was ‘bandaid assimilation’. My favourite that is, apart from my own bit of three word self-congratulation.

Unfortunately, I knew both the levels would be lost and my brilliance not recognised simply by saying the words, but neither could I write it out for people. Not surprisingly, “Where, that’s W-H, where the veil. Question mark”, also lost them.

Philistines.

Of the six or seven photos I’ve submitted so far, three have been accepted, which means I have started to build a portfolio of photos there.

These are royalty free stock photos, at very reasonable prices. Have a look at my portfolio of photos, such as it is right now, and hopefully there will be much more there in the future.

One vacuum cleaner sucks, evidenced by the amount of dust collected in this before and after shot. I would guess at several litres of the stuff.

The other sucks not so much – or at least it didn’t suck those several litres picked up by the first.

Kate offered to do ‘snacks’ for a weekend youth camp that we otherwise weren’t involved with, or attending.

We were required to provide much more food than we had initially expected, and stayed up till 1.30am finishing the cook-a-thon. This is a brief story, in pictures, of that evening.

Click here to see the full gallery, with mostly the same pictures.

The tools were ready.

The ingredients were ready.

And Ariel was getting worried about what exactly was going on.

Once we got into it there was quality melting chocolate,

and cheap melting chocolate that just looks wrong, but otherwise was great.

Once the melting had been done,

the ingredients mixed,

and cookies ready to bake,

there were beaters, spoons, and bowls aplenty to be “cleaned”. Mmmmm.

It was all a bit rich though, so some anti-sweeteners were required. Milk and pear had to suffice.

One scoop for the mix, one scoop for Dave. One scoop for the mix, one scoop for Dave.

Jam-drops (pre-cooked), fudge, and chocolate coconut slice were all there too.

The caramel slice needed a base, some caramel, and chocolate over the top!

But it just wouldn’t set in the fridge, ending up in disaster. Oh well, two caramel slices that had to be eaten with a spoon. I wouldn’t recommend it.

Of course, there’s always washing up to do to end the whole process.

Today is also the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

As this post is published, I will be wearing the ribbon while we are out watching Pirates of Penzance, although while wearing some more appropriate clothing for the occassion. I suppose we’re going to the opera, since it’s presented by Opera Australia, although I’m sure it would be classified as a musical.

I may write a review of the show if I find the time in my schedule, busy as it is in this post-exam period.

As vertically challenged people, it can be difficult to find pants that fit to length. Generally in Australia pants are bought on waist size only, unlike in the US where you can choose both waist and leg measurements. This has particularly been a problem for me recently when buying new jeans that are so long as to almost trip me up.

Buying my last pair of jeans was an adventure in itself – at least for the store assistants pictured above – since the last pair my size had to be removed from the mannequin.

Note Exhibit A: a pair of jeans flowing well past my heel, and half way around my foot. Flares may be making a comeback, but I think this is taking it a little too far. So what can be done? Dry-cleaners offer a hemming service, but $15-$20? I think not!

When we were married Kate’s mum gave us an old Singer sewing machine. It sat unused until recently, when I decided something had to be done once and for all about my jean predicament. Note that since about the age of 14 while living at home I had to wash and iron my own clothes, as well as sew my own buttons back on. Yes, a modern day Oliver Twist, if you will.

And so I searched hither and dither on the internet for instructions on how to hem jeans. I seemed to have hit the jackpot at one forum where they talked of the hem tutorial to end all hem tutorials. But, alas, they noted the link had been taken down, and so the search continued.

Never fear, Fig and Plum referenced the very same tutorial (obviously it was a good one), but had also saved the Word document! (DaciaRay.com also created a tutorial with pictures although the following tutorial is the one I used. And so, here, I present to you the document “Hemming Jeans Like a Pro”. You can also get it as a PDF if you prefer, although the file size is much bigger.

Hemming Jeans Like a Pro.doc (0.2mb)
Hemming Jeans Like a Pro.pdf (2.1mb)

And so, having followed the instructions as best I could, you can see the results for yourselves.

Exhibit B: hemmed jeans, well-hemmed, if I say so myself.

Return next week for Home Economics 101, as I present to you, cooking with Dave. Or more accurately, cooking with Kate, with pictures and taste-testing by Dave.

1. how horrific the tripe I wrote was, and
2. how I’m not looking forward to getting it back.

But enough of that, I just wanted to put together a really short video to put it online quickly. It still took a long time to upload on my dialup even though it’s only 44 seconds long.

It’s the duelling hakas from the 2003 World Cup. New Zealand haka vs Samoan haka.

So I hereby institute the Humpday Hieroglyph! Take some time out, and enjoy!

Here’s a poll to see what you think of the name ‘Humpday Hieroglyph’, chosen for its high probability of change. Any suggestions not covered in the poll can go in comments, and obviously the day of the week is flexible.

[poll=3]

Ariel, in happier times.

I thought I’d travelled more. Apparently I’ve visited only 9% of the world’s countries. The map gives the false impression that I’ve been to Alaska and the far reaches of the northern Canadian wilds. I have not.

It’s also obvious that Asia, Africa, South America and the Middle East are in serious need of my presence.

Create your own visited countries map

It’s Stormy the Weather Dog on CBS19, The Eye of East Texas. That’s right, Stormy. The Weather Dog.

It’s a heartwarming tale of poor puppy at Humane Society shelter rescued by the station’s General Manager. Now he takes pride of place alongside all the other anchors. It was the GM himself who came up with the brilliant idea of putting little Stormy on the weather team! He’ll begin appearing with Chief Meteorologist Doc Deason on November 3rd.

I imagine the conversation would have gone something like this:

GM: Weather dude! Because I consider you such a valuable member of my team, I’m assigning my pet dog to work with you. Follow his lead. Haha! Get it?

Chief Meteorologist: HA! HA! HA! HA-HA! That is immeasurably funny! Thank you sir. This is the most excellent plan I have ever had the pleasure of being subjected to. I look forward to working with your lap-dog. And, oh, his picture right next to mine on the website? Oh I get it, because we’re equals…*sob*.

Keep your eye out for Stormy’s appearance.

If the weather dog is wearing a sweater viewers will know they are in store for a cool weather forecast. If Stormy is dressed in a parka, those tuning in will know it is time to bundle up.

I bet everyone’s thanking their GM for this one. This is CBS19, The Butt of East Texas Jokes.

Sorry, what is it?

It’s SUPERAPPLE!

MacNN has posted some of the contents of a patent filed by Apple for a “Multi-functional hand-held device”, which isn’t giving a whole lot away. It could be any one, or combination, of those things above. Impressive if they did actually manage to fit all of those features into something smaller than a brick.