Washed Away

As the poets have mournfully sung
Death takes the innocent young
The rolling in money
The screamingly funny
And those who are very well hung.

WH Auden



These are the only pictures I have of Tom and Colin; left to right, taken outside my house in Redfern, Sydney.

Young Tom died a copule of weeks ago now from an overdose. The funeral has been and gone. He was full of life, doing well after various hard times, and the whole damn thing made no sense at all. If anyone was going to die it was going to be Colin, who has AIDS and has been bouncing in and out of hospitals for years. Colin was in his 50s and Tom was in his 20s and Colin couldn't believe his luck. Youg company, it seemed, here at the end of our days, was a gift directly from God. The God of saints and sinners, of those who shout pointlessly into the night, the dramas of our own selves bleached in the cruel light.

Colin was an old old friend of mine from the 1970s; a time of parties and freedoms, adventures and discovery. A time when we all embraced in the wild nights. We were a band of crazies hanging out in the then student suburb of Paddington. I had the house next to the Bellevue Hotel; as I think I've said before; and we were constantly getting smashed in the pub and then blowing joints in the loungeroom; the absolute chaos of lost days. I kept bantams in the rundown backyard toilet; and the rooster would crow earnestly each morning, there being no other roosters in the inner-city for it to communicate with. We had painted each pointed top of the iron work gate at the front of the house a different colour, silver pink, orange, green, and we were happy being the souls we were; destiny driven; we were all going to reshape the world.

Colin was there, his face more interesting than handsome as he likes to say, and unlke the rest of us, who in our smoke filled dreams were going to reshape Austrtalian literature, theatre and music; Colin was just there for the good times. He was a party boy par excellence; always good company; and that, at the end of the dya, was his greatest achievement. To keep us all company as we partied till dawn.

Fast forward a few decades and the picture ain't quite so pretty. Colin went to live in Brisbane for a couple of decades; and only came back to this part of the world because he thought he was dying and wanted to be with his family in and around Newcastle. But the new anti-virals are keeping all the Aids boys living a lot longer; and while he thought he was going to die in 2004; here it is 2007 and he's still going. And he and Tom had formed this friendship; which Colin thought was a gift from God for all that he had been through; to make up for all the friends who had died and the tragedy of his recent years. But it was not to be. Tragedy compounded on tragedy; and Tom was found dead. Over-dosed. He'd been on some program, he'd looked wonderfully healthy and happy last time I saw him; and the convoluted insanities that kept our lives going; these played out in the saddest ways. Washed away.


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George Bush: Iraq must not become Vietnam

By Alex Spillius in Washington
Last Updated: 8:20pm BST 22/08/2007

President George W Bush has turned the comparison between Iraq and Vietnam on its head in a speech to war veterans, arguing that America's experience in south-east Asia support the case for keeping US troops in the Middle East.

George Bush compared Iraq and Vietnam at a speech to war veterans
George W Bush made his case to veterans of past conflicts

He said that the rapid US withdrawal from Vietnam and Cambodia in 1975 had led to bloodbaths, persecution of those who worked for the Americans and the boat people refugee crisis.

He argued that a premature US exit from Iraq could have similar consequences.

"Many argued that if we pulled out, there would be no consequences for the Vietnamese people," he said, addressing the Veterans of Foreign Wars association in Kansas City.

"The world would learn just how costly these misimpressions would be. In Cambodia, the Khmer Rouge began a murderous rule in which hundreds of thousands died by starvation, torture, or execution.
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"In Vietnam, former American allies, government workers, intellectuals, and businessmen were sent off to prison camps, where tens of thousands perished."

Mr Bush has always avoided comparisons between Iraq and Vietnam, which is seen as America's most calamitous defeat. From the start of the Iraq war critics have said it will prove another quagmire and graveyard for US troops.

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Ladies And Gentlemen Google Earth Offers You The Sky
by Anne Shaw
August 22nd 2007

Have you ever wondered how it feels to explore space without any limitations or fears? How it feels to be in search of a star or a planet, even without to be an astronomer? Well, from today on, you may just get a hint about those kind of feelings thanks to the new add-on introduced by Google in its Google Earth program: Sky.

With this new feature, you may float through the sky as seen from our planet and, according to Google, you have no less than 100 million individual stars and 200 million galaxies to view and explore.

"We’re excited to provide users with rich astronomical imagery and enhanced content that enables them to both learn about what they’re seeing above and tell their own stories," said Lior Ron, Google Product Manager. "By working with some of the industry’s leading experts, we’ve been able to transform Google Earth into a virtual telescope."

Sky combines high resolution imagery and informative overlays in order to create a unique playground for visualizing and learning about space. The images used to recreate the sky are offered the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI), the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the Digital Sky Survey Consortium (DSSC), CalTech’s Palomar Observatory, the United Kingdom Astronomy Technology Centre (UK ATC), and the Anglo-Australian Observatory (AAO).

The Digitized Sky Survey comprises photographic surveys of nearly the entire sky and contains about a million objects. The Sloan survey comprises images of hundreds of millions of much fainter objects and covers more than a quarter of the sky.

"Sky is a very cool new feature for anyone who has ever looked up at the sky and wanted to know more," said Sally Ride, former astronaut and CEO of Sally Ride Science. "I think this is a great tool for satisfying that curiosity."

And you will never get bored as Google has introduced seven amazing layers to illustrate celestial events. For example, thanks to Constellations, you may learn about the stars that make up a specific constellation from Cassiopeia to Andromeda. All you need to do is just to click the desired name and the layer will connect the points of constellations through space.

If you want to learn about the Planets or the Moon, Sky offers two layers which display animations of two months of both lunar positions and moon phases and the position of the planets in the sky two months into the future.