Still here. Still wasting my life, sitting in front of my computer as if something's going to happen. Well, actually, that's not entirely true - I've been to Hanging Rock on a photography trip, then I spent last weekend's long weekend in Castlemaine, checking out the steam trains, Bendigo trams, and a cidery with alisaura. I have loads of photographs to ( Read more... )

As I've mentioned in posts before, New Zealand was the first country to give women the vote, and the only country to do so in the 19th century. Now, take a look at some of the publications on the topic and see if you spot the pattern:

A Fair Field and No Favour: The Story of Margaret Home Sievwright, 1844-1905, Maxine McGrannachan.
Kate Sheppard ( Read more... )

( In which I write at length about history, History, self-identification of myself as a historian, and associated content. )

It's bloody Invasion Day.

( My rant on the farce that is Australia Day. )

Ah, 28/11, what a funny little date in my life you are. When I was informed that I would know the status of my Honours application by the 1st of December, I should have known that I would find out today. The application was pretty much a formality, but I was nonetheless quite excited to open the mail and read that I have been accepted to Honours ( Read more... )

So, it's now the wee hours of the eighth of November. Election day in New Zealand. I cast my vote yesterday, and I am disappointed that my last permanent address in New Zealand falls three properties within the Mana electorate. Mana is safe Labour, while Otaki, the electorate on the other side of the Wharemauku Stream, is the most marginal seat ( Read more... )

I have long since made it apparent that I think Sarah Palin has the intellectual abilities and mental capacity of a rotting turnip. But now I think I have been tipped sufficiently far enough over the edge and past the point of frustration that a rant is in order. Sarah Palin is doing her best to lead an anti-intellectual crusade by a wing of the ( Read more... )

As somebody aspiring to be an academic historian, two questions routinely trouble me. The first question is one I imagine people aspiring to every field ask themselves, the traditional "can I do it?" That's a matter of skills and job availability, really; I would like to believe I have the former and I desperately hope the latter exists when the ( Read more... )

Many of you would have heard of the book 1421: The Year China Discovered The World by Gavin Menzies. If you haven't, Wikipedia is always handy for a quick overview. Put simply, Menzies makes the assertion that a Chinese fleet discovered vast amounts of the world well before European explorers did, e.g. the Americas, Antarctica, and Australia. ( Read more... )

Two brief flickers of light in my day ( Read more... )