Author Archives: dgm

This morning’s Guardian Australia brings news of the identification of a cockatoo in a Renaissance painting  dated to 1496, which is just too early for any of the European voyages of discovery to have brought the bird back from New … Continue reading →

Some time ago I promised I’d post a review of Under the Sun once I’d finished it – it’s been one of my lunchtime books this year – a book to read a few pages of over lunch – the … Continue reading →

In January we had the nine days wonder of something that looked to be a drawing of a kangaroo turn up in a pre 1600 liturgical manuscript from Portugal and now we’ve had the minor drama of an Edward VI … Continue reading →

Following on from looking at the Linux distros developed in Argentina and Venezuela, I thought I’d broaden my scope a little and see what information I could track down on the use of Linux in other Latin American countries. Now … Continue reading →

Following on from rereading Bruce Chatwin’s In Patagonia I’ve moved on to reading Under the Sun and anthology of his letters and correspondence. As Chatwin was not given to voluminous letters, in fact he seems to have preferred short scribbled … Continue reading →

This morning’s Fairfax Papers ( The Age, The SMH and so on) had quite a nice piece about a marginal drawing of a kangaroo in a pre 1600 Portuguese liturgical manuscript. The dating to before 1600 is significant, previously the … Continue reading →

I’ve just finished rereading Bruce Chatwin’s In Patagonia. I first read it in 1978 or 79, I forget which, and still have my original Picador paperback copy. I remember being impressed by the mystic otherworldliness of Chatwin’s luminous text – … Continue reading →

On 5 September 1607 Hamlet was played on the deck of the English ship Dragon somewhere off the coast of Sierra Leone. The audience included a number of local African notables who were provided with a running commentary in Portugese … Continue reading →

Gold and the Incas is the current summer blockbuster exhibition at the National Gallery of Australia. Billed as following on from their previous summer blockbuster exhibitions, you migh expect it to be a crowded  event where you can hardly see … Continue reading →

Yesterday the Guardian published an article on the use of social media in Saudi Arabia. I’m not surprised. One thing that was very obvious when we were staying at a resort hotel in Habarana earlier this year was the number of … Continue reading →