foggy morning

... feast 2

the bombe

the second slice

the grilled prawn

the feast

the stilton

the trifle

the brownies

chook, cat and reflections

Stanmore shadows

Moon: solstice eclipse

bowl and plates

Marinara

Trecini

summer hail ... and ale!

Budweiser Budvar Dark Lager

Premium Dark Lager s produced in the same manner as original Premium Lager with the use of the finely selected Žatec hop, Moravian malt, water from 300 m deep Artesian wells and three types of special colour barley malt: Munich, caramel and roasted.

It is characterized by its significant dark colour, dry, fine bitter caramel flavour without dominant sweetness, The flavour is made delicious by the roasted malt.

London student demo

NEGATIVE DIALECTICS: ADORNO

Liu Xiaobo: Nobel Peace Prize 2010

The Nobel Peace Prize 2010 was awarded to Liu Xiaobo "for his long and non-violent struggle for fundamental human rights in China".

For over two decades, Liu Xiaobo has been a strong spokesman for the application of fundamental human rights also in China. He took part in the Tiananmen protests in 1989; he was a leading author behind Charter 08, the manifesto of such rights in China which was published on the 60th anniversary of the United Nations' Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the 10th of December 2008. The following year, Liu was sentenced to eleven years in prison and two years' deprivation of political rights for “inciting subversion of state power". Liu has consistently maintained that the sentence violates both China's own constitution and fundamental human rights.

The campaign to establish universal human rights also in China is being waged by many Chinese, both in China itself and abroad. Through the severe punishment meted out to him, Liu has become the foremost symbol of this wide-ranging struggle for human rights in China.

Albert Gregory plate, bowl, vase and painting

Albert Gregory is recorded as an apprentice at Minton and later at Derby, Osmaston Road in the 1890s. His bouquets featured a fully-blown cabbage rose, now generally referenced as 'The Gregory Rose'.

Bowl close up - showing signature

Katoomba: summer rain

William Cooper Kristallnacht protest 1938

It's 72 years since the terrible night in Germany and Australia called Kristallnacht - the Night of Broken Glass. The organised mass violence against Jews saw rampaging Nazis smash Jewish stores and properties, kill nearly 100 people and intern 36,000 others in camps.

William Cooper

A month later, across the other side of the world in Melbourne, a remarkable elderly man organised a protest march to the German consulate, the only private demonstration against the pogrom of that night. The man was William Cooper, now recognised as one of the founders of modern Aboriginal activism, who fought for the plight of many oppressed groups as well as his own people.

Shmuel Rosenkranz was only 10 when the Nazis stormed his hometown of Vienna in the terrifying attacks of Kristallnacht. He and some of his family were among the relative few to escape the destruction of that night.

Decades later, he was to discover in his new home on the other side of the globe that back in 1938, an Australian man had stood up for the Jews in the only known private protest against Kristallnacht.

Shmuel Rosenkranz: "In my opinion, the man was a great humanist, above all."

William Cooper wasn't just half a world away from the Nazi horror, he was a man disenfranchised in his own country, the founder of the Australian Aborigines' League.

Aged 77, William Cooper led a delegation from his house in Melbourne's inner-west to the German consulate in the city to deliver a resolution, "... against the cruel persecution of the Jewish people by the Nazi Government of Germany and asking that the persecution be brought to an end."