Speed Demons (courtesy of sciencefriday.com)

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I just listened a podcast episode of Science Friday, as their video of the week on 

their website they described the video below. After just having watched it I 

thought I might share it with you (it is about four minutes long):

Mini Speed Demons

From mantis shrimp to trap-jaw ants, some of the fastest organisms on the 

planet are ones you may never have heard of. Biologist Sheila Patek, of the 

University of Massachusetts Amherst, says the creatures she studies move at 

speeds that are hard for us to imagine, let alone perceive. Patek shared some of 

her high-speed video and explained how these organisms pull off their top 

speeds. footage and images courtesy of sheila patek, patrick green, roy caldwell. 

music by philip lynch, freemusicarchive. produced by flora lichtman

Dual Citizen - Dual Duties

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Having a dual citizenship (Australian and Finnish) affected some dual action over 

the last few days: Yesterday was the Australia Day, and I went to Newport Beach 

Australia Day Ceremonies for my never-ending photo-opportunities (see the 

resulting subdued photo set here), and I'm just back from the Finnish Consulate 

in Sydney, where I exercised my right to vote in Finnish elections. It's the second 

round of the Presidential Elections, with two candidates left, since nobody 

received a simple majority of more than 50 % of the votes on the first round. 

The contest now is between the candidates from the Kokoomus Party 

(conservatives) and the Greens Party, Sauli Niinistö and Pekka Haavisto 

respectively. My vote went to Haavisto, the green underdog, who also happens to 

be openly gay. It was remarkable that on the first round more than a third of the 

voters in the capital Helsinki gave their vote to him.

At the pre-polling station, the Finnish Consulate, I was predictably not allowed to 

take photos, but before asking I managed to steal this photo of the voting 

officials' desk, with the current President of Finland Ms. Tarja Halonen in the 

black-and-white photo on the wall in the background. I embedded the images of 

Haavisto and Niinistö to the left and right respectively:

By the way, my other civic duty, the pending jury service here in Sydney, is still 

up in the air. I haven't yet received a reply to my exemption application! And I'm 

now officially enrolled to start my full time ceramics studies at the same time as 

the trial (which is estimated to last 12 weeks) I'm booked for my jury duty starts.

Australia Day 2012 Event at Newport Beach

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Pittwater Council Awards, and Australian Citizenship Ceremonies

at Newport Beach on Australia Day 26th of January, 2012.

A plant for every new Australian Citizen.

Maria Venuti.

Pittwater Citizen of the Year (Senior) Betty Snelling.

Pittwater Citizen of the Year, Lorrie Morgan.

Pittwater Mayor, Harvey Rose.

Thong Throwing.

Some of State Emergency Services (SAS) staff.

From Rural Fire Services.

Pittwater Ocean Swims No 4: Mona Vale (Warriewood)

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My prior Pittwater Ocean Swim Series posts:

Palm Beach to Whale Beach (29 Jan 2012)
http://theridoureport.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/pittwater-ocean-swims-no-5-palm-beach.html

Avalon (15 Jan 2012)

http://theridoureport.blogspot.com/2012/01/avalon-big-swim-and-one-impressive-lady.html

Newport (2 Jan 2012)

http://theridoureport.blogspot.com/2012/01/pittwater-ocean-swims-no-2-newport-2.html

Bilgola (9 Dec 2011)

The Lead-up: http://theridoureport.blogspot.com/2011/12/bilgola-big-swim-i-pre-race.html

The Swim: http://theridoureport.blogspot.com/2011/12/bilgola-big-swim-part-2-action.html

And the Babewathers:  http://theridoureport.blogspot.com/2012/01/babewatch-charity.html