Midnight Oil

[Powderworks] Tips on Oz...

Mike Blackwood mikeb@cs.mun.ca
Wed, 11 Dec 2002 12:05:11 -0330 (NST)


On Tue, 10 Dec 2002, Kate Parker Adams wrote:

> What a wonderful travelogue you have written for us!  I'm going to archive 
> it so I can read it again when we eventually get around to exporting 
> ourselves for a year or two (much better to live there for a while than try 
> to afford time and money for an extended holiday - and since everyone plans 
> to visit us, we won't have to leave for the duration!).

I wish I wrote it.... I only transcribed an unknown author's work.

> p.s. When that horridly reductionist and racist "how to be stupid with 
> statistics" book known as The Bell Curve came out, I suggested that the 
> author be subjected to an Aboriginal IQ test:  strand him in the outback 
> and we'll see just how smart he is!
 
Exactly... I teach children about the northern peoples of my province of 
Canada (Newfoundland & Labrador) at the Provincial Museum.  They at first 
find the ways of life I describe odd, but when I point out that these 
people lived off the land in a place where the land would be leathal to 
most of us wussy city-folk, and were doing it a much as 9000 years ago, 
they become suitably impressed.  (well, if they were paying attention, at 
least...)

Mike