Today has been a day of sadness and joy.
This morning we took my fathers ashes to Freshwater West and scattered them overlooking his favourite bay in a brief respite from the downpours across Wales today.
This is tempered by the memories of my father, both here and elsewhere in Pembrokeshire.
Hywl fawr Dad!
Mum put the following acknowledgement in the local paper to thank everyone who was involved both with my fathers last few years and for the funeral.
SAMUEL Robert – Pat and family would like to thank all the carers, past and present, especially Sue Lewis and Carole Lovell from Homecare, the Fairwater District Nurses, the Doctors and Staff of Fairwater Health Centre, especially Dr Shon Phillips, the Doctors and Nurses of Ward East 2 at Llandough Hospital for their care of Bob, and help to Pat. Thanks also to Andrew Forse from J Pidgeon & Son, for his courtesy, and the Rev Martin Colton for the lovely service.
On Monday my father passed away at the age of 82.
SAMUEL Robert Alan Peacefully on Feb 25, 2008 at Llandough Hospital, beloved husband of Pat, loving father of Christopher and Alan, father-in-law of Donna and Jan, loving brother of Jean and her husband Tony, brother-in-law of Mike and Sue, uncle to Michael, Katherine and Richard. Resting at J Pidgeon & Son, Victoria Park, Cardiff until the funeral on Monday, March 3, service at 11.15am in the Briwnant Chapel at Thornhill Crematorium. Family flowers only, donations in lieu may be sent to Cancer Research (Wales), Velindre Hospital, Whitchurch, Cardiff.
You inspired a love of nature & history that will always be with me.
Love you, Dad.
From the ABC news:
Federal Opposition leader Brendan Nelson has issued another very specific apology to a member of the Stolen Generations. In his speech in reply to the national apology this week, Dr Nelson referred to the story of a Victorian Aboriginal elder, Faye Lyman. But Ms Lyman says Dr Nelson did not ask her if he could use her story. When he incorporated it in what she describes as a “toxic speech”, she says he took her comments out of context, misrepresented the way she was taken from her family, and made her feel “stolen all over again”.
She goes on to say:
My Dad was not happy that I was taken […] They cheated us, they cheated me of my life with him. Now, I feel like I’m stolen all over again. My dignity, and I’m ashamed he’s done this to me, I’m so ashamed.
No wonder that hundreds of people turned their back on him as he spoke in response to the sorry motion in Parliament (see picture 7 in the ABC News slideshow).
I’ve not been able to get to blog for the last week, so I thought my first post would be in support of the Federal Governments apology (flash video) for their treatment of the indigenous peoples of Australia (the text of the motion is here).
So whilst I am a (very) new Australian I recognise the fact that the people who came from the same island that gave me life were responsible for many of the wrongs visited upon indigenous people here, and for that I say sorry.
As a footnote, if you haven’t yet seen the complete footage of the “Welcome to Country” ceremony that preceded the opening of Parliament I suggest you do so soon, it appears it will expire from the ABC News website on the 11th March. 🙁
For those who haven’t seen, there is a local root exploit in what appears to be every Linux kernel from 2.6.1 through to 2.6.24, the bug is fixed in 2.6.24.1 which is out now.
The USGS has reported a magnitude 6.0 quake in the area of Lake Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Lake Kivu is one of three known “exploding lakes“, and Wikipedia says:
The trigger for lake overturns in Lake Kivu’s case is unknown but periodic volcanic activity is suspected. The gaseous chemical composition of exploding lakes is unique to each lake; in Lake Kivu’s case, methane and carbon dioxide due to lake water interaction with a volcano. The risk from a possible Lake Kivu overturn would be catastrophic, dwarfing other documented lake overturns at Lakes Nyos and Monoun, since approximately 2 million people live in the lake basin.
The USGS maps show the epicenter on dry land, but with a possible error margin of over 4 miles it could just be under the southern part of the lake. Even in the current location the USGS shake map shows a large area of the lake that could be affected.
The BBC has the first reports of casualties, though thankfully no reports of a lake overturn.
I have uploaded my photos from Thursday (Day 4) of Linux.Conf.Au 2008 at Melbourne University. They are exclusively of the RepRap that was being shown off today and a gathering of people experimenting with the wireless mesh and collaborative capabilities of the OLPC XO’s that were distributed yesterday. I’ve already heard of at least 2 bugs being found through this release of machines to developers (one by Jason White).
I’ve just rearranged & geocoded all my LCA 2008 photos on Flickr into a set per day, gathered together into a single collection, which makes life easier for people who just want to see what happened on what day! I’ve updated the links on previous blog entries to point to the right set for the day in question too.
I’ve now uploaded more photos onto Flickr from the speakers dinner on Tuesday night held at St Pauls Chapter House (near the cathedral), built in 1891, a lovely building! I don’t have any photos from the day on Tuesday as I had to work.
There are also photos from Day 3 (Wednesday) where at morning coffee there were LWN cakes to celebrate LWN’s 10th birthday and we were distributing OLPC XO laptops to various chosen delegates for them to go develop amazing things with (or give them to someone else who would). It was a great buzz to make peoples day like this, especially when they tell you what they could do with them!
Hence the LWN photo..
