WOW!

Stock Vectors

2008-05-28T10:45:00.000+10:00

Lately i have been right into vector design, and ive been looking around at the cool stuff people have been creating and chucking up on the net.
I found this cool website that allows users to put their pieces up on the internet, and it also allows other users to download the illustrator files, and use or learn from them. It is a great way to learn how to do vector design.

The website is Vecteezy! You can find it at: http://www.vecteezy.com/

35 Beautiful Bright, Colorful Web Designs

2008-05-21T16:56:00.000+10:00

The skillfull use of colors is a talent that all designers should possess. When used excessively, a design can look scattered, "rainbow-like", and distracting. When used too sparingly, a design can look bland.

View these 35 Designs here: http://sixrevisions.com/web_design/bright_colorful_web_designs/

20 Useful Tools to Make Web Development More Efficient

2008-05-20T16:41:00.000+10:00

I was just surfing the net and found some pretty cool tools for css, javascript and what not. They are designed to make web development projects quicker and more productive. The tools described below are a variety of utilities, optimizers, testing, and debugging tools aimed towards helping developers create websites more efficiently.

Check the tools out here: http://sixrevisions.com/tools/20_web_development_tools/

Blink 182 - Always ... Music Video

2008-05-18T11:32:00.003+10:00

I was checking out a filming technique that is used in the music video, Blink 182 - Always.

Then i found this awesome lego version of the music video, it's funny as. Watch the top video first, and then watch the lego version which is right underneath.

Blink 192 (Real Version)

Lego Version

Most Incredible/Ridiculous Instrument Ever

2008-05-17T14:55:00.002+10:00

Well, this video introduces an instrument which is similar to a pipe organ... only 10 times smaller and 1000 times more confusing to use! The man in this video obviously knows how the instrument works, and he is either a genius... or an idiot.. maybe both?

Either way, this is a BAD Design!

3rd Main Project - Pullins Ski Hire

2008-05-14T18:57:00.007+10:00

After doing some in depth research on the culture of snowboarding, i have found that a large amount of skateboarders, surfers and even musicians take snowboarding as a hobby or even professional sport.
A prime example is Shaun White, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shaun_White). He is notable for competing in the X Games, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/X_Games), in the skateboarding and also snowboarding events, while also winning gold at the Olympics for snowboarding.

Taking all this into account, i have taken into consideration the design and culture that hobbies and sports have originated from. Their design and culture in ways, has many common links such as: design, music styles & attitudes.

I will be taking in consideration the designs and cultural backing in my design for the Pullins Ski Hire Website.

Concept Presentation #2 - Personal Reflection

2008-05-12T13:46:00.006+10:00

After our presentation today, Mark and Troy were happy with our presentations and the current situation Root Negative One are at ....except.... they had one issue with our project:

Inconsistency with the four different groups.

By this, the Mark and Troy meant that they weren't too 'sold' by our design consistency between the concept, web, video and print teams.
We are having a meeting at 1pm this afternoon to clear up any confusions with the project, and to ensure that all our pieces of work are consistent among all four teams. The basic style guide is now available for each of the groups to download and implement.

The style guide can be found here: http://anem.com.au/aaron/boredStyleGuide.pdf

To Die For Clothing

2008-05-05T15:43:00.012+10:00

Yesterday I found an interesting clothing brand labelled, "To Die For Clothing". This clothing brand was created by a 19 year old guy working full time during the day, and part-time printing clothing in his basement during the nights. His highly detailed prints soon became globally popular and this small part-time job has now become a large clothing brand, popular among the skateboarding and punk music scene.
The artwork resembles tattoo design and takes his influences from punk rock/hardcore music.

To Die For's artwork is definitely worth checking out: http://www.todieforclothing.com/

U2 3D

2008-05-02T10:36:00.006+10:00

I went to see U2 3D at Imax on Wednesday night, and it was definitely worth seeing!
The screen is huge and the images on screen are 10 times larger than traditional cinema format, while also being in 3D format. The film was a recording of U2 playing in a live stadium in South America on their 'Vertigo' Tour.
The experience was amazing, it is almost like you are actually at the concert. The band members on stage feel as if they are just metres away from you, the whole atmosphere felt so realistic.
To U2's credit, they also played a great live event! Which is probably one of the reasons why they are one of the biggest bands in the world..

The 3D structure of stadium also gave myself more thought into perspective for my final project design.

Perspective Drawing

2008-04-27T10:49:00.003+10:00

Today i found a interesting Perspective Drawing website which has some nice examples on how to draw different objects in a 3D atmosphere.
There are 20 different examples with included documentation that gives tips and information on how to draw and create similar objects in 3D space.

"ArtyFactory" is the company that has produced these examples, which they can be found at: http://www.artyfactory.com/perspective_drawing/perspective_index.htm

Pullins Ski Hire

2008-04-21T14:07:00.000+10:00

After recommendations from friends and many phone calls and emails, i have landed myself a client for the final project.

Pullins Ski Hire (http://www.pullins.com.au/) have approved my proposal and are happy for me to recreate their website. Through continuous communication between Pullins and myself, the final project should satisfy both my own and the clients expectations.

Furthered Study Of After Effects: Using Tutorials

2008-04-15T12:49:00.001+10:00

This is the kind of stuff that can be created using simple After Effects tutorials. I'll further my research and upload my continual learning process..

Main Project: Showreel using After Effects

2008-04-14T12:30:00.000+10:00

Well... since I've been doing the Digital Imaging subject, it has got me thinking about my main project for the Multimedia Studio class...
I have been considering creating a motion graphic montage/showreel of all my work. So something similar to this:

After Effects

2008-04-08T23:11:00.001+10:00

After Effects is a huuuuge program, with heaps of capabilities.. and i have been researching what can be done using this program.

A great tutorial website called Creative Cow Media has heaps of different tutorials for After Effects and is definitely worth checking out, for the beginner user up to the advanced users.

Source:
Creative Cow Media: http://forums.creativecow.net/

Critique Your Design

2008-03-28T10:33:00.002+11:00

Critiquing your design is an important step in ensuring that you have a working, attractive website or blog for users to view.

With Mark at Uni emphasizing the point of making sure our css websites are usable, with the in class testing exercise. I then started researching on how to critique a design and how to check for usability problems.
I have found that CSS Creator (www.csscreator.com), is a useful forum with enthusiastic users that are able to assist when i had css queries that i was unsure about.

While looking around for information on "Critiquing Design", i found an interesting article at Skelliewag.org (http://www.skelliewag.org).

The article can be found at: http://www.skelliewag.org/critique-your-design-24.htm

Your website or blog’s design is important. It’s the medium your readers use to interact with and consume what you create. Most of all, it represents an opportunity: to draw readers into your content by presenting it as clearly and functionally as possible.

That’s all well and good, but a more difficult question to answer is: does my design work? Is it a tool my readers use, or an obstacle they have to work around?

In this post, I want to help you look at your design with fresh eyes by offering a list of 11 questions — questions you can answer that, when combined, should give you a general idea of the effectiveness of your design, as well as identifying areas that could be improved.

Compatability

1. Have you tested it in another browser?
If you’ve only ever viewed it in Firefox, check that it works in Internet Explorer, and vice versa. These browsers each interpret code differently and the process can make a website that looks fine in one browser completely unusable in another — blocking out around half your potential readers.

Uniqueness

2. Have you seen another blog or website that looks very similar?
You’re probably both using the same theme. This happens a lot, but when it does, you want to implement some tweaks to make your theme unique. This can be achieved by adding a unique header image, changing the color scheme of text and links, re-arranging the page elements, and so on.

Visitors will remember a unique design and recognize your blog when they see it again. Your design certainly doesn’t have to be gorgeous but it should be different. Scobleizer’s design is very ordinary but you probably won’t come across another blog with a photo of Robert Scoble as its header image. Unless it was a Robert Scoble fan blog, of course…

Readability

3. Do your headlines stand out?
Most designs do this by default but yours might be one of the few that don’t.

There’s a reason newspapers use big, prominent headlines. You should them to be doorways to your content — the more prominent and interesting they are, the easier it is for your reader to get a foot in the door.

4. Is there enough space between rows of text?
There’s nothing more painful than trying to read lines of text stacked on-top of each other with little or no spacing. Adding some space between the lines will help your readers to consume content faster and more easily.

5. Does you color scheme make it easy to read?
Black on white is easy to read. Grey on black isn’t. In fact, anything on black and readability suffers. Faint colors on light backgrounds are also a headache (though designers seem ever-increasingly fond of this combo).

6. Is there white-space around your content?
This means, is there a bit of empty space between your content and other elements? If your content runs right up to the edge of the screen, or runs too close to your side-bar, this can affect readability because it becomes more difficult for they eye to separate your content from everything else. Here’s a site that uses plenty of white-space to good effect. Also, your white-space doesn’t have to be white — any background color will do.

An easy way to increase white-space is to make your content-column narrower, or add more padding around it.

Usability

7. Do all your links work?
Sometimes it can be easy to assume that because something should work, it does work. I learned this the hard way when a reader sent an e-mail informing me that several links in the category menu were broken. Worst of all, I added them a few weeks before I got the message. If I had given each link a quick click to make sure it worked the problem would have been avoided.

Broken links send the message that your site is neglected — even though this usually isn’t the case at all. Take the time to check the links in your design.

8. Are your most important pages easy to access?
Your About page, your Contact page, your Archives (if you have them), Categories (if you have them), and feed link (if you have one) are an important part of how readers work through your content. If these pages are buried under ads or obscured behind other, less-essential links, your readers will find it difficult to work with your site.

9. Is your category list short and useful?
Others will disagree with me, but I’m a firm believer that any category list containing more than 20 categories is no longer fulfilling its purpose. If your category list is too big readers will ignore it. The smaller it is, the more likely they are to give it a quick once-over and see if any of the topics take their interest.

10. Is everything clearly marked?
Sometimes you encounter a link or page element which seemed self-evident to the author but makes no sense to you. Label the elements of your sidebar and the different links you might have inserted at the bottom of your content.

Stating the obvious can be a faux pas in conversation, but your readers might appreciate it. What seems obvious to one person can be very confusing to another.

Advertising and Monetizing

11. Does your site contain in-text ads (like ContentLink)?
If yes, my advice would be to cancel the service. These ads rely on readers confusing them with ordinary links. The loss of a reader is a significant price to pay for 2c.

12. Are your ads a barrier to your content?
I’ve seen a lot of sites lately with a block of AdSense inserted under content headlines, forcing readers to scroll over it if they want to read what they came for. The advertisement tells them: “If you want the content, you have to go through me first” — in other words, I’m going to take from you before I give.

This is, of course, not what the author is thinking. It seems logical to put ads where the reader’s eyes are — in the content. In the short-term it might increase clicks but I think such practice damages the respect your readers have for you. In the long-term this can be crippling.

When you’re done

Now that you’ve worked out areas your site’s design could be improved the next step is implementing the changes you need. Some of them will require a little CSS know-how — but don’t run for the hills yet.

I learned what I know of CSS by Googling the questions I wanted answered. If you want to change the color of links on your page, Google “How do I change the color of links CSS”, for example. There are CSS tutorials on every topic and many of them are targeted at beginners. So far, I haven’t had a CSS question that couldn’t be answered by searching.

With a little work you can tweak your design into something your readers will truly enjoy interacting with.

Testing of my CSS Assignment

2008-03-21T16:21:00.005+11:00

To ensure that i complete a working, error free assignment, i began testing my CSS Website on internet browsers such as:

- Mozilla FireFox (http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/)
- Microsoft Internet Explorer (http://www.microsoft.com/windows/downloads/ie/getitnow.mspx)
- Safari (http://www.apple.com/safari/)

This testing process enables me to find out what errors and bugs my assignment has, and enables myself to fix these, ensuring i have a cohesive website for all major Internet Browsers.

Known bugs in Mozilla FireFox:

- None

Known errors in Internet Explorer:

- Text appearing at an incorrect size.
- Box alignment not correct.

A look at previous "Rip Curl Pro" designs

2008-03-21T16:13:00.008+11:00

A look at previous "Rip Curl Pro" designs -

After attending the Rip Curl Pro surfing competition, and the Rip Curl after party.. i began to look at the way they use design to attract customers to buy their clothes and attend their events.

Generally Rip Curl's poster design is bright colours contrasting on dark colours, with large bold text emphasizing the title of each event.

Rip Curl Pro Website, "Rip Curl Pro 2008",
http://www.ripcurl.com/?proHome_en, [accessed: 21/03/08]

Juxtapoz / Desktop

2008-03-17T21:11:00.004+11:00

Juxtapoz, Art and Culture Magazine.
An interesting digital art magazine that is definitely worth checking out!

Desktop - Australian Design, Digital Culture, Melbourne
Has plenty of good tutorials and eye candy.

Assignment Update

2008-03-10T13:21:00.004+11:00

My Layout so far:

Things to do this week:

Complete layout.
Make the website usable in dreamweaver.
Design the logo.

CSS Resources:

2008-03-03T18:10:00.002+11:00

A forum for css troubleshooting: http://csscreator.com/css-forum/

XHTML/CSS for beginners to advancers: http://www.welovecss.com/

Logo Resources

2008-03-03T18:01:00.005+11:00

An interesting post on logo design:

"10 trends that will define logo design in 2008"
http://www.logoorange.com/logo-design-08.php [accessed 3/3/08]

---------------------------------------

Logo's to look at for inspiration:

"My Corporate Logo"
http://www.mycorporatelogo.com/Portfolio.aspx [accessed 3/3/08]

HRFF New Zealand Poster

2008-03-03T07:38:00.001+11:00

HRFF New Zealand Poster

Colour Pallettes: More Ideas

2008-03-02T22:34:00.002+11:00

Colour Pallettes: More Ideas

Cool and calming colour schemes may also appeal.

Colour Pallettes:

2008-03-02T22:19:00.004+11:00

Colour Pallettes that may suite my concepts:

These similar colour scheme all feel warm and inviting, something that i feel isn't in the current Human Rights Film Festival websites.

Existing Human Rights Film Festivals:

2008-03-02T21:59:00.003+11:00

Human Rights Arts & Film Festival Australia
http://www.hraff.org.au/

New Orleans International Human Rights Film Festival
http://www.nolahumanrights.org/

Human Rights Film Festival New Zealand
http://www.humanrightsfilmfest.net.nz/

Film Festival One World 2008
http://www.jedensvet.cz/ow/2008/index_en.php?id=84

Verzio 4 International Human Rights Documentary Film Festiva
http://www.verzio.ceu.hu/

Existing Human Rights Film Festivals:

Human Rights:

2008-03-02T20:19:00.002+11:00

Main Human Rights:

- Freedom of speech

- Equality among all people

- Right to religion

Breaches of Human Rights:

2008-03-02T19:58:00.012+11:00

Breaches of Human Rights:

- The Stolen Generation, Aboriginal children taken from their parents.

- Black Power, 1968 Olympics Protest.

- Muslims living in Australia abused.

- Jewish people abused and beaten up in Australia.

- Sweat Shops, people payed very small amounts of money but worked excessively long hours in poor conditions.

- Women's Rights, women burning their bra's in a protest for women's rights.

- Slavery

Kevin Rudd says sorry

2008-03-02T19:35:00.003+11:00

Dylan Welch

February 13, 2008 - 3:36PM

· Standing ovation for PM's speech
· Backs turned on Brendan Nelson
· Keating says words mean more than money
· Tuckey leaves before apology
· Crowds celebrate

Australia has formally apologised to the stolen generations with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd reading a speech in Federal Parliament this morning.

The apology was read at 9am to the minute, as the first action of the second sitting day of the 42nd Parliament of Australia.

Both Mr Rudd and Indigenous Affairs Minister Jenny Macklin received a standing ovation as they entered the Great Hall before the Prime Minister delivered the speech.

The reading of the 361-word apology was completed by 9.30am and was watched by hundreds of parliamentarians, former prime ministers and representatives of the indigenous community.

Former prime ministers Paul Keating, Bob Hawke, Gough Whitlam and Malcolm Fraser and Sir William Deane were all seated on the floor of the Parliament as well as 17 people representing the stolen generation.

Removing a stain from the soul of Australia

In another address directly after reading the apology, Mr Rudd spoke of removing a "stain from the soul of Australia".

"The time has come, well and truly come ... for all Australians, those who are indigenous and those who are not to come together, truly reconcile and together build a truly great nation."

The Prime Minister also discussed the first-hand accounts in the Keating government-sponsored report Bringing Them Home.

"There is something terribly primal about these first-hand accounts. The pain is searing, it screams from the pages - the hurt, the humiliation, the degradation and the sheer brutality of the act of physically separating a mother from her children is a deep assault on our senses and on our most elemental sense of humanity.

"These stories cry out to be heard, they cry out for an apology.

"Instead from the nation's Parliament there has been a stony and stubborn and deafening silence for more than a decade.

"A view that somehow we the Parliament should suspend our most basic instincts of what is right and what is wrong.

"A view that instead we should look for any pretext to push this great wrong to one side.

"To leave it languishing with the historians, the academics and the cultural warriors as if the stolen generations are little more than an interesting sociological phenomenon.

"But the stolen generations are not intellectual curiosities, they are human beings, human beings who have been damaged deeply by the decisions of parliaments and governments.

Time for denial is at an end

"But as of today the time for denial, the time for delay, has at last come to an end."

At 9.28pm Mr Rudd finished his address, and was greeted by loud and lasting applause by both sides of the house.

He reached across the house's table and shook the hand of Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson before returning to the front bench, where he himself applauded.

Brendan Nelson

Dr Nelson then stood and delivered a speech in support of the apology.

"We will be at our best today, and every day, if we call to place ourselves in the shoes of others," he said, "imbued with the imaginative capacity to see this issue through their eyes with decency and respect.

"We cannot from the comfort of the 21st century begin to imagine what they overcame, indigenous and non-indigenous to give us what we have and make us who we are.

"We do know that language, disease, ignorance, good intentions, basic human prejudices and a cultural and technological chasm combined to create a harshness exceed only by the land.

"In saying we are sorry, and deeply sorry, we remind ourselves that each generation lives in ignorance of the long-term consequences of its actions."

At the end of Mr Rudds's speech, all MPs stood except for the Liberal MP Chris Pearce. Mr Pearce did stand after Dr Nelson's speech.

Liberal MPs Wilson Tuckey and Don Randall were not in the chamber.

People watching in the Great Hall turned their backs during Dr Nelson's speech.

Paul Keating: words more important than money

Mr Keating told ABC TV: "This is a day of open hearts.

"A country has always got to look for its golden threads and when we start looking for the black threads you lose your way," he said. "We lost our way for a decade looking for black threads.

"What is important is that when policy cut across the human spirit we are always in for misery and as a consequence the stolen generation was a cut right across the spirit of those people and the soul of the country."

Mr Keating's government was responsible for commissioning a report into the stolen generations which focused on possible processes of compensation.

However today, Mr Keating said words were more important than money.
"It is true the report does in some respects focus on compensation," he said.

"The most important thing is the sorry. The most important thing is the national emotional response. I don't believe that these separations or that sadness will ever be settled in a monetary sense.

"It can never be settled in a monetary sense. Far more important in my term was to settle it in an emotional sense and that's what the prime minister and government have done today.''

Redfern

Mr Rudd's speech received a standing ovation at the Redfern Community Centre, where hundreds gathered.

Residents, workers, families, students and Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore braved the rain to watch the speech via a large outdoor screen.

David Page, composer with the indigenous dance group Bangarra Dance Theatre, said he liked the fact that Mr Rudd made a personal apology.

"It was very moving to see a prime minister with a bit of heart. I loved it when he said he was sorry. There was just something personal about it. It's very hard for a prime minister to be personal," he said.

Enid Williams, 72, who was brought up on a mission in north Queensland after her father was forcibly removed from his family, said she was happy with Mr Rudd's speech, but said it was now important to look to the future.

"I'm 72. The main thing is the young people, to give them a better future."

Martin Place

At Martin Place in Sydney, hundreds of Sydneysiders from all walks of life gathered to watch the Sorry Day celebrations holding Australian, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags.

Men and women in business suits, schoolchildren and other passers-by of all different backgrounds cried, smiled and stood in respect as they listened to Mr Rudd apologise.

Lawn at Parliament House

Many thousands more assembled on a lawn in front of Parliament House to watch the apology on a big screen. As Mr Rudd delivered the first of three sorrys, loud applause and cheering rang out.

Aboriginal flags and Australian flags coloured the air and as Mr Rudd closed his address, the crowd rose to their feet in applause. It was a standing ovation. Many were crying, most were smiling and others just quietly said yes.

As Dr Nelson took the microphone, booing was heard. One woman said he shouldn't have been allowed to speak.

Helen Ford, 70, from Beacon Hill said Mr Rudd's speech was magnificent.

"Mr Rudd's speech was just magnificent. It's a wonderful day. Pity about the Opposition speech."

Ray Finn, 52, from Oodnadatta, South Australia, said: "My family had been affected directly and I felt like the chain had finally broke from us.

"There's still racism to deal with but hopefully from this day we'll go forward together."

Torres Straits Islander Lydia George, from Erub Island, said: "The first speech was very symbolic. The second speaker tarnished it. I was thinking of my granddaughter and her future is now, not tomorrow. She'll face a new future that will be bright. The healing process has began."

Wilson Tuckey

Mr Rudd's speech was not greeted with unanimous approval, however, with Mr Tuckey telling Sky News shortly before 9am he doubted the speech - which has bipartisan support - would change anything.

"So the Prime Minister reads a speech, apparently some people stand up and sit down and then a miracle happens over night, there'll be no petrol sniffing ... and girls can sleep safely in the family bed at night," he said.

When asked by Sky News if he supported the apology, a technical error occurred, with Mr Tuckey telling the camera he was unable to hear the question.

- with Edmund Tadros, Yuko Narushima, Phillip Hudson, Leesha McKenny and AAP

Dylan Welch, "Kevin Rudd says sorry",
http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2008/02/13/1202760342960.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap2 [accessed 1/3/08]

Escalating attacks on Muslims and Arabs in Australia

2008-03-02T19:28:00.000+11:00

By Richard Phillips
20 September 2001

Verbal abuse and physical attacks against Arab immigrants and Muslim residents in Australia began soon after the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington on September 11. During the past week, petrol bombs have been thrown at mosques and schools, while pre-schools and immigrant community buildings have been vandalised or deluged with hate mail and death-threat phone calls.

Arab community leaders report that the number of racist attacks has reached an unprecedented level. They have warned Muslim women to stay indoors or travel in groups after a molotov cocktail was thrown at one person in the West Australian city of Perth. Scores of Muslim women have been spat on or had their veils pulled off.

Telephone hotlines and support groups were established in NSW and Victoria after Arabic community organisations were swamped with phone calls reporting racist incidents. The NSW Community Relations Commission (CRC) has said that its 24-hour Arabic hotlines are receiving hundreds of calls every day and that the service, which had planned to operate for a week, will continue indefinitely. The CRC has also established a Punjabi phone service to cope with increasing incidents of physical attacks and verbal abuse of Sikh residents.

Perhaps the most cowardly attack took place on Thursday in the Brisbane suburb of Karawatha in the state of Queensland, where racist elements stoned a bus carrying primary school children with rocks and bottles. While no one was injured in the attack, the children, aged between five- and 10-years-old, were seriously traumatised and one side of the bus was badly damaged. The primary school, attended by 250 Muslim children, has been placed under 24-hour security.

The following day, two molotov cocktails were thrown at a mosque in Holland Park in Brisbane in the early hours of the morning. Police are also investigating an attempted petrol bombing of an Islamic centre on Queensland’s Gold Coast. A fence outside the centre was spray-painted with the words: “You will die... Blood will be shed. We will kill all Arabs.”

Last Friday over 900 people were evacuated from the Auburn Gallipoli mosque in Sydney after bomb threats were made during a religious service. Bomb threats were also made against the nearby Lakemba mosque and the Islamic College of South Australia in Adelaide, which was forced to close. Break-ins were attempted at a Perth mosque and prayer meetings interrupted several times on the weekend in Darwin, in the Northern Territory, by car passengers shouting racist abuse and death threats.

Ali Roude, chairman of the Islamic Council of NSW, said that his organisation was deeply concerned over the escalating attacks and that a climate of fear, far worse than during the Gulf War, now permeated Arab and Muslim communities.

“We are under siege,” he told the World Socialist Web Site. “Muslim women are afraid to leave home because of harassment, while shopkeepers, small business people, workers, and of course children, are all being affected.

“We’ve been subjected to escalating racial abuse over the last six weeks, encouraged by talkback radio announcers intent on stirring up the worst kind of hatred. They are praying on people’s emotions and winding them up to vilify Muslims or anyone from the Middle East. They have attempted to blame our community for gang rape in Bankstown, the Tampa refugee crisis and now the situation in the US. We regard the terrorist attack in the US as an act of criminality and have made this clear on every occasion. So why is this crime being attributed to us?” Roude asked.

Chadia Gedeon, a coordinator with the Lebanese Community Council in Bankstown in Sydney, told the WSWS the council had been inundated with accounts of harassment. These calls, she explained, began to increase in late August, after a front-page story in the Murdoch-owned Daily Telegraph, Australia’s largest circulation tabloid. The newspaper claimed that gangs of Lebanese youth were involved in a wave of sexual assaults throughout Sydney’s southwestern suburbs. She said that multiple copies of the newspaper were delivered to schools in these areas.

“Now we are being blamed for events in the US and are at the receiving end of all sorts of foul language and threats. This includes women and children. Taxi drivers, especially those who display Islamic emblems in their cars or play Arabic music, have also been targeted. I know drivers who have had beer thrown in their faces and sworn at. We are all being put in the same basket and blamed for everything.” Gedeon said that Lebanese Community Council employees were forced to evacuate their office three times last week after several serious death threats.

Despite universal condemnation of the terrorist attack in the US and appeals for tolerance by Arab community leaders, senior figures in the Howard government are whipping up racialism, claiming that refugees and asylum seekers could have links with terrorists. Defence Minister Peter Reith made a number of press comments last week reiterating remarks by US Deputy Secretary of State, James Kelly, that Indonesia could be a launching pad for terrorist activity and that Australia should boost protection of its borders.

Attorney General Daryl Williams, the Minister responsible for domestic intelligence, has called for increased surveillance of immigrants while Queensland Liberal MP Peter Slipper claimed there was “an undeniable linkage between illegals and terrorists”. When asked what evidence he had to substantiate this allegation, all that Slipper could offer was that “many refugees came from Afghanistan.”

The tabloid press and talkback radio have maintained a steady stream of inflammatory comment. Hours after passenger jets slammed into the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, talkback radio falsely reported that public celebrations were being held in the Sydney suburb of Lakemba. Alan Jones, a key supporter of Australian Prime Minister John Howard and 2UE talkback announcer, told his listeners that the terrorist attacks were “an act of religious war” and that “sleepers” or foreign terrorists were “infiltrating our communities and waiting, sometimes for years, to act on instructions.”

Jones singled out Afghan refugees in particular and then declared that Islam was responsible for a recent gang rape in Sydney. “Are the Muslim rapes of Australian women in the Bankstown area the first signs of an Islamic hatred towards the community that welcomed them here years ago? Have we now, because of multiculturalism, created an Islamic community in Australia that’s more aligned with Islam than it is with Australia?”

On September 13, Piers Akerman, a senior journalist with the Daily Telegraph, called for heightened surveillance of all under-developed countries and Muslims in Australia. “The spotlight must now be turned on the Third World which is responsible today for the delivery of international terrorism. ... How... do Muslim residents in Australia differ in their views from those of the Taliban or others capable of ordering these atrocities? If we have to sacrifice some elements of our privacy in the interests of enhanced security, then so be it.”

Five days later in an article headlined “Opening our doors to a wave of hatred,” he described the terror attack on the US as a “wakeup call to Australia to reexamine its policy of multiculturalism”. Without any evidence whatsoever Akerman claimed Islam was a “separatist clique” operating in Australia and that non-Islamic residents were being “spat upon and cursed [by Muslims] for wearing ordinary clothing”.

While Prime Minister John Howard and some state leaders have issued statements condemning the attacks on mosques and Arab communities, their comments are thoroughly disingenuous. As Arab community leaders have emphasised— especially in Sydney, which is home to almost 200,000 Muslims—the death threats and physical attacks did not begin last week but are part of an escalating pattern of racist bigotry encouraged by government leaders.

Sari Kassis, NSW convenor of the Palestine Human Rights Campaign, bluntly dismissed a public statement by NSW Labor premier Bob Carr late last week condemning racist attacks on Arabs. Carr is infamous amongst immigrant communities for his ongoing efforts to establish racial profiling of crime suspects and for a battery of laws, passed by his government, increasing the power of state police to harass immigrant youth.

“The person we must now look to, to end this cycle of racial vilification, is the same person who started it,” Kassis said. “Can Mr Carr tell any of us when the constant accusations and superstitions toward an entire community will end? We’ve borne the brunt of the Gulf War, gang rapes, ethnic crime, refugees, now terrorism.”

Richard Phillips, "Escalating attacks on Muslims and Arabs in Australia"
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/sep2001/musl-s20.shtml [accessed 1/3/08]

Melbourne, Australia: Prison Guards Beat Prisoner For Wearing Yarmulka

2008-03-02T19:26:00.000+11:00

A Jewish prisoner at the privately run Port Phillip Prison was beaten by prison guards in a dispute over his wearing a Yarmulka, The Age reports.

Police are investigating the allegation of the 38-year-old prisoner, currently serving a six-month sentence for burglary. The man spent four nights in St Vincent’s Hospital after the beating. He was then transferred to the government-run Melbourne Assessment Prison.

The man sustained severely blackened and bruised eyes, a broken nose, cut to his face and damage to his left shoulder, when he was stomped on while lying on the ground, when prison officers’ demanded that he should remove his Yarmulka.

A spokeswoman for Corrections Victoria, said that police were investigating the allegations but no charges had yet been laid.

"Melbourne, Australia: Prison Guards Beat Prisoner For Wearing Yarmulka",
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=14885 [accessed 1/3/08]

1968 Olympics Black Power salute

2008-03-02T19:23:00.002+11:00

The 1968 Olympics Black Power salute was a noted human rights protest and one of the most overtly political statements in the 110 year history of the modern Olympic Games. African American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos performed their Power to the People salute at the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City.

The protest:

After completing their 200 metre race on the evening of October 16, 1968,^[1] American athlete Smith, who won the race in a then world record time of 19.83 seconds, with Australia's Peter Norman second with a time of 20.06 seconds and American Carlos in third place with a time of 20.10 seconds, went to collect their medals at the podium. The two American athletes received their medals shoeless, but wearing black socks, to represent black poverty.^[2] Smith wore a black scarf around his neck to represent black pride.^[2] Carlos wore beads which he described "were for those individuals that were lynched, or killed that no-one said a prayer for, that were hung and tarred. It was for those thrown off the side of the boats in the middle passage."^[3] All three athletes wore Olympic Project for Human Rights (OPHR) badges, after Norman expressed sympathy with their ideals. Sociologist Harry Edwards, the founder of the OPHR, had urged black athletes to boycott the games; reportedly, the actions of Smith and Carlos on October 16, 1968,^[1] were inspired by Edwards' arguments.^[4]

Carlos had forgotten his black gloves, but Norman suggested that they share Smith's pair, with Smith wearing the right glove and Carlos the left. When "The Star-Spangled Banner" played, Smith and Carlos delivered the salute with heads bowed, a gesture which became front page news around the world. As they left the podium they were booed by the crowd.^[5] Smith later said "If I win, I am American, not a black American. But if I did something bad, then they would say I am a Negro. We are black and we are proud of being black. Black America will understand what we did tonight.

"1968 Olympics Black Power salute",
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1968_Olympics_Black_Power_salute [accessed 1/3/08]

Race hate attack

2008-03-02T19:21:00.001+11:00

Matt Cunningham
October 17, 2006 12:00am

A JEWISH man was racially abused then bashed in front of his two young children by a busload of country footballers drunk after a day at the races.

Police are investigating the savage attack on Menachem Vorchheimer, 33, by players from the Ocean Grove Football Club.

About 20 footballers had just left Caulfield racecourse in a mini-bus.

Mr Vorchheimer said the men yelled "F--- off Jews" and "Go the Nazis" before motioning as if they were shooting a machine gun at him and his children.

He told the Herald Sun his children, aged 6 and 3, were screaming and crying during the attack that left him with cuts and bruises to the face.

Witnesses surrounded the bus and stopped it from driving off until police arrived.

Ocean Grove Football Club president Michael Vines confirmed players from his club were involved in the incident.

"Like any sporting club at our level we expect our players to behave responsibly," he said.

The trouble began when Mr Vorchheimer and his children were walking along Balaclava Rd, Caulfield, about 6.30pm on Saturday.
Mr Vorchheimer was wearing traditional Jewish dress including a shabbat hat and a yamulka, the skull cap worn by Jewish men.
As the minibus drove past, some of the players were laughing and yelling racist abuse.
When the bus stopped at a red light, Mr Vorchheimer went to the driver's door.

"I wanted to find out where they were from so that . . . I could make approaches to that organisation," he said.

But the bus driver appeared to ignore him and took off when the light turned green.
As the bus drove past, two men reached out the back window, grabbed Mr Vorchheimer's hat and skull cap and hurled more abuse.
A driver who saw the incident pulled in front of the bus and stopped it.
Mr Vorchheimer said the men threw one of his hats out the bus window but when he asked for the other hat he was attacked.
"I was pulled toward the open window and then punched by a right hand into my left eye by a passenger on the bus. I fell back and was in enormous pain."
Mr Vorchheimer said he felt blood running down his face as the men threw his other hat out the window.

"Meanwhile my kids are on the sidewalk crying and screaming," he said.

He said witnesses surrounded the bus and stopped it from moving.
Mr Vorchheimer said he sat in front of the bus and said. "You're not going 'til the police come."
When St Kilda police arrived they took details from the footballers and witnesses. They confirmed the men had been to Caulfield races.
Mr Vorchheimer was treated at Cabrini Hospital. He said he had suffered headaches and nausea since the attack and his children had undergone counselling.
He said he had no doubt he was attacked because of his faith.
Caulfield MP Helen Shardey condemned the attack. She said the AFL needed to do more to educate footballers at all levels about behaviour.
Executive Council of Australian Jewry president Grahame Leonard said the attack was the fifth unprovoked assault on a member of the Jewish community in Victoria this year.

Matt Cunningham, “Race hate attack”
http://www.news.com.au/heraldsun/story/0,21985,20593372-661,00.html, [accessed 1/3/08]

What are Human Rights?

2008-03-01T11:10:00.002+11:00

Human rights refers to "the basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled." Examples of rights and freedoms which are often thought of as human rights include civil and political rights, such as the right to life and liberty, freedom of expression, and equality before the law; and social, cultural and economic rights, including the right to participate in culture, the right to work, and the right to education.

All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.

Wikipedia, "Human Rights",
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights [accessed 1/3/08]

Hack Notes: Human Rights Film Festival

2008-02-29T09:54:00.002+11:00

Triple J's radio segment: Hack, discussed the issue of Human Rights in Australia.

"Australia's supposed to be the lucky country, the home of the "fair go for all" So whenever you hear media stories about torture, slave labour, human trafficking or the violation of basic human rights, do you ever think that they could involve anyone from your neighbourhood? Well, a pair of 25 year-old students from Melbourne think we should care more about human rights closer to home, and they're both involved in a brand new film festival with that message. Filmmaker Jessie Taylor and Evelyn Tadros, director of the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival.For more info check out www.hraff.org.au"

M. Spencer, "Hack Notes: Human Rights Film Festival"
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/hack/notes/s2105808.htm, [accessed 29/02/08]

Mood Boards

2008-02-28T17:59:00.009+11:00

I had never heard of or created mood boards before, so i decided to do some research into them:

Sources:

Chanpory Rith. "5 reasons to design with mood boards"
http://www.lifeclever.com/5-reasons-to-design-with-mood-boards/ [accessed 27/02/08]

Design Skills. "Using Mood and Sample Boards in Design Projects" http://www.design-skills.org/mood_boards.html [accessed 27/02/08]

And All That Malarkey. "Design Mood-Boards" http://www.stuffandnonsense.co.uk/archives/design_mood-boards.html [accessed 27/02/08]

Things due by next week: Monday 3rd March

2008-02-25T13:35:00.004+11:00

- 3 Concepts
- Do more than 3.

- Type of mood that i would like for the creative design.
-Try a fun and positive experience.
- Something different and unique.

- Colour scheme

First Week

2008-02-25T13:20:00.001+11:00

(Redesign blog template)

Don't forget to:

- Cite any research.
- Scan images of research or good design that have influenced me and upload to the blog.

Contact

2008-02-24T15:17:00.000+11:00

If you have any questions or queries, feel free to contact me:

Email/MSN: speaktobrett@hotmail.com

WOW!

Stock Vectors

35 Beautiful Bright, Colorful Web Designs

20 Useful Tools to Make Web Development More Efficient

Blink 182 - Always ... Music Video

Most Incredible/Ridiculous Instrument Ever

3rd Main Project - Pullins Ski Hire

Concept Presentation #2 - Personal Reflection

To Die For Clothing

U2 3D

Perspective Drawing

Pullins Ski Hire

Furthered Study Of After Effects: Using Tutorials

Main Project: Showreel using After Effects

After Effects

Critique Your Design

Testing of my CSS Assignment

A look at previous "Rip Curl Pro" designs

Juxtapoz / Desktop

Assignment Update

CSS Resources:

Logo Resources

HRFF New Zealand Poster

Colour Pallettes: More Ideas

Colour Pallettes:

Existing Human Rights Film Festivals:

Human Rights:

Breaches of Human Rights:

Kevin Rudd says sorry

Escalating attacks on Muslims and Arabs in Australia

By Richard Phillips20 September 2001

Richard Phillips, "Escalating attacks on Muslims and Arabs in Australia"http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/sep2001/musl-s20.shtml [accessed 1/3/08]

Melbourne, Australia: Prison Guards Beat Prisoner For Wearing Yarmulka

A Jewish prisoner at the privately run Port Phillip Prison was beaten by prison guards in a dispute over his wearing a Yarmulka, The Age reports.

"Melbourne, Australia: Prison Guards Beat Prisoner For Wearing Yarmulka",http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=14885 [accessed 1/3/08]

1968 Olympics Black Power salute

The protest:

Race hate attack

What are Human Rights?

Hack Notes: Human Rights Film Festival

Mood Boards

Things due by next week: Monday 3rd March

First Week

Contact

By Richard Phillips
20 September 2001

Richard Phillips, "Escalating attacks on Muslims and Arabs in Australia"
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/sep2001/musl-s20.shtml [accessed 1/3/08]

"Melbourne, Australia: Prison Guards Beat Prisoner For Wearing Yarmulka",
http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/article.php?p=14885 [accessed 1/3/08]