Vintage Pinafore and an Old-School Door / A.I. Humour

An scientific empiricist at heart, I do like my regular boring background for taking outfit photos in front of, because it removes all variables of different lighting, settings, backgrounds, angles etc, which means each outfit can be more objectively compared to one another.  However, sometimes it's just nice to be able to go outside and take pretty photos, dammit! I found the orange door above attached to someone's holiday house, and convinced my boyfriend to take a few ninja snaps of me in front of it - but we quickly got scared away by the barking dog of the people who own the house (and also discovered they were eating lunch just inside - oops. Run away!) So we then had to adventure elsewhere for photos. This pinafore skirt is another great score from the country-town thrift stores I visited the other day. Also, it was listed in the "teens" section, so it was only $3! These pretty berry-coloured socks were another awesome score from the same shop for 50c. Even though the heat wave from the other day more-or-less subsided, it's still pretty hot outside - so I kept my outfit very simple, pairing my vintage finds with a t-shirt and black boots from Asos. wearing tshirt - Forever 21 skirt - vintage shoes - Asos socks - vintage hat - c/o Wholesale Wandering around the beach, we also came across these guys. I had to put a photo of some real life kangaroos up for all my overseas blog followers - normally we don't actually have kangaroos hopping around all over the place, and I hardly ever see them either, but these guys were happy for us to come up close. So did you know that computers have started to be able to make jokes that are almost as good as my bad puns?? The following joke was written by a computer: What do you get when you cross a fragrance with an actor? A smell Gibson! Alright, so it's a pretty terrible joke, but the fact that it was written entirely by a computer and that it makes some kind of sense is actually pretty incredible to computer scientists. Humour is one of the more challenging tasks for computer scientists interested in creating artificially intelligent machines, being full of abstraction and ambiguity and also dependant on context and timing. The computer that produced this particular joke is called "Stand Up", and was created to help kids with language disabilities increase their verbal skills.  The scientists hope that being able to make jokes is one step along the way to creating computers that can have natural-feeling, flowing conversations with humans. Read more about Stand Up here. Hope you're all having a beautiful day,

Bambi, The Heat Wave & Sugarcubes

I know it's something of a faux pas to crap on about the weather in a blog post... but seriously, today was like nothing I have ever experienced before (outside of sauna rooms, and they at least feature an EXIT sign). These photos were taken yesterday when it was a reasonable temperature - it then proceeded to rise by 20 whole degrees ensuring it was a ridiculous 43 degrees by today (I'm talking Celsius  people)! I'd intended to write this post some hours ago, but the heat also apparently melted the internet - it's been down all day. That coupled with constant bushfire warnings/threats, and I haven't had the most fun day ever. I have no idea how anyone lives in places where their summer is like this every single day. A nice thing I did yesterday, though, was to go op-shopping in a country town! For any serious op-shoppers/thrifters reading this, you will know that country town charity stores are gold. They don't attract the flocks of hipsters that city stores do, or the ridiculously marked-up prices. I filled two massive plastic bags with vintage goodies for $30 - and in these bags I managed to squeeze around 30 or so items, so I'm pretty happy with that! This blouse and belt you see me wearing are just two of my finds. Then, there is this amazing Bambi skirt (which I've been eyeing ever since posting it on my fashiolista account a month ago) and this necklace sent to me by Sheinside! Both are such awesome statement pieces. wearing blouse - vintage skirt - c/o Sheinside necklace - c/o Sheinside belt - vintage boots - ASOS hat - c/o Wholesale An interesting bit of science today (although hopefully it's interesting everyday...) Atoms, the units which make up all matter, while containing protons, neutrons and electrons, are basically 99.9999% empty space (although you don't fall through a chair when you sit on it because of something called the "Pauli Exclusion Principle" - read one of my readers comments below if you want to know more about that.) So anyway, here's the point - if you were to take all the empty space out of atoms, you could fit all of humankind into something the size of a single sugar cube. Or so say some physicists. If anyone knows if this is truly the case and who exactly made this calculation, I would love to know. Human kind squashed into some pretty pastel sugarcubes... Image from here. I'm now going to go back to monitoring the cold front move towards the beach I'm staying at! It should hopefully arrive here by midnight :( I CAN'T WAIT. Hope you're all somewhere nice and cool,

Intergalactic - another dimension

I found the best thing on ebay the other day. Planet stockings! Being in a nude & black print, they're also a lot different to galaxy printed tights, which I feel have been a bit overdone. I finished off my outfit with some blue lipstick in an attempt to look all "spacey" (why I equate blue lipstick with outerspace I am not sure. Maybe it's because alien babes in B-grade sci fi flims often wear "wacky" coloured lipstick to signify their alien status, or maybe because the cold of deep-space has stopped my blood circulating. Take your pick.) wearing tights - Ebay dress - c/o Glamorous shoes - Label Shoes c/o Chictopia necklace - Wholesale hat - c/o Wholesale lipstick - Etsy (My Beauty Addiction) So I don't ever talk about the fact that I spend a LOT of my time reading science fiction novels. There we go, I'm even nerdier than you all probably thought I was. So as my little science segment today, I thought I might share with you some of my science fiction picks. Most of them I own in ebook format so I can't take photos of them. However, these books are all good too! I usually go for science fiction books which are based on real science, or are at least scientifically plausible. I often can't stand the type of science fiction books that are full of aliens who look a lot like humans and especially when they inexplicably speak English too. Or movies that do away with physics, and science is equated with magic (yeah I'm one of those annoying people who can't sit through a movie without saying "but that couldn't work"). So, basically, my favourite science fiction books are less dragons-and-aliens fantasy and more "sciencey" science fiction. (Although in saying that, I will still forever love Dr Who and Star Wars.) I'm currently reading (or about to read): WWW.Wake by Robert Sawyer - the main character in this is also, fittingly, a young blogger Singularity Sky by Charles Stross Blackout by Connie Willis I highly recommend: Ready Player One by Ernest Cline This Other Eden by Ben Elton The Ugly Series by Scott Westerfield (technically for teenagers... and the first time I read it I was a teenager. I've read it several times since and it still rocks). Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams Oryx & Crake by Margaret Atwood The Singularity Series by William Hertling Also I had to post a photo of an unexpected and extremely thoughtful gift I received the other day from Christine (the owner of the amazing Flapper Girl). They're cards! Science themed cards! Thank you so much Christine, you're the greatest. There is definitely a lesson to be learnt in telling everyone what you're into, over and over again - you end up with the most awesome gifts :D

I'm on etsy!

Hey all! I'm just popping in quickly today to mention that I've opened an etsy store! Here's a screenshot of it, but you can check out the whole thing here. I'll be adding some baby-blue heart collar clips to the store really soon as well, as that was the second most popular requested colour (you can still vote on the poll on my sidebar if you haven't yet had your say!) Hope you're all super dooper well. And if you haven't seen it yet, please enter my Rire boutique giveaway! Much love,

Baby darling doll-face honey

Happy 2013 guys! I hope all your New Years celebrations were marvellous! This dress that Romwe sent me is pretty damn amazing. It's also quilted and really thick, and completely not appropriate for wearing in summer - hence I am going to be taking it with me on my trip to Japan (which is happening in just 25 days, oh my goooooosh!) I LOVE the creepy doll-face appliqué, so I attempted to look a little bit like a creepy doll myself. wearing dress - c/o Romwe socks - Vintage lace sock cuffs - The Little Pineneedle shoes - Label Shoes c/o Chictopia hat - c/o Wholesale Rita Levi-Montalcini was an amazing, fiery and bad-ass neuroscientist, who sadly passed away a couple of days ago, aged 103 years old. As a future neuroscientist/cell biologist,  wannabe science communicator and feminist, Rita is someone who seriously inspires me. I wanted to write a short post about her amazing life. Image source and article Italian-born, she pursued a career in science at university despite both her father and 1930s society being generally against women in higher education. Then, she had to go into hiding when Mussolini came into power, as she was Jewish and thrown out of her university. To continue studying science, she built a secret research laboratory. Despite this, in 1986 she won a Nobel Prize for discovering something called "nerve growth factor", which greatly advanced our understanding of how neurons (nerve cells) work. Being at this point 77 years of age, she never slowed down - she went on to found the European Brain Research Institute in Rome, and a foundation encouraging the education of young women in Africa. She gave lectures and spoke out about promoting equality for women in science. And she turned up to work every day super well-dressed, with perfectly manicured hands and coiffured hair, even after turning 100. Basically, I want to be Rita. The world will miss her. Read more about her here.

Giveaway from Rire Boutique! // CLOSED

I'm welcoming in the New Year with a chance for one of my blog readers to win a $40 gift card from the lovely Rire Boutique! Based in California, Rire Boutique houses a small collection of super cute dresses, cutesy tops, beautiful skirts and earthy jewellery. All you need to do to enter is "like" their facebook page and leave a comment on their wall with your favourite item from their store (also mention that I sent you!) To enter, you will need to use the Rafflecopter widget below. There are also heaps of optional entries to boost your chances of winning! a Rafflecopter giveaway The winner will be sent a $40 gift card to choose anything they like from the store! Please note that items will be sent from the US, so delivery times may vary. The competition is open worldwide until Friday the 11th of January - good luck!