Police Museum, Library, Blue Mountains

Sunday, 1 May
Sunny am, showers late pm
4450 steps

I visited the Police and Justice Museum near Circular Quay today. When we first started running this course in 2000, my younger son wanted to be a detective when he grew up, so I first went to this museum on his behalf. It's a very nice, smaller museum, the publkic face of a historical archive of the NSW police. Each time I have visited (2000, 2001, and 2005) there has been a different special exhibits along with the permanent display collection. The special exhibit focuses on jails in Australia this time. The jails were built upon the polygonal model -- is it called the panoptikon? There were floor plans, photos, displays of the prisoner uniforms, weapons made by prisoners, and many other things. The prisoner weaponry was impressive. The most ingenious device was a nasty-looking crossbow, while the most bizarre was a shiv hidden in the handle of a ping-pong handle.

Notable quotes: A prison is "a machine for grinding rogues honest." [Jeremy Bentham, about the new model of prison]

There are two additional deaths to add to the list of NSW police killed in the line of duty. One was killed on 14 January, 2001, while anopther was killed on 3 April, 2002. So, unfortunately, the example I use in my statistics class about deaths of NSW police got a little larger.

There is also an exhibit on the Aborigines and the law. I have nothing new to add, apart from this quote: "They seem'd to set no Value upon anything we gave them, nor would part with anything of their own ... This, in my opinion, argues that they think themselves provided with all the necessarys of life." [James Cook, logbook of the Endeavor, 1770]. Clearly, Captain Cook was writing about his first contact with the Aborigines.

"Warra, warra!" This is what the Aborigines shouted at the first ships to enter Botany Bay. It translates as "Go away, go away!" I visited the NSW library to start researching my project on the panhandling laws and aborigines. I picked up the above quote, along with some other useful but not directly relevant information. I may have more when I visit Canberra in the next few days.

It was odd that only the reading room of the library was open. I would have expected more, since the children are off from school for the weekend.

Monday, 2 May
Cloudy am, sunny afternoon
7520 steps

Today we went to the Blue Mountains, a system of canyons cut into the plateau region west of Sydney. A blue mist hangs in the air; there are several stories about this, ranging from moisture to koala farts. I walked a lot through the rainforest, so my legs are pretty sore now.
Everything in Sydney seems so nice, soi it's a real eye-opener for the students to take the train through the western suburbs -- the poor people must live somewhere, of course(!) The train passes through many depressing neighborhoods, clearly dominated by gangs and drugs. It does put Kings Cross in perspective.

When walking in the woods, people should be quiet.

Tuesday, 3 May
Sunny all day
<1000 steps

Today was a day to do laundry and grade journals. I am a little less than halfway through journal reading. My laundry is all done, though. And I even sent my lovely wife and my charming mother flowers for Mother's Day. The florist is just across the street from this internet cafe, so I will pass it along to the students.

And a note to my two sons: SUNDAY IS MOTHER'S DAY. SUNDAY IS MOTHER'S DAY.
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