Every time I listen to the news on the radio or watch TV, they have some talking head who is introduced as "an expert on terrorism". There seem to be hundreds of them. it seems that every news show has their own pet set that they can call upon to comment on events. They all seem to have popped up since 11 September 2001, or the recent Iraqi war. I wonder where they studied and got their credentials? Where is "terrorism expert University"? I wonder what they call their degrees?

The most disturbing thing is that most of the ones I have heard say nothing except the bleeding obvious. I generally expect experts to say something with insight - isn't that the definition of "expert"?

On the topic of 3-D and IMAX, I went to see Tom Hanks latest contribution to the world space effort, Magnificent Desolation – Walking on the Moon.

Absolutely tremendous. I enjoyed his first IMAX doco on the International Space Station, and this easily equalled or surpassed it.

Do not for one moment think that you can imagine what it must have been like to walk on the moon until you have seen this 40-minute representation of the landscape and the movement of the astronauts across it.

I have looked at a good proportion of the photographs taken on the moon and read the transcripts at Eric Jones Lunar Surface Journal. I have watched Mark Gray’s Spacecraft Films DVD collections of all the footage taken on the moon. None of it is quite the same as seeing the panorama of Hadley Rille stretched out in life-size across the giant IMAX wall, with a couple of astronauts walking across it.

I’m a bit of a fan of 3-D. I firmly believe that if someone can develop a visual broadcast technology that will allow stereoscopic images to be simulated on TV without any glasses, goggles or wearable gadgets, it will sweep the world in 12 months.

3-D is a meme that has never truly died, what with StarTrek’s Holodeck, and holographic art on display every now and again in galleries, and plastic lenticular images popping up in advertising campaigns here and there.

I have a small collection of 3-D paraphernalia, such as an Oliver Wendell Holmes stereo-card viewer from the 1880s when the first 3-D craze hit. Real name - a Holmes-Bates model Stereoscope. Every middle-class drawing room in the western world had one.

I also have a Sawyer’s Model A View-Master, launched Xmas 1939 at the New York World’s Fair, and again at the San Francisco Exhibition in 1940. It is a fairly rare (speckled) model. By the end of 1940, the US had over 1000 View Master dealers, and again – 3-D swept the world. (Speckled, by the way, because they were mucking around trying to stop the Kodak Tenite plastic from warping, so they added bits of asbestos to the mix.)

The next 3-D craze that swept the world was movies. It took off in the 50s, and continues to limp along with IMAX. in my view, the 3-D craze won’t happen again until they can find a solution that doesn’t require glasses - although In-Three are trying hard with their "dimensionalisation" of old 2-D movies.

This is, of course, pretty damn difficult technologically, as the perception of 3-D requires each eye to be fooled into seeing a different image taken from a different angle, to create the illusion of depth.

I have small collection of the red-blue (anaglyphic) 3-D comics, magazines and photo-books that have been released at various times, the cheapest and easiest way to make 3-D drawings, and only require some paper viewing glasses with red and blue cellophane lenses, usually bound into the magazine.

So there we were. We had decided to check out the opera. We have never actually been to a hardcore opera before – we have only seen some ‘operetta’ like Gilbert and Sullivan. This one was Don Giovanni – the story of Casanova. We had great seats (in the Sydney Opera House), very close to the stage.

It turned out not as good a night as we had hoped. I guess this is one of those traps for new naïve players - the seats were just a fraction too close to the stage to see the projected surtitles, without leaning back in your seat and looking almost straight up. That said, the costumes, sets, action and performances were so good, you barely needed to check out the words (inane lyrics when translated anyway). Highly amusing opening costume for the Don as he scaled down a ladder out of his latest amour’s bedroom – black leather underpants, tall boots and cape – halfway between Batman and Zorro, with a hint of bondage thrown in…

Here’s something you don’t notice at rock concerts - someone a few seats away seemed close to death via emphysema or athsma by the sounds she was making. The orchestra drowned out her breathing and wheezing during the loud parts, but she drowned out the silences in the quiet moments. Made it a bit hard to focus in some spots. I have a strong preference for shows that keep all of their action on the stage itself.

Hey, a cultural studies exercise, anyone? Find a symbolic artifact to represent Sydney’s (New South Wales, in fact) State political/corporate processes and achievements over the years.

There was a top one back in Governor Macquarie's time – a bridge was to be built across the Tank Stream: local businesses were to contribute materials and services, it was to be built with convict labour. As expected, it was poorly designed, used bottom-grade materials and was so badly put together it fell to bits soon after completion. Very amusing, and SO Sydney.

For a while the “World Hole” seemed to shaping up as a good symbol – ambitious showy CBD project, a good history of the usual corporate bankruptcies, a stack of union trouble and so on, leaving a massive hole in the ground surrounded by “coming soon” billboards that promised so much for years.

But, I reckon, you need go no further than the good ole Art Gallery of NSW. Grandiose façade, pretentious columns-and-steps, fake renaissance artist bas-relief panels all around. And half of the panels were never completed, leaving big blank empty inset frames. And no one really cares anyway. Cool. I love this city.

I catch a train each morning and night to work. If you live in Sydney, check out the female disembodied voice CityRail has selected for the on-train announcements to do “the NEXT station is Redfern” and “Good MORNING, passengers” and so on. She sounds like everyone’s favorite Primary school (or Kindy) teacher brought in to do the recordings. Good morning, class. Good morning, Ms disembodied voice. Did you all remember to bring your homework today? Ooooh, no. We forgot. Are we on detention?

At Wynyard station, they use a firm authoritative radio-announcer (male) voice to remind us all every few minutes not to touch unaccompanied luggage but to report it, to beware of pickpockets, and that there are NO rubbish bins on the platform and we should take our garbage with us. Talk about noise pollution. Please, can’t we just go back to posters and signage, and just shut up? Unfortunately, they have sold every available space, (including the leading edges of the platform steps) to advertisers, so there is no room for any useful information to be displayed.

Imagine the future. CityRail has proximity Bluetooth (and Wi-Fi) messaging direct to your mobile phone or other handheld device: “We just sent you this SMS to remind you that there are no rubbish bins on this station and you should take your garbage with you. Brought to you by MacDonalds (only 100 metres from this platform…)”

Listening to Radio National – Sandy McCutcheon’s Australia Talks Back - the other afternoon. One of the topics was the sedition clauses in the new anti-terrorism legislation.

Several speakers were opposing it with the argument that it will put at risk our playwrights free speech and might “blunt the edge of Australia’s political satire and journalistic comment”.

Whatever the merits or otherwise of the legislation, that argument begs the question: Where is Australia’s political satire now? Where is outspoken political and social comment? I haven’t seen any decent political satire for years. It hasn’t needed any anti-sedition laws to put satire on the Australian endangered species list.

Take the most recent offerings by the Sydney Theatre Company. Aussie playwright Tony MacNamara’s “The Give and Take”. In my view, an appallingly out-of-date, low-level comedy offering, more reminiscent of that crass TV show “Married with Children” than anything. It seemed to have set out with extraordinarily low satirical goals about Australian life, and even then, barely achieved them.

The main character, played by Garry MacDonald, works for an apparently huge Australian garden implement corporation. Drew Forsythe plays the owner of said corporation. No Board of Directors, clearly, as he makes idiotic decisions on the fly. Obviously no marketing department either, as Garry MacDonald comes up with a lame idea for an advertising campaign, which is immediately agreed upon by Drew Forsyth, with no input by advertising research.

Dated humour, no insight or satirical comment on modern business, as it was just unbelievably clichéd, not even any good satire on modern families that hasn’t been already done, done done. Oh and did I say that it’s been done before? Repeatedly?

Take the next one at STC – a lightweight New York thing on stalking. Great to see Miranda and Barry Otto on stage, but satire? Political comment? Not a whiff. The main theme seemed to be identical to a thousand “made for TV” hand-wringing movies that want to be thrillers with a message. Having an obsessive stalker on your case can change your life, and the authorities can’t do much to stop a reasonably intelligent and persistent nutcase. That’s news? That’s cutting edge drama? That’s political comment? And Barry Otto, playing a Russ Meyer movie-maker. How wildly original.

OK, it may be unfair to expect Sydney’s culturally conservative, government-funded and patronised Sydney Theatre Company to do anything unexpected or unusual, but, for goodness sake! TV scripts performed live?

I used to subscribe to the Chaser monthly newspaper seeking political satire. Then it died. (Still owing me subscription money, by the way, but they had the style to simply offer it back to us subscribers in excess bad T-Shirts..) Their headlines were great (and still are – but only as a web-only thing now). They were the nearest to political satire in Australia. The odd good witty headline, anyway. Most recent funny one: Shoot-to-kill policy only to be used in emergencies and accidents.

So. Conclusion? I don’t think we need to worry about the anti-sedition laws damaging Australian political satire. It’s stone-cold dead already.

Does the web need yet another Blog? No. Do I really need a Blog? No. Do I think my comments here will add significantly to the sum of world knowledge? No. But like many things that a lot of us do, need isn't the principal driver. Like many other people right across the web, I am curious about this particular technology. I intend to record some observations, ideas, comments and complaints here on a reasonably regular basis.