More frogs

Random Man thanks Marie for photos.

Frogs

Random Man went frog collecting (so much fun!)

Note: all frogs were released unharmed.

Howard Cartoon

Not drowning ... talking

CIA bans a form of water torture
September 15, 2007

The CIA has banned the controversial interrogation technique known as "water boarding," which simulates drowning to persuade suspects to talk, a report says.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/CIA-bans-a-form-of-water-torture/2007/09/15/1189277026390.html

Bush Blunder OPEC - APEC ?

Mr Bush, in Australia for the APEC (Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation) summit of world leaders, took to the stage at the Sydney Opera House and thanked Mr Howard for his introduction and for being such a "kind host" for the OPEC summit.

"I mean APEC summit," he said.

"I've been invited to the OPEC summit next year. The APEC summit."

War on APEC - Chaser boys at it again

The Chasers on horseback at an APEC protest. (No real police horses in Sydney for APEC because of the equine flu).







Osama also made a visit to APEC.

The Chaser's bogus Canadian motorcade of two black vans, a hire car, two very unofficial looking motorcycles and jogging security heavies remained undetected until Morrow and Licciardello got out of their car outside Mr Bush's hotel, where police grabbed them.

Some drunk aussie at Scores

Random Man says "one night is a long time in politics".

Don't drink 8 cans before a race !!

Man's heart stops after Red Bull overdose

Daniel Dasey

August 19, 2007
SMH

A MAN whose heart stopped after he consumed eight Red Bull energy drinks in five hours has called for an overhaul of the product's warning labels.

Matthew Penbross, 28, collapsed after downing the popular drinks, each containing 80 milligrams of caffeine, last Sunday.

He drank the Red Bull while competing in a motocross event on the state's Mid North Coast.

His heart stopped and he needed defibrillation from ambulance officers.

Source

Trip to Canberra

Swans vs Melbourne at Manuka Oval

Good win to the Swans!! 17.10.112 over Melbourne 9.10.64

Comic Science

Scientists make TV remote redundant with a wave of the hand

Barbara McMahon in Sydney
Friday July 20, 2007
Gaurdian Unlimited

A new device that allows viewers to operate the on/off switch or change channels by simple hand gestures may make the remote control lost down the back of the sofa a thing of the past.

Its inventors, two engineers from Wollongong University in Australia, say the new gadget incorporates a camera that recognises hand signals and translates them into electronic commands for the TV and other audiovisual equipment.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/australia/story/0,,2131226,00.html

What a video !!!

Best video ever !!!

Weight loss -

Scattered throughout Northern Japan are two dozen mummified Japanese monks known as Sokushinbutsu. Followers of Shugend, an ancient form of Buddhism, the monks died in the ultimate act of self-denial.

For three years the priests would eat a special diet consisting only of nuts and seeds, while taking part in a regimen of rigorous physical activity that stripped them of their body fat. They then ate only bark and roots for another three years and began drinking a poisonous tea made from the sap of the Urushi tree, normally used to lacquer bowls. This caused vomiting and a rapid loss of bodily fluids, and most importantly, it killed off any maggots that might cause the body to decay after death. Finally, a self-mummifying monk would lock himself in a stone tomb barely larger than his body, where he would not move from the lotus position. His only connection to the outside world was an air tube and a bell. Each day he rang a bell to let those outside know that he was still alive. When the bell stopped ringing, the tube was removed and the tomb sealed.

Not all monks who attempted self-mummification were successful. When the tombs were finally opened, some bodies were found to have rotted. These monks were resealed in their tombs.

They were respected for their endurance, but they were not worshiped. Those monks who had succeeded in mummifying themselves were raised to the status of Buddha, put on display, and tended to by their followers. The Japanese government outlawed Sokushunbutsu in the late 19th century, though the practice apparently continued into the 20th.

http://www.kirchersociety.org/blog/2007/06/27/sokushinbutsu-the-self-mummified-monks-of-japan/

Some skills

But he can't dance . . .

Pool Shark

Walter Lindrum

Great Video. Makes it look so easy.

World record break of 4137 in 1932. They changed the rules of billiards after this record break, to try and stop him. Didn't work. Lindrum won the World Professional Billiards Championship in 1933 and held it until his retirement in 1950. He also holds the fastest century break (46 seconds) and 1011 points (in 30 minutes). In a match in 1930 (against Willie Smith) he made 10 breaks over 1000 with a highest of 2419.

Some nice fish

Stefan Seuss (r) and Benjamin Grunder present their 102,8 and 97,4 kilo heavy catfish.The fish were caught in Italy in Bernhard Heiner's "Welcamp on the Po" During the night between 21. and 22. March the two Quantum-testanglers, Stefan Seuss and Benjamin Grunder made history in Italy for the catching "Wels" story. They had been fishing already very successfully in Bernhard and Ute Heiner's "Welscamp" on the River Po the days before. But in this particular night they broke the IGFA-World Record twice. About half-an-hour before midnight Stefan Seuss received a very hard bite. This was followed by a long, tiring battle, during which, because of the fish's long runs, it became apparent it must have enormous dimensions. After about 45 minutes, Stefan tried to hand land the fish, but was pulled into the River Po. In the end he managed to get the monster fish out of the water though. Just after he was back on his feet, and in control of the situation, he saw his fellow fisherman and team-colleague Benjamin Grunder running in the direction of his rod, which was a bit downstream, where the bite-indicator was virtually screaming like crazy. This was followed yet again by a breakneck battle, ending however, with another successful landing. The two fisherman were speechless after the first, quick measuring of the fish. Both of them were well over 2,40 meters long. Absolute madness! After daybreak both fish were measured, in the presence of a notary, seven witnesses and with calibrated, certified scales. This proved that the catfish from Stefan Seuss with a length of 2,48 metres and weighing 102,8 kilos was the larger of the two. But Benjamin Grunder's fish with 2,41 metres and 97,4 kilos also broke the existing World-Record. The catch data from the giant catfish from Stefan Seuss are now submitted to the IGFA so that it will be recorded as the new World-Record. The fish were caught with the following equipment: Rod - Rhino DF Big Fish, 2,85 metres, Reel - Quantum Crypton Big Pit fixed spool reel and as line Quantum Catfish Braid 50 kg. The water temperature at the venue was only 9.2 degrees centigrade due to the long, cold winter. Both anglers had been fishing on a long sandbank for the first days and had caught several extremely good "Wallers" up to 71 kilos - although this became slightly unimportant after this very special night! Most successful baits have been live bream of 1-3 lb size.

It Might Pay to Follow Your Bliss

It Might Pay to Follow Your Bliss

By M. P. DUNLEAVEY
Published: June 16, 2007
New York Times

REMEMBER the fable about the ant and the grasshopper? The ant works hard all summer, socking away provisions for the winter; the grasshopper frolics away each day. The ant warns the grasshopper that he’s being hedonistic and short-sighted. The grasshopper ignores the ant, and continues on his merry way — only to perish when winter sets in.

It’s a rather stern lesson about financial prudence, but there is a reason this tale has survived through the ages — and still preoccupies many researchers who study the eccentricities of human economic behavior. Why do the grasshoppers of the world have such a hard time emulating the ants?

The rewards of the ant’s strategy are obvious: by working hard, planning ahead and saving your resources, you end up healthy, wealthy and warm. The pleasures of the grasshopper’s life are short-lived — and ultimately lead to great stress and suffering (if not a dire end).

Yet economic research has demonstrated that most people find it hard to resist the siren song of “seize the day and spend what you have now” — even though a lifestyle based on constant consumption doesn’t enhance anyone’s long-term store of happiness and often puts people on shaky financial ground.

This conundrum also bedevils those who work in the field of personal finance. Why do millions of Americans resist saving for their retirements? Why do so many carry thousands of dollars in credit card debt?

The standard advice for those caught on the treadmill of “getting and spending” could come straight from the mouth of the ant: material kicks don’t pay off in the end, so mend your ways, plan ahead and financial prudence eventually will be its own reward. But this sort of finger-wagging makes few converts in the grasshopper world.

A more compelling approach may be to focus more on what makes you happier — because investing in your own well-being and quality of life may turn out to be more prudent and more profitable than you thought.

Tim Kasser, an associate professor of psychology at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill., studied 200 people who embraced Voluntary Simplicity, a movement focused “less on materialistic values — like wanting money and possessions and status — and more on what we called intrinsic values or goals,” Professor Kasser said. The three main intrinsic values were being connected to family and friends, exploring one’s interests or skills and “making the world a better place,” he said.

He conducted the study in 2005 with Kirk Brown, an assistant professor of psychology at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond. The researchers compared the attitudes and behaviors of this group with a matched sample of 200 mainstream Americans.

Although the mainstream group’s income was much higher, an average of about $41,000 a year compared with $26,000 for those aiming to live more simply, “we found the people in the Voluntary Simplicity group were much happier and more satisfied with life,” Professor Kasser said.

THAT doesn’t mean frugal people are happier, said Professor Kasser, adding that research findings on this topic are mixed. But the study found that when people invested more in intrinsic values, like relationships and quality of life, and less in consumption, it seemed to increase their happiness. And, the study suggested, there may be a financial gain to doing so. Those in the simplicity group were far more likely than the control group to say that they were careful about their spending, Professor Kasser said.

Christopher K. Hsee, a professor of behavioral science at the University of Chicago Graduate School of Business, has observed a similar pattern. He points out that when people use their purchases as a semaphore of status, there is “no natural stopping point;” there will always be a bigger house, a fancier car, a more expensive watch to go after.

When it comes to more basic needs, like food or sleep or friendship, most people naturally reach a point of satisfaction. “Consequently, people who value these types of goods may be financially better off,” Professor Hsee said.

As someone who struggles against her own grasshopper nature, wishing she had the foresight and impulse control of the ant, I like the idea that there’s another path to fiscal prudence.

Working hard and being practical are ideal skills to have in life, but if those aren’t your bag, investing in a happier way of life may offer the same financial dividend. Too bad the ant didn’t know about that.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/16/business/16instincts.html?em&ex=1182484800&en=3b8892675557a945&ei=5087%0A

Wayne Carey

But it was with the ladies that Wayne Carey had the most problems. The first incident that saw him cop a high-profile guilty plea was back in 1996:

The assault occurred when Carey and a group of friends were walking down King Street after a night out [at 9am].

They approached the woman, who was with a female friend.

Carey grabbed her breast and said, "Why don't you get a bigger set of tits?".

Wayne Carey jokes:

A new poll asked 1,000 women if they would have sex with Wayne Carey. 70% said, "Never again."

A man, on his way home from work was stuck in traffic which was much worse than usual. Noticing a policeman walking among the stalled cars, he asked, "Officer, what's the holdup?" The policeman says: "Wayne Carey is so depressed about being caught cheating that he's stopped his car and is threatening to douse himself in petrol and set himself on fire. He says his family hates him, fans hate him, his team mates hate him and he now won't have the $1 million from hisfooty contract. I'm walking around taking up a collection for him." "Oh, really?" the man says. "How much have you collected so far?" "So far only 18 litres, but a lot of people are still siphoning."

Q. What's the difference between Skippy and Wayne Carey? A: Skippy can root who he likes and still be a kangaroo!

Q: What's the difference between Wayne Carey and the Titanic? A: Only 1600 people went down on the Titanic.

Q: Why does Wayne Carey wear boxer shorts? A: To keep his ankles warm

Q: What is the first thing Wayne Carey does when he gets out of bed? A: He goes home.

Q. What's the difference between a microwave and Wayne Carey? A: A microwave stops when you open the door !!!

Bit of Art

not mine

Modern Art Movements

As artists began to experiment with new styles and techniques, they gathered in groups to talk about their ideas. rtisits with similar aims sometimes formed a movement (i.e. futurism). Apart from creating a sense of solidarity and confidence, the movements gave them authority; groups of artists tended to be taken more seriously than individuals. Below is a list of various movements associated with modern art:

Abstract Expressionism: Late 1940s-late 50s, USAArtists produced large-scale, dramatic abstract paintings. There were two main types: action painting, and the quieter, colorfield painting, which used broad expanses of color and relied more on color association. This movement was largely responsible for New York displacing Paris as the centre of the art world after WWII.

Bauhaus: 1919-33, GermanyAn influential German art school which was eventually closed down by the Nazis. Each student studied art, architecture and design with the ultimate aim of creating a better living environment for everyone. Its design principles were based on admiration for geometry and the machine.

Conceptual Art: Late 1960s-70s, USA and ItalyConceptual artists emphasized the ideas underlying works of art, often as a protest against the commercialism of the art world. They often used photos, text, etc. to document an action or even, or to express ideas.

Constructivism: 1917-20, RussiaA geometric abstract art movement. Artists were initially influenced by Suprematism, but after the Russian Revolution they tried to help create a new society by applying geometric design principles to all areas of life (architecture, furniture, clothes design, etc.)

Cubism: 1907-early 20s, ParisA style pioneered by Picasso and Braque which drew attention to the contradictions involved in depicting a 3-D scene on a 2-D surface. Analytical Cubism (1907-12) broke down real objects into different parts. Synthetic Cubism (1912-14) built up recognizable images from abstract parts using ready-made materials.

Dada: 1914-20, Germany, Paris and New YorkA movement of irreverent, unbridled protest against the state of western society that led to the First World War. Members saw art as decadent and middle class. They staged events (now often called "Happenings") designed to shock, and created works out of unconventional materials, or based on chance.

Expressionism: 1905-early 20s, Germany and AustriaThe artists' main purpose was to express emotions and/or a sense of deeper reality, through vigorous brushstrokes, and distortion or exaggeration of shapes and colors. There were two main groups: Die Brucke (The Bridge) and Der Balue Reiter (The Blue Rider). Van Gogh and Munch were key influences.

Fauvism: 1905-10, FranceA group of young painters centered around Matisse whose work was characterized by strong color and powerful brush strokes. Their worktended to be joyful.

Futurism: 1909-14, ItalyThis movement was founded by the poet Marinetti. Its members rejected the past and instead celebrated the dynamism of the machine age and city life.

Impressionism: 1874-86The first major avant-garde movement. The name was invented in 1874 by a hostile critic, inspired by a painting by Monet entitled Impression: Sun Rise. The Impressionists' aim was to capture the passing moment, by means of a sketchy technique, strong color and a commitment to outdoor, on-the-spot painting, with as little reworking in the studio as possible.

Kinetic Art: 1960s, InternationalSculpture that actually moves, often using modern technology to achieve this. It contrasts with Op art which just appears to move.

Land Art: 1960s-80s, USA and GBArt that invovles the artist going out into nature (normally in a remote area), and making his or her mark on it. The only record that remains is photographic, sometimes combined with maps, text and so on. More recently, some Land artists have exhibited sculptures made from natural found objects inside galleries.

Minimalism: Late 1960s-70s, USAAn intellectual sort of art which seems to consist of very little, so that the viewer is forced to scrutinize the formal roperties of what is actually there very carefully. The work is usually rigorously geometric and involves the repetition of identical objects. Malevich was among the pioneers of this kind of art.

Neo-Expressionism: Late 1970s-80s, InternationalWidespread and much-publicized characteristic of 1980s art.

Op Art: Late 1950s-60s, InternationalThe name is short for Optical art. It refers to a geometric abstract art that manipulates the viewer's visual response and creates the illusion of movement. Artists use theories from the psychology of perception to achieve this effect.

Orphism: 1912-13, FranceA colorful and almost abstract strand of Cubism. One of the earliest attempts to create abstract art.

Performance Art: 1960s-present, InternationalThis art is related to theatrical performance, but usually has no plot or sense of drama. It is often used to make a political point, exploit the idea of endurance, or simply to entertain.

Pointillism: Mid 1880s-90s, FranceThe technique of applying small, regular dabs of unmixed color on to the picture surface, relying on scientific theories (combining complementary colors). Pioneered by Seurat, who used the term "Divisionism."

Pop Art: Late 1950s-60s, USA and GBThe apparent celebration of western consumerism after the auterity and rationing of the war years. The artists' work evokes the brash, colorful world of advertising, commic strips and popular entertainment.

Point Impressionism: 1880s-90s, FranceA blanket term referring to art that both learned from and rejected certain Imressionist principles. Cezanne and Seurat tried to regain a sense of order; Gauguin attempted to express a world of imagination and spirituality; van Gogh, elemental emotions.

Socialist Realism: 1930s-50s, USSRArt promoted by the Stalinist regime in Russia as a propoganda tool. The artists used a realistic, but often melodramatic style to present an idealized vision of Societ society and its leaders.

De Stijl: 1917-early 30s, HollandA movement founded by van Doesburg and Mondrian to promote their use of geometric abstract shapes and primary colors, based on the idea of universal harmony. Their ideas exended to architecture and design as well as paintings. They published a magazine with the same name.

Suprematism: 1913-20s, RussiaMalevich expressed the ideas behind this movement in his book "The Non-Objective World." e wrote of his wish to create a vocabulary of geometric abstract shapes entirely independent of the visible world, and espressing pure artistic feeling. He greatly influenced Constructivist artists.

Surrealism: 1924-40s, ParisA movement that drew on certain ideas of Dada, and on the writings of Freud to create an art which was intended to free the viewer as well as the artist by exploring the world of the unconscious and subconscious mind. some artists used unorthodox techniques such as frottage (random rubblings from different materials).

Symbolism: 1890s, InternationalA literary and artistic movement which, partly in reaction to Realism and Impressionism, emphasized the world of the imagination, of ideas, dreams and emotions. It is a predecessor of Expressionism and Surrealism.

Vorticism: 1910-14, EnglandA group of London-based avant-garde artists inspired by cubism and Futurism. They rejected the gentility of the English art world and celebrated the excitement and beauty of the machine age. They published a magazine called "Blast." The movement did not survive the brutality of WWI.

Source for text:Bohm-Duchen & Cook. "Understanding Modern Art." EDC Publishing: Oklahoma, 1988.

http://www.umfa.utah.edu/?id=MjAx

Beached Tanker at Newcastle

Funny comment

“A big problem at the club is that the members lick their balls”

Comment made by student during an engineering class on recycled water at University of New South Wales.

He was talking about a golf club.

2007

Alive after two mile fall

By Ryan Morrison

BBC

10th May 2007

Jersey skydiver Michael Holmes survived a two mile fall in New Zealand after his parachute failed. Jersey's Michael Holmes was skydiving in New Zealand when his parachute failed and he found himself heading for the ground at 120mph on Tuesday 12 December.

During what would have been a relatively routine jump for a man who's been doing this for seven years, and was the youngest British person ever to qualify as a skydiving instructor, the parachute failed.

Michael's father told us that the main parachute became tangled, which then caused problems for the reserve parachute.

He explained what happened:

"Half of the parachute collapsed. The parachute is attached to a container on the skydivers back with a load of lines and they became tangled. "The tangle went right back down to the container with the result that he couldn't release the pain chute, what they call, cut away the main chute.

"Nor could he deploy the reserve and the reserve couldn't deploy itself either because of the tangle."

However, despite falling 12,000ft Michael survived. He fell into a blackberry bush at around 100 mph and suffered a punctured lung and broken ankle.

Michael was found unconscious by police in a blackberry bush in a conservation area in Five Mile Bay in Taupo on New Zealand's North Island.

A Taupo Fire Brigade spokesman said "Mr Holmes had fallen into dense bushes and the brigade had been called to slash a path through to free him"

Michael Holmes snr told us "It's a one in a million chance it could happen and he was very fortunate he survived."

He was asked how his son felt about falling and told us "Michael is Michael and he will bounce back from it and will be skydiving again in a months time".

Eyewitness John Siddles told New Zealand's Daily Post "One of the skydivers was coming down and going round and round. He looked like he was all tangled up or something. He just came down, straight down".

The accident is being investigated by the New Zealand Parachute Industry Association.

Nine of of ten babies in the US watch TV

May 8, 2007

About 90 per cent of US children under age 2 and as many as 40 per cent of infants under three months are regular watchers of television, DVDs and videos, researchers said on Monday.

They said the number of young kids watching TV was much greater than expected.

"We don't know from the study whether it is good or bad. What we know is that it is big," said Frederick Zimmerman of the University of Washington, whose research appears in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine.

A second study suggested excessive TV viewing could lead to attention and learning problems down the road.

The American Academy of Pediatrics estimates that children in the United States watch about four hours of television every day. They recommend that children under age 2 should not watch any and older children should watch no more than 2 hours a day of quality programming.

But 29 per cent of parents surveyed by Zimmerman and colleagues believed baby-oriented TV and DVD programs offered educational benefits.

"Parents are getting the message loud and clear from marketers of TV and videos that this is good for their kids. That it will help their brain development ... None of this stuff has ever been proven," Zimmerman said in a telephone interview.

For their study, Zimmerman's team conducted random telephone surveys of more than 1000 families with young children in Minnesota and Washington.

They found 90 per cent of children under age 2 and 40 per cent of infants under three months watched TV regularly.

At 3 months, children watched less than an hour per day, but by 24 months, they watched more than 1.5 hours per day.

About half of the shows watched were in the educational category, with the remainder split evenly among noneducational children's content, baby DVDs/videos and adult TV.

In a separate survey of 1051 parents published in the journal Pediatrics, 75 per cent of children aged 0 to 6 were found to watch TV every day, often in their own bedrooms.

"We don't know that it is bad but we don't know that it is harmless," Zimmerman said.

A second study in the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine found that teens who watch three to four hours of television a day were more likely to have attention or learning problems and were less likely to get a college degree.

"Even watching more than an hour of TV per day had some adverse consequences, but three hours was much worse than one hour, and two was worse than one," Jeffrey Johnson of Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and the New York State Psychiatric Institute said in a telephone interview.

Johnson and colleagues studied 678 families in New York state over more than 20 years.

"Kids who watched less than one hour of TV per day were twice as likely to go to college as those who watched three or more hours per day," he said.

Just 12 per cent of the parents whose children watched less than an hour of television a day said their child "hardly ever does homework," compared to 21 per cent of those who watched one to three hours a day and 27 per cent of those who watched more than three hours a day.

Parents said 22 per cent of teens who watched less than an hour a day were often bored at school, compared to 35 per cent of the moderate watchers and 42 per cent of those who watched three hours or more.

The result was the same regardless of socioeconomic status.

Johnson said he believed TV may be shortening teens' attention spans. "Over time, it could really dumb down society," he said.

Reuters

Ben Cousins in shock

Tuesday May 1, 2007

The Guardian

Colombian Navy Finds 27 Tons of Cocaine

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) - Colombia's navy made the largest drug seizure in the nation's history when it uncovered about 27 tons of cocaine buried along the Pacific coast, the defense minister said Monday.

The cocaine, with a wholesale value of more than $500 million, was found Sunday buried in 1,000 packages of 55 pounds each near the coastal town of Pizarro, 250 miles west of Bogota, Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos told a news conference.

Santos said the seizure was the result of eight months of undercover police work and he called it the ``biggest in the history of Colombia.''

The cocaine was buried near an estuary accessible only by sea, he said.

There were no arrests in the operation, but the drugs were believed to belong to Colombia's biggest drug trafficking organization, the Norte del Valle cartel, which operates near the area.

Colombia is the world's leading cocaine producer, producing annually more than 500 tons of cocaine that represents 90 percent of the drug consumed in the United States.

Most of the cocaine leaves the country by sea, on go-fast boats that transport the drugs up along the Central American coast for their eventual smuggling into the United States overland through Mexico.

Although drug seizures are an everyday affair, they rarely reach such large numbers. Last October, Colombia's navy made headlines when it found 9.3 tons of cocaine on three go-fast boats near the Pacific coastal port city of Buenaventura - its biggest seizure of the year.

President Alvaro Uribe travels to Washington on Tuesday to shore up support on Capitol Hill and the White House for the U.S.-backed Plan Colombia, an anti-narcotics and counterinsurgency program that has cost American taxpayers more than $5 billion since 2000.

Howard on climate

Quality of Life

A man and his wife were sitting in the living room and he said to her,"Just so you know, I never want to live in a vegetative state, dependent on some machine and fluids from a bottle. If that ever happens, just pull the plug."

His wife got up, unplugged the TV and threw out all of his beer.

Mahatma Gandhi quotes

“Earth provides enough to satisfy every man's need, but not every man's greed”



“The most heinous and the most cruel crimes of which history has record have been committed under the cover of religion or equally noble motives”



“I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

let them ride bikes: Parisians to hit roads

March 26, 2007

PARIS: On July 15, the day after Bastille Day, Parisians will wake up to discover thousands of low-cost rental bikes at hundreds of high-tech bicycle stations scattered throughout the city, an ambitious program to cut traffic, reduce pollution, improve parking and enhance the city's image as a greener, quieter, more relaxed place.

By the end of the year, there should be 20,600 bikes at 1450 stations - or about one station every 250 metres across the entire city. Based on experience elsewhere - particularly in Lyon, France's third-largest city - regular users of the bikes will ride them almost free.

"We think it could change Paris's image - make it quieter, less polluted, with a nicer atmosphere, a better way of life," said Jean-Luc Dumesnil, an aide to the Mayor, Bertrand Delanoe.

Anthonin Darbon, director of Cyclocity, which operates Lyon's program and won the contract to run the one in Paris, said 95 per cent of the roughly 20,000 daily bicycle rentals in Lyon are free because of their length.

Cyclocity is a subsidiary of the outdoor advertising behemoth JCDecaux. London, Dublin, Sydney and Melbourne are reportedly considering similar rental programs.

The Cyclocity concept evolved from utopian "bike-sharing" ideas tried in Europe in the 1960s, most famously in Amsterdam. But in the end, the bikes were stolen and became too beaten-up to ride.

JCDecaux developed a sturdier, less vandal-prone bike, along with a rental system to discourage theft: each rider must leave a credit card or refundable deposit of about €150 ($250). In Lyon, about 10 per cent of the bikes are stolen each year, but many are later recovered.

To encourage people to return bikes quickly, rental rates rise the longer the bikes are out. In Paris, for instance, renting a bike will be free for the first half-hour, €1 for the next, €2 for the third, and so on.

In a complex, 10-year public-private partnership deal, JCDecaux will provide all the bikes and build the pick-up/drop-off stations. Each will have racks connected to a centralised computer that can monitor each bike's condition and location. In exchange, Paris is giving the company exclusive control over 1628 city-owned billboards.

The Washington Post

Huge ski jump

Check out the landing...

Ice Epidemic ??????????

Subject: School of Population Health, University of Melbourne podcast - The Ice Epidemic

The Ice epidemic is of major concern to governments around Australia. This podcast episode analyses the so-called "Ice" methamphetamine epidemic. Through an analysis of the available survey health data we conclude that the recent hype around crystal methamphetamine is misplaced.

Methamphetamine use, while of concern, is not increasing. Indicators of drug use in Australian drug-using populations suggest that the use of methamphetamine has been stable since 2001. At a time when governments around Australia are preparing responses to the so-called epidemic this podcast reviews the evidence, the media coverage and some health promotion approaches to methamphetamine use. The podcast is an essential listen for drug and alcohol service providers, policy makers and news makers who are concerned about evidence-based approaches to social and drug policy. The pod cast may be accessed at:

http://www.nspresearch.unimelb.edu.au/dose.html

For further information please contact: Dr John Fitzgerald

Andrew Dare
Research Fellow Centre for Health Programs Policy and Evaluation School of Population Health
The University of Melbourne

World Cup Win video

Norton Street after World Cup Win by Italy

Blast from the Past

Gary Sobers hitting 6 sixes ...

6 sixes in an over - by HH Gibbs

End of over 29 (12 runs) - South Africa 178/2 (RR: 6.13)
JH Kallis 75* (84b 8x4 1x6)
HH Gibbs 32* (30b 3x4 1x6)
LP van Troost 1-0-12-0
DLS van Bunge 3-0-20-0

29.1
van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Violence! Gibbs charged down the track and hoicked it over long on.

29.2
van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Murder! Floated on the leg and middle stump line and Gibbs sends it soaring over long-off.

29.3
van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Carnage! Flatter one this time but it makes no difference to Gibbs. He just stands there and delivers. This one also has been sucked over long off

29.4
van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Wah Wah! Low full toss and guess where this went Yep. A slap slog and it went over deep midwicket! He is going to go for 6 sixes in this over!

29.5
van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, Short in length, on the off stump line and Gibbs rocks back and swat-pulls it over wide long off. SImply amazing. What a batsman. This is pure violence!

29.6
van Bunge to Gibbs, SIX, He has done it! One-day record. No one has hit six sixes in a row. Gibbs stands alone in that zone. And the minnow bashing continues! Full and outside off and bludgeoned over deep midwicket

End of over 30 (36 runs) - South Africa 214/2 (RR: 7.13)
HH Gibbs 68* (36b 3x4 7x6)
JH Kallis 75* (84b 8x4 1x6)
DLS van Bunge 4-0-56-0
LP van Troost 1-0-12-0

Commentry from http://content-aus.cricinfo.com/wc2007/engine/current/match/247462.html

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Balance? Don't ask an economist

Ross Gittins
March 7, 2007
SMH

In all the interviews I've done to publicise my new book, Gittinomics, only one interviewer has come close to saying the obvious: you have to be pretty egotistical to name an -omics after yourself. So what's so special about my version of economics?

All capitalist economics seeks to explain how the capitalist system works. I guess what's different about my take on the subject is its emphasis on making sure you're a master of the system, not a victim. Making it work for you, not you for it. To that end, the first thing to understand is the need to keep economics in perspective and economists in their place.

Economists are experts in one important but limited aspect of life: the material. No one knows better than they do how best to maximise our production and consumption of goods and services. When a community follows their advice - as we pretty much have been for the past 25 years - it gets rich.

Trouble is, sensible people don't maximise the material aspect of life, they optimise it. That is, they balance it against other, non-material objectives.

For instance, most economists know little about the question of fairness and, for the most part, ignore it. Press them and they'll tell you frankly that it's outside their area of competence.

Likewise, they're largely oblivious to the social and spiritual aspects of life. Will the policies they advocate damage family life, for instance? Sorry, never given it any thought. Why don't you consult a social worker or a priest?

Why not, indeed. Economists' advice is one-dimensional. When we give that advice primacy and fail to meld it with the advice of experts in other areas, we risk becoming a richer but more socially dysfunctional society. And what applies at the national political level also applies in our everyday lives.

Most of the things capitalism has to offer us are good - provided we don't overdo them. Trouble is, the system is usually pressing us to overdo them.

Take the ready availability of credit. Thanks to financial deregulation and our return to low inflation, interest rates are lower and the banks are anxious to lend.

When we use that credit to buy our own home, we're generally better off. But when we use credit cards or home equity loans to buy consumer goods we can't afford, we risk becoming victims.

Credit cards don't remove the need to save for the things we buy. Since debts have to be repaid, they merely allow us to do the saving after we've acquired the item rather than before.

The trick is that you also have to pay a lot of interest. So when we allow our impatience to get the better of us, we end up devoting much of our income not to buying things but merely to paying interest.

And if carrying a lot of debt on top of our mortgage makes us feel continuously weighed down - I owe, I owe, it's off to work I go - that's another strike against our being masters, not victims.

It's great to live in such a successful capitalist economy, where not all but most of us enjoy a fair degree of comfort. But when we take the advertising too seriously and start deluding ourselves that buying more stuff will make us happy, we risk becoming victims.

Our politicians venerate the "aspirational voter", but when our aspirations run exclusively to the material we're setting ourselves up for a state of recurring dissatisfaction.

To be masters of the system we need to control our aspirations, learning to be more content with what we've got and aspiring to be better gardeners, better golfers, better at our jobs, better partners, better parents, better human beings.

The capitalist system has ways of taking money from the poor, but also of doing down the comfortably off. Really? How? By selling the illusion of social status - and it doesn't come cheap.

The middle class spends an enormous amount of money keeping up with the Joneses and trying to demonstrate how well we're doing by the clothes we wear, the cars we drive, the homes and suburbs we live in, the schools we send our kids to and much else.

Almost by definition, the possessions that most impress people are the ones that cost the most. There are too many cases where, provided they get their image and market positioning right, firms can defy the laws of demand and supply and sell more of their product by putting up their price.

What makes this game an illusion is that it's like an arms race. People are always catching up and passing you, requiring you to earn more and spend more to regain your place.

But if you've got the money, what's wrong with spending it on big boys' toys? Nothing - provided keeping your place in the status race doesn't lead you to money stress, overwork, a feeling of being trapped or neglect of relationships that matter most. If it does, you're a victim.

And here's a good test of whether you are: how much do you enjoy your job?

If you're just doing it for the money, and feel constrained by your financial commitments from moving to a lesser-paid but more satisfying job … well, you don't need me to tell you you're not master of your destiny. But your cage is of your own making.

How can you escape to a better job or cut back the long hours you're working? By reducing your financial commitments. How? By controlling your material aspirations and stopping trying to buy status. Is that too tall an order? Then don't complain about being trapped by the system.

But wouldn't the capitalist system collapse if we all cut our spending and did less work so we could spend more time enjoying our relationships? No, of course it wouldn't.

The economy would just grow at a slower rate. And that would be a cheap price to pay for lives that were less harried and where our relationships were more rewarding.

I guess that's what Gittinomics is driving at.

Gittinomics, by Ross Gittins, is published by Allen & Unwin, RRP $26.95

Global warming: An inconvenient truth or hot air?

4 March 2007
The Independent
Geoffrey Lean reports

Everyone agrees global warming is a terrible fact of life. Right? Wrong. A film to be screened this week ridicules the Al Gore orthodoxy.

After two decades, the long scientific and political debate over whether human activities are warming up the Earth is finally over. Or is it? The world scientific community says so. Even the most recalcitrant governments, including the Bush administration, reluctantly agree. But the British media is characteristically unwilling to let an old row simply fade away.

On Thursday, Channel 4 will screen what it calls a "polemical and thought-provoking documentary" - The Great Global Warming Swindle - by one of the environmentalists' favourite hate figures, film-maker Martin Durkin.

It follows hot on the heels of a decision by David Miliband, the Environment Secretary, to send a copy of Al Gore's box-office hit, An Inconvenient Truth - which this month won two Oscars - to every secondary school throughout the country.

And the debate continues in the printed media with the Daily Mail and the Telegraph printing regular articles by sceptics and even The Independent, which - with this newspaper - presses for action to control climate change, giving space to the columnist Dominic Lawson, who rejects much of the green lobby's case. Yet, while contrarians remain common in broadcasting studios and newspaper offices, they are becoming increasingly hard to find in laboratories or governments.

Last month, the official Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) - which brings together almost all the world's leading scientists in the field and all its governments - published the first instalment of its latest massive "assessment report", concluding that it was 90 per cent certain that human activities are heating up the planet. The conclusion was all the more authoritative as the IPCC is a cautious body that acts by consensus; all governments, including the United States, have to agree its conclusions.

Some scientists still disagree - that is the nature of science - but their numbers are diminishing, and few are leaders in their fields. A recent survey of 928 published scientific papers found not one that dissented over the reality of global warming. Even President Bush admitted - through gritted teeth - in January's State of the Union speech that the climate change presented "a major challenge".

Yet more recently, his main ally against the Kyoto Protocol, the Australian Prime Minister John Howard, has been forced into a U-turn by a massive Australian drought and an approaching election, announcing a ban on energy-wasting incandescent light bulbs.

And Mr Bush's best hope of a replacement - the Canadian premier, Steven Harper - has been forced by public opinion into a similar conversion.

But if environmentalists thought they could finally give up arguing, and focus entirely on promoting action, they can think again. For the clash between the Oscar-winning film and the Channel 4 production is likely to spark new public debate. Both are produced by controversial figures. Al Gore last week came under attack for hypocrisy, after it was revealed that he spends £15,000 a year heating his home, 20 times more than the average American house. And, as The Independent on Sunday has repeatedly pointed out , he failed comprehensively to practise what he preaches when in Government.

Martin Durkin, for his part, achieved notoriety when his previous series on the environment for the channel, called Against Nature , was roundly condemned by the Independent Television Commission for misleading contributors on the purpose of the programmes, and for editing four interviewees in a way that "distorted or mispresented their known views".

Channel 4 was forced to issue a humiliating apology. But it seems to have forgiven Mr Durkin and sees no need to make special checks on the accuracy of the programme. For his part, the film-maker accepts the charge of misleading contributors, but describes the verdict of distortion as "complete tosh."

His programme uncovers no startling new information, any more than does Mr Gore's film. The documentary repeats many of the arguments put in Britain by, among others what appears to be be something of a family cottage industry.

Standing with Dominic Lawson on the sceptic's barricades are his father (or to give him proper deference, Lord Lawson of Blaby) and his brother-in-law Christopher Monckton, Lord Monckton of Brenchley. Surprisingly, there is much common ground between sceptics and the environmentalists. Lord Lawson, for example, says that there is "little doubt that the 20th century ended warmer than it began".

He adds, similarly, that "there is no doubt that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide increased greatly" during it.

He even agrees that it is "highly likely that carbon dioxide emissions" have played a significant part" in heating up the Earth.

He could hardly do otherwise. The measurements of what has happened are clear, and the basic science has been established, unchallenged for 180 years. Instead, the debate is about precisely what contribution to warming the pollution has made, whether it will continue and what to do about it.

The row concentrates on often arcane points of science, frequently delving far back into history. Three of them, raised in this week's documentary, are described above; in each the sceptics have a point, but fail to give the whole picture and so draw the wrong conclusions. Other arguments have been discredited.

Similarly, they emphasise that temperatures in Britain, Greenland and parts of Europe were warmer in the Middle Ages than they are now. That may or may not be true - since no accurate measurements were taken it is hard to be certain.

But, if so, it was only a regional effect: measurements of ice from the poles on which the sceptics place great reliance for other arguments (see table) show it did not happen worldwide. They also claim that tackling global warming would hurt the world's poorest by denying them fossil fuels. But renewable sources of energy should also be the poor's salvation.

They are abundant in the Third World and don't need costly distribution networks to get them to village. And even if the sceptics are right, and the bulk of the world's scientists wrong, there is still a compelling reason for cutting carbon dioxide emissions. For, as often reported in this newspaper, rising levels of the gas - in an entirely separate process - are killing the world's oceans by turning them acid.

Temperature

DURKIN SAYS: Studies of gases in bubbles of air in polar ice sheets reveal that in prehistoric hot periods temperatures began rising before C02 levels. So increasing concentrations of the gas are the result, not the cause of global warming.

GORE SAYS: "It's a complicated relationship, but the most important part of it is this: when there is more C02 in the atmosphere, the temperature increases." He shows two graphs of rising temperature and C02 levels over the past 600,000 years and says they "fit together".

WE SAY: Temperature and C02 are bound together. When one goes up, the other will follow. In prehistory temperatures often started rising 800 years before levels of the gas, and Gore evades this point. But it is irrelevant to what is happening now, because for the first time ever enormous amounts of extra C02 are being released.

The Arctic

DURKIN SAYS: Recent reports of how the amount of ice in the Arctic is shrinking have been exaggerated. The Arctic has always contracted and expanded over history.

GORE SAYS: The Arctic is a "canary in the coal mine". Since the 1970s ,the extent and thickness of its ice cap has "diminished precipitously". If we continue as we are, it will disappear during summers, profoundly changing the climate.

WE SAY: The amount of the ice ebbs and flows with natural warmings and coolings of the climate, and part of this shrinking is probably due to that. But this is being increased by global warming caused by rising levels of greenhouse gases, and these continue to go up. The Arctic is likely to be free of ice by 2050, for the first time in millions of years.

The sun

DURKIN SAYS: The sun is the main cause of global warming. The sun's activity increases from time to time, with increased solar flares, cutting down on cloud formation and raising temperatures on Earth. This activity correlates well with warmer periods over the past several hundred years.

GORE SAYS: The culprit is humanity's emissions of "huge quantities" of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases, which trap more of the infrared radiation of the sun that would otherwise escape out into space.

WE SAY: Variations in solar activity may have been responsible for past warm periods, though it's hard to be entirely sure because we have been taking good measurements of it only since 1978. But recent solar increases are too small to have produced the present warming, and have been much less important than greenhouse gases since about 1850.

http://news.independent.co.uk/environment/climate_change/article2326210.ece

China goes for green before growth

Rowan Callick,
China correspondent
March 06, 2007
The Australian

CHINA has announced a sweeping program to shut some of its most polluting factories in a green initiative that is likely to cut its economic growth this year to 8 per cent from 10.7 per cent last year.

Premier Wen Jiabao used his state of the nation address yesterday to unveil environmental initiatives that would close a massive section of China's old heavy industry.

The initiatives also ban the wasteful use of land, including building golf courses and free-standing homes.

Launching the annual session of the National People's Congress, Mr Wen said future economic growth would hinge on "environmentally friendly industries".

Projects would be assessed for "energy consumption and environmental impact". Those that failed to meet such standards would be stopped. Mr Wen said China would close "backward" iron foundries with a production capacity of less than 30 million tonnes and "backward" steel mills that could produce 35million tonnes.

Source

Industry closes anti-coal website

Wendy Frew,
Environment Reporter
March 5, 2007
SMH

THE mining industry has used copyright laws to close an anti-mining website launched by a small protest group in Newcastle.

The NSW Minerals Council has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on a TV, print and billboard advertising campaign and launched a website extolling the virtues of mining. The campaign's slogan is "Life: brought to you by mining".

The anti-coal group Rising Tide created its own website sending up the campaign with comments such as "Rising sea levels: brought to you by mining".

The website's hosts were forced to remove it within 24 hours of its launch, after the Minerals Council issued a notice under the Copyright Regulations 1969 complaining the content and layout infringed copyright.

Rising Tide remade the website, using its own photographs and layout. However, the council lodged a second complaint.

"They are trying to silence us," said a Rising Tide member, Steve Phillips. "We have issued a counter-notice rejecting the Minerals Council's spurious claims. [It] now has 10 days in which to take the matter [to court]."

There is growing public concern about coal's contribution to climate change, and mining's threat to underground and above-ground water supplies.

The council's chief executive, Nikki Williams, said its complaint was not an attempt to silence Rising Tide. "They have to abide by the [copyright] laws," she said. However, she admitted she had not seen the revised website, and did not know if the council would take the matter to court.

Dr Williams disputed claims by Rising Tide that the council was running the campaign to counter growing concern about coal.

"It is a community awareness campaign … it is about establishing a fair voice for the mining industry; it is simply a matter of the facts," she said, referring to the benefits flowing from the industry such as jobs, cheap electricity and export revenue.

Links
http://www.miningnsw.com.au/

vs

http://www.nswmining.com.au/

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Interesting things !!

A man who was found dressed in latex and handcuffs brought a donkey to his room in a Galway city centre hotel, because he was advised “to get out and meet people,” the local court heard last week.Thomas Aloysius McCarney with an address in south Galway was charged with cruelty to animals, lewd and obscene behaviour, and with being a danger to himself when he appeared before the court on Friday. He was also charged with damage to a mini-bar in the room, but this charge was later dropped when the defendant said that it was the donkey who caused that damage.Solicitor for the accused Ms Sharon Fitzhenry said that her client had been through a difficult time lately and that his wife had left him and that his life had become increasingly lonely.“Mr McCarney has been attending counselling at which he was told that he would be advised to get out and meet people and do interesting things. It was this advice that saw him book into the city centre hotel with a donkey,” she said. She added that Mr McCarney also suffered from a fixation with the Shrek movies and could constantly be heard at work talking to himself saying things like “Isn’t that right, Donkey?”Supt John McBrearty told the court that Mr McCarney who had signed in as “ Mr Shrek” had told hotel staff that the donkey was a family pet and that this was believed by the hotel receptionist who the supt said was “young and hadn’t great English.”Receptionist Irina Legova said that Mr McCarney had told her that the donkey was a breed of “super rabbit” which he was bringing to a pet fair in the city. The court was told that the donkey went berserk in the middle of the night and ran amok in the hotel corridor, forcing hotel staff to call the gardai. McCarney was found in the room wearing a latex suit and handcuffs, the key to which the donkey is believed to have swallowed. He was removed to Mill St station after which it is said he was the subject of much mirth among the lads next door in The Galway Arms.He was fined €2,000 for bringing the donkey to the room under the Unlawful Accommodation of Donkeys Act 1837. Other charges were dropped due to lack of evidence.

http://www.galwayfirst.ie/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=114&Itemid=99999999

Still time to save the world, scientists say

March 1, 2007
SMH

WRENCHING worldwide climate changes can no longer be avoided, but there is still time to stave off the worst consequences of global warming, an international research team says.

The scientists from 11 countries urged sweeping conservation measures to hold the expected increase in temperatures to no more than an average of 2 degrees globally - less than half the expected increase if emissions of greenhouse gas and soot continue unabated.

The scientists called for dramatic actions ranging from carbon taxes and a ban on conventional coal-fired power plants to an end to all beachfront construction worldwide. The researchers were funded by the non-profit UN Foundation and the research society Sigma Xi.

To meet the scientists' goal, global carbon dioxide emissions must level off by 2015 and then drop by two-thirds by 2100.

They urged stricter fuel efficiency standards, as well as fuel taxes, registration fees and rebates that favour more efficient transport, which today is responsible for 40 per cent of the world's carbon emissions.

The researchers also recommended expanded use of biofuels to reduce dependence on the oil that accounts for one-quarter of the world's carbon emissions. They endorsed broader use of nuclear power, if it can be made safer.

In addition, the scientists called for improved designs of appliances and office equipment and "greener" buildings. Taken together, heating, cooling and lighting buildings accounts for almost 30 per cent of the world's greenhouse gas emissions.

Los Angeles Times

International panel presents U.N. with climate change plan

By CHARLES J. HANLEYAP
Special CorrespondentPublished:
Wednesday, February 28, 2007

UNITED NATIONS (AP) – An international panel of scientists presented the United Nations with a sweeping, detailed plan on Tuesday to combat climate change – a challenge, it said, “to which civilization must rise.”Failure would produce a turbulent 21st century of weather extremes, spreading drought and disease, expanding oceans and displaced coastal populations, it said.“The increasing numbers of environmental refugees as sea levels rise and storm surges increase will be in the tens of millions,” panel co-chair Rosina Bierbaum, a University of Michigan ecologist, told reporters.

After a two-year study, the 18-member group, representing 11 nations, offered scores of recommendations: from pouring billions more dollars into research and development of cleaner energy sources, to mobilizing U.N. and other agencies to help affected people, to winning political agreement on a global temperature “ceiling.”Their 166-page report, produced at U.N. request and sponsored by the private United Nations Foundation and the Sigma Xi Scientific Research Society, was issued just three weeks after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), an authoritative U.N. network of 2,000 scientists, made headlines with its latest assessment of climate science.The IPCC expressed its greatest confidence yet that global warming is being caused largely by the accumulation of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, mostly from man’s burning of coal, oil and other fossil fuels. If nothing’s done, it said, global temperatures could rise as much as 11 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100.

Temperatures rose an average 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit over the past 100 years. Tuesday's report said the world’s nations should agree to limit further rises this century to no more than 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit.Beyond that, “we would be in a regime where the danger of intolerable and unmanageable impacts on human well-being would rise very rapidly,” said panel member John P. Holdren, director of Massachusetts’ Woods Hole Research Center.The experts panel said global carbon dioxide emissions should be leveled off by 2015-2020, and then cut back to less than one-third that level by 2100, via a vast transformation of global energy systems – toward greater efficiency, away from fossil fuels, and toward biofuels, solar, wind and other renewable energy sources.

That changeover would be spurred by heavy “carbon taxes” or “cap-and-trade” systems, whereby industries’ emissions are capped by governments, and more efficient companies can sell unused allowances to less efficient ones.Such schemes _ already in use in Europe under the Kyoto Protocol climate pact _ have been proposed in the U.S. Congress, but are opposed by the Bush administration, which rejects Kyoto.The White House points to what it says is spending of almost $3 billion a year on energy-technology research and development as its major contribution to combatting climate change. But Holdren said other calculations put spending at under $2 billion, and it's "far from proportionate to either the size of the challenge or the size of the opportunities."

Tuesday's report said such research budgets worldwide are badly underfunded, and require a tripling or quadrupling, to $45 billion or $60 billion a year.Billions more should go toward work on cellulose as a biofuel, overcoming the problems of nuclear energy, reducing solar electricity's cost, and developing other cleaner energy sources, Holdren said. He said intensified research is particularly needed for carbon capture and sequestration _ technology to capture carbon dioxide in power-plant emissions and store it underground.In fact, the experts panel urged governments to immediately ban all new coal-fired power plants except those designed for eventual retrofitting of sequestration technology.

The panel's other co-chair is biodiversity expert Peter H. Raven, Missouri Botanical Garden director and past president of Sigma Xi.

Climate change 'a campaign of alarmism'

By Denis Peters
February 28, 2007
Article from: AAP

A CONCERTED and well-organised campaign has created alarm over human-induced climate change, industrial magnate Sir Arvi Parbo says.

Sir Arvi also said today key international reports warning of climate change, including Al Gore's documentary An Inconvenient Truth, are biased and scrutiny of them has been suppressed.

The former head of Western Mining Corporation, BHP and Alcoa Australia, is the keynote speaker at a gathering of climate change sceptics being hosted by Western Australian Liberal MP Dr Dennis Jensen, at Parliament House.

It also is supported by the Lavoisier Group, an Australian organisation set up as a base for climate change sceptics.

One of the founders of the Lavoisier Group is former WMC chief executive Hugh Morgan, one of the businessmen who have formed a company to look at building Australia's first nuclear reactor.

The occasion will also serve as the launch of a new book, entitled Nine Facts About Climate Change, by former Institute of Public Affairs head Ray Evans.

Sir Arvi said he had kept an open mind through 20 years of listening to debate about climate change but was now witnessing a "semi-religious fervour" overshadowing it.

"One must admire the skilful way in which the public has been led to believe that there is no longer any uncertainty, and that disastrous climate change caused by humans is imminent," he said.

"The appointment of Mr Al Gore as adviser to the UK Government on climate change is a good example.

"I am not aware of Mr Gore's ranking as a climate scientist but he has undoubted credentials as a politician and someone who knows how to influence public opinion.

"His film, The Inconvenient Truth has been widely publicised, has been seen by, and has influenced millions of people around the world.

"It has been severely criticised for deliberately and grossly exaggerating and distorting the issues and I understand that the recently published summary for policymakers by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change contradicts a number of Mr Gore's major contentions.

"This, in contrast, has had virtually no publicity and no effect on the public."

Sir Arvi said the review of the economic impact of climate change by former World Bank chief economist Sir Nicholas Stern had been found to be biased and alarming and neither accurate nor objective by a review of distinguished scientists.

"As far as I am aware, this criticism has not been answered," he said.

"An uninvolved observer has to conclude that there has been a concerted and well-organised campaign to create worldwide apprehension and alarm.

"Reading and listening to the media and to political discussion, this campaign has succeeded. In fact it may have succeeded too well."

Greens climate change spokeswoman Senator Christine Milne later described the forum as "the last gasp of the Dad's Army of sceptics". "What they try to do is give the impression that climate change science is uncertain," she said.

"They've been reasonably successful because they've been well funded, as with the tobacco industry before them.

"Now this group of people is trying to extend the life of the fossil fuel industry.

"They are backed by the coal industry and the oil industry."

She said the Lavoisier Group was associated with the Liberal Party and right-wing bodies such as the HR Nicholls Society.

"They are a joke in terms of climate science but they are actually a cost to future generations because they confuse the public when there is now no doubt about the science."

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,21303658-1702,00.html

Hungry ???

The newest addition to the menu at Denny's Beer Barrel Pub in Pennsylvania is one meaty monstrosity of a burger.

The Beer Barrel Main Event Charity Burger weighs in at 55.79 kilograms.

The sizable sandwich features an 36.25 kilogram beef patty, along with a pound each of lettuce, ketchup, relish, mustard and mayonnaise, 160 slices of cheese, up to five onions and 12 tomatoes.

It's topped with a couple of pounds of banana peppers and 33 pickles, then sandwiched into a 13.60 kilogram bun.

Price tag: $A481.

AP

G Wiz - Electric Car

by ALASTAIR MCKAY (30 Apr 2006) Scotland on Sunday

THERE is a map on the wall of the office of GoinGreen's offices in Southall, West London, which shows the spread of emission-free motoring. It looks like the early stages of a virus, with coloured pins marking the address of every owner of a Reva G-Wiz.

So far, the map is restricted to Greater London. The armies of pins have outposts as far as Chislehurst and Beckenham in the south-east, and Wimbledon in the south-west, stretching as far north as Barnet. There are a couple in Ealing.

The big battalions are clustered in the leafier parts of north London, with high concentrations of colour in Primrose Hill and Hampstead. One of those pins is said to belong to Jonathan Ross - a man with a penchant for eccentric vehicles. Since they went on sale in summer 2004, more than 500 of these impish electric cars have been sold.

The analogy with a virus is apt. GoinGreen doesn't advertise its cars, instead selling them by word of mouth and through its website: www.goingreen.co.uk If the pins clump together, it's because the owners tend to recommend them to their friends. But the company did get a burst of publicity this week when the Conservative leader, David Cameron, posed with a G-Wiz (though the pistachio-tie-wearing politician actually drives a not very green Lexus GS 450).

It's to that same blue G-Wiz (reg: YK53 GOE) that I am led for my test-drive. The experience is made even more testing by the presence in the car of Graham, the photographer, and my guide, Joe Byars of GoinGreen. The G-Wiz is designed to seat two adults and two small children. It can take three tall men, but not without one of them doing an unseemly yoga position in the rear. And though the cabin is tall and the road position is quite high, the roof is no respecter of a gentleman's quiff.

The G-Wiz was conceived in California by Dr Lon Bell, an engineer who made his fortune making airbag sensors and seatbelt tensioners, before becoming intrigued by the way cars work.

In designing an electric car, he decided to ignore the assumptions of conventional construction. His first thought was to ask what was necessary in a car, from which he concluded that it needed wheels, with tyres, something to steer and a windscreen. Most of the rest was luxury and got in the way of making a nimble, no-frills electric vehicle for non-polluting urban travel.
As well as a body made from dent-resistant plastic, it has regenerative brakes: pressing the pedal works like a dynamo, recharging the engine.

It also has climate-controlled seating. Each seat has tiny heat-releasing holes which warm the body rather than the air in the car. There is a conventional heater, too, but using it will knock 10 miles from the car's 40-mile range.

Before we set off for the bright lights of Hayes, Joe flips open the bonnet to reveal a bottle containing windscreen fluid, and a small storage space. And that, more or less, is that. To the non-mechanically-minded, the G-Wiz is a remarkable piece of technology. It requires only a little more attention than a mobile phone, and it doesn't make an irritating noise in the cinema. To charge it, you stick a lead in the socket where the petrol cap should be, and you have to water the battery every two or three weeks. "It's like a plant," Joe says. "Every so often a light will come on saying 'Water me, please'."

This procedure is simpler then topping up a steam iron. You don't have to open the bonnet. You stick a small pipe into a hole by the plug, hold it in the air and pour in distilled water. You need never touch an oil can. Oiling is done during servicing. "You water your car," says Joe. "That's all you need to do."

Driving the thing is marginally more complicated, but will not test the aptitude of anyone who has ever sat in a dodgem. There are two pedals - an accelerator and a brake. The handbrake is a twisty device under the dashboard on the left of the steering wheel. The ignition is on the right.

This is the first big shock. When you turn on the engine, nothing happens. Actually, that's the point. There is no engine. When you turn the key you are not greeted by an angry growl of machinery. There is nothing, unless you count the flickering of a small green light on the dashboard. At first, this is disconcerting. Without the engine noise, the instincts of conventional driving don't kick in.

There is no pumping of the accelerator or gentle easing of the brake, and none of the sense of power which it is at the root of all car advertising. In this little moment of uncertainty, with no rush of testosterone to the places that make urban motoring slightly less relaxing than bare-knuckle boxing, it's tempting to forget the routines of driving - the mirror, signal, manoeuvre bit. Fortunately, such disorientation is not that dangerous. The G-Wiz seems to think before it moves, and when it does, it's a stately glide.

There are no gears. The car has a dial, with four modes: reverse, neutral, economy, and full power. In London, where the average speed of travel is less than 10mph, full power (with a top speed of 42mph) is rarely necessary, but it does offer slightly more oomph when easing from traffic lights.

On the open road, there is a perplexing absence of noise. Suddenly, you are aware of the volume from other cars' engines. Aurally, it's a bit like being a non-smoker in a cigar bar: you find yourself defined by the thing you are not doing. But it does make you wonder how much quieter our cities would be if all the short journeys were electric.

The car is cute in the way that Del Trotter's Reliant Robin was, and its green credentials are impeccable. But it is economically attractive, too. The G-Wiz is exempt from road tax, as it produces no carbon emissions. Since it costs only 40p to charge the car for 40 miles of driving, GoinGreen calculates that a London commuter will save the cost of the car (£7,799 with free leather seats, worth £500) in a year.

The biggest problem for the spread of the technology is the need for off-street parking during the recharging process. Some London car parks offer recharging facilities, but flat-dwellers or owners without a driveway will need support from councils to make the G-Wiz a practical option.

Similarly, potential drivers outside London will have to wait until the company expands, or the technology becomes more universal, as servicing is currently only available at GoinGreen's headquarters. How does it feel? Well, not sexy exactly, but there is something endearing about the car that seems to bring out the best in other road users.

Thanks to the demands of the yogic photographer, Graham, I was forced to drive the G-Wiz in an irregular manner, circling the circumference of a roundabout 10 times, stopping in front of a bus, reversing in the wrong direction down a one-way street, and the reaction from other road users and pedestrians was one of tickled tolerance. Even White Van Man was smiling.

Lon Bell has compared the G-Wiz to the early mobile phones. In later models the batteries will be smaller and more efficient. A prototype of a hard-top roadster already exists: it goes at 80mph and has a range of 100 miles. That may bring more torque to the electric revolution, but it will be hard-pushed to replicate the Postman Pattish charm of the little G-Wiz.

The Economics of Climate Change

By Jonas Hagen
UN Cronicle online

The Stern Review concludes that the cost of acting to decrease global emissions of greenhouse gases is far less than the cost of dealing with the effects of climate change if no mitigation efforts are made.

However, Mr. Stern warned that "even if we are sensible about climate change and get the emissions down, the climate is going to change still more than it has".

While the world was currently experiencing the effects of an increase in global temperatures of 0.7 degrees Celsius, he said that "even if we act strongly to decrease emissions, we've got another 1.5 to 2.0 degrees centigrade to come. So we've seen maybe a quarter or a third of temperature increase we're going to have to cope with. St. Petersburg, New York, London, Cairo, Cape Town, Shanghai, Bombay, Calcutta, Dhaka-they're all under threat from sea-level rise, and many parts of the world will be under threat from hurricanes, typhoons, droughts and floods."

Mr. Stern also warned that the heatwaves that killed thousands of people in Europe in 2003 "will probably be standard by the time we get to 2050", and the Nile river, which ten countries depend on, could drop to one half of current water levels in the second half of this century.

However, the "business as usual" scenario-where no action is taken to reduce emissions- would lead to changes in the earth's climate, he said, "that we don't really understand, absolutely unprecedented and earth-transforming--the difference between where we are now and the last ice age".

Climate change also highlights global inequities, according to Mr. Stern. "All countries in the world will be affected; we're all in this together, but it is the poor that will be hit earliest and hardest. You just have to look at the effects of Katrina in New Orleans, or the effects of the typhoon that hit Bombay a couple of years ago [in July 2005]."

Global security is affected by climate change and "could cause conflict within and across countries", he said, adding that most African leaders he met with at the African Union Summit in Addis Ababa in January 2007 attributed the humanitarian crisis in Darfur to the climate problem-pushed out of their traditional lands by drought, and pastoralists were forced to move and came into conflict with settled farmers.

To reduce emissions, Mr. Stern suggested a range of solutions, which included taxes on emission-producing activities, the development and deployment of low-emission technologies, investing in energy efficiency, and preserving forests around the world.

Time is of the essence, he said. "Even though this is a long-term problem, we've got to start now. We've left it very late. If we had gotten our heads around this problem 20 years ago, it would have been much simpler and much cheaper. If we wait another 20 years, it will be still more difficult and expensive."

Rich countries must take responsibility for a problem they have caused, Mr. Stern said, suggesting emission reductions of 60 to 80 per cent for developed nations. He noted that France had set the goal of a 75 per cent reduction by 2050, the United Kingdom at 60 per cent and the State of California in the United States aimed at 80 per cent.

Developing countries, he added, must understand that they can continue to expand their economies and achieve progress on the Millennium Development Goals-eight targets for human development that UN Member States agreed upon to reach by 2015.

Mr. Stern cited the progressive policy in China, which is "reforesting, not deforesting". The country hoped to make energy production 20 per cent more efficient as part of its 11th five-year plan, which is already underway, he reported, adding that an $8,000 tax was established on sports utility vehicles (SUVs) in Beijing.

"I'm much more optimistic six or nine months ago about where the world is moving", he said.

He called on the international community to "act strongly and on the right kind of scale", stating further that the United Nations is "a place we can really take that forward in a very powerful way".

Mr. Sachs agreed that "we have to move quickly and urgently on this issue. That means setting in place a full century of transition, with much of the transition being completed by 2050."

Some 40 or 50 years from today, energy sources should be very different from what they are today, he said. Supplying significant amounts of energy from nuclear power and coal-fired plants that used carbon sequestration technology, where carbon produced by the burning coal is pumped back into the earth, is "within reach", he noted.

Such plants must be built quickly in China or India, in order to see if they are viable as sources of clean energy. "Once those plants are done, everything is going to become a lot clearer and less hypothetical than it is now", Mr. Sachs pointed out.