Steve’s Blog

21/2/12: Beware of 'couch surfing', young man: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/story/2012/02/19/quebec-beauce-joyride-couch-sled-van.html?cmp=rss

21/2/12: Miranda is SO right in her criticisms of how far Australia is falling short of real achievement. Who would have thought we would now be slipping behind North Vietnam/ http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/mirandadevine/

21/2/12: Rudd/Gillard? To reiterate Ayn Rand (a refugee from communism herself): 'There is only so far I can go choosing the lesser of two evils.' If they can't find ANYONE better they should exit the kitchen and the potty!

21/2/12: Disgusting behaviour from these dreadful Labor hacks: Gillard and Bryce chatting through the minute's silence at Darwin bombing's 70th anniversary. BOTH must go: http://www.ntnews.com.au/article/2012/02/20/289671_ntnews.html

21/2/12: A truck carrying printer ink tipped over near here causing a loss of seven trillion dollars. It would have been twice that if the (deceased) driver had been a manufacturer of lithium battery packs!

20/2/12: An excellent paper by Prof Parkinson in support of marriage, (such a good idea) noting that the alternative (such as we have now) is economically and socially unsustainable and that eg 'Action therefore needs to be taken...to support the goal of promoting safe, stable, and nurturing relationships between children and adults and to eliminate perverse incentives to choose family forms that may not be optimal as a context for raising children' and noting that 'The costs of family instability are not just borne by individuals. They are to a very significant extent borne by taxpayers, who provide income support for many parents and their children, pay substantial administrative costs in ensuring income transfers through the child support system, and bear more of the costs of caring for the elderly than would be necessary if a greater number of marital and quasi-marital relationships remained intact' That last point is so often overlooked; I also like the use of the adjective, 'perverse'. Quite so: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=1992740

20/2/12: Farewell John Fairfax, one of the C20th's most astonishing people: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/19/us/john-fairfax-who-rowed-across-oceans-dies-at-74.html?_r=3&pagewanted=all

20/2/12: REALLY scarey stuff: 'US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta has warned the US will stop Iran’s fascist regime from building a nuclear bomb, and he reportedly thinks Israel could strike as soon as April'. Very worried that little bombs give birth to bigger bombs and so on ad infinitum...It MAY seem merely amusing that a would-be bomber last week only managed to blow his own legs off, but the prospect of a nuclear-armed Iran (or what may be necessary to prevent it) is far from amusing. Deeply worrying - unlike trivial concerns such as fluoride, radiation from mobile phones, Fukushima, aspartine...

We successfully banned chemical and biological warfare weapons after WW1 and they have largely not been used since. I can't imagine why we have been unable to ban nuclear. Reagan made a very good start but little has happened since. He may ...See More

And apart from getting rid of half the nuclear weapons (AND communism in Europe) he had this to say about Government: "The ten most dangerous words in the English language are, `I'm from the federal government and I'm here to help.'" Just love him!

20/2/12: The world really needs to bite the bullet on unsustainable debt, take the pain and move on - as Iceland has: http://www.zerohedge.com/news/meantime-iceland-winning?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+zerohedge%2Ffeed+%28zero+hedge+-+on+a+long+enough+timeline%2C+the+survival+rate+for+everyone+drops+to+zero%29

19/2/12: THIS is global warming? At down to -15C, Britain is officially colder than the North and South Pole: http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/300978/300978

19/2/12: Lovers of Shakespeare's 'Ju-lius Caesar' will be eagerly awaiting the events of the 15th March: 'Beware the Ides of March' Ju-liar! (Note for the non 'arty-farty': the 'Ides of March' is the Spring(Autumn) equinox an astronomically propitious event which Shakespeare has Caesar's assassination, by his FRIENDS - YES! linked to). Anna Blair's spectacular demise is timed to occur a little over a week later. The Labor biplane is sure spiraling down in flames! Go Snoopy!

19/2/12: This guy is great:

"The Free Market Is a Bathroom Scale

The free market is the greatest repository of our freedoms. Economic freedom is the freedom we exercise most often and to the greatest extent. Freedom of speech is important—if you have anything to say. I've checked the Internet; nobody does. Freedom of belief is important—if you believe in anything. I've watched reality TV and I can't believe it. Freedom of assembly is important—if you're going to an assembly. Most people are going to the mall. And, at the mall, they exercise economic freedom.

The free market is not a creed or an ideology that political conservatives, libertarians, and Ayn Rand acolytes want Americans to take on faith. The free market is simply a measurement. The free market tells us what people are willing to pay for a given thing at a given moment. That's all the free market does. The free market is a bathroom scale. We may not like what we see when we step on the bathroom scale, but we can't pass a law making ourselves weigh 165. Liberals and leftists think we can.

The free market gives us only one piece of information, but it's important information. We ignore it at our peril, the way the leaders of the old Soviet bloc did. They lost the cold war not just because of troops or tanks or Star Wars missile shields. Even Reagan and Thatcher couldn't win the cold war by themselves. They needed allies. And the allies were Bulgarian blue jeans. The Soviets lost the cold war because of Bulgarian blue jeans. The free market was attempting to inform the Kremlin that Bulgarian blue jeans didn't fit, were ugly and ill-made, and nobody wanted them at any price. People wouldn't wear Bulgarian blue jeans—literally not to save their lives. But the Kremlin didn't listen. And the Berlin Wall came down".

P. J. O'Rourke. Excerpt(s) from Don't Vote It Just Encourages the Bastards

19/2/12: Also deeply concerned about the carbon footprint of prawn cocktails. May even have to eat more. Prawn Laksa for tea tonight anyone? http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/carbon_cocktail/

Della Jones: Thanks for the great chicken laksa for tea - prawn would have been even better, but the freezer contents would not co-operate. Must remember to shop more regularly for high carbon footprint foods, not to mention high carbohydrate and high sugar ones.

18/2/12: This is just the sort of financial stimulus Rudd-Gillard Swan applied to the 'GFC: " I can prove that shooting convenience-store clerks stimulates the economy. Jobs are created in the high-paying domestic manufacturing sector at gun and ammunition factories. Additional emergency medical technicians, security guards, health care providers, and morticians are hired. The unemployment rate is lowered ...See More

18/2/12: 'Conservative politicians should never say to voters, "We can lower your taxes." Conservative politicians should say to voters, "You can raise our spending. You, the electorate can, if you choose, have an infinite number of elaborate and expensive government programs. But we, the government, will have to pay for those programs. We have three ways to pay.

"We can inflate the currency, destroying your ability to plan for the future, wrecking the nation's culture of thrift and common sense, and giving free reign to scallywags to borrow money for worthless scams and pay it back ten cents on the dollar.

"We can raise taxes. If the taxes are levied across the board, money will be taken from everyone's pocket, the economy will stagnate, and the poorest and least advantaged will be harmed the most. If the taxes are levied only on the wealthy, money will be taken from wealthy people's pockets hampering their capacity to make loans and investments, the economy will stagnate, and the poorest and the least advantaged will be harmed the most.

"And we can borrow, building up a massive national debt. This will cause all of the above things to happen plus it will fund Red Chinese nuclear submarines that will be popping up in San Francisco Bay to get some decent Szechuan takeout."': P. J. O'Rourke. Excerpt(s) from Don't Vote It Just Encourages the Bastards

18/2/12: Ronald Reagan: "The ten most dangerous words in the English language are, `I'm from the federal government and I'm here to help.'" What a great President he was!

18/2/12: Just doesn't seem right somehow; Venus was more of an armful than this : http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music-arts/art-classical-nudes-photoshopped-skinnier-gallery-1.1021831?pmSlide=14

18/2/12: The amazing 'Skidboot' - this is sure some dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2BfzUIBy9A&feature=player_embedded

17/2/12: Yet another example of outstanding human bravery: 'This man, refusing to give the Nazi salute, apparently died in captivity or was killed in 1944': http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/02/i-wonder.html

17/2/12: For contrast THIS example of human dependency. Unbelievable: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/healthnews/9084053/Obese-woman-demanding-50-hours-care-a-week-went-to-pop-concert.html

17/2/12: But socialism is NOT the lesser of two evils. Something you should really know more about: Here's how the incredibly brave folks of Xiaogang village defied Chairman Mao and won, proving (for all time, surely) that socialism is a lie. Hopefully they can sometime soon bring down his successors: http://marginalrevolution.com/marginalrevolution/2012/02/the-secret-agreement-that-revolutionized-china.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+marginalrevolution%2Ffeed+%28Marginal+Revolution%29

17/2/12: Quote of the century: Ayn Rand 1981: 'There is only so far I can go choosing the lesser of two evils'.

17/2/12: When it's your own household budget it's easy enough to see when your spending is completely out of control; why is it so hard to see when it is the Government's? http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/02/whats-the-difference.html

16/2/12: Just in case you are short on things to worry about: what would happen if there was a REALLY big solar flare such as occurred in 1859: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/02/14/homeland-security-takes-on-the-carrington-event/

16/2/12: Della's ancestors all come from Shoreditch in London which has always been a bit of a rough neighbourhood. Thanks to Stephanie De-Sykes for this interesting photo showing that it remains as tasteful today as ever. I am not aware that the deceased IS a relative: http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10150697730484505&set=a.60029849504.71373.581249504&type=1&ref=nf

16/2/12: As you may have realised from our silence, Della and I have been away for a week touring Tasmania which is something to do if you are very bored and cashed up. Camping in both the Franklin-Gordon and Arthur-Pieman wildernesses sounds really romantic on paper, doesn't it - but the reality is somewhat different: the endess lifeless buttongrass plains of Tasmania's 'world heritage' wildernesses are something which should be donated to Conzinc Riotinto post haste! Surely they could make something of them? Absolutely the best wildlife experience was found (conversely) at the aptly named 'Beauty Point Holiday Park' on the Tamar. Photoshopped photos from Della will surely follow...

16/2/12: Valentine's day has now come and gone without a comment from me, but it seems to me that THIS unusual marriage of convenience in China has many parallels in our houses of Parliament. Each day I watch eagerly for Ju-liar's tears: http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/1626365/China-to-marry-deer-and-ram

8/2/12: Party's over folks! Bild, Germany's biggest tabloid (16 million readers) has THIS headline today: "THE CO2 LIE": http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/02/06/germany-in-skeptical-turmoil-on-both-climate-and-windfarms/#more-56069

8/2/12: Given that unemployment has nearly doubled under Labor (and debt has exploded) it is hardly comforting that Treasury modeling shows unemployment is set to keep on rising until 2050 under the carbon tax: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2012/02/06/whats-in-tatters/

8/2/12: Stunning pictures from space; When you look at all the lights on this video and consider that those spots are EXACTLY where the thermometers are and that humans just happen to like being warm as well as being able to see, you must surely conclude that most perceived AGW has to be just the urban heat effect: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KDEmtWLwMOM

8/2/12: Some mysteries remain unsolved. The 'new' Kaspar Hauser in Germany IS still unidentified (http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/world/german-forest-boy-mystery-deepens-as-police-conclude-he-hasnt-lived-in-the-wild/story-e6frf7lf-1226163317824) and the original case also remains unsolved (If he really DID stage his own murder, it wasn't the smartest thing to do): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaspar_Hauser

8/2/12: 'And then there were none...' Florence Green, the last veteran of World War 1 has died. This means I have lost a bet I made at High School when I said that some would still be around at the centenary of the start of WW1 in 1914 due to increasing longevity and based on the extreme old age of some of the veterans of earlier wars still alive then. Will there still be veterans of WW2 alive in 1939? Hope I am still around to see!

7/2/12: Well, the 'Blob' did not get them but they HAVE succeeded in drilling into Lake Vostok. What they find there may be exciting: http://rt.com/news/antarctic-million-secrets-lake-583/

7/2/12: No Need to Panic About Global Warming. These world leading scientists assure us not to worry, so why worry? http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204301404577171531838421366.html?mod=djemEdito

7/2/12: Willis has SUCH a great mind! I found this preliminary examination of the 'Argo' buoys fascinating. Who would have thought maye we have wasted a few billion dollars on these things only to find that the data they return is junk? Who indeed? But it seems currents and wind mean they clump and give no data at all for several critical areas, so we have really only the satellite data to tell whether the ocean is warming or cooling. Back to the drawing board! http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/02/06/where-in-the-world-is-argo/#more-56032

7/2/12: “That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons history has to teach.”- Aldous Huxley

7/2/12: What is it with Germany? Hitler was bad enough. Not so long ago we had from them a new Kasper Hauser story - don't know what came of that. This followed an entertaining episode of canniballism by mutual consent, a great idea! Now it is 'bestiality brothels' - presumably again by mutual consent - though how you would ascertain whether 'Fido' or 'Bessie' had consented is a worry. Leviticus frowned on this very strongly though his insistence that the ass as well as the man be stoned to death would probably not now be accepted by animal libbers - whether THEY are opposed to these new brothels or are openeing them I'm not sure: http://www.thelocal.de/society/20120203-40531.html

7/2/12: Bread cats? Well, this is slightly better than the previous 'cats in bottles' craze but is still downright silly. Whether it is also sillier than Ju-liar's 80 new climate commissioners is a moot point now that coral growth has become 'unsustainably' too great because of warming, or whether it is silllier than THIS green scheme (http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093979/Students-step-rivers-urine-green-bathrooms-plan-turns-high-school-yellow--cost-500-000-fix.html). It IS a crazy world: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2094738/Has-internet-completely-lost-Dressing-cats-BREAD-latest-web-craze.html

6/2/12: Seems like Labor's troops are finally getting restive and are actively contemplating a return to Kevin Rudd. What an enormous improvement THAT would be? These people HAVE to go! Bring on an election as soon as possible. Come on Federal Police, charge Slipper and Thomson - and while you are about it Gillard and Rudd! It is just disgusting having the country dominated by such outright crooks!

5/2/12: Don't think I have had some kind of 'green conversion' though: Greens are still the greatest mass murderers the planet has ever seen. The ban on DDT has allowed malaria to be the single greatest killer disease in the history of the planet. Here is an article in the prestigious medical journal 'The Lancet' showing that the UN (dominated by such folks) has seriously underestimated annual deaths from this killer disease - the true number is 1.24 million people per year! This disease was eliminated from the US and other like countries by DDT in the early 1950's. Apparently the Greens think it is OK for quaint blacks in sub-Saharan Africa for example to still be dying like flies of it: http://junksciencecom.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/lancet-malaria.pdf

5/2/12: Never thought I would agree with 'Friends of the Earth' about anything but it seems that finally folks are waking up to the enormous scam and evil perpetrated by the Bio-fuels industry. Not only are they destroying vast swathes of natural habitat, particularly tropical rain forest eg in Borneo to produce such fuels but also it is now being admitted that the CO2 accounting behind it was wrong: http://junkscience.com/2012/02/03/greens-reject-biofuels/#more-11379

4/2/12: Russian scientists missing at Lake Vostok, Antarctica were drilling through to an ancient lake hidden under the ice for millions of years. Do you suppose 'The Blob' (http://www.imdb.com/media/rm772644608/tt0051418) has got them: http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/business-tech/science/120203/alien-lake-vostok-russia-science-exploration-antarctica - or could it just be the extreme global cooling? I notice the current anomaly for Antarctica is 10-15C below average. (http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/02/02/the-gore-effect-kicks-in-plus-ca-change/) No, it will definitely turn out to be space aliens, yetis etc. We can only hope that these dreadful commie scientists died horribly...

4/2/12: Here is a very useless skill done brilliantly, talking backwards. Kids are just great:: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4O0ubiIYYYY&feature=player_embedded#!

3/2/12: It's all downhill from here: Global temperature is down a tenth of a degree in January, having FALLEN .8 of a degree since 1998. FALLEN! That's right That is a larger fall in a little over a decade than the supposed 'warming' of the entire 20th century. The science certainly IS settled: http://www.drroyspencer.com/2012/02/uah-global-temperature-update-for-january-2012-0-09-deg-c/

3/2/12: Both of the slimes propping up Gillard seem overly fond of whorehouses. Here are some of Slipper's taxpayer funded cab fares to satisfy such lusts. Can you think of some genuine parliamentary business (which we should pay an MP for) for visiting Kings Cross so often late at night? http://www.finance.gov.au/foi/disclosure-log/2011/20110301_cabcharge.html

2/2/12: You have to HOPE that the AGW crowd is right and this guy is wrong: Habibullo Ismailovich Abdussamatov, head of the space research laboratory at Pulkovo Observatory, writes in Applied Physics Research: "In the nearest future we will observe a transition (between global warming and global cooling) period of unstable climate changes with the global temperature fluctuating around its maximum value reached in 1998-2005. After the maximum of solar cycle 24, from approximately 2014 we can expect the start of the next bicentennial cycle of deep cooling with a Little Ice Age in 2055±11": http://ccsenet.org/journal/index.php/apr/article/view/14754

2/2/12: Former Labor Minister Gary Johns is very brave to say what Andrew Bolt was prosecuted for saying "One suspects that recognition is a need of fair-skinned Aborigines. It is an existential problem for them. Those who have chosen to live through an Aboriginal identity want official confirmation of that choice. Such Aborigines, however, use the plight of those Aborigines who have not so much chosen an identity as responded to a huge number of incentives to remain on welfare...It is time to fold the tent on the Aboriginal preferment industry and complete the job of 1967, which was to integrate Aborigines into society on equal terms" : http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/johns_on_choosing_racial_identity/

2/2/12: Do you sometimes wonder how great tits move? Here is an entertaining video showing how - and full of wonderful surprises. I DARE you to look: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/nstv/2012/01/look-ma-no-wings-secret-of-great-tit-flight-revealed.html

2/2/12: It will be interesting to see how the AGW's model this: Japanese sea level see-saw "Sea level around Japan rose steadily from 1906 to 1950. Then it dropped for fifteen years and bounced around until 1980. Since then it has risen again, but it is about 20 mm lower than it was in 1950": http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/31/a-japanese-puzzle/#more-55704

2/2/12: Here's as neat a description of the human propensity to keep trying to force round pegs into square holes as I have seen: '...someone who having invented a hammer, sees everything as a nail' in a review of 'Design in Nature' by Adrian Bejan in New Scientist 21 Jan. The book may well be crap!

2/2/12 12:20am: I suspect there are bottles of champagne further than which one ought not go. The morrow will ascertain the truth or otherwise of this proposition. Meanwhile: Cheers & sweet dreams!

1/2/12: After 235 days settlement finally occurred. The purchasers from Hell finally coughed up though it took some heavy legal persuasion. Money is now in the bank. We are no longer farmers, just hobbyists. Loud cheers!

1/2/12: Over five orders of magnitude too weak to break chemical bonds (and possibly cause cancer)! Hadn't really considered how silly THIS scare story was. Forget about your mobile phone turning you into a two-headed troll anytime soon: http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/01/the-media-and-cancer-risks.html

1/2/12: Can't wait to get out there and hunt a giant panda - or maybe even someday - a mammoth? http://mjperry.blogspot.com.au/2012/01/how-to-save-endangered-species-hunt.html

1/2/12: NOTHING could be sillier than the RABBIT OLYMPICS. Really? Nothing? Decide for yourself: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/earthpicturegalleries/9047716/Rabbit-Olympics.html

1/2/12: Tomorrow is 'THE BIG DAY'. We hope. Watch this space tomorrow afternoon to see if it all works out!

31/1/12: Your taxes at work. I actually liked Paul Robeson in the 1937 'King Solomon's Mines' but I doubt I would like any of the films (follow the link for more) that Tim Blair points out we have already funded. Boy, a film about the world paper plane making competition will go down big at the box office. Maybe if he offered to take his trousers off? http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/at_the_tax_funded_movies/

31/1/12: Best ever movie one-liner? Maybe: Watching King Solomon's Mines (1937) starring Paul Robeson. Picture this: surrounded by thousands of murderous cannibals baying for blood, one of our heroes says: 'Would it do any good if I whipped off me trousers?' You WILL have to watch the movie to see that this is perfectly true. Of course the alternative course of action: conjuring up an awesome eclipse of the sun proves more efficacious, BUT the thought was there! If only we could all have such foresight when caught in a tight spot. Something to be learned there...

31/1/12: Very interesting crowd-sourced remake of Star Wars in 15 second episodes: http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2012/01/easily-the-most-awesome-thing-i-have-seen-for-a-while.html

31/1/12: Why can't the Americans find a candidate with a normal name? What is it with: 'Newt', 'Mitt', 'Barack'...? What's wrong with 'Ju-liar' for example?...Cancel that question!

31/1/12: Now we know that my mother had: "the chief mutation that causes blue eyes...a single letter change, from A to G, at the 26,039,213rd position on chromosome 15, within a gene called HERC2" and that it was originally caused (probably) by Vitamin D deficiency (which curiously for a farmer) I still have. How our genes make us! http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/where-blue-eyes-came

31/1/12: Tim Blair has a good point here. It IS astonishing how so many in Government, in the Press etc just didn't seem able to use normal means of communication about what Tony Abbott actually said. The NBN will sure improve this! http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/heard_but_unsaid/

30/1/12: It may be impossible NOT to read this article: http://www.cracked.com/blog/the-7-most-agonizing-sex-injuries-record/

30/1/12: Extraordinary: "Of the 3237 asylum-seekers who admitted to flying to Indonesia on a passport, 3200 did not have any travel documents when they arrived in Australia." Paul Maley in the Australian. What a scam!

30/1/12: On SBS last night, a real mind stretcher: Race and Intelligence: Science's Last Taboo by Somali born English journalist Rageh Omaar. The good news conclusion was that black Americans ARE closing the 15 point IQ gap between themselves and white Americans by .15 points per year, so that in 100 years it will presumably be gone. Africa may yet dominate the 22nd century. Whether whites are closing the 3-5 point gap on the Chinese wasn't discussed (my feeling is that Asians are pulling ahead; note the racial mix as a result of IQ selective enrolment at Berkeley as an example), nor whether aborigines were closing their own 35 point gap. Unsurprisingly what the programme concludes leads most to closing the gap is the adoption of middle class values (such as hard work and placing a high value on learning, especially by parents - I'm sure having two such parents would also help enormously!) We really need to re-colonise our citizenship with rigorous national goals, not vapidly hand them bread and circuses! Importantly children must ATTEND schools and the schools must provide real education - it is a national disaster that many of our High Schools no longer offer Physics or Chemistry but they serve up plenty of pap in the form of 'Environmental' Science and Media Studies & etc!

30/1/12: Two very valid points: 1. Cronulla race rioters were punished by the courts & 2. The proposed 'aboriginal' referendum is now dead. And the lesson for Gillard: 'a lie too far! http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/the_difference_with_cronulla/

29/1/12: 'Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout' by Patrick Moore (not the astronomer - also a great guy). This guy founded Greenpeace but left it after 15 years when it was taken over by communists and loonies (as it and every other environment group is today). Although I doubt I agree with everything he says (or anyone else!), WHAT he says is just TOO important to ignore. Have a little read inside, here: http://www.amazon.com/Confessions-Greenpeace-Dropout-Sensible-Environmentalist/dp/0986480827#reader_B004X2I6ZM Here's a sample: "Since I left Greenpeace, its members, and the majority of the movement have adopted policy after policy that reflects their antihuman bias, illustrates their rejection of science and technology and actually increases the risk of harm to people and the environment. They oppose forestry even though it provides our most abundant renewable resource. They have zero tolerance for genetically modified food crops, even though this technology reduces pesticide use and improves nutrition for people who suffer from malnutrition. They continue to oppose nuclear energy, even though it is the best technology to replace fossil fuels and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They campaign against hydroelectric projects despite the fact that hydro is by far the most abundant renewable source of electricity. And they support the vicious and misguided campaign against salmon farming, an industry that produces more than a million tons of heart-friendly food every year"

29/1/12: 'According to scientists, some women can store sperm for years. Your mom finds that a little hard to swallow': http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/26/females-store-sperm-for-years_n_1234005.html?icid=maing-grid7|main5|dl4|sec3_lnk3&pLid=130670

29/1/12: Remember Streptomycin which (almost) eliminated pandemic TB in the 1950's. Now in India (and elsewhere) there is a new multi-drug resistant TB which is essentially untreatable. This awful disease (which killed my uncle and Della's grandfather - and many others) looks likely to make a comeback. Urgent and sustained action is needed to prevent this: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-16592199

28/1/12: The elephant in the room: Surely stirring up a race riot is un-Prime Ministerial conduct of the sort that Wilkie says will lead him to withdraw support; and can there really be any doubt that the whole sorry affair was orchestrated with Gillard's knowledge? See: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/i_do_not_believe_gillard_and_did_not_hear_her_say_sorry/ and http://bunyipitude.blogspot.com/2012/01/gillards-white-rabbit.html The Kernohan Stat Dec implicating her in major theft/fraud is here: http://networkedblogs.com/mjQtZ

28/1/12: I noticed the 'embassy activists' burning our dear flag for which many of their and our ancestors fought. I understood this was a criminal offence. I'm sure it would be if I were to publically burn an 'aboriginal' flag.

28/1/12: The putative 'energy shortage' is definitely over. 'Super Fracking' IS coming: http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2012/01/with-new-super-fracking-advances-shale.html

28/1/12: 'Water behaving badly.' Ice is moving South @ 20 miles per hour instead of its 'usual' 3 miles per hour as it envelopes Alaska in this early cold start to 2012. I agree with Willis that the best place for ice is in your cold drink, not covering your house ten feet deep. Those who wish for an Ice Age instead of something like the medieval balmy weather are just barking mad: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/27/alaska-on-the-rocks/#more-55531

27/1/12: Just LOVE PJ O'Rourke, eg: "But poor people don’t have a lot of pleasures. Sure, they have more sex than progressive elites. But somehow, for poor people, the sex always ends up in illegitimate children or HIV or some bum of a boyfriend instead of leading to, as it does for elites, a Reichian release of primordial cosmic energy or the wonderful self-fulfillment and midlife reawakening of a new divorce. And, yes, the poor have drugs and alcohol, but these bring them nothing but grief. They’re not at all like the subtle and refined delights of a 300-bottle wine cellar or the therapeutic relief from Zoloft, Lexapro, Elavil, Ambien, Halcion, Xanax, beta blockers, Levitra, and Cialis." http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/they-hate-poor-people_617428.html

27/1/12: David Archibald uses solar cycles which have a very high predictive skill to forecast a drop in world temperature of nearly 5C over the next 20 years. I hope he is wrong, but I suspect his predictions will be closer to reality than the IPCC's: http://joannenova.com.au/2012/01/global-cooling-coming-archibald-uses-solar-and-surface-data-to-predict-4-9c-fall/#more-19909

27/1/12: I AM surprised it has taken the CSIRO so long to discover this new (heaviest) element 'Governmentium'. I think many of us have stubbed our toes on it or banged our heads into it over the years: http://joannenova.com.au/2012/01/new-element-governmentium-heaviest-known-and-paradoxically-increasing/

/1/12: Time to check out your winter woollies: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/25/first-estimate-of-solar-cycle-25-amplitudesmallest-in-over-300-years/

27/1/12: A great post by climatologist David Evans here on how the IPCC got it all completely wrong: http://joannenova.com.au/2012/01/dr-david-evans-the-skeptics-case/ but the graphic says it all really: http://jonova.s3.amazonaws.com/guest/evans-david/hansen-1988-a-b-c-scenarios-600.gif

27/1/12: One happy dog: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7YmXdeRXqv8&feature=player_embedded

27/1/12: My Country Read by Dorothea McKellar: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86TKK81EwJ4&feature=player_embedded

27/1/12: More disgraceful behaviour by 'aboriginal' Australians yesterday in Canberra and by 'African' Australians in Perth. There must be an end to these divisions. People must see themselves just as Australians and all be treated equally by the law. For example Government Departments such as Ethnic Affairs and Indigenous Affairs must be abolished as must any special privileges or penalties which might still exist for identifying or being identified as other than 'Australian Citizen.'.

26/1/12: Long grass has a lot to do with it: The score for the season is today: Snakes 2, Dogs 1. The old beagle, Benson was found this morning calmly consuming the black snake who had killed his friend the old bloodhound Suzy having previously killed his friend the old beagle Snoopy. Revenge at last!

26/1/12: I like our flag and do NOT wish it changed. I like that it so represents our history; In the corner the great Union flag symbolising the coming together of the disparate peoples of the British Isles as one nation and beow it the Southern Cross under which we all live in this Great South Land, 'Terra Australis' or simply 'Australia' as the indefatigable explorer Matthew Flinders, the first to circmnavigate it first called it. The 'coming together and becoming one people' is very important. Just as my maternal grandparents proved that the Irish and the English could live together and my paternal grandparents that the English and French could live together, Della's parents showed that the English and Scots could too. These were people who had warred for centuries. Somewhere in there they also proved that people of different faiths eg Protestant and Catholic could also become one. Newcomers and oldcomers to our shores should strive to make greater efforts to live together in respect and harmony. It is just not good enough if some people of Moslem faith or African or Aboriginal race for example do not desire to live together as one people. Neither clearly can they 'go back where they came from' any more than any of us can. We come from here, this Commonwealth of Australia, and must live here in peace.

26/1/12: "The only thing the world has a genuine shortage of is honest and competent people in government." Interesting perspective on the issues of population, growth and resources by David Middleton, here: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/25/the-simon-erlich-wager-at-seven-billion-people/#more-55285

26/1/12: On this day in 1778 Della's great great great grandfather Private Lawrence Richards Plymouth Marines on board Prince of Wales arrived Sydney Cove with his wife Mary and son Samuel (born on the voyage thus maybe the first Australian). They were the first settlers on Norfolk Island and later had land at Bankstown (near where Della was born). Lawrence (and his son William) served in the 102nd regiment till 1810 and thence in the 73rd Regiment (the Black Watch) until his retirement in 1816. Not many of us can claim a 'First Fleeter' in our ancestry.

28/1/12: Like many Australians (including many of an indigenous heritage), I have an uncle who fell at Fromelles (still lost), one at Tobruk & the disastrous landing on Sumatra, one in the bombers in the Battle of Britain, I have a photo of my grandfather in his Boer War uniform....the list goes on. Many ancestors who fought in peace and in war to make this country a freer and better place, as I hope I have too. It is inexcusable that people seek to diminish the great history of the English speaking peoples (of all races and faiths) who have contributed well above their weight to the progress of civilsation over many centuries. Their opponents should try to explain what sort of world they think it might have been without their efforts.

28/1/12: There exist Australians of all heritages who behave inexcusably as to insisting on special treatment either for their (perceived) race or any other's 'race' (or who behave badly in a heap of other ways). The bad behaviour must stop. I'm sure that all of us (except the extremely one eyed) have friends or relatives who have a different heritage to themselves. This should do nothing more than make life interesting and diverse. We are all in this society (this life) together. Insistence that difference matters more than similarity is just wrong and counter-productive. Laws, rights, duties, priveleges must be the same for all, however. As an example of that I think it is long past time we had no 'special' rules for aboriginal people (or anyone else who insists on being identified as a member of some 'special' race, group or religion). People need to get on together, stand on their own two feet, support themselves, understand that 'there is no such thing as a free lunch' and be happy to have this engraved on their tombstone: 'They ate what was set before them'.

24/1/12: Fuel Saving: over the next few years car manufacturers will reduce fuel consumption by up to 1/3rd by reducing friction loss. This is a BIG number: http://www.spacemart.com/reports/One_third_of_car_fuel_consumption_is_due_to_friction_loss_999.html

23/1/12: Not only is Barbie unislamic, but bras are too! It is hard not to have some sympathy with the absurdly named terrorist organisation Al Shabaab in its desire to have 'Breast Inspectors' to check this out. They will have no trouble filling vacancies for that job! Surely it is in the interest of multi-culturalism that we implement this in Australia? Soon! http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2009/10/bras-declared-un-islamic.html

23/1/12: Though I still can't imagine what the mechanism is that holds the sex ratio at almost precisely 50:50 I agree that it IS disquieting that in some places the ratio has become 150:100 in favour of males. If you like girls (and who doesn't?) this is seriously bad news especially for Chinese men: http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/distorting-human-sex-ratio

23/1/12: A very thoughtful piece about what should/does happen during a disaster including some reflection on whether in an age of feminism women should get a seat on the bus. Incidentally I believe the regiment involved in the 'Birkenhead incident' were the famous 73rd (the Black Watch). One of Della's ancestors who was on the First Fleet was a member of this regiment. Does this mean she should give me her place in the lifeboat or her seat on the bus? We shall see... http://pjmedia.com/blog/where-does-women-and-children-first-originate/?singlepage=true

22/1/12: A big improvement to bull-fighting: Flaming-horned bull fatally gores man in Spain: Incredible but true: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=%2Fn%2Fa%2F2012%2F01%2F21%2Finternational%2Fi074847S89.DTL&tsp=1

22/1/12: Another undesirable refugee costs us a fortune: http://bunyipitude.blogspot.com/2012/01/aint-multiculturalism-just-grand.html

21/1/12: Breath like a dragon. Very dangerous but astonishing cuisine cooked in liquid nitrogen! I did not believe this, but watch the video. It's true: http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2012/01/20/293861_todays-news.html

21/1/12: Some of us may never die - but I doubt it will be me! This is wonderful news: longevity in mice has been doubled, even tripled with stem cell treatment. Would be good if the religo's would give up on their plan for us to all hurry to the after-life and allow a little more stem cell experimentation: http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Fountain-youth-Young-stem-cells-35214.S.87884017

21/1/12: The last of the 'Wind-Talkers' (2003) dies: http://www.neptunuslex.com/2012/01/19/last-man/

20/1/12: Where we are right now: http://moonbattery.com/ship-over-waterfall.jpg

20/1/12: I'm sure this would be a politically incorrect joke here too here the native born are increasingly outnumbered by the newly enfranchised late arrivals. An interesting site too with a great name: http://moonbattery.com/?p=7058

20/1/12: Poor Nemo! New Scientists's silliest AGW paper yet: CO2 will make Nemo drunk and fall prey to nasty sharks. Who would have believed those nasty sharks would a. be immune to its supposed toxic effects and b. want to eat dear little Nemo? It IS a hard, cruel world out there on the reef: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn21355-carbon-dioxide-encourages-risky-behaviour-in-clownfish.html

20/1/12: THESE are the boat people we would be heartless to reject. They represent the tip of a huge iceberg of fraudulent refugees. Meanwhile no doubt real refugees die without the hope of respite: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/18/afghanistan-people-smugglers-taliban-europe

20/1/12: Barbie dolls are un-Islamic! Who would have known? No doubt un-Christian too! God, I hate religion! Jesus shit! Bloody, Damn! Barbies are unreal. Yeah! http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2012/01/barbie_dolls_are_un-islamic_-_who_knew.html

19/1/12: Some of us have the Midas touch and some have the Crapus touch, an old friend, Ian Milvain much missed, used to say...

19/1/12: Elon Musk; this guy IS a real genius. I watch with awe and interest his SpaceX missions: http://blogs.laweekly.com/informer/2011/12/elon_musk_spacex_space_flight_space_station.php

19/1/12: Piss on the Taliban? Sure can! I think Congressman Allen West is quite right: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100130485/war-is-hell-get-over-it/

18/1/12: Hands up for a free internet! Wikipedia:SOPA initiative/Take action - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org

18/1/12: Tata's air car might be a good buy in 2012 too with fuel prices on the rise/: http://www.caradvice.com.au/141944/tata-motors-mini-cat-air-car-to-debut-in-2012/

18/1/12: Really good news if it proves to be true. Apart from extravagant cost, storage has always been the ultimate failure of renewable energy. Eos claims to have solved the problem using the humble zinc-air battery in rechargeable form: http://www.eosenergystorage.com/technology

17/1/12: HERE is a really cute creature for those who thought that tentacles were the exclusive preserve of octopodes, gillards etc: The star-nosed mole; I kid you not: http://laughingsquid.com/the-peculiar-star-nosed-mole-has-tentacles-on-its-face/

17/1/12: 'According to Spain's Ornithological Society, its main bird conservation charity, Spain's 18,000 wind turbines might be killing six million to 18 million birds and bats a year. That's an average per turbine of 333-1000 deaths a year'! Boy those Greens really DO love nature: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/business/terry-mccranns-column/flying-in-the-face-of-logic/story-e6frfig6-1226245805867

17/1/12: Is the empty self-esteem fad fading or is Ju-liar iving proof that more criticism at an early age (or retrospective abortion) is justified? Feeling good about oneself should only come from doing right things and from doing hard things. Even so, we all deserve plenty of criticism and nobody deserves to think that they are wonderful: http://www.stuartschneiderman.blogspot.com/2012/01/empty-praise.html

16/1/12: Nacreous Clouds over Oslo: These would be something to see. Nature IS even more amazing than I can imagine: DO open the link:http://spaceweather.com/submissions/large_image_popup.php?image_name=Eric-Schandall-1-Nacreous-Clouds-13.01_1326475532.jpg

16/1/12: THIS is what happens to you if you do not show sincere enough emotion in North Korea: "The authorities are handing down at least six months in a labor-training camp to anybody who didn’t participate in the organized gatherings during the mourning period, or who did participate but didn’t cry and didn’t seem genuine." Ju-liar would like it so here too I'm sure: http://www.dailynk.com/english/read.php?cataId=nk01500&num=8668

16/1/12: Girls: it doesn't get any better than this; how to conceal a firearm when wearing a dress: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jAEM9knVZgY#!

15/1/12: People ask us retired people what we do to make our days interesting. The other day Della and I went into town to shop. When we came out, there was a cop writing out a parking ticket. We went up to him and I said, 'Come on, man, how about giving a senior citizen a break?' He ignored us and continued writing the ticket. I called him an "asshole". He glared at me and started writing another ticket for having worn-out tires. So Della called him a "shit head". He finished the second ticket and put it on the windshield with the first.Then he started writing more tickets. This went on for about 20 minutes. The more we abused him, the more tickets he wrote. Just then our train was due, and we got on it and went home. We always look for cars with Green stickers. We try to have a little fun each day now that we're retired. It's important at our age.

15/1/12: I've often been asked, 'What do you old folks do now that you're retired?' Well, I'm fortunate to have a chemical engineering background, and one of the things I enjoy most is converting beer, wine and spirits into urine. Then I piss on a photo of Ju-liar! I do it every day and I really enjoy it."

15/1/12: Wouldn't it be great if kids were more like this one instead of being trained to be greenies: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQHAWZtplSw&feature=player_embedded#! How to Make: An Under-ice Snare Pole for Beaver and Otter www.youtube.com To use this set for otter just replace the green poplar bait with fish.

15/1/12: You can see from this article (http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/slow-cooling-our-interglacial) and particularly this graph why many are concerned about a coming ice age: http://www.murdoconline.net/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2011/01/gisp2-ice-core-temperatures.jpg

15/1/12: There is always something new we didn't know or consider: Researchers have discovered a new type of atmospheric particle the 'Criegee biradical' (naturally produced by plants) whose effect is to cool the planet and which is clearly not yet in any of the standard atmospheric models: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/13/the-cool-particle/#more-54728

15/1/12: 'Phobos Grunt' is SUCH a great name for a piece of space junk which MAY fall on your head: http://uk.news.yahoo.com/spacecraft-could-crash-land-m4-corridor-031131344.html

15/1/12: A brilliant real life Rube Goldberg device here. No hamsters were harmed in the making of ths film: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=GOMIBdM6N7Q Other great Rube Goldberg devices here: http://www.rubegoldberg.com/?page=home

14/1/12: Remember THIS: MORE good news for smokers. Let's hope this isn't a fake too, guys: This comes on top of a cure for lung cancer meaning it is now safer to smoke than not to smoke - Hey, did I get that right?I like that the French are smoking Ozzie fags while we are smoking 'green' durries. This is taking environmentalism too far! http://news.yahoo.com/nicotine-could-ward-off-memory-loss-study-132541640.html

14/1/12: MIND you super intelligent AGW lizards may be less of a threat than last week's leading fear story: AGW mutant man-killing sharks out to exterminate us all: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100126796/could-climate-change-create-deadly-mutant-sharks-which-kill-us-all/

14/1/12: The makers of 'Equal' the coffee sweetener people have clearly redesigned their container so that it slips out of your hand and into the cup thereby using up a whole package. They have no doubt had a huge boost in sales. Great lateral thinking folks. Well done.

14/1/12: Winegate: http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/winegate_scr.jpg

14/1/12: Silliest AGW story yet? AGW makes lizards super intelligent. Let's hope they get smart enough to doubt it! http://io9.com/5875545/global-warming-might-make-lizards-super+intelligent

14/1/12: The bad news: red wine consumption alone may not cause me to live to be 357. Better keep it and the coffee up just in case. Who would have believed a scientist would have faked THIS data - or the AGW data. What IS the world coming to: http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/240222.php

13/1/12: Despite the fact that coral islands rise as sea level rises (Understanding coral reefs #101), if you build a trough, you will get pigs, but $800,000 pigs? Wow: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2012/01/11/say-no-more-2/

13/1/12: Real world economics versus economic fantasy: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2012/01/12/alchian-allen-theorem-at-work/

13/1/12: If you have been worrying about the AGW's stand out claim (in case it actually gets colder) that CO2 will increase ocean acidification, this recent study from the Scripps Institute shows that ocean Ph varies enormously more than the worst doomsayers' predictions. So you can forget that one too folks and just get back to getting on with your lives! http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/noise-versus-signal

13/1/12: Ronald Reagan was right about something else. At the time I thought when he said acid rain was caused by trees it was a slip of the tongue. NOW the science has settled that indeed the trees are to blame. Nature remains as mysterious as ever: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/11/new-study-confirms-that-nature-is-responsible-for-90-of-the-earths-atmospheric-acidity/

12/1/12: This is Professor Nir Shaviv an Israeli/American physics professor, carrying out research in the fields of astrophysics and climate science explaining how wrong the IPCC's predictions to date (since 1990) have been. It is laughable to expect they will get any better which makes equally laughable Oz's bizarre (and expensive) efforts to do something about this non-problem: http://www.sciencebits.com/IPCC_nowarming

12/1/12: 'No forestry. No mining. No oil. No gas. No more hydro-electric dams. It’s practically the Australian Greens’ policy platform' , but this is from Canadian Minister of Natural Resources Joe Oliver: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/

12/1/12: You probably know this shortcut but I didn't: To magnify the screen: hold down the control button then roll the wheel on your mouse. (Thanks to Stephanie de Sykes)

Coldest start to summer on record. Coldest January day on record. What will happen when the carbon tax actually begins in July? Stop you fools, we will all freeze to death!

11/1/12: Enjoy (Edward) Bear Grylls? Perhaps you would enjoy the guy who taught him and lots of other soldiers about woodcraft/survival. You can view his new series here online: http://www.raymears.com/blog/watch-wild-britain-with-ray-mears-series-2-online/2853/

12/1/12: This is a very wordy and turgid article, but its main point: that there is a 90%+ probability of Earth's temperature returning to a stable point AT LEAST 5C colder than now is inarguable. We MUST plan for THIS. As I see it nuclear power is the only way forward: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2012/01/09/strange-new-attractors-strong-evidence-against-both-positive-feedback-and-catastrophe/#more-54515

11/1/12: A few years ago I remember we had a 28C day in July (nice 'Indian Summer' day). Today we are having an 11C day in mid January (not so welcome unless you are of the apres ski set). THIS is global warming?

11/1/12: Welcome to the C21st! Our son tells us that his new Sony ebook reader is just about the best present ever. We agree, having been a whole year ahead of the younger generation in this. Thank goodness also that he is literate...

11/1/12: Fred Hoyle was right (see my earlier post) according to another new study: greenhouse gases may delay the next ice age. As it would result in the death of most of earth's creatures (including humanity) you would think greenies might want to AVOID an ice age, but alas, these people are more evil than can be imagined. 'Bring it on' is what THEY think. Unbelievable: http://www.popsci.com.au/science/human-co2-emissions-could-avert-the-next-ice-age-study-says

11/1/12: PLEASE Ju-liar, don't use any part of my taxes to retrieve the trio of whalie pirates. Just have them put overboard in a leaky dinghy with your good self and a rusty carving knife would suit me

Why can't they catch a lift on their own ship the Sea Shepherd which is right there?

9/1/12: I love it that Swifts Creek has twice as many guns as people. I am just surprised that there aren't ten times as many. Let there be many more towns like that!

9/1/12: Just a sample of Steyn's 2011, a must read: "When William Beveridge laid out his blueprint for the British welfare regime in 1942, his goal was the "abolition of want" to be accomplished by "co-operation between the State and the individual." In attempting to insulate the citizenry from life’s vicissitudes, Sir William succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. As I write in my book: "Want has been all ...See More

9/1/12: Totally agree with Tim Blair on this one: "Based on this photograph alone, the Japanese ought to imprison them indefinitely. That level of smug has got to be toxic." What DO these people think ought to be the consequences of piracy anyway? Besides, Tiddles and I really love that chunk of whale steak on the Barbie. Pesky things are everywhere now, especially in shopping centres! http://www.theage.com.au/environment/whale-watch/whaling-protesters-held-20120108-1pq9u.html

9/1/12: Fascinating article by the late astronomer Fred Hoyle on the causes of ice ages - and how to avoid them. Keep pouring out all those greenhouse gases or we will all soon freeze: http://abob.libs.uga.edu/bobk/ccc/ce120799.html

8/1/12: FRAUD has been the biggest growth industry of the last decade or two, both large scale economic fraud such as Enron and the sub-prime 'GFC' ( & no-one has been brought to book!) and environmental fraud such as is exposed by the 'Climategate' emails, 'pushing' of hideously expensive 'alternative energy', the myth of 'peak oil', the demonisation of nuclear power (to the extent that Oz has not traine...See More

8/1/12: Helga's Bar - a must read to what went wrong with the economy: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2012/01/06/dummies-guide-to-what-went-wrong-in-europe-and-the-usa/

7/1/12: Whatever happened to VDSL2? Eftel long since installed its MSAN nodes in most local exchanges which allowed this technology to be provided. This would have provided broadband peeds of 100megs per second over your phone line if you were within about 1.6km of the exchange. My guess is that Julia's decision to go with the horribly expensive NBN meant that we could not have this cheaper technology which would deliver the same or better speeds at a fraction of the cost. Here in the country where we will never have the NBN we will now probably never have fast broadband! There even exists a demonstrated copper delivered speed of 2 gigs per second! http://broadbandnext.com.au/introducing_vdsl2.cms

6/1/12: Vale Ronald Searle (and St Trinians & Molesworth) at 91. Thanks for a million good laughs: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2012/jan/03/ronald-searle?INTCMP=ILCNETTXT3487

6/1/12: Navy SEAL sniper Chris Kyle is probably the world's greatest sniper with 160 confirmed kills, some taken more than a mile away! This is awesome (whatever else you might think about it). I see he favours a .300 Winchester Magnum which I must admit I WAS considering for my 60th birthday rifle (a Browning Lever Action 'Lightning' take-down - thank you Della; love that gun) but I settled for the trusty .308: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/national/meet_the_big_shot_BxlVpxzQijkC9mwZcmwkrN

5/1/12: Peak Oil - not anytime soon: It is interesting that for the whole of my life the years of available petroleum just keeps increasing. Forty years ago there were maybe 30 years of available resource; now there are forty-five years - and that's not counting 'unconventional' oil: tar sands, shale and coal gas, coal to oil conversion & etc. The world just keeps on getting better; who can doubt it? : http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/13/the-rp-ratio/

4/1/12: 39C this time yesterday and 17C today. THIS is Victorian weather BUT climate scientists reckon they can discern a .5C change in temperature over a century! Those guys are crazy!

3/1/12: Gun permit holders are only 1/20th as likely to commit an offence as the general population. Why doesn't this surprise me? http://reason.com/blog/2011/12/27/scare-story-about-carry-permit-holders-s

3/1/12: Relative stability indicates that there exists thermostatic-type feedback mechanisms whether we understand them or not. For example the relative stability of the 50:50 ratio of males to females is unlikely to be down to God however much I am puzzled to explain it. I am happy to enjoy it! Similarly the enormous stability of the temperature record as evidenced by satellite records (eg UAH) indicates a wondrous thermostatic effect even though we might not understand yet exactly how it works. Again, just enjoy! I understand that sperm can be separated into male/female, but how does nature do this in such a way that on average half of all births (approx) are (delightfully) girls?

1/1/12: In 1800 there were 3 cities in the world with populations over 1 million. Now there are 442! THIS represents THE major transformation of human life. We cannot hope to understand what makes the average human tick unless we understand their circumstances. Having lived in a city (reluctantly) for less than 10% of my life I admit to a deep ignorace.

29/12/11: More crocodile tears from North Korea. This display is SO horror show. China's monster Government (which installed this evil North Korean dictatorship against the best efforts of the UN) has murdered HUNDREDS OF MILLIONS. It is unquestionably the worst government the world has EVER seen. Don't support it by buying Chinese goods - they are NOT 'goods'!

29/12/11: Will CO2 harm the sea? Don't think so. See the picture of Coral Reef at Dobu Island with carbon dioxide bubbling through it: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/28/the-fishes-and-the-coral-live-happily-in-the-co2-bubble-plume/

29/12/11: Apparently we long since lost the right to CHOOSE what sorts of immigrants we want, now we can no longer even see them. Australian television stations may no longer show images of asylum seekers arriving by boat. This new censorship of the media has to STOP. I think that it might be reasonable we might want to preserve our national character by for eg choosing the vast majority of immigrants be from a European or English speaking background: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2011-12-28/acmas-asylum-seeker-rules-dubbed-censorship/3749874

28/12/11: This appears to be some weird Bobbitt fantasy, but it is instead recently implicated in reef destruction. What is it? http://www.flickr.com/photos/58246614@N00/220135963

28/12/11: Xmas arrived a day late here this year: Santa IS getting old! Got ONE excellent wife and THREE excellent kids (as usual - but probably undeserved).

28/12/11: Hard Drive Won't Open? Could be you have to change its drive letter: Control Panel-System and Security-Administrative Tools-Computer Management-Disc Management-Right Click-Change the Letter. Have had this problem a number of times and thought it was a faulty hard drive. Hard to believe the solution was buried so deep inside Windows!

26/12/11: Amazing: By now I guess everyone is familiar with the notion of virtual (and real) particles appearing and disappearing in a vacuum as posited by quantum theory. Seems to me this is very like Fred Hoyle's long abandoned 'steady state' theory, but whatever - the truly weird thing is that quantum theory calculations show the vacuum as containing infinite energy. As you can actually measure electical current in a vacuum even though any particular piece of vacuum has no net electrical energy, it seems to me that this is potentially an infinite energy source. So much to be discovered yet...

26/12/11: Amazing Life's delusions: I had always thought ALL the helium in the universe came from nuclear fusion (and I have consequentially worried about our trivial wasting of such an irreplaceable resource - which i still am) & that it was a total mystery how it came to be in those US gas wells. Thank godness (!) for Wikipedia! It is also produced by radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. Their alpha particles being the nucleus of helium atoms, they just grab an electron from wherever, and there you are. How many such delusions colour your world view...

26/12/11: Amazing If only Santa (or even one of his elves) would quietly fix all your computer problems while you sleep...

24/12/11: Amazing This Malcolm Naden story is going to make SUCH a great movie: http://www.news.com.au/national/police-warn-bush-fugitive-malcolm-naden-is-on-the-hunt-for-firepower/story-e6frfkvr-1226229795537

24/12/11: Watch these greenies plotting to fabricate evidence and defraud the public. There is no limit to such people's wickedness: http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/12/environmentalist-stick-up.html

24/12/11: This new power approved in the US to indefinitely detain people without trial is terrifying and unprecedented in a democracy: http://reason.com/blog/2011/12/15/the-rule-of-law-indefinite-detention-pow?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+reason%2FHitandRun+%28Reason+Online+-+Hit+%26+Run+Blog%29

24/12/11: Greece is STILL in a state of collapse with deficit spending exceeding 10% of GDP. This is unsustainable. It will have to be forced out of the Euro or it too will collapse!

24/12/11: Vale Bruce Ruxton. Never forget Bruce (at 20) was one of the first Aussies to observe the terrible effects of the Sandakan Death Marches and help bury the dead. Such crimes must not be forgotten.

23/12/11: I particularly liked Willis's last paragraph (see my previous post): 'Cultural sustainability is mental onanism'! Yay!

23/12/11: Go Willis! I have to admit that as well as 'renewable', 'sustainable' is one of my major current hate words. I just hate thoughtless sloganeering: NOTHING is sustainable (or if you are talking REAL 'nothing', it is NOT sustainable (aka 'nature deplores a vacuum' = amazing how virtual particles simply appear in the quantum world!): http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/22/nothing-is-sustainable/

23/12/11: Ju-liar has murdered over 500 asylum seekers now. How many more must die before Labor admits the 'Pacific solution' worked and reintroduces it and temporary protection visas?

23/12/11: These folks have a few neat free programmes for speeding up your PC. You just wouldn't believe how many gigs (Yes!) of rubbish was still lurking on mine until I ran their cclean: http://www.piriform.com/products

23/12/11: Tim Flannery just can't be wrong again? A warmer climate will reduce mosquitoes and their associated diseases. Oh my. Clearly the warmists simply did not want to know what a major problem malaria was in Scadinavian countries, Russia etc before DDT: http://www.nature.com/news/global-warming-wilts-malaria-1.9695

23/12/11: Cry or die? The horror show of the Korean totalitarianism is just too frightening to watch, yet so many on the left (and the greens) are still either apologists or advocates of this type of centrally planned, controlled society. Brown and Gillard's current 'media' enquiry' is just a case in point.

22/12/11: Must have for Xmas? Look at this new torch: 788 lumens from a single 3.7V battery! Twice the best torch of last Xmas! Things just keep on getting better. My favourite pocket torch is the Fenix LD01 which takes a single AAA and outputs 85 lumens. If you (carefully) screw off the lens cover (it is Loktited on) it makes a great hiking lantern at 16 grams (and about 5 grams per day!) Only $50 too!): http://www.ledtorches.com.au/hi-performance-torches/thrunite-catapult-v3-788-lumens-led-torch/prod_236.html

22/12/11: On Channel Seven's Natural Mysteries: "MAN-EATING LIONS. Look inside the natural mysteries behind unusual events in the animal kingdom. Tonight, we look into why Tanzania is plagued by man-eating lions. We will follow three lion experts as they try to discover what is behind this phenomenon. What suddenly changed these occasional man-eaters to dedicated man hunters? Could this outbreak of man-eating lions ultimately be a consequence of global warming?" Patterson's C19th Tsavo lions as seen in 'The Ghost in the Darkness' must have been prescient! Just ONE woman-eating lion in Oz would be handy right now...

22/12/11: The Big Oz quits the solar power industry. Strange. Do they know something Bob and Ju-liar don't? Not profitable. Weird. Who would have thought? http://www.nationalreview.com/planet-gore/286371/bp-exits-solar-industry-greg-pollowitz

22/12/11: This is the biggest 'fudge' yet ( 8 times!): "CERES (Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System) instrument (Loeb et al., 2009), which finds a measured 5-year-mean imbalance of 6.5 W/m2 (Loeb et al., 2009). Because this result is implausible, instrumentation calibration factors were introduced to reduce the imbalance to the imbalance suggested by climate models, 0.85 W/m2" If you don't like the figures, simply change them! http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/20/hansens-arrested-development/#more-53430

21/12/11: I read somewhere that every cup of coffee and glass of red wine adds several hours to one's life. I have been able to calculate therefore that I will live for 357 & 1/2 years and rising!

20/12/11: Interesting phenomenon during lawnmower rescue: I had left the petrol line disconnected and turned off, but the tap was obviously weeping. It was a hot day and I was amazed to see that a 50 cent piece of pink ice had formed on the end of the pipe. (latent heat of evaporation & latent heat of fusion)...Alexander the Great used to make ice cream in the Persian desert by this method but it was the first time I had ever observed it. Nature IS amazing!

It makes me realise that the urban myth of the man freezing to death on the Nullarbor Plain (named after an interesting Latin Aboriginal tribe) on a very hot day because he had fallen into a tank of petrol could have been true!

20/12/11: Kim Jong WAS ill but is now WELL (and truly dead!) -and good riddance. Maybe now the millions in Asia still living under communist tyranny can have some hope?

19/12/11: Rant of the day: why I hate 'renewables'. This is the sacred cow which is destroying the earth and starving millions. It must stop. First: alcohol and bio-diesel do not produce more energy than they consume. Second; they do not save more CO2 than they produce. Third: they are resulting in a huge deforestation and destruction of wiildlife worldwide for NO net gain. Fourth: As for example 40% of the US grain crop was last year converted to alcohol, millions starved amidst plenty. This is maybe the most evil thing (amongst many) the greens have done. More about it here: http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/bioenergy-versus-planet

19/12/11: A belated vale for Christopher Hitchens; we can ill afford to lose such incisive thinkers. As an example of his work, try 'God is not Great' a classic denunciation of that dreadful blight, religion. You can find a summary here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Is_Not_Great and you can look inside it here: http://www.amazon.com/God-Not-Great-Religion-Everything/dp/0446579807#reader_0446579807

19/12/11: Also lamenting the loss of great Czech leader Vaclav Havel who did so much to peacefully destroy the tyranny of communism (though there remains much work to be done - particularly in China and amongst green fellow travellers everywhere): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/V%C3%A1clav_Havel

18/12/11: Comet Lovejoy (love that name!) survives its close encounter with the sun. Check out this awesome video of the sun. Wowee! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=X2Yqp-veSpI

18/12/11: It is 'Save the Lawnmowers Day' here today as I finish rebuilding our two ancient Greenfields. Then' let the 'War on Grass' begin! I just love how I can buy every part of the Greenfields and their Briggs and Stratton engines (likewise my Land Rovers) so that they are in effect immortal - this is how things ought to be! I love simple technology you can fix.

18/12/11: 'How Green Was My Valley' (1941). Am I just getting old and sentimental or is this maybe the greatest film of all time? I particularly like the strong female leads - anything really which puts the lie to Germaine's attempted rewriting of history. Long before she thought of it I grew up in a family surrounded by women who clearly had no idea they were 'the second sex'.

17/12/11: Stayed up late last night to watch a rerun of 'Wake in Fright' on ABC2. What a great film! How our culture has diminished over 40 years. Where now is the iconic red-blooded, hard drinking, matey, homophobic Oz male? I could't agree more with the film's theme: 'if you don't like it John Grant, go shoot yourself'! Move over 'Red Dog!

17/12/11: The news is full this morning with the plight of the endangered (Is there any other kind?) yellow bellied glider. I am also concerned about the slippery pea fowl, the bloated rock gillard, Thomson's slime mould, etc, etc...

17/12/11: Get out your winter woolies: This new paper by eminent Norwegian scientists shows a .95 correlation between temperature and solar behaviour. In comparison CO2 correlation has no skill. "We predict an annual mean temperature decrease for Svalbard of 3.5°C from solar cycle 23 to solar cycle 24 (2009–‐20) and a decrease in the winter temperature of ≈6°C.":http://arxiv.org/abs/1112.3256

16/12/11: Ex Tim Blair: Surprise, suprise: The latest graduate employment statistics:

Mining engineering graduates fared the best with 98.2 per cent employed by May …

So who’s doing the worst?

Visual and performing arts were the least successful in gaining work within four months with just more than half, or 52.3 per cent, in a job by May.

16/12/11: It IS the season to be joyful, but careful where you light up that tree: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/it_might_cause_gifts/

16/12/11: This is a follow-up to my post that Della (indeed all women) should be kept well away from bananas and other elongated vegetables. This book 'Be Bold With Bananas' rather proves the point I think: http://bookriot.com/2011/11/30/when-used-books-attack-banana-edition/

16/12/11: A harbinger of the coming China collapse, perhaps? http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/the_siege_of_wukan/

16/12/11: A recent article by Gina Rinehart (Oz's richest woman) should make you realise both how wrong and how economically wrong all this AGW stuff is: http://joannenova.com.au/2011/12/influential-people-are-getting-the-message-gina-rinehart-explains-the-science-of-climate-change/

16/12/11: I see the international carbon price has hit a low of $8 today. This does not look like good news for Ju-liar's 'free market' solution carbon tax @ $23 with a floor of $15!

15/12/11: More on whales: When we lived at Tarwin we once hunted a house-sized dead whale on the shore of the inlet with hounds. We put foxhounds and bloodhounds right INSIDE the whale and shot nearly twenty foxes, some of which even came out the blowhole. Whether they were vixens making the traditional cry, 'Thar she blows' accurate I don't remember. The sound, sight and smell were amazing, especially the great booming voices of the bloodhounds from deep inside the whale. Oh, for a camera back then. Skinning foxes is noisesome enough at the best of times, but these foxes were really rank. I then learned why a whaling station was known as a 'trying' works. Their smell must have been unbelievable.

15/12/11: Other great inventions: the (1) Themarest Neo air (regular 370g) shown made into a chair using the (2) Big Agnes Cyclone Chair (150g) in the photo: 'Tyvek wigwam'! All that is needed to make this scene perfect is Bacardi 151 (and Della, of course!)

15/12/11: The faux & real pack raft & the Tyvek wigwam

15/12/11: There was a dead whale on the beach near here recently which has given us quite an appetite for whale meat now (delicious!) but it is SO hard for me to go out in my little pack raft with a sharp stick to catch one (which I feel as an indigenous Australian -ie born here - should be my right), so it is good news that scientists are now able to grow meat in test tubes so that soon I will be able to enjoy guilt free koala, panda, platypus, human etc with my Sav Blanc. Not that I suffer much more from guilt than Cpt Ahab anyway... Cheers.

15/12/11: Steve Jones Bring it on! We once made hamburgers out of garden worms (which were tasty) but they just do not compare with afterbirth sausages, the only (currently) legal form of cannibalism, now that the 'German solution' (aka Armin Meiwes) seems to be out - spoilsports!

15/12/11: Another great invention of the C21st (apart from the faux packraft) is the truncated tetrahedron Tyvek 'wigwam' again more or less a Jones original. This is just the best shelter/tent ever. Have now spent SO many nights warm and dry in front of an open fire in this wonderful shelter. Room for two and lots of gear to sleep, sit, stand (or for 4-5 to sit and yarn) in front of a warm fire in the rain & can be easily built for less than $50 and will weigh less than 1 kg, including groundsheet. It is beautiful to boot and sounds great in the rain. 'The miracles of science'.

15/12/11: Further to my post about 'crepuscular birdsong' we are able to report that birds are slowly returning to the Wonnangatta (but it is - what? - four years since the fire/s and there are still so few of them). My earlier observation that the fire selectively spared birds which nested in hollow trees or river bank holes is I think confirmed - to Della's delight there are lots of grey thrushes (or 'Cho Cho Wee' birds as she prefers to call them).

15/12/11: Well, we have tried our faux packraft against our Alpacka raft on a four hour Grade 2+ section of the Wonnangatta River on an overnight trip (during which we saw 9 deer!) and apart from some slight abrasion to the lamination of the poly tarp (nappy) the $40 raft stood up splendidly. I found a 33 millimetre metric coarse nut which I was able to cut thread with to extend and create a double paddle which also worked well. The Gaffer tape held up, but I think tarp clips would work better. I can definitely recommend this expedient as an intro to packrafting.

13/12/11: This is amazing, somewhat like the 'virgin birth' I would have thought. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/court-sees-an-aborgine-with-white-parents/story-fn59niix-1226219436990

Matt Dennis The Court should have identified his primary race/culture as "Complete Asshole". Why use race for personal gain when you can just use a child!

13/12/11: And while on the topic of bushmen...Malcolm Naden IS doing very well, isn't he? Michener or Mailer would make a blockbuster out of his story: a modern-day rival for Jimmy Blacksmith, Jacky Jacky & etc. Of course if the police were to get out of sight of their cars they would be lost!

13/12/11: A friend thinks that reports of 'black pumas' etc may well be 'thylaceo leo,' the marsupial lion (there being no large black cats anywhere in the world only spotted ones) but this is a VERY long bow, though it would be nice. In 50+ years in the bush I have never even seen a large cat spoor (or fewmet) though I have seen several striped foxes and two striped dingos (yes, black and gold) and curiously two giant echidnas (such as they have in New Guinea - here in Southern Victoria) and one very strange looking dog.

12/12/11: You CAN have beauty AND brains (though unfortunately you can also have neither)! Interesting Bio of Hedy Lamarr 'the most beautuful woman in the world' shows her role in developing eg the technology behind the mobile phone: http://www.amazon.com/Hedys-Folly-Breakthrough-Inventions-Beautiful/dp/0385534388

12/12/11: Why Be Warm? Interesting article in NS explains that at 37C very few fungi survive and that this survival feature may have driven us to become hot-blooded. Certainly need a bit more warm weather before we can stop spraying our tomatoes etc for fungi this year.

12/12/11: Crepuscular birdsong why? Interesting to see this question answered in the latest New Scientist: it is because there is a temperature inversion then and sounds transmit better. Hope to live long enough to hear it again in our silent bushfire-ravaged forests.

12/12/11: Let's put off a decision for 10 years (or more) at Durban - a victory for common sense. Reminds me of the interesting case of Pierre Riviere. When the judges couldn't decide whether he was fit to plead they put off their decision for a century. This too might be a good idea: http://www.amazon.com/Pierre-Riviere-having-slaughtered-brother/dp/0803268572

11/12/11: I have just discovered that Thomas Crapper did NOT invent the flush toilet (but did invent the ballcock and improve the flush toilet - it appears to be still true that he has become 'eponymous' like Lord Sandwich, Bessie Bloomer, Lord Cardigan & etc. This honour goes to Sir John Harington in 1596, though I note the use of hydraulic processes to flush human waste away as early as the 31st Century BC in the Orkneys - so not just the birthplace of that wonderful poet George Mackay Brown: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flush_toilet & http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/arts/writingscotland/writers/george_mackay_brown/quotes.shtml

11/12/11: Don't know whether 'You can't teach an old dog new tricks,' but (probably due to the continuing wet weather) our two old terriers have decided that they should dry their wet bellies etc on the bathroom mats (much to Della's displeasure!). Not to be outdone, the very ancient cat has worked out how to open the magnetic dog door from the outside. It hooks its claws under the door and opens it outwards then slips quietly in!

11/12/11: Two amusing 'unintended consequences' of green salvation: exploding windmills and exploding electic cars. How good can it get? http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/08/windsplode-in-scotland/ & http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/09/volt-problems-may-have-been-deferred-by-nhtsa-to-protect-fragility-of-volt-sales-foia-demands-launched/

11/12/11: You should read Lord Monckton's post about the doings in Durban. This madness is just too important to be ignored, and such decisions should not be left up to such a bunch of leftist activists to impose on us. World Government and a bill of $1.9 trillion for a start: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/09/durban-what-the-media-are-not-telling-you/

10/12/11: For those who didn't read my previous post in full, here are two of the madder decisions from Durban: "The recognition and defence of the rights of Mother Earth to ensure harmony between humanity and nature"."Ensure respect for the intrinsic laws of nature" What?

10/12/11: A thoughtful piece: the illegal immigrant situation is certainly well and truly broken. Is it time we withdrew from this outdated UN convention: http://www.menzieshouse.com.au/2011/12/it-starts-as-a-trickle-and-ends-up-in-a-flood.html

10/12/11: Unbelievable greenie gibberish from Durban. These people are wackos: http://climatedepot.com/a/14072/Exclusive-UN-Climate-Draft-Text-Demands-New-International-Climate-Court-to-compel-reparations-for-climate-debt--Also-seeks-rights-of-Mother-Earth--2Cdeg-drop-in-global-temps

10/12/11: 20 great green scares: http://www.ipa.org.au/publications/1964/a-history-of-scientific-alarms

10/12/11: Unless Chinese trees are different from those studied by Briffa et al, these Chinese tree records completely destroy the myth of global warming: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/07/in-china-there-are-no-hockey-sticks/

10/12/11: Supercentenarian Jeanne Calmert did even better: 122 years and 164 days! Soon however everyone will live that long: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jeanne_Calment

10/12/11: Well done Florence Green, the last surviving World War 1 veteran: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Florence_Green

9/12/11: I would vote for a constitutional amendment to remove THIS phrase but NOT for the inclusion of some other power: Section 51(xxvi) of the Constitution is the "race power" that allows the Commonwealth to legislate in regard to "any race for whom it is deemed necessary to make special laws".

9/12/11: Further to 'interesting' murderers, don't know whether you caught up with this: the 'new' body they found in Belnaglo about a year ago, first announced to be a woman (GO NSW police) and now found to be a man, was made so by a nephew of Australia's favourite mass murderer, Ivan Milat. Such an appealing family; such welcome citizens...

9/12/11: guy has got it right. No more bananas or cucumbers for Della. This old body just can't take any more. May become a Moslem if this is how it's going to be: http://bikyamasr.com/50403/islamic-cleric-bans-women-from-touching-bananas-cucumbers-for-sexual-resemblance/

9/12/11: Have a look at who's at Durban. This is NOT an inter-Governmental meeting, but a meeting of greenie activists and zealots. This gravey train must stop: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/07/ngos-its-worse-than-we-thought/

9/12/11: Further to the origin of the Universe thing...Here is Heraclitus c C5th BC: "(The Universe) did none of gods or men make, but it always was and is and shall be: an everlasting fire, kindling in measures and going out in measures." How right IS that?

9/12/11: GO Malcolm Naden! If a little thing like three murders didn't stand in the way of Ned Kelly being a hero why should two count against you? Six years on the run. Well done. And in traditional bushranger country. Here is the heir of Ben Hall, Moonlight, Jimmy Blacksmith etc. There is a blockbuster film in this. Come on Spielberg.

9/12/11: The problem I see with the theory of the 'multiverse' is that surely it would only be a PART of the universe - else what does 'universe' mean?

8/12/11: Am trying Ainsley Harriott's Southern Cajun Gumbo Cup of Soup for breakfast. Yum! Some people ask what food I take hiking. This is too hard a question for ONE post but here's a tip which also works well for a snack or lunch. Combine a sachet of 2 minute noodles sans flavour sachet witha cup of soup. My favourite is Continental Asian Laksa

8/12/11: Small things DO make a difference. Yesterday's triumphs: Stemetil Yay! Am feeling MUCH better now. Then received some 8mm domes for my hearing aids which are so much more comfortable and work so much better than the 10mm ones prescribed by the crooked, cruel audiologists. Life is SO much better since I became my own audiologist.

8/12/11: THIS was Gillard's 'take' on 'gay rights' way back when. Add this to her long litany of lies. Then think about the Kernohan Stat Dec which she has Draconianly suppressed which showed her being involved in a million dollar fraud: 'Not fit to shovel shit upon a Bombay lugger'! http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/dont_pass_on_the_doctored_version/

8/12/11: I get a sponsored ad this morning that states, 'I'd rather be hiking'. You betcha!

8/12/11: Police are busy this morning hunting 'Australia's most wanted man' and he's not even HOT! One can't but wonder whether he would have a rival in most women's minds with Beckham!

7/12/11: New Scientist editorials are usually greenie gibberish (a tautology?) but the current one is a blast! First the faster than light neutrino (confirmed); second the surprising finding that mesons decay faster than anti-mesons (the God squad will be onto this one double quick!) and third: impending experimental evidence of the multiverse. Mind blowing! http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21228403.200-neutrinos-and-multiverses-a-new-cosmology-beckons.html

7/12/11: I am sure the meson thing is just because we live in a universe where this happens. No-one probably lives in the other type of universe, so it is NOT a matter of intelligent design, OK?

7/12/11: Steve Jones Sorry I have that the wrong way round: if mesons decayed faster than anti-mesons we wouldn't be here.

7/12/11: Science fiction becoming science fact: scientists have worked out how to put electronic displays in contact lenses: http://www.newscientist.com/blogs/onepercent/2011/11/electronic-contact-lens-displa.html

7/12/11: Steve Jones I am hoping they will also work out soon how to cure Della's glaucoma: I have been harassing the specialist on this issue truth be told!

7/12/11: Here are some interesting photos of submarines at the North Pole at various times. Unfortunately there are no photos from the 1920's when the pole was often ice free, and of course none from the period before the Industrial Revolution (strangely enough!) Still, you can let go that weird idea that the world is wildly warming... http://www.john-daly.com/polar/arctic.htm

7/12/11: There is a 'new' tomato called a 'kumato' apparently originally from the Galapagos Islands which is interesting - though this may be spin. It is deliciously sweet. I recommend you try some, & save and plant the seeds. it is a small tomato so you should still get a crop if you are quick.

7/12/11: Many pictures of 'Walmartians' are doing the rounds (Google it) - my personal favourite is the woman who tucks her boobs into the tops of her trousers! Whenever Della and I visit our local shopping centre (Midvalley, Morwell) we often ask each other, 'Is it Ugy. Fat Stupid Day here?' - and all that eating done on the public purse! How could you expect such people to work! Perhaps the public purse is overly large too. How easy it is to boil a frog! Did you know as recently as during the American War of Independence even armies were funded by private citizens.

7/12/11: Both sides of politics here have a rather naive faith in being saved by China. Much the same faith used to apply to England before they joined the Europeans back in the 60's and many things here crashed as a result. (many thousands of square miles of farm land returned to wilderness as a result for example). Warren Meyer sees evidence that China will crash and I think he is right. It could even amount to civil war: http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/12/final-indicator-if-you-needed-one-of-a-looming-china-crash.html

7/12/11: Cooking oil fire: really important lesson. Who would have thought it could so easily be turned into something like a nuclear explosion? Only 34 seconds, please watch: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sZGzbd0IvUE

7/12/11: The unbalanced Dr Meniere is back to trouble me again this morning after an absence of two years. I remember being puzzled when my father explained that saying drunks were going home 'by rail' did not mean them catching the train, but clutching the fence rail to maintain their balance. I do not enjoy that method of locomotion, nor the nausea which goes with it. Hopefully he will return to his home in France soon. Just another unwanted Norman conqueror(like the makers of the 'Crown Land Act' mentioned in a previous post).

7/12/11: Thank goodness for 'Stemetil' which has made me feel at least half human (many will think that's about as good as it gets) and at least prevented upchucking. And I DO mean 'goodness' for it is human goodness which has created this drug and ...See More

7/12/11: On this morning's news: The language of freedom's thieves: "The Government will close a loophole which allows"...In this case having a drink whilst driving even though every car comes with ready-made drink holders (those of us who drive older cars have always had to provide our own). This confiscation of our liberties happens several times a year now. I urge you to protest at least THIS one...The Crown usurped this 'right' to make laws many centuries ago just as it STOLE the publc lands in the C12th making them 'Crown' lands and thereby forbidding the public to be on them without permission, to gather wood or food, camp, fish, hunt etc.

7/12/11: Most awesome video. Some people ARe just mad: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEu42L0ufBY&feature=player_embedded

6/12/11: Best gadget we have bought in the last year a 5" Bebook reader but you can now get the new Sony 6" model for about the same weight @ 160g but it won't fit in your shirt pocket. It does not require you to pirate books but it sure makes reading a lot cheaper if you do. Best App: utorrent.

6/12/11: Global warming may have stopped for the next 50 years: http://www.scmp.com/portal/site/SCMP/menuitem.2af62ecb329d3d7733492d9253a0a0a0/?vgnextoid=8ef931369d404310VgnVCM100000360a0a0aRCRD&ss=china&s=news

4/12/11: Re-reading Robert Heinlein. Liked him as a boy and still like him as an old man - likewise Peter S Beagle.

4/12/11: Interesting comment by former Labor Minister Gary Johns in the Australian 24/11:

"Sorry, but someone has to call it as it is. The way home for Aborigines is simple; it is the same journey that every professor of indigenous studies has made but is too curmudgeonly to admit.

Get an education and make your own way in the world, just like every other citizen. Welcome to our world".

4/12/11: The 'Arab Spring' is rapidly turning into a 'winter of discontent', first in Tunisia now Egypt. I foresee many millions more Moslem refugees fleeing fundamentalist regimes (already 90%+ of all refugees worldwide). How many more should we take? Also note: Moslems are outbreeding everyone else in the world - save only aborigines!

4/12/11: A really thoughtful (if long-winded) piece by Professor Robert G. Brown of Duke University. All science needs to be put on an honest basis: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/12/02/foia-is-not-enough-why-not-legally-mandate-transparency-in-climate-research-a-modest-proposal/

4/12/11: Chinese imports vs quality products: You can buy ANY part from even the oldest Greenfield Mower (or Land Rover car) and every Briggs and Stratton engine - and the people who make and sell them operate under civilised wage rates and conditions. And consider this for 'environmental sustainability' 90% of every Land Rover ever built are still being driven. I am really annoyed that Blundstone, Holeproof etc etc have moved to China AND with no drop in the price of their products!

3/12/11: 1/3 of the population on welfare now! Of course some of this is caused by successive Governments allowing cheap imports and increased debt to squeaze out local jobs. I look at the price of an Oz Greenfield (better) mower versus an import. Nowhere in the cost of the cheaper and worse import is the figure for the increased debt and unemployment which went to make it cheaper, nor the slave labour wages paid in the source country.

3/12/11: I predict that the cost of the welfare system will within a generation lead to the end of democracy in Australia, either because we run out of people willing to placidly 'pay the piper' or because there is so litttle money left to fund Defence that we will be a walkover to those who see our wealth as a bauble worth risking all for.

3/12/11: The tax system IS disgusting. On the one hand the indirect tax system taxes the poorest at the highest rate through the GST and excise for example. On the other hand it is NOT a good idea that the poorest pay NO tax. Everyone is entitled to feel that they contributed to society. It is only appropriate that those who have benefitted most from society pay proportionately more. For the recipients of Government largesse to pay nothing reduces them to the status of beggars.

3/12/11: Seems like those who last wanted 'marriage equality' and those who want it now and who are recipients of Government largesse might like to declare their relationship status to Centrelink! Not many have, though they clamor loudly for 'bread and circuses'.

3/12/11: The trouble with 'Equality' is there is never an equality between who pays and who benefits. The benefit ALWAYS flows from the hard-working and productive to the 'magic pudding' brigade. To mix some metaphors: it is wonderful to be able to vote for 'bread and circuses' but someone must 'pay the piper' and this won't happen if you 'kill the goose who laid the golden egg' because you want Kentucky Fried Goose.

3/12/11: Another broken promise: 'There will be no change to the Marriage Act under a Government I lead'!

3/12/11: It is the subversion of 'representative democracy' by political parties (particularly Labor) who lock the elected representatives into voting the Party line instead of voting as their electorate would wish that is the main problem - and the...See More

3/12/11: Heavens: The Guardian‘s Andrew Brown: 'Turning off lightbulbs is important. To turn off the light when you leave a room is an act of piety just as much as lighting a candle in church. It has no measurable effect on the crisis at all in itself. It doesn’t even have a notable effect on your own electricity bill, and if it ever does, the world economy will be in a dreadful mess. But it is a token of seriousness. It is, if you like, a gesture of faith'.

3/12/11: Paul Kelly: 'Eurozone unemployment is 10.3 per cent and rising. In Britain, outside the euro, the Institute for Fiscal Studies says average families will fail to regain their 2002 income levels even by 2015'. This is what Oz has to look forward to as well.

2/12/11: This blight recalls the great C18th US chestnut blight which erased the Eastern forests, and may be a harbinger: Someone has imported a deadly Myrtle disease which is spreading. You may know that Aboriginal mismanagement created a forest which is now 98% Myrtaceia. We must urgently plant anything else everywhere or we will have a vast ecological disaster. The koalas of which we have many here, are clearly doomed.

2/12/11: 'The Great Dying of the Trees'. Here in Gippsland 000's of kilometres of (especially) cypress hedges (many a century old) are dying almost as rapidly as wildfire. It is a great tragedy for the many small critters who will miss a home. Alas, many will not be replaced either. We had a quote recently to remove and burn two dozen @ $13K! Wet feet or a disease? Im not sure. Seems to be spreading to other trees too.

2/12/11: Further to the great deepfried Elton John marriage equality with ducks saga: a solicitor friend once defended a client who had sex with his own poultry in the main street of Cessnock. ("Unfit to plead Your Honour"). He indignantly insisted that it was a hen ('Do you think I'm queer?'). How times change. Soon such things will be compulsory! I recall that the same client was frequently nabbed for public sex with his delightfully named girlfriend, 'Suitcase'. What a town!

2/12/11: My sponsored girlfriend ad has now been joined by an ad asking 'Do you love beagles?' This is more than somewhat confusing. I DO actually LIKE beagles but not in that way. Nor do I advocate 'marriage equality' between beagles and humans. I do not agree with Leviticus that the ass who sleeps with a man (being the innocent party) should be put to death either. Nor do I think necessarily that we should return to the Tudor punishment for homosexuality (ie boiling in oil!) though there are cases where it has something to recommend it, eg I do not like Elton John...

2/12/11: Does Elton John also have sex with ducks? How unsanitary! i hope the ducks consent. Still, this has to stop. Get the pot on the fire. Here we go. Fried Elton. Sorry, boiled John.

2/12/11: I'm going to buy five of these and save 100% on fuel for my car. GO Green! http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=O8BA1y3ChAs

2/12/11: Second thoughts: I may buy a hundred of them and save so much I can sell fuel to my friends!

2/12/11: I begin to think Rossi's ECat device will prove something similar!

1/12/11: My CMC demo account is now up 10% in a week. If only I had borrowed a million dollars this time last week, but then no doublt it would have gone down 20% or I might have commtted suicide when it was down 5% last Friday...Easy come, easy...

1/12/11: I have posted my idea about the home made packraft ( and some of my other adventures) here: http://packrafting.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=28&t=1767

1/12/11: Try packrafting on the cheap. Instead of $800 try buying eg an Intex from Clark Rubber for $40. You reinforce the floor/outside tubes with several poly tarps. These can be taped with Polyethylene tape used for greenhouses or Norton Gaffer may work. The oars which come with it can be made into a double paddle whose length can be increased by cutting a thread on one end with a metal pipe fitting.

1/12/11: Not as bad as the exploding kids of 10:10, but very troubling nonetheless. These issues are best left to adults to worry about whilst kids can just get on with enjoying being kids. Whatever happened to an untroubled childhood? http://www.wherewillsantalive.ca/

1/12/11: The US stockmarket did something very interesting overnight and I awoke to see that the CMC demo account I started last Thursday (which was down 5% on Friday) is now UP 6%. If only it was real money! Last few years we weren't making 6% pa out of farming even after working 7 days a week!

1/12/11: While I was typing the last post I glanced across and noticed Facebook had chosen a Sponsored Ad which said 'Meet Your Girlfriend' and that it had a rather blurry photo of Della as a 17 year old - how DID they know?

1/12/11: Della Jones Pretty sure I don't want to see that picture. It's like being told you remind people of someone else...somehow it is confronting to realise that your own image of self bears no comparison to the way others see you...

1/12/11: My little sponored lover seems to have gone now, replaced by ads for anti wrinkle cream and devices to promote prostate health etc as usual. However she WAS pretty hot, and so are you!

1/12/11: As we approach Della's birthday on Sunday I reflect that we have now been together for 40 wonderful years, though it seems like no time at all. I look forward to every new day with her. Thank you Della.

29/11/11: An update on the stockmarket 'game'. Though I was down 5% on Friday, I find I am up 2% this morning as the Oz market opened. Don't know how I will cope with the stress of these swings when we are playing with real money when the farm finally settles...Recommend a CMC Demo account for learning about such things though.

29/11/11: The 'serendipity' lawnmower requires a bit of work but should be mowing by the end of the day. Found you can buy a brand new Briggs and Stratton 15.5hp engine on eBay for $850 or a clone for about $450 so can't eally understand why people are throwing away their old owers and buying new ones for $6,000!

29/11/11: Found some photos yesterday of my great aunt (my father's father's sister) who died the year I was born. Previously I had found a photo of her mother on an old glass plate negative. Both gave ample evidence of where the Jones good looks came from!

26/11/11: This is a really neat boat: a kayak made from willow and poly tarp: http://www.shelter-systems.com/kayak.html

27/11/11: I am thinking one might be able to make this or a coracle with withes (other than willow) a tarp and some cable ties which I could leave in a drum at one of my hunting camps upriver so that I could float downstream if I wanted/needed to. Ju...See More

26/11/11: Fortunately this is PRETEND money but I have been playing a simulation of share trading with CMC markets as a sort of practice for when we have some real money when the farm actually setlles as we will have to do something to make an income. Obviously I picked a bad time to invest as I am down about 5% in the last week. Sometime soon the market is bound to hit bottom and then should be a good time to invest...

26/11/11: Serendipity (the old name for Ceylon by the way) rules! Our lawnmower died. We went to the lawnmower place to investigate fixing it and ended up coming back with both a solution for fixing it for free and a second ride on mower (for $400) which I may be able to also fix for free too. At least for very little. These Greenfield mowers by the way are THE BEST. You can get a new B & S engine for $850 on eBay or a Chinese clone for half of that. Don't throw away that old mower!

25/11/11: Further to my John L Daly link. The 1841 sea level mark was likely made by one of Della (nee Crozier) Jones's ancestors: Cpt Crozier of the 'Erebus' who named and sailed the Ross sea (still a very difficult feat) & is commemorated in Cape Crozier. He was lost with Franklin looking for the NW passage, becoming frozen in in a piece of water which has not melted since. He was one of the 4/80+ men who walked all but <20 of 1200 miles to Hudson's Bay. Bad luck that! http://www.john-daly.com/ Still Waiting For Greenhouse www.john-daly.com

The 1841 sea level benchmark (centre) on the `Isle of the Dead', Tasmania. According to Antarctic explorer, Capt. Sir James Clark Ross, it marked mean sea level in 1841. Photo taken at low tide 20 Jan 2004.Mark is 50 cm across; tidal range is less than a metre. © John L. D...

25/11/11: This graph IS amazing given the 'consensus' on salt intake. Who would have thought that the current recommendation of 1500mg/day is as bad for you as 8000 and that the 'safest' level is 4-500! Feel free to sprinkle a little on your hot chips. Enjoy! http://junkscience.com/2011/11/22/food-nannies-killer-salt-recommendation/

25/11/11: Sad news that Zbigniew Jaworowski has died. There is an excellent interview with him here: http://www.21stcenturysciencetech.com/Articles_2010/Jaworowski_interview.pdf

24/11/11: I was really pleased to see this wonderful posthumous email from Oz's late John L Daly on why tree ring data is bosh. (http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/11/23/john-l-dalys-message-to-mike-mann-and-the-team/) If you go to John's site you will see the famous photo from the Isle of the Dead showing that sea level rise is bunk too. Why can't the bad die young? http://www.john-daly.com/

24/11/11: Is the Climategate hacker hiding the remaining 220,000 emails behind a password in order to spook 'the group' into fessing up, resigning, bolting? It's all over fellas! Forget AGW, carbon trading, fat cheques for telling lies etc. The world is NOT playing your game...

23/11/11: Climategate #2: possible even worse than the first one! Meanwhile...Japan, Europe, USA etc postpone ANY action on climate until after 2020 and the IPCC says AGW will not be discernible for the next 30 years. Certainly was a great time to bring in a carbon tax Ju-liar!

19/11/11: 'Itsy-bitsy' guy dies twice. We have had a chook and a lamb over the years who both did this too. When it happens to a man it often leads to centuries of religious violence - even though Jesus is buried in Kandahar (just as Adam is buried in Jedda!). Oh well...http://www.steynonline.com/4649/itsy-bitsy-teenie-weenie-yellow-polka-dot-life

18/11/11: You could imagine Della and I doing this Grade 5 water in our Alpacka raft but the truth is water a little more gentle than this. Don't try this sort of thing in any other brand of pack raft though: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pvMIXSTnNY&feature=player_embedded

19/11/11: We have the 'Fiord Explorer' which is a bit heavy but takes two. I took it down the Seaforth River in Fiordland afer a 3.5 day hike in! For a one person boat you could try the 'Alpacka' or the 'Scout' (if you are as small as Della). These boats will handle any water you would likely dare. For calmer water there is a lighter cheaper craft the 'Flytepacker' @ 35oz (997g). You can get a durable paddle as light as 23oz (650g): http://flyweightdesigns.com/products.aspx

19/11/11: Anthony Watts says this graph changed him from being a believer to a sceptic. I can see why. It is very hard to believe CO2 would be warming some counties differently. The urban heat island is another matter. Imagine: that is ALL this whole thing is about: http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2010/06/goodridge_1996_ca-uhi_county.jpg

19/11/11: A foreshortened trip up the Wonnangatta with Della who developed a bad chest infection. Fortunately I had brought along the 'Alpacka' raft so we 'enjoyed' a rather bumpy and crowded ride downriver to our car. Saw nine deer in the four hours walking in. We were to go another six hours up river, so we will be back. http://www.alpackaraft.com/

19/11/11: Not yet time to trade her in though. We'll try again. I have this really lovely campsite about six hours walk (for me) from my car which I really want her to spend a few days at (thought it would be this trip - followed by a relaxing raft d...See More

18/11/11: There really IS a see through toaster. Get one for your love for Xmas (approx A$395!) http://www.magimix.com.au/kettlestoasters.php

15/11/11: An interesting post. Hadn't considered CO2 can't go over 522ppm because of its interaction with the oceans no matter what. If so the resulting temperature increase can't be more than 1C ever as we have already had about 40% of that doubling which only produced at most .5C? Nothing to worry about. Move on...http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/11/13/the-fate-of-all-carbon/

13/11/11: While I was over at the Coyote's blog I admired this petition and wondered could we get one similar gong for our trendy Ranga masters and mistresses here: https://wwws.whitehouse.gov/petitions#!/petition/we-demand-vapid-condescending-meaningless-politically-safe-response-petition/gCZfn86x

13/11/11: Personally I like Sarah Palin for President. This speech was a beauty: http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/11/crony-capitalism.html

13/11/11: I liked this cool gadget: http://www.coated.com/helmet-hummingbird-feeder/ & wonder whether it comes with an adapter kit to watch blowflies!. This may also be useful: http://www.reevoo.com/decidewhattobuy/2009/11/gadget-watch-transparent-toaster/

13/11/11: Can't believe we didn't finish shearing until 10:35pm last night. With less than 200 sheep now (and falling!) at least it was only one day, but can't believe the shearer didn't arrive until 3:00pm. Back to the pesky thistles today.

13/11/11: Oh No! It has begun raining and I must sadly abandon spraying thistles. What will I do?

13/11/11: Noisy dickhead: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/13958630

10/11/11: Weird stuff: celeb cook Stephanie Alexander reckoned in yesterday's Herald Sun families shoud aim to eat together once a week! That's right . Surely there is something seriously wrong if you don't share a meal with your family at least once a day! This society is sure spiralling downhill.

9/11/11: Wow! Take a look at these other pix from JPL. Mind blowing: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/spaceimages/

9/11/11: Enough to make one a nimby ( = 'not in my back yard'). So glad this mother missed: http://www.jpl.nasa.gov/video/index.cfm?id=1032

9/11/11: A new book by Michael Crichton. Who would have thought? This man is spectacularly productive even when dead: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0053JJLLC/ref=pe_174190_21715130_nrn_title

9/11/11: This may seem a very unusual recommendation from an atheist but this programme was actually very interesting. 'Know thy enemy' anyway even if not 'Love thy enemy'! Expires in five days: http://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/video/2164354598/The-Bible-A-History-Ep-1-Creation

9/11/11: I think this Finklestein media enquiry is just about the most evil and ominous thing that has ever happened in this country (worse even than the carbon tax!). Will I soon have to seek a permt to have or express an opinion? I have already been disallowed a comment on a blog because of the Moderator's fear of prosecution (post Bolt) yet I was saying nothing which wouldn't be a majority view! Soon we will have to be very careful what we say here.

9/11/11: Another 3 hour stint yesterday at the dentist. I am rapidly becoming a cyborg - I have so many new artificial tooth bits. My teeth just keep breaking - the joys of getting older!

7/11/11: Chop lots of firewood. Next year looks to be the coldest in a century: http://joannenova.com.au/2011/10/a-monster-la-nina-in-the-making/

I found these four essays by Martin Durkin eminently readable and entertaining. I especially liked his defence of suburbia, his take-down of nimbyism and his expose of the anti-capitalist hysteria of the 'intelligentsia' - and why it exists. Enjoy. http://www.martindurkin.com/

Hit (and killed) yet another magpie. I hate that as I really like magpies. What are they doing on the road anyway - other than cleaning up the remains of earlier magpies? Or is it like whale strandings? Strange behaviour for supposedly brainy fishy folks! Does anyone know whether the ultrasonic alarm things will frighten them or other critters off the road or is it just another scam like frightening tigers away from where there aren't tigers?

What is it with bikers.? They are amazing connoiseurs. I pass oodles of them standing around in fast-food carparks admiring each other's bikes. I look and see: just bikes. I can see they must spend more time polishing all that chrome than riding the bikes. Perhaps they should spend some time cleaning the wife's stove, BUT do they have wives? Or they could spend some time washing their hair...

The sexier side of the Occupy movement. I wonder are chicks 1 & 3 time travellers? http://hotchicksofoccupywallstreet.tumblr.com/

This is the Bureau of Met's records for our oldest continuous remote station in Victoria, Cape Otway. You can click on the 'Highlight' box to chose the warmest 5% (95th Percentile). You will see that all the really warm weather was in the C19th: http://www.bom.gov.au/jsp/ncc/cdio/weatherData/av?p_nccObsCode=36&p_display_type=dataFile&p_startYear&p_stn_num=090015

Another interesting 'hockey stick' style fudge: The last 95 years of ice cores show much the same level of CO2 as is found in the atmosphere today - and so are discarded as unreliable. But we should believe the levels in the 'older' ice cores! What? If there has been no appreciable change in CO2 how can it have caused any climate change? But more imporantly why are we having a carbon tax to control it?

This is the satellite record of temperature change since 1979. As you can see the temperature today is 1/10th of a degree warmer than the average. The highest it has been was 3/4 a degree warmer and the lowest 2/3 a degree colder. This is hardly runaway global warming: http://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_October_2011.png

An important point ( and I LOVE my SUV): http://www.forbes.com/sites/warrenmeyer/2011/10/20/update-fisker-karma-electric-car-gets-worse-mileage-than-an-suv/

Message from the Wife of an Oil Rig Worker; how true: http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/018232.htm

The Occupy Movement? "See if you can spot the disparity between this young woman’s chosen visual image and her desired profession": http://pjmedia.com/eddriscoll/2011/11/01/time-stands-still/

Unbelievable: "An able-bodied man paid by the government of the United States to lie in a giant crib, wetting his diaper week in week out, is almost too poignant an emblem of the republic at twilight...At a million-dollar San Francisco fundraiser today, President Obama warned his recession-battered supporters that if he loses the 2012 election it could herald a new, painful era of self-reliance in America." http://www.ocregister.com/opinion/awareness-324288-day-giant.html

"It's hard to see what (Australia) has to gain from admitting significant numbers of people from the culture that spawned the Shafias...This is a world in which a father and mother sit around the kitchen table with their son plotting how to kill their three daughters. At a certain level, such people are not fully human." http://www.steynonline.com/4605/sunset-on-the-rideau

A great talk by Matt Ridley. A must read if you want to understand the nature of this ominous scam: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/11/01/thank-you-matt-ridley/#more-50468

If you are deaf like me you might like to buy your new Siemens hearing aids for US$3200/pr instead of A$11K. I bought a tuning device and programme for US$700 and now hear better than I ever have. Can't believe how much of a rip-off Oz audiologists are. Try: http://www.thehearingcompany.com/

Watched 'Dune' again last night. Still a great movie but has been mucked about by adding in a weird cartoon section at the beginning and they have left out the very disturbing Harkonnen heart plug scenes. Apparently these are no longer available anywhere. Such censorship challenges one's very memory of reality.

It's not just the temperature records which have been 'fudged' to 'prove' global warming, but the CO2 records too. CO2 has been higher than it is at present several times durong the last 200 years including once during my lifetime. More info and links here: http://www.warwickhughes.com/icecore/

Problem is the 'Fair Work Act' a poor substitute for 'Work Choices'. What alternative did Joyce have: let Qantas go broke by caving in to union dinosaur claims and tactics? Union action was costing the company more than $15 million per day!

"News (Murdoch)... publishes 32 per cent of all Australia’s newspapers...News’s share of circulation - as distinct from ownership - is 68 per cent in the capital cities and 77 per cent of the Sunday market. There is a very simple way for Fairfax (or the ABC!)...to cut News Ltd’s share of the circulation. It is to offer papers that more readers want to buy" - Bolt. Fair point. But Brown & Gillard want CONTROL! Ominous.

More time travellers: 1905:http://www.everseradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Mohawk-Time-Traveler.jpg, 1863: http://www.everseradio.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/basiago_at_gettysburg_nov_1918633.jpg, C19th John Travolta: http://www.rte.ie/ten/2011/1030/travoltajo.html. I have met many time travellers from the past eg those clearly from the 1950's, 1970's hippies & etc. It must be real!

Time travellers caught on film? Why can we only remember the past? Here: http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2010/10/time-traveler-in-1928-chaplin-film/ and Here: http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2010/04/photograph-of-a-time-traveler/ YOU be the judge...

T.B. Macaulay (1800-59): "We cannot absolutely prove that those are in error who tell us that society has reached a turning point, that we have seen our best days. But so said all before us, and with just as much apparent reason ... On what principle is it that, when we see nothing but improvement behind us, we are to expect nothing but deterioration before us"

If I ever said, "There ain't no justice' ('Tanj!), I was wrong, and THIS is it: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/10/30/record-snowfall-for-climate-action-day-in-new-york/#more-50334

Maybe you are thinking of an interesting Xmas pesent for your beloved. Maybe consider a Browning Lever Action ('BLR Lightning') rifle in 'take-down' format (ie it splits into halves to stow in your pack). Della bought me one for my 60th. Perhaps I should have got it in Winchester Magnum instead of .308 but I AM very happy with it.

One problem with the BEST data was how it ignored the last ten years as you can see here: http://www.drroyspencer.com/wp-content/uploads/UAH_LT_1979_thru_September_2011.png and as Judith Curry says here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2055191/Scientists-said-climate-change-sceptics-proved-wrong-accused-hiding-truth-colleague.html The other problem though is it shows just the same warming in the 19thC without CO2 as it does in the 20thC!

Fix a boat problem? Fix a live export problem? Fix a problem with India? Fix a flying kangaroo? Mrs Fix-it Ju-liar sure can. Sure can't? Sure cant! What a high flyer! Time to shoot the bitch down! Bring it on!

My tiny beloved will be home any minute from her trying crafty weekend & I must make her an amazing mushroom and lamb ragout. She can have the leftover Red Thai Curry chicken (with lots of water chestnuts!) I made for tea last night for lunch tomorrow. How lucky can you get?

Steve Jones Unfortunately turns out she doesn't much like the red wine sauce flavour, though I did. Leftovers anyone? Perhaps I will try her on my famous Prawn Laksa tonight?

Della Jones It was good, only the sauce wasn't to my taste! Can't wait for prawn laksa though - love it!

Steve Jones She obviously REALLY like the Laksa though. She has since had it for leftovers twice!

Great one Bunnings who have these great flat-pack shelving units (3'x6'x18") which take ten 50 litre lidded boxes for $89ea. We are finally tidying up our house/garage/sheds etc and may be able to find things eventually - or at least before the huge heaps of junk cascade down and crush us!

You can read the full text of Archbishop Pell's interesting lecture on 'climate change' here. It is more than worth a read: http://thegwpf.org/images/stories/gwpf-reports/pell-2011_annual_gwpf_lecture.pdf

Cold Fusion #2: If this is NOT a scam, it is probably the biggest news on the energy front EVER: http://www.e-catworld.com/what-is-the-e-cat/ & http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/10/28/test-of-rossis-1-mw-e-cat-fusion-system-apparently-successful/

Too hard basket? http://flowingdata.com/2011/10/28/best-statistics-question-ever/

Amazing photos of nuclear bombs being detonated. Awesomely beautiful horror. Thousands were let off, yet we survived (so far!): http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2011/05/nuclear-bomb-tests/

Check out the 1920's wristwatch GPS and many other neat things at: http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2011/10/plus-fours-routefinder-1920s/

Another 35mm of rain overnight! After @ 14 years of drought Gippsland has certainly relearned how to rain THIS year.

People should reject all the hype implicit in the Hubbert Peak Theory under whatever guise and maybe take some heed from Julian Simon as eg @: http://www.wired.com/wired/archive/5.02/ffsimon_pr.html

I see that GG are going to be offering the Murmur in Dyneema in a couple of months @ 12 ounces. This might be well worth holding out for if you are contemplating a tough lightweight pack for Xmas/New Year: http://gossamergear.com/packs/murmur-hyperlight-backpack.html

I enjoyed this girl's blog - the lateral thinking involved in THIS post will save me at least 3 grams! Wow! However it is still a useful example of how collective intelligence continues to make the world a better place. The Super Cat stove pictured I have already commented on and continue to recommend.

Cardinal Pell's observations about AGW. Though I am not a Christian I long ago appreciated his identification of the anti-human nature of the Green faith as HERESY: many of these folks would see billions dead to 'save' the planet (from imaginary dangers!): http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/be-prudent-with-climate-claims/story-e6frgd0x-1226177730473

Went to Melbourne to see the Queen...but we weren't as pushy as some...we saw - the backs of people's heads! Interesting to see the many Anglos in the crowd and just how civilised and well-behaved THEY were. One woman left her small baby with us (total strangers) whilst she took her small daughter to the toilet. Wonderful to live in such a civilised society.

Astonishing? "By 2001...a chicken reached the weight at which it would be killed in one-third of the time and after eating one-third of the food compared with the 1957 breed...represents...reduction in waste and in the..land devoted to growing feed per chicken" http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/genetics-bigger-chickens

This is a VERY important book. eg: It observes "journalists are very different from the rest of us—they are more liberal (Left)...according to surveys, in a typical presidential election, Washington correspondents vote about 93-7 for the Democrat, while the rest of us vote about 50-50 for the two candidates" & "if media bias didn't exist then John McCain would have defeated Barack Obama 56-42 instead of losing 53-46" http://www.amazon.com/dp/0312555938/?tag=powlin-20#reader_0312555938

BEST: If rural and remote sites show cooling it is pretty certain the world HAS cooled. The Climategate team are still at it at Berkeley. On the one hand they observe that 1/3rd of stations show a cooling over the last 70 years, then deny the Urban Heat Island effect to conclude that overall the world has warmed by approx 1C since 1960 about the same amount as was caused by changing the Stephenson screens over to automatic and painting them with titanium instead of limewash. This is another AGW scam.

'The Scam from Snowy River' - this is a very thoughtful piece and goes to show what liars and economic illiterates Greens are: http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/doomed-planet/2011/10/the-scam-from-snowy-river

As I have observed before, Donna Laframboise IS fabulous. If you can't afford the $5 at least read the bit that's posted here. You may never have read something this important: http://www.amazon.com/Delinquent-Teenager-Mistaken-Climate-ebook/dp/B005UEVB8Q/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1318551567&sr=8-4#reader_B005UEVB8Q The Delinquent Teenager Who Was Mistaken for the World's Top Climate Expert www.amazon.com

"Blooming brilliant. Devastating" - Matt Ridley, author of The Rational Optimist "...shines a hard light on the rotten heart of the IPCC" - Richard Tol, Professor of the Economics of Climate Change and convening lead author of the IPCC "...you need t...

One more fascinating weirdo bites the dust. When WILL it be Ju-liar's turn? At least he died with a golden gun in his hand. What style! Also liked his final words, "What DO you want?" Cheerio Muammar: http://www.youtube.com/verify_controversy?next_url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fwatch%3Fv%3DjNmzB6o2rRQ%26feature%3Dplayer_embedded Muammar Gaddafi dead www.youtube.com

Della Jones I loved the golden gun touch - can see that catching on!

I favour Craig Thomson myself. They probably CAN get worse! p://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/rudd_the_irreversible/

http://bunyipitude.blogspot.com/2011/10/also-weddings-and-bar-mitzvahs.html Bunyipitude: ....Also Weddings And Bar Mitzvahs bunyipitude.blogspot.com

I reckon these aboriginal smoking services and dancing routines need to be expanded - like the use of nulla-nullas in parliamentary question time to settle disputes. Regarding the fees structure for experienced and non experienced native dancers, Professor how will I be able to spot the difference? ...

Had a fun trip to the Hunter Valley last week to catch up with old friends and relatives especially Della's mum who turned 91. Well done.

In the context of the Bolt case, these articles are really worth a read. I was particularly interested to learn about the origins of Daisy Corunna, Sally Morgan's grandmother most likely a Melanesian woman from her photograph. Also how VERY few people could possibly BE 'stolen generation': https://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/history-wars/2010/05/pocket-windschuttle-goes-viral

May have read everything you ever wanted about RF Scott but this article WAS interesting. Just the contrast between how Amundsen was enjoying himself whilst Scott was killing himself and his men...Wow! http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128320.200-scotts-biographer-british-polar-hero-was-incompetent.html?page=2

These are the sorts of places we will have to buy our carbon permits from. Great to be 'saving the world' and murdering people in the 3rd world: http://joannenova.com.au/2011/10/map-the-climate-change-scare-machine-the-perpetual-self-feeding-cycle-of-alarm/

Add this item to the discovery that Mars, Jupiter etc have been experiencing 'global warming'. Presumably the output from all those fridges to keep beer cool in temperatures hot enough to melt lead are dooming the Venusians to melanoma etc too: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/10/07/ozone-layer-discovered-on-venus/#more-48799

This looks like a promising technology. A few shares in this start-up might be a good idea: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/10/07/turning-co2-into-fuel/#more-48805

The 'science (really) IS settled': Anthony Watts just managed to sign his DOG up as ONE: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/10/07/friday-funny-the-newest-member-of-the-union-of-concerned-scientists/

Red Dog: "It’s adorable: you’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll vote Liberal in the next election. It’s what Red Dog would have wanted …" Go see it, it's great: http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/qed/2011/08/red-dog

"Crossing the floor is the stuff of which parliamentary heroes are made," Fred Chaney (1994) & is what we MUST have to stop the carbon tax, but it is a BIG IF (nonetheless I have written to every Labor MP about just that several times. Suggest you do so too before it is too late): http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/qed/2011/09/crossing-the-floor

Good dog, Sarbi. Welcome home & enjoy your retirement. Well deserved: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/mirandadevine/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/sarbis_saga_is_a_barking_good_read/

Some very interesting thoughts on those who chose their aboriginal identity. Some of these folks are obviously misappropriating funds intended for others. I would rather see 'benefits' allocated according to need rather than 'race'. Two follow-up links are interesting too: http://www.quadrant.org.au/blogs/qed/2011/10/the-question-of-aboriginality:

Donna Laframboise is ONE clever woman. I think she will bring the whole IPCC crashing down - and a good thing too! http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/

Like · · October 5, 2011 at 7:12pm

Steve Jones

This looks like a very useful and durable light pack. A bit of closed cell foam (eg Gossamer Gear's Sitlight pad) and maybe a Big Agnes Cyclone chair as a frame and you are away. 15 ounces (430 grams) is pretty good! Would work as carry on luggage too: http://www.sixmoondesigns.com/packs/Swift.html

Note to Ted & ...It does not surprise me that private operators can better manage public assets. Big bucks to be saved here and we can get rid of some self-opinionated bossy-boots as well: http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/09/2011-conference-on-private-management-of-public-parks.html

Anwar al-Awlaki was probably NOT a nce man but this new policy of political assassinations rather than capture and trial is disquieting to say the least: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/8800346/Anwar-al-Awlaki-Drone-kills-US-born-preacher-who-inspired-lone-wolf-terrorists.html

This is THE most important consideration when considering a carbon tax: the effect of CO2 (if any) is too miniscule to worry about: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/10/04/the-1-solution/#more-48667

"For...ten years, false doctrines...nurtured the illusions of the working classes. They are...convinced that the state is obliged to provide bread, work, and education to all. The...government has...promise(d) to do so; it will...be obliged to increase taxes...to keep this promise, and in spite of this it will not keep it...How much disillusionment is in store...It would have been so simple and so just to ease their burden by decreasing taxes...they cannot see that (it) consists in taking away ten to give back eight, not to mention the true freedom that will be destroyed". Bastiat 1848

It is just bullshit. Most of Bolt's accusers are blue eyed like me and I do not claim that 12.5% Aboriginal ancestry makes me an Aboriginal and neither should they. Help should go to people because of their circumstances not because of their race/religion etc. Some of his accusers are obviously fakes. Some 'aboriginals' are gaining benefits based on a supposed 1/64th Aboriginality!

If the 'science was settled' Gore and others would not have to fake it as occurred here: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/09/28/video-analysis-and-scene-replication-suggests-that-al-gores-climate-reality-project-fabricated-their-climate-101-video-simple-experiment/#more-47926

The IPCC is not trustworthy and acts mainly to advocate the 'religion' of green groups such as Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Fund whom many of us were gulled into supporting in the past before we learned just how evil they were: http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2011/09/23/how-the-wwf-infiltrated-the-ipcc-–-part-1/

Though I don't agree with this man's religion OR that of his accusers (or anyone else's) , I really don't think he should be executed for his beliefs: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/christian-pastor-in-iran-faces-execution-for-apostasy/story-e6frf7jx-1226151114178

Bolt decision: The Racial Vilification Act and other barriers to free speech must be scrapped. No-one reading Bolt's articles should have concluded he was exhorting hatred based on race. To point out the absurdity of people's reverse apartheid identification with minor parts of their geneaology ought not to be illegal. I am one-eighth French - it would be absurd for me to identify AS French. Della is half-English, half-Scottish, but she IS Australian.

I hadn't noticed this, but it IS true. Many interesting things have disappeared from Michael Crichton's website. Some can be found here including 'Alens Cause Global Warming' and his testimony to the Senate, a must-read critique of how science should be done: http://nofrakkingconsensus.com/2011/02/10/michael-crichtons-legacy/

4G today at 40megs/sec. What's the bet it will be 100 before the NBN is even built?

I think this obscene carbon tax farrago IS true:http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/22/world/africa/in-scramble-for-land-oxfam-says-ugandans-were-pushed-out.html?_r=3&scp=3&sq=uganda&st=cse and http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2011/sep/22/uganda-farmer-land-gave-me-everything?newsfeed=true

"First they came for the communists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a communist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn’t speak out because I wasn’t a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak out." http://www.4liberty.org.uk/2011/09/20/and-then-they-came-for-the-drinkers/#

Incredible! Ju-liar would not even allow Dr Jensen MHR Tangney to TABLE papers critical of the theory of Anthropogenic Global Warming. Dr Jensen is the only Phd in Federal Parliament. This is how we create truth. Dr Goebbels would have been delighted: http://joannenova.com.au/2011/09/labor-censors-dennis-jensen-denies-peer-reviewed-science/#more-17301

Wowee! Do you think Ju-liar and Bob will go this far? http://www.prisonplanet.com/armed-troops-burn-down-homes-kill-children-to-evict-ugandans-in-name-of-global-warming.html

Shale gas is EVERYWHERE. This is just ONE find (ex Delingpole). "An area in northwest England may contain 200 trillion cubic feet of shale gas...Gaia, in all her wisdom, has seen fit to give us the gas finds at Blackpool." We just do not need to have carbon/mining taxes, the Greater Depressions & etc. See also: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/companies/ukrainian-billionaire-sees-limited-future-in-australia/story-fn91v9q3-1226144945378

What a couple: "Dolores Hope died on Monday at the age of 102, eight years after her similarly centenarian spouse. He lived long enough to weary of the womanizing and she lived long enough to re-start the career she put on hold for half a century, making a couple of fine albums in the 1990s": http://www.steynonline.com/4514/comedy-inc

Interesting: "The "solar constant" (as measured by CERES) is approximately 340.5 wm-2...the difference between the annual max and annual min is about 23 wm-2, or about 5 times the 3.8 wm-2 anticipated from doubled CO2..." Steve McIntyre http://climateaudit.org/ so how COULD CO2 warm the planet MORE than the solar effect? THINK!

Wow! Time travel here we come? http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/particles-seen-to-travel-faster-than-light/story-e6frf7jx-1226144211736

American physicist Steven Weinberg. "In the ordinary moral universe the good will do the best they can, the worst will do the worst they can, but if you want to make good people do wicked things, you’ll need religion"

Only one cause for pessimism amongst the optimism: "The world now devotes 5 per cent of its grain crop into making motor fuel, in the mistaken belief that this somehow cuts carbon emissions. It does not: it displaces just 0.6 per cent of the world's oil use, uses just about as much oil in cultivation, and encourages the destruction of rain forest, releasing greenhouse gases. And it starves people." Read all: http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/room-all

Is Bert Rutan the greatest living human? http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/us-desert-spaceship-factory-completed/story-e6frf7jx-1226142266905

THIS is is VERY important (esp. when our Pollies are voting on the Carbon Tax): "…the cloud radiative cooling effect through reflection of short wave radiation is found to dominate over the long wave heating effect, resulting in a net cooling of the climate system of −21 Wm−2." http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/09/20/new-peer-reviewed-paper-clouds-have-large-negative-feedback-cooling-effect-on-earths-radiation-budget/

Should not have let this pass without comment, but our Govt should have made a fuss too: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claude_Choules. Our (and the world's) last soldier of WW1 &WW2. Now only Florence Green remains nearly a century after the beginning of 'The Great War'!

Claude Choules - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia en.wikipedia.org

Claude Stanley Choules (pronounced /ˈʃuːlz/;[2] 3 March 1901 – 5 May 2011) was the last World War I combat veteran in the world,[3] and was the last military witness to the scuttling of the German fleet in Scapa Flow. He was also the last veteran to have served in both world wars, and the last seama...

More Coyote: I get grief... for supporting a basic, no-frills government safety net. However...Folks in this country use the European rioting as a sort of threat to warn us that we need to continue to be profligate in government spending or else face the same kind of riots here. I come to the opposite conclusion — if people are going to riot when the charity they receive has to be reduced, isn’t that a reason not to get them hooked on the charity in the first place?

Warren Meyer is ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. People have @ 0% understanding of significant correlation: "And note how thin the fit is in both — basically drawing a line through a cloud. Neither of these likely has an R-squared higher than about .05" but they WILL decide to change the world: http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/09/i-dont-think-this-is-settled.html

The wonders of science: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/china-clones-castrated-quake-hero-pig/story-e6frf7k6-1226140307778

Hiking Fishermen: This is good: http://penfishingrods.com/shop/product_details.php?category_id=13&item_id=126 and so is this: http://www.moontrail.com/accessrs/a-misc/handline.html

Time. Just finished watching Greg Peck's 'David & Bathsheba' set 3000 yrs ago.Just less than 50 of my lifetimes. When I started teaching class sizes were 50, so just one lifetime of the class I taught in 1970! How little or how much can/have people changed? I WOULD like to see a film of Plato's 'Crito', a depiction of the very best of men.

Under Mllk Wood - Dylan Thomas. Did you love it as I did? Just reminded also of George Mackay Brown esp. his Ikey poems, possibly the best poet of the 2nd half of the 20th century. Proof you can come from a small place, (an Orcadian, what?)maybe achieve little conventionally and yet be as great as Shakespeare.

Titanium Goat's links make very interesting reading: http://www.titaniumgoat.com/links.html

Back from the bush after seeing MANY deer. Four beautiful days of fine weather and camping out. On the last day I walked out from the Humffray River confluence to Moroka Glen (20-25km of rough bush walking) in 8.5 hours which I consider pretty good going for an old bloke. My new stove worked a treat (http://packafeather.com/stove.html). It will simmer @ 1ml/minute - great for cooking pasta or frying/baking

A latter-day Kaspar Hauser or anyway an interesting mystery: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/teen-lived-in-german-woods-for-5-years/story-e6frf7jx-1226139953978

Goodbye Ju-liar: http://www.news.com.au/national/police-will-investigate-inappropriate-practices-in-the-health-services-union/story-e6frfkvr-1226135080900#ixzz1Xiw256xz

More on the CERN Cloud experiments. Seems like Anthropogenic Global Warming IS toast: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111904537404576554750502443800.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEADTop

A Must Watch: George W Bush makes one of the world's great speeches in honour of the dead heroes and heroines on board Flight 93: 9/11/2001: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8Ck2FO7Dmxk So much more THE President than Obama http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=8Ck2FO7Dmxk

www.youtube.com

Wake up Australia: http://www.menzieshouse.com.au/2011/09/communism-in-australia.html

Beware Bryn Jones: THIS could happen to you: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news/drunk-moose-found-stuck-in-tree/story-e6frf7jx-1226132726139

And beware again Bryn: THIS could happen to you: http://i.huffpost.com/gadgets/slideshows/22303/slide_22303_271041_large.jpg?1315609925251

I AM pleased with myself: the Defender is running like a watch. NOW to get up the bush with it for a few days...

The trouble with MANY boat people is that they are economic 'refugees' just jumping the queue ahead of genuine refugees. Take a look at these three in their designer jeans on their way here from Indonesia. I would like to be having a nice holiday in Indonesia too: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/immigration/i-dont-care-if-i-drown-asylum-seeker/story-fn9hm1gu-1226130965946

This is an interesting twist on an old idea: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/news/breaking-news?useAbsoluteURL=true

Well done Phil Jones of CRU for managing to produce a 'hockey stick' uptick in the Central England Temperature Record which otherwise just shows normal warming since the Little Ice Age. It MAY just be the change of paint and to automated reading c1882: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/09/05/cet-vs-meto-a-problem-with-temperature/

Improbable but true. Life will find a way: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/09/06/uranium-munching-microbes/#more-46729

Just checking the 'Malaria Clock' again. http://junksciencearchive.com/malaria_clock.html By this morning 105,862,020 people had died due to the Green's ban on DDT. Just in case you were ever likely to doubt that these people represent the single greatest evil ever to inhabit the planet. And now they want a Carbon Tax...

Twp pieces of GOOD news this morning. The first courtesy of Stephanie De-Sykes: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8733645/Miracle-technique-cures-grandfather-of-cancer.html and the second from Matt Ridley: http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/draco-among-viruses Things DO just keep getting better.

And NOW there is THIS. When will this Governement ever learn? I would have thought that 'new' Australians might reasonably learn to fit in with 'old' Australians: http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/ethnic-mix-thrown-into-curriculum/story-e6freuy9-1226129249094

The Grog Party. I'm all for it. Kevin Eleven? http://jonova.s3.amazonaws.com/politics/protest/grog-party.gif

I have read that Julia has spent $239 million on the 'Malaysian Solution' enough to give every family in Yinnar $1 million. Which would you rather? Let's hear it for Yinnar!

'There will be no change of leader under a government I lead.' Soon. By the weekend? By the end of the week? Certainly be the end of September? Please! Will she cry? I hope so. Do crocodiles cry? Will it be Rudd, Smith or Crean? My preference is Smith - but he might actually WIN an election, so surely the ALP will not chose him! Rudd actually deserves a second chance though, but does Crean? Creans can't figure you have to walk downhill to get out of the snow. Decisions, decisions...

I have written ten letters to all the Labor MP's over the last two months 'encouraging' them to rethink their leadership and course of action. If they chose to ignore me and millions like me they deserve to be relegated to the dustbin of his...See More

Whilst everyone knows I agree with Oscar Wilde that I 'hope to live to see the last priest strangled with the guts of the last king', I am disquieted by these two news items: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/mirandadevine/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/the_pc_brigade_kills_off_jesus_christ/ and http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/mirandadevine/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/the_not_very_multicultural_council/

If an Emperor runs an Empire, and a King runs a Kingdom, who runs a Country?

Very interesting ice core results. No wonder Mann in the Climategate emails said they must 'hide the decline': http://saynocarbontaxaustralia.blogspot.com/2011/08/oh-no-julia-latest-ice-core.html

This guy is quite right. Julia's muzzling of News Limited is sinister: http://www.menzieshouse.com.au/2011/08/our-great-democracy-under-siege-from-within.html I would also like answers to these Mike Smith questions: http://www.2ue.com.au/blogs/2ue-blog/qas-between-smith-and-the-pm/20110831-1jl3g.html

Replacing a cracked head on the Defender. I really do not enjoy working on cars but the money I save would only have to be earned doing something I like even less or working with people I would rather avoid. A cynical view of life I know. At least I can stop any time I want and socialise with Della. Can't beat that. When the car is fixed it may even take me somewhere I really want to go.

Back in 2001 Victorian MP Leigh made these allegations (and tabled Stat Decs to back them up) against: Gillard, Shorten, Smith, Wilson etc and called for a police enquiry. Nothing was done. http://tex.parliament.vic.gov.au/bin/texhtmlt?form=jVicHansard.dumpall&db=hansard91&dodraft=0&house=ASSEMBLY&speech=10321&activity=Grievances&title=AWU%3A+funds&date1=28&date2=February&date3=2001&query=true+and+%28+data+contains+%27julia%27+and+data+contains+%27gillard%27+%29

Some good news: a safe way to store hydrogen so it may be used as automotive/aeroplane etc fuel: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/08/30/fuel-cells-get-the-dynamite-treatment/#more-46328

This affair will either be the end of Gillard and many Labor figures or the end of a free press in Oz. News Limited was clearly threatened successfully by the PM - as Bolt's column today indicates.You can still read the full Kernohan Stat Dec here: http://iput.it/62ad99 or http://saynocarbontaxaustralia.blogspot.com/2011/08/exclusive-robert-kernohan-stat-dec.html It is clear that Gillard WAS implicated in the theft of $1 million from the AWU AND benefitted financially.

Kernohan would go to gaol if his Stat Dec wasn't true. The fact that Gillard's response is to try to shut down the media reporting it rather than take action against Kernohan tells me that he is the truth teller - we already know Gillard is a liar.

THIS is what will bring Gillard down:"What the lawyers would not allow to be reported was the fact that Gillard shared a home in Fitzroy bought by Wilson using the embezzled funds." http://www.theage.com.au/national/gillard-calls-murdoch-paper-sorry-20110829-1jig6.html Everyone: including Bolt, Smith, Milne etc is under an embargo!

Regarding the union credit card affair, at least there's one good thing to come out of it for Labor: they have been able to deliver a shovel on time and at no apparent cost to the taxpayer." Carl Ripphausen, Erina, NSW: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/last-post-august-29/story-fn558imw-1226123997398

I like this insult: "Thou infectious malmsey-nosed death-token!" taken from: http://www.pangloss.com/seidel/Shaker/ a Shakespearean insult generator. There are many other fascinating things on Seidel's website: http://seidel.cust.he.net/Shakespearean Insulter www.pangloss.com

The idea that someone would make a knitting machine out of Lego is strange enough, but that it also seems to work...http://strangepictures.net/2011/04/15/weird-lego-knitting-machine/

This is a really interesting review (from the world's greatest physicist) of one of the world's greatest economist's book. The true cost of various scenarios is too important to ignore. I particularly liked the low-cost carbon-eating trees: http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2008/jun/12/the-question-of-global-warming/?page=1

It may have been this woman: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/lifestyle/the-other-side/russian-womans-erotic-dancing-forces-flight-to-turn-back/story-e6frfhk6-1226123245891

Most extraordinary health warning: "But it's worth remembering that having bigger breasts will make you an easier target for your enemies," following this bizarre incident (Ouch!): http://www.heraldsun.com.au/lifestyle/the-other-side/london-womans-breast-implant-popped-during-game-of-paintball/story-e6frfhk6-1226122219563

A very interesting post: On a clear summer day, when the surface temperature is 20 °C the atmosphere is below freezing at all altitudes above 2 km. That is, 70% of the air above is colder than a block of ice...Meteorologists tell us that this block of ice overhead warms the ground" How's that?: http://judithcurry.com/2011/08/13/slaying-the-greenhouse-dragon-part-iv/#more-4545

We have been busily casting around for something to make money out of now that we will no longer be farmers. Successive Governments have made it VERY difficult to make enough to even keep ahead of inflation let alone get a decent living...Rental property is maybe 2% above inflation. The share market is darn scarey. Hope we find something.

Craig Thomson, Bruce Wilson & Bob Kernohan will bring Gillard down within weeks. Watch and enjoy.

"As Australia lost another soldier, killed by the Taliban in Afghanistan, the Queensland Premier’s Literary Awards shortlisted the memoirs of David Hicks, who trained with the Taliban" - from Andrew Bolt today. What a reflection this is on the Left's inability to tell right from wrong.

Bizarre consequence of opposition to pesticides? http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/06/10/us-crawling-asthma-idUSTRE75952L20110610

Crawling culprit seen in urban kids' asthma

www.reuters.com

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - Researchers have identified cockroaches as a potential explanation for dramatic variations between neighborhoods in asthma rates among New York City children.In some New York

"...the Craig Thomson effect. This bloke is damaging the Labor brand every day he hangs around the parliament like a bad smell in a lift"...Interesting comments from Graham Richardson: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/opinion/thomson-is-the-pms-ticking-time-bomb/story-e6frgd0x-1226122396641

The Carbon tax will 'drive innovation'? "When Henry Ford invented the mass-produced automobile, he didn't need a horse tax to do it. When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb, he didn't need a tax on whale oil to do that..." http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/carbon-debate-has-just-begun/story-e6frg6zo-1226111937932

"The world population has multiplied six times since 1800, yet on average we live twice as long and, in real terms, earn nine times more money"... More 'rational optimism' from Janet Albrechtsen: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/why-rational-optimism-beats-ephemeral-happiness/story-fn6nj4ny-1226079508120

As a father I too deplore fatherlessness and the vast welfare industry which subsidises and promotes it, but also its consequences. Collectively it cannot fail to have poor outcomes just as our bizarre apartheid policies must also end in disaster. Here is a fine essay on fatherlessness: http://www.melaniephillips.com/goodbye-to-the-enlightenment

A big cheer for Kathy Jackson from The Health Services Union in helping to bring down this awful Government: Craig Thomson WILL be investigated AND charged, then there will be a by-election unless he steps off the edge of 'The Gap' first, which would be even more preferable. He could hold hands with Gillard as they jumped. THAT would be nice...

As even small children can tell, it IS the sun after all which warms the earth, not mankind's insignificant (3% contribution) to CO2. This may mark the death knell for the 'warmists': http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/08/24/breaking-news-cern-experiment-confirms-cosmic-rays-influence-climate-change/

And I don't think anyone really knows how to help everyone. I don't even know what's best for me. Take my uncertainty about what's best for me and multiply that by every combination of the over 300 million people in the United States and I have no idea what the government should do." The full article is awesome! http://articles.cnn.com/2011-08-16/opinion/jillette.atheist.libertarian_1_piers-morgan-friend-minimum-wage?_s=PM%3AOPINION

Oh to be a Libyan! I woke this morning to Gadaffi gone but Ju-liar still here - despite their both having had the same couturier and hairdresser for some years - and policy advisers! 'There ain't no justice'!

Beware unintended consequences 101: I am not at all surprised by this: http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/bin-line-sales-double-nation-average-after-plastic-bag-ban/story-e6frea6u-1226119243127

Here is a very readable paper by Professor William Happer Professor of Physics at Princeton University about the role CO2 plays in our atmosphere: http://www.thegwpf.org/images/stories/gwpf-reports/happer-the_truth_about_greenhouse_gases.pdf

"90 percent of people...don't know how to use CTRL/Command + F to find a word in a document or web page!" I was one of them. A very useful tool. Try it.

Craig Thomson, Gillard's pimp. Why is this man still a member of Parliament & why have the ALP rewarded his conduct with megabucks? HE paid the prostitutes, here is the proof: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2011/08/18/from-hansard-august-17-2011/

Aliens will destroy us: most bizarre reason for passing a carbon tax. Go Ju-liar! http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2011/aug/18/aliens-destroy-humanity-protect-civilisations?CMP=twt_gu

Martin Durkin has a new blog. This is one of his first posts and it is SO spot on: http://www.martindurkin.com/blogs/real-global-warming-consensus-or-why-intellectuals-hate-capitalism

One year ago today Julia's promise: 'There will not be a carbon tax..." 75 years ago today the last public hanging in the USA. Big crowd. Is there a connection between the two? Daniel Morcombe and many more might be alive and undamaged today if we hadn't stopped doing that: http://www.twincities.com/ci_18671171?nclick_check=1

Poor Della: yesterday while doing exercises for her dislocated shoulder she put her back out. The chiro put it back in but it is still stiff & sore. This morning she got stuck in the bath whilst showering and I'm so deaf I couldn't hear her calling. What crocks we are! She must be worth three 19 year olds as a trade in though!

1st control our cars, then our houses, now our power consumption. Just to make this quite clear: I DID NOT VOTE FOR THESE IDIOTS. Did you? http://www.news.com.au/money/money-matters/power-cuts-by-remote/story-e6frfmd9-1226114484088#ixzz1V40Gs1OF

Household power switched off by remote

www.news.com.au

This is why we worry about the closing of Hazelwood and all of 'the great green dream'. What happened to Detroit could happen to us too: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/buy_a_whole_street/

If we are allowed to have cars AT ALL after 2015 when the new carbon tax rules come in, perhaps they will have meters like these being installed in Holland which tax every aspect of our motoring lives? Something else to look forward to in our bright new green future: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/11/science/earth/11meter.html?_r=2&hp#

London Again: Most every day there are people in nice cars stealing $20 trailer loads of gravel from the Council depot at the end of our street. They know it is theft. These people are looters too

Portable Power - Fascinating gadget though a bit heavy: http://www.npowerpeg.com/index.php/npower-peg/specifications

Who would have believed a hiking/running shoe which weighs less than 200 grams? http://www.inov-8.com/Products.asp?PG=PG1&L=26 and these people have a river crossing shoe which weighs 53 grams: http://www.sprintaquatics.com/prodinfo.asp?number=901

Just to lighten up a bit, you might want to bookmark this one. Knots are very handy and this site shows how to tie them easily. There MAY be a hangman's noose there as well, which could be handy in this political climate: http://www.animatedknots.com/

Enough of 'global warming', here comes 'global cooling' and it is REALLY something to worry about: http://joannenova.com.au/2011/08/david-archibalds-speech-plus-protests-coming-up/#more-15878

One gram of thorium replaces 30,000 litres of petrol. How about a car run on thorium? http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/08/13/hey-how-much-thorium-you-got-under-the-hood/#more-44970

Can we petition the Governor-General to have this awful Government's mandate withdrawn so Tony Abbott can call an election? Can we force a by-election in Dobell? We just HAVE to be rid of these dreadful people. NOW.

Curse Dillard! Not only will she take away our cars, now she will slash our house values. Our1 foot thick mud-brick walls rate as no insulation despite being the warmest house we have ever known. There goes another $50K - after tripling electricity & etc: http://www.heraldsun.com.au/ipad/green-sting-a-threat-to-home-values/story-fn6bfkm6-1226114050783

Revealing read about Ju-liar's past: I had thought that the notion of 'Watermelons' ie green outside, red inside was coined by the right, but it was invented by the Left itself to describe its own subversion: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/the-real-julia-is-true-to-her-socialist-forum-past/story-e6frgd0x-1226113361553

London Again: to answer those who want to blame the immigrant community many of whom defended Britain from the lawless: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/law-and-order/8693558/Immigrants-love-this-country-more-than-we-do.html

Should you become interested in lightweight hiking, try this site: http://jolly-green-giant.blogspot.com/

Several posts in a row without mentioning climate change, how about that? Just wish it was off the agenda forever and we could talk about something really interesting eg 'No-one can say waterbabies do not exist as no-one has ever seen one not existing' - Charles Kingsley.

Species are not immutable ie all macropods are one, & etc. Amazing how many hominids we bred with in the past and after so many hundreds of thousands of years of separation. Read 'Our Hybrid Origins': http://stirling-westrup-tt.blogspot.com/2011/07/tt-ns-2823-patchwork-people-our-hybrid.html

Ultimate Logic. I remember being intrigued by infinity when I was four. An interest I still have (in metaphysics, ontology & etc). George Cantor was wonderful. An infinity of infinities...http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21128231.400-ultimate-logic-to-infinity-and-beyond.html

London? A must read. Who else but the Bunyip would have remembered when it happened in Melbourne? 1923 here we come: http://bunyipitude.blogspot.com/2011/08/tottenham-on-yarra.html

An eventful day. A huge tree crashed across the road near our driveway at midnight taking out the power lines and trapping us at home until this afternoon. There were many other trees and landslips all up and down the road too. Some pretty wild weather we have been having.

You might like top try this: http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/08/imitating-escher.html

If you are having trouble understanding the current financial crisis, read this (but at least scroll down to the Jones' family budget near the end): http://joannenova.com.au/2011/08/the-money-you-earn-it-they-print-it-welcome-to-the-world-of-corruption/#more-16479

Is this weather or climate change? Watch out Great Barrier Reef. You're next: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/08/08/study-severe-low-temperatures-devastate-coral-reefs-in-florida-keys-attributed-to-north-atlantic-oscillation/

Just can't understand the opposition to all things nuclear, eg fusion of thorium reactors: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/08/09/further-on-thorium/#more-44796

The future for Ju-Liar's carbon schemes: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/08/09/death-of-a-carbon-salesman-chicago-climate-exchange/

Nancy Wake - the White Mouse - has died AFTER witnessing Hitler's early atrocities, Nancy Wake vowed to fight him any way she could.

My experience is this is the world's best sleeping bag (@544 grams) - and you can just about wrestle a bear in it! http://www.moontrail.com/mont-bell-ul-spiral-down-hugger-3-reg.php

Where do carbon dioxide emissions come from? 97% from natural sources. Who would have thought so? http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/where-do-carbon-dioxide-emissions-come-1

This new hiking mat @ 425 grams and R4.4 and US66.95 from Amazon looks great: http://pacoutdoor.com/sleeping-pads/view/peak-elite-ac-womens

Useful primer on the evils of Greenpeace. Patrick Moore (its founder's) experiences should perhaps be compulsory reading...http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100098864/greenpeace-give-me-a-child-until-he-is-seven/

http://joannenova.com.au/2011/08/blockbuster-planetary-temperature-controls-co2-levels-not-humans/

Professor Murry Salby is Chair of Climate Science at Macquarie University. He’s been a visiting professorships at Paris, Stockholm, Jerusalem, and Kyoto, and he’s spent time at the Bureau of Meterology in Australia.

From my previous post: Dynamite: "Despite the fact that the average station records 77 years of the temperature history, 30% of the stations still manage to end up with a cooling trend. The warming at a given place is 0.75 plus minus 2.35 °C per century...(ie) The "error of the measurement" of the warming trend is 3 times larger than the result!...The temperature changes either fail to be global or they fail to be warming. There is no global warming."

30% of surface stations show global cooling! This paper is difficult to read but its conclusion is interesting: http://thegwpf.org/the-climate-record/3542-hadcrut3-30-of-stations-recorded-a-cooling-trend-in-their-whole-history.html

Cold fusion IS back. This may become the win-win solution to our energy needs. If this is a scam it is a very good one: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/08/04/andrea-rossis-e-cat-fusion-device-on-target/#more-44578

They have also found it on the moon, now Mars: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/08/04/nasa-may-have-found-water-on-mars/

It is interesting that coal fired power plants have become 30% more efficient since we built our last one 30 years ago and that we could actually exceed our 5% 2020 emissions target by simply building new ones: http://joannenova.com.au/global-warming/

CO2 is NOT a danger. It is SIMPLE ARITHMETIC. If world temp rose .5C in the C20th & CO2 rose 100ppm to 380ppm or 36%, a further 64% to 560ppm equals .88C. Much warmer in the Middle Ages without CO2. The .5C probably never happened and if it did was not caused by CO2, so NO doom ahead from CO2. Not worth spending a cent on.

A MUST READ: GREAT article by Janet Albrechtsen about Free Speech in today's Australian: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/stop-the-mad-march-of-political-correctness/story-e6frgd0x-1226106958791

Back early from three days' hunting/hiking in Wonnangatta-Moroka due to sore toes (Have to do more research into boots) and accidentally taking the three-quarter length Neoair mat which was a bit harsh on my bad back. However saw lots of deer, some of whom visited me during the night.

Very keen to see NASA's 'Stereo Behind' solar satellite's photographs of comet Elenin - as I'm sure are you all. What a GREAT name for a satellite - I wonder that they didn't call it 'Gillard'!

Just watched an old Mae West Movie, 'Klondike Annie'. What a treasure she was: 'Is that a gun in your pocket, or are you just glad to see me?', 'The curve is more powerful than the sword', 'When I'm good I'm very, very good, but when I'm bad, I'm better'...http://www.mindspring.com/~hsstern/maewest/mw_quote.htm

An interesting new paper from Dr Roy Spencer a leading climate scientist shows earth loses much more heat than climate models forecast: http://www.drroyspencer.com/2011/07/our-refutation-of-dessler-2010-is-accepted-for-publication/

It MAY be possible in the future to store solarenergy (See news from MIT). It just isn't yet, so attempts to mandate solar/wind etc are presumptuous at best : http://www.solardaily.com/reports/New_way_to_store_sun_heat_999.html

Our last truckload of ewes left for NSW this morning. A very bittersweet moment. But now for some fun in retirement. For a start, off to the Wonnangatta for a few days on Saturday. Yippee!

And this is what the Greek mess looks like - and they invented maths? http://www.vanityfair.com/business/features/2010/10/greeks-bearing-bonds-201010

I really enjoy Professor Bunyip. I particularly liked his comparison today of two fag ends in the toilet to Julia Gillard and Christine Nixon. May he live forever. http://bunyipitude.blogspot.com/

The SMH and other tree huggers differ in this from Jim Corbett. They think that you should put out Whiskers for it or even bell a man-eating leopard instead of shooting the bastard! Look at this: http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/victim_or_aggressor/

Bjorn Lomborg on Ju-liar's new ad campaign. Frauds peddling a fraud. When will this nightmare ever end? http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/commentary/bootleggers-hijack-climate-change-debate/story-e6frgd0x-1226099304031

Attended Lord Monckton's talk in Traralgon tonight. Inspirational. We must defeat this carbon tax and the Left/Greens generally. You can find much of what he said here: http://jonova.s3.amazonaws.com/monckton/climate-freedom-hancock-background.pdf

Only a little over a week until the USA defaults on its debt, meaning it will have to cut spending by nearly 50%. This will make the debt crisis in Europe (worrying enough) look like nothing. Lots of comparisons out there to 1929. Please blink Obama.

Forest cover has been increasing. This is good news: http://www.thegwpf.org/science-news/3481-earth-getting-greener-not-browner.html

The future of 3D printing. The world just keeps getting better and better: http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/print-your-own-organs

Della wants a pair of these rare singing bird pistols, but she is out of luck! http://www.wimp.com/birdpistols/

Apparently Greenpeace terrorist destroyed a trial GM CSIRO crop recently. The aim of such research is to produce more and better food which surely has unquestionable human benefits. We could get there by conventional breeding, but much more slowly. These people are becoming dangerously insane.

Just heard on the radio Julia is visiting Hazelwood today! The woman is mad! Liked Andrew Bolt's blog on her today but can't wait till September myself. Begone vile hag! http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/gone_by_september/:

This graphic shows why the US budget is in deep trouble. I imagine Oz's forward estimates would show the same thing - hence Gillard's desire for a new tax to bridge the gap - otherwise WE will be defaulting on our debts. The solution: SPEND less from your 'money tree' Julia: http://www.coyoteblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/longer-trend2.gif

Also particularly liked this lady giving Gillard what for. More, please: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/07/13/give-this-lady-an-order-of-australia-medal/#more-43405

Liked James Delingpole's post, particularly his suggested punishment for "Bob Brown: sentenced to swim the length of the Daly River and commune with the local wildlife in a caring green way": http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100096578/australia-counts-the-cost-of-environmental-lunacy-and-plots-its-sweet-revenge/

Strange but true: "Treasury’s...modelling...shows ...Australian polluters will be spending $57 billion a year on clean energy projects in other countries by 2050 to meet our own pollution abatement targets....that Australia’s own domestic carbon emissions would be 545 million tonnes a year by 2050 - only 30 million tonnes less than what is produced now".( Bolt 14/7)

And now we learn that after throwing away $11 billion to close Telstra's perfectly good network we will also throw away another $3 billion to close one quarter of Vic's electricity at Hazelwood with nothing to replace it - and this money was not part of the 'Clean Energy Agreement', nor is it budgeted for.

If parrots like Alex can learn to speak English intelligently, how come supposedly more intelligent humans can't learn to speak parrot?

It's not just a tax. This is part of the 'Clean Energy Agreement' too p53: "NATIONAL ENERGY SAVINGS INITIATIVE ...Create an incentive or a requirement...in both low income homes... which reduce peak electricity demand". Sounds like rationing to me. Are you in favour? Get real! This is on top of mandating mini cars for all!

Did Ju-liar tell you this: $382 million to be spent on new carbon bureaucrats over the next three years. We SURE want that: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2011/07/12/rise-of-the-carbonocrats/

Closer and closer to 2 August and still no resolution of America's debt crisis. This is scarey: http://catallaxyfiles.com/2011/07/12/on-not-raising-the-debt-ceiling/

The latest newspoll has 60% opposed to the carbon tax. Interestingly the generation which has been most indoctrinated about the matter 18-34 year olds are most opposed at 62%. A VERY hard tax to sell. http://resources.news.com.au/files/2011/07/12/1226092/719393-aus-news-file-federal-newspoll-110712.pdf

Surprised no-one has picked up on p54 of the 'Clean Energy Agreement' where they will ban cars big enough to tow a caravan & SUV's from 2015.

What sort of judgement does it show that you decide you will try to sell a 'global warming tax' in the middle of winter - & the coldest winter in over 20 years to boot?

Another day playing in the mud. Bogged and unbogged the tractor yesterday. And attended yet another friend's funeral. We are just loving this global warming winter. Getting the second and last load of sheep ready to go to NSW next week. At least we won't have to pay a carbon tax on them. May get a chance to go hunting next week.

Ju-liar represents the Limbo Rock of opinion polls: 'How low can Labor go? Won a bet of on under 30% last week, now I'm betting under 25%. Reminds me also of Dr Strangelove riding the nuke down to universal destruction!

Seems Rudd & Gillard etc may not be winning in Libya either: http://www.intifada-palestine.com/2011/07/one-third-of-libya-turns-out-to-support-qaddafi-in-worlds-largest-march-ever/

Have your say. Here is a list of every Commonwealth Government's Parliamentarian's emails: file://localhost/C:/Users/steve/Downloads/Desktop/Politician's%20Email%20list.mht

Watch Richard Lindzen Prof of Atmospheric Physics MIT on Ju-liar's scheme: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BB6iQT6BD_g

In 2050 we are supposed to get by with 10% of the energy per capita we used in 2000 a mid 19th century level at best and it will not effect the climate one bit. This is barking mad! Go, Ju-liar. Go. Go to hell!

"Socialism eventually runs out of other people’s money," Margaret Thatcher."For a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket trying to lift himself up by the handle". Winston Churchill

Don't understand economics? Read this. I specially liked: "for someone to grow wealthy in a free market economy, they must be providing something that others value more..." http://www.fundanomics.org/chapter_first_pages.htm

FUNDANOMICS: The Free Market, Simplified (basic economics book)

www.fundanomics.org

Basic economics book FUNDANOMICS: The Free Market Simplified, by bestselling author Roy W. Spencer

Gobelki Tepe: This 11,000+ year old temple is utterly mind boggling. Just how old is human civilisation? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Göbekli_Tepe

The last shuttle: a sad day: http://wattsupwiththat.files.wordpress.com/2011/07/final_shuttle_launch.jpg

And from James Delingpole interesting comments on the FACT that there has been no warming since 1998, so why a carbon tax?: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100095506/there-has-been-no-global-warming-since-1998/

More evidence that industrial society and modern agriculture create more wilderness and more wildlife: http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/eating-your-greenery-and-having-it-too

'A debunking of the left’s global warming agenda, from Roy W. Spencer, former NASA climatologist and climate expert': http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/07/07/a-mini-movie-in-blackboard-form-why-the-lefts-global-warming-agenda-is-wrong/#more-42882

Poser: If climate change IS NATURAL, whether the world is heating/cooling, would it be sane to reduce our energy resources & therefore ablity to deal with it: we MAY need a lot more heaters and greenhouses or a lot more air conditioners in the future...Of course greens are NOT sane.

Because they stay inside air conditioned walls AGW activists deny the sun has any warming effect. Other folks worry about the coming solar minimum: http://www.eike-klima-energie.eu/uploads/media/Moerner_Science_environm_sea_level_3_11_Paper_534.pdf

Lindzen (arguably the world's pre-eminent atmospheric physicist) & Choi 2009 & 2011 have shown climate sensitivity to be MUCH less than IPCC's predictions, indeed probably negative, which means any warming from a doubling of CO2 has to be less than 1C and we have already had over half the effect and NO warming. A carbon tax is simply mad & bad.

This seems to indicate Hoyle & Wickramasinghe may have been right about an extraterrestrial origin of life on earth; even if not, there really ARE some amazing creatures: http://richarddawkins.net/articles/627555-tardigrades-water-bears-in-space

Amazing, to have worked out the colour of this perfect 120 million year old bird which lived 60 million years before the end of the dinosaurs! http://whyevolutionistrue.wordpress.com/2011/07/01/ancient-bird-pigments-identified/

I was surprised how many of these I had read. An interesting list for those who love lists: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2011/jun/14/100-greatest-non-fiction-books?INTCMP=SRCH

'Self interest can and does include concern for others.'From the Catallaxy Files: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2009820/Elk-safety-Zoo-keepers-stunned-moose-rescues-drowning-marmot-watery-death.html

For those with a passion for bullshit: http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg21028160.200-a-field-guide-to-bullshit.html?print=true&full=true

Absolutely the best title for a learned article: http://richarddawkins.net/articles/641892-time-travel-sex-bad-for-sea-monkeys

Deeply disturbing comment on the world economy. Really liked the last comment on NBN shares. Don't think I will be buying any either: http://www.smh.com.au/business/global-train-wreck-coming-20110630-1gszi.html#ixzz1QoBRloTW

And, just in case you doubt evolution, this is how quick it can be: multi cellualrity evolving in just weeks, just like the Cichlid fish in Lake Turkana. Amazing. http://richarddawkins.net/articles/641891-lab-yeast-make-evolutionary-leap-to-multicellularity

'Unsung Elements' in last week's New Scientist or at this site. What interesting properties some things have:http://www.swissmetalassets.com/thirteen-exotic-elements-we-cant-live-without.php?url=thirteen-exotic-elements-we-cant-live-without.php

Greens control the Senate from today - the beginning of the end for Oz! Oh, my unlucky country!

Bloody Ju-liar! Thanks to the totally inappropriate ban on live cattle exports, livestock has taken a plunge - lambs have dropped $80 a head; Elders is bleeding to death, and we and 000's of others are likely to take an awful loss on the sale of our flock. Oh the crazy left...

A very good take on Islam. Well done Mo, and well done 'The Amazing Race': http://www.heraldsun.com.au/opinion/different-teams-much-common-ground/story-e6frfhqf-1226081636309

Before you support Julia's carbon tax you should read this petition signed by 31,487 scientists opposing it (and particularly the 'Summary of Peer Reviewed Research' 12 pages html therein) at http://www.petitionproject.org/index.php

When we were in NZ in May bananas were $2-3 per kg and were small and delicious - just like they haven't been here for 20 years. Whatever happened to free trade? As farmers we have certainly never received any such subsidy for selling lambs.

I also really like the Coyote Blog. This guy Warren Meyer is really interesting. Here is an example worth reading: http://www.coyoteblog.com/coyote_blog/2011/06/power-imbalance-the-difference-between-liberal-and-libertarian-philosophy.html

This 'Edge' site is truly wonderful. Please explore it. Here is another one I liked from philosopher, Daniel Dennett. It reminds me that for years I was a professional philosopher too: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/dysonf07/dysonf07_index.html

Nobel prize winner Freeman Dyson is arguably the greatest living physicist and one of the most spectacularly brilliant minds to ever grace this planet. Take some time to read what he has to say here: http://www.edge.org/3rd_culture/dysonf07/dysonf07_index.html

The Perfect gifts? Blizzard sleeping bag and jacket eg from: http://ps-med.com/products/detail.php?p=12 and Aerovest: http://www.amazon.com/Aerovest-Survival-Emergency-Insulator-Inflatable/dp/B000Z960LO

Looks like our sheep are going to live in NSW. Good price too.

Whoops! Exceeded our download limit and internet is speed restricted today. Boy dial up IS slow. Will be fixed tomorrow. The price of internet piracy, but it sure is worth it!

This is interesting. Have also wondered about the potential of shape memory alloys eg Nitinol, and the possible use of Stirling Cycle engines to both heat and power the house: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/22/new-multiferroic-alloy-creates-electricity-from-waste-heat/#more-42091

Bogged twice in the paddock yesterday in the Land Rover Defender despite BF Goodrich and twin diff locks. nearly bogged the tractor getting it out. It is just SO wet, and the MUD, oh!

Such a nightmare at the moment trying to place several hundred sheep elsewhere at very short notice and in the wettest winter in living memory. They are due to lamb early August so must be gone mid July.

World's smartest bird? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYk-wE18BTo

"Aliens Cause Global Warming" by Michael Crichton: http://www.tsaugust.org/images/Lecture_by_Crichton_at_Caltech.pdf

The cost of gene sequencing has fallen 99% in a decade; this is so much faster than the computer revolution. My prediction: another decade (or two) will see genetic technology eliminate most diseases, maybe even old age and death.

Greens are the worst mass murderers the planet has ever seen. Add these deaths to the 100's of millions deaths from malaria that the greens are also responsible for. AND they also want to destroy the world economy. http://joannenova.com.au/2011/06/killing-people-with-concern-biofuels-lead-to-nearly-200000-deaths-est-in-2010/

Here is the real world version of the game 'Risk' - really interesting: http://www.mapsofwar.com/ind/imperial-history.html

Who would have guessed there had been THIS many atomic bombs detonated (not that I am much in favour of them) and that there are still several billion healthy people on Earth: http://www.howtobearetronaut.com/2011/06/nuclear-detonation-1945-1998/

It WAS much warmer in the recent past than the IPCC predicts for this century, warmth produced by natural forcings stronger than any CO2 effect (as is also the current decade long cooling). We should forget AGW, reject the carbon tax and get on with our lives. See: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2011/06/01/greenland-and-agw/#more-40812

Steve Jones Organic farming would nowhere near pass the 'precautionary principle'. If it was new, it WOULD be banned as it is responsible for so many false claims, deaths and environmental destruction. I do not understand the author's point about inserting e coli into corn - of course you could but it would be deadly

The Stone Age did not end because we ran out of stones!

Those who think we will still be shovelling coal in 100 years will be dismayed that Steve Bramwell of Uni Coillege London has made and stored magnetic monopoles. There exist vast forces which we cannot as yet either detect or control, but we will...

More people died of organic, local e coli than at Fukushima and Deepwater Horizon combined, yet the outrage is absent

Our main farm seems to be sold. Are we about to begin a new era in our lives? Seems likely...

Food irradiation (banned by the Greens in the EU and elsewhere) would have saved the 33 killed by the recent e coli outbreak - and countless others elsewhere/when. Similarly banned GM food would save millions annually.

Organic bean sprouts kill 33, Fukushima 0. Organic farming requires almost twice the area to grow the same quantity of food therefore is responsible for enormous environmental destruction, likewise biofuels, the world's single largest cause of deforestation and starvation.

Buddha on the other hand did not believe in an after life (sensible), but taught that happiness can be achieved by overcoming desire. He did not mean the obscene lust for underage or one's own children - as encouraged by other religions, I think.

For some other reasons for hating environmentalists visit 'Green Hell' or read the book review: http://www.amazon.com/Green-Hell-Environmentalists-Plan-Control/dp/1596985852/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

Here are some pretty good reasons for hating environmentalists: http://georgereismansblog.blogspot.com/2008/02/nature-of-environmentalism.html

The Holy Prophet Mohammed married Aisha when she was 6-years-old and consummated his marriage with her when she was 9. FYI, he was 54 years old at the time". (http://rwdb.blogspot.com/) But the Bible says everyone is descended from Lot (the only good man) breeding with his daughters. Oh, religion...

Have had to deal with so many suffering sheep with flystrike I just can't believe anyone thinks mulesing is crueller than the sheep blowfly.

Just back from four great days hunting/hiking in the Wonnangatta-Moroka with my son-in-law, Matt Dennis. Now have six camps there in lovely spots complete with shelters and other gear which works well. Saw lots of deer but Matt was too kind to shoot a stag.

'Renewable' - another buzz word which bites its own bum.

Why renewables keep running out | The Rational Optimist…

www.rationaloptimist.com

When we first came to Gippsland in 1983 we were warned it would be like this: 'If it isn't raining it's dripping off the trees'. Hasn't been like that since 1996, but it sure is lately. We also notice that the snow that AGWs warned would be long gone by now is still here and with a vengeance. Have fun, snow bunnies!

This guy is seriously funny. A must read: http://www.27bslash6.com/index.html

If you are shopping at Modern Outpost maybe you should get one of these too: http://www.modernoutpost.com/shop/tools/172-ice-companion.html

Time now to start on our winter fires - only 9C at lunchtime today! I want this neat gadget for our wood heater: http://www.modernoutpost.com/shop/tableware/498-ecofan-802-airplus.html

Back from our 10 days mainly in Fiordland NZ marred somewhat by Della dislocating her shoulder in a fall from a rock. This led to the best helicopter ride ever, not enjoyed as much as it might have been however.

A woman from up the road rolled her car down our hill and died this afternoon. I could do nothing for her. It has been a really horrible day. My optimism is somewhat dimmed. We are off to Fiordland for ten days in the morning. Hopefully we will feel better then.

Life IS so good: http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/sunny-side

Such a lot of work sorting sheep for sale and joining. Have been at it for days now with days still to go. Still, the wool has gone to market already and soon the lambs will go too so we MAY have enough money to take a look at Fiordland in April.

If true, this is really interesting: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/how_bad_are_low_levels_of_radiation_really/

Nuclear fatalities last ten years: 7

Wind farm fatalities last ten years: 44.

In those ten years nuclear provided thirty times the energy of wind. Nuclear has been around 200 times safer than wind. http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/jamesdelingpole/100079664/did-climate-change-cause-the-japanese-earthquake/

Transport deaths: shipping: 100's of 000s, road: millions, air: 000's. The solution = ban transport. But wait: billions are transported safely, value of transport = trillions. Risk of death per person annually = nearly zero. One must always look at the cost/benefit.

Deaths from 3 Mile Island = 0, Chernobyl <50, from other sources of energy annually 10s of 000s. Lives saved by nuclear medicine annually in Oz alone = 000s.

Read Della's version of our South Coast walk at: http://www.fromdella.blogspot.com/

'King of the Wilderness' by Christobel Mattingley a life of Denys King of Melaleuca is a very worthwhile read for those of us interested in wilderness places. His life is also a triumph of the human spirit. Try it. (Text Melb 2001)

Just returned from South West Track Tasmania. Track was really too wet so mud, mud, mud up to our knees or worse for 7 days. Also track times and distances were much longer than quoted on track PR, so we walked for 10-13 hours EVERY day. Gruelling. It was winter there so temperatures were maybe 10 daytime and 0 nightime.

The track is also very dangerous in places and has undisclosed traps which you could only escape by retreating, but up to 6 days' retreat would see you well out of food. For example, at Granite Beach you had to climb a vertical cliff with less than a metre of rocky beach at the bottom and 2 metre waves rapidly approaching as the tide rushed in.

At South caper Rivulet the crossing was chest deep and intermittently swept by 2 metre waves. If I had not carried 45 metres of 2mm Spectra cord breaking strain 400 kg I would never have got Della or Kerri across. Also nowhere to emergency camp and nowhere for a helicopter to land. I would not recommend this track to anyone. Further there were fe

The track crosses interminable button grass swamps which are really desolate and uninspiring. Most of the remainder of the time you are pushing through narrow tunnels of 3 metre high sword grass. For some reason the track goes straight up wherever it can to crests rather than saddles. These sections are watercourses in the con

It walks on the side of ridges whenever it could have stuck to the tops of same. When there might be a view it walks on the lee side of sandhills etc so there is no view of the sea (which was sometimes really beautiful).I thought it would be much easier than the Dusky Track in Fiordland where I was cautious of taking Della, but in fact it was much worse -

and without the spectacular beauty or the opportunity to camp in dry huts of a night.Instead we camped in very wet bush and drank water which was darker than strong tea and often tasted yuck.The campsites are few and far between, particularly on the Ironbound range which took us 13.5 hours of steady walking to cross. I am really sorry I didn't go to the Dusky again. Next time.

Just back from a week's walk on the South Coast Track in Tas - fortunately still alive. Mostly a horrid experience (see Della Jones's comments). Important points: NEVER listen to PR. Always carry a long length of stout cord. I had 45 metres of 2mm Spectra which probably saved our lives.

Two great days canoeing/hunting on the Wonnangatta River with my boys Bryn and Matt. Life is SO good. Matt has a fridge full of venison to show for it. Bryn has a great trophy deer head. We all no doubt have some sore muscles and bruises. The camps I have been setting up worked well. Looking forward to many more such adventures.

Very interesting article here about 'disenthralling'. I reckon at least half of my life has been about such unlearning: http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/how-unlearn-pessimism

Have finished the shearing at last for this year. Very late because of the wet weather which had also caused the worst blow fly problem anyone can remember. We lost about ten sheep horribly despite our best efforts. Must be awful for the Merino guys. Just cannot believe PETA's opposition to mulesing. So ignorant and so wrong.

Spent much of the day 'crutching' fly struck sheep. Probably amongst the world's worst jobs. This humid weather has made this a really bad maggoty season. Can't imagine why PETA etc can be in favour of blow flies and opposed to mulesing. The blow fly is my number one most unpopilar imported pest.

Spent New Year canoeing-hiking in the Wonnangatta-Moroka wilderness, the most remote spot in Vic. Could be half way round the world in the time it took to get where I was. Beautiful serene wilderness slowly recovering from wildfire. Saw many deer but they are out of season.

Great New Years message here, a must read: http://www.rationaloptimist.com/blog/reasons-be-cheerful

You should also try this. It is an enchanting working stove you can make in minutes. Hours of fun and entertainment: http://www.garlington.biz/Ray/YACCS/

Recently I had a Tyvek tent floor and Sea to Summit Ultrasil drybags leak through ( a wet sleeping bag is not much fun!) and Tyvek is twice as waterproof as silnylon. I think this guy has the solution (his Supercat stove is also excellent: http://jwbasecamp.com/Articles/Silnylon1/index.html

A Treatment for Silnylon Floors jwbasecamp.com

A note from the author: Silicone impregnated nylon ("silnylon") is one of the most interesting of the high technology fabrics that's been introduced to the outdoor products industry over the past several years. So interesting, in fact (at least to me), that I'm currently working

Della & I and Kerri Cleaver are planning to walk the South Coast track in Tasmania this summer/autumn, my back permitting. You can see someone else's Youtube about it. We hope to do a shakedown walk along the Baw Baw plateau very soon to test ourselves and our gear. Should be nice and cool up there this time of year.

For those interested in lightweight hiking these links are great: http://www.titaniumgoat.com/links.html I already go away for a week carrying less than 10kg including food and booze. About half that for a weekend. Most enjoyable.

More optimism: watch the last 200 years of progress and dream about the future: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jbkSRLYSojo&feature=player_embedded:

Hans Rosling's 200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes - The Joy of Stats - BBC Four gdata.youtube.com

More about this programme: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00wgq0l Hans Rosling's famous lectures combine enormous quantities of public data with a sport's commentator's style to reveal the story of the world's past, present and future development. Now he explores stats in a way he has never done

Sick of trendie doom and gloom? This guy is really good. Have a browse of his writing and blog at: http://www.rationaloptimist.com/

Saw lots of deer though no good stags and had a good time really. An interesting test of myself and various gear. Learned a lot. Many things I can improve. Finally swam out and am home safe.

Lots of rain came in. The rivers were in flood, went up nearly 2 metres and home was on the wrong side. Also discovered that the seam sealer tape on ultrasil dry bags deteriorates - my sleeping bag and all my gear was saturated wading through chest high water. Spent a rather uncomfortable night getting dry.

Hope to get away up the bush for a few days tomorrow - eat your heart out!

Why couldn't we just go with Telstra's fibre to node and VDSL2 (for free) at the same speed or why we have to scrap half the existing broadband and duplicate it and so forth...We can download a movie in 19 minutes with ADSL2+ and get 120 gigs for $50 per month. This is good enough. We don't want/need to spend more especially as Gillard etc plan to abolish P2P anyway so there will be nothing to download!