Major Major - The Beast

Not a bad song, the rider is a bit of a reprobate ...

Huzzah!

Trade Practices Amendment (Clarity in Pricing) Act 2008.

This legislation requires corporations making price representations about consumer goods or services to specify (as far as possible) a single price for acquiring those goods or services. This amendment is expected to commence by 25 May 2009.

Happens to the best of us ...

Join the club, Lance ...

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2009/03/24/1237656883848.html

A nice ride if you're ever in Nelsons Bay

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It's about time a song was written about the City of Villages ...

From Chicago to Boston
To Toronto to Mexico to Prague
There have been ships that I've crossed in
From the majestic mountains of Canada
To the thick London . . . Fog

Belize and LA.
San Fran and Singapore
I guess I'm popular
I'm such a fagabond
A regular, globe-trotting cabaret whore . . .

And
Of all those wond'rous places
That I have come to see – b
Who'd a thought my world-wide tour
Would crap me out . . .
Here in . . .
Glebe?

On the shores of ol' Black wattle
Everybody drains a bottle
Ain't it fun to get pissed here in . . . Glebe?

You can walk into the city
Through parts pretty and parts shitty
Where from? Right here in . . . Glebe!

I could climb the Eiffel tour
Go to Berlin where the kraut is sour
But there's no place that I'd rather be - b
Than here with you
Here in . . . Glebe!

Glebe . . . An area of land belonging to the church doled out to the peasants for farming, houses, shops, factories . . . And evidently lots of drinking! You people are fish down here! And I love it!

There's a market on the weekend
Tons of houses past their peek and
It happens all here in . . . Glebe.

There are tracks for dogs and horses
And drunk students flunking courses
Yes! All right here in . . . Glebe!

Sure, I could get a tan in Rio
Go to the Nile to visit Cleo
But there's no better place in Oz, I guarantee – b
Then being here with you . . .
Here in . . . Glebe!

I could . . .
Go to Kentucky to drink a julep
Head off to Holland to pick a tulip
But I'm likin' it here at the old AB – b

Just wasting an hour with you
Sculling a beer or two
Getting all queer with you
Here in Gle-e-e-eb!

Just singing this song for you
Humping a leg or two
Getting faced-on-my-ass here with you

Here in glebe!

Sure I could
Visit the wall in china
Explore Madonna's . . . Ancient vagina
But there's no place that I'd rather be – b

Than here with you . . .
Here . . .
In . . .

Everyone . . . And in harmony!

Glebe!

Music by Dennis T. Giacino
Music & lyrics by Dennis T. Giacino & Fiely A. Matias

Some things should remain science fiction

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/the-bizarre-ideas-that-could-help-the-world-20090312-8wig.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Ideas like this scare me.  I would hope that governments would be as dismissive of these mega projects as I am - some things just belong in science fiction.  I loved reading about the giant magnfiying glass and controlled atmospheric burnup of comets in Red Mars but I don't want this to be done to MY planet.  Climate change is a real problem but the issue clouds what I consider to be the real problem which is pollution and human disruption of nature.  Cooling the world will not solve will not scrub the atmosphere of carbon dioxide and methane, it may drop the overall temperature a few degrees but who knows what the consequences could be?  

This is scarily like the cane toad solution - the (native!!!) prickly pear is a weed so let's get in a caterpillar to eat it.  Oh, the caterpillar doesn't like it but it does like sugar cane.  What do we do?  Let's get a toad to eat that.  What's that?  The toad is ground dwelling and the caterpillar lives a few feet out of range.  Big solutions can have big side effects and we can't afford to f**k around with things we don't fully understand.  And if we do manage to cool global temperatures a bit the urgency for reducing emissions goes out the window.  Already there are companies who are "seeding" the ocean by dumping iron in it to boost the growth of phtoplankton which should be able to absorb CO2 (http://news.nationalgeographic.com.au/news/2002/01/0108_020108oceaniron.html).  That's fine as an experiment to see if it helps but not when you're then selling this is as a carbon credit.  They want the world's governments to PAY them to pollute?  I think you're missing the point.  

To curb CO2 we need to develop carbon sinks - something that can absorb and capture the excess CO2 and related gases that are causing these probelems.  Thus far, the best we've got is planting trees but all this gain is lost when they're cut down.  Storing it in disused mines is an interesting idea.  But what about capturing it and turning it into building material?  Diamond and graphite is sequestered carbon and it takes a long time to break down.  I'm not an engineer so I can't say whether this is feasible in terms of the energy required to convert the gases into a solid but whatever the solution is it has to be low impact.  Putting a sail in space or polluting the oceans or air is going to have massive risks that we just can't afford to make.  Let's try this on Mars first - we've only got one planet to live on thus far and we wreck this one we're screwed.

Fiction Is Good

Now, I like my fiction, nobody needs to justify the value in reading it.  

http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/fiction-nurtures-the-soul--a-must-for-even-hardhearted-politicians-20090310-8u3f.html?page=-1

One might not agree with all in this article but if there's one worthy line it must be this:

As we experience difficult economic times, it pays to read Keynes, Stiglitz and Krugman of course. But it also pays to read Steinbeck.

I have a dream ...

... uh, that's it.  I just wanted to tell everyone that I have an HTC Dream phone powered by Android.  I've wanted one for a while.

I think we'll be fine ...

After seeing another one of these stories ...

http://www.watoday.com.au/national/stranded-whales-herded-out-to-sea-20090302-8mf6.html

This is the fourth time this has happened in as many months.  I LOVE dolphins - I love seeing them do tricks, I love reading stories about them rescuing sailors, I love the idea that they were the second smartest creatures on Earth and their goodbye message was "so long and thanks for all the fish", I fear them evolving opposable thumbs (http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28315).

But, is it possible, just possible, that they're not as smart as we think they are???