News of the Day
Sep. 19th, 2008 01:16 pm1. The former New South Wales premier Morris Iemma has formally resigned as the member for Lakemba, ending his 17 year career in politics. A worthless piece of fail out the door, and the way clear for someone more competent - God willing - to stand in his place. We seriously need a meritocracy in this country, and if it means encouraging economists, soldiers, doctors, engineers etc. to join political parties so they can be nominated to their most suitable portfolios, SO BE IT.
2. Seems the "beauty-challenged" shouldn't be the only ones heading out to the country. The "employment-challenged" might also want to give it a go:
A jobs board advertising more than 1,000 vacant positions in rural and regional Queensland has been unveiled as part of Country Week celebrations. The three-day expo opens in Brisbane today to highlight opportunities in country areas.
Faced with the choice between a ten-to-twenty minute walk to work, and horrendous battles for spots in traffic or seats on trains, I know which I preferred.
3. Texting is dangerous for your health, and not only your own... The conductor of a train involved in a Californian rail crash that left 25 people dead was sending text messages on his mobile phone during working hours, authorities said. Local television CBS2 earlier reported two 14-year-old boys had exchanged messages with the conductor in the moments leading up to the accident, an allegation officials said they would probe.
What a train conductor was doing exchanging text messages with fourteen year old boys, unless they were his sons or perhaps nephews, I have no idea, though my fevered imagination is running overtime:
(Boys in plain and bold, driver in italics)
HAI U R HEDING FOR PSSNGR TRAIN STOP STOP STOP
WHO R U?
TED SMITH, 9TH GRADE, I CN C U FRM CLASSRM WNDW STOP FR CHRISSAKE
HOW DID U GET MY CELL NUMBER
YR HEAD OFFICE GAVE IT 2 ME STOP NOW SOS.
GET BACK TO YR SCHOOLWORK, KID.
YO ITS BILL JONES TEDS BUDDY HERE HES RIGHT SLAM ON BRAKES NOW DUDE
AH SHUDDUP YR JUST A COUPLE OF KIDS WHO OMGWTF...
4. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced a new body which will act as a global centre to drive clean coal technologies in Australia and worldwide. The Government will spend $100 million on establishing the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, which Mr Rudd says will coordinate funding and research for new projects. Mr Rudd will take the proposal to the UN General Assembly next week, where he hopes to get more governments and industry on board as investors. Well, action at last, of a sort, I suppose... and only fitting for a country with large coal reserves to get on with burning it as cleanly as possible. BUT why, Mr Rudd, are you toddling off to the UN over this? Blowing our trumpet is all very well, but you've got a very large budget surplus on your hands which would be worth skimming to pay for this investment, not to mention the emission-trading scheme you're planning to foist upon us, which would make it much less dependent upon what other nations chose to do (or not do). Does that mean you can drop it in the too-hard basket when other nations don't come to the table, and whine and cry about how persecuted you are?
You've established an advisory body (something you seem to be developing a reputation for), but exactly how long are we going to wait for it to start producing reports, and how much longer before you start acting on them? More to the point, this Institute of yours only exists to "coordinate funding and research", and yet it's still going to cost us a hundred million dollars. How much money are you putting up to actually do the research, and how much are you putting aside for construction work? Also... no mention of potential Carbon Tax windfalls to pay for this. Why not?
Greens Senator Milne, you are also partly in error. Your call for research into renewable energies is correct; however, your "Coal is sinful and the cause of our worries" diatribe shows that you are an ideologically motivated axe-grinder, and probably should not be lecturing about energy policy. Until PM Rudd gets off his arse and actually starts building non-fossil powerplants, we will be reliant on coal for some time to come - we may as well find ways to minimize the damage.
ETA: Here is another news article, from a short while back, detailing Australian intentions to research clean-coal technology in concert with other nations:
AUSTRALIA and China will establish a clean-coal technology working group in an effort to balance China's need for energy resources with growing concern about the impact of coal burning on the global environment.
The move comes as Japan announced a $US2 billion ($2.5 billion) package at the East Asia Summit in Cebu to help its neighbours develop energy-saving technology and find ways to ease the region's dependence on oil.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, discussed the new clean-coal plan after a meeting with the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, in Cebu yesterday.
Oh, and look... the report is dated January 2007, and you can plainly see who the Prime Minister in question was. I leave you to draw your own conclusions as to what this implies about Kevin Rudd.
5. An international conference at the Australian National University in Canberra is looking for ways to increase the supply of food and bio-energy for a growing world population. Scientists from across the world are assessing strategies to increase plant productivity and water efficiency. Um... I might suggest genetically modified plants here. More cruelly, animal species that explosively overpopulate a certain region and consume all its resources tend to die back when those resources are exhausted or insufficient. If people like Peter Singer are right, and we really do have no more rights than animals, perhaps a little bit of die-back wouldn't go astray.
I remember reading somewhere that "no true democracy has ever had a famine", so maybe exporting democracy and responsible government isn't such a bad idea as some make it out to be. God only knows, some of the worst-hit nations seem to have the worst, most irresponsible, most disgustingly kleptocratic governments on Earth (I'm looking at you, Zimbabwe), and the assurance of good administration might be worth the accusations of "cultural imperialism" that some people like to trot out.
We have too damn many people on this planet, and nowhere near enough resources for them, nor any morally acceptable way to reduce the population (at least by half, and preferably by two thirds) quickly enough. On the other hand the Oort cloud, the Kuiper Belt and the asteroids offer almost unlimited resources of all kinds... if we have the nerve to try.
ETA
6. A feisty nine-year-old girl broke free from a would-be abductor - a balding man with "one eye larger than the other" who grabbed her in a bear hug - by biting him on the arm and running, police say. Another successful defence by the target of a worthless filthbag. She's not a victim; she's a winner. Give the girl a medal.
2. Seems the "beauty-challenged" shouldn't be the only ones heading out to the country. The "employment-challenged" might also want to give it a go:
A jobs board advertising more than 1,000 vacant positions in rural and regional Queensland has been unveiled as part of Country Week celebrations. The three-day expo opens in Brisbane today to highlight opportunities in country areas.
Faced with the choice between a ten-to-twenty minute walk to work, and horrendous battles for spots in traffic or seats on trains, I know which I preferred.
3. Texting is dangerous for your health, and not only your own... The conductor of a train involved in a Californian rail crash that left 25 people dead was sending text messages on his mobile phone during working hours, authorities said. Local television CBS2 earlier reported two 14-year-old boys had exchanged messages with the conductor in the moments leading up to the accident, an allegation officials said they would probe.
What a train conductor was doing exchanging text messages with fourteen year old boys, unless they were his sons or perhaps nephews, I have no idea, though my fevered imagination is running overtime:
(Boys in plain and bold, driver in italics)
HAI U R HEDING FOR PSSNGR TRAIN STOP STOP STOP
WHO R U?
TED SMITH, 9TH GRADE, I CN C U FRM CLASSRM WNDW STOP FR CHRISSAKE
HOW DID U GET MY CELL NUMBER
YR HEAD OFFICE GAVE IT 2 ME STOP NOW SOS.
GET BACK TO YR SCHOOLWORK, KID.
YO ITS BILL JONES TEDS BUDDY HERE HES RIGHT SLAM ON BRAKES NOW DUDE
AH SHUDDUP YR JUST A COUPLE OF KIDS WHO OMGWTF...
4. Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has announced a new body which will act as a global centre to drive clean coal technologies in Australia and worldwide. The Government will spend $100 million on establishing the Global Carbon Capture and Storage Institute, which Mr Rudd says will coordinate funding and research for new projects. Mr Rudd will take the proposal to the UN General Assembly next week, where he hopes to get more governments and industry on board as investors. Well, action at last, of a sort, I suppose... and only fitting for a country with large coal reserves to get on with burning it as cleanly as possible. BUT why, Mr Rudd, are you toddling off to the UN over this? Blowing our trumpet is all very well, but you've got a very large budget surplus on your hands which would be worth skimming to pay for this investment, not to mention the emission-trading scheme you're planning to foist upon us, which would make it much less dependent upon what other nations chose to do (or not do). Does that mean you can drop it in the too-hard basket when other nations don't come to the table, and whine and cry about how persecuted you are?
You've established an advisory body (something you seem to be developing a reputation for), but exactly how long are we going to wait for it to start producing reports, and how much longer before you start acting on them? More to the point, this Institute of yours only exists to "coordinate funding and research", and yet it's still going to cost us a hundred million dollars. How much money are you putting up to actually do the research, and how much are you putting aside for construction work? Also... no mention of potential Carbon Tax windfalls to pay for this. Why not?
Greens Senator Milne, you are also partly in error. Your call for research into renewable energies is correct; however, your "Coal is sinful and the cause of our worries" diatribe shows that you are an ideologically motivated axe-grinder, and probably should not be lecturing about energy policy. Until PM Rudd gets off his arse and actually starts building non-fossil powerplants, we will be reliant on coal for some time to come - we may as well find ways to minimize the damage.
ETA: Here is another news article, from a short while back, detailing Australian intentions to research clean-coal technology in concert with other nations:
AUSTRALIA and China will establish a clean-coal technology working group in an effort to balance China's need for energy resources with growing concern about the impact of coal burning on the global environment.
The move comes as Japan announced a $US2 billion ($2.5 billion) package at the East Asia Summit in Cebu to help its neighbours develop energy-saving technology and find ways to ease the region's dependence on oil.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, discussed the new clean-coal plan after a meeting with the Chinese Premier, Wen Jiabao, in Cebu yesterday.
Oh, and look... the report is dated January 2007, and you can plainly see who the Prime Minister in question was. I leave you to draw your own conclusions as to what this implies about Kevin Rudd.
5. An international conference at the Australian National University in Canberra is looking for ways to increase the supply of food and bio-energy for a growing world population. Scientists from across the world are assessing strategies to increase plant productivity and water efficiency. Um... I might suggest genetically modified plants here. More cruelly, animal species that explosively overpopulate a certain region and consume all its resources tend to die back when those resources are exhausted or insufficient. If people like Peter Singer are right, and we really do have no more rights than animals, perhaps a little bit of die-back wouldn't go astray.
I remember reading somewhere that "no true democracy has ever had a famine", so maybe exporting democracy and responsible government isn't such a bad idea as some make it out to be. God only knows, some of the worst-hit nations seem to have the worst, most irresponsible, most disgustingly kleptocratic governments on Earth (I'm looking at you, Zimbabwe), and the assurance of good administration might be worth the accusations of "cultural imperialism" that some people like to trot out.
We have too damn many people on this planet, and nowhere near enough resources for them, nor any morally acceptable way to reduce the population (at least by half, and preferably by two thirds) quickly enough. On the other hand the Oort cloud, the Kuiper Belt and the asteroids offer almost unlimited resources of all kinds... if we have the nerve to try.
ETA
6. A feisty nine-year-old girl broke free from a would-be abductor - a balding man with "one eye larger than the other" who grabbed her in a bear hug - by biting him on the arm and running, police say. Another successful defence by the target of a worthless filthbag. She's not a victim; she's a winner. Give the girl a medal.
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