derspatz

Happy Birthday Guy Fawkes.

2011-04-13T06:32:00.001+08:00

"Today I ..." would just like to publicly convey my thanks to one and all, both seen and unseen, near and afar, living and passed on, who has ever had anything to do with my life and times and the long and winding path that has amazingly seen me reach the utterly unexpected age of 48.

You all know who you are and regardless of individual levels of input/care/love and all that, I couldn't have done it without yas, so Cheers !

As for Mr Fawkes, well here is hoping that something explosively big (though not the kind of explosive that Mr Fawkes endorsed) happens soon and Oz is at last rid of the sad joke that is our current PM and her wedded-to-the-Nazi-Greens utterly inept and wastrel minority political party, along with her abominable and ridiculous tax on life bringing CO2 that she is trying to inflict upon us all as part of her Fabian Socialist agenda.

Today would be a good day for such a hope to come true.

Pretty please ?

regarDS

Indulging my carbon offset nipples !

2011-01-22T23:30:00.023+08:00

"Today I ...", in the "offline world", got to share a social occasion at "Little Creatures" in Freo with somebody who (if I understood the job title correctly) earns their bread and butter by not only supporting and promoting the Grand Lie of AGW/MMCC (Anthropogenic Global Warming / Man Made Climate Change), but also via the Great Fraud/Scam of our era, "Carbon Trading".

We had only known each other for prolly less than 5 minutes when The Discussion got underway, and all because LSCP ("LifeStyle Choices Partner" for those who have come in late) asked him what he did for a living and he foolishly answered "Carbon Management".

Can you image my glee and the tingle induced to my erogenous zones upon hearing such a thing ?

At one stage we had to turn things back down to about 11 (refer to The Amp on "This is Spinal Tap" ) coz he didn't like me talking about public funded professional scare-mongerers Karoly and Flim-Flannery in disparaging terms.

By the time I got to drop the name "Andrew Bolt" at our drinking table (the great names of James Delingpole and the award winning science blog "wattsupwiththat.com" already having been mentioned), my warmista drinking companion was calling me "satan" and I was calling him "gullible". :-)

LSCP's take on the evening is that this poor fellow just simply could not believe that I was serious in my rejection of the mythical "consensus" he Truly Believed in, along with the utterly failed hypothesis of global climate change being caused by levels of atmospheric CO2, let alone mankind's pitiful contributions to the near to starvation (for flora) levels of atmospheric CO2.

To be fair and on the flip side, I just simply could not believe he was serious when he suggested that the quality of life I was enjoying thanks to relatively cheap energy generated by plant-food creating coal, could not possible be making me happy and that I would actually prefer to live without all those wonderful things cheap energy brings me.

My LSCP's view was that he thought I musta been just taking the p!ss, even though I said I had been part of a grass-roots letter writing movement that produced over 400,000 items of corro to pollies about the nation and that in turn helped see Malcolm Turncoat ousted as Liberal Party leader which in turn saw KRudd, Killard (so renamed because of her "roll out the red carpet to queue jumping economic opportunists" border control policies that has seen who knows how many wannabe illegal immigrants drown at sea), Turncoat, and Penny Wrong's ETS/CPRS stopped in its tracks.

Anyhoo, twas all fun (well, from my POV), nobody lost an eye, and I just had to LOL at his end of the evening compliment to me of "they say satan always takes an appealing guise".

I told him to put "derspatz" into google or "Hitler" + "AGW" into youtube. ;)

Actually, it has been a while, so here again is my take on Hitler's reaction to Briffa's Yamal tree ring data and all it implied.

I'll only include the youtube link because for some strange reason embedding mucks up the captions.

See: http://www.youtube.com/embed/cTGLpqFGyYM

... and for good measure, here is a favorite youtube of mine from the "JollyGreenWatchman": http://www.youtube.com/embed/-esLrrqGKkE (linked coz of caption issues when embedding)

Anyhoo, cheers, ummm, "Gullible" (name changed to protect the identity of a modern day peddler of what is akin to the useless Roman Catholic "Indulgences" ala "permissions to sin" system of old :-)), it was all fun, and I'm sure that lump of cow you ate for dinner was raised a vegetarian. :-) :-) :-)

Oh, and on the subject of carbon trading, here is an idea that might even tempt this little so called "satan":

OTOH, going to bed for money is called prostitution isn't it ?

Oh, and here is yet another youtube I found interesting. All about the Bias of the BBC (much like Oz's "ABC") and "The Guardian" (much like Oz's "The Age"), particularly in relation to the Big Lie of our era, "Man Made Climate Change".

Enjoy. :-)

See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO63oWe6XXo

My parting comment today is something I informed a iPad carrying drone for Bono's "One" activist/fake charity group at a 360 degrees concert late last year.

"Left wing politics is the problem, not the solution"

Something which painfully apparent here in Oz at the moment.

regarDS

My Favorite Online Places ... and why.

2010-11-07T23:32:00.002+08:00

Thought I'd share some links to some of my favorite online places. In no particular order, these include:

Andrew Bolt: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/

James Delingpole: http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/author/jamesdelingpole/

Jo Nova: http://joannenova.com.au/

Anthony Watts (the award winning science blog "Watts Up With That): http://wattsupwiththat.com/

John Rays excellent blogs "Greenie Watch" and "Dissecting Leftism": http://antigreen.blogspot.com/and http://dissectleft.blogspot.com/

And here is an excellent youtube series that should give a good hint as to why the above are favoured by me ... and further clue you in as to what my politics are:

Intro: Collectivism vs Individualism

Part1: The nature and origin of human rights

Part2: Group Supremacy

Part3: Coercion vs Freedom

Part4: Equality and Inequality under law

Part5: Proper role of Government

No prizes for guessing what I am in favour of and give my support to ... and what I am against, oppose, and denounce.

regarDS

Magpie vs 25kv AC overhead powerlines. Magpie wins !

2010-08-19T21:21:00.005+08:00

"Today I ..." was astounded at the resilience of a local humble Oz magpie.

There I was, happily internutting, when all of a sudden there was an Almighty bang from outside down the street and my internut connection dropped out.

"That sounded like overhead powerlines shorting or a step-down transformer blowing its knives and/or its guts" thinks I.

Strangely enough though, my notebook power supply stayed on, but a test of the lights revealed exceeding dimness ... a sign of a brownout/reduction in mains voltage.

Considering it was a clear blue sky without a puff of wind to blow lines together or trees into them, my next thought was "oh sh!t, the work-dudes building a house a couple of doors down, have accidentally hit the step-down transformer next to the building site" so I rush outside in my PJs to make sure everything is ok and if I could be of assistance.

Sure enough, the work-dudes ARE shouting at each other and pointing to near the transformer enclosure, but they all appear to be ok and no errant gear is near it.

Well, except for a limp black and white form and another more active one stalking around looking concerned at it.

Yeah, a pair of magpies, and prolly the two that were unhomed and used to play around the tree featured in the youtube in my last blog post which includes a clip of them chasing each other around between the branches.

Okay, here is the clip again:

Anyhoo, the work-dudes fuss around the downed magpie that had managed to arc/short-out the overhead 25kv AC supply to the step-down mains supply transformer with an Almighty Bang.

One of the work-dudes flips the unfortunate creature over and you know what ?

It gets back up to its feet.

I kid you not. I'm standing there in my PJs in the street watching from about 40metres away, and this creature that should be, for all intents and purposes, the pre-cooked filler for a magpie pie, gets back on its feet and just stands there looking like it is thinking the magpie equivelent of "WTF" ... which was clearly what we were all thinking.

So one of the work-dudes gets it a container of water and puts it near the stoned crow wannabe and before you know it, it stepped over to investigate the container contents.

Then its friend hops over to say "WTF mate, you ok ?" in magpie (yeah, it does the "do do do doodle doodle do" thing similar to what I captured in the youtube in my last blog post), and the recently mega-zapped tells it to bugger off for the moment coz it still has its buzz on ... IE, it zots its beak at it as if to say "don't stand so close to me".

Within about 5 minutes, it is wandering about the verge on which it crash landed from about 6 or 7 metres up to, so I go back inside to unplug things like TVs and fridges which don't like brownouts that much (underpower is WAY worse for electrical stuff than blackouts), and when I come back out, the magpie had wandered off completely and its mate was gone too.

I wonder if it, or its chicks, are now going to develop super powers ?

I'm also just simply amazed that it was able to survive being a living short-circuit to such a high voltage AND the concussive bang that happened when it pretended to be a switch. A short-circuit that took Western Power around two and a half hours to fix !

"Today I ..." am also LOLing at the irony of "der spatz" (the sparrow) being "booted" offline by a magpie getting a 25kv AC boot.

I mean, when it comes to little birds vs bigger birds, its usually the former that chase the latter off, yes ?

Oh, and one more.

"Today I ..." was also pleased to learn that a bull in a bullring in Spain decided it didn't want to play the game of being tortured to death for the amusement of a sick in the soul audience but instead decided to join them where they sat and teach some of them and their children a deserved lesson they are not likely to forget in a hurry.

Yay Magpie, and Yay Bull !

regarDS

All good things ...

2010-08-03T13:17:00.001+08:00

... come to an end. :(

regarDS

Ich bin ein Snowboarder ...

2010-07-18T15:16:00.004+08:00

Here are some youtubes of derspatz proving that you're never too old to learn new things ... and for me and LSCP, that meant trying out Snowboarding at Coronet Peak, Queenstown in New Zealand in the July school holidays just gone.

For a slobbish "likes to hang loose" cool and froody bighead like me, I discovered it came kinda a natural ... and I don't think I'll ever go back to skiing now. :)

But don't take me at my word, not while there are long and boring youtubes to be endured ! Most of the following were taken using a tiny webcam thingy I had clipped to my beanie, so where I look, you see !

First up ?

Me and LSCP riding the fast lift DOWN the mountain:

Next up, a long and boring (coz, let's face it, I was going pretty slow) run down "Meadows Express"

Here is a similar run to that except I take a detour and include some footage of LSCP doing pirouettes on a snowboard. ;) :)

And now for a spill so daring and dramatic that it took me clean off the mountain !

Excellent fun which I well recommend ... and the fact that I appeared to be some mad old man talking to himself while zipping(ish) down the piste (hey, I was giving camera commentary !) tended to keep living obstacles away. Heh.

Snowboarding. Try it some time ... but if your butt bruises easily then I would recommend that you get some padded pants first.

Isn't that right LSCP ? :) :) :)

regarDS

sweethings

2010-05-03T09:34:00.002+08:00

regarDS

angelady

2010-05-01T11:59:00.000+08:00

regarDS

John 14:6

2010-04-30T14:38:00.004+08:00

regarDS

It's the Peppered moths, all over again ...

2010-03-20T21:22:00.015+08:00

See http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/butterflies-linked-to-climate-change-20100317-qfm4.html (with the utterly misleading and inaccurate headline of "Butterflies fly early as planet warms" ... since when is Melbourne "the planet" ?) for how Melbourne Uni's AGW alarmist and publicly funded MMGCC (man made global climate change) advocate and lobbyist, David Karoly, has boldy attached his name to the gob-smacking latest lunacy being used to prop up the AGW religion.

Yes, if you visited the link, you just read how butterflies in Melbourne are to deemed a direct proof of Anthropogenic Global Warming.

Yep, David Karoly basically wants you to believe that Melboreds Urban Heat Island Effect (thanks to it being a growing city) equals Man-Made Global Climate Change.

ffs, the study revolves around studing creatures in A CITY, you know, a place where populations, buildings and roads increase and spread, and the UHI effect generally increases, ... so should any of us be surprised that the growth and changes of/in a city should have an effect on the flora and fauna found within ... and who would deny that it happens anyway ?

Sheesh, what next ... another look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peppered_moth ("The Peppered Moth") and a revision to say it wasn't the amount of evil coal dust around that determined which colour varieties were "the fittest" for survival re: predation, but actually the amount of CO2 in the local atmosphere ?

Anyhoo, I've heard that Melboredites like to see themselves as the whole world, but isn't it getting a bit ridiculous to claim that the city's UHI equals Man-Made Global Climate Change ala Anthropogenic Global Warming ?

Aside from that, can you also now think of a better way your taxes should be spent than on the likes of Karoly and Co ?

Oh, and how is the collecting of data on breeding cycle of butterflys OUTSIDE Melbored's UHI going ?

Did the so called "scientists" bother to study that, or where they all just too busy pushing a barrow (one that also serves to carry the grant funding back to the lab) and providing Karoly with the subject matter for his next bit of advocacy and lobbying on his chosen religion, AGW ?
Hmmmm, let's look at that article provided in the link again. Oh, here we are:

"Dr Kearney said the study, which relates specifically to Melbourne, would prove a practical tool to forecast the impact of climate change on the city's biodiversity."

Nope, just Melbourne.

But it gets worse (or better, depending on which side of reason you are).

Look what has happened to the news item once it made its way out of Oz and on to the rest of the world.

Whatever happened to this being a study of the life cycle of butterflies in MELBOURNE !?

Spun wilder than a common brown butterfly's cocoon found here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/environment/climatechange/7464687/Butterflies-emerging-earlier-due-to-climate-change.html

But let's quote a bit here and lock it in.

Butterflies emerging earlier due to climate change
Published: 7:20AM GMT 17 Mar 2010

Butterflies are emerging from their cocoons ten days earlier than 65 years ago because of climate change, experts warn.

The finding represents the first concrete evidence of a link between greenhouse gases and the timing of a natural event, according to researchers.

The team found that on average, the Common Brown butterfly (Heteronympha merope) has emerged earlier and earlier over the last half century, with an average of 1.6 days per decade over a 65 year span.

Researchers from the University of Melbourne said that the findings tally with a corresponding increase in temperature of 0.14 degrees Celsius per decade over the same period.

This warming is shown to be human-induced, researchers say.

Lead author of the study Dr Michael Kearney, from the Department of Zoology, said the findings could help our ability to forecast future impacts of climate change on biodiversity.

He said: "Shifts in these seasonal life cycle events represent a challenge to species, altering the food and competition present at the time of hatching. Studies such as ours will allow better forecasting of these shifts and help us understand more about their consequences."

The study, funded by an Australian Research Council grant to Monash, Melbourne and Wisconsin Universities, is due to be published in Royal Society journal Biology Letters.

The team looked at catterpillars raised in the lab and compared their development to increases in temperature and climate change models.

Professor David Karoly said: "Scientists have previously observed that biological events are happening progressively earlier in spring over the past few decades.

"This new work has tied the earlier emergence of butterflies directly to a regional temperature increase, and has tied the temperature increase very strongly to increases in greenhouse gas concentrations caused by humans."

If you hadn't already read the original report that specifically says the study was limited to Melbourne, a city, would it be fair to suggest that the above article would tend to have you think that researchers from the three listed universities had studied "the common brown butterfly" all around the world, and determined that all around the world, where ever it was found, it was hatching out 10 days earlier than it did around 65 years ago ?

For an additional collection of points of view on the topic, also see: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/could_more_concrete_asphalt_and_industry_have_made_laverton_warmer/ which also includes arial photos that show how the lay of the land where the temperatures were gathered from has changed over the period of the butterfly study.

Now ask yourself, why are the likes of Karoly and the Telegraph so keen for the natural cycle of climate change to be seen as being man made, global, ... and bad ?

[edit] About a month later now, and here is something else on the topic, this time from the award winning science blog "Watts Up With That" and commenting on "Confirmation Bias". See: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2010/04/23/butterfly-study-a-case-study-in-confirmation-bias/#more-18856

[edit++] Tis now June 2010, and here is the latest on the topic, this time from the Royal Society Publishing. See: http://rsbl.royalsocietypublishing.org/content/early/2010/06/07/rsbl.2010.0053.short/reply ... and wonder if Karoly et al should be subjected to a rigorous public conducted enquiry in relation to grant funding, etc.

The long and short of the Royal Society published article is that both Kearney and Karoly are just plain wrong, wrong, wrong, and probably fraudulently so.

Anyone really surprised that this would prove to be the case ?

regarDS

January so long ago ...

2010-01-26T23:59:00.006+08:00

Despite what the blog date claims (I've backdated it exactly a month to Oz day), it is actually very nearly March 2010. Dunno where the last couple of months got to but rather than launch into some inane waffle, here are some newtubes of some of the outdoor activities and travels that have helped make 2010 fly by so far.

Okay, perhaps a little waffle before the tubes ...

Not long into January, LSCP (for those who came in late, that's "Life Style Choices Partner" ... so chosen because I'm not allowed to say her name on the internut in blogland), and I embarked upon a coastal trip from Perth to Dunsborough, Margaret River, Walpole, Albany, a week in Esperance, then cut back diagonally to Perth again via Hyden/Wave Rock.

Along the way we did a couple of scuba dives on the HMAS Swan (in about 25m or so of water off Dunsborough), and a couple of dives on the HMAS Perth (in about 30m or so of water off Albany). If you're interested in what that might have been like then search those names on youtube as plenty of other folk have filmed their below water experience at those wreck locations.

Okay, first up is a wander around the Tree Tops walking near Walpole:

Next up is a bit of this and that filmed from around Albany:

And you knew I wouldn't be able to get through a blog post without having yet another sneer and poke at the AGW environmentalist religion, so here tis ... a newtube rant on location in Esperance at one of those all but useless ugly noisy white-elephant "wind farm" thingos:

But here is a far more prettier side to Esperance. A beach drive to the Cape Le Grand National Park:

I might get around to including a newtube of our Hyden/Wave rock visit another time, but for now I'll finish up with some footage taken of the 2010 Oz day we spent on the Swan River:

So there was but a tiny glimpse into my January ... and it all seems so long ago now. :(

regarDS

... a three hour cruise. Part 1 and 2

2009-12-21T20:36:00.006+08:00

A quick break from talking about the natural cycle of climate change and how certain folk seem dead keen on making a religion about it and other folk just wanna rob us blind over it.

Time to go boating. Yeah, apologies to readers from the Northern Hemisphere who have got loved ones stranded under the English Channel, or stuck in a London or Paris train station or in a New York airport at the moment ... hey, howz that "Anthropogenic Global Warming" thing working out for ya ?

Anyway, here is a newtube from a week ago. BTW, if you're ever curious as to what youtubes I've got going, then just click on the following link for the complete list: http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=derspatz48&search_type=&aq=f

Here is my tube of my maiden voyage in the new old (built in the 1960s) water toy on her way to be dry-docked for some repairs and antifouling (ie, painted with special stuff to stop other stuff growing on it):

Howz all those Mussels on the stern drive legs, eh ? Mmmmm, where is a pot of boiling water and some chilli or garlic when you need it ?

That was Part 1. Short and sweet eh ? Well stay tuned for Part 2 ... it ain't so short, so hang on to your life-jackets, this is going to get rough !

Here she is a week later on the planned quicky excursion back to the mooring that actually turned out to be a mini-odyssey. Once again, apologies to snow-bound folk unable to travel or get home over in the Northern Hemisphere at the moment.

Somebody elsewhere asked me earlier: "Oh and about your boat, what happens if she's leaking again, I guess that means she won't get looked at again til after x-mas new year? Be a bummer to your holidays if that happens."

The following is my response to that:

See for yourself and note the lack of concern in my voice.

"Today I ..." shared a surprise adventure with LSCP that we could have prolly done without but all things considered, better that it happened when it did rather than later.

Today was the day the new old water toy went back into the water after a week in dry-dock getting her bum sanded and anti-fouled (cheers Adrian & Daniel at Aquarama) and a new steering helmet put on her starboard leg and having the leg bolted down (a common "fix" for older volvo penta legs and their reverse retaining clamp of suspect design), the old Ward 32'er is back on the water again and ready to get up and go.

What a difference a week and a whole bunch of work and money makes, because "get up and go" she now does !

After paying the bill and visiting the fuel jetty to pay for go-juice at expected standard extortion rates, LSCP headed off in the car and I back to the mooring. All was good and well and the salt air soon made the smile on my face set harder than pelican poo on the aft deck.

I easily solo navigated her up to Claremont jetty where LSCP (who had driven around there from the slipyards downstream on the other side of the river) jumped onboard and soon took over Skipper duties.

Yup, LSCP not only stands for "Life Style Choices Partner", but also "Lady Skipper, Cute n Pretty".

As the newtube shows, she made skippering look easy. Tis much easier to steer now that one leg isn't flapping around in the chop. As for the water in the bilge, that's no worries and quite a normal thing to happen in a wooden boat that has been out of the water for more than a couple of days. The timbers dry out and shrink a bit and in leaks wet stuff, but I found even just a couple of hours later on the mooring, things seemed to have already swollen up again and the bilge contents back to more or less what they were before she was taken out of the water a week ago.

Besides, just like with Witches, Ducks, and Very Small Rocks, wood floats.

Ah, but on WHAT mooring "a couple of hours later" ?

Well, that's where the Adventure began.

After LSCP took her for a burn, she then assumed "grab the pole and hook up the mooring rope" position up forward. We idled up to the mooring and she deftly hooked up the mooring rope and slipped it over the thingumy on the front of the boat wot such things attach to, and I did my bit and turned off the engines and batteries.

Picture perfect, with no swearing or shouting at each other. Quite amazing really, especially considering the stiff breeze we were working against that was busy trying to push us ashore.

Then a strange thing happened.

Another mooring passed us.

WTF ?

How can that happen ... we're attached properly to our mooring !

Uh, yup ... but what was our mooring attached to ?

A long line of heavy duty chain that wasn't attached to anything other than algae and the wet stuff we were floating in.

fcukity fcukity fcuk ! (which is French for "oh bother, the train has stopped in the middle of the Chunnel")

Before I could get to the anchor, we had drifted aground ... well, the nicely newly antifouled/painted stern drive legs had. Meh.

So, then began the telephone ring around.

First up a call to Freo Sea Rescue (I'm a member and both boats registered with them for rescue attention ... well worth the $35 a year considering that they would tow me all the way back from Rotto at no cost).

Then a call to the owner of the mooring to tell him that it was no more and that the contractors employed to check it may have stuffed up because at the end of the chain there was a massive shackle missing its pin. A pin that holds it to the trio of chain linked concrete blocks at the bottom or whatever it is that is down there. A pin that is supposed to be wired to the shackle to prevent it coming loose like it just had.

Then a call to the DPI (Department of Planning and Infrastructure - all moorings are registered/licensed with them).

Then the owner rang back to say he had contacted the contractor but they wouldn't be able to attend until Wednesday (so what were we to do until then ?) and he suggested I get back onto the DPI again as they have access to some emergency moorings. Good to know !

Then the Freo rescue called to confirm our predicament (that we needed pulling into deeper water so we could start the engines and motor elsewhere).

By this stage another boaty on a nearby mooring had noticed our situation and rowed his tender over. LSCP and I were in the middle of sorting out a long rope to go from the bow to a nearby mooring with the idea of hooking it up and pulling ourselves into deeper water. I was in my Jesus boots and shorts and up to my waist in (thankfully warm) water (so much for Jesus boots allowing walking ON water) holding the bow into the wind. Anyhoo, the boaty rowed the rope out to the mooring and tied it on then came back and he and LSCP sat up forward and hauled on the rope while I put my back to the stern and heaved up while pushing and before you could say "ewwww, a jelly fish, and WHAT THE HELL WAS THAT SQUISHY THING I STEPPED ON" we were in deep enough water again.

So, time to call Freo Rescue again and say "thanks, but we're ok now" (I intend to send them an online donation later tonight for their troubles), and also call the mooring contractors who had called while we were hauling.

They confirmed they couldn't get there until Wednesday but wanted to know where they could pick up the recovered mooring equipment from. I told them they would know once I knew where I was going to end up.

Okay, where were we ? On somebody else's mooring, wondering.

We decided to go back to Claremont Jetty, tie up there, then walk up to the club to see if they had temporary/short term pens or moorings available.

No such luck ... especially seeing as we weren't members. Still, they were very helpful with what they could do, which was to lend me their phone to sit through "on hold music" until an obviously Very Busy DPI were able to offer a rescue by registering my port-less vessel to one of the emergency moorings they have.

Excellent, even though it was around 9km away in [deleted for now]. So, after "merry festivus"es were exchanged with the DPI and the Claremont Club staff, LSCP headed off in the car and I in the boat. Talk about having an unplanned workout ... and so much for the plans of getting her back in the water and back to her mooring in about an hour !

Still, what better way to get used to skippering her alone ... especially seeing as this was only the second time I'd actually skippered her since purchase. On the way around to [deleted for now] with the salt spray slipping by the middle window and helping with setting my smile again, I got to thinking how blessed it was that the mooring should go when we were there to attend to it rather than in the middle of the night and have the boat smashed up on shore.

Yeah, I'm a glass half-full kinda guy.

Are we there yet ?

Almost there ...

So after having a laugh with Poseidon and telling the Sirens (I did say "Odyssey" earlier) they were wasting their time coz I already have all the lurv'n'comfort I need with my LSCP, etc, etc, I made it into the still waters of [deleted for now].

Now WTF is that DPI mooring ... and how am I going to tie up on it without LSCP to help ?

Couldn't find it ... but I did find a complementary temporary mooring and was able to pull up my fine craft along side and hook onto it by myself. Then it was a simple matter of paddling ashore using one of the waveskis and towing the other one, then LSCP returned with me.

Another call to the DPI and the lovely and patient lady explained exactly where it was and yeah verily what other numbers were nearby ... and instructed me to call back when we were safely tied up there.

The instructions proved instructive and after a bit of mucking around making our own multiple mooring ropes, we had a new temporary home.

Yes, we are now "there yet".

All that remained was to secure the wayward mooring for the contractor team, paddle ashore with me singing LSCP's praises all the way for her patience as well as apologising for the one (maybe two) occasions I, uh, "failed to effectively communicate" and did an exasperated naggy whinge thing.

The poor girl is now horrible sun-burnt as she wasn't expecting to be in the sun much at all for what we originally planned ... but seriously (and as I said multiple times throughout the long afternoon) "you wouldn't read about it" (let alone plan for it !)

And yet here you are doing that very thing ... and well done if you made it this far.

Anyhoo, I get home to hear about cyclones up North and folk stranded under the English Channel and New York snowed in, etc, etc, and so how can I think of our afternoon's troubles and inconveniences being anything other than an adventure ?

Merry (good natured) Bah Humbug to one and all and may all your travels be adventures ... rather ordeals. Grin.

regarDS

Climategate - "I am a climate scientist ..."

2009-12-04T23:34:00.013+08:00

Above image from:

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/04/jo-nova-finds-the-medieval-warm-period/#more-13698 It shows the Real Story of the climate cycle as opposed to the one Michael Mann fraudulently wanted the IPCC (et al) to believe in ... one with no prior warmer-than-now time called "The Medieval Warm Period" that helps prove that humankind is NOT the cause of global climate change.

I recently found the following on http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/04/a-devastating-response-to-theres-nothing-to-see-here-move-along/#more-13710 and AFAIC, it is worthy of as much mirrored blogspace as it can get ... so here it is:

I am a climate scientist, and it is clear that the evidence that “human activity is prominent [sic] agent in global warming” is NOT overwhelming. The repeated statement that it is does not make it so. Further, even if we accepted the hypothesis, cap-and-trade legislation does not do anything about it.

Here are the facts. We have known for years that the Mann hockey stick model was wrong, and we know why it was wrong (Mann used only selected data to normalize the principal component analysis, not all of it). He retracted the model. We have known for years that the Medieval Warm period occurred, where the temperatures were higher than they are now (Chaucer spoke of vineyards in northern England).

Long before ClimateGate it was known that the IPCC people were trying to fudge the data to get rid of the MWP. And for good reason. If the MWP is “allowed” to exist, this means that temperatures higher than today did not then create a “runaway greenhouse” in the Middle Ages with methane released from the Arctic tundra, ice cap albedo lost, sea levels rising to flood London, etc. etc.), and means that Jim Hansen’s runaway greenhouse that posits only amplifying feedbacks (and no damping feedbacks) will not happen now. We now know that the models on which the IPCC alarms are based to not do clouds, they do not do the biosphere, they do not explain the Pliocene warming, and they have never predicted anything, ever, correctly.

As the believers know but, like religious faithful, every wrong prediction (IPCC underestimated some trends) is claimed to justify even greater alarm (not that the models are poor approximations for reality); the underpredictions (where are the storms? Why “hide the decline”?) are ignored or hidden.

As for CO2, we have known for years that CO2 increases have never in the past 300,000 years caused temperature rise (CO2 rise trails temperature increase). IPCC scientists know this too (see their “Copenhagen Diagnosis”); we know that their mathematical fudges that dismiss the fact that CO2 has not been historically causative of temperature rise are incorrect as well. We have also known for years that the alleged one degree temperature rise from 1880 vanishes if sites exposed to urban heat islands are not considered.

We have long known that Jones’s paper dismissing this explanation (Jones, et al. 1990. Assessment of urbanization effects in time series of surface air temperature over land, Nature 347 169- 172) is wrong and potentially fraudulent (see the same data used to confirm urban heat islands in Wang, W-C, Z. Zeng, T. R Karl, 1990. Urban Heat Islands in China. Geophys. Res. Lett. 17, 2377-2380). Everyone except Briffa knows that the Briffa conclusions are wrong, and why they are wrong; groups in Finland, Canada (lots of places actually) show cooling by this proxy, not warming; the IPCC even printed the Finn’s plot upside down to convert the fact (cooling) into the dogma (warming).

Prof. McCarthy is, of course, part of the IPCC that has suppressed dissenting viewpoints based on solid climate science. His claim to support by “peer review” is nonsense; he has helped corrupt the peer review process. We now have documentary evidence that Jones, Mann, and the other IPCC scientists have been gaming peer review and blackballing opponents. On this point, the entire IPCC staff, including Prof. McCarthy, neither have nor deserve our trust.

We have tolerated years of the refusal of Mann and Jones to release data. Now, we learn that much of these data were discarded (one of about 4 data sets that exist), something that would in any other field of science lead to disbarment. We have been annoyed by Al Gore, who declared this science “settled”, refused to debate, and demonized skeptics (this is anti-science: debate and skepticism are the core of real science, which is never settled). The very fact that Prof. McCarthy attempts to bluff Congress by asserting the existence of fictional “overwhelming evidence” continues this anti-science activity.

All of this was known before Climategate. What was not known until now was the extent to which Jones and Mann were simply deceiving themselves (which happens often in science) or fraudently attempting to deceive others. I am not willing to crucify Jones on the word “trick”. Nor, for that matter, on the loss of primary data, keeping only “value added” data (which is hopelessly bad science, but still conceivably not fraud).

But the computer code is transparently fraudulent. Here, one finds matrices that add unexplained numbers to recent temperatures and subtract them from older temperatures (these numbers are hard-programmed in), splining observational data to model data, and other smoking guns, all showing that they were doing what was necessary to get the answers that the IPCC wanted, not the answers that the data held. They knew what they were doing, and why they were doing it.

If, as Prof. McCarthy insists, “peer review” was functioning, and the IPCC reports are rigorously peer reviewed, why was this not caught? When placing it in context made it highly likely that this type of fraud was occurring?

The second question is: Will this revelation be enough to cause the “global warming believers” to abandon their crusade, and for people to return to sensible environmental science (water use, habitat destruction, land use, this kind of thing)? Perhaps it will.

Contrary to Prof. McCarthy’s assertion, we have not lost just one research project amid dozens of others that survive. A huge set of primary data are apparently gone. Satellite data are scarcely 40 years old. Everything is interconnected, and anchored on these few studies. Even without the corruption of the peer review process, this is as big a change as quantum mechanics was in physics a century ago.

But now we know that peer review was corrupted, and that no “consensus” exists. The “2500 scientists agree” number is fiction (God knows who they are counting, but to get to this number, they must be including referees, spouses, and pets).

The best argument now for AGW is to argue that CO2 is, after all, a greenhouse gas, its concentration is, after all, increasing, and feedbacks that regulated climate for millions of years might (we can hypothesize) be overwhelmed by human CO2 emissions. It is a hypothesis worthy of investigation, but it has little evidentiary support.

Thus, there is hope that Climategate will bring to an end the field of political climatology, and allow climatology to again become a science. That said, people intrinsically become committed to ideas. The Pope will not become a Protestant even if angel Gabriel taps him on the shoulder and asks him to. Likewise, Prof. McCarthy may claim until the day he retires that there remains “overwhelming support” for his position, even if every last piece of data supporting it is controverted. As a graduate student at Harvard, I was told that fields do not advance because people change their minds; rather, fields advance because people die.

Posted by Sean December 2, 09 11:26 PM

And for an example of the kind of code cooking going on that shows what fraudulent mischief the CRU crew were up to, go here: http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/12/04/climategate-the-smoking-code/

And how is this from an Oz newspaper found here: http://www.smh.com.au/environment/climate-email-mess-hits-australia-20091204-kb39.html ?

What the hell was Phil Jones and the rest of his colluding CRU crew using for raw data anyway ?

... The Australian data comes in for particular criticism as the programmer discovers World Meteorological Organisation codes are missing, station names overlap and many co-ordinates are incorrect.

At one point the programmer writes about his attempts to make sense of the data. "What a bloody mess," he concludes.

In another case, 30 years of data is attributed to a site at Cobar Airport but the frustrated programmer writes: "Now looking at the dates. something bad has happened ... COBAR AIRPORT AWS [automatic weather station] cannot start in 1962, it didn't open until 1993!"

In another he says: "Getting seriously fed up with the state of the Australian data ... so many false references ... so many changes ... bewildering." ...

Wow, weather station data from a weather station not established until 32 years later ... now THERE is a "trick" !

Seems to me that the only thing holding up AGW now is religious blind faith and wishful thinking ... and why would anyone want it to be true anyway, hmmm ?

regarDS

Climategate - All your emails are belong to us !

2009-11-24T06:46:00.007+08:00

Want to know more ?

Put "climategate" or "cru emails" or "climate change fraud" into your favorite search engine. "bing" at http://www.bing.com will return nearly over FOUR times the results that "google" does ... and with less bias towards the side of Climate Change Alarmism !

The short of it all is that thanks to a whistleblower who released 1000s of emails and documents into the internut, CRU (Climate Research Unit) scientists who have had the ear of the IPCC have been caught out colluding in quite the criminal manner in order to help promote the lie of Anthropogenic Global Warming in order to no doubt protect their public funding and reputations.

More to follow ... but in the mean time, I'll let the moving pictures do the talking.

regarDS

KRudd's last stand ?

2009-11-07T11:39:00.005+08:00

I'll not pollute this blog by posting KRudd's latest round of dishonest rhetoric and sophistry. If you want to read his address to the Lowy Institute made on 6/11/09, then go here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/nation/the-pms-address-to-the-lowy-institute/story-e6frg6nf-1225795141519

His address makes a couple of things abundantly clear. One of them is that it is clear that he doesn't actually believe in man-made global climate change, and another is that he is quite desperate for the AGW trojan horse to deliver its planned payload, and not because he thinks it is good for the climate or the children of the world, but rather (and only) because he thinks it will be good for his political future and place in history.

The fact his address is riddled with weasel words and phrases and appeals to (unquantified) authority (i.e. "genuine body of evidence") that are typical of those who want to be seen as being in honest support of something they don't actually believe the word of, and who do not wish to tell a direct lie, show that he is really only giving convenient lip-service and that he doesn't actually think for a moment that our children and childrens children are under any threat by mankinds pitiful contributions of CO2 to the atmosphere ... and doesn't he just luuurv the convience "precautionary principle" offers in that regard, too !

Thus, he shows himself to be almost as much a fraud as the ETS he and Wong have cooked up to betray and ruin the country with.

His obvious desperation to see the AGW trojan horse be brought through the city gates before Copenhagen, is delicious.

To build on the gambling theme he chose to repeatedly use in his address, I think he knows everyone knows he's holding a dud hand and is bluffing, but he has put so much of himself into the pot that he might as well see it through, because to abandon his play now would be to lose absolutely, whereas while he continues with the obvious bluff, some miracle may still save him.

A man of great blindness of faith and twisty-turniness of character is our Kevin "to infinity billions and beyond" big spender ...

As this whole thing comes unstuck and the knowledge of the truth continues to grow and spread throughout this nation and the world as to how complicit in utter fraud some of our elected have become in relation to building nation destroying sovereignty robbing policies (and accompanying taxes and laws) around the AGW environmentalist religion, I wonder if we are going to see a repeat of the Oz Governer General vs Gough, and USofA "watergate" type thing.

Hmmmm, no, prolly not. Our current GG is too into herself to ever do what is required in relation to dismissing a PM and government that has betrayed its country and should no longer be in office, and I suspect that the USofA would still be more inclined to make it easy for some nutter with a gun to take care of such business than do the whole impeach thing again.

Actually, speaking of nutters with guns, I couldn't really see the Obamanation delivering the kind of address our desperate "the sky is falling, but I can save you" KRudd just gave.

Well, at least not on USofA soil ... they shoot at the very table those who seek to cheat and defraud, don't they ?

In closing, I'll quote the tiniest bit more of KRudd's sickening address. He mentioned a certain collection of names quite a few times (even Lord Monckton's ... but our Kevvy didn't say anything about the absolutely disgusting draft treaty the UN are pushing. The little Judas probably helped put the draft together anyway ...)

Malcolm, Barnaby, Andrew, Janet – stop gambling with our future. You’ve got to know when to fold ‘em – and for the skeptics, that time has come. The Government I lead will act. - Kevin Rudd, 6/11/09

Ooooh, I wonder what new laws our desperate little weasel of a PM is busy cooking up to see the likes of Andrew Bolt and Janet Albrechtsen silenced ?

Re-education camps where "arbeit macht frei" ?

I don't reckon MSM is going to be in much support of Kevvy for much longer. Interesting recent news is that Rupert Murdoch reckons KRudd "is delusional". You can read about that here: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,27574,26316630-2,00.html

"If Rudd thinks we can set an example for the rest of the world with a cap-and-trade system on greenhouse gas emissions - the ETS - all it would do is push up the cost of living in Australia and the rest of the world will laugh," - Rupert Murdoch 07/11/09

How's that for a fair shake of the sauce bottle in the fullness of time, Kev ?

You'll be needing that job in the UN by the time all this is over, coz no one is going to want you in Oz.

Anyway, you should fit in well over at the UN. They aren't all that big on "due diligence" either.

regarDS

Big News! AGW's "Hockey Stick" well and truly broken ...

2009-10-03T19:32:00.012+08:00

This is Big News. At long last, after near a decade of being stymied and stonewalled, the Base Data used to help give the world the infamous "Hockey Stick Graph" has been made available for suitable scientific peer-review scrutiny ... and it is now plain why such desperate efforts were made to keep it from being scrutinised in the first place.

Rather than repeat what has already been said, get thee instead to the following links from the award winning science blog "wattsupwiththat.com":

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/27/quote-of-the-week-20-ding-dong-the-stick-is-dead/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/28/mirror-posting-of-climate-audit-article-on-yamal-a-divergence-problem/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/28/update-a-zoomed-look-at-the-broken-hockey-stick/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/29/leading-uk-climate-scientists-must-explain-or-resign/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/29/more-broken-hockey-stick-fallout-audit-of-an-audit-of-an-auditor/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/30/a-must-read-the-yamal-hockey-stick-implosion-in-laymans-terms/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/30/agu-presentation-backs-up-mcintyres-findings-that-there-is-no-hockey-stick-in-yamal/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/09/30/more-yamal-tree-ring-temperature-data-this-data-is-flat-as-roadkill/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/10/01/mirror-posting-yad06-the-most-influential-tree-in-the-world/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/10/01/response-from-briffa-on-the-yamal-tree-ring-affair-plus-rebuttal/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/10/02/ross-mckitrick-sums-up-the-yamal-tree-ring-affair-in-the-financial-post/

http://wattsupwiththat.com/2009/10/02/a-hands-on-view-of-tree-growth-and-tree-rings-one-explanation-for-briffas-yad061-lone-tree-core/

Or if you don't have the time to be reading all that at the moment, then enjoy the following rant from Hitler ... but please pardon any mis-translating of German into English I may have inadvertently made in providing subtitles. Heh.

So, "man-made climate change" is in fact shown to be "mann-made climate change". Not that I expect the AGW environmentalist religionists to suddenly abandon their cult just because a central sacred icon to it has been hurled down. They'll soon find something to replace it with ... such is the nature of such True Believers.

regarDS

Can you hear me Penny Wong ?

2009-08-14T17:55:00.003+08:00

I thought I better resist the urge to launch into yet another massive/longwinded post on the topic of AGW Alarmism.

So I'll launch into a song instead. Heh.

Lyrics (as found in the comments section at http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/it_should_have_been_defeated_because_its_insane/
by "Perturbed") as follows:

EARTH ODDITY. (Apologies to David Bowie)

Kevin Rudd to Penny Wong
Kevin Rudd to Penny Wong
Put your special hat that's made of tinfoil on.

Kevin Rudd to Penny Wong
Legislation spin switch on
Check your factoids and may Al Gore be with you

(Countdown from 10 - 1, then Liftoff!")

This is Kevin Rudd to Penny Wong,
Weve really made the grade!
And weve sidelined that weird singer with no hair
Now lets push the ETS through if we dare

This is Penny Wong to Kevin Rudd
My hearts gone through the floor
For theyre voting in a most peculiar way
And the outcomes looking miserable today!

For here we are with our hats of tinfoil
Trying to save the world
The ETS we blew and there's nothing we can do.

Though we've made three hundred billion debt
We could do better still
But the stupid Senate told us where to go
(To a double dissolution, dont you know?)

Kevin Rudd to Penny Wong
Our Climate Change crusades gone wrong
Can you hear me, Penny Wong
Can you hear me, Penny Wong
Can you

Here we are with our hats of tinfoil
Baying at the moon
The ETS we blew and theres nothing we can do

Anyway, to participate in the debate, join up at: http://www.behindthebox.com.au/showthread.php?t=38673

regarDS

A minor win in the war on stupidity and fraud that is AGW Alarmism and ETS.

2009-08-13T23:23:00.004+08:00

On the 13th of August, 2009, a minor skirmish in the war on gross stupidity and outright fraud was won when the PRO-Anthropogenic Global Warming Alarmist Government had its CO2 indulgence scheme ala "CPRS" voted down.

Featured below is a speech from one of the voices of reason who voted against the Government's ruinous plans for Australia. Please note that all paragraph breaks and bold (etc) emphasis, have been added by yours truly. The speech in its original form was not provided with paragraph breaks so I've had to guess where they may have been.

To see it in its original format, visit: http://blogs.news.com.au/heraldsun/andrewbolt/index.php/heraldsun/comments/it_should_have_been_defeated_because_its_insane/

Tuesday, 11 August 2009
BY AUTHORITY OF THE SENATE
Tuesday, 11
August 2009 THE SENATE 1
CHAMBER SPEECH
Date Tuesday, 11 August 2009
Source Senate
Page 70 Proof Yes
Questioner Responder
Speaker
Minchin, Sen Nick Question No.

Senator MINCHIN (South Australia) (7.32 pm)—

The government this week are asking the Senate to support passage of a package of no less than 11 separate bills, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Bill 2009 and related bills, to give effect to their Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme, as they call it.
This scheme represents one of the most dramatic and far-reaching interventions into the Australian economy ever proposed by an Australian government. Its passage and entry into force would have enormous impacts on the Australian economy and the economic circumstances of millions of Australians.

The government knows there is no Senate majority for this legislation, yet it is determined on what is nothing more than a cynical political exercise. This legislation should be withdrawn for a number of reasons.

Firstly, it proposes a scheme which will not commence operation for another two years. There is absolutely no justification for the government’s insistence that the parliament deal with it now.
Secondly, the government is seeking to legislate an emissions trading scheme for Australia well in advance of the UN meeting in Copenhagen in December, which will determine the extent to which, if any, the world is prepared to act in concert on CO2 emissions. It is utter folly for Australia to legislate a scheme prior to the Copenhagen conference.

And, thirdly, the United States, currently the biggest emitter, is currently considering the issue of an ETS. It is, in our view, cynically irresponsible to propose that the Australian parliament lock in an Australian ETS prior to the US —as I said, the biggest emitter of CO2—before it determines whether or not it will commit to an ETS and, if so, the nature and design of such a scheme. For these reasons, the opposition condemns the government for its naked political opportunism in forcing the parliament to consider its so-called CPRS at this time.

Not only is the timing of this legislative initiative to be condemned, so too should the very name given to this package of legislation be condemned by this parliament. It is regrettably typical of this spindriven government to use such a grotesquely Orwellian approach to the description of this legislation.

For no more than base political purposes, the government has called its emissions trading scheme a ‘carbon pollution reduction scheme’. This is of course the perpetuation of a cruel hoax on the Australian people, childishly simplistic and misleading. The scheme proposed does not deal with carbon. It purports to deal with something quite separate—carbon dioxide emissions—and the scheme does not deal with pollution.

Whatever the climatic role of human induced emissions of CO2, CO2 is not by any stretch of the imagination a pollutant. CO2 is, as we know, a clear, odourless, colourless gas vital to life on earth. Indeed, CO2 is essential to a healthy environment.
One of the most cynical and deceptive manoeuvres of the climate change fanatics is to seek to convince people that CO2 emissions are pollution, to demonise CO2 per se. Anyone with any understanding of science knows this to be a complete falsehood. Indeed the Rudd government knows it too. Its own environment department’s website has a link to the official Australian National Pollutant Inventory, which lists 93 pollutants. Surprise, surprise, carbon dioxide is not listed among them. Mind you, after this speech, I bet some poor public servant will be bullied into adding CO2 to the list. So even the government’s own official list of pollutants, all 93 of them, does not include carbon dioxide.

It is also typical of this deceitful and spin-driven government to so cynically misrepresent the nature of carbon dioxide. Of course this whole extraordinary scheme, which would do so much damage to Australia, is based on the as yet unproven assertion that anthropogenic emissions of CO2 are the main driver of global warming.

I want to commend Senator Fielding for his questioning of the government over the causes of global warming. The Rudd government arrogantly refuses to acknowledge that there remains a very lively scientific debate about the extent of and the main causes of climate change, with thousands of highly reputable scientists around the world of the view that anthropogenic emissions of CO2 are not and cannot be the main driver of the small degree of global warming that occurred in the last 30 years of the 20th century.

No-one, of course, disputes the reality of climate change. Of course the climate is constantly changing —it always has; it always will—but the main drivers of the small degree of warming that occurred in the 20th-century and the extent to which we should be concerned about it are hotly disputed in scientific circles.

One of the world’s most eminent atmospheric scientists, Professor Richard Lindzen of the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology, recently observed:

"The notion of a static, unchanging climate is foreign to the history of the earth or any other planet with a fluid envelope. The fact that the developed world went into hysterics over changes in global mean temperature anomaly of a few tenths of a degree will astound future generations. Such hysteria simply represents the scientific illiteracy of much of the public, the susceptibility of the public to the substitution of repetition for truth, and the exploitation of these weaknesses by politicians, environmental promoters, and, after 20 years of media drum beating, many others as well. Climate is always changing."

That is Professor Richard Lindzen, one of the world’s most eminent atmospheric scientists, who I suspect knows a little bit more about this subject than Senator Penny Wong. On Tuesday, June 23, writing in the Australian, Professor Peter Schwerdtfeger, Emeritus Professor of Meteorology at Flinders University, in Adelaide, reinforced this:

Repeatedly in science we are reminded that happenings in nature can rarely be ascribed to a single phenomenon. For example, sea levels on our coasts are dependent on winds and astronomical forces as well as atmospheric pressure and, on a different time scale, the temperature profile of the ocean. Now, with complete abandon, a vociferous body of claimants is insisting that CO2 alone is the root of climatic evil.

I fear that many supporters of this view have become carried away by the euphoria of mass or dominant group psyche. Scientists are no more immune from being swayed by the pressure of collective enthusiasm than any other member of the human race.
To acknowledge the reality of continuing scientific debate is not to say that Australia should not act in concert with other nations to give the planet the benefit of the doubt and to seek a global agreement to contain CO2 emissions. To the extent that anthropogenic CO2 emissions may be a cause of the limited global warming that has occurred, and to the extent that that warming is considered to be damaging, internationally coordinated measures to contain emissions at the least possible cost may be warranted.

Indeed, as someone trained in economics, I proclaim the virtue of an approach based on ensuring the most cost-efficient use of finite resources. The world has not measured up to that standard in relation to its use of energy. But, given the continuing scientific debate, it is especially important that a country like Australia only take steps in relation to CO2 emissions that are in concert with the rest of the world and clearly involve the least cost and most economically efficient means of CO2 containment.

The government’s CPRS clearly fails that test. The case against this scheme was convincingly made by my colleague the member for Goldstein, Mr Robb, in his speech on this bill in the House of Representatives. I also commend the work of my coalition colleagues on the Economics Legislation Committee in their reports on these bills and of Senator Xenophon on his minority report, which is a well-argued condemnation of this CPRS. I should also make mention of the critical analysis of this CPRS undertaken by the Select Committee on Climate Policy, chaired by my colleage Senator Colbeck, which exposed the CPRS’s many, many flaws.

Not enough is made of the reality of Australia’s circumstances in the consideration of measures to contain anthropogenic CO2 emissions. Australia contributes a little over one per cent of the planet’s CO2 emissions. If we were to completely shut down the Australian economy tomorrow, Australia’s CO2 emissions would be fully replaced by China within nine months. It is indisputably the case that nothing Australia does on its own can have any impact whatsoever on the earth’s climate. The deceit perpetrated by climate change fanatics that an Australian ETS will save the Barrier Reef is utterly contemptible.

The manic determination of the government to impose this scheme on Australia also ignores the reality of the Australian economy. Australia’s economy and our higher standard of living have been built upon our access to relatively cheap and abundant supplies of energy generated by coal-fired power stations. This is regrettably not well understood in this parliament let alone in the wider community.

It was my privilege to serve as Minister for Industry, Science and Resources for three years in the Howard government, an experience which reinforced this fundamental reality about Australia: all the great manufacturing and value-added industries of Australia, which this Labor government professes a commitment to, have been built on and are sustained by access to cheap, reliable energy derived from coal. That is why an ETS, essentially an energy tax, is such a threat to this country.

As Terry McCrann so accurately said in the Australian of 20-21 June: ... an ETS threatens to kill the Australian economy. It is a direct attack on our core comparative advantage: bluntly, the production of CO2. Power generated from cheap and abundant coal is a, perhaps the, core building block of both our standard of living and our entire economy.

That is a reality which this government wilfully ignores. What we see here is a Labor government sacrificing workers in energy-intensive industries on the altar of green votes. The cruel joke is that all those thousands of jobs to be destroyed by Labor’s CPRS will be in vain, because this scheme will make absolutely no difference to the global climate.

Most Australians clearly do not understand what an emissions trading scheme is, how it would work and what its consequences would be. That is perfectly understandable. I suspect most of the Labor caucus has no idea, either. Essentially it will be a very substantial tax on energy, and that is why Labor’s flawed CPRS is such a threat to our economy, dependent as it is on relatively cheap supplies of energy. Hence the utter folly of Australia designing and implementing this scheme ahead of the rest of the world.

Labor’s CPRS is a serious threat to many regional economies and the jobs they support, and I commend Senator Fiona Nash for her eloquent espousal of their cause. In my own state of South Australia it is estimated that it will cost 2,000 jobs by 2020 in the minerals industry alone. As a senator for South Australia, I do not see how I can possibly vote for this legislation, nor do I see how any government senators representing South Australia can vote for it.

While the financial capitals of Melbourne and Sydney may relish the creation of a new financial instrument to be traded by 20- something bankers, the people of a state like mine will pay the price in a higher cost of living, in industries and jobs destroyed and in a reduction in competitiveness — all for zero environmental gain.

It is also reprehensible that Labor would seek to legislate this serious attack on the Australian economy at a time when, as Mr Rudd constantly reminds us, we face a very serious set of economic circumstances. Mr Rudd loves to remind us of the seriousness of the so-called GFC and its threat to Australia. Indeed, it is his justification for the most massive explosion in government spending, government deficits and government debt seen since the 1930s. Yet, while talking endlessly about our serious economic situation, he seeks to fit Australia up with a set of concrete boots called his CPRS.

As Geoff Carmody, one of Australia’s most eminent economists, wrote in the Financial Review on 23 June this year: The CPRS is ‘the GST from hell’, delivering negative protection. Why should any country unilaterally tax its exports and effectively subsidise its imports, for no global emissions reduction?

At a time when policy should be wholly directed at maximising the efficiency, productivity and international competitiveness of the Australian economy, Mr Rudd seeks to impose a unilateral massive new tax on Australian industry and consumers which will damage our economy and do nothing to combat global warming.

The government’s pursuit of this legislation at this time is nothing more than an act of vanity on the part of Mr Kevin Rudd. This most vain of prime ministers wants to strut the stage at Copenhagen in December with a legislated ETS in his back pocket. He and his government propose to sacrifice Australia’s national interest on the altar of his vain desire for international acclaim from the vast UN bureaucracy being built around climate change policy.
The Australian parliament should not even be considering legislation for an ETS until we know the outcome of the UN’s Copenhagen conference and the US Senate’s consideration of the Waxman - Markey bill. The Australian people agree with this view. An Australian Newspoll conducted on the weekend of 24 to 26 July showed that 53 per cent of Australians wanted their government to either delay the introduction of an emissions trading scheme until after the Copenhagen conference or not introduce an emissions trading scheme at all.

On that basis, and for the reasons I have outlined to the Senate tonight, I urge the Senate to reject this package of bills.

Hear, hear.

regarDS

To the Federal Leader of the Opposition

2009-07-21T09:16:00.007+08:00

A letter I just sent via links available here: http://www.liberal.org.au/contact/ and http://malcolmturnbull.com.au/ContactMalcolm/tabid/87/Default.aspx and
http://www.dennisjensen.com.au/contact.asp and http://www.nationalswa.com/contact.aspx and http://www.aph.gov.au/house/members/memfeedback.asp?id=SJ4 (The Hon Wilson Tuckey MP's website) and no doubt more to follow.

The version I sent to Dr Jensen was prefixed with:

"Dear Dr Jensen.

Sorry to read what has just happened to you re: pre-selection, particularly considering your views regarding AGW Alarmism. I do hope you continue with the good fight in that regard, either with the Liberal Party or as an Independent.

I submitted the following note to the Liberal Party webpage and Malcolm Turnbull's webpage this morning because I am very much concerned by the direction that the Coalition seems to be going in relation to the typical AGW alarmist position and the Rudd & Wong "ETS".

Also, because of Mr Turnbull's stance and recent decisions I find that I can no longer speak of the Liberal Party in good terms while he remains its leader and in support of any kind of ETS.

Letter is as follows, and thank you for your time:"

To the Federal Leader of the Opposition.

In every election over the last 27 years I have voted for either the Liberal party or the Coalition, either directly or via preferences but mostly the former.

I will be unable to continue this trend in the next election should the Liberal party continue in anyway to support the alarmist nonsense and fraud that is "man made climate change", CO2 being "a pollution", and any kind of "Emissions Trading Scheme" related to CO2.

Instead, I will be supporting candidates who demonstrate climate change realism, which at the moment seems to only be the Family First party.

Yes, the climate is changing, it has always changed, and it continues to change, and atmospheric CO2 levels always lag behind global temperature changes and not lead them ... and regardless of mankind's pitiful contributions to the same. Besides, when it comes to atmospheric CO2 levels, the planet is virtually starving for the stuff anyway, and would benefit by actually being doubled or more.

Make no mistake. If the blogs and forums are anything to go by, there are a lot of longstanding typical coalition supporters out there who will be casting their votes elsewhere unless the Liberal party soon chooses to admit to the folly of AGW ("manmade global warming) and associated fraud of an ETS, and instead adopt a unified Climate Change Realist position that is contrary to the kind of disaster the ALP (let alone The Greens) are trying to inflict upon Australia.

Also, don't under estimate the power of "the internut" in terms of reaching people and shaping public opinion. At the moment, it would appear that KRudd and Co are continuing to use it far more effectively that the Coalition.

Personally, I think you will find that if you decisively establish policy that not only opposes the ALP's "ETS" but also rigourously demands answers to the kinds of questions Senator Fielding recently asked on the topic, and made it all very public, then the Australian Public would overwhealmingly support your party.

The average voting age Ozzie can sniff out BS from 50 paces and most of us probably know by now that there is something distinctly fishy about the whole AGW Alarmist thing and that to implement an ETS would be to put the country and economy through a hiding for nothing, so with that in mind it would be quite foolish to do a "me too" to what Rudd and Wong want to inflict upon us.

As a blogger and prolific forum participant I will be continuing to warn against AGW Alarmism and an ETS, and similarly will be denouncing any and all political parties who support those scams. In fact, this very letter is also about to be posted to my own blog and a highly google referenced forum, and I will also be supplying it by way of comment to the PM's new blog on the topic of climate change.

I firmly believe that how your party chooses to approach the (Natural) Climate Change topic will directly affect your chances at the next election. To merely support or echo the ALP postion will render you irrelevant, but should you choose to take a stand against the Alarmist hysteria and nonsense, you could not only be returned to Government but also save Australia from ruin.

Thank you for your time.

regarDS

(name included)

A Kruddy Blogroll ... Oz taxdollars paying for fraud and spin ?

2009-07-17T08:51:00.008+08:00

Aw, how cute, Krudd has a new blogroll, and no doubt a team of public servants to keep it nice and clean. Our tax dollars busy ripping us off yet again ...

Here is his first entry, with the original to be found at:

http://www.pm.gov.au/PM_Connect/PMs_Blog/Climate_Change_Blog

Kevin.Rudd says...

I decided to kick off my blogging career with a focus on climate change.

The latest scientific research on climate change confirms our worst fears. Climate change is happening faster than we previously thought, creating a more serious threat to our economy, our environment and to future generations.

I recently returned from a meeting of leaders of the world’s major developed and developing countries in Italy, where our discussions focused on our global efforts to tackle climate change. This meeting - the Major Economies Forum on Climate and Energy – made some important progress. In particular, it recognised the clear message from climate science that the increase in global average temperature must not exceed 2 degrees celsius. That means the international community is accepting the need for tough long-term targets on reducing carbon emissions.

But the hardest work is still ahead.

Much more needs to be done if we’re to achieve a successful global agreement on climate change in Copenhagen in December.

Australia is determined to be on the front foot in global efforts to tackle climate change. We know that our nation is more exposed to the impact of climate change than perhaps any other developed economy. Without strong global and national action, climate change will permanently damage our natural environment and hit our jobs and our economy hard. The Great Barrier Reef – one of Australia’s most iconic natural wonders which generates jobs for around 60,000 people and more than $4.9 billion in tourism revenue – is particularly vulnerable to climate change.

The next step for Australia is to take strong action at home through Parliament passing the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme in August. This scheme will for the first time put a limit on Australia’s carbon pollution. By taking action at home in Australia, we can give businesses certainty and give momentum to the international negotiations that are so crucial for our national interest.

It’s our responsibility to act now on climate change. That is why I urge all Senators and Members of Parliament to support this vital legislation for our nation’s future.

How do you think we can make Australians more aware that we need to act on climate change now?

And here is my response to that load of lies and spin, which (for now) is an accepted comment to our Kevvy300billion's blog as at "Jul 16th, 2009 at 8:30 pm"

> "The latest scientific research on climate change confirms our worst fears."

"our" is a reference to Ms Wong and yourself, yes ?

After all, "the latest scientific research" is consistently and repeatably showing that the global climate change that the planet is enjoying is not only cyclic but also has virtually nothing to do with atmospheric CO2 levels let alone humanity's miniscule contribution to them. Which obviously means that the proposed ETS scheme is not only totally unfounded and pointless, but also somewhat fraudulent to say the least.

Which goes a long way to explain your "worst fears".

> "Climate change is happening faster than we previously thought, creating a more serious threat to our economy, our environment and to future generations."

Should natural climate change manage to progress on the path of warming (sadly, it appears to have stalled in that regard) then this can overall only be good news to the planet and our economy, environment, and future generations. Especially so if atmospheric CO2 levels could in someway be TREBLED

After all, current atmospheric amounts of that lifebringing CO2 are virtually at starvation levels for the planet's flora for which the rest of life depends upon.

It's a pity mankind cannot actually do that much to influence atmospheric CO2 levels, but if we could, we would do better to increase it !

That being said, the real science is clearly showing that in relation to climate change, atmospheric CO2 levels lag behind global temperature changes not lead them.

So, no need for any of the hysterical alarmism about natural climate change and especially no need for any kind of ETS in relation to CO2.

Also, I think people need to remember that the IPCC (the InterGOVERNMENTAL Panel on Climate Change) is a political body, and science is decided by facts not consensus.

It certainly wasn't scientific consensus that did decades of stomach ulcer sufferers any favours, yes ?

regarDS

Yeah, I realise I am largely pissing in the wind here but if enough of us do even that, perhaps this disasterous ETS thing can be hosed off the floor along with AGW alarmism.

Anyhoo, at least ONE Senator seems to have rejected AGW and is firmly onboard to stand in the way of the ETS.

From: http://www.stevefielding.com.au/climate_change/ we can see that Senator Fielding not only ACCEPTS the reality of climate change (as do I and near everyone else who are wrongly described as "deniers" ... we only deny the foolish notion of MANMADE climate change and that man can do anything either way to influence global warming or cooling) but also is calling "on the government to answer my question with a straight answer. If they’re not prepared to do so, I’m happy to fight the lone battle in the senate until those senators who are honest with themselves break party lines."

See the provided link for the entire article (which details his meetings with Minister Wong, the Oz Chief Scientist, and a brief meeting with The Goracle) from his own blog, and then visit the following link to read the "Due Diligence" report prepared by scientists after Ms Wong and the Chief Scientist failed to either answer or impress.

http://www.stevefielding.com.au/images/uploads/7._Carter-Evans-Franks-Kininmonth_Due_Diligence_on_Wong-Z__.pdf

If you are of typically conservative voting habits, I would also urge you to write to your local member to let them know that you will be unable to support the Coalition should Malcolm Turnbull and Co choose to side/vote with the Government in support of an ETS, and that you would rather support Climate Change Realists like Senator Fielding who are willing to ask and demand answers for the hard questions and stand in the way of a blind pursuit into folly and ruin for this country.

regarDS

The creator of the Weather Channel wants Gore sued for fraud

2009-07-14T09:16:00.009+08:00

While on the subject of The Goracle (who is in Oz busy recruiting latte-lefty Melboredites even as I type), here is a picture of his Crystal displays. At last we have his chief advisor and source of faulty information revealed !

Yup, as always suspected, the Goracle depends not only on Liquid Crystal Displays, but also the old fashioned Solid Crystal Balls (as circled in purple in the pic).

In fact, The False Prophet only requires but ONE "SCB" to four LCDs to arrive at the fraud, scam, carpet bagging and flim flammery he touts.

Incredible, eh ? Yup ... and in every sense of the word.

How many big screen monitors and trees does it take be the profit, uh, prophet of AGW (Anthropogenic (ala "man made") Global Warming) Alarmism anyway ?

I see from http://www.climatedepot.com/a/1893/Gore-US-Climate-Bill-Will-Help-Bring-About-Global-Governance that the false prophet of climate change is (still) busy calling for "global governance", too.

The very thing I've been talking about for yonks now re: the pragmatic use of AGW Alarmism to cement together a mish-mash of governments into a New World Order of a Global Government. As also represeneted by "the 10 toes" of the "feat of iron and clay" final last days kingdom as per King Nebuchadnezzar's dream as interpreted by Daniel in the book by the same name and from chapter 2.

Not only has the march towards global government been steadily progressing as promised, but also is still happening and fast taking on its final form as detailed in the symbol of that King's infamous statue.

If indeed AGW Alarmism turns out to be the "clay" that cements the "iron" together in that final government before a certain big finish, then does that mean that The Goracle isn't just a false prophet, but in fact is THE False Prophet spoken about of the final days before Heavenly Intervention ?

If so, then not even the book writings of a hundred Professor Plimers are going to turn back the "man-made climate change" Alarmist madness, but rather it is more a matter of firmly choosing sides and accepting the consequences that go along with those choices.

I choose the side of science, rationality, and anti-fanaticism ... which obviously puts me directly opposed to Gore and all of the (mostly) loonie left who support him and who are pragmatically using natural climate change as a way to establish global systems of government that are not only anti-conservative and anti-christian, but also are likely (if left unchecked) to lead to a greater blood-letting than the extreme lefty regimes under Stalin, Hitler, and Mao (etc) put together.

Yes, you read that correctly, I reckon that the Nazis, ala "National Socialist German Workers' Party" were lefties who were found just to the right of the very much lefty Stalinists. To quote another blog on the subect, "The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialist) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party" (In German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)" See: http://ray-dox.blogspot.com/2006/05/american-roots-of-fascism-american.html for the entire article.

Still don't think so ? Well no matter, for "left/right" politics isn't a spectrum ... it's a circle with the extreme left and the extreme right ending up at the same place; fascism and totalitarianism.

Which is precisely what the world will get if the fanatical extremist environmentalists slash AGW Alarmists slash disenfranchised socialists slash Gorites get their way.

Their kind of mindsets just love the bloody revolutions and the mass murder of dissenters that such forms of overbearing government always bring ...

regarDS

PS: For more Climate Change Alarmism news articles and commentary (mostly from yours truly. Big surprise ?), visit: http://www.behindthebox.com.au/showthread.php?t=38673

Enemies of humankind and life itself

2009-06-22T01:46:00.006+08:00

From: http://www.co2science.org/ ... yet another site on Natural Climate Change that is worth bookmarking, IMHO.

SOQ

"CO2, a tiny but essential component of the atmosphere, wields nowhere near the climatic power often ascribed to it. As presently constituted, earth's atmosphere contains only 370 parts per million (ppm) of the colorless and odorless gas we call carbon dioxide. That's just a little over three-and-a-half one-hundredth of one percent, i.e., 0.037%. Even if its concentration were tripled, carbon dioxide would still comprise only a little over a tenth of a percent of the air we breathe, which is far less than what wafted through earth's atmosphere eons ago, when the planet was a virtual garden place. Nevertheless, and as illogical as it would seem (and truly is!), a mere doubling of this minuscule amount of CO2 is perennially predicted to produce a suite of dire environmental consequences, including dangerous global warming, catastrophic sea level rise, reduced agricultural output, ravaged natural ecosystems and dramatic increases in extreme weather events, such as droughts, floods and hurricanes."

and

"In the case of the biospheric benefits of atmospheric CO2 enrichment, it is an indisputable fact that carbon dioxide is one of the basic building blocks of life, comprising the major "food" of nearly all plants on earth. With more CO2 in the air, literally thousands of experiments have proven, beyond any doubt, that plants grow bigger and better in almost every conceivable way, and they do it more efficiently, with respect to the availability of important natural resources, and more effectively, in the face of various environmental constraints. And when plants benefit, so do all of the animals that depend upon them for their sustenance, including us humans. Without question, therefore, CO2 is the elixir of life, the rock-bottom foundation of nearly all that lives on the planet, be it in the ground, in the oceans, or in the air."

EOQ

So, why would the evil greens and loonie lefts be seeking to artificially control and reduce the amounts of such a valuable substance that provably can bring so much increase and wealth of food to the planet ?

The short answer is THEY HATE PEOPLE, especially people able to easily support themselves and subsist outside their control, rule, and care, and especially people who are aligned with conservative Judeo-Christian mores and moralities.

They want a planet with far less people and of those who remain, they want them to be unencombered by traditional christian attitudes and views.

I'm sure they will get their repeat of the bloody French revolution on a global scale before too much longer. Maybe even punctuated with a reintroduction of that famed bladed instrument for those who dare to stand in their willfully ignorant way. ;)

After all, blood letting soon follows on from such people hating mentalities once their arguments are shown to be nought but lies, fraud, and hot air.

Considering the typical human condition, it is only natural ...

regarDS

The vindication of carbon means the vindication of human freedom.

2009-06-18T03:20:00.010+08:00

If you've not realised yet, I'm a "Climate Realist". ie, I am of the reasonable and sensible view that the world's climate is changing, has always changed, and shall continue to change in the future. I certainly have not in any way, shape, or form, bought into the current nonsense that (a) CO2 is a pollutant and (b) human production of CO2 is driving global climate change.

Nor am I of the view that Real Science is decided by consensus - and just as well it isn't or we might never have found a cure for stomach ulcers.

I'm also of the view that on a global scale, our flora is somewhat starved for CO2 at the moment and could greatly benefit by an increase of at least 3fold to current levels. Which would be wonderful for providing so much more of the planet's population their daily bread !

Could it be that the desire to remove CO2 from our atmosphere is a desire to bring about population control via starvation ?

Anyway, I found the following at

http://www.climatesceptics.com.au/

which is the website of a new Oz political party dedicated to the truth getting out and the evil greenie loonie lefty religion of environmentalism being exposed for the fraud and enemy of humankind and the planet that it is.

The full link is:

http://www.climatesceptics.com.au/downloads/Vindication%20of%20Carbon.pdf

all bolds and extra emphasis are mine and paragraph format is probably different from the original (all formating was lost in the cut and paste)

Start Of Quote

THE VINDICATION OF CARBON MEANS THE VINDICATION OF HUMAN FREEDOM
Robert D. Brinsmead

The evidence is piling up every day that the world is now getting cooler instead of warmer, the oceans are now cooling instead of warming, the ice is returning to the Arctic rather than receding, the sea ice in the Antarctic is at record levels, and that rising sea levels have moderated. The sun has recently gone into a less active phase of fewer sun-spots, and the ocean decadal currents have changed from a warming to a cooling phase.

Before too long the global warming scare will be as dead as the scares about the Y2 bug or acid rain. Already some of the global warming alarmists, anticipating this may soon happen, are reinventing their alarmism into the scare about the oceans becoming acidified by our CO2 emissions – even though the oceans already contains 90 times more CO2 than the atmosphere (Chilingar, et.al.)

Beyond all these things, however, we need to get to what this debate and this climate change alarmism is really all about.

Beyond all this alarmism about global warming or ocean acidification, we need to see that on a deeper level it is a debate about carbon, and when we dig into that level of the debate we will finally see that behind the demonization of carbon and CO2, it is all about an attack on humanity itself.

Global warming alarmism is not a science, but a religio/political movement. This paper will show why it a dangerous totalitarian ideology and a more serious threat to human freedom than Communism or Nazism. It is also like a bad joke, because carbon just happens to be the most wonderful of all the elements in the periodic table because of its ability to make so many organic compounds that are fundamental to the formation of life. Yet here is a movement that is all about demonizing carbon.

The Wonders of Carbon

Nearly every new product that human ingenuity has devised on the road of human progress is a carbon-based product. Steel, for instance, is made by blending carbon with iron. There would be no construction industry without carbon. Nearly every product in a modern house, including most of the surfaces, with the exception of the glass and the bricks, is a carbon-based product.

If our clothes are not made of natural fibers such as wool, cotton or silk (all of which are carbon-based), then they will be made from synthetic fibers, all of which are carbon based too. All plastics and polyethylene products are carbon-based materials. All the foods we produce and eat are carbon products - and that not only includes our carbo(n)hydrates, but all the fats and proteins in our food are made of carbon compounds too.

Not just the petrol and oil that run our autos, but the cars themselves, right down to their brake linings, are made of substances that would not exist without carbon. There could be no aviation or space industries apart from a whole plethora of carbon-based products.

There are ten million naturally occurring carbon compounds (more than all the other elements of the periodic table combined), and beyond these, man is finding that there are almost limitless
opportunities to come up with new products using carbon -from fantastic nanotubes composed of the toughest stuff known to making better tennis racquets. This never-ending variety of new products is all due to the amazing and unique features of the carbon molecule that is so adaptable and so flexible that there is no end to what new products might be made with it - from the hardest to the softest substances known.

Carbon is not just the fourth most common element in the universe, but through its millions of compounds it is as ubiquitous and as necessary to life as oxygen and water.

Carbon is the Basis of Life

This brings me to my main point. Human ingenuity, as I have pointed out, can make an astounding array of new products that are carbonbased, including products that play a vital role in taking man into space. But, for all that, we cannot make living things with carbon because we can't solve the mystery of replicating life. But when the time came for the good Lord (or Gaia or Lady Luck if you insist) to make a world of living things, whether amazing plants that live and reproduce, or animals that can live and reproduce, or the human brain that can actually think creatively, what do you suppose this life-generating power used?

Carbon, of course!

Any good biology text book will tell you that life is carbon-based. All living things, starting at the cellular level which is common to all life, is based on carbon compounds, including the DNA that carry the gene sequences of the genetic codes. Of the trillions of cells in the human body, there is not a one of them that is not made of carbon.

Think of giant Cedars, Californian Redwoods and Tasmanian Mountain Ash - they are all made of carbon. Every blade of grass, every delicate orchid, every kind of fruit (there are ten thousand known varieties) is made of carbon. Think of all those tantalizing flavors in fantastic variety - juicy mangoes, buttery avocados and versatile limes, all filled with fruit sugars so varied and in such abundance - they are all made of a carbon/hydrogen combinations. Ordinary pure sugar is made up of ten atoms of carbon compounded with sixteen atoms of hydrogen. There are eight kinds of sugars essential to the human body and vital in cell to cell communication. Glucose, fructose, lactose and mannose are the more common ones. Sugar is fundamental to brain function. Every diabetic knows that.

When we turn to the animal kingdom, including mankind itself, we find too that leaping deer, frolicking seals, lumbering rhinos or thinking humans are all forms of animated carbon. In the human species we have thinking carbon through which the universe actually becomes conscious of itself. The human brain is the most complex and intricate piece of equipment in the universe. This is the organ of the human mind through which carbon not only becomes thinking carbon, but reaches the sublime heights of becoming caring, sharing, loving carbon.

So who is going to tell me that carbon is just some black old ugly stuff that deserves to be demonized as the world’s great pollutant?

Stand back, and let your mind take into this whole wondrous biosphere - the living earth - and what you are surveying is the awesome wonder that carbon has come alive in the great dance of life.

What is made of carbon must be fuelled by carbon. Now consider too that this great dance of living things is not just made of carbon, but it has to be fuelled by carbon. It needs to feed on carbon to grow and reproduce. Yet we have people who call themselves scientists or leaders of society who are so deluded with a disease called carbophobia (an irrational fear of carbon), that they label carbon a dangerous pollutant which has to be regulated and sequestered to the nether regions of the earth. For pity's sake, how can their carbon-thinking brains reach such anti-carbon conclusions?

This is not just madness; it is madness gone mad.

Mad science. Mad politicians. Mad anti-carbon activists on a mankind-hating, lifehating crusade of self destruction. In the entire history of civilization, no mass hysteria has ever come close to being such a monstrous threat to civilization at this!

Where do animals, including mankind, get their carbon-based fuel?

All animal food has to originate from plants, of course. Plants start this food chain by making carbo(n)hydrates for the animal kingdom. No plants = no food chain = no animals = no mankind. So where do the plants source their carbon so that they can make all this carbonbased food to sustain all creatures great and small?

The only gateway through which carbon can enter the food chain to enable the biosphere to exist is through the carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. There is no other way. It all starts with CO2 in the atmosphere. The entire chain of life starts with plants absorbing this entirely natural, colorless, odorless, absolutely non-toxic aerial gas called CO2.

They used to teach these simple facts to primary school kids, but nowadays teachers who are way off with the environmental fairies are scaring the daylights out of our children with hobgoblin stories about the evils of CO2.

This insanity must stop. It's time to teach the kids again and to remind the adults of this world that CO2 is the primary plant food that ends up feeding them too. They need to be told again the simple fact that the leaves on a plants have stomata through which they absorb or breathe in C02, and by a process of photosynthesis, the plants turn this CO2 into carbo(n)hydrate food for animals and man.

They need reminding that more than 90% of the dry matter of plants is simply processed C02. Whether it is a cow eating the grass or humans eating the cow, all are eating -and being fuelled - by processed CO2.

CO2 is as natural and as necessary to life as water and oxygen. It is not a poison. It is not a pollutant. It feeds the whole world, Stupid!

Unless the soil gave off carbon emissions into the atmosphere, unless the sea (which contains 90 times the amount of CO2 than the atmosphere) gave off carbon emissions, unless the micro-organisms which comprise more than two-thirds of the world's biomass gave off their carbon emissions, unless the termites gave off their carbon emissions, unless cattle gave off their carbon emissions (their belching and flatulence actually give off more carbon emissions than the entire human transport system), and unless we as part of this tapestry of life gave off carbon emissions, then life could not go on for the simple reason that the plants would have no food by which to grow, and then no creature on earth would have anything to eat.

For life to go on, the carbon used to make all living things and to feed all living things, must be circulated back from whence it came to start the life-cycle all over again. Every form of life simply borrows the carbon by which it lives only to give it back again. We give some of it back when we breathe, we give some of it back in our bodily wastes and we give the last bit of it back when the shovel thumps the ground on top of us.

Demonizing Carbon is a Dangerous Nonsense.

In the light of all this, it is a sheer nonsense of the highest and most dangerous order to put forward the notion that carbon or carbon dioxide is a pollutant. It is double nonsense to say that the carbon emissions of either humans or cattle is a threat to the earth anymore than the much more abundant carbon emissions of the soil microorganisms or the carbon emissions of the oceans that outdo our human carbon emissions in an order of magnitude many times to
one are a threat to the earth.

Be warned: this dangerous eco-Taliban wants to subject us to a carbon taxing, carbon regulating police state. It surely has to stand to reason that you can't regulate human carbon emissions without regulating every aspect of human existence - and that would be more totalitarian than anything the world has ever known. This is a religio/political ideology masquerading as science.

Their plans to decarbonize our footprint and to decarbonize our economy will reduce our civilization to a weakened and impoverished state of carbo-anorexia. Does that sound like a lot of fun?

People need to be told the plain truth that much higher carbon emissions and much higher levels of atmospheric CO2 than we see at present would mean more plant food, more plant growth and more food for man and animals to eat. Carbon is the greenest stuff on the planet.

I speak now as a horticulturist. Plant nursery operators know that CO2 enrichment of the air in the nursery house means that the plants grow quicker, have bigger roots and get by on less water.

Certainly every indoor tomato grower in New Zealand, Australia, Holland or anywhere for that matter knows that he can increase the yield of tomatoes 40% simply by increasing the CO2 content of the air by about 300%. What's good for plants is good for animals because animals and plants evolved together and share a common basis in life based on cells.

A great leap forward in world agricultural productivity took place in the 1920's when they learned to take nitrogen out of the air and put it into the soil where it could stimulate plant growth. Our highly populated world could not feed itself today without recourse to synthetic nitrogen. The second leap forward is staring us in the face. It is to take the carbon out of the earth and put it into the air where it can benefit plant life and so enhance food productivity. The technology has already been proven and demonstrated thousands of times. It is estimated that the agricultural industry today enjoys a 15% increase of food productivity due to the modest rise of atmospheric CO2 levels of the last 100 years from 280 ppm to 385 ppm.

More and more evidence accumulates that in an ideal world we would have 1000 to 1500 ppm of CO2 in the atmosphere instead of a mere 385 ppm as we have now, or a 280 ppm that the carbophobics would take us back to if they have their way.

That level of CO2 happens to be only a tad higher than the point at which plants suffocate for lack of CO2. (See the Wikipedia article on CO2) 300% to 400% higher levels of CO2 will have no adverse impact on humans or animals.

In evolutionary history, the explosion of life-forms took place during the Cambrian Age when there were many times more CO2 in the atmosphere than we have today. Besides, humans work in indoor tomato-growing facilities and indoor offices where the CO2 levels are around 1,000 ppm.

As for world temperatures, more and more evidence piles up every day, especially over the last five years, that higher levels of atmospheric CO2 have no catastrophic effect on climate.

In the theory of the global warming alarmists, CO2 has heat-trapping properties, meaning that the more CO2 builds up in the atmosphere, the warmer the world will become. There are some inconvenient facts, however, that destroy this theory:

(1) CO2 is only a small player when it comes to greenhouse gas, more than 90% of which is water vapour – and who gets paranoid about water vapour?

(2) The earth and her systems – including the very complex climate system – are robust, resilient and self-regulating. Apparently, they easily adjust to a bit more CO2 just as easily
as all the plants and animals do.

(3) The proof of any scientific theory is in observing and measuring what takes place in the real world irrespective of what computer modeling might indicate. Whilst CO2 levels have continued to rise over the last decade, world temperatures have begun a downward trend. If the current behavior of the sun with its diminished sun-spots and magnetic strength is any guide, and if the recent changes of the Atlantic and Pacific Decadal Currents are any guide, then this cooling trend will continue for a least another 20-30 years – all proving that C02 never was and never can be a primary driver of climate.

Carbophobia - the irrational fear of carbon - has become the disease of our age, the religious myth of our time and the apocalyptic delusion of this moment of history. It can be cured, however, with a good dose of common sense.

Why then worry about the size our carbon footprint? - the bigger the better if the aim is to green the earth and to feed the world. As for pollutants, let's direct our attention to the real pollutants in our environment like the sulphurs, the nitric oxides and real chemical pollutants. CO2 is not one of them. Before we get too morbidly obsessed about the size of our carbon footprint, it might help to remind ourselves that the termites and the micro-organisms have a very much larger carbon footprint than we do.

As for the oceans, their carbon emissions are so massive that they make human carbon emissions appear about as significant as some flatulence in a hurricane.

Carbon is good for you, good for every living thing, and good for the earth. So relax and enjoy your good portion of carbon under the sun, especially if it happens to be a carbonated cold one.

The fear of carbon is the fear of life. The love of carbon is the love of life. Humans are animated carbon. Everything we consume and emit is carbon-based. Everything we make or purchase causes carbon emissions.

It is not possible to control and regulate carbon without controlling and regulating every aspect of human existence. To be anti-carbon is to be anti-human freedom.

The war on carbon is an ill-disguised war on humanity, a war on human freedom. Carbon and carbon emissions are simply a proxy for human activity. This whole movement to demonize carbon is driven by a world-denying, man-hating worldview. It is time to rip away the mask and expose the movement whose real aim is to put the human race in chains to a system that controls every aspect of human existence.

It is time to stand up and say, “You take your jackboots off my carbon and off my life.”

It is heartening to see that more and more scientists are waking up to the junk science of man-made global warming alarmism and that they are are now coming out of the woodwork to say so. The movement to shut down our energy sources by a beat-up against CO2, if successful, would turn off the lights of civilization. It is fitting that the symbolism of the recent Earth Hour was darkness rather than light.

There has never been more than a small coterie of pseudo-science activists and social engineers driving this global warming alarmism cart. They have been remarkably successful in closing down the debate and silencing opposition by their big lie about their enjoying an overwhelming scientific consensus. They have intimidated a lot of scientists with the fear of losing academic funding if they should open their mouths with a contrary opinion.

As for the Media that refused to obey their own credo of rigorous investigative journalism, that ducked from asking the hard questions, that forgot they were supposed to be independent journalists instead of advocates for the popular hysteria, its integrity and credibility has been trashed by its own hand.

Long live the free spirits of the Internet, the indefatigable bloggers who would not be silenced.

*Robert D. Brinsmead is a Horticulturist and a free-lance Writer.

End of Quote

regarDS

An escape from the Loonie Leftie pandemonium of fear-mongery

2009-04-29T09:43:00.010+08:00

Sick of all the fear-mongery being foisted upon us by the Loonie Left and the (mostly) Loonie Left world media and their plans to turn the whole globe into a nanny state ?

Tired of how the moment the weather fails to support the "Cult Of Climate Change" dogmas and orthodoxies, some new scare is quickly broadcast to keep us distracted, compliant, and trusting of the religious fanatics ... ie, every person in a position of power who has jumped on the "AGW"/"manmade global climate change" bandwagon and feeding at the tax-payer supported troughs while they promote The Big Lie ?

Wanna join in on this latest fearfest "Swine Flu" thang in a more satisfying way ?

Then here is the distraction for you.

Get thee to: http://www.crazymonkeygames.com/Pandemic-2.html and enjoy creating some pandemonium of your own upon a virtual globe in this freeby online game !

In one of my first tries, a non-lethal (ie, no symptoms to reveal it too soon) taste of "der spatz brain borer" parasite was delivered to every country on the globe except madagascar within 16 days, and then the entire population (sans madagascar) was infested within 38 days, and then "der spatz brain borer" parasite was cranked up to bring about rapid death via Hypersensitivity, Cysts, Fever, Nausea, Vomiting, Depression, Dementia, and Insanity ... but I dragged that out to last over 120 days to keep it interesting.

A bit like my blogging and forums involvements when you come to think about it ...

Sure, tis prolly a bit on the "bad taste" side of things ... but so too are the constant efforts by "them" (the Loonie Left, et al) to control you by fear , so rather than be offended, why not deem this freeby online escape as being a tool for dealing with (and breaking out of the control of) those irrational fears ?

Anyway, here some poor screen shots of my efforts to achieve what the likes of the WWF wants for the globe and humanity. Really !

Ooops, my turn to foist some fear. Heh.

regarDS

PS: CLE, I don't know whether to thank you or curse you for making me aware of this game, so to play it safe and cover all options, deem a virtual chocolate bar infected with "DSBB" to have been mailed your way. :)

Easter on the Swan River, Western Australia

2009-04-13T14:30:00.016+08:00

Howdy whoever you are and however you got here. This entry is just going to be a couple of happy snaps taken by numba1son, LSCP ("LifeStyleChoicesPartner" for those who've come in late, or in this case "Lovely Skipper Cute'n'Pretty"), and yours truly.

The context is that we decided NOT to join the crazy and mad annual Easter migration out of Perth to Down South to do some camping, and hung out on the river for days on end instead.

Our first overnighter was in front of/below Christchurch diagonally opposite from Point Walter (near the very view LSCP has from her office and dance studio), then around to Matilda Bay for a day of frolicing in the shallows with family and the consumption of numerous cold beers, then our regular spot at Herrison Island lagoon near the WACA, then all the way up to Guildford, and then as far as it was safe to actually take the boat which turned out to be past Caversham House and Sandleford wineries and up near Bandiup prison.

Which all will mean absolutely nothing to most folk not from Perth. So, enough waffle, here are some pics:

LSCP enjoying the Day Bed below Christchurch

numba1son learning The Cube
derspatz being derspatz (ie, smug and good looking. heh)

the view from below Christchurch over to Point Walter. LSCP impressed me the next morning by paddling the wave-ski all the way from there to Matilda Bay, a self-powered distance of 8.7 kilometres of the total 82.3 kilometres travelled over the 3 days and nights on the water.
(big gap in picture taking due to socialising and drinking)

2 nights later.

cruising past a nice old cruiser way up the river at Caversham House

numba1son gameboying. Heh at the title of the book under the scrabble. It reads: "Don't Sweat The Small Stuff ... and it is ALL small stuff !"
Lovely Skipper Cute'n'Pretty (LSCP) getting us home (just gone past Garrett Road Bridge in Bayswater ... a bit tricky with the extra vessels in tow.)
Anyway, here is to hoping your Easter Break was as wet and liquid as ours ... and you remembered to offer suitable thanks and appreciation to The One who continues to make it all possible, year, after year, after year.

regarDS

Oz day on the Swan River in Perth, Western Australia

2009-01-27T09:59:00.014+09:00

Just got back to land from two great days and evenings relaxing on the Swan River in front of the beautiful city of Perth. I've been wanting to take my own boat out for Oz/Invasion day for years but I usually had to be on shift ... but not this year. Yay !

So, numba1son, LSCP, and I, put in at the boat ramp down the street from us at around 7pm on Sunday night (the night before Oz day) and he and I putted around to pick LSCP up from an even closer spot to home after she took the boat and trailer back for safe-keeping. Then it was time to cruise downstream for but a couple of kms and hook/raft up with a mate who was already busy "relaxing" with his own LSCP on this nice little toy:

A few snags and ales later it was time for us to give the love birds some peace and quiet and to motor back upstream for about half a click (if that) and pull in for the night at "The Lagoon" at Herrison Island. We had it all to ourselves and all was calm with much high pitch whining in the air. Bloody mosquitoes ! Ah well, the price of taking shelter from the wind ... and nothing a bit of roll-on repellent didn't fix.

About 10am we managed to raise enough energy to motor back out into the river and so we headed off and found a great position next to the skyshow perimeter looking back at the city from South-Eastish Perth. A bit of a battle getting to it mind you. It was low tide so I had to pull up the 135hp outboard and drop down the 8hp kicker instead - and even THAT had to be kept with prop about level with the bottom of the keel in order to avoid kicking up mud and crap !

Not a place to be diving off boats. Anyway, here we are in the afternoon chop which fortunately did settle down in the early evening and by midnight had become dead calm for the rest of the night. Oh, and not only did we have the Biggest Flag in those parts of the river, but I only saw one other Red Ensign anyway. The Channel 10 news chopper made a point of hovering low nearby and filming towards LSCP and I cuddling on the bow with that Big Flag flying over behind us. Her cover is well and truly blown now ! Heh.

These were some of our closest boating neighbours. Really nice folk in "Fuzzy Duck" (far right) and a bunch of Really Big ski-boats rafted next to them ... apparently all friends of their son. They all spent most of the day floating around in arm-chair thingies. I'd hate to think of how their skin looked when they finally got out ... not just because of the "pruning" affect, but also because of the 2stroke oil, etc, that ends up spread through the top 10cm or so of water from all the dirty outboards (guilty, your honour).

Anyway, ya can't spend a day or two on the river and NOT get in ... so here is yours truly running the gauntlet on the "Swan River Whalers" (that's "Bull Sharks" anywhere else in the world ... nasty buggers and they are making a comeback in our waters apparently). Numba1son and I also got into some water fights with lotsa kids and dads on other boats. I put the 8hp on my inflatable/tender which gave me a speed advantage, but I tell you what, they were pretty cunning with the outflanking and balloon artillery. All I had was speed and a bucket ... which was also pretty good for catching what was squirted or flung at ya. Heh. It made things pretty hairy for any to-ing and fro-ing from our pozzie on the river to where the "Big Toy" mentioned earlier was moored, so we had to give up on that particular trip as the day progressed - kinda hard to transport cameras and guitars and keep an LSCP's hair-dry when there are gangs of kids armed with super-soakers, balloon water-bombs, and buckets just waiting for you to take a step off your craft.

Yeah, the unwritten rule of the river that day was if you left your main boat, you were fair game for a soaking. Great Stuff. Good clean harmless fun ... well, as clean as it can be in a muddy 2stroke soaked river. I should mention that the only water delivery device numba1son had at his disposal was a silly little trigger squirt atomiser used to keep one cool. Sure, it could manage a straight squirt if you twisted the stupid little top on it, but we are talking about a pinhole stream against massive water-guns that could suck up litres of river in one move and eject it 5 metres with another. His comment ? "How emasculating". His battle cry was "I'm a man" as he squeezed the trigger to let fly with his feeble dribble that only managed to wet his own feet. LOL. Never a truer word spoken.

Here is a view of our front row vantage, taken from the tender. Pretty choppy still. Note the plane doing acrobatics to the right. There was A Lot of that stuff going on all afternoon. Everything from squadrons of Bi-planes (pics coming up) to cowboys flying choppers backwards or pin-wheeling across the sky, to water bomber planes and choppers, to sea-planes landing and taking off on the river, to military jets doing the "shock and awe" thing at noisy low altitude. Top Stuff, all of it !

Here are but a couple of pics of the Air Stuff on display. No, don't expect any photos of the fireworks ... we were all too busy enjoying the 30min display of some 20,000 shells being ejected into the sky in pleasing arrangements of colour and noise to worry about photographing it.

Okay, there WAS one flag bigger than ours. :) ... but I had something prettier, closer to mine - and I'm not just talking about that beautiful wooden craft to the left/behind ours. Heh.

Anyway, to any Oz readers, I hope your Oz day was a True Blue and "Ridgy-Didge" as ours was.

... and as the Oz flag flew off into the sunset, numba1son sat quietly contemplating the fact that in but a few days it is "Back to School again". Heh++

regarDS

There is no place like home ... Oz, that is.

2009-01-10T20:24:00.019+09:00

Whew, the derspatz mit LSCP (that's "Life Styles Choices Partner" for those who have come in late ... mainly used to protect my dear lady's identity; why should she potentially suffer in the offline world for her strange partner's usually offensive behaviour in the online world, eh ?) rapid tour of the Brit, Scot, and Welsh bit of the UK plus an excursion by boat n bus to the Christmas Markets in Cologne Germany and a chunnel trip to Paris France, is complete and we are back home in the sunny and warm West Oz in need of a sit around do nothing holiday to help us recover.

Isn't it always like that ? You zoom around seeing this and doing that and ticking off the itinerary entries, and get home more tired and wound up than when you left and fighting the temptation to shred or burn your passports so that you are less inclined to race off out of the country or inflict long-haul travel upon your body and sensibilities again in the short term.

Ah, it wasn't as bad as all that - in fact it was all mostly Very Good; I'm just having a moan because I've now come down with a nasty cough/cold, no doubt due to going from three weeks of temperatures that never got above around 2 - 3 degrees celsius (and usually around zero or below for most of the time we were up and about) back to temperatures that are 38 degrees C and above. Tis nice to get away with wearing minimal clothing again and not needing anything other than a sheeted mattress to sleep on, mind you.

Boring list time including a couple of pix of the order of places visited in some way between December 10, 2008 and January 06, 2009, including mode of travel or some other banality.

Perth to Dubai - Plane. Emirates. 11.5 hours. Complimentary Business Class upgrade. Yay !

Dubai to London - Plane. Emirates. 6.5 hours. Cattle Class. Felt like 24hrs. Woe.

Plane Cam

London for 3 nights - Lots of Tube Trips (Oyster Card a must !) and much walking. Loved it.

Newcastle - Early morning train from London, about 2.5 hours. Nice way to see the country side. Double-decker bused over to the DFDS port later that day after visiting the castle etc and downing a few pints in a local Irish bar. Set sail to Holland on the "Princess of Norway. Apparently it was a very rough trip (we got in three hours late) but we didn't notice thanks to illcohol mixed with qwells; we slept through the horrible stuff and had a great breakfast in a somewhat empty dining hall - everyone else too green to eat maybe ?

Cologne for 2 nights - Walking, walking. Crowded happy markets full of young and old trinken mulled wine in mugs and eating oversized sausages in tiny buns, etc. Loved it++ On the third day it was back to the Princess of Norway again and back to Newcastle.

Edinburgh for 2 nights - Trained up from Newcastle. Always pays to prebook these train trips online from the official site. We only paid a relative pittance to what the fares go for. Same goes for most accommodation using sites like "asia rooms" and "expedia" etc. Nice place Edinburgh but we also had a few things go wrong for us there such as our best credit card being swallowed by an ATM and a tour to visit the highlands cancelled. Still, we had other cards (and it only cost us about $50 extra in card fees for the whole holiday) and we did a great walking tour of the city instead, so no big deal.

Edinburgh, Hadrian's Wall, Windermere for 1 night - Hire car. I don't really want to talk about this - but of course I will. First of all, we were "talked up" for a "better grade" of hire car in Edinburgh because the one we want allegedly wasn't ready. They offered it for 4 pounds a day extra and we said no, so they offered it for 2.5pounds a day I thought "why not" as it was bigger n better even though a diesel instead of petrol. This turned out to be a Bad Thing. Getting near to Windermere in the English Lake Districts, the weather took a turn for the worse as we went over the mountain pass to the North. It was raining absolute cats and dogs, road puddles all over the place. Then, apparently a mere 3 miles shy of Windermere, we went through one puddle too many as a vehicle was coming the other way, and a huge splash of water waved upon us and our engine konked out. And stayed konked out. Bloody modern diesels ! This was about 4pm in the afternoon, or in otherwords, pitch black. The AA were called and we were told we would see help within 90 minutes. That and a bit more went by and still no sign of them - and I was now well wet through with no shoes or socks on and my jeans rolled up because the mere puddle down the road we had gone through before konking out was now a temporary lake and every half our or so someone would foolishly try to go through it and breakdown and I would trudge back down the hill again to wade in and help push them out.

Welcome to the Lake Districts, eh ? (sigh). After about 3 hours of waiting in the cold wet and dark, I trudged over to a house and borrowed their phone to have a little chat with the AA again. This time they explained that there were breakdowns happening all over the area but someone was definitely coming out for us. Blah, blah, blah. Back to the cold and damp again and a change of clothes ... oh, and with my bare feet I stepped on something squishy near the car door which turned out to be MY PASSPORT which had fallen out of my drenched through "dry as a bone" (HA !) jacket on one of my mercy missions to push someone out of the drink. Long story short, the AA arrived and towed us into Windermere by just on 10pm (yup, near 6 hours later) and the only place open to put us up at short notice was 100 pound a night ... ie, $230 Oz thanks for coming. Grumble Grrr.

We were told by the AA guy that this sort of thing happens all the time with these modern diesels and that the hire company would bring over a new car and take the old one away the next morning but nope, it didn't happen like that at all - we instead had to be towed all the way to Lancaster the next day (missing seeing the Lake Districts) to get the car swapped as well as have the hire car company try and get me to sign an ACCIDENT report (which I refused to do, but rather filled out a BREAKDOWN report by crossing out all references to "accident" and replacing with "breakdown") along with giving us the impression that we had now done our excess fee (about $900 Oz). Yup, they made my lovely and already Very Peeved and upset LSCP cry, and put me off ever hiring a car again and added a whole new stess level to our daily driving excursions. Talk about putting a damper on our holiday, eh ? Pardon the pun. BTW, Hadrian's Wall was interesting.

Wet'n'Wild

Hmmm, I better get a wriggle on here or this boring list will never get finished !

Windermere, Lancaster, Blackpool, York for 1 night - Hire car. BTW, driving is NO FUN in the UK any more. Too much traffic everywhere and next to no parking to be found in most towns, making B&Bs with reasonable parking worth the extra pounds they charge. The tides were out in Lancaster which made their beachs quite amazing, and driving up the offseason main strip in the Blackpool entertainment/amusement area was cool. York was great to walk around and as always, a visit to the "Jorvik centre" is a must.

York, Beverley, Humber Bridge, Edwinstowe, Worksop for 1 night - Hire car. Yup we went way over to the East, headed over the toll bridge then headed back West again, tried to get accommodation in Edwinstowe and ended up in Worksop of all places and not by design. And yet that gave us one of the most outrageous nights of the entire trip. A big cheers to you Mick at "The Friar Tuck" ! Dunno how much I can say without getting him in trouble but aside from a great evening meal with the room price instead of a breakfast, it took me until near 1am to empty my first glass of red wine (heh!) and for some reason he had the idea that when LSCP was asking for water to balance out her Stella trinken efforts stacking up on the table, "Mateus" was actually what she was asking for ? LOL. Anyway, the next morning when we staggered out quite ill and hung-over to continue with our travels, we discovered that the hire car had been parked in by a truck and the truck by another car. Try dealing with THAT when it hurts to try and string polite sentences together ! (heh++) Anyway, a great pity that weren't able to get back to the place on the 29th in order to jump on a bus with Mick and Mates to go to Manchester to watch a Manchester United game. Not only was time against us, but our liver and kidneys put in a protest vote too. (grin)

Worksop, Sherwood Forest, Newark-on-Trent, Grantham, Bourne for 2 nights - Hire car. Nothing like a slow gentle walk in Sherwood Forest to see the major oak tree and listen to the birds and watch the squirrels when one is feeling a bit hung over. Twas now the 22nd of December and time for LSCP and I to start catching up with various relatives and even meeting a number of them for the very first time. I must say that although initially rather nervous about some of that, it was fantastic to finally meet up and have a laugh and considerable catch up along with some great food and pints of ale. We thank you for your welcoming hospitality one and all. It was especially moving to be able to visit and spend some time alone at a particular graveside. Similar to be said for enjoying some of the local public transport. Anyway, just like I keep LSCPs identity shielded from guilt by association in these online places it is only fair that I should do the same when it comes to all our relatives too as ya never know who just might be reading ... so moving right along.

Bourne to Nottingham for 2 nights - Hire car. Visited more (identities protected) relatives in the evenings of the 24th and 25th and LSCP and I enjoying a day just to ourselves on the 25th which we spent roaming around Nottingham which had become something like out of "I am Legend" (ie, a ghost town with scary things lurking in the shadows) and swimming in the hotel's heated pool and enjoying Oz temperatures again by hanging out in a sauna. Nice to do that kind of Christmas every now and then.

Nottingham, Leigh, Chester, Stoke-on-Trent for 1 night - Hire car. Yup, once again we were all over the place. A grave site and old family residence to visit in Leigh for LSCP, then over to Chester for a Cornish pasty (nice place to visit, but yet another horrible place to try and get parking) then down to where Shakespear was born.

Stoke-on-Trent, Cotswolds, Oxford, Aylesbury, Stoke-manderville, Thame for 1 night - Hire car. Stopped at "The highest little castle in the Cotswolds" which we happened upon by accident. Uh, Broadway Castle I think it is called. Nice, but bloody windy and cold ! We didn't bother to stop in Oxford as we could see that parking was going to be an issue again and neither of us were all that keen on how busy it was, so it was on to some places from my childhood and then a stop at some Tudor Pub B&B in Thame only because it was now 4pm and getting dark and pints of Carling were calling to us.

Thame, Oxford, Gloucester, Monmouth for 1 night - Hire car. Another drive-though Oxford from a different angle and then the next stop Gloucester Docks, then over into Wales for a couple of hours spent exploring "Goodrich Castle", then a very late carvery lunch at Monmouth before meeting up with more of LSCP's relatives just out of Monmouth who generously put us up for the night in their wonderfully transformed historic home location and introduced us to the local ale-house. Oh, and for the first time since I was a child, I got to see a starry night sky in the Northern Hemisphere. I think it is pretty safe for me to post the identity of this particular relative without blowing LSCP's cover, and I only want to do so because of the amazing work and long term detailed task this man has set himself and is achieving. See: http://www.the-tidings.com/2004/0730/bible.htm or http://www.saintjohnsbible.org/ or

http://www.vads.ac.uk/learning/learndex.php?theme_id=cscu1&theme_record_id=cscu1jackson&mtri=cscu1calig or just put +"Donald Jackson" +calligraphy into google to be given all manner of relevant data. Cheers Donald (and family) for not only sharing your home and table with us, but also for your patient and detailed tour you gave us of the studio and the work you and your team are accomplishing there.

Monmouth, Cardiff, Bath for 2 nights - Hire car. After the awe inspiring tour of the aforementioned studio, it was down to Cardiff where (rather than visiting Yet Another Castle) we went straight to the lovely and very artistic docks area and visited the Dr Who exhibition, hung around where Torchwood is set, had a lovely lunch overlooking the bay before heading over to Bath via the Severn Bridge I saw being build as a child when I was living in Bristol from around mid 1969 to 1970 just prior to emmigrating to Oz. We actually scored street parking in Bath opposite where we were staying !

Touchwould ?

DervroS n friends ? Exterminate !

Bath, Stonehenge, Bath - We did what we wanted to do in Bath quicker than expected, so drove down to Stonehenge and were horrified by the number of tourists there. Didn't see anything like that kind of line-up of people anywhere else in the UK. Yuck. Happy to get back to Bath after that and later that evening I spent some time at the local internut Cafe near the railway station only to discover later on that their computer had put a virus/trojan on my thumbdrive set to execute when autorun was triggered. Grrr. Fortunately I'd not accessed anything financial or all that identifying, but I changed a whole bunch of passwords upon our return to Oz anyway. Gotta do that kind of thing at least once a year, yes ?

Bath, London - Hire car dropped off at last. Yay ! And the good news was there was no mention of lasting car damages and no excess was levied.

(EDIT: 1st Feb 2009. Boo ! Hire company HAS levied an excess near a month after the breakdown, so stay tuned as to whether this turns into something blog-worthy with the naming of names and reproduction of letters to and from them, the AA, touristy sites, ratings sites, and the like.)

So great to get back to a city with decent easy to use public transport and not have to worry about a hired vehicle again - which is saying something considering how much I loath the thought of using public transport in Oz ! Anyway, we squeezed in some more London stuff, LSCP discovered that I had lost the tickets bought weeks earlier for the wax-works so we did some retail therapy for her at Harrods instead (where she got into a verbal with one of the staff and some Eastern European BusyBody, and *I* got into trouble for not completely taking her side. Heh) before getting our glad rags on to go jump on a river cruise on the Thames which moored near Big Ben in time for the New Years Eve countdown and the fireworks show - with most of it seeming to come out sideways from "The Eye" Ferris wheel thingie. An excellent (but Very Cold) way of both finishing and starting the year.

London, Paris for 3 nights - Train. After a nice sleep-in and our last massive English Breakfast for the next few days, it was over to France by going under the channel. A much better way of travelling than flying or taking the ferry. Our cute and lovely hotel was about a 5min walk one way to the Arc thingy, and just a bit more than that the other way to the tower thingy. We did lots of walking and ticked a lot of things off on the "to do" list. Didn't bother trying to line up to get up the tower but instead used our complimentary free pass to Montpasse Tower which presented an even better view of the other tower and the general sights of Paris. How do I know this ? Because I'd done the typcial tower before back in 1990 when the queues were much less. We spent some time on the roof and then when back down to the bar where we could sit by the window sipping champagne and nibbling on chocolate cake and take as long as we like. Ah, Business Class all over again ! I don't actually want to write too much about Paris as I'd rather finish on a more positive note. Heh. Put it this way, I wasn't impressed by either its food or prices thereof and it was good to get back to London for some Real Food again. The sights were sights though, and the walking good for us, but I shouldn't have had to be reduced to visiting Macdonalds on the Champs-Elysées. Heh.

A French Mac attack with extra Freedom Fries

A view from the other tower.

Snow, of sorts ...

Moaner and Mona

Stairway to Heaven ?

Paris, London for 1 night - Ah, it was like coming home again, back to good old London. On our last evening we wandered around the corner from our hotel in Paddington to a pub called "The Pride of Paddington" where we organised for a childhood BGF of LSCPs to join us for some ales. While we waited for her to turn up we proceeded to enjoy the best meal we had had since before our Paris excursion. I had the biggest beef roast I'd seen, complete with roast spuds, brussel sprouts and all the usual trimmings INCLUDING Yorkshire pud and all the hot english mustard and horseradish I wanted, and LSCP had what looked like to be 3 BBQ roasted chooks impaled on a tree-branch. Mmmmm, food, lovely food again ! I tell you what, the Poms could teach the French a lot as to what a Real Meal should consist of !

London to Dubai - Plane. Emirates. 6.5 hrs. Not business class this time, but a newer plane in which the economy class is pretty darn good. We had a division immediately behind us (thus no chance of kids kicking the back of the seat) and plenty of leg room and the usual ICE (Information, Communication, Entertainment) system. Except mine didn't want to work properly so they reset it. Then gave it a bigger reset. Then reset the whole row. Then reset the entire economy area. I wonder if the problems were anything to do with my thumbdrive I had plugged into it to look at some photos. You know, the thumbdrive that I later discovered to have had a virus/trojan put on to it in that internut cafe in Bath ? Ooops. The last reset fixed everything and we had a pretty good flight.

Dubai to Perth - Plane. Emirates. 10.5 hrs. The Westerlies were on our side, bringing us back an hour quicker than it took to get there. Just as well as this was an older plane and the seats not as good or roomy as the last flight. Fortunately we were in a section which were just two seats to a row. Wouldn't you know it that my sound went on my ICE again - this time it was a headphone fault (one ear didn't work) so I got them replaced only to find that the replacement was similarly dodgy but this time with the other ear. Grrr. A bit of fiddling with the wire fixed it for most of the time. The treat of this flight was to do a flyby that took in Rottnest Island, then Freo back up the river to Perth.

Air Rotto

Ah dearest West Oz ... there really is no place like home. :)

regarDS

Out and About in the Real World

2008-12-19T01:19:00.008+09:00

Howdy folks ... notice how quiet I've been lately in all the usual places ? Hasn't it been wunderbar ? Heh.

Here is why. I'm currently typing this from an Internet Cafe in cold but most interesting city of Edinburgh while LSCP is out shopping for tartan ... or tartin out and about at the shops or something like that.

We've been doing the Planes, Trains and Automobiles thing for the last week, plus a bit of shipping. Started in London, then up to Newcastle on the train a few days later, then over to Cologne Germany for a couple of nights via the Channel and Holland, all just so we could slosh down litres of Glühwein and let me make an eisel of myself with my poor Deutsches language skills. Then it was back to Newcastle and a train up to where we are now.

Anyway, enough waffle, so here are some pix instead.

Business class. Only way to travel.

Cheeky fellas at Buckingham Palace. :)

LSCP "eyeing" out London ... Gettit ?

First London Pub Lunch ... which wouldn't be complete without Pints !

Spam, lovely spam ...

Here we are , from "Station to Station"

To the Tower with her !

"The whole world is a stage" ... especially at Shakespear's Globe

Glühwein mit Ameretto. That's "mulled wine with extra illcohol" ... compulsory street trinken !

My xmas present !

Something to do on the Channel Crossing ? :)

okay, I dunno when I'll get the chance to drop another line so deem Mery Bah Humbugs still included.

regarDS

Songs of the Labyrinth

2008-12-06T15:50:00.001+09:00

"Last night" LSCP and I went to the Perth Concert hall to watch Feyd-Rautha looking like Duke Leto Atreides singing "Massage in a Brothel" whilst playing the Lute with an extremely talented Bosnian mate named Edin Karamazov.

Okay okay, it was really "Songs from the Labyrinth" of which you can read all about here: http://classicalmusic.suite101.com/a..._the_labyrinth and here for Edin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edin_Karamazov

We were in the stalls literally the back row for the support act and unfortunately for everyone around (and the poor soul it happened to) the colostomy bag for someone in a wheelchair near us broke/leaked about the same time the lights went down.

Real eye-stinging stuff. Sympathies to the poor person it happened to; sh!t happens ... but please pardon us for not being able to handle it.

Think of being trapped inside a tipped-over porta-potty towards the end of a "Big Day Out" festival, and not being able to scream out for help.

So, come interval we went down to the front desk and explained the predicament (at that stage we didn't realize it was the issue just described - we thought it was something wrong with the Concert Hall loos wafting in through the exit) and asked with eyes streaming from acid burns, to be moved anywhere else, please, for the love of Loki & Thor, anywhere !

Apologies were issued along with two new tickets to anywhere else.

The anywhere else turned out to be middle seats 5 rows back from the stage, barely 8m away from Gordon Matthew Sumner out of his comfort zone. Twas great to see his humbleness, serious efforts, and sweat upon the brow as opposed to the distant blurr we witnessed early this year at Members Equity Stadium when he was touring with "The Police".

On ya to the team on stage, but big boos to the purile young things sitting to our left and in front of us to our left who insisted on heaping giggles upon noisy giggles (much to the embarrasement of all around and probably even Sting onstage) while watching Erin doing some amazing/incredible/frantic lute playing in a quieter balladic piece (they thought he looked amusing whilst playing the instrument the way it traditionally is supposed to be played, apparently.)

The burst colostomy bag was far less offensive than that Stye of Giggle-Gutses. Such effing Ozzie audiences don't deserve to be exposed to quality ... talk about casting pearls before swine !

Anyway, cheers once again to the Perth Concert Hall Staff who looked after us and who explained the full situation when we went back to thank them after the concert.

Cheers to Sting and his crew. Great show and thanks for coming back to Western Australia again. Glad you didn't get blown up when you took a wrong turn East off the beach just North of Swanbourne* earlier that day.

Okay, rant out ... back to Lurk/Away mode. If you really miss me, I may be updating my blogs via email from time to time over the next month. See: http://derspatz.blogspot.com and http://derblatz.blogspot.com , oh, and even http://www.flickr.com/photos/derspatz/

Oh, and in case I don't pop back in before, deem "Bah Humbug" and "Happy Saturnalia" included for later this month.

regarDS
* Nudist Beach ... Sting had accidentally walked through the middle of it when on a stroll up from Cottesloe Beach, so he apparently went left to avoid coming back down through it again.

Left of the beach is the Military Firing range, with potentially unexploded ordinance a-lurking here and there.

Giant Steps is what you take, walking on a bomb !

Get Up Stand Up, GetUp! for your Lefts ...

2008-12-04T19:34:00.012+09:00

Just when I thought I could put the circle-jerking Fanatical Religious Zealots over at Whirlpool's "ILCF" (ISP Level Content Filtering) forum thread in a blog thread all but itself (see the "derblatz" link) and leave it out of this one, they go and bring a whole new level of scary and disturbed comedy to the stage ... stuff so internutty that I can deem it worthy of a rant in here.

Hang on to your noses coz this is gonna get a little more offensive than usual. :)

As you may have realised, I've found the "waa, waa, waa"ing going on among the aforementioned quite fascinating. I mean, who couldn't help but be amused by a whole bunch of folk going "Teh Governet is out to enslave the nation and take away free speech, it is Hitler and Stalin and Mao all over again" (always funny to hear Gen-XYZers say that !) when at best the unlikely reality is that all of a sudden they may have to start paying instead of saying "Thank you for the music, the songs I'm stealing" or the movies they are "pirating", as well as face the prospect of having to get through a few more layers of conscience in order to click one handed through the kind of online material that their Grandmas, Mothers, Wives, Girlfriends, Sisters and Daughters would probably most wish did not even exist in the first place, let alone that their grandkids, dads, husbands, boyfriends and brothers were encouraging its continued development and proliferation along with all the heartache, degradation, disrespect and even slavery it brings !

Ok, I exaggerated. I realise the Gen-XYZers aren't necessarily big on "thank you"s ...

Anyway, these forever plugged in lifeless worshippers of "The Internut" who deem it to be the sacred cow of our age as well as unimaginatively consider it "the last bastion of free speech" want the likes of you and I to think that they have our best interests at heart by trying to PREVENT suitable and justifiable national rating and control of internut/online content as it is done in The Real World where all the Real Living is done.

Yeah right ... get your sticky hands off it - we all know who you really are thinking of; you're not fooling anyone other than yourselves if you really believe that.

So what are these fanatical virtual anarchists up to now ? Well it seems that there is no loathsome low to go to when it comes to the situation of maintaining the link between The Addict and The Supply/Poison. They've now reached the stage where they are haplessly handing over cash to an Oz organization that is so Radically-Extreme-Yet-Carefully-Camouflaged-Left that they make the Evil Lefty Greens look like die Hitler-Jugend !

But Of Course I am referring to "GetUp!". If you've not heard of them before, the "GetUp!" stands for "Greenie Environmentalist Terrorists Undermining Peace!" though they would never tell you it stands for that ... but Der Apfel fällt nicht weit vom Baum, ja?

This gaily painted sinister lobbying group casts the combined shadow of every Lefty political party you could imagine, including those yet to be spawned from whatever Bog of Eternal Stench it is that continually manages to foist such wrongness upon common humanity.

Think of every issue and controversy that divides Oz and you will find the GetUp! crowd busy lobbying in favour of those on the WRONG side of the division and working towards making things even WORSE for Oz than it already is.

This unsavoury mob not only worked hard spending conned, uh, donated coin to put Kevin747 into Government at the last Federal Election, but also had the favour gratefully returned by being allocated no less than an alleged ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTEEN SEATS in KRudds own little circle-jerk involving the ridiculous and highly unrepresentative "Summit of 1000 Best And Brightest Brains".

HA and BAH !

With so much "Left" on the collection of 1000 chattering useless clueless noses in the publicly funded trough, nongs, it is no wonder our nation is rapidly being reduced to going around in circles ... having one leg shorter than the other tends to do that, but I digress.

So what are the ingredients of this cake half baked ?

On one hand we have a bunch of internut worshipping freeloaders worried about having to pay for supply and Do The Right Thing for a change, and on the other we have a shady organization with the typical Loony Lefty Left agendas always pragmatically happy to relieve the naive of their coin and raise their lobbying profile at the same time by associating themselves with popular faddish causes likely to get media attention.

Real "Cake and Eat it too" stuff ... and history tells us what usually happens to THOSE types.

Oh, I should mention that because they are a political lobbying group, thankfully the coin fleeced from the seduced desperate special interest groups that sustain and sponsor their true evil causes, is not tax deductible - so it isn't ALL bad.

So what is going to be the likely outcome of all this ILCF hoohaa ?

What is going to be the likely result of the GetUp! marriage to the ugly useless bride once the dowry runs out ? A dowry that could be much better spent in so many other ways and places ?

(ah, but this ain't about charity or taking care of the needy - this is about maintaining a mainline connection to The Drug !)

Oh, who cares ... fools and their money are always soon parted and there are a million and one more interesting things to be involved in out there.

Some even via the Internut here and there ...

Anyway, to paraphrase one Captain Oates, a truly noble and brave soul (as opposed to moi), "I am just going offline and may be some time".

All this online madness is prompting me for some overdue DownTime along with a Reality Check, so I'm out to explore life offline for a while.

Oh yeah, just in case I don't pop back in here before next year, deem a Merry Bah Humbug and Happy Saturnalia to you too. :)

Keep it Real and if not, don't be too internutty ...

regarDS

Blog Clog and Circumventing Filterers

2008-11-26T23:00:00.000+09:00

I've decided to head off the blog clog that has been beginning to form in here as a result of my recent fascination with the funny fanatical folk at whirlpool forums busy worrying about their sacred cow; the internut.

How am I addressing the blog clog ? By creating a secondary blog, that's how.

Just like this one, there is no "sitemeter" nor any kind of tracking to let me know who has been visiting, and just like this one, there is no comment roll nor private messaging enabled.

What you will find at http://derblatz.blogspot.com/ are all the messages I've written at the whirlpool forums, including the ones that various questionable and amusing forms of moderating have tried to remove from public record with lazy/unrelated/slack/and even corrupt excuses such as "trolling", etc.

Click on the labels up at the right on the "derblatz" blog and see exactly what I mean.

Ah, but it is a tough and thankless job being a Mod so it isn't surprising when they favour the majority points of view over the contrary minority view ... tis much easier to keep the peace that way after all. As a pragmatist I can well understand and appreciate that, so no hard feelings, kids ...

As for this blog ... it's back to normal programming should I have anything particularly interesting or particularly banal or particularly offensive to share.

Maybe next week ...

regarDS

Let's do a time-warp again ...

2008-11-19T20:33:00.003+09:00

"Today I ..." spent some of my day-light savings by sitting out in the sun and taking a time-warp back to my childhood by making the effort to give my beaten up old Blundies* a well over-due polish.

Earlier today I resisted the urge to cheat and take the easy way out by buying that sponge delivered "scuff stuff", and instead opted for a tin of Dark Tan Kiwi, a tin of neutral Dubbin (for waterpoofing after the polish), a $1 soft-cloth, and a $1 Brush ... all made for the job.

My after school duties (to earn my 20c a week pocket money) when I was a kid was to chop the wood, light the scary Bremair Hotwater system, and polish my Barters (with the compass in one of the heels) whether I had actually worn them that day or not ... they usually came off my feet the moment I was out of sight of the house and I spent the day at school as barefoot as possible.

I mostly hated all of those jobs - as one would when having to do them day after day, year after year. Today was different.

I popped the lid on the 38g Kiwi polish and The Smell of it began the count-down to the time-warp. Putting one of the Blundy Boots on my left hand and plunging the cloth into the polish to wipe up a big mess of it prepared the way further and by the time I had smeared the first of the boots all over with the wonderfully smelly finger staining polish, I was grinning my head off and well and truly in my past some 35 years ago and wondering why I used to hate doing this so much.

Talk about being a relaxing and an instantly satisfying task. Scuffy/chipped/faded/grotty/riff-raffy looking boots soon transformed into dark and clean and healthy looking leather. I smeared, I wiped, I brushed and brushed, and allowed the smells and sounds of it all along with the sun warming my body to remind me of simpler and slower days and ways.

Sadly, it was all over too fast, but I know that tomorrow at work, when ever I look down at my stained fingers or catch a pleasant wiff of my traditionally polished boots wafting up from under the desk, I'll remember and I'll smile and I'll look forward to when I might choose to take that particular time-warp again.

Tis but a step to the right ...

regarDS

* http://www.blundstone.com/

The "internut" by any other name ...

2008-11-16T04:49:00.013+09:00

http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=internut
internut - an individual who spends at least 15 hours/day online in a leaky sub-basement. "when we severed the wifi conection, strange sounds emitted from the sub-basement which we thought was uninhabited; upon investigation, we learned that it was the domain of the internut."

**** Selah ****

Recently I happened upon a serious and snarly little collective of apparently long-regular web forum inhabitants and was quite shocked that not only were many of them somewhat ignorant of the titled ancient noun/adjective/verb (how far do you think it could reasonably be stretched without totally murdering common understanding of what constitutes the English Language ?) that soon became the more applicable word to use instead of "internet", but also seemed to be somewhat offended by both its existance and use ... well, at least in their sheltered little web world.

It was very surprising to discover a collective of vocal McWeb consumers who took things "internet" so seriously that they could barely abide the thought, let alone the presence, of anyone who didn't take it as seriously as they. Especially anyone who might happen to observe and remark that their level of interest/support/defence of it was bordering on ridiculous and somewhat unhealthy ... and even (dare I say ?) "idolatrous".

Now, anyone who has bothered to wade through my more opinionated blog pages of cynical and arrogant self-righteous waffle (interspaced with tales of motor-cycle Rattery and stuff less likely to offend too many too much in one go), would quickly recognise that I just luurv to find and expose and sometimes even ridicule examples of Fanatical Religious Zealotry that don't involve the Usual Suspects related to more traditional religions and religious behaviour.

Thus far, I've drawn attention to the likes of "Environtologists and the Church of Environtology" in relation to the FRZeds (Fanatical Religious Zealots) getting all hot and bothered about Yet Another period of ice-melts in our solar-system, and then there is the "Cult of Darwin and Dawkins" and their nonsense "evolution of species" flim-flam show that continues to fail every test of evidence possible let alone make it out of base-camp on the way to falling off the cliff-face when trying to climb "Mount Improbable."

Oh, and don't get me going on so called "Sports" and "Sports Teams" and their "Fans", nor the "Cult of Celebrity" ... yup, I'm seeing religions and religious behaviour all over the place; everyone seems to have a favorite "Sacred Cow" or two, and usually at least one they just luurv to get all Fanatically Religiously Zealous about at that.

I feel that it is now time to add the very "internet" to that list of Sacred Cows folk can get FRZ about. Warning, don't mention in a favorable manner things like "filtering" or "clean stream" or ILCF (ISP Level Content Filtering) or "Senator Conroy" in the midst of the kinds of FRZeds who hold the internut to be sacred ... not unless you've got some of the following to hand over !

They won't turn you into an "internewt"; they'll help you get better. :)

**** Selah ****

[Overly Offensive Mode]

"There is nothing more offensive than the brutal truth delivered brutally to those who don't want to hear it ... except for willfully ignorant brutes who prefer and promote a lie.". - derspatz

Yeah, I don't even mind quoting myself. :)

Continuing on the topic of "content filtering" and "clean stream" etc, you've now arrived at the reason I don't bother to have "comments" turned on for his blog. I'm not interested in providing Yet Another online space for the cowardly anonymous to try and advertise their crass banalities in and nor do I have either the energy or time to filter through all the usually resulting dross and abuse in the hope of spotting a gem worth keeping. I'm already disillusioned enough with much of the more recent generations of so called "humanity" as it is thank you and thus far from keen to have it try and crap in my little Web-Nest.

I've already got THAT angle covered, cheers.

I'm so disinterested in what folk might have to say about my twitterings here that I don't even run any kind "who has visited" type auto-magic metering/logging software ... and if I don't care about who may be visiting then how much less do you think I might care about giving a voice to any who should visit ?

Got something to say ? Go join a forum or publish your own blog and maybe I'll accidentally happen upon it one day. Or better still, DON'T ! :)

So, that's a big "No" to "comment enabling" from me. Deem yourselves pro-actively filtered and think of all the time and energy we've saved each other ... and children we have protected from yet more repetitions of the more foul and offensive forms of internuttery that can be demonstrated by internuts on this here our internut. :)

[/Overly Offensive Mode]

regarDS

anti-internut-censorship brigade at Whirlpool forums censor derspatz :)

2008-11-07T23:14:00.004+09:00

G'day there Whirlpool Moderator.

About my sudden, inconsistent, and mysterious arrival to Whirlpool's "sin bin" in relation to my participation in the "ISP Level content filtering" discussion.

Although I disagree with and question just how the judgement of "picking fights" has been determined and strongly object to the application of the unfounded and oft misused and lazy "trolling" descriptor to my valid contrary view that not only has/is being consistently expressed in areas other than just Whirlpool but also is consistent with a view expressed online for decades, I acknowledge receipt of your notification of "sin binning" and accept the application of your filter to forbid further active participation in that thread however subjectively that decision has been arrived at despite however unjust and one sided and uneven-handed I personally feel and observe that penalty to be ... especially considering that I haven't posted the slightest thing that could be deemed "flaming" but rather have tolerated mostly without comment or report a whole load of hostility and insult that has largely been ignored by moderation.

At very least this all serves to prove (at very least to me) a number of the points I've been trying to educate the hysterical masses about anyway, including a demonstration of the hypocrisy at the heart of the topic that has now seen the very kind of attention being complained about metered out to the minority opinion rather than the misguided populist one.

I recognise that you are only doing your thankless task as per the wishes of the weak of character/reasoned thought who are more prone to push the "herring" button than realise and face up to the poverty of their choices let alone be confronted with fair and reasoned challenges to the same, and so I accept that it is probably nothing personal ... and nor should it be.

I do find it quite ironic that that the majority of a vocal minority protesting censorship and filtering should call upon for the censorship and filtering of that which challenges and inconveniences their misguided view, but I don't mind being the example that exposes their hypocrisy for the offensive and inconsistent nonsense that it is.

Thus, this "sin binning" amuses as well as serves to prove the point ... and thanks to the broadness of the internut, shall continue to long after the topic that has spawned this tiny object lesson (and handing over of pound of flesh to the Pharisees unable to handle challenge) has passed and been forgotten.

regarDS

More on bringing the internut into the 21st century and reducing the gap betweem offline law and order and online virtual anarchy. :)

2008-11-06T15:32:00.003+09:00

This time, here is a politician's view on it, in the form of a letter response to one of the hysterical "waa, waa, waa" crowd populating the whirlpool forums on this subject.

Dear ["not thinking of the children" (name substituted to protect the guilty)]

Thank you for contacting me with your concerns regarding the Government’s clean feed internet filtering system. I am aware that the proposal for ISP filtering has attracted some criticism from those, like yourself, who are concerned that it will lead to censorship of the internet and to a slowing of internet speed. However, the Australian Government has no plans to stop adults from viewing material that is currently legal, if they wish to view such material.

I believe that freedom of speech is very important and the Government’s cyber-safety policy is in no way designed to curtail this. The Government wants to ensure that Australian parents can access a ‘clean feed’ internet service. This will be informed by the technology adopted in countries such as the United Kingdom, France, Sweden, Norway, Finland and Canada where ISP filtering, predominantly of child pornography, has been successfully introduced without affecting internet performance to a noticeable level.

The proposed ISP filtering policy is being developed through an informed and considered approach, including through industry consultation and close examination of overseas models to assess their suitability for Australia. We are committed to working closely with internet industries to address any concerns, including costs and internet speeds. These concerns will be carefully considered during the pilot and will further inform the Government’s cyber‑safety policy.

The internet is an essential tool for all Australian children through which they can exchange information, be entertained, socialise and do school work and research. The ability to use online tools effectively provides both a skill for life and the means to acquire new skills. However, while the internet has created substantial benefits for children it has also exposed them to a number of dangers, including exposure to offensive content. As such, parents rightly expect the Government to play its part in the protection of children online.

The Government has committed $125.8 million over the next four years to a comprehensive range of cyber-safety measures, including education, law enforcement and filtering. These measures include:· Education activities – funding to the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) to implement a comprehensive range of education activities;· Australian Federal Police (AFP) Child Protection Operations Team – funding to detect and investigate online child sex exploitation;· ISP level filtering – funding to develop and implement ISP filtering, including undertaking a real world ‘live’ pilot;· Websites / Online helpline – funding to ACMA to improve current Government cyber-safety website resources and to make them easier for parents to use, and to provide up‑to‑date information.

ACMA will also develop a children’s cyber-safety website to provide information specifically for children, and improve the online helpline to provide a quick and easy way for children to report online incidents that cause them concern;· Research – funding for ongoing research into the changing digital environment to identify issues and target future policy and funding.These initiatives will tackle the issue of cyber-safety from a number of directions to help clean up the online environment and to protect Australian children from the dangers of the internet now and into the future.

This approach acknowledges the key role parents have in the online safety of children, and provides them with the necessary information to assist with this task. This initiative also recognises that there is no single solution to ensure children can access the internet safely.Thank you for bringing your concerns to my attention. I hope this information is of assistance, and please don’t hesitate me with any further concerns.

Kind regards,
Melissa Parke MP
Federal Member for Fremantle

regarDS

"Waa, Waa, Waa, teh govamin R breakn teh interweb"

2008-10-31T11:03:00.010+09:00

No, that's not me crying and pouting because the menu at McNet is being changed in order to match the healthier diet found in the offline world. I am But Of Course talking about all those unimaginative users who are getting hysterical at the thought of one way or another having to act more or less as responsibly when plugged into the internut as they do when they are busy obeying the laws of the land in the offline world.

In case you haven't heard or don't remember, our elected government (who I didn't vote for - well, other than a vote for Family First first, and the Evil Greens last) made a promise to all who elected them (all those "working families" busy wage slaving for double incomes to pay off their negative equity and too busy to have a parent at home being, well, A Parent, and so in dire need of KRudd and Co to be defacto parents to their children instead) that something would be done to make teh McWeb a safer place for the kiddies to be ... as well as bringing it more into line with the laws of the land in relation to illegal stuff and activities as the offline world.

Enter the ISP-Level Filtering System (a bit like what the likes of Blue Coat Systems do but on a national level. Here is a link about BlueCoat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blue_Coat_Systems )

The idea of it is to try and stop illegal material coming in, going around, or going out of the country via the internut. Sure, it is going to be difficult (actually, impossible) to get it working with 100% accuracy and without a degree of system overhead and impact, but does that mean it shouldn't be attempted ? Does that mean we should continue to persue, prevent, and prosecute illegal material and activity in the offline world of law and order only to make no attempt to tame virtual anarchy and lawlessness ?

It seems somewhat incongruous and hypocritical to me that most of us in Oz want to live in a safe country with law and order and are generally willing to act responsibly enough to make it work to a reasonable degree yet at the same time want "anything goes and damn the torpedoes" when plugged into the McNet.

Anyway, I am in principal, in support of attempts to bring into line online material and activities in Oz with the laws of the land which we have a responsibility and obligation to support if we really are interested in being worthwhile citizens.

Over at whirlpool's forums on the topic (see http://forums.whirlpool.net.au/forum-replies.cfm?t=1075390 ) I'm reading a lot of "they r taking away my freeeedom" type stuff, along with a whole load of frothy hysteria, but sadly, from this alleged typical representation of internut users, I'm not seeing much in the way of anyone willing to support the prevention of illegal material, nor even begin to think of ways to take our global communications systems to new levels that benefit the whole globe (such as those locked away behind the Great Firewall of China).

It really has become the McWeb/McNet for them ... and Baby Wants It Now !

Anyway, I must get back over to whirlpool and continue to try and reason the hysterical and fanatical back down to some sort of useful ground, so I'll close off this entry with a message posted to the yahoogroups ozltuae list last night.

SOQ

>>> richary: Not quite sure if he (derspatz) is just playing devil's advocate or not
>> derspatz: Not even in the slightest.
> richary: Yes you are proposing a Gibsonesque world where everyone can jack in wherever and whenever they want. Now let's look at the real agenda you are pushing as you always have.

Breaking down the Great Firewall of China ? Getting people to see a bigger picture ?

> Which I obviously can't bring up in WP (whirlpool).

Tis certainly pretty trigger happy on the "filtering" side at WP ! Thank goodness we can let our hair down a bit here. So, let's party ! :)

Somewhat ironic considering the topic ...

> The End Times are coming

Don't worry, Obama the Messiah will save you ... well, at least appear to for a while. :)

> in the meantime lets create as much destruction and chaos as possible

Ah, so THAT's why I'm continually giving what has amounted to many thousands of dollars to Israel so that their kids can be fed and clothed and their aged can be properly housed and have hot water and their soldiers can have warm clothing and care packages and Jewish believers in Yeshua Ha Mashaiach can be compensated for things being denied to them bytheir fellow Jews in their own country merely because they dare to say "hey, we got it wrong about our brother Jesus - He is our messiah after all and silly us went and got him killed ...".

You've gone and exposed my true motivation for my giving of my not so hard earned - I'm busy sowing the seeds of chaos and destruction so Jesus will come and rescue me sooner ! (rolls eyes)

If what you are suggesting is the case, then I must have one weird interpretation of Luke chapter 12 going ... especially verse 43..

> those are the fore runners of those times. Of course, you can't do that by being nasty to anyone or hurting them as that would be a sin.

Isn't living with/sleeping in the same bed as someone who isn't one's wife a sin too ? Whatever happened to in for a penny, in for a pound ?

> let's just do it by stirring the pot for a reaction. Or as it was put on WP, trolling. Subtle trolling of course, given your skills learnt here over many years. But I recognise it for what it is, as does Mark (Newton).

(sigh) and yet if I shared the same opinions as you or Mark and the wailing mostly selfish and ignorant masses expressing their irrational fears of having their daily poisons intake reduced, there would be no mention of stirring or trolling. Kinda sad (and telling) that a well reasoned, coherent, and consistent opinion that also happens to be at odds with the majority of participants in that thread, is chosen to be viewed as trolling or stirring, mind you.

Hmmm, who are the Fanatical Religious Zealots, now, Richary ?

What I am finding even more disturbing about what I am seeing at WP, is a spoilt, selfish, "it is mine by right", and "how dare I be required to do/sacrifice/lift a finger", "what do you mean by 'responsibilities'" attitude, along with utter apathy in relation to do anything other than complain.

The spirit in there isn't about pioneering the internut into something new and better that benefits us all ... it is instead all about having what basically boils down to having a McNet to go along with every other Mcthis'n'that the Gen-likewhatevers are all about these days.

Things that make me go "Bah."

Things that also inspire me to calmly address with a basic logical yet visionary approach that exposes the fanaticisms being expressed for what they are and instead attempts to bring things back to a useful middle ground.

> But you are pushing the wrong barrow. As I recall from many years ago of bible studies it is the destruction of Israel that will bring about the rapture.

You're not trying to teach your grandma how to suck gravel there are you richary ?

> And think about the possibilities. Hypothetically a Muslim based party gains control of the Senate and deems Christian sites unacceptable. Well damn, you guys have already let the technology in so all of a sudden every Christian webpage is on the blacklist. Bad luck, you have made your own grave so lie in it. Yes it's an unlikely scenario but once the technology is in place then anything is possible.

And this is supposed to bother me because ? You do remember that you are talking to someone who finds very little (if anything) to be sacred in this world, and someone who not only isn't an idolatrous book worshipper, but rather is a self confessed book burner as circumstances dictate, along with someone who wrote message filtering and processing software for FIDOnet ?

"Empire" - Echo Mail Packet Incisive Record Extractor and all that. :)

Considering that and remembering the kinds of things I was vocally against back in FIDO days of LTUAE and the other echos, it should be of no surprise to you that I would in principal be in support of Government control of illegal material online (and more besides), so there really is no need to be making silly appeals to a notion of "I'm trying to bring about amageddon" ...

Besides, I've nearly ALWAYS been about working towards the return of Yeshua Ha Mashaiach for Him to do His "rule with a rod of iron" thing (ie, more filters), but these days I've settled upon helping Israel with my finances as being the most effective way of achieving it.

> Of course until your dream of a free from any interference "cyberspace" is possible. So instead of criticising the freedoms we have now, why don't you get off you backside and try to help design it?

You missed the suggestions I've already made about using short-hop wireless devices independent of ISPs and telcos (etc) to constantly packet forward distributed net style ? On the amateurish pirate/stealing side of things, maybe something could be made to piggyback on the mobile network in the short term by way of behind the scenes development.

Oh, and that's the other problem I'm having with most of the "waa, waa, waa" brigade on WP.

The scary lack of imagination.

Ah, that's better. I've been feeling so stifled for free and unfettered expression over the last few days at WP.

Cheers richary, for flipping the cap on that one. :)

regarDS

Der Ratte Attack stage 2 complete ...

2008-08-28T23:13:00.007+08:00

More fine weather, more second thoughts, and at last a chance to break out the matt black rattle can again. I changed my mind about the path some of the wiring and the engine vent-2-pod plumbing took. For those who know what I'm talking about, you can see that the vent (lower right corner) now goes straight up and then over to the left, level with the frame, and then hits the T junction to go back to the pods. This should stop any condensating vapour from pooling. The wiring looked very messy but now most of it is tucked up out the way at frame/seat level and just the bare minimum heading south to the battery and solinoid, etc.

Aside from the fact that rear guard has now got rattle canned, and the battery sled wood doesn't look like wood anymore now it is painted, notice anything strange towards the top left ? Where has the shock absorber gone, and WTH is bolted there instead ? See next pic. Heh.

Okay, this is called my "claytons" suspension, so named because it is the suspension you have when not having suspension. A bit like the drink by the same name. It is essentially two bits of flat bar bolted between the existing shock mount and a spare hole on the old seat/guard mount, and then the stock shock firmly bolted closer to the latter than the former, giving me pleasing 28cm distance from old centre to old centre where formerly it was near 35cm.

Not only has this given me a much lower and more comfortable ride, especially now I can rest at traffic lights with both feet flat on the ground AND have bent knees, but also made the ride so much easier to control - the handling has vastly improved. Who woulda thunk !

Due to certain angles and bulkiness, the shocks are under a little sideways stress but I can live with that in the short term - the shock covers make it look worse than it actually is, but it is hidden from certain critical eye by the saddlebags anyway.

Yes, I am on the look-out for shorter shocks and have even made a trip to the local bike wreckers in search of them, but they are somewhat elusive in this neck of the woods so I'm going to have to wait to do it properly but in the mean time I am quite happy to do it Ratte Style.

Which is what I also had to do to the kick-stand. Left at it's stock length it pushed the bike over the wrong way. Not very useful, and the centre stand is a chore now things are so much lower - also not helped by the fact that I've also dropped the front forks near 3cm in the triples. So, off came the kick-stand, out came the angle grinder and welder, and half an hour or so later, most of it spent muttering about the reduced conductivity aspects of a badly rusted welding lead clamp, a shorter kick-stand came into being.

Yup, my ratty guestimations had made it a bit on the short side and the bike now had a bigger lean going on than a politician coming out of the Parliment House bar after a long Friday lunch. So, more muttering and more welding saw the stand grow the necessary 1cm it needed to look good whilst also being functional, as well as prevent the draining of battery fluid from the lowest corner. Seriously, I am amazed how much angle you can put on this bike when lowered before it even thinks of having a lay down.

So, that is how the beasty now looks without the saddle bags and side panels. Yup, got the beasty all nekked in time for summer. You can see I finally got around to stretching the gaitors down and hose clipping them. The sticker ? It says "Support the Royal Flying Doctors" which is a charity I like to support and promote the support of. It won't mean much to you if you are outside Oz mind you.

And once again with bags on. Stage 2 over. Can there be a stage 3 ? Maybe. I've been tossing around the idea of enclosing the top third or so of the rear wheel by adding removable covers to each side of the guard. Sure, the bags do that to a degree already, but I don't like that gap showing between the wheel and the rear of the rear guard, which is why I wanted to go for a wheel hugging guard in the first place. Too bad I've had to abandon that idea for the time being.

Anyway, just say no to shiny expensive ridable things. Make cheap and matt black your friend instead. Trust me, more fun is to be had with something you're not worried about taking an angle grinder to than something you don't want to get wet, have to keep clean and polished, and costs you a fortune in insurance every year.

Riding should be about fun and feeling free, so buy yourself that rather than yet another possession that makes you yet more of a prisoner.

Ratte IS the new black.

regarDS

Burbles and Wobbles ...

2008-08-24T16:53:00.003+08:00

A quick post-note to the last entry where I mentioned that after a day and a half of throwing various tools and lumps of wood etc at Der Ratte, it still looked more or less the same as when I started and merely smelled worse due to a good fish oiling.

I have now discovered that removing the stock air-box and replacing with the Pods makes a simply marvelous difference. Not only in the get Up and Go department, but also in the 'hey, that sounds Good" section too. I'm sure those of you who have done similar are nodding their heads knowingly.

What a beautiful burble now emits when cruising, and what a satisfying 'hey, I'm here, get out of my way" volume increase when opening up the throttle ! Who would have thunk that such a simple change could make a bike so much more enjoyable to ride !

The economy seems to be better too ... I've already gone over 20 kilometres over where Der Ratte usually starts coughing for a switch over to reserve, but still no sign of cutting out.

Okay, that is the Burbles" side of this blog entry done.

Now for the Wobbles. Nope, nothing to do with Der Ratte.

I was reading with some interest today as to how quickly ice is melting away in the Northern Hemisphere due to this current cycle of natural global climate change we are being blessed with.

Glaciers are retreating at a fast rate of knots even in most Northern Greenland, Arctic ice is soon going to be no more, permafrost in Siberia (etc) is becoming swamp, millions of tons of driftwood and scary amounts of defrosting mammoth meat is finding its way down Northern rivers after being released from previous frozen areas, etc, etc, etc.

In short, billions of tons of frozen water accumulated in various heaps in the North, is following the path water best likes to travel, and is flattening out into the form of less cold wet stuff wot boats can float on.

All good as far as I'm concerned ... we're merely returning to the way things were back when Greenland was more hospitable to the Vikings and the like.

But what is happening at the better end of the globe ? That place South of the land of Oz where yours truly lives, loves, and laughs from ?

Apparently ice at the Antarctic is getting thicker. A bit like all those Environtologists of the Church of Environtology who are running around telling all who will listen to their religious nonsense (and be taxed for the privilage) that the sky is falling and it is all our fault.

Ok, here we get to the wobble part.

Anyone got any kind of idea as to how much ice has to turn to water (with accompanying changes in water tempurature and current directions, etc) in the far North in comparison to how much water has to turn to ice in the far South before this spinning mis-shappen ball we live upon must naturally see a change to its axis wobble due to weight redistribution ?

regarDS

One of those Ratte days ...

2008-08-22T18:56:00.012+08:00

Ever have one of those morning when you jump out of bed bright eyed and bushy tailed all eager and ready to carry on with where you left off on yesterday's work, then when you go out and take a look at it you realise that you just hate most of what you actually managed to get done the previous session ?

That was me this morning. I looked. I pondered, then I put on my beret, pulled the cork out of a bottle of red with my teeth and took a swig, cut myself some cheese with my belt knife and ate it off the blade, then put on my best French accent and stomped around telling myself off saying things like "merde, sacrebleu, what waas ayee thinkin, thees is sheet. non, non, thees will not do at all, escargot but this rat weel not, now feex it beforrr I taunt you a second time".

I took a look at the tail-light cluster, slapped my forehead and said "non, non, you eediot". I looked at what I was doing with the rear-guard and proclaimed "your mother wears army boots and your father sucks elderberries, you silly canigit".

I decided that the only thing I had done right was the bit of bar that the tail-light was bolted to, and the removal of the air-box and all. Sigh. So, back to the drawing board. First I decided to remove the tail-light again, turn the bar it was mounted on slightly, then raise the rear-guard up to meet it. I drilled and bolted it (yes, I did remember to put some rubber spacers inbetween the bracket and the guard). I had to turn upsidedown the mounting I had made for the battery end of things but same holes worked, so all cool. Back to a fixed guard rather than swingy one.

Okay, that looks a bit better. Note that the shocks and exhaust is off at the moment. The plan to trial a Hard-Tail look and feel rather than head straight away for shorter reach shocks. Next was to rebolt the tail-light cluster back to the mount bar I made yesterday, this time use some rubber spacers and put a third bolt into the guard at the top so the thing can't fall/be pushed forward. Deem it a case of removing temptation. Heh. The two holes in the guard to the right of the light are for bolting the seat back on. Yep, that means all my clever bending and bracket making yesterday was in vain. Sigh.

What else does Der Ratte need ? I'll give you a hint. The Best boats are made of this stuff and apparently witches who weigh as much as a duck are made of it too. Give up ? WOOD ! Yes, not only have I added MORE plastic to a motor cycle, I have now also added wood. You will see it better a few pics down. It has been incorporated as a base for the battery to rest on.

What are you looking at in this next pic ? Ah, a bit of Ratty cleverness I hope ! I've replaced the stock airbox with these pod filters, but what to do with the engine vent that usually feeds into the airbox ? I figured "why not split the feed up and direct it into each pod ?" What I did was drill a hole in the center of each pod and thread a couple of outboard engine fuel fittings through from the inside (with an o-ring on each) then push it into some suitable hose and then clamp. Lurking to the lower right of the photo you can see a white T junction. This is on a hose that connects up with the engine vent. See where this is going ?

Next you can see the pods now clipped onto the carbs and the twin hoses being fed by the T junction and the hose leading down from near the guard then across near the bottom of the battery and back to the engine. I've relocated the indicator relay to up under the seat on a bracket using the twin square thingumijigs mounting point. The other mounting point is the new earth. The regulator is now bolted direct to the guard. The starter solenoid is mounted on the side of the battery strap/bracket. And there is The Wood. :)

Next is a look from the other side, providing a better view of The Wood, the regulator, the pod and engine vent feed, and how I've secured the battery. I basically bolted the original battery strap thingo to a stainless steel angle that formerly was the wet end mount point for a boat echo sounder. All the holes were in the right places - ie, regardless of where the holes were, I compromised to use them rather than try and drill new ones and destroy more drill bits. Anyway, this lovely bit of stainless steel has been secured by four stainless steel self-tappers into the bottom of The Wood, and the original battery thingy first bolted with nylocs to a bit of mild steel bar, then that bar nylocked to the stainless steel ex-echo sounder bracket.

Why did I put the whole thing on The Wood ? It actually acts as a sled to give access to the battery should it need removal as there is not enough room to swing the door open on the original thingy. The sled is merely secured with two bolts (and nylocs) to the metal tray underneither and I reckon The Wood looks much better than yet more metal, and I'm sure the battery will be healthier on it.

Oh well, there went the light again. Sheesh, where did a day and a half go ? Here is a last shot before the side covers go back on again. "WTF ?" do I hear you exclaim ? "You do all that and then put the covers back on ? Anyway, how can they go back on with the pods and the fact that the top mount points have been removed ?"

Why ? Coz I'm not quite ready for Der Ratte to go nekked yet. I want to get it lowered and re rattle can matted first. On the lowering side of things, I did bolt on a bit of tube with holes at 9" centers to see what Der Ratte felt like when that low and that rigid.

It was scary. To start off with, it was a LONG way down from off the center stand, and the side stand was useless - it wanted to push the bike over rather than hold it up. I liked the sitting position, but even without riding it, it was painfully non-flexible. Worse than that, LSCP, (the gorgeous girl who has been my Life Style Choices Partner for the last six years) didn't want to go pillion and see how it was. Not a good sign. Like I said, scary. :(

I still want to do it though, so I think I'll just have to bite the bullet and go for some shorter shocks. The default ones are 13" centers, so I guess a 4" drop is too far. Maybe an 11" will be the go ? In the meantime, I adjusted the defaults to the sloppiest/weakest/lowest they can be. I was even considering taking to the springs with an angle grinder to drop them a bit more, but there is no way back from that kind of mod and it doesn't help with the UP bounce. sigh.

And here is the final short for the day just prior to me slinging the saddle bags back over again ... making it look like I hadn't done a damn thing for the last day and a half. Heavy sigh. See, the side covers fit just fine with the pods ! How did I put the covers on ? Simple, the bottom bits went into their usual slot, and the top bits I just cable-tied to the top frame. Chuckle.

End result ? Cosmetically it virtually looks just like it did a couple of days ago, but it smells far worse due to a liberal dosing with good old fish oil in preparation for some more rattle can matt black. No doubt my neighbours hate me again for that. Heh.

Anyway, what a Ratte of a day. How was yours ? Accomplish much ?

regarDS

Ceasefire over. Der Ratte Attack Stage 2 continues ...

2008-08-21T18:51:00.012+08:00

I was confronted with the prospect of a day of beautiful weather upon crawling out of my bed around midday today. My first 4 day break after near a month on the new shift pattern with the new contract, so it was about time I got to treat myself to staying up Really Late, and then similarly sleeping in Really Late too.

So, what to do ? Do I put the boat in the water and go for a cruise down river ? Or do I do some more damage to the CX500 Rat in the making ?

Having decided that because too many folk were getting used to/accepting of the increase in fugliness I have already inflicted on an ugly by default motorbike, it was now high time I resumed hostilities against the rideable metal, and see how much more fugly I could make it.

So I figured that the river could wait, coz it was time to break out the Made in China safety boots, angle grinder, drill, rusty mild-steel bar, blunt drill bits, striking devices of various sizes, weights and shapes ... and the odd cuss word.

First to do was to rip the seat off again and then the rear mudguard. This meant that the stoplight and number plate cluster had no where to go. Hmmmm, time for the first bit of rusty mild steel bar !

Above picture is the planned new rear-guard. Gunna make it so it swings up and down with the wheel rather than the wheel swing up and down into it. Except there won't be any swing having decided to Hard-tail it anyway.

Take a last look at current battery position on the airbox, and the old rear-guard on the ground to the far lower right. Note the handy holes at the end of the Harley sissybar. See where this is going ?

Ok, you can see that I have my Made In China safety boots on. This is important. So too is taking the guard from off the angle grinder. Safety First, Folks ! Then it was a case of bashing a right-angle into a bit of mild steel bar, roughly marking off where the number plate finished and leaving enough for the other end to be bashed over when cut. After the cut, a quick score with the angle grinder makes for an easy bend. A bit of drilling, muttering and cursing while looking for non-blunt drill bits, and yowser, the following was soon possible. I was a little bit worried for a moment that the stop-light and number plate cluster could easily end up pointing towards the ground with a bit of a push ... and it probably could if one had the mind to do so. Heh. Anyway, then it was time to break out some more mild-steel bar and do some crafty bending in order to provide a new way of holding the seat on now that the rear-guard was gone. Note hurled to the ground drill bits. Heh++

Seat now securable, time to get the new rear-guard on. Before that though, it was at last time to remove the battery and air-box ready for the new plans for that to come later. Here is a pic of the airbox gone and most of the electrics swinging in the breeze and my crafty front mount for the seat involving a stainless steel bit of bar held onto the frame with some hose clips.

Next is a view of how one end of the rear-guard is now secured to Der Ratte. I found a stainless steel bit of angle in my boat stuff, so after more muttering and cursing while trying to drill it (don't you just HATE how stainless steel can kill a dying drill bit in no time flat ?) and a few thumps with a hammer to bend it over even further (I jammed it into the boat trailer to do that) it was simply a case of a stainless steel bolt and nyloc nut cushioned by a rubber washer between the guard and the bracket, then another stainless steel bolt and nyloc between the bracket and the up-and-coming battery tray that came pre-equiped with a suitable slot for proper centering.

Yes, I realise that this anchor point will have to change if I don't hard tail things, but I'm determined to give it a go for a week or two. Alternative is to drag the welder out and tack an anchor point mid swing arm under where I've currently bolted it ... or better still, loop it with a large U bolt ? Did that make you shudder ? Yes, I realise I'll have to rethink certain clearances too. Nothing that can't be sorted out with an angle grinder and a bit of muttering.

In that above pic, you can also see my front seat mount a bit better. Maybe I'll weld it on, maybe I won't. Anyway, I ran out of daylight, so more tomorrow ... gotta have it back on the road by the end of the day. Will break out the matt-black rattle cans another day. The fish-oil spray will need a day or two to dry out and set properly anyway.

While I'm repositioning all the electrics in that area I'm going to make a point of doing away with every connector and solder every join instead.

I call that the "take off and nuke it from orbit - it is the only way to be sure" approach. :)

regarDS

Sea Fever

2008-07-08T14:28:00.040+08:00

I must down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied:
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

- John Masefield (1878-1967).
(English Poet Laureate, 1930-1967.)

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

And Jesus was a sailor when he walked upon the water
and he spent a long time watching from his lonely wooden tower
and when he knew for certain only drowning men could see him
he said "all men will be sailors then, until the sea shall free them"
but he himself was broken long before the sky would open
Forsaken, almost human, he sank beneath your wisdom
like a stone.

And you want to travel with him,
and you want to travel blind
and you'll think maybe you'll trust him,
for he's touched your perfect body
with his mind.

- Leonard Cohen. "Suzanne"

-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-Enjoying today's moments shared in this split infinity I hope ? Anyway, here is Der Spatz thought for the day:

Avast, me Hearties, howest faireth thee one and all ?

"Unless laughing or learning, try looking forward more to where you are going than to where you have already been. Don't sacrifice too much of the future merely for the sake of a past probably best forgotten."

regarDS

Hangin' around for The Rainy Days.

2008-06-17T08:43:00.010+08:00

A break from machinery for the moment. Time for a waffle. This one is inspired by the plight and challenges faced by most of us in Oz society in its current form. The stuff being endlessly repeated in our news media with no apparent happy ending in sight.

Yeah, "Rainy Days and Mondays always get me down" type stuff.

The secular humanist society promoted in these ~enlightened~ (~ = sneer quotes) times by the likes of Dawkins, most of standard left-wing academia, and the public school system is clearly showing the kind of fruit it bears, and the grafting going on exchanging branches within the same tree ain't going to make it any better either.

Lately I've been personally lamenting the plight of our young, our brethren in remote Aboriginal communities, and the apparent sickness of the soul of our whole nation. I have been wondering what it would take to turn people around and if such a turn around will happen.

I know I can be extremely negative and critical of the time and age we have no choice in partaking in, and I am generally and usually of the view that not much can be done about it and that it is better to hasten the end rather than patch up something doomed to fail.

However, I am also reminded that we are not abandoned nor forsaken and that the proliferation of hopelessnes, pointlessness, wickedness, and all the things reported in our news media, etc, although are very distressing observations and relatities for any parent, are still serving a useful purpose and aren't impossible to turn around.

Part of the useful purpose I reckon, is that it serves as an example to Dawkin's crowd that they are just plain wrong, wrong, wrong about most things and that their brave new world built upon subjective morality and base self interest is doomed to failure that can easily be extrapolated by what we are currently already seeing. I won't go on. Heh.

Not impossible to turn around ? See: http://www.welshrevival.com/ from which I'll quote a tiny bit from the "history" section.

SOQ

"a storm had hit the churches yet for so many it was a storm of love and power which completely transformed their lives.

People were changed in so many ways. The crime rate dropped, drunkards were reformed, pubs reported losses in trade. Bad language disappeared and never returned to the lips of many – it was reported that the pit ponies failed to understand their born again colliers who seemed to speak the new language of Zion – without curse and blasphemy – even football and rugby became uninteresting in the light of new joy and direction received by the Converts.

Colliers and tin-men of the working classes expressed their joy in so many ways – so many original prayers

But perhaps the song that captures what most of these felt was a song sung by Sam Jenkins a tin plate worker from Llanelli – a song translated at the time from English to Welsh – Can y Rebel “Am Achub hen rebel fel fi” - "For saving an old Rebel like me"."

EOQ

You see, I'm reminded that in the final days before God is obliged to step in an put things right again with mankind having been given all the chances due a rebellious child by a patient parent, the promise is to pour out His Spirit on all flesh - and when that happens, I reckon the likes of the Welsh Revival will be small potatoes !

Apparently during the times of Welsh Revival, people were even falling over in the streets overcome with a sense of their need of God's love and forgiveness. Imagine the turn around and return to hope in remote Aboriginal communities should that happen ? Same too in our city's "night spots" ?

How long does it take to turn people around ?

Surely but a blink of an eye once the choice is made ?

On a more secular level, look how easy it is to shape the public view of an entire nation if not tongue ? A couple of newsprint articles, a bit of 6 oclock news time, then the odd collection advertisements, and wallah ! Done !

I reckon BRING ON the last days outpouring of the Holy Spirit as prophecised by Joel (2:28) ala "It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; And your sons and daughters will prophesy, Your old men will dream dreams, Your young men will see visions."

"After this" ? After what ? Heh. I'll let the interested go look that one up ...

Anyway, Dawkins and crowd not withstanding, I'd rather see us all, especially our young and our Aboriginal brethren, and our leaders under the influence of the Holy Spirit rather than what seems to be the norm at the moment.

That kind of Rainy Day (regardless of what day it falls on) certainly won't be getting me down.

Other than on my knees in thanks that is.

regarDS

CX500 rAt Attack stage 2 begins ...

2008-06-11T16:44:00.006+08:00

Yay, at last I've rid the ratte of the Hateful Honda Custom seat. I scored off ebay for around $50 a "Bar Enterprises" Cobra model designed to suite Harley Sportsters and then had to fend off some fierce bidding (actually, I just swooped down der spatz like at the last minute to clean up) for the Harley Sissy bar to compliment it. Not so cheap at about $135 but considering the bidding that was happening I reckon myself to be a winner AND a grinner this time around.

I had to hose clip to the top of the frame a stainless steel rod (borrowed out of a boat trailer roller) in order to hold down the seat at the tank end, and I simply drilled through the mud-guard at the rear to use the existing holes in the seat along with the bolts from the original oh-so-gay Honda seat to hold down the other end.

All temporary measures. I'll weld on proper brackets when I pull the mudguard off and replace with a wheel hugging version late in "stage 2" or early "stage 3".

I decided to junk the Honda pillion grab rail (LSCP is happy enough holding on to either me or just below the back rest) and instead mount the indicators into the perfectly matched stem holes in the Harley sissy bar. For now, I've also raised the positioning of the default stop-light cluster on the mudguard to bring things more into line.

To aid in the ongoing uglification I've bunged a mini cargo net thingy over the tank ... got a spare one coming so that will probably be stored in streched out form over the same location. Heh.

What else ? Added some Triumph Cub gaitors to the front

forks to cover over more annoying shinyness. Lots of fun with a wheelie mega hydrolic car jack, lumps of wood under the centre stand, and light tapping on a cut off broomstick to push the forks down through the triples in order to get them on. Left the front wheel on the forks and just let the brake calibers hang and disconnected the speedo cable from the gauge end. Learned that what can be tapped out easily enough ain't so easy to push back in when gravity is going the other way and a heavy round thing is on the bottom. Heh++

Actually, it wasn't so hard to get the forks back in the triples again. Once they were lined up and well sprayed in suitable lubricant it was simply a case of holding the front wheel with one hand whilst letting pressure out of the jack under the engine with the other. A little pushing of the wheel back towards the radiator saw the forks easily glide back in. Then it was a simple matter of tightening up one side at the right spot then letting down the jack and applying pressure to the other side to get the top of fork line-up exactly the same as it was before the operation to hide shiny metal behind dull rubber.

Next ? Observe the small-arms ammo box, the brand new Harley chopper custom guard, and the pod air-filters an image ago. Yup, that means that the stock air-box is going bye-byes along with the standard mudguard and side covers and instead the battery and half the electrics are going to live in the ammo box which will be where the airbox used to be. While that area is all opened up I'll take the tank off and weld in some new seat brackets and a bracket to the swing arm in order to mount the new guard that will remain a constant distance from the wheel and swing up and down with it. By then I'll be ready for some lower shocks, so I guess I'll see what I can trade at the local 2 wheel wreckers from what I've junked ...

Oh, and why remove the tank again ? Coz I don't like welding and angle-grinding around petrol containers. Safety First Folks (yup, those are armoured and double lined chamos I'm modelling under that beaten up old Belstaf jacket, leather cut-offs, and nice unshiny new helmet), and until next time ...

regarDS

CX500 rAt Attack stage 1 completed

2008-05-29T17:04:00.014+08:00

Okay, never mind the current and well justified "Art Rage" re: Uncle Bill's highly questionable, inappropriate, and universal betrayal of adult to child responsibilities (not to mention clearly being at odds with any "permit for working with a child" police clearances) going on in Oz at the moment, here are some more happy snaps of my current "rAt Rage" instead.

The CX500 that I'm applying my own forms of artistic freedoms of expression to is of 1981 vintage, which in bike years (that at least match human years) makes her 27 years old - more than old enough to have her photos taken in such compromising states of being ... and she certainly didn't consent NOT to have such happy snaps taken. :)

Until the new seat along with a modest Harley sissybar and backrest arrives, I've resorted to camoflaging the current seat with some classic beaten up leather saddlebags virtually donated to the cause by an old friend who probably doesn't share my distaste for shiny, polished, and clean machinery. Cheers again CW ... perhaps you'll have time to take it for a spin next time ... oh and you were right about the bad earth probably causing the indicator to play up! Actually, I reckon the bags lend themselves well to The Look I'm aiming for, so I hope they are still high enough when the new seat goes on.

Like the red light installed on the centre stand ? It's wired into the park lights (and on a separate switch) and puts out a nice glow to remind night drivers there is something on the road in front of them. Which is also the reason for the gratuituous use of those ugly looking reflectors.

The narrow 55watt drive lights have been relayed into the high beam ... decided I didn't care about doing the split thing of putting one on the main beam and the other on the high beam. Yes, I realise that the charge system might not keep up with the drain, but I doubt that the drive lights are actually going to get all that much use anyway. Like the light-up toggle switch ratted onto the fusebox next to the ignition ?

Yes, that IS plastic spiral wrap that has been used on the pillion grip, crashbars, and handlebar tie-bar. Yes, I've deliberately introduced MORE plastic to a motorcyle. Who says my idea of "rAt" has to be the same as your, hmmmm ? Heh.

Aside from the seat/sissy bar arrangement on order, some pods for the carbies are coming so I can get rid of the stock airbox and move the battery and electrics into the middle under the seat and get rid of the side-covers. I'm still on the search for some shorter reach shocks so I can lower the rear a few inches. I've also got a different kind of guard on its way. That one is going to be mounted off the swing arm so that it hugs the tyre.

I'm also on the lookout for an old B250 Tractor seat to interchange with the main seat as whim takes me. Why a B250 seat ? Coz ten years or so ago I spent many hundreds of hours sitting on one as I used the tractor it belonged to as my beast of burden to get artistic and creative with the 5 country acres I had.

See pic of one gorgeous piece of quality 3D functional Art. Oozes talent, eh ? Oozed a bit of hydrolic oil too.

Remember folks, chrome won't get you home.

Oh, and IL BL, you're a IL DL. Both of you even. Heh.

As for more on the Art Rage as opposed to Rat Rage going on at the moment, see: http://www.behindthebox.com.au/showthread.php?t=31467

regarDS

CX500 Rat Attack stage 1

2008-05-21T14:39:00.015+08:00

More of a slide show than a waffle this time. Stage 1 in the deliberate Rat Attack of my CX500 1981 Custom. No real modifications at this stage, just getting busy with the Matt Black rattlecans after fish-oiling everywhere for rust control , fixing the tank weep, pulling off logos, getting gratuituous with reflectors, and installing some spots.

True Rat work with the spots - bit of aluminium angle I had laying around used as a reinforcement to the "Honda" logo on the triples then just bolted the spot mounts straight through both after some drilling. Drilled a couple of reflectors onto the rear shocks, and hoseclipped a couple more on to the frame under the side guards then bunged a bit of gaff tape over a couple of rust holes behind the stop light.

Most time so far has gone into the tank which needed one of those liquid repair kit thingies where you wash it out with one kind of thing, etch it with another kind of thing over night, then seal it with another kind of thing. Tis busy curing as I type and to speed it along I've got a small fan off an old IBM mainframe blowing air through it at a pleasing pace.

Hopefully will get the tank painted and back on the wee beastie in time for a ride on Saturday. Then it is just a case of looking out for suitable mod parts on ebay and Ratting accordingly. I want to change the seat to something less gay and also get twin headlights going but using two CX500 lights side by side.

The pot-belly matt black spraypaint on the exhaust has given me second thoughts about changing them for the moment ... they don't stand out so much like Gabriel's Trumpets now that they are "cast down to earth" kinda dirty.

regarDS

Biker Boy Rides Again ...

2008-05-16T22:39:00.011+08:00

What with diesel prices going extremely North lately making things somewhat expensive to keep my tRusty 4x4 on the road, I've decided to revisit my days of youth and do The Biker thing again.

Result is pictured. Scored myself my third Honda CX500 and this time I got myself the "custom" design. The last one I had was the "sports" but I got rid of that at least 8 years ago.

See the picture within a picture ? That was me at around 20 years old when I had the a CM250 Custom, which my current CX500 Custom is a Big Brother (Heh) to.

Yup, still just as good looking, still just as much a kid ... just not so much the virgin anymore. Oh, and not so much hair these days either.

Here is what it looked like when I was bidding for it on ebay and won it for pleasingly reasonable price, and below that is a pic of one idea I have for it.

I'm planning to get very busy with some matt black spray paint on it in the next day or so and I have also been very busy visiting the excellent http://www.ratbike.org/ site getting ideas on how I can properly show my contempt for brand names and shiny over-priced sporty things and the kind of people who worship them. Heh.

Logos and brands are coming off post-haste and as much chrome as possible is either going to be gone or covered under beautiful ugly matt black.

I'll keep the blog posted re: my progress and the transformation of a somewhat ugly bike into a truly ugly bike that I shall be proud to ride and park among the high priced vehicles it is likely to encounter on a regular basis in a month or so.

Remember folks, "chrome won't get you home".

Rat bikes are the new black.

Matt Black.

regarDS

Shalom Shalom ... Happy 60th Anniversary Israel !

2008-05-15T06:16:00.004+08:00

Yup, it's been 60 years since that 14th/15th day in May in 1948 that prophetic clock really got ticking its countdown again. See: http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/mideast/israel.htm for more on that.

NASA seems to have joined in with the celebrations with the release of a pic of a certain allegedly young supernova. See: http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/BadAs.../~3/290294357/ for more on that.

Cool Heavenly Fireworks display, yes ? Imagine how this universe would look if you were outside it and could watch it in fast motion ?

Here is youtube to help with your imagination in that regard. Tis of fireworks put on as part of Israel's 60th anniversary celebrations.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RfxYoRp27AY

Shalom Shalom

Downtime ... deep Downtime.

2008-05-08T21:29:00.011+08:00

Just a quicky to continue on the the previous entry but "downtime" from a different point of view. "Downtime" as in "dive, dive, dive ..."

Busselton Jetty is a Great Place to do a bit of scuba diving, but rather than me bang on about it, just visit: http://www.busseltonjetty.com.au/ for more info on the kind of view you can get of the bottom of the Indian Ocean from about 2km offshore WITHOUT getting your feet wet.

If you want, you can even do it now, for they've got a web-cam set up there too.

LSCP and I did it from both sides of the underwater observatory glass, and we cheated having to carry all our scuba gear out for a 2km walk by using our 4 metre "tinny" dinghy instead and using "The Dive Shed" mooring (with permission). Much better way of doing it.

The Dive Shed is the local dive shop and they were extremely helpful regarding weather conditions, any equipment hire, and they also do charters to not only the jetty (saving you the lugging of gear) but also to the HMAS Swan wreck and some local reef.

As for us, well the Vis wasn't good that day but it was still a fantastic and peaceful dive ... and wouldn't you know it, I just happened to have a certain sign handy and LSCP was in the mood to take some photos. :)

Yes, even when partaking in "downtime" when on extended "downtime", I was still thinking of all the wonderful foruming folk in the "Behind Big Brother" forums.

LSCP even managed to capture on film a forum moderator swimming by at the time !

regarDS

Downtime

2008-04-28T01:44:00.007+08:00

Nothing like hitting the road in the tRusty 4X4 and a Tinny in tow and heading out into the great outdoors. Especially when it is a wet and wild April going down and most folk are sensibly tucked away in front of their plasma screens, xboxes, blogs & forums, ebay auctions and other online distractions designed to drain life away with the least amount of resistance or fuss.

This voluntary little excursion took me away from my 'puters for a whole EIGHT NIGHTS. Yup, no kidding. That's EIGHT NIGHTS without reading or posting a single forum message, or making a single ebay bid on something I probably could do without, or even watching the slightest bit of TV "news" (let alone NCIS or House, etc) or having any kind of hands on interaction with the Online World.

Scary stuff indeed.

Let me tell you folks that there IS sunshine, fresh air, stars in the clear and cold night sky, bird flittering through the trees, possums arguing over poorly stored campside rubbish, outrageous fuel prices, good food and wine to be found out of the cities in the Wild Offline World lurking just beyond the freeways and mobile phone range !

In our case, LSCP (that's "Life Style Choices Partner" for those who came in late) and I headed off for a favorite haunt called "Honeymoon Pool" near the Wellington Dam near Collie (in W.A.) for a few nights before braving the School Holiday Rush that was bound to be found at Busselton around 80ish Kms down the road.

Honeymoon Pool was a bit low for water this time around but the night air at our site at "Gelcoat Rapids" was crisp and fresh, the stars bright and the moon even brighter when the rain clouds chose to part now and then, and better than that, the tent was warm and cosy, chocolate copious as too suitable illcoholic pleasures.

Any questions ? Mind your own business ! However, I might mention that because there was no one else around for most of the time we were there, it wasn't all that necessary to keep the tent zipped up either. Hmmmm - if possums in the area start to mate in some strange new position not normally observed of them, it could be a case of them seeing through an open tent things no possum should ever have to know about ! Heh.

So having paid our dues to the "Honeymoon pool" name (and the name of our campsite I guess) we left the wild woods to face a new wilderness ... the holiday seaside town of Busselton during the dreaded school holiday season.

What were we thinking ?

Didn't matter, coz Praise the Makers of Plasma screens, xboxes, and all electronic things designed to make childrens eyes glaze over, Busselton was surprisingly family/school kid free !

We now had access to the Busselton Jetty to scuba dive around, lots of hot water at the not all that busy Kookaburra caravan park to wash our smelly salty bodies with, and walking distance access to plenty of locations that could supply us with Good Food, illcohol, chocolate, and even really good cheese and dirt cheap reading materials at whim.

Had to be a little more careful regarding the tent mind you.

Ok, confession to make ... we weren't TOTALLY isolated from traditional visual entertainment. I'm not talking about the fantastic scuba dive we did on the Busselton Jetty (I'll save that for a later blog entry as hopefully there will be a topical photo or two that relates to the blog entry prior to this one), nor the antics of possums arguing over garbage.

I'm talking about the visual entertainment possible by the Oz rarity called "The Drive-In Theatre". Yup, those places that were everywhere in Oz before VCRs and Drink Driving laws killed them.

Busselton has one. Who cares what was showing, we just had to bed up the 4runner, load up with unhealthy food and the odd coldie, and cuddle up with it backed into a good pozzie with the tailgate down (saves having to clean the windscreen and fumble around a centre-console).

Movie selection wasn't bad. "I am Legend" and "10,000 BC" was an ok double for the price and experience that for a while looked uncertain due to technical issues with my tRusty 4x4 car stereo.

It is missing its antenne - not that I care as I don't actually bother with music or radio when I'm driving. However, the "modern drive-in theatre" kinda needs you to have a functioning radio so you can tune into its movie broadcast soundtrack.

Ooops. Deem much fumbling around in vehicle looking for a coathanger or something to stick in the antenna hole included ! Nup ... all I could find was a 4" nail. I hammered that into the hole with an axe I happened to be carrying (why would you go to a drive-in without one ?) but nup, way too short to be a useful antenna (said the actress to the bishop).

What to do ? Movie about to start and I've got no sound and the neighbours were telling their kids to stay away from the strange guy carrying an axe and bashing the dangerous looking vehicle which had a pretty girl inside who was way too young for him but far too old to be his daughter, etc, etc.

I finally got a couple more of my brain cells back online (too much downtime puts a disturbing number of them into a state of constant slumber and clodness) and thought of another use for the battery jumper leads I carry than the one usually intended for them this side of Egypt or an evening out with one "Cruel and Heartless" of BBBA forum fame.

See piccy below for an example of my sudden spurt of cleverness that got my radio receiving loud and clear just in time for Will Smith to strut his questionable "I am Legend"ness.

I swapped the axe for my skipper's hat and a sign I happened to still have "floating around" in the back of the truck after the scuba dive earlier that day.

Just because I was on Downtime from my precious forums (et al) doesn't mean that I wasn't thinking of y'all !

And here I am back safe and sound and just in time for the official launch of the Oz Big Brother season.

Like the happy snappy says:

regarDS

A York Dreaming ...

2008-02-13T21:21:00.012+09:00

In addition to my "sorry day" entry (see previous), I thought I'd include the following entry which actually used to be one of my web pages near ten years ago. I thought it was an apt archive to dust off.

SOQ (which I assume everyone understands to mean "START OF QUOTE", which might indicate that I'm either quoting myself, or quoting someone else)

As I understand it, the Oz aboriginal people's history consists of a range of events recorded in "dreamtime" types of stories, which are recounted both in words song and dance. Corroboree ?

The "Dreamtime" interests me greatly because from what I can figure, it is a timeless type of place which explains both creation and the end of time - "dreamtime" seems to be a place OUTSIDE time ... a place Shamans and the like of all sort of cultures, know, and can visit.

With that in mind, I wonder if this following "dreamtime" account about the two main "mountains" (more like large hills) in York Western Australia, is from our "Past" or from our ever unfolding "Present", or from our eventual "future(s)". It has elements of all within it including a "prophecy of hope".

When I was a child, I used hunt fish with aboriginal children - they taught me how to make and use both the "kylie" and the "gidji", and we used to go for mullet and cobbler in the Swan River around Maylands and the Peninsular. It must be a good 35 years since that Perth area has seen that kind of activity - and I hope I am very wrong in saying that - it would be so sad if the ways of the kylie and gitji are no more around the Swan River.

Anyway, I guess what I'm trying to say by all this is that in some small way, I relate to a tribe or dreamtime of sorts, and have lived a sort of tribal life and dreamtime, sometimes. However, I'm not an "Aboriginal Story-teller"and am not trying to take ANY credit here, or trying to offend anyone either. This is just a case of me being touched by the legend, and wanting to see it told to a greater audience.

So, here is "The Legend of Mount Bakewell and Mount Brown" as published in an Avon newspaper, told by Emily Winmar.

"To the Nyungar people the taller mountain was called Walwalling (place of weeping) and the lower hill was called Wongborel (sleeping woman). Koorain kwotjut (a long time ago) in the Dreamtime, the hills Nyungars used to meet the plains and valley people on the flat area at the tjenna (foot) of Walwalling for games and sport.

Wundig was a Moorditj (a good looking person) young man of the hills people who waskwobinyarn (champion) in the skills of gitjul (spear) kylie (a simple form of shuriken or shakken - essentially a flat square blade usually used to throw at fish in shallow water) and tjenna (foot) races, and a lot of young yorga's (women) had their meowl's (eyes) on him.

However, Wilura, a mooditj young yorga of the valley people was tjeruping (had to have) for him. They were not betrothed because in their tribal groupings it would have been a warrah(bad) relationship. The two decided to ignore the taboo and they woort kooliny together.

When it was discovered, the valley Nyungers demanded the return of the young yorga. The hills Nyungars said they didn't know where the young couple were. The valley Nyungars didn't believe them and declared war.

The hills Nyungars came down over the slopes outnumbering the challengers and a blood thirsty battle ensued with the valley Nyungars coming off badly. They called in their Mubarn (medicine)man and asked him to use his mubarn powers.

He was able to change all the hills fighting men into blackboy bushes and to this day you can see the wide band of grass trees where in the dreamtime the warriors from the hills were coming over the top of Walwalling and down the Eastern slope. They stand there still.

The Mubarn man then turned his mubarn powers on the young people who had caused such bloodshed and put a curse on them. Their nortch (dead) bodies were found later and his curse was that the man's kunya (spirit) would stay on Walwalling and the Yorgar's kunya was sent to Wongborel and that they would never meet again until the mountains came together."

Now for more commentry from "derspatz". These two mountains are separated by the "Avon river" and York is on (or near) an earth-quake fault line (about 30 years ago a quake leveled a place called Meckering which is not all that far away from York), so perhaps this dreamtime story is also a prophecy of a day when the two mountains will be shaken together !

Mount Bakewell, the taller of the mounts, is a place where hang-gliders and para-sailers leap off and also the location of telecommunication towers ... male type stuff, and Mount Brown is where a public look-out is, and a water supply tank, and at it's foot is a grave-yard. It is also a place where I'm told young lovers go to kanoodle (grin). A "feminine" type of place ?

Between those Mountains is not only where York township is located, but also where people who like to leap out of aeroplanes get to land ...

I would like to think that the kunya of Wundigand the kunya of Wilura, get to continue their taboo breaking love in the airspace in between those two mountains - perhaps the parachutists are like a "celebration" of an obvious selfish love that rejected the wisdom and guidance and well-being of the tribe, and brought about the ruin told in the story. Love or lust ?

I say "celebration", because I have leaped out of a perfectly good aeroplane and hung on thin air ... some would say a dangerous and selfish thing to do, ah but what an experience, not to mention privilage ... despite it flying in the face of conventional wisdom.

As a hills man I have also broken taboos with valley yorga with tragic results. Once again flying in the face of conventional wisdom. As Mr Neil Finn wrote in the song "Into Temptation", "the guilty get no sleep in the last slow hours of morning and experience is cheap; I should have listened to the warning ... ah, but the cradle is soft and warm !"

Experience is addictive too it seems and at the end of the day, how DO you separate "True Love" from "Selfish or False love" ?

Yes, I understand and probably enslaved to the emotion which was the driving force behind the relationship that Wundig and Wilura formed and that which prompts some of us to leap out into thin air protected only by cradles of silk ...

It is all the same, no ? So that mubarn curse is still in place. So pray that the mountains get to meet soon, and "True Love" may abound !

So who was that Mubarn Man ? He punished hill warriors and the "lovers", but is there a sort of mercy and grace evident in the story, where the hill warriors still "look over" the valley and that one day when "mountains collide", the selfish lovers will be reunited ?

Whoever he was I think I like his attitude ...
EOQ ("END OF QUOTE")

regarDS

A time to be Sorry and a time to say Sorry.

2008-02-13T20:50:00.006+09:00

LOL, LOL, LOL !

An opportunity for a whole new beginning for ALL the people of Oz was made available today, this Wednesday February 13th 2008. The day Oz finally and officially said "sorry" to some past mistakes regarding certain governmental policies and general attitudes cultivated by the same in relation to the peoples who were custodians of this vast land before the European arrived.

Here is to hoping that a positive and beneficial outcome for all of us will be the result as we all consider and act upon our mutual obligations to each other and the future generations of this great country!

For those who don't already know, I am adoptee and so I think I can well understand what it is like to be separated from one's natural kith and kin even if it is put one in even a more loving and beneficial environment. I can only imagine what it might be like for a reliquishing parent mind you, although I suspect both reliquishing parents and the reliquished think the same sorts of things upon every birthday of the reliquished, mind you.

That being said, I hope that not only will this official "sorry" that has been said by the government on behalf of Oz's non-aboriginal people be received and accepted wholeheartedly by Oz's aboriginal folk, but also that the offerers of the apology may also know forgiveness in return.

I sincerely hope that a new hope has been well and truly born today and that this time to be sorry and this time to say sorry will help nurture this new hope that it may grow into a time a healing, unity, joy, and the thing that is common to all of that.

Laughter.

May we all learn to properly laugh again and laugh together both with each other and at each other.

Only then will we know that we are truly One Mob, One People !

regarDS

FEUER FREI !

2008-01-29T17:47:00.000+09:00

For the last few hours a couple of dedicated helicopter pilots have been busy water bombing some sort of scrub fire next to a horse race course across the river from me. The strong winds have made the going hard for them and there is now so much smoke that the bottom of hill cannot even be seen, let alone the river.

Pretty glad it is happening on the OTHER side of the river from us, and to the helicopter pilots I say a resounding GOOD ON YA LADS !

Anyway, here are some photos of the ongoing event. I had to chuckle at the ID number of one of the helicopters. 668. Neighbouring chopper to The Beast ?

Oh, and here is a suitable music track to go along with the pics. Cheers Rammstein.
http://www.last.fm/music/Rammstein/_/Feuer+Frei :)

regarDS

Genesis 3:21 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife, and clothed them.

2008-01-09T21:47:00.000+09:00

From "The Australian" January 9th 2008

Climate change cure is warm and fuzzy. by Janet Albrechtsen

CANADA: I am starting to warm to this whole climate change business. Arrived in Vancouver for a night just before 2007 drew to a close. With barely a few hours remaining before the stores closed, I raced out and bought a fur coat. A long coat cascading down to my ankles, light as a feather and as warm as a ... well ... fur.

A few days later, despite sub-zero mountain temperatures, I am still positively glowing with warmth from my new fur. Not just because animal skins protect from the cold. No, there is the unexpected, more cerebral, inner-warmth that comes from learning that by buying a fur, I have done the right green thing. According to the Fur Council of Canada's new ad campaign, fur is now eco-fashion. Thats right. Wrapping yourself in a fur is a guilt-free pleasure. More than that, it's positively good for the planet. Barely 10 days in, I am loving 2008. It holds the promise of lots more surprises from green politics as the climate change juggernaut continues to head in the most unlikely directions.

Let me explain. At the weekend, Canada's National Post reported on an advertising campaign launched at the end of last year by the Fur Council of Canada, which represents 70,000 of the nation's fur traders. These sassy new ads feature gorgeous women draped in fur, one under the heading "Environmental activist". The ads explain that buying a fur coat is the ecologically correct thing to do because fox stoles and mink coats are natural, renewable and sustainable. By contrast, synthetic furs are no more than by-products of the petro-chemical industry. Making a single faux fur coat can chew up 19 litres of petroleum, a non-renewable resource, says the council. Ergo, buying a fur coat is good for the planet. Welcome to the brave new world of climate change politics.

The Fur Council's campaign has been so successful that even comedians are sending out the "fur is green" message. Picked up by a Canadian comedy show, a camp-looking guy who resembles Borat in a fur coat gets off some great lines assuring us that a genuine fur coat creates less pollution than synthetic textiles and uses no child labour. "So say auf Wiedersehen to faux fur," he smiles into the camera. "You wouldn't wear a barrel of oil, so why would you wear a coat that is made from one?" You can find it on YouTube. And if you're worried about being sprayed with paint by those nasty PETA people, funny fur boy has some advice: "Well, you just turn around and tell them that every spray can produces enough fluorocarbons to drown three polar bears. Who's the killer now, PETA?" Fur boy's advice if you want to do something good for the environment: "Kill a small animal and slap it on your noggin."

Alan Herscovici, the council's executive vice-president, told me by phone from Montreal that the global warming issue provided the perfect opportunity for the fur industry to tackle the animal rights industry. He described these groups as the new politically correct hate groups and lamented that the media rarely exposes the intimidation they use to pillory legitimate industries such as fur.

So if you are in the business of producing and selling natural products such as furs why wouldn't you jump aboard the natural, sustainable, renewable bandwagon? Long derided as the brutish killers of innocent animals who satisfy the hedonistic vanity of callous consumers, now animal trappers and hunters are, according to the Fur Council of Canada, the new heroes of global warming. And those buying and wearing the fur coats can hold their heads high in the knowledge that they are doing the socially responsible thing.

The fur industry is fighting back using the sort of emotional blackmail that the animal rights industry mastered long ago. All these years the anti-fur brigade has assumed the high moral ground when extolling the virtues of synthetic, faux fur coats over the real thing. Now we learn that their motto can be reduced to "Save a beaver. Kill the planet."

Climate change has snatched the moral high ground. Now the inference is that the animal rights industry would rather you line the pockets of Big Oil by buying petroleum by-products such as synthetic coats, rather than support the fur-farming and hunting families of the Cree people in the James Bay area or the Dene nation north of British Columbia.

Maybe the Fur Council's campaign is just a case of green-washing, as some warn. But theirs is a more legitimate claim compared to the shonks trading on climate change. Take the booming industry of offsets. When you next jump aboard a fuel-guzzling aeroplane you can soothe your conscience by throwing a few more dollars at the airline company that promises to send your money on to some green initiative such as planting trees or investing in wind power in India.

But as Mark Jaccard, a professor at the school of resource and environmental management at Simon Fraser University, told the National Post: "Was the tree planted in Guatemala truly an additional investment in reducing greenhouses gases or would another tree have sprouted in that spot eventually? Has the Indian wind generator actually helped prevent or delay the construction of a coal-fired power station, or was it simply a wealth transfer to one region in India while the expansion of coal stations has continued at the same pace? We cannot know because future actions are unknowable."

Even for those who accept climate change is a major threat to the planet, there are plenty of reasons to remain suspicious about how companies and industries move to rebrand themselves as environmental friends. Any new industry - and make no mistake, greenwashing looks like the boom industry of the early 21st century - will attract a rich collection of snake oil salesmen, hypocrites and downright crooks in its early years. And separating the rogues from the saints can often only be done in retrospect.

For the moment, I'm prepared to back the Fur Council. Why? Because I kind of like this novel feeling. Finally, I get around to buying a full-length fur coat and it turns out to be the politically correct thing to do. There I was recently mocking a friend in the advertising industry for ending his email with a pro forma "Have a low carbon day". Now I'm looking forward to the bumper stickers that will soon start appearing on the back of the small hybrid cars driven by our green-minded friends. "Buy a fur. Save the planet."

janeta@bigpond.net.au

ROFL ! Good on ya Janet !

regarDS

notional illuminations ?

2008-01-02T21:44:00.000+09:00

Perceptions through a Champagne Glass

-
View the true split by glass distorted
Rendered a lie by liquid contorted.
Truth in transit via reflected light
Made false in delivery by transparent might.

Is this vessel but a mote
a corrupting point of view ?
Or the lie a needful beauty to "reality" imbue ?

All around the room there is But Of Course no change
Despite the glass that holds lying liquid
which tries to rearrange.

So truth remains the same, both within and without
And "All" makes up reality, both the knowing and the doubt.
Thus false is not, but rather, everything found true
Hey, I'll drink to that sweetheart ... here's looking at you !

regarDS

New Years Resolutions.

2008-01-01T13:19:00.001+09:00

Howdy all. I don't know about you, but I like to get those sorts of things (NYRs) out of the way really quick, so I set myself a simple one this year. For 2008, it was simply to be on the water from sun-down Dec 31, to sun-up Jan 1.

Yay, I did it and with a minimum of effort and fuss. We were on the water and then moored in The Lagoon at The Island (Heirisson) from around 1.30pm to 3pm or so but then got a call from a mate with a new toy that he couldn't get under the Causeway bridges so we went and tied up against their floating palace over in Matilda Bay.

Sorry if we missed any Perthites who did decide to come down to The Island. We didn't make it back there until near 9pm after the cricket had finished. We picked up Sis & her Hubby on the WACA side then went and moored in front of Gloucester park, turned the stereo up, cracked the champers, and waited for the fireworks.

Stereo was loud, champers went pop, and the fireworks were pleasingly loud, popping, and firey. So not only was a good time had by all with much silliness, laughter and noise, but also it was probably considerably safer and more comfortable than many land based locations. Just the way I like it.

After that, we dropped them off and then motored up the river to near Garrett Rd Bridge where we anchored all night in the shallows at our perennial private love-nest (tis a bird and wild-life sanctuary) and before we knew it, the sun was high and it was around 10am and my NYR was well and truly taken care of.

Excellent day, lovely evening, beautiful night, and now we're home and hosed and hoping the fact that it is a leap year means we'll have enough days to get all we want to do this year.

In the little photo mix of our last day of 2007 we have (from Left to Right, Top to Bottom): (Top) Me and LSCP hanging around at The Lagoon, then (Bottom) LSCP looking Very Pretty indeed whilst "tender"ly holding our little 6m vessel as I prepare to board mate's Floating Palace, followed by a view from the top deck past our little fun boat all the way from Matilda Bay to Perth City", and then we have (a few moments before the fireworks started) a case of "HOLY SNAPPING SPATZ SH1T !" (Hi DQ)

I knew I shoulda locked the door when Sis was onboard.

Hope everyone elses day and evening was as least as good as mine !

regarDS

Tis the season to be silly ... fa la la la (etc)

2007-12-23T01:24:00.000+09:00

Christmas Carols for the Disturbed.

(Pinched from elsewhere)

SOQ
1. Schizophrenia --- Do You Hear What I Hear?

2. Multiple Personality Disorder --- We Three Kings Disoriented Are

3. Dementia --- I Think I'll be Home for Christmas

4. Narcissistic --- Hark the Herald Angels Sing About Me

5. Manic --- Deck the Halls and Walls and House and Lawn and Streets and Stores and Office and Town and Cars and Buses and Trucks and Trees and.....

6. Paranoid --- Santa Claus is Coming to Town to Get Me

7. Borderline Personality Disorder --- Thoughts of Roasting on an Open Fire

8. Personality Disorder --- You Better Watch Out, I'm Gonna Cry, I'm Gonna Pout, Maybe I'll Tell You Why

9. Attention Deficit Disorder --- Silent night, Holy oooh look at the froggy - can I have a chocolate, why is France so far away?

10. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder --Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle, Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells...

EOQ

Hope it all goes well for ya'll ... may the best of your 2007 be the worst of your 2008. Cheers !

Yeah yeah, I know ... how does someone who generally comes across as smug and conceited (etc) with his (often longwinded and typically out of the ordinary - ie, "weird") online opinions turn out to be so obviously good looking and presumably and/or correspondingly easy going frood who really knows where his towel is when not stuck behind a keyboard ?

Short answer. "It's the Internet, Stupid". See, there I go again. Smug and conceited.

Outside such pages, I'm actually more amused by life and the many strange ways folk choose to live it to actually really take much seriously at all ... and especially not myself. Generally I feel like I'm merely visiting this planet anyway and for an all too short stay when one really thinks about it.

All the more reason to spend more time laughing and being amused than not, I reckon.

But I'm still not going to turn "comments" on here. Go find another blog if you want to add your own blab to something someone else feels like waffling about. I've already got enough to keep me busy as it is.

Anyway, a Merry Bah Humbug to one and all for the silly season. Laugh lots and love even moreso.

regarDS

Pragmatic uses of Natural Climate Change to achieve Global Domination

2007-12-16T22:18:00.000+09:00

So derspatz, you're of the opinion that global warming isn't caused by people, but is the natural warming/cooling of the earth AND God?

Not quite. I'm of the view that this planet was created as a (for all intents and purposes) perfect place with a perfect environment and that at the time of Noah the gradually corrupting/decaying conditions were given a dramatic and speedy shake up that not only brought about speedy and repetative global climate change swings, but also changed our very planetary spin and orbit, probably flipped the poles, gave us our current planetary wobble and changed the number of days to be found in a year.

I'm also of the view that we shall again suffer pole flip (which shall make the stars appear to move from their places) and the rapid arrival of many (largely unexpected for most folk due to their unfortunate indoctrinations in Gradualism and Uniformatarianism) catastrophies that again shall reshape the planet and destroy and kill much and many.

I don't think God worries much about our climate or spends time deliberately influencing it as such, especially seeing how it is ticking along nicely within usual and repeated parameters. Tis all under control and The End shall come just as promised and planned.

Our current climate changes don't bring me any concern at all because I'm of the view that everything that can be observed about our planet's history neatly fits within a time frame of around 6,000 to 10,000 years, with many events some deem to be many millenia apart and taking much time to come about, actually happening around about the same time and very quickly ... which was the main point of my recent links (see previous blog entry) that show even hostile sceptical science has irrevocably discovered that climate change can happen FAST FAST FAST and we can lose massive amounts of ice in a matter of a few years where previously it was thought it would take millenia.

I guess many of the hostile sceptical mob weren't very big on Viking history

And if it is God, to you believe that it's the 'end days' in revelations (as is my understanding of it based on many years of religious studies in school, but perhaps is not yours), or another period such as the great flood to whittle down some human numbers?

I believe that our global climate change is being pragmatically used by certain people in order to fulfil certain dreams (and prophecies) regarding finally establishing a Global Government.

I deem the likes of "Al Gore" to be pretty close to being "the false prophet" described in the prophecies of the Ancient Texts, who is out and about winning converts to his cause (much like Hitler's Brown Shirts), putting pressure on countries to join together in common accord to govern their citizens through the filter of "the sky is falling so we must all make our citizens toe a new line for the good of everyone ... OR ELSE", and we shall end up with a New World Order and government that is going to put Ancient Rome (et al) to shame.

I don't think God is the slightest bit interested in "whittling down" human numbers seeing how we are all gonna die one way or another anyway and get to have our time here judged.

However, the promise is that at the End of Days (before a 1000 years of peace and restoration here on earth before a final total renovation by fire and rebuilding of the heavens and the earth), much mayhem WILL be permitted and inflicted upon the planet in order to sort a few things out, and it WILL involve global climate change of a less than pleasant kind.

I reckon that the "stage of the game" we currently are at prophetically speaking, is the use of Global Climate Change in order to unify the people of the planet and restablish the power and control of the Roman Empire in a way that the ancients could only dream about.

Tis very exciting from my point of view, for I always wondered what sort of method could be use to get so many of the inhabitants of the earth to join up and surrender personal freedoms, especially after such systems previously tried by the likes of Hitler, Stalin, Pol Pot, China, etc.

Who woulda thunk it would have been something as simple as "The Weather" !

Now, if Al Gore really is the foretold "False Prophet", I wonder who the Anti-Christ will be. The one whom the false prophet helps get into power as president of Rome Reborn which is going to be the biggest super-power humans have yet to come up with.

BTW, I'm also of the view that the generation who saw Israel reborn in 1948 will not die out before the promised final 7 year tribulation time happens, Armageddon, and Yeshua returns.

Yet another reason I support and urge others to support Israel in nearly all things, and certainly with your charity dollar. Tis the best way to help the planet get past all of its ails and woes.

regarDS

On the topic of Rapid Climate Change ...

2007-12-16T21:25:00.000+09:00

"By the 20th century, scientists (DS: some, but not all) had rejected old tales of world catastrophe, and were convinced that global climate could change only gradually over many tens of thousands of years. But in the 1950s, a few scientists found evidence that some changes in the past had taken only a few thousand years. During the 1960s and 1970s other data, supported by new theories and new attitudes about human influences, reduced the time a change might require to hundreds of years. Many doubted that such a rapid shift could have befallen the planet as a whole. The 1980s and 1990s brought proof (chiefly from studies of ancient ice) that the global climate could indeed shift, radically and catastrophically, within a century — perhaps even within a decade."

See: http://www.aip.org/history/climate/rapid.htm for the rest of where that quote was lifted from, plus such things as:

"Swings of temperature that scientists in the 1950s believed to take tens of thousands of years, in the 1970s to take thousands of years, and in the 1980s to take hundreds of years, were now found to take only decades. Ice core analysis by Dansgaard's group, confirmed by the Americans' parallel hole, showed rapid oscillations of temperature repeatedly at irregular intervals throughout the last glacial period. Greenland had sometimes warmed a shocking 7°C within a span of less than 50 years. For one group of American scientists on the ice in Greenland, the "moment of truth” struck on a single day in midsummer 1992 as they analyzed a cylinder of ice, recently emerged from the drill hole, that came from the last years of the Younger Dryas. They saw an obvious change in the ice, visible within three snow layers, that is, scarcely three years!"

and

"The first strong consensus statement had come in 1995 from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, representing the considered views of nearly all the world's climate scientists. The report included a notice that climate "surprises" were possible — "Future unexpected, large, and rapid climate system changes (as have occurred in the past)." The report’s authors did not emphasize the point, however, and the press seldom mentioned it."

and

"Asked about the discovery of abrupt climate change, many climate experts today would put their finger on one moment: the day they read the 1993 report of the analysis of Greenland ice cores. Before that, nobody confidently believed that the climate could change massively within a decade or two; after the report, nobody felt sure that it could not."

Then turn to page 4 of Friday December 14th "The West Australian" and read about how much the Arctic ice has melted in less than 30 years and how little of the sun's radiation is being reflected away because of the melt, which in turn causes even faster melting.

Tis all Good News AFAIC. Just ask folk in Greenland.

regarDS

where the streets have no name

2007-12-04T05:05:00.000+09:00

This entry is mainly just a bit of a test for the "imbed a video link" that apparently is possible. Let's see if it works ...

Okay, you should see a not all that exciting or probably even remotely interesting slideshow (with an excellent U2 song as a soundtrack) of drivable machinery I used to have on a property I also used to have before "love turned to rust". The tractor is an old International B250, and the Z car at the beginning was done up for a street parade. Supposed to be a robotic santa and sleigh (shrug). The trucks are Leyland, and the Ute is a 1954 Hillman. No seatbelts. The Bus is an old 5-pot Daimler which I used to spend quite a lot of time in towards the end of my marriage. Sad to leave it all behind (including the house I personally spent many years building with my own hands ...)

Another case of "Gimel Zayin Yud" ? ("This Too Shall Pass")

Pardon me for the mood potentially conveyed by the display of aged and rusty vehicles, but I can get a bit maudlin and machine-like around about this time of year due to some very exciting yet particularly sad and disappointing news I received back on the 16th of December, 1999. Those who know, know, and those who don't, can't (but no, it was nothing to do with my marriage.)

Oh, obviously I get somewhat enigmatic around about this time of year too. (smile)

regarDS

WWJVF ? (Who Would Jesus Vote For ?)

2007-11-28T19:07:00.000+09:00

In a political discussion the other day, the line "I know who Jesus would vote for" was tossed into the pot for a bit of fun. You may be surprised, but it wasn't actually me who said it, and nor was it offered as some sort of heavenly endorsement of the Coalition. Far from it.

At the time, I opted not to make mention of the unlikelyness of Jesus to favour political parties that support and promote such things as abortion, homosexuality (and the right for homosexuals to adopt children), stem cell research, public education systems dedicated to teaching much that is far less than the truth, and policies dedicated to the eroding and replacement of tried and true family/traditional values with some sort of "Bill of Rights" that trample responsiblities and righteousness into the ground and then drive back'n'forth over the top a couple of times for good measure.

Instead, I took a more light-hearted approach to how Jesus tackled such things as Public Service bloat by calling a tax-collector away from his appointed task. I could have added that Jesus helped create a new job in the fishing trade by calling Peter away from his boat and nets to fish for souls instead of Sole, but thought better of it considering the potential welfare dependents created out of that job change.

Anyway, this "I know who Jesus would have voted for" line has had me thinking for the last couple of days, so I've decided to explore the idea of "WWJVF" (Who Would Jesus Vote For) in the context of a particularly contentious issue at the moment. That being:

The Unionism/Collectivism of the ALP vs the Individual Work Place Agreements ala AWAs of the Coalition.

Would Jesus vote for a party that favours unionism/collectivism ? Would He join a union ? Or would He vote for a party that promotes individual reward and responsibilites ?

Well, who better to give a view here than Jesus Himself. In Matthew chapter 20, Jesus has the following comparison to make regarding the Kingdom of Heaven and a particular workplace. It follows on from the "Eye of the Needle" parable in chapter 19, and is given in response to Peter's question about what are the rewards for giving up everything to follow God.

SOQ
"The kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out at dawn to hire laborers for his vineyard. After agreeing with them for the usual daily wage, he sent them into his vineyard. Going out about nine o'clock, he saw others standing idle in the marketplace, and he said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard, and I will give you what is just'. So they went off. And he went out again around noon, and around three o'clock, and did likewise.

Going out about five o'clock, he found others standing around, and said to them, 'Why do you stand here idle all day?' They answered, 'Because no one has hired us.' He said to them, 'You too go into my vineyard.'

When it was evening the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, 'Summon the laborers and give them their pay, beginning with the last and ending with the first.'

When those who had started about five o'clock came, each received the usual daily wage. So when the first came, they thought that they would receive more, but each of them also got the usual wage.

And on receiving it they grumbled against the landowner, saying, 'These last ones worked only one hour, and you have made them equal to us, who bore the day's burden and the heat.'

He said to one of them in reply, 'My friend, I am not cheating you. Did you not agree with me for the usual daily wage?

Take what is yours and go. What if I wish to give this last one the same as you? Or am I not free to do as I wish with my own money? Are you envious because I am generous?'

Thus, the last will be first, and the first will be last."
EOQ

What have we got here ?

(1) An employer who negotiates one on one with potential employees. AWA 1, Collectivism 0.

(2) Employees who are happy to turn up for what the employer was offering. AWA 2, Collectivism 0.

(3) Other employees who were happy to turn up based on a mere promise of "I will pay you what is just". AWA 3, Collectivism 0.

(4) An employer who was even happy enough to take on employees that no one else seemed to want - why else where they left in the public labour market place all day ? No change in score.

(5) At the end of the working day and the agreed upon wages distributed as per the Individual Work Place Agreements, some employees suddenly thought they should get more than what they had formerly agreed to. That sounds like the kind of attitudes (i.e. greed, envy and jealousy) often associated with certain modern Trade Unions kicked in, thereby showing a common contrast between Collectivism and Individual Workplace agreements. Thus, AWA 4, Collectivism 0.

(6) An employer who calls the employees "my friend" and reminds them that as per the agreement, they were not being cheated. Demonstrating again that Collectivism was in no way a part of these workplace arrangements. AWA 5, Collectivism 0.

Well, based on that, I think I know who Jesus might vote for too ...

It is also interesting to note that Jesus appears to be saying that "The Kingdom of Heaven" is similar to this kind of arrangement. In context, obviously "Eternal Life" is part of the common wage He was referring to - bestowed almost gift like by the employer regardless of the worth or actual efforts of the individual.

Some get it and all they did is merely turn up when asked, whereas others choose to slave their day away for the same reward.

Ah, NOW we are starting to sound like Collectivism ... (smile)

regarDS

Woe minority me ... (grin)

2007-11-24T22:15:00.001+09:00

Well folks, it looks like I'm going to be the member of a minority for the next three years.

Who wants to be the first to persecute me ?

Before I ramble on, I must say "Well done Mr Howard" and "Congratulations Prime Minister Rudd."

I got more or less what I expected with this Federal Election result as this following message posted elsewhere earlier in the week shows. I also got at least one unexpected bonus.

StartOfQuote (SOQ)
"You voted for all sorts of right wing parties and religious nut jobs; Why did you leave One Nation out?"

Because I didn't vote for extreme right wing parties and religious nut jobs. I voted for what I believe is best for Oz citizens as based upon historical knowledge of "what works" and nearly always so.

"One nation" isn't (best for Oz citizens). Which is why they are down so far on my list, along with the "Socialists" and the "Citizen Electoral Council" (the Larouche mob who hijacked the "Global Warming Hoax" thing on TV the other month) and But Of Course, the "Climate Change Coalition".

"One other question, how on Earth do you honestly think that voting in such a way would lead to "an Oz Government that isn't too much one way or another." ?"

Because despite the majority views of 64% of Oz citizens who claim to be "Christian", coupled with a few more % points of folk of other monotheistic religions, I believe that tall-poppy syndrome among other things is going to see a swing against the Coalition.

A swing that might even be enough to see a change of Government.

In view of that likely swing, I have given my vote to ensure that the pendulum doesn't swing too far the wrong way.

Thus, I'll be happy with either a tiny win for the Coalition or a tiny loss (but preferably a win) but I certainly don't want the Coalition to win by a landslide ... or any other party.

I'm hoping for a balanced and Centrist kind of Government, and all extremists and extremist parties given the public snubbing they deserve.
EOQ

As per a "politics test" result that you can take here: http://www.politicalcompass.org/test I am revealed to be near enough to "Centrist".

Which is in fact the result this election has just delivered. A somewhat Centrist Labor government which hasn't won by all that much, leaving things around about to the centre.

The unexpected bonus for me is the fact that the Oz Demoncrats are all but exinct as a party and soon to be no more. Hallelujah.

Now if only the same can be managed for the Evil Extreme Greens then my dreams will have come true. Maybe next election (when the Coalition will probably be returned by the many Oz citizens who will be impatient to correct the mistake they made today), huh ?

Lots of Postal and Early Votes still to be counted so it will be a little while before the dust settles and we get to see what sort of Senate we have now. I expect certain Independents will have a degree of control despite the unfortunate presence of the Evil Extreme Greens.

It appears that Prime Minister Rudd's new cabinet will be up against a hostile Senate until at least the middle of 2008 anyway. I wonder if by then the long knives will have come out to depose Too-Right'n'Nice-To-Be-Labor Prime Minister Rudd for the likes of "That Gillard Woman" or worse.

It was both fascinating and scary to see all the fists being thrust into the air when Prime Minister Rudd made a comment in his acceptance speech about Trade Unions. Yup, I can see the unions soon living up to the "We're coming back" promise, with the more lazy and thuggish of them (both officials and members) soon spoiling things for everyone in Oz, and spoiling Oz in terms of its place in the World Market.

Aside from that, it is like a weight lifted from my shoulders as I realise that I am on a holiday from any kind of blame as to what happens to our country over the next three years.

So THIS is what it is like to be part of a minority !

Wow, I'm surprised more folk don't make such a choice (re: joining a minority). Oh the freedom to be able to merely shrug and say, "Don't blame me, I didn't vote for them" and "You've made your bed, now lay in it" and "Since you weren't prepared to listen, perhaps you will learn by your mistake instead and seek to correct it at first opportunity and never repeat it again." and other such smug and sanctimonious and annoying statements. (grin)

Ah, I think I'm going to enjoy this little break.

I wonder how many days it will be before the first "I told you so" will be warranted, and months before the first corruption type scandal will be making headlines ?

regarDS

"Baby Boomers", Natural Climate Change and the Extreme Greens

2007-11-22T19:34:00.001+09:00

"... is this why the baby boomers appear to worship greed and don't seem to give a frig about climate change? It's all your problem kids, we won't be around for it."

My response to such a question is:

No, it is more a case of a majority of "baby boomers" having a better upbringing and education and being able to see straight through much of the propaganda regarding the fear campaign in relation to what in fact is natural climate change.

It also follows that the majority of "baby boomers" have also been better equipped to realise that lefty minority groups are prepared to lie about the natural and mostly beneficial process of climate change in insidious attempts to swing undeserved power their way so they can stamp their control and extremist policies upon the rest of the world.

Just like they are always trying to do.

The Greens are the worst kind of political extremists because essentially they lack any tried and true foundation to their morality and thus their policies. They are their own slaves to the subjective morality they choose to live by and unfortunately also fanatically fundamentalist enough to deem such a bankrupt approach to morals and ethics as something EVERYONE should be living by and so campaign and policy build accordingly.

Thus, the likes of The Greens prove themselves to not only be the enemies of humankind but also poisoners of innocence, and thus arguably the very soul of humanity.

regarDS

Public Education vs Private Education

2007-11-18T14:01:00.000+09:00

"why is it that all the promised education spending seems focused at private schools, and why is that when Howard was on TV at a school it was one of those catholic type private schools?"

My response to such a question ?

Because more and more of the more decent parents are getting sick of teaching and bringing up their kids one way, only to have it totally undermined and poisoned by the atheistic ultra left wing permissive and anti Judaism, Christianity, and Islamic, public school system.

With more and more caring and decent parents opting for private systems, that must also mean that a government elected by the majority of people for the people, must allocate funds according to majority wishes as well as what is best for the nation now, the future and what has proven best for the nation in the past.

While the public education system remains hijacked and an enclave of lefty ideology it will continue to be shunned as parents vote against the system with their wallets.

The sensible thing is to move as much of education as possible into the private sector and create a user pays system that financially contributing parents can have more control than is possible in the lefty pinko social, civil, and cultural disaster public schools that are more of a hindrance than a help to our civilisation and future.

It seems to me that the standard lefty is all about having their minority (and usually selfish) view stamped upon the rest of humanity, always bleating for "rights" rather than actually going out and applying personal responsibility as a way of earning respect, and usually ends up all bitter and twisted as every day they are reminded that the majority is just not interested and nor is ever likely to be.

I would also suggest that the average lefty just hates that fact that most Oz private schools provide a nice shield against typical lefty ideologies sanctioned in state schools.

Parents are voting with their wallets for a less hijackable private system over a plainly failed public system and But Of Course any reasonable "Government for the people by the people" is obliged to further support the former over the latter even if a price to pay is a few more bitter and twisted snarly faced Jo Valentine look-alikes.

What with lefties losing influence left right and centre (respect having never actually ever been gained, let alone lost), it is no small wonder that they have been reduced to choosing a new thing to try and control us all regarding.

The climate.

I'd suggest that most Environtologists and their Church of Environtology would be of lefty ilk, with the handy thing for them and their new religion is that regardless of where climate goes, they will remain reasonably isolated from blame or accountablity.

Unlike than with our failed public education system.

Does that answer the question ?

regarDS

Values Checklist published in "The Weekend Australian"

2007-11-18T13:56:00.002+09:00

The following chart was published in "The Weekend Australian" for the weekend of the 17th and 18th of November, the week before the Oz Federal Election.

http://derspatz.googlepages.com/07valus1.pdf

And here is a follow up document that expands on each of the questions/views and why each party was marked as it was.

http://derspatz.googlepages.com/07valus2.pdf

What is glaringly clear from the chart published in "The Weekend Australian" and well supported by the followup document, is just how bad and hostile the likes of "The Australian Demoncrats" and "The Greens" are in relation to not only the standard family unit, decency/standard morality, and both the general and spiritual welfare of the majority of Australians, but also how bad and hostile they are towards what are probably the majority views of the entire planet on such things.

Did I say "bad" ? By bad I mean "evil". :-)

It would appear the the Demoncrats and Greens want to have public funded IVF for singles and homosexuals whilst allowing them to change their minds and abort the children at will (again on public coin), give non-elected laywers and judges authority over laws put together by Governments elected by the people for the people in order to lock in "rights" re: IVF, etc, make it harder for families to send their children to schools that teach values which are at odds with their plainly luciferic left wing ideaologies and make it harder for schools they disagree with to discriminate against teaching job applicants who are clearly unsuitable on moral and spiritual grounds, make it easier for one and all to be exposed and inundated with pornography and to continue with a herion addiction (no need for injecting rooms if naltrexone was administered to all addicts anyway), and to "top it off" (and since they are all about killing off the yet to be born who don't actually want to be painfully killed), legalise the "voluntary" killing off of our aged and sick, etc, oh, and get lots of babies gestating so they can be aborted and used for research and cellular spare parts.

The policies, goals and aims of the Oz Demoncrats and The Greens parties are plainly evil, evil, evil, for they stand directly opposed to virtually everything held as typically holy to "The People of the Book" (Judaism, Christianity, and Islam) as well as many other religions.

Thus, the Oz Demoncrats and Greens show who they really are working for and whose kingdom they are about trying to establish, and it is quite plain that it isn't a civilisation that wil be known for such things as righteousness, love, charity and the traditional family unit with traditional family values that all through history have proven time and time again to be a major key to the success and prosperity of a people and culture.

No, what the Oz Demoncrats and Greens are about is speeding our nation even faster into ruin and degradation and creating a people to whom the only thing is sacred is their right to do anything they please whenever they please to whomever they please ... particularly when it comes to the unborn or old and infirm.

And the sad thing is that Labor isn't all that different to the Oz Demons n Greens when it comes to the aforementioned concerns.

Please keep that in mind when you go to vote on the 24th of November.

regarDS

The Early Voter gets to sleep in ...

2007-11-14T17:36:00.000+09:00

Howdy folks. I decided today that I didn't want to have to run the propaganda gauntlet and line up with the hoi polloi on Election Day when I should be busy getting my sleep between shifts.

So I went into an AEC office and had an air-conditioned room virtually all to myself to take my time casting my votes, and as a result, I now thoroughly recommend to one and all that one should find a place where one can vote early rather than leaving it to "the day".

How much more time and advertising do you need to help make up your mind anyway ?

If you're in Perth city then one such place is 111 St Georges Terrace, 10th floor (signposted in the foyer), which is at the corner of St Georges Terrace and William Street, and diagonally opposite to the BankWest tower.

My Green Ballot paper was pretty easy - I'm in the safe seat of Pearce so I could put virtually anything without causing an upset, but I did a "1,2,3,4,5 ... 9" response favouring the incumbent over the nutters, but I did forget that a valid vote (you never see advertised on official "how to vote" cards) can also apparently merely be a 1 for your main preference and then 2 for everyone else, which obviously spoils any preference deals. Oh well.

Some guy once got thrown in jail for handing out "how to vote" cards telling folk that, didn't he ? Perhaps the "1, 2, 2, 2 ..." loophole has been closed up now anyway.

(Goes off and does some research). Yup, that loophole is no more and if you DO elect to do a "1,2,2,2 ..." etc, you will have just rendered your vote informal ... as in "donkey voted".

See: http://www.abc.net.au/elections/federal/2007/guide/howtovote.htm for info on voting and what constitutes a valid vote.

My vote order for the Senate started out according to the "Liberal" ticket but went off the rails around half way down, but at least I got the C.E.C twits and Pinko Commie Wallies towards the end of the ticket, and most importantly, the Climate Change Nutters at the very bottom .

Yup, even I reckon Labor is better than the Oz Democrats and "The Greens" (shudder) .

Anyway, if you want to cancel out my vote, then do something other than the following.

1 Liberal

2 National

3 Christian Democratic Party

4 Family First

5 Democratic Labor Party

6 LDP

7 Group P (Campbell and Co)

8 Group M (Wynne and Co)

9 Carers Alliance

10 Conservatives for Climate and Environment

11 Non Custodial Parents Party - Equal Parenting

12 What Women Want - Australia

13 Labor

14 Australian Democrats

15 The Greens

16 Senator On-line

17 Group Q (Armstrong and Co)

18 Ungrouped (McNaught)

19 One Nation

20 Citizens Electoral Council

21 Socialist Alliance

22 Climate Change Coalition

Here is to an Oz Government that isn't too much one way or another, and definitely doesn't have "That Gillard Woman" in it ...

regarDS

"what was, what now is, and what is to come"

2007-09-23T10:19:00.000+08:00

When I was an early teenager, it would be an understatement to say I was somewhat morose and angry ... this not being something all that foreign to most early teenagers one would think. I didn't think much of most of the human content of our world, nor what we were doing to the place, and I wondered if things were ever going to get any better.

My search led me to "the bible", something I prefer to call the "ancient texts" and will refer to as "AT" (as opposed to "OT" and "NT") from here-on. I set about reading it from cover to cover (something I've now done a number of times) but I must admit that most of it wasn't all that exciting or appealing to me as an early teenager. All those begats, strange sounding names, and tales of war and bloodshed, didn't lend much to my wondering of whether things were ever going to get better.

What I ended up doing in that first "cover to cover" project, was basically tear out every page of the AT that I thought showed some sort of promise or hope or indication about our future, and throwing in the rubbish the rest of that particular version/collection/translation of the AT.

Obviously I was no book-worshipper back then, nor am I now. A book is just another thing after all, and I for one deem book-worshipping to merely be another form of idolatry and fail to see the need for outright perfection in any original or translation of the AT (Ancient Texts.)

The torn out collection I was left with basically consisted of pages from the likes of Genesis, Exodus, Isaiah, Daniel, Ezekiel, Zechariah, Matthew, Thessalonians and Revelation, all in no particular order and with probably a few other AT book names thrown in. Thus, my first exposure and interest in prophecy as it relates to the people of the covenant (people of direct Jewish decent) and the Gentile nations (the rest of us) was born.

Trying to understand and apply those AT prophecies to what was, what now is, and what is to come, has been a consistent interest with me ever since ... which would be around 30 years now.

At least half that time ago, I discovered an excellent resource that helped put all those collection of words I ripped out of the AT, into a more visual representation. A picture painting a thousand words and all that.

It was the collection of "charts" by the late Clarence Larkin, as found in his book "Dispensational Truths". The descriptions found in Daniel, Ezekiel, Revelation (et al), became so much easier to follow when presented in a pictorial format and so it became even clearer to me as to "what was, what now is, and what is to come", and all that.

The good news is that Clarence Larkin's pictorial representations of prophecy (and a lot more besides) have now come into the public domain and can now be accessed for free by anyone who chooses to do so via the Internet.

So rather than rip and tear apart whatever copy of the AT (Ancient Texts) you happen to have collecting dust on your shelf like I did some 30 years ago, head over to the following links and get the basic gist regarding the prophecies in well drawn pictures instead.

I've included one link which you can use to temper against Larkin's work too, for I wouldn't want it to be thought that one should ever rely upon a single person's views when it comes to determining "The Truth" in these matters.

Nor am I of the view that Clarence Larkin has got it completely right in all these matters either.

http://web.mountain.net/morton/charts.htm
http://www.ebccnet.com/lcharts/Clarence-Larkin-Album
http://www.geocities.com/christian_crusade/faq_antichrist.html

regarDS

Microsoft Vista and Paris Hilton

2007-09-15T22:51:00.000+08:00

It has becoming increasingly obvious to me that Microsoft Vista is a Paris Hilton of an operating system. Why ?

1) We are meant to think it is hot when it is not.
2) We are meant to think the people of world need and want it when in fact most of us do not, nor are ever likely to.
3) It pops up seeking opinion and/or attention on the most banal aspects of its day to day operation before attempting to do or achieve the slightest thing.
4) You've got to go a long way off the grid these days to avoid encountering it. (Yes, I realise that I am not helping in that regard )

I could go on, but I'm (like) so bored with this already. Do the world a favour and just say no to the promotion of either ...

regarDS