FEUER FREI !

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.

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 ?

Perceptions through a Champagne Glass

by d.a.sparrow (c) 1993

-
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.

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)

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

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 ...

"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

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