Kookaburra

Advance Australia - where?

What a great day to be an Aussie with Cadel Evans set to win Le Tour de France. It's been an epic battle and I am completely spent from the late nights of the last week - of course my fatigue is nothing compared to how wrung out every rider must feel.

At least Cadel Evans has the Yellow Jersey and another trophy to add to his collection of world best wins on road, track and mountain biking.

He deserves every accolade as he fought back time and time again often dragging the peleton and chase single handedly up incredible mountain stages in pursuit of the daring attacks mounted by his rivals.

Cadel has often suffered some bad luck and hasn't had the full support of his team until he joined BMC.

This year was his year through thorough preparation, great team support to help him and the mental and physical depth to fight and fight against every challenge thrown at him.

He is an incredible athlete and a product of the Australian Institute of Sport - that's Aussie's taxes doing their job.

Epic achievement

• The first Australian to win the tour
• The first from the Southern Hemisphere
• Only the 4th in 50 years to win from behind

That time trial was the ride of his life and he completely smashed his opponents.

Hats off to the Schlecks and all the Tour riders - they're all incredible athletes and just continue to race incredibly hard day after day after day. I can't think of a more challenging sporting event. But this year was Cadel's year and all of Australia should applaud his success - just incredible.

Here's a great comment from this article

One of the things I love about bike racing at this elite level is that Australia gets to celebrate Cadel's victory. The Americans get to celebrate the great work of Hincapie, Bookwalter and the staff of the American registered team BMC. The Swiss, get to celebrate that a Swiss bike company, Morabito, Schär share in this Tour victory, as well as the Germans because of Burghardt, the Italians because of Quinziato and Santaromita, and the French for Moinard. A Tour victory can become a celebration around the world.

 

While we're united as a nation on Cadel's win we're all over the place when it comes to where we're going as a nation.

I am sick of the negativity and the political point scoring. Politics is the art of compromise and I don't think there's enough recognition of the successful negotiations our PM has achieved in getting a carbon tax which has the support of the majority of parliament. Is it perfect? No. It is a belated recognition that we do need to take the initiative to curb the human impact on our planet. Personally I am getting no compensation and have no problem with that - it's a small price to pay now to avoid a massive cost later.

I am also suspending my usual grumbles about Government advertising. It's a crazy situation that Government has to spend up to fight for the interests of people over the mis-information campaigns run by some business interests. We saw what happening with the mining super-profits tax - mining billionaires spent $20+M in TV ads to attack the government and thus the interests of the people. Result -
The PM of the day was rolled and tax was watered down saving these mining billionaires hundreds of millions in tax each year - great ROI on their advertising spend but a significant loss of tax collections and thus money for the people. We have an aging population and growing costs if government services - unless their is a rise in government revenue something has to give.

I have concerns about how tax collections are spent - we should be creating a sovereign wealth fund to build Australian prosperity over the long term, to sustain our commonwealth when our finite mineral wealth is exhausted. But that requires leadership and long-term thinking - only Malcolm Turnbull seems to be articulating views beyond the short-term.

What a sorry state of affairs that it appears that Mr Negative - Tony Abbott - is winning in the polls. Let's hope the Government has the guts to say "bugger the polls" let's do the right thing for the future.

As for my fellow Australians ... Is it too much to ask that we stop rewarding scare campaigns and seeking a short-term kick back (in the form of middle class welfare) and be prepared to let our Government govern. The next election is 2+ years away - the time for judgement is then.

A good starting point is to skip the reactionary tabloid journalism - News Limited is on the nose already - and look for some considered rational discussions. I favour the independent journalism of Alan Kohler's Eureka Report or the ABC.

The ABC could also take a stance by not reporting on polls or querying the PM on her reaction to the latest polls. We know she won't respond to questions on them.

We should not allow the serious business of government to be dumbed down by incessant polls.

The latest from Alan Kohler's Eureka Report sums up Australia's current domestic tussle ... As Alan says "Tony Abbott has severed all connection with the truth." it's a sorry state of affairs.

> Australian misery
>
> In Australia the politicians have got their pistols out and are firing round after round into the nation's feet. We have a terms of trade boom and the potential for a great period of prosperity but the gang in Canberra are trying hard to stuff things up.
>
> Whether you agree with the pricing of carbon dioxide emissions or not, it has emerged years of intensive work by various task forces, study groups and think tanks and used to be a bipartisan policy. As Malcolm Turnbull pointed out the other night (see link to his speech below) the vast majority of scientists and economists agree with it and so does he and most other politicians.
>
> Yet the bumbling idiots in the ALP went into the last election without a climate change policy of any sort let alone emissions trading. They then had to enter a formal alliance with the Greens to stay in power and quickly did a full pirouette on the subject, as a result of which we are now going to have a $23 a tonne carbon tax and a massive wealth transfer from exporters to households.
>
> By aligning with the Greens, the Labor Party has severed all connections with business. Relations between them are now rapidly breaking down completely. I attended a forum in Melbourne yesterday with Lindsay Maxsted, Ziggy Switkowski, David Knox and Leigh Clifford and they took it in turns to sink the boot in. At one stage Ziggy plaintively cried: "Why is the nation's economic strategy being defined by the Greens? How did this happen?"
>
> Meanwhile, Tony Abbott has severed all connection with the truth. As Annabel Crabb amusingly wrote in the ABC website The Drum yesterday (click here): "In one sense, he's living the dream. A political campaign that is 100% rhetoric is – to any politician – as a milkshake that is 100% Milo would be to any child … Once you've severed the guy ropes of obeisance to empirical evidence, many happy hours of ballooning lie ahead."
>
> He deplores Australia's goal of reducing carbon emissions by 5% by 2020 as "crazy" while simultaneously maintaining that as Coalition policy. This he week he claimed to have never supported emissions trading, even though the evidence is clear that he did. Then he claimed that the Coalition would reach its target of 5% reduction in emissions without closing any brown coal power stations in Victoria, which is in direct contradiction with the Coalition's stated policy of closing at least one generator and paying it to move to gas.
>
> With Julia Gillard going down the popularity plughole lashed to Greens, and the Coalition going off on increasingly wild flights of spin and lies, God help us all.

Cockamamie Business

The latest figures for the Australian Bureau of Statistics show we're eating more dead cows.

The trend estimate for cattle slaughterings rose for the fifth consecutive month, to 706,000. This was the highest figure recorded since records began in 1979.

The trend estimate for beef production rose for the sixth consecutive month, to 189,000 tonnes. This was the highest figure recorded since records began in 1979.

[ABS - 7218.0.55.001 - Livestock and Meat, Australia - Electronic Publication, Nov 2006]

That's a run rate of 8.4M cows killed each year or one about every 30 seconds.

Now we like to air condition - though the air has no ozone ring
Still they're chopping down the forest for mcdonalds and the burger king
Eating cows with such persistance - doesn't offer much resistance
To this cockamamie business

George Harrison | Cockamamie Business lyrics:

Oh it's a cockamamie business alright particularly when firstly there is no nutritional need to eat meat (don't take my word for it - look for yourself and ensure you ignore the interested parties such as meat promoters).

Secondly there are many related health issues to a Western meat/milk centric diet. Read The China Study - based on 20 years of research by a partnership of Cornell University, Oxford University and the Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine. From the book blurb

The China Study is not a diet book. Consumers are bombarded with conflicting messages regarding health and nutrition; the market is flooded with popular titles like The Atkins Diet and The South Beach Diet. The China Study cuts through the haze of misinformation and delivers an insightful message to anyone living with cancer, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, and those concerned with the effects of aging. Additionally, he challenges the validity of these low-carb fad diets and issues a startling warning to their followers.

(Best sung to Lesley Gore's hit - It's my blog and I will preach if I want to - it's 5:21AM and I didn't sleep well!)

I am not a picture of health (need to lose some weight and do more regular exercise) but I have been vegetarian (no meat, no fish) for 16 years and have certainly not suffered for it and I can sleep easy knowing I am not contributing to the senseless slaughter of sentient beings. Pity I can't seem to sleep for other reasons - poor recent sleep pattern, related to work, not a guilty conscience.

Europeans despair at resorts without snow

Europeans despair at resorts without snow | Science & nature | The Australian:
SKIERS heading to the European Alps for Christmas will be sorely disappointed, with resort operators staring at bare slopes as a result of the warmest winter temperatures in 1250 years.

Microsoft could save 45 million tons of CO2 emissions

Travis Daub at "Foreign Policy Passport" believes "Microsoft could save 45 million tons of CO2 emissions with a few lines of computer code"

Most machines already possess software that allows them to run more efficiently—to "sleep" in a low-power mode when not in use—but few people enable this feature.

So, Microsoft should issue a software upgrade to every computer running Microsoft Windows worldwide. The upgrade would adjust the machine's energy-saving settings for maximum efficiency.

Microsoft estimates that it costs $55 to $70 per year for an average business to allow one computer to sit idle. Multiply that times 100 million computers and you realize that the world spends $5 to $7 billion* dollars every year powering inactive computers. Shifting 100 million computers into low-power sleep mode for 12 hours per day could easily cut worldwide C02 production by 45 million tons per year. That is equivalent to wiping away a year's worth of CO2 produced by every household and industry in a country the size of Ireland. Dozens of power plants would no longer be needed.

Personal Kyoto

While my country's Federal Government [Australia] and the USA admin won't ratify the Kyoto Protocol that's no reason for each of us not to take up the challenge of reducing out green house gas emissions. I am doing my bit (low wattage fluro lights, drive a small hybrid car) but I don't have a good way of measuring how I am going.

If you live in New York City you can use Personal Kyoto -- a website that "provides New Yorkers the means to measure, track and share their progress towards meaningful electric use reduction."

The creator of Personal Kyoto is open to bringing the services to other cities but needs local technical help - read on.

I'm the author of Personal Kyoto and I appreciate the link and the comments [at this O'Reilly Post]. Regarding the question of bringing it to London (or any city for that matter), I am totally soliciting other software developers out there who might be interested in working with me to move it beyond New York. PK works by grabbing data from the local utility (ConEd in the case of NYC) via a user's online account, so there's no need to create new physical meter reading systems. It just uses the utilities already existing system.

Posted by: Ben Engebreth at September 29, 2006 08:45 AM at http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2006/09/personal_kyoto.html

Can you help adapt Personal Kyoto for your part of the world?

Incidentally Personal Kyoto is funded by the non-profit Eyebeam OpenLab which is dedicated to public domain R&D. Check out there other projects - I am particularly fond of MintyBoost and how it breaks the consumer cycle.

New car bad; water storage good

Sadly as a product of an automotively-addicted childhood I really struggle to end my fascination with new cars (which just burn more cash and contribute to driving us to the brink of extinction even faster). I am extremely fortunate to be driving the magnificent Toyota Prius which currently is averaging a trifling 5 litres / 100 km -- If Toyota made a hybrid 7 seat people mover I'd trade in the family car (Honda Odyssey) in a moment.

But rather than a new 'motor' perhaps I can distract myself with something more essential - food and water

Here's something I didn't know --

Food supplies are shrinking alarmingly around the globe, plunging the world into its greatest crisis for more than 30 years. New figures show that this year's harvest will fail to produce enough to feed everyone on Earth, for the sixth time in the past seven years [1]. Humanity has so far managed thanks to stockpiles built up in better times - but these have now fallen below the danger level. [ Source: The Independent 4 September 2006]

It's not only food that's at risk there's also getting enough water - Australia is facing our worst drought ever. Meanwhile we still bathe in drinking water and for most of us we do nothing to harvest the rain that falls on our roof. (At least we have drinkable water unlike so much of the world).

Well I have been trying to do my bit having produced some homegrown vegetables - not enough to live on but a start. Real soon now I will have my spring/summer crop in and we will see how we go this time around. I will certainly not be the first in the street with tomatoes.

As for water harvesting I really have not thought hard enough yet - ideas from anyone willingly accepted. I have room for rainwater tanks and I can certainly treat some greywater with the right technology.

For some inspiration check out Gardening Australia presenter, Jerry Coleby-Williams website detailing his sustainable house in suburban Brisbane.

[1] If grain was diverted directly to humans rather than feeding chickens and cattle which are then eaten by humans, the story might be different. A cow is a very inefficient converter of grain requiring 16Kg of grain to produce 1Kg of beef -- oh and consuming lots of water in the process. I have nothing against cattle - I just don't think it makes sense to eat them.]

A new breed of clean diesel cars

Fortune Magazine: The Axis of Diesel -- "Mercedes, GM, even Honda, is betting on a new breed of green diesels. The goal? To leave hybrids in the dust." A new breed of clean diesel cars leave hybrids in the dust. - October 16, 2006

Electric supercar - high performance, low environmental cost

Environment Unlimited
"Until now, electric cars have been slow, odd-looking and severely limited by their short battery life. But this racy little number - which can outrun a Ferrari - could change all that. "

It's USD$100K but it is a flagship for the future and the first 100 have all been sold.

An inscrutable youth

A great post about a 7 year old (and her Dad's) viewing of An Inconvenient Truth. Must take my eight year old - I wonder how she will change my habits!

Must see - An Inconvenient Truth

I recently had the pleasure of catching Al Gore's movie, An Inconvenient Truth, on an international flight. It presented a well reasoned argument as to why the climate is changing and why we all must do something about it now. It's a tough subject shrouded in myths and misinformation. Gore does a great job of cutting through all of that presenting effectively some key points that really drive the message home.

In Saturday's The Age a collection of emminent scientists interviewed in The Age all rated it's science between 4-5 stars, with the most damning comment being that he had simplified the science. The same scientist conceded that he managed to maintain its fundamental accuracy. [The Age article]

The movie opens in cinemas in Australia on 14 September [Yahoo.com.au listing].

As the famous movie reviewer, Roger Ebert says, "In 39 years, I have never written these words in a movie review, but here they are: You owe it to yourself to see this film. If you do not, and you have grandchildren, you should explain to them why you decided not to."

Rather than merely being a doomsayer, Gore presents positive ways in which we can address this looming crisis. I can only echo the thoughts of many, many others who have recognised what a loss it was to us all and the planet that Bush beat Gore in 2000. It is not an issue of politics - it's one of ignorance of this growing crisis and a lack of leadership in moving to address it. The Australian people also suffer from a lack of political leadership on this issue. Let's hope enough people see the film and choose to do something about it.