Posted on November 7, 2007 - Filed Under General, News
Dont ask me who won
Dont even ask me who was in it
but it was a great opportunity to get out and take some different photos
with planes taking off and landing just metres from the city centre
They used Langley Park, which used to be the airport at one time (before my time though)
It was a beautifully sunny day, and warm (at last) and the planes are really colorfull
and very very close
i put some photos up on my site here
if you want o take a look (adding more all the time)
Burswood Dome, Western Australia
i spent a good few hours there on Saturdey
and went back Sunday to look around the car park too
(they evem let me p[ark my EH in rith all the hot rods 🙂 )
i took a few photos
some of which i have put up
and the rest willbe up as soon as i can size them and upload them
about 3 months from now i think
it was a pretty spectauclar group of rods and cars
and the Cranksters did ok with there theme diplay i hear
if you wish to take a look they are here
there were a few Aussie cars in it too
(ok maybe not as exciting as a grandson in Wisconsin lol)
ok
i am not sure about the global warming cooling debate
i personally subscribe to the minimum impact idea
however
what i want to know is how come whn i have a hot cup of tea and it eventually cools to room temperature it tastes cold
if i have a cold pepsi and it eventually warms to room temperature it tastes warm
but they must both be the same temnperature?
how can that be?
What if Willie Nelson sang Bohemian Rhapsody? Barney the Dinosaur? Mick Jagger or Aerosmith? Meatloaf?
This is what Rick Miller attempts to show us here on YouTube:
i recently recived the Australian Governments booklet on being "climate clever"
yes the same Australian Government that has denied climate change since the begining
and only recently changed its tack
could it be the up coming election?
they are trying to win the environmental vote?
i took a look at the "climate clever"website
http://cc.greenhouse.gov.au/index.html
it does have a lot of ideas on being more conscientious
some cost nothing
some you may as well rebuild your house
but the bit that got my attention was the emissions calculator
where you can work out your carbon foot print and then buy credits and become carbon neutral
so i worked it out, WA housholds need to buy $275 worth of credits
so i worked it out for Australia
averaging the states comes to $265 each houshold
7.5 million households (2001 statistics from the Australian Beureau of statistics)
works out to be a $1,987,500,000 donation to "Government approved offset credits" whatever they are
now i am neither global warming nor global cooling
i feel there are some environmental issues that are being bypassed by all the talk of climate change, such as land clearing, deforestation, disappearing wildlife
so you can call me cynical about the Governments motives, but this sounds awfully like a money making exercise with no guarantees where the money is going
if you want to do something for this earth, you can do it, just dont live to excess, be sensible, minimalist, get ivolved in local environmental projects, plant a native garden for the wildlife, be imaginative, it isnt hard. and it will save you money instead of costing you
and you will feel good inside
damn Goverments can always find a way to make a $ from things
sigh
i hate being cynical but they make it so easy 🙁
Hi Oz
I just read that Greenpeace wants you all over there to eat up more kangaroos!
MORE kangaroos should be slaughtered and eaten to help save the world from global warming, environmental activists say.
The controversial call to cut down on beef and serve more of the national symbol on our dinner plates follows a report on curbing greenhouse gas emissions damaging the planet.Greenpeace energy campaigner Mark Wakeham urged Aussies to substitute some red meat for roo to help reduce land clearing and the release of methane gas.
So what do you say, going to add some roo to your toast and tea? It's for the environment!
🙂
(Herald Sun Article HERE)
~Boz
Hi Oz
I read an article today that has me thinking that Hollywood really needs to get its house in order before they make movies preaching to us, perhaps then, and only then we can sit up and take notice. Notice of righteous reasoning behind what they are saying, instead of all this carbon footprint purchasing so they can continue to be the worst polluters in Southern California, second only to the oil industry.
In the article, I liked the quote by Ed Begly, an actor, who truly lives what he preaches: "If you're going to drive around in a big ol' Hummer and then buy carbon offsets to mitigate that, that's like getting drunk on the weekends and throwing some money through the window of an AA meeting and thinking you're doing something."
Not that I personally have anything against a Hummer, it's just that he is one man in this debate who really does mean and lives environmentalism way before the topic was popular, way before he could make money off of it like Al Gore does.
Article HereHollywood Sending Mixed Climate Messages
~Boz
Posted on September 25, 2007 - Filed Under News, Technology
Hi Oz
I know you like Firefox, so I thought I would share some news about the upcoming Firefox 3.0!
Currently, it's at version 2.0.0.7.
Version 4.0 is supposed to have so much more concerning security, blocking malware.
There is no committed release date, but you can learn more HERE!
~Boz
Hi Oz!
Today I read that our former Vice-President Al Gore is paying Australia a visit, passionately attacking President Bush and Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, calling them "the Bonnie and Clyde" outlaws of the global environment.
Or course to hear it, one has to pay $1,000 each. Also, for a private 'meet and greet' costs $25,000.
The article mentions him paying tribute to two Labor men, Hawke and Carr, and also playing golf with them. To me, that is a double standard - golf and environmentalism. Knowing the resources it takes to maintain golf courses, resources that Australia doesn't really have, and knowing what ecosystems must have been destroyed to even build them, well, I see that as an inconsistancy for one who feels we are close to disaster.
He claims, "Climate change is not scientific, political or ideological - It's about survival."
This is where I get puzzled. If we are indeed in survival mode, and if I were a wealthy, known person, I wouldn't charge such crazy prices to make these speeches of alarm. Money would be the last thing on my mind. I wouldn't want to speak just to those who could afford it, after all, the world is made up mostly of all us little people, so a message of survival from a millionaire several times over, should be free.
~Boz
Other reads:TheAge.com.auMedia Ignores Al Gore's Financial Ties to Global Warming
Posted on September 11, 2007 - Filed Under Personal
Oz!
According to the What's Your Spiritual Type quiz, I am a "Confident Believer"
(I hope my son on his way to seminary isn't disappointed that I didn't score as "Candidate for Clergy"
How about you?
Quiz: What's Your Spiritual Type?
You scored 87, on a scale of 25 to 100. Here's how to interpret your score:
25 - 29
Hardcore Skeptic -- but interested or you wouldn't be here!
30 - 39
Spiritual Dabbler -- Open to spiritual matters but far from impressed
40 - 49
Active Spiritual Seeker – Spiritual but turned off by organized religion
50 - 59
Spiritual Straddler – One foot in traditional religion, one foot in free-form spirituality
60 - 69
Old-fashioned Seeker -- Happy with my religion but searching for the right expression of it
70 - 79
Questioning Believer – You have doubts about the particulars but not the Big Stuff
80 - 89
Confident Believer – You have little doubt you’ve found the right path
well sort of
its still raining
but the Kings Park wildflower festival has started, in fact it started the first weekend in September
we do spring from the first of September 🙂
so i trundled along, with my dad, Iris and my sister and tried to make a nice day of it
the weather wasnt brilliant for flower photography, with on and off clouds and a rotten breeze
but i did get some photos in 🙂
if you want to take a look they are on my site (but not in a seperate catagory, silly me)
http://www.johndolphin.net/photos/categories.php?cat_id=1
just ignore the silly red rose photo
that wasnt part of it 🙂
Oz,
It's often been said when I make my trips to Europe that Americans have little knowledge of World Geography. I really couldn't argue the point with them, even though I felt I did very well in Geography, a few of my friends I knew, did not.
However, this video making the rounds on American television, makes one pause. Perhaps laugh, I don't know. I thought I would share it here in case it didn't make it on Australian telly.
Apparently this is a beauty pageant, and the question was related to why supposedly one fifth of Americans can't locate the USA on a World Map. (A little hard to believe). This is how the girl, Miss South Carolina replied:
Posted on August 20, 2007 - Filed Under News, Technology
Hi [my lazy no-blogging] Ozzie!
🙂
Announced in the news today was this 'new' material that could change the world. It looks like frozen smoke, but it's called "Aerogel", one of the world's lightest solids.
What can it do?
It can:
Protect your home against bomb blasts
Clean up oil Spills
Help man fly to Mars
Withstand a direct blast of 1kg of dynamite
Protect against heat from a blowtorch at more than 1,300C.
Keep boots and sleeping bags toasty warm for mountain climbing
Posted on August 20, 2007 - Filed Under Technology
Hey Oz!
Remember we had a few glitches on our Skype a few days back?
Apparently it wasn't on our end at all, but Skype's, and a little to do with Windows Update.
From their site:
"On Thursday, 16th August 2007, the Skype peer-to-peer network became unstable and suffered a critical disruption. The disruption was triggered by a massive restart of our users’ computers across the globe within a very short timeframe as they re-booted after receiving a routine set of patches through Windows Update.
The high number of restarts affected Skype’s network resources. This caused a flood of log-in requests, which, combined with the lack of peer-to-peer network resources, prompted a chain reaction that had a critical impact."
For those who aren't familiar with Skype, it's a rather handy program for making long-distance calls, free video chat, and for Oz and I, the best way to share our mountains of photography, having the best file transfer rate we've ever found!
~Boz
Oz, I had to share this one!
I couldn't help but notice this article about a man who after he purchased a $400,000 Lamborghini crashed it and has been charged with drunk driving.
Of course the drunk driving is a crime, but gee, so is wrecking a Lamborghini!!!!!
~Boz
(who recently saw a '66 Shelby Cobra for sale you might like).
🙂
Article: Man Arrested after Crashing $400,000 Lamborghini
I must say you make them tough down under.
Each year we look forward to the X-Games in our household, but this year I think your Aussie, Jake Brown, has stolen the attention. I can't believe he got up and walked away, however stunned, from this 40+ foot fall!
Hi Oz
As you already well know from our conversations and some of my past blogs, I have had my eyes on China. The sheer number of their military and their growing population alone, is enough to give a worry. But really, there are so many things, and some disturbing, going on at once, that they often make headlines a lot these days. Here in the U.S., some has been quite negative, that tainted pet food, toxic fish, and lead paint in the children's toys.
One recent headline is their threat to trigger a U.S. Dollar crash. I don't know if they will follow through, but the point is, they seem to have the means to do it.
We have a congresswoman here in the U.S. who is calling for a boycott of the Beijing Olympics.
"Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and others involved in the effort to end the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, where an estimated 200,000 people have died and millions more are homeless, want to pressure China to curtail its support of the Sudanese government.
Sudan earned about $4 billion from oil sales last year, with 80 percent of that coming from China, according to Fortune magazine. Chinese firms also have helped build up the country's infrastructure, leading to an economic boom in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum, and China has stepped up arms sales to the strife-ravaged nation."
Recently, I learned that China has about 100 journalists, online dissidents and free speech activists who are imprisoned. Now I know they have tight control over the internet and news there, but how will they manage to control the estimated 30,000 journalist that plan to be there for the Olympics? I don't suppose that they WILL, but what is worrisome, by their sheer numbers, once again, is they well COULD.
Their control seems to go beyond this dimension, they also extend it to another realm, as they tell living Buddhas to obtain permission before they reincarnate. Well, I'd like to see what they have up their sleeve to stop that!
Who amongst us has the muscle to argue with them, their military, 2.3 million-member force—the world's largest army—continues to balloon, their econony is great, and they are hoarding so much of the resources that we all depend on.
A rather weary of the "made in china" label,
~Boz
Hi Oz
It seems that our Olympic team is worried about pollution in Beijing, apparently it's a real problem.
The Chinese government seems to be working on it though.
"Spokeswoman Wang Hui said, "In 1998 the number of days with blue skies in Beijing was 100. Last year it was 241, so, progress is being made."
Beijing plans to ban up to a million cars from large parts of Beijing for two weeks this month in an experiment to see what impact it has on air quality.
But a Beijing government official admitted last month that the city is finding it tough to bring down pollution levels.
Zhang Gong, director of the Beijing municipal development and reform commission, said, "The increasing number of vehicles is bringing more pressure to transportation management and the improvement of air quality."
Three million cars are registered for use in Beijing and that figure is rising by 1,000 a day.
The United Nations estimates that 16 of the world's 20 most polluted cities are in China."
Simply put, a love story.
Met online.
Became fast friends and had discussions daily over tea.
Met in person, fell in love, got engaged.
Now married in a bi-continental relationship
Stay tuned!
Announced in the news today was this 'new' material that could change the world. It looks like frozen smoke, but it's called "Aerogel", one of the world's lightest solids.
What can it do?
It can:
Oz, I had to share this one!
I couldn't help but notice this article about a man who after he purchased a $400,000 Lamborghini crashed it and has been charged with drunk driving.
Of course the drunk driving is a crime, but gee, so is wrecking a Lamborghini!!!!!
~Boz
(who recently saw a '66 Shelby Cobra for sale you might like).
🙂
Article: Man Arrested after Crashing $400,000 Lamborghini
