Darwin: hot, late storms, 34 degrees

More tales of the bleeding obvious.

POLITICIANS ACTUALLY ARE SCUM
There used to be a $40 fee to get an e-toll transponder. They dropped the $40 fee, so now the first, say, $50 gets you $50 worth of tolls and not $10 worth of tolls and a transponder. (The lowest amount you can get is $25)

It's been revealed, however, that if you don't use $10 worth of tolls each quarter, they deduct $10 from your account anyway...

(You pay the difference between your use and $10, so they always get $40 a year from each transponder.)

I've been avoiding getting an e-toll tag. Why voluntarily put a tracking device on your car? The toll plaza I go through most is the Gateway bridge; but 8 out of 10 times, I'm in a taxi with a cabcharge voucher, so where's the need? But if I had a transponder, and could just put $20 on the account every now and then -- using internet banking where I never see any actual cash, so of course it isn't real money, just like credit cards -- I might use the Logan motorway more often. So might other people and motorway use would increase.

With the fee, I was never tempted. Once I started to read signs saying they'd taken it off, I started to think more about getting a tag. But now that I know I will have committed to spending $40 per year on toll roads, I don't think so.

I have nothing against minimum charges, so long as they are announced loudly up-front. I just think they sometimes defeat the purpose.

We have solar hot water. If it is too cloudy to heat the water, there is a switch to heat the water up the usual way using electricity on the standard off-peak tariff 33. Our hot water "booster" is the only thing on tariff 33. Every quarter, whether we've boosted our water or not, we get charged about $12 just for having tariff 33 power available.

But here's the defeated purpose. With solar, the water temperature each day varies; if it's been really sunny, it's really hot; if it's been cloudy, it's cooler. You know to turn the booster on when you can have a warm shower without turning the cold tap on at all. So you turn the booster on, because you know there's a minimum charge, you're paying for some electricity each quarter whether you use it or not. But if there wasn't a charge, maybe you'd be more likely to not turn the booster on; maybe you'd wait to see how the water temperature was the next time you wanted hot water.

But people have no incentive to do that, so electricity is used [and greenhouse gases, etc., generated] just for the heck of it because we're paying for it.

How to use the e-toll lane without a transponder
Obviously, you can just use the lane and wait for the fine to arrive in the mail. But, if you have a mobile phone and a credit card, just go through the lane, then ring Qld Motorways on the 1-300 number and pay the toll (with no added fees) on your card.

DEVELOPERS ACTUALLY ARE LEPERS
When a developer gives money to a political candidate, exactly why are they doing it? If the developer is a company, they must believe there will be some benefit for them, otherwise it is an unacceptable use of company funds. So what do they think they'll get out of it?

Are they trying to make people believe it's just a matter of 'we support what the person stands for; if they got elected we think they would (with no prompting from us) support legislation that we support'? Ha! The benefit there all seems a little too undefined to be justified if, let's say the company was sued by its shareholders.

I read with interest the various reports into the Tweed Shire Council. Some of the councillors there wanted it to be the next Gold Coast. They were found to be corrupt and all got fired by the NSW local government minister. If I recall correctly, some people got enough money from just one contribution by developers to triple the amount of ad-spending their non-pro-development competitor could afford.

Now it's the turn of the Gold Coast council itself. The elections are higher-stakes (it's the Gold Coast, after all) so just one contribution wouldn't make much of a difference. But it's still pretty much the same. If you win and you know I gave you $50,000 how are you going to think of me in future? Better, or worse?

In Logan, our mayor is an independent. But since he was previously the president of the local chamber of commerce, we kind of knew where his loyalties lay. But Logan doesn't have a beach or even reach the Bay, and it doesn't have a whole lot of pristine, undeveloped land to protect (although I wish all riverfront land was public property. Or my property; but that isn't likely to happen) and, let's face it, we're really little more than a dormitory for Brisbane. So a little bit of pro-business bias in the development application area wouldn't be too much of an issue, especially when there also seems to be the appropriate focus on providing services like sewerage and parks to go along with the extra residential 'units'.

[Buses are local but the routes are worked out by the state government; so we're not too happy with the most recent timetable change, but that isn't the local council's fault. Unless you count the fact that the councillors are nominally independents and so can't rely on party solidarity to get the state to do what it wants. But that sounds like an opportunity cost, and I don't consider them real.]

Worthless anger management class! I hate it so much! I spit on it!

Anti-smoker laws
So, they're introducing more stupid new anti-smoker laws. One of the changes is that shops will only be able to use one metre of space to display cigarettes.

Now, this might be something that comes as a surprise to non-smokers, but there are shitloads of brands of cigarettes and each brand has loads of varieties, some in several different sizes of packs. Not all shops stock all types. Smokers often use the display to work out whether the shop has your brand, and if so what it costs...

The laws change next Saturday. Normal cigarette displays are about 3 metres long and a metre high. That's what it takes to display all the various options. (You think that's a lot? Picture the last liquor barn you went to; how big it was and the fact that it didn't stock all the options, either.) In preparation for the crackdown, a lot of stores have closed the shutters on most of their display, leaving only a square metre visible.

The day before yesterday, I bought a pack. The girl spent about 20 seconds flipping shutters up and down to try to find the right type. That may not seem like a lot, but when it's X-men Eve and there are people lined up behind you, it seems like a lifetime.

The laws are also about what descriptive text cigarette manufacturers can use (that's stuff like "super-light", "ultra-mild", "extra-chunky", etc.) or more to the point, can't use. So, instead of smoking Horizon menthol 2s, I now smoke Horizon menthol yellow.

There's a problem with this: Every smoker knows that the side of the box is lying when it says that the smoke from each cigarette contains, on average, 2 mgs or less of tar -- people don't smoke the way smoking machines smoke, after all. But that doesn't mean those numbers are worthless; every smoker also knows that the numbers are reasonably relative; whatever the actual tar level is, a 2 gives less headspins than a 4, which gives less than an 8 and so on. Jebus help you if you usually smoke menthol 2s and you try a Camel non-filter (16+). Now, when Horizon call them menthol 2s, at least they're committing to something in the title. With the new 'yellows', sure they're 2s for now; but what about in a year or two when they want to rationalise their brand? Maybe they'll change 'yellow' to 4s and not tell anyone until we're all good and hooked at the higher tar (and higher nicotine) levels.

IN TODAY'S PAPER, I read that the Quit people don't think this is enough. The Courier Mail quotes Quit executive director Todd Harper as complaining about the changed packaging "Tobacco industry documents themselves state that red pack connote strong flavour, green packs connote coolness or menthol and white packs are suggestive of a low-tar cigarette... under no circumstances should" the cigarette industry "be allowed to (be) using evocative words, numbers or colours."

Get frickin' real, Toddy; the most evocative word on a cigarette pack is "cigarettes". Try banning that. Do you know why menthol packs are green? Have you ever seen mint? Some words and colours are common sense.

But anti-smoking activists are good to have around. For example, I'm sure non-smokers are now happy that the 4m around the entrances of commercial buildings are smoker-free. I want the amount of smoking to go down. I smoke, sure, but I also pay taxes. I have private health cover to pay for my own emphysema; but I don't want to have to pay a whole lot extra to pay for other people's illnesses. (The operative word is 'extra' - I'm happy to pay my share of the national health bill.)

It's just that the quit folks are like Libertarians; nice to have around, but you never want to follow their advice all the way through. Not if you think it's occasionally okay to smoke just because you want to and you live in a free country.

Another part of the change is that the money spent on cigarette purchases cannot go towards store loyalty programs. So no more using a pack of fags to top-up your shopping to the $30 required to get a petrol voucher. No more 1point per dollar at the local Foodworks*.

Get a cold, get on a watch-list
Another thing that the (American) Libertarians over at Reason get hot under the collar about is being forced to show their ID.

Especially for something like exercising their right to purchase cold and flu medicine when they have a cold and/or flu. In America, they make all kinds of Bill O'Rights arguments about how they shouldn't have to give up their freedom to remain anonymous while doing legal things.

Well; in most parts of Australia, we don't have a bill of rights. Which is why they can just bring in laws requiring ID to buy some Codral and no one can do much about the fact that we will all be just a little less free to ride our machines without being hassled by the man.

Shock, horror, I do recognise that the U.S. and Australia are different places. For the moment. But I'm pretty sure that here -- just like over there -- the majority of meth is being made by large-scale operations who don't require multiple purchases from chemists to get their precursor chemicals.

Footnote
* The best loyalty program (frequent flyer, Fly-buys, etc.) that we belong to is at our local Foodworks supermarket. You only get one point per dollar, which means we would've had to've spent $3,500 to get those remote controlled cars worth $35 at most, but that's not the point. We shop there all the time - although often it's just to get cigarettes...

The points add up and the total is printed at the bottom of each receipt and they have a 'gift case' where the 'prizes' are kept so you can see exactly what is there at any point in time: if you need a stabber-mixer, or a set of steak knives, or a present for someone at short notice, you can get it easily.

What I've written above doesn't really explain it. I think it comes down to this. There's useful stuff in that cabinet. We've cashed in our points at Foodworks, whereas our Fly-buys points just expire every month...

Suspicious death, Woodridge

The Police report they are investigating a suspicious death at Charles Avenue, Woodridge, Logan City.

LATER - They've made an arrest - a 68yo woman. Probably the person who was helping them with their enquiries.

David Hicks and Alfred Hitchcock

The thing about this carries on the from the Hitchcock movie thing I was mentioning the other day. So, you've been mis-identified and now they think you're someone you're not.

To me, this whole thing shows that they can take you, drag you off somewhere, say flat out they're probably never going to release you, and your own country won't lift a finger to help you.

Have you ever seen the faces of the children, they get so excited...

The issue those who complain about people using the word Christmas have to face is that it is the official name of the public holiday, so that's what the day is officially called in this country. Whether the words have any deeper meaning for you or not is a whole other issue, but you can't go changing proper nouns just because you don't like them. To those who complain about Christmas -- like the tool in the beat-up story in yesterday's paper*, who, for all his bleating, just has a traditional Australian Christmas the week later -- what are you going to call it? "The Day Before Boxing Day"?

I'm not a Christian (I was one, though, so I know their mythology) but Christmas still has a meaning for me: it's the day (or 'time of year' because not everything has to happen on the day itself**) when families get together; it's the time you catch-up with your nieces and nephews if you haven't seen them for a while. Obviously, because of that, it's still sad for people who can't make it home.

*See, I didn't even mention my conspiracy theory that the whole story was just the Murdoch Press trying to invent a controversy, like Bill O'Reilly in the States. Bugger: I almost didn't even point out...

**I ordered a book for my brother on Amazon, but I was slack and only did it last Friday, even though I worked out months ago that this was what I'd get for him. Several times the order page reminded me that the shipping type I currently had selected would not get the present to me by December 24. I gather that in America, you get disowned if you don't have presents ready for Christmas morning. In the end, I went for the cheapest delivery, so my brother can expect to get his book sometime between 4 and 16 January: I'm an Australian.

Miscellany 051213

Voluminous Strident Onionism
The problem with the VSU argument is that the whole point of any taxation is (a) the it isn't voluntary and (b) that you know it will go to pay for something that you may not use yourself. To be consistent, I await Family First's complaints about taxation in general.

"Families"
I know a lot of people have said this before, too -- hey, great minds think alike -- but it annoys me when people who claim to be for "families" totally exclude me and my family. I don't have kids, I think there is only one remaining swear word and I'm not a Christian. But I do have a family.

UK police may face charges over Brazilian's death

British police could face a criminal probe over the fatal shooting of an innocent Brazilian, shot dead in July by officers who thought he was a suicide bomber, an independent watchdog said.

That's fine - let a judge and/or jury hear all the evidence and decide, that's pretty much all I ask for anyone; police, Palestinians, myself if needs be.

My local Subway store got held-up last week.
As a result, they are now only open until 10pm.

That store is on the same road about 100m from the police station. I'm not saying anything about the cops; it's more how brazen the robbers were, considering cop cars go up and down Bryants Road all the time.

So, about a week ago, I came to realise...

So, about a week ago, I came to realise that I was posting a whole lot of crap. Now, there's nothing wrong with that; but I started thinking, how 'bout I post it all in one post (called "Miscellany" or something) rather than in 10 posts each containing a headline and one or two lines of text. That way it's easier to skip over if you aren't interested in that stuff (which about 60% of my readers aren't) and the list of recent posts over on the left will stop turning over completely in two days.

Then I discovered that, had I been keeping up with all my reading, I had been given that advice in a round-about way about a week earlier than that.

What was it that the Enterprise was on at the start of Star Trek - The Motion Picture? A shakeout cruise? ('Shakedown' seems like the wrong word.) Well this blog was still on its shakeout cruise, and Scotty and Kirk were already coming to realise it needed to be stripped right back and rebuilt (at a new URL so I could eventually disown and delete this place...) I'd been too busy being incandescent with rage over current events that I never got around to doing things I planned like posting old works of fiction, some photos, etc. Perhaps even some new writing.

Now there ain't gonna be any fiction here; there's another place for that. Hopefully what gets posted here will be a little more focussed.

I'm still interested in trends in the United States, because they come to Australia one to five years later, so it helps to recognise the tricks when they start to appear here. For example, one Australian politician - no names, because he might be somebody's Minister - is (or was a few weeks ago) pulling a few tricks directly from the U.S. Republican party's divisiveness (sp??) toolkit. But no amount of me bleating about it is going to stop things from happening. If certain people don't change their minds after opinion polls go way against them, I don't think they'll listen to one loudmouthed* hotheaded dickhead.

And, because of my life long interest in Alfred Hitchcock films [hee hee, "life long"? It's only been 20 years...] I have a big interest (I'm not sure if I'd call it a 'fear' because intellectually, I know that I'm really not likely to be caught up in such a scenario) in the wrong man being blamed for things and then being chased up the face of Mt. Rushmore. Usually, a person could comfort themselves with the knowledge that they would get their day in a public court to sort everything out, but these days that is no longer a given. And that's why I was angry, but I'm really bad at maintaining the rage (or the effort.)

And I'm still going to use this as a notepad to remind me of articles I've read, because this blogger.com technology really is cool.

*except that on the internet no one can hear you scream...

new blog

ahhh, who am i kidding.

see my new blog, Boycat's Dad, for less ranting and more pussycats.

(but only if you want to. try it. no obligation to buy.)

screw this, it isn't worth it

well, dear imaginary reader, this will be goodbye. apparently, i'm doing what 81,928 other people are doing.

and if you're wondering -- of course you're not, you don't exist -- the shift key on my keyboard doesn't work.the capital letters in other posts were created by using caps lock. the colons were done by copying a colon from other documents and then pasting them in.

the effort was worth it when i imagined someone somewhere would read it and maybe appreciate something in it, but i realise now it's total crap, so heineken that shit.

i apparently had one reader, but he's gone now. not enough dr who or something. too many things that people could look up for themselves if they had an internet connection at work. (even though one of the point of blogs is to bring things to people's attention that they might not have seen for themselves, to save them from having to search.)

anyway, i can probably do without the hassle. doing this has forced me to think things through a lot more than i usually do -- to avoid broadcasting my usual stupid half-assed naivety to 'the world' -- and that's a lot of effort.

it was fun getting a few comments but apparently not all people with blogs that allow comments really want them.

serves me right. i always used to think that people who talked to other people on the internet were a bit sad. and now i'm sad.

i'll just go back to my old life where i spoke to about 3 people all day and yelled at the tv a lot.

the irony is, i've probably written more in the last 36 days than in the previous 5 years (not counting work). i was almost ready to come out of my hermitage and re-engage with the world, but why bother?

waaah waaah waaah, I'm an angry middle-class white guy in my 30s and no one understands me...

Miami Bomber

Just be careful with this one. If the story they're telling about what happened is true, then it looks justified. But remember the stories we were getting on day one about Jean Charles de Menezes that all turned out to be wrong - no bulky jacket, no jumping turnstyles, etc.

LATER - Yep, it appears he was mentally ill and off his meds. He was not able to comply with their demands. He probably didn't even know what they were saying. Oh well, you know how the Americans are when it comes to executing the mentally ill.

It's been so long since we took the time...

It's been 25 years, eh?

I remember (or think I remember) my sister coming down from her bedroom and saying "John Lennon's dead. And it must be true because Triple Zed just played Happiness is a Warm Gun."

Here's an interesting '25 years on' article.

Israel arrests suicide bomber's family

I thought collective punishment was illegal under international law. Oh, right, sorry, this is Israel so international law doesn't apply.

Oh, look: it's that bastard Shaul Mofaz again. He's the guy who has given the okay to murder suspected militants without any proof of their involvement in anything.

Another reason ASIO could think I'm a suspect

I like kebabs and I often talk to men of middle-eastern appearance while ordering.

We'd prefer to make voting voluntary, using Diebold machines, but we'll start with stopping people registering.

The government has started tinkering with the election laws to make it harder for people who usually don't vote for them to vote at all. All very standard stuff: disenfranchising prisoners and people who don't think about voting until an election is called.

But this is the bit I love:

The threshold for disclosure of political donations will rise to $10,000 with contributions to political parties of up to $1,500 to be tax deductible.

Want to bribe your local politician and get a tax deduction? We make it easier!

But, oh well, because some idiots gave them control of the Upper house at the last election (don't blame me, I voted for Nigel Freemarijuana) they can do whatever they want. Sure we can try to vote them out at the next election, but we have to hope they haven't fucked the country up beyond repair by then.

I wish people would stop saying the Terrorble laws will enable the police to detain terrorism suspects for up to 14 days without charge

They will enable police to detain anyone for 14 days without charge.

People seem to have forgotten the first rule of acceptable legislation: imagine it applying to you. And if it doesn't appear to affect you, imagine the people who administer it making a massive mistake. Then imagine yourself caught up in it because of that mistake.

Do you really think that ASIO doesn't make mistakes? These are the people who think Scott Parkin did something wrong. And even if they were correct and he was teaching civil disobedience tactics; they're also the people who thought that was a deportable offence.

Scott Parkin Update

Scott's going to sue. Good on him.

To recap, a member of the government has produced a report that said the government acted appropriately when they deported Scott Parkin. Fancy that.

According to the ABC, "The inspector-general of Intelligence and Security, Ian Carnell, investigated Mr Parkin's removal and has found it was based on credible and reliable information."

Okay, but what was the information? I mean, it's one thing for the information to be credible and relible, but if the information was that he was going to, say, go to dinner and then take in a show or something, then it's credible and reliable but it's also useless.

Just what is he supposed to have done?

Missing presumed dead, or missing presumed faking own death?

http://www.abc.net.au/news/arts/theshallowend/200512/s1523981.htm

It's funny how government inquiries always clear the government of wrong-doing...

Probe clears ASIO over Parkin deportation

All good things...

Reuters via the ABC reports:

Rising seas have forced 100 people on a Pacific island to move to higher ground in what may be the first example of a village formally displaced because of modern global warming, a UN report said.

There's a "may" in there, but I'm blogging; I can speak with certainty about things I know nothing of, and I can overlook information that doesn't fit my world-view: those are the rules.

Rice tight-lipped on secret European prison claims

"The US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, has denied the United States is using CIA flights to transport terror suspects to other countries for torture"

...they were Department of Defense flights.

"Dr Rice has made the comments before beginning a tour of Europe where she is expected to be questioned over the alleged existence of a network of CIA prisons holding terrorist suspects."

...actually, the word used was "gulag"

"Condoleezza Rice admits suspects have been moved by plane under a process known as rendition, but says the US does not tolerate torture."

...we just redefine it.

[Story]

Kazakhstan election 'not democratic'

But better than last U.S. presidential election.

[Story]

So Damn Insane

I'm not really interested in Saddam's show trial. If they aren't going to charge him for things the U.S. was complicit in, like Halabja, then it isn't going to be any fun.

But he should not be executed. I have no problem with heads of state not having immunity (c.f. Pinochet); but no one should be put to death, especially after a trial as dodgy as this one will turn out to be.

I guess I don't really believe in the death penalty, not even for torturers (lucky Bush) so I will have to retract my wish for Pinochet's death. Maybe they can turn the juice off just before he dies...

Israeli Army ordered to find and murder militants

From the ABC:

Israeli Defence Minister Shaul Mofaz has ordered the Army to track down and kill Palestinian militants behind rocket attacks, following a renewal at the weekend of rocket strikes from the Gaza Strip.

In the latest strike, two rockets hit the farming community of Shuva, about eight kilometres from the Gaza Strip. Two residents were treated for shock after a rocket landed near a house on Sunday night.

This is what I find disgusting. The rockets fired on the weekend didn't kill anyone and caused a grand total of two resident to be treated for shock. The penalty for doing this is death?

Actually, I shouldn't say 'penalty' because the word implies that someone like a referee/umpire has looked at the case and made a decision; but these suspected militants won't get the benefit of going to court. And how many people not involved in firing rockets will be killed during the Israeli's asymmetric retaliation?

Why hasn't the Israeli Army been ordered to identify the alleged criminals and develop a water-tight legal case against them?

LATER:

This was before the suicide bombing, but even after, the point is the same - if you must kill people (and I don't think you must) you can't do it until after they have had a fair trial.

The Qantas board is being urged to consider allowing budget airline Jetstar to fly international routes

This news will come as a surprise to people from what Qantas apparently believes to be the Australian state of New Zealand, since JetStar started flying from Christchurch to Australia on 1 December.

This is what our friends are doing

Hard Evidence of U.S. Torturing Prisoners to Death Ignored by Corporate Media

by Peter Phillips

Actually, I wouldn't mind if Pinochet were executed

Perhaps by attaching electrodes to his genitals and turning on the juice.

Story here about his latest trial.

Private Schools should get no government funding.

Let the free-market operate! If someone wants to set up a private education business, let them run it as a business, no government handouts.

NUS welcomes Nelson's proposal for a vote about voluntary student unionism but not the question to be asked

Well, this government has shown a pattern of behaviour when it comes to apparently supporting something by suggesting there be a vote on it and then sabotaging the outcome by asking a misleading question. Remember the Republic Referendum.

Really, if the Student Unions didn't have the U-word in their titles, there wouldn't be a problem with them. Next on Nelson's agenda - changing the word from "University" to "College", because the first three letters of university are the same as in 'union'.

Next, can all taxpayers have a ballot about whether we want to pay taxes? After all, there seem to be loads of things the government spends money on that I don't agree with.

"Terrorism" suspects are being mistreated, says Lawyer

We'll hold fire on these Guantanamo-lite allegations. There was bound to be someone who would make claims of this sort. I suspect the alleged criminal gang members are being mistreated, etc, as the article says, but unless we're currently shoving tubes up their noses hard to stop them from hunger striking, I doubt anything we do could compare to the depravity of the U.S.

But this is the important bit:

"The case was briefly mentioned in Sydney's central Local Court this morning where the men's lawyer, Adam Houda, complained that the prosecution is yet to provide details of the evidence against the men." (my emphasis)

Now, that sounds very familiar.

The Government has agreed to a review of the sedition provisions in the new year by the Australian Law Reform Commission

Okay, I'll wait until then.

John Howard says the sedition provisions do not substantially differ to what is already contained in the Crimes Act. Disingenuous bastard: if they are not substantially different to what is in the Crimes Act, why did they also need to be in this Act?

And aren't the sedition provisions in the crimes act the ones that poeple have been saying are an anacronism and should be repealed?

Australia again rejects ratifying Kyoto

The U.S. said it would be against our interests.

Story here.

Doctor Who's classified ad

Wanted, one assistant. Must be prepared to have faceless pervs hold you captive and go on about your "perfect", "flawless skin". Must be willing to be referred to as "a pretty one".

GW Bush almost 100% successful on important issues...

Bush is only an unsuccessful President if you assume that his goal was to govern the country well. If you assume that he had other goals, he starts to look a lot better.

See:

• Larry Beinhart: Bushenomics
• Matthew Rothschild: Bush Victorious on Patroit Act

The next meeting of the Corduroy Appreciation Club will be 11 January.

Somewhere there is a picture of me in brown pegged corduroy trousers with a shirt and paisley waistcoat, staring off into the distance like I was on the cover of Mr Tamborine Man. But I don't think I would join this club...

New Federal electorate likely to be in Queensland "between the New South Wales border and Brisbane".

The ABC Reports that the redistribution process will take several months, and the new boundaries will be announced by late next year.

Hello, Mr. P

This is weird. Sections of Invercargill Prison, on New Zealand's South Island, were cordoned off on Wednesday and 11 people were hospitalised because of a "hazardous substance". Someone was smoking pure methampetamine.

There is discussion of "decontamination by specialist fire service personnel" and "respiratory distress" from the "fumes". I don't know much about "P"; in fact it's the first I've heard of it, so I'm not sure if this is just the usual meth-mouth hysteria.

Alan Moore knows the score

The graphic novel "Watchmen" is approaching its 20th anniversary. DC Comics last month published an anniversary edition retitled "Absolute Watchmen".

"[W]hen they coined the term "graphic novel" nobody mentioned that the novel in question was Ulysses" - Tom Shone

Ground floor, comin' up.

Pilotless aircraft could soon be flying over Queensland skies

So long as they aren't CIA Predator drones:

The Australian Research Centre for Aerospace Automation, based at the Brisbane Airport, was officially launched in Brisbane Thursday.

The centre will enable Queensland University of Technology and CSIRO researchers to develop and test pilotless aircraft.

The Director, QUT Professor Rod Walker, says the unmanned aviation vehicles (UAVs) have both defence and civil applications: "People are talking about using them for so-called armchair farming," he said, "[and p]rotecting our borders with UAVs is a big application."

Ethanol

The Parliamentary Library produced a great Current Issues Brief back in early 2003 about Ethanol as fuel. What I got out of it was that Ethanol wasn't cost effective: at that time, it cost double to produce Ethanol compared to Petrol (70c v 35c) and a given volume of fuel Ethanol only contains 68% of the energy of the equivalent amount of Petrol.

But that was then when oil cost less. What's the story now?

If I can understand the figures given in the ABARE report to AFFA, "Viability of Sugar Cane Based Fuel Ethanol" , which was one of the sources of the Issues Brief,

• it might actually cost as little is 55c/litre to produce ethanol
• it cost 35c/litre to produce gasoline when a barrel of oil cost U.S$32 per barrel and, looking at the figures, it seems that (at an Aus/U.S. exchange rate of 65c/$1) a litre of petrol costs 5-15c more in Australian dollars than a barrol of oil costs in U.S. dollars.

Thus if a barrel is U.S.$40, petrol costs 45-60c to produce.

Not being a Forgerini or Pickard, I won't show my working; but I think that will make ethanol's cost comparable when oil reaches U.S.$81 per barrel, taking the 68% efficiency into account.

But we get to keep our nickname, right?

Run! Cane Toads!

Freakin' sandgropers better not decide they want to be called cane toads now.

Especially since, as usual, the hysteria might be a beat-up.

Singapore stuff

I haven't written anything about Van Nguyen because I don't have that much to say. But there is something that was starting to annoy me, and it's people who say "Singapore wants to protect its citizens". Given that the law is the same for citizens as for foreigners (the Singapore government reports 22 foreigners and 66 locals killed between 2001 and 2004), the death penalty indicates that Singapore doesn't really want to protect all of its citizens. It wants to protect some citizens and kill others for no good reason.

So don't give me that "protects its citizens" stuff. It's all about keeping citizens in fear. Which as we all know, leads to anger, which leads to hate, which leads to suffering.

Also people who say that the 396g of drugs he was carrying could have affected 26,000 people. That's 15mg per person. I'm not sure of the efficacy of heroin as compared to, say, codeine -- I think H is less effective -- but I know 15mg of codeine is barely enough to start to knock out a headache.

And for the record, I'm not keen to see the Bali Bombers, the Bali Nine, Tookie Williams or anyone else put to death, either.

LATER - with perhaps one exception, now that Peter Reith has retired from politics.

I take it the liver-coloured armbands were in honour of George Best?

Maybe the Queensland Roar just aren't any good. Maybe we deserve to be seventh. Helping New Zealand break an 11 game losing streak; that was woeful.

All this frickin' passing is driving me crazy. It's like that game in the Simpsons that caused a riot. We only score on first-touch balls and fast breaks, yet we keep passing. We did those three man triangle things at training in the under-nines; with about the same skills, it seems.

Hopefully our new Ronaldo will be as good as the other ones. Our Korean guy is pretty good. Maybe our Uruguayan isn't any good. We don't have a Japanese guy.

Atlantic Hurricane Season finally ends

I don't know why I'm interested in the Atlantic Ocean hurrican season which ends today. It's probably that I'm forever amused by footage of journos out getting blown away by the wind.

Disk Doubler

Remember back when hard drives were 40Meg and we used disk doubler to increase it to a virtual 80Meg? Here I am working my way through 168Meg of music I've downloaded (legally - or at least the site I got them from says they're legal downloads, and that's good enough for me) and not had a chance to listen to yet.

Ruddock Alert!

Sky News has a news flash on screen warning people that they have an interview with Philip Ruddock coming up. Turn off now if you want to keep your sanity.

Seriously, it was the amount of yelling at the TV that I was doing when dickheads like Philip "Amnesty Unintentional" Ruddock appeared that made me think I should start a blog.