Quote of the Week or how a U.K. climate change sceptic sees Our Malcolm Bligh

This week, Gerald Jackson, in The Market Oracle out of the U.K. is somewhat disenchanted with the cost and efficiency of 'eco-friendly' light bulbs.

"However, this fact didn't faze Malcolm Turnbull , one of the economic illiterates responsible for the policy of banning incandescent light bulbs."

Ger it seems is not afraid to say what many suspect - Malcolm Turnbull is a lightweight.
Something the electorate might also agree with about now, as the latest Newspoll had voters only giving Turnbull a 24% heads up as prospective Liberal Party leader.

dark matter

I was watching a T.V. program about the cosmos.

It seems that for Newton's laws of gravity to work on the galaxy or universe scale there has to be a lot more matter and energy than we can currently account for.

So the idea of dark energy and dark matter has been developed to explain the difference between what we can see and what the laws of gravity need to work on this scale.

The problem with this theory is that no one has been able to find all this new dark energy and matter.

This worried me, so I sat down and wrote this poor excuse of a poem:

The cosmos does not weigh enough

So the wisdom goes

The stars that twinkle in the night

To light, to light

Cry the people here below.

A theory made to fit the scheme

To balance out the din

How many dark energy angels

Can dance on the head of

A dark matter pin.

In this same program it was stated that the laws of gravity do not work in the very small quantum level, so being a dumb farmer this started me thinking that the very small level could be first gear, the solar system scale is the second gear in Newton's gravity laws and third gear at the galaxy level.

It seems to make more sense than a dark matter/ energy theory whose stuff can not be found.

Kevin on Earth begins to show some cracks

The latest Newspoll in The Australian on How we see our leaders [31 July 2007] demonstrates that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has the beginnings of an image problem.

The percentage of those Australians interviewed who thought Kevin Rudd arrogant rose from 34% in November 2007, to 33% in February-March this year and presently sits at 43%.

Brendan Nelson on the other hand fell in the arrogance stakes from 48% in February-March 2008 to 42% currently.

The Prime Minister also faded somewhat across all the survey categories , particularly when it came to perceptions of the degree to which he was 'in touch with voters'.
There Rudd dropped 13 percentage points this year.

Perhaps his initial love affair with popularist politics and those almost daily media announcements of 'grand ideas' were more than passing mistakes from which he could recover easily.
Credibility does just not rise up out of the ballot box, it is something that is hard earned in the weeks and months that follow electoral success.

Link to poll here.

Splendour in the Grass - 2008 winning artist

Splendour in the Grass Emerging Artist Grant.

The $5,000 Emerging Artist Grant is for artists living in the Northern Rivers region. It is not restricted to any specific artform but the work must retain a presence within a large audience, function day and night and strongly respond to the music festival and site.
Eligible artists must reside in the Northern Rivers and be practising for less than 7years.

The 2008 winner is Anna Parsons.

Photograph of her winning piece is from Lismore Regional Art Gallery website.

Australian Foreign Minister chides China over internet censorship - talk about the pot calling the kettle black!

According to ABC News yesterday, Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith is hot under the collar about the International Olympic Committee agreeing to allow China to impose certain website restrictions on access to the Internet by the international media during the Beijing Games.

What was that again, Stevo? Open internet good, restricted access bad.
Thought that was what you were muttering.

Well this view of China and internet access doesn't exactly jibe with the fact that the Australian Federal Government has installed Websense filters on almost every parliamentary PC it can get its hands on and senators have had trouble researching political and social issues.

It certainly doesn't sit easily with the fact that four days ago that other Stephen, one Senator Conroy, was reported in The Australian on the progress of his national ISP filtering scheme:

"THE Federal Government will embark on the next step of its internet filtering strategy after initial trials proved successful, Communications Minister Stephen Conroy said.
Senator Conroy today released the findings of a recently concluded ISP-level internet filtering trial conducted in Tasmania by the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) in a closed environment.----
Senator Conroy said the tests proved that the web filtering technology could be expanded to a wider base. "The next step is to test filter technologies in a real-world environment with a number of ISPs and internet users."
An expression of interest seeking participation in the live pilot will be announced shortly."

Come on, Stevo. Say it again for the laughs - open internet good, restricted access bad!

US 08: Monkeying about with the presidential candidates

With many of the published images and cartoons becoming rather vicious (in political comment surrounding the U.S. presidential race), it is nice to see an equal opportunity look at candidates McCain and Obama which is nothing but light-hearted.

Images from Celebrity Apes.

The Libs decide to protect the planet and Nelson acts the fool for Kerry O'Brien

Well now we know, confusion over the Federal Opposition's position on emissions trading is over - because the Liberal Party announced yesterday that it was all about Protecting the Planet:

The Coalition Joint Party Room has today unanimously agreed to key principles in relation to climate change.
We give the planet the benefit of the doubt and support action on climate change. [my emphasis]
We support in principle an Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) as part of a three pillars approach to combating climate change:
Clean Energy Policy;
International Pressure; and
An ETS.

The Coalition has deep suspicions about Mr Rudd and his ETS model and we will vigorously scrutinise the Government’s legislation based on:
The detail;
The modelling;
The impact on the cost of living; and
International developments.Australia must be part of a global response to reduce emissions however:
An ETS should commence when it is ready in an orderly, methodical and responsible manner which enjoys the broad support of Australian industry and protects vulnerable Australian households – not before 2011 and probably by 2012;
The design detail of an Australian ETS must be informed by the outcome of the Copenhagen meeting at the end of 2009;
The carbon price must be set at a level that reflects action by the rest of the world; and
If no action is underway – Australia must start an ETS slow, and low on price.
But Mr Rudd and his Government are on notice – the Coalition will not support a flawed Emissions Trading Scheme, nor will we support an ETS too far ahead of the rest of the world.
We will not sign a blank cheque on Australia’s future and will not support a scheme that will disadvantage Australia’s national interest and competitive advantage.
We properly reserve our position on Labor’s legislation until it is before the Parliament.
We will stand up for Australia.

It was almost painful to watch last night's ABC TV 7.30 Report and Brendan Nelson's attempt to put flesh on this announcement while justifying his weakening hold on the Liberal Party leadership.