Iz waitin' Santa (a message for those who will be alone on Christmas Day)

The stores are garlanded with tinseled baubles and Santa is tucked away in a corner of the shopping centre having his photo taken with the littlies - even the piped Muzac has turned festive.

For many though Christmas rarely lives up to the idealised image of loving family and friends around a Yuletide fireplace.

So for those who are to spend Christmas Day alone or working hard to keep the wolf from the door, I say "Chin up!"

Go for a walk, watch a decent DVD, read a good book or listen to your favourite happy tunes, above all give yourself a little treat; and if all else fails, curse that little fat man in the tatty red suit and look forward to next year.

There will be a free Christmas lunch at the Christian Life Centre in Treelands Drive, Yamba on 25 December 2008. All are welcome according to the sign above the door.

Need to chin wag to keep the blues at bay over Christmas?

Lifeline 13 11 14

Kids Help Line 1800 55 1800

Conroy cleans up without a universal Internet censor

Excerpt from Stephen Conroy's 11 December 2008 media release:

Today the AFP announced the identification of 22 Australian men following a 12-month investigation into an online child abuse image and video-sharing network. The AFP's Child Protection Operations Teams seized more than 15,000 videos and 500,000 images of child abuse.

I'm willing to hazard a guess that this sting would be more effective than the Minister's plan to impose mandatory national ISP-level filtering to censor the Australian Internet and, probably didn't cost as much as any proposed implementation phase of Conroy's mad scheme.

With his national 'live' trial now in tatters, as Australian ISPs realise just how many problems he is wishing on their commercial business, Senator Conroy appears ready to conduct another 'closed' trial (this time without any ISP customers involved) in order to save face an push forward with the Great Firewall of Australia.

Has the Prime Minister considered that perhaps the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is becoming tired and emotional?

Just in time for Christmas?

I can see vaguely peeved men all over the world making a mental date to write to Santa before 2015 if Information Week is correct:
"A Toronto-based researcher has built what he claims is the world's first fully functional female robot -- a lifelike android named Aiko that is capable of recognizing faces, identifying medication, and even buttering toast.
33-year-old researcher Le Trung, a graduate of York University, built Aiko with silicon and computer parts. Programming her internal software took over a year. To date, Trung has spent $24,000 building his robo-girl. Aiko sports delicate, Geisha-like features and is armed with sensors that allow her to respond to touch and voice commands. A camera in her neck provides her with visual input. All told, the robot weighs in at about 70 pounds. With a vocabulary of more than 13,000 words, Aiko can, among other things, tell you what the weather is outside. Despite her lifelike appearance and 32-23-33, anatomically correct measurements, Trung insists Aiko is not a s*x doll. "I'm attached to it, but do I sleep with it? No," said Aiko, in an interview published Thursday in Toronto's Globe & Mail newspaper."

Aussie farmers will remain faithful to the real flesh-and-blood version though - a robot couldn't do as much farm work at Teh Wife, carry heavy loads like The Ute or be as faithful as The Heeler.
And they would know it would be London to a brick that Aiko would break down more times than the bore pump!

Transcript of new Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme white paper: Mr. Five Per Cent seals the fate of NSW North Coast communities

About the only decent timeline in the Rudd Government's white paper Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme: Australia's Low Pollution Future is the one indicating that the main mechanism to reduce national carbon emissions will start in about July 2010.

The white paper's foreword disappointingly states:

The Australian Government has a substantial commitment to reduce our carbon pollution by 60 per cent of 2000 levels by 2050.
By 2020, we have committed to reduce Australia's carbon pollution by up to 15 per cent below 2000 levels in the context of a global agreement where major economies agree to substantially restrain carbon pollution and advanced economies take on reductions comparable to Australia.
We have also committed to an unconditional 5 per cent reduction in carbon pollution below 2000 levels by 2020, which represents a significant cut of around 27 per cent on a per capita basis.
By harnessing the innovation and efficiency of the market, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will allow Australia to meet these serious targets at the lowest overall cost to our economy.

With a 5% reduction on Australia's total greenhouse gas levels in 2000 as the bench mark, the Prime Minister, Treasurer and Climate Change Minister are literally planning to do so little, and to move so slowly, in mitigating climate change impacts that the very worst of predicted negative effects will inevitably slam into New South Wales coastal communities.

With such low national carbon emissions targets it won't matter how many billions in seed money or compensation Rudd and his ministers throw at industry or business; our Northern Rivers homes will still be swept out to sea in massive storm surges or turned into rubble by increasingly violent East Coast Lows.

At this point in time even the climate change denialist Howard Government (if it had remained in office) would have been setting that 5% target, so it is hypocritical of Rudd, Swann and Wong to present today's white paper as a breakthrough when it is really a capitulation to the interests of big business at the expense of the ordinary citizen.

Summary of 15 December 2008 white paper here.
Volumes 1 & 2 of full white paper downloadable here.

Thinking of making paperless Christmas cards this year?

If you want to send a simple Christmas greeting by e-mail and so avoid the guilt of using paper this year, here is the simplest method:

Go to Google Images and search for appropriate pictures such as Christmas tree, Christmas scene, Christmas bells, Santa Claus.

• Download your favourite images to Desktop.
• Create an e-mail and give it a coloured or patterned background.
• Insert a picture and centre it.
• Pick the font type and colour you fancy and write your message.

Nothing simpler.

* If you want to caption the picture with a personal message, pimp the card or create a Christmas collage, then go to BIG HUGE Labs and take advantage of the free, easy to use tools there.

If you are into prepared e-cards there are downloadable examples at Yahoo! Kids or personalise those found at ecards4ever.

Windows Error Message # 1939

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Earthrace docks in Ballina on 30 December 2008

The Far North Coaster reports:

You'll be able to see the boat, which holds the record for circling the globe and is for sale for $US1.5 million, when she docks in Ballina on December 30 and 31.

Earthrace is billed as the fastest and greenest powerboat in the world, and will arrive in Ballina as part of a worldwide tour to communicate the importance of biofuels in the fight against global warming.

In June this year, Earthrace set a world record for a powerboat to circle the globe – smashing the old record by more than two weeks.........

Earthrace will be powered by 100 per cent biodiesel from Queensland-company Neumann Petroleum.

Biodiesel is the name for a variety of ester-based oxygenated fuels made from vegetable oils or animal fats, most commonly derived from tallow, canola, cotton seed and soy.

"It is the only alternative fuel that can be used directly in any existing, unmodified diesel engine and offers numerous benefits including 80 per cent lower carbon dioxide emissions; almost 100 per cent lower sulphur dioxide; safer handling, transportation and storage; and new markets and opportunities for Australia's agricultural industry," Mr Bethune said.

"While 100 per cent biodiesel is not commercially available to motorists in Australia, Neumann Petroleum offers a 20 per cent blend through selected Matilda service stations in Queensland."

If you are up Ballina way - go see this boat and show your support for green technology!