A new year on the digital highway throws up an old friend; Daniel Minton

While browsing the Internet for references to Tai Chi, I stumbled across a rather familiar face from long, long ago.

Hello from Australia to Daniel Charles Minton - glad to see life is treating you well!

When making your New Year's resolutions please remember..............

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Here's Figure SPM-4 from the IPCC's Fourth Assessment report. The blue bands show temperatures if you just include natural forcings and natural variability. The red bands include the effects of human activities. The black lines shows actual temperature averages.

Deltoid posted an easy to understand graph which I intend to keep in mind as I draw up my To Do list for 2009.

What about you?

Quick, Kev, do something! The media cycle is slipping through your spin

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Google Trends shows that Team Kev didn't quite manage to hold the attention of the national electorate over the last 30 days.
Despite Rudders Christmas 'bonus' to so many households, Santa Claus trounced the PM everywhere it mattered for most of December 2008.
It's obviously time for another media release.
Announcing funding in 2009 to save Aussies from athlete's foot perhaps?

Ah, the memories: Fraser Government cabinet papers

Image from Wired.com

How well I remember those salad days when a rumour went around that disgraced former US president Richard Milhous Nixon was likely to make a formal visit to Australia.

Long before the Internet and instantaneous communication, on a rural exchange where you could still 'phone in your telegrams, I fired off a stern word or two to then Prime Minister Malcolm Fraser telling him that in my opinion Nixon should not be allowed into the country in any capacity.

I eventually received a letter in reply (marred by the fact that the Prime Minister assumed that he was writing to one of the men in the family) which was carefully diplomatic about the possibility that Nixon might visit and, if memory serves me correctly, pointed out that his government was not in the business of barring people from visiting Australia.

Cabinet papers released this week show that behind the scenes, the Fraser Cabinet was working hard on 22 August 1978 to make sure Tricky Dicky did not publicly express a desire to visit down under and that he stayed well away from our shores.

See digital copy of the cabinet minute here.

Marohasy and Co. raising funds to fight Rudd's carbon pollution reduction scheme

While criticising GetUp! at every opportunity, Jennifer Marohasy (Chair, Australian Environment Foundation) is requesting donations to oppose the Rudd Government's emmissions trading scheme:

At our recent conference and AGM in Canberra, members decided that the best thing we could do as an organisation for the environment over the next year would be to oppose the Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS)...........
There is a temporary holding page for our new campaigning website www.ListenToUs.org.au .You can subscribe at the site to the campaign newsletter as well as make a foundation investment in the campaign through PayPal. We have so far raised $17,000. Our target for the campaign against the Emission's Trading Scheme is $30,000.

According to AEF media releases, Jennifer Marohasy can be contacted on Mobile 0418 873 222.

The mind boggles at such a naked attempt to wreck any chance Australia and the NSW North Coast might have of minimising the longterm impacts of climate change.

All I want is.......a new front tooth

Some of the many wishes which turn up on the Internet:

All I want is world peace...
...and a pony.
Grafitti from the syndicated Ginger Meggs comic strip

All I want is an honest press.
Post title at Crooks and Liars blog

All I want is my face on TV,
But they're always rolling text over me
From The Credits Song on The Chaser's War on Everything

All I want is to be left in peace to get on with earning a living, with as little interference from government as is possible.
A British musician commenting on a UK Telegraph article Coping class is the new working class

All I want is to be able to make a call and get what is now a basic home service (the internet) to my home. No delays, no explanations just a service.
Is that too much to ask?
Blogger David Says on the perils of setting up an Internet connection in Australia

All I want is everything
Ambit claim made by a book title aimed at teenagers and found at Amazon.com

All I want is the government to give me a good reason why I must vote or must attend the polling booth.
Phanto sounding off at The Forum

All I want is a smoke!
Plaintive cry on ehealthforum

All I want is a normal life
Title given to a blog

All I want ... is to live in peace with my family
A child's wish from Gaza in 2006 which still hasn't been fulfilled by the international community

A voice in the Koori Mail

A letter to the Editor of the Koori Mail raises some interesting points:

 

Where is our Obama?

Where is our Aboriginal Obama? This question has been asked many times since that magic day on 4 November 2008 when Democrat Barack Obama became the first black American to be elected President of the United States of America. A number of Australians are now asking who will be the first Aboriginal man or woman in Australia to rise to such a high position in politics. While many of us are left wondering, perhaps we should take a moment to reflect on a few things. Firstly, it should be pointed out that the original people of the United States are Native Americans. Barack Obama is African-American. While not belittling this historic and inspiring occasion, or the oratory powers of Obama, perhaps a better question to ask would be 'who will be the first Native American President?' Comparing the first African-American President with a future Aboriginal Prime Minister is worthwhile, but it is a little off the mark. A far more accurate comparison would be between Aboriginal leaders and Native American leaders, of whom very few have risen to political heights. In Australia, two Aboriginal men have been prominent politicians (Neville Bonner and Aden Ridgeway). Several other Aboriginal men and women have held, or currently hold, ministerial positions in State and Territory governments. In comparison, in the United States to date, Charles Curtis, from the Kaw Reservation, has been the highest placed Native American in Federal Government. He was the 31st Vice-President of the United States of America in 1930s under President Herbert Hoover. This political achievement is a very important milestone in world history that is rarely taught. Its significance should never be underestimated. Why African-Americans have achieved more politically than Native Americans or Aboriginal Australians is an interesting question. Is it because of the oratory powers of people like Martin Luther King who drove the civil rights movement, or is it due to the militant efforts of people such as Malcolm X? Some people may say that militant African- Americans were prepared to fight and die for their recognition and equality, while other minority groups around the world have not been ready to fight or die. Perhaps in Australia, some of us have been too divided to achieve solidarity or have been too focused on being the 'victim' to inspire and empower our people to greatness. Perhaps the reason that so many African-Americans and Native Americans have risen to political prominence is because they took up the opportunities that they were given and made the most of these opportunities. Maybe it was because the civil rights movement in American saw the establishment of a 'knowledge nation' of university-educated black people that led to employment in prominent positions in society where they could influence change. Regardless of the barriers in Australia, we can overcome them. In Australia we have some catching up to do before our country has an Aboriginal Obama. But can we achieve this milestone? By supporting other Aboriginal people who have political aspirations to better the whole of Australia – YES WE CAN! NEIL WILLMETT* Brisbane, Qld *Neil Willmett is an Aboriginal businessman and a regular facilitator in the Commonwealth Government Indigenous Men's Leadership Program. He will be attending Barack Obama's Inauguration Day celebrations in Washington on 20 January 2009 to watch Obama become the 44th President of the United States.