Not Islamist Enough

Life really does immitate art.

Did anyone happen to notice, last week, the goings on in Gaza? It seems the Islamist "Warriors of God" group rose up against Islamist Hamas, accusing them of "not being Islamist enough".

It reminds me of that scene out of Life of Brian...

Wobble

While politicians, bureaucrats and social engineers around the world debate carbon targets and emissions trading schemes, science continues to pop out research that casts doubt on climate modelling.

One of the cornerstones of the humans-did-it climate debate has been a rise in CO2 levels at the end of the ice age. Climate change proponents point to this rise as "proof" that evil CO2 is responsible for global warming, while skeptics point to the disparity in timing, showing that the rise in CO2 comes AFTER a warming event, therefore can't be its trigger.

An article published today in Science Daily headlined "Long Debate Ended Over Cause, Demise Of Ice Ages?" would seem to support the nay sayers.

Researchers at Oregon State University and other institutions blame known wobbles in Earth's rotation. This imperfection, they say, caused global ice levels to reach their peak about 26,000 years ago, stabilize for 7,000 years and then begin melting 19,000 years ago, eventually ending the last ice age and delivering our currently enjoyed mild climate.

They further suggest that their research proves that melting was first caused by more solar radiation, not changes in carbon dioxide levels as suggested by the pro human-caused climate change proponents.

Ah well. I suppose we shouldn't expect facts to get in the way of a good story, so carbon-induced climate doom will remain on front pages everywhere.

You can read the full SD article HERE.

Practical Thinking

You can always trust the Americans to come up with simple, practical solutions to problems that bureaucrats want to solve with over-complex regulations and processes. Here's one that is so stunningly simple I'm actually annoyed I didn't think of it myself.

Regular readers will know that I'm a global warming skeptic, but that doesn't meant I'm pro waste or in favour of continues pillage of our environment.

So against that background, here's a great idea...

Make Thursday the new Friday.

It's stunningly simple. A workplace just starts work an hour earlier in the morning and finishes an hour later in the evening, Monday through Thursday, and then is closed on Fridays, with the lights out and air conditioning off. For most, that would mean a miniscule change to working hours because I remember my deskbound days were usually 7.30ish to 6.30ish anyway.

It's already in trial in places like Utah, where about 17,000 civic employees have been working the 4 day/40 hour week for about a year, saving the state around US$1.8mil.

Bloody brilliant. 20% less commuting. 20% less air conditioning and lighting. Big drop in power and fuel consumption. It saves money and the environment at the same time.

THIS is the sort of solution we ought be be looking for instead of stupid emissions trading schemes and meaningless reduction targets.

Brilliant. When can we start?

Cool

I was paddling around the web a few days ago and found this...

http://www.liveatc.net/

It's a feed from ari traffic control channels around the world. You simply pick the tower channel you want to listen to, and there it is.

Mind wasting, time wasting coolness.

Back

Ok. So I've ignored my blog for a couple of months. Call it a vacation. Or a sabbatical. Or anything you like. I'm not sure I care what you call it, or even if you call it anything at all.

Truth is, I've been distracted. And my blog had turned into an anti-islamofascist rant that was getting boring and repetitive. I'll try hard to avoid doing that.

Anyway... Chester's back.

Useless Export

I tried Exporting my blog today. You know... there's a link on your dashboard.

I suppose it works, in so far as all of the posts seem to have been exported (in descending order), and all of the comments seem to have been exported (in ascending order), but there's nothing in the export file that links the comments with the original posts.

Absolutely bloody useless.

So now I'll just do it all for myself, post by post, manually. What a pain in the rear end that will be.

Nothing Nuclear Weapons Can't Fix

I don't know. Really. Is he a lunatic, or is that thinking "normal" in his part of the world.

How many people actually think like that? Is it possible to get them to all gather in the one place at the one time? You know... times are tough and those tactical nukes are expensive.

Or do we just wait until they actually do this shit, causing the Americans to retaliate such that the whole bloody region glows in the dark?

It doesn't make me angry any more. It just makes me sad.

And what's perhaps even more scary is the tone of the comments. Ok. I know tangle.com is a Christian site, but seriously, who's whackier, the cleric of the commenters.

For example, this gem from someone called Kelsey Louks, who writes "Its a good thing Christianity has never been used to validate violence. " Um. Kelsey. Ever heard of the Inquisition? Hmmm. Probably not. I suspect it's about as welcome on the curriculum as Evolution.

Or there's the whole "The Tribulation is coming. The end is nigh" thing. I'm sorry... expecting God to save us from Islamic loonies is like praying for a win on the craps tables of Vegas.

What can one say?

Amazing World

I got yet another Nigerian Scam email this morning. This time, it was something about funds being transferred to my bank account. Whatever.

The point is, the scammer put a (fake) address on the bottom of the email. 236 Peckham Rd London.

That address meant I could respond with this...

Jeffrey,
Wow. This is amazing.
236 Peckham Rd.
Wow.
I used to live there. Really. Back in 1997 on a 12 month assignment in London. The big terrace with the green door and the camellias in the back garden.
Has the landlord fixed the leaking tap yet? I bet he hasn't. I called the managing agent every day with that one. It was always "we're looking into it". Seriously. How smart do you have to be to call a bloody plumber?
I remember catching the No 12 bus to work in the West End every morning. We had an office just near Covent Garden market. The bus was always quicker than the tube, and a damned site more comfortable. Too many sweaty people on the tube, don't you think? And from Peckham Rd, The bus was so much more conventient.
Is that great little café still there? You know the one. What's it called? The Como?
And the pub.... The Greyhound. Yes. That's it. Just down the road on the other side of the street. Do you drink there? If you do, say Hi to Annabelle for me. You know. The barmaid with big knockers. She'll remember me. Say "Schlong said hi".
Then there's Wendy's on the way home from the Greyhound after a few beers for a kebab. Not one of the world's great kebab houses, but that made me so homesick, because a lamb kebab on the way home from the pub is just about compulsory in Australia.
Oh... and that pie shop on the corner... Manzes. Fantastic pies, but I just can't bring myself to eat those jellied eels. Have you tried them? Say hi to Michael for me. He's the owner.
Wow.
This is great.
I haven't thought of Peckham Rd for years.
Thanks
Chester

I've never been to Peckham Rd, though I did spend most of 1997 in London working at an office near Covent Garden Market. (They say all good lies have to be based on at least a slither of truth.)

The research took 10 minutes, thanks to Google and StreetView. In a way, that's scary.
Actually, 236 Peckham Rd is a block of apartments. From what I can tell on StreetView, it's a converted terrace, but Jeffrey doesn't know that, I'm sure. There's one to rent there right now, by the way, for about nine hundred pounds a month. Nine hundred quid. For a one bedroom. Pffft.

Another quick Google search yeilded "The Standard Monetary Transfer Control Bank" at that address. It's not real, I'd suspect. You'd think the scammers would invest in some professional web design if they really want to pull his off. Ah well.

See? Isn't the web a wonderful place?

Even More Dangerous

And while we're on the subject of "dangerous to democracy", there's something happening in Australia right now that is, perhaps, the most dangerous of all.

The Labor Government is trialling new net censorship technology. They say it's to block access to child porn (which I would support... the blocking, not the porn). However, child porn clearly isn't the government's true intention, because the way they're implementing the filtering system is cloaked in secrecy, has no independent oversight, amd no right of appeal.

Last month, for example, the filters blocked access to a US anti-abortion site which the government deemed "inappropriate".

So now it's "inappropriate" sites that are to be blocked, and child porn is just a subset of that. And who decides what's inappropriate?

The government.

No. Stop. You're talking about Australia Chester. It's one of the few places left on earth where freedom and democracy are cherished, isn't it?

Well it used to be, but apparently no longer.

The web content filtering trial isn't about censoring child porn. It's about implementing technology that can censor ANY information that doesn't fit with what the government (or some nameless, faceless bureaucrat) deems 'appropriate'.

Last month, it was the anti-abortion website. This month, it's a Danish site that reveals something of the inner workings of the censorship itself. Next month? Maybe they'll switch off sites that raise concerns about union right of entry in their new IR package, or maybe they’ll turn attention to criticism of their ill conceived stimulus package And after that, how long before they find something on chesterbear.blogspot.com that they deem ‘inappropriate’?

Don’t you get it? Whatever the excuse, and whatever the merits of censoring genuinely objectionable sites (like child porn), no government should be allowed to implement technology like this without independent judicial oversight, because once that technology’s in place, it can be turned on anything a government doesn’t like.

What are we, China? Saudi Arabia? North Korea? Zimbabwe? I'm sorry, but I'm not comfortable with my nation being on that list.

I know the economy is at risk. I know the government’s got the proposed Emissions Trading Scheme all wrong, but there is no greater threat to this nation than giving a government the ability to arbitrarily censor criticism, and if you don’t believe that once the technology’s in place, sooner or later they’ll use it, then you are out of touch with the true nature of politics.

I urge you to write to Senator Conroy, the Minister responsible. His email address is senator.conroy@aph.gov.au.

Also write to people who are in a position to oppose this. Here's a short list.
Malcolm Turnbull, Leader of the Opposition - Malcolm.Turnbull.MP@aph.gov.au
Senator Nick Xenaphon, Independent Senator - http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/senators/homepages/contact.asp?id=8IV
Senator Steven Fielding, Leader of Family First - senator.fielding@aph.gov.au
Senator Scott Ludlam, Greens Telecommunications Spokesman - senator.ludlam@aph.gov.au
Senator Nick Minchin, Opposition Telecommunications Shadow Minister - http://www.aph.gov.au/Senate/senators/homepages/contact.asp?id=JX4

And write to your newspapers, call your radio stations, talk about this with your friends and work colleagues.

If we do nothing, we won't have a democracy.