Yet More Brilliant Creativity

Here I am, sitting in a cafe in Las Vegas, expecting to be blogging something about how much fun I'm having, or how spectacular this place is (or perhaps even not blogging at all).

Instead, I have to share this with you...

GO HERE It's a biggish site, but let it load. It's worth it.

I couldn't resist sharing it with you... regular readers will know how much I love open displays of supreme creativity.

And thanks to my dear friend Inge, of Aarhus Denmark, for sharing this with me.

One More Sleep

In about 8 hours, Dr J and I will call a taxi and head off to the airport. 18 hours later, we'll arrive in the Excited States, get fingerprinted and asked a whole bunch of questions about whether we intend to kill the President on our visit, and then we'll be allowed into 'Merica.

I feel like a 6 year old on Christmas Eve.

Anyway... the point is... I may not blog for a while. Or maybe I will. We'll see.

Climate Change Bureaucracy

Right now, bureaucrats from every nation on earth are enjoying some time in the Bali sun trying to hammer out a new protocol to take over from the Kyoto agreement when it expires in 2010.

These are the same bureaucrats who framed Kyoto, so we can expect the Bali Protocol to tackle the "threat of global warming" with the same gusto and effectiveness as its predecessor.

Just so we're all on the same page here, let me remind you...
Bureaucrats are not interested in outcomes, they're concerned about processes. They believe that if you put the right process in place, the outcome will take care of itself. Actually, that's not really what they believe, What they really believe is that if you put any process in place, you will have a process, and that's better than no process because once you have a process, you can enforce that process by ticking (checking) boxes on a list. The outcome is, at best, a secondary consideration and usually doesn't enter the picture at all.

This thinking might help you understand the fine print of the Kyoto Agreement, which our new Prime Minister has embraced with religious fervour. (Until this week, only Australia and the USA had resisted.)

Kyoto sets binding greenhouse gas emission targets. "Binding"?" Ok. Not exactly binding, only sort of binding.

Let me explain, and to do that, I'll put aside my skepticism about the whole "we humans did it" global warming thing for a moment, and join the ranks of believers.

• Global warming, they say, threatens civilisation. Millions are going to die.
• The climate will heat up, food production will plummet, and millions will die.
• Rainfall in some parts of the world will decrease and millions will die.
• Rainfall in some parts of the world will increase and millions will die.
• Sea levels will rise, inundating low lying lands. Millions will die.
• Severe weather will become more frequent and more severe. Millions will die.

It is the catastrophe of catastrophes in the making that threatens our very survival as a species.
We MUST do something, and that means we MUST set "binding" targets for green house gas emission reduction. Now!

(Phew. I'm glad I just joined the ranks of these believers for this blog. If I really believed all that, I don't know how I could carry on.)

So the scene is set. And the solution needs to be put in place by governments around the world. All of our governments need to get together to try to do something about the impending doom.

But who runs governments?

Bureaucrats. In typical bureaucratic style, they set these "binding" targets... a process for dealing with the problem. And the penalty for not meeting targets...?

A fine.

Does that strike you as odd? Here they are telling us that if we do not fix the problem, millions will die. So many millions that it will make Nazi war crimes look like a Saturday evening in Detroit. Their solution? They'll fine us.

Spain, apparently, is already heading towards a multi billion Euro fine. They've failed dismally to meet their Kyoto obligations. So has Ireland, Italy, and a long list of other countries. But that's ok. There's a process. Countries failing to meet their obligations will be fined. Don't worry about the fate of the planet... the system's in place, and I'm sure there are mechanisms for collecting the fine too. Perhaps they'll suspend the driver's licence of the country's president/prime minister/monarch/despot until the fine is paid. That's what they do here.

If it wasn't so serious, the whole thing could be turned into a very sharp sitcom.

These people are making decisions that will effect your future. Whether you believe in Global Warming or not, what these bozos decide is going to have a direct effect on your life. And for what? So that we can have a "process"?

Where are the statesmen? Where are the true world leaders (as opposed to the power hungry, money grubbing politicians)? Where is the common sense?

Our Civilisation Vs Theirs

A few posts ago, I wrote a little piece about Mohammad The Bear, whose naming apparently insulted Islam, sent a teacher to prison, sparked riots and calls for execution, and created an international incident.

Contrast that (over) reaction with the decision of the British High Court this week that a charge of Blasphemy against a BBC executive for his decision to screen "Jerry Springer - The Opera" could not proceed.

The play, based on Springer's show, is a musical that depicts Jesus being referred to as “a little bit gay” and features Eve attempting to fondle His genitals.

Distasteful? Very. Insulting to Christians? Probably. But worth sending someone to jail over?

The charge of Blasphemy had been brought by a fundamentalist Christian group after the BBC aired the play in 2005.

In its decision, the court ruled that "the play had been performed regularly in major theatres in London for a period of nearly two years without any sign of it undermining society or occasioning civil strife or unrest".

Compare... the Sudanese way... our our way?

I don't know. The contrast is pretty stark and a small part of me is repulsed by this sort of disrespect, but I'm reasonably certain which system of justice I'd prefer to live with.

Perhaps the complainants should have attacked the show as being in gross violation of standards of good taste. I'm sure there's probably an EU rule about that.

Cool Stuff

I've been playing around with Firefox over the last few days, mostly because my preferred browser, Crazy Browser, is becoming increasingly unstable.

For those of you who don't use it, Firefox is a really nice browser, configurable with all sorts of toys, themes and play things. It's faster than Internet Explorer, and if one believes the "purists", it's better because it's more "standard". Whatever. It's a browser, and it's still not as good in the way it handles tabbed browsing as Crazy Browser.

However, it does have one VERY cool add-on... something called "Tab Effects". Click from one tab to another, and the web window rolls around. It's almost like turning the pages in a book.

Nice. The sort of eye candy that's addictive. Use it and it's hard to go back to plain boring browsing.

Social Comment?

What is this? You know. The little disabled guy (sorry, person) that's there whenever one needs to enter those asinine code letters. Does it mean I can't park my comment on that blog?

Someone suggested that it's assistance for the blind (sorry, sight impaired, or visually challenged), but isn't that like having a disabled parking sticker for blind drivers?

I even clicked it. All I got was babble. Seriously. Babble. Overlaid with some letters and numbers that bore absolutely no resemblance to the ones in the picture clue. Go try it yourself.

I'm sorry. I know I'm not politically correct, but I just don't get it.

Sub Prime

You've heard about the "sub-prime" crisis, but until you watch this, you probably have absolutely no idea what it all means.

Take seven minutes out of your day. I promise at least a smile.