Spring Break!

It's the start of spring tomorrow. I can't wait for summer to come back - I'm definitely no fan of winter. Anyway, I'm heading off overseas tomorrow. I've taken a couple of weeks off work to go traveling. I've been really looking forward to the break.



In the meantime, though, here's a few spring photos taken around my place.

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Life in the alternative universe

That would be politics, of course - it seems to bear little resemblance to real life, and yet people take it all so very seriously. A couple of interesting statements have been made this week. Andrew Bartlett picks up on one, made by Julia Gillard.


She made a statement saying that Labor would expect the Senate to pass their new IR laws almost immediately, if they were elected. She said that in that case Labor would have a mandate to pass its IR package, and so the Senate should just pass it - just rubber-stamp it, in effect.

This means, I guess, that Labor has learnt nothing from the example of John Howard. Over the last few years the coalition has had the numbers in the Senate, and have used them to rubber-stamp all sorts of awful legislation. WorkChoices is the one causing all the political grief at the moment, but others include the anti-terror laws, and the land-snatch currently underway in the Northern Territory. They've cut debates short, refused to consider amendments, given virtually no notice of upcoming debates or legislation and have guillotined bills through. It's been a disgraceful abuse of the Senate and Parliament.

As I said in my comment on Andrew Bartlett's blog (comment #11 in the linked post), I think this will be John Howards lasting legacy. His government will be remembered as a case study in what happens when a government has total control. (The other example would be Queensland, where there is only one house of parliament) Hopefully that will be a warning to voters, who will never let this situation happen again. Because the Senate has acted as a rubber stamp for the Howard government, lots of dodgy legislation has passed into law without proper review. That means a lot of work will have to be done in the future to undo the damage.

Unfortunately, from Julia Gillards comment, it appears that Labor doesn't see the problem. They would happily use the Senate as a rubber stamp if they had the numbers. The instinct for power would be too hard to resist. As much as I agree that WorkChoices should go, and I hope Labor wins government, they should be willing to work with the Senate rather than insisting that their version of IR laws be forced through untouched. It would show that they take our democracy seriously, and that they have respect for our style of government - a respect that has been lacking in the current Howard government. But I'm cynical, so I don't expect Labor would be any better. They'll bluster, and if they have the numbers they will use them, just like Howard has. The only way to ensure they don't is to make sure neither major party has the numbers in the Senate.

I'm hoping that the balance of power will rest with the Democrats, independents, Greens and any other minor parties elected. That sort of grouping would ensure proper debates, review and compromise - giving a much better chance at a balanced outcome. I just hope enough people have learnt the lesson from Howards abuses and vote Democrat/independent/Green in the Senate...

In other news, Malcolm Turnbull has delayed his decision on the Gunns pulp mill for thirty days. That should put it nicely into the whole election time frame - providing a wedge opportunity, maybe? Hmmm...

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Cyberslacking off

Yep - that's me! One of the 20% of workers who are cyberslacking. Gotta love that internet :)

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Great Gunns... again!

It seems like everyone is talking about the Gunns pulp mill now. There are reports in all the papers about it. The Australian has had a good run with the story, as have other media outlets such as the ABC. It's a bit late, though - the mill is virtually approved, and now the media starts talking about it... but better late than never.


I guess the main reason it's suddenly become a story is that Geoffrey Cousins is running a large publicity campaign about it in Malcom Turnbulls electorate in Sydney. The papers obviously don't think it's a story unless there's a Sydney angle, right? Anyway...

Still, the debate goes on. There is a vote due any time now in the Tasmanian upper house, giving final approval from the state. And there are reports of new environmental concerns. This latest report finds that the mill will not meet 15 environmental conditions. That has to be disturbing for anyone who's interested in the project.

There are even reports that Malcolm Turnbull might be considering telling Gunns to move the mill to another site (Hampshire, rather than the Tamar Valley) I think that would probably be a good idea, although I doubt Gunns would consider it. They'd probably just pull the plug on the whole thing rather than try and re-design the whole mill so that it could be done at the Hampshire site. It'd almost be as bad as starting from scratch again.

I can understand why Gunns is frustrated. This project was originally proposed several years ago now, and should have been resolved before this. Now it's got caught up in all the election-year politicking. Since the federal government has to sign off on the assessment before the mill can go ahead, it's become a federal issue. Neither side of politics will want to make a committment before the election because whatever they decide will annoy some voters. And those voters are in a marginal seat which might turn out to be critical to the election result...

So what's going to happen? I've got no idea. What should happen? Everyone should forget about the politics and focus on the actual effects of the mill. I still think the whole approvals process has been a sham so far - maybe the federal government process will be better, but since this is an election year I think the final decision will have more to do with electioneering than an actual assessment of the mill on its merits. Hopefully, I'm just being too cynical here, though...

And I still think the mill is dubious on all sorts of environmental grounds. I don't think the approvals process has taken these fully into consideration.

Basically, the whole thing stinks. The Lennon state government really needs to go, in my opinion. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be an opposition. Anyway...

Previous entries: Gunns part 1, Gunns part 2.

Also: An interesting piece in today's Crikey about the politics of the mill and Geoffrey Cousins. Like I said, Tassie only gets national attention when there is an outsider involved...

Update 2: An article by Warwick Raverty in New Matilda lays out the good, the bad and the ugly sides of the mill. And here's a conflicting view from Jennifer Marohasy, pointing out that the mill is supposed to be built in Tasmanias largest industrial estate. It's true that Bell Bay, with the Rio Tinto aluminium smelter is in the same area, along with other industries. I think, though, that the mill will be built further upriver than Bell Bay, away from the rest of the industrial sites. And that doesn't answer the other environmental problems, either. Still, it's an interesting point, and I can't comment much more than that since it's been a long time since I've been through the area.

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Self-inspection...?

I don't know why I get sucked into doing these personality tests. I guess it's a good way of killing some time, and I might just learn something. Or maybe it's just a way of working out what I already know...


I came across this one while browsing around Dogfight at Bankstown. Like I said, I was killing time, so went and did the test. And surprise, surprise, it told me I'm introverted. Well, duh! I think I'd already worked that bit out.

In other news, it told me that I'm a very rare type. Apparently, only 1% of the population fit this personality type. I don't know if that's true or not, but after reading through the rest of the description, they might be right. The description they've provided does actually feel quite a bit like me.

One thing they did mention was that INFJ types are better at expressing themselves on paper than in person. I've often thought that about myself - this blog being a case in point. Writing things down like this helps clarify my thoughts, as well as lets me express them - something I definitely have trouble doing in person (all that introversion again!) That actually can be a real problem, because it makes it hard to let people know what I'm thinking and feeling when I'm around them, making that special connection just so much harder than it should be. Anyway... something to work on, maybe.

Here's the full list of character traits for an INFJ personality:

creative, smart, focus on fantasy more than reality, attracted to sad things, fears doing the wrong thing, observer, avoidant, fears drawing attention to self, anxious, cautious, somewhat easily frightened, easily offended, private, easily hurt, socially uncomfortable, emotionally moody, does not like to be looked at, fearful, perfectionist, can sabotage self, can be wounded at the core, values solitude, guarded, does not like crowds, organized, second guesses self, more likely to support marijuana legalization, focuses on peoples hidden motives, prone to crying, not competitive, prone to feelings of loneliness, not spontaneous, prone to sadness, longs for a stabilizing relationship, fears rejection in relationships, frequently worried, can feel victimized, prone to intimidation, lower energy, strict with self

I recognise a bit of that - observer, yes; fears drawing attention to self, yes; cautious, yes; does not like crowds, yes; but what's with the "more likely to support marijuana legalisation"? When did that become a character trait?? Very weird.

Ok - so that's more than enough introspection for the day. I'm still reeling from a tough weekend - I don't need to spend more time thinking about myself right now. Will write more about that later, maybe...

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Rasterbator...

Something to check out later - when I get a decent printer at home!

The Rasterbator.

Looks like I could have some fun with that.

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Diaspora

I picked up this book by Greg Egan at a second hand bookshop last weekend in Maleny. I've read books by Egan in the past and, while I can't remember them in any great detail, I do remember enjoying them. This one followed the same pattern. I enjoyed it, but I can see why I find them hard to remember.


It's a science fiction book, set in a distant future when humans have split into different species. Some have migrated into space and have created robot bodies, others have uploaded themselves into computers known as polises, and others have remained in physical bodies and are known as "fleshers". They've taken to genetic engineering in a big way and have improved their body types in many ways, so there's very few "classical" humans around anymore. The three types of humanity have very little to do with each other.

The plot follows the citizens of a polis. The earth faces a catastrophe on a galactic scale, that can't be avoided. It's the story of how they discover and cope with this catastrophe.

It's a hard science fiction book, and contains a lot of physics and computing information. Most of this went straight over my head - I found my eyes glazing and skipping ahead until the technical terms were over. In a way these details are important because they are part of the response to the catastrophe and do drive the story forward. Without them it wouldn't be the same book, and the story wouldn't work so well. I have no way of judging if the physics discussed makes any sense, though, so disregarded most of it.

But they're also irrelevant, too. The story works because I found the characters interesting. The way they coped with strange environments and challenges was fascinating. Living in a virtual world, such as a polis, would be strange in ways I can't imagine, but Egan makes the experience believable. Exciting, even. There are so many ideas included in this book - different ways of being human, post-human, what it means to be and intelligent and conscious being, identity. There's a lot of food for thought here, if that's what you're looking for.

So, overall, it's a good book but with lots of eye-glazing moments. Mostly one for the fans of hard science fiction, though.

Diaspora, by Greg Egan.

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Miss Saigon

It was a busy weekend. On Saturday I was climbing Mt Beerwah, then on Sunday it was off to see Miss Saigon at QPAC. It turned out to be another good day, and an excellent performance.


It's been a long time since I've been to a show like this. The last one was Stomp, about this time last year. The theatre isn't a place I spend a lot of time. I'm glad I went to see this one, though.

The story is set in Saigon, starting at the end of the Vietnam war and following the lives of Kim and Chris over the next few years. I didn't know much about the story going into the show, except that it was a love story. I didn't expect a happy ending, though.

The action starts in a Saigon bar/brothel. Chris is there, with a few other US soldiers. He's having a bit of an emotional crisis when he meets Kim, a Vietnamese girl who's fled the countryside looking for safety in the city. They fall in love, but are almost immediately separated by the fall of Saigon. This sets up all the tragedies that follow in both their lives, until we finally witness their reunion.

The desparation of the girls in Saigon is clearly shown, as well as their opinion of the US soldiers they entertain. Personally, I don't think this situation has changed much in Asia, although circumstances are not as desperate now as they were then. There are still plenty of girls working in places like that all across Asia, still getting taken advantage of by tourists and the bar owners. And they probably still despise their customers, while also looking for the one who might marry them and take them out of there. As the Engineer says repeatedly in the show, men are always the same.

One of my favourite sequences from the show was the American Dream, sung by the Engineer. It was funny, cynical, and well executed. The striptease by the animated Statue of Liberty shown on the screen above the stage drove the point home.

The show was very well done. The set changes were very smoothly done. The pace of the set changes was pretty fast, so doing it all so smoothly was very impressive. The cast were great - the singing was passionate, and high quality. And, as the Brisbane Times review pointed out, the guys looked suitably buff when they took their shirts off!

Overall it was a powerful performance. The story alone is powerful, and almost had me in tears at the end. Combine that with the excellent performances, music and sets, it becomes an experience I'll remember for a long time.

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Climbing Mt Beerwah

I went off on Saturday to climb Mt Beerwah, in the Glasshouse Mountains. Somebody, who shall remain nameless for now, told me that it was just a steep bushwalk. Hah! Last time I trust him...

It was actually a great day for climbing a mountain. It was overcast, not too hot or windy, not raining. Perfect weather, in fact, for this sort of thing.

The walk starts easily enough. It's an easy walk from the carpark to the base of the mountain. But then it gets... difficult. The sign by the carpark should have warned me - it says the walk is for experienced climbers only. And here's me with vertigo! I really, really should have taken the hint.

Anyway... from the base of the mountain, the track becomes a steep scramble, or rock climb. The path goes pretty much straight up a rock slope, and it is climbing. At this point it is definitely not a walk. I'm not good with heights, and this was very tough. I wanted to give up at several points, but was silly enough to force myself onwards and upwards.

The rock slope ends, eventually. You come off the slope directly underneath the overhanging cliffs, with some beautiful erosion patterns int he rock. You might even get to admire them after you've recovered from the climb up what is practically a cliff face!

From this point on, though, it's actually quite easy. Its still steep, but it's an actual walk from here. The views are spectacular. The track winds around from the western face, with views inland to the hills and across plantations and farms, to the climb to the summit. Along the way there are some great views back along the cliff face and towards the other Glasshouse Mountains.

From the summit there are views in all directions. It was hazy and smoky on Saturday, with a couple of fires burning back towards the coast. On a clear day there would be views back to Brisbane, and up the coast towards Noosa. On Saturday, though, most of this was obscured by the smoke. Still, it was very impressive.



Fortunately, it was much easier to get down than it was to get up. I've noticed this before - I struggled on the climb up, feeling dizzy, sweaty palms on the climb up the rock face, but on the way down I didn't get vertigo at all. It was still tough on my ankles and knees, but I felt fine. I felt a lot more in control on the descent.

All up, I'm glad I managed to complete the climb. It was probably pretty silly, but it's also a bit embarrassing. There were lots of other people on the mountain, too. There were young kids practically running up the slope, and teenage girls in old sneakers who had no trouble with it. To me, they seemed to be taking some insane risks, but they were all fine and made it up and back quicker than I did. Anyway... I guess that's vertigo for you.

I don't think I'll be rushing out to do it again, but I'm glad I did it at least this once.

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The road never ends...

This is a map of the countries I've been to over the last 10 years or so. There's a lot of red on this map, but that's because I've been to some large countries even if I haven't spent a whole lot of time in them (3 days in China - does that really count?)

Anyway - go create your own map at the link below.

Create your own visited countries map

And while you're there, they've got 7 rules for travelling!

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John Howard keeps a straight face while...

In other political news, John Howard announced today he'll be over-riding some parts of Peter Beatties new laws on council amalgamations. That's not particularly surprising, as Howard's been looking for a fight up here. But I can't believe he managed to keep a straight face while saying things like this:

He said the "arbitrary jackbooted fashion" in which Queensland sought to impose amalgamations was "beyond the pale".



And this, from the Australian:

Mr Howard said he was acting because the “arrogant” Beattie Government was behaving in a “dictatorial fashion’’, particularly the “outrageous’’ trampling of peoples rights.

This really is a case of the pot calling the kettle black. Just a few days ago, Howard said the Beattie government was power mad. He may be right, but can John Howard really say that without looking at his own record? The federal government has spent most of the last few years grabbing more power for itself, acting arbitrarily and riding all over peoples rights. And now he complains about the Queensland governement doing the same thing...

Queensland does have an accountability problem in government, though. With only one house of state parliament, there is no effective opposition. The government of the day can do what it likes almost with impunity. That really needs to change - either with the creation of an upper house, or an electoral system of proportional representation that could create minority/coalition-style governments.

Anyway - back to reality after this weird episode in Howard's Australia...

Links (upper house for QLD): Online Opinion, Andrew Bartlett

Meanwhile, it's beginning to look like Howard shot himself in the foot of the Mersey Hospital bribe down there in Tassie. Hah! Can't make his promises stick for more than a couple of weeks now, can he?

Links : The Australian, Brisbane Times

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Greens vs Democrats

There's a post over at Online Opinion that's worth reading about the differences between the Greens and the Democrats. I've posted a comment there, which I'll copy here.


This is a very interesting article. I agree - the Greens haven't been asked the hard questions, and the media does need to do more work here.

To me, it seems that the Greens are very good at managing the media. If you want someone to wave a protest banner in front of a tv camera, the Greens will be there every time. They're at their best when they're instinctively saying "No!" to any proposal put forward. Beyond that, though, they find it very hard to negotiate and reach a satisfactory conclusion for both parties. They just seem to thrive on conflict.

Their record in the Tasmanian parliament shows this, I think. Even during the Labor-Green accord, when they had the balance of power, they found it very hard to reach agreement with anyone, and it didn't last very long. From memory, Bob Brown and Christine Milne (both now Senators) were in state parliament for that period.

The Democrats, on the other hand, haven't been so good at getting attention in the media - they're more willing to talk than fight. As
Malcolm says in this article, the Democrats have achieved quite a bit, but haven't been recognised for it.

I think it would be a sad day if the Democrats lost their seats to the Greens, even if it would mean more drama on the nightly news


So, that's my comment on the article. I do like the Greens, and they'll get my preference before the ALP or Liberals, but I do think the Democrats are better.

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Is it gay day?

It must be gay day or something... lots of gay-related stories floating around this morning. Here's a few...

First, a couple of Democrats articles, here and here.

Then, there's these stories from the Brisbane Times. An opinion article from a boy still in high school, and a blog entry from JB.

Not a bad way to start the reading day.


I enjoyed the opinion article by Daniel Swain. High school feels like a long time ago now, but I can still remember some of it. I wasn't teased of picked on at school for being gay, or if I was I didn't notice it. I did know I was gay, but went out of my way not to let it show back then. Maybe I was good at hiding, or maybe the other guys just didn't care. Or maybe, since it was a small school and there was no mention of homosexuality at all from the teachers, no-one even thought about it as a possibility. I don't know, but I'm glad I wasn't teased or abused.

I didn't discover the internet until I was at uni, but it was a huge help in terms of coming out, getting information and meeting people. There was absolutely no way I was going to walk into a gay bar or any place like that, so the relative anonymity of the net was fantastic. There was a sense of freedom online that I wouldn't allow myself back in the real world.

I'm glad things are changing for the kids in school today. That's really encouraging. And I really admire the kids who are coming out while still at school. I wish I could have done that - life would have been very different if I had. Anyway...

Back onto the politics of equal rights, marriage and adoption... this is another reason I usually support the Democrats. They actually try and do something about rights for gay and lesbian people. Their position is that there should be equal rights for all, regardless of sexual preference, and that gay couples should have equal rights with straight couples. To me, that just seems so obvious that it shouldn't need to be debated, but the current government doesn't see it. And the Labor party doesn't seem much better. I hope the Democrats will still be in a position after the next election to keep raising this issue.

But I don't expect it to be a big issue at the election, and don't expect anything much to change after it. Maybe I'm wrong, though... here's hoping...

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Eucalyptus

I took Eucalyptus with me to Hobart over the weekend, and managed to finish it off last night after I got home. It made good airport and plane reading.

Written by Murray Bail, it won the Miles Franklin award in 1999. I picked up this copy at the Lifeline Book Fair here in Brisbane earlier this year. I'm glad I did - it's worthy of the prize, and the $3 I paid for it.


It tells the story of Ellen and her father, and how she finds her husband-to-be. A love story, in other words. On the face of it, it doesn't sound like a story that I'd normally be interested in, but when I saw it on sale I thought I'd give it a chance.

Bail's writing style is beautiful. He never names an actual location, but just gives a general location somewhere west of the mountains in NSW. The way he describes it, the town and property could be any typical small town in the bush. The river, the town, the people, are all described briefly but at the same time he manages to catch the atmosphere of rural Australia - slow-paced, open, barren yet fertile at the same time. He hangs the whole story on the many species of Eucalyptus, which uniquely places the story as Australian.

The characters are curious - they manage to be convincing, while at the same time being little more than caricatures. Ellen is beautiful, but passive, doing almost nothing to control her destiny. Her father, Holland, only appears to have a passion for his trees. The fact the he decides to marry his daughter to the first man who can correctly name all the trees he's planted sets him out as odd. It also suggests that the story is set in an earlier time. Just as with the location, there's no actual date set, but some of the stories told suggest that it's set in recent times - definitely post-war. Anyway...

The story winds on, passing quickly over early suitors. It slows down as Mr Cave appears and starts slowly and deliberately working his way through the trees, just as Ellen meets someone who actually interests her. As it looks like Mr Cave will succeed, she starts showing some independence finally.

The conclusion left me wondering what happened next, while at the same time it was exactly the right spot to leave the story.

It's hard to say why I liked this book so much. The writing just drew me onwards into the story. It frustrated me, confused me, made me want more, and drew a picture of an Australian setting that was recognisable without being too cliched or sentimental. Overall, it was an beautiful book to read, and certainly distracted me nicely from the airport lounges and announcements. Definitely worth reading.

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Reach for the - earth?

This is an interesting read - how to live on earth like we're reaching for the stars...

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But it's a non-core promise!

John Howard and his government do it again. That is, they force a major piece of legislation through Parliament with virtually no debate. See Crikey for more info. I'm sure I remember John Howard promising to be humble when it came to using his Senate majority after the 2004 election. Guess that was a non-core promise after all...


I'm not surprised anymore. After all, they've done this many times now. WorkChoices, for example. There's no way on earth that they'd have been able to pass that legislation if they hadn't had a Senate majority in their own right. The same goes for the anti-terrorism laws, although I guess that's debatable. The Labor party doesn't seem too concerned about those ones, so those laws might have passed anyway.

But even if they had, I'm sure there would have been a much more detailed debate. At the moment, the government is just not allowing debate, let alone amendments. They don't have to, so they don't. That is not being humble, it's not respecting parliament, or democracy. In my opinion, this government has abused it's power and isn't sorry for doing so.

Between WorkChoices, anti-terror laws and now this, we've been given a perfect example of a government that's out of control and obsessed with it's own power. This should become the classic case-study of why we, as voters, should never, never, give the government of the day control of the Senate. All of these pieces of legislation should be seriously looked at again, and amended, when John Howard and the Liberals finally loses government.

Other things to look at would be: closisng the electoral rolls the day the election is called, the raised disclosure limits on political donations, and probably a review of every other piece of legislation passed since the 2004 election.

On that note, in the Senate I'll be voting for the Democrats, then Greens/Independent before either of the major parties.

Links : Andrew Bartlett, Crikey, The Age.

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LibraryThing

I came across this really interesting site the other day, while browsing through Ampersand Duck's blog. I've always wanted a good way of cataloging my books. And here it is - LibraryThing! Such a good idea.

Anyway, browse my library. It'll probably tell you more about me than I ever could.

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South, south, south!

So, I spent the weekend in Hobart. It seems like a long way to go for a weekend, I know, but it's always fun. I love going home to Tassie, even if it is just for a few days.

I flew down from Brisbane on Saturday morning. I love the fact that there are direct flights from Brisbane to Hobart. It's only been possible for a few years, really, and the direct flights just save so much time. I flew Virgin, of course - I don't know why I even bother checking the Qantas prices anymore, as they are always more expensive. There's really not much to pick between them, anyway, except that you have to pay for your own food on Virgin. Thats certainly no big deal when you're talking about saving anything up to $100 on the flight.

Anyway... I love flying. I always get a window seat if I can. On the flight down to Hobart we went right over Sydney, and I had a wonderful view of the western suburbs. Not Sydneys most attractive view, I have to say - suburbs stretching off into the mountains. Victoria was covered in cloud, but that started breaking up as we flew over Bass Strait. We took the normal flight path to Hobart, so I had a lovely view of Flinders Island and the north-east coast of Tassie. I could see the snow on Ben Lomond, just peaking out between the clouds. Everything looked wet, which surprised me. I thought it had been pretty dry in Tassie, just like pretty much everywhere else. But apparently it had been raining all week, something I probably would have known if I'd bothered to watch the news last week. There were floods all over the place, too. I think it's now rained and flooded pretty much everywhere in the country except here in Brisbane. Oh well...

I didn't actually do much over the weekend. The whole point of going down there was to spend some time with my parents, and catch up with all the family. We had a big family dinner on Saturday night, which was great. That doesn't happen often enough, at least for me now that I live so far away from everyone else. Sunday I just hung around with my parents, and grandfather. I braved the cold, briefly, and went for a walk along the beach and around the neighbourhood with dad. Things are changing, of course - more houses going up, people moving on, etc. The place is still home, though, so the good parts haven't changed. Walking along the beach, even when it's freezing cold in the middle of winter, just makes me feel at home. Lying in bed at night, all I could hear was the waves on the beach. That's the sound of home for me, and is something I do miss here in Brisbane.

Unfortunately, it was an early flight out this morning. Monday is always a bad day to fly - too many people, higher prices etc. And I couldn't get the direct flight back to Brisbane so I had to change planes in Sydney. Another window seat for me, of course. For some reason we took a different flight path than I was expecting. Flying out of Tasmania we went right over the top of Ben Lomond. I could see Jacobs Ladder, all covered in snow. Since it was so soon after sunrise, the snow on the mountains looked stunning, but Launceston was still hidden in the shadows.

I also got a fantastic view of the ranges around Mt Kosciuszko. There's an impressive amount of snow on them at the moment, and with fog curling through the surrounding valleys it looked spectacular.

Then we flew right over the top of Canberra - right over the top of Parliament House. I was looking straight down on the flagpole. Can't say I've seen it from that angle before, and wouldn't it be interesting to send John Howard a message from that angle?
Hmmm...

Sydney is always nice to fly into, and this time was no exception. We came in over the western suburbs, circled around, and got a perfect view of the city, the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House. All the cliches in one short flight!

But that's why I love flying, even when the planes are full of more kids than a daycare centre. I love being able to look down and put a name to places I've never been and probably wont get to see from the ground. Looking down and wondering what people do in all these little towns we fly over. Dreaming about walking on all those beaches, in all those bays, on all those islands...

But it was just one weekend. I can't wait for a real holiday. I need a proper break... soon, soon, soon :)

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New Blog Formatting

The internet is a wonderful thing - there's someone out there who can tell you how to do almost anything these days... I've been looking into ways of breaking up longer posts so that only a summary shows at the top and you can click through to read the rest of the post if you're interested. And of course lots of people have already done that. I've used the code developed at Hackosphere to do this - thanks guys!

And this is just a quick demonstration of how it works. Looks good to me so far.

As I get a chance, I will be looking through the rest of the blog hacks on Hackosphere. There's bound to be lots of other interesting things to do on there.

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Snow Crash

Neal Stephenson is one author that I've been meaning to read more of since first reading "Cryptonomicon" back in 2000. That book was entertaining, complex, well-written and thought-provoking - a combination I like in a book. But for one reason or another I've never got around to picking up any of his other books until now. Then, the last time I visited the local library, I found a copy of "Snow Crash" on the shelves and decided this was the time.

I'm glad I did. It's not the easiest book to read that I've ever come across. The writing style varies between characters, each having their own unique way of appearing on the page. The plot jumps around quite a bit between characters, locations, ideas and action - not randomly, but it does take a bit of an effort to follow what's going on with the story. All that is obviously deliberate, and it kept me interested in reading on, to find out where it was all going.

The book draws on a whole range of ideas to create it's complex story line. There's references to ancient civilizations, language, religion, computers, medicine, politics, the environment, all drawn together to create a believable alternative world. Some of the ideas are pretty weak - the way the ancient Sumerian language is supposed to work, tied in with the computer virus that affects human brains are a stretch. But that's part of reading fiction - suspending disbelief long enough for the story to catch you. The book is written well enough so that I could get caught up in it without worrying about its use of ideas that I would normally find unbelievable. It made me think, in other words. And that's always a good thing in a book.

So - like I said, it's not the easiest read I've ever had. It took me longer to read than most books do. I will have to go out and read Stephensons other books - unfortunately I've lost my copy of Cryptonomicon somewhere along the way, so I'll be looking to replace it. Or maybe just buy his later ones...

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Good news of the day...?

Todays headlines : We've killed the dolphins! The Yangtze river dolphin was declared extinct today. Really sad news, and I hope it's not true. But just like the Tassie tiger, I'm guessing it's gone.

Interest rates go up, again! I haven't heard from the bank yet, but it's probably only a matter of minutes before they put my mortgage rate up again. Great... But John Howard seems to have apologised for the rate rise, even though he's blaming someone else. So he's sorry for something he says he didn't do? In what world does that make sense?

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The year that was....

It's been a great year all around. I've got out and about the great South East, had a good time with friends and family etc.

I've been to beaches, and forests.

Spent time in the city, and the bay.

I have to say, Brisbane is a great place if you like getting outside and seeing more than just the city.

Anyway, all that is just leading up to this whole new year, starting today. Yes, it's happy birthday to me - it's been a good year, and here's hoping the next one is just as good. Now I'm off for a birthday dinner to celebrate!

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Great news of the day!

My sister is getting married! That definitely counts as good news. She and her fiance announced their engagement yesterday.

I'm excited, and can guarantee that my parents are more than thrilled!

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Gunns, Part 2

As well as the political concerns I have over the Gunns pulp mill (see previous post), I also have a few environmental concerns. As I mentioned before, the RPDC found holes in the Gunns IIS. They failed to address the environmental issues adequately.

First of all, this is a pulp mill. That means it will be using a lot of wood, turning it into pulp. At the moment, Gunns is a huge exporter of woodchips. These woodchips mostly go to Japan, and are then turned into pulp and paper. When Gunns first put this proposal up, I think they said that the wood supply for the mill would come from the woochips that are now being exported. That would be fantastic – there would be no more wood taken from the forests than is already being harvested. In that case, the mill would definitely be a good thing. After all, if the Japanese can buy our wood chips and turn them into pulp or paper then why can’t we do it? Exporting wood chips just seems silly to me – almost a criminal waste of our forest resources. Logging of old-growth forests for woodchipping just seems so wrong. But since then, I’ve heard that they are not planning to phase out wood chipping in favour of supplying the pulp mill. The latest plans, apparently, are to continue exporting wood chips as well as taking extra wood from the forests to supply the new mill. That would mean that they could potentially double the amount of wood being harvested. If that’s true, I think that would definitely be unsustainable. I’ll have to try and find a reference for that, though – I remember hearing that this was the plan, but can’t remember where I heard it.

Other issues include the treatment of effluent from the mill. The plan is to build a pipeline three kilometers out into Bass Strait. This will have the effect of dumping a lot of waste water into a fairly pristine area, and a prime fishing ground. There’s also been a study done that shows this area of Bass Strait is one of the slowest areas in the strait to be flushed clean, which means that any toxins etc in the effluent will be concentrated here for quite some time. This doesn’t sound like the best possible environmental standard to me.

I’ve been in a few pulp and paper mills over the last few years. They are smelly places. I haven’t yet seen a pulp mill that doesn’t have odour problems. Gunns says that this mill wont have an odour problem because of the technology they will be using. That seems a bit optimistic to me. The best systems can fail, and have weaknesses. This is one of the issues that the IIS given to the RPDC failed to address. There will be leaks, there will be failures, and odour will get out. In a remote area this wouldn’t be a problem, though. The gases aren’t poisonous, or anything like that. They just smell bad. If there was a large distance between the mill and anything else, that would be fine. One of the main concerns here is that the mill is going to be a few kilometers downwind of Launceston – a city that already has air quality issues due to a winter inversion layer. Adding anything else to the air in that part of the world just adds to the problems of the city. I don’t think enough attention has been paid to this – and it’s a real concern to people living in the area.

Then there are concerns about access to the mill site. Many, many log trucks will have to travel to and from the mill every day. Roads in Tassie already feel clogged by log trucks, and this can be a menace. Roads can be narrow, and winding, and adding a lot of trucks to the roads can be dangerous. The mill is being built in an area with no other way for logs to be brought in except by road. It would have made more sense, I think, to build it at a location with rail access, so that the number of log trucks on the access roads could be reduced.

Anyway, on environmental grounds, I think this is the wrong mill in the wrong place. I don’t think the technology they will be using is as good as they claim. I don’t think they’ve chosen the best possible location. And I don’t think they have any plans for a sustainable wood supply – they just plan to keep clearfelling any and all forests they can access to use for wood chips and pulp.

Overall, I think a new pulp and/or paper mill in Tasmania would be a great idea. Forest-based are great industries. If they’re done well, they are sustainable forever – after all, trees do keep growing. Well-managed forest industries would be a great part of Tasmania’s clean and green image. When I first heard of the proposal I was a supporter. But Gunns, and the government, have lost my support. I think this project will be bad for the Tasmanian environment, and will be bad for the image of the state. It’s too big, in the wrong place, doesn’t seem to use the best available technology, and I don’t trust Gunns to have any concern for environmental issues. This pulp mill will go ahead, but I don’t think that’s a good thing anymore.


Links : Wikipedia

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Howards Hospitals

So - John Howard announces that he'll take over a Tasmanian hospital. Why?

Well, it's an election year, it's a marginal electorate that he's trying to save, and it's an issue where the state Labor government has made an unpopular decision. The perfect opportunity for John Howard to gain some votes just where he needs them.

Good politcs, yes. Good policy? Probably not. But who cares about good policy in an election year?

Other links: John Quiggin, Blogocracy, Crikey

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