Sc0t Central

I felt really, really tired this morning. In the afternoon I tried to walk around a bit, but my body lacked enthusiasm. I walked as far as the little supermarket that sells nice bread and (all important) cat litter. Then I dropped by the pub. I had a book with me - about the Murray-Darling basin and the politics of water - so I just bought a glass of wine, parked myself in a window seat and started reading. By the time I'd got to the end of chapter 1, the pub was packed with people who'd come to watch the Wallabies v. All Blacks (Bledisloe Cup). I should've known earlier because all the bar staff were wearing Wallabies shirts! When the teams came out (the match was in Auckland so it was very early evening here), I was really impressed by three things:

(a) the first verse of the NZ national anthem is in Maori; the second verse is in English. Who knows what it says, but it has to be better than "our home is girt by sea" etc.
(b) the Maori guys in the NZ team are very good looking;
(c) the Haka is sensational. A man sitting next to me said that the S. Africans are trying to do something similar, but they use spears and stuff and, besides, Union has to overcome the obstacle that it is white tradition in S Africa. The Haka is nothing but body language and voices. It is a challenge. I was most impressed by the way the white guys in the NZ team were totally into the Haka. They do it with 100% commitment. The trick for the opposing side is to try to stare them down without wishing they were part of it.

I should mention that when it comes to Rugby Union, New Zealand is the hereditary enemy. But after the Haka I totally wanted the "Men in Black" to win. Which they duly did. Score 19:16

Note: Wallabies (the ones on the shirt) wear boxing gloves. This idea goes way back to when an Australian yachting team won the America's Cup in 1983 (after the NY Yacht Club had held it for 132 years). Their logo was a boxing kangaroo. Some people thought the boxing kangaroo should be the national flag. Fortunately, some individual like Alan Bond or Kerry Packer owned the IP, so the idea did not come to fruition. But if it's a wallaby and the gloves are green not red, then it must be OK.

ETA: The last time I watched a rugby match of any description (union or league) would have been before the ex departed - so at least 13 years. ago.

Flower Shop "Your garden", Ukraine, Odessa
( flowers )

Sunlight through the leaves of a Copernicia macroglossa palm tree.

I only noticed this after uploading the photo, but if you look in the upper left quadrant of the picture, there's some creepy, trans-dimensional alien face peering out from between the leaflets of the tree. I'm not sure what it actually is, but it's eerie.

Author: Ben McNeil who is a scientist from UNSW with a masters in economics. Subtitle: Growing Australian Prosperity in a Greenhouse Age. Publisher: Allen & Unwin, Sydney, 2009.

This is a useful little book that, instead of endlessly repeating the doom and gloom scenarios coming out of the science, discusses the positive changes that can be made and are being made. Probably the strongest point that comes across is that business is already seeing the way things are going to go and is making investments to reduce carbon emissions. Business is, in many respects, streets ahead of government - especially the Australian government which, for some reason seems beholden to the coal industry.

I marked a few points:
1) He quite effectively deals with the local idiots who argue that we can't make any difference because we're too small and it's a global problem, therefore basically we should wait until the big boys have reached an agreement. Our insignificance, he points out has never stopped us doing research on global diseases or going to war in Iraq or Afghanistan.
2) Another myth debunked. Reducing GHG emissions is not necessarily going to stuff the economy. Since 1996 Australian GHG emissions have grown by about 15% and the UK's have fallen by 10%, but the Australian GDP has grown by 65% and the UK's by 55%. Australian GHGs seem to have fallen for the first time in 2005 (GDP growth rate unchanged). I wonder if that has continued. On p. 165 there is also a graph showing how US emissions growth initially fell and then grew much more slowly after the 1973 and 1979 oil shocks, while GDP grew at a much faster rate (even if you only look at the data up to 1990 so you avoid all the complications introduced by bubbles).
3) Longer-term costs of adaptation are lower for early movers and higher for economies that delay. This is because economies that defer the introduction of a carbon price become more carbon-intensive, so when the carbon price is eventually introduced they will lose a lot of money.
4) The major problem I have with his argument is that I don't know and he doesn't tell me the relationships between different carbon emitting parts of the economy. If, for example, a significant part of the population switches from flying to business meetings to online conferencing, will we be emitting more or less carbon? I'm asking this because airlines run on oil which is a lower polluter than coal which produces most of the electricity (90% in this country) that runs the computers. A CEO (or similar) of IBM told my radio a few months ago that the IT industry actually emits more carbon than the airline industry.

McNeil's focus is too micro. But it's a good start to getting the debate out there. I hope Kev will read it, and then stop pussyfooting around.

A flower from a cannonball tree (Couroupita guianensis).

Ken Loach withdrew his film from the Melbourne Film Festival because the latter has sponsorship money from the Israeli Embassy. The director was on my radio this morning being superciliously "balanced". Last year, he said, we had something pro-Palestinian. I want to write to him and ask if it's right to be "balanced" about apartheid and if the Israeli Embassy contributed funds that time?

Crap it's a slow day. I've been sitting on the internet for most of the day with very limited access. At least I have you, Livejournal. It's been a long time since I've posted this many times in a day. Oh well.

Just tryin to keep on groovin. Whatever that means.

Curse my vivid imagination!

I can just see you there with your freckly nose, smiling with your (adorable) crooked tooth from that softball accident and that barely noticable little scar on your cheek that you've never explained to me, giving me that snarky look.

Gah!

I need someone to distract me from this.

I made a new series of calligraphy quip cards:



Each one is unique and hand-done. They're paintrolled, which extends onto the back, and then written on. (More info, better pictures, & buying info are here.)

Guest Article: Elliot Grove form Raindance Festivals.

http://www.reelshowint.com/guest-articles/in-praise-of-directing-on-a-low-budget.html

Go to wikipedia...search "Omega Point".

Looking at this gang you pretty much know what to expect of them.

Political Notebook: Speier confident ENDA will pass

ENDA-Unconfirmed U.S. Legislator of the Day: Mario Diaz-Balart

Fri Jul 17, 2009 at 06:41:26 AM PDT

Yesterday we sent about 130 emails to Rep. Donnelly regarding ENDA, HR 3017. A phone call to his office at the end of the day suggests he is still undecided. You might want to call him at 574-288-2780. And now...

Today's LEGISLATOR OF THE DAY

* * * drum roll * * *
Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart of Florida

In many ways a staunch Republican on social issues, he is a fair-minded one when it comes to jobs, voting for ENDA in 07. But he's playing it close to the vest on HR 3017 this time around. He needs a little tug to loosen that vest.

Please email him at http://bit.ly/... His zip code is 33175-3436.

Tel: 305-225-6866

And while you're at it, call your own Members of Congress once in a while. You never call, you never write... http://bit.ly/...

drjillygirl's diary :: ::
According to Wikipedia, Diaz-Balart is the son of the late Cuban politician Rafael Diaz-Balart. His aunt, Mirta Diaz-Balart, was the first wife of Fidel Castro. Her son, and his cousin, is Fidel Ángel "Fidelito" Castro Díaz-Balart. His uncle is the Cuban-Spanish painter, Waldo Diaz-Balart. His brother, Lincoln Diaz-Balart, is also a congressman, representing the 21st district of Florida. He currently lives in Miami with his wife and son.

Mario Diaz-Balart's voting record is somewhat more conservative than that of the other two Cuban-Americans who represent Miami--Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (a co-sponsor of ENDA this year) and his elder brother (Lincoln). During his first three terms, he was one of two voting Latino members of the House--the other being Trent Franks of Arizona -- known to be a member of the conservative Republican Study Committee.

He is a founding member of the Congressional Hispanic Conference, a caucus of Hispanic Republican congressmen.

His reelection in 2008 was by the fairly small margin of 53-47 against his Democratic challenger.

He voted yes on the previous hate crimes bill, and yes on ENDA in 2007.

There is nothing to do at work right now.

I think I am the world's most proficient obsessor.

Maybe not. I guess I could be a lot crazier.

This morning as I drove to work there was a ghost sun in the sky behind thin clouds.

Every day is a battle to control my thoughts and my emotions. I have to try so hard to resist the daydreams of what could have been. I can't ignore reality as I have done before. That leads down a a dark, bitter, lonely road.

It's hard not to be angry.

There are worse things in the world. I'm healthy. I'm employed. There aren't any major conflicts occuring within the surrounding several hundred miles. I have a lot to be thankful for. And I am. 

Do you realize that life goes fast--that it's hard to make the good things last--do you realize the sun don't go down? It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round.  

Love isn't as complicated as people make it. It's a choice more than anything. Sure there are feelings associated with it, and there's a certain amount of compatability that has to be there, but given the right circumstances it is a choice--just yes or no.

Good lord it's a slow day.

I sure miss her. I'm such a baby. It seems like just yesterday I was calling her and she was excited to hear from me. There are still two pair of 3D glasses in my back seat from when we went to see "Up". I can't bring myself to throw them away.

And that night I helped her write her paper and she lingered there a few moments when we said goodbye. I wanted to kiss her but I didn't. I think she might have wanted me to. I was just too afraid.

Amazing how quickly things can change. I really have to wonder if she misses me at all, or if it's really no big deal to her.

Agh...mustn't dwell.

How bout them Dodgers?

What man may know the intricacies of life, the universe, everything?

Of cause and effect-- why things happen The Way that they happen...

Nobody can. Nobody knows. Sure we can know some things, but in the end there is something indefinable, unknowable, unseen.

The mystery is always infinite. The unknown cannot be quantified.

We all live by faith in something...