Bligh backs drop in Fraser Island speed limit - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
On the weekend, there was yet another four wheel drive accident on the beach at Fraser Island. This has prompted the government to finally say that letting people drive on a beach at 100 km might just be a little too dangerous. Well, duh, as they say.
But: why the hell do we let the great sandy islands of South East Queensland have their beach serenity spoilt by 4WD's at all? I don't particularly care if inland sand roads are used to access beach-side camp sites, but to my mind Moreton Island and Fraser Island beaches have a large amount of their wilderness value spoilt by the never-ending flow of 4WD up and down their beaches. If you are camping with young children, there is always the worry that it is not particularly safe for them to be going between campsite and the water's edge, because they are literally wandering on a "road".
To my mind, this has been an incremental problem. In the early 1970's, when I first went to Moreton Island, not that many people had 4WD's, and it really did feel a pretty isolated spot. Now that every man and his dog has been able to buy one (mainly for the wife's school run and supermarket shopping, mind you) they spoil quite a lot of the pleasure of being there.
No one says this, of course, and tourism operators on Fraser would be up in arms at the suggestion. But if I ruled the country, there would be a ban on beach driving for nearly everyone; and for non rural areas, 4WDs would be taxed within an inch of their saleability anyway.
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
System failure
Mentally ill man raped, murdered daughter after warnings ignored | The Courier-Mail
A spectacularly tragic failure of the system to do any effective in the light of clear danger is detailed today:
A spectacularly tragic failure of the system to do any effective in the light of clear danger is detailed today:
THE state's largest hospital was warned, so were police and a doctor, but no one stopped a mentally ill man from taking a family holiday which ended with him raping and killing his 10-year-old daughter.Um, just how many patients who are supposed to be taking anti-psychotics are allowed by anyone to supervise their children alone? I would have thought that this fact alone would have been reason for action.
The man headed off on the fateful Bribie Island holiday with his four children after he was allowed to postpone a check-up with health authorities....
The Courier-Mail revealed in the days after the killing that the man had been released from the Royal Brisbane and Women's Hospital's mental health unit, where he had been under an involuntary treatment order, on December 21, 2007.
He had been admitted on December 8 after a manic episode in a shopping centre.
The man was allowed to postponea check-up with mental health workers scheduled for December 31. Late that night he ritualistically killed his daughter but spared her three younger siblings...
On December 30, the man's parents were so concerned about their son's behaviour, including a threat that "someone close to me is going to die tonight", that they contacted his GP...
On December 31, the RBWH was contacted by a former girlfriend of the man after he had gone to her home. The documents did not say whether the hospital took any action.
The man - who was found by the Mental Health Court to have been of unsound mind at the time of the murder - did not abide by the terms of his discharge. The judgment revealed he had stopped taking the antipsychotic drug, Risperidone, and resumed smoking large quantities of cannabis.
Monday, April 20, 2009
Peter Kennedy has left the building
With a bit of TLC, priest's exile begins | The Australian
While I was down the coast, Peter Kennedy and his followers took the short walk down the road from Saint Mary's church to their new (temporary?) HQ at the Trades and Labor Council. Yes, it's like organised labor having it's very own church now. How cute.
Although Kennedy was looking all chipper on the TV news, I don't know that this reported comment should really give his congregation much encouragement:
While I was down the coast, Peter Kennedy and his followers took the short walk down the road from Saint Mary's church to their new (temporary?) HQ at the Trades and Labor Council. Yes, it's like organised labor having it's very own church now. How cute.
Although Kennedy was looking all chipper on the TV news, I don't know that this reported comment should really give his congregation much encouragement:
"Our story, as it unfolds, will not change the church, nor will it change the world," Father Kennedy said. "But it is a political act which may give hope to those who feel excluded by the rules and regulations, the doctrines and dogmas, of the institutional church."For a quite sarcastic take on events, have a read of this post at Coo-ee's Priory, (and this one) which note that Peter Kennedy may be over-estimating media interest in his private church now that the expected physical confrontation is (presumably) not going to happen:
"We are liberated now to speak out about the church. The media will come to us for our opinion from now on."Yeah, we'll see how long that lasts.
Weekend away
We went down to the Gold Coast on the weekend, where I took this typical photo:
The weather was pretty good, and autumn (or spring) are the best times to be on the beach in South East Queensland: you don't have quite the same worry about frying your skin within 10 minutes, and once your feet get used to it, the water is warm.
It seems that the Gold Coast is suffering from the GFC to some degree: there were a few noticeable closed restaurants and such around. Price-wise, it's also probably a good time to be looking at buying a holiday unit there, as I suspect that is the type of real estate that investors are currently having to sell in a hurry. (Yes, have a look at this search at realestate.com to see what you can buy at Broadbeach for under $300,000. Someone send me $250,000 in Paypal and I'll let you stay in my apartment for 4 weeks a year in perpetuity!)
The weather was pretty good, and autumn (or spring) are the best times to be on the beach in South East Queensland: you don't have quite the same worry about frying your skin within 10 minutes, and once your feet get used to it, the water is warm.
It seems that the Gold Coast is suffering from the GFC to some degree: there were a few noticeable closed restaurants and such around. Price-wise, it's also probably a good time to be looking at buying a holiday unit there, as I suspect that is the type of real estate that investors are currently having to sell in a hurry. (Yes, have a look at this search at realestate.com to see what you can buy at Broadbeach for under $300,000. Someone send me $250,000 in Paypal and I'll let you stay in my apartment for 4 weeks a year in perpetuity!)
Hold this space
Missing me? No, I thought not. In any case, there's stuff to post about, but no time 'til tonight.
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Cheap real estate soon in Japan?
Japan birthrate fall world's No. 1 | The Japan Times Online
The productive population, or those aged 15 to 64, is expected to decline from 81.64 million in 2009 to 45.95 million in 2055.
Friday, April 17, 2009
A science fiction image
This video of a pair of lungs being kept "breathing" while awaiting transplant reminded me of one of Larry Niven's novels, "A Gift from Earth". More details of the point of the exercise are at Next Big Future.
Don't overlook refrigerators
Energy Secretary Steven Chu on Global Warming | Newsweek
Nothing terribly new in this interview with Steven Chu, except I hadn't heard of this before:
Nothing terribly new in this interview with Steven Chu, except I hadn't heard of this before:
We now make refrigerators that are four times more energy-efficient than the refrigerators of 1975—for half the inflation-adjusted cost. The energy we save with these refrigerators is more than all of the wind and solar photovoltaic energy we produce in the United States today. Just refrigerators.Chu claims a lot is achievable in energy efficient buildings:
..we haven't taken full advantage of the technologies that exist today. They haven't been integrated into making smarter buildings that can be 60, 80 percent more energy-efficient than existing buildings.He says buildings use 40% of US energy. Sounds surprisingly high.
Hunger inspired post
My wife made very nice pizza last night, using the following:
bottle pizza sauce, pieces of fresh tomato, semi-dried capsicum, olives, anchovies, basil leaves, mozzarella, and (special ingredient) bits of old washed rind cheese well past its used by date.
Provided stinky cheese has not developed its own microbiological civilisation, small amounts of it on pizza are delicious.
[End of transmission to your subconscious.]
bottle pizza sauce, pieces of fresh tomato, semi-dried capsicum, olives, anchovies, basil leaves, mozzarella, and (special ingredient) bits of old washed rind cheese well past its used by date.
Provided stinky cheese has not developed its own microbiological civilisation, small amounts of it on pizza are delicious.
[End of transmission to your subconscious.]
I wonder what my brain is up to now
Unconscious thought precedes conscious | Incognito | The Economist
Interesting article here on new research which suggests the brain solves problems by itself well before you are aware of it.
As the report notes, it's further extension of Libet's old research from the 1980's, that caused a philosophical stir at the time.
In some ways, I guess, the idea that the brain can work on a problem subconsciously is not uncomfortable. In fact, it's kind of handy to have a computer working in the background on an issue.
But on the other hand, the research does raise the issue of how much you really are "in control". Taken to an extreme, it encourages the idea that we are just automatons who simply live under the impression of having control. Hard to deal with the moral concept of responsibility for actions if that were true.
People had better still believe that there is still a bit of a mystery about consciousness, and that right action can be willed, otherwise the fate of humanity will be bleak indeed.
Interesting article here on new research which suggests the brain solves problems by itself well before you are aware of it.
As the report notes, it's further extension of Libet's old research from the 1980's, that caused a philosophical stir at the time.
In some ways, I guess, the idea that the brain can work on a problem subconsciously is not uncomfortable. In fact, it's kind of handy to have a computer working in the background on an issue.
But on the other hand, the research does raise the issue of how much you really are "in control". Taken to an extreme, it encourages the idea that we are just automatons who simply live under the impression of having control. Hard to deal with the moral concept of responsibility for actions if that were true.
People had better still believe that there is still a bit of a mystery about consciousness, and that right action can be willed, otherwise the fate of humanity will be bleak indeed.
Forests not always so helpful
Dying trees may exacerbate climate change : Nature News
I have to reproduce a large part of this, because of Nature's silly way of putting stories under a paywall after a short time:
I have to reproduce a large part of this, because of Nature's silly way of putting stories under a paywall after a short time:
Forestry experts have again warned that climate change could transform forests from sinks to sources of carbon. The carbon storing capacity of global forests could be lost entirely if the earth heats up 2.5° Celsius above pre-industrial levels, according to a new report...
In a warmer world, subtropical and southern temperate forests such as those in the western United States, northern China, southern Europe, the Mediterranean and Australia will experience more intense and frequent droughts, increasing the incidence of fire and pests. This would lead to more carbon being released — a recent report in Science2 found that a 2005 drought in the Amazon basin released about 1.2 billion–1.6 billion tonnes of carbon (See 'Climate change crisis for rainforests').
The coniferous forests of Canada, Finland, Russia and Sweden that make up the boreal region are expected to experience more warming than forests in the equatorial zone. Although warmer temperatures could initially fuel a northward expansion of the forest, the short-term positive impacts would be cancelled out by damage from increased insect invasions, fires and storms.
The shift from sink to source is already happening. The mountain pine beetle has devastated the forests of western Canada. The outbreak currently covers 14 million hectares — roughly 3.5 times the size of Switzerland, says Allan Carroll, an insect ecologist with the Canadian Forest Service in Victoria, British Columbia. By 2020, the projected end of the outbreak, about 270 megatonnes of carbon will have been emitted to the atmosphere3. "That's the equivalent of five years of emissions from the entire transportation sector in Canada," says Carroll.
Noami and Hope
Naomi Klein on Obama and the rhetoric of hope | Comment is free | The Guardian
The somewhat nutty Naomi Klein writes a column that conservative Obama skeptics can take heart from.
The somewhat nutty Naomi Klein writes a column that conservative Obama skeptics can take heart from.
A dubious honour
New Species Of Lichen Named After President Barack Obama
Lichen? How much pleasure does it give someone to be named after an inanimate bit of rock coating?
My competition of the day: what sort of newly discovered living creature should be named after Kevin Rudd?
Lichen? How much pleasure does it give someone to be named after an inanimate bit of rock coating?
My competition of the day: what sort of newly discovered living creature should be named after Kevin Rudd?
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