ABC builds us it's version of Utopia

On the ABC website you can now design your own Utopia. Except that you don't actually design anything you just read some enviro waffle from their 'dream machine'.

Intentional communities are groups of people who live in the same place, share a common vision and work towards realising it. There are hundreds of such communities in Australia - each with its own way of living, philosophy and goals. As well as many environmentally-sustainable and religious communities, you'll find groups of survivalists, faeries, separatist women and many other social collectives.

What the heck are they smoking? Is this where my 8 cents a day is going.

We've been Googled

This site now ranks number 3 in the world for a search on Domitar.

Good. Good.
Everything that has transpired has done so according to my design.
Come, boy. See for yourself.

444m Bribe

The sugar industry feels betrayed they were 'left out' of the free trade deal with the US. What they fail to grasp is that the free trade deal cost the sugar industry nothing. They demand compensation, because somehow they were 'dudded'. How exactly is that so, they gained nothing, they lost nothing?

My annoyance stems from the fact that the Liberals and Nationals feel the need to bribe them with 444 million dollars. This of course has nothing to do with the fact that we are approaching a Federal election and they have 6 marginal seats...

Still Fuming. Time to break the Queensland sugar addiction.

CV strikes back

After avoiding updating it for years, I just found I out I have to update my CV for a travel grant application.

ARGH

Conference travel suddenly doesn't sound quite so appealing.

Mind rotted

For the first time in my life I spelt my name incorrectly while filling out a travel form today. To say I'm deeply troubled by this is quite the understatement.

All my posts for the rest of this week must be viewed with skepticism.

Turns out Woman should Not have Bone

More on last week's bone incident from The Australian.

The Australian has learnt that Moopor is usually known by the name Bernadette Clark, is a cousin of suspended ATSIC chairman Geoff Clark, and that her power to point the bone might not be as bona fide as he suggested.

At Warrnambool, western Victoria, Bernice Clarke, whose family has had a long feud with Mr Clark's, said yesterday: "It's all bullshit, it's crap."

She said Bernadette Clark, the daughter of Mr Clark's aunt Fay, had no traditional authority to point the bone, which in any event was not practised by the Tjap-Whuurong people.

"When we saw it, we were so embarrassed," she said. "My gut rolled, I felt so sick. It makes blackfellas look stupid."

Ms Clarke sums it up. Less than 1% of Aboriginals practice / believe in such traditions and those that espouse them make many of the rest feel 'sick'.

If you were a one percenter in Christian parlance, the Aboriginal woman performing the curse would have been described as belonging to a "sect", "cult" or as simply being an "extremist" or "fundamentalist".

Fees Rise

As predicted, UWA increases fees by 25% despite student protests.

I guess they should consider themselves lucky they are not in this guy's position.

A NEW YORK University second-year student who says he spent eight months sleeping in a library basement because he couldn't afford campus housing has been moved to a free dormitory room, school officials said.

Steve Stanzak, 20, said he began spending six hours a night in the sub-basement of Bobst Library at the beginning of the academic year after he was unable to pay a $US1000 ($1365) housing deposit. He slept on four library chairs and carried vital belongings - a laptop computer, books, clothes - in his backpack. He kept other items, like books and clothing, in storage lockers.

Is this the future of our higher education? I doubt it. The Reid Library doesn't even has a sub-basement.

S.A.S

A couple of very nice twists from Burnett last night. First, just when they are getting comfortable he forces them to reveal what they really think about each other. Nice one. Second he forces Rupert to rank everyone, which certainly won't make him popular with Big Tom.

It was certain that Shi-Ann was going home as no-one wanted to rock the boat at that stage (Prediction here). Shi-Ann at tribal council commented that none of them were willing to take a lead role (as predicted) but that's exactly what she's been doing all along (remember when Colby said the same thing about you Shi-Ann?).

What made last night interesting was Shi-Ann winning the immunity. Without that it would have been a pretty dull vote. That left 3 groups of two. Rob & Amber, Tom & Alicia, and Rupert and Jenna. The way I saw it with groups 2 & 3 being unable to communicate they would both do their best to be the one chosen by group 1 - making Shi-Ann's vote irrelevant. So who would Rob & Amber pick? Rupert's made his loyalty to Rob fairly clear, while Rob has doublts about Big Tom and Alicia is probably not the most pleasant person to have around. Thus I called correctly that Alicia was the one to go home. What I didn't see was Big Tom voting for Alicia (in retrospect I should have, it makes no sense to leave him out of the loop or you create problems - like when Ethan was left out earlier).

So let's make some predictions.
1) Shi-Ann goes home next week (unless she wins immunity again)
It makes no sense for Rupert and Jenna to turn on Rob and Amber when Amber has a heap of votes against her already. Also Tom is also a handy guy for Rob and Amber to have around for when they are down to 5 (he's been promised a long time ago they are going to the final 3 together).

Mitsubishi to Leave Australia? We not in South Australia don't mind either way.

I don't mind what they do, as long as they don't get any more taxpayer subsidies. I can't fathom how it makes sense not to manufacture cars in China, where the growth in car ownership is going to be explosive as people start to upgrade from two-wheeled peddle power. In Australia we already have more than 1 car per head of population in existence. In China with a Population more than 60 times greater than ours it is only around 1 car per 10 people, but growing fast. While I accept the ratios are relevant in the short term, in the long run it is the population number that matters. No governement funded taxpayer subsidy is going to be able to keep 4 car manufacturers in Australia against that population differential.

Without trying to sound like I'm crying crocodile tears, I do accept that the market process does hurt real people. I do accept there is a role for government to support them in the transitional period. What I don't accept is that it is government's role to support industries on a never-ending basis.

I'd be voting for whichever party offers the car manufacturers the least of our taxpayer money to stay. Unfortunately this is one issue where there will be no differentiation. People vote on blatant self interest, not on what is in the public interest.

Health Care Crisis, or not?

On average one quarter of all health care costs occur in the last year of our lives (we've known this for a long time).

Now for the interesting bit: This cost decreases as we get older.
If I had to guess, then I suppose less money is spent on intervention the older you are. Also young people that are in the last year of their life are more likely to have a chronic suffering which would require expensive intervention thus bumping up the overall average expense in the last year. Although I guess a larger proportion of young people die in 'accidents' which would bring this figure down (I don't know the break down).

Anyway the conclusion is that we can not simple say "People live longer so we will have a health care crisis".

Of course this doesn't account for non-health care costs such as pensions. I've already accepted I'll be working till I'm 75. The retirement age of 65 with a pension thereafter was created in a world where life expectancy was less than 65. These days when people finish study at 25, get a job for 30 years then expect to live a taxpayer funded holiday for 30 years is quite unrealistic.

Olympics Spot Sold For Cash - Nah

Give Craig Stevens a break. There was no way he was ever going to swim the 400m at the Olympics as soon as he qualified in another event. The public wanted him to give up his spot and the pressure would have been just too great.

So why not sell the story? He didn't sell his spot for cash - as he was never going to swim it regardless of the money. What he did do was use a situation which fell into his lap to make 60k+. Good on him.

The guy that comes out looking bad from all this is Thorpe. He could have been a hero and ruled out taking Stevens' spot on day one. Instead he effectively said the decision is not mine, it's up to Stevens - putting all the media pressure back on Craig. He wanted that spot and allowed the pressure to be put on his 'mate'.

Veterans Forgiven

I did manage to listen to the repeat of The National Interest yesterday.

Dr Frane thoroughly debunked any idea of Gallipoli not being a Just War. His answer was so complete no followup questions were raised and the topic was immediately changed. I look forward to getting the transcript.

The Gauntlet was Sold - Yawn

Dawn begs him not to, yet Steven's still hands up his spot. Such drama. BORING

HECS Fees

I witnessed 150 students lining up for the television cameras, waiting for the signal to go, then marching in front of the eager media today - protesting against HECS fee rises. I must comment that there was no violence and for Uni student protestors they looked quite 'normal' (what's going on with today's youth?).

Update: The police just showed up. I've never seen them at a Uni before today. Coincidence.... I have no idea?

Will the HECS rises go ahead? Assuredly. I can't see much coming out of their action. The Uni's are cash starved and this is one of the few ways they can try to claw back some ground on their international competition.

The other less reported issue is that of allowing full-fee paying domestic students. While Australian Uni's have been allowed to offer these places for several years now, they can now increase the number of these places offered. Not every university accepts these on equity grounds. For those that do not (or those that would argue should not), the Treasurer Peter Costello pointed out, overseas students are allowed to pay full fees to get into an Australian University, but Australian's who have the money to are not?

"What about discrimination against rich people? We have Australian's out there with lots of money who want to give it to us and we won't allow them to. It's not like these guys are the Russian mafia." (Unamed Academic)

One on One

My prediction on the day Thorpe fell in the pool was that Craig Stevens could offer Thorpe a 'swim-off'. One on One over 400m, winner gets to go to the Olympics, with the rights to show the event sold to a TV station.

Well tonight we find out what is going to happen. While it might be nothing more than a simple announcement that he's giving up his place, I'm hoping Craig goes with my more creative idea. Otherwise tonight is going to be the most boring exclusive ever (not that I care - I won't be watching it anyway).

ANZAC Day

It is that time of year when we spend a moment thinking about the Anzacs, particularly those from the Gallipoli campaign.

Terry Lane (of The National Interest) posed an interesting question yesterday to Dr Tom Frame, the Anglican Bishop to the Australian Defence Force. Essentially he questioned how could Gallipoli be justified under the doctrine of a 'Just War'. Invading Turkey, a country which posed no possible threat to Australia, on British orders presumably to secure the Ottoman Empire oil assets.

I missed the response, so I'll try and listen to the repeat tonight. It is always good to challenge your beliefs - which is why I listen to Phillip Adams (yes he is a nutcase, but an entertaining one all the same) every night I can. Rather than simply dismissing the left I do try to see things from their perspective, as in life, the truth always lies somewhere in the middle.

GENEVA INTERNATIONAL AUTO SHOW: For the first time, a team of women is challenged to develop a car

Volvo has allowed hundreds of their women employees to design a car.

Through customer research, Olsson said, the company discovered that women want everything in a car that men want in terms of performance and styling, "plus a lot more that male car buyers have never thought to ask for."

So the question has to be asked, what do women want in a car that men didn't?

-Nearly maintenance free
-Gasoline electric hybrid
-Extra storage space
-Dirt repellant paint
-Exchangeable seat covers / matching carpets

All fairly predictable, but not mentioned in the article is the most incredible technological breakthrough of all. A gap in the headrest so you can sit right back comfortably while still wearing your ponytail (Genius). This reminds me of Homer designing the car for the average American schmuk (wasn't exactly a success, and ran his brother out of business from memory.

Ok, but what about this one?

-Sensors to assist the driver in parking the vehicle

CA-CHING. I must get the wife one of these.