Lock up your waters!!

“Water-sensitive urban design: Design of subdivisions, buildings and landscape which enhances the opportunities for at-source conservation of water, rainfall detention and use, infiltration, and interception of pollutants in surface runoff from the block.”

The NSW Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources has provided us with a really comprehensive water glossary as a support to our conversations with regard to our ongoing water management crisis because of the drought. Everything is a crisis at the moment.Seems to be the way of the world. We no longer do dull and boring and regular rain. I keep reading about water detention where I would say water retention, so I came to this site to consult. Even they take the locking up of waters for granted. The concept of water illegally entering our country is rather ironic considering we have so little of it. So, the notion we’d have to put it in a detention centre to see if it has the right to stay here or not is rather amusing. Detained waters. It’s hilarious. It is, however, a concept we need to have as such. Detention tanks are there to hold water which has not been treated for consumption and hasn’t been treated to be perfectly safe, so it has to be detained until it passes muster. That is what water detention appear to be is as far as I can ascertain. Funny use of vocabulary, though, isn’t it?

A-Z of Water – Water Facts –

DVD pirating costing industry $1.7b

 

“Instead many of the DVDs that are being bought by members of the Australian public today are effectively being bought from crime syndicates who are also engaged in drug trading, child pornography and other heinous crimes,” he said.”

That is a LOT of money for Australia. We only have 22 million people. Divide it by 28 to 32 dollars and you can see the numbers being pirated. Arithmetic is not my thing. Numbers, though, are playing a big role in our society. There is a Facebook experiment looking at the snowball effect and it builds up incredibly quickly to epic numbers. We can rally millions of people very quickly with our current technology and it is having an impact on boundaries. People know piracy is illegal but they don’t stop copying because you can. You can copy so it must be all right. That is the thinking. We have the technology to block piracy, surely? Then there is the belief that it only costs around 2 dollars to make a copy of a CD/DVD and so the cost of 34 dollars top price seems to be exorbitant. There are just some things which cannot get into people’s heads these days. Some of it is the wonderful sense of entitlement people have and then there is the complete ease with which computers can do things. So we need to know more about these spurious connections. Some of it is people thinking they have bought a bona fide copy of something on the Net only to find out it is pirated. That happens too frequently with software and downloads. The scamming there is putting people in a retaliatory mode and so I guess some of what occurs is what people see as revenge on a system which keeps ripping them off. Then, of course, people just want to have things and there is the lazy approach of it being easier to copy than actually getting up, going out the door and buying it. I think the solution is in technology. Block it.

DVD pirating costing industry $1.7b: Debus – ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

Now we have it, now we don’t

 

“We’ve got to go back and have a look at everything. We are going to have to cut our cloth to suit the circumstances.”

Oh yes,we shall have to, but we may not even have any cloth to cut. At first we needed reassurance about this global financial fiasco, then we needed hope. I do not blame governments for trying to put a good look on it. The capacity for people to panic and further destabilise our already fragile global economy is very real. The truth isn’t what people could handle and still can’t because this whole situation came about in an unorthodox manner and no one cared because they were rich, they had money and who cared? The heady heights of dollars mounting up in piles in their personal portfolios was far more important. We still have to go through the process of understanding how this has all occurred and why it will bring some heartbreaking change and that we shall ALL have to work together to remedy it. No government is in an easy position because the markets were pumped up and pumped up…and yes…bang…and the bits are everywhere and we shall need some really good teams of experts to put it right. This whole this is massive financial mismanagement for short term gain…like the short selling of shares. So to put it right we have to build it back up on a solid framework and there will be things people won’t like because they loved all that money.We cannot just think in terms of the entitled and the unentitled because that hasn’t worked. We need a clear picture of how this happened. A clear picture of the impact it is having and a clear picture of the things we can do to improve the situation. Panic won’t help. Moaning won’t help. We need a decent global economy which is constructed by people who actually know how to construct a solid economy.

Budget: Swan reveals $40 billion hole

OMG, America, Yes, you did!!

It became self evident across the day just how much people were wanting Barack Obama to win and just how much people cared about what was happening to and in America. We knew today was important. Americans have to understand that the whole world has been concerned about America. So on the way to work I heard about the EU sending its 6 page letter to the new president of America…but all day at work we were on the Net and we were listening to broadcasts because we were interested and wanted to know. In the car I heard John McCain give his speech and what a wonderful speech that was. He is  a very sensible Republican who holds good values and he was prepared to concede defeat in such a gracious and dignified way because he knew his country needed to change and needed a big change. His speech said a lot about him and it’s unfortunate he was held up and back by Sarah Palin. But I also heard Barack Obama’s inaugural speech as the president elect. He was so true to what his country needs right now and what we need. We need politicians we can talk to and relate to and we need politicians who know what our lives are like. Someone whose Grandmother died just before she got to see her grandson achieve the impossible. We have all had moments like that and we talked a lot about how sad it was for him to lose his grandmother now and just before he had won. We can’t wait to see the poodle in the White House and we are just going off we are so pleased that Americans had the guts to get out there and put it right for their country. It is fantastic. You won’t believe how glued to the information we have been today and how much we have cared. People gathered together to watch the speeches. This is unheard of. My friend was telling me one of they guys he was with, as they sat over a drink watching on the big plasma, was crying when Barack Obama gave his speech. Many of us are so relieved and have been so involved in this long campaign trail. There is a reason for this. Some people did not dare listen to the news because they just didn’t want to know Barack Obama had not won. Do you think there is a reason we have been so engrossed today and we have genuinely cared about how much the American people have achieved in the last 24 hours? We know some of them have had to stand in long queues to cast a vote and we know some of them have heart ached about making the right decision today. So we sat and listened to both speeches and John McCain is a wonderful statesmen who cares deeply for his country but Barack Obama is the man who is needed at this point in time because we can all relate to him.

We don’t want to be left behind

We are on the Net. The reason we have switched form TV to the Net is because we can keep up with the world. We can be in the same time as everyone else. We don’t have to have that long wait to find out what the trends are. We are also keen to find out and keen to know. Australians like to learn and they do like new trends. We also have a lot of migrants and when they find out how far behind we are with their favourite shows they are soooo disappointed. We travel, we know now. So yes, to stop illegal downloads, TV stations are going to have to keep up with the times because we are now in the moment and we want what we want when we want it. We don’t want poor content and old episodes. We don’t want to suffer from TV drag. It is why we embrace the Net so readily here and it is shiny! So yes, people have to sort out the legalities of it but the market has driven the powers that be to shape our viewing experiences better and that is good! Maybe using the Net to judge consumer interest will help and maybe shifting TV onto the Net will be even better.

Stem Cell Therapy

Image via WikipediaI heard this programme on the radio this evening and radio has lost none of its power. I remember growing up thinking radio was just so boring and that it rattled on and on. Then I just listened to it for music. Now I have it tuned to news and talk back when I am in the car or home alone. Radio is actually really good to listen to and this small feature did a power of good. In a short space of time it highlighted how complex and far reaching stem cell research is and will be and how the stem cell tourism industry debate is fraught with tough decisions. We have to get the whole lot out of the cupboard and into the daylight so we can start talking about it and finding sound solutions. No one was going to argue with Perry Cross who is a quadriplegic who has had stem cell therapy overseas. Conventional medicine has not had an optimistic approach with him so he has understandably become very cynical. Originally he wasn’t supposed to live the night and then he was given 10 years and 14 years later he is still with us and talking to us on radio helping us to change the world. He has been helped by stem cell therapy but the cost is exorbitant. One researcher was saying there’s a possibility of a placebo effect whereby the patient believes so strongly something will work, so they change biologically. Faith healing I guess. Well, isn’t that one thing doctors could do? Make their patients feel so positive they increase their chances of improving their wellbeing? Surely it is valid to endorse positive deviation as part of your routine treatment? The whole stem cell therapy debate is complex, but Perry Cross brings it back to basics. For him it means so much and has changed his life. He literally can breathe for himself now. I think Christopher Reeves fought a greatly inspiring battle and showed us how nothing need be an impediment to living and that doctors need to help bolster our courage as well as provide us with treatments. Writing us off is not what we want. Oh yes, the other part of the argument is there will be people out there ready to take advantage and we should be cautious. It doesn’t devalue Perry Cross’ point. If it is working, it is working. If you criticise it, then you need to have something to put in its place. You were not living as a quadriplegic on a ventilator. Talking from the position of complete health is probably not the optimum way to look at it .

Paris right up there

Image via WikipediaParis Hilton has hit the top celebrity role model again for the second year running. Where? In Australia. For whom? Our 7-14 year olds. Yes, she’s the one they want to grow up like. She’s a real favourite. Is it because she looks like Barbie? Paris Hilton is also running her presidential campaign, so she is a pretty high profile lady at the moment, and might well become president in the future if the littlies like her the world over. The top of the list though is Johnny Depp. Yes! What a relief.

Yes We Care

Image via Wikipedia“He makes me think of America the myth, the land of the free, the way it thinks of itself but doesn’t often behave,” she said.

This is unbelievable. This is different. We have got Australians who feel so strongly that they can identify with Barack Obama as the president of a country we have such a long association with, that they are prepared to go over to America and do whatever the Barack Obama campaign offices need. This is such an amazing thing. There are young ones and political veterans and they are doing it for the same reason I am doing this I guess. We need an America with a person who is approachable and who can work with the world. We need someone who can talk and engage with others. Whether Americans want that is another matter. It is their country, but surely they must be tired of Mr. Bush spending all their money overseas funding destructive initiatives? Barack Obama is popular here and it’s because you sense he does care and that he can hold a proper conversation with anyone. He doesn’t appear to be short of words or capacity to empathise. Facebook has a Yes We Care group which was founded by an Australian and it is going really well. We want to see America do well so we are barracking for Barack! Can you believe that? Yes We Care.

Is John McCain 72?

Image via WikipediaAccording to Google he is and this article. Well, now I am flummoxed. What is the matter with people? I know all about seniors and their capacity to contribute…but running a country? Even Her Majesty doesn’t run the country. It means if John McCain gets in , America will be yet another place where the elected leader ends up not being the leader. We are getting quite used to it here with our states in Australia. The people are voting for someone and then the someone disappears and another someone takes over and then there’s an election and another someone takes over. You can lose the plot and the personal impact! Leadership just becomes a blur. Is that what America wants? A leadership blur? Even if John McCain is hail and hearty, how old will he be at the next election? Elder statesmen need to play a critical role at this point in time and that is the role of wise counsel. The world is a bit frantic at the moment. You need a lot of energy, enthusiasm, guts, courage and energy to lead a nation at this point in time. So you need someone who can rally people to whatever the cause of the day is, because that seems to be how it is playing out at the moment and then you need someone who can get people on side, negotiate, network, get here there and everywhere in a hurry . Leaders seem to have to meet anywhere in the world at the drop of a hat. The need to be perpetually enthusiastic and positive. They can’t afford to be stuck in their ways or struggling for responses and that is where the elder statesmen come in. Their knowledge and experience is invaluable for reading situations and giving sound advice in terms of protocol and possible approaches. They can be the think tank online and on tap. The job itself needs someone who can get up and just go and go and go…and talk 19 to the dozen and jet hop with the best of them. That’s life in 2008.

Nobel Prize Anti US bias

Image via WikipediaThere is an article which claims there is an anti US bias in the Nobel Literature prizes. If you google Nobel prize winners for America an Australia, America has 72 awesome Nobel Prize winners and that is only up to the 1960s! Australia has 10! In all the years for all the prizes so you could more easily claim that the Nobel Prize has an anti Australian bias. The literature winners are here and we are talking profoundly inspired people . Authors who have had such a profound impact on the world as well as literature. The good thing about our world is that different cultures inspire and develop different things. For the Americans to have had so many Nobel Prize winners overall is something to be proud of . The claims discussed in this article seem silly really when you look at the facts and the incredible achievements of Nobel Prize winners.