Flat Earth II

ABC TV aired The Great Global Warming Swindle in 2007. A poll of 2500 readers showed, to my amazement, that almost half did not believe that "human activity is a significant contributor to global warming".

The page contains some very useful links on Global Warming including:

The Great Global Warming Swindle Swindle

ABC Science Online's Bernie Hobbs "There's nothing like an accurate, well researched documentary to help make sense of a complex issue like global warming. It's a shame that The Great Global Warming Swindle isn't one." ABC Science


Ask An Expert

Experts answer your most common climate change questions. ABC Science

Flat Earth Society

The SMH reported today that a member of the board of the Victor Chang Foundation wrote an interesting and entertaining letter promoting "healthy smoking". Australian businessman Murray Clapham writes "The real argument is here in Indonesia some quite remarkable Indonesian scientists and doctors have discovered that cigarette smoking can, with specially treated cigarettes, significantly assist people's health and has the potential to cut health costs around the globe," says the Herald.

For an ex-smoker like myself, this is wonderful news. I simply can't wait for these new healthy cigarettes to become available.

More Flat Earthing
I have a friend staying. He's frighteningly bright and very well informed, but his good looks and charming demeanor are not enhanced by an unfortunate cant to the right. Last night over dinner he informed me that although it was true the earth was warming, it was not as a result of human activity (as 35,000 scientists would testify) but for other reasons. And anyway, he said, if the Iranians or Indonesians or Chinese engage with others in a decent dustup then the changes we're speaking of now will pale into the shadows.

I suspect that Dr Death, as he's known to all who love and admire him, will be casting his vote for the Budgie Smuggler.

As for the 35,000 bods who support DD's view it seems likely that none are members of CSIRO which says on its website "Human activities are changing the climate - Greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are 90% likely to have caused most of the global warming since the mid-20th century."

And this blog writes "Dr Ayers said the trends in temperatures backed up UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) findings showing human processes, such as burning fossil fuels, was the main cause of global warming."
Dr Ayers is the director of Australia's Bureau of Meteorology. He's probably not one of the 35,000 either.

Interesting link on Global Warming:
http://www.crikey.com.au/topic/australian-bureau-of-meteorology/

Clash of Titans

As a result of a recent spate of attacks against the Gmail accounts of human rights activists, Google has announced it will no longer co-operate with China's censors.

This effectively hands their market share (currently over 30%) straight to Baidu.com, Google's main rival.

However, in 2006 Google dismissed rumours that it was going to close Google China because of Chinese government censorship. In June of that year co-founder Sergey Brin insisted that the search giant will continue to operate in China.

Seeing Red

The latest climate change conference is over. It was attended by all the great leaders, all the great thinkers. All agreed that something must be done, and someone must do it. Someone else.

Follow the leaders. Follow the lemmings.

Some studies describe climate change deniers as delusional. Should you come across such a dinosaur, here are some links you can send them.

Changing global temperatures from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies

Cold comfort: the psychology of climate denial

And I'm really not sure whether to thank Tony Abbot here for ensuring that the vast majority of Australians are made aware with crystal clarity that climate recidivists have a very special agenda - one that has little to do with saving the planet. Tony is looking to succeed Latham as Australia's most unpopular leader of the opposition in living memory.

..........
P.S. Dec 2011. Tony may be unpopular with many, but he's hugely popular with the press barons who have excelled at repressing his numerous gaffs and putting his very brave and embattled rival Julia Gillard in an invariably bad light. One such baron controls some 70% of Australia's print publications. It's a free country, what's unfair about that?

Human Rights in China

Timed to coincide with Christmas in order to further sideline Western interest, the Chinese government is putting one of the writers of Charter 08 on trial on the charge of inciting to subvert state power, a charge which is routinely used to jail dissidents and carries a penalty of up to 15 years incarceration.

Charter 08 is translated in full at Human Rights in China

On December 25th, the court sentenced Liu Xiaobo to 11 years imprisonment.

The Sydney Morning Herald reports:
"Liu, a former Beijing Normal University professor, spent 20 months in jail for joining the student-led protests in Tiananmen Square in 1989.

More than 300 international writers, including Umberto Eco, Salman Rushdie and Margaret Atwood, have urged his release."

Merry Christmas, Mr Lui.

Vale Rain Man

Kim Peek died on December 19 aged 58. Vastly more complex than the character portrayed by Dustin Hoffman in Rain Man, the savant was the subject of many studies which concluded that he was a genius in "at least 15 subjects, including music, geography, history and mathematics."

His long-term effect on the understanding and treatment of the "different" has been immense.

The Real Rain Man

Speaking of Pixies

Ten years ago a client made me a present of the latest technotoy, a dinky little digital camera which took pictures all of 640 pixels wide.

This one's a bit bigger. It's a panorama of Dresden constructed with 1665 images of 21 megapixels each using a very powerful computer to produce the largest picture the world has yet seen - 26 gigapixels. Or the equivalent of maybe 400 trillion of my 1999 snapshots.

You don't have to spend the next 8 weeks downloading it - they've used some equally clever zooming software to allow you to see it on a fast web page.

http://www.dresden-26-gigapixels.com/dresden26GP