Tuesday - Thursday, June 1 - 3 2010 (diary)

At long last Australia has again a woman in a Grand Slam tennis event final, the French Open.
Semantha Stoser blazed a powerful trail defeating Justin Henin, Serena Williams, and on Thursday literally wiping Helena Jancovics (?) off the court (6-1, 6-2), to meet a young Italian in the final on Saturday. "Sam" has worked long and hard (including overcoming illness) to get this far. She has a good chance to win.

This week the dry season has finally, definitely kicked in with blues skies, 30°-33°C temperatures during the day with low humidity and lovely cool nights well below 20°.

I had my car checked at Paul's Service Centre today (Thursday), who had no problem quickly diagnosing the fault. The ignition heating device for the diesel engine is getting, after 8 years, past its use by date. This makes it difficult to start the car in the cool mornings, but goes OK during the rest of the day. It will take a few days to get the replacement part up here, so I am keeping my fingers crossed each morning when I start my car.

Friday & Saturday, June 4 & 5 2010 (diary, politics, global warming)

I must say that I have been emotionally stirred up strongly this week by two major issues : Israel bashing by a shallow populist world and mining companies bashing by our Labour Government. As I am on my high horse already I will throw in another Global Warming lie for good measure.

Israel
My heart this week goes out to Israel, a small bastion of Western civilisation surrounded (now for a good 60 years !!) by a sea of Islamic hatred. Take firstly the forged passport affair for example.
It is known that the Intelligence agencies of many countries use false passports from other countries for their overt foreign operations (Australia, it has been mentioned, has theirs made by the USA forgers who are experts at it).
Yet our foreign minister expelled an Israeli diplomat from Australia last week on this very issue. A grave overreaction. Australia (at least under Labour control) seems to be friends with Israel only when it suits us, not when Israel really needs us.

Then this week's boats issue. The whole world cries foul to Israel and every (perhaps well meaning but) ignorant Joh blow and his dog once again marches the streets in protest for yet another issue they don't fully understand. Here some colourful language from Brendan O'Neill ('The Australian' newspaper, June 4, 2010, p.10) deploring the hypocrisy :

Mining companies bashing by our Government
A company must inform the Australian Stock Exchange in writing when its business conditions change. This is a serious document, properly researched, accounted for and audited. In this manner several large mining companies have reported the detrimental effects the proposed super profit tax will have on their planned operations.

Xtrada, the world's largest coal producer, has in this context reported that it has shelved several projects (worth half a billion dollars and over 3,000 jobs). That Kevin Rudd (Australia's present Prime Minister) dismisses this and other similar statements as shallow tactics and lies by the mining executives, is simply mind boggling in its naive ignorance and stupidity. How long can he go on like this ? It beggars belief.

Australia's reputation as a stable country to invest in is going down the drain in unprecedented fashion, and will damage this country for years to come.
JP Morgan for example (one of the world's biggest resource fund managers) has sold down 25% of its holdings in BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto. Kevin Rudd's attitude has been a real "wake up call" for them.

Global Warming
Another one of the hysterical doomsday scenarios about the effects of Global Warming has seriously been put into question by professional research.
Research by Paul Kench (Auckland University) and Arthur Webb (South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission, Fiji) on 27 Pacific islands (supposedly in danger of drowning by rising sea levels) has found that during the past 60 years, all but four have either kept their size or have grown, some by 20- 30%.

Over the studied period sea levels rose by an average of 2mm per year. But rather than drowning, the coral islands have responded to the rise. To any geologist this is nothing more than common sense. When the sea level rises the coral (surrounding the island) grows upwards in sympathy with it. (Research published in the British magazine 'New Science')
More on Global Warming