Cooking Sama

Make new signs boys

I expect to see the speed limit for the bruce highway between cairns and innisfail will soon be reduced to 80km/h or possibly 60km/h. Why you ask? Well, some people have died.

Now I may sounds a little heartless here, but every time you strap yourself into one and a half tons of metal, and travel only inches away from other people in tanks traveling at a combined speed of 200km/h, people are going to die. Sorry, but it is that simple. To think otherwise is foolish.

Reducing the speed limit seems to be default behaviour for the far north branch of the department of main roads (or whatever they are called this week). Just look at what happened on the Kuranda Range: Speed limit dropped to 60, 2 overtaking lanes removed and only after a number of complains was the speed limited increased to a measly 70 on the long uphill overtaking lane. All this when the speed limit for the (more dangerous) Gillies Range is still 80.

Another fine example of bureaucrats that obviously live to the south of the city is the reduction of speed limits of the roundabouts to the north of the city. Firstly, they are completely un-enforceable - police cannot issue a ticket within 100m of a speed zone change, and cannot issue them on corners. Secondly, 60? seriously? the roads were all designed for 80, so why do they suddenly need to be 60? If you are too stupid to understand how roundabouts work, and cannot take them at a speed that everyone else seems to be able to, go and use the redlynch bypass.

Swine Flu - Don't believe the Hype

Here are some facts to consider about the current “swine flu pandemic” being hyped up by the media. 

Just like horse flu was. 

Just like bird flu was. 

Seeing a pattern here?

• “Flu” or Influenza is not the same as the “Common Cold”.
 

• A “pandemic” does not indicate the danger of the disease, rather that it is present in more than one country (technically it is more than one W.H.O. Region). There is a constant chicken pox pandemic.

World View

• There have been 18,023 reported infections of H1N1 (swine flu) so far in the world. 114 People have died. That is a death rate of 0.6% (source)


• There are 10’s of millions of infections of normal seasonal flu per year. 500,000 people die worldwide from normal, seasonal flu per year. (source)


• Japan is treating it as the normal seasonal flu, and has reopened all schools. (source)


• Swine flu not more dangerous than normal, season flu. (source)
  
  • There is mounting evidence that the symptoms are milder than health officials feared. As of May 27, 2009, for instance, despite 342 confirmed cases in New York City, most had been mild and there had been only 4 confirmed death from the virus. Similarly, Japan had reported 279, mostly mild flu cases, and no deaths, with their government now reopening schools, stating that the "virus should be considered more like a seasonal flu." In Mexico, where the outbreak began last month, Mexico City officials lowered their swine flu alert level as no new cases had been reported for a week.

Australian View

• 501 People have swine flu in Australia as of now. None have died.


• Last year, several hundred thousand people contracted normal, seasonal flu. Approximately 2,000 died from the normal seasonal flu. (source) 

H1N1

• Unlike normal seasonal flu, very few people are immune to swine flu. However, People who contracted flu prior to 1957 may have some immunity.


• 40% of Tasmanians (200,000 people) are expected to contract swine flu (source)

What should you do?

• Relax! This is not the end of the world.


• You will probably get the flu this year, it may be normal flu, it may be swine flu. You probably won’t be able to tell the difference.


• If you plan on taking herbs to treat the Flu, remember: 


• Echinacea is a preventative herb, not a cure. You must be taking it for days/weeks before you get sick for it to be effective. (source)


• Garlic may be of use to boost the immune system. (source)


• Vitamin C is important (source)

Klingon Antivirus

Our routine monitoring of sub-space transmissions alerted Sophos that the loss of the Klingon battlecruiser Klothos was not due to Romulan incursion into the Khitomer system, but a result of trying to remove VBS/PeachyPDF-A from the battle computer using M'swoN'kar after Commander Kor opened an attachment from the system S'cam-419.

Immediately our Product Marketing away team embarked on a mission to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and flog them Network Access Control solutions. Sadly they chose Qo'noS as their first destination and when their severed heads were beamed back to Sophos, the engineering team created this software, not in a spontaneous display of gratitude to the Klingon race (as the Register would have you believe) but to honour their memory.

Linkage

Latitude works!

A pleasant surprise when I woke up today. An update seems to have been pushed to the HTC Dream in Australia overnight that enabled Latitude on Google Maps.

What is latitude? In short it is a location sharing program that sits on top of Google Maps on your phone. It uses GPS and/or Cell Tower Triangulation to detect your location and share it with the friends of your choosing. It is of course, also shared with Google.

If you are bumming around in a shopping centre and want to know if any of your friends are as well, it is as easy as firing up the app.

So why are google doing this? Well the most obvious reason is location based advertisement, which, like advertisement in games, will be much more important when Augmented Reality becomes commonplace.

The question now is... where is my cupcake?

Prototype Holodeck

Startrek-esk holodecks may not be too far away.

Watch as the guy suspend dis-belief at about 0:47 and automatically try to balance on the wall. Then pisses himself laughing for being stilly on camera.

Channel 10 to axe The Simpsons

There are kids alive today that do not remember a time before the Simpsons was on TV. It will be a rude awakening then, when they turn on Channel 10 and find a "a chatty [news] presentation heavy on sport and with regular headline updates" replacing it.

In unrealated news, searches on The Pirate Bay and Mininova for "The Simpsons" rose 286% this week*.

*Like all good statistics, this figure may have been made up on the spot.

New Licences for the Smart(card) State

TechWIRED reports that Unisys will be supplying Queensland Transport with a new type of driver's licence, to replace the current laminated one.

The new licences will feature a smartcard that will save facial recognition information onto the chip, which can be used to compare the photo on the card, to the data on the chip, to the data on Queensland transport's servers... I think.

Hopefully it will be a contact-required smartcard, and not some RFID fraud-waiting-to-happen card.

Well, don't piss of the party

In a move that will surprise no-one, the state government is reaching for more power over local governments. In the proposed Local Government Bill 2009, it would appear that the local government minister (currently our girl Boyle) would have the power to fire councillors.

I would be very interested to see how the state government reacted if the federal government had the same power. Sod it, we don't even need state governments in my humble opinion, just federal and local.

I can't wait to see Circus-Mouse's response.

Stupidity Wars: Return of the Alchpop Tax

Well, I have to hand it to the government, just when you think they have finally moved on from a ridiculous piece of policy, they dredge it back up again, apply some spit and polish and chant "Hail! It is new and shiny!".

The reason for my "Stupidity War" title is simple. Instead of having people drinking measured pre-mixed drinks, with the number of "standard drinks" clearly printed on their sides, all an increased tax does is teach these drinkers to start buying bottles of spirits and mixers. Now really, take a step back and have a think. Which is worse, someone having a 6 pack of vodka cruisers and knowing how many drinks they have had by simple addition, or having someone get a bottle of vodka and some lemonade and try to figure out, while under the afluence of incohol how many drinks they have had based on the amount of booze missing from the bottle?

Ask any bottle shop attendant and they will tell you that sales of bottles of spirits have risen proportionally to the decrease of alchopops. I wonder how many backyard stills are coming online each week?

Just don't tell the government this, or they'll start taxing spirits as well, and if we're all real lucky, beer will be taxed too. If you want a revolt Chairman Rudd, continue down this road.... Heard of the Rum Rebellion? Yes I know it had nothing to do with rum.

No Moar Tilting

No, you haven't just bumped the pinball machine.

Queensland Rail has canceled the tilt train service between Cairns and Brisbane. Not that anyone cares really, because it cost $310.20 to go from Cairns to Brisbane by train, whereas you can get plane tickets for about half that price.

***Update*** - Well it appears the Tilt Train is back up and running after all...

Be your own DJ

Here's a great little tool to get into the mood for Groovin The Moo

Click on some of the squares above to make a tune. Full credit goes to aM Laboratory for this.

The People's Broadband Network

Well, it has been a great week so far (and surprisingly that is not sarcasm), and things just got a little better...

Now by now you all should know that I don't trust any politicians as far as I could kick them (well actually now that I am a black-belt, that would be a good distance, but I digress). Chairman Rudd has just announced that instead of awarding the National People's Broadband Network to a consortium of companies, the government is going to build it themselves. I see good things and bad things in this:

The Good:

• Will probably be built


• Telstra doesn't get their grubby hands on it

The Bad:

• Gross inefficiencies in construction, as with all government work


• It will takes "up to 9 years) (so read that as at least 14), and will probably not survive the LNP getting into power.

From what I have gathered in the news articles I have read so far (1, 2) it would appear that instead of deploying FTTN to 98% of the population, they will be delivering 100mbit FTTH to 90% (capital cities) and covering the remaining population with 12mbit "wireless and satellite technologies".

I can't wait to see how the opposition will try to stop this... "Too expensive" "unproven technology" "it was Conroy's idea".. Actually that last one does have a certain ring to it...

In the words of a redhead

Well, looks like Julia Gillard has been saying to Steven Conroy "Just wait till Father gets home". Well he just got home and he's pissed.



Steven Conroy. You, are the weakest link.

Goodbye.



Thanks Whirlpool, I was feeling kinda down, but this has brightened my day. For some reason I always feel better on April the 1st...

FYI: Ice Break

Do not confuse:
With this:

The latter will keep you up all night if you do not have a high tolerance level for caffeine, and I do mean ALL night. One bottle has 1.5 times the amount of caffine than a can of Red Bull (123mg vs 80mg)

An appropriate punishment

You all know my opinion of Earth Hour, so reading this got me thinking. Wouldn't it be fitting if this prat is caught that he be electrocuted for a while. Nothing serious, just an electric fence type deal. It would have been interesting if he had been trespassing on my property instead of this old lady's. I'm all for effective environmental action, but this type of econazi extremism is as bad as any other extremism - you have no right to impose your view one anyone else - especially an older lady.

This Jen, is the Internet.

Typical Geek that I am, I get a kick out of The IT Crowd. Watch the clip below:

Now of course, you could not fit the entire Internet in a little box like that (Well not with today's technology, but you probably could with DNA storage, but I digress, often...). However, you can store it in one single shipping container.

As Sun puts it: The Internet in a box.

via Gizmodo

One for my New Zealand Friends

Pub Dress Code

Grab your double pluggers, throw a pair of shorts on and lets go down the the pub!

It would appear someone has just been wingeing to daddy. A former state treasurer (now cast to the liberal backbench) Rob Lucas has asked:

Are young men wearing "fashionable shorts" being discriminated against by hotels and clubs in Adelaide?

I can only guess that his son has been recently turned away from a pub and he went bitching strait to daddy. But honestly, it does annoy me that it is socially acceptable for girls to wear sandles and "strapie" shoes to work and pubs/clubs, but boys are not... Not that I have any need for high heals.

Last.Fm

Well I liked Last.FM. "Liked"? Why is he using the past tense you may ask?

It would appear that the record companies have gotten to them finally. I wondered how long they would last without being interfered with, and it would appear that time is now. All other countries except "United States, United Kingdom and Germany" will have to start paying a fee for the radio stream from last fm. They say that everyone will still be able to use "scrobbling, recommendations, charts, biographies, events, videos etc" - But I don't understand how recommendations will be any use if you cannot listen to them?

Goodby Last.FM, it was nice to have you for so long. Time to switch to Mufin Player methinks. Or possibly Spotify (when it comes out of beta).

For your next Lan

It contains Carebears, Pedobear and guns - lots of guns, what more could you ask for?.


My favourite is the flower infused gauntlet. More info (in french) available here.

source

There's news

Some of it is good, some of it is bad.

The bad news it that you're dead. There are few details on how it happened, shy of it involving a spoon and 3cc of mouse blood. This is a pity. It is a pity because if there were more infomation, it would be easier to tell you how you died and inform your loved ones of it. However you don't really care, as you are dead. Unfortunatly for a lot of your online "friends" (and I use the term lightly) they will probably not know of your death for a while. After all, who is going to know your msn/facebook/myspace login details after you have passed on?

Enter LegacyLocker. Legacy Locker is "a safe, secure repository for your digital property that lets you grant access to online assets for friends and loved ones in the event of death or disability." In other words, it contains all your various usernames and passwords to be used in the event of your unfortunate demise.

With all the important information online, such as pictures, emails, automatic bank payments, etc - Having this store of information may be the best way to enabling the people you leave behind to lay to rest your online presence. It would also allow your family to post such classy facebook status as "Fosnez is dead" etc.

It will be a while until I release my online identity to some random company. Perhaps if it was purchased by Google or something I would feel more secure, but until now passwords written in a safe place will have to suffice!

What's this?

What's this? The government is becoming more transparent? Say it isn't so!

Well according to this news article, there are changes afoot for the Freedom of Information Act - Good Changes! These include forcing governments to release information, even if it "embarrass governments, cause a loss of confidence, could lead to misunderstanding or confusion, or cause unnecessary debate". Let the games begin.

Lets see if we can get some info on the National Broadband Network tender shall we?

Don't look up!

Don't look up people. The Feces is about to hit the rotating ceiling appliance. (for those of you requiring monosyllabic prose, this means the shit is about to hit the fan)

It would appear that the almighty ACMA (Australian Censorship Management Authority) blacklist of websites has been leaked online. It had to happen, and it is better it happens now. The saviour of free speech, WikiLeaks (Not to be confused with Wikipedia), has posted it online.

Interestingly, I cannot access WikiLeaks at the moment, this could be due to a crap internet connection, or perhaps it is a little more clandestine than that (do I hear black helicopters?).

According to the Sydney Morning Herald, who have apparently seen the list, the below are some of the more interesting things on the blacklist:

• A Queensland dentist (Not illegal)


• A tour operator (Not illegal)


• Several Christian sites (Not illegal)


• Fetish sites (Not illegal)


• Fringe religion sites, such as satanism (Not illegal)


• Euthanasia how-to sites (Borderline illegal)


• Wikipedia entries (probably not illegal)


• Gay and straight porn sites (probably not illegal)

Wanna see the list? Well I'm not going to link to it. I thought about linking to a site linking to it. But lets just say if you were to Google "blacklist kensingtonvictoria" you could probably find it...

**Update**

According to sources that cannot be trusted as far as they can be thrown out of the country - Being the top censor himself (Stephen Conroy) - the list is not the actual AMCA blacklist. Funny, thats just what I would say if this happened on my watch. Even if it isn't, the real list will be leaked soon enough. I find it funny that in the same article he then goes on to say this:

"ACMA is investigating this matter and is considering a range of possible actions it may take, including referral to the Australian Federal Police," Senator Conroy said.

If it wasn't the real list, why would the Feds be getting involved? Do we have freedom of speach or not?


Official ACMA responce

Rail FTW

Having just returned from a weekend in Japan (Thanks for the cheap flights JetStar) I can say I really miss good public transport when I am in Cairns. From my time in London, I can tell you jumping on a train and reading a book for half an hour before work can be a great time to relax. Sure peak hour can be a bit packed, but you deal with it one way or another.

Why do I bring this up now? There is a public meeting scheduled to discuss Trains/Trams in Cairns. Info is here and there is a flyer here.

Wed, 18th March, 6:45PM
Rydges Tradewinds
137 The Esplanade, Trinity Function Room

It will be attended by the Mayor, and some of the local candidates. To be sure there will be a lot of "We can't do it because it is not in the Cairns Plan" or some woffle about it not being in the "regional strategic plan". Thats nice. Here's a little tip: If the plans for transport in Cairns revolves around Cars and Buses that are late; Scrap the plans. See how easy that was?

On Earth Hour

I'm not happy, not happy at all. Things like Earth Hour really annoy me.

For the uninitiated, Earth Hour is where everyone in the world turns off their lights for an hour and stands around in circles singing Kumbaya. While I am sure everyone feels really good about themselves for about 10 minutes afterwards, and it is always fun to huddle around a candle like they did "in the old days" (without the threat of a cyclone looming), it really means nothing. It is as bad as people that ride to work on ride-to-work day and think they are actually helping the enviroment. Hypocrisy at it's finest.

Instead of doing something for the enviroment once a year, and only for an hour - here's a thought, change your *daily* impact on the enviroment. Do you really need to turn the light on when you brush your teeth in the morning? How about turning your TV off at the wall so that it doesn't suck power when in standby mode? Invest in a solar pannel or three for your roof. Drive slower, coast more. Consider Carpooling. Ride a bike to work once a week.

Here's another little thing you may not have thought of. Coal power stations do not like rapidly changing loads, it is bad for their systems and they are slow to adjust, so when everyone does turn off their lights at once, the powerstation has to adapt almost instantly to the reduced load. Now you can't just stop a load of coal form burning, and you still have to provide the correct amount of power up to the point of "lights out". This means that the amount of coal being burnt by the station will be the same right up until the lights get turned off, it will then slowly decrease as the station replaces less and less of it as it is burnt. For a period of time after "lights out" the station will have an excess amount of energy being generated (by the coal that is still in the furnaces being burnt), but not converted into electricity (by turning the turbines) - This is wasted if it is sent strait to the cooling towers. If we are lucky the excess energy is converted into electricty and sent to a storage mechinism (such as a Pumped-storage hydroelectricity).

Unless power was stored in the dam, some time before the lights are set to come back on, the powerplant will start shoving more coal in the furnaces to bring the powerplant back up to nominal supply levels. This is so they are ready to power all the lights when they come back on and there is no brownout. If no power was stored in a dam the hot steam generaged by burning the coal is just shunted directly to the cooling towers, and that energy is wasted because the grid is not ready for it yet.

So, by turning your lights off for an hour, are you really helping the enviroment? Ask youself this.

Cairns Central Non-Parking

Well, Dear Blarg Readers, changes are afoot at Cairns Central. No I am not talking the good kind. It would appear that someone in Central's management team thinks it would be a great idea to introduce a ticketed parking system. You know, boom gates, ques, the whole shebang! What a fantastic idea, because I don't know about you, but I just love queuing up at those ticking machine, only to have the person infront of me maneuver their tank car so that they don't have to get out of it to get the ticket.

What has bought this on? Well I can only assume that it is people (like me) that park my car there when we are at work. Before you shout "Sinner!" give me a viable alternative. Parking metres in the city are there to "encourage" staff of businesses to use alternative parking, now that central is getting the "lockdown" procedure, what alternative do we have? Public transport - Please, pull the other one it has bells on it. I have tried taking the bus, really I have! I miss good public transport from my time in London. But when the bus timetable says it will be at your stop at 7:03am, and you regularly see it leaving at 6:50am (in order to get some time under its belt to compensate for all the hail-and-ride bullshit), taking the bus just does not become an option. Now if only there were some disused rail tracks snaking their way though the city....

I would threaten to break out the pushbike, I used to ride the 12km into work most days, but there is only a cold shower at my current workplace, and that is not a fun way to start anything, especially a work day.

What has changed that this has to be done now anyway? Central has been open for more than a decade (1998 if I remember correctly?) and has had free parking all this time. The only time that the carpark is ever *full* is at Christmas. Bar Humbug I say! Perhaps it is being done now because the boyany ecconomic times and the matterilistic hoards have stressed the current parking to capacity? Umm, no... Sounds like a money grab if you ask me.

To do this of course, all the entrances will need to be modified, in some cases greatly I am told. Major roadworks at the northern end of the carpark including some kind of round-about under the ramp (I can see this ending well).

Danger! Men Working

This was taken near Cairns Central today. They are supposed to say "Danger Men Working Above". However, some good-humored soul has blacked out the "Above" so now all they say is "Danger, Men Working".

Narwhal Tower

I detest propaganda, especially of the american variety. "Patriot Act", "Enemy Combatant" and my personal favourite "Freedom Tower", as pictured below.

The best thing about propaganda, is turning it on its head and I just heard a great idea. Instead of "Freedom Tower", lets start calling it "Narwhal Tower" or "The Narwhal" Mouseover the image above to see what I mean.

Watch more of the same thing

The Freeview parody ad "Watch more of the same thing" is causing a bit of strife for its creators. It has been removed from youtube for "terms of use violation".

From what I can tell, especially for us lucky people in the sticks, freeview will be exactly what the ad says, the same thing on 3 different channels. As well as a program guide telling us what show Channel Nine will be delaying by 20 minutes tonight.

The movie embedded above probably won't last long on youtube. There is a 50mb Hi-Def quicktime version, it can be downloaded here.

If you live in NSW

Make sure you are *always* wearing clean underwear. You never know when the police may come into your home, and it would hardly be proper to be caught in dirty underwear now would it?


In a move that has surprised no-one, but has anyone-with-half-a-brain concerned, NSW police can now covertly plant evidence search a person's house, without that person's knowledge. This is of course set up under "Anti-Terrorism" legislation.


Takes the meaning of a State Premier to a whole new level. Long live The Party comrades.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom

A great Book by Cory Doctorow, if you havn't read it and are too lazy too, then go here and download the audiobook, it is (legally) free!


It explores what happens in the future when death is a minor inconvience, money and manual labour are things of the past, and the world operates on "Whuffie" (a form of karma currancy).

Jules is a young man, barely a century old. He's lived long enough to see the cure for death and the end of scarcity, to learn ten languages and compose three symphonies...and to realize his boyhood dream of taking up residence in Disney World.

Disney World! The greatest achievement of the long-ago twentieth century. Now in the keeping of a network of "ad-hocs" who keep the classic attractions running as they always have, enhanced with only the smallest high-tech touches.

Now, though, the "ad-hocs" are under attack. A new group has taken over the Hall of the Presidents, and is replacing its venerable audioanimatronics with new, immersive direct-to-brain interfaces that give guests the illusion of being Washington, Lincoln, and all the others. For Jules, this is an attack on the artistic purity of Disney World itself.

Worse: it appears this new group has had Jules killed. This upsets him. (It's only his fourth death and revival, after all.) Now it's war...

Ultimate Prank

The hands down best way to scare children: Animatronic Dinosaurs








I do like the guy saying "Go on, eat one, just one" at the end...

Review: Mufin Player

I have a decent music collection, and it is from a smattering of all genres. Classical, rap, pop "alternative" (whatever that means), punk, rock etc. All too often, I find myself saying, that was a great song, what else have I got like it. There are some semi-useful tools from last.fm to try to match other music in your collection to the current song, based on other people's music listening habits.

This rarely works well

Enter Mufin Player. Rather than using croudsourcing to find a better match for the current song, it uses the power of algorithms. It takes a while to analyse all your music, because it quite literally has to "listen" to the songs. It only listens to the first 30 seconds by default, and this seems to work just fine, but you can make it listen to the entire song, at a faster than normal speed obviously.


Enter the shock of the evening: It works! Once you tell it a song to find similar music to, it actually finds music in your collection that sounds like the first song.


There is a lot of work needed in the program though, such as using the media keys on most keyboards, or better yet, global hotkeys so I can use my powermate to control it. Displaying album art would also be good.


Your song of the day:

NIMBY

I friend of the blarg who is in the know about these kinds of things has written to me concerning a recent article on CairnsBlog. There has been a lot of Not in my back yard (NIMBY) about the proposed (approved?) youth facility at Stoney Creek. Here is the text of their message:

Just to clarify - this facility will NOT be residential! The Kamerunga site will be a home base for the service to train and store their extensive equipment in order to run a profession, evidence based, best practice service. Currently the service is located in the inner city area with no complaints from the surrounding houses or businesses - could it be there is nothing to complain about?

Its a real pity seeing political grandstanding stopping Cairns from engaging an innovative, exciting adventure based service that SUPPORTS and TRAINS the youth workers from our region.

It's all about trying new things and getting out of your comfort zone to work with young people - something the public should have a go at sometime because as a COMMUNITY we are responsible to share the journey of those who live around us - even those younger than us!

Over and over our young people are listed as an issue - yet think back a little - how were you in your teens? Did someone stand by you and get you through the tough times? Or did they turn their backs?

Come on Cairns! For once let's be a leader not a follower! Let's work to make our region somewhere that is used as an example of taking the reigns and leading with courage and common sense not the place that turned their backs on a successful (already trialed down south) program that might just be the turning point for our workers and our young people.

The Northern Outlook's doors are open for professional development, team work, strategic planning and generally for you to ask your questions and get the answers. Why not get the good stuff - the right information before we jump in feet first.

Well done Steve!! I think for the first time ever I'll be passing my vote to someone else..

So there will not be a "Jouvie Hall" in stoney creek. As a resident of Lake Placid this makes me feel a bit better about it going up just across the river.

Help Cure Dengue

As I am sure we have all read in the local rag and on CairnsBlog.net - the dengue situation in Cairns is getting rather alarming. Almost to the point that I am less concerned about getting bitten by a snake than I am about being bitten by a blasted mosquito. (The World Health Organization says mosquitoes cause more than 2 million deaths a year worldwide - making it THE most deadly animal.)

There is hope however, using the combined power of thousands of computers around the world, the World Community Grid project has already completed over 6000 years of computing time on the Discovering Dengue Drugs – Together subproject.

Go here and download the program, be sure to select the Dengue project when you are asked to. It only uses your computer when you are not using it (when you screensaver is active) and will help to predict what new compounds can be used to create antiviral drugs that are effective to cure Dengue!

Atlantis Found!

It must be that time of the decade again. Someone is claiming they have found the lost city of Atlantis. This time anyone can check it out on Google Maps.

Now this is all well and good, but there are four three things that make this a little unbelievable.

• It is about 1000kms off the coast of Spain, so either the sea rose a lot, or the island sank a lot.
• The city itself is 130km x 150km - thats a big ancient city
• According to The Book of Critias by Plato, Atlantis was laid out in a circular fashion, not a grid.
• The story was published by The Sun - so there goes any credibility.

Actually the truth turns out to be just as interesting. It would appear that the grid is from a study The Geology of the Madeira Abyssal Plain investigating its suitability for radioactive waste disposal (PDF link).

Flooding in the Gulf

Put your mouse over the image to see the entent of the flooding.


Source

Wrap your head around this

"Meanwhile, the bit of string theory that describes the normal, four-dimensional (3-D + time) behavior of these systems can be predicted by modeling a four-dimensional sphere wrapped around a five dimensional black hole."

This is Sparta Karma

It is fitting, that in my last post I spoke about freedom of speech, only today to find this story. Although the article is (unsurprisingly for new.com.au) lite on facts, it would appear that the Westboro Baptist Church is planning to protest the national day of morning for the victims of the 2009 Victorian bushfires.

This is the same group that has completed other classy acts like protesting at soldier's funerals in America and thanking god for "dead miners" after an accident at a coal mine in 2006.

Just recently the "church" has decided to take this "act" international and have said they would protest at a children's play in the UK. While the article about the Australian protests does not actually say they will be coming here, I think they are planning to...

With all the people wanting to burn Brendan Sokaluk at the stake over his roles in the fires, I can only imagine that people will be none too amused with the Westboros stirring up crap.

If you hadn't guessed the real reason why the Westboros do this sort of thing, it is so that if their free speech rights are violated at all, or if they are assaulted, they can sue the other parties. Even Michael Moore (no not that one) has had a go at them.

1984: Your guide to statehood

Welcome to The Lodge Mr Rudd. Here is your guide to statehood:

Thoughtcrime 101
Under what I can presume to only be some obscure anti-terrorism law (isn't that what all the "interesting" laws are today?), Victoria Police want to ban messages being posted on internet blogs about accused firebug Brendan Sokaluk. Under what law exactly I would like to know.

Now, the police wanting to block the blogs, the police's lawyers wanting to block the blogs, and the police's lawyers actually being able to block the blogs are three separate things.

I am sure that the police want to be able to do on the spot searches, and require you to give them your papers when asked. Also, free doughnuts would be expected from all store selling them. I'm sure in their minds "you have nothing to hide if you have done nothing wrong" is just fine. A Police State sounds like Utopia to them I am sure.

Now, the lawyers may find some obscure law to justify this banning of these blogs, perhaps something like the Anti-Terrorism act of 2005 (because this is obviously terrorism). While I understand that the guy at the center of this whole thing is just accused, not convicted, is this really something we, as bloggers, are ready to loose our non-constitutionally-guaranteed concept of free speech over? All this information that is flying around about this person was already in the public domain - his girlfriend of facebook, pictures off his myspace, his address out of god knows where (whitepages anyone?). The information is out there already, all these evil bloggers have done is put it all in one place.

OK, so the police want to block it (no surprise there), the lawyers have said yes (correct bribes fees were paid), now how the hell are they going to do it.

Enter The Clean Feed Filter
Under the Government's Clean Feed Filter - "unwanted" material would be filtered at the whim of a non-elected bureaucrat in some government department in Canberra. This list of course would not be public, so there is no public oversight what so ever. All that needs to happen is a plebe in the department adds it to the mighty blacklist, this list is updated and disseminated to all ISPs in the country (by force if necessary I imagine) and thats it. Your blog is gone - removed from Google and blocked from direct access - never to be seen again. Blocked under the guise of protecting children and child porn. No doubt there will be an attractive banner placed where your site used to be - like this. This is my greatest fear of the Clean Feed Filter - once it is in place, we will never get rid of it - like so many restrictive and ridiculous "anti terrorism" laws.

The Return Of Steam

Although It is obviously not the most efficient, or green method of transport, there is just something about a Steam Train that makes me happy. Call it a SteamPunk fetish or something.






The 60163 Tornado, built by the A1 Steam Locomotive Trust over 18 years, is the first new mainline stream train in the UK in almost 50 years. Now we are not talking "restored" here. No, this is a brand new engine, built from the original plans made in 1948, the last of the original A1 was scrapped in 1966. While one would assume that because it is steam, it would be slow, this is not the case. Tornado is able to reach speeds of 160km/h.



Considering how slow, and bloody expensive the tilt train is, perhaps we need some A1's here? Do we get a discount for ordering more than one?

Also having a nice big, heavy, loud steam train might stop this nasty business of hitting trucks and derailing on level crossings. The hitting might continue, but at least the derailments would stop.

Nu Nu - A Great Supprise

I was out with some friends last night, and we were taking a stroll along Palm Cove and decided dessert was necessary. Now, I can't say that we specially sought out Nu Nu as a destination, but we were all happy that we ended up there nonetheless.

I had the "Warm Mango Tart", and I must say it was fantastic. The only caveat I have, and I can't believe I am saying this, but the passion fruit drizzling was actually a little too sweet. However, the wait-staff were fantastic, and I didn't mind paying the extra for the fantastic service.

8/10 (For dessert only, so far)
★★★★★★★★☆☆

One rule for us, one rule for them.

Here we have a blue "undercover" cop car (read that as "surprise revenue collection service") sitting right on the corner of Spence Street and the Cairns Central Entrance.



Now if I had parked there, I would have copped a fine, I forget, can we still do citizen's arrests in this country? How about a citizen's revenue collection service?


According to the Queensland Transport website and Sections 170 and 175 of the Queensland Road Rules, this car was clearly in the wrong. The area in red on the above map is a "no parking" area, as designated by the act.

It is also bloody hard to drive around people sitting there when you are trying to get into Cairn Central.

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

And now for the latest from Fox News

Optus HTC Dream

Good News Everyone! The official Google Australia Blog has just accounced that Aussies will be able to buy the HTC Dream (otherwise known as the T-Mobile G1) from Optus. Looks like it is only available on optus plans, but it is not locked to the optus network. I'm going to go and talk to them now and see what the go is.


*Update*


Well the girl at Central's Optus shop didn't know anything about it. She was somewhat supprised when I directed her to www.optus.com.au/dream HAHA!

Signs of the times.

Walking past the office of Desley Boyle today, I saw that the signs were going up already:

With some additional artistic licence from myself

This can only mean an election is just around the corner. Be sure to pre-tune your Bullshit Meter. If you don't have one, I suggest you invest in either a Watch, a Button or perhaps a General Bullshit Dector

The Perils of Powered Society

Too often, we become complacent as to our society's reliance on technology, specifically power. Today, the Cairns region (including up to Mareeba and possibly further) one tenth of Australian (by area) lost all electrical power. I was attempting to get into work to check on my computers during the power outage, poor dears, when I came across an interesting and annoying "safety gone mad" moment. When the city loses power (twice in the last two months I might add) all the boom-gates over railway crossings close.

The only way to enter the CBD from the south side (without diverting halfway to Mareeba) was to go up to the top level of Cairns Central on Bunda Street, down two levels of parking and out the Spence Street exit. Too bad if an ambulance needed to get from the CBD to Parramatta Park quickly hey?

Another Great Vista Feature

Well I just found another great vista feature, Multimedia Class Scheduler Service (MMCSS). Now here is how you turn it off:


Open up the registry editor ("regedit" in the Run box) and navigate to:

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \SYSTEM \CurrentControlSet \Services \Audiosrv
Fine the DependOnService key and remove "MMCSS" from the list of values. (be sure to leave the other ones there)


Reboot, and disable the service in the service manager and you are set.

To give some indication on how much faster this may make your network, with it on and me playing music I was getting 8MB/s transfer of data. With it turned off I am getting 50MB/s. Thankyou oncea again microsoft. More info as to why this happens here. Original solution guide here

Told you so.

Turns out the Kogan Agora is indeed Fail. Told you so. Tis a pitty tooo, because now noone will buy a phone from Kogan now.

QLD Traffic Webcams

Over the last few days, with all the rain around, I have been checking the webcams on QLD Transport's Site every now and then. I use iGoogle as my homepage most of the time, so I thought it would be convienent if I could watch them there. After a some hours of programming, here is the end result. It allows you to select up to 5 of the 75 cameras in Queensland (there are four in Cairns). You can also add two of your own feeds, so if you have a webcam at home for security or whatever, you can load it in as well. Let me know what you think and tell your friends about it!

Australus Roast

Australus Roast. Heard that term before? It is a palatable name for kangaroo, like venison is a neutral name for the fluffy, pretty deer. So Skippy has a nice name now. Kangaroo is quite a "good" animal for Australians to eat. It is good for the environment - as they do not produce anywhere nearly as much methane as cows do, and they have no impact on erosion like hard hoofed animals do. It is also good for people - as it is very low in fat, and high in protein.

If you have not had Australus before, I would encourage you to try it. For my friends in London, goto your local Walkabout and try their Kangaroo Burger. For us back in Oz, pick yours up at the supermarket, I got mine from the Redlynch Woolworths. It was Macro Meats brand. They have Filets, Roasts, Sausages and Mince. It doesn't really taste like anything else. Just buy some and try it, it is rather cheap too!

Android Battleground

No, not that one. Australia seems to be gearing up to be a real battleground for the Android mobile phone platform. I have previously spoken on the Kogan Agora, but some new news at hand seems to indicate that it won't be the only Android phone in Australia for long. (Yes, I know you can import a G1 Development Edition). Smarthouse has apparently been speaking to a Telstra executive (whatever that means), and Telstra will apparently be releaseing a HTC built Android phone with a "huge screen". I'm wondering if the just-leaked "Sapphire 2.0" is what they are talking about:

Don't mis-underestimate me.

I happen to have had the BBC on, and they switched to George Bush's last press conference. Here are some choice quotes.

• "Some of you have mis-underestimated me."


• "[The republican party] needs to be compassionate and broad minded"


• "I inherited a recession, I'm leaving in a recession"


• "Clearly, putting mission accomplished on an aircraft carrier was a mistake"


• "I guess I could have been popular by accepting Kyoto"

Overall, he started the press conference plainly, but goes off on a ranting tangent a few times.

*Video of start of press conference

Yay for flooding

Lake Placid Retention Basin Via Krimzon.net

Well, it has been an interesting morning already. I was awake at 4:30 becasue the frogs were croaking so loud they woke me up. An interesting way to wake up to say the least... After doing all the normal morning routine I started into work; it was about 7am, so I thought the roads would be fairly clear and it would be a nice (albeit wet) drive in. Yeah... no. Turns out the the frogs were croaking due to the exorbinate amount of rain we were having. I drove down Reservior Road to the first set of traffic lights, and on seeing the traffic banked up through them I thought I would go through one of the streets parallel to Murry Street to avoid the traffic. There was a wee little bit of water on the road (It turns out my car can swim!) and I did get abused spoken to by an SES person for driving through the road when it was flooded. In my defence, they had only closed one end of the road, so how was I supposed to know the entire road was closed when the other end was open to traffic?

Corner of birch and mccormack streets Via Krimzon.net

Anyway, no major dramas, and I saw no accidents on my way in. There was a lot of water on Anderson Street as well, probably about 25cm in some areas (near Brothers). Check the Cairns Regional Council site for Road Closures

Great Firewall Report

In Today's Crikey, there was an interesting piece on a report by the Brooklyn Law School doing a report on Australia's Great Firewall Clean Feed Filter. The Report, titled Filtering in Oz: Australia's Foray into Internet Censorship, is one of the first reports by a neutral foreign school to explore the subject. I do like this quote from the report:

[Australia] "will likely become the first Western democracy to block access to on-line material through legislative mandate."

Of course, as I have said before, It is Very VERY Easy to just bypass these types of filters anyway.

Vegemite To Be Banned

A report that is due to be tabled in June is recommending extra taxes on "energy-dense" foods. It also suggests regulating fat, salt and sugar content in food and drink, banning advertising of unhealthy foods to children and eliminating them from school vending machines.

According to a spokesman for the Australian Food and Grocery Council (AFGC), this would mean a possible ban on sugar-rich preserves and jams, high-fat products such as soft cheeses and high salt products, like Vegimite!

Now, while this may sound a lot like the apparent ban on Vegemite in the US a few years ago, it is a bit different. The AFGC, which represents 80 per cent of the highly processed food, drink and grocery products sector, would appear to be using Vegemite as a "Poster Child" of what would be banned. Honestly, no Australian Government is going to ban Vegemite - Just imagine what Sam Kekovich would say! (Be sure to play the video). Things such as soft cheeses and olive oil will not be banned, these products have not siginificantly changed in hundreds of years.

What is likely to be banned is products with ingredience lists like this:

Corn, vegetable oil, chese powder, salt, buttermilk powder, wheat flour, whey protein concentrate, tomato powder, flavour enhancers (621 - MSG!, 627, 631), onion powder, whey powder, garlic powder, dextrose, sugar, mineral salt (339), food acids (270, 330), flavour (natural), spices, colours (129, 150, 110) - Thats a packet of Doritos.

Theremin Hero

Ok, time for a YouTube video... Everyone remembers Portal's "Still Alive" song (sung by Ellen McLain)? Good. Well have you heard it played on a Theremin?

Source Via Reddit

Recipe for Mum Davison's Plumb Duff

As requested by Kitchenslut here is the recipe for Mum Davison's Plumb Duff.

Ingredients

• 3 Cups of Plain Flour


• 2 Teaspoons of Bicarb Soda


• 4 Teaspoons of Mixed Spice


• 2 Teaspoons of Powered Ginger


• 1 Cup of Sugar


• 1.5 Cups of Milk (Mungalli Creek if you can get it)


• 125g (1/4 lb) of Margarine


• Half a small packet of Raisins


• Half a small packet of Currants


• Half a small packet of Plumbs (preserved can be used)


• Half a small packet of Apricots (dried can be used)


• Half a small packet of Cherries (Either fresh or Crystalised)


• 1 sqr Meter of Unbleached Calico.


• 30cm String

Method

1. Place a large pot of water on the stove. Have your heat so it will be boiling in 15 minutes or so (when you finish mixing).


2. Soak your Calico Cloth in some warm/hot water in the sink.


3. Beat the sugar with the marge in a large mixing bowl


4. Sift the flour, bicarb, mixed spice and ginger into the bowl.


5. Add your fruits. Be sure to cut the Apricots up finely if they are dried.


6. Pour in your milk, wash your hands if you have not already (Dirty Bugger!). Remove any jewelery and mix the milk with the other ingredience using your hands.


7. Lick your fingers once you have finished mixing, this is important :-). Now wash your hands.


8. Lay the damp Calico cloth out on a bench, dust a circle about 30cm in diamater lightly with flour.


9. Using a Colander, place the cloth in the side it with the flour side facing inwards (this will produce a nice white "skin" on the pudding). Pour your mixture into the cloth inside the Colander. Lick bowl clean, share the spoon with a loved one


10. Leave about a third as much space as the mixture takes up in the cloth again for expansion, and tie it off. It should look like an upsidedown mushroom when you finish, only taller, and less mushroom-like looking.


11. Carefully place a small plate in the bottom of your pot of boiling water, this will stop the cloth from touching the bottom of the pot and burning


12. Place the pudding into the boiling water, allow to simmer for three hours, topping up the water each hour or so.


13. After three hours, remove from water, allow to drip for a few moments, and place into a bowl to cool, be sure to find a bowl with about the same curve as the bottom of the pudding already has, this is to stop it from cracking. You may place it into the fridge to cool if you like.


14. Enjoy with custard or cream, hot or cold!

Kogan Agora is Fail

Well that just sucks. As you can see from the below picture, there is a lot to be left to desire in the new Kogan Agora. (The first Android Phone for Australia)

Source, via Engadget

• Screen looks to be about 3/4 of the size it could be (although in fairness even the promo images had it this size)


• Screen resolution is only 320x240


• Horrid silver border around the screen - it would appear that is only on the prototype


• 3G, not NextG - so basically useless anywhere except the CBD in Cairns


• The Kogan website wants to charge $159 to deliver to Cairns. Well stuff that! It turns out their websoftware is stuffed. Deleiver to Cairns should only be about $39

Oh well, I suppose I have to start looking for another phone now.

Chairman President Rudd

According to the ABC, members of the labor party have been pushing for another vote on becoming a republic. It has only been 10 years guys, but I'm sure if you keep spamming the Australian Public, they will eventually vote yes just to shut you up. This is not a good thing though.


I ask you, does anyone really want another bloody politician to have more power in this country? At least The Queen (through the Governer General) is not in it for a quick buck or letting their "friends" profit from a policy.


Of course the argument is that we need an Australian Head of State. Um.. Hello, the Queen's title is actually "Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II of Australia". Also, the Governer General (who is also Australian might I point out) has these powers: Appointing ambassadors, ministers and judges, giving Royal Assent to legislation, issuing writs for elections and bestowing honours. The Governor-General is President of the Federal Executive Council and Commander-in-Chief of the Australian Defence Force. So yeah, we have an Australian Head of State - Two infact!