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!