NDC’s Neighbors

Where to hide the bodies?

2008-07-25T04:46:03Z

With folk looking to lessen their impact on the environment, the subject of burial has popped up and it makes for a very interesting discussion.

In Oz, cremation is used for 90% of burials which is a total turnaround from the early 1900’s when it was very rare not to be buried “6 feet under”. When cremation was first discussed most folk were horrified by the thought of being burnt but now the idea of being eaten by worms seems to be regarded as horrific. The “worms” option is probably a misnomer in any case, with modern caskets and the actual depth of burial making it difficult for nature to take its course.

Some new thinking on the matter has given rise to several choices.

Firstly, the carbon generated by a cremation is rated at 160 kilos while the carbon generated by a straight burial, on the day, is rated at a mere 39 kilos. On the face of it, the cremation looks to have lost the battle but the key here is the “on the day” qualifier. After cremation there are generally no ongoing costs while traditional burials have maintenance issues such as mowing the lawns. Add to this argument the new idea of the grave returning to the cemetery for re-use and the calculations get very complicated.

I wonder how they came at the 160 kilo figure for a cremation? I don’t know if it is just from the body or includes the furnace process too. Perhaps you can be atomised by a solar panel on a hot day for a more carbon friendly exit?

Secondly, the idea of being buried in a shroud and not so deep down, with a tree to grow from your remains. This offers the environment the chance of re-using your body in a much quicker time frame. Aesthetically, this will probably find some favour but no one really knows if this is any better environmentally. By the very nature of the cemetery being a bush setting, they are miles out of town so every visit, not made by bicycle, carries a carbon cost. And how does the cost work out here? What happens if a bush fire sweeps through? Does the price of internment cover replacement of trees lost through an act of God?

Probably the best carbon outcome would be to have the doctors removed the bits they need for the living, then send the rest of the body home for a shallow burial down behind the shed. With a couple of fruit trees planted on top. Aside from breaking goodness knows how many by-laws, it sounds like a marginal improvement on what they did in the Good Ol’ Days and a big improvement on recent common practice.

I look forward to seeing the new options and the calculations behind them. Hopefully I don't have any snap decisions to make before it's all clarified.

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AFL - Round 17 preview

2008-07-25T03:27:17Z

Well, I'm just managing to stay in touch with the leaders despite the recent form slump, so where's there's life there's hope as they say. I'll try to keep this short as I'm keen on having a crack at baking a cake this arvo (cinnamon tea cake if you'd like to know) and I just know it's going to take me longer than I initially think. Plus there's that whole four thousand word essay due in a little under 80 hours thing that I keep whinging about.

So, into it again for the 17th time this season - oh, and comments appreciated, I sometimes feel like I'm up at the front of the class reading Waiting for Godot to a bunch of bored students:

Hawthorn v Geelong: My oh my Geelong looked good against the Bulldogs last Saturday afternoon, simply ratcheting it up another gear in that second half. You'd have to be a loyal Hawks fan to tip them I reckon, as even without Ling and Ablett the Cats will be in charge of most of this evening's proceedings.

Essendon v Collingwood: I would hope that the Magpies would be pretty grumpy with themselves over last weekend's less-than-ideal performance against a North Melbourne side they should have beaten. I suspect that soft-tissue injuries are starting to take their toll on the Bombers so Collingwood have my tip this time.

West Coast v St Kilda: The Eagles are only ahead of Melbourne for the wooden spoon on percentage, so the rest of the season for them is whether they have enough pride not to "win" the spoon for the first time in, um, yonks. As for the Saints, Nick Riewoldt is having a heck of a season isn't he? I expect he'll be leading the Saints in the dressing room club song performance come full-time tomorrow afternoon at Subiaco.

Richmond v Brisbane Lions: Seems like the punters are leaping onto Richmond like [insert cliched metaphor here], with the odds shortening markedly over the last day or so. And really, given that the Lions have been a bit indifferent of late, plus that they're playing at the not-as-happy-as-it-could-be hunting ground of the Telstra Dome, you can't blame them. I, however, shall be sticking with my team. Not least in the hope it pushes me up the ladder again. Don't let me down boys.

Sydney v Adelaide: I really shouldn't have tipped the Crows last week, as they are in capital T Trouble at the moment. Barry Hall returns from a couple of weeks on the therapist's couch (I understand he also showed up on tabloid current affairs television at some point as well) and this should help Sydney's chances - anything more than Hall kicking three or more goals make for a satisfactory return. Swans to win.

Port Adelaide v Fremantle: Aaaargh. My head is saying "you idiot, tip Port!" but there's this place in my gut saying the Dockers can win it, all other evidence to the contrary. Tease me or praise me come Sunday evening.

Melbourne v North Melbourne: It'd be nice to think that the Demons, who are already experiencing an annus horribilus as it is, would be able to put aside this week's off-field board dramas with a stirring win against the Kangaroos. But they won't. North will consolidate last week's win against Collingwood with a victory here.

Western Bulldogs v Carlton: Yeah, just can't see the Blues winning here. Looks like any finals aspirations that they might have had (barring other results over the next few weeks) will be put to the sword by a Bulldogs side keen to atone for last week's loss against Geelong.

That's it for this week, enjoy your footy.

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Ow

2008-07-24T18:55:38Z

All of this was just in my eye.

photo.jpg

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Ah, McCain, what a pain...

2008-07-24T08:17:53Z

http://www.crikey.com.au/

2 . Rundle08: God's hand in McCain's stormy weather

Guy Rundle writes from Corpus Christi, Texas:

Down on the waterfront, 80 km/h winds are whipping the palms. The storm, the outer edge of Hurricane Dolly, rages for an hour and then abates as one arm of the conflagration sweeps past, with another following an hour later. Further south, on the border, Port Isobel and Brownsville are getting hit by the full force level two centre of the thing. It's no Katrina -- at Port Isobel, the surfers have already returned to the waves -- but it's pulling metal off the roofs, and throwing trash down the street.

Your correspondent, hearing that the weather might get interesting, either north or south, flipped a coin, jumped on a bus north, as Dolly headed south. So to speak.

Bad luck, but it doesn't compare to the impact Dolly has had on John McCain. Looking for an opportunity to sharpen the difference between Grandpa and Young Jesus Obama on the issue of offshore drilling, team McCain had lined up a visit to an oil-rig. Great visuals, metal everywhere, grimy workers, everyone covered in the black stuff.

Trouble was, the visit had been arranged for this week, and the rig was off the coast of Louisiana. As the US Navy and Air Force moved destroyers and planes out of the Gulf -- an aircraft carrier is still bobbing in Corpus Christi harbour -- and the whole oil industry shut down, it became clear that the proposed visit had turned into another disaster. Why? Well, the principal objection to offshore drilling, and one currently pooh-poohed by the pro-drilling crowd, has been the risk of a coastal environmental disaster from a ... hurricane.

Poor old John. The bloke can't take a trick at the moment. But worse, the political bad weather seems to be affecting the judgment of both McCain himself and his staff. The most visible sign of desperation has been the usual one -- the campaign is starting to attack the press.

Hot on the heels of a statement assailing the media for being "in love with" Obama, team Mac issued joke press passes to its beleaguered corps, nominating them as the "JV squad" -- the reserves. On the obverse side, the same card was rendered in French, with a pic of a stock Frenchman, a reference to ...well God knows exactly what, but a lot of time and energy that could have been best placed elsewhere went into it.

The "blame the press" shtick looks even worse than usual, because it was McCain that goaded Obama into taking the Iraq trip in the first place, and his media courtiers who then talked up the possibility that Obama would fall apart, and get jammed up on his alleged errors in Iraq policy. The press would have gone along en masse in any case, but the thing was so hyped that it made it look like McCain had wanted them to.

The whole fuss generated a classic remark from former Bush speechwriter David ("Axis of Evil") Frum: "I don't know why everyone says Obama is so fascinating, John McCain's a historic figure, he's the oldest candidate for President ever" which is a lay down misere for the most ridiculous comment ever.

McCain has most of the evangelical vote, but if you were a believer in an interventionist God, you would have to be wondering whether Obama isn't receiving the gift of providence, a candidate ordained to deliver the US from the failure of its decadent ruling class. By this theory, the wildly improbable rise of a half-Kenyan raised in Indonesia to the highest office in the land could only come because God thinks that the only person who can save the country is someone who is essentially outside of it, and not bound by its suffocatingly neurotic self-regard, and endless self-reassurance.

But God realises that we are slow on the uptake, and that he can't afford to be subtle -- so while the providential candidate VISITS JERUSALEM, GOD DESTROYS HIS OPPONENT'S CAMPAIGN SCHEDULE WITH A HURRICANE. If you've got a better explanation for this week past, I'd be happy to hear it.

Meanwhile the storm is whipping through the beachfront towers of Corpus Christi, body of Christ. Something I never knew happened: the wind carried sound for miles and six floors up, I can hear conversations on the street, and music from a bar half a mile away. Fragmentary, coming and going and fighting the furious static of fast air, it is as if the whole city is talking to itself, and listening.

McCain falters on foreign policy and Obama and McCain's Iraq strategy...

Get a taste of the best commentary on the subject from the US Media Wrap here.

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ICH today

2008-07-24T06:58:45Z

"We kill at every step, not only in wars, riots, and executions. We kill when we close our eyes to poverty, suffering, and shame. In the same way all disrespect for life, all hard-heartedness, all indifference, all contempt is nothing else than killing. With just a little witty skepticism we can kill a good deal of the future in a young person. Life is waiting everywhere, the future is flowering everywhere, but we only see a small part of it and step on much of it with our feet." : - Hermann Hesse, German poet and novelist.

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"...most men have bound their eyes with one or another handkerchief, and attached themselves to some one of these communities of opinion. This conformity makes them not false in a few particulars, authors of a few lies, but false in all particulars. Their every truth is not quite true. Their two is not the real two, their four not the real four; so that every word they say chagrins us, and we know not where to begin to set them right": Ralph Waldo Emerson - Self Reliance - 1841 - From 'Essays", First series

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"He who would do good" wrote William Blake, "must do so in minute particulars. General good is the plea of the scoundrel, the hypocrite and the liar." It is also the plea of most political ideologues who do not hesitate, and often in the name of "the People", to persecute in minute particulars for the sake of the general good. ": Extract from Jeremy Taylor's Book - Ag Pleez Deddy - a South African musician

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Read this newsletter online http://tinyurl.com/dy6yy

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Labor’s opportunity to hold those Voters

2008-07-24T03:28:03Z

Solar cells

Under Australia’s new Labor government we are seeing a new appreciation for tackling Climate Change. Something the Voters regarded as a very important change at the last election. The government benches in this country are either, lost by the incumbent, or more rarely won by an Opposition with the overriding factor being the confidence the voters have in those standing.

In John Howard’s case, the Voters lost faith in him being able to grasp the problem and start meaningful changes to address it, whereas Kevin 07 showed an initial enthusiasm to start the complex planning to tackle the serious problem we face.

The Liberal remnants often complain about the Public’s love affair with Kevin Rudd without ever seeming to understand he shows a responsiveness to our concerns that engenders a lot of good will within the voters at large. The concept of Democracy seems to have totally escaped them. All they need do is look back at other honeymoon periods and think why they happen. It lasts as long as the public think they are listening.

For Rudd, the start has been good with a few little wrinkles that need to be addressed in the massive change of direction. The removal of the rebate for alternative energy installation based on income is one such problem. Here the public perception is of paramount importance. The Public is with Kevin 07 in getting started on climate change and this removal runs the risk of having him appear as just another pollie who was “gunna” do something.

I understand where the government is coming from by trying to move the product lower down the socio-economic ladder but it would be far easier to leave the subsidy in place and boost the dollars. The added bonus here is the industry does not suffer a slump while the new market is created and we end up with a bigger pool of skilled installers who are retained in the industry.

As it stands at the moment, Climate Change deniers are using the removal as a tool to suggest Labor isn’t serious about Climate Change, and that it doesn’t matter who you vote for. Labor needs to stop this in its tracks. It has a powerful grip on those government benches and keeping the gap between the parties on the environmental understanding is definitely in its best interests.

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Broome - Cable beach

2008-07-24T02:19:20Z

One of the biggest features around Broome is this magnificent beach. At low tide it runs out forever and the sand is quite firmly packed down. That is why you can see lots of cars parked out on the sand. There is a clothing optional beach here too and I had wanted to get a bare bum shot for the blog but only 2 oldies went nekkid so I couldn’t do it.

At least 4 companies run camel rides round sunset and you can see just how beautiful they look on the sand. The beach runs something like 12 kilometres but the actual patrolled swimming area was only a hundred meters or so. Not that this seemed to worry anyone. Folk just do what they want here.

Another feature is the wildlife. Crabs can be seen if you are quick enough and there are always sea birds if you look carefully. I’ve gotta say this was my favourite day for the camera. Nice shots everywhere and Liz’s camels at sunset turned out to be classics.

Photo 1 Cars on the beach

Photo 2 crab hole I think

Photo 3 something I'm not going to pick up

Photo4 Camels at sunset

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Broome - surprisingly good

2008-07-24T01:59:29Z

What a beautiful place Broome is. After having heard plenty about the town over the years, including when I lived at Tom Price 35 years ago, I was amazed when we finally arrived here. The mental image was a small fishing town with a native problem. Perhaps this was the case in the good ol’ days but now it’s a vibrant community of about 6,000 (well probably triple that during this season.) There is more than a dozen accommodation options and 4 overflow locations so there is no shortage of tourists.

You couldn’t book here. It’s a first come first served basis unless you are a regular but the quality of the overflow is not a problem. We ended up in the overflow the first night then scored a spot one row back from a beautiful beach. You really couldn’t ask for more. The row in front took a bit off the wind speed but we still had the excellent view.

The tide swing here is almost as large as Derby but it’s more obvious and more beautiful. We stumbled in just before their “Stairway to the moon” event which occurs for 3 days out of the lunar month at Full Moon. What this breaks down to is the nomads are not moving until after the event so we were lucky to get the good spot.

“Stairway” is a challenge to all of us amateur photographers. The beach was full of folk trying to get their cameras working effectively as dusk approached. I think we all learned a lot. By the time the moon rose we had worked out hand holding the camera is not the answer. I'll post my attempt below. Still didn't quite get it right.

Broome is well supplied with shopping options so it is a good place to resupply. Another dozen long life milks went under the seat along with numerous packets of noodles. I had hoped to get some photos inside the deck chair cinema but it was closed during the weekend for having a stickybeak. Would have liked to have gone in for the new Batman movie but it didn't fit the program.

Photo 1 The pier. This is using the idea of getting less sky in the shot

Photo 2 A little sunlight reflection on the bay

Photo 3 one of the interesting flowers along the boardwalk. No idea what it is called.

Photo 4 (below) A half arsed attempt at the Stairway. This was from a 2nd series after I had nicked back into the van to check the first sorry attempts.When the moon first rises the "stairs" run all the way to the moon.

Stairway2 005

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Step By Step

2008-07-24T00:11:46Z

Ain't no mountain high enough, baby...as a tenacious 11-year-old (me) once vowed, "nothing will stand in the way of my love" for a certain member of a particular boy band who stole my heart and never gave it back. I swore that my love for him would never die, that I would wait forever. And I have...17 years, anyway.

I am poised to make the ultimate sojourn. I am going to see the New Kids on the Block in concert.

At last I will see Jordan Knight in concert, in person. His image was on the glossy poster that held an honored position on my bedroom wall during my 11th year of life on this earth. I told it/him that would find a way to see him live, despite my mother's nefarious plot to keep us apart for eternity. She wouldn't allow me to attend the New Kids concert, thereby breaking my poor little pre-adolesent heart.

At 28 years old, she can't stop me now.

On October 3, 2008, my dreams will be realized and I will finally experience NKOTB in concert after waiting for 17 years. All the joy that is Donnie, Jordan, Jonathan and Danny will be mine at last, if only for a fleeting hours. But the happiness that the memories shall bring will be ephemeral. Lori, Zellie and I will be making a road trip to Cleveland to witness this once in a lifetime event and then will probably get drunk in a random hotel room and pass out. All the better...and it will be worth it!

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Vox Hunt: Recent Purchase

2008-07-23T14:35:13Z

Show us the last thing you bought.
Yeah - I live an exciting life...

Applesauce

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