Crazy Ideas

I received this little titbit in my ABC news mail and though Now this is a bit of a stupid Idea.

*Pay fat people to lose weight: doctors*

A doctors group has proposed that overweight people be given a $170 subsidy to attend an accredited weight-loss program.

The idea is part of a Federal election wish-list released by the Australian General Practice Network.

The network's Dr Tony Hobbs says the proposal would help address Australia's obesity problem by making it easier for people in lower-income brackets to get help.

"We believe that this will go a long way to helping people get access to accredited weight loss programs where the people will be supported," he said.

"They'll have goals set, they will be expected to come back at the end of the 12-week program and be measured to see whether or not they've been able to succeed with their weight loss program."


So What they want to do is encourage people to get fat then loose weight. Repeatedly!! I know lets increase the burden that overweight people already place on Society. This money that is meant to make the programs more affordable will just make them more popular and then they can raise there fees. Meaning that this handout will just be given to companies and people in an industry that is already more than a little dodgy if you ask me.

If you want to help the community and decrease the incidents of obesity then increase the funding to local community sporting groups and run a campaign where you get a free health check up when you are a member of a local sporting group. This Idea has been thought up on the spot and would probably not work but at least it benefits the whole community and increases participation in sport, increases the activity of the community and provides some regular check-ups for people who are trying to do something for themselves. It's not just providing a handout for fat people who are just not very active.

I am not against overweight people I have the ability to gain weight very easily it's in the Anderson genes. I have however taken up several activities that promote weight loss. long distance sports such as mountain or road biking and Outrigger Canoeing for the upper body. There are sports and activities out there for anyone. So lets encourage activity rather than supporting the Diet industry by throwing wasted money at them.

Look if you agree with me please email the AMA and the Federal Government. Please be polite in any email sent to these addresses. If you don't agree with please leave a comment and explain why. If you have suggestion on a better Idea than mine please leave them in comments as well (I did say mine might not work).

Cheers

APEC

I don't understand why so many people feel the need to protest at the APEC summit. It's a trade summit which is not in itself a bad thing. In fact many of the aims of the group are very admiral. The aims are to promote liberal trade, reduce corruption and set out guideline for greater transparency of Business operations. These are good things weather your in Australia, the US or any of the other countries in the Pacific rim.

The scope of the group as stated on their website is:

Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) works in three broad areas to meet the Bogor Goals of free and open trade and investment in the Asia-Pacific by 2010 for developed economies and 2020 for developing economies.

Known as APEC's 'Three Pillars', APEC focuses on three key areas:

• Trade and Investment Liberalisation
• Business Facilitation
• Economic and Technical Cooperation

The outcomes of these three areas enable APEC Member Economies to strengthen their economies by pooling resources within the region and achieving efficiencies. Tangible benefits are also delivered to consumers in the APEC region through increased training and employment opportunities, greater choices in the marketplace, cheaper goods and services and improved access to international markets.

Trade and Investment Liberalisation
Trade and Investment Liberalisation reduces and eventually eliminates tariff and non-tariff barriers to trade and investment. Protectionism is expensive because it raises prices for goods and services. Thus, Trade and Investment Liberation focuses on opening markets to increase trade and investment among economies, resulting in economic growth for APEC Member Economies and increased standard of living for all.

Business Facilitation
Business Facilitation focuses on reducing the costs of business transactions, improving access to trade information and aligning policy and business strategies to facilitate growth, and free and open trade. Essentially, Business Facilitation helps importers and exporters in Asia Pacific meet and conduct business more efficiently, thus reducing costs of production and leading to increased trade, cheaper goods and services and more employment opportunities due to an expanded economy.

Economic and Technical Cooperation (ECOTECH)
ECOTECH is dedicated to providing training and cooperation to build capacities in all APEC Member Economies to take advantage of global trade and the New Economy. This area builds capacity at the institutional and personal level to assist APEC Member Economies and its people gain the necessary skills to meet their economic potential.


None of this is evil or bad the are just trying to promote development and co-operation between the countries to benefit all of the countries involved.

Most of the protest don't seem to be aimed at APEC itself though. Most protests seem to be aimed at the president of the US. Fair enough his government has not been good for the US or many other places in the world, and it certainly hasn't been good for the international reputation of the US and it's citizens. Maybe we could leave these protest for another time though. A time when he's involved in something evil like taking over a small island nation.

Australians though have more pressing issues to protest about. We have issues that affect us directly such as the Industrial relations system that our government has brought in,he fact that this Australian Government has increased the Gap between rich and poor the highest levels ever and seems to ignore any way to rectify this, or the lack of any coherent and defined stance on climate change from the government.

John Howard has realised that he has left the issue of Climate change to long and now is trying to subvert important international events such as this APEC meeting to show how active he is on this issue. Quite rightly the Chinese President put him in his place and said that the UN was the best forum for anything more than an understanding that climate change is important.

So people please leave the APEC summit alone and concentrate on the problems facing and issues that directly affect the day to day happenings in this country. That way maybe the NSW government and police will not have the nessecary impetus to enact draconian laws and security measures.

I encourage everyone to take an interest in what is discussed in Forums such as APEC but please try not to hinder organisations that might actually do some good. There is already huge amounts of evidence that we need sustainable development in poorer countries to improve the living conditions of the people and take away to root causes of huge Social and Environmental problems.

Paddle

So I received my Birthday present yesterday. For my birthday Min got me a new Paddle. It's a Xylo Blade again. This time though it is a P2 shape 52 x 18 x 9.25 inches. It has the brown turtle material on the back. It is one of the prettiest paddles I've seen. I'll have to post photo's soon.
Thanks Min.

Time for some Levity

Some one sent me this Joke recently. I think it's a crack-up.

There are only 10 kinds of people in the world.

Those that understand binary.
And those that don't.


Ha!

We're One Step Closer to Wireless Electricity

Awesome. I found this on Wired News:

Ugh, what I wouldn't do to rid my house of the snake-like electrical cords coming out of my computer monitor, external drive, laptop, stereo, TV, etc. I'm tired of getting my office chair tangled up with the mess under my desk! Well, my wish for wireless electricity may not be too far off. Researchers at M.I.T. have successfully transmitted enough power across a room to light a 60-watt bulb. They've christened their technique, WiTricity.

According to Leader-Post:

The MIT design consists of two copper coils. One, attached to the power source, is the sending unit. Rather than send out electromagnetic waves, it fills the space around it with a magnetic field oscillating at a particular frequency. The second copper coil is designed to resonate with that oscillating magnetic field. A copper coil within an oscillating magnetic field generates a current, enough, in MIT's case, to power a light bulb.

Power transformers make use of something similar, called magnetic induction, to transmit power between coils over short distances. But those coils aren't designed to resonate with each other. Resonant coupling makes the transfer of energy almost a million times more efficient.

Since the magnetic field doesn't radiate, most of the power that isn't picked up by the receiving unit is bound to the originating coil, rather than being lost into the environment. That also means that this system has a limited range, and the smaller the receiver, the smaller that range is.

I wonder how safe living in a magnetic field is?

Imitators

Imitators are out there so done be fooled by fakes http://lewisanderson.com/. And No I haven't taken up singing and making records. Though I would probably make more than I do as a Scientist.

Ideas for the Canoe

I've decided that I need to figure out a way to attach a dry bag to the rear deck of the Canoe and then figure out a way to carry Water. Once I have these things I will be able to paddle out to Islands and go Camping. This will be a brilliant way to see more of the Islands along the Queensland coast. Any Ideas about how to store water on the Canoe would be greatly appreciated.

L.

OC1

So I have finally taken my OC1 out for a bit of a test run. I paddled from the strand to Magnetic Island to follow Min. She was doing the Townsville to Magnetic Island swim. The Trip there was pretty easy paddle now and then to keep the Canoe moving and keep up with the swimmers. most of the time however I just sat there and cheered on the swimmers. The canoe preformed brilliantly, nice and stable and easy to paddle. The only problem was the probably 60 or so litres of water that the canoe took on in the 2 hour that it took to paddle over to the Island.
So I drained the canoe and left it to dry out once I had gotten to Picnic bay and went to the pub and bought a burger. The paddled her home and immediately dropped it off at the boat builders so that it can be repaired in time for the OC1 series of races that will be happening from September till the End of the year.

Long live the Ando (my canoe)

Canoe Dog and other things

So I thought that I would put up some photo's of some of my recent acquisitions. The First should be my new Canoe as I have had it the longest.

The next is a new addition to The house here. Chloe Mins dog has come to live with us. She is an awesome little dog, very energetic. She can run at 30km/h while towing me on the pushbike, I don't peddle much it wears her out quicker.
Happiness by the way is a ball.
My other recently acquired treasure is my computer which I am putting this in with but people might have to come and visit to see it.

L.

OC1 OC2 Races

So I thought that I would show everyone the Race courses that I am helping to set up. My Outrigger club will be hosting a 1 and 2 man Outrigger canoe regatta and I have just done up the courses on Google earth.


There will be a 250m sprint a 3km short course and a 6km long course race. I'm thinking of going in all three. So if anyone is around come along to the strand on the Tobruk pool end and see the races. 15th of September