Monday 31st May 2010 – Main Street Santa Monica (LA)

Santa Monica to San Simeon

Started off this day with the aim of driving up to San Simeon. Min though had never seen and had heard of Venice Beach so we headed to the next suburb south and had a quick stroll along the promenade on Venice Beach. It consisted of an uninterrupted stream of tourists, homeless and some rather strange people. It was the homeless people who had stalls on the beach that were the most depressing.

One highlight though was the Gym that is situated on the beach, open to the air. The Gym was holding a bodybuilding competition. There were some very orange and strange people involved in that contest. It seems that the place to go if [your into bodybuilding and] want to be seem in Venice Beach is the gym on the beach. One ‘lady’ who was not in the competition but seemed to be famous was rather disconcerting as I had assumed she was a lady until she spoke. After ‘she spoke I thought ‘she’ was male, well until I sore the bikini that she was wearing and thought there is nowhere to hid your bits (if you have them) in that tiny bit of material.

After that we said goodbye to the smog and craziness of LA and headed north. We had no real plans to stop anwhere except our hotel for the night at Ragged Point north of San Simeon. First stop though was a small beach just north of Malibu for Coffee (from Starbucks where else you gonna get coffee when your in the US) and a snack of Strawberries. It was much better than The Beaches in LA and I recommend anyone heading to California to Surf that you head north of LA to at least Malibu to surf for health reasons. The water is BROWN in LA.

On the way to where we might stop for lunch we spotted a sign “Buelton the home of the split pea soup”. Sorely tempted as we where we decided to press on to at least Santa Barbara for lunch.

Next stop was Santa Barbara for lunch a it had been recommended but Mary-jo at my work and one of Min’s host families in South Carolina. After getting lost for about half an hour we found the main street and a park. Walking around a little we spotted Joe’s Café. We decided to eat there not just because Min was starving and refused to look for another café but also because it looked nice.

Back on the road next stop was San Simeon the home of Hursts Castle. Though I made the executive decision to stop at one of the many Vista Points along the way and looked at a colony of Elephant seals. I have to say I did this for my own benefit as much as Min’s as I have never seen Elephant seals in the wild before either. Min took a million photo’s. Well OK min only took about 50 photo’s of Elephant seals but still it seemed like a million.

Last thing of the day was stopping at the Ragged point hotel situated on a cliff over the pacific ocean. A beautiful spot and quite a nice hotel with a fantastic restaurant.

Day 1ish – Sunday 30 May 2010 -Main Street Santa Monica (LA)

Nothing opens until 11 on a Sunday (except the farmers market across the way – which despite having recycling bins etc in place still hand you food in a plastic bag…. Getting there but still some work required).

Found some astero turf apparently you get a rebate back from the government if you install astro turf… great! But was really cool as some real grass was pushing through – go nature!

Lewis ordered a pirate chai which turned out to be a GREEN spiced coffee… apparently tasted nice until he hit the green gritty bits at the bottom – funny. Nice lavender and kangaroo paws at the café.

Did some shopping at Patagonia and REI (adventure equipment stores) cool stuff but not really needed right now. Then checked out the beach from top of the cliff (overlooking the pier) Pollution was insane, could hardly see Marina Del Ray which was about 5km away. Planes would appear out of the smog towing signs, water looked brown lots of people at the beach one or two people in the water… not sure why water brown??? Cool plants on the cliff top (cool old twisty tree that looked like flossy) and statue of a saint.

Headed to whole foods which is a food shop – massive choice in lots of great things, eg huge range of fruit and veg, massive selection of bulk rice, grains, flour, nuts etc can buy wine (section included wine bar) out of all the cheese lewis managed to pick Sheeps cheese (because it was in a orange mould) roasting coffee in store (cool) sushi chefs, grill area with fresh meals prepared, full pizza oven, soups, salad bar INSANITY but cool. Car in carpark for compact car… was filled with a 4 wheel drive dodge ram… compact????? Only in America. Lewis doing a great job of navigating, he somehow knows his way around… crazy.

Haibach Germany

First stop on my travels was Frankfurt where Kathryn Graciously had agreed to pick me up at 6am in the morning. The flight to Germany had been a 10hr flight from Sydney to Bangkok then a 14hr flight to Frankfurt after a 4 hour stopover. So by the time I arrived in Germany I had been awake for about 48 hours with no more than a couple of ten minute kips on the plane. Arriving at 6 in the morning I decided that the best way to get over my Jet lag instantly would be to stay up until about 9 than night. It worked! 64 hour awake and then a good nights sleep and I was adjusted to the German time zone in one day.

The week in Haibach passed with much needed rest and reading which I hadn't done in ages. Also lots of discussion with Kathryn ranging from women's right to choose to the effects of high doses of coffee, this later topic actually involve experimentation.

I finally got to meet Kal who is a lovely guy and told me many a story from his hospital giving me new insights and horrors from the world of hospitals. Mum being a pharmacist has already introduced me to the medieval torture chamber that is the Hospital but Kal being a doctor and surgeon just had those extra few details that really top off a good story.

One of the major highlights of the trip to See Kathryn was the trip we took to Nuremberg. I had heard the term the Nuremberg Rallies before but I didn't link them to the name that Kal suggested as a little trip. First off the Congress Hall that the Nazi Party built is huge. Huge really doesn't do it justice, it's Colossal. It was never finished and the most of the plans for the Nazi Party Rally grounds were never even started. They have turned the Congress Hall into the Documentation Centre which is basically a museum detailing the rise in power of the Nazi Party and the ways in which they dismantled and rebuilt Germany's systems of government to suit their own ends. It also details many of the social systems the Nazi Party put in place to get the German people to follow them. I cried a few times on the tour but one of the most startling thing from it is the understanding of how the people of Germany were manipulated. Kal and Kathryn both were startled to realise they would have been Nazi's. Kal would have joined whichever group would have given him the most badges. I figured that it would depend on how old I was when it all started. If I was in my 30's or older I would have been killed by the Nazi's well before the war even started. If I was in my 20's or younger I would have ended up joining up and either would have been in the SS or in some secret lab conducting secret super soldier experiments (or having them done to me). If ever you find yourself in or near Nuremberg please go to this museum and see this for yourself, it is well worth the visit.

After Germany I had a flight to America and a short stay in Santa Monica before Min turned up and we started our big Californian Holiday.

This Blog has been Co-opted

So over the next few posts Min and I will be updating you the reader about our travels in California. The next post though will cover most of my trip to Germany.

Desert Island

Every so often the XKCD comic just posts an amazing strip that says so much with one frame. This one really struck me. so I thought why not share it around.

Enjoy

New Toys

Just wanted to introduce people to my new toys. Well not really toys more like tools but it is fun having things like this especially when you need to get a job done. So with out further adieu Let me put up these photo's

On the left is the Water Blaster a Kartcher G2500 with a genuine Honda engine. Water pressure goes up to 2500psi hence it's name. When looking for a model to buy I found I could buy a Petrol powered one cheaper with much higher pressure output. It also looks like it will do the job and last quite a while. I have cleaned mine and Mine paths and drive ways with it so far and I am very impressed with the pressure and ease of use.

On the Right is a Spray painter a Wagner project 115. It has a 10 litre paint hopper on the top and the same gun as the professional models that sell for over $4000. have used it with some water and spraying is easy. Hopefully there wont be a lot of over spray and the quality of the finish will be what I'm after. I will let you know when I do some actual spraying of paint.

Report on the Dambala

Well I've been a little remiss. I have had a new working, fully built bike for a couple of months now with no report on what it's like. Though in my defence I've been busy trying to renovate a house, which doesn't actually work as an excuse for my lack of posting as I really should be putting up at least a little information about that.

Anyway enough of my waffling on, time to show off the bike.

First off I want to say that I bought this bike piece by piece and assembled it myself. I bought most of the bits from eBay at I have to say excellent prices. One piece, the Handlebars was given to me as a birthday present, so I have to say a big thanks to Dad.


While the price was good and I had time to research each piece before I bought it, it did take an excruciating 6 months of purchases to finally have enough pieces for a working bike. Six months of riding a barely working bike around. I did get impatient several times but there was not much I could do.

What I did get out of it though is a bike that fits perfectly with what I want. I needed a commuter bike to get me around the 'Ville' with speed and with more ease than I've had with my dual suspension bike. Because of my size though I needed a tough bike that could handle the bumps. To that end I had decided on a mountain bike frame but build it up with more road or hybrid type parts.


Most hybrid bikes have large Road bike size wheels but I needed strength as well so I needed to buy a mountain bike wheel. This prompted me to look into an emerging part of the mountain bike market called 29ers.
The basic concept of the larger diameter is simple: there is less of an angle when ever you encounter an obstacle and it's easier to roll over the obstacle. The larger wheel offers increased centrifugal force, which in turn improves the bike’s stability. The extra three inches also increases the amount of tire contacting the ground at any one moment offering better traction.

So I decided to buy a 29er, probably in steel to keep cost down. I needed a slick or semi-slick tyre to keep rolling resistance down so I looked into Schwalbe tires and found the Marathon tires. In the end the Marathon Supreme seemed to suit my purposes best. Next I had to think about a drive train. I had decided to simplify the drive train on my new bike and only have a nine speed bike. I love the clean look of a single speed bike but I'm a slacker and decided I needed at least a few gears. the solution was to only have the rear gears (see the third photo). Lastly but definitely not least I had to figure out the Forks for my bike. I wanted simple and long lasting so I decided not to get a suspension fork. They need maintenance occasionally and are much more prone to failure than solid forks. With that decision made I chose to go with some light weight Carbon forks.

The last important piece was of course the one less car sticker.

I now have a fast fairly light and above all reliable bike that gets me around. Ride Quality is not nearly as forgiving as my dual suspension Specialized, but it is fast and brilliant on the roads where I ride it %90 of the time. I have so far beaten my previous best time to the strand from uni by nearly 10 minutes.

I really have enjoyed building and then riding my new bike. I hope it likes me too as over the next probably 10 years we will be doing a lot of Kilometres together.

Mandatory Internet Filtering

Something every Australian should be concerned about. If Steven Conroy and the Labour Party get their Mandatory Internet filtering bill through Parliament the Australia will be one of only 3 countries in the world that have mandatory and un-opt outable internet filtering. The current countries are China and Iran. What great company we are putting our selves in.

If you want to know more or decide that you want to do some thing please read This Article on the ABC unleashed website and/or click on the No Clean Feed sticker at the top of the page on the right.

Can I urge everyone to write to your local Green, Liberal or Independent senator and ask them not to support this bill.

Dennis Meadows

You hear it nearly every day, another scientist warning about climate change. All the news articles and stories make it sound like the only ones who are worried about climate change are environmental scientists and Greenies. Economists and business people are usually portrayed as either non believers or only worried about the cost of action.

Well I would like to introduce Dennis Meadows an economist from the US. In 1972 Dennis published a book titled 'The limits to Growth'. This book back in 1972 predicted that if population growth and resource use continued to grow in the exponential way they were at the time then the world would be facing environmental disaster by about 1992. What is interesting is that this is shortly before serious concern was starting to be raised by environmental scientists about the global climate.

In a recent interview with Spiegel Online there were two questions and responses that really just hit home how little we as a society tend to listen to the people we hire to inform us if they are informing us of something that is difficult to grasp or will require real change from people.
First;

SPIEGEL ONLINE: Mr. Meadows, you simulated the future of the Earth back in 1972 with less computing power than a Blackberry. How good was your model on the limits to growth?

Dennis Meadows: Amazingly good, unfortunately. We are in the midst of an environmental crisis, which we predicted then. The difference is that we have lost 40 years during which humanity should have acted.

And second;

SPIEGEL ONLINE: You don't have a recipe for saving the world?

Meadows: We don't have to save the world. The world will save itself, like it always has. Sometimes it takes a few million years until the damage is repaired and a new balance has been established. The question is much more: How do we save our civilization?

The first question really makes it perfectly clear hear Climate change is not some future event but is happening now. Sea level is rising at over 3mm per year and we have already seen a 0.7 degree Celsius rise in global temperatures since pre-industrial times.

0.7 degrees doesn't sound like much does it. I mean the difference between a 25 and a 26 degree day is not much. The problem is that a 0.7 degree change has already led to the melting of all Glasciers world wide the loss of Arctic Ice and the current sever melting of Antarctic Ice (side note: we are currently seeing the loss of BILLIONS of tons of ice from the West Antarctic Ice shelf each year). Just imagine what will hbe happening when we reach a 2 degree rise in global temperatures. Just so that you know, we as a species have locked ourselves into a 2 degree rise through our previous emissions. All that we can do now is reduce our own emissions individually and hope that we don't continue to follow the IPCC worst case scenario. This would eventually lead to a melting of Methane hydrates stored under the ocean and a catastrophic collapse of global ecosystems. The last time this happened....... well we call it the PT extinction or the great dying where nearly 95% of all life on earth was wipe out!

Elloquence and the Written Word

Well I have never claimed to be the worlds greatest writer. In fact I can lay claim to being well into the lower half of writers on a best to worst scale. I do try though and I feel (hope) that I am getting better as time goes by.

Australia's current Chief Scientist Professor Penny D Sackett began her appointment as Chief Scientist for Australia in November 2008. She is an accomplished cross-disciplinary scientist with a record of academic excellence on three continents. She also obviously spends some time crafting her words and can really punch out a nice paragraph or two. Her recent article on her website so eloquently states the dangers involved in climate change and the problems facing the world and Australia that I had to link to it.

So with out further adieu:

Why we must act now to reduce greenhouse gas emissions