Hey All,
Well I thought with a new year I should try a new look. I had a look through the design templates that Blogger has and this is what I came up with.
Let me know what you think of the new look.
Wednesday, March 02, 2011
Tuesday, March 01, 2011
Airlie beach
Well the Airlie Beach regatta has come and gone again. As usual it seems the women were the stellar performers coming third in the marathon and sprint. Also Jan smashed the OC1 race finishing her 6km race in just over 35 minutes to place first in the master women. Sue and Loren finished second and third respectively in the senior masters women.
I finished my OC1 race in 40 min 40 sec. This is not a great time I need to work at it more and get my times down to about 31 min. I got a very bad start to the race and was in last place but I gathered myself at the first turning buoy and I ended up passing quite a few people through the race. I ended up finishing 6th in the open men category. After Talking to Jan I found out she paddles 8 times a week. Unfortunately at the moment I cannot commit that much time to paddling. I have a unit to paint still. Once that is finished and I have started to pay down my debt I should be able to have a proper crack at paddling.
I should use this year to lose weight and get fit then extend that in the last half of this year and do some of the longer OC1 races that are on offer, like the Marlin Coast Challenge.
In the Mixed races we didn’t produce any medals for Maggie but they were good fun races and some great experiences for our newer paddlers. Hopefully we will see more of the people new to the club at the next regatta. Thanks go to Outrigger Whitsunday for hosting such a great regatta year after year.
The northern Zone has been exceptionally active and already posted the results from last weekend up on their website – Here.
Also on display at the regatta was a new to Australia brand of paddles, Viper Va’a. They seemed like excellent paddles, some of the examples on display seemed like factory seconds with marks and some (probably just Cosmetic) defects. The shape and style of the paddles though made them well worth a look if your interested in the Tahitian style of paddles. In addition to paddles they sell some accessories that our rudderless paddlers could be very interested in carbon Iakos.
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
An interesting January
I have spent January up until the 26th renovating one of my units. It was finally finished and rented out on Australia Day. It is awesome not to have to worry about at least one of my units and to have a break from renovating. I have been working until 8:30 om every night of the week and it got very tiring by the time it was finished.
I've meant to be taking a break but since Australia Day but We have had a Cyclone menacing us since then. Tropical Cyclone Anthony turned out to be a bit of a fizzer. I even went out for a paddle on Sunday afternoon and the water was dead flat and there was no wind or rain. It would not have been so much fun down near Bowen though.
As soon as TC Anthony came and went though we started looking at TC Yasi. Yasi is a whole different beast to TC Anthony. Anthony was only a category 1, Yassi is going to be a minimum Cat 4 and is about 1000km wide. So even if it does follow it's present course and hit Cairns it won't be much fun here. If it turns South and hits near us it could be devastating.
Under current advice I want to put out a message to my friends in Cairns. Be safe and careful, My best wishes go out to you guys.
So with all of that said I have taken some photo's as a bit of a before and after. Hopefully my photo's will show very little change!
I've meant to be taking a break but since Australia Day but We have had a Cyclone menacing us since then. Tropical Cyclone Anthony turned out to be a bit of a fizzer. I even went out for a paddle on Sunday afternoon and the water was dead flat and there was no wind or rain. It would not have been so much fun down near Bowen though.
As soon as TC Anthony came and went though we started looking at TC Yasi. Yasi is a whole different beast to TC Anthony. Anthony was only a category 1, Yassi is going to be a minimum Cat 4 and is about 1000km wide. So even if it does follow it's present course and hit Cairns it won't be much fun here. If it turns South and hits near us it could be devastating.
Under current advice I want to put out a message to my friends in Cairns. Be safe and careful, My best wishes go out to you guys.
So with all of that said I have taken some photo's as a bit of a before and after. Hopefully my photo's will show very little change!
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Earth Systems science
From the ABC website 10 Jan 2011
For most scientists working in the relatively new area of Earth System Science, talk of the earth “growing a brain” trivialises the growing body of knowledge about the functioning of the whole-earth system. Critically, it misses the point that changes are taking place to this system and that we must understand and monitor these changes for the sake of humanity’s continuing viable development and progress.
While the Gaia hypothesis, first popularised by British scientist James Lovelock as a metaphor of “the living Earth”, has been given religious overtones by some, most scientists, including Lovelock himself, do not assert that the Earth is “alive”. To observe that the earth has some self-regulating features that are similar to those found in living organisms is not to say that it is in fact a living being with a consciousness.
It is also important that the Gaia hypothesis is not confused with Earth System Science, which is in fact a major new development of formal science, embraced by CSIRO and many Australian universities and building on studies of global environmental change, environmental sustainability, economics, complex system science and more.
Earth System Science emphasises the interactions and feedbacks between changes in the earth’s various components - the atmosphere, the oceans, the land, the ice-caps and the biosphere comprising all living things - interactions which can fall through the cracks between traditional scientific disciplines. This is important because many of today’s human-induced changes to the earth’s environment are affecting each other and coalescing to become issues of major global concern.
Climate change, the future of energy and water resources, food production, and decline in biodiversity stand out as much discussed examples of such interacting processes that have a strongly global character.
A critical feature of Earth System Science is to recognise that human activities now form a major interactive part of the functioning and evolution of the entire planet. This is a significant departure from the past where humans have been studied separately from the environment around us. We have been regarded as villains impacting the planet’s natural systems, and victims suffering from the way the planet reacts, for example through changing climate.
This new approach means that the natural science of global environmental change must be linked with social science, economics and the humanities, that is, “global environmental change” must become “global change”.
It also means that the research encompassed by Earth System Science spreads beyond the traditional concerns of environmental sustainability to consider factors as diverse as the psychology of denial or the institutional and political arrangements that can lock societies into behaviours incompatible with long term societal aspirations on this finite planet.
Activity in Earth System Science is going through a growth spurt both in Australia and internationally. In December the Australian Academy of Science, with support from the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, ran the First Australian Earth System Outlook Conference. At this conference a decadal plan for the new science in Australia was launched by the Chief Scientist, Professor Penny Sackett: To Live within Earth’s Limits: An Australian Plan to Develop a Science of the Whole Earth System.
This document was four years in the making by the National Committee for Earth System Science. Overseas, the International Council for Science working with the International Council on Social Sciences, has just released a major document, based on an open web-based consultation, entitled: Grand Challenges for Global Sustainability Research. That document is providing the framework for a major revamping of the international global environmental change research programs, which have been running since the 1980s.
With these Australian and international programs getting under way in the coming year or two, we can anticipate a substantial increase in the information that science can bring to inform people, businesses and governments about the limits and opportunities that the earth provides for the growth, development and well-being of present and future generations.
For most scientists working in the relatively new area of Earth System Science, talk of the earth “growing a brain” trivialises the growing body of knowledge about the functioning of the whole-earth system. Critically, it misses the point that changes are taking place to this system and that we must understand and monitor these changes for the sake of humanity’s continuing viable development and progress.
While the Gaia hypothesis, first popularised by British scientist James Lovelock as a metaphor of “the living Earth”, has been given religious overtones by some, most scientists, including Lovelock himself, do not assert that the Earth is “alive”. To observe that the earth has some self-regulating features that are similar to those found in living organisms is not to say that it is in fact a living being with a consciousness.
It is also important that the Gaia hypothesis is not confused with Earth System Science, which is in fact a major new development of formal science, embraced by CSIRO and many Australian universities and building on studies of global environmental change, environmental sustainability, economics, complex system science and more.
Earth System Science emphasises the interactions and feedbacks between changes in the earth’s various components - the atmosphere, the oceans, the land, the ice-caps and the biosphere comprising all living things - interactions which can fall through the cracks between traditional scientific disciplines. This is important because many of today’s human-induced changes to the earth’s environment are affecting each other and coalescing to become issues of major global concern.
Climate change, the future of energy and water resources, food production, and decline in biodiversity stand out as much discussed examples of such interacting processes that have a strongly global character.
A critical feature of Earth System Science is to recognise that human activities now form a major interactive part of the functioning and evolution of the entire planet. This is a significant departure from the past where humans have been studied separately from the environment around us. We have been regarded as villains impacting the planet’s natural systems, and victims suffering from the way the planet reacts, for example through changing climate.
This new approach means that the natural science of global environmental change must be linked with social science, economics and the humanities, that is, “global environmental change” must become “global change”.
It also means that the research encompassed by Earth System Science spreads beyond the traditional concerns of environmental sustainability to consider factors as diverse as the psychology of denial or the institutional and political arrangements that can lock societies into behaviours incompatible with long term societal aspirations on this finite planet.
Activity in Earth System Science is going through a growth spurt both in Australia and internationally. In December the Australian Academy of Science, with support from the Department of Climate Change and Energy Efficiency, ran the First Australian Earth System Outlook Conference. At this conference a decadal plan for the new science in Australia was launched by the Chief Scientist, Professor Penny Sackett: To Live within Earth’s Limits: An Australian Plan to Develop a Science of the Whole Earth System.
This document was four years in the making by the National Committee for Earth System Science. Overseas, the International Council for Science working with the International Council on Social Sciences, has just released a major document, based on an open web-based consultation, entitled: Grand Challenges for Global Sustainability Research. That document is providing the framework for a major revamping of the international global environmental change research programs, which have been running since the 1980s.
With these Australian and international programs getting under way in the coming year or two, we can anticipate a substantial increase in the information that science can bring to inform people, businesses and governments about the limits and opportunities that the earth provides for the growth, development and well-being of present and future generations.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Banging On
So every so often on this space on the internet I bang on about Climate Change. The last time was back in November of last year. At that time I had come up with the idea that you really need to relate the global problem of climate change and excess CO2 back to an individual level. You need to say that this is the level of carbon that you produce now and this is what you need to aspire to.
Turns out that someone has approached the problem from this angle. I was looking at tons of CO2, Saul Griffith's looks at it in terms of watts or energy. I think his approach has several benefits as it's not just a climate change issue but it is also a energy security issue and it relates the global problems back to an individuals experiences. It is also a more direct and complete measure of ones impact on the world.
This is a long video (bit over an hour) but a very worth while one. Please take the time to stream/download this and watch it.
Turns out that someone has approached the problem from this angle. I was looking at tons of CO2, Saul Griffith's looks at it in terms of watts or energy. I think his approach has several benefits as it's not just a climate change issue but it is also a energy security issue and it relates the global problems back to an individuals experiences. It is also a more direct and complete measure of ones impact on the world.
This is a long video (bit over an hour) but a very worth while one. Please take the time to stream/download this and watch it.
Wednesday, September 22, 2010
Array
Saw a tee shirt for sale recently with this design on it. Really rather clever though only funny to a fairly select audience. I think it's great though.
A Perk of Our Evolution - Pleasure in Pain of Chilies - NYTimes.com
I just read this in the NY times (link below). interesting fluff piece but with a great line in it, "In my kitchen, as I turn my homegrown habaneros into hot sauce while wearing a respirator (I’m not kidding)". He is using Habaneros which I'm also growing in my garden. they are now the 2nd hottest chillies in the world. I would actually recommend elbow length chemically resistant gloves when handling them rather than a respirator.
A Perk of Our Evolution - Pleasure in Pain of Chilies - NYTimes.com
A Perk of Our Evolution - Pleasure in Pain of Chilies - NYTimes.com
Monday, September 20, 2010
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
Roof Dog
LOL Cats have Ceiling cat. Well I've just spotted Roof Dog.
He Watcheth over us and sees all.
He Watcheth over us and sees all.
Tuesday, August 24, 2010
First Time Ever
So here is proof First ever trip to the Ballet.
Ballets not bad. Great as an art form and is an amazingly athletic display. The dancers are definitely to be admired, but to tell a story I prefer a musical or a play. They are just better mediums for story telling.
Ballets not bad. Great as an art form and is an amazingly athletic display. The dancers are definitely to be admired, but to tell a story I prefer a musical or a play. They are just better mediums for story telling.
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