Sidenote to Water post
Posted in Misc, NETness on by
this post below looked a lot cooler before the HTML f'ked up and it made all the writing giant and you couldn't read it. It was cool, and multi sized for emphasis, but no. Grr.
Twenty Thirst Century ; the future of water in Australia - John Archer ****/*
Posted in Books I've read, WORLDliness on by
Who will be the first to run out of water?
That's the question the experts are asking.
Could it be Goulburn or Sydney or Perth or perhaps Brisbane?
In the midst of the worst drought for a hundred years, many cities and towns are looking with increasing concern at record low levels in storage dams, diminished river flows and pessimistic rain forecasts.
Computer models predict permanent drought conditions over eastern Australia. If this becomes a reality, we need to plan for our survival as individuals, as communities, as a nation.
Twenty Thirst Century explains why the big package solutions-desalination, recycling and groundwater-may not be as effective as we have been led to believe.
Twenty Thirst Century is a disturbing, incisive and realistic perspective on Australia's water crisis and our options for the future.
This book was amazing. I would urge everyone to read it. It was published in 2005 which I think makes it even more alarming as two years on we're in an even worse off position more than likely.
Its quite a slim volume with quite short succinct points making up the entire work. It took a bit of concentration for the most part, but was still a very compelling read I think. John Archer is the author of twenty books on building, architecture, transport, medicine and the environment. This book is his sixth book on water issues, the most recent Australia's Drinking Water : The coming crisis.
Essentially the issue is loosely broken down into three options Desalination, Recycling the water we use, and Groundwater. I think one of the important points of the problem is accepting that these are the options, there is no fourth hopefully ethereal choice of "rain will come". We are at crisis point, as of today Warragamba Dam is only 38.48 % full. With an estimated "empty date" of 15-6-2012 if water trends continue as they have been. While it may seem far off, that's really only 5 years of water. What are we meant to do then? This is where we come to our three choices which I will attempt to summarise here as I see it
Desalination-which Archer refers to as the great white elephant. Desal technology has been around for more than fifty years. But surprisingly little advancement has been made in the technology in this time. Unlike say cars, or computers, or even toasters, desal isn't that different now to what it was. Essentially its about taking the salt out of the sea to make it drinkable.
Major drawbacks include- it is a very power hungry process, requiring massive amounts of energy to operate the machinery required. This then leads to more greenhouse gases being produced, making climate change and global warming even worse, leading to less rainfall, more melting of polar ice caps. None of these good things. It also produces a poisonous brine by product which is re-pumped into the sea. Which makes the sea saltier, making the next batch produce more brine byproduct which is put back into the sea.... it's a vicious cycle (not to mention destroying the ecosystems of the ocean). There is an argument that the sea can absorb whatever we throw at it, the brine will simply mix into the sea again and all will be happy..... You can't really imagine the sea would tolerate that forever though without some serious side effects.
{Also Desal plants are extremely expensive to build (Millions and millions of dollars) take forever (to build), are problematic and expensive if they break AND the proposed one for Sydney will actually only produce enough water for Sydney's consumption for about 1.5-2 hours per day based on current consumption rates}
Recycling- is loosely broken into two halves, grey water and black water. Grey water is from the kitchen sink, laundry, shower. Black water is toilets. While this is extremely unpopular, only 2% of water used in households is actually used for drinking and cooking. Main problems with using this as an encompassing solution is that homes would need two pipes, one for drinking water and one for grey water and this would cost billions to implement. Rouse Hill apparently has communities being built with this technology which I think is great. To get around the problem of needing two pumps is the idea of treating the water and redirecting it into the dams. Problem with this is fairly obvious, but in actual fact the catchment runs over animal droppings etc all the time as it feeds into the river system anyway... Hmm.
Groundwater -This is one of the options that seems to scream, why aren't they doing this? In Sydney the answer is-they can't. Groundwater is another term for the underground Aquifers around the country. Sydney's largest one is called the Botany aquifer and its located in South West Sydney sort of area, where there is a lot of industry and they have poisoned the water due to the chemicals and runoff seeping into the ground and eventually the water there.
For more info, check out this article.
Very good book, and I am much more water conscious now.
4.5 / 5
Could it be Goulburn or Sydney or Perth or perhaps Brisbane?
In the midst of the worst drought for a hundred years, many cities and towns are looking with increasing concern at record low levels in storage dams, diminished river flows and pessimistic rain forecasts.
Computer models predict permanent drought conditions over eastern Australia. If this becomes a reality, we need to plan for our survival as individuals, as communities, as a nation.
Twenty Thirst Century explains why the big package solutions-desalination, recycling and groundwater-may not be as effective as we have been led to believe.
Twenty Thirst Century is a disturbing, incisive and realistic perspective on Australia's water crisis and our options for the future.
This book was amazing. I would urge everyone to read it. It was published in 2005 which I think makes it even more alarming as two years on we're in an even worse off position more than likely.
Its quite a slim volume with quite short succinct points making up the entire work. It took a bit of concentration for the most part, but was still a very compelling read I think. John Archer is the author of twenty books on building, architecture, transport, medicine and the environment. This book is his sixth book on water issues, the most recent Australia's Drinking Water : The coming crisis.
Essentially the issue is loosely broken down into three options Desalination, Recycling the water we use, and Groundwater. I think one of the important points of the problem is accepting that these are the options, there is no fourth hopefully ethereal choice of "rain will come". We are at crisis point, as of today Warragamba Dam is only 38.48 % full. With an estimated "empty date" of 15-6-2012 if water trends continue as they have been. While it may seem far off, that's really only 5 years of water. What are we meant to do then? This is where we come to our three choices which I will attempt to summarise here as I see it
Desalination-which Archer refers to as the great white elephant. Desal technology has been around for more than fifty years. But surprisingly little advancement has been made in the technology in this time. Unlike say cars, or computers, or even toasters, desal isn't that different now to what it was. Essentially its about taking the salt out of the sea to make it drinkable.
Major drawbacks include- it is a very power hungry process, requiring massive amounts of energy to operate the machinery required. This then leads to more greenhouse gases being produced, making climate change and global warming even worse, leading to less rainfall, more melting of polar ice caps. None of these good things. It also produces a poisonous brine by product which is re-pumped into the sea. Which makes the sea saltier, making the next batch produce more brine byproduct which is put back into the sea.... it's a vicious cycle (not to mention destroying the ecosystems of the ocean). There is an argument that the sea can absorb whatever we throw at it, the brine will simply mix into the sea again and all will be happy..... You can't really imagine the sea would tolerate that forever though without some serious side effects.
{Also Desal plants are extremely expensive to build (Millions and millions of dollars) take forever (to build), are problematic and expensive if they break AND the proposed one for Sydney will actually only produce enough water for Sydney's consumption for about 1.5-2 hours per day based on current consumption rates}
Recycling- is loosely broken into two halves, grey water and black water. Grey water is from the kitchen sink, laundry, shower. Black water is toilets. While this is extremely unpopular, only 2% of water used in households is actually used for drinking and cooking. Main problems with using this as an encompassing solution is that homes would need two pipes, one for drinking water and one for grey water and this would cost billions to implement. Rouse Hill apparently has communities being built with this technology which I think is great. To get around the problem of needing two pumps is the idea of treating the water and redirecting it into the dams. Problem with this is fairly obvious, but in actual fact the catchment runs over animal droppings etc all the time as it feeds into the river system anyway... Hmm.
Groundwater -This is one of the options that seems to scream, why aren't they doing this? In Sydney the answer is-they can't. Groundwater is another term for the underground Aquifers around the country. Sydney's largest one is called the Botany aquifer and its located in South West Sydney sort of area, where there is a lot of industry and they have poisoned the water due to the chemicals and runoff seeping into the ground and eventually the water there.
For more info, check out this article.
Very good book, and I am much more water conscious now.
4.5 / 5
Ozymandias
Posted in arts on byI met a traveller from an antique land
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing besides remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away".
Who said: "Two vast and trunkless legs of stone
Stand in the desert. Near them on the sand,
Half sunk, a shattered visage lies, whose frown,
And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command,
Tell that its sculptor well those passions read
Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things,
The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed,
And on the pedestal these words appear:
"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings:
Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and despair!"
Nothing besides remains. Round the decay
Of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare
The lone and level sands stretch far away".
Lazy DVD day
Posted in HomeLife on by
Another Sunday passed with one member of our household hung over, and as such we ended up sitting around watching DVDs again. It was raining and horrible weather though, so it wasn't like we were really wasting that much of a day (right?).
First up with Jerome and Todd we watched SAW III.
For those uninitiated into the Saw movies, essentially they're horror movies about a serial killer that finds unique ways to torture his victims by making them suffer horribly for their misspent lives, while seemingly giving them a chance to live.
This one was particularly gory, and I don't know if it was quite as satisfying as the last two. Mark and I aren't into horror movies, (as anyone who knows me, I shrieked uncontrollably during Nightmare on Elm St whilst everyone was laughing at the corniness) but the Saw movies have such fantastic twists, they somehow seem worth it, even if some people think they're nothing but an excuse for gore.
As a group we declared there should be a ban on the following in slasher flicks
-flickering lights
-industrial settings
-mirrors and any other reflective surface.
-there may have been more too
Then after the boys left we decided to watch United 93 (or flight 93-turned out we had two DVDs with different names but they were the same film).
This wasn't quite the picker-upper we were looking for, I stupidly forgot it was likely to be very sad, rather than the interesting/fascinating movie I expected. United 93 is a docudrama focused on the fourth hijacked flight from September 11 that never made it to it's target. Worth a look.
So from being scared out of our minds, to crying, we moved onto a third movie Blood Diamond that was so interesting and thought provoking, I thought it was quite good. Centred around the Conflict Diamond trade in Africa, the movie is set in Sierra Leone in 1999. Leonardo Di Caprio I thought gave a convincing performance and maintained a fairly credible Zimbabwean accent for the duration. Jennifer Connelley was good, I forgot she was Sarah ( Labyrinth) which I always have difficulty with.
All in all an interesting day of DVDs.
First up with Jerome and Todd we watched SAW III.
For those uninitiated into the Saw movies, essentially they're horror movies about a serial killer that finds unique ways to torture his victims by making them suffer horribly for their misspent lives, while seemingly giving them a chance to live.
This one was particularly gory, and I don't know if it was quite as satisfying as the last two. Mark and I aren't into horror movies, (as anyone who knows me, I shrieked uncontrollably during Nightmare on Elm St whilst everyone was laughing at the corniness) but the Saw movies have such fantastic twists, they somehow seem worth it, even if some people think they're nothing but an excuse for gore.
As a group we declared there should be a ban on the following in slasher flicks
-flickering lights
-industrial settings
-mirrors and any other reflective surface.
-there may have been more too
Then after the boys left we decided to watch United 93 (or flight 93-turned out we had two DVDs with different names but they were the same film).
This wasn't quite the picker-upper we were looking for, I stupidly forgot it was likely to be very sad, rather than the interesting/fascinating movie I expected. United 93 is a docudrama focused on the fourth hijacked flight from September 11 that never made it to it's target. Worth a look.
So from being scared out of our minds, to crying, we moved onto a third movie Blood Diamond that was so interesting and thought provoking, I thought it was quite good. Centred around the Conflict Diamond trade in Africa, the movie is set in Sierra Leone in 1999. Leonardo Di Caprio I thought gave a convincing performance and maintained a fairly credible Zimbabwean accent for the duration. Jennifer Connelley was good, I forgot she was Sarah ( Labyrinth) which I always have difficulty with.
All in all an interesting day of DVDs.
Bone Machine - Martyn Waites ***/*
Posted in Books I've read on by
The body is discovered in a disused burial ground. A young woman, ritualistically mutilated, her eyes and mouth crudely sewn shut. Her boyfriend is arrested and charged with the murder.
He might have a vicious temper and a history of violence against women, but is Michael Nell really a killer? Michael's lawyer doesn't think so. She's hired Joe Donovan to prove his alibi.
Donovan's investigations lead him into the murky world of people trafficking and illegal prostitution. But when a second body shows up, he realises it's not just local gangsters he's up against-but a deranged serial killer. A killer obsessed with the city's dark history. A killer who leaves clues pointing to his twisted plan. And if Donovan and his team can't decipher those messages in time, a killer who will kill again...
Hmmm, another blurb that seems to merely nod at the actual story rather than follow it. Not quite the way it all pans out, a good read, but not if you're squeamish. Even myself, an avid reader of psychological crime thrillers found parts of this just too much. Still a good read overall, but I won't rush out for more by Waites at this stage.
3.5 / 5
Ribena falsies
Posted in good-for-you-ness, weird on byHow amazing, Ribena has been caught out* lying for five decades about their product. Making false claims that the blackcurrant drink has four times the Vitamin C of orange juice.
Really, it begs the question, how the hell did they get away with it? And, do you think I could? Make some amazing product made of sawdust or something and say it has three times the Iron as red meat? Brilliant!
*they apparently came forward themselves and confessed, but only because they've been under investigation for twelve months already
*****update-hilariously they've taken down their website too!*****
How to ctrl, alt, delete $48 billion
Posted in NETness on byPerhaps you know that sinking feeling when a single keystroke accidentally destroys hours of work. Now imagine wiping out a disk drive containing information for an account worth $US38 billion ($A48 billion).
That's what happened to a computer technician reformatting a disk drive at the Alaska Department of Revenue. While doing routine maintenance work, the technician accidentally deleted applicant information for an oil-funded account - one of Alaska residents' biggest perks - and mistakenly reformatted the backup drive, as well.
Flickr updates
Posted in on by
Howdy All
Just wanted to update you all that I've loaded all of the wedding photos we have, honeymoon, what have you to my Flickr site and have intentions of loading all the professional photos there too for everyone to view also.
So check it out if you're interested. :)
Link in the sidebar to the right--->>> may need to scroll down.
Marks Godson!
Posted in Misc on by
This is Ryder, Tim and Kel's son, and they've asked Mark to be his Godfather, which is so lovely!!!! He's so cute, this is when he was just a month old. :)
Spiral - Koji Suzuki ****
Posted in Books I've read on by
Can the dead really speak to us?Pathologist Ando is at a low point in his life. His small son's death from drowning has resulted in the break-up of his marriage and he is suffering from traumatic recurrent nightmares. Work is his only escape, and his depressing world of loneliness and regret is shaken up when an old rival from medical school, Ryuji Takayama, turns up on his slab ready to be dissected.
Bizarre things happen during the post mortem that link Ryuji's demise to a series of mysterious deaths that seem to have been caused by a sinister virus. From beyond the grave Ryuji appears to be leading Ando towards a suspicious videotape-could this hold the answer to the riddle of the strange deaths? Or is it merely the first clue? When Ando meets Mai, and attractive former student of Ryuji's, his desire to solve the puzzle transcends curiosity and becomes a matter of life or death.
SPIRAL is the stunning sequel to the highly acclaimed RING and can also be read as a standalone.
A very interesting book, didn't realise it was a sequel, or I may have read RING first. I think it pushes a little too far at the end, but it doesn't spoil it overall.
4 / 5
4 / 5
ooh hopping mad!!!!!
Posted in Laws, Police, ranting on by
What are the point, I ask you, of School Zones if no one bloody well slows down anyway?
Including, the POLICE.
I drive through three school zones on my way to work now, and this morning followed a police car through all three. The first was fairly good traffic, all obeying the rules and the police car was nestled in amongst us all. The second and third were absolutely ridiculous. The police car paid no heed whatsoever to the school zones and these are those ones with the flashing lights on the signs at appropriate times. The police car zomed through the school zone, sitting directly behind a car who also didn't bother slowing down.
What is the blooming point of being a law abiding citizen when the enforcers A) don't bother themselves {which is no surprise to anyway really} and B) don'y bother pulling up anyone else for the offence.
Books I own
Posted in Book'ish'ness, Books I own on by
One of the reasons I started to do write ups on the books I read was to provide a place where I could actually list all the books i own so I could direct others there. Not being able to blog at home kind of put a dent into that plan, actually it derailed it altogether.As such, I'm going to re-start this idea. Now so they don't all show up throughout the posts, I'm going to backdate them and all you need to do is click "Books I Own" in the Labels to the left ----> here in the sidebar
(might need to go down a bit)
and it will bring them all up! I think that will be the best way-Zogg any feedback?
Ciao for now : )
Woo hoo!!
Posted in HomeLife, NETness on by
I am woo hooing because i finally decided to do something about that pesky not-being-able-to-blog-at-home issue. And now it's fixed! Yay!
Essentially when I really went searching I discovered that blogger doesn't actually support Safari (a browser we were using at home on the Mac) and when I rang Unwired to complain about a different style of issue I mentioned it and the guy was all hello, don't know why that isn't working, try downloading Firefox. So I did, and now I'm blogging at home! Sweet!
Toodle pips!
Essentially when I really went searching I discovered that blogger doesn't actually support Safari (a browser we were using at home on the Mac) and when I rang Unwired to complain about a different style of issue I mentioned it and the guy was all hello, don't know why that isn't working, try downloading Firefox. So I did, and now I'm blogging at home! Sweet!
Toodle pips!
New Job
Posted in Misc, Work on by
I know I know I've been really slack with posting this last week. This is due to a number of factors-
- new job has kept me busy learning new things.
- didn't want to be all blogging while I'm meant to be working, at least in my first week
- our Mac at home seems to hate blogger and its affiliate sites. quite bizarre. Zogg perhaps you could shed some light?
- so that means I couldn't blog at work or at home. sorry guys
New Job- Going well, enjoying it. Different to my last one which is a refreshing change. Busy busy and very nice people, I think it's going to be good. Basically the company is a distributer for toner cartridge parts. When people recycle toner cartridges they but the parts from us. I had no idea there was such a large industry so it's interesting. It's also very specific, lots of little parts and about a thousand codes to learn which will keep me busy for a while.
My Sweetie pie has a MySpace!! Check him out here. He's so cute. And don't forget mine!
How good is the Biggest Loser!!! I am addicted! I tape or watch it every single day now. Addicted I tells ya. Go Blue Team!
Daily Telegraph Page 11 today- That's sweetie pies Great Uncle hanging from the Harbour Bridge!!
In Search of a Distant Voice - Taichi Yamada **/*
Posted in Books I've read on by
"Kasama Tsuneo is an immigration officer on Tokyo, struggling to live a “normal” life after an event that happened eight years previously, on the other side of the world, in Portland, Oregon. When he is seized one day by a strange emotional fit his life threatens to spiral out of control. With his arranged marriage looming, his problems worsen following the emergence of a strange voice-a woman who is trying to contact him, but without ever quite revealing herself. Imbued with a beautiful, melancholy sense of longing, the story becomes a quest narrative in which Tsuneo desperately chases this woman, and the mystery behind what happened eight years earlier.Exploring ideas of sexuality, guilt and identity, Taichi Yamada once again displays his unique storytelling qualities, and an uncanny gift for merging the everyday and the surreal."
Weird book. Undecided on whether to recommend, a slim volume so it wouldn't take up much of your life, but very odd.
2.5 / 5
Lightning strikes
Posted in Misc, WORLDliness on by
Some amazing shots of the lightning last night (courtesy SMH), which I can tell you scared the pants off me at one stage. We'd gone to bed already and I was almost asleep when this huge crack bolted me awake and it seriously felt like it landed RIGHT outside our window!! I thought later that I should have tried to take some pics, but alas thought about it too late and by the time I was going to it had moved above us and started to rain on the balcony. Amazing though.
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