A summer of sorrow in Australasia - a winter of discontent in the Middle East. It's hard to know which is more destructive - the enormous power of Nature's floods, fires and earthquakes, or the implacable resistance of dictators to the people power of courageous human beings.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
More Botannical Art
From the cover of the
PROCEEDINGS OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY OF QUEENSLAND
December 2010 Volume 116
 |
| Acacia macradenia Benth.; Common name: Zig-zag Wattle |
Artist: Dr. Tanya Scharaschkin
Tuesday, February 15, 2011
Making budget cuts (US Style).
One item in the White House's proposed budget for fiscal year 2012 will halve funding for the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program. Its allocation will be reduced from just over $5 billion to $2.5 billion.
Roughly 8.3 million people used the program last year. Its target population is the elderly and the disabled. It is estimated that the reduction would amount to 3.1 million households going without assistance on heating and cooling costs.
Overall the Obama budget produces $25 billion savings over 10 years.
The cost of extending the Bush tax cuts
for those earning over $250, 000 is $700 billion over 10 years
The projected cumulated shortfall
in the Obama budget is $7,200 billion over the next 10 years
Roughly 8.3 million people used the program last year. Its target population is the elderly and the disabled. It is estimated that the reduction would amount to 3.1 million households going without assistance on heating and cooling costs.
Overall the Obama budget produces $25 billion savings over 10 years.
The cost of extending the Bush tax cuts
for those earning over $250, 000 is $700 billion over 10 years
The projected cumulated shortfall
in the Obama budget is $7,200 billion over the next 10 years
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Aftermath
When the tumult and the shouting dies, will the Egyptian people find their promised land?
The demonstrations in Egypt this week brought back memories of the fall of the Berlin wall. But Egypt faces enormous challenges to meet the aspirations of its people, especially its youth and its middle class. Theirs will be a more difficult transition than that of Germany in 1989.
Compared with the problems of Pakistan, however, Egypt seems more likely to come through its demonstration of people power to a better future. Recent demonstrations in Pakistan have not been built on a strong middle-class base, do not propose a worthwhile future for the young and have ambivalent support from the army. More often than not demonstrators have supported jihadist causes.
The aftermath of the Egyptian uprising may be uncertain, but it has dealt a death blow to the old entrenched regime, which is very likely to impact on the Arab Muslim world in general. Unfortunately, however, it is not likely to provide a model for a better future for Pakistan.
The demonstrations in Egypt this week brought back memories of the fall of the Berlin wall. But Egypt faces enormous challenges to meet the aspirations of its people, especially its youth and its middle class. Theirs will be a more difficult transition than that of Germany in 1989.
Compared with the problems of Pakistan, however, Egypt seems more likely to come through its demonstration of people power to a better future. Recent demonstrations in Pakistan have not been built on a strong middle-class base, do not propose a worthwhile future for the young and have ambivalent support from the army. More often than not demonstrators have supported jihadist causes.
The aftermath of the Egyptian uprising may be uncertain, but it has dealt a death blow to the old entrenched regime, which is very likely to impact on the Arab Muslim world in general. Unfortunately, however, it is not likely to provide a model for a better future for Pakistan.
Friday, February 4, 2011
The trees looked just like matchsticks
More disaster --- a category 5 cyclone struck the coast of north Queensland this week. With extensive preparation, effective emergency management and a degree of good luck the consequences were less disastrous than might have been expected. Nevertheless there has been immense damage to infrastructure and agriculture and many people lost homes and possessions from the terrifying winds that stripped all the foliage from all the trees leaving them standing like matchsticks among the desolation and ruin.
There has been much media cover of the destruction and of the emergency responses. There has been little consideration of the causes of these repeated exceptional natural disasters. Ross Garnaut is reported in a recent article as saying that climate change is happening more quickly than he suggested in his first report, while Clive Hamilton goes so far as to say Queensland is being sacrificed to Australia’s and the world’s unwillingness to take global warming seriously.
There has been much media cover of the destruction and of the emergency responses. There has been little consideration of the causes of these repeated exceptional natural disasters. Ross Garnaut is reported in a recent article as saying that climate change is happening more quickly than he suggested in his first report, while Clive Hamilton goes so far as to say Queensland is being sacrificed to Australia’s and the world’s unwillingness to take global warming seriously.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
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