spinbadz own

In his autobiography "My Life", Bill Clinton wastes no time in singing praise to Billy Graham.

Leaping out of the gates on page 39 of the 1000+ page Random House hardback edition, the former president proudly describes how the aging reverend prayed with him in the Oval Office, after which he (Graham) wrote "inspiring letters of instruction and encouragement in my (Clinton's) times of trial."

Hmmm. Little surprise then that Reverend Graham appears to have come out publicly for Hilary-For-Prez, at a time when the energetic Clinton continues to actively promote his book. He is said to have autographed in excess of 60,000 copies thus far.

In the tome, Clinton says Graham had a profound influence on his formative thinking:

"The biggest thing that happened to me (in the 1958-9 school year, was) ... to hear Billy Graham preach in his crusade in War Memorial Stadium ...Racial tensions were still high ...

Segregationists ... suggested that ... it would be better if Reverend Graham restricted admission ... to whites only. He replied that Jesus loved all sinners ... Back then Billy Graham was the living embodiment of Southern Baptist authority ...

(He) delivered a powerful message in his trademark twenty minutes. (H)undreds of blacks and whites came down the stadium aisles together ... It was a powerful counterpoint to (racism) ...

I loved Billy Graham for doing that."

Consider the following sample of recent news and opinion stories:

- An "ABC News /Washington Post News Poll" finds a negative impression amongst US voters regarding President Bush's Iraq policy;

- A Sydney Morning Herald op-ed writer opines that the Nobel Prize for Literature virtually guarantees the failure of the awarded piece and its author, and cites Australian legend Patrick White as an example;

- An instalment of the television series "Cold Case" assumes that McCarthyism is evil and that the Rosenbergs were treated grotesquely;

- The share price of Google rockets past the US$300 mark, pushing the company's value past that of Hewlett-Packard and Time-Warner;

- Something called the "International Whaling Commission", or some such thing, rails against Japan's intention to increase its annual whale catch.

Is it just me, or is it a sign of either the times or maturity that cynicism colours my reaction to each?

As to the first item: the anti-Bush trend may be correct, but you have to wonder about the source, don't you.

As to the second: the unimpeachable bastion of accomplishment that was the Nobel Prize winner's circle in the 20th century is no more. Witness the demise of the Peace Prize.

And does anyone seriously like Patrick White?

As to the third: Anyone who has open-mindedly read the analysis of so-called "McCarthyism" in Ann Coulter's "Treason" must wonder about the Hollywood and medialand assumption that the Senator Joe was the devil's spawn, that the Rosenberg's did not pass on core nuclear secrets to the Soviet Union, and that communist infiltration was not a serious issue.

As to the fourth: You have to wonder whether Google's price is justified - it isn't, apparently, in terms of current revenues and profits - and whether said price will plummet some time soon. Given the leftish bias evident to Google users and the pro-Democrat leanings of the company's honchos, I'm presently rooting for it's demise. Might be a good time to short.

At the same time and in that event, I hope it continues to out-strip Time-Warner.

As to the fifth: Noone dislikes whales or wants to see them perish from the earth, least of all the Japanese and the other whaling nations. In all the media guffaw, one has to search hard to find details of what the Japanese government actually said to the whaling commission.

Oh the cynicism! Was I always like this?

"We all know oil and gas depletion will start in 2030 or 2035, ... "

... (R)enewable energy sources like wind or solar power are unlikely to provide more than 15 or 20 percent of the world's energy needs.

There is enough coal in the earth to keep the world running for centuries, but at an unacceptable environmental cost because of air pollution. As the world's oil and gas fields become exhausted, the world is expect to increase its reliance on nuclear energy.

Still, few scientists expect a fusion reactor to generate commercially viable electricity before the middle of the century, if by then.

For the non-nuclear-savyy like YT, please note that "fusion" is a very different thing to "fission".

The subject of the NYT article from which the above has been extracted is the plan to now build the world's first nuclear fusion reactor in France.

Haaretz reports:

Russia's state prosecutor has ordered a ... probe against a Jewish umbrella organization in Russia for distributing a Russian translation of an abbreviation of the Shulhan Arukh (a well-known 16th century Orthodox Jewish religious text) ... especially regarding its treatment of non-Jews.

... (T)his is the first time since Stalin's regime that Russian officials have described holy Jewish scriptures as prohibited incitement. The affair has been covered widely by the Russian news media ...

The inquiry was launched following a letter signed by 500 public figures, including some 20 members of the nationalist Rodina party, urging the state prosecutor to outlaw the Jewish religion and all the Jewish organizations operating in Russia.

These days, the concern of many an Aussie conversation is water, or lack thereof.

The Sydney equivalent of a conversation filler like "Beautiful day, isn't it?" seems to have become "Oh good, it's raining today. Hope we're getting some in the catchment area."

Maybe the inversion is a southern hemisphere thing. Like water travelling down the the drain in the opposite direction, if you will.

With Australian dams draining faster than Bob Hawke can drain a glass of cold beer, it's refreshing to read some fresh ideas on the subject, like those offered by (UNSW Dean of Science) Mike Archer after a trip to arid Israel, including inter alia:

... We live in the flattest, driest vegetated continent. ... a mere 15 per cent can be considered reliably well watered.

To complicate matters, we have the world's least typical rivers. Many never reach the sea but flow, often only now and then, towards the inland. They may end in billabongs, sink into the ground or evaporate in the hot sun.

... Australia simply can't afford to wallow in doom and gloom.


What ... options are there? ... using medusa bags to bring freshwater from where it is abundant to where it is needed. These huge nylon sacks are the size a supertanker and, because freshwater floats on salt water, they can be towed across the ocean by tugs.


... Obviously, there would be an energy cost in harvesting and distributing water in this way but it could provide a reliable source of water to any city or town along the coast.

Where would we store surpluses produced in this way? ... safely underground in suitable aquifers where it can't evaporate?

Think of the vast amounts of rainwater that Sydney's roofs and roadways send into our stormwater system: even if we all had rainwater tanks, we'd never be able to collect more than a small fraction of the massive volume of water that torrents down when the coastal rains arrive.

Perhaps all that water could be collected and stored underground, filtered by billions of tonnes of sandstone, rather than shunted out to sea? We'll soon see: Sydney businessman Gary Johnston has very generously put his money where his vision is on this issue and donated $1 million to the University of NSW to establish a professorship to research how to move and store water in underground aquifers. We're searching for the right candidate now. This should add another element of resilience to the blueprint for Sydney: more reliable water in this, the most unreliable of lands.

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Underground aquifers!

Tanker-sized "medusa" bags of fresh water floating on the ocean!

Great stuff. More tantalising, for mine, than the (now standard) bleating on the left for self-sustainability with respect to energy, though the achievement of such, as per the sustainable house highlighted in this link is admirable:

Each year Sydney's Sustainable House...




- Saves 102,000 litres of water which is left in the Shoalhaven river and Warragamba Dam

- Keeps >60,000 litres of sewage out of the Pacific Ocean

- Saves 4.3 tonnes of coal from burning

- Cuts Council's waste by several tonnes. The waste stsyem recycles newspaper, kitchen scraps, compost

- Produces $1119.30 of clean energy a year, or $3.06 a day

- Keeps >80,000 litres of stormwater out of Sydney Harbour


"Looking back on what we did and our experience living here in the first 12 months, it seems to us that perhaps the key tool for anyone wishing to live sustainably is already held by each of us: to use it we need only say to ourselves, "I can do this"."

For more information contact Michael Mobbs
ph +61 2 9310 2930
fax +61 2 9310 1893

I wonder what costs and maintenance are involved re that house and it's impressive facets.