Check out this table to see what bad / better choices you can make when buying seafood...
Wednesday, October 26, 2005
Seafood - choose wisely
Control Freaks - U.S. control of the Internet
More concern over the control freakery of Mr. Bush, I like the bit about 'problematic human rights' and 'questionable taxation practices', ha ha ha, they are off the planet, no? ..... JT x
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WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Three lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives called on Friday for the Internet's core infrastructure to remain under U.S. control, echoing similar language introduced in the Senate earlier this week.
The resolution, introduced by two Republicans and one Democrat, aims to line up Congress firmly behind the Bush administration as it heads for a showdown with much of the rest of the world over control of the global computer network.
"Turning the Internet over to countries with problematic human-rights records, muted free-speech laws, and questionable taxation practices will prevent the Internet from remaining the thriving medium it has become today," said California Republican Rep. John Doolittle in a statement.
Doolittle introduced the resolution with Virginia Republican Rep. Bob Goodlatte and Virginia Democratic Rep. Rick Boucher.
Countries including Brazil and Iran want an international body to oversee the addressing system that guides traffic across the Internet, which is currently overseen by a California nonprofit body that answers to the U.S. Department of Commerce.
The European Union withdrew its support of the current system last month, and the issue is expected to come to a head at a U.N. summit meeting in Tunisia in November.
The Bush administration has made clear that it intends to maintain control.
If a settlement is not reached, Internet users in different parts of the globe could potentially wind up at different Web sites when they type an address into their browsers.
U.S. lawmakers have backed the Bush administration's stance, arguing that a U.N. group would stifle innovation with excessive bureaucracy and enable repressive regimes to curtail free expression online.
Top Republicans and Democrats on the House Commerce Committee sent a letter of support to the Bush administration earlier this month. In the Senate, Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman has introduced a resolution supporting the administration's stance.
"The United States is uniquely positioned in the world to protect the fundamental principles of free press and free speech, upon which the Internet has thrived," Goodlatte said in a statement.
The United States has not always taken a hands-off approach to Internet regulation. In August the Commerce Department asked the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, the California body that oversees domain names, to postpone action on a proposed .xxx domain for sex sites.
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Tuesday, October 25, 2005
JT Trip to Cobar, NSW
I'm working out at a gold mine in Cobar, NSW.
Cobar is 9 hours drive inland directly west from Sydney. Or a 2 hour flight. The final leg of the flight is in an 8 seater and has the most amazing views. Then it rained and got a bit sweaty for the landing.
Cobar & its shire has 7000 people on an area the size of Tasmaina, 5500 whom are in Cobar town itself. That's about the same size as the Republic of Ireland.
At the mine - they buy CATs that they have to chop up and reassemble down below... See pics...
I was told they check the runway for kangaroo's before each flight.
Incidentially - Did you know that Kangaroo means 'I don't understand' in Aboriginal...
Saturday, October 22, 2005
More pics uploaded
Monday, October 17, 2005
Super Swimmer
Super Swimmer
Originally uploaded by J J n' N.
One happy, one sad....
Noah turn's it on again!
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Thursday, October 13, 2005
Wednesday, October 12, 2005
Venezuela Switches to Euros -- Ominous News for the American Economy
this is actually very important news... JT x
Venezuela Switches to Euros -- Ominous News for the American Economy
The U.S. economy faces utter collapse if OPEC and other oil-producing countries were to begin pricing their oil in euros rather than dollars. When Iraq tried to switch to euros in 2000, they were attacked by the USA soon thereafter.
Recently, Business Week reported that oil producer, Venezuela, "has moved its central bank foreign reserves out of U.S. banks, liquidated its investments in U.S. Treasury securities and placed the funds in Europe."
The importance of this news should not be underestimated.
Dollar Hegemony
Generally speaking, international trade has become a process in which the U.S. produces dollars and the rest of the world produces goods and/or services that dollars can buy. Nations trade to capture needed dollars to service dollar-denominated foreign debts and to amass dollar reserves in order to sustain the exchange value of their domestic currencies. As it currently stands, if a country wants to prevent damage to its currency, that nation's central banks must acquire and hold dollar reserves in amounts corresponding to their own currencies in circulation. Fortunately for the U.S., this system (in place since WWII) creates a built-in support for a strong dollar that in turn forces the world's central banks to acquire and hold even more dollar reserves, making the dollar stronger still.
This phenomenon, known as "dollar hegemony," is created by the geopolitically constructed peculiarity that critical commodities, such as oil, are denominated in dollars. And because oil is priced in "dollars" for the most part, everyone accepts dollars as the currency of choice.
The strength of the dollar since 1945 is a result, for the most part, of the dollar being the international reserve currency for global oil transactions (i.e., "petro-dollar"). As a result of the dollar being the standard denomination for oil transactions, the U.S. prints hundreds of billions of these fiat petro-dollars, which are then used by nation states to purchase oil from the oil producing nations. These petro-dollars are subsequently recycled from the oil producing countries back into the U.S. via Treasury Bills or other dollar-denominated assets such as U.S. stocks, real estate, etc.
Because of this system, dollar reserves must be invested in U.S. assets which produces a capital accounts surplus for the U.S. economy. Luckily for the United States, the U.S. capital account surplus finances the U.S. trade deficit to a certain extent. [But if the capital account surplus should diminish (as countries shift to euros rather than dollars) and the U.S. trade deficit continues to grow even wider, the American economy will rupture quickly.]
Since the U.S. prints the petro-dollars, for all intents and purposes, the U.S. controls the flow of oil. When oil is denominated in dollars as the only fiat currency for trading in oil, an argument can be made that the U.S. essentially owns the world's oil for free.
So what happens if the oil producing nations decide to suddenly begin trading oil on the euro standard? Without being dramatic, the United States would go into economic ruin. Oil-consuming nations would be forced to flush dollars out of their central bank reserves and replace them with euros. The dollar would crash in value and the consequences would be similar to the types of currency collapses we have seen in Mexico, Argentina, etc. Foreign investments would pour out of the U.S. securities markets. Similar to the 1930's, the current account deficit would become unserviceable, the budget deficit would go into default, many banks would collapse overnight.
And that's just what would happen in this country. America's economic crash would result in the economic crash of many other nations. Most notably-- Japan.
We all know what happened to the last major oil producing country that shifted from dollars to euros. We also know what might happen to other major oil producing countries if they shift to euros.
As we have discussed at The Bulldog Manifesto (here and here), history is filled with examples where the United States has used military force to protect it's economic interests.
And now that Venezuela is shifting, what will happen to them?
all kangaroo valley photos uploaded
click here for the photo album on flickr (I tell you this blog stuff is just getting better...)
Tuesday, October 11, 2005
blogging and all things...
This was sent from my email at work.....
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It took me 10 minutes to set up our new site at www.blogger.com (owned by Google). But I have been fiddling.
How easy is it to post to your blog?
- I can just send an email to 'my secret email address' they give you and the contents are posted straightaway
- I can download a plugin for word that allows me to publish word doc's straight to the site
- I can download a piece of software called Picasa (www.picasa.com) & Hello (www.hello.com) yes also owned by google, that 1) automatically searches & organises pics on my whole PC (v. sexy – ooh like a mac), can super easy edit them (redeye, colour, sharpness, etc), and then 2) using 'Hello' will post them straight to the blog – no resizing (I pre-select the quality & size)) or storage issues (well one but we'll come to that)
- Or just use the normal 'post editor' provided on the site – a wysiwyg style editor.
- I have also created to syndication feeds (real easy) – one direct using the Atom format, and then using 'Feedburner' (www.feedburner.com) , created an RSS XML feed (easy) so I can push my content out to others who what to subscribe (family, friends, etc). They also have little widgets and hacks like the feed thingy below.
There are shit loads of more hacks – I have put up some 'On this day' and other links. As it's HTML – you can fiddle if you feel like.
The only issue I'm having is one of photo storage – you can dump up to 300MB of photos direct to the site and they will store them no probs, but if you want a photo album facility you need to link to an external party, or if you already have one (like yahoo photos etc) then you can link between the two, especially with the feeds, in fact yahoo also allows you to post direct to your blog as well.
I have not yet transferred my old website over, so the content is a bit bare – oh – you don't have to have your blog hosted on www.blogger.com – you can set up your own, or elsewhere (ISP) – blogger.com will just ftp all your files over seamlessly – that's my next step.
Take care out there…
Monday, October 10, 2005
Sunday, October 09, 2005
Latest CIA information
**Latest intercepted terrorist transmission to be read by all operatives**
-----Original Message-----
From: Osama Bin Laden [mailto:osama@alqueda.com]
Sent: 29 July 2005 11:25
To: Ahmed, Mustafa, Mohamed, Hooky, Big Saiheed, Al Qaeda Warriors (Group), Mum
Subject: Issues still not addressed since last meeting!!
FROM: Bin Laden, Osama.
TO: All Al Qaeda Fighters.
Hi guys. We've all been putting in long hours recently but we've really come together as a group and I love that! However, while we are fighting a jihad, we can't forget to take care of the cave, and frankly I have a few concerns:
First of all: While it's good to be concerned about cruise missiles, we should be even more concerned about the dust in our cave. We want to avoid excessive dust inhalation, (a health and safety issue) - so we need to sweep the cave daily. I've done my bit on the cleaning roster - have you? I've posted a sign-up sheet near the cave reception area(next to the Halal toaster/griller).
Second: It's not often I make a video address but when I do, I'm tryin to scare the hell out of most of the world's population, okay? That means that while we're taping, please do not ride your scooter in the background or keep doing the 'Wasssuuup' thing. Thanks.
Third: Food. I bought a box of Bega cheese recently, clearly wrote "Ossy" on the front, and put it on the top shelf of the fridge. Today, two of my Bega slices were gone. Consideration. That's all I'm saying.
Fourth: I'm not against team spirit and all that, but we must distance ourselves from the Infidel's bat and ball games. And Please do not chant "Ossy, Ossy, Ossy. Oii Oii Oii" when I ride past on the donkey. Thanks.
Fifth: Graffiti. Whoever wrote "OSAMA F**** DONKEYS" on the group toilet wall, it's a lie. The donkey backed into me, whilst I was relieving myself at the edge of the mountain.
Sixth: The use of chickens is strictly for food. Assam, the old excuse that the 'chicken backed into me, whilst I was relieving myself at the edge of the mountain' will not be accepted in future. (With donkeys there is a grey area).
Finally, we've heard that there may be Western soldiers in disguise trying to infiltrate our ranks. I want to set up patrols to look for them. First patrol will be Omar, Muhammad, Abdul, Akbar and Dave.
Love you lots, Group Hug. Os.
PS - I'm sick of having "Osama's Bed Linen" scribbled on my laundry bag. Cut it out, it's not funny anymore.
Osama Bin Laden
CEO
Al Queda PLC
Secret Bunker
Afghanistan
"Bringing terror to the masses"
Tel: 01659- B-O-M-B-U
E-Mail - osama@alqueda.com <mailto:osama@alqueda.com>
link to old website
until we get our old pics and stuff transferred across, please click here to access our old website.
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