Friday, July 18, 2008

Emissions scheme won't be 'pain-free'


Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has shrugged off the growing corporate backlash to his emissions trading scheme, saying he never expected the introduction of the scheme to be easy.

Stick to your guns Kevin. I just hope you do not get overwhelmed by the combined weigh of corporate clowns like Dixon at Qantas, who obviously feels its more important to emit as much jet exhaust and sell as many cigarettes as possible in the name of corporate profit than to help create a habitable planet.
"We can't absorb a $100 million cost, which is the price analysts are saying would be for Qantas. We would have to put that cost back onto our domestic operations," he (Dixon) told a Sydney news conference.

So do it you dickhead. Wake up. You are meant to be a leader. Start leading.

Mr Dixon says the Federal Government's proposed emissions scheme has unfairly singled out the aviation industry.

No they haven't. They might however have fairly singled out one of the industries that is the most wasteful and harmful to ongoing human life. Welcome to the 21st century Geoff.

Its these sorts of statements that could lead one to despair that we will even make it alive to the end of this century. If these corporate leaders are the finest that the western economic system can produce, then we had better change to another system real quick, or we are doomed.

Fortunately, there are still a few real leaders in this world of non-leaders incumbents.
Gore urges Americans to make total shift to renewables
Al Gore has urged Americans to make a total shift from fossil fuels to renewable energy within 10 years.

And BBC adds ...
Mr Gore compared the scale of the challenge to that of putting a man on the moon in the 1960s.

See that; that's leadership!

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

How the obscenely rich stay that way.


I read that Dale Carnegie declared that he thought it was crime for the rich to die that way, so he created the Carnegie charities to give his wealth away. The trouble was, he found that he then somehow got even richer no matter how he tried. The poor guy. Even if I had been around to help him get rid of it, after I got a decent yacht and a couple of houses and maybe lived on a cruise-ship, I would run out of ways for me to spend it and would have to start getting a few hundred thousand others in to help. That's the trouble with us poor people, we just can't think creatively enough about how to squander money. Its damn near criminal of us. Anyway, on with the story.

By Eric Jul. 7th, 2008 at 3:25 pm at http://neosmart.net/blog/2008/richard-stallman-expert-in-the-art-of-fud/

(Reprinted in full)

There are a LOT of correct observations in the comments here including the tax shelter mentioned above.

That's exactly what the B&M foundation was formed for. What most Americans don't know is that many pro athletes (and other wealthy individuals) form these same foundations (IRS 501c3) to shelter their income and all they have to do is utilize a small percentage of the revenue towards the stated goals of the organization as described to the IRS.

I'm also the president of a board for a 501c3 charter school so I know how they are structured and how they work. What most people don't know is that 501c3 status does NOT preclude you from making a profit. There are two types, a non-profit (B&M foundation) and a not for profit. The prior can make money and shelter it within the 501c3 (in a nut-shell).

The other half NO ONE has caught wind of yet (not even RMS) is that the B&M foundation has a large software development team who are actively developing the B&M eCharity platform to manage individual and corporate donations. The B&M foundation is actively pushing this solution at United Way and other large charitable organizations as a middle-man product to collect and manage donations, albeit for a nominal fee. You may say, ehhh.. it's still compulsory usage right? Not exactly... The B&M foundation is pushing hard and getting support.. When you have that kind of cash in the bank (B&M), organizations usually roll over and fall in line.

The CEO of a TX based United Way chapter let me know that this is a MAJOR concern for them because it would centralize charitable donations that Americans normally do through payroll deductions and that cash would then flow through this B&M foundation system. This now creates a vacuum for local charities since the donations would no longer go directly to them (i.e. the local charity chapter). The local charitable organization would have to go this "company" for their money minus the handling (extortion) fees.

Now you have the B&M foundation sitting in the middle of a $300 billion dollar transactional stream taking their cut which goes to the B&M foundation originally formed by Billy G and Warren Buffet to shelter their billions.

You seeing the bigger picture here?? The B&M foundation is not what it's billed as. It is a for profit center (run by a ruthless ex CEO) and they want YOUR money to go to them before going to the charity of YOUR choosing first.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

How the EU Energy Commisssion and the English are buggering the planet.


The EU Energy Commission
At http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2008/06/24/2284726.htm

EU energy commissioner Andris Piebalgs urged OPEC to do away with the grouping's production ceiling in order to provide relief to the market.
"In my opinion, there is no reason to keep ceilings on production," he told journalists.
"If there are no ceilings, markets will adapt much faster.
What's up with these idiots. Hey Andris: "Bugger the market... who cares about it. Oh yeah, clowns like you. Get it into your head: oil is GOING TO RISE BY POWERS OF 10 UNTIL THE PRICE GOES WAY OFF THE SCALE, AND THEN OIL WILL RUN OUT. The best thing to do is to consider the planet, NOT the bloody market, and scale back oil and energy production to planetary-sustainable levels. This way we as humans MIGHT have a chance of not becoming extinct."

Anyone want to give me a job running the EU. This clown obviously has no idea. He would be first for the chop.

The English
Apparently in England, SMEs are bound by law to print, ie hard-copy to dead tree, your business 'paper-war' like invoices. So its the law there, that to prove your expenses and tax position you are REQUIRED to help bugger the planet. 'Printing' to a file, eg Acrobat, is apparently not 'good enough'. They want real dead trees to be used. That sounds like a nationally legislated order compelling global human suicide. Nice going you Poms.
(Please someone: tell me I am wrong about this.)

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Preannouncement: Carbon Offset Tax Scheme Version 2 -


I hereby pre-announce the next major refinement to the global carbon tax scheme. Whereas there is no formal title for the current scheme, and indeed the informal title varies from one country to another.

The new global scheme will simply be known simply as the Carbon Offset Tax Scheme Version 2.

This name, determined after several months of international conferences held in several continents at immense expense to all but the attendees, was carefully and deliberately chosen because it gives the settling impression of being a small refinement of the current schemes, whereby essentially various institutions are taxed on the carbon they produce mainly as CO2. The new version though takes the next logical step at targeting the source and most easily measurable cause of carbon production output. The new version takes the lead of Quality Programs, which focus on the process that produces the output. In step with world's Best Practices in Quality Management theory: to improve the quality of output, improve the quality of the process that produce the output.

Moreover a parallel study, at a cost totalling more than the annual GDP of the 45 poorest nations, by a large number of the most honoured scientists in the developed world, has been conducted. This study was tasked with refining the components of institutions (ie both corporate and public-sector organisations) that can be accountable and therefore directly charged for carbon production. Their major achievement was to deduce that the single factor common to all studied institutions was that these institutions are essentially comprised of individual human beings, and moreover that these beings are essentially the entities that are responsible for controlling and operating all identifiable processes withing that institution.

On the basis of these 2 studies, a series of international meetings of the highest order, attended by statesmen and senior diplomats supported by several squadrons of consultant specialists in concerted workshop sessions, have resulted in the provisional formulation of the interim draft proposal for the Carbon Offset Tax Scheme Version 2 scheme. This scheme focusses directly on :

* individuals, and
* any automated processes that each individual directly engages in or controls, plus
* the actual physical work that the individual personally attempts.

Version 2 can be thus seen as a major refinement of its predecessors. The devil is, as always, in the detail, in that physical work attempted is measured by an individual's rate of physical respiration, ie CO2 produced, in terms of rate of breathing and heartrate. This refinement has far-reaching consequences. The primary consequence is expected to be the establishment of a market for respiratory constraint whereby individuals will be encouraged to trade on their individual respiratory savings attained by any activities or lack thereof, all being directly invoiceable or traded on a market established as a consequence. Tradeable non-activity examples include:

* The 'Fitness Option': achieving sustained optimal respiratory efficiency in personal physical fitness with the minimum of exhursion input to attain the level, itself seemlingly a paradox or catch-22 for many people, and one that implies optimum genetics to achieve,
* The 'Genetic Choice Option': sustained voluntary reduction of potential respiration of any potential offspring by conceiving children with approved partners as per the preceding,
* The 'Safe-sex Option': complete elimination of respiration of any potential offspring by sustained practicing effective birth control,
* The 'Do-nothing Option': sustained reduction of respiratory output by oneself, eg stop moving as much as possible.
* The 'Step-off Option': complete elimination of respiratory output by oneself (Note: this option is not however invoiceable by yourself nor by your estate.)

Details of the establishment of an authority or commission to oversea the Carbon Offset Tax Scheme Version 2 will follow. Of immediate note though:

The Genetic Choice Option will imply the additional use of an international identification scheme to include a personal genetic blueprint. Current national identity schemes will be merged internationally, and incorporate DNA profiling techniques. Also the internet IPv6 protocol will be merged into this, perhaps along with VOIP teleconferencing via robot drone aircraft and current CCTV cameras in some countries, to a substantial monitoring section within the commission. These operators would be tasked with confirming the identity of individuals at locations in realtime as a means of verifying the Genetic Choice Option. This extension might be further investigated in the near future as the 'Propagation Audit' or 'Dogging' Option.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

Aust scientists call for urgent climate change action

(Full news item from the ABC.)

The group, which includes some of the country's leading scientists, population and health experts - as well as politicians - is calling for an urgent response to global warming.

Mate, this is Australia: its not going to happen. This is the country where work is what you often turn up to, to fill in time between weekend barbies.

They say global warming is accelerating at a greater speed than previously thought and the window of opportunity for avoiding severe consequences is rapidly closing.

I could have told you that years ago. And guess what, based on my understanding of human nature and history:
  • most minds are still closed, most people with the resources to do something about it are and will continue to look to their immediate personal interests. That's the way the competitive western world (eg the 'Great American Dream') works. ("Eve of Destruction" by Barrie MaGuire is playing as I type this: co-incidence?)
  • the window will close
  • the rich will make good from global warning
  • the poor will get still poorer, the very poor will die even more. Footnote: It appears that as fossil fuel runs out, sustainable green energy sources will sustain only 6 of the current 7 billion humans anyway. So most of us will need to leave and not breed on. "I've done my bit for the gene pool" will mean the opposite of what it has done until now. When China lost so many children in the earthquake last month, relaxing the one child per family policy was the wrong thing to do. Actually China's entire expansionist policy is going to be an overwhelming problem soon, just as the USA's is now, but that's fodder for another whole post, or more accurately, several entire websites.

I am off for a walk down On The Beach. The whales are back again this month. (Its playing 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' now. i think 'Fool on the Hill' should be next.)

Monday, May 26, 2008

Microsoft: The dinosaur stumbles ...

How long until the fall?

The chooks are finally coming home to roost at Micro$oft. Here is a small sample of articles that indicate the groundswell of opinion that is now finally appearing that shows Microsoft is finally being eclipsed in at least the mindset of the business I.T. world, though certainly not yet being swept off corporate desktops.

There are many articles along similar lines coming from many sources these days, and no longer from open-source or Linux-related websites.

ps. On a similar vein, I thought this report, Lenovo Linux-Powered ThinkPad in Action, was worthwhile for anyone looking to buy a computer. I have been back using mainly desktops for years now, as I did not need the portability laptops and notebooks. However lately there seem to be many notebooks that offer excellent functionality at comparatively little premium. So as long as they do not suffer any hardware component failure once your warranty runs out (and IBM/Lenovo, and Toshibas too for that matter, are known to be robust), they are becoming serious contenders as total desktop computer replacements.

pps: Corporate clowns: Is the penny dropping? you don't have to buy/use Windows any more in many cases. And for those odd Windows applications that you think you really really cannot do without, your Linux machine can now run them within a Windows virtual machine.

Saturday, May 17, 2008

Taking it to the streets: New immigrants show Australians how to be Australian

A nice article by Sushi Das about shaking the tree the way Australians used to, eg back in the days of the Eureka stockade. (That's way back before even the Vietnam protest days: possibly the last time people actually got out and said something back to the government).

Oh wait: Eureka stockade: they were new immigrants too weren't they? (Mainly Irish? ... and Chinese?)

Linux and the tax office: never the twain shall meet



Read this shining example of institutional inertia/incompetence at the Australian tax office.