my unix

I have been watching over the past 6 months or so as the Indian media has whipped up totally insane amounts of hysteria about so called “racist” attacks against Indian students in Australia. First let me make clear a few things:

1 – Indian students are the mainstay employee of night shifts at petrol stations and convenience stores. These are inherently risky jobs.

2 – Flashing your $600 iphone around on a train at midnight is stupid in anyones books…if you get robbed for it that is not racism. I have seen lots of Indian students doing this. I know a former Rugby League player who had a gang attempt to rob him for a laptop on a train at 8PM at night, if he is a potential target then anyone is.

Yes there have been a few racist attacks against Indians but it is statistically not any more than other Western countries. We don’t agree with those attacks and we find them absolutely disgusting. Over hyping any time a crime is perpetrated against an Indian is not helping anyone, and portraying our police officers as “Ku Klux Klan” in a cartoon will only breed resentment and fuel the very problem we are trying to solve. As one commentator here put it, cartoons are usually created by someone who is funny or witty, the creator of this cartoon was neither.

Many many generations of people grew up with Gumby, the classic stop motion clay animation. It is with much sadness I found that the creator of Gumby, Art Clokey, passed away at the ripe old age of 89. RIP, you will be missed.

I was looking around on the Australian Governments Climate Change web site just now and the cynic inside of me started screaming…loudly!!!

Under a section called “What can you do” I found such handy tips as “offsetting my carbon footprint” and “how to take voluntary action”. Well thats nice! But let me tell you what is not nice, building new coal power stations…thats NOT NICE (yes seriously). Upping taxes on renewable fuel sources and giving free ETS credits to big polluters, also not nice!

WTF is the point in me changing my light bulbs and using the air conditioning less when these enormous behemoths vomit my lifetime emissions in a single bloody minute?

So Penny Wong, here is my list of “What you can do”:

1. Tax transport fuels based upon their emission lifecycle. Use the revenues for something useful, like, ummm better public transport and more efficient roadways.
2. Ban all new coal power plants unless they will go into production without emitting greenhouse gases…not with future promises that they’ll fix it
3. Put some serious funding towards renewable fuel stocks such as algae, salicornia or jatropha. Maybe we can use those deserts of ours for making fuel, without disrupting food crops.
4. Get serious about nuclear power, i know its politically sensitive but seriously we want a government with a spine.
5. Start penalizing wasteful cars. i.e. the Hummer, especially for the jerks that park them on skinny streets and block the road. Charge them more for registration as they damage the road more.

I have just had DHL totally screw up a delivery, fair enough these things happen. what really pisses me off is that their so called service centre does not seem to care. Promised return calls that never happen, half an hour wait times. Extrememlyt rude staff who don’t listen. Basically really shit customer service. DHL absolutely suck. Do not use them!