More Zep.

Quite a few online bits and pieces about the Lep Zeppelin reunion gig from yesterday including set lists. (Oh, and to show that Zep fans have extraordinary good taste, it looks like Naomi Campbell had her bag stolen from the gig! Sucker!) Looks like they had heaps of TV cameras there so hopefully a DVD will be released soon.

In other news, another piece about how carbon dioxide may not necessarily be the only influence on global warming. It pulls up short of advocating burning all your garbage and buying nothing but Hummers, but it looks like people are doing that anyway...

The other side

I guess I shouldn't be exclusively a bad news bear. Some good and interesting stuff is happening around the place.

Take in England for example, where they're looking at massively expanding their use of wind power. We should be doing the same thing here in Australia - we've got the space! (as well as expanding our use of solar and geo-thermal power generation...)

And today's 'interesting scientific thingy' goes to Noctilucent Clouds - or clouds that glow in the dark. Sounds a bit spooky, and there's speculation that they're somehow related to climate change, but the pix are awesome.

Share and enjoy

Best comment ever.

From The Age:

A writer for a column called The Religious Write asked, "Religion remains an important influence in Australia's region. Can we use it to build ties? How? Are there better ways?"

To which one witty commentator replied,

"I don't think religion can be used to build ties. Ties need to be built from some kind [of] fibre, which is then woven into a fabric and cut and sewn into the classic tie shape.

You could use religious motifs to decorate ties, I suppose, but this may well end up offending people who feel their religious motifs need more respect.

All in all, probably best to keep religion completely separate from ties and corporate menswear in general."

Hear hear, my humour-infused keeper of all things mirthy.

Oh, and Led Zeppelin have played their first concert in quite a long time. That's LED ZEPPELIN. Gonna get that one...

Sorry, but...

... can anyone please tell me why a church needs to have armed security guards?

I mean, apart from the obvious answer of, "So they can kill the armed psychotics who try to break in and kill every one," (which begs another question of how psychos seem to find it so easy to lay their mentally-impaired hands on guns... but anyway)

Another interesting point is how many of these psychos seem to come from 'deeply religious' family backgrounds as well...

Something isn't working, people!

To summarize...

With so much going on at the moment, it's good that there are journalists out there who can take such a voluminous amount of information and sum it up for us in a way that's comprehensible.

Today's offer takes in the current state of the US presidential elections, which, unfortunately, affect us all, as well as the furor over the Rape of Nanking.

Tonight, I am going for a walk, reading and strumming the guitar. Summer TV is now in full effect; there is absolutely nothing I'm interested in watching tonight!

Bad news... and a little good.

Gotta love the USA - at least those that dwell behind its white-housed walls.

Firstly, they think they can destroy e-mails without impunity, except since Watergate that's illegal (and an impeachable offense...)

Secondly, they think they can now kidnap anyone, anywhere, anytime, for any reason.

From the article: "Until now it was commonly assumed that US law permitted kidnapping only in the “extraordinary rendition” of terrorist suspects. The American government has for the first time made it clear in a British court that the law applies to anyone, British or otherwise, suspected of a crime by Washington."

Thirdly, they really have no idea what's happening in Iraq, or they really know what's going on and are hoping it just goes away...

Makes fiction look like a documentary...

This looks like a fun movie.

At last it looks like China has begun to see the benefits of going organic - not to mention the dollar signs whizzing past its eyes... A small glimmer of hope, but a long way to go.

And I'm growing a beard.

Aaaah yes.

Another day in paradise... more or less. Yesterday was pretty mucky, with hot (37) temperatures followed by strong winds, thunder and a brief rainstorm. Today's looking better though. The only place in Australia getting any decent rain at the moment is around Sydney - and that's been hardly enough to raise the level of water in storage. The drought lingers on...

So, another day, another massacre in the USA. Another massacre in the USA, another swag of reports avoiding the elephant in the room; that people can still buy assault weapons more easily than a decent meal. Seriously, I could only find one report (from an Aussie newspaper) that said anything about gun control. Yay - journalism!

In other news, America's "teenage birth rate rose for the first time in 15 years, surprising government health officials who had no immediate explanation." I'll give you guys one guess.

Actually, two.

Also, the US Coast Guard has reeled in about US$4.7 billion worth of cocaine so far this year. Interestingly "the street value of the drugs seized or removed last year by the Coast Guard equals roughly half the agency's total annual budget," which leads to some interestingly speculations about what happens to the drugs, once seized...

Also, Pizza Hut (in America, unfortunately) has instant cardiac arrests on sale - for a limited time! Also, The Whopper is 50 years old - much like the special sauce, and beer isn't just for drinking - or spraying across the white t-shirted chests of buxom college girls.

Ye Update

Well. It's been quite the couple of weeks.

First there's been the big events with the election and the change of government. If you've been under a rock or in Outer Uzbekistan, there was an election last weekend and the Labour Party won so we now have a centre-right government instead of a slightly more to the right centre-right government! The new bunch seem like decent people and it's certainly time for a breath of fresh air. We'll all be watching with interest to see how they fare.

I watched the saga unfold on the telly (ABC, naturally!) at my friend's house with beer and pizza. The pizza delivery guy made a mess - when he delivered the pizzas one of them had slipped to one end of the pizza box! Not good! They supplied a fresh one after I called to register my unhappiness. My mate's girlfriend decided that this election stuff was boring so she spent a couple of hours surfing the Net and watching Star Wars! My friend had to do some much needed girlfriend maintenance the next day!

As far as my current casual job is concerned, it finishes next week. They're getting a full-time trainee so my time is done. It's been great to get some new skills under my belt (if you want fuel injectors stripped, cleaned, tested and kitted up - I'm your guy!) as well as spend a heap of time with my best mate. I'm sure he'll remind me to take him out for drinks to say thanks!

The weather's been lovely. I've watched cricket and basketball matches, been to the beach and the park, been people watching and garden viewing. It's been just wonderful.

I have just over a month of this to go then it'll be back to Japan; cold weather, hustling about trying to get everything together before my new job starts on the 7th of January. Yay...

Dry

One of the big things that really really hit you when you come to Australia is how dry it is. The nation is in the midst of a drought that has lasted more than 5 years in some places.

How do you deal with that?

On a practical, everyday level it involves doing things to minimize your domestic water usage, like take short showers, recycle grey water for the garden, install drip watering systems, rainwater tanks, extensive mulching, plant native species, etc.

The government also enforce restrictions such as not washing your car and limiting watering your garden to once a week.

So are all gardens dead and dying? To the contrary, a lot are looking beautiful right now.

A couple of good sites here and here provide some good points on what causes drought, as well as its impact on Australia. This one also looks at the drought situation in the U.S. but this article goes a long way to explaining the current global impact of drought.


Another thing I've noticed is how frightfully expensive houses are. Adelaide is one of the fastest growing housing markets in Australia - at least as for as appreciation of prices is concerned. This is despite interest rates rising in order to put a dampener on inflation.

The cause is hard to pin down, There have been a variety of influences at work over the past few years. For example, people have been investing in second (or third) homes - as individuals or part of investment companies; the economy has been growing steadily for the past ten years and so some people have had more to invest. There's also been the resources boom, causing high demand in certain parts of the country.

The population growth is outstripping the rate at which new homes can be built. Also people want their own home. There are rarely medium or high density projects going up outside of the city centre (and there are a lot of them going up anyway - with the apartments getting snapped up by investors, rather than tenants) and the long term planning isn't to develop regional residential centres based around shopping and business hubs.

Whatever the reason, I am even less likely to be buying a house here in the near future!


Znet had a couple of good articles, one about the possible implications of genetic testing for race, the other looking at how George Bush does actually kowtow to terrorists and the protagonists of genocide - namely in Turkey.

Also there was this delightful story of a maths text book in the U.S. being sent back after 109,263 errors were discovered in it!

A lot happens...

... in a month.

Nova has collapsed.

I've got a new job starting in January - teaching English to (mostly) kids in Tatsuno, which is the city next to Himeji.

And I'm now in Australia!

My new job requires a driver's license, so the easiest way to get that was to sign over my Australian one. The only problem was that I needed to have spent three months in Oz to qualify. So that's why I'm here now.

So, I'm working at my best friend's company. Ironically, I'm driving every day as part of my job, so I'm getting a lot of practice!

I'm starting to relax after the stress of the past few months. I'm getting back into the Aussie swing of things. The weather is coming good, there are all the awesome summer type activities to enjoy.

So, that's how my last month has been.

And more

A bit more Nova stuff.

Here are some translations from Japanese articles I've alluded to below.

Here, here and here.

Today is supposed to be the 'real' payday. So far, no money has arrived, and it looks very unlikely.

There have been no faxes from HQ either promising payment, so it looks like they have no idea either. (or they're just regarding their employees with utter contempt - either way, it's not good)


In other, more interesting news, scientists have dated the emergence of homo sapiens back 40,000 years or so - to about 160,000 years ago.

Also, my favourite conspiracy theorist, Alex Jones, has a new movie coming out.

More Nova stuff

There was quite a bit of coverage of yesterday's 'strike' on Japanese TV and in the press. (and here too)

As for me, I spent today at the office of my new employer, learning about their teaching methodology and observing some lessons. I officially start in January so I hope going in early like this makes a good impression...

I start my paid holidays on Friday. My 'last day' is November 23. Aaaaah.

.....

We probably won't be getting paid, but what the hey... it's holidays!

Getting up to date...

With Nova's demise starting to go into action, today's going to be quite an action packed day.

The General Union are going to pay a visit to the labour standards authority here in Osaka to petition for the payment of wages as well as for them to do something about the company in general for breaking any number of laws.

This article describes the fundamental dodginess behind the latest wheeling and dealing to try to keep the company afloat, although it looks like that's all fallen through as one of the main people involved was arrested the other day on insider trading charges - and Nova was implicitly linked through the article (in Japanese though, so I won't post it). Companies from the British Virgin Islands indeed...

What most people want is for bankruptcy to be declared so that teachers can get most of their back wages paid and they can claim unemployment benefits if they're eligible. Arresting the president of the company for his repeated violations of the labor standards law would be a start.

At least the Australian consulate has said they'll help out Australian citizens. Hopefully I won't need it.

Today could be my last day at Nova...


Some music to lighten things up.

It was good to see that one of my favourite Australian bands, Art Of Fighting, got some nice coverage in the news recently.

Also I want to see the Ian Curtis biopic.

And I made another webpage for my band - which has been linked on my Facebook page - so I'm waiting for the sales to come rolling in... errrrmmmm....


This (October 15th - as it would currently be in the U.S. - so behind the times!) being Blog Action Day, it's about time I did a bit of an alternative energy roundup. This year's theme is the environment.

With Australia's almost complete non-participation in the development and use of alternative energy at an all time low, hurting our economy (thanks John. are you looking forward to the 24th?), at least someone is doing something about getting better and better technology out there.

From California comes a fellow who's invented a way to make small amounts of electricity from small amounts of wind. Ideal for small communities in under-developed regions of the world. Very cool.

A company in Japan has developed a method for manufacturing spherical solar cells which would be much better at collecting sunlight during all times of the day. That makes for much better overall efficiency and economy. Bewdyful! Sugoi!


Lastly, a few interesting tidbits to mull over.

a) What made America great was optimism, according to this article. That's something which is now is stunningly short supply...

b) There's a new country in the world, Richistan. It has no specific geographic location, but it's growing and silently separating itself from the rest of the world.

c) A couple have been driving their way around the world. 156 countries down, 35 to go.

and, d) Photos and footage from World War II - in colour. (with a 'u', dammit!)

Recent stuff

A fair bit of Nova news to catch up on.

News of the company hit the Aussie papers again. They've stopped recruiting in Australia. The sub-contractor recruiting company I went through has also cancelled their contract with Nova.

The government has ordered Nova to comply with an order to refund students who've cancelled their contracts. Word is that some students haven't been refunded up to six months after cancelling - including some of my ex-students.

In today's paper there was a story of a potential investor in the company, purchasing options of 200 million shares, raising about 70 million yen. For the record there are currently about 60 million shares issued in total by Nova, and Nova needs about 10 BILLION yen to settle its debts to students as well as pay outstanding debts and wages. If the companies who purchased the option decide to buy, then that'll raise only about 7 billion yen. It'd be a welcome shot in the arm, but it wouldn't do much in the long term. Sales are still bad.

Related: here's a calculator to work out how much unemployment benefits you can get in Japan through Hello Work. It's a lot less than people on the internet were saying. Babelfish is useful for translating the Japanese to English.


Going home isn't much of an option since I'd likely have to undergo training of some kind, and stories like this don't exactly provide inspiration. Fancy trying to study as well as work up to four part-time jobs just to make ends meet! Thanks Mr. Howard!

If you still want to try to help the environment, then here's a list of easy things to do.

You may have no choice regarding your flat-screen TV since most of them churn through more electricity than your fridge!

At least in New York you can still get a good night's sleep - thanks to your very own Sleep Concierge!

Another thing to do might be to plant some trees - or buy a block of land next to yours and make it into a park since that'll lower the temperature somewhat...

You can also keep telling yourself that things really are getting better. Sure, we don't have wonderful things like rampaging disease and dying before you're 40 of old age, but there's such a thing as willingly putting your head in the sand too!


And finally, just in case you don't know - there's been a genocidal war going on in Afghanistan for six years now...

I like David Letterman