Snow

The Australian Alps allegedly received some significant snowfall (by Australian standards) over the weekend, which is good, because that's where we're headed this weekend. One day bush walking in the tropics, the next skiing in the mountains. Life is hard. . .

Cairns, etc.

I spent most of last week in Cairns in northern Queensland for the Third International Climate Change Impact Assessment Conference. This was my second trip to the city in the past few months, although the first time around, I spent my time about 60 km north in Port Douglas. Furthermore, last time I caught the tail end of the wet season, which made it unbearably hot and humid, whereas this time around the weather was perfect.

Uta flew up Thursday night, at which point we relocated to the Cairns Beach Resort north of town, spending Friday checking out the miniscule community of Holloway's Beach before heading back to town that night for dinner with Ian and Lisa. Saturday we were up bright and earlier and rented a car with Ian and Lisa, and headed north, stopping off in Port Douglas for a bite to eat, and breezing through posh Palm Cove before crossing the Daintree River and heading through Daintree National Park toward Cape Tribulation. We checked into PK's Jungle Village, went for a stroll along the beach, and had a leisurely dinner at the Ferntree Rainforest Lodge across the road.

Sunday we checked out some of the rainforest walks along the route back toward the Daintree, and then spent the afternoon in Mossman Gorge on the way back to Cairns. We also experienced an exciting few mintues on the road behind a car that was being driven by either Stevie Wonder or an absolutely ruined Aussie. [Note: probably shouldn't drive wasted along a narrow two-lane road that winds along a coastal cliff.] All in all, a fantastic part of Australia, if not the world. Heaps of green, sugarcane, and signs warning of crocodiles. Some photos can be found here.

Oh, and we came across an advertisement for a beautician that was offering various waxing services including "brazilian bikini" and "brazilian w/ picture". The former seemed straightforward enough, but we puzzled long and hard over the meaning of the latter. If anyone can help us out, let me know. . .

Cape Otway

I enjoyed a brief visit to Cape Otway a couple of weeks ago in order to give a presentation to the Cape Otway Shire on climate change. I had the pleasure of spending the night at the Cape Otway Centre for Conservation Ecology - a delightful eco B&B if you will. Arriving at night, I had somewhat of a harrowing trip along the Great Ocean Road through rain and hail, made all the more spooky by the fact that I was apparently the only idiot in the area dumb enough to drive it under those conditions. I also initially drove straight past the Cape Otway Centre, but realised my error when it was clear that it was the only place on the Cape with a light on. I also had a lovely return trip through the Shire's dairy lands - very nice country around there. Some photos (taken in haste, some behind the wheel) are available here.

Circus, Circus

It's a bit belated, but I should mention we did see Circus OZ here in Melbourne - a delightfully cheeky spin on the genre, and one which doesn't mind taking the piss out of Cirque du Soleil. Catch it as it comes near you in the months ahead (assuming you live in Hawaii, NYC, Los Angeles, Montreal, Perth, or Singapore).

Banana Monarchy

Inflation is up in Australia, prompting signals that interest rates are set to rise. The culprit - Cyclone Larry, which decimated banana crops in Queensland earlier in the year, driving banana prices up to record levels of ~$12 a kilo. Of course, rising oil prices haven't helped. . .

Not Your Ordinary Roo

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) -- Forget cute, cuddly marsupials. A team of Australian palaeontologists say they have found the fossilized remains of a fanged killer kangaroo and what they describe as a "demon duck of doom".

Top 5 Science Blogs

According to Nature, the top five science blogs are as follows:

1) http://scienceblogs.com/pharyngula

2) http://www.pandasthumb.org

3) http://www.realclimate.org

4) http://cosmicvariance.com

5) http://scienceblogs.com/scientificactivist

Driest June

From The Age:

Driest June for 148 years — and it's cold
Renee Switzer
July 2, 2006

"THE last time it was this dry in Melbourne, horses were kicking up dust on the dirt roads. It was the driest June in the city in 148 years. Only 8.6 millimetres of rain fell last month — just edging over the eight millimetres that fell in June 1858."

1%

Gary Yohe's recent editorial highlights an irony that has persisted within the Bush Administration since it adopted the precautionary principle in its dealing with terrorism and gave birth to the policy of preemptive warfare - in the war on terror, any shred of evidence of nefarious deeds must be treated as certainty, yet in the (yet to get started) war on climate change, evidence is dismissed, even when associated with high degrees of likelihood or confidence. Needless to say, this duality of high risk aversion on one hand while risk seeking on the other is a bit inconsistent.

Der Untergang

If you're going to wake up at 4 am to watch the World Cup, you'd at least like the team you're pulling for to win. But it doesn't always happen. So it was this morning as we made our way to Melbourne's Club Tivoli to join the ex-pats in watching Germany fall to Italy, in what is quickly becoming a trend of last-minute miracles for the Italians (I thought the Pope was supposed to be German). Despite the reappearance of Italy's notorious theatrics that once agained turned the soccer pitch into an Olympic diving event, the Italians won the day simply by playing all-out until the last minute and being in the right place at the right time. That's what the game's all about...

Schade. (although I do have money riding on Italy in the office sweep, so there is a silver lining).

Samuelson on Global Warming

Robert Samuelson recently wrote this stark, somewhat cynical, but perhaps not entirely off the mark editorial on the challenge of climate change.

"Al Gore calls global warming an "inconvenient truth," as if merely recognizing it could put us on a path to a solution. That's an illusion. The real truth is that we don't know enough to relieve global warming, and -- barring major technological breakthroughs -- we can't do much about it."

Make Australia Great

Jack Marx's irreverent post on 10 ways to make Australia great is worth a chuckle or two. The list is included here - check the link for Marx's elaboration on each.

1) A King
2) A Civil War
3) A Proper Title for the Northern Territory
4) A Slight Fiddle with History
5) Mandatory Arms
6) Non-Defamation Day
7) Artists and Entertainers to Take Vows of Poverty
8) The Criminalisation of Heartbreak
9) Electrified Car Horns
10) Melodicide

Rules

"All human rules are more or less idiotic, I suppose. It is best so, no doubt. The way it is now, the asylums can hold the sane people, but if we tried to shut up the insane we should run out of building materials."
-Mark Twain, Following the Equator, Vol II.

Hasselhoff: Not Ready for Action

Having already post-poned his Australian "Ready for Action" tour, due to his involvment in an "exciting" pilot, David Hasselhoff (aka, King of Cyberspace) has now had to undergo surgery after an "accident in a London bathroom" (hmmmmmmm....).

Italy

Italy has advanced to the World Cup semi-finals, but not without some controversy. . .

For example,


Or perhaps this,


And, of course, this one:

The Longest Day

No, I'm not referring to the invasion of Normandy. I'm talking about Friday's Germany v. Argentina quarterfinal match. Those of you in a respectable time zone have little appreciation for what we in Australia must endure to watch any World Cup game. We rounded up a posse at the Bridge Hotel in Richmond to witness this fine bit of football action. Kick-off was at 1:00 am. The bar closed at 2:00 am (despite prior assurances that they'd be showing the game), and so we retreated to our apartment during the second half (and of course in the ten minutes in took us to get back home, Argentina scored). After the extra time, and the shoot-out, the game wrapped up around 3:45 am. What a way to begin the weekend. . .

Big Brother Contestants also Biggest Losers

Scandal has hit the house during Australia's Big Brother 2006 (yes, they did it again, despite my request), with two housemates being booted off the show for, ahem, "inappropriate behavior," which is known elsewhere as "sexual assault".

John Howard had the following to say (because this is the kind of stuff Prime Minister's have to comment on these days):

"The business community is always saying to me 'let us self-regulate'. Well here's a great opportunity for Channel 10 to do a bit of self-regulation and get this stupid program off the air."

Yes indeed - I'll support any political party that will put an end to BB. However, it should come as now suprise that ratings in the wake of the incident are up.