Escape from Gitmo

After more than five years in the tropical paradise known as Guantanamo Bay, David Hicks is back in Australia. He'll serve several more months at a prison in South Australia, before being released outright.

America Rules. . .Almost

The world's hotels love Americans. Maybe not as much as Japanese, but clearly quite a bit, as the Yanks pulled the #2 spot in a survey of the world's best tourists. Granted, Americans came in dead last in the "best dressed" poll, but who's surprised by that. The Australians came in seventh overall.

The trouble-makers appeared to hail from France, India,China and Russia. Oh, and the Germans took bottom marks in the generosity category. This is starting to make me think this was more a survey of international stereotypes. . .

Structural Argument

Victoria has released its climate change risk assessment of the state's infrastructure.

Part I
Part II

Liz Minchin covered the initial release (which of course has the word "shock" in the title - seems to be one of the most overused words in Australian journalism), and the follow-up story on what the gov plans to do about it.

Hallelujah

The federal government's faith-based drought management strategy, known affectionately as "Pray for Rain," appeared to be achieving some success this week as significant rain fell throughout much of southeast Australia. In response, John Howard reiterated the importance of national support for his policy by requesting Australians to "keep praying." Not sure how robust of a risk managment strategy prayer really is, but at least it certainly has a long history of implementation.

A Three Hour Tour

Strange things are always afoot on the Frankston Line. I'm used to the break downs, cars stalled on the tracks, the "signal failures," as well as the colourful passengers who keep me company on my rides to and from work (today it was a pleasant chap drinking a VB - at 8:30 in the morning). But this evening, mental illness and train malfunctions joined forces to create a perfect commuter storm. Some poor duffer opted to climb a signal tower at Glenhuntly Station and treatened to off himself. As a result, Connex shut down the trains, just in time for peak hour traffic. Chaos ensued as masses of people scrambled to get on board the occassional bus chartered to rescue stranded commuters. Now I know what it was like when Saigon fell. I left work at 4:15 to head for karate training. Three hours later, I arrived home, having already missed training and wondering why I bother with public transport (incidentally, this is about the sixth transit mishap I've experienced in the past month - it's getting a bit absurd). Melbourne's starting to make the rail services in America look down right efficient.

By the way, Youth Group have a song entitled The Frankston Line. . ."

"The Frankston Line's full of teenage crime
and the cops can't do no more
Hooded tops, cigarettes at stops,
I don't love you anymore"

Achtung!

Travel warning for Germany
May 9, 2007 - 1:43PM

"The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade tonight reviewed its travel advice for Germany, alerting travellers that the German government had warned terrorist attacks might be possible."

You Can Take an Asshole Out of America. . .

. . .but you can't take the asshole out of an American.

Outrage over Virginia Tech game
Stephen Hutcheon
May 16, 2007 - 1:33PM

"A Sydney youth who created an uproar with an online game based on the Virginia Tech massacre, says he will remove the game if he receives $US2000 in 'donations'."

Hardball

In a respectable demonstration of principle, the Howard government has banned the Australian cricket team from a scheduled tour of Zimbabwe. Given Australia's love of sport, it's a painful decision, and one not without critics. But for fair play and sportsmanship to mean something on the playing field, it has to present off the field as well. Clearly, that's not the case under the current regime.

Winner, Winner, Chicken Dinner

Another year, another Eurovision song contest. The damn thing gets stranger and stranger every year, as it struggles with itself in attempting to decide whether it should be taken serious. Anyway, Serbia won. Go Serbia! But does this mean that the Balkans are the last bastion for truly cheesy pop music (with former Soviet republics running a close second)?

Youth Group

We wrapped up the working week last night by catching Youth Group (see also here) at Richmond's own Corner Hotel. The Corner is Melbourne's premier small venue for music, and despite having lived in the neighbourhood for over two years, we only now found a reason to drop in. The venue reminded me quite a bit of the old 9:30 Club in DC, but a little bit cleaner and with a huge rooftop beer garden. The show was short and sweet - YG's set was only an hour, preceeded by 45 minutes from Gersey (which seems like an unnecessarily avante garde spelling of Jersey, but I'm sure there's another connection I'm missing). For $20, we couldn't go wrong, and the music didn't fail to please. But, I have to admit, when I walked in the door and saw the schedule for the evening "Youth Group - 11:15 to 12:15", I thought to myself, "man, I'm too old for this shit. . ."

Aussie Hotel Foxtrot

WilcoWorld is currently streaming the band's 21 April show in Sydney on their website. I caught their earlier show on the 18th in Melbourne, and what a treat it was. The grizzled guys keep getting better with age (at least their live shows). And a rather amusing audience as well - 7,500 Jeff Tweedy look-alikes (except for me of course). The new album is also available for a listen.

New Climate Blog

There's many on the market, but Nature (through Nature Reports)has launched a new climate change blog designated Climate Feedback.

Hidden Costs of Addressing Climate Change

In Mexico, it was tortillas, but in Germany the rapid rise of biofuels is affecting the price of a more precious commodity: beer.

A Campus Fit for a Queen

It's not everyone that can claim a 314 year old academic institution as his alma mater, much less visits to his alma mater by, say, a Queen or something. But good old William and Mary has always had a close connection with England (it was the throne of England that started the humble institution, after all). As a student, I remember standing in a parking lot one afternoon when Margaret Thatcher (the Uni's chancellor at the time) walked by. However, I took a pass on the visit from Prince Charles, when he rocked up for the institution's 300th birthday. But all of that pales in comparison to Friday's visit by Queen Elizabeth, who returned to the campus after a 50 year abscence as she celebrated the 400 year anniversary of the colony of Jamestown. Some things never change. Some things change a lot.