PC328 Hawke Lecture and Murray River

Monday - Did some internet work - Then went to the Town hall to hear The 9th Hawke Lecture: A new Australian consensus for the 21st Century : Greg Combet, Secretary, ACTU other photo More Clarke Kent than Superman : Boring no pazzazz, no graphics.; one of the least dynamic speakers I have ever seen. Speaks like headboy. - Is he an industrial relations students turned miner ? or the other way round. Australian Labour movement is full of students ,but not worker leaders. - called for consensus, what about action now ? To change government takes 8 years in Australia Greg Combet, Ex Prime-minister Bob Hawke at the Table hawkespeech3s.jpg - complains about Howard yet it was the left that left the front door open and let Howard in. Went in hard on Howard, but on soft targets WMD, AWB scandal apart from non-soft taget of IR - apart from invest in broadband and more university places offered no solutions. I say :Why not say "we will fight these reforms and repeal them" ? - complained about many things e.g health which are actually responsibility of State not Federal - broadband investment I say :- job for industry - Murdoch would love this : government builds and he takes the profit. - called for more university places I say :- already over educated - jumps on Climate change bandwagon. Bandying buzzwords. But showing little understanding. Went in heavy on CC claiming falsely, that current government has no policy other than nuclear. Says ALWAYS been anti- Australia being involved in nuclear fuel cycle. -spoke surprisingly in favour with strong links with U.S. Increase federal term from 3 to 4 years. In favour of understanding of relations with aborigine. - called for republic. Respect each other ! Sort Priorities Spoke of consensus, I say : never spoke on how to include business in this. I say : I wouldn't trust him. Fire him and get a better leader. went to to see live gig night in Thebarton : Sour Sob Bob music (living in the long grass) audio Folky sounding ironic songs- very like Brian and the woman at Pearshaped comedy clubs in London The Bridge over River Murray Pelican at Murray Bridge Tuesday - Murray River Valley Decided to check out some of the towns outside the city. Took bus up into the hills to to Mount Barker (OK-ish market town). Weather changed to rain, got cold ..very strange was 31C in the morning . Hitched to Murray Bridge, got a lift with Andrew an interesting old surveyor now a herb grower. (told more water evaporates everyday from nearby lakes, than Adelaide City uses). Scenary changed to arid plains. Sure enough when I arrived there was no sign of the hyped up drought, there was plently of water in the river. Seemed to be a town with a good position on the river, which hasn't grown or got as prosperous as it could be. Began at the river and walked around .. . Video of the Aborigine legend monster the Bunyip here Had to wait for the school bus to get to Mannum walked around old town the first port on the large river..old shops etc, pretty quiet, historical walk. At 6.15pm stranded. No buses back, but I was able to hitch back the scenic route through Palmer and Arid sheep country like a dry Yorkshire Dales back into the hills becoming greener, through old historic towns and by 7.45pm I was back in Adelaide. Wow Houseboats on the River Murray at Mannum

More diary Wednesday - Comedy at La Boheme - ony 25 minutes , could have tried my act been doing internet notes and reading book that Gordon recommended : BOOK - Metals in the Service of man - pg 29 Famous Frodingham ore mines. - Metals and Civilization - ancients could hammer bits of metal to make tools. Now used in everything. - How we get our metals - how seperate ores etc, gang, Lot of ores left buried deep - Future - sees coal running out, metals getting more specialized. China expanding, not superconductors. That was for the 1960 edition, tho the 1998 edition is greatly corrected and expanded, it does correct the predictions. I have always been a fan of logic and lateral thinking. There are always two sides to every argument and consistently I find both are wrong, when you use true facts and logic. Furthermore travel teaches us to challenge our own values. These days in every country many things accepted as normal to me irrational. But I think I often piss some people off cos many people including travelers don't like to have their values challenged. If you respect people you tell them the truth. see ..Thinking Notes

More on Climate Change. 2 things : 1. You do have an enormous effect on the ecology of the planet and you really need to change your complete lifestyle to reduce your ecological footprint by 90%, not just piss around buying ecological lightbulbs and carbon credits. 2. The popular idea of Global Warming doesn't exist ! There have been no dramatic temperature changes, it hasn't been proved that there is a connection between man made CO2 and weather. And news stories of future catastrophes like floods, extinctions are ridiculous. - There you go my own sense of logic based on true facts puts me at odds with both sides of the global warming debate ... my climate Change page As ever everyone hates me. There are always two sides to every argument and consistently I find both are wrong, when you use true facts and logic. The true facts always point in the way of a 3rd argument no-one is talking about.

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