What is the Solution to Pollution?

As part of a series of environmental articles, Time has a list of the worlds ten most polluted cities.

These are intractable issues, going to the core of economic development and environmental management conflicts. Although I don't work on environmental management and clean up projects of this scale, the technical issues are very similar and it is possible to scale up many of the proven solutions. The major barriers are technology transfer, economic restructuring and political will.

Some advice if you are visiting. Don't drink the water, don't eat the vegetables and don't breathe the air. Other than that, you should be fine. For those who live there, it is inevitable that there will be negative health consequences.

Who Put the Scotch in Scotch Tape?

As a family with young children, we are very appreciative of the work of Richard Drew, a laboratory technician with 3M, who developed Scotch Tape. Thank you. Although we rarely use the branded variety of Scotch Tape and the kids call it sticky tape, it is incredibly useful stuff.

This tells the story of how the name stuck.

After some experiments — can you imagine any company today allowing a lab technician/sales representative to engage in product research and development, no matter how smart? — Drew had a version he was ready to try out with a customer. He took his roll of masking tape — a two-inch wide paper strip backed with adhesive — out for a field test:

He brought a prototype roll to a St. Paul auto painter. The painter carefully applied the masking tape along the edge of the color already painted and was just about to spray on the second color when the tape fell off. The annoyed painter examined the 2-inch wide tape and saw that it had adhesive only along its outer edges, but not in the middle.

Annoyed, the painter said to Drew, "Take this tape back to those Scotch bosses of yours and tell them to put more adhesive on it!"

The name — like the improved tape it inspired — stuck.

More good stuff on Scotch Tape and how to make a Duct Tape wallet from Citizen Arcane here.

I think that there has to be grounds for a class action law suit. Any Scots want to join in? Perhaps we could stick it to 3M.

Time for a Joke

"You talk about a whole lot of things when you're trying to convince people to do things, but you don't go back and honour every single one of those unless you have made a firm commitment about it and John wasn't into making firm commitments."

Janette Howard

A man died and went to heaven.
As he stood in front of St. Peter at the Pearly Gates, he saw a huge wall of clocks behind him.
He asked, “What are all those clocks?” St. Peter answered, “Those are Lie-Clocks. Everyone on Earth has a Lie-Clock. Every time you lie the hands on your clock will move.”
“Oh,” said the man, “Whose clock is that?” “That’s Mother Teresa’s. The hands have never moved, indicating that she never told a lie.” “Incredible,” said the man. “And whose clock is that one?” St. Peter responded, “That’s Abraham Lincoln’s clock.The hands have moved twice telling us that Abe told only two lies in his entire life.”
“Where’s John Howard’s Lie Clock?” asked the man. “ Johnny Howards’ clock is in God’s office. He’s using it as a ceiling fan.

What would your lie clock be like?

Blogger Goes Kraut

While writing some posts, Bloggers publishing window decided to start offering free German lessons. I now know that View Blog is Blog anziegen in German.

The only German I learned in my yoof was useful war vocabulary such as Achtung, Hande Hoche and Donner und Blitzen from Victor and Eagle comics. Only the clever kids learned German, with the uber geeks also getting a bit of Latin. My only experience of Latin was having Mr Cleland the Latin teacher as my home room teacher. We used to go there every day for 10 minutes first thing in the morning and I never learned a single word of Latin. Probably because there were no comics dealing with the Romans and the fact that we managed to keep them out of Scotland, leaving no cultural record worth noting.

I am however immensely grateful that I now know two more useless German phrases. Thanks Bloggermeister.

October 19 in History All You Need to Know

Catching up with some tags.

Groanin' Jock tagged me with The Birthday Meme quite a while back. I rarely rush to complete these, but with all the happy news from the homeland this week, I felt in a generous mood.

Here are the rules:

Go to Wikipedia and type in your birthday (month and day).

Write down three events, two births, one holiday and tag five friends.

There are five slots in the Birthday Meme. As you are tagged, you have to remove the name in the first slot and bump everyone up so that your name can be added to the bottom.OK. I'll do that, but I wont tag anyone. I hate tags, but it is not personal. You Tag You Die sort of thing from primary school.

• 202 BC - The Battle of Zama results in the defeat of Carthage and Hannibal. Hannibal was always interesting to me when I was younger. I was intrigued by the romantic paintings of the war elephants crossing the Alps during winter storms. He was one driven war machine and gave the Romans a run for their money.
  
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• 1453 - The French recapture of Bordeaux brings the Hundred Years' War to a close, with the English retaining only Calais on French soil. I always think that it is odd that the hundred year war lasted 116 years. Joan of Arc eat your heart out.
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• 1987 - (Black Monday) Dow Jones Industrial Average falls by 22%. I remember the blind panic that ensued from this. I was living in Washington DC at the time. Those were the days before 24/7 medja coverage and the interweb. Most of the coverage was on the radio and television and newspapers. It single handedly brought programme trading into the popular lexicon. When I was in Singapore, the Asian financial collapse was covered much more immediately and everywhere.

Birthdays


Both these guys had fairly outrageous lives, lived at the same time and died about the same age, 43.

1944 - Peter Tosh, Jamaican musician, political activist (d. 1987). He is the tall clean living one with Bob Marley and Bunny Wailer in their early Wailer days.

Born Winston Hubert McIntosh

Died Peter Tosh from gunshot wounds.

1945 - Divine, American actor (d. 1988) . Actor who starred in the first film version of Hairspray. Seems he did a better job than John Travolta based upon the resident film expert in our house.

Born Harris Glenn Milstead

Died Divine from Sleep Apnea due to obesity.

Festivals

The Scottish Festival of Haggis Supper and Deep Fried Mars Bar takes place on this day (and every other day) in Scotland.

And thats it. You can go in pieces.

I'm a Kinda Dorky Non-Nerd

Scotland Achieve Historic Tie with India in Cricket

After a disappointing loss to Pakistan, Scotland achieved a creditable draw with India at the Cricket Twenty20 World Championships, when the match was abandoned with no play due to rain.

A Magnificent Moral Victory!

If Pakistan wallop India, Scotland can qualify for the next stage. This would be a classic Scottish sporting success. More likely not to happen however. We Scots, we have to remain optimistic.

Howard Set to Blow Off Costello for another Three Years

Mateship?

The Language of Politics

Religion

French

Mandarin


Double Dutch

Saatchi and Saatchi Come Full Circle

Almost 30 years since Saatchi and Saatchi helped Margaret Thatcher get elected in 1979 with the political advert of the century, they have been appointed as the Labour Party Advertising Agency on the same week that Baroness Thatcher had a cosy meeting with Gordon Brown at Number 10.

Thanks Citizen Arcane

Proof that we are Descended from the Apes

From the Telegraphs Scottish Correspondent, news every man needs to know. Papayas guarantee more nooky.

Female chimpanzees are "selling" sex to the males that gather the most fruit, according to new research.

Behavioural psychologists found that female chimps mate with the males that give them the most fruit, while male chimps steal "desirable" fruits such as papaya from farms and orchards in a bid to woo potential mates.

Oranges, pineapples and maize are among the most sought after crops, with bananas proving far less popular.

The scientists also discovered that the chimp that gathered the most fruit in the "food-for-sex" trade received more grooming from females than the group's alpha male.

Researchers from Stirling University released their findings after studying the behaviour of chimps in the West African village of Bossou in the Republic of Guinea.

Dr Kimberley Hockings said the findings provided the first evidence of large-scale plant food sharing among chimpanzees with a sexual motive.

Male chimps were also said to be most likely to give food to a female that took part in the most "consortships", where an adult female and male move to the edge of the community where the male enjoys exclusive mating access.

Good to see that my old university is doing useful research. I'm just going to pop out to the fruit and veg shop.

But can you walk at the same time?

Singapore has been identified as a major new market for this new product.

National Hero

Remember Joe Jordan 1974?

So that is where Bush and Cheney Went?

Some background here.

As the BBC in their deadpan way said.

The song, about wrapping a part of the male anatomy and presenting it as a Christmas gift in a box, won the prize for best original music and lyrics.

If this is the only Justin Timberlake that you listen to all your life then you will have done well.

Thanks Justin

Fleet of Toyota Prius to Power Neighbourhoods?

As we head into the summer season here in South Australia and the potential for more all too frequent blackouts, the hybrid car may have a use as a backup energy supply for your home. Recently, when tropical storms resulted in a power outage in Florida, enterprising hybrid owners plugged the car into the backup uninterruptible power supply in their homes to get the electricity up and running. As long as the car has fuel, it can produce about three kilowatts of continuous power, enough to keep the refrigerator running and the lights on in the average house.

Useful. Gotta keep that beer fridge running. I wonder how efficient that would be as a means of generating power. It also looks a lot easier than this, a peddle powered washing machine.

We're from WorkChoices

and we are here to fuck you over help.

Compelling evidence has emerged of how quickly bosses in retail and hospitality took advantage of WorkChoices to strip pay and conditions from their employees in Australia.

A landmark study has examined every new collective agreement in those two industries in the first nine months of the law last year and found most removed penalty rates and overtime, increased managerial power and gave inadequate compensation.

The study, commissioned by the Victorian, NSW and Queensland governments, and conducted by Sydney University's Workplace Research Centre, also uncovered a new industry of consultants and lawyers producing minimalist template agreements for small businesses.

Half of all agreements followed a template, and consultant Enterprise Initiatives produced a quarter of all 339 agreements studied, mocking the Government's claim that its law was about increasing employer-employee negotiation, and eliminating the third parties.

The study shows Saturday penalty rates were abolished in 76 per cent of WorkChoices collective agreements, Sunday penalties in 71 per cent, overtime rates in 68 per cent, public holiday rates in 60 per cent, and paid breaks in 55 per cent.

All these conditions were stamped "protected by law" in government advertising in 2005.

The study has, for the first time, calculated the real-world pay rates for workers in retail and hospitality who are moved from award rates to new non-union collective agreements, by modelling how standard rosters in these industry interacted with the new pay rates. They found most people were worse off, with part-time, casual and weekend workers hardest hit.

A casual worker in a liquor store doing 12 hours on Thursday, Saturday and Sunday could lose up to 38 per cent of pay, or $114.27 a week. A permanent full-timer working some weekends and overtime could lose up to $145 a week, or 20 per cent of salary.

From the Age

No big surprises, but rather very predictable and sad. Exploiting the most vulnerable. I loved the bit about "protected by law". So what is the story Smiling Joe Hockey?

What Drugs is this Guy On?

The new South African head of the International Cricket Council Ray Mali is talking up the potential of the currently very poor Zimbabwe One Day Cricket Team.

"The programmes that they have which I believe they will take cricket far and it has been demonstrated by what we saw over the last three one-day games, especially yesterday (Sunday) when Zimbabwe was almost there.

"And I believe these boys - if they are given a chance to play for the next three years as one unit - they will be at the top of world rankings.

"It is not a dream, I believe it can be done. Zim Cricket will have to continue exposing these boys to higher class, intensive cricket all the time. Zimbabwe Cricket will have my support, they will have the support of ICC with this type of cricket that has been demonstrated over the last few days," said Mali.

The former president of the United Cricket Board of South Africa also praised the ZC leadership, saying they have managed to have a sustained development programme that ensures a constant supply of talent.

"At the same time I am excited by the involvement of schools in the cricket set-up which augurs well for the future because I believe with the participation of schools, from the Under-11 age-group up to the top, it means the future of cricket in this country is guaranteed.

"There will be a constant flow of players going up and the quality of leadership that has been assigned to look after the cricket here is of the highest quality that you can find anywhere in the world. It compares well with what we have in South Africa and other parts of the world."

Is this the same country that the somewhat corrupt Mr Mugabe is running (into the ground). Obviously all that money is being funnelled into cricket rather than feeding the population.

In other news Cherie Blair is in the running for Miss World, George Bush has been nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for his work in Iraq and David Beckham is not a prima donna.

Where do these people come from? I mean it is nice to be nice to your neighbours, but a little reality would be more appropriate. By this reckoning, Scotland have a shot at the top rankings in cricket. How can I get a job like that?

I had exquisite timing in writing that post, with Zimbabwe beating Australia in the Twenty20 World Cup last night. You could get odds of 50 to 1 for the match before it started. Not bad for a 50:50 result outccome. Oh well perhaps Ray Mali can keep his job.

John Howards Visionary New Reelection Strategy

Ready for Take Off????
Leader in (Long Long) Waiting Peter Fly Like an Eagle Costello or Howard in Tights?

King John Winston Howard Fourth Term Emperor of Her Majesty's Antipodean Retreat, today unveiled a bold new reelection plan for his coalition groupies, to retire, if reelected.

It must be that vision thing. What was that fairy story about that Emperor with No Clothes. Come on Australia. Toss this guy out. Pass the wheelchair Peter, Alexander, Malcolm, Tony..... Anybody????



What arrogance, summed up elegantly by this gentleman.

And these people. I read the article and the comment thread and there was not one positive comment about our glorious leader. I am beginning to think that the polls may be underestimating things.

Reasonable Doubts?

The fact that this story has gone down this road after all the early outrage is astonishing. Common sense would suggest that it is extremely unlikely. Some of the evidence if true, suggests otherwise.

Where's the Driver?

Here he is. Peeka Boo.

Thanks ZJ