Mark Steyne on Freedom of Speech

I was recently pleased to attend an IPA function in defence of Andrew Bolt and Freedom of Speech. One of the most entertaining speakers was Mark Styne. Even though Mark is well known overseas, his intellect and wit is seldom heard by Australia audiences. His cogent and well-grounded thoughts and ideas are anathema to the dominant illiberal left leaning media in this country. Here is some of his finest work. Federal Court judge Mordy Bromberg could learn something from this.


Mark Steyn on Free Speech at the IPA from Institute of Public Affairs on Vimeo.

Wise Men Go Unheard by The Masses

Here are a couple of quotes that explain a lot of crazy stuff going on in the world today.
This one seems especially pertinent to Greece today with possibly Italy to follow.

“A democracy cannot exist as a permanent form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits from the public treasury with the result that a democracy always collapses over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship. The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations has been 200 years.”
Possibly, Alexander Tytler (circa late 1700′s)

This one speaks to me about Australia. I fear we are transitioning from complacency to apathy.

“Great nations rise and fall. The people go from bondage to spiritual truth, to great courage, from courage to liberty, from liberty to abundance, from abundance to selfishness, from selfishness to complacency, from complacency to apathy, from apathy to dependence, from dependence back again to bondage.” Henning Webb Prentis, Jr., President of the Armstrong Cork Company 1943

Thorium Reactors

Very Interesting! As they say, "If something is too good to be true then it usually is". So I searched high and low on the Internet to find the serious downside to this much touted energy source. I could not find any strong arguments against its development other than the usual anti-nuclear-warrior knee jerk concerns. It seems this truly might be an energy game changer if we (the west) could get our act together. China is leading the world in this research.

Fight of the Century: Keynes vs. Hayek Round Two

Amazing! An artist film maker that actually understands economics.  Did you miss the first one in the series?  See it here.

What Chance of Sucess in Afghanistan?

Professor Christopher Coyne of George Mason University gives an economist's perspective on post-conflict reconstruction and how to promote peace. This man really knows his subject. After watching this video I have had to re-assess my position on Australia's, and the US's involvement in Afghanistan. I am no longer convinced about our bi-partisan policy of "stay the course" war in Afghanistan. It is a long video (1hr:25min) but well worth it. The speaker puts forward some very powerful arguments rarely heard in this debate.

Andrew Bolt Destroys Tim Flannery

Or rather, Tim Flannery destroys the governments case for a carbon dioxide tax with his own words. This is hysterical, listen to the podcast here.

Prof Dr. Vincent Courtillot - A Denier?

Tim Flannery would describe this man as disreputable. Julia, Combet, Bob Brown and Co. would call him an extremist. If they were remotely interested in truth or science they would watch this video, alas their expertise is confined to name calling and ad hominem attacks.

He strikes me as a professor of the old school, one with respect for true scientific principles. See what you think.

Benign Paroxysmal Positional Vertigo or BPPV

A year or two ago I suffered my first episode of benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) also known as Benign Positional Vertigo (BPV). My local GP prescribed Brant - Daroff exercises which I performed rigorously for between 2 and 3 weeks. I found them to be completely useless. Finally, frustrated, I turned to the Internet to research BPV and discovered the Epley Maneuver described here.

I studied the instructions and the associated video at this site and self–performed the Dix-Hallpike test to determine the affected vestibular. I determined that my right posterior canal was the problem. I then self performed the Eply Maneuver treatment for my right ear. To my amazement the BPV symptoms virtually disappeared overnight.

I have since had a few repeat episodes that I have successfully treated with the same procedure. If you want to self treat yourself for this syndrome it is most important that you first correctly establish which is the affected ear using the Dix-Hallpike test. The following video explains both the diagnosis and treatment very clearly.



NB. When self performing the Dix-Hallpike test, begin with your head turned 45 degrees towards the test side. If the test is positive you will experience dizziness and nystagmus after you recline to the horizontal position. The following video shows how to self perform the Eply Maneuver for the right ear. To treat the left ear simply perform the maneuver in the opposite direction, beginning with the head turned to the left.

Topher Strikes Again. You cant keep a good man down!

Strip away all the politics, the spin, the environmental hyperbole, then do some basic research, examine the facts, apply some rational thought and hey presto, Topher cuts through all the BS.

PS. Although Topher rightly places the problem on Tony Bourke's doorstep, John Howard deserves some major stick for this debacle. It was his government that introduced the Water Act 2007 which is the source of the problem.

My Blackberry is Not Working!

Ronnie Corbett, still going strong! Imagine Ronny Barker as the shopkeeper, alas it wasn't to be.
Unfortunately, I am very familiar with the phrase "My Blackberry is not working". Part of my job at work is to support the blinking things.

How Many of These Ten Political Principles Do You Believe In?

1. Liberty as the primary political value
2. Individualism
3. Skepticism about power
4. Rule of Law
5. Civil Society
6. Spontaneous Order
7. Free Markets
8. Toleration
9. Peace
10. Limited Government

If you agree with 5 or more of these political principles, you might just be a Libertarian or a Liberal in the classical sense. This short video by Dr. Nigel Ashford succinctly explains the 10 core principles of the classical liberal and Libertarian view of society and the proper role of government.


How to Migrate a XP(32 Bit) PC to New Windows 7 Home (64 Bit) PC

I used this method to transition from my old XP PC to my New Windows 7 PC. Instead of keeping two physical PC’s connected and on your desk while you transition from XP to Windows 7, this method allows you to virtualize the old PC and host it on your new Windows 7 PC.  This enables you to continue using all your old programs, data and settings until you have time to re-install and customise them on your new PC.

There will always be some program, file or settings that you will have forgotten to migrate to the new PC and you can easily refer back to the old PC through the virtual session, even six months later. Some 32 bit programs may not even run on Windows 7 64bit. You can continue to run them in your old visualized PC.

Windows 7 has its own virtualization capability but your need to have Window 7 Professional or a add in product that costs quite a bit. If your have Windows 7 Home version like most people, then using VMware’s free products overcomes this.

After virtualizing my old PC that was five years old onto my new Windows 7 host I found that it ran faster than the physical box itself.

Here is how I did it.

First download and install VMware Converter from http://www.vmware.com/products/converter to your Windows system (the XP box that you want to convert into a virtual machine) and start the installation by double-clicking on the downloaded file.

The program is a 32 bit standalone exe, and installs to “C:\Program Files\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\converter.exe”.

Under Windows 7 it installs to "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware vCenter Converter Standalone\converter.exe”

Start the “VMware vCentre Converter Standalone Client” program from the Start\VMware program group on the Windows XP machine and use the “Convert Machine” wizard to create a virtual machine file. The resultant file will have a .vmx extension.

Copy or move the resultant vmx file to your Windows 7 PC.

Now you will need to download the VMware Player from http://www.vmware.com/products/player/ and install it on your Windows 7 machine.

The program installs at "C:\Program Files (x86)\VMware\VMware Player\vmplayer.exe".

To run your old XP PC, start the VMware Player and open the .vmx file you created with the converter.

Here is an alternate method I found on the Internet.

Floods, or High Tide of Irrationality?

After reading this article about the incompetence of the Brisbane city council in respect of issuing building permits to build in a known flood zone. I was struck by the irony of the recent actions of shire councils around Australia, refusing building permits on the basis of speculative sea level rise estimates produced by global warming alarmists.

I subsequently found the following post by Jamez on Jo Nova's blog that sums up the situation succinctly.

All the shire councils know what the water levels were in 1974 and other floods before them. It was therefore a fair and reasonable call that at some time in the future those water levels would be reached again. So a responsible government has two choices, don’t let people build in areas which are clearly flood prone, or take flood mitigation measures to ensure those water levels can’t be reached again. Or a combination of both.
For a dam to provide flood mitigation it needs to carry at most 50% of maximum capacity to enable it to take up large flows when they happen. So lots of dams are needed for serious flood mitigation. They built the Wivenhoe Dam, but not much else. In fact one expert was suggesting a number of dams had been decommissioned in Queensland. It also appears as Jo has pointed out, that Wivenhoe may have been lacking proper flood mitigation procedures.
The irony is that Shire Councils around Australia have been refusing building and development applications on the basis of the IPCC/CSIRO sea level rise estimates, saying it would be foolhardy to allow building in areas which could be under threat from rising sea levels. We are also being told we need a carbon tax and we need to take all sorts of climate change mitigation action.
So as a society we take more action on hotly debated speculation about possible sea level rises, than we do on the known likelihood of flooding in certain areas. Dumb huh?

Dumb indeed! Is there no end to the stupid follies imposed on us by PC "Seeming" Utopian Bureaucrats.

Scientific Theory That Cannot Be Disproved.