Why is there silence on this site?

There is silence on this site because you have not followed the advice provided earlier and started to look instead at Pete's Travel Pages.

Had you done so you would be finding out that we are on the road at present and sending messages to people via that site.

Let me say that we have a few more travel facts that people should know:

Petrol cost in England at present can range from 81.9 pence to 89.0 pence and with the exchange rate with Australia being something like 40 pence to the dollar this means that petrol is OVER $2 per litre at the cheapest rate. Think about that when you complain about the cost of fuel at home.

Food is also something to think about. An 8 oz steak (that's half a pound or a quarter of a kilo is around £9-12 in a pub with some chips and a salad. Convert this into dollars and you can see immediately that you can dine out in style for around half the price in Australia at some of our better establishments.

Entry into homes and museums and the like is on average something like £6 - 13 per person - so never again complain about the entry rates to things in Australia.

These and other exciting bits of news will become available in greater detail on the other BLOG site.

Do tune in for the latest from Germany, Austria, France, Hungary, Slovenia and Italy as the journey progresses.

SPAM

According to an article in New Scientist my computer and I are normal.

"MORE than two-thirds of all email traffic is spam."

In my case I am finding that more and more of my emails are spam and this is in spite of the fact that I have a set of multiple filters that reduce the amount I actually have to see and deal with on a daily basis.

The problem that I have may well be shared by many others - this is that my service provider does not filter spam at the server side of the service. It means that I have to waste bandwidth downloading stuff that my filters then eliminate on receipt.

The article in New Scientist also goes on to say that by networking users could make a bigger dent in the Spam that invades all of our lives by combining information and networking to restrict access.

I am cautiously optimistic about a suggestion like this. On the one hand it offers a potential solution on the other it offers hackers who want to propagate something more noxious than spam an opportunity to link to a network and so propagate viruses.

I wonder what you think?

Have a look at the article in New Scientist and make up your own mind.

Why humans grow old grungily

This article is one of the more interesting I have read in while. As someone who is not getting any younger I am delighted to learn that it may be possible to increase my age limits. After all, who wants to die? For that matter who wants to be 'grungy'?

I certainly recommend that people have a look at this article in New Scientist

Here is a taste of some of the contents:

"The story begins in 1993 when Cynthia Kenyon of the University of California, San Francisco, discovered that some strains of C. elegans with mutations in a gene called daf-2 lived more than twice as long as normal. This appeared to show that ageing was controlled by genes, contradicting the widespread view that it was largely the result of wear and tear inflicted by free radicals. Not surprisingly the results caused a stir. Many researchers were puzzled about how genes for ageing could evolve through natural selection."

Revolt in the near east

I find it fascinating to read about the people's revolts in Uzbekistan and in other locations which have allied themselves with the Americans. My fascination stems from the fact that the USA was the country that invented the notion of dominoes falling one after the other and referred of course to the theory that the occupation of one country by communists would inevitably lead to the fall of other countries nearby to the same ideology.

Well it seems that the American presence in a country not to mention the American invasion of another country is leading to revolts by the people there against the regimes with whom the Americans are allied.

One by one countries in the American alliance are pulling their troops out of Iraq and no doubt from anywhere else the Americans have sought to establish an influence. One by one the countries which surround these lands are also seeking their independence from the regimes which have a stranglehold of power.

The question remains where will they end up? In an alliance against the Americans or somehow part of their leader's wishful thinking about a Pax Americana.

Let's hope that the world is NOT swallowed up by the American dream.

I cannot conceptualize a world more terrible than one which is infected by kids who wear their baseball caps backwards, baggy pants with tears in them, singing rap music and swigging on Coke or Pepsi while munching on a Burger King creation or the joys of a Dunkin Donut.

Let's have some NON American culture start to permeate the world and let's leave the Golden Arches and their like to the Americans. They really DO believe their own propaganda that they have the best of everything in the world. Let's hope that they stop exporting this to the rest of us.

Books and availability

One of the nice things about the Internet is the ability of this medium to bring to your home information which is generally unavailable without considerable effort and expense from other sources.

There is for example a fabulous site called ARCHIVE.ORG

This site appears to be part of the dream of Brewster Kahle to bring information to the masses.

Have a look and marvel!

300 million dollar cocaine seizure

Well, that's the headline! I wonder if anyone has actually gone to ask the farmers in Columbia what they think of this assessment of the price of the goods that they grow?

I suspect that between the street price of this narcotic substance, which is what is being quoted by the authorities, there are multiple opportunities for someone to make a dollar or two.

If the true value of the goods was considered, ie what the farmers were being paid to grow the coca plants was actually the subject of the report then someone would actually ask the question why not pay the farmers DOUBLE what they are currently getting NOT to grow the crop?

Sure this would put a lot of people out of business and not all them crooks. After all we have an entire legitimate industry that is supported by the drug trade. There are police personnel, judges, court systems, prison systems, medical facilities and the list goes on.

Could it be that one of the reasons that the "war on drugs" has been such a failure for so long is that it is simply too profitable for everyone involved whether at the legal or the illegal sides of this issue to give it up?

Let's support the farmers to grow crops that are equally or more profitable and all of a sudden the opportunity to buy the raw product could disappear.

A suggestion for intending travellers.

In the recent allegations and revelations about baggage handlers at Sydney Airport and the placement of contraband in luggage I suppose that it is up to the individual traveller to create the necessary evidence to prove at some later time - should this be necessary, that he or she did NOT have contraband in luggage.

Using a digital camera, why not photograph the luggage open showing its contents just before the luggage is given up to the airport staff and then another shot of the traveller sealing the luggage for the cameras with a set of plastic tags which if broken between the time that the traveller gives up the luggage and receives it at the other end of the journey will demonstrate to one and all that whatever contents were added to the luggage was added after the bags left the control of the traveller.

A bit much you think? Too much delay at the points of departure?

Perhaps - but then again what is YOUR life worth?

Burn off or another scary fire?

In the last few days there has been a pall of smoke which has hung over the southern side of Canberra due no doubt to protective burn offs undertaken under the auspices of the local authorities. The smoke haze was so bad the other day that while taking my morning constitutional all of my clothes were impregnated with the wood fire smoke and needed to be washed thoroughly to get rid of the impregnated smoke particles.

Now if that was happening to my clothes then I wonder what was happening to my lungs and furthermore I wonder what was happening to the ability to breathe for all of those people who have conditions like asthma?

Why is there never a warning from the authorities when these major burn offs occur? Why can people not be advised in advance that there is a danger of smoke haze so that people with respiratory illnesses can take precautions?

These and many other questions need to be asked of the Chief Minister and the group of people who are responsible for the governance of the ACT.

Many people were no doubt traumatised by the events of the bushfires several years ago when people were killed and hundreds of homes destroyed. For someone in this situation to see a huge cloud of smoke on the horizon or a complete smoke haze blocking the sun as they left work in the afternoon the events of that time would have come back in a rush and caused anxiety if not a renewed sense of terror until their other senses could evaluate the threat and come to the conclusion that it was not a major fire but just a necessary preventative burn off.

Let's not add insult to injury in future. If there is to be a major burn off around our community let's hear about it on the news and let's have warnings to those people who may be negatively affected.

Temporary Marriages in Iran

How many people saw the program on SBS which dealt with Mohammed (a recovering Drug addict with HIV) and his search for a spouse using a matchmaker on SBS?

I have never before seen a show which highlights some of the more amazing aspects of the Islamic culture in Iran.

After some tortuous convolutions Mohammed meets a woman who has been married before, does NOT have HIV and who agrees that she would like to share her life with him. Since it is forbidden in Iran according to Islamic law for a man and a woman to have a relationship outside of marriage there is a LAW which permits them to marry for any length of time - specified in advance - which can be as brief as a moment or up to 99 years. The contract of marriage is accompanied by a 'dowry' which the male has to stipulate and pay if the marriage does not last for the duration of the agreed term.

Think about it folks.

You meet someone you like and he/she fancies you as well and while it is forbidden to get it on outside of the marriage - it really does not matter in Iran. You go to a religious lawyer, pay your fee, agree on a token dowry and then sign up for a time limited marriage which can be for as long as you both agree it should be.

It really depends in Iran (it seems) how long you think the relationship should last (or is likely to last). For a brief fling a marriage of say one day (and night) might suffice or an even lesser time if you think that this is too long.

It is no longer a question of anything apart from whether you think what you will gain from the relationship is worth the fee for the marriage celebrant and token dowry.

Who knew that having a relationship was so easy under Islamic law? Certainly seems to beat what is available in Australia. Here we have to promise a lifetime of commitment and then the penalties for any breach of contract are severe. How much more civilised to have a relationship which is limited to what the two people involved really think they can bear.

What is even more interesting is the commonality between the USA and Iran. Of course the two cultures do approach the issue from different ends. The Americans have the "quickie divorce" - Las Vegas style while the Iranians have the "quickie marriage" Teheran style

Then again - maybe there is a catch which no one mentioned during the program. Would anyone care to clarify?

Just a brief question about Iraq

Has anyone really LOOKED at what they see on the streets of Iraq? Each time I see the pictures transmitted by any of the TV services, I see bunches of people running around the streets armed with AK47 assault rifles, pistols and either firing them wildly into the air or brandishing them around the place in an intimidating manner.

Has anyone thought of disarming these lunatics who go around with all of these guns?

It is hardly likely that the Americans will do it, after all they have a gun culture which is unique to themselves. It is the RIGHT of every American to bear arms according to their constitution. Everyone is thus entitled to purchase and to use all sorts of military weapons in a domestic situation.

Personally I think this leads to madness. Iraq is proof of what CAN happen if you permit any and every person to own a weapon.

It is a nonsense for the Americans to want to restore security much less law and order to the streets of Iraq unless they realise that getting the weapons off the street should be their first call.

Since this is contrary to their own notions about what is right, why do they complain when their people get killed?

In the law of the jungle the mightiest animal is the winner. This is not the case in the urban jungle. The Americans have only to look at their own experience in their revolutionary war of independence. They too were out gunned and out manned by superior British soldiers and yet using guerrilla tactics and living off the land they beat a superior force into submission and carved out a continent for themselves.

What's new about what is happening in Iraq today? Nothing. Only this time the Americans appear to be on the losing side.

When will they learn that their mightiest weapon is their power of trade. In the past they have beaten countries into submission by invading them with their products.

The Chinese and the Japanese have learned this lesson well, while the Americans have developed their armaments the Chinese, Japanese and the Indians have and/or are developing the real power base of the future, manufacturing and service delivery capability.

When will the Arabs learn that they could achieve so much more with trade than they can with arms?

The last flowering of Arab civilisation was based on trade and tolerance. It is obvious to me that this has been lost sight of.

Older workers

Why is it a good idea to hire an older worker?

There are those who are of the view that hiring an older worker is simply hiring trouble. 'You can't teach an old dog new tricks', is generally the view of the younger generation. The reality is that many old dogs are actually able to adapt to new situations more quickly than younger ones because they have a larger repertoire of potential solutions to choose from and a greater life experience that enables them to see answers simply because they literally have 'been there and done that'.

Smarter older workers have also been around for long enough to have learnt that things get done by people like themselves. When they were younger and working at the lowest levels within an organisation learning the ropes and making contacts all with a great desire to move up the corporate ladder of success, they not only paid their dues by learning, but also by making contacts with all of the others who like themselves were the people on whom the then generation of managers depended to get the work out. Thus they are not only not strangers to hard work, they know the tricks of doing it smarter not harder and long ago learned to adapt to changes in methodology, changes in organisational structure and changes in management style and philosophy simply because in the last twenty to thirty years they have managed to experience it first hand numerous times.

Then there are their contacts.

Unless the person has been a monk sworn to silence and been isolated in a cave as a recluse, there is high likelihood that he/she has developed a network of people around various organisations who were helpful during their earlier working life. Smart people actually made a lifestyle choice about cultivating people who could be useful to them with their work. The more senior and highly placed a person becomes, generally, the more attention they pay to people who are young and still in their developmental days because it is these people who will assist them to get the work done and it is from among these people that some will reach a senior management role within a ten year spread and it is thus these people who will be able to continue to assist with getting work done when they reach the top.

By adopting a sensible characteristic of mentoring people at the lower levels within an organisation and by retaining contact with those people who are rising or have risen to the top echelons of management - the sensible older worker has a network of contacts that is second to none and is all the more valuable as a result.

Things that would normally take forever to do can be done faster and better by the older worker who uses prior experience and an expansive network of others to get the job done.

The sensible workers also keep on maintaining their contacts across organisations and indeed spend a lot of their time within the work place seeming to do nothing but 'chat' with people. These contact maintaining chats pay off for the employer however because there is nothing better than having a well connected person being appointed to get an urgent and important job done. There is no experimentation, there is very little learning curve required. The older worker either knows how to get the job done or knows someone who knows and from them gets the information and applies it in practice.

Since older workers are also tired of working full time and would like to capitalise on the promises made to them earlier in their life that if only they work hard NOW they will be able to enjoy their retirement it is hardly surprising that if they are offered reasonably well remunerated part time work they will take to it like ducks to water and actually work harder and with greater application than a younger worker who has so many other things on his or her mind.

If you do not believe me when I tell you that it pays to hire and older worker - fine! Try one and see. If all else fails hire me on the basis of put up or shut up and provided the level of remuneration is right and the work is interesting I will prove that this thesis is correct.

The Budget

Treasurer Costello has delivered yet another budget for Australia. As usual there is some good news and some bad news.

"If you are able-bodied and you are of working age, which is 15 to 65, then you are expected to look for work if you are capable of it," Mr Costello said."

For those of us who were promised the lure of early retirement, the opportunity to work harder and more productively for a shorter period and then a well earned rest while we were still young enough to enjoy what remained of our lives this comes as a blow.

Now I suppose we will have to feel unpatriotic if all we want to do is to enjoy our lives rather than continue to keep slaving away so that we can help the companies that employ us continue to make the earth-shattering profits that they have been making in the last few years.

What is a tooth worth?

No this is not a Monty Python question.

I was reading the other day about the chemical composition of the human body and quite frankly I am ashamed to admit it, but after careful consideration I realise that in my entirety, I am worth only a few cents worth of chemicals. (no wonder that life is so cheap in various countries of the world)

It was in this vein that I began to reassess things like visits to the dentist.

If you have been to the dentist of late you will have experienced a considerable twinge in your hip pocket nerve when the bill is presented. If my whole body is only worth a few cents of chemicals, then how come that the filling of one tooth with an amalgam filling costs so much?

I have come to suspect that the answer lies not in the actual worth of the items that are being repaired or indeed the cost of the items used to undertake the repair. Nor does the answer seem to lie in the value of the dentist's skill and competence. After all you can go to many other countries in the world where they have equally skilled dentists and get your cavity filled for a lower cost.

So what is the answer?

I suspect it lies in the cost of the latest purchase or acquisition which the dentist faces, be this a boat, a new swimming pool or perhaps a larger house. I am paying for a life style! I am helping to support all of those people who provide the services which the dentist uses to acquire that lifestyle. In short a visit to the dentist is really nothing to do with the value of the service I am getting it has everything to do with supporting the rest of society to live in the style to which it has become accustomed.

This evaluation has completely restored my faith in my own worth. Dead I may only be worth a few cents for my physical composition. Alive however I am worth a great deal to the people who can and do make a living off my corpus.

The Australian Association Of Social Workers - Yet again

TWO PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE AASW CONSTITUTION Clauses 175 (c) & (d)

In June 2003, the Committee of Management of the Western Australian Branch of the AASW resigned due, amongst other things, to their concern about the imminent insolvency of the AASW and the loss of self-generated State funds and savings from capitation fees to the national coffers.

The WA membership was surveyed and out of this arose the urgent issue of Branches being able to raise their own funds (from CPE events, Branch conferences etc.) and retain these funds as well as Branch capitation fees.

In June 2004 at the face to face Board Meeting in Canberra, the realisation of the AASW’s financial situation was clear and the only way for the Association to continue a level of financial feasibility was to use all the Branch surpluses. Every Branch “lost” their savings/surpluses and this was necessary to keep the AASW afloat. For many Branches and COM’s this came as a large shock and there has been ongoing debate about what should have been done, could have been done etc.. For some members who do identify with their Branch and attend regular CPE events or social gatherings, they have gone without a local service. Those members who volunteer their time, professionalism and energy to their local Branches have been disheartened by the financial outcome.

At the Board meeting of the AASW in November 2004, it was moved that two additional clauses be included in the Constitution of the AASW (following legal review):

Clause 175 (c) to read:
“The Branch has the power on behalf of the Association to raise or earn money and disburse the money so raised plus monies from membership fees received.”

Clause 175 (d) to read:
“With the agreement of the Board, Branch Committees of Management have the authority within their jurisdiction to undertake activities on behalf of the Association.”

The Board also voted that:
“A Special General Meeting be called by 30 April 2005 for the membership to vote.”

By adding these two clauses to the Constitution, Branches will have greater autonomy not only to be self-generating but also to utilise these funds in ways that will benefit their members.

All members will soon be receiving a Briefing Paper with further details of these two recommended specific constitutional changes. There is also a National Constitutional Committee working on producing a document recommending other changes (in time for the National AGM in November 2005) to ensure a robust constitution for the association to support the future of the AASW.

Remember to VOTE either in PERSON or by PROXY for the Special General Meeting in April 2005, which is to be held in Canberra.

Pete's Points

Well folks, its MAY 2005 and so far no meeting of the Association has been called by its President in spite of the statement in their March newsletter advertising this and a Board decision.

If the Directors of the AASW Ltd wish to continue in office for much longer they should remember that they are a limited company established under the Corporations Law in the ACT and should act accordingly. I am not sure whether corporate watchdogs would be amused at a company deciding and advertising an intention to hold an Special General Meeting and then simply not doing so thereby denying their shareholders (in this case members) the opportunity to hold the Board to account and to take back some of the power that they suggest the Board has usurped.

Anyone in the AASW care to comment?

The Death of Common Sense

This is the title of the cutest email I have received in an age. If you too receive it read it and weep. Then hold up your hands and count off on your fingers the number of people you personally KNOW have common sense.

When you find yourself discovering that you cannot even manage to get up to ten ask yourself if this means that from now on you should be calling it 'good sense' because you have proved it is not common?

Let's Make Book on the USA in the Middle East

I wonder if anyone is actually taking bets on how long the USA will remain in Afghanistan and Iraq?

I know that I would be interested in taking a bet that the duration of their stay is likely to be longer than shorter.

The UK elections

Has anyone else noticed that the person who actually ran the successful campaign for the Howard government in Australia was hired to run the campaign for the Howard conservatives in the UK?

How unsurprising therefore that the issues should be about trust and about who can and cannot run the economy.

Pope Mobile sells for over 310,000 Euros

I simply love novelty acts which appear on E bay. A piece of cereal which appeared to have the face (supposedly) of Jesus Christ on it and now a pope mobile which was never driven by the Pope have sold on the Internet.

I have no problem with the people who sell such items - I mean to say if someone is stupid enough to buy things like that why should someone else not make money?

What gets me are the people who buy these items!

It's just like the scam that has been going on about Toby the rabbit. Two college kids have managed to raise in excess of US$28,000 by showing a picture of this cute little rabbit on the Internet and saying that unless people paid money they would eat it.

So what I say, rabbit's are either considered as pets, pests or food. Good on the college kids for trying it on. But who are the idiots who would pay good money to try and keep this cute little bunny alive?

Are we inventing the BORG?

Most of us watch the occasional show on TV that is in the Science Fiction genre and think of it as pure escapism. Some of us actually read the stories which SciFi writers produce and think of it as ways in which 'what if' scenarios are created.

In recent times those of you who are Star Trek fans have watched with interest a group called the BORG (no offence intended I am certain to people with that name from Malta).

Part human and part machine they represented a challenge to humans and their main claim to fame was the nanotechnology in their systems which enabled them to adapt to any threat to their survival and at the same time enable them through the adaptation process to lock on to scientific advances of all of the peoples that they 'absorbed'.

Truth is often the precursor to fiction but if the following is true then perhaps this time the fiction is leading us to the new truth.

Have a look at this: from New Scientist

You can create nanoscale machines by copying the way the immune system latches onto invading microbes

NANOSCALE machines and circuits could one day be assembled by exploiting the way immune systems latch onto invading bacteria and viruses. The idea has already been successfully used to guide individual nanotubes into position on a metal surface.

Researchers desperately need a way to assemble nanoscale devices. Nanotubes made from various substances can be used in many ways when building these devices: as passive components such as structural supports or conducting wires, or as the basis for active elements such as transistors or light emitters. But connecting up even a single nanotube between two points in a circuit, say, is much easier said than done. That's because a newly synthesised clump of nanotubes is much like a jumbled heap of lumber. The challenge is to pick one out and place it where you want it, says Rajesh Naik, biotechnology project leader at the US Air Force Research Laboratory in Dayton, ...

Are we evolving to fight cancer and other diseases

An interesting article in the New Scientist has noted that there are some recent studies that would suggest that both chimps and human beings are rapidly changing their genes so that their bodies are better able to fight current epidemics, possibly including cancer.

Worth a read.

If you already HAVE cancer, of course, then there is not much this information does for you - but at least you have some hope that human beings are evolving to fight the threat. The pity is that you can be reassured that you are a casualty of Darwininan evolution.

Do we reall NEED to sleep 8 hours a day?

New Scientist As alert as ever on just two hours' sleep - News:

"WHY do we have to spend a third of our lives sleeping? The discovery that fruit flies with a particular protein variant need only a third of the normal amount of sleep could provide part of the answer.

Surprisingly, sleep in flies and mammals shares many similarities; deprivation, for instance, leads to impaired performance. Chiara Cirelli's group at the University of Wisconsin-Madison has been screening thousands of mutant fruit flies to identify the genes that affect slumber.

She discovered that one mutant, dubbed 'minisleep', rests only 4 hours a day, compared with 12 hours in normal flies (Nature, vol 434, p 1087). Despite the lack of sleep, minisleepers showed no signs of impairment. Their escape responses also remained almost as quick after 24 hours without sleep, unlike those of normal flies.

The minisleep mutation is in a gene called Shaker, which is also found in mammals, and there are a few reports of people who really do seem to get by on a couple of hours' sleep without any ill effects. Understanding how the protein variant works might lead to new kinds of drugs for keeping sleep-deprived people alert, the team speculates. There is a snag, though: minisleepers die young."

Pete's Points:

I am one of those people who seem to need less sleep than most. So I am much taken with the information in this article that perhaps the reason for my situation may well be as simple as the fact that my body manufactures a protein and that this may well be due to a different gene structure.

Of course I am NOT happy about this "dying young" bit. I suspect the author of the article merely mentioned it as a way of helping readers who are slugabeds with their penchant for sleeping in.

For those people who have always thought that I was weird - now is the chance for you to be in a position to gloat.

You now have your evidence.

I would of course argue that I am simply an early adaptation (along Darwinian lines) to the current environmental stimuli created by the management mantra that we simply have to do more with less!

The Whole World is Always on MY back

There is much to be said for the attitude of "everyone is on MY back.' After all it's almost always true, isn't it? There is always someone getting a free ride and having a good time doing it.

While I have to grin and bear it!

I Need Authorisation?

There is much to be said for powerlessness.

Generally if you wait long enough, someone or something will come along to get the job done, or you lose your job and reinforce your feeling of powerlessness.

Either way you feel good - right?

Let Me Iron Out the Problem?

There is much to be said for procrastination.

Generally if you leave something long enough. Someone or something will come along into the vacuum of inactivity and be so frustrated by what is NOT happening that action results.

Such a situation can happen anywhere to anyone. It is most usual to find it rather close to home, usually in the family of the workplace.

So I can afford to wait and see - right?