Month: March 2015

From a Spiegel Inerview with John Cleese

http://www.spiegel.de/international/zeitgeist/spiegel-interview-with-john-cleese-a-1026293.html

I found this Spiegel interview with John Cleese very interesting, especially the following statement where he says that he thinks that it is not possible  that the planet can be run in a rational and kind way —

Here is what he says:

” . . . .  I think you can reduce suffering a little bit, like the Buddhists say, that is one of the few things I take seriously. But the idea that you can run this planet in a rational and kind way — I think it’s not possible. There will always be these sociopaths at the top — selfish people, power-seekers who want to spend their whole lives seeking it. Robin Skynner, the psychiatrist that I wrote two books with, said to me that you could begin to enjoy life when you realized how bad the planet is, how hopeless everything is. I reached that point these last two or three years when I saw that our existence here is absolutely hopeless. I see the rich people have got a stranglehold on us. If somebody had said that to me when I was 20, I would have regarded him as a left-wing loony. . . .  ”

Would you like to comment on this?

Percentage targets for planned burning are blunt tools that don’t work

A more effective plan

http://theconversation.com/percentage-targets-for-planned-burning-are-blunt-tools-that-dont-work-39254?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+30+March+2015+-+2587&utm_content=Latest+from+The+Conversation+for+30+March+2015+-+2587+CID_3ea97089c94d786890216c71b60f85c7&utm_source=campaign_monitor&utm_term=Percentage%20targets%20for%20planned%20burning%20are%20blunt%20tools%20that%20dont%20work

. . . . . . .

“A more effective plan

The Victorian Bushfires Royal Commission also recommended that the Victorian government develop risk-based performance measures for bushfire management. In response, the Department of Environment, Land, Water and Planning has developed sophisticated methods for mapping risks from major bushfires across the state, and predicting bushfire risk following planned burning.

We strongly support this more sophisticated, regional risk-management approach. After all, planned burning to protect human life and property should naturally focus on places where people are most at risk from major bushfires.

Another new piece of our research, published in the journal Conservation Biology, offers a way to predict how planned burning also influences risks to biodiversity. This will allow land managers to consider trade-offs between protecting people and conserving wildlife when applying planned burning.

Just as the 5% target is an inefficient method for minimising the impact of major bushfires on human life and communities, it also has negative consequences for the resilience of natural ecosystems.

It’s time to drop the simple 5% target. It is a blunt tool, and a risk-based approach more effectively focuses fire protection where it’s most needed: safeguarding people and wildlife.”

 

Methyl Bromide and Strawberries .. Shock .. Horror .. Oh, Wait a Minute.

http://theconversation.com/methyl-bromide-and-strawberries-shock-horror-oh-wait-a-minute-39529?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest+from+The+Convers

“Methyl Bromide has been withdrawn worldwide under the Montreal protocol as it is a potent greenhouse gas (not because of toxicity, as many people have assumed from the headlines).”

Please go to the above link to find out more about it!

As you make your bed

I like this post very much and want to reblog it!

FabFourBlog

On Poor BB’s View

Bert Brechts Blick

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Our beloved Brecht’s list of pleasures looks very similar to our own – but, oh dear, no! We are no copy cats (as Brecht was, but that’s another story). At heart it shares our echo of slowing down, our plea for an idle life, don’t you think? The four of us find in Brecht’s poem from 1954 exactly the things we should be doing to take life more slowly and paradoxically become more alive and aware. We especially like Brecht’s praise of friendliness 🙂 🙂
We wonder what you would list. Will you tell us?

Unsere Fab-Four-Vergnügungsliste würde nicht viel anders aussehen. Und eure?
Nee, wir haben nicht abgeschrieben – wie Brecht es bisweilen tat, aber das ist eine andere Geschichte. Die Brechtsche Liste von 1954  unterstützt bestens, was wir bereits in unseren letzten Blogs propagierten, nämlich die Wichtigkeit des Innehaltens und der…

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Last Sunday of March 2015

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Today is Palm Sunday. Another year gone. I took the top picture several years ago. Today I did not take any pictures at the church. But it was pretty impressive again how many people turned up for the Mass. For Easter there are probably going to be even more people at the church.

Yesterday we went by train to Sydney for a matinee at the GRIFFIN THEATRE.

We were lucky that Caroline could meet us again for lunch at the Mad Pizza place were we had been once before. It is quite convenient to go there for the GRIFFIN THEATRE is close by.  The play we were to see was CARESS/ACHE by SUZIE MILLER.

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Before the start of the performance we had some time to sit in a little park area near the theatre. Here I have the play’s program in my hand. This play shows quite a few problems that people in our society can come up with. The actors were very good as it turned out, showing so much heartache.
There really was not much joy in the lives of the characters on stage.

But back to the little park where Peter took some pictures with his tablet.

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These regulations apply to this little park.
These regulations apply to this little park.

5 Powerful Shifts Transforming America

Are there some major changes going on in America?

Wolfessblog -- Guillotine mediocrity in all its forms!

5 Powerful Shifts Transforming the Future of American Society into Something Unrecognizable and Frightening

A new kind of governance is being born right before our eyes.
ByTom Engelhardt / TomDispatch
March 20, 2015

To stay on top of important articles like these, sign up to receive the latest updates from TomDispatch.com here.

Have you ever undertaken some task you felt less than qualified for, but knew that someone needed to do? Consider this piece my version of that, and let me put what I do understand about it in a nutshell: based on developments in our post-9/11 world, we could be watching the birth of a new American political system and way of governing for which, as yet, we have no name.

And here’s what I find strange: the evidence of this, however inchoate, is all around us and yet it’s as if we can’t bear to take…

View original post 3,263 more words

From “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov

“You have lost your reason and taken the wrong path. You have taken lies for truth, and hideousness for beauty. You would marvel if, owing to strange events of some sorts, frogs and lizards suddenly grew on apple and orange trees instead of fruit, or if roses began to smell like a sweating horse; so I marvel at you who exchange heaven for earth. I don’t want to understand you.”
–from “The Bet” by Anton Chekhov

Another Morning Walk

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There's a new building on top of that hill.
There’s a new building on top of that hill.
Here it is to be seen a bit better.
Here it is to be seen a bit better.
It is in this picture too.
It is in this picture too.
And here a bit of cropping gives a better view.
And here a bit of cropping gives a better view.
At the beginning of the month we drove to the top of the hill where this new mansion stands.
At the beginning of the month we drove to the top of the hill where this new mansion stands.
From up there we did get a good view of some new developments.
From up there we did get a good view of some new developments.

Now, back to Lakelands Park where I went this morning for my little walk.

This is the little playground in Lakelands Park.
This is the little playground in Lakelands Park.

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We would like to take Lucas to this park one day.