Affirm Humanity - Juan Mann

Affirm Humanity

Free Hugs Campaign*   (Web site)

My favourite Free Hugs :

• First Hug @ 0:50  - 'Bout time! 
  
• Double take, Oh - Why not?  Bloke hug @ 1:15
  
• Juans' mate @ 1:33, 1:40 - Wait for it, wait for it .... Here it comes!
  
• Hey, anyone can do it, just hold up the sign @ 2.04
• WHAT!?  @ 2.26
  

Free Hugs YouTube Channel

*Free Hugs is now worldwide.  Humanity affirmed.

Comment Invited.  Who would you like to see included in Affirm Humanity?  Help build the Affirm Humanity collection by suggesting your favourite affirming humanity moment. 

Affirm Humanity - Matt Harding

Affirm Humanity

Where the Hell is Matt?  (Web site)

Take only photographs, leave only footprints.*

My favourite Snoopy Dance moments.  (C'mon - doesn't it just perfectly look like a Snoopy Dance?) :

• Kuwait City, Kuwait @ 0:42 - the obligatory dog!
• DMZ, Korea @ 1:55
• Tongatapu, Tonga @2:21
• India - @2.36.  Matt, you've got some serious Bollystyle!
• Tel Aviv, Israel @ 3:42
• East Jerusalem, West Bank @3:45
• Nellis Airspace, California @ 3:55.  You lucky dog!

* With permission, where permitted.

Matts' YouTube Channel

Comment Invited.  Who would you like to see included in Affirm Humanity? Help build the Affirm Humanity collection by suggesting your favourite affirming humanity moment.

My favourite Twitter tools

So, I've been spending more time than I should tweeting, but it's all research.  For clients.  Really.

Anyway, as lists seem to be a popular blog post option, here is my contribution to the ever growing Twitter tools collection, of those I'm currently using, to my endless amusement and wastage er..., use ... good, solid research type use, of time.

1. Twitterfox (for Firefox users who don't want to install TweetDeck)
2. Twitter Analyzer
3. Twist - see trends in twitter
4. TweetStats :: Graphin' Your Stats
5. Twitoria - How Many Twitter Friends Are You Really Following?
6. Twitterholic.com  I'm King of the World!

Search for Twitter in All Places on Yauba.com (my latest favourite search engine that isn't Google.)

Palestine 09

"They stole my land, burnt my olive trees, destroyed my house, took my water, imprisoned my father, killed my mother, starved us all, humiliated us all. But I am to blame : I shot a rocket back. So they stole more of my land, burnt my olive trees, destroyed my house, took my water, bombed my country..." Palestine09

Featuring words partly inspired by one of the hundreds of hand-written anonymous placards carried at the Jan 3rd demonstration in London our Palestine 09 design expresses vividly the cycle of despair that has turned the tiny Gaza strip into a war zone of Israeli reprisals using its overwhelming military might. JUST £16.99!  Helping to raise funds for the Viva Palestina aid convoy to Gaza.

Buy this T-Shirt

Chirpy Cheep, Twitter Tweet

Forgive me blogosphere, it's been two months since my last post.

I've been .... busy.  No, I'm not seeing anyone else, honest.

Just business.  You've met him you know.  Look, he's standing right over there.

He looks taunt and trim?  Of course, you look fantastic too, dear.

No, I'd never leave you, darling.

Look, I know you're feeling hurt and a little neglected right now, but I promise, I'll be more supportive.

When?  Uh, well, how's right now?

What?  You don't think I'm really trying?

Uh .... hang on a second will you?
I'll be with you in a minute ... promise ....

I'm just checking my Tweetstats and Twitterholic ranking.

No!  I swear, you're the only blog for me.

Aviation goes green - Air New Zealand biofuel test flight

With around 2% of global greenhouse emissions being generated by air travel and air transport activity, the International Air Transport Association (IATA), has a keen interest in the development and take up of more environmentally friendly aviation fuels.  (Not to mention the potential $$ savings!)

Air New Zealand, in association with Boeing and Rolls Royce, finally got their test flight off the ground on Tuesday 30th December 2008, after more than a year of planning and behind the scenes work.

Scoop: Air New Zealand Biofuel Test Flight Underway

The test is seen by IATA as part of a short term goal, "... for its members to be using 10% alternative fuels by 2017".


IATA’s Green Vision: Algae Biodiesel By Barbara E. Hernandez

The 100% Easy-2-Read Standard web font sizes

Gulp. Why is it that the things that make sense are foreheard slapping moments?

Sigh ... back to style sheet revamp basics.

Information Architects » Blog Archive » The 100% Easy-2-Read Standard

The 100% Easy-2-Read Standard

Most websites are crammed with small text that’s a pain to read. Why? There is no reason for squeezing so much information onto the screen. It’s just a stupid collective mistake that dates back to a time when screens were really, really small. So…

>> Read more here.

P.S.  Seasons Greetings and have a happy new year.

Happy Happy, Joy Joy

If you're happy and you know it clap your hands!

If you're feeling great today, you may end up inadvertently spreading the joy to someone you don't even know.

New research shows that in a social network, happiness spreads among people up to three degrees removed from one another. That means when you feel happy, a friend of a friend of a friend has a slightly higher likelihood of feeling happy too.

Happiness is contagious in social networks - CNN.com

I can hear the conversation now ... "But Mom, research shows my facebook, myspace, youtube, twitter, blog and [insert other social media obsessions here] is good fo my health."

Fields of Fire - Cluster Bombs in Lebanon - Part 1

Fantastically, hideously, horribly, horrifyingly outrageous.

Lebanon is just the latest in a long line of troublesome targets to have been carpeted with these obscenities in the name of "defence", or just bloody minded retaliation.

How can any civil society permit the manufacture of and profit from these abominations, or their government to sanction and use these weapons of mass mutilation and death?

The Monty Python Channel on YouTube

We know who you are ...

... no more of those crap quality videos you've been posting ...

... we're giving you the real thing ...

US Presidential election ... be careful what you wish for ...

How important to the rest of the world is this US Presidential election?

As I read this NZ Herald story online, the TV is on downstairs and we here in Australia have blanket live coverage of the US Presidential election results on four of the five free to air channels.

Tracey Barnett : Obama's dream will seal the deal - 05 Nov 2008 - NZ Herald: Opinion

I have been waiting for eight long, dark years to be able to write a column that can talk about what's right with America instead of what's wrong with America.

I need to wake up tomorrow morning and hear that the United States has chosen to create a better history.

Under the disastrous administration of George W. Bush, America has become a nation I can hardly recognise.  ...

The truth is, I am afraid. I am afraid to put so much hope in just one man. Since the day Barack Obama won the primary in Iowa, my secret threefold prayer has been: let him get the nomination, don't let him get shot and don't let him become Jimmy Carter once he's in office.

If an Obama presidency is smothered by the mess he will inherit (and the presidency could well be for whomever takes office next) at least he will have given us something America desperately craves today - the possibility of renewal. I believe they call that hope.

Well Tracey, I think that's how many of us outside the US are feeling too, and ... it's sounding like a landslide, with unprecedented turnouts at the polls, and punishment of the incumbent Republican administration; Republican state governors are losing en masse, the US House of Reps and Senate are both already shaping up as overwhelmingly Democrat dominated houses.

And therein lies the rub. So much hope, so much promise. Now they're going to have no-one to shift blame to.

Hit the ground running people, and fasten your seat belts folks - it's going to be an exciting ride!

$1 a day to save the planet!

Kevin Rudd's emissions trading scheme: $1 a day to save planet

theaustralian.com.au. Lenore Taylor, National correspondent | October 31, 2008

THE Rudd Government has moved to ease fears about the impact of its emissions trading scheme, releasing Treasury modelling showing the scheme is affordable, with households paying up to $7 a week more for electricity and gas, and no industries forced offshore.

>> Full story

Rudd Government launches Australia's Low Pollution Future - The Economics of Climate Change Mitigation >>Press Release  (links to PDF documents only.)

Apparently, we're not going to reduce greenhouse gases, we're going to reduce carbon emissions.  The methane and nitrous oxide* emissions can look after themselves.

(*No wonder we're all acting as silly as drunk ducks ready for the Christmas dinner chop.)

And you'd think with all the talk of emission trading schemes and the imperative to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions, that a story about an electric car network for Australia - well, Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne, would get a bit more traction.

Plan for electric car network

theage.com.au, Mex Cooper, October 23, 2008

Australia will become the third country in the world to have an electric car network in a bid to run the country's 15 million cars on batteries powered by green energy under a plan announced today.

Thanks to Kwoff for the heads up on the electric car.

AIM Emissions Trading Scheme Survey  1st July 2008

The Australian business sector is largely unprepared for the introduction of the Federal Government’s emissions trading scheme according to the findings of a new survey of top level executives conducted by the Australian Institute of Management.

Only 36 per cent of those surveyed were aware the Australian Government’s emissions trading scheme, the centrepiece of the nation’s greenhouse reduction efforts is to commence in 2010.

Dalai Lama losing faith on talks with China.

It's a sad day when the Dalai Lama has doubts that his approach can work.

Australia Tibet Council - Dalai Lama Signals Strategy Shift With China

In an unusually strong statement, the Dalai Lama made clear he has doubts that his existing conciliatory approach towards the Chinese government can work. The Tibetan leader, however, added that his “middle-way” approach has received support from increasing numbers of Chinese scholars and said he still holds faith in the Chinese people and has not given up on efforts to convince them. Several international media outlets misquoted the Dalai Lama as having said he’d “given up” on pressing the Chinese government on Tibet’s future.

Full story - Australia Tibet Council - Dalai Lama Signals Strategy Shift With China

Congratulations India!

October 21, 2008 will go down in the history books as a Red letter Day for India.

1. Indian Moon Launch

India Launches Unmanned Orbiter to Moon - NYTimes.com

By SOMINI SENGUPTA, Published: October 21, 2008

NEW DELHI — India launched its first unmanned spacecraft to orbit the moon early Wednesday, part of an effort to assert its power in space and claim some of the business opportunities there.

The Indian mission is scheduled to last two years, prepare a three-dimensional atlas of the moon and prospect the lunar surface for natural resources, including uranium, a coveted fuel for nuclear power plants, according to the Indian Space Research Organization.

>> Full Story

2. Beats Australia at Cricket!

Zaheer inspires India to inflict heavy defeat on Australia

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday October 21 2008 09.46 BST

India (469 and 314-3) beat Australia (268 and 195) by 320 runs!

"I've never seen anything like that," said India's stand-in skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni when asked about Australia's performance. "Especially at one time in the first innings, they were 22 from 13 overs. I said to Rahul Dravid, 'look at the board, we won't see that again.'

>> Full Story

3. Reopens Kashmir border crossing with Pakistan closed since 1947!

India, Pakistan open trade route across Kashmir

San Jose Mercury News, USA.

The Associated Press: Article Launched: 10/21/2008 05:54:29 AM PDT


SALAMABAD, India—Trucks laden with fruit, honey, garments and spices crossed the heavily armed frontier in the Himalayan region of Kashmir on Tuesday as India and Pakistan opened a trade route between the two sides of the divided region for the first time in six decades. "I was 12 years old when I last saw baskets of fruits being packed to be sent to Rawalpindi," said Haji Abdul Ahad Bhat, a 74-year-old apple farmer from the Indian side, referring to a Pakistani city near the capital, Islamabad.

>> Full Story


DW-World: Asia News 21 October 2008 15.30 UTC >> Cite

India and Pakistan have started bilateral trade in the divided region of Kashmir for the first time in six decades.

A convoy of 13 trucks carrying mostly fruit left for Pakistani-administered Kashmir from the Indian-zone on Tuesday, while 14 trucks packed with Pakistani fruit made the journey in the opposite direction.

Calling it a historic event, the governor of Indian–administered Kashmir, N.N. Vohra said the move would help boost the economy in both parts of Kashmir. For his part, Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, the premier of Pakistani-administered Kashmir, said that he hoped the event would assist in the resolution of the Kashmir dispute.

The two South Asian rivals, which both claim Kashmir in full, have fought two wars over the territory since gaining independence from Britain in 1947.

You See? Sometimes the news is good, we just have to be paying attention.

The economic crisis is petty

Thanks to Barry Brook over at Brave New Climate for the throw on this.  (Even the comments have interesting links.)

Monbiot.com » This Is What Denial Does

The economic crisis is petty by comparison to the nature crunch. But they have the same cause.

By George Monbiot. Published in the Guardian 14th October 2008

This is nothing. Well, nothing by comparison to what’s coming. The financial crisis for which we must now pay so heavily prefigures the real collapse, when humanity bumps against its ecological limits.

As we goggle at the fluttering financial figures, a different set of numbers passes us by. On Friday, Pavan Sukhdev, the Deutsche Bank economist leading a European study on ecosystems, reported that we are losing natural capital worth between $2 trillion and $5 trillion every year, as a result of deforestation alone(1).

The losses incurred so far by the financial sector amount to between $1 trillion and $1.5 trillion. Sukhdev arrived at his figure by estimating the value of the services - such as locking up carbon and providing freshwater - that forests perform, and calculating the cost of either replacing them or living without them. The credit crunch is petty when compared to the nature crunch.

The two crises have the same cause. In both cases, those who exploit the resource have demanded impossible rates of return and invoked debts that can never be repaid. In both cases we denied the likely consequences. I used to believe that collective denial was peculiar to climate change. Now I know that it’s the first response to every impending dislocation

... Monbiot.com » This Is What Denial Does

How often do you say "Thank You"?

In this deceptively simple 3-minute talk, Laura Trice muses on the power of the magic words "thank you" -- to deepen a friendship, to repair a bond, to make sure another person knows what they mean to you. Try it. (Recorded February 2008 in Monterey, California. Duration: 03:34.)  (Thanks to TED.com)

Silver lining in the financial crisis cloud

So the US congress pulled its' finger out, or should I say, pork barrelled its way out of total financial melt down hysteria, and passed the "confidence restoration" $700 billion USD Wall Street bail out.

Because some people are saying that the banks have liquidity i.e. credit to lend; they just don't trust anyone anymore, not even each other.  Now there's confidence for you.

The people who loaned money like it was created out of thin air so they could loan it to anyone who asked for it, have now decided they don't trust each other, so the rest of us pay the price?

Whether the bail out, err ... liquidity confidence building,  actually does anything, remains to be seen in the reactions from the NZ and Asia openings tomorrow, what with Australia being closed for the (ironic smirk) Labour Day holiday long weekend.

Anyways, a different buzz seems to be happening now, with talk generally turning to funding "nation building" projects rather than credit bail outs, to avert another Great Depression scenario.

Some visionaries have long been talking about the green economy.  And now pundits seem to be jumping on the "green collar" jobs bandwagon, and the opportunities for transformation of the polluting sectors of the world economy into low carbon emission economic drivers.

More recently in the Australian industrial heartlands, we've seen union leaders finally get the message.

In the words of noted industrialist, Henry J Kaiser;"Problems are opportunities in work clothes".

And let's face it, right now we're (collectively) facing a couple of doozies!  The global warming crisis and the global financial crisis.

What an opportunity!

Links of interest:

• Green Economy and Green collar worker (wiki)
• Green Jobs: Towards Decent work in a Sustainable, Low-carbon World (ilo.org)
  
• Rocky Mountain Institute
• Green Recovery program | Center for American Progress
• $100B Green-Collar Jobs Plan Recommended (Yahoo! News)
• Green Collar Jobs | The Montana Climate Action Project
• Green Economy 2008 US cities rankings (sustainlane.com)
• One Country's Success Story: Building a Green Economy (egovmonitor.com)
• Sustainability within a Generation - Building a Sustainable Economy | David Suzuki Foundation
• ESD Ecologically Sustainable Development in Australia 1992 (environment.gov.au)
  
• New prospects for nation building (abc.net.au)

But not from this mob .... (see also "Nation Building and the Future Economy", Address to the Infrastructure Association of Queensland, by Treasurer Wayne Swan 09/09/08)

Green makeoever to create jobs

I don't read the papers every day, not even online, but I reckon this got lost in the mainstream noise generated by the financial gurus running around like chooks with their heads cut off.  (Thanks to Kwoff for the heads up.)

Homes 'should get free green makeovers' | NEWS.com.au

By Cathy Alexander
September 21, 2008 03:25pm

UNIONS want a "green revolution" to sweep the country's homes, saving more than $400 on annual household electricity bills.

They have called on the Federal Government to pay for a mass retrofitting of homes to slash electricity use.

Homes would be kitted out with insulation, double glazing and smart appliances at a cost to the Government of $5500 apiece. ...

Not a bad start Sharon, but a solar hot water system and/or grid connect solar system as well, would be even better.

The view from here: US Presidential Election

After watching the first Presidential debate live*, thought some quickie links with the view from here, would be useful:

ABC News Tag: US Elections
ABC TV: Insiders: Meltdown a challenge for Obama and McCain
ABC TV: 7.30 Report:  Clarke and Dawe on Wall Street's Woes; (Satire, Humour: BRYAN DAWE: President Bush, thank you very much for your time; it's a great honour.  ...)
SBS TV: Insight, Jennie Brockie in America:  McCain & Obama.  Insight transcript.  Interesting comments from would be voters.

JENNY BROCKIE: OK, anyone else like to join in here? What are you looking for? The people who are still deciding, what are you waiting for? Gentleman over here:

MAN: The thing I'm looking for is competence and competence is not experience, it's having the wisdom and the curiosity to consider an issue from all sides and then come up with the smart solution, not the ideological solution or not the sound-bite solution or not the politically expedient solution.

* Presidential Debate:

McCain would put a price freeze on to solve the financial crisis!?  That thinking went out the window even in the Shakey Isles with Rogernomics (wiki), back in the '80s!

Obama kept hitting the mark on the economy.  95% of tax payers would get a tax reduction.  Noticed he constantly referred to the "middle class".  Isn't there a "working class" in the US?  (Or do they still believe they're all "living the great American dream"?)

And while it's nice to keep the level of disagreement down, he said that McCain was "right" a few times too many times for my liking.

Number one rule of sales:  Don't mention/disparage the competition, but when you do, make sure you come back with an even stronger feature/advantage/benefit of your own product/service.  Obama may have kept to the rule, but all I heard was that McCain was right.

And just for another view altogether: Chrsitian Science Monitor Campaign 08:  How the US Presidential debate played overseas;

Pakistani political scientist Hasan Askari Rizvi is of two minds about Friday night’s presidential debate in the United States.  On one hand, he flinches at Barack Obama’s swashbuckling comments about taking out Al Qaeda leaders on Pakistani soil – with or without Pakistan’s consent. No policy could make him more unpopular in Pakistan, Mr. Rizvi says.

Then again, Rizvi acknowledges, he cannot rid himself of the idea that, despite his nuanced arguments Friday, Republican John McCain will be “George Bush III.” 

>Full Story here

Kevin 747, global financial crisis and climate change

UNunited Nations

So Kevin 747 (guess the honeymoon's well and truly over eh?) did his big thing at the UN today, by rabbiting on about the global financial crisis (thanks for nothing Fascists Inc.!) and how Australia's exemplary financial prudence would have prevented all this.

Kevin Rudd urges big economies to show leadership (The Australian 26 September 2008)

Instead of focusing on climate change or world poverty as part of the Millenium Development Goals established in 2000, the Prime Minister spent most of his time talking about expanding financial regulation beyond commercial banks and trying to protect families who borrow for their homes from the effect of excessive risk and financial greed.

And sign up to the "clean coal" bandwagon so we can solve the real crisis facing humankind. (Oh puuleeease! Well, at least Fossil Fuel Australia Inc. has announced they're paying for their own R&D.)

We're Doomed!  Doomed I tell you!  Doomed!

I saw Letterman's climate change rant on the Late Show back on the 9th or 10th?, and thought I'd post on it, but never got around to it (life and other distractions - ya know?), but it seems to have made a bit of a splash, evidenced by the number of blogs referring to it, so it seems redundant of me to do it now.

Anyways, got me looking back through my climate change posts, and lemme tell you, if I ruled the world, things would be different around here!

Welcome

New blog of interest to me:  A Free Man's Life: a Canadian based blog with an American perspective other than that of the elephant* just south of the border!

*Pierre Trudeau: "Sleeping with an elephant".