Like a dating computer decides whom we should get out with, sometimes I dream of an automated system in which everyone switch jobs at random for an equitable outcome. Everybody earns the same gruel, so we soon know how not to make someone's life miserable because we could be next in that spot. In this system one would have the surprise, possibly set on April first, to get a new assignment and a new home...

"Oh my god! Today I'm the minister for transport!... What am I going to wear?.." This astonishment coming for having been a Dunny Inspector First Class for the last year. The switch can be good for the soul. Thus we would have a true democracy working in the best of chaos, but in good sharing spirit. The dunny-inspector-me having lived on the harbour, while the minister-me now to live at the back of Burke, just to make sure I understand issues of tyrannical distances...

But them we might have to make exceptions and regulations. For example the religion of this person forbids him to clean dunnies... (I've seen this excuse in far and exotic lands). Thus we would be in for a few arcane complications and the edifice of wonderfully flat chaos falls down.

Life is weird... As I observe the paper-wasps republiks in which individual take turn at various occupation, I see a parallel in my dream:
Some fly off in search of food, some build the delicate nest, while others stay on top of it to guard it against intruders, especially from the other republiks and various insect colonies. As they seem to take turn, one can see the wasps fly in search of the construction material and food...
Eventually I spot a lazy bastard, landed on a leaf, enjoying the sunshine and doing bugger all. The ultimate sacrifice. Sacrifice that does not interfere with the next, except through its breathing and its shadow. Don't move, this is the crux of a complex paradigm... including my own anthromorphological projection.

In our pyramidal social construct, we are made to cling to positions by various acquired parameters of status and beliefs, most irrelevant. Yet the more important job we have rustled by elbowing others, the more we can disturb the rest of the riff-raff. Our decisions will help people, will rob people, will kill people.
Is this so necessary a concept except in our own scheming minds in which we invent hell and heaven for no other reason we feel pain and that our life is terminal?

Does this explain the coming chaos to Sydney in September when 20 "world leaders" come in for a conference that is already obsolete? that is already agreed to disagree and to cooperate? And will provide a lot more hot air to fly the balloons of illusion...

In ordinary times, the disturbance would be okay, but these are no ordinary times. The biggest liar is at the helm of the planet, so be assured of more porkies flying high... and soon the sun won't be there to be enjoyed, but to be grilled by... May be we should move to Aukland, NZ...? The next riviera of the south?

From the ABC

Rudd, Gillard not selling key IR point, says Keating

Former Labor prime minister Paul Keating has called on the party's current leadership to 'sell their key point' on industrial relations (IR), and reassure business leaders they are not winding legislation back 14 years.

Mr Keating says claims by the Federal Government that its industrial relations legislation follows on from his policies are a 'great lie'.

He has also told the ABC's The World Today that Australian Workplace Agreements (AWA) are bad for productivity.

As Labor prime minister in 1993 he took on the unions, abolished compulsory arbitration and brought in enterprise bargaining.

Mr Keating's rationale, which has since been quoted by the Howard Government as it introduced its WorkChoices legislation, was that he wanted to "place primary emphasis on bargaining at the workplace level".

But he says the WorkChoices legislation does not follow on from his time in government.

"It's not one better, it's one backwards," he said.

"[Prime Minister John] Howard's change was always ideological and nasty.

"Individual workplace agreements are of their essence, anti-productive.

"Howard paints this picture, 'we took the Keating changes and we went on to do more things'.

"What's happened is trend productivity has dropped from 3 per cent a year under me to 1 per cent now.

"I mean, the fact is the key to enterprise productivity is enterprise bargaining, the key to it is the collective and that's what Howard hates.

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Gus: Frankly despite what other people may think. I have always followed Paul Keating's ideas... They are the fairest and most constructive ones under the capitalist system we're lumbered with. But the nation kicked him out in 1996 under the pretext he was too "arrogant". Blimey, the little Johnnee not-in-Cambo-but-in-Kirrbikki is playing the ingenue but does not listen to anyone. Arrogance disguised as "Common sense tells us" "most people would have to agree" "in the national interest"... while you get his boot up your anterior because he does it as if he was not doing it. And he does what he wants. Keating is right: it's nasty.

Rudd and Gillard have to sell their message better because the government is painting them in the wrong light. Why would it not? But I trust the Australian public can see through the fog of porkies from Hockey and Howard. Most would do anyway via their reduced pay packet for longer working hours... Nothing to do with "hurting" business, all to do with maximising profits — at the expense of the workers.

 

Nuke dump process not a joke, says Bishop

The Federal Science Minister has rejected the Northern Territory Government's claims that the consultation process for the nuclear waste site at Muckaty Station was a joke.

The Northern Land Council (NLC) has nominated the site 120 kilometres north of Tennant Creek as a national nuclear waste repository.

If the site is chosen by the Federal Government, traditional owners will receive a one-off $12 million payment.

The Territory's Chief Minister Clare Martin says the process for finding the waste dump was not up to scratch and wants the Federal Government to find another site.

But Julie Bishop says she is happy with the level of consultation.

"That's insulting to the NLC and traditional owners," she said.

"They have volunteered this site, no one has forced them to do it.

"They have sought information in a sensible way."

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Gus: sure for someone starving or someone having very low overheads, like living under a sheet of galvo, 12 million bux may seem like a lot of money but in reality for the trouble that this can cause, including roads, trucking, digging and covering up plus more trauma of tree destruction, 12 million bux is peanuts... If this silly plan goes ahead, the Federal Government can pat itself on the back for a nice swindle. 12 billion bux would be more appropriate, plus 10 per cent interest for every year of radio-active decay...

Over the years, I have invented many things. Mostly just for my own use.

Some are useless, some work wonders... Some are simple some are quite complex, most are of mechanical engineering bent... Not a day passes without my brain going apes about a new invention. Like the steel scraper for curved surfaces... I would be rich on royalties should I expose these contraptions to the rigor of patents but I'm lazy on this front. And I don't fancy rejection because someone invented something along the same line but it does not work....

I invented one small contraption to peel paint from bricks for example... The thingies one could buy at the hardware were not working satisfactorily for me and soon wore down. Mine works ten times faster, did not clog up, did not need any pressure and lasts and lasts and lasts...

And I invented the tricycle with the square wheels as one can see in the toon at top. This was not the first time I used it in my drawings... If one goes back in the time-line of this site one would see it used several times before. And before this site ever existed...

But i'd suggest this is a blatant steal — or, like they say, great minds think alike:

reinventing the wheel... 

 

In regard to the article two up about nuclear dumps, the controversy is still going on...

From the BBC

The entrance to one of Australia's most contentious plots of real estate is marked by a small road sign and a burnt-out car - its doors buckled, its windscreen smashed in and its mangled side emblazoned with the words NO DUMP spelt out in huge capital letters with silver tape that shimmers in the outback sun.

A six-hour drive north of Alice Springs, this is the proposed site of a radioactive waste dump - a project that has not only sparked the most rancorous of environmental debates, but divided the local Aboriginal community, the traditional owners of the land.

Supporters of the dump claim it would bring much-needed employment and money to an area with little prospects and few jobs.

For opponents, it would not only be an unwelcome blot on their beloved red centre landscape, but a toxic one at that.

Amy Lauder, an Aboriginal elder, is at the centre of the storm.

...

The Australian Greens suspect the government will uphold its pre-election pledge to repeal the legislation, but in a way which still keeps open the option of siting a waste dump in the outback.