The Stern Report

I thought this would be good for everyone to read as I’m sure you will hear it talked about for a while to come.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

Part 5

Part 6

Second Life

Just wondering if anyone has heard about this interent community called ‘Second Life’? As far as I can tell you create your character and live in this digital community on the net. Not like blogs where its just text, you actually see yourself walking around on screen like a video game. You nteract with other people to the point where you can purchase items and even build property. At present there are 1 million people ‘living’ in his thing.

My info may be wrong but apparently alot of real money (in USD) is transferred around the community through trade (I saw something to the tune of 400,000 a day). It may sound a bit silly but big business has got in on the act. Leo Burnett, a large global advertising network, is creating a creative hub inside second life for all there offices where they can access each others ideas. Plus a correspondent for Rueters in London is going to start running a news program within the community.

Is this a look at how the internet is evolving? How long before people start making their ’second life’ their real life?

Revolution? Or recession of humanity?

The Weather Makers

I have almost finished reading “The Weather Makers” by Tim Flannery; you may have heard of it being talked about recently.

It is a book on the history and future impact of climate change and some of the things in it are to be quite honest pretty scary.

Without having seen “An Inconvenient Truth” yet I can only assume it backs up this book but does it by aiming it at the LCD (which is not a bad thing as everyone needs to be aware of what is going on). This book however goes into a little more scientific detail and makes for quite an interesting read.

Airlie Beach Photos

I thought it’s about time we all got to see them properly. These are the photos from Pete’s camera, I’ve adjusted the colour and made some of the dark ones a bit brighter.

http://picasaweb.google.com/craigforster/TheBeach

There’s a couple of crackers…

The Future of the internet

This is a very interesting look at what many believe will happen to the internet over the next 20 years.

There are some interesting predictions in it and some even sound like the relm of sci-fi…

It is a bit of read but the first 15 pages gives you a good idea.

2006survey.pdf

Stem cell research

I would be interested to know were people stand on this issue. Not from a scientific perspective but from a moral one. Is the use of embryonic stem cells in scientific experiments right or wrong?

One small point I will make from a scientific perspective is that embryonic stem cells can now be created, through other means than just fertilizing an egg. We now have a process that allows cloning of cells from an individual.

The world is a safer place but…

I recently heard the world described as being “really fucked up” at the moment and much worse off then it has been for some time and perhaps ever.

At first I thought “yeah the world is in a bit of a sad state at the moment” obviously thinking of certain regions in the world and the influence other more powerful regions has on them.

I then started to think about this a little bit and realised how wrong that statement was. There are certainly terrible things going on in the world today and there are many people who are suffering at the hands of others and there is a lot more we can be doing to help those less fortunate then ourselves. But this is not a new phenomenon; it has been this way since them beginning of mankind.

I don’t think I am alone in the view that religion has been a major source of conflict over the past 2000 years. Christians, Jews, Muslims, there has been conflict between them since they have been around. Although the conflicts “back in the day” were on a much larger scale and people knew where they could and couldn’t go. And obviously there are some pretty low points in recent history such as World wars etc… and we are currently in a pretty low point in that sense.

But my point is that on a whole the world is safer then it ever has been. There are regions that are more dangerous then others and we in the developed world are far from blameless for some this. And certain administrations seem to doing the very best to stir the global shit pot.

You may also argue that the Western world is on a whole safer but the rest isn’t; well that fair enough but I do think these other regions are still for the most part safer excluding the obvious countries.

Anyway my overall point for this rant is this. I believe the world today is a safer place that for the most part is heading in the right direction (except for the obvious exceptions). This however is not a reason to stop or even slow down efforts to make it a better place and nor is it a reason to not get angry at people who try to make it worse. Near enough is not good enough and until the world is where it should be, and there is every chance that it never will be we should never stop trying to make it a better place. The Japanese have a system of manufacturing that has helped them become one of the worlds leading high quality low cost manufacturers. It is more of a way of thinking that you refine your process until you can not get it any better then you refine it again and again and you never stop until you reach perfection. This is a good way of thinking for us all so the next time someone tells you the world is “fucked up” and completely going to the shit try and change their perspective to a more positive beneficial outlook because a negative attitude never helped anyone.

I want hear you thoughts.

Thank you, and good night.

The Line “Too Loose” Has Moved?

I had an interesting thought last night as I drove home from dropping Al at home. Car trips are always refelective time

‘It is increasingly becoming more difficult to get loose’

It seems that from year to year we keep pushing the boundaries of experiential substances and due to this it is moving the distance that needs to be crossed to get loose. This to me is one of two things:

1: Adaption – our bodies are becoming seasoned to the extra curricular activities and more immune maybe to the affects. I notice that even with booze it takes a very hard drinking session to really ramp up things. I think this is why we have been switching to Rum more recently as the old ways no longer work. The idea of doing it essentially is to get loose and let go of the ‘normal’ barriers that govern our lives. I’m not too interested in sitting around and drinking as a lifestyle, rather I want to go out and booze and get loose in a very simplified explanation. With other substances it is the same, excluding Sid as this is in a class of its own. I am beginning to think then that maybe they have the same affect but it is the next point that is more important.

2: Environment – We have been in the same environment for quite a while now. Our external stimulus hasn’t changed and therefore our interaction with it is diminishing. We all know it is hard to recreate the stimulus you get from an environment after the first few times you are in it. It is also important to note that new environments renew the adrenalin and therefore our interaction with extra curricular substances can also be renewed. I’m sure we can all remember back to New Years, Perth, Homebake etc etc. I think this issue of environment is very central to many of our actions, needs and unsatisfaction with curricular activities.

I believe then that maybe the line is still roughly where it was and it is us who are stepping slowly backwards from it and creating the distance. Our experiences are our own to govern…

Video Post

Here are a couple of pretty funny/interesting videos

Just post any videos in here so they are all together and easy to find.

Canon in D
Death Star