Hotelicopter

This is amazing. From Gizmodo:

Since 2004, the company behind the Hotelicopter has been working to modify a Soviet-made Mil V-12 into two world firsts: the "world's biggest helicopter" and the "world's first flying hotel."

As you might have guessed, the experience on board the Hotelicopter is far from your standard Motel 6. This gigantic flying Titanic machine features everything you would expect from a 5-star hotel—from private entertainment systems and room service to extras like spa treatments, yoga classes, gaming and a tea garden.

More here.

Chinese death vans

Heres how Mr Rudd's Chinese mates handle crime:

But there will be nothing ordinary about Yong's death by lethal injection. Unless he wins an appeal, he will draw his final breath strapped inside a vehicle that has been specially developed to make executions more cost-effective and efficient.

In chilling echoes of the 'gas-wagon' project pioneered by the Nazis to slaughter criminals, the mentally ill and Jews, this former member of the China People's Party will be handcuffed to a so-called 'humane' bed and executed inside a gleaming new, hi-tech, mobile 'death van.'

And they don't like waste:

According to undercover investigations by human rights' groups, the police, judiciary and doctors are all involved in making millions from China's huge trade in human body parts.

Inside each 'death van' there is a dedicated team of doctors to 'harvest' the organs of the deceased. The injections leave the body intact and in pristine condition for such lucrative work.

After checking that the victim is dead, the medical team first remove the eyes. Then, wearing surgical gowns and masks, they remove the kidney, liver, pancreas and lungs

.

Multicultural Biker Gangs

How some people are adapting to multicultural Australia:

THEY call themselves MBM - the Muslim Brotherhood Movement - a gang of 600 men who boast they are the toughest and best young street fighters of Middle Eastern descent in Sydney.

MBM claims to be the biggest of four new gangs to emerge on Sydney streets in the past year. Its numbers rival those of the state's largest bikie gang, the Rebels.

The sudden appearance of MBM, with its growing membership recruited predominantly from the city's south-western suburbs, has alarmed senior police already battling to combat open warfare among outlaw motorbike gangs....

Web 2.0 and Question Time

Tim Andrews has made the excellent suggestion that the Opposition set up an online system to allow people to vote on what questions be asked during Question Time.:

The concept is rather simple. You submit questions on a website (or through twitter). Other users get to vote on these questions, and the most popular ones get asked. A great example of this was the RNC Chairman debate hosted by ATR where hundreds of people submitted questions, and tens of thousands of votes were cast. I believe similar sites were up for Presidential debates. More recently, The Nation, The Washington Times, and the Personal Democracy Forum have teamed up to launch Ask the President, where you and vote on questions for President Obama that they will present the top ones at the next press conference. Zotfish is another example that takes this beyond politics.

The technology is already publicly available through Google Moderator:

Also see the following links.

No Tim Tams for Sydney

The Green infestation is running riot at City of Sydney Council:

SYDNEY Lord Mayor Clover Moore has banned Tim Tams from council events for fear they're partially produced through cruel child labour on Africa's Ivory Coast.

In a move to create "sustainable, healthy and cruelty-free catering" at City of Sydney meetings and events, staff have stopped providing chocolate biscuits along with meals containing eggs, bottled water, fat-rich cakes, dairy deserts and "bad" fish species.

One of the first attempts at the new politically correct meals policy was at the council's Investing in Sydney's Future business forum on February 25.

On the menu were vegetables (locally grown), NSW wines (organic) and "a good fish species choice" (blue-eye trevalla)....

No Nano

It seems not everyone is pleased to see millions of people being able to buy cars. John Cadogan from Wheels Magazine doesn't approve:

"When India gets to the level of car ownership that we enjoy in the West, which is about 700 cars for every 1,000 people, it could double the number of cars on earth, presently 900 million, to 1.8 billion," Wheels magazine's features editor John Cadogan told ABC Radio. ".......


"That will have profound impact on carbon dioxide production, greenhouse (gases), the environment and health generally," Cadogan added.

The Australian also believed Nano would impact fuel prices.

"Oil is running out and in fact we're at about peak oil production now. China and India are running to the party and the keg is half empty," he said.

Well, if we run out of oil we won't have to worry about carbon emissions will we.

Having millions of cars on the road do more then generate pollution. Better transportation means higher economic growth helping left countries like India out of poverty. Car pollution will be handled in the same way we have controlled it, with clean engines and cleaner fuel. Those millions of cars are a revenue source for governments allowing them to build proper roads reducing congestion and pollution.

As to peak oil, higher prices means new sources of fuel will come on to the market. Clean alcohol fuels would be given a boost by higher prices.

Anyway its hypocritical of a journalist who depends on cars for his livelihood to complain that more people will be able to afford cars. Or does he only have a problem with brown and yellow Asians having cars?

Nano Nano

The Indian super cheap car is about to hit the market:

INDIA'S Tata Motors is ready to launch the world's cheapest car amid predictions the vehicle could transform how millions travel and fears it would bring more traffic jams on Indian roads.

Tycoon Ratan Tata was due to unveil the four-door jellybean-shaped car with tear-drop lights at a "revolutionary high-tech'' audio-visual show in India's financial hub Mumbai.

The car is slated to cost just 100,000 rupees ($A2850) for the no-frills version that has a two-cylinder 623cc, rear-mounted engine with a top speed of 105km/h.

And they are looking at the export market:

The European version of its ultra-cheap Nano will be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show this week. The eventual retail price is rumoured to be around €5000 ($9872).

Tata has promised to sell the car for 100,000 rupees ($3050) in India. Launched last year, it was heralded as a marvel of super-thrifty engineering that would redefine the auto industry. Tata executives have since suggested that the rear-engine, four-door runabout, designed to tempt India's middle classes away from their motorbikes and scooters, is now ideally suited to cash-strapped Western consumers.

"Cash-strapped Western consumers," Thats going to be us soon. So put Away your dreams of owning a Ferrari , the little nano is all you are going to get.

Our very own sub prime crisis

We will be paying for Kevin Rudd's stimulus in the most horrible way:

Meanwhile, the first-home buyer end of the market has been booming.

But economists fear this flurry of activity at the lower end has inflated prices to unsustainable levels.

In Sydney, the average property already costs nine times the average household income, while the UK and US reached a peak of only seven times average income before their markets crashed.

According to Professor Keen, the First Home Owner Grant has cost the government about $200million, but has inflated property prices by close to $3billion.

"This is all illusionary wealth that could disappear very quickly," he said.

"The additional $2.8billion or so has come from increased mortgage debt taken on by those most vulnerable to a serious economic downturn at a time when we can see very clearly that the global recession is coming our way."

The Government may well extend the first-homebuyer grant beyond its planned end-date of June 30, which Professor Keen says will end up pumping the market to even higher levels.

The University of Western Sydney professor said he had sold his Sydney house because he feared a property crash, but his gloomy view on the market has been backed by other experts.

Gerard Minack, chief economist at Morgan Stanley, said property prices were likely to fall by 20 per cent in some cities, while the value of houses on coastal strips such as the NSW mid-north coast and the Gold Coast could halve.....

"Traditionally what has hurt people has not been rising interest rates but rising unemployment. I don't care what rate you're paying, if you have a mortgage five times your income and you lose your job, you're toast."

In the 1990's I worked for Centrelink and remember how high interest rates destroyed families. Looks like we could be seeing a repeat. I'm going to use any stimulus handout to reduce my mortgage and hope I can hang on to my job for the next few years. On the brightside there should be some nice affordable Queensland properties coming on the market .

Why the meltdown happened

I have just spent an hour and a quarter watching the video below. Every single second was worth it. Peter Schiff, the man who predicted the current economic crisis explains how it happened and were it will likely lead with a clarity that no politician would dare use. A must see video:

Palin reject 1/2 of Federal stimulus money

Governor Palin has rejected over $500 million of Obama's stimulus package. No Australian Premier would have the guts to do something similar with Rudd's money.

March 19, 2009, Juneau, Alaska - Governor Sarah Palin submitted her federal economic stimulus appropriation bill to legislators today to provide jobs and needed infrastructure improvements in Alaska under the American Recovery & Reinvestment Act (ARRA). Governor Palin is accepting just 55 percent of the available stimulus funds, all for capital projects. This amount includes the funds the state accepted last month for Department of Transportation projects.

"We will request federal stimulus funds for capital projects that will create new jobs and expand the economy," Governor Palin said. “We won’t be bound by federal strings in exchange for dollars, nor will we dig ourselves a deeper hole in two years when these federal funds are gone. For instance, in order to accept what look like attractive energy funds, our local communities would be required to adopt uniform building codes. Government would then be required to police those codes. These types of funds are not sensible for Alaska.”'...

Bailouts and Bull

John Stossel tries to apply some sense to the economic bailouts:



Thanks to Alex Hawke for the tip.

Feral Greens

This is how those nice soft and cuddly Greens help the environment:

PEOPLE are being urged to break into shops, "disable" four wheel drives and throw pies at people by an extreme environmental group being promoted by the NSW Greens.

The group Rising Tide is planning a blockade of the world's biggest coal port in Newcastle, for which Greens MP Lee Rhiannon has held a "direct action and civil disobedience" workshop to prepare protesters.

The Greens are only a nuisance in State Parliament but they can hold real power in local government. Fortunately the people out here have more sense then to vote them in.

Good one Barry

I'm happy to see Barry O'Farrell proposing recall options for New South Wales, something I proposed a while ago:

LIBERAL leader Barry O'Farrell will hire a team of constitutional lawyers to explore recall provisions to end fixed four-year terms for incompetent governments.

In a move that would also lead to a case whereby he could be sacked himself, if he ever wins power, Mr O'Farrell said the NSW political system needed to be reformed.

And he said it should start with provisions for the Governor to be able to sack a corrupt or useless government......

Green tots and Little Liberal Steps

They must not have much to do at Woollahra Council:

A PROGRAM called The Little Green Steps that would teach recycling and sustainable gardening to children at a Woollahra Council preschool has raised the ire of Liberal councillor Anthony Boskovitz, who on Monday night suggested his own education plan for children.

It would be called Climbing the Little Liberal Steps, he told a meeting of Woollahra Council to howls of laughter, and would introduce “personal responsibility, patriotism, freedom and individualism . . .”

“This is getting silly,” Mayor Andrew Petrie interrupted. “Where is the relevance?”

Cr Boskovitz managed to get out one more step - “ . . . resist the tyranny of big government” - before being shut down.

I suppose it is silly but I like this Cr Boskovitz fellow.

Rail Corp stops iPhone Apps

Some developers wanted to provide Cityrail time table apps to iPhone users so naturally Rail Corp tried to stop them:

Last week it was revealed that RailCorp threatened four Australians with legal action over their applications for iPhones and other mobiles that allow people to check train times.

The threats were made even though RailCorp offers no equivalent service to commuters.....

And the excuse given:

While the Victorian and Western Australian governments have had no issues with developers making programs to help commuters check train times, RailCorp has taken a hardline stance, saying the applications were providing "out-of-date" timetables.

The applications use timetable information sourced from the CityRail website but if CityRail updates those timetables, the developer must send out a new version of software for it to remain up-to-date.

Also, since the apps are based on fixed timetable information, they do not account for service delays, although the developers have said they want to add this feature into future versions.

Right so how acurate is the information given in those takeaway timetables then? Are they out of date too?

Fortunately the Premier is trying to knock some sense into them. But all government departments need to make information available. As one of the developers said recently:

"I think there are some really good apps out there and I think that it'd be good to open up the data and let the developers compete. That way they'll probably come up with better products than what RailCorp could do by themselves."

More guns

Didn't the politicians pass a law banning guns or something?

GUNS now outnumber people in some areas of NSW as the latest Firearms Registry figures show alarming local spikes in weapon numbers, including in Sydney's crime hotspot suburbs.

A Daily Telegraph investigation into the steadily growing NSW firearms stockpile shows suburbs such as Auburn, Bankstown, Chester Hill, Bligh Park, Surry Hills and Kellyville have all significantly increased their guns in just three years...

I'm a neo-liberal and I'm proud

Malcolm Turnbull published an essay in the Australian yesterday were he tore into Mr Rudd's attack on the free enterprise system. It far to long to quote but I encourage everyone to read it. It inspired me to start a small Facebook protest. The " I'm a neo-liberal and I'm proud" event:

Are you tired of Prime Ministers and Presidents blaming the worlds financial ills on free markets and their supporters? I sure am!

So lets take a stand, the 8th May will be the great free market economist Friedrich Hayek's birthday. On that day lets all put:

"I'M NEO-LIBERAL AND I'M PROUD!

in our Facebook cause line. (what are you doing right now). Lets get out of the closet and show our true colors!

So on the 8th May come out of the closet and tell the world I'M NEO-LIBERAL AND I'M PROUD!

Paul Keating and Tim Geithner

Tim Geithner, the US Secretary of the Treasury is well know to former Prime Minister Paul Keating:

In a speech to a closed gathering at the Lowy Institute in Sydney on Thursday, Paul Keating gave a starkly different account of Geithner's record in handling the Asian crisis: "Tim Geithner was the Treasury line officer who wrote the IMF [International Monetary Fund] program for Indonesia in 1997-98, which was to apply current account solutions to a capital account crisis."

In other words, Geithner fundamentally misdiagnosed the problem. And his misdiagnosis led to a dreadfully wrong prescription.

Geithner thought Asia's problem was the same as the ones that had shattered Latin America in the 1980s and Mexico in 1994, a classic current account crisis. In this kind of crisis, the central cause is that the government has run impossibly big debts.

The solution? The IMF, the Washington-based emergency lender of last resort, will make loans to keep the country solvent, but on condition the government hacks back its spending. The cure addresses the ailment.

But the Asian crisis was completely different. The Asian governments that went to the IMF for emergency loans - Thailand, South Korea and Indonesia - all had sound public finances.

The problem was not government debt. It was great tsunamis of hot money in the private capital markets. When the wave rushed out, it left a credit drought behind.

But Geithner, through his influence on the IMF, imposed the same cure the IMF had imposed on Latin America and Mexico. It was the wrong cure. Indeed, it only aggravated the problem.

Keating continued: "Soeharto's government delivered 21 years of 7 per cent compound growth. It takes a gigantic fool to mess that up. But the IMF messed it up. The end result was the biggest fall in GDP in the 20th century. That dubious distinction went to Indonesia. And, of course, Soeharto lost power."

Remember this is the bloke Obama appointed to solve the financial crisis.

More Aussie troops in Afghanistan

Mr Rudd wants to increase our involvement in Afghanistan.

PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd will travel to Washington this month armed with plans for an Australian troop "surge" in Afghanistan.

According to well-placed sources on both sides of the Pacific, planners have been working for months on several options.

They range from a small boost to training Afghani soldiers, through to a battalion-sized battle group of 1000 soldiers plus armoured vehicles, Black Hawk helicopters and possibly even Abrams main battle tanks.

With the US pulling troops out of Iraq a surge in that other trouble spot makes sense. To let Afghanistan fall back to the Taliban would just set it up to another 9/11 attack or worse. I just hope there's enough money left after all the "stimulus" to pay for the extra war effort.

Bonded to reality

Right, this is really useful, Mr Rudd wants Pacific Brands to pay back money the government gave them:

THE Federal Government will try to retrieve taxpayers' money given to Pacific Brands in view of the company's decision to slash 1850 jobs, Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said on Friday.

Public outrage over the sackings, to be carried out over the next 18 months, is increasing as Pacific Brands prepares to send its manufacturing operations out of Australia.

Also we have the traditional union response to job lose, boycotts and industrial action.

CFMEU national secretary John Sutton plans to propose a boycott of King Gee, Hard Yakka and Can't Tear 'Em brands when the union's national executive meets next week.

Sorry but I don't think its going to help. This is the reality:

The company is heavily into doubt and has to restructure to survive. The alternative is bankruptcy. However I do have one question ; why were they given the money in the first place?

Stocks down, inflation up

We have received phase one of Mr Rudd's economic stimulus and the results are coming in, the stock market is sinking and inflation is up:

At the 4.15pm (AEDT) close, the share market was at a five-year low, wiping $27 billion off the market, it's lowest close since December 2003. The All Ordinaries shed 93.1 points, or 2.82 per cent to 3203.8.

This morning, a measurement of price rises in recent months put the inflation rate back above the level the Reserve Bank (RBA) aims for to prevent the economy overheating. The survey blamed petrol price rises for a 0.7 per cent rise which took the yearly rate to 3.1 per cent.

With phase two starting up we have lots of exciting economic news to look forward too.

Young guns

Crikey, I knew the American Right had some impressive younger politicians , people like Governors Palin and Jindal, but I didn't realize they came this young. Here's 13 year old Jonathan Krohn:



And theres this 12 year old girl:



Frankly I rather see kids play sport and get on with their homework but maybe the two should be introduced to each other.

Ungrateful Combination

The movie The Combination was made around Parramatta and had considerable support from the local community. It was supposed to help break ethnic stereotypes people have of the Lebanese. Parramatta Lord Mayor Tony Issa himself of Lebanese background, was a prominent supporter and the movie had its official premier at Parramatta's Riverside Theater.

So how is this support returned? By having so much disruption and straight out violence at the cinema that Greater Union has had to withdraw the film.

An Australian film about Lebanese gangs has been pulled from Greater Union cinemas in Sydney after violent outbursts at early screenings.

The Combination is the first Australian film release of the year and has been receiving rave reviews for its gritty portrayal of life in Sydney's west.

Good one guys, that's a real good way to break those stereotypes.

Big, Big Deficits

Gateway Pundit points out the graph below. The Obama budget will lead to a deficit four times larger the Bush's:




Meanwhile Mr Rudd has left us with an extra $4500 of spending per head, Andrew Bolt asks:

How on earth are we going to pay all that back, with unemployment rising and growth falling?

Easy answer, with inflation and higher taxes.