Webdiary - Founded and Inspired by Margo Kingston

May site statistics and financials.

No one strategy can do all that we need to stop dangerous climate change. We need to follow several strategies simultaneously - but which ones? And are there solutions without nuclear power?

Mark Lynas' "Six Degrees: our future on a hotter planet" works systematically through the impact of warming the planet one degree at a time through the range of predictions for the next century. Key sentence: "none of the continent of Australia - except perhaps the extreme north and Tasmania - will be able to support significant crop production in the four-degree world because of heatwaves and declining rainfall."

IPCC WG III Summary for Policymakers available for download here [Word Doc]: "The literature identifies many options for achieving reductions of global GHG emissions at the international level through cooperation."

"An instant poll for Israel's Channel 10 sought to discover how many people would vote for Olmert if elections were held today. The answer was 0%, surely a political first in any country at any time."

April site statistics and financials.

John Howard's 'vision for 2020' seems from the news reports to have been more about what the future isn't (it isn't about climate change, it isn't about workers rights) than what it will be. Here's the full text for your comments.

Following yet another run of problems over the last few days we have moved to another hosting provider. Update: password system now fixed.

Download a copy here. Still infested with ideas that are based on the hope that the rains will come back one day (despite the predictions in the IPCC WGII report that the long-term rainfall trend is down for (at least) the rest of this century).

It would appear that the system is failing to send out passwords for new accounts etc - and we currently can't work out why: if you have registered but not received a password, email  admin@webdiary.com.au and I will set a new password for you ...

The extensively-leaked IPCC WGII report on impacts was released on Good Friday.The draft full report (including the 61-pages of the full Australia/NZ chapter) was briefly available on the WGII website, but has now gone again: the Summary for Policymakers is now available here.

March site statistics and financials

February statistics and financials, plus news on Project Syndicate.

Over the last few years, my input to any discussions on "how would we know if this feared big crash is on us" was "when the Dow falls more than 300 in one day". Soon we'll know if I was right.

Privileges of Australian Citizens: It entitles you to: ... seek assistance from Australian diplomatic representatives while overseas ... - but, not, it seems, to actually receive that assistance once you seek it.

Summary for Policymakers available here [2.2MB pdf]. Full report will be available May 2007. Much of the conclusions prefigured here.

January statistics and financials.

Dawkins' book, The God Delusion, says: "If this book works as I intend, religious readers who open it will be atheists when they put it down". On the face of it, a deeply unlikely ambition, and not one that is borne out by the quality of the writing. Along the way, however, it does raise some important questions about the nature of morality, and the relationship of morality to religion.

December statistics and financials.

Since everyone else seems to be compiling lists, here's a space to write your own personal top ten list for 2006.

Get the full report here. Commentary from BBC, Washington Post, The Australian, The Guardian.
Typically, the SMH doesn't think this is important enough to be a lead news story ...

November statistics, financials, and technicals.

Democrats have passed the 218 seats for firm (not just projected) control of the House. In the Senate, Allen has now conceded Virginia, so Democrats control both houses. See Tony Phillips' discussion of what this means below ... (Even though he didn't predict Rummy falling on his sword).

October statistics, financials, and technicals.

September statistics and financials

August statistics and financials

July statistics and financials.

June and Financial Year statistics and financials.

Some notes on why comments might not be published.

Webdiary state-of-play - and some significant changes and questions for Webdiarists.