Global warming ad

A chaser style ad done by our british bretheren. Queenslanders will appreciate this one given one third of the state is flooded. They will definitely have to change their image : no longer perfect weather!!

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Digital Nativity Story

Happy Christmas everyone!
Looks like it will be nice and sunny in Melbourne for Christmas.


THE DIGITAL STORY OF THE NATIVITY
Uploaded by ExcentricPT. - Click for more funny videos.

Online Shopping

I've been a bit peeved lately by the endless comments about online shopping and how the retail industry is suffering. It seems the Australian population has learnt a little about the GFC and decided to keep their discretionary spending under a little control.(I'm not a big fan of the growth mantra)
I have been buying Christmas presents online for several years now. This is due to having family in 3 countries and being too miserly to pay excess Australia Post fees. Book Depository has been a great find with low prices as well as free delivery. I have used this site to obtain books for the kid's VCE studies as well as general presents etc. (Most of my books however come from the library and I am lucky to be able to buy some of these for the library collection)
However, this year past, I have for the first time bought a couple of more expensive digital items online and at some discount compared to the physical shops nearby. I have used the nearby shops to physically handle the items before doing a search on best prices. A bit like using Choice Shopper or my Union Shopper facility which on occasions I have also used. I normally choose an Australian online website and get an Australian warranty and return address. The service has been good, the couriers dispatched quickly and the item received in full without problems.
I think many of the Aussie stores have been far too slow to develop good online web presences. For example, I tried to get a particular book recently. It was published in Australia and not available in Book Depository or several other OS bookstores. But getting it from an Australian online store to my relative overseas was impossible. I can do this easily at Book Depository so why can't I do that with the online Aussie Bookstores??? (PS try Booko.com.au - great site)
So I hope the Government enquiry keeps some of the current rules and gives the retailers a boot up the proverbial for not getting the possibilites of Internet and eBusiness. However, online book buying shows the stupidity of the current book publishing rules, even if the authors and publishing industry here are sticking their heads in the sand. Customers like myself are voting with their wallets. I'd spend it here in Australia if I could get a similar price & service.

More on Jeremy Grantham

While we are discussing Jeremy Grantham its also worth noting his prediction on the Australian Housing market
"Housing market a 'time bomb', says investment legend"
""The price of housing typically trades about 3.5 times of family income and in bubble it goes to 6 or . . . 7.5 (times).

"Australia is having one now. You are at near 7.5 times family income . . . which suggests you are twice the size that you should be."

So I wonder when the bubble is going to burst! That's the hard part to predict. Then we may find we have got the Governments we deserve!

Climate Change and Investors

My eldest introduced me to Jeremy Grantham's Quarterly Letters recently. Jeremy Grantham is a fund manager and  noted investor, particularly interested in predicting bubbles. He is known for an investment philosophy of "reversion to the mean" - ie all investments eventually adjust to long term mean values - leading to bubbles and busts. His Quarterly Letters (QL) hold numerous humorous and serious observations on current goings on in America and range over topics as wide as "Everything you need to know about Global Warming in 5 minutes" (QL July 2010) to Aging Populations, Pensions and Health Costs to  "Night of the Living Fed: something unbelievably terrifying" (Oct 2010).
The Global Warming Topic reads like a primer for those who know little and understand less. It should be basic reading for every Australian politician!
I liked the comment " The biggest cost of all from Global Warming is likely to be the accumulated loss of biodiversity. This features nowhere in economic cost-benefit analysis, because its hard to put a price on that which is priceless".
The recent Cancun climate talks (29 N0v - 10 dec) however, is trying to do this. By establishing a green fund and paying 3rd world nations to keep their rainforests, instead of burning them for palm oil plantations and beef raising, we are attempting to price that which is priceless and hopefully saving some biodiversity.
This fits in with James B Moody's prediction that adaptation to climate change and monitoring/measuring using ICT will be the next big investment boom - The Sixth wave.
Lets just hope its not quickly followed by the inevitable bust!

Reading Diary - Arsenic bugs, Food, Cities and Sixth Wave

As Christmas duties have suddenly reached their peak I have found my reading and other activities taking a back step. But the discovery of Arsenic life forms by NASA has reawakened the reading habit.
Recent titles & web info include:

• NASA announces Arsenic based bacterium (note to Tony: "Stop the arsenic bugs!")
• The coming famine : the global food crisis and what we can do to avoid it by Julian Cribb.(Interesting and informative)
• Lifeboat cities by Brendan Gleeson (didn't like this one)
• American Grist Website - Climate change info. (Don't try the article on Chesapeake Bay chicken factories!)
• New Inventors James H Moody "The sixth wave" - intro interesting, so need to read more!
• "Love and the Platypus" by Nicholas Drayson for my book club!

So that's more than enough to keep me busy for quite a while, especially since its started raining yet again!