Thursday, June 3, 2010

Interesting news

Developers using cows to reduce land tax burden.  One of the defining traits of rule makers is that they rarely foresee the extent of gaming likely to occur.  It seems Australian agricultural policies are not immune to the type of manipulation seen in Japan.

History repeats (must see video).  BP's deep water oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico is almost identical to a spill in 1979, where the same inneffective and oddly named 'solutions' were tried.  That spill lasted months and was only brought under control by drilling relief wells to take the pressure from the oil bed.

Melbourne Cycle Scheme up and crawling.
Users will have to bring their own helmets as they won’t be available for hire with the bikes. However, those joining the scheme will be issued with a free helmet, while hotels and other city outlets will have cheap helmets available for hire or purchase. (here)

A cycle by-pass is also proposed in Melbourne - a step in the right direction for urban transport planning.

A lesson on being sceptical about statistics in economics (warning: technical content)

Organic farming – a closer look.


  1. Your organic farming link - they don't allow comments to this propaganda, but at the very least they've disclosed the author's interests....

  2. yes Anonymous, was just thinking the same thing. It's remarkable jus how often we're offered to read something and then find it's just another peice of Propaganda. However that piece does have a comments section where readers may respond. It also has the Authors name...

    My sisters family are farmers and it wasn't until a low yeild that they realised that the soil had become devoid of nutrient. So they bought another farm and will leave the other to rejuvinate for a while.

    If we don't realise that only life creates life, then I think we'll never learn; and we probably never will. Or at least, until it's just too late.

  3. Gary, I attempted to leave a comment - it never showed!