Vaiklettes

"If you realize that all things change, there is nothing you will try to hold on to. If you..."

Thu, 04 Mar 2010 09:33:23 +1100

“

If you realize that all things change,
there is nothing you will try to hold on to.
If you aren’t afraid of dying,
there is nothing you can’t achieve.

Trying to control the future
is like trying to take the master carpenter’s place.
When you handle the master carpenter’s tools,
chances are that you’ll cut your hand.

”

- Tao Te Ching

Bondi just breathtaking this morning!

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 09:26:44 +1100

Bondi just breathtaking this morning!

Look what I found...

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 06:58:55 +1100

…clearing out old boxes of papers from my parent’s storage…I’d pulled these fabulous quotes out from ‘The Lady’s Not for Burning’ (Christopher Fry) during a script analysis class back in NIDA days…

‘I travel light; as light, that is, as a man can travel who will still carry his body around because of its sentimental value’

‘Pride is one of the deadly sins. And it’s better to go for the lively ones.’

‘…I was dreaming I stood on Jacob’s ladder, waiting for the gates to open. And the ladder was made entirely of diminished sevenths. I was surprised but not put out. Nothing is altogether what we suppose it to be.’

I wish I were a thinking man, very much. Of course I feel a good deal, but that’s no help to you.’

‘All of my friends tell me I actually exist and by an act of faith I have come to believe them.’

‘Innocence! Dear girl, before the world was, innocence was beaten by a lion all round the town. And liked it.’

‘…My father broke on the wheel of a dream; he was lost in a search. And so, for me, the actual! What I touch, what I see, what I know; the essential fact.’

‘You leave me no escape except out on a stream of tears.’

‘…(for what greater superstition is there than the mumbo-jumbo of believing in reality)’

‘…In the name of all who ever were drowned at sea, don’t weep! I never learnt to swim.’

‘What I do with my own tears is for me to decide.’

‘…I have come suddenly upon my heart and where it is I see no help for.’

‘Life is coming back.’

‘Importunate life. It should have something better to do than to hang about at a chronic street-corner in dirty weather and worse company.’

‘I am such a girl of habit. I had got into the way of being alive.’

‘And I’ll live too, if it kills me.’

‘But I remain, like the possibility of water in the desert.’

’..You’re mad and you’re violent, and I strongly resent finding you slightly pleasant.’

‘…I should like to think of you as someone I knew many years ago, and alas wouldn’t see again. That would be charming.’

‘…He’s sick of the world, but the world has a right to him.’

‘I am interested in my feelings. I seem to wish to have some importance in the play of time.’

‘…Nothing in the world could touch me and you have to come and be the damnable exception.’

Climate Change Skeptics use The O.J. tactic

Fri, 26 Feb 2010 12:30:00 +1100

Climate Change Skeptics use The O.J. tactic :

‘…Indeed, the panel managed to include half a dozen errors — most egregiously a spurious date for the year by which Himalayan glaciers will disappear. It won’t happen by 2035, as the report indicated — a fact that has now been spread so widely across the Internet that it’s more or less obliterated the indisputable fact that virtually every glacier on the planet is busily melting…’

Photo

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 10:34:08 +1100

What if there is no human-caused global warming?

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:23:19 +1100

A long time ago, someone wrote to me and asked me what I would do if I was wrong about climate change? I answered him like this:

Just the other day someone else wrote to me. He went on about liberals and how they complain and a bunch of other things he doesn’t like about them. Then he said:

“But you’re right about one thing. We need to take care of our planet. I don’t even know if I believe in global warming. But the thing is, if it doesn’t exist, it’s even more important that we take care of the place we live.”

Because we’re going to have to live here for a long time.

Thanks to No Impact Man

deskimo: We’ve recently hired some help around the house,...

Wed, 17 Feb 2010 11:21:39 +1100

deskimo:

We’ve recently hired some help around the house, Wattson (Whats on?) is his name and he’s an anergy butler or i guess going with the metaphor he’s our assistant as we act as energy detectives and huntout wasteful devices and practises in our house.

Wattson, designed by DIY Kyoto, is an elegant, simple to use unit that displays your electricty usage in Watts (and $ if you like) as well as glowing colours (Blue = good/low Red = Bad/High). It receives datawirelessly from a wee box you install in your fuse box (if you’re lucky no sparky is needed as you just clamp the induction coil over the wire that leads to your fuse switch). I had some fun trying different wires in our rats nest of a fuse box and running up and down the stairs - turning the kettle on to see if the display goes mental until finding the right one - but i got there.

From there it’s a simple matter of setting up the software (Holmes of course!) and syncing your mac (or PC) to the Wattson and signing up to the online community so you can track/compare yoru results with the Global Wattson user community. The software also shows CO2 output (though based on UK figures i think so it’ll be low for Australians as we burn so much dirty coal to fire our electricity).

Zeroing your house

Once set up i had fun ‘zeroing’ the apartment, by this i mean trying to get the Wattson to show 0W on its display. I couldn’t for the life of me get the last 30 W even after i turned every unused charger/light off. Finally i realised that we have a remote control fan/light system in the master bedroom - there’s the usual mains switch which must be on but then the controller device (i assume in the fan) actually switches the light/fan on and off via the remote control.

After some careful sleuthing it hit me that this was the culprit .. and sure enough i switched the mains light off (it was day so the light wasn’t on) and Wattson reported zero! Success! i’d zeroed my apartment!

Its fun to do AND its kinda like being Sherlock Holmes at home (Sherlock Homes?) trying to find the devices sucking that last bit of energy.

i can track data over time and find out what the ‘ambient’ energy is when a few things are running and really see how a device affects the readings. (Kettles use thousands of Watts so best to fill them up only as much as you need for instance). I also discovered we have an electric hot water service as randomly Wattson shows a few thouand Watts being used for 5-10 mins, not great but its a rental so not too much i can do there im afraid.

Wattson will alos help me to offset the exact electricity figure through Climate Friendly when its time to offset via Gold Standard European carbon credits (No good using Australian ones as it’s likely you’ll just be giving the big polluters your money)

More soon as i get my head around the data results for the week!

Unhappy Hipsters

Thu, 28 Jan 2010 11:00:46 +1100

Unhappy Hipsters:

Too good!

"Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the..."

Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:17:30 +1100

“Don’t ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.””

- Howard Thurman

via No Impact Man

The Climate Scoreboard

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 11:01:06 +1100

The Climate Scoreboard :

The Climate Scoreboard calculates that the Copenhagen accord (a weaker thing than a deal or an agreement, specially cos we don’t yet know whether anyone is going to sign up) would commit us to a 3.9 degree global temperature rise, which would mean something like: all coral dead, most forests dead, Southern Europe a desert, Australia with no agriculture and Africa uninhabitable. So not great then.

"The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes."

Thu, 07 Jan 2010 12:03:08 +1100

“The longer I live, the more beautiful life becomes.”

- Frank Lloyd Wright

Why Copenhagen will fail and why that doesn’t matter...

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 10:20:21 +1100

Why Copenhagen will fail and why that doesn’t matter...:

I’m choosing to respond to Copenhagen thus, I have to, otherwise I’d be in a crumpled heap in the corner:

“…You see we’re not ready to fix climate change, not yet. We have not accepted the scale of the problem. Nor have we established the political conditions necessary to fix the problem when we do. However Copenhagen does signify the shift between two eras and if you watch carefully you can see the new world emerging. That is the interesting thing happening at Copenhagen…”

READ ON….a refreshing take on the sitch…

Copenhagen Spoof Shames Canada; The Yes Men

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 12:28:32 +1100

Copenhagen Spoof Shames Canada; The Yes Men

This is bigger than climate change. It is a battle to redefine humanity.

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 17:01:34 +1100

This is bigger than climate change. It is a battle to redefine humanity. :

“…While economies grow, social justice is unnecessary, as lives can be improved without redistribution… But, like the bankers, we stave off trouble today only by multiplying it tomorrow. Through economic growth we are borrowing time at punitive rates of interest… Even if we manage to prevent climate breakdown, growth means that it’s only a matter of time before we hit a new constraint, which demands a new global response: oil, water, phosphate, soil. We will lurch from crisis to existential crisis unless we address the underlying cause: perpetual growth cannot be accommodated on a finite planet…”

Read more…an excellent article…

excellent copenhagen reportage...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 13:28:18 +1100

excellent copenhagen reportage...:

a GREAT way to keep up with the copenhagen shenanigans…and you really should try and keep up with them: this is monumentally important stuff…

“For the next couple of weeks, newmatilda.com will be turning our group blog over to the COP15 climate talks. Our Copenhagen correspondents will be posting their thoughts, reactions and insights as the talks unfold. It will, as you’d expect, be a place for them to debrief, compare notes, and explain details in a rougher and readier way than they can in the articles that they’ll be writing for us. In particular, it will give people outside the process a candid window into what’s going on…”

**I’m very proud of this bit (nice to see odd glimmers of positivity): “…There’s folks in pyjamas having a John & Yoko-style bed in…Last thing: there’s talented youngsters everywhere, from everywhere, going nuts and doing great stuff. Those kids in pyjamas were mostly from Australia. It’s truly amazing…”

Earthlings Required This Weekend! Hello Earthlings….yes,...

Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:03:47 +1100

Earthlings Required This Weekend!

Hello Earthlings….yes, that would be all of you I assume…your home ie. Planet Earth needs you this weekend at two events, if you can:

Please host or join a vigil for 350.org on Fri 11th or Sat 12th Dec, details here

Please go on the Walk Against Warming on Sat 12th Dec, details here

Fionn and I had already booked to go camping this Fri and Sat, before I knew of these events, so we will hold our own mini vigil on Fri night at The Basin (if any of you happen to be there - let me know?!). Will be a shame to miss the big Sydney vigil and the walk, but the camping trip is part of my plan to nurture Fionn’s love and understanding of nature and simple non-consumerist pleasures anyway, so we are still on the same page :)

That doesn’t stop any of you doing a vigil and/ or the walk - go for it!

And while you’re at it, keep up with what’s going on at Copenhagen ie. our futures are all being decided there - pretty important! Lots of ways to check-in with it, but here’s one article to start with

Love from Vaike and Fionn Earthlings xx

My family is so cool!

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 16:57:31 +1100

This is what we’ve all agreed to do regarding ‘gifts’:

No-Cents Secret Santa

Please prepare/devise/create/scrounge a gift for the name to the right of your own. In the interest of non-consumerism, saving the planet, being creative, having fun, feeling the love, taking the challenge, being silly, being heartfelt and saving some money, you can do anything other than actually ʻbuyʼ a gift. Perhaps itʼs a hand-me-down, perhaps you make it, perhaps itʼs an intangible gift, perhaps you find it… use your imagination! The first part of the gift, is the gift itself, the second part of the gift is the time you spend thinking about the person whilst trying to come up with an idea.

Names were chosen randomly, but moved to make sure immediate family didnʼt have each other. It is possible that you have a person whom you donʼt know very well, feel free to either use your detective skills by asking advice of others, or… take a wild stab in the dark!

You are to present your gift to the person on Christmas Eve in traditional Estonian fashion, accompanied by a ʻhaiku poemʼ written by you, for, or about, the person.

SCHOOL REPORT EXCERPT FROM THE YEAR 3050 (approx)

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 10:54:47 +1100

The Age of Stupid constitutes the period between the ascent of the internal combustion engine in the late-19^th century and the crossing of the 2 degree Celsius threshold to runaway global warming in the mid-21^st.

This era was characterised by near-total dependence on energy from fossil hydrocarbons, together with exponentially increasing consumption based on the destruction of finite natural resources.

The institutionalised lack of foresight regarding future human welfare that held sway at this time earned the period its popular name, but scientists know this era as the Anthropocene: the period during which human activities came to be the dominant influence on the Earth’s biosphere and climate. The end of the Age of Stupid is marked by the sixth major mass extinction event, with the fifth being the K-T asteroid impact which ended the Age of the Dinosaurs. The abrupt loss of the majority of plant and animal species between 2020 and 2090 was followed by a crash in the human population, to just 7.4% of the 9 billion people alive at its peak.

Some historians argue that the Age of Stupid more properly refers to the narrower period between 1988 and 2015, during which humanity had become aware of the likely consequences of continuing to increase greenhouse emissions and still had time to avert catastrophe, but largely chose to ignore the warnings.

notstupid.org

"“This wondrous miracle did love devise, For dancing is love’s proper..."

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 16:09:01 +1100

“

“This wondrous miracle did love devise,

For dancing is love’s proper exercise.”

(Sir John Davies)

“Dance is the hidden language of the soul.”

(Martha Graham)

”

Photo

Tue, 01 Dec 2009 11:09:49 +1100