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‘Do you mind if I speak to you?’
Thank you Howard. Your wonderful account reminded me of the song by the Youngbloods, I Am A One-Note Man.
It was refreshing to read about someone who asks for so little.
Can anyone tell me, is it true that this gentleman is also a pianist?

Extreme variability: local climate change right now
@ Kieran: Speaking for myself alone, I would say they don’t suggest anything of the sort. They suggest that one would want to see data over much longer time scales and from many more locations before deducing any long term trends. I don’t have such data and I doubt if anyone else does. Do you?

Extreme variability: local climate change right now
Being prepared for any extreme phenomena over which we have little or no control makes sense, so it was refreshing to see yet another article based on yet another report about climate change that emphasised practical responses to the possibility of floods, heatwaves and even more frosts (!) rather than the need to reduce emissions, which may have little or no effect on rising temperatures.
But David De Vries is right about the cherry picked statistics; add that to the fact that almost all of us are woefully subjective in our memories and experience of weather, and you have a warning against alarmism and the unnecessary anxiety it creates in many soft souls.
It is a bit presumptious to suggest that people got into solar because they were responsible citizens. Without being cynical, I would suggest saving money on subsidised power was a stronger and more reasonable motive.
The protests of an apparent minority against gas powered energy was hardly a reason not to proceed with it; economic considerations are also important, especially given that gas creates a lot less carbon emissions than other fossil fuels. (In fact the decrease in emissions in Obama’s America has been pinned on the increased use of gas).
I suggest Stuart Traynor’s new book, Alice Springs, as a reality check for climate worriers; people of all cultures have survived and thrived in climatic extremes without any of the mechanical aids we have today. Meanwhile it is somewhat misleading to unduly attribute the spread of buffel grass, increases in erosion and greater bushfires to climate change when they may be simply down to changes in land use in combination with a few wet years.

Sex aids and fracking: Up the wrong tree
@ 2: With due respect, Dalton, the issue Erwin is raising is not whether fracking is good or bad, but whether a particular survey is a reliable indicator of public opinion or not.
The fact that Erwin chose to use the “lowest form of wit” to raise that issue does not detract from its importance.
Public opinion polls within themselves have the power to influence public opinion; it is important that we can rely on them as being scientifically conducted and truly reflective of what the general public believes.
Whether he and you agree that fracking is destructive or not is a completely different issue … unless one believes that the end justifies the means.

Nose-diving CBD: it happened on the 11th Council’s watch
It would seem that drinks may not be over for long for the Town and Country Tavern. According to yesterday’s ABC News (quoting a “spokesman”), the closing of the Town and Country is temporary, due to “a recent slow-down in trading”. On ABC’s Drive program the previous day, Geoff Booth, who is standing for Council and has delineated law and order as one of his campaign issues, said Town and Country was in “probably the worst location now with the law and order issues”. He also mentioned the tourism lull, the Australian dollar and the loss of Tiger as other reasons for the closure.