Radschool Association Magazine - Vol 37

Page 12

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Tim Flannery.

We received this from a reader and

reproduce it here without comment.

We think it is from an Andrew Bolt Blog.

Tim Flannery has just been hired by the Gillard Government to scare us stupid, and I can’t think of a better man for the job.

This Alarmist of the Year is worth every bit of the $180,000 salary he’ll get as part-time chairman of the Government’s new Climate Commission. His job is simple: to advise us that we really, truly have to accept, say, the new tax on carbon dioxide emissions that this Government threatens to impose.

This kind of work is just up the dark alley of Flannery, author of The Weather Makers, that bible of booga booga. He’s had years of practice trying to terrify us into thinking our exhausts are turning the world into a fireball that will wipe out civilisation, melt polar ice caps and drown entire cities under hot seas.

Small problem, though: after so many years of hearing Flannery’s predictions, we’re now able to see if some of the scariest have actually panned out. And we’re also able to see if people who bet real money on his advice have cleaned up or been cleaned out. So before we buy a great green tax from Flannery, whose real expertise is actually in mammology, it may pay to check his record. Ready?

In 2005.        Flannery predicted Sydney’s dams could be dry in as little as two years because global warming was drying up the rains, leaving the city “facing extreme difficulties with water”.   Check Sydney’s dam levels today: 73 per cent. Hmm. Not a good start.

In 2007.        Flannery predicted cities such as Brisbane would never again have dam-filling rains, as global warming had caused “a 20 per cent decrease in rainfall in some areas” and made the soil too hot, “so even the rain that falls isn’t actually going to fill our dams and river systems ... “.

In 2008.        Flannery said: “The water problem is so severe for Adelaide that it may run out of water by early 2009.”  Check Adelaide’s water storage levels today: 77 per cent

Check the Murray-Darling system today: in flood. Check Brisbane’s dam levels: 100 per cent full.

All this may seem funny, but some politicians, voters and investors have taken this kind of warming alarmism very seriously and made expensive decisions in the belief it was sound. So let’s check on them, too.

In 2007.        Flannery predicted global warming would so dry our continent that desalination plants were needed to save three of our biggest cities from disaster. As he put it: “Over the past 50 years, southern Australia has lost about 20 per cent of its rainfall, and one cause is almost certainly global warming ...

“In Adelaide, Sydney and Brisbane, water supplies are so low they need desalinated water urgently, possibly in as little as 18 months.”

One premier, Queensland’s Peter Beattie, took such predictions - made by other warming alarmists, too - so seriously that he spent more than $1 billion of taxpayers’ money on a desalination plant, saying “it is only prudent to assume at this stage that lower-than-usual rainfalls could eventuate”. But check that desalination plant today,  mothballed indefinitely, now that the rains have returned.

(Incidentally, notice how many of Flannery’s big predictions date from 2007? That was the year warming alarmism reached its most hysterical pitch and Flannery was named Australian of the Year.)

Back to another tip Flannery gave in that year of warming terror. In 2007, he warned that “the social licence of coal to operate is rapidly being withdrawn globally” by governments worried by the warming allegedly caused by burning the stuff.

We should switch to “green” power instead, said Flannery, who recommended geothermal, pumping water on to hot rocks deep underground to create steam. “There are hot rocks in South Australia that potentially have enough embedded energy in them to run Australia’s economy for the best part of a century,” he said. “The technology to extract that energy and turn it into electricity is relatively straightforward.”

Flannery repeatedly promoted this “straightforward” technology, and in 2009, the Rudd government awarded $90 million to Geodynamics to build a geothermal power plant in the Cooper Basin, the very area Flannery recommended. Coincidentally, Flannery has for years been a Geodynamics shareholder, a vested interest he sometimes declares.

Time to check on how that business tip went.   Answer: erk.

The technology Flannery said was “relatively straight forward” wasn’t. One of Geodynamics’ five wells at Innamincka collapsed in an explosion that damaged two others. All had to be plugged with cement. The project has now been hit by the kind of floods Flannery didn’t predict in a warming world, with Geodynamics announcing work had been further “delayed following extensive local rainfall in the Cooper Basin region”.

The technological and financing difficulties mean there is no certainty now that a commercial-scale plant will ever get built, let alone prove viable, so it’s no surprise the company’s share price has almost halved in four months. Never mind, here comes Flannery with his latest scares and you-beaut fix.

His job as Climate Commission chief, says Climate Change Minister Greg Combet, is to “provide an authoritative, independent source of information on climate change to the Australian community” and “build the consensus about reducing Australia’s carbon pollution”.

That, translated, means selling us whatever scheme the Government cooks up to tax carbon dioxide, doing to the economy what the floods have done to Flannery’s hot-rocks investment.

See why I say Flannery is the right man for this job? Who better to teach us how little we really know about global warming and how much it may cost to panic?

Beer

A handful of 7 year old children were asked what they thought of beer.

·       'I think beer must be good. My dad says the more beer he drinks the prettier my mum gets.'

·       'Beer makes my dad sleepy and we get to watch what we want on television when he is asleep, so beer is nice.'

·       'My Mum and Dad both like beer. My Mum gets funny when she drinks it and takes her top off at parties, but Dad doesn't think this is very funny.'

·       ''My Mum and Dad talk funny when they drink beer and the more they drink the more they give kisses to each other, which is a good thing.'

·       'My Dad gets funny on beer. He is funny. He also wets his pants sometimes, so he shouldn't have too much.

·       'My Dad loves beer. The more he drinks, the better he dances. One time he danced right into the pool.'

·       'I don't like beer very much. Every time Dad drinks it, he burns the sausages on the barbecue and they taste disgusting.'

·       'I give Dad's beer to the dog and he goes to sleep.'

.

How amazing is the human body??

A lot of us have suffered from a bad back at one time or another. A lot of the pain comes from that line of 23 bones that runs from the head down to the bum, but do you know how marvellous those bunch of bones (collectively called the spine) really are and what they are called on to do, no wonder they play up at times …

The spine is made up of bones, called the vertebrae and between each of them is a little pad called the intervertebral disc and down the middle of all this goes the spinal cord which is really like your main bus – it’s a very important bit of wiring for your body and takes all the nerve data up to the brain for processing. Each of those intervertebral discs has a tough outer ring, called the annular fibrosis and a soft gel-like centre called the nucleus pulposi. These little discs separate the vertebrae from one another and because they’re knitted into the bones, also join them together and stop the whole thing from falling apart. They also act like little shock absorbers, cushioning the bones so they don’t crash against each other as you walk, jump, play footy and do other things. If they did crash into each other it would hurt heaps.

Those little discs also allow the bones to curve and flex and move around which means you don’t have a back that is like a 2 foot chunk of RSJ. When you were a bit younger these little discs allowed you to bend down and do up your own shoe laces, but, as you get older the discs get a bit stiffer and that’s why God invented Velcro on shoes.

Bad backs are usually caused by people lifting things the wrong way.

Here’s how you should do it!

1. Plan ahead before lifting.

Knowing what you're doing and where you're going will prevent you from making awkward movements while holding something heavy. Clear a path, and if lifting something with another person, make sure both of you agree on the plan.

2. Lift close to your body.

You will be a stronger and more stable lifter if the object is held close to your body rather than at the end of your reach. Make sure you have a firm hold on the object you are lifting, and keep it balanced close to your body.

3. Feet shoulder width apart.

A solid base of support is important while lifting. Holding your feet too close together will be unstable, too far apart will hinder movement. Keep the feet about shoulder width apart and take short steps.

4. Bend your knees and keep your back straight.

Practice the lifting motion before you lift the object, and think about your motion before you lift. Focus on keeping your spine straight--raise and lower to the ground by bending your knees.

5. Tighten your stomach muscles.

Tightening your abdominal muscles will hold your back in a good lifting position and will help prevent excessive force on the spine.

6. Lift with your legs.

Your legs are many times stronger than your back muscles--let your strength work in your favour. Again, lower to the ground by bending your knees, not your back. Keeping your eyes focused upwards helps to keep your back straight.

7. If you're straining, get help.

If an object is too heavy, or awkward in shape, make sure you have someone around who can help you lift.

8. Wear a belt or back support.

If you are lifting in your job, or often at home, a back belt can help you maintain a better lifting posture

Provided you look after yourself and don’t do anything stupid, like trying to lift 20 tonnes with your feet miles apart, the old back will just hang in there and everything will flow along marvelously, but sometimes nasty things do happen.

Sometimes you can get a hernia or two – we say two because there are two types, Protrusion and Prolapse.

A Protrusion Hernia is when the gel like stuff in the disc bulges out and pushes the outer ring out of shape. A Prolapse Hernia occurs when the gel stuff bulges out so much that it actually separates from the rest of the disc. If the prolapsed disc gets into the spinal cord or puts pressure on the nerves, it may cause severe pain that could make sitting, standing, walking, lifting, sneezing, coughing, flirting even just moving nearly impossible.

Thankfully, this is rare.

So what do you do if you’ve got a sore back??  Well, first thing you do is see your doctor who will normally tell you to just go home, lie down and take it easy for a while and with a little bit of luck everything will be ok in a day or so. Some doctors might suggest surgery – I reckon, unless your back was all smashed up from an accident or something, I’d be saying no to that one. While spinal surgery is occasionally necessary, especially in cases of trauma or severe bone, disc and nerve destruction, the vast majority of people with low back pain and/or sciatica never need it. Most people who have back surgery say the pain is the same or worse after the operation.

A lot of people reckon that the only way to fix a crook back is to use acupuncture, others swear by chiropractic help, yet others will tell you that the only cure is physiotherapy, while others wait for the full moon, face east and jump on one leg – whatever. One thing’s for sure though, if it works for you, it’s right.

Chiro One Wellness Centres in the US have produced an educational page which shows you what bit of the spine does what.

It is very interesting, see it HERE

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