Comments stringy has made

  • News and blog integration

    I'd love to see the news and the blog sections become integrated - at the moment I find myself ignoring the news site in favour of the blog.

    Also pleased to see that Happy Cog is doing the work - they've long had my respect in the web development industry, for their focus on what users need and their high standards. On Grist is cooking up a new site; what do you want to see in it? posted 1 year, 6 months ago 32 Responses

  • What can it mean?

    Have house prices gotten so high in the US that people are just giving up and turning their cars into McMansions instead? On The Chrysler Town & Country freaks me out posted 1 year, 10 months ago 15 Responses

  • Excellent news...

    ... now we just have to separate Rudd from the dead-end of "clean" coal.

    But Howard had it coming - he was completely unable to deal with the realities of the 21st century.On Australian prime minister goes down to decisive defeat posted 2 years ago 14 Responses

  • Mallard Fillmore

    The Two Percent Company recently had a rant about Mallard Fillmore's "feverish brain-spooge", which was funny, and a link to a blog that regularly comments on the comic. On Global warming sneaks into the funnies posted 2 years, 9 months ago 3 Responses

  • Add Flannery to the list

    At a talk Tim Flannery gave last year that I attended, he said he saw maybe 5% of Australia's future energy usage coming from nuclear, although the bulk would be wind, solar and hot rocks with gas backup.

    Just recently in an interview he said that China may have to consider it as well if they want to get away from coal, and that he doesn't expect to see it in Australia in his lifetime due to costs/time to construct.

    He's cautious about it, but seems certain that it will eventually happen.On And no, global warming doesn't change that posted 2 years, 9 months ago 12 Responses

  • Baby bribes

    You can add Australia to the list of countries trying to bribe people to have babies - there's a $3000 handout to anyone who has a baby here. On Meet the male pill posted 2 years, 11 months ago 6 Responses

  • The report is window-dressing

    According to the linked article, a 2005 survey showed a small majority of Australians wanting nuclear power. But every opinion poll I've seen here shows Aussie support for nuclear power between 30% and 40%, with support for renewables much higher, at 80% and over.

    And anyway, if it's going to take 15 years to get nuclear power up and running here, then it's useless for tackling the climate change problem. Renewables could be up and running within 2 or 3 years, and efficiency laws could be passed next year.

    The panel was stacked with pro-nuclear Howard supporters, and did very little research. This is just the Howard government's way of stalling real action, and driving a wedge into the Labor party (some of which want increased uranium mining, although the party has a no-new-mines policy). On Enviros, believe it or not, protest posted 3 years ago 17 Responses

  • Uranium mining is safer than coal mining?

    What about the radon gas emitted by the uranium while it's being mined? It's carcinogenic, not so great for the miners. The fact that there's fewer of them being harmed isn't relevant.

    As for the amount of water being used, they would almost have to specify air-cooled plants: vast parts of Australia are currently experiencing the worst drought in a long time. Enough water to irrigate 5 square miles of beets gives me a reasonable idea of quantity (although we use kilometers and it's more of a wheat/sugar cane area), but it's still too much water when some towns are struggling to find enough to run households, let alone agriculture. Are air-cooled plants currently in operation, or is this another "if we could do it, it'd be handy"?On Now it will cause drought in Australia posted 3 years ago 11 Responses

  • re: TokyoTom

    How is uranium mining for nuclear plants better than coal mining?On Now it will cause drought in Australia posted 3 years ago 11 Responses

  • Labels

    I do call myself an environmentalist, but after reading the article I do see the problems with using that label. Sometimes I call myself a neo-hippy, but that's a little too self-deprecating for something I'm proud to admit to. I'm open to better suggestions...On Vote! posted 3 years, 1 month ago 26 Responses