Author: bobmcgee

Merry Christmas …

I do wish all my readers a very merry Christmas and a happy and prosperous New Year.

Should an unexpected child intrude on your festivities here is the Bobby McGee emergency Christmas tree …

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Clicking it will enlarge. If all is not clear you can ask for the instructions in the comments.

Whatever you do be careful of the decorations …

DecoFAIL… and do keep an eye on Santa …

shelfEnjoy but above all stay safe …

Bob McGee

 

 

Survival …

I swallowed a fly. That reminded me of the case of …

A WEST Australian man had to resort to eating insects after he became stranded in bushland in the state’s South West region when his car became bogged.

I read about this back in October. Wow, had to eat insects, or as Nine News put it …

Mr Frendo told Nine News Perth it was his positive thinking that got him through.

“Pretty much the whole time the thoughts were always ‘what I’m going to do once I get back’,” he said.

“It was never ‘this is final, this is it’.”

Mr Fredo said he ate “a lot of frogs and crickets, and millipedes” to survive in the bush.

“Pretty much anything I could get my hands on at that stage just to keep my energy up,” he said.

Mr Fredo said he was very grateful to the family who helped pull his car out.

“I think it would have been a long wait if they hadn’t come along at the time that they did,” he said.

“I just want to thank them so, so much.”

Mr Frendo was taken to Busselton hospital for treatment for dehydration.

Four days in the bush and despite eating pretty much anything he lost his “N”. Good to see it came back after rehydration.

Indeed hydration was the real problem. Hunger strikers have shown that it is possible to go a couple of months without food. Three days without water and you are in big trouble. So don’t eat the frogs … drink their pond.

If someone has been without food for an extended period one problem to be avoided is the re-feeding syndrome. This can occur after as few as five days and is a significant risk after three weeks of fasting. It may be fatal, most often through cardiac arrhythmias. A sensible first meal could consist of milk or boiled vegetables (see also http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2440847/).

Note that Mr Frendo had the good sense to stay with his vehicle.

Insulting your intelligence …

The appointment of Tim Wilson to the so called Human Rights Commission is a good step, a voice, at last for free speech.

The big question is, will it be heard?

The commission’s president Gillian Triggs has warned Mr Wilson that the commission must speak with one voice and be independent of government. She would like to see section 18c of the Racial Discrimination Act, which makes it an offense for you to insult my pommy origins but not to insult my intelligence, strengthened.

Section 18c should be repealed.

In times of war …

Abstract

Climate science suggests that, to have a high probability of limiting global warming to an average temperature increase of 2 °C, global greenhouse gas emissions must peak by 2020 and be reduced to close to zero by 2040. However, the current trend is heading towards at least 4 °C by 2100 and little effective action is being taken. This paper commences the process of developing contingency plans for a scenario in which a sudden major global climate impact galvanises governments to implement emergency climate mitigation targets and programs. Climate activists assert that rapid mitigation is feasible, invoking the scale and scope of wartime mobilisation strategies. This paper draws upon historical accounts of social, technological and economic restructurings in several countries during World War 2 in order to investigate potential applications of wartime experience to radical, rigorous and rapid climate mitigation strategies.

Laurence L. Delina, Mark Diesendorf. Energy Policy. Volume 58, July 2013, Pages 371–380.
Meanwhile, however, someone has actually been measuring the temperature. The soft grey line is CO2.
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Temperature and CO2 seem to correlate about as well as Delina and Diesendorf and common sense.

Driving home a bargain …

During Labor’s watch Ford announced that it would cease manufacturing in Australia in 2016. Labor blamed the world economy.

Last year, Miss Gillard, with a little help from South Australia and Victoria, divvied up $275 million to ensure that Holden didn’t do the same thing. She was proud to say …

And the good news is that the future of General Motors is now secure in this country for the next decade.

and she concluded her speech with thanks all round including …

the union representatives who are here, people who represent a highly skilled workforce who have wanted to work with us to secure the future

Holden have announced that they will be bailing, not in ten but five years. This is no longer the fault of the world economy. Labor would now have it that it is Mr Abbott alone who is to blame.

How long before Toyota pull the pin? Could it have something to do with those wonderful unions working with them to secure the future …

The Toyota enterprise agreement lists its “purpose” as “to achieve TMCA’s success as a Global Company” yet no single business contract could guarantee its failure more. This document, as much as Holden’s, reflects an extraordinary level of union control over daily workplace organisation.

When Toyota wants to hire someone, a union (employee) representative must sit in every single job interview as “an observer”…. A table in the agreement sets out exactly how many union representatives the company has to have in every section of the workplace and 10 paid union training days a year is given to union reps.

Toyota is allowed to hire casuals only from “time to time” and not at all without union agreement, although agreement must not be “unreasonably withheld”. Casuals can perform only the “agreed specified tasks” for the “agreed specified period” mandated by the union. “The maximum period for which a Casual Employee can work continuously on a full-time basis is one month” and any casual around for six months must be made a permanent employee.

Contract labour can be hired only after Toyota reaches “agreement with the relevant Union official and Employee (union) Representative”. Contractors around for 12 months must be made permanent employees.

This means Toyota can never really have a hiring freeze but are continually bound to a destructive cycle of taking people on before eventually having to make them redundant….

Over-staffing must be a big problem because the agreement mandates one team leader to look after “between 5-7 process workers”. Supervisors, whose base rates range from $75,000 to $103,000, are forbidden from helping with workloads…

If Toyota needs to dismiss someone, an outrageous procedure of at least three years and three months continuous disciplinary action is required before dismissal can occur. This defies belief. Grace Collier. The Australian.