Caffeine, Health, Pesticides, Tea and Coffee 4 comments

A NATURAL INSECTICIDE IN BOTH TEA AND COFFEE

By on December 28th, 2018

A MORNING CUP OF COFFEE MIGHT ALSO BE YOUR MORNING CUP OF PESTICIDE

Caffeine is a natural pesticide that protects plants by paralyzing and killing the insects that feed upon them. According to one study a known pesticide combined with a small amount of a synthetic caffeine compound was 10 times more potent than the pesticide itself, and raised the possibility of developing caffeine-based insecticides that would be harmless to animals and humans for spraying on food crops.

Coffee Nature’s Own Pesticide  

There are mixed opinions on whether caffeine is good for humans or not. It can do many things, including sharpening your attention, stave off Alzheimer’s disease, and decrease your risk of cancer. It also cranks up your blood sugar, interacts adversely with your prescription medication, and can cause Stomach problems like Gastric Reflux and Gastritis.

According to one of the first articles on the subject, appearing in the New York Times October 1984,  reported that Caffeine and related compounds were potent, natural insecticides that helped plants to ward off damaging pests and the findings could lead to a new way to fight insects.

In a report published Continue reading A NATURAL INSECTICIDE IN BOTH TEA AND COFFEE →

Arson, Bush Fires, Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Fire Safety, Global Warming 8 comments

BLACK FRIDAY WAS NOT DUE TO GLOBAL WARMING

By on December 11th, 2018

“THESE FIRES WERE LIT BY THE HAND OF MAN” – JUDGE  L STRETTON

Raging Firestorm                        Click to Enlarge

According to Forestry Management Victoria, Black Friday, 13th of January 1939, was the culmination of a long, dry and hot summer following  a long drought period  that had lasted several years. Many creeks and rivers had dried up and people living in Melbourne were on water restrictions. Dry heat and hot winds had sapped much of the moisture from the ground, leaving forest floors and the open plains tinder dry.Prior to January  13, many fires were already burning. Some had started as early as December 1938, but the majority had  started in the first week of January 1939. Some of the fires could not be extinguished while others were left unattended, or as Judge Stretton wrote, “fires were allowed to burn under control as it is falsely and dangerously called”.

The fires of Continue reading BLACK FRIDAY WAS NOT DUE TO GLOBAL WARMING →

Australian Government, Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Climate Change, Overpopulation, United Nations 5 comments

AUSTRALIA WON’T SIGN UN MIGRATION COMPACT

By on November 24th, 2018

“The Compact fails to adequately distinguish between people who enter Australia illegally and those who come to Australia the right way, particularly with respect to the provision of welfare and other benefits. It is inconsistent with the management of Australia’s strong and orderly migration program. It is not in Australia’s interest and will not add anything to enhancing our capacity to control our borders”. Govt.

Population Growth 
Click to enlarge

No mention of any measures to limit the world’s population growth at the UN conferences, the only mention is on their their website which states the obvious.    “Overpopulation refers to the exceeding of certain threshhold limits of population density when environmental resources fail to meet the requirements of individual organisms regarding shelter, nutrition and so forth. It gives rise to high rates of mortality and morbidity”.  You would have expected it to be high on the UN agenda particularly in the two compacts but it is not even mentioned. Trillions of dollars are being spent on trying to control the world’s climate, besides health care, they should be directing funds toward the limiting of the rampant population growth in developing countries…the main contributor to global warming.  
PREAMBLE
We, the Heads of State and Government and High Representatives, meeting in Morocco on 10 and 11 December 2018, reaffirming the New York Declaration for Refugees and Migrants and determined to make an important contribution to enhanced cooperation on international migration in all its dimensions, have adopted this Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration:

Continue reading AUSTRALIA WON’T SIGN UN MIGRATION COMPACT →

Federal Government, Immigration, Overpopulation, Public Health, Refugees 7 comments

UN GLOBAL COMPACT ON WELFARE OF REFUGEES

By on November 18th, 2018

   MOROCCO GLOBAL AGREEMENT NOT BINDING

The first Forum will be convened in 2018. Subsequent Forums will be reviewed every four years, unless otherwise agreed by the General Assembly, in order to ensure sustained momentum and political will. Forums will be co-convened and co-hosted by one or more State(s) and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, with an invitation to the United Nations Secretary-General to participate. Forums would, in principle, take place in Geneva to facilitate the participation of all States. In the years in which Forums take place, there will be no High Commissioner’s Dialogue on Protection Challenges.

Refugees a World Crisis          Click to enlarge

  1. The achievement of international cooperation in solving international problems of a humanitarian character is a core purpose of the United Nations, as set out in its Charter, and is in line with the principle of sovereign equality of States.1 Similarly, the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees (1951 Convention) recognizes that a satisfactory solution to refugee situations cannot be achieved without international cooperation, as the grant of asylum may place unduly heavy burdens on certain countries
  2. It is vital to translate this long-standing principle into concrete and practical action, including through widening the support base beyond those countries that have historically contributed to the refugee cause through hosting refugees or other means.

Continue reading UN GLOBAL COMPACT ON WELFARE OF REFUGEES →

Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Climate Change, Electric Cars, Fossil Fuels 17 comments

A THIRD OF HOUSEHOLDS TO OWN ELECTRIC CARS?

By on October 30th, 2018

NOISE REDUCTION AND IMPROVED AIR QUALITY IN OUR CITY

Manningham Council had planned to develop and implement a green electric car program on Doncaster Hill to achieve 15% adoption of green electric vehicles – with the aim to have 1 in 3 households owning an electric car by 2025. It will be our most  efficient way of reducing emissions while improving air quality and reducing traffic noise. But we are a long way from being prepared for the wave of electric cars  that will soon arrive in Australia because we simply don’t have the infrastructure to support them. 

Electricity from Renewables    Click to enlarge

More than one million electric vehicles were sold globally in 2017, mainly due to their cheap running costs and low impact on the environment. The greatest challenge, apart from creating the facilities, is to make them affordable. Currently there are 16 different electric vehicle models currently available for purchase in Australia and most of them are priced upwards of $60,000 — making them out of reach for the average driver.

Automobiles contribute about 30% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Electricity production generates Continue reading A THIRD OF HOUSEHOLDS TO OWN ELECTRIC CARS? →

Climate Change, Global Cooling, Global Warming, Goupthink, Greenhouse Gases, IPCC 21 comments

IPCC REPORTS BASED ON CORRUPT WARMING DATA

By on October 11th, 2018

“FREEZING TROPICAL ISLANDS AND BOILING TOWNS”

The Audit could scarcely have come at a more embarrassing time for the IPCC who have just released its 2018 Summary for Policy Makers claiming that the global warming crisis is more urgent than ever. McLean’s audit strongly suggests that these claims are based on data that simply cannot be trusted. HadCRUT4 is the primary dataset used by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to make its dramatic claims about “man-made global warming”, to justify its demands for trillions of dollars to be spent on “combating climate change” and as the basis for the Paris Climate Accord.

This report makes more than 70 findings about areas of concern with the HadCRUT4 temperature dataset. These cover the entire process from the measurement of temperatures to the derivation of HadCRUT4 global average temperature anomalies. They relate to the inclusion of data that is obviously in error, inappropriate procedures, poor data processing and significant assumptions about a range of matters including basing conclusions on very little data. Most of the findings increase the uncertainty in the data and therefore increase the error margin. One however shows that a common but flawed method of data adjustment creates a false warming trend from the adjustments alone. Another finding points out that when stations were closed rather than relocated any distortion in the data remains in the record. Errors are also identified Continue reading IPCC REPORTS BASED ON CORRUPT WARMING DATA →

Cycle Paths, Cycling, Pedestrians, Public Safety, Road Safety, VicRoads 8 comments

PUSH TO ALLOW BIKES ON FOOTPATHS IN VICTORIA

By on September 21st, 2018

Parking in residential streets is blocking bike lanes and forcing cyclists to swerve out into traffic or take the safer option by riding on footpaths. One of several reasons why the cyclist’s lobby want laws changed to allow anyone to ride on footpaths in Victoria and NSW. The two states are the only ones that don’t allow riders on footpaths and cyclists are pushing for a change ahead of the Victorian state election.

Cars Block Cycle Lanes           Click to Enlarge

However, according to the current rules in Victoria it is an offence for anyone over the age of 12 to ride a bicycle on a footpath.

In NSW children can ride on footpaths until they are 16 years old.

The Australian Road Rules allow Councils to create shared bicycle paths and invite all cyclists to ride upon them.

Pedestrians hit by a cyclist on a shared bike path have no claim against the Motor Accidents Authority as they would if they had been hit by a motor-vehicle.

Cyclists are not required to display number-plates or be licensed and are almost impossible to recognise especially when most are wearing helmets and sunglasses.

Manningham Council Continue reading PUSH TO ALLOW BIKES ON FOOTPATHS IN VICTORIA →

Carbon Dioxide Emissions, Climate Change, Global Warming, IPCC 27 comments

CLIMATE WE EXPECT…WEATHER IS WHAT WE GET!

By on August 28th, 2018

“Core of my heart, my country! Her pitiless blue sky, When, sick at heart, around us, We see the cattle die, But then the grey clouds gather, And we can bless again, The drumming of an army, the steady soaking rain”. Excerpt from the poem My Country by Dorothy Mackellar written in 1904 when she was 19 years old. Many of the record extreme weather events that occurred in this period still stand today.

Murray River Stopped Flowing 1914/15
Click to enlarge

Satellites, the most reliable means of measuring average land and sea temperatures combined, have shown very little global warming in the 38 years since their introduction, nowhere near what the various climate models have been showing.The latest satellite measurements show a 0.32 C above the twentieth century average temperature as of July 2018. Hardly a justification for panic and the closing down of our coal fired power stations. NASA calculated the probability that 2014 was the hottest year on record to be 38 per cent, whilst NOAA’s analysis came in at 48 per cent – both leaving significant wriggle room for other years to take out the top spot. (Eve of Paris conference)

In 1998, NOAA mistakenly announced a global average temperature of 62.45 degrees Fahrenheit (16.91 degrees Celsius!!) Continue reading CLIMATE WE EXPECT…WEATHER IS WHAT WE GET! →

Apartments, Council Rates, Fire Safety Compliance, High Density developments, Lending Authorities 11 comments

OWNERS TO PAY FOR ILLEGAL CLADDING REMOVAL

By on August 15th, 2018

REGULATORS WHO APPROVED BANNED CLADDING WILL WALK SCOT-FREE

Owners will be charged via their rates over a minimum period of ten years, with costs transferred to the new owners if the property is sold. The arrangement will be between owners, lenders and local councils – providing long-term, low-interest loans to pay for building work to rectify the combustible cladding.

Flammable Cladding          Click to Enlarge

According to the Cladding Task Force Implementation Team the total cost of cladding removal and rectification of a building will be apportioned to each apartment subject to valuation and in a manner similar to how normal council rates are assessed. The debt will remain with the apartment by way of higher rates until the loan is paid. The task force has identified 380 apartment buildings many of which had the the same product that caused the Lacrosse apartment building to catch fire in 2014 and the recent London fire where at least eighty residents had perished in the inferno. Information on where these buildings Continue reading OWNERS TO PAY FOR ILLEGAL CLADDING REMOVAL →

Councillors, Manningham Council, Recycled Sewer Water, Yarra Valley Water 12 comments

SEWER MINE SITE SUBJECT TO FREEWAY APPROVAL

By on July 29th, 2018

The location of the Sewer Mining Plant in Eram Park, North Box Hill, which is to supply recycled water to the Doncaster Hill high rise apartment scheme, will not be decided until the six lane expansion of the eastern freeway/north east link, adjacent to the proposed site, is approved by the authority. If it is to proceed, there are doubts about its future given the disruption to local area infrastructure at this late stage, it will be the first time such a system and treatment plant has been introduced into an established urban setting, and the project will put Doncaster Hill at the forefront of sustainable water solutions.

Freeway widening adjacent to proposed site and artists impressions below.  click to enlarge

The plan is for water, extracted from the sewer main, to be treated and pumped up to Doncaster Hill, one mile away and seventy metres above Eram Park, via a network of pipes through residential streets and connected to high rise apartments for toilet flushing and laundry use. Continue reading SEWER MINE SITE SUBJECT TO FREEWAY APPROVAL →