New (old) look ... sort of

I decided I didn't like the new background colour, so I have reverted to the blog's original black. I am still fiddling around with the post title and links colours, but they shouldn't vary too much from what you see now.

Busy highway not the place to stop to view turbines

A wind farm is beginning to take shape not far from where this blog is domiciled.

Here is the first of the creatures, growing out of Mt Cullerin, 12 kilometres east of Gunning, in New South Wales.

Since this photo was taken, about five more structures have been erected with about 10 still to come.

I think they are magnificent - and I happen to like wind farms. But then again, I have been known to sit around at airports for a couple of hours taking photos of aircraft. So, 'whatever floats your boat', you might say. 'Whatever spins your propeller' might be more appropriate!

There is a problem, however.

The Cullerin range wind farm is located right next to the Hume Highway, which, for overseas readers, is the main dual carriageway highway linking Sydney and Melbourne.

The problem is that (especially) when travelling west, you come round a slight bend in the road at 110 kilometres per hour, and bam! - you are confronted with massive white wind turbines growing out of a large hill straight in front of you. The temptation is to pull over to the not-very-wide road shoulder and take a couple of happy snaps.

Other wind farms in Australia have dedicated viewing areas - like this one at Crookwell, some 50 kilometres to the north of Cullerin.

I really do hope that Origin Energy, the developers of the wind farm at Cullerin, do likewise, and provide a dedicated area for enthusiasts and the curious, to park their cars and take some photos should they wish. Pulling over to the side of the road - while preferable to stopping in the middle of it, like I saw one driver almost attempt to do - is just asking for trouble.

Daniel Hannan MEP tells it as it is.

Outstanding and eloquent speech here by Daniel Hannan, MEP for South East England. He is directly addressing British PM Gordon Brown with sentiments that I can only dream would come from the mouth of an Australian politician to our PM Kevin Rudd. And would an American politician have the balls to address Barack Obama in a similar fashion?


UPDATE

1. My apologies for the p***-weak headline to this post. It should read 'Hannan rips PM Brown to shreds' or similar.

2. The video of Hannan skewering Brown has gone mega viral - attracting over 660,000 1,014,000 hits!! - every one of them thoroughly deserved. Make no mistake, this speech will be remembered for decades to come.

3. One American blogger referred to Hannan as 'Sir Awesome'. I say 'Hear, hear' to that!

Plane crash at Narita Airport

There have been a couple of terrible plane crashes in the last 24 hours, including this one at Narita Airport in Japan.

Amazing footage here.

I would like to reiterate what I wrote in a previous blog about aircraft crashing. The broadcaster on the above link says it, as did the one I head on Sky News. Just about every broadcaster refers to aircraft "crash landing" - whether it be a mere nosewheel malfunction, or a firey blaze like this one at Narita.

Let me repeat - and I wish the media would get their collective heads around this very simple premise: Aircraft either crash OR they land. Joining the two terms just creates an oxymoron - and the English language contains enough of those already.

Libs and Nats should merge

Apparently there was a state election in Queensland yesterday.

I have intentionally refrained from blogging about it in the lead up to the vote yesterday, because I don't live in that state, I am not across all of the issues and, as notoriously difficult as state elections are to predict, this level of difficulty is magnified in Queensland. Predicting election outcomes in Queensland is like dropping a cork in the middle of the Pacific Ocean and predicting which beach it will wash up on.

For a Conservative like me, it is always disappointing when your side loses an election. But you just have to pick up your horse and move on. (I may have mucked that metaphor up), but you know what I mean.

The Liberal National Party in Queensland started from a low base and look like they have picked up about 7 seats - which is about 16 fewer than they needed to form government. They now have three years to prove they are a viable alternative to a Socialist regime.

I heard Federal National Party leader, Warren Truss, say that there were no plans for a merger of the Liberal and National Parties on a federal level. As long as Mr Truss has that attitude, the longer the two parties will continue to be a fractured rabble.

The result in Queensland shows that a combined Liberal National Party can work. It is now up to the other state and federal conservative parties to merge - for the unity of the Conservative cause in Australia. 'Unity' being the keyword.

Obama fails to win gold for humour

President Obama appeared on a late night talk show this week. As TV appearances go, it didn't exactly cover the President in glory.

Of course, that didn't stop many bloggers and on-line comments from people heaping praise on Obama. It was interesting, but not surprising, to read comments that lauded Obama, whilst at the same time implicitly or explicitly criticised George W Bush. I should get used to that, for it will be an abiding factor for the tenure of Obama's Presidency.

It is time, though, that Obama was evaluated on his own merits (or lack thereof).

Which brings me to two recent incidents (obviously there are more - but for another occasion):

Obama's gaffe (his teleprompter left town without him) on Leno about comparing his bowling to the Special Olympics; and his "gift" to British Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

If these instances are anything to go by, then I'd say we have a leader of the free world who has graduated summa cum laude from the school of cultural and social ignorance; where students don't drink from the fountain of knowledge - merely gargle.

UPDATE

According to Associated Press:

On his way back to Washington on Air Force One, Obama called the chairman of the Special Olympics, Tim Shriver, to say he was sorry -- even before the taped program aired late Thursday night.

Good. Hopefully Obama himself had the thought of calling, and wasn't prompted by a minder.

A promising maiden speech

A maiden speech occurred in Federal Parliament yesterday that deserves mention.

The speech was given by Senator Chris Back from Western Australia. Senator Back takes his place in parliament following the resignation of Senator Chris Ellison.

It is encouraging (and rare) to read such an intelligent speech from a member of Australia's house of review. It augurs well that legislation will receive the scrutiny they deserve.

Dr Back's speech also referred to a matter of which I was not aware:

We in the west were alarmed last November when, leading up to a COAG meeting, the treasurers of the eastern states and territories took it upon themselves to meet and plan their strategy but explicitly chose to exclude the Western Australian Treasurer.

Juvenile and foolish. But why am I not surprised.