Frightening visions

Acknowledgement to The Sydney Morning Herald  eco-tourism - rituals of the whales

Argentina's Peninsula Valdes is renowned as one of the world's finest whale-watching destinations. But outside the whale-watching season, an even grander ocean spectacle takes place around this pimple of barren land, midway between Buenos Aires and the southern tip of South America. As South American sea lions give birth along the peninsula's coast each February, pods of orcas arrive offshore, poised for one of nature's most dramatic hunting rituals. Riding waves onto the beach at Peninsula Valdes' northern tip, the orcas beach themselves to snatch at sea lion pups, dragging them out to sea, often in full view of gathered spectators.

Dirt roads circle the World Heritage-listed peninsula, and I head first to Punta Delgada. The hour-long drive is like a journey to the edge of the world. Past the white sheen of Salina Grande, a salt lake 40 metres below sea level, the scrub withers into grasslands. Fading signs for estancias blend into the colourless landscape, and a gaucho on horseback trots across the road, customary beret at its customary tilt on his head.

On approach ... an orca prepares to make a kill. Photo: Getty Images

Animal kingdom... an orca beaches itself for a kill. Photo: Getty Images

Risky strategy ... if the orca misjudges its timing, it can beach itself. Photo: Getty Images

Leibster Awardees

I am fulfilling my part of the Liebster Award, given to me by Cindy over at Just north of Wiarton and passing that award on to five others.

Conditions of accepting the award are:

Once receiving this lovely "award", rules thereafter are as follows:

1.  Linking back to and thank the giver
2.  Post the award on your blog
3.  Pass the award on to 5 bloggers with less then 200 followers:

Liebster means dearest in German~isn't that lovely?  I think it a great way of encouraging new bloggers with less than 200 followers.  I follow a handful of blogs, who I daily look forward to their new post(s), as I admire and respect each and every one for them being "themselves" as they show through in each of their own blog.

My awards go to:

1. Elephant’s Child - My just so story - who so much needs something given to her tight now as her family take so much from her reserves.
2. Susan Heather, over at Kamo Lady -Kamo lady
3. Cathy, over at Cathy is at home - Cathy at home for her marvelous images
4. Joe, at Cranky old man - Joe cranky  who always manages to give me a laugh.
5. My dear SEA friend, Wendy at Educating Wendy - Educating Wendy - who I believe has finally learnt to cook and I hope she enjoys her daughters visit for the summer holidays from ‘Stateside’.

Now, I cannot do much more at present as I am laid low with a very sore back and sitting here h.h.h.h.h - hurts like h.h.h.h.h - hell!

Premature explosion ....

Premature blast ... yachts are illuminated in the foreground as a malfunction

causes the entire Fourth of July fireworks show to go off all at once over

San Diego Bay. Photo: Ben Baller/AP.

"The Fourth of July fireworks display above San Diego Bay was over in a flash after a malfunction that the show's producer blamed on a computer glitch caused the planned 20-minute spectacle to burn up all at once. 

The mishap occurred minutes before the scheduled opening of the Big Bay Boom show, the Coast Guard said. Guard spokesman Rich Dann told U-T San Diego he's never seen so many fireworks go off at one time. 

Online video shows multiple light bulb-shaped explosions flaring up from barges in the bay, lighting the night sky over downtown San Diego.

Rapid snaps and pops punctuate the blazes, which begin to fizzle and sputter in a matter of seconds."

Test Post

After yesterday's problems with getting blogger posts running, here's a 'Test Post' of a few jokes to see if everything is working:


.......................................................................................

I went to the currency exchange window at the local bank. Short line. Just one guy in front of me...an Asian guy who was Trying to exchange yen for dollars and he was a little irritated.... 

He asked the teller, 

"Why it change?? Yestoday, I get one  dolla fo two hunat yen. Today I get for one dolla hunat eighty?? Why it change?" 

The teller shrugged his shoulders and said, 

"Fluctuations". 

The Asian guy says, "Fluc you white people too".

………………………………………………………………………….

Apple Computers announced today that it has developed a computer chip that can store and play music in women's breast implants. 

The iBreast will cost between $499 and $599. 

This is considered to be a major breakthrough because women are always complaining about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them.

……………………………………………………………………………

SUMMARY OF MY E-MAIL FOR THE PAST YEAR 

I must send my thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat poop in the glue on envelopes because I now have to use a wet towel with every envelope that needs sealing. 

Also, now I have to scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason. 

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl (Penny Brown) who is about to die in the hospital for the 1,387,258th time. 

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the £15,000 that Bill Gates/Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program. 

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me, and St. Theresa's novena has granted my every wish. 

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day. 

Thanks to you, I have learned that my prayers only get answered if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes. 

Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains. 

I no longer can buy petrol without taking a man along to watch the car so a serial killer won't crawl in my back seat when I'm filling the car. 

And thanks for letting me know I can't boil a cup water in the microwave anymore because it will blow up in my face...disfiguring me for life. 

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS. 

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me. 

I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise. 

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica , Uganda , Singapore , and Uzbekistan. 

I no longer have any trainers -- but that will change once I receive my free replacement pair from Nike. 

Thanks to you, I can't use anyone's toilet but mine because a big brown African spider is lurking under the seat to cause me instant death when it bites my bum. 

And thanks to your great advice, I can't ever pick up $5.00 I dropped in the parking lot because it probably was placed there by a sex molester waiting underneath my car to grab my leg. 

Oh, and don't forget this one either! I can no longer drive my car because I can't buy petrol from certain petrol companies! 

If you don't send this e-mail to at least 42,000 people in the next 42 minutes, a large dove with diarrhoea will land on your head at 5:42 PM this afternoon and the fleas from 42 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbour's ex-mother-in-law's second husband's cousin's beautician... 

Have a wonderful day....AND 

A scientist from Argentina , after a lengthy study, has discovered that people with insufficient brain and sexual activity read their e-mail with their hand on the mouse. 

Don't bother taking it off now, it's too late !!!!

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Blog problems

I've been having blog problems insofaras some readers are being 'denied access'. I do not know why this is.
If you are having problems email me at tuloosletrek@gmail.com - thank you!

July 1, 20112 "C-Day" in Australia

Yesterday, July 1^st 2012, was “Carbon Day”, or, “C-Day” in Australia. 

The federal government’s carbon tax was introduced to Australia and nearly 300 major atmospheric polluters were slapped with huge taxes. Taxes, which of course, they will pass on to consumers.

Amongst the largest polluters are our coal burning electricity generators. They will, of course, pass on their taxes in the form of increased electricity charges to consumers.

Consumers, in turn, will switch to cheaper electricity providers (it’s an open market in Australia, electricity charges are not fixed by government statute), or, like our household, install solar electricity generators where possible.

Businesses will recoup their additional costs through passing them on to customers in the form of increased charges.

The government will use the taxes it collects from the major polluters to afford tax breaks and ‘family Assistance packages’ to low income families – every wage earner on less than $80,000 p.a. will receive pro-rata tax breaks.

The opposition has tried to block the carbon tax passage through both houses of parliament and they failed. They are now broadcasting a message of doom and gloom to all Australians as to how the economy of this thriving country will be ruined.

Some rhetorical questions:

1. Can anyone tell me why the country will come to a standstill?
2. Why will towns like Whyalla disappear from the landscape?
3. Why will the cost of living rise so dramatically that life will not be the same as we knew it yesterday?
4. Why will businesses close?
5. Why will prices rise so much that we cannot afford to buy bread and milk?

Please, no answers sprouting the BS along party lines, just tell me why this will happen?

Well, It won't.  But a lot of people have a vested interest in making the general populous believe that it will. The bottom line however is that the whole purpose of pricing pollution is to make it more expensive.

This has two objectives:

1. Provide incentives to switch to and develop alternative sources of energy, which are currently not viable due to the cheap cost of carbon derived energy (and one of the reasons for this is that the costs due to pollution are pushed on to third parties).  In the longer term, the costs of these alternatives are likely to fall; in the short term they will be more expensive.

2. Provide incentives to change behaviours to reduce the actual need for energy full stop.  Longer term this is likely to improve Australian competitiveness as we find ways to produce more with less energy.

If the premium applied to the cost of pollution was set to zero, nothing would change.  If was set to (say) $100,000 a tonne, then it would indeed devastate the economy.  It is of course neither.  Time will tell if it is high enough to influence behaviour, and low enough not to devastate the economy.

Australian mining jobs for US soldiers

Aussie miners target us soldiers

ELIZABETH JACKSON: From the frontline, to the unemployment queue. 
Jane Cowan reported this story on Saturday, June 30, 2012 08:11:00 
Too often that's the grim reality for America's war heroes, returning from the battlefield at a time when there are already more job seekers than the economy can handle. But now help is coming from an unexpected quarter: Australian mining companies. North America correspondent, Jane Cowan, reports from a job fair with a difference in Detroit, Michigan.

JANE COWAN: When he got out of the army, Justin Schnepp thought the hard bit was over. 
Little did he know. 

JUSTIN SCHNEPP: It's pretty challenging. I find it very hard to entertain the thought of anything other than the military. 

JANE COWAN: After six years and two tours in Iraq, the transition to the civilian workforce has been tough. 

JUSTIN SCHNEPP: It has its days where you wonder what you're going to do the next day, 'cos I am unemployed right now. 

JANE COWAN: He's not the only one. If the war was the frying pan, the US job market can feel like the fire. As hard as it is for ordinary Americans to find work, unemployment's even worse amongst returning servicemen and women.  Thousands of war veterans converged on a hall in Detroit this week, attracted by the promise of more than 20,000 jobs offered by employers ranging from the big car companies like General Motors, to a local pizza place. 

RETURNED MALE SOLDIER: Going from infantry it's pretty hard because not too many people want you to go out and shoot people 

RETURNED FEMALE SOLDIER: It's been very difficult, but, however, today I hope I find a job. 

JANE COWAN: John Garcia is with the US Department of Veterans Affairs. 

JOHN GARCIA: Some of these young men and women have gone to Iraq, Afghanistan and other parts of the world that are doing three, four, five combat tours. They come back and there's a stigma I think of post traumatic stress syndrome, or combat fatigue. They don't understand the veteran. 

JANE COWAN: A problem the US president, Barack Obama's, been trying to fix with incentives like tax cuts for businesses that hire ex military personnel. 

BARACK OBAMA: Standing up for our veterans, this is not a Democratic responsibility, it's not a Republican responsibility, it's an American responsibility. 

JANE COWAN: But while America's struggling with unemployment, Australia has the opposite problem; facing skills shortages, especially in the booming mining industry. 
Colleen Lucas is here in Detroit, recruiting for Australian companies. 

COLLEEN LUCAS: It's pretty much across the board; from central Queensland to Western Australia down to South Australia; there's projects going on all over the place really; in gas, coal, iron ore. 

JANE COWAN: But Colleen Lucas is conscious giving jobs to foreigners can be sensitive territory. 

COLLEEN LUCAS: Australia is looking for some skills that are in short supply at the moment to be able to get some projects off the ground. Some of them are just a little bit limited because of the particular people that are required to get projects up and running. And once they're up and running then there's heaps of job opportunities for lots of Australians.
In the meantime, American war veterans like Justin Schnepp are more than happy to help out. 

JUSTIN SCHNEPP: Well I was in Germany for six years, so the thought of going to another country - I like that idea. You know, you get to see the world again. And I - it would be pretty interesting maybe to work in a mine - you know, see what it's all about; more hard work and I would do that. 

JANE COWAN: With thousands more troops streaming home from the war winding down in Afghanistan, it's not exactly a long term fix. But America will take what it can get. 

This is Jane Cowan in Detroit for Saturday AM.