Today I went out for my usual lunch time ride. Lately I have decided to do more hill climbing rides rather than the far-too-often flat bays ride that I usually do as although they are nice and scenic, they are not really doing anything towards progressing my hill climbing fitness. So I headed for the Mt Vic route that I sometimes do - this involves riding over to Kilbernie and up Alexander Road to the top. Then I hook up with a quick descent and then take a very steep climbing section that is part of the National XC course. The route up Alexander Road follows along the road but riding on the gravel/grass verge. Lately I have been experimenting with locking out the front suspension (oh, on my new bike- a Giant Trance X1!) and this lock out makes such a difference on the climbs. The front feels really solid and mich lighter without the “bobbing” of the forks. I have found I can usually ride a whole gear higher in most sections. Anyhow, I nervously aproached the “steepie” today, unsure of how I’d go as I have eased off slightly from my summer training. I did feel puffed but very good going up the earlier hills. The steepie is broken into 2 sections - the first is about 30 metres long and steepens up as you near the top, it’s ok but you certainly feel it. Then the killer - you hook sharp right, still climbing, and there is a 10 metre section that is steeper still. By the time you get to this, you are puffing hard and the legs are burning so it finishes you off and you end up walking this section…..except today I rode it for the first time!!! I felt good at the start of it and decided to knuckle down and just go for it. I think it’s a combination of all the steep hill climbing I have been doing over summer plus the front fork lockout. It’s still a long steep climb after this but by then I’d overcome my nemesis and the hill was mine. Anyhow, that’s it - I finally climbed the Mt Vic killer :-).

Well, Jess and I are off to the World Mountainbike Champs (http://www.2006rotoruamtb.com/) in Rotorua this weekend and I’m very excited about it. I’ve been riding/racing for 13 years now and to see the riders that I have been reading about all this time actually racing is such a great opportunity. These are the best in the world and it is not until you see them in action that you can really appreciate just how skilled and fast they really are. As my mate Alex says, “Get vertical !!”.

It was a sad day for humankind when Japan managed to secure a majority vote in the current International Whaling Commission meeting. What I don't get though is how Japan can actually get away with their claim of scientific research, period. To me it seems ludicrous that the "normal" countries seem to even be having these arguments with Japan. 
Point 1 - wheel out this amazing scientific data Japan, for the world to see.  Come on, dazzle us with your amazing facts that justify all this. From what I have heard through documentaries, the data is total nonsense and clearly demonstrates the falsity of it all.  Surely, after all these years of so called research, there would be a plethora of worthy data to back up their claims.  Why oh why don't the other countries come down hard on the Japanese government and demand that they publish this data for the world to see.
Point 2 - Japan is buying votes from developing countries through the guise of aid.  Surely this is tantamount to bribery and corruption, not only a practice that is supposedly criticised by the developed world but is (i.e. the aid) also totally irrelevent to the decision on whether whaling is right or not.  As such, any votes that are associated with aid should be dismissed.
Point 3 - If whaling is such an important aspect of Japanese culture, as I'm sure it is claimed, then surely Japan would have no issue with putting it to the people of Japan to vote if they should continue whaling.  From what I have heard, the eating of whale meat in Japan is a dying practice anyway and the meat is even being pushed in schools now to try and build the support.  It totally astounds me that a country that bases a large part of its culture on nature and harmony would even want to practice whaling anymore.  I wager that the majority would not wish to continue with whaling. Why isn't this challenge put to the Japanese government outright - proove that the "people" of Japan actually want to continue whaling.
Point 4 - There are so many points to argue but when I heard this one from the latest IWC meeting, it is such a joke that surely Japan lose total face over it and should be denied whaling on this point alone: the whales are consuming fish and competing with the Japanese fishing industry. I could not believe that the other governments even let them table this as a serious item.  The world's fish stocks are so totally depleted by mankind, of which the Japanese play a significant part. How dare they even suggest such a stupid point.  Hello, how about the gazillion 30km drift nets that Japan have used ?! And besides, I am yet to see a Right Whale hunt down Blue Fin tuna.  What a total joke. What an insult to the whales and what an insult to the plant.

I believe it is time the IWC cut this diplomatic bullshit and put the total heat on Japan, period. Watch this space for more.

Well, it's certainly been a while since I've made any entries.  I've had a couple of excuses though. Although I have easy access at work, I'm pretty busy there so I don't really have much of an opportunity to relax and take my time to write what I want - it's never fun when you're rushed. Plus there's always the peer pressure in a busy environment - I can't exactly say I'm flat out and then get caught blogging.  The other challenge has been the good old dial up internet connection from home. Having to crank up the line and make do with a slow link kind of takes way the spontaneity of putting pen to paper, especially if it's some news item or the such that has irked me and I want to have a rant then and there (I'm well known for my rants !). So, after much promise for a couple of years, work has finally committed to subsidising a broadband service for when I am on call. As a result Jess and I have gone the whole hog and got digital cable for phone, tv and internet with 10Gb per month.
Although I work in IT, I'm quite a non-geek anti-computer type so this is quite a new concept for me and the worrying thing is that I've actually been looking forward to it (broadband, that is). I have been finding more and more that there are actually things on the net that I want to access, research et al and it's no fun at work when you're being sneaky about it.  Plus at home when you have the impulse to check something out but just can't be arsed dialling up….now I can hop on lickity split.   We bought a cool wifi router that acts as our firewall too and both  Jess and I can tap away at the same time, share data etc.  It's only taken me 16 years but I've got there at last.  So, we took yesterday afternoon off work and got hooked up…..and went nuts, hehe. We've already consumed 10% of our monthly quota in 1 evening but what the hey. 

So, suffice to say I will now (hopefully) be able to update my blog on a more regular basis and actually talk about the things I want to.  I guess it's down to me now, no more excuses huh - that's the scariest part I think. Vamos !

Ok, Tony Blair has honoured us with a fleeting visit to Auckland after doing a tour of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne and catching up with his buddy John Howard no doubt.  John Campbell from TV3 had an “exclusive” interview (who cares if it was exclusive or not, surely it’s more important what the interview was about) to ask the hard questions.  Oh yeah.  Fair enough, he did ask Blair directly if he regrets the façade that was presented as the excuse to start the war with Iraq.  And as usual Blair gave a totally bullshit answer about the need for democracy, stability in the Middle East, how much the people wanted democracy, and get this – putting “Western standards” aside, no-one wants to be ruled by a dictator.  That is, the same rhetoric that is given without actually answering the question.  However, this is where I don’t get it.  Instead of letting Blair get away with this answer why didn’t Campbell then ask Blair that if he is so concerned about the issues of dictatorships and freedom, what is Blair now doing to address foreign policy practices, given that Britain is siding with the US who has a history of putting puppet dictators in power (as does Britain with the likes of Mugabe), plus the fact that Britain was supplying Saddam with arms to wage the war against Iran when it suited Britain. That is, we know that Western governments meddle with countries when it suits and help create the huge mess in the first place.  Blair kept answering by turning the focus to “going on from here” but surely the question of whether any lessons have been learnt from the past should have been put him. 

Am I missing something here? I just don’t understand why these types of questions are not asked.  Is Campbell instructed on what he can/can’t ask ? In all this nonsense with Iraq, when the same “he was bad and needed to go anyway” answer is given.  Why do the they (reporters) never ask  “well, why did you wine and dine him in the first place when it suited you, knowing full well that he was a megalomaniac?”

I would so love to hear that question. Maybe it has been asked and is hidden amongst the piles somewhere.  How do I find out if it has and what the answer was ?

Ok, rather than just having a rant section about politics en masse, I named this section “Nonsense Politics” to talk about what I see as some of the more ludicrous aspects of politics.  I do believe that a truly sincere political system does have some important function in society to help keep things in check (humans, by nature, do need keeping in check) but there are so many aspects of it that are focussed around genuine lies, deceit, cruelty, greed and domination, etc.  Need I go on?  If the political systems of the world were really as sincere as they make out to be I think it would make such a huge difference to our existence.  Is it unreasonable to strive for this?

You may find a lot of the discussions in here focus on Foreign Policy and the likes of the issues going on in the Middle East but I believe these are probably some of the more significant areas going on right now and we should be concerned and asking the truly hard questions.

These are some notes from an article by Katherine Mieszkowski.  It discusses planting gardens and drafting city plans for the days when oil is gone.

http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/03/22/peakoil/print.html

A report on Peak Oil released in February 2005, known as the Hirsch Report, plays out three scenarios: Wait for the peak to occur before transitioning, plan a decade ahead, plan 20 years ahead.  Only the third scenario concludes that major liquid fuel shortages could be avoided.

We have a problem that has no real solution, and we are trying to mitigate what will happen to culture.  Some predict we are going back to the 13^th century at some point – this is significant !!  It is going to be more third world-like and people are going to need to cope.

Cities will start to struggle to provide basic services such as police, firefighting, public transport, water, road repair and other community services. 

Office workers will lose jobs as businesses flounder under the strain of a failing global economy.

We cling to the vain hope that better fuel efficiency, more conservation and alternative energy will step in and save the day.  The myth of biofuels – the likes of ethanol, fuel from crops like corn and switchgrass are not going to save the day.  We would not be able to produce the same amount of energy that we now get from 85 millions barrels of oil a day.  Sheer volume aside, we will end up overmining the soil. 

As energy gets more expensive, food will get more expensive.  Bio-intensive farming methods require 4,000 sq feet of land to produce enough food to feed a vegetarian diet to one person.

Some communities are already developing policies and infrastructure to become energy and food self-reliant.  Convert school yards into a farm for healthy food in the cafeteria, put farms next to hospitals.  Find local sources for electricity.

For individuals, having land and the ability to produce your own food is going to become very important.

 We will need to adapt, not necessarily technically but rather socially.

Ok, this article is about the genetic root of modern man.  It’s cool – scientists have pretty much pieced the information together to prove that we all stem from a small group of hunter-gathers that ventured out of Africa.

A study has been conducted on the genetic mutations, or what are referred to as markers, in our DNA.   By analysing these markers, scientists can trace ancestral connections.  Scientists now calculate that all living humans are related to a single woman who lived roughly 150,000 years ago in Africa.  All the variously shaped and shaded people of Earth trace their ancestry to African hunter-gathers. Between 50,000 and 70,000 years ago, one small wavelet from Africa lapped up onto the shores of western-asia.  All non-Africans share markers carried by those first emigrants.  From here, we spread out all over the world taking some 40,000 years to make the far reaches of South America.  Interestingly, we made Australia relatively quickly – only 5,000 to 25,000 years after leaving Africa. 

I subscribe to National Geographic and have done for about 12 years now.  Not only do I find the articles very informative – even if they do sometimes seem to come across with an American bias, they are after all, an American business (I want to avoid associating them with the “company”) – but I do also feel that by subscribing, I am somehow contributing to some form of world enlightenment about what this universe is really about.  I’d like to share some of these bits and pieces.

Watch this space! This is important.  Even to those that consider themselves energy conscious, this is something that is going to significantly affect everyone of us in a large way.  The biggest danger as I see it, and that so many articles discuss, is that Peak Oil seems so far away that it won’t affect us or isn’t something we have to really worry about.  Wrong. And this is not something that we should passively sit back from and assume that the “experts” will sort out for us.   I don’t want to go down the doomsday path on this but from what I have been learning, it is certainly going to have a very significant impact on our lives.  I think it is totally important to be planning seriously for this now.  The idea here is to build up a picture of what the issues are and what we really should be doing about it, in order to preserve ourselves as individuals and as a community.