CLIMATE BODY URGES 15% REDUCTION TARGET

October 30, 2013

The Climate Change Authority saya the current emissions targets of five per cent isn't good enough. Picture: AFP/Paul Crock Source: News Limited

THE independent climate change advisory body soon to be abolished by the Abbott government has recommended Australia increase its 2020 emissions reduction target to at least 15 per cent.

In its draft Targets and Progress Review report released on Wednesday, the Climate Change Authority (CCA) recommends a significant increase above the five per cent target currently agreed to by both major parties.
Authority chair Bernie Fraser described a five per cent reduction on 2000 levels as "inadequate on a number of grounds". But the authority has not made a final recommendation on what the 2020 target should be, instead canvassing two options - a 15 per cent reduction and a 25 per cent reduction.
A 15 per cent reduction was considered to be a "minimum option", the authority said.
The coalition government has said it will scrap the CCA as part of its carbon tax repeal legislation.
Mr Fraser said the government's own conditions for moving beyond a five per cent reduction had been met, and that delaying tougher action until after 2020 would require "very rapid reductions'' beyond that period.
Australia played a part in concerted international action to limit the increase in global temperatures to no more than two degrees celsius, he said.
"A five per cent target would leave Australia lagging behind others, including the United States,'' Mr Fraser said.
He said while the authority had not made a final recommendation on what the 2020 target should be, "the five per cent target is not a credible option''.
Meanwhile a new report suggests nearly a third of the world's economic output, some $US44 trillion ($A46.54 trillion), will by 2025 be in countries at the highest risk of climate change effects.
This would represent a 50 per cent increase over today in the share of global GDP in high or extreme risk countries, said an assessment published by British risk consultancy Maplecroft.
Most of these countries are ill-prepared to deal with more severe floods, storms, droughts and sea-level rise likely to result from a warming planet, and the report said much investment is required in flood and other defences to protect infrastructure and assets.
"Adaptive measures ... will, however, require the sustained commitment of governments,'' said a statement from Maplecroft.
The 67 countries at highest risk include economic giants India in 20th place and China at number 61.
Topping the list was Bangladesh, followed by Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Haiti, South Sudan, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Cambodia, Philippines, Ethiopia, the Central African Republic, Eritrea and Chad.
The United States and much of Europe are in the "low'' risk category - partly because they had more money to spend on adaptation measures.

http://www.news.com.au/national/climate-body-urges-15pc-reduction-target/story-fncynjr2-1226749509795 

THE GAS THAT MAKES YOU LAUGH

From Popular Science, June 1949

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Chemists call it nitrous oxide. You can generate this and other oxides of nitrogen in a home laboratory. By Kenneth M. Swezey AN ACHING tooth is never funny, but the dentist who yanks it out may well first put you to sleep with a few whiffs of nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas.

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Joseph Priestley discovered this colorless gas with the sweetish odor in 1772. A quarter of a century later, Humphrey Davy, another famous English scientist, found that if mixed with a certain amount of oxygen the gas produced a feeling of exhilaration when inhaled. Hence, its name. Long used as an anesthetic for dental work and minor surgery, nitrous oxide (N2O) is one of five known oxides of nitrogen. The others are nitric oxide (NO), nitrogen trioxide (N2O3), nitrogen pentoxide (N2O5), and nitrogen peroxide. The latter takes two molecular forms, nitrogen dioxide (NO2) or nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4).
Nitrous oxide is still prepared today by the same method that Davy employed -- by carefully heating ammonium nitrate. At about 200 deg. C, this compound breaks down into nitrous oxide and water vapor. You can do this in a home laboratory.
But before you begin, here's a word of caution. Like all nitrogen compounds, ammonium nitrate is comparatively unstable. An explosion may occur if it is mixed with other substances, if it contains impurities, or if it is overheated when confined. However, it has been heated in laboratories and chemical plants for 150 years without accident save through carelessness. If you follow the rules, as all chemists should teach themselves to do, you will have no trouble.
Begin by putting about 10 grams of chemically pure ammonium nitrate into a large test tube fitted with a one-hole stopper through which passes a bent delivery tube. Clamp the test tube to a ring stand at a 45-degree angle. Connect the delivery tube to another bent glass tube leading into a pneumatic trough.
Pour water into the trough to a level just above the shelf. Also fill the collecting bottle to the brim with water, cover its mouth temporarily with a piece of cardboard, and invert it on the shelf. Since nitrous oxide is fairly soluble in cold water, use water as hot as possible in the trough and bottle.
Place a large beaker of cold water near your apparatus. The end of the test tube may be immersed in this if the reaction should become too rapid.
When youre all set, begin production of the gas by gently heating the ammonium nitrate with an alcohol lamp or with the flame of a Bunsen burner turned low. Keep the lamp or burner in your hand and move the flame constantly to distribute the heat. Give all your attention to the job.
At first the nitrate melts slowly. Further heating causes it to break down into a mixture of nitrous oxide and water -- a white vapor. The reaction itself produces heat. So apply the flame at this point just enough to keep the reaction going. The speed can be determined by observing the bubbles of gas entering the jar. Dont let them exceed one or two a second.
When the jar is full of gas, remove the heat from the test tube, and immediately disconnect the delivery tube to prevent water from being drawn into the test tube as it cools. Then slide a sheet of cardboard or glass under the mouth of the jar and stand it upright for your tests.
(As a final safety precaution, don't try to decompose the last gram or so of ammonium nitrate in the test tube. This small amount may easily become overheated.)
When nitrous oxide itself is heated strongly, it decomposes in turn, forming nitrogen and oxygen and giving off considerable heat. The oxygen in nitrous oxide is more concentrated than it is in normal air. Hence, many substances that already are burning will burn as brightly in this gas as they do in pure oxygen. As a demonstration, try the steel-wool experiment shown on page 237.
Most stable of the oxides of nitrogen is nitric oxide, another colorless gas. It contains twice as much oxygen as nitrous oxide, but it holds onto its oxygen more tenaciously. Burning sulphur thrust into a bottle of it will immediately be extinguished. Nitric oxide can be made with the setup shown on the preceding page. When you pour in the dilute nitric acid (1 part acid to 2 parts water), nitric oxide will be liberated. At the same time, the flask will fill with a reddish-brown vapor. This is nitrogen peroxide, produced by the reaction of some Of the nitric oxide with oxygen from the air. This colored gas will dissolve in the water in the trough, and the collecting bottle will fill with colorless nitric oxide.
A striking property of nitric oxide is that it always changes immediately to nitrogen peroxide upon exposure to air. Cover a tumbler or jar of nitric oxide with a piece of cardboard and invert it over a similar tumbler or jar of air. While the partition remains, each gas is colorless. But remove the partition and the heavier nitric oxide in the upper jar will flow downward. On mixing with the air, it changes at once into brown nitrogen neroxide.
At room temperature, nitrogen peroxide is a mixture of nitrogen dioxide and nitrogen tetroxide. These gases are chemically the same, but nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4) has molecules twice as big as nitrogen dioxide (N02).
Temperature affects the relative amounts of the two gases in the mixture. Below 20 deg. C, each molecule of NCX unites with another one, forming N2O1. As the temperature rises, the big molecules begin splitting in half. At 154 deg. C, all have become NO2.
Nitrogen tetroxide is colorless; nitrogen dioxide is brown. You can show the transformation by filling two test tubes with nitrogen peroxide. Heat one and the gas in it will darken as more NO2 forms.
To prepare nitrogen peroxide directly, merely add concentrated nitric acid to some bits of copper in a large test tube. Stopper the tube quickly with a one-hole stopper fitted with a glass delivery tube. Lead the delivery tube to the bottom of another test tube or similar container. The nitrogen peroxide will then displace the air.
Nitrogen peroxide is very poisonous. So make it in a well-ventilated room.
The most important reaction of nitrogen peroxide is with water. The gas dissolves readily in water, reacting with it to form both nitric and nitrous acids. In warm water, the nitrous acid decomposes, leaving nitric acid.
At the beginning of this century, great quantities of nitric acid, and subsequently nitrogen compounds for fertilizers and other uses, were made from nitrogen oxides obtained by passing ordinary air through the heat of an electric arc. The heat of the arc caused some of the nitrogen and oxygen of the air to unite, forming nitric oxide. Cooled and passed through more air, this united further with oxygen, giving nitrogen dioxide. This, in turn, was dissolved in water to form nitric acid.
You can duplicate the process on a small scale with the apparatus shown at the top of this page. Bend the lower ends of the stiff iron wires so they form a spark gap with about 1/2" between the points. Hang a moist strip of blue litmus paper over one.
Connect the two wires to the high-voltage terminals of the spark coil. Let the spark jump the gap continuously for several minutes. The spark produces nitrogen dioxide. This in turn reacts with the moisture in the litmus paper. The litmus turns pink, indicating nitric acid has formed. 

http://www.justsayn2o.com/nitrous.synthesis2.html

STOP SMART METERS AUSTRALIA – ACTIONS YOU CAN TAKE

You do NOT consent to the installation of a smart meter of any kind, including modified analogue and mechanical meters, meters retro-fitted with RF indexes or microwave devices, so here are the actions you can take:
1.  Lock your meter box and  put a window in for the meter to be read Click here for examples
2. Put up the No Trespass Sign and Do Not Fit a Smart Meter Sign (owners) and Do Not Fit a Smart Meter Sign (owners or residents). It’s best to laminate it then fix it to your meter box (if you don’t have a laminator you can take it to your news agency and they can do it). Click here for a Smart Meter Action Kit
3. Sign the petition.
4. Educate/inform your neighbours, friends, colleagues about smart meters’ potential to cause serious harm to human health. Refer them to evidence from thousands of independent scientific studies (Health). Smart meters also represent a gross intrusion into your home and your privacy (Privacy). Additionally contract law, which requires consent as explained here.
5. Print out the letter Legal Advice Oct 2012 from the office of Eugene White and have it at hand at all times.
6. Subscribe to email updates from this site by entering their email address on the home page , they then receive regular updates as they are posted.
7. Write a letter (template you can use) and send it by registered mail to your utility, Minister for Energy, State Premier, Minister for Health, Department of Primary Industries, Energy and Water Ombudsman, and Essential Services Victoria. Some addresses here:
Premier Napthine,
Level 1,  1 Treasury Place,  East Melbourne,  VIC  3002
The Hon. Nicholas Kotsiras Minister for Energy and Resources
Level 2,
3 Treasury Place,
Melbourne, VIC 3000
Powercor and CitiPower
Mr Timothy Rourke,
Chief Executive Officer
Powercor and CitiPower
Locked Bag 14090
Melbourne, VIC 8001
SP AusNet
Mr Nino Ficca
Managing Director
SP AusNet
Level 31, 2 Southbank Boulevarde
Southbank, VIC 3006
Jemena
Mr Paul Adams,
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer,
Jemena
321 Ferntree Gully Road,
Mount Waverley, VIC 3149.
United Energy
Mr Hugh Gleeson
Chief Executive Officer
Locked Bag 7000
Mount Waverley, VIC 3149
To find out who is your power distributor see here http://www.dpi.vic.gov.au/energy/electricity/electricity-distributors.
8. Subscribe to updates from reputable scientists and independent research institutions including:
http://www.next-up.org/Newsoftheworld/BioInitiativeIntro.php
http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/niemr/index.php
http://www.magdahavas.com/
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Support-Prof-Olle-Johansson/137594306315704
http://iemfa.org/index.php/publications/news
9. Keep saying No.
Please see this page for  detailed step-by-step instructions of how to do this in the most thorough way.
ESV submission – Stop Smart Meter Australia’s submission to Energy Safe Victoria.

Smart meter rebellion Video: A Current Affair

 

The photos below were sent into us to show how a hole was cut so the existing meter could still be read and how to lock your meter if you don’t have a meter box.

 

 

Click here for our Smart Meter Awareness and Support Groups

http://stopsmartmeters.com.au/actions-you-can-take/ 

SMART METER REMOVAL

COMBINED TESLA & ORGONE ENERGY

SUPERHUMAN INTELLIGENCE THROUGH MAGNETIC STIMULATION

SCIENCE AND SANITY – ALFRED KORZYBSKI

The fantastic science fiction adventures described in "The World of Null-A" and "The Pawns of Null-A" made me wonder if there really was any such thing as "General semantics". Was this "science" just a product of A. E. van Vogt's vivid imagination. Some of the chapters started with anonymous quotes from purported authorities, such as "B. R", "A. K.", "C. J. K.". Had they all been made up? Could "B. R." be Bertrand Russell? And what about the "Semantic Institute" at "Korzybski Square"?

Alfred Korzybski (1879-1950)

  


In the      mid-1950s it was not as easy to dig out obscure information as it is today, with the omnipresent Web and its search engines. I went to the central public library in Stockholm, but as far as I can recall, there was nothing to be found under the heading of "General semantics". But there was an index card system where authors were listed alphabetically. I looked up "Korzybski", and - lo and behold! - there was an author of that name. He had written a book called "Science and Sanity". I could not find it on the shelves, however, so I asked a librarian to make a reservation for me when it was returned. It turned out that nobody had borrowed the book. Instead it was kept along with other obscure books in a storage compartment behind the area that was accessible to the public. The librarian took me there and dug out the book, a hefty tome of some 800 pages. I felt pretty foolish as the librarian gave me a quizzical look. What could an adolescent schoolboy possibly want from this dusty volume?
By the way, a few years earlier during a visit to the local public library, I was indignant to find a Swedish science fiction book written by Vladimir Semitjov: "430 million km in outer space" ("43,000,000 mil i världsrymden") on a shelf behind the librarian's desk under the heading of "Crazies" ("Galningar"). As the space age dawned and interplanetary probes became a reality, I often recalled that incident. - Many years later, an aunt of mine, who was a librarian, laughed heartily when I told her the story. She told me that the term "Galningar" was used for books that had been misplaced on the shelves. It had nothing to do with their content.
The book turned out to be a heavy read, due to its high level of abstraction and unusual terminology, in addition to my own limitations with regard to the English language. But at the same time I found it quite fascinating, with its abundance of ideas. (Unexpectedly - at least to me - the complete book is now available on the web.)
The central themes of the book are the enormous influence that language itself has on our thinking, the dangers that are inherent in the process of abstraction that underlies language, and the need to be fully aware of them: "The map is not the territory." The book makes a distinction between the "Non-Aristotelian" discipline of "General Semantics" and the two-valued logic of Aristotle with its insistence that statements are either true or false. In particular, it warns us from using the little word "is" of identification without realising how it can constrain our view of the world. Many times when we say "is", we should really think "has" (the property of, or the attribute, at this point in time), or "exhibits some of the characteristics of", and add "etc." in order to remind ourselves that the statement is not exhaustive, and may not even be valid tomorrow.
The term "General Semantics" is used to widen the scope of semantics so that it does not just deal with the lexical meaning of words and symbols, but also with our reactions to them. - A man unexpectedly brings flowers to his wife, as a symbol of his love. But she may be wondering if instead it is a sign of his bad conscience. Not only her interpretation, but also the emotions it evokes, are seen as legitimate subjects for study under the heading of "General Semantics".
"Science and Sanity" has been acclaimed by many intelligent readers, but it has also been denounced as a mish-mash of unoriginal observations presented as science. To my mind, it does not matter very much whether Korzybski's work is based on original research or is just a compilation of previous contributions. I believe that his world view, despite some exaggerations and a tendency to self-aggrandizement, is basically sound, has turned out to be influential, and is largely compatible with modern scientific thought.
By all accounts Korzybski had a strong and colorful personality. He was a Polish count, born in 1879. He received an engineering education in Warsaw, fought with the Russian army in WW I, was injured and sent to North America in late 1915 to co-ordinate the shipment of war supplies to Russia. After the war he decided to stay in the United States. He wrote several books. "Science and Sanity" was published in 1933. He founded the Institute of General Semantics in 1938 and directed it until his death in 1950. - See also this biography.

Anatol Rapoport

At the Institute he gathered a group of disciples, some of whom turned out to be very talented. Shortly after I read "Science and Sanity", I enjoyed two rather more accessible books. One was by Samuel Hayakawa: "Language in Thought and Action". The other was by Anatol Rapoport: "Science and the Goals of Man". Both men had distinguished careers. Hayakawa became a U. S. Senator for California, and Rapoport a pioneering professor of mathematics, applying it to biology and to the theory of social conflicts. Their books in turn encouraged me to take an interest in the philosophical foundations of science: some of the works of Bertrand Russell, A. N. Whitehead, and Ludwig Wittgenstein; and in logical positivism and empiricism in general.

Samuel Hayakawa

Hayakawa's recollections in interview form ("oral history") of his time with Korzybski are illuminating and amusing. Apparently, Korzybski and Hayakawa had a good relationship, but Hayakawa characterised himself as a "disobedient son", adding that Korzybski wanted "faithful, nonargumentative, pious disciples, spreading the word of Korzybski".
Today the teachings of "Science and Sanity" seem as relevant as when they were written, especially in the light of our present tendency to attach labels to persons, and groups of persons, whom we like or dislike, and to see the world in terms of black and white: "Terrorist", "Unbeliever", etc. The map is not the territory!
Further reading

1. Reader reviews of "Science and Sanity" at Amazon. (Scroll down to "Spotlight Reviews").
2. The home page of the Institute of General Semantics.
3. "Dare to Inquire: Demarginalizing General Semantics" by Bruce Kodish. An article written in 2003. It examines Martin Gardner's attacks on "General Semantics" and finds them unjustified.

http://www.zenker.se/Books/korzybski.shtml