Its going to be interesting to watch what happens in China in the near term. If the current peak in oil prices remain for some time, its sure going to have an impact, but maybe this will be a good thing. China's rate of fuel consumption and generation of greenhouse gasses is simply devistating for our future - anything that slows it down is a good thing. But at some point China has to crash, and thats going to be ugly too. With China and the US correcting at the same time, the world economy is going to head south very quickly. The reduction of demand will be a good thing, but the social impact may be another issue.

"With crude oil closing in on $100 a barrel, the pinch of higher prices is being felt worldwide. In China, however, the impact of the hikes has been shortages at the pump, and tempers are running hot. ...
The crisis is largely one of China's own making. To reduce inflationary pressures on its red-hot economy, Beijing has not raised prices at the pump, which are set by the government, since May 2006. In that same period of time, international oil prices have risen about 30%, sticking refineries with spiraling costs for the crude they buy and shrinking profits for the gasoline they sell. Some smaller refineries stopped production altogether to avoid losses, while others begun hoarding their crude supplies, leading to gas shortages around the country. "

http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1678731,00.html?xid=rss-business

Sorry for the lack of action here at the moment, I'm busy putting together a new site, one thats will be more secure and allow guests to participate if they wish. There is a lot of work setting up a new service, but I hope to have the initial efforts online in the not to distant future.

I've seen a lot of videos now, read a lot of articles. I think the American people are on the verge of critical mass regarding the conspiracy fact that is 911 and the war in Iraq. Google video is featuring this information in its top 10 now, so surely every American will now have the facts they need to do something about this!

Here is another series of three videos that are absolutely required viewing too. How much evidence to people need?

This article answers the question posed in the US Senate by mistake as it were - "If the war in Iraq is lost, then who won?". Nice view inside the head of a slowly awaking US. Watch the empire crumble.

Mayuchan and I have been playing a version of Scrabble a friend taught us called Take Two. You don't use a board, but draw tiles from the pool two at a time, and as quickly as you can make words. As soon as you can you say "take two" and you all pickup two more tiles. The idea is the first to finish when the tiles run out wins. Anyway, this game has become a bit of addiction for us of late. In a recent game the letters started to take a very symmetrical shape for me, so I made an effort to make it completely symmetrical, and much to my surprise it actually worked out!!! I suspect this will be extremely rare! Cool hu? :-)

This little guy come to visit. He is now living in the laundry. Cute as, but has a lot of growing to do yet.

Just before you go to bed tonight, better check the clock, the Doomsday Clock that is. We are heading into a worrying time it seems. I've been much troubled by events over the past few weeks. There is still a slim chance that sanity will prevail, but the odds are slipping away on that one. I just cannot fathom how the US and Iran can be so stupid.... oh thats right, they are both run by extremist, fanatical, religiously myopic madmen. Oh yea, now I remember. Mmmm, is there a snooze button that that thing?

Yet again little Johnny is trying to deceive the Australian people into thinking he can control interest rates. He never has and never will, its all a con job that too many Australian have fallen for hook, line and sinker. In a couple of years time we will all look back and lament the squandered opportunities this government was responsible for. Wake up Australia!

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Former Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) governor Bernie Fraser has hit out at the Federal Government, saying it cannot take credit for today's lower inflation rate.

The cost of living dropped in the December quarter, bringing annual inflation down sharply to 3.3 per cent.

Prime Minister John Howard says it is the best inflation figure since 1999.

"This is a confidence-boosting inflation number," he said.

But Mr Fraser says China has been the major contributor to Australia's lower inflation.

And he says the Government has missed an opportunity to take advantage of the booming economy.

"I think that's the great pity of this, that we haven't converted that into improving our social infrastructure or our economic infrastructure," he said.

"We've got problems in education and health, we've got problems in power supply and transport facilities and the opportunity has been missed, I'm afraid."

Source: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newsitems/200701/s1833168.htm

Here is a link to an excellent article that explains the difference between the governments employment stats v's the reality. Is there a difference I hear you ask? Government stats put Australia's unemployment rate at a near record low of 5%, but the truth is that the real rate is around 20% unemployment. Read how the government is cooking the books on this one. Easy to read and highly recommended.

http://www.henrythornton.com/article.asp?article_id=4473