Thanks to everyone who has donated so far. The total raised is now $1180. Donations have been flagging over the last couple of days, so the pace needs to increase if people want to extract my matching contribution. Suggestions for further incentives/ gimmicks gratefully accepted.
To donate, just click here
Condolences to those who have lost family members and friends in the air crash in Indonesia yesterday. Of those killed or missing the only one whose name is known to me was Morgan Mellish, Jakarta correspondent for the Australian Financial Review, but others who died were serving our country, and of course any loss of life is a tragedy for the family concerned.
This is also a good time to think about the routine and preventable loss of life and limb on our roads, and about the far larger loss of life caused by poverty and disease around the world. As well as sharing the grief surrounding this tragic event we should act to ensure that such things become less common.
With the skin incentive having raised $1000, it’s time to switch to money for the next round. If the total sponsorship reaches $2000 by midnight next Monday, I’ll put in $1000 of my own to match the extra donations. Bearing in mind that donations are tax-deductible, this is a great way to amplify your gifts, particularly for anyone facing high marginal tax rates (and since I hear complaints about this pretty regularly, there must be quite a few readers in this category). If you’re on the top marginal tax rates, and give $200, the government will give nearly $100 back, so you only pay about $100, while the Leukemia Foundation gets $400. Sounds like a good deal to me.
Of course, not everyone is on the top marginal tax rate, or flush with cash. Just give what you can afford here, or think about joining the Great Shave (colouring is a less drastic option) yourself.
Sponsorship for my entry in the World’s Greatest Shave has passed the target of $1000, so you’ll be seeing a picture of me sans beard. I’m as much in the dark as anyone regarding how it will look.
There’s still ten days to go, so I’ve decided to get really ambitious and set a target of $5000, with more incentives/gimmicks along the way. I’m lining up a really good one for $2000, and I hope to make an announcement tomorrow. Remember all proceeds go to the Leukemia Foundation, and all donations are tax deductible, so keep the money coming in!
While Australia has punched a little below its weight in terms of the number of climate change delusionists we have produced, we’re at world’s best practice as far as loopiness as concerned. Our leading delusionist group is the Lavoisier Institute which has, among other things
* Used the work of (now-deceased) astrologer Theodor Landscheidtas the basis for criticism of the IPCC
* Compared the Kyoto Protocol to the attempted Japanese invasion of Australia in 1942(1)
The Lavoiser team got together at Parliament House in Canberra to launch a book by rightwing eminence grise Ray Evans called “Nine Facts about Climate Change”.
As I’ve said before, I don’t plan to bother refuting this stuff any more, but taavi does garbage pickup. I particularly liked the perpetual motion machine in Fact 2.
1. Of course, the official rightwing line now claims that the invasion threat was itself a myth cooked up by notorious appeaser John Curtin.
At 5pm Tuesday, the World’s Greatest Shave appeal was up to $695. Only $305 more and all will be revealed!
My piece in Thursday’s Fin was on the malign influence of the Disney Corporation on copyright. My conclusion
there is room for a reasonable compromise … [but] the latest extensions of copyright have produced a system so lopsided that we would be better off scrapping the entire monopoly system and relying on the ingenuity of the free market to reward authors.
One question on the latest round in the Burke saga. If Rudd were not in the firing line, does anyone think that Howard would have encouraged/forced Ian Campbell to resign?
The World’s Greatest Shave is coming up, and I’ve decided it’s time to put some skin in the game of appealing for charity. So, for the first time in 30 years, I’m going to shave my beard off. The big day is going to be Saturday 17 March. You can visit my profile here to sponsor me.
To encourage contributions, I’m offering an incentive. If I can raise $1000 from sponsorship, I’ll post a picture of the results here on the blog. Otherwise, you’ll just have to rely on your imagination. All proceeds go to the Leukemia Foundation.
Update 5pm Monday We’re already one-third of the way there, with contributions totalling $335:00. I’ll try to give regular updates
It’s time, once again for the Monday Message Board. As usual, civilised discussion and absolutely no coarse language, please.
John Quiggin 