The number of farmers in Australia has dropped 10% in the past five years primarily due to their massive drought but also because of high interest rates. While small farmers are probably the worst hit by this, larger farms are hardly immune. If the drought precludes them from growing crops, then the size of the farm hardly matters. This will be affecting Australia (and the world) for some time to come, even when the drought does lift.

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The US will spend $5 billion in 2008-2009 for world food aid or about about $210 million per month.

The Iraq War costs $12 billion per month.

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We passed them on Tuesday. The Great Salt Lake and the Bonneville Salt Flats go on for many miles. In some areas people write things in the salt with little black rocks (maybe briquettes?) and these too stretch on for miles and miles.

Water in this huge basin has no way to drain out. So it stays there, and the salt and sediments in them also have no way to drain out, thus the huge amounts of salts.

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These fuel cell boosters increase power, dramatically boost mpg - and run on ordinary tap water.

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We’re in Sacramento tonight, staying with Sue’s sister. Tomorrow will be a badly needed do-nothing day after 6 days on the road driving. Sat. or Sun. we’ll drive the truck to S.F. and unload it in a storage facility.

We drove over Donner Pass today. Spectacular scenery. We took it slow and easy and the 16 foot truck towing my car on a car carrier did fine.

Talked with a guy this morning who works for a company that makes huge vehicles for hauling stuff at mines. One model can carry 350 tons and a new tire costs $100,000.

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Many of the Web 2.0 crowd are clearly smart, but what they do is far removed from the current focal point of global change. As a result, indulging in clever Web 2.0 thinking is akin to eating intellectual fast food, it satisfies but its clearly not good for you.

This is why I bailed on thinking about techy topics after helping to get blogs (which turned into Web 2.0 later) going back in 2001/2002. The most important global changes are going on is much deeper in the stack now.

Inded, much of the planet doesn’t have reliable water, much less electricity. So, the latest shiny web 2.0 widget, however wondrous, is of use to only a tiny fraction of the world’s population.

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