Any tips on the site(s) for the nuclear waste dump, Richard? How much space will there be on the agenda for wind, wave and sun power? And will they say a bad word about petrol consumption?

You'd better lubricate the bicycle, and put some protective padding on the seat.

On the other hand, it might be prudent to borrow John Howard's helmet and flak-jacket. Halliburton will have the mercenaries out in force, to protect their assets.

4 to 27 Nov - Feast Adelaide’s Lesbian and Gay Cultural Festival

J. K. Galbraith was the topic for Background Briefing on July 31st.

There were reminders about the dangers of the military-industrial complex, as warned by Eisenhower.

In the councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military-industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exists and will persist.

Now that South Australia is in line to be the 51st state, it is also in a long series of political entities that are co-dependent on weapons industries and the military.

How will the other Australian States react to the largesse being poured into SA? Some will put their hands out, too. I bet WA, QLD, and NT, will be brown-nosing at the Adelaide conference.

I'm going out on a limb, here, to draw a long bow and suggest the imminent colonisation of Oz by the US is no accident of rampant corporatism. I suggest Halliburtonization is a template that's being developed as more politicians have come to understand what the (next) influenza pandemic will do to the US.

These wandering thoughts have been let loose by the articles on 'The Next Pandemic?' in the bimonthly magazine 'Foreign Affairs'. There are only 50 pages, but they are crackerjack, by experts including Laurie Garrett and Michael Osterholm. Go to the newsagent now, and ask for it. It appeared on the shelf last week, but not all shops will carry it. It was mailed to subscribers a month ago, and it has been circulating at high level. Phil Adams interviewed Garrett recently. (I bought an extra copy, and plugged one into the XXX organisation. This outfit is one that should be intimately concerned about the implications, but the public service is not known for the readiness of management to entertain ideas that don't fit the mould. We'll see.)

The pandemic will cause greatest suffering to those regions with porous borders, are dominated by industrialism, plagued by inter-ethnic tensions and without a rural backbone. Who's left, apart from Oz, NZ and Japan? The UK will go under, as will most of Europe. Islands of structure may survive in Europe, but only at the cost of civility. Hospitality will disappear overnight.

What makes Australia a fortress of survival?
Geographic isolation and border security; English language and historic links to West; and a homogenous, literate population that's pretty well integrated with most of Asia. (The Chinese diaspora may have stopped spread of SARS virus to Oz, by using instant communications. I know, for a fact, that people who were planning family and business trips, back to Guangdong, were told not to come, by text messages.)

Another outbreak, of a different kind of infection, is boiling away in China right now. It is reported to be due to the transmission of a lethal strain of the bacterium Streptococcus suis, between pigs and people. There is plenty more in the popular press on Strep suis, but the graphic description of domestic conditions in this article reminds why rural China is the engine-room for production of the next pandemic strain of influenza virus.
All cases of streptococcus suis were reported in pigs found at these small farms where hygiene conditions don't meet standards, said Jia Youling. Li lives in a single-storey house, with his pigs confined to a damp, dark and smelly sty across from the bedroom. Just next to the pigpen, the corn used to feed the animals is piled casually in the enclosed courtyard. On the mossy ground sit animal droppings, sheep and chicken feed along with other rubbish strewn around, attracting flies. Just a metre away an ewe is feeding her four lambs. "Life here is extremely harsh," said Li's wife, who has never left Sichuan. Drainage is basic at best, with pig faeces moving slowly through a hole in the wall to the outside. Inside Li's house, it is sweltering. Bad ventilation and an unusually hot summer serve to worsen the smell.

The villages are breeding grounds for new viral (and bacterial) ecologies. Especially, influenza viruses are continually exposed to opportunities for accelerated mutation and inter-species spread.

However, this rural structure also explains why China has great capacity to absorb shocks, and will weather the pandemic. It also explains why China is the greatest threat to US ascendancy, when the pandemic is factored in to the equations.

It is all about keeping a step ahead, and maybe preserving a city intact, protected from influenza, with its social infrastructure operating, until a vaccine can be produced. The Osterholm piece goes into scenarios where the pandemic arrives tomorrow, in one year and in ten years.

Communities can harden themselves against terrorist bombings, so they are not an enduring threat to survival of cities, even after something on the scale of demolition of WTC buildings, or the Burnley tunnel. But, in the face of an enduring, global natural disaster, the western economy will prove to be very brittle.

The Global Struggle Against Violent Extremism is merely a convenient ruse, to marshal political action, and shepherd community thinking, to achieve survival of the USA after the pandemic. Australia is as crucial to the US, as are the oil lines across Asia.

I don't want to sound like Omega man, but Adelaide-under-Downer is either an outhouse, an outpost, or the last post.

  The train of thought is so plausible that it's probable.  I've been thiinking it's one or t'other for a while, and still haven't made my mind up.

The bloke I was fishing with at Lake Alexandrina was commenting on how the plan looked good on paper, but that this stage everything is still only paperwork.  I think this might apply across the board.  It feels like new chessboard pieces are still being carved, and that Fortress Adelaide will be a castle.

On the bus to town the other day, the driver noticed Downer at the gates of the Governor's residence.  I shuddered.

Juan Cole includes a link to Hydrogen green fuel comes a step closer at the end of his

US Dependent on Saudi Arabia ... Rather than being marginalized, Saudi Arabia has entered a new economic golden age. This was not what the Neocons were going for. ...

Cole's article includes top ten lists of consumers, producers and exporters of oil. He gives a good summary of alternative sources of energy.

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Jason Leopold writes Halliburton Secretly Doing Business with Key Member of Iran's Nuclear Team

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In Letters to The Age Aug 7 - The Cheney connection Terry Lane's disclosures about Halliburton ('Cheney's boundless Iraq profiteering', 31/7) are a reminder that a Halliburton subsidiary has 40 per cent of the Asia Pacific Transport Company, which built the Alice Springs- Darwin railway. A widespread view in the NT is that the line, of dubious financial viability in terms of conventional freight and passenger traffic, was built to service a future US military base (a potential terror target) for when the Americans leave Okinawa, where they are highly unpopular. MIKE PULESTON, Brunswick

Some clues in a couple of articles, to how 'full-spectrum dominance' will give Adelaide an edge when the pandemic rolls out.

In One 'cure all' flu jab for life, there's the tantalising promise of a novel vaccine that will protect against all forms of epidemic influenza A.
Scientists at Acambis' laboratory in the US, together with Belgian researchers at Flanders Interuniversity Institute for Biotechnology, are focusing their efforts on a different protein, called M2, which does not mutate, as well as other technology that they cannot disclose yet for commercial reasons.

The commercial imperative comes first. Forget about collaboration. This isn't a race to protect the whole world, it's about giving the US the advantage, because we can rely on one of Uncle Sam's puppet corporates to buy the patents, and then control the entire global market for this technology, if it works.

From Vaccine Alone Won't Stem Avian Flu, Experts Warn -
Experts generally agree that a pandemic of influenza requires an international response. While some countries may be able to produce their own vaccines, most will not be able to afford the human avian influenza vaccine, assuming it becomes available. It is unclear how many, if any, poor countries can learn how to manufacture vaccines in time to mount a rapid offense.

Tough luck for the African poor, who can't afford clean water, let alone a high-tech vaccine.

So, the states with a strong technology base may decide to look after their own interests.

Dr. Kou Hsu-sung, the director general of Taiwan's Center for Disease Control, said the island was so concerned about the long-term risks of routine influenza outbreaks and an influenza pandemic that it plans to build its own human influenza vaccine factory.

... the horse galloped, and Madonna fell off.

What with the staged theatricals at Gaza, the blind stupidity of the most powerful handgun in the world, Bill Heffernan giving Barnaby a good Chinese burn, we hardly know where the next good story is coming from. We can be sure of two things, though. Somewhere in the wide, brown land, some serious huddles are looking at the spread of avian influenza. Deadly avian flu on the wing mentions Australia is one of the destinations of birds migrating from Asia, but I will have to consult an ornithological reference to find out which species, how many, and where they spend their spring and summer holidays.

If I was hiding in a cave in the badlands of northwest Pakistan, I'd be leaving out food and water for those travelling birds, and investing in KBR's projects to create Fortress Adelaide.