So, I created the Hippie Down. For freedom.

First, you need ingredients.

Then you gots to fry the tofu “buns”. And tweet it.

After that, finish off the tofu on the BBQ to add grill marks, melt the cheese and heat the pre-fried facon.

Plate up with oven fries.

Then, serve to a group of suckers who you’ve told will be eating spaghetti bolognaise.

And watch a a bearded idiot take a bite.

Bon appetito!

Have at it!

Greenhouse gas levels are one-third higher than before the Industrial Revolution, and higher than at any time in the last 800,000 years. As a result, global temperatures have risen 0.7 degrees celsius over the past century and continue to rise. The last decade was the world’s hottest on record, warmer than the 1990s which were in turn warmer than the 1980s. In fact, globally 2010 was the equal warmest year on record, tied with 2005 and 1998. 2010 is the thirty-fourth consecutive year with global temperatures above the 20th Century average. In Australia, average temperatures have risen almost one degree since 1910,and each decade since the 1940s has been warmer than the one before.

That warming is real. Its consequences are real. And it will change our lives in real and practical ways. More extreme bushfire conditions and droughts. Falling crop yields. Loss of species. Increased cyclone intensity. More days of extreme heat. Coastal flooding as sea levels rise. Bleaching of our coral reefs. And a substantial decline in alpine snow cover. Indeed, Professor Garnaut’s latest report indicates that the need to act is greater than ever. And the scientific consensus is stronger than ever.

Given these realities, I ask who I’d rather have on my side: Alan Jones, Piers Akerman and Andrew Bolt. Or the CSIRO, the Australian Academy of Science, the Bureau of Meteorology, NASA, the US National Atmospheric Administration, and every reputable climate scientist in the world.

(My bold)

Continue to call out the trolls. Continue to do it loudly and publicly.

So, I’m sitting here on the Internet trying to keep up to date with what’s going on. Most of my information is coming via Twitter — first-, second- and third-hand accounts, and links to more credible reports by various publications — and I’m keeping a close eye on stuff like The Guardian‘s live blog and Al Jazeera English (when the guesthouse’s bandwidth allows). Even as far away from the action as central Sri Lanka might be, I feel quite informed about up-to-the-minute events.

Even though it’s 2am in Melbourne, I’m curious to know how the Australian newspaper websites are covering the story. I know it’s the middle of the night but surely skeleton web crews are at least updating their sites with links to give curious Australian readers a point of entry into the coverage, associating their masthead with news delivery. And surely a story of such global and historical importance would be given worthy prominence.

Oh, how stupid of me.

Here’s The Australian publishing an AP wire as its fourth headline, backed up by a piece by its Middle Eastern correspondent. You might care to have a read of them after you’ve browsed the latest riveting news about the Murray Darling rescue plan.

Here’s The Age publishing a piece by its man on the ground, Jason Katsoukis, as its third headline. Once you’ve finished reading about the Australian soccer team and state politics, you might care to read some words written by Katsoukis before the protests begin: “Now it seems as though the unthinkable could be about to happen …”

And here’s the Sydney Morning Herald publishing absolutely nothing at all.

This is (one of the reasons) why Australian newspapers are dying: because if it happens outside business hours, or at a time otherwise inconvenient to the deadlines of their printing presses, then as far as the newspapers are concerned their readers will just have to wait. That might’ve been okay in 1990 but in the age of the Internet it’s business suicide.

UPDATE: A tweet from Groupthink’s Cosmicjester:

@cosmicjester: abc 24 now playing a rerun of big ideas. Dont worry, its not like anything important is happening.

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By the way, how good is this line from the BBC article:

Squat toilets are used in many parts of Asia and parts of Europe.

They are not often seen in the UK – which has a strong heritage of pioneering lavatorial invention.