Highlights of 2010!

I am currently in Sydney after going to the Mudgee region. They have forty vineyards and a boutique brewery there now! http://mudgeebrewing.com.au/ Mmmmm Beer. I'm not one of those up themselves Sydney people who goes to Mudgee and goes 'can I have a Dry White'- I laugh at these people and proceed to try to pick their daughter(s). I talk to the people who work there and they are often very welcoming, give great advice and get me tipsy. Mudgee has been operating as a wine region since the 1850's. We then went to the Blue Mountains, where, coincidentally, everyone from Europe was. But it was great- just a little crowded. Now I'm in Sydney awaiting tonight's New Years Eve festivities. Watch out Ladies.

 Movies I liked this year

Movies- A Night in Paris 2,  A Prophet, Inception, The Other Guys, The Easy A. Those movies should get you thinking, laid or both.

Other good movies according to various sources- Winter's Bone, The King's speech, Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, Robin Hood, Micmacs, City Island, Tomorrow When the War Began, The Social Network.

2010

One thing I loathe about Australian media is its tenacious appetite for negative events. In these times aphorism's like 'Happiness writes in white ink on a white page'' by Henry de Montherlant, become more pertinent. I believe people pass along bad news at a rate of 7-2, compared to good news. Now for the Good News.

What we know from 2010

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), the number of undernourished people in the world declined by 100 million this year, from 1,023,000,000 in 2009 to 925 million at the moment. From 1970, the amount of people who are categorised as being undernnourished has been lifted from one in four to one in seven. This is a massive achievement.

People should read The UN's 2010 Human Development Report. As reported in the SMH. In developing countries:

Life expectancy- 1970- 59, 2010 - 70
School enrolment- 1970 55 percent, 2010 - 70
GDP per capita- $US 5,000 to more than $10,000
Since 1970 only three countries, Republic of Congo, Zambia and Zimbabwe have gone backwards.

In Australia

Crime

"The Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research published research showing downward trends in violent crime, property crime, The National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre found that the use of heroin, methamphetamine, cannabis and cocaine are all lower than they were in 2000 and all, aside from heroin, have been declining since 2005."

Medical

Stem cells were used for the first time in the brain of a stroke victim, offering hope to many. Stem cells were also used to grow the first ever set of lungs. An electric eye was also built this year. Basically, you have a camera in your set of glasses and this transmits images to a chip in your brain which stimulates optic nerves connected to your retina. Needless to say the people working on these things are fucking smart.

University of Maryland Scientists "succeeded in teleporting data from one atom to another, a kind of holy grail in the field and the basis for faster, more compact computers". "The scientist who helped map the human genome in 2001, Craig Venter, completed a 15-year quest to synthesise a bacterial cell that replicates on its own, holding out hopes for fast production of vaccines and biofuels."

Our life expectancy has gone up a minimum of 22 years in the last century and cancer mortality has dropped slightly.

The lethal virus rinderpest has all but been eliminated. Some saying this is the biggest achievement in veterinary science, ever. Nothing as big has been eradicated since smallpox.   http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/resources/documents/multimedia/popup/grep.html

Space/Land

The NASA Kepler telescope helped scientists find 750 new planets this year- similar to Earth. The Amazon rainforest's deforestation has decreased by more than 90 percent since 2004.

Sources- http://www.smh.com.au/lifestyle/lifematters/some-kind-of-wonderful-20101230-19b7b.html

Interesting Facts

Australia is home to 11 Nobel Prize winners, the cochlear implant, Google Maps and internet Wi-Fi. Julian Assange is Australian. Our currency is higher than the US and Canada is on the rise everywhere. Australia had the the second fastest growing currency in 2010. Our Unemployment rate is in the low 5 percentage range. The Canadian Unemployment rate is 7.6 percent, US 9.3 percent.

HAPPY NEW YEARS- BARNES