Stadtpark at sunset.

I have received a number of excellent suggestions for de-waxing Sissi. Steph sent me a link to a site. This is obviously a common problem. Seems very strange.

We tried the warm water bath but the blood loss (ours) caused us to become faint so we are thinking about something else.

I think we actually need to cut it off. This will be less painful for all concerned. It will leave Sissi looking like Amy Winehouse leaving Annabel’s nightclub at dawn - but her fur will grow back in due course. (Sissi’s – I’m not sure about Amy).

And speaking of cats and water – check this dude out.

Water Cat

On Sunday night it started to snow and when we went to bed there was about 3 centimeters on our terrace. But – we woke up to drizzle and since then all signs of snow have gone and it is positively tropical. Today it was 3.5°. Eeek!

I am not happy about this, It is still supposed to be winter and it is snowing in other parts of Austria. I want my share.

A week or so ago I had a rant about the Australian government’s proposals to censor the internet. I suggested that this was probably the stupidest idea I had ever heard - simply because it could not be done.

I was interested to read the article in the New York Times which covers the issue of how the Chinese get around the censorship and the inability to access sites such as Facebook and Twitter. They use a VPN – which are either cheap or free – and provide private and unrestricted access to the global Internet.

Sooner or later the Chinese government will come up with a way to identify and restrict the use of VPNs. By which time the Internet users will have developed another solution.

Trying to censor the internet on a ‘global’ basis is a stupid and pointless idea. It won’t work. Better to provide anyone who wants one with a personal filter that they can install to in their home – unless their child is over 7 years old in which case she or he will crack it within 5 minutes.

Dumbness on this scale frustrates me.

New York Times

I put a note on Williams Blog about the latest Rapture prediction (Before 1 February). There is no need to worry about it – this guy’s predictions are rubbish.

However, William responded by sending an email about the daughter of a friend of his “whose daughter is now involved in the Lubavitcher circles of so-called Moschiah Men, who wear funny hats and yellow shirts, and dance madly in the streets because they're organizing a welcome of the Jewish Messiah, who's due back shortly on the planet Earth”.

I used to think that some beliefs were whackier than others but no longer have this view. I think they are all equally as whacky and each one is as soundly based as another. In some cases I don’t think the followers actually ‘believe’ in their cause. I have yet to be convinced that anyone could actually believe that Scientology has any merit in a spiritual sense. But who knows.

The number of people who do not believe in a ‘god’ or a ‘supreme being’ is decreasing in most places except the USA and Muslim countries. It generally decreases in modern societies which are secular and where there are high standards of education. This is why religion is on the way out in most parts of Western Europe.

It seems however that a lot of people still need to believe in something simply because life itself does not do it for them. The wonder of life and nature just isn’t enough and there just ‘has to be something else to explain it’.

I don’t have a problem with this and one day I will explain the long and tortuous road to my own current state of awareness. I might mention that I have tried religion and actually worked for a few years for faith-based organizations.

But – what I really object to – is people who are religious trying to impose their beliefs on society at large. I don’t care what you believe – but stay out of my life.

Don’t tell me women can’t have an abortion because it is against god’s will, or that god hates homosexuals, or that gay people can’t marry because god doesn’t want them to, or that god doesn’t want stem cells to be used to save lives or that the earth was created by god 6,000 years ago or that god sent you a message or wants you to do something - or any of that other palaver that you bang on about endlessly.

You believe it – so you suck it up. Leave me alone – I am more than happy with my life and don’t need an invisible friend.

I just have to be with Cate and the Ducks to know all I need to know about life, the universe and everything. (Well, maybe not the universe).