new zealand... where did the name orignate!?

http://history-nz.org/discovery1.html

Abel Janszoon Tasman was born in the village of Lutjegast, in today's province of Groningen in the Netherlands, in 1603. Little is known of Tasman's early life, and no portraits of him exist.

In 1632 he married Jannetje Tjaerts. He was already a widower at the time, and was recorded as being an ordinary sailor - "vaerentgesel" - and that he lived in a street in Amsterdam called Teerketelsteeg.

In 1633 Tasman signed up with the Dutch East India Company (Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC). The East India Company was managed by a board of seventeen - "de Heeren XVII" - the Lords Seventeen - and was appointed by Chambers in the principal trading towns. Eight Chambers were situated in Amsterdam, and four Chambers were in Zealand, a maritime province of the Netherlands.

On signing up with the Company, Tasman left for the East to fulfil a three year contract.

In 1638, he left the Netherlands for Batavia, (today's Djakarta, Indonesia) in command of the ship "Engel", this time on a ten year contract. His wife accompanied him. Batavia had grown to be a rich city, and here, from this good vantage point in the East Indies, the East India Company was successful and powerful - not lacking in wealth, men or ships.

On 13th August 1642 Tasman received instructions to find the mysterious and supposedly rich Southern Continent, which had been eluding and tempting explorers for centuries. This unknown land, Terra Australis Incognita, was said to stretch across the Pacific. Tasman's instructions were to take possession of all continents and islands discovered and set foot on in the course of his voyage "on behalf of their High Mightinesses the States-General of the United Provinces".

Two ships were prepared for the voyage : the "Zeehaen", a flute, (a long, narrow ship - like a flute - with a rounded stern and three masts) of 100 tons carrying 50 men, and the "Heemskerck", the flagship, a small warship of around 60 tons and carrying 60 men. The celebrated pilot, hydrographer and surveyor, Frans (Franchoys) Jacobszoon Visscher accompanied Tasman.

On 13th December 1642, the coast of New Zealand came into view, and Tasman noted in his journal "groot hooch verheven landt" (a large land, uplifted high). Tasman named this land "Staten Landt", which refers to the "Land of the (Dutch) States-General." The area of New Zealand which Tasman sighted was in the vicinity of the coast between modern Hokitika and Okarito, on the west coast of the South Island.

Tasman thought, but was not sure, that he may have discovered the western edge of the land discovered in the South Atlantic Ocean in 1616 by his fellow countrymen, Willem Schouten and Isaac Le Maire. (Le Maire Strait, or Estrecho de la Maire, is situated to the south of Chile, between Terra des Fuego and Estados.) At the time, this was believed to have been part of the northern tip of the Southern Continent.

Tasman noted this in his journal : "To this land we have given the name of Staten Landt, in honour of Their High Mightinesses the States-General, since it could be quite possible that this land was connected with State Landt, although this is not certain. This land looks like being a very beautiful land and we trust that this is the mainland coast of the unknown south land".

(Only a matter of months afterwards, it was proven by Hendrik Brouwer that Tasman's Staten Landt was not connected in any way to State Landt)

solar power in australia

read the entire article from the sydney morning herald

After spending some time here and witnessing first hand the amount and strength of the sun in this part of the world I can't help but think they are well positioned to be the first country to get 20% of their total electrical output from a distributed solar grid. All that is lacking seems to be the policies to reward people for making the huge financial sacrifice of going solar.

Australian researchers lead the world, but our consumers are lagging, writes Peter Vincent.

The president of the Australian Conservation Foundation, Professor Ian Lowe, remembers a time when solar had all the answers. "In the 1970s, the case for solar energy was the case against all other forms of energy," Lowe says.

It was the superstar solution to the energy crisis. The expectation was that because solar offered no-risk electricity generation and would never run out, it would swiftly dispatch coal-fired electricity to the dustbin of absurd human inventions. And with our climate, it seemed better suited to conditions in Australia than almost anywhere else.

But 30 years later solar is the renewable power that never grew up - at least in Australia.

While global growth in the installation of rooftop solar panels is estimated at 40 per cent a year (and higher in booming solar markets such as Germany and Japan), in Australia it is about 16 per cent, says the Business Council for Sustainable Energy.

And that growth is on such a small base that solar barely registers in figures from the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resources Economics figures on how our electricity is made.

countrylink = amtrak

Heading from Mullaway to Sydney tomorrow at 741AM WED to pick up Heather Sunday at the airport in Sydney. The train ride is about 9 hours from Coffs Harbour to Sydney. We will be staying at the radisson in Darling harbour for the first 2 nights and then off to who knows where.

Im starting to have pangs about leaving. Its not so much that I want to stay here and live in the sun forever. It is just that certain situations at home concerning money are becoming a force to be reckoned with. Debt is a bitch. I will be paying this one off for sometime to come. My concerns with where I will work, what are my 5 year goals, what are my 10 year goals are heavy on my mind. My christian upbringing says... give your problems to god. let him work on them for you are powerless without the force of the holy spirit. Well, I need some holy spirit now as I am at a crossroad.

I want to help the world convert to renewable energies in any way possible. This is where I'm hoping god pushes me. If that isn't it then I'm not listening correctly.

http://thefraserdomain.typepad.com/energy/2006/10/solar_revolutio.html

isp shaping in australia

http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,22393874-5013037,00.html

I certainly don't like this practice when it is happening to me. Of course I am 7497 miles from silicon valley and other giant us aggregators. Singapore must be the closest aggregation spot outside of Sydney. i have no idea. 30$ a month gets you 500MB of browsing ... sounds ridiculous right! It sure does to me. For 40$ a month you get 2gb/2gb up and down. 64.95 gets you 10gb/15gb. I haven't paid much attention to my monthly download amounts in years and when i did pay attention it was to the amount of time not to the amount of bytes. Just when I thought I had run out of australian things to compare they go and shape the internet connection right while i'm using it...effectively dropping the connection speed from 512k/sec to 64k.

other australianisms

shaping = practice of limiting internet connections to dial up speeds after a customer has reached his or her monthly download limit
cooler = esky (esky is also a brand like coleman is a brand of cooler in the us)
food = tucker

arrawarra beach

I did some snorkeling today while Dan fished and caught some 11 inch Bream and Rebecca pranced around pretending to be a horse! Rebecca and Ben are just precious I might add. Above is embedded a picture of arrawarra at low tide. I was just off the rocks and coral in a sanctuary. Snorkeling isnt anything ive done alot of thus far in my life and in the northeast usa it can be quite boring and cold. Not so here, very warm, lots of interesting fish and assorted sea and plant life. Puffer fish, stingrays, angelfish, assorted tropical fish, leatherback sea turtles, bonito, bream, each wave that went over my head revealed new creatures hiiding in the seaweed below. Seeing the sea turtle scared me a bit at first as I was not expecting to see one at all and it was literally 3 feet from my nose as it swam out from behind a seaweed frond. After snorkeling I joined Dan in fishing with a hand reel. My first cast I lost my fish intestine bait... second cast I nabbed a tiny octopus. I thought I was snagged on something it fought so hard! Once I got it out of the water it started emptying its guts of water and spraying it right in my face. Little bastard. He got away... he must have known I am fond of him barbecued.

Had some decent thai food at reasonable prices at a spot in coffs harbour today called Thai Inthanon. Had thai lamb, octopus, and tom yum soup.