How we found out that there is a bunyip in the creek

Possibly a true story.....

The day was just like many others. Dusk was falling and the frogs were warming up for the night-time chorus.

Then we heard a strange yodelling sound and looking down towards the flat we saw someone running up the creek bank and falling into the long grass.
So the hubby and I jumped into the paddock basher and motored down to see what was going on.

Lying in the paddock was the next door neighbour "Bob" as naked as the day he was born. The smell on his breath left no doubt that a large amount of alcohol had been consumed (and possibly a assortment of other rather more illegal substances).

He was mumbling about being attacked by a large, black, hairy bunyip.
So on the lookout for Bob’s clothes and the bunyip, I grabbed a bucket and headed down to the creek to get some water as our neighbour was not in good straits.

After we cleaned him up we loaded him into the Torana and drove him home.
His wife strongly objected to him entering the house, so Hubby took him into the shed. A couple of horse blankets on the hay and Bob was as snug as a bug in a rug.

On the back veranda I found an esky with one long neck and quite a few empties.
I filled these empties up with water, replaced the screw caps and took them down to the shed.

Bob was regaling Hubby about the bunyip and how it attacked him: his heroic efforts to fight the dreaded beast and how he escaped its clutches.

Seeing me or more likely the beer, Bob insisted that he needed drink. I gave Hubby the only bottle of beer left in the esky which he and Bob shared while I went back to the house.

When I returned Bob was still worried that the bunyip was coming to get him, so Hubby had convinced him that I knew a sure fire bunyip stopping spell.
Glaring at both of them, I told them that I could cast a bunyip proof barrier around the shed, but if I did both of them will have to stay in there till dawn. Hubby fairly bolted out of the shed.

In casting my sure fire spell I walked around the shed reciting all of the plant botanical names I could think of - finishing with a rousing chorus of “grevillea robusta, GREVILLEA ROBUSTA, GREVILLEA ROBUSTA!"

Bob looked happy when I completed the circuit of the shed and the spell was in place, but as we started to leave his doubts grew.

It was then I remembered that a side effect of this spell is that it makes beer go flat and taste like water. Bob was keen to try the beer and to his surprise the spell worked. He was very pleased when I counselled that if he needed to check if the spell was still working all he had to do was have another bottle of 'beer' from the esky.

Would you believe it we finally arrived home in time to feed the Angus poddy calf.

Somerville responds to climate change denialism

 

A Response to Climate Change Denialism

Richard Somerville, a distinguished professor emeritus and research professor at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, UC San Diego, issued the following statement in response to a recent request to address claims recently made by climate change denialists:  

1. The essential findings of mainstream climate change science are firm. This is solid settled science. The world is warming. There are many kinds of evidence: air temperatures, ocean temperatures, melting ice, rising sea levels, and much more. Human activities are the main cause. The warming is not natural. It is not due to the sun, for example. We know this because we can measure the effect of man-made carbon dioxide and it is much stronger than that of the sun, which we also measure.  

2. The greenhouse effect is well understood. It is as real as gravity. The foundations of the science are more than 150 years old. Carbon dioxide in the atmosphere traps heat. We know carbon dioxide is increasing because we measure it. We know the increase is due to human activities like burning fossil fuels because we can analyze the chemical evidence for that.  

3. Our climate predictions are coming true. Many observed climate changes, like rising sea level, are occurring at the high end of the predicted changes. Some changes, like melting sea ice, are happening faster than the anticipated worst case. Unless mankind takes strong steps to halt and reverse the rapid global increase of fossil fuel use and the other activities that cause climate change, and does so in a very few years, severe climate change is inevitable. Urgent action is needed if global warming is to be limited to moderate levels.  

4. The standard skeptical arguments have been refuted many times over. The refutations are on many web sites and in many books. For example, natural climate change like ice ages is irrelevant to the current warming. We know why ice ages come and go. That is due to changes in the Earth's orbit around the sun, changes that take thousands of years. The warming that is occurring now, over just a few decades, cannot possibly be caused by such slow-acting processes. But it can be caused by man-made changes in the greenhouse effect.  

5. Science has its own high standards. It does not work by unqualified people making claims on television or the Internet. It works by scientists doing research and publishing it in carefully reviewed research journals. Other scientists examine the research and repeat it and extend it. Valid results are confirmed, and wrong ones are exposed and abandoned.  Science is self-correcting. People who are not experts, who are not trained and experienced in this field, who do not do research and publish it following standard scientific practice, are not doing science. When they claim that they are the real experts, they are just plain wrong.

6. The leading scientific organizations of the world, like national academies of science and professional scientific societies, have carefully examined the results of climate science and endorsed these results. It is silly to imagine that thousands of climate scientists worldwide are engaged in a massive conspiracy to fool everybody. The first thing that the world needs to do if it is going to confront the challenge of climate change wisely is to learn about what science has discovered and accept it.   

[Taken from Scripps Institution of Oceanography announcement]

Is Tony Abbott failing to read the mood of the electorate?

Another of Opposition Leader Tony Abbott's policy one-liners surfaced over the last few days in relation to health services and he is now proposing the 'return' of local boards to run public hospitals. No real change to the centralised federal and state administrative systems which allocate health funding and no significant increase in that funding - just another layer of bureaucracy added back into the mix in New South Wales and Queensland in particular.

This is what the man (who as former Health Minister resisted calls to increase federal health funding over his five-year tenure and left office with Commonwealth funding running at approximately 42-43% of total health funding) had to say in yesterday's press release, which refined his message to include the possibility of the abolition of NSW and Queensland area health service management leaving each region without a co-ordinated approach to service delivery or forward planning and presumably individual hospitals left to fight for their own piece of the federal-state funding pie.

Community response to this Coalition policy and its lack of detail appears lukewarm to say the least with the state governments highly resistant to the idea and, the Essential Report poll of 1,033 respondents between 9 and 14 February on the question of responsibility for Australia's public hospitals clearly shows that Abbott is not reading the mood of the electorate on the issue of who should be taking responsibility for our hospitals.

Q. Would you support or oppose the Federal Government taking over the responsibility for hospitals from the State Governments?
Total support 58%
Total oppose 10%
Strongly support 26%
Support 32%
Neither support nor oppose 19%
Oppose 7%
Strongly oppose 3%
Don’t know 13%

Over half (58%) of those surveyed support the Federal Government taking over responsibility for hospitals from the State Governments, 10% disapprove, 19% neither support nor oppose and 13% don’t know.
People aged 55 years and over were more likely that those in other age groups to support a Federal Government takeover of hospitals (79%).
People in NSW were more likely than those in any other states to support a hospitals takeover (67%), while people in Western Australia (18%) and South Australia (17%) were more likely to oppose such a move.
Males were more likely than females to support a hospital takeover by the Federal Government (65% v 52%).
Support for a Federal Government takeover of hospitals from the State Government was highest amongst Labor voters (70%), followed by Coalition voters (63%) and then Green voters (54%).

Abbott's foray into the area of industrial relations policy last Friday and his pledge to roll back workplace relations legislation until it reflects the intent of John Howard's much hated Work Choices also appears set to lead the Coalition down a rocky road.

Saffin has the right answer on Maclean flying fox colony question

The community debate on the flying fox colony roosting in bushland adjoining Maclean High School has been ongoing for literally years.
In fact one former Maclean mayor initially got himself elected on the back of beating up on bats.

Federal Labor MP for Page Janelle Saffin has the right idea; removing the bats is not a long-term solution and she is committed to discussing permanent options including moving the school.

Here is one local resident's recent letter to The Daily Examiner on the subject:

Beauty and the Beast

DOES age come before beauty in the Maclean Flying Fox issue?

I obviously touched a sore point with Mr Apps in my letter regarding the flying foxes at Maclean High school.

I did live across the road from Maclean High school for 10 years during the last flying fox episode in the late 1980s early 1990s and attended the then public meetings, public rally and kept informed.

The flying fox colonies Mr Apps refers to are in existence and so too are the major nurseries between Lismore and Grafton, all of which apparently unite and then head south to be with their friends on the Central Coast.

While I do not question Mr Apps capacity as an elderly gentleman to have amazing recall of his childhood, flying fox camps come and go and I don't think flying fox numbers would have been high on his agenda as a kid.

Camps may contain tens of thousands of animals or several hundred depending on the abundance of food available in the surrounding area. As the numbers of animals changes in response to food availability, the area of the camp occupied by them increases or decreases. (This is often mistakenly viewed as a 'population explosion').

Grey-headed flying-foxes are known to be faithful to sites for over 100 years; if sites are destroyed, the animals move to the 'next best site'.

Attempts to relocate a camp may not have the desired effect and flying foxes may move to an even more inconvenient location - example - attempts to move the camp near Maclean High School resulted in flying foxes moving closer to houses. (From the NSW Conservation Society).

The 1.1 hectare site of decimated rainforest next to Maclean High school is and was one of many food sources for the flying foxes. It's hard to imagine flying foxes ignoring this yummy area as it is within the flight path of many of them. Add to this equation flying foxes are genetically blue printed at birth to return to their birth place to give birth to their next generation.

Ten years ago dispersal of the flying fox colony cost ratepayers $100,000 and they are now back with a vengeance and relocating themselves in the process but unfortunately it is not where the community wants them.

My interest in this issue is in the health and well-being of the students and teachers of Maclean High School because they are caught up in a problem they did not create, just like the flying foxes are. It is a public health issue that has been allowed to develop to a point where something has to be done now.

I am not an environmentalist, however I do love, value and respect what Mother Nature has created for us.

If we all took the same view as Mr Apps we would still murder and bulldoze everything in our pathway till such a time we lived in a concrete jungle and visited museums to view trees and animals.

There is a solution but the NSW Government refuses to make a decision either way hoping the problem will fade or be buried because it will cost them money.

So Brucie Apps of Townsend, putting your old age before my stunning beauty may I suggest if you feel as strong as I do on this issue maybe we should join forces (Beauty and the Beast), start a petition, organise a rally, sell raffle tickets to fundraise for a trip to Canberra so that the people of MHS can be finally heard.

DEBRAH NOVAK, Yamba

Want to do a Woolies 'price check' comparison online? First sign a confidentiality agreement!

Woolworths went to the media with the big news that now one can do a price check online of 5,000 items it carries in its supermarket outlets across Australia.

Not only was this so-called pricing transparency met with a big yawn it was also somewhat misleading.

However, what was really interesting about this PR exercise was the fact that a visitor to the company website had to agree to the conditions set out below before the gatekeeping function allowed a search to begin.

So don't you dare print out a page and hand it on to your neighbour or the big bad Woolies police will come a-knocking.....lol, rofl

Price Check Terms & Conditions

Restricted Use

This website is only for personal or domestic use and only in relation to shopping at Woolworths. Unless otherwise indicated, without Woolworths' written permission, the content and information on this site cannot be:

• adapted, reproduced, stored, distributed, printed, displayed, performed or published, and no derivative works can be produced from any part of this website
  
• on sold or provided to any other person, in a material form, or
  
• commercialised, or used for any commercial purpose.

The site's URL may not be displayed on any website without Woolworths' written permission.

I have read, understood, and accept the above terms of use.

Clarence Valley Council gets caught out

Clarence Valley Review 10 February 2010
Click on image to enlarge

The saving grace in this story is that Cr. Karen Toms has had the good sense to suggest to Clarence Valley Council that it start following Dept. of Lands guidelines and its own policy and procedures, now that irregularities in how council allocates trust fund monies has been brought to her attention.

Perhaps shire councillors and senior management might also take a quick tutorial in what constitutes reserve land covered by this trust.

Because only specifically named local reserves gazetted by the Minister are included under Clarence Coastal Reserve Trust provisions - it's not for just any old Crown land council might like to spend money on or supply services to whenever its budget allocations are otherwise stretched.

It was also good to see the Clarence Valley Review free community newspaper run with this story and include resident and ratepayer Ray Hunt's comments.

* Big thanks to Clarrie Rivers for the article image he emailed from his sick bed!

A message for Clarence Valley Council: "one person's junk is another person's treasure"

Like plenty of other Clarence Valley Council residents I've been waiting very keenly for council to undertake its annual kerbside cleanup. This annual event enables residents (and especially those who don't have access to a suitable vehicle) to dispose of items that either won't fit into the weekly garbage bin or are viewed as still having some redeemable features ... "one person's junk is another person's treasure".

So, I was more than a bit miffed when I found out, courtesy of a piece in The Daily Examiner, that 2010's pickup would not provide for the kerbside collection of e-waste. Prior to the 2009 cleanup residents were similarly told that e-waste should not be out for the February-March collection, but should instead be recycled during Council's second E-waste collection later in the year.

Sadly, the e-waste collection in late 2009 did not eventuate.

Consequently, small and not-so-small mountains of e-waste have been accumulating at many properties across Council's coverage area since at least early 2009.

As most residents (AND Council) know, the amount of material residents put out for collection and the amount of material council workers load on council trucks are two totally different amounts. Prior to the collection days scores of amateur and not-so-amateur recyclers and reusers "assist" Council and lessen the loads that have to be transported. In fact, many residents facilitate the work of the recyclers and reusers by sorting their material so that it can be readily identified as genuine junk/rubbish, useful junk/rubbish and possibly useful junk/rubbish.

Perhaps residents will ignore Council's advice and continue to place their e-waste out for collection. After all, seeing the e-waste go to good homes prior to the arrival of council workers and vehicles on the designated cleanup days is a darn lot better than having to resort to sending it to the tip in weekly instalments via the weekly red garbage collection.

Read Council's notice re the cleanup, including specific dates for local areas, here.









Regards,
Clarrie