Up the Irish!

Happy St. Patrick's Day
to one and all
from
North Coast Voices

In the 2006 Australian National Census
1,803,736 people stated that
they had Irish ancestry
and a further 50,256 stated
they were born in Poblacht na hÉireann

Photograph from pix.fr

Japanese Earthquake-Tsunami Appeal March 2011

* Tohoku – Pacific Ocean Earthquake Appeal
The Australian and Japanese Red Cross Societies are accepting donations for the earthquake relief. The Embassy is now also accepting donations. All donations received in the account below will be forwarded to the Japanese Red Cross Society.

Account Name:
Embassy of Japan in Australia, Donations for Japan Earthquake/Tsunami
Name of Bank : ANZ
Name of Branch : Canberra City
BSB : 012950
Account No. : 2514 59908

Should you require a receipt of your donation, please send your name, address (not mandatory), date of donation, amount donated to the following email address.
Mail-address: admin@cb.mofa.go.jp

Australian Red Cross Society
http://www.redcross.org.au/japan2011.htm

Japanese Red Cross Society
http://www.redcross.org.au/japan2011.htm

Photographs from Google Images

Gocompare.com goes off road

‘*********, your car insurance is due for renewal in 30 days’ according to an email received today.
Surely not! We don’t have a car – never had a car. Bicycles R Us!
Tut tut. Cheap trick to drive traffic to website. What on earth was www.gocompare.com thinking?

Anony-mice
Yamba

Notice that despite all that frothing at the mouth Abbott is merely running on the spot when it comes to personal approval ratings?

{TheGhostWhoVotes with survey results 10-12th March 2011}

Men favour Julia Gillard over Tony Abbott 42%/37% and women 46%/29%.
{ Essential Report of 14^th March 2011}

Bourke sprung touting Clarence River water raid

A Clarence Valley Protest blog post on Monday 14 March 2011:

From the Hansard transcript of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Australia’s Inquiry into the impact of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan on regional Australia - Bourke hearing on Tuesday, 15 February 2011:

Cr. John Holmes, Bourke Shire Council

There are other ways to rectify this river system than to starve out your little towns, which is going to happen. There has been mention of diverting water from the Clarence. Not only would you get water to shore up some of these rivers; you would also get another 28 meg of power.

Wayne O’Malley, former mayor of Bourke Shire Council

When talking about some sort of solution for the future, we need a fundamentally different approach. We need the conservation of more water to deal with the boom and bust nature of our climate. I put on the table again the diversion of the Clarence needs to be reconsidered, or at least some other major water infrastructure project not only for this part of the state but also for Australia. As a nation we have to be more mindful of our ever-increasing population, and we have to do more planning to provide water for them for the future.

Bourke Council was not alone in putting the case of the water raiders from over the Great Divide. During the hearing held at Gunnedah, the Citizen’s Electoral Council took this line with the Committee - rather strangely asserting that NSW flooding was confined to Grafton in 2010 and more oddly admitting that Bradfield was "not very bright":

Mr Witten

There are things such as the Clarence River scheme, which was mooted some 70 or 80 years ago by some idiot called Bradfield—and of course you know he was not very bright or did not have much ability. Nevertheless, he dreamt up a massive scheme to develop this nation…… The use of the Clarence River scheme, we believe, would inject around a thousand gigalitres into the system, plus provide electricity for our dying power supply.

Mr Stringer

We desperately need some of the eastern fall water up and down the New South Wales coast—and the Clarence is but one of these rivers; you have the rivers heading down towards Macleay. That water could come across to the Namoi, no problem. It is all going to waste. How many floods have we had in Grafton in 2009? How many floods in 2010? They are all in Grafton, and all the water goes to the sea, wasted.

Intelligent Design lobby motto: If at first you don't succeed - try, try again

The teaching of some scientific subjects, including, but not limited to, biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning, can cause controversy;
{From the bill AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49,
Chapter 6, Part 10, relative to teaching scientific
subjects in elementary schools.}

Given how swiftly the Australian far-right of both religion and politics follow each new quirk in America’s regressive march back towards the primeval ooze; if this bill (sponsored by very Catholic, pro-life, anti-gay marriage, intelligent design supporter Republican State Representative Bill Dunn) gets recommended by a Tennessee General Assembly sub-committee vote today around 3pm US Central Time, it will probably create a media opportunity for the anti-science brigade here:

*HB0368 by *Dunn, *White. (SB0893 by *Watson.)
Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As introduced, protects a teacher from discipline for teaching scientific subjects in an objective manner. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 6, Part 10.
Summary for *HB0368

“Bill Summary

This bill prohibits the state board of education and any public elementary or secondary school governing authority, director of schools, school system administrator, or principal or administrator from prohibiting any teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught, such as evolution and global warning.”

Representative Dunn also has another bill before the House which says it part:

“Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, no public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality.”

Biological evolution controversial, homosexuality unmentionable? Music to the tin ears of Abbott & Co in Australia and bound to turn up on the nightly news sometime soon.

Enough with the carbon already!

I’m sick and tired of that stupid tax scare campaign - it’s time that the Gillard Government ploughed ahead and rammed the damn carbon price through parliament.

Jen

Byron

* GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak AT gmail.com.au for consideration.

I can't believe it's a serious survey

 

Still laughing at this extrapolation of online answers given to "Teach Hunch About You" questions by Hunch blog readers, which News Ltd morphed into articles such as Ladies, your email address is a clue to your weight.

SNAPSHOT OF HUNCH ‘SURVEY’ FINDINGS

• AOL users are most likely to be overweight women ages 35-64 who have a high school diploma and are spiritual, but not religious. They tend to be politically middle of the road, in a relationship of 10+ years, and have children. AOL users live in the suburbs and haven’t traveled outside their own country. Family is their first priority. AOL users mostly read magazines, have a desktop computer, listen to the radio, and watch TV on 1-3 DVRs in their home. At home, they lounge around in sweats. AOL users are optimistic extroverts who prefer sweet snacks and like working on a team.
• Gmail users are most likely to be thin young men ages 18-34 who are college-educated and not religious. Like other young Hunch users, they tend to be politically liberal, single (and ready to mingle), and childless. Gmail users live in cities and have traveled to five or more countries. They’re career-focused and plugged in — they mostly read blogs, have an iPhone and laptop, and listen to music via MP3s and computers (but they don’t have a DVR). At home, they lounge around in a t-shirt and jeans. Gmail users prefer salty snacks and are introverted and entrepreneurial. They are optimistic or pessimistic, depending on the situation.
• Hotmail users are most likely to be young women of average build ages 18-34 (and younger) who have a high school diploma and are not religious. They tend to be politically middle of the road, single, and childless. Hotmail users live in the suburbs, perhaps still with their parents, and have traveled to up to five countries. They mostly read magazines and contemporary fiction, have a laptop, and listen to music via MP3s and computers (but they don’t have a DVR). At home, Hotmail users lounge around in a t-shirt and jeans. They’re introverts who prefer sweet snacks and like working on a team. They consider themselves more pessimistic, but sometimes it depends on the situation.
• Yahoo! users are most likely to be overweight women ages 18-49 who have a high school diploma and are spiritual, but not religious. They tend to be politically middle of the road, in a relationship of 1-5 years, and have children. Yahoo! users live in the suburbs or in rural areas and haven’t traveled outside their own country. Family is their first priority. They mostly read magazines, are almost equally likely to have a laptop or desktop computer, listen to the radio and cds, and watch TV on 1-2 DVRs in their home. At home, Yahoo! users lounge around in pajamas. They’re extroverts who prefer sweet snacks and like working on a team. Yahoo! users are optimistic or pessimistic, depending on the situation.

Boltas of the Month

Clever clogs pseudo-journalist Andrew Bolt baldly said on ABC TV’s “Insiders” program last Sunday that there were between 400-500 people at the anti-carbon tax rally and 800 at the pro-carbon price rally held last Saturday.
On his own blog post on Saturday night he seems to agree with the higher pro-price rally figure of more than 8,000 reported in the MSM and in Sunday update apologizes for his so-called misremembering on the aired program.
Not good enough Bolta! Even you had seen the 12^th March pics by the time you settled your backside into that studio chair early the next day and it's hard to avoid the tag great big fib to get the last word in an argument.

Teh Four Hundred going its hapless 'half a league onwards'

Teh Eight Thousand filling the wide lens and then some

Wait. There's more.......
On the very same day Bolt was playing fast and loose with rally numbers he also had a go at Grog's Gamut in his Daily Tele post "Exit, laughing".
To which Grog replied:
"But here’s the thing, while I can understand Bolt wanting to label me as a public servant, and also a third generation one, and also a third generation Canberran one (laziest of the lot they are!) there’s just one slight problem:
It is not true.
You see the statement that I am a third-generation Canberra public servant is an untruth, a falsehood, a fiction, a furphy. In short, a lie."
So within a space of hours Teh Bolta is on record as fibbing about rallies, Chenobyl and a public servant.
Here's laughing at you, Andrew.