Where's a copper when you need him?

A mate was down in Yamba visiting rellies last week when he took a walk to the local shopping centre.
Being a bit slow on his pins he started to cross Treelands Drive at the point which has a pedestrian island in the centre of the road.
Without warning, a big semi headed for Bi-Lo supermarket crossed over to the wrong side of the road and travelled about five truck lengths before doing a wide turn into the Yamba Fair carpark entrance.
And truckies wonder why they have such a bad rep on the NSW North Coast....

Climate Change Risks to Australia's Coasts - report nobbled by department?

Screenshot which came up with any attempt to read Chapter 5

Like many other Australians today, I went to the Federal Department of Climate Change website to download the latest report Climate Change Risks to Australia's Coasts announced with some fanfare earlier in the day.

Small problem. The very chapter of intense interest; Chapter 5 identifies the key risks to built infrastructure with a particular focus on residential buildings at state and local government scales. Risks to infrastructure, services and industries in the coastal zone are also summarised according to the relevant web page - well it has gone missing.

Departmental IT ineptitude or a sudden realisation that many people could for the first time fairly accurately assess the risk to their property values and that might be politically just a tad too uncomfortable for the states and local government?

Minister for Climate Change and Water Penny Wong much earlier in the day speaking on the ABC Radio AM program:

This is a very important step in providing the information Australia needs.

Over to you, Minister Wong.......

Bat war continues and Nationals Hartsuyker and Cansdell are in the first round of 'enemy' casualties

Bat fall-out

WELL done Steve Cansdell and Luke Hartsuyker. Just the week after all the relevant stakeholders held possibly the first ever truly positive meeting about the Maclean flying fox colony, you help whip up a frenzy and involve schoolchildren in an illegal disturbance of the animals, many carrying recently born young, using a starter pistol and general loud noise.

One tentative step forward had finally been made in this ongoing saga, with all parties agreeing to form a proper long-term management plan, and you go in there and destroy that whole democratic process and regress the whole community.

And all for your own political gain. You are shaming the community and standing in the way of progress. Don't you get it? Disturbance does not work and never has as a long, or even short, term solution, and is currently illegal in Maclean.

LINDA WRIGHT,

Lawrence.

[The Daily Examiner, letter to the editor, 14 November 2009]

Animalia......(2)

From The Daily Examiner 7 November 2009 on the subject of Grafton Regional Art Gallery:

Good Food Magpies

The family of magpies who live around the Gallery has two young members who are just starting to get their adult feathers. All staff at the gallery cafe, Georgie's, and the gallery would like these youngsters to grow up in the civilised manner of all magpies. So we are asking all our patrons and visitors to not feed the birds but to simply enjoy watching them as they forage in the gallery gardens and courtyard and listening to their beautiful warbles.

The youngsters will soon enough be told to move out by their parents to find their own territory. They will need hunting skills beyond the ones required to gain delicious tidbits from Georgie's customers not to mention having the appropriate social skills.

EDO Northern Rivers: seminars and workshops in December 2009 [climate change, managed retreat, biodiversity, land clearing, power stations]

Seminar: Planned retreat, climate change and biodiversity - Byron
Bay, 3 December

In response to a rising wave of interest from all levels of government
in threats to coastal communities from climate change, the Environmental
Defender's Office Northern Rivers presents a free public seminar on
coastal management. It will focus on how liability issues, adaptation
strategies and biodiversity protection are dealt with in recent
initiatives including Byron Council's Draft Coastal Zone Management Plan
and the NSW Government's reforms to coastal erosion management.

Thursday 3 December
SCU Room, Byron Community Centre, Johnson St
5.45 for 6 pm sharp to 8 pm

Light meal provided. No booking necessary. For more information, please
call Mark Byrne, Education Officer, EDO Northern Rivers, on 66228470 or
1300 369 791 or email edonr@edo.org.au. Please note that current
litigation concerning protection works at Belongil Beach and the
question of whether or not Byron Council is partially responsible for
erosion there will NOT be addressed.

Workshop: Native vegetation and private native forestry - Coffs
Harbour, 5 December

This event is being organised with Coffs Harbour Council in response to
concerns about illegal land clearing. It will cover the approvals
process for private native forestry under the Native Vegetation Act and
other relevant instruments including Local Environmental Plans and Koala
Plans of Management.

Saturday 5 December
Cavanbah Hall, 191 Harbour Drive
10.30 am to 3 pm including a light lunch

To register to attend, please call Rachel Binskin at Coffs Harbour
Council on 66484662 or email rachel.binskin@coffsharbour.nsw.gov.au.

Meeting for groups: TransGrid and local energy - Lismore, 10
December

Does the North Coast need more coal-fired electricity at a cost of
$227M? TransGrid, NSW's electricity network builder and operator, plans
to build a 330 kV transmission line from west of Tenterfield down to
Lismore. The EDO Northern Rivers and Lismore Community Sustainability
Forum are organising a meeting on the evening of Thursday 10 December in
Lismore to discuss this project, join with other groups, examine
alternative power proposals and plan a strategy to stop this "19th
century" project. The proposal will be publicly exhibited under Part 3A
of the EPA Act, and the EDO will organise at least one public meeting at
that time. This initial meeting is for representatives of environment
and community groups. We are contacting groups by separate email. If
your group has not received an invitation and would like to be
represented, please reply to this email or call Mark Byrne on 66228470
or Simon Clough on 66242894 to let us know.

Art in Byron Bay

From the brush of the young and talented Jemma Bracken.

Involution and Evolution
and
Untitled

Ignorance ruled in Maclean on Wednesday as folk went rather batty

Yesterday parents and students at Maclean High School staged a demonstration concerning the ongoing and problematic existence of a flying fox colony on land adjoining school property.

Pre-warned about this batty event, the media was at hand to film one adult shouting about how someone or other would be sorry if a child contracted Hendra Virus.
Without a blush another stated for the camera that all that was needed now was "the zombies".

WTF! Zombies? Hendra Virus straight from bat to human? A fear straight from the depths of ignorance via unreliable folklore it seems.

The World Health Organisation is pretty clear that humans catch the viral infection in this manner:

• Fruit bats of the Pteropodidae family are the natural hosts of Hendra virus.


• Horses are the only species of domestic animal that can be naturally infected with Hendra virus.


• Hendra virus is transmitted to people through close contact with infected horses or their body fluids.


• To date, no human-to-human transmission of Hendra virus has been documented.

If a school student were to attempt to catch a bat and was scratched or bitten that student could just possibly get Lyssa Virus (although only two cases have ever been reported in Australia and a precautionary 3-dose vaccination is readily available), but as far as science and medicine is aware, Hendra Virus infection would not pass from that bat to the teenager.

Nipah Virus which is also naturally found in bats is not known to have caused human/animal infection in Australia to date.

As former Maclean Shire Mayor and wannabe Nationals politician Chris Gulaptis proved some years ago as he positioned himself to run for local government election - when it comes to protected flying foxes some hysterical Maclean residents will believe anything and follow any rabble rouser at the head of the herd.

Perhaps the next time anyone in Maclean starts yelling for benefit of the media they might at least get their facts right.
Otherwise they are just plain embarrassing.

Update:

This morning's The Daily Examiner contained an explanation as to why the nocturnal grey-headed flying foxes were so conveniently active for the media audience - an as yet unknown person has thrown at least one fire cracker into the breeding colony.

One cannot really blame the young students because they were so clearly led by a red-neck element within the Maclean High School P&C. However, the parents should be ashamed of the lesson in ignorant and wanton cruelty they are giving their children, as well as the total dishonesty they displayed by trying to set the stage with agitated bats in an effort manipulate the all too conveniently gullible complicit media.

Third Friday the 13th in 2009

While many countries close the gender gap Australia continues to mark time in 2009

The World Economic Forum has released its Global Gender Gap Report for 2009.

"Women and girls make up one half of the human resources available to the world and it will be imperative that they are educated, empowered and integrated for a rapid economic recovery"
Saadia Zahidi, Director and Head of Constituents, World Economic Forum

This is Australia's ranking in the 2009 Gender Gap Index:

Australia 2009 20 (rank out of 134 countries) 0.7282 (score) 20 (2009 rank among 2008 countries)

Australia 2008 21 (rank out of 130 countries) 0.7241 (score)

Australia 2007 17 (rank out of 128 countries) 0.7204 (score)

Australia 2006 15 (rank out of 115 countries) 0.7163 (score)

(The Global Gender Gap Index 2009 rankings: Comparisons with 2008, 2007 and 2006)

The Index reports that two-thirds of the 115 countries covered since 2006 have improved markers used to measure gender inequality, but Australia is clearly lagging according to these figures. Iceland, Finland, Norway, Sweden, New Zealand, South Africa, Denmark, Ireland, Philippines, Lesotho, Netherlands, Germany,Switzerland, Latvia, United Kingdom, Sri Lanka, Spain, France, Trinidad and Tobago all have a better record in 2009 than Australia.

Country profile for Australia here.

Full report here.

According to its own website: The World Economic Forum is an independent international organization committed to improving the state of the world by engaging leaders in partnerships to shape global, regional and industry agendas. Incorporated as a foundation in 1971, and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the World Economic Forum is impartial and not-for-profit; it is tied to no political, partisan or national interests. (www.weforum.org)

Flacco tells Cardinal George Pell a thing or two **

Talking an amble down one digital pathway I came across this in ABC National Radio's archives for the Science Show:

"Flacco: Now, it has come to my attention that Archbishop George Pell has threatened to excommunicate Catholic MPs if they support therapeutic cloning, and this has made me wonder how the church stands on the subject of cloned foods, for it is no secret that no matter what your faith (or lack of it), you've been eating cloned fruit all your life. Bananas, oranges, even Eve's apple was a clone, not to mention giant strawberries. You see, these foods have been modified over 6,000-odd years of agriculture.

So would this mean that Catholic vegetarians could be excommunicated for eating therapeutically cloned fruit? Basically I think that George Pell is a therapeutically cloned fruit. And perhaps there is more behind this anti-cloning crusade, for it is only hunters and gatherers who eat anything close to food in its original form, and without foods being genetically modified, well, the planet could only support a few odd million human inhabitants.

So perhaps it is George's plan to rid the planet of all non-Catholics and a few excommunicated upstarts, therefore leaving the Earth cleared for Pell and his cronies as opposed to us clonies. So to counter this and prevent further bad puns like that I suggest the unreligious must stand up for the clones, we must build an ark to house all our cloned flora and fauna and then lead them one by one onto this ark to be flung to a new planet to self-replicate in peace.

And it occurs to me that perhaps God himself is the original therapeutic clone; he lives alone, no need for a relationship, made us all in his image. We are all clones of God! How about that, George! If you yourself are a therapeutic clone of God, then perhaps you will have to excommunicate yourself. Not such a bad thing really, for if the Catholic Church would stop all this excommunicating it could then feel free to indulge in its opposite. And the opposite of 'excommunicate' is to communicate. Amen.

Robyn Williams: And it starts this week of course. Monsignor Flacco being typically inconvenient and annoying."

** This post counts as my contribution to North Coast Voices efforts to keep Monsanto & Co.'s blog monitor in full-time employment. Yup, I'm laffing at you Mista Missie Mons!

Mary Valley celebrates Garrett's decision to veto Traveston Dam proposal

It has been a long fight against the proposed Traveston Dam for Mary River catchment communities in Queensland, and they now have what is hopefully a long respite from any talk of new dams with Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett's announcement rejecting the dam on solid environmental grounds.

Everyone who took part in this marathon lobbying deserves congratulations - from the Save the Mary River co-ordinating committee and those who turned out at protest rallies right down to anti-dam letter writers and tweeters. Collectively they have been a pattern card of perseverance in the face of tremendous political pressure.

NSW Northern Rivers residents will remember that the 2006-07 proposal to dam the Clarence River was at one time linked to Queensland Government plans for water security in the south-east of that state.

The Courier Mail said it all early today:

THEY screamed, they hugged, they danced and tears of joy rolled down their cheeks.

After an eerie few moments of silence as more than 100 protesters and supporters put down their glasses and held their breath to watch federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett deliver his verdict on the Kandanga Hotel's bar television, complete pandemonium erupted as soon as he said the word "no".

Nobody heard any more of his speech. The cheers almost lifted the roof off the pub as farmers, business folk, mums, dads and kids were swept up in the moment of joy after 3½ years of fighting the proposed $1.8 billion Traveston Crossing Dam.

The overwhelming feeling was one of relief – and disbelief.

Hard-core protesters who had spent the morning grimly putting more "no dam" information into mail-outs and arranging protest signs for tourists passing by on the Mary Valley Rattler steam train had to pinch themselves.....

Most had expected the dam would get the green light, with even more conditions added to the 1200 already imposed by the Queensland Co-ordinator General. Secretly they had prayed for the best but expected the worst.

NSW public servants have too much time on their hands?

NSW State Water Corporation has an e-tendering training page on its website and someone down south obviously thought it would be hilarious if the example contract used on the page was for a Clarence Dam.

Yes, very funny.
Folks on the NSW North Coast get the joke after spending so much time and effort repelling water raiders wanting to dam our coastal rivers - in particular the Clarence River.
Not so sure those down at Lithgow would be amused though - given their own problems with a "Clarence Dam".

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This is the Training version of the NSW eTendering system.

The records found on this website are not real.

Please visit https://tenders.nsw.gov.au/ for current tender opportunities and contract records.

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Archived Tender Detail View - SWC99999

Clarence Dam

RFT ID SWC99999
Publish Date 14-May-2009
Close Date & Time 14-May-2009 12:45pm

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CERN's Large Haldron Collider being fired up again for full run in early 2010

The Times online last month reported that:
"After starting it with a bang, which promptly turned into a whimper, scientists have quietly powered up the Large Hadron Collider for a second time.
The preliminary run was low key compared with the ill-fated switch-on in September last year, but CERN scientists said the first beams suggested that the £3.6 billion experiment in Switzerland was finally under way again. “It’s the beginning of a very well-planned and cautious switch-on,” Brian Foster, a particle physicist from the University of Oxford, said.......
The accelerator is being ramped up to full energy gradually to minimise the chances of a repeat of the failure that led to a year of repairs. The first particles to be sent around the whole ring are scheduled for mid-November and the first collisions in the new year."
Unfortunately in its related article link the newspaper also displayed the 13th October 2009 headline:
Haldron Collider physist Adlene Hicheur charged with terrorism.
More fuel to the fire for those with a penchant for mini-black hole end of the world predictions.
Perhaps that intrepid Oz pollie, Steve Fielding, needs to rush to the nearest telephone box and change......