NASA turns poet

 

Rumbles without sound

Auroras rain down
Magnetic fields shake
Beware the spacequake

Vortices swirl
plasma a'twirl
Richter predicts
a magnitude six

This month NASA decided to explain spacequakes

with information, graphs and 

a little poetry. 

Go Gillie!

I'm more than a tad tired of all that nonsense about Oz Prime Minister Julia Gillard being an unmarried, childless and godless sheila, so I was glad when Crikey's Bernard Keane took a scalpel to the mainstream media:

"The growing media obsession with both Julia Gillard's physical appearance and her marital status could be dismissed as indicative of both the essential inanity of the press and its casual sexism. That's certainly enough as it is. The media subjects female politicians to a blatant double standard, requiring them to conform to standards on physical presentation and lifestyle choices that are never applied to men. Moreover, it's not as if the media perpetuates a single stereotype to which female politicians must conform. Instead, it's a constantly changing set of requirements that means there's always something to criticise and the media always wins. Look too good, you're condemned as vacuous, or reliant on your appearance. Don't look good enough, you're disparaged as unattractive. Don't have a family, you're deliberately barren. Have a family, you're a career-obsessed harridan neglecting your kids. But it's more than that. The Australian yesterday launched a series of personal attacks on the Prime Minister, with the clear aim of ridiculing her and delegitimising her as a political figure. It complements an effort by Liberal Party figures to attack Gillard over her childlessness and her de facto marital status."

Go read the rest (with links to Albrechtsen, Stewart & Legge's sly nastiness) here.

2010 Election Campaign Day 14 - it wouldn't be real without the Interpretive Dance Bandicoot

First Dog on the Moon dun these at Crikey

Political Bad Taste Awards July 2010

And the Winner is.......

Click on images to enlarge

"I vote for freedom of worship if the worship is of Jesus Christ or The Jewish God anyone else well they are worshipping a false god anyway so who cares."
"Voting should only be voluntary for Liberal and National voters the rest can not bother since with every vote they bring the nation closer to the brink of disaster and closer to the hands of a (sic)muslim country."
"I am going to win this seat. I claim it as mine and when I get in I will give my votes all of them to God who is on the side of the Liberal Right" Liberal candidate for Chifley David Barker on now deleted Facebook page news.com.au 25 July 2010

Second place.......

"Wayne Swan is to surpluses what Paris Hilton is to celibacy they remember it once existed but they'll never see it again" Sitting Liberal MP and ex-SNAG Joe Hockey The Australian 20 July 2010

Third place.......

Mr Schonfelder lashed out at Mr Abbott's "very strong religious views and views on abortion ... sex before marriage ... all very conservative and not necessary", telling the Western Port News they were "influencing people to take their own lives".
Labor candidate for Flinders Adrian Schonfelder reported in The Sun-Herald 20 July 2010

Runners up.......

"The whole range of religions have made contact with my office to say they are very concerned about the stance of the Prime Minister, basically being anti-God. They don't like the fact we have got a godless Prime Minister." Sitting Liberal MP Don Randall The West 26 July 2010 [For those who can't believe their eyes the audio of these statements is at http://j.mp/arPfVh]

"In probably a year's time, just what a holocaust this will be.''Federal Liberal candidate for Ballarat Mark Banwell using a WWII genocide term to describe Labor's school building program 21 July 2010

"I quite like the Julia Gillard accent"
Opposition Leader Tony Abbott remarking on the accent of a contestant who was dressed like a hillbilly on the television show Hey Hey It's Saturday on 21 July 2010

Historical bad taste......

"about as much use as Linda Lovelace with her mouth closed’’ Tony Abbott speaking about Prince Charles in 1982 The Age 25 July 2010

Black Ops bad taste......

Those members of Tony Abbott's personal campaign team who appear to be playing the Gillard gender & lifestyle card 'off the record' with journalists, while their leader publicly condemns this type of comment.

And this is the man that thinks everyone on welfare is a bludger?

The Liberal Party's Tony Abbott has long thought that the average Australian receiving welfare payments is either someone who can't handle money or who is a bit of a bludger on the state (which is part of the reason he is so keen to transform Centrelink cash transfers into digital food stamps and force young people away from family in search of jobs) and currently is trying to paint Federal Labor as careless with the public purse, so it was interesting to see the media disclose the Leader of the Opposition's willingness to do a bit of bludging on the public purse himself:

FEDERAL Opposition Leader Tony Abbott is being investigated by the Federal Government after admitting he used taxpayer-funded travel for a Liberal Party fundraiser where he also promoted and sold his new book.

Mr Abbott, who was due to be in Perth today, confirmed to The Sunday Times on Friday that he used both a Government car and a Government-funded flight to travel from a Liberal event in Beaufort in regional Victoria in September. [Perth Now 20 December 2009]

Department of finance documents raise the serious and politically damaging possibility that Abbott used taxpayer money to promote his 2009 book, Battlelines.
The revelation follows an investigation by The Drum in which the dates of Abbott's national book promotion tour have been matched to his travel expenses claims. The dates of his promotional tour were provided by his publisher, Melbourne University Press.

Abbott's home base is Sydney where Sarah Murdoch launched Battlelines on Tuesday, July 28. Two days later, the then-Opposition frontbencher flew to Canberra, to quote MUP, "address the National Press Club (NPC) to discuss Battlelines". There was also a book signing coinciding with the event.......

All in all the taxpayer coughed up $6,651.96 in Battlelines-related travel. [ABC The Drum 28 July 2010]

These are the reported 2009 Battlelines travel accounts submitted by Abbott as Shadow Minister - Official Business:

Tuesday, July 30 - $504.29 Flight to Canberra and return
August 3 to 4 - $930.95 Flight to Melbourne and return

August 6 to 7 - $465.47 x 2 Flight to Melbourne and return

August 11 - $861.95 Flight to Brisbane and return with Canberra overnight stopover

August 14 to 15 - Flight Perth and return $2,461.23

Commonwealth cars and drivers - $962.60

Dept of Finance and Deregulation Parliamentarians Report - Tony Abbott MP

Photograph of Abbott from Google Images

2010 Election Campaign Day 13 - the things you overhear

Overheard some of the gentle gender at a local coffee shop:

"Tony Abbott loves strong women ? Yeah, when they're wearing leather, stiletto boots and carrying a whip!"

"I don't know - perhaps he is likeable. I like watching his bald spot grow bigger and bigger each day. It's sort of like watching Pinocchio's nose."

A conversation between two older women overheard on the local bus:

"Tony Abbott is just a lair.... He's a sneaky b@stard."

"The man hates women."

Repeated to me over coffee:

"A female friend refers to Abbott as 'Volkswagon' because his ears remind her of a small car with both doors open."

Barnaby Joyce does not impress local media

In The Daily Examiner on 27 July 2020:

Famous for shooting from the hip, Senator Joyce spoke to local media outside Grafton Fast Photos in his usual vitriolic manner, but didn't give any definitive answers as to how the Coalition would soften the financial pressure on families and small business.

Yet another Nationals candidate who lives outside the electorate

In 2007 Nationals candidate Chris Gulaptis did not live in (and therefore could not vote in) the Page electorate he was contesting.

In 2010 it seems the party has not learned from past mistakes - Nationals candidate Kevin Hogan also does not live in (and therefore cannot vote in) the Page electorate he is contesting.

Interestingly both have blamed redistribution for this state of affairs - on shaky ground there.

2010 Election Campaign Day 12: Hustled by Christian Louboutin?

Maud up the Street (who enjoys public access to Teh Netz at her local library) alerted me to the oamimb website which is offering a very odd service:
"This is an example of a WordPress page, you could edit this to put information about yourself or your site so readers know where you are coming from. You can create as many pages like this one or sub-pages as you like and manage all of your content inside of WordPress."

Click on image to enlarge

What Australia's population growth really looks like when the political hype is stripped away (Country, States and NSW North Coast)

The current debate concerning Australia's population appears to have degenerated into an argument about asylum seekers, general immigration levels and skilled migration policy filtered though the lens of political opportunism in a federal election campaign.

When the real issues for this country are whether:
a) we can afford to steadily expand our population numbers by birth/immigration and still retain our present excessive levels of both community and individual consumption;

b) we can sustainably resolve tensions between urban, industry and agricultural competition for natural resources; and

c) the state can ensure adequate public expenditure on both social needs and necessary infrastructure when average life expectancy has increased significantly and less children are being born than the natural increase required to create a robust tax base into the future.

While Gillard waffles and Abbott dog whistles, here are graphs based on Australian Bureau of Statistics and Dept. of Immigration and Citizenship data showing where we've been and where we're heading in relation to population numbers:

Australia's immigration levels of nearly 300,000 in 2008-09 and 230,000 in 2009-10 were inflated by expats returning home because of the global financial crisis and more New Zealanders coming over looking for work according to demographer Bernard Salt.

BIS Shrapnel states that 2008-09 to 2009-10 immigration levels were also inflated by an unusually large rise in long-stay visa holders such as foreign students and 457workers....
The increase was greatest in 2008-09 when the net population gain from long-term visitors accounted for 74 per cent of the national net overseas migration gain of 298,000 persons.

Population projections based on a notional overall total population increase of one person born or permanently migrating into Australia every 1 minute:
BIS Shrapnel population projections for 2010-12 taking into account economic growth still inhibited by the global financial crisis, as well as the impact of 2007-10 revised visa eligibility requirements and reduced overall permanent migration intake on population movement:

Click on images to enlarge

Graphs displayed here, here, here and here.

Go back, you are going the wrong way! One Yamba-ite tells McDonald's Australia

It is always nice to feel wanted as you begin to implement plans to enter a small coastal town business community.

The text of an email sent by one Yamba resident to the McDonald's licensee who will operate the new McDonald's eat-in and drive-through fast food outlet in Yamba at the mouth of the Clarence River on the NSW North Coast:

Hello Mr. Campbell,

I'm writing to you as I wonder why you would be PRing yourself saying you have had a great response from the Yamba people. The only ones you would get 'great response' from would be:

* Those who believe they will get full time work and be able to get off the dole. I've crunched your numbers and very few would have the benefit of full time work from your Yamba store.

* The sports groups who believe they will get all sorts of financial assistance from you.

* Those who think that they all will move up the ladder in your store - I guess all 75-100 people you say you'll employ think they'll do that.

As for the majority of us in Yamba (population around 6,000 as opposed to 40,000 in Ballina) - no amount of PR fools us into thinking you are actually wanted in town. Go on the highway - tell your bosses to enlarge their world-wide property portfolio in another town.

You based your Yamba store numbers on your Ballina store! You admitted it!

You PR yourself in the papers now saying you are 'considering' moving here. Would that be in response to the fact we publicised you live in Byron (a place that doesn't want your type of business) and operate a Ballina store?

We are not fooled by the 'saviour' complex you and MacDonalds blab at each opportunity in regard to you moving into townships. Yamba doesn't need you nor want you. A small percentage are fooled and if you find that a 'great response' wait till you get here!

Stay where you are. I guess you haven't wanted a MacDonalds in the town you live in. It does cheapen the place doesn't it!

2010 Election Campaign Day 11 - Is the fix already in?

Can our poor benighted Oz pollies go home until polling day on 21 August 2010?
Maybe not. But yesterday's Essential Report seems to suggest that those contesting 'safe' seats can at least go home early each day, because a great many of us have probably firmly made up our minds about which party we will favour with our votes:
51% of respondents said they had already decided which party to vote for and a further 32% said they would decide before election day – 10% will make their decision on election day.
61% of Labor voters and 65% of Liberal voters say they have already decided compared to 53% of Greens voters.
Younger voters are less likely to have decided which party to vote for – only 38% of under 35’s have already decided, 36% will decide before election day, 10% on election day and 16% do not know when they will decide.



Click table to enlarge

Who's letter writer Simon Kinny - it pays to read between the lines

Simon Kinny of Lismore had a letter to the editor in Saturday's Daily Examiner.

Funnily enough, Kinny forgot to mention that he's Dr Simon Kinny and he just happens to be the Nationals' Page Electorate Council Chairman and features on National Kevin Hogan's web page

Kinny can be contacted at St Vincents Hospital in Lismore at Suite 11, Level 3, St. Vincent's Specialist Medical Centre,
20 Dalley, Lismore, NSW 2480, Australia
Ph: (61 2) 66 21 4177
Fax: (61 2) 66 21 4186

Kinny can also be contacted via his email address at ski66335@bigpond.net.au

And for those who need Kinny to reply to their concerns very promptly, his mobile number is 0407 065 566