Friday, 17 July 2009
Favourite tabloid headline of the week
From the U.K. Guardian on 14 July 2009 and worth a read:
Is Goldman Sachs a blood-sucking vampire squid?
Now who were Australian Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull's former business partners again?
Thursday, 16 July 2009
Turnbull's unfortunate turn of phrase
This is vintage Malcolm Turnbull.
Nursing home resident Joan Ashcroft, 79, got the jump on the trailing media with a blunt question to the alternative prime minister. "Are we going to live long enough for you to get back into government?" she asked. The answer, was "assuredly, yes". "You only have to live long enough for the next election," Mr Turnbull replied.
Does that mean we oldies are worth nothing to Malcolm after the election?
Still laughing at how unconsciously offensive that man can be.
Upriver Bill
Northern Rivers
Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents.
Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.
Tony Abbott touts his book
If anything was needed to convince that the Liberals' Tony Abbott talking up a return to fault-based divorce on the statute books was a cynical effort to puff up the recent publication of his book Battle Lines, this is it:
Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop said she was willing to talk about Mr Abbott's proposal if he wanted it to become the party line.
"What Tony's doing is putting forward, I gather, his personal views on a particular matter and we'll debate them if he wants them to become part of our policy," Ms Bishop told ABC Television on Sunday.
Mr Abbott had not brought the suggestion to the party room and there would be a "healthy and robust debate" if he did, she said.
Translation - this Federal Shadow Minister for Families, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs is not serious and wouldn't be taken seriously if he did push for a return to the bad old days.
If you want to hear more of Tony's outrageous book touting, he will be the guest speaker giving the National Press Club Address on 30 July 2009.
By then he should have garnered a few advance sales from those hopefully few Neolithic males still hiding out in our midst.
Wednesday, 15 July 2009
Queensland made a clean sweep of 2009 State of Origin ... well, that's what The Daily Telegraph told its readers
Queensland 28, NSW 16!What game did Steve Jancetic watch?
No, Steve, NSW 28 defeated Queensland 16.
The image above was captured a few minutes after the game finished.
Steve, get yourself one of those T-shirts that carries the slogan
Steve, get yourself one of those T-shirts that carries the slogan
"Is that true or
did you read it in
The Daily Telegraph?"
did you read it in
The Daily Telegraph?"
Image credit: The Daily Telegraph
All's well with the world as the rich keep getting richer
Sometimes it is hard to fathom how inequitable the global distribution of wealth is, particularly as the current economic crisis is affecting the relatively little advanced economies give to the hungry, ill and dying across the world from Africa and Asia through to the Americas.Ordinary people who more often than not live on less than two dollars a day.
Or why the UN Millennium Project does not appear to be meeting its goals.
But never fear, the world is righting itself and greed is once again triumphing as a Goldman Sachs recent media release attests.
Yesterday the Goldman Sachs Group reported that total assets were worth $890 billion, total capital as of end June 2009 was $254.05 billion, with net revenues of $13.76 billion and net earnings of 3.4 billion for the second quarter of 2009.
Compensation and benefits (including salaries, severance expenses, bonuses, payroll tax etc.,) for the same period were $6.65 billion.
On 17 June it even repaid the $10 billion is borrowed from the U.S. Government and taxpayers in that over-the-top bankers feeding frenzy at the beginning of the global economic crisis.
Goldman Sachs Group media release, 14 July 2009
New York Times article, 12 July 2009
Photo: Google Images
Big Ben's birthday reminds me that almost every event has an anniversary
On the weekend both radio and television were constantly reminding me that Big Ben (that very large clock in London) was 150 years old on 11 June 2009 (or 12 June if you were across the odd dateline) because it first struck time on that day.
Which had me thinking of what else happened in the ninth year of past centuries.
Here's my potted selection, with apologies to The Book of Key Facts (1978):
8009 Harun al-Rashid dies but the Book of a Thousand and One Nights gives him a good review
9009 The King of Wessex kicks Northumbrian Danish butt
1009 Persian poet Firdausi is almost finished his epic and is possibly running an early spell check to make sure history is suitably impressed with his efforts
1109 Lois of France and Henry of England diss each other and go to war
1209 Cambridge University is founded with an advanced undergraduate degree in punting
1309 The papacy moves from Rome to Avignon and a whole lot of religious angst is goin' on
1409 Teh English recapture Harlech Castle from those dastardly Welsh rebels
1509 Spain establishes the city of San Sebastian in Columbia as part of a bloody colonisation of South America
1609 Galileo Galili improves his telescope
1709 Afghan state wins independence from Persia and continues down history's page until she is owned by the Coalition of the Willing
1809 Napoleon divorces his Josephine but remains silent about his hemorrhoids
1909 Bakelite is born thereby making a whole collectors' genre for 21st century Australians
2009 Malcolm Bligh Turnbull 'discovers' an email and loses his 'judgment'
Want to shop locally for GM-free food?
So you want to shop for GM-free food? Well, good luck, because there is still no reliable product labelling in place across Australia.
The next best thing is to access the True Food Guide which at least broadly points concerned consumers in the right direction.
The guide now lists alcohol products.
Download updated 16-page True Food Guide here.
If you are blessed with a comfortable income, then Santos Wholefoods of Byron Bay and Mullumbimby offers an online GM-free, organic and natural produce shopping service.
Tuesday, 14 July 2009
Coastal erosion, land slips, seawater innundation, storm surges which may occur due to climate change - not covered by residential property insurance
Evidence given by Karl Sullivan of the Insurance Council of Australia to the House of Representatives Inquiry into Climate change and environmental impacts on coastal communities in June 2009 confirms that coastal residents are on their own when in comes to property damage from coastal erosion, land slippage, sea water inundation and storm surges and, in the future insurance premiums may be higher or insurance unavailable if there are no or insufficient climate change impact mitigation measures built into coastal residential properties.
This position has been well-known for some years now and yet the NSW Government and local councils continue to give rezoning, concept and development consents for urban growth in vulnerable coastal areas.
It is past time that all tiers of government stopped merely talking about climate change impacts and passed legislation which severely limits coastal development within at least a half kilometre of the coast.
Moggy Musings [Archived material from Boy the Wonder Cat]
An Easter Bunny musing:
It was a bit of a shock to the Easter Bunny when on Easter Sunday the ABC TV Landline program ran not one but three stories on rabbits - involving killing by poisoning, trapping, blowing up burrows and preparing for the pot.
Who won't be getting a chocolate egg next year?
A New Puppy musing:
Finally those Obama girls are getting that dog. A 6 month-old Portugese Water Dog that they are thinking of naming Frank or Moose.
An escapee musing:
Yakini is a 9 year-old gorilla living at Melbourne Zoo.
In early April 2009 he managed to take an unsheduled stroll around the pathways of this zoo before being lured towards waiting zoo keepers by a bunch of bananas. Next stop Africa if this young gorilla can resist the fruit in future!
A Very Happy Ending musing:
A big welcome home to four year-old Aussie blue heeler cattle dog Sophie Tucker who has been found and reunited with her owners after being swept overboard from the family yacht and surviving for 2 months on a tropical North Queensland island. Story and video here.
Dewey Readmore Books musing:
Clarrie Rivers sent me this link leading into a loving tribute to a ginger library cat called Dewey Readmore Books, who was found in the books return shute one morning and lived for 18 years at Spencer Public Library in the USA. Dewey's bio.
Iz ded wiv shames musing:
In the middle of the night Clarencegirl saw me running away from a big, fat cane toad which hopped into the living room.
At first I tried to pretend that I didn't see the warty monster, but then in jumped on me. Eeeewwww!
I was brave enough though to watch my hero put that toadie in the freezer for a painless death.
A quiet victory over adversity.....
From Biddle and Taylor's 2009 working paper Indigenous Population Projections, 2006–31: Planning For Growth:Between 2006 and 2031 the Indigenous population is projected to grow from just over 517,000 to almost 848,000 (Fig. 3). This growth is reasonably steady over the period and it represents an annualised rate of 2.00 per cent. By way of comparison, between 2001 and 2006, the Indigenous population was estimated to have grown from 458,500 at an implied annual growth rate of 2.43 per cent (ABS 2008a). Clearly, the model projects a decline in the rate of growth. Over the same period to 2031, the non-Indigenous population is projected to increase from around 20,179,000 to around 25,621,000. This represents a lower growth rate compared to the Indigenous population, resulting in an increase in the Indigenous share of total population from 2.5 per cent to 3.2 per cent (Fig. 3). An interesting point to note from Fig. 3 is that a continuation of the growth trend shown would result in one million Indigenous Australians by 2040.
Monday, 13 July 2009
Nudists want undercover female police officer to flush out perverts
Today's Northern Star reports that a nudist beach near Byron Bay has become a haunt for perverts and weirdos, and locals want to see it cleaned up. ..........
Women say they no longer feel safe to walk there alone because of the atmosphere and the unwanted advances they receive from men.
Less than two weeks ago a woman had to call police after a man began to follow her and act suspiciously.
“It used to be a family-friendly nude beach, but in the last few years it's got a real seedy element,” Tyagarah resident Cyd Saunders said.
The mother of two regularly takes her children, two and five, to the beach but said it was becoming impossible to relax..........
Mitra Ardron said he would like to see more enforcement from police and rangers to 'catch people in the act'.
“If they sent a female officer down there undercover that would fish them in straight away,” he said.
“And you don't have to catch many for the word to get around.”
Inspector Owen King, of Byron Bay police, said officers from Mullumbimby and Brunswick regularly patrolled the beach and with greater frequency in the summer months.
He said the recent complaint from the woman at Tyagarah Beach had been followed up immediately, but police were unable to locate anyone on the beach that matched the description given.
Inspector King encouraged anyone who witnessed offensive behaviour to report it to police.
Cyd Saunders agrees.
“The community needs to make more of an effort to report (offensive behaviour) to police and to be proactive in telling these people to move on. I am not against nudity on the beach. I just want to feel safe,” she said.
Source: The Northern Star
North Coast Voices Administration: Apologies for changes made to this post after publication. Unfortunately the original Northern Star article contains words which are often blocked by filtering software.
And the winner is - Stephen Conroy!
Surfing the Net earlier today and thought North Coast Voices might be interested in this.Among the British ISPA Awards 2009 winners was:
The Internet Villain category recognises individuals or organisations that have upset the Internet industry and hampered its development - those who the industry loves to hate.
Maudie's Ex
Yamba
Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents. Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.
Nationals desperate to erode Saffin's Northern Rivers electoral base?
Out of federal government and obviously hurting, the National Party of Australia is rumoured to be making a concerted effort to undermine Labor's sitting Federal MP for Page, Janelle Saffin.
To that end the Nationals have suggested to the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) that it undertake a little tidying up of the current boundaries between Page and Cowper which is currently held by Nationals MP Luke Hartsuyker.
It is no accident that the town it wants to tidy up into Cowper is Yamba, which co-incidentally strongly supported Saffin at the 2007 election and predominately voted Labor consistently over the last few state and federal elections.
The exchange the Nationals are suggesting to compensate for Yamba's removal is to include in the Page electorate a couple of areas with what are believed to have traditional Nationals profiles.
The Nationals seem to believe that Luke Hartsuyker would easily win over Yamba hearts and minds if Yamba voters were to find themselves in his electorate at the next federal election and, that Janelle Saffin would find it difficult to maintain her seat in light of such a voter loss.
It is interesting to note that the Liberal Party submission proposes no changes to the electoral boundaries of Cowper, Page and Richmond. This flies directly in the face of the Nationals wish list for the NSW North Coast.
Unsurprisingly the Labor Party's counter move, to the Nationals attempt to place more Nationals-leaning areas in Page, is to lobby for Maclean to be removed from Cowper and placed in the Page electorate.
National Party of Australia submission to the AEC, May 2009
Liberal Party of Australia submission to the AEC, May 2009
Australian Labor Party submission to the AEC, undated
Full list of submissions on proposed 2009 federal electoral boundaries redistribution
Comments on submissions
Woke up with a vacant sensation between your journalistic ears? Then publish a viral email!
Click image to enlargeThe editor of that APN newspaper The Daily Examiner of Grafton in the Clarence Valley was obviously having a lazy day when he decided that those paying top price for the Saturday issue should be treated to the re-publication of one version of a hoary old copyright article from last century, which has become over time one of those ever-adapting viral emails which clog our PC inboxes from time to time.
At the time of writing this it had last turned up on a blog on 18 June 2009 in what appears to be the version Peter Chapman used.
Unfortunately a hard copy newspaper doesn't have a handy delete button, so a prolonged groan rang out across the valley from the many who had already read the supposed London Times obit in various forms over the years.
Common sense may not actually be dead but there is certainly a dearth of it at The Egg Timer these days.
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