Better late than never in Coffs Harbour?

For literally decades the Coffs Harbour City Council has merrily developed the district to death, in the face of drinking water scarcity, farm land and floodplain issues.
Now after what is probably the fifth local flood in eleven months, the Coffs Coast News reports last Monday:
"FORMER Coffs Harbour deputy mayor Rod McKelvey has called for a ban on future development projects until proper flood protection is in place.
McKelvey, who stood down at the last local government elections because of family illness, believes future developments without protection could have serious consequences for a number of areas, including Coffs Harbour hospital.
"The more we develop Coffs, the worse the problem will get, McKelvey told The Advocate in an exclusive interview over the weekend.
"There are many possible actions worthy of investigation, including the GM's pump concept.
"But before we go rushing into developing West Boambee, which will add to the hospital's flood woes, or the airport and other areas in the path of floods, we should have a moratorium until proper protection is in place."
McKelvey said he felt there was a moral responsibility as well as an economical one to ensure property is safe from future flooding"
Definitely a case of wanting to close the door after the horse has bolted, but at least there is now some recognition of the deep doo-doo homeowners have been landed in by local powers that be.

Did you know? A morning tea trivia break

World's digital content equivalent to stack of books stretching from Earth to Pluto 10 times....
The world's store of digital content is now the equivalent of one full top-of-the-range iPod for every two people on the planet, following the explosion of social networking sites, internet-enabled mobile phones and government surveillance.
The Guardian, 18 May 2009 Internet data heads for 500bn gigabytes

French president Nicolas Sarcozy claims he was in Berlin on the evening the Berlin Wall fell and that he helped dismantle a part of the wall on the spot at Check Point Charlie. His claim has been torn to shreds by historial information available from Internet searches which appear to show that he did not arrive in Germany's capital until days later.
Simple Thoughts, 9 November 2009, Skeptics question French President Sarkozy’s Facebook post suggesting he saw Berlin Wall fall & The Australian, 12 November 2009, Sarkozy's Berlin Wall claim falls over

The average Australian adult male is only around 1.2 feet taller than the average adult male orang-utan. Australia's Environment Minister Peter Garrett is reputedly 2.1-2.4 feet taller than this red ape.
Wikipedia Human height, & Orangutan Outreach & Mike Portnoy 2009

Researchers found a strong link between wages and height, particularly for men, with each additional 10 centimetres of height adding three per cent to hourly wages.
The "height premium" was two per cent per 10 centimetres for women, researchers from the University of Sydney and Canberra's Australian National University (ANU) found.
They calculated that every five centimetres above the average height of 178 centimetres boosted a male's wages by the equivalent of an extra year's experience in the labour force. WA Today, 17 May 2009, Study finds tall people at top of wages ladder

An Adelaide property developer, Ross Markris, heads the BRW 2009 young and rich list for the under 40s.
The Sydney Morning Herald, 23 September 2009

U.S. billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has only donated $340,358 to major American political parties since 1978 but film maker Steven Speilberg has donated over $1M in the same period.
Newsmeat, Hall of Fame-Billionaires, 2009

Monsanto staffer claims that 1 bale of cotton makes 215 pairs of jeans, but there is no data on how many litres of GM oil comes from those harvested cotton plants.
Monsanto & Co on Twitter, 13 November 2009

Google suggests over 26 million indexed entries when given the search term "how to get away with a lie" and then produces 47 million items if you proceed with this search.
Google Australia, 13 November 2009

There are at least 1,817 individuals in Australia who currently control wealth worth over $30 million.
Australian Tax Office, 19 October 2009, JCPAA Submssion

Australian Households



RESERVE BANK BULLETIN – APRIL 2009














U.S. National Debt



Newsmeat, 2009

Is it any wonder that the Murray Darling Basin river systems are in trouble?

Thirty major dams and over 4, 000 weirs clutter the Murray-Darling Basin's rivers. Total dam storage is two-and-half times the average annual runoff, meaning they exert enormous control over river flows. Most of the Basin's rivers are regulated by dams and weirs. [Australian Water Association, 2009]

At least most Tweed Daily News online readers believe in climate change

From the Tweed Daily News on 17 November 2009

Online opinion poll on the same day the Tweed Daily News reported on Rising sea levels predicted