A light-hearted look at the echo chamber of the Internetz

When cruising cyberspace it's obvious that there's a great deal of repetitive comment out there perpetrated by lazy mainstream media and the blogosphere - everyone wants to get in on the act when it comes to teh topix o teh dae but few are prepared to do any hard graft required to come up with an original angle.
Media releases are not looked at with a critical eye on source, content or motive, but are simply churned back out through the giant sausage machine which is online publication. {yes, I admit that's not exactly an original observation either!}
Here's a light-hearted look at that echo chamber section of the Internetz:

Monsanto's statements are part of a 21-page paper titled "Observations on Competition in the U.S. Seed Industry." In it, the company argues
That opening turned up seven times in Google's search engine results on the 9th January.

He says the state laws have robbed farmers across Australia
Thirty-six instances of this sentence beginning were found in indexed mentions of one farmer when I went a-Googling his name.

big words
This two word language summary featured in over 1,000 online discussions of Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

silvertail
The particular descriptor used on more than 3,000 occasions when talking about former Liberal Party leader Malcolm Turnbull.

dour Scot

Something British PM Gordon Brown has been labelled according to 15,000 Google items.

Paris Hilton scandal
This topic was an obvious favourite for in excess of 16,000 journalists, bloggers and YouTube video makers.

world government
A phrase which almost takes the cake when used over 300,000 times in discussions concerning a global response to climate change.

Barack Obama the antichrist
This characterisation turns up more than 700,000 times on Google when people are expressing views on the U.S. president.

I Can Has Cheezburger
Mention of this funny interactive website occurred in Google's index at least 7,670,000 times last time I typed the site name - which probably goes to prove that Internet users are a lot saner than our habit of parroting the latest gossip or rumour (without bothering to fact check) might otherwise lead sensible people to believe.

NSW Nationals Steve Cansdell has egg on his face over hungerstrike protest

NSW Nationals MP for Clarence Steve Cansdell has jumped on the Peter Spencer bandwagon and is spouting the usual inaccurate nonsense. It would appear that there is no political depth too low for this politician to plumb in his efforts to keep his name in print.

This is what Mr. Cansdell told ABC News on 6 January 2010:

A north coast politician has called for people across NSW to support a grazier on a hunger strike over a dispute in a land clearing application.
Peter Spencer today enters day 47 of his hunger strike in a wind tower on his Shannons Flat property outside Cooma, and reportedly does not have long to live.
He is arguing that state native vegetation laws have been used by the Federal Government to lock-up land to meet carbon pollution reduction targets.
Clarence MP Steve Cansdell says farmers across the state are experiencing the same frustration.
"I just hope that Peter gets the support of everyone across NSW to make this Government realise that we have to work together, not against the rural sector," he said.
"He's really there on behalf of all NSW landowners, all of NSW rural industries such as our timber industry, our cattle."

He was more circumspect a day later when quoted in The Daily Examiner:

"While I don't necessarily support Mr Spencer's tactics, it is time for the NSW Government to show some compassion and do something to break the deadlock before a tragedy occurs."

Cansdell is only one of many who are trying to make political capital out of Peter Spencer's situation and his family appears to have had enough.The Spencer family are clearly concerned about antics of the media, certain websites and politicians such as Barnaby Joyce and Steve Cansdell.

This is the public statement the family issued, as reported in The Australian on 9 January 2009:

WE do not proclaim to be speaking on behalf of all of our family, others may certainly feel differently however we do feel that every issue has different opinions so we would like to say the following.

Peter's brother, Graham, is a former farmer who recently sold his dairy farm and retired after 26 years of farming. He was on the board of the Dairy Farmers Association and an active member within his local community. He and other family members had been trying to work with the family members involved to prevent the issue being dragged through the media however we now feel the need to address some issues.

Peter, we love you, and think that it is fantastic that you are trying to help other farmers get due compensation from the government. However, we are concerned by some television, print media and niche internet publications coverage of the issue and its politicisation by various interest groups and parliamentarians to further their own agendas, at the expense of Peter's health and welfare.

Native vegetation laws enacted over 10 years ago by State Governments (and certainly not the ETS proposals and "Carbon Sinks" which are a far more recent development) are not the sole reason for the collapse of Peter's farm, and really have had a very small part to play. For MANY reasons the farm has not been profitable for a long time. Peter spent several years in Papua New Guinea on various business ventures, including an advisory role to the PNG government of the time. During this time he was unable to look after the farm adequately, an issue that was clearly a product of his then circumstance.

Over the years, Peter spent money on trying to develop some fantastic enterprises, including the development of high quality wool and wind farming which unfortunately did not pan out. In order to help Peter, some family members put their financial freedom in jeopardy to use their property as a guarantee for Peter's loan. These family members worked side-by-side with Peter, trying to get the farm up and running.

As any farmer knows, sometimes, despite your best intentions and incredible effort, farming is not always fruitful, especially in a time of drought. Interest payments on the loan could not be made, and faced with bankruptcy, the family had to issue a writ of foreclosure on Peter's farm. The intention is to sell the farm to recover the money from their debts and all remaining money will be returned to Peter. If the family members had not guaranteed the loan several years ago when Peter was facing bankruptcy the banks would have sold the farm only to recover their money and Peter would have been left with nothing. What is so incredibly sad, is that Peter and the family members who guaranteed his loan, were always very close. Now this has torn two families apart. To borrow such a huge sum to help a sibling is a remarkable gift, but to go into bankruptcy for that sibling is surely beyond the call of duty.

We are devastated with the conspiracy theories, innuendoes and utter rubbish sprouted by some members of news forums and websites declaring to support Peter who clearly know nothing about this situation but have taken whatever they have read at face value, and accepted it as gospel. Peter is an amazing, courageous man. But the loss of his farm is not due to governments, big business or climate change. There is no conspiracy by wind companies or any other organisation to rob Peter of his land. What we are concerned about is that certain people may be taking advantage of a vulnerable man faced with losing his property and using him to their advantage. The issues being touted are not wholly true and Peter's situation is a very poor example for any Native Vegetation/Kyoto/ETS/Rudd/Howard/State/Federal concerns and anything else which is being included in the argument. It will do no benefit to any disgruntled farmer's cause by continuing to use Peter as their martyr. If people are genuinely concerned for Peter please convince him to come down. Then find a more suitable way of expressing their concerns. Please remember this is an election year.

In conclusion, while there are some fantastic supporters of Peter's who deserve much praise, there are too many others taking advantage of him for their own political causes. We don't know why people want Peter to continue starving himself, and putting his health at such risk. Here is a man with TOO MUCH TO LIVE FOR and we urge the media to properly undertake research and check claims before merely producing them as "news" and encouraging Peter's plight through politicising it.

• Background post "Never attribute to malice that which can be adequately explained by stupidity"

NSW North Coast councils & businesses that just have to lift their game in 2010

Not every local council or business on the NSW North Coast lives up to its promise (or for that matter its promises) and here is a short list of those who could do better this year.
Maud Up the Street wants me to lead this post off with her pet peeve so I'll oblige.

BUSWAYS - contracted by the NSW Government to supply transport across the Clarence Valley this was its inadequate response to holiday travel needs according to its own website:Friday 25th December: No services
Coffs Harbour and Port Macquarie had similar bus timetables for the 25th December. Great Lakes had one of its three bus routes operating on Christmas Day. Seems Busways management thinks that people without cars don't deserve to move around on Christmas Day unless they live in Campbelltown, Blacktown or on the Central Coast. The north-east of the state can go hang!

COLES - this large supermarket chain has a captive market in certain NSW North Coast towns because of the absence of any real competition. In some stores it shamelessly rides roughshod over its customers with frequently understocked shelves and an ever-diminishing range of brandnames\goods for sale. Now after years of being presented with bananas stored too long before being presented for sale, The Australian Banana Growers' Council tells us that "bananas must meet very particular length, girth and colour specifications before Woolworths and Coles take them".
It's ROFL time to think that this supermarket chain likes to think it has fresh food standards!

CLARENCE VALLEY COUNCIL - under the leadership of Mayor Richie Williamson and General Manager Stuart McPherson certain council staff have been getting quite lax if mutterings round the traps are any indication. This Daily Examiner story of alleged council negligence is just icing on the cake and as usual council tries to squib out of responsibility.
There is also a persistent rumour circulating that councillors are not always aware that they're possibly allocating trust funds improperly on a regular basis, because management allegedly is careful to refer to funding sources in monthly meeting business paper items only by internal accounting codes in order to rob Peter to pay Paul in an irregular manner without challenge.

'Twas the whalers wot done it!

Peter Alford and Matthew Franklin writing in The Australian at 12am this morning are pretty certain of who hit whom on the high seas in Antarctica:
"Sea Shepherd and the Institute of Cetacean Research, which co-ordinates the Japanese whaling program, have released videos they claim demonstrate the other side was to blame for the dangerous collision.
Both appear to show the Ady Gil moving only slowly when the Japanese vessel swerved towards the speedboat, running over its bow and forcing it down into the water, as activists tumbled over on the deck.
The six crew members - one with broken ribs, according to Sea Shepherd - were rescued. The $2 million vessel, according to Sea Shepherd leader Paul Watson, is unsalvageable."
As most of Australia is asleep right now, I wonder exactly which hemisphere is clicking on the article's accompanying poll question "Who do you think is to blame for the collision between a Japanese whaling ship and Sea Shepherd protest boat?"
At the moment the results are almost neck and neck in the blame game.
While over at the Herald-Sun another poll question this morning brings a vastly different response.

Could this mean that Japan's PR team over at Omeka Public Relations prefers to read The Australian first thing in the early hours of the morning rather than the Herald-Sun? I wonder......