Doing something nice for your daughter

 

In an age where many male politicians are rampantly misogynist or homophobic and some religious male authority figures are unrepentant, predatory paedophiles, it is nice to be reminded that men can also be ordinary loving fathers to their children.

 

See Flip The Pronouns to learn how one dad turned his young daughter into a hero who rescued her little brother.

Tony Abbott gets laughed off the political stage

 

Australian Leader of the Opposition Tony Abbott has finally become a genuine political joke.
 

Brisbane Times 15 November 2012:
 

At a dinner on Saturday, Mr Abbott reportedly described Mr Wyatt, who won the Perth seat of Hasluck at the 2010 election, as a good bloke but ''not a man of culture''.

Mr Wyatt, whose mother Mona was a member of the stolen generation, was unimpressed and he and Mr Abbott had words over the phone on Monday night.

But on Tuesday, Mr Abbott exacerbated tensions again with his push to poach Ms Anderson.

''I think it would be terrific if, as well as having an urban Aboriginal in our Parliament, we had an Aboriginal person from central Australia, an authentic representative of the ancient cultures of central Australia in the Parliament,'' he said.

 

This caused quite a few Australians to laugh at him.
 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

First Dog On the Moon at Crikey

@Utopiana and and @Ebswearspink appear to have kicked off a Twitter hashtag #itriedtobeauthenticbut.

@Utopiana is Celeste Liddle from Melbourne who describes herself as a black feminist.

@Ebswearspink is believed to be a young indigenous lawyer who came from the Byron Bay area.

 

Here is a sample:

 

Ebs ‏@Ebswearspink

#itriedtobeauthenticbut when someone asked me who my mob was I promptly denied having links to Italian gangsters

 

Celeste Liddle ‏@Utopiana

#Itriedtobeauthenticbut... someone yelled "Which way?" and I pulled out a GPS

 Retweeted by Ebs

 

Anita Heiss ‏@AnitaHeiss

#itriedtobeauthenticbut but I've thrown more parties than boomerangs!

 Retweeted by Ebs

Georgia MacGuire ‏@blackgin

#Itriedtobeauthenticbut my certificate of Aboriginality doesn't have Authentic Indigenous artefact written on it.

 Retweeted by Ebs

 

Ryan Griffen ‏@Ryan_Griffen

#itriedtobeauthenticbut a cab driver said I looked Italian and my English was too good.

 Retweeted by Ebs

 

Luke Pearson ‏@LukeLPearson

#Itriedtobeauthenticbut every year at Corroboree I just end up line-dancing by myself in a corner somewhere singing "Achy-Breaky heart"...

 Retweeted 72 times 

Photobombed by an Antarctic seal

Mission of Mermaids ‏@MissionMermaids

Even our sea creatures have a sense of humorhttp://fb.me/LHAoxsIV 

 

Black-necked Stalkers Twitchathon Report (part 1)

Well Twitchathon time is never dull and this year was no different.  One scratching a few days before the race as our scribe, Annette Harrison, became ill and a bushfire in the Gibraltar Range were the only apparent negative issues.  Everything else looked good.  There were birds everywhere and the weather was predicted to be cool, a relief from the sometimes oppressive dry heat typical of Sunday afternoons on Twitch weekends.  The team comprised Russell Jago, Gary Eggins and myself.  Gary took over the role as scribe but was a participating scribe, meaning he could call birds as well.  We only needed two members to call each species.  We had agreed to stay completely within the Clarence Valley this year which can be limiting.  Three-thirty saw us standing at a wetland near Grafton watching a Black-fronted Dotterel and two Comb-crested Jacanas.  Ten minutes before start time a male White-winged Triller lobbed into a flowering Silky Oak.  Russell was allocated to keep it in sight.  White-winged Trillers have been absent from the valley for a couple of years so we wanted this one on our list.  Four o’clock arrived and we called Black-fronted Dotterel and Comb-crested Jacana but the Triller had completely vanished.  By the time we left this wetland eighteen minutes later we had notched up 31 species.  A good start.  Wedge-tailed Eagle was seen next followed by Plumed Whistling-duck and Musk Lorikeet.  The Musk Lorikeet was a real bonus as they had been absent from the Clarence Valley for many months.  They had only returned the week before the Twitch.  At Eatonsville we added 6 species including Grey-crowned Babbler then back to the Gwydir Highway notching up Rainbow Bee-eater and Peaceful Dove on the way.   Between Eatonsville and the Gibraltar Range we added 23 species including Spangled Drongo, Little Lorikeet and Channel-billed Cuckoo.  Gibraltar Range was interesting with a shroud of smoke but surprisingly we heard Paradise Riflebird and Wompoo Fruit-Dove in an area that had been back burnt.  The back burn was in a rather moist area and was relatively cool and low so the damage to vegetation was limited.  A stop to confirm Brown Cuckoo-Dove also produced Green Catbird, Satin Bowerbird and White-headed Pigeon and others.  A toilet stop at a lookout added Bassian Thrush as two were at the entrance to the toilet block.   Our regular Rufous Scrub-bird did not disappoint and a Superb Lyrebird was foraging on the roadside nearby.  The Noisy Pitta also called on cue and after a few nervous minutes of waiting the two Glossy Black-Cockatoos turned up at their usual location.   We arrived at the Emu-wren site but the sun was setting and the cool weather meant that most birds had shut down for the night.  Despite this we ticked off Southern Emu-wren, Variegated Fairy-wren and New Holland Honeyeater.  As darkness fell we heard Australian Logrunner and shortly after a Southern Boobook was calling.  Nocturnal species are difficult to get but we were happy with Southern Boobook, Eastern Barn Owl, White-throated Nightjar, Australian Owlet-nightjar, Masked Owl, Bush Stone-curlew and Tawny Frogmouth as well as Eastern Koel and Latham’s Snipe.  By the time we went to bed at 1.30 am we had recorded 117 species.  To be continued.

Greg Clancy

Head Stalker

Black-necked Stalkers Twitchathon Team 

* GuestSpeak is a feature of North Coast Voices allowing Northern Rivers residents to make satirical or serious comment on issues that concern them. Posts of 250-300 words or less can be submitted to ncvguestspeak AT gmail.com.au for consideration.