In 2012 Christopher Monckton goes way beyond being a media tart

The point at which Viscount Monckton of Brenchley changes from an irritating media tart into a pathetic media whore?

http://youtu.be/Br9imjm1kvk

The plot begins to unravel - will Abbott and Pyne be left holding the thread?

It must have been a hard twenty-four hours for the Coalition lynch-mob headed by Opposition Leader Tony Abbott and his trusty henchman Christopher Pyne.

First a Federal Court judge asked for reasons to be presented as to why he should not find Health Services Union (HSU) national secretary Kathy Jackson in contempt of court because she allegedly attempted to inappropriately contact him without other parties being aware.

The judge also referred to a June 1 affidavit of Ms Jackson which contained "potentially scandalous allegations" and unless it was read in court, he would not allow the public access to the document. "This case is going to be conducted in court and not in the newspapers," he said on Tuesday.

Then a former sex worker (pictured below) at the heart of one of their favourite allegations went on television and stated she was out of the country in May 2005 and couldn’t have met with Craig Thomson.

Transit of Venus: I saw'd it, I saw'd it!

Transit of Venus on 6 June 2012, University of Sydney Physics Society
(Photo: Terry Cuttle)

Using the tools of my childhood - two white cardboad sheets acting as both 'pinhole camera' and photographic paper - I saw the 6th June 2012 Transit of Venus.
It was as magical as the first time I, in my skewed tie, baggy shorts and long woollen socks, used this crude instrument to watch my first solar eclipe in the schoolyard so many years ago.

Paul Howes - braggart extraordinaire

Once more the National Secretary of the Australian Workers' Union (pictured on left) has been caught doing a little background bragging to the media in 2012:

Howes' famous threat to withdraw support for the carbon price if it cost "one job" paid off when the government delivered a package containing large free permits for trade exposed industries, a $300 million steel transformation package and big support for coal industry jobs.

There is just one small problem with any brag, one can get quickly caught out. Howes does not appear to have publicly made this threat until 13 April 2011 at the earliest.

Yet the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme Green Paper of July 2008 clearly stated:

The Government also recognises that there will be adjustment costs for businesses as they move to a low carbon economy. That is why the green paper outlines programs to assist these businesses in the transition period. This assistance involves providing free permits to the most emissions intensive trade exposed activities…

In November 2009 the NSW Farmers Federation reported:

The Government says that it recognises that emissions-intensive coal mines need transitional assistance to adjust to the introduction of the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme. It will target assistance to the most gassy mines, and has on the table a $750m package to assist these mines investigate and implement abatement opportunities and ease their transition to the introduction of a carbon price.

On 17 March 2011 the Prime Minister; promised she will not allow jobs in heavily polluting trade-exposed industries to go overseas under her emissions pricing regime.

The same day the Garnaut Climate Change Review Update Paper 6 recommended assistance to trade exposed industries for ninety per cent of their obligation.

While on 23 March 2011 it was reported that; compensation packages [are] now being negotiated by Labor in closed-door meetings with the directors [of] trade-exposed companies. This resulted in federal government funding worth $300 million going to Australian steel manufacturing, in addition to other assistance being offered to steel as one of the emissions-intensive trade exposed industries The coal and aluminum sectors were also included in this trade exposed industries compensation.

Although Australian Workers' Union formal submissions to government may have assisted in shaping government policy on carbon pricing, Paul Howes’ self-promoting ‘threat’ had next to nothing to do with any influence this union exerted.

OMG! It's 2012 - let's announce a celestial tragedy expected in 4 billion years

Presuming no possible knock-on effect from a collision between Andromeda and The Milky Way, NASA has blithely announced this event scheduled for around 4 billion years’ time.

After all; by then climate change, population pressure, government inaction and the dominance of multinational corporations will have extinguished human life on Earth anyway and the Sun will have probably begun to die of its own accord.

But hey, the 24hr news cycle is alive and kicking right now – so let’s put out a press release!