This blog is open to any who wish to comment on Australian society, the state of the environment or political shenanigans at Federal, State and Local Government level.
There is no doubt about it, Monsanto & Co employees are a scary group when they start to blog.
Earlier this month in a post titled I am Monsanto one of these happy clappy souls decided to pose a rather sarcastic hypothetical question; Did you know that pollen from our genetically-modified crops will magically migrate into another farmer's field and contaminate his crop?
Apparently (if one is a Monsanto employee) the well-known natural processes known as pollen drift and cross fertilisation are not within the bounds of our world - for GM traits to be found in non-GM crops or GM plants to be discovered in non-GM fields then something otherworldly has to have occurred.
This will come as a complete surprise to biologists and agronomists:
However Monsanto employees are not finished with spin on the company blog Monsanto according to Monsanto.
In another post calledAgent Orange and Monsanto the case is made for a benign and patriotic Monsanto participating in deliberate dioxin contamination on a large scale because; The U.S. government, under the Defense Production Act, directed seven companies – including Monsanto, which was then primarily a chemical company – to manufacture the material.
Yes, the President made me do it appears to be the argument here.
A government contract defence that U.S. courts have not apparently fully supported, as there was a 1984 case in which in has been reported that Judge Weinstein encouraged settlement and eventually directed Monsanto to pay over a large percentage of an $180 million out of court settlement in favour of American veterans.
All the while remaining silent on the fact that sales of Agent Orange and Lasso were basically what kept Monsanto's agricultural chemical division in the black during the 1960s and the Viet Nam War.
Now I have been wondering of late why it is that Monsanto employees are so cavalier with how they use available fact and historical record.
I refuse to believe that their obvious youth (in comparison to North Coast Voices authors) is a significant factor because older people do not have a monopoly on commonsense or knowledge.
So I am left with the possibility that Monsanto's corporate culture is so intense that employees are totally indoctrinated by the end of their first year with the firm and thereafter are incapable of recognising that Monsanto & Co hasn't been a uniformly ethical company from its inception up to the more recent past.
In June 2009 the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals rejected an appeal by the Secretary of the Dept of Agriculture et al (including Monsanto Company as Defendant-intervenor-Appellant) and upheld a lower court injunction against the USDA's deregulation determination re GMO perennial alfalfa.
As one of the many millions of outsiders looking in on American society it is hard to argue against a much needed reform of the U.S. health care system.
As often as I complain about the failings of Australia's universal hospital/health care system, I am always grateful for its existence when I compare it to somewhere like America.
One has to wish President Obama well in his effort to expand health insurance so that it acts more like an albeit very limited safety net for U.S. citizens.
However, on 22 July 2009 Obama put his position on the current health debate at a press conference in much the same way he has conducted his part in debate on many other issues and FactCheck has again caught him out:
President Obama tried to sell his health care overhaul in prime time, mangling some facts in the process. He also strained to make the job sound easier to pay for than experts predict.
Obama promised once again that a health care overhaul "will be paid for." But congressional budget experts say the bills they've seen so far would add hundreds of billions of dollars to the deficit over the next decade.
He said the plan "that I put forward" would cover at least 97 percent of all Americans. Actually, the plan he campaigned on would cover far less than that, and only one of the bills now being considered in Congress would do that.
He said the "average American family is paying thousands" as part of their premiums to cover uncompensated care for the uninsured, implying that expanded coverage will slash insurance costs. But the nonpartisan Kaiser Family Foundation puts the cost per family figure at $200.
Obama claimed his budget "reduced federal spending over the next 10 years by $2.2 trillion" compared with where it was headed before. Not true. Even figures from his own budget experts don't support that. The Congressional Budget Office projects a $2.7 trillion increase, not a $2.2 trillion cut.
The president said that the United States spends $6,000 more on average than other countries on health care. Actually, U.S. per capita spending is about $2,500 more than the next highest-spending country. Obama's figure was a White House-calculated per-family estimate.
TheByron Bay Writers Festival(established in 1997) is coming around again from Friday 7 August through to Sunday 9 August 2009.
The festival kicks off with Friday's poetry competition and progresses though a packed weekend,
with everyone from Tom Keneally, Roy Masters, Peter Singer, Geoffrey Robinson, David Williamson, Anne Summers, Kerry O'Brien, Bob Ellis, Wendy Harmer, Rachel Perkins, though to author and blogger Irfan Yusuf taking part.
Can't get to see your G.P. for a month? Worried about that long wait at hospital accident and emergency? Overwhelmed by the thought of a day-long trip to see a specialist? Upset by the fact that a family member is hundreds or thousands of kilometres away receiving in-patient treatment? Concerned that you won't survive a life-threatening disease because poorer health outcomes sometimes correlate with life in the regions? Indignant that you can get elective surgery within two months if you have the money to pay but are on a waiting list for twelve months if you are poor? Think your local district hospital won't be there at the end of the year if this area health service cost cutting keeps up?
The National Health and Hospitals Reform Commission may say that; The health of our people is critical to our national economy, our national security and, arguably, our national identity. Our own health and the health of our families are key determinants of our wellbeing. Health is one of the most important issues for the Australian people, and it is an issue upon which they rightly expect strong leadership from governments.
However don't expect significant federal-state consultation on the report's recommendations before the next federal election.
The Liberals and Nationals won't add anything constructive to consideration of the public health service as they don't want timely consultation because it will take away an election campaign stick that it can use to beat the Rudd Government about the head and, Labor won't be rushing forward either because it will be easier to continue promising golden health reform in the lead-up to polling day than it will be to defend leaks about inevitable federal-state consultation hiccups.
As for those medieval guild relics, the 'gentlemen's' unions covering general practitioners and medical specialists - well they won't be doing more than blowing obstructive hot air until someone promises them that there will be a larger user pays component favouring their pockets in any national health system.
So. Can't get to see your G.P. for a month? Worried about that long wait at hospital accident and emergency? Overwhelmed by the thought of a day-long trip to see a specialist? Upset by the fact that a family member is hundreds or thousands of kilometres away receiving in-patient treatment? Concerned that you won't survive a life-threatening disease because poorer health outcomes sometimes correlate with life in the regions?Indignant that you can get elective surgery within two months if you have the money to pay but are on a waiting list for twelve months if you are poor? Think your local district hospital won't be there at the end of the year if this area health service cost cutting keeps up?Get used to it and hope that you survive until that shining day when Kevin Rudd finally 'fixes' the public health system.
A healthier future for all Australians - Final Report June 2009:
Sometimes when the mainstream media is in full flight commemorative flight as it was last week over the 40th anniversary of the U.S. landing on the Moon, one can sometimes feel out of sync with supposed public sentiment when thoughts and memories don't appear to coincide with mass recollection.
However, in this instance all those not in lock step were rescued by First Dog on the Moon and Ned the Bear.
Do you want more creative and artistic opportunities in your local community? How can the arts play a stronger role in your region? Regional Arts Australia encourages you, your colleagues and friends to help shape the creative future of regional communities as part of a national survey. The survey results will be combined with the outcomes from a series of public consultations to find out what communities really want and to help regional Arts Australia determine its future directions. ClickHERE to take the survey.
It is ten years ago this November that the World Trade Organisation convened its 1999 ministerial conference in Seattle ,Washington USA and, what the media dubbed The Battle of Seattle anti-globalisation protests began.
This is what the Washington education department is telling current students about that five-day protest which brought the WTO to its knees:
Breakdown showing percentages of get-out-of-gaol-free cards availble to greenhouse gas emitters until 2026 in the Waxman-Markey Climate Bill aka U.S. Clean Energy and Security Act 2009.
If you thought that the Rudd Government's plan to compensate industry super polluters was a fizzer (to such a degree that a national emissions trading scheme would see virtually no significant change for the better in relation to Australia's greenhouse gas pollution) then hang on to your hats as Leader of the Opposition Malcolm Turnbull and the Liberal Party pretend to engage with the thorny issue of climate change by putting forward these nine demands:
1. An Australian Emissions Trading Scheme (ETS) should offer no less protection for jobs, small business and industry than an American ETS which is being developed and is presently in the form of the Waxman Markey Bill which has been approved by the House of Representatives but is yet to pass the US Senate. The final form of any legislation may be materially different from Waxman Markey and will not be known until later in the year.
2. To that end there must be an effective mechanism, such as a regular review by the Productivity Commission or a similar expert independent body, to ensure that the Australian ETS does not materially disadvantage Australian industries and workers relative to American industries and workers. The legislation must bind the Government to correct any disadvantage identified by the review process.
3. In order to ensure that an Australian ETS does not simply result in futile carbon and production leakage – exporting the emissions and the jobs – Emissions Intensive Trade Exposed industries (EITEs) should at least be on a level playing field with the United States and other advanced economies and should therefore receive full compensation for higher energy costs until the bulk of their competitors (measured as in Waxman Markey by global market share) face a similar carbon cost.
4. Fugitive methane emissions from coal mining should be treated in the same way as they are in the United States and Europe.
5. As in the Waxman Markey legislation agricultural emissions should be excluded from the scheme and agricultural offsets (eg. biosequestration or green carbon) should be included. Australia's greatest near term potential of reducing its CO2 emissions are to be found in the better management of our own landscape.
6. The scheme design must ensure that general increases in electricity prices are no greater than comparable countries to minimise the impact on all trade exposed industries, to reduce the need to compensate for households and to avoid a needlessly high increase in taxation.
7. In order to ensure continuity of electricity supply, electricity generators should be fairly and adequately compensated for loss of asset value to ensure capacity to invest in new abatement technology and to fund maintenance of existing facilities for energy security purposes.
8. Effective incentives and/or credits must be established to capture the substantial abatement opportunities offered by energy efficiency, especially in buildings.
9. There must be adequate incentives for voluntary action which can be added to Australia's 2020 target.
Besides simply restating some of the broad aims already expressed by government, it appears that Turnbull would like Australia to adopt certain aspects of the proposed U.S. Clean Energy and Security Act 2009. Yet another watered down climate change bill. Just as importantly, he does not want to enact our own emissions trading scheme until after the Americans have theirs in place.
Now attempting to tie Australia's legislative response to an American timetable is a nice time waster, as this yet unborn act only passed the U.S. lower house by 7 votes and is facing a hostile upper house before it can be become legislation, with no guarantee that the eventual act will even remotely resemble the current bill or that its final provisions will be seen in a favourable light by the rest of the world.
While Turnbull obviously hopes that he can put off the evil day when he actually has to genuinely address emissions trading, his principle aim appears to be to further increase protection and compensation for Australia's super polluters under any national scheme. Which may please his mates at Goldman Sachs whilst ever that group is involved with energy and mining industries, but may not appeal to the international community generally because Turnbull's solution seems to favour tariffs.
In this video I discussed the issue of other farmers saving patented seed with farmers who don't believe in that type of farming practice.
If you think about it, it's pretty simple. The law is the law. When you sign an agreement, you must obey that agreement. Just like when I buy a CD of my favorite artist (which I do have quite the collection), I don't burn it for friends. At the same time, I download quite a bit of songs to jam to on my iPod and I buy each and every one of those songs from iTunes.
Although these examples are on a much smaller scale, it's the right thing to do.
My parents raised me to always do the right thing, even if it costs more or doesn't seem like the most appealing option. I was raised on good morals, which I credit and thank my parents daily for. Just as I was raised on these morals, so were the two farmers featured in this video.
I hope you see it that way.
Leaving aside the ungainly stretch inherent in likening perpetual seed patents to music copyright, the irony of Monsanto blogging about morals is readily apparent.
This is the same company which spent years happily spreading dioxin/PCB contamination across the world. Here is a brief potted history of its recent transgressions and another about heavy metal contamination due to Monsanto mining operations.
Sadly Monsanto does not appear to see that its recalcitrant past concerning environmental degradation and denial of human rights makes a mockery of its current claim that; The law is the law.
Now that isn't exactly what is in the body of the newspaper article (which rather looks to be based on a media release) and it's definitely not what is in the published research Reconstructing Indian-Australian phylogenetic link.
What the researchers appear to be asserting is that early Australians were descended from out-of-Africa migration.
The complete mtDNA sequencing indicate that both Australians and New Guineans exclusively belongs to the out-of-Africa founder types M and N, thus ultimately descended from the same African emigrants ~50 to 70 kyBP, as all other Eurasians.
The researchers, who based their finding on the particular mtDNA sequences of 8 Indians and 6 Aboriginals, are postulating a migration journey which took the ancestors of Australia's traditional owners along what is known as the southern route (Horn of Africa to the Persian/Arabian Gulf and further along the tropical coast of the Indian Ocean to southeast Asia and Australasia) ~ 60 to 50 thousand years before the present day and that migration likely occurred before or at the beginning of N group population growth in pre-history India.
Pity that The Sydney Morning Herald decided on the colourful headline, the published research deserved better.
These poll results for the morning of 24 July 2009 look rather impressive on The Daily Examiner's website.
However, the lack of any total number of votes received being identified means that no-one realises that the 84% of respondents voting "Yes" actually only represents about 17 people.
This is not the only APN News & Mediawebsite which carries these misleading poll layouts.
But what could one expect from a regional newspaper chain which is busily pursuing a tabloid reputation similar to The Daily do-you-know-the-truth-or-do-you-read-the Telegraph?
Any online polling the reader happens to see under the mastheads below should be treated with some caution if a respondent total is not displayed.
Next week Brisbane is hosting the Australian Public Sector Anti-Corruption Conference 2009over four days from 28 July to 31 July. It is held in Australia every two years, and is a joint initiative of the Crime and Misconduct Commission (QLD), the Independent Commission Against Corruption (NSW), and the Corruption and Crime Commission (WA).
This is a significant opportunity for Australian and international public officials to learn about contemporary anti-corruption trends and strategies, and to network with senior representatives of leading Australian public sector agencies. This year's conference will also be of particular interest to health administrators, tertiary institutions and agencies providing services in remote locations, with sessions focussing on each of these areas.
Let us also hope that local government bureaucracy receives more than just a mention in the last day's hijinks:
The conference will conclude with Kerry O'Brien hosting an entertaining and informative hypothetical with an anti-corruption bent exploring the topic 'Queensland — beautiful one day and desperate for the developer dollar the next!'
If you would like to draw Martin Ferguson's attention to the possibility that the Rudd Government's desire to create more uranium mines may not be supported by his fellow Australians, then hit the links in Scott Ludlum's letter and tell the minister so.
Dear friend,
Would you allow a secretive US arms company to mine uranium in your backyard? Neither would we!
It's easy to approve a new uranium mine when it is out of sight and out of mind – but just because we don't see a place every day doesn't mean that we should risk ruining it forever.
That's how the Environment Minister Peter Garrett and Resources Minister Martin Ferguson are able to approve environmentally destructive projects like General Atomics new Beverley 4 Mile mine, 500 kilometres north of Adelaide.
If this acid leaching mine opens, Australia will have five uranium mines either working or approved, with more in the pipeline. Along with the expansion of other mines it adds up to a potential trebling in Australia's uranium exports - three times the waste, three times the worry, three times the risk.
The Australian Government allows our uranium to be sold to nuclear weapon states such as China. Uranium sold for nuclear power frees up uranium for nuclear weapons so our exports directly or indirectly fuel growing nuclear instability and intensify threats across our region and around the world.
That's why it's important to let our politicians know, in their own backyards, that this massive expansion of uranium mining must stop.
With your help, we are proposing to send the postcard below to every voter in Batman, the backyard of the Resources Minister Martin Ferguson.
The U.N. Climate Change Conference in Copenhagen is less than five months away, and with no benchmarks set to measure compliance the world's leaders recently decided to agree to keeping global warming at no more than 2 Celsius - practically guaranteeing massive environmental degradation across Australia.
Now I find that in their wisdom the organisers of this conference have paid out good money for a dinky little website called Hopenhagenat which we are supposed to lodge a 10-word expression of what gives us hope.
WTF? How can the world have hope if all its leaders are doing is playing at finding solutions for climate change instead of actually doing something right NOW.
North Coast Area Health Service (NCAHS) covers an area of 25,570 square kilometres extending from Port Macquarie in the south, Queensland in the north and westward to the Great Dividing Range and there are over 480,675 people living within these boundaries according to the area health service.
Which works out at no more than 2.9 acute care beds to every 1,000 North Coast residents and, even less available to patients without private medical insurance if one was able to extract private hospital beds from the bundled NCAHS 2005 figure.
In 2007 Peter Roberts and Paul Cunningham told a NSW inquiry that NSW had only 1.1 acute care beds in private hospitals per 1,000 population and 2.7 acute care beds in public hospitals per 1,000 people. Now Professor Peter Collingdon informs us in 2009 that: In Australia we have 38% less beds than in 1981 when there were 6.4 acute care hospital beds for every 1000 people. There are now only four beds per 1000 people available. Only 2.7 of these beds are available in the public sector -- where the sickest patients are looked after. [Crikey.com.au,20 July 2009]
Which indicates that little is changing for the better in health services when it comes to bed numbers.
Given the relentless NCAHS cost-cutting, staff and bed reduction drive of recent years, perhaps Chief Executive Officer Chris Crawford could favour us all with details of the current ratio of acute care beds in NSW North Coast public hospitals to every 1,000 head of population.
If Garrett doesn't have a line in the sand, he is a sell-out, make no mistake. But if he does, and so long as he hasn't crossed it, he has become a pragmatic politician holding on to a few convictions along the way. Howard would be proud. Ouch!
I'm sure everyone will remember that protracted legal battle over who had rights over the term Ug, Ugg or Ugh boots, in which little Aussie battlers were able to convince the Registrar of Trade Marks that these terms in themselves were generic and therefore beyond trademark in Australia by U.S. Deckers Outdoor Corporation (with the exception of one particular graphic representation of a certain trademark incorporating the word UGG).
34. The evidence overwhelming supports the proposition that the terms UGH BOOT(S), UG BOOT(S) and UGG BOOT(S) are interchangeably used to describe a specific style of sheepskin boot and are the first and most natural way in which to describe these goods which should innocently come to the minds of people making this particular style of sheepskin boot. The terms thus lack any inherent capacity to distinguish the particular goods. The Yellow Pages®, Internet, magazine and dictionary uses of these terms make it quite clear that these terms are generic – they are the most immediate and natural ways in which to refer to a particular style of sheepskin boot.4 They are terms which are required by other traders without any improper motive to describe those boots. The terms, (as opposed to the registered trade mark), are in all senses analogous to the terms SCHOOLIES - Sports Break Travel Pty Ltd v P & O Holidays Ltd, (2000) 50 IPR 51 or CAPS THE GAME - Powell v Glow Zone Products Pty Ltd (1997) 39 IPR 506.
IP Australia now has this fact sheet on its website explaining the current situation as it interprets it, with this particular rider: The Internet provides easy access to global markets and takes no account of national borders. If you are trading on the Internet you need to understand the laws of the country into which you are selling goods or services. If you place an offer for sale on the Internet in Australia that invites purchase from overseas, this can amount to trading overseas and could leave you vulnerable to legal action and expensive litigation. Likewise an overseas proprietor selling goods in Australia via the Internet may infringe an Australian trade mark. Decker Outdoor Corporation was such a bad sport about its Australian loss that it apparently attempted to scare away Internet trade from the small Australian company, which led opposition to its attempt to expand the Decker trademark, by creating www.uggsnrugs.com (it's winter here in Australia, so if you have a little cash to spare why don't you click onto the real Aussie site www.uggs-n-rugs.com.au owned by West Australians Bruce and Bronwyn McDougall and order a pair of Ugg boots to keep those feet warm).
Thankfully, it appears that Google is not rushing to obey the dictates of this international marketplace bully as the named websites and goods images were still visible at the time of writing this post.
Biodiversity Summit 2009, with keynote speaker Dr Rachel Warren.
Aiming to better understand the connections between biodiversity and climate, and why protecting natural ecosystems is essential to tackle the climate crisis .
The climate crisis is transforming biodiversity policy, demanding rapid fundamental change to protect and restore the natural environment. The Biodiversity Summit 2009 will review how natural ecosystems contribute to mitigating and adapting to the climate crisis, including the role of terrestrial ecosystems in the global carbon cycle and carbon storage and the contribution of biodiversity to the resilience of natural ecosystems, particularly in the face of climate change. The Summit will also analyse the policy implications flowing from the need to protect and restore natural ecosystems for climate change mitigation and adaptation and discuss implementation strategies and tools. The program for the day will include presentations, workshops and discussion. Participants will have an opportunity to offer workshops; and round table sessions will cover issues like how to 'frame' the policy debate, identifying key issues that need to be addressed, and how the policy agenda is to be taken forward. Everyone interested in biodiversity and climate will find it relevant – researchers, lawyers, land managers, policy-makers, activists and individuals.
When: Saturday, 8 August 2009, 9am to 5pm Venue: Canberra Institute of Technology, K Block, Constitution Ave, Canberra Registration fees: Standard $95, low income $55
Unfortunately it doesn't look like Australia will get much of a view, however more information can be found at Eclipse and NASA, including animations and models.
We have to hand a clipping, sent by Mark Southcott of somewhere in the wilds of the Illawarra, from the Bristol Post of June 21. A little late, but it's a timeless piece: "Outside Bristol Zoo is a car park, with spaces for 150 cars and eight coaches. It has been manned six days a week by the same charming and polite attendant. The charges are £1 per car, and £5 per coach. On Monday he did not turn up for work. Zoo management phoned Bristol City Council to ask for a replacement. The council said: 'The car park is your responsibility.' The zoo said that the attendant was a council employee. The council asked: 'What attendant?' Gone missing from his home is a man who has been taking daily car park fees amounting to £400 a day, for 23 years, or 2 million quid."
I happened on a story about that high profile and influential sect, The Exclusive Brethren, via an overseas open media site last week and trying for a source article I stumbled on Tasmania's The Examinerout of the Fairfax stable.
This is what this newspaper's website stated when I attempted to access the July 2009 article Sect stole my kids' Tasmanian father tells of Exclusive Brethren anguish - SPECIAL REPORT:
If you decide to read the whole story your account will be debited by the number of credits indicated next to the heading. If you think you might want to refer back to this story you should print it out or save it to your hard disk. The cost of stories (daily news and archive*) from July 1 2002, is 20 credits (AUD 22 cents incl. GST) but you will not be charged any more than 100 credits (AUD $1.10 incl. GST) in any one session. This equates to the average cost of The Examiner hardcopy.
A nice polite offer, but no thank you. I'll spend 5 minutes more on the Internet digging further.
The original online mention gave me enough information to go straight to the free published court judgments without findings being filtered by paid journalists and here they are:
Which quite frankly makes The Examiner's attempt to make me pay for information somewhat laughable. Especially as pay per view online newspapers will obviously have to continue running homepages with revealing 'teasers' in the hope of attracting paying customers - thereby defeating their aim of locking away the news.
Now Launceston in which this newspaper is based had an estimated population of 103,000 in 2006 and this same newspaper bragged in 2008 that it had a readership of 33,488 Monday to Saturday and 103,000 on Sunday. Enough said.
Forty years ago today the Americans first successfully landed men on the Moon.
That this anniversary is marked by humankind's inability to come to terms with the fact that dangerous global warming is occurring here on Earth demonstrates that while space exploration may have added to the sum of scientific knowledge it remains somewhat peripheral to life on the home planet.
NASA Apollo 11 video, audio tapes and transcripts here.
Anyone who has ever over time looked at items for sale on eBay would have noticed some hilariously puffed up item descriptions, obviously phoney buyer/seller feedback history entries and sometimes the odd fraudulent offering.
One regular eBay user now details how common shills are on the auction site.
In eBay's own words, "Shill bidding is bidding that artificially increases an item's price or apparent desirability", and it's just as common on eBay as it is in any motor auction room up and down the country. But just because that dodgy geezer in the sheepskin coat, upping the interest on that Mondeo, is all part of the "charm", it doesn't mean it's OK on eBay. In fact, it's a criminal offence and there have been several prosecutions, here in the UK. Not only that, but eBay's rules prevent you bidding on items being sold by your friends, family and (take note) your work colleagues! The only exceptions are purchases made using the "Buy it Now" option or fixed price listings. So how can you recognise if you're being taken to the cleaners? Well, this is one of the easiest frauds to carry out, so many shill bidders are going to leave some clues for you. Check the number of bid retractions a bidder has - we can all make mistakes, but could we really enter the "wrong amount" over and over again? See if the user IDs are in the same format, or look similar in more obscure ways. Look out for sellers who immediately relist an item - wouldn't you try to communicate with a non-paying bidder first, instead of arbitrarily relisting straight away? Although it's easy to manipulate, have a look at the location given by the IDs concerned, and remember that eBay's "distance from seller" feature can be used to weed out those sellers who deliberately enter the wrong location (see my other guides for details of how this feature can be used to your advantage). Does the pattern of bids look right? Finally, although I'm not allowed to provide a link, there is at least one on-line tool that allows you to enter the eBay IDs of both the seller, and the suspected shill bidder, to view the historical transactions between the two parties, but you'll have to do a search for that one. He also lists nine other scams. While another user is so incensed with what he sees as eBay's refusal to adequately police the practice of false bids that he has written a lengthy case study.
Living as we do on the NSW North Coast in a physically beautiful coastal environment with a constantly shifting sea of tourists in our midst, it is often easy to overlook some of the less palatable facts of life such as the level of homelessness some areas experience and the impact that has on the individuals and families involved.
Excerpt from Mid-July 2009 Northern Rivers Social Developmental Council newsletter:
The Richmond-Tweed Region has a total of 1765 people [1638 non Indigenous and 127 Indigenous] experiencing homelessness.
Much homelessness in the region is hidden, as 50% of the recorded homeless population in the Richmond-Tweed Region are living temporarily with friends and relatives.
10% are living in specialist homelessness services.
29% of the homeless population in the Richmond-Tweed Region of NSW are living in improvised dwellings and on the streets.
Within the Richmond-Tweed Region, Tweed Heads has a rate of 66 per 10,000 non Indigenous people and 81 per 10,000 Indigenous people facing homelessness every night.
Lismore has 64 per 10,000 non Indigenous people and 401 per 10,000 Indigenous people facing homelessness every night.
An additional 85 per 10,000 non Indigenous people and 135 per 10,000 Indigenous people within the remaining Richmond-Tweed statistical division are facing homelessness every night.
In NSW as a whole, 27,374 people are homeless tonight.
Of these 6% are living in the Richmond-Tweed Region of NSW.
The Richmond-Tweed has l3% of the State's population.
Lismore City Council has agreed to provide land to a Commonwealth Dept. of Health and Ageing funded joint project of Rainbow Region Community Farms Inc and the Northern Rivers Social Development Council which will establish and run a community garden. Garden plots will be organic and use only hand tools. Anyone who would like to get involved with the community garden can call Linda on 6620 1815 to register their interest. Full story at The Northern StarA garden, but not common
Planet Arkhas a new website devoted to its partnership with U.K. The Carbon Trust.
This new site is calledCarbon Reduction Labeland it invites Australian business and industry to join in a scheme to have products, including food and other grocery items, identified by their carbon footprint.
Planet Ark hopes to have the scheme running by 2010.
This type of labelling will assist shoppers to calculate the amount of greenhouse gases produced in the manufacture of goods and allow a more accurate calculation of an individual or household's total carbon footprint for each shopping trip.
Although home subscribers to the Daily Examiner have become accustomed to finding all sorts of rubbish inside their papers the recent inclusion of a scratchie ticket hit an all time low.
Trying to tell youngsters who have access to a mobile phone that a ticket similar to that shown is something less than a "winner" is a hard call.
The next door neighbours' youngsters found their Mum and Dad's paper contained a "winning" scratchie. So the youngsters, reckoning a prize was just waiting to be collected, sent a text message to the promoter ... and several text messages later ... a prize was theirs. Their 'prize' was one of the 7,999,898 "advertised" prizes that was access to Pixel Multimedia Pty Ltd's 'free' games site .(That's right, there are almost 8 million of these bodgy prizes.)
However, the 'free' games wasn't all the youngsters were lined up to receive. They were also about to 'receive' two txt messages every week and they'd pay the princely sum of $10 a week for the messages.
Thankfully, the youngsters woke up to the rort and stopped the messages being sent to them.
Okay, hands up those who think bookmakers belong to the same genus as parasites.
Tony White, a freelance galloping journo, must think otherwise. That has to be the explanation for the item he produced for The Daily Examiner (Grafton) appearing on page 3 rather than the front page.
100/1 about a 10/1 winner! ($20,000 to $200 each-way)
Hey, Tony, what's the bookie's home address and phone number? I'd like to get set with that bloke a couple of times before he's pensioned off to the benevolent bookies retirement village.
Source: The Daily Examiner (unfortunately, it's not online)
Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is prepared to have a limited dialogue with others on his new blog at PM Connect starting off with the question; How do you think we can make Australians more aware that we need to act on climate change now?
But only between 2pm 16 July 2009 and 5pm 22 July 2009 and only if you restrict yourself to 300 words or less.
Don't think that you'll be able to anonymously offer a comment or two either in this mini debate as you have to register a legitimate email address, but pen names for publication are O.K. apparently. Due to comment moderation only occurring during business hours be prepared for a long time lag until your own after-hours comment is published.
Oh, and don't dare include a link in your comment or indicate that you support a particular political party or you'll be binned!
do not include internet addresses, videos, images or links to websites, or any email addresses, in your contribution; and
do not post overtly party political comment (eg. reference to candidates, fundraisers, support for political parties).
Spontaneity is definitely missing from this blog and it seems that the Prime Minister's minders have learnt nothing from Stephen Conroy's abortive attempt at an official blog.
North Coast Voices no longer allows the Facebook Button sited at the end of each blog post to activate when it is clicked on by a reader.
This button has been deactivated because it has become clear that Facebook Inc. is not now and has never been a corporation genuinely committed to principles of digital privacy and security of Internet users' personal information and other associated data.
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The Universal Declaration of Human Rights Article 19
Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
[Adopted and proclaimed by United Nations General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of 10 December 1948]
Hi! My name is Boy. I'm a male bi-coloured tabby cat. Ever since I discovered that Malcolm Turnbull's dogs were allowed to blog, I have been pestering Clarencegirl to allow me a small space on North Coast Voices.
A false flag musing: I have noticed one particular voice on Facebook which is Pollyanna-positive on the subject of the Port of Yamba becoming a designated cruise ship destination. What this gentleman doesn’t disclose is that, as a principal of Middle Star Pty Ltd, he could be thought to have a potential pecuniary interest due to the fact that this corporation (which has had an office in Grafton since 2012) provides consultancy services and tourismbusiness development services.
A religion & local government musing: On 11 October 2017 Clarence Valley Council has the Church of Jesus Christ Development Fund Inc in Sutherland Local Court No. 6 for a small claims hearing. It would appear that there may be a little issue in rendering unto Caesar. On 19 September 2017 an ordained minister of a religion (which was named by the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in relation to 40 instances of historical child sexual abuse on the NSW North Coast) read the Opening Prayer at Council’s ordinary monthly meeting. Earlier in the year an ordained minister (from a church network alleged to have supported an overseas orphanage closed because of child abuse claims in 2013) read the Opening Prayer and an ordained minister (belonging to yet another church network accused of ignoring child sexual abuse in the US and racism in South Africa) read the Opening Prayer at yet another ordinary monthly meeting. Nice one councillors - you are covering yourselves with glory!
An investigative musing: Newcastle Herald, 12 August 2017: The state’s corruption watchdog has been asked to investigate the finances of the Awabakal Aboriginal Local Land Council, less than 12 months after the troubled organisation was placed into administration by the state government. The Newcastle Herald understands accounting firm PKF Lawler made the decision to refer the land council to the Independent Commission Against Corruption after discovering a number of irregularities during an audit of its financial statements.The results of the audit were recently presented to a meeting of Awabakal members. Administrator Terry Lawler did not respond when contacted by the Herald and a PKF Lawler spokesperson said it was unable to comment on the matter. Given the intricate web of company relationships that existed with at least one former board member it is not outside the realms of possibility that, if ICAC accepts this referral, then United Land Councils Limited (registered New Zealand) and United First Peoples Syndications Pty Ltd(registered Australia) might be interviewed. North Coast Voices readers will remember that on 15 August 2015 representatives of these two companied gave evidence before NSW Legislative Council General Purpose Standing Committee No. 6 INQUIRY INTO CROWN LAND. This evidence included advocating for a Yamba mega port.
A Nationals musing: Word around the traps is that NSW Nats MP for Clarence Chris Gulaptis has been talking up the notion of cruise ships visiting the Clarence River estuary. Fair dinkum! That man can be guaranteed to run with any bad idea put to him. I'm sure one or more cruise ships moored in the main navigation channel on a regular basis for one, two or three days is something other regular river users will really welcome. *pause for appreciation of irony* The draft of the smallest of the smaller cruise vessels is 3 metres and it would only stay safely afloat in that channel. Even the Yamba-Iluka ferry has been known to get momentarily stuck in silt/sand from time to time in Yamba Bay and even a very small cruise ship wouldn't be able to safely enter and exit Iluka Bay. You can bet your bottom dollar operators of cruise lines would soon be calling for dredging at the approach to the river mouth - and you know how well that goes down with the local residents.
A local councils musing: Which Northern Rivers council is on a low-key NSW Office of Local Government watch list courtesy of feet dragging by a past general manager?
A serial pest musing: I'm sure the Clarence Valley was thrilled to find that a well-known fantasist is active once again in the wee small hours of the morning treading a well-worn path of accusations involving police, local business owners and others.
An investigative musing: Which NSW North Coast council is batting to have the longest running code of conduct complaint investigation on record?
A which bank? musing: Despite a net profit last year of $9,227 million the Commonwealth Bank still insists on paying below Centrelink deeming rates interest on money held in Pensioner Security Accounts. One local wag says he’s waiting for the first bill from the bank charging him for the privilege of keeping his pension dollars at that bank.
A Daily Examiner musing: Just when you thought this newspaper could sink no lower under News Corp management, it continues to give column space to Andrew Bolt.
A thought to ponder musing: In case of bushfire or flood - do you have an emergency evacuation plan for the family pet?
An adoption musing: Every week on the NSW North Coast a number of cats and dogs find themselves without a home. If you want to do your bit and give one bundle of joy a new family, contact Happy Paws on 0419 404 766 or your local council pound.
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There is no doubt about it, Monsanto & Co employees are a scary group when they start to blog.
