Receding floods often leave a mosquito heaven behind

It's always nice to see floods receding and a green bloom developing in NSW North Coast paddocks.

However, pools of water and boggy ground depressions last a while and are a boon for mosquitoes.

As Ross River Fever and Barmah Forest Fever occur in the region, it is also a time to be extra careful about being bitten. Slap on that repellent when outdoors and spray the house before you go to bed. 

NSW Health symptoms of Ross River Fever and managing your home environment:

http://www.health.nsw.gov.au/public-health/cdscu/facts/pdf/rossriver.pdf

National Environmental Health Forum floods and environmental health:

http://enhealth.nphp.gov.au/council/pubs/pdf/floods.pdf

Frank Sartor lets fly with ageist insult

Last Saturday The Daily Examiner outed NSW Planning Minister Frank Sartor for calling building  inspectors "old and fat".

Since when is being old something to be disparaged and why is it now considered a insult?

On the NSW North Coast a great many people are on the grey-haired side of fifty-five and up.

They are also the backbone of many community organisations and vital to the life of coastal towns.

By the same token, carrying a little weight is not the moral failing so obviously implied by this arrogant and prejudiced minister.

Less of the old, Frank. You're no spring chicken either, mate, and your online official portrait shows a distinct double chin.

Oh, and Frank - we oldies are voters too.

Scientific research or commercial slaughter?

Photograph found at httwww.greenpeace.org.uk

This is an image of a Minke whale being flenched on a whaling vessel.
It is a scene which is similar to that which is occurring on the factory
vessel within Japan's Antarctic whaling fleet in 2008.
The Institute for Cetacean Research (IRC) which conducts this alleged
research does not insist that whale dead weight measurements are of
the intact mammal.
Instead it apparently weighs the meat and offal, according to reports
from the International Whaling Commission, making no compensation
for fluid lost in butchering.
But then it's the meat rather than the science that is important to the
Institute and the shadowy shareholders of Kyodo Senpaku Kaisha Ltd.

How the mighty are fallen or the would-be memoirs of JW Howard

It appears in the case of John Winston Howard, that when the country turns its back on you it turns it for good.

This was Google Trends' reply when looking for January 2008 Australian searches using the term "john howard" yesterday.

"Your terms - "john howard" - do not have enough search volume to show graphs."

Google Trends result for Howard:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=%22john+howard%22&ctab=0&geo=AU&date=2008-1&sort=0

 

While an all-years Google Trends comparison with another recently retired prime minister, Britain's Tony Blair, shows that the world is losing interest in Howard at a faster rate than with Blair.

Google Trends result for Howard & Blair:

http://www.google.com/trends?q=%22john+howard%22%2C+%22tony+blair%22&ctab=0&geo=all&date=all&sort=0

 

Howard's memoirs may be a no-go as well, which might explain his flirtation with The Washington Speakers Bureau. Perhaps he feels that if he says a thing often enough that will make it historical fact and compensate for his lack of a Churchillian autobiography.

 

"Richard Walsh, consulting publisher with Australia's biggest independent publishing house, Allen and Unwin, said the prospect of books from any of the three was "not creating a lot of excitement" in the industry.

"I think we'd feel that any memoir by Howard would be too self-serving," Mr Walsh said.-----------

Literary agent Margaret Gee, however, was singularly unimpressed by the idea.

"I don't think they are blockbuster material," she noted drily. "I mean, what would you call their books? Perhaps Peter Costello's could be Bridesmaid Revisited, John Howard's could be The Feather Duster Diaries."

The Age article last week:

http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/words-are-not-enough-/2008/01/14/1200159362741.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Labor's Tony Burke on the right track, but...

Federal Minister for Agriculture Tony Burke recently revealed that a review of the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service ordered by the Howard government found the organisation is failing in many areas to screen for potential problems.

So far so good. Full marks for the appropriate level of concern the new minister expressed.

But, and it's a big 'but', the Minister of Agriculture's immediate response is to order another review.

After a decade of watching how far our strict quarantine laws were watered down by John Howard's desire to alternatively assist his great and powerful friend, the big multinationals and his favourite free trade agreement, it was rather disappointing to read this initial response.

How about implementing whatever recommendations were in the report from the first review, before launching a second round assessment of the service?

I'm sure we would all feel just a bit safer if something practical was done first - foreign insect colonies and exotic diseases are not going to wait on the political niceties of a new government.

Kevin 08: fools rushing in

"The consensus in the intelligence world suggests the greater threat to Australia is from home-grown terrorists rather than foreigners. Arms of government that have never previously had front-line involvement in developing national security policy, such as Treasury and AusAID, have been asked to come up with proposals to be considered by cabinet, most likely next month.

The Government will significantly broaden the definition of national security to include non-conventional threats such as climate change, natural disasters and the economy.

Australia will look to the annual US national security strategy, which encompasses challenges posed to security by the growth of the global economy.-------------

A key figure in this process will be Mr Rudd's US-style national security adviser, who is yet to be appointed."

The Sydney Morning Herald article yesterday:
 http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/rudd-to-shake-up-national-security/2008/01/18/1200620210388.html

 

You silly, silly, silly sods - is the Rudd Government incapable of learning a lesson from the former Howard Government's slavish aping of the Bush Administration, which resulted (with some active   encouragement by senior Coalition politicians) in that federal government being led through the nose by empire-builders and inflated egos in both intelligence and police circles.

To capsicum spray or not to capsicum spray

Is it just my imagination, or is capsicum spray being used more often these days to subdue the fractious.

There was even a case this month of NSW North Coast police letting fly with a spray in the face of one lonely, bellicose drunk. 

While the TV this week showed us all that other police patrolling the tennis were using the capsicum repellent like Aeroguard.

Whatever happened to the constables of my youth who could talk almost any situation down a level or two without blasting away.

Too many American crime shows and never-die action heroes for role models these days I guess.