The Member for Goldman Sachs objects

Almost nightly on the teev we are faced with a moment to two from the member for the seat of Wentworth, the Honourable Malcolm 'Captain Caveat' Bligh Turnbull MP.
Irritating and yawn inducing as he is, there are some moments when he is wonderful to behold.
His objection in Parliament early last week to a momentary lack of the use of his 'title' Leader of the Opposition during Question Time was a political flounce which sent his crinoline a-whirling and was well worth that momentary glimpse on the nightly news.

"Mr Turnbull—Mr Speaker, on a point of order: I
am very happy to refer to the gentleman opposite as the
member for Griffith, if he would like to do that; if he
wants to be ‘the Prime Minister’ he should address me
as ‘the Leader of the Opposition’.
Mr Melham—Where is it in the Constitution, Malcolm?
The SPEAKER—Order! The member for Banks!
Honourable members interjecting—
The SPEAKER—Order! The House will come to
order!
Mr Randall interjecting— "

The end result was foregone - the House of Reps became littered with references to the member for Goldman Sachs and his ego lies a-bleeding alongside the latest Newspoll which shows that only 22% of voters think he would make a better prime minster than Kevin Rudd with the Coalition trailing by ten points in the two-party preferred stakes.

** Pic from Crikey

A thoughtful pause on Sunday

Is this the type of company Australia should be keeping?

No Australian Internet Censorship at FaceBook

Japan ready to begin 2008 Southern Ocean whale hunt

Minke Whale breaching from National Geographic

According to Al Jazeera last Friday:

Japan's whaling fleet is preparing to leave port to commence its annual hunt in the waters off Antarctica.

Fisheries officials say they plan to kill more than 900 minke whales and 50 fin whales, despite protests from environmental groups and slumping Japanese demand for whale meat.

The ships are expected to set sail in the coming days, although officials said that for safety reasons no exact date is being made public.

The fleet failed to reach its target catch in last season's hunt, partly due to a series of protests and disruptions by animal rights activists.

Japanese media had earlier reported that the target catch for this season's hunt would be cut back in an effort to avoid protests, but fisheries officials say no such cut is planned.

While Stuff.co.nz reports:

Greenpeace said that, even if the catch remained the same, cracks were starting to appear in the annual campaign.

Spokeswoman Sara Holden said Japan's whaling industry was troubled by the announcement that a high-profile whale meat shop in Tokyo would close in 2010 because of financial problems.

And for the first time, the fleet would not be 100 per cent Japanese-crewed because of resignations of former crewman.

"We are seeing the beginning of the end of whaling in the Southern Ocean whale sanctuary," she said. "The whaling industry's days are numbered."

However Japan's Institute for Cetacean Research continues taking a hard line on its right to an annual whale kill and little if anything has changed in relation to this year's hunt.

It's time to begin this year's round of letters and emails to the Government of Japan.

Details for the various Japanese cabinet ministers are here.

• Cabinet Office, Government of Japan1-6-1 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100-8914, Japan. Tel: +81-3-5253-2111
• Cabinet Secretariat, Cabinet Public Relations Office,1-6-1 Nagata-cho, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 100 - 8968, Japan
• Embassy of Japan in Australia
  112 Empire Circuit, Yarralumla ACT 2600, Australia
  Telephone
  (02) 6273 3244
  Facsimile
  (02) 6273 1848
  E-Mail
  cultural@japan.org.au

Who said that?

Who said this about Internet censorship?
"I'm quite concerned by them, I saw the reports, also the comments by Kevin Gosper.
My attitude to our friends in China is very simple. They should have nothing to fear by open digital links with the rest of the world during this important international celebration of sport."

If you said Kevin Rudd you're on the money, cobber.
Internet censorship in China bad, Internet censorship in Australia good - according to the twisted logic of our prime minister.

It's November and time for another peek at Rudd's risible Grocery Choice website

It was my turn this month to click onto the Rudd Government's Grocery Choice website.
There it was again, the same totally useless generalised information for North-East NSW and the usual generic basket of basic staples. 1

Coles/BI-LO $76.54
Woolworths/Safeway $77.94
Franklins $82.23
Independents $81.86
ALDI $61.12

1 Basic Staples
This basket includes a selection of staple grocery products purchased by Australian households. It includes a variety of products from each of the other grocery baskets, for example milk, bread, fruit, vegetables and meat.

Mr. Rudd, if you are not going to supply information that will allow true comparisons before we all do our weekly shopping, do you think that you might at least put your head together with the states and do something about supermarket chains selling rotting vegetables to captive markets in regional areas?
BI-LO is becoming notorious for this at its Yamba store.

And you thought the GM news was bad before.......

The GMO seed/food industry has been noticeable for the scarcity of testing of the end product.
Now a 2008 study out of Austria, Biological effects of transgenic maize NK603xMON810 fed in long term reproduction studies in mice Forschungsberichte, suggests a possibility exists that mice with longterm exposure to GMO feed may experience negative impacts on metabolic parameters and reproduction levels.

The 1st litters in the RACB displayed no differences between the GM and ISOfeeding groups.
Comparing the 2nd litters a very slight tendency towards smaller litter size and accordingly lower average litter weight in the GM group could be observed.
In the 3rd and 4th litters the aforementioned traits became significant(p<0.05).
Apart from a decline of deliveries, in the 3rd and 4th litters significantly fewer pups were born and in the 4th litter also significantly fewer pups were weaned in the GM group.
The average litter weights were in favour of the ISO group with significant results in the 3rd litters at birth and weaning as well as in the 4th litters at birth.
But in contrast to the MGS the loss of pups was higher in the ISO group. These results substantiate the assumption that long term feeding studies with more generations are useful in studying chronic diet related effects. According to our data the RACB design was better suited than the MGS, since the differences between the feeding groups were at significant levels.
The biological phenomenon observed in the RACB trial cannot be explained by different nutrient intakes, because both diets were covering the energy and nutrient requirements and fulfilled the prerequisite of nutritional equivalence.
Lower reproduction performance can be considered as indicator for a dietary effect.
It can be speculated, that this effect was caused by a factor beyond nutrient supply.
Whether this can be related to one of the two genetic modifications in thetransgenic material or whether this is an unintended effect in the strict sense related to the stacked events has to be further evaluated......
The genomic work that was performed in the gut tissue of the mice of both groups is not indicative.
However, the high number of deregulated genes that has been identified as difference between both groups could indicate a complex nutrition-host-interaction.
This has to be further evaluated and gene expression profiles need to be considered in other organs and especially in the reproductive system.
To date, trials have not been performed on that issue in feeding studies with genetically modified corn to our best knowledge.

Which leads to the inevitable bottom line - now that Australian governments are embracing Monsanto and Co's philosophy I won't be purchasing domestic product that contains cotton seed oil, soya, canola and any other ingredient that might be sourced from a genetically modifed crop grown in this country or overseas.

It's a bonza place the Clarence Coast

The NSW North Coast did well in the Keep Australia Beauitiful Clean Beach Challenge regional awards again this year.

Yamba on the Clarence Coast in particular should say a big thankyou to one of its favourite sons, Neil McInnes, for nominating Main Beach.

Yamba's Main Beach was declared the friendliest beach in the region, beating five other beaches to claim the prize at the Keep Australia Beautiful Clean Beach Challenge in Coffs Harbour.

Main Beach pipped two other Valley beaches Wooli and Brooms Head as well as Sawtell south beach, Shelly Beach in Ballina and Jetty Beach in Coffs Harbour. While the title is arguably true in a literal sense, the award was based on user friendliness.

Clean Beach Challenge assessor Brian Birkefeld said there was plenty to like about Yamba's Main Beach.

"The public facilities are well sited and well maintained, as is the signage and walkways. There is ample parking behind the beach, good traffic control and an excellent park above the beach, with free barbecues and children's play equipment," he said......

Meanwhile, residents at Wooli and Brooms Head were also recognised for the work they had done on their beaches.

Wooli Public School students were rewarded for their work, with the Keep Australia Beautiful team awarding the school the Young Legends title.

The award recognised the work the school had done in placing beach protection into the school curriculum and increasing environmental education.

Brooms Head residents and Clarence Valley Council were also commended for their work in improving Brooms Head Beach through a weed replacement scheme.
[The Daily Examiner, 14 November 2008]

A complete list of all NSW winners can be found here.

Pic of Main Beach found at The Daily Examiner