And the cane toad was this big.......

Clarencegirl's favourite holiday story this year about cornering a cane toad in her kitchen the size of a fat hamster, large rabbit, Mack truck - well you get the picture - reminds me that the weather we've been having on the North Coast this summer is rather good for breeding nasty cane toads and Aussie frogs that look a little like cane toads at first glance.
So here's a couple of snaps to help you tell the difference, as you go out at night to nab in a plastic bag and freeze to death the toads at the bottom of the garden.


This is an adult cane toad.

So is this.

This is the Eastern Banjo Frog.

Australian Museum Fact Sheet on the Cane Toad pointing out distinctive features

Pics come from the ABC, National Parks & Wildlife and Picassa

Coles/Bi-Lo need to remember that there is no excuse for sloppy overcharging at the check-out

The Bi-Lo supermarket at Yamba has become a local byword for the worst business practices.

Its overcharging at check-outs has become so common that some alert local residents frequently manage to get at least a few grocery items per month for free when they front the store with evidence of overcharging.

However, the fact that a shopper noticing a difference between shelf price and docket price can get the item in question for free is no excuse for such blatant mismanagement.

Overcharging during the 2008-09 festive break was so noticeable that one regular interstate visitor told North Coast Voices that she found $13 worth of discrepancies on a $113 docket.

This type of bad experience can drive tourists away and, if Coles/Bi-Lo was a good corporate citizen it would take its Yamba management in hand and insist that such stupidity cease.

PETA finally falls over the edge and into The Far Side

This is a screen shot of the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) campaign against fishing and eating fish.

Now PETA's main argument is that fish feel pain and therefore suffer when caught and killed.
I don't think anyone would dispute that point.

However, it can be argued that all organic life 'feels' to some degree and that it probably 'hurts' when grain is harvested or fruit picked from trees.

It follows that, if PETA's criteria were to be the universal yardstick, then we humans would be obliged to starve to death.

So a campaign to protect fish by renaming them sea kittens is definitely something worthy of being placed alongside those chatty upright cows in The Far Side .

Conroy gets zinged again on his grand Internet censorship plan

2009 is not shaping up as a good year for the Australian Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy, Senator Stephen Conroy.

First we hear that Derek Bambauer poured cold water on his national mandatory ISP-level filtering plan and now IT experts tell us the Minister is dreaming if he thinks he can selectively filter BitTorrent, LimeWire, Kazaa or other peer -to-peer networks.

Peer-to-peer filtering is an impediment to business is the bottom line it seems.
With few believing the technology exists to do anything but completely block all file sharing networks, thereby starving Australian business, research and development of a useful tool.

Computer World is inviting readers to sign its online petition:

Concerned about freedom of communication? Click here to sign Computerworld's Hands Off Australia's Internet petition. Make your voice heard!

Defining a small coastal town

Letter to the Editor

The Daily Examiner

6 January 2009

Click on image to enlarge

Now many locals as well as some tourists would define Yamba (at the mouth of the Clarence River) by its sense of community, social life, streetscapes and access to river, ocean or beaches.
However, one local in a moment of unconscious humour points out that Yamba might be defined in part by its lack of a cemetery!

New Australian Electoral Commission head: come on down, Ed!

"Mr Ed Killesteyn commenced his five year appointment as the Electoral Commissioner, Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) on 5 January 2009.
Mr Killesteyn said he was pleased and honoured to be appointed to the position of Electoral Commissioner, and looked forward to continuing the AEC’s strong and well deserved reputation for delivering an electoral system that serves well Australia’s democratic heritage.
Mr Killesteyn has held a number of senior Public Service positions, including four years as a Deputy Secretary at the then Department of Immigration and Indigenous Affairs, and most recently as the Deputy President of the Repatriation Commission and a Deputy Secretary at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. "
Now Ed has a bit of a chequered history hidden in that wee bio - anyone remember Truth Overboard and the Palmer Report on DIMIA's treatment of Cornelia Rau?

A soft word of warning to Ed, as he starts one of the most important public service jobs in Australia (running our elections) - don't stuff up!

Australian political and religious leaders response to Gaza 2009

Political cartoon from Your Democracy

Australia recognises Israel's right to self-defence

Kevin Rudd, Prime Minister of Australia, Leader of the Federal Labor Party, 5 January 2009

HAMAS must accept Israel's right to exist within secure borders

Malcolm Turnbull, Leader of the Liberal Party of Australia and Leader of the Federal Opposition, 5 January 2009

The Australian government must end its acquiescence to Israel's military operations in Gaza

Bob Brown, Leader of The Greens, 9 January 2009

Dead silence so far from Warren Truss, Leader of the National Party of Australia

No word from Cardinal George Pell, Head of the Catholic Church in Australia

No current statement from Phillip Aspinall, Primate of the Anglican Church in Australia.

However he did sign the HEADS OF CHURCHES STATEMENT ON PALESTINE AND ISRAEL in July 2008. Along with these other national heads of churches:
Rev Dr Ross Clifford, President, Baptist Union of Australia
Lyndsay Farrall, Presiding Clerk, Australia Yearly Meeting, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers).
Rev Alan Filipaina, Moderator, Congregational Federation of Australia and New Zealand
Rev Gregor Henderson, President of the Uniting Church in Australia
Richard Menteith AM, National President of Churches of Christ in Australia
Archbishop Mor Malatius Malki Malki, Syrian Orthodox Church of Australia and New Zealand
Archbishop Paul Saliba, Antiochian Orthodox Church, Australia and New Zealand
Rev Dr Michael P Semmler, President, Lutheran Church of Australia
Pastor Chester Stanley, National President, Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia
Archbishop Stylianos, Primate of the Greek Orthodox Church of Australia

No comment found from Rabbi Jeremy Lawrence, Senior Rabbi of the Great Synagogue, Sydney

Israel is committing an act of terrorism. It's the duty of all the free people in the world to stand against it and stop this evil.

Ibrahim Abu Mohammad, Islamic scholar from Sydney, 2 January 2009