In a galaxy far, far way..........

Sometimes when meandering down the digital highway one comes across the trace of a Google search by another intrepid traveller.

Last week I stumbled upon one lonely soul in Chevy Chase (Washington DC) who in the wee small hours of the morning appeared to be idling wondering if Australian Senator Eric Abetz was a nastie type.

As Senator Abetz was a postwar baby who arrived in Australia at a very young age he can hardly be blamed for the actions of Nazi Germany. So perhaps his demeanor when travelling overseas is so similar to his bullying behaviour during Senate inquiries that it gives rise to this sort of speculation?

Something from the "What were they thinking?" file

Last Wednesday I was emailed this copy of a Queensland Government advertisement concerning state-wide electricity rebates which was published on page 8 in The Daily Examiner that day.

Now this newspaper has a catchment which is some hundreds of kilometres south of the NSW-QLD border and a daily circulation of around 17,000 copies.

So what on earth was the Queensland Government doing spending good money to advertise so far from its intended target population and with so little effect?

Plucky little Bundanoon and the Rees Government to ban bottled water from the premises

At last New South Wales is getting serious about the amount of one-off use, energy intensive, disposable containers for bottled water which are ending up in landfill or too frequently litttering our waterways and streets.

Much of this commerically packaged water is drawn from springs and aquifers already under pressure due to the gradual drying of the southern half of the Australian continent over the last decade.

According to a Radio Australia report it takes two litres of water to manufacture one litre of bottled water.

The small town of Bundanoon in the NSW Southern Highlands and now the NSW State Government are set to ban bottled water, the former from all town shops, cafes etc. and the later from government departments and offices.

Well done, Bundanoon - you are a real trail blazer.

Turnbull's recycled debt truck shows a lack of imagination

A recycled debt truck for heaven's sake!
It's hard to believe that Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull is so desperate at the moment that he would revisit 1995-96 and risk aligning himself with the unpopular ghost of former Australian PM John Howard in this way.

This revamped debt truck is likely to breakdown long before in reaches the Hume Highway.

Turnbull continued to put his foot in it when on his blog on 7 June 2009 he posted the Launch of the Debt Truck and sent the same out on Twitter.

In that particular post he stated Mr Rudd is fond of doing media stunts while wearing hard hats.

This gem is on the very same blog page which shows him wearing a hard hat during his recent visit to West Australia.


Definitely a pot calling the kettle black.
Who looks foolish now?

Local doctor shows a surprising level of intolerance - wonder how full his waiting room is this week?

Lengthy waiting times to see specialists practicing on the NSW North Coast and longer waiting lists for surgery are apparently not the fault of an ailing public health system, it's really the patient who is to blame.

Here are a few quotes from the owner of Iluka's Wellness Centre in How to avoid the long hospital queue:

"Diseases like diabetes, bowel cancer, heart disease and the affects of smoking are illness that are often brought on because people made bad choices,"....

"People are entitled to eat junk food and smoke cigarettes, and sit on their backside and not exercise but if you want really good health I believe you've got to make some contribution yourself.

"And because this is such a lovely place to live we've got a huge influx of people coming here, and the queues to see specialists are getting bigger and bigger.".....

"The other thing important since I graduated is life expectancy. It has probably increased 20 years," ....

"So those people who aren't attending to health issues now aren't going to have a very pleasant last 20 years."....

"If you can afford to smoke and eat sausage rolls and fish and chips, then you can afford private health insurance."

To be fair The Daily Examiner also reports:

Dr Richards said the medical industry in the 20th century promoted dealing with the symptoms instead of preventing the illness in the first place.

He said this was convenient for doctors who were more concerned with 'paying off their mortgages'.

Still, it irks somewhat to find that this Iluka gentleman appears to believe that all would be well with the health system if there were either less people using it or more people paying to use it.

As to his claims about the affordability of health insurance - single aged pensioners in Iluka (with no other assets) who rent their homes for around the current average weekly cost and who get maximum rent assistance will still only have about $142 to $162 left each week to provide themselves with groceries, clothing, footwear, travel, medicines, et cetera even if they manage to keep their utility and telephone accounts at or below the low government subsidy.

Providing themselves with rather basic health insurance is likely to reduce that weekly amount in the pocket by another $15 to $30 per week and would likely see such pensioners have to do without a range of healthy foods or adequate clothing.

It was with some amusment that I noted the absense of alcohol consumption from the doctor's list of unwise lifestyle choices. But then quite a few in his profession are known to like a quiet drink or two.....

Image from Wikimedia

Marohasy's out of a job and hawking her pottery collection

According to Jennifer Marohasy's blog on 6 July 2009:

My second three-year contract with the Melbourne-based Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) ended with the financial year and is not being renewed.........

I had great hopes for the planned collaboration between the IPA and University of Queensland on evidence-based environmentalism but the University proved too timid and conservative - at least for me........

I have also left the Australian Environment Foundation (AEF) Executive....

I am going to have to find a new job, or perhaps start a small business (If anyone is interested in antique Asian pottery I have a collection for sale.)........

I will be kind and refrain from further comment.

Oops! Where did that soldier come from? Another reminder that News Ltd is not quite the bastion of journalistic integrity it likes to proclaim it is.

In the wake of News Ltd CEO John Hartigan's attack on blogs and praise of newspapers, a number of bloggers have pointed out that newspapers from this stable are not renown for factual reporting of late if one remembers the Steve Lewis-sanctioned 'scoop' report on that government email (quickly proven to be faked) and publication of those equally fake revealing photographs of a certain political candidate.

Here is another little gem to add to the list. The Herald-Sun getting rapped over the knuckles by the Australian Press Council for doctoring a photograph - Adjudication No. 1420 (May 2009).