Carbon reduction labelling in the supermarket aisles?

Planet Ark has a new website devoted to its partnership with U.K. The Carbon Trust.

This new site is called Carbon Reduction Label and 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.

Who's complicit? The newpaper? The newsagency? Or both?

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.

'Generous' bookie bet punter 100/1 about a 10/1 winner ... why wasn't this on the front page?

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 PM says no comments supporting the Opposition on my blog thankyou

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).

Here are the 55 moderated comments published on the first day.

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.

There always was a suspicion that Senator Fielding would eventually spin out into the troppo-sphere

Watching the nightly news this week and observing Senator Steve Fielding attempt to buttonhole Al Gore and then quickly pop up in front of a television camera, it was easy to see that this particular senator no longer had his feet planted firmly on the ground.

So it was hardly a surprise to find his website now featured this graph:

I'm sure people are becoming quite tired of pointing out to Steve Fielding that his use of surface temperature over so short a period is bound to be a trifle misleading.

Looking at near-surface temperatures over a longer period it is obvious that although global temperature may drop over a relatively short period there has been a pronounced rising trend for over a century and a half:

U.K. Met Office/Hadley Centre

It is hard to feel sympathy for Steve Fielding's alleged dilemma, when faced with data for May 2009:

U.K. Met Office/Hadley Centre

Perhaps this lone representative of the Family First Party (who only made it into parliament on the back of preference votes) needs to re-read a simple 2007 fact sheet from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.

Favourite tabloid headline of the week

From the U.K. Guardian on 14 July 2009 and worth a read:

Is Goldman Sachs a blood-sucking vampire squid?

Now who were Australian Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull's former business partners again?

Turnbull's unfortunate turn of phrase

This is vintage Malcolm Turnbull.
Nursing home resident Joan Ashcroft, 79, got the jump on the trailing media with a blunt question to the alternative prime minister. "Are we going to live long enough for you to get back into government?" she asked. The answer, was "assuredly, yes". "You only have to live long enough for the next election," Mr Turnbull replied.
Does that mean we oldies are worth nothing to Malcolm after the election?
Still laughing at how unconsciously offensive that man can be.

Upriver Bill
Northern Rivers

Guest Speak is a North Coast Voices segment allowing serious or satirical comment from NSW Northern Rivers residents.
Email ncvguestpeak at live dot com dot au to submit comment for consideration.