Saturday, 1 August 2009
Editor made use of internet sources, but he forgot to thank them
The front page of today's Daily Examiner carries a report written by its editor, Peter Chapman, about the disqualification of a jockey whose urine sample tested positive to a banned substance.
Racing NSW stewards disqualified the hoop for 12 months on the basis of an analyst's finding of an opioid in a sample taken from the jockey after he completed trackwork in July.
According to Chapman, "the test revealed traces of the prohibited drug, Buprenorphine, in his system".
No, Peter, stewards did not reveal to the public just what the jock's sample contained.
Chapman proceeded to provide readers with the duck's guts about Buprenorphine.
Although it made for interesting reading, Chapman didn't say that the information provided about the substance was lifted from any one of a number of sources on the internet. And, of course, he didn't acknowledge the source/s.
Even more interesting, was what Chapman (with all his editing skills) elected to leave out about the substance's adverse effects.
In addition to the effects stated, the source/s Chapman 'borrowed' from also stated that the substance had the potential to affect a chap's love making.
Thanks, Peter, for sparing the readers those details!
Read Chapman's piece in The Daily Examiner's here.
Australia can now participate in Kyoto international carbon trading according to Minister for Climate Change and Water
The Minister for Climate Change and Water, Senator Penny Wong this week announced that Australia's emissions trading registry has been issued with Australia's Kyoto units for the 2008-2012 Kyoto Protocol period.
The Secretariat to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change has confirmed Australia's units, or Assigned Amount Units, for the 2008-2012 commitment period, were 2,957,579,143 tonnes of CO2 equivalent of greenhouse gas emissions.
This is equivalent to 108 per cent of 1990-level emissions. Senator Wong said the issuing of the Kyoto units meant Australia could now participate in international emissions trading under the Kyoto Protocol.
The Kyoto Protocol allows for countries to create and acquire Kyoto units from other countries via three mechanisms and use those units to meet their targets.
The registry, which will be administered initially by the Department of Climate Change, will track and record all Australian trade in Kyoto units.
[Queensland Farmers Federation Weekly Bulletin,31 July 2009]
Marine Wonderland: Lismore Regional Gallery exhibition open until 5 September 2009
I turn my back for five minutes and look what happens!
I don't know - take off on hols leaving blogging behind and look what happens.
Friday, 31 July 2009
Water Security Hall of Shame for South Australian would be water raiders
South Australian LGA Water Security Hall of Shame
It isn't only Alexandrina Council in South Australia which doesn't seem to understand that it would be environmental vandalism of the worst sort to attempt to cure a desperate lack of water security in one inland catchment area ie., the Murray Darling Basin, by placing a relatively healthy coastal catchment at risk by diverting part of its freshwater flow which sustains both a growing population base, significant primary industry and a large, productive estuary system and wetlands.
There are other local governments which appear to be hitching their star to an impossible dream with clearly no understanding of either geography or hydrology, particularly when it comes to Coorong District Council's idea that damming the headwaters of the Clarence River would actually result in high water volumes comparable to the Snowy Mountain Scheme.
Here is the beginning of the 2009 Water Security Hall of Shame:
16. MOTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
There aren't any jobs on a dead planet**
By the time Kevin Rudd had closed comment on the inaugural Focus on Climate Change post at PM's Blog last week there were 939 published comments listed.
This was a fairly respectable response given that all participants had to register, comment was moderated and, comment publication was restricted to business hours which meant that there was limited debate on opinions put forward.
This week it appears that the Prime Minister via his second post wants a very brief snapshot of the nation's reaction to the NHHC report on health care reform, because there are less than four full days allotted for comment.
By 12.45pm on Tuesday 28 July 2009 there were a mere 20 comments on his health post, which worked out at only 1.1 comments per hour since that post went online.
Oh, and by the way, the Prime Minster's second post is erroneously tagged as a health blog when in fact it is a post on the PM's Blog - a mildly annoying little error.
** Line from a comment on Australian Prime Minister's first post on his new official blog.
Monotremes: Looking for love in all the wrong places
Because echidna trains and lone animals sometimes wander across roads or into urban areas, please take care when driving on local roads and be mindful that it may be an amorous anteater which has your dog barking to get out at night and not someone you need to see off the property.
Echidas move suprisingly quickly so there is no need to interfere with any trek across your garden.