Talking about effluent in the Big Dry.....

Every few years it seems that somebody wants to turn one or another New South Wales coastal river inland against the wishes of the majority of coastal dwellers.
Well, for about 40 years there has also been an alternative idea doing the rounds under the radar so to speak - pumping treated effluent via a pipeline through the Great Dividing Range into the Murray and Darling river network.
So that this now almost potable water goes inland rather than into coastal rivers and the ocean.

Lower Clarence River resident

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.

Boy the Wonder Cat receives the ultimate Nigerian phishing scam?

This rather amusing email turned up in Boy the Wonder Cat's email inbox recently:

Good day,
This programme is awarded for all victims who were previously scammed by the internet fraudsters ,
The Financial Commitee of the UN-HABITAT Programme have deposited your Settlement Check Parcel of $500,000.00 USD with Reference Number UN013-0156/UPS-UN-HABITAT to the United Parcel Service of Nigeria(UPS)
You are to contact the United Parcel Service of Nigeria (UPS) with
your details for more information.
CONTACT:
E-mail:ups_deliveryunits02@live.com
Tel: +234-7060-516-059
Accept Our regards.
Pathangery Latha
UN-HABITAT Senior Information Officer
PLEASE REPLY TO:ups_deliveryunits02@live.com

Show me the money Mr. Crawford says NSW Industrial Relations Commission

The NSW Industrial Relations Commission has temporarily short-armed the North Coast Area Health Service's drive to shed another 300 jobs.
Chief Executive Officer Chris Crawford has been asked to show proof of current savings and outline savings anticipated by further staffing cuts.
Fractured fairytales coming up!

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

Dailan Pugh

Resting Wobbegong 2007

oil on canvas

One of the art works on display at the Marine Wonderland exhibition at Lismore Regional Gallery, 131 Molesworth Street, Lismore NSW, open Tuesday to Saturday 10am - 4pm and Thursday 10am - 6pm. Admission Free

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.

Between 24th and 26th July Truffles Turnbull broke his own Australian Liberal Leader of the Opposition record for unpopularity.

Not only does he trail Kevin Rudd as preferred prime minister by 50 percentage points, he also has 50% of those polled dissatisfied with his performance compared to only 26% dissatisfied with Rudders.

And a sparse 34% in the survey say that they will vote for the party he heads.

Turnbull only has to fall another 10 points and he will beat Brendan Nelson's all-time Newspoll low as "Better PM".

With Tony Abbott talking about a return to WorkChoices (Mark 2) should the Coalition regain Government and helpfully suggesting that the retirement age should be raised even further to 70 years of age, it's almost a certainty that Truffles will slide further in voter estimation.

Click on The Australian image to enlarge