Lower Clarence man competes in ITU 2009 Triathlon World Championships

Credit: The Daily Examiner 27 July 2009

Ray Hunt of Yamba is pictured above demonstrating that retirement can be healthy, productive and just plain fun.

Ray will be competing between 9 -13 September 2009 on the Gold Coast, Queensland and the Lower Clarence Valley is barracking for their man as he swims, bikes and runs in the ITU Triathlon World Championships in both aquathlon and triathlon events.

Event schedule here.

Results of races will be posted after 7pm on the day at http://www.triathlon.org/

Update:

Full Aquathlon results

Ray finished the Aquathlon event on 9 September in 0:44.51 (with his first run coming in at 0:11:15, his swim at 0:20:30 and his second run at 0:13:05).

A mere 0:11.41 behind the elite athlete who took out first place.
Well done, Ray.

Further update:

Ray came fifth in his age group in the ITU 2009 Age Group Triathlon World Championships on 12 September, with an unofficial time of 2:30:56.

Just 0:9:31 behind the age group winner David Roadhouse (USA).

A sterling effort.

"Please sir, will you pay for this anti-ALP brochure". Now which MPs said that?

This week the Commonwealth Auditor General released a report on the Administration of Parliamentarians' Entitlements by the Department of Finance and Deregulation.

What this reveals is one long rort of the $100,000 MP printing allowance by the major political parties for campaign purposes and a very lackadaisical federal department which did not adequately police invoicing for this allowance.

Happy little pigs in mud abounded in the run up to the last federal election - what with at least $125,000 each to play with at the time.

A little snippet in the report reveals that four unnamed Liberal pollies put in invoices for printing brochures called "Labor can't manage money. You Pay for it", which failed to mention either their names or electorates and seem to have originally been labelled by these MPs as "anti ALP" material.

The report rated these as a real risk of being outside the printing guidelines.

Now Google shows there's a long list of possible suspects ranging from big players like Nick Minchin and Christopher Pyne through to tiddlers such as Michael Ferguson and perhaps Jamie Briggs.

An enjoyable hunt the pollie game for the truly bored and tired of life.

Forget genetic manipulation as the ultimate in useless innovation - look at food shape changing

Some orchardists in far-flung places obviously think that fruit needs a new look.
These pears have been shaped on the tree using plastic moulds during the growing period, while the watermelon became square by unknown means.
What on earth is happening to quality produce au naturel?
And as jaded appetites and ennui are obviously being catered for here - did anyone create a new shape for the 9th day of the 9th month of the 9th year of the 21st century?




Pics from U.K. Telegraph

Climate change largely irreversible for 1,000 years after excessive greenhouse emissions stop?

One of the distressing abstracts found online at the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America:

The severity of damaging human-induced climate change depends not only on the magnitude of the change but also on the potential for irreversibility. This paper shows that the climate change that takes place due to increases in carbon dioxide concentration is largely irreversible for 1,000 years after emissions stop. Following cessation of emissions, removal of atmospheric carbon dioxide decreases radiative forcing, but is largely compensated by slower loss of heat to the ocean, so that atmospheric temperatures do not drop significantly for at least 1,000 years. Among illustrative irreversible impacts that should be expected if atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations increase from current levels near 385 parts per million by volume (ppmv) to a peak of 450–600 ppmv over the coming century are irreversible dry-season rainfall reductions in several regions comparable to those of the “dust bowl” era and inexorable sea level rise. Thermal expansion of the warming ocean provides a conservative lower limit to irreversible global average sea level rise of at least 0.4–1.0 m if 21st century CO2 concentrations exceed 600 ppmv and 0.6–1.9 m for peak CO2 concentrations exceeding ≈1,000 ppmv. Additional contributions from glaciers and ice sheet contributions to future sea level rise are uncertain but may equal or exceed several meters over the next millennium or longer.

Full 2009 paper in PDF form here.

Political evolution NSW-style

I don't think anyone has missed the metamorphosis undergone in the media recently by one murder victim - from wealthy "property developer" to "loan shark and standover man" and worse.
But how many people have noticed that the person or persons allegedly named on that rumoured tape recording have now gone from the very vague "persons connected to NSW Labor" or somewhat vague "state government MPs" to the more specific "senior NSW politicians" or "NSW ministers"?
By yesterday the chatter mill had developed belt and braces, with bribed "senior NSW bureaucrat", "federal Labor politicians" and "police officer" thrown into the mix for good measure.
Seemingly without any print, radio or television journalists (or the NSW Opposition for that matter) having ever listened to this audio tape.
And I thought the local bowlo was good at gossip - the Aussie meeja leaves it for dead! One gossipy whiff and they're off like a Bondi tram.
Given the collective histories and conflicting stories of those non-journalists who have actually said that they heard the tape or knew details of the alleged recorded conversation; is it any wonder that I keep hearing the words 'hysterical beat-up' echoing in my head?

U.S. citizen and Islam convert Abdullah al-Kidd gets his day in court

U.S. President Barack Obama may wish it otherwise, but where government is slow or unwilling to address the former Bush administration's constitutional abuses then the courts are obviously prepared take on this challenge if people are willing to apply.
The quotes below are from a U.S. Court of Appeals opinion in Abdullah al-Kidd v John Ashcroft (former US Attorney General), filed 4th September 2009.

MILAN D. SMITH, JR., Circuit Judge:

According to the allegations of his first amended complaint, Plaintiff-Appellee Abdullah al-Kidd (al-Kidd), a United States citizen and a married man with two children, was arrested at a Dulles International Airport ticket counter. He was handcuffed, taken to the airport's police substation, and interrogated. Over the next sixteen days, he was confined in high security cells lit twenty-four hours a day in Virginia, Oklahoma, and then Idaho, during which he was strip searched on multiple occasions. Each time he was transferred to a different facility, al-Kidd was handcuffed and shackled about his wrists, legs, and waist. He was eventually released from custody by court order, on the conditions that he live with his wife and in-laws in Nevada, limit his travel to Nevada and three other states, surrender his travel documents, regularly report to a probation officer, and consent to home visits throughout the period of supervision. By the time al-Kidd's confinement and supervision ended, fifteen months after his arrest, al-Kidd had been fired from his job as an employee of a government contractor because he was denied a security clearance due to his arrest, and had separated from his wife. He has been unable to obtain steady employment since his arrest. Al-Kidd was not arrested and detained because he had allegedly committed a crime. He alleges that he was arrested and confined because former United States Attorney General John Ashcroft (Ashcroft), subordinates operating under policies promulgated by Ashcroft, and others within the United States Department of Justice (DOJ), unlawfully used the federal material witness statute, 18 U.S.C. § 3144, to investigate or preemptively detain him. Ashcroft asserts that he is entitled to absolute and qualified immunity against al-Kidd's claims. We hold that on the facts pled Ashcroft is not protected by either form of immunity, and we affirm in part and reverse in part the decision of the district court. (my emphasis)

In its conclusion the court quoted Blackstone:

"To bereave a man of life, or by violence to confiscate his estate, without accusation or trial, would be so gross and notorious an act of despotism, as must at once convey the alarm of tyranny throughout the whole kingdom. But confinement of the person, by secretly hurrying him to gaol, where his sufferings are unknown or forgotten; is a less public, a less striking, and therefore a more dangerous engine of arbitrary government."

WILLIAM BLACKSTONE, COMMENTARIES ON THE LAWS OF ENGLAND 131-32 (1765)

Mischief's bad utterances cost him a date with Max

It seems the Northern Territory is the place to be if one wants to meet a talking feline.


After the news about Mischief the talkative cat broke another NT cat's owner declared that her cat Max was also a talking cat.

Mischief, who featured previously on this site, was all set to meet and have a chat with Max. Well, that's what Mischief's owner Robert "RJ" Duncan thought was on the cards.

However, Max's owner Mrs Snowball put a stop on any dalliance involving Mischief and Max.

The Northern Territory News reports that Mrs Snowball declined Mr Duncan's invitation because she doesn't want her cat picking up Mischief's bad habit of swearing.

According to Mrs Snowball, her cat Max can pronounce all her family members' names. Clever Max can even pronounce names with double syllables.

Sadly, there are no pics of Max - he's camera shy.

pic of Mischief from NT News