Flacco tells Cardinal George Pell a thing or two **

Talking an amble down one digital pathway I came across this in ABC National Radio's archives for the Science Show:

"Flacco: Now, it has come to my attention that Archbishop George Pell has threatened to excommunicate Catholic MPs if they support therapeutic cloning, and this has made me wonder how the church stands on the subject of cloned foods, for it is no secret that no matter what your faith (or lack of it), you've been eating cloned fruit all your life. Bananas, oranges, even Eve's apple was a clone, not to mention giant strawberries. You see, these foods have been modified over 6,000-odd years of agriculture.

So would this mean that Catholic vegetarians could be excommunicated for eating therapeutically cloned fruit? Basically I think that George Pell is a therapeutically cloned fruit. And perhaps there is more behind this anti-cloning crusade, for it is only hunters and gatherers who eat anything close to food in its original form, and without foods being genetically modified, well, the planet could only support a few odd million human inhabitants.

So perhaps it is George's plan to rid the planet of all non-Catholics and a few excommunicated upstarts, therefore leaving the Earth cleared for Pell and his cronies as opposed to us clonies. So to counter this and prevent further bad puns like that I suggest the unreligious must stand up for the clones, we must build an ark to house all our cloned flora and fauna and then lead them one by one onto this ark to be flung to a new planet to self-replicate in peace.

And it occurs to me that perhaps God himself is the original therapeutic clone; he lives alone, no need for a relationship, made us all in his image. We are all clones of God! How about that, George! If you yourself are a therapeutic clone of God, then perhaps you will have to excommunicate yourself. Not such a bad thing really, for if the Catholic Church would stop all this excommunicating it could then feel free to indulge in its opposite. And the opposite of 'excommunicate' is to communicate. Amen.

Robyn Williams: And it starts this week of course. Monsignor Flacco being typically inconvenient and annoying."

** This post counts as my contribution to North Coast Voices efforts to keep Monsanto & Co.'s blog monitor in full-time employment. Yup, I'm laffing at you Mista Missie Mons!

Mary Valley celebrates Garrett's decision to veto Traveston Dam proposal

It has been a long fight against the proposed Traveston Dam for Mary River catchment communities in Queensland, and they now have what is hopefully a long respite from any talk of new dams with Federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett's announcement rejecting the dam on solid environmental grounds.

Everyone who took part in this marathon lobbying deserves congratulations - from the Save the Mary River co-ordinating committee and those who turned out at protest rallies right down to anti-dam letter writers and tweeters. Collectively they have been a pattern card of perseverance in the face of tremendous political pressure.

NSW Northern Rivers residents will remember that the 2006-07 proposal to dam the Clarence River was at one time linked to Queensland Government plans for water security in the south-east of that state.

The Courier Mail said it all early today:

THEY screamed, they hugged, they danced and tears of joy rolled down their cheeks.

After an eerie few moments of silence as more than 100 protesters and supporters put down their glasses and held their breath to watch federal Environment Minister Peter Garrett deliver his verdict on the Kandanga Hotel's bar television, complete pandemonium erupted as soon as he said the word "no".

Nobody heard any more of his speech. The cheers almost lifted the roof off the pub as farmers, business folk, mums, dads and kids were swept up in the moment of joy after 3½ years of fighting the proposed $1.8 billion Traveston Crossing Dam.

The overwhelming feeling was one of relief – and disbelief.

Hard-core protesters who had spent the morning grimly putting more "no dam" information into mail-outs and arranging protest signs for tourists passing by on the Mary Valley Rattler steam train had to pinch themselves.....

Most had expected the dam would get the green light, with even more conditions added to the 1200 already imposed by the Queensland Co-ordinator General. Secretly they had prayed for the best but expected the worst.

NSW public servants have too much time on their hands?

NSW State Water Corporation has an e-tendering training page on its website and someone down south obviously thought it would be hilarious if the example contract used on the page was for a Clarence Dam.

Yes, very funny.
Folks on the NSW North Coast get the joke after spending so much time and effort repelling water raiders wanting to dam our coastal rivers - in particular the Clarence River.
Not so sure those down at Lithgow would be amused though - given their own problems with a "Clarence Dam".

---

This is the Training version of the NSW eTendering system.

The records found on this website are not real.

Please visit https://tenders.nsw.gov.au/ for current tender opportunities and contract records.

---

Archived Tender Detail View - SWC99999

Clarence Dam

RFT ID SWC99999
Publish Date 14-May-2009
Close Date & Time 14-May-2009 12:45pm

---

CERN's Large Haldron Collider being fired up again for full run in early 2010

The Times online last month reported that:
"After starting it with a bang, which promptly turned into a whimper, scientists have quietly powered up the Large Hadron Collider for a second time.
The preliminary run was low key compared with the ill-fated switch-on in September last year, but CERN scientists said the first beams suggested that the £3.6 billion experiment in Switzerland was finally under way again. “It’s the beginning of a very well-planned and cautious switch-on,” Brian Foster, a particle physicist from the University of Oxford, said.......
The accelerator is being ramped up to full energy gradually to minimise the chances of a repeat of the failure that led to a year of repairs. The first particles to be sent around the whole ring are scheduled for mid-November and the first collisions in the new year."
Unfortunately in its related article link the newspaper also displayed the 13th October 2009 headline:
Haldron Collider physist Adlene Hicheur charged with terrorism.
More fuel to the fire for those with a penchant for mini-black hole end of the world predictions.
Perhaps that intrepid Oz pollie, Steve Fielding, needs to rush to the nearest telephone box and change......

Want to swim in that pretty little lake in Yamba? First check for sharks!

I received a phone call this morning from a long time resident of Yamba at the mouth of the Clarence River.

He had been checking out Kolora Lake on the edge of town, as a possible alternative free still-water swimming pool due to the Main Beach rock pool being indefinitely closed because of structural damage.

All was going well as he walked this pretty little lake's bank until.......
he spotted a young shark (about two and a half to three feet long) calmly cruising by.

Now before he puts a toe in the water he wants to know if Mumma Shark is nearby!

The eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month - Lest We Forget

In remembrance of the many who fell and all who suffered during war

Poster from Zazzle

Are we in danger of entering a new faith-inspired Dark Ages or are we witnessing conservative right-wing religion's last hurrah?

The media quite often throws up quotes by religious leaders on the subject of global warming and some journalists have a penchant for picking those clerics who are most likely to be firmly anti-science.

So, are we in danger of entering a new faith-inspired Dark Ages or are we witnessing conservative right-wing religion's last hurrah? Now there is a question which itself smacks of as much wishful thinking on my part as that demonstrated by climate change sceptics within the clergy.

I don't think that there is any danger of paternalistic traditional religion fading away or its right-wing cadres disappearing into thin air. It's much more likely that when climate change descends on the heads of these faith-based sceptics we will all be told chronic water scarcity, food shortages and all our violent weather woes are God's punishment for our manifest sins.

Still, egged on by certain dominant groups and paid lobbyists, those against the idea that there is any such thing as catastrophic man-made global warming are now firmly entrenched in the religious arena. It would be folly to ignore the ability of religious groups to influence government policy, particularly in the role of stalking horse for big business.

Recent shifts in COP15 2009 rhetoric from binding legal agreements to non-binding political agreements being the goal for Copenhagen this December are no coincidence, as the alliances forged between anti-science groups supported by polluting industries and right-wing religious groups are emerging into the light.

On the U.S. faith-based Cornwall Alliance website currently there is a copy of An Open Letter to the Signers of"Climate Change: An Evangelical Call to Action"and Others Concerned About Global Warming which states:

In the accompanying document, "A Call to Truth, Prudence, and Protection of the Poor: An Evangelical Response to Global Warming," we present extensive evidence and argument against the extent, the significance, and perhaps the existence of the much-touted scientific consensus on catastrophic human-induced global warming. Further, good science–like truth–is not about counting votes but about empirical evidence and valid arguments.

The website also features The Cornwall Stewardship Agenda and is listed by that secular anti-global warming group The Heartland Institute as one of its 2009 conference co-sponsors.

Even Australia is not immune - for years Catholic Cardinal George Pell has been a member of the anti-science chorus and been quoted in media as saying that he is not convinced that climate change poses a threat, which shores up Monbiot's theory that many of the vocal global warming denialists appear to be middle aged to elderly.

While Christian right-wing political parties Family First and the Christian Democratic Party have both frequently taken highly sceptical, contradictory and often unreasonable positions on the existence of man-made warming. Although these two political parties are not alone in their desire to deny. The Liberal-Nationals Coalition is also riddled with anti-science sentiment as illustrated by the recent ABC Four Corners episode Malcolm and the Malcontents [Program Transcript and Reports and Resources].

It would not surprise me if findings of the October 2009 Pew Research Centre survey on attitudes to climate change were mirrored in Australia (this American survey found that the belief that global warming was a very serious problem had fallen by 27 percent within the combined 50 years of age and over groups and only 9 percent within the combined 49 years of age and under groups. These changes occurring in a sixteen month period). Indeed the summary of The 2009 Lowy Institute Poll appears to indicate that this is possible, however the 1,003 respondents do not appear to have been differentiated across all age groupings - at least for public consumption.