Eleventh hour of the eleventh day of the eleventh month: Lest We Forget

Lest We Forget
Field of poppies in France

A shooting range proposed for Yamba?

It seems Yamba's Golf and Country Club is moving to have a shooting range added to the facilities available for its members and guests.

This week's Putts & Pars (golf news and results in The Daily Examiner) included a piece contributed by the regular correspondent from YG&CC, Bill Williams.

Bill went to some length to report on the extent to which the recent deluge impacted on the club. He opened with a remark that black cockatoos were sighted in the area late on Wednesday - a portent that things were not looking good in coming days and wet weather was to be expected. And of course, the warning signs were spot on - the heavens opened up on schedule - and afternoon players in Thursday's golf competition finished with wet tails/tales.

But, Bill's report contained an even more serious piece. "The club is concerned that a number of golfers have been hit with golf balls this year. Just recently there were two incidents. The first resulted in a serious injury and the other required hospital treatment."

Bill requested (quite appropriately) all members, for their own good, to reduce accidents by not putting themselves in a position which makes them vulnerable and not hitting when players are still in range. Bill then proceeded to make further requests of players to take various steps to prevent injury to fellow players.

However, Bill's piece contained a real sting in its tail. Bill concluded, "Players not abiding by these requests will be shot."

Shot? Did I read that correctly? Hey, Bill, isn't that taking things a wee bit too far?

If the club is deadly serious and intends implementing such drastic action surely it will do the proper thing and
lodge a development application with Clarence Valley Council to have a new shooting range constructed on its grounds.

And GMOs march on and on.......

For those concerned about the prevalence of genetically modified organisms (GMO) in Australian crops, there is now an online global register of contamination events.

This GM Contamination Register is the first of its kind in the world.

Genetically modified crops were first commercially grown on a wide scale in 1996. But, there has always been concern about their effects on both health and the environment. A specific concern has been that once released, it would not be possible to contain or control these organisms yet there is no global monitoring system.

Because of this failure of national and international agencies, GeneWatch UK and Greenpeace International launched this joint initiative in 2005 to record all incidents of contamination arising from the intentional or accidental release of genetically modified (GM) organisms (which are also known as genetically engineered (GE) organisms).

It also includes illegal plantings of GM crops and the negative agricultural side-effects that have been reported. Only those incidents which have been publically documented are recorded here. There may be others that are, as yet, undetected.

This site is intended to be a resource for individuals, public interest groups and governments. The register can be searched to see where, when and how contamination has taken place. It includes information about, and links to, sources and the GeneWatch UK and Greenpeace web sites as well as other useful sites.

If you would like to know when incidents are added to the GM Contamination Register, send an email to:
info at gmcontaminationregister.org (replacing 'at' with the @ sign) with 'UPDATE' in the subject line.

Here is an Australian example:

* In June 2000, Monsanto reported to the Australian authorities that in May, approximately 57.6 tonnes of Roundup Ready GM cotton seed from field trials were ginned at three gins in Queensland without segregation and identity preservation. This constituted between 4.5 and 9.1% of all cotton seed ginned on that day at the designated gins.
As a result of the lack of segregation and identity preservation, the Roundup Ready cotton seed was mixed with non-Roundup Ready cotton seed. The mixing meant there was no possible means to track the exact fate (export, animal feed or crushing) of the Roundup Ready cotton seed. Sale of whole seed to the domestic market as animal feed is in contravention of Australia’s GMAC’s advice. The seed was not packaged and secured, therefore seed escape was possible.

This is the current list for Australia:

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Australia - 15 kgs of Monsanto's GM cotton seed was spilled during transport >> more

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Australia - an unapproved variety of GM cotton was found in GM Roundup Ready cotton seed >> more

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Australia - contaminated oilseed rape seed imported from US >> more

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Australia - unapproved GM cotton (grown in a field trial) was mixed with non-GM and approved varieties of GM cotton after harvest >> more

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Australia - wheat exports bound for Columbia contaminated with GM maize >> more

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Australia – contamination of oilseed rape exports by unapproved GM variety >> more

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Australia – farmer’s conventional oilseed rape crop contaminated with GM >> more

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Australia – first field resistance to Bt toxins recorded >> more

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Australia – oilseed rape trials contaminated with GM >> more

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The Australian Government Office of the Gene Technology Regulator can be found here.

WDCS International asks: Will you take a few seconds to be part of conservation history?

The time to act is now!

Global plea on behalf of Australia's diverse marine life sent out 9 November 2010

Largest Conservation Decision In Australian History Hangs In The Balance. HELP MAKE HISTORY - PLEASE ACT NOW! Dear Friend Within weeks the Australian government will make a key decision in creating the largest network of marine protected areas in the world, but it hangs in the balance. We need to you to help persuade them to make the right decision. At stake is critical habitat for more than 50% of the world’s species of whales and dolphins and Australians are calling out for international help in making sure this decision goes the right way. Click here to send an email to The Hon Tony Burke MP, Minister for the Environment. Your email could make all the difference. Australia has one of the largest marine territories in the world. A huge variety of fish, sharks, whales and seals live in the continent’s spectacular submerged mountain ranges, deep sea canyons and reefs. These waters provide refuge for the magnificent blue, humpback, and southern right whales, as well as bottlenose, spotted and striped dolphins, to name a few. However, right now they are unprotected, and with oil and fishing industries undermining moves to increase protection, the international community needs to take what action it can. The Government will make its first major decision for the western region within weeks, and the decision will set the standard of protection that will then be applied to the rest of Australia’s waters for the next 10 to 20 years. This protection can't come soon enough. Be part of a historic decision! Please send an email today. - it will only take you a few seconds and could make a world of difference for whales and dolphins. Thank you Chris Butler-Stroud WDCS Chief Executive The spectacular biodiversity of Australia's waters. (c) Andrew Halsall, courtesy SOML Hundreds of dolphins are killed in nets in Australia's waters every year. (c) Greenpeace AP HELP US MAKE HISTORY! Send an e-mail now to the Australian Minister for the Environment.

A thought bubble I can believe in....

RaboDirect general manager Greg McAweeney told an audience from the finance sector in Sydney last week that companies such as Google and PayPal are more responsive and trusted than banks.
"If Google got up and said we are going to offer a savings account, for me, that would be very difficult and confronting," McAweeney said.

Graphic from Darren Pauli/ZDNet Australia

So we're to have a national referendum sometime in the next three years....

Well this is bound to get interesting.
Prime Minister Gillard has just announced a long overdue national referendum on including formal recognition of Aboriginal first peoples in the Australian Constitution.
The trick's going to be how to keep the entire proposition from turning into a prolonged and painful train wreck.
Those sticky-fingered political power brokers need to be penned far away from consultations on any proposed wording of the question being put to the vote.
Because as sure as night follows day they will want to tack other questions onto the ballot paper, with the sole purpose of extending political party power over the federal parliament and the people.
Such a move would almost surely sink any hope of formal recognition.

North Coast Voices celebrates its third birthday with a give-away

In October this year the regional group blog North Coast Voices reached the three-year milestone in its daily publication of news and opinion.

To say thankyou to our readers and celebrate this occasion we are giving away two sets of two flora and fauna studies by well-known NSW North Coast photographer Debrah Novak.

These photographic studies are signed and mounted but unframed.

The first reader from outside of Australia who sends an email with the subject line "Birthday" to northcoastvoices@gmail.com after 9am GMT/UTC on 10 November 2010 will be sent one set, provided they supply a legitimate return email address required to arrange mailing.

The first reader from within Australia who sends an email with the subject line "Birthday" to northcoastvoices@gmail.com after 9am AEST on 10 November 2010 will be sent one set, provided they supply a legitimate return email address to arrange mailing.

Clarencegirl, Clarrie Rivers, WaterDragon, K. Roo and Petering Time

* NCV contributors listed in the blog sidebar and their families are of course ineligible in relation to this birthday offer.


Image from The Impulsive Buy

Update:

Congratulations to Michael from Leeds, U.K. and Sharon from Woolongong, NSW.

Your wildlife studies are on there way and we hope that you will enjoy these examples of NSW North Coast flora and fauna.