Happy St. Patrick's Day
to one and all
from
North Coast Voices
In the 2006 Australian National Census
1,803,736 people stated that
they had Irish ancestry
and a further 50,256 stated
they were born in Poblacht na hÉireann
Photograph from pix.fr
* Tohoku – Pacific Ocean Earthquake Appeal
The Australian and Japanese Red Cross Societies are accepting donations for the earthquake relief. The Embassy is now also accepting donations. All donations received in the account below will be forwarded to the Japanese Red Cross Society.
Account Name:
Embassy of Japan in Australia, Donations for Japan Earthquake/Tsunami
Name of Bank : ANZ
Name of Branch : Canberra City
BSB : 012950
Account No. : 2514 59908
Should you require a receipt of your donation, please send your name, address (not mandatory), date of donation, amount donated to the following email address.
Mail-address: admin@cb.mofa.go.jp
Australian Red Cross Society
http://www.redcross.org.au/japan2011.htm
Japanese Red Cross Society
http://www.redcross.org.au/japan2011.htm
‘*********, your car insurance is due for renewal in 30 days’ according to an email received today.
Surely not! We don’t have a car – never had a car. Bicycles R Us!
Tut tut. Cheap trick to drive traffic to website. What on earth was www.gocompare.com thinking?
Anony-mice
Yamba
{TheGhostWhoVotes with survey results 10-12th March 2011}
Men favour Julia Gillard over Tony Abbott 42%/37% and women 46%/29%.
{ Essential Report of 14th March 2011}
From the Hansard transcript of the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Regional Australia’s Inquiry into the impact of the Murray-Darling Basin Plan on regional Australia - Bourke hearing on Tuesday, 15 February 2011:
Cr. John Holmes, Bourke Shire Council
There are other ways to rectify this river system than to starve out your little towns, which is going to happen. There has been mention of diverting water from the Clarence. Not only would you get water to shore up some of these rivers; you would also get another 28 meg of power.
Wayne O’Malley, former mayor of Bourke Shire Council
When talking about some sort of solution for the future, we need a fundamentally different approach. We need the conservation of more water to deal with the boom and bust nature of our climate. I put on the table again the diversion of the Clarence needs to be reconsidered, or at least some other major water infrastructure project not only for this part of the state but also for Australia. As a nation we have to be more mindful of our ever-increasing population, and we have to do more planning to provide water for them for the future.
Bourke Council was not alone in putting the case of the water raiders from over the Great Divide. During the hearing held at Gunnedah, the Citizen’s Electoral Council took this line with the Committee - rather strangely asserting that NSW flooding was confined to Grafton in 2010 and more oddly admitting that Bradfield was "not very bright":
Mr Witten
There are things such as the Clarence River scheme, which was mooted some 70 or 80 years ago by some idiot called Bradfield—and of course you know he was not very bright or did not have much ability. Nevertheless, he dreamt up a massive scheme to develop this nation…… The use of the Clarence River scheme, we believe, would inject around a thousand gigalitres into the system, plus provide electricity for our dying power supply.
Mr Stringer
We desperately need some of the eastern fall water up and down the New South Wales coast—and the Clarence is but one of these rivers; you have the rivers heading down towards Macleay. That water could come across to the Namoi, no problem. It is all going to waste. How many floods have we had in Grafton in 2009? How many floods in 2010? They are all in Grafton, and all the water goes to the sea, wasted.
The teaching of some scientific subjects, including, but not limited to, biological evolution, the chemical origins of life, global warming, and human cloning, can cause controversy;
{From the bill AN ACT to amend Tennessee Code Annotated, Title 49,
Chapter 6, Part 10, relative to teaching scientific
subjects in elementary schools.}
Given how swiftly the Australian far-right of both religion and politics follow each new quirk in America’s regressive march back towards the primeval ooze; if this bill (sponsored by very Catholic, pro-life, anti-gay marriage, intelligent design supporter Republican State Representative Bill Dunn) gets recommended by a Tennessee General Assembly sub-committee vote today around 3pm US Central Time, it will probably create a media opportunity for the anti-science brigade here:
*HB0368 by *Dunn, *White. (SB0893 by *Watson.)
Teachers, Principals and School Personnel - As introduced, protects a teacher from discipline for teaching scientific subjects in an objective manner. - Amends TCA Title 49, Chapter 6, Part 10.
Summary for *HB0368
“Bill Summary
This bill prohibits the state board of education and any public elementary or secondary school governing authority, director of schools, school system administrator, or principal or administrator from prohibiting any teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught, such as evolution and global warning.”
Representative Dunn also has another bill before the House which says it part:
“Notwithstanding any other law to the contrary, no public elementary or middle school shall provide any instruction or material that discusses sexual orientation other than heterosexuality.”
Biological evolution controversial, homosexuality unmentionable? Music to the tin ears of Abbott & Co in Australia and bound to turn up on the nightly news sometime soon.
