Memo to the Australian Coal Industry - I want information not self-seeking propaganda

At the beginning of September 2009 the World Climate Conference-3 released a statement which began:

In the 21st Century, the peoples of the world are facing multi-faceted challenges of climate variability and climate change, which requires wise and well-informed decision making at every level from households, communities, countries and regions, to international fora, including the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Those decisions will require, directly or indirectly, access to the best possible climate science and information and effective application of this information through climate services.

By the end of the month David Hollier at New Matilda alerts us to the fact that:

This week an ad campaign designed by Lawrence and paid for by the Australian Coal Association (ACA) will go live in Australian homes, attempting to convince voters in key marginal and mining seats that Labor's emission trading scheme threatens the economy in general and their jobs and communities in particular. This from the same man who helped voters believe that by installing Rudd and getting Kyoto ratified they might actually have the power to drag Australia into the 21st century and do something useful on climate change.

As far as I'm concerned the big multinational polluting industries in Australia have already negotiated a sweetheart deal with the Rudd Government in relation to the proposed national emissions trading scheme.

For one of these industries to attempt to gouge further concessions from government, with an implied threat to do its best to derail regional support for government policy, is a very low commercial tactic which may rebound on polluting industries as a whole.

Like most Australians I prefer verifiable information over blatant propaganda and feel good sites like New Gen Coal or the Association's latest and frankly misleading Cut Emissions Not Jobs.

At this last website, an industry already cutting jobs and overheads though new technology is predicting Armageddon if the proposed Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme is introduced:

It is projected this new tax will result in 16 mines closing prematurely. It will cut thousands of jobs in the coal industry.
For every direct coal job lost it’s estimated that at least two more jobs will go with them – mainly in regional towns. Shopkeepers, small businesses, council workers – everyone could be affected.
Unemployment in some regional areas will rise even more. Property prices could be impacted. Many families will have to move away to find new lives and employment.

Well, Messrs. Hillman and Lawrence - I live in one of those electorates you intend to target and I just don't believe this over-the-top doom saying.

In fact not even the Minerals Council of Australia believes your nonsense because on 1 September 2009 it forecast continued prosperity for the coal industry in Boom forecast for coal output.

ACA Executive Director Ralph Hillman (below) now joins my personal climate change shame file:

Photograph from New Gen Coal

Gawd 'elp us! It's the draft from hell

This week the United Nations released its draft document for the UNFCCC Framework Convention on Climate Change.

A quick glance shows that the only wording fully agreed on is the date at the top of the cover page and the Introduction.

One hundred and eighty-one pages of at times incomprehensible double-speak, as the working group battles to finalise this document in time for December's Copenhagen Summit.

Over at The Guardian they have been trying to cobble together some sense out of all that alphabetical confusion and we're all invited to join in.

This is one of those clauses:

30. [[A subset of] [NAMAs by developing country Parties [shall be][are actions] [Depending on the nature of NAMAs by developing country Parties, they may be] supported and enabled by technology, financing and capacity-building in accordance with Articles 4.3 and 4.7 of the Convention and undertaken in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner.] [Supported and enabled NAMAs [and][as well as] the support for NAMAs [have been already progressed based on unilateral efforts as well as being] [shall] be undertaken in a measurable, reportable and verifiable manner. [The extent of mitigation actions undertaken by developing countries will depend on [negative cost measures and] the effective provision of financial, [and] technological and capacity-building support by developed country Parties.]]

Don't that just ring your bell!

Unfortunately, what is clear is that the world is way behind schedule in responding to climate change and that as you and I enter old age some of the worst effects will probably be coming down on our grey heads.

Graphic found at Google Images

US Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre information 30.09.09

ABC Radio reports that Samoa has been hit by a tsunami this morning after an 8.3 magnitude earthquake. Initial waves sightings are reported at 1.3 metres and higher.

From the Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre:

TSUNAMI BULLETIN NUMBER 002
PACIFIC TSUNAMI WARNING CENTER/NOAA/NWS
ISSUED AT 1856Z 29 SEP 2009

THIS BULLETIN APPLIES TO AREAS WITHIN AND BORDERING THE PACIFIC
OCEAN AND ADJACENT SEAS...EXCEPT ALASKA...BRITISH COLUMBIA...
WASHINGTON...OREGON AND CALIFORNIA.

... A TSUNAMI WARNING AND WATCH ARE IN EFFECT ...

A TSUNAMI WARNING IS IN EFFECT FOR

AMERICAN SAMOA / SAMOA / NIUE / WALLIS-FUTUNA / TOKELAU /
COOK ISLANDS / TONGA / TUVALU / KIRIBATI / KERMADEC IS / FIJI /
HOWLAND-BAKER / JARVIS IS. / NEW ZEALAND / FR. POLYNESIA /
PALMYRA IS. / VANUATU / NAURU / MARSHALL IS. / SOLOMON IS.

A TSUNAMI WATCH IS IN EFFECT FOR

JOHNSTON IS. / NEW CALEDONIA / KOSRAE / PAPUA NEW GUINEA /
HAWAII / POHNPEI / WAKE IS. / PITCAIRN / MIDWAY IS. / CHUUK /
AUSTRALIA

FOR ALL OTHER AREAS COVERED BY THIS BULLETIN... IT IS FOR
INFORMATION ONLY AT THIS TIME.

Casino set for railway revolution

Moving freight by rail rather than road ... how sensible!


CASINO is on the cusp of a railway renaissance, with a development application to build a $10 million rail terminal about to be lodged with the Richmond Valley Council.

The terminal, which will be built on land next to the Casino Saleyards by the end of 2010, promises to reduce road freight by 150 trucks per day.

The Northern Star reports:

The terminal will connect to the main rail line and from there freight will travel to destinations and ports around Australia.

With the capacity to load two 750m long trains or a single 1550m train, it is expected one short train will depart for Brisbane daily and one long train will head southward to Sydney or Melbourne every two to three days.

Phillip Imrie, the Sydney-based engineer behind the proposal, said the terminal represented the future of freight in Australia.

An industrial estate will form part of the terminal. From there, businesses will be able to load goods directly onto waiting trains.

The Casino branch of the stockfeed company Riverina currently brings in more than 100,000 tonnes of grain and protein from Northern NSW and South-East Queensland every year by road.

“A facility such as this would give us access to southern grain markets which are currently cost prohibitive by road,” branch manager Col Shelton said.

Stage one of the terminal will employ 10 to 20 people on a full-time basis, although more will be working during the construction phase.

Mr Imrie said the terminal was likely to attract new businesses to Casino and this would bring more jobs.

Richmond Valley Council general manager Brian Wilkinson said the council was very keen to see the proposal go ahead and supported the overall concept.

Source: The Northern Star

Calf confusion or why the little bull loves fence posts

A heifer died two days after giving birth to a large bull calf, so I ended up with a poddy to raise.

I am pleased to say that he is going well, if a little bit confused.

He is being bucket fed and to avoid mess at feeding time I have drilled a hole in a stable wall which the milk teat goes through.

This works really well, except he now has a wood fetish.

Fence posts are fully examined to make sure that there are no teats and since the teat is black rubber the car tyres are of great interest to him.

To give him a more balanced view of the world I have been taking him out into the paddock and introducing him to the aunties (cows), this is working beautifully.

Each morning Arnold Bully the calf and I wander into the herd where I do my best cow impersonation.

Over the last week I have managed to have him accepted into the herd kindergarten.

This is where cows leave their older calves in the care of others and go off and feed; the calves play, have naps and generally learn how to be cows.

This is brilliant. Arnold has learnt that grass is for eating and you can drink water as well as milk.

He has the whole day out with the herd and comes home to his stable at night.

The problem for me is it is now my turn to look after the kindergarten kids - help!

Shame Rudd Shame: government gets a fail on pension increase

State government housing authorities and community housing are lining up to take a bite out of the Rudd Government $60 per fortnight base pension increase for single pensioners.

Those on low incomes in public housing normally pay 25 per cent of their total income in rent, however the NSW Government has already changed rent calculation rules for community housing so that single pensioners are often paying more than 25 per cent of their total income on rent each fortnight and, in many parts of NSW that steep late 2008 rent increase was implemented in one fell swoop despite the Federal Government being told that there would be a graduated increase over years.

That particular fiddle saw at least an extra $22 per fortnight immediately removed from the pockets of single pensioners living in community housing.

At present state governments are considering a twelve month delay of any rent increase based on the higher fortnightly pension payment, but there is no guarantee that incorporated community housing won't take a cut of the extra money before the end of the year.

When the Rudd Government first announced it was considering a pension increase it assured the electorate that the additional income would be exempt from consideration by nursing homes, aged care hostels, and supported accommodation when factoring accommodation costs. No ifs, buts or maybes.

One now wonders if even these pensioners will actually be getting the full benefit of the additional payment.

The Rudd Government had within its power the ability to make this pension increase an exempt fortnightly allowance or exempt pension supplement for other pensioners but it chose not to do so.

I suspect that this failure to quarantine the increase was a deliberate pandering to state interests and Rudd, Swan, Macklin et al hoped that pensioners would keep quiet as greedy state governments cut into their payments to subsidise fiscal mismanagement.

If Ms. Macklin has a red face as the Brisbane Times cartoonist infers - it's probably only due to media scrutiny and a caught-out Treasurer Wayne Swan needs to do more than threaten to take on the states over this issue - he needs to act this week.

Shame, Rudd & Co, shame - you have treated single old age, disability and other pensioners living independently in the community as though they are the undeserving poor.

What I think of the Rees Government is of course unrepeatable in polite company.

What I think of a virtually silent federal and state Coaltion Opposition defies description (I'm particularly looking at you Nationals MP for Clarence Steve Cansdell, who thought previous NSW rent increase tactics were fair).

Tingle, Smith and Borsak think a name change will make the Australian Shooters Party more palatable to the electorate?

The Australian Electoral Commission has announced that The Australian Shooters Party now has a new name - Shooters and Fishers Party or just plain Shooters and Fishers for short.

If I remember correctly, at the 2007 federal election this party received less than one per cent of votes cast and it has certainly been on the nose recently due to the conduct of Robert Borsak in New South Wales.

When it comes to hunting, elephants would have to up there with the whales as iconic untouchables for many Australian voters and the overseas hunting trips taken by Borsak almost guarantees a poor voter turnout if he stands at the next federal election.

I suspect that this has something to do with the name change and attempt to widen its base - but I don't think Tingle, Smith or Borsak remember the old adage of a leopard and its spots.

Cybersquatting on photographs: one form of identity theft on the Internet

One hears a lot about identity theft these days and the need to protect personal online information, but what one doesn't hear about that much is the use of photographs of real people to represent other people who are using the Internet to promote or sell either themselves or saleable items (sometimes through use of a fictitious online persona).

This type of photo squatting is not as simple and straightforward as commandeering the image of a famous person from the past or a current politician/celebrity as an avatar accompanying online comments made using a pen name; this is more a stated claim involving the downloading and re-naming of an existing jpg file and then uploading it again to the Internet to represent a second person/fictitious persona without the knowledge or permission of the first person in the original photograph.

These 'fake' photographs often turn up on auction and dating sites. Sometimes the fakes appear to involve activity bordering on the unlawful, sometimes they appear to simply be misrepresentation of the second person's actual physical appearance - a type of wishful thinking.

What is obvious is that the people who have had their photographs hijacked in this way rarely have any idea that their faces are out there in cyberspace often inserted in biographies which give them street addresses, phone numbers, emails, jobs, partners and/or families that bear no relationship to their own lives.

Do you know where those happy snaps you may have posted on your website or social networking page have migrated to?

Graphic from Silhouette Clip Art

Australian Goanna Pulling Championships, Wooli 4 October 2009

It's almost October, when it will be time for the Goanna Pulling Championships.
Date: 4 October 2009

Venue: Wooli Sports Ground, Wooli

Contact: (02) 6649 7740 for details.

Past contestants

battling it out

in Wooli on the

NSW North Coast.

Pic from Google Images