Old age redefined as a budgetary measure in 2010?

Click on table to enlarge

Now those demmed demographers (acting more and more like insurance adjusters) are telling us that old age doesn't begin after 65 years of living on this earth.
Well, I know my mind is still clinging to middle-age, holding onto the kitchen door jamb for grim life and screaming "No, noooo, don't take me yet!" - but my joints and back are saying that they're old, old, old after years of hard graft, my eyesight isn't too crash hot, everyone is complaining that I need the teev volume up too loud these days and most nights the car keys find a new place to hide.
Though I was half expecting to hear that I was no longer considered to be all that old, indeed that I could move mountains if only I really stirred myself. How else are governments going to cut back on public health services and cash transfers to retirees once the younger taxpayers consider that greybeards are too great a burden?
Or as the abstract to "Remeasuring Aging" succinctly puts it:
"Population aging is an international concern, in part because of consequences of coming age-structure changes, e.g., growth in the number of elderly, decline in the number of youth, and accompanying economic and social costs..."
And the authors' 9th September 2010 media release ends:
"And such measures have policy implications because, “slow and predictable changes in pension [retirement] age justified by an increased number of years of healthy life at older ages, may be more politically acceptable than large, abrupt changes justified on the basis of budget stringency.”
Work longer and prosper Gen Y!

Bundjalung clubs return

Grafton Regional Gallery's Jude McBean has a terrific piece in Saturday's Daily Examiner about the return of three Bundjalung clubs.

Credit: The Daily Examiner

Somehow I don't think those budgie smugglers are going to fade away

Jules quite literally nails it in The Daily Examiner on 10 September 2010.

The 2010 Australian general election poll should finally be declared on Monday 13 September 2010.

Why isn't this youngster on the Gruen Transfer?

Source: The Daily Examiner

Never mind the quality, feel the post-election hate

Not content with a mind-blowing Page 13 editorial on 9 September 2010 which clearly positioned the newspaper:
Greens leader Bob Brown has accused The Australian of trying to wreck the alliance between the Greens and Labor. We wear Senator Brown's criticism with pride. We believe he and his Green colleagues are hypocrites; that they are bad for the nation; and that they should be destroyed at the ballot box.

On the same day The Australian pointed out (as though it matters) that Prime Minister Gillard doesn't normally carry a handbag.
A handbag? So why is this so weighty a matter that it has an entire article devoted to it?

I'm much older than Julia, am most definitely not an elite female of any sort and, I haven't carried a handbag for the last twenty years.
Journalist Glenda Korporaal is the odd one out here - not Gillard or I.

However, it is not really about handbags is it? This is merely a snippet from the river of hate continuing to flow Gillard's way and why The Australian is often considered the in-house newspaper of the Coalition parties.

Conroy remains one of the reasons why Labor continues to offend the nose

In Teh Granny Herald last Friday:
"The Communications Minister, Stephen Conroy, is ploughing ahead with his internet filter policy despite there being virtually no chance any enabling legislation will pass either house of Parliament.
Independent MP Rob Oakeshott, the Opposition and the Greens have all come out against the policy, leaving it effectively dead in the water.
The Greens communications spokesman, Scott Ludlam, has called on the government to end the facade and drop the internet censorship scheme once and for all, as it was wasting time and taxpayers' money.
University of Sydney Associate Professor Bjorn Landfeldt said, given the catastrophic election result after only one term in government, it was "remarkable" the government was "pushing the very issues that undermined their credibility, rather than focusing their energy on important societal issues"....."

Numbers rule!

A hat tip to Omar Todd for pointing out that at 6 minutes and 7 seconds after 5 o'clock on the eighth day of September the digital numbers read 05:06:07 08/09/10.

Apparently this won't occur again until 3010 according to Omar.

Graphic at The Big Questions

Farewell to New England

The last planned stop made by the touring group before heading for home was in the small township of Tingha, which (just quietly, for fear of scaring the few remaining horses) has seen better days.

We examined the town's main street where most of the buildings are boarded up and could only imagine what a bustling place this would have been in days of yesteryear.
We considered grabbing a bite to eat at the local pub. However, the lunch time menu (served between 11am and 3pm) left a little bit to be desired. The menu provided diners with a choice of two offers, both priced ever-so reasonably at $5 - a beer and a pie, or a beer and a sausage roll. We thought long and hard about it but finally concluded we should head east and have another look around Guyra.
It has to be said that the business owners and residents of Tingha we spoke with are indeed a happy mob. While quick to point out that its glory days are well behind it the townsfolk stressed the advantages they enjoyed of residing in the small township.

Like so many other towns we visited Tingha will enjoy the benefits of the federal government's "Building the Education Revolution. Ms Gillard's $$$$ are being put to good use at Tingha Public School where a new school hall and COLA (covered outdoor learning area) are under construction.

The window display in the Wing Hing Long Museum was indeed very interesting ...
... but unfortunately for the group the signs in its window indicated that was as much as were going to see.

Credit: Image of museum at www.nnsw.com.au

Why am I not surprised at this?

The Office of Public Prosecutions requested a rescheduling of a former St Kilda player's rape trial due to start in July 2011 to avoid colliding with the AFL home-and-away season that year. Apparently the timing was "inconvenient" for a large number of that season's players.

So what does this say about footballers and the legal profession generally? When a piece of stitched pigskin in the hands of sporting 'stars' is seemingly viewed as more important than commencing a rape trial in a timely manner.

And to run that argument past a female judge - priceless!