Today's Fitz Files

Some good news for NSW Police after Yamba debacle

On 20 April 2011 The Daily Examiner ran with Yamba riot police inquiry launched which confirmed that the NSW Police Commissioner had instigated an investigation into how the police brief was prepared for use by the public prosecution team.

So it was perhaps fortunate that the day before the NSW Police media unit had released the latest Bureau of Crime Statistics (BOCSAR) figures indicating major categories of crime are at their lowest rate for 20 years.

Comparing 10 main crime categories from 1990 to 2010, BOCSAR has found the murder rate has halved while robbery with a firearm has fallen 66 per cent.

In other trends,

· Motor vehicle theft is down 70 per cent
· Break and enters (non-dwelling) is down 62 per cent
· Break and enters (dwelling) is down 43 per cent
· Robbery with a weapon (not firearm) is down 23 per cent
· Robbery without a weapon is down by five per cent…..

a 14 per cent reduction in assaults in New South Wales in the past two years…..

a 27 per cent reduction in ‘glassings’ in licensed premises during the same period.....

in the 24 months to December 2010, all major categories of crime in New South Wales are either stable or falling.

They include:

· Robbery with a weapon not a firearm: down 11 per cent
· Robbery without a weapon: down 6.9 per cent
· Break and enter (non-dwelling): down 11.4 per cent
· Steal from person: down 10.6 per cent
· Malicious damage to property: down 10.1 per cent
· Motor vehicle theft: down 9.3 per cent
· Steal from motor vehicle: down 4.8 per cent…..

The BOCSAR website is now interactive and you can compile your own statistical sets here for the area in which you live.

For everyone who loves butterflies....

Tern Hill, near Market Drayton UK, 9th. to 16th. Aug. '09



Unknown location



Artis, Amsterdam, Netherlands



Natural History Museum, Santa Barbara, CA, USA

Mozzie, mozzie, mozzie! Oi, oi, oi!

Tomorrow is World Malaria Day.
Mozzies are more than a nuisance at an evening barbeque in the Oz summer or an annoying pest when camping with the kids on a long weekend. Mosquito bites can lead to Ross River, Barmah Forest and Dengue Fevers.
Bites can also lead to Malaria - one of the causes of chronic delibiltating disease and death in tropical and subtropical zones around the world.
Although malaria is now rare in this country, vigilance is required to prevent its spread. So make sure you put don't leave stagnant water lying around in your garden, don't allow the lawn to get rank, keep those screen doors closed and cover-up or slap on repellant when you go outdoors.
Remember: "North Coast Public Health Unit has warned of an expected seasonal increase in the risk of contracting mosquito-borne disease in the coming weeks and also the Easter holiday period."

Banded Morwong begins the hard fight against a decline towards extinction

Distribution - Banded morwong inhabit exposed rocky headlands and coastal reefs, from Seal Rocks in NSW, throughout Victorian and Tasmanian waters to Robe in South Australia. They are also found in New Zealand, where they are known as red moki.
Size - They are the largest of the morwongs, reaching a maximum length of approximately 70 centimetres and 15kg in weight.
Characteristics - The reddish-silver body displays approximately 8 thick bands, which vary in colour from reddish-brown to almost black in juveniles. Banded morwong feed on reef-dwelling shellfish and crustaceans, however, they are caught by spearfishers more often than by line fishers. They are a highly regarded tablefish.
Confusing species - Banded morwong are similar in shape and colour to the red-lipped morwong. They lack the characteristic brown spots of the re-lipped morwong and the distribution of these species does not overlap.

It was inevitable that evidence of the impact of climate change on marine life would move away from corals and hard-shelled creatures and focus on fish.

As an edible fish the Banded Morwong forms part of Australia’s native food stocks.

On 17 April 2011 Nature Climate Change magazine published Tolerance limit for fish growth exceeded by warming waters by A. B. Neuheimer, R. E. Thresher, J. M. Lyle & J. M. Semmens which demonstrates that this fish is beginning to be adversely affected by increased seawater temperatures:

Our data demonstrate that increasing water temperatures have pushed a species past the point where warming is beneficial to growth, and suggest mechanisms for range contraction as a result of this increase. The distribution of any species is a function of local environmental conditions and the likelihood of spawning and subsequent recruitment of juveniles. For populations living at the warm-edge of their distribution, temperatures that surpass TP result in higher metabolic costs and less availability of energy for growth and reproduction. Declining growth rates are also likely to reduce fecundity and egg quality, both of which vary directly with female size in fish (see, for example, ref. 25), and increase the risk of predation and starvation. Additionally, the loss of large fish at high temperatures is expected, as thermal sensitivity (via oxygen supply restriction) increases with body size. All of these effects imply a reduction in the population’s recruitment success24 and productivity.

Photograph from Reef Watch Victoria

Nice job if you can get it

Pic from Obama and Biden 2010 tax returns

Being an author as well as the most powerful political leader in the world works for Barack Obama, whose combined 2010 tax return with his wife shows a gross income from all sources of US $1.98 million with a $1.34 million taxable component and a refund claim for over $12,000.
Michelle adds her mite by availing herself of the Henry G. Freeman Jr. Pin Money Fund to the tune of $9,966. Presumably because hubby has a heart attack over the price of some of those glitzy gowns.

The War On Science - an update

The Australian Press Council published thirty-eight adjudication notices on a variety of issues in 2010 and is off to a good start in 2011 with five listed so far this year. However, complaints about inaccurate or misleading reporting on the subject of climate change appear to be thin on the ground.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority received hundreds of complaints in the 2009-10 financial year - none of which appear to have involved radio presenters speaking about climate change.

Last Tuesday Simon Sheikh for the GetUp! team sent out an email which stated in part that this organisation had; Put the shock jocks on notice with formal complaints about their misinformation.

Hopefully he will succeed and hopefully he will also consider objecting to some of the more outrageous claims made in the print medium. Particularly those claims published by The Australian newspaper, often referred to on Tim Lambert’s Deltoid blog as The Australian’s War On Science.

Scientists don't solely rely on computer modelling when it comes to climate change

Investigations into Anthropomorphic Global Warming are not confined to computer modelling conducted in the safety of laboratories or offices - scientific teams often experience uncomfortable extremes in their search for reliable data.
A fact which is sometimes lost in the noise created by climate change denialists.


The terrain for the scientific work conducted by ICESCAPE scientists on July 4, 2010, was Arctic sea ice and melt ponds in the Chukchi Sea. The five-week field mission was dedicated to sampling the physical, chemical and biological characteristics of the ocean and sea ice. Impacts of Climate change on the Eco-Systems and Chemistry of the Arctic Pacific Environment, or ICESCPE Mission, is a multi-year NASA shipborne project. The bulk of the research will take place in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas in summer of 2010 and fall of 2011.

Image Credit: NASA/Kathryn Hansen

So who is homeless in Oz? Will we ever find out?

As part of preparations for the August 2011 Census of Population and Housing, the Australian Bureau of Statistics is revisiting how it estimates the number of homeless people across the nation. It was fascinating to find that here in Oz we actually have a minimum community standard as to what constitutes a home of your own - a small rental flat with a bedroom, living room, kitchen, bathroom and an element of security of tenure.
Don’t have that or something very like and you don’t have a permanent home it seems.
Regardless of this definition, apparently our statisticians are running through a bit of a longstanding maze when it comes to calculating homelessness.
Undercounting and over counting are just as likely across different groups and it was no surprise to find that rural and regional areas were more of an accuracy challenge than cities and suburbs.
In 2006 there were 173,000 people in homeless services accommodation on census night and several thousand sleeping rough, but nobody really knows exactly how many don’t have a roof over their heads. Probably because rough sleepers often need to hide where they kip outdoors for the night to keep safe and indoor couch surfers don’t always like to admit how precarious is their situation.
Anyways ABS is trying to do something about the head count problem and is holding consultation nights at these venues in April and May.
I wish them luck but I’m not holding my breath when it comes to a head count of the homeless in the Northern Rivers - so many places to hide if you don't want to be noticed.