As the world turns.......

As we approach the end of 2008 it seems odd that a year begun in the bright promise of a new Federal Government should have limped to such a pedestrian end.

Kevin Rudd can't keep his staff or his feet on home soil, Peter Garrett can't keep his word, Stephen Conroy can't convince the electorate that he knows what he is doing, Barnaby Joyce can't keep with the flock, Warren Truss can't be found, Malcolm Turnbull can't keep a Coalition functioning, former prime minister John Howard can't keep his mouth shut, and Australia is no nearer solving its water security crisis or truly confronting the climate change disaster knocking on our door.

Still, looking skywards at the echo of another exploding world, a sense of perspective is inevitable.

A Vivid View
More than four centuries after the brilliant star explosion witnessed by Tycho Brahe and other astronomers of the era, NASA's Spitzer and Chandra space observatories and the Calar Alto observatory in Spain captured this image of the supernova remnant. This composite image combines infrared and X-ray observations. The explosion left a blazing hot cloud of expanding debris (green and yellow). The location of the blast's outer shock wave can be seen as a blue sphere of ultra-energetic electrons. Newly synthesized dust in the ejected material and heated pre-existing dust from the area around the supernova radiate at infrared wavelengths of 24 microns (red). Foreground and background stars in the image are white. Image Credit: MPIA/NASA/Calar Alto Observatory

Age and gender profile of NSW North Coast electorates

It will soon be a new year and, although it won't exactly be a political new day, it will be time for all good community lobbyists to gird their loins and go forth once more to front all three tiers of government and explain our wants and needs here on the NSW North Coast.

Here is a little something which will help in gauging the electorate in which you live; AEC NSW Elector Count by Division, Age Groups and Gender, September 2008.

For those who just like a bit of trivia; this elector count shows that one voter in John Howard's old seat of Bennelong has no assigned gender - and is listed as indeterminate-unknown.
It seems that if you have a gender neutral first name, the good folks at AEC can only assign you a gender if you tell them and 8 people across the state (and 22 across the nation) have forgotten to say.

PDF copy here.

Windows Error Message #1926

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A poem for Mr. Five Per Cent courtesy of Salter-Duke & Crikey

Linden Salter-Duke writes:

In 2007 we listened to Kevin
And we thought he was boring, but probably straight.
He'd put his green garb on and vowed to cut carbon,
So we thought he'd deliver in 2008.

The Murray is drying, the Reef may be dying,
Kakadu's flooding and farmers face drought.
The evidence clearly says we'll all pay dearly
For ignoring the facts with inaction and doubt.

Rudd consulted with Garnaut, but then he said, "Ah, no,
Even those feeble targets are out of our range.
It's too much ambition to cut our emission
To the point where we'd actually stop climate change."

"It might cause job losses, or so say the bosses
Who make buckets of money from coal and cement.
They can keep on polluting, while I'll be diluting
My promises down to a mere five per cent."

"So bugger the science, I'll propose an alliance
With the Libs -- that'll make 'em break ranks.
In my new coalition, Greens can go to perdition.
I won't save the rivers, but I might save the banks."

NSW Health enters a patient care phantasy land

NSW Health has released its plan to kill off the vulnerable and elderly in rural and regional areas of the state.

"DOCTORS will have to justify to bureaucrats why they admit patients with common conditions such as blood clots, breathing problems and cellulitis to hospital, following an order from NSW Health to slash the number of people given a bed.

The "please explain" directive comes as hospitals try to meet a demand from the director-general of health, Debora Picone, to reduce so-called "avoidable admissions" by 30 per cent this financial year.

Medical groups say they are sick of administrators telling them how to care for their patients and argue the policy contradicts an undertaking yesterday at a Garling report forum by the Health Minister, John Della Bosca, to improve communication between clinicians and hospital management.

NSW Health's Acute Care Taskforce has identified 12 medical conditions, including pneumonia, bronchitis, urinary tract infections, chest pain and gastroenteritis as suitable for community-based acute treatment, such as hospital-in-the-home, where nurses visit patients to administer medication."

Area Health Services in country areas have well-documented problems with levels of funding and attracting staff and now these peak bodies are being asked to hide sick people in their homes and rely on patchy community nursing to provide treatment.

What a laugh - those poor nurses are often so stretched that it is impossible for them to provide daily care for every referred patient and on weekends care in the home is frequently completely absent.

Della Bosca and Debora Picone should hang their heads in shame.

Unfortunately that won't stop deaths occurring as the wheels fall of this insane policy.

Have either of these two looked at the age demographics for the NSW North Coast or considered the fact that many of the retirees living here do not have family support in the area?