Have a bit of fun and vote in the 2008 Creamy Baileys Nobel Peace Prize for Science poll

The Poor Man Institute is having a bit of fun with a poll at the expense of climate change sceptics.

Here are the candidates for the 2008 Creamy Baileys Nobel Peace Prize for Science:

1. Chad Myers, "Global warming is a cover-up for ACID OCEANS!!"
2. Camille Paglia, "A new blog will bring scientific rigor to the global warming debate"
3. Charlie Daniels, "Global warming is a yankee conspiracy!"
4. Gregg Easterbrook, "Global warming is a cover-up for KILLER ASTEROIDS … GOVERNMENT-FUNDED HADRON DEATH ORGIES … LIGHTSPEED ALIEN NUCLEAR ATTACKS!!!"
5. James Inhofe, "The IPCC agrees: Al Gore is fat"

And here are the votes as at early evening of 28 December:

Chad Myers, "Global warming is a cover-up for ACID OCEANS!!" 8% (68 votes)

Camille Paglia, "A new blog will bring scientific rigor to the global warming debate" 14% (126 votes)

Charlie Daniels, "Global warming is a yankee conspiracy!" 11% (93 votes)

Gregg Easterbrook, "Global warming is a cover-up for KILLER ASTEROIDS ... GOVERNMENT-FUNDED HADRON DEATH ORGIES ... LIGHTSPEED ALIEN NUCLEAR ATTACKS!!!" 45% (389 votes)

James Inhofe, "The IPCC agrees: Al Gore is fat" 23% (197 votes)

Total Votes: 873

You can cast your vote here.

The weird world of Bernard Salt

FORGET about the global financial crisis and focus on what really interests Australians over summer: contemplation of the perfect seachange.

So said Bernard Salt in The Australian last Saturday.

I have generously decided that Mr. Salt was stuck for an opening sentence in the opinion piece Wanted: new universe by the beach, because such a broad statement begs dissent.

As does his tactless assessment of what comprises the perfect sea change:

The perfect seachange town should also not be jam-packed with old people waiting to die (how depressing). Equally, such a town should not be filled with screaming kids (how annoying).

Ouch! With the Australian population now skewing towards larger blocs of older age groups and children being a prized asset in any healthy community, this is an incredibly insensitive opinion.

Thankfully, only Byron Bay on the NSW North Coast was mentioned in passing by Salt in his heavy-footed piece, but the companion article by Stuart Rintoul on upcoming property hotspots did list Ballina, Iluka and Woolgoolga.

I suggest that anyone seriously considering settling in the Northern Rivers region, should think again if they believe that the elderly or the young are disadvantages in a neighbourhood.
Perhaps they might like to explore RP Data and search its website for the most atypical coastal village which can be found elsewhere.

A little quiet reflection between those festive days

Desiderata

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.

Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.

Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.

Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.

Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.

You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.

Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.

With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

Max Ehrmann, Desiderata.

Ooops! Kev's running late with more than his Chrissie present buying.........

At the official Prime Minister of Australia website something strange is going on.

I can find press releases for December 2008 at its media centre for the days leading up to Christmas:
24 Dec

Appointment of Departmental Secretaries - Media Release

22 Dec

Holden to build all-new small car in Australia - Media Release

21 Dec

Government launches 12 year plan to reduce homelessness in Australia Mission Australia Centre Surrey Hills, Sydney - Media Release

20 Dec

Australia provides support for Afghanistan Elections - Media Release

19 Dec

National Peacekeeping Memorial Design Unveiled - Media Release

18 Dec

Prime Minister addresses Australian troops serving in Afghanistan Tarin Kowt, Afghanistan - Speech

But where is Rudder's 2008 christmas message to the peasants citizens?

All I can find is his message for 2007.

I suppose that as most of his message is the usual generic pap, and he also visited our troops in Afghnaistan in December 2007, his staff decided that they couldn't be bothered to update the sentiments with a newer entry.

Whozat??

Which NSW North Coast resident is mischievously spreading a story that the local newspaper's reporting is biased and North Coast Voices is being written by the police and **** *******; in an effort to bolster his chances of obtaining a change of venue in the criminal court proceedings which have him as defendant?
Tsk, tsk......

Rudd Government asleep at the wheel as whale war escalates once more?

With the Southern Ocean whale war manifesting itself as skirmishes and a collision in Australia's Antarctic economic exclusion zone last Friday, I have to wonder what if anything the Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister for the Environment are doing about this situation.

Are all three men too busy with their Christmas partying to notice that Japan is once again thumbing its nose at Australian law?

Japan's front for commercial whaling, the Institute of Cetacean Research, is alleging terrorist attack in its media release and the Sea Shepherd organisation is countering with a right protected by the United Nations Charter for Nature - if this sea chase goes on for much longer the chances of a real incident developing grows.

How many years is this issue going to be allowed to drag on so dangerously?

Oi, Senator Conroy! Can you hear me now........

Am I yelling loud enough, Stevo?

On Clarencegirl's advice, at the beginning of December I put this LOL up on the automated publication schedule just in case the Rudd-Conroy trial of the Great Firewall of Australia currently underway made it difficult to post on North Coast Voices.

You can read this LOL from Britain or America, but can I still read it from Australia?

Kiwi speak for beginners

Credit: Thanks to Media Works Radio, New Zealand

Click image to enlarge

Two of the reasons why the NSW North Coast is such a special place

Our rivers............

Clarence River in the early morning

And our night skies............

Byron Bay at night

Christmas Day 2008

Australia Post Christmas Stamp

A letter from Santa Claus to all the children on the NSW North Coast

Click to enlarge

Revisiting Federal disability discrimination and human rights legislation

Thanks to Dave Bath of Balneus for alerting North Coast Voices to the following Senate Legal and Constitutional Affairs Committee inquiry:

On 4 December 2008 the Senate referred the provisions of the Disability Discrimination and Other Human Rights Legislation Amendment Bill 2008 to the Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs for inquiry and report.

This bill amends the Disability Discrimination Act 1992 (the Act) to implement recommendations made by the Productivity Commission in its 2004 review of the Act. The bill also implements the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs' recommendation to remove the 'dominant purpose' test from the Age Discrimination Act 2004 (Older People and the Law, 2007), and makes various other amendments to the human rights legislation going to the general operation of human rights law in Australia.

Key amendments to the Act include those that seek to:

• make explicit that refusal to make reasonable adjustments for people with disability may also amount to discrimination;
• make the defence of unjustifiable hardship available in relation to all unlawful discrimination on the ground of disability, except harassment and victimization;
• clarify matters to be considered when determining unjustifiable hardship;
• clarify that the onus of proving unjustifiable hardship falls on the person claiming it;
• make clear that the definition of disability includes genetic predisposition to a disability and behaviour that is a symptom or manifestation of a disability;
• replace the 'proportionality test' in the definition of indirect discrimination with the requirement to prove that the condition or requirement imposed has the effect of disadvantaging people with the disability of the aggrieved person;
• shift the onus of proving the reasonableness of a requirement or condition in the context of indirect discrimination from the person with disability to the respondent, and
• extend the power to make standards under the Act.

The bill also seeks to assist people with assistance animals and service providers by recognising animals accredited either under a State and Territory law or by a relevant organisation, and by clarifying each party's obligations. The bill also consolidates the provisions in the Act relating to carers, assistants and aids, and addresses the issues raised by the Full Federal Court in Forest [2008] by clarifying that discrimination on the basis that a person possesses or is accompanied by a carer, assistant or aid, is discrimination on the basis of disability.

The bill also includes proposed amendments to the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission Act 1986. This implements the Government's decision to change the name of the Human Rights and Equal Opportunity Commission to the Australian Human Rights Commission. Other key amendments to that Act include the extension of the period within which a person can take a terminated complaint to the Federal or Federal Magistrates Court from 28 days to 60 days, and a number of amendments to improve the efficiency of the complaints handling process, such as allowing the President of the Commission to finalise a complaint where the complainant expresses no intention to pursue the matter.

The reporting date for the inquiry is 24 February 2009.

The Committee invites written submissions by Monday, 12 January 2009. Submissions should be sent to:

Committee Secretary
Senate Standing Committee on Legal and Constitutional Affairs
Department of the Senate
PO Box 6100
Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600
Australia

Rudd Government to implement ALRC sedition law reform recommendations?

Australian Law Reform Commission President, Professor David Weisbrot, welcomed the Government's positive response to the ALRC's report Fighting Words: A Review of Sedition Laws in Australia (ALRC 104, 2006), announced today by the Commonwealth Attorney-General, the Hon Robert McClelland MP.

The ALRC made 27 recommendations for reform of the law in this area, and the Government has accepted 25 of these unconditionally and two of them 'in principle'. In effect, the Government will be implementing the ALRC report in full.

Prof Weisbrot commented that "we are naturally delighted with the Government's formal response. The ALRC Report recognised that free speech and robust political debate are the cornerstones of our democratic society.

"The basic thrust of our recommendations was to create a bright line in the law between free speech—however robust, confronting or unpopular—and conduct calculated to incite violence in the community, which properly should be regarded as criminal activity.

"The law also has to be clear enough to ensure that media commentators, satirists, artists and activists are not only safe from criminal prosecution, but also from the 'chilling effect' of uncertainty."

"Context is critical in these circumstances, so the courts should be required to take into account whether the conduct in question was a part of artistic expression; or genuine academic or scientific discussion; or a news report or commentary," Prof Weisbrot said.

Prof Weisbrot outlined the major recommendations in the Fighting Words report accepted by the Government, which include:

• eliminating the 'red rag' term 'sedition' from the federal statute book;
• refining the existing offences to ensure that they only cover circumstances in which a person urges others to use force or violence against community groups or the institutions of democratic government (including elections), intending this violence to eventuate;
• leading a process through the Standing Committee of Attorneys-General to reform state and territory laws in this area "which mostly are a good deal worse than the federal law";
• amending the offences of treason and 'assisting' the enemy, to clarify that this refers to material assistance—such as providing arms, funds, personnel or strategic information;
• repeal of the outdated 'unlawful associations' provisions in the Crimes Act, which have been superseded by more recent laws dealing with terrorist organisations;
• reviewing some old, related offences—such as 'treachery' and 'sabotage'—to determine whether these should now be 'modernised' or simply repealed; and
• pursuing other non-punitive strategies, such as education, to promote inter-communal harmony and understanding.

However, it would be wise not to break out the champagne just yet as this process will go at a snail's pace and there is no certainty that either the letter or spirit of the ALRC recommendations will be honoured in full.

In fact, given the conservative nature of the current federal government, it is a certainty that most of the onerous provisions of the Howard-Ruddock sedition laws will simply be given a superficial facelift and remain on the books.

• Attorney-General's media release on security, terrorism, federal police, sedition law reform
• Australian Government responses to other counter-terrorism reviews - December 2008 [PDF 116KB]
• Australian Government responses to the Clarke Inquiry - December 2008 [PDF 28KB] (Dr. Haneef)

Because it's Christmas Eve......

From the year-round LOL factory, Icanhascheezburger

The Beer Prayer - an alternative plea skywards during the Yuletide season

Beer Prayer

Our lager,
Which art in barrels,
Hallowed be thy drink
Thy will be drunk, I will be drunk,
At home as it is in the pub,
Give us this day our foamy head,
And forgive us our spillages,
As we forgive those who spill against us,
And lead us not into incarceration,
But deliver us from hangovers,
For thine is the beer, The Bitter, The Lager.
Barmen

Found at a Scots-Canadian football club website of course!

Bjorn bags Rudd Government national ISP-level filtering - says plan 'completely politicised'

According to The Age today:

TRIALS of mandatory internet censorship will begin within days despite a secret high-level report to the Rudd Government that found the technology simply does not work, will significantly slow internet speeds and will block access to legitimate websites.

The report, commissioned by the Howard government and prepared by the Internet Industry Association, concluded that schemes to block inappropriate content such as child pornography are fundamentally flawed.

If the trials are deemed a success, the Government has earmarked $44 million to impose a compulsory "clean feed" on all internet subscribers in Australia as soon as late next year.

But the report says the filters would slow the internet - as much as 87 per cent by some measures - be easily bypassed and would not come close to capturing all of the nasty content available online. They would also struggle to distinguish between wanted and unwanted content, leading to legitimate sites being blocked. Entire user-generated content sites, such as YouTube and Wikipedia, could be censored over a single suspect posting.

This raises serious freedom of speech questions, such as who will be held accountable for blocked sites and whether the Government will be pressured to expand the blacklist to cover lawful content including pornography, gambling sites and euthanasia material.

The report, based on comprehensive interviews with many parties with a stake in the internet, was written by several independent technical experts including a University of Sydney associate professor, Bjorn Landfeldt. It was handed to the Government in February but has been kept secret.

It has also been revealed that Conroy's filtering trial commencing tomorrow has been expanded to include traffic using P2P and BitTorrent.

I think that one can almost call it official - the Rudd Government is doing all it can to ensure that the Internet is an issue at the next federal election, with at least a third of all potential votes in the Federal Labor seats of Page and Richmond now up for grabs and the hope of winning other NSW North Coast seats in 2010 fast slipping away because Internet use is a fact of life for many residents and businesses.

Want to tell Conroy where to go on Internet filtering? Phone Tim Marshall, Senator Conroy's office, 0408 258 457

Warning, Warning! The Great Firewall of Australia is being live trialled from 24 December 2008

Because the Australian Government's live trial of its mandatory national ISP-level filtering scheme is fully functional from tomorrow, North Coast Voices apologises in advance to its readers for the incredible stupidity of the Prime Minister and the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy which may cause our blog to disappear from view over the life of the trial.

International visitors to our blog will still be able to read all posts and we will endeavour to keep publishing.

Update:

Senator Conroy has announced that the live trial will not be starting now until mid-January 2009.
Presumably both the minister and department have run into a few obstacles on the way to the Great Firewall of Australia, given the less than enthusiastic response from Australian ISPs.


Graphic from Google Images

Christmas madness and sleepless nights

Cartoon from XKCD

Yes we have all experienced 'the madness'.

Have you finished shopping for presents yet - only 1 more day until Santa arrives.

Flying Santas at 12 o'clock high

Skydivers over Sydney NSW

From Times Online picture gallery

One final word before Senator Conroy [insert crow calls] the Internet

I went onto the Australian Communications and Media Authority website th' other day and happened on an 8th December media release.

Did you know that at June 2008:

• There were 1,009,347 registered .com.au domain names


• There were 7.23m Internet subscribers - 5.66m being broadband and 1.57m dialup


• There were 22.12 million mobile services in total, and quite a few able to access the Internet on the move

Now I might be a bit of a dunce, but that seems like an awful lot of voters to p*ss orf if Senator Conroy and his Prime Minister still want to keep the ship steady until 2010.

The website also threw up another little morsel - want to know just how much personal information sharing telecommunications companies are doing?

See ACMA's 2007-08 report chapter National interest matters

For those too lazy to have a shufti, here's a bit of a graph (includes 000 calls):

Buying political influence: getting in on the ground floor?

US ABC News has highlighted an interesting aspect of American political life - how Obama is finessing political donors' expectations of influence.

He's banned lobbyists from the transition team and stopped companies from giving money to the effort – some of the boldest limitations on money in a presidential transition

But big donors -- particularly bundlers -- still play a key role in his transition efforts. And good government groups say the real test for whether President-elect Barack Obama will change the culture of lobbying depends on whether he can address the broader question of special interests funding campaign donations.

"They are important for sending a signal but let's not confuse the low hanging fruit with the real hard fruit," said Meredith McGehee, policy director of the Campaign Legal Center..........

Despite the ban on lobbyists, not all big money people have been banned from the effort. Bundlers, many of whom raised hundreds of thousands for Obama, are still allowed to play a role.

Public Citizen has identified at least five members of the transition team so far who raised upwards of $50,000 for the Obama campaign, including Valerie Jarrett, a transition co-chair; Susan Rice, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institute; Julius Genachowski, managing director of Rock Creek Ventures; Donald Gips, a vice president of Level 3 Communications; and Michael Froman, a Citigroup managing director.

Meanwhile, the Presidential Inaugural Committee lists those privately contributing to his inauguration splurge; including shareholders/employees of a numbers of companies such as Agvar Chemicals, Innova Aviation Consulting LLC, Kpmg LLP, Verizon Telecommunications, Google Inc, Cheyenne Exploration Inc, Tyco International.

It looks as though companies might get to pay and play after all.

Full list of Obama bundlers at White House For Sale

Want to have a say on political campaign funding in Australia?

It hasn't escaped attention that, in the last few decades, the dollar amounts of both public funding of candidates/political parties standing for federal election and private political donations for these same parties have been growing at such a pace that Australia is now seeing election campaigns actually begin long before an election is declared.

It has never been more obvious that the biggest political parties are attempting to buy their way into government via expensive sustained media campaigns.

Incumbent governments in recent years have also barely concealed the fact that they will use government advertising budgets for the same end.

So it was interesting to see that this week the Australian Special Minister for State released the Electoral Reform Green Paper: Donations, Funding and Expenditure.

The perception of undue influence can be as damaging to democracy as undue influence itself.

It undermines confidence in our processes of government, making it difficult to untangle the

motivation behind policy decisions.

Electors are left wondering if decisions have been made on their merits.

Restrictions on the use of money in election campaigns and the raising of money by political parties and other political actors enacted in other jurisdictions have as their aim the limitation of the potential political influence exercised by private sources of wealth, by controlling either the supply of, or the demand for, campaign cash – or both.

The central priority of this approach is to maintain a degree of fairness between the individual participants in the political process, and equality of opportunity between the candidates and parties contesting the vote.

Many countries have pursued electoral reform to reduce or remove these problems.

Limiting or eliminating donations to political parties, limiting spending, increasing public funding and other support and extending electoral regulation to third parties are solutions pursued or proposed elsewhere.

These and other remedies are discussed in this Green Paper.

Copy of green paper can be read here.

The Australian Government invites written submissions in response to this paper.

General comments are invited.

Interested people are also invited to respond to some or all of the specific issues raised in the paper, and, in particular, some or all of the questions at Chapter 11.

The closing date for submissions is 23 February 2009.

Late submissions may not be considered.

Details on how to make a submission here.

Favourite Wikileak of 2008

From Times Online and Wikileaks this month on the folly of pollies.

"JACQUI SMITH, the home secretary, has suffered fresh embarrassment from a new Whitehall leak disclosing that ministers are seeking new powers to search the homes of staff working on ID cards.
An 11-page confidential Home Office document – which was sent to a campaigner against ID cards – suggests that the employees’ homes could be entered without the need for a police warrant."

U.K. Home Office document is here.

Fred Singer is a 'climate scientist'? And here I was thinking he was an Exxon Mobile superannuant!

Club Troppo has pulled a really entertaining rabbit out of the hat since 19 December, with its online debate headed by David Evans a well-known greenhouse sceptic.

This is a serious debate worth visiting and, if you have a mind to obey the rules, participating in.

It made my day to read Evan's describing Fred Singer as a climate scientist.

Now S. Fred Singer may be a lot of things (including a man with a couple of decent university degrees, an extended work history in atmospheric physics and a published author), but a reputable voice on climate science he has not been for some time.

As far as I can tell he is fatally compromised by his perceived longstanding relationship with Exxon and other big oil/energy companies as well as his association with the discredited Frederick Seitz petition and, his constant repetition of a fear that developing climate change policy will in turn distort energy policy, a principle argument that there is no global warming trend and there might even be a cooling trend and, an assertion that an emissions trading scheme would just be a tax ruse.

Indeed Singer has been a denialist since at least 1998 when this correspondence occurred.
However, almost every argument he has floated over the years seems to be easily refutable by academics and working scientists.

This has led Singer to assume the position of front man for the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC) which appears to represent the published opinion of around 23 authors who reputedly are not all scientists and, his Science & Environmental Policy Project founded in 1990 is beginning to sound distinctly nutty.

Now I am aware that there has been legitimate scientific opinion which has swum against the tide in the past and later been proved right, but Fred Singer appears to have done no independent or collaborative science in years and apparently relies on a anti-global warming stance he developed years ago before much of the current data had been either gathered or collated.

The fact that the NIPCC document published this year online has purportedly 'peer reviewed' the same primary sources as the UN international panel does not give cause for comfort because of the small number of participants involved.

As Singer has reportedly also published his doubts about the links between second hand smoke and lung cancer and between UV rays and skin cancer one has to wonder at anyone citing him as an expert.

NIPCC's 2008 Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate can be found here.

The former candidate objects!

It would appear that it isn't only the Federal Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy who wishes to censor content on the Internet.
At least one failed local candidate for political office also has a personal list of 'unwanted content', if a comment recently posted on North Coast Voices is any indication.

It's seemingly quite alright to keep a 'sanitised' campaign website alive long after the event and cheerfully link a current blogger profile to that site, but having another's legitimate political opinion still posted for the world to see apparently goes against the grain for one who obviously would rather forget a foray into the political arena earlier this year.

I wonder if newspapers were also asked to remove any mention of the candidate from online articles commenting on that local government election campaign? I suspect not.

After all - that would be changing the Clarence Valley historical record.
A record of which North Coast Voices is now part, along with a number of other blogs, bloggers and letters to the editor correspondents.

Scheduled posts during Australian national Internet censorship trial 24 December 2008 onwards

Due to the fact that the Rudd Government intends to run a trial of its national ISP-level filtering scheme and because some Australian ISPs are now participating, North Coast Voices is uncertain if it can reliably publish over the next six-seven weeks or if it will be able to be read by local visitors.

Predictably the Minister's office refuses to clarify his recent obtuse remarks about a new 'closed' trial without customer involvement.

However, it now appears that the 'live' trial is to go ahead based on the existing ACMA black list and a further 'closed' trial will be conducted using a vastly expanded dummy list to test performance levels.

In an effort to keep online we have pre-scheduled a number of posts for the festive season.
Please pop in to see how we are faring and leave a comment or two.

Cha ghéill sinn!

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?

Stephen Conroy ignores the elephant herd as it files through his office

Stephen Conroy's Digital Economy Future Directions departmental blog has been up and running for the last nine days or so.

In his welcome post Lindsay Tanner said:

We are also genuine about wanting to use online consultation to improve government-citizen relationships around public policy. We want real outcomes from online consultation, not a new channel to distribute a press release.

We hear you... posted this blog on 12 December.

Really? Then why does this particular post try to avoid mentioning the hundreds of anti-Internet censorship comments that were lodged on the blog.
According to Conroy's spin meisters all is rosy in the garden, despite most of the comments received being considered irrelevant by their calculations. Using a coy and corny tactic to inform us of the fact - FDB suggested.

The majority of the 744 comments on Minister Tanner's welcome were against mandatory national ISP-level filtering.

What does the digital economy encompass? What does it mean for Australians? post is littered with criticism of Internet filtering.

Open access to public sector information contains anti-censorship comment.

Everyone had given up by the time Setting the right regulatory framework was published - not a soul had commented by mid-afternoon last Tuesday.

Ogugu Obama email scam

Here's an email scam with a slight difference - a very famous surname.
The American Embassy in Ouagadougou is bound to get a call or two about this one, if the gullible latch onto the Obama name.

"Dear Friend,

I know that this message will come to you as a surprise.

I am the Auditing and Accounting section manager with African Development Bank, Ouagadougou Burkina faso.

I Hope that you will not expose or betray this trust and confident that I am about to repose on you for the mutual benefit of our both families.

I need your urgent assistance in transferring the sum of ($39.5)million to your account within 10 or 14 banking days.

This money has been dormant for years in our Bank without claim.

I want the bank to release the money to you as the nearest person to our deceased customer late Mr.George Small who died along with his supposed next of kin in an aircrash since October 31st 1999.

I don't want the money to go into government treasury as an abondom fund, So this is the reason why I am contacting you so that the bank can release the money to you as the next of kin to the deceased customer.

Please I would like you to keep this proposal as a top secret and delete it if you are not interested.

Upon receipt of your reply, I will give you full details on how the business will be executed and also note that you will have 30% of the above mentioned sum if you agree to handle this business with me.

I am expecting your urgent response as soon as you receive my message

Best Regard,

Mr.Ogugu Obama"

This Christmas the Northern Rivers has its own Grinch

For a number of rural industry-related workers on the NSW North Coast this month is not looking too rosy.

A local employer, who loves to spend his money on a very expensive thoroughbred stud and racing stable, has laid off certain workers.

This same employer has a reputation as a serial offender against freedom of association and industrial relations legislation and, a rumoured predilection for setting up dummy contracting companies to make sure that sacked workers leave with the minimum amount of money.

It seems that the Grinch is alive and well and still stealing Christmas.

An open letter to Kevin Rudd from Samlara.......

I came across a copy of this Northern Rivers open letter at Write Across Media:

15^th December 2008

Dear Prime Minister,

My name is Samlara Canin-Henkel. I met you at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Bali several times.

I followed your campaign back in 2007 from Clunes, New South Wales. I got right into the Kevin '07 vibe and wore your t-shirts with pride to school. I assisted my local member, Janelle Saffin, in her campaign and did scrutineering. I am a friend of Jenny Dowell, mayor of Lismore, and also helped her in her successful campaign earlier this year.

I am 16 years old. And I have your poster on my wall.

I was ecstatic when I got the opportunity to meet you in Bali and was incredibly proud to call myself Australian when you ratified the Kyoto Protocol. You featured in my parents' documentary "The Burning Season" (which has just won an IF award) and every time I hear your speech I cannot help but smile. Your campaign poster claims "New Leadership" in large letters and I was excited by the promises you were making, especially in regards to Climate Change. I believed that new leadership had finally arrived.

About 10 minutes ago I was informed that you have committed to a 5-15% reduction of carbon emissions by 2020.

I am assuming, Mr Rudd, that you have bought land on the Moon and will be relocating there when the Earth can no longer sustain human life.

I will not go into the severe effects of climate change- you have advisors and Greenpeace and Bob Brown and other environmental organisations to pester you about that. What I will say is this: your campaign promised "New Leadership". Your speeches promised hope. Your actions in Bali symbolised a new beginning for Australians. This emissions target is just not enough.

Your response will be predictable I'm sure... "We need to maintain solid economic growth during this financial crisis" or something along those lines.

Quite frankly, "economic growth" will mean nothing if the Earth's temperate continues to increase, if the Great Barrier Reef continues to die and if carbon emissions continue to rise.

You claim "New Leadership" Mr Rudd but this is not new at all. There is nothing new or promising about this decision. It is old and conservative, something I would have expected from the previous government.

In fact, this kind of leadership is not leadership at all. You should be taking a lead on this issue, not waiting to see what the rest of the world does. Do not wait until you have to respond to a disaster. Take action to prevent it.

Although climate change has gone far and beyond what is comfortable to think about, you can at least do everything in your power to reduce the effects it will have on our planet.

In 2002, when I was 10 years old, I wrote a letter to Prime Minister John Howard demanding to know why we were sending troops to Iraq. I received wide press coverage including an interview on the "Today Show". I really thought my 'writing letters to the PM' days were over.

It seems not.

Please Mr Rudd, don't make me take your poster off my wall. Don't make me sigh and change the channel when my Prime Minister comes on TV, like I did under the Howard Government.

Don't make me lose the pride I have in our country for choosing you as our leader.

I hope that somehow, this letter makes it past your secretaries and ends up in your hands.

I'll be seeing you in Copenhagen in 2009. Please Mr Rudd, don't let planet Earth down. Don't let the Australian people down.

Don't let me down.

Yours sincerely,

Samlara Canin-Henkel

Is Obamas about to bomb?

It's a minute to midnight before the final rundown to the 2009 inauguration of a new U.S. president and the floorboards are creaking as a real scandal creeps towards Barack Obama.

He tried to deflect the question with an internal investigation, but rumours about the FBI tapes continue:

"FBI wiretaps recorded the president-elect's incoming chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, discussing the seat with the Blagojevich administration in 21 different conversations undermined Obama's earlier assertions that his team would not get involved in selecting his replacement."

Obama is even trying a little 'bullying' of one journalist by warning him not to waste his question.

Unfortunately for the President-Elect, this will not stop speculation about what other contact his team may have had with the disgraced Illinois governor or what may surface during any impeachment process.
Chicago politics is notorious for its pay to play mentality.
Does anyone seriously consider that Obama got to where he is without participating at some stage?

Amendments to the Same-Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws - General Law Reform) Bill 2008

On 15 December 2008 the Australian Attorney-General circulated amendments to the Same-Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws - General Law Reform) Bill 2008.

Amendments cover many aspects of legal discrimination against same-sex couples and addresses some rights and obligations, including those of children of the relationship.

Explanatory Statement at ComLaw here.

Carbon Emissions Reduction 2008: Kevin explains his climate change scenario to the rest of Australia

Those U.S. Army-Navy jocks take their football seriously!

This has to come under the subtitle Only In America:

West Point airdrops Army propaganda on Naval Academy
Psychological operation rattles midshipmen before big game
Recordonline.com, December 06, 2008

WEST POINT — Army cadets and aviators from West Point waged an aerial ambush over hapless midshipmen and sailors at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis this week.

At 12:05 p.m. Thursday, as the midshipmen gathered for lunch formation, a green and white Bell UH-1 series Iroquois, better known as a "Huey," pounded into view. From its side door, soldiers launched an exploding box of propaganda, including hundreds of dollar-bill-sized "Trash Navy" leaflets and inflatable plastic swords.

"They were all looking up at us and shaking their fists," said Senior cadet Gary Haning, 22, of Maryland. He helped with the airdrop from the Superintendent's bird. The "psychological operation" was designed to rattle the Navy before Saturday's annual football grudge match in Philadelphia.......

Follow the link to see the video of the leaflet drop:
http://www.recordonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20081206/NEWS/81206008

Iz waitin' Santa (a message for those who will be alone on Christmas Day)

The stores are garlanded with tinseled baubles and Santa is tucked away in a corner of the shopping centre having his photo taken with the littlies - even the piped Muzac has turned festive.

For many though Christmas rarely lives up to the idealised image of loving family and friends around a Yuletide fireplace.

So for those who are to spend Christmas Day alone or working hard to keep the wolf from the door, I say "Chin up!"

Go for a walk, watch a decent DVD, read a good book or listen to your favourite happy tunes, above all give yourself a little treat; and if all else fails, curse that little fat man in the tatty red suit and look forward to next year.

There will be a free Christmas lunch at the Christian Life Centre in Treelands Drive, Yamba on 25 December 2008. All are welcome according to the sign above the door.

Need to chin wag to keep the blues at bay over Christmas?

Lifeline 13 11 14

Kids Help Line 1800 55 1800

Conroy cleans up without a universal Internet censor

Excerpt from Stephen Conroy's 11 December 2008 media release:

Today the AFP announced the identification of 22 Australian men following a 12-month investigation into an online child abuse image and video-sharing network. The AFP's Child Protection Operations Teams seized more than 15,000 videos and 500,000 images of child abuse.

I'm willing to hazard a guess that this sting would be more effective than the Minister's plan to impose mandatory national ISP-level filtering to censor the Australian Internet and, probably didn't cost as much as any proposed implementation phase of Conroy's mad scheme.

With his national 'live' trial now in tatters, as Australian ISPs realise just how many problems he is wishing on their commercial business, Senator Conroy appears ready to conduct another 'closed' trial (this time without any ISP customers involved) in order to save face an push forward with the Great Firewall of Australia.

Has the Prime Minister considered that perhaps the Minister for Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy is becoming tired and emotional?

Just in time for Christmas?

I can see vaguely peeved men all over the world making a mental date to write to Santa before 2015 if Information Week is correct:
"A Toronto-based researcher has built what he claims is the world's first fully functional female robot -- a lifelike android named Aiko that is capable of recognizing faces, identifying medication, and even buttering toast.
33-year-old researcher Le Trung, a graduate of York University, built Aiko with silicon and computer parts. Programming her internal software took over a year. To date, Trung has spent $24,000 building his robo-girl. Aiko sports delicate, Geisha-like features and is armed with sensors that allow her to respond to touch and voice commands. A camera in her neck provides her with visual input. All told, the robot weighs in at about 70 pounds. With a vocabulary of more than 13,000 words, Aiko can, among other things, tell you what the weather is outside. Despite her lifelike appearance and 32-23-33, anatomically correct measurements, Trung insists Aiko is not a s*x doll. "I'm attached to it, but do I sleep with it? No," said Aiko, in an interview published Thursday in Toronto's Globe & Mail newspaper."

Aussie farmers will remain faithful to the real flesh-and-blood version though - a robot couldn't do as much farm work at Teh Wife, carry heavy loads like The Ute or be as faithful as The Heeler.
And they would know it would be London to a brick that Aiko would break down more times than the bore pump!

Transcript of new Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme white paper: Mr. Five Per Cent seals the fate of NSW North Coast communities

About the only decent timeline in the Rudd Government's white paper Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme: Australia's Low Pollution Future is the one indicating that the main mechanism to reduce national carbon emissions will start in about July 2010.

The white paper's foreword disappointingly states:

The Australian Government has a substantial commitment to reduce our carbon pollution by 60 per cent of 2000 levels by 2050.
By 2020, we have committed to reduce Australia's carbon pollution by up to 15 per cent below 2000 levels in the context of a global agreement where major economies agree to substantially restrain carbon pollution and advanced economies take on reductions comparable to Australia.
We have also committed to an unconditional 5 per cent reduction in carbon pollution below 2000 levels by 2020, which represents a significant cut of around 27 per cent on a per capita basis.
By harnessing the innovation and efficiency of the market, the Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme will allow Australia to meet these serious targets at the lowest overall cost to our economy.

With a 5% reduction on Australia's total greenhouse gas levels in 2000 as the bench mark, the Prime Minister, Treasurer and Climate Change Minister are literally planning to do so little, and to move so slowly, in mitigating climate change impacts that the very worst of predicted negative effects will inevitably slam into New South Wales coastal communities.

With such low national carbon emissions targets it won't matter how many billions in seed money or compensation Rudd and his ministers throw at industry or business; our Northern Rivers homes will still be swept out to sea in massive storm surges or turned into rubble by increasingly violent East Coast Lows.

At this point in time even the climate change denialist Howard Government (if it had remained in office) would have been setting that 5% target, so it is hypocritical of Rudd, Swann and Wong to present today's white paper as a breakthrough when it is really a capitulation to the interests of big business at the expense of the ordinary citizen.

Summary of 15 December 2008 white paper here.
Volumes 1 & 2 of full white paper downloadable here.

Thinking of making paperless Christmas cards this year?

If you want to send a simple Christmas greeting by e-mail and so avoid the guilt of using paper this year, here is the simplest method:

Go to Google Images and search for appropriate pictures such as Christmas tree, Christmas scene, Christmas bells, Santa Claus.

• Download your favourite images to Desktop.
• Create an e-mail and give it a coloured or patterned background.
• Insert a picture and centre it.
• Pick the font type and colour you fancy and write your message.

Nothing simpler.

* If you want to caption the picture with a personal message, pimp the card or create a Christmas collage, then go to BIG HUGE Labs and take advantage of the free, easy to use tools there.

If you are into prepared e-cards there are downloadable examples at Yahoo! Kids or personalise those found at ecards4ever.