The beginnings of life show how much we have in common with the rest of the natural world

From This Blog Rules: These amazing embryonic animal photographs of dolphins, sharks, dogs, penguins, cats and elephants are from a new National Geographic Documentary called “Extraordinary Animals in the Womb”. The show’s producer, Peter Chinn, used a combination of three-dimensional ultrasound scans, computer graphics and tiny cameras to capture the process from conception to birth. They are the most detailed embryonic animal pictures ever seen.

Hat tip to Rod3000 (Managing Editor of newmatilda.com plus two kids, cats and chooks) for tweeting about this.

Tell this VP that McDonald's is not wanted in Yamba

This is Kristene Mullen, a McDonald's Australia vice president and director of communications.
She's under the impression that Macca's is the best thing to happen to Oz since sliced bread.
Yamba residents and visitors on holiday can tell her differently at kristene.mullen@au.mcd.com or they can write to Peter Bush, McDonald's Australia CEO at Head Office 21-29 Central Ave THORNLEIGH NSW 2120.

NO TO McDONALDS IN YAMBA!

McDonald's employees out lobbying against Yamba community?

Does McDonald's at Grafton have its employees out lobbying against community opposition to the multinational's push for a 24 hour drive-through and eat-in fast food outlet in Yamba?

One has to wonder when the creator of the YES to McDonalds in YAMBA Facebook page (less than one thousand fans last time I looked) claims to hail from Maclean and not Yamba. While a brief Google search throws up a profile which appears to match this 'Brendan' and shows that a Maclean sports club to which he belongs is seeking business/corporate sponsorship and that he is touting for new business on his advertising website with its mimic URL which ironically seeks to feed off Yamba's established brand. More than a few of his Facebook page 'fans' obviously live in Grafton which just happens to be home to an existing McDonalds outlet.

At least one McDonald's employee is to be found on both the Yes site and the Facebook page NO to McDonalds in YAMBA (over 3,300 fans last time I looked) - talking up the 'benefits' of this multinational and verbally spitting at others.

Elsewhere on Facebook she describes herself as an "Area Assistant" with McDonald's in Grafton now on maternity leave.

This is how the Clarence Valley 'face' of McDonald's is presenting itself:

Bringing a McDonalds to Yamba is going to create great job opportunities for everyone but especially the younger generation. The younger generation that everyone complains about not working. Their options are either to travel or work in the local shops at Yamba. The small businesses will employ family or friends before... taking anyone in. A lot of them expecting to only pay people cash in hand. When business gets a bit tough, bring in the family to take over and cya later job. Some people seem to be carrying on about youth in Yamba not caring about working....Well i bet all the positions will get filled and a majority of the people will work hard.

Also, if people do end up overweight its their own bloody fault!!!!
What....People cant have self control over what they eat now, they have to blame that on someone else too???
I dont see anyone having a crack at all the unhealthy things sold in your Supermarkets or your oh so healthy fish and chip shops.......
McDonalds does have a healthy range as well..
I dont think that that is a fair arguement thats being put up...

Hmmm well doesnt this Nick Stone person think he is SO great. The reality is, he has to pick at peoples spelling mistakes, or if IPhones have spell check because he cant come up with any good reasons for a McDonalds not to be in Yamba!!
Ask him something, he wont be able to answer it.....He will only change the subject ...totally to try and put you down because he has nothing real to say....
Its great....Oh and then watch out for his friend Sharon Beel who will come to his side as she has nothing decent to say either...
Then when theyve had enough and realise they are losing, they will say its all a joke..But its not!
Haha......They are the JOKE!!!!

Haha.... You have got be kidding!! You are the middle age woman who is the joke!!!!!!Your theories make no sense, i think you may have a screw loose!!!
Thats the thing though, i dont run a small business...I havent said that i wanted too so why should i have to justify that to you?McDonalds will be making plenty of employment. Mst probably more that what a small business can make. A clever business person who owns/buys/ or builds a small business in a growing are should realise that bigger franchisees are likely to happen. I would think about that and what effect it would have on my business before i put myself in that position.

Late on 7 April 2010 this Grafton McDonald's employee also stated an intention to make a formal submission to Clarence Valley Council:
I wasnt quite sure what to write either. I just typed what i thought was good and sent a draft of it to yes2mcdonalds@gmail.com They will help :)

I strongly suspect that she may not think to declare the fact that she lives and works in the Grafton area or make her employment background clear in that letter/email to Clarence Valley Council.

Perhaps it's time that McDonald's Australia CEO Peter Bush had a word with his NSW North Coast licensees about their store managers and employees' extra curricular activities.

But perhaps not - after all this is the same McDonald's Australia which described its favoured licensee for the proposed Yamba outlet as coming from "the region" in an effort to convey a false impression that he is actually a permanent resident in the Clarence Valley.

Graphic from Google Images

Making Stevo's day......

Because I feel like making Australian Communications Minister Stephen Conroy happy as a pig in shi...shirt tails, here's a little profanity on one of those Internet sites which good ol' Stevo says he won't be placing behind the Great Firewall of Australia - preferring instead to flirt with blocking sites which may have a political message or are otherwise legal content at the newsagents.
Yer, that's right. Leave the bad language and some rather questionable videos for the kids to titter at, but kill a political message that might be a tad uncomfortable.
Glad the Rudd Government has its priorities straight - after all YouTube comes in handy during an election campaign doesn't it?

On YouTube "The Seven Words" video:
"George Carlin doing what he does best!
WARNING! BAD! BAD! LANGUAGE!
Remove children from the room...unless your a cool parent!
1,521,258 views"

Waltzing around the Web looking at.....

...this and that.

Wikileaks gets dissected by US Army counter intelligence

In March 2010 Wikileaks amusingly blew the whistle on a 2008 assessment of its own organisational structure and aims by US counter intelligence .

Haystack creates 'hidden' Internet access for Iran citizens

Haystack is a new program designed to provide unfiltered internet access to the people of Iran. The software package is compatible with Windows, Mac and Unix systems, and specifically targets the Iranian government's web filtering mechanisms.

First Care Physicians puts the bite on patients for almost unlimted distribution of personal medical information








Perth woman wins award for whistleblowing

Denise Brailey exposed a fraudulent investment scheme which saw thousands of people - including many seniors - lose tens of millions of dollars. Her work has prompted other official investigations in the finance and real estate sectors including an ongoing WA Police Major Fraud Squad probe into a mortgage broker. The Rona Oakley award was presented to her at a lunch at Fraser's Restaurant in Kings Park today.

US Dept. of Defense looks at its big boy's toys in a document published in March 2010

This is GAO's eighth annual assessment of selected Department of Defense (DOD) weapon programs. The report examines how well DOD is planning and executing its weapon acquisition programs, an area that has been on GAO's high-risk list since 1990.

Statement of Gregory C. Wilshusen Director, Information Security Issues to US House of Reps sub-committee released in March 2010

An underlying cause for information security weaknesses identified at federal agencies is that they have not yet fully or effectively implemented key elements of an agencywide information security program, as required by FISMA. As a result, they may be at increased risk of unauthorized disclosure, modification, and destruction of information or disruption of mission critical operations. Such risks are illustrated, in part, by the increasing number of security incidents experienced by federal agencies.

Securency International (Australia) speaks out about folding money rip-off

Following the departure from the company of former Managing Director Myles Curtis and former Director of Commercial Services John Ellery, Securency International Pty Ltd has initiated a global search for a new chief executive.

The reasons why:

Assistance with enquiries into matters dealing with agents in overseas territories 29 March 2010

Counterfeit medicines rife
An estimated 10% of the global medicine supply chain is counterfeit, according to the World Health Organization. More than 25% of the medicines consumed in developing countries are thought to be counterfeit, and in some countries, the figure is as high as 50%.

Go O'bama! Kick those Aussie pollies some more

Teh Oz reported on Wednesday:

"Communications Minister Stephen Conroy is believed to have been summoned to a meeting with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd last week after media reports revealed the US was concerned that this ran contrary to its policy of encouraging an open internet to promote economic growth and global security. One senior cabinet minister is said to have responded to the US reaction by telling Conroy: "With internet censorship you won't need a national broadband network."

So that's what it finally took to get Rudders interested in what Conroy is doing as he builds the Great Australian Firewall - a stern word from Obama & Co.

Selective deafness? Won't hear us but will hear the Yanks. ;-)

Is McDonald's Australia trying to hoodwink Clarence Valley Council?

Historical image of Treelands Drive and environs circa 2005
Click on image to enlarge

Eight (8) school buses use Treelands Drive, Yamba in the morning and three (3) school buses use Treelands Drive in the afternoon on school days.
Twelve (12) ordinary buses on the Yamba to Grafton and Return route move along Treelands Drive each weekday starting at around 7.15 am and ending at approximately 6.20pm.
On weekends and most public holidays these ordinary buses travel up and down Treelands Drive eight (8) times in total.
[Figures based on published timetable and telephone conversation with Busways,6 April 2010]

So there is a grand total of twenty-three (23) bus movements in Treelands Drive each Monday through to Friday in any normal week.

Evidently this road is generally thought to be the slowest section of the Yamba township bus route.

Why am I bothering to tell Clarence Valley residents something they all know or could find out with a single phone call to the Busways Yamba office?

Because apparently this simple piece of information was beyond the capabilities of McDonald's Australia when it presented a "Traffic Impact Assessment" to Clarence Valley Council, as part of its development application for a 24 hour eat-in and drive through fast food outlet in Treelands Drive.

This is what McDonald's asserts: "There is a bus shelter across Treelands Drive from the site with a posted timetable indicating Hail and Ride services, although it is unclear how the bus routes through the vicinity from Yamba Road." [McDonalds Australia Pty Ltd,Report for Proposed McDonalds Restaurant at 7 Treelands Drive Yamba, Traffic Impact Assessment, March 2010,p.11]

One would have thought that a timetable giving times for buses picking up and putting down "opp Bi-Lo" would have given McDonald's some hint - just as a sensible person would have expected that this large multinational would have thought to add school bus movements into the traffic mix.

But wait, there's more! McDonald's Australia thinks it is perfectly acceptable to expect that traffic flow (along Treelands Drive onto Yamba Road or Gumnut Road, up and down Osprey Drive, or along Gumnut through to The Halyard and down Shores Drive to Yamba Road) will go swimmingly, even with its own averaged prediction of anywhere between 180-230 extra vehicles per hour with an average maximum of 340 extra vehicles per hour in each direction along Treelands Drive. [ibid p.17]

How do we know all will be well? Why because McDonald's is using a 'guesstimate' (apparently based on one site visit) for how well the intersections at each end of Treelands Drive function at the present time; "Due to the absence of vehicle turning movement data for the intersection of Yamba Road/Treelands Drive and Treelands Drive/Gumnut Road, the intersections could not be assessed for existing operational performance." As well as relying on its own interpretation of a decade old Yamba Traffic Study to tick off on the proposed increase in traffic along Yamba Road generally in the vicinity of the shopping precinct. [ibid,p.10-11]

Now I haven't even begun to look at every aspect of the McDonald's/Clarence Property/Westlawn application because, with Council charging over a dollar per page for photocopying, I haven't had the luxury of bringing a copy of the entire Environmental Impact Statement etc. back home with me and so must return to read further.

However, if the aforementioned issues are an example of how McDonald's has approached the matter I am concerned that both the Yamba community and shire councillors are being fed a tissue of wishful thinking and possibly deliberate obfuscation.

This is one of those times that all current shire councillors should do more than open their business papers the night before or on the day of the monthly meeting and, seriously look at what McDonald's is asserting in the actual documents it has lodged.

The amenity of a significant section of Yamba and residents' ability to move easily/safely by car, bus or on foot, are two of the many things at stake because of this particular inappropriate development application.

Tip toeing through the politcal cow pats

Softer Tony Abbott proves a winner on ABC's Q&A‎ sez The Oz this week.
Is that why I picked up a book and read instead of closely following this pollie's smug tip-toe through the political cow pats on a blather of softsoap?
The only time my ears pricked was to hear him firmly come down on the side of the compulsory national censorship of the Australian Internet, but even that he had done before in almost exactly the same words.
Seems I'm not on my pat malone in wondering what The Oz was on about:

alain_of_melb No, really @australian which #qanda were you watching? Abbott won no one over except the Young Liberal plants.

alain_of_melb What #qanda were The Australian watching? Nevermind the general boos & laughter in the audience, or comments on Twitter. Horrible journalism

Another mosquito borne disease getting closer to the NSW North Coast

2009 map of historical QLD Dengue Fever distribution. Dengue has historically been reported in the Northern Territory, New South Wales and north Queensland but it is currently limited by the distribution of its vector, the dengue mosquito to north Queensland.

Ross River Fever (and to a slightly lesser extent Barmah Forest Virus) have long been established on the NSW North Coast.

According to a NSW Dept. of Health media release Mosquito Warning Across NSW issued at the beginning of the month: Ross River Virus is the most widespread arboviral disease in the NSW North Coast region, accounting for about 60% of notifications over the past 20 years and 48.5% over the past 10 years. Notifications of Ross River virus infection from the North Coast accounted for about 33% of all NSW Ross River notifications over the past 10 years and The North Coast has the highest levels of Barmah Forest virus infection incidence in NSW. Notifications of Barmah Forest virus infection from the North Coast accounted for about 55% of all NSW notifications of this infection over the past 10 years.

Now the deadlier Dengue Fever is once more beginning to edge down the Australian east coast towards south-east Queensland from where it will be a short hop across the NSW border.

From The Observer in Gladstone Queensland on 2 April 2010:

QUEENSLAND Health has mounted a "search and destroy mission" against the Dengue Fever carrying mosquito in Gladstone after a positive case in the city.
A local resident, who recently returned from an overseas holiday, has tested positive for an as yet unknown type of dengue......
Paul Florian, director of environmental health services for Central Queensland Public Health Unit, is in Gladstone today working with Gladstone Regional Council staff, conducting door to door inspections and working in "hotspots" to try and reduce numbers of the carrier mosquito.
"Dengue mosquitoes only breed around homes and in urban areas, and not in swamps or creeks," said Mr Florian said.
"They breed in containers that hold water such as buckets, old tyres, tarpaulins and black plastic, pot plant bases, vases, boats, tin cans and plastic containers, roof guttering, rainwater tanks with damaged or missing screens, bird baths, striking containers for plant cuttings, drain sumps, fallen palm fronds and coconut shells."
Mr Florian said the dengue fever carrying mosquito, the Aedes aegypti, was found in some parts of Gladstone, although not in the abundance in Northern Queensland.

NSW North Coast eco vandals fined by court

Credit: The Northern Star on Saturday 3 April 2010

The 2007 removal of threatened and rare trees as well as destruction of koala habitat saw the principals of Mullumbimby company Kohinoor Pty Ltd and Uki business Hardings Earth Moving in court this week, where total fines and costs awarded against them exceeded $227,000.
Unfortunately the clock cannot be turned back and once again corporate eco-vandals have had their way on the NSW North Coast with minimum personal cost.