Lesser books you may have missed

Where ever I looked in the Oz blogosphere last week we were all being so deadly serious, so 'twas a relief to come across this #lesserbooks tag at Twitter.
Here's a small selection of titles on offer:

A Basement Master's Guide (Second Edition)
The Color Mauve
Pedagogy of the Depressed
A Clear and Present Annoyance
The Scarlet Debtor
Diary of a Cake Fiend
Tupac Kills A Mockingbird
Horton Hears a Where
War and Peas
Prude and Prejudice
The Maltseser Falcon
The Hitchhiker's Guide to Montana
Gone With the Breeze
Apprehension and Disapproval In Las Vegas
The Lion, The Witch and the Cupboard
The 38 steps
The Norwich Outpatient
Lard Times
Thus Spoke Uncle Bert

A Sunday smile.....

From xkcd

From Ned the Bear

All things greenhouse in New South Wales

While all things greenhouse appear to be marking time at a national level and, many who voted for Kevin 07 are unhappy and some horrified at the thought of his budgie-wearing counterpart Tony 10, matters chug along at NSW state level with average equivalent emissions this week running 15% above the level required to stop global warming and dirty energy prevails according to The Weekly Greenhouse Gas Indicator.

Queensland is a shocking 90% over equivalent weekly emissions levels for 1990 and South Australia is 12% below. The Northern Territory and West Australia are not tracked it this longtitudinal data collection.

New south wales

This week's (7 May to 13 May) NSW Indicator is 1.908 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, the breakdown is as follows:

In tonnes:

Electricity from coal: 1.106 million; 58.0%

Natural gas: 0.171 million; 8.9%

Petroleum: 0.632 million; 33.1%

This week

NSW's emissions from energy grew by 2.2% or 42,000 tonnes, due to an increase in emissions from both gas and coal-fired generation.

Emissions sources

Emissions from coal-fired electricity, which accounted for 87% of electricity generation in NSW this week, grew by 0.9% or 10,000 tonnes with a number of generation units operating at a higher capacity.

Emissions from gas grew by 23% or 32,000 tonnes.

Emissions from petroleum products continued at the same low level as last week – the lowest level of petrol emissions for the state in over two years.

Demand & Import/Export

Electricity demand grew 1.5%.

NSW imported 5.7% of its electricity demand from other states, compared to 6.9% last week.

Comparisons

This week's Indicator is 9.2% lower than the same week in 2009 and total emissions to this stage of 2010 are 5.5% lower than the similar stage last year.

This week's Indicator is 15% above the average equivalent 1990 weekly emissions and 1.3% below the equivalent 2000 weekly average.

The bloke ought to keep his mouth closed and let people think he's a racist idiot, rather than provide the proof

Patricia Laurie, Councillor for the North Coast Region of the NSW Aboriginal Land Council, has very neatly put a gigantic racist ignoramus on his backside.

Last week James Mackenzie told Byron Shire Council that the Aboriginal nations Arakwal and Bundjalung are a fiction. McKenzie claimed there was no Bundjalung nation, tribe, people, language, culture, clan, nor horde. "No Bundjalung anything." (The Northern Star, 14 May)

Here's Ms Laurie's piece Bundjalung nation 'very much alive'. It's in today's Northern Star.

Some days you wake up better than others. But last Friday, I awoke to discover that I wasn't real.

In the May 14 edition of The Northern Star, a story appeared entitled 'Arakwal, Bundjalung don't exist'.

You can imagine my surprise, given that I am both a Yaegl woman and a member of the Bundjalung nation.

I pinched myself, just in case, and can confirm for Northern Star readers that I am, in fact, real.

I can also confirm that the Bundjalung nation is very much alive, and is one of the best known in the country.

Tens of thousands of Aboriginal people alive today - myself included - identify with the Bundjalung nation, either as their country, or the country of their ancestors.

The bizarre and ridiculous claims have come from 'James McKenzie, a great grandson of pioneer James MacKenzie, who was called Wollumbin Gum Jimmy'.

Mr McKenzie somehow managed to grab a microphone at a meeting of the Byron Shire Council.

By the end of his rant, Mr McKenzie had abolished two nations and called for 'a parliamentary inquiry into the scandals and the politicians involved'. What, all of them?

I'd respectfully suggest to The Northern Star that while coverage of council is important - and in The Star's case generally comprehensive - you don't have to report absolutely everything that is said.

If a man stands and makes a fool of himself, it might make for a colourful headline, but given the ridiculous and divisive nature of what's been said, reporting it doesn't make for harmonious relationships in the community. That, I would suggest, is in everyone's interests.

To my black brothers and sisters I'd make two points: Firstly, you reap what you sow; if you want to help other people question Aboriginal identity because it suits your political agenda, then expect to have your own identity questioned. Secondly, since the British arrived in 1788, Aboriginal people have been kept busy fighting among themselves. It's one of the great 'tools of the oppressor'.

Finally, to Mr McKenzie: I note that you claim to be a 'descendant of the famous MacKenzies', who helped build this region since colonisation.

The fact is, Mr McKenzie, I don't get to define your identity, any more than you don't get to define Aboriginal identity.

You can advance all the bizarre conspiracy theories you like, but it doesn't change who we are. All that's changed is what we think of you.

Sources: The Northern Star and The Daily Examiner (pic)