The Daily Examiner insults bloggers everywhere

Hidden away on Page 9 of last Saturday’s edition of The Daily Examiner was yet another example of the mainstream media’s ignorance about blogs, blogging and bloggers.

I could feel the indignation burning up the email I received that same day, which pointed out this sentence from the pen of APN journalist Emma Pritchard and added red highlighting as emphasis:

Edible Bloomer's, an online suggestion through the Daily Examiner website from popular blogger "Yambaman".

Now a weblog aka blog is either an independent or hosted online publication created and controlled by the blogger or bloggers who write the regular posts thereon.

People whose only cyber presence is on Facebook, Twitter or similar sites are not bloggers.

Readers who comment on discussion boards, forums, under online newspaper articles or under blog posts are not bloggers.

To call “Yambaman” a blogger is to insult the entire blogosphere by attempting to stretch the genuine definition beyond all credibility.

Emma should have known better - so here is a 2007 link to a K.I.S.S. style video about blogs just for her.

The story of mining in pictures

Click on cartoon to enlarge

Women, Work & $$$$$ in NSW

From the Women in NSW 2012 report [NSW Family & Community Services, July 2012]:

Women in NSW are likely to live in cities, come from diverse cultural backgrounds and speak many languages.

Aboriginal women make up 2.1 percent of the female population of NSW, which in 2011 was 3.68 million women or 50.4 percent of the state’s population. In 2006, nearly two-thirds of NSW women lived in Sydney, with most of the remainder in regional areas and less than one percent in remote areas of the state.

Nearly a quarter of NSW women were born overseas, and one in five spoke a language other than English at home.

The median age of women in NSW in 2011 (38 years) is nearly two years older than that of men. Women are more likely to live longer than men; however, the gap is closing.

Women are far more likely to be at the head of a single parent household than are men. One in five families in NSW is headed by a single parent, and 88 percent of single parents are women.

Over a third of women over 65 years live alone. Women between the ages of 80 and 84 years are more than twice as likely as men to be living alone.

72% of girls in NSW completed year 12 in 2011 compared with 63% of boys.

In 2010, women made up 57 percent of NSW undergraduate students (117,382 in total). Men made up 43 percent (88,954) of undergraduate students. Some 28,400 more NSW women than men commenced an undergraduate higher education course in 2010, a 14 percentage point gap in women’s favour.

In 2011, the median starting salary for women aged less than 25 with a bachelor’s degree in their first full-time job was $50,000 per year, 7.4% ($4,000) less than men.

As at November 2011, NSW women working full-time ordinary hours each week earned on average $1,212, compared with men, who earned $1,404 each week.  

Men earned on average 14 percent more each week than women.

41,600 women in NSW commenced an apprenticeship or traineeship in the 12 months to September 2011, compared with 51,000 men.

22% of all apprenticeship and traineeship commencements in NSW are within traditional trades.

In the 12 months to September 2011, 13% of women (2,629) who commenced an apprenticeship or traineeship did so in a traditional trade. Fifty of those women commenced a construction trade compared to 5,140 men. Similarly, only 116 women commenced an Automotive and engineering trade compared to 5,259 men.

Click on images to enlarge

41 percent of employed women work part-time and 28 percent are engaged as casuals

In the private sector, as of April 2012, 17 percent of all NSW directorships were held by women (compared to 14 percent nationally).

Around 29 percent of board members are women within the not-for-profit sector; in the NSW public sector, 37 percent of board and committee members are women.

The professions of law and education are approaching a gender-balanced workforce, but women form a distinct minority in senior roles.

NSW women’s status and experiences are very similar to those of Australian women more widely.

Oi, Bazza! Not happy with your mining policies here in the Northern Rivers

Poll snapshot on 27th July 2012

http://www.northernstar.com.au/story/2012/07/27/lismore-residents-given-pros-and-cons-of-csg-debat/#c371696

NSW Nats MP Gulaptis left with a red face over jobs claim

Could there possibly be a more politically inept member of parliament?

These two media reports came out on the same day:

Forestry and agriculture workers could be sent to Grafton from Sydney under a proposal from the State Member for Clarence….Mr Gulaptis said he had been corresponding with the Premier and Deputy Premier's offices with his ideas about the types of jobs that should be relocated.  [ABC North Coast NSW 25 July 2012]

JOBS for the Clarence Valley would not be coming from NSW Forests, which was at early stages of corporatisation, NSW Minister for Primary Industries Katrina Hodgkinson said yesterday. [The Daily Examiner 25 July 2012]

Who's afraid to say lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex?

The following media release from the Hon. Mark Butler MP meant nothing at first until I decoded his slavish adherence to a little known acronym. One could be forgiven for suspecting that the Minister for Mental Health and Aging, as well as Social Inclusion, was uncomfortable with the use of plain English.

Apart from that – well done, Minister.

MEDIA RELEASE

24 July 2012

The Gillard Government will develop a National LGBTI Aged Care Strategy to support the implementation of Living Longer Living Better.

Minister for Ageing Mark Butler said he had acted on the advice of the Productivity Commission as well as groups like the ACON Health Ltd, the National LGBTI Health Alliance and the GLBTI Retirement Association.

“We are predicting a large increase in the demand for aged care by this group,” Mr Butler said.

“And there is a broad community consensus that it is important to recognise people who are LGBTI in the same way as we recognise the needs of other diverse groups such as people from culturally and linguistically diverse communities and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders.

“Ultimately it’s about recognising difference and ensuring equality.

“We will work with the National LGBTI Health Alliance to develop a comprehensive strategy to make sure the needs of LGBTI Australians are addressed in the implementation of our $3.7 billion aged care reform package,” Mr Butler said.

Mr Butler said the strategy builds on the support already announced Living Longer Living Better package already provides support for LGBTI Australians.

“In April, I announced $2.5 million to support staff training that is sensitive to the specific needs of these older Australians,” Mr Butler said.

“This funding supports aged care providers to work with their staff to continually improve how they respond to the diverse and complex needs of the older Australians they support.

“The National LGBTI Aged Care Strategy will provide direction for providers and better articulate and coordinate our aims.

For all media enquiries, please contact the minister’s office on (02) 6277 7280

Australian Bureau of Statistics releases Australian suicide rate for last decade

MEDIA RELEASE

Suicide rates down over a decade

The suicide rate in Australia has decreased by 17% over the past decade, from 12.7 to 10.5 deaths per 100,000 people, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS).

Suicide remains the leading cause of death among Australians between 15 and 34 years of age. Suicide rates for males in this age group have decreased over the past 10 years, with decreases of 34% for 15-24 year olds, and 46% for 25-34 year olds, while for other age groups the suicide rate has remained more stable. There has been little change in the suicide rate for females across all age groups over the past decade. Males account for approximately 3 in 4 suicide deaths.

New South Wales was found to have the lowest suicide rate at 8.6 deaths per 100,000 people for the period 2006-2010, while suicide rates were highest in the Northern Territory at 20.2 deaths per 100,000 people for the same period. Rural areas were found to have a higher suicide rate than capital city statistical divisions.

Suicide rates for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples are approximately twice those of non-Indigenous Australians. Rates are particularly high amongst younger (15-34 year old) Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. The age-specific suicide rate for 25-29 year old Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander males was 90.8 deaths per 100,000 people for the combined 10 year period.

Further information is available in Suicide, Australia, 2001-2010.

If you or someone you know is thinking about suicide, call Lifeline (13 11 14), Suicide Call Back Service (1300 659 467) or Kids Helpline (for young people aged 5 to 25 years) (1800 551 800)

24 July 2012 106/2012

Heavenly lights

View from the ISS at Night from Knate Myers on Vimeo.