Saturday 20 August 2011

Northern Rivers Housing Forum 10am-2.30pm 14 September 2011 Lismore


Northern Rivers Housing Forum

The theme for this month’s Northern Rivers Housing Forum will be ‘New Approaches to Connecting People and Services’.
The forum is free for participants and will be held on Wednesday, 14 September, from 10.00am – 2.30pm at Goonellabah Community Centre, Oliver Avenue, Lismore.
Lunch will be provided and places are limited so people will need to register early.
Please register to attend the forum with Julie Dukes at North Coast Community Housing Company on 66 275315

Ryan puts a smile on the dial of oldies who remember posties delivering twice daily and once on Saturday



Still smiling at this from Ryan O’Connell in Seven Things A Twentysomething Can’t Do……

“1. Mail something
Whenever I have to mail something, I have a mini panic attack. First, I have to get stamps, which seems super daunting because I have no idea where they’re sold. Can I get one at my vegan co-op later or maybe the guy I’m sleeping with from Ok Cupid has some at his apartment. IDK! Then there is the terrifying dilemma of acquiring an envelope. Once you manage to get these two things, you have to somehow put them together and handwrite things. Lastly, you have to search for something called a mailbox. I’ve heard about mailboxes in movies but I’ve yet to see one in real life. Honestly, flying Virgin to give someone something seems more feasible these days. Like I’ve heard of the band The Postal Service but I didn’t know that it was based on a real thing, okay?”

Kitty pawn?

 

Friday 19 August 2011

Archibald Prize finalists on display in Murwillumbah

Tweed River Art Gallery, located in Murwillumbah, is currently hosting an exhibition of the 2011 Archibald Prize finalists.

The quality of the exhibition speaks for itself ... it's AAAA.

Of course, Brett Quilty's winning portrait of Margaret Olley is the stand out. It's fantastic. When viewed close up from a metre or so the Average Joe will says, "What's this? It's nothing."

However, when viewed from a bit of distance it's incredible. As one moves from left to right, or vice-versa, or moves back and forth from Quilty's work the piece demonstrates its many dimensions.


This bloke's no art specialist, but he knows what he likes and what he doesn't. Quilty deservedly won ... daylight came second.My other best ones include:
Jenn Sage's My Jack

Christopher McVinish's Robin Nevin
Amanda Darburg's "DA" .. smh crossword devotees know this subject well!



Angus McDonald's
Dr Ann Lewisa AO



Credits: Images from Art Gallery NSW



NEWS FLASH: Examiner in damage control mode, pulls out the big gun


Phew! It's been a big week at the Daily Examiner. First, it was its chief-of-staff. Then, it was its media sales manager. Now, its big gun, general manager Judy Lewis, has thrown herself into the fray and added her two bob's worth.


Gee, there must be some interesting discussions had around the water cooler at the Examiner. Wouldn't you just love to be a fly-on-the-wall. It'd be worth an admission price to get a ring side seat there.

However, the main protagonists, Howard and Smajstr, are based in separate locations, with the former in Grafton and the latter in Yamba. Perhaps they'll have to settle their differences with a duel at dawn at a neutral venue. Choice of weapon ... pistols or pens?

Credit: Thanks, Daily Examiner
PS: This reader is looking forward to the next instalment of this mini drama series.
The paper hasn't provided so much entertainment for a long time.

Dissent in the Examiner camp ... looks like it's an attempt to balance the ledgers


Monday's Daily Examiner carried an opinion piece ("Poker faced gambling") written by staffer Tim Howard about "the smell from a putrefying mix of self-righteousness and self-interest emanating from a loud group of people who turn out to be in a minority".

Howard was referring to "misinformation (being) spread by the club and gaming industry" in relation to proposed poker machine tax reforms.


Well, didn't that set the cat among the (stool) pigeons in the club industry. The usual suspects from local clubs hastily put pen to paper and wrote letters to the editor of the Examiner so Wednesday's paper carried letters from the general managers of Grafton District Services Club and Yamba Golf & Country Club and the CEO of Yamba Bowling and Recreation Club.

But, then to balance the books, yesterday's Examiner carried a letter to the editor penned by a colleague of Howard at the paper, Peter Smajstr, the paper's media sales manager.

And, just so everyone knows, Peter backs the clubs, but wants to assure readers that it's just his opinion, just as Tim's piece was Tim's opinion and not that of The Daily Examiner.

It seems the last people the paper wants to get offside are its advertisers. 


Source: Daily Examiner

Bangarra: 22 years of celebrating culture


Bangarra Dance Theatre: Fire - A Retrospective (2009)



Teh Big Gra complains


Teh Big Gra is also listed prominently in Google’s search index:
Gra is also a regular writer for The Australian - a national newspaper with a circulation of 130,000 plus.
But he’s afraid, very afraid, that he is being shunned and silenced by two (I repeat, two) members of the blogotariat.
RORFL!

Thursday 18 August 2011

Carbon pricing he said, she said. Part One


Letters to the Editor in The Daily Examiner on 12 and 16 August 2011:

1. One cannot avoid death

YES, Thomas Macindoe ( DEX Aug 9 ), one cannot avoid death or the carbon tax.

It seems it will apply to both cremations and burials.

Local government will face a price rise for landflll (cemeteries?) when the carbon tax kicks in.

BILL CALVI
Grafton

2. Alternative universe

BILL Calvi of Grafton (DEX letters, 12 August 2011) assures us that cremation will incur a so-called carbon tax.

One has to wonder in which alternative universe Mr. Calvi resides.

Firstly, only individual industry/business premises which directly emit  25,000 tonnes of CO2-e emissions annually, after deducting emissions from liquid fuels, LPG, CNG, LNG, and synthetic greenhouse gases (excluding PFCs produced by aluminum smelting), will potentially attract the carbon levy. (http://www.cleanenergyfuture.gov.au/, 12.08.11)

Secondly, for an individual crematorium in Australia to qualify for this carbon levy it would have to cremate at least 156,250 recently deceased people each year, based on the 160kgs of CO2 equivalent per cremated person estimated in a 2008 South Australian Centennial Park Cemetery Authority carbon footprint report.

As the Australian Museum states, it takes on average one to one and a half hours to fully cremate a body, this would see the average crematorium required to operate up to twenty-seven round the clock operating years in the space of one calendar year to process enough bodies to qualify for the carbon levy.

In 2008 and 2009 there were 143,900 and 140,800 total registered deaths respectively right across the country, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. At least fifty per cent of these deaths would have involved cremation [Cemeteries and Crematoria Association of NSW, February 2009] but even this figure would not cause one crematorium to pay the carbon tax.

Similarly, as in-ground internment produces only an estimated 39kg of CO2 equivalent per burial, individual cemeteries would be hard-pressed to conduct enough of these funerals annually to attract this levy.

Just to make sure that cremation was a non-starter in the national carbon pricing debate I contacted a public servant briefed with fielding questions on climate change policy. When he finished quietly laughing, he assured me that the carbon levy was not going to be paid by cemeteries for burial or cremation.

As for local government paying the carbon levy on its landfill waste, that will only apply to waste generated after the levy becomes law.

JUDITH M. MELVILLE
Yamba

Aussie as she is spoke lives!



This spontaneous outburst from cyenne:
“You bloody ripper. You absolute, dyed-in-the-wool full-on bloody beauty.”