Mood:  incredulous

Here is Louis Nowra's opinon piece about "being different" prominent in the New Year weekend edition:

To appreciate our identity, we need the write stuff 

It's a gutsy heartfelt read: It starts like this:

There was hardly a more loved and admired man than my Uncle Keith. Employed by the railways he lived and worked in country towns. He was brilliant at any sport, had a fondness for beer and spent as much time as possible with his mates. For many he was the quintessential Aussie bloke.

 

There was another side to him, of course. He hated gays (''pillow biters''), Aborigines (''coons'') and artists of all persuasions (''wankers'') and believed the moon landings were fake. He only gave me one piece of advice: ''Be average. Never try to be different because no one likes a smart arse.''

When I was 17, I told him I was giving up football so I could concentrate on my clarinet playing. He called me a poofter and slammed the door in my face. It was the last time I saw him. He died a couple of years later in a typical blokeish fashion. He was drunk, the car skidded off the country road and it crashed into a tree, also killing his best mate.

From memory the piece had a pointer at the front of the Sydney Morning Herald website along the lines of 'Cowardice in Australia' or similar. And the point was simple and true: The tyranny of the collective over the individual is ugly as sin.But being alty and indy we thought to have a go at dear Louis for some jarring exagerations and ideological stupidities. But the SMH moderator censored it. How ironic. So much for intellectual and moral courage the whole purpose of the article!

Here are some failings of good ol' Louis in his piece as much as I liked reading it, most of it from memory from my censored comment. What a shame because I was really trying to talk instead of rehashing tired rhetoric that was allowed through - you know, get the juices flowing instead of bland rah rah of the choir:

1. The piece does remind me of the Les Patterson crudity in aspects of Australian culture. How grog is a curse as per beloved ex football coach now apparently an alcoholic. Indeed that time as captain of the team in the 1970ies based on physical skills rather than social success urged me on to some kind of Di Lampedusa style arms length perspective (referring to the towering 20C novel The Leopard). More so with a 29 year school reunion in a few days. 

2. But the local glitterati/culturati have exploited this crudity with great disloyalty too: When I watched movie Barry McKenzie for the first time recently it was apparent refugees Bruce Beresford, Phillip Adams and Barry Humphries were intent on lauding UK comic Peter Cooke, and reinforce every other local loud mouth stereotype to the English viewer. This smacks of appeasement to a haughty neurotic condescening UK paying audience and  fairly despicable. What happened to my country right or wrong? It gets trotted out today as particularly clever but implies something again, namely ...

3. Louis implies a degree of 'self hating' - a term borrowed from zionist gibes at non believer compatriots. For instance Louis refers to Australian landscapes as "ugly". Not on my walls champ. Australia has amazing landscapes - just open your eyes. Like our oceans. As for superiority of womenfolk, talk about generalisations and reverse stereotyping. There are some real bushpigs out there and well beyond the skin deep. Indeed often because of preoccupation with the same.

4. Louis takes a swipe at "tedious" author Richard Flannagan for obsessing about the "timber industry". Put simply the massive by volume "woodchip" industry is demonstrably not "timber". So Louis has lost it already. Flannagan's only problem we foresee is his Irish genes and the risky combination with alcohol. If he steers clear of grog his huge talent can only flourish. It's a big challenge for all we Irish.

Indeed it's a funny old SMH comment moderator effort out of date order at one point. Where is the moral courage in the censorship? How ironic given the topic of the worthy piece complete with graphic of scythe in hand as if to cut this minor indy media writer out of any comment list.

Posted by editor at 11:15 AM EADT

Updated: Monday, 4 January 2010 11:22 AM EADT

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Mood:  quizzical

It was about the grim controversy of illegal harvesting of body organs allegedly perpetrated by Israeli/Jewish medical or government authorities. There was indeed some big controversy about the matter mid 2009 over the usual complaints of stereotyping, which apparently ran front pages of a Swedish newspaper. (It was hotly denied by Israel.) And similarly big corruption case with pictures of arrested rabbis in New York mid 2009 involving money laundering, real estate and again this troubling claim of organ smuggling involved in modern times. This time it was front pages of USA press, in Obamaland.

But what we noticed on The Australian world page 2 weeks back was a large colour photo of the notorious 'work will set you free' signage (in German) at infamous Auschwitz industrial mass murder camp of WW2 infamy. Apparently some cynic stole the infamous metal letters. Hence the lead story picture prominence in colour.

But at the very bottom of the page, postage stamp really and indeed broken with spill onto reverse side to add to obscurity, was a text story of much greater significance, that the Israeli Govt admit illegal harvesting of organs including from dead Palestinians, 'but it was all in the early 1990ies a long time ago'. Mmm, the aphorism smoke and fire.

That's not what I call proportionate news coverage, or news values regarding proportionate coverage. Were Murdoch press worried about encouraging a centuries old blood libel, ideological suppression of the lead, or just hopeless news values??? Some other reason? We just don't know.

But what it looked like to us was big media choreography qualitatively similar to mainstream politics we see domestically all the time: The simple technique of launching another related story (stolen sign with picture) to offset or smother another more damaging story (organ trade): 'Hey look over there' gambit, and it works for whiney little children as much for big adult readers.

......................................

* We also watched a very moving story on Sunday ABC religious programming yesterday about moral courage of Jehovah's Wtnesses imprisoned with doomed Jewish folks in a Polish concentration camp in WW2. And the solidarity (indeed inter-marriage) that created across both groups. The best (prisoners) and worst (nazis) of humanity in a snapshot.

Posted by editor at 9:21 AM EADT

Updated: Tuesday, 5 January 2010 8:12 AM EADT

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Mood:  incredulous

We don't publish for high reader numbers. Rather we seek the indefinable core 'beltway' AAA demographic. (Beltway meaning vested interest lobby in big media, politics, business. AAA refers to the well paid, educated mob thought to support the ABC.) Whether we get that readership is hard to know. Certainly this clunky format has poor engagement with little or no comments.

In any case our reader stats are on an encouraging upswing of some 10 times gradual increase from our first month 3 years back. Also on a personal note the editor here is no. 1 globally google name search, ahead of namesake ritzy resort owner, US financiers and schlock hollywood director. This effect is not so useful for job applications but possibly does measure some kind of social capital.

Here is the general backgrounder, we used to publish every month but got a bit lazy: We might move to quarterly at this rate:

Previous monthly reader pageview figures for 2007, 2008 verified by screen shot (web host provider monthly pageview account details) checked and posted on or about 4th day of the month found in this thread:

•  December 2009 - 31,335
• September 2009 - 19,132
•  August 2009 - 22,072 (host metric, not screenshot)
• July 2009 - 18,293 (host metric, not screenshot)
• June 2009 - 29,165 (host metric, not screenshot)
• May 2009 - 32,125 (host metrics, not screenshot)
• April 2009 - 23,421 (host metrics, not screenshot)
• March 2009 - 34,255
• February 2009 - 23,208
• January 2009 - 27,462
• December 08 - 21,858
• November 08 - unavailable, host breakdown
• October 08 - 20,343
• September 08 - 20,746
• August 08 - 25,344
• July 08 - 22,855
• June 08 - 27,440
• May 08 - 25,046
• April 08 - 19,250
• March 08 - 20,803 
• February 08 - 13,109
• January 2008 -  19, 898
• December - 11,627
• November - 10,220
• October - 9, 100 
• Sept -  8,100 roughly, no screenshot
• August - 8,845
• July - 7475
• June - 9675
• May  - 9, 059
• April  - 12,087
• March  - 6,684
• February - 5,372
• January 07 -  2800 (3rd Jan - 3rd Feb 07)

Posted by editor at 8:31 AM EADT

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Mood:  special

Here it is, reprinted in total in the public interest courtesy of UK The Guardian, because scientific leadership is likely a better option for a scientific problem. (Note SAM here despite google adverts is essentially non profit - we haven't received one payment from Google in over a year):

Copenhagen has given us the chance to face climate change with honesty

James Hansen, The Guardian (UK) 27th December 2009

 A carbon-use dividend for everybody must replace the old, ineffectual 'cap-and-trade' scheme

Chart showing emission trends.

Last weekend's minimalist Copenhagen global climate accord provides a great opportunity. The old deceitful, ineffectual approach is severely wounded and must die. Now there is a chance for the world to get on to an honest, effective path to an agreement.

The centrepiece of the old approach was a "cap-and-trade" scheme, festooned with offsets and bribes – bribes that purportedly, but hardly, reduced carbon emissions. It was analogous to the indulgences scheme of the Middle Ages, whereby sinners paid the Church for forgiveness.

In today's indulgences the sinners, developed countries, buy off developing countries by paying for "offsets" to their own emissions and providing reparation money for adaptation to climate change. But such hush money won't work. Yes, some developing country leaders salivated over the proffered $100 billion per year. But by buying in, they would cheat their children and ours. Besides, even the $100 billion hush money is fugacious. The US, based on its proportion of the fossil fuel carbon in the air today, would owe $27 billion per year. Chance of Congress providing that: dead zero. Maybe the UK will cough up its $6 billion per year and Germany its $7 billion per year. But who will collect Russia's $7 billion per year?

Most purchased "offsets" to fossil fuel carbon dioxide emissions are hokey. But there is no need to flagellate the details of this modern indulgences scheme. Science provides an unambiguous fact that our leaders continue to ignore: carbon dioxide from fossil fuel burning remains in the climate system for millennia. The only solution is to move promptly to a clean energy future.

The difficulty is that fossil fuels are the cheapest energy, if the price does not include the damage they do to human health, the planet, and the future of our children. "Goals" for future emission reductions, whether "legally binding" or not, are utter nonsense as long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy. The Kyoto Protocol illustrates the deceit of our governments, which have not screwed up their courage to face down the fossil fuel industry. As the graph here shows, global fossil fuel emissions were increasing 1.5% per year prior to the 1997 Kyoto accord. After "Kyoto" emission growth accelerated to 3% per year. A few developed countries reduced their fossil fuel use. The only important effect of that was to slightly reduce demand for fuel, helping to keep its price down. The fuel was burned in other places, and products made were shipped back to developed countries.

As far as the planet is concerned, agreements to "cap" emissions, such as the Kyoto Protocol and the imagined Copenhagen Protocol, are worthless scraps of paper. As long as fossil fuels are the cheapest energy, they will be burned somewhere. This fact helps define a solution to the climate problem. Yes, people must make changes in the way they live. Countries must cooperate. Matters as intractable as population must be included. Technology improvements are required. Changes must be economically efficient. The climate solution necessarily will increase the price of fossil fuel energy. We must admit that. But in the end, energy efficiency and carbon-free energy can be made less expensive than fossil fuels, if fossil fuels' cost to society is included. The solution must have honesty, backbone and a fair international framework. We need a rising price on carbon applied at the source (the mine, wellhead, or port of entry). The fee will affect all activities that use fossil fuels, directly or indirectly. The entire fee collected from fossil fuel companies should be distributed to the public. In this fee-and-dividend approach people maintaining a carbon footprint smaller than average will receive more in the dividend than they pay via increased energy costs. The monthly dividend, deposited electronically in their bank account or on their debit card, will stimulate the economy and provide people with the means to increase their carbon efficiency. All that governments need do is divide the collected revenue by the number of shares, with half-shares for children, up to two children per family.

Some economists prefer a payroll tax deduction over a dividend, because taxes depress the economy. The problem is that about half of the public are not on payrolls, because of retirement or involuntary unemployment. I suggest that at most 50% of the collected carbon fee should be used for payroll tax deduction.

Cap-and-trade is the antithesis of this simple system. Cap-and-trade is a hidden tax, increasing energy costs, but with no public dividend. Its infrastructure costs the public, who also fund the profits of the resulting big banks and speculators. Cap-and-trade is advantageous only to energy companies with strong lobbyists and government officials who dole out proceeds from pollution certificates to favoured industries.

Fee-and-dividend, in contrast, is a non-tax – on average it is revenue-neutral. The public will probably accept a rise in the carbon fee rate, because their monthly dividend will increase correspondingly. As fee-and-dividend causes fossil fuel energy prices to rise, a series of points will be reached at which various carbon-free energies and carbon-saving technologies are cheaper than fossil fuels plus the fee. The market place will choose the best technology. As time goes on, fossil fuel use will collapse, coal will be left in the ground, and we will have arrived at a clean energy future. A rising carbon fee is essential for a climate solution. But how to achieve a fair international framework?

The critical requirement is that the United States and China agree to apply across-the-board carbon fees, at a relative rate to be negotiated. Why would China agree to a carbon fee? China does not want to be saddled with the problems that attend fossil fuel addiction such as those that plague the United States. Besides, China would be hit extraordinarily hard by climate change. A uniform rising carbon fee is the most economically efficient way for China to limit its fossil fuel dependence.

 

Copenhagen discussions showed that China and the United States can work together. Europe, Japan, and most developed countries would very probably agree to a similar status to that of the United States. Countries refusing to levy an across-the-board carbon fee can be dealt with via an import duty collected on products from that nation in accord with the amount of fossil fuel that goes into producing the product. The World Trade Organisation already has rules permitting such duties.

The international framework must define how proceeds from import duties are used to assure fairness. Duties on products from developing countries will probably dwarf present foreign aid to those countries. These funds should be returned to developing countries, but distributed so as to encourage best practices, for example, improved women's rights and education that helps control population growth. Fairness also requires that distribution of the funds takes account of the ongoing impacts of climate change. Successful efforts in limiting deforestation and other best practices could also be rewarded.

 

James Hansen was the first scientist to warn the US Congress of the dangers of climate change. The ideas discussed in this article are expanded on in his new book "Storms of My Grandchildren".

Posted by editor at 7:51 AM EADT

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Mood:  lyrical

Sent: Friday, December 11, 2009 3:45 PM Subject: [chipstop] truck count results

Hi all
 Here are detailed figures from our truck count on Wednesday. The total  for the day was 121, compared to 98 in Feb 09 and 191 in Sept 08. The numbers have certainly picked up since the start of the year, but one interesting thing: thinnings have almost halved, from 39% of loads in February to 20% this week. This suggests to me that the thing that is keeping them (SEFE [Eden Chipmill) going is their cheapness. The other side of this is the fact that the contractors claim they are not making money from thinnings and there may be tensions over impending royalty rises.

Thinnings are E1s. They are desirable and while more expensive, (even though the royalty is lower to reflect the greater difficulty of extraction) we would normally expect them to be more saleable. Apparently not in the present circumstances.

If you want to see earlier truck counts, you can get them on the chipstop website at: http://www.chipstop.forests.org.au/cswhatsnew.html#CHIPMILL_VIGIL_AND_TRUCK_COUNT,_DECEMBER_2006 _

Posted by editor at 12:07 PM EADT

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Mood:  energetic

Forty climate activists have closed down the rail line into the world's
biggest coal port this morning, protesting the failure of the UN climate
talks in Copenhagen to produce a just, effective, and legally binding
treaty.
 
Twenty five of the diverse group - aged from 19 to 86 years and including
a Buddhist priest, and an elected local councillor - are occupying a rail
bridge in Newcastle, Australia, and refusing to leave. They have hung
large banners reading "Greed wrecked Copenhagen: Now it's up to us all",
and "You could have done something great."

There are five activists suspended on ropes from train under bridge, there
are three or so Dlocked onto train and one on tripod. there are two or
three sitting in front and two or three sitting behind - the train aint
goin nowhere. police rescue have turned up - two of them, without a ladder.

Here is the big media via Newcastle Herald today:

Posted by editor at 9:53 AM EADT

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Mood:  quizzical

It's bushfire season here. Being a Hawkesbury District local we took a drive around the latest bushfire in .... Londonderry?

Funny because all the streets we drove down in Londonderry don't have any fire indicators. But as you go west to nearby Castlereagh you can find alot. And it's "Castlereagh" based on the street signage footnote printed there.

No doubt with that 43 degree heat and gusty wind late last week the bushfire threatened Londonderry but looks alot like the bushfire was actually in Castlereagh about 4 km further west.

We put it down to the silly season, and or grim predictions of tragedy and disaster running ahead of the flames.

Posted by editor at 12:59 PM EADT

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Mood:  d'oh

We noticed the Washington Post web front page for 20 Dec 09 (our time, 19 Dec 09 over there) goes with healthcare and a record snow storm, with Copenhagen climate conference nearly a footnote:

It sure looks like global warming just got crunched by Obama's domestic political imperatives. 

Posted by editor at 12:45 PM EADT

Updated: Sunday, 20 December 2009 12:52 PM EADT

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Mood:  hug me

The primary vote in the latest polling in NSW has The Green Party here at 17% up from around 11%.

Similarly the federal Green Party reps are busy in solidarity with the Association of Small Island States at Copenhagen as per this email just in 6 hours ago by the magic of the intertubes. We would have posted more on the Austalian interface with the UN conference but we've been at the NSW Supreme Court on a charity mission for a colleague for 3 days:

..........................................

Dear friend, I am writing to you again from Copenhagen, where the conference has been reverberating for days with the brave voices of island leaders. The island leaders, from Tuvalu to the Maldives, Grenada to Kiribati, are pleading for serious climate action from developed and developing countries alike. They rightly point out that the kind of weak deal that rich countries like Australia have on offer is a suicide pact for them and they will not sign it. Support the island leaders now! But Kevin Rudd responded to this heartfelt plea from the world's most vulnerable people by trying to bully them into submission. He picked up the phone and started to call Pacific leaders, berating them for what he called their "unproductive stance". You can read about it in my blogs from Copenhagen on our website. These island leaders will be coming under immense pressure from the world's largest and richest countries in the next few days. Those who want a political outcome more than they want a meaningful safe climate outcome are pressuring the islands to pull back and accept a weak deal. Island leaders need our support now! All Australians who support the brave stand taken by island leaders should get behind them now. We need to tell them not to listen to Mr Rudd, and reassure them that many Australians stand with the islands in their call for survival. Please take a few minutes to email these leaders to give them your support. Yours in hope, Christine

Meanwhile ironic that the right wing shock jocks are whining about police resources over this banner below when literally millions of Australians agree with this Greenpeace message. The people's house? We paid for it (literally).

Also notice how pathetic The Sydney Daily Telegraph are not publishing the unfurled banner in their press edition yesterday, while the Sydney Morning Herald did. What would owner Rupert 'give the planet the benefit of the doubt' Murdoch think of their News Limited (literally) values, let alone common sense? Here is the Greenpeace blog posting, with link to a short video:

 We've just noticed this blog site from New Matilda here http://newmatilda.com/copthis/

and no doubt there is plenty more at www.crikey.com.au

and public broadcaste www.abc.net.au

Posted by editor at 5:44 AM EADT

Updated: Thursday, 17 December 2009 6:20 AM EADT

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Mood:  chatty

Author’s general introductory note   

This is not a well packaged story. It’s a contemporaneous traverse of the Sunday television free to air political talkies indicating the agenda of Establishment interests: Better to know ones rivals and allies in Big Politics and Big Media. Perhaps the greatest utility is the headline synthesis above of the 3 or 4 shows followed in this session.

For actual transcripts and/or video feeds go to the programme web sites quoted including Riley Diary on 7. And note transcripts don’t really give you the image content value.

Other sources of pollie talkies on Sunday include SkyNews paytv Sunday Agenda, Radio National Monica Attard Sunday Profile show. And of course Sunday night shows SBS Dateline, Sixty Minutes and now Sunday Tonight on 7.  

Media backgrounders.  

1. We noticed yesterday's Saturday Telegraph with a suggestive front page "Little battler", after discussion late last week about Abbott's book "Battlelines" and "Abbott's army" being equivalent to "Howard's Battlers". Which echoes for good or ill with the big billboard about 'the next climate "battleground". Abbott and Joyce are getting trashed in serious commentary but the front pager was about a sick baby in hospital - a diversion story by conservative Telegraph?

2. Having just checked the Sydney press on the web - which is different to the hard copy - in the Sydney SunHerald this about Copenhagen, rather than Sydney

Protesters demand climate for change

This about forests in the world rather than Australia as such by Peg Putt:

We flex our lobbying muscle in fight for forests (great pic there)

3. But this about Sydney:

Marchers shout a message all the way to Denmark ABOUT 80,000 people took to Australian streets yesterday for a Walk Against Warming designed to send a message to leaders at the Copenhagen climate change summit.

There is a good photo collage by the look of it at this link (we did critique of poor photo coverage of protests at APEC on crikey string last week as 'sepia tone', maybe this collage is a reaction?). Can't see the stack display in there

Peter skips swim to join climate protest GLOBAL warming is a serious, political and scientific issue - even when you're only eight years old.

ABC web coverage is here including video:

Massive turnout for Walk Against Warming

 http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/12/12/2769874.htm

They say 90,000 nationally.

4. The News Corp Sunday Telegraph looks almost empty of coverage on the web at least, something about Garnaut supporting ETS approach.

5. Little micro news SAM ran this yesterday featuring a Canberra image of the black stacks and TWS on forests as well, perhaps leading to the Peg Putt story today (?):

Walk Against Warming event in Sydney at 1pm today at Martin Place
Mood:  lyrical
Topic: globalWarming

6. 40K were in Melbourne, 5K in Sydney according to ABC tv last night about 5th story in the lineup at 7 pm. We have to say the Climate Institute - which unlike The Greens - supports the big polluter CPRS was a sponsor of WAW which is a problem. ABC web say 90,000 nationally participated in protests.

7. Meanwhile the NSW premier is going on a 2 day drought tour in the regions which are apparently 80% drought declared. She was out with the bushfire service near Bathurst late last week.

8. The real worry in terms of Big Media is that SMH had a personality piece and pics on front of the SMH about Keneally (about tears for dead helicopter pilot bushfire service NPWS – no doubt sincere) but didn't ask her about her position on climate change (given Pell is against, Pope is for action).

9. The other big worry is SMH lead feature was about a 6 million population in Sydney in 20 years without one question about a 350K yearly immigration level (nationally). That's outright big business bias (developer dollar). Journo's are Jessica Irvine and Matthew Moore.

10. Most of the Sunday political talkie shows will be in recess today - will check all the same.

11. Plenty of references to ongoing bushfire threat on abc radio and I imagine elsewhere. Our images here of water bombing at Gross Wold lower Blue Mtns from a distance of maybe 20 km as the crow flies:

10 Meet the Press:  8- 8-30 am 

In recess – didn’t run.

Meet The Press - Watch Political Video Online - Channel TEN.

Riley Diary 7, from 8.40am 

Distracted during this but mostly about ascension of the 'Abbott Family' like the Addams Family tv monster shockers suggesting the new Opposition Front bench are whackos, which echoes much of the other Canberra press gallery to date.

http://www.seven.com.au/sunrise/weekend 

9 Sunday newshour Laurie Oakes interview 8.44 am 

Will it run? Not seen. LO article in the SMH is like Riley quite uncomplimentary of the new Abbott Opposition front bench especially Barnaby Joyce.

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/oakes

Insiders 2: 9- 10am

In recess. Last weeks Q&A instead here

http://www.abc.net.au/insiders

Inside Business with Alan Kohler  .

in recess.

Refer http://www.abc.net.au/insidebusiness/ 

Posted by editor at 10:34 AM EADT

Updated: Sunday, 13 December 2009 10:38 AM EADT

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