Saturday, 16 October 2010
Birds, trees - and drillers: Miners shatter the 'tree change' tranquility
Western Downs Alliance Action Group co-founder Michael Bretherick.
Contaminated waste (driller's mud) allegedly from coal seam gas exploration on the Western Downs between Tara and Chinchilla.
A waterhole contaminated with heavy oil slick - allegedly from coal seam gas exploration on the Western Downs between Tara and Chinchilla. Michael Bretherick and his family moved to Tara, about 400 kilometres west of Brisbane,four years ago for a tree change.
He said the mining company, BG Group – owners of QGC – moved into the area about 18 months ago and has been drilling night and day for coal-seam gas.
Coal-seam gas extraction requires the removal of large volumes of water from coal seams to release trapped gases.
He cited a litany of grievances against the company, including allegations of constant noise, adverse health impacts for humans and farm stock, potential damage and contamination of aquifers, polluted dams, and contaminated water in tanks.
“Our dreams have been turned into nightmares. I’m 64 and I came here to retire but because of the mining we want to leave but there’s no way anyone would want to buy here so we can’t sell,’’ he said.
Mr Bretherick said his youngest children, aged 7 and 9, had rashes and nosebleeds after playing near a dam. ‘‘A calf fell into the dam and only lived a couple of minutes; its skin peeled off,’’ he said.
Once the mining started, neighbour was pitted against neighbour, marriages have split, businesses have closed and many locals are suffering health problems including depression, he said.
Mr Bretherick helped set up the website Tarablockies.com and runs the Western Downs Alliance set up to fight the miners.
“They want to put gas wells 750metres apart, including compressors, through properties and we just won’t have it. We’ll either lock them in or we’ll lock them out,” he said.
Environmentalist Dayne Pratzky of Chinchilla said small groups around the country were joining forces to fight large-scale mining. He said 22 groups from Queensland, NSW and Victoria comprising thousands of members would have much more ‘‘clout’’ than isolated protesters.
‘‘The government has allowed the mining companies to have free rein for whatever they wanted to do because of the royalties they receive but this new group will be a force to be reckoned with,’’ he said.
The government insists it is striking the right balance between environmental sustainability and economic growth and is monitoring the mining.
A QGC spokesman said the company operated within an extensive code of conduct and regulations set by the state government.
He said QGC took precautions to minimise noise and to ensure water supplies were not impacted.
Kate Dennehy @'Sydney Morning Herald'
Thursday, 14 October 2010
Hemp homes are cutting edge of green building
Hemp is turning a new leaf. The plant fiber, used to make the sails that took Christopher Columbus' ships to the New World, is now a building material.
In Asheville, N.C., a home built with thick hemp walls was completed this summer and two more are in the works.
The hemp home was built for $133 per square foot, not including land and excavation costs, at the top of a mountain.
Dozens of hemp homes have been built in Europe in the past two decades, but they're new to the United States, says David Madera, co-founder of Hemp Technologies, a company that supplied the mixture of ground-up hemp stalks, lime and water.
The industrial hemp is imported because it cannot be grown legally in this country — it comes from the same plant as marijuana.
Its new use reflects an increasing effort to make U.S. homes not only energy-efficient but also healthier. Madera and other proponents say hemp-filled walls are non-toxic, mildew-resistant, pest-free and flame-resistant.
"There is a growing interest in less toxic building materials, says Peter Ashley, director of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development's Office of Healthy Homes and Lead Hazard Control.
"The potential health benefits are significant," he says, citing a recent study of a Seattle public housing complex that saw residents' health improve after their homes got a green makeover.
The U.S. government has not taken a "systemic approach" to studying chemicals in homes and instead addresses problems such as asbestos, lead, arsenic and formaldehyde only after people get sick, says Rebecca Morley, executive director of the National Center for Healthy Housing, a private research group.
She says green building so far has focused mostly on the environment, not the health of the people inside.
Ashley agrees that federal attention has been "sporadic", but says an interagency group began meeting last year to tackle the issue more broadly. He says HUD is funding more research on the health and environmental benefits of eco-friendly homes.
Some green-rating programs, such as the one run by the private U.S. Green Building Council, give points for indoor air quality.
"We are taking the next step in green-building, " says Anthony Brenner, a home designer with PUSH design, who created Asheville's first hemp home. "We're trying to develop a system that's more health based."
Brenner says he's been searching for non-toxic materials because he wants to build a home for his 9-year-old daughter, Bailey, who has a rare genetic disorder that makes her extremely sensitive to chemicals. "We have to keep her away from anything synthetic," he says, or she'll have seizures...
Continue reading
Tuesday, 12 October 2010
NaomiAKlein YES, I've seen Banksy's Simpsons thing. It's brilliant. Still, can't help but despair at capitalism's ability to absorb all critiques
♪♫ Duck Sauce - Barbra Streisand
Duck Sauce, the eminent producer duo comprised of A-Trak and Armand Van Helden, are primed to drop their second official single, “Barbra Streisand” on October 12th. If 3 million YouTube views of last year’s debut “aNYway” are any indicator, the official release of “Barbra Streisand” will be met with rabid anticipation as fan-recorded bootlegs have fueled blog excitement all summer.
An Open Letter to Barack Obama from Paul Krassner
Dear President Obama,
It seems that the theme emanating from the White House is “Eat, Pray, Be Disappointed.” And yet, whenever I do feel disappointed, I always realize that the alternative was John McCain, with Sarah Palin just one Halloween “Boo!” away from the presidency, and then I always feel a sense of relief.
Actually, you’ve kept one big campaign promise – to send more troops to Afghanistan – so I guess we can’t fault you for that. In fact, according to Bob Woodward in Obama’s Wars, all you want to do now is get out of Afghanistan. Well, why don’t you just do what Osama bin Laden did; cross over to Pakistan. Since we bribe Pakistan to be our ally, you’d think they would never consider harboring bin Laden, though they reek with empathy when our outsourced drones drop those bombs.
Also, during the campaign you said you believe that the legality of same-sex marriage should be decided by the states, but that you personally think marriage should be between a man and a woman. Which is exactly the position that caused Miss USA, Carrie Prejean, to have her crown revoked.
And another thing. You promised to end the raids on medical marijuana dispensaries, but they haven’t stopped. Here’s how I understand Washington. America’s puritanical political process serves as a buffer between the status quo and the force of evolution. For instance, in order to get Republican votes for the children’s healthcare bill, Democrats agreed to fund $28 million to their abstinence-only program.
And, during your own campaign, you admitted, in the context of health care reform, that the multinational insurance conglomeration is so firmly entrenched that you would be unable to dispense with it. So there would have to be compromises.
Now, what with the compromises made to help passage of Prop. 19, amnesty becomes the single-payer system of marijuana reform, and growing your own pot becomes the public option. Meanwhile, as long as any government can arbitrarily decide which drugs are legal and which drugs are illegal, then anyone serving time for a nonviolent drug offense is a political prisoner.
In his new book, Bob Woodward writes about Colin Powell’s status as an adviser to you. Referring to his previous book, Plan of Attack, the New York Times then reported that “Secretary of State Colin Powell disputed Woodward’s account….He said that he had an excellent relationship with Vice President Dick Cheney, and that he did not recall referring to officials at the Pentagon loyal to Cheney as the ‘Gestapo office.’”
Who among us would be unable to recall uttering such an epithet? Powell later apologized for it. He has also changed his mind about gays in the military. In my capacity as a stand-up satirist, I used to conduct an imaginary dialogue with Powell.
“General Powell, you’re the first African-American to be head of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and you come from the tradition of a military family. So you know that blacks were once segregated in the Army because the other soldiers might feel uncomfortable if blacks slept in the same barracks. And now that’s what they say about gays, that other soldiers might feel uncomfortable about gays sleeping in the same barracks.”
“Well, you have to understand, we never told anybody we were black.”
And, Mr. President, that was the forerunner of the same “Don’t ask, don’t tell” policy that you promised to rescind, only you haven’t been acting like a Commander-in-Chief. All you have to do is sign such a directive. Those who serve in the military are trained to follow orders. If they can follow orders to kill fellow humans, they can certainly follow orders to treat openly gay service people with total equality.
Not only is the current guideline counterproductive, but also this display of trickle-down immorality must, on some level of consciousness, serve as a contributing factor to enabling the anti-gay bullying and torturing of innocent victims. I know, you don’t want to take a chance that retracting the policy would interfere with your re-election. You’ve made the point that you don’t want Mitt Romney to win in 2012 and turn around all the good things you’ve accomplished.
Incidentally, Romney had wanted to overturn Roe vs. Wade, yet, in 1994, when he was running for the Senate, he came out in favor of choice for women. However, free-lance journalist Suzan Mazur revealed that he admitted to Mormon feminist Judith Dushku that “the Brethren” in Salt Lake City told him he could take a pro-choice position, and that in fact he probably had to in order to win in a liberal state like Massachusetts. Pandering trumps religious belief.
If gays and lesbians have waited this long for basic fairness, they might as well just wait for the next election. If you win, then would you kindly do immediately what you believe is right, constitutionally and in your heart, and end this injustice? The ultimate irony is that gays in the military are fighting and being maimed and dying unnecessarily, all supposedly to protect the freedom that their own country is denying them.
Sincerely,
Paul Krassner
Munich Oktoberfest - Lost Property Dept.
"...a leather whip, a live rabbit, a tuba, a ship in a bottle, 1,450
items of clothing, 770 identity cards, 420 wallets, 366 keys, 330 bags
and 320 pairs of glasses, 90 cameras and 90 items of jewellery and
watches.
A total of 37 children were also lost. "
items of clothing, 770 identity cards, 420 wallets, 366 keys, 330 bags
and 320 pairs of glasses, 90 cameras and 90 items of jewellery and
watches.
A total of 37 children were also lost. "
Monday, 11 October 2010
JPBarlow This country has been largely in Republican control since 1982. Do you REALLY blame this mess on 22 months of Obama?
Sunday, 10 October 2010
SLAB arise from the grave
SLAB will be releasing a 4 track EP of new songs very soon.This will be the first of a regular series of EPs in a range of formats.
To be honest I got really bored of working on the old stuff. The old stuff is good but I write all the time and have this backlog of new material. Therefore it seems to make more sense to release new stuff first and then look at the ancient stuff after.
More details to follow
I for one cannot wait and I do believe there could well be an interesting remix from someone that I can't tell you about yet
!!!
*tease*
!!!
*tease*
Iggy Pop Talks Shelved Biopic, Lindsay Lohan
Speaking to Australia’s Triple J Radio recently, Iggy Pop discussed a biopic that was in the works with Elijah Wood attached to star as the Godfather of Punk. Suffice to say, the project remains indefinitely shelved as Pop has said on multiple occasions that he isn’t on board to participate in an extensive promo campaign (i.e. “jump out of cakes and do promotional things”). While Pop supports a “very artistic” Stooges documentary helmed by friend and past collaborator Jim Jarmusch, he doesn’t mince words regarding his interest in a film solely about his life: “They can wait for me to be dead.” And now for provocative Iggy quote #163,721:If somebody did want to make a biopic of me I think they should get Lindsay Lohan actually. She looks like me and she’s the only one with enough attitude too. They could tape her boobs up or something. She’s been in jail at the right age and everything so I thought she could do it.
Saturday, 9 October 2010
Friday, 8 October 2010
Thursday, 7 October 2010
ggreenwald As the Obama DOJ will undoubtedly argue, whatever happened to this person is a state secret that no court can review: http://is.gd/fPvdG
Drug users are turning to legal highs - report
Young adults are turning to so-called legal highs as they seek alternatives to other drugs, according to experts.
The National Treatment Agency for Substance Misuse report warned the drugs had emerged as an alternative to the "low quality" of other substances.
Over the past years, the number seeking help for cocaine, crack cocaine and heroin use all fell.
But this was largely down to large reductions in the under 25 age group, as the number of over 40s actually increased.
The NTA believes this reflects the fact the "Trainspotting" generation who got hooked in the 1980s are now ageing and increasingly developing problems linked to their sustained drug use.
Treatment
The findings also chime with British Crime Survey figures which show overall drugs use has been steadily falling in recent years.
Less than 1% of the population use the most harmful drugs - crack cocaine and heroin.
The NTA figures showed that over the past year the number of people needing treatment for cocaine fell by 15% to 7,304, for crack cocaine by 17% to 3,686 and for crack and heroin together by 16% to 21,341.
This is almost entirely due to large falls in the under 25s seeking treatment as the over 40s have been rising in recent years.
For example, the number of over 40s being treated for crack cocaine or heroin use has risen by a third over the last four years.
The report, compiled with the help of Glasgow University, warned there was some anecdotal evidence of a move towards synthetic compounds known as legal highs, such as mephedrone, among younger age groups.
However, the NTA said it had yet to see many people wanting treatment for these, although it warned that could happen in time.
Peter Kelsey, of Lifeline Redcar and Cleveland, which helps drug users, said: "People hear the word legal and they think safe. Yet it's anything but.
"We're seeing a big rise in people coming to use because of legal highs, which we think may be down to the poor quality and price of coke and the legal aspect."
The government has already responded to the use of so-called legal highs.
Mephedrone - also known as Meow, Bubbles and M-Cat - was banned and made a class B drug in April.
The Home Office has also announced plans for year-long bans that could be introduced quickly if new drugs take off.
NTA chief executive Paul Hayes said the agency now had to "refocus" the treatment system in response to these trends.
Just FUCK OFF Hicks...
Hicks set to fight Liverpool sale to NESV in High Court
However:
http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4746910/LFC%20company%20articles.pdf
"Appointment and Retirement of Directors
81. (a) Each director appointed to the office of chairman of the board of directors of the Company may appoint any person as director of the Company and may remove and director (other than George N. Gillett Jnr and/or Thomas O Hicks). Any appointment or removal shall be made in writing and signed by the then current chairman."
The Current chairman being Martin Broughton.
The timing of this deal being made known is also important as 10 days are required to change the structure of the board so if Hicks found a way to do so he'd still run out of time before the RBS loan repayment deadline kicked in. The deal was made known 9 days before that deadline.
This was followed by a comment from a Guardian writer:
That 81a) is exactly the paragraph in Liverpool's articles of association which Broughton is relying on. They were changed on May 28, which has to be done with the approval of 75% of a company's shareholders, which means for them to be valid, Hicks and Gillett had to approve them.
"Appointment and Retirement of Directors
81. (a) Each director appointed to the office of chairman of the board of directors of the Company may appoint any person as director of the Company and may remove and director (other than George N. Gillett Jnr and/or Thomas O Hicks). Any appointment or removal shall be made in writing and signed by the then current chairman."
The Current chairman being Martin Broughton.
The timing of this deal being made known is also important as 10 days are required to change the structure of the board so if Hicks found a way to do so he'd still run out of time before the RBS loan repayment deadline kicked in. The deal was made known 9 days before that deadline.
This was followed by a comment from a Guardian writer:
That 81a) is exactly the paragraph in Liverpool's articles of association which Broughton is relying on. They were changed on May 28, which has to be done with the approval of 75% of a company's shareholders, which means for them to be valid, Hicks and Gillett had to approve them.
Broughton insisted on that as a condition of taking over - that only he has the right to change directors. That meant he, Purslow and Ayre would always have a majority on the board.
He is also saying, confirmed by RBS yesterday, that Hicks and Gillette signed undertakings with the bank to commit to a sale and not do anything to frustrate "best endeavours" to find a buyer.
Broughton will say in court that he and the board clearly made "best endeavours" because they had a team at Barclays Capital working full time on it, and everybody in the world has known Liverpool is for sale. Throughout the whole search, this US consortium and the other, unnamed Asian one, were the only solid ones which came through, with proof of funds and a genuine commitment to buy.
Despite the brief and not very clear statement from Hicks' US-based spokesman yesterday, it is not at all clear what he is going to argue against that. Possibly claiming that he never approved the articles of association change - even though they require the approval of shareholders. Perhaps that he never actually gave those undertakings to the bank, or that Broughton's efforts do not add up to "best endeavours."
None of which is exactly where he promised Liverpool would be when he and Gillett walked on to the Anfield turf in February 2007 after buying the club with their borrowed money, promising - in their own official offer document:
"To strive to ensure the club is in the best position possible to achieve sustained on pitch success and long term stability. To do everything in their power to uphold the chierished traditions and contrinue to enhance the reputation of the club."
REpost: Why I don't go out much...(still!)
GREAT NEWS FOLKS
...speaking to a philosophy student earlier who brought up Peter Singer. "Vegetarian?" I asked, yes she said. Wear leather shoes I asked "Only second hand" she replied!
THE COW DOESN'T GET KILLED TWICE!
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