Tuesday, September 7, 2010

We Have a Government! Sort of. GILLARD SNATCHES VICTORY.

Well, they did it.  After a couple of weeks of horse-trading, three of the Independents went with Labor - the headline in The Australian newspaper:

GILLARD SNATCHES VICTORY

 

 

 

 

  

Picture: Gary Ramage

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/

Labor will have a two-seat majority, 76 to 74 for the Coalition.

 Tony Abbott (Misterabbit, according to the PM) of the Liberals/Coalition has promised to hold the returned Labor government "ferociously to account".

 Sour grapes.

The best thing to come out is Parliamentary Reform which will have the following points (note the similarity to some of our system (although the independent Speaker is a new twist):

- Speaker independent of government and deputy speaker drawn from other side. Both to abstain from party room meetings

- Recognition of traditional owners of the land, to come before prayers each sitting day (this means the Aborigines)

- Time limits for questions and answers in question time (Comment - Question Time had turned into personal attacks on each other)

- More time for individual MPs' speeches

- More time for private members' bills (they were being ignored by the party machines)

- Tighter focus for parliamentary committees

- More sitting days for parliament

- Parliamentary budget office (just like the Congressional Budget Office)

- Parliamentary integrity commissioner (WHAT?)

- Formal code of conduct for MPs and senators  (WHAT?  WHAT?)

- Register of lobbyists to go online

- Changes to electoral funding and political advertising ($1000 limit on personal contributions)

The bet is as soon as the rural Independents think that the commitments aren't being honored, they will drop out and a new election will be called - as soon as a year from now.

In Other News: Crocodile Dundee is released

Paul Hogan came to an understanding with the tax service - he posted a bond to allow him to return to the United States.  But he had the last laugh by departing Australia in "disguise":


 

 

  It's certainly not boring living down here...

Thursday, September 2, 2010

OK, there is no way that I am not publishing this one on the Blog...track your favorite kangaroo in the Australian Capital Territory. Really.

Debbie gets credit for this one.  Apparently she got to read this story this morning at the public radio station where she volunteers to read the news over the airwaves to the vision-impaired (RPH-1, 1125 on your Australian AM dial, "Turning Print Into Sound").  Picture below of the beating pulse of the media heart of Canberra.  Note kangaroos grazing in the background.  They're very civic-minded.



























Speaking of civic-minded kangaroos, check out what we here in Australia are doing with our kangaroos.  Next thing you know, they'll be so technologically savvy we'll have them flying drones and killing terrorists.
















That's a tracking collar and ear tag Skippy there has on.  Note the embarrassed look ("I was dumb enough to let them catch me and now I have to endure the endless ribbing of my brother Chet here behind me").

I couldn't make this stuff up.  Here's the story in the Canberra Times ("We Like Stories About Car Wrecks and "Dragon Trees" Stolen From The National Arboretum"):

Tailing the capital's mobs on the move

02 Sep, 2010 09:02 AM
A study tracking the movement patterns of Canberra's kangaroos will inform future cull operations and help prevent kangaroo-related car accidents.

The study, conducted by the Department of Territory and Municipal Services, has tracked 24 eastern grey kangaroos fitted with GPS tracking collars since early 2010.

Don Fletcher, a senior ecologist with the Department of Territory and Municipal Services, said that by understanding the movement patterns of kangaroo mobs, ecologists could better target kangaroo culls.
''What's the best strategic scale on which to deploy kangaroo control to get effective results?'' Dr Fletcher asked. ''The first step is simply, well what's the home range of the kangaroo? This contributes to that more effective and strategic management of kangaroo populations.''

The study also shows that kangaroos may have more road sense than they are generally given credit for. Dr Fletcher said the findings may help to prevent the 1000 kangaroo-related crashes that occur in the ACT every year.  [Comment:  Australians like to say roos are stupid - I've watched what they do and they are not; the people who spend $2,000 on a chrome roo bar for the front of their car are, however, another matter]

''The most interesting part is roos have road sense, nobody believes me,'' he said.
Dr Fletcher said initial findings showed that kangaroos purposefully avoided high-speed roads.
Ecologists have even been tracking one set of kangaroos which appears to be using an underpass to cross State Circle near Parliament House. [Comment:  I use the same underpass to get to work]

Canberra has a high density of kangaroos, with around 300 kangaroos per square kilometre.
Rangers attend about 1000 kangaroo-related accidents every year and suspect that about 1000 accidents occur without their knowledge.

Using the GPS collars with Google Earth, the Department of Territory and Municipal Services has also created an interactive map, allowing the public to track kangaroo movements from their own home.
The collars have been recording the location of the kangaroos every hour since January 2010.
The study will continue until January next year, at which point the collars will automatically detach themselves.

(They could use something like that on Lindsay Lohan for her latest home detention for violating her probation for DUI.  Would save her the bodyguards the effort of trying to pick the lock on the ankle monitor.)

Anyway,  I could not resist this.  I went to the website for the  Department of Territory and Municipal Services.  I hit the button for "Kangaroo Research."  There's a "Kangaroo Management Plan."





























Here's where the interactive map is:

http://www.tams.act.gov.au/play/pcl/wildlife/local/kangaroos/mgt_plan/research/movement

But you have to follow the instructions, download Google Earth, then download the kangaroo tracker program (follow the instructions - it isn't hard).  Get this part:

"When the file opens, you will see groups of green and red symbols, each group located where there was a collared kangaroo. Zoom down to one of these groups. Green symbols show the kangaroo’s daytime locations, with red symbols for night. You can click the individual symbols for the name of the kangaroo, and the time and date it was at that location. Stars are points of the highest precision, triangles are unreliable, and circles are of intermediate quality. Straight lines join successive locations, and do not necessarily show the route used by the kangaroo."

I tried to do a screen capture from Google Earth but I am not yet conversant in the technique but take my word for it.  Our neighborhood is a cornucopia of green and red circles.  And lots of pink lines connecting them.  This explains the strange noises I hear at night (other than the voices in my head).

Well, that's life here with the roos in Canberra.  The cats have still not seen one up close.  I'd pay money for that.


















"Geez, I feel silly.  That's the last time I sleep in."
(That's our neighborhood just behind Skippy)











Wednesday, September 1, 2010

King Parrots, a Magpie, and Kismet catches a Lizard. Oh yeah, and Crocodile Dundee can't leave the country until he pays his taxes.


I've been trying to showcase the bird life down here and the King Parrots, which only come for part of the year, have been difficult to photograph.  They're interested in the seed cakes but as of yet they are very quick when they do enter the backyard.  For such a big bird they're very skittish.  But here they are at long last.  They're a beautiful bird.

Like the cockatoos, they travel in large flocks and you usually see them all grazing on the ground.  However, this flock likes our tree just over the wall in the park.































































This is my friend the Magpie who I feed so he won't swoop at me when I walk close to his nest.  It's that time of year and believe it or not, they remember you and if you are not seen as a threat they leave you alone.  This doesn't work when I am on the other side of town, however.



























Even little Kismet sometimes catches something.  In this case its "Lizard" her favorite chew toy which she sometimes used as a pillow.  Yeah, I know - it's a little precious - but I still like the photo.














I'll get back to the biting political commentary as soon as there is something to "bite" on.  I think there will be an announcement very soon.  There are some here who believe we will go to a SECOND election because the Greens and the Independents won't compromise.

The other good story is that Australia won't let Paul Hogan (Crocodile Dundee) leave until he pays the taxes they claim he owes.  














(By Pauline Askin)


He came back for his Mother's funeral and they slapped him with a "prohibition departure order" (Australian bureaucrats really talk like that sometimes) that says he cannot leave until he forks it over.  His problem is that he made way too much money and voila! the Tall Poppy Syndrome comes in.  He apparently socked it away offshore on the advice of a prominent tax attorney who told him at the time it was legal.

 Hogan's take is:

"If I was a tax evader which I'm not, I must be the dumbest one in the world."

"I keep coming back here to the country, and instead of fleeing to a tax haven, I fled to the United States of America."


But the Australian tax collectors are taking the word of a "very disgruntled" ex-employee who Hogan fired - his ACCOUNTANT.  He claims he told Hogan it was illegal (his tax avoidance structure) and amazingly, that's who the tax collectors choose to cite as their main witness, rather then the prominent tax attorney (who is now a Federal Judge I believe) who told him it was legal.  Hmmmmmm.  Hogan says they will not get a cent out of him.  His wife, Linda Kozlowski (also from the movie - see below - and who reportedly was the cause of his marriage breaking up) is, according to Hogan, "scared" to come to Australia because of this.  She apparently asked him whether there was a Department of Justice he could appeal to.

He told her "we haven't even got a government."


So it's all connected, you see.


















Remember this?  Although they do NOT say "shrimp" down here - it's a PRAWN...
 



Here's a little classic Paul Hogan Humor to go out on: