Corey Worthington “Party Thrower” on A Current Affair
January 24th, 2008Wow A Real Mermaid
January 24th, 2008Happy Guru 019 - Plastic
January 23rd, 2008
Every year 20 million Australians use around 5 billion plastic check-out bags. That says so much about our wasteful habits.
A person’s use of a plastic check-out bag can be counted in minutes - however long it takes to get groceries from the shops to their homes.
These bags, however, can last for hundreds of years. Combine the growing number of plastic bags used every year with the time it takes for them to break down and you have a major environmental problem.
Whether it’s inadvertent or deliberate, plastic bag litter creates many problems. Bags get caught in fences and median strips. They end up blocking drains and trapping birds. When eaten they kill livestock. At Bathurst’s Mt Panorama race track, they even disable racing cars. In the marine environment, plastic bag litter is lethal, killing thousands of whales, turtles and other sea life every year.
Planet Ark aims to show councils, retailers, communities and individuals how to reduce their use of plastic check-out bags.
Doing away with plastic bags is easier than you think. Planet Ark has worked with communities like Coles Bay, Kangaroo Valley, Huskisson, Oyster Bay and others to ban plastic check-out bags in all of their retail outlets. If these towns can live without plastic bags, then yours can too.
A person’s use of a plastic check-out bag can be counted in minutes – however long it takes to get from the shops to their homes.
Plastic bags however, can take between 15 and 1000 years to break down in the environment. In the marine environment plastic bag litter is lethal, killing many birds, whales, seals and turtles every year. After an animal is killed by plastic bags its body decomposes and the plastic is released back into the environment where it can kill again.
A Bryde’s whale died on a Cairns beach after ingesting 6 square metres of plastic - including plastic bags. Such obstructions in animals can cause severe pain, distress and death. On land, plastic bag litter can block drains and trap birds. They also kill livestock. One farmer near Mudgee NSW, carried out an autopsy on a dead calf and found 8 plastic bags in its stomach. The loss of this calf cost the farmer around $500.
Plastic bags are not free to consumers – they are actually adding an estimated $100 million a year to Australia’s grocery bills. At least 80 million plastic bags end up as litter on our beaches, streets and parks.
Australian local and State Governments spend over $200 million a year picking up litter. Not all litter is deliberate. 47% of wind borne litter escaping from landfills is plastic – much of this is plastic bags. Over 200,000 plastic check-out bags are dumped in landfills every hour. Only 5% of Australia’s plastic bags are currently being recycled, despite recycling facilities being available at major supermarkets. In many council areas, plastic bags are the single main contaminant of kerbside recycling.
Plastic bags are a by-product of the oil industry. Over 3 billion HDPE plastic bags are imported into Australia every year. Since March 2002, Ireland has reduced its plastic check-out bag usage by 90% and in April 2003 Coles Bay in Tasmania successfully banned plastic check-out bags in all their retail stores. In the first twelve months, Coles Bay stopped the use of 350,000 plastic check-out bags. Planet Ark has since worked with the communities of Huskisson, Kangaroo Valley, Mogo and Oyster Bay in NSW and Birregurra, Cannon’s Creek, Metung and Murtoa in Victoria to help them also become Plastic Bag Free Towns. Over 10 million reusable bags have now been sold by Coles, Woolworths and Safeway stores. At only $1 each, they’re a cheap way to save Australia’s wildlife!
Information for Today’s Global Good Soul Vibration Podcast was sourced from www.planetark.com and various other websites. You can learn more about
Planet Ark and their campaign against Plastic Bags by visiting their web-site where you’ll find a plethora of information on what changes you can make in your home.
Spiders On Drugs
January 22nd, 2008There’s some colourful language in here so be careful if the kids are around.
Happy Guru 018 - Full
January 22nd, 2008Tonight is a full moon. I encourage you to go back and listen to Podcast 4 and check out how the full moon can be a part of your life. Share special moments around the full moon, on the phone with a friend. Today’s Global Good Soul Vibration Podcast was brought to you with a full moon full of love from your favourite gurus in the whole wide world. www.happyguru.com
Sydney’s Gay Hub Tarnished By An Explosion Of Violence
January 19th, 2008A series of vicious homophobic attacks have tarnished Sydney’s Oxford St, known internationally as a centre of gay and lesbian culture.
Police came under fire earlier this month after their handling of a horrific assault against two young men in Sydney’s gay precinct.
Craig Gee was nearly beaten to death during a late-night attack in December last year.
Mr Gee’s mother received a call from the attackers — who have not yet been caught — from his stolen phone days later, telling her they had “killed (your) faggot son”.
CCTV footage of the attack was not released until some time after the attack, leading to accusations police failed to do enough.
In a statement released today, officials said the footage had to be enhanced by investigators and couldn’t be released immediately.
“(We) are doing everything in their power to solve this crime,” police said.
Stevie Clayton from the Aids Council of New South Wales (ACON) told ninemsn she feared mobs of drunken louts could mean Sydney’s Oxford Street would no longer be the hub of Australia’s gay and lesbian community.
“There is more and more threatening behaviour and more people who feel unsafe … it’s like it’s on the verge of something major and violent all the time — even when bashings aren’t occurring,” Ms Clayton said.
NSW police admit revellers high on alcohol and drugs are the area’s biggest problem — and said they have specially trained officers in gay and lesbian issues to address the crisis.
“Police commanders … have a high expectation of every police officer to provide a high level of customer service to the public, regardless of a person’s race, gender or sexual orientation,” they said.
Ms Clayton claimed police weren’t comfortable asking victims if they thought the attack was homophobic, leading to many not being reported as a hate crime.
“There’s a culture in the police service that seeks to minimise the recordings of serious crime and harassment so that they don’t create a lot more work for themselves,” she said.
Richard Watts, editor of gay Victorian newspaper MCV, said despite a “cyclic” increase of gay-related violence over the summer, it was unlikely Melbourne wouldn’t degenerate into a Sydney-like spike of violence.
“I think by virtue of being more widespread and integrated in social fabric in Melbourne, there’s less danger of anti-gay attacks like we’ve seen in Sydney,” Mr Watts said.
Police said it was difficult to ask victims if they believed assaults were gay-related because it could lead to allegations of inappropriate assumptions about sexual orientation.
By Matt Bachl
ninemsn
Prerogative
January 19th, 20081 a : an exclusive or special right, power, or privilege: as b : one belonging to an office or an official body *c : one belonging to a person, group, or class of individuals d : one possessed by a nation as an attribute of sovereignty2 : a distinctive excellenceExample Sentence:How Amy spends her money is none of our business, and if she wants to use all her savings to buy that sports car, it’s her prerogative.Did you know?In ancient Rome, voting at legal assemblies was done by group, with the majority in a group determining its vote. The group chosen to vote first on an issue was called the “praerogativa” (that term traces to a verb meaning “to ask for an opinion before another”). Because the first vote was considered to be of great importance, Latin speakers also used the noun “praerogativa” to mean “preference” and later “privilege.” As “praerogativa” passed through Anglo-French and Middle English, its spelling shifted to create the noun we know today.
Two Glasses Of Wine
January 19th, 2008When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 glasses of wine…
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, wordlessly, he picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They
agreed that it was.
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’
The professor then produced two glasses of wine from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.
‘Now,’ said the professor, as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you To recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things; your family, your children, your health, your friends, and your favorite passions; things that if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house, and your car.
The sand is everything else; the small stuff.
If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff, you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Play with your children. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your partner out to dinner. Play another 18. There will always be time
to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first; the things that really matter. Set your priorities. The rest is just sand.’
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the wine represented.
The professor smiled. ‘I’m glad you asked. It just goes to show you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of glasses of wine with a friend.’
Happy Guru 017 - Standby
January 18th, 2008On today’s Global Good Soul Vibration Podcast let’s switch off appliances that don’t need to be left on. Standby power supplies are an incredible waste of energy resource. By turning off appliances at the power point before we go to bed - we save the earth.
Many appliances these days are actually using electricity when they are switched ‘off’. This is more commonly known as standby power, where the appliance consumes energy when it is in on standby or OFF mode. These “standby loads” occur in most appliances that use electricity, such as VCRs, televisions, stereos, computers, and kitchen appliances. These appliances continue to draw a small amount of power when they are switched “off”.
Although we know we can’t switch off fridges and freezers, unless we want to defrost them, it is important to switch off appliances once they have been finished with. To avoid the standby mode and help stop wasting money we need to change the way we behave. Hopefully today’s podcast will help demonstrate the problem and illustrate where changes could be made and how much money the homeowner could save.
The problem of standby power consumption is essentially a technological concern; more should be done by the appliance industry to help reduce the power consumption by equipment in standby mode. However, switching the appliance off at the correct place, or unplugging the appliance can help avoid paying for standby electricity. Alternatively using a multi-socket power bar can make it easier to turn off several appliances at once.
The idea of paying for something that we are not using is not very encouraging. Consider switching appliances of properly in a bid to save electricity, this is not only saving you money but also helping the environment. If you want to find out how much money you could save by reducing standby electricity consumption in your own house please go online to your local electricity suppliers web-site where you should be able to conduct a few easy calculations.
From our calculations the current average household standby power consumption is 60W, however this amount could increase further with the growing number of electronic appliances in the average house.
60W = 0.060 kW x 8760 hrs = 525.6 kWh / year
Taking the average household electricity consumption as 3,880 kWh per year this indicates that standby power is responsible for 13% of home power consumption. The associated costs for a three bedroom flat are estimated at AUS $78.70 per year.
Today’s show was proudly brought to you by www.happyguru.com. Your auditory stimulation is our pleasure. Thanks for listening to the show that has you and the health of the global village at heart.
