Do Solar Flares cause global warming?

Race for 12th A-League Team hots up

You’ve got to love the attitudinal arrogance of Sydney towards the 12th A-League team. “Unbackable choice” screamed the SMH last week of western Sydney’s chances of picking up the 12th spot from the 10/11 season on. But you get the sense they’re a little nervous of Canberra’s bid. And so they should be.

Ivan Slavich is leading the way in pushing hard for a Canberra A-League team:

“We’ve demonstrated to the FFA that there is support for football in the region, we’ve got the financial backing and we’ve got strong support from the local government, so we’ve got all the criteria covered,” he said

“Our distinct preference is to be included for the 2010-11 season, and the concern I have is that if we don’t get admitted, there will be a consolidation period and no more expansion for a few years.

“That would leave the 700,000 people in our area without a team to support. That would be a great opportunity lost for the sport and for Canberra. And let’s not forget there’s already a team in Sydney.”

The decision keeps being pushed back. Latest word in the CT today is that the decision will be made in July, only giving the 12th team 13 months to prepare.

The Canberra A-League bid site can he found at A-League4Canberra.com.au.

Indigenous Australians have important role to play in sustaining biodiversity

The Centre for Aboriginal Economic Policy Research at ANU has released it’s submission to the Review of Australia’s Biodiversity Conservation Strategy 2010 – 2020.

The researchers, Jon Altman, Seán Kerins, Emilie-Jane Ens, Geoff Buchanan and Katherine May, argue that the role Indigenous Australians play in supporting and maintaining biodiversity remains poorly recognised.

The paper calls on the new biodiversity strategy to include a fundamental principle that ‘Indigenous land and sea management which acknowledges and respects Indigenous cultural values, innovations, practices and knowledge is fundamental to long-term biodiversity management’.

It also makes the other following recommendations:

• The New Strategy should include ‘supporting Indigenous people on country’—that is, supporting Indigenous people’s occupation of, and access and connection to their country—as an underlying principle of its development and implementation.
• To include support for ‘Indigenous people’s occupation of outstations/homelands’ as well as access and connection to their country to ensure Indigenous biodiversity-related knowledge and practices are maintained.
• Support the expansion of the Indigenous Protected Area system to include Indigenous management of sea country and the systematic and properly staged expansion of the Working on Country program.
• The New Strategy should include an objective that supports the equitable recognition, remuneration and resourcing of Indigenous people’s involvement in conserving Australia’s biodiversity.
• It should include ‘the private sector’ as well as all governments in partnership with Indigenous peoples.
• The New Strategy should promote a holistic and whole-of-government approach to Indigenous involvement in biodiversity conservation (and biodiversity conservation in general) that encourages Commonwealth, State and Territory government agencies to develop coordinated policies that effectively integrate, rather than undermine, biodiversity management and sustainable livelihoods on the Indigenous estate.
• Recognition of Indigenous people’s use of biodiversity resources as an essential element of managing country should be incorporated into the body of the New Strategy rather than solely being noted in an appendix.
• The New Strategy should retain the commitment contained under Objective 1.8.5 of the Current Strategy to: Recognising the importance of harvesting of indigenous plant and animal species, both on land and in water, to the wellbeing, identity, cultural heritage and economy of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, provide assistance for the establishment of management programs for ecologically sustainable harvesting of wildlife by individual communities. The paper’s authors also suggest “amending this objective to: ‘provide support programs and assistance for the establishment of management programs for ecologically sustainable harvesting of wildlife by Indigenous peoples’.”
• The New Strategy should encourage Commonwealth, State and Territory governments to pursue international best practice in the recognition and prioritising of Indigenous customary use of biodiversity resources and the support of sustainable commercial use of biodiversity resources by Indigenous peoples.
• The Strategy should include sustainable commercial utilisation of indigenous and invasive species as alternative funding approaches.
• The New Strategy should include an objective supporting the development of comprehensive Indigenous land and sea management plans that incorporate and give legitimacy to local Indigenous cultural and natural resource management practices.
• The New Strategy should provide support for the development and operation of local-level Indigenous organisations for the governance of land and sea country.
• The New Strategy should retain Objective 1.8.1 of the Current Strategy ensuring that ‘the use of [Indigenous] knowledge in the scientific, commercial and public domains proceeds only with the cooperation and control of the traditional owners of that knowledge and ensure that the use and collection of such knowledge results in social and economic benefits to the traditional owners’.

The full submission can be found here: Biodiversity_Strategy_0809

Amusing ourselves to death

I came across this thought provoking cartoon blog (carblog? cblog? toonblog?), recombinantrecords.net while traversing the wild tundra that is Twitter.

Developed by a very clever guy in Brisbane called Stuart McMillen, this particular post caught my eye. He compares the writings of George Orwell and Aldous Huxley and asks if Huxley is actually the one who was right?

Does this mean I’m a lazy journalist?

A few minor highlights from the Sydney Writers Festival does blogging (courtesy of that strange Planet Irf person at Crikey):

Journos as detached personas? Mmm…

Journos as advocates? Mmm…

Bloggers as deliverers of superficial reading experiences? Well I don’t know about that…

Bloggers are generally lazy shortformers that can’t help tell something about themselves? Well now let’s see: blog post = 5 lines + heading. Mmm, too short?

Arts Funding Round Closing Tomorrow

For all those talented Canberrans out there, the latest round of arts funding from artsACT closes tomorrow. That includes program, project & community arts funding, ACT Creative Arts Fellowships, the ACT Poetry Prize and the ACT Book of the Year Award.The Key Arts Organisation funding doesn’t close until the 19th June.

Further info is available from the artsACT site.

Local ICT Market gets the wobbles

It’s a tough time in the Canberra ICT market at the moment. Darwin-based CSG is one of many organisations to shed local jobs over the past couple of months. CSG acquired the Commander/Volante business a while back and have struggled to retain existing federal government contracts such as the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries & Forestry (DAFF), which has been awarded to EDS.

This along with other “downsizing”, the euphemistically named “right-sizing”, and the Gershon Review into federal ICT spending, has meant the ICT jobs market has freed up remarkably over the past 6 months. Whereas before people were effectively able to name their salary, it’s now much tougher to get a good gig in a quality organisation.

In the private sector, it is those companies that have long term strategic plans, a focus on customer outcomes and the ability to provide flexible working conditions that are managing their way through the downturn and still attracting quality people. It’s something we should be encouraging across government and business alike.

Solar Power Facility Sites

The community consultation process for the ACT’s solar power plant has kicked in – details are available here. Signage at the potential sites at Kowen and Ingledene will go up soon with public meetings being scheduled for June. A Context_Map is available showing both locations.

I’m very excited about this project – it’s something I campaigned for in last year’s ACT election and I’ve blogged about it in the past.

One thing I’m trying to get more info on is the potential location at Kowen in relation to the Sparrow Hill MTB trails. It doesn’t appear to be the same spot – a lot of mountain bikers would be very unhappy if it is.

Community Parks Consultation

The design consultation for the community parks on the former school sites has kicked off. Details of the community council presentations & shopping centre displays are:

Community Council Meeting Presentations

Holt and Cook

Belconnen Community Council
Date: Tuesday 19 May 2009
Time: 7.10 pm
Location: Belconnen Library, Community Room 1, First Floor

Rivett and Weston

Weston Creek Community Council
Date: Wednesday 27 May 2009
Time: 7.30 pm
Location: Weston Club, 1 Liardart Street, Weston

Chifley

Woden Valley Community Council
Date: Wednesday 3 June 2009
Time: 7.30 pm
Location: Hellenic Club, Orpheus Room, Woden

Village Creek, Mt Neighbour and Macarthur

Tuggeranong Community Council
Date: Thursday 4 June 2009
Time: 7.30 pm
Location: Vikings Town Centre, Cnr Athllon Drive and Rowland Rees Crescent

Shopping Centre Displays

Holt

Date: Friday 22 May 2009
Time: 4.00 pm–6.00 pm
Location: Kippax Fair, outside main entry sliding doors

Rivett and Weston

Date: Saturday 30 May 2009
Time: 10.00 am–12 midday
Location: Cooleman Court Shopping Centre, Mahony Court entry sliding doors

Cook

Date: Saturday 23 May 2009
Time: 2.00 pm–4.00 pm
Location: Jamison Centre Shopping Centre, outside sliding door near main car park

Chifley

Date: Saturday 30 May 2009
Time: 2.00 pm–4.00 pm
Location: Chifley Shopping Centre, outside supermarket

Village Creek, Mt Neighbour and Macarthur

Date: Friday 29 May 2009
Time: 4.00 pm–6.00 pm
Location: Kambah Village Shopping Centre

Hardcopies of the draft plans will also be on display at Canberra Connect Shopfronts and ACT Public Libraries.

For further information contact:

Fay Hug
Phone: 6207 6026
Email: fay.hug@act.gov.au

ACT InnovationConnect Grants announced

The Chief has announced the latest InnovationConnect grants. Winners of the dollar-for-dollar funding are:

• GPT Designs, a high-tech Canberra manufacturer of audio equipment for the hearing impaired, received $40,000 to develop a system to help the hearing impaired in large venues such as stadiums and concert halls;
• Ingenate was awarded $25,000 to develop a solution to treat grease trap waste, using a combination of algae and bacteria;
• Q-Motive received $15,000 towards the development of a prototype rally car seat.