Backlash Recent shark attacks have apparently ravaged the local tourism industry and the state government’s $16 million strategy hopes to ward off further attacks. Taronga Zoo is the home of the Australian Shark Attack File. In the last 100 years NSW has had 212 reported unprovoked attacks, 49 of them fatal – that’s an average of one death every two years. By comparison in the same time period, the Northern Territory has had only one reported fatality, at the Cobourg Peninsula in 1934. So it might be a safer place to live – if you watch out for the saltwater crocs. See the attack file at http://bit.ly/sharkfile. Q Q Q Q
Another matter of great local excitement is the raid on Byron Bay licensed premises by the Office of Liquor Gaming & Racing (OLGR). See the details of ten breaches in Echonetdaily at www.echo. net.au/2015/10/olgr-revealsbyron-venue-breaches. Alcohol doesn’t raise the same level of freakout as sharks but it is worth noting a study, jointly commissioned by Victoria Health, Turning Point Alcohol and Drug Centre and the Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education, found that up to 15 people die and more than 430 are admitted to hospital every day in Australia due to alcohol-related illnesses. Drinking has declined significantly since the infamous ‘six o’clock swill’, which was in force from 1916 in most states, ending in NSW in 1955, while Queensland continued pouring drunks onto the streets at 6pm up to 1966. Q Q Q Q
ABC Science Online has described it as ‘the war on bacon’, the news from a UN
Passionate about Permaculture?
Given recent evidence from Halloween, it looks like Santa, or perhaps Oliver from Brunswick Heads Public School, will be visiting naughty children after all. Photo Jeff ‘Menace To The Max’ Dawson
agency that processed meats, and even straightforward red meat, could give you cancer. Hashtags from furious bacon supporters are flying – #Jesuisbacon and #Istandwithbacon, for example. The redfaced Barnaby Joyce – high blood pressure, too much crackling? – has offered the rather lame defence that almost anything enjoyable can kill you. A few pigs might breathe a little easier, and a few hardline vegans can practise their knowing smirks. You can read the ABC report at http://bit.ly/waronbacon and find out about bowel screening at www.bowelcanceraustralia.org.
on decriminalisation at www. virgin.com/richard-branson/ decriminalising-drug-possession. Meanwhile local group
Somara on its Facebook timeline explores the resurgence of interest in psychoactive drugs as a therapeutic tool.
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While mentioning the UN – a briefing paper suggesting the decriminalisation of drugs for personal use has quietly sunk under the influence of upset nations, and probably the CIA protecting its slush fund, despite Virgin’s chief Richard Branson going into bat for it. You can read Branson’s take
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