13 minute read
speed of lies
Delphi Goes Bassooning
a tiny musical a solo show by Janet Swain
Drill Hall Mullumbimby
Wednesday 19th and 26th May 7pm
Tickets at events.humanitix.com/ delphi-goes-bassooning More info sdynastymusic@gmail.com
Things that are good for you don’t come wrapped in plastic! Don’t forget to take your reusable shopping bags!
FOR INFORMATION ON SOME OF THE BEST VENUES IN THE NORTHERN RIVERS
2020
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Pick up the book around the towns or from byronvenue.com.au | @byronvenue
Travelling at the speed of lies
Ewan Willis
When Tim BernersLee and others created the architectural foundations of the world wide web, they did so with the vision of openness, idea sharing, and trust. Human nature has a way of making things more complicated, of course.
The underbelly of the internet is the same as that of humanity at large. Deception, misinformation and manipulation are older than language itself. The snake oil salesmen will always be there, yet we want to believe that we have found the magic potion, that we have seen behind the curtain and know the truth that others are blind to. So, how then do we know shit from shinola?
Debunking false information takes dedication and eff ort, Brandolini’s law tells us that ‘the amount of energy needed to refute bullshit is an order of magnitude larger than to produce it.’ The picture looks even grimmer when we also consider the finding from Vosoughi et al that lies spread faster than the truth online (Science Vol. 359, Issue 6380).
In the information age there is seemingly an equivalence given to knowledge and opinion. We’ve all seen it in some form or another and, to varying degrees, we all accept it. It is vitally important to be open minded but in the words of Prof. Kotschnig ‘keep your mind open, but not so open that your brains fall out’ (check out the similarly titled Tim Minchin song).
Anyone who has ever tried to get a large number of people to keep a secret such as a surprise party or business project will know that the more people are involved the harder it becomes to stop tongues from wagging and spilling the details. via the vaccines. Ask yourself, if you were an evil billionaire with this goal then is that really the way you’d achieve your goal? If a single vial of vaccine escapes the chain and is subjected to analysis then you risk global exposure. You’d need the support of every single person who ever handles the vaccine,
Image by PixxlTeufel
And yet when notions such as flat Earth come along, we are asked to somehow believe that we have been coherently lied to over centuries by every advanced civilization on the globe and for no apparent financial or other gain. It doesn’t pass muster, yet for some the belief persists.
Here we are in the midst of a global pandemic and yet we don’t have to look far to find those who are totally, utterly convinced that the novel coronavirus is a fabrication so that some sinister biological agent or nanobot can be secretly administered from lab scientists to logistics workers to nurses. It just wouldn’t be cost eff ective, and billionaires love cost eff ectiveness.
Yes, there are the unforeseen consequences such as the correlation of clotting and the AstraZeneca vaccine, yet almost all of us understand that every medication has the potential for side eff ects. Accidental death from taking paracetamol is more common, yet this and the harms of many other medications are oft en ignored in the public sphere.
The boring reality is that medicine and science are not trying to kill us and if they were then we’d be dead or chemically sterilised already. Instead life expectancy and quality of health have been increasing for over a century, in a way not seen at any other time in our history, and this is thanks to scientific methodology and medical advances.
If we want to see conspiracies then consider that the Liberal-National Coalition has used public money to pork barrel key electorates. Regardless of your political orientation this must be seen as corruption and conspiracy. Similarly, the fossil fuel lobby gives significant cash donations to political parties and uses its influence to seek protections for an industry that is driving the environmental crisis, killing most of life on Earth and risking the collapse of civilisation. Those are real conspiracies.
It is easy to forget that conspiracy theories come with a price tag; in that they steal our attention and eff ort away from the real problems and divert it towards a labyrinth of uncertainty. There is a parallel between the coronavirus outbreak and the climate emergency: both have been exacerbated by the denialism and complaceny of a vocal minority.
If we are to have any chance of achieving a sustainable future then let’s not waste our eff ort on conspiracy theories when we have conspiracy facts to contend with.
SUNDAY 23 MAY 2021 SUNDAY 23 MAY 2021 Road diversions
Road diversions will be in place for the start of the 2021 Mullum2Bruns Paddle by 11:30am
For more information visit mullum2brunspaddle.com.au/ logistics or call Jonathan 0437 746 854
Gods and Heroes
co-starring Goddesses and Heroines
If you think you know your Greek myths, think again. Why did Daedalus murder his nephew? And how did his son Icarus really die? Was it Arion who invented the stage musical? Did Zeus impregnate Danaë with a shower of gold? What did Midas do when he lost his golden touch? David Lovejoy’s book answers these questions and more.
ON SALE AT THE MULLUM ECHO OFFICE $10 Also available SF story Yellowstone Butterfly $13 and historical novel Hypatia’s Legacy $12
The Dunoon Dam damning for koalas
Nan Nicholson
The proposed Dunoon Dam is still a possibility, though it has been voted against twice by the members of Rous County Council. Now information has emerged that presents another reason to shut down the threat of the dam once and for all.
New information has been revealed about the local population of koalas who would be impacted by the proposed 50 GL dam at Dunoon.
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The Dunoon Dam was taken off the table by Rous County Council in December 2020.
The councillors who voted down the dam proposal cited the loss of important ecological systems and fauna habitat, as well as the valuable cultural heritage sites of the Widjabul Wia-bal people.
However, it appears that the Dunoon Dam koalas are even more important than first thought as they can help other koala populations to recover robust genetics.
Dr Steve Phillips from Biolink Ecological Consultants says the Dunoon koala population has different genetic origins.
‘These koalas are more robust and outbred than other koala populations to the south and east, which are, in contrast, immunologically compromised and demonstrably inbred,’ he said.
‘The Dunoon koalas thus have lots to offer these other koalas, which suffer from high disease levels and associated mortalities, as well as the manifestation of physical traits of inbreeding such as smaller average body sizes and microcephaly,’ said Dr Phillips.
‘As far as we can tell, the genetic affinity/origins of the population imply a link to hinterland koala populations of SE Queensland, loosely referred to as the SEQ genome,’ he said.
Dr Phillips says we have known about the presence of this special koala population for some time, since at least the mid-1990s, but ‘we do not yet know such critical things as population size When koala populations across the country are struggling, why would we wipe out a healthy group with much needed robust genetics? Photo Hugh Nicholson.
and the full extent of the population’s distribution in the Dunoon area.’
Why is the population so special?
Dr Phillips says is it because the population carries genetic information known to be missing from the coastal populations of Byron, Ballina, and the Richmond River floodplain around Lismore.
The Dunoon Dam would destroy 23ha of koala habitat according to the Terrestrial Ecology Impact Assessment prepared for Rous County Council in 2013.
This does not include forest damaged or fragmented by construction works, or peripheral impacts on koalas living around the edges of the impact zone.
The forest consists of key koala feed tree species such as Tallowwood, linked by rainforest and regrowth.
In addition to habitat loss, koala corridors linking this population to others would also be negatively impacted.
Mitigation is not an option because koalas need these trees now and cannot wait for a regrown forest.
Northern NSW koalas could be extinct in less than 30 years if nothing is done to halt ongoing habitat loss. F W
A new Future Water Plan, without the Dunoon Dam, has been prepared by Rous County Council and released for public comment.
Nan Nicholson was on Rous public reference group from 2008 to 2013, and is a founding member of the WATER Northern Rivers Alliance which represents local groups promoting diverse water options and opposing the Dunoon Dam: www. waternorthernrivers.org/
The organisation is urging people who care about koalas to put in a submission supporting Rous’ new Future Water 2060 plan. This plan has taken the Dunoon Dam off the table.
More information about the Future Water Project can be found here: www.rous.nsw.gov.au/ future-water-for-our-region
Submissions close 28 May.
Sixteen boats competed in the Tweed Valley Sailing Club’s race day earlier this month in a 10-12 knot breeze that suited the newcomers to the sport.
Adam Andrewartha entered his first race with his son Zac on an NS14. They scored a first on handicap in the second race of the day.
‘I was really pleased with how Zack and I worked together as a team,’ Adam said.
Monique also had her first try at racing.
‘It was amazing to see so many boats participating. Chirps of encouragement from the other boats, great displays of sportsmanship in giving buoy room and navigating around near collisions. All in all, an awesome introduction to Dinghy Sailing,’ Monique said.
‘I’ll definitely be joining the next She Sails course,’ she said
The fleet heads down the Tweed. Photo supplied
The Ocean Shores Aquatics team have returned home with some great results after a month-long stint at various State School Swimming competitions.
‘They have all performed well, while enjoying the experience immensely,’ coach Adrian Filipic said.
‘Every swimmer was inspired and challenged to swim their best to establish a ranking amongst the states finest’.
The primary school swimmers, most of them on debut, produced some great personal bests with the chart toppers being Mali Stewart, Teo Martin and Jack Matkevich.
The Byron Bay junior girls relay team excelled with the combination of Delilah Warton, Andie Gilbert, Lily Purtell and Henly Smith together dropping over nine seconds from their time to finish fifth in the final.
The secondary school swimmers showed that there is no substitute for experience as most secured top ten placings to make finals.
Lawson King had a debut in the Boys 11yrs 50m backstroke and swam his best. Other great swimmers were Ivy Gilbert, Phoebe Pockley and Zara Morris in their respective relays.
Other results:
Sashi Wills; Girls 17-19yrs: 8th 400m Freestyle, 6th 200m Freestyle, 9th 200m medley, 10th 50m backstroke. Tiggi Groves; Girls 13yrs: 10th 100m back, 9th 50m freestyle, 7th 50m backstroke. Eve Porter; Girls 16yrs: 10th 200m Freestyle, 10th 50m Freestyle. Tom Cheek; Boys 16yrs: 8th 100m breaststroke. Meg Porter; Girls 17-19yrs: 7th 400m medley. Maddison Oliss placed 11th in the Girls 13yrs 50m breaststroke. Montannah Archibald swam in the Girls 14yrs 100m breastroke and Jay DunbarRied swam in the Boys 16yrs 100m breastroke.
On The Horizon
DEADLINE NOON FRIDAY
Email copy marked ‘On The Horizon’ to editor@echo.net.au.
Mullum Market
Mullumbimby Community Market is on this Saturday from 8am until 2pm, Cnr of Stuart and Myocum Streets Mullumbimby. Great local artisans, massage, good food and coffee, plants and records. Tim Stokes is playing live. Visit the museum. We love your dogs but they can’t come inside the market. Please support your local community market.
Byron Book Fair
The annual Byron Shire Book Fair needs your secondhand or new books to sell and raise funds for the Libraries of Byron Shire. Books need to be in good condition, and all genres, such as fiction, non fiction, art, children’s, history, DVDs and games, are needed. Call Beryl 6685 3030 or Janene 0407 855 022, who can arrange collection points. The Book Fair will take place between 2 and 5 July.
Friends of Libraries
Friends of Libraries Byron Shire are holding a book event for Jed Hart, a local Byron Bay resident, discussing his first novel Without Warning in conversation with Mick O’Regan, at Marvell Hall 37 Marvell Street Byron Bay on Friday 28 May from 5.30pm. Entry $10, light refreshments and drinks are provided. Bookings are essential at www.byronbayfol.com.
Ocean Shores Garden Club, Australia
The next meeting of the Ocean Shores Garden Club will be held on Monday 17 May at 1.30 pm at the Hub hall next to K-Mart Hub (previously Target). Our speaker will be Grant Boyle from Fig Landscapes, Byron Bay. Visitors are very welcome. Phone Margie 6680 1736
BV VIEW Club
Brunswick Valley VIEW Club will meet on Thursday, 13 May at 10.30am for luncheon at Brunswick Heads Bowling Club. Book in with Wenda on 0449 563 580 or email wjhunt@ yahoo.com.au. To find out more about VIEW, visit www.view.org.au or call 1800 805 366.
Uniting Church Op Shop
The Op Shop Crn Dalley & Whian Streets Mullumbimby is holding a fundraiser on Saturday 15 May from 9am until 12.30pm reaching out to support and mentor youth at our local high school. A special feature will be a silent auction for a chance to purchase an original painting by Bessie Liddle a Luritja/Pertame woman formally from Alice Springs. The painting and supporting information will be on display in the op shop.
Prostate Cancer Support
The next meeting of the Northern Rivers Day Prostate Cancer Support Group is to be held on Monday 17 May, 10am until 12 noon at the Ballina Cherry Street Bowling Club. Men diagnosed or newly diagnosed with prostate cancer and their partners or carers are most welcome to attend. These meetings are a wonderful opportunity to share, learn and benefit from other people’s experiences. Enquiries phone Bob Corney (02) 6628 1527 or 0400 747 630
CWA Crafty Women
Please join the Crafty Women at the CWA Brunswick Heads, Crn Booyun and Park St, each Friday (except public holidays) 10am to 2pm. Bring along your craft project or learn new skills like quilting, knitting crocheting, making clothes or soft toys. BYO snacks. Mums and babes-in-arms most welcome. Gold coin donation. We are friendly and COVID Safe, log on using the NSW Service AP.
