Air pollution triggers asthma. Pheasant's cries go unheeded.

I took the dog for a walk this morning and found this wild pheasant hiding from attacking peewees in the bush around a nearby house.
This poor bird has obviously lost its home to urban development because it's been wandering the district for weeks. 
A few weeks ago, I heard it's wild calls in my back yard and saw it in a tree. Highly unusual. 
I'm assuming it's the same bird because there can't be too many wild pheasants in the suburbs, let alone one suburb.
There's been a lot of bush that's been cleared over the past few years.  It's affected residents (like me) who awake to the rumbling of Gateway traffic which sounds like a restless mechanical surf in the early morning quiet.
I think the wilderness used to act like a buffer but the new suburbs just act as echo caverns.
Pity people and organizations don't understand ecology. The school which is my backyard neighbour refused to trim the tops of its self-pruning trees because they want wildlife. But the noisy banana birds and the crows have killed all the finches and little birds.
And these bully birds which attack my dog refuse to allow the pheasant into their territory it seems. 
I saw a koala go walking through only once. I haven't seen a blue tongue lizard for quite some time - perhaps because there are too many cats.
Lovely walk. Got a new coat of deisel soot on my lungs from our regular bus services. Remembered why I don't go walking now.

Mary Jane fights eviction from her squat and her Spiderman doesn't show.

This madam has been sitting in my kitchen window catching flies and building her nest.

Every time I opened and closed the shutters and window I considered sweeping her out.

She hoarded flies and I thought she was doing me a good turn getting rid of pests.

Until today. Her nest hatched hundreds of tiny little ones. Pests.

So out came the dust pan and they all were swept up and thrown outside.

Madam was not amused - but I spared her life.

Her rage and pain is evident.

Perhaps she was just mad because I was sticking a camera in her face.

And no her name was NOT Charlotte. 

It was Mary Jane Watson. ;)

Guess I must be the Green Goblin then. 

 

 

 

Dr Who flashback in a CSIRO loo. Totally weird moment of panic with paper towel wrapped around my hand.

When I was a kid I was petrified of the Wirrn, a race of insectoids who infested a cryogenic arc that Dr Who's Tardis pops into - it was up there with vampire shows that I watched standing at the door of the lounge room, the open door.

The Wirrn converted people into embryonic slug Wirrn with a tiny brush of their slimy sluginess - stalking their prey from hidden corners and under the space ship grates - just like the Alien in Alien.

These days I watch almost anything - with the lights out by myself and I'm OK.

Thought I'd shaken off all those irrational beliefs - like miracles. ;)

But there I was, standing in the dim light of a toilet at Australia's premiere scientific institution the CSIRO - for real!

And as I wiped my hands the paper towel wrapped around my hand and I panicked because it felt and looked just like the image of the guy with the slimmed hand in Dr Who.

So there I am shaking my hand and trying to free it from the paper and I stop and suddenly I stop and stare at it - I snigger as my subconscious throws up this Dr Who image.

I'm quite proud of myself for having achieved a certain level headedness - but you know what I did when Darth Vader walked through the glass doors directly in front of my desk in the features department of the Courier-Mail?

My instinctive reflex was to duck under the desk - and I was halfway through a bob down when my brain kicked into gear: "Wait a minute! He's not real!"

No one can tell me that the media doesn't affect people's psychological states - lighting affects people's psychology. Maybe if that toilet had supermarket dazzle the Wirrn would have remained dormant in my mind.

But I believe that when people live through crisis - particularly prolonged crisis such as war, revolution, drought, destitution - it may change people's mindset and they may not even know it.

I know people who have kept people alive, kept families together, left everything they own behind and started again in a country beset by racism - Australia in the 1950s - and it affected them for the rest of their lives. They never forgot. How could you?

Earlier this year I read a social studies report about the communities which depend upon water from the Murray-Darling River Basin. It doesn't seem to be on the Murray-Darling Basin Authority's new website any more. Lucky for you I kept a copy. See below.

Watching the farmers' protests on the news reminded me of this report because it explains a few important points like how farmers are getting on in years - there, in Australia's salad bowl, young people aren't lining up to farm.

At least one or two generations have left their parents and grandparents to carry on because they don't fancy being slaves to the whim of the seasons and climate.

Do you wonder that farmers approaching their retirement years are panicking? Remember what self-funded retirees felt like when the Global Financial Crisis crushed superannuation funds and share prices?

These people know that they feed the country. They probably feel like they've just been slimmed by the Greens.

They don't even have anyone to take over the farm. Farmers are as scarce as hen's teeth - or as scarce as a drop of rain in a drought.

There are so many issues all wrapped in the this proposed water management plan which has panicked the farmers and made the Greens so happy. 

Everyone's minds are set. Boy do we need a miracle now Saint Mary!

Rain. Frogs. Croak. - OR - Humans. Frogs. Croak.

A frog has moved into my neighbourhood along with a two storm birds.

So I'm wondering what happens when some developer up the road starts up the bulldozer to turn farms into a housing estate on a road that can't cope with the traffic already?

Ah, the human touch.  

Rain.            Humans.

Frogs.          Frogs.

Croak.          Croak.

We don't let each other sing - so what the heck are singing frogs in this equation?

When was the last time you saw a film which summed up the human touch?

Have you ever seen Jean de Florette?  

Inspire a frog to sing? Bah! Frogs don't sing, do they? You might like the sequel Manon des Sources.

 

Political debate carbon tax cartoon: Do you really want the global warming debate to be an intelligence test?

When I visited San Francisco's Exploratorium I bought this postcard showing psychologist's EG Boring's little intelligence test. 

I think the climate change debate is a reincarnation of the postcard.

Do you see a young or old woman or both?

Tim Flannery and the rest of the Climate Commission appointed by the Federal Government in February held it's first community meeting in Geelong on Friday.

Listen to an ABC podcast 

I watched it on the ABC. They responded to the fears of the average Australian from how a carbon tax will affect petrol prices and groceries to whether jobs will be lost in the most energy intensive industries such as aluminum smelters. This unfortunately was broadcast on the ABC on a Friday night after 8.30pm while the Tony Abbott in the climate skeptics crowd speech was all over every media outlet for the past few days.

So here's how I think it must look to the average Aussie who bothered with last week's debate at all: 

By the way, here are some answers given to questions at the Geelong forum:

  • Petrol prices would go up $2-$3 a tank (depending on the size of the tank) with the introduction of a recommened $20-$30/tonne price on carbon.
  • Jobs at Alcoa would be saved if (as is part of every plan under consideration) the aluminum industry gets some form of compensation - because it's actually doing something about reducing its energy consumption already and is already internationally competitive in this area.
  • There is no global warming debate in the scientific community. Why? Because the existence and cause of Global Warming is accepted as fact by 98 percent of the scientific community.
  • "UNCERTAINTY" is the reason investors are not investing in clean energy which means it will take even longer to bring the price of clean energy down.
  • Scientists are annoyed and frustrated by the "political" debate around climate change and went back to their test tubes, exploration ships and the like to do the work rather than argue with people who don't have their facts straight.

PS: If television's morning programs really want to do a public service then perhaps they should do a segment every morning with a scientist!

Translation for international readers of da Scriffles: 

The GoGo Bird: Prime Minister Julia Gillard - leader of a minority government in a hung parliament - is captive to the Greens (hence green shoes).

The Poll Dancer: Opposition Leader Tony Abbott & his team of fat cats are worried about the cost of living for ordinary Australians and the fact that Julia Gillard lied before the election when she said her government would never introduce a carbon tax. Now that she needs the support of The Greens to remain in government she's changed her mind.