Where's My Beach?

The oo continue to misrepresent and deceive in their continued attack on the science og Global Warming. This time, they have an Engineer, who went to a council meeting where he got the impression that his land would be covered by 6 metres of water by 2015. The fact that this hadn't happened apparently 'discredited' the report.

Unfortunately, the report (and quite likely the meeting where he drew these conclusions) did not say 6m of vertical sea rise, but horizontal, as pointed out by Tim Lambert in his ongoing series The Australian's War on Science

Regardless of what the report actually said (or the council meeting in question), the writer also concludes that the report was 'discredited' on the hear say of a retired Engineer, and draws their conclusion accordingly. It is a shame that a paper the size of the oo didn't have the resources or desire to actually site the report, let alone get a statement from the council over what was stated at the now infamous meeting.

The Gillard Curt(er)sy

Julia Gillard met the Queen the other day. While you would have thought that this would have simply been a time for the meeja to simply run in Women's Weekly mode, they had other things in mind. No, they thought they would create some sort of controversy over the PM's perfectly satisfactory and correct greeting of her Royal Highness. The papers, ALL OF THEM, went into an apoplexy of outrage over the fact that she bowed and shook her hand instead of curtseying. I kid you not.

They began the day declaring that this had been an affront to the queen, but that was soon replaced by a 'she should have done it anyway' once they were informed that she had done nothing wrong. It even descended to the level of the HUN showing a full page picture of a young girl curtseying, and declaring how much better she was than our PM.

The saddest thing about this whole escapade, is that the following day, tony yabot met the Queen, and failed to even bow. This was entirely ignored by the meeja. The fact that he piled directly into local politics with her, instead of the chit chat that is generally accepted as polite conversation in front of the cameras, was also portrayed as a brave and forthright move, rather than the rude and ignorant showboating it was.

Pure Poison have an excellent post up, with front pages showing the indignant outrage from dimwits who should know better. This really is news delimited

NBN Co does not leave local tech firms out in the cold

Recently reported in the oo came the headline

NBN Co leaves local tech firms out in the cold

In it, the story claimed

An analysis by The Australian reveals that of almost $7.4 billion worth of contracts with construction and manufacturing firms, $1.75bn - or 23 per cent - has been given to Australian-controlled companies.
The NBN Co disputes this figure, arguing it is closer to 50 per cent. The analysis has outraged local technology companies, which fear a greater use of skilled migrants as the NBN rollout gears up.

Blogger kezza2 at Crikey highlights the oo's artifice