Australia

[keith]

Australia related: Papua New Guinea is in a Covid19 disaster.

After apparently doing a reasonable job supressing the virus at the beginning, (unless the reports were fake) PNG is now in full scale meltdown. Oz is sending doctors and I have a sneaking suspicion that we'll have to redirect some vaccine from the first Auusie made batches to help get it under control.

[Flatpoint High]

Australia related: Papua New Guinea is in a Covid19 disaster.

After apparently doing a reasonable job supressing the virus at the beginning, (unless the reports were fake) PNG is now in full scale meltdown. Oz is sending doctors and I have a sneaking suspicion that we'll have to redirect some vaccine from the first Auusie made batches to help get it under control.

Damn.

[Dave from down under]

https://www.health.gov.au/node/18777/au ... agreements

Supporting our region
Access to safe and effective vaccines will play a critical role in the economic recovery of our region from this pandemic. Supporting our regional neighbours to access doses will progress health outcomes, and help open up movement of people and goods. This will enable economic recovery and longer-term resilience of the Pacific and South East Asia.

———
I’m hoping that our Government provides those vaccines for free - it would be the right thing to do.

[Dave from down under]

I’m at medium risk if COVID was widespread here, but it isn’t, so I would be more than happy to get in the line after all those in PNG.

[sugar magnolia]

As of tomorrow, everyone over 16 in Mississippi is eligible for the vaccine. And they apparently actually have vaccines and people to administer them. It took a friend 5 minutes to get an appointment for her son, and the appointment is for tomorrow. We've had people flooding in from surrounding states since they started giving the shots and I expect (hope) that continues.

[keith]

I’m at medium risk if COVID was widespread here, but it isn’t, so I would be more than happy to get in the line after all those in PNG.

Me too.

[Dave from down under]

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-16/ ... n/13250990

Australia is expected to ramp up urgent coronavirus assistance to Papua New Guinea as aid groups warn the country is facing a public health catastrophe from a "staggering" increase in cases.

Key points:
PNG's Prime Minister fears the infection rate will soon be "one person to three or four"
The nation is asking for Australia's help in expediting vaccines for its doctors and nurses
Australia has already pledged $144 million to support the first round of COVID-19 vaccines
PNG's Prime Minister James Marape sounded the alarm on the pandemic yesterday, warning that his nation was approaching an infection rate "of about one person to three or four".

"The number is quite staggering, if we don't do [a] corrective response to this, our health system will be clogged and we won't be able to sustain it," Mr Marape told journalists in Port Moresby.

The pandemic has already placed enormous strain on PNG's hospitals and health clinics.

[Dave from down under]

As of tomorrow, everyone over 16 in Mississippi is eligible for the vaccine. And they apparently actually have vaccines and people to administer them. It took a friend 5 minutes to get an appointment for her son, and the appointment is for tomorrow. We've had people flooding in from surrounding states since they started giving the shots and I expect (hope) that continues.

Great to hear!

[Dave from down under]

"..a moderately serious case of manslaughter by excessive self-defence.."
<I'm really happy we don't have stupid "stand your ground" and such laws>

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-16/ ... h/13251840

Sydney actor Blake Davis has been sentenced to five years and three months for the samurai sword killing of a man who attacked him during a botched home invasion.

Key points:
Blake Davis received a non-parole period of two years and nine months
In sentencing, the judge accepted it was a "horrifying experience" for Davis
His partner Hannah Quinn will be sentenced as an accessory to murder next month

The 31-year-old was last year cleared of murder but found guilty of manslaughter by a jury over the August 2018 death of rapper Jett McKee.

Armed with knuckle dusters and a replica gun, McKee punched Davis and threatened his girlfriend Hannah Quinn in their inner-city granny flat at Forest Lodge.

The court heard Quinn chased McKee down the street after he snatched her bag and when her boyfriend caught up to them, he cracked McKee's skull with the sword.

The judge was satisfied McKee "did not pose any immediate threat" to Quinn such as to render the sword strike a reasonable response.
<The difference between reasonable self defense and manslaughter>

[Dave from down under]

and since I was looking at American slang and found this:

https://nomadsworld.com/aussie-slang/

have fun...

of the 129 listed I haven't used 4 as far as I know...

including
100. Shark biscuit – kids at the beach
I call them Shark Bait....

[Mr brolin]

Darling brother married an Aussie lass many years ago and moved to Aus a long time ago.

Lives in the middle of butt kiss, feck off, God knows where...I believe that's the town name.

The weird language thing for him initially was the way pretty much all names (predominately male) are all shortened and have a vowel, usually "O" or occasionally a "Y" tacked on the end

Michael Mikey, Micky, Micko, Mike-o
Sean Sean-o
William Billy-o, Billo, WIll-o Willy
Thomas Tommy, Tomm-o
Stephen Steve-o, Stevey

Darling brother has totally bitten into the Aus way of life apparently.

He makes,it seems, most of his pocket money from a beast of a 20 odd foot long "smoker" barbecue on a trailer,that is decked out to look like a steam engine, that he occasionally hauls around hooked up to a beat up old "ute", where he barbies and smoke ungodly amounts of dead animal protein for consumption on and off premise.

Still it is a better option than his old habit of playing poker, badly, and losing to people who would be comfortable staking him over an ants nest when he failed to pay up........

Ahhhhhhhhhh family, have to love them, not allowed to cull them.

[bill_g]

David - I want to second the motion of thanking you for posting news from Oz. Much appreciated mate!

[Dave from down under]

No worries, furry or otherwise

They’re a weird mob down here... ( )

Now the trailer loco barbie sound like a corker!
Especially if he does a whole beastie on a spit!
And is a smoker... meat eaters rejoice!!
(Yeah... Covid has limited the opportunity for something like that somewhat - ah well, better safe than sorry)

[Mr brolin]

From the photographs I have seen of the beast it is a two section, double rack monster that can do 2 porcine beasts per section (one top and one bottom) or 24 chucks per section (12 top, 12 bottom)

4 hogs or 48 chucks......

This is what it would look like (well before Brother Dearest started using it)

[Dave from down under]

I want one!!!

[sugar magnolia]

They have those beasts in half the gas station parking lots in town. A local fireman has one fitted out to look like a fire truck and he does all the fairs and festivals. His rub is the best around, too.

[Dave from down under]

Australian government aims to have 20 per cent coronavirus vaccine coverage in the Pacific by June

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-17/ ... /100014196

The federal government will today unveil more details of its ambitious plan to vaccinate Pacific Island nations from the coronavirus pandemic, vowing to distribute up to 1 million COVID-19 jabs in the first major round of the regional rollout.

Key points:
Australia wants to have 20 per cent vaccine coverage across the Pacific by the middle of 2021
A recent surge in cases in Papua New Guinea has brought new urgency to the government's vaccine aid to the Pacific
The initial rollout is likely to focus on Melanesian countries including PNG, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu

[Dave from down under]

<I'm happy that 'reasonableness' is a flexible word - there are too many variables>

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-17/ ... s/13254246

Blake Davis manslaughter conviction shows that 'reasonableness' is a flexible word

If you are ever unfortunate enough to be confronted by a home intruder, the line between a reasonable reaction and an excessive one can be the difference between acquittal and a jail sentence.

Key points:
The trial of Sydney actor Blake Davis shows complexities around reasonable defence in NSW
Andrew Dyer, Senior Lecturer at University of Sydney Law School, describes reasonableness as a flexible concept
There are several manslaughter cases which have had vastly different outcomes when the concept is applied

Andrew Dyer, Senior Lecturer at University of Sydney Law School, says the division between self-defence and excessive self-defence turns on the question of reasonableness.

"Reasonableness is a notoriously flexible concept," Mr Dyer said.

"When juries apply that concept, there's no certainty as to how they will apply it, and so different juries can come up with different determinations on similar facts."

He said the test of self-defence had two "limbs".

Firstly, a person must establish they believed their conduct was reasonable in defence of themselves or others.

Secondly, the person must establish that the conduct was a reasonable response in the circumstances as they were perceived at the time.

"Although it's oversimplifying it a bit, excessive self-defence really applies where you can establish a possibility of the first but not the second limbs of the test for self-defence," Mr Dyer said.

[Dave from down under]

Preference deals and proportional representation can have interesting results...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-03-17/ ... /100014178

WA election leaves Daylight Saving, Legalise Cannabis parties on verge of joining Parliament

The Daylight Saving Party is in the race to enter WA Parliament, despite so far gathering only about 60 votes in the contest it is hoping to win, while the Legalise Cannabis Party is also in line for a seat with just over 2 per cent of the vote in the relevant region.

It could mean two micro-parties with no policies other than wanting to adopt daylight saving and legalise marijuana, respectively, end up with a voice on Parliament's crossbench, where they would scrutinise or wave through legislation.

Based on around 63 per cent of votes, the ABC has predicted Sophia Moermond from Legalise Cannabis WA could win a seat in the South-West Region, while Wilson Tucker from the Daylight Saving Party could win a seat in the Mining and Pastoral Region based on around 48 per cent of votes.

Here's how.

The art of the deal
It is all possible thanks to preference harvesting deals among micro-parties.

This is when the micro-parties take turns in preferencing each other high in one region to boost their percentage of the vote in that specific region.

"A whole bunch of parties all preference the same party, and as a result that party wins from a relatively low base," election analyst Kevin Bonham said.

This was exactly what the parties did in the South-West Region, but for Sustainable Australia, Mr Bonham said.

But when that party was knocked off the bottom for not having enough votes, their votes flowed onto Legalise Cannabis.

"I don't think Legalise Cannabis was one of the primary target parties for one of these deals, but it's one that's done well out of them anyway," Mr Bonham said.

That was because the Health Australia Party, No Mandatory Vaccination Party, Greens and Animal Justice Party all preferenced Legalise Cannabis second, only behind their own party. So when they were excluded, their preferences also flowed to Legalise Cannabis.

etc

[Volkonski]

As rape allegations rock Australia's Parliament, thousands of women say enough is enough
“It’s a Parliament problem, it’s an Australian problem, it’s a global problem," one women said.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/rape ... d_nn_tw_ma

When Brittany Higgins stood up in front of Australia’s Parliament House in Canberra on Monday, she told the gathered crowd: “I speak to you out of necessity.”

“We are all here today not because we want to be here, but because we have to be here,” the former government staffer said to the crowd of thousands, many dressed entirely in black.

“I was raped inside Parliament House by a colleague, and for so long it felt like the people around me only cared because of where it happened and what it might mean for them,” she said.

The rally in Canberra was one of dozens of “March 4 Justice” protests held across Australia this week, triggered by several sexual assault allegations against men in the country’s halls of power.

[Dave from down under]

18 months ago... Fire
This week floods

[Dave from down under]

Yes, that is a house floating down the river...

[Foggy]

Nice and dry up in the attic!

[Dave from down under]

360 River views..

Did you say this was a house boat!!!

[Volkonski]

Reuters
@Reuters
People in parts of Sydney's northwest were evacuated as heavy rains along the Australian coast brought the worst flooding in half a century, causing widespread destruction https://reut.rs/3tKMy5x