Duck Season – stop these lame shooters from killing our waterbirds #fb

DUCK SEASON

Despite much opposition to Victoria’s recreational duck shooting season it is still going ahead opening on the weekend of March 20th/21st (2010) across Victoria.

You still have time to write to John Brumby and let him know how you feel about it.

Please write, email or phone
Premier John Brumby
john.brumby@parliament.vic.gov.au
Level 1, 1 Treasury Pl, Melbourne 3002
Tel: 9651 5000

Primarily politicians need to hear from Victorians (provide your address) saying that this brutal activity must be stopped.  Interstate and overseas supporters could say that Victoria should follow the other Labor states which have banned duck-shooting and that the issue is now one of national environmental significance.

Thank you from the Coalition Against Duck Shooting CADS

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Help Rocky the Red Kangaroo to escape his living hell! Please sign the petition. #fb

You may have already read or heard about Rocky, a big red kangaroo who’s life is spent performing with a clown who goads him into boxing, but then is pulled back by a harness and tether.  It is truly saddening to see these magnificent animals being reduced to a side show spectacle.  If you don’t know about Rocky’s story please visit the story.

Please support this petition to free Rocky from his living hell and send it on to your friends.

http://www.gopetition.com/online/34525.html

Thank you from the Australian Society for Kangaroos.

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Body Canvas 2010 helping the National Breast Cancer Foundation #Melbourne #geekgirl

Saturday 27th March 2010 – Body Canvas invites you and your guests to celebrate a spectacle of art and colour in an extraordinary event brought to Melbourne for the first time.

Body Canvas is Australia’s largest body paint festival. The event features artists from around Australia who come together to showcase their talent and support a charitable cause. This year’s event is proud to support the National Breast Cancer Foundation.

The festival is organised as a competition that will include professional and amateur artists fighting it out in front of a packed crowed and panel of celebrity judges for thousands of dollars in cash and prizes. Artists will create their masterpieces in the public forum at the St Kilda Sea Baths, followed by an exhibition and a catwalk parade. There will be a range of category winners announced from most creative to the most outrageous which will be decided by recognised judges from within the entertainment, fashion and artistic community.

Body Canvas festival is open free to public from 12pm to 6pm. The finals will run at the St.Kilda Sea Baths from 6pm to 1am, tickets for the finals cost $35.

Tickets can be purchased on the website http://www.bodycanvas.com.au/.

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World Naked Bike Ride – Australia

At least 7 Australian towns and cities will participate in the next southern hemisphere leg of the World Naked Bike Ride in March 2010. More cities may be added to the list if volunteers are found to organise the ride in new towns and cities. The official southern hemisphere ride date is Saturday 13 March 2010.

The dates and locations are:

Saturday 13 March 2010: Sydney and Adelaide
Sunday 14 March 2010: Newcastle
Sunday 21 March 2010: Canberra and Melbourne

WORLD NAKED BIKE RIDE MELBOURNE 2010
The Union Club Hotel, 3:00pm – 8:00pm

Corner of Gore and Webb Streets FITZROY, Melbourne

http://wiki.worldnakedbikeride.org/wiki/Australia

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Ada Lovelace Day, March 24 #geekgirl

Ada Lovelace Day is an international day of blogging (videologging, podcasting, comic drawing etc.!) to draw attention to the achievements of women in technology and science.

Women’s contributions often go unacknowledged, their innovations seldom mentioned, their faces rarely recognised. We want you to tell the world about these unsung heroines, whatever they do. It doesn’t matter how new or old your blog is, what gender you are, what language you blog in, or what you normally blog about – everyone is invited. Just sign the pledge at Finding Ada and publish your blog post any time on Wednesday 24th March 2010.

Who was Ada Lovelace?

Augusta Ada King, Countess of Lovelace (10 December 1815 – 27 November 1852), born Augusta Ada Byron, was an English writer chiefly known for her work on Charles Babbage’s early mechanical general-purpose computer, the analytical engine. Her notes on the engine include what is recognized as the first algorithm intended to be processed by a machine; as such she is often regarded as the world’s first computer programmer.

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PICNIC OF THE DAMNED – a fond farewell to Kyeemagh beach

Kyeemagh beach, at the mouth of the Cooks River, Botany Bay, has never been a Bondi or Manly, but recently, this small, working class beach has simply disappeared. A victim, not of rising tides and climate change, Kyeemagh beach succumbed to the NSW Government’s desalination juggernaut (whose pipe runs from the plant itself at Kurnell, under Botany Bay to Kyeemagh).

On March 6, 4pm, there’ll be a picnic to commiserate this disappearance, next to this ghostly strip, outside the perimeter of the security fence marking the no-go zone. Bring a picnic basket and blanket, and come dressed a la Picnic at Hanging Rock. Documentation from the picnic will be used for an exhibition in May by Greg Shapley.

WHAT: Picnic of the Damned
WHERE: Near where the beach used to be, next to the Cooks River – opposite General Holmes Drive & O’Dea Ave, Kyeemagh (near Brighton Le Sands), Sydney, Australia
WHEN: Saturday March 6, 4pm-6pm
WHO: Contact Greg Shapley on 0401 152 434 or email gshapley@gmail.com

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SquatFest #Film Festival is on again

It’s the TENTH year of The SquatFest Film Festival

The basic info is:

*21 Feb, 730pm (same time and day as TROPFEST)

*Secret exciting venue (check our website on the day for location)
[could be anywhere but more likely Sydney]
*BYO films and videos to show

*Do get in touch if you want to help out with organising (dog knows we need it!) on info@squatspace.com

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Stop Iceland’s #whale hunt – Act Now!

Iceland’s whaling season began recently, kicking off a bloody whale hunt that could lead to the death of 100 minke whales.

Iceland is one of only two countries (the other Japan) worldwide that still authorizes commercial whaling. About half of the whale meat from this year’s hunt is intended for domestic sales in Iceland, while the rest of the quota will be sold to Japan.

Sign the petition and tell the Icelandic government to reduce this year’s whale hunt quotas immediately – and to ban whaling forever.

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Blog: Politicians Failing Whales #fb #geekgirl #fail #whales

One of the things that most annoys me about politics is the destruction the political system leaves in its wake. And why no matter whom we seem to vote for, all groups and individuals should be judged on the immediacy of what they do, and how they can mitigate the risk of inheriting the rubbish of former regimes. Simple, but having integrity is a great place to start!

I think this would have to be a universal doctrine of how one calculates the success of the incumbent. With a lot more scrutiny, immediacy and distribution of communication, we ‘the people’ are able to denounce the tardy, stupid, ineffectual and incompetent politicians we vote for.

We can’t seem to win: the right royal bunglers of this world just keep on coming. I think this may have to do with the type of people who work in Government and the type of people it attracts. Certainly, I’ve been told a good many times it’s hard to get good people in Gov’t: but surely there needs to be a bit more of a litmus test employed when employing people.

My vote for bad pollie of the week: it’s a close tie between the procrastinating K.Rudd dud (http://twitter.com/KevinRuddPM) or that arrogant plonker twit (http://twitter.com/TonyAbbottMHR). The latter got into the hot-seat by lying, the former making noise (centre-right) until he too can potentially lie legitimately. I doubt Australians are mad enough to vote for Abbott, who has a track record of not being able to separate Church from State, and btw looks shockin’ in his speedos!

Rudd refuses to get legal with the Japanese (who sank the Sea Shepherd’s Ady Gil) even though he keeps making veiled threats to do so, and leaving Ms Julia Gillard (Julia.Gillard.MP@aph.gov.au) in charge (who now also makes veiled threats on his behalf).

Abbott doesn’t want to offend or hurt the Japanese Gov’t feelings. OMG perhaps he can organise a pity party!! #fail

It’s just crap city for the whales, being killed illegally by the Japanese in the Southern Oceans for meat. Leaving little choice for direct action groups like Sea Shepherd or Bob Barker, who are having to up the ante on gaining attention to save and defend whales.

I’m amazed no one has been killed, and I think this has more to do with sheer bloody luck than strategy or intention.

We have to continue to speak on behalf of animals, and we have to continue to let politicians know they are not doing a good enough job!!

I don’t care about Kevin Rudd climbing rocks (on Cradle Mountain) with his kids on holiday. Get off down the mountain Kev and do some bloody work! You made election promises you won’t keep!

Veiled threats are causing the situation to escalate by not having the courage as a Gov’t to defend Southern Ocean whales and Australian citizens. I am disgusted by your ineffectiveness K.Rudd and that’s why you get my vote for shit pollie of the week!

Links:

Tumblr | Stop Killing Whales

Blogspot | Save the Whales Please

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French stencil artist Blek the Rat in #Melbourne.

French stencil artist Blek the Rat is in town and an exhibition of his work  has opened  at Metro Gallery on High St, Armadale. On display are a dozen of his iconic life size stencils like the famous “The Man who walks through Walls” and many smaller works and prints. Xavier Prou started stenciling after a visit to New York where he was inspired by early forms of graffiti.

Back in Paris he sprayed stencils of rats as an art student in the early 1980s which set off the stencil art in France. Many of the early French artists like Jef Aerosol, Miss Tic and others soon got in trouble with the police under president Jacques Chirac’s hardline approach. The French scene subsequently died, just to have its renaissance almost 20 years later as part of the world-wide stencil art movement. (Melbourne’s stencil artists deserve some credit in being instrumental in getting the movement started.)

Prices for a large work average around $24,000 and in case you can’t afford one you can still buy one of his rats on a tiny cheap canvas for $7500. Blek’s stencil work is simple, rather primitive and badly executed. The materials used of minor quality. But so be it.
Blek the Rat has been hugely influential and is a true pioneer. If you want to find out more about him visit his Blek website and read Amelia Swan’s enlightening article on Artshub.

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