@ajsadauskas@sydney glad the roxy got a shout out. Parramatta is still a bit under baked but it'll be interesting to see what it's like in 5 or so years.
Stop building CBDs, city is outdated concept in 21 century. Cities outlived it usefulness, we do not need them as centers of commerce, or military strongholds, or to concentrate workforce. Let them die, future is distributed, not concentrated.
I wasn't sure if I was going to write this, but here goes.
Yesterday, Greyhound Racing NSW locked their staff out of the Greyhounds as Pets Wyee facility and made the entire facility redundant. The staff there, while they worked for a disgusting organisation, demonstrated real care for each and every single dog that came through their doors, and my wife and I are lucky to have adopted our beautiful Waffle and Tim Tam from them.
GRNSW yesterday released a statement where CEO Robert Macauley spoke about the collapsing wagering post-COVID. The statement also mentioned that all rehoming and welfare activities are "fully funded".
Fully funded I guess after quietly making around 60 redundancies across the Wyee facility and GAP head office.
The Wyee shelter is to be outsourced to a private company which will now handle GRNSW's export business sending discarded Hounds to the USA in the hopes of a better life. There are more strict criteria on what dogs can be sent to the US - off the top of my head I believe they need to be under five years old and have no medical conditions.
After the Baird-era attempt to ban Greyhound Racing in NSW, the industry talked big about wanting to clean up its act. It seems when the going gets tough, they've opted to act in bad faith towards dedicated, hard working staff, and reduce their capability as an organisation to deal with the abandoned, abused dogs which are the EXPECTATION, NOT THE EXCEPTION.
Greyhound Racing needs to end in NSW. The industry has demonstrated that it can't be trusted to the right thing by their animals.
Ray Hadley also did a bit on this today. While I wouldn't normally recommend a sane person to listen to him, he's fired up about what's happened at GAP.
“We will not be intimidated, especially when we are trying to stop a genocide,” he told the house.
“Any time police officers resort to the use of force against non-violent protesters, they violate these principles and undermine the consent and respect necessary for the police to do their job.”
NSW’s arts minister, John Graham, says a Sydney council has sent a “terrible message” by voting to ban same-sex parenting books, importing a “US culture war into our country”.
In case you missed it: Cumberland city council voted to place a blanket ban on same-sex parenting books from local libraries. Labor councillor Mohamad Hussein voted in favour of the motion, which passed six to five.
Speaking to ABC RN earlier this morning, Graham said he had not spoken to the councillors directly but understood there would likely be another vote next Wednesday.
“That’s a good thing. I think it’s a chance for the council to reconsider.”
He said the council’s decision to ban same-sex parenting books is in breach of guidelines that apply to public libraries across NSW, stating they should be “an unbiased source of information and ideas”. Abiding by this is a condition for funding, Graham said.
The minister said he has read the book which sparked the ban – which is a “simple story [showing] that families come in all shapes and sizes”.
“It’s a terrible message to send, to have this councillor importing this US culture war into our country and playing it out on the shelves of the local library. I think the community expectations are clear – the local councillors should be coming around to pick up their bin, not telling them what to read.”
Hornsby is the fifth best place to live in Australia, apparently.
At least, according to a study SGS Economics and Planning:
"Sydney's Northern beaches ranks as the highest in the nation for wellbeing, with only one Queensland city making it to the top 10, the annual index revealed today.
"The Australian Capital Territory came in second due to its low gender wage gaps, climate change risks and the division of wealth."
The study assessed 518 local council areas on seven indicators:
Looks like Sydney Trains is going to drop the jargon from its PA announcements.
From the SMH:
"Commuters will soon be told to “get off” the train, rather than “alight”, after Sydney Trains resolved to overhaul its station announcements to favour colloquial language.
"The phrase “this train terminates here” is also being retired, due to concerns the word “terminates” is difficult to understand."
@rusl@ajsadauskas@sydneytrains You think that's bad? I was in an airport where they made passengers "deplane" to take care of a mechanical issue. When it was time to have the passengers get back on, the gate agent made an announcement asking them to "re-deplane". 😒
Environmentally sustainable plant-based dishes in restaurants and cafes?
"Occasionally ordering a plant-based meal instead of a meat dish can greatly reduce the environmental footprint of the global food system. Animal agriculture accounts for 56% of food-related greenhouse gas emissions but produces only 18% of calories and 37% of protein."
"This means a family of four ordering plant-based meat burgers instead of beef patties saves carbon emissions equal to driving from Brisbane to the Gold Coast."
Not again! BoM issues Flood warning for Qld and NSW.
"A major rain event will engulf most of eastern Australia during the next 48 hours, prompting the Bureau of Meteorology to issue flood watches from southern Queensland to the NSW South Coast.
"Greater Sydney could be soaked by up to 200mm from late Thursday to early Saturday, potentially leading to major flooding along the Hawkesbury-Nepean River, while Brisbane and Canberra also face the prospect of heavy rain."
Try out bottlebrush, not sure of the variety but they’re one of the trees that does very well on riverbanks and can survive being underwater for 5 days just fine.
They also grow pretty slowly and aren’t a massive tree unlike the casuarina.
They love growing on river banks and often go under in floods. A good nursery should be able to point you in the right direction.
The thing with Brisbane is that we get a big variety of different kinds of flooding, with very different characteristics. Overland flow and creek flooding can occur and be very problematic, especially in the more outer suburbs and some higher areas.
But the most destructive kind is when the Brisbane River floods. And that happens for reasons that are impossible for someone purely looking at local conditions in Brisbane to predict. It’s a big river with a massive catchment area all the way up to Toowoomba, going south and north to the Gold and Sunshine Coast hinterlands.
And while 2022’s floods were preceded by a lot of local rain and local conditions were extremely moist (which meant we got a lot of creek flooding and overland flow in addition to the river flooding), the 2011 flood occurred on a much drier day in Brisbane itself, thanks to the upstream weather being much worse.
Conditions here at least seem to be drying up a lot, and I don’t think there’s much cause for concern, but back on Thursday, it’s the above facts that meant I was still a little worried even despite what it was like here.