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Lipman builds good vibes with Coffs Soupie

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/lipman-builds-good-vibes-with-coffs-soupie
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 12:47

WHEN construction company Lipman were setting up home to build Yarrila Place in Coffs Harbour, they negotiated some wiggle room on the southern perimeter, gaining a metre extra usage space from their next-door neighbour the Uniting Church Soup Kitchen, known locally as the Soupie. A gentlemanly handshake deal guaranteed Lipman would give back along the...

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Technical studies start for Jetty Foreshores masterplan proposal

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/technical-studies-start-for-jetty-foreshores-m…
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 12:40

TECHNICAL studies are being carried out over the next few months along the land at the Jetty to be used to develop the Coffs Harbour Jetty Foreshores masterplan. A spokesperson for the Department of Planning and Environment told News Of The Area, “Property and Development NSW (PDNSW) continues to work with the Department of Planning...

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Egyptian Tent Making talk a success

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/egyptian-tent-making-talk-a-success
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 12:30

THE debut Coffs Harbour Australian Decorative Fine Arts Society (ADFAS) event, a talk on Khayamiya: the History of Egyptian Tent Making, was a “howling success”. “There was a great turnout of 140 people to the first talk on Monday 6 February at the National Cartoon Gallery,” Cath Fogarty, on behalf of ADFAS Coffs Coast, told...

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Seniors explore volunteer roles at Connecting For Life expo

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/seniors-explore-volunteer-roles-at-connecting-…
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 12:28

VOLUNTEERING Coffs Harbour presented the Connecting For Life volunteer expo on Monday 6 February at the Cavanbah Centre as part of Seniors Week 2023. The purpose of the expo was first to garner interest in volunteering overall and then to get the message out to the seniors that the options for volunteering are manifold. Advertise...

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Government Workplace Hub to be built in Coffs Harbour CBD

https://www.newsofthearea.com.au/government-workplace-hub-to-be-built-in-coffs-…
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 12:24

SIX hundred NSW Government employees across 26 different departments will work under one roof in Coffs Harbour CBD once a $55 million regional workplace hub is built at 11 Gordon Street, estimated to be completed by 2025. Member for Coffs Harbour Gurmesh Singh announced on Monday 13 February that the local economy is set for...

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Movie night at the mini-mart: Top 10 Little People Films

https://digbysblog.net/2023/02/18/movie-night-at-the-mini-mart-top-10-little-pe…
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 12:00
In the canyons of your mindI will wander through your brainTo the ventricles of your heart, my dearI’m in love with you again – from “Canyons of Your Mind,” by The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band Earlier this week, I was mindlessly scrolling through Twitter (as one does)  and noticed that Fantastic Voyage was trending. Initially, I  was puzzled as to why that nearly 60 year-old film was on the radar. Then I saw “Raquel Welch” trending, and thought “Uh-oh…another pop culture icon of my youth has diminished and gone into the West.” There’s a 65% chance that I couldn’t tell you where I left my goddam keys,  but I have vivid memories of attending a Saturday matinee showing of Fantastic Voyage at Theater #1 (Fort Wainwright, Alaska) and becoming mesmerized by the sight of Raquel Welch cavorting about the movie screen in a skin-tight scuba outfit for 2 hours.

Thoughts on CBO's Budget and Economic Outlook — Stephanie Kelton

http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2023/02/thoughts-on-cbos-budget-and-eco…
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 10:50
None of us should put too much stock into any long range economic outlook. But CBO’s economic outlook impacts its (baseline) budget projections, which matter for policymaking in all kinds of ways.

By assuming a gloomier economy—no growth, higher unemployment, stickier inflation, and more aggressive rate hikes in the near term (among other things)—CBO is telling lawmakers that projected deficits over the period 2023-2032 will be $900 billion higher than previously forecast (back in May 2022). Part of that jump is due to higher (revised up $295B) projected debt service over that period.

Keep this in mind, because I’m going to write more about rate hikes and their budgetary impacts in my next post....
The LensQuick 
Thoughts on CBO's Budget and Economic Outlook
Stephanie Kelton | Professor of Public Policy and Economics at Stony Brook University, formerly Democrats' chief economist on the staff of the U.S. Senate Budget Committee, and an economic adviser to the 2016 presidential campaign of Senator Bernie Sanders

Will the Access Hollywood tape come back to haunt Trump?

https://digbysblog.net/2023/02/18/will-the-access-hollywood-tape-come-back-to-h…
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 10:30
Not if he can help it It is damning, no doubt about it. He is such a pig… In April, Donald Trump’s lawyers are set to defend him in civil court against allegations from writer E. Jean Carroll that he raped her in a department store in the mid-’90s. When they do, they really, really want to ensure that jurors are not allowed to hear the infamous Access Hollywood tape in which Trump brags about grabbing women “by the pussy” without their consent. Why? Because they know how bad it makes him sound! In court papers filed late Thursday, Trump attorneys Alina Habba and Michael Madaio argued that the 2005 tape, which emerged while Trump was running for president the first time, should be banned from the trial. (They want both the tape itself and any references to it blocked.) Calling the recording “irrelevant and highly prejudicial,” the attorneys claim, per the Associated Press, that it “might unjustly be used to suggest to jurors that Trump had a propensity for sexual assault and therefore must have raped Carroll.” Why might the tape give jurors that idea, you ask?

Meruluza en Salsa Verde (Hake with Green Sauce)

https://vintagerecipecards.com/2023/02/18/meruluza-en-salsa-verde-hake-with-gre…
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 10:27
4 servings You will need½ cup oil3 cloves garlic, chopped1 tablespoon minced parsley4 hake slices, each ⅓ lb., preferably cut from the center, scaledpowdered white pepperjuice of 1 lemon24 or 28 green asparagus tips, tinnedsalt Heat oil in a flat-bottomed earthenware casserole, then add garlic and minced parsley. Stir with skimmer and add some of […]

“Professional traveling nut salesmen”

https://digbysblog.net/2023/02/18/professional-traveling-nut-salesmen/
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 09:00
The anti-vaxxers are on a tear My loathing for these madmen knows no bounds: It was a peaceful Sunday afternoon at the Conscious Life Expo, and in a large, windowless ballroom, Del Bigtree was red-faced and triumphant in front of a captivated crowd. “These people,” he told them, “need to go to prison!” There was a smattering of solemn applause. “For life!” someone in the audience cried out.  Bigtree is a TV producer turned big fish in the anti-vaccine world, and this talk was, more or less, part of his victory lap. In a lecture running nearly two hours, he accused government officials and pharmaceutical companies of fraud for promoting mRNA vaccine, and for downplaying the effectiveness of drugs like hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin. (Neither drug is effective as a cure, treatment, or preventative for COVID; the FDA warns against using hydroxychloroquine for COVID due to possible heart rhythm problems, and ivermectin because it can lead to problems ranging from hypotension to death.

Just don’t call it a propaganda network

https://digbysblog.net/2023/02/18/just-dont-call-it-a-propaganda-network/
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 07:30
I was hoping someone would do this: People keep saying, “well, duh, of course they were doing this.” I guess we all suspected they knew the truth and were lying and we certainly suspected they did much of what they did because their audience was pissed that they called Arizona. But these emails are far worse than just that. The top star of the network was worrying about the stock price and calling Trump a demonic figure in private. Others were trying to get reporters fired for telling the truth and following journalistic standards and validating people they personally believed were f-ing nuts. The chairman of the network was telling them not to report what they knew were the facts. I mean, even I didn’t think they were quite that openly corrupt among themselves. It’s a full-blown profit-making, propaganda institution and they know exactly what they are doing.

DeSantis’ culture war shot o’ the day

https://digbysblog.net/2023/02/18/desantis-culture-war-shot-o-the-day/
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 06:00
Doesn’t he ever take a day off? It’s certainly fair to warn people about various substances being laced with fentanyl. But this approach never worked in the past and it won’t work now. I think politicians (who aren’t as dumb as Trump) know this but they do it thrill their voters with lurid imagery. And preaching abstinence, as this one seems to do, is just a waste of breath. He should be talking about Naloxone and those fentanyl test strips. But he’ll never do that because this isn’t really about helping people struggling with substance use disorders or making a deadly mistake. It’s just pandering to conservatives. As usual. As Gov.

War: truly the last resort for Australians?

https://johnmenadue.com/war-truly-the-last-resort-for-australians/
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 04:56
If war is the last resort, why doesn’t our governance system enforce that condition? Will our War Powers be reformed in 2023? A Joint Standing Committee of the parliament is currently inquiring into our “international armed conflict decision making”. There have been over a hundred submissions, and one day of public hearings (on 9 December Continue reading »

The Liberal Party’s extraordinary intervention in the 2022 election inquiry

https://johnmenadue.com/liberal-party-intervention-in-2022-election-inquiry/
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 04:54
The Liberal Party has made an extraordinary intervention into the parliamentary inquiry on the conduct of the 2022 Australian election. After every federal election the Joint Standing Committee on Electoral Matters (JSCEM) of the Australian Parliament holds an inquiry into the conduct of the election and matters arising. The work of JSCEM has been credited Continue reading »

Valuable or valued: implications for employment policy

https://johnmenadue.com/valuable-or-valued-implications-for-employment-policy/
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 04:51
If the COVID-19 pandemic is teaching us anything it is the important contribution of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, allied health professionals, hospital workers and teachers. Health, people, and communities are precious. My research (2015-2020) considered the dichotomies of regarding employees as assets with utility (valuable) or as people with dignity (valued). The policy implications for employers Continue reading »

We must address the alarming rates of female veteran suicide

https://johnmenadue.com/we-must-address-the-alarming-rates-of-female-veteran-su…
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 04:50
This article discusses suicide. It was 10 years ago that then Chief of Army, Lieutenant General Morrison AO gave his famous speech in support of service women, (written mostly by Catherine McGregor AM). Around this time, there were five concurrent inquiries into Defence culture, including the prominent Broderick Report on the treatment of women. All of this led to Continue reading »

Contradictions within economic theory. All well known but still important and, I think, not taken as seriously as they should be. — Andrew Gelman

http://mikenormaneconomics.blogspot.com/2023/02/contradictions-within-economic-…
Created
Sun, 19/02/2023 - 04:37

 Funny … and sad.

Sometimes it’s hard to talk about economists about this sort of thing because they get all defensive about it.
Statistical Modeling, Causal Inference, and Social Science
Contradictions within economic theory. All well known but still important and, I think, not taken as seriously as they should be.
Andrew Gelman | Professor of Statistics and Political Science and Director of the Applied Statistics Center, Columbia University