First Dog from Crikey

The Latest fom First Dog The Death of the ETS

Watch the new music video from Ben Lee. In a collaboration with WWF, the video highlights the effects climate change could have on Planet Earth; an emotional story of a monkey returning to Earth after 65 years in space.

For more information, visit http://www.themonkeyreturns.com

Airspace Rebooted from ItoWorld on Vimeo.

A visualisation of the northern European airspace returning to use after being closed due to volcanic ash. Due to varying ash density across Europe, the first flights can be seen in some areas on the 18th and by the 20th everywhere is open.



The flight data is courtesy of http://www.flightradar24.com and covers a large fraction of Europe. There are a few gaps (most noticeably France) and no coverage over the Atlantic, but the picture is still clear.



The map data is CC-by-SA http://www.openstreetmap.org and contributors.



This CC-by-SA visualisation was produced by http://www.itoworld.com with support from http://ideasintransit.org

Cairns to Karumba Bike Ride

Another big event coming up later this year is the Cairns to Karumba Bikeride.

The Coast to Coast Bike Ride began through the Cairns School of Distance Education P&C Association in 1996/97 to initially address the need for a multi purpose activity centre for the school site in Cairns. Early in the life of the event the decision was made to spread the benefits of funds raised to include many communities and organizations across the North Queensland region.

Cairns Blues Festival

EARLYBIRD TICKETS ON SALE from TICKETLINK~

The 2nd Annual Cairns Blues Festival is all set to go. Fogarty Park, Cairns Esplanade is the place to be on 1 & 2 May – QLD Labour Day long weekend! There are over 20 fantastic performers set to take to the stage, plus bars, food stalls, traders, the Cairns Motorcycle Restorers Club display, the Cairns Hot Rod Club display, an Emerging Artist stage, a children’s tent and heaps more!!!
And yes, there will be pass outs up to 7pm.

The 2010 Cairns Blues Festival boasts several new additions. One of the most exciting is a QLD State Govt. sponsored ‘Emerging Artist’s Stage’. There will be more variety of food stalls and traders, as well as Kani’s Wine Bar/Restaurant on site. Tap beer, supplied by the Blue Sky Brewery is another new feature of this festival. The organisers have also engaged a decorator to brighten up the site.
One of the guiding principles of the CBF charter is that performers at the Festival play at least 60% original content. This makes for a fresh and invigorating festival. This year sees the first international artist grace the stage at the Cairns Blues Festival. Bex Marshall flying in from the UK will perform her gutsy style of blues and once again, some of Australia’s essential blues artists will entertain the crowds at the Cairns Blues Festival.
A line-up that includes The Backsliders, Chris Wilson, Geoff Achison & The Souldiggers, the Mason Rack Band, Louis King & The Liars Klub, and many more are set to satisfy a broad cross section of the crowd, especially hard core blues lovers.
The Children’s Tent is back and will this time include a puppet show and a performance by Mission Beach local Dave Bromley. A jumping castle and lots of other exciting and unusual additions have been sourced to create a magical day for the little ones in the crowd. The Freshwater Venturers and Scouts will again man the Children’s Tent. All donations to these hard working and selfless kids are very greatly appreciated.
Come along and enjoy some true blues in the tropics.

Official Website

In interesting trip up Cape York

I had the opportunity to fly to some remote properties on Cape York last week. I take my hat off to the skill of our pilot in getting us down onto some rather damp airstrips.

ANZAC Day Sunday April 25

Warbird flyover in Cairns for ANZAC Day

The sad story of community radio in Cairns

The latest from Friends of 4CCR - a group trying to resurrect a station holding a community broadcasting license (for the time being at least) currently run by a rusted on minority group as a private club.

Laura Dance Festival 2009

Townsville has a crap newspaper too

The Townsville Bulletin's local mental giant discussing Daylight Saving.


It's an American site but it sort of explains why daylight saving is virtually useless in the tropics - not that bogans would understand!

If you have heard of Amanda Palmer then no further introduction is required.

That Icelandic Volcano

Fantastic Pictures from the Boston Globe

Back yard visitor #3 Cairns Birdwing

The female staggers the egg laying to create different generations (assuming it's the same female). You can see the tiny little caterpillar on the leaf at the bottom.
This is a close up.

The caterpillar feeds on the Aristolochia tagala vine and devours everything - in one end and out the other, The vine usually runs rampant over the surrounding plants but these little fellows have put a quick end to that.

Here are some great pics (not mine) of the Cairns Birdwing Butterfly
More info from Wikipedia

Brief Flashback Cyclone Larry in the backyard 2006

Pixels is Patrick Jean’s latest short film which was shot on location in New York.

Who owns our milk?

If you were a dairy farmer on the Atherton Tablelands and you were selling your milk to Parmalat (Pauls) or Mungalli how would you regard this 'news' item from the local regional paper?
The Cairns Post

More importantly check out the wording of the poll.

Anybody care for a swim?

Who really owns our local milk?

Food Biz Daily Milk Company ownership
Mungalli Milk (locally owned)
Cairns Post Article

Why you should hate Obama

Gotta love American Republicans.

When too much Blues is never enough

Check the local music section for Johno's Blues Band and get your white shoes ready for Port's 2010 Carnivale!

This sounds so much like Australian politics and the morality (and monopoly) of mainstream media today

Never let the truth get in the way of a good media beatup.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Murdoch owns Fox and he also owns the Cairns Post

Thanks to FNQhome for this link

Newsletter # 2 from Friends of 4CCR

Newsletter #2 from Ross Parisi, chairperson of Friends of 4CCR


April 15 UPDATE

Wild Rivers Legislation

Wild Rivers (Environmental Management) Bill 2010 [No.2]
Submissions received by the Committee

This is the reality of the whole Wild rivers issue. I wonder how many of the vocal people from either side of the argument writing comments from their armchairs in the comments section of on line media have bothered to read even a fraction of these submissions - state and federal pollies included?
Proposed Wenlock Basin Wild River Area
Cape York Land Council Annual Report 2008-2009
Prof Ross Fitzgerald's Blog
Cairns Post April 13

A 2.5 Year-Old Uses an iPad for the First Time

This video comes from laughingsquid.com


What a great free plug for Apple. If only Windows could be that easy!

The Duck Song

Australian Community Radio Stations

Streaming Radio
Coast FM Smithfield High School Cairns . After a bit of a break they are back with a vengeance. Hopefully Ed Qld, might actually support it this time. Oh yes it's Ed Qld. Step back a few years - best to view this work in progress with Explorer (remember them?) Hopefully they willget their stream up and running soon.
Cairns????
Triple T Townsville Listen

4ZZZ Brisbane Listen

Bay FM Byron Bay Listen

PBS FM Melbourne Listen
RRR Melbourne Listen

Tasmania
Edge Radio Hobart Listen


Non Community On line stations
Radio Port Douglas

First Dog On The Moon (Crikey)

Mr On The Moon's dance interpretation of Andrew Bolt, an 'appropriately' politically oriented employee of the Murdoch Media Empire.

Stacks of wax/power from the tower/much moremusic/goodguys- Black Label

I spent many years involved in community radio in Cairns but gave it away some years ago. Since then it has been commandeered by religious commune fanatics and now a self indulgent bunch of middle aged farts playing self indulgent DJ's to a non existing audience. Not that I bear (m)any grudges though.
In the absence of good local alternative radio in this town here is a local band that once got good airplay on 4CCR. These blokes must be older than me.

Another back yard visitor

This fellow (Gary) dropped into our garden this afternoon on our first full day of sunshine in weeks. Excuse the weeds on the path. Love to know where he was hanging out during the rain.

Fishzilla on way to Far North Queensland

This was a headline in today's online version of the local paper.
The snakeheadThe Climbing Perch
"There are a whole bunch of fish that are now on the southern coast of New Guinea, directly adjacent to Saibai Island and Torres Strait, which are even worse than climbing perch." says Australian Centre for Tropical Freshwater Research director Damien Burrows. The study that was conducted by Damien Burrows and Colton Perna on Sabai and Thursday island was released in 2009 and is available here.

Well at least they should give the other now well established introduced pest the Tilapia a run for its money.

First Dog On The Moon Footy Tips

First Dog's Tips from Round 2 (Crikey)

Flashback

Back to late last year of a happy snap of one of our local boys/girls in blue driving " with due care and attention" on the Gillies Range. Note the large truck coming the other way.
P.S. No I wasn't driving.

Finally a break in the rain!

After more than two weeks of continuous rain the sun finally came out (briefly) today. Time to go out and explore the jungle.


We weren't the only ones.

A quick squiz at You Tube showed the part we obviously had just missed!


So now we know what this thing was on the main stem of our Zanzibar Gold.

See - you learnin' stuff all the time.

Some Easter holiday music - Kamerunga

The Far North has a wealth of musical talent. Some of the members of the band Kamerunga have a long musical history in this part of the world.

Of course the best place to be at Easter is the Byron Bay Blues Festival. Check out the lineup .