Mark’s news digest March 8, 2021
Mark’s news digest March 8, 2021. Today’s digest of national and international news by Mark O’Brien. Click on the links to go to the original publisher’s page.
Environment
The ever-shrinking role of gas in Australia’s power system
Energy Insiders Podcast: Adam Bandt’s climate and energy action plan
US, fuel cells getting electricity directly from sewage
Farming seaweed to feed to cattle to reduce methane gas production in its infancy and needs years of work and currently very expensive
– a rare LNP pollie who accepts climate change
The sordid Canberra sex abuse story
I’m tired of challenging. I want our leaders to step up
We must not let Morrison and Co. determine ‘what’s at stake’
We need 100 years of gender progress in 10 years. And 2020 proved we can do it.
I have long felt after spending time in Europe that the sexual revolution never quite made it to Australia, which flies in face of what men and women think. Hence the apparent difficulty for men and women who think like men in grasping the issues.
Anger has turned to sadness for Australia’s fed-up women
The night Porter and allegation of rape
Linda Reynolds extends sick leave amid ongoing controversy over Brittany Higgins
This has got Scomo’s hands all over it. Make Linda disappear for a month where not only can she not be confronted by questions from the hungry media, but all criticism is now off limits while she apparently recovers from her illness. Yes I can imagine that her job just became very stressful, but while in general workforce mental health considerations this does not apply to Canberra where stress is part of the job being a pollie, and if that is too much then resign.
The fact we do not have a Defense Minister seems to have been forgotten – who is running the dept while Linda is ‘sick’? Surely she must be close to stepping aside.
Covid
The first real-world data for COVID vaccines is in – and it’s really good news
It appears to me that the vaccinations are working better than expected to reduce infection and transmission. One reason for this is that they fewer people that someone comes in contact with covid, where the ‘viral load’ in reduced, the less likely it is they will get infected. If for eg one comes into contact with 10 people who are infected and showing strong symptoms then a vaccinated person is more at risk than if they come into contact with just one person, or more people with asymptomatic infections. This is why South Africa, where they totally lost control over infection rates, messes up the data.
US Politics
The broken America that helped put Donald Trump in the White House remains today. Stan Grant
US Senate passes President Joe Biden’s $US1.9 trillion COVID-19 bill, but no change to minimum wage
It is worth noting that this minimum wages refers to government employees’s wages. Mind boggling to me that in such a huge package the Dems still want their slaves, just like before the Civil war.
This news digest arose from the recent Facebook stoush. Seems to me that it is better to read news without Facebook watching over your shoulder.
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