Category: General news

“Full rate pensioners across the country can expect an increase to their pensions of $9.35 per week for singles and $14 per week for couples in the next bi-annual pension increase coming into effect on 20 September,” said Combined Pensioners & Superannuants Association Senior Policy Advisor, Amelia Christie.

“By comparison, Newstart is increasing by just $2 per week for singles and $3.60 for couples. Newstart continues to fall behind the pension, leaving its recipients struggling to survive.

“Pensioners struggle to pay for essentials on the meagre payment they receive and the single Newstart payment is now $163.05 less than the single pension per week. This coupled with the fact that the eligibility criteria are more stringent for Newstart means that recipients are forced into poverty.

“In his budget reply in May, Mr Abbott stated that he has plans to scrap the Supplementary Allowance that Newstart recipients receive. CPSA’s message to the Abbott Government is that people on Newstart need more support, not less.

“CPSA calls on the new Government to increase Newstart by $50 per week. This needs to be coupled with a reform of the way Newstart is indexed so that this payment keeps in line with the pension at a bare minimum. The upcoming pension increase is based on increases to Male Total Average Weekly Earnings; Newstart indexing only takes into account CPI increases.

“Without a reform to the way Newstart is indexed, it will continue to fall below the pension at an alarming rate,” said Ms Christie.

CPSA represents pensioners of all ages, superannuants and low-income retirees. CPSA has over 125 Branches and Affiliated Organisations, with a combined membership of over 30,000 people.

Queensland’s Troy Leinster has designed a laid-back, informal typeface which, he says, typifies Brisbane.

Troy Leinster was chosen from approximately 200 applicants worldwide to complete a Masters of Design in Type and Media at the Royal Academy of Art (KABK) in The Hague, Netherlands. Now an internationally accredited graphic designer, he is the 4th Australian and 1st Queenslander to have ever completed this Masters degree.

Applying his rare talent to develop his latest project, Troy has created a contemporary typeface entitled ‘Brisbane,’ to refresh the look and feel of our sunny city.

‘Brisbane’ is laid-back, informal and self-assured, much like the city’s genuine, down-to-earth citizens. It was primarily designed to tidy up the various styles of typefaces currently used throughout the city, but also has the potential to be adopted as our city’s official font.

The ‘Brisbane’ typeface family is a sans serif with a range of three weights in five styles, plus accompanying optical grades for inverted use. This range makes it a promising contender for orientation systems in the city and suburbs.

Receiving international recognition, this project has been showcased at KABK in The Hague and also at a gallery in Berlin. Troy’s local innovation will also be exhibited here in Brisbane during 30 September – 6 October by the Australian Graphic Design Association (AGDA).

Before studying Type and Media at KABK, Designer Troy Leinster completed the type design unit at Monash University in Melbourne, followed by the condensed type design program at Cooper Union in New York.

Currently based in Amsterdam, Troy will be attending the upcoming exhibition in Brisbane.

For more information, please see:

Brisbane, the typeface
http://www.typemedia2013.com/typeface/brisbane/

Troy’s process book for ‘Brisbane’:
http://issuu.com/troyleinster/docs/process_book

The Berlin exhibition:
http://www.motaitalic.com/gallery/exhibitions/mastering-type-13

Further Royal Academy of Art (KABK) course information:
http://www.kabk.nl/pageEN.php?id=0016

Griffith was one of a handful of seats that resisted the charms of Clive Palmer. Only 2,200 people voted 1 Karin Hunter, less than the informal vote of 3,300 people who spoiled their vote, deliberately or otherwise. Rudd for the ALP polled 27,800 against Glasson’s 29,000 but The Greens’ 6,900 votes pushed Rudd over the line.

Glasson picked up about 4,500 votes in this election, about 2,300 from the ALP, 1,500 from the LDP and 1,000 from the Greens. The Greens lost another 2,200 votes to Clive Palmer.

This is a remarkable phenomenon.

Palmer United outpolled the Greens across Queensland. As at Monday 9^th September the results were 230,000 votes to Palmer and 125,000 to the Greens. The Greens lost 44% of their vote in this campaign.

Palmer United’s result is the talk of the town this morning. Many commentators expressing surprise that a first time party with so many obvious policy flaws should do so well. The voters on talk back were all saying the same thing, though. I’m sick of the political double speak and those candidates are real people who speak to me about the problems that affect me.

The 6million copies of the DVD he sent out explaining his position was incredibly effective as well. It was mentioned by more than half the talk back respondents that I heard talking this morning.

Palmer did not do well in the other inner city seats of Brisbane, Ryan, Moreton or Lilley. In most of those seats he just about matched the informal vote and was surpassed by the Greens. The Greens put most of their limited advertising dollars into Brisbane, Griffith and Ryan so that may have been a factor, but they went backwards in those seats by 7%, 5% and 4.5% respectively, so that hardly explains everything.

A better explanation would appear to be that the Greens have had two constituencies, the core voters who put long term nurturing of resources above short term economic gain, and a protest vote that has had nowhere else to go.

In the inner city, their core vote is larger, the protest vote is smaller and went largely to the LNP. As you head out to the suburbs and regional areas, the size of their loss and Palmer’s gain increases.

This was incredibly similar to the QLD state election result, although in that election Katter was the new kid on the block who stole the  Greens thunder. See They Rode to Town on a Donkey on The Generator. My analysis of that result is still relevant, although some issues have moved along a little in the intervening 16 months.

Palmer appears to have done a brilliant job of picking one issue that appeals to each disenfranchised constituency and throwing money at them. That this has so effectively disenfranchised the Greens says a lot about their hold over their vote. There is clearly some navel gazing to do.

Des Skordilis listens to local electronic band MTNS

MTNS are swiftly becoming a Brisbane favorite, with their recently released debut single “Lost Track Of Time” becoming increasingly popular with its chill wave melodic sounds.

MTNS – formerly Mountains – all started with Brisbane based musician Tom Eggert who eventually got sick of playing by himself until Joseph Thiang and Robbie Hellberg jumped on board to complete their sound that is now a trio.

The boys have produced, recorded and mixed all of their songs in Eggert’s bedroom, which you would never tell by listening to their first track as it is pieced together in such a seamless way.

MTNS already have numerous gigs under their belt both locally and nationally, touring around Australia as well as their single “Lost Track Of Time” hitting the Triple J radio waves.

They recently won Triple J’s Unearthed competition to a slot at Brisbane’s music festival Big Sound. The group plans to release a four to five song EP soon, and if the rest of it sounds as resonating as their first track, big things are coming for MTNS.

For more on MTNS check out their band pages.

http://www.triplejunearthed.com/MTNS
https://soundcloud.com/mtnsmusic
https://www.facebook.com/mtnsmusic

This is also the music video for their debut single.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7D8IT1_IlxY&feature=player_embedded – t=0

Popular TV personalities Natalie Gruzlewski and Liz Cantor, Hot Tomato’s Emily Jade O’Keefe, Gold Coast Bulletin’s Stefanie Bedo and Netball star, Gretel Tippett are among the Queensland ambassadors for this year’s OCSOBER fundraising campaign for Life Education Queensland.

The high profile group is encouraging adults across Australia to lose the booze for the month of October in order to urgently raise $1,00,000 for Life Education. These funds will allow the charity to continue to deliver vital health and drug education to 650,000 children throughout Australia, empowering children and young people to make safe and healthy choices for life through the programs delivered in schools.

The key message the charity is promoting this year is ‘Lose the Booze’ and have fun this Ocsober. The campaign will highlight the many positive messages associated with Ocsober, from urgently raising funds for Australia’s kids, through to the health and lifestyle benefits such as feeling healthier, losing weight and having more time to enjoy with family and friends.

Influential support for the campaign has also come from a range of other popular actors and TV personalities including Today Show Host, Ben Fordham, rock star Angry Anderson, Olympic Champion Eamon Sullivan and Australia’s Next Top Model Host, Charlotte Dawson.

WHAT: Ocsober 2013 – National Charity Initiative aimed to raise money for Life Education.
WHEN: For the entire month of October
WHO: Everyone is encouraged to sign up!
WEB: Sign up to OCSOBER now by visiting www.ocsober.com.au and help raise money by losing the booze this October. Participants can also purchase a ‘Leave Pass’ for any special events they wish to celebrate during the month.

AccuWeather.com reports some people may think that the rubber tires on a car help to protect a driver and occupants from a lightning strike, but this is a myth.

It is what sits on top of the tires that makes the difference.

A fully-enclosed, all-metal vehicle is very safe, but don’t touch interior metallic areas on a vehicle, Richard Kithil, president of the National Lightning Safety Institute, said.

The lightning charge goes around the outside of the vehicle, creating a Faraday effect and protecting the occupants inside.

Fiberglass vehicles, convertibles or a vehicle with windows open, however, help defeat the fully enclosed objective, Kithil said.

At least 19 people have died from lightning strikes in the U.S. so far in 2013, but none of the people were in vehicles at the time of the lightning strikes, according to the National Weather Service. Florida is the leader of lightning fatalities in the U.S. with a total of four deaths.

There were more than 18 million cloud-to-ground lightning flashes in the continental United States during 2012, according to data provided by Vaisala Inc., the owner and operator of the National Lightning Detection Network. The number one state was Florida with 24.1 flashes per square mile.

The National Lightning Safety Institute suggests safely pulling off to the side of the road, waiting out the storm, turning off the engine, putting one’s hands in one’s lap and not touching inside items such as door and window handles, steering wheels and gear shifts. Heavy equipment such as bulldozers and backhoes with rollover canopies are safe during thunderstorms, but riding mowers and golf carts are not.

Lightning damage to a vehicle includes pitting, arcing and burning along with electrical system issues, the institute said.

By Alex Sosnowski, Expert Senior Meterologist for AccuWeather.com