‘Join us as we launch NSW Governments first whole of sector LGBTIQ+ Network and announce the winner of the network naming competition!
About this Event
We are excited to be joined by senior executives from across the sector who continue to show their support for LGBTIQ + staff and allies.
On the day, we will hear from:
Kathrina Lo – NSW Public Service Commissioner
Em Hogan – Secretary, Department of Customer Service
Jim Betts – Secretary Department of Planning, Industry and Environment
Zoé Kennedy (LGBTIQ+ Network Lead) will introduce the network and its role within the sector, share information on upcoming cross sector events and how you can get involved.
The network’s new name will be announced and its logo revealed.
The average citizen would think government was there to protect the citizen and provide certain services. Not in the Australian state of New South Wales. ‘NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham says he doesn’t see how a “sexuality led recovery” will work for the people of NSW in one of the worst recessions in history. The NSW Planning Department led by Jim Betts will on Tuesday add a new LGBTQI unit, which will join the already established harmony council, Aboriginal cultural team, and the diversity council. Mr Latham said the planning department’s diversity program was “selective diversity and inclusion policy” as it does not include or represent those battling homelessness and joblessness. “It’s inefficient, it’s unnecessary, and it shouldn’t be happening. “In (Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s) public service, it’s all about sexuality and it doesn’t serve the people of New South Wales one iota.”’ https://www.skynews.com.au/details/_6175484545001
Then there is the unbelievable list of groups for the LGBTQI folk at the Lane Cove Council web site. If this doesn’t stir the ire in a normal thinking person then nothing will. For space only a few will be listed here. ‘Lane Cove Council is committed to supporting an inclusive and welcoming community which values and celebrates diversity in all its forms. This page provides information and links to relevant services for the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Intersex and Queer LGBTIQA+ community.
Below is a list of organisations who provide services for the LGBTIQA+ communities
The Gay and Lesbian Rights Lobby (GLRL) advocates on behalf of lesbians and gay men. They provide referral and educative resources on gay and lesbian rights to the media, policy makers and the community.
The Australian Lesbian Medical Association (ALMA) was founded in 1999 for lesbian doctors, lesbian medical students and their partners. It provides a supportive network to its members through advocacy, mentoring and social activities.
The Gender Centre is committed to developing and providing services and activities, which enhance the ability of people with gender issues to make informed choices. They offer a wide range of services to people with gender issues, their partners, family members and friends in New South Wales. They are an accommodation service and also act as an education, support, training and referral resource centre to other organisations and service providers. The Gender Centre is committed to educating the public and service providers about the needs of people with gender issues.
UnitingCare Ageing celebrate diversity and welcome all people regardless of lifestyle choices, ethnicity, faith, sexual orientation or gender identity. They are proud to be accredited with the Rainbow Tick for standing with people from Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Intersex (LGBTI) communities, at every stage of life.
This website is for LGBTIQ people in relationships who are or may be experiencing domestic and family violence. It contains information on what domestic and family violence is, what to do if you are experiencing abuse, suggestions on making a safety plan, and details for some referral options in NSW. It also has information for supporting a friend or family member who is experiencing abuse.
GAMMA provides safe and confidential opportunities for men to discuss and consider issues relating to their sexuality and the relationships in their lives
Sydney Gay and Lesbian Choir is a non-auditioning choir which welcomes members regardless of their sexual identity or musical experience. The choir is open to all – lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered, intersex, queer and our straight friends and families, all united by a love of singing together and striving for performance excellence.’ http://www.lanecove.nsw.gov.au/Community/CommunityServices/Pages/GLBTIQ.aspx
More time and funds should be spent for roads, coal fire powered plants, police, hospitals etc. and NOTHING on sexual identity!
Psalm 59:8-9“But thou, O LORD, shalt laugh at them; thou shalt have all the heathen in derision. Because of his strength will I wait upon thee: for God is my defense.”
Most of the world’s 17,000 species of butterflies are delicate, colorful creatures. Geneticists have been studying the various patterns found on their wings, hoping to relate their findings to evolution. But so far, all their findings have failed to support evolution, and some even contradict evolution.
Butterfly wings are covered with small scales. Some butterflies have scales containing molecular structures that look like tiny Christmas trees; these structures bend the light to create those iridescent colors. Other butterflies have scales containing pigment that produce the insects’ various colors and patterns. But color has another function. Clouded Sulfur butterflies are found at various altitudes in Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Females of this species are generally darker than the males. In fact, the females tend to become darker in color as the altitude of their habitat rises. This has survival value because darker colors absorb more heat from the sun in the cooler, higher altitudes, enabling the normal rate of metabolism to be retained. However, the male butterflies prefer the lighter-colored females. This means that the advantage of having a darker color at higher altitudes would not be passed on to another generation. This is simply an example of rapid adaptation and is of no value to the theory of evolution.
Genesis 18:25 That be far from thee to do after this manner, to slay the righteous with the wicked: and that the righteous should be as the wicked, that be far from thee: Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right?
“Before the LORD: for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the earth: he shall judge the world with righteousness, and the people with his truth.” (Psalm 96:13)
‘Those men and women who reject or ignore the wonderful offer of salvation through the Lord Jesus Christ need somehow to realize the eternal consequences of their foolishness. Jesus Christ was not just a religious teacher in Israel 2,000 years ago but is the very God who created them, the Second Person of the triune Godhead (Father, Son, Holy Spirit). God the Father “created all things by Jesus Christ” (Ephesians 3:9) and therefore “hath committed all judgment unto the Son” (John 5:22).
And on what basis will He judge us? Our text tells us that “righteousness” and “truth” are the criteria. The problem is that “there is none righteous, no, not one” (Romans 3:10). “He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him” (1 John 2:4). However, the Lord Jesus was incarnate truth and righteousness, and God “hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Christ has made eternal salvation available freely to us. There is no other way. “He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him” (John 3:36).
But how do we know that all this is not just a peculiar doctrine of one particular religion?
‘Australia’s wind industry has been suffering from the Big Calm – with dozens of occasions over the last month or so when the entire wind fleet’s battled to deliver more than a tiny fraction of its combined capacity.
Depicted above – courtesy of Aneroid Energy – is the output delivered by Australian wind power outfits to the Eastern Grid last month.
Spread from Far North Queensland, across the ranges of NSW, all over Victoria, Northern Tasmania and across South Australia its entire capacity routinely delivers just a trickle of its combined notional capacity of 7,728MW.
Collapses of over 3,000 MW or more that occur over the space of a couple of hours are routine, as are rapid surges of equal magnitude, which make the grid manager’s life a living hell, and provide the perfect set up for power market price gouging by the owners of conventional generators, who cash in on the chaos.
During June there were lengthy periods when the combined output of every wind turbine connected to the Eastern Grid struggled to top 400 MW (5.1% of total capacity). Such as: 11 June when output collapsed to a trifling 86 MW (1.1% of total notional capacity); 17 June when total output fell to 134 MW (1.7% of total notional capacity); 26 June when, after a 1,200 MW slide, output was between 300-400 MW (3.8% to 5.1% of total notional capacity); and 27 June when output dropped over 900 MW to bottom out at 96 MW (1.2% of total notional capacity) .
Rafe Champion delves into the consequences of Australia’s most recent Big Calm.
No Gusts, No Glory Quadrant Online Rafe Champion 16 July 2020
Imagine a massive irrigation project to make the deserts bloom with a gigantic network of headworks, dams, irrigation channels and pumping stations to encourage farmers to move in and reap a bountiful harvest of food and fibre from a vast expanse of well-watered countryside. The food will be cheaper too! After all, the water and the land are free.
But there’s is a problem. With the burgeoning infrastructure well advanced, very visible and much bally-hooed by an eagerly unquestioning media it turns out that there isn’t enough water much of the time and the freshly planted seedlings die. The people will not starve because food is still being produced from the farmland that was there before the irrigation scheme started. But now that food is costing twice as much.
Tragically this is not a hypothetical scenario because it applies to the Wind Power Project that was launched to achieve the (upwardly mobile) Renewable Energy Target.
Wind Droughts There are frequent and prolonged “wind droughts” that we can measure using the output from some 70 wind farms and over 2000 turbines across South Eastern Australia, all connected to the grid of the National Energy Market and monitored by the Australian Energy Market Operator.
The chart above shows the percentage of the installed capacity of the system that was delivered hour by hour over the month. The line drawn at 10 per cent indicates the periods when the supply was a tenth or less of the 7.8 Gigawatts of installed capacity.
The low points lasted for 33 hours on the 5th-6th, 18 hours on the 11th, 16 hours on the 17th, 14 hours on the 26th, 11 hours on the 27th and nine hours on the 28th. There were several other lows of shorter duration, giving total of 13 episodes and much of the time during the low spells the supply was well below 10 per cent, with lows of 3.4 per cent, 1.1 per cent and 2.3 per cent during the most prolonged “wind droughts.” All the monthly records are available at https://anero.id/energy/wind-energy
Choke Points Wind droughts cause “choke points” in the supply of electricity to the grid. Consider the supply of air to our lungs. We need a continuous supply of air and when this is interrupted by choking or drowning we are soon dead. The electricity grid also needs a continuous input of power or it will die, at least in parts.
The reason for talking about choke points is to drive home the fact that the critical indicator of the wind supply that we need to monitor is the low points, not the high points, not the total installed capacity and not the average delivery.
What has happened here? The “failed irrigation scheme” scenario suggests that ‘someone has blundered‘, as Tennyson famously wrote in The Charge of the Light Brigade. Was information on the frequency and duration of wind droughts available before the government decided to back wind power and RE at large with subsidies and mandates to use power from intermittent sources?
Still, regardless of this discovery, all the Australian states are pressing on with ambitious plans to put more resources into the windpower equivalents of irrigation headworks, dams, channels and pumping stations.
Why in Australia, of all places? Australia is leading the world in the rush to “clean energy” but this is a serious mistake for two other reasons in addition to the problem of wind droughts. First, Australia is an island. Practically every other industrialized country in the world has neighbours to provide power when wind and solar power are in short supply. European countries can turn to France for nuclear energy, the Scandinavian states for hydro, Poland for coal and Russia for gas. Every kind of power feeds into the North American grid, but in Australia we are on our own.
Second, we have no nuclear power. Isolation would not be such a problem if we had nuclear power.
Please don’t mention batteries and pumped hydro Elon Musk created a media sensation when he installed a big Tesla battery in South Australia in record time. The big battery has been hailed as a great contribution to the green transition but it is important to realise how small it is compared with the demand of the grid.
It is a remarkable piece of technology, occupying a hectare of space and carrying a price tag of $60 million. It is attached to the Hornsdale No 3 windfarm (100MW rated capacity) and it stores 109 megawat Hours (MWh) of power. That means it can maintain a flow of 100MW from the farm for a little over an hour after the wind stops.
By comparison, the SA grid requires a flow ranging from 1000Mw to 2000MW depending on the time of day. So if the wind stops for an hour the grid needs at least 1000MWh. How far does 109MWh support the grid in that situation?
Pumped Hydro is the other great hope for storage and the showpiece is Snowy 2.0 that is planned to deliver 2000MW of power continuously, matching a large coal-fired power station such as Bayswater in NSW. In the real world this offers no more hope than big batteries. For a start, Snowy 2.0 is not a primary generator because the power that flows from it will come originally from a fleet of solar and wind farms. It is designed to regulate the lumpy RE input and deliver a steady supply. Unfortunately, between 30 per cent and 40 per cent of the original power is lost in the pumping and pipe resistance. The projected cost is enormous, far beyond the original estimate and it may never be built due to the expensive, unforeseen problems in the construction and the damage to the national park.
And if Snowy 2.0 is completed, along with the extra wind turbines to go with it, just 2,000MW of our existing 20,000MW of coal-fired capacity will be replaced. All we need is a few more mountain ranges with reliable rainfall — nine of them, to be precise — to replace the other 18GW of coal power.
Romans 8:22“For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.”
‘We have long been led to believe that the automobile and the power stations are the primary source of hydrocarbons and nitrous oxide pollutants in our atmosphere. On the other hand, the trees clean up the air. Now – surprise, surprise – the oak trees in California’s Sierra Nevada have been found to release hydrocarbons into the air!
Scientists have also discovered that Scotch pine trees in southern Finland emit nitrogen oxides. These oxides react with atmospheric hydrocarbons to make nitric acid, a component of acid rain. Nitrogen oxides can also help make ozone, the primary part of smog. This discovery was made accidentally as researchers investigated whether the trees used nitrogen from the air. As part of their research, they sealed living tree branches in plastic bags and measured the changes in the air inside the bags. They expected to see a decrease in the amount of nitrogen. To their amazement, they saw the amount of nitrogen double! Some scientists estimate that the amount of nitrogen oxides produced by such northern forests may be as much, if not more than, the amounts produced by all of man’s industry.
Job 38:29“Out of whose womb came the ice? and the hoary frost of heaven, who hath gendered it?”
‘In previous Creation Moments programs we have told you about frogs that produce antifreeze in the winter. But the Wood Frog is the absolute champion at surviving below-freezing temperatures.
Most frogs that survive northern winters cannot withstand more than a few degrees below freezing before they begin to suffer cell damage. Researchers placed Wood Frogs into an industrial freezer where they became stiff and hard on the outside, and partially liquid on the inside. The frogs’ metabolism stopped, and they became brain-dead. When they were thawed out, however, they returned to life as if nothing had ever happened. Wood Frogs avoid cell damage caused by the formation of ice crystals by generating glucose – a highly effective antifreeze. Other species of frogs produce glycerol, a less-effective type of antifreeze. However, the levels of glucose generated by the Wood Frog would cause cell damage in most other frogs, but these frogs limit the damage by shutting off their metabolism. What’s more, should the Wood Frog suffer any cell damage by ice crystal formation, its blood contains a special fibrinogen that seals any leaks in its cell walls.
It was interesting to read Jonathon Van Marren when he said ‘I’ve always been skeptical of the “pro-life celebrity.” Not because I don’t think that celebrities who sincerely oppose abortion don’t exist, but because I believe celebrities are both unreliable and often undesirable advocates. An artist or actor may oppose abortion while creating sexually-charged entertainment that contributes to the degradation of our culture, for example. Or, as in the case of pop stars like Selena Gomez (who swapped her purity ring for abortion bling) they discard their previous views due to industry pressures or peers. Pro-life celebrities generally fall into two categories. First, there are those oppose abortion for profoundly personal reasons. Jack Nicholson, for example, discovered later in life that his “mother” was actually his grandmother and that the woman he thought was his sister was his mother, who had been pressured to abort him. As a result, he noted in one interview when asked about abortion, “I’m positively against it. I don’t have the right to any other view.” Similarly, singer Celine Dion was her mother’s fourteenth child, and initially considered an abortion before being talked out of it. Justin Bieber’s mother was also pressured to abort him, and he has stated that he thinks abortion is “like killing a baby.” Martin Sheen’s wife was conceived through rape, a fact which he has referenced with regard to his anti-abortion views. Despite this, Sheen is a dedicated Democrat, and it is important to note that many “pro-life celebrities” still vocally support pro-abortion politicians. Discovering just how close one came to becoming what Christopher Hitchens has referred to as a “forgotten whoosh” often makes it impossible for people to regard abortion as a simple matter of rights or healthcare. A near miss can be morally clarifying. There are also those who are pro-life as part of a larger worldview. Patricia Heaton, who often shares pro-life content on social media, is a Catholic. So is Mel Gibson, who has shared his pro-life views in interviews (and has also contributed financially to pro-life work in the past.) Hollywood’s handful of conservatives are generally pro-life as well, including Jon Voight, Tom Selleck, and Chuck Norris. Conservatives, of course, are becoming even rarer in Hollywood in the wake of the Great Awokening, which is accompanied by purges of those with even liberal sentiments. And then there is Kanye West, a man who defies all categories. On Independence Day, he announced that he is off the Trump Train and running for president of the United States, although thus far no campaign has materialized (he says he will be running for “the Birthday Party,” because “when we win it’s everybody’s birthday.”) Back in 2011, West tweeted that “An abortion can cost a ballin’ n**ga up to 50gs maybe 100. Gold diggin’ b**** be getting pregnant on purpose,” later clarifying that “it ain’t happen to me but I know people.” Then, an interview for his latest album, he criticized the Democrats for “making us abort our children.” Last week he expanded on those views, telling Forbes that “Planned Parenthoods have been placed inside cities by white supremacists to do the Devil’s work,” a reference to the racist and eugenicist history of the American abortion giant. “I am pro-life because I’m following the word of the Bible,” he added. Planned Parenthood’s director of Black Leadership and Engagement responded by stating that the “real threat to Black communities’ safety, health, and lives stems,” among other things, from “the criminalization of reproductive healthcare by anti-abortion opposition.” Kanye recently tweeted and then deleted a screenshot of a Google search for “what does a 6 month fetus look like.” Along with the now deleted image, he wrote, “These souls deserve to live.” It is unquestionably good for the pro-life cause that a man with such an enormous platform is using it to call out the American abortion industry, as West reaches an audience that pro-lifers have often had difficulty reaching. With that said, pro-lifers would do well to be cautious. West is notoriously erratic, and a lot of his ramblings can end up being pretty weird. In a culture obsessed with celebrity, there is a huge temptation to immediately promote and embrace any famous person saying some of the right things. While encouraging and affirming those things is essential, we shouldn’t give these folks the status of moral leadership overnight. West in particular has gone on a roller-coaster with regard to many of his different views, and his reliability, despite hopeful indicators, remains to be seen. We should not make celebrities — even those going after the abortion industry — into our heroes.’ https://www.prophecynewswatch.com/article.cfm?recent_news_id=4163
Ever since Adam made the choice to partake of eating the forbidden fruit man has been making wrong choices. Life is made of making choices. All of us have made good choices and some bad choices.
One does not have to have a medical degree to know there are two genders. However, today, there are those in education who are seeking to lead others into making the choice of being a so-called transgender. Transgenderism, like being a sodomite has been in the so-called closet for years but it is NOW OUT in the open. Allowing sodomite’s to marry OPENED the gate for transgenderism. Transgenders are now teaching your children in the schools and this is being accepted as normal. This is just another anti-Creator God worldview that is being foisted upon society.
‘It was an early January morning in Maine and the temperature outside was somewhere below zero. I don’t think it matters all that much once the mercury drops below freezing; it was cold. I was sitting in my warm car trying to find the courage to walk across the parking lot and go inside. I had cafeteria duty at the high school where I was a teacher for eight years. During my tenure at this school and at all the other schools I taught at for seventeen years, I was know as Mr. Drew, but that was all about to change.
Like many trans people, I knew from an early age that my gender identity was special, and that I was more like my two sisters and my mom, than my four brothers and my dad. I tried to explain my feminine feelings to my loving, yet bewildered parents when I was about twelve, and all I got was an invitation to talk to our priest. I passed on their offer and my life continued onward, or should I say, my two lives. I lived outwardly as a boy, man, and eventually a husband, but on the inside as a girl and woman. By the fall of 2010, I was emotionally exhausted and had come to the realization that I needed to be honest with myself, to save myself. But those words are easier said, than the reality of showing up to work, as a well known high school teacher and track coach in Southern Maine, as Ms Drew instead of Mr. Drew. What I didn’t know then was I was to become one of the first OUT transgender public school teachers in Maine, and one of the first transgender high school coaches in the country.’ https://hhrcmaine.org/blog/transgender-maine-the-kids-are-alright-by-gia-drew/
If you are a parent or grandparent you need to speak out. Make your voice heard that this is sin and you will not accept it being portrayed as normal or taught in your school. Remember, that’s how Hitler came to power, people kept their mouth shut.
Mark 10:6 But from the beginning of the creation God made them male and female.
With all this anarchy and hatred that encompasses BLM it is good to review the life of a man of color and true Christian character. That man is George Washington Carver.
‘Who: George Washington Carver What: Father of Modern Agriculture When: 1864 or 1865 – January 5, 1943 Where: Diamond Grove, Missouri
Probably no other scientist has had to face as many social barriers as George Washington Carver, the black American botanist noted for revolutionizing agriculture in the southern United States. He was born towards the end of the Civil War to a slave family on the farm of Moses Carver. As an infant, he and his mother and sister were kidnapped by Kentucky night raiders.
It’s unclear what happened to his mother and sister, but George was rescued and returned to the Carvers, who raised him and his brother James. He grew up in a deeply segregated world, and very few black schools were available in the South. But his desire for learning prompted him to persevere, and he earned his diploma from Minneapolis High School in Minneapolis, Kansas.
Entering college was even more difficult, but he was eventually accepted at Simpson College in Indianola, Iowa, to study art. In 1891, he transferred to Iowa State Agriculture College in Ames (now Iowa State University) to study botany, where he was the first black student and later the first black faculty member. While there, he adopted the middle name “Washington” to distinguish himself from another George Carver. He received his undergraduate degree in 1894 and his masters in 1896, and became a nationally recognized botanist for his work in plant pathology and mycology. After receiving his masters, he joined Booker T. Washington at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute (later Tuskegee University) in Alabama to teach former slaves how to farm for self-sufficiency.
Carver revolutionized agricultural science with his cultivation of soil-enriching crops, such as peanuts and soybeans, to revive earth that had been depleted of nutrients from cotton farming. He discovered over 100 uses for the sweet potato and 300 uses for the peanut, including beverages, cosmetics, dyes and paints, medicines, and food products. He conducted numerous research projects that also contributed to medicine and other fields, and used his influence to champion the relief of racial tensions.
He was offered many honors and substantial wealth from patents, but Carver chose not to patent his discoveries: “One reason I never patent my products is that if I did it would take so much time, I would get nothing else done. But mainly I don’t want my discoveries to benefit specific favored persons.”1
Frugal in finance and humble in character, Carver was undoubtedly a deeply devoted Christian. He attributed inspiration of his work to God,2 and his studies of nature convinced him of the existence and benevolence of the Creator: “Never since have I been without this consciousness of the Creator speaking to me….The out of doors has been to me more and more a great cathedral in which God could be continuously spoken to and heard from.”3
Carver died January 5, 1943 of complications from injuries he incurred in a bad fall. His life savings of 60,000 dollars was donated to the museum and foundation bearing his name. The epitaph on his grave on the Tuskegee University campus summarizes the life and character of this former slave, man of science, and man of God: “He could have added fortune to fame, but caring for neither, he found happiness and honor in being helpful to the world.”’ https://www.icr.org/article/science-man-god-george-washington-carver
References
Carver Quotes. Posted on the George Washington Carver National Monument website at www.nps.gov/gwca.
Carver is quoted as saying, “I never have to grope for methods. The method is revealed at the moment I am inspired to create something new. Without God to draw aside the curtain I would be helpless.” Federer, W. J. 1994. America’s God and Country Encyclopedia of Quotations. Coppell, TX: FAME Publishing, 96.
Ibid, 97.
* Ms. Dao is Assistant Editor.
Cite this article: Dao, C. 2008. Man of Science, Man of God: George Washington Carver. Act & Facts. 37 (12): 8.
whatyareckon 