FEAST OR FAMINE

From March 9-17, 2013, hot air balloons will lift off from the picturesque lawns of Old Parliament House to soar across Lake Burley Griffin and over the suburbs of Canberra as part of the Centenary of Canberra celebrations. Balloons inflate from 6:00am with entertainment and breakfast until 10:00am, weather permitting. The Canberra Hot Air Spectacular is an annual event in the nation’s capital, and this year is a special event for Canberra’s 100 th birthday on March 12, 2013. Unfortunately there are not 100 balloons for 100 years. Nevertheless, visitors can see a flying Darth Vader from Star Wars, a turtle, a lion, and a peacock among other colourful balloons.   A myriad of signs on the hot air balloons advertise the European Union, Aquamate Water Tanks, Questacon – the National Science and Technology Museum, Bruno’s Truffles, Rengain Consulting, Cathay Pacific Airlines, Harvey Norman Furniture, Taitung Australia, the Royal Australian Air Force, Deerland, ...

Normandy: The Landings to the Liberation of Paris (2008) details the intense years of planning and events that led to D-Day on 6 June 1944. It commences with the seeds of an idea for Operation Neptune (the landings) and Operation Overlord (the invasion) directed against the Third Reich during World War II and concludes with the liberation of Paris on 25 August. The landings along 80 kilometres (50 miles) of the Normandy coast mobilized Allied forces for war on a scale never contemplated before – through aerial assaults and the largest amphibious invasion in history. Logistically it was a nightmare. More than 1.5 million men were deployed in battle against Hitler’s Germany – keeping it a well-guarded secret – not just to Hitler, but also to de Gaulle. The landings, smoother than expected, killed fewer than expected, for in less than 24 hours all five beaches of Normandy had been taken, but it was the campaign on land that did not go quite as smoothly. “The French Resist...

On Tuesday March 12, 2013, Canberra celebrated its 100 th birthday. The birthday weekend, and the public holiday on Monday, weren’t the only celebration days—celebratory events were in the lead up to March 12 and will continue throughout the year. Today, the Governor-General Quentin Bryce (Queen Elizabeth II’s representative), Prime Minister Julia Gillard and other officials recreated the naming of the city ceremony of a hundred years ago. In 1913, Lady Denman opened her gold cigarette case, and withdrew a card with the winning name-after a nationwide competition to name the capital of Australia. Her husband Lord Thomas Denman was the then Governor-General. Canberra is a purpose-built, planned city, halfway between Melbourne and Sydney. In March 1913, the first foundation stones were laid. Yesterday, a day of events on the annual Canberra Day Holiday around Parliament House and Lake Burley Griffin, culminated in a fireworks display. Five stages around...

On March 11, 2013, my children’s poetry book, The Komodo Verses: Dragon Poems (2012) was announced as a finalist for the 2012 ForeWords Book of the Year Awards (BOTYA). The finalists were selected from 1,300 entries covering 62 categories of books from independent and academic publishing houses. Over the next two months, a panel of 60 judges (only librarians and booksellers) will choose the winners. The winners will receive gold, silver, bronze, or Editor’s Choice Prizes for fiction and nonfiction. The awards will be announced at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Chicago on June 28, 2013. ForeWord’s Book of the Year Awards program was established in 1998 to highlight distinguished books available to libraries across American and globally published under independent and academic presses. ForeWord Reviews is a quarterly print journal dedicated to reviewing independently published books to provide booksellers, librarians, agents, and ...

Australian cancer patient have the highest survival rate in the world, reports The Telegraph (March 9, 2013). Compared with the rest of the world’s average of 58 deaths for every 100 new cases, Australia has 33 deaths; western Europe has 38 deaths; and North America has 62 deaths per every 100 new cases. Breast, prostrate, and melanoma (skin) cancer patients have more than an 80% survival rate at least 10 years after diagnosis. For example, 10 years ago the survival rate for breast cancer was 64% and now it is 83%. Early detection, new vaccines and genetic treatments push cancer survival rates up. Many of the treatments are not available in other countries. The survival rate may improve in the future as 35 new cancer medicines are currently in the testing phase. In addition, radiotherapy techniques are also improving as a method to remove tumours. Australia will soon pilot a revolutionary approach to diagnosing and treating cancer. This involves having a sam...

The United Nations has declared 2013 the International Year of Quinoa at the official launch on February 20. The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) of the United Nations maintains that quinoa, the “super-grain” of the future, is gluten free and high in protein and nutrients. To fight global hunger and nutrition, FAO, says that quinoa is the only plant food that has all the essential vitamins and the ability to adapt to different ecological environments and climates. It is salt-tolerant and drought-tolerant, making it useful in marginal soils. It can also be grown at different altitudes, from sea level to an altitude of 4,000 metres, and can withstand temperatures between -8 and 38 degrees Celsius. Therefore in countries with high malnutrition rates, conflict, or damaging weather conditions, the challenge is to increase the production of quality food and to protect countries from food insecurity. It appears to be the ideal crop for the United Nation’s Zero ...

The Honeybee Program, managed by the Rural Industries Research & Development Corporation (RIRDC) in Australia, wants everyone’s help to save the honeybee (Rural Diversity, RIRDC, Issue 10, 2013). The Pollination Program Research & Development (R&D) Advisory Committee chair says global honeybee populations are under threat by pests, diseases, urbanization, bush fires, and changing land practices, which in turn affects agricultural production. With 65% of agricultural production reliant on pollination by bees to produce fruit, vegetables, and seeds, we need to protect bees. The deadly bee pest, the Varroa mite, has had a catastrophic impact on bee populations around the world. Australia is currently free of the mite due to the country’s rigorous quarantine procedures, but is not complacent about it. Australia has other bee pests, such as the small hive beetle and American foulbrood. In November 2012, Australian Quarantine inspectors found a swarm of 2,000 As...