BBQ…

The Omicron wave has wiped out the idea of a snap election campaign as soon as next month to deliver Scott Morrison a dream victory against Anthony Albanese.

The idea of a swift and smooth race to the ballot box was always a fantasy but an early poll was an outside chance for some Liberals who believed it was safer to go to an election in March than to wait until May.

But as the Prime Minister noted on Monday, Omicron changes everything.

The Omicron summer has spread the coronavirus to at least 500,000 people, put thousands more in isolation because they are close contacts, formed endless queues at test centres and pushed out the waiting time for test results to the point where the text messages are so late they lose practical value.

goals' '

Earlier this week, the pontiff told an audience at the Vatican, “We see that some people do not want to have a child. Sometimes they have one, and that’s it, but they have… dogs and cats that take the place of children.” But he didn’t stop there. “A man or woman who do[es] not develop the sense of fatherhood or motherhood, they are lacking something, something fundamental, something important,” said the Catholic leader, branding this a “form of selfishness.”

rats…

The government’s economic forecasts are highly questionable and the uncertain budget outlook raises doubts about the future funding of essential services. 

Scotty from marketing has no economic strategy. Instead, the government’s budget update relies on a series of unfounded economic assumptions to produce what the Prime Minister hopes will be a comforting message.

Despite being elected back in 2013 lambasting debt and deficits, the Coalition is now presiding over the biggest budget deficits and increase in government debt since the Second World War.

trick dog

John Smith often watched greyhound races on cable TV. He had a few online bets but never won much. Nearly every Saturday, he went to the track to watch live races. He really loved the sleek dogs and dreamed that one day he would own one of them — the winner of course. 

One Friday afternoon, Sue, John’s wife, came home with a little puppy. He was adorable she said. She’d picked him up from a cardboard box in the street, with a hand-written sign: Free Puppies. There was only one left. She guessed he was a cross-breed between a chihuahua and a Maltese terrier. Imagine a lovely fluffy yapper. She thus called him Yuppy as he licked her face. John laughed with a sarcastic sigh when he saw this ball of hair for the first time.  

domicron

Just on a month ago, about the same time he was dumping social restrictions and advocating personal responsibility in dealing with COVID, NSW's still new Premier Dominic Perrottet made a speech arguing the need to think about the lessons the pandemic had taught us about our system of government.

What he specifically had in mind was the nature of the federation.

"The pandemic may not yet be over," he said.

"But now is the right time to start thinking about the lessons COVID has taught us about our federal system of government — and how we can respond."

It was a genuinely interesting speech, and vaguely refreshing to hear someone sounding like they were actually thinking about stuff in amidst the chaos of pandemic management.

inventor

Omicronic butthead Smoko — Scomo for short — is taking us on a ride of a lifetime...

Some people feel sorry for Scotty of Marketing... He has been trying to relaunch the Aussie economy while the seams of our pants is falling apart. I do this everyday. I should wear braces, but I push on with untightened belts because tightening would hurt my hernia... This means I have to pull my pants up every 27.9 seconds on average. Not very efficient and highly disruptive to production.

So, while before we had to avoid the virus at all costs, we now have to ride the wave with less testing because WE'VE RUN OUT OF TESTING BIZOS. Or they are too expensive for the Scumdog government to afford as your hospital is saturated to the rafters with sickos...

austennis

It’s astounding that Scott Morrison would draw the world’s attention to the Park Hotel in Melbourne, a coronavirus incubator and home to refugees seeking asylum in Australia (“Star to remain between two courts till Monday”, January 7).

dogz 

People with COVID-19 have a special scent that specially trained dogs can pick up. Even asymptomatic virus carriers can give off the smell. The task of the dog handler is to ensure that the animal reacts precisely to the smell and clearly warns about infected people. The practice has already been widely adopted in some airports across the world.

Coronavirus-sniffing pups, trained to detect infected people, were employed by Massachusetts police to scour schools before they open back up for students, the New York Post reported on Thursday.

“They love to work,” Bristol County Sheriff’s spokesman Jonathan Darling told CBS News. “And then when they’re not working, they just want to give you kisses and we love it.”

covid ch

NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet could reintroduce some COVID-19 restrictions today after the state recorded 38,625 new cases and 11 deaths.

• Today's number of deaths is the highest in the state since October 9
• The Premier is holding a NSW economic recovery meeting today
• Another 129 patients have been admitted to hospital for treatment

The Premier is expected to speak later today after he holds a NSW economic recovery meeting — formerly the crisis cabinet meeting.

planet crap

The Prime Minister is probably telling the truth when he says we have no choice but to “ride the wave of COVID-19”(“Nation must ‘ride the wave’ of COVID”, January 6). We did have a choice but it was flung away. Pity the people whose ambulances will take an hour to come; who will wait outside hospitals or in ED so long their care is compromised or they die; who are in hospital without enough doctors or nurses, whose operations won’t be done.

co2

Northern beaches residents have been worried about how their beloved beach would fare when large swells and high tides hit the controversial Collaroy seawall. They were concerned the sand directly in front of the seawall would be washed away, eroding their beach, and, on Tuesday, that’s exactly what happened.

The erosion event at Collaroy Beach is far from an isolated occurrence. Other beaches along the eastern coastline have also experienced heavy erosion and scientists fear climate change will only make these events more frequent and more intense.

Patrick Allan has continued an almost 100-year-old family tradition of living in Collaroy, spending years surfing the waves, but he’s planning on leaving the small seaside suburb. The building of the seawall was the final nail in the coffin.

 global warming is real

Hello, black holes fanatics… Gus Leonisky here — the mad pseudo-professor/failed engineer who brought you the SeaGlider, now working on the 5,000 tonnes cargo ship carbon fibre version, running at 33 knots (maximum for sleek displacement hulls). As the world becomes smarter (don’t laugh) the size of “containers” for this caper is reduced to 3 metres long, 1 metre wide and 2 metre high. These, also made of carbon fibre, will be called “minitainers” or iTainers for short. 

liar

This is an extract from the ninth Christmas, Hanukkah and New Year message of the former Labor MP, science minister and national president of the ALP.

The year 2020 was bad enough, but the cumulative effect of  another Covid year, with the prospect of a third coming up, was debilitating, and shook many comfortable assumptions we might have had about an ambitious commitment to improve the state of the world.

Loss of face-to-face contact, increasing reliance on digital communication, the grave threats to education, especially universities, the arts and creativity generally, the ABC, were all profoundly disturbing.

covid

Good evening and thanks for reading our live coverage. 

If you’re just joining us, here’s a quick recap of the day’s events. 

polar

Utqiagvik, Alaska: After two days in the thick snow on America’s most northerly tip, there were still no signs of polar bears. The beasts, residents said, had moved to Russia.

“It wasn’t always like this,” said Herman Ahsoak, a whaling captain from Utqiagvik, Alaska, who was acting as a guide.

“Back in the late 1990s there were 127 here. I had never seen so many in my life. We had a dedicated patrol team to keep watch and protect the town.

“But when the sea ice really started to retreat, we stopped seeing them so often. I’m sure there is still a healthy population, but they have mostly moved on from here.”

In this part of America, where the average annual temperature has risen by 4.8C in the past 50 years, one of the most visible signs of global warming is the exodus of polar bears.