rickeyre.com

Overfishing or warming sea levels? There seem to be more jellyfish in the oceans and while they've been annoying summer beachgoers since time immemorial they are also capable of interfering with electricity generation outlets.

Al Jazeera English picks up some of the story:

The Daily Mail reported on July 6 how jellyfish forced the shutdown of the Orot Rabin power station in Israel.

A week earlier, both reactors at the Torness nuclear power station on the Scottish coast were shut down because of a sudden influx of jellyfish.

That was far from the first time that nuclear reactors have been shut down because of marauding jellyfish, as this analysis from Discovery News explains.

But there is also evidence that jellyfish are able to thrive in ocean Dead Zones where other marine life cannot, hence a disproportionate increase in their presence. Here is a presentation from the US National Science Foundation which paints a vivid picture on the rising presence of jellyfish in our oceans.

Point six of their presentation: "Four hundred vast Dead Zones in world oceans are too polluted for almost all life except jellyfish."

Still fretting because there's not enough in it for you in the carbon tax? Contemplate, if you will, the technical definition of a famine:

As a resident of the Marrickville Local Government Area for just over a decade, I am proud of my council's track record, under both the Labor Party and the Greens, of its committment to social justice and its displays of solidarity on human rights issues - examples, Burma, West Papua, and the handling of refugees seeking asylum in Australia. I am especially pleased with the attitude they have displayed on human rights in Palestine, particularly in the context of their sister city relationship with Bethlehem.

On 4 April 2011 the ICC Executive Board talked glowingly about the World Cup that had concluded in Mumbai two days earlier. Among their remarks:

"This ICC Cricket World Cup has been very successful and memorable....

"...the event was the most successful in history.

"The tournament reinforced the attraction of 50 over cricket and showed the enthusiasm and excitement generated by nation v nation cricket.

It didn't take long for this moment, late in the evening of the ABC's NSW election telecast last night, to become a Twitter meme. Premier-elect Barry O'Farrell hauled before the cameras at the Liberal Party victory party for a quick interview, only to tell anchorman Kerry O'Brien that he only wanted to talk to telecast panellist, and his future transport minister, Gladys Berejiklian.

As was confirmed later, no snub of Red Kerry was intended in the frenetic atmosphere of the Parramatta Leagues Club.

"The truth is, the people of New South Wales who entrusted us with government for 16 years did not leave us, we left them."

- Kristina Keneally, from her election night concession speech, 26.3.11 (video)

It was inevitable that the Labor Party would be hammered in yesterday New South Wales election, and as it turned out the polls were fairly accurate in predicting the magnitude of the annihilation.

My storified tweetage of 26 March 2011, a day when the Labor Party was decisively hurled out government in New South Wales and replaced by a Liberal-National Party coalition with a sweeping majority.

Click on Read More to, er, read more.

Almost by definition, election campaigns have their bizarre moments - although Sarah Palin and Christine O'Donnell seem to have re-written the manual over the past couple of years.

But I doubt that I'll see anything more bizarre from the current NSW state election than the jam session on Kristina Keneally's campaign bus last Friday.