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balloons banned in victoria

New environmental laws and increased powers from the Environment Protection Authority mean it is now illegal to release balloons into the environment in Victoria.  

From the 1st of July 2021, a person or company found guilty of releasing helium balloons will receive a hefty fine depending on how many units are released.

The penalties for releasing balloons into the environment are as follows (from www.epa.vic.gov.au):

Under section 115 of the Environment Protection Act 2017, fines are:

* up to six penalty units ($991) for a person

* up to 30 penalty units ($4956) for a company.

For a series of balloon releases, and if taken to court, penalties are:

* up to 100 penalty units ($16,522) for a person

* up to 500 penalty units ($82,610) for a company.

Releasing helium balloons is considered littering and the EPA suggests alternative solutions to using balloons from blowing bubbles, floating flowers, reusable or recyclable bunting, paper decorations, or planting a tree.

Balloons are a major concern with the environment and wildlife, causing animals to ingest them or get entangled. They’ve been identified as one of the top three most harmful pollutants along with plastic bags and bottles.

According to zoo.org.au, they are the #1 deadliest form of litter when ingested by seabirds.

You can watch their latest campaign raising awareness about balloons below:

Image Credit: (WorldStockStudio / Shutterstock.com)

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20210715001557366677-original.jpg

A judge has allowed Britney Spears to hire a lawyer of her choosing at a hearing in which she broke down in tears after describing the "cruelty" of her conservatorship.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Brenda Penny approved Spears hiring former federal prosecutor Mathew Rosengart, who called on Spears' father to immediately resign as her conservator.

"We will be moving promptly and aggressively for his removal," Rosengart said outside the courthouse on Wednesday.

"The question remains, why is he involved?"

Britney Spears, taking part in the hearing by phone, told the judge she approved of Rosengart after several conversations with him. She then asked to address the court, but asked that the courtroom be cleared.

As Rosengart began to argue for a private hearing, Spears interrupted him to say "I can talk with it open."

"I would like to charge my father with conservatorship abuse," she said, speaking so rapidly she was at times difficult for the court reporter and journalists in the courtroom to understand.

She said she wanted the conservatorship to end immediately but not if it required going through any more "stupid" evaluations.

"If this is not abuse, I don't know what is," Spears said as she described being denied things as basic as coffee, her driver's licence and her "hair vitamins" by the conservatorship.

James Spears would not be stepping down as Rosengart challenged, his lawyer Vivian Thoreen said in court, adding he has only ever had his daughter's best interests in mind.

Thoreen said Britney Spears had many inaccurate beliefs, among them that "her father is responsible for all the bad things that have happened to her."

"Whether it's misinformation, lack of correction, or being wrongly advised, I don't know," Thoreen said, emphasising that for nearly two years James Spears has had no say over his daughter's life choices, only her money.

Spears has been under court supervision, with her father and a team of lawyers controlling her life and finances, since February 2008. She was in the midst of a public meltdown at the time and her family sought the conservatorship for her protection.

Spears has had throughout the proceedings a court-appointed lawyer to represent her interests, Samuel Ingham III, but he resigned after a dramatic hearing three weeks ago in which the pop star told Penny: "I just want my life back."

Fans from the FreeBritney movement outside the courthouse cheered the decision to appoint Rosengart, then cheered Rosengart himself when he walked out.

The June 23 hearing was the first time Spears openly addressed the court, telling Penny she was being forced to take medication and use an intrauterine device for birth control, said she was not allowed to marry her boyfriend, and said she wanted to own her own money.

At that hearing, Spears had more measured criticism for Jodi Montgomery, the court-appointed professional who serves as conservator of her person, overseeing her life choices.

Montgomery denied that Britney Spears was prevented from marrying or forced to use birth control. She lashed back at James Spears, saying that Britney Spears has expressed no desire to oust her as she has with her father.

Montgomery said she is committed to staying on the job and is putting a care plan in place to help end the conservatorship, something she said James Spears has expressed no desire to do.

© PAA 2021

Image Credit: Matthew Rodier/Sipa USA

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Has Ryan Reynolds’ Deadpool finally joined the MCU? Well if this viral video is canon then we say yes!

 

The Ryan Reynolds-led comedy “Free Guy” is finally being released after delays and it looks like they set a task to Ryan's marketing company "Maximum Effort" to promote the movie which also features Marvel Star/Director Taika Waititi.

It's a win/win situation as Reynolds doesn't need an excuse to dress up as Deadpool and Taika get to reprise his role as Korg from “Thor: Ragnarok” in a clip that parodies YouTube reaction videos, watching the "Free Guy" Trailer.

In "Free Guy" a bank teller who discovers he is actually a background player in an open-world video game decides to become the hero of his own story, one he rewrites himself.

Now in a world where there are no limits, he is determined to be the guy who saves his world his way, before it is too late. “Free Guy” arrives in cinemas on August 13th.

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Tiger shark

Cows, coconuts and vending machines are all deadlier to humans than sharks, an Australian aquarium says.

SEA LIFE Sydney Aquarium is seeking to dispel fear, stigma, and misinformation surrounding the ocean's apex predator on annual Shark Awareness Day this Wednesday.

While humans kill some 100 million sharks a year, senior aquarist Emily Best said the sharp-toothed creatures cause roughly 10 deaths globally over that same span.

A surfer was fatally mauled by a 4.5-metre great white shark in mid-May off Tuncurry Beach, more than 300 kilometres north of Sydney.

It was the first confirmed fatal shark attack in Australian waters this year, though it's believed another man was killed by a shark off South Australia in January.

Eight people were killed in shark attacks in Australian waters in 2020.

That compares to an estimated 13 global deaths per year from being crushed by vending machines, 22 from stomping or goring cows, 150 from falling coconuts and 450 from tumbling out of bed.

Ms Best said many species of sharks were currently endangered including grey nurse sharks, known as "labradors of the sea" because of their calm and docile nature.

Their NSW populations took a hit after being hunted and killed en masse in the 1950s and 60s due to their scary looks.

"Major threats to their existence today include incidental catch from commercial and recreational fishing and entanglement in shark nets," Ms Best said in a statement on Wednesday.

"However, it is promising to see that with protection strategies and fisheries management, numbers have started to rebound."

Other myths the aquarium wants to bust include that sharks have no personality, no predators and "want" to eat humans.

"Only about a dozen of the more than 400 species of sharks have ever been involved in biting humans," it said.

"Orcas have been known to attack great white sharks and larger sharks often eat smaller sharks; more significantly though, humans pose the largest threat to sharks."

© AAP 2021

Image Credit: Albert kok, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons