I WAS pleased to read Hazel's Letter in your column, (Short Takes, 16/12). I also go to the Toronto Hydro pool at Splashes to work out as I am trying to avoid having a knee replacement. I find it is the best equipped pool I have ever been to.
They have many disabled people using it with their carers every day and to see them being able to move in water when they can't walk on land is amazing.
I agree we need one of these pools for Newcastle as well. There is also a heated lap pool and a heated pool for all the little children for swimming lessons. Yes we have Lambton and Wallsend which is great however there are no covered areas where the pool is at a warm temperature. Are the disabled and older population not on Newcastle council's agenda?
One of them would be welcome to take a look at the Toronto pool to see what we need in a pool for all their ratepayers. It could be another big improvement toward cutting back on medical costs in the long run.
Narelle Chesterfield, Wallsend
Each to their own with sport
JAN Caine, ("World game's fine but league's greatest of all", Letters, 21/12), no answer was required, but I can't resist. My first remark is "each to their own".
Firstly I would mention that Jan's sport suffers from a misnomer, 95 per cent of her game is "handball" almost nothing to do with football, therefore the correct term for it is handball, not football. AFL, can almost claim football, but not in the true sense of the word.
And yes about 250 nations around the world have football as their national sport. There are a minority, I believe perhaps four, who call it soccer, a derivation of its official name of Association Football, those are perhaps limited to South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and America.
So which is the "best" game? There isn't one. You can have a personal best game but that does not influence MY best game. Going one further, it could be hockey, basketball, tennis, cricket, etc. My best game happens to be Association Football, the game played and followed by millions around the globe.
David Brown, Wallsend
Right, wrong and left out
RELYING on a fallacy to bolster the apparent validity of your opinion is a self-defeating and ultimately futile approach to debate. Unless, of course, you are hoping to divert your audience's cool scrutiny of your opinion by appealing instead to emotion and prejudice.
Peter Devey, ("Not all on right are extremists", Letters, 22/12), tries to argue that all conservatives now are being tarred with a far-right brush. He asks rhetorically, for example: 'Notice how the media never refer to people who are right of centre as being "right-wing" anymore?'
Let's rephrase his question to remove the fallacious assumption (and the appeal to conservative grievance).
Ask yourself, reader, does any media ever refer to anyone simply as right-wing? Of course they do - in many reports, in many media and many times every day.
As a simple exercise, I just searched Google News for the term "right wing" database, limited to the past week. It came up in the headlines seven times out of the first 10 media reports listed.
Case closed.
Robert Beale, Toronto
We deserve answers on park
CITY of Newcastle cannot claim as they have that the huge blow out in the estimated cost of the Foreshore Park playground was because of its relocation, ("Park upgrade price doubles in 18 months", Herald, 22/12).
Council submitted a revised grant application to the Newcastle Port Community Fund after it was decided to move the playground to its more appropriate location.
A new application for funding was submitted to cover the extra estimated cost of its relocation. Estimated costs for the completed project grew from $3300,000 in the initial submission to $5,500,000 in the final submission.
The reason given by council for this increase in costs was the playground's relocation and its increase in size. Council still needs to answer the question. Why has the cost of the playground more than doubled in 12 months?
Christine Everingham, Newcastle East
Setting the record straight
PETER Devey, I agree. ("Consensus is no substitute for proof, Letters, 23/12), and misquoting others facts, then disputing them, is no substitute for a sound argument. I did not claim that "100 per cent" of research scientists "reckon we are responsible for warming our planet". I said that 100 per cent of authors of 11,602 2019 peer-reviewed articles on "climate change" and "global warming" do. There can be no argument with this finding. Just as you appear to be unable to accept the idea of anthropogenic global warming there will always be some scientists who cannot. But they are not publishing their arguments. Or, being scrupulously careful, they did not publish in the first seven months of 2019.
Lesley Walker, Northcote
Game shoots itself in foot
IN fairness, and as a follow-up to my earlier comments, the World Cup final was an exciting game that ended in a draw. That result was discarded and a penalty shootout decided the end and final result. So, in my opinion, Argentina are World Cup shootout Champions. No more, no less. A game as important as a World Cup, if drawn at the conclusion of normal time, should continue until a result is reached. A golden goal, not a situation where the goalkeeper is thrust into a position that is unrealistic. Other codes have tweaked their rules to improve their respective games, but football seems reluctant to do so. As such, unfortunately, they will remain a secondary sport in this country. The Melbourne pitch invasion also did it no favours. It's a great game, but it needs some improvement to make it better and more entertaining.
Rob Bernasconi, Rankin Park
Batteries the holy grail
THE Liddell Power Station that produces around 48,000MW hours of power every 24 hours is one of the few to be replaced with a 500MW storage battery that at full capacity discharge will last 15 minutes. At first I thought this was a joke, but it is far from a joke.
It appears the government intends to pay for half the cost, give taxation concessions for investment and provide carbon credits that can be sold on the web. This battery will be paid to take load off the grid during peak supply, then sold back to the grid during peak demand. By using current prices available I estimate 500MW will give a return of close to 50 cents per KW, rounding out at $250,000 every day.
It's not every day that a product comes along, with zero maintenance, that could earn $250,000 for 15 minutes of operation, and last 15 years. This is the holy grail of the 21st century, a once in a lifetime investment opportunity, who cares if they work only 15 minutes at a time, just buy more batteries, the profit they bring will speak for themselves.
Carl Stevenson, Dora Creek
SHORT TAKES
PETER Devey, complains that we don't hear the descriptor "far left extremists" used for nut-job murderers, ("Not all on right are extremists", Letters, 22/12). That's because in Australia the far left extremists are too busy gluing themselves to objects, or stopping traffic, or climbing infrastructure in an attempt to get politicians to listen to science and help save humanity and the planet. They don't have the time or inclination to go off killing random people because talking heads on conservative media and nutty politicians have convinced them that their 'freedoms' are being violated. It's basically selfless v selfish.
John Arnold, Anna Bay
CITY of Newcastle, Australia Day. It looks like the woke Green crew has slowly but surely got their way with citizenship ceremonies on Australian Day under the guise of inclusion, when in fact it only creates more division. If the date was moved to say Federation Day, 1st January, I'm sure that would also come under criticism from some. So for the Green, woke, lefties, what is your next target? Mother's and Father's Day? Christmas Day? Easter? Watch this space.
Shane Tull, Redhead
STEVE Barnett, (Short Takes, 23/12), they used to send the chook heads to the Liberal Party. Now they just send the heads the nuggets reject.
Colin Fordham, Lambton
WHAT did they do with all the chicken heads and feet prior to nuggets, (Short Takes, 23/12)? Steve, surely you remember, or have heard of, that famous brand of chicken roll of the 60s and 70s served in a paper wrap?
Marvyn Smith, Heddon Greta
OH, the irony. Greg Hunt, (Short Takes, 23/12), is able to use the letters page to peddle yet another right wing conspiracy theory, and then proceeds to complain about being "shut down". It's a "thing" with the modern right. Endlessly whinging in public forums about being censored and cancelled by an imaginary "woke" mob. Supersized victim complexes, but with a vocabulary as thin as their skin. If you push outlandish theories, and defend a man like Trump, expect to be challenged. It goes with the territory.
Michael Hinchey, New Lambton
NOT only was last week the 50th anniversary of diplomatic ties with China, but also the thin end of the wedge for manufacturing in Australia and unemployment.
Steven Busch, Rathmines
WELL said John Pritchard, ("Inside track for former pollies just isn't fair", Letters, 23/12) pollies perks; it's called the gravy train mate and all the little piggies have their snouts in the trough for as long as they can, at our expense. We employ them, sack them for not performing and then expect us to pay for them until they die. Change the system.
