A pleasant change in the game of spotting PS News typos now with Karen M of the national Department of Health and Aged Care drawing PS-sssst!’s attention to a State Government which is just as human as we are as it also makes the occasional error.
“I noticed another problem,” the problematic noticer Karen wrote.
“With the logo for the challenge,” she said.
The logo in question is that above this snippet, promoting the Premier of Victoria’s reading challenge for the State’s schoolkids.
“The apostrophe should come between the R and S,” Karen dictated.
“The last time I looked, there was only one Premier of Victoria – or have I missed something?”
No, Karen you haven’t missed something.
The apostrophe is apostrophic!
And on a reading challenge logo at that!
It just goes to show that even a logo can get it wrong!
For sharing her wisdom with PS-sssst! Karen has earned a ‘Perfectly Popular Pack of
PS-sssst! Paraphernalia’ which will be on its way to her very soonly.
High hopes
To grown-up news now from NSW where the Minister for the Environment has been describing what the Department’s ecologists are doing to find the “elusive long-footed potoroo” (pictured) in the State’s far south coast where, in his own words, the Minister’s commentary is “it stinks”.
According to the Minister the Department’s scientists look for evidence of the endangered species by “searching through the poo of their predators” which he names as cats, foxes, dingoes and quolls.
“It’s a crap job,” the Minister admits.
“There has never been a better time to think outside the box,” he said.
“Finding long-footed potoroo DNA in predator scats would confirm the species still exists in NSW.”
The Department’s Senior Threatened Species Officer, Dr Joss Bentley agreed with his Minister.
“I can’t say picking up poo is the most glamorous thing I have done in my career,” Dr Bentley said, “but it’s an important new technique that may help us find species.”
Let’s hope the new technique includes a good wash!!
Tracking the trails
Wonderful sight to see the national Department of Veteran Affairs (DVA) launch a new website honouring the World War Two veterans who served and lost their lives on the Papua New Guinea’s Kokoda Track.
A move that makes the website a wonder is its use of the Australian name ‘track’ for Kokoda after it being called the American ‘trail’ for many years.
While the DVA has done the right thing by the 600 Australians who died on the track and the 1,600 who were injured, it strangely sticks to ‘trail’ for other tracks in PNG, naming its new website the Papua New Guinea Virtual Remembrance Trails.
While PS-sssst! might prefer Australians stick to the Australian language when honouring Australians, it wouldn’t be so hard to accept ‘trail’ if it appeared in a local dictionary as meaning a track or something similar.
But it doesn’t!
According to the Oxford Universal Dictionary ‘trail’ can mean: (1) Something that trails or hangs trailing; (2) Something trailed or made by trailing; (3) The action of dragging oneself or something along; (4) A trellis for training climbing plants on; (5) Entrails, intestines collectively; and (6) To haul or tow a boat.
On the other hand, a ‘track’ is: (1) The mark or series of marks left by the passage of anything.
Is there any doubt Kokoda’s Australians left a passage of heroism!
Skinny book for a giveaway
Giveaway time again now when Rama Gaind digs into her collection of complimentary giveaways and makes a reader or two the lucky winners of her weekly giveaway game.
This week two lucky readers will become the owners of Sue Williams’ book on the life and work of world-leading burns surgeon and former Australian of the Year Professor Fiona Wood entitled Under Her Skin.
To take t he chance to win the book, all we needed to do was tell Rama when and why Professor Wood became a household name.
The answer was following the Bali bombings in 2002 when Professor Wood made world headlines using her invention of ‘spray-on skin’ to help minimise her patients’ scarring and the two correct winners who emerged first from the PS News Barrel of Booty were Janet B from Northern Territory Consumer Affairs and Manzoor A from the Department of Defence.
Congratulations Janet and Manzoor and thanks to all who took part in Rama’s regular round of romp reading this week. The books will be on their way very soon.
For another chance to join Rama’s good luck giveaway game simply visit one of her latest reviews of the DVD The Enforcer at this PS News link to answer her quizzical quiz question and/or her other review of the Book Be a Better Manager in 5 Minutes a Day at this PS News link for a second chance.
It’s free, it’s fun and it’s open right now.
May the gods of good luck be with all of us!
Readerships keep sailing
And finally, the latest status of PS News readerships reveals two editions who hit new heights in October with the Commonwealth (APS) and South Australia each breaking their own records.
The Australian Public Service added nearly 2,000 new readers to PS News in the month reaching 64,900 subscribers over its 63,000 at the end of September and SA jumped by around 1,000, overcoming 12,000 for the first time by building on its 11,100 readers in September.
The national total finished October at 180,339 subscribers, another record to be proud of.
As always, the PS News crew is blown away by the response our weekly working receives, in particular the regular comments and compliments so many of you choose to send in.
We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again. You keep reading PS News and we’ll keep putting it out.
Till next week…..
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