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Not true ?

I am pretty sure I paid less tax and Wikipedia thinks I did too : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

What is the source of your information ?

You're wrong both times.

If you're looking for the income tax rates, go to the ATO, where you will see they are unchanged from previous years.

But in your previous post you claimed that:

As part of the carbon tax package, income tax was reduced, particularly for low income earners as a kind of compensation for the increase in cost of living caused by the carbon tax. The new government is raising those income taxes again, despite promising not to raise taxes.

In May 2013, The previous government's Climate Change minister, Greg Combet deferred those tax cuts even past 2015 when they were originally scheduled to come in. And it is those tax cuts, which had never been implemented that the current government is repealing.

Not true ?

I am pretty sure I paid less tax and Wikipedia thinks I did too : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...

What is the source of your information ?

You're wrong both times.

If you're looking for the income tax rates, go to the ATO, where you will see they are unchanged from previous years.

But in your previous post you claimed that:

As part of the carbon tax package, income tax was reduced, particularly for low income earners as a kind of compensation for the increase in cost of living caused by the carbon tax. The new government is raising those income taxes again, despite promising not to raise taxes.

In May 2013, The previous government's Climate Change minister, Greg Combet deferred those tax cuts even past 2015 when they were originally scheduled to come in. And it is those tax cuts, which had never been implemented that the current government is repealing.

We also have a crapload of land which is doing nothing except letting sunlight fall on it and letting wind pass unimpeded across it.

We don't have a lack of sources of energy in Australia. More to the point, we don't have a lack of produced energy, either; we are producing far more power than we use, but thanks to distorted incentives (and not the carbon tax!), we are paying more for it than ever before. Where are you when we need you, o invisible hand?

Australia is unlikely to use nuclear power in the forseeable future for the simple reason that there's no need to. We have precisely the number of nuclear power plants that we need for our own research purposes. As for all that radioactive material, we're better off exporting it to countries that don't have any other realistic options.

Brisbane records coldest morning in 103 years

http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...

From 10 Sep 2013, you really want paper ballots in the open been counted by hand with lots of staff, election observers around.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...
The complex Single Transferable Vote math has been used around the world for many, many years now in different forms. This rush to keep computer code is interesting.

I assume this is the same project that has had the DA lodged by Warratah Coal in the past 2 days. This would be the new China First Mine in the Galilee, rail link and port upgrade - http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...

The mine's target customers are not India but China and Japan. In addition to the China First Mine, which I could understand you writing off because it is Palmer, Hancock is building the Alpha coal mine in the same region. Gina Rhinehart will build it.

Finally thermal coal usage and its price will always be tied to power consumption. But coking coal is used for steel production and while there is still steel being produced Queensland will be digging up and selling vast quantities of coal.

That's a little odd. CASA here in Australia has authoritah over most aerial devices and imposes a licensing arrangement (for those using them in a commercial manner) and a restriction that they have to maintain at least 30 metres from people.

Someone in a triathlon got whacked in the head just recently with a drone - the person flying it will be in a world of hurt once CASA finishes discussions with them.

Note that if it had been some kid fooling about in the park CASA would not have been interested, but once it becomes 'for profit', they start to take notice. Which is probably a reasonable distinction to take - 'for profit' types will generally be using more of them, more often, and licensing requirements can also mandate that they have adequate insurance and minimum safety requirements.

Compare that to Australia, where the government confiscated all the guns to keep people safe, and violent home invasions skyrocketed.

As an Australian, one aware of the actual statistics, I feel eminently qualified to say: "That's bullshit, mate."

TLDR: using Australia as a reason for arming or disarming America is bad and you should feel bad. :)

Look, I truly get that unilaterally compelling the disarmament of the law-abiding proportion of a heavily-armed, high-density, disaffected population with a long history of armed violence is a Really Bad Idea, but when it comes to using Australia as a comparison point? You've been fed propaganda that exploits statistical shenanigans and popular ignorance of a distant country's cultural differences. Unlike the native Americans, the natives here lacked the technology, organisation and numbers to be much more than a speed bump in the British Empire's history of conquest, and we also never had a revolutionary war nor followed it with a civil war, so our nation was never armed on a level remotely approaching yours even prior to the confiscation. Our horse was still nudging the barn doors open, while yours is already up in the far paddock with a belly full of long grass and an eye on the short fence.

http://www.abc.net.au/worldtod...
http://www.ocsar.sa.gov.au/doc...

I don't buy this "it's just human nature" argument.

The prevalence of cell phone use while driving is much greater than that of driving drunk. It is not because it is less of a "human nature". It is because there are stronger deterrents.

If people faced similar penalties to those of DUI (jail time, loss of driving privileges for extended periods of time, etc) for having their hands on the phone while driving, you can bet "human nature" would change accordingly.

Odd you should mention this. Where I live (Western Australia) cops will be targeting phone users.

The penalty for being on the phone is A$300 and 3 demerit points (accrue 12 demerit points and it's off the road for 3 months). However on public holidays and long weekends we double the amount of demerit points per infraction. So for this coming weekend (Good Friday and Easter) you can expect anyone caught on the phone to get the same fine, but 6 demerit points.

secondly it is your drone, you are responsible for it, if you can't secure it then you should not be using it around people.

thirdly, it should not have been flown within 30 meters of another person.
fourth (ly?), as it was used in a commercial capacity it should have been certified but neither Mr Abrams nor his business appear on the list of the 92 operators certified nationally.

The bacteria in your colon are what is triggering or preventing the triggering of many cancers. That is the main reason why eating fruit is NOT the same as drinking juice or supplements. The bacteria in your colon form an extremely complex web of interaction with your body. Healthy gut bacteria protect you from all sorts of food borne illnesses, like salmonella and even colon cancer. Never mind c. diff. and recent links to autism when population is disrupted or altered via oral antibiotics.

colon cancer,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/re...

salmonella,
http://www.sciencedaily.com/re...

autism,
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners...

It's not just a "sack of shit". It's the most important part of you and there is no "pill for it".

Time for a reality check, dude.

Actually, OP is right and the onus for the reality check is on you.

The US has been exporting a particularly virulent form of institutionalised corruption for some time now, and it's damaging a large proportion of the world's population.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/T...
http://in.reuters.com/article/...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/C...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...
https://newmatilda.com/2005/03...
etc etc

What's that? The pings "got longer"? OMG I've never heard that before, that sounds like new information!, post. post. post. post. post.

Ummm, except this was all published FIVE DAYS AGO, simply in a more useful form:

http://i1.minus.com/iPcccu2MDL...

They've been searching based on this "new information" since TUESDAY:

http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...

Slate, FutureWise, Jeff Wise, and Timothy, are all idiots who are FIVE DAYS OUT OF DATE.

This is more of a result of the recent hysteria by the Australian Federal Police and Australian Crime Commission over local criminals using Phantom Secure phones to coordinate contract hits allegedly. http://www.abc.net.au/news/201... Brandis might have good intentions, but he's about as illiterate as they get in the NLP on such technology matters. These gangs don't rollover. Even rivals will not roll on rivals. This is a naive idea and will fail miserably in practice, if it ever sees the light of day. Given the makeup of the current senate, not any time soon.

Couldn't we like get some other organization in place instead of one headed by the UN? The unspeakable retards who wander the halls, the perpetual bureaucrats who have no one to hold them accountable will be in charge of this? The ones that gave us the IPCC? Fuck that, we need an alternate Internet, one without the UN and their interference. Or how they are biased away from showing all sides of an issue instead favoring the most politically expedient ones.

My Daughter is legally blind. She has rod monochromatism often called achromatopsia (http://www.achromatopsia.info/) and doesn't see any colour (only grey scale). She seems to think greyscale is quite useful. Now obviously colour would also be useful, but greyscale allows you to 'see' most things. In some states in the USA people with achromatopsia can drive using bioptic glasses (http://www.biopticdrivingusa.com/achromatopsia/). Of course the rest of the world sees this and thinks 'only in America'. Anyway, this is interesting if not entirely new. Other students at my daughters school (for the visually impaired) also learn echo location - this is from my daughters school: http://www.abc.net.au/btn/stor... :-)

Only problem is, after The Guardian were threatened by their home government, they moved their web site from .co.uk to .com (go to http://www.theguardian.co.uk/ and see where you end up), because of the first amendment right in the US. In the UK, there is no such protection for the press or free speech.

So with this new "media leaks legislation", where will they go next? Brazil, Ecuador? Or maybe Russia; that would really be the epitome of irony.

The real reason why those products are viewed differently because no one is willing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on targeted marketing campaigns on the idiot box to attack them. End of story, you don't choose anything, you just suck up the psychological adjusted marketing http://www.abc.net.au/tv/thech... and they choose for you. Not often you will get to see counter marketing, this is from the Australian public broadcaster, they don't show adds, funny that.

And despite that, an unqualified male was still selected for what was a significant public opportunity for a sign language interpreter.

Radio National is Real Audio or Windows Media Audio only :(

good old ABC http://www.abc.net.au/news/aus...

You mean the park authority headed up by these guys?

Colour me sceptical that this is such a great benefit to the reef.

The more you try to marginalize a population, the more radical it will become.

If you want to talk about "peaceful neighbours", how about talking about the radical settler movement? Them heaving the entire army to do whatever they want? If you shit on your neighbours, don't expect to be treated well in the future. Radicalization and marginalization of so called "Arab Israelis refugees" is a policy brought to you by the the radical settler movement and the radical Zionists. *Not* Jews, *Zionists*.

Zionists have created an apartheid state. And it is these Zionists that will destroy the Israeli state as it is today precisely because of their apartheid actions. Just as it happened in South Africa, it will happen in Israel. It is quite unavoidable now thanks to the radicals. They even took out Sharon, just like Rabin before him.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A...

http://www.abc.net.au/news/200...

The Haaretz newspaper said that after Mr Sharon suffered a minor stroke in December, doctors prescribed blood-thinning medication that may have caused last week's major stroke.

It quoted a doctor it said was close to the case as saying doctors did not know at the time that he suffered from cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA), which made him susceptible to brain haemorrhages. The condition was only diagnosed last week, the newspaper said.

But Mr Mor-Yosef told reporters the story was incorrect.

"This morning what was published in one of the newspapers was not correct," he said.

"The doctors of Hadassah knew about the brain diagnosis of the Prime Minister the night he was taken in for his first hospitalisation [in December]," he said.

What the fuck is going on with Oz law? Motorcycle clubs are outlawed? Why? What about bowling clubs, golf clubs, or yacht clubs?

A search "turned up a number of illicit items, including a snake." I'm all in favor of eliminating snakes, but is owning a snake really illegal in Oz, or was this a particular banned deadly snake? Again, WTF fuck is going on with Oz law?

Guilt by association does lead to utterly ludicrous outcomes.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...

I should point out that the "Life And Death motorcycle club" is no "Hells Angels" and has no negative reputation (or really any reputation outside it's small number of members) with the police or general public. This is not about organised crime. It's pretty stupid political gameplaying demonising groups of people really.

The ABC have a contact page at http://www.abc.net.au/tv/abctv... where you can ask them why there is no mention of this story on their site - despite the BBC article being shown on national TV in Australia

1) Macklemore & Ryan Lewis - Thrift Shop {ft. Wanz}
2) Of Monsters And Men - Little Talks
3) alt-J - Breezeblocks
4) Flume - Holdin On
5) Mumford & Sons - I Will Wait
Not really a particularly commercial lineup, and that's just the top five.

That seems like a somewhat pessimistic view, a glance through the historical results shows some pretty solid songs (and some quirky ones) http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/... If course, they aren't all Bohemian Rhapsody's, but there's only ever been one if them.

I sure would appreciate some of that Global Warming around here. Can't get above 50F no matter what.

What about you move your ass down under and experience a week with over 40C in the shade and forest/bush and grass fires all over eastern coast?
But, no... you know what? ... better stay where you are, no need of an increased moronic population here

> Users of Truecrypt should be extra careful of physical security of their systems to prevent investigators from gaining access to the contents of physical memory."

By investigators, do you mean government workers conducting industrial espionage?

http://www.washingtonsblog.com/2013/10/nsa-busted-conducting-industrial-espionage-in-france-mexico-brazil-and-other-countries.html
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-04/asio-arrests-key-witness-in-east-timor-spying-scandal/5132954
http://www.globalresearch.ca/canada-spied-on-brazils-government-as-part-of-global-commercial-espionage-campaign/5353642
http://www.smh.com.au/national/australian-spy-agency-helped-bhp-negotiate-trade-deals-20131106-2x1sw.html
https://www.techdirt.com/articles/20131111/11532125198/australia-spied-japan-to-help-companies-negotiate-trade-deals.shtml
http://www.crikey.com.au/2013/12/02/revealed-the-government-agency-stealing-ideas-from-businesses/
http://the-japan-news.com/news/article/0000940560
http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2013/jun/16/gchq-intercepted-communications-g20-summits

the first category error in this whole imbroglio is presuming that the word "natural" has any clear meaning.

You cannot rehydrate using alcohol, and you'll probably kill yourself if you try.

This whole people using beer to replace water en masse is a bit fishy anyway. I mean why not just boil it rather than going through the elaborate, expensive and time consuming process of making beer. Not to mention that early waterways were almost certainly far less polluted than some would believe.

Want to know why the NBN is hyping up 50-100mbs as slow and turning the public against it?

They want a fucking monopoly. End of story.

"NBN Co advised that the Coalition's NBN had to be built as a monopoly or risk losing so many customers that it would be financially unviable; and that it should prioritise signing up large numbers of customers quickly rather than racing to cover the entire country."

>Would you purchase anything made by USA companies now if you want your data secure and safe?

Never stopped anyone from buying Chinese products and everyone already damn well knew what they were up to. Zing!

I call your bluff with an example countering your claim:
Chinese communication products banned from Australian Government project

I agree with your objections to the treaty, but I'm not sure that your point about prescription drugs is correct. See this.

The current governments plan is to obey the order of Fox not-News boss Rupert Murdoch. That is stop broadband. So first step, stop new FTTH services, so they are only carrying out existing contracted services. Next step FTN, well, they are not going to do it, quite simply they are going to spend the next three odd years talking about doing it and then of course just prior to the next election change their minds and go back to FTTH, they really truly promise (After setting is place as many obstructions as possible).

Just to muddy up the waters, they intend to buy the incumbents rotting copper network after renting the conduits in which it resides initial for running fibre optic and no of course for nothing, that purchase is just a quick back hander for, well, no one is telling. A glaring example of the mismanagement the guy they put in charge of the NBN was the douche nozzle who got fired for losing so many customers after raising the monthly charge by $10 and dropping the cap from 20GB to 3GB and then telling his customers he only raised the price by 20% and trying to force the continuation of existing contracts, all under the protection of the same political party that is now killing the NBN.

So FTN will consist of;
Discussing FTN
Designing FTN
Tendering FTN
Discussing the FTN Tenders
Redesigning FTN
Re-Tendering FTN
Next Election - FTN sucks we promise to do FTTH.

As a bonus for Fox not-News corp the current government is also looking to destroy the public broadcaster the ABC http://www.abc.net.au/. Why does Rupert Murdoch hate broadband Fox not-News number one on cable and number 36 on the internet also Myspace as a glaring example of their inability to adapt to the internet. So Australia finally managed to get Fibre Optic Internet going only to have it killed by a corrupt government at the behest of a single corporation and months of the worst examples of biased news political coverage. JFC why haven't you locked up that bastard yet?

Australian spooks spy for commercial gain:

"Australian spy agency helped BHP negotiate trade deals"
http://www.smh.com.au/national/australian-spy-agency-helped-bhp-negotiate-trade-deals-20131106-2x1sw.html

"East Timor will launch a case in The Hague alleging the Australia Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) covertly recorded Timorese ministers and officials during oil and gas negotiations"
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-12-03/asio-raided-lawyer-representing-east-timor-in-spying-case/5132486

They also spied on the Indonesian President's wife because, well, they could:
http://www.smh.com.au/comment/spying-on-president-susilo-bambang-yudhoyonos-wife-a-step-too-far-by-asd-20131120-2xvu5.html

no car should catch fire as a result of running over debris in the road as happened wih the Teslas in question

Yeah. That's a good point. That should be fixed in the majority of dino-burning cars. e.g. Buses should not catch fire after running over mattresses, Ambulances should not catch fire while sitting in the station house (most Ambulances are Fords, BTW) and trucks which run over tree branches should also not catch fire.

not putting your fuel tank under your ass would be a good step towards minimisation of consequences like, say, fires, don't you think?

The fuel tank is under the ass of the people in the back seat in any car designed worth a fuck. Or at least, right behind their ass, and below it.

What sort of mental fault causes a person to argue that a fire which could have been avoided is okay because, well, at least nobody got hurt?

What sort of mental fault causes a person to assume that a fire which was caused in spite of a big metal plate was avoidable, and would have been avoided in some other car?

In the two cases where the cars weren't damaged by crashing into a wall and tree, the drivers were able to safely pull over.

Eh, which stats are we looking at? You're implying at least 4 accidents...

Uh, no. When someone says "two cases" they're not implying four accidents. And they only even mentioned three in the comment. What are you on about?

the Ford problem is likely to happen when nobody is in the car (if the engine overheating which eventually leads to the problem occurs during driving, the owner will be warned to pull over and/or seek service, at least for current models); the Tesla problem is likely to happen during driving and without warning. So, the Tesla problem is more dangerous.

You are being a disingenuous asshole specifically because the Tesla problem did not happen without warning. A major collision is in fact warning. Also, so far there has been warning. In the last case, there were even alert messages. If that's not warning, then fuck you. Also, the Ford problem is equally likely to happen any time the brakes are not depressed. It is probably more likely to happen while the vehicle is running, because of heat and vibration, and infinitesimally more likely to happen also because of the increased voltage output from the alternator while the vehicle is in operation (charging voltage.)

"Oh but what I meant is that the Tesla problem only happens after an accident!!!" So what? Accidents happen. Your distinction artificially created to confirm your bias doesn't actually help anyone.

Your comment is full of misleading bullshit artificially created to confirm your bias. You don't get to complain about the same without being the hypocrite that you are.

While there were hints of news around this topic previously, the details that came to light are new (if unsurprising), and the story is front page news in Australia today - see for example ABC News.

Except Australia could be doing better, in particular the poor. Here's a quick recap of studies by Stossel on minimum wage in Australia. I also recommend you check out the Roy Morgan polls and studies regarding unemployment and under-employment in Australia.

Quote:
In a 2004 study published in the Australian Economic Review, economist Andrew Leigh looked at what happened after Western Australia increased its minimum wage compared to the rest of Australia.
He found: "Relative to the rest of Australia, the [percentage of people employed] in Western Australia fell following each of six [minimum wage] rises." (Study here [1], update here [2].)

Another Australian economist, John Humphrey, summarizes [3] the findings this way:
"[Leigh found] that for each 1 percent increase in the minimum wage we can expect... [to lose] 96,000 jobs" in Australia.

[1] http://andrewleigh.org/pdf/Minimum%20Wages%20(AER).pdf
[2] http://andrewleigh.org/pdf/Minimum_wages_reply.pdf
[3] http://www.abc.net.au/unleashed/4064106.html

Actually, from ABC fact check;

The verdict: Mr Morrison is correct. Based on the definition set out in the people smuggling protocol, people who have come to Australia without a valid visa have illegally entered the country. That is the case even though these people have not committed any crime, nor broken any Australian or international law.

Mind you, it is still misleading to use this term when speaking to the general public.

At the Movies, with Margaret & David

http://www.abc.net.au/atthemovies/

Australia' crooked federal police force have been deleting wikipedia edits telling people how corrupt the AFP are. Can wikipedia please add these and ban the AFP censors?:

http://www.theage.com.au/national/afp-ignored-corruption-complaint-20100524-w81a.html
http://www.theage.com.au/national/afp-allegedly-shut-down-awb-case-prematurely-20120606-1zwz7.html
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/archive/business/afp-withheld-key-whistleblower-evidence-in-kessing-case/story-e6frg97x-1226117735249
http://www.lawyersweekly.com.au/news/afp-defends-record-on-foreign-bribery-1
http://kangaroocourtofaustralia.com/category/australian-federal-police/
http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/content/2008/s2402675.htm

"Policing a citizenâ(TM)s right to expression"

Should Duncan Kerr's concern about a pamphleteer in his electorate allow him to involve the Australian Federal Police, asks Richard Ackland.

While Justice Minister Duncan Kerr was in Sydney yesterday splashing around some federal funding on legal aid, back in his Hobart electorate of Denison things have not been entirely glossy and wonderful. Last Sunday and Monday he had Mr Mick Skrijel stamping over his borough spreading leaflets that said some beastly things about poor Dunky.

Skrijel will be familiar to readers of this column as the former South Australian fisherman who made allegations of drug trafficking and official protection. The NCA subsequently brought a drug cultivation charge against him. An inquiry into the NCAâ(TM)s conduct in this case found there was substantial evidence that the NCA fabricated the case against Skrijel in order to secure his conviction.

Kerr rejected the recommendation that a royal commission be held and has sent the matter to the Victorian Deputy Ombudsman for further investigation. Skrijel claims this is a totally inadequate response.

The material that Skrijel was distributing in Denison contained all those details, plus some flourishes that Kerr was trying to silence him. The Minister for Justice was on notice that Skrijel was going to publish this pamphlet because he had sent him a copy on January 30 and asked him to read it carefully and tell him where he was wrong.
The minister did not take up Mr Skrijelâ(TM)s generous offer. Instead on February 2 he wrote to Skrijelâ(TM)s lawyer in Melbourne, John Howie, of Howie and Maher, and said that the pamphlet was âoewildly defamatoryâ and urged that the legal implications of distributing such material be made clear to Mr Howieâ(TM)s client.

He also sent a letter to members of the media in Hobart, dated February 5, warning that he âoewould be obliged to take legal action if any of the false and defamatory material were to be repeated in the mediaâ.

That letter went to the Hobart branch manager of ABC radio, among others, on the same day that the ABC metropolitan radio host, Annie Warburton, was planning to interview Skrijel on her afternoon radio show. Before going to air she talked to a friend, Mr George Haddad, who is working with Kerrâ(TM)s campaign team in Denison. Haddad cautioned her about interviewing Skrijel because he was likely to say something defamatory about Kerr on air. Warburton then pulled the plug on the interview.

Kerr says he was concerned about his own safety and his office requested the AFP conduct an âoeassessmentâ of Skrijel. This is quaint since

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-11/bulgaria-closes-probe-in-umbrella-assassination-after-35-years/4952448 Interesting how the case never made a court in any real way.
Or: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/7965100/Murdered-British-spy-mystery-over-how-GCHQ-worker-was-killed.html

The "greater good" is we now know most hardware and the big brands are junk. Their coders, testers and engineers are too trusting or fake.
If an intelligence agency can get in, so can any other friendly intelligence agencies, people who where with friendly intelligence groups and now work for cash, people who can afford to hire ex intelligence agency staff, foreign front companies who can exploit weakness for national gain, crime or blackmail.
Everything you want good generational encryption for has be reduced to junk for a cheap 10 year "look" into the use of the web.
The only people who did not know where the herds of end users of the expensive US junk brands who had to upgrade version after version.
Even countries like Australia knew and their top staff would have been warned re "negotiate a trade agreement".
http://delimiter.com.au/2013/10/08/attorney-general-briefed-prism-two-months-snowden-leaks/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-08/australia-prepared-briefing-on-prism-spying-program/5004290
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2013/s3864183.htm
The UK's message seems to be late - everybody knew via public or State sources. Historical documents or government advisors.
Like the Airlift of Evil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunduz_airlift or the arming of the Syrian 'freedom' fighters - even the optics of the local events was known.

The "greater good" is we now know most hardware and the big brands are junk. Their coders, testers and engineers are too trusting or fake.
If an intelligence agency can get in, so can any other friendly intelligence agencies, people who where with friendly intelligence groups and now work for cash, people who can afford to hire ex intelligence agency staff, foreign front companies who can exploit weakness for national gain, crime or blackmail.
Everything you want good generational encryption for has be reduced to junk for a cheap 10 year "look" into the use of the web.
The only people who did not know where the herds of end users of the expensive US junk brands who had to upgrade version after version.
Even countries like Australia knew and their top staff would have been warned re "negotiate a trade agreement".
http://delimiter.com.au/2013/10/08/attorney-general-briefed-prism-two-months-snowden-leaks/
http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-10-08/australia-prepared-briefing-on-prism-spying-program/5004290
http://www.abc.net.au/am/content/2013/s3864183.htm
The UK's message seems to be late - everybody knew via public or State sources. Historical documents or government advisors.
Like the Airlift of Evil http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kunduz_airlift or the arming of the Syrian 'freedom' fighters - even the optics of the local events was known.

The election rigger 9000 would do away with calls for reviews like this http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-10/palmer-demands-voting-review-amid-counting-irregularities/4948530
A nice clean digital election, no unattended (out to lunch) or photocopied issues to make the news then :)

Australia will get electronic voting soon too http://www.abc.net.au/news/2013-09-10/turnbull-suggests-electronic-voting-could-cut-informal-votes/4947370
Its to stop you from making mistakes numbering your boxes ( for http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Instant-runoff_voting )

Europe is complicated and while I'm no economist I can say that Banks, the EU and Germany wants austerity but the problem with that is with high unemployment and an expectation of high social program spending, where does the revenue come in? You can only tax the wealthy and corporations so much before that money shifts somewhere else. With the "strings attached" bailouts in Greece and other nations in the EU, you have governments having to accept terms and conditions that make them unpopular with their citizens and actually create more misery. You also can't keep spending more than you take in and while raising taxes and reducing programs is a start in these countries I don't think you'll be able to ween people off the government teats. It's a vicious cycle and as Margaret Thatcher said "The problem with Socialism is that eventually you run out of other peoples' money." So what do you do then? You've taxed everybody to the point of hilarity and yet you're still spending more than you can afford. People and Companies with half a brain and money will move to countries that are more favorable in terms of tax policies which makes the situation worse. It's already happened in the US with states like Maryland passing additional taxes on high incomes to balance the books, with negative results.

But back to third parties. I wouldn't advocate having 30 parties in this country but what about the ability to write-in candidates? In all states it requires petitions with 10s of thousands of signatures to be eligible to run for state office, that takes resources and only the Democrats and Republicans can consistently get their candidates on a ballot, why? Because they wrote the rules and they have huge coffers and committees dedicated to getting slates of representatives elected in multiple states. That squeezes out the possibility of an independent or a third party candidate from getting any kind of momentum and in the last presidential election where a third party candidate made an impact, was 1992 with Ross Perot where to the chagrin of both parties he took votes away from their candidates, almost 20 million. Clinton that year only won with 44 million votes so what Perot did was quite significant and it probably cost GHW Bush the election. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_presidential_election,_1992 That was over 20 years ago and no third party candidate has made that kind of impact. Sure, Perot threw tons of his own money into it and that's my point about money in politics, whoever has the biggest war chest usually wins. Republicans and Democrats have spend decades tuning the funding system, the coffers are full and big money is not playing a bigger part with folks like the Koch Brothers pushing their draconian agenda into the fray. But they're not the only ones, Defense Contractors, Government Contractors and a slew of special interests constantly bombard DC with their lobbyists and their money, buying access and ultimately they get the ears of the representatives. It's so bad now that members of Congress don't even write their own legislation, they get it from lobbyists and plaster their name on it as the sponsor. So, the only way to cure it is to get the elected elite out of office, push alternative candidates from alternative parties and to get campaign finance reform in place then maybe you'll see some true intellectuals and leaders step up, ones that don't have the connections or the money backing them but ones who can actually lead and who have a vision.

Short googling indicate that lesbians are less fertile than straight women.

http://genesis-fertility.com/diagnostics-and-testing/same-sex-couples/ - approximately 1 in 6 lesbian women will have a fertility issue.

http://www.abc.net.au/health/library/stories/2007/05/30/1919840.htm - one of six couple are infertile, 40% due to women infertility.

Straight women are twice more fertile as lesbian women.