Slashdot Mirror

Those letters were written in response to a creationist opinion piece that used the term first. Just for good measure, here's a choice quote from something that I presume was printed in a prominent newspaper:

A dedicated Darwinian would welcome imperialism, genocide, mass deportation, ethnic cleansing, eugenics, euthanasia, forced sterilisations and infanticide.

The only people who use "Darwinism" to mean "theory of evolution" are creationists.

The problem is that simply isn't true. People use language lazily. There's nothing unreasonable about that per se, but it is a mistake if the ideas your are trying to get are important.

It's Free! As part of the government's stimulus package, they're installed free up to $AU1.6K

As for the materials, use wool.

Check out this article: from an Australian news source which claims that Saddam may still be alive.
 
Think there is any truth to this?

Does that mean the Developers! Developers! Developers! are done?

And when is Google's turn?

porn-peddler Wales

Citation for that? Here http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/facts-and-friction/2007/04/21/1176697155451.html

What consensus?

I'm going to go ahead and point to the topic of this thread: "Windows 7's Media Hype Having the Opposite Effect As Vista's." Now let's go to the quote machine for a backgrounder:

The fact that Windows 7 has been fast-tracked just proves that Vista is one of those mistakes that Redmond would rather forget, just like the woeful Windows ME.

Think about it -- there's clearly a (high) level of consumer demand for Windows 7, the likes of which never materialized for Vista.

[falling revenue] That's due, in part, to slowing growth for PCs powered by Microsoft Windows software and the mighty kerthunk left by the debut of Windows Vista.

If your goal is Vista advocacy, "What consensus?" isn't one of the questions you should ask on slashdot.

You tell 'em! Vista failed, because of ppl on Slashdot ranting about "Get A Mac"! That's right!

Not just slashdot. It pros with Vista experience everywhere. The difference I suppose is that the advocates say "works for me on my new computer" and the detractors get specific about bugs, platforms and features. If your perception is that this thing was enthusiastically adopted, I guess I have nothing to offer you - you're not going to believe me anyway.

<sarcasm>Your right. China SO much better than Bush. Why didn't I see that?</sarcasm>

I know...because your wrong. Bush didn't wage war on the rest of the world. There was a lot of misrepresentation on the part of most of the media about Iraq. WW II was a lot worse, but if you believed them, then Iraq was far worse! Bush preemptively attacked two nations who were supporters of terrorism before they could harm us more. Both now have a freely elected governments, and Iraq is now running their own security. The plan was always to hand over (& eventually leave) the country when Iraq was capable of protecting itself. That is now the case, and we now have a timetable to leave with Iraq able to stand on their own. If you believed Obama, Clinton, et. al. then this was never going to be possible. They were wrong, and the media, and the liberals, misrepresented Iraq to a majority of the people in order make themselves look better to regain power. A lot of people/suckers fell for the smoke and mirrors.

Bush liberated people, and China suppresses people. They censor the internet, and they use their prisoners (some of whom are just religious people) for spare body parts for other people. Did you get a transplant from China? Then it came from a prisoner (also (second article),). To be fair China has placed a ban on sales of body parts requiring a signature from the donor, but I don't know how this effects the human body parts harvesting from prisoners.

China doesn't need to place a value on human life because they have over a quarter of the population of the Earth (even with the 1 baby per family law). The value of life in China is cheap. Kill one person, and there are still many left to take that persons place. Take the treatment of baby girls. According to this article China is taking steps to prevent this from completely devastating their population.

<sarcasm>Oh yeah, you are so right, Bush is so much worse. Didn't you hear about the human harvesting in the inner city?</sarcasm> For those that don't get it, there is no human harvesting in the inner city.

If you're ever in Aus, you can find out for yourself... http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/manager-served-disputed-gelato/2008/10/27/1224955948615.html

No, no, that's the italian communists, according to their prime minister.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/berlusconis-communist-claims/2006/03/27/1143330959861.html
And you think your politicians are bad...

http://news.smh.com.au/technology/australia-oks-facebook-for-serving-lien-notice-20081216-6zva.html
http://news.smh.com.au/technology/facebook-used-to-find-defendants-in-australian-court-case-20081216-6zog.html
http://news.smh.com.au/national/facebook-used-to-track-down-debtors-20081216-6zgt.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/lawyers-to-serve-notices-on-facebook/2008/12/16/1229189579001.html

http://news.smh.com.au/technology/australia-oks-facebook-for-serving-lien-notice-20081216-6zva.html
http://news.smh.com.au/technology/facebook-used-to-find-defendants-in-australian-court-case-20081216-6zog.html
http://news.smh.com.au/national/facebook-used-to-track-down-debtors-20081216-6zgt.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/lawyers-to-serve-notices-on-facebook/2008/12/16/1229189579001.html

http://news.smh.com.au/technology/australia-oks-facebook-for-serving-lien-notice-20081216-6zva.html
http://news.smh.com.au/technology/facebook-used-to-find-defendants-in-australian-court-case-20081216-6zog.html
http://news.smh.com.au/national/facebook-used-to-track-down-debtors-20081216-6zgt.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/lawyers-to-serve-notices-on-facebook/2008/12/16/1229189579001.html

http://news.smh.com.au/technology/australia-oks-facebook-for-serving-lien-notice-20081216-6zva.html
http://news.smh.com.au/technology/facebook-used-to-find-defendants-in-australian-court-case-20081216-6zog.html
http://news.smh.com.au/national/facebook-used-to-track-down-debtors-20081216-6zgt.html
http://www.smh.com.au/news/technology/biztech/lawyers-to-serve-notices-on-facebook/2008/12/16/1229189579001.html

And what happened to iinet?

Oh, that's right...

There's a very common theme when it comes to those openly criticising Conroy. Also evident here

I loathe Conroy, and everything national internet filtering involves, but in this case, it's more than just a technicality.

Whereas all the other major contenders submitted official proposals in the tender process, Telstra instead submitted an "informal" proposal that lacked significant details that the other official proposals had, not to mention vague estimations on things as minor as "network coverage". Further, many of these estimations fell far short of the government requirements in the first place. Add in the fact that Telstra wanted their flawed and half-baked proposal to be considered with the same standing as the detailed official tenders their rivals had submitted, and you being to realise that Telstra is just a joke.

Today it emerged that they didn't submit details on how they intended to liase with and include small business in the construction and development process; which is oh-so-fitting keeping in mind this is a giant telecom monopoly.

These articles better explain how absurd Telstra's position and conduct regarding the tender process has been to date. I challenge you to read them and not agree that they should have been kicked out of the evaluation process. Frankly, I'd have kicked them out some time ago.

Telstra bends the rules on internet bid

Telstra excluded from broadband network tender

Reader mask.of.sanity adds a link to ComputerWorld's photo-heavy coverage of the gatherings.

On the other hand, the Sydney Morning Herald reports nothing on this.

A google and some link digging gave me this, which is probably what you're thinking of: http://www.smh.com.au/news/web/labor-warned-on-porn-filters/2008/01/02/1198949855875.html

"Labor makes no apologies to those who argue that any regulation of the internet is like going down the Chinese road," Mr Conroy said yesterday. "If people equate freedom of speech with watching child pornography, then the Rudd Labor Government is going to disagree."

There have been two big news items about child porn regulations 'gone wild' recently - this, and that business in the UK about images on Wikipedia. It was hard to trump the UK's absurd regulation, but Australia did it!

Also in the news here in Aus was something even crazier:

http://www.smh.com.au/news/home/technology/internet-video-nightmare/2008/12/08/1228584709781.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

From what I hear, modern pirates tend to have heavy artillery on their shoulder rather than a parrot:

Maritime piracy still goes on, and is still a major problem in some parts of the world. Just because someone's smear tactic to conflate illegal copying with theft and murder has been successful doesn't mean we should stop resisting it.

Can your wife defend herself with defensive arts like Karate, or with pepper spray or a taser?

Karate: No. She learns karate but realistically it will take years to become proficient. Also it doesn't address the size/strength imbalance. An attacker can also learn to fight and if he is larger and stronger will retain the same advantage. With guns there is equalisation.

Pepper spray: Not legal for her to have it where we live. Also known to not always work http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/police-tell-of-nightmare-with-zombie/2008/10/08/1223145421609.html

Taser: Not legal for her to have it where we live. Less effective as a threat (I'd prefer if she never actually had to use it but just the threat was enough to deter the attack). Ineffective against multiple attackers.

Why shouldn't she protect herself with lethal means?

This got sidespread coverage yesterday. A citizens activist group raised $30,000 in donations to fight the Rudd Firewall IN JUST ONE DAY. There are protests planned around Australia around December 15. I'm going.

http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/news/technology/cash-floods-in-to-fight-rudds-web-censorship/2008/12/05/1228257284512.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1

Pro-tip: Writing to Conroy is pointless at this stage. He's quite foolishly staked his career on it, and will never back down no matter what the price for everyone else. The only way out of it is to lobby the senate and convince Rudd that this will cost him the next election. I voted for Rudd but I'm thoroughly disillusioned with him - not just for this, but but this weighs heavily on my mind. I've already decided my vote three years out.

Now all we have to do is find him. If anyone knows where our jettsetting Prime Minister is, please send him back home because we'd like to talk to him. First place to look: anywhere in China. http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/prime-ministers-600000-flying-circus/2008/12/04/1228257229282.html

There's an interesting backstory to that low price (AU$299/$399, btw).

Kogan is an Australian online retailer. They started when Kogan got pissed off with always being ripped off on local pricing and decided to go direct to Chinese manufacturers.

Eighteen months ago young tech-head Ruslan Kogan wanted an LCD television but didn't want to pay full price for it.

He did some research and sent a few emails to factories in China, and now the 24-year-old not only has a new 117cm high-definition TV in his lounge room, he is planning to go global with his own brand of consumer electronics.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/biztech/entrepreneur-cuts-tv-middle-men/2007/03/26/1174761375485.html

That story is a little over a year old; now there's a lot more products in his store and he's taking on the big electronic retailers over here. http://www.kogan.com.au/profile/

I don't have to watch the whole video to judge it as propaganda. Just watch how he repeats his initial claim about how GM crops save lives over and over again without any facts to base it on (BTW, i stopped watching after he pulled of this ridicolous card game stunt). And FYI, a story why patents on, espececially human, genetic code are a really bad idea: Sick babies denied treatment in DNA row

Except even the people who ask us to please think of the children don't want this one!

One question... If I select to represent the UN as a "boots on the ground" relief worker, does the game allow me to set up prostitution rings, get involved in human trafficking, and start up a drug smuggling operation? What about withholding food for bribes & other personal favors? I mean... let's make it realistic people!!!

So did the moon in Australia last night as the cresent moon, Venus and Jupiter all aligned for a nice smiley.

I just thought it would be fun to quote again... All the cool kids quote the parent when they reply!

Oh, and...funnily enough I've found that climate change skepticism seems to be the prevalent sentiment here

Although I tend to side with the thesis of anthropogenic climate change I agree that there are too many alarmists who will draw an instant connection between occurances such as this and "global warming".

That said, I would have hoped that you could dig up some better references to support your post; Miranda Divine is an ignoarmus and Kieth Windshuttle has only slightly more credibility than David Irving.

...to what the majority of comments to this article will be related, given the delicious quotes like this in the article:'

"I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe. [...] But this is not just not a good year for oaks. It's a zero year. There's zero production. I've never seen anything like this before."

[...]

The absence of acorns could have something to do with the weather, Simmons thought. But he hoped it wasn't a climatic event. "Let's hope it's not something ghastly going on with the natural world."

[...]

"This is the first time I can remember in my lifetime not seeing any acorns drop in the fall and I'm 53. You have to wonder, is it global warming? Is it environmental? It makes you wonder what's going on."

Of course, these will be ignored on page two of the story:

Whatever the reason for no acorns, foresters and botanists are paying attention.

But they say they're not worried yet. "What's there to worry about?" said Alan Whittemire, a botanist at the U.S. Arboretum. "If you're a squirrel, it's a big worry. But it's no problem for the oak tree. They live a long time. They'll produce acorns again when they're ready to."

White oaks can live as long as 300 years. Faster-growing red oaks can reach 200. And it takes only one acorn to make a tree, he said, which in an urban area with little open space is often more than enough.

"This is probably just a low year, a biological event, and it'll go away," Zimmer said. "But if this were to continue another two, three, four years, you might have to ask yourself what's going on, whether it is an indication of something bigger."

I know it's not a popular sentiment here, but Beware the church of climate alarm.

[P]erhaps people are starting to wonder whether the so-called precautionary principle, which would have us accept enormous new taxes in the guise of an emissions trading scheme and curtail economic growth, is justified, based on what we actually know about climate.

One of Australia's leading enviro-sceptics, the geologist and University of Adelaide professor Ian Plimer, 62, says he has noticed audiences becoming more receptive to his message that climate change has always occurred and there is nothing we can do to stop it.

In a speech at the American Club in Sydney on Monday night for Quadrant magazine, titled Human-Induced Climate Change - A Lot Of Hot Air, Plimer debunked climate-change myths.

"Climates always change," he said. Our climate has changed in cycles over millions of years, as the orbit of the planet wobbles and our distance from the sun changes, for instance, or as the sun itself produces variable amounts of radiation. "All of this affects climate. It is impossible to stop climate change. Climates have always changed and they always will.

His two-hour presentation included more than 50 charts and graphs, as well as almost 40 pages of references. It is the basis of his new book, Heaven And Earth: The Missing Science Of Global Warming, to be published early next year.

Plimer said one of the charts, which plots atmospheric carb

Really?

Oh, and...funnily enough I've found that climate change skepticism seems to be the prevalent sentiment here

Although I tend to side with the thesis of anthropogenic climate change I agree that there are too many alarmists who will draw an instant connection between occurances such as this and "global warming".

That said, I would have hoped that you could dig up some better references to support your post; Miranda Divine is an ignoarmus and Kieth Windshuttle has only slightly more credibility than David Irving.

...to what the majority of comments to this article will be related, given the delicious quotes like this in the article:'

"I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe. [...] But this is not just not a good year for oaks. It's a zero year. There's zero production. I've never seen anything like this before."

[...]

The absence of acorns could have something to do with the weather, Simmons thought. But he hoped it wasn't a climatic event. "Let's hope it's not something ghastly going on with the natural world."

[...]

"This is the first time I can remember in my lifetime not seeing any acorns drop in the fall and I'm 53. You have to wonder, is it global warming? Is it environmental? It makes you wonder what's going on."

Of course, these will be ignored on page two of the story:

Whatever the reason for no acorns, foresters and botanists are paying attention.

But they say they're not worried yet. "What's there to worry about?" said Alan Whittemire, a botanist at the U.S. Arboretum. "If you're a squirrel, it's a big worry. But it's no problem for the oak tree. They live a long time. They'll produce acorns again when they're ready to."

White oaks can live as long as 300 years. Faster-growing red oaks can reach 200. And it takes only one acorn to make a tree, he said, which in an urban area with little open space is often more than enough.

"This is probably just a low year, a biological event, and it'll go away," Zimmer said. "But if this were to continue another two, three, four years, you might have to ask yourself what's going on, whether it is an indication of something bigger."

I know it's not a popular sentiment here, but Beware the church of climate alarm.

[P]erhaps people are starting to wonder whether the so-called precautionary principle, which would have us accept enormous new taxes in the guise of an emissions trading scheme and curtail economic growth, is justified, based on what we actually know about climate.

One of Australia's leading enviro-sceptics, the geologist and University of Adelaide professor Ian Plimer, 62, says he has noticed audiences becoming more receptive to his message that climate change has always occurred and there is nothing we can do to stop it.

In a speech at the American Club in Sydney on Monday night for Quadrant magazine, titled Human-Induced Climate Change - A Lot Of Hot Air, Plimer debunked climate-change myths.

"Climates always change," he said. Our climate has changed in cycles over millions of years, as the orbit of the planet wobbles and our distance from the sun changes, for instance, or as the sun itself produces variable amounts of radiation. "All of this affects climate. It is impossible to stop climate change. Climates have always changed and they always will.

His two-hour presentation included more than 50 charts and graphs, as well as almost 40 pages of references. It is the basis of his new book, Heaven And Earth: The Missing Science Of Global Warming, to be published early next year.

Plimer said one of the charts, which plots atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature over 500 million years, with seemingly little correlation, demonstrates one of the "less

Oh, and...funnily enough I've found that climate change skepticism seems to be the prevalent sentiment here

Although I tend to side with the thesis of anthropogenic climate change I agree that there are too many alarmists who will draw an instant connection between occurances such as this and "global warming".

That said, I would have hoped that you could dig up some better references to support your post; Miranda Divine is an ignoarmus and Kieth Windshuttle has only slightly more credibility than David Irving.

...to what the majority of comments to this article will be related, given the delicious quotes like this in the article:'

"I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe. [...] But this is not just not a good year for oaks. It's a zero year. There's zero production. I've never seen anything like this before."

[...]

The absence of acorns could have something to do with the weather, Simmons thought. But he hoped it wasn't a climatic event. "Let's hope it's not something ghastly going on with the natural world."

[...]

"This is the first time I can remember in my lifetime not seeing any acorns drop in the fall and I'm 53. You have to wonder, is it global warming? Is it environmental? It makes you wonder what's going on."

Of course, these will be ignored on page two of the story:

Whatever the reason for no acorns, foresters and botanists are paying attention.

But they say they're not worried yet. "What's there to worry about?" said Alan Whittemire, a botanist at the U.S. Arboretum. "If you're a squirrel, it's a big worry. But it's no problem for the oak tree. They live a long time. They'll produce acorns again when they're ready to."

White oaks can live as long as 300 years. Faster-growing red oaks can reach 200. And it takes only one acorn to make a tree, he said, which in an urban area with little open space is often more than enough.

"This is probably just a low year, a biological event, and it'll go away," Zimmer said. "But if this were to continue another two, three, four years, you might have to ask yourself what's going on, whether it is an indication of something bigger."

I know it's not a popular sentiment here, but Beware the church of climate alarm.

[P]erhaps people are starting to wonder whether the so-called precautionary principle, which would have us accept enormous new taxes in the guise of an emissions trading scheme and curtail economic growth, is justified, based on what we actually know about climate.

One of Australia's leading enviro-sceptics, the geologist and University of Adelaide professor Ian Plimer, 62, says he has noticed audiences becoming more receptive to his message that climate change has always occurred and there is nothing we can do to stop it.

In a speech at the American Club in Sydney on Monday night for Quadrant magazine, titled Human-Induced Climate Change - A Lot Of Hot Air, Plimer debunked climate-change myths.

"Climates always change," he said. Our climate has changed in cycles over millions of years, as the orbit of the planet wobbles and our distance from the sun changes, for instance, or as the sun itself produces variable amounts of radiation. "All of this affects climate. It is impossible to stop climate change. Climates have always changed and they always will.

His two-hour presentation included more than 50 charts and graphs, as well as almost 40 pages of references. It is the basis of his new book, Heaven And Earth: The Missing Science Of Global Warming, to be published early next year.

Plimer said one of the charts, which plots atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperat

Oh, and...funnily enough I've found that climate change skepticism seems to be the prevalent sentiment here

Although I tend to side with the thesis of anthropogenic climate change I agree that there are too many alarmists who will draw an instant connection between occurances such as this and "global warming".

That said, I would have hoped that you could dig up some better references to support your post; Miranda Divine is an ignoarmus and Kieth Windshuttle has only slightly more credibility than David Irving.

...to what the majority of comments to this article will be related, given the delicious quotes like this in the article:'

"I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe. [...] But this is not just not a good year for oaks. It's a zero year. There's zero production. I've never seen anything like this before."

[...]

The absence of acorns could have something to do with the weather, Simmons thought. But he hoped it wasn't a climatic event. "Let's hope it's not something ghastly going on with the natural world."

[...]

"This is the first time I can remember in my lifetime not seeing any acorns drop in the fall and I'm 53. You have to wonder, is it global warming? Is it environmental? It makes you wonder what's going on."

Of course, these will be ignored on page two of the story:

Whatever the reason for no acorns, foresters and botanists are paying attention.

But they say they're not worried yet. "What's there to worry about?" said Alan Whittemire, a botanist at the U.S. Arboretum. "If you're a squirrel, it's a big worry. But it's no problem for the oak tree. They live a long time. They'll produce acorns again when they're ready to."

White oaks can live as long as 300 years. Faster-growing red oaks can reach 200. And it takes only one acorn to make a tree, he said, which in an urban area with little open space is often more than enough.

"This is probably just a low year, a biological event, and it'll go away," Zimmer said. "But if this were to continue another two, three, four years, you might have to ask yourself what's going on, whether it is an indication of something bigger."

I know it's not a popular sentiment here, but Beware the church of climate alarm.

[P]erhaps people are starting to wonder whether the so-called precautionary principle, which would have us accept enormous new taxes in the guise of an emissions trading scheme and curtail economic growth, is justified, based on what we actually know about climate.

One of Australia's leading enviro-sceptics, the geologist and University of Adelaide professor Ian Plimer, 62, says he has noticed audiences becoming more receptive to his message that climate change has always occurred and there is nothing we can do to stop it.

In a speech at the American Club in Sydney on Monday night for Quadrant magazine, titled Human-Induced Climate Change - A Lot Of Hot Air, Plimer debunked climate-change myths.

"Climates always change," he said. Our climate has changed in cycles over millions of years, as the orbit of the planet wobbles and our distance from the sun changes, for instance, or as the sun itself produces variable amounts of radiation. "All of this affects climate. It is impossible to stop climate change. Climates have always changed and they always will.

His two-hour presentation included more than 50 charts and graphs, as well as almost 40 pages of references. It is the basis of his new book, Heaven And Earth: The Missing Science Of Global Warming, to be published early next year.

Plimer said one of the charts, which plots atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature over 500 million years, with seemingly little correlation, demonstrates one of the "lessons from history" to which geo

Although I tend to side with the thesis of anthropogenic climate change I agree that there are too many alarmists who will draw an instant connection between occurances such as this and "global warming".

That said, I would have hoped that you could dig up some better references to support your post; Miranda Divine is an ignoarmus and Kieth Windshuttle has only slightly more credibility than David Irving.

...to what the majority of comments to this article will be related, given the delicious quotes like this in the article:'

"I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe. [...] But this is not just not a good year for oaks. It's a zero year. There's zero production. I've never seen anything like this before."

[...]

The absence of acorns could have something to do with the weather, Simmons thought. But he hoped it wasn't a climatic event. "Let's hope it's not something ghastly going on with the natural world."

[...]

"This is the first time I can remember in my lifetime not seeing any acorns drop in the fall and I'm 53. You have to wonder, is it global warming? Is it environmental? It makes you wonder what's going on."

Of course, these will be ignored on page two of the story:

Whatever the reason for no acorns, foresters and botanists are paying attention.

But they say they're not worried yet. "What's there to worry about?" said Alan Whittemire, a botanist at the U.S. Arboretum. "If you're a squirrel, it's a big worry. But it's no problem for the oak tree. They live a long time. They'll produce acorns again when they're ready to."

White oaks can live as long as 300 years. Faster-growing red oaks can reach 200. And it takes only one acorn to make a tree, he said, which in an urban area with little open space is often more than enough.

"This is probably just a low year, a biological event, and it'll go away," Zimmer said. "But if this were to continue another two, three, four years, you might have to ask yourself what's going on, whether it is an indication of something bigger."

I know it's not a popular sentiment here, but Beware the church of climate alarm.

[P]erhaps people are starting to wonder whether the so-called precautionary principle, which would have us accept enormous new taxes in the guise of an emissions trading scheme and curtail economic growth, is justified, based on what we actually know about climate.

One of Australia's leading enviro-sceptics, the geologist and University of Adelaide professor Ian Plimer, 62, says he has noticed audiences becoming more receptive to his message that climate change has always occurred and there is nothing we can do to stop it.

In a speech at the American Club in Sydney on Monday night for Quadrant magazine, titled Human-Induced Climate Change - A Lot Of Hot Air, Plimer debunked climate-change myths.

"Climates always change," he said. Our climate has changed in cycles over millions of years, as the orbit of the planet wobbles and our distance from the sun changes, for instance, or as the sun itself produces variable amounts of radiation. "All of this affects climate. It is impossible to stop climate change. Climates have always changed and they always will.

His two-hour presentation included more than 50 charts and graphs, as well as almost 40 pages of references. It is the basis of his new book, Heaven And Earth: The Missing Science Of Global Warming, to be published early next year.

Plimer said one of the charts, which plots atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature over 500 million years, with seemingly little correlation, demonstrates one of the "lessons from history" to which geologists are privy: "There is no relationship between CO2 and temperature."

[...]

Plimer says creationists and climate alarmist

...to what the majority of comments to this article will be related, given the delicious quotes like this in the article:'

"I'm used to seeing so many acorns around and out in the field, it's something I just didn't believe. [...] But this is not just not a good year for oaks. It's a zero year. There's zero production. I've never seen anything like this before."

[...]

The absence of acorns could have something to do with the weather, Simmons thought. But he hoped it wasn't a climatic event. "Let's hope it's not something ghastly going on with the natural world."

[...]

"This is the first time I can remember in my lifetime not seeing any acorns drop in the fall and I'm 53. You have to wonder, is it global warming? Is it environmental? It makes you wonder what's going on."

Of course, these will be ignored on page two of the story:

Whatever the reason for no acorns, foresters and botanists are paying attention.

But they say they're not worried yet. "What's there to worry about?" said Alan Whittemire, a botanist at the U.S. Arboretum. "If you're a squirrel, it's a big worry. But it's no problem for the oak tree. They live a long time. They'll produce acorns again when they're ready to."

White oaks can live as long as 300 years. Faster-growing red oaks can reach 200. And it takes only one acorn to make a tree, he said, which in an urban area with little open space is often more than enough.

"This is probably just a low year, a biological event, and it'll go away," Zimmer said. "But if this were to continue another two, three, four years, you might have to ask yourself what's going on, whether it is an indication of something bigger."

I know it's not a popular sentiment here, but Beware the church of climate alarm.

[P]erhaps people are starting to wonder whether the so-called precautionary principle, which would have us accept enormous new taxes in the guise of an emissions trading scheme and curtail economic growth, is justified, based on what we actually know about climate.

One of Australia's leading enviro-sceptics, the geologist and University of Adelaide professor Ian Plimer, 62, says he has noticed audiences becoming more receptive to his message that climate change has always occurred and there is nothing we can do to stop it.

In a speech at the American Club in Sydney on Monday night for Quadrant magazine, titled Human-Induced Climate Change - A Lot Of Hot Air, Plimer debunked climate-change myths.

"Climates always change," he said. Our climate has changed in cycles over millions of years, as the orbit of the planet wobbles and our distance from the sun changes, for instance, or as the sun itself produces variable amounts of radiation. "All of this affects climate. It is impossible to stop climate change. Climates have always changed and they always will.

His two-hour presentation included more than 50 charts and graphs, as well as almost 40 pages of references. It is the basis of his new book, Heaven And Earth: The Missing Science Of Global Warming, to be published early next year.

Plimer said one of the charts, which plots atmospheric carbon dioxide and temperature over 500 million years, with seemingly little correlation, demonstrates one of the "lessons from history" to which geologists are privy: "There is no relationship between CO2 and temperature."

[...]

Plimer says creationists and climate alarmists are quite similar in that "we're dealing with dogma and people who, when challenged, become quite vicious and irrational".

Human-caused climate change is being "promoted with religious zeal ... there are fundamentalist organisations which will do anything to silence critics. They have their holy books, their prophet [is] Al Gore. And they are promoting a story which is frightening us witless [using] guilt [and urging

WHILE their warships patrol the Gulf of Aden to protect merchant shipping from Somali pirates, a number of those nations are directly linked to foreign fishing fleets that are plundering Somalia's fish stocks, says a new paper on reasons behind the growth of piracy off the Horn of Africa.

There are warships from India, Malaysia, Britain, the US, France, Russia, Spain and South Korea in the region shepherding merchant shipping and pursuing pirates but largely ignoring the illegal foreign fishers.

We've been having a lot of this sort of thing lately. --Not all of them get this much notice, or accurate coverage. --There was a report of a 'plane' going down over some American town a week or so back, creating a huge aerial show and loud bang, putting the residents and authorities into a tizzy. --The only thing was that no planes were reported missing and they didn't find any wreckage.

I half suspect when we get one of the big ones that the PTB will have chutzpah to call it a terrorist nuke if they can get away with it.

A skimming of noted events for October. . .

Astronomy enthusiast Howard Edin reports that he was looking in the opposite direction at the time, but saw the whole observing field light up and at first thought someone had turned on their car headlights.

Reports came from residents from Carmel Valley to Salinas of a fireball shooting through the Tuesday night sky and hitting the Earth. A sheriff's deputy patrolling Carmel Valley saw it and thought enough of it to call for reinforcements.

IT appeared against the early evening sky like a flare - moments later roofs rattled and verandas shook as it crashed to earth.

[...]The Evening Telegraph has been inundated with calls and e-mails from readers who saw a strange fireball cutting a swath across the heavens[...]

For the second time this year, The University of Western Ontario Meteor Group has captured incredibly rare video footage of a meteor falling to Earth.

A bright light sped across the sky, followed by a loud explosion. Osborne County Sheriff Curtis Miner tells KSAL News that it was not an unidentified flying object, or anything sinister. It was a large meteor.

-FL

I believe the Aquanator came first.

http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/09/26/1096137100758.html?oneclick=true

That is because this case is unrelated to the filtering trial.

iiNet are being sued because they didn't do anything when the film companies sent them notices that some of their customers were pirating their media. They apparently sent 18 notices and iiNet refused to do anything because they were allegations rather than court ordered actions.

To be honest, this seems quite reasonable to me, iiNet should not have to cut people off just because someone says: That guy was pirating my stuff, here is an IP and a time. The companies should go after the individual, not the ISP.

Ultimately we will see what the federal courts decide. The media companies in question have stated that if this goes well, they will continue onto other Australian ISPs.

Dell has been caught red-faced: 2005
... apologized ... : 2008

Anybody with half a brain would be on a capped plan or have some bandwidth monitoring. If you did your research before signing your lease you could have ADSL2+ from a non-Telstra ISP and be filling it with bittorrents. You didn't think to ask where the phone was?

The first 3G capped plan offered in Australia was introduces by Vodafone a few months ago. Three still doesn't offer capped 3G plans to this day. Yes, perhaps I could have used some sort of software bandwidth monitoring, but we hadn't gone over the cap for the previous 6 months, so I didn't think it was necessary. The $360 bill was an example of how dearly you pay for mistakes like that when you're on a 3G plan.

I'm sure that when you're looking for a place to live in rural South Australia, you have the luxury of "asking where the phone was" and having the answer to that question be a factor in your decision process. Things are quite a bit different in Sydney (and AFAIK, other major Aussie cities). Last time I was looking for a place to live in Sydney, I was applying and being rejected from 3 different places every week for 2 months before I found a place. Things like this are not uncommon. I have personally counted over 75 people at one of the house inspections I went to in Enmore. When your rental agent tells you he's found a place you can actually have, the only question you have the luxury to ask is "can I afford it".

The ALP's position on this before last year's federal election was that the proposed filtering system was optional; you could opt out of it. However, on 2 November, just weeks before election day, ALP candidate for the seat of Kingsford Smith, Peter Garret, told 2UE journalist Steve Price, "once we get in we'll just change it all". Now that comment was in the context of climate policy, but I guess now we know that it has a somewhat broader application, because the ALP's position has changed post-election to a mandatory filtering system.

Given that there are ISP plans that offer the sort of filtering that the ALP wishes to force on everyone in the country, and that the government already offers client-side filtering packages, free of charge, this post-election flip-flop is nothing sort of treacherous, and if they go ahead with it I suspect that a lot of Australians will be waiting for the ALP at the next poll with metaphorical baseball bats. I, for one, talk to my friends and family about this issue. It's a vote-changer for me, and I take time to make sure that my friends and family understand how this affects them.

Memo any ALP apparatchiks that might have found their way to Slashdot: This is a vote-changing issue. There are many of us who are extremely displeased with the pig-headed way in which the Minister has pursued this matter. The ALP stands to lose many votes over it. There are few votes to be won because nearly all of those you hope to gain over this filtering proposal already go to religious candidates and you have stuff-all chance of changing that. Summary dismissal and form letters that don't even address the issues are no longer good enough. Ignore the users of the internet at your electoral peril.

has the last 10 years of anti gun policy in this country lowered the murder rate? http://www.smh.com.au/news/national/buyback-has-no-effect-on-murder-rate/2006/10/23/1161455665717.html i think not

there is an old saying "an armed society is a polite society". perhaps this is why the streets are full of little thugs, because there is no danger of anyone fighting back and the cops are laughably under resourced. and no before you go off on some tangent about the wild west, it's not gun battles in the street that stop crimminals, the mere fact it MIGHT happen to be them that gets blown away that stops them.

There must be two Indonesias, because the one you describe is very different to this one.

Then go to North korea, because you might think that all this is only due to religion. Look around.

Comparing North Korea and any of your other examples introduces far too many variables. Why not look at a study which keeps these factors constant by only comparing instances of creator-worship in western democracies.

You'll notice I said "more technical interference", even our communications minister isn't as bad as the Ayatollah. :)

The quote appeared in the paper here.

For anyone interested check out, our (Electronic Frontiers Australia) campaign site.

The real story here is not that the government wants to censor the internet, but that the government has moved to gag a critic of the plan.

I think the anonymous reader in the final paragraph of the summary needs to read up a little on the MD5 vulnerability. It's possible to generate two files with the same hash containing a 16-byte block of differing code (where you have no control over the contents of that block in either file), but the rest of the file needs to be identical to the original. That's fine for dynamically generated HTML or even executables where a decision could be made on the contents of the varying block, but doing anything useful with jpeg is a pretty tough ask. Or are they suggesting we brute force it?

How many countries that you would consider first world nations have not abolished capitol punishment?

No country has abolished capital punishment. Australia? No: http://news.smh.com.au/national/police-fatally-shoot-man-with-knife-20081010-4y99.html UK? No: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/police-sure-man-they-shot-was-bomber/2008/09/23/1221935641875.html

We just change how we go about it and who we apply it to. Afghanistan citizens rather than our own, for example. Criticising countries that have the death penalty is hypocritical, especially when there are people that want it restored anyway.

I'd rather get rid of prison terms for all non-violent offences which overall I see as a far larger problem than the death penalty. Not to the individual obviously, but to society.

How many countries that you would consider first world nations have not abolished capitol punishment?

No country has abolished capital punishment. Australia? No: http://news.smh.com.au/national/police-fatally-shoot-man-with-knife-20081010-4y99.html UK? No: http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/police-sure-man-they-shot-was-bomber/2008/09/23/1221935641875.html

We just change how we go about it and who we apply it to. Afghanistan citizens rather than our own, for example. Criticising countries that have the death penalty is hypocritical, especially when there are people that want it restored anyway.

I'd rather get rid of prison terms for all non-violent offences which overall I see as a far larger problem than the death penalty. Not to the individual obviously, but to society.

Try virtually nonexistent - I'm more likely to win the lottery.

If the risk of a Chernobyl-style catastrophic failure was "virtually nonexistent", we would not have had one already.

Unsolved in the USA, France and Japan seem to have little issue with it.

France's waste is still in "interim storage", awaiting a long-term solution. Meanwhile, it's leaking into groundwater.

Japan's waste also still has no long-term home; they plan to start building a facility in the 2030s.

Given that the goal of of democracy is to create a government subordinate to and responsible to the people, government secrecy is anti-democratic

If the work of a government involves the management of people's personal/private information, then I think some secrecy is justified. (eg. Tax departments probably hold a lot of information about individuals that shouldn't be distributed to everyone.) It also makes sense for some parts of government to keep information secret if its release might compromise safety of people, and ideally only for the duration of time that this is an issue. (eg. Police investigations, and yeah I'm sure there is the occasional national security thing that justifies this.)

The problem is really that lazily designed governments tend to lean towards habits of making things secret by default because it's easier than having to make them open. Once you're in the habit of having secrets it's difficult to re-design ways of doing things to make them less secret, but still keep it safe. If you want an idea of a government with a reasonably open design, take a look at this Australian journalist's blog post about the New Zealand Government's Official Information Act. (Transparency International rates NZ as first equal with Denmark and Sweden in its 2008 corruption perception's index.)

Anyone in New Zealand can request any information they like from a government department, and the department is legally obligated to respond with the information within a set time-frame. The only exceptions are if the request wasn't specific enough (or would require unreasonable amounts of work), if privacy or national security might be unreasonably compromised, if the department doesn't have the info (in which case they have to try to transfer it to somewhere that does) and a few other things which are clearly defined. If anything is with-held, the department has to explain why in the context of the relevant section of the law.

If the person who made a request isn't satisfied, they can complain to an independent ombudsman who has complete power to investigate and see any information that's being withheld, then make a judgement. The consequence is that nearly any sizeable government department has entire sections of people whose primary job is to receive requests for information, distribute them to people who can answer them, and make sure they get answered on time. Being too badly organised isn't an acceptable excuse for not responding in the legally defined timeframe, so librarians get employed to make sure that all information gets properly catalogued as soon as it's produced, to make it efficient and quick to find if and when it's requested, and that relevant information doesn't get missed. (Otherwise the department could get in trouble later on if there's an investigation.) Often it's easier to just be in the habit of producing information and reports that can easily be made public, and publishing it before people ask for it, then help people find it if they continue to ask.

If there aren't proper checks and balances within the government, there's nothing to make sure that an agency is doing what it's supposed to do when it's being secret. That's where the biggest problem is because there's no reason to justify why the public should trust the government, and trust should be everything in a democratically elected government. Even if you don't get the government you voted for, you should be able to trust that the government you get is doing what it's doing above board and as openly as possible. You should also be able to be sure that elected politicians aren't directly interfering with the rest of the workings of government except in ways that are clearly visible and above board, and I think that's where the USA and several other countries have serious p

The fines relate only to the 2 million emails the trio allegedly sent to New Zealand addresses, which netted them more than $US2 million in sales commissions.

from this news article on the Sydney Morning Herald today.