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Dude, you blame everybody except yourself.
The Great Barrier is dying mostly due to heat and CO2 (acidity). Just part of the $500M will be used for the runoff since that is not the prime issue.
But, Dude, you spread FUD/lies and do not care about anybody except yourselves.
China continues to add more coal plants and even with the worst measurement, china is 1/3 of the global CO2, even though they are less than 1/6 of the population. And you assholes keep building more coal electrical plants in your nation and around the world while growing your CO2 emissions faster than anybody.
You will be the ones to be blamed for killing our reef.

Not to worry, the SJW's will make sure it ends up racist against white and males before long.

https://www.usatoday.com/story...
https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/0...
https://www.americanthinker.co...
https://www.theaustralian.com....

Here is a more informative source: https://www.theaustralian.com....

"Dr Reichelt said maps accompanying the research had been misleading, exaggerating the impact. “I don’t know whether it was a deliberate sleight of hand or lack of geographic knowledge but it certainly suits the purpose of the people who sent it out,” he said.

“This is a frightening enough story with the facts, you don’t need to dress them up. We don’t want to be seen as saying there is no problem out there but we do want people to understand there is a lot of the reef that is unscathed.”

Dr Reichelt said there had been widespread misinterpretation of how much of the reef had died.

“We’ve seen headlines stating that 93 per cent of the reef is practically dead,” he said.

“We’ve also seen reports that 35 per cent, or even 50 per cent, of the entire reef is now gone.

“However, based on our combined results so far, the overall mortality rate is 22 per cent — and about 85 per cent of that die-off has occurred in the far north between the tip of Cape York and just north of Lizard Island, 250km north of Cairns. Seventy-five per cent of the reef will come out in a few months time as recovered.”"

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It's like that schmuck in Australia who told the young uns the could afford a house in Sydney if only they'd give up avocado toast.

The original article does *not* say this. It says that, if you're saving up to buy a house, you had better not regularly spend $22 on avocado toast for breakfast.

Expenses like that add up - and the people who fail to realise this will remain poor.

In order to stave off the inevitable "citation required":

http://www.theaustralian.com.a...

What is epic is that the EXACT SAME STORY happened to Australia's Health workers.
IBM Makes a payment system.
System is delivered on time, so public service managers get their bonuses.
Workers are not getting paid.
Government sues IBM.
IBM wins lawsuit, plus legal fees, because it followed the specifications in the contract.

http://www.theaustralian.com.a...
"the government was not able to define and stick to a scope”
This is what's happening at the Canadian Government right now too. IBM made a "perfect" system for 37.5 hours a week, full time employees, who do not change jobs or get temporary assignations, and who do not go on parental or disability leave.
It's Hell. And we're all paying for it.

Except that your analysis is not based on reality. Most of China's growth to 2030 is expected to be renewables. And the unexpectedly fast drop in the price of solar since that Bloomberg energy analysis was conducted (2013) will only be expected to increase that share.

That's just not true. More often than not, there's no invasion, instead of group of puppet opponents are trained and funded by the USA. Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Nicaragua, Argentina, Chile, Zaire/Congo, Cuba, Colombia, Panama, El Salvador, Ghana, Haiti, Honduras, Uruguay, Guatemala. Probably many others.

Not just 3rd-world countries. Some have seen the CIA fingerprints on the US's closest allies.

http://www.theaustralian.com.a...

1. Your link to the rebuttal is behind a paywall.
2. Are you saying that a scientist was disciplined for rebutting another scientist?!
3. If the reef can't adapt then literally it deserves to die-- it's called evolution.

We need to stop watching Fern Gully and end this "pristine nature" worship. It's not productive, it solves no problems, it's really nothing but facile virtue signalling based on the false premise that pristine nature is valuable and that the earth is somehow damaged just by the presence of humans. We don't have to wantonly destroy everything we see (and we're not wantonly destroying the reef), but we can and should make use of the earth for our benefit. Any other course of action is either irrational or outright self-hatred, right?

Disclaimer: I'm a physicist at James Cook University, where this study was published. My mother used to work at AIMS 20 years ago, my sister works for CSIRO in marine research, and my cousin-in-law is currently the Coral Reef ARC's COO.

These are results published by the Australian Research Council Centre for Coral Reef Studies. Prof. Terry Hughes, who runs this centre at JCU, has basically surrounding himself with like-minded people. The self-citation rate for articles published by the centre is remarkably high, and I quite frankly don't trust Prof. Hughes to do unbiased research, or to critically analyse his own work. There is a pretty strong monoculture of reef research, and I believe it's a pretty serious problem. One of my physics lecturers wrote a rebuttal letter to Prof Hughes that was leaked to the press, and was disciplined for it (one more strike and he's fired). I would really like to see a little more diversity in the people that study this topic.

That said, I have no reason to doubt the truth of this study. The die-off is real, and is unprecedented in modern times, and elementary physics tells us that increased temperatures due to climate change can only make it worse, not better. My mum's old boss from AIMS, Charlie Veron said in a seminar 10 years ago that the reef is probably doomed, and that even if we manage to stop all CO2 today, there's enough inertia that very little of the reef will survive.

Pilot error blamed for Syd flight failure

One approach trajectory for runway 34 in MEL flies directly over a runway at the much smaller Essendon airport and some large jets have come close to landing there because they follow their navigation, see a runway and go for it.

People fuck up. In the dark with rain going they might see lights below, assume they are in the right spot and put their A340 down in Putin's bedroom.

http://www.itnews.com.au/news/...

ABS ditches in-house plans in favour of outsourcing.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics has opted not to build its own private cloud to host the 2016 eCensus, instead awarding a $9.6 million outsourcing contract to existing partner IBM.

This would be the same IBM that one of the states of Australia has blacklisted from IT contracts for the government.

Yay consistency.

Actually, if you are actually running Waze or other navigation, the phone will already be alerting you that you missed the turn-off to day-care and are on auto-pilot to the office. That seems to be the most common way for babies to be forgotten. Stressing over work, your wife/husband asks you to drop the baby off at the last minute - its not part of your normal routine.
      I can understand it. It happened near here 3 years ago: the dad went to pickup baby from daycare after work, was told the baby had not been dropped off. The horror of realisation, running back to the car, and finding the baby who had been in there all day.

http://www.theaustralian.com.a...

A carbon price is a proxy for the missing external costs of coal power, so it helps raise the wholesale price to better reflect its true cost (which is around double current wholesale prices). This alone encourages alternatives - both demand for carbon-neutral alternative power, and investment in further renewable generation.

But of course, the revenue from that didn't vanish; it was funneled back into industry adaption schemes and consumer tax cuts. And it worked, driving emissions down significantly, until it was repealed in 2014 (at which point they immediately started rising again.

You mention industry adaption schemes like that's a bad thing. It's a required thing. You can't legislate someone out of business and not provide an exit strategy. That's a good way for them to fight you tooth and nail the entire way. People will lose their jobs if/when coal goes away. As a coal/natural gas worker, I've been to many former coal towns and poverty, drug abuse, and crime are very quick to creep in when the coal money runs out. We're talking about intentionally destroying lives and communities here.

The green movement is winning. I can't stop that, nobody can. It is inevitable. I have to give the environmentalists credit, they fought persistently over a long period of time. They won, or they will win. But now it is very important that we take care of those who will be harmed by the transition. If coal-free truly is "better for all of us in the long run", then surely the green movement can afford some compassion for those who found themselves on the opposite side of the argument. It isn't anyone's fault they were born to parents who live(d) in a coal town. Most people would not choose that life if they had another option. If sinking the coal boat needs to happen, common decency demands that we rescue the victims on that boat.

A carbon price is a proxy for the missing external costs of coal power, so it helps raise the wholesale price to better reflect its true cost (which is around double current wholesale prices). This alone encourages alternatives - both demand for carbon-neutral alternative power, and investment in further renewable generation.

But of course, the revenue from that didn't vanish; it was funneled back into industry adaption schemes and consumer tax cuts. And it worked, driving emissions down significantly, until it was repealed in 2014 (at which point they immediately started rising again.

What if life actually started on Earth and found it's why to Europa due to meteor bombardment on Earth before the dinosaurs. Wouldn't you like to know if you have neighbours and if those neighbours are related?
Just remember that wifi that you most likely used to post your comment was created by Astronomers to do obscure star stuff, and it netted CSIRO 450$M of royalties, because it changed people's lives. http://www.theaustralian.com.a...
The internet itself was "something that won't change anyone's life" when it was built in the 1970's.
That is what basic science is all about. Discovery for curiosity's sake. If your child is dying of zika or malaria or ebola and a cure is found you might be grateful for the scientist who stumbled upon the answer by doing something completely different, or because they used software built by geologists or astronomers. Astronomy has also influenced cancer research, because software to identify stars can also be used to identify tumours. Astronomy is always valuable. New weather satellites that will better predict storms and flooding will save many lives in years to come.
The poor country Bolivia now has a satellite, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., which enables Andean farmers to communicate with each other and their markets - improving their personal income by helping them bypass expensive middle merchants.
I challenge you to compare your own country's research spending and compare it to spending on pet food or candy. You should be horrified at the result.

Those "dammed terrorists" are not using drones because Obama used them first, they would use them anyway.

If the US government had not designed, built, and deployed drones on the massive scale that it did, the state of the art in drone manufacture would not be nearly as far advanced as it is. Can you list any sophisticated technical innovations that have been introduced by terrorists, before any government had done so? After the USA developed practical, working nuclear weapons it became orders of magnitude easier for anyone else to do so - other nations, or terrorists, or even harmless individuals who were merely interested in the challenge. E.g. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... The same applies, but even more so, to drones - which are much smaller, cheaper, and easier to build.

Do you honestly believe that the air of the USA would be as thick with privately-owned drones as it is today, if the government had not beaten a path by showing that drones could be made and used, and by giving them "the oxygen of publicity" on a massive scale?

Are you suggesting that Obama should not use drones, because that would be so unfair?

No. Although the way he does use drones is not just unfair, but illegal and immoral. I was sarcastically suggesting that the US government might complain how unfair it is for terrorists to start doing what the US government itself has been doing for years.

There are also other (apparently unanticipated) kinds of blowback, such as http://www.theaustralian.com.a...

The good news is the whistleblowing material reached the public and press in full. Whistleblowing material and full public release.
https://cryptome.org/2013-info...

Long term what could happen?
The prospect of Sweden doing a "temporary surrender" to the US and its secret grand jury before returning to Sweden again.
"Julian Assange: where does he go from here?" (September 12, 2015)
http://www.theaustralian.com.a...
"They admit that the grand jury is continuing. "
"Don't lose sight of why the US is out to get Julian Assange "
http://www.theguardian.com/com...
"There are specific risks in Sweden – for example, its fast-track "temporary surrender" extradition agreement it has with the US. "
Revealed: US plans to charge Assange
http://www.smh.com.au/technolo...
"... the existence of a ''temporary surrender'' mechanism that could allow Mr Assange to be extradited from Sweden to the US."

The other history is that of József Mindszenty
"...political asylum by the United States embassy in Budapest, where Mindszenty lived for the next fifteen years"
"Mindszenty lived there for the next 15 years, unable to leave the grounds"

Ah I see, it's your opinion - hence the redefinition of "fact".

So you feel the only reasonable standard is one a business can meet without difficulty, regardless of the external costs to everyone else. Which of course would mean there'd be no pressure to develop new technologies that meet these higher standards (such as catalytic converters or electric vehicles), and LA would look more like Beijing.

It's obvious that not ALL companies are cheating (Tesla certainly isn't), and there's certainly no evidence that consumers are ignoring these standards either - if they were, VW wouldn't have been faced with such a huge public scandal.

Nowhere does it say "as defined by a bigoted interpretation of a specific god".

It sure as fuck doesn't say "unalienable rights except as overruled by a ratified vote".

There exists in the modern world a legal classification of "married", which conveys upon you certain legal rights and privileges. What SCOTUS has done is say "the 14h ammendment says"

.
There is no religious exemption.

Doesn't "unalienable rights except as overruled by a ratified vote" cover exactly what exists in the states that have not allowed same sex marriage? (I'm not saying I agree with their laws - their laws encroach upon liberty, which I don't like).

Since the laws banning it applied exactly equally to everyone (i.e. a same sex couple, of any sexual orientation, was not allowed to marry), how did it not exclude everyone equally? Therefore treating everyone as equals under the eyes of the law.

Same sex heterosexual couples can get married (in states that allow same sex marriage). Suggesting otherwise would be both heterosexist, hypocritical and wrong. It has already happened - http://www.theaustralian.com.a... - Their reason for marriage is perfectly valid. People can get married for whatever reason they want. The people upset at their marriage are hypocrites. The whole point of allowing same sex marriage is that any two people who want to marry should be able to, for whatever reason they want - suddenly reversing that stance when two heterosexuals do it is poor form.

This law should now make it legal for friendship marriages for the purpose of becoming an American citizen legal as well.

We have negative gearing, a tax benefit - aimed solely at the rich.

Typical Aussie bullshitter:

"THE vast majority of property investors taking advantage of negative gearing are “mum and dads” earning less than
$80,000 a year, countering the long-held view that the property investment measure was a tax lurk for the rich.

Australian Taxation Office data shows that of the 1.266 million Australians who declared that the rental on
their investment properties didn’t meet the interest repayment in 2011-12, 883,325 earned less than $80,000.

Rich people don't invest in residential property. Look at the Forbes or BRW rich lists: how many residential property billionaires do you see?

Except I'm not American. I am British by descent, and have lived and worked on three continents. But your point is irrelevant anyway: The term is commonly used outside the USA as well. For example:

UK:
http://arstechnica.co.uk/gamin...
http://www.pcadvisor.co.uk/new...
http://www.theguardian.com/tec...
http://www.macworld.co.uk/news...
http://www.gizmodo.co.uk/2015/...

CA:
http://circanews.com/news/cord...
http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/n...
http://www.chathamdailynews.ca...
http://www.canadiancordcutting...
http://shayne.tablotvweb.nomad...

AU:
http://www.computerworld.com.a...
http://www.theaustralian.com.a...
http://www.businessinsider.com...
http://www.cnet.com/au/news/co...
http://www.pcauthority.com.au/...

Just because you're ignorant of its usage, that doesn't mean the term isn't broadly used around the world in countries with large English-speaking populations.

And look what happened to Greece as a result! If only they had continued to spank their children...

Seriously though, new technology has seen this thing before also.

The charges are bullshit

http://theaustralian.com.au/news/wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-escapes-arrest-in-britain-after-warrant-blunder/story-e6frg6n6-1225964413116

Sean O’Neill, Frances Gibb, and Catherine Philp From: The Times December 02, 2010 ..

Mr Stephens [his London-based lawyer,] said that Mr Assange was originally wanted on a charge of rape but that it had been thrown out after a partially successful appeal. As a result, he said, the current allegations did not justify an arrest warrant under Swedish law.

“The sole ground for the warrant is the prosecutor’s blatantly false allegation that he is on the run from justice: he left Sweden lawfully and has offered himself for questioning. An appeal against this decision was filed on Monday and is pending.”

“This is a persecution not a prosecution,” Mr Stephens said. “It is highly unusual for a red notice warrant to be issued in relation to the allegations reported as having been made, since Swedish law does not require custodial orders in relation to the allegation.

The link is at http://www.theaustralian.com.a...

It is a story about two vision impaired guys from Australia who programmed the NVDA for their own use and for all the vision impaired people everywhere

That program has been translated into many languages and now is being used all over

They are making the program themselvesl and give their program away, for free

PS: In case it wasn't clear, in Oz it's common for banks to charge you for withdrawals from their own machines. Not all to be fair, but most. It's so rampart in Oz that the banks are constantly running afoul of the fair trading commission:

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/choice-urges-accc-to-investigate-bank-charges/story-fn3dxity-1225967327642?nk=6aba634af8978d6f84c21594053be45a

Wow! What a URL!!

1 of them is committing this crime.

In the name of his religion.

What they need is a local Imam to get on a megaphone and tell this guy that this is not in keeping with Islam and that he (the Imam) will personally supervise his body being fed to pigs if he doesn't come out RIGHT NOW.

They did more or less exactly that, to no effect: http://www.skynews.com.au/news...

I think what you're expecting with this comment is that the perpetrator will recognise the authority of leaders in his religious community and abide by their direction due to his faith. That they did exactly what you describe and it had no effect demonstrates that there is a disconnect here between the motivations of this individual and the control and authority of the religion.

This could be a disconnect between radical and moderate elements within the religion (i.e. a schism which allows him to declare that his interpretation of the religion is the "correct" one and that those other interpretations can be ignored) or a disconnect between the religion and this person's true motivations (i.e. he isn't actually directly and wholly motivated by the religion).

In either case, this is a good illustration that Islam and adherence to the faith isn't his only motivator. In fact, there is ample evidence from his past that he is a mentally unstable person and this may have more bearing on his actions than his proclaimed faith: http://www.theaustralian.com.a...

This guy is simply not right in the head. It's not that he's a Muslim that caused this, its the fact he's mentally ill. He's already lost 5 of his hostages (they escaped out the back door) he's that incompetent. This is more an indication of Australia's failing mental health care than the rise of Islamic extremism.

I'm also Australian and I'm afraid I have to disagree with you here.

As you'll no doubt have now heard from the ongoing media coverage, this man also sent a number of offensive letters to the families of killed Australian armed service personnel, using rhetoric such as "A Jewish man who kills innocent Muslim civilians is not a pig, he is a thousand times worse".

He was an active participant in Muslim protests during the recent anti-terror raids in Sydney and Brisbane. At the time, he said: "Islam is the religion of peace, that’s why Muslims fight against the oppression and terrorism of USA and its allies including UK and Australia"

You can read a good summary of his progress to radicalisation here: http://www.theaustralian.com.a...

You'll note I've specifically excluded his alleged sex crimes, the charges of being an accessory to the murder of his ex-wife and other elements of his sordid past. He certainly seems to be mentally disturbed, but equally there is no doubt that the Muslim faith, his belief in it, the recent rise of Islamic extremism internationally (he specifically asked for an ISIL flag to be delivered to the cafe) and his willingness to act on its behalf materially contributed to these events.

I think it's fair to say that he was vulnerable to the influence of potentially radicalising agents due to his mental health and that radical Islam acted on that vulnerability. It's not reasonable to say that radical Islam had no influence or played no part in this man's actions.

But last quarter's loss was big, too big. That is why the stock suddenly took a hit.

Not news for 2 reasons

    1) standard practice to re-screen if someone has bypassed screening

    2) this has happened several times before (see links below)

The only thing that made this relevant for slashdot was the presence of an iPad (Ah Ha! A technology angle!). That said, the exit from T3 isn't that secure, but it is a domestic terminal. The domestic terminals use pretty standard x-ray of belongings and a metal detector. In other words, just like getting into an office building in downtown New York. The security is nothing like the international terminals which are about the same level as at US airports.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...
  http://www.theaustralian.com.a...

For the most part, they already have.

US Solar subsidies in decline:
http://www.pv-magazine.com/new...

Australian subsidies in decline:
http://www.theaustralian.com.a...

China cuts solar subsidies:
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/...

And yet it hasn't stopped solar deployments. Because even without subsidies, they're now cost competitive. Utility companies can't use the canard of government subsidized energy any longer. Yet they've invested - as the Economist notes - half a trillion in fossil fuel plants worldwide. I'm proposing a solution that at least prevents a utility meltdown during the transition period.

Australian cops are *dirty*

NSW!
Good cop, bad cop: how corrupt police work with drug dealers http://theconversation.com/goo...
Corruption is endemic within Australia's police agencies, and certainly within the Australian Federal Police and New South Wales Police, which between them cover the Sydney airports. It also embraces crime commissions and other institutions charged with responsibility for police governance on behalf of the public. http://www.expendable.tv/2011/...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...
http://www.abc.net.au/news/201...
Pressure grows for NSW police inquiry
Posted 8 Oct 2012, 7:18pmMon 8 Oct 2012, 7:18pm
Up to 200 police officers may have been spied on with listening devices and telephone intercepts.

VICTORIA!
http://www.theaustralian.com.a...
Victorian police corrupt: ex-judge The Australian
VICTORIA'S police force is riddled with "deep-seated and continuing corruption" that will only be flushed out by a powerful and wide-ranging royal commission. Don Stewart, one of the nation's most respected judicial figures, says Victoria Police and the Bracks Labor Government oppose a royal commission because they do not want the extent of corruption within the force made public. "They know that it would reveal what they don't want revealed," says the former Supreme Court judge and founding head of Australia's first national crime agency. Dismissing arguments that dirty police are already being driven out of the force through the courts, he says the recent convictions of senior Victorian officers on corruption charges are "the tip of the iceberg". "The arrest of some corrupt police only proves that corruption is deep-seated and continuing," Mr Stewart says in a book to be published in March.

CANBERRA!
http://www.canberratimes.com.a...
A long history of police corruption. In 1990 the AFP officer Michael Anthony Wallace was convicted of stealing $20 million worth of drugs and cash exhibits. In 1995 Standen's colleague, Alan Taciak, rolled over in the NSW Police royal commission and alleged 78 AFP officers - 15 per cent of the force - were corrupt. Taciak's allegations sparked the Harrison inquiry in 1996. Its final report, which is understood to have alleged widespread corruption in the AFP, has also not been released. The head of the inquiry, Ian Harrison, now a Supreme Court judge, said many agents escaped investigation by quitting the AFP. In 2001 Standen's former boss at the Sydney drugs unit, Cliff Foster, committed suicide while under investigation over corruption.

SOUTH AUSTRALIA!
http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/...

DARWIN!
http://www.abc.net.au/local/st...
NT police oppose anti-corruption tests. The Northern Territory Police Association says it will oppose Federal Government plans to secretly test officers' integrity as part of new anti-corruption measures.

QUEENSLAND!
Queensland police misconduct files reveal corruption, favouritism, sexual misconduct

but with censorship we would have that ugly little activity swept away under a rug where we don't have to remember that it happens

Please, people are beheaded or stoned to death every day in the ME and N Africa, nobody gives a flying fuck until it's a westerner's head. The staged execution clip is propaganda, it's clear intent is to divide and conquer through fear and xenophobia, why else would they choose an executioner with a british accent?

There is simply no rational reason to keep circulating enemy propaganda, people who do so are driven by fear and/or myopic ideological priorities. This is a proxy war between the Saudi's (Sunni's) and Iran (Shia), but the Saudi's have now seem to have realised they've created yet another frankenstein puppet. So far the world powers have been using brains to fight ISIS. let's hope that Russia, China, and the West keep using their brains in this conflict, because resuming the indiscriminate bombing of Iraqi cities will do nothing except entrench ISIS' 7th century ideology and governance into the local culture.

While on the subject of propaganda and hypocrisy, it's also convenient to western self-interest that this (and the MH17) story gained huge attention but the repeated bombing of a UN school in Gaza with US munitions is quietly "swept under the carpet". Where's the political outrage toward those acts that was starting to manifest itself as large street protests a couple of weeks ago?

they've just found the 3rd weapons cache in a UN school. that's a pretty neutral party and, as far as i can tell, pretty much by definition using human shields. there's the whole documented "don't flee from israeli warnings" that people have pretty good documentation of.

the whole, documented proof that in the last conflict hamas revised their ratios of civilians to combatants in a politically favorable direction. they reported high ratios of civilian casualties during the conflict and later on reported lower ratios. That last one isn't definitive, but certainly looks suspect.

http://www.theaustralian.com.a...

i have no idea how reliable that is, but it's also incidental. everything else is damning enough.

Iran can make nuclear weapons and they won't even say a word.

Iran dilutes nuclear material
July 21, 2014
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/iran-dilutes-nuclear-material/story-fn3dxix6-1226995916083

IRAN has turned all of its enriched uranium closest to the level needed to make nuclear arms into more harmless forms, the United Nations' nuclear agency says.

THE move was expected. Tehran had committed to convert or dilute its 20-per cent enriched stockpile under an agreement with six powers last November that froze its atomic programs pending negotiations on a comprehensive deal. Those talks were extended on Saturday to November 24.

Still, the development was noteworthy in reflecting Iran's desire not to derail the diplomatic process with the six countries - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

If you really cared about Iran and not about piling up perceived failure at Obama's feet, you sure as shit would have seen this headline from last week.

It wasn't a secret. The AP, AFP, Reuters, and pretty much everyone was talking about it.

/Naturally Fox News did their best to report only on the extension of talks.

Shouldn't forget North Korea either, who we know has nuclear weapons and has actively threatened to use them against US targets.

Iran can make nuclear weapons and they won't even say a word.

Iran dilutes nuclear material
July 21, 2014
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/latest-news/iran-dilutes-nuclear-material/story-fn3dxix6-1226995916083

IRAN has turned all of its enriched uranium closest to the level needed to make nuclear arms into more harmless forms, the United Nations' nuclear agency says.

THE move was expected. Tehran had committed to convert or dilute its 20-per cent enriched stockpile under an agreement with six powers last November that froze its atomic programs pending negotiations on a comprehensive deal. Those talks were extended on Saturday to November 24.

Still, the development was noteworthy in reflecting Iran's desire not to derail the diplomatic process with the six countries - the United States, Russia, China, Britain, France and Germany.

If you really cared about Iran and not about piling up perceived failure at Obama's feet, you sure as shit would have seen this headline from last week.

It wasn't a secret. The AP, AFP, Reuters, and pretty much everyone was talking about it.

/Naturally Fox News did their best to report only on the extension of talks.

If we need to do an Apollo 13 and scrub build a CO2 scrubber from parts we have on board Earth, then I think this is a better idea.

Oh come on now... the guy may be a tea party-aligned rape fugitive who overrode his political party to caucus with the Neo-Nazis, gave the dictator of Belarus an advance on leaks to be used in purges against his enemies, attempted to blackmail aid agencies by threatening to release information that could get their sources killed (including Amnesty International, to the tune of $700k), makes his volunteers sign 7-figure ultra-repressive NDAs, caused the defection of most of Wikileaks's staff due to complaints from authoritarianism to diverting the organization's money to himself, writes on his blog about how he's a god to women and women's brains can't do math, made a fake op-ed in the name of one of his opponents supposedly supporting him and promoted it with a fake twitter account in his name, wanted his book to be called "Ban This Book: From Swedish Whores to Pentagon Bores", wanted it to be full of his sex stories and at one point interrupted his ghostwriter to leer at a couple of 14-year-olds before remarking that one was "fine until I saw the teeth", cyberstalked a 17 year old before he got famous, and so on down the line ad nauseum... ....that's still no reason to wish him ill.

or call it the "uncanny valley" if you like.

You may fool the camera but you won't fool the eye and masks weird people out. It's too much like having a chance encounter with The Joker. In a concealed carry state I wouldn't be caught wearing one of these things if you paid me.

A gang of men threatening people in Duston and demanding cash while wearing 'Jason' style masks from the Friday the 13th films is being linked to another knifepoint robbery

Woman in Darth Vader mask arrested for early morning armed robbery

Would-be rapist wearing Scream mask jailed for 13 months, Attorney-General might appeal

"The dredge spoils bound for the ocean will be tested before they are dumped to ensure they are safe. GBRMPA says previous testing has already shown there are no identified contaminants in the sediments to be dredged and dumped from Abbot Point."

http://www.theaustralian.com.a...

So, I wasn't quite right, it's not being processed to remove toxic material, it's being tested to ensure there isn't any. Slight difference, same end result.

> Criminal charges and ten years hard time for researchers who communicate with their international peers (y'know, the ones from "peer review") is hardly a non-story, friend.

Exactly, and that's why the universities hate it so much: That's the way they do research; by collaborating with peers.

The University of Sydney Deputy Vice Chancellor of Research warned: "Our researchers may have lost their ability to freely conduct public-good research and communicate research results ... This legislation could mean a conference speech, publication of a scientific paper or sending an email to colleagues could require a Defence permit or become a serious crime. ... It would impede top scientists in developing technologies for tomorrow's high-tech manufacturing industries, new vaccines and potential cures for cancer. The Australian government worries about a brain drain in advanced technology, but is poised to pass legislation that could force our best and brightest offshore". http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-opinion/tighter-defence-ties-will-bind-academics-and-stifle-innovation-20121009-27b4n.html

But the government ignored the universities and rammed the laws through anyway; they wouldn't even accept amendments for basic research. The Commonwealth Chief Scientist dismissed the universities concerns: "Those boxing at shadows and guessing at what it (the laws) might mean to some unspecified but allegedly 'substantial' number of researchers can continue to do that if it makes them happy." http://www.theaustralian.com.au/higher-education/chubbs-defends-researchers-prospects-under-the-defence-trade-controls-bill/story-e6frgcjx-1226508483554

Charming!

This was the actual text from Clayton Utz, the law firm acting for the Australian Department of Defence: "“The reason we believe your claim will fail is because you allege that the Commonwealth owes innovators submitting products or technology for evaluation a duty of care to ensure that the evaluations are either fair, proper and accurate or that the confidential information is respected. There is no such duty of care in Australian law.”

They are very disingenuous: The DSTO publicly solicits businesses to submit inventions to Defence under the "DSTO CTD Capability and Technology Demonstrator Program", and then screw them over behind closed doors.

Here the Defence Science Minister Warren Snowdon announced a DSTO Probity Board "to protect against conflict of interest" http://www.dsto.defence.gov.au/news/6648/, while here he sends a letter to an independent MP in which he falsely claims the whistleblower didn't want the thefts from other companies to be investigated(!): http://victimsofdsto.com/doc/2011-02-28%20Letter%20from%20Defence%20Science%20Minister%20with%20false%20information%20to%20Independent%20MP%20(NAMES%20BLACKED%20OUT).pdf

Australia's Federal Police force, the AFP, are systemically corrupt. They ignore public service crime http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service-keeps-fraud-cases-private-20110923-1kpdr.html and terrorise whistleblowers: http://pastebin.com/tD8Vd6Vd http://victimsofdsto.com/psc/#kessing

You can't use the civil courts: Under the Model Litigant Policy the Australian government has to keep legal costs to a minimum, must offer alternate dispute resolution, etc. But the government lawyers simply ignore it, run up huge legal bills and threaten to bankrupt you with a costs order if you dare step foot into court. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/legal-affairs/gillard-government-lashed-for-ignoring-breaches-of-model-litigant-rules/story-e6frg97x-1226325228917 Another department did actually bankrupt a guy. Not mentioned in the article, the DSTO also stole IP from some big defence companies (including an American one).

It costs about $2M to litigate the gov. I don't know of a single company who has seen litigation through: SMEs can't afford it, and the large companies said litigating their biggest customer would lose future contracts. The only law firms capable of taking on the government pro bono in Australia are all on retainer to them! Here's a very good book "Our Corrupt Legal System" by an investigative crime journalist; Page 157- describes all the dirty tricks lawyers play: http://netk.net.au/Whitton/OCLS.pdf . play.

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

They also elected the KANGAROO POO YUM YUM Motorists Enthusiasts party: http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/federal-election-2013/likely-senator-dodges-questions-about-kangaroo-poo-fight-video-20130909-2tf8j.html

A shame in South Australia where Nick Xenophon has been reelected as an excellent Senator beloved by his constituents and the Interwebs http://www.news.com.au/national-news/independent-senator-nick-xenophon-overwhelmed-by-record-voter-support/story-fncynjr2-1226714814451

but Xenophon couldn't get his #2 elected because the Greens cut a deal with the major parties. HA! That will come back to haunt them BECAUSE THEY JUST HELPED ELECT THEIR ARCH RIVALS THE ULTRA-CONSERVATIVE FAMILY FIRST PARTY. That will really come back to haunt the Greens now. Talk about cutting off your nose to spite your face. http://www.theaustralian.com.au/national-affairs/election-2013/micro-parties-harvest-three-seats-in-senate/story-fn9qr68y-1226714827198

Logic would say you're right. Religion however... given the fact that it is invented and produced in the West, it will probably be declared "haram" by Muslims (like a Syrian rebel Sharia court outlawed croissants, as they supposedly celebrate victory over invading Muslims). But I'm rather curious about the Jewish verdict.

How is this for impressive then:

Britain admits to using 'brutal' vacuum bomb against Taliban
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/britain-admits-using-vacuum-bomb/story-e6frg6to-1111116704067

Is this where KSM got the idea?

That's not the impression I get at all. This story suggests at least one of the accusers is unhappy with the lack of action.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au//in-depth/wikileaks/rape-accuser-urges-action-on-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange/story-fn775xjq-1226649027660

You are the troll. And a very low-value poster. The Guardian link refers to a nano-diamond creation device supplied by Russia for industry, and which "western" intelligence tried to spin as related to weapons research. Here is the thorough debunking from Moon of Alabama. The "reporting" on nano diamonds was spanked SO BADLY by this blog, that all traces disappeared from press and punditry before November ended.

The whole issue is a misrepresentation of the highest order - from 11/11. Let me update you, with an analysis that is independent, not mere military/government stenography. Concerning the IAEA findings more recently, in August of 2012:

IAEA: Iranian "Nuclear Danger" Decreased

The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) just released its most recent report (GOV/2012/37) on the state of Irans nuclear program.

As usual this report is used to hype up the "nuclear Iran" scare. The London Times even headlines Iran is stockpiling weapons grade uranium, a new reported finds (sic) which is completely false as even its own report below that headline says:

The Israeli diplomat said that Iran was in the process of doubling its capacity at Fordow to about 1,500 centrifuges, increasing the amount of 20 per cent-enriched uranium it could produce. Uranium enriched to 20 per cent fuels Irans main research reactor, but it is also just below the level usable in nuclear bombs.

Not only is any Uranium Iran has below weapons grade but, according to the new IAEA report, Iran has today less enriched Uranium that could quickly be converted into a nuclear weapon than it had in May 2012, the time of the IAEAs last report (GOV/2012/23) on the issue.

Critics of Irans nuclear program are most concerned with the Uranium Iran enriches to a level of 20% U-235 isotope. This enriched Uranium, critics say, could be quickly enriched further to up to 95% and then be used to manufacture a nuclear explosion device.

But enriched Uranium can have several forms. For enrichment natural Uranium is converted into Uranium hexafluoride (UF6) and, slightly heated and under pressure, fed as a gas into centrifuges to separate out the U-238 isotopes. This increases the content of U-235 isotopes needed for nuclear reactions. The enrichment product with 20% U-235 is still in the form of UF6 which could be again fed into a centrifuge cascade for even higher enrichment levels.

But UF6 is not usable as nuclear reactor fuel. For reactor use the UF6 has to be converted into Triuranium oxtoxide (U3O8) and from there into Uranium dioxide UO2. These can be formed into fuel elements to be fed into a reactor. Once this is done there is no easy and quick process to convert these fuel elements back into UF6 for further enrichment. Enriched UF6 once converted into U3O8 and UO2 fuel plates is thereby not directly usable for producing bomb grade uranium and of little proliferation concern.

Iran needs fuel elements with 20% enrichment level for the Tehran Research Reactor (TRR) to produce nuclear isotopes for medical purposes.

According to the May 2012 IAEA report Iran had, at that time, enriched 110.1 kg 20% enriched UF6 at the Pilot Fuel Enrichment Plant (PFEP) in Natanz and 35.5 kg 20% UF6 in the Fuel Enrichment Plant (F

>Added to this technically speaking, when it comes to free speech rights they are unlimited under the constitution, as there is no law limiting the extent of those rights as such any perceived infringement of those rights can be publicly challenged in the Australian High Court. The same goes for all other citizens rights.
That just doesn't make sense. You can only publicly challenge new laws in the High Court if they break existing constitutional laws. Americans have constitutional laws forbidding new laws that limit free speech. Australians don't so Conroy new laws although immoral are entirely legal.

Australia needs a bill of rights, but politicians don't want to give them one. Ever wonder why?
http://www.abc.net.au/worldtoday/content/2008/s2442550.htm
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/features/bill-of-rights-is-the-wrong-call/story-e6frg6z6-1225710664130
http://www.thenewcityjournal.net/carr_bill_rights.htm