Monday, May 03, 2010
New Scientist : Adverse Reactions To Australian 'Triple Flu' Vaccine Seen In Less Than 0.5% Of Vaccinated Children
One Mile Down In Gulf Of Mexico, 'Failsafe' Systems At WellHead Fail Completely, Now Hydraulics Won't Work, Oil Continues To Pour Into Gulf, Will Obama Nuke It?
Nick Clegg, January 2009 : Israel Must Be Punished For Its War On Gaza, UK Must Stop Selling Israel Weapons
Obama Waited A Week, Just Like Bush, To Get Geared Up For Major Disaster Response
Obama's War On Wall Street Carves $21 Billion Dollar Hole In Goldman Sachs
Pervy Humans Force Animals To Fuck In Public At Zoos Because They're Denied The Right To Privacy....No, Really
Publishing Books In China : "It's Not As Controlled As You Might Think" - But Nothing On Islam Or The Dalai Lama Allowed
Flying Killer Robots Via Videogame Controls May Result In Real World War Crimes - CIA Drone Pilots Liable For Prosecution In Countries Where Attacks Occur
The United States Wasn't Under Threat From The Soviets In The 1980s, They Made It All Up, To Keep The War Industry Alive
If We Lose All The Bees, We Will Have To Eat Each Other
Pope Benedict XVI Has Seized Control Of Powerful, Wealthy Roman Catholic Religious Order 'The Legionaries Of Christ'
John Lennon's Across The Universe Has Been Beamed To The North Star - "Aliens Are Alien. If They Exist At All, We Cannot Assume They're Like Us"
17 Million Americans Use Twitter - Half Don't Update, They Just Read Along (Or Don't Exist)
Warren Buffett Has $5 Billion in Goldman Sachs - "It's Hard For Me To Get Terribly Sympathetic When A Bank Makes A Dumb Credit Bet"
The Green Rush Is On : This Is The Early Days Of The American Corporatisation Of Legal Cannabis
We Are Loading Up On Data Like No Generation Before Us, It Is Ruling (And Perhaps Ruining) Our Lives
Some Funeral Homes Will Pose Your Corpse, Say, On Your Favourite Motorcycle
The Age Of Self-Publishing : Three Times More Titles Were Published By Independent, Niche Book Publishers Than The Majors
President Obama Praises 'The 99', Islamic SuperHeroes Who "Embody The Tolerance Of Islam" & Who Will Soon Team Up With Superman And Spiderman
Tim Flannery : Elephants Have Raided Warehouses Where Body Parts Of Elephants Were Stored, Taken The Body Parts Back And Then Buried Them
Thursday, April 29, 2010
An ABC News crew shot spectacular footage of the launch and subsequent crash of a new NASA space research/spy balloon in the Australian outback.
Watch The Vid Here
First news reports claimed that wind was responsible for the crash. But conditions around the Alice Springs launch site are now described as "calm".
No explanation has been offered yet for the crash of the balloon and its payload that was supposed to have soared to the upper reaches of Earth's atmosphere at 50 metres a second.
Mumbrella cites the below Jacob's Creek ad, screened internationally, as one of the most hated, most utterly despised Australian ads of last year, if not of all time. The Mumbrella YouTube channel, where this cloying drivel is embedded, is awash with brutal, violent comments from around the world, including this one :
"If I were at that party, I’d smash that Jacob’s Creek bottle and jam it into his throat"And this one :
"What a complete fucking cunt that bloke is. He needs to be savagely raped with that wine bottle whilst his equally detestable stable of middle class cunt friends need shooting too."Over the top? Yeah, that's what I thought, too. Until I watched it :
Mumbrella has collected more comments on how much this ad has made the world hate Australians here.
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Dozens More Here
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
“This is a country that began with the most enormous trauma, and things like that stick around. History matters. For the people who settled there, it really was like being sent to Mars. They were an outcast lot — not just the prisoners, but the soldiers who guarded them. You were not a very successful soldier if you got sent there.
"So you grew up with the notion of the convict stain — people really talked about that. And that’s the power of the story of Ned Kelly: it’s really about the possibility of a people who seem to have no possibility.
“A trauma like that leaves enormous amounts of self-hatred, and we carry that degree of damage. It’s not inconceivable that a country like this would be a little unsure of itself culturally. You wouldn’t be nuts to feel insecure.”
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
In Australia, You're More Likely To Be Beaten By Drunks Or Sexually Assaulted In A Place Of Worship Than In Strip Clubs Or Brothels
Ratings Agencies Conspired With The Worst Of Wall Street To Defraud Investors
Pat Tillman : How Journalists Betrayed Americans By Publishing War Industry Propaganda
British Right Wing Media Has A Nervous Breakdown Over Nick Clegg
The Future Of Online Business Development - The Lean Start-Up
"Elephants Have Been Losing The Battle For Survival For The Last 50,000 Years - Since Humans Started Leaving Africa"
The Buck Stops With News Limited In The Melbourne Storm Scandal
For The First Time In A Decade, Rupert Murdoch Is About To Be Locked Out Of British Politics
European Royalty, Alive And Living Well In New York City
US Troops, Defeated By Taliban, Retreat From Remote Afghanistan Outpost
No Explanation, Yet, For How Potentially Fatal Fungus Found In Australian Eucalyptus Trees Reached North America
Democrats & Republicans Agree That War-Born Militant Populist Movements Must Be Smashed
James Cameron On Avatar 2 : "Not Only Is It Good Business, It's Good For The Environment"
The British Ministry Of Defence Have Been Ordered By A Court To Pay Iran More Than $700 Million For Decades Old Dodgy Arms Deal
Why Old Media And Social Media Don't Get Along
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Saturday, April 24, 2010
Amazing :
...the federal government anti-corruption agency, the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity....cut a deal with The Australian in which ACLEI agreed not to publish any of the information obtained about the newspaper during the investigation. ACLEI has also agreed to allow The Australian to review any future report it writes that refers to the paper or its employees.A federal government anti-corruption agency has to allow a newspaper to review reports which discuss, or refer, to possible corruption at that newspaper. All of this results from a story The Australian ran on its front page about a anti-terrorism squad raid, a story they ran before the raid actually took place.
Your Right To Know?
Not in this case.
No wonder News Limited despises Crikey so much, they're just about the only news media company in Australia willing to report on how News Limited fights so hard to keep its secrets. And successfully so.
An ad from the UK Independent, getting widespread exposure through non-Murdoch media, blogs and Twitter :
Murdoch's The Sun Accused Of Hiding Poll Results That Show Third Party Candidate Nick Clegg Could Become Prime Minister
James Murdoch Storms Into Office Of Rival Newspaper Editor Shouting, "You're A Fucking Fuckwit!"
Desperate Days As Murdoch's Anti-Democratic Behaviour Lights Up Internet
SpinMasters On Murdoch's Sky News "Like Watching The Live Abortion Of Democracy"
A couple of Australian images made the list.
Friday, April 23, 2010
News Limited boss John Hartigan on what is being termed The Biggest Fraud In Australia's Professional Sporting History, involving the Melbourne Storm, the rugby league team News Limited owns :
"This club has had a couple of rats in its ranks...."It was a line Hartigan ran out for an interviews on A Current Affair, ABC News and every other encounter he had with news media yesterday.
News Limited's The Herald Sun complies on its online front page :
John Hartigan must be feeling particularly rattled by this scandal, not only for the millions News Limited will lose now its team is facing a massive plunge in merch revenue and sponsorship dollars for the rest of the season, but also because News Limited's "exclusive" coverage of all things Melbourne Storm was said to be one of the key selling points of the 'premium' paywall packages the corporation is now putting together for a launch only a few weeks away.
News Limited no longer has the Melbourne Storm as a viable attraction to entice rugby league junkies to pay to read The Herald Sun or The Daily Telegraph online.
That's gonna hurt.
This video story from Lateline explains what's going on behind this excellent photo from an AAP photographer, which appears to show former Australian prime ministers Bob Hawke and John Howard on the verge of exchanging blows....or Hawke beating Howard in a particularly aggressive game of Rock, Paper, Scissors :
....45 children have been taken to hospital suffering high temperatures and febrile convulsions after receiving the vaccination.That's 45 children under the age of five, in West Australia alone.
The flu vaccination program in WA has been suspended.
Thursday, April 22, 2010
I had no idea the Blink Drinking culture in Australia was so completely out of hand. Senator Steve Fielding brings us up to date :
Australia has become a nation held to ransom by binge drinking with one in two Australians too frightened to go out on the streets at night.
Haven’t we all had enough of drunken yobbos taunting people walking by, of young women lying sprawled on the street with vomit down their party dresses and groups of grog-fuelled men wandering our streets looking for a fight? many Australians enjoy a drink responsibly for too many having a drink means getting blink drunk.Our drinking to get drunk culture is destorying this country."
The destoryuction must be stopped.
(via @ScottBridges)
In a statement to The Australian, Sky News chief executive Angelos Frangopoulos labelled the actions of the ABC both "unethical" and "unprofessional".The fallout should be interesting."The Sky News content used by the ABC was not intended by either Sky or the Prime Minister to be broadcast," Mr Frangopoulos said. "It indicates that the ABC has tapped into the Sky News bureau feed and has used the footage without our permission.
More Excellent Images From ABC's News Photo Archive On FlickR
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Sunday, April 18, 2010
Documentary maker Errol Morris (The Fog Of War) calls this "the best commercial ever made". It's definitely the best no-budget commerical ever made.
The challenge has been laid down. Australian zero-budget local commerical makers, beat that.
Extras : How the commercial was made -Two Guys, One Camera
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Friday, April 16, 2010
So if you've got a couple of minutes, watch these two movie trailers and spot the similarities. It's not too hard. First, an Australian movie called Freedom Deep :
And next, one of Warner Bros. mega-budget box office monoliths (or so they hoped), The Book Of Eli :
Yeah. Amazing, isn't it?
So how does an Australian movie get away with blatantly ripping off a big budget American flick?
Well they don't. Because they didn't.
Freedom Deep was made in 1995. The Book Of Eli was made in 2009-2010.
Think about that the next time you hear Warner Bros. executives whinning about movie piracy and how it's "destroying the movie business".
More from Encore Magazine :
(Australian writer/director Aaron) Stevenson claims The Book of Eli is “virtually identical” to his film Freedom Deep.It will be a long and ugly and expensive fight, unfortunately. Hollywood studios don't give in easily to such lawsuits, even when it's obvious blatant plagiarism has occurred.
“It’s not just the premise of the prophet getting the book back to the remnants of civilisation; that plot point is the same, but there are lots of visual references as well,” said Stevenson. “The last 10 minutes make it a little different, but up to that point, it’s pretty much the same.”
“We’re independent and we don’t have the money to go to the US and start a legal case. It’s a David and Goliath story and we need the publicity first. We’re looking at the possibility at the moment,” said Stevenson.
The Full Story Is Here
Thursday, April 15, 2010
Nick Barker, in 2010 :
I should mention that Nick Barker is rumoured to be reforming his awesome rock band from the late 1980s/early 1990s - Nick Barker & The Reptiles. I'll write some more about them when I confirm the rumour as true.
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By Darryl Mason
The future of the Young Liberal National Party doesn't look so bright when they've got vile racists like Nick Sowden representing them.
Some of Sowden's recent contributions to Twitter, after watching the Kerry O'Brien interview with US President Barack Obama on the 7.30 Report :
@nicksowden I'm not sure why they paid Kerry to fly to the US, if they wanted an interview with a monkey surely a Ferry to Taronga would have sufficed.But one revolting outburst wasn't enough. He had to post another :
@nicksowden If i wanted to see a monkey on TV id watch Wildlife Rescue.He then revelled in the outraged comments reacting to his racism :
"nothing like a little bit of hating to make you feel that little bit better!"Then Nick Sowden deleted his Twitter account.
He's obviously a deep thinker :
When I equated (Tony) Abbott's comments to a general feeling of the community I meant to show that if Abbott's comments were homophobic, then Australia is also a homophobic country. This is about as true as saying that Australia is a racist country. Whilst those on the left will push this portrayal of Australian society, the rest of us know differently.Oh yeah, we know.
Sowden's friend @PeterBlackQUT, an academic, claims he only did it "to shock and offend" :
as i know @nicksowden i know he was joking and i'm not going to condemn him for itMore Sowden presumed attempts at "joking" :
(On NSW premier Kristina Keneally) "stupid bitch, youre not in the kitchen anymore!"
(On shadow minister for education, Christopher Pyne) " it's hard to describe Pyne without sounding misogynistic and homophobic. Fuck it, he's such a camp whiny bitch."
"Fuck you UN - i'll give you 'overt racism' you retards. #leftyfucktards"
"its not the obama administration, its the obama disaster and it is an affront to freedom and the history of the WHITE house."A political career ends before it begins.
"We need to see another film with a minority in it. there has to be a film with a gay darky in it"
"technically (refugees from the Middle East) aren't people, is there something from the UN on animal rights?"
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Wednesday, April 14, 2010
In a fake West Australian town, robots riding Segways are being used as targets for 'urban warfare' live fire sniper training :
For now, the Segway riding robots are not shooting back. Or planting IEDs. Or running at sniper positions wearing bomb vests.
They're just playing the role of civilians, rolling around their town, getting picked off at a safe distance with high-powered sniper rifles.
I wonder if they've tried this out with the automated sniper/sentry bots already in use in Iraq and Afghanistan? A bit of robot killing robot action?
And those who think today's youth are the cause of all crime and misery and street violence will be pleased to note that some of the robots are wearing hoodies!
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It won't be the Labor Party or the Liberal Party who see startling swings towards them at Federal Election 2010. It will be The Greens, as Lenore Taylor explains in National Times :
In 2010 the Greens want to be seen as a mainstream party, not a protest movement in political disguise. They base the claim on their polling and on how they have used the power they have already got.The Greens vote in the recent Tasmanian elections was a whopping 21%. Their best result yet. And this makes the gatekeepers of the traditional Two Party State System very, very nervous indeed.In the latest quarterly breakdown of Newspoll the Greens are polling 11 per cent, 3 percentage points ahead of their 2007 vote. Even taking into account the tendency for opinion polls to slightly overestimate the Greens' vote, it's a strong position. The Greens now outpoll the National Party in both the cities and in the bush.
And ever since 2007, when they found themselves the largest party on the Senate crossbenches with five senators, after the demise of the Democrats, they deliberately set about proving they could be "responsible" holders of the balance of power.
They negotiated the passage of many critical bills including the government's second stimulus package, which Malcolm Turnbull's Coalition opposed. The Greens also negotiated through bills like the youth allowance and the Medicare levy surcharge. The claim to be mainstream could have a significant impact on this year's poll.
In the Senate the Greens will be pitching to the centre - with a message that a vote for them is a vote for stability because they can negotiate a way through legislative deadlocks.
"We're the ones that made the stimulus package better and then voted it through. Without us there wouldn't have been a stimulus package and we are not going to let that be forgotten," (said leader Bob Brown)
It's going to be a strange election. You'll see Labor hammering The Greens wherever they can, while the Liberals will stay quietish. An unofficial Greens-Liberals coalition may become reality sooner than most political pundits think.
The Full Story Is Here
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
I don't want to have to keep pointing this out to international readers of The Orstrahyun, but we are not weird and scary people.....mostly :
(Via @prawn_gravies)
Rupert Murdoch should have listened to Egon, who made this prediction about the future of printed works back in 1984 :
According to Daily Telegraph associate editor, Tim Blair, the "Graceless & Weird" defamation suit he lodged against Crikey publisher Eric Beecher is now "Case Closed."
Here's the April 2, 2009, apology on the Pure Poison blog at Crikey that was deemed not satisfactory enough :
In a post last night titled “Sockpuppet Worn” it was suggested that enthusiastic Pure Poison critic “WB"....had been making comments from Tim Blair’s private IP adress. The post, now removed from the Crikey site, included speculation on the identity of WB, concluding that it was Blair. Tim denies this flatly, and notes that people in the same house would share an IP. Commenters to the original deleted post had also made that point. We don’t know any more than that WB comments from the same private IP. Our criticisms are reserved for whoever “WB” turns out to be. We unreservedly withdraw any allegation that Tim has been using the “WB” identity, that he had personally used this identity to artificially boost his “hits”, and apologise for any offence caused by the above.That apology, for an incorrect story that was online for all of a couple of hours, did not soothe the immeasurable hurt caused, apparently, so twelve months later Crikey publishes another apology, this time written (or at least guided) by Blair's lawyers.
The April 12, 2010, apology on the Pure Poison blog at Crikey :
On 1 March 2009, an article entitled “Sockpuppet Worn” was published on this blog about Mr Tim Blair that was incorrect. The article wrongly suggested that Mr Blair publishes comments under a pseudonym on his blog and various other blogs to make them appear as if they were independent reader comments.
It also falsely suggested that Mr Blair is dishonest in that, by publishing comments under a pseudonym on his own blog, he artificially boosts his blog readership and visit numbers, and that Mr Blair is unprofessional in his conduct as a journalist.
Crikey and the authors of this blog acknowledge that each of these suggestions are false and that there is no basis for any of them. We withdraw them unreservedly and acknowledge that Mr Blair has acted properly at all times. We apologise to Mr Blair for the hurt and distress caused.
Blair's lawyer friend WB - Wogblogger - cracks the champagne :
(click to enlarge)
And gloats about the settlement on any number of blogs :
....he’s sued a superrich publisher. Epic fail on the hypocrisy argument and no points for trying.Some sort of a God....And the ‘glass jaw’ argument......is just historical revisionism at its finest. Blair has taken more abuse than most over the years. I think you’ll find Tim Blair’s reputation is as the guy who cracked Crikey’s deep pockets (that’s Private Media = worth >$6m), which in journalistic circles makes him some sort of a God.
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Monday, April 12, 2010
They have their own personal dressmaker. Of course they do. You can't just get duck clothing of this quality off the rack.
Even the dog looks a little humiliated on their behalf.
Video Is Here (if the ahove Sky News clip doesn't play for you)
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A freak wave saved a man's life after he plunged off The Gap at Watsons Bay (Sydney) last night.The 45-year-old man who fell 200m was washed back on to dry land unharmed shortly after 9pm.
He was found by emergency rescue crews with only minor injuries and suffering from chest pains.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Stories I've Been Reading :
Forget The Bullshit From Murdoch Gatekeepers, US Soldiers Detail How Rules Of Engagement In Iraq Included Purposeful Shooting, Killing, Of Civilians
This Isn't The First Time US Military Has Killed Journalists In Iraq - In 2003, A US Tank Opened Fire On A Baghdad Hotel Filled With Journos
Nigeria, China & India Are Supposed To Havens For Movie Piracy, So Why Are Their Movie Industries More Successful, More Profitable Than Hollywood?
The Incredible, Life-Saving Legacy Of Henrietta Lacks
Matt Taibbi : "Most Of The Work In This World Completely Sucks Balls And The Only Reward Most People Get For Their Work Is Barely Enough Money To Survive"
Carl Sagan On How Cannabis Taught Him How To Appreciate, Enjoy Fine Art, Music, Food & Sex
South East Asia Drought : "We Will Have A War, A Water War. When They Need
Water To Drink They Will Fight For Everything"
Have You Ever Heard A Carrot Scream? The Feelings, Rights And Dignity Of Plants
Apes Have Theory Of Mind, Just Like Humans
The Iraq & Afghanistan Civilian Slaughter Cover-Ups That Exploded In The Petagon's Face
"How Do You Trust An Ally That Steals British And Australian Citizens' Identities For An Assassination?"
Fall Of Newspapers : Ad Revenues Decline 43% In 3 Years For American Print Media
Peter Hartcher On How President Obama Used Reasonableness To Expose Republican Opponents As Extremists
American Conservative Media Seem Very Nervous About Using The Words "Christian Terrorists"
86 Out Of 88 Cities In China's Drought Zone Running Short Of Drinking Water, Affecting At Least 17 Million People
How To Repossess The Executive Jets Of Drug Dealers & Dictators Without Getting Your Head Blown Off
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Saturday, April 10, 2010
Historians have dismissed reports that the Nazis mass-produced soap from the remains of Holocaust victims during World War II....True enough. But WTF is going on with the DT's 'related coverage'?
It'll get worse, the more the Murdoch media outsource their newsrooms.
Friday, April 09, 2010
Islam, after all, is a faith that preaches rejection and subjugation of non-believers......doesn't sound like he's been to a mosque recently.
....and is thus likely, at least in theory, to inhibit assimilation and a sense of communal responsibility towards other Australians.You get the feeling sometimes he's incredibly disappointed Muslim youth haven't tried to suicide bomb our trains or buses. If they had, just once, he wouldn't have to spend so much time clinging desperately to so many self-constructed straw men.
Tony Abbott, another victim of Unnecessary Censorship :
More victims of UC.
It's not them, it's your dirty mind.
Thursday, April 08, 2010
A wombat will hoist an intrusive dingo on its back and crush it against the roof of its burrow.It can skittle a fully grown man as if a 120-litre barrel had bowled him over.
Wednesday, April 07, 2010
The last 5 ½ years have been a wild ride, filled with achievements and disappointments. Losing the leadership was heartbreaking....I will miss enormously my work as a local MP. Whether it was visiting a school or a play group, a surf club or a church or synagogue, being the local member has always been fun.My wife, Lucy, and I have always lived in Wentworth and look forward to remaining involved with our community, and to again pursuing new business opportunities, especially with early-stage businesses and new technologies. One of our greatest passions is supporting and promoting Australian technology. For a highly educated developed nation, we derive far too little of our gross domestic product from our own intellectual property.The dispute about climate change policy and the loss of the leadership was traumatic but I am resolved to leave Parliament without bitterness or resentment. Politics can be a tough and brutal business. We politicians treat each other harshly and the media treats all of us - no doubt deservedly - even more so. It is a rough game and if you lose a battle, as I have done, then you will get hurt. But you don't have to get bitter.So many people in politics find themselves nursing resentments and hatreds for years. Often they may have justification in doing so, but far better to let it go. Hatred does more damage to the hater than to the hated.
Tuesday, April 06, 2010
Sweeting says he thinks many of the major media companies would love to see computers discourage people from searching the open Internet for content.
"I think the media companies will leap at this," he says. "It offers them the opportunity to essentially re-create the old business model, wherein they are pushing content to you on their terms rather than you going out and finding content, or a search engine discovering content for you."
Overhead-heavy bloated media corporations, like Murdoch's, who want to "put a tollbooth on the ocean" are betting the house that locked up media readers will save their outdated 20th century business models.
Murdoch newspapers like The Australian are already planning to do away with their print versions, at least on a daily basis. It's the only way they can survive. The sums have been done and print must go. Here's The Australian's editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell :
"When you remove the fixed costs in newspapers, they become much more viable. So if you think of a newspaper without paper and ink and petrol and trucks, you're taking out between 60 and 70 per cent of the cost base...."But I guess my view is that the core of the business is your ability to dream up ideas to create news - the things that we chase each day. "
"Dream up ideas to create news." What a curious thing to say, or to reveal about how the newsrooms of a corporate news empire actually work.
And you thought their job was to simply report the news.
A man is recovering in hospital after he was mauled by a wombat at Flowerdale, north-east of Melbourne.Paramedics say the 60-year-old was attacked by the animal as he stepped out of a caravan early this morning. He was bitten on the arms and legs...
Jeff McClure from the Department of Sustainability and Environment (DSE) says it is highly unusual for a wombat to attack a person.
"Wombats that are in an advance stage of mange will become very agitated from the suffering and the irritation of the mange," (Mr McClure) said.He said if they are approached or feel threatened wombats will rush towards someone."But it's not known that they will push the attack to where they would physically attack someone."