RAISE CONCERNS

'Raise a glass' idea raises fuss in RSL

The state president, Doug Formby, said 13 RSL districts covering Queensland voted unanimously not to support the campaign. "We don't think it appropriate for the RSL badge and image to be associated with the promotion of alcohol. We are dealing with many hundreds of veterans who are affected by beer - directly, or as a result of consuming alcohol - because of service-related problems," Mr Formby said.

GUANTANAMERA

Guantanamo refugees were 'horse traded' with US

The Federal Opposition says it has no doubt the Government's decision to accept refugees from the US detention centre at Guantanamo Bay is linked to the Oceanic Viking stand-off.

PLANETARY BRAIN

Theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking with his first wife Jane in 1965, above,
and in a ballistic flight aircraft, below.


Hawking warns against contact with aliens

On the probability of alien life existing, he says: "To my mathematical brain, the numbers alone make thinking about aliens perfectly rational," says British scientist Stephen Hawking.

"If aliens visit us, the outcome would be much as when Columbus landed in America, which didn't turn out well for the Native Americans," said the astrophysicist. "Such advanced aliens would perhaps become nomads, looking to conquer and colonise whatever planets they can reach," he warned.

The doomsday scenario is suggested in a series on the Discovery Channel. The programs depict alien life forms in huge spaceships on the hunt for resources after draining their own planet dry.

OLYMPIC-SIZED ENLARGEMENT

Olympic champion Merritt tests positive to penis enlargement drug
Olympic 400m champ LaShawn Merritt of the United States has been suspended after testing positive for taking an over-the-counter penis enlargement product. The 400m world champion said in he was "deeply sorry".
The 23-year-old, facing a two-year ban, said "to know that I've tested positive as a result of a product that I used for personal reasons is extremely difficult to wrap my hands around".

HOLY ORDERS

US man names Pope Benedict in Milwaukee abuse lawsuit

A man who says he was the victim of an American paedophile priest is bringing a lawsuit against the Pope and the Vatican in a US federal court.

TERROR IN THE SKIES

Ash fallout worse than 9/11: official

The closing of the skies over Europe caused by an Icelandic volcano spewing ash is having a greater impact on the air travel industry than 9/11, says an air authority official.

EXIT STRATEGY

Beating the filter: masterclass photos

Exit International-sponsored a "hacking masterclass", where the euthanasia advocacy group was to show how to use proxy servers and virtual networks so users could bypass the filter and find information on "safe suicide".
About 70 people attended the Melbourne masterclass, in which Australian Pirate Party member David Campbell, of Newcastle-based company Clear Computers, explained how web proxies and virtual private networks (VPNs) can be used to bypass the government's planned internet filter.
"As far as the Pirate Party is concerned, the filter is in place to make the government appear as though they're doing something. And because the filter is set to Refused Classification [RC] content, they could change the definition of RC at any point in the future," Campbell said.

SCANDAL IS SIN

Fresh allegations made against Pope

The AP newsagency says it has obtained a letter signed by the future Pope in 1985, when he was a senior Vatican official, in which he resisted appeals for the dismissal of an American priest who had sexually abused two boys at a school in California.

The Pope, then Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, pleaded for more time, asking the diocese to consider the good of the universal church.

Cardinal Ratzinger wrote in the letter that arguments to remove the priest were of "grave significance", but also worried about what "granting the dispensation can provoke with the community of Christ's faithful, particularly regarding the young age of the petitioner".

Irwin Zalkin, a lawyer representing victims of the priest in question, believes the church associated scandal with sin.

"Scandal was considered a sin and if evidence or information were to get out and become public about the depth and the breadth and the insidious nature of the problem of the priests and other religious committing these crimes, it would for sure provoke scandal," he said.

ALL TERRORISTS NOW

Government tinkers with sedition law

Australian Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland has introduced a range of amendments to counter-terrorism laws, including one that renames the offence of sedition.

The changes also include giving police new powers to enter a place without a warrant if there is material that is a risk to public safety.

Mr McClelland says it is already an offence to urge force or violence against a group on the basis of race, religion, nationality or political opinion, if those actions would threaten national peace.

"The offence will also be expanded so that it applies to the urging of force or violence against an individual, not just a group," he said.

"It covers the urging of force or violence even where the use of the force or violence does not threaten the peace, order and good government of the Commonwealth," he said. 

[Despite the new laws specifying that they no longer target threats to the Commonwealth, he said the changes help ensure the right balance in national security.]

MANY OBAMAS

Make up your mind... he can't be all four!

RUDD FACES

Pardon the 'red-faced' pun but this idea has merit

A local GP has left the Prime Minister a little red-faced by suggesting he take a leaf out of Cuba's book when formulating the Federal Government's public health overhaul.

Kevin Rudd visited Queanbeyan Hospital in New South Wales today to announce that the Government will spend an extra $632 million over the next 10 years to train a record number of doctors.

But the so-called picture opportunity didn't quite go to plan, with Dr Jeannie Ellis, the GP in charge of the hospital's emergency department, telling Mr Rudd to look to Cuba for a solution to Australia's ailing health system.

"Maybe Australia should take a leaf out of the Cuban healthcare system's book where they have something like $20,000 less per capita and they have exactly the same healthcare indicators as Australia," she said.

"I've lived in Cuba for a long time and I can tell you that they run a very, very good healthcare system and they get a lot of bang for their buck over there." 

HONOUR BOUND

Teen girl buried alive by family members

An autopsy has found that a 16-year-old Turkish girl was buried alive in her family's garden.
She was reportedly killed by her family for having male friends.

Dozens of so-called honour killings take place every year in Turkey, despite efforts by the government to stamp out the practice.

BRAVE NEW WORLD

Forbes magazine appears to be on drugs

Forbes has declared Monsanto “Company of the Year,” calling criticism of the notorious company “vicious” attacks against a company that “has been working to make humanity better fed.”

What’s more, Forbes claims that the attacks come because Monsanto has close to a monopoly in some seed markets, which Forbes argues is because they are making “seeds that are too good.”

You read that right. Apparently, Monsanto’s decades-long attempt to control the seed market -- which has led it lawsuits against small farmers and genetically modified plants that never regerminate, forcing farmers to buy seeds year after year -- is apparently just a result of their being “too good.”

I encourage you all to BOYCOTT Forbes and cancel any subscription you may have.

CRYPTOZOOLOGY

Mysterious Segmenting Snake-Like Creature Reported On Pennsylvania Roadway

At about 3:45 pm, on a beautiful, clear and sunny afternoon a woman, her husband and child were in their car driving along the country road.
Suddenly, the woman seated behind her husband yelled out, “watch out for that snake.” The man slowed down as they focused on a black snake about four feet long that was slowly moving across the road ahead of them from right to left. The head of the reptile was in the center of the roadway. The fellow told me that while the creature looked like a snake, it did not slither like a snake, but instead, was “gliding real slow.”

Suddenly, something happened that the witnesses are still trying to explain. As the couple watched, the body of the snake broke apart into approximately eight individual creatures. The man related that this happened quickly, almost as if it exploded. Each creature was about four inches in length, but stretched up to approximately six inches as they moved. They were tubular shaped, with no tail, and charcoal black in color. The fellow said he was unsure if there was hair, but what might have been hair was of a “shiny wet” texture.

Each creature seemed to have four feet, two on each side of the body. The feet were hard to describe, since they were black, the same color as the body. They did not notice any eyes. The wife told her husband that she could see the mouth of one creature, which was wide open. The vehicle stopped about ten to twenty feet from the creatures, which were “moving individually, erratically, and extremely fast in the road.” The creatures moved like inch worms with the back hunched up and then stretching flat, growing at least two additional inches in length each time they moved.

NON-HUMAN PEOPLE

Scientists say dolphins should be treated as 'non-human persons'

Dolphins have been declared the world’s second most intelligent creatures after humans, with scientists suggesting they are so bright that they should be treated as “non-human persons”.

“The neuroanatomy suggests psychological continuity between humans and dolphins and has profound implications for the ethics of human-dolphin interactions,” said Lori Marino, a researcher and zoologist at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.

AUSTRALIA FIRST

 

Darwin revealed as world's biff capital

A Northern Territory surgeon says Darwin has the highest rate of broken jaws in the world and that can be attributed mostly to alcohol-related violence. Royal Darwin Hospital surgeon Mahiban Thomas says the hospital sees about 350 cases of broken jaws and noses every year.
"(This) puts us at about 17 per 10,000 population, which is well above anywhere else in the world," he said.
Dr Thomas says most assaults occur outside pubs and nightclubs on Thursday and Friday nights.

CLOAK AND DAGGER

Double agent's bait too good for CIA to refuse

The Jordanian double agent who killed seven CIA employees in an Afghan suicide attack had been working with Jordanian intelligence.

It is understood he had already been to the CIA base in Afghanistan half a dozen times, and on this last occasion, when he went through three layers of security, local guards were told not to search him.
Seven CIA employees, including the station chief and two men who were private contractors from the security company formerly known as Blackwater, died when he detonated his explosives.

The Outfit Formerly Known as Blackwater

Some of your employees are facing manslaughter charges. Your biggest customers just yanked your contracts. How do you repair your image and your reputation? Simple: change your name and cover your tracks.

The Outfit Formerly Known as Blackwater, the huge military contracting and consulting firm, made its bones and its less-than-salubrious name in Iraq. And now it wants to unmake its notoriety. It is changing its name to Xe (pronounced Zee). In a memo to employees, Blackwater/Xe president Gary Jackson says the switch "reflects the change in company focus away from the business of providing private security".

[To providing what now, exactly? Cupcakes?]

CODED DATA

The image of Color C Code on a CD cover decodes off-line as a 40 second music clip.

Color Code Technologies Targets Network Operators

Color Construct Code enables the transmission of large amounts of data and does not require an internet connection to decode and display digital formats such as such as text, images, music and video. A password and/or expiration logic may also be encoded in each code.

The code can be printed onto paper and stickers thereby reducing the costs of printing information. The code is also suitable for storing data, securing documents, preventing forgery, and managing products. The technology is completely compatible with Symbian systems, the current standard operating system for smartphones with an 85% market share of the world’s handset manufacturers.

THEY'RE HERE

Respected scientist says aliens are among us

A leading astrophysicist who has worked on space missions claims that he and his colleagues are in contact with extraterrestrials who are "living among us." And they don't like what they see.

"We sent (the aliens) 30 questions about global problems," said Filipov, who was vague about how he actually conveyed the queries. "And now we have some answers." The "answers" came in the form of pictograms in crop circles.

He said the aliens have told him SETI doesn't work, owing to a confusion about communication through "magnetic fields."
They also said there is some truth in the 2012 predictions, having something to do with volcanoes in Mexico.
Further, more prosaic revelations include that the aliens are angry about global warming, disagree with in-vitro fertilization and don't like cosmetics. Apparently, Filipov's aliens are grumpy Republicans.

SOLAR NEXUS

FLASHBACK: (December 2008)

Giant Breach in Earth's Magnetic Field

NASA's five THEMIS spacecraft have discovered a breach in Earth's magnetic field ten times larger than anything previously thought to exist.
Solar wind can flow in through the opening to "load up" the magnetosphere for powerful geomagnetic storms.
But the breach itself is not the biggest surprise. Researchers are even more amazed at the strange and unexpected way it forms, overturning long-held ideas of space physics.
"At first I didn't believe it," says THEMIS project scientist David Sibeck of the Goddard Space Flight Center.
"This finding fundamentally alters our understanding of the solar wind-magnetosphere interaction."