We must all STOP asking doctor’s for antibiotics for every little thing!

This issue will only get worse.

Stupidity in over prescription of antibiotics has led to this deadly situation.

Mankind, continues to be, its own worst enemy!
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Superbug discovery triggers new health alarm

Date

March 30, 2013

Dan Harrison

Health and Indigenous Affairs Correspondent

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• Mycobacterium

Senator Richard Di Natale. Photo: Ken Irwin

Researchers have confirmed long-held fears that a drug-resistant bug that is increasingly common in Australia can spread from person to person.

In a finding that could carry major implications for how hospitals control infections, British researchers have provided the first proof the debilitating bug, Mycobacterium abscessus, can be transmitted between patients.

The bug, which accelerates decline in lung function and can prevent safe lung transplantation, has become increasingly prevalent in Australia over the past decade, a previous study found. It must be treated with an extended course of a poorly tolerated combination of antibiotics and treatment often fails.

The findings, published in The Lancet on Friday, come as a Senate committee examines Australia’s response to the problem of drug-resistant infections.

The study authors say their findings carry major implications for how hospitals care for patients and raise questions about the adequacy of current infection control measures.

The researchers conducted DNA analysis of samples collected from 31 patients at a cystic fibrosis centre in Britain and concluded the bug had frequently been transmitted between patients, despite infection-control measures. Previously, it had been thought people caught the bug from their environment. While experts had been concerned about the possibility of the bug spreading between people, the study provides the first proof.

Researchers were unable to identify exactly how it had been transmitted, but suggested it may have spread through contaminated clothing or bedding or through airborne water droplets.

England’s chief medical officer, Dame Sally Davies, recently called for worldwide action to combat antibiotic-resistant bacteria, saying superbugs posed a ”catastrophic threat” to human health that should be likened to terrorism.

Greens senator Richard Di Natale, a medical doctor who instigated the Senate inquiry, said the emergence of superbugs was ”one of the great health challenges of this decade”.

”We only have a very narrow window to take action to start turning the problem around.

If we don’t, we face the prospect of a world without antibiotics, where people will die of simple infections,” he said.

He described evidence to the inquiry as ”alarming” and said the government needed to make tackling the problem a priority.

The federal government has set up a committee, comprising public servants, the chief medical officer and the chief veterinary officer to look at the problem.

Austin Hospital head of infectious diseases Professor Lindsay Grayson told the inquiry if authorities did not move to contain existing superbugs and prevent new ones emerging over the next three to five years, infections would increase dramatically.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/superbug-discovery-triggers-new-health-alarm-20130329-2gz4l.html#ixzz2OwKKKHqR

When will this stop?

When will the church start doing the right thing?

They have had over 2,000 years of abusing innocent people.

Is it not time, that the church should start paying for its sins?
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FORMER PRIEST PUBLISHES EXPLOSIVE CONFESSION

Robert Ovadia, 7News Sydney Updated March 28, 2013, 5:50 pm

Rogue priest’s explosive confession

FIRST ON 7: On the eve of Easter, and a week out from a Royal Commission, a former priest has published explosive allegations about cover-ups, sexuality and hypocrisy in Australia’s Catholic Church.

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RELATED LINKS

• Catholic priest admits secret marriage
• Pell says sex abuse ‘not a big issue’

 FIRST ON 7: On the eve of Easter, and a week out from a Royal Commission, a former priest has published explosive allegations about cover-ups, sexuality and hypocrisy in Australia’s Catholic Church.

Kevin Lee has taken aim at Cardinal George Pell and other high-ranking clergy, and says he doesn’t care if he’s sued.

Mr Lee used to be a priest, until he married and left the clergy because he could no longer stand it.

“People have confessed to me that they are paedophiles and that I am expected to keep that a secret,” he said.

Many secrets, he claims, have been kept too long.

“A lot of people say, ‘I don’t go to Church because the priests are a bunch of impostors, and I’m convinced they’re right.”

His book, “Unholy Silence”, went online this evening, and it chronicles his experience of cover-up and hypocrisy from his days studying to be a priest.

“Even in the dormitory I lived in, it was nicknamed ‘The AIDS Wing’ because there was a belief that a lot of the people living there were going to get AIDS because they were just so promiscuous,” he said.

He also writes about how the Church hierarchy dealt with claims of sexual abuse.

“Bishops that I’ve told about child abuse have mostly been concerned about how much money the victim was looking for.”

And in the book, Lee is scathing of Australia’s highest-ranking Catholic, Cardinal George Pell.

“I went to see him and speak to him about various priests that I was aware of, or that I had suspicions of, and his reaction to my allegations was, ‘Well I hope you’re wrong.’ So to me, he was dismissive.”

Kevin Lee says Cardinal Pell told him he investigated, but found nothing.

The former priest will name and shame, anyway despite the fact the allegations are untested.

Kevin Lee has published his book online from an American-based website, so authorities here can’t have it removed.

He says he’ll probably be sued, but also says he doesn’t care, if it means the allegations are tested in court.

“I don’t know whether there’s a moral law that can prohibit a person from protecting someone that’s vulnerable.”

“I have recorded conversations with people that I know they are not aware of, so I know that I can substantiated everything.”

On the eve of Easter, and a week out from a Royal Commission, former priest Kevin Lee has published explosive allegations about cover-ups, sexuality and hypocrisy in Australia’s Catholic Church. Photo: 7News

 

You think Gillard’s Climate Change Tax is Wrong? Read this!

This comment, is by Malcolm Turnbull, an Opposition Member of Parliament. A member of the Liberal Party.

Malcolm Turnbull missed out becoming the leader of the Liberal Party by only one vote, at the party ballot where Blabbott (sic) was elected the leader. I suspect that many Liberal Party members sorely regret that they supported Abbott now. But their strategy by showing a united front, has been the most effective weapon against Labor’s destabilising actions by Kelvin Dudd’s (sic) supporters.

And if people think the Liberal’s are a better choice than Labor, then something is wrong with the sanity of the people of this country, 

Following one party, no matter what, has to be one of the most stupid actions a voter can take. And it is definitely indicative of narrow minded thinking. That is not what Australia needs, to take it into the future.

Now read the words, of a person, who must surely be regarded as a potential future Prime Minister of this country of ours.
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Abbott’s climate change policy is bullshit

Date

December 7, 2009

Category

Opinion  Malcolm Turnbull

Bulls**t? Abbott laughs it off

Tony Abbott laughs off comments made by Malcolm Turnbull about his Emissions Trading Scheme.

While a shadow minister, Tony Abbott, was never afraid of speaking bluntly in a manner that was at odds with Coalition policy.

So as I am a humble backbencher I am sure he won’t complain if I tell a few home truths about the farce that the Coalition’s policy, of lack of policy, on climate change has descended into.

First, lets get this straight. You cannot cut emissions without a cost. To replace dirty coal fired power stations with cleaner gas fired ones, or renewables like wind let alone nuclear power or even coal fired power with carbon capture and storage is all going to cost money.

To get farmers to change the way they manage their land, or plant trees and vegetation all costs money.

Somebody has to pay.

So any suggestion that you can dramatically cut emissions without any cost is, to use a favourite term of Mr Abbott, “bullshit.” Moreover he knows it.

The whole argument for an emissions trading scheme as opposed to cutting emissions via a carbon tax or simply by regulation is that it is cheaper – in other words electricity prices will rise by less to achieve the same level of emission reductions.

The term you will see used for this is “least cost abatement”.

It is not possible to criticise the new Coalition policy on climate change because it does not exist. Mr Abbott apparently knows what he is against, but not what he is for.

Second, as we are being blunt, the fact is that Tony and the people who put him in his job do not want to do anything about climate change. They do not believe in human caused global warming. As Tony observed on one occasion “climate change is crap” or if you consider his mentor, Senator Minchin, the world is not warming, its cooling and the climate change issue is part of a vast left wing conspiracy to deindustrialise the world.

Now politics is about conviction and a commitment to carry out those convictions. The Liberal Party is currently led by people whose conviction on climate change is that it is “crap” and you don’t need to do anything about it. Any policy that is announced will simply be a con, an environmental figleaf to cover a determination to do nothing. After all, as Nick Minchin observed, in his view the majority of the Party Room do not believe in human caused global warming at all. I disagree with that assessment, but many people in the community will be excused for thinking the leadership ballot proved him right.

Remember Nick Minchin’s defense of the Howard Government’s ETS was that the Government was panicked by the polls and therefore didn’t really mean it.

Tony himself has in just four or five months publicly advocated the blocking of the ETS, the passing of the ETS, the amending of the ETS and if the amendments were satisfactory passing it, and now the blocking of it.

His only redeeming virtue in this remarkable lack of conviction is that every time he announced a new position to me he would preface it with “Mate, mate, I know I am a bit of a weather vane on this, but…..”

Third, there is a major issue of integrity at stake here and Liberals should reflect very deeply on it. We have an Opposition whose current leadership dismisses the Howard Government’s ETS policy as being just a political ploy. We have an Opposition Leader who has in the space of a few months held every possible position on the issue, each one contradicting the position he expressed earlier. And finally we have an Opposition which negotiated amendments to the Rudd Government’s ETS, then reached agreement on those amendments and then, a week later, reneged on the agreement.

Many Liberals are rightly dismayed that on this vital issue of climate change we are not simply without a policy, without any prospect of having a credible policy but we are now without integrity. We have given our opponents the irrefutable, undeniable evidence that we cannot be trusted.

Not that anyone would doubt it, but I will be voting for the ETS legislation when it returns in February and if my colleagues have any sense they will do so as well

This first appeared in former opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull’s blog this morning.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/abbotts-climate-change-policy-is-bullshit-20091207-kdmb.html#ixzz2OkNbdwDo

How Pacific Ocean Currents affect our Weather

How El Niño & La Niña affects you

Posted on 26 March 2013 by Essie

We’ve seen some incredible weather in Australia over the last couple of years. How much of that is caused by the weather created by El Niño & La Niña? How do these weather systems affect our country and where? Find out how and why it matters to you in our latest Infographic!

My Opinion of Aussie Soldiers in Arab & Persian Countries.

My personal belief is, that once Saddam Hussein and his sadistic family were removed from Iraq, and once Osama Bin Dead Bin Laden was assassinated, all western countries personnel, private and/or military, should have left those Arab lands.

History has shown, and demonstrated many times over, that the rabble that make up those Arab countries, because they are born stupid, will never make peace with each other, be it from a tribal, national, geographic,  or religious point of view.

For westerners to be involved in these primitive conflicts, is a waste of energy, resources, and unnecessary loss of lives. There is no gain to the western world to be involved in the conflicts of these primitive peoples.

Oil, I hear some people cry!

History has shown, that the most urgent technical advances have always been made in times of war, or when people have been internationally threatened.

We are at war now!

We are dependent on the finite fossil fuel reserves of oil, and their control by primitive cultures, and so being held to ransom. And so reason to go to war, because supplies of these dwindling resources are being rationed.

What happens 50 years from now, when all the oil is gone? Who will give a fuck about these primitive Arabs. And no-one will go to war when a tyrant continues to oppress people who basically lack the courage to stand up for their own rights.

Aussie soldiers, get out of these God-forsaken countries, before any more of you die, fighting battles that should not, and can not, be won!

Ignorant, and uneducated people can be taught. But ignorance and a lack of education, in themselves, should never be confused with stupidity.

And there is no bigger waste of time, ever, anywhere, than trying to educate stupid people. And it seems to me, that most of Islam’s believers fall into the stupid category.

And what a shame this is, as, before Islam, the Arab world gave the world so many great discoveries, and provided so much knowledge, much of which is still current and used, in today’s world.

But, sadly, stupid people simply cannot be educated! And that is not their fault. They were born that way, and nothing anyone can do, can ever change that.

And it seems to me, apart from a few, actually quite a few, notable exceptions, that most of Islam’s believers fall into the stupid category.

Let the Shits and the Suns wipe each other out. Who cares? It is after all, only a battle about who is stupider than the other.

Why are the men of Islam so Terrifyingly Insecure???

Why are they so terrified, of giving women equal rights?

Equal rights works great in the Western World,…,

So what the fuck is wrong with these obviously, impotently unsure, insecure individuals?

Is their opinion of themselves, so low, that once they have entered an arranged marriage, they are even then, afraid some other man will steal their emotionally, mentally and physically subjugated wives away from them? 

For fuck’s sake, men of Islam, have the courage to give your women, the same rights you have! Be Men! Do not be like castrated sheep,…, followers of demented insecure leaders!

Many of you have already taken these steps, where you recognise women as your equals. And it is men like you, that will help Islam grow.
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Is this photo grounds for death?

Date

March 25, 2013

Clementine Ford

Writer

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One of the pictures of Amina posted on the Femen Tunisia site.

Two weeks ago, a young Tunisian woman known only by the name “Amina” posted political self portraits to Facebook to protest the continued oppression of women in the Arab world’s first democracy.

Posing topless, one photo featured Amina smoking with the Arabic declaration “my body belongs to me, and is not the source of the honor of anyone” scrawled across her chest; the other showed Amina standing defiantly, her middle fingers raised to camera, and the English words “F— your morals” blaring out from her body.

Today, Amina is in a psychiatric hospital, admitted there against her will by family members who’ve expressed shame over her actions. Her aunt appeared in a YouTube video to declare, “Amina does not exist anymore for me. She is responsible for her acts, and we are devastated by what she did. Our family is educated and open-minded and we did everything we could for her. Her father has been crying and has been in a miserable state.” She later added, “I hope she pays for her actions. She does not represent her country or Tunisian women.”

While Amina’s aunt may deny her niece’s actions speak for or even to Tunisian women, not everyone agrees. The Wahabi Salafi preacher Almi Adel, head of the almost comically titled Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, warned Tunisian newspaper Kapitalis, “Her act could bring about an epidemic. It could be contagious and give ideas to other women. It is therefore necessary to isolate [the incident]. I wish her to be healed.”

It’s tempting to mock the preacher’s words for the crude expression of fear that they are. If women begin to think for themselves and question their environments, they might then demand their own liberation from the kinds of patriarchal societies that empower men like Adel to wield control over them. Perhaps even more terrifying is the possibility that they might succeed.

Unfortunately, the consequence of men like Adel having power is that they do wield it. And his proposed solution to ‘isolating the incident’ is to execute Amina in accordance with his misreading of sharia law. “The young lady should be punished according to sharia, with 80 to 100 lashes, but [because of] the severity of the act she has committed, she deserves be stoned to death.”

It doesn’t stop there. Even if Amina escapes such barbaric treatment (and the arrogance in determining that a woman who rejects the cultural mores of her society and demands her rights ‘deserves’ to be stoned to death is nothing short of barbaric), Tunisian secular law could still punish her with up to two years in prison and a fine between 100 – 1000 dinars (around $80 to $800).

And all of this because she defied Tunisia’s moral codes to express herself politically alongside a group all too familiar with inciting the wrath of conservative governance.

The group in question was Ukrainian born feminist protest group Femen. Amina was in the process of setting up a Tunisian offshoot of the activist organisation and had posted the photos to their Facebook page. (That page has since been hacked, with the photos removed and replaced with Quranic verses).

Since its evolution, Femen’s goal has been to challenge patriarchal codes of ownership. Its Paris based director, Inna Schevchenko, achieved global notoriety after she marched to the top of a hill overlooking Kieve, stripped down to nothing but a pair of red denim shorts and work boots and proceeded to chop down a 13ft cross with a chainsaw. The protest coincided with the handing down of judgment for the three members of Russian feminist protest group Pussy Riot; on that day in Kiev, Schevchenko had scrawled “Free Riot” across her chest. The action earned Schevchenko death threats and unwanted attention from the government. After her front door was kicked in, she escaped with only $50, a mobile phone and a passport and made her way to France where she now trains more Femen activists, or warriors as they refer to themselves as. (You can read more about Femen’s activities in this Guardian profile.)

Femen’s methods are problematic for some feminists – early on in their advent, organisers realised that it was nudity that got the attention of the media and the public. Given they protest vehemently against the sex industry, likening it to fascism and even using Nazi imagery as a comparison, their reliance on flesh to translate important messages seems counter intuitive. How can a group so decidedly against the commodification of women’s bodies fall back on that titillation to protest? Schevchenko justifies the approach as a form of reclamation. “A woman’s naked body has always been the instrument of the patriarchy,” she says, “they use it in the sex industry, the fashion industry, advertising, always in men’s hands. We realised the key was to give the naked body back to its rightful owner, to women, and give a new interpretation of nudity … I’m proud of the fact that today naked women are not just posing on the cover of Playboy, but can be at an action, angry, and can irritate people.”

This is certainly true in the case of Amina, whose experience of life as a woman in Tunisia was evidently so suffocating that she reached out to an international feminist protest group whose central thesis was the restoration of women’s bodies to their rightful owners. As yet, no one has been allowed contact with the teenager, who remains incarcerated in a psychiatric ward (which has historically been the bleak fate for many women who challenged the notions of propriety in their communities).

So what can you do to help? You can follow Maryam Namazie on Free Thought Blogs, who is updating news about Amina where she can. You can also sign this Change petition, which is looking for 150,000 signatures. You can follow and tweet at the #Amina hashtag on Twitter to show your support for women’s autonomy over their own bodies, free from fear of government or community retribution. And you might consider participating in Namazie’s International Day To Defend Amina, called for April 4. Namazie is urging groups and individuals to post topless photos of themselves and their activism on social media sites, and to remind ‘the world that the real epidemic and disaster that must be challenged is misogyny – Islamic or otherwise.”

Whatever your view on the use of breasts as a benign western political statement, nudity can be a powerful statement of protest in countries where women’s bodies are more forcefully appropriated and governed by the law. Amina’s only crime was reclaiming her body as her own, and using it to protest the patriarchal values of a society that demanded it be covered in order to preserve the honour of others. In a rational society, breasts have no more power to hurt anyone than a gentle breeze can blow down a house made of bricks. But when a fear of naked female flesh and a woman’s right to dictate what is done with her own body pervades so deeply that the wilful display of it could result in her own execution, breasts can become bombs.

Clementine Ford will be one of the panelists participating in a live discussion of Rape Culture at the All About Women Festival on April 7. For more information and to get your ticket, visit The Sydney Opera House. 

 

Chicken Kev – Has always been a treacherous coward!

And a destabilising influence on Julia Gillards Leadership.

To those who say he was dumped, these are the real facts:

On the day Julia Gillard was elected as the new leader of the Labor Party, Kevin Dudd, had the option of contesting the ballot. That he chose not to do so, and then set about destabilising the new Labor Government, is, and was, the act, of a treacherous, individual, whose only interest, was his own well being.
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How ‘Chicken Kev’ has left Labor on its knees

Date

March 25, 2013

Tim Soutphommasane

Political philosopher and regular columnist

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Rudd’s fair-weather politics mirrors the modern ALP’s nihilistic ethos.

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Illustration: Jim Pavlidis.
 Labor Party’s leadership turmoil amounts to only one thing: political self-destruction. And most of the immediate blame sheets home to one Kevin Rudd.

Last week’s fiasco suggests the latter: ”Chicken Kev” may yet last as a moniker.

There has been a relentless effort by Rudd and his supporters to destabilise Julia Gillard’s leadership. Most still believe that it was Rudd who was responsible for leaking damaging information against Labor during the 2010 election. The erstwhile white-anting campaign against Gillard has unmistakably come from the Rudd camp. With Gillard and Labor struggling in the polls for such a prolonged period, a leadership spill was always inevitable.

And yet, when the time came, Rudd failed to contest the leadership – ostensibly because he had not secured enough support to win. This has not been the first time Rudd has ruled himself out from such a ballot. He did the same in 2010 when Gillard challenged him as a sitting prime minister and it was apparent he had overwhelmingly lost the support of his caucus.

Politics, it must be made clear, isn’t always fought according to Marquess of Queensberry Rules. But within one’s own party, at least, a politician must abide by a certain code when they stake a claim to lead others. Without courage and honour one doesn’t deserve to lead.

After such a prolonged, thinly disguised leadership campaign, it was inexcusable – ethically reprehensible – for Rudd to decline nominating after former Labor leader Simon Crean’s dramatic instigation of a party-room spill.

Then again, what happened was entirely in character for Rudd. He cannot countenance the prospect of losing – even if there can never be guarantees of victory. He is a fair-weather politician who is incapable of dealing with headwinds. Consider his refusal as prime minister to call a double-dissolution election to ensure passage of an emissions trading scheme. Was this a mere failure of nerve, or did it in fact point to a more basic deficiency?

Last week’s fiasco suggests the latter: ”Chicken Kev” may yet last as a moniker. If nothing else, the non-challenge has destroyed Rudd’s credibility as a leader. The best thing for Labor would be for Rudd to leave Parliament altogether.

It could all have been so different, of course. Indulge me for a moment as I venture into subjunctive history or what might’ve been.

A more courageous Rudd could have called that double-dissolution election in 2009-10, and gone on to win it convincingly (as most believe he would have). At the very least, doing this would have avoided the fecklessness of doing nothing on ”the greatest moral challenge of our time”. More likely, we would be talking today about a Labor Party ascendant over a Liberal/National Coalition in disarray.

As it is, the story is the other way round. A Coalition government led by Tony Abbott is now a near certainty; Abbott, who with each week is adopting an increasingly prime ministerial tone, has been the biggest beneficiary of the government’s self-inflicted harm.

As for Labor, its shrinking electoral support seems to be mirrored by its blinkered vision. Last month Gillard declared that she didn’t lead a party that was social democratic, progressive or moderate – it was simply a Labor party. This was a clear signal that Labor is preparing to retreat into a trade union rump of a party after the election. To its detriment, it is repudiating its progressive, middle-class supporters in favour of a traditional blue-collar working class that is fading into irrelevance. Labor should be appealing to a broad base, not a narrow one.

And so it has come to this. Granted, it’s not all Kevin’s fault. A lot of Labor’s woes stem from the very fact that its powerbrokers moved so hastily to terminate his prime ministership in 2010 without first conducting a public conversation about why he had to go.

Gillard’s eventual explanation, that the government had ”lost its way”, had the effect of depriving Labor of its own record in office. How could it claim credit for staving off the global financial crisis if it had lost its way?

The so-called NSW Disease, which has recently manifested not only in the Labor Party but also in the Coalition in Victoria and the Northern Territory, is symptomatic of a nihilistic ethos in our contemporary politics. It represents the ultimate separation of politics from program – and how politics is now treated as a game whose professional players play only to win, regardless of the consequences.

This is why so many of our politicians seem prepared to switch their leaders based on a few bad polls. Why they and their advisers see their parties as brands, and politics as an exercise in marketing and media management.

You could say this is all part of managerialism’s encroachment into politics. Whatever the cause, this is the price we pay for having a political class that increasingly knows nothing except electoral politics: its members will do anything to retain the trappings of power and office because they simply have no prospects for anything outside it.

The destructive narcissism of Rudd and the acquiescence of a sizeable minority of the Labor caucus is, in one sense, an expression of this. Losing for them is intolerable; one must try to win at all costs.

However, as my colleague Nick Dyrenfurth has argued in these pages, Labor’s best hope in this year’s election may just be to lose with some dignity and honour. Like a footy team deep in the fourth quarter looking at a heavy loss, it may just have to continue doing its best to make the margin respectable. Good teams don’t abandon discipline in some deluded belief they can still win when they can’t. They know when they have to be content with winning back some respect.

So it is, now, with Labor. The grand old party of Australian politics is losing not just the respect of the electorate, it is quickly losing its self-respect. Coming back from here will not be easy.

Age columnist Tim Soutphommasane is a political philosopher at the University of Sydney and has worked as a Labor speechwriter. Twitter: @timsout

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Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/opinion/politics/how-chicken-kev-has-left-labor-on-its-knees-20130324-2gnrm.html#ixzz2OYzdiuMG

The Age of the Universe Bullshit!

I have never, not even for one single solitary second, given the primitive, evolutionary stage that they, our ‘scientists’, and the rest of mankind, are at, ever believed, that in my lifetime, anyone, would know the real age of the universe!

My mind boggles, that our primitive minds, could be so arrogant, as to assume, and, put a date on, the creation of the universe.  

There will continue to be new discoveries, that will produce more data, that will make our 13.8 billion years estimate laughable. As laughable as the similarity that can be drawn to creationist thinking, that according to the bible, the universe is 5,000 years old.

And this also applies to my acceptance of the ‘Big Bang Theory’! What a load of crap! I can though, believe in how the universe may have evolved, as explained in that theory. But how it started? No way!

So much for my sermon from the mount. Or in my case, the sermon from the riverside. 🙂
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‘Infant’ universe, born before we knew

Date

March 22, 2013 – 11:13AM

This image allows astronomers to look back to the foundations of the universe, writes Dennis Overbye.

Big Bang map shows oldest light

Analysis of the best ever map of the earliest light reveals the shape of the universe a fraction of a second after the Big Bang.

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Astronomers released the latest and most exquisite baby picture yet of the universe on Thursday, one that showed it to be 80 million to 100 million years older and a little fatter, with more light and dark matter than previously thought, and perhaps ever so slightly lopsided.

Recorded by the European Space Agency’s Planck satellite, the image is a heat map of the cosmos as it appeared only 380,000 years after the Big Bang, showing space speckled with faint spots from which galaxies would grow over billions of years.

It shows the seeds from which the current universe grew.

Marc Kamionkowski, Johns Hopkins University

The map, the Planck team said is in stunning agreement with the general view of the universe that has emerged during the past 20 years, of a cosmos dominated by dark energy that is pushing it apart, and dark matter that is pulling galaxies together. It also shows a universe that seems to have endured an explosive burp known as inflation, which was the dynamite in the Big Bang.

A view of the cosmic microwave background collected by the European Space Agency?s Planck satellite. The heat map of the cosmos was imprinted on the sky when the universe was just 380,000 years old. Photo: ESA

In a statement issued by the European Space Agency, Jean-Jacques Dordain, its director-general, said, “The extraordinary quality of Planck’s portrait of the infant universe allows us to peel back its layers to the very foundations, revealing that our blueprint of the cosmos is far from complete.”

Marc Kamionkowski, an astrophysicist at Johns Hopkins University who commented on the work at a news teleconference sponsored by NASA, called Planck “cosmology’s human genome project”.

“It shows the seeds from which the current universe grew,” he said.

A map of relic radiation (microwave sky) from the Big Bang. Photo: ESA

David N. Spergel, a Princeton University cosmologist, described the new results as “beautiful”, adding that “the standard cosmological model looks even stronger today than yesterday. The universe remains simple and strange.”

Within the standard cosmological framework, however, the new satellite data underscored the existence of puzzling anomalies that may yet lead theorists back to the drawing board. The universe appears to be slightly lumpier, with bigger and more heat spots on one side than on the other, for example, and there is an unexplained cool spot in the middle of the map.

Those anomalies had shown up on previous maps by NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, or WMAP, satellite, but some had argued that they were because of a bad analysis or contamination from the Milky Way.

The evolution of satellites designed to measure ancient light left over from the Big Bang: From left: NASA’s Cosmic Background Explorer, or COBE, 1989; the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe, or WMAP, 2001; Planck, 2009. Photo: ESA

Now cosmologists will have to take them more seriously, said Max Tegmark, an expert on the early universe at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, who was not part of the Planck team and who called the new results “very exciting”.

It could be, he said, that “the universe is trying to tell us something”.

George Efstathiou of Cambridge University, one of the leaders of the Planck project, said in the European Space Agency news release: “Our ultimate goal would be to construct a new model that predicts the anomalies and links them together. But these are early days; so far, we don’t know whether this is possible and what type of new physics might be needed. And that’s exciting.”

The Planck satellite was launched in 2009 and has been scanning the sky ever since, recording the faint variations in a haze of radio microwaves that fill the sky. Those microwaves are believed to be the cooled-off remains of the fires of the Big Bang, shown 380,000 years later, when the first hydrogen atoms formed.

The microwaves were discovered by accident in 1965 by a pair of Bell Labs radio astronomers, Arno Penzias and Robert W. Wilson, who later won the Nobel Prize in Physics. Using balloons, a U-2 spy plane and a series of satellites like the WMAP, astronomers have been teasing out the detailed features of this radiation.

Analysing the relative sizes and frequencies of spots and ripples has allowed astronomers to describe the birth of the universe so precisely that it would make the philosophers weep.

The new data have allowed astronomers to tweak their model a bit. It now seems the universe is 13.8 billion years old, instead of 13.7 billion, and consists by mass of 4.9 per cent atoms, 27 per cent dark matter and 71 per cent dark energy.

The biggest surprise here, astronomers said, is that the universe is expanding slightly more slowly than previous measurements had indicated. The Hubble constant, which characterises the expansion rate, is 67 kilometres per second per megaparsec — the units astronomers use — according to Planck. Recent ground-based measurements combined with the WMAP data gave a value of 69, offering enough of a discrepancy to make cosmologists re-run their computer simulations of cosmic history.

The fact that astronomers once would go to war with one another over a factor of two in measurements of this parameter shows how cosmology has progressed over the past 20 years.

Pressed for a possible explanation for the discrepancy, Martin White, a Planck team member from the University of California, Berkeley, said it represents a mismatch between measurements made at the beginning of time and those made more recently. He said it could mean that dark energy, which is speeding up the expansion of the universe, is more complicated than cosmologists thought. He termed the possibility “pretty radical”, adding, “That would be pretty exciting.”

The data also offered striking support for the notion of inflation, which has been the backbone of Big Bang theorising for 30 years.

Under the influence of a mysterious force-field during the first fraction of a second, what would become the observable universe ballooned by 100 trillion trillion times in size from a subatomic pinprick to a grapefruit in less than a violent eye-blink, according to the story first enunciated by Alan Guth of MIT.

Submicroscopic quantum fluctuations in this force-field are what would produce the hot spots in the cosmic microwaves, which in turn would grow into galaxies. According to Planck’s measurements, those fluctuations so far fit the predictions of the simplest model of inflation, invented by Andrei Linde of Stanford, to a tee.

Dr Tegmark of MIT said, “We’re homing in on the simplest model.”

Cosmologists still don’t know what might have caused inflation, but the recent discovery of the Higgs boson has provided evidence that the kinds of fields that can provoke such behaviour really exist.

Dr Tegmark and others said that another clue to the nature of inflation could come from the anomalies in the microwave data, which tend to happen on the largest scales in the universe. By the logic of quantum cosmology, they were the first patterns to be laid down on the emerging cosmos — that is to say, when inflation was just starting.

He compared it to walking in someplace and encountering a fight. If the fight had been going on for a while, he said, it is impossible to tell who started it or who was hurt first. But if you come in only a few seconds after it started, you have a better chance of figuring out who did what to whom.

“It may be,” he said, “we’re coming in early to the cosmic brawl.”

New York Times

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/infant-universe-born-before-we-knew-20130322-2gjru.html#ixzz2OHRWtpiJ

Tornadoes in Victoria? WTF???

I do not, in all my years on this planet, ever recall, tornadoes hitting Victoria!

I could be very wrong here, but still, this is the first one I recall.

I think it signifies the coming of the end of the world! :O
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It was like a bomb went off’: Tornado tears up towns

Date

March 22, 2013 – 1:13PM

Adrian Lowe
Reporter, theage.com.au

Tornado ‘flattened’ caravan park

“There’s nothing that hasn’t been damaged’,” says 3AW’s Michelle Zydower, reporting from Mulwala.

Residents in Victoria’s north-east have told of their terror as a tornado smashed through towns, leaving a trail of destruction in its wake.

“It was like a bomb went off,” said fish-and-chip store operator Dawn Leahy. “I was holding onto the front door of my shop watching things flying past.”

The main street of Rutherglen is in disarray, The Border Mail reports.

The Denison County caravan park lies in ruins. Photo: 3AW

Senior forecaster for the Bureau of Meteorology, Terry Ryan, said Thursday night’s tornado – there may have been more than one – had initially been assessed as between F1 and F2 on the scale for tornado strength, meaning they had wind speeds between 117 and 253 kilometres an hour and a path of destruction between 150 and 250 metres.

One empty building has crumbled, a car dealership has been left barely recognisable after a wall was completely torn away and the Tuileries winery has lost part of its roof. The number of other damaged properties is in the dozens.

Parts of Rutherglen have had no power since 10.30pm Thursday.

Tornado wreckage in Victoria’s north-east. Photo: Mark Jesser/The Border Mail

At Barooga, post office operator Max Steward likened the tornado to a lawnmower moving through his property.

The State Emergency Service says a car was picked up and tossed onto its roof at Mulwala, close to where the tornado struck.

Spokesman Lachlan Quick said most of the injuries had come from the Denison caravan park in Mulwala, where damage was extensive.

What remains of the Jasper Bros. car dealership in Rutherglen. Photo: The Border Mail

‘‘People were pretty fortunate to get out of there,’’ he said. ‘‘It looks like people were taking shelter in their caravans.

‘‘It looks the weather will calm down for the next couple of days … we’re just grateful it didn’t happen over the Easter weekend.’’

Paramedics treated 20 people after dozens of calls in Yarrawonga and Mulwala, when severe storms, flash flooding and the tornado came through about 8pm on Thursday. Paramedics said there were as many as 80 ‘‘walking wounded’’ in the affected areas.

This weather radar image show the rotation of the thunderstorm over Yarrawonga, preceding the formation of a tornado Photo: Bureau of Meteorology

A couple in their 70s were flown to hospital in Melbourne after they were injured when their motorhome was overturned in the wind. Two men in their 50s were flown to hospital, both in a critical condition with head injuries.

Mr Quick said the towns of Bundalong, Yarrawonga, Koonoomoo and Rutherglen were among the worst hit, with several buildings damaged and fallen trees.

Crews spent much of Friday morning clearing corrugated iron and removing debris from trees, he said, after working through dangerous conditions overnight.

Tornado … A picture taken at Mulwala. Photo: David Jones/Twitter

The Moira Shire Council has set up an emergency refuge centre for those affected.

Across the affected areas, the SES received 180 calls for help, mostly for building damage.

Storm damage also briefly forced the closure of the Hume Freeway near Benalla.

A resident surveys the damage. Photo: Mark Jesser/The Border Mail

Several people were hit by flying debris, Ambulance Victoria emergency management manger Jon Byrne said.

He urged people who did not need to be in storm-affected areas to stay away so emergency services could mop up.

To form tornadoes a long-lasting thunderstorm is needed with strong updraft winds, Mr Ryan said. As the front collides with humid surface air it begins to spin off and rotate.

‘‘They [tornadoes] are really good at dissipating energy, the whole show is about dissipating energy,’’ Mr Ryan said.

Mr Ryan said bureau radar images had captured the thunderstorm beginning to rotate just north of Yarrawonga at about 7.30pm.

But he said it was difficult to capture tornadoes on radar because they typically last only short periods of time and it was hard to know how many there had been last night.

Rainfall has also been extensive across parts of the region. At Mount Buffalo, 117 millimetres was recorded in the 24 hours to 9am Friday, with 101mm at Handcocks and 86mm at Harrietville, according to the Bureau of Meteorology.

Premier Denis Napthine said emergency packages and accommodation support would be made available to those whose homes have been damaged or destroyed.

Newly appointed Police and Emergency Services Minister Kim Wells is flying to Yarrawonga and Bundalong Friday afternoon to survey the damage. ‘‘He will assess what further assistance is required,’’  Dr Napthine said.

With Tom Arup, Michelle Slater and Craig Butt

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/environment/weather/it-was-like-a-bomb-went-off-tornado-tears-up-towns-20130321-2gj86.html#ixzz2OEnaM14d

HUGE CROCODILE CAUGHT!

They grow ’em big in the Northern Territory! :O

There are only two animals on earth, that will actively stalk man.

One is the Polar Bear, and the other is Australia’s Saltwater Crocodile. 
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Yahoo!7 March 19, 2013, 4:34 pm

A 4.5metre crocodile which had been menacing a small community in the Northern Territory has been shot and captured – although it was barely able to fit into the back of this ute.

The crocodile had been stalking waters close to Palumpa in the Daly River Reserve, reports the ABC.

Locals had reported that it had sometimes stopped children from crossing the causeway to attend school and senior wildlife ranger Tommy Nichols said they trapped and shot the crocodile.

“We had a report the other day that there was a large crocodile there that was menacing the kids,” he told ABC.

The Northern Territory News reported that they had been tipped off by a reader who posted this amazing image of the crocodile of what he says is a ‘4.8m croc caught at Palumpa yesterday’ on his Facebook site, although he admitted he did not know if it was real or fake.

Just last week another monster saltwater crocodile that had attacked a horse has been caught at Arnhem Land in the Northern Territory.

The 4.5metre crocodile barely fitted onto the back of a Ute. Photo: Facebook