And the Fuckwit people of this Country, think Liberals are a better alternative to Labor???

When the evidence is in front of everybody, confirmed by the actions of Liberal Governments in Queensland and Victoria, already having caused the loss of thousands of jobs, and more to come, when that idiot Tony Abbott leads his incompetent government to power on the 14th September, more of the same will follow, That the people even consider voting for this clown who changes policy decisions, day by day, is absolutely beyond me.

I am flabbergasted by the stupidity of the general Australian populace. How is it conceivably possible, that we have so many stupid people in this country??? 

It is a LIBERAL government that has led this feeding frenzy of greed, but it seems, that all the other parties’, are equally as greedy. 

Respect for politicians, is an oxymoron!
————————————————————————————-

MPs’ pay bonanza

Date

May 10, 2013

Richard Willingham and Craig Butt

The changes in pay for state MPs.

Victorian politicians will all be paid more than $150,000 a year, including a more than $11,000 expense account, under a controversial new pay deal that gives backbenchers almost an extra $15,000 a year.

And for the first time in Victoria, MPs who lose their seat at an election or are disendorsed before a poll will be entitled to a ”resettlement allowance” of up to a $70,000, or six months’ basic pay.

The Napthine government refused to detail how much the pay rises would cost taxpayers, with Assistant Treasurer Gordon Rich-Phillips saying the details were in the legislation.

Jobs the payrise could be used to pay for.

There is no total given, just classification of rates.

Calculations by Fairfax show the new deal will cost taxpayers about an extra $1.8 million a year. That figure does not include committee work, other duties and superannuation entitlements.

The rise has infuriated unions battling for a better pay deal and struggling against service cuts. Paramedics who are in negotiations said it was insulting, while Firefighters Union boss Peter Marshall said it was hypocrisy.

Illustration: Matt Davidson.

Legislation introduced on Thursday changes the way MPs’ pay is calculated. Under the old system, Victorian politicians were paid the same as their federal counterparts, minus $5733.

Last year the Commonwealth remuneration tribunal paved the way for big pay increases for federal MPs, which would have resulted in a $47,000 pay rise for some state MPs on July 1.

An independent review of Victorian pay by former secretary to the governor-general Malcolm Hazell found that such an increase this year would have been unjustifiable.

To avoid that, Victorian MPs will receive a 2.5 per cent increase to their base salary – from $137,535 to $140,973. In 2014 the amount rises another 2.5 per cent, or $3524, to $144,497 and from then on it will increase in line with growth in average Victorian wages.

Office holders receive more money based on a percentage of the base salary. For example, Premier Denis Napthine’s additional pay is double the base, totalling $281,946.

He is also entitled to an expense allowance that is 42 per cent of the base pay, which equals $59,208. Overall he takes home $341,156.

Shadow ministers are the big winners in the new deal as they will receive an allowance for the first time, with the rate being 15 per cent, or $21, 146.

Backbenchers will get an allowance of 8 per cent, or $11,277.

Superannuation for MPs elected after 2004 rises from 9 to 15 per cent. Older MPs have a generous defined-benefits scheme and are not eligible for the resettlement allowance.

As previously reported by Fairfax Media, MPs on both sides have agitated for higher pay.

It is believed several Labor MPs privately expressed disappointment they did not get a more generous deal.

Mr Rich-Phillips denied there were any backroom deals and defended how the pay determination was made, despite no public consultation.

”If we took no action now, salaries would increase by $47,000 on the first of July, and we don’t think that is appropriate,” he said.

He did not detail if there were rules on what allowances could be spent on. Mr Rich-Phillips said the rise in allowances was due to entitlements, which included travel allowances, being abolished.

He said the plan to give MPs up to six months’ pay when they lost their seat at an election was consistent with the Commonwealth.

The Opposition Leader’s office will get a $500,000 boost from $1.54 million to $2 million, with the figure indexed to inflation. Labor is likely to back the changes but has said only that they will be discussed in shadow cabinet and caucus.

Mr Hazell said that without adequate pay it would be hard to attract high-calibre MPs.

With Josh Gordon

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/mps-pay-bonanza-20130509-2jaue.html#ixzz2SoMd9oAf

WTF??? KFC buys meat products from China???

The one country in the world, where everything, but particularly food and clothes, seems to be tainted with deadly, toxic, materials, chemicals, and disgusting practices.

And as if KFC was not already bad enough to one’s health, it buys chicken from China!!!

WTF are those in charge thinking??? Perhaps they have been eating too much of their own crap, and now their brains are so polluted and contaminated, they are no longer able to make rational decisions.

WHO, in their right mind, would buy food products from China??? Even the Chinese middle classes only buy, and consume imported food.

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CHINA DETAINS 900 OVER TOXIC MEAT SCANDAL

AFPUpdated May 4, 2013, 2:02 am

AFP ©Enlarge photo

 BEIJING (AFP) – China has detained 900 people for crimes including selling rat and fox meat as beef and mutton, the public security ministry said, in another blow to the nation’s food safety.

News of the three-month operation, which related to meat products, added to a string of scandals that have galvanised public concern over food safety in China, from recycled cooking oil to dangerous chemicals in baby milk powder.

Altogether there were “382 cases of water-injected meat, fake mutton and beef, diseased meat, toxic and harmful meat products”, the ministry said on its website on Thursday.

“Nine hundred and four suspects were arrested, more than 20,000 tons of various types of fake or inferior meat products were confiscated.”

The crimes ranged from sellers in eastern Jiangsu province making fake mutton from fox, rat and chemicals, and others in southwestern Guizhou province mixing hydrogen peroxide solution with chicken claws.

The scandal was widely discussed by users of China’s popular Sina Weibo microblog.

“Anything can be done once humanity is gone,” said one user.

“We are nearly immune to hundreds of poisons, should we thank these fantastic businessmen?” wrote another.

China’s top court on Friday announced its first ever detailed guidelines for the punishment of food-safety related crimes, the state-run China News Service reported.

The crimes listed included supplying meat from animals which died of illness, selling food with excessive amounts of chemical additives, and falsely advertising food products, the report said, citing China’s Supreme People’s Court.

The public security ministry said the sting on the toxic meat was part of a wider probe into food safety issues, from the discovery in March of thousands of dead pigs floating down a Shanghai river to the problem of “gutter oil”.

Cheap recycled cooking oil is available nationwide made illegally from leftovers scooped out of restaurant drains.

One of China’s worst food safety scandals hit in 2008 when the industrial chemical melamine was found to have been illegally added to dairy products, killing at least six babies and making 300,000 people ill.

In another recent incident, US fast food giant KFC was hit by controversy after revealing some Chinese suppliers provided chicken with high levels of antibiotics, in what appeared to be an industry-wide practice.

You’ve Got to be Kidding!!!

The mind boggles at the mentality of some people in the USA! 

Hollywood is against Gun Control, BECAUSE IT WILL BE HARDER TO MAKE REALISTIC MOVIES!!!

WTF is the matter with that country, that big business can BE AGAINST saving the lives of innocent people? 

The people need to take a stand against ANY Government, Group, or Organisation, whose operations are detrimental, to the welfare of the citizens of the country or countries, in which they operate.

I simply cannot believe something like this could happen!
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Hollywood fights NY gun control

Date

May 3, 2013

United States

The sweeping gun control measure signed by New York Governor Andrew Cuomo and hailed by Democratic leaders has a surprising critic: Hollywood.

Officials in the movie and television industry say the new laws could prevent them from using the lifelike assault weapons and high-capacity magazines that they have employed in shows such as Law & Order: Special Victims Unit and films such as The Dark Knight Rises.

Twenty-seven television and film projects, including programs such as Blue Bloods and Person of Interest, are in production in New York state using assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, the Motion Picture Association of America says.

Industry workers say they need real weapons for verisimilitude; that it would be impractical to try to make fakes that could fire blanks; and that the entertainment industry should not be penalised accidentally by a law intended as a response to mass shootings.

”Weapons are part of our history as a culture as humans,” said Ryder Washburn, vice-president of the Specialists, a leading supplier of firearms for productions, based in Manhattan. ”To tell stories, you need them.”

Vans Stevenson, the senior vice-president for state government affairs at the Motion Picture Association, says: ”Without clarification that the use of prop guns is still permitted on sets, many of the dozens of productions currently shooting in New York could be forced to go elsewhere.”

But some lawmakers, feeling stung by conservative and upstate voters over the gun-control law, do not wish to vote on it again, even to make what the industry describes as a technical correction. Gun rights activists, who are challenging the new firearm restrictions in court, have mocked the idea of a so-called Hollywood exception.

”They’re saying, ‘Why are we being held to this standard when Hollywood is getting a pass, and they’re the ones who are promoting the violence?’ ” New York State Rifle and Pistol Association president Thomas King said.

The new laws expand New York’s ban on assault weapons and high-capacity magazines and, beginning next January, will prohibit the possession of magazines that hold more than 10 rounds of ammunition. Movie industry lawyers say they are concerned the ban could apply to the magazines used in prop guns on dozens of productions in New York state.

Firearms on film and television sets are modified to shoot blanks; in some cases, the barrels are completely blocked. But the guns, in many cases, feature magazines with a capacity above 10 rounds, and industry officials worry that uncertainty over potential legal liability could be enough to drive studios to move productions to other states.

Asked in February about the industry’s concerns, Mr Cuomo expressed support for revising the law. ”There’s no reason not to make a change like that to give an industry comfort,” he said at the time.

But since then, as it has become clear that any changes to the gun law will be difficult to get through the legislature, administration officials have begun arguing that the law will not affect film productions, and say they are no longer pursuing an amendment.

Entertainment is big business in New York, and both mayor Michael Bloomberg, an independent, and Mr Cuomo, a Democrat, have courted the film and television production industry. Film production in New York was responsible for more than 46,000 jobs in 2011, according to a study prepared for the Motion Picture Association.

”You’d hate to lose a $100 million picture because there was a scene in it that required automatic weapons and we were unable to accommodate them,” said John Ford, the president of Local 52 of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees.

Industry officials said they tried to warn Mr Cuomo’s office, as it was drafting a gun control bill, that the legislation could affect the film and television production.

They were joined by Mr Bloomberg’s office, which says it told the governor’s office before the gun measure was passed that the movie and television industry was concerned. But the bill was passed rapidly.

The legislature moved so fast – the Senate approved the measure on its first day in session, and the Assembly on its second – that few lawmakers, and almost no one in the general public, had time to digest or debate the details.

AP

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/hollywood-fights-ny-gun-control-20130502-2ivni.html#ixzz2S90b9UPt

BOSTON ARREST SPARKS DEBATE OVER READING OF RIGHTS

Yes, of course this person has rights!

He is entitled to the same rights he gave his innocent, unsuspecting victims!
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AFPApril 21, 2013, 11:17 am

Boston bomb suspect in hospital

The Boston bombing suspect who was captured alive yesterday could face the death penalty. Nineteen-year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev remains under police guard in hospital.

AFP ©Enlarge photo

WASHINGTON (AFP) – The arrest of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect has ignited debate over a legal exception that allows police to interrogate individuals without reading them their rights.

The suspect, Dzokhar Tsarnaev, a 19-year-old naturalized US citizen, was in hospital to receive treatment for injuries he sustained during a shootout with police on Friday.

Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick said the seriously wounded Tsarnaev was “not able to communicate yet,” hinting that he may not have been questioned so far.

But rights advocates were quick to express concern over possible efforts by President Barack Obama’s administration to use a provision waiving the need to inform Tsarnaev of his right to an attorney or to remain silent.

American Civil Liberties Union executive director Anthony Romero called for a narrow read of the “public safety” exception, which is only allowed in cases where there is a “continued threat” to public safety.

“We must not waver from our tried-and-true justice system, even in the most difficult of times,” he said in a statement.

“Denial of rights is un-American and will only make it harder to obtain fair convictions.”

Obama speaks after Boston arrest

US President Barack Obama speaks to the media after the successful arrest of the suspected Boston Marathon bomber.

 US Attorney Carmen Ortiz told reporters after Tsarnaev’s arrest that the authorities had invoked the public safety exception and delayed reading him his rights, or Miranda warning.

Republican lawmakers have gone a step further, arguing that Tsarnaev, an ethnic Chechen who lived in the United States for a decade, should be declared an “enemy combatant,” the same legal status as detainees being held at the Guantanamo military prison.

“A decision to not read Miranda rights to the suspect was sound and in our national security interests,” read a joint statement by Senators Lindsey Graham, John McCain, Kelly Ayotte and Representative Peter King.

“However, we have concerns that limiting this investigation to 48 hours and exclusively relying on the public safety exception to Miranda could very well be a national security mistake.”

But Senate Armed Service Committee Chairman Carl Levin, a Democrat, disagreed and expressed full confidence in the US justice system to try the suspect in federal civilian courts.

He warned that there was “no legal basis for his detention as an enemy combatant.”

“I am not aware of any evidence so far that the Boston suspect is part of any organized group, let alone Al-Qaeda, the Taliban or one of their affiliates — the only organizations whose members are subject to detention under the Authorization for Use of Military Force,” Levin said.

“To hold the suspect as an enemy combatant under these circumstances would be contrary to our laws and may even jeopardize our efforts to prosecute him for his crimes.”

Tsarnaev was caught after a massive manhunt that saw his older brother and fellow suspect Tamerlan killed.

FBI releases vision of bomb suspects

The FBI has released vision and images of two suspects in connection to the Boston Marathon bombings.

A 1966 Supreme Court ruling requires that police read suspects their Miranda rights, in order to protect them against involuntarily incriminating themselves.

Under normal rules, only comments made by a suspect who has been read his rights is able to be used in a subsequent trial.

The court created an exception in 1984 allowing police to interrogate a suspect without reading the rights if there is deemed to be an immediate threat to themselves or to the public.

In a 2010 policy memo, the FBI ordered agents to interrogate suspected “operational terrorists” about immediate threats to public safety without first advising them of their Miranda rights.

Who keeps breeding these COWARDS???

People who attack innocent, unsuspecting, vulnerable people are not terrorists. They are just murderous cowards, and should be referred to as such.

And when these cowards are finally caught, they demand more rights, than any of the victims received.

I say, do not give them any more rights than with their cowardly acts, they gave their victims. And then, let the punishment fit the crime. That seems to be the only thing that these cowards understand.
———————————————————————-

FIFTEEN CRITICAL AFTER BOSTON ATTACK
Jimmy Golen, agencies, AAP
April 16, 2013, 1:11 pm  Boston Marathon

At least three people are dead and more than a hundred injured, after two bombs exploded near the finish line of the Boston Marathon.

The two bombs that exploded in the crowded streets near the finish line of the Boston Marathon, have killed at least three people and injured more than 130 in a bloody scene of shattered glass and severed limbs, raising alarms terrorists might have struck again in the US.

A White House official speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation was still unfolding said the attack was being treated as an act of terrorism.

President Barack Obama vowed that those responsible will “feel the full weight of justice.”

As many as two unexploded bombs were also found near the end of the 42-kilometre course as part of what appeared to be a well-coordinated attack, but they were safely disarmed, according to a senior US intelligence official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because of the continuing investigation.

The fiery twin blasts took place almost simultaneously and about 100 metres apart, knocking spectators and at least one runner off their feet, shattering windows and sending dense plumes of smoke rising over the street and through the fluttering national flags lining the course.

When the second bomb went off, the spectators’ cheers turned to screams. As sirens blared, emergency workers and National Guardsmen assigned to the race for crowd control began climbing over and tearing down temporary fences to get to the blast site.

A pool of blood formed, and huge shards were missing from window panes as high as three stories.

“They just started bringing people in with no limbs,” said runner Tim Davey, of Virginia. He said he and his wife, Lisa, tried to keep their children’s eyes shielded from the gruesome scene inside a medical tent that had been set up to care for fatigued runners, but “they saw a lot.”

Boston police said three people were killed. Hospitals reported at least 134 injured, at least 15 of them critically. The injuries ranged from cuts and bruises to amputations. Many victims suffered lower leg injuries and shrapnel wounds. Some suffered ruptured eardrums.

Reports continue to come in of the horrific injuries doctors are dealing with in the aftermath of the bombings.

One Boston doctor said many victims were wounded with ball bearings, meaning bombs were designed for maximum damage.

A doctor from Brigham and Women’s Hospital has also addressed the media.

He says the 31 blast patients at the hospital have been tested for any traces of biological residue from the blast but he says they have found none.

“It’s routine to make sure that patients are not contaminated. The contaminant [that we are looking] for in this instance is radiation,” he said.

“We have not had any deaths here. We are not anticipating any deaths, but in this first 24-hour period there is some instability.

“These are blast-type injuries, very high force, they cause a lot of damage to tissue and to bone.”

Some 23,000 runners took part in the race, one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious marathons, which attracts more than 500,000 spectators and winds up in the heart of central Boston, near the landmark Prudential Center and the Boston Public Library. It is held on Patriots Day, a Massachusetts state holiday which commemorates the first battles of the American Revolution in 1775.

Obama Vows to Find Who’s Behind Boston Blasts
President Barack Obama, responding to the explosions at the Boston Marathon, says the United States does not know “who did this or why” but vowed that whoever is responsible “will feel the full weight of justice.” (April 15)
The Federal Aviation Administration barred low-flying aircraft from within 5.6 kilometres of the site.

Obama was briefed on the explosions by Homeland Security adviser Lisa Monaco. Obama also told Boston Mayor Tom Menino and Governor Deval Patrick that his administration would provide whatever support was needed, the White House said.

“We still don’t know who did this or why,” Obama said, adding, “Make no mistake: We will get to the bottom of this.”

Bystanders tend to an injured man following explosions at the Boston Marathon. Photo: Reuters

The Federal Aviation Administration created a no-fly zone over the site of the explosions, and briefly ordered flights bound for Boston’s Logan International Airport held on the ground at airports around the US

A few kilometres away from the finish line and around the same time, a fire broke out at the John F. Kennedy presidential library. The police commissioner said it may have been caused by an incendiary device but didn’t appear to be related to the bombings.

A man comforts a victim on the sidewalk at the scene of the first explosion.

The first loud explosion occurred on the north side of Boylston Street, just before the photo bridge that marks the finish line. The second explosion could be heard a few seconds later.

They occurred about four hours into the race and two hours after the men’s winner crossed the line. By that point, more than 17,000 of the runners had finished the race, but thousands of others were farther back along the course.

A senior US intelligence official said the two other explosive devices found nearby were being dismantled. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the findings publicly.

Australian athletes describe Boston horror

Australian athletes Kurt Fearnley and Jeff Hunt were at the Boston Marathon when the bombs detonated. They describe the scene on the ground.
Australian athletes reveal bomb horror

It is described as the Holy Grail of marathons, and for many of the 153 Australians lining up with the more than 24,000 other runners for Boston’s great race, it was a dream come true.

Just hours later, at the finish line where they expected to raise their hands in triumph, two bombs believed to be loaded with ball-bearings ripped through the crowd, killing three people – including an eight-year-old boy – and maiming more than 120 others.

It should have been a wonderful day for Australia.

Australia’s number one ranked marathoner Jeff Hunt finished eighth in the men’s race, another Aussie, Lee Troop came 15th, while Paralympians Kurt Fearnley and Christie Dawes came fifth in their respective wheelchair races.

Marathon man Robert de Castella, Olympic marathoner Benita Willis and triathlete champion Greg Welch were among the big name Australians in Boston for what is America’s oldest and most prestigious marathon.

The moment an of the blast at the finish line of the Boston marathon. Photo: AAP

Also in the pack were other familiar names, including Gill Stapleton, head of Special Olympics Australia, and Helen Carmody, principal of exclusive Victorian girls’ private school, Toorak College.

“The Boston Marathon is truly the Holy Grail of marathons,” Ms Stapleton, who was running alongside Ms Carmody just 700 metres from the finish line, told AAP.

“Helen was on track to do a personal best and I was doing my sixth marathon in five years.

“It was a big moment for us, but then runners started stopping and we didn’t know what was going on.”

Word soon filtered through about the carnage ahead.

Elsewhere, many of the Australian contingent were physically rocked by the blast.

Hunt had finished the course and was back in his hotel room, de Castella was in the race’s media centre when he was jolted while Fearnley was at a nearby restaurant.

He immediately sent out a Tweet.

“Couple of freaky explosions from the marathon finishing line,” Fearnley wrote.

Later, when he discovered the cause and destruction left on the street, Fearnley said he was “sickened”.

Despite the destruction and the number of Australian runners and spectators, it appears no Australians were injured, with Australian consulate staff checking hospitals to ensure this was the case.

There were initial fears for Emma Cameron, a member of de Castella’s Indigenous Marathon Project, when she could not be located on the course, but de Castella, who won the race in 1986 relieved the fears when he later announced she was safe.

Social media, often criticised, again proved itself in the confusing hours after the explosions, with the Australians able to communicate with each other via Twitter and Facebook to ensure they were safe.

With reports of other unexploded devices found around the city and police searching for a rental van, possibly loaded with explosives, that attempted to enter the race course, Boston was on lockdown.

Ms Stapleton described it as “a city in chaos” while Hunt summed up the feeling among the Aussies.
“This is a despicable thing to have been done on such a glorious day,” he said.

Don’t believe anything any more…

Even organisations, that I thought had established reputations as being scrupulously honest, in a world filled with liars, deceivers, fraudsters, etc., such as the CSIRO, have now shown they are no more trustworthy than the sheisters, the thieves, of the public purse.

This action is unconscionable, and those involved, should be summarily dismissed, and their identities, named and shamed.

WTF has our society, out morals, our standards, lowered our levels to. And yes, it is ‘OUR’ levels, for until the common people take a stand, against corrupt companies, and governments, this abuse will continue.

I had always believed than mankind was basically good, but more and more, I am changing that mode of thought, to the feeling that mankind is well and truly fucked.

The only fervent hope I have, is that, unless mankind immediately changes from its self-indulgent, greed based societies, that it will be destroyed, before it has a chance to contaminate other civilizations in our universe!
———————————————————————————

CSIRO duped global drug firm with generic chemicals as ‘secret formula’

Date

April 11, 2013

Linton Besser and Nicky Phillips

Pharmaceutical counterfeiting is a major problem globally. Photo: Virginia Star

The CSIRO has duped one of the world’s biggest pharmaceutical companies into buying anti-counterfeit technology that could be easily compromised – passing off cheap chemicals it had bought from China as a ”trade secret” formula.

Swiss-based multinational Novartis signed up two years ago to use a CSIRO invention it was told would protect its vials of injectable Voltaren from being copied, filled with a placebo and sold by global crime syndicates.

Drug counterfeiting is big international crime. An Interpol strike force last year in 100 countries led to the seizure of 3.75 million units of fake drugs, and the arrest of 80 people.

The invention sold to Novartis to protect against such counterfeit attacks – a microscopic chemical powder mixed into the ink that is painted on the neck of its Voltaren ampoules – was being marketed by DataTrace DNA Pty Ltd, a joint venture of CSIRO and DataDot Technology Ltd, a publicly listed company.

But a Fairfax investigation has established that senior CSIRO officials and DataDot executives deliberately misled Novartis about the technology in order to close the deal, after receiving explicit internal warnings that the Novartis code could be easily duplicated.

Now, hundreds of millions of Voltaren ampoules across the world could carry the easily compromised DataTrace product. The injectable version of the drug is not approved for use in Australia.

Three months before the deal was signed, the key ex-CSIRO scientist working on the technology, Dr Gerry Swiegers, warned against proceeding with the deal.

”The code which has been offered to Novartis may not be fit for purpose … because the code material is commercially available from a variety of vendors,” he wrote to DataTrace in March 2010.

”If there is a serious counterfeiting threat to the Novartis ampoules, then this code risks being quickly and easily cracked in a counterfeiting attack. Serious questions could then be raised, especially if the successful counterfeiting attack resulted in injury or death.”

Dr Swiegers, who was retrenched from CSIRO after a bitter falling-out, has since been agitating for reform of the peak scientific body.

The deal went ahead in July 2010. And despite having promised to supply a unique tracer code specifically for Novartis, DataTrace instead issued the company a cheap tracer it had previously bought in bulk from a Chinese distributor.

The bulk tracer originally had been earmarked to sell to mining multinationals for low-risk applications such as sorting high from low-quality iron ore.

Such applications had no real security concerns, and this tracer formula was widely available at the time.

But when DataTrace sold the same agent to Novartis, it told the company the formula was a trade secret, and Novartis is believed to have been contractually forbidden from trying to identify its make-up – a standard industry practice.

Had Novartis reverse-engineered the tracer potentially in breach of its contract, it would have been able to identify its components and check whether the phosphor formula was available elsewhere. In fact, at least two firms were selling the identical material to hundreds of firms around the world.

Damning internal documents seen by Fairfax show DataTrace and some of the most senior officials at the CSIRO knew that Novartis was being misled in a deal believed to be worth $2.5 million.

On August 7, 2009, Greg Twemlow, the DataTrace general manager who engineered the deal with Novartis, emailed Peter Osvath, a CSIRO research group leader, and Geoff Houston, a CSIRO commercial manager, with this subject line: ”Proposed answer to the question, ‘is our Tracer code commercially available’.”

”This is how we propose to answer the question if it’s posed. We want everyone answering consistently. Answer: The CSIRO will make your Novartis codes using their Trade Secret methods and I’m sure you’ll appreciate the importance of secrecy for Novartis and all of our clients. Having said that, there may well be a possibility that aspects of the code could be simulated with commercially available products.”

But it was much more than a possibility.

Counterfeiting was such a serious commercial and public health risk that Novartis went to extraordinary lengths to ensure DataTrace and CSIRO had security measures in place to prevent the code being cracked.

In August 2009, a team of auditors from Novartis visited CSIRO’s Clayton campus.

A year later, proposed changes were made to the lab, the Novartis auditors were satisfied by CSIRO’s security measures, and in July 2010 DataTrace inked a five-year deal.

Just three months after the deal was announced to the market, CSIRO sold its 50 per cent stake in the company, worth $1.3 million, in return for 8.93 per cent of DataDot Technology Ltd.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/national/csiro-duped-global-drug-firm-with-generic-chemicals-as-secret-formula-20130410-2hlt9.html#ixzz2Q4P9EahH

No animals should ever be kept in a cage!

We know how healthy our society is, by how healthy its animals are!
——————————————————————————————-

Caged chook cruelty?

April 5, 2013, 6:18 pm Helen Wellings Today Tonight

Aussies eat nearly five billion eggs a year but there’s controversy over how those eggs are produced as critics are calling for caged eggs to be banned.

Caged chook cruelty?

Australian eat nearly five billion eggs a year but there’s controversy over how those eggs are produced as critics of the caged system are calling for it to be banned.

Vision captured by Animal Liberation shows multiple deaths caused by fire at a Pace egg farm.

Animal Liberation’s Mark Pearson and Felicity Andersen say “intensive egg farming is barbaric, causing suffering and injury.”

55 per cent of the eggs consumed by Australians are from caged birds. There are 4.8 million hens in Australia that live this way in long rows with six to eight birds a cage.

Animal Liberation wants this practice to be banned.

“Eleven thousand birds cooked to death (from the fire),” Pearson said.

The hens at Libreri Farm in the New South Wales Hunter Valley show the scars of captivity.

“This is the issue with the cage, the birds can’t get away from the aggressor, they are stuck in the corner, they have to be pecked and pecked and pecked and they can’t get away from it,” Pearson explained.

“You can see the shocking injuries, the dead decaying hens left in cages. There are hens with infections and diseases, the suffering is unimaginable,” Andersen said.

Some Animal Liberation members have been fined for trespassing on Somerville Egg Farm at Victoria’s Mornington Peninsula.

Lou and Maria Napolitano who own Somerville Egg Farm are upset and deny allegations of mistreatment.

“The science says that is what they are designed for. They have been selectively bred to be happy in there and that’s where they are,” Napolitano said.

“These people are vegans and they don’t want to farm animals at all. There’s no wounds on the chooks, no one has shown me anything,” Napolitano said.

According to Napolitano the chickens are in the care for “the rest of their life” which is 12 months.

“That is totally legal and totally scientific,” Napolitano said.

The Napolitano’s have accused Animal Liberation of causing the birds to injure each other and of planting carcasses in cages when they broke in.

“That is simply not true. We found carcasses that had clearly been there for weeks that have decayed and sunken in to the wire,” Andersen said.

Veterinary Surgeon Dr Jesse Harvey thinks “industralised farming can be done in a more effective, productive way where the welfare of the animals is more taken into account as opposed to just mass production for cheap cost.”

Dr Harvey who examined the rescued hens says “the sores were many days old, so couldn’t have been caused by Animal Liberation’s break-in the night before.

Caged eggs are cheap with the average costing $3.10 a dozen compared to free-range eggs at $5.35 and barn-laid at $4.75.

But because of welfare concerns, Coles has removed caged eggs from its Coles brand product range.

Tasmania’s phasing out battery cages and the European Union, representing 27 countries, banned caged hen farming this year.

It’s also illegal in Switzerland and several states in the USA.

Free-range means birds are housed in sheds with access to outdoors. Barn-laid are free to roam inside a shed.

But there’s no legally enforceable definition.

“That’s the whole idea of free range, they are free to come and go,” Napolitano said.

But Napolitano says “free range is not all it’s cracked to be.” He has 10,000 free range hens in the shed and most like to be inside.

“I’ve never seen more than 40 per cent out at any one time. Most humans would say but they don’t go outside, well we say we give them the ability to go outside,” Napolitano said.

The Australian Egg Corporation wants to increase free-range density from the current voluntary code of 1500 hens per hectare up to 20,000 which means two hens per square meter. That’s 15 times more.

But the ACCC knocked it back.

But now Coles after rejecting own label caged eggs, plans to pack more free-range hens into its shed – 10,000 hens per hectare which is one square meter for each hen – making some free range more and more akin to the density of the caged system.

“It’s immoral and it needs to end, the egg producers have to be held accountable and the public needs to know the truth,” Andersen said.

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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

 

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

View more articles from Tim Soutphommasane

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

Zoom in on this story. Explore all there

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