“Five praises a day for young children, can greatly enhance positive interactions between them and their caregivers.”
The Psychologist, January, 2012.
The Psychologist is the official monthly publication of The British Psychological Society. It serves as a forum for communication, discussion and debate on a range of psychological topics.
“Herr Abbott, we could auction it late summer” said Scott.
“Perhaps, Scott. Anyway, ummm, how’s the new prod looking?”
“Correct Corp envisage availability and implementation readiness at 2nd quarter ’12 for zone P of Phase Four”
“Excellent, excellent. Norman Boyd seems very confident of this too and we can brief Harridan. Going back to the auction scenario….not bad. Leave it with me, I’ll liaise with TB and Sir Cliff also has experience in this area too. Maybe we could go digital and combine ‘opportunity to win’ with the main revenue generator for autumn?”
“Ya.., yess Herr Abbott. It’ll be a massive revenue builder for autumn and raise party brand awareness.”
“Ok, well, quite frankly I could toss in the speedos too?”
“Errr, Herr Abbott….?”
“Add them to the prize pool, Scott. What on earth do you think I mean?”
“Right, right. Great.”
“Ok. On the main prize item…a quick heads up on the shedding process. Well, the process tends to be that the old skin breaks near the mouth and I wriggle out of it, aided by rubbing against rough surfaces. In years gone bye, the cast skin peels backward over the body from head to tail in one piece, like pulling a sock off inside-out…Scott..?..SCOTT! SCOTTT”
that it manipulates individuals on a subconscious level, both children and adults;
“Today’s best and brightest graduates in psychology and cognitive science are snapped up by the advertising industry because they want to know how best to manipulate us. The truth none of us wants to admit is that the advertisers know our minds better than we do. This report should serve as a kind of prophylactic to help stop the advertisers planting desires in our heads.”
Clive Hamilton, Centre for Applied Philosophy and Public Ethics, Canberra, and author of Growth Fetish and Requiem for a Species (commenting on http://www.pirc.info report)
“Herr Abbott, you’ve got toight ponts” said Leni.
“Leni, yes. These are my swimming trunks.”
“Vot in thee vorld. You’ve got toight ponts.”
“Yes, Leni, admittedly, they are quite frankly, tight, but there’s nothing unusual in them?!”
“Well, Herr Abbott, when others are wearing such toight ponts, zer are impleecations, are there not?”
“quite frankly, I haven’t given the issue much thought, umm, the…”
“Vot about Julie? Have you not considered her needs – are you not moving forwards on zee uniteed froont?”
“Well, she’s thrilled with, ummm, your designs for the autumn ral…”
“Julie, how are the tablets?” asked Tony.
“Pretty good, thank you Tony. When I joined you on our run this morning, the right one seems to be disappearing a bit…”
“Already? That’s smashing Julie, smashing.”
Pleasantries over with, they got down to their business:
“Tony, go harder. Much harder.”
“Julie, quite frankly, can I go harder than Nauru?”
“Yes, Tony, yes, we believe in you. With God on our side and our media apparatus to play with, what in the world is there to worry about?”
“Julie, moving forwards on a united froont…I’d like to share with you some designs that Leni Reeferstool has knockled up. This is the direction for the autumn rallies…”
“Oh I love the trousers, Tony. Really, really super. The woman has a deft touch…deft.”
“And here are the pendants…she’s mined the archives somewhat, but the little red armbands with the white circles are just MADE for our motif. Just divine, umm, quite frankly..”
“Tony?”
“Yes, Julie?”
“Tony. I shall wear those trousers. I shallll…bahooo…snork..”
“My love, listen to me…err, umm, listen to me. You shall wear those trousers. You’ll wear them with panache, with pride…and at the end of the day…”
Huge crowds and many near-riots were reported wherever Nike’s new $1,800 “Air Israel” sandals went on sale. Police in Seattle said about 20 people were pepper-sprayed after fights broke out amongst a queue of 13,000 youths gathered on Christmas Eve. One man was arrested for punching an officer. “He did not get his sandals; he went to jail,” said a spokesman.
BBC and wires flashing that internationally renowned Fear Trade spokesperson, Ben Harridan, was among the first to secure a pair. Breathless Ben was quoted as follows on his thrilling new purchase:
“Phew, heck, huhhh. The new Air Israels are the definitive sandal. An a-m-a-z-ing piece of kit.They promise more grip and traction while climbing in areas such as Le Massif Cavité Anal des Politiques. I guess another huge breakthrough is the built in pocket for cheese triangles and…quite frankly, they’re so flexible that….”
There is no time like Christmas to fully understand that a holiday no longer means a holy day.
If we pick up our leading newspapers we can see that Christmas is all about how badly our retailers have done and how this lack of consumerism is a bad thing for our society.
So Happy Capitalism to you all and remember to keep on spending. It is your patriotic duty to consume and consume over this holy period.
A special market blessing on you and on your creditors as we move into the New Year and remember hell has no fury like a hungry capitalist.
“A TITANIC battle of wills took place yesterday between the Gillard government and the Abbott opposition…”GREG SHERIDAN, FOREIGN EDITOR, The Australian
This imediately under the headline:
‘Opposition has key to stopping boat arrivals’
Errr, Sheridan, the Titanic sank. Here’s hoping HMS News may too.
“The country that George W. Bush and Tony Blair have left behind is free of Saddam Hussein, but it is needy and volatile and may tip back into sectarian war. In addition to 4,500 US soldiers, well over 100,000 civilians have lost their lives. Millions have fled into exile or have had to leave their homes in Iraq, ancient Christian communities have been obliterated, and only a shared pursuit of oil revenues keeps the country’s most important groups (the Shia Arabs, the Sunni Arabs, and the Kurds) precariously united…
…Recent pro-democratic upheavals in the Middle East have had little connection with the policies of the Bush administration. The first of these happened not in Tunisia in December 2010, but more than a year earlier, on the streets of Tehran…”
Christopher de Bellaigue was born in London in 1971 and has worked as a journalist in the Middle East and South Asia since 1994. His first book, In the Rose Garden of the Martyrs: A Memoir of Iran, was shortlisted for the Royal Society of Literature’s Ondaatje Prize. He lives in Tehran with his wife and two children. His article in full at NY Review of Books (click text in green or our blogroll for link).
Isn’t it the moment of most profound doubt that gives birth to new certainties? Perhaps hopelessness is the very soil that nourishes human hope; perhaps one could never find sense in life without first experiencing its absurdity.
Vaclav Havel
The Weakened Caucasian continues with its campaign to demonstrate to readers and the broader community that it doesn’t actually represent the public interest.
“Business to politicians: time to lead as boom ‘won’t last forever.”
BY: JOHN DURIE, The Australian, December 17, 2011 12:00AM
Well John, Farto, Woopert et al, call this news? At least we have a federal government that actually demonstrates a degree of humanity – errr, and a bit of leadership too. Whoops, but the News agenda is to represent the interests of ‘Business Politicians’ aka Fear Trade ambassadors. Lovers of numbers.
When politicians and business are symbiotic, Newsworld is very happy – they loved John ‘the flag’ and his steely determination, his ‘big picture’ (sic) world of more numbers, toil, division and fear.
Janette, sweetheart, how’dit go today?
Pretty good, pretty good thanks, Jonette. Seem to be getting more referrals from Correct Corp. Had a chap in this afternoon who took the bloody biscuit. Erph, took the biscuit, metaphorically, of course.
Of course, dear.
Neuro-plasticity lay-expert Mr nobbly Niblet person. God only knows what he’s doing for Norman Boyd’s mob? He had very acute empathy – level 9, or thereabouts…spouting all kinds of nonsense. Like he actually said “numbers are shit.”
Right, right. At the end of the day, it is a highly inappropriate sentiment. Actually said ‘numbers are shit?’
‘Yes, Jonette. Almost yelled ‘NUMBERS are SHIT’ repeatedly, just as he was going down…”
Andy Forrest, welcome to Earthtalk.
– G’day Breeonezlet, pleasure to be here…
Ok. Mr Forrest, as you know, this interview is likely to be reaching planets that are not entirely familiar with your profession. Can you describe a typical working day?
– Umm, yes. Yes, Breeonezlet, I can describe such a day. I tend to wear leeesure denims, nice shirts that are untucked, and I’m in charge of my very own mining company. We dig up iron ore – a vital resource. We keep the world turning.
An important job, is it, back there on Earth?
– For me, mining is my life, my passion…kinda almost a religion.
Mr Forrest, how do your people feel about this ‘mining religion’?
– Look, at the end of the day, my people are very content, moving forwards.
Mr Forrest, we understand that your area of Earth was populated by ‘traditional owners’ for around 35,000 of your Earth years. Can you describe your joy in sharing the bounty of the ‘mining religion’ with other ‘traditional owners’?
– Umm…well…My family have a long history in Western Australia, going as far back as the NINETEENTH CENTURY, Breeonezlet…quite frankly, we, umm…
Mr Forrest, you’re obviously a bright and numerate man, how does that compare to 350 centuries?
– Well, the point is, the point is really…
Mr Forrest, thank you. We’d better leave it there for now. Best wishes with your ‘mining religion’ job and we appreciate your time.
Well, viewers, that was Mr Forrest, one of Earth’s leading ‘miners’. As we saw, he seemed reluctant to put his income source into perspective – this trait also has been a theme of this series on ‘Earth: roles, incomes and the future’.
a jfreos archive snap…reality check meets special brew…
Reuters breaking that former Massachusetts governor and Fear Trade presidential hopeful, Mit Romney, spent $100k to “hide records.”
Albums featuring Barry Manilow, The Smurfs and the best of Richard Simmons are among the secret stash.
And again and again and again.
ABC, BBC and wires reporting US drone has been shot down over Iran. Fox News (sic) will not confirm whether the drone in question is one ‘Roger Ailes’ – the outspoken US ‘Ailes’ drone is distinguished by red markings with black symbols upon white circles…there are suggestions that it may have run out of bile, though sources close to the ‘Ailes’ drone have ridiculed such a notion.
Harridan felt slightly euphoric after sharing quality time with Dumsfled on Boket – Phase IV, ‘Pacific Century’, holidays in the pipeline with Sir Cliff and Bliar…he just has so god-darn-much to look forward to!
“Heck, life’s good, ” he exclaimed to himself as he ripped the lid off the Tuperware container and pulled out a nicely ironed pair of socks…”But what’s this ghastly, pinko propaganda…?” he snarled, as he glimpsed a snippet of the day’s ‘Democracy Now’ bulletin:
…the New York Air National Guard base at Hancock Field near Syracuse, New York, after trespassing to protest the MQ-9 Reaper drones, which the 174th Fighter Wing of the Guard has remotely flown over Afghanistan since late 2009. The protesters draped themselves in white clothes splattered with blood-red pigment and then staged a “die-in” at the main entrance to the base. They said their act of nonviolent civil disobedience aimed to visualize the indiscriminate killing of civilians in Afghanistan and Pakistan by drones operated by personnel sitting in front of computers thousands of miles away.
“…drones are, quite frankly, a safe and hygenic means of …maintaining order, and at the end of the day….”
How ironic that US, UK and Canadian governments are targeting Iran’s central banking system whilst on their own streets, militarised police are tear gassing people who protest peacefully against the obscenities and systemic dysfunction of Wall St.
Imposing sanctions upon Iran will harm the Iranian people too, maybe more so than damage the regime of Ahmadinejad and his acolytes. More could have been done to support Iranian people, and their Green Movement, during the dubious 2009 elections that saw Ahmadinejad retain power? It would be tragic for sanctions to have an outcome of strengthening the status quo.
If the Fear Trade gets its way yet again, conflict will do wonders for their military/industrial complex. Sure they’d be very happy to shift scrutiny away from coverage of Occupy/99% and Murdoch venality @ the Leveson Inquiry too. Errr, isn’t there a historiacal pattern of right wing conservative leaders in Britain and the US (Blair included) screaming “Iran” or “Iraq” as they consolidate their own ghastly power?
Moving forwards, to the sodding past. No thanks.
(from Wikipedia…The Green Movement refers to a series of actions after the 2009 Iranian presidential election, in which protesters demanded the removal of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from office. Green was initially used as the symbol of Mir Hossein Mousavi‘s campaign, but after the election it became the symbol of unity and hope for those asking for annulment of what they regarded as a fraudulent election.[1] Mir Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi are recognized as political leaders of the Green Movement.[2]Hossein-Ali Montazeri was also mentioned as spiritual leader of the movement.[3] Witnesses to Green Movement protests often claim that protests of this size have not been seen in Iran since the 1979 revolution.[4][5][6])
How real is an Iranian nuclear threat? As rhetoric and momentum begin to build, the interpretOr will be probing more into this issue. After the ‘dodgy dossier’ that formed the rationale on the invasion of Iraq, should we not continue to question assumptions and pre-conceptions and scrutinise available evidence?
This is the question investigated by Seymour Hersh in the New Yorker, (see link below). Hersh was pivotal in breaking the stories of Vietnam War era My Lai massacre of 1968 (story broke ’69), and more recently the abuse of prisoners at Abu Ghraib during Gulf War II.
“There is no conclusive evidence that Iran has tried to build a bomb since 2003. The two most recent National Intelligence Estimates (N.I.E.s) on Iranian nuclear progress, representing the best judgment of the senior officers from all the major American intelligence agencies, have stated that there is no conclusive evidence that Iran has made any effort to build the bomb since 2003″
Read more http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2011/06/06/110606fa_fact_hersh#ixzz1czlIQdqi
Wikipedia also cites the following:
In a 2004 article, he (Hersh) alleged that Vice President Dick Cheney and Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld circumvented the normal intelligence analysis function of the CIA in their quest to make the case for the 2003 invasion of Iraq.
“I was there to take down the names of people who were arrested… As I’m standing there, some African-American woman goes up to a police officer and says, ‘I need to get in. My daughter’s there. I want to know if she’s OK.’ And he said, ‘Move on, lady.’ And they kept pushing with their sticks, pushing back. And she was crying. And all of a sudden, out of nowhere, he throws her to the ground and starts hitting her in the head,” says Smith. “I walk over, and I say, ‘Look, cuff her if she’s done something, but you don’t need to do that.’ And he said, ‘Lady, do you want to get arrested?’ And I said, ‘Do you see my hat? I’m here as a legal observer.’ He said, ‘You want to get arrested?’ And he pushed me up against the wall.”
Retired New York Supreme Court Judge, Karen Smith, who worked as a legal observer Tuesday morning (22/11/11) in New York after the police raided the Occupy Wall Street encampment, as reported by Democracy Now, the US’s largest community media initiative (not for profit and hot linked on our interpretOr blogroll).
Protecting and promoting the UK in a digital world | Cabinet Office.
(this is a hotlink, as headlined in bold, received directly by the interpretOr, from UK Cabinet Office, via Twitter 25/11/11)
Big PR number with David Cameron quotes and associated justifications. A press release really, that we’ll try to deconstruct and post on in the not too distant…David Cameron was PR head honcho for Carlton Television and is a Tory. This triumphant announcement mid phone hacking enquiry. NO PROTECTION has been a theme of the evidence thus far…
nanoo, nanoo...
Here’s an extract in the interim:
As part of this action plan Government will:
• Continue to build up in GCHQ and MOD our sovereign UK capability to detect and defeat high-end threats.
More tea, vicar? A Tory PM. Again. And there was even a woyal wedding wecently too. Wonder if this legislation was discussed by David Cameron at last year’s Christmas lunch get together with Brooks, Murdochs, Freuds, car salesmen who present a television franchise via the BBC? What a recipe for food poisoning!
Cameron’s 2010 Christmas lunch with Rebekah Brooks and the Murdochs
One only had to watch SBS or ABC news last night (Thurs) to glean further evidence in support of Norm Stamper’s credible and concrete concerns…
As flagged by the interpretOr August ’11, Jeff Madrick, Senior Fellow at the Roosevelt Institute and former economic correspondent to the New York Times, has recently published a metaanalysis of the origins, historical contexts and characteristics of financial crises.
Similarities to Eurozone abound, as the following quote reveals:
“Throughout history, financial crises have been generally similar to each other. An asset – land, housing, stocks, bonds and so on – rises in price, financial institutions lend to investors to buy more, and prices are driven to unsustainable levels. When the bubble bursts, investors sell assets to repay their loans, and prices fall further, often in panic.”
(Jeff Madrick, The Age of Greed, Alfred A Knopff, New York 2011)
the interpretOr also reveals that prior to the collapse of Lehman’s in 2008, Wall St had made trillions from trading sub-prime mortgages that were based on a giant ‘Ponzi’ scheme. How this was achieved was attributable to ongoing deregulation of the finance sector, tacitly permitting finance houses such as AIG and Countrywide to trade essentially unsecured mortgages to a rapacious sector – the buy-in, or incentive, was that sub-prime mortgages were subject to very high interest rates – these flimsy, high risk/high yield products were sold in bulk, providing massive, short-term and unsustainable earnings.
The ratings agencies, (see earlier interpretOr posts), S&P, Moody’s and Fitch, rated these bulk packages of very risky, partially unsecured mortgages, without elaborating on their inherent risks, weaknesses and unsustainability. European and other banks around the globe, bought into these toxic tranches and the resultant GFC was and is the outcome.
In late 2010, a Eurobond dealer broke away from the conformist consensus of his peers and spoke out against the ratings agencies (S&P, Moodys’ and Fitch). This lone voice had made it onto the BBC World Service and clearly stated that the ratings that these agencies had given toxic Greek, Spanish, Italian and Irish sovereign debt were incorrect. He called these government bonds as sub-junk trash. He derided the ratings as being as fetid as the subprime ‘miscalculations’ of 2008 and earlier.
Listeners were not told at the time that these same ratings agencies derive their revenue from the commission that they are paid by the merchant banks and governments that are issuing the bonds that they, the ratings’ agencies, rate.
News Limited media editor Stephen Brook has taken a quote from Barack Obama and enthusiastically misused it as a defence of The Australian newspaper’s defence of the indefensible. Brook claimed Obama was speaking about press freedom when he said “Certain rights are universal, among them freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of religion and freedom of citizens to choose their own leaders.” Obama added, “These are not American rights or Australian rights or Western rights. They are human rights. They stir the soul.”
Brook noted that Obama’s was alluding critically to China’s poor human rights record but Brook then deviated radically to claim that somehow this speech related to the record of Bob Brown. It is hard to think of anyone in Australian politics who has shown more courage and stood up more strongly for human rights than Bob Brown, but in the time honoured fashion of the Murdoch press, Brook was not letting facts get in the way of propaganda.
Brook was doing what he first learned at The Australian and that is media and marketing. He was trying to sell us the idea that the Murdoch media was being unfairly targeted by a media inquiry first mooted by Bob Brown. Poor little News Limited was being picked on according to those quoted by Brook. Famous boxer and former boss of News Ltd John Hartigan claims Julia Gillard was “looking for someone to blame.” Fairfax boss Greg Hywood while giving evidence at the inquiry was obviously mystified why we need an inquiry saying: “What is the issue?”
Unfortunately Brook didn’t read the other stories in the same November the 18th edition of the Australian, as one article on the front page is titled, “Fairfax four facing probe by MP’s.” This article deals with allegations of illegally hacking into an electoral database which is being investigated by Victoria Police.
The previous day an article entitled “Accused cop read terror raid file,” revealed that a Victorian police detective was committed to trial for wilful misconduct endangering the lives of others and interfering with the administration of justice. It appears from the article that the detective was illegally passing highly secret information on terrorists, who were later convicted of planning a lethal attack on Holsworthy military base, to a senior journalist Cameron Stewart from The Australian.
While pretending to champion free speech The Australian uses Daniel Pipes as a writer on Middle East issues. Pipes is well known for his viciously anti- Arab prejudice. Pipes advocated collective punishment of Palestinians by proposing that when a Palestinian commits an act of terrorism his whole village should be obliterated. As a project of his Middle East Forum, Pipes set up campus watch which created a McCarthy style website dossier that encouraged US university students and academics to report lecturers who made any criticism of Israel. He used this information to try have these lecturers blacklisted.
If the above instances of wrongdoing are not enough, the fact that the Murdoch press is not reporting the news accurately and in fact deliberately and regularly misrepresents the true picture of climate change and thereby offends the other face of free speech, that is the responsibility to tell the truth.
The climate change campaign is a malignant feature of the Murdoch media empire that has terrible consequences for all who occupy this planet. If it succeeds in its aims of preventing action on the greatest threat ever faced by mankind it will go down in history as the greatest example of infamy toward humanity and as an enemy of truth and thereby free speech.
Bye, bye trees. This was the scene in the school play ground this morning. Desolate, denuded, depressing…
What message does this send our wise and caring children?
Every day around the world journalists, musicians, artists, politicians, and free expression advocates are being silenced, often with no investigation or consequences to their persecutors.
Tiger Woods, welcome to Earthtalk.
– Thank you Breeonezlet, pleasure to be here…
Ok. Mr Woods, as you know, this interview is likely to be reaching planets that are not entirely familiar with your profession. Can you describe a typical working day?
– Umm, yes. Yes, sir, I can describe such a day. I tend to wear leeesure slacks, v neck jumpers and I smack golf balls around in the open air. I travel the world on what is known as the ‘tour’ and compete with other players.
Do many people do a similar job, back there on Earth?
– Well, for many people here, golf is a game, a hobby. Fun on the weekend, or during the week, with clients and associates. For me, golf is my life, my passion…kinda almost a religion.
Mr Woods, are you pretty happy on US$1,000,000 per week?
– My performance is significantly down YOY and I have a lot of hard work to do moving forwards. Quite frankly, at the end of the day, I’m a little disappointed…
How does your income compare with other Earthlings? It seems that this game, ‘golf’ is highly valued, it must be essential to the lives of fellow humans?
– Umm, quite frankly, moving forwards, it is an important game. I’m an ambassador for it.
Mr Woods, that’s fine, but I will ask you again: How does your income compare with other Earthlings?
– At the end of the day, I’m very happy with my lot, though as I said earlier, Breeonezlet, My performance is significantly down YOY…
Mr Woods, thank you. We’d better leave it there for now. Best wishes with your ‘moving forwards golf’ and we appreciate your time.
Well, viewers, that was Mr Woods, Earth’s leading ‘golfer’. As we saw, he seemed reluctant to put his income into perspective – this trait has been a theme of this series on ‘Earth: roles, incomes and the future’. We’ll go now to Earth’s ‘United Nations’ and see how Mr Woods’ income compares with average Earthlings:
More than one billion people in the world live on less than one dollar a day.
Another 2.7 billion struggle to survive on less than two dollars per day. Poverty in the developing world, however, goes far beyond income poverty. It means having to walk more than one mile everyday simply to collect water and fire- wood; it means suffering diseases that were eradicated from rich countries decades ago. Every year eleven million children die—most under the age of five and more than six million from completely preventable causes like malaria, diarrhea and pneumonia.
(source: United Nations, 2011: http://www.unmillenniumproject.org/documents/3-MP-PovertyFacts-E.pdf)
The argument about fracking and its impact on water, environmental and health matters is very important but it is obscuring a greater issue for this country and indeed the world.
State governments on the East coast are arguing that hydraulic fracturing to extract gas is vital for future development, as the Bass Strait oil and gas fields are reaching the end of their lives and their will be a shortage in supply in the near future. However, allowing fracking will have little impact on state supplies because the private companies drilling for gas sell their gas to the world market as quickly as they can to maximise their profits. They will not eke it out or save it for state governments unless they pay upfront.
In fact the declining Bass Strait oilfields show that a new approach is needed to ensure that we do have dedicated energy supplies for our industries, for transport and households to use until such time we can replace them with renewables or other new forms of energy at competitive prices.
After urging from the Greens, who called for the implementation of a comprehensive strategic energy use policy,the Carpenter Government in Western Australia put in place a weak arrangement guaranteeing state supply for households and industry. I have not seen any evidence of any other state governments securing their states energy futures and lots of evidence that what they actually want is the mining royalties to prop up their current budgets.
Rapidly selling our energy supplies at the current rate may make our governments look like good financial managers, but it is a sleight of hand trick digging up money in the form of hydrocarbons and swapping it for paper money. The longer the oil and gas sits in the ground, the more valuable it becomes. The quicker we dig it up the less we will get to sell it. What point is the quick buck now if in twenty years down the track we have not secured energy supplies for local use? What manufacturing, farming and transport or even mining will be possible?
The Chinese are not so stupid with their energy supplies. Rather than using up local gas and oil, they are buying up energy all over the globe at very good prices and keeping their reserves as reserves.
There are some other stupendous challenges as well and the most pressing is food production. It has been estimated that the current world population of 6 billion has only been possible because of the use of nitrogenous fertilisers. Without nitrogenous fertilisers the highest population achievable is around 3 billion people and most of the added nitrogen comes from a process using natural gas.
By 2050 when world population reaches around 9 billion, our gas supplies will be dwindling and highly expensive. Six billion people will be facing starvation if natural gas is not available or affordable to make nitrogenous fertilisers. If you think we are currently seeing market failures, wait till 2050 arrives and we are without adequate oil and gas supplies for our survival. It is an act of criminal stupidity of our governments to not deal with these issues now because they continue to hold to a fundamental and religious belief that the market will fix it. Now is time for action not for waiting on Godot.
The following is sourced from Fair Work Australia’s website:
Are there any penalties for making a false declaration?
Yes. If you intentionally make a false statement in a statutory declaration, you could be charged with an offence and, if convicted, you could be fined or jailed, or both.
Under section 11 of the Statutory Declarations Act 1959, the penalty for making a false statement in a statutory declaration is four years imprisonment.
( more info at: http://www.fwa.gov.au)
Ooo, errr. More tea, vicar?
French news service AFP (Agence France Presse) are today reporting that artist Ai Weiwei has been buoyed by ‘a huge wave of solidarity’ involving 30,000 other Chinese people raising 8.5 milion Yuan to support his very fragile predicament. This is a situation whereby freedom of expression in contemporary China is the core issue.
In addition to his thought provoking and magnificent art, Ai Weiwei had investigated the needless deaths of school children who died in shonkily built schools that had collapsed in earthquakes of recent years. Icon of art became enemy of the state. Consume away, if you can, but whatever you do, don’t question…
I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality.
C21 hereditary tyrant
'If artists betray the social conscience and the basic principles of being human, where does art stand then?' Ai Weiwei
chamber of horrOrs...
jellybellypolies of the very recent past
the interpretOr 