The Journal
2009
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Stimulus Package Worse Than Useless
Professor Neal Stoughton, head of Banking and Finance at the Australian School of Business at the University of New South Wales, has come out in support of my argument of several weeks ago that the stimulus…
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End of the Line for Tamil Tigers
I have blogged about the Sri Lankan civil war before. There are reports that some 20,000 people have fled conflict zones in March. About 30,000 fled in February – but fighting was more widespread then. The…
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Body Part Dropped in Neighbours Yard
But the police won’t say what body part. Apparently the killer got into a fight with an older drinking buddy and attacked him with a hatchet (small axe, tomahawk, whatever). During the attack, the older guy…
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Man Swallows Scissors He Was Using to Clean His Teeth
Yes it is true. There are even X-rays to prove it. If this guy had died he would have deserved a Darwin award. But I guess he’s still got his whole future ahead of him. Provided…
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Bishop Backs Rudd on Bushfire Climate Lessons
I know George Browning slightly. He is a a personable and apparently intelligent man. He has also been pushing the global warming agenda pretty relentlessly for the last ten years. Understandably, since he is convenor of the ‘Anglican…
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Banks Funding Virus Creation (or Forcing You To)
In an article on the Australian ABC website, Patrick Gray suggests that the major motivation for writing viruses is financial. This is certainly true with ‘key logger’ type infections, but I am not sure it is true…
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Sayyaf Hostages Still Alive
According to latest reports from the Philippines, the Red Cross workers kidnapped by Abu Sayyaf are still alive – though no ‘proof of life’ has been received, despite requests. Abu Sayyaf has already shown it is…
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Men Earn $1 Million More than Women Over a Lifetime
Really? They have better paying jobs than I do, obviously. Equal pay for equal work for men and women is mandated in Australia, as in most countries. So if this figure is accurate, what can account…
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Hospital Waiting List Fraud
I am a bit confused about this whole story. Is it claimed hospitals were exaggerating their waiting lists in order to increase funding, or that they were understating them in order to look good? Like many…
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This is an April Fool’s Day Joke
The G-Ball. It measures your kick – velocity and direction, and transmits this data to satellites, from where it is sent to football scouts who are waiting to offer you a lucrative contract. But this is not…
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Senior Iranian Official – No Dialogue Till We Have Nukes
Ayatollah Mohammad Baqer Kharrazi is a member of the Iranian Guardian Council – according to some, the most powerful body in Iranian politics – and is also Secretary General of the Iranian Hezbollah. This is someone…
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Has Abu-Sayyaf Already Killed Its Hostages?
The deadline of 2pm Tuesday has passed with no further word on whether three Red Cross workers kidnapped by Philippino terrorist group Abu-Sayyaf are still alive. The terrorists demanded the withdrawal of government troops from ‘their’ territory…
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World’s Largest Laser, Annoying Grammatical Error
Interesting news about the world’s largest laser becoming operational, and especially the hope that this will generate enough energy to achieve ‘fusion ignition.’ This could be an important step on the way to the use of…
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More News on Conficker
Also known as Downadup. As I noted earlier, so far the worm has not caused any damage, except for giving scareware makers another way of cheating people out of their money, and well meaning friends sending annoying email warnings.…
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Family Dies as Police Prevent Rescue
That must be one of the dodgiest headlines I’ve seen for a long time. The house was on fire and burning dangerously. Police stopped neighbours from entering the house. The chances are that anyone else entering…