Change of Direction.

Rather than posting news stories that interest me I am going to try to post personal content, and useful tech info.

I have changed a lot in the last 3 years through illness and disability, and so have my interests, and politics and world view.so the feel should change.

Israel pats themselves on the back for aid ship deaths

Public opinion throughout the world largely deplored the violence with which Israel enforced its blockade of the Hamas-ruled enclave and stopped the convoy, leaving nine Turkish civilians dead.



Israel's response is a report that exonerates the military with only a few caveats and pats Israel on the back, not only over the conduct of the raid but over the blockade of Gaza in general.

Amplify’d from www.independent.co.uk

As we report today, 52 separate military police investigations over the last two years into Israel's December 2008 offensive in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead, which resulted in the deaths of 759 Palestinian non-combatants, have yielded precious little. The level of casualties in the offensive was shocking. A single lethal air strike on a house where about a hundred civilians were sheltering killed 21 of them. There were well-documented cases of Israeli troops using children as human shields. These were corroborated in some instances by Breaking the Silence, a group of Israeli human rights activists and former army veterans, some of whose members witnessed these events. A country that resorts to such inhumane tactics while presenting itself as a standard bearer for democracy should be asking itself hard questions about whether it was striking the right balance between security demands and respect for the basic human rights of civilians caught up in a war zone. Read more at www.independent.co.uk

 

See this Amp at http://bit.ly/fr57NH

Somone is wrong on the internet

via codexon.com

Love this :)

Posted via email from Black Weta's posterous

Earth Hour - kill your neighbour's dog and leave the lights on

Earth Hour - a futile and scientifically unsound gesture towards making ourselves feel better about screwing the earth over.

Advocates say it makes people think about the earth. Well wouldn't it be better to think about it for more than one hour a year? If I was the earth I would be feeling a bit ripped off. New Zealand and Australia both get one whole day a year to them selves, and the whole earth only gets an hour? Shouldn’t it be earth week and we all get a one week holiday?

But wont switching off lights at least drop load at the power station and reduce emissions? No! The Power stations are on idle at night - they have to run at a minimum load. Switching off lights at night doesn’t make them generate any less electricity.  The power is there to use.  It's the DAY time that they go flat-out.

So, if you DO want to reduce energy-produced carbon emissions by a MINISCULE amount by switching off lights, first connect to an electricity provider that isn’t already green, and then switch off lights during the day. But only if your electricity provider is not green already!

Q. What are the folk that do follow Earth Hour going to do in the dark?

A. Make carbon-emission producing kids, burn candles to produce light really inefficiently, or  go for a drive in their SUVs/Hummers to town to spend money on so stuff whose packaging is plastic and created by some filthy pollution generating Chinese factory.

SO, what CAN you do if you really want to make a difference to the earth at Earth Hour?

Take your kids on a family activity to kill your neighbours dog! By doing this you will be saving the earth from the massive emissions of dog food production, and canning processes,  AND the carbon dioxide and methane that the dog would have created from its consumption.

Your neighbour wont have to drive their dog to the park in their SUV anymore either. Win Win.

Brilliant.

How to teach a kid to go far in life

So true these days. It seems to be successful, you need to be an arse.

clipped from www.theage.com.au <img src="http://content7.clipmarks.com/blog_cache/www.theage.com.au/img/06978D28-4518-4908-9A7F-547C32005F24" alt="Friday, 11 September, 2009 Photo: Alan Moir" /> 9 JanAlan Moir, The Sydney Morning Herald's political cartoonist, sketches the political unreality.

KFC racist, or just US media seeing the world through lenses of racism as usual?

This was not a black America issue. This was not even an American ad. It had nothing to do with colour or race. It was about an Aussie cricket fan surrounded by West-Indian cricket fans. Aussies and Kiwis never thought of it as 'white vs black'.

WE are not uncomfortable about people having different skin colours. WE find skin colour irrelevant. It is totally acceptable to bring home a girlfriend of a different race, because it is not important.

Americans view people as either Black or White. THAT is racist. Stop being racist America! Colour should be invisible!

I have heard that KFC didn't have the bottle to stand up for itself. The ad has been taken of air. Pathetic.

clipped from www.guardian.co.uk Although intended only for an Antipodean audience, the clip has quickly found its way around the world on the internet, prompting stinging criticism in the US where fried chicken remains closely associated with age-old racist stereotypes about black people in the once segregated south. KFC Australia has come out fighting, saying that the commercial was a "light-hearted reference to the West Indian cricket team" that had been "misinterpreted by a segment of people in the US." In the Australian media, the reaction has been mixed, with some commentators accusing Americans of "insularity". Brendon O'Connor, an associate professor at the University of Sydney, told 9 Network News that the association between fried chicken and ethnic minorities was a distinctly US issue: "They have a tendency to think that their history is more important than that of other countries." Watch Video

Hey Kids! Learn how to plagiarise without being caught.

The war on kids is on.Your teachers are out to catch you copying useful information from websites in to pointless homework (yes research shows most homework has no educational benefit). While you may call it being resourceful and efficient, THEY call it plagiarism. Luckily the Brits have published notes on how they catch you. Good luck sweeties!

clipped from www.telegraph.co.uk Children can also be easily tripped up by copying passages from websites containing American phrases and spellings – a clear sign of plagiarism. The comments were made in a series of documents sent to pupils, parents and teachers warning against cheating at school. Among the most obvious giveaways was when an essay suddenly changed “in font, styles, sizes and indentation and line spacing”, Ofqual said, indicating that passages had been carelessly copied. Teachers were also told to look out for the use of phases and spellings in American English, suggesting pupils had downloaded work from foreign websites. This includes phrases such as “go get” for “go and get”, “have gotten” instead of “have got” and “period” for “full-stop”. clipped from www.ofqual.gov.uk Authenticity: A Guide for Teachers (PDF, 586 KB) Avoiding Plagiarism: A Guide for Parents and Carers (PDF, 565 KB) Using Sources: A Guide for Students: Find it - Check it - Credit it (PDF, 653 KB)

Aussie and Kiwi scientists to show "lethal research" is not required to study whales.

I still think they should take some shoulder fired missiles with them and stick a few into the sides of the Japanese whaling fleet.

clipped from www.stuff.co.nz The decision by the New Zealand and Australian governments to send scientists to Antarctic waters next month is a positive new step in the fight to end Japanese whaling in the Southern Ocean. The scientists will depart next month on the National Institute of Water and Atmospheric Research vessel Tangaroa. They will collect data on whales by photographing their tail markings, listening to their calls and firing small darts to obtain genetic material. They will also use satellite tags to enable the whales to be tracked. the work should prove that "lethal research" is not required to study whales. This is the device which, despite the 1986 moratorium on commercial whaling, will allow Japan to kill its quota of about 1000 whales this summer. Unlike the Japanese research, the Australasian scientists' work will be published in peer-reviewed journals, which would make the case against the "scientific" whaling charade even stronger.

Japan declares war in the Antarctic, sink whale-killing protest ship

The Japanese have been hunting whales in a protected wild-life sanctuary for years, and every year the opposition gets bigger. Both sides play tough, but the sides are not evenly matched.

What's annoying is that the Japanese pretend that the hunting and killing of whales is for "scientific" purposes.

clipped from www.theage.com.au The new Sea Sheperd Conservation Society's boat the Ady Gil in November. Photo: Peter Mathew Anti-whaling group Sea Shepherd's stealth boat Ady Gil has been cut in half by a Japanese security vessel in the Antarctic today The $1.5 million high-tech vessel's remains were sinking, but its six-man crew had been rescued and was uninjured Captain Watson said the Ady Gil was idling in waters near Commonwealth Bay when it was suddenly approached and rammed by the Japanese ship Shonan Maru, which has been detailed to provide security to the fleet. Earlier today, the fleet was contacted for the first time by the Ady Gil and Sea Shepherd's surprise third vessel, the Bob Barker. "According to the Institute of Cetacean Research, the Ady Gil's crew were launching projectiles at the Nisshin Maru and attempted to entangle its propellers with rope." ICR video footage shows the vessel stalking the Japanese ship, towing ropes from its stern.

Excretement on Money - lovely

A 2002 report in the Southern Medical Journal showed found pathogens — including staphylococcus — on 94% of dollar bills tested. Paper money can reportedly carry more germs than a household toilet. And bills are a hospitable environment for gross microbes: viruses and bacteria can live on most surfaces for about 48 hours, but paper money can reportedly transport a live flu virus for up to 17 days. It's enough to make you switch to credit.

via time.com

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