Oz market suffers worst day since GFC
Friday, August 05, 2011
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2011/08/05/Oz_market_suffers_worst_day_since_GFC_646968.html
The Australian share market slumped by four per cent to its biggest
one-day loss since the height of the global financial crisis almost
three years ago. Fresh concerns that United States could be headed back
into recession and fears that Europe's debt woes could be spreading to
Italy and Spain sent investors to exits. The fall wiped almost $60
billion from the value of Australian stocks on Friday and took the
cumulative loss to around $100 billion over the past week. Local
traders followed the overnight lead of the United States, where the Dow
Jones Industrial Average sank 4.3 per cent, or 512 points, to its worst
one-day drop in more than two years. Australian stocks closed at their
lowest level since July 2009. It was the biggest one-day percentage
fall since November 20, 2008. The benchmark SP/ASX200 index was down
171.1 points, or 4.0 per cent, at 4,105.4, while the broader All
Ordinaries index was 183.2 points, or 4.21 per cent, weaker at 4,169.7.
On the ASX 24, derivatives traders sent the September share price index
futures contract down 190 points at 4,052, with 82,572 contracts
traded... Every sector was down and the resources boom was forgotten,
with the mining and energy sectors down by more than five per cent. IG
Markets strategist Cameron Peacock described the drop as a 'bloodbath'
that was the result of the anxiety about the European debt crisis
spreading to Italy and Spain then colliding with America's debt
problems. 'It all came to a bit of a head, that's why we're seeing this
global rout at the moment' he told AAP. 'Everyone thought after the
(US) debt ceiling issue was resolved that markets would move higher.
'All it really did was focus the markets on some of the structural
problems in the US economy.' Mr Peacock said the release of new
employment numbers in the US overnight on Friday could calm investors
if they were positive. 'No one knows what's going to happen, anyone
that pretends they do is kidding themselves,' he said. 'You get these
panic days, people just liquidate portfolios indiscriminately and
that's why we're seeing such broad-based losses. 'A lot of companies
out there are in stellar financial condition and are doing very well,
but the baby gets thrown out with the bathwater as they say.' Mining
giant Rio Tinto lost $4.58, or 5.98 per cent to $72, just a day after
posting a record $7.3 billion half year underlying net profit. The
world's biggest miner, BHP Billiton, closed down $1.94, or 4.84 per
cent, at $38.12. Fortescue Metals gave up 39 cents, or 6.36 per cent,
to $5.74. Gold miner Newcrest was down $1.45, or 3.57 per cent, at
$39.20. Among energy stocks, Woodside Petroleum plummeted $1.95, or
5.34 per cent, to $34.55. Santos fell 82 cents, or 6.65 per cent, to
$11.52 and Origin Energy dropped 43 cents, or 3.05 per cent, to $13.66.
Banks and financials were down, too. ANZ lost 71 cents, or 3.58 per
cent, to $19.10, National Australia Bank fell 90 cents to $21.77 and
Westpac was down 50 cents at $19.27. Commonwealth Bank lost $1.29, or
2.71 per cent, to $46.26. Telstra was down seven cents at $2.89."
'Our time has come' Assange tells rally
The Founder of WikiLeaks Julian Assange!
Friday, February 04, 2011
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2011/02/04/Our_time_has_come_Assange_tells_rally_573229.html
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says the era of the internet
generation has arrived and he'll continue to expose 'abusive
organisations'.
Speaking in a recorded message to a public meeting in Melbourne on
Friday, Mr Assange said can't wait to be back in his home town and
called on Australians concerned about his plight to take action.
He compared WikiLeaks' push for more transparent governance to the
civil rights movement of the 1950s, the peace movement of the 1960s,
feminism movements and the environmental movement.
'For the internet generation this is our challenge and this is our time,' Mr Assange said.
'We support a cause that is no more radical a proposition than that the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state.
'The state has asserted its authority by surveilling, monitoring and
regimenting all of us, all the while hiding behind cloaks of security
and opaqueness,' Mr Assange told the free speech rally.
'Surely it was only a matter of time before citizens pushed back and we asserted our rights,' he said.
Mr Assange has been living in a mansion in England owned by a WikiLeaks
supporter while he awaits an extradition hearing to decide if he will
be sent to Sweden to face rape charges.
The full hearing is due to begin on Monday, and in his video address Mr
Assange appeared calm next to a window overlooking a meadow as he read
a prepared statement.
Mr Assange, wearing a black suit and tie, appeared unshaven during the seven-and-a-half minute monologue.
'With your help and support we will make our way through this storm and
continue to publish and hold powerful and abusive organisations to
account,' he said.
Mr Assange shot to world prominence after the whistleblowing website he founded published thousands of secret US cables.
There have since been numerous calls for him to be assassinated,
including one from Tom Flanagan, a former adviser to Canadian Prime
Minister Stephen Harper, and from right wing commentators on America's
Fox News.
He called on Australians to insist that attacks against his staff and
organisation stop, that the federal government 'come clean' on its
interactions with foreign powers in relation to WikiLeaks, and that he
be allowed to return home.
'We have been deeply moved by the concern that Australians have shown
for us, but I ask that you turn your concern into action,' he said.
He said that through its silence, the Australian government has condoned calls to have him and his staff killed.
Our hands tied, Gillard tells Assange
Wednesday, February 02, 2011
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2011/02/02/Our_hands_tied_Gillard_tells_Assange_571966.html
Prime Minister Julia Gillard says she cannot - and will not - make Julian Assange's legal problems go away.
But like any Australian citizen, she says the WikiLeaks founder is welcome to return home once they do.
Mr Assange, in London fighting an extradition order to Sweden where he
awaits sexual assault charges, has appealed to Ms Gillard to help him
return to Australia.
'There's not anything we can, or indeed, should do about that,' Ms Gillard told Austereo on Wednesday.
'They are charges and they've got to be worked through proper process.'
Mr Assange would like to return to Australia immediately, but Ms
Gillard said it was not the fault of the Australian government that he
couldn't.
'I don't go around issuing invitations to come to Australia, you are
entitled to be here unless there is some legal obligations keeping him
overseas.'
Mr Assange's mother has lashed out at the prime minister, labelling her
a sycophant of the United States which is trying to pursue legal action
over the WikiLeaks revelations.
Ms Gillard, who has echoed the view that Mr Assange should be charged, denied she was under the thumb of the US.
'I haven't got any heat in that sense,' she said.
Ms Gillard sought to distinguish between the 'moral force' of a
whistleblower and the action of WikiLeaks in making public hundreds of
thousands of classified US documents.
Whistleblowing put Watergate into the public eye, she said.
'That is conduct I can understand. WikiLeaks is something else.
'It's not about making a moral case, it's really about all of this
information and just putting it up there and whatever happens happens.
'It's an irresponsible thing to do.'
Case against Assange 'peculiar'
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2011/02/08/Case_against_Assange_peculiar_574468.html
An expert in Swedish law says the sexual assault case launched against
Julian Assange has been 'extremely peculiar' and the Australian has
been unfairly labelled a rapist around the world.
Prosecutors are seeking to extradite the 39-year-old WikiLeaks founder
from the UK to Sweden to answer sexual assault allegations reported by
two women to have occurred in August last year.
Assange denies the allegations, which include that he raped one woman and sexually assaulted another, using violence.
Outside court, Assange told reporters: 'Five-and-a-half months we have
been in a condition where a black box has been applied to my life.
'On the outside of that black box has been written the word rape, that
box is now, thanks to an open court process, being opened.
'And I hope that over the next day that we will see that box is in fact
empty and has nothing to do with the words that are on the outside of
it.
'We have seen that today and I would like to thank my supporters and my lawyers for continuing to help me.
'A process like this surely lets you understand who your friends are.'
Assange's lawyers have said that if sent to Sweden, their client will
face questioning from authorities regarding the release of secret
government documents on the WikiLeaks site and that it is possible he
will then be extradited to the United States, where he is under
investigation for his website operations.
On Monday during the first of a two-day extradition hearing in London,
prosecutors said Assange's rights would be ensured if he was extradited.
Defence counsel called the first witness, former Swedish appeals court judge turned academic Brita Sundberg-Weitman.
'I think it has from the very beginning it has been extremely peculiar,' the heavily accented Ms Sundberg-Weitman said.
In Sweden, she said, Assange's guilt has already been decided and he
has been labelled a 'coward' for failing to return and answer the
allegations.
'It's rather hostile,' she said of the Swedish attitude towards Assange.
'And I think most people take it for granted that he has raped two women.'
The former judge, now an associate professor at Stockholm University,
was also critical of the team prosecuting Assange, led by Marianne Ny.
'She has her own, rather-biased view against men in the treatment of sexual offence cases,' Ms Sundberg-Weitman said of Ms Ny.
'They seem to take it for granted that everyone under prosecution is
guilty. I honestly can't understand her attitude. It looks malicious
... I think maybe she wants to make him suffer.'
Assange's lawyer, Geoffrey Robertson QC, summarised her comments: 'What
she (Ms Ny) wants to do is to get (Assange) to Sweden because she wants
to arrest him no matter what he says?'
'It would be expected that if he is returned on this warrant that he
would not only be held in custody, but be held incommunicado?'
Ms Sundberg-Weitman agreed with both points.
If extradited, Assange would be exposed to a 'flagrant denial of justice', Mr Robertson said.
The hearing continues on Tuesday.
Staff holograms to help airport security Staff holograms to help airport security
Monday, January 31, 2011
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/OddSpot/2011/01/31/Staff_holograms_to_help_airport_security_570919.html
Passengers at England's Manchester Airport will be greeted by holograms
of staff from next week in a bid to reduce security check queues. The
images of the customer service workers were created using the same
cutting edge technology which is used in the music industry by bands
such as the Gorillaz. It is being trialled at terminal one where
passengers are being met by holograms of real-life employees John Walsh
and Julie Capper. The digital illusions will greet travellers before
they go into the security search area, explaining liquid restrictions
and reminding customers about boarding cards. The technology has been
developed with Musion and the holograms are carefully prepared to
retain maximum transparency and strength. The surface produced is
better than a glass mirror and allows the reproduction of high
definition video. It is so convincing that passengers have been seen
presenting their passports to the holograms, believing them to be
people. Musion have worked with various hit groups, including The Black
Eyed Peas on their latest single 'The Time (Dirty Bit)'. They were also
behind a hologram of Frank Sinatra that performed at Simon Cowell's
50th birthday party.
Founder, James Rock, said: 'We've developed this technology for many
uses but it's perfectly suited for an airport environment where the
support of recorded messages can help with passenger information.'
'John' and 'Julie' can be programmed to say different messages but for
now they will warn holidaymakers about the liquid restrictions.
Manchester Airport's customer services director Julie Armstrong said:
'We've tried lots of different ways to reinforce the liquid rules, from
posters to people dressed up as giant deodorant cans.
'Maybe holograms are the answer. You certainly can't miss them.'
The real Julie Capper said: 'If our holograms help our passengers
through the security process even quicker then it will be a good thing.
'It's strange to see yourself in virtual form and I'm hoping that I'll
be able to rely on my virtual self to carry some of my workload.
'I wonder if I can send it to meetings in my place and whether anyone
will notice,' she added. The holograms will be in place in Manchester
Airport from Monday. Other airports around the UK are currently
investigating their installation.
Voters on roll mostly dead
Sunday, January 23, 2011
Almost one third of the names appearing on Zimbabwe's
voters roll are dead, while more than 2000 would be more than 100 years
old, a report by an independent electoral organisation says. 'The
list-to-people test showed that 27 per cent of voters registered were
deceased,' the Zimbabwe Election Support Network (ZESN) said in a
document titled Voters Roll Observation Report. 'The computer test
revealed 2344 people born between 1901 and 1909 aged between 101 and
110 years old. 'It also revealed nine people born between 1890 and 1900
aged between 111 and 120 years old. There were 93 children below one
year old,' it said. President Robert Mugabe's...
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/OddSpot/2011/01/23/Voters_on_roll_mostly_dead_567787.html
Media crackdown over China unrest fears
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2011/03/06/Media_crackdown_over_China_unrest_fears_585302.html
Sunday, March 06, 2011
The Chinese government has cracked down on dissent and foreign
journalists over fears turmoil in the Middle East could spark unrest
within China.
For the past two weeks, anonymous calls to take part in Middle
East-inspired pro-democracy protests have gone out over
Chinese-language websites, only to be quickly deleted by the country's
online censors.
The planned protests were a far cry from events in Egypt and Libya.
They suggested participants 'stroll, watch or even just pretend to pass by', at locations in 23 cities across China.
On February 27, at the appointed meeting place in Beijing - a busy
shopping street in the centre of the city - it was not clear whether
any demonstrators had turned up at all.
But in an indication of the Chinese government's anxiety over the
impact of events in the Arab world, an army of several hundred police -
both uniformed and plain-clothed - lined the street.
Several foreign journalists were assaulted, including one who suffered
a broken rib, while others were detained by state security.
Since then, authorities have been flexing their muscles, repeatedly
warning the foreign media against trying to cover further protests.
In a seeming roll-back of reporting freedoms brought in ahead of the
Olympics in 2008, police have informed foreign journalists they will
now have to seek permission before filming in public areas.
Chinese citizens caught re-posting information on the protests online face far more serious consequences.
Many believe the regime is deeply shaken by popular movements in the Middle East.
'The Chinese government seems to be gripped by some kind of paranoia or
irrational fear right now,' said Edward Wong, of the New York Times.
'It's looking at these authoritarian regimes being toppled in the
Middle East and it thinks that its own people might form some kind of
larger movement like what we've seen in Tunisia and Egypt.'
Thousands of Chinese people flock to Beijing every year with complaints about official corruption and abuse of power.
Many of them take up residence in areas known as 'protest villages',
where they are regularly harassed and detained by the police.
In 2006 - the last year the figure was made publicly available - the
government acknowledged that 90,000 'mass incidents' had taken place
across the country.
But Mr Wong and other China watchers agree there is little evidence
that unrest in China is linked up, or that it poses a realistic threat
to the Communist Party's grip on power.
The few who dare to openly question the government's right to rule are quickly silenced.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Liu Xiaobo was sentenced to 11 years in prison
for writing an open letter calling for greater political rights, and
getting 300 people to sign it.
Yet anecdotal evidence suggests that the regime is unnerved.
One hotel asked guests reserving rooms this week whether they were
involved in the 'jasmine activities' and office workers were warned by
their managers against taking part in the protests.
Beijing authorities also announced they would track the movements of residents visa their mobile phones.
The call to protest has been re-issued for this weekend, this time in 41 cities.
King gives money to every family
Monday, February 14, 2011
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/OddSpot/2011/02/14/King_gives_money_to_every_family_577356.html
Bahrain's king has ordered that each family in the tiny Gulf monarchy
be given more than AU$2500 to mark the 10th anniversary of a national
charter for reforms.
'On the occasion of the 10th anniversary of the National Action Charter
and as a sign of appreciation for the people of Bahrain who have
approved it, King Hamad bin Issa al-Khalifa has ordered 1000 dinars
(AU$2648) to be paid to every Bahraini family,' Bahrain News Agency
reports.
The decision comes as cyber activists call for protests in Bahrain
starting from Monday to demand political, social and economic reforms.
In a February 2001 referendum, Bahrainis approved a national charter
for reform which restored a parliament dissolved in 1975, and in
February 2002, Bahrain became a kingdom ruled by a constitutional
monarchy.
Bahrain's government has announced measures to support food prices and
help families in need, after revolts in Egypt and Tunisia, sparked by
poverty and unemployment, led to the ouster of both regimes.
Four dead in Bahrain protests
Friday, February 18, 2011
Troops and tanks locked down the capital of this tiny Gulf kingdom
after riot police swinging clubs and firing tear gas smashed into
demonstrators, many of them sleeping, in a pre-dawn assault Thursday
that uprooted their protest camp demanding political change. Medical
officials said four people were killed.
Hours after the attack on Manama's main Pearl Square, the military
announced a ban on gatherings, saying on state TV that it had 'key
parts' of the capital under its control. After several days of holding
back, the island nation's Sunni rulers unleashed a heavy crackdown,
trying to stamp out the first anti-government upheaval to reach the
Arab states of the Gulf since the uprisings in Tunisia and Egypt. In
the surprise assault, police tore down protesters' tents, beating men
and women inside and blasting some with shotgun sprays of birdshot. It
was a sign of how deeply the Sunni monarchy - and other Arab regimes in
the Gulf - fear the repercussions of a prolonged wave of protests, led
by members of the country's Shiite majority but also joined by growing
numbers of discontented Sunnis.
Tiny Bahrain is a pillar of Washington's military framework in the
region. It hosts the U.S. Navy's 5th Fleet, which is a critical
counterbalance to Iran. Bahrain's rulers and their Arab allies depict
any sign of unrest among their Shiite populations as a move by
neighboring Shiite-majority Iran to expand its clout in the region. But
the assault may only further enrage protesters, who before the attack
had called for large rallies Friday. In the wake of the bloodshed,
angry demonstrators chanted 'the regime must go' and burned pictures of
King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa outside the emergency ward at Salmaniyah
hospital, the main state medical facility. 'We are even angrier now.
They think they can clamp down on us, but they have made us angrier,'
Makki Abu Taki, whose son was killed in the assault, shouted in the
hospital morgue. 'We will take to the streets in larger numbers and
honor our martyrs. The time for Al Khalifa has ended.'
The Obama administration expressed alarm over the violent crackdown.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton called Bahrain's foreign
minister to register Washington's 'deep concern' and urge restraint.
Similar criticism came from Britain and the European Union. Salmaniyah
hospital was thrown into chaos by a stream of dozens of wounded from
Pearl Square, brought in by ambulances and private cars. At least one
of the dead was peppered with bloody holes from pellets fired from
police shotguns. Nurses rushed in men and women on stretchers, their
heads bleeding, arms in casts, faces bruised. At the entrance, women
wrapped in black robes embraced each other and wept.
The capital Manama was effectively shut down Thursday. For the first
time in the crisis, tanks rolled into the streets and military
checkpoints were set up as army patrols circulated. The Interior
Ministry warned Bahrainis to stay off the streets. Banks and other key
institutions did not open, and workers stayed home, unable or to afraid
to pass through checkpoints to get to their jobs. Barbed wire and
police cars with flashing blue lights encircled Pearl Square, the site
of anti-government rallies since Monday. The square was turned into a
field of flattened tents and the strewn belongings of the protesters
who had camped there - pieces of clothing and boxes of food. Banners
lay trampled on the ground, littered with broken glass, tear gas
canisters and debris. A body covered in a white sheet lay in a pool of
blood on the side of a road nearby. Demonstrators had been camping out
for days around the landmark square's 300-foot (90-meter) monument
featuring a giant pearl, a testament to the island's pearl-diving past.
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2011/02/18/Four_dead_in_Bahrain_protests_578967.html
Seven killed in Libya's 'Day of Anger'
Friday, February 18, 2011
Seven people have been killed in the Libyan city of Benghazi, as
Muammar Gaddafi's regime sought to overshadow an opposition 'Day of
Anger' with its own rally in the capital Tripoli.
Meanwhile, clashes broke out in the city of Zentan, southwest of the
capital, in which a number of government buildings were said to have
been torched.
'Seven protesters were killed in the demonstrations on Thursday at
Benghazi,' a local medical official who requested anonymity said,
without giving further details.
Gunfire rang out in several parts of the city on the third straight day
of protests against the long-time Libyan leader, Ramadan Briki, chief
editor of the Quryna newspaper in Benghazi, told AFP.
'It is the first time that we have heard shooting in the city,' Briki
said. 'Given the difficulties, we are unable to know if there are
fatalities or not.'
Separately, lawyers demonstrated in front of a courthouse in Benghazi -
Libya's second city after Tripoli - to demand a constitution for the
country.
The websites Al-Youm and Al-Manara, monitored in Nicosia, said at least
four people were killed in the city of Al-Baida, 200 kilometres east of
Benghazi, on Wednesday.
Sites monitored in Cyprus and a Libyan human rights group based abroad
reported earlier that the anti-Gaddafi protests in Al-Baida had cost as
many as 13 lives.
'Internal security forces and militias of the Revolutionary Committees
used live ammunition to disperse a peaceful demonstration by the youth
of Al-Baida', leaving 'at least four dead and several injured',
according to Libya Watch.
Geneva-based Human Rights Solidarity, citing witnesses, said rooftop
snipers in Al-Baida - a city of 210,000 inhabitants - had killed 13
protesters and wounded dozens of others.
But the Quryna newspaper, close to Gaddafi's son Seif al-Islam, cited
official sources and put the death toll at two. It traced the unrest to
a police shutdown of local shops that soon escalated.
The interior ministry fired the head of security in Al-Jabal Al-Akhdar
province in the aftermath of the violence, in which protesters had
torched 'several police cars and citizens', the paper said on its
website.
Videos circulating on the internet showed dozens of young Libyans
apparently gathered on Wednesday night in Al-Baida chanting, 'The
people want to bring down the regime,' and a building which had been
set on fire.
Rights group Amnesty International denounced the use of excessive force.
'The police in Libya, as elsewhere, have a responsibility to ensure
public safety but this does not extend to using lethal or excessive
force against peaceful protesters,' Malcolm Smart, director for the
Middle East and North Africa, said in a statement.
In Tripoli, the situation was calm on Thursday. A pro-regime rally was organised in Green Square, near the capital's waterfront.
Security presence on main roads was slightly boosted, after text
messages went out on Libya's mobile telephone network on Wednesday
warning against street protests.
The messages, circulated from 'the youth of Libya', warned against
crossing 'four red lines: Muammar Gaddafi, territorial integrity, Islam
and internal security'.
'We will confront anyone in any square or avenue of our beloved country,' the messages read.
The Revolutionary Committees, the backbone of Gaddafi's regime, have
warned they would not allow anti-regime protesters to 'plunder the
achievements of the people and threaten the safety of citizens and the
country's stability.'
The response to Thursday's protest calls was being seen as a test for
Gaddafi, 68, who has been in power since 1969. His counterparts in
neighbouring Egypt and Tunisia have been toppled in uprisings over the
past month.
One Facebook group urging the Day of Anger for Thursday had more than 22,000 followers.
On Wednesday night, Gaddafi was seen on television being mobbed by
thousands of supporters as he laid the foundation stone of a sports
complex for popular football club Ahly Tripoli.
Britain, France and the European Union called for restraint by the
authorities in Libya, whose relations with the West have improved
sharply over the past decade after years of virtual pariah status.
The United States said it encouraged Libya, like countries throughout
the Middle East and North Africa, to take steps to meet the hopes and
needs of their people.
The Day of Anger was called to mark the deaths of 14 protesters in an Islamist rally in Benghazi in 2006
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2011/02/18/Seven_killed_in_Libyas_Day_of_Anger_579131.html
Thai airline trains 'ladyboy' attendants
Friday, February 11, 2011
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/OddSpot/2011/02/11/Thai_airline_trains_ladyboy_attendants_576257.html
Four Thai 'ladyboys' have been recruited as flight attendants for a
start-up charter airline that says it will be Thailand's first to
include transsexuals among its cabin crew.
PC Air, which will fly to several Asian destinations starting in April,
had its first training session this week for 30 recruits, including
four from 'the third sex.'
Thailand is known for its tolerance for transvestites and transsexuals,
known locally as 'katoeys' or 'ladyboys.' An annual transsexual beauty
pageant is broadcast nationally, and Thai doctors' well-honed skills at
the snipping and reassembling needed to switch genders - not to mention
bargain prices - have made Bangkok a sex-change capital.
But while katoeys are prominent in entertainment, frequently appearing
on television series and in cabaret shows, other job opportunities are
limited.
'I had applied to many airlines and was repeatedly turned down. They
said because I was a transsexual, not a real woman,' said Phuntakarn
Sringern, 24, from Bangkok. 'This is the first time somebody told me to
come as I am and put on my best dress.'
Company president Peter Chan, 47, who worked as a flight attendant for
10 years, said he doesn't 'see any reasons we cannot let ladyboys work
as flight attendants' as long as his carrier complies with civil
aviation laws.
'I think it's time for the Thai society to be more open and support freedom of all sexes,' he said.
The airline has separate orientation sessions for male and female
recruits, and the transsexuals have been placed with the natural-born
women. Chan said the transsexuals must live up to feminine standards.
'For ladyboys, we have to spend more than one day with them to make
sure they can keep their feminine personalities. Their voices and their
postures must be naturally feminine and they must be very patient,' he
said.
Miracle wave saves Yasi fisherman
Tuesday, February 08, 2011
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2011/02/08/Miracle_wave_saves_Yasi_fisherman_574763.html
A north Queensland fisherman who fell overboard during Cyclone Yasi was
miraculously swept back onto his boat moments later. Lucinda volunteer
coast guard Bob King said he'd heard a report that a fishing boat
anchored in the Hinchinbrook channel, taking shelter from the tempest,
was knocked onto its side.
'The bloke on it had been wrenched from the boat and thrown into the
sea,' he told AAP on Tuesday. 'He was valiantly trying to get back to
the boat, not doing much good, until a wave came along and deposited
him back on deck. 'Amazing things happen.' He said the boat was somehow
righted and was able to return to Lucinda Port. (This is the proof that it's not the Time for that man to leave Earth and his Higher Self helped him to survive! LM).
Video making second mobile revolution
Thursday, February 17, 2011
Smartphones and tablets are driving a mobile revolution, allowing video
to take the lead in a business once dominated by voice calls, industry
players and experts say.
Video already does or will soon account for the majority of mobile data
traffic, according to companies that monitor traffic, and with the
proliferation of tablet computers that is likely to increase.
'If you want to put 2011 into a nutshell you can say that for the
mobile phone companies their business is changing from an ears business
- people speaking and hearing - into an eyes business with people
looking at little screens,' said Stefan Zehle, CEO of Coleago
Consulting.
Cisco chief John Chambers told the mobile industry's annual trade fair
in Barcelona this week that the visual medium would soon become
ubiquitous in mobile communication.
'It won't be fifty to sixty pe rcent of traffic on networks in five
years out that will be visual. It will be eighty to ninety per cent.
Everything you do will have visual capability.'
Currently most of the visual traffic is video streaming, with
video-sharing site YouTube the single top application accounting for 17
per cent of total mobile data traffic, according to network firm Allot
Communications.
However, 2011 could be the year that video telephony finally takes off, nearly a half century after it was first invented.
Skype, which pioneered voice calls over the Internet, brought video
calls to PCs in 2006 and says 42 per cent of its calls are now video.
And now video calling is now moving to mobile handsets.
Skype launched last month video calling for the iPhone, and Apple has
its own application, which is so far limited only to WiFi connections.
Another firm, ooVoo, now supports iPhones and smartphones running the
Google-backed Android operating system for its free
high-definition-capable video calling service.
ooVoo has gone from nine million users in January 2010 to 21 million last month.
'I really see 2010 as having been the tipping point for video calling,'
the company's chief executive, Philippe Schwartz, told AFP.
Not everyone is convinced video telephony will take off, however.
'I think the value for the end user to actually watch each other while
talking is limited,' said Magnus Rehle, managing director of Greenwich
Consulting.
The consulting firm Deloitte said in a recent report it 'believes that
in 2011 video calling wil be cheaper, better and more widely available
than ever; yet a boom in demand is unlikely.'
It said for most calls audio is sufficient for users, and that many
remain uncomfortable with video calling as it makes them self-conscious.
However, a Skype representative said people don't want to be bound to
their PCs and that mobile video calls 'give users the opportunity to
share personal moments wherever they are and whenever they want.'
Smartphone handset makers, as well as tablet manufacturers, would not
be equipping them all with front-facing cameras if they thought video
calling would remain a niche service, he said.
Syniverse's Tony Holcombe said consumers have been ready for mobile
video calling for some time, 'but the key to unlocking widespread
uptake is full-scale interoperability' so all camera-equipped phones
can be called.
With many smartphones now equipped with high definition cameras, they are likely to become increasingly used as camcorders.
A company called muvee expects to start shipping this year on Android
phones the first application for users to edit their videos directly on
their smartphones.
'Whenever you film you always get a bunch of rubbish that you want to
trim and cut out,' said muvee founder and chief Terence Swee. 'You
don't want to go through the hassle of transferring video to a computer
to edit, you want to do it on your phone directly and with muvee you
can.'
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/Technology/2011/02/17/Video_making_second_mobile_revolution_578864.html
World's longest
tunnel completed
The Aquamarine 57 km, the
longest tunnel under Swiss Alps connecting West Europe with East Europe!
It makes you wonder why the longest Tunnel with 57 km 2 railway tracks is here? The Hadron Collider is here (in
Switzerland)? Why the Time machine, which has been creating the Time
Fabric is here (remember "precise as a Swiss clock!")? Why
UN-Headquaters are in here and in Austria? And, like in Austria, there
have never been Wars and 'Natural Disasters' in Switzerland? LM
http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2010/10/16/Worlds_longest_tunnel_completed_526539.html
The article below is lying through the teeth (it is perhaps from
another Parallel World!) : this tunnel is already operational and has 2
railtracks connecting Easten Europe with Western one! LM
Saturday, October 16, 2010 » 10:01am
A giant drilling machine punched its way through a final section of
Alpine rock on Friday to complete the world's longest tunnel, after 15
years of sometimes lethal construction work.
In a stage-managed breakthrough, attended by about 200 dignitaries 30km
inside the tunnel and broadcast live on Swiss television, engineers
from both sides shook hands after the bore had pummelled through the
final 1.5 metres of rock.
'Here, in the heart of the Swiss Alps, one of the biggest environmental
projects on the continent has become reality,' said Swiss Transport
Minister Moritz Leuenberger.
Tunnel workers paid tribute to their colleagues who had died on the
construction site with a minute's silence as the names of the eight
victims were read out during an emotional ceremony for the breakthrough.
'Workers, thank you, thank you, thank you. We have not only built a
tunnel, we have written history,' said Luzi Gruber, of the construction
company Implenia.
The 57-km high-speed rail link, which will open in 2017, will form the
lynchpin of a new rail network between northern and southeastern Europe
and help ease congestion and pollution in the Swiss Alps.
It is the third tunnel to be built through the snowbound St Gotthard
area but it is 3km longer than a rail link between two Japanese
islands, the current record holder at 53.8km.
'The myth of the Gotthard has been broken for a third time. Our
forefathers struggled from the Middle Ages onwards to make this
mountain passable,' Peter Fueglistaler, director of the Federal
Transport office, told journalists gathered for the final breakthrough.
Passengers will ultimately be able to speed from the Italian city of
Milan to Zurich in less than three hours and further north into
Germany, cutting the journey time by an hour.
But the 9.8-billion Swiss franc ($A9.94 billion) tunnel, which is 9.5
metres in diameter, is also the fruit of strong popular environmental
concern about pollution in the Swiss Alps.
Switzerland nonetheless struggled to convince sceptical European
neighbours to support the ambitious and costly transalpine rail plans.
But they gained added weight in a shock 1994 referendum result when
Swiss voters supported an ecologist motion to stop heavy trucks driving
across the Alps - including the expanding flow of transiting EU goods
traffic.
A nationwide poll published on Wednesday suggested that sentiment is
undimmed.
Sixty-seven per cent of those surveyed support a ban on truck traffic
through the Gotthard road tunnel and moving it on to rail, according to
the poll commissioned by an Alpine environmental lobby group.
In recent years, Austria, France and Italy have set in motion two
similar rail tunnel projects through the eastern and western Alps, that
are both planned to exceed 50km in length in the 2020s.
'I hope that this tunnel will have many more brothers in the Alps,'
transport minister Leuenberger said.
Once completed, around 300 trains should be able to speed through the
Gotthard's twin tubes every day, at up to 250kph for passenger trains.
Apart from the economic and environmental implications, the spotlight
was on more than 2000 tunnel workers, especially following the rescue
of Chile's trapped miners.
The builders, who have blasted and bored through 13 million cubic
metres of rock, were feted at a celebration just above the breakthrough
point in the mist-bound village of Sedrun.
As the two tunnels became one, tunnelers unfurled a Swiss flag to a
thunder of applause.
One of the first to make it through, Hubert Baer, told the crowd: 'It's
a wonderful feeling, it's an honour to have participated in the
construction of the longest rail tunnel in the world.'
With hardhats on their heads and bottles of champagne in hand, the
miners from about a dozen countries brought out the flags of Germany,
Italy, Portugal, Spain and Turkey.
'This is a moment charged with emotion, very moving. It's been very
impressive. It's a unique project,' German tunneler Dirk Schwarz told
Swiss television.
