A workplace accident has been decided on in the US. An army psychiatrist who cried out to Allah in praise as he emptied a gun into unarmed work mates is sentenced to die for the workplace accident. It has, notes Steyn, taken longer for the army to adjudicate on this workplace accident than it took them to prosecute WW2. Victims of the major who survived are denied service medals because the workplace accident was not deemed a war crime.
We don't know what will happen to Syria, but peaceniks are keen to make sure there won't be war. The victims of the chemical attacks and indiscriminate bombings .. those that survive .. will love to hear that.
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Happy birthday and many happy returns my (distantly related) cuz Chloe Ball. You are born on the same day, across the years, as Janus Pannonius (1434), Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1619), John Locke (1632), Hyacinth (1777), Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr. (1809), Ingrid Bergman (1915), Charlie Parker (1920), Richard Attenborough (1923), John McCain (1936), Elliott Gould (1938), Lenny Henry (1958), Stephen Wolfram (1959) and Courtney Stodden, (1994). On your day, Feast day for the Beheading of St. John the Baptist (Gregorian calendar)
1475 – After an invasion by England and the Duchy of Burgundy, France signed the Treaty of Picquigny with England, freeing Louis XI to deal with the threat posed by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.
1842 – The Treaty of Nanking, an unequal treaty ending the First Opium War, was signed, forcing the Chinese Qing Dynasty to give control of the island that is now the site of Hong Kong, and other concessions to the British.
1903 – The Russian battleship Slava, the last of the five Borodino-class battleships, was launched.
1911 – The last member of the Yahi, known as Ishi, emerged from the wilderness near Oroville, California, to join European American society.
2007 – Six nuclear warheads were alleged to have been mistakenly loaded onto a United States Air Force heavy bomber that flew from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana. Start at the head. Have your feast. Picquigny ensures peace. Nanking means you don't need opium. Slava is the last. Ishi emerges. Those six don't matter, really. Have a lovely day.
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BERNIE GETZ BURNED
Tim Blair – Thursday, August 29, 2013 (2:34am)
“Bernie Hobbs is a pioneer of Australian motoring,” Fairfax gushed in 2010:
Best known as a judge on the ABC’s New Inventors, she is among the first in the country to ditch her internal combustion-powered car for an all-electric car.Hobbs is the proud owner of a Blade Electron, a vehicle that starts life as a Hyundai Getz …
There are still big question marks over the charging infrastructure, long-term battery life, safety and resale value of electric vehicles.But none of that matters to Hobbs. She’s happy to face those challenges head on.“I’ve been rabbiting on about the environment for 10 years,” she says. “When my old car started getting the shakes I thought, ‘I don’t want to commit to buying petrol for another 10 years’. So I’ve put my money where my mouth is.”
She sure did. Let’s see how Bernie’s earth-saving electric experiment has worked out:
Instead of buzzing battery-powered through Sydney’s inner west, the ABC Science presenter’s converted Hyundai Getz is on the hoists in a workshop in Geelong, with electric car experts deciding its fate.Not that Bernie owns the car anymore. After splashing out $48,000 on the Blade Electron – Australia’s first commercially available plug-in electric car – three years ago, Bernie had to flog it off for $8000earlier this year …“It was perfect when I first got it. But I had to sell it earlier this year because it had multiple problems and ended up undrivable,” she said.“I made a massive loss on it.”
Instead of spending $48,000 on a modified Hyundai Getz that is actually slower and much less reliable than a regular Hyundai Getz (available new for less than $14,000, by the way) Bernie should have bought a V8. It’s the only sensible option. Or maybe she should have put her cash into a pre-depreciated Clown Shoe.
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KEVNI FOREVER
Tim Blair – Thursday, August 29, 2013 (2:26am)
A chilling thought (for Labor):
If you were Kevin Rudd and you were facing a likely terrible wipe-out, what would you do next?For most people, the answer would seem obvious. You would step down as party leader and think about bowing out of politics entirely.But there is increasing talk among senior ranks of the Labor Party about the opposite scenario. What if they lose and Rudd wants to stick around?
Sing along, everybody!
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CRYING SEASON
Tim Blair – Thursday, August 29, 2013 (2:22am)
Quadrant‘s Roger Franklin anticipates post-election wailing at the ABC:
Christian charity and its multicultural variants be damned! Enjoy the spectacle – and savour the angst at Their ABC most of all, for this will be the moment when the business of settling scores can begin in earnest. If the anxious snivelling already to be heard from Ultimo, Southbank and the national broadcaster’s other citadels of bias and cronyism is any indication, ABC Managing Director and Editor in Chief Mark Scott might want to consider applying some of that $10 million he accepted from Julia Gillard as the election season began to the bulk purchase of tissues and smelling salts.
Do read the whole thing. On related ABC issues, a quick study of British newspapers should – but won’t – bring perspective to current obsessions.
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KEITH ON KEITH
Tim Blair – Thursday, August 29, 2013 (1:56am)
A humble host finds his perfect format:
After a long, troubled odyssey around the world of cable news, Keith Olbermann returned to ESPN on Monday, promising fans he would not talk about politics anymore.It turns out that he also isn’t going to talk all that much about sports.Mostly, he is going to talk about Keith Olbermann.
The show is called Olbermann. It includes a segment called “This Week in Keith History.”
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HAND OF RUDD
Tim Blair – Thursday, August 29, 2013 (1:47am)
Well, that was weird:
UPDATE. Vote for Tony Abbott and he’ll steal children’s hats:
UPDATE. Vote for Tony Abbott and he’ll steal children’s hats:
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JUST ASK
Tim Blair – Wednesday, August 28, 2013 (4:46pm)
The best line of the 2013 election campaign, from Tony Abbott:
If you want to know my character, ask my colleagues. If you want to know Mr Rudd’s character, ask his colleagues.
Quite so.
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Treasury blows up Rudd’s costings scare
Andrew Bolt August 29 2013 (6:07pm)
Judith Sloan on how Treasury smacked down Treasurer Chris Bowen:
Has Bowen been caught out? In claiming that there is a $10 billion black hole in the Coalition’s budget savings, he released three confidential minutes from Treasury, Finance and the PBO…What Kevin Rudd and Chris Bowen had claimed:
In what could be one of the best smack-downs of the campaign, Parkinson and Tune has released this statement. Wow, wow, wow.
Releasing the figures this morning, Mr Rudd accused Mr Abbott of attempting to perpetrate a “$10 billion fraud” on the Australian people.The statement from Treasury and Finance seems a repudiation of Rudd’s use of their figures - or at least a clarification:
The Prime Minister based his charge on three documents from Treasury, the Parliamentary Budget Office and the Department of Finance that came up with different estimates for the cost of several Coalition policies.... Coalition treasury spokesman Joe Hockey issued all of his costing figures in accrual accounting terms on Tuesday, but Labor used cash accounting to put forward its claims of a “black hole” today.
Statement on Costings by the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Finance and Deregulation
Joint media release with the Department of Finance and Deregulation
29 August 2013
There have been a series of reports today regarding costings undertaken by the Department of the Treasury and the Department of Finance and Deregulation.
The Departments of Treasury and Finance were asked to prepare costings on policy options, which were provided to the Departments by the Government prior to the election being called. These costings were completed and submitted to the Government prior to the election being called. This is consistent with long-standing practice.
These costings were not prepared under the election costings commitments’ process outlined in the Charter of Budget Honesty Act 1998.
At no stage prior to the Caretaker period has either Department costed Opposition policies.
Different costing assumptions, such as the start date of a policy, take up assumptions, indexation and the coverage that applies, will inevitably generate different financial outcomes.
The financial implications of a policy may also differ depending on whether the costing is presented on an underlying cash balance or fiscal balance basis.
The Treasury and Finance costings presented in the advice to Government reported today were presented on an underlying cash balance basis.
Dr Martin Parkinson PSM
Secretary
The Treasury
Mr David Tune PSM
Secretary
Department of Finance and Deregulation
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Sportsbet calls it for Abbott: pays out all bets on election
Andrew Bolt August 29 2013 (11:26am)
Sportsbet calls the election:
Sportsbet has declared the federal election a one-horse race and we’re paying out all bets on the Coalition nine days before Australia goes to the polls.
We’re so confident of a landslide Coalition victory for Tony Abbott and his team, we’ve paid out more than $1.5 million in bets to our members – a first in Australian federal election history.
Following last night’s third and final debate between the two leaders, the Coalition is at Black Caviar-like odds ($1.03) to claim government. The only difference being But at least with Black Caviar there was a chance the jockey could have fallen off!
Kevin Rudd and Labor is $11 to win the election…
As it stands in Sportsbet’s electorate markets:
• The Coaltion are favourites in 90 electorates • Labor are favourites in 56 electorates
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Cooling ocean blamed for hiding missing warming
Andrew Bolt August 29 2013 (8:12am)
Nature journal, August 28:
A new study adds to mounting evidence that cooling in the tropical Pacific Ocean is the cause of the global warming hiatus, a slow-down in the rise of average temperatures that began around 1998.Chris Mooney, host of Climate Desk Live:
So what is causing the surface temperature slowdown?… Perhaps the leading explanation for the slowdown is that the oceans, and particularly the vast Pacific, are storing more heat at depth.Reader handjive:
To summarize: the unpredicted cooling, or “pause”, is caused by catastrophic man made global warming, which is now ‘hiding’ in the oceans that are cooling, from which the catastrophic global warming will spring from the oceans and fry the children’s children 100 years in the future, even though we can see the effects now with co2 @ 400ppm. And if you believe that you are a fool and beyond hope.
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Watson no Sherlock in wondering why Murdoch dislikes Rudd
Andrew Bolt August 29 2013 (7:37am)
SUDDENLY, when the spotlight turns to Kevin Rudd, it’s a crime against journalism to question a politician’s character.
On Monday the ABC held an orgy of hatred against newspapers owned - like this one - by Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. ABC Melbourne radio, ABC 24 and the ABC’s Q&A all interviewed Tom Watson, a British Labour MP flown here by activists to attack Murdoch.
Meanwhile, Media Watch devoted that night’s show to trashing Murdoch’s papers, while Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr claimed on Lateline they’d been “mobilised to vilify the Labor Government”.
The scandal? Murdoch papers, which backed Rudd at the 2007 election, say this time he’s a deceitful failure leading a dysfunctional party.
Watson is so stunned that he says this coverage can be explained only by Murdoch greed. “To him it’s all about the business and he clearly has a business interest in the outcome of this election,” he declared.
I’ve often talked to Murdoch about politics and know the editors of the papers toughest on Rudd.
I never reveal private conversations but will say this: Watson, you are an idiot.
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Cyrus, inspiration of Slane Girls everywhere
Andrew Bolt August 29 2013 (7:33am)
SPOT the difference between Slane Girl in an Irish hospital and Miley Cyrus grinding up on stage.
Slane Girl is the 17-year-old who was photographed in the crowd at an Eminem concert at Ireland’s Slane Castle a week ago and became instantly famous.
Here’s why. One photograph shows her giving oral sex to a man standing with his arms high in triumph. Another seems to show her doing the same to a second man.
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The Crees lose a taxpayer-funded client
Andrew Bolt August 29 2013 (7:17am)
Astonishing that it got so far:
An assault victim has lost a bid for taxpayer-funded compensation so she could receive “spiritual healing” in Canada, capping off a three-year legal wrangle.Such a modern victim story.
The Queensland government had previously been ordered to foot the bill, which included more than $20,000 for the treatment program and airfares for the woman, who also planned to take a companion…
The application for compensation was triggered by a 2007 assault on the woman when she was enlisted by an Aboriginal clan to negotiate a native title compensation claim.
She suffered “emotional and physical trauma ... since that time” of the assault by an indigenous woman…
She said mainstream treatment had failed and she needed therapy under a program designed for indigenous Canadians with whom she identified.
Cree Nations Treatment Haven offered the 35-day treatment at a cost of $4000.
“Her evidence was that because of her anxiety she would require three stopovers on the way. She also did not want to fly through Asian or American airports as she found them stressful,” the tribunal document states…
She had therapy in Cairns, far north Queensland, more than 20 years ago for “significant psychological trauma” caused by a motor vehicle accident.
She was sexually assaulted in 1995, receiving criminal compensation and using mainstream psychological treatment to assist with her recovery.
In 2005, she suffered “unwanted male attention”.
“She went to Canada and obtained treatment at Cree Nations for what she describes as ‘woman’s issues,” according to tribunal documents.
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Labor MPs blame Rudd, dream of Gillard
Andrew Bolt August 29 2013 (7:15am)
I cannot believe Julia
Gillard would have done better than Kevin Rudd. And that means bring
Rudd back was not a mistake - and these recriminations are just
get-squares from a party riven by hatred:
MINISTERS and Labor factional powerbrokers are openly questioning whether Julia Gillard would have done a better job than Kevin Rudd as panic rises within the Government over its faltering campaign…
“The mythology of Kevin that is contradicted by fact is that his popularity will lift all votes,” a minister said.
“The notion that it could just be about Kevin was complete and utter nonsense…
“One of the questions that will be asked is would Gillard have met Rudd on the way down? In the end, we’ll never know,” the source said…
A second minister said some Labor MPs who advocated Mr Rudd’s return should be wondering whether they made the right call…
Another senior Labor source said Mr Rudd’s election campaign was “off message”, was “not sticking with the theme each week” and “the PM seems rattled, disorganised"…
Some say he started negative attacks on Mr Abbott too soon and wasted too much time attacking the media in a way that looked “petulant”...
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Rudd’s lunge
Andrew Bolt August 29 2013 (7:14am)
The strangest thing from last night’s debate:
Then there was the moment you could actually see Rudd making up policy on the spot:
UPDATE
Paul Kelly explains Kevin Rudd’s public musings:
Again, it’s like Rudd learned human interaction from a half-read book.
Then there was the moment you could actually see Rudd making up policy on the spot:
Declaring himself ‘‘old fashioned’’ when it comes to allowing foreign access to Australian land, Mr Rudd said he was ‘‘not quite as free market as Tony [Abbott] on this stuff.’’
He said he was far more in favour of joint venture approaches to ensure Australian land stayed in Australian hands.
The shift will be seen as rank populism which threatens to overturn a longstanding consensus in Australian mainstream politics between free market-oriented figures in both the Liberal Party and the ALP. The shift appeared to come without prior party consultation.
UPDATE
Paul Kelly explains Kevin Rudd’s public musings:
On foreign investment the Prime Minister is playing for the Bob Katter vote. Rudd went out of his way to distance himself from Abbott’s “free market” outlook. He wanted a “more cautious” policy on foreign investment in land than the Coalition.Sid Maher:
Suddenly, Abbott looked Mr Responsible on foreign investment. Rudd wants those Katter preferences. Watch for a backlash against Abbott from the populist right. This is now risky and unpredictable.
Mr Rudd’s anti-foreigner pitch to the bush, however, is likely to unsettle Beijing.(Thanks to reader Peter of Bellevue Hill.)
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Not a cut but a scratch. But at least green madness is defunded
Andrew Bolt August 29 2013 (6:40am)
Judith Sloan is not optimistic about real cuts to government spending over the next four years:
The cuts and spending, as outlined by the Liberals:
Labor hobbled the economy for zero result for the environment. Disgraceful, and shame on the journalists who went along with this.
The Treasurer might like to complain about the $31 billion budget savings announced by his Liberal counterpart yesterday, but let’s get real, this figure is a drop in the ocean…But Terry McCrann says the Opposition is at least credible in offering better stewardship of our finances:
Essentially, both parties expect to spend nearly $1700bn in the next four years. The vast majority of this spending is locked in, for both technical and political reasons. Not too much cut, cut, cut is likely from either side.
SHADOW treasurer Joe Hockey ... has destroyed the hysterical assertions from the trio of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, Treasurer Chris Bowen and Finance Minister Penny Wong.UPDATE
Hockey has proved Opposition Leader Tony Abbott’s signature policy, the paid parental leave scheme, is fully funded. And he has detailed $31 billion of further credible - indeed, desirable - budget cuts…
The critical point is not simply whether we face extended deficits into the future. Thanks to the reckless fiscal profligacy of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd Governments, deficits are now a given.
The two key questions are the size of those deficits; and which government would actually embrace responsible fiscal management… Which side would deliver better overall government, actually embracing rather than resisting the reforms needed to build a stronger economy. And, as a consequence, stronger government revenues…
That’s why some of the key cuts outlined by Hockey were such an encouraging breath of fresh air. Where he swept away (some of) the billions of dollars of waste associated with the Government’s stupid and pointless - other than to feed the legions of climate change main-chancers like Tim Flannery and the Climate Institute - programs and handouts associated with the Gillard-Rudd Governments’s carbon tax/emissions trading scheme.
The cuts and spending, as outlined by the Liberals:
... the Coalition accepts that whilst we do not like many of the savings initiatives announced by the Government on Friday 2 August 2013 we must proceed with the Budget bottom line savings as presented in the Pre –Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook (PEFO), given the budgetary mess created by Labor.More than a quarter of the savings come from axing green schemes of no real benefit to the country. Tellingly, there is almost no outcry about such cuts. This shows Labor’s green fantasy has not just collapsed, but involved a monstrous waste of colossal amounts of taxpayers’ money. This is a scandal made worse by the fact these futile schemes were funded by a tax to make power bills higher - making us less competitive.
This applies to all savings other than those specifically identified by the Coalition as unacceptable such as the changes announced by the Government on Fringe Benefits Tax for motor vehicles…
The total gross cost of the Coalition’s Paid Parental Leave Scheme including administration expenses is $9.8 billion over the forward estimates.
The scheme will replace Labor’s existing inadequate Government scheme, the abolition of which will save $3.7 billion over the forward estimates.
Further offsets to the costs of the scheme will arise from:
- Some increase in tax receipts and decrease in benefit payments owing to the higher remuneration mothers receive as a result of the Coalition’s scheme… This will reduce the cost of the scheme by $1.6 billion over the forward estimates period..... a levy of 1.5 per cent on companies with taxable income above $5 million a year, raising $4.4 billion over the forward estimates…
- Preventing “double?dipping” by public servants… with the savings of $1.2 billion to the Commonwealth and State Governments being applied to offset the cost of the Coalition scheme.
The Coalition today confirms that it will abolish a range of further spending measures from the mining tax package… These additional savings consist of:
- Discontinuing the instant asset write-off ($2.9 billion);Abolishing the remaining spending linked to the carbon tax will deliver savings of $7.5 billion.
- Removing accelerated depreciation for motor vehicles ($0.4 billion);
- Discontinuing the phasing down of interest withholding tax on financial institutions ($0.4 billion);
- Discontinuing the Government’s tax loss carry?back measure ... ($0.9 billion); and
- Savings resulting from a reduction in administrative expenses incurred for running the failed MRRT ($0.1 billion)…
- Discontinuing the business compensation measures introduced to provide partial relief to selected sectors and industries for the hit from the carbon tax ($5.1 billion) – including:Further savings totalling $0.8 billion over the forward estimates will be realised from:
- Removal of the increase in the instant asset write-off threshold to $6,500 ($0.2 billion);- Discontinuing energy market compensation measures which will no longer be needed once the carbon tax has been scrapped ($0.5 billion);
- Discontinuing the Jobs and Competitiveness Program ($4.0 billion);
- Discontinuing the Steel Transformation Plan ($0.1 billion);
- Discontinuing the Clean Technology Program ($0.4 billion);
- Discontinuing the Coal Sector Jobs Package ($0.3 billion); and
- Discontinuing other small Clean Energy Future business compensation measures including the Energy Efficiency Information Grants, the Clean Energy Skills package, and the Clean Technology Focus for Supply Chain programs;
- Discontinuing various land sector initiatives which Labor has already slashed, as well as bureaucracies like the Climate Change Authority ($0.4 billion); and
- Abolishing other measures linked to the carbon tax that are wasteful or will no longer be required once the carbon tax is abolished ($1.5 billion)…
- Redirection of funding from the Carbon Capture and Storage Flagships Program (saving $0.3 billion); andThese savings take the total of prudent and fully costed Coalition savings to over $31 billion across the forward estimates period.
- Reduction in funding for the Automotive Transformation Scheme (saving $0.5 billion) (announced in February 2011).
Labor hobbled the economy for zero result for the environment. Disgraceful, and shame on the journalists who went along with this.
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Will Rudd go job-hunting at the G20?
Andrew Bolt August 29 2013 (6:28am)
I can’t believe even
Kevin Rudd would duck out in the days just before the election to fluff
his feathers at one of the international talk shops he adores - and
will never again see:
Samuel J says Syria is a bad excuse for one last G20 junket:
KEVIN Rudd has left open the possibility that he may spend his final days of the election campaign attending the G20 summit in Russia to deal with the Syrian chemical weapons crisis.UPDATE
Warning Tony Abbott did not have the “temperament’ to deal with such international crises, the Prime Minister suggested he might still attend the summit on September 5-6.
“I said at the outset that our intention is that Australia would be represented by the Foreign Minister but I will continue to be in consultation with global leaders on this question.
“We are in uncertain times. That’s just the truth of it. It would be quite wrong of me to pretend to any of you that these are normal times.”
Samuel J says Syria is a bad excuse for one last G20 junket:
But this shows [Rudd] does not understand the raison d’être of the G-20 which is about economics and finance, not security and defence. The official G-20 website states:
The Group of Twenty (G20) is the premier forum for international cooperation on the most important issues of the global economic and financial agenda…The Syrian crisis is not part of the G-20?s mandate. Security responses are the function of the G-8 (which Australia is not a member of) and the United Nations Security Council.
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Black senator excluded from King rally. Too blue
Andrew Bolt August 29 2013 (6:26am)
The new segregation at the Martin Luther King rally:
UPDATE
Wall Street Journal:
Noticeably absent from the speaker line-up at the Let Freedom Ring event commemorating the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington today: the nation’s only black Senator, Tim Scott.Say no more.
Scott, a Republican ...
UPDATE
Wall Street Journal:
Wednesday’s event on the National Mall is not overtly political, but the early undertones were hard to ignore. A number of Democrats are set to address the crowd, including Mr. Obama and former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter. Labor leaders also talked about the importance of mobilizing large groups of American workers – a key theme 50 years ago. And some speakers stressed the importance of preserving voting rights for all Americans.
Mr. Bush was invited to attend the event, but he declined because he recently underwent surgery to place a stent in a blocked heart artery. Mr. Scott was not invited to speak, but a spokesman said, “The senator believes today is a day to remember the extraordinary accomplishments and sacrifices of Dr. King, Congressman John Lewis and an entire generation of black leaders.”
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Bernie blows $40,000 on green
Andrew Bolt August 29 2013 (5:59am)
Bernie Hobbs in 2010:
Best known as a judge on the ABC’s New Inventors, she is among the first in the country to ditch her internal combustion-powered car for an all-electric car.Big mistake.
Hobbs is the proud owner of a Blade Electron, a vehicle that starts life as a Hyundai Getz …
“I’ve been rabbiting on about the environment for 10 years,” she says. “When my old car started getting the shakes I thought, ‘I don’t want to commit to buying petrol for another 10 years’. So I’ve put my money where my mouth is.”
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Liberals unveil $31 billion of savings hidden in plain sight
Andrew Bolt August 28 2013 (8:02pm)
Nice issues management that takes the steam out of Kevin Rudd’s scare - unless someone spots a hole:
THE Coalition has released an interim list of $31.6 billion in budget savings but has refused to release the independent findings to back its estimates, relying instead on three advisers to claim its figures are robust.
The savings plan exempts health and education from changes in a bid to puncture Kevin Rudd’s warnings about the scale of the Coalition savings, countering the Prime Minister’s repeated claim that Tony Abbott plans $70bn in cuts.
But the Coalition did not produce any estimates of the spending measures it would take to the election, leaving a major part of its budget plan to be revealed next week, despite promising that voters would see the details “in good time” before the election.
The cost estimates, contained in a seven-page press release, confirmed the $1.1bn gain to the budget bottom line over the next four years from Mr Abbott’s paid parental leave policy, as revealed in The Australian today…
Many of the savings have been previously announced but were listed for the first time with precise and public figures set against each measure over the next four years.
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Abbott wins third debate. No fireworks, little aggro
Andrew Bolt August 28 2013 (7:56pm)
Tony Abbott wins the
debate at Rooty Hill by being calmer, more practical and more focussed
in this answers than Kevin Rudd. He also punctured several of Rudd’s
scare claims. Rudd also had a weird moment offering Abbott his hand as a
deal to vote Labor.
But then Abbott won even bigger because many in the audience really went for Rudd on honesty and debt. Moderator David Speers also had to drag him back to the point several times.
Then Abbott won bigger still because Rudd desperately needed some traction in this debate. He got none.
This time there will be no debate-about-the-debate contest. There was no does-this-guy-ever-shut-up line to dominate the coverage.
UPDATE
Rooty Hill has been a Bermuda Triangle for Labor campaigns. In 2010, Julia Gillard got badly beaten in the people’s forum - not least by lecturing the crowd from the stage while Abbott did the shirt-sleeve routine. Early this year Gillard started her disastrous western tour there, and was filmed sweeping through the RSL Rooty Hill crowd for a private meeting with mummy bloggers imported for the night.
UPDATE
Channel Seven’s audience gives the debate to Abbott, 67 per cent to 33. The party vote is 64 per cent Coalition to 28 per cent Labor.
Channel 10 gives it radically the other way.
UPDATE
I may have been wrong about there being no debate-about-the-debate story:
But then Abbott won even bigger because many in the audience really went for Rudd on honesty and debt. Moderator David Speers also had to drag him back to the point several times.
Then Abbott won bigger still because Rudd desperately needed some traction in this debate. He got none.
This time there will be no debate-about-the-debate contest. There was no does-this-guy-ever-shut-up line to dominate the coverage.
UPDATE
Rooty Hill has been a Bermuda Triangle for Labor campaigns. In 2010, Julia Gillard got badly beaten in the people’s forum - not least by lecturing the crowd from the stage while Abbott did the shirt-sleeve routine. Early this year Gillard started her disastrous western tour there, and was filmed sweeping through the RSL Rooty Hill crowd for a private meeting with mummy bloggers imported for the night.
UPDATE
Channel Seven’s audience gives the debate to Abbott, 67 per cent to 33. The party vote is 64 per cent Coalition to 28 per cent Labor.
Channel 10 gives it radically the other way.
UPDATE
I may have been wrong about there being no debate-about-the-debate story:
After the people’s forum Kevin Rudd’s media bus had a flat battery and wouldn’t start leaving media stranded for some time. Tony Abbott’s media bus, with his face on the side, was brought in to jump start the bus, however that didn’t appear to work at first.
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ReachTEL: Labor 47 to Coalition 53
Andrew Bolt August 28 2013 (8:29am)
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By Madu Odiokwu Pastorvin
God's Gift IS FREE for All.
God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.(Acts 10:34–35, NIV)
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom! And God’s freedom is free for everyone. It doesn’t matter what your nationality or heritage is, or who your family is. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or don’t have. God wants you free from everything that would hold you back in this life. He wants to pour out His abundant blessing on all who honor Him and choose His ways.
It says in Galatians that in Christ, there is no Jew or Greek or even male or female. That means God’s not judging you based on physical conditions; He’s looking at your heart. He’s looking at the gifts He’s placed inside of you.
Don’t let the enemy lie to you and tell you that God is blessing everyone else but you.The devil is a liar and the father of all lies. God bless you.
God does not show favoritism but accepts from every nation the one who fears him and does what is right.(Acts 10:34–35, NIV)
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom! And God’s freedom is free for everyone. It doesn’t matter what your nationality or heritage is, or who your family is. It doesn’t matter how much money you have or don’t have. God wants you free from everything that would hold you back in this life. He wants to pour out His abundant blessing on all who honor Him and choose His ways.
It says in Galatians that in Christ, there is no Jew or Greek or even male or female. That means God’s not judging you based on physical conditions; He’s looking at your heart. He’s looking at the gifts He’s placed inside of you.
Don’t let the enemy lie to you and tell you that God is blessing everyone else but you.The devil is a liar and the father of all lies. God bless you.
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Calling all Sydneysiders, the #DoctorWho Exhibition at the ABC Centre Ultimo is open this Father's Day weekend from 10am. Bring Dad along for a trip through space and time and come face-to-face with a Dalek, the TARDIS, costumes and more!
Check out the gallery and get more info on doctorwho.tv:http://bit.ly/DWABCUltimo
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‘Shut up white b*tch’: Stacey Dash quotes MLK Jr., gets attacked for ‘calling blacks negro’ ==> http://twitchy.com/2013/08/28/
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What does UKIP say about peace in Syria? How about "No Chemical Weapons in Syria" ? ed
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Glenn Beck
Our history is so much better when you know the truth. It's what unites us — the good and the bad parts. We must know history so we can learn from our mistakes and not repeat them.
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"I know you've moved on and so you should. I understand; but forgive a sentimental old Time Lord one last indulgence..."
Only two hours left to vote for your top Eighth Doctor Big Finish Productions audio from Paul's Picks. Head here to cast your vote:http://ngx.me/heob7zr7
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"This military demonstration, and that's what it's going to be, is about Obama shooting off his mouth about red lines and chemical weapons. […] He's not thinking through the potential consequences and I see no way in which a military attack on Syria is worth it for the United States." -Lt. Col. Ralph Peters on 'America's Newsroom'
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Tim Scott, our nation's only black Senator, was not invited to speak at today's Let Freedom Ring march in honor of Martin Luther King Jr.
Sign our petition to tell event organizers they were wrong to exclude the Republican!
http://bit.ly/191jp6V
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TONY ABBOTT STOPS HOMOPHOBIA IN SCHOOL #headlinesyouwontseeinTheAge'
<The policy was now under review, according to Christian Schools Australia, which says the wording has been ''misunderstood'' and that gay and lesbian students are treated with care.
Mr Abbott said he disagreed with the Statement of Faith but said Penrith Christian School was a ''good school''.
''Look, this is a good school and it is a school which has been supported by people like [Labor MPs] David Bradbury and Peter Garrett.
''I respectfully disagree with lots of things that are said on that particular subject and obviously I disagree with that one.''>
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Brooch "Owl", in gold with pearl, sapphire and tourmaline by Mousson Atelier
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CONVERTING a church into a house is so last year. What the adventurous home buyer wants now is a water tower.
Character conversions of warehouses, churches and barns are no longer extraordinary, or a challenge for those with vision to transform one-offs into comfortable living spaces.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/realestate/investing/water-towers-converted-into-homes/story-fndbarft-1226706538731#ixzz2dMANPn26
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CAN you solve this classic algebra problem?
Two trains start from the same point and travel in the same direction. One leaves 48 minutes later, travels 10 miles per hour faster than the other, and overtakes the first train in 4 hours. Find the rate of each train.*
Carson Huey-You, an 11-year-old boy genius from Texas, could work that problem out with ease.
In fact, he has been solving algebra problems since he was a toddler, and now uses this division of mathematics "to relax".
The pint-sized child prodigy has just embarked on a university degree in quantum physics and soon will be tackling problems like this:
Prove that taking the limit as h→0 for the average quantum mechanical energy (hν e hν k B T −1) yields the average classical energy (k B T ).**
Carson, who is also taking classes in calculus, history and religion, has just begun his first semester at the Texas Christian University (TCU) in Dallas.
He is expected to graduate as a quantum physicist at the age of 15 or 16 and may go one to complete a PhD, by the age of 20.
Carson attends classes with his mother, Claretta, and was so young he could not apply for university entry online because the software would not accept an applicant born in 2002.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/world-news/child-genius-carson-hueyyou-11-studying-quantum-physics/story-fndir2ev-1226706742607#ixzz2dMCeuv25
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Why storytelling is crucial
The ability to tell good stories is a timeless skill. Now more than ever, businesses, workers, and leaders have opportunities to stand out, spread messages, and change things through storytelling.
Good stories surprise us. They make us think and stick in our minds in a way numbers and graphs never will. Unfortunately, in the era of PowerPoint and status updates, many of us have forgotten how to tell a good story.
Read more: http://www.news.com.au/business/worklife/the-most-important-business-skill-to-master/story-e6frfm9r-1226706493686#ixzz2dMCoWhf2
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Good morning! When you focus on the forcible breakup of the Ottoman Empire, which is the event that really plunged Europe (and the rest of the world ) into war in the 2nd decade of the 20th Century, you realize that the conflict really began in 1911, when the Italians invaded and attempted to conquer Libya from the Ottomans, and then continued in 1912, when Balkan countries ganged up on the Ottoman Empire to drive it out of Europe. The foolish murder of Archduke Ferdinand in 1914 was an effort to expand Balkan nationalism against Austria-Hungary. When you examine the "war aims" of the Entente Cordial and the Central Powers, your rapidly realize that they centered on breaking up the Ottoman Empire and breaking up the Russian Empire. Were it not for militant Communism, the Russian Empire would have been broken up into something like what it looks like today. The Ottoman Empire had no chance of surviving a war that was really about how it was to be divvied up. Every time I see that Wahhabi fascist pig, Erdogan, railing against Israel, I'm reminded that the Turkish flag once flew where I live.
What we are seeing today is a re-run of the events that plunged the world into war a century ago. And like the "Great War", it too, began in 2011 (a century after 1911) only a few hundred kilometers west of the Italian invasion site in Libya, in Tunisia. Unless events grossly speed up (which they appear to be doing), the world-wide conflict that we are to see in the second decade of the 21st Century will start next year, in 2014, or possibly this year. Looking at the Rabbinic Calendar, that conflict began in late 5674. In a few days, we will see the dawning of 5774. It may well be the Rabbinic Calendar that governs these events, rather than the Gregorian one.
What we are seeing today is a re-run of the events that plunged the world into war a century ago. And like the "Great War", it too, began in 2011 (a century after 1911) only a few hundred kilometers west of the Italian invasion site in Libya, in Tunisia. Unless events grossly speed up (which they appear to be doing), the world-wide conflict that we are to see in the second decade of the 21st Century will start next year, in 2014, or possibly this year. Looking at the Rabbinic Calendar, that conflict began in late 5674. In a few days, we will see the dawning of 5774. It may well be the Rabbinic Calendar that governs these events, rather than the Gregorian one.
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CANBERRA Raiders winger Sandor Earl may be banned for life after the NRL revealed he had admitted to the use and trafficking of peptides.
Earl is facing a two-year ban for peptide use and four years to life for trafficking, after NRL boss Dave Smith said the player had admitted to using and trafficking the substance CJC-1295 - promoted as a substance that helps reduce fat and repair injured tissue.
ASADA told News Corp that CJC-1295 was considered by the World Anti-Doping Agency to be a substance that triggers the release of growth hormone.
Earl has been issued an infraction notice by the NRL and become the code's first major scalp of the ASADA investigation. He can accept a looming NRL sanction or fight it in a tribunal.
It is outrageous that his name is linked with the Jason Clare smear. Prima facie, Earl may have admitted inadvertent transgression while Clare alleged an organised crime involved match fixing and drug use. The failure to find any such animal as Clare alleges should have Clare removed from office. ed
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Australia’s Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Foreign Affairs Minister Senator Bob Carr have gone underground since Carr announced on 8 August at the Lakemba Mosque in Sydney that Rudd personally as well as the Labor Party had adopted as policy that Jews had no right to legally live in the West Bank…writes David Singer.
“I’ve been to Ramallah, I’ve spoken to the Palestinian leadership, and we support their aspirations to have a Palestinian state in the context of a Middle East of peace. And that means respect for the right of Israel to exist. But we want that Palestinian state to exist, in the context of a peace in the Middle East, and that’s why we say, unequivocally, all settlements on Palestinian land are illegal under international law and should cease. That is the position, of Kevin Rudd, the position of the Federal Labor Government, and we don’t make apologies for it.”
Attempts to elicit whether Rudd personally and the Labor Party had adopted this policy prior to Carr’s announcement have ended in total confusion.
Labor’s candidate for the seat of Stirling – Dan Caddy – received no answers from Carr when he asked those pertinent questions.
An embarrassed Caddy wrote to the constituent seeking such information:
“I have received advice from our (Foreign) Minister’s office which I have included below. I appreciate that it does not specifically address the questions you have posed, but I hope it clearly articulates what the position is.”
Caddy’s response was however seriously undermined when sitting Labor Member for Melbourne Ports – Michael Danby – spoke out a few days later:
“There’s a narrow view in the Department of Foreign Affairs, in their legal section, that the settlements are illegal. It’s not the view of the government as I understand it.“He [Carr] has accepted their [the legal department’s] view. The Prime Minister hasn’t accepted that view as far as I understand it.“I disagree with the Foreign Minister’s interpretation of this. I was disappointed; of course I was disappointed.”
Rudd could clear up this apparent confusion very easily by issuing a one sentence press release affirming or denying that the Lakemba Mosque Declaration represents his personal view and Labor Party policy.
However Rudd has remained silent in the face of angry protests lodged by peak Jewish organisations and the Opposition spokesperson on Foreign Affairs – Julie Bishop.
One can only conclude in the face of such Prime Ministerial silence that Carr’s Lakemba Mosque Declaration was shoddy policy made on the run with the knowledge and acquiescence of the Prime Minister in an attempt to secure the votes of the Moslem community in the elections to be held on 7 September.
The Moslem vote for the Labor Party is by no means assured following another hastily cobbled together policy announced by Rudd in July regarding asylum seekers – making it clear newcomers would no longer be re-settled in Australia under any circumstances – but would be transferred to Papua New Guinea for processing and re-settlement.
This heartless policy would be anathema to all Moslems already in Australia – especially families of potential asylum seekers dreaming of one day being re-united with other family members.
Predictably one could reasonably expect a backlash in the voting intentions of all ethnic and religious groupings in Australia impacted by this policy reversal.
$3 million dollars had reportedly been spent on an advertising blitz in the Australian media explaining the new refugee plan for six days before any similar ads were placed in the countries-of-origin of asylum seekers.
The advertising campaign is going to cost a staggering $30 million – and will now controversially run at taxpayer cost during the election period.
A Department of Immigration spokesman has confirmed the intention of the advertising.“The advertisements are aimed to speak to ethnic communities in Australia which are the main boat people source. They include Afghans, Iranians, Sri Lankans, Iraqis and more recently Vietnamese people though there are of course other communities.”
He said the aim was to spread the message through “word of mouth” from Australia back to those communities.
The Labor Party holds a number of seats by very small margins where Moslems and different ethnic groups comprise a significant proportion of the voters.
It is becoming increasingly evident that a bizarre balancing act was performed by Carr at the Lakemba Mosque – announcing unequivocally and without apology as Labor Party policy that Jews are not legally entitled to live in the West Bank – thereby hoping to placate and ameliorate Moslem concerns with another Labor Party policy denying Moslem asylum seekers any legal entitlement to live in Australia.
To further impress Moslem voters – Carr added an assurance that this anti-Jewish policy concerning the West Bank was personally embraced by Prime Minister Rudd and so would remain unchanged if the Labor Party is returned to power.
His assurances seem to have fallen on deaf Moslem ears – if the results of recently published polls in those tightly held Labor marginal seats are any guidance.
Carr – and Rudd – have amazingly managed to alienate Jews, Moslems and other ethnic groups – who will consider as immoral and inhumane – and be motivated to vote against – Labor policies that deny Jews the right to settle in the West Bank or asylum seekers the right to settle in Australia.
Hastily conceived policies drawn up in the heat of an election campaign appear set to hit the Labor Party with devastating effect.
David Singer is a Sydney Lawyer and Foundation Member of the International Analysts Network
Speak up Rudd and Carr, it is an election campaign .. we need to know ed
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Going for the "awwwww" vote here... chipmunk style! — at Valley Of The Fire State Park, Nv.
Actually, a lifelike carving of the monument in the back ground. - ed===
Egypt's Example
By Nonie Darwish
How many revolutions does a nation need to correct its course? Some nations undergo the pain of one revolution and flourish, while others achieve change by allowing themselves to evolve through self-examination, correction, awakening, and enlightenment, followed by a working consensus on the course the country will take. But when it comes to much of the Muslim world, unfortunately, coup d'etat, revolution, bloodshed and violence are a way of life, approved by Islamic law, and in harmony with the example of the prophet of Islam, Mohammed. Egypt has undergone revolutions in 1919, 1952, 2011 and then a counter-revolution at the present. That does not include periods of instability, wars, and assassinations and attempted assassination on all heads of state. The reason King Farouk abdicated the throne and left Egypt in 1952 was because he refused to engage in bloody confrontation against his own citizens. And now the United States Government pretends it is perplexed and frozen on how to define the current situation in Egypt; is it or is it.... (Read Full Article)
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.com/2013/08/egypts_example_comments.html#disqus_thread#ixzz2dMEpY7cn
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
slow learners? In Australia I heard a joke "What is the difference between a NZ and a computer? .. answer "You need only punch information into a computer once" - ed
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<The blood-soaked internecine turmoil convulsing the Arab realm – from the Maghreb to Mesopotamia – has nothing to do with Jews, with Zionism, the Jewish national liberation movement or with Israel, the Jewish state. The carnage is spawned by internal Arab ethnic, religious, clannish and political conflicts. Each side reinforces its case by recruiting throngs of volatile and violent demonstrators. This rent-a-mob fest is palmed off to clueless foreigners as democracy-in-action.
In some local arenas, as in Syria, the inner strife is exacerbated by blatant outside intervention, underscoring the broader and deeper schisms within the Arab/Islamic world.
In rational and realistic terms, all this cannot be remotely linked to Israel. But expediency can overrule reason and indeed create an inner logic all its own. It works like this: hatred of the Zionist endeavor had served since the 19th century as the powerful glue of Arab nationalism, crucially buttressed by prevailing religious xenophobia.>
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What do you do when you learn you're the very thing you hated? CBN News reports from Budapest on one man's crisis and amazing transformation.
Csanad Szegedi was a popular politician in Hungary's notorious far-right Jobbik party until he discovered that he's Jewish and went to meet Chabad Rabbi Shlomo Koves.
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About 250 light-years away in the constellation Capricornus (The Sea Goat) lies a star that looks awfully familiar.
Known as HIP 102152, the star is a virtual twin of our sun, which in and of itself is not so unusual. But HIP 102152 is older than our 4.6-billion-year old sun -- by nearly 4 billion years, making it the oldest solar twin found to date.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/08/28/sun-82-billion-year-old-twin-found/#ixzz2dK3uLiy9
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Indeed, we’ve been posting frequently on the sympathetic portrayal, by some in the media, of the the 104 pre-Oslo prisoners who Israel has agreed to release – all of whom were convicted of murder, attempted murder, or being an accessory to murder, and the dearth of information about the victims and their families. And, in fact, Zayid spends most of the space allotted to her commenting on the pain felt by the recently released murderers – in “the middle of the night”!, we are reminded – and the ‘feelings’ of their families.
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There's still no cure for the common cold, but soon we may be able to control each others' body movements.
Researchers at the University of Washington
have successfully completed an experiment where one researcher was able to send a brain signal over the Internet to control the hand movements of his colleague.
have successfully completed an experiment where one researcher was able to send a brain signal over the Internet to control the hand movements of his colleague.
"The Internet was a way to connect computers, and now it can be a way to connect brains," experiment participant and researcher Andrea Stocco told ScienceNewsDaily. "We want to take the knowledge of a brain and transmit it directly from brain to brain."
. "We want to take the knowledge of a brain and transmit it directly from brain to brain."
Stocco and fellow researcher Rajesh Rao donned swim caps with electrodes hooked up to an electroencephalography machine that reads electrical activity in the brain. The two men sat in separate labs and a Skype connection was set up so they could communicate during the experiment, although Rao and Stocco could not see each other.
Rao sat before a computer screen and played a video game using only his mind. When he wanted to fire a cannon, he imagined moving his hand to hit the "fire" button without actually moving any part of his body.
Almost simultaneously, Stocco involuntarily moved his hand to push the space bar on his keyboard as though to hit the "fire" button.
"It was both exciting and eerie to watch an imagined action from my brain get translated into actual action by another brain," Rao said. "This was basically a one-way flow of information from my brain to his. The next step is having a more equitable two-way conversation directly between the two brains."
Stocco likened the feeling of having Rao move his finger through thought to that of a twitch.
"I think some people will be unnerved by this because they will overestimate the technology," assistant professor in psychology at the UW's Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences and Stocco's wife Chantel Prat said. "There's no possible way the technology that we have could be used on a person unknowingly or without their willing participation."
The University of Washington experiment sounds like something out of a science fiction movie. Stocco jokingly likened the results to the "Vulcan mind meld."
Stocco explains that should they continue to be successful in their research, it could eventually result in helping a flight attendant land a plane should the pilot become incapacitated.
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2013/08/28/researchers-control-each-other-body-movements-using-only-their-brains/?intcmp=features#ixzz2dMGYw5DU
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Like I said, we think he’s nuts; he thinks we’re nuts. Right now, there’s a petition on the Internet seeking to persuade the United States government to reclassify Hasan’s “workplace violence” as an act of terror. There are practical consequences to this: The victims, shot by an avowed enemy combatant in an act of war, are currently ineligible for Purple Hearts. The Pentagon insists the dead and wounded must be dishonored in death because to give them any awards for their sacrifice would prejudice Major Hasan’s trial and make it less likely that he could be convicted.
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(NEW YORK) — The New York Police Department has secretly labeled entire mosques as terrorism organizations, a designation that allows police to use informants to record sermons and spy on imams, often without specific evidence of criminal wrongdoing.
Designating an entire mosque as a terrorism enterprise means that anyone who attends prayer services there is a potential subject of an investigation and fair game for surveillance.
Since the 9/11 attacks, the NYPD has opened at least a dozen “terrorism enterprise investigations” into mosques, according to interviews and confidential police documents. The TEI, as it is known, is a police tool intended to help investigate terrorist cells and the like.
Many TEIs stretch for years, allowing surveillance to continue even though the NYPD has never criminally charged a mosque or Islamic organization with operating as a terrorism enterprise.
The documents show in detail how, in its hunt for terrorists, the NYPD investigated countless innocent New York Muslims and put information about them in secret police files. As a tactic, opening an enterprise investigation on a mosque is so potentially invasive that while the NYPD conducted at least a dozen, the FBI never did one, according to interviews with federal law enforcement officials.
The strategy has allowed the NYPD to send undercover officers into mosques and attempt to plant informants on the boards of mosques and at least one prominent Arab-American group in Brooklyn, whose executive director has worked with city officials, including Bill de Blasio, a front-runner for mayor.
Read more: http://nation.time.com/2013/08/28/nypd-designates-mosques-as-terrorism-organizations/#ixzz2dMJLQLY3===
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<Paul Kelly on the debate. Rudd desperately courts the loony Right and Katter agrarian socialists. Abbott now looking positively reasonable and Prime Ministerial. Oh, the irony.>
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18KT Panther in Jungle Brooch with white diamonds, fancy yellow diamonds & green tourmaline by Gumuchian
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Ring "Iguana", in gold with citrine and sapphire by Mousson Atelier
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Woah! Hold your horses, Barack. Before we go to war with Syria can we be absolutely surely sure that we've got our pretext right? Only we've made a horrible mistake about WMDs before…
The official UK/US narrative on the conflict in Syria is this. Last year, we drew a red line in the sand: if the regime uses chemical weapons then it makes itself a legitimate target for military action. Last week, it apparently did just that – murdering hundreds of people, including children, in a suburb of Damascus. John Kerry described this slaughter as defying "any code of morality", and he demanded "accountability" from the Assad regime. There could, he insisted, be no doubt that the government is culpable – and anyone saying otherwise is a tool of cold blooded killers. Cry havoc and let slip the dogs of war, etc, etc.
Kerry's narrative is full of holes. First, we've yet to ascertain that chemical weapons really were used by Assad – specifically we've not determined a) what kind of WMDs they were or b) who actually did it. The situation is complicated by how difficult it's proving to get to the site of the attack to carry out tests. But this is a war zone, and forensic tests take longer and are more complicated to execute when you're surrounded by people trying to blow each other up. So it's going to take time.
Second, why would the Assad regime do something so stupid? It must know that by using chemical weapons it would isolate itself from any international support and invite a Western military response. More importantly, Assad was already winning the war – so why bother to use WMDs during the last lap to victory? Indeed, the only people who have anything to gain by Assad using chemicals are the rebels, because that would internationalise the conflict in a way that they have long lobbied for.
Third, why is the West obliged to act even if Assad did use chemical weapons? We are not under any such treaty obligations and the subject sure doesn't feature as a trigger for war in the US constitution. The red line itself has slimmed and thickened over time. When Obama first laid it down, it was thin to the point of invisible, quote:
We have been very clear to the Assad regime, but also to other players on the ground, that a red line for us is we start seeing a whole bunch of chemical weapons moving around or being utilised… That would change my equation.”
So all Assad had to do to get America's attention was move a "whole bunch" of WMDs around a bit. He didn't even have to use them. But while Obama was shockingly vague when he made that statement back in August 2012, now Kerry uses very precise language to denounce a specific action that hasn't even been verified as being Assad's fault. By the way, if the West was looking for a pretext to intervene in Syria on humanitarian grounds then it's had plenty already: Assad's been killing tens of thousands of innocents for two years. So what difference would one chemical attack make?
Maybe Kerry is right and maybe the Syrian government did use WMDs on its own people. But we've got one very good reason to doubt his accuracy: Iraq. Remember that back in 2003, the then US secretary of state, Colin Powell, told the UN in no uncertain terms that Iraq definitely had WMDs. Definitely, definitely, definitely. We now know that it didn't. We now know that the CIA got its intelligence wrong, that because Saddam Hussein used to lie about having chemical weapons the US judged that he still was. It's true that when dealing with a dictatorship built upon fabrications, trusting its word is almost impossible – but it's not logical to assume that we must proceed on the basis that everything it ever says is a lie. There is a scintilla of a possibility that Assad is innocent of this particular war crime. Should we go to war on the basis of a false accusation, we would be guilty of what TS Eilot called "the greatest treason: to do the right deed for the wrong reason".
Good article and hardly a repudiation of conservative values. The truth is that Obama failed to act appropriately and now has to appear tough. He is dealing with a puppet of Iran, and instead of pulling the strings early, he drew a line in the sand and dared Syria to cross it. It matters nothing that rebels may be using Syria's stockpiles. Syria should never have stockpiled it. Possession of the material is a war crime. It is ironic that it is probably Saddam's personal stash. Democrats wanting to use it on a pretext that they denounced Republicans for. - ed
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"The truth is there is no apartheid in Israel," said Meshoe. "My parents suffered through apartheid."
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Spice Broiled Salmon with Green Apple Cucumber Salad. Sweet caramelized crust, perfect for Rosh Hashanah. Super easy and delish!
Recipe here: http://theshiksa.com/2013/08/28/spice-broiled-salmon-with-green-apple-salad/
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revisiting .. The history in the article is wrong. Schools were created in an attempt to raise literacy .. everyone in Great Britain was to read and write to a year 8 standard. Catholic church initiated a similar program at about the same time. In the US the revolutionary war of independence resulted in schools created to allow adults to function in a democracy. From early 1800's to mid 1800's, students became teachers of the younger years .. boot strapping .. and records were kept of attainments .. rewards given on assembly. Then in mid 1800's, teacher training began at university to make teachers who would inculcate moral values .. this article is asinine .. I use it as a counter example of good scholarship .. it mixes anecdotes with partisan assertions on research. One thing the article ignores is the overwhelming benefits of schooling. Some schools are dysfunctional .. very few are catastrophic. For the worst afflicted, schools are an opportunity to get away from dysfunctional homes. They show lives that get shared with others that may be different, and positive. Curriculum is what it is .. pedagogy can improve .. but to say that the structure is harmful is to misrepresent what is actually happening. - ed
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Hamish and Andy haha
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Dusk at the Elephant Rock
I'm pretty certain that I could spend a solid month in the Valley of Fire and never get bored. This arch took a little searching and climbing to find. I knew it was around, and even with markers and trail heads it was a bit elusive. I light painted it as the sun went down to create a glowing effect, then stayed until dark in the very warm night desert air.
Please feel free to share this picture with your friends! This image also looks so much nicer when not dealing with facebook compression issues. Check it out here: http://
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And there is a campaign to limit plant food to 1990 levels .. ed
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Work life balance is a serious discussion issue in management research these days. I was an outstanding teacher because I gave extra. But a lot don't. For every teacher that devotes their life to their charges there are many that don't .. they have lives that preclude it, or they have learned to switch off, or they are old and don't have to try, to put in effort. But recognising good teachers is very difficult, not because it is hard to grade teachers, but because teachers unions won't let it happen. Public testing is so precise in Sydney that examiners can identify which teachers of year 12 classes use which textbooks, give regular homework and or rely on tutors to boost student performance. But that information isn't shared with teachers, executive, parents or government. Kids know. And those that suffer from neglect are ignored. - ed
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This storm was situated just a little South West of Tucson. It kept firing off in different directions, so I kept re-aiming my camera and in turn kept missing strikes. Finally this one happened. I like the trees and the distant row of lights. It lends a little more story to this shot.
Please feel free to share this, and take a look at the image in a much better non compressed environment here:
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As we write this to you, Syria is threatening to strike Israel immediately after an expected US attack on Syria. In Israel, we are praying for peace but preparing for the worst. After Syria's lethal chemical attack on its own citizens, we can only imagine what they have in store for the citizens of Israel. Record numbers of Israelis are acquiring gas masks. IDF Reserve units are being called to report to their bases. Prime Netanyahu has promised a fierce Israeli response, but that may be too late for some Israelis in the north who are in imminent danger of missile attack. There is an urgent need for more bomb shelters now. Click below to donate: https://donate.unitedwithisrael.org/donate/s1 We've had numerous requests for portable bomb shelters in the north. Just last week, Kibbutz Gesher HaZiv requested a shelter for their kindergarten. That was on Wednesday. And on Thursday, the community took a direct hit from one the rockets launched from Lebanon. With your help, United with Israel will install bomb shelters for the children of Kibbutz Gesher HaZiv and other northern towns. There is no time to waste. The People of Israel need your prayers but also concrete action to save lives. The time to act is now, before it's too late... CLICK BELOW TO HELP BUILD BOMB SHELTERS https://donate.unitedwithisrael.org/donate/s1 We ask you to kindly forward this email to your family and friends. They too, deserve the opportunity to stand united with the People of Israel. Please consider giving monthly, as the vital need for more shelters is ongoing. May God reward you for your kindness and generosity. With Blessings from Israel, The 'United with Israel' Family CLICK BELOW TO MAKE A TAX-DEDUCTIBLE ONLINE DONATION: https://donate.unitedwithisrael.org/donate/s1 Checks can be sent to our US address: United with Israel PO Box 151 Lawrence, NY 11559 United States Checks can be mailed directly to Israel: United with Israel 8/19 Nachal Maor St. Box 71530 Bet Shemesh 99623 ISRAEL To donate by phone please call: +1-646-213-4003 (USA) +972-2-533-7841 (Israel)
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- 1475 – After an invasion by England and theDuchy of Burgundy, France signed the Treaty of Picquigny with England, freeing Louis XI to deal with the threat posed by Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy.
- 1842 – The Treaty of Nanking, an unequal treaty ending the First Opium War, was signed, forcing theChinese Qing Dynasty to give control of the island that is now the site of Hong Kong, and other concessions to the British.
- 1903 – The Russian battleship Slava, the last of the fiveBorodino-class battleships, was launched.
- 1911 – The last member of the Yahi, known as Ishi(pictured), emerged from the wilderness near Oroville, California, to join European American society.
- 2007 – Six nuclear warheads were alleged to have beenmistakenly loaded onto a United States Air Force heavy bomber that flew from Minot Air Force Base in North Dakotato Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
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Events
- 708 – Copper coins are minted in Japan for the first time (Traditional Japanese date: August 10, 708).
- 1350 – Battle of Winchelsea (or Les Espagnols sur Mer): The English naval fleet under King Edward III defeats aCastilian fleet of 40 ships.
- 1475 – The Treaty of Picquigny ends a brief war between France and England.
- 1498 – Vasco da Gama decides to depart Calicut and return to Portugal.
- 1521 – The Ottoman Turks capture Nándorfehérvár, now known as Belgrade.
- 1526 – Battle of Mohács: The Ottoman Turks led by Suleiman the Magnificent defeat and kill the last Jagiellonian king of Hungary and Bohemia.
- 1541 – The Ottoman Turks capture Buda, the capital of the Hungarian Kingdom.
- 1756 – Frederick the Great attacks Saxony, beginning the Seven Years' War.
- 1758 – The first American Indian Reservation is established, at Indian Mills, New Jersey.
- 1778 – American Revolutionary War: British and American forces battle indecisively at the Battle of Rhode Island.
- 1786 – Shays' Rebellion, an armed uprising of Massachusetts farmers, begins in response to high debt and tax burdens.
- 1807 – British troops under Sir Arthur Wellesly defeat a Danish militia outside Copenhagen in the Battle of Køge.
- 1825 – Portugal recognizes the Independence of Brazil.
- 1831 – Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction.
- 1833 – The United Kingdom legislates the abolition of slavery in its empire.
- 1842 – Treaty of Nanking signing ends the First Opium War.
- 1861 – American Civil War: US Navy squadron captures forts at Hatteras Inlet, North Carolina.
- 1869 – The Mount Washington Cog Railway opens, making it the world's first rack railway.
- 1871 – Emperor Meiji orders the Abolition of the han system and the establishment of prefectures as local centers of administration. (TraditionalJapanese date: July 14, 1871).
- 1885 – Gottlieb Daimler patents the world's first internal combustion motorcycle, the Reitwagen
- 1898 – The Goodyear tire company is founded.
- 1903 – The Slava, the last of the five Borodino-class battleships, is launched.
- 1907 – The Quebec Bridge collapses during construction, killing 75 workers.
- 1910 – The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, also known as the Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty, becomes effective, officially starting the period of Japanese rule in Korea.
- 1911 – Ishi, considered the last Native American to make contact with European Americans, emerges from the wilderness of northeastern California.
- 1915 – US Navy salvage divers raise F-4, the first U.S. submarine sunk in an accident.
- 1916 – The United States passes the Philippine Autonomy Act.
- 1918 – Bapaume taken by the New Zealand Division in the Hundred Days Offensive.
- 1922 – The first radio advertisement is broadcast on WEAF-AM in New York City.
- 1930 – The last 36 remaining inhabitants of St Kilda are voluntarily evacuated to other parts of Scotland.
- 1941 – Tallinn, the Capital of Estonia is occupied by Nazi Germany following an occupation by the Soviet Union.
- 1943 – German-occupied Denmark scuttles most of its navy; Germany dissolves the Danish government.
- 1944 – Slovak National Uprising takes place as 60,000 Slovak troops turn against the Nazis.
- 1946 – USS Nevada (BB-36) is decommissioned.
- 1949 – Soviet atomic bomb project: The Soviet Union tests its first atomic bomb, known as First Lightning or Joe 1, at Semipalatinsk, Kazakhstan.
- 1950 – Korean War: British troops arrive in Korea to bolster the US presence there.
- 1958 – United States Air Force Academy opens in Colorado Springs, Colorado.
- 1965 – The Gemini V spacecraft returns to Earth, landing in the Atlantic ocean.
- 1966 – The Beatles perform their last concert before paying fans at Candlestick Park in San Francisco.
- 1970 – Chicano Moratorium against the Vietnam War, East Los Angeles, California. Police riot kills three people, including journalist Ruben Salazar.
- 1982 – The synthetic chemical element Meitnerium, atomic number 109, is first synthesized at the Gesellschaft für Schwerionenforschung inDarmstadt, Germany.
- 1991 – Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union suspends all activities of the Soviet Communist Party.
- 1991 – Libero Grassi, an Italian businessman from Palermo is killed by the Mafia after taking a solitary stand against their extortion demands.
- 1996 – Vnukovo Airlines Flight 2801, a Vnukovo Airlines Tupolev Tu-154, crashes into a mountain on the Arctic island of Spitsbergen, killing all 141 aboard.
- 1997 – At least 98 villagers are killed by the Armed Islamic Group of Algeria GIA in the Rais massacre, Algeria.
- 2003 – Ayatollah Sayed Mohammed Baqir al-Hakim, the Shia Muslim leader in Iraq, is assassinated in a terrorist bombing, along with nearly 100 worshippers as they leave a mosque in Najaf.
- 2005 – Hurricane Katrina devastates much of the U.S. Gulf Coast from Louisiana to the Florida Panhandle, killing more than 1,836 and causing over $80 billion in damage.
- 2007 – 2007 United States Air Force nuclear weapons incident: six US cruise missiles armed with nuclear warheads are flown without proper authorization from Minot Air Force Base to Barksdale Air Force Base.
- 2012 – The opening ceremony of the Summer Paralympic Games is held in London.
- 2012 – At least 26 miners are killed and 21 missing after a blast in the Xiaojiawan coal mine, located at Panzhihua in Sichuan Province, China.
Births
- 1434 – Janus Pannonius, Hungarian bishop, poet, and diplomat (d. 1472)
- 1619 – Jean-Baptiste Colbert, French politician (d. 1683)
- 1628 – John Granville, 1st Earl of Bath, English statesman (d. 1701)
- 1632 – John Locke, English philosopher and physician (d. 1704)
- 1694 – Charlotte Christine of Brunswick-Lüneburg (d. 1715)
- 1724 – Giovanni Battista Casti, Italian poet and author (d. 1803)
- 1725 – Charles Townshend, English politician (d. 1767)
- 1728 – Maria Anna Sophia of Saxony (d. 1797)
- 1756 – Heinrich Graf von Bellegarde, Austrian field marshal and statesman (d. 1845)
- 1756 – Jan Śniadecki, Polish mathematician (d. 1830)
- 1777 – Hyacinth, Chuvash founder of Sinology (d. 1853)
- 1780 – Jean Auguste Dominique Ingres, French painter (d. 1867)
- 1805 – Frederick Denison Maurice, English theologian (d. 1872)
- 1809 – Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr., American physician and writer (d. 1894)
- 1810 – Juan Bautista Alberdi, Argentinian theorist and diplomat (d. 1884)
- 1811 – Henry Bergh, American activist and writer, founder of ASPCA (d. 1888)
- 1842 – Alfred Shaw, English cricketer (d. 1907)
- 1843 – David B. Hill, American politician, 29th Governor of New York (d. 1910)
- 1844 – Edward Carpenter, English poet (d. 1929)
- 1857 – Sandford Schultz, English cricketer (d. 1937)
- 1862 – Andrew Fisher, Australian politician, 5th Prime Minister of Australia (d. 1928)
- 1862 – Maurice Maeterlinck, Belgian poet Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1949)
- 1871 – Albert Lebrun, French politician (d. 1950)
- 1875 – Leonardo De Lorenzo, Italian flautist and educator (d. 1962)
- 1876 – Kim Gu, Korean politician, 6th President of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (d. 1949)
- 1876 – Charles F. Kettering, American engineer and businessman, founded Delco Electronics (d. 1958)
- 1880 – Marie-Louise Meilleur, Canadian super-centenarian (d. 1998)
- 1881 – Albert Henderson, Canadian footballer (d. 1947)
- 1887 – Jivraj Narayan Mehta, First Chief Minisyer of Gujarat(India),(d.1978)
- 1891 – Marquis James, American journalist and author (d. 1955)
- 1898 – Preston Sturges, American director and producer (d. 1959)
- 1901 – Aurèle Joliat, Canadian ice hockey player (d. 1986)
- 1904 – Werner Forssmann, German physician Nobel Prize laureate (d. 1979)
- 1905 – Arndt Pekurinen, Finnish activist (d. 1941)
- 1905 – Dhyan Chand, Indian hockey player (d. 1979)
- 1910 – Vivien Thomas, African American surgeon (d. 1985)
- 1912 – Sohn Kee-chung, Korean runner (d. 2002)
- 1912 – Barry Sullivan, American actor (d. 1994)
- 1912 – Wolfgang Suschitzky, Austrian-Polish cinematographer
- 1913 – Len Butterfield, New Zealand cricketer (d. 1999)
- 1913 – K. Jeyakody, Sri Lankan Tamil politician
- 1915 – Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (d. 1982)
- 1915 – Nathan Pritikin, American nutritionist (d. 1985)
- 1916 – Luther Davis, American playwright (d. 2008)
- 1916 – George Montgomery, American actor (d. 2000)
- 1917 – Isabel Sanford, American actress (d. 2004)
- 1920 – Charlie Parker, American saxophonist and composer (d. 1955)
- 1922 – Richard Blackwell, American actor, journalist, fashion designer, and critic (d. 2008)
- 1922 – John Edward Williams, American author (d. 1994)
- 1923 – Richard Attenborough, English director
- 1923 – Hiralal Gaekwad, Indian cricketer (d. 2003)
- 1923 – Marmaduke Hussey, Baron Hussey of North Bradley, English broadcasting executive (d. 2006)
- 1924 – María Dolores Pradera, Spanish singer and actress
- 1924 – Consuelo Velázquez, Mexican pianist and songwriter (d. 2005)
- 1924 – Dinah Washington, American singer (d. 1963)
- 1926 – Helene Ahrweiler, Greek historian and educator
- 1926 – Betty Lynn, American actress
- 1928 – Charles Gray, English actor (d. 2000)
- 1928 – Herbert Meier, Swiss writer and translator
- 1929 – Thom Gunn, English-American poet (d. 2004)
- 1930 – Jacques Bouchard, Canadian advertising executive (d. 2006)
- 1931 – Stelios Kazantzidis, Greek singer (d. 2001)
- 1931 – Lise Payette, Canadian politician, writer, and columnist
- 1932 – Lakis Petropoulos, Greek footballer (d. 1996)
- 1933 – Arnold Koller, Swiss politician
- 1934 – John Guy, New Zealand cricketer
- 1934 – Dimitris Papamichael, Greek actor and director (d. 2004)
- 1935 – William Friedkin, American director
- 1935 – László Garai, Hungarian scientist and psychologist
- 1936 – John McCain, American politician
- 1937 – James Florio, American politician
- 1938 – Elliott Gould, American actor
- 1938 – Christian Müller, German footballer
- 1938 – Robert Rubin, American politician, 70th United States Secretary of the Treasury
- 1939 – Jolán Kleiber-Kontsek, Hungarian discus thrower
- 1939 – Joel Schumacher, American director
- 1940 – James Brady, American activist, 15th White House Press Secretary
- 1940 – Gary Gabelich, American race car driver (d. 1984)
- 1941 – Robin Leach, English television host
- 1942 – James Glennon, American scientist
- 1943 – Mohamed Amin, Kenyan photographer and journalist (d. 1996)
- 1943 – Dick Halligan, American musician and composer (Blood, Sweat & Tears)
- 1945 – Wyomia Tyus, American runner
- 1945 – Chris Copping, English singer-songwriter, musician, and composer
- 1946 – Bob Beamon, American long jumper
- 1946 – Demetris Christofias, Greek-Cypriot politician, and 6th President of Cyprus
- 1947 – Temple Grandin, American doctor and activist
- 1947 – James Hunt, English Grand Prix driver and 1976 World Drivers' Champion (d. 1993)
- 1949 – Werner Kaiser, German footballer
- 1950 – Michael (Dahulich), American bishop
- 1950 – Doug DeCinces, American baseball player
- 1950 – Frank Henenlotter, American director
- 1950 – Dave Reichert, American politician
- 1952 – Karen Hesse, American author
- 1952 – Dave Malone, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (The Radiators)
- 1952 – Deborah Van Valkenburgh, American actress
- 1953 – James Quesada, Nicaraguan-American anthropologist
- 1954 – Michael P. Kube-McDowell, American novelist
- 1955 – Diamanda Galás, American singer, pianist, and composer
- 1955 – Frank Hoste, Belgian cyclist
- 1955 – Jack Lew, American politician, 25th White House Chief of Staff, 76th United States Secretary of the Treasury
- 1956 – GG Allin, American singer-songwriter (The Murder Junkies and The Jabbers) (d. 1993)
- 1956 – Mark Morris, American choreographer
- 1956 – Charalambos Xanthopoulos, Greek footballer
- 1957 – Jerry D. Bailey, American jockey
- 1958 – Lenny Henry, English comedian, actor, and writer
- 1958 – Michael Jackson, American singer-songwriter, producer, dancer, and actor (The Jackson 5) (d. 2009)
- 1959 – Chris Hadfield, Canadian astronaut
- 1959 – Rebecca De Mornay, American actress
- 1959 – Akkineni Nagarjuna, Indian actor
- 1959 – Eddi Reader, Scottish singer-songwriter, guitarist, and producer (Fairground Attraction)
- 1959 – Timothy Shriver, American businessman and activist
- 1959 – Stephen Wolfram, English physicist and mathematician
- 1960 – Todd English, American chef
- 1960 – Tony MacAlpine, American guitarist, composer, and producer (Planet X, CAB, Ring of Fire, and Seven the Hardway)
- 1961 – Carsten Fischer, German field hockey player
- 1961 – Rodney McCray, American basketball player
- 1962 – Hiroki Kikuta, Japanese composer
- 1962 – Carl Banks, American football player
- 1962 – Ian James Corlett, Canadian voice actor, writer, and singer
- 1963 – Elizabeth Fraser, Scottish singer (Cocteau Twins
- 1964 – Zisis Tsekos, Greek footballer
- 1965 – Will Perdue, American basketball player
- 1965 – Dina Spybey, American actress
- 1966 – Jörn Großkopf, German footballer
- 1967 – Anton Newcombe, American singer-songwriter and musician (The Brian Jonestown Massacre)
- 1968 – Meshell Ndegeocello, German-American singer-songwriter
- 1969 – Lucero, Mexican singer and actress
- 1969 – Joe Swail, Irish snooker player
- 1971 – Henry Blanco, Venezuelan baseball player
- 1971 – Alex Griffin, English bass player (Ned's Atomic Dustbin)
- 1971 – Carla Gugino, American actress
- 1972 – Bae Yong Joon, South Korean actor
- 1973 – Olivier Jacque, French motorcycle racer
- 1973 – Adam Sessler, American television host
- 1974 – Kumi Tanioka, Japanese composer
- 1975 – Dante Basco, Filipino-American actor
- 1975 – Juan Diego Botto, Argentine-Spanish actor
- 1975 – Kyle Cook, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (Matchbox 20 and The New Left)
- 1976 – Stephen Carr, Irish footballer
- 1976 – Kevin Kaesviharn, American football player
- 1976 – Giorgos Kalaitzis, Greek basketball player
- 1976 – Pablo Mastroeni, American soccer player
- 1976 – Jon Dahl Tomasson, Danish footballer
- 1977 – Devean George, American basketball player
- 1977 – John Hensley, American actor
- 1977 – John Patrick O'Brien, American soccer player
- 1977 – Roy Oswalt, American baseball player
- 1977 – Charlie Pickering, Australian comedian
- 1977 – Aaron Rowand, American baseball player
- 1977 – Jo Weil, German actor
- 1978 – Celestine Babayaro, Nigerian footballer
- 1979 – Stijn Devolder, Belgian cyclist
- 1979 – Ryan Shealy, American baseball player
- 1980 – David Desrosiers, Canadian singer-songwriter and bass player (Simple Plan and Reset)
- 1980 – Mohammad Sheikh, Kenyan cricketer
- 1980 – Chris Simms, American football player
- 1980 – Nicholas Tse, Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actor
- 1980 – David West, American basketball player
- 1981 – Lanny Barbie, Canadian porn actress
- 1981 – Geneviève Jeanson, Canadian cyclist
- 1981 – Dennis Joseph O'Neil, Korean-American actor
- 1981 – Jay Ryan, New Zealand actor
- 1982 – Carlos Delfino, Argentine basketball player
- 1982 – Vincent Enyeama, Nigerian footballer
- 1984 – Alexander Hug, German rugby player
- 1985 – Jeffrey Licon, American actor
- 1985 – Marc Rzepczynski, American baseball player
- 1986 – Lauren Collins, Canadian actress
- 1986 – Lea Michele, American actress and singer
- 1987 – Tony Kane, Irish footballer
- 1989 – Karol Castillo, Peruvian model (d. 2013)
- 1990 – Nicole Anderson, American actress
- 1990 – Patrick van Aanholt, Dutch footballer
- 1990 – Julia Vlassov, American figure skater
- 1991 – Néstor Araujo, Mexican footballer
- 1991 – Anikó Kovacsics, Hungarian handball player
- 1991 – Deshaun Thomas, American basketball player
- 1992 – Mallu Magalhães, Brazilian singer-songwriter
- 1993 – Lucas Cruikshank, American actor
- 1994 – Courtney Stodden, American television personality
Deaths
- 886 – Basil I, Byzantine emperor (b. 811)
- 979 – Abu Taghlib, Emir of Mosul
- 1093 – Hugh I, Duke of Burgundy (b. 1057)
- 1123 – Eystein I of Norway (b. 1088)
- 1395 – Albert III, Duke of Austria (b. 1349)
- 1442 – John VI, Duke of Brittany (b. 1389)
- 1526 – Louis II of Hungary (b. 1506)
- 1526 – Pál Tomori Hungarian archbishop and soldier (b. 1475)
- 1533 – Atahualpa, sovereign emperor (b. 1497)
- 1542 – Cristóvão da Gama, Portuguese soldier (b. 1516)
- 1543 – Maria of Jülich-Berg, German mother of Anne of Cleves (b. 1491)
- 1657 – John Lilburne, English activist (b. 1614)
- 1712 – Gregory King, English genealogist, engraver, and statistician (b. 1648)
- 1749 – Matthias Bel, Hungarian pastor and polymath (b. 1684)
- 1769 – Edmund Hoyle, English author and teacher (b. 1672)
- 1780 – Jacques-Germain Soufflot, French architect, co-designed The Panthéon (b. 1713)
- 1799 – Pope Pius VI (b. 1717)
- 1844 – Edmund Ignatius Rice, Irish missionary and educator, founder of the Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers (b. 1762)
- 1856 – Mary Anne Schimmelpenninck, English author (b. 1778)
- 1866 – Tokugawa Iemochi, Japanese 14th shogun of the Tokugawa shogunate (b. 1846)
- 1877 – Brigham Young, American religious leader, 2nd President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (b. 1801)
- 1889 – Stefan Dunjov, Bulgarian military figure (b. 1815)
- 1891 – Pierre Lallement, French inventor of the bicycle (b. 1843)
- 1892 – William Forbes Skene, Scottish historian (b. 1809)
- 1904 – Murad V, Ottoman sultan (b. 1840)
- 1917 – George Huntington Hartford, American businessman (b. 1833)
- 1930 – William Archibald Spooner, English writer (b. 1844)
- 1931 – David T. Abercrombie, American businessman, co-founder of Abercrombie & Fitch (b. 1867)
- 1935 – Astrid of Sweden (b. 1905)
- 1946 – Adolphus Busch III, American businessman (b. 1891)
- 1946 – Grigory Semyonov, Russian general (b. 1890)
- 1947 – Manolete, Spanish bullfighter (b. 1917)
- 1951 – Sydney Chapman, English economist and civil servant (b. 1871)
- 1958 – Marjorie Flack, American children's author (b. 1897)
- 1966 – Sayyid Qutb, Egyptian theorist, author, and poet (b. 1906)
- 1968 – Ulysses S. Grant III, American soldier (b. 1881)
- 1971 – Nathan Freudenthal Leopold Jr., American convicted murderer (b. 1904)
- 1972 – Lale Andersen, German singer-songwriter (b. 1905)
- 1975 – Éamon de Valera, Irish politician, 3rd President of Ireland (b. 1882)
- 1976 – Kazi Nazrul Islam, Bengali poet, musician, and philosopher (b. 1899)
- 1976 – Jimmy Reed, American singer-songwriter and guitarist (b. 1925)
- 1977 – Jean Hagen, American actress (b. 1923)
- 1977 – Brian McGuire, Australian race car driver (b. 1945)
- 1979 – Gertrude Chandler Warner, American author (b. 1890)
- 1981 – Lowell Thomas, American writer and broadcaster (b. 1892)
- 1982 – Ingrid Bergman, Swedish actress (b. 1915)
- 1982 – Lehman Engel, American composer and conductor (b. 1910)
- 1983 – Simon Oakland, American actor (b. 1915)
- 1984 – Pina Menichelli, Italian actress (b. 1890)
- 1985 – Evelyn Ankers, English actress (b. 1918)
- 1987 – Archie Campbell, American comedian, writer, and actor (b. 1914)
- 1987 – Lee Marvin, American actor (b. 1924)
- 1989 – Peter Scott, English explorer, naturalist, and painter (b. 1909)
- 1990 – Manly Palmer Hall, Canadian writer and mystic (b. 1901)
- 1991 – Libero Grassi, Italian businessman (b. 1924)
- 1992 – Félix Guattari, French philosopher and theorist (b. 1930)
- 1992 – Teddy Turner, English comedian and actor (b. 1917)
- 1995 – Frank Perry, American director (b. 1930)
- 2000 – Shelagh Fraser, English actress (b. 1922)
- 2000 – Willie Maddren, English footballer (b. 1951)
- 2001 – Graeme Strachan, Australian singer-songwriter (Skyhooks) (b. 1952)
- 2001 – Francisco Rabal, Spanish actor (b. 1926)
- 2002 – Alan MacNaughtan, Scottish actor (b. 1920)
- 2003 – Mohammad Baqir al-Hakim, Iraqi political leader (b. 1939)
- 2003 – Michel Constantin, French actor (b. 1924)
- 2003 – Patrick Procktor, English artist (b. 1936)
- 2004 – Hans Vonk, Dutch conductor (b. 1942)
- 2007 – Richard Jewell, American police officer (b. 1962)
- 2007 – Pierre Messmer, French politician, Prime Minister of France (b. 1916)
- 2007 – Alfred Peet, Dutch-American businessman, founder of Peet's Coffee & Tea (b. 1920)
- 2007 – James Muir Cameron Fletcher, New Zealand industrialist (b. 1914)
- 2008 – Geoffrey Perkins, English comedian, writer, and producer (b. 1953)
- 2008 – Michael Schoenberg, American geophysicist (b. 1939)
- 2012 – Said Aburish, Palestinian journalist (b. 1935)
- 2012 – Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke, English academic and author (b. 1953)
- 2012 – Shoshichi Kobayashi, Japanese-American mathematician (b. 1932)
- 2012 – Les Moss, American baseball player and coach (b. 1925)
- 2012 – Sergei Ovchinnikov, Russian volleyball coach (b. 1969)
Holidays and observances
- Christian feast day:
- International Day against Nuclear Tests (international)
- Miners' Day (Ukraine)
- Slovak National Uprising Anniversary (Slovakia)
- Telugu Language Day (India)
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Morning and Evening by Charles Spurgeon
Morning
"Oil for the light."
Exodus 25:6
Exodus 25:6
My soul, how much thou needest this, for thy lamp will not long continue to burn without it. Thy snuff will smoke and become an offence if light be gone, and gone it will be if oil be absent. Thou hast no oil well springing up in thy human nature, and therefore thou must go to them that sell and buy for thyself, or like the foolish virgins, thou wilt have to cry, "My lamp is gone out." Even the consecrated lamps could not give light without oil; though they shone in the tabernacle they needed to be fed, though no rough winds blew upon them they required to be trimmed, and thy need is equally as great. Under the most happy circumstances thou canst not give light for another hour unless fresh oil of grace be given thee.
It was not every oil that might be used in the Lord's service; neither the petroleum which exudes so plentifully from the earth, nor the produce of fishes, nor that extracted from nuts would be accepted; one oil only was selected, and that the best olive oil. Pretended grace from natural goodness, fancied grace from priestly hands, or imaginary grace from outward ceremonies will never serve the true saint of God; he knows that the Lord would not be pleased with rivers of such oil. He goes to the olive-press of Gethsemane, and draws his supplies from him who was crushed therein. The oil of gospel grace is pure and free from lees and dregs, and hence the light which is fed thereon is clear and bright. Our churches are the Saviour's golden candelabra, and if they are to be lights in this dark world, they must have much holy oil. Let us pray for ourselves, our ministers, and our churches, that they may never lack oil for the light. Truth, holiness, joy, knowledge, love, these are all beams of the sacred light, but we cannot give them forth unless in private we receive oil from God the Holy Ghost.
Evening
"Sing, O barren."
Isaiah 54:1
Isaiah 54:1
Though we have brought forth some fruit unto Christ, and have a joyful hope that we are "plants of his own right hand planting," yet there are times when we feel very barren. Prayer is lifeless, love is cold, faith is weak, each grace in the garden of our heart languishes and droops. We are like flowers in the hot sun, requiring the refreshing shower. In such a condition what are we to do? The text is addressed to us in just such a state. "Sing, O barren, break forth and cry aloud." But what can I sing about? I cannot talk about the present, and even the past looks full of barrenness. Ah! I can sing of Jesus Christ. I can talk of visits which the Redeemer has aforetimes paid to me; or if not of these, I can magnify the great love wherewith he loved his people when he came from the heights of heaven for their redemption. I will go to the cross again. Come, my soul, heavy laden thou wast once, and thou didst lose thy burden there. Go to Calvary again. Perhaps that very cross which gave thee life may give thee fruitfulness. What is my barrenness? It is the platform for his fruit-creating power. What is my desolation? It is the black setting for the sapphire of his everlasting love. I will go in poverty, I will go in helplessness, I will go in all my shame and backsliding, I will tell him that I am still his child, and in confidence in his faithful heart, even I, the barren one, will sing and cry aloud.
Sing, believer, for it will cheer thine own heart, and the hearts of other desolate ones. Sing on, for now that thou art really ashamed of being barren, thou wilt be fruitful soon; now that God makes thee loath to be without fruit he will soon cover thee with clusters. The experience of our barrenness is painful, but the Lord's visitations are delightful. A sense of our own poverty drives us to Christ, and that is where we need to be, for in him is our fruit found.
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Today's reading: Psalm 123-125, 1 Corinthians 10:1-18 (NIV)
View today's reading on Bible GatewayToday's Old Testament reading: Psalm 123-125
1 I lift up my eyes to you,
to you who sit enthroned in heaven.
2 As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
till he shows us his mercy.
to you who sit enthroned in heaven.
2 As the eyes of slaves look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a female slave look to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
till he shows us his mercy.
3 Have mercy on us, LORD, have mercy on us,
for we have endured no end of contempt.
4 We have endured no end
of ridicule from the arrogant,
of contempt from the proud....
for we have endured no end of contempt.
4 We have endured no end
of ridicule from the arrogant,
of contempt from the proud....
Today's New Testament reading: 1 Corinthians 10:1-18
Warnings From Israel's History
1 For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers and sisters, that our ancestors were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. 2 They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. 3 They all ate the same spiritual food 4 and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. 5 Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered in the wilderness.
6 Now these things occurred as examples to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did. 7 Do not be idolaters, as some of them were; as it is written: "The people sat down to eat and drink and got up to indulge in revelry." 8We should not commit sexual immorality, as some of them did-and in one day twenty-three thousand of them died. 9 We should not test Christ, as some of them did-and were killed by snakes. 10 And do not grumble, as some of them did-and were killed by the destroying angel.
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