Death of an Australian Millionaire

What is it with men who have lots of money, first Tiger Woods, now Australian millionaire Herman Rockefeller. This quiet, respectable businessman led a bizarre double life and surprise, surprise, it's all about sex. He had a steady girlfriend/girlfriends and advertised for partners through "swingers" networks. He also had 5 mobile phones.

Mr Rockefeller 51 had an arranged sexual liaison meeting with Mario Schembri 57, and Bernadette Denney 41 on the 21st of January. Something happened and the pair killed him, chopped him up and tried to burn his dismembered body in a 44-gallon drum in an acquaintance's backyard.

Like most men who put their sexual needs before everything else, his wife and two children are left to suffer not only the loss of a husband and father, but the humiliation of knowing that the whole country now knows what type of man he really was.

Abortion on Trial

Dr Tiller's widow

Scott Roeder bought a gun, learnt how to shoot it, stalked his victim, went to his church, pressed a gun to his forehead and pulled the trigger.


George R Tiller was one of the few doctors in America prepared to perform late-term abortions. The Defense lawyers are pleading extenuating circumstances because of Roeder's strong belief that the doctor was a murderer but Judge Warren Wilbert ruled that he would not instruct the jury to consider a lesser charge than first-degree murder when they begin deliberations tomorrow.


Mr Roeder 51, of Kansas City told jurers that he had watched Evangalist Pat Robertson's talk show in the 1990's and had thought about killing the doctor as early as 1993. A year ago, he went to his church with a gun but he wasn't there that day.


Seated on the witness stand, Roeder faced a tiny gallery including Dr Tiller's widow, Anti-Abortionists - some who had served time in jail for violence - and Abortion Rights supporters.
"It should send a message that there is no justification for this" said Vicki Saporta, President of the National Abortion Federation who wants a first-degree murder conviction.


Mr Roeder described the morning of the murder. After killing his victim, he drove to a small country town and hid the gun. A few days later Dr Tiller's family closed the clinic. It was the only one in Wichita.

Scott Roeder

The Prosecutor asked "Have you successfully completed your mission?"

"He's been stopped" he said.

"Have you successfully completed your mission?" she asked again.

"Yes".

News just in, the jury took just 37 minutes to reach a guilty verdict of first-degree murder.

Chinese to ban eating dog and cat

This post will make you sick, it's hard to believe that our two cultures are so far apart. Thanks to the hard work of animal rights activists within China, they are drafting a new law which will stop stray dogs and cats from being eaten. What seems abhorant to us is normal Chinese tradition which has been going on for thousands of years.

The first draft will be raised for legislation in April and it will have real teeth. People caught eating dog or cat meat will be jailed for up to fifteen days and fined 5,000 yuan ($1000) and restaurants fined up to $100,000.

And here's the sickening part, in some parts of China, they beat dogs to death to release the blood into the meat.

Naturally, there is a lot of resistance to the new law, many insisting that a ban on dog and cat meat is unrealistic, they argue that a dog meat recipe is a part of Chinese cultural heritage.

'Cooking them alive must be punished but what meat to eat should be a personal choice. Some people in China still can't afford meat, we should not blindly copy western values' a Chinese spokesman said.

But one on-line protestor Yuxiang999 posted on Xinhuanet.com said 'Eating cats and dogs is a shameless barbarian thing. Anyone with humanity would not kill these loyal friends of ours'.

Lord Monckton

If you have ever heard or seen Lord Monckton speak, you will find he's very convincing. When he wants to, he has a powerful presence, a fantastic knowledge of his subject and the clever ability to get his point across. I heard him on the Alan Jones radio show (2GB) Sydney one morning last week and Alan couldn't get a word in, and everyone knows that Alan Jones has verbal diarrhea. He's come to Australia to prove that Kevin Rudd is wrong about climate change and that the Emission Trading Scheme is just a waste of money.


He's here after being invited by two retirees from Noosa in Queensland, Case Smit and John Smeed who have asked for donations to help pay for the $100,000 needed to pay for the Lord's stipend, accommodation and travel expenses.


When Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehard announced she would back the tour which will be made into a documetary by the BBC, they were amazed and delighted. They coudn't believe the BBC would do a documentary about climate change because they had been so anti the sceptic movement in the past.

Mr Smit wrote to Ms Rinehard saying that the original organiser of the Perth event wasn't available any more and could she suggest someone else to help. To date, Ms Rinehard has not returned calls from the media confirming her intentions regarding the Lord's visit.


Monckton played a role in a legal challenge in the UK High Court of Justice in October 2007 in a bid to stop "An Inconvenient Truth" being shown in English schools. It is also rumoured that he helped fund the documentary "The Great Global Warming Swindle" which was also shown in Enlgish schools. I remember seeing this documentary and it had a huge impact on my thinking about climate change, suddenly I wasn't baffled or intimidated by the superior knowledge of scientists.


Considered to be 'eccentric' because in 1987 he said "There is only one way to stop AIDS and that is to screen the entire population regularly and quarantine all carriers of the disease for life". Hardly a feasible argument, but then it was a long time ago.


Lunches held in Sydney and Melbourne have sold out along with tickets to his lunchtime debate with the Brisbane Institute. After hearing him speak, I wish I could be there, it's said that he thrives on hecklers and loves fielding difficult questions. A very interesting man who hopefully will have an impact on Australians and leave them to think again about the costly tax which will need to be imposed to get the Emissions Trading Scheme off the ground.

Australia Day 2010

What do the stars on our flag represent? The constellation of stars on the right is the Southern Cross and the large star with seven points is the Federation star. Each point represents one of the six states and the seventh is for the Australian Territories (Canberra and the Northern Territory). And we all know that the Union Jack depicts our history and connection to the British.


Federation was a vital part of our past, we finally became a united country on the 1st January 1901 when the Commonwealth of Australia was born. Until then, we were 6 different colonies, fiercely fighting for our own rights and extremely jealous of each other. It must have been a difficult job getting the colony leaders to finally agree to unite the country as one. But finally common sense prevailed and the people realised that things like the economy, immigration and defence should be tackled on a national level and the papers were signed. So on 1st January 1901 the Colonies became the States, a Federal Parliament was formed and Edmond Barton became our first Prime Minister. It wasn't until 9th May 1927 that the Commonwealth Parliament first sat in Canberra in the 'Old Government House'.


Little is known about our Constitution. The smaller Colonies were afraid that the larger ones would have more say in the Federal Government so the conference adopted the practice of the United States - in the House of Representatives, each state would be represented according to the number of residents and in the Senate, each state has an equal number of representatives.


It's hard to say what Australia Day means to everyone, but I think for the majority in the workforce, it's a bit like the Telstra ad, a great day off to relax and watch the cricket and the tennis. I usually go into the city to watch the ferry races and all the activities in Sydney Harbour but it's too hot so I'll be having a fresh seafood lunch and a glass of bubbly to celebrate living in the greatest country in the world.

Happy Australia Day to everyone.

Is the Mona Lisa really Leonardo da Vinci?

Art historians are going to dig up Leonardo da Vinci's bones and see if they match the facial structure of the Mona Lisa. The theory is that because he was homosexual and loved riddles, he could have painted himself as a woman. Scientists will reconstuct his face to find out if the painting is in fact a self-portrait in disguise.

But they don't know if they can find the real bones. He was originally buried in a church destroyed in the French Revolution of 1789 and then reburied and now lies under an inscription which reads "Presumed to be the Master's remains". They will use carbon dating and compare DNA samples from bones and teeth from male descendants who live in Botogna, Italy. Many Leonardo scholars are angry and want his bones left alone and believe that the identity of the Mona Lisa should remain one of the greatest art mysteries of the world.

Australia Day and our Convict Past

Ned Kelly

The British Government are releasing details of convicts sent to Australia more than 200 years ago to coincide with Australia Day, tomorrow the 26th January. We'll be able to search through a data base to see if we have convict blood running through our veins. The British website Ancestry.co.uk will be free until the 30th January.

Twenty one thousand convicts were set free in New South Wales and were lucky enough to be granted plots of land, many of whom went on to establish successful businesses. There were also 34,000 Certificates of Freedom handed out to convicts after their sentences were completed.

More than 2 millions Brittons and an estimated 4 million Australians are related to convicts deported to Australia in the 18th and 19th century, genealogists say. Both Kevin Rudd and John Howard are descended from convicts, as are many other prominent Australians.

For some reason, there doesn't seem to be a problem with having a convict ancestor, in fact many people will jump on the website hoping to find a long lost distant relative. We are indeed a strange mob and the thought crossed my mind that if a man is poor and desperate and he's given a decent chance in life, he might just surprise you.

Bigotry

A plane leaves Wichita airport under the control of a Jewish Captain and a Chinese co-pilot. It's the first time they've flown together and there is an awkward silence between the two which seems to indicate a mutual dislike.


The captain activates the auto-pilot, leans back in his seat and mutters "I don't like Chinese".


"No like Chinese, why not?"


"You people bombed Pearl Harbour that's why".


"No, No, Chinese not bomb Pearl Harbour, it was the Japanese, not the Chinese"


"Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, it doesn't matter, you're all alike"


"I no like Jews either" says the co-pilot.


"Oh yeah, why not" asks the Captain.


"Jews sink Titanic"


"What? That's insane, Jews didn't sink the Titanic, it was an iceberg"


"Iceberg, Goldberg, Rosenberg, no matter, all same".

Omar bin Laden

Omar is one of Osama bin Laden's 11 sons. In a rambling interview with Rolling Stone magazine in Damascus this week he says his father has achieved his goal of humbling the United States and that President Obama has made a grave mistake in sending more troops to Afghanistan. If his father is killed, he warns that his death will unleash terrible attacks by militants and that Afghanistan can never be won, it has nothing to do with his father, it's the

Afghan people.

In 2007 Omar married a British woman almost twice his age. The pair have since been denied entry to Qatar, Egypt and Britain and Spain is rejecting an asylum request. Omar makes his living as a scrap metal dealer in Jeddah. He compares himself to Mel Gibson and dreams of working for the United Nations and meeting President Obama and Hiliary Clinton.

He said that his father was overjoyed when America elected George W Bush because he knew he would attack, spend money and break the country. Also that the US was very lucky that his father had not been killed. 'It's going to be worse when he dies, the world is going to be very, very nasty then, it's going to be a disaster. My father has a religious goal, he is controlled by the rules of jihad, he only kills if he thinks there is a need" he said.

And although he hasn't seen his father for almost 10 years, Omar doesn't believe that bin Laden needs to launch any more big attacks. "He doesn't need to, as soon as American went to Afghanistan, his plan worked, he has already won".

Thanks to the Christmas Day bomber, the whole world is now having to spend a fortune upgrading their airport security systems. Osama's terror regime has indeed cost the world dearly.

Is Australia a Racist Country?

Is Australia a racist country? Of course it is. Am I a racit? Definitely. Many older Australians like myself find our immigration policy most unsatisfactory and would change it in a flash, there are far too many Asians, Muslims, Sudanese and anyone else who isn't white coming in and please don't mention the boat people. The amazing thing is that people keep saying "I'm not a racist but ............................" Wake up, yes you are!

But being racist isn't surprising, just look at our history and the White Australia Policy we grew up with. Zenophobia goes right back to the 1850's when resentment started to build against the Chinese on the goldfields which culminated in a violent battle at Buckland River in Victoria. European miners attacked and chased 2500 Chinese off the goldfields and there was another violent incident at Young in New South Wales.


Then labourers from the south sea islands known as Kanakas became a problem in North Queensland. Workers were outraged by these migrants and were terrified that non-white people would work for lower wages and they would lose their jobs. Some wealthy Queenslanders were worried that they might be excluded from the upcoming Constitution of Australia (the Federation of the states) which came into force on 1 January 9001 if the Kanaka trade continued so NSW and Victorian governments declared that in future, there would be no place for Asiatics or coloureds in Australia. It was called the Restriction Act of 1901 but was commonly known as the White Australia Policy and was warmly received by the whole country. In 1919, the Prime Minister, William Morris Hughes hailed it as "the greatest thing we have achieved".

In March 1966 non-European migration began to slowly increase and in 1973 the Whitlam Labor Government removed race as a factor in our immigration policy. But an increase in the number of migrants from non-European countries did not take place until after the Fraser government came to office in 1975. Today, our migration program allows people from any country to apply, regardless of ethnicity, culture, religion or language, provided they meet the necessary criteria.


According to the 2006 Census, Australia's population was then around 20 million and those reporting country of birth, about 24 per cent were born overseas and 45 per cent were either born overseas or have at least one parent born overseas, quite incredible really.


The Cronulla riots are also a part of our recent history. On Sunday 4th December 2005 two surf lifesavers at Cronulla beach were assaulted by up to 20 Muslim men and taken to hospital. Our tolerant, easy-going nature suddenly dissapeared and was replaced with a bitter rage that quickly got out of control. At midday on 11th December 5,000 Aussies, mainly young men, gathered at Cronulla beach looking for revenge and when a young man of 'middle-eastern appearance' was spotted, he was surrounded and bashed and other Muslim men were attacked on a train. Without the police presence, who knows what would have happened.

And we can't talk about racism without mentioned our Aboriginal people. I don't buy that lame excuse "But I wasn't there, it's got nothing to do with me". If you are white and can trace your family tree back to the land, it's part of your heritage, your ancestors were guilty. In Tasmania, we actually killed them all, completely wiped them out. In the Northern Territory, they were captured, held in chains and taken to the pearling luggers owned by white Europeans and made to dive for pearls without pay, many dying, both men and women, from having to dive too deep without any proper safety equipment. In Elliston South Australia, pastoralists ran a whole tribe of Aboriginal people off a cliff into the sea, men women and children, and those that didn't die were shot. Two teenagers and a baby survived the massacre and passed the story down through the generations. Oh yes, we have a lot to be proud of there.

But I wonder why so many Australians vehmently deny they are racist, I think we all are, it's human nature. It's only natural that parents want their children to marry their own kind and get upset when they choose a partner from a different race. But look around, these old attitudes are being thrown out by our younger generations, they couldn't care less about colour or creed. I'm sure you've heard of the old fashioned word WASP - White Ango Saxon Protestant - once a privileged species in Australia, well the wasps are all heading the same way of the dodo, not quite dead yet but on the way out.

Climate Change

What is the IPCC? It's the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a scientific body who evaluate the risk of climate change caused by human activity. The panel was established in 1988 by the World Meteorological Organiation (WMO) and the United National Environment Program (UNEP), two organisations that belong to the United Nations. The IPCC shared the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize with former Vice President Al Gore. They don't carry out their own research, they gather information from climate scientists from around the world and then release reports.

But they recently got it wrong. They said that the Himalayan glaciers would melt by 2035. They based this prediction on the theory put forward by an Indian climate scientist no one had ever heard of. When it was pointed out that it wasn't going to happen, the IPCC have since recognised and rectified their data but seem to be unaccountable for it and offer no apology. This UN climate agency is frightening a lot of people with claims like this and they need to stop it.

And what about the 1000 emails and 3000 documents of private correspondence between scientists that hackers stole and posted on the internet. They proved that well known climate scientists deliberately conspired to manipulate data and suppress evidence about global warming to suit their own beliefs, namely that climate change is real and caused by man.

It's hard to form an opinion when scientists continue to fight amongst themselves, there is a bitter division between them about climate change. And if scientists can't agree, what hope have we got?

Banning the Burqa

French President Sarcozy this week desccribed the burqa - the face covering, floor length black garment worn by Muslim women - as a symbol of subservience that turns women into prisoners behind a screen.

France has the largest Muslim population in Europe. They have already banned the veil in State primary and secondary schools and now there's a new bill being proposed. If passed, women who wear Islamic veils in public places face a heavy fine and it could be doubled for Muslim men who force female members of their family to cover their faces. Jean-Francois Cope, president of Nicholas Sarcozy's ruling UMO Party says the legislation was intended to protect the dignity and security of women of France.

A TV debate was organised which included Cope. A 22 year old law student with dark brown eyes peering from the slit of her black veil was on the panel and caused a sensation when she explained that wearing the burqa was her own choice and no one made her do it. Dalila grew up in a poor suburb of Dijon and was insulted by a man in the street who told her to go back to Afghanistan. She's been wearing a full-face veil for about five years. The daughter of a Christian French mother and an Algerian father who she never knew, Dalila and her sister only started learning about Islam at the age of 13. "When we discovered Islam, my sister and I, we thought this is for us. So if tomorrow you decide to pass a law, I will no longer be able to leave my house" she told Cope. "I hope you spare a thought for me". Another woman who wears the burqa said in a radio interview that no one makes her wear it, she does it to preserve her beauty, especially for her husband.

I don't buy that. I think women wear the burqa for two reasons, they either want to or they have to. To me, it's a confronting gesture that sets her far apart from me which is rather sad. She is making a silent protest which says she has no intention of conforming to my way of life, unlike her Muslim sisters in Australia who choose to wear western-style clothes and are happy to blend in with the rest of us.

Only one Muslim woman agreed to testify before a parliamentary commission but not surprisingly, women wearing the veil are so cut off from mainstream French society they would never agree to a media interview so they weren't able to get a true picture of the situation. The final report is due to be released on 26th January which just happens to be Australia Day.

Susan Boyle

When a plain, unsophisticated middle-aged spinster, who had been the butt of jokes all her life, walked onto a stage and stunned the audience of Britain's Got Talent, her life changed forever. How can a 48 year old woman, who had been living a quiet life with her beloved cat and looking after her elderly mother for most of her life, possibly cope with being a celebrity. Now, after years of being ignored and laughed at, suddenly everyone wants to be her friend.

Susan was born in Scotland to Patrick Boyle, miner and World War II veteran and also a singer and her mother Bridget, a shorthand typist. Both migrated from county Donegal in Ireland. Her mother was 47 when Susan was born and she was briefly deprived of oxygen which resulted in learning difficulties.

Susan spoke about her battle with depression, blaming it on being bullied all her school life and admits she suffers from bouts of anger and depression and wild mood swings because of it. "I know I am taking a big chance telling people this, but I have to be honest. I used to be made a fool of at school" she said. I can remember seeing Sharon Osborne, Ossie's wife on a tv clip where she said "And there was Susan, looking like a slapped arse" and everyone fell about laughing.

The press said she had a tantrum at British Airways VIP lounge at Heathrow on her way to America. She started to dance and sing with a mop in front of her other first-class passengers waiting to board.

She has three managers, Andy Stephens, who used to work with George Michael, U2's former accountant Ossie Kilkenny and one of her nieces Kirsty who she says are all pulling her in different directions.

Susan says she has no plans to move from her council house in Blackburn because her beloved cat Pebbles would hate to live somewhere "posh".

Phising

Jane Corbin, documentary maker and international journalist from the UK made a wrong split second decision that almost ruined her life. She was a victim of Phising, - the word is a combination of fishing and phreaking which means breaking into a phone system.

It was a busy Friday night the week before Christmas and she was rushing to finish a documentary she'd been working on. Suddenly an alarming email popped into her Yahoo mailbox from Yahoo itself saying that her account was about to be shut down unless she confirmed all her details. It looked authentic, the graphics, the text, the disclaimer were identical to the ones used by Yahoo and even some details about her account were accurate.

She panicked, terrified she'd lose all the precious material she'd spent days working on, so she did it, she filled in all the boxes including her password and pressed 'enter'. Within a minute, her screen went blank, her electronic lifeline was severed and the nightmare began.

Wihin seconds of pressing the enter button, a message written by the hackers but under her name went out to everyone in the computerized address book attached to her email account. Within a minute phone calls started flooding in from alarmed contacts who had received the message. She did not know at first what they were talking about, the hackers had changed her password to shut her out of her computer. The first call came through, a friend in his car had received a message on his BlackBerry saying she was in trouble in Spain and urgently needed money wired to her, the same email went out to nearly 1,000 people around the world. The message read "I am in a critical situation in Madrid, all my money has been stolen from my hotel, could you help me out with a loan of $1500 pounds.'

She couldn't raise anyone at Yahoo, it was Friday night before Christmas and all her pleas for help went unanswered. It took until Monday before a lady rang from Yahoo to help her back into her account. She asked why Yahoo's own filter system hadn't spotted the bogus email before she opened it. Her bank was more efficient, their help line was operating on the Friday night and they stopped her credit cards straight away which left her with no plastic for Chritmas presents because she had to wait for the new cards to come in the mail.

The scams from Nigeria saying that people have won the lottery are still going on and the crooks get on average two responses out of every one thousand emails they send out, so there are still plenty of naive people out there.

Be careful out there.

Osama bin Laden

This is what Osama bin Laden could look like today. The FBI's laboratory in Virginia have aged old photos of 18 most wanted terrorists. If anyone thinks they have seen one of these people, the FBI has a scheme that will reward them financially for their trouble. Since its inception in 1984 the Rewards for Justice Program has paid millions of dollars to people who have provided information that resulted in the capture, prosecution or death of terrorists and for people who have been responsible for preventing a terrorist act.

After the Nigerian man tried to blow up an American Airline on Christmas Day, the photos were released as the US announced it would strengthen air security. This includes randomly screening more passengers, more federal air marshalls and employing more people on the Terrorist watch list.

In the UK, Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab had been placed on their watch list in May 2009 after applying for a visa to study at a bogus college. He had been living in London between 2005-2008 on a study visa at University College in London. He was a ligitimate UK student on a legitimate student visa and hadn't been in the UK for 14 months. However in May 2009, when he made an application for another student visa, it was refused. Once it had been refused, he automatically went on the UK watch list.

Washington said he was added to their watch list of some 550,000 names last month after his father warned US officials in Abuja about his son's radical behaviour. Unfortunately, the US security let their guard down and he slipped through the net. Any wonder President Obama was furious with his security people, it was a very close call and airport security will never be quite the same ever again.

Jessica Watson

What a little champion Jessica Watson is, she's almost halfway in the bid to be the youngest person to sail around the world. The Daily Telegraph arranged to fly her parents Julie and Roger over their daughter's yacht yesterday. She stood on the deck of her little 34 footer Ella's Pink Lady in frigid winds as the plane flew backwards and forwards over her while they chatted on the phone. She had just emerged from 24 hours of high winds and huge seas as she rounded Cape Horn at the bottom of South America.

"It was really special, a really big treat I have been looking forward to for quite a while. It went much faster than I first thought but it was everything I wanted it to be" she said. "My routine has been disrupted having people round but it's been really exciting".

"Mum to Pink Lady, Mum to Pink Lady. We are going to make a last pass, so we'll give you a big wave and then we'll say goodbye" Julie said over the radio.

"Yeah Mum, Pink Lady, sounds good, I'll come out and give you a last big wave and a hundred million kisses and all that gooey rubbish" Jessica replied.

Go Jessica.

Robert Hanssen, American Spy

Hard to believe that an American FBI agent could betray his country and spy for the Russians for more than 20 years. Robert Hanssen did more to harm America than any other spy in their history. He was arrested in 2001 near his home in Vienna, Virginia and they traded him a prison sentence instead of the death penalty in exchange for information. He is serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison and spends twenty three hours a day in solitary confinement.

He sensed the end was near. Just before daybreak he had a feeling that someone or something was getting close. He suspected his car may be bugged because it was making a strange crackling noise. He was right - his phone was tapped, the FBI bought a house across the street from his and he was being followed everywhere.

The FBI agents staked out the park where they knew he made his drops. They watched him walk into the wood, stop at the footbridge and place a package underneath it. "Freeze, FBI" yelled one of ten young men who surrounded him.


Born on 18th April 1944, to everyone who knew him he was a devoted husband, father of 6 and a devout Catholic who went regularly to mass, sometimes every day. The family belonged to Opus Dei, a small but powerful faction of Catholicism. He said later that he confessed his sins to priests in confession over the years and was told to stop his spying activities but of course he never did.
Hard to image why a priest armed with such information did not go to the authorities with it.

He secretly videotaped he and his wife having sex and shared the videotapes with a close friend. He also explicitly described the sexual details of his marriage on Internet chat rooms and hid a video camera in his bedroom and hooked up a clossed circuit television line so that his friend could spy on the Hanssons having sex from his own living room. He also liked to visit DC strip clubs and had an affair with a stripper.

Pulitzer prize-winning author and journalist David Vise has covered the FBI for the Washington Post and wrote the book 'The Bureau and the Mole'. He says the worst single betrayal by Robert Hanssen was the sale of something called 'The Continuity of Government Plan' - the super secret plan for how the President, Vice-President and Congress would survive a nuclear first strike. By giving this information to the Russians, he single-handedly increased the risk of nuclear war.

There is one piece of intelligence Hanssen sold to the Russians which according to US intelligence sources ended up in the hands of Al Qaeda terrorist network. An individual Russian for two million dollars sold Al Quaeda a software tracking package which was passed along to Osama bin Laden which enabled him to evade detection by the United States for a number of years, he had advanced kowledge of what the FBI and CIA were working on. Robert Hanssen was the most damaging spy in American history, no other spy comes close.

They said it was all his father's fault, a tough cop who never gave the boy enough priase but I don't buy that one. I guess we'll never know, some stories are stranger than fiction.

Antarctica

No one owns Antarctica, the world does. All territorial claims were frozen by the Antarctic Treaty which guaranteed the continued use of Antarctica exclusively for peaceful and scientific purposes. The Madrid Protocol to the Antarctic Treaty is seen as a global benchmark for imposing very strict rules which included the removal of all huskies from the continent. The treaty nations agreed to place a suspension of activity on mining for fifty years. It was put in place in 1991 and by January 1998, all treaty nations had ratified the protocol and the moratorium was legally in place.

Australia claims 42% of the continent including 5000 kms of coastline but it's not legal. The Russians and now China and India have not sought permission from Canberra to build their bases in the Australian Antarctic Territory, because it doesn't belong to us.

In 2001 Russia sent a ship to Antarctica to collect data on gas and oil reserves and South Korea, new to the game, who also had ideas of exploiting Antarctic minerals but they were severely chastised by the treaty and backed off. Now China has their eye on it. Fairfax journalist Jo Chandler happened to be at Casey recently and witnessed the arrival of a Chinese delegation. She reported that the Chinese were led by Minister for Land and Resources Xu Shaoshi who declined to speak to her but the Director of China's polar programs Qu Zanzhou told her "Also we are here about the potential of the resources and how to use these resources".

I wonder if the Antarctic Treaty will take on the might of China in the same way they did with Russia and South Korea. Should be interesting to see what happens, if anything.

Mary McKillop

The story of cancer survivor Kathleen Evans 66, is an interesting one. Kathleen was a smoker since the age of 16 but gave up in 1990, three years before she got the news that at age 49, she had lung cancer. The tumour in her right lung was very aggressive and spread to her glands and within a few months, a primary cancer was found in her brain. She was told that chemo-therapy or x-ray treatment would be pointless and was given a few months to live.


A friend in the Hunter Valley gave her a picture of Mary McKillop and a piece of her clothing, so Kathleen, her family and her parish began praying. "I'm not one to be on my knees all the time or think I'll go to hell if I don't go to church" she said but she is a regular churchgoer.


Her condition began to improve and after four months, her doctor called for more tests because he couldn't believe she was still alive. Ten months after her original diagnosis, she was told there was no sign of any cancer, just some scarring where the tumours had been.

In December 2009, her recovery was formally recognised as McKillop's second miracle, clearing the way for her canonisation which is expected to occur in Rome this year. In 1995 her first miracle, the cure in 1961 of a woman with terminal leukemia was accepted by the Vatican and she was beatified.

Born in Melbourne in 1842, Mary came from a poor background. her father had to struggle to find labouring or farming jobs and sometimes had to rely on family members to survive. In 1861 she went to work in Penola, a small town in South Australia. It was here that Mary met Father Julian Woods. She thought she had a religious calling but hadn't found an order she wanted to join so she and Father Woods started their own, the Sisters of St Joseph, dedicated to the education of poor children. The sisters followed farmers, miners, railway workers to isolated areas of outback Australia.


Mary had a strong will. She took a vow of poverty which meant she had to beg for money and the church thought it undignified but Mary refused to change. She had an argument with Bishop
Shiel and he excommunicated her for insubordination in 1871. But just before he died, the Bishop admitted he'd done the wrong thing and lifted the ban. Mary died in Sydney in 1909.


In 1973, Mary McKillop was the first Australian to be formally proposed to Rome as a candidate for canonization and she was beatified by Pope John Paul II at St Francis Church on 27 November 1994. Although beatified, she is still not a saint. To become a saint the Vatican must see evidence of a second miracle. Now, thanks to Kathleen Evans, it looks like it's going to happen.

Near Death Experiences

Some people who have nearly died on the operating table report being able to soar out of their bodies up to the ceiling and look down on the doctors and nurses trying to save their lives. Last year some British and American hospital doctors began a study to try and find out if it's true. They intend to study near death experiences of 1500 heart attack patients. It will take three years and will be co-ordinated by Southampon University.

Now here's the interesting bit: images will be placed on shelves which are only visible from the ceiling. This should prove if patients can recall these pictures or not.

"Dr Sam Parina said "If you can demonstrate that if consciousness continues after the brain switches off, it allows for the possibility that consciousness is a separate entity. It is unlikely that we will find many cases where this happens but we have to be open-minded. But if no one sees the pictures, it proves that these out of body experiences are only illusions.

Dr Parina continues "Contrary to popular perception, death is not a specific moment. It is a process that begins when the heart stops beating, the lungs stop working and the brain ceases to function - a medical condition termed cardiac arrest which from a biological viewpoint is synonymous with clinical death. During a cardiac arrest, all three criteria of death are present. There then follows a period of time which may last from a few seconds,up to an hour or more, in which emergency medical efforts may succeed in restarting the heart and reversing the dying process. What people experience during this period of cardiac arrest provides a unique window of understanding into what we are all likely to experience during the dying process", he said.

Among the British hospitals taking part are Addenbrookes in Cambridge, University Hospital in Birmingham and the Morriston in Swansea.

I believe in the white light tunnel theory myself. You've heard the story, you die on the operating theatre or in a motor accident by the side of the road and suddenly you are looking down on the people trying to save your life. Then you're inside a tunnel and drawn towards a brilliant white light at the end of it - you strive to get there because there's an overwhelming sense of peace associated with the light. When you finally get to the end of the tunnel, the next thing you know, all your deceased loved ones are there to meet you and you can't believe how wonderful it is. Then suddenly the process reverses itself and you go back down the tunnel into your body on the operating table or at the crash scene, it's just not your time to go.

I'm rather surprised but pleased they have undertaken this study, I would have thought most doctors would laugh at the idea. Wouldn't it be something if someone died and came back to explain those images on the shelves in detail. Stop laughing, you just never know.

The Black Dog

Ruth Ostrow, writer for The Australian answers the question of what she was most grateful for over the past 12 moths. Amazingly, she said it had been a bout of depression. This is her story of the Black Dog.

David Byrne of Talking Heads once sang these words to his beloved "Time won't change you, money won't change you, I need something to change your mind.......Drugs won't change you, religion won't change you, science won't change you, looks like I can't change you.....I need something to change your mind.

As 2009 draws to an end, I have thought a lot about the song and its relevance to my year. I can imagine my friends singing it to me, "Love won't change you, sex won't change you, childbirth won't change you.... I need something that will change my mind. And so finally I have the answer. With regards to myself at any rate, depression will change you, I've found something that will change my mind.

Each year, coming up to New Year's Eve, I reflect on what I'm most grateful for over the past 12 months and strangely in 2009 it's been a bout of depression I've been battling. Though it's been a protracted bout, intolerable at times, at times causing me to wander the earth in search of meaning like a hungry ghost, this episode has been the only thing that's ever really changed me, shamed me. Tenderised me. Humbled me. And reshaped me brutally mercilessly and mercifully - like a tsunami raging through the brain.

As the year draws to a close, I feel renewed. I've been washed clean, so many old patterns divested. So much unneeded baggage and outdated beliefs from generations past, swept away in the foam. Much has had to die so that better things can grow. To misquote Paul Keating, it's the depression I had to have.

With the care and support of Professor Gordon Parker and his team at the Black Dog Institute, I have emerged a simpler person. Awakened. And more determined to find solace in this wonderful human family to which we all belong.

So I say only this. Don't be afraid to empty. In emptyness we are most ourselves, aware of every precious second, aware of existing for a mere blink of time. We don't need very much at all, we never did. It's so liberating to be 'nothing' no thing, nothing to be or do, nothing to cling to, nothing to lose, nowhere to go or be better than here, now.

As my last column for the year, I wish you all this: May you find your sacred "empty place" which you can start to refill anew, with creativity and mindfulness, as 2010 dawns.

I like this lady, her honesty and her logic, no need to rush around like a hedless chook looking for meaning to fill your days, like she says, we don't need very much at all, we've got it all right here, with us right now and it's been there all along.

If you are feeling miserable and low or your anxiety levels are raging out of control or you've had one too many panic attacks, take the test for depression here - help is just a click away.

http://www.blackdoginstitute.org.au/media/newsdesk/index.cfm

Mating Toads

From the BBC 6.1.2010

A group of scientists from Australia and the Netherlands have discovered something funny but also interesting. Female toads can inflate their bodies to ward off potential mates, when they blow up, the males can't hang on.


According to Dr. Benjamin Phillips from the University of Sydney, he thinks it could be a sneaky way for the female to choose a mate. Males will grasp any female that comes along (typical male behaviour) and stay on unless displaced by a stronger male. But once she inflates her body, he's got no hope.


Just think ladies, what a fantastic defence mechanism, no more headache excuses, just blow yourself up.

The Plan

In the beginning there was the plan.

And then came the Assumptions.

And the Assumptions were without form.

And darkness was on the face of the workers.

And they spoke among themselves saying "It's a crock of shit and it stinketh".

And the workers went unto their Supervisors and said "It is a pail of dung and none may abide the odour thereof".

And the Supervisors went unto their Managers saying "It is a vessel of fertilizer and none may abide its strength".

And the Directors spoke among themselves saying one to another "It contains that which aids plant growth, and is very strong.

And the Directors went unto the Vice Presidents saying unto them "It promotes growth and is very powerful".

And the Vice Presidents went unto the President, saying unto him "This new plan will actively promote the growth and vigour of the company, with powerful effects.

And the President looked upon the Plan and saw that it was good.

And the Plan became Policy.

And that's how shit happens.

Nair Hair Remover

My neighbour found that her dog couldn't hear very well so she took him to the vet. He said that there was excess hair in his ears and cleaned them out and the dog could hear fine. The vet told her to go to the Chemist and get some Nair hair remover and rub it in its ears once a month.


So the lady goes to the chemist and gets some Nair Hair Remover. At the cash register, the chemist tells her "If you are going to use it under your arms, don't use deodorant for a few days.


The lady says "I'm not using it under my arms".

The chemist says "Well if you are using it on your legs, don't shave for a couple of days.

The lady says "I'm not using it on my legs either, actually I'm using it on my Schnauzer".

The chemist says, "Well you better stay off your bicycle for a few days".

Top Quality Management

Problem Solving Flow Chart

Dying for the farmers of Australia

Peter Spencer, an Australian farmer is high up on a pole on his property near Canberra on his 43rd day of a hunger strike. Australians don't normally go on hunger strikes, it's a bit daft really, but this man has been to court so many times without success, he saw no other option. He says Australia has claimed 22% carbon emissions reduction under the Kyoto Protocols but to get that 22%, government regulations have locked up farmers' land under the native vegetation clearing act, so he can't cut down his trees. In other words, confiscation without compensation for the farmer.

At long last, today farmers are driving across the country to Canberra to lobby the Prime Minister on Peter's behalf, he says that all he wants is for Kevin Rudd to come and talk to him.
People wonder why his supporters haven't pulled him down from there before now, after 43 days, I'm surprised that he's still alive but he has begged everyone to stay out of it and leave him be to finish what he started, one way or another, he's quite prepared to die for his cause. How this impacts on his family is hard to understand.

How will this story end, will he become a martyr for Australian farmers, I hope not. Mr Rudd went to church yesterday, could he not show some compassion and spare a few minutes to talk to this desperate, ill and confused man?