Dan McIntosh, outback cook

Last year, Dan McIntosh, a station cook in the Northern Territory, wanted to share his photos of the outback life he loves so much. He was encouraged to start a Facebook page and one year later, he has 50,000 followers and 30 million views from around the world.

The photos page show a day in the life of an outback station and the very best are featured in his book called simply Outback Stations.

Dan is an itinerant cook for hungry jackaroos and travels around outback stock camps in the Northern Territory.  He became a cook by accident thirty years ago when he was with a shearing team in Western Queensland.

"The cook got drunk and was locked up in the jail in town and the men asked me if I could cook them a meal."  

But when he inspected the kitchen, he found plenty of fruit and vegetables but no meat, so he had to go over to the sheep yard and get two sheep. "We had to kill them and dress them and cut some back legs off for some roasts for the night" he said.

When he passed the strict standards of the shearers that night, the 52 year old has worked his way across northern Australia ever since. 

"It's nice out here, it's peaceful, there's no hassles, you wouldn't work anywhere else, it's beautiful.  I like it" he said.

George Clooney's wedding in Venice

George Clooney is getting married this weekend and his bride is not only beautiful, but very bright. Amal Ramzi Alamuddin is a barrister at Doughty Street Chambers in London and specializes in international law, criminal law, human rights and extradition. Her clients include Julian Assange and former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko.

She was born in Lebanon in 1978 and during the 1980s, her family settled in England.  Her mother Baria, is the foreign editor of the Pan-Arab newspaper al-Hayat and her father Ramzi is a retired professor of business studies at the American University of Beirut.

The Grand Canal in Venice will be closed off this weekend to let the famous couple proceed down the waterway to the seven-star Aman Canal Grande.  It will be a fabulous spectable - the couple will travel on a launch accompanied by a flotilla of gondolas.

From the hotel's website

Guests arrive at Aman Canal Grande by boat, docking at a landing that leads directly into the palazzo's Reception Hall.

With its soaring ceilings and historic frescoes and reliefs, the hall provides a sense of bygone luxury as well as direct access to the hotel's private gardens and a small Boutique which specializes in Murano glassware designed by Count Gilberto Arrivabene, the owner of the palazzo.

Amal will wear a Sarah Burton creation for Alexander McQueen, the same designer who created Kate Middleton's wedding dress.

Giorgio Armani announced that he will be dressing the 53 year old star for his wedding.

There will only be 60 guests and the bride's parents have insisted on paying the bill.

Melbourne terror suspect shot dead by police

When an 18 year old terror suspect was asked to come to a Melbourne police station to answer some questions, all hell broke loose.  

Last night, outside the station, he was met by two policemen and as they were about to introduce themselves, he suddenly pulled out a knife and started stabbing both men.  And when he turned and ran towards the police station, he was shot and died at the scene.

Both officers are recovering in hospital and one had life-threatening injuries and is lucky to be alive.

The terror suspect's name was Numan Haider and he was shouting insults about Tony Abbott and the Australian government moments before he was shot.

Ironically, counter-terrorism police hadn't considered him a major threat which is why he was invited to attend a low-key meeting outside the police station.

Victorian Police Assistant Commissioner Luke Cornelius said "our members had no inkling this individual posed a threat to them and as far as we were concerned, it was going to be an amicable discussion about that individual's behaviour."

So what does the Muslim community say?  Yes, you guessed it - it's all our fault - the government hasn't dealt with the "alienation and disaffection" of young Muslim males.

Islamic Council of Victoria secretary Graith Krayem said he was disappointed that police had jumped to conclusions so quickly.  "I heard and saw the press conference with the police last night and I'm a little disappointed, I think it was a little pre-emptive - the police have come out very clearly and almost said it's the young man's fault" he told radio 3AW.

He said that naming people as radicals drove them to behave in ways "we find hard to understand" and the Muslim community is "under seige" and very upset.

And so are we Mr Krayem, so are we.

Lara Bingle is pregnant

Lara Bingle and Sam Worthington, who met last September, are having a baby.

Sam was born to British parents and moved to Perth when he was six months old and grew up in Warnbro, a suburb of Rockingham. He left home in his teens and travelled the country working in construction and eventually settled in Sydney.  When he auditioned for the National Institute of Dramatic Art (NIDA), he was awarded a scholarship and the rest is history.

Lara Bingle was born on 22 June 1987 to Graham and Sharon Bingle in Cronulla, a seaside suburb of Sydney.  She first appeared in the 2006 Tourism Australian So where the bloody hell are you? campaign and a star was born.   Her father died from cancer in 2008.

The baby is due in March 2015.  Sam is 38 and Lara is 27.

Exquisitely beautiful Lara Bingle

Terror plot to kill Australians

Ali Baryalei

Yesterday, 800 police raided homes of ISIL supporters in Sydney and Brisbane and a few hours later we learn there is a group of Australian Muslims who hate our country so much, they planned to grab people off the streets of Sydney, wrap them in the ISIL flag and video their beheading. And this is the man behind it - Ali Baryalei.

Terror recruiter and mastermind Baryalei is a high ranking member of the terror group in Syria, and on Tuesday, he spoke to Sydney man Omarjan Azari to discuss kidnapping a random person off the streets of Sydney and behead them on video.  Because police believed the attack was imminent, they decided to swoop on known ISIL supporters before the plan could be carried out.

Azari 22 was charged yesterday with conspiracy to organize a terror attack

Azari moved to Sydney from Afghanistan 10 years ago and went to Parramatta High School.  He completed a motor mechanic course at TAFE but six months ago, he caught the attention of ASIO.

Eshan Azari

Azari's uncle Eshan Azari is a lecturer at the University of Western Sydney.  He said his nephew's parents flew out of Sydney to attend the Hajj festival in Saudi Arabia the day before the raids.  "We cannot tell his father because he is very sick and might die" he said.

An unnamed police source said "Their operational security was pretty good, they would use things like public phone boxes and avoid talking in cars" he said.

Two women were issued with court appearance notices while another nine people were detained and released without charge, pending further investigations.

There is something terribly wrong with our system if Facebook and Twitter is allowed to be a vehicle to promote propaganda for this murderous group of maniacs.

Where is little William Tyrell?

Kendall is a little town halfway between Port Macquarie and Taree on the NSW mid-north coast. 

Last Friday morning, around 10.30 am, 3 year old William Tyrell was playing outside with his little sister at his grandparents' home, when suddenly he disappeared. He was wearing his Spiderman suit.

Police thought he had wandered into the surrounding bush but now they think he was abducted. A man went into a local shop and asked for directions to the toddler's street just before he disappeared.

There are now hundreds of people involved in the search, and police divers are checking all dams and waterways.  Members of the public are out in force, including locals on horseback. 

Local supermarkets have donated food and water to feed the volunteers.

The whole country is watching and waiting for news, praying he will be found alive.....it's almost personal.

Jacqui Lambie wants DNA test

Senator Jacqui Lambie wants a DNA test to prove she had Aboriginal blood.  She says she's a descendant of a prominent Aboriginal leader in Tasmania on her mother's side.

But Tasmanian Aboriginal Land Council (TALC) chairman Clyde Mansell said her claim is "absolutely outrageous and scandalous."  Mr Mansell is an elder and known descendant of Mannalargenna.

Yesterday Senator Lambie said she wanted a DNA test to prove she's not lying.  "I know what's in my blood" she said.  "If Mr Mansell wants to take me on, I guess I'll meet him up at the hospital and both have a DNA test and see how we go once and for all" she said.

Clyde Mansell

She stands by her maiden speech when she said "We trace our history over six generations to celebrated Aboriginal chieftain of the Tasmanian east coast, Mannalargenna."

Mr Mansell said DNA tests are not conclusive and he's probably right.

If a living person wishes to establish that he or she is a member of a particular family group, the person must find someone within that group who can provide a genetic sample for the purpose of comparison. This becomes more difficult where a person seeks to establish a biological relationship with a person or family group that has been dead for years, decades or centuries.

Senator Lambie is making more headlines than any other newcomer to Canberra in history and whatever she says is reported. She wants up to five indigenous MPs in the lower house and four in the Senate and cites New Zealand's Maori seats in parliament as evidence of how the policy could work.

Yesterday she said that anyone who supports Sharia Law should pack their bags and get out.  As an ex soldier, she warned that veterans were being "pushed back into the war zone" without adequate help when they returned, while supporters of Sharia Law are allowed to claim government handouts.

Clive Palmer put Senator Lambie into the Senate but now she's there, she doesn't need him anymore and Clive knows it.

"She certainly doesn't have to kowtow to me, she's elected by the Australian people" he said on Friday.  "And in our party room, it's done by voting, it's not done by my view or Jacquie's view, it's done by consensus."

Muslims love Australia barbecue

Dr Jamal Rifi (centre)

There was no trouble and plenty of goodwill at the Muslims love Australia barbecue at Lakemba yesterday, even though it coincided with the terrible news that ISIL had beheaded a British Aid worker.

The father of Mohamed Elomar - the man seen on social media grinning and holding up two severed heads - sponsored the event. Mr Elomar urged parents to ring the police and hide their child's passport if they suspect they want to go to Syria to fight.

Mamdouh Elomar

"I don't see my son, I just see him on the news" Mr Elomar said.  "I have no connection with him. The way they take journalists and cut their heads, this is nonsense" he said. "We don't believe in this and we don't support this."

Event organizer Dr Jamal Rifi was right when he said the event was a valve to release the pressure, hatred towards Muslims has escalated with every new beheading.  

The doctor said "My message to young people is "Imam YouTube" and "Shaykh YouTube" want your head.  What they are doing is barbaric - it has nothing to do with Islam.  Please seek the right religious knowledge from well-qualified people."

"My mum wears a headscarf" one young woman said yesterday. "Sometimes I'm a bit concerned about her going out, especially to areas where there are not many Muslims."

I find it strange that Sydney Imams were not the instigators of this goodwill event and wonder why they didn't foresee the need.  It took two non-clerics - a doctor and a successful businessman - to give Muslim Australians the opportunity to show their support for their adopted country.  It should have been done years ago.

Oscar Pistorius not guilty of murder

Reeva Steenkamp's parents are shattered with the "not guilty of murder" verdict of Oscar Pistorius. When June and Barry Steenkamp were interviewed by NBC, June said "I don't feel that this is the right verdict...you know....they believe his story and I don't believe his story - that's the difference."

"I really don't care what happens to Oscar" she said "it's not going to change anything because my daughter is never coming back but he's still living and breathing, and she's gone forever."

A stroke almost killed Barry Steenkamp after his daughter was murdered and he said there was disbelief from everyone about Judge Thokozile Masipa's decision. "There is still something missing" he said. "I think there was more to the whole story, you know....coming up to the actual shooting, the killing."

And judging by the reaction on social media, the whole world agrees with them.

I read somewhere this morning that in time, this unassuming little black lady's decision will be proved right, and history will treat her well.  

She may weather the storm as sentencing is still to come, but so far, her decision in finding Pistorius "not guilty" of murder, is going down like a lead balloon.

Teacher awarded $1m for teaching feral kids

Peter Doulis

In 2000, Werribee Secondary College in Melbourne divided its years 8, 9 and 10 into five streams - accelerated, high achievers, medium achievers, low achievers and foundation.  Peter Doulis taught 69 of those students in "low" and "foundation" classes between 2000 and 2004.

We don't need to know the details, we know how feral teens behave, we've seen them in action.  They drove Peter Doulis beyond what a normal human is expected to handle and now he will never have to go back into a classroom again.

After he suffered a major mental breakdown, Mr Doulis took legal action against the Victorian government claiming he was allocated the most out-of-control students and given an unduly heavy workload.  His lawyer said they threw him in the deep end and left him to sink.  One student came to school with a makeshift flamethrower and singed another student's jumper.

"I find that breach of duty was a cause of the chronic severe major depressive condition that he now has"  the judge said.  "I consider that had Mr Doulis's workload of low classes and foundation classes been reduced, and if he had been supported in his teaching duties, then it is probable that his psychiatric condition would not have deteriorated."

The decision means that the Victorian government picks up the tab for Werribee College's failure to help him.

When Melbourne storyteller and musician Jan Wositzky went to school in the 60's, he had a teacher with no authority and because of it, went through hell.  This is his story.

I can't remember his name, but he taught at Upwey High School where I was educated in the 1960s, and because he had oily skin we called him Greaser. He lived at Mount Dandenong, on top of the Dandenong Ranges, and because he didn't have a car, Greaser caught the school bus along with the students. His bus went via Belgrave. I lived at Sassafras and had a choice of two buses – Greaser's bus or the one via Fern Tree Gully. I went on 'the Gully' bus and spent the half hour trip telling jokes. 

Then one day my mate Steve, a wild gangly red-headed larrikin, suggested that I come home on the Belgrave bus because 'we have more fun'. 

So that afternoon I sat with Steve, two seats behind Greaser. About five minutes into the journey, as we approached Tecoma, Steve took a large cigar from a metal cylinder and lit it up, drawing in a lungful of smoke. Then he replaced the cigar in the cylinder, re-sealed the lid and blew a lungful of smoke around Greaser's head. Greaser turned, with smoke billowing around his face, and demanded to know who was smoking. Steve, with both hands in the air said, "Not me, Sir".

Steve repeated the routine all the way up the mountain, with Greaser unsuccessfully demanding to know who was smoking. Of course he knew it was Steve, but he didn't have the strength to do anything about it. And I sat there amused and shamed that I was in on the gag.

The next afternoon Greaser stood up the front of the bus facing us. So Steve and others crushed and compressed some paper into wads the size of cricket balls and instructed everyone that upon a given signal we would all make as if to throw something at Greaser.

Standing facing us Greaser suddenly saw fifteen arms appear to throw something but only one wad came his way, hitting him on the chest. He couldn't work out who threw it. But in a moral sense we all did, and this went on all the way home, Greaser defenceless to the humiliation of it all. 

Again I was amused and shamed. He was weak and we were animals after prey. I knew that this was dreadfully wrong and I did nothing except tacitly join in. 

Greaser's next move was to stand in the aisle halfway up the bus, amongst the other kids who couldn't get a seat. This day it had been raining and Greaser wore a plastic raincoat that reached to his knees. As we bumped along one kid behind Greaser took a razor blade and slowly, carefully sliced the back of his raincoat into one inch strips, from the top to the bottom, as we all watched in fascinated horror.When it was finished Greasers raincoat looked like one of those plastic doorways in fish and chip shops. Because I got off the bus before Greaser I wasn't there to see what happened, but the story was that when he got off he walked away with the streamers of his raincoat flapping in the wind.

Next Greaser took to standing up the front again and one day a girl sneaked his briefcase from beside his feet and passed it to the back seat where it was opened. Inside were thirty essays for correction, each about five pages, foolscap, stapled together. The girls separated all the essays into single pages, then shuffled them back into the briefcase in random order and passed the briefcase back to the front where it was restored at Greaser's feet, him none the wiser. 

Greaser's final move was to sit down again, halfway up the bus, where he went unmolested for two days. Then on the third day Steve sat in the seat behind him. I was a couple of seats back, withdrawing from the action but still very interested in what would happen next – which was that Steve produced a spray can of shaving cream and proceeded to quietly, slowly spray the cream on top of Greaser's head. And the cream just sat there because Greaser's hair was thick and curly, a dense two-inch mass on top of his head. So the white cream piled up on his hair, an ever-growing dollop, and by the time Steve had emptied the can Greaser's head looked like a pavlova on a small dog. 

Then somewhere around Ferny Creek the cream finally seeped down to Greaser's skull and I watched as Greaser slowly raised his right hand. As his fingers slid into the shaving cream the entire bus load of us teenagers fell about in hysterics. The driver, as with all the other incidents, did nothing, though I'm sure he knew what was happening.

The last I heard of Greaser he'd had a nervous breakdown and was picking potatoes.
I regret what we did. We were cruel. The problem was that Greaser had no authority and no defence against our behaviour, which is why I now feel great sympathy for him.

As someone who works as a performer in schools, I have sometimes found classes that are totally unmanageable. At the time I've always thought: you can behave how you like but I'm walking out of here with $500. But I feel greatly for teachers who have to deal with such students every day, in the same way I feel for Greaser, who was unable to control us. 

Jan Wositzky is a storyteller musician who performs history and English literature shows in schools. 

Two Brisbane Muslims arrested on terror charges

Omar Succarieh

It was a dramatic day in Brisbane yesterday.  The iQraa Islamic Centre bookshop was raided and Agim Kruezi and Omar Succarieh were arrested on terrorist charges.  Succarieh is the brother of Australia's first suicide bomber who was killed last year in Syria when a truck loaded with explosives was driven into an Army checkpoint, killing 35 people.

Agim Kruezi (R)

The Courier Mail has been told that the iQraa Islamic Centre at Underwood had developed ties to hate Perth preacher Mohammed Junai Thorne who is so radical, he's been banned in Germany.

"It's just a simple bookstore selling perfumes to Korans" a customer outside protested.  "There's nothing radical whatsoever, I just don't understand all the hysteria."

But this year, it's alleged that the innocent bookshop promoted and raised money for Thorne to give two "sermons" at the centre.

 hate preacher Mohammed thorn

ASIO chief David Irvine said he was considering raising Australia's terrorism threat from "medium" to "high."

Fatal shark attack at Byron Bay

Mr Wilcox and his wife Victoria

A shark killed British-born Paul Wilcox yesterday morning at Clarks Beach near Byron Bay, while his wife sat watching on the beach.  He wasn't far out, just 20 metres, and bled out in the water when a 2 metre shark bit off part of his leg.  It was later found floating nearby.

Mr Wilcox's distraught wife

Another man on the beach, Newcastle solicitor Mark Hickey who was on holidays at Byron, saw something was wrong and rushed in to help him.  Even though the water was bloody and the shark was still swimming around, Mr Hickey grabbed him and dragged him back to the beach.  

Mark Hickey

There is some speculation that because Mr Wilcox was wearing a wetsuit, the shark thought he was a seal.

There were no lifeguards on duty as they don't officially start until schools break up next week.

Great white sharks are a protected species but police said if it continued to put local swimmers in danger, permission could be sought to kill it.  Lifeguards on jet skis chased it out to sea until it disappeared into deep water.

Mr Wilcox was originally from Warwickshire but moved to Sydney and later to the coastal town of Byron Bay.  Shark sightings are rare at Byron Bay and fatal attacks are even rarer.  In 1993 a diver was killed at Julian Rocks, about 2.5 kms offshore.

US Air Force insists on 'so help me God'

Even though there has been an increase in atheism throughout the West, a Gallup poll taken in 2013 says that the USA is still a religious nation with about 7 in 10 Americans classified as very or moderately religious.

Until recently the US Air Force allowed troops to take the words "so help me God" out of their pledge so when an unnamed airman tried to re-enlist, he wasn't expecting any trouble, he thought he would be allowed to take a "secular oath."  But he was shocked to discover his application was rejected and now the American Humanist Association is involved and acting on his behalf.

Monica Miller, a lawyer for the Association wrote a letter on 2nd September 2014 demanding that he be allowed to re-enlist without the religious reference and threatened legal action against his commanders at Creech Air Force Base in the Nevada desert.

Ms Miller wrote "The government cannot compel a non-believer to take an oath that affirms the existence of a superior being."  She also pointed out that last year, the Air Force refused another service member to re-enlist for the same reason but reversed their decision and let him take a "secular oath."

"We'd rather not take this to court" Ms Miller said.  "We think it's a pretty straightforward issue..... probably they were following policy, they just need to realize that the policy can't be applied in an unconstitutional fashion."

So should there be humanist alternatives to church in basic training? One Air Force officer said "My preference is a live-and-let-live culture, where faith or non faith is part of your identity, and you respect the same in others by not using force or position or favouritism to advance your cause - I think most Air Force people are this way."