Coalition bans government's clean energy bank from financing wind power | Australia news The federal government has ordered the Clean Energy Finance Corporation (CEFC) not to make any future investments in wind power, instead focussing on “emerging technologies”, trade minister Andrew Robb has confirmed. Fairfax media reported on Sunday that the treasurer, Joe Hockey, and the finance minister, Mathias Cormann, bypassed the environment minister, Greg Hunt, in issuing the CEFC with the directive. Robb told Sky News on Sunday that that was “a total beat-up”. “Greg was fully cognisant of what was decided,” he said. “He was perhaps the principle party, along with [resources minister] Ian Macfarlane, who put together this arrangement with the crossbenchers, and he is fully cognisant of it, drove this deal and settled this deal, understood this arrangement. And now the two responsible ministers are putting it into effect.” Hunt took to Twitter on Sunday to refute the claims made in Fairfax, labelling them “factually wrong and misleading”. “Tony Abbott never looks forward.
es 2. Act normal If you are a high-risk source, avoid saying anything or doing anything after submitting which might promote suspicion. In particular, you should try to stick to your normal routine and behaviour. 3. If you are a high-risk source and the computer you prepared your submission on, or uploaded it from, could subsequently be audited in an investigation, we recommend that you format and dispose of the computer hard drive and any other storage media you used. In particular, hard drives retain data after formatting which may be visible to a digital forensics team and flash media (USB sticks, memory cards and SSD drives) retain data even after a secure erasure. If you do this and are a high-risk source you should make sure there are no traces of the clean-up, since such traces themselves may draw suspicion. 4. If a legal action is brought against you as a result of your submission, there are organisations that may help you.
The Australian dollar is 'smashed' and teetering over the US 70c precipice | Business The Australian dollar has been in freefall. “Smashed” was the description from a foreign exchange trader friend noting that since the peak of US$1.1080 during 2011, the dollar is now below US 75c and many strategists are now forecasting a fall below US70c and with a real risk of US60c over the next year. The Australian dollar’s fall of more than US 35c from its recent peak is substantial and reflects a buildup of negative news concerning the economy. Recently, I noted the escalation in Australia’s net foreign debt as one factor that is risking international investor confidence. Of the many other factors that tend to drive the level of the Australian dollar, almost all have been negative and are suggesting that, in the near term, there are still substantial downside risks. Commodity prices have fallen sharply, many dropping to their lowest level in a decade. Another negative influence, which is likely to persist for some time, is the record low level for Australian interest rates.
Norwegian equality policy has failed Men and women are not equal in Norway, in spite of the efforts of politicians and ngos, and an official equal rights policy. (Ill.: Colourbox) "Politicians often complain that the ‘toolbox is empty’. In the field of equality it seems that the toolbox itself is missing,” says Professor Hege Skjeie. She has headed up the most comprehensive review of this policy area ever undertaken. Recently she submitted the committee’s second report “Policy for Equality” to the Norwegian Minister of Children, Equality and Social Inclusion Inga Marte Thorkildsen. “Gender equality has not gone too far. Impressed the minister “Some young people are lukewarm towards the whole issue. She notes that there are very few people trying to overturn the abortion law, and that there are crisis centres throughout Norway and soon there will be centres for incest victims in all the counties. "The list is long. Daily efforts “We have been asked to help with formulating new policy, and we have done that.
Bjørn Lomborg consensus centre could be set up at Flinders University | Australia news The federal government has held talks with Flinders University over the possibility of establishing a research centre headed by controversial academic Bjørn Lomborg. Flinders University said it had asked the department of education for information about Lomborg’s consensus centre but insisted it had not made a firm decision over whether it wanted to host the academic’s work. The federal education minister, Christopher Pyne, has vowed to find another university to take on Lomborg’s centre after the University of Western Australia decided in May to hand back $4m in federal government funding for it. The UWA opted to take the funding for the centre, only to reverse course following a backlash from its academics. Lomborg’s venture would be linked to his Copenhagen consensus centre, with a focus on aid spending and international development. Lomborg is a controversial figure among academics, particularly in the field of climate science due to his contrarian stance on the issue.
8 Famous People Whose Creativity & Innovation Was Inspired By LSD Source: www.collective-evolution.com | Original Post Date: Growing up, I was conditioned to believe that LSD was one of the worse drugs, with its dangers and addictive properties following close behind those of heroin. This would all change when I fell severely ill in my twenties. After conventional medicine had failed me, I decided to embark on a journey with plant medicine. This eventually led to an interest in the healing properties of psychedelics, particularly psilocybin, which ultimately cured my depression. However, at the time I vowed never to explore LSD, as it was ‘synthetic’ and in my opinion could not be considered a natural medicine. So, imagine the surprise of those closest to me when I announced the inevitable –my interest in psychedelics finally piqued my interest in LSD. What I learned was that although LSD may not exactly be “natural,” when it opens the doors of perception, it simultaneously opens much more. Famous People Inspired by LSD 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. Sources:
Tuvalu climate refugees granted residency in New Zealand A family from Tuvalu have been granted residency in New Zealand on humanitarian grounds. Creative Commons: Stefan Lins, 2000 A family from Tuvalu has been granted New Zealand residency after claiming they would be affected by climate change and rising sea levels if they returned home. It is the first successful application for residency on humanitarian grounds where climate change has been a factor. Sigeo Alesana and his family moved to New Zealand from Tuvalu in 2007, but has had no legal status in the country since 2009. The family’s case was originally dismissed by the tribunal in March but was successfully appealed on humanitarian grounds because of their strong family and community links to New Zealand. Mr Alesana already has six sisters and an elderly mother to care for in the country. The tribunal is also said to have acted over concerns about climate change, and particularly the vulnerability of the couple’s children to illnesses as a result of poor water quality. About the Author
Urgently Designing Cosmopolitan Localism in the Era of Xenophobia | cameron tonkinwise ÒUrgently Designing Cosmopolitan LocalismÓ Tonkinwise - draft - July 2015 Page 2 of 26 your designing, your teaching, your research, your everyday ways of living? This near-impossible-to-contemplate urgency is what the Anthropocene should stand for. Tony Fry has called it, ÔDictatorship of Sustainment.Õ Yet, ironically, a dominant mantra in design education and research at this very An-thropocenic moment is: design must not be characterized as a problem-solving activi-ty. Sometimes this is resistance to instrumentalist attempts to rationalize design, and sometimes it is an objection to commercial commodifications of design, but often it is just a disgruntledness with imperatives: design is at its best when it is free, open to inquire playfully; do not constrain designÕs capacity to speculate outside current prob-lems. Diverse First Responders
Tuvalu Prime Minister Enele Sopoaga says climate change 'like a weapon of mass destruction' - Australia Network News Updated The Prime Minister of the small Pacific island nation of Tuvalu has compared climate change to a weapon of mass destruction, and warned Australia not to stand in the way of a new global agreement. Enele Sopoaga says his country and many other low-lying Pacific nations are facing serious threats from global warming. Mr Sopoaga says he'll be making his position clear when he co-chairs a UN climate change summit in New York next month. "We are caught in the middle, and certainly in Tuvalu, we are very, very worried - we are already suffering," he said. "It's already like a weapon of mass destruction, and the indications are all there. "We only need to garner strong, collective leadership - we simply are going to again underscore the message that we are dying." Mr Sopoaga says countries have to move beyond questions of political sovereignty to address the realities in his country. "We are not dealing with sovereignties any more - there are no boundaries to the effects of climate change.
Ten Days of Silent Meditation Will Make You Trip Balls and Lust After Puppies Photo by Flickr user Alice Popkorn When you sign up to do a Vipassana, there's a form they ask you to sign saying that you won't leave. When you arrive they ask you the same question, and then when you're unpacked and sitting in the canteen sipping herbal tea, they ask you again if you're really prepared to stay for the entirety of the course and follow each of the rules to the letter. A more sensitive soul might get the impression that you weren't really wanted at the Vipassana at all. The rules are simple: You must meditate for up to ten hours each day. Our teacher is called Davide. A Vipassana is a type of silent prison that you enter of your own free will. The standard limit is ten days, but serious meditators do up to 90, which I can only imagine is as close to death as the still-living can ever experience. About half a year ago I started taking psychedelic drugs fairly regularly. In the beginning, the hardest part of the Vipassana is sitting still. I'm leaving tomorrow. "Ma che?"