Milo Yiannopoulos driven out of bar - chants of "Nazi scum get out" (video)

*Update: FOX defends Milo in it's usual hysterical way; making assumptions and not looking at all at the facts. See video below :)

Milo Yiannopoulos was driven out of a New York bar where there was a gathering of Democratic Socialists of America. Milo is of course infamous for his extremist far right views and his shit stirring with said views. It therefore does seem likely that he specifically chose that particular bar as a shit stir. 

Milo is banned from Twitter, but the man he was with claims they were physically assaulted by the crowd. In the video however the crowd looks peaceful and simply chanting. I guess that's freedom of speech then eh?

NYC-DSA CLC comrades just shouted Milo Yiannopoulos out of a Manhattan bar 😙👌 pic.twitter.com/CjWR77DAh9

— Tim 🌱 (@timtakestime) April 22, 2018

Here’s me and Milo politely getting our bags from the wait staff after a mob of Leftists from the @nycDSA physically assaulted us as we tried to go back to our table for lunch. I guess this is what Nazis look like now, 2 homos who like small government out for lunch on a Sunday https://t.co/bfbLki9SCd

— Chadwick Moore (@Chadwick_Moore) April 23, 2018

A Labor gov will ban gay conversion therapy

Opposition Labor federal health minister Catherine King

The opposition Labor party has declared that banning gay conversion therapy will be a priority if it wins gov at the next federal election. This  comes after a Liberal party storm in the state of Victoria where the Young Liberals wanted gay conversion therapy to be adopted by the state Liberal opposition party in the soon to be election. It was shot down in flames by the older more moderate party members, somewhat aghast I suspect at the mere thought of it.

However it didn't end there. Soon after there was a bizarre interview with Liberal federal health minister Greg Hunt, who refused to condemn the notion Victorian Young Liberals put up for gay conversion therapy. He called it simply "another point of view" and got into a very strange confrontation with the ABC interviewer about "freedom of speech". Um, I guess that means like the freedom of speech they gave the nutters in the postal plebiscite to run LGBT's into the dirt?

What's more, acting prime minister (the one who replaced shamed Barnaby Joyce) Micheal McCormack also failed to condemn the intended Young Liberal's motion (pun intended). Trumbles is off somewhere jaunting about the world for whatever reason.

So Labor has responded thus:

Stamping out gay conversion therapy across Australia would be a "personal priority" for shadow health minister Catherine King if Labor wins the next election.

 Ms King has urged the rest of the country to follow Victoria's lead and ban the "discredited and dangerous" practice.

 "If this issue isn't resolved before the next election, and I'm lucky enough to serve as health minister afterwards, it'll be a personal priority for me," she told The Age newspaper on Saturday.

 Victoria has a Health Complaints Commissioner, which gives the state powers to crack down on unregistered practitioners making unproven claims, including those who purport to be able to 'convert' gay people. SBS

The Star Observer has more:

King spoke out against the ministers’ attitude about conversion therapy.

 “Conversion therapy is discredited and dangerous,” she wrote.

 “But shockingly, two Turnbull Government ministers—the Acting Prime Minister and the Health Minister—have now failed to condemn the practice when given the chance. This follows attempts by some Liberals to restore the practice in Victoria.

 “Greg Hunt and Michael McCormack’s comments were ignorant and incredibly hurtful, and fly in the face of expert advice.”

 King quoted the Australian Medical Association in calling conversion therapy “harmful to both the individuals who are subjected to it, and society more broadly, as it perpetuates the erroneous belief that homosexuality is a disorder which requires a cure”.

 She added that the World Medical Association has said that conversion has “no medical indication and represent[s] a serious threat to the health and human rights of those so treated”.

 “Labor agrees. That’s why we’re calling on the Turnbull Government to clarify its stance on gay conversion therapy urgently—and work with the states to ban it,” King wrote. Star Observer

I almost feel like voting Labor instead of Greens this coming election, but FFS they have to get humane with refugees. They're dragging their feet on this for the sake of a few western Sydney redneck seats. Why should they dictate Australian policy?

Bank royal commission backfires on gov - O'Dwyer train wreck interview in full (video)

A brief history for those overseas, Labor and the Greens have been calling for a royal commission into Australia's banks for 18 months, the gov insisting over and over that there was no need for it. Voting against it in parliament over 20 times. Turnbull finally gave in when the National party in coalition with his party insisted on having one. Dragged kicking and screaming to set one up.

Trying to once again use a royal commission for political point scoring, the gov expanded the terms of reference to include union run and industry super funds. Of which I'm a part of BTW being Australian Super. After months upon months of insisting there was nothing wrong with the banks, they thought they might catch evil unions somehow.

Their clever plans however have spectacularly backfired on them. Even National party ex deputy PM Barnaby Joyce has apologised for being opposed to one. The commission has barely got started and it's been revealed they're a punch of crooks. Charging for services not received. 75% of financial advice given by bank financial advisors were detrimental to the client so the bank could line it's pockets. Charging people financial fees when they were dead. One man dead for 10 years.

The public is aghast and up in arms, crying jail them! The intended tax cits to corporations now have a stench of death about them, with nearly $10 billion of those cuts to the very same banks right up shit creek presently. Surely it will have no chance of ever passing the senate now.

And along comes Kelly O'Dwyer, denying everything on todays telly. It was the train wreck of train wreck interviews. Like  something out of Monty Python. It was excruciating to watch, but the best bit comes at the very end. The last thing she says is "Let's be a little bit real".

Turnbull voted 22 times to stop the Royal Commission. Now he wants to give the big banks a $13 billion corporate tax cut. What planet is he on? #ausunions #auspol #BanksRC pic.twitter.com/4HKJBaJS4G

— Australian Unions (@unionsaustralia) April 23, 2018

Update: from the Blot report:

The Labor Party announced in early 2016 that if it won office in the 2016 election, it would hold a Royal Commission into the banking and financial services industry3. However, it didn’t win the election and the Coalition had been very much against the concept. For instance, as you would expect, Scott Morrison hammered Bill Shorten and the Union movement in stating: For Bill Shorten to go down this path, I think it is a reckless distraction that puts at risk confidence in the banking system, and dismissed it as playing “complete politics” prior to the election3. Morrison also stressed that the banking industry was well regulated in saying “We have a tough cop on the beat in that area – it is called ASIC. We have a strong regulator – it is called APRA. We have the Reserve Bank which provides a broader framework in which the banks operate in (sic). Our banking system is well regulated”.

 Just before the 2016 federal election, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wrote to Opposition Leader Bill Shorten asking him to drop his calls for a Royal Commission, instead announcing the laughable prospect of the CEOs of the big banks being brought before a parliamentary committee once a year to explain their decisions. This idiotic idea was rightly pilloried. Turnbull stated that a Royal Commission would only “delay action and postpone reform”.

 The out of her depth Minister for Revenue and Financial Services, Kelly O’Dwyer, claimed that a Royal Commission would simply “go over old ground and would delay well developed and important reforms” and that it would “send the signal internationally that the government believes there are structural problems with our banking and financial system and could lead to significant repercussions for confidence, international investment and our AAA credit rating”. The Blot report

Latest Jupiter flyby the great read spot

*click to enlarge

The Juno spacecraft has achieved another flyby of Jupiter as it continues in it's elliptical orbit. This one is of the Great Red Spot, a storm that has been going for hundreds of years.

The closest Juno was to Jupiter's clouds was just under 25,000 km. 

You can download the image here, where there's more details.

Kyle Minogue has a new song - "Stop me from falling" (video)

US music watchers are describing this as having a "tinge of country" but to me it's not like that at all. Country music I find very hard to listen to, mostly because it sounds like they're strangling a cat in the background, and I really like cats. This is more of a Spanish/reggae flavour than country. How the hell did they get "country" out of this? Gente De Zona, who features in the video, is from  Cuba.

Once I started watching I really liked it. No cats were strangled in the making of this video, and a very catchy tune. Kyle broke up with her boyfriend recently so perhaps the song is about that? 

Eureka!! I fixed the browsers not working problem!! Hooray again!!

Not that I needed the other browsers, but it was truly driving me crazy. There must be a reason for it, I thought. It was just a matter of finding the solution. Us 55 year olds tend to have a lot more patience than the younger ones. Some may give up and take it in to the computer fixit shop. However the solution is actually quite simple.

So today I turned to Google. Unlike a teenager who just thinks they know everything, Google actually does know everything. All that's needed is a bit of patient searching. So I simply asked it why only one browser was working on my PC, question mark and all. This stuff was all science fiction when I was growing up.

I eventually came across this site, with specific instructions on how to fix it. It's easy, however it does involve using the command prompt as the administrator; you know that black and white box that has script in it that looks like it's from the scary days of 80's computing. I have no idea about it but all you need to do is copy and paste the gibberish into the command prompt.

If the problem still exists then click on Start -- In search box, type cmd -- Then "CMD" will be displayed in the search -- Now right-click on "CMD" --- Select "Run as administrator".

Now enter this command
 netsh int ip reset resetlog.txt
 Press "Enter".

 Now enter these commands 
 netsh winsock reset catalog
Press Enter
 netsh int ip reset reset.log hit
Press Enter.

 Reboot your computer" CCM

And viola, Google Chrome is now working again. I yelled out to David, Eureka! I fixed it! Raised my hands in victory! I had beaten the plastic brain! Hooray!

Not that I need another browser now as I also fixed the cookie problem in the Opera browser (see last post) and I'm very happy with how it's running now. Chrome I stripped bare yesterday trying to get it working again. Ended up doing a clean install (un-installing every morsel of Chrome on the PC and downloading and installing it from scratch) so there's nothing left except a shell. But it's there working in case I get another plastic brain emergency.  

Computer rage!! But I fixed it!! Hooray!!

OMG I think this has to be about the longest computer/online dilemma I've ever endured. Things like this happen to us 55 year olds I guess. Often I look for the easiest and most sensible path out, but alas that was not the solution this time. Although I do take a bit of pride in my adaptability. I mean when I grew up the internet wasn't years off, was 20 or so years off before it started getting used by lots of people. And we were listening to vinyl records. No mobile phones. No ATM's. etc Now look what I've done with this blog :)

But anyway this disaster started some time back. I use the Opera browser as it has the free VPN for downloading movies and telly shows. Has worked marvelously since I got it. Fuck the bloody gov wanting my metadata; I bloody well have none! However I encountered a problem months ago where I couldn't log in to Google anymore on it, and thereby couldn't log in to this blog. The first two suggestions Google gave me I tried but to no avail. The last one was a hard one though, not because I didn't know how to do it but because Opera seemed to have no button to accomplish it. 

All it was was to clear the cache and browsing history. But I'm fucked if I could find anywhere in the settings to do that. In the end I just went meh, and did the next best thing, simply downloaded another browser. Easy. I chose Chrome as it worked marvelously. Problem solved :)

Until today.............

I was going to get another PC a while back, but you know the money was needed for other things. So I'm still nursing this 5 year or so older PC to what is increasingly looking like the near end of it's life. Five of the letters on the keyboard are completely worn away so you can't read them. Thankfully my hands seem to know what letters they are even if my eyes don't :s  

The PC however is increasingly throwing up roadblocks. Is it a cry for help I don't know. I do know though that I've got every bit of money's worth out of it, looked after it, and it's still going. Way better than a Dell (it's an HP). On today's occasion it was a serious roadblock of 55 year old dumbfounding proportions. Chrome stopped working! Gah!

I proceeded patiently to download and install other browsers of various shapes and sizes. None of them worked. They just wouldn't connect to the internet. Some of them wouldn't install, and one of them wouldn't even download even though I tried three fuckin times; it would nearly get there and say "error". WTF? Thanks Turnbull for that last one. I even tried the Firefox that I abandoned a while back because it was working so slow in this PC it was virtually unusable, but that didn't even connect. Even the horrifying Microsoft Internet Explorer. The only one that would work was Opera, which I couldn't log in to the blog on. FFS.

Overall this took about three hours out of today. I went back to Opera and again looked in the settings of where the fuck was the thing to clear the cache and history. Again, I couldn't find it anywhere, despite even going to advanced  settings.

In complete exasperation I Googled how the hell to do this in Opera. There were a lot of things about how to do that. It appears I'm not the only one exasperated with this Opera problem. Fucks sake clearing the cache and history is the most simplest thing, yet people can't see how to do it. Not even Opera help told me anything helpful.

In the end I found a site that said to put this in the address bar at the top: opera://settings/clearBrowserData . I did so and up popped what I'd been looking for for months. I did the deed "to the beginning of time" and tried once more to log into Google. I nearly bloody fainted when it all worked. David was asleep so I went bananas at Zac saying "I fixed it! I fixed it!" much to his pleasure. I have therefore saved the above address for future reference forever more. I'm now speaking to you from the Opera browser, evidently the only one that works anymore on this.

BTW probably at the end of the financial year when I put in my tax return to get the money back that they took from my Superannuation financial hardship payment, will be finally when I get a new PC. 

  

British PM applauded for condemning British colonial anti-gay laws in Commonwealth (video)

I actually signed an international petition the other day wanting the British gov to do just this. It was because the Commonwealth Games were being held on the Gold Coast in Queensland and such condemnation would be perfectly timed around the games.

And what do you know? Just about fell off my chair when I saw this, and coming from the conservative gov in power over there. Theresa May has strongly condemned the British colonial laws against gays that were exported from the British to all Commonwealth nations. Today out of the 53 countries still part of the Commonwealth, in 37 of them it's illegal to be gay. Not because the people there decided to make that so, but because British law was imposed on them as colonials.

Many of those countries are viciously anti-gay because of this. For example, our immigrant neighbours (now Aussie citizens) came from Bangladesh. These are the one's who their 4yr old daughter said to David's face "you're not good people". So I looked up Bangladesh and was pretty surprised. The country is deeply anti-gay:

Last month, unknown assailants hacked two gay activists to death in an apartment in Bangladesh's capital, Dhaka. One of the victims, Xulhaz Mannan, edited the first magazine for the country's gay and lesbian community; the other, Mahbub Tonoy, was a gay rights activist. While an Islamist group claimed responsibility for the killings, Bangladesh's interior minister laid the blame on the victims themselves - homosexuality is a criminal offense in the country.

 ...............................

What is the attitude towards the LGBT community in your country? I used to live in the eastern city of Comilla, where a very conservative attitude towards the LGBT community prevails. Some friends and I formed a cultural group for homosexuals there in 2008, which some members and supporters of the LGBT community from nearby cities joined. We used to meet once a week in a secret place. When we first organized a "rainbow rally" in the city in 2009, not many people paid any interest. Still, supporters of the ruling party and its leader attacked the rally and injured some of my fellow activists.

 Afterwards, locals flagged me as a gay activist. A group of Islamists attacked me and tried to cut my fingers to stop me from writing about religious fundamentalism and gay rights. I was abducted in 2010 and raped by my captors. Police rescued me after a few days but didn't file any case. Rather, they suggested that I leave my country. My college stripped me of my right to study there, citing my activism. So my maternal grandmother sent me to Malaysia so I could continue studying. DW

The question is, how much of this is because of British colonial law that outlawed same sex couples? Our neighbours got asylum here citing persecution from Islamist's because they were Buddists, yet they still hold extremely anti-gay views.

Even here in Australia it's taken decades of LGBT struggle to end the criminality of homosexuality and to get marriage equality. It was like pulling teeth. The stalwarts of the Queen on the far right of the gov (Abbott etc) opposed us every step of the way. In the early days when Aussies were convicts and ruled by British slave lords, at the Hyde Park Barracks that I visited some time ago in Sydney, the British in charge had a peephole looking into the sleeping hammocks to bust convicts if they were taking part in homosexual behaviour.

The issue of British culpability in it's colonial empire was raised by Commonwealth Games gold medal winner Tom Daley, who is gay himself, that in 37 Commonwealth countries it's illegal to be who he is.

Daley voiced his concerns about the treatment of homosexuals in large parts of the Commonwealth, whose athletes are gathered on Australia’s Gold Coast for the ongoing Games.

 “Hopefully, I know this might sound a bit political, but by the next Commonwealth Games (in Birmingham 2022), there are 37 countries in the Commonwealth where it’s currently illegal to be who I am, so hopefully we can reduce that number between now and then,” Daley told reporters.


“Coming to the Gold Coast and being able to live as an openly gay man is really important and to be able to feel comfortable in who you are when you are standing on that diving board.

 “For 37 countries that are here participating that’s very much not the case.”

 Daley said it was time for those Commonwealth countries to change their anti-gay laws.

 “You just have to face those things and try and make change,” he said. The42

So a very welcome statement from British prime minister Theresa May addressing the British colonial issue and those laws that still exist today. 

This is what we wanted to see in #CHOGM2018. Strong words from UK PM Theresa May @Number10gov on regret and calling out those countries who were and still are wrong. There is still SO much to do across the Commonwealth for LGBT+ equality. #QueerCommonwealth 🌈 pic.twitter.com/5JpPEOKvL5

— Pride in London (@LondonLGBTPride) April 17, 2018

The fruit & vege charity we use has had it's funding cut to fund the NDIS

Got a phone call earlier today from the community centre that runs the fruit and vegetable deliveries that we get once every week off them. A big box full for only $12. Being on a disability pension with all my ailments that it includes means I qualify for it. They get audited regularly by the gov, with forms sent to me by the community centre to fill out, to make sure everyone getting this service is still eligible for it. There's never been a problem, and it provides good fresh fruit and veges bought at local markets wholesale and distributed to those of us who rely on it. Believe me, paying 60% of what we get in rent we need every bit of help we can get. Plus they deliver to our door.

At the start it was Centrelink that told us to get help from charity if we were having problems. Yes, you read that right, Centrelink told us to see a charity (apparently that's my thanks for 30yrs of full time work paying tax through the nose). And so I did, organising this through the food distribution network that operates through a number of community centres. It has been a valuable service helping enormously in keeping our food bill down and giving us access to the best quality local produce. Nothing like the stuff shipped interstate that you find at the grocery store. Such a thing is needed for someone like me on a limited income to stay relatively healthy in the face of various ongoing serious health issues.

Back to today's phone call. The very apologetic head of the community centre (I said it wasn't her fault) informed me that the rules had changed for access to this service, because the gov was cutting funding to it and putting that funding into the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). To get the $12 box of fruit and veges now you have to be over 65, which takes nothing into account of people like me who live with chronic illness and poverty. Evidently the gov thinks that anyone under 65 doesn't need this service. 

So the only way to keep the service still going the community centre has had no choice but to raise the price of the box of fruit and veges from $12 for each to $20 each. Or from $24 from my fortnightly pension to $40. Absolutely impossible. It doesn't start to the end of June, so I said after that we'll have to go to one box a fortnight instead of every week. I explained our situation that we're getting a $30 a fortnight rent increase at the end of this month which any pension increases just doesn't cover (been on Housing waiting list for about 4yrs now) so the money has to come from somewhere. There's just no way to sustain a 40% or so increase in this service.

I guess you could say we've had to cut back on food because the gov has cut funding to the charity service. We'd have managed the rent increase and still been able to pay the same price for fruit and veges, but from $24 to $40 was just ridiculous and impossible.

The community centre involved is even struggling to keep the service going, as the lady said there's going to be a lot of people cancelling it. It would be a real shame if that happened. We've gotten to know the delivery people who've taken a strong interest in us and our situation. They may lose their jobs I guess if the whole service collapses.

Looking at the overall picture, this is a story on the ground of what this gov is doing to us poor and ill. Cutting services that we rely on whilst wanting to give $65 billion in tax cuts to rich corporations that pay no tax anyway.

They're also too tight to fund the NDIS properly as was designed under the Gillard gov who introduced it. They're ripping money out of needed charities instead of additional funding provided by the gov. What a bunch of assholes.

Daughter has been buying clothes for my grand daughter to be

She's bought some clothes of different sizes that my grand daughter will grow into. I think she's "nesting". The angel dress above is typically her. Much like her mother used to dress her as a toddler going on some big outing. At our wedding she was dressed as an angel, white stockings and all. Although she tripped over in the dirt and was most upset at the time to get dirt on her brand new stockings (we got married in the rose gardens at Centennial Park in Sydney after some years together).

Hope the clothes are spew resistant. My daughter used to do projectile vomits :)

Not long to go now. She's over 30 weeks.

Shell knew all about climate change in the '80's - new documents released (video)

Recently released internal documents have shone a light on what Shell knew about climate change way back in the 1980's. In fact they were doing their own research on The Greenhouse Effect, and knew that fossil fuels were the main cause of this. Even going so far as to gauge how much of their product was contributing to the problem (table above).

They knew about sea level rises, temperature increases in the atmosphere, extinctions of species and ecosystems not able to adapt in time, and the effects it would have on human migration. 

So what did they do? Send out a red alert to the world at what was happening? Pfffft...... Seems to me they've left themselves open to be sued.

*Oh, it's already happened :)  See second video below.

There's much more at the link.

Desmog Blog (link)

Title pages

International horror at Australia's live sheep exports (whistle blower video)

Australia exports live sheep and cattle to various parts of the world, much of it to the Middle East. The animals are loaded on to ships and have to travel half way round the world in cramped and hot conditions.

This is done as it's difficult to freeze large quantities of meat for such a long time, the destination countries prefer fresh meat slaughtered without freezing involved, and in Muslim countries the animal must meet strict conditions of Halal slaughter involving facing the animal to Mecca.

The slaughter sounds barbaric in itself. When they cut the throat with a knife they're careful to not sever the spinal cord as the heart will stop beating and they want all the blood to be drained/pumped out of the meat. In other words the animals heart is still beating and it's still alive in that process. But that's another story...

Halal Meat

Regarding the long trip over there, this is what Meat And Livestock Australia says about live exports:

Australia exports livestock by sea and air. The industry is recognised as having the world's highest animal welfare standards for livestock export. Australian live export operates under strict regulations and is committed to maintaining Australia's world leading reputation. Live exporters must be licensed by the Australian Government and livestock vessels must meet strict requirements governed by the Australian Maritime Safety Authority. These standards, along with strict regulation and the industry's commitment to caring for livestock on their voyages overseas, mean that over 99% of all Australian animals arrive fit and healthy at their destinations. Meat and Livestock Australia

However for years this hasn't been the case. In fact the Gillard Labor gov banned live exports for a short time in 2011 after footage of severe mistreatment in Indonesian slaughter houses went on the telly across Australia on the national broadcaster the ABC. Ugh, I still remember that video, blood everywhere with cattle scared shitless, men with bare feet getting a thrill out of torturing the animals. It was disgusting.

However the conservative media went ape shit over the ban hyperventilating about lost dollars, and the then opposition coalition parties used it as a political club against Labor, who were heading for an election defeat in 2013. Live exports were restarted not long after but the controversy has remained.

Now we have a video from a whistle blower on one of the live export ships. I'll leave you to watch it below as it's indescribably bad. Needless to say there is outrage around the globe about it. You can sign an international petition here to stop this horror.

But whereas the immediate ban quelled international outrage in 2011, the absence of a ban this time may allow global anger to escalate. It is already widespread and damaging.

 Horrific reports of the suffering of Australian sheep, most with videos, have appeared in the Ukraine, Malaysia, Singapore, China, Japan, New Zealand, Egypt, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and elsewhere in the Middle East. These are all customers for Australian live sheep.

 Negative reports have also appeared in France, Britain, Switzerland, Morocco, Italy, Germany, Luxembourg, Indonesia and elsewhere.

 Of course, after the Coalition’s vicious condemnation of Labor’s 2011 temporary ban of live cattle exports, Littleproud cannot do the same. His department has, however, delayed a shipment leaving Fremantle for the Middle East until inspectors are satisfied all is well.

 The Turnbull Government may well rue the fact that it can’t halt the trade if it turns out the backlash costs Australia other trade deals.

 It is highly likely Littleproud’s department is advising him that while the four-week ban was a PR disaster for the Gillard Government, it probably saved the industry.

 The prompt ban curtailed any nascent campaign to boycott Australian cattle. Had this not happened, boycotts of other products – both in the cattle importer nations and elsewhere – could have escalated.


And on all the evidence, despite the frenzy by the media and the Coalition parties, it did the industry no harm. Independent Australia

“Out of 125 findings of non-compliance issued against Australian exporters. Only three of these record any exporters being punished, with cattle exports to Vietnam temporarily suspended in 2016.”https://t.co/3u4CQdaZy0

— BanLiveExport 🐑🐪🐄🐂 (@Ban_Live_Export) April 12, 2018

"Dr Hill said a build-up of damp manure had produced ammonia, which turned the ship into a “gas chamber”. “We saw sheep leaning out of the ship and trying to throw themselves out through the bars and frothing at the mouth and then just expiring,” https://t.co/vkE7CfxRYG pic.twitter.com/Ep4j4zQ0tq

— Animals Australia (@AnimalsAus) April 15, 2018

Facebook collects data on non users of Facebook - Zuckerberg (video)

Yes folks, it's worse than we thought. Worse than our wildest nightmares. Way way worse. As a non Facebook user I'm personally of the opinion that the whole platform should be shut down. It has blatantly abused any trust put in it of data being safe, or data being collected without the knowledge of the people it's being collected from. Facebook is a monolithic Orwellian failure, and should be dismantled for our own security and privacy. I've got a feeling that this may all go down in history as one of the biggest mistakes of our time.

The latest from the congressional committee grilling Zuckerberg, is an admission by Zuckerberg that Facebook collects data on people like me, who don't even use Facebook. The closest I get to Facebook is as a "lurker" reading a couple of sites regularly about Australian politics. I had a Facebook account years ago but disabled it after deciding it wasn't for me. Just email you know if you want to stay in touch. But you don't even need to visit a Facebook page for them to collect data on you, they get it from elsewhere.

I'm absolutely outraged! Rope-able! How dare they do that behind my back! And you can't find out what they've got on you unless you sign up for Facebook FFS! How do I even know if what they've got on me is safe and secure? Could it be used by a political party not of my persuasion to target me? In Australia? Info on me that I had no idea they had! Not to mention it breaks the strict Australian privacy laws on your personal information. I feel violated. WTF is next?

Mark Zuckerberg, under stern questioning by U.S. lawmakers, said Facebook Inc. collects information on consumers who aren’t registered as users, acknowledging something that’s been reported but not publicly spelled out by the company.

“In general we collect data on people who are not signed up for Facebook for security purposes,” Zuckerberg said Wednesday in a hearing about the social network’s privacy practices in Washington before the House Energy and Commerce Committee.

His questioner, Representative Ben Lujan, a New Mexico Democrat, said the practice creates “shadow profiles.”

“You’ve said everyone controls their data, but you’re collecting data on people that are not even Facebook users who have never signed a consent, a privacy agreement,” Lujan said.

Zuckerberg said the practice was intended to help prevent malicious actors from collecting public information from Facebook users, such as names. “We need to know when somebody is trying to repeatedly access our services,” he said.

Lujan said non-members of Facebook wanting to know what data the company holds are directed by the service to sign up for a page, in order to see what information is being harbored. “We’ve got to fix that,” he said.

Facebook builds “shadow profiles” of people who aren’t users by accessing data from inboxes and smartphone contacts of those who are active users, Gizmodo and other publications have reported. Fortune

Gay student forced to leave ANU over threats of violence

A gay student at the Australian National University has been forced to leave it's residence facility due to an anonymous person threatening to bash him if he didn't, and lack of action by the university on the matter. They reckoned nothing could be done as the identity of the person wasn't known. 

Straight people seem to think that now that we've won marriage equality then we're there sort of thing. Nothing could be further from the truth. 

It's quite amazing that this would happen at a university. The younger generation is vastly supportive of the LGBT, much more so that older people.

To do it anonymously is just cowardice. Too gutless to say it to his face. Big brave man threatening to poofta bash and not even identifying himself. What a weak pussy.

The first-year student began receiving abuse shortly after moving into the college at the beginning of last year, when the word "faggot" was scrawled repeatedly across his dormitory door.

 The student approached the head of Ursula Hall, who wrote a letter to residents saying it was inappropriate and if the person was caught they would be kicked out.

 "And then it kept happening," the student said.

 "I'd go to the bathroom and someone would swipe letters under my door saying 'leave or I'll f***ing bash you'."

 "[I was] fearful. Fearful of the fact that someone was threatening me. I don't know people's actions."


Over several months, the student received threatening letters under the door of his room.

 He continued to raise it with the college, but was frustrated by their response.

 "The college's response was the same: release a letter, have a little chat at dinner, nothing really fundamental," he said.

 "I don't really care if someone's calling me a fag — words are words — but when someone's putting out threats to me and my safety, especially at college ... make a more proactive initiative."

 The student resorted to living at his then-boyfriend's place out of fear, eventually requesting to be moved from Ursula Hall in October, after attempts to identify the letter-writer failed.

 "Coming here, I had an open mind. [I thought] it's going to be a great experience," he said.

 "It wasn't what it lived up to … I'm paying to get attacked, and not live." ABC

"What To Reject When You're Expecting: Breastfeeding" - I sent to my daughter (video)

A rather funny but very informative video that I just sent to my daughter. She's over 30 weeks now so getting all ready to drop. This just came up on my YouTube feed from the ABC's The Checkout, a show about rip offs basically, on the national broadcaster. Gov funded with no adds, so they can say whatever about commercial companies and their bullshit bla.

Daughter has the pregnant walk now, you know leaning back and walking like a duck. She's handling it very well actually, a very strong person with a strong personality. Am very proud of her through this pregnancy for being that way.

Of course us blokes have no idea. The closest we get to pregnancy is a beer gut. Women with all that plumbing? Good grief I dunno how they do it.

My daughter was somewhat of a miracle baby BTW. After my late wife fell pregnant after only three months of us together (oops) she saw three of her specialists to gauge whether to go ahead with the pregnancy. They were cautious but said they couldn't see an overwhelming reason why not.

She'd had one abortion when she was really young and always regretted it later in life. That's the sort of person she was. She didn't want to have another abortion, and because of the way we felt about each other she bravely decided to go ahead with this pregnancy .

Long story short it was an extremely difficult pregnancy, with multiple and increasing regular trips to the hospital over it. She cut down on her pain meds which was good for the baby but put her in agony. In the end they hospitalised her and decided on a planned cesarean to take the baby a month early, thereby balancing the pain she was in with our daughter's capacity to survive. 

She really really wanted to have this baby. Put herself through hell for it. A very strong woman. Just like our daughter is today.