This one is the newest to be processed from the Juno spacecraft in it's latest flyby of Jupiter, the image taken on Dec 16th 2017. At a height of 13,000 kilometres above, this is from the northern hemisphere. Amazing colours and swirls generated by Jupiter's extremely turbulent clouds.
I'm continually amazed by what this Juno spacecraft is accomplishing and sending back to earth. If only such human success could be replicated in humanity across the globe. If only we could all see beyond our tiny planet and realise just how tiny, petty, and insignificant our squabbles with each other really are.
So the gov has decided that submissions made to the religious freedom review will not be made public, in a major departure from process and their claim of an "open gov". This is a serious concern. For the review to have an credibility at all requires transparency. To have the submissions kept secret would give the impression of a star chamber making decisions about our lives without us having any idea of what input they had to come to that decision. It's no secret that winding back anti-discrimination laws in Australia are aimed squarely at us LGBT who have dared to gain marriage equality, thus sparking the review. The far right bitter and twisted gov christians have their feathers flying all over the place in a great flap. What they tried on in parliament to put discrimination against us into law over marriage equality they will be trying on in the review into religious freedoms. LGBT aren't even represented in this inquiry, but of course the churches are. This will have an impact on our lives if the churches get their way and we're not even supposed to see the process? No representation and a secret process? Bullshit! Honestly this is the most homophobic anti-gay gov I've ever had the misfortune of experiencing. They're at war with us, clinging to their pitiful religion of paedophilia and self serving secrecy to protect them. The state should be taking away some of their religious freedom to be an autonomous law to themselves, not expanding them to inflict pain on a vulnerable minority.
LGBTI advocacy group just.equal has called for the religious freedom inquiry led by Philip Ruddock to make its submissions public.
The call was made in response to news this week that the submissions will not be published.
“It’s vital that the Ruddock inquiry adopt the conventional process for publicly releasing submissions if its findings are to have any credibility,” said just.equal spokesperson Ivan Hinton-Teoh.
“The misuse of religious freedom to justify discrimination is an important issue for many LGBTI Australians and we have a right to know what different interest groups are influencing our federal government.
“It is the height of hypocrisy for an inquiry into freedom of religion, conscience and speech to keep its submissions under wraps.
“It is astonishing that the Turnbull government would make submissions secret when this review could entirely re-shape Australian anti-discrimination law.
“It begs the question, what has the government got to hide?” Star Observer
They're having a week or so in Auckland. They went to Auckland zoo and of course saw Kiwi's. Would be very interesting for her as she's never been there (although heard a lot about it) but it's where I'm from. I lived in Auckland for about two years before moving to Sydney in the '80's.
If you're as sick to death of this gov dragging out the welfare recipient bashing lines over and over (the latest one this last week in cohouts with a compliant right wing media parroting their lines) then you will like this video. Angry points out the bleeding obvious, as only Angry can :) Given the drumming both the main stream media and the gov received on social media online, my guess is that most Australians are sick of it too, particularly only a matter of days since the report was released that one third of large companies in Australia pay no tax at all. Australia has one of the lowest pension rates in the OECD, and the dole is absurd at being 30% below the poverty line and completely unsurvivable on. Over 40% of us on the DSP live below the poverty line. David and I have been forced to get by with drawing financial hardship money once a year out of our super. After rent we probably have only $12-13k for everything else for the year without that, between the two of us. How about the gov do something about bloody affordable housing instead of bashing us at every opportunity? Thirty yrs in full time printing, hard physical labour before I got sick. I've worked harder than any of the politicians in Canberra bagging me right now.
That's the question being asked now with the huge initial success of the world's biggest battery in South Australia assisting power production on the existing grid.
A big slap in the face for the federal gov as the states go it alone on renewables, proving that renewables are cheaper, clean, more reliable, and faster than fossil fuel power. The thing was up and running in less than 100 days, how long would it have taken to build a coal fired power plant for example?
Tesla’s enormous battery in South Australia is only weeks old, but it’s already responding to power outages in record time.@BenOquist says it’s ‘one of the big success stories of 2017’ pic.twitter.com/AbsdtvkKvt
Far out, what a couple of terrible days I've had. It started after I typed that longish last post of my submission to the religious freedoms review. I don't usually type that long on the PC and I'm not a very fast typer either. So doing that involved a couple of hours of leaning forward over the keyboard. Silly me should have taken a break. After those decades of work my back is rather fragile these days.
A few hours later the pain started in my upper and middle back, which quickly got worse turning into severe muscle spasms. The pain was so bad it caused panic attacks when I tried getting up to do anything; shortness of breath and fast breathing, very hot and sweating, numbness in my hands and feet, tightness in the chest, feeling sick and wanting to throw up, and feeling weak and having to lie down. Good grief :s
Spent nearly all of yesterday laid up in bed, inhaling panadol and rubbing heat cream onto me. About half a box of Panamax later, and half a large tub of Metsel cream I've managed to get myself out of the bed today with the pain somewhat reduced. Didn't get a wink of sleep last night until I finally conked out from the Panamax at about 7am. It was worst in the middle right of my back just below the shoulder blade, which is of course where I couldn't reach.
Certainly in the future I'll be more aware about taking breaks from typing at the computer. Looks like I did a good job on the submission though as consolation. Surprised it's gotten a lot of views. Don't forget you can make a submission yourself to the religious freedoms review here. The more of us raise our voices on this the better. Remember what they tried on in parliament too, trying to make it legal for a commercial business to deny service to David and I for no other reason than our sexuality. We can't have our anti-discrimination laws that protect us rolled back like that!
This is my submission to the inquiry they are embarking on into religions freedom. I would like to mention it's very personal, but for very good reason. The religious freedom inquiry is a reaction from the far right of the gov after marriage equality passed the parliament; it would never have happened otherwise. Therefore it's an attack on LGBT Australians across the country, including David and I. We don't want Australian states to have their anti-discrimination laws protecting David and I overruled by federal law that says we can be refused service by commercial businesses on the grounds of their religious beliefs to our sexuality.
Hello panel of the religious freedoms review,
I and my partner are a gay couple in eastern Sydney who both have HIV. We have been together for over 5 years now, fell in love straight away and been wanting to get married for some years now. I personally have paid close attention to the marriage equality process where our existence and lives were discussed almost casually in public national forums. Although marriage equality eventually passed the parliament it came at a very high price for the LGBT community. For some of us the pain generated by the postal survey will be with us for years to come. Some LGBT have called it the worst time of their lives. I'm sure some thought of suicide during it; likely young LGBT as it turns out in western Sydney where a block of 12 electorates voted no. That issue alone needs to be addressed with ongoing support for young LGBT in western Sydney and educational programs among the cultural diversity about the demonisation of us during the postal survey. Tony Abbott himself even spoke at the western Sydney Maronite christian church at a mass meeting of theirs, some of the congregantes being the ones that vandalised gay Sydney murals in eastern Sydney's Newtown after the Yes vote won.
In short the LGBT are on their ass at the moment still trying to pick ourselves up after the venom that was released by the postal survey. Both my partner David and I have been affected by the idea of even the haters of us "having their say" about our lives and our love. I wouldn't wish such a thing on my worst enemy. I was particularly affected out of the two of us as at 55 I have a very thick skin and would often enter discussion online. However even I was surprised at the level of shear hate against us. The worst of it was a reply to me under an Australian Christian Lobby video of Lyle Shelton opposing marriage equality because of his christian views. In another ACL video someone that agreed with me got a reply of a death threat. After that the ACL didn't allow comments anymore on it's YouTube videos.
This is what we've gone through just to get equal rights with the rest of society. We have suffered discrimination for decades and had to fight against it every step of the way. Only to have that hatred and discrimination thrown at us all over again at the marriage equality hurdle put in front of us by this gov. Scott Morison says he's had enough of religion being disrespected and mocked, and he even calls that "discrimination" putting it on the same par as LGBT discrimination. What an insult to all LGBT people who have had loved ones lose their lives over the years because of discrimination with much of their local community against them! David's first partner was murdered in a horrific gay hate crime, Wayne Tonks. How dare religion talks to us about their so called "discrimination"; they don't know the meaning of the word. Religion is an idea created by man; a belief system if you will. Being gay is simply who we are; it's not our belief system but the core of our being.
David and I have personally suffered discrimination and had to take legal action to address the issues. David suffered discrimination in the health profession (he's a nurse by trade) in an Healthscope private hospital in Sydney when nurses became aware he was HIV positive. Believe it or not most of the discrimination against HIV Australians happen in the health profession. He took legal action through the ACON legal centre and ended up in the NSW anti-discrimination board in a conciliation process facing off against the directer of the hospital. With NSW anti-discrimination laws on his side the director had no choice but to capitulate. He won some lost wages but not much. The point being he won against a multinational corporation and it was a miracle he did so. All because of Australian law that protected him. BTW the discrimination event was so damaging to David that he hasn't worked since. He became my carer as I'm on the Disability Support Pension for too many reasons for me to go in to here. David being discriminated against affected him that deeply, despite the psychological treatment and medication he gets. That's what real discrimination does to people. It doesn't simply offend them, it destroys them.
I also had an episode of discrimination. In fact it was in the heart of gay Sydney at the Oxford Hotel at Taylor Square, you know, across the road from the big gay flag flying and the big corner of the Sydney gay and lesbian Mardi Gras. David and I thought we'd have a drink there before getting a taxi home. I lost interest after the bouncer became negative (neither of us had had too much to drink and we could have stayed where we were and got more drinks) and I started walking away calling David. Long story short the bouncer told David when I was out of earshot "You can come in but I'm not letting that fag in" referring to me. We again ended up communicating with the NSW anti-discrimination board over this. It took some months but we finally got a groveling apology from management over the incident after much denial, with the bouncer being fired from both the pub and the security company he worked for. I communicated with gay Sydney state MP Alex Greenwich about the whole thing along the way who was surprised that such a thing could happen in this day and age on Oxford St in the heart of gay Sydney, but the fact of the matter is simply that it did, in 2016.
I say this because the simple facts are that LGBT still suffer discrimination in Australia, even though it's against the law. The burden appears to always fall on us to take action when such discrimination happens, even now in 2017. Any unwinding of Australia's state anti-discrimination laws would bring untold grief and despair to LGBT across the nation. To give commercial businesses the right to not serve us because the bible would be both unthinkable and a tragedy for our human rights.
I ask that you consider that our society is a secular one and not one ruled by theocracy. That secularism is what provides religion with freedom of religion. I ask you consider that the rights of any minority are equal to the rights of any religious institution. I ask that you consider David and I in your deliberations. I ask that you consider humanity, and not just that of churches.
We're tired and wounded. We're not dangerous. To religion or anyone. We're no threat to society's foundations. We're just people like you are. We just want to live our lives and be with who we love. Religious folk can still have their religion, that's not any of our concern.
Elon Musk's world's biggest battery built in South Australia is already responding to outages in electricity production from fossil fuel sources in record time. It appears to be much more reliable, cheaper, and quicker than coal fired power stations can compete with. So stick that in your coal fired pipe RWNJ's and smoke it :)
Less than a month after Tesla unveiled a new backup power system in South Australia, the world's largest lithium-ion battery is already being put to the test. And it appears to be far exceeding expectations: In the past three weeks alone, the Hornsdale Power Reserve has smoothed out at least two major energy outages, responding even more quickly than the coal-fired backups that were supposed to provide emergency power.
Tesla's battery last week kicked in just 0.14 seconds after one of Australia's biggest plants, the Loy Yang facility in the neighboring state of Victoria, suffered a sudden, unexplained drop in output, according to the International Business Times. And the week before that, another failure at Loy Yang prompted the Hornsdale battery to respond in as little as four seconds — or less, according to some estimates — beating other plants to the punch. State officials have called the response time “a record,” according to local media. The Washington Post
This would have to be a contender for the best Australian political photo of the year (if there is such a competition) the look on the persons s face next to Abbott is absolutely priceless!
How far have we really come? Oh but of course religion needs "protection" from us :s
*Note, either my PC or Turnbull's internet appears to have a problem playing this video on my blog. If it doesn't play for you then just click the Twitter icon to go to the original Twitter post*
In an end of year interview treasurer Scott Morrison has vowed to defend christianity in the wake of marriage equality becoming law, and to push for so called "religious freedoms" in the review into religious protections to be conducted by the gov. You can make a submission to that inquiry here. To LGBT it's entirely bizarre that just because we gain equal rights then religion wants to be protected from us. Protected from what? David and I loving each other and having that recognised by law? Big whoop. Grow a fuckin spine. Criticism against religion isn't discrimination. Religious belief isn't about who you are, it's about a belief system open to discussion in the competition of ideas. It's an insult to us LGBT to have that compared to discrimination that we've suffered going right to the core of our being. Morrison claims that christians are being discriminated against when people mock it and make jokes about it. What a bloody snowflake! Cry me a fuckin river! As far as I'm concerned, after the findings of the royal commission into child sex abuse, and the damage done to the LGBT community (particularly in the last couple of years in Australia) in the name of their religion, it beggars belief that religion now would claim they need protection from us and to be respected for what they've done to us. Such "protections" would simply enforce their discrimination against us putting it in to law. They want their discrimination against us to be enforced by secular law. What a disgusting group of people. FFS why can't they just leave us alone.
Scott Morrison says he will fight back against discrimination and mockery of Christians and other religious groups in 2018, in comments that position him as one of the leading religious conservatives in the Turnbull government.
Mr Morrison also promised to play a leading role next year in the debate about enshrining further "protections" for religious freedom in law, which will be informed by a review currently being led by former Attorney-General Philip Ruddock.
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The Treasurer said he had made a conscious decision to "call out" discrimination and to stand up for people of faith.
..........................................
"And I'm just gonna call that out. With what I've seen happen in the last year, I've just taken the decision more recently, I'm just not going to put up with that any more, I don't think my colleagues are either."
"Where I think people are being offensive to religion in this country – whichever religion that might be, but particularly the one I and many other Christians subscribe to – well, we will just call it out and we will demand the same respect that people should provide to all religions."
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The Sydney MP also opened up about what it meant to receive the thanks of Christian groups, such as at a recent meeting with Maronite Bishop Antoine-Charbel Tarabay, "who were pleased someone stood up for them, and spoke with them, and understood their point, and didn't forsake them". Sydney Morning Herald
Note in the last paragraph is mentioned he was thanked by the Maronite christian church, it's members being the one's responsible for the vandalism of gay murals in the eastern suburbs recently.
I got a bit of money out of my super in October under financial hardship and there's still some left. We've not bothered going out to Oxford St as it's so fucked up these days it ends up an unpleasant experience too many times. The plus side is that the bit I got out still hasn't been spent.
So my PC appears to be on it's last legs. There's nothing really wrong with it but it doesn't seem to be able to handle the rigors that Windows 10 is continually chucking at it. Recently there was a major update that took bloody hours and ever since then the PC has been shitting itself and doing weird and strange things. For example freezing and coming up with cryptic windows messages. *sheesh*
It's bad enough that I'm dealing still with an ADSL connection in 2017 in the middle of Sydney's eastern suburbs, but to have a PC contributing to that is just unacceptable.
The thing is nearly 5yrs old so I'm very attached to it. I don't want to get another PC and go through the meticulous task of setting it up with all my programs and hardware installed. It's a bloody great hassle which I can do without. But what choice do I have? The software has gone beyond it's capacity. I need to stay connected without spending half the time battling with my PC.
Alas, I must send this one to retirement. Luckily Boxing Day sales are imminent. My new PC will be an HP as they're the most reliable I've experienced. It certainly won't be a dead shit Dell!
Dr Ivan Stratov Dr Ivan Stratov has recently gained a seat in the Victorian Liberal party's administrative committee , being one of...
About me
After 30 years of very physical full time work in the printing industry our print dept was outsourced and we all lost our jobs. As I'd gotten HIV beforehand and was having trouble attending and doing work I discussed with my HIV doctor whether I should apply for the Australian Disability Support Pension. He agreed,and I became a DSP pensioner under the new Gillard rules of adherence that now sees 75% of DSP applicants rejected.
Have been diagnosed with PTSD, severe depression, chronic kidney failure, and of course HIV. I'd become suicidal in 2009 after 3 extreme life events in a row; My best friend killed herself in the US (I don't make friends easily BTW), my teenage/young adult daughter had me charged by the police with a minor problem, and I was diagnosed with HIV. All in three weeks.
Some say god won't give you more than you can bear, my reply is "Well what happened to me?" If not for the HIV support here in Australia and me being able to have access to it I'd likely be dead by now. Unbearable pain often causes suicide, no matter physical or mental.
Today I've not worked since being made redundant. I remain with episodes of depression and panic attacks, sometimes severe. I may be fine and happy to leave the house, at times I'm paralised in bed, secure and safe and not willing to face the world.
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