30pc of bushfire victims not insured: Insurance Council

• 30pc of bushfire victims not insured: Insurance Council - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)

  The Insurance Council of Australia (ICA) says people with no insurance, who were affected by the Victorian bushfires, are becoming a major concern.

  "Figures are starting to indicate that there must be a large proportion of people down in the affected areas that don't have any insurance at all," he said.

  • "The industry's putting a figure on non-insurance down in the affected area of around 30 per cent." With all of the promises of rebuilding the communities lost in the bushfires, what do you do about 30% not being insured? If those homes are rebuilt at the cost of the taxpayer, the Insurance Industry is in real trouble. Why should those of us who but insurance and be billed an extra 60% to maintain the CFA continue to do so if there is no benefit to be gained? - post by gnaylor

Greg's View of Todays News - 02/09/2009

• BBC NEWS | Marijuana testicular cancer link

  • Frequent or long-term marijuana use may raise a man's risk of testicular cancer, American research suggests.
    

    The study of 369 men, published in the journal Cancer, found being a regular marijuana user doubled the risk compared to those who never smoked it.
    

  • 
    • Well there you go.
      As an advanced prostate cancer sufferer, my research has shown cannabis to be an effective pain management tool. As I never smoked the stuff as a young man, I guess I am pretty well protected against testicular cancer ;) - post by gnaylor
  • Known risk factors for the cancer include previous injuries to the testicles, a family history of the disease, or suffering from undescended testicles as a young child.
  
  
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• Rudd angrily denounces 'mass murder' arsonists - ABC News

  An emotional Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has warned Australians to brace for more bad news in the wake of the weekend's lethal bushfires across Victoria, which are known to have killed 108 people.
  
  He has also described the lighting of fires as "mass murder" in the wake of the confirmation from Victorian Police that they are treating some fire-affected areas as crime scenes to determine if they were deliberately lit.

  • 

  • And he lashed out at anyone who may have been responsible for lighting the fires, which have destroyed more than 750 homes.

    "What do you say about anyone like that? What do you say? I don't know," he said.
    • Those who deliberately start these fires must be punished to the extent of the law. It that means 'wasting' a young (or older) life with a penalty of life improsonment, so be it!. They should be charged under our terrorism laws where the penalties are the most severe.
      
      What if the wrong person is convicted? Until that can be proven, let them rot in prison for the sake of the community at large. We got it wrong with Dr Haneef - but that was ultimately rectified. - post by gnaylor

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• Two charged with arson after deadly Australian wildfires (telegraph.co.uk)
• Australia fire toll 'to increase' (news.bbc.co.uk)

Greg's View of Todays News - 02/08/2009

• Aussie firm sees buoyant future in harnessing wave power - Taiwan News Online

  tags: press

  • A series of large buoys are tethered to piston pumps anchored in waters 15 to 50 meters deep (49 to 131 feet). The rise and fall of passing waves drives the pumps, generating water pressures of up to 1,000 pounds per square inch (psi).

    This drives the turbine onshore and forces the water through a membrane that strips out the salt, creating fresh water in a process that normally requires a lot of electricity.

    • How good is this? Generating green electricity AND desalinating sea water without adding to the carbon footprint.
      With Australia surrounded by the sea, we are probably in the best position in the world to completely provide for our energy and water needs without harm to populations or the environment - post by gnaylor
    
    

• Whiff of change in US medical marijuana policy - AP Wire

  California law permits the sale of marijuana for medical purposes, though it is still against federal law.
  
  Thirteen states have laws permitting medicinal use of marijuana. California is unique among them for the presence of dispensaries, businesses that sell marijuana and even advertise their services. Legal under California law, such dispensaries are still illegal under federal law.

  • 
    • As a cancer sufferer who understands the medical use of marijuana, it amazes me that doctors can prescribe as much morphine as I need but cannot prescribe cannabis - even though they might privately recommend it.
      If the US changes federal law on the medical prescription of the drug, we might eventually do the same in Australia - post by gnaylor
    
    

• AP CEO: Bush Administration Turned Military Into Propaganda Machine - ROGUEGOVERNMENT.COM

  The Bush administration turned the U.S. military into a global propaganda machine while imposing tough restrictions on journalists seeking to give the public truthful reports about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Associated Press chief executive Tom Curley said Friday.

  tags: press

  • 
    • We need the media on the ground in every war zone if we are to get any concept of the facts as they happen.
      Most recently, the media was banned from the Gaza strip with the resulting atrocities carried out by the Israelis only coming to light after the event.
      Embedded journalists in Iraq were only allowed to see what the military wanted them to see.
      Since the live coverage of the Tiannamin Square Massacre, we have come to trust the freelance Internet reporting before we accept the structured media - post by gnaylor
    
    

• When Parents Call God Instead of the Doctor - TIME

  On Easter Sunday of 2008, 11-year-old Kara Neumann of Weston, Wisconsin, suffered waves of nausea as she lay motionless on her deathbed, too weak to walk or speak. Kara's parents — both followers of the Unleavened Bread Ministries, an online church that shuns medical intervention — knelt in prayer beside their dying daughter. They did not call a doctor for help. A few hours later, Kara died of diabetes, a relatively common — and curable — condition.

• • 
    • The state must step in when this happens. Nobody has the wisdom or the knowledge to declare religeous freedom as justification for allowing a child to die that could otherwise have been saved by modern medicine.
      This is not 'religeous freedom' - it is 'religeous fanaticism', the same fanatacism we find in religeous fundamentalism causing wars around the world. - post by gnaylor
    
    

• Swan welcomes Greens' input on stimulus - ABC News
  

  Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan says he is willing to look at suggestions from the Greens on changes to the Government's economic rescue plan.

  • 
  • "One of the issues he raised was bikeways - we'll have a look at that," he said.
  • The Greens also want to make sure new public housing is energy efficient and have raised questions provisions in the plan for unemployed people.
  • "When you have a number of leading commentators saying that we should be looking at fixing at the Murray Darling Basin for instance, spending the money on fundamental infrastructure that will improve productive capacity in the economy," he said.
    • Spending on infrastructure at this time is undoubtedly the best way to go as it helps keep 'Australians' employed and at the end of the day, our infrastructure will be better off than it is now.
      In building the new world order patadigm, it is also important to look towards more systainable practices that will benefit future generations - post by gnaylor
    
    

• Now, an international observatory to improve global mental health

  In a bid to eradicate human rights abuses against people suffering from mental illness in developing countries, the University of Melbourne in Australia has come up with an international observatory to improve global mental health.

  • Human rights abuse includes the restraining of mentally ill people in shackles, or stocks, in a practice known as Pasung, which is still active in Indonesia and many other low-income countries.
    • Well, i'm not too keen on the way we treat mental patients in Australia. Having closed down all the mental institutions, these poor sould are left to fend for themselves in our society. When they lose it, they end up in our prisons as there is nowhere else to treat them. That is an abise of human rights too! - post by gnaylor
    
    

• Potential new treatment for prostate cancer developed

  Scientists at Melbourne's Burnet Institute claim to have developed a potential new treatment for prostate cancer patients - a monoclonal antibody to a unique tumour marker for the treatment of prostate cancer.

  • 
    • The tragedy is that those of us with advanced prostte cancer will never get to see the effectiveness of new treatments being discovered today.
      That is notwithstanding the incredible number of fatal cancers that have occurred to give us the treatments that are available today. Thus, we must encourge new research. - post by gnaylor
    
    

• Union fears casino batons | PerthNow

  SECURITY guards at Burswood Casino have received baton training, which their union claims is a precursor to issuing them with weapons. ``Patrons would feel safer if there were more guards as opposed to guards with batons.

  tags: press

  • ``Security guards have to tread a fine line between doing their job to protect the public, but at the same time making sure they don't expose themselves to actions if people they deal with get injured,'' he said.
    • Well, I am not going near any entertainment venue that has armed guards employed to manage the customers - that is unAustralian. - post by gnaylor

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