Reuters have a story on young French women of North African descent discovering they really can have their cake and eat it.
Or in this case they can have a hymenoplasty and recover their virginity.
Parents keen on abstinence will presumably not be amused by this development.
The totalitarian efforts to limit indigenous substance abuse in Alice Springs have hit a snag. (Note: The Concatenate is in favour of limiting the reasons people resort to substance abuse)
The ABC reports that mouthwash is the now abused substance of choice. When they refuse to sell mouthwash to Indigenous people we remain sure that another substance or chemical will be found, each more harmful than the last.
You can get a story from multiple sources, you can check it with your man on the ground, and it can still be totally false. Welcome to the new age.
Snopes puts the lie to last week’s story of gullible Japanese buying sheep when they were asking for poodles.
The Concatenate’s Tokyo Bureau Chief will be soundly thrashed when he comes out of hiding.
The age card
The SMH asks if the ALP’s new line of attack on John Howard’s age is such a stroke of genius to an ageing population.
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Green home loans
The Age is very impressed by Labor’s $300 million boondoggle to give loans to households wanting to make their houses more environmentally friendly. Middle class welfare with a coat of green paint. The Rudd marker of “battling family” is apparently a combined income of up to $250,000
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The wrath of business
The Australian reports on the full court press against Kevin Rudd being mounted by business groups. That Labor has survived at all over 100 years suggests the business isn’t that great at actually delivering votes.
John Howard has put out a media release trying to pour some petrol on the Labor conference with big plans to expand the nuclear industry:
“I am announcing today a new strategy for the future development of uranium mining and nuclear power in Australia.
The Government will implement this strategy to increase uranium exports and to prepare for a possible expansion of the nuclear industry in Australia.
The strategy will involve a number of actions that can be taken immediately, including:
- removing unnecessary constraints impeding the expansion of uranium mining, such as overlapping and cumbersome regulations relating to the mining and transport of uranium ore;
- making a firm commitment to Australia’s participation in the Generation IV advanced nuclear reactor research programme.
My Government will also develop four major work plans mapping out a way forward for:
(i) an appropriate nuclear energy regulatory regime - including those to govern any future potential nuclear energy facilities in Australia;
(ii) skills and technical training to address any identified gaps and needs to support a possible expanded nuclear energy industry;
(iii) enhanced research and development; and
(iv) communication strategies so that all Australians and other stakeholders can clearly understand what needs to be done and why.
Relevant Ministers and their Departments are to commence this work immediately and to report to Cabinet by around September this year;
The work plans are to be implemented in 2008.
The Government’s next step will be to repeal Commonwealth legislation prohibiting nuclear activities, including the relevant provisions of the Environmental Protection and Biodiversity Conservation Act 1999. This will be addressed soon.”
The SMH has the horrific news of Mattel’s plans to both leverage off and defend the Barbie brand.
“On Thursday, Mattel unveiled Barbie Girls, a doll-shaped MP3 player that turns into a live character at BarbieGirls.com, a website where girls can interact with each other in a manner reminiscent of Second Life, the virtual world for adults.”
But how to stop BarbieGirls from degenerating into the morass of Second Life with rampant promiscuity?
“To ensure girls’ safety in public chats, Mattel devised a limited vocabulary of 2000 words the girls can use on the site, designed to prevent use of sexual language, profanity or hurtful words such as “stupid” or “hate”. Filters also prevent users from giving out personal information including names, phone numbers or even the cities where they live. Only in private chats with a “best friend” can a girl divulge personal information. Mattel said it ensures users are best friends by requiring one of them to physically connect their Barbie Girls MP3 player to a friend’s computer.”
It would seem the only way to keep them safe is to lobotomise them. The way of the future?
Last night my diligent robots noticed a change on the DFAT front page. It listed the national days being celebrated today and I duly put it into the morning wrap, wondering briefly if there was still a “Serbia and Montenegro National Day” given that they two countries had parted ways.
Late this morning the hard working robots noticed that an unusual change had been made during the day.
So just so we all know, it’s only Serbia National Day today and Montenegro is off on its own.
One imagines that someone in DFAT has had a bad morning.
The Register has the amusing news that gullible Japanese have been fleeced by a scam selling them pet poodles but delivering sheep.
“Maiko Kawakami appeared on a TV talk show with snaps of her pet, and admitted she wondered why it “didn’t bark and refused to eat dog food”. She was soon set straight - her dog was in fact a sheep.”
The next step is marketing sheep as pets directly although we do wonder about the toilet training.
AAP, via News, has a taste of the hoopla from the ALP’s three day media stunt (possibly going by the name of a party conference).
“Mr Rudd was greeted with a specially-commissioned song as he appeared at the Sydney Convention Centre this morning to address Labor delegates, flanked by the message “Australian Labor, Fresh Thinking”. Delegates gave Mr Rudd a standing ovation as he walked to the stage, greeting his children and his wife Therese Rein on the way. “My name is Kevin, I’m from Queensland and I’m here to help,” he said.”
The rebranding as “Australian Labor” certainly invites comparison to the Tony Blair project, but after all these years in the wilderness the bruvvers can put up with a lot of it will bring them a share of the spoils of power.
With uncharacteristic alacrity Kevin’s speech is online for the very keen.
Lowy to answer questions
The SMH is surprised that Israeli police are flying to Australia to question the shopping mall magnate Frank Lowy as part of a corruption prove involving the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert.
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No surprise at all
The Age has the long suspected news that less than 3% of the “community benefit” from poker machines went to charities or community organisations. The rest of the money went to such things as the club’s plasma screens which it seems are considered to be of benefit to the community. Others would think they are a lure to the poker machines.
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Illegal IR plan?
The Australian is parroting the line of industry groups that the new Rudd IR plan could be unconstitutional. That the gist of the plan is a ruse to cover the sacking of all of the IR judges is somewhat concerning.
Reuters reports that the Howard Government is cracking down on rock start, banning the colourfull US rapper Snoop Dogg from entering Australia.
“Immigration Minister Kevin Andrews said Snoop Dogg, whose real name is Calvin Broadus, was told his visa would be cancelled after he pleaded no contest to gun and drug charges in the United States earlier this month. “He doesn’t seem the sort of bloke we want in this country,” Andrews told local radio.
Ahh, so we’re onto a “seeming a sort of bloke” test now. And yet they let Santo Santoro into Cabinet.
Nick Minchin is acknowledging the departure of Amanda Vanstone from the Senate following her axing from the Ministry earlier in the year.
No word yet of the much touted posting as Ambassador to Rome.
APRA has detailed the efforts they’ve gone to shutting down the “Federal State Bank of Australia” constituted under the “Independent Sovereign State of Australia” by a pair of jokers, Donald Cameron and Darryl John Wheeley.
“In the proceedings, APRA filed court documents detailing its investigation and containing numerous examples of breaches of the Banking Act, including affidavits from many small business owners who had received the fake currency and cheques as purported payment for their services and whose debts remain unpaid.”
Amazing what people can get away with (for a while) if they’re official sounding.
The Age reports that Fairfax is finally getting rid of the onerous width of the broadsheet format and are going to produce a slimmer, more public-transport friendly format.
“Mr Kirk confirmed the company would implement ”a narrower broadsheet format for the SMH and The Age in 2008” but did not specify a changeover date. He also said the company had not finalised what the new size would be.”