Dem: Obama says not passing tax deal would be 'end of his presidency'

Extinction From Habitat Loss Exaggerated
We almost missed this surprisingly balanced report from the Agence France-Press : One fifth of world’s plants threatened by extinction: study Tue Sep 28, 2010 LONDON (AFP) More than a fifth of the world’s plant species faces the threat of extinction, a trend with potentially catastrophic effects for life on Earth, according to research released on Wednesday. But a separate study cautioned that extinction of mammals had been overestimated and suggested some mammal species...

NLA Australian Newspapers
NLA Australian Newspapers - page display Australian Newspapers Historic Australian Newspapers, 1803 to 1954 Find an Article The Sydney Morning Herald (NSW : 1842-1954) ( about )

Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan arrives in Australia
Cindy Sheehan: Well, I didn't just decide to do it in August of 2005. A couple of months after Casey was killed I started going around the country speaking out against the war, and it was pretty visible and well-known in the progressive peace movement in the United States, but not known by mainstream Americans, or internationally known, until I camped out. And what made me do it is because 14 Marines were killed in one day; George Bush went on the TV and said they died for a noble cause and that...

Spare a thought for F1's unluckiest man
You know his name - Mark Webber, the Australian F1 driver who’s well respected throughout the paddock. After a horrific accident in the winter it was an achievement that Mark lined up on the grid at all today. So, after cryogenic treatment and an intense fitness regime, Mark Webber is fit for the F1 season opener, which is also his home grand prix. Great. The Red Bull car is fast this year and has the pace to contend for victory. Great. So then, the lights go out on F1 2009...

Australia's Worst Drought Ending After Rains
"There's a high risk of further inland Flooding," Trewin said. Large parts of western New South Wales, where drought last year completely destroyed the winter wheat crop, had moved out of drought for the first time in seven years, state Premier Morris Iemma announced this week. Only 46 percent of the state, the hardest-hit by lack of rain in recent years, is now in drought. In 2002, 99 percent of the state was in drought.

Batsmen made to play on in bad light
AP Batsmen will no longer be able to ask for play to be suspended because of bad light in one of eight minor changes to the laws of cricket set to take effect from Friday. The Marylebone Cricket Club - the custodian of the laws of the game - will now allow only on-field umpires the right to decide whether play can be halted because of darkness. That will eliminate the practice of batting sides stopping play for tactical reasons. The MCC "has introduced changes aimed at providing more fairness...

NOT ANYONE’S KING OR GOD
Wikileaks, the life-endangering idiot site run by Australian Julian Assange, is leaking staff : At least half a dozen Wikileaks Staffers have tendered their Resignations in recent weeks, the most prominent of them being Daniel Domscheit-Berg, who, under the name Daniel Schmitt, served as Wikileaks’ German spokesman. Domscheit-Berg learned about Assange’s agreements with a number of media outlets last month, but did not know the details or when the documents were scheduled to...

Newcastle Herald
Climate Activists brought Newcastle's Billion-dollar coal-loaders to a grinding halt yesterday, suspending themselves midair to effectively shut down the world's largest coal export operation. Police arrested 41 members of the Rising Tide group, which launched a simultaneous Protest at three coal-loader sites at dawn yesterday. The group said it was staging an "emergency intervention" into the main cause of Global Warming in Australia. Nine Protesters dressed in high-visibility work clothing,...

ICRP Decision: ABC News Online
The Independent Complaints Review Panel (ICRP) has not upheld a complaint made against an ABC Online News report published on 3 May 2010. The report was originally titled Australian Uranium dust found in Antarctic Ice. Following an initial complaint to the ABC, ABC News altered the title of the News item to address complainants main issue. The report was retitled Uranium in Antarctica Ice may be from Australia. The complainant remained dissatisfied. He claimed the report lacked balance and...

Incorrect Transcript on "AM" Story
06/10/2005 On ABC radio's "AM" current affairs program yesterday (October 5th, 2005) a story quoted Alamdar Bakhtiari, who (along with the rest of his family) was deported to Pakistan by the Australian Government in December last year. In that story, Alamdar Bakhtiari said "I don't blame the Australian Government for all this. I myself, now I can understand what's happening, it was not the Australian Government who caused us to be deported. It was all caused by our lawyers." The transcript of...

Comet Hartley 2 Approaches Earth
© NASA/MSFC/Bill Cooke, NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office Comet Hartley 2 approaches Earth at a distance of 18 million miles, seen on Sept. 28, 2010. A pale green interloper among the stars of Cassiopeia, Comet Hartley 2 shines in this four-minute exposure taken on the night of Sept. 28, 2010, by NASA astronomer Bill Cooke. Still too faint to be seen with the unaided eye, the comet was 18 million miles away from Earth at the time. Cooke took this image using a telescope located near...

Australia suffers worst drought in 1,000 years
Australia's blistering summer has only just begun but reservoir levels are dropping fast, crop forecasts have been slashed, and great swaths of the continent are entering what scientists yesterday called a "one in a thousand years drought". With many regions in their fifth year of drought, the government yesterday called an emergency water summit in Canberra. The meeting between the Prime Minister, John Howard, and the leaders of New South Wales, Victoria, South Australia, and Queensland was...

'Sad' singing parrot attracts visitors
A large number of visitors were seen swarming around the cage of the parrot, which sings sad song since its female partner had died. The parrot likes to talk mostly to young ladies. The Superintendent of the park, Muhammad Anwaar, told The News that a serving major had donated the beautiful parrot two years ago. He said the major had told us that he had bought the pair of Australian parrots for Rs300,000. But this beautiful parrot became sad after the death of its female partner, so he could...

Little Creatures Pale Ale...
This beer, according to the bottle, is out of the Little Creatures Brewing Company of Mews Road, Fremantle, Western Australia. The bottle also tells me that it packs a nice 5.2% Alcohol volume or the equivalent of 1.4 standard drinks. In other words, just drinking two of these excellent beers is going to put me at the safe driving limit (as I recall it is like 3 standard drinks), but the best policy is to not drink and drive at all (good thing I am sitting at home then). First things first. I...

GrrlScientist
Researchers announce they have found a fossil virus hiding in the chromosomes of several songbird species. They were surprised to find that this virus is at least 19m years old Wild adult male zebra finch, Taeniopygia guttata , photographed at Dundee Wildlife Park, Murray Bridge, South Australia. Image: Peripitus /Wikipedia Commons. I've been very excited to tell you about a new paper that has just been published by PLoS Biology . This paper nicely unites the two fields of evolutionary...

Australian mother jailed 6 years after starving and beating 5 of her children
ADELAIDE, Australia — An Australian mother who admitted spending welfare money on Cigarettes and gambling was sentenced Friday to six years in Prison for starving, beating, and neglecting her Children. Prosecutor Jim Pearce told the Court the Children were starved and sometimes forced to vomit if they ate when they were not supposed to. They were also made to stand against a wall all day and beaten for stepping out of line. When authorities were notified in June 2008, one child was...

Among The Stars Of Cassiopeia, Comet Hartley 2 Approaches Earth
© NASA/MSFC/Bill Cooke, NASA's Meteoroid Environment Office A pale green interloper among the stars of Cassiopeia, Comet Hartley 2 shines in this four-minute exposure taken on the night of Sept. 28, 2010, by NASA astronomer Bill Cooke. Still too faint to be seen with the unaided eye, the comet was 18 million miles away from Earth at the time. Cooke took this image using a telescope located near Mayhill, N.M., which he controlled via the Internet from his home computer in Huntsville,...

Scientists move objects across meter-scale distances using only light
© Vladlen G. Shvedov, et al.,The American Physical Society (A) The set-up for transporting particles using optical vortex Pipelines. (B) Microspheres form the abbreviation for the Australian National University, having been remotely deposited over a distance of 0.5 meters with a positioning accuracy of 10 micrometers. The microspheres' diameters vary from 60 to 100 micrometers. For more than 40 years, scientists have been using the radiation pressure of light to move and manipulate small...

Dwyer's gear goes missing
AAP Jamie Dwyer is the craftsman of the Australian Hockey Team but the three-time world player of the year has been left without his tools just two days out from the Commonwealth Games. Dwyer arrived in Delhi only to discover his equipment wasn't so lucky, with all his Hockey essentials left behind in Singapore - at least that's what he's hoping. "I think they're still in Singapore, I'm not sure where they are, unfortunately I don't have them," Dwyer said on Friday. "Apparently they got lost or...

US defence pacts with Australia, UK
AFP The US Senate has ratified defence trade treaties with Britain and Australia, accords designed to streamline cooperation by eliminating most export licences, a top lawmaker said on Thursday. The Senate signed off on the agreements late Wednesday, Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman John Kerry said in a statement. Britain and Australia are "vital partners" in US Foreign Policy and "by eliminating unnecessary red tape, the treaties will allow our countries to work even more closely...

Hamburgers are Just Like Heroin
When it comes to using illicit drugs, my policy has always been “Just say no.” When it comes to hamburgers, though, my mantra has always been, “Supersize that for me.” While Nancy Reagan’s advice was keeping me off horse, that square-patty pusherman Dave Thomas was hooking me on the beef. Although I knew junk food wasn’t good for me, no one ever warned me thateating a Cheeseburger is just like shooting up smack . Why didn’t the current First Lady...

Time to break the habit of childhood obesity
The Precinct Studios, Sydney has released 'Break the Habit, a new web film that aims to draw attention to the epidemic of Childhood Obesity in Australia. VIEW THE SPOT The spot directly targets parents who continue to feed their Children junk food regardless of the damaging effects it is known to cause them. By comparing junk food to Drug Abuse, the commercial aims to make parents stop and think about their actions and remind them that junk food is a major contributor of Childhood Obesity,...

Australia slip up late in Mohali
AAP Brief lapses cost Australia dearly against India despite an unbeaten century to Shane Watson on the opening day of the first cricket Test at Mohali. Dominant at 1-154, the tourists slid to a wobbly 5-224 by the close, losing traction from the moment Ricky Ponting (71) squandered his great start with a run out and was given a blunt send-off by Zaheer Khan, which caught the ire of the Australian captain. Michael Clarke (14) fell to a loose attempt to cut Harbhajan Singh (1-69) in the shadows...

Ireland: As the Celtic Tiger roars its last, Ruaridh Nicoll reports on fear of an Exodus from Ireland
Driving north from Waterford, Michael Dermody and I are caught for a moment in a beautiful light. The sun has fallen into a gap between clouds that have dulled the day, and the farmlands of County Kilkenny. "That'll be your last Irish sunset for a while," I say, for the 25-year-old is on his way to Dublin airport, and then to Rome, Bangkok and finally Perth, Western Australia. He looks away. "There will be a lot of lasts now," he replies, "but I don't look at life like that." For 15 years, as...

Protesters shut down Australian coal port
NEWCASTLE, Australia, Sept. 27 (UPI) -- The world's largest coal terminal in Australia was inoperable for several hours Sunday because of an "emergency intervention" by Environmental Activists. The Protesters claimed that the massive amount of coal exported is a main cause of Global Warming in Australia. Several of the Protesters, who broke into the facility about 5 a.m., suspended themselves from coal-loaders, effectively shutting down Newcastle Coal Terminal, north of Sydney. The coal-loaders,...