Just found out that my very good friend Alec has had a bike accident in France, no details yet asides from the scarey comment that The fireman said that he will probably live, but we know no more than that currently..
Hang in there mate..
Category Archives: News
A Sick Joke
You remember those old jokes like the signs that say “credit only granted to those over 80 accompanied by both parents” ?
Well how about this for a new twist:
If the employee is unable to attend work for reasons other than an emergency (as determined by the company), the employee must provide 12 hours verbal notice. If the employee breaches this clause, the employee expressly authorises the company to deduct from the employee’s weekly remuneration the amount of $200.
In other words, if you are going to be too sick to work you need to give at least 12 hours notice beforehand, otherwise you get fined $200 in addition to not getting paid for the time you are unable to work.
Unfortunately this is not a joke, this is from the very real “Australian Workplace Agreement” which a mining company tried to force Lorissa Stevens to sign, with the company representative apparently attempting to browbeat her into signing.
Lorissa Stevens: She stood over me, basically said that if I didn’t sign the AWA that I would not have a job with the company, and that she would personally go out of her way to destroy me and make sure I didn’t enter in on another Hunter Valley mine site again.
In addition to this craziness the AWA in question also abolishes their workers sick leave (hence no pay for being off sick) as well as cutting their pay rates.
This is in a mining industry where safety is meant to be a top priority, but obviously it can’t be that important to this mob if they’re willing to risk making sick people work to avoid getting fined in addition to no pay..
Microsoft ‘Genuine Advantage’ – Kill Your PC ?
Boy am I glad I don’t use Windows! I don’t have to worry about another company deciding that I don’t have the right to use my computer..
There is a ZDNet blog article relating a conversation someone had with a Microsoft support person which was posted to the interesting people list in which the MS support person said:
“in the fall, having the latest WGA will become mandatory and if its not installed, Windows will give a 30 day warning and when the 30 days is up and WGA isn’t installed, Windows will stop working, so you might as well install WGA now.”
I don’t think this is actually likely to be true as the only way they could be sure to disable Windows it if WGA wasn’t installed is to have planned this from the first release of Windows XP, otherwise they’d have no guarantee that the code they need to do this would be installed.
However, the ZDNet person questioned Microsoft and only got this in response:
As we have mentioned previously, as the WGA Notifications program expands in the future, customers may be required to participate. Microsoft is gathering feedback in select markets to learn how it can best meet its customers’ needs and will keep customers informed of any changes to the program.
Now given that MSFT is already being sued over WGA for violating the Washington Consumer Protection Act, Washington Anti-Spyware Laws, California Consumer Legal Remedies Act, California Anti-Spyware Laws, California Business and Professions Code and California’s Unfair Competition Law you would think that they would take this opportunity for a good PR exercise about it..
IBM Wins Big in Latest Battle with SCO
The Judge in the SCO versus IBM case has just ruled that 187 of SCO’s list of allegedly misused materials are to be struck due to “lack of specificity”, in other words they couldn’t provide any details at all to back up their allegations.
RIP Harriet the Tortoise, 175 years old
The oldest known living animal, 175 year old Harriet the Tortoise has died of a heart attack following a short illness at Australia Zoo in Queensland.
Whilst it was long thought that Harriet was collected by Charles Darwin on his visit to the Galapagos Islands, genetic testing has shown that although she was born prior to his visit she actually came from a population that lived on an island that Darwin didn’t visit.
Doctor Who meets Dangermouse, almost..
This is interesting, the BBC is going to replace two episodes of missing Doctor Who video footage from the series The Invasion with animation by the award winning Cosgrove Hall company. They’ve got a 30 second teaser up at the moment.
Sounds great, but I’ve been conditioned into thinking of Cosgrove Hall doing Dangermouse and so I can’t help but think that perhaps they might introduce a new character..
Penfold: Oh crumbs Doctor, there’s them nasty Cyberwotsits again! Help! Ahhhhhhh!
🙂
Via: Sandra
An Unfortunate Headline
From the BBC:
Before you fear too much for the decorum of old Auntie Beeb, this is what it’s about:
Around 1,000 fans arrived for the Ivory Coast tie in their traditional bright orange trousers – but bearing the logo and name of a Dutch brewery.
To protect the rights of the official beer they were denied entry, so the male fans promptly removed the trousers and watched the game in underpants.
Talk about a strict dress code..
Chronic Fatigue Given as Official Cause of Death for First Time
New Scientist is reporting that CFS has been recorded as cause of death in a coroners inquest in the UK.
On Tuesday, coroner Veronica Hamilton-Deeley of Brighton and Hove Coroners Court, UK, recorded the cause of death of a 32-year-old woman as acute aneuric renal failure (failure to produce urine) due to dehydration as a result of CFS. The deceased woman, Sophia Mirza, had suffered from CFS for six years.
US Government Gives Monty Python Response to Guantanamo Suicides
The BBC is reporting that 3 detainees at Guantanamo Bay have committed suicide by hanging themselves – but the camp commander seems to have been taking Life of Brian too seriously:
The camp commander said the two Saudis and a Yemeni were “committed” and had killed themselves in “an act of asymmetric warfare waged against us”.
Human Rights Watch are probably a bit closer to the truth..
Ken Roth, head of Human Rights Watch in New York, told the BBC the men had probably been driven by despair.
“These people are despairing because they are being held lawlessly,” he said.
“There’s no end in sight. They’re not being brought before any independent judges. They’re not being charged and convicted for any crime.”
It Gets Worse
I can’t believe that just a minute after my last post I find this report via Google News about the state of Villawood detention center.
A WOMAN held at the nation’s second-biggest immigration detention centre was allegedly raped repeatedly in front of her toddler because she could not lock the door to her room.
The claim — and reports of widespread drug abuse among detainees — will be at the centre of an investigation ordered by the Immigration Department into the privately run Villawood centre in western Sydney.
The Weekend Australian has learned the probe will investigate claims women have been sexually assaulted by guards and male detainees. It will also examine the availability of illicit drugs in the detention centre, and has already heard evidence that detainees in the high-security area have been seen shooting up and claim to be able to access speed, ice, heroin, morphine and marijuana.