Bolt found guilty of discrimination

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28 September 2011
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Journalist and political commentator Andrew Bolt has been found guilty of breaching the Racial Discrimination Act over a series of articles he wrote two years ago.

Bolt was being sued in the Federal Court by nine Aboriginal people including former ATSIC chairman Geoff Clark, academic Professor Larissa Behrendt, activist Pat Eatock, photographer Bindi Cole, author Anita Heiss, health worker Leeanne Enoch, native title expert Graham Atkinson, academic Wayne Atkinson and lawyer Mark McMillan.

They alleged a series of articles written by Bolt two years ago implied light-skinned people who identified as Aboriginal did so for personal gain — via redwolf.newsvine.com

State council staff targeted in ICAC corruption inquiry

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28 September 2011
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The Independent Commission Against Corruption will begin one of the most extensive corruption inquiries it has undertaken in more than 20 years next week with hearings involving more than two-thirds of NSW councils and an unknown number of government agencies.

ICAC will begin hearings on Tuesday into 110 councils and government agencies including the Roads and Traffic Authority about allegations staff have received gift cards and other items in return for placing orders and continuing business relationships with several companies supplying industrial and safety products.

Sydney councils involved include the City of Sydney, Botany Bay, Liverpool, Waverley and Burwood and regional and rural councils include Lithgow, Ballina, Orange, Walgett, Bathurst, Broken Hill, Byron Bay and Narrandera. In notices to be released today, ICAC says it is investigating allegations staff at these councils received the gift cards and other items from companies including Hilindi Pty Ltd which trades as R&R Tape Supplies, Momar Australia Pty Ltd and NCH Australia. R&R Tape Supplies provides products including packaging and barrier tapes, safety glasses, respirators, welding clothing and footwear — via redwolf.newsvine.com

ACTA will be signed Saturday, US and Japan say

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28 September 2011
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In Entertainment, Politics, Rights, Technology
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A controversial trade agreement targeting counterfeiters and copyright infringers is scheduled to be signed this Saturday in Tokyo, the Office of the US Trade Representative has announced.

Representatives of the US, Japan, Australia, Canada, the EU, South Korea, Mexico, Morocco, New Zealand, Singapore and Switzerland will be at the signing ceremony for the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA), according to Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Countries that have completed relevant domestic processes will sign ACTA, the ministry said in a press release. The agreement, which would create international standards for protecting intellectual property, will be open for signature until 1 May 2013, the ministry said.

Public Knowledge, a digital rights group, said the latest version of ACTA contains more protections for consumers than previous versions. Still, the group urged US President Barack Obama’s administration to make it clear that ACTA does not change US law, including provisions in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act protecting ISPs and websites from copyright enforcement — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Spotify adds Facebook requirement, angering users

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28 September 2011
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New Spotify subscribers can only sign up if they have a Facebook account, a move that suggests that the online streaming music service is fully embracing its new Facebook partnership.

Spotify has ditched its old business plan, but about 300 people at the consumer advocacy website GetSatisfaction don’t think that decision was a good one — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Rat cyborg gets digital cerebellum

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28 September 2011
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In Science, Wildlife
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An artificial cerebellum has restored lost brain function in rats, bringing the prospect of cyborg-style brain implants a step closer to reality. Such implants could eventually be used to replace areas of brain tissue damaged by stroke and other conditions, or even to enhance healthy brain function and restore learning processes that decline with age.

Cochlear implants and prosthetic limbs have already proved that it is possible to wire electrical devices into the brain and make sense of them, but such devices involve only one-way communication, either from the device to the brain or vice versa.

Now Matti Mintz of Tel Aviv University in Israel and his colleagues have created a synthetic cerebellum which can receive sensory inputs from the brainstem — a region that acts as a conduit for neuronal information from the rest of the body. Their device can interpret these inputs, and send a signal to a different region of the brainstem that prompts motor neurons to execute the appropriate movement — via redwolf.newsvine.com

In Thailand, an Innovative Fight Against Cervical Cancer

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28 September 2011
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Every year, more than 250,000 women die of cervical cancer, nearly 85 percent of them in poor and middle-income countries. Decades ago, it killed more American women than any other cancer; now it lags far behind cancers of the lung, breast, colon and skin.

Nurses using the new procedure, developed by experts at the Johns Hopkins medical school in the 1990s and endorsed last year by the World Health Organisation, brush vinegar on a woman’s cervix. It makes precancerous spots turn white. They can then be immediately frozen off with a metal probe cooled by a tank of carbon dioxide, available from any Coca-Cola bottling plant.

The procedure is one of a wide array of inexpensive but effective medical advances being tested in developing countries. New cheap diagnostic and surgical techniques, insecticides, drug regimens and prostheses are already beginning to save lives — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Rogue landlord told to pay

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28 September 2011
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In Rights, World
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Notorious rooming house operator George Maatouk has been ordered to pay more than $9000 in accumulated fines and costs for breaches of the residential tenancies act over the past two years.

As the operator of the Sydney Road rooming house that burned down in 2006, causing the deaths of a young couple, Mr Maatouk featured prominently in the 2009 Coroner’s inquiry, which heard that he earned $40,000 a week running 60 properties.

Mr Maatouk, who has convictions for fraud and forgery, is one of the four directors of Melbourne’s largest rooming house service, Victorian Accommodation Centre — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Red Pandas / Dublin Zoo

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28 September 2011
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Two red panda cubs a male and a female, were born at the beginning of August at the Dublin Zoo — but they have only recently ventured out of the den. From the time they were born their mother, Angelina, kept moving the cubs to different hiding places around the habitat to keep them protected — via ZooBorns

Treasure ship packed with silver found in Atlantic

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27 September 2011
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In History
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The wreck of a World War II cargo ship containing more than $200 million worth of silver has been discovered deep in the Atlantic Ocean.

The British-flagged merchant ship SS Gairsoppa was sunk by a German U-boat as it headed for the Irish port of Galway in 1941.

The wreck has now been discovered, 4.7 kilometres down on the Atlantic sea floor about 500 kilometres from the Irish coast.

Search crews from American exploration firm Odyssey Marine say the wreck contains about 200 tonnes of silver worth $236 million.

It is the largest haul of precious metal ever found at sea — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Buddhist nuns embrace the power of kung fu

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27 September 2011
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A Buddhist monastery near Kathmandu is enjoying a surge in popularity after its spiritual leader directed its 300 nuns to use martial arts techniques.

Enrolment is rising and Buddhist nuns as far afield as the Himachal Pradesh in India want to become kung fu instructors.

The Druk Gawa Khilwa (DGK) nunnery near the Nepalese capital teaches its nuns a mixture of martial arts and meditation as a means of empowering the young women. In Buddhism, like many religions, the voices of women have traditionally been muted. But the leader of the 800-year-old Drukpa – or Dragon – order, to which DGK belongs, is determined to change all that — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Dentist escapes reprimand after facial burning

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27 September 2011
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The body responsible for policing dentists has not recorded reprimands against a dentist who badly burnt a patient’s face during surgery, despite upholding a complaint against the dentist.

The case has led the Minister for Health to demand a written explanation from the Dental Council of NSW, after the Herald detailed a string of concerns about the appropriateness of the council’s rulings.

Arthur Mills, a fellow of the Royal Australasian College of Dental Surgeons, is accused of causing serious burns to the faces of two patients and superficial burns to another after a drill he was using overheated.

At least one of the incidents was referred to the Dental Council, which upheld the complaint about the burning.

It makes these findings in only 2 per cent of cases but still recorded no reprimands on his registration. He practises with no warning to the public — via redwolf.newsvine.com

City Bans Sale of Dogs, Cats in Pet Stores

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27 September 2011
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In a victory for dogs and cats everywhere, pet stores in Toronto will no longer be able to sell dogs and cats, as the Toronto city council voted to crack down puppy mills that have been supplying the dogs and cats to these stores. The city council in Toronto voted this week to close a loophole that made it possible for the unlawful puppy mill breeders to sell the animals they raise through local pet stores — via redwolf.newsvine.com

Man Accused Of Vandalizing Ex-Wife’s Home Found Guilty

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27 September 2011
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In Weird
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A 58-year-old man was found guilty Wednesday of breaking into his ex-wife’s home and causing thousands of dollars in damage.

Ronald Dean Smith was convicted of second-degree burglary and criminal mischief, both felonies.

He was accused of breaking into his ex-wife’s Stapleton home in September 2010 and leaving a trail of damage that included bleach poured into the woman’s baby grand piano and putting chicken parts in the heating vents of her house — via redwolf.newsvine.com

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