MysticalMachineGun posted:

Isn't Kommando a member or former member of the Sex Party?

QUACKTASTIC posted:

SadisTech posted:

http://www.smh.com.au/business/bank...127-gl9q2i.html

thatbastardken posted:

who bought the loving banner ad you fucker I hate you.

Au Revoir Shosanna posted:

Good morning Auspol!

A Letter Signed by 600 Detainees on Manus Island Pleads for Their Assisted Suicide

http://www.vice.com/read/a-letter-signed-by-600-detainees-on-manus-island-is-pleading-for-their-assisted-suicide

Au Revoir Shosanna posted:

Good morning Auspol!

A Letter Signed by 600 Detainees on Manus Island Pleads for Their Assisted Suicide

http://www.vice.com/read/a-letter-signed-by-600-detainees-on-manus-island-is-pleading-for-their-assisted-suicide

David posted:

FFS Drew. They went past 20 other countries before stopping here. Australia has EVERY right to establish their identity and actual status before making a decision on their applications and if they would stop destroying their paperwork before they arrive it would go much faster for them. They can ask to go elsewhere at any time they like. They are not being illegally detained. Get off your effing high horse.

quote:

Same-sex couples' civil partnerships to again be recognised in Queensland

Same-sex couples in Queensland will again be allowed to hold a state-sanctioned ceremony to celebrate a civil partnership.

Queensland Parliament has restored laws that were unpicked by the former LNP government, which only allowed the registering of partnerships.

About half of the LNP's members voted with Labor to pass the laws after they were allowed to cast a conscience vote on the issue.

Former attorney-general Jarrod Bleijie, who drafted the Newman government changes, was among those who supported the bill.

Attorney-General Yvette D'Ath told Parliament it was the third time the issue had been voted on in recent years.

"Let's hope this is the last time we have to have this debate in Queensland Parliament," she said.

"Let's also hope these laws are here to stay. Whether this is about changes in the laws or whether members are responding to shifts in public attitudes, perhaps today can be the line in the sand that demonstrates that Queensland has finally moved forward."

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk told Parliament the changes would have a positive effective on younger lesbian, gay and bisexual people who had been struggling with their sexuality.

"By reinstating these ceremonies we reinforce the message that these are healthy and loving relationships," Ms Palaszczuk said.

"We reinforce acceptance and tolerance."

<sub>Katter's Australian Party MPs did not support the move, arguing marriage is between a man and a woman.

"We see civil unions as a stepping stone to marriage. Many people would see it as the next step," Mt Isa MP Robbie Katter said.</sub>

EXAKT Science posted:

Wait, y'all don't have gay marriage yet?

quote:

Greenpeace campaigners descend on Port Kembla for arrival of nuclear waste ship BBC Shanghai
By Emily Laurence and staff



A major security operation is underway at Port Kembla, on the New South Wales south coast, where a shipment of nuclear waste has arrived.
On board the BBC Shanghai is 25 tonnes of nuclear waste, processed in France, for long-term storage in Australia.
A number of spectators gathered to see the ship arrive and about a dozen Greenpeace activists positioned themselves on the port's southern break wall.
Earlier, Greenpeace activists took to the water to protest the ship's arrival.
More than 50 water police were involved in on-water operations on jet skis, tactical response boats and command vessel Nemesis.
About 500 police will be involved in the land-based operation as the waste is transported by truck to the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) facility at Lucas Heights, in Sydney's south, tonight.
The Federal Government is in the process of finding a permanent site for the dump and the waste will be kept at ANSTO in the interim.
Six areas have been named on its shortlist, including three in South Australia.
South Australia is currently holding a royal commission to investigate whether the state should become more involved in the nuclear industry.
Public consultation about the site of a permanent waste facility is underway and the Federal Government will narrow down the list to just three sites early next year.

Australians do not want waste, activists say

Greenpeace said the Australian public did not support the return of the nuclear waste.

It commissioned a poll, which showed nearly three quarters of Australians opposed plans to store nuclear waste for other countries.
The ReachTEL poll conducted in November surveyed 3,144 people.
It found 72.1 per cent of respondents opposed the idea of relocating waste to Australia, 9.6 per cent were undecided and 18.3 per cent supported it.
The poll had a margin of error of 1.9 per cent.

Greenpeace spokeswoman Emma Gibson is on board a boat following the BBC Shanghai and said it appeared unsuitable to transport the radioactive waste.
"It's a right rust bucket of a ship which is what I was expecting," she said.
"It's been banned by the US government from carrying any kind of government cargo at all, but the Australian Government has decided that this ship is good enough to transport highly radioactive nuclear waste from France to Sydney.
"This is the first shipment of nuclear waste of many that are coming back from different parts of the world and we've seen that the Australian Government has cut corners on safety by using this ship.
"We're also really concerned about [Prime Minister] Malcolm Turnbull talking about Australia maybe becoming a host for nuclear waste coming from all kinds of different countries.
"So we could be taking more and more of this stuff and that's a really, really bad idea because the more you transport nuclear waste the more trouble there is, the more chance there is of something going wrong."

Ms Gibson said the Government had not been transparent in revealing the exact nature of the waste being transported.
"We found out in the last few days that there's confusion about what's actually on the ship.
"The Australian Government is playing down the nature of what's on the ship.
"They're saying its intermediate level nuclear waste like gloves, protective clothing, but the French authorities have told Greenpeace that this is high-level nuclear waste containing plutonium, that's the most dangerous kind of nuclear waste you can get."
ANSTO have said Greenpeace's comments about the presence of plutonium were inaccurate, and maintain the waste is safe and medium level, and that high-level waste stems from weapons and energy production.



Bringing reprocessed waste back to Australia

In the past two decades Australia has sent eight shiploads of waste overseas.
In the 1990s, the Federal Government made a deal with France to take some of our nuclear waste.
Australia does not have the capacity to reprocess it to make it safe for long-term storage.
France has now done that and what is left is on a ship coming home.
Eight shipments were sent to France, the United Kingdom and the United States in the 1990s and early 2000s.
The waste sent to the UK will return in the second half of this decade and the waste sent to the US will remain there.

quote:

Q. Why did Australia export spent fuel? A. Australia does not have a facility capable of converting spent fuel into a form suitable for long-term management. France has developed this capability due to its large nuclear energy program. Exporting the spent fuel to France has allowed the removal of residual uranium and plutonium, which will be recycled.

The reprocessed waste will be safely immobilised in a durable vitrified (glass) form. With appropriate ongoing management, the resulting vitrified waste can be safely managed for thousands of years - allowing any remaining radioactivity to safely decay over time.

Q. What did France do with the spent fuel? The material was sent to France's La Hague nuclear fuel recycling facility. The reprocessing plant at La Hague extracts the unused uranium and the plutonium for reuse in nuclear fuel. The remaining waste is processed, producing a durable solid waste form that can be safely managed for thousands of years.

Q. How much uranium and plutonium was extracted in France? A. The spent fuel was exported to France in four shipments that occurred between 1999 and 2004. The spent fuel amounts to 20 stainless steel canisters and a total weight of 10 tonnes, which is removed during reprocessing and will be recycled and used for nuclear energy generation. The remaining waste will be vitrified and returned to Australia for safe storage.

Q. Were there guarantees that the recycled uranium and plutonium were used peacefully? A. Yes. All nuclear material (uranium and plutonium) extracted from the spent fuel is subject to the peaceful uses provisions of the Safeguards Agreements between Australia and France. It continues to be tracked by ASNO as Australian Obligated Nuclear Material.

Q. How much waste will return to Australia?
A. The intermediate-level waste returning from France will comprise up to 20 stainless steel canisters (containing the vitrified waste) with a total weight of about 10 tonnes. The total volume of vitrified waste will be 3.6 cubic metres.

The stainless steel canisters will be placed inside a single large shielded dual-purpose storage/transport container which will weigh about 112 tonnes.

In addition, Australia will also receive six drums of intermediate-level waste in cement. These are technological wastes such as gloves, protective clothing and obsolete equipment that have been generated during reprocessing and vitrification. The six drums of waste is proportional to the amount and activity of the waste reprocessed in France.

The total volume of all the reprocessed waste, including the technological wastes, to be returned from France to Australia will be approximately 6.8 cubic metres.
- See more at: http://www.ansto.gov.au/NuclearFacts/Managingwaste/Returnofwaste/Frequentlyaskedquestions/index.htm#sthash.88gNfVOU.dpuf

Ket posted:

I think the real question is do you reckon you could convince conspiracy nutters that the Australian Embassy is a Muslim haven

Solemn Sloth posted:

we're doing a documentary about indigenous recognition starring a white guy racist

asio posted:

Att Brisgoons

http://m.brisbanetimes.com.au/queen...social_facebook

The Kingsford Smith Drive upgrade contract has been signed and Graham Quirk announced himself Santa.

It's now pretty obvious he's on the take because even RACQ has come out opposing the plan (guess they should have donated more).

The ALP has opposed it because they're scared of big numbers and only wanted to dump $150 mil into it instead of the current $650 mil.

The greens support trees over people so they want it left alone altogether.

I'm thinking it could be stopped/retarded by the residents in the area, who are fairly active and vocal against other recent poor development proposals in the toowong area, and they will probably stand up against having more homes and parks demolished for the upgrade. Other than this sort of piecemeal grassroots activity there isn't really much else to stop it going ahead at this point.

Merry Christmas Brisbane

Jumpingmanjim posted:

Ooooh Baby


http://www.macrobusiness.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2015/12/ATO-Notice-of-Data-Matching-Program.pdf

I think some people are going to get caught out.

EXAKT Science posted:

Hey Kommando, do you have a link to a full-size version of the cartoon in your av?

hooman posted:

Newstart is 502 a fortnight for a single. So 13k a year. For the cost of the offshore detention program we could give 1200000000/13000 = 92307 refugees a new start in Australia. Not to mention that every cent of that money would go straight back into our economy because newstart is woefully low.

Also that assumes that none of them get jobs which is pretty unlikely.

Solemn Sloth posted:

a fun project for a what now?


You can get rent assistance as an additional payment (It's still a loving pittance)

open24hours posted:

Can you get vaccinated against chicken pox?

[EDIT: You can. Bloody spoiled kids these days they should have to suffer like I did.]

Doctor Spaceman posted:

Greg Hunt, which is surprisingly not rhyming slang for "oval office".

He literally wrote a thesis on the implementation of an emissions trading scheme, so some people considered it a bit hypocritical that he was the environment minister for a government that tore down the ETS.

SynthOrange posted:

Taxpayers shell out $1,700 for three beanbags for Julie Bishop's creativity initiative Beanbags were purchased for $590 each to outfit innovationXchange, described by Bishop’s as a ‘gorgeous little funky, hipster, Googly, Facebooky-type place’

labah waaaaste

adamantium|wang posted:

The LNP executive has blocked Ian MacFarlane's defection to the National Party.

Laserface posted:

Or just stop posting loving first dog, like everyone wishes you would.

Pickled Tink posted:

First Dog:

Negligent posted:

hi

MythLisp posted:

Originally in the 90s there was a health announcement that Lyme would be on the rise and for doctors to look out for symptoms. The testing done at Westmead failed to get any positives and so it was determined that the disease wasn't here rather than the tests weren't working or optimized for Australia's borrelia - which exists in Europe/the Americas/Africa/Asia.


I used to work in the private lab that tests for Borrelia.
They do inhouse PCR with their own primers and 2 kits - one serological and one based on cell activity EliSpot - a method also used for TB and HIV. I can say for sure we had positives from the kits from people who never left the country. A few of the doctors who actually call themselves Lyme specialists tend to have Lyme also which is the reason why they got into it.

The PCR primers are the company's intellectual property and according to my old boss some of the researchers had asked for access to the primers in use for studies which my boss refused.

I have also heard that doctors that have gone out of their way to diagnose people who have never left Aus with Lyme have been threatened with deregistration.

Lyme/borrelia is a bugger to treat when you have it in a chronic condition. I collected blood from people who had been sick for 10 to 20 years and turned up positive on the tests. Not only that, you could have a number of coinfections like Rickettsia or Bartonella that give you different symptoms. In some cases, victims would get a bullseye rash from the bite - a universal sign of borrelia infection but not here apparently.

It's my personal opinion that it is here, but the majority of registrars and doctors in the hospital i work at now don't believe so at all.

Could go more into it but heading into work now.