How about we don't let our kids do anything? And what is it really? A big company with a social conscience, or discrimination based on who they think are likely to steal?

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Qld-mall-bans-students-in-school-hours/2007/09/17/1189881407655.html

A Gold Coast shopping centre says it has a "social responsibility" to ban school students from shopping during school hours.

Children in school uniform will be questioned and asked to leave Australia Fair Shopping Centre at Southport if they do not have a note from their school or a legitimate reason for being there under the centre's new policy.

The new rules have been introduced in an attempt to reduce shoplifting and truancy levels but are likely to be challenged in the Anti-Discrimination Commission.

What if they have a fashion parade and are forced to get 30 year old models in to model the new school uniforms, but the models get booted out by security on the way to the show because 'students' aren't allowed in the centre? At least the kids will be under a bridge smoking pot rather than hassling people with money to spend.

---

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Pole-dancing-classes-not-for-kids-Iemma/2007/10/08/1191695814085.html

Children wanting to get fit are better off with swimming lessons or little athletics than pole dancing classes, NSW Premier Morris Iemma says.

Family groups have spoken out about pole fitness classes being attended by children as young as seven, saying they are sexualising children.

Fantastic Keithy but can access your link!

oceanz wrote on Oct 2^nd, 2007 at 10:40am:



WOOOHOOOOOO!!!!!

<dare to spam>Google "Clinton" and "Ausra"...</dare to spam>

 

article contd.


01/10/2007

Reporter: Matt Peacock

While Australia gears up for new coal-fired power stations, the US has taken a dramatic turn - setting its sights on the sun. Two of America's biggest power companies have unveiled plans for a multi-billion dollar expansion of solar power supply. And the man behind it all is an Australian scientist who tried and failed to be heard here.

Transcript
KERRY O'BRIEN: And tonight we bring you a story that promises to strengthen the claims by supporters of solar power - that with proper backing, it can become a viable alternative to coal-fired power; with news from the United States that two of America's biggest power utilities have unveiled plans for a multi-billion dollar expansion of solar power supply.

The company at the heart of their strategy is the one started by Australian solar expert Davíd Mills - the former Sydney University professor - who left this country for California earlier this year to pursue the further development of his ground-breaking work.

What makes the announcement more significant is that the utilities are confidently predicting that their solar power will soon be providing base-load electricity - that is, day and night - at prices competitive with coal.

Those associated with the project believe it could signal a paradigm shift in electricity generation.

Matt Peacock reports.

MATT PEACOCK: The power of the sun. After decades as a fringe player in the energy industry, solar power is finally taking off in the world's largest economy.

VINOH KHOSLA, KHOSLA VENTURES: It's very, very exciting. There's a real sense of exuberance in belief in this new technology.

DAVID MILLS, CHAIRMAN, AUSRA INC: My hope is, my dream if you will, is that this will become a mechanism not only for the majority of the electricity generation in the United States but the majority globally.

MATT PEACOCK: As world leaders gathered in New York last week to focus on climate change, across town at the Clinton Global Initiative, giant US power companies were pledging billions of dollars of investment into solar power.

AL GORE, FORMER US VICE-PRESIDENT: We face a genuine planetary emergency, we cannot just talk about it, we have to act on it, and we have to solve it urgently.

MATT PEACOCK: For David Mills, it's vindication of a lifetime's research. Only nine months ago the former Sydney University professor was packing his bags for California's Silicon Valley, where the venture capitalist who made his fortune in IT, Vinoh Khosla, was prepared to back him.

VINOH KHOSLA: We were very excited about what they were doing and surprised at the lack of support they were getting in Australia.

MATT PEACOCK: DAVID MILLS: This is the culmination of a life's work, I've been at this for 30 years, so you can imagine how I feel. It's almost a sense of great relief that finally this problem is being noticed and action is taking place.

MATT PEACOCK: The solar technology developed by Mills already exists here in Australia - small pilot plants attached to the Liddell coal-fired power station in the NSW Hunter Valley. Its emphasis is on simplicity. Near flat mirrors on giant hoops track the sun.

PLANT OFFICER: Sunlight, on a clear day like this, strikes those mirrors and is gathered up onto the tower, and there's an absorber underneath that tower.

MATT PEACOCK: Out comes steam, ready to drive a conventional power turbine. This is on a small scale. Mills's and Khosla's new US company, Ausra, are now planning plants far bigger.

DAVID MILLS: Our first plant size, which is still small for us, but we have to start somewhere, is about a square mile in US terms, or more than two square kilometres in the terms used in Australia, and that would generate 175 megawatts. But really we want to aim for gigawatts style plants, and they're much bigger than that.

DR MARK DIESENDORF, ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES, NSW: It's important to get a large scale for the development to bring down costs, and the United States offers a magnificent opportunity for large-scale solar development.

MATT PEACOCK: Solar power is not new in the United States. This giant photovoltaic plant in the Mojave Desert was built during the oil shock of the 1980s. And more recent concern over global warming has led to other investment into solar thermal plants like this one in Nevada. The low cost of Ausra's new design, though, is now attracting the big money.

VINOH KHOSLA: What's very exciting is major utilities in the US are now starting to believe our story after doing their own independent due diligence. They actually believe this is competitive power generation. More importantly it's reliable power generation. We can ship them power when the sun isn't shining, which is what most utilities need.

MATT PEACOCK: The coal and nuclear industries have long asserted that base load power can't be supplied by renewable energy, a mantra repeated by our politicians.

MALCOLM TURNBULL, MINISTER, ENVIRONMENT & WATER RESOURCES : You cannot run a modern economy on wind farms and solar powers. It's a pity that you can't, but you can't.

JOHN HOWARD, PRIME MINISTER: Solar is a nice, easy soft answer. There's this vague idea in the community that solar doesn't cost anything and it can solve the problem. It can't. It can't replace base load power generation by power stations."
--------------

end of article.

oceanz wrote on Oct 4^th, 2007 at 11:37am:



The point is this must be spammed. After reading this can you imagine if Johnny got back in?

Labor claims we should ratify Kyoto as this will encourage China to do so. China has used us as an excuse not to.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Howard-still-not-keen-on-Kyoto/2007/10/15/1192300649736.html

Prime Minister John Howard has dashed any hopes that he might end the government's Kyoto Protocol boycott, insisting he won't sacrifice economic growth to cut greenhouse gas emissions.

Mr Howard's first election campaign appearance on internet video site YouTube suggested the coalition would not be veering far from its existing climate change policy.

"The government will very shortly announce detailed plans on many issues including a climate change policy that balances our obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with the need to keep our economy growing," he said.

The prime minister later reiterated his opposition to the Kyoto Protocol on economic grounds, but not necessarily its post-2012 successor.

"The reason I won't ratify the Kyoto treaty is: the existing Kyoto treaty doesn't cover countries like China, and we could be at a competitive disadvantage," he told Southern Cross Broadcasting.

How is it flawed?