Psychiatrist unhinged

Regular The Drum Unhinged contributor psychiatrist Ted Tietze today unleashes a 2,696 word piece titled What really lies behind refugee policy, the main point of which is that the governments of developed countries are demonising refugees so as to pander to economic elites while simultaneously distracting the lower classes by diverting their attention away from the social and economic problems they would otherwise be incensed by.

Now considering that he has written for Leftist-collective blog Larvatus Prodeo, links in his blogroll to Antony Loewenstein and is currently re-reading Karl Marx's Capital (probably for the umpteenth time), it's hardly surprising that Tietze is a deluded fringe-Leftist. It's also unsurprising that the ABC continues to publish his drivel.

Bigpond email scam

Only minutes ago received this email:

ATTN: BIGPOND Account User,

This message is from admin messaging center for all e-mail account
BIGPOND owners.

We are currently upgrading our data base and e-mail account. We are
deleting all unused e-mail account, creating more space for new accounts. To
complete upgrading of your account, you are requested to provide details
below immediately:

Name:

Username:

Password:

Mobile:

Contact address:

You can also check your e-mail address by logging into your account via
http://bigpond.com/, Failure to provide the above details we shall
deactivate your online Account with us. Make sure you use your valid
information requested above, A confirmation code will be sent to you.

Warning! Account holders that their account within seven days of receipt of
the update to this alert is to lose his/her account permanently.

Warning Code: BIGPOND2G99AAJ Thank you, Welcome to WebMail /
Email Webmaster.

Webmail Support
BIGPOND ADMIN (C) 2010

Jeez, the writer of that nonsense makes me look like a master-punctuator. By the way, the from address:

Yufeng-Wen@sjtu.edu.cn

Definitely looks like a genuine Bigpond email.

Caucasian-faced, English-speaking Philippinos teach English via South Korean robots

The brave new world of education:

Almost 30 robots have started teaching English to youngsters in a South Korean city in a pilot project designed to nurture the nascent robot industry.

Engkey, a white, egg-shaped robot developed by the Korea Institute of Science of Technology (KIST), began taking classes on Monday at 21 elementary schools in the southeastern city of Daegu.

The 29 robots, about one metre high with a TV display panel for a face, wheeled around the classroom while speaking to the students, reading books to them and dancing to music by moving their head and arms.

The robots, which display an avatar face of a Caucasian woman, are controlled remotely by teachers of English in the Philippines - who can see and hear the children via a remote control system.

Cameras detect the Filipino teachers' facial expressions and instantly reflect them on the avatar's face, said Sagong Seong-Dae, a senior scientist at KIST.

Just imagine if Koreans were learning English from Australians, or even worse, Kiwis.

Soviet super-warriors

Soviet attempts to create an "invincible human being, insensitive to pain, resistant and indifferent about the quality of food they eat" through crossing humans with apes, ordered by Stalin, didn't go to plan:

Mr Ivanov was highly regarded. He had established his reputation under the Tsar when in 1901 he established the world's first centre for the artificial insemination of racehorses.

Mr Ivanov's ideas were music to the ears of Soviet planners and in 1926 he was dispatched to West Africa with $200,000 to conduct his first experiment in impregnating chimpanzees.

Meanwhile, a centre for the experiments was set up in Georgia - Stalin's birthplace - for the apes to be raised.

Mr Ivanov's experiments, unsurprisingly from what we now know, were a total failure. He returned to the Soviet Union, only to see experiments in Georgia to use monkey sperm in human volunteers similarly fail.

A final attempt to persuade a Cuban heiress to lend some of her monkeys for further experiments reached American ears, with the New York Times reporting on the story, and she dropped the idea amid the uproar.

The likely reward for super-warrior mums: a quiet disappearance.

The true spirit of Australia

On Boxing Day, while motorcycling through the southwest of Western Australia, I pulled over for a few minutes to have a smoke and stretch my legs. While standing there relaxing I noticed a woman of advancing years walking purposely toward me. Upon reaching me she held out her hand and asked "Would you like a slice of homemade Christmas cake?" Totally surprised by this act of kindness I managed to stammer, "That would be lovely, thank you."

The good Samaritan handed me the slice of cake, turned around, headed back to her vehicle (towing a caravan), got in and unceremoniously drove away, her partner waving from the window.

This unsolicited act of kindness renewed my belief that Australians are without a doubt some of the kindest, friendliest people on Earth. The cake was lovely, by the way.

Can't write; still trying

Reluctant author Julian Assange:

"I don't want to write this book, but I have to."

A staunch Assange supporter can't write, but continues to try to:

CNN hearts Bush admin peeps over Wikileaks

Maybe there's a deep and meaningful message in there I'm too dumb to find.

Wired flays Salon's Glenn Greenwald

Salon ranter Glenn Greenwald the other day produced a mammoth posted describing "[t]he worsening journalistic disgrace at Wired" and alleging all sorts of nefarious conduct on the part of Wired senior editor Kevin Poulsen – this relates to the arrest and detention of alleged Wikileaks leaker PFC Bradley Manning. Both Poulsen and Wired's editor-in-chief Evan Hansen have now responded to Greenwald, who continues to look the partisan idiot.

Super model narrowly escapes death

It's a slow news day in Western Australia:

Model Megan Gale has described a frightening brush with death in Perth on Christmas Day, and issued a timely warning to stay safe during the festive season.

The DJs ambassador said she was almost the victim of a potentially life-threatening crash, when another car failed to give way at an intersection and missed her vehicle "by inches''.

With the way West Australians drive misses by inches aren't newsworthy. The non-story did give an excuse to post a sexy photo of Gale in a bikini, however.

Robo-cube

Rubik's cube now more annoying than ever.

Middle-east nuclear proliferation not a problem

Israel's covert 2007 air-attack on Syria did not elicit loud public complaints because the leveled site was a covert nuclear facility established in violation of Syria's commitments under the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Yet a Middle-east "expert" complains that Israel's service to the world in destroying Syria's covert nuclear program was "irresponsible and criminal". Israel must be condemned not matter what.


This post requested by Dan Fan.

Yet more cheap opinion from the ABC

Insanity at the ABC, which today publishes utter nonsense concerning the fate of alleged Wikileaks leaker PFC Bradley Manning. The Unleashed article is jointly written by "retired diplomat" Bruce Haigh and "lawyer and human rights activist" Kellie Tranter, who claim:

Reports confirm that [Manning] is being held in solitary confinement; that he only has one hour outside his cell a day; is on suicide watch and has no access to news.

Manning is not in solitary confinement rather being held in a single-person cell and has daily access to television. After this poor start the article doesn't improve:

The fear is that the US will apply a range of methods, including coercive pressure, such as water boarding and/or blandishments such as a promise of sentence reduction or waiver, in order to extract a confession from Manning that Assange set him up as his agent of supply. The United States has applied this type of pressure in the not too distant past in order to extract ‘confessions’. Will we see a repeat with Manning?

Manning isn't remotely likely to be water boarded and has not been subjected to any abuses other than the "harsh" confinement regime typically found at military confinement facilities. But, the evil American empire has a history that must be considered:

The problem with any US “investigation” like this - for which “witch hunt” may be a more accurate description - is the patterns of behaviour to be found in recent American history.

There is a record of secret support for less than salubrious regimes with undeclared involvement for example in the overthrow of Chilean president Allende, secret support for drug running Panamanian president General Noriega, the corrupt Marcos family in the Phillipines, Ngo Dinh Diem, General Thieu and Air Vice Marshall Ky in South Vietnam and more recently Karzai in Afghanistan: a further quick sampling would highlight the McCarthy witch hunt of “communists” in the 1950s, the Gulf of Tonkin incident staged to justify the war in Vietnam, the invasion of Afghanistan that hinged on blaming the government for 9/11, and assertions about non-existent “weapons of mass destruction” to justify the invasion of Iraq.

There's also a geographical problem for Manning:

Virginia is the headquarters of the Pentagon, Central Intelligence Agency and Department of Homeland Security. Assange’s lawyer, Mark Stephens, has warned that the US has convened a secret federal grand jury. Will a grand jury include people employed by or with family connections to the US national security apparatus? The death penalty is a feature of Virginian law. The stage is set.

The Department of Homeland Security is headquartered in Washington, D.C.. And since Manning is being held in relation to possible federal charges, he is unlikely to be subject to Virginia law.

None of this relevant, of course, which explains why Haigh and Tranter's Leftist screed contains nary a link. Why does Australia's national broadcaster publish such crap?

Lame joker

Ever hear a joke so funny that you keep repeating it to anyone who'll listen? We'll, here's an internet joker who tells a Dr Who joke not once, not twice, but three times.

The only funny thing about it is that the joker is in his mid-30s and LOVES Dr Who.

Stung, twice

Motorists beware:

Police say they will hide behind bushes with speed cameras and use any other tactic they can to catch law-breaking motorists in one of the biggest festive season road blitzes in WA's history.

The traditional post-Christmas Perth exodus began today with heavy traffic headed south. During a round trip to Margaret River the traffic flowed smoothly and briskly; I didn't see a single notable act of behind-the-wheel stupidity. I also saw nary a police vehicle, speed trap, or officer, for that matter. A job well done, I say – it's not like I was speeding, but in over four hours of open road driving I did lots of overtaking and wasn't passed once.

I did get stung however. A bee stung me on the small strip of exposed skin between my helmet and jacket collar – an unlucky hit as this was the only part of my body not covered. A few minutes later another bee zoomed through the tiny gap between my left riding glove and jacket cuff and stung me on the forearm. These minor inconveniences did not detract from a day of joyous high-speed motorcycling, however. Yeeha!

Daily Kos repeats pathetically inaccurate rumours

Joan Carter at the Daily Kos, a source linked by Google News, reports on the dreadful plight of alleged Wikileaks leaker PFC Bradley Manning. Rather than do some basic research Carter instead links to a wildly inaccurate Salon piece by Glenn Greenwald (dated 15 December). Had Carter bothered to expend a little effort she would have found an online report by Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, describing "A Typical Day for PFC Bradley Manning" at the Quantico brig (dated 18 December).

Then again, had Carter gotten the facts right her Lefty readers would be disappointed. So maybe she intentionally failed to report accurately. Carter's either incompetent or not to be trusted.

Lawyer says "high-powered legal representation" an unfair advantage

The "revenge" photos of nude St Kilda players released onto the internet by a disgruntled 17 year-old were published only after the AFL made a determined effort to placate the girl, or so says league boss Andrew Demetriou:

Mr Demetriou said the league has meet with the girl at least 20 times since April.

"We've also provided her with counselling services, support services, certainly accommodation," he told Fairfax Radio.

"We've offered her assistance to provide counselling, offered assistance to her parents.

With the girl threatening to release more photos, St Kilda management had no choice other than legal action. Unfair screams Melbourne barrister Jeremy Sear:

I suppose [St Kilda is] banking on being able to run her into the ground with the significant funds at their disposal – certainly they’re not skimping on the high-powered legal representation. Big football club vs 17 year old nobody: what kind of a fair fight is that?

Seriously, St Kilda and the AFL are in trouble here because of the allegations that their players abused and took advantage of a teenage girl. Do they really think upping the ante and crushing her as thoroughly as they can will improve their image?

Yeah, like posting compromising, alleged stolen photos of players not accused of "abusing" or "taking advantage" of the lass is fighting fair – as far as I know no player has been publicly accused of any impropriety in relation to the girl.

And what's with the complaint about St Kilda hiring "high-powered legal representation"? Surely barrister Jeremy would advise anyone pursuing legal action to hire the most competent representation available. Nah, do the right thing and go for the low-powered representation. Hey, here's a thought, perhaps Jeremy could offer the girl some legal advice to, you know, put her mind at ease.

Anyway, it was, coincidentally 17 years ago that a jury awarded $350,000 to rugby player Andrew Ettingshausen for an unauthorised nude photo that may, or may not, have shown his penis. Yikes!

It'll be really interesting to see how this stoush works out.

Update: The girl and St Kilda have reached an agreement:

The 17-year-old, who cannot be named, appeared five minutes late to today's hearing in Melbourne's Federal Court.

Her lawyer told the court his client is a vulnerable child who is estranged from her parents and only received legal advice for the first time this afternoon.

Lawyers for the St Kilda Football Club were also present, and the parties have agreed all images allegedly taken from Gilbert's computer will be destroyed, except for one copy to be kept on a USB stick at the court.

Rest easy, Jeremy.

Update II: Jeremy should be aware that wealth is no guarantee of legal success. Earlier this year a solitary individual, paying his own way, took on the multi-million dollar media company for whom Sear writes and beat them like a rented mule. Booyah!

Dog smarter than many teenagers

Behold a dog with a 1,022 word working vocabulary. And unlike human students, the dog is keen to learn. Perhaps Antony Loewenstein should considering hiring the mutt as a tutor. Get the ball. See Sally run. And so on.

Show us the money trail

Postfinance spokesman Alex Josty on the early December forced closure of Julian Assange's Swiss bank account:

That's his money, he will get his money back. We just close the account.

According to the AP report, Assange's lawyers claimed that in the short time the account was active €31,000 (AU$41,950) had accumulated.

It is unclear, however, who that money actually belongs to and what it can be used for. Where did the money come from? Was the money donated to Assange or to Wikileaks? Is Wikileaks a functioning non-profit enterprise, a charitable organisation or a company? What is the organisation's tax status? Is Assange paid a wage, a salary, fees or can he dip into accumulated funds at his discretion? What is Assange's status with the Australian Tax Office?

For the sake of transparency Wikileaks must reveal its books and give a proper accounting of this money flow. Don't hold your breath.

Update: Assange is awarded free membership in the Media, Entertainment & Arts Alliance after his credit card was supposedly canceled. So Assange can travel all around the planet, afford accommodation, secure the best lawyers and feed himself but is unable to pay union dues. Right.

Update II: Professional musician and academic Mark Levine, who uses his MacBook Pro "10 or more hours a day", demands an Apple boycott after iTunes withdraws a Wikileaks app. Seriously, get a life, geek.

Anti-capitalist Julian Assange incapable of rape

Fringe-Leftist Jacinda Woodhead, an associate editor at fringe-Left literary journal Overland, gives her take on the sticky legal situation confronting Julian Assange:

The problem, as I see it, can be summarised like so:

1. Rape is a crime of capitalism. It’s about power and dominance, and capitalism takes people’s power away. It is systemic.

2. The state will do anything to hide its secrets – even using women as a political tool.

3. WikiLeaks has done outstanding work; this is separate to the individual behaviours of Julian Assange.

4. Just because you’re a woman, it doesn’t make you a feminist.

5. The state currently has no interest in protecting women’s rights.

6. We want a justice system that works for the people.

7. Women are being used, as usual, for political purposes.

Interestingly, the aptly named Woodhead starts off her passionate, opinion-laden piece:

Let me begin with my position: I have no opinion on the allegations regarding Julian Assange.

But soon adds:

People are afraid of rape. People have been hurt by rape. But these charges against Assange are not about rape.

Yep, the evil American empire is the real worry, so to Hell with the sexual impropriety allegations:

Even those who feel that Assange’s sentencing will be a win for women everywhere and change the tide of rape convictions forever must realise that Sweden intends to hold Assange until the US determines what they can charge him with.

Jeez, the geeks' Messiah could end up in one of those notorious American prisons. Too bad, I say.

Update: Click the link above and browse the comments, some of which make Woodhead seem almost sane by comparison. Lefties obviously have plenty of time to give to typing utter crap. Jeez, just imagine the electricity saved, and carbon dioxide, if these brainiacs had jobs.

Note: Dud Overland link fixed.

Fans out of control

Click to read a classic – both funny and succinct, even terse – rebuff of a letter of complaint.

Australia's copy and paste king

Sydney Morning Herald journalist Lenore Taylor cops heavy criticism from independent "journalist" Antony Loewenstein – pardon me while I take a moment to control the vomit rising in my throat – who accuses Taylor of regurgitating the official Israeli position with what amounts to "stenography". Oddly enough, Loewenstein's home page currently displays posts totaling 5,306 words, including post titles, of which 4,658 words were written by others. In other words, 88% of Loewenstein's current blogging output is copied and pasted, a task much easier than stenography. The guy is a joke.

Wikileaks: the Jews of the internet

Julian Assange, the internet geeks' Messiah, is his own worst enemy:

All sorts of abusive statements were made against the Jewish people in the 1950s and before. I'm not the Jewish people, but the people who believe in freedom of speech and accountability [are in the same position].

Assange is a self-promoting flash in the pan with no claim to fame. Keep talking, Julian.

Can't argue your case? Go for name-calling

A rather colourful post from Andrew Bolt-obsessive Jeremy Sear, Pure Poison's sole remaining foundation member. Rather than simply argue his lame case, Sear opts for the smear, attacking both Bolt and his commenters, who he derides as "concern trolls over at News Ltd’s blog of shame". Also featuring: "nasty, selfish, destructive"; "inhumane"; "cynically mis-informed and partisan sheep"; "garbage, and the logic of the bully and the thug"; "noisiest mouthpieces"; and "spiteful idiots ".

What is it with the Left and name-calling?

Incompetence noted

Moving at lightning speed copying and pasting the work of others, Antony Loewenstein doesn't have time to spell check the short self-written titles and blurbs he attaches to the work he pirates, so we end up with this:

Don’t blame Wikileaks for our incompetance

The irony of this error will no doubt escape Loewenstein, who should avoid big, difficult-to-spell words like "incompetence" unless he's doing a self-appraisal.

Women haters: Assange and his supporters

An epiphany at the Guardian:

It is impossible to make judgments about what happened in private circumstances: that will be for the Swedish courts eventually to decide. But it is wrong that the notion that the allegations are simply a conspiracy or smear should go unexamined. Having been given access to the relevant Swedish police papers – including the womens' claims and Assange's rebuttal – we have felt it right to present a brief summary of the nature of the complaints, together with Assange's response. It is unusual for a sex offence case to be presented outside of the judicial process in such a manner, but then it is unheard of for a defendant, his legal team and supporters to so vehemently and publicly attack women at the heart of a rape case.

Assange should voluntarily return to Sweden to defend himself; we should accept nothing less from a defender of openness and honesty. Don't hold your breath.

Update: A dullard accuses the Guardian of smearing Assange.

Stockholm bomber farewelled

The death of alleged suicide bomber Taymour Abdulwahabn is not mourned by his father-in-law:

We did not know and were not aware of his criminal plans. We feel no sorrow. We are not sad about his death. Quite the opposite.

My daughter Mona has been tricked into living with him. She did not know her husband was a criminal, or about his hidden and open intentions. I count his departure as the door to freedom for my daughter. Now she can be free from the brainwashing of terrorism.

With his action, he denies all the good he has received from Sweden, Sweden which took us in [and] has given us what no Arab or Muslim country has given us.

Nicely put.

Meat pie

Update: Granny bodies aren't always suitable for advertising:

Air New Zealand is removing a billboard in Nelson with the tagline "Fares lower than your grandma's boobs" after it sparked complaints that it is tacky, ageist and disrespectful to women.

There's no fighting gravity.

I'm Julian Assange and I know where you live. Wanna get naked?

In the digital age information is, more than ever, accessible and empowering. Thus it is surprising that lawyer Jeremy Sear decries the release of information revealing of Julian Assange's courting activities:

Shame on Gawker for going all News of the World and publishing a personal email exchange between Julian Assange and a girl in whom he was interested many years ago.

Is Julain Assange a creep, a socially inept geek or a sexual predator? You decide.

Edutainment

Young Victorian of the Year 2009 Thom Woodroofe insists that schools must take "education to where the students are" by embracing "iPod & iPhone technology in the classroom" because traditional education is... Oh My God!... "boring".

Yes, only by making education interesting and entertaining will students be properly prepared for the always wonderfully interesting and entertaining world of work.

Idiot.

Pure Poison's puerile pontifications

Chuckling chums Jeremy & Dave stammer and weave through an analysis of Christmas Island-related media in this week's Pure Poison podcast – “Amazing how a bit of tragedy can light things up!" Ha ha! Jeremy’s halting summary of David Marr’s Sydney Morning Herald piece (“he’s just asking a question”) is more evasive and disingenuous than you’d ever expect, even for him. His anxious delivery betrays that he knows he’s lying.

Jeremy and Dave, the dynamic duo of intellectual dishonesty debunking, have another epic fail in accepting as factual a "great" but unspecified article describing the incarceration conditions of alleged Wikileaks source Bradley Manning, supposedly locked up in solitary confinement "without any human contact" for 23 hours a day, "medicated with anti-depressants and things to stop him going nuts" and with "no stimulus" available to him whatsoever. Yet the U.S. Army says Manning is, like other "maximum security" prisoners, held in a single cell rather than solitary confinement, allowed to converse with other prisoners and to have visitors, and has limited access to a TV.

PP boys Jeremy and Dave would do well to put more effort into verifying their material rather than trying to sound "sexy" on the internet.

Update: Manning, jailed in a manner fitting his alleged crimes, is "being tortured".

Carbon credit scam

HFC-23, a super-potent greenhouse gas, is a byproduct of refrigerant HCFC-22 production. Although HFC-23 has little industrial value, it is nonetheless valuable to the Indian and Chinese refrigerant manufacturers handsomely rewarded, under the terms of the Kyoto protocol's Clean Development Mechanism (CDM), for capturing and incinerating HFC-23:

As a result, the "waste gas" HFC-23 has become much more profitable to refrigerant factories than HCFC-22 itself. Watchdog groups like the London-based Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) say the compensation system ends up providing a strong incentive to overproduce HCFC-22, using methods that maximise the output of HFC-23.

With the carbon credits worth an estimated 100 times the cost of disposal, refrigerant manufacturers have discovered a nice little "green" money maker.

Columnist's resignation demanded

Greens Senator Bob Brown demands that Herald Sun columnist and blogger Andrew Bolt keep his opinions to himself:

Dear [ Herald Sun] Editor,

Andrew Bolt has blood on his hands. He stridently insisted on the invasion and killings in Iraq which led to millions fleeing. Some of those millions ended up in the ocean off Christmas Island on Wednesday.

Andrew Bolt’s call, while bodies were still in the ocean, for Julia Gillard’s resignation (but the Labor Party opposed the war in Iraq) lacked human decency. He should resign.

Senator Brown is apparently unaware that, like Bolt, 2010 Nobel peace prize-winner Liu Xiaobo staunchly supported the Iraq war. Like Brown a dimwitted Lefty, Antony Loewenstein misreads Brown's resignation demand, blogging "Greens demand Murdoch hack get a clue and fired".

The cluelessness of the Left is stupefyingly entertaining.

Jews warned of southern anti-semitism

No, not the redneck-rich American south but rather immigrant-rich southern Sweden:

A US-based Jewish group has issued a travel warning urging Jews to exercise "extreme caution" when traveling in southern Sweden.

“We reluctantly are issuing this advisory because religious Jews and other members of the Jewish community there have been subject to anti-Semitic taunts and harassment,” said Dr. Shimon Samuels, Director of International Relations with the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Centre, in a statement.

“There have been dozens of incidents reported to the authorities but have not resulted in arrests or convictions for hate crimes.”

Irrational Jew haters are everywhere.

Blogging lawyer exceeds brief

Crikey's Pure Poison's raison d'être is exposing "intellectual dishonesty" in the media yet today Jeremy Sear injects the Australian blog into American politics, referring to the rejection of a bill as "political bastardry". In fact, Time magazine and a dissenting Republican have explained the issues with the bill.

Lawyer Jeremy should adhere to his brief by staying out of U.S. politics, a topic about which he knows very little.

Assange: No conspiracy, just spurned women making bogus charges

Julian Assange's lawyer in Sweden, Bjorn Hurtig, having read court documents, knows what's behind the allegations of sexual impropriety and it's certainly not political pressure from the United States, or any other country:

Hurtig told the Mail on Sunday: "From what I have read, it is clear that the women are lying and that they had an agenda when they went to the police, which had nothing to do with a crime having taken place.

"It was, I believe, more about jealousy and disappointment on their part. I can prove that at least one of them had very big expectations for something to happen with Julian."

Hurtig admits that there is no evidence of a "conspiracy" to get his client. A Swedish legal scholar agrees:

Hans Eklund, a law professor in criminal law at Uppsala University, believes much of the speculation about supposed ulterior motives on the part of the Swedish prosecutor likely comes from a misunderstanding of the Swedish legal system.

“There is no political conspiracy in the way the judiciary has handled this case,” Eklund told The Local.

“That’s totally absurd, just ridiculous. Something taken from thin air.”

It is thus clear that Hurtig is attempting to smear Assange's accusers, as so often happens in such cases – women aiming for revenge have made bogus allegations.

Wikileaks, Assange and his lawyer, women haters the lot of them.

Solar panel complaints escalate

West Australian residential solar panel owners are disillusioned:

State-owned electricity retailer Synergy has warned customers to lower their expectations about the financial benefits of solar panel installations amid a wave of complaints about the systems under-delivering.

Amid figures which reveal that solar panel installations were among the biggest sources of annoyance for Synergy customers, the utility said many people held unrealistic beliefs about how much money the systems could make.

It comes as record numbers of people in WA take up generous State and Federal incentives to have the devices installed, many hoping to cover the cost of their power and sell surplus generated power back into the grid.

Synergy spokesman Andrew Gaspar said the number of installations had risen from a handful a month to about 600 a week, with almost 30,000 homes having solar panels for power on their roofs compared to just 1000 in July 2008.

Caveat emptor.

High-priced sex toys

A West Australian couple is producing ultra-exclusive gem and pearl-encrusted precious metal sex toys. The $1 million vibrator is no mere sex toy, however, designed as it is to appeal to those with deep pockets and an interest in "erotica and art – not the tawdry end of the adult market."

Despite the $1 million price tag the vibrator has the unmistakably fishy scent of tawdry sex to it.

Over-used

Over, one of wordsmith Antony Loewenstein's favourite misused words.

Clinging to Julian Assange's coat-tails

Hoping to increase book sales and raise his profile, Antony Loewenstein organises a rally to help save Julian Assange from possible sex charges:

Spokesperson Antony Loewenstein, an independent journalist and author of My Israel Question and The Blogging Revolution, says that the Australian government has failed in its responsibilities towards Australian citizen Julian Assange.

“The Gillard government should be praising the bravery of an individual who dares reveal the realities of international diplomacy.

“The public has a right to know why we are in Afghanistan, why we support Israel, how the US views us and which ministers are relying information to Washington.”

Despite Assange being held in the U.K. in relation to a warrant from Sweden, Loewenstein and anyone stupid enough to join him "will march on the U.S. consulate to demand":

* Julian Assange is afforded all legal rights and released from custody.

* Governments recognise Wikileaks as enjoying the same freedoms as all other media outlets.

* The Australian Government retracts all statements and threats which have shown their utter disregard for the public’s right to know what governments are doing.

Idiots of a feather...

Bolt-lust shows no sign of waning

PP boy Jeremy Sear’s obsession with Andrew Bolt has now lasted almost twice as long as his first marriage, and shows no sign of ending. Yet way back in February 2005, Sear promised:

I think this is enough Andrew Bolt for a while. ... It was a brief fling, but I'm bored with him now.

From now on, Andrew Bolt-related posts only when I'm desperate for material.

Over the 95 weeks it has been online, Crikey's Pure Poison has produced a cult-like 363 Bolt-posts, 131 of them authored by a "desperate for material" Jeremy. One more year and Jeremy’s “brief fling” will be longer than World War Two.

His mate at Crikey, Dave Gaukroger, is only a novice Bolt-luster, but he shares Jeremy’s gift for stupid. In a recent Tweet, Dave sarcastically wrote that the Daily Telegraph’s “accuracy” was his favourite thing about the newspaper. But Dave’s Tweet was inaccurate. He blames the Daily Telegraph for those bogus naked Pauline Hanson photographs. That was the Sunday Telegraph.

Stockholm jihadi gutless

An inept suicide bomber attempting to take out Swedes fails miserably:

A man who arrived on the scene before the police arrived told the Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper that the dead man had a large wound in his abdomen.

“It looked like the man was carrying something that exploded on his stomach. He didn’t have any injuries to his face or his body and the stores nearby weren’t damaged. All the windows were whole,” the witness told DN.

It appears that much of the small blast was absorbed by an intact bag of nails found at the scene. Gutless idiot nailed himself.

Borrowing easier than writing

A massive 2,502 word pro-Wikileaks post today from Antony Loewenstein. Not unexpectedly journalist Loewenstien wrote only 124 of those words, the other 2,378 "borrowed" from four commercial sources employing actual journalists. There is no such thing as Copyright in Loewy-land.

Nerds on speed bitch-fest

This week’s highlight from the Pure Poison Podcast: Dave Gaukroger thinks that “wan” is pronounced “waaan”. Wrong. “Waaan” is the sound co-host Jeremy Sear makes whenever he gets bitch-slapped online, which is all the time.

Suicidal bombers

It could just be that most suicide bombers are simply suicidal.

Scott Bridges ignores his greatest achievement

Al Jazeera recruit Scott Bridges at his personal blog:

I've blogged since 2003 in various places such as Crikey's Pure Poison and Back In A Bit, and the group blog Groupthink.

But for some reason Bridges fails to mention the blog he spent "literally thousands of hours... building, maintaining, moderating and writing", enlightened Lefty site Grods. Funny that.

Bromance revealed

The Drum, ABC News's cheap opinion arm, today publishes more drivel from "political analyst" Antony Loewenstein, who can't make it past the second paragraph before screwing up:

Who can now say that the WikiLeaks cables detail no new information?

It was only last week that ABC TV’s 7.30 Report featured a story with supposed foreign affairs experts, including the Lowy Institute’s Michael Fullilove, who largely dismissed the significance of the document dump. Within a few days these men were all proven wrong.

Now we know Labor powerbroker Mark Arbib sends confidential information to the Americans. He’s not alone.

At least the three "foreign affairs experts" featured on the 7:30 Report possess foreign affairs expertise whereas Loewenstein does not. The experts were not proven wrong as Lowenstein claims, two of them agreeing that the Wikileaks leaks are significant, with Michael Fullilove restating the obvious:

A lot of the news that is breaking is things that we sort of knew anyway. We knew that Gulf States don't trust Iran. We knew that China doesn't like Google.

Loewenstein also comes up short on his claim that Mark Arbib leaked "confidential information to the Amercians", the linked article indicating nothing of the sort.

True to form, Loewenstein's article is full of rash judgments and language mangling:

The fact that the US had followed the rise of Julia Gillard and approved her views on the American alliance, Afghanistan and Israeli aggression is worrying though unsurprising.

It’s extremely rare that a leader rises who hasn’t received American approval or extensive years of obedience grooming. Former Labor leader Mark Latham was loathed by the US because he publicly expressed scepticism about the US alliance, the war in Iraq and then-president George W Bush.

Right, as if Latham was ever going to be Prime Minister no matter what the U.S. thought about him.

And finally, Loewenstein republishes the article at his blog giving it the rather cryptic title "Wikileaks exposes the bromance between journalists and politics". Jeez, it's no wonder the guy's a best selling author and a regular at Fairfax and the ABC.

Update: Loewenstein not only can't write, he can't count, estimating the crowd at today's "big" Sydney pro-Assange rally as 2,000, whereas AAP estimates more than 500 and the Sydney Morning Herald counts fewer than 800. Jeez, Sydney seems to have a shortage of unemployed Lefties with time to kill. Then again, no one in even close to their right mind would willingly suffer Loewenstein's endless adolescent bagpipe-like dronings.

Wikileaks front man entitled to a free pass on sex charges

Julian Assange, co-founder of Wikeleaks, has been arrested not for his whistle-blowing activities but rather so that he can be questioned in relation to alleged sex offences:

The charges against Assange stem from a visit that the nomadic former computer hacker made to Sweden to give a seminar in August.

When Assange appeared before a London court following his arrest on Tuesday, Gemma Lindfield, representing the Swedish authorities, told the judge that Assange was wanted in connection with four allegations made by two women.

She told the court the first complainant, identified only as Miss A, said she was victim of "unlawful coercion" on the night of August 14th this year in Stockholm.

The court heard Assange is accused of using his body weight to hold her down in a sexual manner.

The second charge alleged Assange "sexually molested" Miss A by having sex with her without a condom when it was her "express wish" one should be used.

The third charge claimed Assange "deliberately molested" Miss A on August 18th "in a way designed to violate her sexual integrity."

The fourth charge accused Assange of having sex with a second woman, Miss W, on August 17th without a condom while she was asleep at her Stockholm home.

According to Assange's supporters he should, because he is seen as a modern day Ned Kelly, get a free pass. WTF?

Personal secrets to stay secret

Antony Loewenstein, free speech advocate and staunch Wikileaks supporter, balks at the idea of revealing his personal secrets, book contract details, for example. In fact, Loewenstein is anything but a promoter of free speech, refusing to post dissenting comments at his blog; also declining to reveal sales figures for his "best-selling" My Israel Question.

Loewenstein is a first class hypocrite, but anyone familiar with his drivel already knew that.

Too good to be true

Desperate for a love, a Perth widow "meets" her dream man, a self-proclaimed multi-millionaire businessman, at an internet dating site, and is bilked out of a small fortune. It isn't clear exactly why the woman expected that a rich, desirable man would resort to trolling for a wife on the internet. Fools and their money...

Anti-Assange conspiracy imagined

A decidedly strange tweet from Greens Senator Sarah Hanson-Young:

Would the govt be talking about passports & charges if The [Australian] had got their hands on the leaks given to WikiLeaks first? I think not.

The senator's ill-informed comment ignores that the Wall Street Journal, a stablemate of the Australian, was offered the Wikileaks document dump but declined to participate.

Senator Hanson-Young apparently thinks that Rupert Murdoch and the Gillard government are participants in a massive anti-Assange conspiracy. All one need do is throw out the suggestion and Leftists start imagining right-wingers subverting Australian democracy. Check under your beds Lefties; right-wing conspirators are everywhere.

Wikileaks and Assange: women haters?

Wikileaks and Julian Assange's lawyer liken Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny and the women pursuing charges as persecutors of an innocent. Perhaps it's time for Assange to clear the air by voluntarily turning himself in and returning to Sweden, where he once sought refuge. Smearing Assange's accusers just ain't gonna cut it as a defense.

Meanwhile, prosecutor Marianne Ny denies she has been pressured to pursue Assange.

Solar power overload

The pace of residential solar cell installations, currently running at some 2,500 per month, provokes anxiety:

West Australians are signing up to sell excess power from home solar panels at such a rapid rate that there are fears they could overload the grid and cause power surges that destroy household appliances.

The law of unintended consequences in action.

BMW stands by its products

In April I lashed out by buying a BMW Streetguard motorcycle jacket from Procycles Hornsby. The jacket is a delight to wear in cooler conditions and proved to be totally rain-proof. Unfortunately, one of the jacket's waterproof zippers failed in November so I posted it back to Procycles, which soon thereafter notified me that a replacement jacket has been sent to me no questions asked.

If you're in the market for the highest quality motorcycle apparel I suggest you try Procycles range of BMW products – Procycles also stocks KTM and Triumph gear.

"Scientist" Tim Lambert's war on reality

UNSW computer technician Tim Lambert, renowned for posting erroneous, uncorrected bullshit, finds numerous "errors" in a Brian Dunning Skeptoid podcast and, of course, expects a correction. Supporting Lambert is the notoriously wrong "Bug Girl". What is it with scientists and their war on reality?

Hypocrite lawyer

Jeremy Sear and Dave Gaukroger, the Gilmore Girls of the internet, enjoy a high-pitched conversation. One topic is defamation, and how bad it is when people who Jeremy doesn’t
like take legal action.

But Jeremy doesn’t mention how often he himself takes – or threatens to take – legal action. By my count at least three different bloggers have at one time or another received a legal threat from Sear, who rarely backs up his threats with any actual writs.

As the Gilmore Girls say, it has a "chilling effect" on free speech.

Sweden supreme court rules Assange arrest warrant vaild

Julian Assange's mum refuses to believe her son is guilty of alleged sex crimes but Sweden's supreme court has ruled the international arrest warrant valid. Will Assange yet stand trial or will he end up with a bullet to the brain? Stay tuned.

The ABC again publishes semi-literate "cheap" opinion rather than pay for knowledgeable commentary

The Wikileaks document dump elicits a language-mangling frenzy from Antony Loewenstein, who sees the documents as providing a "litany of information". Another Loewenstein clanger refers to the "utterly spinelessness" of Amazon for shutting down the Wikileaks site.

It's no wonder then that the ABC has published Loewenstein's superficial and less than lucid analysis of the impact of the Wikileaks release, in which he refers to the "litany of documents that prove Israel and the US looking to spy on Palestinian officials and gather information such as frequent flyer and credit card numbers."

The guy can't master the use of "litany" yet he's frequently published as providing "analysis". That's out ABC, sourcing cheap opinion rather than knowledgeable commentary.