'Glass hold' Reveals Personality Drinking types

Which type are you?

The way you hold your glass can reveal much more than you might realise, a psychologist has warned.

Dr Glenn Wilson, a consultant psychologist, observed the body language of 500 drinkers and divided them into eight personality types.

These were the flirt, the gossip, fun lover, wallflower, the ice-queen, the playboy, Jack-the-lad and browbeater.

Dr Wilson, who carried out the work for the Walkabout bar chain, said glass hold "reflected the person you are".

The types of drinker are:

THE FLIRT

This is usually a woman, who holds her glass with dainty, splayed fingers and uses it in a provocative way.

She may position it over her cleavage so as to draw attention to her attributes or peer over the rim to make eye contact when taking a sip - and she may "tease" the rim of the glass with her finger, perhaps dipping it into the drink and sucking it dry.

THE GOSSIP

Again, usually a woman who clusters together with her friends. She may be talking about other people, and can be critical. She holds a wine glass by the bowl and uses it to gesticulate and make points in conversation.

She is inclined to lean over her drink, in towards others so as to speak confidentially. This person already has a close-knit social group with little inclination to extend it, therefore advances from outsiders are not usually welcome.

THE FUN-LOVER

This type of drinker could be a man or a woman. They tend to be sociable and convivial and "like a laugh".

They take short swigs from bottled drinks so they don't miss out on chipping in with the conversation.

The bottle is held loosely at its shoulder for ease. This type of person is always happy to extend their social circle. The best way to approach them therefore is to leap directly into light, good-humoured conversation and make them laugh.

THE WALLFLOWER

Usually a shy, submissive person who holds the glass protectively, not letting go, as though afraid somebody will take it away.

Palms are kept hidden and the glass is used as a social crutch - the drink is never quite finished, with a mouthful left in case of emergency. The drink is small - maybe half a pint of lager for a man.


When you're in a crowded bar, often all you have to go on is body language
Dr Glenn Wilson

It may be drunk through a straw, which is fidgeted with, and used to stir the drink between sips.

The style and pace of drinking is an echo of those around them - very little is initiated.

This individual needs to be approached in a gentle, sensitive way, with perhaps a few understated compliments to build self-confidence, but may eventually warm to overtures.

THE ICE-QUEEN

This is a mainly female type whose natural style is cold and defensive.

She drinks from a wine glass, or a short glass, which is held firmly in a barrier position across the body so as to deter intimate approaches.

It is usually a waste of time approaching this woman; she may be ready with a castrating put-down.

THE PLAYBOY

This man is active and self-confident; a "Don Juan"-type seducer.

He uses his, usually long, glass or bottle as a phallic prop, playing with it suggestively. He is inclined to be possessive, and can be tactile with his female companions.

THE JACK-THE-LAD

This "peacock" is conscious of his image and will drink a bottled beer, or cider.

He is inclined to be confident and arrogant, and can be territorial in his gestures, spreading himself over as much space as possible, for example, pushing the glass well away from himself and leaning back in his chair.

If he is drinking with friends, he would be unlikely to welcome approaches from outside the group, unless sycophantic and ego-enhancing.

THE BROWBEATER

Again usually male, he prefers large glasses, or bottles, which he uses as symbolic weapons, firmly grasped, and gesticulating in a threatening, "in the face" kind of way.

Something of a know-it-all, he can come across as slightly hostile, even if only through verbal argument, or jokes targeted at others. He should be approached with great care, or not at all.

'An unconscious thing'

Dr. Wilson said: "The simple act of holding a drink displays a lot more about us than we realise - or might want to divulge.

"When you're in a crowded bar, often all you have to go on is body language.

"To a large extent, it's an unconscious thing and just reflects the person you are and the type of social relationships you have."

But he warned: "The next time you're in a bar, it might be worth thinking about what you're saying to the people around you, just by the way you're holding your glass."

I hope you find some of these entries interesting or amusing.

You can send a comment from here if you wish.

End of Newspapers

Internet age could pulp newspapers

By Thea Dikeos for The 7:30 Report

Laura Lippman believes it is only now dawning on people that newspapers may not be around forever. (The 7:30 Report)

• Video: Interview with Laura Lippman (7.30 Report)
• Video: David Simon's testimony US Senate Inquiry into future of journalism (7.30 Report)
• Related Link: Uncertain future for newspapers

Crime novelist Laura Lippman is in Australia for the Sydney Writers' Festival, she also worked as a reporter for 12 years at the Baltimore Sun. She spoke with the 7.30 Report's Thea Dikeos about the demise of American newspapers in the internet age and witnessing a well-respected paper struggling to survive.

Laura Lippman is passionate about her home town of Baltimore and newspapers.

"I like the paper newspaper I grew up with it. You'll have to pry it from my cold dead hand," she says.

Ms Lippman worked as a reporter for the Baltimore Sun for 12 years. She says, at its peak, the Sun was a well-respected newspaper with foreign correspondents around the world.

"At its height it had nine foreign bureaus. It was a tough newspaper to get hired by," she said.

"It took me, I think, almost 10 years of trying after I left school to get hired by the Baltimore Sun, because they didn't hire people who didn't have a lot of experience. It was not a place where many people came out of college and started."

In the United States, mastheads that have published the news for more than a century are falling into bankruptcy, going online or closing down altogether.

Ms Lippman believes it is only now dawning on people that newspapers may not be around forever.

"It's only been in the past two years that people came to terms with the fact that the industry could die," she said.

While the global financial meltdown has hit newspapers hard, some argue the rise of the internet and the subsequent collapse of classified ad revenue poses a fundamental threat to the viability of the business model which has sustained big-city newspapers for centuries.

"One of the things that made newspapers so attractive back in the 80s when families everywhere were selling them to corporations was they were making an immense amount of money. American newspapers were used to profits margins of 20 per cent. The average grocery store is lucky to return a profit of one to two per cent," she said.

And Ms Lippman does not think you can rely on citizen journalists and bloggers to keep the institutions of power in a democracy accountable.

"What's going to happen in cities across America is somebody is going to wake up one morning and there will be a big neon sign across the street and it will be a strip club. Well, how did that happen? Because no one covers city hall much less going to the zoning meeting."

Ms Lippman's husband David Simon was also a reporter at the Baltimore Sun and is the creator of the critically acclaimed series The Wire.

He recently gave testimony at the US Senate committee inquiry into the future of journalism.

"You do not, in my city, run into bloggers or so-called citizen journalists at city hall, or in the courthouse hallways, or in the bars where police officers gather," he said.

"You don't see them consistently nurturing and then pressing sources. You don't see them holding institutions accountable on a daily basis. Why? Because high-end journalism is a profession. It requires daily full-time commitment by trained men and women who return to the same beats day in day out."

He suggested that newspapers should charge for internet copyright and favours a non-profit model to fund the kind of journalism that was once the preserve of big city newspapers.

Australian Disaster Response

Disaster response review kept secret: author

By Simon Lauder for PM

Australian governments were warned years before that they would have difficulty dealing with a catastrophic disaster like the February bushfires in Victoria. (AAP: Andrew Brownbill)

The Royal Commission into the Victorian bushfires has heard that Australian governments kept secret a review of the nation's ability to respond to natural disasters.

It has emerged that Australian governments were warned years before that they would have difficulty dealing with a catastrophic disaster like the February bushfires which killed 173 people in Victoria.

A report on the topic was prepared in October 2005 by Australia's Catastrophic Disasters Emergency Management Capability Working Group.

It was only released in the months after the February bushfires.

The report modelled responses to four hypothetical scenarios; an earthquake in Western Australia, a cyclone in Cairns, a tsunami in New South Wales and a national influenza pandemic.

One of the authors of the report was Tony Pearce who is now the head of Emergency Management Australia which is in charge of the Commonwealth Government's response to disasters.

Mr Pearce faced questions about the report from counsel assisting the royal commission, Rachel Doyle.

When questioned, Mr Pearce confirmed the report was not released until two weeks ago.

Senior officials for state and territory governments, and the Federal Government, were shown the report in December 2006.

The report found 'significant limitations' in Australia's capacity to deal with catastrophic events and recommended the Federal Government take a leadership role.

Mr Pearce was asked to explain why the report was kept under wraps.

He said the decision was made by all Australian governments.

"Ultimately the decision taken was a national decision taken by all states and territories not to release the report, it was not a Commonwealth stand alone position," he said.

Mr Pearce said that the report could have engendered fear in the community if it had been taken out of context.

"If you didn't understand the ways that the scenarios are being developed and the fact that the scenarios were, whilst credible, very highly unlikely but were developed specifically to a level to make sure that we could achieve a catastrophic state so that we knew what we were trying to respond to.

"If people didn't understand that, if you just simply read the report, read one of these scenarios and read one of the recommendations, that could lead you down any number of pathways as to whether or not that was going to happen to you tomorrow.

Last year a journalist tried to get hold of the report, but a freedom of information request was rejected on the grounds its publication could damage government relations.

The Commission heard it was only after the Victorian bushfires, on April 30 this year, the Council of Australian Governments agreed there was an "urgent need" to re-examine Australia's capacity to cope with natural disasters.

Tony Pearce told the hearing the 2005 report made 32 recommendations, half of which have already been acted on or are being progressed.

More Catholic Abuse

Abuse at St Stanislaus

Police have arrested and charged another man in connection with a series of alleged child sex offences at a college in Bathurst in central west New South Wales.

A 76-year-old man from Wattle Grove, south of Hobart, is the eighth man charged over sexual assaults that allegedly took place at two Bathurst schools between 1960 and 1993.

"The charges relate to alleged offences against two former Catholic school students dating back to the 1960s," police said in a statement.

It has not yet been confirmed if the man was a teacher at the school.

The man has been charged with four counts of indecent assault on a male, relating to alleged offences against two students at St Stanislaus College in the 1960s.

He has been granted conditional bail.

Strike Force Belle, established to investigate allegations of sexual assaults on students at St Stanislaus, led to the arrest of staff including the school's former principal, vice-principal and chaplain.

Police have not ruled out further people being charged by Strike Force Belle detectives.

Optus - nasty Christmas present

Optus customers got a nasty Christmas present from their telco: a warning that they would be billed international rates if they attempted to make VoIP calls on their mobiles.

Optus customers received an SMS informing them that calling certain Australian mobile numbers would now be charged at international rates.

“All calls that re-route or divert to international numbers are charged at 29c per min + 27c flagfall," the text message read.

This came as a surprise to customers on 'yes' Timeless or Optus Cap plans which are advertised as including “unlimited Standard voice calls to any network within Australia - local, national and GSM mobiles”.

To any reasonable person, this would have included VoIP and calling card services that use a mobile or PSTN number as a dial-in point before connecting the call to the overseas party.

However, Optus claims a clause in its lengthy "standard form of agreement" allows them to levy these new fees. The SFOA is not provided to customers when they sign up, but customers are forced to sign that they agree with it sight-unseen when they sign up with Optus. It states in Clause 5.1(a) “We will charge you for calls made to international destinations […] at Optus’ international rates...”

Given major telcos like Optus have failed to pass on the vast cost savings in international calling in recent years due to VoIP, many customers have taken advantage of more competitive rates from calling card companies or VoIP providers such as freedomcalls.com.au, comfortcalls.com.au or smartcalling.com.au which offer international VoIP calls for free.

To use these services, people dial a local PSTN or mobile number from their phone, and then, once connected, dial in the number they want to call overseas, and the VoIP provider connects them. )

The point is, Optus' involvement in carrying the call ends once the call is terminated at the Australian PSTN or mobile number. Optus does not have to carry the call to the overseas destination and therefore incurs no international carriage cost in doing so.

It seems that Optus is becoming increasingly irritated that its customers can use these VoIP services (or any other calling card style carrier) to make considerably cheaper or (in some cases) free international calls rather than paying Optus’s more expensive rates. So Optus has attempted to put a stop to this practice.

Customers who signed up in good faith to a ‘yes’ Timeless or Optus Cap plans have suddenly found that a call to certain mobile numbers are not covered under their plan and they will be hit with higher rates if they can even get through at all.

Nizi Bhandari, the CEO of freedomcalls.com.au, was furious to find his company’s VoIP access number affected by Optus. Bhandari explains that his business relies on customers ringing a standard Australian mobile number 0424 215 152 which then allows them to be connected to up to 70 countries at no charge above the normal rate they paid Optus to call a mobile.

Many of Bhandari’s customers signed up with Optus for up to 2 years on an unlimited cap plan believing that they call any mobile number untimed. “When some of my customers on the Optus network try to call my company’s access number they simply get disconnected. The number is blocked.”

To demonstrate, Bhandari attempted to call his own service from a TPG mobile (which also uses the Optus network) and received the following announcement. “This service is currently unable from the Optus network including TPG and Virgin mobile networks. If you want to access this service please use Telstra, 3 or Vodafone networks.” (We understand from Hari Menta from comfortcalls.com.au that the VoIP providers, rather than Optus, have disabled access to these number from Optus subscribers so their clients are not hit with international rates.)

Bhandari observed that “up to 50% of our traffic was from Optus users and I have noticed that from Christmas Eve [when the SMS was sent] around 50% of my incoming traffic has also dropped. This has been very disappointing for my customers since they could not call their families overseas over the holiday period.”

An Optus spokesperson maintains that international calls have always been charged for as part of these plans and refused to comment on whether the calls to an mobile which is being diverted overseas cost Optus any more than carrying an ordinary call to an Australian mobile number.

The spokesperson merely directed APC to the Optus website, which states: “Optus is concerned that some customers may be being misinformed or misled by non-Optus related entities that are making claims that Optus customers can make free, or included cap value, international calls on their Optus Plan. This is not correct. International calls within the meaning of your Optus Mobile Standard Form of Agreement for all Timeless and Cap plans includes calls that re-route or divert to international numbers.

Under Optus' twisted definition, a mobile call isn’t a mobile call even if it terminates in Australia, but then diverts somewhere else and Optus misses out on profit it would like to earn.

Meanwhile, Optus customers may receive their latest bill only to discover that calls they thought were free are being charged at 29c per minute plus 27c flagfall.

In APC's tests, we were still able to successfully connect to these free VoIP services using a post-paid Telstra mobile and an Optus landline service and readers have reported that 3 and Vodafone are not charging their customers a premium to access these regular mobile numbers.

Optus accused of breaching network neutrality principles

Telecommunications expert Paul Budde says although not every customer may be affected by this particular change, it shows a worrying new twist in the net neutrality debate -- telcos watching what customers are doing on voice calls and changing billing terms on the fly to make it harder for people to save money.

"What we are seeing is that telcos such as Optus are trying to hang on for as long as possible for monopolistic charging structures. This is another element of the net neutrality issues that rages in the USA regarding access to certain websites," Budde says.

"[President Elect] Obama has promised to guarantee network neutrality (on the fixed networks). The argument for regulators to exclude mobile networks from such regulations is that there is sufficient competition and customers can move to another operator. We all know that this is not as easy as it sounds.

"In order to maintain monopolistic structures you make the billing system as complex as possible so that hardly anybody can understand how it works. It is all borderline stuff and very hard for regulators to get a grip on." Budde said.

Budde warns that Optus is adopting tactics used in Europe by some telcos, and that it may not be easy to prosecute them.

"European examples have shown that it is very hard to prove that these activities are illegal. Intuitively, we know that what they are doing is not correct -- people would 'feel' this is unjust; something against what they would see as 'common law'. In the end the European Union had to use new regulations to circumvent these interconnect (termination) problems after five years of haggling," he said.

"The only solution may be to use people power and show operators that you don't accept such practices in the hope of shaming the company into changing these practices."

False and misleading advertising?

Optus may fall on its own sword if enough consumers complain to authorities, however. Advertising standards require companies to make exclusions and limitations clear to consumers in their advertising of a service. Companies cannot rely on fine print in contracts (especially if that fine print is not supplied at the time a consumer signs the contract) if it materially affects the value of an offer.

For example, the Department of Fair Trading NSW says: "A material fact is a fact that would be important to a reasonable person in deciding whether or not to proceed with a particular transaction."

Advertising standards regulators put heavy weight on the 'reasonable person' test: "what would this advertisement lead an average, reasonable person to believe?"

If customers who signed up to Optus mobile capped and timeless plan contract based on Optus' advertising claims that they would have unlimited calls to any GSM mobile number in Australia, then discovered that they would be charged international rates to call a VoIP provider on a mobile number, could complain that they have been misled by Optus' advertising.

The fact that Optus felt it necessary to SMS customers on Christmas Day to warn them that calls to mobile numbers used by VoIP operators would be charged at international rates suggests Optus knows its mobile customers wouldn't expect this.

Customers who believe they have been misled by Optus' advertising of mobile plans can make a complaint to the Office of Fair Trading in their state, as well as to the ACCC, which prosecutes misleading advertising.

As well as complaining to a statutory body, customers could also file a complaint with the telecommunications industry ombudsman, which will attempt to resolve the complaint with Optus on your behalf. The complaint investigation fees are billed to Optus, and the longer Optus puts off resolving the issue to the TIO's satisfaction, the higher the fees go.

Before complaining to a statutory body or the TIO, you should first make a formal complaint to Optus, as statutory bodies and the ombudsman will not investigate a complaint unless Optus is first given the opportunity to resolve the matter directly with the customer.

With additional reporting by Dan Warne.

They hide amongst Police as well.

Ex-cop admits child sex assault

Mon May 25, 2009 3:45pm AEST

A former South Australian police officer has admitted indecently assaulting a young girl nearly three decades ago.

Graham Bennett Fraser, 68, pleaded guilty to seven counts of indecent assault between 1980 and 1983 at Greenacres and Valley View in Adelaide.

He was originally facing nine charges, but prosecutors last month dropped two counts of unlawful sexual intercourse against a person under 12.

The District Court will hear sentencing submissions in August.

Quips and Quotes

Those beneath you
Can't offend you.
Those your equal
Wouldn't

One life
One chance
One way

A politician who complains about the press
Is like a Captain who complains about the sea

It is never too late to be what you might have been. — GEORGE ELIOT

"THE UNEXAMINED LIFE IS NOT WORTH LIVING" — Socrates

Paedophile Hides in Catholic Church

By Correspondent Sally Sara for Four Corners

Accused of preying on orphans: Paul Henry Dean (ABC)

It started out as a skerrick of vague information: an unidentified foreigner, probably an Australian, had been arrested in eastern India after sexually abusing boys at an orphanage.

Months of investigation later, ABC South Asia correspondent Sally Sara has pieced together the full story: a disturbing and bizarre account of Paul Henry Dean, an Australian businessman who dumped family, friends and middle class comforts for a new life among lepers, orphans and the desperately poor of India.

Dean donned an array of names and identities while he operated as a charity worker, masqueraded as a holy man and a healer, and allegedly abused dozens of boys and young men in his wanderings over 30 years.

But the story starts far from the chaos and deprivation of India.

Across the Indian Ocean, in the serene WA beachside city of Bunbury, locals say they remain mystified by the man who grew up among them.

In the 1960s and 1970s Dean was seen as a smart young man on the make - "a go-getter", full of money-making schemes and big ideas.

He revived the local Young Liberals and won the presidency of the local surf club - a tribute more to his organisational ability than to his surf prowess, club veterans say.

One summer night in 1976 he threw a party, then suddenly vanished. At first, foul play was suspected. But police discovered that he had left the country on a fake passport. More than $100,000 was missing from the travel company he had chaired. It was thought he had fled to the UK, or Indonesia.

But Dean was living among Catholic missionaries in an ashram in southern India, calling himself "Brother Alan" and claiming to have been a professor of agriculture in Australia.

He travelled the countryside pretending to be a Catholic brother and a priest. He even said Mass for Mother Teresa's missionaries.

He watched local doctors at work and quickly learned to copy them. Establishing himself in leper colonies in eastern Andhra Pradesh and Orissa states, Dean signed letters as "Dr Bro Paul," and began performing cataract operations and limb surgery, including amputations, on lepers.

He became, in the words of a former mayor, "a walking god", admired for his intellect, feared for his quick temper.

"He could have been Mother Teresa, he could have been Hitler," says Nathalie Nellens, a young Belgian volunteer who saw Dean at work.

At Titlagarh in Orissa in the early 1980s, Dean surrounded himself with teenage boys who were keen to learn paramedical training and build themselves a future.

Titlagarh is fiercely hot, remote and impoverished. Most of the former trainees, now men in their 40s, are still there. Despite the passage of time their memories are vivid. Dean, they say, had repeatedly used them for sex. They had complied because they were young and poor and felt they had no choice. On camera they describe in uncomfortable detail what happened to them. This is the first time their stories have been told.

The accounts from these men at Titlagarh provided the earliest known evidence of Dean abusing boys. It was to become a pattern. Dean operated with impunity, moving into charities that worked with orphans. He adopted the benign nicknames "Professor", or "Tata", meaning grandfather.

"Tata tells me to put oil on his penis and hand-pump him. He also undresses me and masturbates me. This has been going on since 2005. He threatened to beat me up if I told...", a teenage boy said in one of at least eight statements by teenage boys to police in 2008.

So far Dean has deftly eluded accusations of abusing boys. The children's charities where he has worked as a trusted volunteer have mostly accepted his denials.

Frenchwoman Mary-Ellen Gerber, who founded an orphanage near the city of Puri in eastern Orissa, says she twice put allegations of sexual abuse to him and both times he tearfully protested his innocence.

She now regrets backing him.

Dean has also kept authorities at bay. In 2001 he was arrested and charged with sex and passport offences. Eight years later those charges have not been to trial. Now he is facing another set of charges in another state. He denies all the allegations against him.

Australian authorities have known of the allegations but have shown no inclination to act against the man who fled Australia more than 30 years ago on a fake passport, wanted for theft, and who has roamed India ever since.

Dean has mostly been someone else's problem, changing countries, moving from state to state, from one charity to another.

No one has put his story together - until now.

________________________________________________________________________________

26 May 2009

Australia's chief fundraiser for the New Hope India charity says she is ashamed of her organisation's links to an alleged paedophile.

Former Western Australian Paul Dean is facing charges of abusing children at an orphanage while working at a New Hope orphanage in India.

Last nights Four Corners program reported that Dean used an array of names and identities while he operated as a charity worker, masqueraded as a holy man and a healer, and allegedly abused dozens of boys and young men in his wanderings through India over 30 years.

New Hope's Maggie Nolan, who lives in Broome, has moved to assure donors Mr Dean will have no further involvement with the organisation.

On Four Corners last night Ms Nolan dismissed the accusations, but this morning she says she is shattered.

"Before I went to air I was in denial," she said.

"There's no other way to put it, I just didn't think it was true.

The way they presented me on air was as if I was totally gullible. I don't think I'm a gullible person but I think in this instance I have been naive and the wool has really been pulled over my eyes."

At least try a bottle deposit

96pc back bottle deposit scheme: survey

A survey commissioned by the action group Do Something has found that most Australians want governments to take on more ambitious environmental projects.

The group is calling on the environment ministers to take the independent survey into account when they meet in Hobart today to discuss environmental policies.

The survey found 83 per cent of respondents want a nationwide ban on non-biodegradable plastic bags, and that 96 per cent want South Australia's 10-cent container deposit to be national.

It also found that nearly 90 per cent of the 1,000 people surveyed want new laws to force distributors and manufacturers to recycle electronic waste.

Do Something chairman John Dee says the results show more ambitious recycling is needed in the digital age.

"The public want real and measurable change when it comes to issues like electronic waste - recycling of things like TVs, computers and mobile phones," he said.

"They want to see a national ban on plastic bags, so we need them to stop talking about their concern for the environment, we need them to do the job that they're paid to do."

Mr Dee says today's meeting is a good opportunity to discuss the survey's findings.

"We're not getting those results from Peter Garrett and the other environmental ministers, and one has to question whether the political version of Peter Garrett is bringing about the kind of change that the old Peter Garrett advocated," he said.

"I don't think he'd score himself very highly at the moment."

New South Wales Environment Minister Carmel Tebbutt says a report on the issue will be tabled at the summit but it is unlikely any final decisions will be made.

St Stanislaus Abuse

St Stanislaus abuse allegations

The front gates to St Stanislaus College in Bathurst.

Two more people have made fresh allegations against a man charged with sexual abuse at a school in the New South Wales central west.

Peter William Dwyer has already pleaded not guilty to four charges of sexual abuse, which date back to the 1970s and 80s, when he taught at Saint Stanislaus College in Bathurst.

He is one of five men to be charged with sexually assaulting students at the boarding school.

A Sydney court has heard two new people have made fresh allegations, and a number of new sexual misconduct charges have been brought against Dwyer.

The 66-year-old sat watching court proceedings this morning.

His bail has been continued, and the case has been adjourned until early July.

Quick and Easy Meal -2

Gourmet Frozen Pie
Frozen Roast Potatoes
Microwave bag of Vegies

Heat pie and potatoes
Cook up bag of vegies
Serve

Yum

Gold nanotubes boost DVD storage

Wendy Zukerman and Darren Osborne

Futuristic discs with a storage capacity 10,000 times that of current DVDs could be just around the corner.

• Map: Swinburne University of Technology 3122

Australia researchers have unveiled a new type of disc that stores 10,000 times more data than current DVDs and could be on the market within a decade.

The discs store 1.6 terabytes of data, eclipsing the capacity of current DVD and Blu-ray discs which hold up to 50 gigabytes.

The researchers, from Swinburne University of Technology in Melbourne, have published their breakthrough in the journal Nature.

A standard DVD recorder uses light of a single wavelength to 'burn' data onto the surface of the disc.

The team at Swinburne found that by adding gold nanorods to the disc they were able to increase its capacity.

The nanorods react to light according to their shape. This allowed the researchers to record information using light of different wavelengths, or colours, on the same location on the disc.

The researchers also used polarisation - the angle of the light's electric field - to record data.

"The polarisation can be rotated 360 degrees," says paper co-author Dr James Chon.

"So for example, we were able to record at zero degree polarisation. Then on top of that, we were able to record another layer of information at 90 degrees polarisation, without them interfering with each other."

Multiple layers

Professor Min Gu, director of the Centre for Micro-Photonics at Swinburne, who was also involved in the research, says current DVD and CD technology only uses a small fraction of the disc, essentially recording in 2D.

He believes the use of multiple wavelengths and polarisation will allow future DVD recorders to use a greater volume of the disc.

"We have created a new recording device that can respond to different colour and different polarisation," says Professor Gu. "By using these properties we can use more of the disc."

In their paper, the researchers were able to record three layers of information, using three different wavelengths and two polarisations.

Since publication, the authors have recorded 10 layers, and they believe it is possible to record 100 layers onto a single disc.

Beyond home entertainment, the discs could be used to store large medical files such as MRI scans, as well as financial, military and security records.

Child abuse hidden in Catholic Church

Report lifts lid on 'endemic' Irish church abuse

By Europe correspondent Emma Alberici for ABC (Aust) AM

A major investigation into child abuse at Catholic orphanages, reformatories and schools in Ireland has found that beatings, sexual abuse and humiliation were endemic.

The groundbreaking report, released overnight, found that the state of Ireland "colluded with religious authorities to hide child abuse".

The judicial inquiry lasted 10 years and the report chronicles the shocking conditions under which 35,000 children were held in Catholic institutions, many of them from infancy to adulthood.

It also tells of the many offending members of the clergy who were sent abroad to places like Australia, where they were allowed to restart their lives without reference to their crimes.

The report makes for horrific reading, documenting in graphic detail how thousands of children were tortured mentally and physically by the Catholic Church in Ireland over six decades.

What makes the five-volume document so disturbing is that it clearly states that both the church hierarchy and the Irish Government knew what was going on but failed to stop the beatings, the rapes and humiliation.

As far back as the 1940s, inspectors reported broken bones and malnourished children but no action was taken.

More than 2,000 witnesses testified to the judicial inquiry, claiming abuse in 216 schools and residential institutions across Ireland.

Among them was Colm O'Gorman, who was abused by a Catholic priest for three years from the age of 14 to 17.

"And in 1994, when I went back to report those crimes to the Irish Police, I discovered not just that I had been raped and abused by this priest but that very, very many other children had also been assaulted by him," he said.

"But then even more shockingly, the Catholic Church had known before they ordained him about his propensity to abuse, that they had received countless complaints over the period of time that he was abusing and they'd done nothing about it. That they'd covered it up."

Colm O'Gorman has since become a campaigner, working on behalf of the many Irish children who gave evidence to the 10-year commission.

"This report documents how countless thousands, many, many thousands, of the most marginalised of Irish children were taken from their parents by the courts and placed in the so-called 'care' of institutions where they were brutalised, sodomised, raped, abused, beaten, deprived, neglected and abandoned," he said.

"Some of the people who were so horribly violated in these institutions remain in psychiatric care and institutional care now because they simply can't cope as a result of the impact of what it was that was done to them.

Mr O'Gorman says it is an indictment on the state of Ireland but it goes much wider than that.

"Right across the world, in Ireland, in Australia, in the United States, in Europe, in the developing world," he said.

"Time and time again, priests, religious bishops, decided that the rape of a child was less significant than the ego, money and power of their institution.

"Rather than address what happened, priests, religious brothers, whoever, were simply moved on to new places. And that's the truly awful global truth of these scandals."

The publication of the five-volume report had been delayed for a number of years after the Christian Brothers religious order successfully sued the Commission in 2004, winning the right to withhold the names of all its members, dead or alive, from the final draft.

John Walsh, of the Irish Survivors of Child Abuse, says he feels cheated and deceived by the fact that no prosecutions will therefore be triggered by the long-awaited report.

"This inquiry is deeply flawed, it's incomplete, and many might call it a whitewash," he said.

The Commission found that the worst offenders came from the Christian Brothers order, which ran most of the institutions for older boys, while the Sisters of Mercy, which was supposed to care for girls, also came in for heavy criticism.

The report recommends 21 ways that the Irish Government could recognise past wrongs, including building a permanent memorial providing counselling and education to victims and improving current child protection services.

No to Daylight Saving - Daylight Using

The Case against the introduction of Daylight Saving in Western Australia

The idea of discussing Daylight Saving is marred and muddied by the simple fact that this idea DOES NOT SAVE daylight. It USES daylight. To refer to the adjustment of time zones to force people to get out of bed earlier as Daylight Saving is simply a semantic trick to put a positive spin on an objectionable concept. This process is really DAYLIGHT USING.

The difficulty with daylight saving is that there will be both winners and losers. Community opinion is clearly split about 50/50 so it is important to participate in the debate and vote to reject this when the opportunity arises.

The case for a No vote is strong, it is based on good science and plain common sense, it is a vote that considers our present circumstances as well as our future needs, it is a vote that puts the needs of Western Australia first.

There is no doubt that there will be both winners and losers in this referendum. The question is: Do the proposed benefits exceed the losses and more importantly will those people who lose out lose more than those who win?

When manipulating something as fundamental as time zones, we must look at the big picture and recognize that the things we do and enjoy today will not necessarily remain the same as we progress through our lifetimes. You may live by a beach today, but you may live in the far North in the future.

The need that people once had to alter time to suit their lifestyles has long been supplanted by improvements in technology, flexibility within the workplace and environmental concerns.

Western Australia has always had Daylight Saving

The simple fact is that Western Australians have always had Daylight Saving because the Longitude by which time is set in Perth is somewhere between Southern Cross and Kalgoorlie. About 15 - 20 mins ahead of real time in Perth. Advancing the clock by 1 hour as proposed introduces an unreasonable burden on the majority of the population.

An obsolete idea

The idea of daylight saving was first conceived by Benjamin Franklin during his time as an American delegate in Paris in 1784, in an essay, "An Economical Project." as a way to save on the expenditure of candles which were expensive and a staple in his day. Franklin intended it as a joke.

It was first advocated seriously by London builder William Willett in 1907 in the pamphlet, "Waste of Daylight". This is not a new or even progressive idea. It was conceived in circumstances vastly different to what we experience today.

The main purpose of Daylight Saving Time is to make better use of daylight. We change our clocks during the summer months to move an hour of daylight from the morning to the evening. It saves nothing, it simply moves an hour of daylight and heat from the morning to the afternoon. Whilst this may be advantageous in places like the UK, in our climate it is simply not appropriate. The economy of candles has no relevance today, any savings that may have once been gained through lighting savings are now massively outstripped by the cost of Air Conditioning.

Cost to Families

Perhaps the greatest myth associated with daylight savings is that it provides additional family time. Quite simply this is not true. The same number of hours are available in the day. If anything the movement of an hour of sunlight to the end of the day is particularly harsh on families with small children where they have been conditioned to sleep at night and routine is paramount to their continued health and good behavior. Sending our children to school tired is not in their best interests, nor likely to achieve best educational outcomes.

One Perth Mum says:

“Daylight saving in WA is terrible - my 6yo son is now rising at 5.30am (all times mentioned here are real WA time) in the dark to get on the school bus in time, but the real toll is being on the bus for an hour at peak heat, 2.10 pm, every day. He is in bed at 6.30pm and the sun is setting about 7.30pm, so going to sleep is not easy unless he is really exhausted.”

Not only families are impacted, many working single people have expressed concerns, to quote one member of our community;

“You have to ask yourself, how many will actually embark on a 7pm beach trip or picnic or aimless stroll? I do hope I’m not being naïve when I assume most 9-5’ers don’t particularly feel the need to go to the beach every night. No, the majority will enjoy the comfort of their homes after the sheer frustration of the journey home, be that via peak time traffic or the public transport system.

I belong to the group of seemingly forgotten fulltime working singles. The much vaunted "Family time" means nothing to me. I try to enjoy a physically active lifestyle and take full advantage of all the wonderful events on offer over the summer months.

How has daylight saving affected a typical day for me?

Morning:

wake at 5.00
Go walking? As a single female I think not. Go swimming? Yes, but I have to dig very deep to find the motivation as the
entire exercise is performed while the sky remains pitch black outside. The sun is just rising as I park my car and walk to work!

After Work:

Still only 45 mins for the mad dash to the shops but at a hotter time of day
Go to a step class? No it's too hot now Walk around the park? Only if you can stand the flies and the heat.
Try and convince yourself it's tea time when the sun is almost at noon time height in the sky.
Go swimming? Not if you are a serious swimmer - the lanes are chocked up with all the kids sent there by their parents to get them out of their hair.
So I usually just put on the air conditioner and wait for it to cool down outside.
My fresh morning hour has been replaced by a steaming one at the end of the day”

For the Environment and Business

There have now been several studies both here and abroad that demonstrate that Daylight Saving increases electricity consumption. During WA’s recent trial, Synergy indicated an increase in electricity consumption, due to the increased use of air conditioners. Family members who are home by 4.00pm will be experiencing the heat intensity of a 3.00pm sun. Their only option is to use air conditioning at a time when business demand will also be at its highest. Smoothing energy demand should be a priority, but this isn’t helped by Daylight Saving. Instead Daylight Saving will accentuate peak energy demand, which causes the use of expensive to run peak period electricity generating equipment, that is more greenhouse polluting than baseload generation.

In a Perth summer there are many days when the sea breeze and cool evening air can be used to cool a home. But this process is made less viable when natural home cooling is delayed by an hour. A home that normally cools to an acceptable sleeping temperature by midnight, won’t have the same temperature until 1.00am with Daylight Saving. Most people can’t afford to go to sleep an hour later, so their only option will be to use air conditioning instead. Global warming and greenhouse emissions are a problem that cannot be ignored. We are asked to take steps to reduce our consumption of energy every day. Rejecting Daylight Saving is an instant win for the environment.

This referendum has been put and rejected by the people of WA on 3 separate occasions, 1975, 1984 and 1992. In each of these previous attempts it has been argued that we need to adopt daylight savings for the good of WA business. in 2009 however we find ourselves in a substantially different environment than on the previous occasions. The east coast of Australia is not our financial hub. WA’s economic prosperity is much more linked to our neighbors in the North than our cousins in the East. Our commercial heart is South East Asia and they are in the same time zone as us! The concept of 'Daylight saving' may reduce the difference with Sydney and Melbourne but it creates a difference with Singapore, Taipei, Hong Kong. Kuala Lumpur and Beijing. Perth would then be out of synchronization with ALL of its trading partners.

In this modern era of the internet, the mobile telephone and email, the timezone differences that once isolated us no longer present a significant barrier. Today you are far more likely to be speaking to someone in a call centre in India than Sydney, even if you call an Australian company. This is the global reality of the age we live in.

Not Relevant to the North

The Northern Territory and Queensland have not adopted daylight saving with the good reason that it is not appropriate for their latitude. WA of course shares the same latitude for the north of this state. Undoubtedly the majority of our population exists within the southern region, but we must ask ourselves is it equitable that in return for an hour of additional recreation in Perth, residents in the north of the state will have to endure additional inconvenience.

Quoting Dr John Ridd

“In the deep tropics the sun is not a friend except in the very short winter period. For the vast majority of the year the sun is so powerful it makes doing anything outdoors unpleasant after about 7.30am. The whole place gets “cooked” - house, roads, the ground and so on. There is little cooling until the sun sets, until then you wait for that time when relief comes. And that occurs when the sun decides, not the clock. Being bombarded by a celestial heater at the rate of approximately a kilowatt per square meter is not just unpleasant it also presents a significant risk of dehydration.”

Lifestyle Facts

The best hours for beach use in summer is before work, and sadly, Daylight Saving steals that from us. Frankly the majority of West Australians do not get the opportunity to enjoy this beach lifestyle in any event. Most people have responsibilities such as housework, homework and other activities. Remember this does not add an hour, it only moves it. We still only have 24 hours in the day to carry out our busy lifestyles. The fact is that many people prefer to exercise early in the morning. In the later period of Daylight Saving, Morning exercisers are faced with the prospect of exercising in the dark. The reality is that that additional hour of light in the evening will not be spent exercising but at home watching TV in front of an air conditioner. Daylight Saving is not the healthy lifestyle choice proponents would have us believe. For those who wish to get away an hour earlier the modern workplace, and in particular the State Public Service which has had 'flexi-time' for many years, will often agree to vary start and finish times for its employees. Shift based occupations can simply move their rosters back an hour to achieve the same end. Retailers may even benefit from the extra hour's trade generated by employees wishing to start earlier. There can be no pressing need to oblige the entire population to get to work an hour earlier simply because some people wish to alter their lifestyle.

The Question

“Are you in favour of daylight saving being introduced in Western Australia by
standard time in the State being advanced one hour from the last Sunday in October
2009 until the last Sunday in March 2010 and in similar fashion for each following
year?”

There is no constitutional reason Daylight Saving needs to be put to referendum. Political realities however tell us that in the event that this referendum passes then there is zero likelihood that it will be implemented in a way other then the terms of the question. It means we will lose March mornings forever. A no vote leaves the door open to a more reasonable proposition in the future. In conclusion the only reasonable course of action is to vote No and reject daylight saving on the grounds that it simply does not have any geographic, economic or social basis in the State of Western Australia.

Setting my watch

As the print on the little form that came with my watch is so small I cannot read it easily, here is how to do it . . .

There 4 buttons - A @ 2:00, B @ 4:00, C @ 8:00, D @ 10:00

D turns on the light for about 4 seconds

There are 4 modes in the watch, press C Button to switch modes.

Normal -C-> Chronograph -C-> Alarm Time -C-> Time Set -C-> Normal
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Setting the Time:

• Press C 3 times -> Second will flash, press A to set seconds to 00
  
  
• Press B 1 time -> Hour will flash, press A to advance displayed Hour
  (A = AM, P = PM, H = 24 hr format)
  
  
• Press B 1 time -> Minute will flash, press A to advance Minute
  
  
• Press B 1 time -> Month will flash, press A to advance Month
  
  
• Press B 1 time -> Day No. will flash, press A to advance No.
  
  
• Press B 1 time -> Day Name will flash, press A to advance Name
  
  
• Press B repeatedly to advance active control
  
  
• Press C to return to Normal display

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Using the Chronograph (not really, more like a Stop Watch)

Starting from Normal display,

• Press C 1 time -> Chrono Mode
  
  
• Press A -> Chrono Started
  
  
• Press A -> Chrono Stopped
  
  
• Press B when stopped -> Chrono Reset
  
  
• Press B when running -> Lap time
  
  
• Press B when reading Lap Time -> Chrono
  
  
• Press C -> Normal

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