Raiding the bank penalty money pot

Lawyers can't lose. Photo: James Davies
From The Age


A correction is in order regarding the class action against ANZ over the bank's penalty fees.
Reports referred to lawyers “representing customers” - that's not totally correct.
Oh, in a technical sense I suppose ambulance chasers Maurice Blackburn Lawyers are representing customers and no doubt complying with the letter of their ethical obligations, but in practical terms the firm's own self-interest and that of litigation funder IMF are hardly of passing importance.
And while self-generating a rich source of fees, such legal firms have made Australia second only to the United States in the burgeoning class action business - a dubious distinction for our increasingly litigious society.

In my opinion, they have debased a worthwhile and socially valuable legal structure while creating fees for themselves and opportunities for litigation funders to bet on court results.
What makes it worse is the sanctimonious claptrap the firms are wont to sprout, the image they seek of taking on the big bad banks to correct a dreadful injustice. What nonsense - the firms involved were nowhere to be seen when the real work was being done to curtail the banks' penalty fee gouge.
They have merely landed to feed on the corpse well after the event.

Consumer action template
A little history is in order. The anti-penalty fee campaign in Australia was kicked off by Channel 7's Sunrise program in February 2007 on the back of the Office of Fair Trade highlighting the dubious legality of UK bank penalty fees.
Sunrise uncovered the very fine 2004 work by Nicole Rich, supervising solicitor at Victoria's Consumer Law Centre, who provided the legal underpinning of the case here. I was happy to lend a hand to the Sunrise campaign and spread it to Crikey.com.au. Not too long after, Choice joined in with its own attack on penalty fees.
Nicole Rich's study could have been the template for the British consumer action. It comes down to there being no provision in contract law for penalty provisions beyond recouping actual losses.
It didn't take too long for the message to start getting through to the banks.
It had been a very nice little earner, part of the furniture, but once its dodgy legal underpinning was exposed, the racket was bound to end.
NAB read the wind and made a virtue of necessity, gaining some competitive advantage by being the first to cut the odious fees, the rest of the gang of four gradually following suit to a greater or lesser extent.

Charge of the class action brigade
So, with the battle fought and pretty much decided, along come the class action brigade, corral some aggrieved parties on the promise of something for nothing - or perhaps not much for nothing. By the time the litigation funder takes a fat profit and the law firm takes fatter fees, the members of the class (maybe only a minority of all the people who have paid penalty fees of one sort or another over the years) divvy up what's left.
I suspect that for most of us who have copped a penalty fee at various times, it would be enough for a few cups of coffee - but apparently not for some IMF customers.
This action was whipped up on the internet with aggrieved bank victims invited to register for a slice or crumb of the action. The result, according to IMF:
“Bank customers holding 240,000 accounts with claims in excess of $250 million against 12 Australian banks have now entered into litigation funding agreements with IMF. The first class action, against ANZ, was launched on 22 September 2010, involving some 27,000 customers with 40,000 accounts.”
If the ANZ class (27,000 customers with 40,000 accounts) is typical of the total, the average punter signing up with IMF claims to have paid more than $1,543 in penalty fees. And that's the average - some must be claiming a great deal more than that.

Earlier loss
For all the publicity gained for Maurice Blackburn Lawyers this week with their High Court appeal, it's worth remembering they lost most of the first round of this fight. As IMF itself summarises it, they've gone to the High Court because the lower court's judgment was that only late payment fees were capable of being penalties – the other “exception fees” were not.
If this class is reduced only to fighting over those annoying and outrageous late-payment penalty fees, it's hard to believe anyone who was so badly organised as to keep running them up to a significant amount would be so well organised as to keep the detailed records necessary to prove it.

Donation option
Maurice Blackburn Lawyers boasts it is Australia's largest class action law firm, recovering more than $700 million “for groups, individuals, shareholders and businesses that have suffered loss due to illegal behaviour by big business.
“In the past two years, Maurice Blackburn has settled major shareholder class actions against AWB, Multiplex, Centro and Nufarm. In 2011, the firm settled a cartel claim against Amcor and Visy for $120m. It was the largest cartel settlement in Australian corporate history. We are also fighting back against unfair fees imposed by Australian banks including the 'big 4'.”
Oh spare me – “fighting back against unfair fees” sounds so noble when the battle is already pretty much over and the firm is pursuing a lucrative fee-generating avenue. If they were genuine about it, they should donate those fees to the Consumer Law Centre.

Class conflict
The conundrum of the blossoming class action industry is that the “winners” often are members of the same class that are the “losers”. Most of the members of Maurice Blackburn Lawyers' bank customer class also would own shares in the big banks through their superannuation funds and some of their dividend payments over the years would have been funded by penalty fees.
Centro shareholders were understandably annoyed that their board and management didn't do their jobs properly and trashed the company – but the select sub-set who could claim they bought their shares during the period when the difference between short- and long-term loans wasn't noticed managed to take $200 million (minus all the fees) from all shareholders (plus a contribution from auditors PWC).
There's something that doesn't quite gel about the fairness of that.

ASIC endorsed
That the supposed corporate regulator is happy to outsource aspects of its job to the ambulance chasers is another worry. In light of the Centro case, ASIC chairman Greg Medcraft endorsed class action litigation, suggesting it was “a good market-driven solution”, albeit with the waffly qualification that class actions needed to be “done responsibly”, whatever that means.
It's certainly a good market-driven solution for IMF.
Litigation funding provides a valuable service for those with a strong case but don't have deep enough pockets to take on a rich adversary in a legal system that remains weighted towards the wealthy – and it's proven a nice little earner.
As of June 30, IMF, a listed company, enjoyed a “case investment portfolio” of 25 cases with a total estimated claim value of $1.23 billion.
The company's website explains that IMF's commission normally ranges between 20 and 45 per cent of recoveries, plus costs and a project management fee. On the other hand, if the action fails, IMF typically is up for the customer's legal costs and perhaps those of the other side.
This year's annual results are pending, but 2011 saw a near doubling of net profit before tax to $33 million. And the annual report suggested the outlook for more is looking promising with that strong pipeline of cases “augmented with the establishment of a US subsidiary and New York office”.
Litigation funding to the US, coals to Newcastle, ice cream to the Eskimos…
PS In response to my question about how much the members of the Centro class action actually received, Maurice Blackburn Lawyers refer to an announcement to the ASX by IMF.
Of the $200 million Centro settlement, $150 million was for the Maurice Blackburn action, of which about $90 million was distributed to members of the class. IMF retained the balance. After legal  and other fees (including Maurice Blackburn’s) and overheads, IMF’s profit before tax was approximately $42 million.
Maurice Blackburn also said it was retained by the CLC and advised them for free, helping form the basis of Ms Rich’s fine work.
“We then continued to work with the CLC for years to build the class action case. We weren’t in a position to proceed with the case until IMF came on board in the role it’s currently playing,” the firm said. “Without the work and intervention of Maurice Blackburn and IMF, the thousands of Australians we represent would have no recourse to recover their money.”

Michael Pascoe is a BusinessDay contributing editor.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/raiding-the-bank-penalty-money-pot-20120815-24853.html#ixzz23ca5m7y8

Lend Lease subsidiary hit with $54m fine

From The Age April 25, 2012 - 2:22PM

 (Read to the end ... there's a punchline)

A US subsidiary of the Australia's Lend Lease Construction has admitted to a 10-year overbilling scheme on New York area projects and will pay $US56 million ($A54.3 million) in fines and victim restitution, prosecutors said. Bovis Lend Lease, as the subsidiary was previously known, has its largest US office in New York City, where it employs more than 1,000 people and has worked on projects such as the September 11 Memorial in Lower Manhattan and the Citi Field baseball stadium in Queens. Federal prosecutors in Brooklyn said the company pleaded guilty to criminal charges it had a "systematic practice" between 1999 and 2009 of billing clients -- often government agencies -- for hours its workers had never worked. Advertisement: Story continues below "Today's proceedings mark the culmination of a three-year investigation into a systematic pattern of audacious fraud by one of the world's largest construction firms," FBI Assistant Director in Charge Janice Fedarcyk said in a statement. Prosecutors said that the former head of Bovis' New York office, James Abadie, 55, pleaded guilty earlier on Tuesday to charges of conspiracy to commit mail and wire fraud. Abadie faces up to 20 years in prison. An attorney for Abadie, Stephen Kaufman, did not immediately return a call seeking comment. Bovis agreed to pay $US56 million in penalties and victim restitution as part of a deferred prosecution agreement made public on Tuesday. The agreement showed Bovis had accepted responsibility for the fraud and was cooperating with investigators. As part of the agreement, the company would put in place new internal controls to prevent any future misconduct. "Lend Lease takes corporate governance very seriously and is committed to the highest levels of ethical standards," Robert McNamara, the chief executive of Lend Lease in the Americas, said in a statement. "We accept responsibility for what happened in the past and have agreed to continue to make restitution to the affected clients." Bovis agreed to pay $US40.5 million in penalties as well as $US13.6 million and $US2.5 million to victims of different sets of schemes, the deferred prosecution agreement showed. In one scheme, Bovis lied about employing construction companies owned by women and minorities to qualify for public projects in New York and New Jersey, court documents said.  

The Bovis overbilling scheme concerned projects such as the construction of a criminal court in the Bronx, as well as work on the Brooklyn federal courthouse, the very building in which Bovis was charged.

The cases are US v. James Abadie and US v. Lend Lease (US) Construction LMB, US District Court for the Eastern District of New York, No. 12-274 and 12-288. Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/business/lend-lease-subsidiary-hit-with-54m-fine-20120425-1xkw4.html#ixzz1t3ZaNbtm

Study finds 'science' makes people sing YMCA

From The Age

Catchy tunes have a scientific "X-factor" that make them singalong hits, British experts have revealed.

Researchers wanted to know why certain songs inspired unabashed wedding guests and clubbers to belt out their favourites in public.

They solved the karaoke conundrum after observing thousands of volunteers as they lent their voices to a long list of tunes.

Singalong songs contained four key elements, the scientists discovered.

These were: long and detailed musical phrases, multiple pitch changes in a song's "hook", male vocalists, and higher male voices making a noticeable vocal effort.

Using this formula, the researchers then compiled a list of the 10 most singalong-able hits.

Number One was We are the Champions by rock group Queen.

Taking the next five places in the singalong chart were YMCA by Village People, Fat Lip by Sum 41, The Final Countdown by Europe, and Monster by The Automatic.

Music psychologist Dr Daniel Mullensiefen, from Goldsmiths University of London, said: "Every musical hit is reliant on maths, science, engineering and technology; from the physics and frequencies of sound that determine pitch and harmony, to the hi-tech digital processors and synthesisers which can add effects to make a song more catchy.

"We've discovered that there's a science behind the singalong and a special combination of neuroscience, maths and cognitive psychology can produce the elusive elixir of the perfect singalong song.

"We hope that our study will inspire musicians of the future to crack the equation for the textbook tune."

The findings were released to coincide with the final call for entries to Britain's 2012 National Science and Engineering Competition, which is open to young people undertaking science and technology projects.

Ex-Queen guitarist Brian May commented: "Fabulous, so it's proved then? We truly are the champions."

Male vocalists are important because singing along to a song is a "subconscious war cry", the researchers believe.

Psychologically, people looked to men to lead them into battle.

Vocal effort indicated high energy and purpose, especially when combined with a smaller vocal range.

Examples of "high effort" male singers included Freddie Mercury of Queen and Jon Bon Jovi.

Other songs on the singalong list included Ruby by the Kaiser Chiefs, I'm Always Here by Jimi Jamison, Brown Eyed Girl by Van Morrison, Teenage Dirtbag by Wheatus, and Livin' on a Prayer by Bon Jovi.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/study-finds-science-makes-people-sing-ymca-20110929-1kz1f.html#ixzz1ZQZb40EY


Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/entertainment/music/study-finds-science-makes-people-sing-ymca-20110929-1kz1f.html#ixzz1ZQZH4ElH

Scientists lose hypersonic aircraft on test flight

From The Age August 12, 2011

Hopes of fast-tracking an experimental aircraft that could fly from Sydney to London in 49 minutes have taken a nosedive with US military scientists today losing the plane during testing.

They launched the hypersonic aircraft but lost contact with the experimental plane as it flew over the Pacific Ocean in its second test flight.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) says the unmanned Falcon hypersonic technology vehicle (HTV-2), designed as a global bomber prototype capable of a mind-boggling 20 times the speed of sound, launched successfully from California aboard a Minotaur IV rocket.



But after the plane separated from the rocket in the upper reaches of the atmosphere for its "glide" phase, contact was lost, DARPA says.

"Range assets have lost telemetry with HTV2," DARPA wrote in a Twitter post after the launch.

The agency provided no other details about the flight or how long it had been separated from the rocket.

Last year, scientists lost contact with the HTV-2 after nine minutes in its inaugural flight.

The hypersonic plane, which is supposed to travel at Mach 20, or 21,000 km/h, could potentially provide the US military with a platform for striking targets anywhere on the planet within minutes using conventional weapons.

Such a weapon, still in development, is part of what the US Air Force has dubbed "prompt global strike" capability.

"The ultimate goal is a capability that can reach anywhere in the world in less than an hour," DARPA said on its website.

In theory, the Falcon could travel between New York City and Los Angeles in less than 12 minutes.

Unlike a ballistic missile, a hypersonic vehicle could manoeuvre and avoid flying along a predictable path. Moreover, analysts say it would not be mistaken for a nuclear missile, avoiding the possibility of triggering a nuclear confrontation.

But Loren Thompson, an analyst at Lexington Institute with links to the defense industry, said there was still much work to be done before the hypersonic bomber becomes a reality.

"The military has a long way to go before hypersonic vehicles are ready for deployment," Thompson told AFP.

After separating from the rocket on Thursday, the Falcon undertook some manoeuvres before contact was lost, DARPA said.

The test flight plan called for the Falcon to eventually roll and dive into the Pacific Ocean.

AFP



Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/technology/sci-tech/scientists-lose-hypersonic-aircraft-on-test-flight-20110812-1ipgq.html#ixzz1UlamboB8

Exploding watermelons rock China

From The Age
May 17, 2011 - 5:29PM

The overuse of a chemical that helps fruit grow faster is cauhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifsing a rash of exploding watermelons in eastern China.

An investigative report by China Central Television found farms in Jiangsu province were losing hectares of fruit to the problem.

It said farmers sprayed too much growth promoter, hoping they could get fruit to market before the season and make more money.
Advertisement: Story continues below

China is battling rampant misuse of pesticides, fertilisers and food additives, such as dyes and sweeteners, meant to make food more attractive and increase sales.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/world/exploding-watermelons-rock-china-20110517-1er3c.html#ixzz1Mbv8me8M

Three-headed fish found on Sunshine Coast

Two-headed fish eggs. (Above)

Source: www.brisbanetimes.com.au

More mutant fish have been found at a Noosa fish hatchery, including mullet embryos with two and three heads.

The discoveries come after seven mullet - four females and three males taken from the Noosa River, were given to the Sunland Freshwater Fish Hatchery at Boreen Point for breeding this month.

Fifty per cent of embryos found during two separate spawning events on July 5 and 6 had some form of cell abnormality, including some with two heads. A single mullet fry was found with three heads.

Advertisement: Story continues below Some of the mutant eggs and embryos have been preserved for scientific testing, while authorities will attempt to retrieve seven mullet and other abnormal material after Sunland staff disposed of them.

The mutant fish are the second batch of abnormal specimens to appear at Sunland, after the discovery of two-headed bass larvae sparked a Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries inquiry last year.

Owner Gwen Gilson has complained that chemicals sprayed at a nearby macadamia farm may be to blame for the genetic defects and large numbers of fish deaths at Sunland.

Last month, the Noosa Fish Health Investigation Taskforce's first interim report found it was "possible" chemical sprays caused the mass fish deaths and deformities, however, the report failed identify the chemical at fault or its source.

Last week, Primary Industries and Fisheries Minister Tim Mulherin said a full investigation would be carried out over the fresh discoveries and more Noosa River fish Bred at a bribie Island testing facility in an effort to pinpoint the problem.

"The incident will be included in the taskforce's broader investigation into any links between fish health problems at the hatchery and the local Noosa River ecosystem," Mr Mulherin said.

Meanwhile, Ms Gilson said her fish hatchery business was "going down the tubes" and she could not keep up with the number of samples biosecurity authorities needed to do testing.

"We are the only ones handing over information; but if you only have half the data how can you work out whats happening?" she told The Sunshine Coast Daily.

"All the neighbours are scared when they hear the tractors (spraying) they (the farm) do not have to tell us when they are doing it."

in the path of "onrushing luck"

Originally published on theage.com.au

Lucky people arrange their lives in characteristic patterns, Gunther said, and tend to position themselves in the path of "onrushing luck".

Here are his 13 tips to turn your luck around:

1. Never confuse luck with planning:

When a desired outcome is brought about by luck, you must acknowledge that fact. If you confuse luck with planning, you will all but guarantee that your luck, in the long run, will be bad.

2. Find the fast flow:

Go where events flow fastest, surround yourself with a churning mass of people and things will happen. It doesn't matter if you are a quiet person; all you need to do is meet a lot of people and let them know who you are. Then they will direct opportunities your way.

3. Take calculated risks:

There are two ways to be an almost sure loser in life. One is to take risks that are out of proportion to the rewards being sought.

The other is to take no risks at all. Lucky people, characteristically, avoid both extremes.

4. Know when to cut and run:

Always assume that a run of luck is going to be short, never try to ride a run to its peak.

You will virtually always be right as the law of averages is heavily on your side.

5. Know how to select luck:

Is there some likelihood that the problems with your investment - whether it be time, money or love - will go away? Do you have some realistic hope of fixing them?

If so, you should stay aboard. If not, you should get out and look for better luck elsewhere.

6. Take the zig zag path:

Despite what many people think the path to success is rarely a straight line. Lucky men and women, on the whole, are not straight-line strugglers.

They not only allow themselves to be distracted, they invite distraction.

A plan should be used as a guide only and if something better comes along the plan should be discarded immediately without regret.

7. Supernatural belief can help:

Not because it makes you more lucky but because it helps you make impossible choices. Sometimes there is no rational choice to make, yet the worst reaction is to do nothing.

A supernatural belief can enable people to get into a potentially winning position simply by helping them make choices.

8. Be a bit pessimistic:

Lucky people, as a breed, tend to be pessimistic. Optimism means expecting the best, but good luck involves knowing how you will handle the worst.

9. Learn to keep your mouth shut:

Talk can tie you up and lock you in positions that seem right today but may be wrong tomorrow. Avoid unnecessary talk about your problems, plans and feelings. When there is no good reason to say something, say nothing.

10. Recognise a non-lesson:

There are experiences in life that seem to be lessons but aren't.

Recognise when something was just bad luck and move on.

11. Accept the universe is unfair:

All of us, the good, the bad and the in-between, are all equally likely to realise our fondest dreams or contract cancer.

12. Be willing to be busy:

The more activities you have going the greater the likelihood that something good will happen.

13. Find a destiny partner:

This is someone who is someone who changes your luck over a long term. This person is not necessarily a romantic partner and is usually just found by blind luck but it can help if you are actively looking.

Gaga and Foxx top 'junk food' song league

Full article here: theage.com.au

An initiative to encourage healthy teen relationships says songs by Jamie Foxx and Lady Gaga are the musical equivalent of junk food.

A teen panel working with the Boston Public Health Commission says Foxx's Blame It and Lady Gaga's Bad Romance and Paparazzi are among the top 10 with "unhealthy relationship ingredients".

The commission released its list based on a "nutrition label" rating popular songs on healthy relationship themes.

Mario's Break Up topped the list of the most unhealthy relationship songs of 2009.

Among the panel's top 10 songs with healthy themes: Miss Independent by Ne-Yo and Meet Me Halfway by the Black Eyed Peas.

The commission says its program aims to teach teens how to evaluate popular media, and help parents talk to teens about healthy relationships.

Songs with Unhealthy Relationship Ingredients (2009)

1. Break Up (feat. Gucci Mane and Sean Garrett) - Mario
2. Blame It (feat. T-Pain) - Jamie Foxx
3. Paparazzi - Lady Gaga
4. You're a Jerk - New Boyz
5. Baby By Me 50 Cent
6. Best I Ever Drake
7. One More Drink (feat. T-Pain) Ludacris
8. Be On You (feat. Ne-yo) Flo Rida
9. Hotel Room Service Pitbull
10. Bad Romance Lady Gaga

Songs with Healthy Relationship Ingredients (2009)

1. One Time - Justin Bieber
2. Miss Independent - Ne-yo
3. Replay - Iyaz
4. Say Hay - Michael Franti
5. Knock You Down - Keri Hilson, Kanye West
6. Only You Can Love Me This Way - Keith Urban
7. Her Diamonds - Rob Thomas
8. I'm Yours - Jason Mraz
9. Fallin For You - Colbie Caillat
10. Meet Me Halfway - Black Eyed Peas

AP

Celebrities flock to take a chance with little charmer

Chari Delaney... good luck and hard work. Photo: Adam Hollingworth
From The Age
MATTHEW BENNS
August 30, 2009


The latest celebrity fad has reached Australia - $600 charm bracelets that are supposed to enhance the power of positive thought.

The former Hi-5 singer Charli Delaney has been given two of the bracelets and sees them as a positive reminder of how good life is. Since quitting the popular children's group she has hosted two radio shows.

''But I also work hard for my good luck,'' she said.

Princess Mary sparked the craze when she accepted one of the La Chance bracelets as a gift from the Danish jewellery designer Martina Baggar. Stars including the U2 lead singer Bono, the Hollywood actress Kate Hudson and the soccer star Ronaldhino followed suit.

Importer Hans Wrang said the bracelets contained the 12 animals of the Chinese zodiac and were inspired by the ancient Eastern philosophy of attracting luck, health and prosperity by thinking positively.

Australian celebrities including the Dancing with the Stars host Sonia Kruger, the So You Think You Can Dance winner Talia Fowler, the TV judge Marcia Hines and the surfer Layne Beachley have jumped on the bandwagon after being targeted by the La Chance marketing machine.

The actress Zoe Naylor gushed: ''We all need hope and faith in our lives and the La Chance bracelet has certainly brought positivity to my life.''

Mr Wrang said celebrities were carefully selected before being offered a bracelet.

''One of the things we insist on is sitting down with them face-to-face to make sure that we know what they think of the bracelet.''

The singer Janet Jackson requested a bracelet while in Denmark last year but could not spare the 10 minutes Ms Baggar insisted on to explain the bracelet's philosophy before giving it to her.

''Her minders asked us to just send it round but we said no … We don't just give them to anybody.''

Cosmetic makeover dooms ugly creatures of the seas

Former 'Trash Fish' Join the Ranks of Depleted Species

By David A. Fahrenthold
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, July 31, 2009

If the slimehead were still a slimehead, it wouldn't be in this kind of trouble.

An arm-long fish with the look of a prehistoric fossil, the slimehead lived in obscurity a quarter-mile deep in the ocean. The fish was known mainly to scientists, who named it for its distinctive mucus canals.

But then, in the 1970s, seafood dealers came up with a name that no longer tickled the gag reflex. This was the beginning of the "orange roughy."

And, very nearly, the end. With this tasty-sounding name, the slimehead was widely overfished.

On Thursday, a long-awaited report on the world's seafood stocks declared that 63 percent of these species are below healthy levels.

The seafood study, released online Thursday in the journal Science, is one of the most comprehensive looks at the contents of the world's seas. An international group of scientists examined an unprecedented amount of data about harvests and fish populations from the Bering Sea to the Antarctic, and they studied thousands of species from the Atlantic cod to the Australian jackass morwong.

Some of those worst-hit were fish that have been renamed to make them more marketable. For threatened animals on land, a more attractive name might be a blessing. But for these creatures -- slimeheads, goosefish, rock crabs, Patagonian toothfish, whore's eggs -- it was a curse.

That fishermen have turned to them shows what's left in the ocean. Today's seafood is often yesterday's trash fish and monsters.

"People never thought they would be eaten," said Jennifer Jacquet, a biologist at the University of British Columbia. "And as we fish out the world's oceans, we're coming across these species and wondering, 'Can we give them a makeover?' "

The study's lead author, Boris Worm, was following up on a study that predicted that if fishing continued at the same rate, all the world's seafood stocks would collapse by 2048. He said the latest study actually revealed something surprising: a reason for optimism.

About half of the depleted species might actually have a chance to recover, the scientists found, if given enough protection.

But, Worm said, species such as slimehead still illustrate what's gone deeply wrong.



As the world's catch has grown more than fivefold since 1950, he said, overfishing has spread from "rivers to coastal areas to the [continental] shelf to the deep sea." As they went farther and deeper, fishermen have brought back fish that people didn't have recipes -- or even words -- for.

"We didn't even consider fishing [for] these things 15, 20 years ago," said Worm, a professor at Dalhousie University in Canada. Today, he said, "we have another choice. And that is rebuilding what we've lost off our doorstep."

The depleted stocks include familiar fish such as the Atlantic cod, which has been fished so heavily that the Georges Bank population off New England is at 12 percent of healthy levels. The Gulf of Mexico's red snapper stocks are at 6 percent of what scientists say they should be.

To fill the void, some seafood vendors have fraudulently sold cheaper fish as grouper or snapper.

But in other cases, they have given the fish a more palatable name -- preying, environmentalists say, on the arm's-length relationship Americans have with their seafood.

The most famous case involves the Patagonian toothfish and the Antarctic toothfish -- drab, yard-long creatures from the cold waters near the South Pole. In the 1970s, they were rechristened "Chilean sea bass," although they are not, biologically speaking, sea bass.

The toothfish's new name and the firm, oily meat found a huge market. In recent years, environmentalists have said both toothfish are now threatened with heavy fishing, including by "pirate" fishing boats that ignore conservation laws.

The slimehead had similar troubles. Environmentalists say they live long -- 100 years or more -- and reproduce slowly, so it takes a long time to replace fish that are caught.

And along the U.S. Atlantic Coast, fishermen used to toss back a toad-colored fish that looked like it was 30 percent mouth and 50 percent stomach: the goosefish. Then somebody noticed that the tail meat could be cut into tasty fillets. Then, someone thought of "monkfish." Harvests jumped five times from the mid-1980s to the late 1990s, and the fish's numbers dropped.

"You went from unexploited, discarded fish -- bycatch, essentially -- to a targeted species that became overfished," said Thomas Munroe, a zoologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. "The fish was the same as it was as a goosefish."

Federal officials say Chilean sea bass imports are now certified to make sure they came from sustainable operations, that orange roughy are better protected and that monkfish have recovered to safe levels.

But Seafood Watch, a guide produced by the Monterey Bay Aquarium in California, still recommends that consumers avoid Chilean sea bass, orange roughy and monkfish.

Other names have been invented more recently. A few years ago, a Maine seafood dealer renamed the Atlantic rock crab the "peekytoe crab." He's sold hundreds of thousands of pounds since then. A species of sea urchin -- a ball of green spines that Maine lobstermen used to call a whore's egg -- have found a niche in U.S. sushi restaurants under its Japanese name, uni.

Early next year, look for what might be the biggest test yet of the seafoood market's response to a new name. Catfish farmers are going to introduce especially large, thick fillets to white-table restaurants under the name "delacata."

The naming of seafood is policed by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which keeps a Seafood List of acceptable market names. One of the more recent additions: snakehead can now be sold as "channa."

But FDA officials said that, in practice, they don't punish many restaurants for calling fish by unsanctioned names. "It is not a high priority . . . unless it involves a food-safety hazard," said Spring Randolph, a consumer safety officer.

At the National Fisheries Institute, a trade group, President John Connelly said the seafood industry works to police itself -- recently going after a California restaurant that was selling a Vietnamese cousin of the catfish as "white roughy." But he said there's nothing wrong with giving new names to unfamiliar creatures.

"A company is always going to find a name that customers are comfortable with," Connelly said. "A cattleman, for instance, doesn't sell 'bull testicles.' They sell 'Rocky Mountain oysters.' "

The US is gambling freedom on a risky printing press policy

The end of an unwritten, 15-year-old agreement brings great uncertainty.

The Age - 5th Feb 2009

The end of an unwritten, 15-year-old agreement brings great uncertainty.

IS THE US not just thinking but doing the unthinkable? Is the assumption that has underpinned the world economy since China emerged as the new and great Asian powerhouse and the buyer of US Treasuries over?

Do the actions of the US in repeatedly accusing China of currency manipulation and enacting protectionist policies represent a deliberate move to press the economic nuclear button and bring on "mutual assured destruction" (MAD) of the 15-year arrangement whereby China provided the US with cheap consumer goods and purchased US securities and Treasury bonds to prevent America's financial collapse?

The answer appears to be yes.

In what would be the most catastrophic and world-changing move in recent memory, the US appears to be committed to replace China's purchase of its securities with printed money, thereby moving to end the fundamental underpinnings that have governed relations between the most two important economies of the world.

Steve Keen, from the University of Western Sydney, said yesterday the US treasuries auction market was now a sideshow.

Associate Professor Keen said by way of evidence, the US money supply doubled between 1994 and 2008 and "Bernanke has doubled it again in just the past four months".

"The US has essentially abandoned conventional ways of raising money," he said.

Asked about US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's attack on China's currency manipulation, Keen said that the rules of the game had now fundamentally changed and the US was, in expanding its money supply, pursing a policy eerily similar to Fed policies that preceded the Great Depression.

Keen, who last week was interviewed by The Wall Street Journal and is fast becoming a world-recognised economic authority, outlined in his recent Debt Watch Report that Bernanke's famous "helicopter drop doubling of base money will be impotent against the US's credit crunch".

Most economists believe the US and China are bound irrevocably by US debt and China's continued purchase of that debt. They assume the US, with 46 states insolvent or approaching insolvency, will suffer immediate MAD if China ends the long financial arrangement.

But with the US entering a period of deflation, its economic leadership appears to be doing the unthinkable - going it alone and letting the electronic printing presses take care of the huge sums required to keep the nation afloat. The consequences for the world economy are incomprehensible as China's purchases of US treasuries underwrite the US's unquenchable demand for money to service its multitrillion-dollar public debt, which President Obama said recently would reach $US11trillion ($A17trillion) this year.

Faced with the huge sinkhole created by the financial meltdown and the prospect of deflation, US Fed boss Ben Bernanke has been printing money so rapidly that the US is being flooded with liquidity. This is beyond unprecedented.

Many Americans believe printing money can free the country from the suffocating embrace of mutual dependence with China. In his blog earlier this week, Brad Setser from the US Council on Foreign Relations, and one of the world's most respected China commentators, outlined the US position: "Exchange rate policies can also influence the allocation of resources across sectors. China's de facto dollar peg is an obvious example ... it is hard for me to believe that as much would have been invested in China's export sector if China had had a different exchange rate regime ...

"Those who attribute the growth of the past several years solely to the market miss the large role the state played in many of the world's fast growing economies."

Setser and others close to policymakers are realising the boom in China may not be a rerun of the Japanese and German postwar economic miracles but more akin to the creation of a giant sweatshop for the benefit of Western companies and the Chinese Communist Party. But this required US consumers to play their role as the linchpins. Now the linchpin has broken. There is no way the old arrangement can continue and the US is realising the system will end. By reverting to the printing press it can free itself from dependency on China.

The risk is massive inflation but that has never been a matter to concern Bernanke nor, it seems, the team President Obama has assembled. And US debt can be paid with inflated dollars. China is onto the tactic, which explains why it is keen to convert its dollars into iron, coal and, I suspect, vast amounts of mineral wealth as well as property overseas. China must act, however, while the US dollar is strong. Don't be surprised if the Chinalco deal is but the first of many and keep your eyes on our resource stocks. There are many games being played at a geopolitical level and many a twist and turn to come.

'Olympic Village' sex turns toads into athletes

Above: A poisonous cane toad sits on a log.
Photo: Reuters/David Gray
Article from: Brisbane Times

Shannon Molloy | December 3, 2008 - 5:00AM

Cane toads leading the charge out of Queensland suffer a gene mutation that makes them obsessed with speedy travel, according to an expert on the amphibians, but they're now developing arthritis as a result.

Professor Rick Shine from the University of Sydney studies the pesky creatures and believes the toads are evolving to become faster.

When introduced to Queensland in 1935 in a bid to kill the cane beetle, toads generally travelled at a rate of about 10 kilometres each year, Professor Shine said.

"Now that movement has increased to about 50 or 60 kilometres per year, and those at the front of this invasion have become marathon runners in a sense," he said.

The gene mutation that drives certain toads to venture from their local area has been caused by constant selective breeding between the speediest of each generation.

"Within the first generation, the quickest toads - the athletes - were on the western front and they bred with each other... we call this the Olympic Village effect," he said.

"Then their offspring dispersed and again the fastest kids bred... they constantly selected the fasting moving individuals."

Toads leading the push to Western Australia have developed longer legs than their Queensland counterparts, who seem quite content with staying in their local surrounds, he said.

However their new legs and need for speed end up being their downfall.

"A vet in Darwin noticed spinal arthritis and it looks to be the result of toads having pushed the envelope as far as they possibly can," Professor Shine said.

The professor said he believed about 10 per cent of the fast-moving amphibians now suffer severe joint arthritis, which leaves them with large boney lumps on their spines.

However, while the condition is painful, it does not seem to slow them down.

The researchers also uncovered the presence of a soil bacteria between the spinal joints of affected toads - the same bacteria found in humans suffering an immune system deficiency.

"This suggests that the invading toads are so stressed from pushing their bodies that their immune systems are beginning to fail," Professor Shine said.

"It's not actually killing the toads... but there is a strong hint here of a vulnerability (and) as an ecologist, I believe the first step in controlling cane toads is to better understand them."


For the whole article click here

Paris Hilton takes on John McCain

August 6, 2008 - 10:08AM
From theage.com.au

... "But then that wrinkly white-haired guy used me in his campaign ad, which I guess means I'm running for president. So thanks for the endorsement white-haired dude, and I want America to know I'm, like, totally ready to lead."

Hilton then offers an alternative US energy strategy, suggesting that she plans to combine elements from McCain and Democratic rival Barack Obama.

"We can do limited offshore drilling with strict environmental oversight while creating tax incentives to get Detroit making hybrid and electric cars. ... Energy crisis solved, I'll see you at the debates, bitches!"

Whole article here

Paris Hilton video here

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die

Anatomy of the new creative mind

From: http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion

Ok a bit blah blah after the title "Anatomy of the new creative mind" and it's not the sexiest looking brain, but it is a sexy slicing up.

China Leads Weather Control Race

By Brandon Keim
November 14, 2007
From Blog.Wired.com

Not content to push the edge in cloning, architecture and geological engineering, China's also leaving the rest of the world behind when it comes to controlling the weather.

A few years ago, Australian journalist John Taylor reported,

It's uncanny living in Beijing how it rains on the eve of major events. Be it a big domestic event, or a visiting foreign politician, the rain has usually fallen the day before, making for temporary blue skies free of the normal haze.

Chinese officials say cloud seeding has helped to relieve severe droughts and water shortages in cities. In Shanghai officials are considering the measure to cool the daytime temperature, easing demand for electricity.

When next summer's Olympics roll around, the Beijing Weather Modification Office will be poised to intercept incoming clouds, draining them before they get to the festivities. No fewer than 32,000 people nationwide are employed by the Weather Modification Office -- "some of them farmers, who are paid $100 a month to handle anti-aircraft guns and rocket launchers" loaded with cloud-seeding compounds. Some estimate that up to 50 billion tons of artificial rain will be produced by 2010. But Taylor noted that this has resulted in competition between cities to seed clouds first, and bitter acrimony when when region receives water claimed by another.

During my cloud seeding reportage, a few weather modification scientists praised China's initiative. My gut instinct was to focus on China's less-than-stellar human rights record and just say, "Well, it's easy to mess with the weather when there's no paperwork to fill out or reparations to pay if you flood a village or turn a county into desert." But that's reductionist. At some level, it's about vision and will -- and China's got it.

The whole article here.

Uncomfortable Answers to Questions on the Economy

By PETER S. GOODMAN
Published: July 19, 2008
From: www.nytimes.com

You have heard that Fannie and Freddie, their gentle names notwithstanding, may cripple the financial system without a large infusion of taxpayer money. You have gleaned that jobs are disappearing, housing prices are plummeting, and paychecks are effectively shrinking as food and energy prices soar. You have noted the disturbing talk of crisis hovering over Wall Street.

Whole article here

Funky Chicken

Do American birds taste funny because we chlorinate them?
By Nina Shen Rastogi
Posted Monday, July 28, 2008, at 6:58 PM ET
From www.slate.com

Barack Obama was vague about key trade issues during his recent trip to Europe, according to an analysis published in Friday's New York Times. The article referred specifically to the 11-year European ban on importing chlorinated chickens from the United States, a sanction that "is less about safety than about taste." Does chlorine really make our chickens taste funky?

It might. In 1999, researchers at the University of Georgia conducted a thorough taste comparison of chlorinated vs. nonchlorinated chicken. The researchers made light- and dark-meat patties out of both treated and nontreated meat, then baked and refrigerated them. An eight-member panel was trained in the use of a standard taste-intensity scale and then sampled reheated portions of the patties over the course of four days. The panelists tested for several distinct aromatics: "chickeny," "meaty," "rancid," and "warmed-over." On the initial day of testing—before the patties had been refrigerated—there was no significant difference in taste between any of the patties. But by the fourth day of testing, the chemically treated patties tasted significantly more reheated than the nontreated ones.

Full article here:

Long Tails and Big Heads

Why Chris Anderson's theory of the digital world might be all wrong.
By Farhad Manjoo
Updated Monday, July 14, 2008, at 7:25 AM ET
From: www.slate.com

Nearly four years ago, first in a widely cited article and later in a best-selling book, Chris Anderson posited that the Internet, with its vast inventories of books, albums, and movies, would liberate the world from blockbuster schlock. Anderson, the editor of Wired, labeled his concept "the Long Tail," after the shape our digital desires leave on a graph: When we buy stuff online, we can reach beyond big hits and into the "tail" of the demand curve, where we're free to indulge our most obscure passions. Anderson argued that serving our niche interests could also make for booming Web businesses. This was the thrill of the Long Tail—it seemed to offer a way for art and commerce to thrive side-by-side.

Now, just in time for The Long Tail's paperback release, the book has fallen under critical scrutiny. Anita Elberse, a marketing professor at the Harvard Business School, recently examined several years' worth of American movie- and music-sales data. The entertainment business has indeed seen its inventory shifting toward a Long Tail curve, Elberse writes in the Harvard Business Review. The shift is slight, however, and Anderson's Long Tail is also "extremely flat."

Full article here:

The Metaphysics and Some Politics of Global Warming

From The Wall Street Journal
July 10, 2008; Page A14
Regarding Bret Stephens's "Global Warming as Mass Neurosis" (Global View, July 1): In 1992, at my 25th Harvard College reunion, we got an accurate forecast of the "ideological convenience" driving global warming alarmism. In a discussion of the Rio Summit on environment and development, one of my classmates effused, "Who would have thought that the environment would bring us world government?" In other words, the advent of world-wide "pollution" controls will lead to world government (which all of us statist Harvard grads eagerly await).

On the other hand, climatologist Patrick Michaels has noted that we merely need to "follow the money" to explain global warming enthusiasm among scientists and academicians: Huge amounts of taxpayer dollars are running down the drain of climate research, and the people raking in the bucks are the same ones spouting the global warming nonsense.

Grant W. Schaumburg Jr.
Boston

Here are the global warming movement's cultic parallels, many of whose characteristics can be found in Walter Martin and Ravi Zacharias's famous 2003 book, "The Kingdom of the Cults":

(1) Leadership by a New Age prophet -- in this case, former Vice President Al Gore.

(2) Assertion of an apocalyptic threat to all mankind.

(3) An absolutist definition of both the threat and the proposed solution(s).

(4) Promise of a salvation from this pending apocalypse.

(5) Devotion to an inspired text which embodies all the answers -- in this case Mr. Gore's pseudo-scientific book "Earth in the Balance" and his new "An Inconvenient Truth" documentary.

(6) A specific list of "truths" which must be embraced and proselytized by all cult members.

(7) An absolute intolerance of any deviation from any of these truths by any cult member.

(8) A strident intolerance of any outside criticism of the cult's definition of the problem or of its proposed solutions.

(9) A "heaven-on-earth" vision of the results of the mission's success or a "hell-on-earth" result if the cultic mission should fail.

(10) An inordinate fear (and an outright rejection of the possibility) of being proven wrong in either the apocalyptic vision or the proposed salvation.

Finally, since this cultic juggernaut has persuaded (brainwashed?) a majority of Americans into at least a temporary mindset of support for its pseudo-religious scam, Mr. Stephens's label of "mass neurosis" seems frighteningly accurate.

Jim Guirard
Alexandria, Va.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is responsible for establishing the hottest years on record, not NASA. Its data set is considered more reliable. And they say that the hottest year on record is 1998, followed by 2006. And the hottest 10 years on record all occurred in the last 15 years.

Richard Levangie
Lunenburg, Nova Scotia

Call it religion if you wish, but get it straight. It is the cynics and the intransigent who are "morbid-minded." Those who are willing to make sacrifices on behalf of the entire world are the ones practicing the "life-affirming" brand of religion.

Hugh Siegel
New York

Freud was wrong. Libido does not move the world; fear does. Power-seeking politicians thrive on that notion. They first plant fear and then offer a solution, acquiring power in the process. Global warming hysteria is an example. No scientific basis, but a tool for collectivistic control, or for advancing business interests, or both: Witness Al Gore's companies selling "green" solutions.

Tico Moreno
Sanibel, Fla.

If global warming is religion, does that make Al Gore, with his massive carbon footprint, Elmer Gantry?

Robert Trask
Oakland, Calif.

Mr. Stephens misleads readers when he says that oceans are cooling, but forgets to mention that he's referring to faulty temperature sensors. Scientists identified and corrected this problem last year. The most recent analysis, using millions of measurements from a variety of sensors, shows strong ocean warming over the past several decades.

Climate scientists have been studying and debating global warming for decades. Through that process they have reached a remarkably strong consensus: Human activities are affecting Earth's climate, and the impacts of unchecked global warming could be severe.

Lisa Moore, Ph.D.
Environmental Defense Fund
New York

Whole Article here

Connective Writing Changes the Way We Learn

From: http://onlinesapiens.wordpress.com

Connective Writing Is…

1. Writing that is inspired by reading and is therefore a response to an idea or a set of ideas or conversations.
2. Writing that synthesizes those ideas and remixes them in some way to make them our own and is published to potentially wide audiences.
3. Writing that then becomes a part of a larger negotiation of a truth or knowledge that is evolving in the larger network.
4. Writing that is written with the expectation that it too will be taken and remixed by others into their own truths by this continuous process of reading, thinking, writing (and linking), publishing and reading some more.

Original here