Litespeed

Great work by the crew and owners- not. It has only just been refurbished- maybe they could not afford a watch crew or some new mooring lines. Did they use those thruster things to keep it in position? Maybe the should have moved it away from the port for safety. Just like the air, the sea does not suffer fools.

Not just the board etc but the club itself should be banned- in a corporate sense the club is the guilty party. Any personnel changes are but a slap on the wrist. If the club was sanctioned it would ensure all interested parties including fans would make damn sure it nor anything like would never happen again. The sanction must be big enough that it discourages the behaviour- nothing that has happened so far can truly stop such behaviour because the entity- the club is not punished. The corporate entity must cop punishment that is sufficiently painful to completely change the culture. Currently it is like the club is the Mr big of drug importation but we choose to only arrest the street dealer. So Mr big just gets more minions to deal for him. No solution at all.

OME, Yes, I accept that the injected drug was not on the poisons list per se. However the credo of do no harm was clearly broken, and the doctor through knowledge or neglect actively gave the players a injection that was not in their best interests, was not for a therapeutic reason and actually caused harm to their career and was given in a workplace setting. And further they were made sign documents that they would never disclose they had received the injections. It would appear to be premeditated medical negligence- but alas the doc gets away scott free and has even sued to keep his reputation untarnished. But just like plastic surgery it appears sports and doctors are completely unregulated. Glad my son is not into pro sport.

I am all for the suspension of the players- they knew the rules and got busted. However the club should have also been banned for over this saga. As it stands only the players and some very selective staff have suffered. It was the club that started the whole thing and put the players in this situation but gets away with it. The doctor involved should also be criminally charged for injecting a illegal substance and also struck off. If he did this in any other area but sport- the medical board would have his guts for garters. Just my two cents- and no I do not follow any AFL team.

David will be missed, he showed us what a man can be in all its complexity. And a amazing talent. A great loss to the creative world and a true innovator. Ground control out.

Then they are not panel beaters but panel replacers- very common these days sadly. I hope the above wreckers can sort you out.

Or find a real body man who can straighten that mess and remove the worst bits then make new sections for it. I know most are no longer real panel men but some are.

I would be careful- the use of a spanner to tighten your nuts can lead to problems with fertility

Not a crime at all. Refer to my last post.

Octave, You seem to actually use Face book for a proper purpose and good on you. But I disagree about business and Facebook. My previous employer- a disability charity decided it was ok to cut frontline staff and close group homes to save money. But then employed someone on a exec type wage just to do a facebook page. It was purely smoke and mirrors and not even a competent page. As with everything, sometimes technology is great, other times it is used for slashing jobs and services.

Gandalf- You son needs to be educated. The forums you mention are special interest groups that communicate via a digital platform. Social media is for socialising and showing the world how big your ego is, what you ate for dinner, that your bum does look big in that etc. And twitter- is for peeps who can not form real sentences and have bird brains. Also for politicians to prove how irrelevant they are. Linked-in seems to be for people to exaggerate their qualifications

I will not join Face Fark just to see Kermit

I stroked your ego. All good

First stage has been cancelled. Poor weather means they are not able to fly helicopters whihc are used to "protect racers and those watching" Not to protect the commercial interests - advertisers- apparently

Not a problem OME. It is social media, not "you must do this to be in business media". Tell them you are too busy ensuring the quality and safety of the work performed to be on Linkedin. Make the offer- you can happily spend time on social media as long as the client does not mind been charged a hourly rate for doing only 30 mins work. And that the time spent on safety will instead be spent on linkedin. See if he/she is willing to fund your social media with their wallet and life. You are doing the right thing

Simple really Does not involve a group we like to label terrorists Can't appease the people by making new draconian laws or throwing money at it. Does not involve people of welfare Can't be blamed on labour/greens etc Not christians Nobody slandered a jew So it does not matter to them And budget cuts have mean the ABC has no money to send a reporter unless it is China.

I love the cats vid. Every time I put my snake near a pussy it runs away

Off course not Dazza, If you did not read about it in the Murdoch press................ It does not exist

Yes, commenting on Timor is a big thread drift- but so is China and RAAF planes. But it is relevant if we consider Religion or other belief systems allow us too feel exceptional compared to others. And thus our lives are more worthy than others.

AS a side note: Why does East Timor not scream about the atrocities that killed up to 35% of their population during the Indonesian years and the period of Australia's involvement? To not upset those with the power, it was agreed to not force those responsible to be outed and charge or seek war crimes retribution for a deal on Aid. They are so impoverished that the only income they generally get is aid and mainly from Australia. Let your still living people eat or defend the dead, which would you choose?

TP, As I stated some of this information is in the public domian, ie the spying, the Downer personal involvement and many other bits. You really think the Government would happily tell us about it? You are naive. As I stated, somethings Governments do can not by law be publicly stated and or attributted to a source. Ie that source can have their life destroyed for even commenting. Read between the lines- But as many would know- it is illegal to even name a person from such a organistation as having worked for them. In fact such employees can not even tell family members who they work for. Think on it. OR you can believe that Australia is the Gold standard for ethics.

I reckon Jim Cairns is probably a Rhodes Scholar compared to Joe Hockey and Morrison does not seem much better. At least Jim did not intend to be evil

I wish that was true, that Australia did something to be truly proud of but alas the opposite is true. The story is two fold- our operations during East Timors fight for independence and after. Please note: this is not about our service men and women - who overall did a great job in a shitty situation. here is some pocket history http://www.onyamagazine.com/australian-affairs/history/how-australia-betrayed-then-saved-east-timor/ We also under the direction of Canberra allowed the massacre of East Timorese near the West Timor border during the INTERFET response. Basically the US warned us what was happening and the our troops on the ground were actively diverted away from the area to ensure we did not get involved in saving them. Either because we might have taken casualties or because Howard did not want to annoy Indonesia- which given Howard's megaphone diplomacy is unlikely. So most likely to avoid bad coverage at home if bodybags come back. All the SIGNET(signels and intelligence) for INTERFET had to go via Canberra for political reasons and then were relayed to our troops on the ground. To ensure our command and troops in East Timor did not stay in the area and save the Timorese- All SIGNET were cut by Canberra after ordering us away from the impending massacre. Hence the troops could not discover what was going on until it was all over and we could not provide a show of force to save them. This was purely done by our political heros in Canberra- how much our current GG and head of the force at the time Peter Cosgrove knew is another matter I can not comment on. So essentially we (as country) were complicit in the murder of thousands of East Timorese near the West Timor border by the orders of Canberra. Many of the bodies were removed before we got back into the area and thousands were forced over the border into West Timor, and never heard from again. Yes this did happen No you will not find much info it No the official history will not admit it And sadly I can not say how I know. After the fighting cooled down we then did another terrible thing........ You may remember that East Timor is one of the poorest countries on Earth and all of its infrastructure was razed by the Indonesians and their militias. It is also extremely wealthy in natural resources- oil and gas in the Timor sea. These were never developed under Indonesian rule but we had signed a joint agreement with Indonesia for exploitation- the bulk of the prize went to Indonesia due to the proximity of the fields to Timor. Upon the creation of East Timor as a nation state, Australia started negoitiations on the oil and gas fields and this was lead by Alexander Downer (Foreign Minister). At the same time we rebuilt government offices for the new East Timorese government and then these were used for the negotiations- which sounds nice on the face of it. But- we had under the direction of Downer used ASIO to secretly bug all discussions by the Timorese government to ensure the upper hand in the treaty deal. And guess what? We ripped off Timor hugely and forced them to sign a deal that ensured the lions share of the resources went to us and not the impoverished Timorese. The East Timorese where placed in a position where they had no real bargaining power and we ripped off the poorest country on earth. To add further insult- the vast majority of the wealth we "stole" will never even be seen by Australia, as we have allowed a big multinational oil company to do the exploitation and we will get a puny royalty. That company is a large and powerful multinational that has a history of not paying tax on any profits. And fudging figures so little royalties are paid. The man who did all this- Alexander Downer is now employed by that same company. Forward years down the track and the East Timorese find out what we did and go to the international umpire of such things and claim we forced Timor to sign a bad deal under duress and ripped them off royally. This all came to head as the Labour government lost power and Abbott got his hands on the wheel. A former ASIO operative turned whistleblower and a Aussie lawyer were assisting the Timorese in their case. Days before the whistleblower was to leave Australia and testify in the Hauge (testimony that would kill our treaty) the lawyers offices were raided and all materials for the case taken by ASIO. The whistleblowers passport cancelled- so he can not testify and is "warned off" saying anything or he will be.......the case is effectively stalled. This case is still ongoing and due to the current governments actions may never be fairly concluded. The info about the case is in the public domain- so I can comment on it. Now before anyone says that Australia had a right to spy on the negotiations for our national interest and the whistleblower is either a traitor or liar (he did install the spy gear under orders).... The gains we made were of a commercial nature that benefited a company and were actually counter to our strategic interest of having East Timor as a stable and developing state. And we illegally spied by using ASIO which by law is limited to such activities to Australia, ASIS is the foreign service for such cloak and dagger stuff. If the whistleblower was ever able to defend himself in our courts or the international courts, he would win due to the nature of the case and its illegality. But he will never get a chance nor will he ever be able to speak about it now. Meanwhile the East Timorese are very poor and have not seen any money. And the guy up to his neck in it- Alexander Downer is making a lot of money from his sponsor a oil company that benefited from the whole thing. Does anyone think it a co-incidence the current LNP government have done everything it can to kill this case about the actions of a previous LNP government. But the LNP naturally know nothing about it, just like the bribes we paid to Saddam Hussien at the same time we were at war with him. Some may think this is all conspiracy stuff and it is- the Australian government conspired to make all this happen. We should all feel ashamed to be Australian for what has been done in our name to the most defenceless and poorest country on earth. Before anyone asks how I know some of this.. I legally can not say, but can say I have never been in the armed forces. You will have to read between the lines.

Yep, I would be very nervous. But the Chinese are only doing what America would do going by history. And yes Nev, we should instead play honest broker for peace and the rule of law. Problem is we are not honest- just ask East Timor how fair and honest we are. We have clearly shown international law only counts when we want it to, especially under LNP governments.

I agree that we should generally stick out of China's business and its politics. And doing anything because Uncle Sam wants us too is always a recipe for disaster. But the situation is not simple, the area they are claiming for many of these islands is so far from China that it can not reasonably be seen as anything but bullying the neighbours and trying to secure rights that clearly under international law are not theirs. These disputed islands are so far from China compared to the countries that are near them, they have as much right to claim them or even lodge a claim for them as we do for claiming Arctic circle oil rights. That does not mean we should be playing point for the USA though. Unfortunately all the countries that do have a legitimate right to make a claim or lodge a disputed claim, are military minnows. And I get the feeling China would quite happily shoot at if they tried to assert themselves.