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Get this poison off our shelves AVAAZ
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ET news F.O.E.
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Inboxx 
Louise Sales <louise.sales@foe.org.au>
3:05 PM (1 minute ago)to me
nevile, Welcome to the latest edition of ET news – the newsletter of Friends of the Earth’s Emerging Tech Project.
Time for a ban on certain sorts of genetic engineering?
Scientists recently captured mainstream media attention with calls for a ban on human germline editing – the genetic engineering of human DNA passed on from one generation to the next. The scientists are deeply concerned about the ethical and safety implications of research involving the genetic engineering of human embryos.
Read moreUS regulator proposes nano reporting requirements whilst Australian regulators remain asleep
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has proposed reporting requirements on companies manufacturing and importing nanoscale chemicals to gather vital information on the volumes produced, exposure levels, and any potential health and safety risks. Meanwhile, in Australia, plans to regulate nano forms of existing chemicals seem to have been abandoned.
Read moreNew studies show environmental and health risks of nanomaterials
While the rate of commercialisation of products containing nanomaterials accelerates rapidly, the environmental, health and safety studies that should have been done before commercial release occurs are only slowly appearing
Read moreNew factsheets
We have produced new factsheets on synthetic biology and the occupational health and safety concerns associated with nanomaterials. Please drop us a line if you’d like us to post you some paper copies.
Louise Sales
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Deceiving the Australian public TIM FLANNERY
Click here to enable desktop notifications for Gmail. Learn more HideMore2 of 24Deceiving the Australian public
Inboxx Tim Flannery – Climate Council via sendgrid.info
12:33 PM (44 minutes ago)to meHi Inga, The Australian Government today announced they would contribute $4m for Danish climate contrarian Bjorn Lomborg to establish a new “consensus centre” at the University of Western Australia.In the face of deep cuts to the CSIRO and other scientific research organisations, it’s an insult to Australia’s scientific community.
As the Climate Commission, we were abolished by the Abbott Government in 2013 on the basis that our $1.5 million annual operating costs were too expensive. We relaunched as the Climate Council after thousands of Australians chipped in to the nation’s biggest crowd-funding campaign – remember this video?
It seems extraordinary that the Climate Commission, which was composed of Australia’s best climate scientists, economists and energy experts, was abolished on the basis of a lack of funding and yet here we are three years later and the money has become available to import a politically-motivated think tank to work in the same space.
This is why the work of the Climate Council is so important – to counter this continuing ideological attempt at deceiving the Australian public.
Mr Lomborg’s views have no credibility in the scientific community. His message hasn’t varied at all in the last decade and he still believes we shouldn’t take any steps to mitigate climate change. When someone is unwilling to adapt their view on the basis of new science or information, it’s usually a sign those views are politically motivated.
But with your support we will continue to fight back and reach millions of Australians with information that is based on the best science available.
Thank you
Tim Flannery
P.S We’re already busy responding to misinformation in the media. We just called out The Australian for deliberately misinterpreting the science and the Prime Ministers Business Advisor Maurice Newman for getting his facts wrong.
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The John James Newsletter 55
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The John James Newsletter 55
Inbox x John James
4:38 AM (3 hours ago) The John James Newsletter 55
17 April 2015Information is the currency of democracyThomas Jefferson.
The volume of major military deals concluded by the Obama administration in its first FIVE years exceeds the amount approved by the Bush administration in its entire EIGHT years in office by nearly $30 billion.Open this interactive and be amazedKeep it in the groundHow much fossil fuel has been extracted since you arrived at this page? Or since you were born? The numbers below highlight the staggering amount of oil, coal and gas we take out of the ground – and how quickly change is needed.http://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2015/apr/10/how-much-fossil-fuel-are-we-using-right-now?CMP=EMCENVEML1631
City of Vancouver votes to go 100% renewableVancouver joins Sydney; San Diego, California; San Francisco, California; Stockholm, Sweden; Munich, Germany; and others set aim on 100% renewables and for 100% of heating + cooling coming from renewable energy sources. http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/city-of-vancouver-votes-to-go-100-renewable-35733
Video Message From Gaza: We Are Still Under The RubbleMore than 7 months after the ceasefire announcement in #Gaza, not a single totally destroyed home has been rebuilt.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pMzCzaQECGE ‘Gaza Is a Tomb’In the rubble of the Gaza Strip, the militias are once again arming, training and preparing for the inevitable war with Israel. “The war could start any minute,” says Abu Mujahid.https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/13/gaza-is-a-tomb-israel-palestine-militias/
Record sea-surface temperatures in Pacific point to record warmth in 2015 and 2016 http://www.bom.gov.au/climate/change/about/sst_timeseries.shtml and A 1,000 Mile Stretch Of The Pacific Ocean Has Heated Up Several Degreeshttp://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/a-1000-mile-stretch-of-the-pacific-ocean-has-heated-up-several-degrees-and-scientists-dont-know-why
Electric Car Batteries Just Hit A Key Price PointElectric vehicle demand in the past five years has soared worldwide. By the end of 2014, more than 700,000 total plug-in vehicles had been sold (plug-in hybrids and pure battery electrics), up from about 400,000 at the end of 2013. As of 2015, dozens of models of electric cars and vans are available. A major reason is the rapid drop in the cost of their batteries. http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/04/13/3646004/electric-car-batteries-price/
North Siberian Arctic Permafrost Methane Eruption Vents The world is predicted to produce exactly the same mantle methane release from permafrost eruption vents by the 2050’s as occurred in the Late Permian Extinction Event of 252m years ago: called The Great Dying when over 93% of all species were extinguished. Mankind has released a giant, long dormant methane preserve generated between 100 km and 300 km depth and at temperatures of above 1200°C. This is now a region of massive methane emissions with no easy way to reseal.http://arctic-news.blogspot.com.au/2015/04/north-siberian-arctic-permafrost-methane-eruption-vents.html Map shows where the Trapp Volcanics released the gasses that instigated the Great Dying
How to Deal With the Iranian Genii? What Israel really feared was not Iran’s non-existent nuclear threat but its ongoing support for the Palestinians. US policy has been to keep the infectious, troublesome Iranians isolated and contained. While the reason was Iran’s nuclear threat, the sanctions regime was really aimed at fatally weakening Iran’s economy and provoking the overthrow of the Islamic government and its replacement by tame Iranian exiles.http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41521.htm
Iran approved to join China-backed infrastructure bankMore than 50 countries have now applied to join the bank in a diplomatic coup for Beijing after Washington initially opposed its allies becoming members.http://news.yahoo.com/iran-approved-join-china-backed-infrastructure-bank-103455398.html
All options including military action open on IranIsraeli Intelligence Minister Yuval Steinitz said that all options including military action were on the table in the face of the “threat” of a nuclear-armed Iran.AND I THOUGHT WE HAD AN AGREEMENT TO END IRAN’S NUCLEAR PROGRAM?HOW SOME PEOPLE WANT WAR, NO MATTER WHAT THE CONSEQUENCES.http://news.yahoo.com/options-including-military-action-open-iran-israel-105611579.html
The downing of Malaysia Airlines MH17 (as observed from Australia)
A multi-part analysis that asks “Is it correct that on 7 August 2014 The New Straits Times lay out evidence that Ukrainian fighter aircraft attacked the jetliner with first a missile, then with bursts of 30-millimetre machine gun fire from both sides, and that the Russian army has already presented detailed radar and satellite data showing a Ukrainian Sukhoi-25 fighter jet tailing MH17 shortly before the jetliner crashed?” http://theaimn.com/downing-malaysia-airlines-mh17-observed-australia-part-1/
Guatemalans claim they were deliberately infected with STDs sue Johns Hopkins for $1bnLawsuit with 800 plaintiffs seeks damages deliberate infection with STDs against Johns Hopkins University over its alleged role in the deliberate infection of hundreds of vulnerable Guatemalans with syphilis and gonorrhoea, during a medical experiment programme in the 1940s and 1950s.http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/apr/02/johns-hopkins-lawsuit-deliberate-std-infections-guatemala
At Behest of IMF, Jamaicans Face the Harshest Austerity Policies in WorldThis poverty- and debt- stricken nation faces budget more severe even than Greece’s. Thanks to policies imposed by the IMF Jamaica has the most severe austerity budget on the planet. The country’s debt-to-GDP ratio stands at nearly 140%, and it has some of the highest interest payments in the world at 8 percent of GDP last year. http://www.commondreams.org/news/2015/04/07/behest-imf-jamaicans-face-harshest-austerity-policies-world-report
$45 Billion in Tax Dollars Goes Missing in Afghanistan http://www.thefiscaltimes.com/2015/04/01/45-Billion-Tax-Dollars-Goes-Missing-Afghanistan
US secretly tracked billions of calls nearly a decade BEFORE 9/11 Secret records of international telephone calls harvesting billions of calls to as many as 116 countries in a program that provided a blueprint for the far broader NSA surveillance that followed. The data collection began in 1992. It was approved by top Justice Department officials in four presidential administrations with little independent oversight. [Ergo, Bush and his successor Obama had/have been lying to the public for years about the ‘need’ for blanket NSA surveillance to avoid another 9/11–when all the surveillance in the world didn’t prevent the first.] http://www.wtsp.com/story/news/2015/04/07/us-secretly-tracked-billions-of-calls-for-decades/25434673/
China Spoils Washington’s Economic War against VenezuelaIn countering US economic aggression against Venezuela, China steps in with a 10 billion dollar loan – China is making a habit of bailing out countries targeted by US sanctionshttp://russia-insider.com/en/financial-war-us-china-granted-venezuela-billion-loan/5220
Spain obtained 47% of its electricity from renewables in MarchMost of the renewable electricity being generated in Spain comes from wind, which alone provided 22% of the country’s electricity last month.http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/spain-got-47-of-its-electricity-from-renewables-in-march-21961
Saudi firm buys Australia big solar projectsA company based in the world’s largest oil exporting nation, Saudi Arabia, has become the new owner of Australia’s second-largest solar plant – the under-construction 72MW Moree PV project.http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/opec-nations-turn-to-sun-as-saudi-firm-buys-australia-big-solar-projects-87764
Rwanda revisitedFormer President Clinton said he never knew the extent of suffering during Rwanda’s genocide. But America’s diplomats on the ground knew exactly what was happening — and they told Washington.https://foreignpolicy.com/2015/04/05/rwanda-revisited-genocide-united-states-state-department/
Dogs trained to detect prostate cancer with more than 90% accuracy An Italian team in several studies stretching back decades raises the prospect of canines’ sense of smell helping doctors identify a number of human cancers and infectious diseases. The two female dogs sniffed urine samples from 900 men, 360 with prostate cancer and 540 without. Both animals were right over 90%.http://www.theguardian.com/society/2015/apr/11/dogs-trained-detect-prostate-cancer-accuracy?CMP=ema_565
China will build a pipeline to bring natural gas from Iran to PakistanThe pipeline would be an early benefit from the framework agreement reached earlier this month between Tehran and the US to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. http://www.wsj.com/articles/china-to-build-pipeline-from-iran-to-pakistan-1428515277The US Can Download the Entire Contents of Your Computer at Border CrossingsNone of the hundreds of thousands of travellers who cross US borders every day have any right to privacy, Based upon little more than the opinion of a single Customs and Border officer, any device can be searched and its contents read, and even seized and its contents copied.http://motherboard.vice.com/read/you-have-no-right-to-electronic-privacy-when-you-cross-the-us-border
Defence Housing to create solar suburb in Darwin, ready for electric vehiclesNew development to create 337kW solar suburb, producing 600,000kWh of electricity a year and saving Defence members more than $4m in electricity costs.http://reneweconomy.com.au/2015/defence-housing-to-create-solar-suburb-in-darwin-ready-for-evs-29977
Australia Powered by the People. Help map solar installations around Australia. The team at the Australian PV Institute have created some amazing maps around solar energy installations. https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/australian-solar-map
Russian man to undergo first head-to-body transplantDoctors seem to be a step closer to performing a breakthrough surgery by transplanting a human head onto another body. A Russian man with a rare genetic muscle-wasting disorder has volunteered to be the first to try the procedure.http://rt.com/news/248473-transplant-head-body-canavero/
Documents Showing How the Empire Plans to Overthrow PutinThis information was posted on an anonymous blog Drakula’s blog.http://drakulablog.com/2015/04/01/west-and-ukraine-against-putin-and-his-politicians/. It looks very credible, so , so take a look here for comparison purposes.http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article41514.htmto John -
Raise the Heat near you 350 org
1 of 22Raise the Heat near you
Inboxx Josh Creaser josh.creaser@350.org.au via list.350.org
8:37 PM (17 minutes ago)to meDear friends,
Last week we launched Raise the Heat – a week of actions at CommBank branches around the country to show Australia’s largest bank that it’s time to rule out funding for the Galilee Basin mega coal mines.
The response was huge! Over 30 CommBank branches have already been registered across the country — from Perth to Mackay, Parramatta to Melbourne and many places in between.
Click here to join actions at your nearest CommBank from 19-23 May.
If the Galilee Basin was a country it would be the seventh largest source of carbon emissions on the planet – it’s literally a ticking carbon bomb. If we can build enough pressure and push CommBank to rule out funding it will be a massive nail in the coffin of this disastrous project.
There’ll be something for everyone during the week of action. From sharing information and creating powerful images, switching accounts to fossil free banks and taking part in creative stunts, bold actions and big rallies — together we’ll put CommBank’s reputation on the line.
Get on board today by signing up for an action at your nearest CommBank branch.
CommBank won’t just feel the heat at home. Solidarity actions are being organised in countries around the world to demonstrate that the Galilee Basin is a truly global threat and will face global resistance.
Yours for a safe climate and reef,
Josh and Janelle for the 350.org Australia Team
P.s Can’t see a CommBank branch near you? New branches can be registered up until Monday night. Click here to adopt your local branch.
350.org is building a global climate movement.You can connect with us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter, and become a sustaining donor to keep this movement strong and growing.
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[New post] iVote – how did it go so wrong?
Click here to enable desktop notifications for Gmail. Learn more HideSomething’s not right.We’re having trouble connecting to Google. We’ll keep trying…More1 of 23[New post] iVote – how did it go so wrong?
Inboxx The Tally Room <donotreply@wordpress.com> Unsubscribe
1:00 PM (40 minutes ago)to meNew post on The Tally Room
iVote – how did it go so wrong?
by Ben Raue
At the recent NSW state election, the iVote internet voting system was used for the second time. The internet voting system is one of the first in the world, and was used by a much larger number of voters in 2011, but not without significant problems during the process, involving breaches in security, errors on the ballot resulting in votes being possibly invalidated, and a big increase in donkey votes due to difficulty in reading the entire ballot.
iVote was first introduced for the 2011 election. Originally, iVote was entirely focused on voters who are blind or have low vision. When the legislation was brought to Parliament in December 2010, the scope of iVote was extended significantly, with the right to use iVote extended to voters who live more than 20km from a polling place, will be overseas or interstate on election day, or have other disabilities
At that election, 46,864 votes were cast using iVote, which made up 1.09% of all votes (formal and informal) cast at the election. Overall, iVote was equivalent to one whole electorate. Despite the original intention, most of those who used iVote were voters who were outside NSW on election day.
In the lead-up to the 2015 election, other options were closed down for voters eligible to use iVote.
In the past, overseas voters have been able to vote at a number of Australian embassies, high commissions and consulates in cities with a large Australian expat and tourist population – the most prominent example being Australia House in London. In 2015, these overseas booths were shut down. While overseas voters still had the option of using a postal vote, casting a postal vote from overseas requires substantial lead time, so for voters voting at the last minute or wanting to vote conveniently, iVote became the only option.
These factors saw iVote shoot up in popularity in 2015. On the final Legislative Assembly figures, 283,669 votes were cast through iVote, which made up 6.22% of all votes cast. This is more than the number of postal votes (4.46%) and almost as big as the number of absent votes (6.33%).
In western democracies, voting over the internet is still very rare, and iVote remains the only case of voting over the internet being available in an Australian election.
The Australian Capital Territory has used electronic voting since 2001, but only within particular large polling places. This means that, unlike with iVote, the votes are cast on Electoral Commission machines in a controlled setting, not on your personal computer, and the votes are not transferred across the internet. Similar processes apply with electronic voting in New Zealand.
There have been a number of problems with iVote this year, some bad enough that they could possibly force NSW voters back to the polls.
Crikey‘s “tips and rumours” section ran with a story in March about people who had trouble with the iVote system calling the NSWEC hotline, with the person answering the phone suggesting they be removed from the electoral roll as a solution to the problem (which also overlaps with the ongoing problems that electoral commissions have in effectively selecting and training the armies of temporary staff employed at each election).
During the campaign, a security flaw in iVote was discovered by researchers outside the NSWEC, and the patch was closed. It’s not known whether this theoretical flaw resulted any votes being cast insecurely, or actually being tampered with.
The most obvious problem with iVote came 36 hours after voting started, when it emerged that the online ballot paper did not include above-the-line boxes for two groups: the Outdoor Recreation Party and the Animal Justice Party. This problem could potentially imperil the entire election, with Animal Justice in with a chance to win. If the party falls just short, it’s possible they could argue that they would have gained sufficient votes from the iVotes cast in those first 36 hours when they weren’t properly listed on the ballot, and this could invalidate the entire election.
There are also problems with how the iVote system looks on a computer when you are voting. You can see how it looks by trying out the iVote practice website.
When I use the website on my 13-inch screen, I can only see the first five columns on my screen without scrolling – a small proportion of the ballot. Considering that the Legislative Council paper ballot is much bigger than a regular laptop screen (let alone a smartphone screen), it’s not surprising that iVote is unable to show the whole ballot at the one time.
Antony Green demonstrated that the first four groups on the ballot, all minor parties or independents, had a massive increase in their vote on iVote compared to other vote types. For all four groups, their percentage of the iVote is at least twice as high as their percentage of the total vote, with the independent Group D polling 2.8 times as many votes proportionally on the iVote compared to the total statewide vote.
The major parties naturally experience variations in vote between different vote types (iVotes tend to be cast by younger people who move around more, which favours the Greens and is not favourable to the Coalition), so it’s not possible to say whether the ballot layout helped the Coalition, in Group E, but there is also a substantial uptick in the vote for the minor parties in Groups F and G.
Of course, there is an advantage for being on the left-hand side of a large paper ballot, but the effect is nowhere near as big as we are seeing for groups near the left in the iVote figures. It is conceivable you could reduce the effect by randomising the order of groups on the ballot, but it’s still concerning that iVote only shows you such a small part of the ballot.
Despite these problems, iVote has been popular with those who have used it, and if it continues to exist it’s likely that more people will wish to use it, and any potential or actual problems with the system will become more and more significant.
The concept of electronic voting in general, and even internet voting, is popular amongst the general public, while technology and electoral experts are sceptical, for cost, security and transparency reasons. This Youtube video explains much of the technological objections to internet voting.
Internet voting hasn’t been used anywhere else in Australia (although it will be trialled for New Zealand local elections in 2016), but electronic voting has been used at limited polling places, in particular in the ACT and Victoria, as well as for defence personnel and voters who are blind or have low vision at Commonwealth elections since 2007. This has not involved votes being transmitted across the internet, and has involved the use of consistent hardware owned by the electoral administration authority.
In addition to concerns about the system being secure, and the voting experience being consistent for different voters, there are also concerns about transparency in electronic systems used for the casting and counting of votes.
The iVote software is not open source, which makes it hard for outside security experts to the review the system and ensure there are no problems with it. There have also been complaints on the same basis with regard to the “EasyVote” software used by the Australian Electoral Commission to calculate the distribution of preferences (after data-entering votes cast on paper). The AEC has refused requests to release the source code, which would allow others to verify the accuracy of the counting system.
Similar counting systems are used for most multi-member elections around Australia, including the NSW Legislative Council, and NSW in 2015 is the first state to introduce the use of counting software and data entry for single-member electorates in the Legislative Assembly. There should be a shout-out to Elections ACT for using open source software for both their electronic voting system and their electronic counting system.
Overall, it seems inevitable that electronic software will become more and more common for counting ballots, electronic voting is likely to spread for major central polling places (although cost measures make it impractical for every booth), and demands for internet voting for convenience reasons are likely to persist. Despite this trend, it’s important that moves to introduce technology where we have perfectly good manual electoral processes should be looked on with caution.
Ben Raue | April 16, 2015 at 1:00 pm | Tags: New South Wales 2015 | Categories: Uncategorized | URL: http://wp.me/ppI95-6PG
