ZEG

In his latest offering, conservative Australian cartoonist ZEG is having a laugh at the Warmists who predicted drought.






Manly Dam: SES says dam is full and there could be ‘minor overflow’

Hey! What happened to that drought Flannery and other Warmists  were predicting?  There is always drought somewhere in Australia but the Warmists were predicting widespread and unrelenting drought.  It hasn't happened

RESIDENTS around Manly Dam have been told to be prepared to evacuate but the immediate threat to homes has passed.

Footage of the Manly Dam this morning shows there is a slight overflow of water but so far no evacuation orders have been issued for residents.

Last night residents in the areas next to the dam were advised that they should prepare to evacuate and an evacuation centre was opened at Harbord Diggers in Freshwater.

Where possible people were advised to stay with family or friends or arrange other accomodation.

The SES will issue a flood evacuation order if necessary but no order has been issued yet.

Steve Pearce of the SES confirmed that the dam was starting to spill.  "The dam is spilling but it’s designed to spill. The dam is at no risk of collapse,” he told Sky News on Wednesday.

He said evacuation alerts, warning people they may have to prepare to move, would be rescinded later in the day. "There is no risk to the public.”

According to an online report on the SES website, an emergency alert was issued to 9000 residents in the Manly area due to the risk of flash flooding, but as of this morning "the immediate threat to the Manly community has passed, with tides receding”.

Emergency services door-knocked low-lying homes on Tuesday night telling residents an evacuation warning had been issued, a police spokesman said on Wednesday.

The tide is due to come in again at 11am on Wednesday.

Residents are being urged to follow the directions of the SES, stay calm and remain at home.

There were fears the dam would overflow and send a torrent of water onto dozens of homes, but SES spokeswoman Samantha Colwell said yesterday that while the dam was full and there might be some minor overflow, there was not an immediate threat.

"It’s not going to cause a downpour of water or anything like that, it’s something that would be slow and increase the water that’s already out there,” she said.

Police have also stepped in to try and calm concerned residents, with the top cop in the area, Detective Superintendent David Darcy, reassuring residents who live around the dam.

Of more concern to the SES were areas within the dam’s greater catchment area.  "We certainly do have a lot of issues in the Manly Dam catchment area — in North Manly, Manly Vale and Manly itself. There are several streets there and preparing people that might need to evacuate because there’s a lot of flooding in some of those streets,” she added.

Ms Colwell said there were no evacuation orders currently in place but some of the streets in those areas had become isolated and it may be required if the rain continues to fall heavily.

"There’s some rain sitting off the coast and we’re just waiting to see which way it’s going to go and where it’s going to fall.”

SOURCE





Iranian-born  Labor party thug exceeds his authority in harassment of banks



Labor senator Sam Dastyari has been accused of ambushing colleagues and threatened with a privileges investigation after he bypassed Senate protocols to unilaterally send a warning letter to the heads of the nation’s big four banks.

Senator Dastyari’s actions have led to a fresh outbreak of claims the ambitious former NSW ALP general secretary is using his role as the chairman of the high-profile Senate economics reference committee to further his own ambitions.

It is the same committee which a fortnight ago clashed with technology giants Apple, Google and Microsoft over tax evasion, and has led to questions about whether Senator Dastyari’s aggressive chairmanship has the potential to harm Labor’s relationship with big business.

The deputy chair of the committee, Liberal senator Sean Edwards, is incensed that Senator Dastyari wrote to bank chiefs without the committee’s knowledge and that his intentions to pursue a particular line of questioning were revealed in a newspaper column.

Senator Dastyari hit back last night, saying he "absolutely unequivocally" rejected any suggestion he should have telegraphed his line of interrogation to the committee. The tensions between the pair boiled over yesterday afternoon when the committee halted the evidence of National Australia Bank’s group chief executive Andrew Thorburn in order to hold a private meeting to adjudicate on the internal committee dispute.

On Monday, Fairfax columnist Adele Ferguson revealed details of where the committee’s questioning would head — even though members, apart from Senator Dastyari, were in the dark. In his letter, which was not sent to the banks until after the article ­appeared, the committee chair warned the executives to prepare for questions on the alleged rigging of bank bill swap rates.

"I was very disappointed to read over breakfast a story which bears no resemblance to the ­inquiry we are having, notifying me, the deputy chair, that we were going to be hearing from the banks about something that was completely outside the terms of reference," Senator Edwards last night told The Australian.

"I was not afforded the usual courtesy of being given notice and I didn’t ­really appreciate reading about it to the extent that I did." Asked if anyone was considering taking further action, Senator Edwards said: "In any activity that looks like or smells like that a committee is leaking, well that ­obviously triggers very, very serious issues and can be adjudicated by the privileges committee.

"I’m not sure that such a public exposure of an issue really indicated that there was anything ­malicious going on so therefore I won’t be pursuing it. However, I’ve made it very clear this type of activity will not be tolerated by myself into the future."

Senator Dastyari said he "utterly rejected any suggestion that members of a committee are under any obligation to give prior warning about what they are going to ask, but it is common from time to time to give witnesses a heads-up".

He said he agreed with the committee’s determination that questions about the bank bill swap rate were outside the terms of reference. "The committee rightly determined that it fell outside the scope,” he said. In ­response to allegations of grandstanding, Senator Dastyari said he made no apologies for "shining a light on economic ­issues that have long been ­ignored or forgotten”.

"I make no apology for using whatever powers that are available to the Senate to shine a spotlight on some of the deep, dark recesses of these economic issues that have been ignored for too long,” he said.

"If that means doing what we can to make sure that the stories of victims are heard, then I am proud of that.”

Senator Dastyari’s is understood to have signed the letter as the chairman of the committee but sent it on private letterhead.

Mr Thorburn said the bank had received a letter from Senator Dastyari late on Monday, and "I phoned a couple of our people to say is this what we are going to be talking about because I thought it was about wealth advice".

SOURCE






AN ISLAMIC PANDEMIC ... without a vaccine

Let’s be fair here, it’s said that only one in ten Muslims wants to separate your head from your torso, so let’s be really fair to all the "moderate" Muslims and say that only one in twenty (5%) harbours this ambition... I mean we don’t want to unfairly cast Islam in a poor light, do we? But, a meagre 5% means 25,000 Muslims resident in Australia intend to do some pretty bad things to us.

Never mind, security agencies say they have 400 of these ingrates under surveillance... (phew). But foiling the remaining 24,600 possible terrorist attacks on home soil may stretch the AFP’s resources, and anyway that Lindt Cafe bloke wasn’t even considered a threat, surveillance had been withdrawn.

Oh well, a few well planned explosions on ANZAC day should have a nice background effect. I mean we are remembering a war aren’t we?

And hundreds of suspects’ passports have been cancelled, (phew again) it’s much better they stay here and kill Aussies rather than travel to Syria to kill other Muslims. Of course a couple of hundred have "escaped” to join ISIS, much to the chagrin of the Government.

Three of the five arrested yesterday (presumably part of the 400 already under surveillance) were allowed to walk by yet another soft Left magistrate, but at least one was arrested... (phew).

But hang on, didn’t another soft Left magistrate let Man Monis walk? And didn’t Iran beg that he be returned to face some serious charges?

Of course Australia was fearful for what they might do to him so he was allowed to stay here to do some stuff to us instead.

And now Julie Bishop is in Teheran asking them to please take hundreds of these Rudd/Gillard Iranian vermin back! Good luck with THAT one Julie!

And didn’t another soft Left magistrate let a Geelong paedophile free to attack another little girl, on cultural grounds of course? I had better not mention that all these crims are Muslims or I will be accused of racism again.

Victoria’s Premier Daniel Andrews was kind enough to reassure us that the five accused of planning to kill a few cops on ANZAC day were "not faith driven”... (phew, that’s a relief). But Tony Abbott has started using the words Islam and terrorism in the same sentence... (bit bloody rude).

Seriously though, there’s a problem with where our leaders are leading us. If there is a conservative figure of 25,000 Muslims out there who want to kill us (that number will soon double) why aren’t they being rounded up and posted on Manus Island where the natives know how to deal with them?

It was reported in the ‘West Australian’ yesterday that, "security agencies are now reviewing material gathered by an anonymous impostor who set up a fake Twitter account pretending to be the known promoter of terrorism Saudi Aborigine, Junaid Thorne.

"Within days more than 160 people had followed the account and many discussed openly with the impostor the idea of bombing Jewish organisations based in Sydney, as well as threats to carry out Charlie Hebdo-style attacks on cartoonists Larry Pickering and Bill Leak."

The West Australian reported that, "both men drew cartoons featuring the prophet Mohammed after the attack on the French satirical newspaper in January which left 12 people dead including cartoonists, journalists and police officers.

"In one exchange with a Thorne follower, the impostor asked whether the individual was planning to kill Leak and Pickering.

"The follower, who goes by the Twitter name IslamicStateAU, replied that they knew where the two men lived and said their addresses had been passed on to ‘some brothers’ who would carry out the attack.

"It will be a repeat of Charlie Hebdo', the follower said.

"In other discussions, followers declared their support for Sydney's deadly Lindt Chocolate Cafe siege by Islamic State supporter Man Haron Monis in December.  "The Lindt cafe operation was just the beginning. We will conquer Australia", a follower calling himself Hassan Ali IS told the fake Thorne.

"Another follower, calling himself Akhi AlAustralia, said he was saving up his money to leave Australia and join Islamic State.

"When the real Junaid Thorne became aware of the fake account early this week, he posted a warning on his Facebook page telling followers not to communicate with the person behind the account.

"But new followers were still being attracted to the fake site yesterday.

"The impostor - who claims he is in America - declined to reveal his identity to the West Australian saying he was concerned for his safety.

"The fake account has exposed the deep hatred many of Thorne's followers harbour towards non-Muslim Australians.

"Thorne's real Twitter account was suspended in February because of his radical views. He has now opened a new account in a bid to direct his followers away from the hoax.”

Well, Bill’s a bit younger and better looking than me, so he needs to be careful.

Meanwhile I’m off to the next "Reclaim Australia” rally, see you there my Muslim "brothers"!

SOURCE





Fishing impacts on the Great Barrier Reef

Mankind has impacted food species since time immemorial so this is nothing new -- and no evidence of any harm to people is adduced from it in this instance.  And vast parts of Australia's surrounding waters are in marine parks anyway. Fishing is already very restricted

It's long been known that environmental impacts such as climate change and pollution are amongst the drivers of change on the Great Barrier Reef.

Now researchers from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies (Coral CoE) at James Cook University have found that removing predatory fish such as coral trout and snapper, through fishing, causes significant changes to the make-up of the reef's fish populations. [Anything else would be surprising]

"A stable and healthy reef [Define "healthy"] includes a high abundance and diversity of predatory fish and a relatively low number of herbivorous and small prey fish," says study lead author April Boaden, a PhD student at the Coral CoE.

"Predatory fish are extremely important for maintaining a balanced ecosystem on the reef, yet predators such as coral trout, snapper and emperor fish remain the main target for both recreational and commercial fishers," she says.

As part of the study, the researchers conducted extensive surveys of fish and their habitats at multiple sites across the Great Barrier Reef.

They compared fish communities in designated marine reserves (green zones), recreational fishing areas (yellow zones) and sites that allowed both commercial and recreational fishing (blue zones).

"We found that the fish communities on reefs differed greatly according to the level of fishing that they were subject to," Ms Boaden says.

"Predator numbers were severely depleted in heavily fished areas, while smaller prey fish such as damselfish, and herbivores such as parrotfish, had increased greatly in number having been released from predation."

The reduction in predator abundance through fishing altered the balance and structure of the coral reef ecosystem.

"Major disturbances such as cyclones, coral bleaching, climate change, Crown of Thorns Starfish and river run-off are thought to be the primary agents of change on the Great Barrier Reef," says study co-author, Professor Mike Kingsford from the Coral CoE.

"Despite this, we have demonstrated that great differences in the abundance of predatory reef fish, and of their prey, can be attributed to humans," Professor Kingsford says.

The findings support the continued and improved use of the existing marine networks on the Great Barrier Reef.

"The good news is that the data demonstrate that the current system of marine reserves on the Great Barrier Reef is effective in preserving predator numbers, and in doing so we can learn more about the processes affecting reefs in the face of multiple impacts," Professor Kingsford says.

"Fishing impacts are something that we can manage fairly easily compared to other threats such as climate change and run-off pollution, which are threatening the Great Barrier Reef," adds Ms Boaden.

Journal Reference:  A. E. Boaden, M. J.  Kingsford. Predators drive community structure in coral reef fish assemblages. Ecosphere, 2015; 6 (4): art46 DOI: 10.1890/ES14-00292.1

SOURCE






Muslim head-teacher believes if females run in races they may lose their virginity

The principal of an Islamic school has come under fire after he reportedly banned girls from running, amid fears it would cause them to lose their virginity.

Former teachers of Al-Taqwa College, in Melbourne's outer western suburbs, claim in a letter sent to the state and federal education ministers that principal Omar Hallak was discriminating against female students.

The Age reported that the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority is currently investigating the allegations.

This comes a month after revelations that Mr Hallak was telling students at his school that Islamic State was not 'created' by Muslims, but was instead a plot against them by the West.

The letter sent to ministers by a former teacher this week about the girls not being able to fully participate in sport claimed Mr Hallak believes there is 'scientific evidence' to back his claims.

'The principal holds beliefs that if females run excessively, they may 'lose their virginity',' the letter said.  'The principal believes that there is scientific evidence to indicate that if girls injure themselves, such as break their leg while playing soccer, it could render them infertile.'

The principal of Al-Taqwa College banned female primary school students from participating in the 2013 and 2014 cross country district events, the teacher also claimed.

They said the principal had been unaware that the female students were training for the event, and got involved when he was notified.

When they found out they had been prevented from competing, a group of female students penned a letter to their principal asking him to let them compete.

'This letter is about the cross country event that has been cancelled', the letter from 'cross country girls' read.  'Apparantly (sic) it is because girls can't run and that is really offensive to all the girls that were going to participate in the event.  'As a school principal you should treat all the subjects equally just to be fair to all the students that want to participate in a sport event', the letter continued.

The note from the group of students also raises that point that 'it doesn't say girls can't run in the hadith (sayings of the prophet Mohammed)' and they should be able to participate as long as they are wearing 'appropriate clothes'.

Education minister James Merlino has told 3AW the reports are concerning and the Victorian Registration and Qualifications Authority is investigating.  "If true these are very concerning reports and I have asked the VRQA to investigate and report back to me," Mr Merlino has told 3AW on Thursday.

When contacted by Daily Mail Australia Al-Taqwa College refused to comment.

Last month it was reported that Mr Hallak was teaching students at his school that Islamic State was not the doing of Muslims, but rather a plot against them.

He reportedly shows his almost 2,000 students ‘evidence’ that Islamic State terrorists are ‘not linked to Islam’.

‘We don’t believe Muslims are creating IS,’ Mr Hallak told The Age. He believes that the murder and brutality carried out by Islamic State terrorists is actually a plot by Western countries to control oil in the Middle East.

SOURCE