No Housework Day 7/4/17 Friday and other stuff

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On this day

  • 1990 An arson attack on the passenger ferry, Scandinavian Star, kills 159

    Insurance fraud is today considered the most likely motive for the attack. According to a 2013 report, 9 crew members started the fire and sabotaged the fire crew’s attempts to extinguish the blaze.

  • 1969 The internet is born

    The Advanced Research Projects Agency (ARPA) awarded a contract to build a precursor of today’s world wide web to BBN Technologies. The date is widely considered as the internet’s symbolic birthday.

  • 1948 The World Health Organization is established

    The WHO is a United Nations agency concerned with fighting disease and epidemics worldwide, building up national health services, and improving health education in its 194 member states.

  • 1827 The first friction match is sold

    English chemist John Walker produced and sold the first operable matches. They were soon banned in France and Germany because burning fragments would sometimes fall to the floor and start fires.

  • 1724 Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. John Passion is premiered

    The sacred oratorio is the oldest extant Passion by the German composer. The highly popular work is a dramatization of the final days of Jesus Christ, according to the Gospel of John.

Births On This Day – 7 April

  • 1964 Russell Crowe

    New Zealand/Australian actor, singer, producer

  • 1954 Jackie Chan

    Chinese actor, martial artist, director, producer, screenwriter

  • 1939 Francis Ford Coppola

    American director, producer, screenwriter

  • 1920 Ravi Shankar

    Indian/American sitar player, composer

  • 1915 Billie Holiday

    American singer-songwriter, actress

Deaths On This Day – 7 April

  • 1947 Henry Ford

    American businessman, founded the Ford Motor Company

  • 1891 P. T. Barnum

    American businessman, founded Ringling Bros., Barnum & Bailey Circus

  • 1804 Toussaint Louverture

    Haitian general

  • 1782 Taksin

    Thai king

  • 1614 El Greco

    Greek painter, sculptor

  On this Friday 2017
Trump decided to be the tough guy and send a few missiles to Syria
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Both the coalition and Labor supported him
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What will happen from here
17898144-3D-People-with-Question-Mark-on-White-Background-Stock-Photo-man.jpg
  BUT MORE IMPORTANTLY
Today is world Beer day
pints-of-beer-136399973537503901-150825113746.jpg
So Things are still looking good.

460 thoughts on “No Housework Day 7/4/17 Friday and other stuff”

  1. Good morning Dawn Patrollers.

    Now Trump is acting belligerently towards North Korea. No doubt he has all eventualities covered. Twitter bloody diplomacy!
    http://www.smh.com.au/world/north-korea-looking-for-trouble-and-us-will-solve-problem-donald-trump-says-20170411-gvj2me.html
    The tax on an Australian family earning $82,000 a year has risen to the second highest rate in the developed world, figures from the OECD show. Australia’s tax level now trails only Denmark’s for a single-income family earning $82,000 a year with two children, according to the report.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/tax-on-some-australian-families-second-highest-in-developed-world-report-finds-20170411-gvih8f.html
    Scripture study in NSW public schools continues to survive. Why? Oh, Fred Nile has the government by the shorts.
    http://www.smh.com.au/national/education/nsw-government-rejects-findings-of-independent-review-into-scripture-in-schools-20170411-gvis1c.html
    In quite a big spit Paul Kelly writes that t he problems facing the Turnbull government are of its own making yet part of a far bigger story — the failure of a political generation — where the demise of quality public policy is tied to the decline of trust in the political system. Google.
    /opinion/columnists/paul-kelly/hope-fades-for-good-politics-based-on-good-policy/news-story/d2805e86b41b520ecb556b12c9ab6c45
    Another couple of VET spiv outfits gets defunded.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/careers-australia-and-evocca-funding-stripped-from-two-of-australias-largest-colleges-20170411-gvidfo.html
    Tony Abbott continues to be “helpful” to Turnbull.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/housing-affordability-cut-immigration-and-let-first-home-buyers-raid-their-superannuation-says-tony-abbott-20170411-gviazo.html
    Evan Mulholland says that Abbott has got it all wrong about immigration and housing prices.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/barnaby-joyce-surprised-by-young-nationals-support-for-emissions-intensity-scheme-20170411-gvih6j.html
    Meanwhile Chris Richardson says our current house prices are “dangerously dumb” and 30% overvalued. Google.
    /news/economy/house-prices-dangerously-dumb-and-30pc-overvalued-chris-richardson-deloitte-20170411-gvil61
    And Rod Burgess tells us that it’s time to end Morrison’s “housing supply” con.
    http://thenewdaily.com.au/money/property/2017/04/11/housing-supply-con/
    According to this SMH editorial Morrison’s focus on the lack of social and affordable housing for Australians on lower incomes is welcome. But the government is more interested in addressing the problem of supply than the other part of the equation, low income.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/smh-editorial/targeted-solutions-needed-for-the-problem-of-unaffordable-housing-20170410-gvhw8z.html

  2. Section 2 . . .

    Greg Hunt is locked in delicate negotiations with doctors’ and pharmacists’ organisations before the budget.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/federal-budget-2017-budget-razor-gang-to-consider-pharmacy-scheme-shakeup-20170411-gvijbe.html
    But you’ll pay more for X-rays and scans with out of pocket costs to rise to over $200 per screening, as the Turnbull Government prepares to ditch its election promise to raise Medicare rebates for the tests. Google.
    /lifestyle/health/youll-soon-be-slugged-hundreds-for-xrays-and-scan-tests-as-medicare-cover-shrinks/news-story/a8b9c220b8412327d76db77b68511b63
    The 2017 Federal Budget, which will be published a month from now, will focus on a completely pointless fiscal target and ignore a series of important issues writes Dr Steven Hail.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/budget-time-more-pointless-targets-and-fewer-fiscal-solutions-scomo-style,10196
    More and more is being revealed of Centrelink’s woeful performance over the robo-debt issue.
    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/12/almost-half-of-all-centrelink-robo-debt-notices-sent-to-private-debt-collectors
    Kristina Keneally says “There was a time I would attend church every day of Holy Week. Not this year – it is too hard to reconcile a church that makes special claims to grace with the findings of the royal commission into child sexual abuse” and tells us that this Easter it is the Catholic Church that needs redemption.
    \https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/12/this-easter-its-the-catholic-church-that-needs-redemption
    John Passant on Syria’s bombs and Turnbull’s crocodile tears.
    https://independentaustralia.net/politics/politics-display/syria-trumps-bombs-and-turnbulls-crocodile-tears,10195
    According to Eric Trump, his father used his power as Commander In Chief of the US military to bomb a foreign country because images of the Assad chemical attack on Syrian children upset his daughter Ivanka. Enough said!
    http://www.politicususa.com/2017/04/11/america-stunned-eric-trump-dad-bombed-syria-daughter-ivanka-upset.html
    The tabloid papers and TV will go ape droppings as Schapelle Corby soon returns to Australia.
    http://www.theage.com.au/world/schapelle-corby-prepares-for-deportation-to-australia-20170411-gvj0zv.html
    Dale Boccabella writes that when a legal institution does substantial harm to a significant portion of society’s members, it is just and proper to review it. That time is very close for discretionary trusts. Quite a racket really.
    http://www.smh.com.au/comment/forget-negative-gearing–this-is-the-tax-lurk-that-really-needs-fixing-20170411-gviicf.html

  3. Section 3 . . .

    How long can Sean (Comical Ali) Spicer survive?
    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/11/sean-spicer-hitler-chemical-weapons-holocaust-assad
    Joyce says he was “surprised” by the party youth wing’s show of support for an emissions intensity scheme, a position at odds with the group’s parliamentary leaders.
    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/barnaby-joyce-surprised-by-young-nationals-support-for-emissions-intensity-scheme-20170411-gvih6j.html
    Coles and Woolworths are learning that customers don’t like to wait a long time for service while seeing lots of closed checkouts.
    http://www.smh.com.au/business/retail/coles-plays-catchup-with-easter-checkout-promise-20170411-gvirv2.html
    America’s airlines are shameless but United has just hit a new low.
    https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/apr/11/airlines-bad-customer-service-united-new-low

  4. Section 4 . . . Cartoon Corner

    Alan Moir and the PM in waiting.

    Mark David really goes after Turnbull here.
    https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C9COlYNV0AIEuRu.jpg:large
    David Po0e farewells John Clarke.

    And Pope shows us the problem the Great Barrier Reef is having.

    Broelman with the perils of being a Syrian.

    David Rowe visits Scott Morrison.

    Ron Tandberg really skewers Turnbull here.

    Nice work from Jon Kudelka.
    http://cdn.newsapi.com.au/image/v1/506e6957f56ea2855462f71f4c7efdd4

  6. Bushfire Bill,

    Well, they already make up their own stories.They should at least be offered the honour of subbing them.

    😆 😆 😆

  7. I’m still getting over Pauline Hanson chucking a wobbly at the ABC because she’s no longer getting an all-expenses-paid trip to Gallipoli this ANZAC Day. “I was really looking forward to it,” she said, resolutely avoiding putting her hand in her own pocket to cover the costs.

    Apparently that, more than the Four Corners expose, it’s what really got up her nose.

    http://www.ntnews.com.au/news/pauline-hanson-issues-abc-ban-ive-had-a-gutful-of-the-media/news-story/aa487b52a28288978325fc1cd6e1d18a?nk=cf8091b57103a79fad41b0b771825cb5-1491953433

    She’s going to be communicating with us via Facebook from now on, which is just fine with me.

    • So the ANZAC trip means so much to Appauline Hanson she can’t be bothered to dip into her own very well stocked purse to pay for it ?

    • So the media are perfectly wonderful and lovely as long as they promote this cow and do all her campaigning for free, but when they tell the truth or expose her greed and her rorts they must be banned.

      So much for freedom of speech.

    • kk
      Pauline never pays for anything. Not her plane, not her home (previous bonking partner) not her political campaigns (sucked-in candidates and free campaigning by the MSM) and she probably demands frock shops give her free clothing as well.

      The cow has been living off the taxpayers since 1998, thanks to her parliamentary pension. Why would she pay for a trip to Gallipoli when the can get it free thanks to us?

      Only an idiot would go near Gallipoli or Afghanistan right now, with Trump doing his best to stir up hostilities. Maybe we should pay for her to go, she might tread on an IED or get caught in a shoot-out between the Turks and the Syrians.

  9. Morrison, conveniently overlooking the bleeding obvious – a very large portion of those alleged 1.9 million pensioners living in their own homes have already sold up and downsized and are now living in retirement villages where they own their own residences.

    Seniors incentive to free up housing stock, help elderly
    http://www.couriermail.com.au/news/queensland/seniors-incentive-to-free-up-housing-stock-help-elderly/news-story/f4b5250d1048c4e1571c5b385665f1b1

    • I can see some pressure coming up to push seniors out of their loving nests. The topic came up about a year ago on “Insight” (which I have never watched since). Vanstone giving her own nasty point of view. While an old lady had to justify why she didn’t want to move.

    • I am about to do that within the next two months, however a young family bought our place with two young kids in primary school. HI says at least a developer did not get it, a win win all round I think.

    • Glad to see that their retirement home costs less than living in their own home. Honestly from my mother’s experience I would cry bullshit on that.
      Mum paid gas electricity phone water and $200 per week garden maintenance. When she moved out her unit was bought back $350K for less than she bought in $385K and on sold for $625K
      For that money she could have cruised the world, been well fed and had much more fun than stuck in her retirement villa where she deteriorated through boredom

      The article is a developers PR kit, but Australian pensioners is a Liberal party arm

    • National Seniors Australia is very much a Liberal Party organisation.

      I don’t think too many real pensioners belong, it’s more for your wealthy retirees.

      I joined once, ages ago, long before I became a pensioner, as a plant for a now defunct organisation that worked to help widows and women on pensions. The local members wanted to know what it was about because someone had set up a branch here and it was attracting women who could have joined us.

      The pro-Howard government propaganda pushed in their newsletters was astounding, as were the very expensive ‘special’ deals for their insurance branch.

      If you are well-off, vote conservative, are easily fooled by ‘discounts’ on expensive insurance and like to take lavish overseas trips every year then National Seniors is for you. Otherwise stay well away. The local branch collapsed after a couple of years.

  10. Has Comical Ali been given the boot yet?

    The White House press secretary, Sean Spicer, expressed contrition on national television Tuesday after he was widely condemned for claiming that Adolf Hitler, who gassed millions of Jews during the Holocaust, did not use chemical weapons.

    Comparing the Nazi leader with Syria’s Bashar al-Assad, Spicer told journalists during his regular press briefing at the White House: “We didn’t use chemical weapons in world war two. You had someone as despicable as Hitler who didn’t even sink to using chemical weapons.”

    Asked to clarify the remarks, he added: “I think when you come to sarin gas, he was not using the gas on his own people the same way that Assad is doing.”

    https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2017/apr/11/sean-spicer-hitler-chemical-weapons-holocaust-assad

  15. Re old single women selling up the family home after hubby dies so that a young family or developer can move in.

    Why move?
    A woman in our bushwalking club got sick of her large house that she could afford by having 2 student boarders so she sold up and downsized, ended up in a smaller house away from the friends she had made over a lifetime in her neighbourhood with a $100,000 mortgage

    OTOH I had friends who were happy to move when their neighbourhood changed character and their health started failing, they moved to a cheaper suburb close to their kids and had change leftover

    • ‘Room temperature’ is too flattering. That lot have IQs that would make room temperature in a tent in the Antarctic during a winter blizzard look like heatwave conditions.

      Obviously none of them have ever bothered to do a few seconds wirth of research into SBS. If they had bothered they would have found this – the SBS Charter, enshrined in Section 6 of the Special Broadcasting Service Act 1991.

      Charter of the SBS
      (1) The principal function of the SBS is to provide multilingual and multicultural radio, television and digital media services that inform, educate and entertain all Australians, and, in doing so, reflect Australia’s multicultural society.

      (2) The SBS, in performing its principal function, must:

      (a) contribute to meeting the communications needs of Australia’s multicultural society, including ethnic, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities; and

      (b) increase awareness of the contribution of a diversity of cultures to the continuing development of Australian society; and

      (c) promote understanding and acceptance of the cultural, linguistic and ethnic diversity of the Australian people; and

      (d) contribute to the retention and continuing development of language and other cultural skills; and

      (e) as far as practicable, inform, educate and entertain Australians in their preferred languages; and

      (f) make use of Australia’s diverse creative resources; and

      (g) to the extent to which the function relates to radio and television services–contribute to the overall diversity of Australian television and radio services, particularly taking into account the contribution of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and the community broadcasting sector; and

      (h) to the extent to which the function relates to radio and television services–contribute to extending the range of Australian television and radio services, and reflect the changing nature of Australian society, by presenting many points of view and using innovative forms of expression.

      (3) The principal function of the SBS under subsection (1) and the duties imposed on the SBS under subsection (2) constitute the Charter of the SBS.

      (4) Nothing in this section imposes on the SBS a duty that is enforceable by proceedings in a court.

      (5) A subsidiary function of the SBS is to carry on, within or outside Australia, any business or other activity incidental to the fulfilment of the Charter

      http://www.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/cth/consol_act/sbsa1991254/s6.html

      Silly me, fancy expecting senators and their staff to know what’s in Australian legislation, you know, that stuff they have to deal with on a daily basis.

      Obviously the One Nation senators are there to pick up a lovely salary package, take funded holidays overseas and enjoy a retirement free of financial hassles, all courtesy of the taxpayers. How rude of us to expect them to have an understanding of legislation, or government services, or the charters of public broadcasters.

    • Leone do you reckon that PHON Parliamentarians have to pay Pauline Hanson and the PHON administration a portion of their salary much like WA candidates had to stump up a $2500 non refundable deposit and use Ashby’s expensive printing services for their election materials

  21. OTOH I had friends who were happy to move when their neighbourhood changed …

    Try 600 new apartments, the gutting of the local shopping center, building motorways and railways literally at the end of the street (if underground), half the population of Shanghai moving in and laying concrete over the gardens of beautiful bushland properties,plus gridlock on the main traffic artery 7 days a week now,and yes, our neighbourhood has “changed”.

    Which is why we’re moving

  24. Chocolate is naturally halal, followers of Islam know that, with or without labels, and eat chocolate and Easter eggs just like everyone else.

    Here’s a Facebook comment from Tony Burke on this – Tony is a practicing Catholic.

    Here’s a question: can anyone “please explain” how turning Easter into a story about a rabbit delivering chocolate eggs is ok but putting a halal label on the eggs is an attack on the true Christian meaning of Easter?
    Easter is really important to me and I don’t understand at all how a label on a piece of chocolate is meant to get in the way of Easter.
    Which religion believes in the chocolate delivering bunny anyway?

    I can answer that question – the Lutherans started the Easter Bunny thing, but the bunny was actually a hare and was chosen because it was thought to be hermaphrodite, giving a link to the Virgin Mary. Hares were often shown in religious paintings during the Middle Ages.
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Easter_Bunny

    I wonder how Pauline feels about hermaphrodite bunnies?

    There’s also the good old pagan fertility symbol thing going on with rabbits and eggs, of course.

    Hanson standing in front of a camera waving a chocolate bunny and raving on about Muslims was just another sickening example of this horrid woman’s ignorance.

    What she knows about Christianity could be written on the head of a pin and still leave room for a whole troupe of dancing angels.

  26. FFS!

    Roberts claims ABC colluding with IS after Afghanistan trip cancelled
    One Nation senator Malcolm Roberts has accused the ABC of a ‘gross security breach’ and of working with terrorists, including Islamic State.
    http://www.sbs.com.au/news/article/2017/04/12/roberts-claims-abc-colluding-after-afghanistan-trip-cancelled

    Roberts is seriously in need of the white van, men in white coats and a straight-jacket. He’s barking mad, in the nastiest possible way.

  30. Finally, someone speaking some sense….

    “What’s the downside when it comes to retirement?
    Foregoing a few years of super at the beginning of your career may not sound like much, but thanks to the magic of compound interest, losing this three to five years’ worth of super early on is the equivalent of losing seven to 12 years at the end of your career, according to Industry Super chief economist Stephen Anthony. ”
    Should you use your super to buy a house? Let’s crunch the numbers – ABC News
    https://apple.news/A4-mVhW41QHyuhaJ8buh1wA

  31. Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has moved to shut down days of unruly public debate over letting first-home buyers raid their superannuation, saying the issue had gone “round and round” and pointedly referenced his earlier criticism of the plan as a “thoroughly bad idea”.

    Cabinet’s budget razor gang will examine a range of housing affordability measures, including the contentious super for housing proposal and paring back capital gains tax concessions, in an all-day meeting in Sydney on Thursday

    http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/malcolm-turnbull-shuts-down-mp-debate-on-super-for-housing-deposits-20170412-gvjk18.html

    Budget day is just 28 days away – 9 May – and this farce of a government is still debating crucial issues and is nowhere near decisions on what’s in or what’s out. The ‘razor gang’ is still running stuff up flagpoles to see what the public reaction to proposed cuts will be. ‘Disorganised’ doesn’t even begin to cover this government’s incompetence.

  32. Poor Coalition barbarians, the only policies they have are those pushed by their backers, policies which while catnip for the backers are electoral suicide. Suffer ya barbarians.

  33. Tell us something we don’t know

    Last modified on Wednesday 12 April 2017 17.20 AEST

    Forty-eight Australians who earned more than $1m in the 2014-15 financial year paid no income tax.

    Nineteen reduced their taxable income to zero by claiming a combined $20.2m for the “cost of managing tax affairs” – nearly $1.1m each.

    Nine claimed gifts or donations worth $27.5m to help them do so.

    New data from the Australian Tax Office, released on Wednesday, shows the political fight about who pays their “fair share” of tax in Australia is unlikely to go away.

    It shows Australia now has 11,854 taxpayers earning more than $1m, the vast majority of whom have paid some sort of tax on their taxable income.

    But, in the 2014-15 financial year, 46 millionaires claimed to have taxable income below $6,001, one claimed to have taxable income between $6,001 and $10,000, and another claimed to have taxable income between $10,001 and $18,200, putting them all below the tax-free threshold.

    None of them paid the Medicare levy.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/12/forty-eight-australians-who-earned-more-than-1m-in-2014-15-paid-no-income-tax

    Mind you, the more publicity the better.

  34. I got a phone call tonight from a Labor supporter (but Shorten Hater) who told me that Shorten had endorsed the Adani mine.

    Being more concerned with scraping paint than watching politics ATM, I said I’d look for references, but can’t find any.

    Can anyone fill me in, or direct me to a source,please?

    • Shorten said that that mine should stand on its own legs, if it could. Or words to that effect

      Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has refused to back a call by the Queensland Labor government for the Commonwealth to help finance a rail line linking the proposed Adani coal mine to the Abbot Point port in Northern Queensland.

      As Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk joined Federal Resources Minister Matt Canavan and Adani Group founder and chairman Gautam Adani in Townsville to spruik the economic benefits of the $16.5 billion Carmichael coal project, Mr Shorten said no case had been made to give the Indian multinational a taxpayer-funded concessional loan.

      Ms Palaszczuk did, however, take a leaf out of Mr Shorten’s book by announcing she had secured agreement from Adani that no foreign workers would be employed under 457 visas during the construction phase of the project.

      The Premier said Adani, an Indian-listed company 75 per cent owned by the Adani family, had given an “iron clad guarantee” there will be no 457 workers during the construction phase and a “guarantee of a Queensland First policy for jobs”.

      http://www.afr.com/business/bill-shorten-says-no-to-adani-coal-loan-20161206-gt55au

      If you google “Shorten Adani” you get crap like this “Shorten isolated after Adani mine criticism – Sky News

      Adani Coalmine: Bill Shorten isolated over opposition – The Australian”

    • He did, yesterday at a presser in Queensland. He said the government loan should not happen, but if Adani could sort out the finance and the legal issues then the project was, in his words, ‘great news’.

      You’ll have to take my word for that, I can’t find a transcript, but I was watching on Sky as it happened.

  35. Quick HI update

    No update. No communication. Still paying us full salary to keep quiet. Pay is pre-approved out to April 28th at least.

    Geez, they’re scared of something.

    Over and out.

  36. Interesting. Yesterday afternoon our main landline went on the blink.

    OH, an old PMG/Telecom/Telstra boy, did some careful investigation and concluded that the fault was not on our side of the boundary, but somewhere from and including the pit in the public footpath to the pillar down at the corner.

    This morning he phoned the local exchange to report the fault. He was, of course, informed that the earliest possible date for the problem to be fixed was 20 April. Telstra doesn’t have techies any more.

    However, the exchange operator/manager was trained by Telstra, so there was an interesting conversation that seems to have had a strange effect – as of a few minutes ago the main landline is now its usual cheerful self.

  37. Ducky,

    More likely a lot of technical showing-off – enough to make the manager pass the word along: “Get this one fixed quickly – he knows too much.”

  40. I think the pressure is mounting

    New footage reveals the scale of coal dust contamination of nationally significant wetlands after Cyclone Debbie hit Adani’s Queensland port, environmentalists claim.

    Helicopter and drone flyovers recorded footage showing a large part of the Caley Valley wetlands “smothered” by a “thick black sludge of coal”, together with lumps of coal scattered on a nearby beach where turtles nest, the Australian Conservation Foundation and Australian Marine Conservation Foundation said.

    The groups commissioned the footage following the release of floodwaters from the Abbot Point coal terminal after Debbie’s torrential rains last month.

    Adani, which released the water under a temporary licence from the Queensland environment department, claimed aerial photos showing the wetlands as black were “misleading and are not representative of the water quality in the wetland”.

    https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2017/apr/12/footage-shows-wetlands-blackened-by-abbot-point-coal-dust-activist-say

  44. Unfortunately I spoke too soon.

    The main landline is out of action again. At least this time it’s not making the ‘orrible noises it was yesterday and earlier today.

  48. An interesting excerpt from Press statements following a meeting with President of Italy Sergio Mattarella published yesterday:

    Question: Mr Putin, if I may, I have a question about Syria. What is your take on what is happening in Syria? Is there a danger of another US military strike against Syrian targets?

    Vladimir Putin: We discussed this with the President. I said that this reminds me very much of the events of 2003, when US representatives in the Security Council showed alleged chemical weapons discovered in Iraq. A military campaign in Iraq ensued, which ended with the destruction of the country, an increased terrorist threat and the emergence of ISIS on the international scene – no more, no less.

    The exact same thing is happening now, and their partners are nodding approvingly. In this connection, our remarkable writers, Ilf and Petrov, come to mind, with their famous line, “It’s boring, ladies.“ We have seen this all before.

    Why is this happening? Everyone wants to restore relations in the Western community after – thanks to the former US administration – many European countries adopted an anti-Trump position during the election campaign. Syria and Russia, as a common enemy, provide a wonderful platform for consolidation. We are ready to put up with that for a while in the hope that it will eventually lead us to some positive trend based interaction.

    http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/54267

    A commenter points out why our own PM Waffles is a comnplete Dill:

    Putin is very smart in his responses. A few months back old pedophile Illuminati Kissinger told the world that to know Russia, one needs to read Dostoevsky. What Putin did: in terms of ladies, he quoted from Ilf and Petrov, More modern, wildly popular authors in Soviet Union. It is satirical piece, that only person who grew up in Russian language, and Russian culture will truly gets. It is very subtle way to call someone a complete moron, without them realizing it

  49. Alexandria bombing suspect was extradited from Kuwait to Egypt prior to attack: Kuwaiti newspaper

    One of the prime suspects in the Alexandria church bombing on Palm Sunday was extradited from Kuwait to Egypt prior to the attack at the request of Egyptian authorities, according to Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas on Monday.

    The newspaper reported that, according to Kuwaiti security sources, the suspect entered Kuwait in 2016 and worked there as an accountant.

    Kuwaiti intelligence then summoned him for questioning after receiving information from Egypt suggesting he had links to the Islamic State (IS) group, according to the article.

    The suspect was then extradited to Egypt after Kuwaiti security services confirmed his links to the group.

    However, once in Egypt, the suspect was apparently released, for reasons that are unclear, the sources told Al-Qabas

    According to Al-Ahram daily newspaper, Egyptian officials have established the identities of those responsible for the Palm Sunday bombings, but their names have yet to be made public.

    http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/1/64/262728/Egypt/Politics-/Alexandria-bombing-suspect-was-extradited-from-Kuw.aspx

  50. Israeli Scientists Genetically Engineer Glowing Bacteria to Detect Land Mines

    A new invention by Israeli scientists could revolutionize dangerous mine-clearing operations.

    As they lie in the ground, landmines leak minute quantities of explosive into the surrounding soil and water.

    Using molecular engineering, the researchers modified bacteria to give off a fluorescent signal when they come into contact with the explosive. Enclosed in polymeric beads, the bacteria were scattered across a minefield.

    The scientists then scanned the minefield with lasers, which were able to detect the fluorescent signals and hence the landmines.

    “Our field data show that engineered biosensors may be useful in a landmine detection system,” Prof. Shimshon Belkin, from the Hebrew University’s Alexander Silberman Institute of Life Sciences, told Phys.org.

    https://sputniknews.com/science/201704121052562088-genetically-engineered-bacteria-land-mines/

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