The Riverman Reports - Inc. Huttz World

Thursday, September 10, 2009

THE ONLINE CASINO REPORTS NEW ZEALAND...

I have just visited "The Online Casino Reports New Zealand" site. It appeared to be a very exciting place for confirmed or would-be gamblers looking for some action and a place to visit, with an automatic bonus for free betting for a limited period on a number of different sites. There is a real variety of sites there which should cater for many potential customers.

Under "A World of Online Gambling" the owners of the site have given Kiwis the opportunity to explore New Zealand online casinos, internet gambling, sports betting sites and poker rooms that they found exceptional. Kiwis can learn a little more about licensing committees, watchdogs and a whole host of very useful gambling links.

Interested in online gambling, or would like to learn more? This site would be extremely valuable in achieving this. It adds another layer and variety to online entertainment. So I encourage to visit here and see for yourselves first hand.

I would recommend this site to readers and may spend some time checking out things myself. I'm not much of a gambler personally but it can provide some alternative interest to those who are seeking an outlet for their gambling interests.
Online Casino Reports

Saturday, September 05, 2009

IS THIS A SHOCKING INDICTMENT OF THE AMERICAN HEALTH SYSTEM, AND PERHAPS OF AMERICAN SOCIETY AS WELL - MEDICAL HEALTH TOURISM A NEW INDUSTRY...

Is this a shocking indictment of the American health system, and perhaps of American society as well? Please read on:

A recent "20-20" television program in New Zealand exposed the problems existing in the American health system. The story starts in Idaho Falls, USA. An American woman named 'Heather' required a full hip replacement. The basic cost in America was US$60,000 exclusive of all other costs involved.

But like 45 million other families, 'Heather'and her family do not have, and cannot afford health insurance. Neither does she qualify for any form of government assistance, reserved for the very poor or those with identifiable needs. Sadly for her president Obama's proposed health scheme, if passed into law, will be too late for 'Heather'. She needs a full hip replacement now, or she will spend the rest of her life in a wheel-chair!

After some extensive online research, 'Heather' discovered she could get her hip-replacement offshore, not in Mexico for example, but in an English- speaking First World country down in the Pacific - New Zealand.

The total cost for 'Heather', inclusive of all associated medical costs, hotel bills and food for both her and a companion(her mother)would be US$23,000 all up!

'Heather' was able to find a foundation within the US who were prepared to pay half of her costs, and family and friends raised the other half.Then it was off to Auckland, New Zealand.

After flying to NZ and settling her mother into her hotel room, 'Heather' went to meet the surgeon responsible for her operation. She was interviewed and met the medical staff at the private hospital where the full hip operation was to be performed.

A new hip is guaranteed for about ten years, though some last indefinately.

She had her operation at a top private hospital in Auckland. They had the latest navigation system available to line-up her new hip.

Her operation was a complete success, and recovery took four weeks, during which time she was given an exercise regime, including walking. She was then passed fit enough to return home to the US for her rehabilition - with its market driven health system, which President Barack Obama is trying to overhaul. His opposition is coming from self-interest groups in the American health system, including the vast health insurance lobby.

So far there has really only been a trickle of clients such as 'Heather' seeking treatment outside the US. This has become known as "medical tourism".

How will this affect medical treatment for local Kiwis in the future? If this trickle becomes the flood that is anticipated it could well affect costs here in New Zealand. NZ could handle 2000-5000 clients a year, but if a tsunami of 20,000 clients hit NZ annually there could well be ramifications for the NZ health system - availabilty for operations could be compromised and costs could soar, affecting the state system as well.

There is no doubt that the estimated 15 million or so Americans will be going somewhere offshore from America in future years, and NZ will become a desirable destination and will get its share of an industry that could be equivalent to its present multimillion dollar wine industry. But what sort of "strain" could be put on the NZ health system? Could there be just a little temptation to sqeeze in some foreign clients into the NZ public health system too?

Tuesday, September 01, 2009

ACTION AGAINST HUNGER

Providing innovative solutions to world hunger:

Lomuria is a 16 month-old girl from Karamoja, Uganda. Last July, her family was left destitute after their village was raided and their cattle stolen.

Her parents, Mogole Maria and Lotonkul John, themselves subsisting on one meal a day, were unable to provide Lomuria with the nutrients she needed to thrive.

On the brink of starvation, and weakened by malaria and pneumonia, Lomuria was taken to Action Against Hunger’s local Stabilization Center.

Thanks to our immediate attention, and a two week regimen of intensive treatment, she survived.

Now at home, Lomuria receives bi-weekly examinations from our Clinical Officer and supplemental ready-to-use foods to nurse her back to full health.

This is what Action Against Hunger does every day. We save the lives of children like Lomuria and provide their families with the tools they need to regain self-sufficiency for the long term.

But help is needed to reach them: webmaster@actionagainsthunger.org

Saturday, August 29, 2009

NESSIE? LOCH NESS MONSTER SPOTTED FROM SPACE...

Claims that a blurry object in a satellite photo is the mythical Loch Ness Monster have sparked a flurry of interest among enthusiasts.

Security guard Jason Cooke said he "couldn’t believe it" after seeing a Google Image photograph of the oblong-shape moving through the waters in the Scottish Highlands.

"It's just like the descriptions of Nessie," Mr Cooke was quoted in The Sun newspaper as saying.

The object measures about 20m in length — the same length of a plesiosaur, a carnivorous marine reptile from the Jurassic period which "Nessie" believers say lives in the waters.

Five lines trail the main shape, raising claims they could be the fins and tail stemming from the mythical creature's body.

Others say it is simply a boat leaving waves in its wake.

Sightings of the Loch Ness Monster have been reported for centuries but scientists say the monster is nothing more than a myth.

The most famous piece of photographic "evidence", which appears to show a snake-like head rising out of the water, was taken by British surgeon Colonel Robert Wilson in 1934.

The Google Earth object was located at co-ordinates Latitude 57°12'52.13"N, Longitude 4°34'14.16"W.

Acknowledgements: MSN NZ

Nessie from space

Friday, August 28, 2009

FROM JOE BIDEN REMEMBERS TED KENNEDY:

"On the morning of the day before the funeral of Yitzhak Rabin, Senator Ted Kennedy called the White House to inquire if it was appropriate to bring to the burial some earth from Arlington National Cemetery. The answer was essentially a shrug: Who knows? Unadvised, the senator carried a shopping bag onto the plane, filled with earth he had himself dug the afternoon before from the graves of his two murdered brothers. And at Mount Herzl in Jerusalem, after waiting for the crowd and the cameras to disperse, he dropped to his hands and knees, and gently placed that earth on the grave of the murdered prime minister.

No spin, no photo op; a man unreasonably familiar with bidding farewell to slain heroes, a man in mourning, quietly making tangible a miserable connection."

I really don't know how to sum up a life of so much diligence, striving, and tragedy (as both victim and perpetrator, yes), so all I can say is that as a liberal and an American I hope Ted Kennedy can now rest and that our government will honor his life's work."

Certainly a man used to losing those close to him over many, many, years. Who will the Kennedy clan turn to now?

Read story:

Vice President Biden just gave a very emotional speech about the passing of his long-time friend, Ted Kennedy:

"You know, Teddy spent a lifetime working for a fair and more just America. And for 36 years I had the privilege of going to work everyday and literally -- not figuratively -- sitting next to him. and being a witness to history every single day the Senate was in session. I sat with him on the Senate floor, in the same aisle, I sat with him on the jUdiciary committee, physically next to him, and I sat with him in the caucuses.

"And it was in that process, every day I was with him -- and this is gonna sound strange -- he restored my sense of idealism and my faith in the possibilities of what this country could do. He and I were talking after his diagnosis, and I said, you know, I think you're the only other person I've met who like me is more optimistic, more enthusiastic, more idealistic, sees greater possibilities, after 36 years than after we were elected. He was 30 years old when he was elected, I was 29 years old. And you'd think that would be the peak of our idealism. But I genuinely feel more idealistic about the prospects for my country today than I have at any time in my life. And it was infectious when you were with him."He also paid tribute to Kennedy's abilities to fight for his beliefs, but not with malice towards his opponents:

And you know, he was never defeatist, he never was petty -- never was petty. He was never small. And in the process of his doing, he made everybody he worked with bigger, both his adversaries as well as his allies. Don't you find it remarkable that one of the most partisan, liberal men in the last century, serving in the Senate, had so many of his (long pause) so many of his foes embrace him, because they know he made them bigger. He made them more graceful by the way in which he conducted himself.And Biden told a very personal story about how Kennedy helped him get elected, and then helped him very personally, when Biden's first wife and a daughter were killed in a car accident, in which his sons were also injured, soon after Biden's first election:

"And for the hundreds, if not thousands of us, who got to know him personally, he -- he actually, how can I say it -- he altered our lives, as well. Through the grace of God and an accident of history, I was privileged to be one of those people. And every important event in my adult life, as I look back this morning and talking to Vicky, every single one, he was there. He was there to encourage, to counsel, to be empathetic, to lift up.

"From 1972, as a 29 year old kid with three weeks left to go in a campaign, him showing up at the Delaware armory in the middle of what we called Little Italy, which had never voted nationally for a Democrat, I won by 31,00 votes and got 85% of the vote in that district, or something to that effect. I literally would not be standing there, were it not for Teddy Kennedy. Not figuratively, this is not hyperbole, literally.

"He was there, he stood with me when my wife and daughter were killed in an accident. He was on the phone with me literally everyday in the hospital, when my two children were tempting, and God willing, God thankfully, survived very serious injuries. I'd turn around and there'd be some specialist from Massachusetts, a doc I'd never even asked for, literally sitting in the room with me. You know, it's not just me that he affected like that. It's hundreds upon hundreds of people.

"I was talking with Vicky this morning, and she said, "he was ready to go, Joe. But we were not ready to let him go. He's left a great void in our public life, and a hole in the hearts of millions of Americans and hundreds of us who were affected by his personal touch throughout our lives. People like me who came to rely on him. He was kind of like an anchor.

"And unlike many important people in my 38 years I've had the privilege of knowing, the unique thing about Teddy was, it was never about him. It was always about you. It was never about him. There's people I admire -- great women and men -- but at the end of the day it gets down to being about them. With Teddy, it was never about him.

"Well today, we lost a truly remarkable man, and to paraphrase shakespeare, I don't think we shall ever see his like again. But I think the legacy left is not just in the landmark legislation he passed, but in how he helped people look at themselves and look at one another."

Wednesday, August 26, 2009

GEOTHERMAL GENERATION IN NEW ZEALAND:

Geothermal Energy & Electricity Generation
Geothermal energy produces about 10% of New Zealand's electricity supply. Most of New Zealand's installed geothermal generating capacity of about 600 MWe is situated in the Taupo Volcanic Zone, with another 25 MWe installed at Ngawha in Northland. The temperature and conditions of a particular geothermal reservoir determine which type of generation technology is used: dry steam, flash steam or binary cycle.

When the first generator was commissioned at Wairakei in 1958, it was only the second geothermal plant in the world to begin large-scale commercial operation and the first to exploit a wet (rather than dry steam) geothermal resource. The impetus for the development of Wairakei came in 1947 from severe electricity shortages following two dry years which restricted hydro generation, and a desire by the New Zealand Government for the electricity supply to be independent of imported fuel. New Zealand is now faced with a similar situation which geothermal energy has the potential to alleviate.

There are currently six fields used for geothermal electricity generation, which is dominated by Contact Energy Ltd (a listed company) and Mighty River Power (a State Owned Enterprise). A significant factor in recent geothermal projects has been the high level of commercial participation by Maori-owned enterprises.

Tuesday, August 25, 2009

A MAN WHO USED A PUBLIC TOILET IN AUSTRALIA TAKEN TO HOSPITAL AFTER SICK JOKE BACKFIRED...

A man who used a public toilet in a shopping mall In Cairns, Australia, was taken to a hospital to have the toilet seat removed from his backside after someone smeared it with glue in what an official condemned Monday as a sick joke.

Police urged possible witnesses to come forward after the 58-year-old man was humiliated in the northeastern city of Cairns by the prank.

An ambulance was called to help the man after he was found stuck by fast-acting adhesive glue to a toilet seat on Saturday in the busy shopping mall.

Paramedics removed the seat from the toilet and took him to a hospital, where medical staff used industrial solvents to get it off.

Cairns local government official Di Forsyth said the man, who was not identified, was not injured but was "extremely embarrassed" by his experience.

"I'm disgusted that a gentlemen has had to go through that because someone thinks it's funny," Forsyth said. "It's a sick joke."

AP

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

BULLIED AND FRUSTRATED KIWI TAXMAN DRIVES CAR THROUGH WORKPLACE WINDOWS...

A Christchurch, NZ, tax department employee smashed his car through his own Inland Revenue office because he was fed up with "incompetent management and workplace bullying".

David Jerrold Theobald, 47, drove through two sets of glass doors and smashed a third at the Christchurch Inland Revenue building before coming to a stop.

Mr Theobald, a well-known musician in Christchurch who has worked for the IRD for 25 years, said he had been careful not to put lives in danger.

"I checked with the cleaners the night before to make sure no-one would be in the building," he told The Dominion Post.

"I drove right up to the doors, looked both ways, then slowly pushed forward till the doors broke."

Mr Theobald posted pictures of the damage on his blog , along with copies of legal documents he received from police and his employer following the incident.

One of the documents was a letter from Inland Revenue human resources head Patrick Crawford.

"Information has come to my attention which indicates that you may have intentionally driven a car through Inland Revenue's Christchurch building," Mr Crawford wrote.

"I am concerned that your conduct may be inconsistent with the Code of Conduct."

Mr Theobald said he was upset with what he saw as workplace bullying and incompetent management at Inland Revenue.

"This has been going on for three years and now I've got four official information requests in with them and they're making that as onerous as possible," he said.

"This was just a way to make a gesture."

He also said he wanted to highlight the potential for a terrorist attack if someone were to drive a car full of explosives into the building.

"It's just another 9/11 waiting to happen," he said.

Mr Theobald appeared in court yesterday. He has been charged with intentional damage and reckless driving and could face up to seven years in prison if found guilty of criminal damage.

Acknowledgements: MSN NZ

Monday, August 10, 2009

NZ SAS special forces troops will be sent back to Afghanistan on a further three year rotation...

The New Zealand National Government decided yesterday to continue
New Zealand's military involvement in Afghanistan, and will send the SAS back to Afghanistan for another three year rotation. This is in spite of previous criticisms of their alleged involvement with torture claims of prisoners they had left with US forces. It has to be remembered that NATO is now in control of combined military forces in Afghanistan, not the US Government. This announcement came as the top US general there warned that the Taleban are gaining the upper hand. Please read further:

General Stanley McChrystal told the Wall Street Journal the insurgents were moving beyond their strongholds in the south to threaten formerly stable areas in the north and west.

Prime Minister John Key said the SAS would go back for 18 months - the first such deployment since 2005.

He said it had been a difficult decision but New Zealand had to play its part in combating the breeding grounds for terrorism.

The recent bombings in Jakarta showed this country was not immune.

However, Mr Key said, New Zealand's armed forces would be pulled out within five years under a new "orderly exit" strategy.

He said the government wanted to gradually withdraw its 140 military personnel working in the Bamiyan Provincial Reconstruction Team (PRT) over the next three to five years.

In their place, it would gradually introduce more civilian experts and aid workers to focus on health, education, agriculture and strengthening the Afghan police.

While Mr Key said he had hoped to withdraw the troops sooner, he was cautious, saying that leaving before Afghan administrations and police were ready to take over would waste the efforts of the PRT.

General McChrystal is preparing an interim assessment that is expected to be a sober accounting of the difficulties of fighting an entrenched and technically capable insurgency eight years into the war.

He is expected to identify shortfalls that should be filled by more forces - perhaps a mix of Afghan, Nato and US.

US National Security Adviser James Jones said yesterday that the United States would know "by the end of next year" whether the revamped war plan President Barack Obama announced in March was taking hold.

He did not rule out adding more US forces to help to turn around the war.

In a break from the traditionally bipartisan positions on defence and foreign affairs, Labour leader Phil Goff said he did not support sending the SAS back and believed Mr Key had caved in to "overt" US pressure.

The decision risked jeopardising the goodwill the PRT had built up.

New Zealand was small and "the number of people we put in in terms of the SAS is not going to make the difference one way or the other".

Mr Goff said there was a high risk of civilian casualties in fighting the insurgents and New Zealand's efforts were better used in reconstruction. That is not a general view held by the NZ public, who would be supportive of a limited time frame for military involvement in Afghanistan, subject to a future review before the rotation period was over..

The decision to send the SAS back follows a government review of New Zealand's role and requests for Wellington to send the troops to work again alongside American special forces against the Taleban and Al Qaeda.

Acknowledgements: NZ Herald, TV ONE NEWS

Sunday, August 09, 2009

A New Zealander was flying the helicopter involved in a mid-air collision over the Hudson River in New York yesterday in which nine people died.

Liberty Helicopters said the pilot was Jeremy Clark, 33, who had been living in Lanoka Harbor, New Jersey, the New York Times reported.

Mr Clark's aunt told One News that his parents were to fly to New York from Auckland Airport last night.

It was believed Mr Clark's sightseeing helicopter, carrying five Italian tourists, was hit from behind by 60-year-old Steven M. Altman's single-engine Piper aircraft which had two other people on board: his brother Daniel Altman, who is also his partner in the family's real estate business, and a teenage boy.

The helicopter passengers were part of a larger group of about a dozen Italians - a collection of family and friends who lived in the Bologna area - visiting New York City as part of a holiday that was to wrap up on the beaches of Mexico, according to an Italian official and a person familiar with their plans.

Acknowledgements: TV One News

Wednesday, August 05, 2009

Fiji becoming the basket case of the Pacific, and the clock is ticking...

Despite last minute attempts by Fijian military dictator, Commodore Bainimarama to meet the leaders of Australia and New Zealand and negotiate a change of mind over sanctions against Fiji, Fiji will be kicked out, officially suspended from the Pacific Islands Forum, and possibly from the Commonwealth later in the year.

Bainimarama claims elections can't be restored for another five years, but this a load of codswallop! He claims to be the hero of multiracialism in Fiji, but is just another dirty little dictator like Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe who dictated his country from being the bread-basket of Africa to becoming the basket-case of all time!

There are absolutely no civil rights in Fiji, no democracy, and the local media has been dictated to and controlled by the army, with foreign media and diplomats detained and kicked out of Fiji. Some Fijians have lost there lives, and others are missing.

Much foreign aid has already been suspended by Australia, NZ, Britain and the European Union. Fijian army peacekeepers may also be suspended from new contracts by the United Nations, and as a consequence much of Fiji's economy will be affected with the loss of the soldiers income. With unemployed troops drifting around unemployed in the capital of Suva, Bainimarama's regime could well have some substantial opposition. Fijians are pretty effective soldiers - good peacekeepers!

The Bainimarama regime's future is already in doubt - the clock is ticking!

The latest forum meeting this week has reconfirmed the earlier decision of that body. A delegate from Nuie called for the Fijian people to rise up and topple the Bainimarama regime. That would require resources that only Australia and New Zealand possess
.
It is also believed that Fiji will also be ousted from the Commonwealth as well, in time.

Saturday, August 01, 2009

GUILT BY ASSOCIATION, BAD NEWS FOR NEW ZEALAND...

Guilt by its association with the Bush regime could spell bad news for New Zealand. While NZ kept their combat forces out of Iraq, they have been involved in Afghanistan for a number of years and have cost the New Zealand taxpayer millions of dollars..

Their highly proficient special forces, the SAS, apparently handed over 50-70 Afghan prisoners to the Americans from 2002, and now may be guilty by association with those responsible for torturing these prisoners. New Zealand could be guilty of "war crimes" because of that association with President George W Bush's campaign against terror.

After a two year investigation, awkward questions may now be asked of New Zealand's involvement with alleged torture of prisoners at the Kandahar detention centre in southern Afghanistan - known as 'Camp Slappy'. This could account for the apparent delay by the new conservative National Government in NZ to make a decision concerning the future of the New Zealand SAS's involvement in Afghanistan.

New Zealand has had a proud record with its highly trained and well disciplined combat troops. It doesn't have a large number of special forces troops, but what it lacks in quantity it makes up in quality. The NZ Government will not be happy campers with these allegations of torture, and may well decide against sending the troops to Afghanistan in future. However, that will not be the only criteria for consideration of the SAS's future involvement - potential terrorism within NZ will also have to be considered as well.

"Its a war crime to keep a ghost detainee; its a war crime to let them be abused. I've come to expect bad of the United States since post 9/11. But I would have hoped New Zealand which is a signatory to the (Geneva) Convention, would have obeyed the Convention".

Human Rights lawyer, Michael Ratner.

Read here

Sunday, July 26, 2009

NOW YOU KNOW WHY THE PRESIDENCY IS LIMITED TO TWO TERMS...

WASHINGTON – The Bush administration in 2002 considered sending U.S. troops into a Buffalo, N.Y., suburb to arrest a group of terror suspects in what would have been a nearly unprecedented use of military power, The New York Times reported.

Vice President Dick Cheney and several other Bush advisers at the time strongly urged that the military be used to apprehend men who were suspected of plotting with al Qaida, who later became known as the Lackawanna Six, the Times reported on its Web site Friday night. It cited former administration officials who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The proposal advanced to at least one-high level administration meeting, before President George W. Bush decided against it.

Dispatching troops into the streets is virtually unheard of. The Constitution and various laws restrict the military from being used to conduct domestic raids and seize property.

According to the Times, Cheney and other Bush aides said an Oct. 23, 2001, Justice Department memo gave broad presidential authority that allowed Bush to use the domestic use of the military against al-Qaida if it was justified on the grounds of national security, rather than law enforcement.

Among those arguing for the military use besides Cheney were his legal adviser David S. Addington and some senior Defense Department officials, the Times reported.

Opposing the idea were Condoleezza Rice, then the national security adviser; John B. Bellinger III, the top lawyer at the National Security Council; FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III; and Michael Chertoff, then the head of the Justice Department's criminal division.

Bush ultimately nixed the proposal and ordered the FBI to make the arrests in Lackawanna. The men were subsequently arrested and pleaded guilty to terrorism-related charges.

Scott L. Silliman, a Duke University law professor specializing in national security law, told the Times that a U.S. president had not deployed the active-duty military on domestic soil in a law enforcement capacity, without specific statutory authority, since the Civil War.

Saturday, July 18, 2009

VON TEMPSKY - NEW ZEALAND COLONIAL WARS HERO - AS FIERCE AND BRAVE AS ANY MAORI WARRIOR HE FOUGHT AGAINST...

The following story is about one of New Zealand's colonial wars heroes and a warrior in his own right as fierce as any of the New Zealand native Maori warriors he met in combat. A sort of New Zealand version of how the west was won; but Gustavus Von Tempsky, a German born soldier of fortune, has been totally ignored by history in this country. In America there would have been dozens of movies, television plays and documentaries made about this larger than life character, but not in New Zealand. Political correctness has cloaked this part of our history, both Maori and non-Maori, in silence because it was part of that 'awful' colonial history of New Zealand that some would rather ignore, because it has painful memories for Maori today. Be that as it may our history was our history and let us of the present be the judge of what was right or wrong. Not all actions of colonial Maori would be acceptable either. Cannibalism and slavery were a despicable fact as much as any indefensible European actions against Maori - and it was against other Maori tribes too that history recalls. So on with this historical account of New Zealand's version of Daniel Boone.

TEMPSKY, Gustavus Ferdinand von
(1828–68).

Adventurer, gold miner, farmer, and soldier.

Gustavus Ferdinand von Tempsky was born in Leignitz, Silesia, in 1828, the son of a lieutenant-colonel in the Prussian Army. Destined for the army from earliest childhood, he entered the Berlin Military School at a tender age and in 1844, at the extraordinary age of 16, he received his commission in the 3rd Fusiliers of Prussia. The political and economic instability of early nineteenth-century Europe, and stories of a brave new world in another hemisphere, were at once a temptation and a challenge to the young officer whose adventurous spirit rebelled against the peacetime manoeuvrings of an army into which he was hustled by an uncompromising jack-booted parent. Unrest and insurrection were paving the way for the consolidation of the new Germany, but politics and intrigue had no appeal for young von Tempsky, and it was only natural that, at the conclusion of his military service in 1848, he should turn his attention to more exciting fields. Armed with an introduction from Lord Westmorland to the British authorities in the tiny Mosquito Kingdom in Central America, he set out with some sturdy companions with the intention of establishing a small settlement there. The colony failed due to rigours of climate and a hostile native population, and von Tempsky drifted into the filibustering that was then almost endemic in the Mexican Confederation. Commissioned as a captain, he led a guerrilla force into Nicaragua late in 1848, and then joined up with British naval units, acting as a guide in forays against up-river Nicaraguan cities.

From Central America the young soldier of fortune turned his eyes towards the Californian gold diggings, where he found plenty of action and excitement but little money. He spent the year 1850 in the maelstrom that was San Francisco, and then turned his back on the Pacific seaboard and returned to Mexico, where he attached himself to an expedition into the interior which extended over 3,000 miles of wild hostile country, including large expanses of Guatemala and Salvador. At the end of two years he returned to the coast and married Emilia, the daughter of the British Resident, James Stanislaus Bell, with whom he and his wife returned to Scotland when his tour of duty was completed. For some months he was content to concentrate on a fascinating book, Milta, which recounted his adventures in the Americas; and it was at this time that he also began to develop a talent for water-colour sketching, later used with effect to illustrate some of his engagements in the Maori Wars in New Zealand. In 1856 he and his wife emigrated to Victoria where he took up farming with some success but little enthusiasm. When the Government planned an expedition into Central Australia, he strove urgently for its command, but the authorities preferred a British national, and since he was not prepared to accept a subordinate position, he sold up his holding and crossed the Tasman to New Zealand where he engaged in gold mining at Coromandel in 1859. He found this venture not unremunerative but, when the Waikato Maori War broke out, he sought a commission in the Colonial Defence Force. His unrivalled qualifications ensured him an immediate appointment as an ensign in August 1863, and he entered upon his task with such avid impatience that he dipped deeply into his own pocket for the equipping of the company of Rangers which he soon had fighting fiercely in the Hunua Forest. From the outset his energy and daring impressed the British officers under whom he served. Within a few months, combining academy tactics with the catch-as-catch-can strategy of his Central American filibustering days, he had achieved such notable results that he was promoted to the rank of captain.

In February 1864 his dare-devil operations and personal intrepidity at the Mangapiko River and the Rangiaowhia Redoubt earned him the warm congratulations of Sir Henry Havelock and other British leaders. Then in April came the celebrated Battle of Orakau, near Te Awamutu, where the Kingites were soundly defeated, largely on account of the performances of von Tempsky's Rangers. He refused to accept reverses and in the face of Rewi's famous words, “Peace shall never be made – never, never!” he led assault after assault on the Maori positions. His losses were considerable, but his success earned him his majority and a proud position in the Colonial Defence Force.

Von Tempsky's appetite for action was insatiable, and he managed to communicate a similar urgency to his men. Within a few weeks of the investment of Orakau, he was in the thick of the fighting on the West Coast of the North Island. He and his Rangers were generally the spearhead of attacks, and at Kakaramea, Nukumaru, and Weraroa they gained fresh laurels. After desultory operations in the Wanganui area in July 1865, the scene of action switched to the East Coast, and von Tempsky at once volunteered for service there, in the firm belief that he would be followed by his Rangers as soon as their transport could be arranged. Owing to a misunderstanding, involving pay rates in various theatres of war, his company was held in Wanganui, and von Tempsky, in high dudgeon, hastened to Wellington to protest to the military authorities and, if necessary, the Government. The Rangers were at once ordered to Wellington and returned to von Tempsky's command. But there was one serious hitch. Von Tempsky was instructed to place himself under the orders of a Major Fraser, a man of proven resource and courage, but junior in precedence to von Tempsky. With typical Prussian impatience, von Tempsky felt he had been superseded. He refused to accept Fraser's orders and tendered his resignation. When the Defence Minister (Atkinson) called him to account, he stamped out of the Minister's room in a rage, and after three further refusals to obey orders that had been given with Cabinet authority, he was placed under arrest. On 16 October the Weld Ministry resigned and Haultain replaced Atkinson as Defence Minister. An inquiry was held, without any real result, but the Governor, Sir George Grey, gave von Tempsky the chance to withdraw his resignation which the irate commander did on the understanding that he was not to be superseded by Fraser.

Once again the von Tempsky Rangers were in the thick of things in the West Coast region, and again they covered themselves with distinction under General Chute at New Plymouth, Whenuakura, and Otapawa. Von Tempsky was accorded special mention in the New Zealand Gazette of 26 January 1866. After this interlude the Rangers were disbanded and von Tempsky returned to his family at Coromandel for a well earned rest. By 1868 he was back in the field again, this time as an Inspector in the Armed Constabulary which, with Rangers and Volunteers, as well as Maori followers, was locked in a grim struggle with the Hauhaus under Te Kooti and some of his fiercest chiefs. In August the Hauhaus, led by Titokowaru, were brought to battle and von Tempsky was prominent in several bitter and costly engagements. Caught out of position with a force of Constabulary, Rangers, and Volunteers, he sought permission to attack, but his commanding officer, McDonnell, hesitated for a fatal moment, and then ordered a retreat. Von Tempsky was holding an exposed position and his force suffered heavily. He himself was shot and mortally wounded by a concealed Hauhau marksman. His body, with those of other Pakehas killed in the action, was burned on a funeral pyre with Hauhau rites.

Von Tempsky died at the zenith of his career. His defects as a soldier, such as they were, stemmed from his Prussian origins. The discipline he imposed upon himself he expected to be exercised by the authorities in the matter of his relations with others, but he could not always rely on it. Rank and precedence were obsessions with him, and his dream throughout the whole of his active service, not only in New Zealand but elsewhere, was of an independent command. If death had not cut his career so tragically short, at the age of 40 years, he must certainly have achieved his ambition, but he made such outstanding use of his opportunities that he left a notable mark in the history of the country of his adoption. His courage and daring were without question and he introduced into all his activities a self-reliance and independence of planning that were recognised as having a vital influence on the development of the colonial soldier. It was said of him after his Taranaki exploits of 1865 by the then Premier, Stafford, that he was a bulwark of the self-reliant policy of the Army and had done more than any other officer of his time to develop and direct the quality and effectiveness of the Colonial Defence Force. Von Tempsky's water colours, which may be seen in the Alexander Turnbull and Hocken Libraries, are of more than passing interest. They depict most realistically a number of incidents in the Maori Wars, and their details of uniforms and equipment are of historical value. In style and colour they have something of the quality of a “primitive”, with attractive decorative treatment.

by Ronald Jones, Journalist and Script Writer, New Zealand Broadcasting Corporation, Wellington.

The New Zealand Wars, Cowan, J. (2 vols., 1955); New Zealand Examiner, 2 Nov 1869.

Saturday, July 11, 2009

WE SUPPORT THE ACTION AGAINST HUNGER CAMPAIGN HERE AT THE KIWI RIVERMAN POST...

The world's hungry has exceeded one billion for the first time in history, according to the United Nations Food and Agricultural Organisation. This represents a figure of one in six people going to bed desperately hungry every night. To say that is a lot of hungry people, would be the understatement of the century. Malnutrition kills 5 million children every year. Is that acceptable? Not in my book friends! That is why we support the Action Against Hunger campaign.

The combination of the global economic downturn and high food prices has meant there have been dramatic increases in the number of people worldwide who suffer from acute and chronic malnutrition - this has had a particularly devastating effect on the world's poor - and their chikdren! Declining wages and reduced opportunities has made the purchase of even basic food even moor difficult, especially in the developing countries where the cost remains desperately high, a United Nations study revealed at the end of 2008. The average price was an incredible 24% more than two years previously.

These figures underscore the urgency of the global hunger crisis. Action Against Hunger is working every day to save the lives of malnourished children and provide families with access to safe drinking water and sustainable solutions to hunger.

Some simple facts to consider:

1/ There is enough food in the world to feed 12 billion people, twice the present world population. The problems lie with the distribution of the available food, not the amount itself.

2/ If the vast amounts of money spent by both the developed and developing world countries were transfered to feeding those who lack sufficient food and water, there would not be a hunger crisis and starving millions around the world in the first place.

Action against Hunger

Wednesday, July 01, 2009

A FOOTBALLER'S LIES ALMOST CREATED AN INTERNATIONAL INCIDENT BETWEEN NEW ZEALAND AND FRANCE...

You wouldn't believe it, but a French rugby player's lies after the recent rugby test in Wellington nearly created another international incident between NZ and France. The first was in the 1980's when French frogmen blew up the Greenpeace "Rainbow Warrior" vessel in Auckland, with the loss of one life:

France apologises for Bastareaud:

PM Key receives letter from French PM Fillon apologising for Mathieu Bastareaud who claimed he had been attacked in Wellington.

French Prime Minister Francois Fillon has apologised to John Key over the Mathieu Bastareaud affair.

In a letter to the Prime Minister he condemns the lies of the rugby player, who claimed he had been attacked in Wellington. Mr Fillon went on to say rugby has always helped the two nations develop mutual respect and he hopes the incident does not damage that.

"The French team's tour of New Zealand was marked by the unjustifiable behaviour of one its players. Through his false statements, as a result of which you had to intervene publicly, he seriously tainted the image of your country and its people.

"You may be assured that I deplore this incident. Our two countries share the culture of rugby. This sport has always enabled our two nations to come together and share a mutual respect. I hope that these sentiments will prevail after this regrettable affair.

"Like all rugby fans, I am delighted that your country is organising the next World Cup in 2011."

Paris correspondent Catherine Field says Mr Fillon's move is highly unusual.

"It might be quite normal in New Zealand for a prime minister to have to know a lot about rugby and to have to talk off the bat about it, but for France to actually intervene like this, is extraordinary."

Bastareaud claimed he had been attacked by up to five men outside the team's hotel in Wellington after France was defeated 14-10 in the second Test against the All Blacks. However, when police found evidence that he had suffered the facial injuries after returning to his hotel in the early hours of June 21, the centre changed his version of events and said he had hit his head on a bedside table after drinking too much. He said he invented the story about being attacked because he was scared of being taken off the French team.

His club said Bastareaud was on holiday in the French West Indies but he was admitted to hospital after trying to take his life by jumping into the Seine.

Amazing but its true!

Lying Basteraud

Sunday, June 28, 2009

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL INTRODUCES AN OPEN LETTER TO IRANIAN AUTHORITIES...

I support this open letter to Iranian authorities in the name of humanity:

To the Ruling Regime of Iran.

Dear Sirs,

I was born in Kerman, a pretty city by the ancient city of Bam. I was happy and loved by my parents, and by the entire family. I had a very happy childhood. A childhood full of playing, climbing trees, and laughing. At age 7, I was told that I had to cover my hair and wear a uniform and trousers to go to school. I was told that this is the law and a good girl will cover up like a pearl in a shell. It was not long until I noticed boys my age freely walked around without covering their hairs and my questions started at a very young age. I concluded that it will be good to be a boy! Maybe I can shave my head or cut my hair very short like a boy and go out! I bet no one would recognise I was a girl! I used to dream of biking bare headed in the streets without being worried I was going to be arrested...
I grew up! I watched you day after day! I watched what you said about women, I listened carefully! You said we were equal to men, but how come:

• You took the freedom of choice from me? How come I could not decide not to wear my scarf but men could?
• You never arrested the random hungry men, whom you created through compulsory covering up of women, who abused me in the streets?
• You censored all foreign TV programmes which had women in them by zooming on their faces so that the rest of their bodies does not show?
• Women on TV first wore colourful uniforms and scarves and gradually started wearing black chadors?
• You forced me to wear a black chador at the university even if you kept saying a uniform and scarf was adequate hijab?
• Your male followers would look at the floor when I talked to them –it made me feel I did not exist- and they did not look straight in my eyes?
• I could not freely talk to my male friends and I always needed to hide any simple friendships for the fear of being arrested and whipped by the morality police (called Komiteh)?
• You always told me that I was the main source of provoking men to commit sins?
• You started arresting women who biked because you said their body shapes when biking will provoke men to commit sins?
• How come you stopped my childhood friend who was the nationwide champion in some type of sport to compete against other countries because her sport needed her not to wear hijab therefore prevented her from possibly winning in the Olympics?
• Why did you stop Shirin Ebadi the first female judge of Iran and the noble peace prize winner to continue working as a judge and said women can’t make good judges and are emotional?
• How come you attacked all women’s gatherings for women’s rights?
• How come you blocked the word “woman” or “women” from all the search engines in the internet?
• Why should always a father or a husband give a written permission for a woman to obtain a passport? Otherwise they are not allowed to leave the country.

There are hundreds of these questions that I can go on and on, it will take me tens of pages just to write down the obstacles that are in front of women for instance to obtain divorce, custody of children, equal rights to inheritance, equal rights to be counted as a witness to a crime at the court, rights not to be stoned, not to be sentenced to death for self defence, help and protection not to lose reputation for being raped etc.

You know all the above and you have always told me Islam is the best way for women. I am going to be very blunt with you, I am a skilled Chartered Accountant who could have helped Iran to flourish and become what it really deserves to be in the world. You made me leave my country by constantly telling me what I should not be doing and that I should be happy with the rules and obstacles you have put in my way to flourish. Not only you lost me and my skills but you have also destroyed what Islam did 1400 years ago for women. You keep telling me that the rules which brought unseen freedom to the women of Saudi Arabia 1400 years ago still apply to me but let me tell you something I am not the woman of 1400 years ago. Either open your eyes and see me as what I am today with all my beauty, talents, and struggle to find equality or leave the power. I know you are a puppet of power, money and oil. Your old tricks of using Islam and western power interference are not working anymore.
Stop your violence against Iranian women and the youth. Persia [name of the country was changed to Iran by Reza Shah in 1935] has survived tyranny for millenniums and will still survive.

A Persian Woman

Acknowledgements: Amnesty International, New Zealand.

.

Friday, June 26, 2009

IRANIAN PROTESTERS SHOULD BE RELEASED NOW - SAYS WIFE OF OPPOSITION LEADER, MOUSAVI...

The wife of Iranian opposition leader and defeated presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi has called for the release of people arrested following the June 12 election.

"I regret that a large number of people among the political elite and others have been arrested, and I ask for their release," Zahra Rahnavard said in remarks published on her husband's campaign website.

"I have not been arrested. I continue my work at the university, but at the same time, alongside others, I protest" the result of the election, which put Mousavi a distant second after victorious incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

"Nationalism and the blood of the martyrs demand that I be on the scene, always protesting against the result of the election and defending people's rights within the framework of the law."

She said the regime should not act as if Iran were in a "state of siege."

Since the election, whose outcome is disputed by Mousavi, Tehran and other parts of the country have been the scene of often violent protests.

Hundreds of protesters have been arrested, as well as politicians and journalists.

Rahnavard, 64, a sculptor and academic, broke the mould of Iranian politics by campaigning openly alongside her husband ahead of the vote.

US president Barack Obama has done the right thing by criticising the arrests - its up to the Iranians and world protest now.

Monday, June 22, 2009

NOSTRADAMUS: THE BLACK PRESIDENT AND THE END OF THE WORLD IN 2012...

Nostradamus: The Black President and the End of the world in 2012.

"There are circulating on the world wide web some (allegedly)idiotic but also possibly dangerous rumours, featuring Nostradamus, Barack Obama, the Antichrist 111 and the End of the World (2012. The theories are (reportedly) extremely silly, undoubtedly. But they get quite dangerous too when you think of the idiots who might be taking some action, just because of the rumours.They create "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool" in Maine, because they just KNOW Obama is the anti-chtist." - Patrick Bernauw, in Offbeat. Read more

Sunday, June 21, 2009

MAYAN END TIMES PROPHECY 12-21-2012...

1277 days, 9 hours,43 minutes,16 seconds left for Age of Transition to begin!

"The Hopi and Mayan elders do not prophecise that everything will come to an end. Rather, this is a time of transition from one World Age into another. The message they gave concerns our making a choice of how we enter the future ahead. Our moving through with either resistance or acceptance will determine whether the transition will happen with cataclysmic changes or gradual peace and tranquility.The same can be found in the prophecies of many other Native American visionaries from Black Elk to Sun Bear" - Joseph Robert Jochmans. What will our choice be I wonder?
Read here

Tuesday, June 09, 2009

HE SUED THE INTERNET GIANT, GOOGLE, AND WON...

I have had my own personal problems with Google after my Adsense account was arbitarily disabled and the company has persistently refused to reply to my many messages. I don't live in the US and therefore can't have a face to face with the company. In my book, Google still owes me US$40.00, and I want my account re-abled for business,

"Why I Sued Google (and Won)"
Huffington Post - April 18, 2009
Aaron Greenspan
Founder, Think Computer Corporation
Posted March 6, 2009 | 01:37 (EST):

"Like most Americans, I use Google's search engine several times a day without so much as a second thought. It was only in 2007 that my company's relationship with Google, Inc. temporarily escalated to that of a full-fledged customer, when Think Computer Corporation became yet another a Google AdWords advertiser. (AdWords advertisements appear on the right side of the main Google search results.) Sadly, the several ad campaigns we tried during this brief experiment failed miserably to bring in any new revenue, and so I personally went back to being just another user of Google's search service -- at least until March, 2008. That's when my company signed up for the flip side of Google's advertising juggernaut: AdSense. In anticipation of a new product, Think had acquired a brand new domain name that was unexpectedly receiving a high volume of internet traffic. Instead of paying Google for Think's ads, I thought it might make more sense for Think to get paid for displaying Google's.

Everything went according to plan until 11:00 A.M. on December 9, 2008. With a single click, a faceless Google employee decided that Think Computer Corporation's membership in the AdSense program "posed a significant risk to our AdWords advertisers," and the account was disabled with no warning. Trying to sign into the AdSense management site brought not the familiar user interface, with its limited account payment records and reports (including what Google currently owed Think, which amounted to approximately $721.00), but the following unhelpful statement, and nothing more:

Your AdSense account for this login is currently disabled. We recommend checking your email inboxes for any messages we may have sent you regarding your account status. Sometimes our messages can be caught by email filters, so please be sure to check the Bulk/Spam folders of your email accounts as well.
If your account was disabled for invalid click activity, please visit our Disabled Account FAQ for more information.
Return to AdSense home.

Knowing only that I was somehow posing "a significant risk" to advertisers, I e-mailed Google to ask about exactly what had happened. An errant automated response told me that my records could not be found. Going back and using the on-line appeal form on the AdSense web site similarly yielded no result; not even a confirmation that the appeal had been received. In the appeal I offered to send Google hundreds of pages of log files to prove that no fraud had taken place, but no one replied.

More than once, I tried calling Google at its corporate offices in Mountain View. Invariably the person on the other end of the line sounded like they were approximately my age, and there's a chance I might have even gone to college with some of them, but despite all of those similarities the difference in bureaucratic flexibility could not have been more vast. While I was capable of authorizing any action on behalf of my company, Google's overachieving receptionists were not even permitted to transfer my phone call to AdSense customer service. There was no AdSense customer service. Even if there had been, it would not have mattered much. I also couldn't be transferred to any of the engineers who worked on AdSense. Or product managers. Or executives. It made no difference that I was also a paying AdWords customer.

Trying a more aggressive approach, I tried instead to be transferred to the legal department. That, too, was not an option. Despite the clear existence of the legal department, I was told again and again that I was not allowed to speak with anyone in it. For the time being, I gave up.

Two days after the account was disabled, on December 11, 2008, Google's AdSense team posted a message on its blog introducing a new system called "AdSense for Domains." Unlike normal AdSense ("for Content," as it was then re-branded), AdSense for Domains was designed to be used by web sites that were effectively blank. When I had tried to sign up for it previously, given that my domain name needed exactly such a service, it had been "closed"--code for "available to a limited number of companies with large numbers of domain names." Now, I was once again enraged since Google could have easily allowed me to switch over to their new service if they had merely waited two days.

Another flurry of phone calls to the AdSense employees who had written on the corporate blog got me nowhere. I left voicemails about my disabled account diligently, to no avail. I even called AdWords customer support, intentionally asking for the wrong department to see if a real human being could help. These efforts netted a relatively quick e-mail rejection of my appeal form, and fairly unbelievable recordings of telephone calls with Google employee Adam C. When questioned, "Can I just ask in general why you guys have a support team for AdWords, but not AdSense?", the knowledgeable Mr C. replied, "I do not know." When asked, "Is there a project manager," he replied, "There's no one I'd be able to transfer you to." I was able to get an e-mail address for the legal department, so I e-mailed legal@google.com--and never received a reply. In the meantime, I tried to figure out what to do with my web site since I couldn't use AdSense anymore.

I found Sedo, a European company that had a contract with none other than--you guessed it--Google AdSense--to display advertisements on placeholder web sites. By signing up with Sedo, I could once again use AdSense, but with one small catch. Since Sedo was the middleman, my effective rate of payment per click was somewhere between 1/5,000th and 1/10,000th of what it had been previously. Despite all of its well-meaning claims about its Terms and Conditions, it appeared that Google was willing to pay for my web site traffic after all--so long as it wasn't me receiving the money.

I'd already posted once on the AdSense Forums, where thousands of AdSense partners regularly asked questions and voiced gripes about the program, so I thought it wouldn't hurt to post again, hoping someone from the Google legal team might see my concern. Again, there was no reply.

I looked up the profiles for the "AdSense Experts" who answered questions in their official roles as forum moderators. Each expert had a different crayon stick-figure picture, and (useless) information about their favorite food or town, but no contact information--not even an e-mail address. With undoubtedly hundreds of employees working on advertising alone, all of them completely unreachable except in heavily scripted contexts, Google's amazing money machine was starting to look a bit more like the type of Potemkin Village the parents of the company's founders had fled decades before.

I spoke with Adam C. of AdWords once more on the phone. After pointing out that in the United States of America, the accused are generally given the right to know both the crimes they are being accused of, and the identities of their accusers, Mr. C. responded by saying that such thinking did not apply to Google's terms of service. Effectively, Google's position was that it was above the law, and if not any law in particular, then at least the spirit of the law. Irked, I decided to find out if such a position was tenable.

On January 15, 2009, I walked over to the Santa Clara County courthouse in Palo Alto, which conveniently fell within the same county lines as Google's home of Mountain View, and filed a civil small claims lawsuit for $721.00--the amount Google owed Think when it disabled the account--using form SC-100. For a total of $40.00 in court fees, I arranged for Google, Inc. to be served by certified mail. The hearing was scheduled for March 2, 2009.

Since lawyers are not permitted in small claims court, Google instead sent Stephanie Milani, a Litigation Paralegal. During the short last-ditch-resolution period before the hearings on the afternoon schedule began, Ms. Milani argued that I must have done something wrong to deserve my fate. When I asked her what, she didn't know. The AdSense engineers had not told her.

"Google can terminate your account for any reason," she told me.

"Not any reason," I said. "Not because I have blue eyes. Or brown eyes." After being told to quiet down by the courtroom guard, we decided that we had reached an impasse, exchanged documents, and went back into the court room.

Arguing before that day's pro tempore judge, I pointed out that my company had done nothing wrong to deserve termination of the contract, that Google could not prove any wrongdoing, that Google's fraud detection algorithm was imperfect by definition (since one cannot intuit moral intent through mathematical analysis), that advertisers must already agree to bear risk as part of the AdWords terms and conditions (clause 5), and that Google had gone to great lengths (including eliminating the ability to view account records) to make it difficult to dispute anything--all while owing Think money. In fact, terminating accounts for "posing significant risk" just when they started to earn significant amounts of money seemed like a great way for Google to cut accounting liabilities in a difficult economic climate. After my explanation, the judge had a question.

"What was the reason Google gave you for disabling your account?"

"Beyond, 'posing a signficicant risk to advertisers,' they didn't give a reason." I said. "I don't know."

Google's Ms. Milani didn't know either. She argued that advertisers had already been refunded my $721.00, even if they hadn't asked for a refund. She claimed that Google could terminate accounts for any or no reason, and that I had agreed to such terms by signing up for AdSense in the first place. She even said that I'd admitted to violating the terms of service when I sent in my appeal form, because I had mentioned that my new domain name was only a placeholder site.

In fact, clause 6 of the AdSense for Content Terms and Conditions does not allow Google to terminate accounts for "no" reason--only "any" reason. Much to my amusement, the judge interrupted her to make a point that sounded familiar.

"But you couldn't terminate my account because of the color of my eyes, could you? I have brown eyes. You couldn't terminate my account because of that."

Ms. Milani reiterated her previous arguments, but the judge didn't buy them. "I don't think I have the power here in Palo Alto small claims court to make you reinstate his account, but I think you owe this young man $721," he said finally. "I think there might be money in Google's treasury for that."

In the end, printed on a baby blue sheet of paper by the clerk's aging dot matrix printer, the judgment was actually entered for $761.00 total, due to the $40.00 court costs. I couldn't help but to smile in front of the judge.

"But it's not fair!" Google's paralegal protested. "What if everyone whose account was canceled sued Google?"

It's a valid question. Yet until Google changes its policies to become more transparent, which might also reassure skeptics that AdWords and AdSense, which have oddly limited reporting capabilities, aren't just two sides of the same ponzi scheme (for why else would one want to terminate legitimate accounts with high monthly liabilities when they're supposed to be making money for Google on each click?)--I will give this answer:

Maybe everyone whose account was canceled, should."

Aaron Greenspan is President & CEO of Think Computer Corporation and the author of Authoritas: One Student's Harvard Admissions and the Founding of the Facebook Era.

Acknowledgement: The Huffington Post

Saturday, June 06, 2009

SWINE FLU SURVIVAL TIPS YOU NEED TO KNOW...

If you’re like most of us, you know more than you ever wanted to about swine flu, or under the more scientific name the World Health Organization (WHO) has been using: Influenza A(H1N1).

The name change is an effort to limit the confusion over any connection to pigs or pig products. Besides the unfortunate name, swine flu has no connection to pigs other than having some swine flu genetic sequences.

As of 12 May 2009, 30 countries have reported 5,251 cases of influenza A(H1N1). Mexico reports 2,059 lab confirmed human cases of infection, including 56 deaths. The United States reports 2,600 laboratory confirmed human cases, with three deaths. Canada reports 330 laboratory confirmed human cases and one death. Costa Rica reports eight laboratory confirmed human cases and one death.

Not surprisingly mixed messages on the risks of travel using mass transit have only added to the confusion and fear.

Still the World Health Organization continues to make no restriction on travel of any kind, or suggest the closing of borders.

Interesting that Continental Airlines, the largest U.S. air carrier to Mexico, is cutting back flights by 40%, but will still serve all 29 Mexican destinations.

The good news seems to be that the strain, while spreading widely. may not be as severe as first feared. Experts already know that this flu does not contain some of the genes that made the 1918 Spanish flu so deadly.

However, in 1918 the first wave of sickness was relatively mild, the second was the dangerous, deadly one. No one can say that won’t happen this time as well.

Experts are convinced they will be able to create a vaccine for A(H1N1) and work is already underway.

The trouble is, vaccine making and distributing isn’t an exact science or a quick process, not to mention the calculated risk scientists take every year in choosing which strains of flu to protect against.

The earliest we’re likely to see any type of A(H1N1) vaccine is four to six months, this fall perhaps.

In the meantime, what can you do to keep yourself healthy?

Here are some common sense suggestions from the experts.

1. Wash your hands as much as possible.

This is the best thing you can do to stay healthy. Wash your hands with soap and water frequently, as the A(H1N1) flu is spread by the droplets from coughing or sneezing that are released into the air. When these get on your hands, everything you touch becomes a potential source of infection.

How you wash is key - most of us aren’t washing well enough or long enough - you’ll need to use the warmest water you can, lather up with soap and rub you fingers, palms, and even under your nails and up to your wrists for two choruses of “Happy Birthday”.

If you’re without soap and water, hand sanitizers serve very well and come in a variety of sizes.

When you wash is also super important.

Be sure to wash up before you eat or prepare food for others, after using the bathroom, or after using a tissue or your hands to cover up a sneeze or cough.

The virus droplets don’t seem to float in the air, but rather settle on objects you touch everyday smooth objects more than rough or porous ones.

It’s the common things we all handle like coins and bills, hand rails, door knobs and other household objects, as well as those essentials around the office like pens, staplers and phones that can harbor all manner of germs.

When taking care of someone who is ill, it’s a good idea to wash your hands more often, especially after direct contact with them or things they’ve used, including laundry.

2. Cover up when you cough or sneeze.

By using your shoulder, or the crook of your elbow to capture the droplets that come form a cough or sneeze you contain the infectious droplets. Wash your hands right away.

A surgical face mask can be an option that helps to keep your respiratory droplets to yourself. Still this isn’t a better option than washing your hands, and used improperly can do you more harm than good. Masks must be used according to the instructions and only for the length of time suggested by the manufacturer.

Face masks can be helpful if you are caring for another person who is ill.

3. If you’re sick, stay home.

Sure it’s hard to give in to feeling sick, especially in our got-to-be-everywhere, do-everything world, but this is exactly what experts suggest you do.

If you start developing flu-like symptoms - aches, fatigue, fever, coughing or sneezing - don’t push yourself to go to work.

Don’t try to tough it out either, as there are some treatments that can shorten the length and severity of your illness.

Call your doctor for advice or an appointment, especially if you’ve traveled to Mexico recently or have an underlying health condition.

You’ll also want to wash you hands often, dispose of tissues right away, and sleep alone.

Once you recover, air out your sleeping space and change your bedding, washing sheets, towels and pajamas in the hottest water possible.

4. Don’t touch your face.

This is the survival tip that’s the hardest to do as it’s such a natural impulse. Sometimes being aware of a need not to touch makes it even more difficult. Still, it’s super important to try to keep your hands away from these mucous membranes - eyes, nose and mouth - all direct routes to the bloodstream.

When you bring germs to your face you bypass the natural protective barrier, this route inside is direct and undefended.

While it’s not easy, by keeping your hands away from your face, you do yourself a big favor. By keeping your hands super clean, you’re likely to deliver as little infectious material as possible to this area when you do give into the impulse (or need) to touch your face

5. Stay away from sick people.

Also, not easy to do, especially if you’re a parent (or spouse) of someone struggling with A(H1N1) flu, or you have a coworker who simply refuses to call in sick, even when they are.

Limit your time with this person as much as possible. Up your hand washing after whatever contact you do have. Use a face mask if you must be very close or the person is coughing or sneezing quite a bit.

Of course, common sense should tell you not to drink from this person’s cups, share utensils or use the phone of anyone with flu-like symptoms, a cough, fever or sneezing.

Encourage co-workers to go home (or stay home) if they aren’t feeling well. Remember that you can be contagious for a day before you feel ill… and up to seven days once the coughing, sneezing, fever and feeling miserable come on.

With such a rapidly changing situation, your best defense against A(H1N1) flu is to say informed - using Word Health Organization or Centers for Disease Control resources.

Swine Flu Survival Tips You Need To Know. Doesn't have much to do with pigs,either!

If you’re like most of us, you know more than you ever wanted to about swine flu, or under the more scientific name the World Health Organization (WHO) has been using: Influenza A(H1N1).

The name change is an effort to limit the confusion over any connection to pigs or pig products. Besides the unfortunate name, swine flu has no connection to pigs other than having some swine flu genetic sequences.

As of 12 May 2009, 30 countries have reported 5,251 cases of influenza A(H1N1). Mexico reports 2,059 lab confirmed human cases of infection, including 56 deaths. The United States reports 2,600 laboratory confirmed human cases, with three deaths. Canada reports 330 laboratory confirmed human cases and one death. Costa Rica reports eight laboratory confirmed human cases and one death.

Not surprisingly mixed messages on the risks of travel using mass transit have only added to the confusion and fear.

Still the World Health Organization continues to make no restriction on travel of any kind, or suggest the closing of borders.

Interesting that Continental Airlines, the largest U.S. air carrier to Mexico, is cutting back flights by 40%, but will still serve all 29 Mexican destinations.

The good news seems to be that the strain, while spreading widely. may not be as severe as first feared. Experts already know that this flu does not contain some of the genes that made the 1918 Spanish flu so deadly.

However, in 1918 the first wave of sickness was relatively mild, the second was the dangerous, deadly one. No one can say that won’t happen this time as well.

Experts are convinced they will be able to create a vaccine for A(H1N1) and work is already underway.

The trouble is, vaccine making and distributing isn’t an exact science or a quick process, not to mention the calculated risk scientists take every year in choosing which strains of flu to protect against.

The earliest we’re likely to see any type of A(H1N1) vaccine is four to six months, this fall perhaps.

In the meantime, what can you do to keep yourself healthy?

Here are some common sense suggestions from the experts.

1. Wash your hands as much as possible.

This is the best thing you can do to stay healthy. Wash your hands with soap and water frequently, as the A(H1N1) flu is spread by the droplets from coughing or sneezing that are released into the air. When these get on your hands, everything you touch becomes a potential source of infection.

How you wash is key - most of us aren’t washing well enough or long enough - you’ll need to use the warmest water you can, lather up with soap and rub you fingers, palms, and even under your nails and up to your wrists for two choruses of “Happy Birthday”.

If you’re without soap and water, hand sanitizers serve very well and come in a variety of sizes.

When you wash is also super important.

Be sure to wash up before you eat or prepare food for others, after using the bathroom, or after using a tissue or your hands to cover up a sneeze or cough.

The virus droplets don’t seem to float in the air, but rather settle on objects you touch everyday smooth objects more than rough or porous ones.

It’s the common things we all handle like coins and bills, hand rails, door knobs and other household objects, as well as those essentials around the office like pens, staplers and phones that can harbor all manner of germs.

When taking care of someone who is ill, it’s a good idea to wash your hands more often, especially after direct contact with them or things they’ve used, including laundry.

2. Cover up when you cough or sneeze.

By using your shoulder, or the crook of your elbow to capture the droplets that come form a cough or sneeze you contain the infectious droplets. Wash your hands right away.

A surgical face mask can be an option that helps to keep your respiratory droplets to yourself. Still this isn’t a better option than washing your hands, and used improperly can do you more harm than good. Masks must be used according to the instructions and only for the length of time suggested by the manufacturer.

Face masks can be helpful if you are caring for another person who is ill.

3. If you’re sick, stay home.

Sure it’s hard to give in to feeling sick, especially in our got-to-be-everywhere, do-everything world, but this is exactly what experts suggest you do.

If you start developing flu-like symptoms - aches, fatigue, fever, coughing or sneezing - don’t push yourself to go to work.

Don’t try to tough it out either, as there are some treatments that can shorten the length and severity of your illness.

Call your doctor for advice or an appointment, especially if you’ve traveled to Mexico recently or have an underlying health condition.

You’ll also want to wash you hands often, dispose of tissues right away, and sleep alone.

Once you recover, air out your sleeping space and change your bedding, washing sheets, towels and pajamas in the hottest water possible.

4. Don’t touch your face.

This is the survival tip that’s the hardest to do as it’s such a natural impulse. Sometimes being aware of a need not to touch makes it even more difficult. Still, it’s super important to try to keep your hands away from these mucous membranes - eyes, nose and mouth - all direct routes to the bloodstream.

When you bring germs to your face you bypass the natural protective barrier, this route inside is direct and undefended.

While it’s not easy, by keeping your hands away from your face, you do yourself a big favor. By keeping your hands super clean, you’re likely to deliver as little infectious material as possible to this area when you do give into the impulse (or need) to touch your face

5. Stay away from sick people.

Also, not easy to do, especially if you’re a parent (or spouse) of someone struggling with A(H1N1) flu, or you have a coworker who simply refuses to call in sick, even when they are.

Limit your time with this person as much as possible. Up your hand washing after whatever contact you do have. Use a face mask if you must be very close or the person is coughing or sneezing quite a bit.

Of course, common sense should tell you not to drink from this person’s cups, share utensils or use the phone of anyone with flu-like symptoms, a cough, fever or sneezing.

Encourage co-workers to go home (or stay home) if they aren’t feeling well. Remember that you can be contagious for a day before you feel ill… and up to seven days once the coughing, sneezing, fever and feeling miserable come on.

With such a rapidly changing situation, your best defense against A(H1N1) flu is to say informed - using Word Health Organization or Centers for Disease Control resources.

Of course it’s scary to think that a microscopic organism can move at will across the world and send so many of us healthy, far-more-advanced creatures to our beds. It’s hard to imagine something so small can really be that powerful. But it can.

Acknowledgements:

Kirsten Whittaker,
Daily Health Bulletin Editor

Sources:

Original article:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/livescience/20090430/sc_
livescience/5essentialswineflusurvivaltips

Reuters story on hog industry and swine flu:
http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNewsMolt/idUKTRE54060J20090501

Vice President Joe Biden’s ill-advised mass transit comments:
http://www.nydailynews.com/opinions/2009/05/01/2009-05-01_well_shut_his_mouth.html

LiveScience Info on face mask:
http://www.livescience.com/health/090126-flu-mask.html

World Health Organization (WHO) info on A(H1N1):
http://www.who.int/csr/disease/swineflu/en/index.html

Centers for Disease Control (CDC) swine flu info:
http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/

Huttriver Today

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

AFTER SIX YEARS OF DEVELOPMENT THE ORANGE AND BLACK HULME CANAM ROADSTER FINALLY SEES THE LIGHT...

The Kiwi supercar has arrived in all its orange and black glory.It is to be hoped that the Hulme project leads to New Zealand becoming a world centre of excellence in designing concept cars. Only history will tell!

A Kiwi super car has had its first run in the build-up to launch a public company to manufacture the racy machine in New Zealand. It will bring back the memories of Denny Hulme, the only Kiwi to win a Formula One World racing title, and also Bruce Mclaren whose name is attached to the Mclaren racing team in Britain.

The car was paraded across the Auckland Harbour bridge and also cruised the motorway, but not at its top speed of 320kmh. It also has all the road requirements of headlights, indicators, handbrake etc, but it has be on the track where Kiwi drivers Chris Amon and Ken Smith have tested it.

It is actually a road designed machine that you can take to the track. It has comfortable seats and suspension. The aim is to set up a New Zealand factory, at a location still to be decided - to make twenty cars a year and sell them to super-car collectors, mainly in Europe and the Middle east. The price would bein excess of $600,000. The is great demand for supercars overseas. The car has also had a lot of publicity in Britain, being described in one paper as MEANER THAN THE ALL BLACKS.

Kiwi Super Car

Monday, May 25, 2009

IS THE US UNDER OBAMA RETURNING TO EXPORT SUBSIDIES...

Is the US under Obama returning to outdated export protection subsidies...

First published at Qassia:

During the the 1980's and 90's the New Zealand economy underwent many fundamental changes during the changeover to market economics. Part of the process was the gradual reduction and eventual abolition of tariffs and export subsidies. This created much stress and economic hardship for New Zealanders. But the realisation that this was a process all economies were undergoing in the pursuit of a level economic playing field made the exercise more palliative.

But the announcement that the European Union and the United States were allegedly involving themselves in what could be termed another 'trade war' wasn't received too well by the New Zealand Government who fear NZ could become caught in a crossfire between the two economic superpowers, and could destroy hard earned progress in international trade talks, and put Kiwis standard of living at risk.

The NZ Trade Minister,Tim Groser, went close to slating the US for adopting new export subsidies for exporting dairy farmers, something described as the "most hated of all trade policy instruments".

The US move is a 'tit for tat' response to the EU action in January, a rather juvenile act in the 21st century one would suggest.

Mr Groser said the US action effectively destroyed the immensely difficult exercise of getting the commitment to eliminate export subsidies as part of the World Trade Organisation's Doha trade talks, begun in 2001. "The US and EU have gone back to sucking on that particular teat again". he said.

The US Dairy Export Incentive Program will pay exporters cash bonuses, enabling them to sell at lower prices to be more competitive. A return to the future, one could well say!

New Zealand, a nation of only 4.3 million people earns more than $6.3 billion in dairy exports annually, and were vulnerable to price levels and the potential damage if the situation escalated. The damage would not only affect NZ farmers, but the country as a whole - New Zealand's standard of living could deteriorate. It is potentially an extremely difficult situation. This would not be a positive signal to the rest of the world during the most severe economic contraction since the 1930's. Trade protection and retaliation is considered as being part of the Ark. Hopefully commonsense will prevail in both the US and EU.

Not a great signal from President Obama and the US Government at a time it seeks increased military support for its Afghanistan campaign against the Taleban?