Saturday, 29 September 2007

I Want to Live to Ninety Nine, Good old Ninety Nine, Wouldn't it be Fine

The number of Britons reaching the age of 100 will hit a record 9,000 today and is expected to reach 40,000 by 2031

Jeanne Calment died aged 122, the world's oldest person
A boom in life expectancy shows the number of centenarians has increased 90-fold since 1911 and many young children are now expected to live to 100 or beyond. People are now reaching old age in much better health and have a far better standard of living than previous generations. The longest life on record is that of a French woman who died in 1997 at 122.
Today's figures on population in England and Wales disclosed a picture of a fast ageing population.
The rapid increase in the number of very elderly people began in the 1950s and is attributed to improvements in housing, health care, nutrition and sanitation.
Life expectancy for British women has risen from only 50 a century ago to 81 now. And by 2080 it will rise to 100. For men, life expectancy is 76. Life expectancy increases at around two years per decade, but we don't know what will happen in the future. It was thought after 1980 it would slow down and stop. But people are reaching old age in better shape and we have made great strides in understanding the nature of the ageing process.
"I would predict the rate of increase will slow. Great advances have been because of huge improvements in people's living experience - housing, heating, less exposure to infection.
"But obesity coupled with smoking and a lack of exercise could impact on the number of centenarians in the future."

"We used to talk about ageing being a problem, then a challenge, but now we realise it is an opportunity.
"A mature society is a more confident society, a society that is more experienced and more stable."
But pension companies have repeatedly warned that pension ages will have to rise. It is not possible to generate enough wealth by working from 25 to 55 to enable people to live well until they are 95. Too many pensioners live below the poverty line.
The soaring population of centenarians is also likely to place a greater burden on the health services.
There used to be proportionately more female to male centenarians - seven women for every man.
However this ratio is now beginning to fall as survival to this age becomes more common.



A few Questions I would like to ask.



1. How much longer do you hope (expect) to live?



2. How will you afford these extra years of retirement/


3. Should insolvent aged persons be painlessly put down on reaching retirement?



4. Do you subscribe to voluntary Euthanasia?



5. How would you describe the taste of 'Soylent Green'?



6. Have you ever wished that you were never born?

Thursday, 27 September 2007

"What on earth is BODMAS"?.

"WHAT on earth is BODMAS"?
Bod is a little person who first appeared on UK Children's TV many years ago. Is BODMAS something to do with Bod and his mothers (Ma's)? - Not really, though it may be a good way to remember BODMAS. It's actually an Acronym (word for letters used to shorten a collection of words to make them more "snappy", for example - did you know that NUT stands for the National Union of Teachers - which may explain why most teachers are NUTs!) sorry Ag,
BODMAS is the secret code which enables us to know exactly the right sequence of doing things mathematically. In particular electronic calculators have to use a rule (known in computing circles as an algorithm) to know which answer to calculate when given a string of numbers to add, subtract, multiply, divide etc.
What do you think the answer to 2 + 3 x 5 is?
Is it (2 + 3) x 5 = 5 x 5 = 25 ?
or 2 + (3 x 5) = 2 + 15 = 17 ?
BODMAS can come to the rescue and give us rules to follow so that we always get the right answer:
(B)rackets
(O)rder
(D)ivision
(M)ultiplication
(A)ddition
(S)ubtraction
According to BODMAS, multiplication should always be done before addition, therefore 17 is actually the correct answer according to BODMAS and will also be the answer which your calculator will give if you type in 2 + 3 x 5 .
I am assuming that you know what everything in BODMAS means apart from "Order". Order is actually a poor word to use here "Power" would be much better though BPDMAS doesn't quite have the same ring to it!
Order means anything raised to the power of a number.
You may have heard of Einstein's famous equation E = mc2 here it can be said that c is raised to the power 2, or c has order 2 or c is squared (they all mean the same thing!).
Here's an example to show how to use all the features of BODMAS:
Explain the answer that a calculator would give to the calculation 4 + 70/10 x (1 + 2)2 - 1 according to the BODMAS rules.
Brackets gives 4 + 70/10 x (3)2 - 1
Order gives 4 + 70/10 x 9 - 1
Division gives 4 + 7 x 9 - 1
Multiplication gives 4 + 63 - 1
Addition gives 67 - 1
Subtraction gives 66

THE PART OF BODMAS MOST OFTEN FORGOTTEN
It is quite common for people to forget that brackets always come first - which means you can calculate the answer of whatever is in the brackets before you attempt to calculate the rest of the problem.
Once you've worked out everything in the brackets, normally these sort of problems become very easy. Provided of course you were born with a brain.

Democracy and Freedom are 'Not the Same Thing'.

THE difference between democracy, which refers to any system where people vote for rulers, and freedom, which is the absence of government coercion and the concomitant liberty to control one's own life and property:
Democracy means voting. It does not mean freedom. When we lump the two ideas together, we confuse ourselves and others. Britain was a free country long before it became democratic. In Germany, Hitler was elected democratically. In much of Africa, democracy in practice has meant, "One man, one vote -- one time," as elected leaders put an end to both elections and freedom. It would be wonderful to have free and democratic nations throughout the world, and that would very likely reduce military conflicts, But we do not ensure freedom by holding elections.

Wednesday, 26 September 2007

The 2007 Toukley Business Awards. "They were only here for the Beer"

TOUKLEY NSW Australia . Starting a business in Toukley would require some smart thinking.
Wandering around its CBD you will discover the sad picture of past businesses that have gone bust . This is mainly due to the ever increasing powers of the shopping malls, however, this is not about some magical cure for their setbacks, but the reason the Toukley Chamber Of Commerce decided not to use a Toukley venue such as their RSL or Bowling club for their annual event, thus depriving possibly one of the two major businesses in town of a good earner.
Hardly like keeping it in the family when it was decided that my local club, The Halekulani Bowling Club, Which is located several klms away from Toukley was chosen to host the event, or were there some overwhelming fiscal anomalies between the different clubs grog prices, I'll stick my neck out and say this is the case.
Traveling around to the five nearest clubs surrounding the Halekulani Bowling Club in Budgewoi, the Bar drinks of my choice and my nearest and dearest, at the Halekulani Bowling club, were priced $2-20 less per round than any other club. I cannot supply the reason for this, however, If I stop by the club three times per week and order four double rounds of drinks for the wife and myself, within one year I will have saved around $1,372-00 by not patronising the other clubs. 'Makes sense doesn't it'. Just a thought.

"Halekulani Halekulani du du du du du du DUH"

Monday, 24 September 2007

Men are either very Clever or really stupid.

Men: either very clever or really stupid
This could spark a row over the breakfast table, but recent research has found that there are more clever men than women. There are twice as many males as females in the brightest two per cent of the population.

Males scored the highest and lowest scores in all the tests
The research, however, also points out that there are twice as many males as females in the least intelligent two per cent of the country. The researchers said that they eliminated factors such as education and upbringing by comparing members of the same family. They looked at the intelligence of more than 2,500 brothers and sisters by testing them on science, maths, English and mechanical ability.
Males scored the highest and lowest scores in all the tests and also performed better in science and arithmetic.
Women occupied the middle ground and were also found to be better at languages, which is not surprising being that their tongues are continually wagging.
One theory put forward to explain the results is that men have evolved to boost their intelligence as a way of making themselves more attractive to the opposite sex. Women, however, do not need to be clever in order to reproduce.
The female developmental programme may be tilted more towards ensuring survival and enjoying the safety of the middle ground.
Maybe a gorgeous obedient woman with a moderate voice would come over as the top choice, but there aren't too many of those to spare, the variations are so wide, that, choosing a partner to some can be a nightmare and if you cock up it could become permanent.
Obviously there are exceptions to the findings, are you one of these or have you someone in mind you would point the finger at ? be kind to me or you may be deleted.

Have Your Say, go on have a go.

A Seven Year Hitch or Go for Broke.

Preview
Seven-year hitch
A GERMAN politician has proposed a law making marriage contracts null and void after seven years, with the option to renew for those not feeling the proverbial itch.
"I propose that marriages lapse after seven years,'' Gabriele Pauli told reporters in Munich, the capital of the largely Catholic southern state of Bavaria.
"This would mean that one will only commit for a fixed period and will actively have to renew your vows if you still want to continue.''
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Ms Pauli, 50, has been divorced twice.
"It means that, in future, people would in future enter marriages only on a time-limited basis, and would then actively say 'yes' to an extension," she added. She argued that, since a high proportion of marriages end in divorce and many people stay married only for fear of separation or for financial reasons, "perhaps one can live better outside marriage." Pauli conceded that "the fine points must still be cleared up" and said that "obviously, a lot stands against this."
The 'seven-year-hitch' plan drew sharp criticism from party colleagues in Pope Benedict XVI's home region. The proposal is part of her manifesto as she prepares to contest the leadership of Bavaria's governing party, the ultra-conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), next week.
Shortly after announciong her candidacy, Ms Pauli caused a stir by posing for magazine pictures as a dominatrix wearing long latex gloves.

Thursday, 20 September 2007

Make him Fall in Love with You. You can become 'The Woman he Adores'

He says
Hot women have big ones.
They don’t need to be cartoon-like – although that’s fine – but they do need to be large enough to defeat men’s better natures and lure their eyes down.
Big, full mouths are hot. Blokes love ‘em.
And when a woman has a sexy mouth it smooths over a host of hassles between the genders.
Like talking, for instance.
Women love to rabbit on, which bores blokes – not to tears, of course, but it does drive them to beers and sport and stuff.
Yet, if the woman has a rich, voluptuous talker, then a bloke can smile and nod for hours, mesmerised.
Particularly if she has attitude.
It doesn’t matter whether it’s good or bad, so long as the chick has some edge.
Blokes don’t care whether she’s tough as nails or a golden-hearted lass.
Actually, a bit of ‘tude is good, especially if she says something cutting then turns on her (high) heel and struts off.
That way we get a look at her most curvaceous asset and also get a break from her talking. Bringing up the rear
And about the rump: chicks should never forget it’s primarily other women who obsess about minor occurrences of cellulite and stretch marks and all that stuff.
Men just want to know it’s there.
And how does a bloke know something’s there unless he can at least make out the shape?
Hot chicks can be demure – think shy librarian in a grey skirt and white button-up blouse, neither too loose – but they certainly don’t dress to obscure.
Those weird clothing combinations, like pants or tights under a dress? That’s not hot. That’s confused.
Blokes don’t like a confusion of clothing – little bits and pieces here and there.
That smacks of dressing for other women.
Come to think of it, when a woman worries about other women’s nit-picking judgments more than she does about men’s healthy, life-affirming enthusiasms, her hot-meter is dropping fast. What men want
All this fussing over hair, nails, cosmetics and multi-layered clothing is certainly not for guys’ benefit.
Wake up and smell the roses; save yourself a fortune in treatments and hours in front of mirrors.
All it takes to ring the hot-bell is a dash of attitude, a splash of pride in your appearance (on bad-hair days, just tie the hair back for a stern-but-sexy look and add a little make-up), and the confidence to live outside the fickle, back-stabbing whims of womenfolk.
Oh, and a saucy mouth.
So you guys out there, describe your Ideal woman or a compromise should your choice be unavailable.

Make Him Fall In Love. You Can Become The Woman He Adores

Tuesday, 18 September 2007

Dannii Devoured Me............This post is for those who like Fun and not Fighting

A STRIPPER has spoken for the first time about the night she turned Kylie's little sister into Dannii MinOH-OH-OH-gue with some very dirty dancing.
We were first to reveal how millions were logging on to watch CCTV scenes of the girl-on-girl romp posted on the internet.


Click for sexy pics of stripper Janine
Now Janine Marshall has broken her silence about the encounter at the Puss In Boots nightspot in London and told us:
"Dannii devoured me during that dance like a ravenous tiger."
Janine, 24, revealed how 35-year-old Dannii:
BEGGED for the stripper's attention
GROPED her breasts and bum.
GAWPED as naked Janine put her privates on parade.
Dannii, now rating fresh singing talent with Simon Cowell on X Factor, gave Janine's performance a perfect 10.
When she arrived at the club in September 2005 with her boyfriend and another couple, the Aussie star immediately singled out the stripper.
Janine said: "She picked me for a private dance so I led them to a quiet corner in the VIP area and they settled into the sofas. Then I began my routine."
First the lapdancer concentrated on the guys in the party, but soon turned her attention to Dannii.
"She was calling out for me, so I sauntered over and squeezed my breasts as I danced seductively in front of her," said Janine.
"I've got a three-foot rule — I never go closer than that with clients. But with Dannii it was different. I pushed the boundaries more than I would with other clients because she's a woman and I felt safe."

Click for pics of Dannii

She then moved on to the star's female pal. "I gyrated between her legs and that sent Dannii even wilder — she kicked her leg out in sheer excitement."
When Janine started work on Dannii's boyfriend—who she's since split from—the singer was transfixed.
Fantastic
She said: "I kept my eyes locked on Dannii's the whole time I was dancing for him and she loved it. She was grinning like a Cheshire cat. I don't know if it turned her on seeing her man with another woman but she was totally cool with it."
Then Janine pushed her performance up a notch. "I teased down my skirt and was dancing in my panties and halter-neck bikini top, which I unknotted.
"My boobs fell out of my top and I peeled off my knickers before stepping out of them."
By then, all Janine was wearing was a pair of four-inch, glass-heeled stilettos.
She said: "Dannii admired me. She said, ‘Wow, look at that body.' I knew I looked fantastic. At one point she grabbed a curl of my hair and twiddled it around her finger. And she said, ‘You've got such sexy hair'.
"Then she whispered, ‘You're stunning, you're turning me on so much'."
Janine knew just how to turn up the heat even more. She grinned: "Table dancing is all about the tease, so one minute I was five feet from her and the next just one millimetre separated us. I leaned towards her with my face pressed against hers. Then I moved away. It was a case of, ‘Look at me, I'm beautiful, but you can't have me'."
But Dannii didn't have to wait long to get closer. Janine explained: "I moved nearer again, this time on my knees.
Gyrated
"Dannii adored my boobs and couldn't believe they were natural, so she reached out and her fingers played with them gently. I kneeled and my hands glided up the side of her waist.
"She kept leaning forward to nestle her face in my breasts. I turned around to face a mirrored wall and as I arched my back my bottom pushed out towards Dannii," she recalled.
"And it felt so sexy when she put her palms flat against my butt cheeks. I could see her through the mirror grinning at her boyfriend, like a cat that had got the cream."
Then, as if that wasn't enough, Janine gave an x-rated on-the-floor show.
She said: "I laid on my back and gyrated my body against the carpet. Then I kneeled on the floor and leaned back on my heels.
"My arms were above my head and I could see Dannii getting a good view of everything. I was totally naked.
"She was flicking her hair like an excitable teenager as she gawped at me."
So Janine gave Dannii, who was lying flat on the sofa by that point, a closer inspection. She said: "I lifted her leg up towards me and clasped my fingers around her ankle.
"Then I used my lips to trace a line from her ankle to the middle part of her calf.
Clients
"It tickled her into a frenzy because Dannii couldn't stop moving— she was too turned on to sit still."
When the dance was over, Janine claims the star's boyfriend at the time then invited her to go home with them.
"That's not the kind of girl that I am," she said.
"I never went home with clients—men or women—and I wasn't about to start then. But Dannii booked the dancer to sit with them for a further hour and during that time the conversation centred on one thing — stripping.
"Dannii said she loved watching me dance naked and admitted she'd had pole dancing lessons herself," said Janine.
"She said she enjoyed pole dancing and it made her feel sexy."
Janine, who has given up lapdancing and now runs a successful agency in west London, later gave her mobile number to the star after Dannii invited her to a fashion show that night.
But she never heard from her until February 2006, after the News of the World revealed the gob-smacking video footage. "She sent a message through a friend saying she hoped I was OK," said Janine, from south London. "It was nice of her to think of me."
Upset
But Janine admits she was shocked and upset when the CCTV stills from her dalliance with Dannii became public.
"It hurt me that I was exploited but I'm running my own dance academy and teaching regular women the art of seduction and pole dancing."
"I've moved on with my life."

Do you think War with Iran Inevitable? Not interested? go to the the latest post for a bit of hanky panky.

The world should “prepare for war” with Iran, according to the French foreign minister.
Bernard Kouchner said “we must negotiate right to the end” with Iran but if Teheran developed an atomic weapon it would pose “a real danger for the whole world”.
His comments come as the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council and Germany prepare to meet to discuss a new draft UN resolution on sanctions against Iran this week.
Teheran has ignored UN deadlines to stop enriching uranium, claiming its nuclear activity is for civilian purposes, but tough sanctions have thus far been resisted by Russia and China.
Do you have faith in the United Nations to find a peaceful resolution to nuclear proliferation?
Are there any other options apart from sanctions or war?
Or do you think that war with Iran is inevitable?
If Iran already had a nuke, Denmark would now be a chemical wasteland for printing cartoons
Why do we even allow Pakistan to have nuclear weapons? It's not stable or a real ally - only their leader sucks up to Bush, against the wishes of the majority there who back Al Qaeda in order to save his own skin and office.
This will end exactly the same as the North Korean "stand-off" ended - a big fat pay-off by the USA to end all (potential or otherwise) WMD programmes.
------WHY would IRAN start a war with US/ISRAEL with no chance of winning?----- You fail then to see the Islamic mind-set that makes them so dangerous! If you think you are doing 'God's' work and killing as many ifidels as possible and that death is simply a door to paradise and 72 virgins...you won't care if you lose! Which is why Iran and the Islamists in general are so dangerous. There is nothing to negotiate with them and they don't care one bit if they and everyone else dies. They make the Soviets look like the girls scouts!
As a citizen of the UK and Australia I am thoroughly ashamed at the Britian govt's slavish and sycophantic following of the US. We are basically a US colony. And the people of the UK are a bunch of sheep for putting up with this.

Saturday, 15 September 2007

What's New ' PUSSY CAT' ? Cooking feral pussies (That means Cats) Not going downstairs for dinner..

An Australian has come up with a novel solution to the millions of feral cats roaming the Outback: eat them.

A feral cat will eat almost anything that moves, including lizards, small mammals and spiders

Wild cats - the escaped descendants of domestic cats - kill millions of small native animals each year. Now the tables have turned and they find themselves on the menu.

A bush tucker competition held at the weekend in Alice Springs, in the Red Centre of the continent, featured something new: wild cat casserole.

"It's a white meat," said Kay Kessing, who came up with the recipe. "They vary a lot. The first cat I cooked didn't have a strong flavour. I put a lot of ingredients with it and made a beautiful stew.

"This cat that I've cooked is slightly larger. It has a slightly stronger flavour, but not as strong as rabbit."

advertisement
A children's book author and illustrator, Mrs Kessing campaigns to save wild-life from the depredations of cats and other introduced animals, including camels, donkeys and wild horses.

Feral cats, which arrived with the British in 1788, now occupy most of the continent. Studies of their stomach contents show they eat almost anything that moves, including lizards, small mammals and spiders, as well as 180 species of Australian native birds.

Mrs Kessing said she would never dream of cooking a domestic cat. "It should always be wild," she told ABC radio. "And we should be eating donkeys and horse meat, like the French do."

But health authorities in the Northern Territory warned that eating cats could be risky. "It is not illegal to eat feral cat for your own consumption, or your family's," said the director of the health department.

Vest Say's, feral cats should be culled but not necessarily eaten, although we could export them to China where they are a delicacy, like deep fried rat and Bow Wow Chow.

"But there is no guarantee that any feral animal that hasn't been subject to post-mortem examination is safe."

While kangaroo and camel appear on Outback restaurant menus, feral cat has yet to capture the nation's taste.

To get the pot boiling we need a few bizarre recipes, allow your imagination to run wild, so get moving on those 69 different ways on how to make a pussy edible.

We could start off with pureed pussy paws in cream, followed with a ginger spiced tom puddy or a black Catsserole with boiled neutered nuts.

Get licking those lips, Vest.

Friday, 14 September 2007

The Peanut Solution. But Vest say's, "The peanut Scheme of the Fifties was a Failure."

A kind blogger has sent me information on how to upgrade the nutrition of the starving African people.
Chicago: The simple way to feed thousands starving in Africa? Peanut Butter.
In a US study, nearly 3000 malnourished chidren were treated with an enriched peanut butter mixture. Of those, 89 per cent of the severely malnourished children and 85 per cent of the moderately malnourished children recovered.
The recovery rate for given standard therapies is less than 50 per cent.
"The peanut butter feeding has been a Quantum leap in feeding malnourished children in Africa" Dr Mark Manary said.

Vest say's without researching, I recall the British Govt's Failure of the East African groundnut scheme in the fifties, when equal to a $125,000000 was poured into an ill fated scheme to provide food and vegetable oil for Africans and British people. Of course that figure in todays terms would be more like $12,500,000,000.
The tumultous task was abandoned by the Brit Govt and the United Africa Co. Land and root clearing in virgin bush land, Killer Bees and the Tsetse Fly put the boot in too.
If you require more info, Google: The groundnut scheme.

Monday, 10 September 2007

Water taster CHOOK Drops Dead. Dodgy drop blamed for Chinese Chicken Cashing in its Chips

Water taster chicken drops dead.
THINK a bottle of mineral water might have poisoned you? Then test it on a chicken.

One Chinese family on the southern island province of Hainan had just that idea when one of their number started vomiting blood after drinking a bottle of water, a newspaper said.

They fed the luckless chicken the rest of the water to see what would happen, the Beijing News said, citing a report in a local paper.

"The result was the chicken died within a minute," it said, showing a picture of a man holding a plastic bottle squatting over the crumpled body of the bird.

The province's authorities were investigating, it added.

Barely a day goes by without some new scandal over a made-in-China product, be it toys, toothpaste or fish, which has raised safety concerns in major export markets around the world.

Watch your tipple, We could have a spate of poisonings around the world blamed on Chinese products, frightening Ennit.

Saturday, 8 September 2007

Get down with the Bullshit with Bush. Incompetence with relish.

His divine glorious my shite doesn't stink the incomparable El supremo George Wanker Bush leader of the gun loving red necks of the good ole U S of A, stumbles over the pronunciation of Jemaah Islamiah the regional terror organization; during a speech at the Sydney Opera House. Friday 7th Sept.
After months of build up for (APEC), The Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit, Dimwit George pain in the ass Bush thanks his buddy in inefficiency our looney Prime Miniature(God 2nd class)John Winnie Howard for being such a kind host for the O P E C, Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries Summit.
This was another cock up by this infamous Boofhead when he botched the host country name when he referred to Wee Chicken Hawk Johnie Howard's junket to Iraq 2006 thanking him for his AUSTRIAN troops stationed in Iraq.

"YANKEE GO HOME"

Vest Daily Gaggle

'Conundrums'. Do you have one to add to this list? I'll bet you do.

CONUNDRUMS



1. If you take an Oriental person and spin him around several times, does he become disoriented?



2. If people from Poland are called Poles, why aren't people from Holland called Holes?



3. Do infants enjoy infancy as much as adults enjoy adultery?



4. If a pig loses its voice, is it disgruntled?



5. If love is blind, why is lingerie so popular?



6. Why is the man who invests all your money called a broker?



7. When cheese gets its picture taken, what does it say?



8. Why is a person who plays the piano called a pianist but a person who drives a race car not called a racist?



9. Why are a wise man and a wise guy opposites?



10. Why do overlook and oversee mean opposite things?



11. Why isn't the number 11 pronounced onety one?



12. "I am" is reportedly the shortest sentence in the English language. Could it be that "I do" is the longest sentence?



13. If lawyers are disbarred and clergymen defrocked, doesn't it follow that electricians can be delighted, musicians denoted, cowboys Deranged, models deposed, tree surgeons debarked, and dry cleaners Depressed?



14. What hair colour do they put on the driver's licenses of bald men?



15. I thought about how mothers feed their babies with tiny little spoons and forks so I wondered what do Chinese mothers use? Toothpicks?



16. Why do they put pictures of criminals up in the Post Office? What are we supposed to do, write to them? Why don't they just put their pictures on the postage stamps so posties can look for them while they deliver the mail?



17. You never really learn to swear until you learn to drive.



18. No one ever says, "It's only a game" when their team is winning.



19. Last night I played a blank CD at full blast. The mime next door went nuts.



20. Ever wonder about those people who spend $3 on those little bottles of Evian water? Try spelling Evian backwards: NAÏVE



21. Isn't making a smoking section in a restaurant like making a Peeing section in a swimming pool?



22. If 4 out of 5 people SUFFER from diarrhoea does that mean that one out of five enjoys it?

Thursday, 6 September 2007

Greedy Federal Government deny funds to Dying Women. Will the Rudd Labour Govt take up the slack and fund 'Tykerb'

AUSTRALIAN women with advanced breast cancer are being warned they could die earlier than necessary because an expensive drug was rejected for listing on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS).

Doctors and patients are dismayed by the Federal Government's decision not to subsidise Tykerb because of "unacceptable cost-effectiveness"

The only hope of it being listed on the(PBS) now rests on the Federal Labour Govt being elected around Oct 07, this other PBS( Pork barrelling scheme)by the Fed Labour party, promising funding for 'Tykerb' would be a vote collector for a Kevin Rudd Labour Government.

Tykerb has been shown to extend life expectancy in women with aggressive HER2-positive breast cancer who have run out of treatment options, including the drug Herceptin.

But at $3800 a month, on top of other medical costs, many women will be unable to afford it.

University of Sydney oncologist Associate Professor Fran Boyle said she felt frustrated by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee's ruling not to approve Tykerb.

"I'm disappointed because it offers a significant step forward for people with HER2-positive breast cancer,'' Professor Boyle said.

"The difficulty is that breast cancer has had a significant impact on most of these women's earning capacity, so they don't necessarily have the cash to pay out of their own pockets.

"It's not going to be a happy Christmas.''

The decision came as NSW scientists, in a damning report published in the Journal of Clinical Oncology, estimated that $21 million had been wasted in inefficient dispensing of Herceptin over the past five years.

Herceptin was not approved for PBS listing - as it would not have been deemed cost-effective, either - but the Federal Government took the unprecedented step of setting up a separate taxpayer-funded program to cover the cost.

"Herceptin really should have been approved under the standard (PBS) scheme, even back then,'' Professor Boyle said.

The number of women who would qualify for Tykerb as a last-chance treatment was a relatively small proportion of breast-cancer sufferers, so the cost to the Government would not be prohibitive, she said.

Sydneysider Sally Giles, 43, who has advanced HER2-positive breast cancer and is taking Tykerb as part of a trial, said it would be "really sad'' if other women were denied the drug - and the chance to live longer - because of financial constraints.

"It's very scary when you get to the stage where you think, 'What is the next step?' because all the other medicines don't work,'' Ms Giles said.

"Tykerb would cost more than $40,000 a year, and how can you do that if you're not working and you have all the other medical costs?''

So will the ball be given to Kevin Rudd: Prime Minister designate?. Come on you Kev suppporters. You must twist his arm and give these women a bit of dignity during their final days. Get the message to your local Lab MP.

Manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will continue a free Tykerb treatment program for eligible women until November 30.

All women enrolled in the trial will continue to receive free treatment after the deadline, but new patients will be forced to pay the full cost.

Clinical trials of Tykerb, which goes under the chemical name lapatinib ditosylate, found it almost doubled the survival time for sufferers of advanced HER2-positive breast cancer victims.

GSK is expected to re-apply for PBS listing for the drug.

Wednesday, 5 September 2007

Benedict; Ex German Hitler Youth Now the Holy Vatican Beancounter

Responding to Pope Benedict's plan to achieve "social justice" through higher taxes and more government intervention, the Holy Father is reminded of the difference between voluntary charity and coercive income redistribution, moral argument against the notion that compassion can be measured by spending someone else's money:

There's a more fundamental question that I'd put to the pope: Should the Roman Catholic Church support the welfare state? Or, put more plainly, should the church support the use of the coercive powers of government to enable one person to live at the expense of another? Put even more plainly, should the church support the government's taking the property of one person and giving it to another to whom it doesn't belong? When such an act is done privately, we call it theft…The pope might say that the welfare state reflects the will of the people. Would that mean the church interprets God's commandment to Moses "Thou shalt not steal" as not an absolute, but as "Thou shalt not steal unless you got a majority vote in parliament or congress"?...I share Pope Benedict's desire to assist our fellow man in need. But I believe that reaching into one's own pocket to do so is praiseworthy and laudable. Reaching into another's pocket to assist one's fellow man in need is despicable and worthy of condemnation.

Saturday, 1 September 2007

"Hi there Muzzies!! - Get Some 'PORK on Yer FORK. Halal Bacon-A Big Porkie.

A CATERING company has apologised to Muslim university students after trying to sell them "Halal bacon and egg rolls". Vest Say's "Are these students that thick in the head that they actually believe that Bacon could be sourced from meat other than a PIG"

University of Western Sydney students had been suspicious for months about the authenticity of food labelled 'HALAL' at campus canteens.

Their concerns were unexpectedly proved correct when in-house catering company UWSConnect offered "halal bacon and egg rolls'' at the Bankstown campus.

Muslims are forbidden to eat any pig products. But some would if they could.

"It's just the most awful mistake"

"We are deeply embarrassed and ashamed, and we've apologised profusely for causing offence, both verbally and in writing".

"I mean, of all products, it had to be the bacon and egg roll".

"At the end of the day, it's our fault and it's an appalling mistake both verbally and in writing. It's unforgivable.''

Mr Geange at UWSConnect attributed the gaffe to to a "human labelling error'' at UWSConnect's Bankstown premises.

He insisted all products marked halal came from suppliers who claimed to be halal-friendly. "what a laugh"

But according to the university's Muslim Students Association (MSA), students had long suspected the products were being falsely labelled halal.(But they loved the taste and enjoyed it immensely, until some nutter dobbed them in)

"UWSConnect seems to believe it can label food halal, without first obtaining halal certification from an accredited Muslim halal certifier,'' it said in an online statement.

"UWS MSA presidents have patiently insisted that Muslims can accept halal labelling only after accreditation from a recognised Muslim halal certifier. The recent halal egg and bacon rolls fiasco is proof of this.''

On August 9, the company held talks with UWS executives and the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC).

AFIC supplied UWSConnect with an "application form for halal accreditation''.


AFIC halal services general manager Mohammed Rahman said the false labelling of food was "much more than you think".
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A couple of excerpts from Vests Memoirs follow.

I had returned on board from a trip ashore while the HMS Ceylon was in ADEN
Back on board, members of the crew were entertaining a large number of little Arab boys and girls and enjoying the food that had been provided. While in charge of the hold party ‘food’ stores that morning, I had brought up several seven-pound cans of P L M. I asked the Duty Officer in charge, “What is in these sandwiches?”
“Pork luncheon meat,” he replied. I threw the sweets on the table to the kids and hastily had the sandwiches collected and put over the side. The Duty Officer said, “Hold on! What are you doing?”
I replied, “Think pork, Muslim, Arab.”
Later, he said, “That was close.”
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One evening, Mary and I were at the Singapore Badminton hall attending a function when our friend, Tom (Abdul Karim Bin Anang) asked, “What’s in these curry puffs?” Mary’s reply was “Pork, I think.” I spoke to those in earshot and explained that Mary had intended it to be a joke. Fortunately for Mary, they had a laugh about it. When we returned home, Mary showed me a small mark on her ankle and said, “Kick me like that again, John Spencer, and you’ll sleep alone for a week.”
We wrote often to Abdul Karim Bin Anang (Tom) from the survey department. His letters in reply written in astonishingly beautiful copperplate style were a joy to read, reading them now shortens the distance in time to when Mary and I knew him and his lovely family. (I visited him in 1960 while I was serving on HMS Marlbone. When we visited him in 1986, however, he was very old and sick and barely remembered us. Tom’s family expected him to live no more than a few days. Tom is now with Allah at that great Mosque in the sky.)

Vest, Daily Gaggle.

Vest Has Left the Building

To advise that Vest (Les Bowyer) passed away this morning. Regards, Chris (Son).