Leaked emails cast doubt on dam operation

A series of leaked emails suggests the floods that devastated parts of Brisbane would have been less severe if operators had not allowed water to build to high levels in the Wivenhoe Dam before severe rain drenched the region.

Emails from a Wivenhoe Dam engineering officer, leaked to The Australian newspaper, show that the dam went from 106 percent full on Friday January 7 to 148 percent full on Monday January 10.

This left the dam with little spare capacity to cope with an influx of water from severe rains, forcing a massive release of water on Tuesday, as the dam reached 190 percent capacity and came within 0.1m of triggering an uncontrolled released.

On Saturday January 8 the dam was releasing 1250 cubic metres per second (cumecs). The emails showed operators were worried about flooding in the Bremer River and destruction of bridges.

By 8.30pm on Tuesday January 11 the dam's operators had dramatically upped the rate of release to 8000 cumecs, in order to avoid an uncontrolled and potentially devastating release of water.

Floodwaters in the Brisbane River peaked on Thursday morning, about 36 hours after the massive release of water. It takes around 36 hours for waters from the Wivenhoe Dam to reach the city, according to The Australian.

A commission of inquiry will take place to examine SEQWater and investigate whether it made a mistake by letting the dam's flood compartment become too full to cope with a major influx of water.

The Queensland government released the flood manual for the Wivenhoe and Somerset dams after concerns about the management of the dams were first raised earlier this week.

Several engineers speculated whether the Brisbane flood could have been avoided with better dam management.

SEQ Water Grid CEO Barry Dennien has said the dam was run according to the book and has declined to answer questions ahead of a commission of inquiry into the flood crisis.

Meanwhile, a higher than usual king tide will hit Brisbane by mid-morning, possibly flooding the bayside, riverside and nearby low-lying areas.

The Brisbane River is predicted to reach the minor flood level of 1.7 metres around 10.30am (AEST) on the city gauge, the Bureau of Meteorology told AAP.

The tide will remain high on Saturday and Sunday.

Lord Mayor Campbell Newman has urged residents to be prepared.

"As a result there could be some localised flooding as the Brisbane River continues to recede after last week's flood," Mr Newman said in a statement.

"If you live in a foreshore or low-lying area, by the river, or near a creek, please be prepared."

Council has warned those living in the CBD, Albion, Deagon, Hemmant, Lota, Newstead, Sandgate, Windsor, Bowen Hills, Wynnum and East Brisbane to be on guard.

Sandbags are available for pick up at council depots.

21 Jan 2011

This is NO SUPRISE, as corpau had obtained inside information from Brisbane prior to the mass media, and reported this on the 16th of January in the post:

http://corpau.blogspot.com/2011/01/queensland-floods-authorities-fault.html

This is NOT a matter of the Blame Game, BUT rather the realistic nature of government inaction, which ultimately costs lives, and costs the community in terms of economics.

The the government planners are saying that as a result of this we need a 'mini - recession'.

Another planned action by the government to ruin lives.

Rio Tinto servers underwater

Queensland is NOT new to flooding, torrential rain, humidity, oversized insects, and all the other trappings of a tropical climate.

Rio Tinto is one of Australia's largest company's that deals with mineral exports.

Currently Rio's office in Brisbane is at 443 Queen St, Brisbane, directly next to the Brisbane River.

The Rocket Scientists at Rio Tinto placed the company's ENTIRE data centre in the basement of the building, near the banks of the river.

As a result of the storms, the Brisbane river level rose to an extent that it flooded the majority of streets in the vicinity, including Rio's data centre.

The design team, should be flogged for such incompetent planning, together with the people who approved this.

As tragic as a 'natural event' can be, it is not something that could not be foreseen.

They are the laughing stock amongst their peers , and the design team are seen as morons.

So now who pays for their negligence?

Ceramic Fuel Cells (Cheap Energy) Not for Oz

In this New Age, the masses are taught to be environmentally conscious.

At every point in their lives it is programmed into them that it is THEIR responsibility that the environment must be cared for and is degrading as as result of their wasteful ways.

None of this could be further from the truth, as big industry is one of the largest polluters of the planet.

Processing plants in Papua New Guinea use slave labour, and put the toxins straight into the natives river systems.

Processing plants in India have poisoned the local populations, and there have been NO fines or jail terms for the people responsible.

Rubbish:
Local City Councils in Australia, are in the process of limiting rubbish tips, and are putting the onus on the owner to recycle their own rubbish under the 'green' label.

Water:
Infrastructure has already been put in place for owners to supply their own household water, in the forms of water tanks. Once connected to the house, the water rate supplied by government is increased, so that means the households are getting ripped off as a reward for supplying their own water.

Electricity:
Households are being encouraged to purchase expensive solar electricity systems, that realistically do not supply enough power for the household, yet the public are still being conned into the expensive purchases.

The solar companies are not being totally up front with their pricing or household usage or even the amount of electricity able to be generated from the solar cells.

As of this posting, ReneSola says its multicrystalline cells have an efficiency of 17.5%

Enter a new product, but NOT for Australia.
An Australian company has designed a product that uses mains powered gas to produce CHEAP ELECTRICITY.

This is done by the use of ceramic fuel cells. The device that is connected to the gas pipes has an efficiency of approx 80%, or a minimum of 4x the the current greatest claimed solar cell efficiency rating.
(illustrated: gennex fuel cell module)

The company pioneering this technology is
Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited
http://www.cfcl.com.au/

The Australian government is NOT interested in providing this CHEAP source of electricity, as it is happily providing at an over inflated rate to the populous.

Great interest has been shown by the German government, where they are really serious about being 'eco friendly'.

The Australian government's policy of being environmentally friendly MUST be expensive to the consumer.

Death-wish ride captured on camera

TWO hoons who almost killed several drivers during a wild ride to Geraldton have been caught on camera leaning out of the car windows, passing drink bottles and swerving across the road at more than 100km an hour.

In pictures that will sicken drivers, parents and police, the men are seen hanging out of the driver's and passenger's windows of a white Holden Commodore on a bend in the middle of the road while travelling at up to 120km an hour.

The driver is thought to have had the vehicle on cruise control as he leaned out of the window. His passenger was seen leaning down towards the road, trying to touch the ground with his knuckles, as the car swerved across the road.

The photographs were taken by a terrified witness who was a rear passenger in a car travelling behind the men for about 20km on their death-wish drive about 1pm on Sunday on the Indian Ocean Drive near Lancelin.

The witness told PerthNow she was sick to the stomach as the driver continually put lives at risk, sparking several near misses, one involving a truck.

"There was almost a head-on collision between a car and a truck because the car was trying to overtake the Commodore to get away from it,'' she said. "We were stuck behind the car for about 20km and it was just horrendous because he was going all over the road while hanging out of the car.

"The passenger was actually leaning down towards the road and we were cringing thinking 'If he slips the mess that will come of it'. The lives lost would have been horrendous.

"Other cars were just trying to stay back from them but a few people overtook them to get away. I don't have a photo of it but when one car overtook them they gave them the finger."The passenger was drinking out of a bottle and when the driver was sitting on the window sill the passenger passed the drink over to the driver. It was hideous. Several times they nearly caused an accident.

"They came close to crashing into oncoming cars. We were shaking all the way home.''

The witness rang 000 and has reported the matter to CrimeStoppers. Police are investigating.

Senior Sergeant Ian Clarke, officer in charge of the Traffic Enforcement Group, told PerthNow: "We regard this an act of complete stupidity, with them having no regard for their own safety and the safety of others on the road.''

The driver, a PerthNow reader named Suzanne, sent the first of 12 pictures to PerthNow (see above) and our website will publish more pictures of the horror journey this week once the police investigation progresses.

Senior Sgt Clarke said: "We ask that anyone who may have witnessed the offence to contact Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000 so that police can conduct further inquiries and to remove these people from our roads."

perthnow.com.au 15 Dec 2010

It would be no great loss to society if this gutter trash lost its own lives.

This would guarantee the human race would be free of this disease procreating and passing on its faulty genes to unsuspecting victims.

Two Are Charged With Fraud in iPad Security Breach

NEWARK — Federal prosecutors arrested two men on Tuesday on charges of fraud and conspiracy in obtaining and distributing the e-mail addresses of 114,000 iPad 3G owners.

The men, Daniel Spitler, 26, and Andrew Auernheimer, 25, who are part of a group known as Goatse Security, gained national attention last June when they discovered a security loophole on AT&T’s Web site that allowed them to gain access to the addresses and corresponding iPad identification numbers.

Those affected by the breach included military personnel, members of the Senate and the House of Representatives, and employees of NASA and the Department of Homeland Security.

Mr. Auernheimer, of Fayetteville, Ark., was taken into custody by the F.B.I. there on Tuesday and was charged in federal court there. Mr. Spitler, of San Francisco, surrendered to the authorities in Newark.

Each man is charged with one count of conspiracy to access a computer without authorization and one count of fraud, according to the United States district attorney’s office in Newark. Each count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $250,000 fine.

In July, an informer gave federal agents more than 150 pages of chat logs with exchanges between Mr. Spitler and Mr. Auernheimer. Transcripts of the logs provided by the district attorney’s office outline how the two men were able to gather the information from AT&T’s site, and show the two men speculating about potential ways to use it.

“This could be like, a future massive phishing operation,” Mr. Auernheimer wrote, referring to the practice of using fraudulent messages to trick people into disclosing confidential information. “Serious like [sic] this is valuable data.” There was no indication that the men tried to sell the information.

In another exchange with an unidentified person, Mr. Spitler said he did not think he was doing anything illegal. When asked why, he replied, “cause I didn’t hack anything.”

At a hearing Tuesday in United States District Court in Newark, prosecutors tried to paint Mr. Spitler as a rogue hacker, citing the chat logs. But Mr. Spitler’s court-appointed lawyer, Susan Cassell, argued that Mr. Auernheimer had made the damaging remarks in the logs.

Mr. Spitler was released on $50,000 bail, and Judge Claire C. Cecchi restricted his travel and use of the Internet. A bond hearing for Mr. Auernheimer is scheduled for Friday, The Associated Press reported. His lawyer could not be reached for comment.

At a news conference in Newark, Paul J. Fishman, the United States attorney for New Jersey, likened Mr. Auernheimer and Mr. Spitler to “a group of people who took a car for a joy ride.”

“The reason they bragged about it is because in the community that they travel in, it’s important for them that the people in their community know about the hack,” Mr. Fishman said.

Mr. Auernheimer, who goes by the online alias Weev, and Mr. Spitler, who uses the handle JacksonBrown, are both associated with a loose group of hackers and programmers called Goatse Security that tinkers with online services, prosecutors said.

Although the complaint filed by the Justice Department says that the Goatse Security group may involve as many as 10 people, the district attorney said there was no plan to charge anyone else in the case.

The Goatse Security group originally maintained, in an open letter to AT&T in June, that it exposed the security vulnerability on the company’s site to alert it to the problem. The flaw allowed anyone to discover e-mail addresses by submitting potential iPad identification numbers to the site.

The group’s post said that “all data was gathered from a public Web server with no password, accessible by anyone on the Internet.” The hacked servers were based in New Jersey and 16,000 of the e-mail addresses were for New Jersey residents.

No actual e-mail messages were available through the security hole. But AT&T has described the group’s collection of data as “malicious” and has said that it could have exposed customers to spam or fraud.

Mark Siegel, an AT&T spokesman, said Tuesday in a statement that the company took the privacy of its customers “very seriously.”

“We cooperate with law enforcement whenever necessary to protect it,” he continued.

Mr. Siegel directed further inquiries to Mr. Fishman’s office. Trudy Muller, a spokeswoman at Apple, declined to comment on the matter.

Richard Wang, manager of the security firm SophosLabs in the United States, said there was “criticism to be leveled at both sides” in the case.

“AT&T’s site wasn’t sufficiently secure,” Mr. Wang said. The company may have felt pressure to take strong action, he said, considering the data leak involved a prominent business partner.

But in general, Mr. Wang said, the security risk was low. He said the Goatse Security group could have handled matters in a way that would have let it avoid prosecution.

nytimes.com 19 Jan 2011

The boys informed the company of a security flaw in the company's website, BUT the company did NOTHING about it.

As mentioned in the article, the information was easily accessible, without 'hacking', and now the boys have been incarcerated.

The wonderful 'non biased' legal system.

There is NO hope ANY individual stands against any corporation.

Facebook hit by new privacy breach storm

SOCIAL networking site in hot water after application developers given users' numbers and addresses.

The world's dominant social network is back at the centre of a privacy storm by allowing application developers to access users' home addresses and mobile phone numbers as a matter of course.

The weekend move led online security experts to warn Facebook's half a billion users to remove phone numbers and addresses from the network.

When people use one of Facebook's third-party applications, such as a popular games Farmville and Mafia Wars, the pop-up window asks for access to "contact information" including address and mobile phone number.

Users can simply select the "Don't allow" button, denying app developers the ability to access personal data.

However, people often do not read what they are agreeing to.

Computer Weekly's security blogger of the year Graham Cluley wrote in a post yesterday: "Remove your home address and mobile phone number from your Facebook profile now."

The security expert also wrote that Facebook was "already plagued by rogue applications" and that "shady app developers will find it easier than ever before to gather even more personal information from users".

"Bad guys could set up a rogue app that collects phone numbers and then uses that information for the purposes of SMS spamming or sells on the data to cold-calling companies," he wrote

Electronic Frontiers Australia chairman Colin Jacobs was scathing of the way Facebook valued personal data.

"Facebook have a history of gambling with their users' privacy, and they have once again upped the ante," he said.

"It only takes a second to imagine a scenario where access to somebody's home address or mobile number could lead to a serious abuse.

"Such sensitive information should be the most stringently safeguarded but I question whether this is the case.

"This just opens up another channel through which some of your most private information could leak."

Facebook user Rachelle Mack said this latest move to erode privacy on the social network was worrying.

"I already set everything to private - even tagged photos of myself. I don't like the idea my mobile number might be passed on to people I don't know," Ms Mack said yesterday.

Facebook's developer guidelines state that application makers can only ask for information they actually need in an effort to ensure unscrupulous people don't simply mine as much personal data as they can to sell to advertisers or, worse, use in identify fraud.

However, in October last year the Wall Street Journal exposed a number of Facebook app developers who were blatantly breaking the guidelines and feeding data to advertisers.

ninemsn 19 Jan 2010

In the New Age companies can breach privacy acts of individuals, share their information with other firms for 'marketing' research, and there are NO CONSEQUENCES to the company or the CEO.

There is NO jail time, and there are NO courts for customers breach of privacy.

On the other hand if a company has slack security, and individuals point this out, then some time after, access the information that can be easily obtained, they are called hackers, and incarcerated under United States law.

This is the age of the New World Order where the individual has NO RIGHTS in cyberspace.

Albury Floods - Authorities fault too slow reaction

Floods are really nothing new to government's / authorities.

Town planning engineers are fully aware of the 10 /30 / 100 /200 year floods, and depending on government budgets, appropriate planning is implemented.

In the mid 1990's the Victorian New South Wales border towns of Albury / Wodonga have been flooded by torrential rain.

Ahead of the storms in Albury the flood gates of the dam were NOT released, much to the dismay of the residents.

As a result during the rains, the water level of the Murray river rose 10 meters flooding the surrounding areas, including caravan parks.

This is a well known event to the locals, who clearly blame the government for its inaction.

This is NOT reported by the mass media.

As outlined in the mass media of today's story writers, the government 'insists' that procedure was followed regarding of opening the flood gates, to many of the dam flood effected areas.

The reality of the situation is that is was not as the government says, as this could also imply liability.

Suncorp - IT Monkeys paid peanuts

Suncorp is apparently one of Queensland's great success stories.

It all began in 1916, when the Queensland government formed the State Accident Insurance Office, which soon later became the State Government Insurance Office (SGIO), which expanded to other life insurance products and superannuation products, later encompassing finance and banking operations.

Today within the industry they are well know for their poor Information Technology skill set which is a direct result of globalisation (outsourcing).

Another common temptation within the I,T. industry is to outsource labour from India, where there is quite evidently a lack of skills associated with any of the projects required.

This is a common gripe, as much of the work carried out is not only sub standard, BUT also has to rectified.

This is at additional cost to the project, and as a result an 'over budget' catch phrase is used, where it is totally the fault of the host company.

The project blow outs are then passed on to the consumer in the form of higher fees, and greater insurance premiums.

In the end the customer is paying for the company's incompetence AND project failures.

Lady GaGa Makes $62m Record Industry How Much

Recently in the mass media, the 'masses' have been made aware the 'their' favourite performer Lady GaGa (born Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta), has taken $62,000,000 from the pockets of the cattle.

What the mass media cleverly omitted was how much the record industry made on Lady GaGa.

The figures are NEVER officially released, but industry sources confirm that the amount is roughly 10 times of what the 'artist' makes.

The mass media are NOT allowed to report on the secret financial earnings of the secret bankers of the world's banks.

For example, the financial earnings of the Rothschilds (Red shields) are not reported in the forbes listings.

Lady GaGa was a high class hooker that rose to fame, being a puppet of the music industry's moguls.

Lady GaGa's songs depict Anti - Christian slogans, blasphemy and demonic poses, that depict sacrifices.

If this was depicted at the same level at other religions, there would be a world wide out cry.

This is the beginning of the New Age of the disassembly of the Christian faith.

Williams' killer to plead self defence

The man accused of murdering gangland killer Carl Williams is due to stand trial in September.

Williams was bashed to death inside Barwon Prison last year.

His one-time friend Matthew Charles Johnson, 37, is accused of hitting him eight times with the stem of an exercise bike seat inside the prison on April 19, 2010, inflicting fatal head injuries.

At the time, the two men were inmates in the jail's high security Acacia unit.

On Wednesday, Justice Lex Lasry ordered Johnson to stand trial at the Victorian Supreme Court in Melbourne on September 5.

The hearing is expected to last four weeks.

Defence lawyer Bill Stuart said he would argue Johnson killed Williams in self defence.

"There will be no issue that Mr Johnson killed Carl Williams nor the acts that were done with intent to kill," he told the court on Wednesday.

"The issue will revolve around issues concerning statutory self defence as to my client's belief that he and others were at risk of death or really serious injury ... whether his actions were in his own mind necessary.

18 Jan 2011

Another circus at the expense of the Australian Tax payers.

A 'hit' was ordered on Williams, no one saw anything (prison guards), and now the masses are fed verbal diarrhea that it was self defense.

The Anglo - Masonic legal system is already aware of the verdict prior to any official result, but the circus has to continue for the masses.

Road Deaths Important - Cancer deaths NOT

The Australian Government puts an enormous emphasis on the amount of road deaths on Australian roads which is termed the Road Toll, in that it has embarked on a media campaign that SPEED KILLS.

From an official government source :


During the 12 months ended January 2010, there were a total of 1,513 deaths.
- this is a 4.6 per cent increase over the 12 month period ended January 2009.

ref: http://www.bitre.gov.au/publications/51/Files/rda_jan2010.pdf


Again this figure, although correct is doctored for a specific government agenda.

Whilst it may be correct that there has been an increase of fatalities, of 4.6%, since there is an increase in population and an average growth rate in the car market of 12%, the ACTUAL road toll has DECREASED.

In Australia, there has been an approximate 4,600 deaths due to bowl cancer, or an approximate 3 times the amount of deaths than on Australian Roads.

On Australian TV the government is advertising frequently that SPEED KILLS, and although as tragic as any death may be this is a small percentage of deaths of the Australian people.

The difference is that the government makes:
HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of dollars from speeding fines revenue,
whereas the government would have to SPEND money on bowl cancer research / prevention.

NOT A GOOD accounting practice to focus on (for example) bowl cancer.

Australian Road Toll - Manipulated Statistics

One of the greatest money spinners for the government is what is termed in Australia and New Zealand is the "Road Toll" or death on the roads, campaign.

The government is on a never ending crusade to inform the public that SPEED KILLS.

Technically speed (or rather velocity) NEVER killed anyone, but rather the sudden stop.

So the government is already misinforming the masses.

Catching speeding motorists is one of the easiest tasks and highest money earners for the government, and the government WANTS the revenue associated from speeding fines.

Catching motorists driving 102km/h in a 100km/h zone on a freeway where there is NOBODY is a serious OFFENSE.

The stats never lie.

Well that is NOT entirely true.

The statistics can be manipulated to suit a particular agenda.


A sample from the government website :

http://www.tacsafety.com.au/jsp/statistics/roadtollannual.do?areaID=12&tierID=1&navID=17

2009 toll	290
2010 toll	291 (up 0.3%)

Every year there is an increase in population and registered vehicles on the road.

Complementing the above example, there were 4,010,276 registered vehicles in Victoria in 2009.

ref : http://www.abs.gov.au/ausstats/abs@.nsf/mf/9309.0/

From that there is an approximate 12% increase of registrations per year.

So the road toll figure should also rise an approx 12% all things being even.

Since in the above example there has been one death although an increase of 0.3%, this is actually a decrease for the amount of road users.

The government also uses the common statistic per 100,000 population, which may not realistically be correct.

The population's circumstances may change (economics can be country specific), and this is another figure that can be doctored to the government's agenda.

Queensland Floods - Authorities Fault

One of the greatest and saddest loses of life is due to what we know to be the forces of nature.

Examples of such tragedies are amongst others Volcanic eruptions, Earth Quakes, Tsunamis and Flooding.

In Queensland Australia, a 'natural' disaster occurred called flooding, in areas where there is significant population.

Specific attention in this post will be focusing on the Brisbane area.

One of the areas water catchment dams is currently at 190% capacity. If Wivenhoe dam reaches 220%, then there will be a catastrophe, where the dam will be compromised.

The mass media are focusing on the tragedy of the situation, RATHER than how it got to that level.

corpau has interviewed State Emergency Service (SES) Workers, outside of Brisbane, and they tell of a DIFFERENT story, to that of the mass media.

Torrential rain is commonly known as a natural occurrence, even though chemicals can be sprayed above the clouds that instigate rain, this is not the focus of this post.

The occurrence of the rain WAS known to authorities, and measures were NOT taken accordingly prior to the event of the deluge of rain.

Prior to the rains, which was on the forecast radar, the flood gate should have been opened in Wivenhoe.

What the general populous do NOT know about is that there is also another rear wall which can be opened.

THIS WAS NOT DONE prior to the downpour.

The loss of human life attributed directly to the Wivenhoe dam water flow rests in the government's hands.

Some senators, Bob Brown, have blamed the mining (coal) industry for the 'flood's' but this is NOT a sentiment shared within the entire scientific community.