BCF Butane cartridge rip off

Another product in the spotlight, where consumers are being ripped off, this time by BCF (Boating Camping Fishing).

A 4 pack of butane gas cartridges from BCF currently lists at a RRP of $9.95.

Ref: http://www.bcf.com.au/online-store/products/Gasmate-Butane-Gas-4Pk-220g.aspx?pid=124239#Cross

A 4 pack from Bunnings currently sells at a RRP of $4.48 or over 50% cheaper than from BCF.

Another rip off from an 'Aussie' retailer.

Teen arrested after posting driving drunk on Facebook

A US teen was arrested after posting on Facebook that he was driving drunk around his neighbourhood.

Jacob Cox-Brown, 18, allegedly smashed in to two cars in the morning of New Year's Day and fled the scene, but left pieces of his damaged car behind.

He then parked his car in his driveway further up the street.

Cox-Brown posted as his status update, "Drivin drunk…classic ;) but to whoever's vehicle I hit I am sorry. :P."
One of Cox-Brown's 600 friends alerted the police department in Astoria, Oregon and a police spokesperson said they had been investigating a hit and run.

Another friend called in later that day to report the same incident.

Police found a car at Cox-Brown's house that matched the description of the damaged car.

But Cox-Brown told a local television station that he hit the cars because of icy conditions on the road.
"The people who called me out, they're obviously not my friends. True friends, like I said, they know me," he said.

"They know I'm a sarcastic s---. They laughed about it. I've posted s--- like that on there and it's never blown up like this."

A police spokesperson said there was not enough evidence to prove that Cox-Brown was intoxicated.
He was arrested and charged with “failing to perform the duties of a driver”, police said.

ninemsn.com.au 7 Jab 2013

Not only does this Trailer Park Trash have the finances to purchase a computer, connect it to the internet, and have an opinion, but also has the ability to breed.

The cesspool of human society which in reality should be castrated.

Snapchat Security flaw found in app used for 'safe sexting'

Snapchat, the smartphone app widely regarded as being "sexting friendly", exposed users' email addresses since at least mid-December until the flaw was fixed on Thursday.

Many users of the service create usernames unrelated to their identity but also use their personal email addresses when registering, which put their anonymity in doubt while the flaw was active.

The revelation of users' email addresses being exposed comes as security experts have figured out a way to capture videos sent via Snapchat and rival app Facebook Poke before they self-destruct.

Experts also warn that not many Snapchat users are aware that people can see who they have been chatting to on the service by typing a forward slash and their username after the snapchat.com URL in a web browser (i.e. snapchat.com/username).

Geoff Stearns, the creator of SWFObject, a popular open-source JavaScript file for embedding Adobe Flash content on web pages, discovered the email flaw and reported it to Snapchat on December 14.
After waiting more than two weeks for a response, he posted about it to his 1893 Twitter followers on Thursday, along with a link to a web page explaining how the flaw worked.

Josh Miller, who knows Snapchat chief executive Evan Spiegel, spotted the tweet and emailed Mr Spiegel about it. Shortly after, Mr Miller said the email flaw had been fixed after hearing back from Mr Spiegel.

To expose a user's email address on Snapchat all one needed to do was type their username without a password into the app and attempt to log in. Once this failed, a prompt would ask whether a password reset was required. When pressed, the user's email address was then displayed on the screen, allowing for a person with malicious intent to discover their identity by typing it into a service such as Google or Facebook.

Snapchat, Wickr and other apps such as Facebook's Poke have become popular among teens who believe they are a "safe" way to send explicit pictures of themselves to friends.

The reason they believe these apps are safe is because videos and texts sent via them are deleted after a short period of time determined by the sender.

But computer experts have already found ways to save Snapchat and Poke content before it self-destructs, and there is nothing stopping a person from taking a picture of their screen.

Comment about the email flaw is being sought from Snapchat.

smh.com.au 3 Jan 2013

Facebook flaw exposed users' webcams

The Facebook flaw exposed users' webcams. Photo: Mayu Kanamori

• Facebook exposes private messages

Facebook has patched a security vulnerability that would have allowed hackers to turn on users' webcams without their knowledge and post videos to their profiles.

The bug was discovered in July by two computer-security researchers in India, according to Fred Wolens, spokesman for Facebook. Aditya Gupta and Subho Halder, founders of a consulting firm called XY Security, reported their findings to Facebook, which paid them $US2500 for the information. Facebook seems to have deemed this particular bug as "serious" because the company paid five times its usual price, the two researchers said.

Facebook is one of a few technology companies - along with Google and Mozilla, maker of the Firefox browser - encouraging outsiders to hack into their products in return for payouts. Some companies, notably Microsoft, have shunned "bug bounties" because they might wind up rewarding criminals.

An investigation by Facebook when it fixed the webcam hole found that no users appeared to be affected, Wolens said.

"This vulnerability, like many others we provide a bounty for, was only theoretical, and we have seen no evidence that it has been exploited in the wild," Wolens wrote in an email. "Essentially, several things would need to go wrong - a user would need to be tricked into visiting a malicious page and clicking to activate their camera, and then after some time period, tricked into clicking again to stop/publish the video."

Bounty reward

Many companies choose to pay researchers such as XY Security for bugs because the alternative can be much worse. Such information can fetch high prices on the black market from criminals who try to find ways to shake down internet surfers, costing site administrators more in the end.

Facebook's "peeping Tom" bug could have been exploited on either Windows or Mac computers, the researchers said. The Facebook vulnerability found by XY Security was related to how the site verified requests to record and post webcam video, they said. People who had previously granted Facebook's site access to their webcams would have been vulnerable, he said.

Facebook, Google and Mozilla have paid researchers more than $US2 million combined through their bounty programs, according to the companies. Google has paid as much as $US60,000 (plus a free laptop) for information about weaknesses in its Chrome web browser, and Facebook has expanded its program to cover not only the Facebook site but also the company's corporate network.

Before reporting the webcam bug to Facebook, Gupta and Halder had been building a reputation in the tech industry as professional bug-bounty hunters. The researchers, who are in their early-20s, had previously reported software vulnerabilities to Apple, Google, Microsoft and eBay's PayPal, they said.

smh.com.au 2 Jan 2013

To the uneducated masses, the so called 'flaws' seem legitimate, but from an Information Technology perspective, the truth is quite different.

The lines of programming or code to activate a user's webcam are quire specific, and cannot occur as a random 'error'.

Google, whilst on it's mapping mission, also carried wifi sniffing tools, to seek users details. Once this was uncovered, Google mentioned that it was an 'error'. Camera equipment and wifi sniffing and logging technologies are two very distinctly different types of technologies.

Governments and business actually support privacy breaches by companies, as they (governments) also use these companies to covertly spy on the masses.

There is no policy or urgency to stop this kind of practice.

Dad, triplets granted bail after brawl in Bankstown

A FATHER and his four children involved in a brawl with police which allegedly included a mother throwing punches, malfunctioning tasers and ``hammer blows to the face'' have been granted bail. 

Five members of the Mehanna family faced court yesterday charged over a fight with at least 13 police on the driveway of their Bankstown home after midnight on Wednesday.

Three police were hospitalised and four others injured in the wild brawl on Ogmore Court.

Police were initially called to the home to investigate a ``domestic dispute'', the court heard.

A sixth family member, the mother, Rafah, 41, was arrested following the fight but was taken to Bankstown Hospital before being ordered to front court on January 13.

The father, Mohamed, 46, and his three 18-year-old triplets _ sons Ali and Hussain, and daughter Zainab _ were granted bail in Parramatta Local Court yesterday.

They are all charged with affray, assaulting police, hindering police and resisting arrest.
Ali was also charged with assault occasioning actual bodily harm.

The four were released after police prosecutors did not oppose them being granted strict conditional bail.
Another child, Adel, 21, was granted $5000 bail after police opposed him being released.

All were ordered to face Bankstown Local Court on January 24.

Police prosecutor Karlo Haralovic told the court that Adel was already on bail for separate charges including drug possession, assaulting and resisting police and had two good behaviour bonds ``hanging over him'' at the time of the incident.

Adel's barrister Greg Heathcote told the court there were ``two sides to the story'' and said there was ``excessive force by police''.

Magistrate John McIntosh granted bail but said police had ``an obligation'' to go to the house once a domestic dispute complaint was made.

``If they don't carry out their duties they will be criticised; if they do carry out their duties they will be criticised,'' Mr McIntosh said.

According to police documents tendered to the court, three of the children yelled at police who arrived at the house: ``f*** off you dogs. We don't need youse. Get the f**** off our property''.

Police entered the house where they saw the mother and the teenage daughter ``yelling at each other'', the fact sheet said.

When more police arrived, Ali allegedly punched one in the eye ``unprovoked'' before he jumped on another officer and drove his head into the ground knocking him out briefly, the fact sheet said.

When more family members joined in, a lengthy brawl broke out where police tasers malfunctioned at least three times, the fact sheet said.

At least 13 officers rushed to the scene and some used ``torch strikes'' and OC spray in an attempt to control the situation, the fact sheet said.

Another officer ``issued two hammer strikes'' to the mother's face after being ``overpowered and repeatedly assaulted'' by the 41-year-old, the fact sheet said.

The family have accused police of being heavy handed in the brawl.

The five spent the night in holding cells at Penrith Police Station before being released yesterday.
Outside court, the family's lawyer Gus Dib said the mother sustained a ``black eye'' during the brawl.
``It's been a long 48 hours for them and they're quite drained and looking forward to coming home,'' Mr Dib said.

news.com.au 3 Jan 2013

Another Trailer Park Trash family, as suggested by many families from within the area.

Bleak start to 2013 on roads

Seven people including an eight-year-old girl have died in traffic accidents in what has been a bleak start to the new year on Australian roads.

The New Year's Day fatalities began in NSW, after a head-on crash on the Pacific Highway on the north coast.

Two cars collided at Bangalow, near Possum Creek Road, at about 2.20am (AEDT) and its drivers, a man and a woman, were killed.

There were no passengers in either car, but the holiday road toll has climbed to 11.

In Western Australia just after midnight a car left the road and hit a tree on the side of the Great Southern Highway east of Perth.

An eight-year-old girl, her two-year-old sister and their 30-year-old mother had to be cut from the vehicle and flown to Perth for treatment.

The eight-year-old died in hospital while her mother is being treated for serious injuries.
The two-year-old sustained minor injuries.

Several hours later a man was killed in a hit-and-run incident as he walked along a suburban street south of Perth.

The man, who is yet to be identified, was struck by a vehicle at about 4.30am (WST) as he walked along Ennis Avenue in Waikiki.

Investigators are calling for witnesses.

In Queensland, two men aged 28 and 19 were killed when the car they were in crashed into the front yard of a house west of Brisbane.

The vehicle ploughed through a fence before coming to rest on its side in the front yard of the house in Glebe Street in the Ipswich suburb of Silkstone at about 4.45am (AEST).

An 18-year-old man who was also in the car and who was taken to hospital with head injuries is in a stable condition.

Earlier, a 41-year-old woman who was asleep on the road was struck and killed by an L-plate motorcycle rider in the Northern Territory.

Police believe the woman was lying on Sturt Terrace in East Side at Alice Springs at about 2.30am (CST) when she was hit.

The 21-year-old L-plater allegedly returned a positive test for alcohol and police say he could face charges.
The deaths on New Year's Day took the national holiday road toll to 43.

* The national road toll period runs from 0001 December 23, 2012, until 2359 January 3, 2013, local times, in line with the Australia New Zealand Policing Advisory Board.

smh.com.au 1 Jan 2013

Speeding fines are one of the most profitable sources of income for the government.

The government uses this as an excuse for the alleged road blitzes, to target speeding motorists.

The truth lies hidden and is deliberately NOT exposed or any attention drawn to by the corporate media.

The government falsifies accident results stating that speed was the cause of the accident, rather than a driver error.

This fact has been mentioned on a New South Wales radio station, by a former police (whistle blower) officer.

In 2012 approximately 900 (approx 17 per week) children were locked in vehicles, where police assistance was needed.

Alleged statistics for smoking related deaths number in the magnitude of 19,000 per year, or approx. or 365 per week.

There is no outcry by police, about (for example) deaths caused by cancer due to smoking, but when it comes to picking up money from the masses, well that's a different story.

What population boom means for housing

AUSTRALIA'S population is on the rise, and more people will mean more demand for housing, right? Not exactly. 

 
The rise in our numbers may have only minimal impact on the housing industry - at least in the near future.

It's all to do with Australia's changing social demographics and lifestyle choices.

Here's an overview of some population numbers.
Australia's population grew by 331,000 people last year, up from 254,000 two years ago.

Net overseas migration has more than doubled in the past 12 months, to 71,000 over the past three months.

Queensland's annual population growth has increased from 49,000 a year ago to 76,000 this year.
This, of course, is a big turn-around.

On face value, the numbers are encouraging, but the economic reality is that increasing migrant numbers will not create a significant increase in housing demand for the short term.

When looking at the Australia-wide picture, two-thirds of the recent population increase is due to an increase in overseas migration.

Most of our overseas migrants come from New Zealand (30,000 a year, up from 18,000 two years before); followed by China (20,000 a year, little changed); 25,000 from Europe (up 10,000 over the past 12 months alone) and 15,000 from India (up 5000 on 2010 figures).

Some in the property industry believe the nation's household sizes will remain steady in the face of rises in population.

But the reality is that for many of our newcomers, circumstances will mean that they will share space, occupying every room in a house and probably renting rather than buying.

The face of Queensland is also changing.

Ten years ago, the state's population growth comprised 26 per cent natural increase (more births than deaths); 31 per cent net overseas and 43 per cent net interstate migration.

Five years ago, it was 32 per cent natural increase; 41 per cent net overseas migration and 27 per cent net interstate.

This year: 42 per cent natural increase; 45 per cent from overseas and just 13 per cent interstate.

In the past, much of Queensland's population growth came from interstate; many new arrivals under 40, with the vast majority looking to make a new start.

They sold up in Sydney or Melbourne, moved here and bought a house (often new - as they were making a new start after all) and often started their own businesses.

They had money in their pockets.

So times have changed, and this more immediate stimulatory impact does not apply to today.
An increase in housing demand will certainly follow on from the lift in population growth, but it might take years to eventuate and could have less economic stimulus than past multipliers would suggest.
The housing industry must respond to the realities of today, if we are to see the industry working once again.

* Michael Matusik is a commentator on the developer and real estate investment industry. See more at www.matusik.com.au

news.com.au 13 Jan 2013

Australian politicians are in the process of importing more slave labour into Australia,under the 'refugee' banner.

Melbourne is dumped with approximately 50,000 migrants per year from shadowy backgrounds, many with no paperwork, dodgy past, and criminal intentions.

The so called 'population growth' is controlled/regulated by politicians.

Oregon man in possession of 13 million gallons of illicit rainwater sentenced to jail

An Oregon resident with 3 massive man-made ponds on his property is sentenced to 30 days in jail after being found guilty (again) of collecting rainwater without a permit.

I’ve taken a look at some mighty impressive rainwater collection systems in the past, but it appears that Gary Harrington, 64, takes the proverbial cake when it comes to hoarder-esque rainwater collection activities: over the years, the Oregon resident has built three massive reservoirs — in actuality, they’re more like proper man-made ponds — on his 170-acre property on Crowfoot Road in rural Eagle Point that hold roughly 13 million gallons of rainwater and snow runoff. That’s enough agua to fill about 20 Olympic-sized swimming pools.

 

Of course, it boggles the mind as to what a single man needs that much rainwater for. One would assume that Harrington is reusing it both for irrigation purposes and for non-potable indoor use as well, which, unlike in many states, is permitted in Oregon. But 13 million gallons? Apparently Harrington, who has stocked at least one of the  reservoirs with largemouth bass and built docks around it, believes that his watery stash is a much-needed necessity when wildfires pop up in the area. “The fish and the docks are icing on the cake," Harrington tells the Medford Mail Tribune. "It's totally committed to fire suppression."

 

The bigger story here is that rainwater collection is indeed kosher in Oregon, provided that you’re capturing it from an artificial, impervious surface such as a rooftop with the assistance of rainwater barrels. But an extensive reservoir set-up complete with 10- and 20-foot-tall dams is verboten without the proper, state-issued water-right permits — after all, Oregon law dictates that water is a publicly owned resource — and Harrington did not possess said permits.

 

And so, after a protracted battle with Oregon’s Water Resources Department, Harrington was convicted of nine misdemeanors and sentenced to 30 days in jail, slapped with a $1,500 fine, and ordered to breach his dams and drain his ponds. After the sentencing in late July, Harrington surrendered himself to authorities late last week and began his stint at the Jackson County Jail. 

Apparently, once upon a time, the state did indeed allow Harrington — code name: “Rain Man" — to collect water in his reservoirs. However, officials reversed their decision the same year, 2003, that the three permits were issued, citing a 1925 law that states the city of Medford holds all exclusive rights to "core sources of water" in the Big Butte Creek watershed and its tributaries.

 

Despite withdrawal of the permits, Harrington kept on defiantly collectin’ under the belief that the laws did not apply to his situation, adamant that the water was coming strictly from rain and snow melt and not from tributaries flowing into the Big Butte River as officials had claimed. Harrington tells CNSNews.com: "They issued me my permits. I had my permits in hand and they retracted them just arbitrarily, basically. They took them back and said, 'No, you can't have them.' So I've been fighting it ever since."

 

It gets even more messy with accusations of water diversion and a three-year bench probation issued against Harringon in 2007. In that case, Harrington plead guilty and agreed to open up the gates of his reservoirs only to close them back up again shortly thereafter. 

 

Oregon Water Resources Department Deputy Director Tom Paul tells the Medford Mail Tribune: “Mr. Harrington has operated these three reservoirs in flagrant violation of Oregon law for more than a decade. What we're after is compliance with Oregon water law, regardless of what the public thinks of Mr. Harrington.”

 

Paul elaborates to CNSNews.com:

 

A very short period of time following the expiration of his probation, he once again closed the gates and re-filled the reservoirs. So, this has been going on for some time and I think frankly the court felt that Mr. Harrington was not getting the message and decided that they’d already given him probation once and required him to open the gates and he refilled his reservoirs and it was business as usual for him, so I think the court wanted — it felt it needed — to give a stiffer penalty to get Mr. Harrington’s attention.

 

Lots more on this unusual and dramatic, err, rainstorm of a case — a case that's morphed into a battle not so much over rainwater and reservoirs, but over property rights and government bullying — at the Medford Mail Tribune and CNSNews. You can also hear Harrington’s side of the case via a series of videos featuring legal advisor Dominic Notter and donate to his “get out of jail fund” over at www.empoweringthejury.com if you feel so inclined. The alleged wet bandit tells CNSNews.com: "When something is wrong, you just, as an American citizen, you have to put your foot down and say, ‘This is wrong; you just can’t take away anymore of my rights and from here on in, I’m going to fight it.”

 

Is Harrington deserved of his folk hero status? Or is he a straight-out theft? Lots of opinions on this one ... what's yours?

 

matronmedusa Nov 10 2012 at 12:40 PM

He who controls the water, controls the people. They're probably mad because he hasn't paid a water bill in almost a decade. They don't want others getting any bright ideas!

kel Oct 26 2012 at 9:10 AM

bottled water companies do the same type of thing, buy a bit of property and suck from below, anyone running them out of town?

Guest Jan 14 2013 at 12:44 PM

There was a court case here where the sewer district tried to bill people for storm water collection even if they were not connected to the sewer system. A land owner some 10 miles away from a sewer connection had to go to court to stop the sewer district from collection money and taxes from him.

mnn.com 14 ?Aug 2012

 

 

Electricity giants turn off your power on hot days

For Melbournians 2013 has started out to be a hot one indeed. Meteorology experts give the forecast of mid 40’s for a day or two in the second week of 2013.

Whilst all this is going on, there is an eerie silence on the reporting of why there are power blackouts at the same time the mercury reaches the highs

In line with the policies of the new world order in that all public or government owned assets or utilities must be owned by private enterprise, Australia has sold off its utilities (illegally) to the private sector, without any public input or say.

As a result of the sale of public owned utilities to private companies, the (for example) price of electricity has doubled over the past few years with an 80% increase over the next 5 years, or 40 times the current (official) inflation rate.

One of the policies (of the utility company’s) is not to invest finances back into the infrastructure or into maintenance as this diverts profits.

In one example where the recent Victorian bushfires were caused by a lack of maintenance, by the electricity company, which led to the loss of life, there was no follow up of legal action of manslaughter by the authorities.

In order to save money, the electricity giants stated that they will be turning off the power supply, to residential customers. 

The corporate media are an official government propaganda tool, which also provides false or deliberately misleading information to the masses to keep them subdued.

When power is scheduled to be turned off to domestic customers, the electricity giants falsely state that there is a problem, the cause is unknown, but power will be restored at a prescribed time.

In some instances the loss of power could also cause a death.

Since governments conspire together with the corporate giants, be it through, the Masonic lodges or other intertwined ways, to the (financial) detriment of the peasants, the corporate media is not about to reveal the intricate inner workings of such conspiracies.

At the end of the day it is the cannon fodder that suffer, which is irrelevant to the corporatocracy.