Colonel Klink and sergeant Schultz...

Asylum seekers could again face processing in overseas countries under a Coalition government, Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has announced.

The Opposition's immigration policy, released today, also includes plans to bring back temporary protection visas and would make visa holders work if they wanted to claim welfare.

The Coalition has also vowed to turn back boats from Australian waters if necessary.

The processing policy would be similar to the Howard government's so-called Pacific solution, which saw asylum seekers processed in countries such as Nauru and Manus Island in Papua New Guinea.

Mr. Geithner lobbied against Chinese government procurement rules that give preference to products with intellectual property developed in China. American businesses, particularly in technology, complain that this handicaps them and deprives China of state-of-the-art products.

“Innovation flourishes best when markets are open, competition is fair, and strong protections exist for ideas and inventions,” he said.

The Chinese have their pet issues as well: Beijing is pushing for the United States to loosen controls on exports of high-technology equipment with potential military applications. A raft of questions from reporters for state-run Chinese media organizations suggested a coordinated campaign.

2010’s Debates Still Trapped in the 1960s

By MATT BAI

You would not think Richard Blumenthal and Rand Paul would have anything in common, aside from the fact that they are both running for Senate.

 

Silicon chips that are allowed to make mistakes could help ensure computers continue to get more powerful, say US researchers.

As components shrink, chip makers struggle to get more performance out of them while meeting power needs.

Research suggests relaxing the rules governing how they work and when they work correctly could mean they use less power but get a performance boost.

Special software is also needed to cope with the error-laden chips.

from the BBC

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kakadu uranium mine (picture by Gus)

Millions of litres of radioactive water from the Ranger uranium mine have flowed into world heritage-listed wetlands in Kakadu National Park.

Aboriginal traditional owners say they will oppose plans for a huge expansion of the 30-year-old mine by Energy Resources of Australia unless the company upgrades its environmental protection procedures.

Education officials in the US state of Texas have adopted new guidelines to the school curriculum which critics say will politicise teaching.

The changes include teaching that the United Nations could be a threat to American freedom, and that the Founding Fathers may not have intended a complete separation of church and state.

Critics say the changes are ideological and distort history, but proponents argue they are redressing a long-standing liberal bias in education.

Analysts say Texas, with five million schoolchildren, wields substantial influence on school curriculums across the US.

Australian customs officers have been given new powers to search incoming travellers' laptops and mobile phones for pornography, a spokeswoman for the Australian sex industry says.

Fiona Patten, president of the Australian Sex Party, is demanding an inquiry into why a new question appears on Incoming Passenger Cards asking people if they are carrying "pornography".

Patten said officials now had an unfettered right to examine travellers' electronic devices, marking the beginning of a new era of official investigation into people's private lives. She questioned whether it was appropriate to search people for legal R18+ and X18+ material.

The Federal Opposition is in damage control again after Joe Hockey's appearance at the Press Club descended into what even his own colleagues admit was a "shemozzle" yesterday.

Last week Opposition Leader Tony Abbott told the House of Representatives that Mr Hockey would use yesterday's lunchtime speech to give details of the Coalition's proposed budget savings.

But Mr Hockey's speech did not contain any concrete detail on the savings, a task that was left to finance spokesman Andrew Robb, who briefed journalists on the cuts after Mr Hockey made his exit.

Treasury secretary Ken Henry says there is reason to be sceptical about some of the doomsday predictions sparked by the proposed resources tax changes.

In his annual post-budget address to economists, Dr Henry has argued similar predictions have been made in the past by the mining industry and have not eventuated.

He says some of the commentary around the tax has been confused and incorrect, and he has taken aim at the mining industry's outcry.

"In the last four decades numerous predictions have been made of large scale unemployment and the death of manufacturing, decrying deregulation, decrying tariff cuts and decrying mineral booms," he said.

Google has admitted that for the past three years it has wrongly collected information people have sent over unencrypted wi-fi networks.

The issue came to light after German authorities asked to audit the data the company's Street View cars gathered as they took photos viewed on Google maps.

Google said during a review it found it had "been mistakenly collecting samples of payload data from open networks".

The admission will increase concerns about potential privacy breaches.

These snippets could include parts of an email, text or photograph or even the website someone may be viewing.

"Well, obviously oppositions have to do two things. First of all, they have to mount an effective critique of the Government and I think we’ve been doing that. Second, they’ve got to present as a credible alternative, they’ve got to convince people that life would be different and better if there was a change and that’s what we’re doing, I hope"

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