So far it appears that the death of Robin Williams was a suicide... He had been suffering from depression and dealt with it with addiction... It is always hard to know what goes on in the head of people... 

I know depression, Artistic people tend to feel it most. Depression is a hard master. It sucks life's motivation out of you... I've dealt with mine for over a long time with what I call positive anger... When one is angry, one cannot be depressed... And anger does not have to be reactive but being "positive" it maintains the fire in the belly. Positive anger can be used for strong creative purposes. 

The Federal Government was told its $7 Medicare co-payment would disproportionately hit the old and chronically ill, previously secret documents reveal.

The documents, obtained by The West Australian under Freedom of Information laws, show many of the nation's poorest will have to carry more of the cost of the $3.5 billion plan, even with a cap on payments.

Some Sydney homes may have also been insulated with the same dangerous form of asbestos that was pumped into the so-called Mr Fluffy homes in Canberra.

The Mr Fluffy insulation company installed loose-fill asbestos in the roof spaces of more than 1,000 homes across the ACT during the 1960s and 1970s.

Tony Abbott is a Rhodes Scholar and an Oxford graduate.

Malcolm Fraser, while not a Rhodes scholar, is also an Oxford graduate. Fraser is constantly labouring towards intellectual positions. Whether or not you agree with them, you would be hard-pressed to prove Fraser’s positions are not thoroughly considered. By contrast, Abbott’s utterances on the big issues seem best summed up by his statement, ‘‘No one is the suppository of all wisdom’’.

from politicoz …..

It’s been called "excruciating" and "the most embarrassing interview you'll ever be likely to see".

Imo Deputy Governor, Prince Eze Madumere, yesterday, at Imo Government House, has revealed that Governor Rochas Okorocha has churned out veritable programmes to save Igbo language from extinction.

Australia's monopoly toll road operator Transurban paid $3 million tax last year despite racking up $1 billion in tolls from motorists.

As the debate rages over "lifters and leaners" in the wake of Treasurer Joe Hockey's federal budget, the Transurban financial statements for 2014 put in stark relief the paltry income tax contributions which some large corporations are making to the Commonwealth coffers.

Not only the Australian government spies on its citizens via retention of data and other means, it also hides behind various veils of secrecy to stop its citizens from knowing the truth about what the government is doing — from fudging economic figures to "operational matters" and "injunctions" to stop the truth about its incompetent, ruthless, dishonest, inefficient, childish ways...

The other night, I saw George Orwells's '1984' performed on the London stage. Although crying out for a contemporary interpretation, Orwell's warning about the future was presented as a period piece: remote, unthreatening, almost reassuring. It was as if Edward Snowden had revealed nothing, Big Brother was not now a digital eavesdropper and Orwell himself had never said, "To be corrupted by totalitarianism, one does not have to live in a totalitarian country."