Many travellers have been told by their insurers that they must wait at closed airports on the off-chance that flights are reinstated, or else risk losing any insurance payout.

It might take another few days but John Richardson's computer, that controls the front page of this site, has bitten the dust. It's being fixed... So be patient, go and peruse all the comments that are posted on the side here and enjoy new postings at Gus's View...

It has now emerged that the International Airways Volcano Watch Operations Group, a division of the International Civil Aviation Organisation, discussed three years ago establishing what might constitute "safe" levels of ash for aircraft to fly in. But the aircraft manufacturers were reluctant to talk about the issue. The revelation came as it emerged that Britons still stranded abroad could be stuck for another week.

Mark Tanzer, chief executive of Abta, the travel association, said: "While most flights are back to normal, and most stranded British passengers will be back this weekend, there is still quite a high level of disruption in some destinations. In some areas of the world there is a significant lack of air capacity to enable British people to be returned quickly."

Minutes of the Volcano Watch group's annual meeting, held in New Zealand in 2007, note: "There is no definition of a safe concentration of ash for different aircraft ... In order to give a reliable and justifiable all-clear, once a plume has dispersed enough to be undetectable, clear limits of ash content are required from both the manufacturers and aviation licensing authorities." It acknowledged that establishing a safe lower limit was a "difficult and longstanding problem".

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From the Washington Post

God spoke to Moses through a burning bush on Mount Horeb. He apparently speaks to Republicans through a spewing oil well at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico.

Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) delivered the startling revelation last week that the BP oil spill was caused not by a faulty blowout preventer but by the Almighty Himself. He explained the spill to an Oklahoma City radio station like this: "Acts of God are acts of God." With this curious theology, Cole has joined the ministry of Texas Gov. Rick Perry, a fellow Republican, who last month said of the oil spill: "From time to time there are going to be things that occur that are acts of God that cannot be prevented."

So if God is responsible for the spill, and BP is the spill's "responsible party," what these men are really saying is that BP is . . . God?

This interpretation is at the very cutting edge of ecclesiastical thought. In the past, our Heavenly Father has involved himself in floods, droughts and the occasional earthquake, but this may be his first foray into industrial disasters.

The Valdez spill was an act of Exxon. Bhopal was an act of Union Carbide. But the BP spill is an act of God. Oiliness is next to godliness.

Forgive this blasphemy, but is it perhaps time to question the Doctrine of Boardroom Infallibility? In Washington, belief in corporate divinity has become a bipartisan religion, and it's polytheistic: Lawmakers, despite the occasional bit of populist rhetoric, routinely provide generous offerings to the automotive, aerospace, financial, pharmaceutical and insurance industries, along with petroleum.

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Good one Gus, 

I quote:

Forgive this blasphemy, but is it perhaps time to question the Doctrine of Boardroom Infallibility? In Washington, belief in corporate divinity has become a bipartisan religion, and it's polytheistic: Lawmakers, despite the occasional bit of populist rhetoric, routinely provide generous offerings to the automotive, aerospace, financial, pharmaceutical and insurance industries, along with petroleum.

With a substitution of nation and the addition of foreign Mineral Miners you could be talking about the "Mad Monk" and his unholy alliance with the multi-national Corporations to oust our elected Government!

The tragic irony here is that the general Australian public have no access to an independent media. 

The Liberals of "WorkChoices" infamy try to convince us that they even care about Australian jobs.

The foreign Mining Giants have reached into their fob pockets and plucked out $100 million to advertise the Mad Monk's argument that they can't afford it and must therefore consider the old "fear for employment" tactic which has only been sellable by the Corporation's media.

IMHO, politics in Australia has reached a new and ugly lower level when pseudo Australian politicians join with foreign interests to argue against a tax on a resource that is owned by and will benefit all Australian people.

I can think of no more objectionable behavior than a group that performed for their setup media outside Parliament house supposedly to demonstrate how it is normal for these “working Australians” to blast a government that gave them too much money for their schools. (Who were they eh?) Did the foreign media follow up that story?  Not bloody likely!

The gutsy REAL Australians that stood up to that sort of traitorous behavior at the Eureka Stockade, would turn over in their graves.

Who would have thought that after supporting the “Old Dart” in South Africa that we had two of our Officers shot for carrying out the very same “Commando” tactics of the Boers? Now a South African runs one of the biggest mining companies fighting to destroy our elected government.

Who would have thought that even though we had nearly 80% casualties in WW I, the poms locked up an entire Australian Company for cowardice when they alone had not been relieved in the front line.

Who would have thought that at the outset of WW II when our untrained 8th Division of mostly young men were forced to surrender in Malaya/Singapore, along with the poms, Indians and locals, but our men were declared cowards in the English media.  Now the English have  BHP/Billiton (once ours)  which is also trying to remove our elected government.

With all of my bitterness at having been originally a “Royal” Australian and having served for 12 years in the identical uniform of the UK; under their white ensign; and not allowed to have Australian shoulder patches; and called Limeys by the yanks; I think every Australian of voting age should stand up for their rights by electing their OWN government without interference from the foreign media moguls and their cohorts in the “Mad Monk’s” subservient Liberals.  Think about it.

For the Abbott mob to win this pending election goes beyond normal “robust” Australian politics – it is about protecting our future or giving its direction back to the 1950’s under the banner of foreign financial power. That is an example of America today – and look at them.

"Rattus" once made a lot of political mileage out of his inhuman treatment of the boat people when he allowed 365 to drown rather than help them (SIEV X) and he said: "We will decide who comes here and the circumstances under which they come".  Bravo?

Should it be less acceptable to the bombarded Australian people that Kevin Rudd has said that he and his government will not be dominated by the foreign mining giants. Bravo?

Decent and original Liberal thinking politicians are resigning in protest.  They are real Australians.

God Bless Australia and help our new voters to think and reason.  NE OUBLIE.

A giant statue of Jesus Christ has been destroyed by lightning in the US state of Ohio.

The 19-metre-high sculpture on a highway outside Cincinnati caught fire and burnt to the ground after being struck during a thunderstorm.

Insurance companies described the incident as an act of God.