People wearing hooded sweatshirts are often going to be perceived as a menace, Rivera said.

Another Taser-related death in Australia has renewed debate about the powerful weapon and whether it is a safe option for police use.

A STRUGGLING Sydney golf club with a declining membership is considering joining forces with a cemetery that is overflowing.

The reference to the lands policy was the recent decision against ringfencing prime agricultural land from mining while forcing miners to face scientific panels to gain approval to mine such areas.

from Robert Fisk...

I'm getting a bit tired of the "deranged" soldier story. It was predictable, of course. The 38-year-old staff sergeant who massacred 16 Afghan civilians, including nine children, near Kandahar this week had no sooner returned to base than the defence experts and the think-tank boys and girls announced that he was "deranged". Not an evil, wicked, mindless terrorist – which he would be, of course, if he had been an Afghan, especially a Taliban – but merely a guy who went crazy.

Queensland businessman Clive Palmer has accused green groups of being funded by America's Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).

picture by Gus Leonisky...

From Crabb

An experiment to repeat a test of the speed of subatomic particles known as neutrinos has found that they do not travel faster than light.

Results announced in September suggested that neutrinos can exceed light speed, but were met with scepticism as that would upend Einstein's theory of relativity.

A test run by a different group at the same laboratory has now clocked them travelling at precisely light speed.

The results have been posted online.

For generations the Encyclopaedia Britannica was a wonder — the world’s knowledge on a single bookshelf. Now the touch of a finger can bring even more information instantaneously. That’s why Britannica will no longer be publishing a print edition. But what will be lost beside 129 pounds of book? Can you find that same sense of wonder online?

http://www.nytimes.com/roomfordebate/2012/03/14/britannica-define-outdated/

Climate scientists are concerned that Australia's cool and wet summer [on the east coast] could lead to confusion about whether climate change is real. Picture by Gus Leonisky.

Greg Smith, who ran US equity derivatives trading for Goldman, said the atmosphere at the world's most powerful investment bank was "toxic and destructive" and that the company had to be reined in if it isn't going to destabilise the financial system. In his 12 years at the firm, Mr Smith said, he had witnessed a collapse in moral standards.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott has set his sights on government departments, saying he will significantly restrain spending and streamline their operations if he wins the next election.