End of the road:
A final appeal to save the lives of the Bali nine organisers appears to have failed, with the Indonesian Attorney-General saying the executions will not be further delayed.
Lawyers for Australians Myuran Sukumaran and Andrew Chan made last minute appeals to save the pair from the firing squad but Indonesian officials have complained that they are ‘simply trying to buy time. We can say they are playing with justice’ according to the news agency, AFP.
Foreign Minister Julie Bishop says the Federal government is disappointed yet remains hopeful of a last-minute reprieve.
No jab, no play
Children who are not immunised against deadly diseases such as whooping cough may soon be denied access to the funding that allows their parents to send them to child care.
Social Services Minister Scott Morrison says the government is looking at ways to close a legal loophole, which allows parents to refuse to immunise their children on so-called ‘philosophical’ grounds, while still claiming family tax benefits and child care rebates.
Thousands of Australian parents use the loophole to avoid vaccinating their children, not because of any genuine, religious objection but because they have placed their faith in dodgy ‘health and wellness’ types on Google.
Childhood vaccination – arguably manhood’s finest achievement in the area of preventative health – has saved the lives of countless millions over the past 50 years, but the good work is being undone by uneducated, unscientific lifestyle coaches on the internet, telling people not to vaccinate their kids for no reason that any sensible person can understand.
Who killed Twin Peaks?
David Lynch has withdrawn from plans to revive the 1990s cult hit Twin Peaks, apparently because he wasn’t being paid enough.
In a message to Twitter followers, Lynch said: ‘I love the world of Twin Peaks and wish things could have worked out differently.’
He made clear that Showtime did not ‘pull the plug.’ Rather, ‘after one year and four months of negotiations, I left because not enough money was offered.’
Twin Peaks was a cult classic in the 1990s, centred around the question: ‘Who killed Laura Palmer?’ The nine-episode revival was due to air on Showtime in 2016.
Rape story retracted
Rolling Stone magazine has retracted a 10,000-word article that claimed that a young woman was raped at the University of Virginia and nobody did anything to help her when she tried to report the attack.
In a statement, the magazine conceded dozens of faults within the article, which was based on the account of a woman known only as ‘Jackie.’ In the statement, the magazine said reporters who worked on the story had shown a complete failure to follow “routine journalistic practice.”
No-one has been sacked, although the magazine’s managing editor, Will Dana, is quoted in the report as saying, “It’s on me. I’m responsible.”
Divorce by Facebook
First you could unfriend people; now it seems you can divorce them on Facebook.
The New York Daily News reports today on the case of a woman given permission to Facebook message her divorce plans to her husband, since she can’t contact him any other way.
The report says the husband, a Ghanian-national called Victor Sena Blood-Dzraku is proving impossible to find, meaning his wife, Ellanora Baidoo, can’t serve divorce papers. He has been in touch via Instant Messaging, however, so that is how the papers will now be served.
Revenge of the porn victims
The so-called King of Revenge Porn, who posted more than 10,000 sexually explicit or nude photographs onto his ‘revenge porn’ website has been sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Kevin Bollaert invited jealous, angry men to send nude photographs of their ex-wives and ex-girlfriends to him, along with their names, ages, Facebook profiles, and place of residence.
He then charged the women up to $350 each to take the images down.
He was convicted in February of multiple felony counts of identity theft and extortion under a law introduced in 2013 specifically to deal with creeps of this type.
Island healing
An island holiday has long been regarded as a terrific way to recover from the stresses of life but that idea has been turned upside down by actor Leonardo DiCaprio who has purchased an island near Belize, with the aim of restoring its eco-system.
Leonardo, described in The New York Times as a well-known environmental activist, is said to have purchased the island a decade ago, because it ‘was like heaven on earth.’
Now he intends to build an eco-resort, with luxury villas, as a way to support his efforts to repair an eroding coastline, deforestation and over-fishing.
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