So why is the Australian National University aiding and abetting a mining company intent on destroying NSW Northern Rivers communities?

 

 

According to the Australian National University (ANU) in the ACT this is its financial situation:

 

ANU is unusual in Australia in that it has a large investment portfolio for the size of the University budget. Annual University revenue is $0.9B, while funds in investments total $1.1B. This investment portfolio serves a number of purposes:

• Provides revenue to support the ANU liability to current and former staff covered by the Commonwealth Superannuation Scheme (CSS) – approx. $450M
• Invests the funds within the Endowment for Excellence which funds some staff salaries, scholarships etc.
• Invests the cash reserves of the University, whether held centrally or by Colleges

National and international issues mean that investment returns have declined in recent years and the expectations are that markets may have now entered a period where investment returns may be below 5 per cent for an extended period. This decline in investment income will have a significant impact on the University budget. The 2012 budget indicates investment returns will be $30M less than in 2011. Within this, the total funds required to support CSS pensions will be $10M more than the return on the CSS investment sum. This is a shortfall which must be met from other University funding sources.

So how is this university tackling its falling investment income?

Well, it is apparently not doing what it implied to faculty, students, media and the general public in 2011 - totally divesting itself of coal seam gas industry shares.

Woroni, the ANU student newspaper:

Vice-Chancellor Ian Young has announced that ANU will sell its shares in Coal Seam Gas extractor Metgasco in light of opposition from students to university involvement with the industry.

 

The Canberra Times:

The ANU's vice-chancellor Professor Ian Young announced the sell-off of about $1million worth of Metgasco shares in a statement to the ANU Students Association this week. But he's played down the role of student protests in forcing the move, telling The Canberra Times it was ''a pragmatic decision'' based on the worth of the shares.
''We've had those shares since 2001,'' Professor Young said.
''They represent less than 0.1 per cent of our total investment portfolio.''

Because according to Metgasco's own documents as of 21 September 2012 ANU was the 17th largest shareholder in this coal seam gas exploration and production company with 2.5 million shares remaining of the 4.2  million shares it held in 2011.

The university's excuse in August last year for this state of affairs - “there are no/few buyers” for these shares. 

This excuse seems laboured. Even though share volume traded is often sluggish, by the end of September 2012 a good stockbroker should have been able to offload ANU's remaining shares.

It would appear that it is determined to retain its investment in Metgasco in spite of the fact that this mining company's first-stage plan for the Northern Rivers is to establish an estimated 1,000 gas production wells.

Turning the rural landscape into a version of this:

Section of a gas field in Tara, Queensland

 

ANU faculty, students and alumni need to confront the fact that they are enabling a mining company to proceed with its commercial objectives despite the fact that the affected Northern Rivers communities have clearly not granted it a social licence to do so.

This is the current membership of the University Council and I would suggest to Northern Rivers communities that these individuals need to justify the continuing inclusion of Metgasco Limited in the university's investment portfolio:

Professor the Honourable Gareth Evans AC QC - Chancellor

Professor Ian Robert Young AO - Vice-Chancellor

Ms Ilana Atlas - Pro-Chancellor  

Dr Doug McTaggart

Dr Vince FitzGerald

Ms Robin Hughes AO

Ms Martine Letts

Mr David Miles AM

Mr Graeme Samuel AC

Professor Andrew MacIntyre

Professor John Close

Professor Tim Senden

Mr Matthew King

Ms Aleksandra Sladojevic

Ms Julie Melrose

 

Their contact details are here.

* An email was sent to the Australian National University Chancellor seeking further confirmation of the Metgasco share parcel. No reply has been received.

Uncle Joe Hockey, insomniac

Think a pollie found awake after 3am is either partying hard or tackling a backlog in policy paperwork?
Think again. Some are just cybersurfing and playing with 140 characters on Twitter.
GO TO SLEEP JOE!

NASA: Long-Term Climate Warming Trend 1880-2012 [Animated World Map]

http://youtu.be/oYibmPnmutM

 

Jan. 15, 2013: NASA scientists say 2012 was the ninth warmest of any year since 1880, continuing a long-term trend of rising global temperatures. With the exception of 1998, the nine warmest years in the 132-year record all have occurred since 2000, with 2010 and 2005 ranking as the hottest years on record.NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) in New York, which monitors global surface temperatures on an ongoing basis, released an updated analysis Tuesday that compares temperatures around the globe in 2012 to the average global temperature from the mid-20th century. The comparison shows how Earth continues to experience warmer temperatures than several decades ago. 

The BRP - Banks R Not Us

Last week the Australian Electoral Commission advertised an application for non-parliamentary party registration by the Bank Reform Party or BRP of West Australia and its registered officer - a former journo & media bloke for BankWest - wants election campaign funding for 2013 thanks very much.

He hopes his fledgling party will join the throng lining up around the country later this year eager to stuff our letter boxes with glossy leaflets and crowd the airwaves with vague promises most have no intention of honouring if they make it onto parliamentary benches:

• Animal Justice Party
• Australia First Party (NSW) Incorporated
• Australian Christians
• Australian Democrats
• Australian Fishing and Lifestyle Party
• Australian Greens (including three additional branches listed below)
• The Greens NSW
• Queensland Greens
• The Greens (WA) Inc
• Australian Labor Party (ALP) (including nine additional branches listed below)
• Australian Labor Party (N.S.W. Branch)
• Australian Labor Party (Victorian Branch)
• Australian Labor Party (State of Queensland)
• Australian Labor Party (Western Australian Branch)
• Australian Labor Party (South Australian Branch)
• Australian Labor Party (Tasmanian Branch)
• Australian Labor Party (ACT Branch)
• Australian Labor Party (Northern Territory) Branch
• Country Labor Party
• Australian Protectionist Party
• Australian Sex Party
• Australian Stable Population Party
• Building Australia Party
• Christian Democratic Party (Fred Nile Group)
• Citizens Electoral Council of Australia
• Country Alliance
• Country Liberals (Northern Territory)
• Democratic Labor Party (DLP) of Australia
• Family First Party
• Help End Marijuana Prohibition (HEMP) Party
• Katter’s Australian Party
• Liberal Democratic Party
• Liberal Party of Australia (including seven additional branches listed below)
• Liberal Party of Australia, NSW Division
• Liberal Party of Australia (Victorian Division)
• Liberal National Party of Queensland
• Liberal Party (W.A. Division) Inc.
• Liberal Party of Australia (S.A. Division)
• Liberal Party of Australia – Tasmanian Division
• Liberal Party of Australia – ACT Division
• National Party of Australia (including four additional branches listed below)
• National Party of Australia – N.S.W.
• National Party of Australia – Victoria
• National Party of Australia (WA) Inc
• National Party of Australia (S.A.) Inc.
• No Carbon Tax Climate Sceptics
• Non-Custodial Parents Party (Equal Parenting)
• One Nation
• Rise Up Australia Party
• Secular Party of Australia
• Senator Online (Internet Voting Bills/Issues)
• Shooters and Fishers Party
• Socialist Alliance
• Socialist Equality Party
• The First Nations Political Party

Michael Daniel Harmer goes to Court

 

In NSD31/2013 Federal Court of Australia:

Clause in Harmer’s  Application for leave to appeal in matter listed as Michael Daniel Harmer v Peter Slipper & Anor.

 

The Anor would appear to be James Hunter Ashby, his client in Ashby v Commonwealth of Australia & Peter Slipper.

 

Besides lodging the application for leave to appeal, Mr. Harmer also made an interlocutory application and submitted an affidavit.

 

Lawyers Weekly 18  January 2013:



The Office of the Legal Services Commissioner could not reveal whether Harmer is currently being investigated over “abuse of process” allegations in Rares’ judgment. However, Assistant Legal Services Commissioner Lynda Muston told Lawyers Weekly that the office always investigates claims of abuse of process or misleading the court.

“Where the evidence supports those allegations we’ll prosecute accordingly,” she added.

But an investigation could be on hold until the outcome of Harmer’s appeal.

“If we were looking at findings of a particular court in a particular matter and that matter then went on appeal we would ... defer that investigation pending the outcome of an appeal,” said Muston.

 

Mr. Harmer's matter is before the court on 8 February 2013.

Can the NSW Roads & Maritime Serives make a worse fist of it environmental assessment of the Woolgoolga to Ballina leg of the Pacific Highway upgrade?

 

"This failed monitoring is part of a flawed strategy to deal with the insurmountable problems of building a freeway through the habitat of the coastal emu." Dr. Greg Clancy,Ecologist

 

Clarence Valley W.I.R.E.S carers who look after such emu chicks must be devastated that in this instance all their care has been undone in this manner, while many North Coast residents' jaws dropped when the news was published this week.

As for the estimated $70,000 reported set aside for this study before its cancellation, one wonders just how much of this funding remains.

 

Media statement from NSW Roads & Maritime Services 16 January 2013:

 

A state and federally funded trial where six hand raised emus with tracking devices were released back into the wild near Taloumbi as part of the Woolgoolga to Ballina Pacific Highway upgrade project has been stopped.

 

Roads and Maritime Services obtained support from a local wildlife carer, the National Parks and Wildlife Service and Taronga Western Plains Zoo to facilitate the study.

 

The study aimed to track the released emus for up to 18 months to determine their movements, habitat and the success of released captive birds back into the wild.

 

At the beginning of January three birds were found killed by wild dogs or dingos.

 

In addition three of the recaptured study birds sustained abrasions from their tracking cuffs as well as injuries from barbed wire fencing.

 

The study team is looking into why the birds sustained cuff related injuries as the tracking devices used on cassowary research did not experience similar issues.

 

Results from the study to date will be considered for the project’s environmental impact statement which includes a Biodiversity Connectivity Strategy which identifies a number of measures to manage potential impacts on the coastal emu population.

 

Vanessa Juresic

Media Officer

An update on Steve 'Houdini' Cansdell

Sydney Morning Herald journalist Sean Nicholls is like a dog with a bone. And for that the public (and those in the NSW electorate of Clarence in particular) should be most grateful.

Cansdell, the disgraced former MP for Clarence, has pedalled off into the sunset with his taxpayer-funded booty (aka a state parliamentary pension) despite significant questions remaining unanswered about his involvement in Cansdellgate.

Nicholls wrote:

Lessons from political Houdini

The award for the most outstanding public escape act of recent times must surely go to the former member for Clarence, Steve Cansdell.
You recall Cansdell: he was the former professional boxer and parliamentary secretary for police who became the O'Farrell government's first political casualty only months after it took office.
The then 60-year-old quit Parliament after his admission that he had falsified a statutory declaration to claim a staff member was driving when his car was snapped by a speed camera.
Cansdell was trying to avoid losing his driver's licence. Despite the incident occurring back in September 2005, he fell on his sword in September 2011, amid a chorus of sympathy from his Nationals colleagues.
Cansdell was "paying a very heavy price for a lapse of judgment six years ago", the leader of the Nationals and Deputy Premier, Andrew Stoner, said at the time.
Only later did it emerge that shortly before Cansdell put his hands up, the staff member in question, Kath Palmer, had blown the whistle on the episode to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
So if Cansdell was not quite pushed - he claimed he quit to save the government and the party from embarrassment - he was very firmly nudged.
Not only had Palmer alleged the statutory declaration fraud, she alleged that Cansdell had also rorted a parliamentary staffing allowance by wrongly claiming it for the period she worked on the 2010 campaign of a Nationals colleague, Kevin Hogan, who was contesting the federal seat of Page.
And so began a very strange - many would say disturbing - series of events involving the ICAC, the police and the Speaker of the NSW Parliament that remain unresolved to this day.
In October last year, just over a year after Cansdell walked into Grafton police station with his lawyer to make his admission, police announced they had concluded their investigation into the statutory declaration matter.
"NSW Police Force will not instigate criminal proceedings," they said in a statement.
What had happened? The statement explained police from the Coffs-Clarence local area command had identified the woman who signed the declaration but that "she declined to be interviewed by officers".
Futhermore, it added, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions had said it was "not satisfied there are reasonable prospects for conviction for a Commonwealth offence".
For the NSW police, that was the end of the matter. But they omitted a couple of key details.
While it was true Palmer, through her lawyer, had refused to be formally interviewed, she had offered to make what is known as an "induced statement" - one given in return for indemnity from prosecution.
According to Palmer's lawyer, Mark Spagnolo, the police had earlier made it known they intended to charge Palmer with perverting the course of justice for her role in the false statutory declaration. Any admission in an interview was likely to lead to her being charged.
Police deny she was threatened with a charge but their decision to refuse her offer to supply an induced statement was rather ambitiously twisted to become Palmer "declined to be interviewed".
Second, the Commonwealth DPP claimed it had been verballed. It said it had simply advised the NSW police that they were not satisfied it was a Commonwealth offence - a subtle but important difference.
Things became even more intriguing when it emerged the ICAC had referred the allegation that Cansdell had rorted his parliamentary allowance to the Speaker of the NSW Parliament, Shelley Hancock, who was technically Palmer's employer.
The ICAC referred the matter "for action as considered appropriate". But no action was taken for a year by Hancock, until Spagnolo released the letter publicly through Fairfax.
After that Hancock, who is also the Liberal member for South Coast, promised that parliamentary officers would "review the material" sent by the ICAC. This included a spreadsheet containing the dates on which Palmer alleged Cansdell submitted claims for the allowance that differed from the days she worked. That was last October.
What has happened since then? Hancock passed the matter to the executive manager of the Department of Parliamentary Services, Rob Stefanic, who responded that he was "unable to reach any conclusions regarding the veracity of the claims made by the former electorate officer".
Stefanic added that because, in his opinion, the allegations were "of minor significance", that so much time had elapsed and that both Palmer and Cansdell had resigned, no further action should be taken "in the absence of more conclusive information". (Never mind that the allegations, if proven, are similar to those which saw two former Labor MPs, Angela D'Amore and Karyn Paluzzano, branded corrupt by ICAC.)
When Hancock was asked if the Parliament would contact Palmer to request "more conclusive information", she said it would not.
"As Ms Palmer did not make a complaint directly to the Parliament, the Parliament will not be contacting the complainant for further information."
So, 18 months since Palmer made her official complaint, there the matter lies: a tangled mess of contradictory claims, dead ends and official inertia.
Palmer is understood to be considering whether to pursue the matter with Parliament or drop it altogether to get on with her life.
Spagnolo has called for an inquiry into the police handling of the matter. The silence has been deafening.
Cansdell now says he has gone bankrupt.
And, while there is no suggestion he is implicated, the man he is alleged to have helped out by fiddling his taxpayer-funded entitlements, Kevin Hogan, has won Nationals preselection to contest Page at this year's federal election.
As a lesson in the frustrations of being a political whistleblower, it doesn't get much more instructive than that.

Source: The Sydney Morning Herald, 19/1/2013

Metgasco Limited - a comedy of errors but are the shareholders laughing?

 

Poor Metgasco Limited.

 

Share price in the doldrums for months on end, caught dumping wastewater in a sewerage treatment plant after being told to fix the problem with one of its holding ponds, had to beg to be excused from EPA fines, losing money hand over fist, had to put its Lions Way Pipeline plans into mothballs, in the process of losing one of its large institutional shareholders, and faced with the steady dislike of entire Northern Rivers communities, one would think matters could not get worse.

 

However, this week community members at the site, local media and at least one state politician have been telling the world that this coal seam gas exploration and wannabe production company can’t even drill a simple test shaft.

 

Seems the drill head ran into rock it could not pass through so it broke and, someone managed to let drilling mud flow free.

 

Whatever happened to the much vaunted seismic testing to map subsurface geology and structure of an area before picking an exploratory well site?

 

Didn’t do it? Forgot to bring the mapping? Thought near enough would be good enough and was rather surprised to find a very large rock in the way? Ooopps!

 

And to top the lot for this woebegone company, those pesky regional folk are still making it difficult for Metgasco to turn up to work at Glenugie in the morning.
 

The protesters who had locked themselves to the vehicle were from properties near to the CSG site at Glenugie. A young girl, believed to be the daughter of one of the farmers, was removed from the vehicle by police.

*Photograph and quote from The Daily Examiner 15 January 2013

Deadly Bloggers begins a 52 week blogging challenge

 

Deadlybloggers.blogspot.com.au has issued a challenge for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander  bloggers – 52 subjects in 52 weeks.

 

Good one, Ebs! Look forward to reading each week.

 

Remembering the deeply weird side of Mr. Rabbitt - Part Four

 

In September 2005 while attending a Liberal Party fundraiser for Barry O’Farrell in the Speaker’s dining room of the New South Wales Parliament, Mr. Rabbitt referred to the former NSW Opposition Leader who just twelve hours before had attempted to take his own life…….

 

If we did that, we would be as dead as the former Liberal leader’s political prospects.

 

When this remark became known, then Federal Health Minister Tony Abbott told The Sydney Morning Herald; "From time to time all of us say things that are more or less crass and in the great scheme of my mind ... I think my comments ... are fairly low on the Richter scale. If I was resigning every time I upset someone, I would have lasted about a week."

Just another day at the office for Metgasco Limited - protestors, police, media & anti-CSG mayors at the front door

Click on montage to enlarge

 

Metgasco Limited’s Messrs. Heath, Gill, Henderson and Koroknay must be wondering how their plan to drill an estimated 1,000 coal seam gas production wells across the NSW Northern Rivers region became an expensive, grinding chore instead of a carefree amble to the bank wheeling a barrow full of cash.

Large institutional investors/shareholders like Citicorp (through its subsidiary Citicorp Nominees Pty Ltd) and JPMorgan Chase (though the100% owned subsidiary JPMorgan Nominees Australia Ltd) must be wondering also, along with the West Australian LNGL Group an industry shareholder through CSG Nominees Pty Ltd.

 

With no social license granted by local communities for CSG exploration and mining, a day at the office for these Metgasco directors and senior staff means being greeted with uncertainty over if or when they can access identified drilling sites each morning.

 

Today Lismore,Tweed and Byron mayors Jenny Dowell, Barry Longland and Simon Richardson will be swelling the crowd outside the Glenugie exploration well site and protestors will again be at the entrance to the Doubtful Creek site.

 

*Photo montage created from Glenugie and Doubtful Creek photographs found at Google Images

The Federal Member for Page Janelle Saffin reminds Truss and Hogan that they are talking hypocritical nonsense

 

 

Federal Nationals should speak the truth about the Pacific Highway upgrade

 

“Quite frankly, I am fed up with Mr Truss flitting in and flitting out of our electorate, making glib promises which are not budgeted for, and for misleading statements about funding responsibility.

 

“It is galling to have to be involved in such negative debate, when so many positive things are taking place.

 

“If he wants to say we are funding it, say it and leave it at that.  He and Mr Hogan need to stop throwing dirt, especially when they have no credible ground to stand on.

 

“I stand on my record of hard work and securing major road infrastructure – the Ballina and Alstonville bypasses – the Glenugie part of the Pacific Highway upgrade, work underway on the Pacific Highway at Tabbimobile (Devil’s Pulpit) and my continued push for more highway projects like these to come online as the Woolgoolga to Ballina upgrade and planning works gather pace.

 

“Mr Truss’s record as Federal transport minister in the Coalition government was woeful; they spent just $1.3 billion on the Pacific Highway over 12 years compared with Federal Transport and Infrastructure Minister Anthony Albanese and Labor’s investment of $4.1 billion over six years. 

 

“It doesn’t matter how many times he stands beside the highway and says there is some mythical 80:20 funding split, it doesn’t make it true. It has always been a 50:50 funding agreement.  When Mr Truss admits to this, then I shall treat him seriously. Until then, I shall ignore his nonsense.

 

“When Mr Truss was Federal transport minister, he wanted a 50:50 split:  In case he has forgotten, some of his quotes are as follows:

 

“… We required it and the NSW Labor government agreed to matching funding. The Pacific Highway will receive … an extra $160 million in 2005/06, with matching funds to be provided by the NSW Government, to accelerate the duplication works.” – Truss media statement May 9, 2006.

 

“Finally the State (Labor) government has agreed to match the Australian Government spending on the Pacific Highway and we will now work to increase the momentum of construction … with the objective of completing a continuous four-lane road to Tweed Heads by 2016.” – Truss media statement September 29, 2005.

 

“Mr Truss and Mr Hogan may have missed the news, but State Member for Ballina Don Page and I put out a joint media release last Friday announcing that soft soil treatment work was underway at Pimlico near Ballina to help lay the groundwork for the continuing upgrade of the highway.

 

“There is Federal Government money on the table and I shall secure our share for us, as planning work proceeds,” Ms Saffin concluded.  

 

Tuesday, January 15, 2013.

  

Smoke and mirrors didn't give Abbott the bounce he was probably expecting

 

The Essential Report for 14 January does not appear to show Australian Opposition Leader Tony Abbott receiving any bounce in this poll from his much publicized time on the containment line of one NSW bushfire this month.

 

Abbott only fared marginally better in the first Newspoll survey for this year - his satisfaction rating rose one point to 29 per cent while his dissatisfaction rating fell one point to 58 per cent for a net satisfaction rating of minus 29. An almost insignificant change since early December 2012.

'Climate results validate sceptics' screams The Australian

 

In the midst of searing temperatures and bushfire smoke on 12 January 2013 The Australian newspaper screamed this headline; Climate results validate sceptics in what appeared to be a perverse joke running counter to good journalism.

 

The article was accompanied by a graph which purports to confirm a slowing down of global warming and/or what many people have been saying for some time. Global warming effectively stopped 17 years ago and, if the new forecast is accurate, that "pause" will be extended to 20 years:

 

 

Unwillingly to hunt the Internet at the time, I waited for a welcome break in the weather to look for the truth I was fairly certain the dregs of the Murdoch media had ignored in its effort to support Nick Minchin et al in their climate change denialism.

 

Here is the UK Met Office explanation:

 

8 January 2013 - There has been media coverage today about our experimental decadal global temperature prediction, which is routinely updated in December each year.

 

The latest decadal prediction suggests that global temperatures over the next five years are likely to be a little lower than predicted from the previous prediction issued in December 2011.

However, both versions are consistent in predicting that we will continue to see near-record levels of global temperatures in the next few years. [my bolding]

This means temperatures will remain well above the long-term average and we will continue to see temperatures like those which resulted in 2000-2009 being the warmest decade in the instrumental record dating back to 1850.

Decadal predictions are specifically designed to predict fluctuations in the climate system through knowledge of the current climate state and multi-year variability of the oceans.

Small year to year fluctuations such as those that we are seeing in the shorter term five year predictions are expected due to natural variability in the climate system, and have no sustained impact on the long term warming.

In this case, changes in ocean surface temperatures in some parts of the world over the past year are understood to have made a key contribution to the difference between the 2011 and 2012 forecasts, but other factors will also have played a role.

Century-scale projections are less sensitive to natural variability and updates to the 2012 decadal forecast do not necessarily tell us anything about projections of climate change for the coming century.

The 2012 prediction is the first to use the Met Office's latest experimental decadal prediction system, based on HadGEM3. This includes a comprehensive set of improvements based on the latest scientific understanding.

HadGEM3 has been thoroughly tested and has more accurately reproduced temperature variations over the past few decades, suggesting it shows greater skill than was available from previous decadal forecast systems.

The Met Office routinely shares its research and this is often placed on our website, encouraging openness and transparency with our scientific colleagues and the public alike.

More information about decadal forecasts can be found on our website.

Contact information

Met Office Press Office: +44 (0)1392 886655

E-mail: Press Office

Met Office Customer Centre: 0870 900 0100

If you're outside the UK: +44 1392 885680

 

Liddle Kevvie Hogan pops his head above the parapet

The Nats candidate for this year's federal election in the Page electorate Kevvie Hogan has been rather quiet since his Northern Rivers blooper.
But he put his head up this week in a tweet and press release bagging the Gillard Government for not rolling over and playing dead for Big Bazza O'Farrell's benefit when it comes to future funding of 125kms of the Pacific Highway upgrade on the North Coast.
Pity Kevvie still hasn't learned how to spell as this snapshot shows.

The 'costs' associated with catching crabs ...

The main topic discussed at the table of knowledge at the local watering hole today was a story doing the rounds about a prominent Clarence Valley legal beagle and a fisheries inspector having different points of view about trapping crabs in the local area. Names, locations and details are still very sketchy at this stage ...

Wonder who it was ...

Wonder where the 'deed' took place ...

Wonder where it will all end ...

Federal Opposition's Parliamentary Secretary For Indigenous Health demonstrates why he's unfit for this position

 

This was the Liberal Party’s Dr. Andrew Laming, Coalition spokesperson for Indigenous Health and Regional Health Services, late at night on 14 January 2013. Demonstrating just how proudly and crudely offensive he can be:

 

 

This was his 'third person' reaction to a relatively low-key response from an Australian twitterverse going to sleep for the night:

 

While his response to initial media coverage of his tweets went like this: