Japan squander's 2.3bn yen from tsunami recontructions funds on Antarctic & Pacific whale hunts

The Times UK November 1, 2012:

The Japanese Government has spent taxpayers’ money intended for the reconstruction of areas devastated by last year’s tsunami on a range of irrelevant projects, including spades for jailed criminals, training for air force fighter pilots and funding for a whale hunt.

About a quarter of the 11.7 trillion yen (£91 billion) set aside to restore the ravaged north east has been spent on programmes unrelated to the disaster, according to analysis of the Government’s own audit report.

BBC New Asia October 31:

Japan has spent funds intended for reconstruction after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami on unrelated projects, a government audit has found.

Projects financed by the $150bn (£93bn) fund include roads in Okinawa, an ad campaign for Japan's tallest building and support for whaling research.

Some 325,000 people remain displaced 18 months on from the disaster.

In some areas little reconstruction work has been carried out, reports say.

The Australian November 2:

2.3bn yen or approximately AUD$2.7 million went to Japan's fisheries agencies to protect its whaling fleet from protests by environmental activists.

Google caught doing evil again

Teh Beeb in Britain posted this online on 31st October 2012:
"A jury in Australia has found Google liable for damages after a complaint that its search results had linked a local man to gangland crime. Milorad Trkulja had alleged that the US firm's image and web results had caused harm to his reputation. The 62-year-old had said the site had refused to remove the material when asked. He had previously won a related case against Yahoo. Google has not commented on the verdict and might still appeal. The judge is expected to set the level of damages owed within a fortnight."

One thing Seachangers and Treechangers don't miss

Traffic Lights at xkcd.com

As the meeja world turns?

“THAT quacking sound you can hear in the distance is Tony Abbott. The Opposition Leader is slowly but surely turning into a sitting duck, a stationary target for government and media pot shots.

The other bird sound you can make out, whenever Abbott says or does something silly, is the crow's cry that Graham Kennedy mimicked years ago on television and that got him into so much trouble. Textspeak boils it down to three letters, WTF.

Pretty soon, if he doesn't rewire the pathway from his brain to his mouth and change his strategy, the cocks will start crowing loudly too, as they always do when a leader is in trouble, and especially when the polls begin to narrow as they are doing.”{Niki Savva writing in The Australian on 25^th October 2012}