Monday, November 16, 2015

News Bytes

Things of interest in the news in the past week . . .
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Paris:

The events in Paris remain in the forefront of the news, all the more tragic in that the locations for targeting by the terrorists appear to be where people had gathered for innocent fun and entertainment, especially young people.

Yesterday I used a peace symbol in the shape of the Eiffel Tower.


That sketch was created by Jean Jullien, a French artist living in London, in response to the Paris attacks. 


It quickly went viral and has become a symbol of support for the Parisians. It has been dubbed “Peace for Paris.”

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Support in colour

Along with various other landmarks around the world, the Sydney Opera House was illuminated in the red, white and blue of the French flag as a sign of solidarity.


One of the more poignant ones was the illumination of the One World Trade Centre:



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French film postponed

Distributors of the film “Made in France” have postponed the release due to the massacres in Paris. The thriller, about terrorism, was due to open in French cinemas this coming Wednesday and had been promoted with posters showing an AK-47 assault rifle superimposed on the Eiffel Tower:


It is the second time this year that the movie has been postponed. The original intended release coincided with the Charlie Hebdo terrorist attacks in January.

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Charlie in Oz

Prince Charles has been visiting Australia. The chief executive of the Prince’s charity works in Australia, Janine Kirk, raised eyebrows when she appeared to place a hand on the royal bum:


Placing hands on the Royal personage is a big no no, as others have found when they have caused stirs for doing so. One of the most famous was Paul Keating’s “twang (of) the royal bra strap”, although Keating swears he never said that, contrary to what the journos say. It’s been the subject of a previous Bytes post: http://bytesdaily.blogspot.com.au/2010/06/touching-queen.html



Some other Charles’ pics I saw this week:


Charles and Jimmy Saville
According to a 2015 biography of Charles, Charles: The Heart of a King, by the journalist Catherine Mayer, the Prince asked Saville to read over his speeches and to provide his thoughts on how they might be improved, as well as asking his advice on matters to do with health policy.
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Police criminal acts

A private Facebook page of someone named Rhys Brown showed a couple of photoshopped images that took the piss out of the NSW Police. One image displayed Miley Cyrus twerking in front of some some serving police, another showed a large sum of cash and words to the effect of: "Here's my $25,000 for your $101 fine." 


The constabulary had been keeping an eye on this Facebook page, logging into it using someone else’s name and password. For four months.

When the above images appeared, one Rhys Liam Halvey was arrested and charged with three counts of using a carriage service to offend police and a further three counts of publishing an indecent article. 

It’s a bit like breaking into a house and then complaining that you were offended by seeing the owner naked.

Halvey denied being the Rhys Brown who had the Facebook account.

When the matter came before Sydney magistrate Roger Brown, the magistrate drew attention to the fact that the police had committed criminal acts by accessing the Facebook page illegally and without a warrant.

He dismissed the charges, which he classed as trivial, and ordered costs against the police of $14,000.

A senior police officer prepared affidavits supporting the investigation and asking for confidentiality. Magistrate Brown was having none of it. When the police prosecutor sought an adjournment so the Crown could argue the "public immunity aspect" of certain police "methodology" used to "access data", Mr Brown said: "Police methodology doesn't permit the police to commit crimes, it's as simple as that."





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