from Gus's collection of stuff... Joyce could be the kid with the air sickness bag on Qantas...

Me thinks that Jenkins resigned to go back and support Labor against an el stupido negative opposition...

Gus's picture of a stencil by annon.

Senior Liberals are closing ranks around Opposition Leader Tony Abbott after accusations by Liberal MPs that he is leaving them in the dark over important policy decisions.

In the Coalition party room yesterday, Victorian MP Kelly O'Dwyer and Paul Fletcher from New South Wales questioned the economic wisdom of retaining the Government's superannuation boost while, at the same time, dumping the mining tax that funds it.

The decision was made outside the party room by the Liberal leadership group - although key finance spokesman Andrew Robb was excluded from the phone hook-up a fortnight ago.

picture by Gus

The frozen “cryosphere” of the Earth, from the Arctic sea in the north to the massive ice shelves of Antarctica in the south, is showing the unequivocal signs of climate change as global warming accelerates the melting of the coldest regions of the planet, leading polar scientists warned yesterday.

If the current rapid extermination of animals, plants and other species really is the "sixth mass extinction", then it is the amphibian branch of the tree of life that is undergoing the most drastic pruning.

In research described as "terrifying" by an independent expert, scientists predict the future for frogs, toads, newts and salamanders is even more bleak than conservationists had realised.

Around half of amphibian species are in decline, while a third are already threatened with extinction. But scientists now predict that areas with the highest diversity of amphibian species will be under the most intense threat in the future.

soldier on ground: "might not be enough protection against Turnbull..."

picture by Gus Leonisky. c 2006

The Federal Government has labelled the Coalition's position on whether to increase the superannuation guarantee, which is part of the mining tax package, as confusing and chaotic.

Labor wants to increase compulsory superannuation contributions from 9 to 12 per cent.

Opposition Leader Tony Abbott says a coalition government would keep the super increases in place - even though it does not support the mining tax.

Opposition finance spokesman Andrew Robb says the Coalition will only go ahead with an increase to the superannuation guarantee if it can find other savings.

In 2001, Ultimate Fighting was sold for $2 million to the Fertitta brothers, Frank III and Lorenzo, megarich owners of a string of Las Vegas casinos and close friends of a phenomenal huckster named Dana White. What ensued was one of the greatest feats of financial alchemy in the history of sports, the transformation of cage fighting into a $1 billion-plus business.

But lucrative as it is, Ultimate Fighting remains confined to a narrow demographic niche, those three initials not yet familiar in most American households. On Saturday night, however, the U.F.C. will seek to make its way into the mainstream, appearing for the first time on network television. The event: a heavyweight championship fight broadcast on Fox.