Tough fire season warning

Queensland firefighters face a “challenging” bushfire season amid forecasts of worse-than-usual conditions, but the government says they will do all they can to reduce the risk.

Fire crews were last night fighting 10 bushfires across the state, including one burning at the rear of houses in Brisbane's northwest and seven around the Townsville area.

Two aircraft water bombed the slow-moving bushfire in the Brisbane suburb of Keperra, after the blaze started about 2.30pm, but authorities said there was no immediate threat to properties.

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Efforts to control the blazes came as the Bureau of Meteorology warned the Bligh Government of a higher fire risk this season due to vegetation growth caused by the big wet over summer.

Emergency Services Minister Neil Roberts said authorities would continue to carry out controlled burns to reduce the risk as much as possible.

“This year's bushfire season presents particular challenges for our fire authority,” he said.

“Extensive flooding and sustained rainfall across the state earlier this year has contributed to a substantial build-up of grass and vegetation.

“This grass and vegetation is now starting to dry out and, combined with increasing temperatures, provides the ingredients for a higher than normal bushfire risk.”

Mr Roberts said a number of large vegetation fires had broken out across the state in recent months, but were extinguished with minimal damage to property.

He said the Queensland Fire and Rescue Service worked with councils and other state government agencies to minimise the bushfire risk.

More than 350 planned burns had been carried out so far this year covering 400,000 hectares, he said.

Authorities would look at further backburning but this would depend on weather conditions.

“However I am confident that the QFRS is working hard to minimise the risk of vegetation fires in communities across the state,” Mr Roberts said.

The fire risk warning came as part of a seasonal weather briefing to Ms Bligh and her cabinet colleagues yesterday.

The bureau told cabinet Queensland could experience above average rainfall and cyclones this wet season, along with a higher number of severe thunderstorms in southeast Queensland.

The briefing comes in the wake of the last brutal storm season, which delivered flooding to large parts of the state over summer and brought the devastating Cyclone Yasi to north Queensland in February.

Ms Bligh said the state would be prepared for a heavy tropical wet season.

“We do have a more positive outlook this year than we had at this time last year,” she said.

Bureau Queensland senior official Bruce Gunn told reporters an average of three to four cyclones formed over the Coral Sea each storm season, and a "little more than that" was expected to form this time.

They would not all necessarily reach the coast.

Mr Gunn stressed it was an early seasonal forecast and predictions would become more accurate closer to the season.

However, Mr Gunn said it was clear from forecasts at a similar time last year that Queensland would face an "exceptional" storm season.

Ms Bligh, who has previously faced claims the government did not do enough to prepare after the bureau's warning in October, said the advice had been taken seriously.

The flood inquiry's first report, released last month, recommended the government lower the Wivenhoe Dam by 25 per cent of its normal full supply level if forecasters predicted a similar or worst wet season than 2010/11.

Ms Bligh said she did not see a need to pre-emptively lower Wivenhoe Dam's capacity this year, but the government would continue to monitor the situation.

She committed to implement all of the flood inquiry's state government-related recommendations.

Source : http://www.smh.com.au/

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Public philanthropy just not a given

 

Peer leadership is key to painting a new image for public bequests, writes Wendy Frew.

A ripple of excitement spread through the room at the National Gallery of Victoria last month when the gallery's director, Gerard Vaughan, unveiled its latest and most expensive acquisition, an exquisite example of Italian Renaissance art.

At a Sotheby's auction in London in July the NGV had paid $5.2 million for Correggio's Madonna and Child with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, thanks to the generosity of one of its trustees, businessman Andrew Sisson. Sisson said the painting's beauty and ''humanistic'' qualities made him ''go weak at the knees''.

Much has been made of how Sisson funded the purchase: he sold his investment company, Balanced Equity Management, for a reported $30 million in June, when the strong Australian dollar would have made it a crime not to sell.

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What wasn't so obvious at the press conference was the value of Sisson's public act of giving.

Wealthy Australians still aren't big donors to worthy causes and when they do give, they often do it anonymously. Millionaire entrepreneur Dick Smith lashed out at his peers last week for what he described as their ''utterly selfish'' attitude towards philanthropy, threatening to ''out'' them if they didn't start donating money to worthy causes.

For those who do donate, there is a push to encourage them to do so publicly. One of the greatest exponents of public philanthropy, David Gonski, says no one should underestimate the benefits of public giving, whether it be to an art gallery, university or hospital.

''The concept of peer leadership works in anything,'' says Gonski who, as chancellor of the University of NSW, asks the university's benefactors to make their donations public. He cites investment banker and Museum of Contemporary Art chairman Simon Mordant and his wife Catriona, who went public with their $15 million pledge towards an extension of the MCA when it seemed other donors, including federal and state governments, were backing away from the project.

''When Simon Mordant, a well-known and well-respected banker, came out and said he would give $15 million to the MCA, I think there would have been about 100 or more people who work with Simon who would have said to themselves 'If Simon is doing that I am going to give something','' Gonski says.

There have been some signs of change, especially in booming Western Australia, where mining magnate Andrew Forrest announced last month he was giving $3 million to the state art gallery's acquisition fund, and $3.7 million in shares to the state's four major performing arts companies.

Convincing benefactors to shed the cloak of anonymity is just one of the issues facing the philanthropic sector, says Gonski, who has chaired the Australia Council, is a former president of the Board of Trustees at the Art Gallery of NSW, and is chairman of the Sydney Theatre Company, among other arts and business appointments.

Philanthropists have become much more sophisticated, bringing business practices such as triple-bottom-line accounting to the sector. The challenge for charities, Gonski says, is to make sure they can match that sophistication.

''The giver requires much more, and rightly so. People used to assume the money they gave to an [arts or medical] organisation would be used properly. The new philanthropist is as careful with their giving as they are with how they make their money.

''You need people who can work out what donors want, work out how they can best donate to your organisation, how you keep them up to date and then make sure you achieve the result you have promised them.

''The old days of ringing up the chairman's wife and expecting them to give money are gone.''

Those looking for money may also have to start thinking out of the box. With corporate sponsorship appearing to have plateaued and many donors more comfortable with projects they are sure will work at the box office, some arts organisations are turning to grassroots fund-raising.

Sydney Festival is financing the development of a new indigenous theatre project for next year's festival by asking 60 people to become ''associate producers'' who each donate $5000 to help develop the show. In return, associate producers receive regular updates on the project's development.

Much of the work being done by Artsupport Australia, established in 2003 to increase cultural philanthropy, and operating under the auspices of the Australia Council, is aimed at encouraging people to leave money to the arts in their wills.

Artsupport's director, Louise Walsh, says its research shows many potential arts donors don't realise that arts groups are charities and need bequests.

''They are untapped in Australia,'' Walsh says. ''Some people think [talking about your will] is a taboo subject but there are subtle ways of going about it … and you don't need to spend a lot of money on it.'' It can be as simple as mentioning established bequests in arts newsletters.

One of the most successful innovations in the philanthropy sector has been the private ancillary funds, which sprang from 1999 tax reforms. A PAF is a trust with tax-deductible status, and which can attract a variety of other tax and duty concessions. Donors like them because gifts can be spread over several years, trustees have considerable control over the fund's objectives, and they can be used to perpetuate the name of an individual or family.

Grants to cultural organisations from such funds grew from $761,000 in the 2001-02 financial year to $9.58 million in 2007-08 , thanks to support by people such as Gonski and work done by Artsupport.

Walsh says ''things are changing'' but the latest figures show that as at 2005, only 2.3 per cent of total donations were going to the arts.

''We have to change the culture. We have been at it for eight years and we still have a long way to go.''

Source : http://www.smh.com.au/

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'Sextortion' case: hacker gets 6-year sentence

LOS ANGELES – A Southern California man has been sentenced to six years in prison for infiltrating computers belonging to women and teenage girls where he found sexually explicit photos and threatened to put them online unless they provided him with more.

In sentencing Luis Mijangos, 32, of Santa Ana on Thursday, US District Judge George King called the crimes a form of cyber-terrorism and warned other hackers they will meet stiff penalties for ruining people's lives.

"Society has to understand that if you engage in this type of behaviour, it's no joke," King said. "You are going to jail and going to jail for a long time."

Mijangos, who pleaded guilty to one count each of computer hacking and wiretapping in March, grimaced when King handed down the sentence. Tears began to well in his eyes. Earlier, he apologised for what he had done.

"To all the victims I want to say that I'm sorry," said Mijangos, a Mexican citizen, from his wheelchair. "I'm ready to do the right thing and stay out of trouble."

Authorities said Mijangos sent malicious software disguised as popular songs or videos to his victims' computers that also were unwittingly sent by women and teenage girls to their friends and family. In all, Mijangos unlawfully accessed and could control more than 100 computers.

He read their emails, watched them through webcams without their knowledge and most damaging was his discovery of nude photos they had taken of themselves. Mijangos then threatened to post the images online unless his victims were willing to provide more racy photos or videos to him or if they went to police, according to court documents. He also posed as some of the victims' boyfriends to convince them to send him nude pictures.

Mijangos eventually followed through on his threat in at least one instance by posting naked pictures of a woman on her friend's MySpace page.

The 35-year-old woman, identified only by her initials GM, spoke at the sentencing, describing the torment inflicted upon her by Mijangos. The woman, who works as an auditor, said Mijangos threatened to release more photos to her employer and that each time she signed onto her computer at work, he would harass and threaten her.

"He haunts me every time I use the computer," she said. "You don't have to be in jail to feel trapped."

She added she no longer trusts anyone and will not pay her bills online or have conversations online.

Prosecutors sought a seven-year prison sentence for Mijangos, while a probation report recommended a two-year term. The maximum he could have faced for the two counts he pleaded guilty to was 10 years.

King said he saw the severity and sophistication of Mijangos's "personal crime wave" and the fact that the defendant decided to funnel his talents as a computer programmer to get sexually explicit material for his personal gratification.

"A lot of people suffered and suffered greatly in a real sense because of his actions," King said.

In arguing for leniency, deputy federal public defender Firdaus Dordi said his client wasn't the one who created the photos nor the virus that infected the computers.

Dordi also pointed out the medical condition of Mijangos, a paraplegic who was struck during a drive-by shooting when he was a teen. The gunman was never caught, Dordi said.

Source : http://www.smh.com.au/

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Pride before the Falls

A rift between the Kooks and the Arctic Monkeys hasn't healed and both are set to play at the same Australian festival.

The feud began in 2007, when Luke Pritchard, lead singer with Brighton band the Kooks, claimed Alex Turner, of Sheffield's Arctic Monkeys, tried to sabotage his guitar leads.

Pritchard didn't take the attack too lightly. He retaliated, kicking Turner in the face.

In 2008 the fight went public, with abuse and vindictive comments flying between them in the British tabloids and online music blogs. In May 2008, while filming the video for their single Do You Wanna, Pritchard claims he tried to reconcile with Turner. ''I tried to patch things up with Alex … but he just turned his back and walked away. I suppose they are quite arrogant,'' he later told The Daily Mirror.

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Four years on and both bands are set to headline this summer's Falls Festival in Victoria and Tasmania. But the water is not yet under the bridge, the Kooks say.

''That band is very strange,'' lead guitarist Hugh Harris tells S. ''They are quite difficult people really, aren't they?

''We're a similar age … a lot of people find it quite interesting to compare us but they're not friendly.''

Yet when asked whether there is now competition between the bands, Harris nonchalantly replies: ''Sometimes, not always - it's not my kind of thing to get involved. If I wanted to compete, I would have become a sportsman. I don't really care what other bands think about each other.''

Of course, this is not the first time high-profile musicians have clashed. In the US, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain openly criticised Pearl Jam as ''commercial sell-outs'' in 1992, before his suicide in 1994 (they did, however, reconcile before his death). In the mid-1990s it was Brit-pop band Oasis v Blur after they both released a single on the same day in 1995.

In 2009 the outspoken Lily Allen told Elton John to ''f--- off'', saying: ''I am 40 years younger than you and have my whole life ahead of me,'' in front of a shocked audience at London's GQ Men of the Year Awards.

Closer to home, Powderfinger's Bernard Fanning was not impressed when, in 1999, Ben Lee boasted his album, Breathing Tornados, would be the ''greatest Australian album of all time''. Fanning famously called Lee a ''precocious little c---''.

Falls organisers say they are ''unaware'' of the Kooks' and Arctic Monkeys' colourful history. But they assure S a Sheffield v Brighton brawl is unlikely as the bands are to swap between the Lorne and Marion Bay festival sites. ''The only time they'll be near each other will be in the air,'' a spokeswoman says.

Perhaps that's not such a bad idea.

The Kooks album, Junk of the Heart is out on Friday. Arctic Monkeys and the Kooks will play at the Falls Festivals in Lorne (sold out) and Marion Bay. See fallsfestival.com for details.

Source : http://www.smh.com.au/

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