http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Scientists-find-Earthlike-planet/2007/04/25/1177459764903.html

European astronomers have spotted what they say is the most Earth-like planet yet outside our solar system, with balmy temperatures that could support water and, potentially, life.

They have not directly seen the planet, orbiting a red dwarf star called Gliese 581. But measurements of the star suggest that a planet not much larger than the Earth is pulling on it, the researchers say in a letter to the editor of the journal Astronomy and Astrophysics.

"This one is the first one that is at the same time probably rocky, with water, and in a zone close to the star where the water could exist in liquid form," said Stephane Udry of the Geneva Observatory in Switzerland, who led the study.

"We have estimated that the mean temperature of this super-Earth lies between 0 and 40 degrees Celsius, and water would thus be liquid."

Most of the 200 or so planets that have been spotted outside this solar system have been gas giants like Jupiter. But this one is small.

"Its radius should be only 1.5 times the Earth's radius, and models predict that the planet should be either rocky, like our Earth, or covered with oceans," Udry said in a telephone interview.

It appears to have a mass five times that of Earth's.

The research team includes scientists credited with the first widely accepted discovery of a planet outside our solar system, in 1995.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Weekend-sleepin-risks-Monday-jetlag/2007/06/14/1181414416433.html

Teenagers should be encouraged to get up on weekends at roughly the same time they get up for school during the week, experts advise based on new research that suggests that sleeping late on weekends may lead to poor academic performance.

Preliminary results, based on six 15- to 16-year-olds, show that staying up late and sleeping in over the weekend resets the body's internal clock to a later time, Crowley said, making them foggy on Monday morning.

"This resetting pushes back the brain's cue to be awake on Monday morning for school," she said. "Essentially, teenagers may be giving themselves jetlag over the weekend even without getting on a plane."

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Iodine-to-be-added-to-bread-to-boost-IQ/2007/05/18/1178995355901.html

Iodised salt will be added to bread under a proposal designed to make Australians smarter.

The food regulator, Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ), is pushing ahead with mandatory plans that force bakers to fortify bread with iodine.

The essential mineral is vital for producing thyroid hormones for brain development, especially in unborn babies and young children.

However, studies have shown that most Australians are either mildly or moderately deficient, directly affecting their intelligence.

Children born to moderately deficient mothers have IQs 13.5 points lower than other kids.

They also have more hearing and learning difficulties and, according to Italian research, a heightened risk of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Go-past-cliches-in-alien-search-experts/2007/07/09/1183833400973.html

Extraterrestrial life may well be so weird we would not immediately recognise it, and scientists looking for alien life should be seeking the unfamiliar as well as the familiar, experts advised.

They said NASA'S current approach to "follow the water" works well if the assumption is that life everywhere is just like life is on Earth - based on water, carbon and DNA.

But the "life as we know it" approach could easily miss something exotic, the National Academy of Sciences panel advised.

Recent discoveries of extremophiles - organisms living in conditions of heat, cold and dark and using chemicals once thought incompatible with life - have changed ideas of where life can survive.

As a biochemist, Baross said lab experiments also show water does not necessarily have to be the basis for life. It might be possible for a living organism to use methane, ethane, ammonia or even more bizarre chemicals, he said.

"We had some discussion about how weird to make this because there are so many concepts out here. There are so many theories about what life is and what could be a living system," Baross said.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/National/Govt-contract-promotes-erosive-drink/2007/08/17/1186857712694.html

Contractual obligations mean the federal government is promoting a sports drink criticised by health experts.

A sponsorship deal between the Australian Sports Commission and PepsiCo requires the Australian Institute of Sport encourage school students undertaking its education programs to drink Gatorade, Fairfax newspapers report.

The sports drink has been identified by dentists and nutritionists as rotting children's teeth and contributing to childhood obesity.

The association says the acidic drinks are particularly erosive to tooth enamel when consumed immediately after playing sport, when the mouth lacks protective saliva.

I've accidentally called the wrong number a few times, thinking it was the free one.

The free Telstra directory assistance numbers are 1223 and 12455, although they attract a charge of 44 cents from business and mobiles and are only free to Telstra customers. There is also an optional $1.10 connection fee.

http://www.theage.com.au/news/National/Need-a-number-Call-1223--its-cheaper/2004/12/12/1102786955372.html

The heavy marketing of Telstra's premium-priced information numbers over the free directory assistance numbers has angered consumer groups and led to a campaign calling on consumers to boycott the service.

This year Telstra replaced the 12456 premium operator connected service with the 1234 service which charges 40 cents a call and then 4 cents a second - or a hefty $2.40 a minute.

The introduction of the new service in June saw an increase in complaints received by the Telecommunications Industry Ombudsman, with many consumers not realising they were calling the $2.40-a-minute service.

An anonymous email circulating has criticised Telstra for not making the public aware of the free service and called on consumers to boycott the 1234 number.

Australian Consumers Association communications policy officer Charles Britton said consumers had the right to make informed decisions about whether they paid for the service.

"But there's certainly not been very much promotion of the free service," Mr Britton said. "If there is one number that is being promoted then people will just forget that the free service is there. We are actually loosing a major consumer benefit and that's a free directory service."

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AdvertisementAccording to Telstra's directories unit Sensis, use of the free directory service numbers are in decline, averaging 120 million calls a year. Sensis spokeswoman Karina White said this was because more people were searching on the White Pages and Yellow Pages internet sites for information, not because people were unaware of the free directory assistance numbers.

The White Pages website received 2.49 million hits a month in the September quarter, up from 1.9 million on the same time last year, while calls to the paid Telstra Call Connect and Yellow Pages Connect reached 55 million last year.

Ms White defended the marketing of the premium-rate service. "Obviously, yes, we're a business, we are here to make money. We are promoting a service that is a premium service but we are absolutely making it clear that it is a premium service that there are costs with it," she said.

Ms White said Telstra did not advertise the free directory assistance number outside the White Pages as it was a well-known service and "we don't want to confuse the market".

The free Telstra directory assistance numbers are 1223 and 12455, although they attract a charge of 44 cents from business and mobiles and are only free to Telstra customers. There is also an optional $1.10 connection fee.

The Optus number 124'yes' (124937) charges $1.10 for connection plus local call rates for the duration of the call.

"Detention roof protester 'needs surgery' Andrew Drummond | August 21, 2007
ONE of three Villawood detainees who spent the night on the roof of the Sydney detention centre says he is injured and requires surgery.

Speaking from the rooftop by mobile phone, New Zealander Montana Kelly, 27, saod he had "seriously sliced" his hand running through razor wire last night to get onto the roof.

Mr Kelly, his cousin Bruce Ngaromoa, 32, also from New Zealand, and 30-year-old Vietnamese man Van Nguyn climbed onto the roof to protest over conditions at the detention centre.

Mr Kelly, who has been in the centre since May awaiting deportation after serving a sentence for armed robbery, said the protest was sparked by the cancellation of inmates' visits to family outside the centre."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22284526-1702,00.html

Lawyers lashed over costs, delays

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,22539320-2702,00.html

THE nation's top judge has launched an attack on cost and delay in the legal system, saying "intolerable" delays are now accepted in criminal cases and that expense is "the greatest blot" on the civil litigation landscape.

High Court Chief Justice Murray Gleeson also urged judges to assert their authority over "well-resourced" parties who used the courts as "instruments of oppression".

"A basic problem of access to civil justice is the remorseless mercantilisation of legal practice." He added that time-based costing was part of the problem.

"Because of the basis upon which most lawyers charge for their services, repeated interlocutory hearings add substantially to the cost of litigation," Chief Justice Gleeson said. "Interlocutory procedures ... sometimes involve astonishing expense. Such is their cost, they may even be used as instruments of oppression."

He said the length of the ordinary case was alarming but that for "well-resourced litigants, the time of judges is cheap".