It's Nice When Your Daughter Marries A Man Who Can REALLY Look After Her When The Chips Are Down!

My son-in-law scored brownie points big time with my daughter as a result of his new backup system. This was in his latest newsletter and I thought it worthy of sharing with you.

How I became the office hero

We'll it was really only for a short moment - the moment that Teal called me and said: "I was just working on a marketing document and I though I deleted another one, but instead I deleted this one. I spent over an hour wording and designing it!!" My reply (in a calm confident voice: "Let me see what I can do when I get back in the office." In a worried voiced she said: "I only created the document 15 minutes ago, how can you possibly have it backed up so quick?"

Again in a calm, confident voice I said "Let me see what I can do when I get into the office. I got back to the office 30 minutes later and logged onto my online backup control panel and searched for the document she created and deleted.

Low and behold there it was - already backed up minutes after she created it and before she deleted. With a smirk on my face I told her to look in the folder where she created the document. To her surprise there it was.

If the data you store on your computer or business network is important to you and you don't have a sure fire, fully functional backup system in place then get in touch with us straight away - you don't want to leave it until it is too late!

If you'd like a backup system that good or a status update to hero, call him on 9572 7571. He even does status updates too!

REX flight drama as 'iPhone' combusts

The Australian Transport Safety Bureau has been called in to investigate an incident that allegedly involved an Apple iPhone self-combusting on a regional NSW flight. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/281568,rex-flight-drama-as-iphone-combusts.aspx

Small businesses, beware the Office 365 fine print

Before you let MS host your email - DON'T! http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/small-businesses-beware-the-office-365-fine-print/4151

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Australia's eHealth record a security 'disaster'

AusCERT chief warns of need for new approach. http://www.itnews.com.au/News/281216,australias-ehealth-record-a-security-disaster.aspx

Why your Content Doesn’t Convert

Most businesses put out content without ever seeing a return on time and investment. http://www.site-reference.com/articles/content-doesn%E2%80%99t-convert

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Finger (mal)formation reveals surprise function of desert DNA

Scientists have discovered a genetic mechanism that defines the shape of our members in which, surprisingly, genes play only a secondary role. http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/11/111123133516.htm

Tips To Reduce Your Cancer Risk From EMF

Did you know that wi-fi, cordless phones and EM radiation may promote cancer? http://www.naturalnews.com/034268_cordless_phones_electromagnetic_radiation.html

Gardisil - 49 Sudden Deaths, 213 Permanent Disabilities - And the Silent Plan to Poison Your Child

A must read for every parent http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/11/29/hpv-vaccine-risks.aspx

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A Pirate in the Bar

A pirate walked into a bar and the bartender said, "Hey, I haven't seen you in a while. What happened? You look terrible!!"

"What do you mean?" said the pirate, "I feel fine."

"What about the wooden leg? You didn't have that before."

"Ah well," said the pirate, "We were in a battle, and I got hit with a cannon ball, but I'm fine now."

The bartender replied, "OK, but what about that hook? What happened to your hand?"

The pirate explained, "Yes, we were in another battle. I boarded a ship and got into a sword fight. My hand was cut off. I got fitted with a hook but I'm fine, really."

"And that eye patch?"

"Oh that..." said the pirate, "One day we were trimming the sails, a flock of birds flew over, I looked up, and one of them shit in my eye."

"You're kidding," said the bartender. "You couldn't lose an eye just from bird shit."

"It was my first day with the hook."

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The Importance of a Compassionate Attitude

The Dalai Lama speaks. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ASMcxVdlvk

Dutch Docklands to the rescue for Dubai's World project?

The troubled World Project in Dubai, which has been riddled with problems since the global financial crisis in 2009 including rumors that the islands are sinking, may have found salvation. Architectural firm Dutch Docklands has developed, designed and engineered a master plan for 89 floating islands, giving current World investors the opportunity to purchase a floating paradise. The solution would provide investors with an option that's more feasible and cost-effective than building on the existing land masses, whilst also incorporating several environmental benefits. http://www.gizmag.com/dutch-docklands-rescue-world-project/20569/

Why It Pays Big To Support Small Businesses

Bias Warning. This article has some bias towards my business interests. http://www.care2.com/causes/why-it-pays-big-to-buy-from-small-businesses.html

Syria?

What's REALLY going on over there?? Journalist shares his perspective from INSIDE Syria, that there is NO civil war and that the CIA, Mossad, MI6, etc. are responsible for INNOCENT civilians being killed and CREATING unrest. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDg0x9MHg3o&feature=youtu.be and 9/11 Whistleblower Susan Lindauer: 'Libyan Opposition Is Al-Qaeda' NATO Working With Al CIAeda! http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&v=bfv1uPBmR5g

The Great Global Warming Swindle (Full Movie)

The film, made by British television producer Martin Durkin, presents scientists, economists, politicians, writers, and others who dispute the scientific consensus regarding anthropogenic global warming. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ov0WwtPcALE&feature=youtu.be

WikiLeaks cables reveal how US manipulated climate accord

Damian Carrington guardian.co.uk, Friday 3 December 2010 21.30 GMT

Embassy dispatches show America used spying, threats and promises of aid to get support for Copenhagen Accord.

WikiLeaks cables expose US use of espionage before the 2009 Copenhagen summit.

Hidden behind the save-the-world rhetoric of the global climate change negotiations lies the mucky realpolitik: money and threats buy political support; spying and cyber warfare are used to seek out leverage.

The US diplomatic cables reveal how the US seeks dirt on nations opposed to its approach to tackling global warming; how financial and other aid is used by countries to gain political backing; how distrust, broken promises and creative accounting dog negotiations; and how the US mounted a secret global diplomatic offensive to overwhelm opposition to the controversial "Copenhagen accord", the unofficial document that emerged from the ruins of the Copenhagen climate change summit in 2009.

Negotiating a climate treaty is a high-stakes game, not just because of the danger warming poses to civilisation but also because re-engineering the global economy to a low-carbon model will see the flow of billions of dollars redirected.

Seeking negotiating chips, the US state department sent a secret cable on 31 July 2009 seeking human intelligence from UN diplomats across a range of issues, including climate change. The request originated with the CIA. As well as countries' negotiating positions for Copenhagen, diplomats were asked to provide evidence of UN environmental "treaty circumvention" and deals between nations.

But intelligence gathering was not just one way. On 19 June 2009, the state department sent a cable detailing a "spear phishing" attack on the office of the US climate change envoy, Todd Stern, while talks with China on emissions took place in Beijing. Five people received emails, personalised to look as though they came from the National Journal. An attached file contained malicious code that would give complete control of the recipient's computer to a hacker. While the attack was unsuccessful, the department's cyber threat analysis division noted: "It is probable intrusion attempts such as this will persist."

The Beijing talks failed to lead to a global deal at Copenhagen. But the US, the world's biggest historical polluter and long isolated as a climate pariah, had something to cling to. The Copenhagen accord, hammered out in the dying hours but not adopted into the UN process, offered to solve many of the US's problems.

The accord turns the UN's top-down, unanimous approach upside down, with each nation choosing palatable targets for greenhouse gas cuts. It presents a far easier way to bind in China and other rapidly growing countries than the UN process. But the accord cannot guarantee the global greenhouse gas cuts needed to avoid dangerous warming. Furthermore, it threatens to circumvent the UN's negotiations on extending the Kyoto protocol, in which rich nations have binding obligations. Those objections have led many countries – particularly the poorest and most vulnerable – to vehemently oppose the accord.

Getting as many countries as possible to associate themselves with the accord strongly served US interests, by boosting the likelihood it would be officially adopted. A diplomatic offensive was launched. Diplomatic cables flew thick and fast between the end of Copenhagen in December 2009 and late February 2010, when the leaked cables end.

Some countries needed little persuading. The accord promised $30bn (£19bn) in aid for the poorest nations hit by global warming they had not caused. Within two weeks of Copenhagen, the Maldives foreign minister, Ahmed Shaheed, wrote to the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, expressing eagerness to back it.

By 23 February 2010, the Maldives' ambassador-designate to the US, Abdul Ghafoor Mohamed, told the US deputy climate change envoy, Jonathan Pershing, his country wanted "tangible assistance", saying other nations would then realise "the advantages to be gained by compliance" with the accord.

A diplomatic dance ensued. "Ghafoor referred to several projects costing approximately $50m (£30m). Pershing encouraged him to provide concrete examples and costs in order to increase the likelihood of bilateral assistance."

The Maldives were unusual among developing countries in embracing the accord so wholeheartedly, but other small island nations were secretly seen as vulnerable to financial pressure. Any linking of the billions of dollars of aid to political support is extremely controversial – nations most threatened by climate change see the aid as a right, not a reward, and such a link as heretical. But on 11 February, Pershing met the EU climate action commissioner, Connie Hedegaard, in Brussels, where she told him, according to a cable, "the Aosis [Alliance of Small Island States] countries 'could be our best allies' given their need for financing".

The pair were concerned at how the $30bn was to be raised and Hedegaard raised another toxic subject – whether the US aid would be all cash. She asked if the US would need to do any "creative accounting", noting some countries such as Japan and the UK wanted loan guarantees, not grants alone, included, a tactic she opposed. Pershing said "donors have to balance the political need to provide real financing with the practical constraints of tight budgets", reported the cable.

Along with finance, another treacherous issue in the global climate negotiations, currently continuing in Cancún, Mexico, is trust that countries will keep their word. Hedegaard asks why the US did not agree with China and India on what she saw as acceptable measures to police future emissions cuts. "The question is whether they will honour that language," the cable quotes Pershing as saying.

Trust is in short supply on both sides of the developed-developing nation divide. On 2 February 2009, a cable from Addis Ababa reports a meeting between the US undersecretary of state Maria Otero and the Ethiopian prime minister, Meles Zenawi, who leads the African Union's climate change negotiations.

The confidential cable records a blunt US threat to Zenawi: sign the accord or discussion ends now. Zenawi responds that Ethiopia will support the accord, but has a concern of his own: that a personal assurance from Barack Obama on delivering the promised aid finance is not being honoured.

US determination to seek allies against its most powerful adversaries – the rising economic giants of Brazil, South Africa, India, China (Basic) – is set out in another cable from Brussels on 17 February reporting a meeting between the deputy national security adviser, Michael Froman, Hedegaard and other EU officials.

Froman said the EU needed to learn from Basic's skill at impeding US and EU initiatives and playing them off against each in order "to better handle third country obstructionism and avoid future train wrecks on climate".

Hedegaard is keen to reassure Froman of EU support, revealing a difference between public and private statements. "She hoped the US noted the EU was muting its criticism of the US, to be constructive," the cable said. Hedegaard and Froman discuss the need to "neutralise, co-opt or marginalise unhelpful countries including Venezuela and Bolivia", before Hedegaard again links financial aid to support for the accord, noting "the irony that the EU is a big donor to these countries". Later, in April, the US cut aid to Bolivia and Ecuador, citing opposition to the accord.

Any irony is clearly lost on the Bolivian president, Evo Morales, according to a 9 February cable from La Paz. The Danish ambassador to Bolivia, Morten Elkjaer, tells a US diplomat that, at the Copenhagen summit, "Danish prime minister Rasmussen spent an unpleasant 30 minutes with Morales, during which Morales thanked him for [$30m a year in] bilateral aid, but refused to engage on climate change issues."

After the Copenhagen summit, further linking of finance and aid with political support appears. Dutch officials, initially rejecting US overtures to back the accord, make a startling statement on 25 January. According to a cable, the Dutch climate negotiator Sanne Kaasjager "has drafted messages for embassies in capitals receiving Dutch development assistance to solicit support [for the accord]. This is an unprecedented move for the Dutch government, which traditionally recoils at any suggestion to use aid money as political leverage." Later, however, Kaasjager rows back a little, saying: "The Netherlands would find it difficult to make association with the accord a condition to receive climate financing."

Perhaps the most audacious appeal for funds revealed in the cables is from Saudi Arabia, the world's second biggest oil producer and one of the 25 richest countries in the world. A secret cable sent on 12 February records a meeting between US embassy officials and lead climate change negotiator Mohammad al-Sabban. "The kingdom will need time to diversify its economy away from petroleum, [Sabban] said, noting a US commitment to help Saudi Arabia with its economic diversification efforts would 'take the pressure off climate change negotiations'."

The Saudis did not like the accord, but were worried they had missed a trick. The assistant petroleum minister Prince Abdulaziz bin Salman told US officials that he had told his minister Ali al-Naimi that Saudi Arabia had "missed a real opportunity to submit 'something clever', like India or China, that was not legally binding but indicated some goodwill towards the process without compromising key economic interests".

The cables obtained by WikiLeaks finish the end of February 2010. Today, 116 countries have associated themselves with the accord. Another 26 say they intend to associate. That total, of 140, is at the upper end of a 100-150 country target revealed by Pershing in his meeting with Hedegaard on 11 February.

The 140 nations represent almost 75% of the 193 countries that are parties to the UN climate change convention and, accord supporters like to point out, are responsible for well over 80% of current global greenhouse gas emissions.

At the mid-point of the major UN climate change negotiations in Cancún, Mexico, there have already been flare-ups over how funding for climate adaptation is delivered. The biggest shock has been Japan's announcement that it will not support an extension of the existing Kyoto climate treaty. That gives a huge boost to the accord. US diplomatic wheeling and dealing may, it seems, be bearing fruit.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/dec/03/wikileaks-us-manipulated-climate-accord

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Until next time,
dream big dreams,
read widely,
think well of your fellow man,
eat food that's good for you
and do the important things
that make a difference -
they are rarely the urgent ones!

How To Live The Healthiest Life


Tom Grimshaw creates software, healthy snacks and
is also an optimum wellness researcher/writer who
enjoys bringing you the oldest and newest tips to
improve each of your 12 pillars of Optimal Health.

Check out the special report he has compiled here
How to Live The Healthiest Life