South Asia Current Affairs

Sunday, 26 June 2011

'It seemed like a good idea at the time': why Nick D'Arcy hit Simon Cowley

Swimmer Nick D'Arcy told police "it seemed like a good idea at the time" after he assaulted fellow swimmer Simon Cowley in a Sydney bar, a court has heard.
Cowley is suing D'Arcy for damages in the NSW District Court over the incident three years ago at The Loft that left him with significant injuries including multiple face fractures.
Paul Hayes, representing D’Arcy, said that Cowley and D’Arcy had been unknown to each other when they found themselves in the Sydney bar.

'Seemed like a good idea at the time' ... Nick D'Arcy Photo: Getty Images

Cowley's lawyer, Patrick Saidi, said Cowley was king hit in the early hours of March 30, 2008.
His most recent major operation, a jaw alignment correction, had been in June last year, and he required plates in his face, Mr Saidi said.
He told the court today that Cowley had spent $40,000 on medical expenses and had been forced to leave his job with WPS financial services because of the attack.

Suing ... Simon Cowley. Photo: Steven Siewert

Mr Saidi said that Cowley had suffered significant disadvantage as a result of the facial injuries he suffered when struck in the face by D'Arcy’s elbow.
He said he had required plates to be inserted and for a time he had to wear braces on his teeth and on June 2 last year he had required further surgery to correct the alignment of his jaw.
Cowley had been working for WPS financial services but was forced to resign because the people he was dealing with had only been interested in what had really happened between him and D'Arcy.
Cowley was due to start a job with Singapore Airlines last week but he had left that to undertake further studies to further his career.
D'Arcy, 23, was given a suspended jail sentence of 14 months and 12 days and placed on a conditional good behaviour bond n 2009 after pleading guilty to recklessly inflicting grievous bodily harm.
He lost his place on the Olympic swimming team for the 2008 Beijing games and was excluded from Australia's world championship swimming team in 2009.
The court was told D'Arcy, moments after the incident, told police who asked why he hit Cowley: "I don't know, it seemed like a good idea at the time. I guess it doesn't though now."
Mr Saidi said self-defence would not be available because of D'Arcy's guilty plea in the criminal matter.
Fellow swimmer Eamon Sullivan and Cowley's parents are expected to give evidence on Monday.
The hearing before Judge Anthony Puckeridge is continuing.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/sport/swimming/it-seemed-like-a-good-idea-at-the-time-why-nick-darcy-hit-simon-cowley-20110627-1gmlc.html#ixzz1QRxGyDd2

Oral sex expected of Gen Y: survey

Gen-Y women feel pressured to give oral sex, according to a new survey.

ORAL sex is now so commonplace among Generation Y women that many say they feel it's expected of them.
Half the women aged 16 to 25 surveyed by Family Planning NSW said they had sometimes been pressured to give oral sex, and many reported that young men ''expect'' to receive it.
''Most people I know that have oral sex only do it because everyone else does, and if you don't, you're frigid,'' one 16-year-old girl told the researchers.
Another young woman, aged 25, said: ''When doing it for the first few times as a young teenager, you feel you must do it to impress the guy you like.''
Despite this, the survey of 250 young women's attitudes towards oral sex, published in the latest Youth Studies Australia journal, found that young women were overwhelmingly positive about oral sex - 82 per cent said they found it ''enjoyable and rewarding''.
The most common reason for having oral sex, according to the survey was: ''It feels good.''
While some of the young women said the practice promoted intimacy, a quarter of those surveyed saw oral sex as a less intimate alternative to penetrative sex, for which they said ''they weren't ready''.
A further 14 per cent considered oral sex safer than other forms of sex, because there was no risk of pregnancy and less risk of picking up a sexually transmitted disease.
The survey reinforced the findings of the latest national survey of secondary students by La Trobe University's Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society. In 2008, 57 per cent of students said they'd had oral sex by the time they were in year 12.
But the Family Planning survey indicated that, contrary to popular belief, young women were not getting their information about oral sex from pornography or movies or television. Half of the young women polled (48 per cent) talked about oral sex with their friends, and roughly a third of them (32 per cent) learned about oral sex from magazines.
A 2008 Senate inquiry into the sexualisation of children rejected calls to classify Girlfriend and Dolly as suitable for those 15 and older.
''It's a big part of why teen magazines exist,'' said Girlfriend magazine's editor Sarah Cornish. ''To answer these questions.''

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/victoria/oral-sex-expected-of-gen-y-survey-20110626-1gm20.html#ixzz1QRwxsee3

Planes versus ferries: weighing the costs

The federal transport minister Anthony Albanese this morning popped out a media release that won’t be heard by a legion of shivering mainlanders thinking about a beach in Queensland.
The minister reckons that, since 2007, the feds have pumped more than $120 million into subsidising holidays in Tassie through the state-owned TT Line, which is the Apple Isle’s lifeline to the rest of Australia for both tourism and commerce in general.
This morning, he announced that Canberra would continue to index the subsidies, which now amount to $194 one-way (up $6) for a standard car and $386 (up $12) for a motorhome or a car towing a caravan.
Considering all the other controversies swirling around Australia at the moment, I reckon what they call the Bass Strait Passenger Vehicle Equalisation Scheme is a no-brainer and a worthy use of our taxes.
For a start, most of the money is spent supporting the Tassie Government’s shipping company, TT Line, which is no black hole. It is actually making a small profit and this month it is due to become debt-free, having paid off nearly $200 million worth of ships, the Spirit of Tasmania 1 and 2.
The government stats boffins, the Bureau of Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Economics, believe the subsidy is increasing the number of people taking their cars to Tassie by up to 28 per cent a year. A 2008-09 study showed more than 12,000 people took their cars on the Bass Strait ferry only because of the deal-sweetener made available by the government.
It should be pointed out that the ferry isn’t a cheap way to get to Tassie per se, but it’s cheap if you calculate the cost of the alternative: flying to Tassie and renting a car to get around in.
For example, this morning I looked ahead at the cost of the cheapest passenger option, a “recliner” seat, plus a standard car for travel a month out in July and it was going to set me back $400 return.
Different fares are made available at different times of the year – for example in the traditionally “low” seasons of November and February, although the seasonal lines are being blurred more and more as each year passes.
It’s evident that TT Line is hanging on to a fair bit of the subsidy from Canberra, but turn it into an airfare and five days car hire and I’d say you’d be well ahead taking the boat.
Of course, prime time for Tassie is November to March; June is prime time for the toasting rays up north.
But there are worse things than a cold-climate holiday and I’d reckon Tassie isn’t just popular among our wandering tribes of caravanners.

Read more: http://www.theage.com.au/travel/blogs/travellers-check/planes-versus-ferries-weighing-the-costs-20110627-1gmku.html#ixzz1QRwb4Dmi

Aussie girl's 'Facebook song' a viral hit

A 16-year-old Australian girl who posted a video of herself singing with a guitar while describing her annoyances with Facebook has gone viral.
Madelaine Zammit of Adelaide, South Australia and her "Facebook song" were brought into the spotlight over the weekend after international blogs Mashable, The Daily What, Geekologie and Failblog posted about it.
According to Madelaine's manager, Sam Helyard, also 16 and a close friend, she was "hysterical with excitement" when told of how her song began to go viral. "She couldn't believe it."

Watch the song here (Warning: coarse language)

Shot into YouTube stardom ... Madelaine Zammit.

The song was written by Madelaine about 3 months ago, Sam said, and was only posted to YouTube at the beginning of this month. "I told her to record a song and put it on YouTube ... it's just gone from there."
The video describes of common Facebook experiences many adolescents go through. As of this morning it had been viewed 150,781 times and had 3076 "likes". By 12 pm it reached 156,462 views and had 3246 likes.
Further, Madelaine's Facebook fan page "Madelaine Zammit Music" - created by Sam only a week ago - has attracted more than 6000 fans and thousands of supportive comments.

Madelaine Zammit. Photo: Facebook/Madelaine Zammit Music

"I [want to] give you a hug," one of the comments on her Facebook page said. "It's a hilarious song. [I am going to] go and make everyone I know watch and listen. Will you pretty please make it availible (sic) on iTunes?"
In one Facebook experience Madelaine describes of "another 40-year-old man" attempting to add her as a "friend" on the social networking site. In another she describes how a number of male youths post pictures of their cars instead of images of themselves and how young girls wanting attention were "posting photos of them[selves] wearing nothing but their extensions".

Read Complete Article….

Resolve to get your act together

Salary sacrificer ... Melanie Rowe, 30, is well aware of the historical retirement shortfall experienced by women. Photo: Simon Alekna

Cue the party hats. It's almost a new financial year and David Potts has a few tips to steer you towards a wealth correction.
That New Year's resolution has probably fallen by the wayside, so here's another chance. A new financial year is about to begin, thank goodness.
This one has been nothing to write home about, that's for sure. The super's probably going backwards, along with the sharemarket and property prices; the job's been getting tougher; and to top it all off, prices of things you can't avoid are surging.
And the new financial year is off to a bad start with the flood levy, the prospect of higher interest rates and even bigger jumps in council and utility rates, not to mention food prices.

Happy financial new year, almost.

Can I make a suggestion? Let's resolve not to talk ourselves into a recession, which we will the way we're going.
Things will get better when the long-awaited mining investment boom finally kicks in some time before Christmas.
So hang in there and think about what else you need to do in the new financial year.
I've come up with a few sample resolutions from which you might like to choose:
1. I will not be spooked by the sharemarket
Keep your head while all around you others - about 40 per cent of the market, give or take the odd hedge fund - are losing theirs.
''The importance of the dollar can't be understated. Forty per cent of the market is owned by foreigners,'' says CommSec economist Savanth Sebastian, who tips the market will reach 5250 in a year's time, a 14 per cent rise.
And they're flighty. Past about $US1.05, they opt out by taking some profits. But what looks expensive to them is cheaper for us.
The point about booming commodity prices is that they add to our wealth, which then washes through the economy - and into the sharemarket.