News: Your phone is ringing. Through your skin.

Nokia applies for vibrating skin patent

So, how much more connected to your mobile phone do you want to be? Phone giant Nokia might have the answer for those especially daring among you. It has described details of a patent that would allow users to have a tattoo, stamp or spray on their skin using a ‘ferromagnetic’ material which links to another device. Mobile, tablet, laptop, you name it.

When your phone rings, or you get a new calendar alert, your skin rings too. Or, more accurately, vibrates.

Different vibrations would mean different things such a low battery, a phone call or text message, a reminder of a meeting or birthday, or even who is calling.

So, sound like something you’d be into?

Firefighters in drag called on to put out car fire

Well this might brighten your day. These US firefighters were wearing women’s clothes as part of a fundraising parade (as you do) when there was an emergency call for a vehicle fire. Rather than wait, they grabbed the hose and dashed to the rescue in all their dressed up splendour.

Prove you’re not malnourished, Israel says to models

Israel has passed a law this week that requires models to be in the ‘healthier’ weight ranges before they can work.

The new law requires models to produce a medical report no older than three months at every shoot for the Israeli market, stating that they are not malnourished by World Health Organization standards.

The U.N. agency relies on the body mass index, calculated by factors of weight and height. WHO says a body mass index below 18.5 indicates malnutrition. According to that standard, a woman 1.72 meters tall (5-feet-8) should weigh no less than 119 pounds (54 kilograms). On top of this, any advertisement for the Israeli market must disclose if it digitally ‘thinned’ its models.

It is estimated half of Israel’s 300 models would need to gain weight to work again. Critics said the laws should have focused on health and not weight.

Opponents of Indigenous Intervention to rally in Canberra

Opposition to the extended measures of the Northern Territory Indigenous Intervention, slightly changed under the Labor Government and called ‘Stronger Futures’, will meet in Canberra today to deliver a petition of 33,000 signatures against the bills which passed the House of Reps and will soon be debated in the Senate.

Farifax reported:

The legislation includes measures to expand income management, extend alcohol restrictions and pornography bans, continue limits on courts considering cultural practice or customary law in bail and sentencing decisions, and allow for the continuation of a program under which parents of truant children can have their welfare payments suspended.

A Senate committee report tabled last week warned that proposed tougher penalties for alcohol offences could exacerbate already alarming rates of Aboriginal incarceration, and recommended minor offences be dealt with through infringement notices. Senators also expressed concern about proposals to allow state and territory authorities to refer people for income management, which means a portion of their income may only be spent on essentials such as food and clothing.

Aussie kids some of the the most chauffeured

An Australian Heart Foundation survey has shown Australian kids take dramatically less public transport and cycle or walk far less than they used to. Some 64 per cent of kids are driven, either by the family or a carpool, while some 56 per cent caught public transport, biked or walked. Respondents could choose more than one transport option.

”There’s been an increase in parents’ perceptions of the danger, including where a child is kidnapped in Portugal, the UK or the USA, suddenly everybody knows about it around the world. But you could argue the greatest risk is sitting at home eating chips because that will probably do them more harm in the long run,” said Deakin University’s Dr Jan Garrard.

Billionaire miner Clive Palmer thinks CIA out to get coal

While announcing his thoughts on the passage of the Australian Government’s mining tax (a 30 per cent tax on big miners once profits hit $75 million) Queensland mining magnate Clive Palmer let slip that he thought greens groups were on the payroll of America’s infamous Central Intelligence Agency.

Mr Palmer turned his attention to a report by Greenpeace and other anti-coal groups, titled Stopping the Australian Coal Export Boom, which outlined an environmental campaign designed to disrupt and delay the expansion of the industry.

“This is funded by the CIA,” he said.

“You only have to go back and read … the report to the US Congress that sets up the Rockefeller Foundation as a conduit of CIA funding.

“You only have to look at the secret budget which was passed by Congress last year – bigger than our whole national economy – with the CIA to ensure that.

“You only have to read the reports to US Congress where the CIA reported to the president that their role was to ensure the US competitive advantage – that’s how you know it’s funded by the CIA.”

Mayor of ‘The Shire’ vows to stop Jersey Shore-like show

Sutherland Mayor Carol Provan says she and her council will use ‘any means possible’ to prevent producers filming in the notorious Sutherland region of Sydney (otherwise known as the Shire) for its new ‘dramality’ show in the same style as MTV’s Jersey Shore and Britain’s The Only Way is Essex.

Fairfax reported:

On March 19 the council reportedly put forward a motion at a council meeting saying they did “not approve the filming of The Shire and [would] not co-operate in any way with the production”.

“We saw a leaked clip of the show, all the councillors saw it and here’s this girl saying “I want to be a porn star”, there was a guy saying “I like false boobs”, another one saying “I’m going to shove her down the stairs” and of course the red lights went on,” Ms Provan said.

“It’s taken us a long time to heal from the Sylvania Waters reality show and then of course we had that drama (the Cronulla riots) five years ago, we’re only just getting over all that and we just don’t need this type of publicity. Our legal people are now trying to find ways to stop them.”