Month: October 2004

“The world’s first privately funded manned spacecraft soared to the blackened frontiers of space for the second time in a week on Monday, setting set a new altitude record and clinching a $10 million prize designed to spur commercial space travel SpaceShipOne, a stubby, three-seat rocket plane, hurtled to a height of 367,442 feet surpassing…

The federal government offered a $36.4 million subsidy to shale oil company Southern Pacific Petroleum (SPP) in exchange for the company taking Greenpeace to court, the environmental group said today. Greenpeace said it had obtained a departmental email which referred to a 2002 cabinet decision to provide SPP with the subsidy each year if it…

“THOUSANDS of people from a variety of community and political groups took to the streets today as part of a nationwide ‘End the Lies’ campaign to oust the Howard government.”

“The Federal Government and fossil-fuel industry executives discussed ways to stifle growing investment in renewable energy projects at a secret meeting earlier this year. Prime Minister John Howard called the meeting on May 6, five weeks before releasing the energy white paper on June 14. The white paper favours massive investment in research to make…

A new report released today has highlighted the dangers of geosequestration, the Howard Government’s key response to climate change. Not only is this unproven technology more expensive than other options, it would also delay action on greenhouse pollution for decades. Geosequestration, capturing and burying the greenhouse pollution from coal fired power stations, is unproven and…

AN IBM machine has reclaimed the title of world’s fastest supercomputer, overtaking a Japanese model which caused shock waves within United States government agencies when it set a computing speed record in 2002. Supercomputing technologies were widely viewed as indicators of national industrial prowess in the 1980s and 1990s. They are used extensively in weapons…