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Asylum Seekers: Drowning on Our Watch
Jess Hill Background Briefing 1 September 2013 audio mirrored online here Transcript Jess Hill: On the 19th of June last year, a desperate call for help was made from a small wooden fishing boat bound for Christmas Island. Caller: Please, please help me. Dan: Okay. Caller: Please help me...200, 200 person with me. Ship is very heavy. Dan: Okay. Did you say there's 200 on the boat? Caller: Yeah, yeah, that's it. Jess Hill: The boat was grossly overcrowded with more than 200 men and boys, mostly Pakistanis and Afghans fleeing the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Ahmed: [translated] For most of us, it was our very first time on a boat in an open sea with no sight of land. Obviously it was very scary, and calling Australian authorities and seeking their help was the only thing we thought could save our lives. Jess Hill: Over two days, they made 16 calls for help to Australian authorities. The boat was in Indonesia's search and rescue zone, so Australia's maritime safety authority transferred responsibility to its Indonesian counterpart, BASARNAS. But 32 hours after the first call was made, the man who made it—and 101 others—were dead. George Newhouse: How can a safety authority in good conscience hand over responsibility for people's lives - for saving people's lives - to an organisation that they know is not capable of fulfilling that role? Jess Hill: This question has been at the heart of a recent coronial inquest into the sinking of this boat, the SIEV 358, also codenamed the Kaniva. Marco Tedeschi: I mean, I think they knew that BASARNAS can't effectively respond once the boat is sort of 30, 40 nautical miles off the coast of Indonesia. That's the reality, and we know that. Jess Hill: In fact, off the coast of Java, from where the majority of asylum boats leave, BASARNAS, Indonesia's search and rescue agency, has a search and rescue range much shorter than that. Rochmali: [translated] We can't rescue people too far out to sea. We can only go one to five nautical miles from shore. After that we can't do anything. Jess Hill: Since 2001, almost 1,400 asylum seekers have drowned between Indonesia and Australia. More than 300 have drowned in the past 12 months alone. Why have so many asylum seekers drowned on their way to Australia, and could we have done more to save them? Hello, and welcome to Background Briefing, I'm Jess Hill. In the past few years, hundreds of unseaworthy boats have made the treacherous journey from Indonesia to Christmas Island. When these boats run into trouble at sea, it's now common practice for asylum seekers to call Australia for help. But while Christmas Island is Australian territory, the stretch of ocean between there and Indonesia is almost entirely within Indonesia's search and rescue zone. According to former Australian ambassador Tony Kevin, Indonesia has neither the resources nor the inclination to rescue asylum seekers at sea. Tony Kevin: There is a lack of resources, there is a lack of bureaucratic coordination, there is even a lack of will on the part of Indonesian agencies to do anything about these boats that have left Indonesia permanently, they're not coming back. Basically Indonesia washes its hands of these boats the minute they leave port. Jess Hill: But he reserves his strongest criticism for Australia's maritime search and rescue authority, AMSA. Tony Kevin has been an outspoken critic of Australian search and rescue authorities since 2001, when 353 asylum seekers drowned on a boat known as SIEV X. Tony Kevin: We don't seem to be able to engage in a sustained, morally based critique of why 1,000 people have died at sea, and Australia's approaches over the last four years. I mean, that is a shocking statistic. It's shocking in the sense that many of these deaths were avoidable. Jess Hill: Were they avoidable? Background Briefing has looked at the circumstances around four sinkings over the past two years, in which more than 400 asylum seekers drowned. What emerges is a disturbing pattern of delays, cover-ups and communication breakdowns, and questions about the adequacy of Australia's response. The people who drowned on the SIEV 358, which sank in June 2012, weren't the only deaths that Australia could have prevented. In December 2011, an asylum seeker boat called the Barokah left the coast of Java with 250 people on board. One of them was Esmat Adine. Esmat Adine: I couldn't even find a place to sit, I just sit in the aisle in front of the window. Jess Hill: Esmat Adine fled Afghanistan after his work for Australian and American aid agencies made him a target for the Taliban. After arriving in Indonesia, he went to the Australian embassy to request asylum, but officials said there was nothing they could do. So in the dead of night on December 17, 2011, Esmat Adine got on a boat. Just a few hours out of port, when it was around 40 nautical miles off the cost of Java, the boat ran into trouble. Esmat Adine: I was just lying, I was sick, and the water touched my feet. When I opened my eyes I saw that the boat was capsized. At first I couldn't believe that our boat has sank. But I saw a toy is coming from the inside of the boat; it is coming by water. When it comes close to me, I realise that no, that was not a toy, that was a kid. That was a kid named Daniel. Daniel was with his mother, they were sitting in front of me. And after that, when I saw Daniel's body, I realised that yeah, our boat has sank, and there is no hope for us to be alive. Jess Hill: That afternoon, a passing fishing boat found around 100 people desperately clinging to debris. Esmat Adine: They were alive, most of them were alive. About 100 people were alive. Jess Hill: The small fishing boat was only able to rescue 34 people. Esmat Adine was one of them. He tried to reassure those still in the water. Esmat Adine: I shouted on them that, 'Be patient, we go now, we will bring you more boats, and they will rescue you.' Jess Hill: That evening, Australian agencies became aware the Barokah had sunk. They notified Indonesian authorities, because the boat was in their search and rescue zone. Months later, customs officials would tell a Senate Estimates hearing that Indonesia had initially declined Australia's offer to help with the search and rescue. But documents subsequently obtained by The Sun-Herald under freedom of information laws show that just a few hours after they learned of the sinking, BASARNAS, Indonesia's search and rescue agency, asked AMSA to coordinate the rescue response. But AMSA refused, stating that the boat was in Indonesia's search and rescue zone. For two days, while men, women and children struggled to survive in waves up to six metres high, Indonesia and Australia did nothing. Finally, BASARNAS asked again for help. This time, AMSA agreed. Jason Clare, the Minister for Home Affairs, went on ABC News Breakfast to talk up the government's response. Jason Clare [archival]: We made the offer yesterday of a P3 surveillance aircraft, as well as an Armidale-class patrol boat. The Indonesians have accepted that offer. And so this morning, that patrol boat and surveillance aircraft will head into the search and rescue region. Channel 10 News [archival]: Wild weather is hampering the frantic rescue mission for an asylum boat which sunk overnight off the Indonesian coast. Around 250 people were on board, bound for Australia. Jess Hill: A passing coal carrier picked up another 13 people, but by the time Australian authorities reached the scene, they found no more survivors. A total of 201 people were dead. Survivor Esmat Adine says the response from both countries was inhumane. Esmat Adine: People are being killed, and here, two governments they compete with each other. They don't even think that their peoples are dying in the water. Jess Hill: Six months later, AMSA handed responsibility for another asylum boat in distress to the hopelessly ill-equipped BASARNAS. This was the SIEV 358, on which 102 people drowned. As we'll hear, their deaths have been the subject of an extensive coronial inquiry. Following this tragic incident, the Australian government made commitments to improve search and rescue coordination between the two countries. Then in April this year, asylum seekers were again left to drown as AMSA and BASARNAS failed to collaborate efficiently. The ABC's Indonesia correspondent George Roberts explained. George Roberts [archival]: There are various reports coming through that about 60 people are missing and that there might have been as many as 72 people on board that boat, or perhaps more, and that 14 people were plucked from the sea by fishermen. All we've been able to find out so far, unless things have changed since late last night, AMSA wasn't helping yet or Australian authorities weren't helping yet and Indonesian hadn't launched its own search. So, it seems to be the same kind of stand-off we had last year where Australia knew there was a problem, Indonesia was incapable of being able to help and as a result people are left in the water for hours on end. Jess Hill: Fifty-eight people are still missing. Then in June this year, another boat sank, this time within easy reach of Australian patrol boats. A Customs plane sighted it 28 nautical miles from Christmas Island, just four miles outside its interception zone. Approximately 55 men, women and children were seen on deck, waving at the plane. After the event, the government claimed the boat had shown no visual signs of distress. But official documents from AMSA's Rescue Coordination Centre, released to Fairfax under freedom of information laws, showed that Customs had reported the boat as being 'dead in the water', and they had been concerned about the boat from the moment they sighted it. Without engine power, these rickety boats commonly capsize. The official incident timeline reveals that when the boat failed to arrive at Christmas Island, the admiral in charge of Defence and Border Protection Command asked the Rescue Coordination Centre to initiate a search. Tony Kevin: He was asking AMSA to issue a distress alert, a Pan Pan, which is one stage below a mayday. AMSA declined to do so, they said we're continuing to assess the evidence. Jess Hill: 'If debris is sighted,' AMSA said, 'the surveillance would then move to a search and rescue phase.' Tony Kevin: That boat subsequently disappeared. We didn't send out an interception vessel for eight hours, by which time it was after dark. We found the capsized hull floating underwater, 60 miles to the west two days later. Jess Hill: There were no survivors. Thirteen bodies were found in the water but, controversially, Customs and Border Protection didn't retrieve them, citing other operational priorities. Tony Kevin: We never recovered any bodies, and therefore there may never be a legal basis for a coronial inquest. What concerns me greatly now is what you might call a systemic culture of scepticism of asylum seeker distress claims, a spirit of 'we'd better wait and see what happens to this, if they're really in distress, because we know very often they're not.' Jess Hill: AMSA strongly rejects this. However, the question of when a call for help is deemed to be a genuine distress call was at the heart of a recent colonial inquest. The inquest was into the sinking of the boat known as SIEV 358. On June 19 last year, the SIEV 358 left the coast of Java, bound for Christmas Island. On the boat that night was 31-year old Hazara man Ahmed, who'd travelled to Indonesia from the portside city of Karachi, in Pakistan. An electric welder by trade, Ahmed had also been a volunteer social worker and a security guard at his local mosque. Background Briefing can't use Ahmed's real name because survivors from the SIEV 358 have had their names suppressed by the coroner. Extremist Sunni groups have openly vowed to eliminate Hazaras in Afghanistan and Pakistan. When two of Ahmed's relatives were shot, he decided to seek asylum in Australia, because it was the only country he knew of that was accepting refugees. He knew how dangerous the boat journey could be. Ahmed: [translated] Obviously I was afraid of the boat. I had heard that many people had drowned in the sea since 2000 and that they were never found. But I had no choice but to take the boat. I couldn't see any other option. Jess Hill: On the night of June 18, he and hundreds of other asylum seekers were driven to a beach in Java. They were told that two small boats would take them out to a big boat, anchored several kilometres offshore, which would then take them to Christmas Island. Ahmed: [translated] Two small boats were used to transport us to the big boat. By the time we got to the beach, one boat had already gone, so we were in the second boat. When we reached the big boat, there were people already on the boat screaming and yelling us, 'Don't board this boat! It's already full!' Jess Hill: Did you have an option to go back to the shore? Did you want to go back to the shore? Ahmed: [translated] It was a chaotic situation, because on one side we had people on the boat screaming at us not to board, and on the other side the Indonesians were pushing us to, 'Come on, get in, hurry up, the police are going to come, come on, we have to go!' Jess Hill: There were only enough lifejackets for around half the people on board. Ahmed managed to get his hands on one, and squeezed into a tiny spot on the deck next to some other Hazaras. The deck was so crowded, Ahmed couldn't even get up to go to the toilet. People sitting below deck said they had to be careful where they put their feet, for fear of falling through the floor. Several hours into the journey, the SIEV 358 ran aground on a sandbank. When some Indonesian fishing boats stopped to help dislodge it, one of the crewmembers said he said he didn't think it was going to make it to Christmas Island, and hitched a ride back to the mainland. That night, the sea turned violent. Ahmed: [translated] That night, when rough waves began hitting the boat, I started thinking that it was really going to be very hard for us to reach Australia. As the conditions got worse, I became more and more afraid. Jess Hill: As the boat lurched over four-metre waves, passengers had to bang pieces of timber back into place. Ahmed hung on desperately, convinced the boat was about to capsize. That night, at 7.52 pm, AMSA's Rescue Coordination Centre in Canberra received the first call from the boat. Caller: Please, please help me. Dan: Okay. Caller: Please help me, 200, 200 person with me. Ship is very heavy. Dan: Okay. Did you say there's 200 on the boat? Caller: Yeah, yeah, that's it. The weather is very…please, please help me. Dan: Okay. Yes, sir, I'm trying to help, but I need to know where you are. Jess Hill: The noise from the wind and the engine made the caller's broken English virtually impossible to understand. Dan: I can't understand. Do you speak Indonesian or Arabic? What language do you speak? Caller: Okay. No problem. Arabic, yeah, I know Arabic. Dan: Okay. Okay. You wait. You wait. I'll get, I'll get an Arabic speaker. Okay. I'm going to put…I'm going to put you on hold. Do not hang up. Jess Hill: Dan, the officer on shift that night, needed the caller to give him a clear GPS reading, so he put him on hold and dialled a translation service. Automated message: Thank you for calling the Translating and Interpreting Service, TIS National. An operator will be with you shortly. All our operators are busy at the moment. Dan: Oh no… Automated message: You have been placed in a queue. Please stand by… Dan: Are you able to pick him up from that end and just keep him on the line? [Audio: Hold music] Tania: TIS National, this is Tania. How can I help? Dan: G'day. My name's Dan. I'm calling from Rescue Coordination Centre in Canberra. One of my colleagues spoke to you earlier about arranging an Arabic speaker? Tania: Yes. Dan: Yeah, we've got, we've got the person on the line. Are you able to get him on? Tania: Yep, no worries. Have you got your client code at all for the..? Dan: Have you got the client code at all? Jess Hill: Dan hurriedly read out the code, and an incident number. Tania: Okay, no worries, hold the line now, I'll call through to an interpreter for you, Dan. Dan: Thank you. [Audio: Hold music] Dan: Come on. Jess Hill: By the time the interpreter answered, the call from the boat had dropped out. It took three-and-a-half hours of broken exchanges for Dan to get a GPS reading from the boat. The coordinates revealed that the SIEV 358 was 38 nautical miles south of Indonesia. Caller: Hello? Dan: Sir, your…your boat, if it's broken, you need to turn back to Indonesia. You are still inside Indonesian waters. If your boat is broken, Christmas Island is a long way away. You need to go back to Indonesia. Caller: Okay, okay, okay. Dan: Okay, if you…are you there? Well, I sorted that out. [laughs] Jess Hill: That's where the recording ends. The RCC contacted BASARNAS, and asked them to coordinate the search and rescue response. The communication problem was obvious. Adrian Johnson: Rescue Coordination Centre, Adrian Johnson. Imam: Good evening, sir. Adrian Johnson: Yes, good morning. Imam: Can I speak with Mr [inaudible]? From Indonesia BASARNAS. Adrian Johnson: Oh sorry, you've rung the Rescue Coordination Centre in Australia, sir. Imam: Yah. Adrian Johnson: You wanted BASARNAS, did you? Imam: Oh, no, no, no, I mean, I am from BASARNAS. My name is Imam. Adrian Johnson: Oh, Imam, yes, go ahead Imam. Jess Hill: Under an agreement between Australian and Indonesia, whoever receives the first distress call is obliged to respond to it, no matter where the vessel is, until the relevant agency is able to take over. But after finding out where the boat was, all AMSA did for the next 7.5 hours was press BASARNAS to take responsibility for it. At the coronial inquest into the sinking, AMSA's director Alan Lloyd said they didn't launch a rescue response because the calls from the boat were not thought to be genuine distress calls. Background Briefing has dramatised the exchange between Alan Lloyd and the Counsel assisting the Coroner, Marco Tedeschi. It begins with Alan Lloyd. Alan Lloyd: RCC Australia was seeking information about the position of the boat. During the several phone calls, received information including the following: the vessel was in international waters, there were 204 male persons on board, no life jackets on board, no EPIRB, no water. The boat was old and had a lot of water. Request help, 'please help me', and that the vessel was from Indonesia. Marco Tedeschi: Now, can I stop you there? Would that amount to a distress call or an alert call? Alan Lloyd: In the context of the phone calls, it's what I would call the normal refugee patter. It normally takes us a number of hours to establish basic information. In fact, it can take a long time to get that basic positional 'who are you' type of information, and, of course, we listen to the context or the tone of the call. If someone's screaming down the phone at us…you know, a mayday call is quite distinct, or a distress call... Marco Tedeschi: Yes? Alan Lloyd: ...as opposed to the provision of information. So information wise, yes, it was looking for some form of assistance. I don't classify it as a distress call. Jess Hill: Alan Lloyd's reference to 'refugee patter' surprised many in the courtroom that day, including Tony Kevin. Tony Kevin: The statement by the AMSA chief witness that distress calls were interpreted as the normal refugee patter, that certainly sent a shiver through the whole courtroom, and the insensitivity and callousness of that statement was breathtaking. Apparently if you're an asylum seeker you're supposed to be jabbering hysterically, otherwise your call of distress will not be taken seriously. Jess Hill: Counsel assisting the Coroner, Marco Tedeschi, asked Alan Lloyd to read on. Again, this is a re-enactment. Alan Lloyd: The RCC received more calls from the boat at about 11.06 pm, 11.26 and 11.28 pm. The caller advised that the boat was broken on one side. Marco Tedeschi: Can I just stop you there for a moment? Would the information that the boat was broken on one side raise concern with the Rescue Coordination Centre people taking that call? Alan Lloyd: It was information, yes, it would be considered. Marco Tedeschi: But would…would that be something that you wouldn't categorise as refugee patter? Alan Lloyd: Unfortunately I would classify it as that. Marco Tedeschi: You would classify it as refugee patter? Alan Lloyd: Yes. Jess Hill: The West Australian coroner, Alastair Hope, interrupted. Alastair Hope: Well, if true, it indicated there was a possible emergency? Alan Lloyd: Yes, Your Honour, that there was a chance. I note from the transaction it was actually the word 'little broken', as opposed to 'broken', in the RCC's records. Jess Hill: Alan Lloyd told the court asylum seekers routinely make 'hoax' calls to the Rescue Coordination Centre, and that they generally follow a script. When he was asked to explain what would constitute a genuine distress call, he refused to say, because that was 'classified information' that would 'give away how people smugglers can manipulate the system'. Background Briefing wrote to AMSA requesting an interview several weeks ago. At the time that request was refused. They said that as the government was operating under caretaker conventions they would be unable to participate. But at the last minute, after they learned of specific allegations being made in this program, AMSA themselves requested an interview. Unfortunately we were unable to speak to anyone from the authority's emergency response division. Mal Larsen is AMSA's general manager of corporate relations. Mal Larsen: A key issue is to try to identify the precise problem. For instance, is it taking on water, are the engines broken, and the location of the vessel. So that's the key work we go through in the early phases when you talk about assessing a distress situation. It's finding basic information about where the vessel is. Jess Hill: That did happen in the SIEV 358, there was 16 distress calls, there was indications that the boat was broken on one side, the boat was taking on water, it was low in the water, and that people were afraid that it would imminently capsize. That call was still judged, according to Alan Lloyd, to be a hoax. Mal Larsen: No, that's not true, I reject that. We never thought that was a hoax. Jess Hill: He said it was not deemed to be a genuine distress call. Mal Larsen: The vessel was 40 miles from Indonesia, we worked with BASARNAS and they accepted coordination… Jess Hill: But Mal Larsen, okay, clear this up for me, because Alan Lloyd made a very significant point that that boat had been assessed as not being in distress. He made reference to hoax calls that the Rescue Coordination Centre receives from refugee vessels, and then said that the calls that they had received from the SIEV 358 could be described as refugee patter. Mal Larsen: The reality is that many calls from these vessels are giving us information which are designed to facilitate a rescue by an Australian vessel. We understand that, that's what they are trying to do, they're trying to get picked up by an Australian authority. Our job as a search and rescue agency is to try to ensure that people who are in distress get rescued. Jess Hill: One person who's had first-hand experience responding to asylum boats in distress is retired navy Lieutenant Commander Barry Learoyd. He spent two years commanding naval patrol boats tasked with intercepting asylum vessels on Australia's northern borders. Barry Learoyd: In my experience, any vessel that puts a radio call out that says that vessel's in distress, a mayday, and you are in a position to respond to that, then you are bound by maritime law and indeed by just your own values to do so. You've got to react to what you hear, and then make a decision once you're on the scene. You can't say, oh, that might just be a hoax call and disregard it. Someone on the water—a fellow mariner, whether that person is an asylum seeker or not—is in distress, and you are duty bound, if you're able to, to go and provide support to that vessel. Jess Hill: The first call for help from SIEV 358 was made to AMSA on the night of June 19. Eleven hours later, at seven o'clock the next morning, Indonesia accepted coordination of the incident. Marco Tedeschi said the hours wasted that night were critical. He spoke to Background Briefing via studio link from Perth. Marco Tedeschi: They did a terrific job in the first 3.5 hours in locating the position of the SIEV 358, they did that really well. But they spent the next 7.5 hours trying to transfer the responsibility to Indonesia, instead of just issuing an emergency broadcast to merchant vessels. And the evidence of Mr Lloyd was that within one and eight hours, that merchant vessels would have been able to respond. So they would have been able to get to SIEV 358 well before it sank. Under the search and rescue agreement between Australia and Indonesia, one of the things that's meant to be considered is who has the greater capability to undertake the search and rescue. So when the transfer of the responsibility took place, they considered the fact that the boat was closer to Indonesia at that stage. Fair enough, but they didn't consider who had the greater capability to respond. And that's one of the factors that should have been considered. The BASARNAS office in West Java is located on the coastline most commonly used by people smugglers. Background Briefing's Asia reporter, Rebecca Henschke, spoke to Rochmali, the head of operations. Rochmali: [translated] We have to use traditional fishing boats. If the waves are big and the rescue is close to the sea we use rubber boats. Rebecca Henschke: [translated] Is your BASARNAS office capable of conducting rescue operations in the open sea? Rochmali: [translated] These are traditional fishing boats, so they have small machines and we use paddles. We can't rescue people too far out to sea. We can only go one to five nautical miles from shore. After that we can't do anything. Jess Hill: People on the boat continued to call AMSA, begging to be rescued. Ahmed: [Translated] Every time a call was being made to the Australian authorities, everyone would think and would hope that the Australian authorities would say okay, we are now coming to rescue you. But the moment we would hear that we are still in Indonesian waters and they can't come, we would go back to feeling hopeless and scared. Jess Hill: The fate of the SIEV 358 was now in Indonesia's hands. Marco Tedeschi: Marco Tedeschi: It was very hard to work out what they did, but it was some kind of radio broadcast that they gave from different places in Indonesia. That was all they did. They didn't deploy a search and rescue vessel. And by the time SIEV 358 was 40 nautical miles or somewhere of that order off the coast of Indonesia, they weren't able to do it anyway. Jess Hill: At 3.15 that afternoon, an Australian Customs plane conducting routine surveillance spotted the SIEV 358. It told the RCC the vessel was low in the water, but there were no visual sign of distress. Footage taken by the plane was shown to the court. Marco Tedeschi: Marco Tedeschi: The boat did seem to be travelling under its own power, slowly, but in large seas. And that surveillance was taken from a distance of some kilometres away, covertly by a Dash-8. So the people on the boat wouldn't have known that an Australian aircraft had done some surveillance of them. Jess Hill: As the Customs plane covertly observed the SIEV 358 that afternoon, the People Smuggling Intelligence Analysis Group met in Canberra. The director of AMSA, Alan Lloyd, and representatives from Customs, Defence and other federal government agencies collectively assessed that the boat was not in distress. According to official transcripts, what you're about to hear is the last call the SIEV 358 made to the Rescue Coordination Centre. Caller: Sir, we want rescue fast. Can you please [unclear]… Mike: Yes, I heard that, sir. I heard you want rescue, but I need to talk to you about what is occurring, what is wrong on board. Caller: Are we in Australian water now? Mike: No, no, negative, not in Australia, no, not in Australian waters. You are still in Indonesian waters. You need to come further south. You have some way to go, sir. [beeps] He's gone. Jess Hill: At around 5 o'clock the next morning, a young Indonesian crewmember operating the bilge pump fell asleep. The engine flooded with water. One of the passengers cried out, 'Wake up!' Within seconds, the boat capsized. Ahmed: [translated] The moment when I fell off the boat into the water, my mind stopped thinking. All I could see around me was chaos. People were trying to get on to the debris of the boat, and there were people trying to grab hold of each other, trying to save themselves at the cost of others' deaths. Jess Hill: When the boat flipped over, dozens of people sitting below deck were trapped. As the people struggling in the water fought to grab hold of the upturned hull, an Indonesian crewmember tied one end of a rope to the boat's propeller shaft and the other around his waist, and jumped into the water to pull people back to the boat. But Ahmed moved away from the boat, hoping his lifejacket would keep him afloat. Ahmed: [translated] After a few minutes when I became more conscious of what was happening, I thought why am I going away from the boat, I should be nearby the boat if I want to save my life. But when I looked around, there was no boat. The boat was no longer there. Jess Hill: Powerful currents swept some survivors more than three nautical miles away from the boat. Ahmed: [translated] In the early morning, I could see the bodies floating on the water. I had to hang on to the bodies, because I was exhausted. After four or five hours, my lifejacket had torn apart. Some other people helped me to get another lifejacket from a dead body that was floating on the water. I approached the dead body and I took the lifejacket off the body. Jess Hill: A Customs plane flying over the area sighted them at one o'clock that afternoon. Half-an-hour later, RCC Australia issued an emergency broadcast to ships in the area and dispatched two Australian naval boats to the scene. The container ship the MV Dragon arrived on the scene 90 minutes later. Heavy swell slammed the upturned hull violently against the ship, but its crew still managed to rescue eight people who were clinging to it. Hours later, two more merchant ships would arrive and rescue 31 others. When the Australian navy boats HMAS Wollongong and HMAS Larakia arrived at 5.30 pm, they found people in orange lifejackets screaming for help, and blowing whistles to attract attention. As the sun set that evening, Australian navy personnel rescued Ahmed from of the water. Ahmed: [translated] They treated us very well, I would say more than well. When we first saw them coming, some of our friends could see the Australian flag. We had heard good things about the Australian navy, and it was proved to be true when they took us onto their boat. They were very good with us. Jess Hill: By the time 110 people were rescued, they had been struggling for 13 hours in rough seas. In all, 102 people went down with the boat. Customs commissioned an internal report, known as the Buckpitt Report, to investigate the circumstances that led to the sinking. It found that AMSA could have been more proactive in helping the boat, especially as the vessel moved further away from Indonesia, and would probably have been beyond the reach of Indonesian assistance. Detective Chief Inspector Dave Bryson, from West Australian Police's Major Crimes Unit, was assigned to investigate the sinking for the coronial inquest. He asked the Commonwealth to provide him with all the relevant documents they had. Marco Tedeschi: When the West Australian Police asked for this information they meant everything—you know, secret, not secret, all of it—and for some reason which is not entirely clear, the Australian Federal Police indicated that they didn't want the information to be passed on to the West Australian Police. Jess Hill: Half-an-hour before he was due to deliver his findings at the inquest, Detective Bryson discovered the Buckpitt Report had been concealed from him. Weeks of painstaking work, much of it duplicating material already in the Buckpitt Report, had been wasted. Angrily, he told the court he could no longer stand by his findings. Last month, the West Australian Coroner Alastair Hope ruled the deaths to be an accident, but added that the asylum seekers had been justified in their fears, and that clearly if a search and rescue response had been initiated significantly earlier than it was, all of the deaths could have been avoided. However, he also found that until the distress phase had been reached, it was not appropriate for commercial shipping, nor realistic for naval vessels, to go and check on the safety of the boat. He was critical of the communications between Indonesia and Australia, labelling them 'inadequate'. Tony Kevin attended the inquest and was there when the coroner delivered his findings. Tony Kevin: The Coroner was quite scathing of AMSA's lack of due diligence in checking that BASARNAS would respond adequately to the request to take on the responsibility for the rescue of SIEV 358. He pointed to the failure of AMSA to check properly as to what BASARNAS was doing to implement its rescue obligation, what equipment it had, what it did. He was quite scathing. Jess Hill: The Coroner recommended that Australia work with Indonesia to improve their combined search and rescue responses. AMSA corporate relations director Mal Larsen says changes have already been made. Mal Larsen: Circumstances have changed in the sense that there's a lot closer communication. We have communication officers embedded in each other's organisation, and in fact we have been training BASARNAS officers to issue their own broadcast to shipping. Now the situation is that AMSA will routinely work with passing ships if a vessel is seeking assistance, or, if there are Australian assets available, we will send them to the scene. Jess Hill: Counsel assisting the Coroner, Marco Tedeschi, says it will take a lot more than improving communications for Indonesia to be capable of properly responding to asylum boats in distress. Marco Tedeschi: I think the lesson for Australia is that basically we have the greater capability to respond. Once these refugee boats are more than about 30 nautical miles off the coast of Indonesia, or even less than that, really my view is that we have to take the responsibility for it because we have the greater capabilities. Jess Hill: The question that many people are asking is; if hundreds of Australian lives were at risk in a similar situation, would Australia rely on Indonesia to rescue them? Background Briefing's coordinating producer is Linda McGinness, research by Anna Whitfeld, technical production by Mark Don, the executive producer is Chris Bullock, and I'm Jess Hill. Further Information Chronology for sinking on June 7, 2013 Classified documents relating to the sinking of the Barokah in December 2011, released under FOI Customs Internal Review of the SIEV 358 - The Buckpitt Report Opening into the SIEV 358 coronial inquest by Counsel assisting the Coroner, Marco Tedeschi SIEVX website listing asylum boat sinkings since the SIEVX WA Coroner's findings on the SIEV 358 Credits Reporter Jess Hill Researcher Anna Whitfeld Supervising Producer Linda McGinness Sound Engineer Mark Don Executive Producer Chris Bullock |
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So you've loaded up your Kindle with free books, but you have a few other non-book documents you'd like to read on it. Here are some easy ways to send any web article, PDF, or document straight to your Kindle (or smartphone with the Kindle app).
Step One: Find Your Kindle Email Address
To set this up, we're going to use Kindle's Personal Document Syncing service, which relies on an email address—for example, [email protected]—to send articles to your device. Whatever you use is going to require you to know this address, so to find it, head to this page in Amazon's Kindle settings and click on "Personal Document Settings" in the left sidebar. You should see your Kindle's email address near the top of the page. Copy this down and enter it when you're prompted to by one of the apps in step two.
Step Two: Choose Your Sending Method
There are a few different ways to send documents to your Kindle. Here are a few of our favorites.
Via Email: If you have a PDF, DOC, HTML, RTF, or other compatible file, you can just attach it to an email and send it to your Kindle email address to have it show up in your Kindle library on your device. It isn't the fastest way to do it, but you can do it from nearly anywhere, so it's pretty convenient.
Amazon's Send to Kindle Desktop App: Amazon also has a desktop app for both Windows and OS X that lets you send compatible files to your Kindle just by right-clicking on them on your computer and pressing "Send to Kindle". This is especially handy if you send a lot of PDFs or DOC files.
The Klip.me Bookmarklet or Chrome Extension: If you're more of a web junkie, you'll love Klip.me. It has a bookmarklet that works on nearly any browser and will send any web article to your Kindle with one click. It also has a really cool Chrome extension that can grab an article, strip it of formatting and (if you so choose) images and then send it to your Kindle, which can be really nice. If you don't like Klip.me, you might also try the very popular Kindlebility bookmarklet, too.
You can also send articles to your Kindle from services like Instapaper Readability, though unless you've already stored those articles, it lengthens the process by one step—so the above choices are quicker if you stumble upon something and want to send it to your Kindle right away.
Step Three: Set Up Personal Document Syncing
Lastly, you'll need to authorize the above apps to send documents to your Kindle. Head back to Amazon's Kindle settings page, click on Personal Document Settings in the left sidebar, and scroll down to "Approved Personal Document Email List". From there, add a new email address and type in the address of whatever service you're using from step two—for example, if you're using Readability, you'll need to add [email protected]
to the approved list.
Lastly, you can send these articles over either USB, 3G, Wi-Fi. Here's how that works:
If you want to send articles over USB, you can use a slightly different version of your Kindle email address in the apps above: [email protected]
instead of [email protected]
. It should return to you a file compatible with your Kindle, which you can then drag over to it using a USB cable as described here.
If you have a Kindle with Wi-Fi or a smartphone, your articles should show up as soon as you have a valid Wi-Fi connection. You won't be charged for this service.
If you have a 3G-enabled Kindle, you can also send articles when you aren't near Wi-Fi using Amazon's Whispernet. You can enable this on the Personal Document Settings page, under "Whipspernet Delivery Options". When you enable this, Amazon will automatically send your articles over 3G if you don't have Wi-Fi connectivity and will charge you $0.15 per Megabyte transferred (per article—so an article 1MB or less will cost $0.15).
Alternatively, if you don't want to pay money (but don't have Wi-Fi), you can keep Wispernet disabled and add another step to the process to get those articles on your Kindle. Once you've sent an article to your Kindle using an app in step two, go to the Amazon Kindle settings page and you should find that article in your Kindle library. Click the Actions dropdown and click "Deliver to My..." and choose your Kindle from the list. It'll then send the article to your Kindle over 3G, but without charging you. Photo by The Approximate Photographer.
Step Four: Enjoy Your Articles
That's it! It sounds like a lot of setup, but once you're done, you should be able to send nearly any article or document to your Kindle with one click. Then, whenever you turn on your Kindle, you'll have a plethora of articles ready to read. There are a lot of other ways to send stuff to your Kindle, but these are by far the best and easiest in our opinion. Check out Amazon's Help page on the subject, or share your own methods in the comments.

subset: commoncrawl


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Overwhelmed by all the bra choices out there and not sure what it all means? When you need to start wearing a bra, it can be pretty intimidating trying to figure out what you need and what's best. Here are some bra-basic tips for you to follow.
Cups or no Cups?
There's a time and place for everything, including cups in your bras. Usually, when a girl starts wearing a bra it's one of those simple sporty ones that comes in sizes like Small, Medium and Large. These simple, stretchy cotton bras are great if you're in the beginning stages of development. Eventually, though, you're probably gonna need something with cups. Cups give you more support and keep your boobs from flopping all over the place. So how do you know when you need a cup? Well, there's an old test that goes like this: if you take a pencil and put it under your boob - and it stays - then you need a cup. If the pencil falls then you're still good to go without them.
Lingerie Lingo
If you don't get what all the letters and numbers mean on a bra, don't worry. It's not as complicated as it looks. The letters - like A, B, C, D - stand for cup sizes. The numbers - like 32, 34, 36, 38 – tell you the band size – that's the part of the bra that goes around your torso. In other words, a 34A means that your boobs are an A cup and that your bra is 34 inches around. The best way to figure out what cup and size is right for you is to go and try some on. Salespeople at lingerie stores are usually extremely helpful – don't be afraid to ask one for assistance! But if you're dead-set on figuring out your bra/cup size yourself, we've got some tips on how to do just that.
Measuring Up
Believe it or not, at least 80% of women wear the wrong size bra. The most common mistake is wearing a band size that's too big and/or a cup size that's too small. Though the average bra size is a 36C, most females who wear this size should actually be wearing either a 34D, 34DD, 32DD or 32E bra. The TRUE average bra size is around 34DD.
Also know that cup sizes relate directly to band size. So a 34 band size, for example, is actually different in a B-cup bra and a C-cup bra. This is because, often, the bigger your boobs, the larger you are around your torso. Smaller boobs usually belong to girls with smaller frames.
Another thing to remember is that your bra size changes as your weight changes throughout the different stages of your life. Losing or gaining a few pounds will usually mean you will need a new bra size. Some girls go for so long wearing one bra size that they don't even realize when it doesn't fit well anymore and feel uncomfortable! To find the perfect fit, here's how to find your true bra size.
Step 1: Measure Your Band Size
- Run a tape measure all the way around your body just underneath your breasts and take a measurement in inches. Make sure the tape measure is straight and fairly snug. Your arms should be down. If this measurement is an odd number, round up to the nearest even number. This should be your band size. If your measurement is already an even number, you may find that this is your band size, or you may have to go up to the next size (that is, you may have to add 2 inches). So, if you measured 31 inches, your band size should be 32. If you measured 34 inches, your band size may be 34 or 36.
Step 2: Figure Out Your Cup Size
- If you already wear a bra and think you need a new size, the best way to find your cup size is to use your current bra size as a starting point. The cups are sized relative to the band, so if you try a smaller band size but keep the same cup size, the cups would be too small. Instead, increase the cups by one size for every band that you go down. For example, if you're current bra is a 34C and your underbust (see Step 1, above) measures 31 inches, then you probably need a 32D. On a 30-inch band, this would be a 30DD.
- And remember: In the U.K., cup sizes are AA, A, B, C, D, DD, E, F, FF, G, GG, H, HH, J, JJ, K, KK.
Step 3: Try It On!
- Even after you've measured yourself, you need to actually try some bras on to make sure you got the right size. Go to the store and try a few on! If you're wondering what the right size bra should feel like, the correct band size is the smallest you can comfortably wear – tight enough to be supportive without cutting into your skin. You should be able to fit no more than a fist under the back of the bra. The right cup size is the biggest you can totally fill out without the fabric wrinkling and without there being any extra space in the cups. This goes for low-cut and push-up bras, too!
Shopping Tips
Here are some things to keep in mind while trying on bras. First off decide what look you want. Bras come in various styles, like push-up and full-coverage and sports. If you want something that is simple with lots of support, you don't want a push-up. If you're looking to appear a little bigger than you are, then you do want push-up. Whatever your style, just make sure it fits right.
Some easy things to watch out for - the top part of your chest should meet seemlessly with the part in your bra. In other words, you don't want the top part of your chest to appear flat and then you have these bulges where your bras starts. If you've got the bulges it usually means that your cup size is too small. A quick and painless check is to latch the hooks of your bra, lean over and allow yourself to fall into the cups. If your boobs are pouring out and over, you need to move a cup size.
You also don't want bulges on your back. If your bra is too small around or you've got it done up too tight, you'll be able to see it through the back of your shirt and your skin will appear puckered or bulgy. Your straps should also be loose and not dig into your shoulders.
Remember a new bra should fasten at the middle or last hook, cuz the material will stretch with wear. Eventually, you'll wanna fasten it at the first hook.
Do yourself a favor: When you head to the bra department, find the oldest salesperson around. We're talkin' the older the better. Walk right past the young trendy girls - who haven't got a clue - and find someone is pushing retirement. She's the lady who knows how to properly fit a bra.
Stay away from patterns. Sure that green-and-purple-plaid number looks great on the hanger but it'll be hard to wear because it'll show through a lot of your clothes. If there is a patterned or brightly colored bra you like you're best off to remember it and try to find a similar bathing suit or something.
Bra Stats
- The most popular bra colors (in order of popularity) on the US mainland are: black, white, then beige.
- In Hawaii, the popularity of colors is beige, white, then black. Island women are strong believers in matching your under garments to your skin tones. Not a bad idea.
- Marie Tucek patented the actual first "breast supporter" in 1893. It was very similar to the bras sold today, with pouches for the breasts to sit in.
- The average American woman owns six bras. Out of those six, one of is a strapless bra.
Related Stories:
- Venus is Heavenly
- Smooth Legs Without Shaving
- The Real Deal on Zits
- The Real Deal on Zits - Part Two
- More Body Basics


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I told you I'd report back once Paul Trevor's book Like You've Never Been Away got here. It arrived very quickly from Bluecoat Press, Liverpool. (As I mentioned before, the way to get it is to go to the book's Amazon U.K. page, click on "3 new for £9.99," then select "Add to Basket" for the Bluecoat Press option. Ignore the bit on the Amazon page about the book being temporarily out of stock.)
The news is both good and bad. To begin with, the reproduction quality is quite fine—extremely fine for a £10 book. The hardest thing to get right in black-and-white—not just in reproduction, but in originals, too—is tonality, and the tonal properties of these pictures are rich and evocative for the most part, looking like real photographs, with their own tonal style, the middle values lowered on the scale like Rodinal used to do with shouldered films.
Considering that it's modestly-sized and only a paperback, the book is well-crafted and put together with skill and care, with sewn signatures and using good materials.
Unfortunately, however, most of the pictures are horizontals, and all the horizontal pictures are run double-truck, spread over two pages...uniformly, without regard for the content of each picture.
Some of the pictures are ruined by the gutter (a poor little fellow in a family portrait on p. 43 virtually disappears), and some more are only hurt by it. Fortunately, many of the pictures are "field-centered," with the loci of visual interest placed here and there in the visual field, rather than "object-centered," so the gutter doesn't ruin very many pictures. This picture, an example of the former, is okay...
(Granted it doesn't look great here—sorry about the poor quickie snaps—but it's a lot less offensive when you're holding the real book in your hand. You do get the sense that you can see the picture adequately.)
But this one is definitely ruined...
The relatively few vertical pictures, however, each reproduced cleanly one picture to a page, make it obvious how the book ought to have been printed—as a square, with the verticals and horizontals run same-size, one to a page. The overpowering temptation that book designers feel to sacrifice the visual integrity of photographs for the sake of size apparently becomes irresistible to them in the case of small books—they simply believe size is more important. They're wrong—visual integrity is more important, at least when the photographs are the point of the book and the photos aren't being used as mere page decor. The smaller (one page) verticals in this book are not perhaps ideally sized, but are large enough.
The intrusive gutter is only intolerable in a few of the pictures. Balance the problem against the fact that the book is very inexpensive, and that it's the only way to get the work if you can't get to Liverpool to see the show. On balance the work is still good to have. Still recommended, with the asterisk.
'From Craft to Art'
In this context I should bring up another beautiful little book that has fallen within my sphere recently, Robert Doisneau: From Craft to Art. This is a gorgeously made little volume, with very attractive embossed pale green paper covered boards (hardcover, that is) and complementary mustard-colored endpapers, and what I would call a mature design: elegant, skillful, but not extrovert. (Note that it may have several different covers: the one illustrated on the Amazon page is not the one I bought locally and that is shown here.) The book is well supported with text, mainly an extensively revised and translated c. 1980 long essay by Jean-François Chevrier (although modified for this book, it retains the tense of the original, written when Doisneau, who died in 1994, was still alive). I'm tempted to call it mainly a reader's book—it even has a bound-in placemaker ribbon; the plates don't start until page 81.
The reason I mention it, and at the risk of seeming like someone who will complain no matter what, is that this is one of the few books I've encountered recently where the reproductions really are too small. Again, we're talking about degrees here: most of the pictures convey adequately. The reproduction quality, typical of Steidl's black-and-white, is capable but not delectable (Steidl's books tend to have well-supported blacks—I mean blacks that are black enough—but that lack tonal separation in the shadows). Although the book design is exemplary, the largest of the pictures is only about 5 x 5", and many are smaller. As with the Trevor book, this affects different pictures in different ways. Many look fine; but some have too much detail to be seen comfortably at such small sizes—centers of visual interest to which the eye is led by the compositions just don't reward close looking; the details don't have space to breathe.
As with the Trevor book, I still recommend this—especially if you feel you'd like to read about Doisneau. It's an elegant little example of the bookmaker's art. (Here's the U.K. link and one for The Book Depository.) Asterisked, as with the above.
Steve McCurry masterwork
Finally, just a simple heads-up for the well-heeled: Phaidon's deluxe, slipcased, limited-edition McCurry retrospective, Steve McCurry: The Iconic Photographs, has just been published (last June 13th), at a list price of $400. Each oversized book—and I mean oversized; at 500x375mm (19.75x14.75 in.) and 320 pages, your coffee table had better have sturdy legs—is signed, and comes with an original photograph which is also signed by the photographer. There are 3,300 copies overall, 1,100 of those for the U.S.
Each book comes with a signed Lambda print of Flowerseller, Dal Lake, Srinagar, Kashmir, 1996
For those to whom the nearly $250 Amazon wants for this tome is a wee tad too dear, my old fave Looking East: Portraits by Steve McCurry is still in print for a more palatable $31 (and a bargain at that price, given its stellar printing quality). In fact I think I'll go console myself about not being able to afford the big book by pulling Looking East down off the shelf.
Here's the U.K. link (for the Iconic book, I mean), and here's one for The Book Depository.
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Original contents copyright 2011 by Michael C. Johnston and/or the bylined author. All Rights Reserved.
Featured Comment by Andre: "+1 for Looking East: Portraits by Steve McCurry I've had a copy for a while now and I've considered buying a second just to cut the binding and frame some of the photos. I hope that's not too sacrilegious for the book lovers out there."
Mike replies: I've done that three or four times. In each case I've used "hurt" or incomplete copies of the books in question, or books with library markings, and I basically started from the other direction: it was inspired by first finding myself confronted with the hurt book and thinking about what I could do to salvage something of it without having to just throw it away. So maybe look for a cheap used copy that's somehow hurt or that has a binding in poor condition? For instance, Midtown Scholar Bookstore lists a copy on Amazon for $12.95 described this way: "GOOD—This is a hurt hardcover book with some tearing, scuffing, bumping, creasing and a torn dust jacket. Still, it is fully usable and the flaws are only cosmetic." Hard to tell from that if the pages are perfect, but you could call and ask.
I agree that the pages of Looking East are worthy of framing, more so than most posters.
Featured Comment by Paul Trevor: "Hi Mike, your criticism of my book is fair. There are some points I'd like to offer in defence of the publisher.
- It was published primarily as the catalog for the show, so most people would already have seen the photographs.
- Like wine, the book can only improve with time, as the pages gradually flatten!
- The binding is excellent. This means the flattening process can be sped up without fear of destroying the spine by pressing down the center of open spreads or by bending the two halves of the book backwards. This has worked well with my copy.
"But I'll definitely pass on Stan B's comment about how books with a 'soft' spine can improve the viewing experience."


text:
Alaya Dawn Johnson
Asimov's: January 2013
Nominated for the Nebula Award: Novelette
I want a novel length version of this, or at least set in this world. I want to know more, so much more.
No one knows what they really look like. They only interact with us through their remote-controlled robots. Maybe they're made of glass themselves – they give us pregnancy kits, but won't bother with burn dressings. Dad says the glassmen are alien scientists studying our behavior, like a human would smash an anthill to see how they scatter. Reverand Beale always points to the pipeline a hundred miles west of us. They're just men stealing our resources, he says, like the white man stole the Africans', though even he can't say what those resources might be.
The title refers to bomb fragments the aliens, the glassmen, have dropped. The bombs look like little jewels waiting for a child to pick them up, except picking it up is death by explosion. Are the bombs just bombs, like seeding a road with land mines? Do they have another purpose? Does it matter? I don't know, but this setting of a ruined future is so perfectly created that I am left with the desire for more and more.
The story itself is of two sisters and the new challenge provided by the pregnancy of the younger woman. Her desire for an abortion in a society where so many services have been destroyed by the glassmen is the driving force of the narrative, and it is a well told story that moves the sisters through this world and into parts of the land they had not been to.
The wonder here is in trying to piece together what happened to this America (and, presumably, the world at large), what the glassmen are and how they interact with humans. Nothing is ever fully explained, but the reader comes away with a fairly solid idea of how this all pieces together. It's fascinating and, beyond just the story that Johnson is telling, it leaves the reader wanting more. Maybe more of these two sisters, maybe more of the "terrorists" the glassmen are concerned about, maybe just more of everything.


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Biological Imaging Data Management for Life Scientists New
The Open Microscopy Environment (OME) is an open-source software project that develops tools that enable access, analysis, visualization, sharing and publication of biological image data.
OME has three components:
- OME-TIFF, standardised file format and data model;
- Bio-Formats, a software library for reading proprietary image file formats; and
- OMERO, a software platform for image data management and analysis.
In this one day course, we will present the OMERO platform, and show how to import, organise, view, search, annotate and publish imaging data. Additionally, we will briefly introduce how to use a variety of processing tools with OMERO.
This course is organized alongside a one day course on Biological Imaging Data Processing for Data Scientists. More information on this event are available here.
This course will be delivered by members of the OMERO team. The OME project is supported by BBSRC and Wellcome Trust.
Please note that if you are not eligible for a University of Cambridge Raven account you will need to book or register your interest by linking here.
- Anyone wanting to use OMERO to organize, view, annotate and publish imaging data
- Facility Managers wanting to train users
- Graduate students, Postdocs and Staff members from the University of Cambridge, Affiliated Institutions and other external Institutions or individuals
- Please be aware that these courses are only free for University of Cambridge students. All other participants will be charged a registration fee in some form. Registration fees and further details regarding the charging policy are available here.
- Further details regarding eligibility criteria are available here
Number of sessions: 1
# | Date | Time | Venue | Trainers | |
1 | Thu 7 Dec 2017 09:30 - 17:00 | 09:30 - 17:00 | Bioinformatics Training Room, Craik-Marshall Building | map | Balaji Ramalingam, Jean-Marie Burel, Petr Walczysko |
Bioinformatics, Biological imaging, Data management
After this course you should be able to:
- Import image and HCS data into OMERO
- Organise, view and annotate data with webclient
- Search for data within OMERO
- Use OMERO web plugins to organise, view and publish data
- Use a variety of open-source and proprietary processing tools with your OMERO data
During this course you will learn about:
- Getting started with OMERO
- Importing and organizing your data
- Viewing your data
- Annotating and searching your data
- Creating figures for publication and sharing
- Using OMERO with image processing tools: ImageJ, orbit, etc.
- Managing and sharing data
Presentations, demonstrations and practicals
- Free for University of Cambridge students
- £ 50/day for all University of Cambridge staff, including postdocs, and participants from Affiliated Institutions. Please note that these charges are recovered by us at the Institutional level
- It remains the participant's responsibility to acquire prior approval from the relevant group leader, line manager or budget holder to attend the course. It is requested that people booking only do so with the agreement of the relevant party as costs will be charged back to your Lab Head or Group Supervisor.
- £ 50/day for all other academic participants from external Institutions and charitable organizations. These charges must be paid at registration
- £ 100/day for all Industry participants. These charges must be paid at registration
- Further details regarding the charging policy are available here
A number of times per year
- Using CellProfiler and CellProfiler Analyst to analyse biological images
- Image Analysis for Biologists
- Biological Imaging Data Processing for Data Scientists
Booking / availability


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You're Gonna Need a Bigger Screen
Well not necessarily a *bigger* screen, but you will need one that sports more pixels per inch. That is to say if the predictions about the iPad 3 are true then your current desktop setup is about to feel very inadequate when developing for Apple's mobile operating system, iOS. How so? It turns out that the new iPad's predicted native screen resolution of 2048×1536 is larger than will fit comfortably on any of Apple's current desktop hardware. At the Iconfactory I use a dual-display setup of a 30″ Cinema display and a 27″ iMac. Even my 30″ doesn't support enough pixels to view the iPad 3's screen (particularly in portrait) and that's a problem.
When designing or coding for the iPhone and iPad, it's critical to be able to view your work at a 1:1 ratio. It's best not to view a Photoshop mockup or Xcode simulator window by zooming out, or compressing the pixels to fit the screen. Doing so makes it difficult to tell when interface elements like buttons, tabs and fields properly align or are positioned correctly. I could go into a long explanation of how the math for all of this works out, but TUAW's Richard Gaywood and App Cubby's David Barnard have already done that in fine style. If you're interested in the ins and outs of screen resolutions then head on over and check them out. For my part, I just want to know how long I'll have to limp along designing for a screen resolution I cannot see 1:1 without having to scroll around. David suggests that Apple won't be in any particular hurry to bump up the resolutions of their desktop offerings and I have to say I agree with him.
To Apple, the customer comes first not the developer, which is how it should be. Higher resolution displays will eventually be a great selling point for new desktop Macs (and will solve developers' iPad 3 problems), but they will undoubtedly take time to bring to market. Recent discoveries in Mountain Lion bolster the theory Apple has been planning higher density displays for some time but that doesn't mean Tim Cook will be announcing them on March 7th. So if you're a developer like me, be prepared to feel a bit cramped for a while. How long is anybody's guess but I wouldn't hold my breath.


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- Home
- Government
- Departments
- Public Services
- Garbage & Recycling
- Dial-A-Dumpster
The Dial-A-Dumpster program allows a small group of residents to have a dumpster delivered to their neighborhood and is designed to help residents keep yards and neighborhoods clean year round. This is a free service for Ogden City residents.
In order to be eligible, each user must have an active Ogden City Utility account and be signing up for a dumpster for the first time this year. Only one dumpster per resident per calendar year.
This program is designed for the neighborhood to clean their yards and remove debris. Dial-A-Dumpster is not for personal home projects (renovating, remodeling, moving in or out, clearing basements, garages or sheds, etc.).
The application form can be picked up at the Public Works Bldg (133 W 29th St) Gather five neighbor signatures and decide with the neighbors who signed the form the best location for the dumpster to be placed. Bring the document back to the Public Works Bldg (133 W 29th St) to schedule a date for delivery (based upon availability).
Drop-Offs and Pick-Ups
Drop-off and pick-up days are Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Dumpsters are delivered on the scheduled date (between 6 a.m. and 4 p.m.) and picked up approximately 48 hours later between the hours of 6 a.m. and 4 p.m. For example, a dumpster that is dropped off on Monday will be picked up on Wednesday.
Please allow ample room for drop-off and pick-up. Dumpsters must be placed on a flat, hard, level surface. Steep inclines, overhead obstructions, utility lines or low tree branches may result in non-delivery of the dumpster based on the discretion of the company's employees.
There are no fees for this service unless the dumpster is over-filled, filled with hazardous or other restricted materials or damaged . Make sure that your dumpster is not filled past the marked weight capacity or limit line. If it is over weight and materials need to be scraped off to insure legal transport, you will be held responsible for the clean up of those materials and any City code violations that you are possibly cited for. Items that are flammable or could possibly ignite causing a fire are not allowed. Please make note that NO HAZARDOUS materials will be accepted including, but not limited to: Tires, Batteries, Chemicals, Shingles, Concrete, Dirt, Rocks, Refrigerators, Computer Monitors, Asphalt, or Tree Stumps. You will be held liable for disposal costs


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The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) and its Automotive Restoration Market Organization (ARMO) and Hot Rod Industry Alliance (HRIA) Councils announced July 8, 2011 as "Collector Car Appreciation Day."
The date marks the second commemoration in what will become an annual event to raise awareness of the vital role automotive restoration and collection plays in American society. SEMA and its councils are now working to secure a Congressional resolution to recognize the day's significance.
"Last year, the United States Senate helped launch the first national Collector Car Appreciation Day by passing Senate Resolution 513 at our request," said SEMA Vice President of Government Affairs Steve McDonald. "As a result, thousands of Americans gathered at car cruises, parades and other events to celebrate our nation's automotive heritage.
"As we move forward, SEMA's commitment to preserving and promoting the automotive restoration industry through its projects and programs is evident in this special day."
S. Res. 513 was sponsored by Congressional Automotive Performance and Motorsports Caucus members Senator Jon Tester (D-MT) and Senator Richard Burr (R-NC). Senators Tester and Burr have been strong advocates for the automotive hobby in Washington, and the resolution reaffirmed their understanding of the cultural importance of collector cars.
The Caucus is an informal, non-partisan group that pays tribute to America's ever growing love affair with the car and motorsports. The Caucus recognizes the integral role collector cars have played in fostering our nation's appreciation for the automobile's unique historical place in our history.
The SAN will maintain a list of scheduled events to commemorate America's time-tested love affair with the automobile. Individuals, car clubs and business owners interested in publicizing events should contact Mike Dingell, Director, SEMA Action Network (SAN) at 202/783-6007, ext. 38 or [email protected].
If you are unable to celebrate on July 8th, the SAN encourages events to be scheduled throughout the month of July.


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The Community Preservation Committee (CPC) is a seven member volunteer committee that is responsible for oversight of the Town's Community Preservation Act (CPA) program. The CPC is appointed by the Mayor and meets monthly. In managing the program the CPC has studied the needs, possibilities, and resources of the town's:
Agendas are available prior to the meetings. Minutes are available following approval.
View Most Recent Agendas and Minutes
View Archived Agendas and Minutes
Sign up for Meeting Notifications


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Ski Popova Shapka Macedonia: Snowboarding The Balkans: Part 1
By Sam Baldwin
Published November 2010
"So, it looks like we're going to have to skip the snowboarding in Kosovo then?"
"Yeah. But we could go through Albania instead..."
September 2009. I'm in South London with Danny; child-hood friend, fellow snowboarder and driver for our forthcoming Balkan snowboarding adventure.
Maps are spread across the floor, we have two laptops fired up, and an excel spreadsheet displays on the plasma TV. Several ski guides and snowboard magazines are scattered around the room.
We're meticulously planning our Balkan Snowboard Trip - a two week adventure that will take our minibus of eight snowboarders almost 2000km around the former Yugoslavia to sample the snow, ski resorts and cities of Serbia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia & Herzergovina.
Problem is - information about driving in the region is scarce. It's pretty much uncharted territory for the average Brit, and we're struggling to patch together bits and pieces from second-hand accounts, Bosnian websites and the odd ski article. We finally manage to pull a route together but whether things will actually go to plan is another matter.
February 2010. A haggard air hostess hands me a white plastic cup and fills it with water. I bite into my meagre, though perfectly edible, red pepper and cheese roll. The Yugoslavian Areo Transport (JAT) plane is hot, stuffy and reeks of smoke, but we're all on board and en route to Belgrade, Serbia, first stop on our Balkan tour.
Between us, we've ridden mountains in some far flung locales: Japan, China, New Zealand, Canada, and Kashmir amongst others. The Balkans are only a three hour flight from the UK, but somehow it feels like we're heading more off the beaten path than many of the places we've been before.
There remains a strange stigma about Eastern Europe. Many people (including myself to some extent) still have misconceptions about the region. Cities like Sarajevo and Belgrade reignite memories of bombings and bullet holes from the 9 o-clock news; we imagine concrete tower blocks, corrupt officials and dodgy drivers. However, all of these things are required elements for adventure and part of the reason I wanted to explore the area and see through my own goggles, what snowboarding the Balkans would actually be like.
Welcome to Belgrade
The trip begins almost disappointingly smoothly. We land at the surprisingly modern Nikola Tesla Belgrade airport, haggle with some taxi drivers and head to our hotel with snowboards hanging out the back of the car. Later, we pick up our minibus and have some fun fitting eight board bags into the van, but with some Tetris level packing, we eventually get it right and hit the road - first stop Popova Shapka - Macedonia.
After negotiating the concrete flyovers and swerving to avoid a pack of stray Belgrade hounds, we're on our way heading south. The motorway is empty, the tarmac smooth, and - as soon as the last Belgrade tower block fades from view - the landscape rural.
Haystak upon haystack line the road where muddy villages and handful of houses mark each village we pass. We make steady progress, the tunes are pumping on the stereo, and everyone is excited for what lies ahead. If we'd known about everything that lay ahead, perhaps we would have been a little more apprehensive.
Boarders crossing Borders
The Serbia-Macedonian border crossing goes without incidence. After fearing we might have to unpack the entire van, the stern looking armed guard breaks into a smile when he sees our passports.
"Manchester United!" he shouts enthusiastically.
"Manchester United!" all eight of us shout back, giving him cheesy grins and the thumbs up.
If pretending to be Man U fans will get us through all five of the border crossings that smoothly, then we'll all be trading allegiances for the trip. With passports stamped, we roll onwards.
Macedonia Mountains
Eight hours after leaving Belgrade, we're winding up the long snow-covered road from the town of Tetovo to Popova Shapka. Meaning "Priest's Hat", it's Maceodonia's premiere ski resort and is also the base of Eskimo Freeride - Europe's only cat-skiing operation.
Our route is snow covered, but Danny skilfully keeps the wheels turning as we climb the steep road and we just about make it without having to put on the chains. We finally arrive in the town; a cluster of half-built block houses, communist looking hotels and some new, flashy chalets. It's dead. Snow is whirling around us and we can't find our hotel. We pass a military sentry box with a Macedonian flag painted on the side. But there's no-one keeping watch over the mountains tonight.
A man walks towards us with a drunken sway. I jump out to get directions.
"Zdravo. Gdje je Hotel Granit?" I say, greeting him and asking the way with words memorised from the Lonely Planet guide.
The name of the hotel elicits some recognition in his inebriated eyes. He points down the mountain, over a steep drop.
"Hvala" - thanks, I reply and hop back in the van.
We drive on, but reach a dead end and can't find the road. After driving around for another puzzled ten minutes I jump out again to ask a bunch of snowboarders standing outside the only shop in town, a small, caged room with bottles of unfamiliar drinks and snacks. I greet them in Macedonian but they reply in near perfect English.
They are Croatians and are staying at the same place, so kindly lead us to Hotel Granit - a hostel style lodge, right on the side of the piste.
We drag our gear down the snow covered path and finally reach our destination. It's obviously the hangout for the cool kids in town; on the roof there's a giant Burton logo, dub-techno plays on the sound-system, the scent of stone-baked pizza wafts from the kitchen and everyone is friendly and relaxed. They're especially happy to welcome our group - we're their first ever British guests - they explain.
We unload our gear into the rather small, though adequate bunk rooms and crack open eight bottles of Skopsko - the local Macedonian beer.
"Na zdravje! - cheers!" We toast to our first day on the road. We've made it on one piece, and tomorrow is our first taste of Balkan Snowboarding. We tingle with anticipation as we look out onto the cold, silent Shar Planina mountains that loom 1780m high, before retiring in a happy, drunken haze.
Snowboarding Popova Shapka
After a continental style breakfast of bread and cheese, we gear up and head out. It's snowing lightly as we strap-in on the deck of Hotel Granit and ride down to a small slope-side kiosk to get our tickets. It's possible to buy a single run here, but we opt for a day pass.
Popova Shapka is definitely of the 'old school' ilk of ski resorts. The collection of six lifts are largely aging t-bars or infuriatingly slow chairs. But the terrain offers promise. There are a few groomed runs that sit next to the lifts, but there is no marked piste. Indeed there is a gaping hole in the middle of one run where a stream runs below providing a genuine hazard to the unwary. But no warning poles mark the danger. It's a reminder that we're not in the mollycoddled West anymore; here you look out for yourself.
The slopes are almost empty. The handful of skiers (who all seem to be Albanian judging by the flags they are proudly flying) seem happy to ski (badly) down the groomers, leaving the rest of the terrain for us.
The mountain is very open - there are almost no trees, and much of the powder has a crust, but we eventually find a little piece of Macedonian heaven; a gully with pines that have protected the snow and preserved the powder. A small mountainside church watches over us as we spend the rest of the day lapping the area, dodging trees and throwing up a spray.
If you come to Popova Shapka, don't expect too much from the on-slope facilities. They are basic, and attitudes to skiing, snow and the slopes are different to what we're used to in Western Europe. The only on-slope toilet is a Portacabin with no running water, or indeed, toilets. People have left their business in little piles all over the floor instead.
At the base of the slopes, a group of kids are having riotous fun, firing past on wooden toboggans. But when they leave, the slope is carpeted in plastic bottles and crisp packets. Indeed, all day we've been saddened by the amount of litter on the slopes. Litter bins don't seem to feature in the vocabulary here.
It's been a good day, and as the sun sinks below the Macedonian mountain peaks, we retire on the sun deck of Hotel Granit to enjoy the last of the rays. We spend the rest of evening in the bar chatting to the staff and the only other guests, our Croatian friends. They all speak excellent English and the Skopsko beer assists the international banter.
"Try this!" says Hristina our host, handing us shots of a clear liquid poured from a plastic bottle. One sniff confirms it's not water.
"This is our national drink - Rakija - everyone makes it. We made this in our bedroom".
The fiery spirit burns on its way down, but it's a fitting end to our first day snowboarding in Macedonia and indeed, the Balkans. The friendliness of the people we've met is every bit as warming as their bedroom-brewed drink.
After several more doses, it's time to retire. We've got an early start tomorrow sampling Europe's only cat-ski operation, and if the weather holds - we're in for a real treat.
Read Part 2 of our Balkan adventure: Cat-boarding Macedonia with Eskimo Freeride
- We flew from London Heathrow to Belgrade with JAT - we found our flights using Skyscanner to see when was cheapest to fly.
- We hired our van in Belgrade with Smiles Rent-a-car - who we'd recommend highly.
- In Popova Shapka - we stayed at Hotel Granit - more of a lodge/hostel than a hotel, but definately the coolest place in town
- A day ski lift pass costs £9
- Beer and food is cheap; a bottle of Skopsko beer cost less than £1 and a pizza or goulash around £3
Snowboarding and skiing the Balkans
Snowboarding and skiing Slovenia
Snowboarding and skiing Bulgaria


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