Man hides cash in oven; it gets baked in the oven

It's one thing when high taxes take your money, it's another when you try to hide your cash, and it gets baked.

A man from Sydney, Australia, sold his car last weekend for  $15,000 (approximately $15,652 in U.S. dollars) and it was suppose to be for his mortgage payment and other bills.

For some reason only known to him, he decided to hide the cash in his oven, which rarely gets used.

Meanwhile his wife turns on the oven, preheating it for chicken nuggets and yes, it cooked the cash.

"It was everything I had, 'I've got nothing to my name. That money was supposed to go towards my mortgage."

His wife couldn't  stop crying when telling her husband what happened.

The cash was baked into a colorful burnt mess. (see the photo above)

The man asked his lender and the Reserve Bank of Australia for help.

The Reserve Bank advises people to take damaged currency to a bank. 

So, it seems the damaged banknotes will be assessed at the RBA's Damaged Note Laboratory in Cragieburn, Melbourne, where analysts will carefully look them over in accordance with RBA guidelines.

"It's a bit of a relief knowing that most of it can be paid," the man said.

The cash is so badly damaged it could be difficult for bank tellers to analyze, and the banknote assessment is primarily visual.

The bank tellers will painstakingly work their way through stacks of bills that have become fused together because of heat damage to determine the full value.

I'M A Celebrity's Freddie Starr taken to hospital after eating a camel toe

Freddie, 68, collapsed with a severe allergic reaction to the variety of food choices.

We aren't quite sure how the hit ITV show works, but we know it's popular.

Freddy was voted to do the Greasy Spoon Bushtucker Trial by thousands of the show's 12.5 million viewers.

He ate a five-course meal including the camel's toe, a rotten egg, mealworms, mice tails, pig's anus and turkey testicles.

But two hours later Freddie, (who apparently isn't real smart) who underwent heart surgery last year — said he didn't feel well and stumbled when he tried to sit down.


Did we mention that heart patient Freddy is also a heavy smoker?

He was taken to a hospital on Australia's Gold Coast and immediately underwent tests. (for stupidly no doubt)

There have been growing fears for Freddie's health since he arrived in Australia.
He was visibly out of breath at the airport and spent the day chain-smoking at his hotel. But he says there's nothing to worry about.


This coming from a guy who once ate a hamster.

Have Coles Chickens Come Home To Roost?

Coles has been using some suspect advertising by proclaiming "no added hormones" in their chickens.

The reason for the raised eyebrows is because hormones haven't been added to chickens in Australia for 50 years. 

So is the supermarket trying to take advantage of the popular belief that chickens are given hormones to speed growth?

Adding hormones to Australian poultry was outlawed in the 1960s but once a myth starts it's sometimes almost impossible to put things straight.

As a result many people believe that chickens are pumped full of hormones and the Coles campaign sounds like they are saying, "yes, but not us."

By suggesting that their chickens are hormone free it  also suggests that other markets are selling chickens pumped up on hormones.

A Coles spokesman said the supermarket was just countering the myth.

"Chicken in Australia has not been treated with hormones for over 40 years. However, there is still a widespread misconception among customers that they do," he said.

"In fact in July last year, chicken producer Steggles commissioned a Newspoll study among 1000 people that showed that 76 per cent still believed that hormones and/or steroids were used in chicken production."

Chef and his Multimillion-Dollar Drug Ring from Restaurant Kitchen

Grant Michael Richardson,( above photo) head chef at an Sydney's Balcony Bar at Erskine St, (photo below) is accused of selling bags of speed and ecstasy from his kitchen as part of a multimillion-dollar drug syndicate.

What busy kitchen, serving up $34 plates of pork belly braised in orange, soy and cinnamon and and at the same time, chef Grant Michael Richardson was preparing bags of ecstasy and speed to his drug runner.

The 31-year-old chef catered for several celebrity-studded social events during his year at Balcony Bar, which was opened under Clover Moore's small bar program with an $18,300 grant.

But police say Richardson was supplementing his $1000-a-week income by selling drugs in a "top of the tree" drug syndicate.

Ah, but they were being watched.
The accused drug runner Paul "Robbo" Robinson, 42, picked up the drugs from the kitchen and of all things, surprise, surprise, delivers them to an undercover officer on four different occasions. 

Police also tapped Richardson and Robinson's phone calls when they heard them talking in code about being concerned about the quality of the drugs they were supplying to the undercover officer.

"I've had three people say that they weren't that happy with the food," Robinson was recorded saying.

"I just had another one then ring and tell me that ... he didn't taste anything all night," he said.

A police fact sheet said that Robinson also told Richardson "he was worried that he didn't want to lose the 'booking' of the 'corporate group' ", referring to the officer.

Click photo to enlarge

Court documents reveal that police infiltrated Richardson's part of the syndicate after an undercover officer befriended an alleged drug runner.

In three months, the group allegedly sold $20,000 worth of speed and ecstasy pills to the officer who was wearing a microphone.

Richardsonhas been being charged with 12 drug-related offences.

In total, 30 people were arrested by Strike Force Domino, which saw 500 officers raid 37 premises in Sydney, Mudgee and the Central Coast in December.

Police Commissioner Andrew Scipione said the arrests had cracked the kingpins of the State's drug trade.

The Floods of Australia

It's not such a great New Years with all the floodwater rising in Australia's northeast flooding 22 towns, forcing 200,000 people out of their homes, and closing a major sugar export port.

This is the worst flooding in 50 years has been caused by that crazy "La Nina" weather pattern.

In Queensland, there are major health risks from floodwater, along with the danger of crocodiles and snakes in flooded homes.

"This disaster is a long way from over," Queensland state Premier Anna Bligh said.

"We now have 22 towns or cities that are either substantially flooded or isolated. That represents some 200,000 people spanning an area that's bigger than the size of France and Germany combined."

Prime Minister Julia Gillard visted  the sugar city of Bundaberg, which closed its port on Friday after flood garbage was ushered downstream into shipping channels and damaged navigation beacons.

"This is a natural disaster across Queensland," Gillard said, announcing a A$1 million  government helping hand to flood aid which now totals A$6 million.

The closing of Bundaberg has hurt shipments of sugar from Australia, a leading world sugar exporter., and that is going to be felt globally.
"If the port is closed for only a few days it won't be a big issue but any extended delay would cause some concern," said Brian Mahoney, an executive with Marybrough Sugar Factory Ltd.

Reminding us of New Orleans and Katrina, (we were there) the inland sea that reaches across Queensland show the rooftops of flooded homes.

With a few islands of dry ground you see stranded livestock and small boats transporting people and emergency supplies.

Emergency authorities in Queensland said the flooding was not expected to reach a peak in some areas until Sunday and would not recede for at least a week.

Australia has experienced the wettest spring on record,causing six river systems in Queensland to flood.
If the sugar problems weren't enough, rivers in New South Wales state have also caused flood damage to the wheat crop.

Possibly as much as half the Australian wheat crop, or about 10 million tonnes, has been downgraded to less than milling quality because of rain damage.
This has sent prices up about 45 percent this year, the biggest increase since 2007.

We wish Australia a speedy recovery, and may the new year be a dryer one!

Worker sucked into machine and decapitated at chicken factory

A poultry processing worker, Sarel Singh, 34, was killed instantly when he was sucked into a machine and decapitated in an accident at a factory in Melbourne, Australia.

This factory has been  under investigation over claims of unlawful and unethical treatment of its majority migrant workforce.

Mr Singh's brother, said that Sarel had migrated from India four years ago "in the hope of finding a better life in Australia."

Sarel Singh

But Sarel had told his brother, who lives in India, that his job at the Melbourne factory was 'hell' and he was planning to return home.

Sarel had just finished a four-hour shift when he was asked to go back and re-clean a packing area.

He was standing on a ladder hosing down a machine when he was swept into it and instantly decapitated.

Mr Tim Kennedy of the NUW said he and the factory workers were shocked by the decapitation.

"It is absolutely horrific in a civilized society that we have now the fact that these things still occur,  it is just not acceptable."

The poultry factory increased the risk to workers by speeding up the machinery so that 20 to 40 birds a minute could be processed.

But instead of packing up to 40 birds a minute, the machine was working at a speed that was processing 183 birds a minute.

The WorkSafe Victoria report confirmed the line was operating at the top speed of 183 birds a minute and that "by not adequately controlling the risks associated with this plant, [Baiada poultry] is in contravention of the requirements of section 21(1) and 21(2)(A) of the occupational health and safety act."

Four courses of horse anyone?

 Food Editor Grant Jones eating horse meat in the Orrichette with Ragu di Cavallo

The meal for began with a horse salumi and mortadella, carpaccio, horse ragu with pasta and a horse steak with polenta.

We are told the meat is lean, has a subtle, sweet, distinctive flavour and should be on the menu of every second Italian or French restaurant in town.

Be that as it may, there is only one person in Australia that can sell it, otherwise it has to be done in secrecy,  because of the death threats.

There was a restaurant in  Melbourne that wanted to serve horse meat but canceled that idea after threats against the chef and a protest outside the restaurant.

But horse meat, like many meats is best when the animal is young (12 to 18 months).

 Chef Andrew Stewart with horse carpaccio Source

Perhaps animal activists are protesting the eating of horse meat, but Australia exports 40,000 or more horses each year to be eaten overseas."What we are doing is perfectly legal. There is just an emotional connection to it," said Stewart White from the Australian Association of Food Professionals, who was responsible for the dinner menu.

"We have an aversion to anything Disney made a movie of."

Earlier this year Vince Garreffa of Mondo Di Carne gourmet butchers in Perth presented the country's first horses for human consumption.

But soon after Mr Garreffa was approved to sell it, he received several threats.

Last week Mondo's sent out a vacuum-packed 10kg shipment for some interested food industry professionals to try in Sydney. The meat sells for anything from $19.50 a kilo for mortadella to $90kg for fillet.

The dinner, cooked by two well-known Italian chefs from Sydney, who preferred not to be named, was less of a stunt and more of an experiment.

"It needs help as it is a lean meat," one chef said at the Inner West location, kept secret until the last minute.

Cooked as a minute steak, with salt, pepper and olive oil, it is not unlike venison, but not as gamey, and far superior to kangaroo in my opinion."

Junior MasterChef will return next year

The good news is, Junior MasterChef, according to judge Matt Preston, will return next year.

It's easy to be become jaded and unimpressed, like we often are, BUT,  Junior MasterChef gives us hope,

When we watch contestants like Ainsleigh Friedrich, who has has undergone 7 open-heart surgeries in her 11 years cooking up a storm, and fellow Queenslanders, the Brisbane twins Isabella and Sofia in action, we become believers again.

Next Sunday night is the cook-off to determine the final 12, but we'll have to wait until October to see the  young chefs compete.

Ainsleigh dazzled the judges by preparing a squid tube stuffed with breadcrumbs, chilli, parsley, lemon and prawns.

Her squid dish was cooked perfectly and she was chosen as one of those who will continue on.

Australian vegetables poisoned - sabotage?

There is an investigation going on in Australia.
It's about the poisoning of seven million vegetable seedlings, including tomatoes, aubergines and melons.
Police detectives believe a herbicide was injected into the irrigation system at a nursery in northern Queensland.
The Australian farm minister is calling it "sabotage".
This sabotage is going to cost around AUS $23.5m (£19.7m; $20.3m US), said Denise Kreymborg of the regional growers' association.
Police are trying to figure out if there is a connection to other poisonings in the region,which produces most of Australia's vegetables during the winter months.
"It could be a grudge, it could be competition-based... or it could be an act of vandalism," said Dave Miles, police inspector."I don't think it's just a local vandal," Denise Kreymborg said. "Obviously they knew what they were doing, as it was a pretty technical act they've done.
But we don't want to contaminate the investigation by pointing fingers."The bulk of the poisoned plants - around four million - were tomato seedlings.
Some of them had already been transplanted on farms. The poisoning is expected take away $50m out of the local economy, which relies heavily on agriculture during the winter months. Carl Walker, the Bowen District Growers Association (BDGA) spokesman, said that 350 hectares of production land had been lost as a result of the poisoning. "That's the view of the police - that it's been deliberately sabotaged," he said.
"We don't like to think that someone inside the industry has done this deliberately to try manipulate the price.
"Anything could be possible, police are chasing every single lead they can at the moment..." Locals are careful discussing their theories, even police and the growers' association become a little nervous when asked who they think is responsible. But rumors do exist, and the word is, it may have been a local ''sicko'', or a tactical act of sabotage by a rival growing region or, possibly an act by wholesalers or retailers to artificially inflate prices?

Chef Threatens - Finish Your Meal, or Else!

There is a restaurant that won't take it any more.
This Australian restaurateur has had it with the waste left by diners, and she has new rules.
She has ordered her customers to eat everything on their plates in order to save the planet, or don't bother to return.
Chef Yukako Ichikawa (seen above) is offering a 30 percent discount for diners who eat all the food on their plate at Wafu, her 30-seat restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Surry Hills.
"To contribute toward creating a sustainable future we request a little more of our guests than most other restaurants," she says in a list of her restaurant's policies that is pinned on the door to the restaurant.
She wants you to finish all dishes ordered which are organic and free of gluten, dairy, sugar and eggs and the chef and her staff tell people who don't clean their plates to eat at another restaurant next time.
"Finishing your meal requires that everything is eaten except lemon slices, gari (sushi ginger) and wasabi," it says so on the menu.
"Please also note that vegetables and salad on the side are NOT decorations; they are part of the meal too."
Wafu's tough policy seems overbearing by some reviewers, while others applaud her efforts.
If you don't appreciate her philosophies, if you don't appreciate you should go somewhere else. We are certain there are plenty of great choices in Sydney.'
It seems to us, if her food was all that great she wouldn't need this policy.

Billionaires Pankaj Oswal and Radhika ban workers from eating meat on their property

Construction workers have been told by Indian-born billionaire Pankaj Oswal and his socialite wife Radhika, that any food containing meat must not be consumed on the site.
Construction, Forestry, Mining and Energy Union Western Australian assistant secretary Joe McDonald said the ban was "absolutely wrong".
"She still wants them to build her $70 million mansion, but she's telling them what they're going to eat . . . it's wrong," he said.
"I respect everybody's right to practice their religion, but I totally disagree with anyone forcing it on others.
"That has caused more wars and destruction throughout the world than anything else I know of.
"If people are working on the job and they want to have a ham sandwich or a bacon and egg sandwich, they should have one."

Mr Oswal, who is in New York this week helping Mrs Oswal prepare for the launch of her vegetarian fast-food chain, Otarian, defended the meat ban, saying "This is our home".
Mrs Oswal has previously accused the meat industry of "raping the earth".
"Meat eating is creating bad karma and you are also creating a vicious cycle," she said.
"It's destroying us environmentally, economically and socially. I'm putting my money where my mouth is. I've always been a vegetarian so I have always felt strongly about it.
"First, because of religious reasons, but then later because I realized the greater good associated with it."
The family does not eat meat out of Hindu tradition - although Radhika has previously said that the family is also keen to promote vegetarian diets as a sustainable option.

Below is a view of  the construction site.

The riverfront mansion being built over eight blocks will feature seven bedrooms, 11 bathrooms, a fitness centre, beauty salon, dance area, meditation room, telescope room, waterways, extensive gardens, parking for 17 cars and a swimming pool 10 times the size of an average backyard.
But beneath the Oswals' ostentation lies a tale involving allegations of some unpaid bills, claims of broken promises and eccentric behaviour.
The Oswal's property, in Perth's top suburb Peppermint Grove, and is expected to be worth about $70 million when complete.
It is set to be the biggest home in the country on the most expensive block, which is alone worth $22.7 million.

It's Raining Fish in Australia

Much of Australia has been battered by torrential rains, but a territory town has something else falling from the sky - fish.
This has happened not once, but twice, on Thursday and Friday afternoon.
Hundreds of small white fish were falling from the sky, they fell from the sky everywhere, and
the fish were alive when they hit the ground.
In 2004, locals reported fish falling from the sky, and in 1974, a similar incident captured international headlines.
The small white fish are believed to be spangled perch, which are very common through much of northern Australia.
Weather bureau senior forecaster Ashley Patterson said the geological conditions were perfect on Friday for a tornado in the Douglas Daly region.
He said it would have been an ideal weather situation to allow the phenomena to occur - but no tornadoes have been reported to the authority.
"It's a very unusual event," he said.
"With an updraft, (fish and water picked up) could get up high - up to 60,000 or 70,000 feet.
"Or possibly from a tornado over a large water body - but we haven't had any reports," he said.

Not sure if there is a connection, but here's an1555 engraving of raining fish.

The Cane Toad Saga

The Cane Toads of Australia, the toxic pests which environmentalists have tried for years to stop from killing off the native wildlife may have found a solution.
Something like a Gennie in a bottle, this is instead is a can of cat food.
Scientists from the University of Sydney said that putting cat food close to ponds inhabited by baby cane toads attracts carnivorous ants that are also immune to the toads' poisonous skin.

The ants then attack the baby toads and eat them.
"In one spot we tested, 98 percent of the baby toads were attacked within the first two minutes," researcher Rick Shine told Reuters. "It was a bit like a massacre."
Scientist have spent many years and a lot of money trying to find ways to get rid of these toxic toads that has plagued Australia's flora and fauna for decades and which is considered one of the country's worse environmental mistakes.
The toads were introduced from Hawaii back in 1935 in an effort to control native cane beetles.
Shine said the study was aimed at boosting the numbers of ants around the breeding areas of cane toads, and not upsetting the ecological balance by introducing the insects to an area that they wouldn't normally be in.
"All we're doing is encouraging the ants to flourish somewhere where they already flourish, letting them know there's particularly good food around so we get more of them down there on a very short-term basis," he said.
"Baby toads are incredibly stupid and their reaction to being attacked is to freeze. I think they're trying to advertise the fact they're poisonous and let the predator get a taste of that, but it doesn't work for the ant because it isn't affected."
While Shine realizes the study's findings will never eradicate cane toads from Australia he said cat food was a relatively simple way to try and limit their numbers.
"I'm optimistic that we'll find ways to reduce toads numbers, I think I'd have to be a very optimistic person indeed to think we'll ever get rid of cane toads from Australia," he added.

These toads may be ugly, poisonous, and kill native animals every year, but it still ends up on dinner plates in Asia.

The Cane toad's poison is highly prized in Chinese medicine and the meat is also eaten in some parts of the country and the demand for cane toads is quite substantial.
The Chinese have used toad poison, the skin, organs and gut for their traditional medicines such as,  as an expectorant, heart stimulant and as a diuretic.
It has also been used as a remedy for toothache and
sinus problems.
Toad toxin is considered a class one drug - like heroin,
and  needs a special permit to send it overseas.
Here's the video:  WATCH

Chinese Urged Not To Import Kangaroo Meat

The father of the late Australian conservationist Steve Irwin has asked the Chinese people not to eat kangaroo meat because it could put huge numbers of kangaroos at risk. 

(we notice he didn't tell them the risk of eating it)
Bob Irwin made the plea from his home in Australia, urging China not to start importing kangaroo meat.

Russia recently stopped kangaroo meat imports, after being the main market for the kangaroo trade for many years.
Moscow only banned kangaroo meat imports because of concerns of bacterial contamination.

Kangaroos  can harbor a wide range of parasitic, bacterial, fungal and viral diseases and the majority of infections are unapparent,  animals will most likely will appear normal.

The incidence of Toxoplasma bacterial contamination is amongst the highest in Australia.

The concern is that recommended cooking methods which will not kill this parasite.

A newly identified worm thought to be derived from marsupials was found to be responsible for acute illness in two humans. Like Trichinella they invade muscles. The worms are thought to belong to a class of nematodes known as Muscpiceoids.

Australian producers now expect to start exporting to China in the first half of next year.
Bob Irwin has other kangaroo worries, whose late son Steve was known internationally as the Crocodile Hunter, thinks that Australia's kangaroos are vulnerable to large scale imports from China.
Official estimates suggest there are 25 million kangaroos across Australia, 15 percent of the kangaroo population are killed off each year.  Regardless, Mr. Irwin thinks the Chinese will  totally wipe out the population.