Make friend with everyone

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The Make a Wish Foundation says a skit on the ABC’s The Chaser program might make families think twice about asking for help for their seriously ill children.

Last night’s ‘Make a ‘Realistic’ Wish Foundation’ skit purported to be from a foundation which “helps thousands of kids to lower their extravagance and selfishness.”

The skit signed off with the line: “Why go to any trouble when they’re only going to die anyway?”

The real Make a Wish Foundation uses donations from the public to help grant the wishes of children with life-threatening medical conditions.

Foundation spokeswoman Janita Friend says the foundation’s phone lines have been “running hot” with angry callers since the sketch went to air.

And Ms Friend she says the program could create barriers between the foundation and families who want help for their sick children.

“I would hate to think there are families out there that can apply for a wish [that don't],” she said.

“[The families] won’t make a wish because they do feel that psychologically they are signing something that says ‘Now my child will pass away’,” she said.

“That’s not always the case.”

Ms Friend says the sketch could mean that sick children may feel embarrassed about asking for a wish in the future.

“There also could be embarrassment, that they would be embarrassed and look like they’re selfish if they apply for a wish,” she said.

“We have a lot of children that wish for very simple things as well - having a party, having a cubby house or a puppy. Not all the wishes are extravagant - going over to Disneyland and so on.”

She says that not all of the children involved in the foundation’s work are terminally ill.

“We’re also thinking of the children and the families out there that would be watching it and would be distressed by it.”

Official figures out today are expected to show a slight increase in economic growth in the March quarter.

Until yesterday most economists had expected today’s national accounts data to reveal that Australia is technically in recession, after GDP shrank by 0.5 per cent in the December quarter.

But positive balance of payments figures for the March quarter, which showed strong net exports and a 27 per cent contraction in the current account deficit, have led to revised forecasts.

ANZ’s head of Australian economics Warren Hogan is now forecasting a growth rate of up to 0.5 per cent and an almost flat annual rate.

“Almost exclusively on the back of that net export number, the net exports have really kicked in,” he said.

“Inventories also are going to make a small contribution after detracting significantly from growth in Q4.”

He says the Federal Government’s economic stimulus measures and interest rate cuts have allowed consumers to spend.

“I think really what we’re seeing here is that very rapid policy response putting a floor under demand in the economy, putting a floor under growth in the economy,” he said.

“We’re well-positioned but it’s certainly way too early to be talking about a sustained recovery in this economy.”

There are still concerns about the effects of rising unemployment over the next 18 months.

After forecasting a 0.2 per cent contraction in GDP in the March quarter, most economists are now expecting a small increase.

But there are still concerns about the effects of rising unemployment over the next 18 months.

BRUSSELS - The lightning and turbulence that may have hit an Air France jet flying from Rio de Janeiro to Paris are rarely the cause of plane crashes, analysts say.

But they note that rough weather may have triggered a series of malfunctions that led to the disappearance of the jetliner.

Chief Air France spokesman Francois Brousse suggested the plane could have been struck by lightning.

But most experts say lightning doesn’t usually bring down a modern airliner, unless it coincides with other factors that contribute to the accident.

“Planes are built with lightning strikes in mind and are struck reasonably frequently,” said Patrick Smith, a US commercial pilot and aviation writer.

“I’ve been hit by lightning in my career a number of times, which at worst resulted in a superficial mark on the outside of the plane,” Smith said in a telephone interview from Sao Paulo, Brazil.

 Aviation safety statistics indicate that each large passenger jet - such as the Airbus A330 - is struck by lightning about once every three years on average. Regional aircraft, however, which fly at lower altitudes, are hit more frequently - about once a year.

Although lightning may have been a contributing factor in a handful of accidents since World War II, only one major crash was attributed directly to a strike. In 1963, a Pan American World Airways Boeing 707 exploded in midair when its fuel tank fumes were ignited by lightning.

Since then, aircraft electronic components have been hardened to withstand electric pulses of that magnitude, and new systems have been designed to prevent sparking in fuel tanks.

About four hours after taking off and flying through the night over the mid-Atlantic, the pilots of the Air France Airbus reported that they had encountered an area of intense cumulonimbus activity, part of the massive thunderstorms that regularly batter the world’s equatorial belt.

To avoid structural damage, both military and civilian pilots use standard onboard radar to maneuver around the thunderheads, which are characterized by electrical discharges, hail and high winds.

The mid-Atlantic region is where most hurricanes that hit the Western Hemisphere originate, and this is the beginning of the storm season. Thunderheads in the area can tower up to 60,000 feet (18,000 meters), making it impossible for airliners to climb over them and forcing them to make long diversions.

It remains unclear whether Flight 447 took evasive action to avoid the area of heavy turbulence.

Air France reported that the aircraft’s ACARS (Aircraft Communications and Addressing System) - a digital datalink that automatically transmits service messages from the aircraft to ground stations - messaged the company’s headquarters regarding a problem with the aircraft’s electrical and pressurization systems.

The Workplace Ombudsman is planning on using social networking websites to try to track down people who have unclaimed wages.

The Ombudsman’s office has a trust with $860,000 it has collected from employers who have underpaid their staff.

The office is trying to track down the quarter of a million people the money belongs to.

Workplace Ombudsman Nicholas Wilson has told a Senate committee his office is trying all sorts of methods to get the money back to workers.

“[We're going to] try to locate people who might have Facebook accounts but aren’t necessarily contactable through other means,” he said.

“We’re going to trial that for a short period of time to see whether or not that can flush out more people who are owed money.”