intransigence...

Intransigence is experienced by many of us daily. It may even dominate our own emotional repertoire. Now, though, as NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announces rising Covid infections and accumulating deaths, this unhelpful trait seems increasingly endangering.

AI

Are you scared yet, human?

This Panorama/4C program looks at the problems of Artificial Intelligence (https://iview.abc.net.au/video/NC2103H026S00) … We have done our best here to follow the AI caper since the inception of this site (2005)... If you live outside Australia, your link might be different: 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/m000wft2/sign/panorama-are-you-scared-yet-human

con

The technology roadmap sketched by Morrison and Taylor is a con. It is in fact a statement of support for the fossil fuel industry which is heavily subsidised by and a significant donor to the Liberal and National Parties.

turnkey

Though Assange isn't in a US prison, his detention in the UK is TOTALLY illegal. The English crown and all its fucking members should be ashamed about its justice system. The Magna Carta has long been flushed down a dirty toilet on behalf of the Americans — especially their hypocritical Catholic president.

seat of power

Thousands of pages of the Queen’s secret letters to governors-general from Lord Casey to Sir William Deane, from 1965-2001, will soon be open to the public in the most significant release of royal documents since Sir John Kerr’s explosive ‘Palace letters’.

approval

Senate Passes $1 Trillion Infrastructure Bill, Handing Biden a Bipartisan Win

The approval came after months of negotiations and despite deficit concerns, reflecting an appetite in both parties for the long-awaited spending package.

q+a

Last night on Q+A, (ABC TV 12/08/2021) Matt Cavanan excelled himself. We could go in detail in regard to his idiotic deliberate ignorance for which in a few years' time we can only guess he will apologise profusely. He is a "National". It's an Australian political party representing farmers, miners, cowboys, cows, camels and loonies. These people know something that we don't: climate change is not happening in Queensland (though it seems to be happening everywhere else on earth).

nat parks

"Nothing dollarable is safe, however guarded” wrote the great American conservationist and protected area crusader, John Muir in 1909. He was right then, and he’s still right today: maybe more than ever. 

Current proposals for development in Kosciuszko National Park are a case in point, and they employ what is becoming a trademark method of attacking NSW national parks. It’s about imposing the culture of money on the carefully developed culture of nature conservation for the public good: a culture for which the great Kosciuszko National Park was once a world leader.

mercenaries

The French had their famous Foreign Legion… But these soldiers of fortune were not true mercenaries. 

Mercenaries are primarily concerned with making money at the expense of ethics — including professional soldiers hired to serve in a foreign army.

The Egyptians, the Romans employed mercenaries… Often the work of the mercenaries is “opaque” not so much on the results, but on who pays them and for what purpose. 

freedom...

Nationals MP George Christensen will move from politician to publisher, launching a “pro-freedom” news website as he prepares to retire from federal Parliament.

The website, modelled on American outlet The Drudge Report, has so far been filled with links to fringe blogs and stories that are critical of COVID mask mandates and vaccinations.

One story claims a spate of US mass shootings were a “ruse” that were “co-ordinated by some evil force”.

uni-

It is now unambiguously clear that certain influential centres of government advice and government policy hold the university-as-institution in contempt. 

beef

This past year, I’ve heard the movie “Soylent Green” referenced countless times. It especially hits home when it comes to environmental concerns, and how some pundits, including Bill Gates, advocate that rich countries, such as the United States and Western Europe, should switch to eating 100 percent synthetic beef.

premiums

Barnaby Joyce has warned the Nationals will oppose more ambitious climate targets until the cost for regional communities is revealed.

The Deputy PM is demanding to see more detail about the economic impacts of signing up Australia to net zero carbon emissions by 2050 before backing the target.

That’s despite a major international climate report card warning the planet is poised to be 1.5 degree warmer, compared with pre-industrial levels, by early next decade.

mmmmffff

Health Minister Brad Hazzard sent a very clear – and concerning – message to millions of voters locked down across the state on Tuesday. The NSW government is too busy to be held to account.