Abbott and the rabbits... This cartoon by Hop, published 1885 in the Bulletin, shows the futility of prayers. They had no effect on the population of rabbits. Rabbits had become the number one pest for farmers and despite recent attempts by the CSIRO to eradicate them with various infectious disease, they still thrive... but do far less damage than the wild cats.

The governments of 30 countries around the globe are using armies of so called opinion shapers to meddle in elections, advance anti-democratic agendas and repress their citizens, a new report shows.

Despite the attention paid to Russian attempts to influence foreign elections, most of the offending countries use the internet to manipulate opinion domestically, says US NGO Freedom House.

One of Australia's newest senators, Fraser Anning, has said he was verbally abused in a "vitriolic" party room attack before Pauline Hanson kicked him out of One Nation.

Whatever’s happened to free speech?

A poem of Arthur Rimbaud (translated from the French by George Bitzolot, adapted by Jules Letambour)

For her

Dreamed for winter...

Winter... We’ll travel in a small pink buggy

         With some blue cushions.

We'll be happy. A nest for kisses in motion

          In ever corner comfy.

You will close your eyes, not to see in the mirror

The shadows of the night pulling faces

anarchists

If you are a multinational in search of a deal, your philosophy may be very close to that of the Anarchists manifesto. Read the picture above: 

Take land? That is a given for capitalism. There are many ways for rich people to “take land”. Often the simpler way is to make the “legal” owners bankrupt, or plain and simple declare Terra Nullius... etc...

Grow food? That is the exclusive purpose of Monsanto: grow my food exclusively... Could not be more spot on.

President Donald Trump has said the US will no longer tolerate "chronic trade abuses", in a defiant address at the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit in Vietnam.

The citizenship crisis is politics at its worst, has been unresolved far too long, and is a distraction from much more important issues.

That's the view from the real world, reflected by voters in focus groups this week.

new style prison in saudi arabia...

The Chinese described Donald Trump's visit as "State Plus" and it was one of the best welcomes a United States president had received in recent decades, complete with brass bands, enthusiastic children bearing American flags and a 21-gun salute.

I don't know if I should mention this... It's the home invasion of dumb artificial intelligence.

We have the car that talks and the TomTom that tells you "where to go". But then one has to think of people who are lonely or disabled. These devices, mentioned, lampooned and adopted by the GRUEN team of experts, last night on ABC/TV, Alexa by Amazon, and others such as by Google and Apple, are designed to respond to your command in your home — actually make sure you're awake, awake, awake as you live your now excitingly product-managed life. There is a lot of cash to be made from this device, not for you but for whoever is selling you pizza, pineApple and lightbulbs. And the machine cares about you. You are important to the machine.