A parasite robber state on fake lake full of soft handed eloi.

Interesting commentary on the plight of boys in school here:

Boys have lower grades than girls throughout their primary and secondary school years. They have more behavior problems. Boys are more likely to be diagnosed with attention deficit disorder; to wind up in special-education classes; and to be held back, be suspended, or drop out. Hence, they’re less likely to graduate from high school. In fact, the high school graduation gap between girls and boys is within a hair of the gap between poor and middle-class kids. Along with their subpar overall college graduation numbers, boys now constitute a minority of M.A.s and Ph.D.s and of medical and law students.

This trend isn’t an example of some peculiar American dysfunction. Boys’ lagging school outcomes show up everywhere, from the enlightened Nordics to the hidebound Gulf States. An OECD survey, based on a Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) measure of 64 countries, summarized the situation this way: boys “are less likely than girls to attain basic proficiency in core subjects, report investing less time and effort on schoolwork, and express more negative attitudes to school.” Boys get lower grades and attend university less often than girls across the developed world—and increasingly in developing countries, too: one 2019 survey cited studies confirming a gap in Zimbabwe, Kenya, Malaysia, Turkey, Iran, Qatar, and Oman, among other places. True, in parts of the Third World, girls often don’t complete elementary school, so it’s rare to see them eclipsing their brothers. But in every place where girls do have the opportunity, they’re doing exactly that.

and

Fatherlessness doesn’t seem to have the same impact on girls; the puzzling difference may help explain why the biggest gender gap of any demographic group is seen among black kids. Black boys’ school performance has lagged behind that of black girls for decades now; 66 percent of black college-degree recipients are women; they earn 70 percent of black master’s degrees and more than 60 percent of doctorates. So socioeconomic advantage improves boys’ performance relative to girls, just as disadvantage, whether racial or economic, does the opposite. But the puzzle remains: rich boys remain in the shadows of their female siblings the same way poor boys trail behind their poor sisters.

Lots more interesting stuff to follow.

One thing struck me – in a time when ‘the experts’ are trying to get tiny tots into school, there is evidence that delaying school until kids (especially boys) are ready is very beneficial. I think the Montessori schools prefer boys to be seven before they start school. There is no evidence that it does them any harm. They catch up quickly.

That reminded me of the stories of one of my favourite authors, L M Montgomery, author of Anne of Green Gables.

In a sequel, Anne and the two old ladies at Green Gables take on young twins, Davey and Dora. Dora is the model child, quiet and biddable. Davey is a ‘holy terror’ who chases the rooster to death, breaks things, truants from church to go fishing, relishes watching a pig get killed and butchered, and generally wreaks mayhem.

He and Dora are six years old.

When the subject of sending them to school (not least to get Davey under control) comes up, Marilla says something like:

‘My father always said that no child should go to school until they are seven years old, and I agree with that.’

Davey grew up to be a good farmer and a fine man.

Imagine what would have happened to him in today’s world.

PwC reveals partner pay, misconduct allegations

Edmund Tadros
Professional services editor

PwC Australia has revealed that former chief executive Tom Seymour was the highest-paid partner at the firm, taking home $4.6 million in 2021-22, and that the firm received dozens of misconduct complaints against partners during the past five years.

The firm has already forced multiple partners out over the leaks, replaced much of its leadership and announced it will no longer make political donations.

Conflict matter, partner pay

The conflict of interest matter is separate from the firm’s wide-ranging response to its ongoing tax leaks scandal, which it detailed in the response. The newly revealed conflict involved a partner entering into an “exclusivity undertaking” without getting approval from the firm. The partner was fined over the matter but remains at the firm.

In response to the trivia event matter, the firm fired “two employees, [issued] financial penalties for three partners and formal warnings for 13 partners who were either in leadership positions in the team that ran the event, managed the employees who were terminated, or who attended the event”.

Misconduct complaints

PwC recorded misconduct complaints related to 43 partners over the past four years.

“Based on our enquiries, we are aware of 119 separation [arrangements] that have been entered into in the past five years.”

‘Performance-related issues’

The vast majority of these arrangements were “performance-related issues”, the firm said. Two related to “incidents of sexual harassment”, six to “incidents of bullying” and five to “incidents of discrimination”.

“These are important matters for the Senate to consider on behalf of the Australian people, and we require all parties involved to give us their full co-operation and contribute openly and honestly.”

Cassie of Sydney
Jul 13, 2023 1:28 PM
“Takes a special kind of prick to take the Government plane to a Billy Bragg concert.”

It takes a very biased, comprised and partisan media to not make a song and dance about it. Just imagine if Abbott or Morrison had used a government plane to take them to a concert.

Cough! Bronny Bishop and a helicopter? Cough!

Dr F. You are right when you note how Bearers of Facts can be so easily dismissed as “stodgy old white men lacking in vision”.

It’s a deeply dispiriting process.

Ultimately you are talking to a politician – who has somewhere between 0% and 10% grasp of the facts;

He’s (it usually is some sort of a ‘he’) advised by a Party apparatchik – who has somewhere between 5% and 20% grasp of the facts;

And they are both supported by a bureaucratic department and outside consultants – which may jointly have somewhere between 50% and 80% grasp of the facts.

In ‘But the Minister wants this‘ discussions, the final 20% of the facts often contain the Detail Devils that should provide the Danger, Will Robinson show stoppers. However, they can usually be ignored on the basis that they are (by definition, because nobody inside the tent has thought of them) arcane knowledge that might be wrong; or misleading because the ‘real context’ isn’t clear to the owner of the 20%; or be offset by future technology, or the Market; or something will come up.

NBN, Snowy 2.0, NDIS, the Great Covid Response, pretty much every State infrastructure debacle – the list tells me that the reckless political Turd Worlding of the electricity supply is not an isolated incident.

Not sure most families that migrated didn’t have extended family support. Would vary significantly on the country/ region you were from.

A lot of English-speakers from Britain had no immediate familial support, but they did tend to congregate as Pommies when in public housing, where my family were. That was one of the attractions of it for my father, apart from cheap rental while he was saving to start a business (which inevitably failed), for my mother was desperately miserable and homesick for Britain. They were married and never divorced, although separated in their later middle ages. They were both psychologically fragile and unable to keep the family together. She took us back to her family in Britain when I was eleven. If she had stayed there my life and that of my siblings would have been very different and she may have pulled round better. Can’t say for my father. He stayed in Australia, and promised her his vision of himself and his future, which didn’t happen, if she returned, which she did.

My father ended up with a major psychiatric breakdown, hospitalised, probably bipolar disorder, for he had grandiose highs and desperate and extremely angry lows. We kids would wait in terror to see what he was like each night. Mum would needle him with her miseries and he ended up staring at a knife saying he should do us all in, ‘petticoat government’ was his word for us three females, my little brother on the sidelines upset, because dad used to roar blue murder at him for not herding the cows well enough – ‘silly as a two-bob watch’ he’d yell at the kid.

Mum upped and left late one terrible evening with us three when he’d drunk a bottle of sherry after smashing his plate of dinner on the floor and was snoring. We went to a garage in town a friend had offered her, but she returned after his hospitalization, taking our young brother with her. When she finally left him she went completely downhill, in Broughton Hall Psych Centre for a whole year, schizoid, not even knowing at her worst who I was. Once happily in that garage, my sister and I, at just fourteen and fifteen, refused to go back.

We got jobs. We were on our way. You could do that in those days if you kept away from The Welfare.

My Dutch next door neighbour (long dead) emigrated with his three brothers.
I guess it all depended on where the better prospects were.
The Dutch were lied to about Australia.
Plenty moved back to Europe or reemigrated to North America.
Southern Italians didn’t have high expectations to start with, most anywhere was better than the Sicilian bandit lands.
Plenty were functionaries of the Fascist regime too, and got here through the Vatican Ratlines.

Came to a sudden halt at Katooma, near the hospital..

lol, Vicki. I came to a sudden halt at that spot in early 1975. I was in the Labour Ward, the window of which you can still see as the nearest one to the current highway, having my second child. It’s not the Labor Ward any more of course in this new modern hospital. In January 1975 it was a country hospital with about six women in the maternity wing at any time, and deliveries by local GP’s.

We were living in Blackheath, having purchased a small wooden mountain cottage for $4,500, with a $500 first home owners grant. I painted and renovated that place inside and outside (doing the outside on a ladder when pregnant), while my first husband ‘did the garden’ of nearly an acre. He spent most of his time reading catalogues and making arcane lists of related plants, an armchair gardener, who failed to collect from the station the plants he’d ordered, till I retrieved them, dead of course. He travelled to Sydney three days a week to teach, and pick up essay and exam papers for me to do some supply marking – our incomes at that time.

Oh dear, the fleshpots of Sydney. Another story.

rosie
Jul 13, 2023 3:02 PM
I see ed case is lying about Lord McAlpine, again.

Pretty much everything that Turd Case posts is either a lie or some kind of deluded fantasy.

My brother’s summing up of the Portland area.
“Wind turbines in every direction and potholes in every street.”

Ed Houses
Jul 13, 2023 3:05 PM
Why are you defending McAlpine, rosie?
Did you know him?

Truth should always be defended.

Are you a sock-puppet of Mad Ed Case?

rosie
Jul 13, 2023 3:55 PM
I imagine after Italy surrendered Australian authorities weren’t too bothered about the Italians here.

It has been claimed that some Italian prisoners working on farms near Cowra were quite prepared to defend the farmhouse with farm implements or kitchen knives should any stray escaped Japanese approach. After all, by that time they were allies!

The ‘happy little wog’ image much promoted by vested interests was certainly not shared by Australian servicemen who had had the misfortune to be POW’s under viscious Italian control.
I can’t imagine what would have happened if an Italian had sauntered onto my Uncle Rob’s property looking for work.
His district was a strong recruiting ground for both 9th Div and RAAF (3 Sqn) so perhaps word got around in the Italian community to stay clear.

Portland Vic ha the wind turbines. We liked the town very much, quite an old port, my forbears walked through on the way from SA to Omeo. Will be interesting to see what happens in due course to the Aluminium smelter. They were loading wood chips galore heading to Asia when we were there, and the drive to Nelson is amazing, trees, trees, trees.

Using their own published numbers on retired coal and gas generation, battery capacity and the intermittent nature of renewball generation, you need nothing more than an A3 sheet of paper, pencil and calculator to know we are in strife.

You need two other things which you can’t buy at the shops. 1. Enough brainpower to think critically, do sums, and see the need to do sums 2. A basic education which will give you at least a faint idea of how much you don’t know.
Our parasitic class has neither of these.

What was done to Lord McAlpine, and the diseased Ted Heath, and Lord Brittan,
All boy rooters.
… Accusations that conjured up by sicko serial fantasists and conveniently peddled by the BBC (an organisation that for years had covered up Saville) and various Labour politicians.
Savile was pretty quick to threaten Legal Action, he even threatened VIZ, who backed off. Savile also had some very heavy friends in the London Underworld.

Why? Because the aforementioned names had been or were Conservative politicians, in the case of Ted Heath, a former Conservative PM.

Crap.
Ever heard of Cyril Smith?
Labour MP, he was worse than any of them, apart from Sailor Ted.

Strange, there’s no mention of any of the benefits of colonialism.

Reminds me … was at the WA museum in Perth today to see the Egyptian exhibition (good ,even my 2 sons liked it) and viewed the “Connections” space which is dedicated to WA and its kinks to the World.

There is an area in the WA museum for British colonialism which repeats all the usual tired memes about the negative effects of colonising “invaders” but can’t seem to provide a single example of any thing positive which the Brits gave us.

BS propaganda pretending to be history in a museum funded by tax payers.

The proposed wind ”farm” off the NSW coast has been reduced in area by, as I understand it, a third, and pushed further out to sea to lessen the visual disturbance of residents at Norah Head on the Central Coast.

And 30 minutes with a decent bad guy demolitions team will turn the whole lot into a fishing reef.

Thinking strategically and remembering what being a nation under threat is like obviously isn’t the strong suit of the morons who make such decisions and the ones that do get paid to think about such things appear asleep at the wheel.

Yeah, I know that was a bit off topic but it bothers me that such things never seem to be considered.

Beertruk
Jul 13, 2023 7:54 PM
Roger
Jul 13, 2023 6:08 PM
Strange, there’s no mention of any of the benefits of colonialism.

The British were so bad that every 4 years colonised countries gather together to have some fun on fields. Colonialism had its problems but the British were by far the best and didn’t go in and rip the guts out of the place. Britain built better societies on what were formerly swamps, huts, and subsistence living. Britain bought technologies that made life so much more enjoyable and increased life expectancy. India, Hong Kong, Singapore etc didn’t go back to their old ways. The Maori recognised the benefits of British innovation and adopted British ways.

When indigenous activists complain about colonialism ask them if they would like to return to the pre-European way of life. If they say yes tell them to strip off their clothes, hand over the phones, and start walking.

My 2c worth the whole Qld Magistracy needs a clean out. Who and how it would be done is a mystery. Perhaps electing these people would be a step in the right direction, then you have to justify yourself to the community you live in. Not virtue signal with the knowledge of no repercussions.

Since 1989 the state has been under Conservative rule for just 5 years. Chrisifulli fills me with zero confidence if and big if he gets up.

GreyRanga
Jul 13, 2023 8:05 PM
P. Ed. O. Case, see how easy it is. No comment necessary. POS.

Yeah.
You are obsessed by the notion that Pederasts be exempted from any responsibility for the destruction they cause.
I won’t speculate on the reasons for your odd fixation, but if others want to, that’s okay too.

She told the court his mental disorders, for which he has been receiving weekly counselling, and his “financial predicament” meant he was unable to pay $61,858.60 in traffic infringements between 2013 and 2022.

So why wasn’t he declared incompetent to handle his financial affairs and had a guardian appointed? It would be difficult to provide a more clear-cut case especially now that it has been presented as evidence and accepted in court.

There should have been consequences for using that line of hooey to escape the fines.

miltonf
Jul 13, 2023 6:35 PM
The Australian media is now the public’s tribal enemy, not its defender, and hasn’t been since the 1990s.
I’d say back to the early 80s at least. Also the canbra pubic serpent establishment is the public’s tribal enemy and has been for many years.

As one who was there at the time, I suspect that the retirement of the last of the former WW II servicemen, who went through CRTS later joined the public service, and reached middle to senior levels, was the beginning of the present mess.

OK I’ve had enough of TV.
The Drum on their ABC is chaired by some lisping queen who makes Bob Downe look relaxed and Margot Robbie look under-made-up. His nasal basso honko and ridiculously sssssssibillant S’s are a mess to listen to.
SBS- pronounced Eth Be Eth by Ricardo Gonsalves, who seems to be on screen for no other reason than to preen- falls over itself to Say “Fakaari-White Island off aotearoa-New Zealand”, but only pronounces Krungthepmahanakhon as “Bangkok” because double standards are for other people.

Ed Case
Jul 13, 2023 8:37 PM
GreyRanga
Jul 13, 2023 8:05 PM
P. Ed. O. Case, see how easy it is. No comment necessary. POS.

Yeah.
You are obsessed by the notion that Pederasts be exempted from any responsibility for the destruction they cause.

No, Turd Case. The issue that alleged pederasts should be proven to be guilty before the media destroys the lives of those not actually guilty.

World’s top climate scientists told to ‘cover up’ the fact that the Earth’s temperature hasn’t risen for the last 15 years

More than 25 years from the data I see.

The temperature datasets are as fictitious as the new Barbie movie. But they don’t bother “adjusting” the lesser known ones like the above link.

We’re still bumping along the top of the 60 year cycle. It’ll be fun to watch the antics of the climate bedwetters when the cycle turns downwards.

Commercial real estate in America. I’m not sure if there’s a similar problem here.

Yep, I suspect so.

Union challenges Commonwealth Bank rule that employees must spend half their hours a month in office (Grauniad, 12 Jul)

A Commonwealth Bank rule that employees must spend 50% of their monthly hours in the office is being challenged by a union in the Fair Work Commission.

The Finance Sector Union filed a dispute in the commission on Wednesday
…
The Commonwealth Bank mandate was announced in late May and is scheduled to start on 17 July. The FSU argues staff were not properly consulted on the change and many believed they were more productive at home.

Waahhh! We don’t want to wuk in a stinking CBD office with bad coffee (even if it’s free).

If not even CBA can get their wukkas to come into the office 3 days a week then that means half their CBD office space is unnecessary.

I love this existential fight between WFH keyboard warriors and ESG loving CEOs. It smells like popcorn.