Several people have commented on the UK’s hardened attitude toward Russia, attributing it to the Brits simply being Brits, regardless…
Open Thread – Mon 27 Nov 2023
- The more you gets the less you eats
- Open Thread – Weekend 23 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 21 Nov 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 18 Nov 2024
- From darkness to the promise of light
Once Albo and his rabble are voted out can we simply refuse to bail them out?
Yes.
Blue Hills and Section 18C – Quadrant worth a read- my Nan was an avid listener
Thanks for that, Bruce. So many Mark Studdocks in the world, too few Puddleglums. Although Studdock saw sense in the…
NOVEMBER 27, 2023
Study shows ChatGPT writes better school essays than students
In a study published in Scientific Reports, a research team from the University of Passau compared the quality of machine-generated content with essays written by secondary school students.
The upshot: The AI-based chatbot performed better across all criteria, especially when it came to language mastery.
The language model ChatGPT is making enormous progress.
After version 3.5 had failed the Bavarian Abitur (a test given at the end of secondary school in Germany) in early 2023, its successor version 4 earned a solid 2 nearly six months later.
A study by the University of Passau has now been able to demonstrate to what extent AI-generated content could revolutionize the school system.
The researchers also experimented with the two language model versions.
In a study entitled “A large-scale comparison of human-written versus ChatGPT-generated essays” and published in Scientific Reports, they concluded that the machine writes better English essays.
They evaluated machine-generated texts and essays written by secondary school students according to guidelines established by the Ministry of Education of Lower Saxony.
“I was surprised by how clear the outcome was,” says Professor Steffen Herbold, who holds the Chair of AI Engineering at the University of Passau and initiated the study.
Both Open AI chatbot versions scored higher than the students, with GPT-3 ranking in the middle and GPT-4 achieving the best score.
“This shows that schools shouldn’t turn a blind eye to these new tools.”
Reflecting on AI models
The interdisciplinary study was carried out by the computer scientists in collaboration with computer linguist Professor Annette Hautli-Janisz and computer science didactician Ute Heuer.
“I find it important to prepare teachers for the challenges and opportunities coming their way as artificial intelligence models become increasingly available,” says Heuer.
She initiated a training course on “ChatGPT—Opportunity and Challenge” that the research team conducted.
This event, which took place in March 2023, was attended by 139 teachers, most of whom teach at German gymnasiums.
The teachers were first briefed on selected technological ideas behind general text generators and ChatGPT.
The practical stage then specifically involved English-language texts where the training course participants were left unaware of the origin of these texts.
Using questionnaires, the teachers were asked to evaluate the essays presented to them based on grading scales established by the Ministry of Education of Lower Saxony.
Content was evaluated based on the criteria topic, completeness, and logic as well as linguistic aspects like vocabulary, complexity, and language mastery.
The research team from Passau defined a scale from 0 to 6 for each criterion, with 0 being the worst score and 6 the best.
The machine scores above average in language mastery
One hundred eleven teachers completed the entire questionnaire and evaluated a total of two hundred seventy English language essays.
The research team found the biggest difference in language mastery where the machine scored 5.25 (GPT-4) and 5.03 points (GPT-3) respectively, whereas the students scored an average of 3.9 points.
“This does not mean that students have poor English language skills.
Rather, the scores achieved by the machine are exceptionally high,” underscores Annette Hautli-Janisz, Junior Professor of Computational Rhetoric and Natural Language Processing at the University of Passau.
12 degrees and 36 mm rain, following the 28 mm end of last week. Great for some, but bad for others, especially farmers harvesting.
BoM, atm, reading 16 mm, whereas ours and other private weather stations in the district are all 35 mm plus.
Storms everywhere for a week and we managed no more than 1″ for the whole time. What we colloquially call the rain forceshield came up last night as the trough shifted off the coast and we got trace amounts where 100km inland got supercells. Woke at 5am this morning and noticed the wind that usually bells the end of a period of instability round these parts, now midday and were at a balmy 32 deg.
Maybe next time…
One for the Blog’s Chemistry Nerds
Attention-based solubility prediction of polysulfide and electrolyte analysis for lithium–sulfur batteries
For Italian Concrete Nerds
Application of machine learning models in the capacity prediction of RCFST columns
Abstract
Rectangular concrete-filled steel tubular (RCFST) columns are widely used in structural engineering due to their excellent load-carrying capacity and ductility.
However, existing design equations often yield different design results for the same column properties, leading to uncertainty for engineering designers.
Furthermore, basic regression analysis fails to precisely forecast the complicated relation between the column properties and its compressive strength.
To overcome these challenges, this study suggests two machine learning (ML) models, including the Gaussian process (GPR) and the extreme gradient boosting model (XGBoost).
These models employ a range of input variables, such as the geometric and material properties of RCFST columns, to estimate their strength.
The models are trained and evaluated based on two datasets consisting of 958 axially loaded RCFST columns and 405 eccentrically loaded RCFST columns.
In addition, a unitless output variable, termed the strength index, is introduced to enhance model performance.
From evolution metrics, the GPR model emerged as the most accurate and reliable model, with nearly 99% of specimens with less than 20% error.
In addition, the prediction results of ML models were compared with the predictions of two existing standard codes and different ML studies.
The results indicated that the developed ML models achieved notable enhancement in prediction accuracy.
In addition, the Shapley additive interpretation (SHAP) technique is employed for feature analysis.
The feature analysis results reveal that the column length and load end-eccentricity parameters negatively impact compressive strength.
Following the always reliable Bruce of Newcastle, read up on Vince Vingor last night, Fast Times At Fairmont High.
SF predictions are uncanny, and it’s also uncanny how the Hugo Award has often gone to the prescient.
Two conversations this morning on an NDIS lurk new to me.
Buy a house and rent it out to NDIS recipients. 100k minimum.
Insurance is high – about 10k and rooms must pass inspection which also costs around 3k.
The accountant telling me this has recently acquired a property and is making a few changes to pass muster but (for an accountant) was quite animated about it all.
https://twitter.com/i/status/1728870756782928154
Video Shows Random Bus Station Sitting in Arizona Desert to Pick Up Border Invaders
A random bus station in the middle of nowhere at this particular location, migrants will arrive throughout the day, all day long by these random bus companies arriving there. Then they would wait until given the green light to get to these water rehydration stations put out by Humane Borders out of Arizona, which is the NGO who is currently operating out here in the aiding and abetting with these individuals as they’re coming in. The funny thing about it is that these individuals actually out here on the border, know the exact times that migrants are coming through and the exact locations. So there seems to be coordination between both sides. Ironically enough, in order to volunteer for these NGOs, you have to have a valid passport.
And some more light reading
Sea level anomalies affect the ocean circulation at abyssal depths
&
Modeling walking accessibility to urban parks using Google Maps crowdsourcing database in the high-density urban environments of Hong Kong
Lots of Great Articles on – https://www.nature.com/srep/
Bruce Lehrmann is correct.
The Brucie trial will recommence streaming at 14:10.
Warming up nicely, just like a good BBQ.
It became really interesting when Wilkinson’s Sue Chrysianthou spent more time arguing with the judge than she did cross-examining Brucie about some arcane meaning of what reputational damage could be ascribed to the cretinous ACT ex-AG vs Lisa-baby’s broadcast on Channel 10.
Sue’s a great advocate.. if she’s on your side.
Pushy, aggressive and even more argumentative than the worst harridan many of us would have experienced.
Just imagine being married to her, thankfully she wears no wedding ring, so there’s still a chance for some lucky guy.
Labor’s double-whammy polling disaster shows Australians are fed up with AirBus Anthony Albanese’s ‘misplaced priorities’ and his incompetent, failed Energy Minister Labor Blackout Bowen
The past weekend’s damning Newspoll numbers and data showing overwhelming voter support for ending the ban on nuclear energy point to a public that is getting thoroughly agitated with the Albanese government, writes Rocco Loiacono.
Over the weekend, two polls were published pointing to a public that is getting thoroughly agitated with the Albanese government.
The latest Newspoll revealed that the government and opposition are tied 50-50 on a two-party preferred basis.
According to the poll, the ALP’s primary vote is at 31 per cent, lower than its 2022 election result of 32.6 per cent.
Further, a new Resolve poll revealed exclusively by Sky News Australia on Sunday found that less than one in five Australians oppose ending the ban on nuclear energy while almost half the country is in favour.
When combined, this data is symptomatic of a country that believes the government has misplaced priorities at a time of increased financial stress and is out of touch with its concerns, thanks in no small part to unpopular policies on energy.
Even in the face of this reality, Energy Minister Chris Bowen stubbornly and petulantly believes he is right and everyone else is wrong.
In response to a question on the ABC about the increasing support for nuclear energy, Bowen’s haughtiness was on full display: “Nuclear for Australia is a fantasy wrapped in a delusion accompanied by a pipedream. I mean, it is not the right solution for Australia,” he said.
It comes right on the heels of his announcement last week that taxpayers will now bankroll a five-fold increase in government-backed renewables capacity in the face of Bowen’s 2030 renewable energy target being unachievable.
This is an intervention born of desperation.
As Nick Cater pointed out in his SkyNews.com.au column over the weekend: “New renewable energy investment has all but ground to a halt, the Snowy pumped hydro project is billions over budget, transmission line construction is years behind schedule, and community resistance to new wind, solar and transmission lines is growing.”
Cater added that “Net Zero Australia, headed by former Commonwealth chief scientist Robin Batterham, calculates that we’ll have to sacrifice 120,179 sq km of land to construct enough renewable plants and associated transmission lines to meet Bowen’s target.
That is roughly 15 times more land than we use for mining or almost half the size of the state of Victoria.”
Bowen is also in denial about the enormous cost of his green energy nirvana.
Earlier this year, research by Net Zero Australia found the capital requirement for the transition to renewables would be $1.2 trillion to $1.5 trillion by 2030, and $7 trillion to $9 trillion by 2060.
All this is already on top of Bowen’s pie-in-the-sky promise to bring prices down by installing 22,000 solar panels a day and 40 wind turbines a month for the next seven years.
Remember it was Bowen and his Prime Minister Anthony Albanse who were elected on a promise to cut power bills by $275 a year.
But what else would you expect from Bowen, whose record in government and as a senior opposition frontbencher is littered with failure after failure?
Let’s take a trip down memory lane.
Not to mention the confiscation of property because the gubbmint decides that it is needed for their own or a pal’s purposes, which is not overseen by anyone unless the putative owner takes them to court at his/her own (massive) expense.
Dimmocrat cities like Chicago are notorious for this. I forget the technical term for it, but it is particularly obnoxious when the ‘higher purpose’ is something like a a commercial enterprise which will allegedly provide lotsa jobz and ‘revitalise the neighbourhood.’
Why it hasn’t been declared unconstitutional is a mystery.
Bruce Lehrmann … has labelled “stupid” the apology offered to [Brittany Higgins] by former Prime Minister Scott Morrison.”
It was worse than “stupid”, it was highly prejudicial.
Let’s take a trip down memory lane with Labor Energy Minister Blackout Bowen!
In 2008, then-PM Kevin Rudd had the best poll numbers of all time.
His Assistant Treasurer was Blackout Chris Bowen, and his brilliant scheme for keeping a lid on cost-of-living pressures was “Grocery Watch”.
It was an unmitigated disaster at all levels and became a laughing stock.
It was shelved within months.
For many, that was the beginning of the end of Rudd.
Rudd’s successor, Julia Gillard, had Blackout Bowen in cabinet as Immigration Minister, under whose tenure the boats just kept on coming, some meeting a tragic fate.
Who could forget those terrible scenes in December 2010 of boats crashing off Christmas Island, and the ensuing loss of 50 lives?
In response, Blackout Bowen launched the “Malaysian Solution”, a bizarre idea where for every 800 unauthorised arrivals we sent to Malaysia, the Malaysians would send us 4,000 unwanted refugees.
The High Court, in a six to one decision, declared the “solution” was illegal.
In less than two years, Gillard was removed as prime minister and the Tony Abbott-led Opposition swept into office on a promise of stopping the boats.
Fast forward to 2019 when Blackout Chris Bowen, as then Shadow Treasurer, played no small part in Labor’s unexpected loss at the federal election that year.
It was he who devised the policy to abolish refunds for excess franking credits, which would have hit self-funded retirees and older Australians hardest.
Blackout Bowen’s slogan at the time would have to be one of worst of the modern era:
If you don’t like our policies, don’t vote for us.
A majority of Australians agreed.
Now Bungling Blackout Bowen, as Energy Minister, is at it again.
Just ask anyone in the UK and Europe how renewable energy has worked out for them.
Power prices have increased at least five times over the last year.
Germany, which once held itself out as the leader in renewable energy, is scrambling to reopen coal fired and nuclear power plants just to limit the damage.
Japan is reversing its moratorium on nuclear power plants, instituted after the Fukushima disaster.
The devastating effect Blackout Bowen’s energy policy is having on household budgets and the country generally is now clear.
Perversely, however, he paints himself into a corner with every smart-alec tweet and every surly press conference he conducts.
His arrogant insistence on sticking to a path determined before the exposure of the renewable energy sham in Europe is reckless in the extreme.
Gambling with an undisclosed sum of taxpayers’ money to do so, and then hiding behind commercial-in-confidence provisions to keep that amount from those same taxpayers is an insult to voters.
In the litany of failure that is Blundering Blackout Bowen’s political career, this may be his most costly bungle of all.
600+ civic leaders have signed a public statement “against all forms of discrimination that have been unleashed, including Islamophobia, but focus on antisemitism, which has been the most pronounced as the war inside Gaza has raged”
– The Guardian
OK…but unless they’ve been very selectively quoted in the article they don’t appear to have a clue as to how we got here and therefore what to do about it.
Megan
Nov 27, 2023 8:59 PM
Interested, if a little late to respond.
My name can be converted to an email address if you want to get in touch.
In the litany of failure that is Blundering Blackout Bowen’s political career, this may be his most costly bungle of all.
From the Comments
– Bungling Bowen, Blackout Bowen needs to go with all the Labor people before they wreck Australia. That was a great read
– This government will continue to forge ahead with its vision of net0, when every other country are reviewing wind and solar! Like the voice referendum they had an agenda at all costs!
You need to be concerned when one’s incompetent ego puts its people under pressures when our emissions are minimal to other countries!
Clearing natural habitat and relying on China for our hardware using our fossil fuels is so hypocritical…
– I was brought up to believe in the adage ‘You should never judge a book by its cover”. In the case of Blackout Bowen, I am prepared to make an exception!
– When you look at the figures bouncing around for the cost of fans, panels, new transmission lines and the forgotten unmentionable storage to achieve this fantasy you have to wonder how many nuclear plants that would buy. Even just the $60b extra Bowen just tapped us for. How could nuclear be more expensive than $1.2 trillion? And that’s just the lower end of the estimated spend by 2030.
– Bowen’s own number have nuclear at $5bn per 300MW so $60bn in theory would build 3,600MW of 24/7, emmissions free scalable power on existing coal sites with no trees or prime agricultural land disturbed.
And for the cry-baby anti-nuclear mob, Maralinga as the storage site and the tech already exists.
– The inmates are running the asylum in Australia.
– I must be physic!!!….how did I know this would happen when Albo was voted in by 31%
– And yet they cant accurately tell you what the weather will be like next week let along by the end of the century.
– BOATS BOWEN NOW BLACKOUT BOWEN.
– Instead of receiving our $275 energy savings, we are going to be slugged unknown millions so that developers are subsidised to build solar and wind facilities and we are not allowed to know how much we are paying. That’s absurdity in the extreme. Nuclear isn’t the “pipe dream” it’s Blackout Bowen’s cock-eyed economics behind his drive for renewables at any cost – our cost.
– Blackout Bowen has proven to be the most inept, incompetent and delusional and narcissistic Federal member of parliament I have ever seen. And that is saying something.
I would have gone with ‘craven’.
Before anything had been checked and established, but merely on the strength of an mere accusation and ginned up by people desperately trrying to ‘get’ the Libs in the press, Morrison just knucked under and apologised – thereby condemning the man and his own damned party.
And as it turns out, when things like evidence were brought into play in court, the whole claim was at the very least dubious. Add to that the fact that Lehrmann was keen to have his day in court and the accusation tested, while the complainant hamming up bouts the vapours and flopping melodramatically on the fainting couch – to me this lends credibility to Lehrmann’s denail.
(Notably, since hamming it up during the court case, Brittnah has hammed up physically.)
Interesting. Thanks for this OO. Thirty years ago, I did my PhD on circular CFST columns and developed an analytical model that predicted the entire load-deformation response rather well. Glad to see things are moving ahead.
Roc Doc.
0.7 mm here. We are up there!
It is becoming depressing as well as expensive.
Australia’s energy ‘chaos’ to be Labor’s ‘downfall’
Sky News host Chris Kenny says Labor Energy Minister Blackout Chris Bowen in parliament on Monday vowed to keep Australians “in the dark” about the cost of Labor’s new green energy scheme.
Mr Kenny’s remarks come after Blackout Bowen announced an expansion of the Capacity Investment Scheme, which will underwrite funding for 32 gigawatts of renewable energy projects in Australia.
The Labor Climate Change and Energy Minister has since refused to detail the cost of the green energy scheme amid criticism from the Opposition.
“I was pretty fired up last week … about the frightening decision by Labor Climate and Energy Minister Blackout Chris Bowen to have the government bankroll, that is guarantee with taxpayers’ money, 32 gigawatts of renewable energy projects,” Mr Kenny said.
“As Labor continues to plunge in the polls, they fail to understand how soaring power prices, and their impact on the broader cost of living issues, are hurting mainstream voters and damaging the country.
“There is a long way to go – as I keep saying, this energy chaos will be their downfall.”
Work from home frays workplace connections, productivity: CFOs
Jemima Whyte – Senior reporter
Flexible working from home arrangements could fray workplace connectivity and may pose a threat to productivity, says Kate Beattie, chief financial officer of pubs group and alcohol retailer Endeavour Group.
“I worry about the continuation of remote working,” Ms Beattie told the Financial Review CFO Live summit. “[We want] to make sure that we’re continuing to create places and spaces for people to come together and connect. Because at the end of the day, that drives productivity, but more importantly, that’s what drives people’s sense of purpose in life.”
It was a similar concern raised by Keir Barnes, chief financial officer at Dexus, who said several indicators – including the number of patents filed in Australia every year – showed productivity trending lower.
“We hear from our customers – the C suite of many of the tenants in our business – that their businesses are more productive when they have their people in not just for set periods but for a significant portion of the week,” Ms Barnes said. “Hybrid is here to stay. But that importance of bringing people together and to drive innovation to drive collaboration and to really build those cultures is important for driving productivity.”
Dexus is one of the largest landlords of office space in the country.
Ms Barnes and Ms Beattie’s comments come amid a broader national debate over whether employers can ask staff to return to the office, two years after most COVID-19 pandemic health restrictions were lifted.
Earlier this month, the Fair Work Commission recognised there was an impact on productivity from working from home, with the workplace tribunal supporting employers’ rights to get workers back to the office.
Some companies, including Origin Energy and Suncorp, have also told workers their bonuses could be cut if they do not comply with office attendance rules, with many large companies unable to convince employees to return to the workplace even for a few days every week.
Other chief financial officers appearing at the CFO Live summit included Coles’ Charlie Elias, who said the biggest sleeper issue for the supermarket retailer was “balancing the entire needs of all the different stakeholder groups”.
Virgin Australia’s Race Strauss said it was competition in the aviation sector, which he said was “not entirely balanced”.
“That’s what’s really keeping me up at night,” he added.
The CFOs said higher interest rates – on November 7, the Reserve Bank of Australia raised its official cash rate for the thirteenth time since May last year – had intensified the focus on cost-cutting.
Mr Elias said Coles was investing more than it had before, despite the increased cost of capital, telling the summit it was investing more than $1 billion in two automated facilities in Queensland and NSW.
“Productivity, efficiency, safety, being able to provide amazing customer services – those investments make sense any point in the cycle … good investments will always rise to the top,” he said.
He said cost-cutting could dent staff morale if it was not carefully considered. “If it’s seen as another program then you get fatigue,” he added. “If it’s part of the DNA [of the company], how people are rewarded, how you engage … it’s just part of every day how you run the business.”
Mr Strauss said Virgin Australia was boosting productivity by investing in technology and training its people to use the new systems. “You’ve got to drive productivity, but you can’t just expect it to happen,” he said, adding technology was allowing more efficient rostering for planes.
Is this a rhetorical trick to imply the Jewish community disagrees with Israelis response?
Funny that they weren’t saying this 2 years ago.
Premium whisky prices slump as weak global economy hurts taste for luxury
Value of ‘fine and rare’ single malts sold at auction falls 7%, tarnishing status as alternative haven asset
The value of rare whiskies sold at auction has recorded the steepest fall in a decade other than during the pandemic, indicating that softening demand for luxury items is spreading to an asset class previously seen as a haven from volatile markets.
Investment bank Noble & Co said analysis based on about 8,500 transactions of “fine and rare” single malts, defined as whiskies selling for more than £1,000 per 700ml or 750ml bottle, showed a 7 per cent drop to £27mn in the 12 months to September compared with the previous year.
The decline follows a 19 per cent increase the previous year, suggesting that premium whisky’s “almost unblemished” status among the best-performing alternative investments was declining.
Edinburgh-based Noble & Co said the fall in the transaction value was the first “major drop” since 2012 — excluding a 51 per cent fall during the Covid-19 lockdown in 2020. Prices at auction fell despite the number of bottles being sold increasing by a tenth to more than 8,500 in the first 10 months of 2023.
The sales decline adds to evidence that whisky sales are not immune to the effects of a slump in demand for luxury goods as China struggles to shake off the economic impact of its faltering property market.
Diageo, owner of the Johnnie Walker brands, this month warned of weaker profits in the six months to December because of slower sales in Latin America and the Caribbean, while the Scotch Whisky Association this year said export values fell 3.6 per cent in the first half of 2023.
There were variations within different segments of the market with prices in the upper end being supported by potential buyers preferring to hold on to their bottles rather than sell at lower prices. While there were “standout moments”, such as the £2.1mn sale of a Macallan 1926 bottle this month, the overall trend was for a softening market, said Duncan McFadzean, head of food and drink at Noble & Co.
The bank, which conducted the research with data firm Brainnwave, said further evidence of buyers’ sensitivity to price could be seen in the price of bottles in the broader premium whisky market being flat despite a 17 per cent increase in volumes. That wider market is defined as bottles selling in the secondary market for more than £100.
The £10,000 bottle market was more about confidence than affordability. “It’s maybe not so much that [investors] can’t afford it, [but] they’re just feeling maybe now is not the time to buy it,” said McFadzean.
“While the macro climate remains challenging, it is hard to see the auction markets changing significantly from current trends.”
Some distillers who invested during the boom years were confident that demand from new markets in Asia and the appeal of premium brands would sustain growth.
Huw Wright, managing director of Holyrood Distillery, an Edinburgh whisky maker that opened in 2019, said whiskies with a good taste and a captivating story would withstand an economic downturn. “While we’re hearing a lot about economic slowdown in Europe, we’re still seeing good growth in premium spirits.”
bons
The rain has been luvverly, but the roads to Longreach and and Aramac were cut within a day and are still cut now. I don’t know if transport is able to get through, so the groceries are going to be running a bit low for some.
Good catch.
If such value judgments are going to be included in a report they really should be attributed, or is it journalistic editorialising?
Working from home
‘Double dipping’: why managers worry that staff have a second job on the sly
There is growing concern that remote workers are offering their services elsewhere
Thanks to Covid, my normal working day is generally spent at my desk in the office, or at the computer on my kitchen table, or somewhere in between.
Wherever I am though, I can’t remember ever thinking I could take advantage of this freedom to work remotely to get another full-time job on the sly.
Now I have, thanks to a conversation I had last week with Anthony Klotz, the American academic who coined the Great Resignation phrase during the pandemic and is now at University College London’s school of management.
He told me that when he had been speaking to large audiences of managers over the past six months, one of the most common concerns they raised was about remote workers secretly taking on a second job. “It is one of the main three questions that comes up,” he said.
The managers weren’t talking about part-time side hustles, or a bit of brief moonlighting, or the back-breaking multiple jobs that poorly paid workers are forced to take on.
They were worried that remote workers had craftily taken on another full-time, white collar, salaried job — on top of the one they were already being paid to do.
Klotz is just a sample of one but there is evidence the executives he was talking to are far from alone.
A sizeable 16 per cent of chief human resources officers at large companies told the Gallup polling and consulting firm a few months ago that their executive team believed remote employees might secretly work for multiple companies.
It is probably no surprise then that 50 per cent of the HR bosses said their business had punitive policies for workers who flouted hybrid rules — a big jump from the 16 per cent who said this in September 2022.
I understand why executives might harbour these fears, especially if they lack systems enabling managers to have a good idea of what staff are doing and how well they’re doing it, no matter where they work.
As Klotz says, the worry about multiple job-jugglers probably reflects a larger concern about how invisible remote workers spend their time.
I can also see why employees savaged by endless lay-offs such as those in the US tech sector might find the safety of two jobs appealing, despite the stress involved. A website called Overemployed was started by such a person in 2021 to help other two-timers “give the man, aka Corporate America, the middle finger for always trying to screw the little people over”.
But I was surprised to see research published by the consultancy McKinsey in September showing that 5 per cent of the workforce in a typical organisation was engaged in the “growing phenomenon” of double-dipping.
McKinsey described what it called “polyworkers” as full-time salaried employees holding two or more jobs simultaneously, probably in secret, and often when working remotely.
Even 5 per cent sounds high to me, but that is because my one job takes up more than enough time.
Also I am not a software engineer. The only two-timing case I have personally heard about concerned a man in that job at a small start-up who was sacked as soon as his bosses discovered what he was doing.
He might have been inspired by Bryan Roque, another software engineer who lost his job at Amazon early in the pandemic.
Roque then managed to acquire three jobs at IBM, Meta and Tinder, he told the Business Insider news site recently, which put him on track to earn more than $820,000 a year.
But the stress of long hours and keeping each employer secret from the others took its toll, especially after Meta asked him to go into the office for a couple of days a week.
If he couldn’t book a room to make private IBM and Tinder calls, he had to have nerve-jangling conversations in Meta’s open plan office that could have easily been overheard.
He ended up ditching all three jobs and taking a solitary new one, which I find instructive.
If someone with Roque’s steely nerves could not hack this extreme form of moonlighting, for close to $1mn, there may not be too many others like him. And even if there are, they may not last nearly as long as a lot of managers fear.
Global antisemitism in the last month is on a continuum with the degenerate Hamas aggression. Local antisemites took the Hamas attack as a rallying call. It’s not in response to anything done by Israel – it’s in accord with Hamas.
The Jewish community here in Australia does not disagree with Israel’s response. There might be individuals who disagree, but such people are on the margins. The dreadful events of 7 October 2023 have united Jews in the diaspora and in Israel.
Joanna @ 2:11
“I forget the technical term for it..”
Eminent domain, I believe. Often abused in the USA
Shows the royal family are in touch with the commoners! 😀
Global antisemitism in the last month is on a continuum with the degenerate Hamas aggression. Local antisemites took the Hamas attack as a rallying call. It’s not in response to anything done by Israel – it’s in accord with Hamas.
Correct.
Labor Ministers tried in vain to offload Rohingya child sex predator to other Five Eyes countries, further contradicting Govt claim it believed it was ‘likely to win’ High Court case
Labor desperately tried to send the child sex predator whose High Court victory triggered the release of 141 detainees to the US, the United Kingdom, Canada or New Zealand, Sky News can reveal.
Andrew Clennell – Political Editor
Climate activists continue to ‘knock around’ Australia’s reputation
LNP MP Keith Pitt says organisers of the climate protest in Newcastle last week, Rising Tide Australia, should change their name to “Plastic Lovers Australia”.
Mr Pitt’s remarks come after last week, a group of climate activists gathered at the Port of Newcastle in an effort to block coal-carrying ships from entering New South Wales’ major seaport.
An estimated 3,000 activists spent 30 hours on the water in Kayaks made of Plastic from Petroleum Products, in what was one of the Largest Hypocritical Climate Protests in Australia’s history.
“They’re stopping Australia’s export industry – the biggest one in the country,” Mr Pitt told Sky News host Peta Credlin.
“That employs tens of thousands of people and continues to knock around our reputation.”
And the governmental responses to their use of schoolchildren as useful idiot demonstrators (how many other than politicised Muslim students knew where/what Gaza was prior to 7 October?) has been woefully inadequate.
Network Seven paying Bruce Lehrmann’s rent for a year
Sam Buckingham-Jones – Media and marketing reporter
The Kerry Stokes-controlled Network Seven is paying former Liberal staffer Bruce Lehrmann’s rent in Sydney – and will pay for another seven months – in return for two interviews he gave its Spotlight investigations program.
The revelation emerged in NSW Federal Court on Tuesday afternoon in his defamation proceedings against Network Ten and its former star journalist Lisa Wilkinson.
Mr Lehrmann is suing Ten and Wilkinson for an episode of The Project that aired in February 2021, which outlined allegations by Brittany Higgins that she was raped in a Parliament House office in March 2019. The show did not name him, but he is alleging he was identifiable from the details included.
Mr Lehrmann has denied the allegations.
Under cross-examination from Sue Chrysanthou, SC, who represents Wilkinson, Mr Lehrmann acknowledged he was paid for two interviews on Spotlight in June and August this year.
“You went public, so to speak, to put your version of the story and vindicate yourself?” Ms Chrysanthou asked.
“That was a consideration, yes,” he replied.
Sue Chrysanthou, SC: “It was part of the agreement, wasn’t it.” Kate Geraghty
Ms Chrysanthou: “It was part of the agreement, wasn’t it, that you were paid for 12 months of accommodation by Channel Seven, yes?”
Mr Lehrmann: “That’s the only part, that’s what I get, yes.”
Ms Chrysanthou: “That occurred from June 2023, and it’s to be paid until June 2024.”
Mr Lehrmann: “Well, yes, for filming in those places.”
Seven has previously said it “made no payment to Bruce Lehrmann for the interview” but rather it “assisted with accommodation as part of the filming of the report”.
Mr Lehrmann was charged and faced trial late last year over the rape allegations, but the case was discontinued after a juror brought external research to court. Prosecutors then dropped the charge against Mr Lehrmann over concerns for Ms Higgins’ mental health. He has always maintained his innocence.
The defamation trial has been described as a “de-facto rape trial”. Ten is relying on a truth defence, meaning it intends to demonstrate the allegations of rape are true or substantially true.
The hearing, which is due to continue until mid-December, continues.
Missing from the working from home debate is the fact that steadily, over two decades, employers have made offices horrid places to work. Firstly open-plan, then hot-desking. They are noisy and disruptive and no amount of pot-plants, coffee machines and ludicrous “break-out” bean bag clusters can convince people otherwise. Give people a desirable place to spend their work time and maybe it would compensate for the wasted commute time.
‘Unprecedented’: High Court reveals reasons for releasing refugees from ‘unlawful’ detention
The highest court in Australia has given a major update as to why dozens of people in immigration detention were released into the community.
Australia’s highest court has delivered its reasons for ordering the release of hundreds of people being held indefinitely in immigration detention – some of them foreign criminals – after it found the scheme was “unlawful”.
The federal government suffered a humiliating setback after the High Court of Australia earlier this month overturned a decades-long precedent on the nation’s immigration detention scheme, calling it an “unprecedented” ruling.
In its landmark ruling, the High Court justices found a stateless man from Myanmar who had been in detention after serving time in jail for child sex offences had been unlawfully detained.
The man, given the pseudonym NZYQ, had been in detention since May this year.
The Rohingya Muslim was born on Myanmar, arrived in Australia by boat in 2012 and was given a bridging visa in 2014.
In 2016 he pleaded guilty in the NSW District Court to the rape of a child and was sentenced to five years’ jail with a non-parole period of three years and four months.
The man was taken back into immigration detention in 2018 and a protection visa was refused in 2020.
“Officers were then obliged under s 198 of the Act to remove the plaintiff from Australia as soon as reasonably practicable. The plaintiff also requested to be removed to another country,” the High Court’s reasons state.
“As at May 30, 2023, there was no real prospect of his removal from Australia in the reasonably foreseeable future.”
In their reasons, delivered on Tuesday, the High Court unanimously held that the plaintiff failed on the statutory construction issue but succeeded on the constitutional issue.
They found the plaintiff’s detention was “not reasonably capable of being seen as necessary”.
“The relief (sought) included a declaration to the effect that his continuing detention had been unlawful since May 30 and continued to be unlawful by reason of there having then been, and continuing to be, no real prospect of his removal from Australia becoming practicable in the reasonably foreseeable future,” the High Court judgment states.
“The relief also included a writ of habeas corpus requiring his immediate release.”
Documents tabled in the Senate on November 16 reveal of the 92 people currently detained, 27 of them fall under the category of “very serious” violent offences.
The category includes “serious violent offences… (of) family/domestic violence, sexual or exploitative offences against women” and “very serious” crimes against children.
Of those detained, 47 had spent more than five years in detention.
One has spent up to 13 years in detention, the documents reveal.
Refugees from Afghanistan (18), Iran (17) and Sudan (10) make up the top three citizenships of current detainees.
9 are considered stateless, the department’s document states.
40 of the detainees are currently housed in NSW, 24 are in Victoria and 11 are in Queensland.
Eighty refugees were immediately released following the ruling, but there are hundreds more in “long-term detention” who could be released.
While the ruling has been hailed as historic by human rights advocates, the opposition has slammed the potential release of serious criminals into the community.
“The government argued against this but is required, by law, by the court, to release individuals who are affected, as any government would be required to do,” Immigration Minister Andrew Giles told reporters on November 18.
“The full implications of this unprecedented decision will not be clear until the High Court has handed down the reasons for its decision.
“The government is continually working to ensure that we have a legal framework in place that is effective. And we will consider future legislation, if required, including following these reasons, in order to keep the community safe.”
Mr Giles said the Rohingya man had since been released into the community on strict conditions.
The federal government this week hurriedly allocated $255m to “ensure the safety of the community” following the High Court’s decision.
The bodies were scarcely cold and well before the Israelis had even taken any action when the anti-Semite/pro-Palestine lobby revealed its naked Jew-hate with the calls of “Jihad,” “gas the Jews,” and “from the river to the sea” (a genocidal meme, despite what London police would have you believe).
Five years!!!
It’s the same as in Oz, or similar to compulsory acquisition, which I think is also constitutionally viable.
Toyota HiLux Champ officially launches, not coming to Australia
This Toyota HiLux could be the perfect ute for tradies, but its no-frills ethos means it will likely never be officially sold in Australia.
The Toyota HiLux Champ – a heavy-duty ute for developing countries – has been officially revealed for its home market of Thailand, but it’s no closer to being sold in Australia.
A production version of the IMV 0 Concept – translated to Innovating International Multi-Purpose Vehicle – which debuted in December 2022, the HiLux Champ is Toyota’s low-cost commercial vehicle for Southeast Asia, giving buyers an alternative to the full-size HiLux.
Available in both short- and long-wheelbase styles – measuring 2750mm and 3085mm between the axles, respectively – the Toyota HiLux Champ stacks up at 4970mm (SWB) or 5300mm (LWB) in length, 1785mm wide and 1735mm high.
Despite its smaller appearance compared to a regular HiLux, the long-wheelbase HiLux Champ shares the same distance between its axles as the single-cab chassis HiLux Workmate in Australia, while it is 35mm longer, 15mm narrower and 15mm shorter in height than the popular ute.
The HiLux Champ’s trays vary between 2312mm and 2647mm in length, while boasting a payload capacity of 1000kg.
Three engines are on offer – a pair of 2.0-litre (102kW/183Nm) and 2.7-litre (122kW/245Nm) petrol engines, and a 2.4-litre turbo-diesel which produces 110kW/400Nm.
Both the 2.7-litre and 2.4-litre turbo-diesel engines are found in the Australian-delivered Toyota HiLux Workmate variants, though the HiLux Champ misses out on its full-size sibling’s 2.8-litre turbo-diesel.
A six-speed automatic transmission is exclusive to the higher-output petrol and diesel engines, while the 2.0-litre petrol offering is only available with a five-speed manual – all Toyota HiLux Champ variants are rear-wheel-drive.
Standard equipment across the range includes 14-inch wheels, driver and passenger airbags, anti-lock braking and seat belt pre-tensioners.
While the HiLux Champ’s features list is bare for entry-level variants – with halogen headlights, manual wind-down window handles, just two speakers and vinyl upholstery as standard – better-equipped variants come with LED headlights, electric windows and mirrors, plus orange dashboard trim.
In Thailand, the Toyota HiLux Champ is priced from 459,000 to 577,000 baht – equivalent to $19,800 to $24,900 in Australian currency – compared to the 564,000 ($AU24,300) baht starting price of the standard HiLux.
Alberta Invokes Sovereignty Act Against Trudeau
What a shame that Australian States cannot do this. Too far Left, all of them, in any case
https://youtu.be/iSqFxWiB_iY
“The forecasts of Global Warming have been unfounded for decades. In 2001, they claimed water would be rationed. This is not about Climate, it is about the usurpation of our sovereignty and the imposition of Schwab & Soros’s dream of a one-world government to dictate everything about our lives. Al Gore’s documentary was challenged in court and ruled against Gore.”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2007/oct/11/climatechange
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/canada/alberta-invokes-sovereignty-act-again-trudeau/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
“Natural immunity conferred substantial protection against COVID-19 hospitalization,” the authors of the study wrote. “Our study showed that natural immunity offers stronger and longer-lasting protection against infection, symptoms, and hospitalization compared to vaccine-induced immunity.”
No mrna in me!!! And I had covid, win win. Read the study and weep all of those with spike protein poison in their bodies.
Hmmm. out to lunch on this one.
Some Cats will recall that during the Covid hysteria husband and I declined to be vaccinated. This was initially decided on the basis of the death of the mother of grandson’s friend in Sydney due to Astrazeneca vax. The latter was acknowledged by the medical authorities before they decided not to comment on deaths after vax.
We still hold to our decision.
We both eventually contracted a very mild dose of Covid in mid to late 2022. However, about 7 weeks ago we both contracted the most recent mutated strain of Covid & it was considerably worse than the Omicron strain of 2022. It seems very clear that any natural immunity acquired in relation to the strain of 2022 will not apply to the most recent strain in 2023.
This, of course, in no way changes our refusal to be vaccinated with mRNA vaccines. Rather, it substantiates it. I would rather my immune system contend with the spike protein of a seasonal Covid pathogen, than have a body possibly contending with mRNA on a continuing basis.
So, to that extent, I agree. But I wouldn’t get too confidant about having continuing natural immunity from all new strains after contracting Covid once. Let us hope that Geert Van Den Bossche is wrong in his conviction that vaccinating during a pandemic will produce ever more virulent pathogens.
Democracy and socialism have nothing in common but one word, equality. But notice the difference: while democracy seeks equality in liberty, socialism seeks equality in restraint and servitude.
– Alexis de Tocqueville
Treasury modelling suggests Brittany’s Friday night added 0.25% to NSW GSP over two years.
Albanese coy on taxing the family home
Phillip Coorey – Political editor
Anthony Albanese has scoffed at the opposition for asking whether he intended to change the tax treatment of the family home but, at the same time, refused to rule it out.
Asked by Victorian Liberal MP Aaron Violi to “guarantee there will be no changes to the tax treatment of the family home during his period as prime minister”,
Mr Albanese did not give a straight answer.
“The family home – they have run out of questions when they ask about the family home. That is in the drawer at the bottom,” Mr Albanese mocked. “The family home is something in Australia that is of course, very important. Very important.”
Pressed again whether he would rule it out, Albanese replied: “Who is ruling anything in. This is just absurd.”
Applying capital gains tax to the family home, counting it as part of the aged pension assets test, or reintroducing death taxes have long been considered taboo, but as intergenerational inequality increases, calls are growing for such measures.
Most recently, economist Danielle Wood, in a speech given just before she assumed her role as chairwoman of the Productivity Commission, called for a raft of tax increases targeting inheritances, including the family home.
“At a minimum we should not be subsidising inheritances via some of the existing rules that allow the accumulated value of super tax breaks to be inherited by the next generation, as well as the exclusion of virtually all the value of the family home from the age pension asset test,” she said.
Ms Wood was handpicked by Treasurer Jim Chalmers to lead the commission after the initial choice Chris Barrett, changed his mind.
Mr Violi said the government could not be trusted.
“The PM’s refusal to answer a straightforward question has opened up even more questions.
Why did he refuse to rule out taxing the family home?
What is he hiding?” he said.
In the litany of failure that is Blundering Blackout Bowen’s political career, this may be his most costly bungle of all.
never underestimate the value of keeping “files” .. The turtle/drug money/1990s Cabramatta ..
This is a cause I hope we can all rally around,
drinkingdoing what we can to help them through these straitened times.OldOzzie the working from home comment is more about the bosses not having a clue what the employees actually do and if they don’t know what they are doing then the work probably doesn’t need doing.
Visitor parking is driving apartment owners mad
What defines a “visitor”? Is it someone who drops in for an hour for a cup of tea or the romantic partner of a resident who stays all weekend?
Jimmy Thomson Contributor
Every so often we conduct semi-serious polls on the Flat Chat website. They are far from scientific but they do offer some insight into the collective strata mindset.
Recently, we asked Flatchatters to name the misbehaviour of their neighbours that irritated them the most.
Smoke drift from cigarettes on balconies was No. 1, but second and fourth were complaints about parking. In third place was barking dogs.
Prime among the parking complains was residents using visitor parking as permanent extra parking for their own cars. Also complained about were rogue parkers occupying designated spots, and owners parking on spare areas of common property driveways.
Designated visitor parking is common property and some residents think that, since they partly own the spot and visitors clearly don’t, owners take priority.
A friend told me that she once got her mother to park in a visitor spot opposite a tradie’s garage which he used as a workshop and for storage. When they returned, they found the most luridly obscene and threatening note on mum’s windscreen, the gist of it being to never dare park on “his” parking spot again.
Who is a ‘visitor’?
Another problem is the definition of what constitutes a visitor. Is it someone who drops in for an hour for a cup of tea? Or is it the romantic partner of a resident who arrives on Friday night and leaves on a Monday morning?
Are the family or friends who bring four cars to an Airbnb holiday apartment that has only two attached car spots for “visitors”?
How about a resident who parks for 15 minutes while they unload their shopping? Or half a dozen tradies working on a renovation who are there all day, every day, until it’s finished? They’re not residents, so what are they?
One block discovered its visitor parking had been rented to workers from a building site next door. When they changed the coding on the electronic “beepers”, meaning non-residents could no longer access the car park, a riot almost ensued.
It turned out an enterprising tenant – yes, a renter – had bought a stack of beepers from an electronics shop, matched the code with her own device and was renting them to the workers for a tidy sum.
When the con was discovered, she did a midnight flit out of her flat, leaving a bunch of out-of-pocket workers, one of whom threatened to sue the strata committee – a threat that was as empty as the now freed-up parking spots.
Parking spots are valuable real estate. Ask any local real estate agent what difference a parking space makes to the sale price of a property, and for an estimate of the rent on a space.
That’s how much rogue parkers are “stealing” from the rest of the owners, not to mention the inconvenience their selfish land grabs cause.
Most strata committees and residents ignore rules on visitor parking until it becomes an issue, and then it’s already a major source of dispute.
Unless you have a bylaw that establishes rules, all sorts of people will assume they are entitled to use visitor parking as and when they like.
So a smart strata scheme will canvass its owners and tenants about what restrictions they think would be fair and reasonable, including durations of stays during the day and overnight, then create a bylaw accordingly.
The problem then becomes how you enforce it – and that’s an issue we can park for another time.
Artists and academics AWOL.
Excess deaths in 2023
Johnny Rotten
Nov 28, 2023 3:10 PM
Alberta Invokes Sovereignty Act Against Trudeau
What a shame that Australian States cannot do this. Too far Left, all of them, in any case
https://youtu.be/iSqFxWiB_iY
“The forecasts of Global Warming have been unfounded for decades. In 2001, they claimed water would be rationed. This is not about Climate, it is about the usurpation of our sovereignty and the imposition of Schwab & Soros’s dream of a one-world government to dictate everything about our lives. Al Gore’s documentary was challenged in court and ruled against Gore.”
Explainer: What is Alberta’s Sovereignty Act?
Nov 27 (Reuters) – Alberta’s conservative Premier Danielle Smith put the Canadian province’s Sovereignty Act into motion on Monday to challenge the federal government’s requirement for a net-zero electricity grid by 2035.
Smith’s United Conservative Party government introduced a resolution in the provincial legislature, marking the first use of one of her signature laws enacted last year.
The Sovereignty Act is an effort to give the oil-rich province a legislative framework to defy federal laws it deems unconstitutional and is another front in Smith’s battle against Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s climate plans.
Below are some key aspects of the act:
WHAT IS THE ALBERTA SOVEREIGNTY ACT?
Alberta Sovereignty Within a United Canada Act was approved by the legislature in December 2022 after the initial bill was diluted to its current form. A provision that gave Smith’s cabinet the power to bypass the legislature and rewrite laws as it saw fit was deleted. The act affirmed that the Alberta legislature, not Smith’s cabinet, would have the last word on lawmaking.
The Sovereignty Act was one of the most eye-catching policies Smith promised to introduce after becoming premier last year. It seeks to allow the province to refuse to enforce specific federal laws or policies “that violate the jurisdictional rights of Alberta.”
Smith, 52, campaigned on an “Alberta First” slogan but the act does not allow the province to split from Canada or to defy Canada’s Constitution. Some legal experts have said that courts could block the act although it has not been put to the test yet. Similarly, the province of Saskatchewan approved last year legislation to defend its economic autonomy from federal overreach, sparking plans by First Nations communities to challenge it in court.
WHAT DOES THE ACT PROVIDE FOR?
Under the act, Alberta’s legislative assembly can pass a motion that identifies a specific federal program or legislation as unconstitutional or causing harm to Albertans.
The act could be used, for example, to fight federal regulation of new energy projects, climate change legislation, vaccination policies and gun control laws – issues that have historically been divisive in Alberta.
Alberta, which is usually led by conservative governments, has a long history of fighting Ottawa over its resources, including the federal National Energy Program in the 1980s.
WHY PUT THE ACT INTO MOTION NOW?
The trigger is the federal government’s clean electricity regulations, which were announced in August. Smith has criticized the draft regulations as “irresponsible” and said they would endanger grid reliability.
Smith argues that the province will use the act to protect Alberta power companies from having to limit the use of highly-polluting natural gas-burning plants.
Electricity falls under provincial jurisdiction in Canada.
The draft electricity regulations aim to create a net-zero emissions power grid in Canada by 2035, but Alberta says the province’s power generators can only reach that goal by 2050.
The final rules are due to come into force on Jan. 1, 2025, after a series of consultations.
WHAT ARE THE ACT’S CHANCES IN COURT?
Smith, a former journalist and leader of the right-wing Wildrose Party, has consistently criticized Trudeau, something that strikes a chord with her core rural Alberta voter base. She argues the act will enable Alberta to assert its constitutional rights and protect against “the destructive overreach of Ottawa”.
But some legal experts say it would be unconstitutional under Canada’s laws and likely be struck down in court.
The implementation of the act could be cumbersome as the provincial government would have to vote on every piece of federal legislation it disagrees with and could deter investment in the province, lawyers have previously told Reuters.
Former conservative premier Jason Kenney has blasted the Alberta Sovereignty Act as a “full-frontal attack on the rule of law” that risked turning Alberta into a “banana republic”.
BREAKING! Ukraine’s Zelensky CAUGHT buying $75 million luxury yacht with U.S. money? | Redacted News
Apparently, enforcing your border laws is a threat to democracy.
Chuck Schumer: GOP’s H.R.2 Border Bill Threatens World Democracy
Couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch.
Nolte: Disney on Track to Lose Nearly $750 Million Across 13 Films in Historic Year of Box-Office Flops
The green scam: How electric vehicles harm the environment that they’re supposed to save
In 2032, India will need a billion tonnes of coal, partly to charge EVs in urban areas via power generated by thermal plants
Five Indian cities, including the capital, New Delhi, consistently rank in the world’s top ten worst air-polluted cities. Vehicular emissions are significant contributors; Delhi alone has around four million cars – no wonder the government of India is promoting electric vehicles (EVs) on a large scale. While India’s target is a 30% market share of EVs by 2030, the share is currently only 1.1%. Moreover, concerns exist about whether EVs are a green option if pollution is transferred from the cities to the countryside.
Around 27.4 million EVs were running on Indian roads as of July 2023, according to the ‘Vahan4’ portal of the Ministry of Road, Transport, and Highways. To achieve its goal of net zero by 2070 to cut down greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, India is expanding its EV market. The hope in New Delhi, for example, is that a rise in the number of green-number plate vehicles will herald a day when its air will become breathable again.
However, India’s EVs depend on just the 8,738 Public Charging Stations (PCS) that are operational as of June 2023, as per the Bureau of Energy Efficiency (BEE), Ministry of Power data. The number of PCS needs to increase to a minimum of 1.32 million, states the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) on ‘Charging Infrastructure for Electric Vehicles,’ to support the 30% market share target.
But will EVs really be emission-free?
For an EV to achieve maximum environmental benefit, the electricity used for charging must be generated from green or renewable sources.
However, much of India’s electricity is still dependent on coal-based thermal power plants, and the government is on a spree to auction more mines and make non-operational mines functional again. India’s total thermal installed capacity is 238.1 Gigawatts, and over 48.67% of thermal power (around 116 GW) is obtained from coal, and electricity demand is increasing by 4.7% annually. As per the National Electricity Plan (2022-32), the projected peak electricity demand for 2026-27 will be 277.2 GW, and for 2031-32, it will be 366.4 GW.
Despite efforts to generate electricity from renewable sources, according to NEP 2022-23, much of India’s electricity will still be derived from thermal plants running on coal by the early 2030s. The share of coal-based capacity in the total installed capacity for the year 2026-27 is likely to be 38.57% and 28.83% for the year 2031-32, which will be around 107 GW and 106 GW respectively, by 2026-27 and 2031-32 – little difference from the present scenario.
“All projections including those of IEA (International Energy Agency), anticipate that coal-based generation is likely to peak around the early 2030s following which the generation will fall and the generation from non-fossil-based sources will increase,” Swati D’Souza, an independent energy expert and former energy analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis told RT.
The ‘Transitioning India’s Road Transport Sector: Realising Climate and Air Quality Benefits’ report by the IEA, in collaboration with NITI Aayog, says that the transport sector contributes to 12% of the total GHG emissions in India. But as India seeks to satisfy the mobility needs of its growing, urbanizing, and rapidly developing population, energy demand and CO? emissions from the sector could double by 2050.
A billion tonnes within a decade
NEP projections indicate a substantial demand for coal, with an estimated 831.5 million tonnes in 2026-27 and 1018.2 million tonnes in 2031-32. Power plants relying on coal will likely import approximately 40 million tonnes to meet the growing demand.
But, V K Shrivastava, a former advisor for petroleum refineries, petrochemicals, and energy at BEE, told RT that the central government is launching several schemes and incentives to encourage the use of green energy for charging stations, which would go a long way in making EVs emissions-free, even indirectly.
He emphasized open access to renewable energy, a way of procuring green energy from renewable sources through the power grid; consumers choose their preferred source and pay only for what they consume without owning or operating a generation plant.
“The open access route 2022 is a noteworthy incentive for power distribution companies (DISCOMS) as it provides a 20% rebate on electricity prices when they provide green power to charging points in public spaces during the daytime. Additionally, the Open Access Transaction limit has been reduced from one MW to 100 kW to enable small consumers to purchase renewable power through open access,” he says.
– Will EVs just offset GHG emissions from urban to rural India?
– Optimism on renewables
‘Images that may be distressing’ now encompass dead fish at TheirABC:
‘Mutilated shark carcass’? WTF?
I don’t know where to begin with this silliness.
Unless the ‘reporter’ has never eaten fish, guess what, it usually got its head cut off. Unless it was consumed in certain Indigenous and Asian circles, where the eyes are regarded as a delicacy.
And yes, I know that a shark is not really a fish, but I doubt that the ‘reporter’ does.
What an idiot. The kids would have loved to see that. Maybe that’s what worries him/her/it/ze etc.
He says he is concerned about dead sharks attracting others, but I’m smelling the piscatorial equivalent of a rat here.
Korean dog farmers threaten to release 2 million hounds
Owners of canines raised for meat have reportedly threatened to release the animals if the government bans consumption
He doesn’t hold back.
Irish Lives Matter – Immigration Can No Longer Be Ignored
The ABC is beyond parody.
I’m not sure it’s the right word, but in want of a better, I’ve noticed my own personal Islamophobia has gone up a few notches since early October.
Other than providing a cheap headline for the Daily Mail and the 6pm News, it is hard to see any real value in the evidence between Channel Stokes and our Bruce, particularly before a Federal Court judge sitting without a jury. Yesterday’s cross examination about dealings with Linda Reynolds Chief of Staff were potentially much more damaging. Stay tuned.
Natural immunity, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
No way would that have taken off in this wide brown land.
‘Nice ute, champ’
‘Nice ute. Champ?
A recipe for punch-ons, all the way up and down the continent.
Greta Thunberg’s climate crusade is heading for defeat | Michael Shellenberger interview
Net zero will get us there, that is, becoming a developing country.
Muslims threaten to kill Jews – Albanese’s response? Ban Hitler salute.
Talk about the easy, do-nothing response.
Brittany up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAFq1VoEqAE
Not too late at all N_K-P. Not sure how to convert that to an email addy without knowing the email provider but you can ask Dover for my email address and I’ll get in contact with you. Or you can ask Dover to send me yours.
I promise not to stalk you.
*Rushes to find the popcorn maker*
Slave! Bring the butter!
Even Human Rights Watch admits Palestinian terrorists bombed hospital
By Post Editorial Board
Palestinian culpability for the rocket that struck al-Ahli Hospital is now so indisputable that even Human Rights Watch, an outfit deeply hostile to Israel, has admitted it — but rest assured, this won’t be the last time major media let Hamas guide the “narrative.”
HRW’s report on the tragedy says it “resulted from an apparent rocket-propelled munition, such as those commonly used by Palestinian armed groups.”
Armed groups — i.e., terror cadres like Islamic Jihad, the group Hamas operatives blamed in an audio clip intercepted and published by Israel.
HRW also damns the clearly inflated death and casualty totals provided by Hamas:
Their number “displays an unusually high killed-to-injured ratio” “out of proportion” with the damage the rocket did to the hospital site.
The admission comes more than a month after the hospital tragedy itself — and the subsequent agitprop push by Hamas that was uncritically repeated by major media outlets like the New York Times.
Even last week, the Times was reporting the horror’s cause as “contested.” Does it just not want to admit its colossal error?
This is the latest in a long series of independent investigations that have confirmed again and again that Israel did not fire that rocket.
True, no amount of evidence will ever satisfy the American wing of Hamas apologists, like far-left Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who has descended into full-on “trutherism” over the attack.
But with HRW now admitting the truth, there’s no moral cover left for Tlaib and the antisemites who hang out with her on Facebook.
Don’t expect Hamas’ useful idiots in the media to see the light, either: They’ve been compromised for far too long.
Indeed, former AP reporter Matti Friedman has described the way his former employer covered Gaza as “shaped by Hamas” going back to 2008, when the Associated Press first began letting Hamas censor its Gaza stringers without notifying readers.
He also notes that Hamas since then has been “basically wiring Gaza like a suicide bomber — they’ve created a military landscape that is indistinguishable from the civilian landscape — and that means necessarily that when war breaks out, it’s going to be a civilian disaster,” but “the big Western press organizations” have “been largely happy to ignore it.”
That remains hugely important context for understanding this war — but goes unmentioned in most reports about civilian suffering.
Then there’s false context, like the near-ubiquitous use of the words “militants” or “fighters” to describe blood-soaked killers of children and the elderly.
It’s critical, as Israel continues its hostage exchange with Hamas, to remember that the Jewish state is battling murderers and war criminals, not righteous freedom fighters.
Why did he refuse to rule out taxing the family home?
What is he hiding?” he said.
While I doubt that Handsome Boy will be in the Highchair long enough, I’d bet his balls that somewhere, twenty-something ALP Masters of Universe will be examining the policy option of taxing the profit on the sale of the family home. Only for ‘those who can afford it’, of course.
Not just revenue but, most importantly, cooling the property market churn and being seen to do something about house prices. After all, it’s a market valued in $trillions, so a little dip of the beak won’t be noticed.
Israel’s OK on extending cease-fire mustn’t stop it from wiping out Hamas
By Post Editorial Board
Monday’s Israel-Hamas deal to extend the cease-fire two more days raises hopes that more hostages will soon be freed — at a price: Every day that passes with Hamas still alive makes the job of eradicating it harder.
But Hamas must be obliterated.
No one can blame Jerusalem for choosing to make the return of its hostages a top priority.
Yet Israel faces a ticking clock: World pressure to “permanently” end the war keeps growing.
And if the past is any guide, Israel will be forced to call off its campaign against Hamas prematurely (recall its conflicts with Iran-backed Hezbollah in Lebanon, which now has as many as 150,000 rockets).
Team Biden has even warned Israel against shifting attacks to Gaza’s southern region unless civilians there are first assured access to humanitarian aid and safety.
That may make it difficult, if not impossible, for Israel to finish the job.
Yet much is left to be done: Hamas vowed weeks ago to continue its attacks “again and again” until Israel is destroyed; one of its leaders, Khaled Mashal, bragged Friday that the terror group’s tunnels and weapons remain intact and that it can and will use them to launch new attacks on Israel.
Either Hamas is destroyed, in other words, or Israel is: Hamas has made clear that it’s life or death for both sides.
That means Israel must fight with all it’s got, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed.
The Biden team could help, not by repeatedly harping on what Bibi can’t do — but urging him to do what he must.
“Fauci’s role in claiming the virus was natural, when he had no incontrovertible evidence to make such a claim, ….”
Who cares? What difference does chasing rainbows like that make?
What research did former Health Minister Hunt rely upon, when he trumpeted:
“The vaccines are safe AND effective!”
It has been admitted by Moderna and Pfizer executives subsequently, that they were never even tested, for stopping transmission.
The fact that the highest level of infections were recorded after the initial jabs were administered, would put to bed the lie that they had any benefit whatever.
You may as well wear a surgical mask to protect yourself, ……., no, wait.
Lamp posts for the enablers!
Why must it be limited to ships? Still, how do you think the US maintains sanctions against targeted countries or individuals. By commandeering them when it has the opportunity of doing so and seizing items therein.
We need a Star Trek series where all the characters are transgender, except Data.
‘Doctor Who’ Mocked for Asking Alien Character Its Pronouns: ‘What a Load of Woke Sh*t!’ (27 Nov)
I’m still not sorry I didn’t replace my last TV set when it expired.
Whatabout…..
Tell that to a paraplegic injured in a road smash. One of the more stupid ‘truisms’ floating around.
Like:
How do you tell the difference between a Hitler salute and a Roman salute,
Asking for a friend.
Keep digging RADM Dover.
That was a short and sweet session with Ms Knickerless. Tomorrow should be a lot more fun
Airy Hoggins has started her testimony, the first of 22 (!!) for the respondents Channel 10 and Wilkinson.
Looked an sounded confident, happy and not at all like being on the verge of a mental collapse. Three mega-large will do that..
But before that, lawyers on her side gave their opening statements.
Listening to Mal (Collins) and Sue (Chrysanthou), you’d think the MSM’s excrement smelt like Paco Rabanne.
In their opinion, Brucie’s case is a shambles and an abomination. They didn’t quite accuse Michael Lee (judge) of wasting their time, but they might as well have.
Lee is having ongoing tussles with Sue.. who seems to like nothing more than a bit of a rumble.
As someone famous said, a long time ago: ” We might be some time..”
Just read your earlier comment and then what I said, it should be clear.
The difference is that I’m not saying it is OK, I’m pointing out that it is simply doing what the US does and has done for years.
Why did I have to say anything then or now? I simply noted it was happening, and that it was no different to what the Us does.
The US didn’t enact a ‘rules-based’ system after WW2. What was enacted was the international law system via the UN. What is being referred to with the ‘rules-based’ order now is what the US developed post-Cold War because its actions in the ’90s and early ’00s weren’t getting the appropriate fig-leaf via the UN.
Why must this be dealt with? If the purportedly official government of Yemen can’t even control the majority of its territory or people its recognition is mostly a mirage.
Voluntary Assisted Dying divides us into two classes
By Archbishop Anthony Fisher – November 28, 2023
Excerpts:
Today is a dark day for New South Wales, as the law allowing euthanasia and assisted suicide comes into effect. No doubt some will celebrate it, and others bemoan it.
For, at a time when social cohesion is needed more than ever, this is a divisive law. It divides us into two classes of people: those whose lives are worth fighting for to the end, and those whose lives we consider a burden to themselves and others that we will not carry.
Faith-based nursing homes, in particular, will from today be required by NSW law to host euthanasia on their premises and to enable it in various ways.
But it is a radical departure from Judeo-Christian ethics and from classical medical ethics to suppose that giving a person a lethal drug is a form of healthcare. It’s just the eliminating discomfort and distress and ensuring choice and control at the end of life.
Everywhere euthanasia has been legalised the protections have been gradually removed and those deemed eligible have been gradually broadened. Canada, Belgium, Holland: all have moved from euthanasia or assisted suicide as a last resort for the terminally ill to this being the ordinary way of dying for many people—one every forty minutes in Canada.
Not just the terminally ill, but now the chronically ill or disabled. Not just those with physical sickness, but now the depressed, lonely or homeless. Not just adults, but now children and infants.
Israel made a big mistake with the hostages deal in leaving it open for Hamas to determine when it’s over. They won’t advise Israel, sorry “We’re not releasing more. You can attack us again now.” They’ll just attack when they’ve used the delay enough to regroup.
Israel should have made the four days the fixed non-continuing deal, and if Hamas wants it extended the same conditions won’t apply. Hamas will need to make an offer that might not be accepted, and with negotiations finalised before expiry of the four days.
Street parking where my youngest lives is at a premium being a leafy inner eastern suburb with the city skyline just down the road.
Boy Genius recently had someone parked in his (not visitors) parking spot for 4 days. Did the rounds of the building to try and identify the moron in question but had no luck. Late on day 2 under the cover of darkness he unscrewed both numberplates and put them in the bin. Left a note under the windscreen as to the location of the plates. Still took another 2 days for her to move it.
Finds out later she is actually a fellow tenant.
Sorting out and refereering the company parking spots was always a major source of angst for me when I was a senior HR manager. The CEO did not have a designated spot and she didn’t believe anyone else needed one either.
You got an uptick for that alone, Gilas. 🙂
It’s only a diversion if I’m defending an action because the complainant is doing it too. But when it’s used to point out the complainant’s hypocrisy, its on point.
I wasn’t talking about civil forfeiture, I was talking about a sanctions regime used by the US as a means of pursuing US policy interests.
This just sad.
A few years ago there was a set of quotes floating around the internet, asking which quote was from Hitler and which was from Arafat. Did anyone keep a copy of it?
VAD. I understand the temptation. I’m watching my father dissolve in front of me, and it isn’t pretty. It’s painful, demeaning, dreadful. When someone can’t do anything for themselves any more, not eat, or move, barely breathe.
And no, it’s temptation only. But gosh it wears a benevolent smile.
Would those be the “tunnels and weapons” that so-called “peace activists” swear do not exist? And the attacks that are not worthy of retaliation?
If I were in your dad’s position, I’d be praying someone had the moral fibre to pull the plug on me.
Have you signed something to give permission, Bg
That would be completely contrary to his wishes, DrBeau. He did instruct not to resuscitate. Right now, he is just drifting in and out of consciousness. He lifted when he held my daughter’s hand.
I don’t want to turn this into a blog soap opera so that’s all I’ll say about it until the end.
Calli, I downticked your last before your stalker got in, so you can look at the downtick and know it’s a friendly, happy one.
LOL! Sounds like a Rogers and Hammerstein number…The Happy Downticker.
Because judges so appreciate barristers second guessing them.
Sending strength for the journey, calli, and much light for the way
You’re all over the place, dover.
In other court news,a big loss for Channel Stokes and BRS ordered to pay Channel Nines legal costs on an indemnity basis. Ouch.
And an uptick from me, calli, fwiw.
Thanks Megan. Just about everyone here on the blog has walked the same path with loved parents. So I’m in good company.
The best part of Rumpole was when he said what he thought of the judge’s handling of the case…in soliloquay.
Every opponents case is hopeless in an opening statement. And yet they continue to manage to fill the courts each day year after year.
That is certainly possible, but here, I’m not.
Few barristers suffer from self doubt.
I had no idea this site was so designed to enhance our wellbeing and promote endless good vibez. Dover pouring such vast amounts of emollients on rough waters by enabling downticks is truly a Saint …
And recalcitrant.
Sorry, but there it is. Let it go.
The same could be said of fools.
RICHARD Hanania
Israel Must Crush Palestinian Hopes
The bitter truth about Arab hatred of Jews and how to model anti-Israeli sentiment
It’s sartorial.
Toga – Roman salute
Hugo Boss – Hitler salute
It’s only really an issue if you’re regularly found to be not right. Otherwise you’re off to the races and the big bucks.
It takes more moral fibre not to pull that plug.
Not yet.
Overwhelming majority of Australians support a First Nations voice despite referendum defeat, finds ANU survey
So, what that says to me is that 45% of voters were choked by:
Specifics like that.
Obscure, hard to pick ones.
Ones that would surprise an ANU academic.
No. It takes compliance and conformity to your indoctrination to override innate decency.
Morality isn’t about following the rules. Rules are for those with no innate moral sense.
Many a young high flyer has come undone.
FMD. The Elbow regime again rolls out its designated useful idiot Joe Hildebrand to defend the indefensible — criminal asylum-seekers set loose by the activist High Court choosing not to wear tracking software.
Why can’t Hildebrand just admit that, to take care of his young family, he is being paid by Ruperdink Mudrock’s News Corp to provide media “balance” against the hated LNP?
Bookmarked for closer reading. Thank you.
There is no “plug” to pull.
If you’re suggesting I kill my father, he will have to be injected with something lethal. Like a criminal.
No dice.
truly sorry for your troubles Calli
ABC sub-editor trying to resurrect dashed hopes.
Ukraine Cannot Win
“When I said that Ukraine had lost 100,000 soldiers DEAD, I got a rash of emails claiming I was spreading Russian Propaganda. Then the head of the EU said that in a speech, and Zelensky said it was classified and she had to take that out. Of Ukraine’s 700,000 army, more than 150,000 are DEAD, and nearly 300,000 have been injured. This is why Zelensky has been conscripting 16-year-old boys and, behind the curtain, insisting that the EU forcibly return all able-bodied people to the front line. My same RELIABLE sources have the number of dead and injured Ukrainians approaching 500,000. The battle for Bakhmut was senseless. Zelensky ordered soldiers to their deaths, all to pretend he was winning for fear that the money would stop flowing.
Ukraine not only blew up the Nord Stream, undermining the German economy and sending unemployment up from 4.7% to 5.8%. Zelensky denied that Ukraine blew up the Nord Stream. Moreover, Ukraine has been behind the assassination attempts inside Russia. Zelensky has been desperate to create World War III. He shot a missile into Poland and tried to blame Russia. The Dutch Court covered up the shooting down of the Malaysian passenger jet when the Ukrainians tried to blame that on the Russian-Ukrainians living in the Donbas. Zelensky is trying to blow up the Turkish pipeline all to undermine the Russian economy with no regard for what that will do to Europe, whom he then demands more weapons and money.
The Neocons have to be removed from power. They have been trying to undermine Russia by cutting off its energy sales since 1980. They imposed sanctions on Poland and Russia while creating pipelines to send gas to Europe. They started the Syrian Civil War, and that was the arms dealings hidden by the Benghazi incident. They signed the pipeline deal from Nigeria to Europe 2 months before they directed the Ukrainians to blow up Nord Stream. Then the Niger coup stopped that pipeline, and Victoria Nuland urgently flew to Niger to try to save the pipeline. The Neocons will not stop, and they pull off these covert acts all outside of Congress, circumventing the Constitution with every breath they take.
They are behind the Middle East war to circumvent the Suez Canal in hopes of destroying that, rerouting everything through Israel to cut off all trade with Russia once again. When will the Ukrainians rise up and overthrow Zelensky, who has sold his country to the Neocons? It looks like his days are numbered as we head into 2024. The Ukrainian people have been played for fools. They have been the vanguard to die for the dreams of the Neocons, and what do they stand to gain? Absolutely nothing!”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/international-news/ukraine/ukraine-cannot-win/?utm_source=Newsletter&utm_medium=Email&utm_campaign=RSS
I do think Aborigines should have a say in matter affecting them. I also think non-Aborigines should have a say in matters affecting Aborigines. Kind of like the system we already have now called democracy.
Sounds like an English cricketer after the last Ashes series.
areff
Nov 28, 2023 4:18 PM
Fed Court:
PHRASING!!
So you’ve left the burden for others.
Are RELIABLE sources as good as “trusted bloggers”?
Calli I think watching our loved ones diminish in health is to prepare ourselves for the fateful day. All we can do is appreciate the comfort accorded as we wish for ourselves. I don’t consider it a bad time for a natural life. Its too late for regret which is why I live for the moment appreciative of the time I’ve already had. Take care.
They won’t be happy until they destroy absolutely everything.
Canadian human rights report claims Christmas, Easter examples of ‘systemic religious discrimination’
They want to control your finances!
Jewish Professor Calls Hamas Terrorists ‘Murderers.’ USC Bans Him From Teaching on Campus
The Biden Administration Is Scheming To Take Your Kids Away
It’s your decision and absolutely none of my business. You’re a big girl now and I’d trust you to do what you believe is right. It’s in stressful times that you find out what kind of human being you are.
All the best.
Massive diaper changes today for the limey crook. The marty farts are the give.
https://armstrongecmscam.blogspot.com/p/where-and-how-to-complain.html
More here. Funny as.
H B Bear
Nov 28, 2023 5:30 PM
Every opponents case is hopeless in an opening statement. And yet they continue to manage to fill the courts each day year after year.
This is, of course, 100% true.
I heard, from some seriously reliable sources, that the Hoggins criminal case jury was 11-1 for Brucie’s acquittal before the juror’s misconduct kyboshed the trial.
This seemed the just and logical outcome, after all the reporting of Hoggins’ rampant liberties with the truth, let alone her blatant playing the fragile, virginal victim.
But listening to the lawyers for the respondents this afternoon, one could be forgiven for thinking they were the first settlers to Mars in October 2022.
Methinks the judge has their measure, but we’ll see.. Tomorrow will be interesting.
Okay champ.
What is right is always the same.
Respect the sanctity of life.
Otherwise you may as well join hamas.
I believe they are the same, as in Hitler did not invent.
The Italian fascists were very keen to draw upon Roman rituals and styles to underscore the idea that they were restoring the Roman Empire. Adopting the Roman salute was part of that. The very symbol for themselves was the Roman fasces (a bundle of rods with an axe projecting out). This is actually the origin of the word Fascist. We got it from the Italians, not the Germans.
In the early days Hitler was quite an admirer of Mussolini – a sort of role model. I believe that was where Hitler got the salute from.
FWIW, there is no ancient Roman source that describes their salute. Speculation is that the idea of the salute was taken from the frieze of some soldiers on Trajan’s column. Well, I heard that.
More Marty Predictions.
As difficult as it is to see his deterioration calli, I am sure you are relieved to have arrived in time to see your Dad , hold his hand, to thank him and tell him you love him. Many on here have stood in your shoes and I am sure many didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.
Thinking of and praying for you and your family at this sad time.
Beaks doing backflips.
High Court appears to green-light preventative detention for criminals released by its decision on immigration detainees (Sky News, 28 Nov)
Okaaay. Bad press about letting pedo muzzo country shoppers out on the street, promptly to disappear, seems to’ve focused their eminent minds. I don’t suppose you could help find them again, guys, now that you let them out?
(And by the way what is your opinion about detaining Daniel Duggan indefinitely without trial nor even a crime under Australian statutes? He’s only a citizen of course, so no one…special.)
Watching Peta Credlin talking with Michaelia Cash. Apparently, the High Court ruling only applied to the Kiddie rapist. He was the only one to be let go as his case was the only one in front of the Court.
So, WTF! did they let almost two hundred of them loose?
No hands being raised for this one.
Gilas – I have not been watching the feed but saw a couple of minutes of Lehrmann’s cross examination on YouTube. He wasn’t terribly impressive. You can usually tell if a witness is doing their best to recall, even if they are not doing well. I didn’t get that sense with Lehrmann. The problems with Brittany’s evidence are well known and well canvassed. Not sure where this leaves you in a Civil trial on the balance of probabilities.
Yes I thought pedophile enabling was worst of the worst. Look how they attacked Hollingworth. What a despicable bunch on the HC now. Make Murphy look decent.
Kellogg’s Fruit Loops are now qwerty and Tony the Tiger of Frosted Flakes fame is a tranny.
Calls for ban on ‘woke’ Froot Loops cereal after the Kellogg’s brand launches free digital library for kids spruiking diversity, inclusion (28 Nov)
I can’t wait for intersectional warfare goodness when the woke realize that Fruit Loops and Frosted Flakes are about as unhealthy as you can possibly get from a breakfast cereal. Also the Coco Pops monkey must be living on borrowed time.
I walked it with my brother. He was given the choice of either live as he was, a mind without a body, or lose the breathing tube and die, perhaps immediately, but inevitably within days. He asked for removal of the tube and we sat out the agonising days, which were alleviated by far too little morphine in case it killed him. He should have received a lot more, and ended it quietly rather than, as a big man taking three days, dying in a gasping hideous heart attack.
End of life medical managment for pain relief, when dying is inevitable, painful, and soon, is different to euthanasia in my book. I am against euthanasia.
calli, stay strong.
I regard euthanasia as evil.
When my father was dying the hospital called us in. I walked up to the nurse’s station and stated they should up the morphine to finish the job. AFAIK they didn’t but he died shortly thereafter.
Just like a chocolate milkshake certainly raises a few questions. Especially around Mardi Gras.
Well said, Tinta. None of us would have seen my brother undertake his final journey without all of us there, taking shifts, to speak with him (through his one good ear) telling of our love, remembering much, and squeeze his hand, his only lifeline in an immobile body and face to ‘yes’ and ‘no’ questions. It was just the end that was so dreadful, and need not have been so.
Breaking news: all Australian TV advertisements still portray blokes as idiots and chicks as superwomen.
It must be difficult for those making consumer products when those they appoint to do the advertising are making it harder to sell stuff.
H B Bear
Nov 28, 2023 6:40 PM
He wasn’t terribly impressive. You can usually tell if a witness is doing their best to recall, even if they are not doing well. I didn’t get that sense with Lehrmann.
Agree. He also admitted to some seriously stupid lies, as well as resorting to the “I do not recall..” trope.
But, in his defence, he was asked to remember minute details that were almost 2 years old, by the time questions were being asked.
He also appeared not to have done his homework in checking his own records eg. telephone and social media.
Sloppy, but that doesn’t mean that he r0ped Hoggins.
Both News and the ALPBC settled.. vs 22 witnesses against him now.
Steven Whybrow has his work cut out, that’s for sure.
That’s fine while shopping remains women’s work.
This is a common misconception.
Morphine administered in the palliative setting does not hasten death but alleviates pain.
Breaking news: all Australian TV advertisements still portray blokes as idiots and chicks as superwomen.
another great reason not to watch TV
As difficult as it is to see his deterioration calli, I am sure you are relieved to have arrived in time to see your Dad , hold his hand, to thank him and tell him you love him. Many on here have stood in your shoes and I am sure many didn’t get a chance to say goodbye.
Thinking of and praying for you and your family, this is a very sad time of life.
calli
Nov 28, 2023 5:00 PM
VAD. I understand the temptation. I’m watching my father dissolve in front of me, and it isn’t pretty. It’s painful, demeaning, dreadful. When someone can’t do anything for themselves any more, not eat, or move, barely breathe.
Truly heartbreaking stuff Calli, the inevitable tragedy of life.
I would advise getting a Palliative Care Nurse and/or Consultant to assess him. The priority is to maintain dignity and, above all, comfort.
But holding of the hands may not be enough. Terminal symptoms can be seriously distressing for the patient.
Pain, breathlessness and nausea are awful. Managing them can make all the difference.
Best wishes.
I considered ScoMo’s apology then, and I still do, as unforgivable coming from a man who should have known better about the presumption of innocence. The only thing that saves him from being sued by Lehrmann is that he said it in parliament and now has immunity under parliamentary privilege. Slimeball.
As you all know a few months ago my stepfather fell badly, and he ended up at RPA, followed by another hospital. He is now in an aged care facility, a good one. He no longer walks although there is no reason why he no longer walks, I suppose his brain can no longer make that connection. Anyway, it’s been a distressing time for my mother but she’s bearing up and she’s adapting. Even if my stepfather could walk, he cannot go home, there is no way my mother would be able to care for him, remember when he fell back in July, and when my mother tried to get him up he then pulled her down, she was then unable to get up, and she hit her chin on the way down. A disaster! Mentally, he’s not entirely there. However, when he was first taken to RPA, and then to the other hospital, he was completely gaga and he was very, very frail, the doctor’s prognosis was not good, he had problems breathing, eating and so on. However, there is no way my mother would contemplate pulling the plug, VAD or similar, no way in the world. What she has said to nurses is that if he falls into a coma he is not to be be resuscitated, nor is he to be ploughed with drugs. He can fall asleep and never wake up. But the good news is that his condition has improved enormously at the aged care facility, he recognises and speaks to my mother (she visits every day), he watches television, and he seems happy. I guess if the plug had been pulled at RPA or the other hospital, or he’d been injected with some lethal drugs to kill him, it would not have just been morally wrong, it would also have been rather premature.
Well said, Tinta. None of us would have wanted my brother to make his last journey alone, without us to hold his hand, squeezing it in a ‘yes’ or ‘no’ communication, for this was his only way in an otherwise totally paralyzed body and face and whited eyes to let us know he was there, as we whispered love and reminiscences into his one hearing ear. What was bad was the very end of it, that final struggle for breath after days of laboured breathing which was so miserable to see and so hard for him to bear as his paralyzed body arked upwards from the valiantly resisting strong heart still in his suffocating chest.
My experience with my mother’s death was very different. She was in no pain. Alone with her, I kissed her gently goodbye and she faded away as her vital signs declined slowly, her tongue blackened and her hands were already cold. Her last word then was one she’d learned from the migrant ladies she had worked with on the factory line. Finito. Offically she died three hours later but I knew she was gone with that one word.
My best wishes to Calli and her family. I hope her father passes quietly, like this.
Sorry I put my comment up twice – interruptions persist
and suppresses breathing
No, it’s not clear. You asked why I started with the end of WW2 and I then suggested we could work back to when the UK ran the sea. You took umbrage to me using post WW2 as a starting point for some reason that still remains unclear.
And the purpose is what exactly?
1400 innocent people were murdered. The Houthis have taken the side of the murdering thugs, and the US has done that for years? Are you serious?
Oh FFS, the only country that could run a deep water operation and ensure sea rules were obeyed wasn’t the Vatican. It was the US. So, yes the US has been providing naval insurance of the high seas since WW2.
And? Yes, as I said might makes right. That’s how it works and thank God “the might” has been the US since WW2 and not the Soviet Union for instance.
well, in reality blokes are idiots
if only chicks really were more like Wonder Woman
phtt … invisible airplanes and a lasso of truth
So glad to hear you say this, Gilas, for I know you personally as a genuine specialist medico of great experience who knows well what he is talking about. Good advice there for Calli and family.
DrBeauGan
Nov 28, 2023 5:56 PM
Unless your loved one has stipulated clearly that they want the plug pulled – which is an entirely different conversation – then one has no right, based on their level of grief or inability to cope with imminent death – to make any assumptions or pull any plugs.
Including the nonexistent Islamophobia in the statement just waters down the whole message. Makes me think of the signers as just fair weather friends, making sure it costs them nothing in the form of reprisals from Hamas lovers.
Leaving Saigon with no regrets.
Did a partial rehash of our last visit….Sadly, Vietnam seems to have not progressed since we were there 15 years ago. It has got more crowded – 100 million, said our guide – and so therefore the traffic around towns has got worse. There are spectacular amounts of rubbish beside the road in many places. The Vietnamese still have their optimistic attitude to life though.
We went down along the Mekong into several places, with the highlight of the visit to all 16 of us from the ship being a musical presentation. Also did two trips via riverboat, and another short one by sampan.
On the second day we were in Saigon. Visited the “Reunification Palace”, where the previous President of South Vietnam met overseas politicians, entertained, and personal living areas. Also the bunker where the higher political elements for their appreciation of the battles – full of old telex machines etc. The T-54 and T-59 tanks (refurbished models) that busted through the gates outside are still there.
Also visited a suburban cellar where weapons were stored prior to Saigon falling. Had coffee over the road run by grandson of original VC. Paid for the privilege of viewing as well.
Also had a chicken noodle soup lunch in Saigon at the noodle shop of the proud son of a VC head honcho. I pointed out to Mrs TE the irony of such a person owning a “filthy capitalist outlet” after winning the war. A thank you letter from a Brit visitor was on display where he said he was glad the north had won the war. Not sure the million South Vietnamese who died would agree.
We finished off with a re-visit to the building where the last helicopter out lifted off.
Most chicks right now aren’t at all like Wonder Woman.
Gal Gadot’s screening of Hamas terror attack film ends in mass brawls between pro-Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters (9 Nov)
She is a brave lady, who is doing her bit for Israel.
Daily Mail.
A big single dose increase can kill a person. That is completely different from pain management where the dose is slowly raised.
Safe hands…
Interesting watching who is shopping in person on a weekday during office hours. Predominantly oldies, mums with bubs and Colesworths employees. I would expect a number of supermarket leases to go the way of Australia Post leases upon expiry in the not too distant future.
if she’ll be my Wonder Woman … I promise to try and stop being such an idiot
He had a massive occlusive stroke. My father wasn’t even there. It was just a dying body. Several hours ago he died. The absolutism of the those opposed to euthanasia doesn’t make sense to me.
That was my point.
Leaving Saigon with no regrets.
One of the things that amazed us most was the somewhat nonchalant attitude towards the former enemy. We visited years ago with friends and a guy who was offering the blokes the opportunity to fire a number of weapons enthusiastically inquired if their fathers fought in the war. I suppose business enterprise trumps old enmities.
Vietnam surprised me. We had an amazing time. Particularly loved Hoi An where we stayed a a lovely hotel on the river. We hired motorbikes and rode to the beach & restaurants on waterways. Took a boat overnight off the coast, & a sampan or something like it up the some canals off the Mekong (I think). But the most hilarious time was on an overnight train from the south to Hanoi. Train stopped suddenly & children entered the train through some access point from the track & proceeded to grab cameras & anything they could before disappearing from where they entered & the train just moved one!
We thought that the Southerners were far more friendly than Northerners, as one would expect. Even so, we thought Hanoi was very beautiful. I thought it had been razed by the bombing, but there were still beautiful old buildings and ancient street trees.
200+ Jewish civic leaders also signed the statement.
As I suggested when I first linked to the statement, I think there’s a lack of insight, perhaps bordering on denial, among the signatories as to how we got to this point.
well, people have their reasons mate and they’re personal and complex
and I don’t get it either
if it was me going, I’d press the button myself
I believe in the absolutism of the sanctity of life.
Doc Faustus:
We already pay a monster Tax on the sale/purchase of the family home, and now the bastards want another slice of the action.
You can bet when this newtax comes in, the politicians will have sold all their excess properties.
Australia needs to realise that government has become a bloated monster and needs a bloody good pruning. Whether the electorate does it or a recession/depression forces it on the States and Feds, it has to happen because this is unsustainable.
Also breaking news, for anyone who hasn’t watched brekky tv, is shopping decisions are 90% made by ‘chicks’.
So the adverts make sense.
Choosing to watch free TV garbage with its vast volumes of ads repeated ad nauseum does not make sense.
Despite not being a billionaire, image a potential $25m legal bill would hurt. It’s money that could go towards a yacht.
it’s been good … see youse ’round
I am torn about euthenasia.
A friend has MND and has opted for VAD.
I don’t think I can argue against it on any grounds.
let us know if you need any help
The High Court said that to detain someone in immigration detention when they did not have a prospect of removal from that detention breached the constitution.
I’m no legal eagle but wouldn’t s51:
(xxvii) Immigration & emigration,
(xxviii) Influx of criminals
Put paid to that? Especially the bolded section.
The said justices can polish the proverbial bit at the end of the day it still will be a proverbial.
It’s virtue signalling. Just like the wokies, but with an older set of ‘virtues’.
My interpretation of the HC reasons for ordering the release of murderous permanent detainees is that a law allowing permanent detention will overcome their disallowing of permanent detention. I guess they’re putting it back where it belongs: up rub and tug’s arse.
The High Court said that to detain someone in immigration detention when they did not have a prospect of removal from that detention breached the constitution.
was this a full bench decision or just Gurgler on his own?