Tom Stiglich.
Open Thread – Mon 4 Dec 2023
- Open Thread – Mon 16 Sept 2024
- No, Your Holiness, killing babies and border control are not the same
- Open Thread – Weekend 14 Sept 2024
- Open Thread – Thurs 12 Sept 2024
- Open Thread – Mon 9 Sept 2024
Matt Margolis.
Brett Lethbridge.
Peter Broelman.
Mark Knight.
137 hostages, 16 of them known to be dead
JC you mentioned about the increasing use of robots and AI. What I find interesting is the Israelis surgical targeting in Gaza. So many sorties must be pushing the boundaries of human programming and as the death toll doesn’t seem all that high for wholesale bombing. Maybe some of the military types here can explain if the Israelis are using just missiles and smart bombs. Do the pilots just fly the planes and the computers target and fire?
Rosie,
the excellent link you posted about why Hamarse won’t release anymore hostages is a real case of “no shit, Sherlock” The vermin are scared, very scared right now. I pray Israel manages to exterminate the whole hive.
ps, keep up the good work, and thanks for the time you spend on it.
Has anyone noticed that Blackout Bowen has had a new nickname bestowed upon him?
Casanova Bowen. Because everything he touches ends up f#cked. snork.
Smallgoodsery in Alice Springs beckons. Only a cheeky 41 degrees later today.
Energetic stoushing overnight.
$3.9b traffic jam as toll-paying WestConnex motorists get right of way
Jenny Wiggins – Infrastructure reporter
The NSW government is limiting traffic from public roads in favour of motorists using the private WestConnex at a $3.9 billion interchange in Sydney’s inner west under a deal struck with Transurban last month.
Some market analysts also believe Transurban, the operator of the road, will have a separate, guaranteed right to two of the four lanes across the Anzac Bridge, an important link from the west into the Sydney CBD. However, neither the ASX-listed toll road operator nor the government would confirm what was in the agreements regulating the busy interchange.
These are the issues at the heart of a growing crisis for the government, after the opening of the new interchange created hour-long backlogs across a swathe of suburban Sydney and forced NSW officials to frantically rework traffic management in the area and ease some of the congestion.
Responding to growing anger, the NSW Premier, Chris Minns, said earlier in the week that there were “no contractual arrangements between the government and Transurban … that would prevent us from taking actions that could increase entry points into the Anzac Bridge”.
But the government is not expected to add new lanes to the bridge or interfere with the traffic exiting the WestConnex motorway directly onto two lanes of the four-lane bridge. While traffic from the motorway flows unencumbered onto the bridge, the combination of bus lanes merging with several lanes of traffic from the City West Link and Victoria Road into just two lanes on the bridge has cause severe congestion during peak hours.
It has been exacerbated by the installation of so-called ramp metering sites at entry points from the public roads onto the bridge, which have traffic lights that limit how many cars enter during busy periods.
Similar traffic lights will also be installed at the entry point for the new Iron Cove Link, a public road that is not tolled.
The government started talks on ramp metering with a trust managed by the Transurban consortium that owns WestConnex, Sydney Transport Partners, last year, according to a government spokesman.
“In the first half of 2022, Transport for NSW began engaging with the WestConnex M4-M5 project trust and asset trust over ramp metering on the Rozelle interchange to ensure the safe, efficient and optimum traffic conditions in the new motorway tunnels,” he said. “Under the ‘ramp metering agreement’, signed in November, Transport is responsible for ramp metering to ensure the safe flow of traffic when needed.”
The government has not publicly released the agreement, but it is understood to contain arrangements for managing cars entering the bridge from the public roads during periods of heavy traffic or accidents.
Similar measures will also be installed at the entry point for the new Iron Cove Link, a public road in Sydney’s north that is not tolled.
The Australian Financial Review asked the government whether its concession contract with the Sydney Transport Partners consortium, which includes Australian Super, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board and the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, guarantees the WestConnex tunnels direct entry onto two lanes of the Anzac bridge towards the CBD.
If the former Coalition government that had negotiated the concession arrangement had provided guarantees, Transurban would have to be paid compensation for any changes to the tolled lanes.
A spokesman for Transport for NSW said the Rozelle Interchange “was always designed to have a two-lane approach from the M4 tunnels to the Anzac Bridge to allow for safe traffic flow. It isn’t a result of any clause in the M4-M5 project deed.“
Transurban declined to comment on its contractual arrangements or on how many cars are using WestConnex to get on and off the Anzac Bridge. It is unlikely to update investors on traffic numbers until its first-half results in February.
But the reluctance of drivers to initially use the Iron Cove Link early last week because they thought it was tolled shows that many still plan to use public free roads to get onto the bridge.
One investment bank analyst, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not permitted to comment publicly, said it appeared the two dedicated tolled lanes had not taken enough traffic off City West Link and Victoria Road to offset the loss of two public lanes on the bridge.
The government will widen some 400 metres of a road lane where the City West Link merges with a new overpass leading to the Anzac Bridge to make it easier for cars to merge but said on Sunday that “increasing the lane from one to two throughout is not possible”.
It is also investigating how to provide more traffic lane space on Victoria Road before it merges into one lane to join the Anzac Bridge. But the government is reluctant to remove bus lanes and has confirmed the changes would not create an extra traffic lane on the bridge.
Transport for NSW secretary Josh Murray said on Monday that the proposed changes would not solve the “overall challenge, which is the Anzac Bridge only has four lanes headed to the city”.
Transurban and its investment partners paid more than $20 billion to buy WestConnex from the government, and has not publicly released its traffic forecasts for the tollroad. Toll fares for WestConnex start at $5.10 for cars for some sections, rising to a maximum of $11.11, and increase by at least 4 per cent annually.
But Transurban’s former chief executive, Scott Charlton, who joined Sydney Airport on Monday, has previously said the company had factored in future road connections such as the Western Harbour Tunnel when assessing the cost to shareholders.
“Really where it comes into its own is when Western Harbour Tunnel opens, so you can do a complete western bypass of the CBD to reach the airport, the port and south Sydney,” Mr Charlton told the Financial Review in January.
While the government has started handing out contracts to build the Western Harbour Tunnel, which will be Sydney’s second underground harbour crossing, it is not due to open until 2028.
it’s over Greta.
Rear Window
https://www.afr.com/rear-window/qantas-and-media-favours-are-all-hot-air-20231204-p5eovg
The airline will help ferry journalists to Switzerland for a one day conference, where among the topics, sustainability and jet fuel will be discussed.
Mark Di StefanoColumnist
In the world of non-transactional favours, no one does it better than Qantas. The company handpicks corporates for its now notorious chairman’s lounge. Taken to its extreme, you end up opening the concealed doors for the prime minister’s son.
The point here is the Qantas under Alan Joyce, and now Vanessa Hudson, has got favours down to an art. In return for access, or upgrades, they’re never asking you to defend the company, or become a cheerleader. Not explicitly.
But if you’ve eaten enough Neil Perry salt and pepper squid, or handed off dozens of grey PJs to your kids, the company’s calculation is that it’s less likely you’ll join the populist revolt.
This week Qantas will fly two aviation reporters to Europe to attend an International Air Transport Association conference in Geneva. IATA is the peak body for airlines, which asks its members like Qantas (and Virgin) to help transport journalists to conferences around the world.
Qantas is flying two lucky reporters to London, where British Airways will then ferry them to the continent to hear IATA director general Willie Walsh holding court on pressing issues in the industry.
No one – least of all us – can be surprised that Qantas is playing a role in a questionable junket in service of the global aviation industry. There have been many junkets before – some with AFR journalists – and there will be many in the future.
But the conference in question is an eight-hour “media day”. That is, Qantas is flying two journalists across the world for a conference that starts at 8:45am and ends at 4:45pm. The next day they get back on planes and come home.
From the same people who brought you “meetings that could have been an email”, IATA and Qantas present “conferences that could have been a Zoom call”.
Adding airborne irony to the whole affair is that the main session of the whole shebang is on sustainable aviation fuel, noise and slots.
Carting journalists off to a closed-door one-day conference in Switzerland would be silly enough. To then talk about sustainability and aviation fuel shows these industry types are high on their own hot air.
The International Civil Aviation Organisation allows people to calculate carbon emissions on overseas flights. Its carbon emissions’ calculator suggests, for example, that two people travelling premium economy return on the Sydney >Singapore > London > Geneva route are responsible for 7000 kg of CO2 emissions. Very sustainable!
Qantas defended this silly use of resources by telling us this was all above board because the journalists’ emissions on these flights would be offset under its carbon program.
The company has dwindling numbers of friends in the media.
So Qantas under Hudson appears to have again turned to the only page in its playbook that reliably works: favours.
Falafel is genocide.
The deep meaning of Goldie | Power Line (4 Dec)
Scott Johnson accurately compares this crazed behaviour with Krystallnacht. The Sydney Opera House rally also gets a mention. Do these people not realize what they are?
after weeks of outcry the head of the red Cross has finally arrived in Gaza, ostensibly to check on Israeli hostages. Perhaps Hamas will allow a show and tell.
That clip of the volcano is amazing Rosie.
Ranga
More here:
https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-11-02/column-how-is-israels-military-using-ai-in-gaza
I guess it’s an incredibly good information gathering source coming in from left, right, on top and center, allowing for precision strikes.
Spot gold rises to record on dovish Fed remarks
Sybilla Gross and Eddie Spence
Gold surged to a new all-time high as growing expectations for US rate cuts early next year spurred a rush of buying.
The precious metal leaped by more than 3 per cent in early trading on Monday to hit a record $US2,135.39 an ounce, surpassing the previous all-time high it set in August 2020, before paring its gains.
At 11am in New York, spot gold was 2.5 per cent lower to $US2021.45 an ounce.
The latest leg of gold’s rally has been turbocharged by comments on Friday from Fed chairman Jerome Powell that traders interpreted as setting the stage for a pivot toward rate cuts, spurring a plunge in the US dollar and Treasury yields.
But the precious metal’s strength has been underpinned by a wider array of factors, from a wave of purchases by governments and central banks to geopolitical uncertainty, with 41 per cent of the world’s population due to go to the polls next year.
Gold “is the answer for many things at the moment – whether it’s inflation carrying on, rate cuts or the uncertainty with very costly wars going on”, said Jo Harmendjian, portfolio manager at Tiberius Group.
Gold has risen more than 600 per cent since the turn of the millennium, though adjusted for inflation it remains below the high of $US850 touched in January 1980, which would be equivalent to more than $US3000 in today’s dollars.
The yellow metal typically has an inverse relationship with bond yields, falling as rising interest rates offer a more appealing alternative to gold, which pays no interest, and rising as they fall.
It has rallied about 14 per cent since early October, as Treasury yields and the dollar have fallen amid growing expectations for US rate cuts. Swaps markets now see a more than 50 per cent chance of a reduction in March and are pricing in a cut in May.
Some analysts argued that Monday’s move was overdone, and prices retreated after hitting the record high to trade at $US2062 by early afternoon in London.
The sharp move early on Monday looks like it was “more driven by stop-loss orders”, said Kelvin Wong, a senior market analyst at Oanda Asia Pacific, who warned of a risk of a pullback in the short term.
Still, many investors have remained on the sidelines as gold has surged higher, raising the possibility of further rallies as latecomers look to buy. Investors in gold via exchange-traded funds, a key driver of previous bull markets in the metal, have been sellers for much of this year, with holdings down by more than a fifth from a high in 2020.
“Market positioning is light versus previous times that prices tested these levels,” Wayne Gordon and Giovanni Staunovo, UBS Group strategists, said in a note.
“To see even higher prices from this high base, investment demand needs to increase in the form of greater ETF purchases.”
No. And even if you held a mirror to their faces they would see nothing.
They are vampires, incapable of self reflection.
OldOzzie
Dec 5, 2023 7:20 AM
Not familiar with this, is the gov. ceding public roads, built by public money to a private company?
Do these people know what they are? No!
Whitehall mandarins are stalling Britain’s nuclear power revolution
If successive governments had done their job, our energy systems would not be close to breaking point
ANDREW ORLOWSKI
When Nissan announced a big new investment in Sunderland last month, it was a resounding blow to the doomsayers who predicted Brexit would hasten the exit of manufacturing. But the investment came with a warning. Nissan only stays if energy costs are competitive.
And that’s a problem.
Last week we experienced our first dunkelflaute of the winter.
That’s the term used in the renewable energy industry to refer to a period of high pressure and calm that we experience in winter, when the leaves crunch beneath our feet, but the blades of the wind turbines don’t turn.
As the Telegraph reported, this event pushed our energy system close to breaking point.
But if successive governments had done their job, we would have more than enough power to spare.
Firstly, we have abundant natural gas resources in Europe that lie completely untapped beneath our feet.
Yet we pay the highest price for gas in Europe, and did so even before Putin’s tanks rolled into Ukraine, thanks to the design of the energy market.
The UK also pioneered the peaceful use of nuclear energy, proving it to be the cheapest, safest and least environmentally damaging energy source of all.
Harwell’s trailblazing GLEEP reactor was the first anywhere in the world, creating electricity in 1947, and was still chugging away in 1990.
Nine years later, the first serious, grid scale reactor began delivering electricity at scale at Calder Hall.
Deriving energy from atoms was considered far more important in rationing-era Britain than in the hydrocarbon-rich United States.
Then we discovered oil too, and nuclear took a back seat. As a result, nuclear electricity generation peaked here in 1995.
To see how important these reliable old reactors are, take a look at the generation dashboard during last week’s cold snap.
We already have an energy gap because we don’t generate enough as it is to meet demand, we have to buy it, expensively, and so we are importing around 5GW via connectors from other countries.
This autumn we’ve typically imported between 3GW and 5GW of what we need.
Yet the nuclear baseload generation didn’t blink, delivering a consistent 5GW.
If the coalition had proceeded on the plan set out under Labour in its 2008 white paper, when nuclear still produced almost 20pc of our electricity, we’d still have enough spare to export it.
As it is, that energy gap will widen as our existing reactors reach the end of their lives.
By 2030 there will be just three working reactors left. It’s a pitiful record of neglect.
All is not lost, however. We can summon up a promising small modular reactor (SMR) from Rolls-Royce based on scaled-up submarine engine designs, one of many SMR designs on drawing boards.
They’re small, producing just under half a GW, compared to the full sized reactors we really need, but they can be put on existing sites, removing the requirement for politically unpopular pylons.
An astonishing 370,000 miles of cable must be laid or upgraded high voltage cables, according to the International Energy Agency, to deliver renewables by 2050.
That’s a lot of pylons that don’t need to be there at all, as new nuclear capacity can be built where sites and infrastructure already exist.
And we keep finding new uses for our nuclear heritage, as the Adam Smith Institute reported last week, by tapping our existing radioactive stockpiles.
There’s our genius for improvisation.
Yet the delays drag on. There’s little sign of urgency in Whitehall as the Department for Energy and Net Zero continues to mull over which SMR design to back.
A decision will appear in the spring, the department tells me. But not one reactor will be online before 2030.
One explanation for the malaise is a familiar one. With net zero, everyone busies themselves with their little part of the puzzle, but no one is responsible for the overall picture.
If you designed a car this way, it might have three glove compartments but no engine.
David Turver, the independent energy analyst, was astonished by what he heard at the National Grid’s future energy scenario sessions last week.
Per capita demand is estimated to fall by between 46pc to 60pc from 2020 levels by 2050.
No one else thinks this is remotely feasible.
“No one seems to be looking at system costs,” Turver despairs.
“If you assume energy scarcity, then the chances of arriving at a plan for the grid that will meet the actual demand from a prosperous economy are vanishingly small,” says Turver.
No economic impact was disclosed to FES participants, and Turver was told one may never appear.
No one carries the can.
Nissan has built renewable energy on its Sunderland site, and plans even more.
But its wind turbines become expensive ornaments during a dunkelflaute, and solar output is negligible in winter.
It will need to buy cheap energy on the market.
Only our mandarins have built an economic bomb that is going to explode unless it is defused.
One wonders how many times can a country win the lottery, but then fail to cash in its winning ticket?
Britain has come up with the winning numbers so many times in its history, with enviable natural resources, and the human ingenuity to capitalise on them.
Today, however, we just seem embarrassed when good fortune strikes.
The Beloved tells me that Israel has issued a travel warning to…Australia.
I don’t think we will ever live down the shame of this.
good to see Goldies doing brisk business after been swarmed by anti Semites last night.
From the Oz…
Around 600 women dressed in white with some carrying signs saying “#MeToo unless you’re a Jew” protested at a rally in Elsternwick in Melbourne’s southeast calling for women’s right’s organisations, feminist commentators and all politicians to ‘unequivocally’ condemn the sexual violence committed by Hamas on October 7.
The protest came only days after woman’s rights group UN Women broke almost two months of silence by belatedly recognising the sexual violence of Hamas during its October 7 rampage in Israeli that left 1200 dead.
The rally also follows months of relative silence from woman’s rights groups about the rape and murder of Jewish women committed by Hamas despite those same groups protesting the deaths of Palestinian women in Gaza during the current Israel-Hamas war.
“In the days since October 7 we have heard little to nothing from women’s organisations denouncing the attacks,’ Jackie Frank, the founding editor of Marie Claire Australia told the crowd. ‘Barely a single woman or feminist organisation raised any voice of either criticising the horrible deeds of Hamas or solidarity to their fellow sisters.’
Interesting, isn’t it? I have no doubts that, since the slaughter and mass rape of 7 October 2023, Jackie Frank, a good Melbourne Jewish gal is appalled, bewildered and dumbstruck about the lack of support from the ‘me too’ brigade and the slimy sinister sisterhood of the left. Frank has always courted the progressive, vacuous, inner-city lightweight Green left. Unlike someone like me, who’s always had her eyes wide open when it comes to the left and hypocrisy, particularly over women’s issues, Frank has always been a foot soldier of the vacuous left, thus making her publication, ‘Marie Claire’, unreadable garbage. Marie Claire prides itself as propaganda for anything progressive. In between advertisements for Dior, Prada and Valentino, it lauds green left bullshit artists such as Chlamydia Ford, Lidia Thorpe, and all the other female dregs of the green left. It’s a publication that just loves to carp on about anything “far-right”, it mocks right of centre politicians, be the Dutton, Abbott, Morrison and so on. Only two years ago this month, those two victim and rape propagandists, Grace Tame and Brittany Higgins, graced the cover of Marie Claire.
So here’s an idea, Jackie Frank should insist that the next cover of Marie Claire shows a Jewish woman who was raped on 7 October. Marie Claire should have Naama Levy plastered on its front cover, that picture of Naama being dragged by her long hair out of the boot of a car by a REAL NAZI, her pants covered in blood after being vaginally and anally gang raped by REAL NAZIS. Go on Jackie.
A people funded newspaper that may be of interest.
https://thelightaustralia.com/
Thar she blows!
The CO2 is one thing, the particulate is another. The dust takes a long time to settle.
h/t rosie at
https://twitter.com/wolsned/status/1731684114305057155
Just watched a UK sky News interview where the journalist was hoping for condemnation of Israel’s seek and destroy mission against hamas leaders.
Interviewee pointed out that’s exactly what the US did with isis, al Qaeda etc.
You have a problem?
This is Nizar Awadallah, the Hamas leader, who may have been eliminated in the last two hours. Still not confirmed
German word for the day.
Jeansbügler
I have a different opinion to Calli’s at 7:32 am. I think they do realise what they are and that’s how they get a frisson from these actions. They feel empowered and justified to exercise this power. Behaving well is for the lower classes from which these protesters should be absolved as they are a higher class of people, they attend an Ivy League institution that is not for the plebs. They are better, they know better therefore they cannot be wrong.
If the nearby cafe that was targeted is any guide, the best thing that could happen to see an upsurge in business is to have a bunch of raving Pali loons protesting outside the store.
In fact, if any business wants to see an upsurge, put up Israeli flags, make it known you support Israel and attract the Pali loons. Business will boom.
JC
Dec 5, 2023 7:27 AM
Ranga
More here:
https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2023-11-02/column-how-is-israels-military-using-ai-in-gaza
JC,
from that link
“A really fundamental difference between AI and a human analyst given the exact same task,” Scharre said, “is that the humans do a very good job of generalizing from a small number of examples to novel situations, and AI systems very much struggle to generalize to novel situations.”
But Ethical Dilemmas arise from Humans
Eye in the Sky (2015 film)
Eye in the Sky is a 2015 British thriller film starring Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul, Alan Rickman, and Barkhad Abdi. Directed by Gavin Hood and written by Guy Hibbert, the film explores the ethical challenges of drone warfare. Filming began in South Africa in September 2014.
Someone in the twitter thread was scoffing, the photo might have been from 2020, dunno, but the eruptions are fresh, it’s still going.
more on Mount marapi
The MeToo movement will be worried that it might be hijacked by women concerned with the treatment of women, instead of keeping to its original remit of hunting down high profile men with rape allegations to propel more wymminses into high paying jobs in Hollywood and Wall St.
Global Warming Continues with “Boiling” Heat
Europe hasn’t seen a snow cover like this since 2010—60% is blanketed in white!
Never forget waleed on drones.
Israel had to promise that as many idf soldiers will die as hamas because fair.
mentally alter the nature of war that they risk making war seem far less grave, and far easier to wage.
War is a kind of contract. Each side confronts the other, with the risk of death and defeat. In short, war should come at a cost.
You would think they would bend over backwards to retain this factory seeing as how many hundreds of thousands of immigrants they are letting into the country and every job will be highly valuable. I wouldn’t put it past the mandarins in government to let this fall through just to prove it to the plebs that the elites were right to object to Brexit.
There are some truly unhinged individuals spamming Haute Crapper with pro Pali “sitreps”.
It’s just insane. “I’m not a Jew hater, but this is all *Pissrael*’s fault”
The only way Israel survives is by ending Gaza as a polity. If necessary in the future, the West Bank and then Southern Lebanon & the Golan Heights.
Microsoft Inked Deals With Chinese Communist Party Propaganda Outlets, Documents Show
Comments at the Paywallion under this article. I couldn’t help meself and had to say something:
Rip off keffiyeh, and ‘solidarity’ is bigotry in disguise
Brendan O’Neal
UPDATED 10:49AM DECEMBER 3, 2023, FIRST PUBLISHED AT 12:00AM DECEMBER 2, 2023
385 COMMENTS
Astra Bear
19 HOURS AGO
I don’t know a Jewish person that I don’t admire. IMO they are the smartest, most honourable, most gifted and most civilised people on Earth.
I guess anarchists and socialists do not like knowledge, creativity and civility.
wife
MICHAEL ALBERT
15 HOURS AGO
(Edited)
Being exceptional does not belong to any nationality. And that may be the problem if any race believes itself superior to another?
Astra Bear
I don’t know a Jewish person that I don’t admire. IMO they are the smartest, most honourable, most gifted and most civilised people on Earth.
Beertruk
An accurate summary that is backed up by this list of Israeli Nobel Laureates :
1. Joshua Angrist, born in the United States, Economics, 2021,
2. Arieh Warshel, Chemistry, 2013
3. Michael Levitt, born in South Africa, Chemistry, 2013
4. Dan Shechtman, Chemistry, 2011
5. Ada Yonath, Chemistry, 2009
6. Robert Aumann, born in Germany, moved to Israel from the United States, Economics, 2005
7. Aaron Ciechanover, Chemistry,
2004 8. Avram Hershko, born in Hungary, Chemistry,
2004 9. Daniel Kahneman*, Economics, 2002
10. Yitzhak Rabin, Peace, 1994
11. Shimon Peres, born in Poland, now Belarus, Peace,1994
12. Menachem Begin, born in Russia, now Belarus, Peace,1978
13. Shmuel Yosef Agnon, born in Austria-Hungary, now Ukraine, Literature, 1966
@michael ALBERT
Being exceptional does not belong to any nationality.
Yes it does:
Since 1966, thirteen Israelis have been awarded the Nobel Prize, the most honorable award in various fields including chemistry, economics, literature and peace. Israel has more Nobel Prizes per capita than the Germany, United States and France. It has more laureates, in real numbers, than India, China and Spain. Israel is 11th in Nobel prize per capita, just after the United Kingdom at 10th. If only scientific laureates are taken into account, Israel is 13th in Nobel prize per capita, just after Germany, 11th, and the United States, 12th.
@michael ALBERT
And that may be the problem if any race believes itself superior to another?
Beertruk
The nextdoor neighbours to Israel believe they are ‘superior’ to Israel and want to evict Israel into ‘non existence.’
I will leave this here for people to draw their own conclusions:
Palestine
Yasser Arafat, Born in Cairo, Egypt, Peace, 1994
I do know that you Ladesses and Lads here with good witty stuff, but I tried me best.
Now waiting to see if it is accepted or rejected.
Ozzie, I’m sure that’s true as the human brain is basically a pattern recognition “device”. AI could be helpful be helpful in short circuiting some of this (not all) and getting very specific with respect to targeting. The piece did say that there are human operators behind these systems and would I dare say they wouldn’t be be making the final call but sending the data to the command centres.
Fast forward 30 years or so and this shit worries me if they’re autonomous and I’m guessing they will be.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cukB4_hDCI
& the Golan Heights.
They should have never given them back.
It’s rather amusing how the greenies are so horrified by cow farts but politely ignore mother Gaia’s volcanic farts.
Walleed Ali was prescient. Hamas thought nothing of “cheap” Jewish lives when it invaded, murdered, tortured and abducted on 7/10.
And now Israel will make sure that the price is high. And remains so.
Cassie, is Jackie Frank related to Lillian Frank? I remember Lillian being on many TV talk panels in the 70s and 80s where she was funny and right.
Gotta hand it to “our” ABC, definitely triers! .. LOL! .. As the media attention span switches back to number counting rather than “feelinz” Israel/Gaza slips further down most front-pages yet those defiant “journos” of “our” ABC are sticking solid (unlike Gaza buildings/tunnels) ..
4 “Israel being nasty to poor, innocent Gaza folk” on their font page ……..!
It is an interesting contrast – the pro-Pali mobs’ strategy is to try to destroy businesses (which contribute to their communities), while the pro-Israeli (or, at least the anti-pro-Pali) people turn up and use their own money to help the businesses survive.
Tearing down versus building up – parallels what is happening in Israel.
In hindsight Israel should never have given any of the lands back. At that time the Palestinians hadn’t radicalised to this extent or doubled in numbers and would have been better absorbed by Egypt, Jordan and Lebanon.
Lode
It would be wonderful to see the reaction of these arseholes when it finally dawns on them that they’re protest actions end up helping these businesses.
whoops their…
Arky
Arky, you’re not alone. I do as well.
The right to post is not the same as the right to post crap.
Volcano deniers?
Throw ‘em in.
For Gaia.
Gabor, When the Vic Libs under Kennett setup City Link to build and toll roads they gave the company quite a bit of several public roads, part of the Tulla Freeway and the South Eastern Fwy, they also changed many local roads to single lane to force traffic onto the new toll roads.
The people who got a share of the initial shares when the general public couldn’t is also interesting.
Kennetts 25 year deal with City Link which was supposed to end with the roads being handed back to the taxpayer didn’t finish as promised. The Vic Labor gov renewed the deal.
Remember it’s just Dutton playing politics people. Herald Sun:
This isn’t politics. A simple law and order affair that should have seen this bloke removed from the country.
Chesty Blonde (chortle) is severely lacking in anything resembling common sense.
Am in Syd-a-ney for a couple of days. Drive thru Canterbury area yesterday, plenty of Palli flags on display.
Fully sick in the worst sense of the word ..especially after seeing the vids posted by Rosie. Evil. No other words describe those MFkrs in the videos currently. Hopefully the other apt descriptor will soon be ‘deceased’.
But with Albo and co in charge, likely to be new arrivals.
RUH-ROH! Sounds Like Karma Is Getting Ready to Pay Deadspin a Visit for Bullying a 9-Year-Old Kid
Cassie, is Jackie Frank related to Lillian Frank? I remember Lillian being on many TV talk panels in the 70s and 80s where she was funny and right.”
Yes, Lillian’s daughter.
What idiot thought it was a good idea to give the Home Affairs super department to a vacuous blonde? Ah, of course, superwoman simply by her own assertion.
Jackie Frank is Lillian’s daughter.
Evil is the right word.
The supporters of an evil act are the enablers, just as bad as the perpetrators.
Combining their unintended bolstering of businesses with Israeli connections, and their mental agility that has a turning circle slower and larger than a cruise ship, then by the time they realise what is happening they will have made a few blocks in New York the most flourishing centre of Jewish trade outside of Tel Aviv.
Which is:
Rodrigo Duterte meets Juan Peron
Not much chance of that, even.
Across brownfield nuclear countries, with site selection sorted, IAEA and local permitting takes about 5 years. Then the median build time is 7.5 years (this median figure is skewed by the high speed of Chinese construction). So 13 to 15 years.
Used as replacements on existing bulk power sites, SMR’s are shaping to be a stopgap to cover up stupidity, rather than a sensible economic decision.
In Australia, even without the political roadblock, one might reasonably expect that a first baseload nuke would take 20++ years – allowing for intensely stupid in the decision-making department, lawfare by the usual suspects, and Snowy 2.0 style delivery by the government entity set up to build/own the thing.
Sadly, we are strapped to a bright, too cheap to meter, Bowen Future as an international renewables powerhouse.
What idiot thought it was a good idea to give the Home Affairs super department to a vacuous blonde? Ah, of course, superwoman simply by her own assertion.
Diversity Hire Crossie?
Australian Labor Party at Its Best!
Labor Victoria’s Police Minister refused to provide police protection to traumatised families of Israeli terrorism victims
Labor Victoria’s Police Minister refused to provide police protection to a delegation of Israelis whose family members were victims of Hamas despite Israel’s ambassador “repeatedly begging” for support.
Patrick Hannaford – Digital Reporter
Victoria’s Police Minister refused to provide police protection for traumatised families of Israeli hostages during their visit to Melbourne last week, Sharri Markson has revealed.
There was widespread outrage in Melbourne last week when a group of around 40 pro-Palestine protesters turned up at the Crowne Plaza Hotel to confront a delegation of Israelis whose family members were kidnapped and killed by Hamas on October 7.
Israel’s Ambassador to Australia “repeatedly begged” Labor Victoria’s Police Minister to provide protection for the families after the protest took place, but the Labor Police Minister “refused”, according to Markson.
The Ambassador spoke to Labor Police Minister Anthony Carbines twice on Wednesday night – the night the protest occurred – and “requested repeatedly” for police officers to be deployed to the Hotel until the delegation departed.
But police failed to do so and said they were still making inquiries, Markson said.
“I can tonight exclusively reveal that the Israeli ambassador Amir Maimon repeatedly begged the Labor Victorian Police Minister for a police presence at the Crown Plaza hotel where the families of those kidnapped or murdered were staying,” Markson said on Monday.
“His request came after someone from the hotel leaked that the Israeli delegation was staying there and a vile protest took place inside the hotel.”
The Sky News Australia host contrasted the response to the Ambassador’s request with the actions of NSW Police, who were “very quick” to react and provide “close security” throughout the delegation’s stay in Sydney.
As a result of the incident, the Israeli ambassador has taken the “extraordinary step” of publicly condemning Labor Victorian Police for its failure to protect the traumatised Israeli families.
Markson pointed out that Labor Victoria Police also failed to “lift a finger” when a group of neo-Nazis marched down the main street of Ballarat over the weekend.
“Without police action against people who intimidate Australian citizens, protesters are getting more and more emboldened, she said.
“People know they can walk the streets, threatening Jewish Australians and others, without any consequences at all.”
The more successful the villain, the more successful the picture.
– Alfred Hitchcock
Given that there’s a 100% chance those were all undercover cops that might have been difficult.
The supporters of an evil act are the enablers, just as bad as the perpetrators.”
Correct, and those “mee tooers” who dominate the left in this country, who are the first to complain about a man staring or inappropriate touching, yet who say NOTHING about the mass rapes of 7 October are no better than those who perpetrated the crimes on that dreadful day.
We know their names, the plain truth is that they don’t mind rape and violence against women when it is perpetrated against Jewish and conservative women.
It is time to call out their hypocrisy.
(Or their lazy, shiftless bastard sons).
Unfortunately 12 climbers are now reported dead.
The problem was this:
Normally you get hundreds of detectable tremors whereupon the geological agencies put out a warning and often evacuate an exclusion zone. But this one came out of nearly nowhere.
https://www.volcanodiscovery.com/marapi/news/227842/Marapi-volcano-Western-Sumatra-Indonesia-sudden-major-explosion-today.html
Had a bit of a love/ hate thing for Lillian.
She was an often unintentionally amusing hustler from Easter Europe who made good and good for her. Hairdressers who see themselves as salonistas have to weave the magic. Very much a Melbournite and into Melbourne society gossip.
Figures
Dec 5, 2023 8:33 AM
Markson pointed out that Labor Victoria Police also failed to “lift a finger” when a group of neo-Nazis marched down the main street of Ballarat over the weekend.
Given that there’s a 100% chance those were all undercover cops that might have been difficult.
Figures,
you mean emulating the FBI in America
Feds in Khaki Pants March in DC
If you read an earlier take here, you know that a group of about 200 men wearing matching hats, blue jackets, and khaki pants marched in Washington, D.C., on Saturday. They marched around D.C. monuments then disappeared. It was absurd theater.
With few exceptions they all wore white masks and sunglasses, which gave a vibe of 200 dudes auditioning for a remake of the Invisible Man. Appropriately, they quickly disappeared, but instead of vanishing by stripping naked, they jumped into the backs of U-Haul trucks and sped away into the night — maybe to a Denny’s for early-bird dinner.
So a firebrand quick has a crack at a cheat and his mental health is questioned?
Warner is lucky he is playing cricket at any level at all.
No one has the right to post Winston, except the host.
Still too much propaganda in the media about the damage to and killing of civilians in Gaza. Apart from the fact that the majority of them supported Hamas and always seem to be on the street cheering the green headbanded fighters, there’s a simple rule at play here. Don’t walk up to someone like Mike Tyson and punch him on the nose, far worse assault, rape and execute his children.
I had a martial arts sensei many years ago who said he’d never use his deadly skills to hurt someone unless severely provoked. He’d walk away from a lout rather than beat him up – unless, he said, he hurt my little daughter.
True story. She grew up to be a famous singer.
Except she wasn’t a hustler from Eastern Europe. Lillian was born in Rangoon, Burma. Her family were Mizrachi Jews who originally (hundreds of years ago) left Iraq and founded communities across Asia, in Calcutta, Rangoon, Singapore and so on.
Based upon the IRC’s past performance,
she’ll probably find no evidence of hostage taking.
How do people get the idea that people are impressed by weakness? Israel need to take the Suez Canal. And they can also start knocking off Hamas supporters in Western countries.
Bruce of Newcastle
Dec 5, 2023 8:36 AM
Sad about the climbers.
Where was the guy Steve T keeps quoting?
Missing in action.
Really?
Nurse Betty said that?
Why does it all have to be done by noon though?
John Fetterman Roasts Antisemitic Anti-Israel Protesters Who Harassed People at a Jewish Restaurant
Sen. John Fetterman (D-PA) appears to have a new hobby: trolling the anti-Israel crowd. Since the start of the war between Israel and Hamas, the senator has been outspoken in his support for Israel, much to the consternation of folks on the left, especially those who prefer shilling for Hamas.
In his latest troll of the anti-Israel lobby, Fetterman commented on the story about pro-Palestinian protesters harassing people at a Jewish restaurant in New York City.
The senator lashed out at the protesters, highlighting how they completely ignore the atrocities committed by Hamas.
They could be protesting Hamas. They could be protesting Hamas’ systematic rape of Israeli women and girls or demanding the remaining hostages be immediately released.
Instead, they targeted a Jewish restaurant. It’s pathetic and rank antisemitism. https://t.co/zDZQwy84g5
— Senator John Fetterman (@SenFettermanPA) December 4, 2023
Fetterman is right.
Many of those in the pro-Palestinian camp are not necessarily protesting against Israel because they care about the plight of the Palestinians living in Gaza and the West Bank, nor are they trying to advocate for peace.
If this were the case, they would be condemning Hamas, which has routinely abused the civilians living under its rule. The fact that they are silent, or even defensive of, the terrorist group shows that their activism is fueled far more by a hatred of the Jewish people than by a desire to help Palestinians.
The fact that many on the hard left are more anti-Israel than they are pro-Palestinian is becoming even more apparent as the war in the Middle East drags on.
We have seen folks on the left refuse to so much as say a critical word about the news that Hamas terrorists had raped, tortured, and inflicted many kinds of abuse on Israeli women when they invaded on October 7.
In fact, it was recently reported that an Israeli official reached out to former First Lady Michelle Obama to ask her to condemn Hamas’ sexual assaults against women.
But it was made clear that Obama wanted to do no such thing.
Fetterman is one of few on the left who are willing to call out the pro-Palestinian and pro-Hamas crowd and has taken to trolling them on several occasions.
Despite the criticism coming from the left, he has not backed down in his support of the Jewish state.
Given that these activists are trying to push their agenda on everyone else, this is a welcome sign; we need far more people willing to stand up to those trying to force people to take the terrorists’ side in this war.
Black Ball, I believe the word you’re searching for is “competence”.
Not to worry. She will shortly be sacked in Elbow’s Cabinet “reshuffle”.
Horror: State Department Reveals the Reason Hamas Didn’t Let All the Female Hostages Go
Now, the U.S. State Department is revealing the reason why, and it’s horrific.
BREAKING: State Dept Spokesman Matthew Miller says the reason Hamas didn’t want to release women and the reason this pause fell apart is because Hamas doesn’t want those women to be able to talk about what happened to them.
This comes one day after @RepJayapal said we need a… pic.twitter.com/zjGh8sGAdU
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) December 4, 2023
BREAKING: State Department spokesman Mathew Miller says it seems that the reason Hamas refused to release all the women who it held hostage was because the terror group didn’t want them to tell what they went through while in captivity in Gaza
— Barak Ravid (@BarakRavid) December 4, 2023
Miller’s comment quickly drew fire from pro-Hamas figures on social media, many of whom accused him of lying.
Apparently, it’s just impossible to believe that the same barbarians who filmed themselves murdering and mutilating people on October 7th would dare rape anyone.
Never mind the fact that videos from the initial massacre showed clear signs of women being raped, including an infamous video showing a woman being paraded around, barely able to walk, with blood stains on her genitals.
Documentation was also found instructing Hamas fighters to rape women while fighters who were captured testified to that effect.
Then there’s the direct testimony from survivors who said they witnessed rapes taking place at the music festival that became the centerpiece of the attack.
Still, no amount of evidence will ever be enough for the “pro-Palestinian” crowd.
Because they see everything through the insane prism of intersectionalism, Hamas can’t be seen or treated as vicious oppressors.
Rather, they must be coddled as supposedly oppressed.
It’s a completely perverse worldview that leads to large numbers of people, mostly Democrats, making excuses for terrorists even as those terrorists continue to say that their goal is genocide.
On Sunday, Rep. Pramila Jayapal was asked specifically to condemn the sexual violence carried out by Hamas.
She instead danced around the subject, calling for a “balanced” approach to condemning Palestinian terrorism.
Unfortunately, because of what has been done to the women still in custody, it is unlikely they’ll ever be voluntarily released or allowed to live if the IDF begins to close in on their location.
Hamas survives only because of international protection from corrupt organizations like the United Nations, and to allow that level of direct evidence to get out would be a huge blow to the group’s propaganda campaign.
Yep, but that;’s not insane crap though. That’s some pretty heavy duty engineering right there.
There are a few more like that and I’ll post them later on.
Bruce of Newcastle
No, Bruce. They don’t.
They think they are being clever. What they don’t realise is they are creating the parameters of the society they will have to live in for the rest of their lives.
I don’t think they’ll like it very much.
Not to worry. She will shortly be sacked in Elbow’s Cabinet “reshuffle”.
It will be framed as a promotion.
And if you are in the ministry & have a penis, your numbers are going to shrink by at least one.
So post reshuffle they will have the story ready to run how there is a record amount of women ministers.
The ABC etc will lap it up.
Then talk about Dutton’s women problem.
‘Happened to men too’: Horror Hamas claim
Horrific new Hasmas attack stories have emerged, as police investigate sexual crimes committed against both men and women.
Tino’s great – he did an Elvis impersonation for us at the Ivanhoe, Blackheath.
Justice in America.
Collin Rugg
@CollinRugg
JUST IN: Two rioters who were responsible for burning down the Wendy’s in Atlanta during the BLM riots have pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit arson and two counts of first-degree arson.
Their punishment?
Chisom Kingston and Natalie White will have to pay a $500 fine, 150 hours of community service and 5 years of probation.
For reference, this is the same Fulton County where Donald Trump was charged with 13 felony counts and facing a maximum of 76.5 years in prison.
Catturd ™
@catturd2
Another big news drop from Republicans who won’t do jack shit about it – so it means nothing.
Tucker Carlson’s chat with the All-in Pod crew. It is reasonably interesting. The arguments made will be familiar to cats.
There will be an incoming set of waves of fake corporate R U Ok? BS lashing us soon.
Anyway. My response to any such questions is “LOOK WHAT YOU MADE ME DO, CHRISTMAS IS COMING EARLY FOR YOU ALICE, POW!, STRAIGHT TO THE MOON!”
I Meme Therefore I Am
@ImMeme0
What a shame
Hero Health Worker Turned Whistleblower Faces Court After He Exposes Shocking Number of Deaths Linked to COVID Vaccine — Shouts “FREEDOM” to Supporters in the Gallery
It is [12] days since anyone called me putrid.
If this continues I expect to make a full recovery.
There was a guy in a shop yesterday who I thought called me “putrid”. When challenged he said he called me “stupid”.
Which is fine.
A Plague of College Student Dishonesty
Steve Kirsch
@stkirsch
Breaking: Barry Young will be allowed bail at 1pm tomorrow (NZ time). This gives NZ Police time to download his cloud storage so they can verify that I and Professor Fenton advised him that the data showed the vaccines were killing people. Thus, Barry should be charged with believing Fenton who is arguably the top risk management expert in the world w.r.t. vaccine safety.
That is a horrible crime I think. Listening to a world expert instead of the corrupt NZ health authorities who never did a cohort time-series analysis on their own data.
They should be charging us with the crime of “coming to a conclusion that doesn’t match the false narrative.” For that, I and Fenton are guilty.
Quite right, Cassie. My mistake.
God’s speed.
There’s also a part of the policy that will allow drilling for oil and gas bigly.
The RU OK hugboxing by the Killjoys and the Candymen coincides with gaslighting the 99% of men who don’t give out early Christmases; look at what the violent ones are made to do, to wit; mostly in remote Aboriginal communities.
Why aren’t you okay, tax serf? What do you have to live for in the West? Also, you’re a violent piece of shit!
Sydney Moaning Herald – Here’s how our reader comments are changing
How to Become Ultimo ABC – A Circular Echo Chamber of Believers!
Walk around our newsrooms and you will discover they’re a hive of activity, humming with conversation about the latest headlines. Journalists, after all, love nothing more than talking about the big stories of the day.
We’re not alone. Every day, we moderate many thousands of reader comments on our articles. So far this year, we have received more than 1.8 million comments and published the vast majority of them. Readers have commented on more than 21,500 stories, ranging from the Voice referendum to the truckzilla trend.
(If you’re wondering, our exclusive survey showing voters were turning against the Voice – and the prime minister along with it – tops the list with 2818 published comments.)
After more than a decade of publishing your comments, it’s time to do things differently. From today, commenting on our stories will be an exclusive subscriber benefit.
Why are we making this change? Prioritising our paying readers is a way for us to ensure the people who help fund our journalism can participate in the community they support.
As most publishers turn to artificial intelligence or rely on readers to flag offensive and inappropriate comments, we are one of the few that continues to employ real people to moderate every comment before it’s published. That takes time and resources. We feel it’s unfair to encourage non-paying readers to write and submit comments when we’ve been unable to moderate them all.
We are introducing other changes too.
Several months ago, we surveyed readers of The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times to find out what you like about the comments, how we could improve the experience and why you do or don’t post. More than 6500 of you responded.
You told us that the comments should be a place for considered debate. Most of you are curious to learn what your fellow readers think and enjoy gaining a new perspective. Others want a place to voice their opinion.
But some of you are also discouraged by persistent commenters who dominate the conversation to champion their viewpoint and bait others with a contrasting view. You’ve asked us to lead the way in encouraging more insightful discussions from a broader cross-section of readers.
PS Who Would be Dumb enough to Subscribe to The Sydney Moaning Herald?
Tax cuts
Spending cuts
Cut regulation
Allow more drilling for gas and oil
Remove government, allow civil society and private sector growth.
The only thing threatened are lazy public servants and ticket clipping shills.
Deadspin being sued would be the ultimate Karma. The company that owns Deadspin had bought Gawker just before Hulk Hogan sued their arses off them, and won big time.
So hoping The parents of young Holden sue that foetid outfit and wipe them from the planet.
..
Postage on some of the bike bits I am currently buying are “free” from China, but up to $90 from other destinations, and around $10 – $15 from inside Australia.
I prefer second hand genuine Suzuki bits to new knock offs from the Middle Kingdom, but this international postal agreement is essentially economic sabotage if that is what is driving it.
Link above from Financial Times, 2018.
Beginning in the 1600s many Mizrachi Jewish families fled Iraq, due to Muslim persecution (of course, everything was always apparently just hunky dory for Jews in Muslim lands….NOT), and established communities in India*, Burma, Thailand, China, and the Dutch East Indies. There are ancient Jewish communities to this day in Singapore, HK and Calcutta. The most famous family was the Sassoon family who were known as the “R*thschilds of the East”, crikey that might set some people off….the big ‘R*thschilds’ conspiracy. The Sassoons, like the Rothschilds, married into the British aristocracy.
In India there is even a more ancient Jewish community, in Cochin, dating back 2,000 years.
Chairmaine Solomon, the wonderful Sri Lankan born Australian food writer, whose cookbook I treasure, married a Jewish man from Burma, Reuben Solomon.
Hastily constructed Chinese nuclear power plants. Reassuring. Checks for prevailing wind patterns.
Which reminds me, has Amanda Stoker made a statement yet? Since she has such delicate sensibilities surely the Palestinian mass rapes of Israeli women, men and children would offend her.
Frank
Dec 5, 2023 9:24 AM
Then the median build time is 7.5 years (this median figure is skewed by the high speed of Chinese construction). So 13 to 15 years.
Hastily constructed Chinese nuclear power plants. Reassuring. Checks for prevailing wind patterns.
Across the Pacific to America
One hopes the LNP is paying attention, but they’ve just sent a dozen or so delegates to COP.
Regarding “Palestine” – seems that, in the days of the British Mandate, before the Second World War, the British decided that peace and quiet were to be had, by appeasing the Arab lobby. They “severely curbed Jewish immigration, blocking off a major escape route for the Jews of Europe, who were about to fall victim to the Nazi extermination machine, and almost stopped, altogether, Jewish land purchases in the country.”
“The Birth of the Palestinian Refugee Problem 1947 – 49.” Benny Morris, Page 6.
When you arise in the morning, think of what a precious privilege it is to be alive – to breathe, to think, to enjoy, to love.
– Marcus Aurelius
What is the average build time for a large coal plant?
Thanks JC and OldOzzie, saw Eye in the Sky when it cam out. I thought it a bit weak. The dilemma of not taking out the target, a terrorist, versus the death of a girl selling bread nearby was pathetic. The Aaron Paul character should have been relieved immediately. In real life opportunities may never happen again. What if the girl was not their and he fired only to see children next door come out to play and the debris kill them. Would I say the same if it was me or family and friends. I wouldn’t like it but the answer has to be yes because terrorists are coming for any of us. At 70 it is easy to say, my life is near it’s end but the life of a collateral damage victim is worth nothing to me compared to my grandchildren.
PS Man you could have a Good Run in a Yacht along the Roaring Forties Now
Beginning in the 1600s many Mizrachi Jewish families fled Iraq, due to Muslim persecution (of course, everything was always apparently just hunky dory for Jews in Muslim lands….NOT), and established communities in India*, Burma, Thailand, China, and the Dutch East Indies. There are ancient Jewish communities to this day in Singapore, HK and Calcutta. The most famous family was the Sassoon family who were known as the “R*ths…….childs of the East”. The Sassoons, like the R*ths…….childs, married into the British aristocracy.
In India there is even a more ancient Jewish community, in Cochin, dating back 2,000 years.
Charmaine Solomon, the wonderful Sri Lankan born Australian food writer, whose cookbook I treasure, married a Jewish man from Burma, Reuben Solomon.
Should come in handy for targetting grandmas for pepper spraying, pregnant facebook posters and ethical doctors here then.
Crossie the likes of Amanda Stoker with their delicate sensibilities look the other way lest they be upset. They have no principles or those they have are variable according to who is doing what. Its called hypocrisy. Her and the likes have no knowledge of what it means.
Dot
There’s one huge hole there, Dot. He needs to double import quotas and tariffs to ensure people don’t buy imported goods below cost.
Palestinians and Aborigines are involved in the same fight against colonialism…
The Gallic Wars By Julius Caesar
Translated by W. A. McDevitte and W. S. Bohn
The Gallic Wars has been divided into the following sections:
Book 1 [106k]
Book 2 [60k]
Book 3 [53k]
Book 4 [64k]
Book 5 [98k]
Book 6 [77k]
Or if your taste runs to the Original Latin
https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0002%3Abook%3D1%3Achapter%3D1
Cassie my Charmaine Solomon cookbook has fallen apart. If anyone has only one curry cookbook make sure its hers.
The fall of Academia: half of US companies are reducing requirements for Bachelors degrees
By Jo Nova
University degrees aren’t what they used to be
After years of universities turning out smug self-obsessed graduates of Woke ideology, Big Business has realized they might be better off hiring people with experience in the real world instead. They are also doing their own testing — with 2 out of 3 setting their own test assignments for candidates.
This year more than half of the 800 employers surveyed had already dropped bachelor degree requirements for at least some of their roles. It must have worked out, because next year almost all of those same companies plan on dropping the requirement for even more roles. That looks like a trend…
This surely must be ringing some warning bells in a few Ivory Towers? Fewer students, means less income, less influence, and fewer alumni:
How the college degree lost its value:
Nearly half of US companies plan to ax Bachelor’s degree requirements – after Walmart, Accenture and IBM led the charge
DailyMail
Nearly half of US companies intend to eliminate Bachelor’s degree requirements for some job positions next year, a new survey has revealed.
And 55 percent said they’d already eliminated degree requirements this year, according to an Intelligent.com survey of 800 US employers, carried out in November.
In October, Walmart eliminated college degrees as a requirement for hundreds of its corporate roles…
Intelligent.com suggests that this move will help increase diversity by giving marginalized applicants more of a chance.
But employers are conducting their own tests and they’re talking about finding a good fit for their culture.
Perhaps what the employers want is a better attitude, not a virtue signalling Marxist?
Or perhaps, since universities don’t like to fail anyone anymore, employers have to run tests to assess the merits:
80% of hiring managers favor experience over education in job applicants
“Assessments are important for many jobs, even if a student seems to have a relevant degree,” Gayeski says.
“Employers use assessments to get a handle on whether candidates will be a good fit for their specific culture or the challenges of a certain job – such as the ability to handle conflict or to take on unfamiliar tasks and take risks.
They’re also a way for applicants to demonstrate their interest in a job and how accurately and quickly one can perform tasks.”
The majority of test assignments, 81%, take two hours or less to complete.
This is what you get when you take a great institution, try to make it fit half the population, and spurn free speech and the pillars of its success.
Alas, at the bleeding edge of societies intellectual fashion parades, and in protected government zones, the adulation of academic degrees will continue.
What is it with Mizrahi Jews and hairstyling?
Sancho:
Be careful – JC stopped at the red line. He said it was a quote and gave the original source.
You didn’t.
JC is smart enough to have handed you a bullet to fire* and you did precisely that.
Perhaps waking up to the fact that he does that a lot – getting others to put themselves on the spot – and then leaving them to cop the blame, is one of his favourite tricks.
*”Handing someone a bullet to fire” is a colloquialism describing a person asking another to carry out an act that may rebound on the other but leaves the initiator free of consequences. It is not a friendly act, and assumes the actor is too stupid or naive to realise they have been duped.
Opinion Geopolitics
America and a crumbling global order
Political division and turmoil at home are undermining US leadership overseas
GIDEON RACHMAN
How many international conflicts can one superpower handle at the same time? The Biden administration is currently trying to deal with wars in the Middle East and Europe, while preparing for a surge in tensions between China and Taiwan.
All this is taking place under the lengthening shadow of Donald Trump.
His possible return to the White House poses profound questions about the future of US democracy and the country’s role in the world.
The combination of all these events is creating a palpable sense of tension and foreboding in government offices in Washington.
It is not just the sheer number of crises coming at the Biden administration, but the fact that many are heading in the wrong direction — the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, for example.
And the polls look bad for Biden.
The foreign crises could come to a head quite fast.
“The next three months could determine the next few years,” is how one senior US official puts it. A prominent Democrat worries that “by January, we could be talking about how Joe Biden lost Ukraine”.
New funding for the Ukrainian military and its civilian institutions is stuck in Congress.
The Biden administration seems confident that money for Kyiv will ultimately be agreed. But if financial assistance is not passed before the end of the year, Ukraine could feel the effects on the battlefield within weeks.
Attempts to agree a fresh package of EU money for Ukraine are also stalled by wrangling in Brussels.
Senior US military officials are warning Congress that, if funding for the country is cut and Putin makes substantial progress in the war as a result, Russia could be threatening the Baltic states by the end of 2024.
In the coming weeks, Russia is expected to launch an intense bout of attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure in the hope of crippling the country’s power supply and winter heating.
Moscow tried the same thing last winter and failed. But the Russians now have many more drones and missiles, thanks to Iran, North Korea and ramped-up domestic production.
Ukrainian air defences are looking threadbare in places and could be overwhelmed.
The precariousness of Ukraine’s situation is getting less attention than it should because of the Middle East.
The Biden administration is paying a heavy political price, at home and abroad, for its support for Israel.
The US is now putting public pressure on Israel to change its military tactics in Gaza and to kill fewer Palestinian civilians.
But American concerns extend well beyond Gaza.
The Biden administration still feels that it is dangerously close to a wider regional war that would drag in the US.
Attacks on shipping by the Houthis, an Iran-backed militia in Yemen, might create the incident that leads to escalation.
There are also powerful voices in Israel who argue that, after the October 7 terror attacks, Israel can no longer tolerate the presence of Hizbollah, another heavily armed Iran-backed militia, on its northern border.
But a war between Israel and Hizbollah could be much more intense than a conflict with Hamas.
There is some resentment in Washington that Israel is insisting it will make its own decisions about military operations, while relying on US muscle in the background.
“The Israelis are playing with house money,” as one US official puts it. But, after October 7, there remains a deep reluctance to put serious pressure on Israel to change course.
Dispatching American aircraft carriers and missile defence systems to the Middle East means that they are not available for other trouble spots.
That has implications not just for Ukraine but also for east Asia.
The current expectation in Washington is that the Taiwanese presidential election on January 13 will be won by Lai Ching-te, who is regarded in Beijing as a dangerous separatist.
If China responds to a Lai victory with threatening displays of military strength, that could easily provoke a new crisis.
There is cautious optimism that Beijing’s initial response to a victory by Lai will concentrate on economic and political pressure.
But, over the course of the year, China could take its military intimidation of Taiwan to new levels, particularly if the US looks distracted and weakened by events in Ukraine and the Middle East.
The fact that China will be closely watching Ukraine and Gaza illustrates the linked nature of all these crises.
Western officials believe Russia, China, Iran and North Korea are working together much more closely than before.
The Russians are now dependent on Chinese economic support and are almost unrestrained in military collaboration with North Korea and Iran.
With the US presidential election less than a year away, all these international crises feed into American politics.
Trump will take every opportunity to accuse Biden of presiding over an era of weakness and retreat, citing Afghanistan, Ukraine, Gaza and the Taiwan Strait.
A chaotic and divisive US election — with Trump as the central figure — will contribute powerfully to that impression of US weakness and decline.
China, Russia and Iran will relish asking how America can promise to defend democracies overseas, when its own democracy is in so much trouble at home.
Unfortunately, it is a good question.
These people.
How Much Do Americans Trust The Media? (4 Dec)
The final graph says everything we need to know about lefties. And the MSM too.
JCs all butt hurt because Arky got the better of him, so he lashes out at everyone he hates. Then calls in the cavalry.
Ooooh.
Scary.
Whatever happened to Christmas beetles?
When I was a kid (in Sydney), by now you would start to see them buzzing around, flashing their iridescent wings.
They have become scarcer and scarcer, and in recent years almost extinct in inhabited parts of southern NSW.
Anyone know?
Same, Ranga. With the exception of being an old fart.
JC while I tend to agree with you over imports the ripoff Australian retailers is something else. I can’t buy materials cheaper than a finished product. While I loathe Colesworth they should front up to the Senate inquiry into pricing with a big FU, stating most of our costs are the result of government red tape and taxes which government increases whenever it squanders the pot.
Now watch the Dems suddenly start concern trolling about his cognitive abilities. They were blind to them before, natch.
Seems he’s making a recovery and regaining intelligence.
Johanna I was at the beach house in the Shoalhaven for 5 days recently, Christmas beetles everywhere.
House insurance up 32%
Ouch!
It’s the other way around, Turtlehead. If you hadn’t commented, there would not have been reason for me to stick a redhot poker up your fat rear end, you pathetic gerbil. Since you wanted to be a player in that indirect way of yours, you received a response like you always do.
It’s actually pretty laughable that the individual who:
1. Claims there’s a “scenario” where the Chinese military would book commercial flights to Melbourne airport with a view to invading the country.
2. Reckons he purchased a lake full of iodine because he believes rural Queensland is red hot target in a nuclear attack
3. Thinks shooting 1,000 people in the head as an example to others is a good idea
reckons he has any ability to judge a good from a bad post.
As for judging who won or lost a stoush, I’d trust your views because we all know how objective you are on these matters when it’s about me.
Go cook some bolognese for 24 and stop wasting our time annoying people with stupid replies to their comments, you gerbil brained moron.
I see Louise Adler is an Israel-hater’s heroine this morning.
johanna
One tried to come inside the other day.
I said “Bah! Hum, bug!”
It didn’t hum.
So I squashed it.
No freeloaders at my place.
They appear to be alive and well in Meanjin.
None here at the Cafe, but there’s a reason for that. Watching a currawong chase a Christmas beetle is very entertaining, but not for the beetle.
Chatted with a lady who was picking up her paper as I was out walking this morning, and a pair of magpies arrived. They received breakfast! Probably a second breakfast since she feeds them as well. She remarked that when they first moved in the magpies were all hostile and would dive at the kids walking to school, but now they don’t. Which is a nice advertisement for feeding magpies.
JC:
Three lies in one post.
Remember I warned you that your ego and your mouth would get you into trouble?
Keep going, idiot.
Front page of The West Australian on the Albanese government:
https://twitter.com/RitaPanahi/status/1731765290944331857
In October, Walmart eliminated college degrees as a requirement for hundreds of its corporate roles…
Intelligent.com suggests that this move will help increase diversity by giving marginalized applicants more of a chance.
Not sure about that.
I’d nearly bet that Walmart hasn’t dumped hiring useless college degrees to increase diversity.
Did Marcus Aurelius ever ponder if Julius Caesar was ever happy?
Same in Australia, the UPU is hostage to countries who have the voting numbers and use it as a parasitical profit centre.
Bit like the UN really.
Western countries should withdraw from the UPU.
https://rumble.com/v3z8qyt-arrested-for-a-possible-breach-of-the-peace.html
He took photos of a demonstration.
Quite so. We can only speculate on the reason why some exhibit an extreme sensitivity to downticking.
Occasionally when one has casual reason to peruse past pages & threads, one spots what may be the reason.
One or two heavy downticks here & there does not a pattern make, & is likely a spurt by someone gaming the ticks.
An unmissable sustained aggregate of heavy downticking, often in double digits, is something else altogether.
Those who are “up themself” may not take it well when confronted with the undeniable reality of what people actually think of them.
The Christmas Beetles are on holiday with the sparrows.
https://stopthesethings.com/2023/12/03/why-subsidised-wind-solar-always-deliver-punishing-power-prices/
From Rafes newsletter.
Some very unhappy people in Australia atm.
But there are several different reasons for the unhappiness…
Looks like FOMO will bite these people on their rear end with great force and much shaking of the prey.
https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/interest-rates/rba-interest-rates-december-bank-expected-to-pause-cash-rate-as-aussies-head-into-christmas-spending/news-story/beaeea25aeb1686a0ddec693228b6f13
Finance
Economy
Interest Rates
RBA interest rates December: Bank expected to pause cash rate as Aussies head into Christmas spending
Australians are taking to extreme measures to secure their forever homes as lending conditions have tightened and interest rates have gone through the roof.
Alex Turner-Cohen
Alex Turner-Cohen
@AlexTurnerCohen
3 min read
December 5, 2023 – 10:14AM
A survey from Bloomberg reveals “just one” out of 27 economists are expecting the Reserve Bank to raise the cash rate in December, says Sky News Business Reporter Edward Boyd. “The ASX rate tracker … gives a two per cent chance to interest rates going up tomorrow,” Mr Boyd told Sky News Australia. The cash rate is widely predicted to stay on hold at 4.35 per cent in December. “It looks like the Christmas gift is going to be the cash rate on hold … still the highest level since November 2011, but a hold nonetheless.” The Reserve Bank’s last meeting for the year will take place on December 5 and will return for its first new year board meeting in early February.
Australians are feeling the pinch after two years of interest rate increases.
Last month, news.com.au reported new research from Digital Financial Analytics had found that more than two million Australian households are spending more than they make each month.
MyState Bank released research last month that found more than two in five (43 per cent) mortgage holders have looked for a better home loan deal in the past six months.
Now financial company Fortiro, which launched last year to create fraud detection software, says that liar loans are also significantly on the rise.
A liar loan is where mortgagees omit certain financial information and magnify or play down other information to obtain a bank loan.
This could be lying about how much your expenditure is, or not mentioning you are about to become parents, to secure the much coveted bank loan.
Fortiro’s cofounder Sean Quagliani told the ABC that liar loans had increased three times since May last year when interest rates started going up.
“We see other examples of people removing transactions from their bank statements to only show that they might have no kids, but they have kids. People can be very creative,” he said.
Fortiro was contacted for comment.
Last year, news.com.au reported that more than half of Aussies who took out a new home loan with one of the major banks lied about their circumstances on the advice of their banker to make sure their loan was approved.
It found that 55 per cent of respondents who had taken a mortgage with ANZ in the six months to December 2021 had made false representations on their application, investment bank UBS’ survey showed.
In regards to the upcoming RBA board meeting, the prognosis is looking good, with new consumer price index (CPI) figures finding that inflation is well below its peak compared to a year ago.
The inflation rate is sitting at 4.9 per cent, below what most economists were expecting.
In December last year, the inflation rate peaked at 8.4 per cent, and has been brought down since then with multiple back-to-back hikes.
In good news for homeowners AMP’s deputy chief economist Diana Mousina predicts the cash rate will be put on hold at the afternoon meeting.
“Our base case is for the cash rate to remain unchanged at 4.35 per cent,” she said in an emailed newsletter.
There are a number of reasons it’s unlikely Australia’s central bank will pull the trigger on another rate hike, including retail sales being “softer” since last month, even despite the Black Friday sales, according to Ms Mousina.
She also noted that home prices have started falling in Sydney and Melbourne over the past week, and at the same time auction clearance rates are also slowing down.
The inflation rate is “below economist and our own expectations of 5.2 per cent”.
It’s also dropped considerably even from last month, when inflation stood at 5.6 per cent.
She expects rate cuts to be brought in from mid next year in what would be welcome relief for Aussie mortgage holders.
Nope they are back. A few weeks ago there were Cabbage Moths by the millions from North Melbourne to Werribee South, mild winter, warm wet conditions and boom off they went.
Now is the time of the Christmas beetle.
Christmas beetles have arrived early this year. Could their numbers also be making a comeback?
One for a Mr Bowen to have a read of.
Another Critical Thinker Reaches The Obvious Conclusion: Intermittent Renewables Can’t Work On Their Own (4 Dec)
We Cats know this of course but the analysis confirms it nicely. The most entertaining thing is just how clueless the climateers seem to be of really basic arithmetic.
Meanwhile, this has aged badly…
‘This win for Anthony Albanese is the most transformative election you can imagine’
By Laura Tingle
Posted Sun 22 May 2022 at 4:43am ABC News Analysis
The Israeli tank platoon commander who defended the kibbutzs on 7 Oct is a seriously tough woman and scary.
She may look like a 50’s headmistress but lookout: “Run them over, shoot the wounded, make sure that they are dead “.
“Have you finished the washing up”. “Yes dear, what should I do next dear”.
Who also lies, why WHO.
Checking out of Sydney hotel this morning. Hotel was setting up for Tik Tok awards.
Useful idiots everywhere.
IDF calling card
Were to have 4 days at the beachhouse between Christmas and New Year. We only rent it for longer periods as not worth the effort. Somehow a booking got through fot 3 days as Stayz keeps fiddling with settings. The upside is it will pay for one ticket to Europe next July, Lazio for a week at a friend’s villa, week in Paris, week in London and a week in Islay, have to pace myself on malt consumption.
fot=for
Drills is in. Unreal
This high- end toffy sounding, verbose English doesn’t appear to be work for you, cowboy. I always thought you sounded far more sincere* when you were croc-dundeeing.
*Sincere as in less of a bignoting doofus.
Tick as much as you want. Go for it. It was Juan Peron (aka Thought Leader) who began talking about ticking anyway.
How’s the GST calcs and the 53 licenses+ permits to the existent pub going?
All the mistakes are my own, don’t use autocorrect.
Cookbook, singular?
Embarrassed to confess this, I don’t think I’ve even one of her cookbooks.
hope hamas has job descriptions and interview panels ready to go, lots of senior management positions open atm
She may look like a 50’s headmistress but lookout: “Run them over, shoot the wounded, make sure that they are dead “.
Reminded me of a scene in John Wick . ‘Do what you do best Jonathan. (Pause). Hunt!’
earlier this morning saw footage of hamas guarding aid trucks while gazans threw stones at them. Not surprisingly gazans think hamas and their hangers on get first dibs on aid.
#metoo.
Well, it’s still intact, but some pages have multiple splatters and smudges.
From the Hun.
You quoted it, you own it, dickhead. Don’t even try to wiggle out of that debauchery of a comment. No one ever needs to misquote you because your comments are enough to tie a noose around your neck. Don’t assume people are as low IQ as you by always pretending people are dissembling or misquoting you. They don’t need to.
Governments and private roads can be dodgy.Had a client with several inner west commercial properties, happily leased out , worth millions.
Then VicRoads started releasing maps of the proposed City Link, going straight through his properties.
No rezoning, no compulsory acquisition but tenants simply wouldn’t lease them.
He had no legal redress and mortgages were falling due or about to go into default.
He sold to VicRoads for about 25% of previous value.
Bastards knew exactly what they were doing.
JC:
.1 Please provide a form so I can comment here, and with whom I can comment, Hall Monitor.
.2 “Fat rear end!?” I’ll have you know my bottom is rather pert.
.3
Your time at the Hellfire Club hasn’t been wasted, I see.
LoL Hamas job descriptions.
…join now. Rapid promotions guaranteed, new opportunities opening regularly…
No Super benefits , free dental for ID only purposes,
Must provide own boots, balaclava and tik tok account
Hamas supports safe work practices and is an inclusive employer (when the cameras are rolling).
UN Funded.
perky or pert>
Please, Sancho — it’s not that kind of blog.
La Tingle should stick to mashing pumpkin. Worst looking cheerleader going around. Possibly.
Really? The legal threat now, yeah? Go for it. Make your sure your “legal team” is up to date on the slander you posted about me with regard to Brian over the years amongst the rest.
And yeah, I will post anything about you that I consider to be truthful and accurate about. Don’t like then go for it. Nothing about you is scary, and I make sure you’ll have to sell your house for legal fees because I won’t stop. Go for it.
get in at the ground floor, while you can!
Charmaine Who?
Madhur Jaffrey, ultimate curry bible
Didn’t Tedros use to be a terrorist?
https://twitter.com/DrTedros/status/1731775914621473109
gotta love community notes
Deputy PM Richard Marles told RN AM this morning that “of course” Ministers Giles & O’Neill have his full support.
They’re gone.
Erdogan is unhappy.
Turkey warns of ‘serious consequences’ if Israel tries to target Hamas officials abroad (4 Dec)
They’re dead men Mr Erdogan. Try not to get yourself pictured on a Mossad playing card son, it would be…unfortunate.
They very much look like one. All non-ID geared up, and in unison. Taking only the ‘White Australia’ line, trying to put a racist tag on reportage about ‘far right’ (which in media-speak is anyone not far left).
Totally suspicious. Not any group likely to emerge from usual politics. Seems artificially created to create a slur.
Sigh!
This applies to all manner of similar scenarios.
Often the observation is made at meetings of the town’s liquor industry, that eliminating about six of the town’s louts would cut at least in half, the amount of trouble in town.
One of my early bosses told me that in the 1970s, when cattle were worth nothing, he had a lightbulb moment & after carefully thinking & choosing, shot six cows. This cut his mustering difficulties in half.
The same would apply on this blog. Due to the low number of commenters, it would require the removal of a maximum of two commenters for the site to be no longer cluttered with endless threads of personal ad hom foam-flecked abuse.
My old boss once told me that you should always respond to low rent abuse especially for houso types who spend their lives pretending they have something to say and pretend they’re something they’re not. He also reckoned they should re-start their own blog.
This is exactly the sort of situation that brought about the creation of The Godfather.
gazans realising that they are really Egyptian. UNWRA has a lot to answer for.
JC
Dec 5, 2023 11:05 AM
JC:
My reply,
Hugs/Kisses.
I wonder how that baby is doing, the one under the rubble for 37 days or so.
20 dropkicks in Ballarat pose zero threat to Australia.
813,000 muslims on the other hand even if only 1% are ‘islamists’ are a real risk.
But good work guys providing some much needed distraction.
They’ve been dying for Israel too. Sgt Aschalwu Sama yesterday.
It is a tribute to the professionalism of the IDF that only about 75 soldiers have been killed in action in the Gaza counteroffensive. More than 4 times as many fell during the surprise attack by Hamas. Now though the IDF is collecting blood price for those poor servicemen and servicewomen.
Public House Blog (at Vanity.com), which accumulated all of 279 comments over 15 years, has curiously disappeared from the internets. Dover should seek advice from Public House Blog owner on business strategies etc in terms of how to run a very successful operation.
That’s a change. You used to go into a fetal position for weeks when someone went for you.
Hamasunwra needs to start doing some concreting for the tent cities they are going to need to house all the displaced people in Gaza.
Winter is coming.
This might be the Bee Tweet of the year:
https://twitter.com/TheBabylonBee/status/1731789101815246953
It seems that Christmas beetles have migrated south, according to esteemed commenters. There used to be scads of them in Sydney, but my rellos there tell me that they are now rarely seen.
It is beetle season, though. After months of never seeing one, two struggled across my doorway this morning (they’re not great walkers).
Just waiting for the cicadas, to know that it’s really Christmas. 🙂
Britt latest:
– was zonked on valium when her wife, David, sent a text to “half the press gallery” naming Lehrmann as the perpetrator of a rape.
– was booked for a ‘date’ that weekend with a PH security guard named Alex
– deleted a picture of herself in a MAGA hat. Says somebody put it on her at a party and she binned it because she was ashamed. Mmm. Sounds familiar.
You’re assuming the host agrees with you on whom should be band.
Foolish.
a thread on gazan health ministry figures
Interesting that Fetterman has come out strongly against Hamarse.
I wonder will the DemonRats primary him next time he is up for re-election, because he has not followed the cult.
Let’s summarize the stoushing
1. Juan Peron had to tell me he doesn’t like most of my comments and will downtick.
2. Turtlehead agrees with Peron in reference to me and then threatens legal action because I responded.
3. Rooster turns it around claiming I raised the issue of downticking even though it was Juan Peron.
4. Driller Shakespeare decides to enter the fray against me because he feels his opinion is important as he runs a permanent grudge because I make him feel small.
All perfectly normal.
If Albo has a reshuffle who would he bring in?
King, Marles and Shorten are basically the only non-imbeciles in the party but Albo has to placate the left faction that dominate his party (of which he is a part of). There’s no scope for him to shift rightwards because his party won’t allow it (and I doubt he wants to anyway). Any reshuffle will just be replacing one Marxist Hamas supporter with another. Expect Plibersek and Wong to be jointly made ministers for everything.
Paranoid computer news.
Amazon’s AI chatbot, Q, might be in the throes of a mental health crisis (3 Dec, via Instapundit)
Not inspiring me with confidence about AI. Although lately I have to say I’m not particularly inspired with confidence about homo sapiens sapiens either.
No such assumption was made.
Please cease projecting. It doesn’t always work well.
279 comments over 15 years.