~ Barry Unsworth
SURVEYS HAVE shown that 31 percent of American teenagers expect to be rich and famous one day just like the MEdia Dragon ;-) Their lofty expectations have been shaped by a phenomenon that historian Daniel J. Boorstin pointed to decades ago—the distinction between a heroic and a celebrity culture where people are famous for no other reason than that they are famous Great political figures tend to be inspired not by wealth or comfort but by honor and recognition. Few tempted by ambition are about to resist it... Beware the Tyranny Trap
In one case reported to WestCONnex Action Group, Roads and Maritime Service (RMS) staff informed a resident that if he didn't accept their offer by close of business, they'd strip $70,000 from it. That's not paying "market value". That's hardball negotiation The human toll of Mike Baird's WestConnex
Breadwinning Men Are More Anxious and Less Healthy
Eastern Europe Is Telling Emigrants: 'I Want You Back' via Newsweek
So What If New York (Sydney etc) Is Unaffordable? That Helps the rest of the country
Whistling Slavs and Those Blues:
Matthew 7:6 refers to issues of transparency and independence – “You hypocrite! First remove the log from your own eye, and then you can see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye”.
Lets Pray that We Can Save Horses As Well : Greyhound racing prohibition bill passed by The Bear Pit NSW Parliament ...
“Government ought to be all outside and no inside. . . . Everybody knows that corruption thrives in secret places, and avoids public places, and we believe it a fair presumption that secrecy means impropriety.”
~ Woodrow Wilson
"Their lordships would be very loath to assent to the view that a single outbreak of bad temper, accompanied, it may be, with regrettable language, is a sufficient ground for dismissal," Lord Maugham wrote. "In such cases one must apply the standards of men, and not those of angels.". Offending angels: on swearing in the workplace
The dark side of Wikileaks Private lives are exposed Wikileaks spills its secrets "WikiLeaks' global crusade to expose government secrets is causing collateral damage to the privacy of hundreds of innocent people, including survivors of sexual abuse, sick children and the mentally ill, The Associated Press has found."
Speaking of leaks, the AFP to raid Parliament House in Canberra over the NBN leaks
French sub builder data leak of concern (Russians Chinese deny any involvement)
Taxpayers are required to remit their payroll taxes EFTPS, the Electronic Federal Tax Payment System The system enables taxpayers to go online and verify that their payments have actually been made. That’s a good practice whether you use an outside payroll service or an in-house payroll clerk to take care of your payroll tax remittances.
LArranged marriages, bigamy, gangland threats, overseas assassinations… this divorce has a lot of moving parts. Bizarre twist in bizarre divorce case
Bohemian Antipodean Pink Girl a Casualty of Love
A woman's mid-life crisis leads her on a colourful comic odessey around the evolving city of Prague as she reassesses her values in love, relationships and what is truly important to her. Winner of the 2008 Czech Lion Award for Best Film. Directed by Alice Nellis and stars Karel Roden, Miloslav König and Natálie Drabiscáková. (From the Czech Republic, in Czech and Slovak ) SBS Little Blue Girl
One woman’s life changes tempo as she gyrates along the streets of Prague in search of fulfillment.
Proudly humanistic at a time when such fare plays against the prevailing grain of cynical hipness, Alice Nelliis' distinctive third feature, strikes a pitch-perfect note of benevolent mischief as it tracks the mellow mid-life crisis of a bemused Prague housewife in an evolving city.” – Tajnost
Iva Bittová’s countryman Milan Kundera wrote how Europe’s “small nations” form another Europe. The violinist-vocalist may be ‘small nation’ Czech but her musical worldview and visionary creativity acknowledge no borders. Her powers of spontaneous creativity are more bountiful than it is fair to confer on one person. Witness and marvel. Spievaj ...
Iva Bittová was born in 1958 in Bruntál in northern Moravia in what was then Czechoslovakia – and nowadays the Czech Republic. Both of her parents were musicians. Her mother Ludmila was a pre-school teacher who spent most of her life with her family; her father Koloman Bitto – Bittová is the surname’s female form – was a musician strongly influenced by the land of his birth – southern Slovakia. His main instruments were string bass, cimbalom, guitar, and trumpet. This exceptional ability to play almost any instrument he laid his hands on, whether performing in classical or folk music styles, proved a major influence on his three daughters as they grew up. Both of Iva’s sisters – her older sister Ida and her younger sister Regina – are professional drama and music performers. Bittova
Manhattan Panorama
The bridges overhang the city
like diamonds in a diadem
reflected lights are burning
in the Hudson and the Harlem Rivers
in the East River in the bay
and in puddles on the road
the bridges overhang the city
that shone in flight
between a setting star
and the rising moon
walls pinned into heaven
pressed by granite to the ground
wind in its stone sails
out to sea
it moves at dawn
When rulers despise the ruled. It’s like The Hunger Games: the Capital City, and its hangers-on, flourish, while the provinces starve.
Finding Out What We Don’t Know
Leonard Burman, What Clinton’s 2015 Income Tax Return Tells Us. “‘Speaking and writing’ is very lucrative for the Clintons. They earned $10.2 million from those activities and Bill Clinton’s consulting.”
Two words: Harry Potter. A North Carolina mother and author says the popular book series can help kids understand "what lies upon the surface of the written word is not all there is." Read it — Harry Potter can help grown-ups too.
I live in Baton Rouge, LA where I teach at LSU Law Center. Baton Rouge and surrounding communities are currently experiencing unprecedented flooding. The devastation stretches from around the Louisiana-Mississippi border all the way over to Lafayette -maybe 100 miles across. This story does a nice job explaining the weather phenomenon that caused such problems. Neighborhoods that have never flooded before in our recorded history are under 4 -6 ft. of water, and some higher than that. Almost the entirety of certain cities are submerged. The last data I had for my area is that 20,000 were displaced and 10,000 in shelters. I expect that number to go up before the whole thing is over. Even though it has stopped raining, the flood waters cannot drain because the rivers are so high and cannot take runnoff from tributaries. I am fortunate to live in a house that has been spared from this devastating water. The picture on the left is of Gonzales City Hall underwater LA Flood Disaster Links for Government Aid
How the War on Drugs Makes People Eat Other People’s Faces After Stabbing Them to Death Alternet
Hong Kong’s Sex Workers Are Ditching Their Pimps for iPhones Motherboard