— Joseph Wood Krutch, born in 1893
Back in 1978, three years after my sister Aga died, my other sister , who was a insightful secondary school teacher, was sacked by Communist for going to church back in 1978. Quotes by Havel and Krutch helped her to survived the tough times...
ANU shifts pro-Hong Kong democracy event due to 'security concerns'
The Backround Story about United Front Work Department:
...
No one should be under any illusions about the objective of the Communist Party leadership: it’s long-term, systematic infiltration of social organisations, media and government. By the time China’s infiltration of Australia is readily apparent, it will be too late.”
The never-ending pursuit of power, the relentlessly expanding influence and paranoid nature of the Chinese Communist Party means that it will continue to press outwards unless and until it meets resistance. At home and abroad, it imposes one control after another until it is satisfied that it has total control. It is an ideology of authoritarianism animated by a psychology of totalitarianism...
After a secret trial of a secret prisoner, the sentence was delivered — you guessed it —
ANU shifts pro-Hong Kong democracy event due to 'security concerns'
The Backround Story about United Front Work Department:
...
No one should be under any illusions about the objective of the Communist Party leadership: it’s long-term, systematic infiltration of social organisations, media and government. By the time China’s infiltration of Australia is readily apparent, it will be too late.”
The never-ending pursuit of power, the relentlessly expanding influence and paranoid nature of the Chinese Communist Party means that it will continue to press outwards unless and until it meets resistance. At home and abroad, it imposes one control after another until it is satisfied that it has total control. It is an ideology of authoritarianism animated by a psychology of totalitarianism...
In this gripping account, courageous Peter Hartcher shows that we are entering an era of undeclared contestation, whether for hearts and minds, mineral and agricultural resources, media outlets or sea lane . . . No parliamentarians dared to stage and sponsor Peter's talks and discussion at Federal Parliament nor university in Sydney would be brave Enough to support such a dialogue on its campuses ... Insightful observations about how in the Animal Farm we self censor ourselves and sell the family farms (silver) and dairy and best companies to Communist control ... Peter Hartcher gave a depressingly accurate description of the history of ineptitude and incompetence of many of the deals made with the communist masterminds ...
Red Flag: Waking Up to China's Challenge - Peter Hartcher at GlebeBooks
The fifth China–Oz icy age is changing the way the two nations regard each other. ... Those questions frame a new Quarterly Essay by journalist Peter Hartcher—Red flag: waking up to China's ...
https://www.quarterlyessay.com.au › essay
Peter Hartcher. Red Flag. Waking Up to China's Challenge. China has become a key nation for Australia's future – for our security, economy and identity. But what are China's intentions when it comes to Australia?
Peter Hartcher. Red Flag. Waking Up to China's Challenge. China has become a key nation for Australia's future – for our security, economy and identity. But what are China's intentions when it comes to Australia?
ANU/CANBERRA TIMES MEET THE AUTHOR. Peter Hartcher will be in conversation with Mark Kenny on Peter's new Quarterly Essay, Red Flag. Waking Up to China's Challenge. China has become a key nation for ...
“With these new laws, a democratic pushback has started,” says Feng Chongyi, an associate professor of China Studies at UTS. “It starts to change the incentive structure in Australian society, and in particular in the Chinese community in Australia.”
How so? “Before, Communist patriots were taking benefit from both sides,” Feng explains. “They engaged with the United Front to carry out political tasks, and they not only reaped benefit from the Chinese government from doing that, they could also continue reaping benefit from Australian society and Australian government.
“Simply because they are backed by Chinese authorities, and by extension the Chinese community, they develop great capacity for fundraising and can raise tens of thousands of dollars at lunches and dinners,” Feng says. “Their enhanced ability to raise funds then makes them valued by Australian
political parties. They command a lot of followers. They then enjoy high profiles and they enjoy the privilege of meeting leaders in Australian politics, on both sides.
political parties. They command a lot of followers. They then enjoy high profiles and they enjoy the privilege of meeting leaders in Australian politics, on both sides.
Has United Front lobbied in the name of safety ;-) for Implementation of this strange legislation of a nanny state:
Orwell in Sydney 2084 in 2019 World-first mobile phone detection cameras rolled out in Australia - The GuardianAll New Cellphone Users In China Must Now Have Their Face Scanned MIT Technology Review
Sydney's toxic footprint: the suburbs most at risk from lead contamination
It comes as new research has raised fresh concerns about the risks posed by home grown vegetables and eggs.
He's not the first to translate it, but it:
was banned in the Soviet Union in any language until 1988. To the best of my knowledge, my Russian translation will be the fifth to be published officially.Among the previous translations:
Done by Soviet writer and journalist Sergei Tolstoy from the French edition of “1984” — and therefore woefully imprecise — it had mysteriously leaked to the West and then back to the Soviet Union.
'We're sitting ducks': Jacqui Lambie warns of 'existential threat' of China's interference
Jacqui Lambie has declared Australia is a
"sitting duck" to Chinese foreign interference, saying our economy
and democracy is exposed.
Shuttered logic
So the state government has invested in 11,000 body-worn cameras for police. It means evidence can be accrued against criminals. But it should also mean that any wrongdoing by police can be properly investigated. It is unnerving that the legislation as it stands allows police to turn their cameras off, but more worrying that police officers are allowed to "edit or redact the footage" when preparing evidence. Also,complainants with regard to police action may be denied access to said footage. My question is simple: with these caveats, what's the point of having them in the first place?
Dave Quinn, Collingwood
The Bus Ticket Theory of GeniusEveryone knows that to do great work you need both natural ability and determination. But there's a third ingredient that's not as well understood: an obsessive interest in a particular topic.
Corinne Purtill, via
Medium
A day with the
schlep-bot Gita gives insight into what daily life shared with robots will look
like. Parents, elderly, disability people — take note.
“The Tribunal’s members are certain – unanimously, and sure beyond reasonable doubt – that in China forced organ harvesting from prisoners of conscience has been practiced for a substantial period of time involving a very substantial number of victims.” Link Final Judgement ...
U.K. Can’t Be Trusted With Gold, Top Slovak Party Leader Says Bloomberg. Correctly
ANGELA MERKEL: SECOND-WORST GERMAN CHANCELLOR IN THE PAST 100 YEARS. Chancellor Angela Merkel Says We Must Take Away Free Speech Or We Can’t Be Free:
“For those who claim they can no longer express their opinion, I say this to them: If you express and pronounced opinion, you must live with the fact that you will be contradicted. Expressing an opinion does not come at zero cost,” she said, according to an English translation of her remarks.“But freedom of expression has its limits. Those limits begin where hatred is spread. They begin where the dignity of other people is violated. This house will and must oppose extreme speech. Otherwise our society will no longer be the free society that it was,” she added.
As Mark Steyn wrote of Merkel, “You can take the girl out of East Germany, but you can’t take the East Germany out of the girl.”
'Guys taken off jobs': Union blames budget, privatisation for power outages
Extended power outages across Sydney's north could have been fixed faster if not for budget cuts and privatisation, one of Australia's largest unions said.
Based on actual history, as Mr. Furst notes, the German Occupation Authority rounded up Poles who were electricians, welders and machinists, and forced them into slave labor at the German U-Boats naval yards in Germany. The Poles fought back by stealing technical information about the U-Boats and smuggled the valuable information to Paris, where it was forwarded to the British Secret Intelligence Service.
Clive James is dead. The critic, poet, and incomparable wit, who seemed incapable of writing a limp sentence, was 80... Short Sentence
Clive James is dead. The critic, poet, and incomparable wit, who seemed incapable of writing a limp sentence, was 80... Short Sentence
Has Instagram Killed The Job Of The Paparazzi?
Perhaps, and also perhaps by design. In 2010, Instagram (before it was bought by Facebook), “that free photo-sharing app with a hipster sheen, hit the iPhone. Several months later, Justin Bieber — the biggest star to take to the platform — posted a moody shot of Los Angeles traffic, and suddenly, we weren’t snapping hungrily at the window of a famous person’s car anymore. We were in the passenger seat. As more celebrities signed up, we gained access to their kitchens and bedrooms and closets and bathrooms. Celebrity culture moved inside. It was domesticated.” – The New York Times
A Deepfake Nixon Delivers Eulogy for the Apollo 11 Astronauts The full film is being shown at IDFA DocLab in Amsterdam and will make its way online sometime next year.
The implications of being able to so convincingly fake the televised appearance of a former US President are left as an exercise to the reader
When Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed safely on the Moon in July 1969, President Richard Nixon called them from the White House during their moonwalk to say how proud he was of what they had accomplished. But in the event that Armstrong and Aldrin did not make it safely off the Moon’s surface, Nixon was prepared to give a very different sort of speech. The remarks were written by William Safire and recorded in a memo called In Event of Moon Disaster.
Fifty years ago, not even Stanley Kubrick could have faked the Moon landing. But today, visual effects and techniques driven by machine learning are so good that it might be relatively simple, at least the television broadcast part of it.
In a short demonstration of that technical supremacy, a group from MIT has created a deepfake version of Nixon delivering that disaster speech. Here are a couple of clips from the deepfake speech
Documenting ‘Old L.A.’ As Developers Destroy More And More Craftsmen Houses For Apartment Buildings
It’s not that preservationists don’t understand the need for housing – that’s obvious in L.A., as in most cities and towns on the West Coast. “It seems to me that we should fight the argument that any talk of preservation is anti-housing. Because it doesn’t have to be. We can be for affordable housing but against the kind of utter freedom to tear down and put up just about anything at all anywhere in the name of it that on the block just east of mine has produced the kind of development that makes neighborhood people cry.” – Los Angeles Times
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MOCEAN is a mesmerizing short film by cinematographer Chris Bryan of ocean waves crashing and surging in slow motion.
The feeling of jumping off the rocks in the dark by myself just to capture the very first rays of light hitting the ocean without another sole in sight is unexplainable, its one of the most amazing feelings ever, its like my own personal therapy.Bryan worked as a cinematographer on the BBC’s Blue Planet II. Distracting URL watermark aside, I could have watched footage like this for another hour, especially of waves from underneath the water.
Challenge to find safe water
How HR and mobility can work better together
Leaders at Every Level - Talent optimisation
The US trail of the man whose security firm spied on Julian Assange El Pais. Troy P:
I don’t quite know what to make of the last paragraph. “On November 22, 2018, several months after UC Global had stopped providing its services at the embassy, Morales asked his employees whether they had any records of visits by Paul Manafort in 2013, 2015 and 2016.”Democrats Propose Sweeping Online Privacy Laws Guardian
Remember that 5 days later on November 27, 2018 the Guardian published the story about Paul Manafort meeting Julian Assange in 2013, 2015 and 2016? https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/27/manafort-held-secret-talks-with-assange-in-ecuadorian-embassy
Who asked Morales about Manafort? The Guardian writers or some intelligence agency? It’s just curious.
Web trackers using CNAME Cloaking to bypass browsers’ ad blockers Daily Swig
‘Gentleman Bookmaker’ brought a different style to racing
Bill Waterhouse introduced the first drive-In bottle shop to Sydney and also introduced aftershave to Australian men.
'It was an extraordinary life': Legendary bookie Bill ...
Andrew Rule: Inside Bill Waterhouse's 'appalling' scandals
Herald Sun-30 Nov 2019
When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in 1941 and Australia was under threat, William Stanley Waterhouse was a strapping young man whose ...