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Wednesday, April 15, 2020

One chapter ends, another begins… 'Be brave, speak up'


We can’t escape what we are.  Every time we look in a mirror, every time we feel personal or professional failure, that tide rises again, reminding us of our weaknesses, our cowardice, and our self-sacrifice.  And we are left without excuses.  That is why we need someone to save or someone to condemn.  Some object of our love or our hate.  Someone who makes us forget.”

 “Those you seek are wolves. Wolves do not wish to be found, they are themselves the hunters, slipping between trees, out of eyesight, close to the ground. They survive, they thrive, on their cunning…They have been at their trade for hundreds of years. This way of life it is in their blood, their bones.”—comments made to Driver after he has suffered repeated attacks.

“Whatever’s wrong with us is coming in off that river. No argument: the taint of badness on the city’s air is a taint off that river. This is the Bohane river we’re talking about. A blackwater surge, malevolent, it roars in off the Big Nothin’ wastes and the city was spawned by it and was named for it: city of Bohane.”


The Capture review: Is Big Brother doing more than just watching you ...

The Sydney Morning Herald-26 Mar 2020
The series opens with Emery on trial for a war crime, the execution of an unarmed civilian in Afghanistan. In a scenario ripped straight from recent ...

AFP admits officers used controversial facial recognition tool despite earlier denials


The Australian Federal Police reveals officers have trialled a facial recognition database that contains billions of images scraped from across the internet.

'Be brave, speak up'. Then Paul was 'sacked by the person he complained about'

The government failed to respond to worker who complained for a year due to an “administrative error”.


High court rules AFP warrant for raid on News Corp journalist’s home was invalid

Coronavirus crisis: Federal Government’s My Skills website offers 2000 VET courses online so Australians can upskill during COVID-19 pandemic


Three paranoid thriller series on Netflix and Prime to make you feel better, not worse


Highs and lows of drug trade and organised crime in the wake of pandemic

The shutdown of entire countries has put the brakes on organised criminal activity, but it is unlikely to last.

The mask as fashion statement

Tricks for taking effective work breaks while you're at home

Taking breaks while working is important for your health and productivity. While being at home can pose a challenge, there are ways you can ensure you get the breaks you need.


Covidiot, Miss Rona, Geisterspiel, Hamsteren, Quatorzaine, Untore: Do you speak corona? A guide to pandemic parlance  News Speak  



Capitalism’s Addiction Problem


The biggest, best-known companies in the digital economy are getting their users hooked on their products—and undermining the pillars of America’s market economy.



France Orders Google To Pay News Outlets For The Snippets It Displays In Search Results


“The French antitrust agency gave the Alphabet Inc. unit three months to thrash out deals with press publishers and agencies demanding talks on how to remunerate them for displaying their content. The search engine giant may have abused its dominant market power, causing ‘serious and immediate harm’ to the media, the Autorité de la concurrence warned in its statement on Thursday.” – Bloomberg


ALEX MITCHELL: NSW Labor should be streets ahead of the Libs

Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s Coalition government is regarded by voters as being among the worst in living memory. So why isn’t Jodi McKay’s Parliamentary Labor Party in front by miles? Continue reading 

Twig Hutchinson
During the 16 months Einstein spent in Bohemia, he did nothing much. But the banality of his experience there is itself worth consideration...  Bohemia 


IJIS Inst. & Int’l Ass’n of Chiefs of Police, Law Enforcement Facial Recognition Use Case Catalogue (March 2019) (25-page PDF): “…This Law Enforcement Facial Recognition Use Case Catalog is a joint effort by a Task Force comprised of I JIS Institute and the International Association of Chiefs of Police. The document includes a brief description of how facial recognition works, followed by a short explanation of typical system use parameters. The main body of the catalog contains descriptions and examples of known law enforcement facial recognition use cases. A conclusion section completes this catalog, including four recommended actions for law enforcement leaders..”


Photographer Victor Skrebneski, 90


He first attracted notice for shooting supermodels in famous ad campaigns for the likes of Estée Lauder; his fame grew with a photo series of famous actors, each in an enormous black turtleneck first worn by Orson Welles. His cool factor skyrocketed with the series of elegantly provocative semi- and nude portraits he did as posters for the Chicago International Film Festival. – Chicago Sun-Times