Friday, October 01, 2021

Rowdy celebrations erupt in Norway as COVID restrictions end

 Welsh seaside town warns people not to take selfie’s with goats on cliffsides


There’s something nourishing about earning the trust of a wild animal. Our magpie neighbours bring their babies to meet us every season, four generations so far. 

When we first moved in, a pair of magpies, Marg and Gough,  landed on the fence, their heads cocked to one side, watching the puny humans struggle to tame the big backyard. When we mowed the lawn, they followed behind to graze on bugs and worms. They took showers under the sprinkler. They sat on the Hills Hoist and warbled as we pegged out the washing and picked through the piles of soil we left after planting trees.

Magpies in the kitchen: the joy of earning the trust of a wild animal



We’re Already Barreling Toward the Next Pandemic The Atlantic. Well worth a read.


Covid-19 Surpasses 1918 Flu to Become Deadliest Pandemic in American HistorySmithsonian 


SCIENCE! Victoria named lockdown capital of the world with record case numbers.“Victoria officially became the most locked-down place on Earth at the same time that Victoria Health announced its highest Covid case numbers since the beginning of the pandemic.”


Funeral truck vaccination ad goes viral, causes uptick in local vaccination rate ZMEScience 


COVID Shuts Down ‘Aladdin’ Just a Day After Splashy Broadway Reopening Daily Beast. 


Why small number of fully vaccinated people have died of Covid-19


Rowdy celebrations erupt in Norway as COVID restrictions end. And the AP is not happy:

The Norwegian government abruptly announced Friday that most of the remaining coronavirus restrictions would be scrapped beginning Saturday and that life in the nation of 5.3 million would return to normal.

The unexpected announcement by outgoing Prime Minister Erna Solberg to drop coronavirus restrictions the next day took many Norwegians by surprise and led to chaotic scenes in the capital, Oslo, and elsewhere in the country.

“It has been 561 days since we introduced the toughest measures in Norway in peacetime,” Solberg said on Friday at a news conference. “Now the time has come to return to a normal daily life.”

Rowdy celebrations by hundreds of citizens across Norway started Saturday afternoon and lasted until the early hours of Sunday. Police said unrest was reported in several places, including in the southern city of Bergen and the central city of Trondheim, but the situation was the worst in Oslo.


NSW Health authorities failed to consider letting Covid run rampant through the community in an effort to build natural immunity, a lawyer has told a court during a landmark legal challenge to the state’s pandemic response.

The NSW Supreme Court is hearing two civil suits which are asking for the public health orders, which were instituted in response to the latest Covid outbreak, to be overturned.

The two groups are challenging various aspects of the orders including rules requiring aged care workers to get vaccinated and prohibiting unvaccinated workers from leaving an LGA of concern for their jobs. 

Construction worker Al-Munir Kassam and three other plaintiffs are asking that the public health orders be declared invalid because, they argue, it forces them to undergo a medical procedure.

Barrister Peter King, acting for Mr Kassam, argued that Health Minister Brad Hazzard failed to consider alternative measures when he signed off on the public health orders earlier in the year, and that they were therefore legally unreasonable.

Lawyer questions why government didn’t consider letting Covid ran rampant: court


It’s ... the vibe. 

It’s impossible to be a lawyer in Australia without being aware of Dennis Denuto: the likeable, well-meaning attorney in The Castle, who helps the Kerrigan family fight against the compulsory acquisition of their home; the brief who argued in court that his case was supported simply by the ‘vibe’ of the constitution. 

Who remembers the law office scene, where Denuto dictates a piece of correspondence and then turns to type it himself, later grappling with the printer when it is time to produce a copy? Who didn’t chuckle at the futility of Denuto being jack of all trades and master of none? 

You see, it’s obvious that one of several things holding Denuto back is the fact he is chief cook and bottle-washer. He is partner, lawyer, secretary and IT helpdesk. No-wonder he can’t construct an argument that goes beyond the ‘vibe’ in the constitution.


US may sanction those who pay ransomware with bitcoin



The Mom Test - How to talk to customers. A Summary Have good customer conversations and validate your ideas.


Bloomberg, Money Stuff: “Matt Levine is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering finance. He was an editor of Dealbreaker, an investment banker at Goldman Sachs, a mergers and acquisitions lawyer at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, and a clerk for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit.”


A federal review of the $89 billion JobKeeper scheme found 31 per cent of recipients who triggered compliance checks were “not eligible at all” for the mammoth wage subsidy, sparking efforts to recover cash from thousands of companies that made false claims.

The Australian Taxation Office found some employers had created fictitious staff and exaggerated their losses in order to claim the assistance during the national pandemic lockdown, according to internal documents that outlined ways to stop payments and recover cash.

 Parliamentary Budget Office found 157,650 entities received $4.6 billion even though their turnover rose in the first three months of the scheme, and 195,381 entities received $8.4 billion when their turnover rose in the subsequent three months

ATO review finds thousands of JobKeeper businesses weren’t eligible


Matt Comyn at the Commonwealth Bank offices in South Eveleigh, Sydney. Dominic Lorrimer

By September 1, with the national cabinet’s united approach to the virus in tatters, corporate Australia had seen enough. Five of the top six members of the Financial Review’s corporate Power list – Comyn, Scott, Banducci, Macquarie CEO Shemara Wikramanayake and BHP’s Mike Henry – signed an open letter from the Business Council of Australia, demanding political leaders stick to the plan to lift restrictions when vaccination rates hit the thresholds agreed by national cabinet.

Five of the top six members of the Financial Review’s corporate Power list – Comyn, Scott, Banducci, Macquarie CEO Shemara Wikramanayake and BHP’s Mike Henry – signed an open letter from the Business Council of Australia, demanding political leaders stick to the plan to lift restrictions when vaccination rates hit the thresholds agreed by national cabinet.


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