Monday, May 30, 2016

When Three Wolves & a Sheep Vote on What to Have for Lunch with Lattitude

   I want simply to stay on in my own country, to die in it, sooner or later, loving it as an old fellow  does when he dies… his love born of his knowledge of it. 
~World Without MEdia Dragon by  Jeremy H

When Three Wolves & a Sheep Vote on What to Have for Lunch with Lattitude
A Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing WSJ

 Pope condemns ‘bloodsuckers’ who exploit poor workers Reuters 

"I have great confidence that the Sir Humphreys  of this world will keep our politicians on track." Unfortunately, there is a problem with the idea that "the Sir Humphreys of this world will keep our politicians on track". Sir Humphrey is dead.
There are no "permanent heads" in the public service any more. The Hawke government's changes to the public service meant that the top bureaucrats are now all employed on contracts and subject to dismissal on a whim. The alarm bells that our politicians are ignoring

Ethicists do not appear to behave better

Less Is More - Yet Chinese officials ‘create 488m bogus social media posts a year’ Guardian

Get Them Young and Get Them Often: NSW public schools are being paid at least $10,000 a year by a Chinese government body to offer its Chinese language and culture courses, and some  schools make it compulsory to attend.  Despite concerns over the appropriateness of outsourcing public school lesson time to a foreign government body, the state government expanded the program - known as Confucius Classrooms - to a further six schools in late 2015. Behind confucius classrooms the Chinese government agency teaching NSW school students how to be good Chinese communists

The Internet of Things: it’s arrived and it’s eyeing your job Sydney Morning Herald Intel Analysts ...
Satan’s Credit Card: What The Mark Of The Beast Taught Me About The Future Of Money Buzzfeed  Some writers just want to watch themselves watch the world burn.

In the June 2016 issue of ABA Journal magazine: Mark Walsh has an article headlined "Court says criminal defendants should be allowed to pay lawyers with 'untainted' funds."
 “Game Studio’s Plan To Deal With Critic Of Games: Sue Him To Hell” [Timothy Geigner, TechDirt]

Robot ranchers monitor animals on giant Australian farms New Scientist  

Why this man decided to become a goat rather than a wolf New York Post

One of the most important aspects of the separation of powers is the commitment of the power of the purse to the legislative branch ... The House Judiciary Committee, by an 18-6 vote, has given its approval to the Stop Settlement Slush Funds Act of 2016, which would curtail the Department of Justice’s practice of using legal settlements to funnel money to favored groups [Rep. Bob Goodlatte press release, Nicholas Quinn Rosenkranz, Dan Lungren testimony, U.S. Chamber] Earlier here(Randal John Meyer), here, etc.

 For all the fuss about Supreme Court nominations, very few Supreme Court decisions are actually remembered by history, and even fewer are notorious for getting it wrong. In fact, there are really only three: Dred Scott (1857), which upheld slavery; Plessyv. Ferguson (1896), which upheld racial segregation; and Bowers v. Hardwick(1986), which upheld state anti-sodomy laws. It took the Civil War to overturnDred Scott. Plessy v. Ferguson was reversed 58 years after it was issued (in the most famous Supreme Court case of all, Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka). It took only 17 years for the court to decide, in Lawrence v. Texas (2003), that it had made a mistake, and to reverseBowers v. Hardwick. The Citizens United case was correctly decided, says Michael Kinsley. And he’s right. [Vanity Fair]

As US politicians romanticize doomed manufacturing jobs, the new working class is suffering Quartz

  Financial crisis caused 500,000 extra cancer deaths, according to Lancet study Telegraph (Swedish Lex). Lambert’s second law of neoliberalism: “Go die!”
lemurs riding links

The art of suffering. In private, Edith Piaf was a practical joker. On stage, she personified deprivation, pain, loss -- and she never broke character... suffering 

Wittgenstein's handles
Soon We Won’t Program Computers. We’ll Train Them Like Dogs Wired. Resilc: “So peak code is here when they starting training all the serfs.”
The Australian reported Telstra had sacked Vish Nandlall after he was found to have falsified some of his career history Telstra chief technology officer Vish Nandlall like so many Indians fakes his resume ...


 Time Warner Cable CEO Rob Marcus gets $92 million severance after 2.5 years on the job Boing Boing 

 Some reactions to Donald Trump’s release of a list of 11 judges he’d consider for SCOTUS nominations [Ilya Shapiro, Volokh Conspiracy quartet of Eugene Volokh, Jonathan Adler,Orin Kerr, Ilya Somin; Justice Don Willett‘s online humor has not spared Trump]

 Russ Fox, Individual F: Has Kermit Washington Fouled Out?:

Yesterday I wrote about the guilty plea of former San Diego Charger Ron Mix; today, the other shoe dropped. “Individual F,” as former NBA basketball player Kermit Washington was called in the Mix indictment,was arrested on charges of corrupt interference with the internal revenue laws, wire fraud, obstruction of justice, and aggravated identity theft.
loon closeup links
Via  My Surreal Vienna – the Albertina Museum: “Located in the historical heart of Vienna, the Albertina combines imperial flair and masterpieces of art. What used to be the city’s largest residential palace during the Habsburg monarchy is now an art museum of international renown whose name is also associated with one of the worlds most important graphic art collections and which attracts cultural travelers and city tourists from around the globe. The museum, whose wing-shaped roof designed by Hans Hollein in 2003 adds new architectural accents to the building, presents a variegated exhibition program, with outstanding masterpieces from the fifteenth century to the present. Thanks to its special shows dedicated to Albrecht Dürer, Edvard Munch, and Vincent van Gogh, the Albertina has managed to achieve record attendances in recent years. The Albertina’s permanent display, the core of which is one of the most important European collections of international modern art the Batliner Collection offers an uninterrupted survey unique in Vienna and Austria which spans the most exciting chapters from 130 years of art history, ranging from French Impressionism to the present day. The 21 staterooms, which have now been completely restored and equipped with precious original furniture, recall the Habsburg period’s splendor in terms of domestic and official culture in one of Europe’s most beautiful neo-classical palaces.”

New York state claims Domino’s Pizza is underpaying workers using payroll scam International Business Times

The Blaster: Is Nazism a One-of-a-Kind Historical Curiosity? Chuck Spinney 

The World’s Largest Timber-Framed Building is Almost Complete—and It’s a Replica of Noah’s Ark – Core77

The problem with Wikipedia. This is not about factual reliability, but about monopolistic ubiquity. We run the risk of living in an information monoculture...mono mono 




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Sunday, May 29, 2016

Electoral Spins: Political Dirt Units Defining Trolleys of Truths

Thoughtful and long serving journalists such as veteran Pavel aka Paul Mullins used to be the characters who most ( or PR firms) likely were aware how the political dirt unit operated in most political parties...  If the walls of the Elephant Bar at the exotic punj (five) ways of Paddo  or the aged Nippon Club at the Macquarie Street dared to talk, the story in  this Saturday Paper might also reveal who the cunning diggers are and what makes them as well as their political masters tick ... 

Four years ago, in 2012, Lucy Quarterman posted an advertisement for a nanny on the website Backpacker Job Board. It said that a family of four was “looking for an extra pair of hands around the place to entertain the lads and help with cooking and general domestic duties”. The ad offered $150 a week, plus food and board.
This was four years ago. But it was not until last Thursday evening that it became news, when a story went up on The Sydney Morning Heraldwebsite, suggesting that Ms Quarterman and her husband, Greens leader Richard Di Natale, had underpaid their domestic help.
It was a peculiar story, saying at the top that the $150 wage amounted to just $3.75 an hour “based on a 40-hour week”, and that it equated to “a quarter of the national minimum wage in 2012 of $606.40 per week, or $15.96 per hour”.
But it also noted Di Natale’s comprehensive rebuttal: that the three au pairs subsequently hired by the couple had been required to work just 25 hours a week, not 40; that the terms of employment included food and board, notionally valued at $300 a week; that the family paid $37 a week PAYG tax on top of the $150; and that they sought advice on fair terms and conditions from an employment agency before hiring anyone. Thus the package was above minimum wage and apparently fully compliant with the tax office and fair work ombudsman rules.
The net effect of the story – and the follow-up stories and commentary in other media, as well as a couple of follow-up stories in the Herald – was to do reputational damage to the Greens leader without proving any wrongdoing on his part.
The publication was, shall we say, felicitous for the Labor Party. As theHerald story noted, Di Natale had recently been critical of Labor for refusing to support a call by the Greens to legislate to protect weekend penalty rates.
And now, three weeks into an election campaign in which the Greens are wooing Labor’s traditional union support base, the old au pair suddenly bobs up, suggesting the Greens leader is a hypocrite on the matter of workers’ pay and conditions.
The question is, where did the information come from? We will never know for sure, because reporters rightly protect their sources, but ask yourself the question: How likely is it that the reporter himself found a four-year-old job ad on an obscure website, an ad that was placed not under Di Natale’s name, but that of his wife? Political dirt units defining elections

Like Paul Mullins, Malcolm Farr is a veteran who knows how to tell election story in style
What is the difference ... Analysis of Note

Election Debate ... Courtesy of Guardian ...

 The first major leaders' debate of the marathon 2016 election campaign has centred around the issue of trust, with the past demons of both Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten being used as weapons in the battle







"The election is about choices. We are not convinced giving the largest banks in Australia $7.4 billion over the next 10 years is good for the budget, Medicare or the nation... These economic theories have been tested before by Thatcher and Reagan, but it's a very risky expensive gamble." The Opposition Leader, Bill Shorten, summed up his populist line of attack over company taxes when he said Mr Turnbull "wants to give them [big banks] a tax cut, I want to give them a royal commission" Election 2016 Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten face off in dour debate at the national press club
A protestor at the anti-Mike Baird rally in Sydney.




A protestor at the anti-Mike Baird rally in Sydney.Photo: James Alcock
Waving placards saying “Baird Out” and “Save Sydney from Baird’s butchery”, thousands rallied on Sunday outside Sydney’s town hall to protest a swathe of policies introduced by the NSW premier, Mike Baird. The vocal crowd included opponents of the NSW council amalgamations, light rail development, nightspot lockout laws, anti-protest legislation and the WestConnex motorway project Guardian: Baird out - protestors in Sydney rally against NSW Premier's policies

"Whose city is this? Whose state is this?". Holding a sign quoting the movie The Castle - "It's Mabo. It's justice. It's the constitution. It's the vibe." - one protester, Brook Tait-Styles, said excessive secrecy over development projects and council mergers most concerned him about the government's agenda. Whose city is it ... It is Mabo it is justice It is Westconnex

"I have great confidence that the Sir Humphreys  of this world will keep our politicians on track." Unfortunately, there is a problem with the idea that "the Sir Humphreys of this world will keep our politicians on track". Sir Humphrey is dead.
There are no "permanent heads" in the public service any more. The Hawke government's changes to the public service meant that the top bureaucrats are now all employed on contracts and subject to dismissal on a whim. The alarm bells that our politicians are ignoring

Ethicists do not appear to behave better

Was Joe Hockey taken for a ride the taxi driver  cabcharge dockets and secret investigation


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As my mother used to say, I yell because I care

By now, almost every MEdia Dragon reader knows what my mother used to say, I yell because I care ...

Geraldine Largay’s Wrong Turn: Death on the Appalachian Trail New York Times. Sad  ... As no one yelled
Mamka was also Right as Drinking doesn’t make you happier for long, However we sometimes just want to be happy for few hours with Gin Dobry Christopher and French cognac in our warm hands for Warhola's 15 minutes or so  ;-)

Jordan remarked: ‘There is a theory that the intellectual development of people stops at varying ages… like seven in the moron.  The average age is supposed to be about sixteen.’
‘Yes … I’ve read that.  It struck me as significant too … as having something to do with sexual development.  [….] It’s a fact that animals are easiest to train before sexual maturity, in most cases impossible afterwards
~ Bathroom Quote

 pwild10-610x834
Swarm of bees follows car for 2 days to rescue queen trapped in back Treehugger 

 AI will create ‘useless class’ of human, predicts bestselling historian Guardian 

Scott Alexander survey post on the value of good teachers Memories of Tatranka's  Marta Chamilova keep marching in...


Is Finnish youth culture turning sour?


You go out drinking, and shit happens. But four times? Fuhgeddaboutit. As reported in the The Police Blotter in The Brooklyn Paper [88th Precinct (Fort Greene–Clinton Hill)]

News Malchkeon can use: Six Surprising Tips for Choosing Seats on an Airplane

Scientists Say Nuclear Fuel Pools Pose Safety, Health Risks Slashdot 

“Uncertainty” Meme Refuses to Die… The Big Picture

 “If police tell you about a good body shop after an accident, beware this one thing.” [@clickbaitSCOTUS on Ocasio v. U.S.]

AT ROOT, Facebook’s Problems Are A Diversity Problem

Money Doesn’t Buy as Long a Life as It Used To Bloomberg As we said in 2007, highly unequal societies create a lifespan cost even on the wealthy. 

Shakespeare had it right: “My tongue will tell the anger of my heart, or else my heart, concealing it, will break.”  Past is A Foreign Marriage ...

 Jacqui Lambie inside kitchen cabinet

So many of us think that we have to be PERFECT, the reality is that it is not possible. MEdia Dragons are as perfect as it comes - sorry to disappoint so many souls at East Attitude ;-)

If I Could Be Just Completely Honest For A Second, I Believe Exactly What You Believe Onion

Not so much intergenerational mobility in Florence over the course of six centuries.  And family dynasties in the Nordics

Colin Stretch, Facebook General Counsel – News Release: “Last week we met with Chairman of the U.S. Senate Commerce Committee John Thune to describe our investigation in response to anonymous allegations of political bias in our Trending Topics feature and to discuss the preliminary results of our work. Today, we sent Chairman Thune a follow up letter setting out our findings and conclusions.


TaxGrrrl, Woman Denies Using Mexican Folk Curse To Intimidate Witness, Admits Tax Fraud


20 centuries before the state Revenue Estimating Committee, there was the Nilometer

"Stevens says Supreme Court decision on voter ID was correct, but maybe not right": Robert Barnes has this article in today's edition of The Washington Post.

"'The White Man's Burden': A Frank And Funny Interview With Justice Clarence Thomas." David Lat has this post at "Above the Law."

"Quick Question: What Am I Supposed To Be Doing Right Now?" Merrick Garland has this commentary online today at The Onion.

"Citizen Brandeis: A 20th-century giant of the Supreme Court offers lessons about politics today." David Rennie has this essay in the current issue of The Economist.
Posted at 01:33 PM by Howard Bashman

"This inmate started hand-writing a case the Supreme Court ended": Michael Doyle of McClatchyDC has an article that begins, "From the isolated depths of California State Prison, Corcoran, inmate Antonio A. Hinojosa hand-wrote his way toward the U.S. Supreme Court." 

"What Does the Supreme Court Think About Celebrities Being Photoshopped Naked? Yes, that question could come up if the high court agrees to the NCAA's petition to review its dispute with athletes over compensation. " Eriq Gardner has this post today at the "THR, Esq." blog of The Hollywood Reporter. 

STRANGE CREATURES: Romanian cave sealed for 5.5 million years is full of strange creatures

The Kama Sutra has long been misunderstood as a handbook on what to do in bed. It is, in fact, a series of deviousstrategies for seduction... Hot River ...

"Scandals Embroil Alabama Governor, Speaker and Chief Justice": Campbell Robertson will have this article in Tuesday's edition of The New York Times

"Supreme Court denies class action lawsuit over false data": Richard Wolf of USA Today has this report. 


CTIA® released its annual survey results, which found Americans used 9.6 trillion megabytes (MB) of data in 2015, three times the 3.2 trillion MB in 2013. This is the equivalent of consumers streaming 59,219 videos every minute or roughly 18 million MB:  
Smartphones are the number one wireless device in the U.S. and still growing
  • There were more than 228 million smartphones, which was up almost 10 percent from 2014. 70 percent of the population now owns a smartphone.
  • There were more than 41 million tablets on wireless networks, up 16 percent from 2014.


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