Wisst ihr noch, frher? Wie wir uns ber die Sowjets lustig gemacht hatten, weil die nur so verkrustete Mumien als Staatschefs hatten?

Nehmt nur den Brechnew! 1906 - 1982. Der war fast 80, als er starb!!

Und sein Nachfolger, Andropow erst. 1914 bis 1984. 70!!

Danach kam dann als letzter vor Gorbatschow Tschernenko. 1911 - 1985. BER SIEBZIG war der!!1!

Daran musste ich denken, als ich dieses aktuelle Foto von Biden sah. Geboren 1942. Der ist jetzt ... 80. Wird im November 81.

Die Mathehochbegabten unter euch werden sofort merken, dass der lter ist als alle Gerontokraten damals bei den Sowjets waren. Die, deren Alter bei uns automatisch dazu gefhrt hat, das Regime insgesamt als undemokratisch abzulehnen. Offensichtlich wrde niemand jemals einen so alten Regierungschef haben wollen!1!! Da kann es also nicht mit rechten Dingen zugegangen sein!!1!

Wie sich die Zeiten doch ndern.

Ich finde aber auffallend, dass Biden nicht nur lter ist sondern auch deutlich lter aussieht als die Sowjets damals. Der sieht aus, als wird er von einem Bauchredner und einem Luftdruckrhrensystem am Leben gehalten. Weia.

NEBUCHADNEZZAR EATING GRASS by Australian painter Arthur Boyd

New Internal Revenue Service (IRS) data on individual income taxes for tax year 2020 shows the federal income tax system continues to be progressive as high-income taxpayers pay the highest average income tax rates.[1] Average tax rates for all income groups remained lower in 2020, three years after the Tax...

And Part Two - here's Bill's intro: I'm grateful that Laura Tingle was prepared to tolerate an old bloke with a GoPro, again. I also acknowledge that Laura even seemed to refrain from requesting intervention from a security guy who came around behind me... OTOH, I still think their ABC...

IN THE UPCOMING NSW election the Liberal Party is facing a strong challenge from community independent, Helen Conway in the safe seat of North Shore. North Shore is currently held by Felicity Wilson who won 46.6% of the primary vote in 2019. The seat was last held by an independent between 1988 and 1991 when []

Superb, thank you Earl!

One way the city has made the streets more interesting is birds. Digital birds. Heres what its about. pic.twitter.com/qIp6cVE6Kn Julian O'Shea (@julianoshea) March 17, 2023

J.G. Olsen / Financial Expositor

Please go to

https://australiaexitsthewho.com/

https://www.vaccinationdecisions.net/

https://imoparty.com/

https://thelightaustralia.com/

FOURTH MEETING OF THE INTERGOVERNMENTAL NEGO...

Australias old media is fighting an internal civil war trying to justify their cheerleader style of reporting federal politics. In this case, its regarding Australias highly questionable $368 billion expenditure on submarines. []

Kennt ihr das, wenn jemand einen Zusammenhang herstellt zwischen Dingen, die ihr bisher nicht im Zusammenhang betrachtet habt, und pltzlich rast euer Hirn los und bewertet Dinge neu?

So ging mir das gerade bei der Lektre von diesem Jonathan Haidt-Artikel. Jonathan Haidt hatte ich hier schon ein paar Mal verlinkt, der hat die Heterodox Academy mitgegrndet. Da geht es darum, dass unter College-Professoren die politischen Positionen sehr einseitig verteilt sind und das am Ende dem jeweiligen Feld schadet, wenn da nur noch gegenseitiges Schulterklopfen statt kritischer Auseinandersetzung gemacht wird. Ihm ging es um Psychologie und Geisteswissenschaften, er ist auch selber Psychologieprofessor. In der Forschung ist sein Gebiet vor allem Moralfragen.

Haidt wurde berhmt mit einem Buch namens "The Coddling of the American Mind", auf das sich natrlich die ganzen Konservativen gestrzt haben, weil sie glaubten, es sttze ihre Position.

Aber betrachtet den Artikel mal unabhngig von dem ganzen geschichtlichen Ballast. Das Buch geht zurck auf eine Kooperation mit einem Freund, der unter Depressionen leidet, und dafr im Krankenhaus in Behandlung war, wo man ihm CBT beigebracht hat, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. Sie haben ihm gezeigt, worauf er achten kann, in seinem eigenen Verhalten, um zuknftige Depressions-Episoden abzumildern oder ganz zu vermeiden. Anders ausgedrckt:

Thinking in these ways causes depression, as well as being a symptom of depression. Breaking out of these painful distortions is a cure for depression.

Naja, knnte man denken, dann zeig uns doch mal die Zahlen, dass die Uni-Studenten alle psychisch krank werden. Jetzt liegen da ein paar Zahlen vor. Besonders heftig betroffen sind junge linksliberale weie Frauen.

Ich hatte noch nie von CBT gehrt und daher ist die ganze Herangehensweise seines Kollegen absolut neu und faszinierend. Vielleicht geht euch das ja auch so.

Vielleicht sollte ich anstatt ber Schlangenl zu meckern lieber schlechte Ideen verffentlichen.

Prior Art 1: Mit einer "KI" erkennen, welche Teile einer Konfigurationsdatei Keywords und welche variable Werte sind. Dann Konfigurations-Fuzzing!

Prior Art 2: In Echtzeit Konfigurationen unternehmensweit durchrotieren, so dass die Funktionalitt bestehen bleibt, aber stndig andere Parameter ntig sind fr die Inanspruchnahme von Diensten. So reduziert sich die Angriffsoberflche automatisiert und man belstigt Exploiter!1!!

Prior Art 3: Auf Mobiltelefonen haben Apps einen serialisierten State, den sie dem System sagen, und anhand dessen sie in genau denselben Zustand wiederhergestellt werden knnen. So kann man eine App killen und spter neustarten, ohne dass fr den Benutzer erkennbar ist, dass die App in der Mitte weg war. Das knnte man auch auf Servern machen! Dann in der Mitte des Unternehmens einen Orchestrator haben, der stndig Dienste killt und neu startet mit dem State, vorher meinetwegen dafr sorgt, dass die solange aus dem Load Balancer genommen werden. So verhindert man, dass irgendwo ein Angreifer Schadcode injected hat.

Prior Art 4: Antivirus / Firewall / AI based anomaly detection fr den hinterlegten State. Observability. Einmal das ganze Programm!!1!

Prior Art 5: Serviceangebot: Wir fahren Angriffe auf Ihr Unternehmen, aber nicht um Schwachstellen zu finden, sondern damit Ihre "KI" Anomalien zum Trainieren hat!1!!

Hat noch jemand brillante Ideen, bei denen man den Patentanwlten mal in den Pool pinkeln msste?

Update: Ein paar Kumpels meinen, Prior Art 3 werde jetzt schon so gemacht. Man nenne das "Rejuvination". Einer meinte gar, das sei bei der Mondlandung so gemacht worden.

Update: Aus Prior Art 1 knnte man auch noch eine Firewall und Anomaly Detection "erfinden".

Update: Prior Art 6: Bei der Passwortrcksetzung knnte man einen KI-Chatbot haben, der vorher schon mit dir gechattet hat, und dich dann wiedererkennt anhand frherer Konversationsthemen und -Meinungen. Quasi sowas wie Schrittmustererkennung, nur halt fr Textchat!

Prior Art 7: Eine KI benutzt das ber dich vorhandene Wissen aus dem Netz, um Kandidaten fr die Sicherheitsfrage zu bewerten (abzulehnen) bei der Accountregistrierung.

Prior Art 8: KI-assistierte Partnersuche. Die KI matcht Leute, die online ber dieselben Dinge und Leute Hatespeech verbreitet haben.

Millions of fish have died in another mass kill in the lower Darling-Baaka river near Menindee, in New South West's far west. Photos supplied by Menindee residents show dead fish - mostly bony bream, but also Murray cod, golden perch, silver perch and carp - blanketed across the river's surface. It is the latest in a series of large-scale fish deaths that have prompted questions about the management of water levels in the Murray-Darling Basin. Menindee residents who spoke with Guardian Australia on Friday said the latest fish kill appeared larger than previous mass deaths. About a million fish died during a sustained drought in the same area in 2019 after a rapid drop in temperature led to an algal bloom de-oxygenating the river. Resident Graeme McCrabb said the scale of the mass kill on Friday was "unfathomable". "It's horrendous here today," he said, speaking from the riverbank about 5km upstream of Menindee. "The river is just white. I'm looking at probably a kilometre or a...

I will be referred to as a woman, as female, as a feminist there isnt a misogynist alive who has the chops to change my mind. But theyll call me a TERF regardless & Im at the point when I just dont f***ing care It is worth listening to every...

READ MORE AT TOTT NEWS 

Train commuters in Brisbane can now use smart ticketing when travelling on the airport line, while Melbourne customers will see the introduction of a best practice system to replace Myki by the end of 2023.

 https://climaterealism.com/2023/03/australian-wind-performance-shows-the-net-zero-dream-is-a-nightmare/

<p><h1 style="text-align: center;">HenryMakow.com March 17, 2023</h1> <div><i><b>The Illuminati has planned first for a financial collapse that will make the great depression look like a picnic.<br></b></i></div> <div><b>Svalis revelations </b><b>almost 20 years ago </b><b>of a well organized Satanist conspiracy add a new dimension to current events. How much is pertinent today in your view?</b></div> <div><b>It is hard to accept Svalis assertion that the Illuminati is </b><b>Aryan supremacist (German is spoken at the top) but welcomes Jewish apostates. Also, hard to believe her assertion, there is no Marxism in the cult and they hate Israel and hope one day to see it destroyed. Nonetheless, many other assertions like the Nazis being Illuminati, and the CIA-Freemason connection, ring true. </b></div> <div><b> </b></div> <div><b>In light of the covid scam, her revelation that the Illuminati have prepared for martial law may be significant: </b> <i></i><i>The United States has been divided up into seven major geographical regions. <b>Each region has localities within it that contain military compounds and bases that are hidden in remote, isolated areas or on large private estates.</b></i></div> <p><i>These bases are used intermittently to teach and train generational Illuminati in military techniques, hand- to- hand combat, crowd control, use of arms, and all aspects of military warfare. <b>Why? Because the Illuminists believe that our government, as we know it, as well as the governments of most nations around the world, are destined to collapse.</b></i></p> <div><b>Related-</b> <a href= "https://www.henrymakow.com/2019/10/The-Illuminati-is-not-Exclusively-Jewish.html"> Fiona Barnett- Satanic Black Magic Rules the World</a></div> <div>-  <a href= "http://theunhivedmind.com/UHM/dialoque-with-hidden-hand-self-proclaimed-illuminati-insider/"> Australian Adept Unveiled World Satanic Control</a></div> <div><i><b> </b></i></div> <div style="text-align: left;"> <h2 style="text-align: center;"><b>By Henry Makow PhD</b> <i><b> from Oct 14, 2002 & July 4, 2021

If you detect the devils hand</b> in current events, you may be closer to the truth than you think.</p> <p>A woman who was raised in the Illuminati cult describes a powerful secret organization comprising one percent of the U.S. population that has infiltrated all social institutions and is covertly preparing a military takeover. Her revelations cast the war on terror and homeland security in a new light.</p> </div> <p> </p> <p>&a...

Frank Bergman Slay News March 17, 2023

Researchers are raising the alarm after a bombshell new study revealed that American teens and young children are dying at the highest levels seen in decades.

The studys findings were published this week in the world-renowned Journal of the American Medical Association.

The researchers found that the mortality rate for minors aged 1 through 19 soared by almost 20% between 2020 and 2022.

As the study notes, this alarming spike cannot be ascribed to the COVID-19 virus.

As Slay News has been reporting, America and other nations around the world have seen sudden death rates skyrocket for all ages over the last couple of years.

Lawmakers in Japan have just revealed that the country is now suffering the highest number of excess deaths since World War 2.

Last summer, a data study found that the average life expectancy in America had dropped significantly for the second year in a row.

According to data collected by the National Center for Health Statistics, the average American was expected at birth to live to 78 years and 10 months in 2019.

That figure dropped to 77 years in 2020.

In 2022, the life expectancy for the U.S. population stood at 76 years and one month.

The life expectancy for Americans is now at the lowest age since 1996.

Not only are American geriatrics dying younger on average, but the nations youth are dying with greater frequency.

Prior to 2020, the trend saw life expectancy lengthen every year over the course of the 20th century.

Between 2019 and the end of 2021, the mortality rate for youths aged 1 through 19 increased by 19%.

Researchers at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine and the University of Washingtons department of epidemiology noted that while persons ages 10-19 were driving the spike in the pediatric mortality rate, all-cause mortality also jumped by 8.4% in children ages 1-9 in 2021.

Babies under one-year-old were standouts, however, having not suffered an increase in mortality.

Some may argue that the spike is due to children dying from Covid due to the timeline.

However, the researchers noted that this reversal in the pediatric mortality trajectory was caused not....

The pastors wife Isi de Gersigny roared like a lioness while leading worship

...

https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-czdkj-13bd430 Gday Folks, On todays show no Andy as hes over in PNG but Ethan joins me for a discussion about bank closures in Australia, Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs), Inflation, and US bank collapses.  Not the most high energy conspiracy style of topics but we hope we made it as interesting and informative as []

President Xis Russia Trip a Highly Expected Event: Global Times Editorial

By Global Times

Mar 18, 2023 12:45 AM

The national flags of China and Russia are seen on Red Square, Moscow. Photo: Xinhua

At the invitation of President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation, Chinese President Xi Jinping will pay a state visit to Russia from March 20 to 22. After the visit in 2013, once again, Xi has made Russia the destination of his first overseas trip after being elected as Chinese president. The Russia tour will further deepen strategic mutual trust and mutually beneficial cooperation between China and Russia, which will not only benefit the two countries and their peoples, but also bring more certainty to the international community amid numerous risks. It will be a trip of peace, friendship and cooperation. 

Against the backdrop of the escalating Ukraine crisis and intensifying geopolitical tensions worldwide, the visit has attracted special attention from the international community and in the realm of public opinion. The news, when it was released on Friday afternoon, immediately sparked extensive interpretation and analysis, with many reports focusing on what role this visit will play in promoting peace talks and negotiations in the Ukraine crisis. The expectations from the international community toward China's head-of-state diplomacy can be strongly felt.

It should be pointed out that the Chinese and Russian heads of state have maintained a deep personal friendship and frequent interactions, and it is customary for the leaders of the two countries to visit each other every year. This visit falls within the scope of bilateral relations between China and Russia, and the focus is on further promoting and leading the continuous high-level development of the bilateral relationship. In other words, with or without the Ukraine crisis, the leaders of China and Russia will maintain normal exchanges and interactions. Fundamentally speaking, this is because the two countries have established a solid political, economic, and cultural foundatio...

1.00 AUD = 0.00002 BTC
0.00010 BTC = 4.10 AUD
Converter

Definition of Regime:

Mode of rule; a government, especially an oppressive or undemocratic one; heavy-handed administration or group in charge; a way of organizing or managing a system; a regulated period of rule

by Dee McLachlan...

Hate to be the Russian local police station warrants guy who gets this Interpol warrant to execute! No more overseas jaunts for Vlad. On 22 February 2023, I submitted applications to Pre-Trial Chamber II of the International Criminal Court for warrants of arrest in the context of the Situation in...

You look at the bright smiles and cheesy grins and ask yourself would Laurie Oakes have behaved like this? TV try-hard mini celebrities claiming to be journalists queuing up to get a picture with Therapeutic Albo and Labors Chris Minns. Any wonder the public has no confidence in their...

What does the world need?

Another model, or another influencer?

How about a human that does both with extra skill-set of re re-branding someone elses products and flogging them off as their own?

Basically a low value human.

Well, it seems that Ms. Elsa Lafuente Medianu, who trades under the false name of Ms. Elsa 'Patakay' ripped off the founder Habitual Beauty Keira Rumble by casing her product from the comfort and 'anonymity' of her brand new, tax deductible laptop i.e. getting Ms. Rumble to ship very generous orders to Ms. Patakays head office address in Sydney.

So whats next?

You get someones I.P. (Intellectual Property), i.e. design of the product and flog it off as your own.

Brilliant!

Thankfully no one else is as entrepreneurial as Ms. Patakay, well, sans China with Euro brands e.g. BMW luxury cars, but thats government supported.

In any event, her husband a Mr. Chris Hemsworth thought it was such a...

The known solutions are expensive, but the renewable sector doesnt want to pay for them their mantra remains that renewables are cheaper than fossil fuels so the others should pay for them hiding the expense.

The post Australian renewable energy transition. Part 3 first appeared on Watts Up With That?.

Back in December, I noted that OpenAI's much-heralded chatbot "Chat GPT" appeared to be politically biased - not surprisingly, against conservatives. "Wokeness-studies" researcher David Rozado gave Chat GPT four separate political orientation tests, and in all four cases it came out as broadly progressive. For example: when asked, "How much do White people benefit from advantages in society that Black people do not have?", the AI answered, "A great deal". Fast forward three and half months, and OpenAI have just released a political bias as its predecessor? Rozado had a look.

Iraq war: 20 years later and no lessons learned by war's proponents, experts say

President Biden has said he experienced an "epiphany" while in high school that led him to support gay marriage but his voting record as a senator and remarks made over the following decades suggest otherwise. Biden, 80, was asked during an interview Monday byThe Daily Show host Kal Penn about his evolving views on same-sex marriage and how the federal government could protect LGBTQ Americans. The president answered Penn, "I can remember exactly where my epiphany was" before launching into a story about his father dropping him off when he was a high school senior. "I remember about to get out of the car and I look to my right and two well-dressed men in suits kissed each other. ... And I'll never forget it, I turned and looked at my dad and he said, 'Joey, it's simple. They love each other,'" Biden recalled.

U.S. soldiers breaking into a home in Baquba, Iraq, in 2008   Photo: Reuters
 
March 19 marks the 20th anniversary of the U.S. and British invasion of Iraq. This seminal event in the short history of the 21st century not only continues to plague Iraqi society to this day, but it also looms large over the current crisis in Ukraine, making it impossible for most of the Global South to see the war in Ukraine through the same prism as U.S. and Western politicians.
 
While the U.S. was able to strong-arm 49 countries, including many in the Global South, to join its coalition of the willing to support invading the sovereign nation of Iraq, only the U.K., Australia, Denmark and Poland actually contributed troops to the invasion force, and the past 20 years of disastrous interventions have taught many nations not to hitch their wagons to the faltering U.S. empire.
 
...

Can a mosquito bite result in a fentanyl overdose? Will police soon be fitted with wearable naloxone pumps? Can fentanyl be detected by a handheld electronic device? The answer...is no. This is merely more nonsense cooked up in the mind of someone who probably should stick to his day job.

Here is todays self-generated summary of what the Aboriginal elites talked about. Imagine how boring this little gab fest would have been. A room full of people agreeing with each other and trying to out-worthy one another. In the real world, its called a wank. Subject: Referendum Engagement Group Communique...

We round out this week's blogging about the pushback movement from the states with this story from Tennessee shared by K.M.  This is another

The post TENNESSEE HOUSE BILL: STATE TREASURER MAY ACQUIRE GOLD TO PROTECT ... appeared first on The Giza Death Star.

By Timur Fomenko | RT | March 17, 2023

Earlier this week, a trilateral summit was held with the leaders of Australia, the United Kingdom and the US in San Diego to flesh out the details of an AUKUS deal providing Canberra with nuclear-powered submarines, with the intention of containing China in the Indian and Pacific Oceans.

The pact will also create a rotational presence of UK and US nuclear submarines near Perth, Western Australia, starting from 2027. The goal is to integrate the US and UKs nuclear sub fleet while Australia builds the necessary operational capabilities of its own.

It is no coincidence that the deal was announced on Commonwealth Day, an annual celebration of the former dominions of the British Empire. On the same day, the UK government released its integrated review, whereby it vowed to increase defense spending. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak then proceeded to describe China as an epoch-defining challenge, framing the UK, and the AUKUS alliance at large, as a benevolent force dedicated to keeping the Indo-Pacific open and free. China reacted by harshly condemning the meeting, decrying it for a typical Cold War mentality that will only exacerbate [an] arms race, undermine the international nuclear non-proliferation regime and hurt regional peace and stability.

Chinas interpretation of the AUKUS submarine deal is correct. The Biden administration is aggressively expanding its alliance system in a bid to militarily contain Beijing. Along with the AUKUS pact, it is also pushing for trilateral cooperation with South Korea and Japan, something South Korean President Yoon Seok Yeol is open to, expanding its military presence in the Philippines, and taking part in other regional groups such as the Quad. However, AUKUS is unique because it consists solely of Anglosphere nations, and as such, embodies the neo-imperialist sentiment of Anglophone exceptionalism.

The UKs decision to pursue an increasingly anti-China foreign policy is, of course, influenced by the US and against Britains best interests. However, its foreign policy narrative, especially in light of Brexit, is clothed in imperial nostalgia, which reflects back on the British Empire as a force for good. It drums up not memories of enslavement, exploitation, or aggression against o...

What Policymakers Need to Know About the First Amendment and Section 230

The Supreme Court just heard two cases - Twitter v. Taamneh and Gonzalez v. Google - that could dramatically affect users speech rights online. Last week, EFF hosted a panel in Washington D.C. to discuss what legislators need to know about these cases, the history of Section 230, and the First Amendments protections for online speech.

Alongside EFF Senior Staff Attorney Aaron Mackey, the panel included Billy Easley, Senior Public Policy Lead at Reddit, and Emma Llanso, Director of the Free Expression Project at the Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT). Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR), one of the co-authors of Section 230, gave opening remarks. 

Senator Wyden and the Supreme Court 

Senator Wyden opened the panel with background on the law: it simply establishes the principle that the person who creates and posts content is responsible for that content. Thanks to Section 230 and the First Amendment, websites can take down what they want. Section 230 is essential to smaller companies and startups: The big guys can take care of themselves, but the small guys should be able to compete with the big guys, Wyden explained. The law democratizes speech, and elevates the choices of users. Thanks to Section 230, people are able to speak out. 

Wyden then discussed the latest Supreme Court cases. In Gonzalez v. Google, the petitioning plaintiffs made a radical argument about Section 230. They asked the Supreme Court to rule that Section 230 doesnt protect recommendations we get online, or how certain content gets arranged and displayed. In Twitter v. Taamneh, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit ruled that online services can be civilly liable under the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA) based on claims that t...

while data from the UK and Germany suggest you cause 22 serious injuries with the shot in order to prevent a single childs hospitalization

By Meryl Nass | March 15, 2023

We need to start charging the individual public health officials with crimes for acting outside their legal authority where is the US Pascal Najadi?

On December 8, 2022 the FDA authorized bivalent COVID boosters for children as young as 6 months old.

More children now have the opportunity to update their protection against COVID-19 with a bivalent COVID-19 vaccine, and we encourage parents and caregivers of those eligible to consider doing so especially as we head into the holidays and winter months where more time will be spent indoors, said FDA Commissioner Robert M. Califf, M.D.

Yesterday, the FDA authorized a 4th dose of mRNA COVID vaccine for children aged 6 months to 5 years of age.

Risk-benefit assessment used to be the foundation of public health practice. Lets look at some recent data on vaccine risk and vaccine benefit.

The German Minister of Health, Dr. Karl Lauterbach, admitted that 1 in 10,000 COVID vaccine doses leads to a serious adverse event. He also appears to be building his alibi, claiming he did not sign the vaccine contract. Yet he did promote, cajole and enforce the vaccinations, nonetheless.

Family physician Dr. Scott Jensen, former Minnesota State Senator, noted th...

Extract thanks to Mark Smith, you can verify the story in full for yourself from the Wagga Daily Advertiser, Saturday 18 May 1912, page 3, archived at Australia's National Library here: https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/page/15632125

1 January 1901. It's a constitution, not a history book.

Damn. pic.twitter.com/f0eaLWKo2j Geminigirl (@desertlife88) March 16, 2023

by Mary W Maxwell, LLB

William Butler Yeats sixteen-line poem famously memorializes the unsuccessful 1916 Easter uprising (known as The Rising) of the Irish volunteers:

Sixteen Dead Men

O but we talked at large before

The sixteen men were shot,

But who can talk of give and take,

What should be and what not

While those dead men are loitering there

To stir the boiling pot?

You say that we should still the land

Till Ger...

1.00 AUD = 0.00002 BTC
0.00010 BTC = 4.00 AUD
Converter

Do you have a funny kid? The search for Australias funniest teens is making its way across the nation! The Melbourne International Comedy Festival host Class Clowns a nation wide search for young talent. For school kids 14 to 17 years who have a unique way of interpreting the world.

Running for more than 25 years, the Class Clowns program plays a valuable role in supporting the confidence, self-expression and creativity of young Australians. The competition, workshop and mentoring opportunities aim to amplify the voices and perspectives of young people, creating a pathway for emerging Australian talent. Class Clowns works best when seen as a way of complementing existing English, Wellbeing, Drama and public speaking initiatives.

Free workshop Brunswick Heads

Registrations are currently open for the heat in Brunswick Heads, so if you have any comedy-inclined storytellers in your midst please sign them up! Registered participants will have the opportunity to work on their comedy with Mandy Nolan, a professional comedian who has taught over 2,000 people, before hitting the stage in front of a live audience. 

These workshops are FREE, but limited to the first 18 people who register, so get in quick!

Your students could WIN a free trip to Melbourne to perform at the National Grand Final held during the Melbourne International Comedy Festival. Well fly all the national finalists (and their guardians) to Melbourne to perform at the Festival for a chance to win the Class Clowns crown and a $2,500 prize package! 

To sign up head to our online registration form here please note that a teacher or guardian must register on behalf of students.

What to Do:

• Register for a heat near you   register here now.
• Check out our Education Resources
• What videos of expert advice through a series of videos from some of Australias funniest folk, filled with tips and tricks to help get budding performers started on their comedy journey. The first of these videos Why try comedy? is available to the public here, ...

I was fanning myself with a textbook when the tradie told me about the gecko. It had, in search of reprieve from the burning meteorological irregularity, crawled inside our air conditioning unit, damaged the wiring, and gotten itself fried. Without climate control, we had suffered through December and January, red-faced and irritable.

The post Fiction | Wonder women of the lizard world appeared first on Overland literary journal.

Australia imposes sanctions on Iran and Russia over human rights violations. This is Australia pic.twitter.com/XOzgRwYrif Kim Dotcom (@KimDotcom) December 11, 2022

Contributed by Joe Montero

While  U.S. government spokespeople, including Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, are doing the rounds to convince everyone that the nations banking system is sound, there is an air about that suggests this is not the case.

First of all, so much energy would not be spent on trying to re-assure the public, unless there is something going on. There have been a series, no just one, of recent banking collapses in the United States. One bank, First Republic, saw its share price plunge almost 70 percent last week. Silicon Valley Bank collapsed. So did New Yorks Signature Bank. Others find themselves in a precarious situation. They could tip over any time. 

Concern was so high that President Joe Biden had to hold a press conference to ensure Americans.

President Biden reassures Americans that our banking system is safe.

Video from Bloomberg

The fact that more than one bank is involved suggests the something is going wrong with the banking system. Despite some politicians and commentators pretend it is only the Silicon Valley Bank that got into trouble and blamed it on the woke problem, whatever that means, there is no evading the truth. Silly claims must give way to the reality.

Promises to impose better regulation are well and good. On their win they are not enough because this is dealing with the symptoms and not the cause. The claim that the banks are paying for the help is not true. They will receive money that comes from somewhere else, and this is being covered by the government. They may pay something off in the long run, that is, if it is said they can afford to do so.

Whether government support is justified or not depends on whether this is directed into ringing about a major overhaul of the banking system. Biden has not offered this.

Venus appears to have volcanic activity, according to a new research paper that offers strong evidence to answer the lingering question about whether Earth's sister planet currently has eruptions and lava flows. Venus, although similar to Earth in size and mass, differs markedly in that it does not have plate tectonics. The boundaries of Earth's moving surface plates are the primary locations of volcanic activity. New research by University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute research professor Robert Herrick revealed a nearly 1-square-mile volcanic vent that changed in shape and grew over eight months in 1991. Changes on such a scale on Earth are associated with volcanic activity, whether through an eruption at the vent or movement of magma beneath the vent that causes the vent walls to collapse and the vent to expand. The research was published today (March 15) in the journal Science.

The @AlboMP Government has a comprehensive plan to build a more productive, more resilient and more prosperous economy, one that creates more opportunities for more Australians. My speech to CEDA today here: https://t.co/VaOwOLVACJ #auspol #ausecon pic.twitter.com/aSwaY88JbJ Jim Chalmers MP (@JEChalmers) March 16, 2023

RT | March 16, 2023

The Australian political establishment is divided as to where the federal government should dispose of nuclear waste associated with the countrys expanded submarine deal with its AUKUS allies.

An accord was struck by the leadership of the countries which make up the trilateral AUKUS alliance Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom when they met in San Diego, California earlier this week, which rubber-stamped the sale of nuclear-powered submarines by Washington to Canberra.

In addition, Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese confirmed that his country would construct its own fleet of nuclear submarines, which will be delivered in the early 2040s. The terms of the agreement stipulate that the Australian government will be responsible for the disposal of nuclear waste from the vessels but this appears to have opened a new political front for the countrys various state leaders.

I think the waste can go where all the jobs are going, said Victorian Premier Daniel Andrews via the Australian Broadcasting Corporation on Thursday, referencing the 8,000 jobs which are expected to be generated in South Australia during the construction of the military submarines. I dont think thats unreasonable, is it?

West Australian Premier Mark McGowan has also indicated that nuclear waste disposal sites are unwelcome in his state, joining Andrews in suggesting South Australia as the most appropriate location.

Susan Close, the acting South Australian premier who doubles as the regions environment minister, responded to the suggestions by saying the decision on nuclear waste locations should be dictated by science and not by state leaders trying to move nuclear waste that doesnt yet exist across the border.

A final decision on the location of the site is not expected for another 12 months, and the site that is eventually selected wont be required for use until around 2055.

The AUKUS deal will see Australia become the seventh nation with nuclear-powered submarines in its military arsenal, and comes amid Western concerns about Chinas military expansion in the Indo-Pacific region. Beijing has rebuked the AUKUS nuclear submarine agreement, saying it contradicts accepted norms of nuclear non-proliferation.

Last week, two major banks collapsed: Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature. These were the second and third largest bank collapses in US historythe largest being Washington Mutual in 2008. Since I seem to be writing about finance this month, I wanted to try my hand at explaining why, for the reader who doesnt know anything about finance.

Short answer: SVB placed a big bet long-term US treasury bonds and mortgage-backed securities. However, the prices of these assets went down. Companies with money in SVB were worried about it, so they started withdrawing a lot of money, requiring SVB to sell its assets at a loss until it was wiped out. Bank collapses tend to spread via a process called contagion, and Signature appears to be the first victim.

Really long answer: Okay, lets walk through these concepts one by one.

First of all, what even is a bank? A bank is an institution that accepts deposits of money, we know that. But how does a bank pay you interest, pay expenses, and make its own profit besides? A bank basically borrows money from depositors and uses it to give out loans or make other investments. The bank makes money because its own investments give it greater returns than the interest they pay you on on your bank deposit.

You might think, why allow the bank take a cut? Cut out the middleperson, invest your money directly instead of depositing it in a bank. However, the bank account offers two distinct advantages: you are guaranteed your money back, and you can easily withdraw it at any timewith important exceptions to be discussed further down.

The ability to produce money on demand is called liquidity. If an asset is illiquid (meaning not liquid), that means that it may be difficult to sell on short notice, and you may suffer a loss from having to put on a fire sale. While depositors want their bank accounts to be completely liquid, the bank itself doesnt need to be completely liquid. Thats because, generally speaking, depositors are not going to withdraw all their money at once. Banks need enough liquidity to cover the aggregate demand of depositors, but theres a lot of room left for illiquid investments, which tend to have higher returns.

The way banks guarantee all your money back is by taking on almost all the risk themselves. Banks make leveraged investments, which means borrowing money (e.g. from depositors) to invest money. For example, suppose a bank makes a $100 investment with 10x leverage. Theyre investing $10 of their own money, and $90 of your money. If their investment has a 10% payout, then they earn $10, doubling their money. If it had a 10% loss, they lose everything, and the bank becomes insolvent, which could lead to collapse.  But it doesnt really affect deposits unless the bank suffers more than 10% loss, in which case depositors might lose some money...

With the rising challenge of China, Indo-Pacific geopolitics is headed for more uncertainty. In his recent visit to India, Australia Prime Minister Anthony Albanese visited INS Vikrant, Indias newest aircraft carrier.

Aboard the INS Vikrant, PM Albanese declared that there has never been a point in both of our countrys histories where weve had such a strong strategic alignment. He noted that India is a top-tier security partner and that the Indian Ocean is central to both countries security and prosperity.

The visit to INS Vikrant underscores the growing importance of the maritime dimension of Indo-Pacific geopolitics. Hosting the Australian PM on an aircraft carrier is also a demonstration of the strength of Indias strategic ties with Australia. Furthermore, it underlines the evolving strategic alignment between India and Australia.

The defence and security partnership has emerged as one of the key pillars of Indo-Australian strategic partnership. Both countries are participants in the Malabar naval exercises and are deepening and widening their military-to-military exchanges. Australia has invited India for Exercise Talisman Sabre. Such joint exercises not only build interoperability and familiarity but also contribute to creating greater trust and awareness about each other.

In the context of growing Chinese assertiveness across the Indo-Pacific, military cooperation has assumed critical dimensions. Just like India, Australia too faces growing Chinese challenge in its own region. Chinas forays in the South Pacific have galvanised Australia and the United States into action. India too is slowly increasing its outreach to the island states of South Pacific.

The security in the Eastern Indian Ocean, especially along maritime Southeast Asia, is a shared area of concern for India and Australia. China looms large, geographically as well as strategically, over this region. Building strategic convergence to limit Chinese influence and expanding the strategic partnership is in the interest of India and Australia.

Along with defence and security, trade and economy are also key areas of cooperation. India and Australia signed an Economic Cooperation and Trade Agreement (ECTA) last year. The agreement is expected to add economic muscle to the burgeoning politico-military partnership. As India...

The Texas senator followed up with Silicon Valley's major players to explain their initial responses to congressional inquiries were not adequate.

By Ahmed Adel | March 16, 2023

Britains updated defence and foreign policy strategy envisages an additional 5 billion for armaments and is a demonstration that Londons priority is confrontation with Russia and China. Although UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak promised this considerable appropriation for the military over two years, it is unlikely to appease British conservatives as the figure did not meet the demands of spending 3% GDP on defence.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace wanted a larger military budget but officials are reportedly delighted with the settlement. This is unlikely the case behind closed doors.

Most of the 5 billion will be used to replenish ammunition stockpiles given to Ukraine and work on the AUKUS project to develop nuclear-powered submarines for Australia. Effectively, the main priority of Londons updated defence and foreign policy strategy is to oppose the main geopolitical threats to Anglo hegemony Russia and China.

Speaking from San Diego on March 13, Sunak said: Its clear that the world has become more volatile, the threats to our security have increased. And thats why were investing 5 billion more in our world-beating armed forces over the next two years and increasing our defence spending to 2.5% of GDP so we can continue to be a world leader when it comes to defence and keeping our country safe.

Of course, this omits the obvious failures in Afghanistan and Ukraine, and the fact that neither Russia or China pose a threat to Britain. In fact, it is evident from the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan that the threat is the UK.

Russophobia guides the British political and media establishment, and has thus shaped British public opinion for more than 200 years. Therefore, in the context of Russias special military operation, the updated strategy does not represent anything new in terms of escalation. Rather, it just merely shows the British establishments continuous Russophobia.

The procurement of ammunition and atomic armament demonstrates that the Sunak government is continuing what Boris Johnson, and those before him, started. What is telling though is that a 5 billion boost is being allocated to the military, partially to replenish stocks given to Ukraine, just as the UK is experiencing the worst economic catastrophe of the 21st century, thus far.

According to the latest figures (2020/21), around one in five people in the UK (20%) were in poverty, or 13.4 million people. Of these, 7.9 million were working-age adults, 3.9 million were children and 1.7 million were pensioners. Therefore, one in four children in the UK are living in poverty (27%).

However, a report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation, an independent social change organization working to solve poverty in the UK, said in January 2023 that living standards are likely to have fallen since the latest official dat........

A waterspout was seen swirling near Darwin Harbour in the Northern Territory on Wednesday, March 15. Credit: Taryn Hirst via Storyful

  In search of the lost ark   AUKUS trilateral security pact between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States (Defense News) On Monday, the U.S., Australia, and the United Kingdom unveiled new details about their partnership to produce for Australia its own nuclear-powered submarine by 2040, known as the SSN AUKUS. The U.S. []

The post This and That appeared first on Virtual Mirage.

Do childhood vaccines impact a child's mortality risk? While controversy around this issue continues to swirl, peer-reviewed research suggests the answer is a yes. In 2011, Neil Miller, Ph.D., and Gary Goldman, Ph.D., published a paper in the journal Human & Experimental Toxicology showing infant mortality rates correlated with childhood vaccination rates, with high-uptake countries having higher child mortality. As detailed in the abstract:1 "The U.S. childhood immunization schedule specifies 26 vaccine doses for infants aged less than 1 year the most in the world yet 33 nations have lower IMRs. Using linear regression, the immunization schedules of these 34 nations were examined and a correlation coefficient of r = 0.70 (p < 0.0001) was found between IMRs and the number of vaccine doses routinely given to infants.

Reflections in a Petri Dish March 15, 2023

Dog Poet Transmitting.

They came out from under a rock somewhere and are dancing like stick-figure Meth-heads in their torn underwear. They pay no mind to the rest of The World that pays no mind to them. Except when they trip in front of your car while screaming at invisible creatures from another dimension; Do you know who I are? They burn incandescent for a minute or two, then fizzle out like a cigarette butt in a can of beer.

They drive Flat-Earth movers at The Demolition Derby, where they plow themselves under & God leaves a rose on the grave of their mind. Is it because so many people have collectively become so dumb that they think they can turn the clock back to the day before Pythagoras, and no one will notice? When college grads can no longer find the rest of The World on a map, they might be right.

Then again their world might be flat. Mine is not.

You see certain financial and political forces that are trying to regress humanity back to the primitive tribal mindset, with their tattoos and nose rings.. their pierced privates writhing by the firelight of bad-drumming circles; calling out Lovecraftian rhythms to their poisoned bloodstreams dreaming of the halcyon days of human sacrifice; soothsayers dismembering children and reading their entrails, ALL FOR THE BENEFIT OF The WEF butt bandits, who are liking them to be as dumb as they come so that they can get away with whatever they please.

Is it any less soul-killing to be spending their hours in skyscraper towers, and juggling numbers in the hope that possibly just maybe it will all add up to enough to pay off their indentured enslavement to the company store? Thats not even their real bondage. Their real bondage is to all the nasty habits they picked up trying to forget what they have to go through to afford them.

Yesterday in honor of the flat Earth junkies, someone said that Space isnt real either. I told them that neither is Matter. Matters just energy that woke up and had to pee and it cant find the bathroom. Then there is a period of reasoning it out, and an emergency decision gets made. Then the peeing takes place and it turns back into Matter until it has to pee again its a creeping somnambulism thing. This is where Karma comes from.

So it takes countless forms shape shifting appearing to be and then not being; a sort of to pee or not to pee, is that the question? Youll understand it better once you see Schrodingers cat in the litter box. Then the answer to your own personal existence will be explained when the cat does or does not di...

Moon of Alabama March 15, 2023

The the last weeks review I mentioned the AUKUS deal. It was first announced in September 2021. Back then I wrote:

Yesterday the U.S., the UK and Australia announced that the latter one will buy nuclear powered submarines to do the U.S. bidding against China.

This is a huge but short term win for the U.S. with an also-ran booby price for Britain and a strategic loss of sovereignty and budget control for Australia.

It is another U.S. slap into the face of France and the European Union. The deal will piss off New Zealand, Indonesia and of course China. It will upset the international nuclear non proliferation regime and may lead to the further military nuclearization of South Korea and Japan.

Australia currently has six conventional submarines. It had ordered new ones from France but scrapped that deal for AUKUS:

The price for the new submarines Australia will have to pay will be much higher that for the French ones. Some $3 billion have already been sunk into the French contract. France will rightfully demand additional compensation for cancelling it. The new contract with the U.S. or UK will cost more than the French one but will only include 8 instead of 12 boats. As three boats are needed to keep one at sea (while the other two are training or in refit), the actual patrolling capacity for Australias navy will sink from 4 to 2-3 concurrent submarines at sea.

The much higher price of the fewer more complicate boats will upset Australias defense budget for decades to come.

I further suggested that blackmail may have played a role in the AUKUS deal.

A few days after the announcement there were new details publish which suggested that Australia would lease nuclear submarines from the U.S. because the new ones will take many years to build. It would upgrade Perth harbor to be able to handle nuclear propulsion boats:

Cont. reading: The Worst Deal Ever Australia To Pay U.S. For Nuclear Insecurity

Coinbases vice president of international policy told Cointelegraph the meetings took place in Canberra and Sydney and touched on the governments token mapping efforts.

1.00 AUD = 0.00003 BTC
0.00010 BTC = 3.70 AUD
Converter

He was standing before a lectern at Downing Street. The words on the support looked eerily similar to those used by the politicians of another country. According to UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Stop the Boats was the way to go. It harked back to the same approach used by Australias Tony Abbott, who won the 2013 election on precisely that platform.

The UK Illegal Migration Bill is fabulously own-goaled, bankrupt and unprincipled. For one thing, it certainly is a labour of love in terms of the illegal, as the title suggests. In time, the courts may well also find fault with this ghastly bit of proposed legislation, which has already sailed through two readings in the Commons and resting in the Committee stage.

On Good Morning Britain, Home Secretary Suella Braverman had to concede she was running novel arguments about dealing with such irregular migration, not making mention of Australias own novel experiment which did, and still continues, to besmirch and taint international refugee law.

In her statement on whether the bill would be consistent with the European Convention of Human Rights, enshrined by the UK Human Rights Act, Braverman was brazen to the point of being quixotic: I am unable to make a statement that, in my view, the provisions of the Illegal Migration Bill are compatible with the Convention rights, but the Government nevertheless wishes the House to proceed with the Bill.

The long title of the bill does not even bother to conceal its purposes. It makes provision for and in connection with the removal from the United Kingdom of persons who have entered or arrived in breach of immigration control. It furnishes a detention regime, deals with unaccompanied children, makes some remarks about victims of slavery or human trafficking and, more to the point makes provision about the inadmissibility of certain protection and certain human rights claims relating to immigration.

The central purpose of the bill is to destroy the very basis of seeking asylum in Britain, along with the process that accompanies it. Much of this is inspired by the fact that the United Kingdom does not do the business of processing asylums particularly well. Glorious Britannia...

In Sumatra, villagers occupied an oil palm plantation and set tires on fire; in the Bangka-Belitung Islands, they filled the local parliament building demanding action; in Borneo, paramilitary police were deployed to control the protests. Each of these incidents appeared in local media reports in Indonesia in the past few years and told what was becoming, to anyone paying attention, an increasingly familiar story. Since the 1970s, as corporate-run palm oil plantations spread across Indonesia, companies promised to share them with local villagers, in plots known as plasma. Initially, they made these commitments to secure access to land and subsidized government financing; from 2007, it was a legal obligation to share a fifth of any new plantation with villagers. During our field reporting in Indonesias palm oil heartlands, we repeatedly encountered allegations that companies were failing to deliver. Local media reports from across the Southeast Asian country told a similar story, with a steady stream of appeals to government, protests, direct action and sometimes even violence, due to simmering conflicts over plasma. When we began to investigate this in earnest, one of the key questions we sought to answer was just how widespread this problem was. It soon became clear that government monitoring was patchy and unreliable. Government agencies themselves openly acknowledged the flaws in their data. Most palm oil producers declined to share data that would enable us to interrogate their claims that they were complying with the law. Since the 1970s, as corporate-run palm oil plantations spread acrossThis article was originally published on Mongabay

Deanna "Violet" Maree Coco, who used a truck and flares to set up an illegal road block on Sydney's main harbour crossing, has just walked free from jail on appeal.

The post License to Disrupt: Australia Goes Soft on Climate Protestors first appeared on Watts Up With That?.

The rare triple dip La Nia that worsened the U.S. southwests drought, harried two busy Atlantic hurricane seasons and poured into record-breaking rainfall in Australia is finally over. 

The National Weather Services Climate Prediction Center issued its final advisory for the outgoing cold phase of the El Nio Southern Oscillation (ENSO) cycle March 9.

La Nia has ended and ENSO-neutral conditions are expected to continue through the Northern Hemisphere spring and early summer 2023, the center announced. 

What does this mean? The ENSO cycle describes whether the waters in the central and eastern tropical Pacific Ocean are warmer than average (El Nio), cooler than average (La Nia) or neutral, ie. average. Either warmer or cooler Pacific temperatures can influence weather around the world. In the U.S., for example, El Nio is associated with dryer, warmer weather in the northern states and more rain and increased flood risk in the Southeast and along the Gulf Coast, The New York Times explained. La Nia, on the other hand, typically brings dryer, warmer weather to the south and wetter weather to the north. 

I've been a long-term advocate for exercise as a primary treatment option for depression, and now, an overview of systematic reviews^1,2,3 shows just how well-reasoned this advice has been.

Exercise Is 1.5x More Effective Than Best Antidepressants

In all, 97 systematic reviews with meta-analyses of controlled trials assessing the effects of exercise on adult depression, anxiety and psychological distress were included (amounting to a total of 1,039 trials involving 128,119 participants).

Populations included healthy adults, people with mental health disorders and people with chronic diseases. It's the most comprehensive review of research to date, and clearly demonstrates that exercise can rapidly alleviate mild to moderate symptoms of depression, anxiety and other forms of psychological distress. As reported by the University of South Australia, which performed the umbrella review:⁴

"University of South Australia researchers are calling for exercise to be a mainstay approach for managing depression as a new study shows that physical activity is 1.5 times more effective than counselling or the leading medications

[The study] shows that physical activity is extremely beneficial for improving symptoms of depression, anxiety, and distress. Specifically, the review showed that exercise interventions that were 12 weeks or shorter were the most effective at reducing mental health symptoms, highlighting the speed at which physical activity can make a change.

The largest benefits were seen among people with depression, pregnant and postpartum women, healthy individuals, and people diagnosed with HIV or kidney disease Lead UniSA researcher, Dr Ben Singh, says physical activity must be prioritized to better manage the growing cases of mental health conditions.

'Physical activity is known to help improve mental health. Yet despite the evidence, it has not been widely adopted as a first-choice treatment. Our review shows that physical activity interventions can significantly reduce symptoms of depression and anxiety in all clinical populations, with some groups showing even greater signs of improvement.

Higher intensity exercise ha...

Welcome to The Daily Wrap Up, a concise show dedicated to bringing you the most relevant independent news, as we see it, from the last 24 hours (3/15/23).
As always, take the information discussed in the video below and research it for yourself, and come to your own conclusions. Anyone telling you what the truth is, or claiming they have the answer, is likely leading you astray, for one reason or another. Stay Vigilant.
(https://www.rokfin.com/TLAVagabond)(https://www.bitchute.com/channel/24yVcta8zEjY/)
https://rumble.com/embed/v2aoz22/?pub=2q643


Video Source Links (In Chronological Order)

TLAV Fundraising Event - March 20th 2023
Justifying a CBDC Transition
(28) El hombre que re (The Man Who Laughs) on Twitter: "2013 @TLAVagabond @SlowNewsDayShow https://t.co/Zo1b0mKGeJ" / Twitter
BLM Funding Database - The American Way of Life
(35) "We have less than two years left now" (from:GretaThunberg) - Twitter Search / Twitter
(55) Greta Thunberg on Twitter: "We have less than two years left now to bend the emission curve, and we had this chance to try to inform people about the crisis we are in, but instead we take that opportunity to spread false hope. IPCC plays huge gamble with our future. #climatecrisis #klimatkris #ipcc" / Twitter
(35) Bernie's Tweets on Twitter: "CLIMATE CHANGE - Doomsday predictions from Al Gore 1992, we had 10 years to save the world. Hes still at it but this time its tied up in the UN & WEFs The Great Reset. He wasnt a billionaire before he became a climate activist. Follow the money. https://t.co/c3mnhQmySC" / Twitter
Trade Halts - Current
"Too Big To Fail" Credit Suisse Domino Effect Far More Potent Than SVB | ZeroHedge
...

RT | March 15, 2023

Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating has fired a broadside against the current government for its endorsement of the AUKUS security bloc and the purchase of American submarines. It doesnt help protect the country and drags it into the US attempt to preserve its hegemony by containing China, he has argued.

Keating, who chaired the Australian government in the 1990s, reiterated his negative view of the purchase of Virginia-class nuclear-powered boats in a lengthy rebuke this week. He branded it the worst international decision by an Australian Labor government since conscription in World War I. Speaking to journalists from the National Press Club of Australia on Wednesday to make the case for his position, he added it must be the worst deal in all history.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese formally confirmed the acquisition on Monday during a visit to California, where he and British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were hosted at a naval base by US President Joe Biden. The plan was first announced in 2021, with Keating blasting the then-Conservative government in Canberra.

Figures in the British government were looking around for suckers, the famously acerbic Aussie politician said of the prelude to the announcement two years ago. And they found whoo! here is a bunch of accommodating people in Australia. The Albanese cabinet was just as eager to push the deal forward, he added.

The Australian Royal Navy is buying up to five attack submarines from the US and possibly building three more with the UKs help. The deal is estimated to cost 360 billion Australian dollars ($240bn).

With that investment, Australia could have 40 to 50 domestically-built Collins-class diesel-electric submarines instead, Keating suggested.

A larger fleet would be far better at protecting Australia from a possible invasion, which would require an armada of troops ships reaching its coast, he believes. Meanwhile, the nuclear subs would be sent to the Chinese coast to potentially take part in a US-Chinese conflict, the former prime minister suggested.

Its a strange way to defend Australia to have your submarines sunk on the Chinese continental shelf chasing Chinese submarines, Keating mused.

We are part of a [US] containment policy against China, he added. Its about one matter only: the maintenance of US strategic hegemony in Southeast Asia.

The politician dismissed as rubbish the idea that China poses a military threat to Australia in the first place and shamed national journalists peddling it.

Madness. Via: The Diplomat: From around 2027, U.S. and U.K. nuclear submarines will undertake rotational deployments to Australia. In the 2030s, subject to U.S. Congressional approval, Australia will purchase three to five Virginia-class subs. The Biden administration and Australia itself are also making new investments in the United States submarine-building capacity. Lastly, beginning from the []

The the last week's review I mentioned the AUKUS deal. It was first announced in September 2021. Back then I wrote: Yesterday the U.S., the UK and Australia announced that the latter one will buy nuclear powered submarines to do...

Squid fishing could be getting out of control due to the industrys lack of regulations, scientists say, prompting calls for greater oversight. Thousands of squid fishing vessels operate across the world, using light to lure the eight-armed cephalopods to the surface and catching them with nets or jigging equipment. While some research suggests that squid are globally abundant, other evidence suggests that overfishing is driving some populations to decline, including the jumbo flying squid (Dosidicus gigas) in the Southeast Pacific and the Argentine shortfin (Illex argentinus) in the Southwest Atlantic. Experts also say that most squid fishing takes place in unregulated areas in international waters, which has allowed the industry to operate without scrutiny. In a new study published in Science Advances, researchers from Global Fishing Watch, the University of California, Santa Cruz, the Australian National Centre for Ocean Resources and Security at the University of Wollongong, and the Japan Fisheries Research and Education Agency used satellite and vessel tracking data to study the movements of the squid fishing vessels. It found that squid fishing across the global oceans increased by 68% over three years (2017-2020), accounting for about 4.4 million total hours of fishing time. The study also indicated that 86% of this fishing occurred in unregulated areas, and that many of the vessels traveled long distances to operate in different regions. A major challenge with unregulated fisheries is that we dont know what we dont know and the data to deeply understand questions about stock status andThis article was originally published on Mongabay