The world needs to be made aware of the atrocities that Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered in Ukraine. There are currently three ways under international law that Putin’s actions can be subjected to global scrutiny, and these can be complemented with a new body focused on the specific crime of aggression.
Acts such as bombing hospitals and refugees are obviously war crimes. But simply invading a sovereign neighbor just to assuage Putin’s overweening sense of inadequacy is a crime against the international order, according to former U.K. Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
There’s no law against such aggression for the International Criminal Court to prosecute, thanks to the obstruction of — you’ll never believe this — Russia.
But most nations outlaw it, and US President Joe Biden should push for a special tribunal to hold Putin and his henchmen accountable.
One of the worst examples of Russia’s criminal disregard for human life is its bombing of a maternity hospital in Mariupol.
Even when maternity hospitals aren’t being bombed, babies and pregnant women suffer more than most other people in war zones.
Somewhat less despicable, but still criminal, is taking innocent people hostage to use as bargaining chips. It’s an old Soviet tactic, and Stephen Carter writes Putin appears to have revived it by jailing American basketballer Brittney Griner.
These stories usually end with either Russia getting its way or the innocents doing hard time. Either outcome is criminal.
Putin’s big mistake
As Vladimir Putin turns himself into a dictator, the combination of conflict and sanctions is causing the biggest commodities shock in decades.
The London-based Economist argues that when Putin dreamed of restoring the glory of the Russian empire by invading Ukraine, he was also restoring the terror of Josef Stalin.
That is not only because he has unleashed the most violent act of unprovoked aggression in Europe since 1939, but also because at home he is resorting as never before to lies, violence and paranoia.
That is not only because he has unleashed the most violent act of unprovoked aggression in Europe since 1939, but also because at home he is resorting as never before to lies, violence and paranoia.
The Economist
The Economist describes Russia’s invasion of Ukraine as triggering the biggest commodity shock since 1973, and one of the worst disruptions to wheat supplies since the first world war.
Although commodity exchanges are already in chaos, ordinary folk have yet to feel the full effects of rising petrol bills, empty stomachs and political instability.
But make no mistake, those things are coming—and dramatically so if sanctions tighten further, and if Putin retaliates.
Western governments need to respond to the commodity threat as determinedly as to the senseless aggression of the 21st-century Stalin.
Western governments need to respond to the commodity threat as determinedly as to the senseless aggression of the 21st-century Stalin.
The Economist
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Autocrats together – but with completely different economic interests.
Putin Attacks From Weakness Not Strength
David Uren writes: “China and Russia may be allies in autocracy, but their attitudes towards engagement with the global economy could not be more different.
“Whereas Vladimir Putin has devoted the past 20 years to making Russia’s economy as bulletproof as he can, China has pursued as much growth as globalisation can deliver.
“Announcing China’s 2022 growth target of 5.5% over the weekend, Premier Li Keqiang underlined the Chinese Communist Party’s continuing commitment to the open world markets that are being slammed shut to China’s Russian ally.
Since 2009, Russia has averaged growth rates of only around 0.8%, less than half the growth of other Eastern European nations and below the advanced nation average.
“Few events create as much moral clarity as the unprovoked, brutal invasion of a peaceful nation by a militaristic empire.”
Russian missile exploding outside Kyiv, Ukraine.
In Vladimir Putin’s warped worldview anyone who disagrees with him simply does not exist. Or, they are Nazis’ who must be hunted down and exterminate.
Russian death squads are now roaming the Ukrainian countryside murdering civilians and dissidents. Anyone who opposes Putin is, by their definition, a fascist enemy.
Putin’s arguments and even more his actions make him the fascist, the natural heir to Adolf Hitler’s evil mantle.
Few events create as much moral clarity as the unprovoked, brutal invasion of a peaceful nation by a militaristic empire.
Nigel Jones writes: “So has Putin been following Hitler’s playbook in his confrontation with Ukraine? It looks very much like it. Consider: on 28 May 1938 Hitler told a meeting of his top generals:
‘I am utterly determined that Czechoslovakia should disappear from the map’
Similarly, Putin has openly expressed the view – not just once, but frequently – that Ukraine is an integral part of a greater Russia that has been torn from the bosom of the Motherland and must be restored, either peacefully or by naked force. Only this week, in a rambling televised monologue, using language eerily reminiscent of the Nazi Fuhrer, Putin described Ukraine as a ‘colony’ that had ‘no historical right to exist’.
As absurd as it might sound, Putin is actually arguing that the Ukraine doesn’t exist. A country which has a rich history going back millenia – long before Russia was created – does not even exist in Putin’s mind.
Such are the weird perambulations of a mind used to absolute, unquestioned power. Putin has been in the Kremlin for 22 years now – using different titles.
Since winning the second Chechnya war in the late 1990s, his approach hasn’t changed. He launches small wars utilizing maximum violence. After killing off the ruling elite he doesn’t like, he installs a puppet government – consisting either of Russians or of locals who are totally subservient to his aims.
When people rebel – as they did in Belarus two years ago, or in Khazakhstan late last year – Russian ‘peacekeepers’ are sent in to ensure that the Kremlin aligned clique remains in power.
Putin’s death squads then fan out across the dissident area and even into Germany, the United Kingdom and the US. All well known, all clearly documented.
But we – the world – has let him get away with it. Until now.
He’s Writing a Cheque His Ass Can’t Cash
Unlike his early wars in Chechnya, Dagestan, Moldova, Georgia, the northern Caucasus, in the Crimea and in eastern Ukraine, this war is aimed at subjugating an entire European country of 50 million people. The Ukraine is as big as France. Its people are sophisticated, educated and have extensive high technology industries.
This isn’t a fringe war against an essentially rural peasant rebellion. It is a major European war – the likes of which we haven’t seen since 1945.
What Does Atlassian Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes Really Want?
Mike Cannon-Brookes’ Grok Ventures and Brookfield, a Canadian asset management company have offered to take over Australia’s oldest listed company, AGL, which began life as Australian Gas & Light.
Cannon-Brookes styles himself as an eco-warrior, offering to shutter AGL’s remaining coal fired generating plants early.
He says that would be one of the single most important decarbonization steps on the planet.
Even if accepted at face value, that claim is somewhat overblown and frail reasoning for a multi-billion dollar investment.
So, what assets does AGL possess that Cannon-Brookes would value?
Atlassian Billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes
Failing AGL Trying To A Itself Into Two Companies
AGL is losing money and has been struggling for some years.
Management has been in turmoil, unable to successfully adapt to the changing generating and electricity distribution industry. Visionary executives have been ejected in favor of Liberal Party (and IPA)-backed business-as-usual political hacks. Political interference from the IPA think tank has driven continuous management changes, seriously damaging the market’s assessments of the company’s reliability, long term vision and earnings potential.
AGL’s market capitalisation, has fallen to significantly less than AUD $5 Billion, well below its enterprise value which is north of $7 Billion. Investors, in other words don’t have confidence in the current management.
That means there are assets of $7 Billion up for grabs – at a price significantly less than $5 Billion. Cannon-Brookes could buy the company, shutter the coal fired generators and still be ahead of the game.
In desperation, the current management has been trying to split the company into two: AGL Australia and Accel Energy.
Grok Ventures – a $2 Billion Venture Fund
If successful, where would AGL (or AGL Australia and Accel Energy) fit in Cannon-Brookes’ investment fund, Grok Ventures?
Most of Grok’s investments have been in technology – Canva, CultureAmp, SpaceX, Who Gives A Crap, Bitcoin, Adelaide-based Fleet Space Technologies, and Spriggy.
But Grok has also taken a significant stake in a variety of renewable energy plays – right along the value chain. Among the largest is the investment in the $30 billion Sun Cable project to partially power Singapore from a solar farm in the Northern Territory.
Grok has also invested in home solar fintech Brighte, Sun Drive Solar, (a Sydney solar panel startup to provide solar panels to Sun Cable), Goterra a maggot-based waste management business, a meat replacement companies Fable Food Co. and Vow Food Co.
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In classic dictator style Putin creates a legal fig leaf to justify his aggression.
In a foul and bloodthirsty move, Russian dictator Vladimir Putin has replayed Adolf Hitler’s 1938 invasion of Czechoslovakia. Just as Hitler justified his invasion by claiming he was liberating the Sudetenland Germans, Putin is claiming he is bringing peace and freedom to the Russians living in the border provinces.
Next: Peace In Our Time?
Neville Chamberlain was fooled, tried to calm things. The British people weren’t.
Will today’s leaders recognize the danger?
Hitler had to be stopped. We moved too slowly, in the end it cost nearly 60 million lives to finish off the insane Bavarian corporal. When will we decide that enough is enough and that it is time to stop Putin?
Russian Thinking Doesn’t Change
In 1946 US diplomat George Kennan sent his famous ‘Long Telegram’ analyzing Russian insecurities and paranoid thinking.
“… at the bottom of the Kremlin‘s view of world affairs is a traditional and instinctive Russian sense of insecurity.”
The authority of previous Russian rulers was “archaic in form, fragile and artificial in its psychological foundation, unable to stand comparison or contact with political systems of western countries.”
This understanding of Russian history used to be cloaked by Marxist Leninism, now it is shrouded in a visceral nationalism.
Their obstinacy in dealing with the West was born out of necessity; seeing the rest of the world as hostile provided an excuse “for the dictatorship without which they did not know how to rule, for cruelties they did not dare not to inflict, for sacrifices they felt bound to demand.”
Until the Russians either experienced consistent failures or their leader was persuaded that they were negatively impacting their nation’s interest, the West could not expect any reciprocity.
The Russian government can be understood as occupying two distinct spaces: an official, visible government and another operating without any official acknowledgement.
(Today’s Putin’s Chef.)
[While the former would participate in international diplomacy, the latter would attempt to undermine the West as much as possible, including efforts to “disrupt national self confidence, to hamstring measures of national defense, to increase social and industrial unrest, to stimulate all forms of disunity.”
Kennan concluded that the Soviets ultimately had no expectation of reconciliation with the West.
Plus ca change!
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TikTok Driving Revenue Growth – now $3.6 Billion a year
Australian creators and influencers are making a living on social media – but it isn’t easy. As in professional sports and acting, a few make a lot, the majority make very little.
Creative agency, We Are Social, reports that $3.6 billion was tipped into Australian social media advertising last year. That’s $547 million more than in 2020 and the money is being attracted by TikTok creators. But, and its a big but – Creators want you to take their work seriously – and understand they aren’t all rich!
“By the end of 2021, 82.7% of Australians were active on social media, an annual growth of nearly 1 million users. As time spent on social media increased to 1h and 57m per day it became the second most popular media activity for Australians after watching television.
“This increase was driven primarily by TikTok, now a social media staple of 32% of the 16-64 set. Australian TikTok users scroll through the app for 23.4 hours per month – a whopping 40% jump since the beginning of 2021. Meanwhile, the Facebook – ahem, Meta – properties either stalled or shrunk their social growth: Instagram grew 3% while Facebook and Whatsapp dropped 3% and 4% respectively.
TikTok growing, Facebook shrinking. The world turns!
Oz fastest out of the blocks, ramping up production
But China dominates the lithium production value chain
Lithium is today’s “white gold” – due to its crucial role in batteries for everything from mobile phones and home storage to electric cars.
Lithium production more than doubled between 2016 and 2020, up from 40,000 tonnes to 86,300 tonnes.
Source: Scotch Creek Ventures, via Visual Capitalist.
Australia’s lithium mostly comes from hard-rock mines that produce spodumene concentrate, which is then converted into lithium.
Most of Chile’s lithium comes from salar brines which contain high concentrations of lithium.
China The Dominant Value Chain Investor Globally
China, the third-largest producer, is the biggest investor in the lithium production industry globally.
Since 2018, Chinese companies have invested more than $5 billion in lithium mining projects in various countries. China, moreover, dominates the refining and battery manufacturing stages of the lithium-ion supply chain.
By far the largest Chinese purchase was the US$4 Billion+ acquisition of Sociedad Quimica y Minera de Chile SA, which operates lithium mines in Chile’s Atacama desert and the Mt Holland lithium mine in Western Australia
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Influencers, chatterati operating on social media rather than mainstream media, have eclipsed even the loudest MSM voices during the pandemic.
Operating on a huge number of channels as varied as Spotify, Reddit, Telegram, Gab and Bitchute, as well as the more mainstream Facebook, WhatsApp, Tik Tok and Instagram, the influencers have carved out powerful – and highly lucrative niche audiences.
Unlikely anti-vax influencer Ex-Qantas pilot Graham Hood, continues to use his pilot uniform as a identifying costume. (Since Hood resigned in 2021, why hasn’t Qantas CEO Alan Joyce stopped him?)
Billing himself as ‘Captain Graham Hood’ the anti-vaxxer, Seventh Day Adventist, and conspiracy theorist claimed one million protestors would join the Canberra convoy.
In reality, about 10,000 turned up. No small beer by Canberra’s village scale standards.
Tasmanian far-right researcher Kaz Ross summarized the disparate groups in the Canberra convoy.
“Aussie Aussie, oi, oi, ANZACs, a bit of Jesus, freedom, and save the children,” all set to the tune of John Farnham’s You’re The Voice.
Kaz Ross
(The Seventh Day Adventist Church has rejected the conspiracy theories surrounding Covid-19.)
But, Hood, who resigned from Qantas in September 2021, isn’t just running on an ideological position. With his flying career over, he is positioning himself to run for a Queensland seat at the next Federal election.
But, Queensland’s ever fractious far-right scene doesn’t seem to be welcoming him with open arms.
Eternal would-be political leader, and sometime MHR, Clive Palmer isn’t having anything to do with Hood, instead he is reviving his old United Australia Party – and paying for a wildly expensive TV advertising campaign saying he will “defend Australia”.
Against what, exactly he doesn’t specify?
Pauline Surfaces. Quietly
Meanwhile Pauline Hanson, the aging One Nation leader, managed to show up in Canberra, adorned with a little temporary Australian flag tattoo on her right arm.
A determined conspiracy theorist, Pauline rants at the ‘international organisations’ but soft pedals on the anti-vax message. It might be that Pauline is just smart enough to realise that many of her geriatric base have chosen to be vaxxed – and they don’t want to hear their dyed hair symbol criticizing their sensible precautionary steps.
Pauline with her fetching, if temporary, flag tattoo. Surrounded by security.
No Pollie Slot? Sell A Shonky Cure!
No longer a smooth TV presenter, conspiracy theories have aged Pete Evans
Pete Evans Promotes Quack Cure – at $15,000 a pop!
As the pandemic got underway in 2020 Ex TV name Pete Evans tried to flog a “subtle energy platform” called the BioCharger NG for $15,000.
A plasma lamp in fancy packaging, the way over-priced piece of kit wasn’t a crime in itself. But Evans, never the sharpest tool, kept claiming it had a recipe for the Wuhan coronavirus. The medical establishment was alarmed, even outraged, as was the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA).
The TGA hit Evans with a couple of infringement notices totalling $25,200.
That didn’t stop our boy – so in mid 2021, he copped another $80,000 fine. Been keeping a low profile since. Not smart, but he finally got the message.
Anti-vaxxers: Sovereign Citizens, the Far Right and Neo Nazis
Anti-vax demos create a type of community for a lot of side-lined communities: varying from old style libertarians, some indigenous activists, long-term anti-vaxxers and conspiracy theorists – and a lot of them tend to take up far right and Nazi ideas.
In November 2020, Pete Evans started posting the “Black Sun” on his social media platforms – a symbol widely used by neo-Nazis and white supremacists.
Other Australian neo-Nazis have also pinned their colours to the anti-vax campaign.
Many of the conspiracy theories can be traced back to the US – Qanon ideas and Kremlin disinformation campaigns.
Many of the more Australia specific conspiracies were sourced from science fiction comics, published in New York decades ago.
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The English(?) chap who invented Wordle has made a few million!
Way back in October 2021, Wordle, an online word guessing game with a new challenge available daily, registered less than 5,000 visits a day to its site.
By January 2022, traffic had skyrocketed to more than 45 million!
More than 900,000% increase in less than four months.
The New York Times noticed, acquiring Wordle from its creator for a price “in the low seven figures”. The NYT says that the game will remain free and the format will not be changed.
We shall see.
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“New structures have been seen sprouting up in towns and cities across China.
“But these aren’t the usual overproduced apartment blocks. They are “New Era Civilization Practice Centers,” hubs from which a vast army of volunteers will host movie nights and vocational education classes, sort trash, visit the elderly, and generally inculcate more “civilized behavior” in Chinese citizens.
“Their stated mission: to “solve problems for the masses, so that every family can feel the warmth of the Party and the government.”
“Conceived by the Chinese Communist Party’s Central Guidance Commission on Building Spiritual Civilization — devoted to fostering “ideological, moral, and cultural” progress in the population — the centres represent an attempt to develop an alternative approach to social control. If they can only help nudge the masses toward a new era of self-monitoring and self-regulation, the thinking goes, traditional heavy-handed “stability maintenance” measures may someday no longer be required at all.
Jessica Batke writes on Chinafile: In a rural county in southern China, more than ten thousand volunteers, scattered across mountain villages and rice paddies, are out gathering local folk songs. Their charge: to bring back paeans to “the new era and new thought” at the heart of General Secretary Xi Jinping’s vision for China’s political future.
What if Trump wins back the White House in 2024? How will allies like Australia deal with the instability? Not to mention the irrationality.
Morrison loved Trump first time around. Next time?
Getting ready for Trump as President 47
In order to adjust to an unpredictable United States, Canberra needs new habits
Ben Scott reviews Paul Kelly’s new book on Scott Morrison – dubbed the amateur – repositioning Australia’s foreign policy. (Much to Paul Keating’s fury.)
Scott: “A central feature of what Kelly calls the Morrison Doctrine is the Prime Minister’s confidence in America, and in Australia’s “forever partnership” with the United States. Kelly portrays this commitment as more than rhetorical. He argues that Morrison understands “the risk that America might be a less reliable senior partner because of its domestic fractures, but it is a risk he is prepared to take … Morrison believes the bigger gamble for Australia lies in hedging its bets – deciding on more accommodation of China.”
As the English Express reported Paul used his usual moderate tone, calling the UK Foreign Secretary demented and deluded.
Keating, PM from 1991 to 1996, penned a piece for the Pearls and Irritations blog which directly called out comments made by UK Foreign Secretary Liz Truss on China.
“Remarks by the British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss that China could engage in military aggression in the Pacific, encouraged by Russia’s contingent moves against Ukraine, are nothing short of demented.
Shopify, one of the biggest e-commerce platforms, now allows its online merchants to launch 3-D and augmented reality versions of their products directly on their sites.
Merchants can convert their entire product offerings into 3-D and A.R. models. Shopify is partnering with A.R. platform Poplar Studio to offer the service through an app that costs $49 a month.
Shopify already offered some 3-D and A.R. features, but the experience was fragmented and required multiple apps. The new Poplar Studio platform allows retailers to access all the features in a single app.
3-D and A.R. can help online retailers offer experiences usually only provided by brick-and-mortar stores, allowing customers to better visualize their potential purchases. Shopify claims merchants that have added 3-D images to their websites have experienced 94 percent higher conversion rates.
In the US, Time writes that “Stores from Macy’s to IKEA have made headline using AR and really pulled customers into stores.
“AR lets us redefine the experience for furniture retail once more, in our restless quest to create a better everyday life for everyone, everywhere,” said Inter IKEA Systems Leader Digital Transformation Michael Valdsgaard.
Retailers are particularly innovative on social media channels.
A Nike shopping lense on SnapChat.
“When you open up Snapchat’s lens carousel, you’re greeted with a variety of filters that let you do everything from smoothing your skin to wearing a flower crown to dancing with a hotdog. Snapchat lenses have for years helped users create funny or glam photos and videos to send to their friends, but recently a more practical category of lens has been on the rise: augmented reality (AR) shopping.
“Covid-19 has been particularly disastrous for the United States, the United Kingdom and Southeast Asian nations such as Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
“These countries have experienced extraordinarily high case numbers and deaths, hospitals full and turning away patients, government lockdowns, and morgues and cemeteries needing more space for the deceased.”
But instead of a global view of the unfurling disaster, most Australian media focussed on the US and UK experience.
Ross Tapsell undertook a survey of Australian coverage for the Australian Journalism Review.
Data from the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators shows which countries’ energy supply would be most at risk in the case of a Russian gas freeze. Among Europe’s major economies, Germany imports around half of its gas from Russia, while France only obtains a quarter of its supply from the country, according to the latest available data.
The biggest source of French gas was Norway, supplying 35 percent. Italy would also be among the most impacted at a 46 percent reliance on Russian gas.
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APRA Exec Cole ‘troubled’ by quantity and performance of funds DIY investors can choose from within A$3tn superannuation sector
Regulator really doesn’t like competition.
Just another bureaucrat lamenting her lack of control of the market?
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority board member Margaret Cole is in today’s Financial Times lamenting the high number of funds retirement savers wishing to make their own decisions can choose from, and has pledged to crackdown on trustees failing to weed out poorly performing products.
Catastrophic, isn’t it? Customers actually having a free choice.
Not in the interests of overly powerful Canberra bureaucrats.
His Repositioning of Australia Is Going To Shape Our Century
Whether he is re-elected later this year or not, Australia is going to have to live with Scott Morrison’s foreign policy decisions for a long time.
To a much greater extent than John Howard, Scott Morrison has changed Australia’s alignments in the geopolitical world. Once, courtesy of Paul Keating, inching in the direction of aligning our diplomatic stance with our trade relations – that is with the emerging South East Asian Nations and China, we are now firmly back in the Anglosphere.
Notionally, as in World War I, we are an ally of Japan. We also have a strategic alignment with India – but not with Pakistan, Sri Lanka or much of the pro-Beijing world.
Writing in the Lowy Institute’s Interpreter, Paul Kelly says: “When he became Prime Minister in 2018, Scott Morrison was a foreign policy amateur confronted by unprecedented challenges: an assertive Beijing and a looming rivalry between the two biggest economies in world history, the United States and China. Morrison lunged into foreign and security policy by making highly contentious changes that will be felt for decades, not least the historic decision to build nuclear-powered submarines.”
A helicopter from the Chinese frigate Hengshui with the Chinese guided-missile destroyer Xi’an
At the Australian Institute of International Affairs, Professor James Laurenceson and Associate Professor Chengxin Pan argue that the whole AUKUS alliance ignores China’s achievements and future ambitions. They argue it also ignores China’s legitimate security fears.
US expert on the Asia Pacific, Charles Edel speaks with Australian analyst John Lee about the state and the direction of the U. S. Australian relationship.
Two years ago Edel and Lee wrote a report on the future of the US Australian alliance in the era of great power competition.
ScoMo team’s incompetence spun as Chinese interference
If you can’t manage something – blame others for the cock ups.
More Chinese interference in in Canberra?
This time – not. Yet again, ScoMo’s Prime Ministerial team has stuffed up – using shonky arrangements to set up a WeChat account, then forgetting to renew it.
They were paying so little attention, it took two months to even notice that someone else was using the account.
A political hijack? Those nefarious Chinese ALP supporters undermining ScoMo’s ramshackle administration? Or, was it the ever active Chinese intelligence agencies, attacking Australia’s sovereignty?
The hapless bureaucrats in ScoMo’s office decided it was the latter – blaming the Chinese for their own stuff ups.
In London, the BBC is sniffing blood in Canberra.
Scott isn’t as chaotic as Boris … yet. But, his continual missteps, refusal to take responsibility and anti-Chinese excuses are beginning to trigger suspicion.
Meanwhile WeChat refuted Morrison’s claims, pointing to the perfectly legal commercial transaction underlying the switch. It was sold off, because the necessary management steps hadn’t been taken. Turns out Morrison’s staff were using an agency in China (registered to one individual) who hadn’t remembered to renew. Hardly the most professional.
The WeChat account now
The new owner of the account hasn’t sought to pretend it is still operated by the Prime Minister – he is using it to publish news for Chinese Australians.
Interviewed in China, he said he hadn’t taken down the old Morrison posts – because he didn’t want to offend any Australian politicians.
Meanwhile Morrison’s cabinet team lined up to denounce the Chinese interference.
Equity markets trending lower by the day, crypto values crashing, bond markets in turmoil – even Australia’s ever booming real estate markets seem to be stagnating.
Yes, they’re headed down.
What’s the go?
Is this the major crash the doomsters have been predicting? Or more succinctly: is it a bubble popping, or a balloon deflating?
On 500ish.com M.G. Siegler describes current events as ‘The Great Deflate’.
“In the famous story of The Boy Who Cried “Bubble!”, reporters, bloggers, and everyone in between cries “Bubble!” until they’re blue in the face and everyone else is numb in the ears. And then a real bubble comes along…
“This is not, of course, a story. It is what has been happening for the past 20 years or so in the world of technology. Basically every year, many times a year since the last actual tech bubble — you know, the “Dot Com” one — many people have been certain that exuberance in tech is going to end in disaster. The size and shape of this would-be bubble is often different, but it’s always, definitely a bubble. Except, of course, when it’s not.”
Meanwhile, Paul Keating, a 20th Century hangover, demonstrates how to kowtow to Beijing.
This is how to kowtow!
It isn’t simply a matter or bowing down and banging your forehead on the stones in the Forbidden Kingdom courtyard.
You have to attack and abuse those who espouse ideas that Beijing may not like.
Keating: “Remarks by the British Foreign Secretary Liz Truss that China could engage in military aggression in the Pacific, encouraged by Russia’s contingent moves against Ukraine, are nothing short of demented.
In January 2021 just over half Australians trusted what they read or heard from the media.
That trust declined rapidly over the last 12 months and now only 43% of Australians trust the media.
That’s one of the fastest confidence collapses in the world – and a marked acceleration of a trend that has been evident for some decades.
PR firm Edelman’s Annual Trust Barometer for 2022 found that faith in the media fell in 15 countries – with the biggest falls in Australia and the US.
Overall 56% of people said the media was a divisive force in society. And just one-third (35%) said the media contributed to making societies more cohesive.
Two-thirds (67%) of people globally said they believe journalists and reporters purposely try to mislead people by saying things they know are false or grossly exaggerated – up 8 percentage points on last year’s report.
But wait … Trust in Business Is Stable, In NGOs Increasing!
Trust in the corporate world is stable and is actually increasing for NGOs.
Edelman CEO Richard Edelman said “Government was the most trusted institution as recently as May 2020, when the world sought leadership capable of tackling a global pandemic.”
“Now, after the confused and bungled response, when it comes to basic competence, government is less trusted than businesses and NGOs. People still want government to take on the big challenges, but only four in 10 say government can execute and get results.
The Cycle of Distrust
Edelman has studied trust for more than 20 years and believes that it is the ultimate currency in the relationship that all institutions—business, governments, NGOs and media—build with their stakeholders.
If they are correct, governments and mainstream media are the big losers in the 2020s.
The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai volcanic eruption, well below the surface of the Pacific Ocean, has already triggered a tsunami, a sonic boom and thousands of lightning bolts, and could now lead to acid rain
Sensors have detected huge quantities of sulphur dioxide gas released by the eruption, which could cause acid rain to fall in Tonga and Fiji, damaging crops and potentially drinking water.
However, to date, the amount of sulphur dioxide isn’t enough to cause global cooling.
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Unis, Profs, Furious at Education Minister Blocking Research Grants
Acting Education Minister Stuart Robert
Blocking Research For Political Reasons
Stuart Robert, still recovering from a broadband rorting scandal, is now involved in a furious brawl with dozens of top academics after he delayed, then cancelled, funding for six research projects he didn’t like.
Sixty-three leading Australian professors have signed an open letter attacking acting education minister Stuart Robert’s veto of funding for six research projects on “national interest” grounds.
All the professors are Laureate Fellows of the Australian Research Council (ARC) Laureate Fellows – the most prestigious research fellowship in Australia.
The Australian Research Council is an independent academic body which recommends research projects for funding after “rigorous and independent peer review”.
Three times in the last 15 years Education Ministers have intervened for a variety of reasons, blocking grants recommended by the ARC.
Robert first delayed approvals – until just before Christmas on projects that were due to begin Jan 1, then knocked out six projects on nebulous ‘national security’ grounds.
Dear Professor Sue Thomas (CEO of the Australian Research Council) and the Hon Stuart Robert MP (acting Minister for Education and Youth),
As current and past ARC Laureate Fellows, we are very concerned in the way that applications for 2022 ARC Discovery Projects were managed.
Our concerns are threefold.
First, the funding decisions were announced a month later than usual, only a week before funding could commence on January 1st. Most if not all university research offices were by then closed till the new year. It is highly unlikely that any of these grants can indeed commence on January 1st, and staff be hired.
No good reason has been given as to this delayed notification. The retention and recruitment of research staff is greatly harmed by such delays. This late decision is likely to have the greatest impact on early career researchers, especially with regards to diversity and inclusion.
Second, the funding decisions were announced on Christmas Eve, giving an appearance that the date was chosen to avoid close scrutiny. This was a heartless date to give the many unsuccessful applicants news about their applications.
Third, and most critically, six grants — all in the humanities — were subject to rigorous and independent peer review and were recommended for funding but vetoed by the Minister as they “do not demonstrate value for taxpayers’ money nor contribute to the national interest”. These projects cover topics like climate activism and China which are vital for the future well-being of Australia.
We agree with Prof. Brian Schmidt’s observation that in a liberal democracy like Australia it is “completely inappropriate for grants to be removed by politicians, unless the grant rules were not followed”.
Whether it be the test of “national interest” or an excessive focus on a sector like manufacturing, research funding in Australia is becoming political and short sighted. The best return comes from letting researchers focus on curiosity driven research. This has given us mRNA vaccines, the laser, and many other inventions that have lifted the quality of our lives.
We strongly recommend the following five actions be taken in light of these concerns.
1. For all ARC grants, a date is provided in the call by which time applicants will be informed of the outcome. Such dates should be at least a month before the commencement date for the grant.
2. For 2022 Discovery Projects, the ARC provide transparency into why the announcement was a month later than usual and so near to the commencement date.
3. In future, no grant decisions are announced on dates like Christmas Eve to respect the work life balance of applicants.
4. The Minister accepts and approves funding for all ARC grant applications that pass through the tried, tested and rigorous peer review process and that meet the conditions set out in the call for applications.5. The ARC be allowed to return to its core mission of funding fundamental curiosity driven research without political interference.
Yours sincerely,
Signatures
Prof Adrienne Stone FASSA FAAL, Melbourne.
Prof Ian Small FAA, UWA.
Prof Peter Cawood, Monash.
Prof Alexander Haslam, UQ.
Prof John Grundy FASE FIEAust, Monash.
Prof Peter Hodgson FTSE FIEAust, Deakin.
Prof Andrew White FAA FAPS FOSA, UQ.
Prof John Quiggin, UQ.
Prof Peter Taylor FAustMS, Melbourne.
Prof Ann McGrath, AM FASSA FAHA RHS, ANU.
Prof Jolanda Jetten FASSA, UQ.
Prof Ping Koy Lam FAA, ANU.
Prof Belinda Medlyn, Western Sydney.
Prof Jon Barnett, Melbourne.
Prof Richard (Bert) Roberts, Wollongong.
Prof Ben Andrews FAA, ANU.
Prof Julian Gale FAA, Curtin.
Prof Robert G. Parton FAA, UQ.
Prof Brad Sherman, UQ.
Prof Justin Marshall, UQ.
Prof Rose Amal AC FAA FTSE FRNS, UNSW Sydney.
Prof Brian P. Schmidt FAA FRS, ANU.
Prof Katherine Demuth FAASA FRNS, Macquarie.
Prof Ross Buckley FASSA FAAL, UNSW Sydney.
Prof Christopher Barner-Kowollik FAA FRSC FRACI, QUT.
Prof Leann Tilley, Melbourne.
Prof Sara Dolnicar FASSA, UQ.
Prof Dan Li, Melbourne.
Prof Lianzhou Wang, UQ.
Prof Sharon Friel FASSA, ANU.
Prof David James FAA, Sydney.
Prof Lynette Russell AM FRHistS FASSA FAHA, Monash.
Prof Sharon Parker FASSA, Curtin.
Prof Douglas MacFarlane FAA FTSE, Monash.
Prof Maria Forsyth FAA FRACI, Deakin.
Prof Stephen Foley, Macquarie.
Prof Emerita Margaret Jolly AM FASSA, ANU.
Prof Mark Finnane FAHA FASSA, Griffith.
Prof Steven Sherwood, UNSW Sydney.
Prof Geoffrey McFadden FAA FASP FASM, Melbourne.
Prof Mark Westoby FAA FAAAS, Macquarie.
Prof Stuart Wyithe, Melbourne.
Prof George Willis FAA FRSN, Newcastle.
Prof Martina Stenzel FAA FRSN FRACI, UNSW Sydney.
Prof Sue O’Connor, ANU.
Prof George Zhao, UQ.
Prof Matthew Bailes, Swinburne.
Prof Tamara Davis AM, UQ.
Prof Gottfried Otting, ANU.
Prof Matthew Spriggs FSA FAHA, ANU.
Prof Toby Walsh FAA FAAAS FRSN, UNSW Sydney.
Prof Barry Pogson FAA, ANU.
Prof Michael Bird FRSE, James Cook.
Prof Warwick Anderson FAHA FASSA FAHMS FRSN, Sydney.
Prof Harvey Millar FAA, UWA.
Prof Naomi McClure-Griffiths, ANU.
Prof Yun Liu, ANU.
Prof Hong Hao FTSE DistFIAPS FASCE, Curtin.
Prof Paul E. Griffiths FAHA FAAAS FRNS, Sydney.
Prof Huanting Wang FTSE FRSC FAICHE, Monash.
Prof Paul Mulvaney, Melbourne.
Prof Ian Reid FAA FTSE, Adelaide.
Prof Paul S.C. Tacon FAHA FSA, Griffith.
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Prices are surging across the board and right around the world.
The $22 Trillion a year US economy, by far the world’s largest, is being rocked by 7% inflation – the fastest rate in 40 years.
Are we headed back to the bad old days of stagflation?
Inflation has impacts on all financial transactions.
Tom Switzer, of SwitzerDaily, argues it’s not.
His reasoning?
“… if the Reserve Bank of the 1980s saw inflation of 7% (just like the Federal Reserve is now seeing in the States), term deposit rates would be about 10% and home loan interest rates would be 13%!
You can still get 1.89% home loan interest rates at loans.com.au. Clearly, times today are very different to 30 or 40 years ago, but there are plenty of Australians who can relive that nightmare when inflation kept rising and along with the interest rate that people had to endure to keep their homes. The money going into pleasing the banks meant holidays weren’t taken, new clothes weren’t bought and cars were primarily second hand. Not surprisingly in the early 1990s, we had a lulu of a recession!”
Over on Auntie, Lucia Stein notes that Aussie CPI increases are significantly lower, at only 3%. That compares well to data from nearly 50 other countries.
“Data anlaysis from Pew Research Center from 46 nations found that in the period between July and September last year, the rate was higher for 39 countries than in the same period in 2019.
While prices aren’t rising as fast here in Australia, people are still paying more at the supermarket, as they fuel up or when they are looking for a car.
The latest figures for the September quarter showed Australia’s annual inflation now running at 3 per cent (seasonally adjusted).”
CoreLogic has recorded a plateau in Sydney, with just 0.3% of growth rate in prices in December 2021, while Melbourne’s market actually dropped slightly, with a 0.1% declining rate in prices.
But, not every analyst agrees. Tim Lawless at CoreLogic says “To date, the quarterly trend remains positive across the major regions, with the only exception being Darwin houses, which is the only capital city housing sector to record a negative quarterly change,”
Record $379bn earnings forecast for resources, energy exports
Resource and energy export earnings are forecast to reach a staggering $379 billion in 2021–22 as demand for our coal and gas surges in the face of a global energy shortage.
Resources Minister, Keith Pitt
The December edition of the Resources and Energy Quarterly (REQ) from the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources found that high commodity prices, good volume growth and a weak Australian dollar are driving a surge in export earnings.
Minister for Resources and Water Keith Pitt said that the resources sector once again has been shown to be the bedrock of the Australian economy and would strongly support the nation’s future growth.
“The resources sector has risen above the challenges of the pandemic and will continue to deliver for our nation in the years ahead,” Minister Pitt said.
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Djokovic’s lawyers are furiously back-pedalling – trying to create a ‘defensible position’ that the self-centred Serbian didn’t expose a whole lot to kids to Covid in mid-December.
But, even the Serbian Prime Minister isn’t buying it.
Serbia’s prime minister says it is up to Novak Djokovic to explain a “grey area” over his Covid test result.
Serb Prime Minister Ana Brnarbic
The unvaccinated Serbian tennis star says he was granted a medical exemption to enter Australia after testing positive for Covid in mid-December.
But there are questions over public appearances he made at this time.
If Djokovic went out knowing he had a positive PCR result, it would be a “clear breach” of Serbia’s rules, Prime Minister Ana Brnabic told the BBC.
The weaknesses in Australia’s multi-layered, highly bureaucratic, and often overlapping, system of federal governance have been revealed by the pandemic.
Protections for individual rights are lacking as are clear delineations of the responsibilities of local, state and federal governments.
Emergency powers have been used to create ‘temporary’ state fiefdoms exercising powers that rightly belong at the federal level. (According to the provisions of Australia’s 1901 Constitution.) At the same time the current federal government has demonstrated striking levels of incompetence in organizing and coordinating nation level programs. Constitutional reform is an urgent priority.
YOUR SAY: Do you think Novak Djokovic has been treated fairly by Australia?
Despite his victory in court yesterday, it’s been reported that Immigration Minister Alex Hawke is still considering whether to cancel the Serbian tennis star’s visa for a second time. #9Newspic.twitter.com/JVmyEjLdq1
COVID-19 is a very serious threat to public health, and to the human rights of people in the community (such as the rights to life, and the highest achievable standard of health). There is clearly a rational link between health responses to the pandemic and the risk faced by the community. However, under international human rights law, governments also have a responsibility to demonstrate that any limitations they put on rights are proportionate to the threat.
The Constitution Education Fund has also examined some of the issues that the pandemic has raised.
“During a pandemic, when lives are at risk, we want the Government to protect us, no matter what. This raises important public policy questions. Should we still strictly apply the law, or does an emergency justify a government acting outside the law? Should Parliaments continue to scrutinise government actions, or just let Ministers get on with dealing with the crisis? Can a “national cabinet” take over and make laws outside the constitutionally prescribed law-making institutions?
During this pandemic, the rule of law continues to apply in Australia
Constitution Education Fund
Governments around Australia are having to make tough decisions to protect the people, but the rule of law means that these governments cannot act outside their powers. Nobody is above the law and this includes ministers and parliamentarians. If a minister travels to their holiday house in breach of restrictions on unnecessary travel, then they can expect to be fined just as anyone else would be.
The public has been left to their own devices as all our previous safeguards collapse around us. We urgently need a “vaccines-plus” strategy to flatten the curve.
Covid Chaos has spread across Australia – but not in WA. Yet.
Infectious diseases expert RAINA MACINTYRE, from the University of NSW, argues Australia has swung from one extreme in pandemic control to the other – having great control of COVID, to now having the world’s highest rise in daily cases.
Professor Raina Macintyre
Across the country (except for Western Australia), COVID cases are exploding.
True case numbers are much higher than official reports, as many sick people cannot even get a test or are only tested with a rapid antigen test, which isn’t counted in statistics.
The Prime Minister has been caught out making up stories once again. He claimed he’d been going into pharmacies to get rapid antigen testing kits. But, questioned, he said his wife got them. Turns out he hasn’t ever picked one up.
Just fanciful story telling – again.
This as Australia’s Omicron wave hits more than 60,000 infected every day.
Today Scott Morrison says he doesn’t know how many tests he’s personally paid for: “(Jenny is) the one that goes and gets them.” 22 Dec: he describes going himself to get a test from a pharmacy in Terrigal. “I went, I got a covid test from the local pharmacy… picked one up.” pic.twitter.com/3jvK4WUBJG
So how does the battling, low income family get Rapid Antigen Test kits ? The family who’ll struggle to buy this year’s school shoes or pay the power bill ? Morrison doesn’t know, and doesn’t give a flying fuck. pic.twitter.com/Z6A2cwft1L
2022 could be the year when the global economy takes off.
Having expanded dramatically in the last decade and a half the underlying structure looks ready for some major realignments.
We’ve had more than a decade of no price inflation, microscopic or negative interest rates, growing inequality, and extraordinary asset price bubbles.
But now inflation is back, and fast rising prices will drive changes in how things are done.
Governments have pumped out tsunamis of money to keep businesses afloat during the pandemic, but those massive flows are going to dry up next year.
The future is uncertain and likely to be volatile. But one thing can be guaranteed. Change looms. The $94 Trillion global economy cannot remain as it is.
<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>Russia is losing its future – Aleksandr Auzan, dean of Economics at… Read more: Russia Is Losing Its Future
The CEOs of Tesla and Square touched off one of the year’s best crypto spats, picking a fight with the powerful VC firm Andreessen Horowitz.
Former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey threw some spicy tweets at Web3.
His outburst drew in many other prominent figures, including Elon Musk.
Two of the biggest names in crypto and Silicon Valley—Tesla CEO Elon Musk and Square CEO Jack Dorsey— took to Twitter on Monday night to fire shots at Web3 and the powerful venture capital firm that has done most to promote it.
“You don’t own ‘web3’. The venture capitalists and liquidity providers do. It will never escape their incentives.”
Jack Dorsey
One of the major tech titans of our generation is drawing the red line: You’re either with #Bitcoin & real meaningful change, or you’re marketing hype & buzzwords.https://t.co/XZQOzjkqyJ
Differences Between the Economies of Scarcity and Abundance
digitalreality.ieee.org
The Scarcity Economy
The theory of scarcity refers to a mismatch between limited resources and consumer demand. If a resource is scarce, but demand is high, not everyone can get what they want. There is a mismatch between the desired goods and the supply.
Scarcity keeps prices high and helps drive profitability.
The Economy of Abundance Unlike the economy of scarcity, the economy of abundance is built on the availability of near unlimited resources.
The economy of abundance is almost always present in the digital world—digital products and content are easy and cheap to copy, store, and transfer to millions. Digital products do not rely on scarce resources.
This can be incredibly disruptive to a traditional scarcity economy.
The metaverse has been the talk among science fiction fans for years, but it’s becoming more real as a point of discussion among the engineers who could potentially build it.
Individual users are playing a significant role in directing developments.
The internet is now a ubiquitous technology. So, when a company promises to build its next iteration – i.e., the embodied internet or the metaverse – it is sure to raise some vital questions.
How will this new internet experience called the metaverse change our lives? Will it impact businesses and how we work? And, most importantly, who is building this new internet that will connect over a billion users by 2031?
Meta puts the Zuck front and centre. But, will that be how it pans out?
Anyone who thinks the Zuck is going to have an easy walk into the leadership ranks hasn’t been watching developments. Roblox, is the maker of the platform for user-generated content (UGC) that went public at a $41 billion valuation earlier this year.
Roblox has 43 million daily active users, and it is building the plumbing to turn its virtual world platform into something more like the metaverse, with users leading the way.
Max Boot in the Washington Post. “One of Vladimir Putin’s pseudo-justifications for his war of aggression was the supposed fear that Ukraine would join NATO. That was… Read more: Putin’s Defeats Mount Up – As Do The Bodies
Robert Bailey: “The most notoriously wrong modern prophet of Malthusian doom is Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich. My public crusade against Malthusian stupidity began with my 1990 Forbes… Read more: Malthus Lite
And now, it is going global – as part of the Spotify platform.
Global digital audio leader Spotify cited Whooshkaa’s world-class technology as the reason for its first Australian acquisition.
With more than 381 million monthly listeners and more than €1 billion in ad revenue this year, Spotify will allow Whooshkaa to access a large and fast growing global market.
Ecstatic Whooshkaa founder, Robert Loewenthal is over the moon:
Since 2016, we’ve worked hard alongside countless Aussie podcasters to build and re-imagine the future of digital audio.
No false modesty here – I’m incredibly proud of what we’ve built with Whooshkaa. In five years we’ve grown, learned, pivoted, and innovated. Our current team is nothing short of astounding.
We’ve worked long days, nights, and weekends with talented individuals, businesses, schools, and media organisations to drive podcasting in Australia, with many high points along the way. Hedley Thomas’s The Teacher’s Pet for example, launched on Whooshkaa in 2018, has been downloaded more than 60 million times worldwide.
We’ve led the way on text-to-speech, speech-to-text, connected home integration, ad technology with dynamic insertion for all, enterprise grade private podcasting tools and more. Sport, comedy, business, crime, conversation, education, music, current affairs – Whooshkaa has welcomed and supported all.
Since 2016, we’ve worked hard alongside countless Aussie podcasters to build and re-imagine the future of digital audio.
Robert Loewenthal
Proud as we are of our laurels, we’re not resting on them. Our business is thriving. And by adding the power and vision of Spotify, we can propel the industry-leading tech and service you know and love to even greater heights.
The best is yet to come.
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Millions of Australian workers say they dislike their boss largely because they believe their leaders struggle with soft skills such as emotional intelligence.
https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/07/05/1075865/eric-schmidt-ai-will-transform-science/ “Nevertheless, this is a profoundly optimistic moment. Previous paradigm shifts in science, like the emergence of the scientific process or big data, have been inwardly focused—making science more precise, accurate, and methodical. AI, meanwhile, is expansive, allowing us to combine information in novel ways and bring creativity and progress in the sciences to new… Read more: (no title)
Bono could pressure Western lenders to forgive debt back in the day. But he won’t have any say in Beijing. Beijing is proving to be much less generous than Bretton Woods system institutions and, as it is the dominant trade partner and investor in the majority of countries, what Beijing wants, it gets. The Chinese… Read more: China Holds Debtor Country Toes To The Fire
Max Boot in the Washington Post. “One of Vladimir Putin’s pseudo-justifications for his war of aggression was the supposed fear that Ukraine would join NATO. That was never likely (and still isn’t). But, as a result of his invasion, Finland just joined NATO, and Sweden should be close behind. Not only does Finland have Europe’s largest artillery… Read more: Putin’s Defeats Mount Up – As Do The Bodies
Robert Bailey: “The most notoriously wrong modern prophet of Malthusian doom is Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich. My public crusade against Malthusian stupidity began with my 1990 Forbes article, “Doomsday Rescheduled,” in which I reviewed Paul and Anne Ehrlich’s book The Population Explosion. “One thing seems safe to predict: starvation and epidemic disease will raise death… Read more: Malthus Lite
Marc Zuckerberg’s Meta (Facebook), under pressure from legislators around the western world, is moving fast to fine-tune its business strategies.
Facebook is launching a new professional mode for profiles. Professionals will be able to earn money without the need to create a separate business page.
Meta’s major brands – Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, WhatsApp, Oculus VR, Onavo, and Beluga – are all undergoing revamps, adding new revenue streams and, on WhatsApp at least, branching into crypto use,
Facebook’s new professionals will be able to earn up to USD$35,000 a month using the Reels (videos) Play bonus program. Previously only open to users with Pages. it will now be open to professionals – but initially at least, invitation only.
Meta’s says it is putting $1 Billion into the bonuses program, which will reward Facebook professionals, Instagram influencers and members of Instagram’s Stars program.
Professionals will have the ability to create longer, 60 second reels, save drafts at any point and create compose videos from multiple clips.
Initially professionals will only be rolled out in the US but the program will be extended to other countries soon.
Once professional mode is turned on, anyone can follow you and see your public content in their feed. However, you’ll still be able to limit specific posts or updates to friends only.
Professional mode is Facebook’s answer to TikTok’s runaway popularity. With more than three billion downloads, TikTok has surpassed Facebook.
WhatsApp is moving into the payments industry – with WhatsApp users able to set up a digital wallet – called Novi – for a crypto currency called US Pax. (USDP)
Roughly the value of a US dollar, pax will allow WhatsApp users to transfer funds instantly to other WhatsApp users for no fees.
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Triumph of Death, by Pieter Breugel The Elder. 1563
Nassim Nicholas Taleb (always the moderate!) attacks anti-vaxxers and pandemic minimisers, stating they don’t understand the statistics.
They just want to kill old people. And ..
The same people who advocate senicide fail to get counterfactuals right. For instance, just as one legislator one day announced that airplane checks were redundant (and costly) because there had been no recent terrorist incidents, many are arguing about mitigating measures on ground that fewer people have been dying on Covid.
Fig 1- Multiplier of the Force of Mortality Across Age Groups >30, Nov. 2021. For the youth the ratio is both lower and much more unstable owing the rarity of both death and death from COVID.
The “old person problem” related to Covid becomes effectively an argument of unconditional eugenics, unconditional senicide/geronticide.
Taleb
It is not about a single event (this pandemic) but all future pandemics, including the one that will hit when you are older.
Why is it so difficult to grasp that by killing seniors, you reduce your own life expectancy ?
“What crypto unlocks is basically property rights for digital on the internet.
Katie Haun
“Why is that?
“Until now, the internet was one ginormous copy-and-paste machine, right? With digital scarcity, it’s a big change in what it means to really create and to own on the internet.
“It will imbue things with digital property rights in a way that wasn’t possible before.
“Longer term, this is really going to change what consumers expect when they buy, acquire, or even borrow digital goods, and what consumers are going to be willing to let centralized platforms own.
What crypto unlocks is basically property rights for digital on the internet.
– Over 40 hydrogen projects have been announced in Australia with a potential capacity of 7.0 MT H2/year by 2030, representing a third of total announced capacity.
– Australia has plans to build two of the largest green hydrogen projects in the world
– Japan aims to become a ‘hydrogen society by 2050, Australia well positioned to supply growing hydrogen demand
The interest in hydrogen as a future clean energy feedstock and carrier is snowballing as governments around the world are planning their deep decarbonization goals and strategies. As a result, the global demand for hydrogen is rising. The future growth in demand can be even more promising considering the downstream applications in power, industrial, and transport (including marine) sectors.
Australia has established itself as a top exporter of key commodities such as coal, iron ore, and natural gas to the major economies of the region – China, Japan, South Korea, and India. It is also among the few countries that are uniquely placed to produce hydrogen at scale.
But – Hydrogen production is also being pushed by coal interests who want to produce Blue Hydrogen – using coal.
In addition, Australia’s sizeable brown coal (lignite) reserves with carbon content as high as 60-70% could provide low-cost clean Hydrogen from coal gasification with carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) which can help kick-start the hydrogen export industry. Platts Australia Hydrogen price assessments for Victoria for lignite gasification with CCS were in the range of A$ 0.77-3.48/Kg for both with/without CAPEX considerations on Aug. 16. Although there are concerns around how clean such hydrogen can really be, given incremental energy needs/emission and upstream supply releases. Large-scale investments in clean technologies producing green hydrogen may follow as they mature and become economical over time.
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The real reason China is pushing “digital sovereignty” in Africa.
YINKA ADEGOKE, writes in Rest of World about the deepening tech-telecoms relationship between China and nearly every African country and, crucially, what it portends for the economic future of the continent.
Beijing is aiming to dominate African cyber industries and, most likely, incorporate them behind the Great Firewall of China.
Mihai Sora writing in the Lowy Institute’s Interpreter says an uneasy calm has settled over the Solomon Islands capital Honiara after protests outside the national parliament on Wednesday calling for Prime Minister Sogavare’s resignation descended into civil unrest. Read More …
Vaxxed, Recovered or Dead
By Karharina Buchholz While the U.S. and European Union countries are lamenting a massive slowdown in the pace of new coronavirus vaccinations, countries in Asia and Latin America are keeping up the pace, coming into range to overtake these earlier adopters of the vaccine for the share of the fully immunized population – or having already done so. Read More …
The announcement of the AUKUS partnership and that Australia will be acquiring nuclear-powered submarines was presented as a “fait accompli.” There was no public discussion around whether it was the appropriate strategic direction for Australia, or if operating nuclear-powered submarines is within Australia’s current capabilities. Read More …
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Digital disruption of Australia’s universities is being accelerated by pandemic impacts.
TEQSA – Australia’s Tertiary Education Quality & Standards Agency – says the pandemic is accelerating many of the trends and changes that were already occurring in Australia’s increasingly digitally disrupted higher education system.
Less of this …
The strongest shift is to blended and online delivery of programs.
Prior to the pandemic hundreds of thousands of international students came to Australian campuses for face-to-face learning. Now universities and other tertiary educators are developing hybrid models using digital, offshore and third party arrangements.
More of this …
This has been driven by the desire to support and retain students who have been unable to enter Australia, but it is also being viewed as an opportunity to reach additional cohorts of students.
The strongest shift is to blended and online delivery of
programs.
However, as with all shifts in business models, risks are heightened, particularly related to the rigour of third-party arrangements, the management of agents, the quality of the courses and of the student experience.
The pandemic has created financial pressures for tertiary institutions which are creating additional threats to the quality of higher education and the integrity of the sector.
TEQSA is already seeing increased competition for students and admission practices which may undermine generally accepted tertiary standards for transparency.
“Nevertheless, this is a profoundly optimistic moment. Previous paradigm shifts in science, like the emergence of the scientific process or big data, have been inwardly focused—making science more precise, accurate, and methodical. AI, meanwhile, is expansive, allowing us to combine information in novel ways and bring creativity and progress in the sciences to new heights.”
Bono could pressure Western lenders to forgive debt back in the day.
But he won’t have any say in Beijing.
Beijing is proving to be much less generous than Bretton Woods system institutions and, as it is the dominant trade partner and investor in the majority of countries, what Beijing wants, it gets.
The Chinese want their pound of flesh – and forgiveness of sovereign debts isn’t an agenda item.
“One of Vladimir Putin’s pseudo-justifications for his war of aggression was the supposed fear that Ukraine would join NATO. That was never likely (and still isn’t).
But, as a result of his invasion, Finland just joined NATO, and Sweden should be close behind. Not only does Finland have Europe’s largest artillery force, but it also recently agreed to combine its warplanes with those of Norway, Denmark and Sweden in a joint operating force.
The Nordic partners have 250 front-line combat aircraft, instantly creating a new military superpower in northern Europe. Thanks, Vlad, for making NATO stronger than ever.
“The most notoriously wrong modern prophet of Malthusian doom is Stanford biologist Paul Ehrlich. My public crusade against Malthusian stupidity began with my 1990 Forbes article, “Doomsday Rescheduled,” in which I reviewed Paul and Anne Ehrlich’s book The Population Explosion.
“One thing seems safe to predict: starvation and epidemic disease will raise death rates over most of the planet,” they asserted in the book. I pointed out that this was a follow-up to Paul Ehrlich’s failed prediction made 22 years earlier in his 1968 The Population Bomb, “The battle to feed all of humanity is over. In the 1970s the world will undergo famines—hundreds of millions of people are going to starve to death in spite of any crash programs embarked on now.
At this late date nothing can prevent a substantial increase in the world death rate.”
The idea that making everything domestically builds resiliency is what
@AdamPosen calls “the fallacy of self-sufficiency” & it has repeatedly been disproven. It is having diversified supply chains—including geographically—that builds resilience.
The idea that making everything domestically builds resiliency is what @AdamPosen calls "the fallacy of self-sufficiency" & it has repeatedly been disproven. It is having diversified supply chains—including geographically—that builds resilience. Read more: https://t.co/tsY8lF8bv3pic.twitter.com/6ZD47Wf4rV
Following in the footsteps of Japan and India, the U.S. should establish a dedicated institution to head up its economic and cultural engagement with Southeast Asia. Such a move would give Washington a way to help quiet doubts about its long-term commitment to the region.
Sun-harvesting solar panels function better when they’re not too hot. But luckily researchers have now discovered precisely how to cool them down.
Building solar panels at a specific height above crops can reduce surface temperatures by up to 10 °C, compared to traditional panels constructed over bare ground, they’ve found.
The results, published in the journal Applied Energy, are the latest contribution to a growing body of research on agrivoltaics: a farming method that aims to maximize land use by pairing solar panels with cropland, thus minimizing competition between energy production and food.
We already know that agrivoltaics can increase land-use efficiency, produce plenty of electricity on minimal land, and may also improve crop yields by shielding plants from heat and wind.
“The case for a renewed Sino-Russian axis is equally unfounded. Although Putin recently hosted his “dear friend” Xi at the Kremlin, underlying this friendship is the stark reality of a deepening Russian vassalage to Xi’s China. A loss of Russian prestige and status in Ukraine, and by extension an American victory, would prove a mortal blow to Putin’s project of contesting the world order that, from the Kremlin’s perspective, represents a greater civilisational struggle.”
By deciding to let Russian and Belorussian athletes return to international competition, the IOC is stating that violent aggression against peaceful states is acceptable.
Why respect international borders if Putin and his fellow dictators are free to ignore them?
In the court of global opinion where digital citizens dwell, Russian President Vladimir Putin has lost any ‘just war’ justification. His military assault is in no way proportionhttps://www.aspistrategist.org.au/smartphones-digital-citizens-and-open-secrets-in-russia-ukraine-war/ate and responds to no immediate threat. No more baloney, please—realist or Russian—about how this is the fault of NATO and the US.
Aussie Arts & Letters 
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