old man emu

On another topic, Trump has banned certain media organisations from attending the White House. Those organisation are, of course, taking the ban to Court on the basis of their being contrary to the First Amendment, which creates prohibitions on Congress making laws in three areas. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances. I wonder how these legal actions will go. While one could reasonably argue that the ban vio;ates teh First Amendment, Trump could quite easily counter by saying that the grounds of the White House are restricted areas for security reasons and that entry entry thereto by any person depends on that person gaining the appropriate security clearance. And we know that the grounds for deny the clearance in Trump's world are pretty flimsy.

This is a double-barreled post as it could go here or in the AI thread, but Trump has declared that reported concerns about uncontrolled AI are fake news. Call me cynical, but that makes me wonder how much the Trump Organisation (the private family business) has got invested in AI companies. Also, he has indicated that mastery of AI is a race between the USA and China. It seems that AI has become the 21st Century's Arms Race, with the common people being the victims.

Here is a real content creator illustrating how AI has created content by cloning his voice and even mimicing the studio set in which he creates his material. Needless to say that the real person has been attacked by those Free Speech champions who support the White House administration.

Trump makes Idi Amin look like a Nobel Lauriate.

It's ironic that the game created in Victoria, and derided for so long by the followers of other codes in other States, will have its 2026 competition decided by teams from at least one State which was amongst the deriders.

I heard that it has been suggested that Australia and New Zealand also become associate members of the EU. Probably just an idle suggestion floating around in the wake of the offer to Canada.

I read Jerry's "conversion" for pilots to mean converting from, say FAA licence to Australian licence. I don't think he meant type conversion.

Don't forget that these centres run 24/7, so basically you need the number of employees per shift multiplied by three. Then you have to add in for holiday and sick leave and other approved leave. The imgaes that are sometimes posted of one or two people walking through rows of servers probably hide the real numbers on site.

I can see where AI could set out the plans for creating an virus. But has it got the hands to manipulate the petri dishes to grow it in?

Most of us here grew up fearing The Bomb. The Bomb was something we could understand. It was something that was controled by governments and its use was contained by the concept of retaliation. Now in our old age we are being subject to a new fear - AI, which is something that is very difficult to understand. It is uncontrolled by the traditional methods.

What I think is wrong with immigration is the resistance of the "professions" to accept qualifications gained elsewhere. We have a lot of highly qualified persons doing menial work simply because those who run the "professions" set up barriers to the recognition of qualificatins gained elsewhere.

Earlier this month (September 2026) we entered the final third of the decade of tthe 2020's. Looking back at this latter stage of the decade, I wonder if History will label this decade as the Tumultuous Twenties, as it did the Roaring Twenties of the 20th Century. The decade started with a pandemic. The first confirmed case in Australia was identified on 25 January 2020. The government declared the emergency response "finished" in September 2022. Tha pandemic caused a major shift in the way people worked, especially giving rise to the acceptance of regular work-from-home employment where practicable. This no doubt lead to a more widespread use of the Internet in homes, and ready acceptance of the use if teh Internet for communication. Other things that have happened during the 2020s have included the improvement in the effectiveness of EVs. The proliferation of electricity generation by renewable means, most especially solar generation has had a marked effect on the power generation industry. Next we have the explosion of AI which has impacted Mankind's industry, commerce, and the Arts to a similar degree as the ateroid affected the dinosaurs. Moving on, we have the political ramifications of the goings-on in the United States, which have flowed over to enhance the Far Right aspirations of many Western countries. Then we have the undeclared wars, which have vastly changed the way death and destruction are delivered. Apart from the loss of life, those wars have almost crippled the global economy that had been developed over the previous 50 to 60 years.

No government legislated to ensure 100% ownership of so many companies that were successful from the 19th to 20th Century. I'm talking about manufacturing and retail companies. That's why the quality of the foodstuffs we buy is so poor and why we import so much. Just look at out dairy industry, or our canning industry. Most of those products are imported. I bought a can of SAFCOL tuna. It was pacaged in Thailand. SAFCOL stands of South Australian Fish Cooperative Limited. Why would any government now bring in that sort of legislation?

Is he praising African-Americans and suggesting that the USA should have an African-American President? Americans know that spade is a derogatory slang term for an African-American. To paraphrase King Henry II regarding Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170, "Will no one rid me of this troublesome president?"

It is interesting that the people doing the AI development work are now issuing warnings that the AI horse is kicking at the corral gate, thretening to bolt from all control. You know there is something amiss when the boss of Anthropic is one of those calling out warnings. However, we know that it is corporate greed that is ignoring these warnings.