How could the pond resist the headlines?
Out of all those, the pond went with the
NY Mag ... (paywall affected)
Earlier this year?
And another recent routine delighted the pond.
Sure, he was using a sledgehammer to crack peanuts, but who could resist a peanut like this ...
That's probably the first and last time Liz Wheeler will ever grace the pond, and to be fair, there were a lot more twittering 'abolish/defund the FBI' peanut gems in the Saletan piece, she just happened to be the first nut on parade ... yet another OANN gem, though that acronym keeps reminding the pond of The Chaser's CNNN ... (you can add as many NNN's as you like) ...
But enough with the comedy, the pond knows its duty ... a survey of what's happening in a gangster corporation that associates with mobsters inclined to take the fifth ...
What a dull lot. How did a minor Milner ever become a thing?
And what's this? The Caterist on a Thursday, and with a new thumb snap that makes him look like a withered old prune?
What happened to the Monday routine? Why was he shuffled into this Thursday wasteland?
Well the pond had to set aside the latest assault on New Zealand - isn't it time for the war on Tasmania to begin in Surry Hills? - to waste time with the Caterist ... and what a waste it is, because it could only end one way, much the same as the way in each episode, Pinky and the Brain talked of their desire to control the universe...
Nuke the country!
Yes the pond has been there many times before and what a long and tedious winding road it is to get to the nuking ...
Intrepid readers of the pond will note that the yarn begins in the usual reptile way with a threatening snap of deeply sinister solar panels, lurking in a place misnamed as Happy Valley, when we all know that it's the valley of deep solar despair ... what with the sun not shining twenty four hours a day, and the Caterist an expert in engineering challenges.
Why just look at his deep understanding of the movement of flood waters in quarries to get an insight into the depth of his insights ... put it another way, strangle the pond in shallow waters before it gets too deep.
Not to worry, on we go, and relax, we will get to nuking the country in due course ...
Indeed, indeed, but the pond promised to nuke the country, and at last the Caterist is now ready for the nuking ...
The Caterist is such a boring predictable old fart these days the pond frequently wonders why it bothers, but then, after nuking the country and nuking the mutton Dutton's energy plans, the Caterist, having offered a fact free ramble and rant, came out with "at least furnish us with facts, a scare commodity in the debate", and all was forgiven.
He could still deliver a reliable laugh, and even if it was as ancient as 'Who's on first, and the Caterist is on second' ... please explain what's wrong with the old favourites?
The pond had initially hoped there might be a member of the commentariat raging at Qantas, so that this infallible Pope might fall on fertile ground ...
... but the pond went with it anyway, before turning to the bromancer...
You see, once the pond heard the remarkably silly Chinese ambassador out and about yesterday, claiming that the Taiwanese couldn't wait to give up their freedumb and join a one man dictatorship growing increasingly rabid, the pond knew the reptiles would be in a frenzy ... and sure enough ...
... it was time to break glass, and for the umpteenth time, let loose the bromancer kraken ...
Emollient?
Emollients are medical moisturisers used to treat eczema. They come in different forms: creams, ointments, lotions, gels and sprays. They are different from cosmetic moisturisers in that they are unperfumed and do not have ‘anti-ageing’ additives. Emollients form an essential part of the therapy for all dry skin conditions. They are safe and effective – a good skin care routine using emollients can soothe, moisturise and protect the skin, helping to reduce the number of eczema flares. (Eczema)
Okay, okay, the pond is bored, and all that's left is to seek out a slightly different angle, perhaps sniff out a whiff of heresy in the bromancer text.
You know, have the pond's cake and eat it. Mock the delusional Chinese ambassador; share a laugh with the bromancer about bunging on a war with China by Xmas ...
Clearly the sub-editors were also bored because they started out with a click bait video, carefully neutered, and then along the way, slipped in a number of snaps to distract the diligent text reader...
At this point the reptiles slipped in a snap of Wong, but the pond assumes most people know who she is ... so after a token nod ...
... the pond quickly skipped on to the next gobbet ...
At last, the whiff of heresy. Note the defiance, and the bromancer asserting that the situation had nothing to do with the rhetoric or tone of voice of the Morrison government ...
Then despite himself, the bromancer couldn't resist slipping in a little billy goat butt, in the form of a "that's not to say" ...
Spoiler alert, because coming up shortly is: "That's not to say the Morrison government did not frequently get the rhetoric wrong. Talking about war was foolish and irresponsible."
Was it only last week that the bromancer was imaginging the unimaginable?
Was it only last year that the bromancer was with the mutton Dutton, and thinking the unthinkable ...
Dammit, we might yet have war with China by Xmas. How the bromancer has hungered for war, written up the impending war, scribbled numerous strategy papers, made himself available to lead the defence of the country ... got rid of all the tanks ... imported missiles and rockets and substitute subs ...and yet ...
"That's not to say the Morrison government did not frequently get the rhetoric wrong. Talking about war was foolish and irresponsible."
And that's why the pond loves the bromancer so. We both suffer from short and long term memory loss ...
And now back to that moment the pond did its best to spoil, the bromancer's final gobbet...
Suddenly the lizard Oz cares about battling climate change, and is inclined to reprimand the deviant Chinese for their misbehaviour?
Talk to the hand, or at least to the Caterist ... patiently explaining it's all a nonsense, but at least we might get a chance to nuke the country.
And all that's been a lovely set-up for an immortal Rowe ... as the pond lines up for the reeducation club, and might still get a chance to plead the fifth ...
The campaign to turn Peter FitzSimons into the new Yassmin Abdel Magied appears to have hit a, um - a roadbump?
ReplyDeleteHave the reptiles chucked a u-bolt? No mentions nowhere. Most peculiar.
While the original Oz article attacking Peter FitzSimmons has been taken down, today’s Leak scribble continues the attack, depicting PF as an out of touch, Sydney Eastern Suburbs Leet. Johannes continues to demonstrate that his work is even less amusing than that of his dad.
DeleteThe pond wouldn't spit on the war with PF with a bargepole, VC, and as for that leak in need of a washer, Anon, the warped, stunted sapling is a measure of the original tree.
DeleteGood trick that though isn't it: put up something for a day or two so that it can sink into the 'non specific' subconscious and then take it down before you cop any real (eg legal) opposition.
DeleteIt's part of the 'theory persistence' effect, I think: that people will associate an explanatory 'theory' with some experiential data but over time the theory and its 'data' become mentally separated and then the data is forgotten but the theory persists.
And there's a lot of people wandering around with an awful lot of persistent, though often mutually contradictory, theories in their heads.
If you have some spare time, Chad, I'd be interested in any comments you might make about this:
ReplyDeleteA not-so-brief look at productivity and the labor force
https://jabberwocking.com/a-not-so-brief-look-at-productivity/
America based, of course, but "productivity" is a universal concern.
GB - interesting that the comments to that article included Strassmann’s ‘Do computers improve productivity?’ from 20 years back. Some of his comments about actual data are still appropriate. I can accept that the internet has boosted productivity, as has CAD-CAM (just refit your kitchen to see the practical value of that one), the several technologies that attend to navigation, stock control in wholesale/retail and related agricultural processes.
DeleteWhen I put a PC-based system in my organisation, I emphasised that the system came with a ‘learn to touch type’ program. Over the next couple of years, self-styled computer nerds came to me seeking something with the next chip that they had read about in a magazine, that was so many milliseconds faster with whatever processing test. First question I would ask was ‘how fast can you touch type?’. Not a single person took the trouble to acquire that skill, and that alone would have given them gains in processing speed several times the gains claimed in the magazine reviews of hardware.
I still watch closely when ‘experts’ and ‘consultants’ appear on TV, at their keyboard, to show how smart they are - and the majority still hunt and tap the keys. I think the fact that we have retained ‘qwerty’ layout says a lot.
That is anecdote, but I do wonder about real gains in productivity of goods and services from the personal computer.
Oh - and it would be 40 years since I had a demonstration from Wang of how they were developing speech recognition so we could all produce documents by dictation. A family member has served until recently on a judicial body, where they dictated their decisions - that were then polished by a steno/typist. Progress at about the same rate as nuclear fusion?
We could spend a lot of time tracking individual industries - for example, does the current spate of demolishing houses and office buildings to replace them with similar - but ‘modern’ replacements, represent a gain in productivity? Particularly when that rebuilding does not greatly improve the energy efficiency of the replacement?
The much more significant issue is William Baumol’s ‘cost disease’ - ‘the rise of wages in jobs that have experienced little or no increase in labor productivity, in response to rising salaries in other jobs that have experienced higher productivity growth’. The Wiki has a neat explanation.
As ‘advanced’ nations shift the making of ‘things’ to other countries, while their own activity trends more to a service economy - the Baumol effect is more significant, and it would help if politicians, and those who claim to be economists advising them, were more aware of this.
A few days ago Jane Hume, who has qualifications in commerce from the University of Melbourne, claims wide experience in the finance sector, and held several financial portfolios in the ScoMo administration - was being interviewed on ‘Sky’ about assorted government financial matters. After decrying the government’s move for a substantial increase in pay for workers in aged care facilities, she was asked did she not support a pay rise there? Oh yes, she smiled - but only if there was a commensurate increase in productivity.
That encapsulates the quality of comment from the side of Australian politics that claims to understand the economy and business.
Thanks for that, Chad. I did have some idea of the Baumol 'cost disease'- after all, how many notes can an opera singer sing per hour for how many hours per day.
DeleteBut 'increase in productivity' in aged care ? That's as good as asking for an increase in GP productivity, isn't it ? Or maybe say bus or tram drivers: drive them faster and stop less often ?
Though having spent a lot of my employed life - and even more so now - doing two fingered typing on a laptop keyboard, perhaps I should see about getting spoken input - after all, that's how the blind have to do it, don't they ?
But talking about steno/typists I'm sure you would be quite familiar with the days of 'live' steno/typist capture of politicians for Hansard. Then compare their proficiency and accuracy with that of the live text captioning for various tv programs.
GB - I was lost in admiration at how articulate I was when my speech was reported by Hansard from proceedings of Parliamentary select committees, or estimates hearings. Those people had a truly rare talent, which was too often taken for granted by the more narcissistic politicians. If they - 'Hansard' - had wanted to, they could have made almost any speaker come across as a verbal klutz, but all within the bounds of fair reporting. As it was, we all came across as articulate, polished, devoid of backtrackings, solecisms and grammatical goofs.
DeleteThe scaley ones think they are onto something with the $275 savings on power bills, don’t they? Why, it’s only half of what Abbott promised when he scrapped the ETS. A friend still jokes about waiting for his cheque in the mail.
ReplyDelete‘The use of small modular reactors is still at an early stage’. So, Nick, mate - be visionary. Follow the lead of your fellow talker to ‘Sky’, expert on everything and reliable sourpuss - Prue McSween - and lead us through the 4 orders of magnitude that are all that is between (Ta Da - ) Australian company HB11 Energy and commercial fusion reactors.
ReplyDeleteIf you are going to dream - dream BIG.
Or are you constrained by ethical considerations? No doubt, after Ms McSween’s promo, you decided that, as a ‘sophisticated investor’ with the future of the country at heart - you would take up a piece of HB11, and your powerful ethical sense now prevents your speaking too favourably about this remarkable technology, even though you were relying on some investments in this ‘technology’ stuff to regenerate the savings, so depleted by having to pay the already-rich Wagners because of that silly court finding.
But has he paid the Wagners, Chad ? I haven't seen any reference to that anywhere. Unless he paid even more in order to get an NDA attached to the payment.
DeleteGB - in normal circumstances, the local newspaper might report on whether that had been paid, but the 'Toowoomba Chronicle' is still part of reptile world, and really only acknowledges issues that fit with the often weird version of Right Religious Liberal politics that represents that city. Those RRLs are currently running with a theme of 'huge waste of money in Wellcamp quarantine facility' - which they can take direct from the 'Courier Mail' and not even have to rephrase. Of course, had local Federal member, sometime Minister for Agriculture, Littleproud actually delivered on his brain snap of a 'special agricultural worker visa', then there would not be a serious shortage of labour as local fruit and vege growers approach spring. But there is, so the fault lies with the state government, and the Wagners, for building the facility that could have had overseas workers being flown into this district directly (Wellcamp can handle full international flights)
Deletefor most of this year. And don't look to any of the major farm lobby groups for any kind of support for this - Littleproud now having risen to top flea on the nationals dog.
Ah well you can't let any old citizens take entrepreneurial action, now can you - only fully licensed neoliberal politicians; especially those of the country member - yes, we remember - variety can do that.
DeleteBut I'm just wondering from where NickyC would get the shekels to pay for it. And I don't imagine either the MRC or the Murdoch media coughing up the cash either.
"the remarkably silly Chinese ambassador out and about yesterday, claiming that the Taiwanese couldn't wait to give up their freedumb and join a one man dictatorship". They'll be rapturously welcomed as liberators, just like the Russians in Ukraine. Especially since that "one man", unlike Putin, is the fully certified "Son of Heaven"
ReplyDeleteGosh, that’s a very different look for the Caterist! The name remains the same, so I assume that this isn’t some “Better Call Saul”- type attempt to avoid some sort of complex legal matters by adopting a new identity - at least not yet. Still it’s nice to see Nick continuing to display the engineering expertise that forms part of any UK Sociology degree.
ReplyDeleteSheesh, Anon, you made the pond realise he was probably taking a leaf out of Jeff Bridges' multiple identities in The Old Man ... or perhaps he's just pissing on the rug, even though the rug really tied the quarry together ...
DeleteDon't reckon he'd be such a come-on to 'Beautiful Daisy' nowadays, then.
DeleteBut hey, even the Bromancer hasn't quite got his youthful boyish charm any more either.