For the record: 28-8-2015

So proud of Melbourne today.

"Show us your papers" was never going to work in MELBOURNE.

thatched heir

If it looks like a Thatcher and acts like a Thatcher then ... here is our Foreign Minister and her Prues n Trudes. She played hard and dirty sacking by telephone our NY Consul-General Steve Bracks.
If I was as mean as, I would photoshop a face on this -

vote early

Today at The Guardian - 'whistleblowers play a crucial role in keeping the "public reason" alive. Assange, Manning, Snowden, these are our new heroes, exemplary cases of the new ethics that befit our era of digitalised control. They are no longer just whistleblowers who denounce the illegal practices of private companies to the public authorities; they denounce these public authorities themselves when they engage in "private use of reason".

We need Mannings and Snowdens in China, in Russia, everywhere. There are states much more oppressive than the US – just imagine what would have happened to someone like Manning in a Russian or Chinese court (in all probability no public trial). However, one should not exaggerate the softness of the US: true, the US doesn't treat prisoners as brutally as China or Russia – because of its technological priority, it simply does not need the brutal approach (which it is more than ready to apply when needed). In this sense, the US is even more dangerous than China insofar as its measures of control are not perceived as such, while Chinese brutality is openly displayed.

It is therefore not enough to play one state against the other (like Snowden, who used Russia against the US): we need a new international network to organise the protection of whistleblowers and the dissemination of their message. Whistleblowers are our heroes because they prove that if those in power can do it, we can also do it.'

capTURING an innocent person

Today I was pleased to read that other people are aggravated by those silly twisted CAPTCHA words.
I don't have Word Verification on any of my blogs.  It's already hard to get comments.
The Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, abbreviated as CAPTCHA (instead of CAPTTTCAHA )
My favourite acronym is FFS.  (I actually think I pioneered it, but that's another post for another day)
That the developers have dragged poor Alan Turing into this blurred vision also aggravates me. Poor innocent man had enough trouble in his life without this.
That is all.

Karma Kami Matteoli on

Who would have thought, that even before 2DayFM got into the London inquest for suicide Jacintha Saldanha, that the dramatic arc would be repeated? (rhetorical, answer – nobody).
The entire (well-fed) world came down like a ton of bricks onto Mel Greig and her colleague after they did something they had done without drama more than once before, when they did it to a person who unknown to them of course,  just happened to be chronically depressed.
When the FBI asked for members of the public to come forward if they recognised the men who might be the Boston Marathon terrorists, Kami Mattioli thought one resembled Sunil from her school class of 13 years ago. The sometimes UNsociable Network Of The Usual Suspects gave this an instant virtual explosion almost as harmful as the actual one.

                                                       "and then hit Reddit"



Now only her 6000 Followers can post comments to her Twitter and she is no doubt bracing herself for the virtual/ethernet lynch mob, after she tried to do the right thing.  Unfortunately, as with 2DayFM and Nurse Saldanha, this involved a chronically depressed person.

He has now been found dead, but was aware before this, that he had been mistakenly suspected, and had emailed various friends to set them straight. I would risk serious money betting that Ms Mattioli has never heard of the 2DayFM phone prank, or of Nurse Saldanha.
The student, Sunil Tripathi was a Brown University philosophy major nearing graduation and ‘was last seen on March 16 on a surveillance camera after leaving his apartment at 1:33 a.m., and his family has been frantically searching for him for a month. There is no evidence tying Tripathi to the bombings.’ ‘6 feet 2 inches tall. Tripathi left his apartment without his wallet and cell phone. ABC News reported that he was "possibly depressed and left home without any of his belongings."’ A Facebook page dedicated to finding Tripathi was taken down by his family late Thursday night after suspicions about his involvement in the Boston bombing were posted on Reddit. The Facebook page was flooded with comments that were quickly deleted before the page was taken down.'

Alexis C Madrigal lays out the sequence of events on The Atlantic magazines website, but this was written pre-suicide and could disappear if the legalities that follow a death require it. Even this (pre-suicide) April 19th Buzzfeed report by Andrew Kaczynski might disappear, and it is good so please read it while you can.
It is ridiculous of me to even dwell on all this when elsewhere there is massive repression, starvation, corruption, and mass deaths of various kinds every day, but nobody would argue with my opinion of those things. There are many suspicious things to discuss with regard to The Saldanha Inquest, and the similarity of this situation required addressing.
Sunil had taken leave with permission from his philosophy course and had gone bush. His emotional state was apparently known to be fragile. If it had not been, he would have returned and probably been propelled with Kami into their 15 minutes of fame and laughed the whole thing off while raising money for the injured victims of the real bombers.
But he was fragile and now he is dead and it is not her fault, just as the death of Jacintha is not the fault of Mel Greig.
The Tripathi parents will probably not have the confluence of a Keith Vaz, MP, and a posh hospital to propel them into legal action and claims, as with Nurse Saldanha, but the tabloid public have been flung fresh sustenance in Ms Mattioli. Poor girl. What happens next will affect any future assistance the FBI might get from The Public.

not keen Keane

I get the bus. 
I got a MYKI on the first day it was sold in Ballarat in the winter of 2009. On arriving home I telephoned to register it and spoke with ‘Luke’. He gave me various security code numbers which I noted, but registering online-use proved too difficult for him to achieve and we both gave up. I should have realised how important this was.
I topped it’s balance up by $20 only days ago and used it normally on Tuesday 22nd January.
On Thursday 24th it was stone dead unusable. I bought a Daily ticket to travel.
On arriving home I went online to deal with my various MYKI numbers and ‘register’. 
No deal because ‘your MYKI has expired’.
I start from first-base to re-register and purchase online. DOB, address and phone are required in order to catch a bus. After giving all that, I got – ‘we already have that name’, ‘that email’ etc.

It would seem that I was supposed to organise my online use, and a new card, with transfer of my $20 balance, sometime before Wednesday 23rd January. 
 Where was that written? 
 How many thousands of similar balances are now in limbo?
‘Keane Australia Micropayment Consortium Pty Ltd (Kamco) is the Melbourne-based company

‘Kamco is wholly owned by Keane International Incorporated, a privately owned IT services company

From their ‘Overview’ page:
‘Employing more than 100 people in Melbourne, Australia, Kamco also boasts a dedicated team of software developers and testers in Hyderabad, India 
From their FAQ page: ‘Kamco is headquartered in Melbourne, Australia. It also uses a dedicated development and testing team operating out of Hyderabad, India.’

‘Keane has been in operation since 1965, employing more than 10,000 people across 11 countries.
Kamco was formed in 2005 to bid for the New Ticketing Solution.

‘Kamco is a single purpose entity, established to build and operate the myki ticketing system on behalf of the State Government of Victoria.

In July 2005 Kamco was awarded the contract to build, operate and maintain the NTS (myki) system. Kamco is contracted to run the myki system for 10 years following implementation. Key among those subcontractors has been Giesecke-Devrient, which provides the cards and ACS Solutions Switzerland, which provides the software, maintenance, and: 1,000 ticket vending machines, 12,200 fare payment machines, 2,500 bus driver consoles, 1,000 tram driver consoles, 1,500 hand held devices for Transit Inspectors, 220 train station gates, 220 ticket office terminals, and 900 retail terminals'.  (for those 94,000 square miles of State - Ed.)

Keane Australia Micropayment Consortium Pty Ltd (Kamco) is at Level 14, 628 Bourke Street, Melbourne.
 I would like Level 14 at 628 Bourke to go down in history as the site of 

the Second Eureka Stockade.

today in the 'Rat

Today I went to

Ballarat Fine Art Gallery

and saw an exhibit of works

by Michael Shannon.

Any of them would be a

pleasure to view daily.

I also had to see the re-installed and

revered Eureka Flag after the restoration work.

The room it is in is very dark and flash is not permitted,

so I am surprised at the image really.

Seeing this flag is my version of

hallowed ground.

"The design of the flag was taken by Captain Henry Ross, one of Eureka's miners and a Canadian expatriate, to three women, Anastasia Withers, Anne Duke and Anastasia Hayes, to sew up in time for a large rally at Bakery Hill, at 2.00 pm on 29 November 1854. ".

Can you imagine the life of a woman on the diggings? All mud, dust, and tired drunken men. A bit like waiting for a popstar boyfriend to strike it rich with a hit record.

As I came out of the gallery a bike club

was assembled to resume

their ride to Warrnambool.

If you click to embiggen, you will see

a Ned Kelly doll lashed to one bike and he

has a Smurf in his pocket. I had not

been aware that Ned's infamous suit of iron

even had a pocket, but I did enjoy

the outlaw confluence of bikers,

Ned, and

The Treacherous Event Of 1854.

From the bus stop on Sturt Street,

this alley next to the old post office has

a view of the Art School built behind the gallery recently ...

... and this is the view I had

while waiting to go

11 kilometres out to

the gum trees on the edge of town

where, in spite of the CFA advising

that the area is

not defendable should there be a bushfire,

it is very pleasant to be.

Update:

An attempt to enlarge Ned & his pocket Smurf.

The flag by someone allowed to assert themselves.

Majesty

Pre-Olympics Melbourne was so very different when Her Maj arrived in 1954 when small children were shepherded to the front of the crowds lining the streets, and sat cross-legged in safety, waiting for a glimpse of Her Maj. Those of us in school received a medallion, and I have been wearing mine this week, pointlessly in my remote seclusion.
This surreal illustration which appears to assume an 'inclusion' of various members of 'our society' is less real than if PIXAR had done it. embiggen, and then shreik.
The 'Pieta'-like glamour lubra and child defies opinion. I searched for artist name, they wisely 'anon'.
For those of you who have never trekked to the immediate proximity of Her Maj, trust me, the star thing applies. May she live long and prosper ...

revolution in the air

As I walked away from capturing this moment as they gathered in outrage, trams were unloading hundreds more.
I would have joined them if I hadn't another revolution to view a block away where the Bolsheviks would not have been amused at their story playing Her Majestys' Theatre.

(image by Ann O'Dyne)

It was wonderful (especially from the third row) - design, costume and performances. Recommended. Thank you to That's So Pants for making my day.