![George Kurtz, CEO of Crowdstrike/Source: Web Summit](https://quadrant.org.au/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/44852025415_9c38a8e81b_k.jpg)
Anxious Visions in a Blue Screen
Like many Australians, I had just finished watching the live telecast of Donald Trump’s inspiring speech at last week’s Republican Convention following his miraculous survival of an assassination attempt when, suddenly, the screen pixelated then died. Trump had just recounted how he had survived the sniper’s bullet that nipped his ear just as he turned his head to look at a screen showing illegal immigration numbers, The coverage immediately suffered the equivalent of sudden cardiac arrest.
We didn’t know why, but at the same moment, other news channels also went on the blink, along with supermarket checkouts, banking systems, a wide range of commercial enterprises and health networkss. Lines formed at airports as flights were cancelled globally and aircraft at some international airports were placed on holding patterns as runways were occupied by planes unable to take off. We were soon informed by a couple of stalwarts on Sky News that it was all the result of a…
We are encouraged to rely more and more on government officials to do for us what we could equally well do for ourselves—and, maybe more importantly, not to do what might help us solve our own problems.
Sep 08 2024
10 mins
If we imagine a metric called the Pinocchio Scale, which measures the number of lies told by a politician as a percentage of his or her overall public statements, our current prime minister (for want of a better description), Airbus Albo, has moved well into uncharted territory.
Sep 06 2024
5 mins
The proportions of Aboriginal children and young people placed in a relative or kin placement or with an Aboriginal foster carer have decreased, and the proportion of Aboriginal children who were reunified with their families has declined.
Aug 29 2024
17 mins