Norway just announced their sovereign wealth fund had reached $2 trillion, enough for $340,000 for every citizen currently alive. It’s built from decades of their national oil revenues and was designed to ensure long term stability after Norway’s natural resource supplies get depleted. They enjoy a very high quality of life.

Returns generated by the fund directly support vital public services including healthcare, education, and social security pensions, providing strong economic resilience during global market downturns.

Meanwhile Australia is siphoning off our natural resources for zero return to the Australian people, and hardworking Aussies are feeling the pain of cost of living, struggling to pay basic bills, housing, electricity, groceries.

It makes you wonder, does any political party have the guts to realise that full blown capitalism is not the way, and that the government looking after Aussie citizens, including by things like a sovereign wealth fund decently funded by our natural resources, is actually a good way to govern?

Does any voter base have the brains to step down from the grandstanding “it’s either captialism or communism there’s no in between!!!” and consider that we’ve got the balance wrong and it’s time to consider actually supporting a government that looks after its people first ?

I have raybans that are not smart. Basically your normal sunglasses.

Because of all of those people using them for spying, people now ask me ,”are those the creep glasses”

I even got asked at my new work “those are those creep glasses right?”

The tech itself is not bad but people’s use of them gave them a bad reputation.

An Australian volunteer known as 'Mozzie' has been confirmed killed in Ukraine.

Mozzie served first with the Royal Australian Regiment. He later volunteered for the International Legion for the Defense of Ukraine, working as an infantryman and combat medic with Med Team Alpha under the GUR, Ukraine’s Main Directorate of Intelligence. In an interview with the International Legion in June, he put his reason simply: he was tired of training and wanted to use the skills he had actually been taught for.

This is an excerpt from a tribute his closest brother in arms wrote after he was gone: “Mozzie was the bravest soldier I have ever known, and he was my brother. As a combat medic he pulled countless people back from the edge, and he also took out multiple enemies. I was there for most of what he did in this war. After everything we had already been through, very few still wanted to keep fighting. Mozzie did.

One example: after the enemy opened fire first and killed his team leader and his best friend, Mozzie dropped four of them. What followed was two against six. He still won. Then he kept his team leader alive as long as he could until a vehicle got there to take him out."

Rest easy, Mozzie.

Source: https://x.com/specialopsmag/status/2094440619586281785?s=20

RIP Mozzie, ur duty is done.

No palms were harmed in the making of your Schnitzel

Attorney-General Michelle Rowland has called on Pauline Hanson to reflect on her own behaviour and her party's ideology after the One Nation leader accused the prime minister of inciting political violence.

While Ms Rowland said it was becoming increasingly dangerous to be a high-profile female politician in Australia, she said Senator Hanson should reflect on how her own rhetoric was "encouraging" extreme behaviour.

"I don't wish any politician any ill will, irrespective of their political persuasion, but I think sometimes when comments like this are made, one needs to look at oneself and one's behaviour and the kinds of standards that they accept into their own party and their own ideology," she said.

"When you go on and you entertain some of the individuals whom she has been entertaining, who are not only convicted criminals, when you admit that you have a party that has been infiltrated by extremists and neo-Nazis, this is exactly the kind of danger to which politicians are being put in this country."

So far this year been contacted about data breaches 3 times, by

* An energy company

* A medical centre

* A telehealth website

A shopper walks into a supermarket and grabs a basket. By that time, a camera has scanned their face. 

That is what experts warn could be the new normal for Australians.

Supermarkets started with exit gates and bagging-area cameras. Now they are trialling facial recognition technology.

In August, Coles and Woolworths rolled out facial recognition technology trials in a bid to combat crime with about a third of retail workers not feeling safe in their workplace, according to a union survey of about 3,000 staff.

Last week, Coles reported that incidents of abuse towards retail staff had increased by 85 per cent over the past two years in Victoria.

The technology scans the features of a person's face to create a unique digital code and identify them.

Neither of the supermarket giants has said if it would be rolled out in their Australian stores.

However, both companies said they were looking into improving protection for their customers and staff.

Industry groups say the move is about safety, but experts warn once the technology is installed the "scope creep" does not stop.

'Scope creep'

Scope creep, also known as function creep, is when society incrementally allows things to happen over time that people feel uncomfortable about.

"We let it pass and all of a sudden you see a layering of the technology being used for more privacy-intrusive purposes," said responsible technology policy specialist Lauren Perry from the University of Technology Sydney.

She is concerned face scans could shift from safety and security to customer experience in ways that could disadvantage and harm the consumer.

The layering of new technologies such as face scan-enabled EFTPOS machines and the widespread rollout of digital price tags across supermarkets could tailor the real-life shopping experience.

"I hear people say, 'I don't really care about my personal information that much. It's all over the internet anyway. I've got nothing to hide,'" she said.

"You've only got one face. You can change your password if it gets hacked … but you can't change your face.

"Would every single person who walks into a supermarket have to give up their sensitive biometric data to buy a bottle of milk?"

Facial data gives companies more information about consumer purchasing behaviour and how they move through the store, paving the way for options like discriminatory pricing, Ms Perry said.

"Now they have your face, they have your loyalty card, your bank card, they can piece together a pretty clear picture of individual shopping behaviours," she said.

"For example, supermarkets know that a lot of women visit suburban grocery stores with their kids at the end of the school day. They could use this information to jack up the prices of things like lunch box foods at those stores."

A Coles spokesperson told the ABC: "While no decision has been made about the use of this technology, we absolutely reject any claim that this technology would be used to monitor team or regular shoppers, or for marketing or pricing purposes."Facial data gives companies more
information about consumer purchasing behaviour and how they move
through the store, paving the way for options like discriminatory
pricing, Ms Perry said."Now
they have your face, they have your loyalty card, your bank card, they
can piece together a pretty clear picture of individual shopping
behaviours," she said."For
example, supermarkets know that a lot of women visit suburban grocery
stores with their kids at the end of the school day. They could use this
information to jack up the prices of things like lunch box foods at
those stores."A
Coles spokesperson told the ABC: "While no decision has been made about
the use of this technology, we absolutely reject any claim that this
technology would be used to monitor team or regular shoppers, or for
marketing or pricing purposes."

What tf is happening in Sydney???

People can immediate Permanent residency off these visas when they just end up as Uber driver. These type of visas should be banned in favor of 482 visas which are tied to an employer and instead of the minimum wage required only being 79,499 it should be lifted to at least 120000 that way you ensure that it is an actually skill shortage that needs to be filled. This combined with Albo actually lowering the refugee intake would be a great way to lower the NOM.

‘She needs to look at herself’: Nationals leader Matt Canavan calls for Attorney-General Michelle Rowland to back down from One Nation neo-Nazi comments | News24

I work in an Italian restaurant in a primarily Anglo part of Melbourne. I frequently hear my coworkers (who are all Italians straight from Italy) complain that customers leave a little bit of food on their plate - usually deliberately. The manager specifically singled out older women for doing this.

I am of Anglo descent and was taught by my grandmother to leave a bite to show that the portions were filling. I assumed this was an English/Australian thing until I recently learned that this is in fact a Chinese tradition.

Is this something Australian culture adopted from Chinese culture a long time ago or do most Anglo-Australians still clean their plate to show it was satisfying?

A school parent has been bashed by a student trained in martial arts during a violent showdown after class.

The fired-up father arrived at Wollert Secondary College, in Melbourne’s north, to confront students who had allegedly been bullying his daughter when he was thrown to the ground and repeatedly punched in the face.

A bystander was also caught in the crossfire and slammed against a fence.

It took a scolding from a yard duty teacher to temporarily stop the fight, which then spilled out onto the roadside.

The incident happened at the school last Monday, with the video only surfacing now.

Another video shows violence erupting for a third time at a bus stop.

Police responded on the day, but no complaint was made.

Education campaigners say the Victorian school system needs urgent overhaul.

“This is an example of a culture where we’ve become so adversarial, we’ve become so determined to get our own way, we’ve become so determined that vengeance is the only right here, that we’ve stopped learning how to collaborate as an instinct,” education expert Adam Voight of Real Schools said.

“We need to remember how we build good young people, and we need to remember that a lot of that is tied to the example that we’ve set them.”

A man has been shot and killed in a terrifying home invasion in Sydney’s southwest.

The man, believed to be in his 20s, was found with a gunshot wound at Mount Sugarloaf Drive in Glen Alpine at about 3.40am on Tuesday.

Police were told the unknown intruders had fled the scene a short time before officers arrived.

The wounded man could not be saved and died at the scene.

He is yet to be formally identified.

The State Crime Command Homicide Squad has been called in to assist in the investigation.

Anybody with information has been urged to contact Crime Stoppers.

Tradies working on an old Port Adelaide building have been left stunned to discover what appeared to be a “live bomb” hidden behind a fireplace.

Brad Harrison was among the builders renovating the St Vincent Street property when they made the explosive discovery about 3.30pm on Monday.

“As we were pulling away the underneath of the fireplace, my work colleague pulled out a heavy metal object and upon closer inspection, we realised it was what looked to be a mortar,” Harrison told the ABC.

He described the object as resembling a mortar, with fins and a circular base.

“We didn’t know exactly what it was and what it might have been used for, but we did know that it resembled a bomb,” he said.

“We were a little bit on edge when we realised what it was.”

The builders called South Australia Police and were initially told the object appeared to be a bomb with its primer still intact.

“It was live. So if the bottom plate of it was hit hard enough, it would have shot off,” Harrison said.

“We were using crowbars and hammers and all sorts to tear the fireplace apart. Pretty close call.”

Police called in the Australian Defence Force to assess and dispose of the device.

It was ultimately determined to be an improvised mortar device that was not of military origin and contained no explosive or detonation device.

It remains unclear how the device came to be hidden behind the fireplace or how long it had been there.

SA Police confirmed no one was injured and there was no risk to the public.

“If members of the public locate or wish to surrender any explosives or related materials, they should not touch them or bring them into a police station,” police said in a statement.

“Instead, the public are asked to note the item’s appearance, take a photograph if safe to do so and call the Police Assistance Line on 131 444.”

Deputy Premier of Tasmania’s Guy Barnett has opposed a Greens bill intending to end conversion practices in the state. In correspondence first revealed by ABC News, Barnett told Women Speak Tasmania that the bill was “fundamentally flawed”.

“Sadly, the draft Bill risks criminalising conversations and or prayers in a church or religious setting,” Barnett wrote, before asking “what exactly is the problem the Greens seek to fix?”

Equality Tasmania spokesperson Rodney Croome said the problem is very clear.

“This bill is about prohibiting treatments that don’t work for a condition that doesn’t exist undertaken by people who aren’t qualified on victims who will be deeply harmed,” Croome said.

“National and local studies, including research commissioned by Guy Barnett’s own government, show that 1 in 20 LGBTIQA+ Tasmanians are duped into conversion practices and that as a result they have PTSD and attempt suicide at 3 to 4 times the rate of other LGBTIQA+ people.”

“The problem the bill is trying to solve is that conversion practices purport to ‘heal’ vulnerable LGBTIQA+ people but actually deeply harm and sometimes kill them.”

Mr Croome added the Tasmanian bill, which Barnett suggests is too extreme, is made up of elements nearly identical to what has been legislated elsewhere, with none of Barnett’s proposed problems ever coming to pass.

“The Tasmanian bill is made up of provisions from legislation in Victoria and NSW where no-one has been convicted for a conversation or a prayer, as Mr Barnett claims would happen in Tasmania. The sky hasn’t fallen in in the other states and it won’t fall in here either.

“Mr Barnett’s conversion bill, unveiled in 2023, had so many holes it would have encouraged conversion practices rather than ended them. His ill-informed attack on the key provisions of the current bill shows he isn’t serious about ending conversion practices and the harm they inflict.”

Both Mr Barnett and Women Speak Tasmania have called for a further inquiry before the bill is debated in parliament, despite an extensive consultation period, not to mention a comprehensive Tasmanian Law Reform Institute inquiry having been already released in 2022.

“There comes a point when further consultation is just about delaying what is an already overdue reform,” Croome said. “Tasmania risks being the last state to prohibit conversion practices just as we were the last state to decriminalise homosexuality.”