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Here are 5 things to know about black teeth. Japanese women used to blacken their teeth and shave off their eyebrows post marriage, prior to the mid nineteenth century. Ohagaru was practiced up until the Meiji era. It is interesting to view this custom through the lens of our current 21C obsession with very white teeth. Some see this as further evidence of the control and denigration of the human rights of Japanese women in their traditional society, whilst others disagree with this conclusion. Early western anthropologists described ohagaru as an abhorrent custom, which disfigured women. The custom was, also, practiced in parts of China by minority groups.
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There are those that blog and those that don’t. I would posit that there are many more non-bloggers out there than the dedicated and diligent keyboard artists. Here are 5 top reasons to blog. Writing is for many an undiscovered joy and a challenging chore, when they are forced to record their thoughts on screen in print. Many owners of websites outsource all the boring bits to poorly paid writers, who are, often, located in the third world. Now, of course AI can do all that too. Communication via the written word is, somehow, seen as arcane and not worth the effort. Which means that we have a lot of bad writing and poorly constructed sentences adorning the pages of the world wide web. However, despite this, blogging is the new medium for the essay.
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We use the terms Right and Left as shorthand for political persuasions. So, what are 8 things that mean you’re right wing? In the current climate, this is likely to indicate that this person shares exclusionary cultural attitudes, which could be categorised as racist, maybe white supremacist, supports the ‘trad wife’ gender positioning, doesn’t like much government regulation, is anti-immigration, and wants to pay as little tax as possible. Whereas those on the left may support socialism, which is more and better government regulation, wants to see greater respect for diversity in all its forms, an expansion of power sharing beyond the white male cohort, and wealth being taxed to create real equity among more of us.
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AI is coming for your job. As someone who has just been replaced by an automated program this is real, let me tell you. In light of this it is pertinent to remember that Australia punishes the unemployed economically. It is bipartisan policy of Australian governments to provide below the poverty line welfare payments to the unemployed. This has been going on for decades and is one of the reasons why we have a substantial number of older Australians living in poverty. These folk cannot afford to visit the dentist to get treatment because it is too expensive and dental is not included in Medicare. This in one of the wealthiest nations on earth.
Do you find reading stuff to be a bit of a drag? Are you always on the look out for an easy hack? The bad news is that if you don’t exercise your brain function you will pay for it later on. Use it or lose it! Technology may seem great and so convenient, but it is dumbing us down and charging us for the service at the same time. Reading utilises different parts of the brain than watching videos. Processing the meaning of words and sentences makes you smarter and not the machine. Ruminating on important stuff via reading essays will make you wiser. Here are 5 good reasons why reading will save your brain.
The last refuge of the incompetent is violence, to paraphrase a line attributed to Isaac Asimov. This truism is particularly apt for Donald J Trump and his regime in the United States. Busy stuffing up the world’s greatest economy, Trump and his cronies are now turning to violence to compensate. Venezuela is their first port of call, amid BS about attacking drug dealers, they are going after this nation’s oil. Venezuela has the world’s largest reserves of thick crude oil. The bully in the White House is picking on a weaker opponent, as bullies always do. You do not see Mister Trump taking on Vladimir Putin and Russia. This is despite the fact that Putin’s Russia is clearly the biggest villain in international terms. No, Trump and his kind pick on the weak, like undocumented immigrants in America.
Rupert Murdoch upon being questioned about Fox News and its blatant political bias defended it via these words. “It is not red or blue, it is green.” Green as in greenbacks, the American currency. Murdoch, the owner of Fox News, was telling us that the primary role of his network was to make money by exploiting the market for right wing news. The fact that Rupert Murdoch himself is a rabid supporter of right wing politics is neither here nor there, according to the billionaire businessman. I leave it to you the reader to weigh up the truthfulness of said statements. That news networks, like Fox, have left the anchoring principle of ‘objectivity’ far behind in their pursuit of viewers and advertising revenue is the real shame here. What is the point of having news platforms at all if they only tell one side of the story? It is not journalism but PR. The media and its role in our lives has been diminished by purveyors of it like Rupert Murdoch.
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It is amazing how often fate treats hubristic behaviour in lives of the rich and famous. It is, as if, a certain point is reached or crossed by the individual and this releases the hounds of hell upon them. Isaac Heeney, the No#1 rated player in the AFL for much of the season and the poster boy for toothpaste smiles has come a cropper in the shady wee hours of Melbourne with a lap dancer. Isaac Heeney: The boy next door is no more. No, the nice lad we once knew has morphed into a dirtbag hero. Strippers or exotic dancers crying sexual assault rings in the ears of the greater public. Victoria police are investigating an alleged sex crime and Heeney is at the centre of it.
Crime Footy Fresh Media News Police Sport It is amazing how often fate treats hubristic behaviour in lives of the rich and famous. It is, as if, a certain point is reached or crossed by the individual and this releases the hounds of hell upon them. Isaac Heeney, the No#1 rated player in the AFL for much of the season and the poster boy for toothpaste smiles has come a cropper in the shady wee hours of Melbourne with a lap dancer. Isaac Heeney: The boy next door is no more. No, the nice lad we once knew has morphed into a dirtbag hero. Strippers or exotic dancers crying sexual assault rings in the ears of the greater public. Victoria police are investigating an alleged sex crime and Heeney is at the centre of it.
Crime Footy Fresh Media News Police Sport
It is amazing how often fate treats hubristic behaviour in lives of the rich and famous. It is, as if, a certain point is reached or crossed by the individual and this releases the hounds of hell upon them. Isaac Heeney, the No#1 rated player in the AFL for much of the season and the poster boy for toothpaste smiles has come a cropper in the shady wee hours of Melbourne with a lap dancer. Isaac Heeney: The boy next door is no more. No, the nice lad we once knew has morphed into a dirtbag hero. Strippers or exotic dancers crying sexual assault rings in the ears of the greater public. Victoria police are investigating an alleged sex crime and Heeney is at the centre of it.
Crime Footy Fresh Media News Police Sport
I am putting my hand up to confess that I am a longtime supporter of the Sydney Swans. What did Confucious say? ‘May you live during interesting times’ or words to that effect, perhaps. Regular readers may be aware of the many posts I have written about the fortunes of the red and white AFL side this year. In an ironic twist, I have been bemoaning the lack of on-field mongrel in this normally squeaky clean team. Hells bells, I did not wish to shake down the thunder from the sky. What I wanted was some more fight and desperation out on the footy field. What we have all got, it appears, is some God awful, alleged sexual assault.
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I hate to harp on a topic but… The Sydney Swans missing mongrel factor for finals remains a major concern. There I was chatting with a Brisbane Lion’s supporter whilst playing golf and this person was complimenting the Swans on a good season so far. I had to qualify the praise with a reality check because the Swans have struggled to beat top 4 teams this season. The Lions had monstered Sydney very recently in a contest at the Gabba. Things are getting real now, as the AFL finals are mere weeks away. Winning contest and applying physical pressure for 4 quarters are crucial elements if you want to win football finals.
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The Sydney Swans have taken on the old Muhammad Ali rope-a-dope strategy, it seems. Absorb the opposition’s punishment for most of the match and then come out all guns blazing at the death knock. In this edition, Bloods sacrifice to beat Saints. Unfortunately for Will Edwards and James Rowbottom it was their blood and bone sacrifices on the altar of victory. A terrible injury for the rookie defender Will Edwards has finished his brilliant season prematurely. Rowbottom will likely be back for the finals. The Swans needed this win to hold onto second spot on the AFL ladder and it did not come cheaply.
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Supposedly we live in an age defined economically, where the dollar worth of everything matters most. Why then are our politicians and their strategists forever focusing attention upon cultural stuff? The war on woke, the attacks on LGBTQI folk, and the endless anti-elite ethos. Every politician and political party wants to stand with the ordinary voter, apparently. Finger pointing at those categorised as elite reinvokes the old class warfare it seems. We the people vs those individuals too superior to represent our interests. These are all manipulations and part and parcel of the politics of grievance.
The expression feet of clay is meant to indicate the flawed earthly nature of man. Donald J Trump has always been a most unlikely candidate for saviour and champion of any group. White America and Christian Nationalists have got behind the former president as their guy they are hoping to put back in the White House. Trump is facing multiple criminal and civil indictments in courts across the country. Only the most partisan and cultish among his supporters could fail to recognise the writing on the wall when it comes to Trump’s likely fate. It tells us that America’s orange Jesus has clay feet.
In Australia, we live in one of the most concentrated corporate markets in the world. In every sector duopolies and oligopolies control markets to the detriment of competition and consumers. Surely it’s time to stop all mergers. Mergers benefit companies and shareholders at the expense of the market. Productivity is not improved via this concentration of corporate control over markets. This can be observed via the evidence, as the concentration of market power into the hands of fewer businesses has accompanied years of falling productivity. If companies don’t need to compete for market share they do not innovate and improve productivity rates.
America has made its bed and now it has to lie in it. A while ago, expert political strategists worked out that voters engage more fully with the democratic electoral system on an emotive level than a mere rational one. Therefore, they made negative attack ads which painted their candidate’s political opponents as demons. These campaign strategists formulated speeches and oped content full of emotive finger pointing about stuff upsetting sections of the electorate. In a culture of complaint they developed the politics of grievance. This has now culminated with presidential candidate Trump, who lights the bonfire of hate every time he opens his mouth to speak.
Australians spend most of their money and time buying and selling property to the tune of $400 billion every year. That is not making anything new or manufacturing useful things for the world. The Great Australian Dream is home ownership and that has become a very expensive obsession for most of us. What it does do is make our banks very rich and provides real estate agents and state governments with their fair share too. Australia wasting its money and future on housing market is a troubling indicator of where we are as a nation.
They say that you can tell a lot about a nation/culture by the kind of movies that comes out of that country. Well, American movies are by and large full of guns and really stupid characters doing dumb things. Films and popular culture are a mirror held up to that nation. No wonder democracy is reputedly on its last legs in the US of A. The greater mass of American movies are dire tripe. The screenplays of many of them must have been written by 13 year old’s with foetal alcohol syndrome (with apologies to 13 YO’s). The plot, characterisation, and dialogue are so putrid that turning them off is the only option. American movies celebrating guns says a lot about the culture. Amazon, as a streaming service, must have the worst selection of American films I have witnessed in a long time. Dumb and dumber must be their mission statement or cheap and cheaper perhaps.
The state supreme court in Colorado has declared Donald J Trump unfit to be on the ballot for the 2024 presidential race in that state. Many of us who have been following the Trump vs democracy saga would say – about bloody time! How can you have a candidate vying for the presidency who continually casts doubt upon the veracity of the electoral system? A man who promulgates ‘the big lie’ that he was robbed of victory in the 2020 election. This is despite numerous private and judicial enquiries into election fraud finding nothing that merits this erroneous belief. Even the investigator paid by Trump’s own legal team has come out and said he found nothing.
My late mother loved the ABC. She was a big fan of Philip Adams: and attended the Save Our ABC rallies back in the day. I wonder what she would make of the shallow rendition of the national broadcaster today. The ABC has lost its way after a decade of Coalition bullying. Budgets were slashed and repeated threats were made to the management about apparent bias. There was no bias, it was just the journalists and presenters standing up to the government and holding them accountable.
The sudden axing of the ABC’s current affairs programme The Drum is the final nail in the coffin for a progressive national broadcaster. More than a decade of Coalition sniping and undermining of the ABC has denuded it. Silencing of The Drum death knell for […]
The Murdoch’s News Corp is at it again in Australian politics, making news rather than reporting on it. Sky News Australia, that blatantly one eyed right wing tabloid TV channel, is hard at it beating up BS into inflammatory stories. Calling out the fear mongers. Liberal party cronies and ex-staffers bleat non-stop anti-Albanese malarkey. The Australian newspaper in concert with Newspoll declares major popularity slump for the ALP federal government. This strategy of polling to start anti-government waves of public sentiment has been a long standing one for News Corp. They can then run multiple stories across their platforms with headlines about midterm slumps. The rest of the corporate media picks up these stories and runs with them, including the now chastened ABC.
