The Sad Demise of Human Resources Management?

The world is being taken over by extreme Left-Wing morons. Wokeness is becoming the new norm as the media, governments, academia, and other institutions fall over themselves to show how woke they are. There's hardly a Left Wing stupidity they don't adopt.

Now, according to an article you can find here, an academic and a co-author question whether universities still need a Human Resources Department. The basis of their argument, which is a sound one, is that the HR function has now become so woke, that it no longer fulfils a useful function. They referred to it as a parasite on the universities budget and resources.

When I left the full-time workforce in 2012 and began consulting for a few years, I could see the writing on the wall and was pleased to be old enough and well-heeled enough to retire. At around that time, my wife was a registered nurse and midwife and came home one day to give me the latest news fresh off the internet; the Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation had issued an edict that white staff dealing with non-white staff were to "apologise for being white." My wife was furious and we both agreed it was time to retire and escape from the stupidity of the new world.

The majority of my wife's 'patients' was indigenous, most of whom, at least in Central Australia are black. Without exception, they were pleased to have someone to provide essential care before, during and after childbirth. Needless to say, none of the midwives had any intention of apologising for being white, a condition that none had control over.

The UN Agenda 21 had a blurb about inculcating students at school with UN principles so that when they became adults, they would promote and support the UN Agenda, a bit like being brainwashed into a religion. We are seeing the benefits of that approach now with the irrational, stupid and often childish nonsense coming out of the mouths of our younger generations. Sadly, those old enough to know better are too afraid not to follow the new social trends for fear of being ostracised, de-platformed, fired, or worse.

Now, universities are paying high salaries to employe "Gender Equity Officers" and more importance is being placed in job applicants' focus and intention to promote and integrate Diversity, Equity and Inclusion into their working activities. It doesn't matter whether their specialism is engineering, science or social work, the weighting placed on those criteria is often greater than the qualifications and experience in their specialty. 

I suspect large numbers of students who can see the deterioration in the HR discipline will opt to do something else eg, law or accounting. I can understand why and if I had my time over again, I'd study politics/law, run for the Australian Senate and try to rectify some of the nonsense taking over.

What do you think?

Robin 

 

Destroying Civilisation - Now Maths is Racist

 Rod Liddle: We’re screeching into a new Dark Age, and bad scientists are leading the charge

The Sunday Times,12 December 2021
 
Stuck fast in a confined space between his mum and dad, Tane Mahuta eventually kicked out, sending his father, Ranginui, up to the sky and his mother, Papatuanuku, down to the earth. And that, ladies and gentlemen, is how the world was formed, according to Maori folklore.

A little later a demigod called Maui went fishing with a jawbone and was lucky enough to catch the north island of New Zealand, which is how it came into being. The south island was Maui’s canoe. A big canoe, then. I don’t know if the Maoris have an explanation for how their country’s prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, was brought into existence. Perhaps one of those demigods put some puppies in a blender.

The Tane Mahuta stuff is a colourful and possibly (your call) delightful explanation of the creation of the world — although not, for me, wholly persuasive. It is not notably more mad than the idea that an all-powerful God, probably masked up and working from home according to guidelines, put in an onerous six-day shift to create everything around us and then took Sunday off to watch the golf on Sky. We create these myths in darkness and hope that they will provide us with a little light until something genuinely illuminating comes along, such as science: evidence-based and empirical.

So, from New Zealand, comes more evidence that what I call the De-Enlightenment really is upon us. There, a government working party has demanded that the story of Tane Mahuta and his various strange relatives should be given equal emphasis when children are taught the origins of the world: equal emphasis, that is, to the stuff we know to be true. To the science.

One very eminent scientist called Garth Cooper, a professor of biochemistry and clinical biochemistry at the University of Auckland, slightly balked at this. He signed an open letter suggesting that, while it was important everybody knew about the interesting Maori take on creation, “In the discovery of empirical, universal truths, it falls far short of what we can define as science itself.”

You might have expected his colleagues to agree. Nope, not a bit of it. Cooper is in the process of being cancelled nationwide, with pretty much only the New Zealand Free Speech Union supporting him. The Royal Society of New Zealand has denounced him and he may be expelled from it. His own vice-chancellor at Auckland, a Brit called Dawn Freshwater, said he had caused “considerable hurt and dismay among our staff, students and alumni”.

A letter attacking him for causing “untold hurt and harm” was got up by two other academics. The first is Siouxsie Wiles, a pink-haired woman whose hobby is playing with Lego, despite her objections to the gender stereotypes inherent within Lego figurines. The other is Shaun Hendy, who is the mathematical modeller behind New Zealand’s policy of remaining within lockdown for ever in case someone dies. The letter was signed by more than 2,000 academics.

This story has not gained much traction in the British press, and when it has, it has been on the undoubtedly important issue of freedom of speech. Our own Richard Dawkins has written to the Royal Society of New Zealand voicing his incredulity.

Yet for once freedom of speech is not the crucial issue for me here. It is instead the burgeoning madness and stupidity, condescension and racism that are propelling us towards the De-Enlightenment. All of those academics, and the Royal Society, know full well that the Maori explanation for the creation of the world is not correct. And yet, hypocritically and patronisingly, they pretend otherwise.

The argument — facile beyond comprehension — is that science has been used by white, western, developed nations to underpin colonialism and is therefore tainted by its association with white supremacy. As Dawkins pointed out, science is not “white”. (The assumption that it is is surely racist.) Nor is it imperialist. It is simply a rather beautiful tool for discerning the truth.

It is not just New Zealand. Science is under attack in America and indeed here. Rochelle Gutierrez, an Illinois professor, has argued that algebra and trigonometry perpetuate white power and that maths is, effectively, racist.

Oxford University has announced that it intends to “decolonise” maths: “This includes steps such as integrating race and gender questions into topics.”

A lunacy has gripped our academics. They would be happy to throw out centuries of learning and brilliance for the sake of being temporarily right-on, and thus signalling their admirable piety to a young, approving audience.

It is an indulgence that, with every fatuous genuflection towards political correctness, is dragging us all backwards.

Will Victoria Become the Australian California?

According to news reports thousands of people and businesses are leaving California in the US to move to states like Texas and Florida. They are moving to escape from loony socialist governance, crime, dysfunctional cities, and associated high costs of living including taxes.

When I lived in Queensland from the 70s to 90s, people were moving from New South Wales, Victoria and other places to Queensland. We called them Mexicans. Most were looking for sunshine, less populated areas, and reduced costs of living, especially for housing. Taxes were never an issue since taxes across Australia are pretty much the same.

Between 1988 and 1991 I managed the business and computing department at the Bundaberg TAFE College and had, from memory, five people approach me about jobs in computing. Their stories were the same. They'd moved from Sydney to escape large cohorts of immigrants, too much traffic and high costs of housing. 

They could buy a decent house for $100,000 in Bundaberg and after selling their lower quality Sydney house for much more, live a lovely life near the Queensland coast. Unfortunately, they didn't do their homework regarding jobs. The region had very high unemployment and hardly any job vacancies at the time. 

Now we have a situation in Victoria where a socialist government has become more totalitarian than people want and has passed legislation that is, by any measure, apparently draconian. The state has become a Police State during the currently ongoing Covid-19 crisis and the legislation is a harbinger of things to come. People are worried.

I expect that there will be more than the usual number of people "escaping" Victoria's harsh regime for states with less oppressive regimes. Time will tell. Watch this space.

Robin

The Big Mushroom

Australia has a number of "The Big ... " geographical locations like The Big Banana and The Big Rocking Horse and The Toy Shop but nobody has The Big Mushroom.

My friend Leon turned up yesterday with a Big Mushroom, perhaps the biggest I have ever seen, the size of a dinner plate.

He also had a couple of large tubs full of mushrooms he was giving to anyone who wanted them. I love mushrooms so I accepted half a dozen and plan to fry them in some butter and have them on toast. None is as large as the one Leon demonstrates below, but they are nice-sized mushies and will be good to eat.

Leon gave the big mushroom to another friend of ours, which is good, as I probably wouldn't have had the heart to chop it up. Perhaps I may have preserved it somehow.

Leon is a farmer who grows several crops, none of which is mushrooms and he tells me these just "appeared" in the field. It must mean there is good soil and the right conditions for mushrooms to pop up.

Now I'm off to cook my mushies.

Robin

Malcolm Roberts Debates with a Moron

Few people are brave enough to debate Malcolm Roberts or numerous other genuine scientists about climate change because deep down, many who outwardly support the mainstream media and political agenda narrative, know that it's essentially bullshit.

In this short debate, Malcolm Roberts, a mining engineer who has done extensive research into the IPCC global warming agenda, demolishes some unknown fellow called Mark who talks a lot of disjointed "facts" without any real data.

There are hundreds of scientists and gifted amateurs who challenge the global narrative of extinction, alarmism, and the idea that somehow wind turbines and solar will ever provide sufficient energy to live decent lives. Unfortunately, those people have been banned from the discussion because those with vested interests - follow the money - don't want the truth to come out.

As a result, the misinformed public largely remains misinformed and believes there is a climate emergency.

We owe it to ourselves and the good of our societies and countries to ensure we are properly informed as billions of our taxes are being squandered needlessly.

#Robinoz

If it wasn't so serious it would be hilarious ...

 

With acknowledgement to NetZero Watch.

How the Federal Government will kill Australia

As anyone who reads more than the local media and who doesn't believe everything fed to them by organisations like the UN knows, global warming and C02 being labelled as an enemy is absolute bullshit.

The whole hoax is intended to collapse Western, free enterprise democracies and transfer billions to Africa and other dysfunctional countries to supposedly level the playing field.

As a result of the hoax that has been perpetrated for decades, countries have been convinced that fossil fuels are killing the planet and we'll all be dead within a decade or sooner. This has brought to us an unhealthy obsession with solar and wind energy, that although marketed as "renewable" is far from it. It would be best called intermittent or unreliable.

The link below provides details of the damage that will be done to Australia if our piss-poor governments succumb to the fantasy that by reducing C02, we can hold temperature increases to 1.5 degrees C. 

There is no evidence that climate is linear, it's cyclical and at present, we are approaching a cooling cycle. There is no evidence that C02 causes atmospheric warming or cooling. But you have to dig deep among the real climate scientists whose work is deplatformed, defamed and ridiculed to find that out.

Take a read and you'll see what future Australia is likely to have if we go for Netzero.

https://www.advanceaustralia.org.au/a_net_zero_target_will_send_australia_broke_and_make_no_difference_to_the_climate?utm_campaign=2021_10_15_weekly_enews&utm_medium=email&utm_source=advanceaustraliaorgau

Robin

How to Disable Western Countries - the Great UN Plot

You've heard the term, "Chickens have come home to roost." Well, it's happening in Europe, the UK and elsewhere as I type.

The UN's Agenda 2030 and Lima Agreement are having some success in the Western free enterprise, democratic systems.

Youths have been educated to believe the UN's policies are beneficial to them and the planet. They now believe there are none or dozens of genders and that they can choose their gender.

Children are being indoctrinated to believe that C02 is a dangerous gas and that climate change due to that and global warming will lead to extinction of the human race in 12 years. 

Some young adults have decided not to have children. Others don't want to eat meat because of the methane cattle exude.

Humanity is in a mess brought about by Leftist progressive nonsense.

Now the chickens are beginning to come home to roost as the following items indicate.

1) Europe asking Russia for more coal to survive winter energy crunch

Bloomberg, 30 September 2021
 
2) Britain's energy sector in meltdown as leading energy supplier faces collapse
The Guardian, 30 September 2021

3) Renewable energy output drops almost a third

Financial Times, 29 September 2021
  
4) China braces for a chilly winter as its home-grown energy crisis intensifies
The Sydney Morning Herald, 30 September 2021
 
5) Gavin Mortimer: Boris should beware his Red Wall doesn't become a Yellow Vest
The Daily Telegraph, 30 September 2021
 
6) Kate Andrews: Britain’s weak energy security puts net zero in doubt
The Daily Telegraph, 29 April 2021
  

7) And finally: Will Net Zero bring down Joe Biden?
The Wall Street Journal, 29 September 2021

Robin

The Great UK C02 Shortage

While the rest of the world is bending over backwards to rid the planet of the life-giving, odourless, colourless, invisible gas that represents 0.04% of atmospheric gasses, the UK has a shortage in some industries.

If it wasn't so serious it would be hilarious.

In the UK there is a shortage of C02 because plants that produce fertilizer can't get sufficient energy to run their plants, an output of which is C02 used in fizzy drinks, the meat industry, and elsewhere.

Those politicians, paid "scientists" and media brightsparks who have slandered C02 as a dangerous gas that we need to reduce by 2050 - an impossible task - are responsible for the destruction of Western energy systems, directly or indirectly.

The UK is the last of several countries to find that wind turbines and solar won't provide the amount of energy required to run modern economies. Trillions have been spent on subsidies, payments to turbine companies to switch off (can you believe that?) Now, the UK looks like having an unhappy winter.

The only way to rid the planet of the nonsense that we can save the planet by killing off our reliable coal, nuclear and gas supplies and replacing them with solar and wind is for those of us fortunate enough to vote, to elect governments who know that the global warming/climate change nonsense being pushed by the IPCC and others is a farce.

How anyone, scientist or gifted amateur, can calculate a pathway to exactly a 1.5 degree Celsius increase in temperature or think they can control the climate by reducing C02 is a mystery. The UK is finding out the hard way.

Robin.....

Those Dangerous Roads

In the Barossa Valley there has been a lot of press about an intersection where two traffic incidents occurred within a matter of weeks. As I understand it, nobody was killed, but injuries occurred. 

The intersection has a lot of heavy truck traffic and was controlled by stop signs. The local council, in its wisdom, replaced the stop signs with give-way signs. This was considered to be an error that was increasing the danger within the intersection. After much public reaction, the council was pressured by public opinion to remove the give-way signs and replace them again with stop signs.

Numerous people said the intersection was "dangerous" and that stop signs would prevent crashes from occurring. Good luck with that.

One thing I discovered during 12 years of police service, four of which were spent full-time investigating traffic incidents where fatalities or evidence of dangerous driving occurred, is that it doesn't matter how straight, how good a surface, how many signs or road markings there are on a road, drivers will still manage to crash.

The cause of 99%* of traffic incidents is drivers. Let me say that again; drivers cause crashes. Not roads. Not signs.

There are people who wilfully disobey stop signs and give-way signs in the same way there are people who use mobile phones while driving (inattention), and consume drugs or alcohol before driving. There are also people who have a propensity to collide.

If drivers disobey give-way signs and can't manage to avoid traffic travelling on an interesection road, why would we expect drivers not to disobey stop signs? In fact, everywhere I drive, I see people who don't stop at stop signs.

According to the Manual of Uniform Traffic Control Devices (Australian Standard 1742) stop signs are used when there is a visibility problem or other feature that requires a driver to stop.

I've attended dozens of traffic incidents (mostly fatalities) where people have failed to stop.

I hope the so-called dangerous intersection doesn't have any more crashes, but I know where I'd place my bet.

Robin

* I'll discuss a fatality I attended that was brought about by mechanical failure next post and two where people weren't wearing seat belts that probably prevented them from dying.

What does Jesscia REALLY want?

 

Jesscia, which is probably a misspelled Jessica keeps sending me these emails that end up in my spam folder. The screen capture at left is one day's worth of spam from Jesscia.

Some moron sitting in Africa, Russia or somewhere else is pumping out millions of these spam messages daily. And there are plenty of others of various types promising large sums of money, unsubscription from porn sites and on it goes.

If Jesscia was really contacting me to see her naked pictures, wouldn't she just send one message? Why send multiple messages every day? She must think she's special.

As you'd expect, I never click on any of these messages. If I want to, I can see plenty of naked women online without risking my computer and the data I have stored thereon.

My email client always sends these annoying messages to the spam folder. Why don't they just delete them? Every day I receive the same lot of stupid messages.

Does anyone ever click on these? Somebody must be doing so otherwise the spammers would probably stop. 

In the meantime, I'm getting so much spam I'm thinking about changing my email address. Also, the "Have I Been Pwned" site tells me that my email address has been spread far and wide through security leaks.

If you haven't done so, take a look at Have I Been Pwned to see if your address has been compromised.

Good luck.

Robin

Executing an 'Instantia Warrant'

Most people have heard of warrants but to make sure we're on the right track, I'll explain the two main types of warrants available when I worked as a police officer. 

One was a search warrant, the most common that obviously gives police and others the right to search someone's property. The second was a warrant of apprehension that allowed police officers to legally arrest someone. These were also called 'Bench warrants' because they were issued by Magistrates at their court bench.

Some statutes provide powers of arrest under different circumstances eg, if a police officer finds someone offending. Other statutes or parts of statutes require that a warrant be executed.

A warrant must always be executed as an original and signed on the back to state that it has been executed.

In Queensland, we had a process that allowed a person who was of the rank of Inspector or above to issue an instantia warrant ie, a warrant completed on the job. Presumably, a police officer would go to an Inspector and swear using a Holy Bible that certain offences were about to be committed or being committed and insufficient time was available to obtain a warrant through the usual court-based process.

One such time a few police officers including an Inspector were observing a criminal organisation when they saw that offences were being committed. The Inspector had a blank instantia warrant in his possession and decided to write in the details to allow a search of the property under surveillance.

The police team subsequently burst into the property, seized stolen goods and arrested a number of offenders. The offenders pleaded not guilty and a committal trial was conducted in a Magistrates Court.

During cross-examination the defending counsel was examining the Inspector's evidence and the conversation went like this:

Defence: "Inspector Doe, describe how you took out the instantia warrant."

Inspector: "When I saw that an offence was being committed and that a warrant was necessary, I took a blank instantia warrant sheet from my briefcase. I then completed all the details and swore that the information contained therein was true and correct."

Defence: "How did you swear that the information was true and correct?"

Inspector: "In the usual manner. I held the Holy Bible in my right hand and swore on the bible that it was true and correct."

Defence: "Where did you get a bible from at such short notice?"

Inspector: "I always carry a small version with me."

Defence: "Do you have it with you now?"

Inspector: Looking embarrassed and touching each of his suit pockets in turn replied, "No sir, I must have left it at the office."

Everyone in the courtroom sniggered. Only the police officers involved in the case knew the truth.

In courts, it's very easy to get caught with one's pants down - so to speak.

Robin

Police Life - Driver Licence Testing

Here's a photo of me flying an F18 jet fighter simulator. It's a little more complex than driving a motor vehicle, however, it would probably be an excellent idea to have simulators for learner drivers. (Let me know if you have seen any, I know they have them for mining machinery.)

Well before all the automated reverse-parking cams, warning beepers, road alignment sensors, and other fancy technology came along, I spent six months testing drivers every couple of weeks. It was a rostered duty, 8 am to 4 pm with driver testing the main objective.

It was a break from the business of evening and night shift attending pub fights, break and enters, domestic violence, missing teenage daughters, traffic incidents, and drink drivers etc. And it wasn't without a few good laughs, much needed in policing.

The Sexy Candidates

A couple of times in any week I was rostered, an attractive 17-18-year-old woman would roll up for her driving test with the shortest skirt, the loosest blouse, or loveliest nipples I had ever seen either visible or sticking through a tightly knit top.

As they got in their car, they would pull up their skirts exposing their young, smooth thighs and occasionally their underwear. Some of the braver ladies would tell me, "Dad told me if I wore a short skirt, I'd have a better chance of passing."

I was in my very early thirties and despite finding the conversation starters and lovely thighs arousing, I had a job to do and had to do it professionally. I rarely answered the braver ladies and managed to focus on their driving ability and not their ability to arouse me. I was also married and while I enjoyed admiring the beauty of these women, kept my focus where it should be.

Most passed. Not because of their physical appearance, but because they were able to safely control a vehicle and comply with the traffic rules.

The Idiots

These are the one or two people who were stupid enough to turn up for a driving test with a vehicle that was obviously defective. Tyres with hardly any tread pattern, parts of the body of the vehicle missing (under repair they'd say), handbrakes that didn't work, no horn, mirrors missing and a host of other defects.

They didn't get to do a licence test, but they did go home with a defect notice and one or more traffic infringement notices. As the vehicles were unroadworthy, they'd have to get them towed away.

Unbelievable.

The Scary

The scariest two incidents I had during my testing career involved a handbrake failure and an inability to stop a reversing automatic vehicle.

There weren't many hills where we tested, but one was very steep and we used it to test people doing a stop and start on a slope. It led to a T intersection.

I always taught my candidates to turn their front wheels slightly inward and select the first gear so that if something happened to the handbrake, or to move the vehicle, it wouldn't roll down the hill.

One day a young man who had been driving quite well drove up the hill, positioned the vehicle and was just about to turn the wheels inward and "snap!" The handbrake cable snapped and we began rolling backwards towards the T junction.

I yelled at him, "Apply the footbrake! Apply the footbrake!" and fortunately, he managed to stop the car across the intersection road without launching into the house directly behind us. We were both shaken by the incident and needed to get out of the way before traffic approached.

We managed to get back to what we were doing and I gave him his licence despite not having fully completed the handbrake start due to no fault of his. I gave him a defect notice without penalty to get the handrake cable replaced. 

The next case was with a woman driver in her 60-70s going for her first licence (see next topic). Automatic cars weren't as common then as they are now and she had one for her test. It should have been a breeze, but when we did a standard reversing street park, she reversed into the parking spot and then continued in a curve only to pull up in the middle of the road forming a 90 degree angle. Thank goodness there were no vehicles travelling at the time.

I had to decline issue of her driver's licence.

The Fails

Fails during my testing were rare, I can only recall two. One was the woman above and there was another woman in her later years whom I also failed because it would have been dangerous to let them loose on Queensland's roads.

The two women were about my mother's age and it pained me to fail them, however, safety is always the highest priority. Theirs and other road users.

Their stories were familiar. Each had lived on a nearby cane farm and their husbands had done all the driving since they had married. There had been no need for them to drive, but both were now widows and needed to be able to drive to attend appointments, go shopping and visit family.

At this late stage in their lives, they needed a driving licence more than ever.

When someone booked for a test, there was a six-week waiting period. However, I treated them as special cases and told them what they needed to practise and to call me when they felt competent to do a test and that even if I wasn't rostered on to do driver testing, I would do a test with them so they didn't have to wait and I also got them driving to the several key places they visited so that they were familiar with them.

Both improved their driving and managed to pass within a few weeks.

There are some things police officers can't ignore but I and most of the police with whom I worked always exercised compassion when it was called for and endeavoured to be fair and reasonable.

Robin

Why You Need Encrypted Email

Everyone knows there are scammers on and offline bending over backward to screw you out of your hard- earned money. But, despite the frequent warnings, publicity from various sources and personal experiences victims tell us about, scammers are still winning.

The following article confirms this:

"According to the Australian Federal Police, more than $79 million has been lost to cybercriminals in the past 12 months through business email compromise, also known as BEC scams or payment redirection scams.

In such scams, cybercriminals trick victims by getting them to redirect their legitimate fund transfers, which victims think they are making to a business, into the criminals' own accounts.

The cyberthieves usually do this by intercepting legitimate emails sent from a business to a client. They then send a new email to the client, with a notice to send money, but changing the business's bank account details to their own.

The unsuspecting victim transfers funds to the fraudster and is unaware they've been tricked until the business contacts them, asking what happened to the payment.

Police say that business email compromise scams occurred at least 3,300 times last year. Unfortunately, the police managed to retrieve only $8.45 million, a fraction of the total lost. "

- Tony Mitchell, Aviso EIA, Insurance Brokers

There are two things that concern me about this situation.

First, in Australia anyone opening a bank account has to provide 100 points of proof from official documents like passports, birth certificates, driver's licences, and Medicare Cards. Additionally, any transaction over 10 thousand dollars, especially those out of the country, is vetted by AUSTRAC.

Given the above, one would think that when someone is duped out of money, it would be easy for police to identify the accounts involved and the people who own the accounts. Apparently not which raises some serious questions.

Second, the people handling an organisation's payments, or individuals transferring money, aren't making sufficient effort to ensure their transfers are secure.

Encrypted Email

There are numerous email clients available that provide end-to-end encryption. This means that when an email leaves your device, the content is encrypted so that if it is intercepted, it cannot be read. It can only be read on the device of the recipient.

Find out if the email client you use is encrypted. If it isn't, perhaps think about getting a different one or using a different approach to transfer at-risk data eg, software that encrypts specific data (see below).

Encryption is a great safeguard, but with highly confidential or high-risk email transmissions, the message should not be left either on the senders or the recipient's hard disk drive/device because it could be hacked and is not encrypted. It's highly unlikely someone would benefit from this information given the types of scams we are speaking about, but it should be a precaution you take with all confidential data.

Encryption Software

If you used this approach, you would put confidential data in an encrypted, password-protected file and attach it to your email. Adobe Portable Document Format (PDF) files have this capability if you have Adobe software or some others that are available that convert files to PDF. You can assign a password for the document to be opened and much more. Data inside the document are encrypted.

There are other alternatives. I use a software program called Folder Lock that provides several useful functions including the ability to create a ZIP file with date encrypted and password locked.

Obviously, encryption of files won't stop someone intercepting your email if you use an unencrypted email client. However, it's good to think about documents that need to be protected during and after transmission and have a routine for doing so.

Talking of Routines

When I was a manager, I ensured my staff had access to Standard Operating Procedures that instructed them how to do tasks.

In an accounting department there should be an instruction to check all BSB and Bank Account numbers before sending money over a certain amount. This could be done by looking at clients' previous bank details if they are regularly paid eg, accounts payable, or telephoning them to confirm their details before making a large money transfer.

It's up to people responsible for money transfers to design a procedure that works for them. That will reduce considerably the risk involved in paying scammers instead of those for whom the payment was intended.

Good luck.

Robin

Lending a Hand - Traffic Accident

For a little over four years, I worked with the Traffic Accident Investigation Squad that covered the larger Brisbane Metropolitan area. Our role was only to attend fatal traffic incidents and those where dangerous driving or criminal negligence was concerned.

It was a tough job spending our working days watching people kill each other or themselves on our roads. It was especially difficult when victims were young children and those whose deaths were preventable had an iota of common sense prevailed.

While working, we didn't have time to think about the deceased and broken. We had to do the work measuring the road, drawing a map, photographing the vehicles and interviewing witnesses. 

Afterwards, the reality that someone's life had ended and that their loved ones would be heartbroken and never see them again would come into our thoughts. It was a policing task wherein we were dealing with largely lovely people (the families) and not the usual misfits we'd deal with in other areas of policing. The criminals, wife bashers, sex offenders.

All of us in the section drank too much and sometimes we used humour to get us through the day as shown in this photograph of a very old Holden sedan in which a young person was killed. He let his expectations exceed his ability when cornering and rolled the vehicle. I took numerous photos of the scene, but this one attracted my attention. I thought there was a certain irony in it.

We worked in teams of two and one week we had a young police cadet assigned to us for training. I guess he would have been 16-17 years old and keen about getting experience in traffic accident investigation.

My colleague and I were on a 7 am to 3 pm shift and just after 8 am we received a call from Police Operations that a fatal had occurred. The boss asked us to take the cadet with us, which we did.

We hopped into our F100 Ford truck commonly known as the "Death Mobile" and headed to the scene. A couple of local police was in attendance directing traffic around the scene and it appeared that a guy on a motorcycle had overtaken and hadn't seen (or perhaps thought he could beat) a cement truck coming the opposite way.

Unfortunately for him, he had hit the side of the truck and the scoop had taken off his right arm and some part of the truck had smacked into the right side of his helmet.

The body was lying on the roadway with what was left of his helmet intact and he obviously had a missing arm. 

While I asked the cadet to hold the end of a tape measure, my colleague walked up and down the road looking for the arm. After he found it, he covered it with a piece of rag and came over to us and said to the cadet, "Can I give you a hand?" and passed the limb to the cadet.

He almost passed out. After telling us it wasn't funny and calling my colleague a ghoul, he did what we asked and placed the arm with the body which by now had been covered. He was visibly shaken for a while as he hadn't seen a dead body before, let alone one with bloodied injuries and an arm savagely pulled from its socket. My colleague and I thought it was a great joked but after a short laugh, got back to work.

After we had finished up at the scene, on the trip back to the office, we talked to him about how it was necessary to have some diversion strategies, including humour to survive.

We made sure he helped follow up with several witness interviews, and attended the autopsy of the deceased.

When he left our office and returned to the Police Academy, he assured us he had gained a lot from us and appreciated the experience.

Another day of policing.

Robin

Police Life - Working Radar

Marconi Radar System

When I worked radar detecting speeding vehicles in the mid-70s, we used Marconi static radar equipment.

At left is a more modern version than we used. Ours was a grey box with four legs that sat on the side of the road and cast a radar beam at 45 degrees forward across the road. It had a round dial with speeds from zero to about 140 km/hr.

When we began our shift, we'd pick up a police vehicle, a 12 v battery (same as a car battery), the Marconi set, a spool with several hundred metres of dual-core cable, an office chair, and an audio box. It was fairly primitive.

When we chose a scene, we'd set everything up and then drive our police car through the radar beam at 60 and 80 km/hr to check that the radar was working correctly.

We'd roll out the dual-core cable to the place where we would stop offenders, and hook it up to the audio speaker.

Then we'd get to work. We'd hide the vehicle and a sergeant would operate the Marconi.

When a vehicle exceeded the speed limit by over 10 km, the sergeant would say something like, "74 on the green Mazda". We'd walk out onto the road and signal the driver to stop.

We'd then advise the driver we had detected a breach of the speed limit and issue a Traffic Offence Notice (TON).

It was a pretty ordinary job, but occasionally we'd get to chat with lovely young women, arrest drink drivers and people who abused us, and occasionally have a laugh at someone else's expense.

We worked with one sergeant who, on evening shifts, always brought a briefcase with him. He said it was his paperwork, but it weighed a tonne on the rare occasions we could actually pick it up - he was very defensive of his briefcase. Inside were three or four bottles of beer - 750 ml bottles.

While we wrote out TONs, he'd be sitting in the dark drinking beer.

Every few shifts, we'd see a vehicle approaching that was obviously doing well over the speed limit and we'd hear nothing on our audio. We'd press our audio button and ask, "Are you there serge?" No answer.

We'd leave it for a few minutes thinking our colleague may have taken a walk to urinate. We'd call again. Still no answer.

One of us would walk the 300 m back to the sergeant only to find him asleep with no evidence of the empty beer bottles which he would have thrown into the scrub. We'd wake him up and get back to work until he told us to pack up.

One day we tied a log to the audio cable after we'd told the sergeant on audio to wind in the cable. He wasn't impressed at having dragged a large log 300 m, but eventually saw the funny side.

Another day one of our teams tied a stray dog to the cable. It was pretty unhappy by the time it had been pulled 300 m by a force it didn't quite understand and then had to confront a pissed-off sergeant. 

When we worked one Christmas Day the serge told us he didn't want to write too many tickets just concentrate on really fast speeding. "After all, it was Christmas", he said.

There was very little traffic about, but one driver we had to pull up - 25 km over the speed limit. The sergeant told us to ask him hadn't he seen the radar set and give him a ticket for 10 km over which was less expensive. So we did that.

When we reported to the sergeant that he'd not seen the Marconi, the sergeant pulled it closer to the edge of the road. As expected, we never got to write another ticket for the day.

His strategy of kindness at Christmas worked well.

Next edition - lending a hand.

Robin

Even King Arthur had bad hair days

If you're suffering from lockdown syndrome, about to kick the cat or tell your partner to stop whining, and a bit down in the dumps, think of King Arthur to whom Merlin gave this advice:

I studied Timothy White while doing year 12 English what now seems a thousand years ago. This was one of my all-time favourite quotations.

Stay well and be happy.

Robin

Being "Vagged" under the "Vagrants, Gaming and Other Offences Act"

In the previous post I mentioned what happened with one habitual and invariable drunkard I encountered during my police training.

It was largely a waste of time and effort processing drunks, however, the principle was that we were keeping them safe if they weren't on the street where they could walk into the path of an oncoming vehicle or fall into a duck pond or something deeper. They'd sleep it off overnight and be back out on the streets around 11 am the following day looking for their first drink.

The VAG Act as the above act was referred to allowed police to arrest a vagrant, variously defined as a person who had no lawful means of support. The courts would usually sentence them to about 14 days detention.

Just before Christmas and Easter, we would round up the drunks we knew were as regular as clockwork and if they couldn't provide an address and had little money in their possession, we'd VAG them instead of charging them with drunkenness.

It meant that the homeless, sad souls whom we arrested would spend time in a warm or cool cell (depending on the season) and be fortunate to get a good Christmas or Easter Dinner and clean themselves up with a shower or two.

The break from alcohol no doubt also helped their overworked livers and kidneys and was a break from the usual rollercoaster ride of drunk - almost sober - drunk - almost sober that was their lifestyle.

I like to drink a beer or two, but I could never understand how anyone could simply drink themselves into a stupor day after day. They seemed mainly to consist of WWII veterans and later some much younger Vietnam Veterans who had given up on life but couldn't seem to end theirs. So sad.

Robin

Police Life - The Habitual Drunkard

Although I had several years of policing experience, after I completed my initial training at the Police Academy, I had to spend another six months on rotation through several police stations to continue training before being assigned to a permanent station.

Everyone in those days started at the bottom as a rookie, despite my being the only one of our course of 20 having prior police experience.

The first station I got transferred to was in an upmarket suburb south of Brisbane next to a huge shopping centre.

A Sergeant First Class was in charge. He was a tad humourless but didn't drink at work and ran a tight ship. After introducing me to other officers, he assigned me to the front desk on reception duties. Most of my time was spent writing stock permits, typing up driver's licence renewals, inspecting motor vehicle roadworthiness and engine numbers and, handling various public enquiries.

One day we received a call from the public to advise us a drunk person was sleeping on the seat at a bus stop. A senior constable who had over 10 years of service was assigned the task and he took me with him. We had known each other for a few weeks and got on quite well. I was always pleased to get out of the office.

The bus stop was only half a kilometre from the station. We parked in the bus zone and inspected the drunk male who was probably in his 60s. His accompanying bottle of happiness was a common brand called Masarla and it seemed that after about one-third of a bottle and he was happy enough to sleep. 

We arrested the drunk for the heinous offence of "drunk and incapable in a public place" under an Act assented to in the Thirties called, "The Vagrants, Gaming and Other Offences Act" and loaded the drunk into our patrol van.

We drove to the Police Watchhouse at South Brisbane and offloaded and processed our drunk knowing that he would appear before a magistrate the following morning and get a $1 fine and be released. We drove back to our station.

A couple of days passed and another call about a drunkard came. This time, a drunken male was lying on the footpath outside a small general store. The senior constable and I once again made the trip this time to the shop. Much to our surprise, it was the same man and another bottle of Marsala with about two-thirds remaining.

We did the long trip to the watchhouse and back and my colleague said to me, "If this prick turns up again, I'll take him out and shoot him."

Three or four days went by and yes, you guessed it, another call from a disgruntled driver who got out of her car to go into a shop and a drunken male had moved into the passenger seat. Could we please help?

Off we went. And again the Marsala drinking drunk sat leaning in front of us again. We removed him from the woman's car, much to her delight, and once again lifted the drunk into our patrol van.

I was driving and when I headed down the shortest route to the watchhouse, my senior colleague told me to take an alternative route and pointed in the direction.

In the 70s, the road we were taking headed to a seaside suburb and was like being in the country; hardly any housing or built-up areas. I asked my colleague why we were heading in this direction and he assured me he'd get rid of the drunk for good.

I started to panic inside. What did he mean? Surely his comment about shooting him was simply jest? I hoped so.

When we reached just past an intersection, he asked me to pull over to the side of the road. There were no people and no passing traffic. He asked me to help him lift the man out of the van and it took a lot of encouragement for me to do so. My heart rate must have been thumping as we laid the man on the ground well off the side of the road.

My thoughts were racing. Is he really going to shoot this guy? I would be implicated in a murder. I'd get goaled - who would look after my family? Oh my god, I had heard about the Queensland Police Force being a Hill Billy Outfit, but nothing like this had ever occurred to me.

I decided that if my colleague went to shoot the drunk, I'd have to shoot him first to save this person's life. I placed my hand near my shoulder holster and gripped the handle. I'd have to be quick. Pull out the weapon and perhaps do a lower abdomen shot so as to disable him but reduce risk of death. 

My colleague pulled out his 38 Calibre Smith and Wesson standard issue, swung it round his finger like a cowboy and slid it back in its holster. Fortunately, he didn't point it anywhere near the drunk, otherwise it may have ended in disaster for both of us.

I asked why we had left this guy on the side of the road and he told me that the intersection nearby was the outside limit of our patrol area and in another policing district. He got on the radio and advised Police Communications that a driver had told him a body was lying on the side of the road in the nearby police district.

The police from that district would have attended to our drunken friend and we never saw him again. Problem solved by my senior colleague. Ain't experience great?

Robin

PS: Next issue I'll discuss what we did with these people at Easter and Christmas

Police Life - Introduction

During my work life, I spent around 14 years in policing. I often say I was a police officer until I came good, however, I have great respect for police and the very difficult, often dangerous job they do.

I started my policing career in the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) where I was a service policeman.

After discharge from the RAAF, I joined the Tasmania Police where I spent the next two years and only left because the woman of my life came from Queensland and didn't envisage living in Tasmania after we got married. When you have found a "keeper" you do what you can to keep her and to date, it's lasted 48 years. In retrospect, my choice of life-partner was an excellent one as my wife is almost perfect and I often wondered whether I was the less perfect in our relationship.

When we got married I joined the Queensland Police Force (QPF) (and spent about a decade).

The Tasmania Police during the short time I worked there was a slick, well-disciplined operation and later, I often regretted leaving. The QPF by comparison when I joined was a Keystone Cops outfit but Commissioner Ray Whitrod was doing his best to change it into a top-rate policing agency.

Large numbers of the senior staff had severe alcoholic problems and more than enough were subsequently incompetent or disinterested enough not to give a shit about much that happened. Levels of literacy among older officers was often below par.

Promotion by seniority meant that the incompetent and disinterested alcoholics only had to last the distance to get into the higher echelons. A certain recipe for failure that ensured a police force operating at minimal efficiency and effectiveness.

It didn't help that Queensland had a Bjelke Petersen government that had been in power for decades. Neither did it help that Commissioner Whitrod had not come from the ranks of the QPF and was resented by many of the long-term officers.

Despite considerable difficulties from both the government, the Police Union and some senior staff, Whitrod managed to make a considerable number of positive changes.

One of Commissioner Whitrod's innovations was to encourage a better educated police force by ensuring promotion from constable first class to senior constable after seven years instead of about 10. One had to have a Senior English pass and complete several subjects in a TAFE Police Arts and Science Course. 

At the bottom of the seniority ladder, I needed the job, liked my colleagues and had a wife and two young children to feed, clothe and house. As my first-born was hearing impaired, my wife, a registered nurse/midwife, didn't work so she could care for him, so finances were a balancing act for quite a few years on one salary.

We survived from one pay to the next and I worked as much overtime as I could while also studying for adult matriculation and later, a degree.

One of Commissioner Whitrod's innovations was to encourage a better educated police force by ensuring promotion from constable first class to senior constable after seven years instead of about 10. One had to have a Senior English pass and complete several subjects in a TAFE Police Arts and Science Course. 

I liked policing. I felt as though I was doing some good protecting and serving the Queensland community. I liked my colleagues and looked forward to going to work. The drunken senior sergeants and othes were just something one had to cope with.

Among the many personal skills and attributes police officer need are resilience to deal with stupid people and an excellent sense of humour.

In following posts I'll tell you about some of the interesting people I met and the humorous events that kept us sane while serving you, our community.

Robin

The Suppression of Free Speech Crisis

The suppression of free speech by woke organisations and the rabid Left is a concern that all of us who value freedom and democracy must address.

It's bad enough when opinions by the general public are deleted, supressed, or howled down. It's worse when reputable scientists and subject-matter experts have their accounts deleted or are threatened with violence, intimidation, or dismissal from their employment.

There are numerous cases of academics, such as Dr Peter Ridd, formerly of James Cook University in North Queensland being dismissed because his scientific opinion didn't fit a carefully designed global warming alarmist narrative. (HREF1)

Others, such as the most recently "deleted" account from no other than LinkedIn of Dr Robert Malone, who invented mRNA vaccine technology (HREF2). He apparently made comments not liked by Microsoft that owns LinkedIn.

It's alarming that if one doesn't follow the Mainstream Media (MSM) view of reality and that of the UN and its cohort, the IPCC, or the communist Left then one is considered a lier, denier or a person whose opinion or expertise is inappropriate.

A better approach by all the climate alarmists and believers in curtailing free speech should be to advise readers that the organisation doesn't agree with the stated opinions of the author. That way, we, the educated public could decide which version we believe.

This suppression of free speech should be a danger signal to everyone who supports democracy and freedom. The alternative is totalitarian dictatorship where groupthink and groupspeech must conform to a specific narrative.

Robin

Californians think they pay for expensive electricity

As Western countries destroy their energy grids to satisfy the UN's socio-political policies, most of us complain about the rising cost of energy. Costs necessary for governments to subsidise unreliable, so-called renewable energy.

Without subsidies, nothing happens.

In South Australia, where we have killed off baseload power stations and achieved the only ever whole of state blackout (greenout?) in Australia's history, we pay more than most other people for each kilowatt hour we use.

From 1 July our charges are actually decreasing probably to give us the delusion that solar and wind and our huge battery, are providing us with clean, green energy.

Meanwhile, in California, people are whining about paying 18.5 cents per kWh, a tad more when converted to Australian cents. Still well below what we pay.

"In 2020, California’s electricity prices jumped by 7.5%, making it the biggest price increase of any state in the country last year and nearly seven times the increase that was seen in the United States as a whole. According to data from the Energy Information Administration, the all-sector price of electricity in California last year jumped to 18.15 cents per kilowatt-hour, which means that Californians are now paying about 70% more for their electricity than the U.S. average all-sector rate of 10.66 cents per kWh. Even more worrisome: California’s electricity rates are expected to soar over the next decade." (HREF)

This might be part of the reason why hundreds of thousands of people per year (2020) and 5.4 companies per week are leaving California. Only the wealthy can live in California. 

South Australia's price decrease from Origin Energy, one of our many power suppliers is as follows:

At least our Federal Government is now beginning to talk nuclear energy after decades of nuclear being outlawed.

While this debate goes on, China and India and many other countries steam ahead building High Energy Low Emission (HELE) coal, gas and nuclear energy installations.

Students of Modern History in the future will fall over laughing at how increadibly stupid we were in this era.

Robin

OMG - The Great Reset and the Re-engineered Human

The ideas being sprouked by the Rabid Left should be a warning to anyone with half a brain and at least a modicum of analytical, critical thinking skills.

I don't need to say anything more other than, please do look at the 20 minute video by the Ice Age Farmer and work with as many other people as you can to prevent the nonsense being implemented.

https://youtu.be/QlUXTP4pGcA

Humanity is at a significant crossroads and if an extinction event occurs, it won't have anything to do with global warming or C02 (other than the abolition of the latter).

Robin

What is the purpose of life?

I sit watching magpies land in my yard to eat the cat food I place for them. Mothers show new fledglings how to pick up a piece of cat food in their beaks instead of having to do it for them. Older, more mature birds take a small amount and leave the rest - they don't pig out on everything available, they leave something for later. Unlike many human beings.

Apart from them being our fellow creatures who inhabit this small, blue ball that rotates day in and day out so the sun can keep us warm and sustain life, why are they here? What good do they do for me, you, the planet?

The creatures we eat, fish, pigs, sheep, cattle, all provide a food source for us. Protein to go. We don't eat magpies or most other birds, so why are they here if their purpose is not to provide a food source?

It all comes down to understanding the purpose of life. It's a question philosophers, hotel goers, children, scientists, the curious, teachers and others have been asking ever since we became conscious enough to ask it.

When you see a magpie fighting with a reflection of itself in your car mirror, you realise that it has no sense of self. Cats and dogs have been seen to do the same - with mirrors, not on cars!

You and I have a sense of self. We look in the mirror and we know it's us. Our consciousness is more advanced than that of our fellow travellers.

We may be more conscious, but we still don't know what the purpose of life is - any life.

Does it matter that we don't know? Probably not. Whether you know our purpose, we have an opportunity to create the purpose we want. Free will. If we had a purpose thrust upon us, we wouldn't have free will.

Imagine: "Your mission, if you accept it, is to be taxi driver and during your lifetime rape and murder at least four young, beautiful women whose purpose in life it is to be raped and murdered. After that, as a result of your actions you will spend 40 years in prison and die an ugly, painful death from cancer of the pancreas. Now, hop to it."

What would you do? Would you kill yourself immediately, or live the life you have been intended to live?

I don't know what I'd do, probably kill myself.

There are some things that we are either not intended to know, or that are simply unknowable to us. Our purpose in life is obviously one of them.

I agree with Donald Broadribb's statement above.

Get on with your life and accept that you may never know if it had a purpose other than what you provided it.

Robin

Israel is always the offender - Hamas always the victim

I read it but I didn't believe it - for at least four or five seconds. Here's the beginning paragraphs:

The United Nations rights chief has called on Israel to allow an independent probe of military actions – saying their Israeli forces may have committed war crimes during the 11-day conflict with Hamas. During a Human Rights Council session, High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet said “air strikes in such densely populated areas resulted in a high level of civilian fatalities and injuries as well as the widespread destructions of civilian infrastructure. Such strikes raise serious concerns of Israel’s compliance with the principles of distinction and proportionality under international humanitarian law.” 

Hamas, the Islamist terrorist organisation stocks up on Iranian rockets and when it thinks it has enough to make a difference, fires them at Israel. It doesn't give a shit where they land or who they kill.

Hamas wants to kill all Jews. Their Covenant is here and it says so.

Thankfully, Israel is light years ahead of Hamas and has an Iron Dome system designed to shoot rockets out of the air before they land. Most are wiped out, but some still get through.
Not aimed at military targets, they fall into the streets and fields of Israel, most of whose people are secure in bomb shelters. 

Hamas intentionally fires at Israel from schools, shopping centres and places where civilians are. It knows that Israeli Defence Forces will return fire to the place where the rocket came from in order to destroy the installation. This results in numerous deaths that Hamas uses as leverage to claim that Israel intentionally kills civilians.

Anyone with half a brain can see through this rort, but the UN still takes sides with Hamas and intends to investigate Israel for war crimes. 

The UN needs to be disbanded like its useless predecessor, the League of Nations.

Robin.

PS: I stand with Israel and its right to defend itself from Islamist agression