Blame it on Rio The recent troubles assailing Rio Tinto have been well documented — losing its CEO and two senior executives over the destruction of a 46,000-year-old Indigenous site at Juukan Gorge. But hey, what’s all that in the face of some really top notch engineering?
A tipster got in contact to let us know that at the Australian Engineering Excellence Awards Western Australian division — hosted via live stream this week — Rio Tinto was announced as the state finalist for the prestigious national Sir William Hudson award.
Given the current situation at Rio Tinto, it’s a helluva time to be celebrating their achievements, but we’re sure they’ll take what they can get.
Trump watch As the US continues to slowly collapse like a decommissioned smokestack, praise be for the bravery and insight of veteran journalist Bob Woodward who has, in interviews promoting his new book Rage, concluded that… drum roll… Donald Trump might not be fit for office.
But of course, for Woodward this IS quite a big thing to say. The reporter who helped break Watergate has spent the years since becoming increasingly credulous; writing at least one book per administration (this is his second on Trump) and portraying people via, by his own admission, “self portraits”. It does not take a genius to work out who has co-operated with him.
His books are dedicated to finding the human and the admirable in even calamitous regimes like George W Bush — the Republican National Committee went so far as to recommend Woodward’s first George W book on their website. As Joan Didion put it in “Political Pornography“:
Washington, as rendered by Woodward, is by definition basically solid, a diorama of decent intentions in which wise if misunderstood and occasionally misled stewards will reliably prevail.
There is simply no place in Woodward’s understanding of journalism and politics for an administration like Trump’s.
Bo(a)rdering on the careless Yesterday a winsomely-written blog post did the rounds, in which the author Alex Hope claimed to have “hacked” former prime minister Tony Abbott. Using an image of a boarding pass from a March flight to Japan that Abbott had carelessly shared to his Instagram page, Hope claims to have found out Abbott’s passport number.
As the post notes, including one’s boarding pass in holiday pics is a remarkably common blunder, and a gold mine for identity thieves.
Which will no doubt terrify The Australian Financial Review, on it’s fourth day of stories about a Chinese military database that has compiled profiles of high profile Australians from “open sources”.
I’ve just finished ‘Rage.’ It was a good read.
I refer to watch it on ABC – one of its longest, continuously running progs. – esp on weekends up to 7am.