Well Well Weld It will return to you, years from now, with a shock of recognition, and you’ll be scarcely able to believe you’d forgotten it. Just as Tony Abbott’s stewardship came to be represented by the image of him tearing into a raw onion with its skin on like a dog being offered an ice cream, this may come to represent Scott Morrison’s. I’m speaking of course of the footage where Morrison, visiting Specialised Welding & Engineering in the Northern Territory, decided to get a closer look at his work, leaned in and lifted his protective mask as the white-hot sparks spat in his direction.
That vacant grin, the hand that you can see in the wider shot desperately and helplessly trying to indicate the correct way to wear the mask — it’s truly hypnotic. We can only imagine the conversations the guy making the gesture had with his family that night, talking about our prime minister like he’s a none-too-bright new apprentice who probably won’t last.
It’s a beautiful day to stay Insiders The state of the Australian media is sobering anytime you stop to think about it, and Sunday gave us a real dose of that. The political editor of one of the country’s best-read daily papers arguing that dark money in Australian politics isn’t that big a deal. Asked about the tens of millions of undisclosed donations that have flowed to the major parties, Herald Sun political editor James Campbell, with a dismissive sigh, asked, “Well, what are they getting for their money?” He seemed completely unswayed by the obvious response: “We don’t know.”
Crikey and the Herald Sun have had our differences on what we consider news for a while, but this decided lack of curiosity about something you would expect any journalist to be appalled by still catches the breath.
Things combine to be bad in ways you hadn’t predicted (part 9500) From time to time we at Crikey like to reflect on the ways decidedly distinct modern trends can combine in surprising and dreadful ways, like the ham-and-pineapple pizzas of historical trends.
So you’ve been blackmailed by your smartphone-operated coffee machine, you’ve attempted to hold police accountable only to find they’re using over-zealous copyright takedowns to get your footage taken off the internet, and the forests your employer planted to ameliorate climate change burnt down… because of climate change.
And now, we’re getting recipients of medical miracles suddenly abandoned because the company who created them made the technology obsolete. In an incredible piece in tech magazine IEEE Spectrum, several people who rely on bionic eye implants manufactured by Second Sight Medical Products report their high-tech visual aids “powering down”, after the company — verging on bankruptcy — abandoned the technology:
“[Second Sight patient] Ross Doerr … received an implant in one eye in 2019 and remembers seeing the shining lights of Christmas trees that holiday season. He was thrilled to learn in early 2020 that he was eligible for software upgrades that could further improve his vision. Yet in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic, he heard troubling rumors about the company and called his Second Sight vision-rehab therapist. “She said, ‘Well, funny you should call. We all just got laid off,'” he remembers. “She said, ‘By the way, you’re not getting your upgrades.'”
James Campbell must be the most irritating insider to have ever parked his arse on the couch. Apart from comments like the aforementioned on political donations, he can barely string a sentence together which makes me wonder how the ABC can think he is fit for television.
+100.
You didn’t catch Renee Veillaris – on twice, in quick succession (before she made her position official and took up a job as Dutton’s puff-piece PR secretary – after doing it for years at Rupert’s Brisbane Curry or Maul) soon after Spivsy took over….. Showing the ABC what he could do.
I do tend to play favourites quite a lot. Pay attention to the panellists who say something interesting and ignore the others. Renee obviously made no impression.
And where is David Marr? I have not seen any sign of him for ages. One article some time ago on TGA but otherwise very much out of sight for the entire pandemic. Happy to be without Gerald H but I do miss David.
Where’s Mike Seccombe been? Or “What’s a Bernard Keane”?
…….. It’s like watching “The Weasels in Toad Hall” – with Spivsy doing everything he can to mitigate for the Coalition – if there’s an angle for amelioration he’ll find it? If they’re caught with their pants down – you can bet on him remembering Labor doing something like it : but when it’s Labor embarrassed, you can bet his memory goes missing.
As though he’s sorry he won a Wankley for tripping up Tangles Brandis – and has been trying for absolution by taking a Labor scalp ever since.
Actually that comment was meant for blackhander….
She was the shockiest of a long, dishonourable line of them – please tell me that Madonna was never a guest, in which case, 2nd shlockiest.
I don’t think she has been – “too lightweight”?
Herald Sun political editor James Campbell needs to get out and about a bit more. His response to the question from David Speers on Insiders, was just what you would expect from a senior Murdoch staff member.
James Campbell might have a bit of personal skin in the game when it comes to politics. His wife was one of the Liberal candidates vying for preselection in Casey: https://www.theage.com.au/national/victoria/melbourne-councillor-among-six-liberals-vying-for-speaker-s-plum-seat-20210816-p58j58.html
As it happens, she missed out to a former staffer of Senator James Paterson, https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/local-beats-out-crowded-field-to-replace-retiring-speaker-in-casey-20211112-p598dr.html
“Morrison… decided to get a closer look at his work, leaned in and lifted his protective mask as the white-hot sparks spat in his direction.”
Morrison’s cheer squad will see this as evidence their hero is immune to hazards that hurt lesser mortals, and the religious squad will also see evidence of divine protection. If it has any net effect on his popularity across the whole population my guess is it will help him, even if welders might feel differently.
Some time before the 1979 election the Tory Party’s new leader, Margaret Thatcher, visited north west Scotland and went up the UK’s tallest mountain, Ben Nevis, to pose for photos which showed her wearing fashion shoes with high heels. Scottish highlanders immediately wrote her off as a lost cause. Nobody silly enough to wear shoes like that on a mountain could be trusted with any responsibility. And of course she lost the election ignominiously, was replaced as leader and was never heard of again.
I think that ad of the ‘fake tradie’ with the heavy gold watch, sitting on a sawhorse, in 2019 was modelled on Scummo.
The real danger in welding is the intense UV flash which can blind , or at the least damage the eyes. Rule !)! is have the Anti flash mask down BEFORE you start.