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Illegal tobacco boom exposes the demand problem behind WA’s black market
Much has been made of how the WA government is trying to stop the supply of illegal cigarettes, but its more difficult challenge is what can be done to ease demand. ⌘ Read more

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How WA went from leader to loser in the illegal tobacco wars
Burnt out storefronts in Perth and regional cities are testament to the government’s inability to control the illegal tobacco trade — and it’s not clear when things will change, writes Keane Bourke. ⌘ Read more

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In-reply-to » In case you haven’t seen it yet:

@prologic@twtxt.net Here you go:

(LTT = “Linus Tech Tips”, that’s the host.)

LTT: There was a recent thing from a major tech company, where developers were asked to say how many lines of code they wrote – and if it wasn’t enough, they were terminated. And there was someone here that was extremely upset about that approach to measuring productivity, because–

Torvalds: Oh yeah, no, you shouldn’t even be upset. At that point, that’s just incompetence. Anybody who thinks that’s a valid metric is too stupid to work at a tech company.

LTT: You do know who you just said that about, right?

Torvalds: No.

LTT: Oh. Uh, he was a prominent figure in the, uh, improved efficiency of the US government recently.

Torvalds: Oh. Apparently I was spot on.

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White wine grape growers already in crisis suffer ‘another kick in the guts’
The wine grape industry has written to the SA government pleading for help as it reaches breaking point after indicative pricing for the next vintage is released showing growers could face losses of up to $270 per tonne. ⌘ Read more

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In-reply-to » For the innocent bystanders (because I know that I won’t change @bender’s opinion):

@movq@www.uninformativ.de Gemini liked your opinion very much. Here is how it countered:

1. The User Perspective (Untrustworthiness)

The criticism of AI as untrustworthy is a problem of misapplication, not capability.

  • AI as a Force Multiplier: AI should be treated as a high-speed drafting and brainstorming tool, not an authority. For experts, it offers an immense speed gain, shifting the work from slow manual creation to fast critical editing and verification.
  • The Rise of AI Literacy: Users must develop a new skill—AI literacy—to critically evaluate and verify AI’s probabilistic output. This skill, along with improving citation features in AI tools, mitigates the “gaslighting” effect.
2. The Moral/Political Perspective (Skill Erosion)

The fear of skill loss is based on a misunderstanding of how technology changes the nature of work; it’s skill evolution, not erosion.

  • Shifting Focus to High-Level Skills: Just as the calculator shifted focus from manual math to complex problem-solving, AI shifts the focus from writing boilerplate code to architectural design and prompt engineering. It handles repetitive tasks, freeing humans for creative and complex challenges.
  • Accessibility and Empowerment: AI serves as a powerful democratizing tool, offering personalized tutoring and automation to people who lack deep expertise. While dependency is a risk, this accessibility empowers a wider segment of the population previously limited by skill barriers.
3. The Technical and Legal Perspective (Scraping and Copyright)

The legal and technical flaws are issues of governance and ethical practice, not reasons to reject the core technology.

  • Need for Better Bot Governance: Destructive scraping is a failure of ethical web behavior and can be solved with better bot identification, rate limits, and protocols (like enhanced robots.txt). The solution is to demand digital citizenship from AI companies, not to stop AI development.

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States could be held accountable for private security actions
Governments which employ private military companies, such as Wagner and Africa Corps, can be held liable for any human rights violations committed by these firms, research from Edith Cowan University (ECU) has highlighted. ⌘ Read more

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Labor is close to a deal on environmental law reforms, but there are troubling signs these will fall short
The Albanese government has hinted it is close to a deal with the Coalition over the long-awaited overhaul of Australia’s environment laws. Environment Minister Murray Watt plans to introduce new legislation to parliament in November. ⌘ Read more

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Republican Candidate in Virginia Caught in Tumblr Nazi Porn Scandal
Robert McCoy,  Staff Writer  -  The New Republic

_Stephan: What stands out about what has happened to democracy in the United States is the almost universal scum of the Republican Party. It’s not just that the party controls all the branches of government and yet is doing nothing to foster wellbeing for the people of America. Instead, we have the Bondis, the Patels, the Homans, and this cre … ⌘ Read more

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I noticed Google put out this article: https://android-developers.googleblog.com/2025/09/lets-talk-security-answering-your-top.html it’s very current day Google, but the comments under the YouTube video are pretty on point and I saw a few familiar faces there. There is also, unexpectedly, ways to contact Google.

First a form for “teachers, students, and hobbyists”, that I filled politely, as someone who falls under their hobbyist category. It can be filled both anonymously, or with an e-mail attached, to be contacted by them (I chose the second option).

Also a general feedback and questions form, that I was not as polite in and used to send them the following message:

I have already provided some feedback, in the teacher, student and hobbyists form/questionaire, as well as an open letter I’ve recently sent to the European Commission digital markets act team, as I do believe your proposal might not even be legal, given the fact it puts privacy-focused alternative app stores at risk (https://f-droid.org/cs/2025/09/29/google-developer-registration-decree.html) and it was proposed this early, after Google lost in court to Epic Games, over similar monopoly concerns. Why should we trust Google to be the only authority for all developer signatures, right after the European courts labeled it a gatekeeper?

Assuming this gets passed, despite justified developer backlash and at best questionable legality, can you give us any guarantees, this will not be used to target legal malware-free mods, or user privacy enhancing patchers, like the ones used for applying the ReVanced patches? I have made a few mods myself, but I am in no way associated with the ReVanced team. I just share many peoples concerns, Google Chrome has been conveniently stripped of its manifest v2 support, that made many privacy protecting extensions possible and now you’re conveniently asking for the government IDs, of all the developers, who maintain these kinds of privacy protections (be it patches, or alternative open-source apps) on Android.

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What to know about Trump’s national guard deployment, from rulings to protests
Guardian Staff,    -  The Guardian (U.K.)

Stephan: This is what the British press is reporting about dictator Trump’s military occupation of cities where voters have chosen Democrat governance. Under Trump and the MAGAT Republicans, the United States is now being described as what used to be called a Banana Republic.

[![A demonstrator argues with a law enforcement off … ⌘ Read more

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It’s Time for Soft Secession
Clara Jeffery,  Editor-in-Chief  -  Mother Jones

_Stephan: I have been telling you about the Great Schism Trend for years now, partly because I thought it was only a matter of time until Democrat governed states began to realize that for decades, they have underwritten the failure of states where Republicans govern, and that there is a fundamental flaw in the Constitution where, regardless of population, each state gets two senators. (This structure was a result of th … ⌘ Read more

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Banana industry opposes overseas imports of Australia’s most popular fruit
The federal government will review its quarantine rules after a formal request by the Philippines to import its bananas, but the industry is pushing back. ⌘ Read more

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Abuse survivor ‘kicked in the guts’ as WA government appeals $2.85m payout
An appeal against a $2.85 million compensation payout to a man who suffered child sexual abuse while in state care should be abandoned, a prominent Perth lawyer and the state opposition says. ⌘ Read more

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Australian flotilla activist speaks after being detained by Israel
An Australian activist accuses the federal government of not providing enough support after she and other members of a flotilla were detained by Israel. ⌘ Read more

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Federal support for national Aboriginal art gallery in Alice Springs in doubt
The Northern Territory treasurer says the federal government will not support the proposed Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Art Gallery in Alice Springs in its current form. ⌘ Read more

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Live: ASX to open steady as Wall Street slips from record highs
Gold prices surge to a new record, above $US4,000 an ounce, as the US government shutdown drags on past its first week, and the Australian share market is likely to open flat after Wall Street’s AI tech rally takes a breather. ⌘ Read more

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Has the WA government made Italian giants AC Milan an offer they can’t refuse?
Italian heavyweights AC Milan look set to play a match, for actual Serie A points, in Perth. What will the state government pay to lure them here, and why are some football supporters unhappy? ⌘ Read more

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NT government reviewing conflict allegations against gambling regulator
The NT government is standing by its de-facto regulation of Australia’s $50 billion online gambling industry, despite allegations that it is too closely linked to the sector. ⌘ Read more

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‘Intergenerational benefits’: Tasmanian government responds to planning criticisms
The state government response to last month’s scathing report from the planning commission says that while “change can be challenging”, the “dream of a Tasmanian team representing our state in the AFL and AFLW is now within reach — we cannot turn back”. ⌘ Read more

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R360 players to be banned from international rugby union
Rugby union players who sign up for the R360 breakaway franchise league will be ineligible for international selection, national governing bodies have confirmed. ⌘ Read more

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‘It’s a human rights tragedy’: Aged care facility inappropriately restrained residents
A South Australian government aged care home, which looks after 23 people with dementia or complex disabilities, inappropriately used lap belts and other mechanical restraints to stop falls and control residents’ behaviour, the ABC can reveal. ⌘ Read more

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Can private information uploaded to ChatGPT be found by other users?
Data experts say it is hard to know what the implications are for 3,000 flood victims who have had personal information uploaded to the AI platform by a government contractor. ⌘ Read more

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How GitHub Copilot enabled accessibility governance process improvements in record time
See how we turned weekly accessibility grade signals into an automated, accountable remediation workflow—powered by GitHub Copilot and cross‑functional collaboration.

The post [How GitHub Copilot enabled accessibility governance process improvements in record time](https://github.blog/ai-and-ml/github-copilot/how-we-automated-accessibility-compliance-in-five-h … ⌘ Read more

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WA Government appeals $2.8m compensation for foster care abuse survivor
The WA government is appealing a record $2.8 million compensation payment awarded to Dion Barber, who suffered repeated sexual abuse while in foster care during the 1980s and 1990s. ⌘ Read more

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