On this day in 1946, Winston Churchill delivered his famous Iron Curtain speech. Hat-tip to Memex 1.1.
That Business Conversation
Mark Pesce’s latest speech, That Business Conversation, given to about 170 CEO-types at the Western Sydney Business Connection yesterday, is another good read.
Ah, security through sincerity, gotta love it!
A telephone conversation last night — once the caller had garbled my name and I’d said that it was me, and I’d asked who was calling:
Caller: I’m calling from [unintelligible] on behalf of Westpac Bank.
Me: Before we go any further, how do I know you’re calling on behalf of my bank?
Caller: Sorry? We’ve been given the database…
Me: Before I discuss any kind of personal or financial information, how do I know you’re legitimately calling on behalf of Westpac bank, as opposed to just some person claiming that?
Caller: [sounding confused] Well, I don’t know…
Me: Well, I guess I’ll be hanging up then. Goodbye.
Another point, of course, is why they thought I might want to discuss anything financial at 7.20pm after a long day — when most people are either unwinding or trying to have dinner.
Dear Westpac, if you have something to discuss, isn’t that my Business Banking Manager’s job? During business hours? I was really happy with the service you’ve given me so far this week — and now you’ve ruined it.
[Update 22 December 2011: I failed to credit the originator of security through sincerity, Eric TF Bat.]
Thursday Reading, 6 March 2008
Three quickies for you: The 40 Most Inappropriate Children’s Book Covers (I like Sharing is for Losers: an Ayn Rand Primer and Pop! Goes The Hamster And Other Fun Microwave Games). A nice rant about Sydney’s Fireworks Display Exhaustion Syndrome. And the story of the Bluetooth Burqa (hat-tip to 3 Quarks Daily).
67 Australian SAS captured airbase defended by 1000
Why do we never hear about the real work of the Australian military overseas? I’ve written about this before, but I’ve just stumbled across another example. We should have heard about this!
According to a post at the Iran Defence Forum, where I snaffled the photo, 67 Australian SAS troopers captured an Iraqi airfield defended by over 1000 troops.
The Australian SAS captured an Iraqi airfield during the invasion with over 60 intact aircraft camouflaged and buried.
A MiG-25 Foxbat fighter was amongst the captured aircraft, and apparently it’s on its way to Perth to be displayed at the SAS base there.
As I said last time, surely you, dear Department of Defence, can tell enough of the story to inspire the kiddies without “revealing operational secretsâ€. Hell, I’d love to record this kind of oral history! You know where to find me.
Australia 2020 brings out the whingers
Another day, another lobbyist for one specific community sector fails to understand what the Australia 2020 Summit means. This time it’s Professor Warren Hogan whingeing that “the ageing population” isn’t mentioned enough.
As reported in that august journal Australian Ageing Agenda, Hogan reckons the “omission” of aged care from the Summit agenda is “inexplicable”.
“An immediate worry with the new Government comes from the failure to address any issues in aged care for the 2020 summit,” he said.
No, Professor Hogan, what’s really “inexplicable” are:
- Why you haven’t bothered looking at the list of topics at the Summit website, which clearly says: “Health — a long-term national health strategy — including the challenges of preventative health, workforce planning and the ageing population.” [my emphasis]
- How you reckon the Summit fails to address this issue when it hasn’t even happened yet.
I’m getting pretty goddam sick of the narrow-mindedness and short-term thinking shown by so many of the commentators so far.