As the world, and in particular the UK, emerges from the period of mourning for Queen Elizabeth II, regular service is resumed — by which I mean the usual mix of the stupid and the bizarre.
[Update: This episode was edited on 25 September 2022 to reflect developments across the weekend in the Optus data breach story. If you’re after just that update, scroll in to 55m02s.]
In this episode we talk about the decline of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, the massive Optus data breach, Donald Trump, Liz Truss, guinea pigs, and the many unusual ways in which people process their grief.
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Episode Links
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[19 September 2022] The gay fetish event I went to last night had a minute’s silence at 8:00 in memory of the Queen, I’m not even joking.
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Monitoring, assessing and promoting appropriate displays of patriotic grieving.
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[18 September 2022] The Queen’s lying-in-state at the Palace of Westminster opened to the public at 5pm on Wednesday, and 48 hours later about a dozen people had listed their coloured and numbered paper bands for sale on online marketplaces.
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[19 September 2022] Why not have the minute’s silence on the day of the funeral? Everyone was having dinner at 8pm. Amidst otherwise immaculate planning it struck an off note.
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[17 September 2022] To avoid losing its title as the “only gay venue in the UK that never closes”, Pleasuredrome announced this week that it would remain open on the day of the funeral. While sex and drinking are perfectly fine, as a tribute to Her Majesty the gay sauna will play no music and its cinema, usually reserved for porn, will instead livestream the Queen’s funeral. We wish we were joking.
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[15 September 2022] The public broadcaster faces criticism from the public, as well as some of its staunchest allies and former employees, for its blanket coverage of the death of the Queen.
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[20 September 2022] The State Funeral of HM Queen Elizabeth II aired at 8pm on Seven last night and pulled in a metro audience of 975,000, while 879,000 metro viewers tune in on Nine, and 708,000 metro viewers for the ABC.
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[22 September 2022] What if, instead of a monarch or a president, we had an Australian Elder? That is, a recognised Indigenous elder, appointed as our head of state for life. This figure already comes anchored in a long history, and a culture replete with ceremony. But one of the great things about some Indigenous ceremonies – like, say, welcomes to country – is that they are often endearingly informal.
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[22 September 2022] As the official mourning period for the Queen comes to an end, talk is turning to Australia's monarchy vs republic debate. But what if there was another way? Waleed Aly explains.
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[23 September 2022] "We need global banks to create jobs here... and pay taxes here in London, not in Paris, not in Frankfurt and not in New York." Chancellor Kwasi Kwarteng announces UK cap on bankers' bonuses is to be scrapped. https://bbc.in/3BHdRmz
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[21 September 2022] Reports that stamp duty will be cut with PM to use UN speech to argue for far-reaching tax reductions, putting her at odds with Joe Biden.
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[22 September 2022] I was 20 years in the rock n roll business & I know high when I see it. This guy is coked up to his dilated eyeballs.
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[22 September 2022] "There doesn't have to be a process ... I declassified everything" -- Trump on how he declassified documents (this is false -- there is a process Trump didn't follow).
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[21 September 2022] Michael Flynn says the globalists are trying to figure out how to alter our DNA with covid shots to control us, but that will fail so they will then turn us into cyborgs by “putting components of robotics into us.”
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[20 September 2022] Whaaaaat?
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[22 September 2022] The United States Space Force released its official song written by an Air Force veteran.
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[22 September 2022] Optus is in meltdown as it tries to contain the damage from one of the worst cyber attacks that Australia has ever seen. It's so serious that Australia’s big banks have been alerted and an international spy network is hunting the culprits. The personal information of more than 9 million, past and present Optus customers, has been stolen. Every one of them is now vulnerable.
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[22 September 2022, Optus press release] Following a cyberattack, Optus is investigating the possible unauthorised access of current and former customers’ information.
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[23 September 20922] A senior figure inside Optus has spoken to the ABC on the condition of anonymity to offer confidential insights into the early findings uncovered by the telecommunication company's IT specialists. "[It's] still under investigation. However, this breach, like most, appears to come down to human error," the Optus insider told the ABC.
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[23 September 2022] Just spoke to @abcnews about the Optus data breach. There is no such thing as human error. There are only systems failures. It should not have been possible for a single human making a single mistake to cause this much damage. #optusfail
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[24 September 2022] Someone is claiming to have the stolen Optus account data for 11.2 million users. They want $1 million in the Monero cryptocurrency from Optus to not sell the data to other people. Otherwise, they say they will sell it in parcels. [I'd finished recording the podcast before I realised I'd forgotten to add this bit of news to the script.]
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[24 September 2022] "The AFP is aware of reports alleging stolen Optus customer data and credentials may be being sold through a number of forums, including the dark web," a police spokesperson told the ABC.
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[25 September 2022] Also: Optus Attacker Says Unauthenticated API Endpoint Led to Breach.
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[24 September 2022] In its submission to Privacy Act review telco said giving people right to erase personal data would involve ‘significant’ hurdles and costs.
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[25 September 2022] New from @David_Speers: "Home Affairs Minister is set to announce a suite of reforms in the wake of the @Optus cyber security breach... Under the changes to be announced in the coming days, banks and other institutions would be informed far more swiftly when a data breach occur".
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Scamwatch is run by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC). It provides information to consumers and small businesses about how to recognise, avoid and report scams.
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