— Rupert Murdoch, in response to criticism of the racial make-up of the Exodus: Gods and Kings cast
Home: NBN again
THE GIST. NBN Co has announced that another 1.9 million homes are scheduled to be connected to the National Broadband network over the next 19 months.
CATCH-UP. The previous Labor government's plan was for the NBN to be a 'fibre to the premises' (FTTP) network - meaning that they would need to lay cable (or fibre) to the top of every single street. The Coalition's plan is supposed to be easier and cheaper; the network envisaged by Malcolm Turnbull is mix of FTTP and 'fibre to the node' (FTTN). The latter involves less work (and in theory, time and money) because it requires putting down less new fibre. Instead, the new fibre will end at centralised 'nodes' in densely populated areas, and then telcos will connect to the nodes using existing technology.
WILL THEY, WON'T THEY. Since the NBN rollout began four years ago, just 300,000 homes have been connected. If NBN Co sticks to the new plan, it's going to mean plugging in 100,000 homes every month for the next year and a half. Seem likely? Here are three points to consider:
This new forecast is actually a downgrade of 800,000 homes from a recent leaked corporate plan,
Malcom T went to the election promising improved internet speeds to ALL premises - this plan is going to reach just 30%, and
NBN Co is going to update its forecast every three months anyway.
BOTTOM LINE. Given the seemingly never-ending delays, cost blow-outs and 'strategic reviews' of the NBN, you can probably take any rollout forecast with several node-sized grains of salt.
Abroad: Operation Sovereign Bankers
THE GIST. Swiss citizens have comprehensively rejected a referendum proposal to cut the country's immigration numbers. 74% of eligible people voted 'no' on the measure which would have reduced the number of immigrants entering Switzerland each year from 80,000 to 16,000.
WHO AND WHY. The 'Yes' campaign was lead by an outfit called Ecopop. The group, despite being an environmental advocacy organisation whose name sounds like an IKEA armchair, has darker underbelly. Critics have labelled them 'Birkenstock racists', and their general secretary justified their campaign by complaining about the number of foreigners in Switzerland, saying "We are slowly being concreted over...We are running out of space". Basically, he reckons the Swiss border resembles a slice of the national cheese.
POPULAR INITIATIVE? The referendum came about through an interesting feature of the Swiss political system called the 'popular initiative'. How it works is that you can change just about any law through a referendum if you can collect 100,000 signatures on a petition. There have been 22 successful popular initiatives since 1893, on topics like UN membership, paedophile work bans and animal rights.
Small-talk
Pigs on a plane. In move that is sure to anger animal rights activists nowhere, a woman's pig was kicked of a US airways flight for being loud and stinky. The woman brought the pig along for 'emotional support', which apparently would have been good enough to justify the pig's presence, had it not starting howling and defecating in the aisle.
Show some manners. Thanksgiving is a time to share with family. A sentiment that a Pennsylvania woman literally tried to take to heart, when she stabbed her boyfriend in the chest for eating dinner without her.
Communist family values. The Chinese Communist Party has published an 'adultery map', outing the country's philandering government workers. It's part of the latest propaganda mission from the Chinese government, designed to expose bad behaviour in the public service. Reports say that they won't stop until all adulterous corruption is rooted out.
