The Serious Discussion Thread.

[Richie]

Child porn purveyors are using AI to create their filth and circumventing deep fake laws. ?
The article describes the growth of this AI porn industry.

AI-generated child sexual abuse imagery reaching ‘tipping point’, says watchdog

Internet Watch Foundation says illegal AI-made content is becoming more prevalent on open web with high level of sophistication

www.theguardian.com

We're on the edge of a 'Brave New World' on many fronts.

 

[Richie]

However in response to this hire a couple of NK "Companies" 'South' Korea is pledging to help the Ukrainians. Stay tuned.

Little wonder Putin is complaining about NK troops as already they are deserting him. Prefer the Ruskies have NK soldiers and Ukraine South Korean ones. In an ironic twist the fat little madman may have his wish for NK and SK to meet again on a battlefield, tho not on the Korean Peninsular it seems.

 

[Richie]

We're on the edge of a 'Brave New World' on many fronts.

Our planet is standing on the edge of a precipice to an abyss. Not too late to step back you warmongers.

 

[Richie]

Our planet is standing on the edge of a precipice to an abyss. Not too late to step back you warmongers.

They will never learn. As the one thing the world did not want is for Israel to exacerbate the already volatile situation by retaliating to Irans retaliation. Washington has failed to avert what could lead to a Middle East War if Iran ups the ante which it has promised. There is going to have to be some soft show shuffle diplomacy to avoid all out war between the two bitter enemies as well as any regional escalation. Stay out of it Russia same as the Yanks are.

 

[Grier]

They will never learn. As the one thing the world did not want is for Israel to exacerbate the already volatile situation by retaliating to Irans retaliation. Washington has failed to avert what could lead to a Middle East War if Iran ups the ante which it has promised. There is going to have to be some soft show shuffle diplomacy to avoid all out war between the two bitter enemies as well as any regional escalation. Stay out of it Russia same as the Yanks are.

Tit for Tat missile diplomacy I reckon Craig. Old Steve said that to me and now I see it for myself. At least Nuclear or Oil infrastructure wasn't attacked, mainly military bases and facilities, assets, ...

Iran is an interesting nation, now swinging gently to the left. They say they are not Arabs but Persians. I respect that. My Electrician is Persian with an Engineering degree. Red tape.

 

[Richie]

Interesting indeed Terry. Formerly Persia, it had one of ancient times largest empires before Alexander the Great conquered it. Despite what you hear, they are not overly Islamic in terms of strictness. Go online to watch a video of modern Tehran. Will open your eyes. You could be walking thru Sydney or Perth.

 

[looker-on]

Would you say that that horrible war in Europe has had any impact on your personal life or on your country? If so, can you give examples?

 

[looker-on]

Interesting indeed Terry. Formerly Persia, it had one of ancient times largest empires before Alexander the Great conquered it. Despite what you hear, they are not overly Islamic in terms of strictness. Go online to watch a video of modern Tehran. Will open your eyes. You could be walking thru Sydney or Perth.

Are you being serious, mate?
Teheran's architecture is just a showpiece to impress the public and to hide the fact that it essentially is a repressive system.
According to Amnesty International at least 481 executions – more than half of the total 853 executions recorded in 2023 – were carried out for drug-related offences.
Iranian-German prisoner Jamshid Sharmahd, who was kidnapped in Dubai in 2020 by Iranian security forces, was executed in Iran on Monday after being convicted on disputed terror charges.
Women who violate Sharia laws are publicly humiliated and maltreated; they are also exposed to violent attacks by self-appointed moral guardians in the local morality police.
Women have to meet in their homes for private parties when they want to dress fashionably and wear makeup.
.
.
. The list is long.

 

[Richie]

Sharia law

Yes I know about Sharia law as part of Islamic doctrine. The Yanks still execute murderers. I dont see the difference. All organized Crime scum drug dealers should have that punishment.
Thomas am sorry to hear about the execution of Jamshid Sharmahd. Where the charges false?

This does not look like a repressed state to me. Even women minus abaya, kaftan, burka chador , several females not even wearing a hijab! Many in western clothes. These street scenes are reminiscent of any Western city.

 

[Grier]

Would you say that that horrible war in Europe has had any impact on your personal life or on your country? If so, can you give examples?

Hi Thomas,

That horrible war in Europe killed my Uncle who was the flight lieutenant and pilot of a Lancaster bomber. My father was a RN officer on boats and subs in the North Atlantic. He had his hip and spine seriosly damaged which left him totally crippled in his latter years. I had to carry/lift him often during his last decade.
My mother was badly affected by the war too. She was a nurse in a London hospital all through the Blitz. She told a story of how she amputated a man's foot in a corridor as the surgeons were overwhelmed. With uppers, long shifts and sleeping under patients beds her health was ruined. She died at 66 only.

For all of that my parents were very fond of Germans, doing a student exchange with my eldest brother and a tall blond German lad called Rudolf. My family has/had other German connections like my Grandfather and others.

My mother had mental and physical health issues caused by the war which were infused into her 5 children, one way or another. And a diluted amount to her grandchildren, like my youngest. Epigenetics and intergenerational trauma, something Israel seems oblivious to..

 

[Richie]

Would you say that that horrible war in Europe has had any impact on your personal life or on your country?

My family was lucky as we all avoided the European war. My grand father was a professional musician and his only connection with the war was entertaining the troops before many left our shores to die in a far away land. My father trained as a fighter pilot here in Australia and just before he was to sail to England to join the RAF the war ended. I still have his training log book somewhere in the house.

 

[looker-on]

Thank you both for sharing this. Unfortunately, there's been a misunderstanding because I wasn't precise enough. I didn't mean WW II (if I had, I'd have said so) but the war in Ukraine which is also a horrible war on European soil. Perhaps we could relate my question to that current war. Has that had an impact on your life or life in AUS in general?

 

[looker-on]

Terry, I remember you mentioning your uncle. Was he shot down on a mission? When I was in Devon I met a former Lancaster pilot and had in interesting chat with him. All that pain and suffering inflicted on people in a war.
It even affected your family, Richie, although you were born and living in a far-away country.

 

[Grier]

Terry, I remember you mentioning your uncle. Was he shot down on a mission? When I was in Devon I met a former Lancaster pilot and had in interesting chat with him. All that pain and suffering inflicted on people in a war.
It even affected your family, Richie, although you were born and living in a far-away country.

Hi Thomas, my uncle Eddy was shot down and killed on a Lancaster bombing raid to Duisberg Germany.
Here's a part snap of a letter my old wrote Dad wrote to the RAF.



As family archivist I have records going back 128 years.
This is my Dad's handsome older brother, my uncle, who married a German Jewish lady courtesy of an introduction from my strange Grandfather who smuggled many Jews to England prior to WWII.
He was a trader, especially in Chocolate, and a people smuggler..

 

[Grier]

Thank you both for sharing this. Unfortunately, there's been a misunderstanding because I wasn't precise enough. I didn't mean WW II (if I had, I'd have said so) but the war in Ukraine which is also a horrible war on European soil. Perhaps we could relate my question to that current war. Has that had an impact on your life or life in AUS in general?

No worries about which war Thomas.

As for the war in Ukraine, we've not been affected by that Invasion very much, yet. We're distant and many of our local markets like China are our big economic links. We're resource rich too.

But the war in the Ukraine does worry me in terms of global peace and stability. The hard right dictators are forming a league of their own with eyes on expansionism. I feel the Invasion of Ukraine is the spearhead of a facist authoritarian new chapter in our already overheated world. It's a bleak outlook for the future.

 

[looker-on]

Hi Thomas, my uncle Eddy was shot down and killed on a Lancaster bombing raid to Duisberg Germany.
Here's a part snap of a letter my old wrote Dad wrote to the RAF.

View attachment 3019

As family archivist I have records going back 128 years.
This is my Dad's handsome older brother, my uncle, who married a German Jewish lady courtesy of an introduction from my strange Grandfather who smuggled many Jews to England prior to WWII.
He was a trader, especially in Chocolate, and a people smuggler..

View attachment 3020

That's really a coincidence, Terry. Thanks for sharing. We have similar authorities who I wrote to some years ago asking for information about my uncle. It turned out that his major personal record got lost during the war. What they were able to tell me about him was less than what we already knew anyway. I did use almost the same wording as your father. It was quite a procedure since I had to prove in three different ways that he was my uncle, otherwise they'd have declined my request. Although my parents had been bombed out, they did save certificates and documents which helped me a lot.
BTW, the place is Duisburg, not Duisberg.

PS: Being German still casts a long shadow. I didn't dare to post an image of him wearing a uniform neither here nor with an image hosting platform. Weird if you ask me but not so important either.

 

[looker-on]

This does not look like a repressed state to me. Even women minus abaya, kaftan, burka chador , several females not even wearing a hijab! Many in western clothes. These street scenes are reminiscent of any Western city.

Maybe that's the desired effect. Be careful not to be taken in by appearance and the regime's propaganda.

Read this for a change.
World Report 2023: Rights Trends in Iran - https://www.hrw.org/world-report/2023/country-chapters/iran

Quote: The death on September 16 of Mahsa (Jina) Amini, a 22-year-old Kurdish woman from Sanandaj in western Iran, in the custody of the morality police after being arrested for wearing an “improper” hijab sparked demonstrations across the country, including in schools and universities. Authorities claimed Amini died because of a medical condition that led to her going into a coma within a couple of hours of her arrest, a claim her family denied.

the execution of Jamshid Sharmahd. Where the charges false?

Based on what we know they were. Our foreign secretary wouldn't intervene if she thought they were true.

 

[Richie]

Read this for a change.

You know I am a well read person. I know of all this. In my country non violent but rowdy, disruptive protestors are hauled away by police, I expect yours too and in most free western nations. Thanks goodness we dont have secret police or moral police here yet, that is going too far and sadly strict Islamic regimes such as Iran and tyranical states still do. I see some of this strictness being eroded slowly in Iran, as they appear to be far more western orientated today.

 

[looker-on]

No worries about which war Thomas.

As for the war in Ukraine, we've not been affected by that Invasion very much, yet. We're distant and many of our local markets like China are our big economic links. We're resource rich too.

But the war in the Ukraine does worry me in terms of global peace and stability. The hard right dictators are forming a league of their own with eyes on expansionism. I feel the Invasion of Ukraine is the spearhead of a facist authoritarian new chapter in our already overheated world. It's a bleak outlook for the future.

Thanks for your input, Terry. The reason why I was asking that question is that the war in Ukraine has been making itself felt over here and in Britain exactly as it had been predicted.
As a result of the war in Ukraine the living standard of many Europeans has lowered one way or another. One price we had to pay for Putin’s invasion was that an admittedly generous health club covering 6000 m² including four rooms for workouts, four saunas, a couple of Badminton and Squash courts, and two restaurants had to be shut down since it can’t be run as a profit-generating private company any more given the current gas prices.

Before (Just one room of many)


After
The new reality is a health club with just one room. There're not even showers.You won’t see a member of staff live and in person but on screens only. And that’s only if you ask them nicely. Instructions are hidden in QR codes and the room is only accessible if you have a smartphone which is why a couple of elder customers turned on their heel on the opening day. So no training without electronic gadgets.

It's better than no facilities at all as had been the case for three years or longer but the change for the worse is noticeable.

 

[looker-on]

Yes I know about Sharia law as part of Islamic doctrine. The Yanks still execute murderers. I dont see the difference. All organized Crime scum drug dealers should have that punishment.
Thomas am sorry to hear about the execution of Jamshid Sharmahd. Where the charges false?

This does not look like a repressed state to me. Even women minus abaya, kaftan, burka chador , several females not even wearing a hijab! Many in western clothes. These street scenes are reminiscent of any Western city.

It looks pretty much like the Damascus I saw back then. Could show you pics where you wouldn't see a difference. But still....