At the risk of having the site renamed Yankculture, I’m going to take the ball from the last post and run with it. As one of the two countries that was roped into the second war in Iraq on false pretences, increasing the risk of terrorist attacks on our own soil, what happened in New York on the 11th of September 2001 is of great significance to us.

Conspiracy theorists have a nasty habit of undermining conspiracies. There’s often a total lack of objectivity, and a desire to ‘believe’. Four Corners’ screening of the BBC doco was significant because the ABC series is a current affairs heavyweight, and the screening seemed to strongly imply there was a case to answer.

The veracity of the footage of Tower Seven collapsing neatly in 6.5 seconds is not in question. And it seems blatantly obvious that no steel-reinforced tower block could fall in this way due to fire (let alone one that utilised fire-protected steel girders), and, indeed, none ever had.

It appears to be a controlled detonation, one so carefully prepared that the roofline remained perfectly level as WTC 7 went down. And the only time such an event could be expected not to raise suspicion would be in the aftermath of a much bigger incident – in other words, if Government agents were responsible for it being wired that demonstrates they had prior knowledge of the attacks on the Twin Towers.

The perfectly vertical collapse of the 110-storey Twin Towers (WTC 1 & 2) seemed odd even at the time. Given that the planes impacted, and the resulting fires happened in, the upper third of each tower, how could the massive steel supporting structure completely fail – simultaneously – over the entire height of the buildings? You would expect to see at least the lower two-thirds of the central supports still partially standing.

A hundred and ten storeys is incredibly tall. Such a building requires great strength, and in the case of the Twin Towers most of this strength was in the central columns. Even an intense fire in the upper storeys wouldn’t negate the strength of the central columns lower down.

Again, what we saw looked like a controlled demolition. And carefully timed detonations on the central columns, upper to lower floors in succession, would explain the collapse, which neatly raised the buildings to the ground in seconds.

I’m mindful of the human cost of that day. It’s not an event that should be exploited for trivial conjecture. But the ramifications should claims of Federal wrongdoing be accurate really make Watergate seem like a parking violation. And the Bush Administration is still in office...

Today marks the seven year anniversary of the collapse of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Centre in New York. “9/11”, as it soon became known, has since been used to justify war, heavy-handed foreign policy and an attack on US civil liberty. In fact, according to a source on documentary Bush’s War, Donald Rumsfeld put war in Iraq on the table the very same day. (Rumsfeld was formally part of the Nixon administration, and praised by Nixon as being “a ruthless little bastard”.)

Conspiracy theories have abounded since, with reportedly over a million web pages devoted to the subject. But for many, it’s simply inconceivable that US Government personnel could have had a hand in the events of that day.

However, there is clear evidence that, 60 years earlier, the US Government not only had advance warning of the bombing of Pearl Harbor, but had been goading the Japanese into carrying out an attack. It resulted in over 2,300 military and civilian fatalities.

Conspiracy theories can be pretty out there – far fetched and lacking in evidence. But when you see, say, video clips of a 47-storey office building, not hit by a plane, collapse neatly in 6.5 seconds, it’s time to sit up and pay attention. This is the case with Tower Seven of the WTC. And you can view the footage in this three minute trailer for the BBC doco the ABC’s Four Corners screened on Monday.

It reveals that thermite could have been used to simultaneously cut through Tower Seven’s steel supporting pillars, without leaving easily detectable explosive traces. And it’s certainly hard to see how anything other than a controlled explosion could have caused what’s seen in the footage. The images here both show the building mid-collapse – a textbook demolition.

Of course, if Tower Seven was wired for take-down, this raises the very strong possibility that key figures in the US Government knew of and at least partially orchestrated the events of 9/11 well ahead of time. Three thousand civilian fatalities. It’s a chilling thought.

We have a close affinity with the United States. We’re both former colonies of Great Britain – vast, unexplored lands far from what was once home, rising to great challenges. But the US became insular, and more so following 9/11. We can learn from their mistakes.

Images: BBC

Hey, did anybody check out the list of the best 100 Australian web 2.0 apps?

Interesting to see Gnoos on there. I’m surprised the site was up long enough for Ross to rate it. Also, I’m not going to name names but some of the other sites on the list have already closed down. Go click through and have a look at some… be mindful of the ones that probably wouldn’t call themselves Australian unless you were buying a round.

Anyway… I think that’s a sufficient dose of abrasiveness for the moment. After all, the many people who put hours of hard work into ausculture.com every day are undoubtedly just insanely jealous.

Still, I was looking at the list and noticed a few other sites that had simpy whacked a crappy theme on top of Pligg. I say “other sites” because that’s exactly what ausculture.com did. As I was looking at these sites though, I noticed that 95% of the links were straight into the websites for major Australian newspapers. Honestly, I think that is kinda missing the point. Part of the reason people liked Digg in the first place was in the charm of sending truckloads of users to small and obscure sites to look at really interesting content. That the Digg effect usually brought those sames sites to their knees was part of the fun.

It’s not so much fun when your social news aggregator is just giving you an alternative top ten articles on the major online newspapers. Those sites already have most popular lists.

Of course, this causes me to ask the question “Is there any room for an Australia social news aggregator?” - particularly one that is aggregating more that four sources and concentrating on Australian content?

I’d have to say that so far, it’s looking like a no from where I’m sitting. Anyone have a different opinion?

Maybe there is, but that such a site would have to do more than reskin pligg (or reddit.) I notice, however, that perthnorg isn’t just a reskin and their traffic looks less-than-stellar.

Possibly related stuff elsewhere

• Nielsen: Digg Traffic Sucks. Mashable: That’s What She Said
• The 30 Top Social Bookmarking Web Sites on ebizma.com.

A young P-plater hits a man on a pedestrian crossing and drives off. He justifies his actions by telling himself that the man shouldn’t have suddenly stepped out, and that he barely clipped him. However, the man is confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life.

Years later, the driver, now a wealthy, middle-aged man, motivated by a nagging guilt that won’t go away, tracks down the man he disabled and says “Sorry about what I did to you all those years ago, but I’m not giving you a cent of compensation.”

This morning, Kevin Rudd, on behalf of the Federal Government of Australia, finally delivers the long-awaited apology to the Stolen Generations. But he’s already stated that there are no plans for compensation. And it gets worse...

This quote, from the Cathy Freeman episode of ancestry program Who Do You Think You Are? on SBS, paints a picture of life for indigenous Australians in 1918:

“Under The Act [of 1897], all Aboriginal wages, including military pay, was controlled by the Protector of Aborigines, who, at his discretion, would then pass it on to those who had worked for it. The reasoning was that Aborigines couldn't be trusted to spend their own money wisely.”

Fast-forward 90 years and the current Intervention sees compulsory ‘quarantining’ of welfare payments, a Government officer with powers to seize Aboriginal community assets at his sole discretion and plans to seize land. The reasoning is much the same, and the application as indiscriminate and heavy-handed as ever.

Emotive arguments were used to justify the Intervention, Howard suddenly announcing that it was a national emergency shortly before the Federal election in 2007 – this despite the NT’s Little Children Are Sacred report following four similar major State Government reports dating back to 2002. An in-depth report by the ABC’s Four Corners in November 2007 stated that not a single arrest had been made during the Intervention’s first four months for child sexual abuse. Which is not to say the problem doesn’t exist, but nor is it confined to Indigenous Australians. And I haven’t heard of any plans to strip assets, remove employment opportunities and ban alcohol and porn in any of our Capital Cities.

Today’s apology states “...the injustices of the past must never, never happen again.” But the injustices continue.

Richard Branson, the entrepreneur with the Midas touch, was once asked how he decided what sector the Virgin brand should take on in a new country. That’s easy, he said, we just look at the names on the tallest buildings – they’re the companies making the biggest profits.

Polluting the Melbourne skyline: Telstra and the Big Banks

No surprise, then, that the Melbourne skyline is dotted with the logos that make us see red.

Commonwealth Bank

The yellow diamond with the cancerous black wedge in the corner represents the Commonwealth Bank (or the Collectingwealth Bank, according to one eye-catching satirical bumper sticker, with the tag line “A guaranteed fee with every transaction”!) If you open one of their Streamline current accounts, you’re likely to be stung with a $4 fee every month – or $6 if you want the luxury of speaking to a real person on the phone without incurring a separate charge. But those generous folks at ConBank, er, I mean CommBank will waive that fee if you have $50,000 or more in their accounts. If you have less than that with them, do not fear, you’ll at least earn a massive 0.01% interest on the account balance! (At that rate, it would take a balance of $480,000 to recoup the year’s bank fees!)

The Commonwealth raked in a bumper $4.4 billion profit last year, up 14% on the previous year. They own Colonial First State, making them Melbourne CBD’s biggest landlord[1].

ANZ, NAB & Westpac

NAB does make a $4 a month charge for its eBanking account, but at least includes phone assistance, debit card transactions, etc. ANZ and Westpac both offer internet banking accounts with no monthly fee, the Westpac eSaver offering a generous 5.25% (or above) on balances from $5,000. It therefore wins the prestigious Ausculture Award for Rortless eBanking, 2008! (The award is a rare green and yellow striped paperclip – I’m sure they’ll be stoked!)

Profits for ANZ last year of $4 bn (up by 6%) were considered disappointing. NAB, however recorded a record $4.2 bn, up over 17%. And the last of the four big banks, the award-winning Westpac (which escaped the above ‘identity parade’) made $3.4 bn (up 12%), perhaps demonstrating that doing the right thing needn’t impact on profitability.

Telstra

It’s hard to know where to start on the litany of Telstra travesties. The Chaser found it was cheaper to call a random person in the US for the number of a business here than to use Telstra’s Directory Assistance! Their voice ‘recognition’ systems continue to drive customers up the wall. Mobile GPRS data charges, and now those for Next G data, defy belief.

‘Telstra.com’, it says in giant, illuminated letters atop their head office, emblazoned as if to advertise what a wonderful ambassador they are for the internet revolution. Far from it. Sign up for a standard home broadband plan and you’re in for some nasty surprises. On their $29.95 a month plan, you get a 200 MB data allowance per month. Their own literature notes that Windows security updates from Microsoft can be over 150 MB, but they have a simple solution – just “...turn this feature off”! (Good job this isn’t America, or hacked and hacked off users might be lining up to sue Telstra over that one!) ADSL plans range from $29.95 to $159.95 per month, but with each you get just one inclusive mailbox, limited to 20 MB.

Telstra’s profit last year was a ‘low’ $3.3 billion (up by around 5%), although this didn’t stop CEO Sol Trujillo getting a 30% pay rise to nearly $12m per year. Life on the bottom rung isn’t so rosy, as can be gleaned from a comment by Telstra Chief Operations Officer Greg Winn last year:

“We run an absolute dictatorship and that’s what’s going to drive this transformation and deliver results… If you can’t get the people to go there and you try once and you try twice… then you just shoot ’em and get them out of the way…”

The Big Rort

Greg Winn’s telling comment reveals a ‘psychotic’ culture shared by many corporate giants – there is only one thing that matters, and that’s the bottom line. The customer doesn’t matter; the employee is just a drain on earnings who should be either replaced by an automated system or controlled as if he or she was one; the wider social picture and the environment are entirely irrelevant.

This approach is morally reprehensible and ultimately counter-productive for the company.

The more enlightened big business will talk about the triple bottom line: financial success, social responsibility and environmental sustainability. The customer should want to trade with it because s/he’s impressed by what it stands for. The employee should want to work for it because s/he feels valued (is valued). Society at large should embrace its philosophy because it’s helping society move forward. And the environment should be a little less impacted by it every passing year.

So why should this utopian vision actually become a reality? Because of you. We vote with our wallets all the time; all we need do is shun the morally dysfunctional companies until they change.

There’s a reason why, for instance, so many of our neighbouring countries enjoy 100 Mbps urban broadband for $30-40 a month while we barely manage 1% of that, and it’s not just political. Something in our collective psyche makes us resigned to the corporate rort.

Grounding the Bad Teen

Corporations – even multi-nationals – are like society’s kids. They will try it on; find out what the boundaries are. That’s what Network Ten did with the subliminal advertising. It’s what Microsoft did with their OS’s built-in web browser. And it’s what many of the companies making up our city skylines do all the time.

So it’s time to say ‘enough is enough’. And if you feel trying to ‘ground’ Telstra would be like a scene from Honey, I Blew Up the Kid, just remember: there are over twenty million of us...

[1] according to The Age, 18/12/04
Figures are approximate and information not authoritative