There are certain brands you feel an affiliation with, Longines is one of those brands I really like. They are a mid-range brand within the Swatch group and have a long history dating back to the 19th century. Longines was established in 1832 at Saint-Imier by Auguste Agassiz building pocket watches with crown-wheel escapements that was pretty much Swiss standard at the time. This is a Swiss watchmaker with a long heritage that was ravaged during the quartz crisis of the watch industry.

Longines produces some pretty decent heritage pieces from dive timepieces, aviation inspired watches, sports watches to dress watches. Their Flagship range is looking pretty decent too, their HydroConquest is really worth looking at. I really like their heritage reissues, from their 1940s to 1960s models, with the updated movements, they can be better than the originals. I know they sit in the Swatch mid-tier market segment, but sometimes I feel they could move to a higher level.

It annoys me a little, we had a Friday night game starting at 6:10 pm local Perth time to viewers in the Eastern states. I worked that day, left work early at 4:30 to quickly race home to grab my gear and catch the train to the ground. I was home for less than ten minutes, I had to get moving. So in the Eastern states, the match starts around 7:30 pm so people have time to get home, eat some food, a few drinks and get going. I missed the first three goals in the first quarter as I was stuck at Perth train station unable to get on a train as we were shoulder to shoulder on the platform.

After the game, all the Collingwood fans are having a meltdown over the free kick awarded to Sean Darcy in the final quarter. The AFL has come out and stated the decision was correct, so there is no need to whinge any more as the decision was correct and had been applied throughout the season on four other occasions. The questions need to be asked include how they coughed up a twenty five point lead with seven and a have minutes remaining in the match. Collingwood kicked 10.15 for the game, these are the questions Collingwood fans need to be asking, inaccuracy in front of goals costs games and cost Collingwood this match.

What we really need to look at is the free kick [mark] reversal awarded against Jye Amiss where Charlie Dean initiated contact. The contact occurred in the Fremantle forwardline and was transferred to the Collingwood forwardline where Collingwood scored a goal. Charlie Dean really played the umpire here, this should have never been awarded a free kick and should not have occurred 100 metres away from the incident. However, it occurred and Fremantle, whilst annoyed, just got on with it. So the free kick awarded against Collingwood was to the letter of the law, the spirit of the game is a silly argument and starting to sound like the England Cricket team.

Ukraine’s unique use of drones to attack tanks with a hand grenade is a winning strategy. This is a brilliant cost effective strategy to destroy Russian military hardware. My first vision of a Ukrainian hand grenade dropped through an open tank hatch was what I thought to be a one in a million shot. This is now a regular occurrence, they even land grenades through the driver’s open hatch, this generally doesn’t cause a dramatic cook-off, but it still stops the tank.

When we see a tank cook-off as the stored mutations in the turret ignite, the flying turret is an endearing visual representation of Russian aggression gone violently wrong. That is an inexcusable failure of the invading and occupying force – a genuine lack of know how. Where Russia dominates in sheer numbers of soldiers and equipment, they lack the strategic endeavor, local tactics and troop motivation for victory.

Ukraine has had to do more with less, they have been supplied with enough western weapons to not capitulate, but not enough to push for decisive victory. Fortunately, what Russia lacks in innovation and motivation, Ukraine is able to even the battle with their application of technology and sheer will to win. Ukraine is using drones for both reconnaissance and offense, they are supplied loitering munitions to take out fighting vehicles and tanks.

No navy, no problem. The fast attack craft are taking Russian naval assets out, the Russian Black Sea fleet is too scared to head out to sea as they are targeted. Now Russian commanders are learning the fleet hidden in Sebastopol harbour is not safe either. Ukraine sends the drones out, the S-400 systems light the drone up with their radar, and a missile then takes out the S-400 site – brilliant. They will be likely sending their ships back to the safe harbour of Novorossiysk, that is as long as Ukraine decides to leave them alone there.

The drones Ukraine is fighting the war with has reinvented early 21st century tactics. As the war progresses, Ukraine will search for new methodologies to mitigate their distinct battlefield disadvantages. Ukraine has developed tactics to neutralise Russian tank dominance and highlight the failures of their military doctrine. The low-cost kamikaze drones Ukraine employs to destroy Russian tanks has been highly successful, Ukrainian drone tactics will be repeated and improved upon in military colleges for decades to come.

TAG Heuer is now misaligned on online watch forums. This is misplaced, Heuer has a long history of horological excellence and innovation dating back to 1860. To be fair, this isn’t one of these amazing Heuer timepieces, this is a pretty bad example of a vintage timepiece.

The 1980s and 1990s were a rough period for TAG Heuer after the TAG Group bought into the company and rebranded the whole company. What possessed them to change the name of a significant watchmaker? I would argue arrogance mostly. Watch enthusiasts argue they don’t like the current models but respect vintage timepieces. The Heuer Memphis is an example of a dual analog/digital dial, I really can’t see the value, but I guess plenty did.

The Memphis was released in 1979 around the time the Pasadena was released and just after the Verona. What we know during that period, new models were released on a regular basis so I am guessing model runs were short in that period. The Memphis was powered by the ESA 900.231 quartz movement, the pushers were located on both lower sides of the case with the crown on the right. This unusual stretched hexagonal case was very much a design of the era – looking very aged now.

I am a big believer in on-the-job learning and the need to formalise informal learning. Without trying to sound like Donald Rumsfeld with his known knowns, known unknowns and unknown unknowns; the need to formalise tacit learning is an important learning strategy.

I have to laugh at the audacity of David Shiraz, he is still trying to call Linda Reynolds out knowing full well that there was no government cover-up after the rape of Brittany Higgins. Justice Michael Lee has delivered his verdict in the Bruce Lehrmann v Network Ten defamation case and the outcomes were well considered and reviewed by Justice Lee.

Bruce Lehrmann got a startling shock, he lost the defamation case to the Ten Network. Justice Lee described Lehrmann as ‘having escaped the lions’ den, Mr Lehrmann made the mistake of going back for his hat.” Justice Lee stated Mr Lehrmann, on the basis of probability, raped Ms Higgins, but not beyond all reasonable doubt, as is the case in most criminal proceedings. Still, this was a very decisive statement as Justice Lee believes Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins after disentangling the web of lies. Only political staffer Fiona Brown walks away from mess with her reputation intact, to a lesser extent Linda Reynolds escapes criticism as well.

Brittany Higgins came in for some attention in Justice Lee’s verdict. Higgins was an unsatisfactory witness, she lied under oath. The first, he stated were understandable; she was a young person processing a traumatic experience, and potentially trying to conceal embarrassing elements of her own behaviour. Justice Lee went on, Higgins “made some allegations that made her a heroine to one group of partisans.” However, “when examined forensically those allegations have undermined her general credibility to a disinterested factfinder” – ouch.

Justice Lee isolated a second group of untruths, those were deliberate untruths regarding the alleged cover-up Higgins promoted in The Project interview. Those allegations [untruths] were later aired in court and after a forensic examination by Justice Lee were found to be fundamentally untrue. However, there was a caveat as Justice Lee believed they were in a different category as given the potential trauma of an alleged rape as consistent with a victim of sexual assault working her way through feelings of confusion.

Justice Lee was savage of the conduct of David Sharaz, the political cover story that was hatched and pitched to The Project was absolutely untrue. Network Ten was negligent in their conduct to correctly investigate the claims. The Project team had strong indications of the unreliability from the main source particularly after losing the majority of her phone material but selected material central to her claims amazingly survived. This all occurred with the insertion of David Sharaz into the proceedings.

David Sharaz was a key player in the formulation of the political cover-up narrative. Despite never taking the stand, David Sharaz was referenced 111 times in court proceedings. It is clear David Sharaz is a Labor Party lackey, Justice Lee even stated Lisa Wilkinson and the Ten Network were willfully blind to David Sharaz’s motivations. So now the political cover-up has been blown to shreds, neither Brittany Higgins or David Sharaz can claim Linda Reynolds and Fiona brown engaged in a political cover-up. There is no agree to disagree, the claims are proven to be untrue and are either withdrawn or legal proceedings to prove David Sharaz and Brittany Higgins defamed Linda Reynolds.

“The wrong man in the wrong job at the wrong time” sums it up perfectly by British Defence Minister Ben Wallace. I am aware of the German hesitance for becoming involved in the Ukraine/Russian war. Putin has invoked the whole Nazi narrative to sell his war to Russians, let’s get serious here – this is a total lie and everyone knows it.  

Scholz started ok by announcing a change in German defence policy, then it went downhill from there. German funds have made it to Ukraine, Germany acknowledges the seriousness of the situation, the German government surely comprehends that if Ukraine falls, the rest of Europe is in peril as Putin will be emboldened to escalate his war against European countries. 

Germany has committed combat ready battalions to Lithuania, the thread to NATO countries is real. Whilst I am aware of the whole nuclear escalation fear, Russia has threatened western nations throughout the course of the war. This puts German troops close to the Russian border, yet the German government is not supplying their most potent weapons to Ukraine. 

The Tarus stealth missile is highly effective, the Tarus has twice the range of the British Storm Shadow and French Scalp missiles. Ukraine has effectively used these missiles to hit targets in Ukraine, this has not escalated the threat. Where Scholz buggered up is by implying British and French troops are operating in-country to prepare and program these missiles. Now this is an action that could threaten escalation by Russia.   

It is still difficult to believe sensitive British and French military information was leaked to the Russians by German Luftwaffe officers discussing the potential of delivering German Tarus missiles to Ukraine on an unsecured video call. Their call directly contradicts Scholz’s claims that German military personnel would be required to be deployed in Ukraine to program these missiles. Scholz made claims that were directly contradicted by military personnel, there are claims Scholz is understating the effectiveness of the weapon betraying Ukraine and Europe.

I have been watching the Israeli response to the Gaza terror attacks, there are still 132 Israeli hostages being held by Hamas. What is known is Hamas engages in rape and sexual torture, there are a number of women being held and abused. Why any reasonable person would support rapists and sex offenders is preposterous.

So when Jerry Seinfeld received his honorary Doctorate from Duke University and addressed the student ceremony, this was almost a scene from an episode of Seinfeld. Jerry is a comedian and did years of stand up, he is used to hecklers and people walking out. Now, I have to admit that these honorary doctorates irritate me. A PhD student must undertake original research to write a thesis that is peer reviewed.

That is what these students should have been annoyed about, a free qualification from a serious university. This totally devalues the student work to earn their degrees. We all know Jerry Seinfeld is Jewish so it comes as no surprise that he supports the Israeli perspective. There is a pro-Palestinian uprising in United States and other western countries, I need to see who is really organising these protests. This is a pretty mild protest, this is barely news.

This is what I do not get, Duke University is the leading university in North Carolina, ranked number seven by the national universities guide and number fifty seven in the QS World University ratings. Duke University cohort by percentage of student graduations in computer science [11%], economics and quantitative economics [10%], public policy [9%], biology and biology science [8%] and research and experimental psychology [7%]. Duke University has a 5:1 student to faculty ratio and 71% of classes have less than 20 students.

So around 30 of the 7000 students got up and walked out. That is around half of one percent of students, so that is hardly worth reporting. What I found interesting is the inability of these students to engage in rational debate, apply critical thinking, deductive reasoning and reflection. If I can work out the percentage of people leaving quickly enough, the economists at Duke University should work it out in a matter of seconds. Clearly they can apply quantitative skills, they cannot apply the very skills they are attempting to apply.

The Bruce Lehrmann v Ten Network defamation trial was a monumental five weeks that kept the nation riveted to their news outlets. When I searched online, especially Twitter [now X] and Threads, the discussion was wild and pretty much uncontrolled. At least the online newspapers were savvy enough to close down their comments sections along with the comments on their social media links as they understood the principles of defamation.

Whilst I was an advocate of Bruce to a degree for the early part of the proceedings, this is because the process was driven by media outlets who believed they were beyond the law. I was concerned about the presumption of innocence until proven guilty and due process that was clearly being abused. This is what occurred in the Brittany Higgins rape trial that was aborted due to juror misconduct, there was no outcome at criminal level.

I never stated Lehrmann was innocent or guilty, as I did not know the answer, my complaints were about the process. Justice Michael Lee offered his insight and this decision was not what Lehrmann was expecting. Justice Michael Lee stated based on probabilities that Bruce Lehrmann raped Brittany Higgins, he based this decision on an exhaustive process – Bruce Lehrmann received a fair trial. The trial followed due process, the process was exhaustive and the decision carefully weighed.

What we learned during the trial was that both primary witnesses lied under oath, Justice Michael Lee was scathing of both key parties. What Justice Lee did was forensically examine all statements, he searched for inconsistencies in statements and probed deeply. It had been described that the mess Justice Lee faced was a huge knot that was entangled at both ends. What Justice Lee did was untangle this huge knot during the trial, until now, no one had gotten close. What Justice Lee brought to the trial was an unbiased, yet critical view to proceedings. Some of Justice Lee’s humorous quips had plenty of subtle laughs, he came across as astute and measured.

I had always said every person connected with this trial has had their reputation tarnished, clearly Justice Michael Lee was an inspired choice. I was wrong to a degree, Fiona Brown came out of this saga smelling like roses. Linda Reynolds may come out of this vindicated too. This is a no nonsense guy who is clearly intelligent and rational, he refused to get caught up in the emotional hysteria that was being pursued by the media in general and specifically the Ten Network. Lisa Wilkinson came out of the trial as pretty pathetic, she wanted to be treated as a serious journalist at some points, yet when the questioning became too difficult, she was quick to complain that she was following the producer. What we have learned is Lisa Wilkinson is not an investigative journalist by any measure.

Justice Lee was clear, both Bruce Lehrmann and Brittany Higgins were unreliable witnesses – both lied under oath. This became a case of who lied less, neither did themselves any favours. Brittany Higgins is now a tarnished witness who Justice Lee described as a complex, and in several respects unsatisfactory witness. “Nuance is required in evaluating her evidence, and any contentious and uncorroborated aspect needs to be scrutinised warily.” Higgins made claims that could not be verified. It would appear from Justice Lee’s statement that Brittany Higgins was less than forthright in her evidence, she was aware that no political cover-up occurred.

Brittany Higgins made 11 separate representations about the [then] alleged rape in her $2.44 million settlement with the Australian government. Higgins’ statements were either knowingly false or contradicted by her evidence in the defamation trial. Higgins could find herself in trouble, it appears Higgins made knowingly false statements for financial gain. The current federal government would not overturn such a decision, this would make them look guilty and trying to wriggle out of this mess.

The Albanese government made the payment entirely on Higgins’ version of events during a single day mediation session that deliberately excluded evidence from the Minister. The National anti-corruption commission is now examining a complaint laid by Linda Reynolds, although I find it unlikely she will be required to repay the money. She may have to hand over some of that money to Linda Reynolds, the next trial will be interesting.

The Ten Network did not escape Justice Lee’s wrath, the Ten Network did little to check if Higgins allegations were true. Lisa Wilkinson and the Ten Network made the allegation that the Morrison government covered up the Higgins’ sexual assault. Nothing could be more from the truth, Wilkinson and the Ten Network have been found out, what they did was engage in a shoddy action that could not be described as journalism. The Ten Network needs to totally review their processes and how they go about reporting, they need to become a values based organisation and live by those values.

Then the Ten Network crowed after the trail that was called out by Justice Lee as disrespectful to both him and the court. The Ten Network did not make reasonable attempts to verify the claims, they pursued the political claims as that was their story. Lehrmann will never be able to pay their legal fees, this will cost them more than winning. This was a political hatchet job, there is evidence to support the Albanese government was aware of the nature of the complaint – this story has longer to run.

What a great service the Dresden public transport system provides. I used the S-bahn for longer trips to outlying areas; but if you hang around the city precinct, you can’t beat the trams. The trams link to the S-bahn, that worked extremely well for me; you can get around very easily on the trams. I reckon as a mode of public transport, a tram network is very difficult to beat.

Firstly, the trams are electric so emissions are low, tracks laid all around the city so they carry people to all the popular places. This ensures routes are known and unlike the bus, they don’t get grid locked. My views may be a little compromised, my general view of Germany is very positive, I really can’t find any faults with Germany as a nation. As a smaller but not insignificant city in Germany, I believe Dresden is a fantastic location and as even a non-resident, I could see myself living in this city.