I see an Australian swimmer has refused to share a podium with a Chinese swimmer who beat him. Boys being precious boys.

HONKERS HAS GONE BONKERS. The civil unrest in Hong Kong bears similarities, in a way, to the Bangkok/Thailand rebellions around 2012. A highly organised democratic movement supported by equally some very good folk and some very dodgy criminal groups against a kind of governing elite. In the Thai situation the Government just let the protestors win, the protestors took over parliament, ruled the streets, dug up the roads, burnt down about 20 skyscrapers etc for about a year, and then the Government, housed in offices near the airport, just had some military interventions of an 'urban pacification' kind...and lots of Psychological Ops and just sniper-ed off the leaders of the protest, and thus nothing changed in terms of the rulers of the city...the Government won, the rebellion was over...and people just got tired of protesting and not getting work or pay.

What is the general view on drug-pill-testing at pop festivals? If at pop festivals, why not have a small office in every town that tests tablets for people who wander in whether there's a festival or not? Would an increase in taxation be a good thing to cover the costs of this?

China does a lot of social experiments, including the current Social Credits scheme in Beijing and Shanghai. China experiments with democracy in some cities, with neo-Maoism-collectivism in others, like Chongqing, and with a variety of forms of new social engineering, including rampant capitalism in Hong Kong and here and there. It's a big culture/society and so does massive billion people trials over many years. Of all the people in the world, China studies the Chinese most. At the same time, it has more higher educated and well informed economic analysts of, say, Australian and UK economics than either the UK or Australia have, or could ever have. China studies urban pacification as well. I recall during the 2012 riots in Bangkok, the first-on-the-group foreigners were plane-loads of Chinese tactical analysts, studying the impact of the rebellion, and analysing everything the combatants did. The Chinese invest in Knowledge of other people, as well as themselves. They are a new and old and remarkable and unique human civilisation. One would find most Chinese to be a bit dubious about social experiments like Western democracy when the last really big 'social experiment' most recall and remain damaged by, is the horror of the Cultural Revolution. I guess the Chinese Nation could fall apart, and this is about as likely as Hawaii gaining independence from the USA...or Tibet gaining independence from China, or Canberra in Australia becoming the property of the local indigenous folk...all these things could happen, yeah, but none of them ever will happen.

Katie Melua - Nine Million Bicycles

Joni Mitchell - Hejira (1976) Full Album

The concern regarding having a referendum in Australia to change the Constitution to recognise Aboriginal people as being here is this: You have to win the referendum. As shown by the Brexit referendum, the will of the people is not something one can rely upon. If you lose it, then that's that. You don't get another shot at it. The usual policy of any government here is, when faced by a call for a referendum, is to fund both sides of the argument so that people have a clear and informed base on which to make a choice. This is why Australia is not a Republic, because Australia rejected the notion, and why we not fully separate as a nation from the UK. A referendum sounds like a good and progressive idea on recognising Aboriginality in Australia, but only if you win the referendum, only if you trust that the majority of Australians think like you do. The history of referenda in Australia is that most don't get up.