Positive news from the Australian Federal Police this week that a special computer hackathon was staged by the force and other experts to see if today’s modern computers could shed new lights on the fates of yesterday’s long lost missing persons,
Harnessing the skills of high-tech hacksperts all around the country, the hackspree attracted hundreds of participants, leading one organiser to virtually ‘hyphenate’ with excitement.
“This is the first large-scale, crowd-sourced, open-source intelligence gathering of its kind in Australia,” the hyphen-happy heroine had us be-lieve!
As PS-sssst! has al-ways said, such enth-usi-asm should not go un-rewarded!
Higher phenning
Still hovering over hyphens, another high-flying hyphenist emerged during the week with the national Minister for renewable energy announcing a new grants program for country communities to help build power ‘microgrids’ to share the electricity mustered by small scale solar panels and batteries.
Proudly revealing that while one hyphen was fashionable but two was top-of-the-town, the Minister explained the grants would support microgrid solutions that were “in off-grid and fringe-of-grid locations”.
Thank-goodness-for-that!
Driving to safety
Whoever said policemen don’t have a sense of humour must have missed Gilbert and Sullivan’s Pirates of Penzance, but they shouldn’t miss the wily wisdom revealed by an Assistant NSW Police Commissioner when discussing road safety recently.
Commenting on the dangers to traffic police whose work is usually done at the mercy of speeding cars flying past just centimetres away, the Assistant Commissioner unveiled new warning signs to alert drivers to take care.
“We need to provide a safe working environment for our police officers,” he explained predictably.
He said that by enforcing the road rules, the police hoped to improve driver behaviour and “drive down the road toll”.
Ka boom!
Goodbye giveaway
Another of Rama Gaind’s weekly giveaways now where three DVD copies of the Johnny Depp film Richard Says Goodbye have been laid out for the taking.
To be among the ‘takers’ all we needed to do was name Mr Depp’s most recent film which was the 2018 metaphysical fantasy Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald.
The three lucky entrants with the correct answer who materialised first from the PS News Barrel of Booty were Linda P from the Federal Department of Social Services, Maria S of the South Australian Department of Health and Pam E from the Australian Taxation Office in Victoria.
Congratulations to all the winners and thanks to everyone for joining in the fun.
Mr Depp’s DVDs will be on their way very soon.
In the meantime, for another chance to join Rama’s Army of worthy winners, simply follow this link and follow the clues.
Good luck!
Homeward unbound
And finally, a message for the many overworked, underappreciated public service professionals who find it impossible to leave work at knock-off time each day – your Day is on the way!
Just as we joyfully celebrate October as National Safe Work Month each year and set aside one week in April as National Library Week, so it is that a special day is to be put aside for the overworked.
The public policy think tank, the Australia Institute, has declared Wednesday 20 November ‘National Go Home On Time Day’.
Yeah, right!
Till next week……
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