Beyond Infinity

Donald Trump's 2nd term started with a bang – tariffs, trade wars, midnight tweets; a national emergency on the southern border. Tariff policies as vague as his hairline, DEI initiatives rolled back faster than his approval ratings and executive orders flew as fast as his thick black marker could scribble them. Conservative values got a boost, while institutions took a hit. Global tensions soared and drama ensued. What can one say? Have we really been trumped or just stumped? Insane as it may sound, DJT has the cards.

Beekeeper activist Simon Mulvany explains how the new Honey Integrity Act cracks down on adulterated honey and improves transparency in the market. He reckons it's way too easy to import fake honey into Australia and we should be following the US lead. Without a healthy and vibrant bee industry, we risk losing a big chunk of our food production which relies on them for pollination. [For more from Simon, visit: https://beyondinfinity.com.au/?s=Simon+mulvany]

The Donald steamed into his second term with laser focus on securing US borders, unleashing American energy and promoting government efficiency. He wielded his big black marker - signing numerous executive orders, luring significant investments, threatening trade wars and making key policy changes. Presenter Piers Cunningham and guest Simon Mulvany discuss the pros, cons and promise of the thunderous shake up rippling around the world under the 47th American President.

Piers and Brad look back on the big events and issues of 2024, as discussed on the Beyond Infinity Pod. From Australia's unrealistic energy policies, sharp population growth, housing shortages and our home state Victoria's Big Build disaster through to Trump's second term, with Musk as efficiency Tsar and the backlash against wokeism. We chew the phat, cough up a fur ball or two, but remain upbeat. We do after all live in interesting times...

Modern cybernetics informs fields like AI, robotics, biology, sociology, and philosophy, offering insights into the intricate web of relationships within and among systems. Piers and cyber security expert Dr. Ian Storey discuss the origins and modern uses. We also delve into the Federal Government's proposed social media ban for Under-16s in Australia. Will all social media users, including adults, be forced to somehow prove their age online?

Necessity really is the mother of invention. And some inventions make a big difference. Retired physicist Dr. Tony Heyes explains how his work solving transport problems for the blind led to an unforeseen reward from a stranger.

While renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and hydro are crucial for reducing our reliance on fossil fuels and mitigating climate change, they struggle to meet electricity demand during peak load conditions. Physicist Dr. Tony Heyes argues Australia has little choice but to plan for a nuclear energy future, while sticking with affordable and effective fossil fuels in the interim.

Artificial intelligence is leading humanity towards what many see as a new renaissance for human creativity, augmented by almost unlimited computing power. Others fear recursive AI could get out of control and behave in ways that are unpredictable and undesirable. Dr Ian Storey updates us on how far away we are from Kurtweil's Singularity, implications for information security and the potential for an AI super intelligence to come to being by 2045. Or earlier.

Piers sits down with Simon to discuss the spread of varroa mite into Victoria and what might be done to manage the problem. Also, the effects on honey purity and retail cost. Simon also discusses Queensland authorities' alarmist response to fire ants, including the indiscriminate use of chemical spraying, often without land owners knowledge or permission.

Within minutes of former president Trump's attempted assassination on 13th July 2024, Elon Musk posted on X: “I fully endorse President Trump and hope for his rapid recovery,” along with a video of Trump raising his fist after being shot in the ear. Musk has since pledged hundreds of millions in campaign support and on 13th August conducted a 2 hour long live phone conversation with Trump on X. But why is Musk wading into politics? He's already stupendously successful, with multiple highly profitable businesses to his name. Does he really need to publicly choose sides? Like what you hear? Check out our back catalogue on Musk here: http://beyondinfinity.com.au/?s=Elon+Musk

The announcement on the King's Birthday public holiday that Dan Andrews has been awarded the Companion of the Order of Australia has left many people shocked and bewildered. Why on earth is a failed leader who presided over Victoria's disastrous response to the covid pandemic with the world's longest lockdowns, a health system in crisis, stratospheric infrastructure cost blowouts and state debt S&P forecasts to reach $250 billion by 2027 being honoured by the Council for the Order of Australia?

The Australian Government has taken on social media platform X and its mercurial proprietor Elon Musk over the broadcast of a chilling attack on an Assyrian priest in Sydney. Is the medium to blame, or are deeper societal issues the cause? There's little doubt social media can amplify violence, making it more vital to find the right balance between free speech and public safety. Piers and Brad throw their hats in the ring.

Piers catches up with bee-keeper activist Simon Mulvany and hears about the Australian government's fire ant poisoning program in Queensland and NSW. There's concerns about the use of harmful insecticides like Fipronil and Pyriproxyfen. There are serious fears for native species and waterways stemming from hit or miss aerial spraying campaigns. Are authorities over-reacting and is it even possible to eradicate such a hardy, well-adapted ant species?

Welcome back to Beyond Infinity. It's been a while. Today Piers discusses latest space news from Jupiter, the Moon and Mars. NASA admits it can't afford the high cost of returning the Perseverence rover's precious Mars sample tubes to Earth and is looking for help from space privateers. And SpaceX continues to develop the world's most powerful launch vehicle Starship, with a view to colonising Mars. But is this a realistic and worthwhile goal?

A wide-ranging conversation about Dan Andrews life, personality, socialist left politics and the repercussions. Does he deserve hatred or grudging respect? Geoff Wells, a medical specialist who repeatedly warned about brutal and misguided lockdowns during covid, offers insights. We talk golf, medical science, Victoria's economy and the world's response to the pandemic.

In a fiery appearance at the DealBook Summit in New York City, Elon Musk unloaded on Disney CEO Bob Iger. Musk insisted he would not be 'blackmailed' and that Iger should 'GFY' over his advertising boycott of X. We consider what's at stake for the mercurial Musk and the potential fallout for his other businesses.

Piers and John Mac chew the fat, again. Why such heated controversy around the esteemed former Victorian State Premier Dan Andrews joining a couple of Mornington Peninsula golf clubs? Can't a man just relax and enjoy his hard-earned, early retirement in peace? (If you like this stuff, there's PLENTY more at beyondinfinity.com.au)

Exorbitant prices, high interest rates and lack of housing stock mean many young people will never own their own home in Australia. And with 1% or less rental vacancy and record immigration, people are struggling to get any kind of a roof over their heads. Yet governments seem powerless to help, even as banks say lending rules are too tight and make many potential borrowers ineligible for mortgages. Check out our *mighty* back catalogue of 800+ podcasts at beyondinfinity.com.au

Piers and veteran radio presenter John McCormack discuss Australia's recent referendum on the Voice to Parliament. Passing referenda is historically and technically difficult: only 8 out of 45 attempts to amend the Constitution have succeeded since Federation in 1901 and they require support from a majority of people in a majority of states. Yet there were high hopes, especially among Aboriginals and Torres Strait Islanders, that things could change for the better and the Voice would become law. However, the referendum failed with an average of 60% against the proposal.

Mature (?) social media goes subscription-based; Twitter's blue tick of approval; Reddit's unpopular IPO; TickTock gains ground - forcing change on incumbents; Renting options on new cars. Piers and Brad show their age.

Piers and bee activist Simon Mulvany chat about the politicisation of the debate around so-called climate change, with its fear mongering and manipulation by vested interests. Is 'pollution' a better term to use than 'climate change'? We consider how important it is for Australia to transition carefully to renewables, without causing peak load blackouts and vast economic damage. We discuss how science has been politicised, nuclear energy demonised and our natural resources trivialised. And we look forward to the fight of the century - a cage fight between AI rivals Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg.

With the referendum to alter Australia's Constitution set for Saturday, 14 October 2023, people will vote yes or no on a single question about the establishment of an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice. Yet the devil is in the detail and the challenge for the government and other proponents remains to explain just how the new law will work in practice. Piers sat down recently with Brad Mackenzie for a chat about what's at stake.

Piers reconnects with mathematician Dr Ian Storey and pro investor Guy West over a glass of wine to update listeners on artificial intelligence's effects on markets and investing in AI. Are we seeing the start of an AI bubble, more about hype than a real threat to humanity? We discuss how hedge funds use machine learning and the need to regulate AI. We marvel at AI's astonishing mastery of language - humanity's operating system. We ponder current economic conditions and the inflation/deflation cycle. No doubt we are prejudiced against AI because of our mass exposure to scifi films over the past 50 years, but what of more ominous predictions?

Longest cumulative lockdowns on the planet, declining mental health, record state debt, economic damage, new taxes and levies and now the loss of the Commonwealth Games. Melbourne continues to endure tough times. Piers sits down with Brad Mackenzie to ponder the question: are Melburnians scarred from their collective experiences since early in 2020 when a global pandemic was declared?

Piers sits down with beekeeper activist Simon Mulvany to discuss the spread of a parasite killing honey bees in New South Wales. Simon explains how the varroa mite entered Australia, the only country in the world that was varroa-free until recently. He outlines the enormous damage the mite causes to wild and commercial bee populations and its threat to primary industries. Simon is opposed to the use of Fipronol, an insecticide banned in the UK and EU, to control the outbreak. He points to the work of US entomologist Dr Sam Ramsay as useful in understanding varroa and African countries as exemplars of pesticide-free healthy natural bee populations.

Piers is joined by Dr. Ian Storey, lecturer in information systems at Torrens University, for a chat about the many and varied effects of artificial intelligence on almost every aspect of human life. From AI-powered battle drones and deep fake voice cloning for ransoms through to plagiarism, provenance of online images and manipulating elections, we are on the cusp of a revolution akin to the invention of the printing press and the World Wide Web. And as Ian explains, this is just the beginning, with some experts predicting that 80-90% of jobs could be redundant because of AI.

Despite its spectacular 'rapid unscheduled disassembly' four minutes into its flight, the maiden voyage of SpaceX's monster super heavy lift rocket is considered a successful failure. SpaceX say they will learn from their mistakes and try again in a matter of months. And if they succeed, they will have a vehicle far more powerful than the Saturn V moon rocket of the Apollo era, with the distinct advantage of being fully reusable. Piers and Brad discuss this giant leap in rocket technology, what it all means and whether they'd ever sign up for a ride.

Piers sits down with Brad Mckenzie to discuss whether Russia should be banned from the Paris Olympic Games in 2024. We look at the long history of politics' involvement in sport - from Jessie Owens at the Berlin Games of 1936 through to the World Cup in Qatar and the Australian Tennis Open. For all the anguish over mixing politics and sport, sport seems to win out anyway. Please check out our entire back catalogue of 883 tracks at beyondinfinity.com.au

Welcome to the latest episode of Beyond Infinity and our first for 2023. We discuss how Unmanned Aerial Vehicle technology is re-shaping the battlefield and beyond. We dive into the exciting world of drones and how they will revolutionize space exploration - like on Mars with the Ingenuity helicopter, which has just completed its 40th ground breaking autonomous flight. Join us as we explore the future of space exploration and the role that AI-powered drones will play in it. Let's get started!

A retrospective on the year's podcasts: how bee-keeping works; extreme weather hits eastern Australia; covid dwindles yet lingers as other biohazards emerge; Elon Musk's Twitter fiascos; the Multiverse; the mega hacks of Optus and Medibank. 2022 was supposed to mark an inflection point in history - with the rise of China, war in Ukraine and a climate emergency, but did we really 'inflect'?

The world's most successful entrepreneur now owns what he hopes will be Earth's digital town square, but he faces stiff head winds. He paid a very high price for the business at the top of the market, seems to have pissed off many employees, including senior management, as well as raised doubts among key advertisers. He's made his presence felt through mass sackings, a ban on working from home, a move towards a subscription service model whereby users pay $8 a month for the blue tick and foreshadowed a mayhem mode free for all. Can Musk weave his magic at Twitter or has he bitten off more than even he can chew?

The Premier looks like winning another four years in office, despite what many see as his disastrous and incompetent mishandling of the pandemic. First, there was Melbourne's hotel quarantine fiasco, then problems with contact tracing and hundreds of preventable aged care deaths. There followed the longest cumulative lockdown of any city on Earth - 267 days - with devastating effects on mental health, personal freedoms, education, family businesses and our economy. The repercussions will be felt for years to come. Why then, after all this plus serious allegations of corruption and foul play, are voters likely to renew Premier Andrews tenure on 26th November?

A massive cyber attack threatens the private data of 9.8 million current and former Optus customers. Authorities are being forced to reissue drivers licenses and passports, while the Federal Government promises regulatory reforms with stiff telco penalties for future breaches.

Better to recycle waste water and reduce ocean outfall or rely on energy-hungry desalination plants? In the lead up to the Victorian state election, a petition on change.org calls for a $60 million upgrade to the Eastern Treatment Plant to remove all contaminants from wastewater currently discharged near Gunnamatta on the Mornington Peninsula, south of Melbourne. The Clean Ocean Foundation claims the Weedy Seadragon is directly impacted by the outfall - its numbers are in decline and the species is considered "near threatened." They argue that advanced wastewater treatment plants provide purified recycled water and reduce ocean pollution.

Bee keeping activist Simon Mulvany explains the problem of varroa mites for bees; how the pest entered Australia and what's being done to control it, including the controversial use of fipronil insecticide. We broaden the conversation to include other biohazards, like foot and mouth disease in Indonesia, the reemergence of drug-resistant polio, monkey pox and covid-19.

It's theorised that birds use quantum effects to navigate with help from the Earth's magnetic field. And how do massive flocks move as clouds in such exquisite and controlled close proximity? Inspired by the movie 'Everything Everywhere All At Once', mathematician and lecturer in information systems Dr. Ian Storey outlines the two main theories of QM - the Copenhagen interpretation and the multiverse. He thinks one is arrogant and anthropocentric, while the other is, well, hard to get your head around. Either way, "our intuition is not built around understanding events at the quantum level" he says. Easy listening on a complicated subject.

Musk's dream to make humanity a multi-planetary species. The frenetic pace of development at Starbase, his private rocket production facility, test site and spaceport in Texas. Success of Starlink in Ukraine annoys Russia. Musk defies the critics and weathers plenty of bets (and threats) against him, including shorting Tesla. Piers is joined by activist influencer Simon Mulvany. Part 2 of a 2 part interview.

A look at the world's wealthiest individual and his delayed takeover of the loss-making microblogging service. His battles with Bill Gates, Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter shareholders and the Securities and Exchange Commission. Why would Musk want control? Piers is joined by activist influencer Simon Mulvany. Part 1 of a 2 part interview.

Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Latest scourge causing concern (but not alarm) around the world is monkey pox. Normally endemic in Africa, cases have been appearing in the UK, Europe, Australia and the USA. Scientists have yet to determine why. Meanwhile, Australia's covid death toll passes 8000 and this year's winter flu is proving worse for some than omicron.

Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Victorian covid stats trending higher. Comparing covid death rates around the world as US approaches 1m milestone. Australian Vs US pandemic response - very different approach, very different results; trust is key. Unreliable covid reporting - North Korea's massive covid spike.

Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. A rundown of rising covid numbers around Australia. Covid fatigue causing complacency and unnecessary risk taking - people often ignoring mask mandates in transport hubs. NZ passes 1 million confirmed covid cases, but real figure could be much higher. Shanghai expats getting desperate as lockdown drags on; Tesla factory closed.

Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Ba4 and Ba5 first seen in South Africa now in Europe and America. Draconian lockdowns in Shanghai and Beijing; weakness of Chinese vaccines. New variants more risky than sub-variants. Australia relaxes close contact rules. Dam Andrews keeps his head down.

Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Covid numbers rising dramatically especially in NSW, but hospitalisations remain low. XE mutant hybrid; NZ PM predicts more variants for 2022; close contact rules in the spotlight. Winter flu also coming, so a double whammy? Surge to peak at end of April.

It's been a rough few years for Australia with extreme weather events ranging from devastating bushfires in 2019 to the record breaking floods of the summer of 2022. Piers and Simon Mulvany discuss the recent catastrophic La Niña-driven floods in South Eastern Queensland and Northern New South Wales. They explain weather modification programs like cloud seeding at the Beijing Winter Olympics and America's during the Vietnam war. They consider the devastating social and economic impacts of increasingly common extreme weather and some of the conspiracy theories that have emerged. SO much more at beyondinfinity.com.au

A chat with bee keeper activist Simon Mulvany: how bee keeping works in different locations; a bumper season on the Southern Peninsula; his online bee keeping course; problems with almond crops in Victoria and California; Chinese imported pollen; amazing hive substance propolis; how bees bight; Portsea Estate bee sanctuary.

That's a wrap for the year. As a plague-weary world braces for another year 'getting by' with covid, here's a brief summary of 2021 on air, through the lens of Beyond Infinity. As ever, thanks for listening! And we'll be back in MMXXII.

Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Sydney daily covid cases rising sharply, with more omicron cases popping up. Data from South Africa suggest highly infectious omicron could overwhelm health systems even though it is less severe than delta; Pfizer vaccine less effective in preventing hospitalisation. Moderna to build mRNA factory in Melbourne. Pfizer pill available soon for those infected with covid. US tragically passes 800,OOO covid deaths as NYC tightens restrictions for the unvaccinated; weekly death toll increasing as winter sets in. In South Korean city of Bucheon, 10,000 CCTV cameras help authorities contain the virus.

Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Omicron more infectious than Delta, but Fauci optimistic; will be dominant UK strain in weeks not months. NYC vaccine mandates. Brazil's big turn around against covid. Studies confirm dire effects of missing school for kids. State ombudsman finds border closures 'inhumane and unjust'. Victoria's very high covid deaths compared to all other states. Failed and veiled government covid policies. Calls for a Royal Commission in to the pandemic.

On November 15, 2021 when Russia fired a hypersonic missile at its defunct COSMOS-1408 satellite in orbit just above the International Space Station, the impact created a field of at least 1500 pieces of identifiable debris, endangering its own cosmonauts aboard the station, as well as vital communication, weather and earth observation satellites. Now critics are calling for the United Nations to mandate norms of behaviour to prevent further intentional disregard for safety, security and sustainability in space.

Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Comparing vaccine efficacy between Delta and Omicron. Potential benefits of new variant. International response to WHO's 'variant of concern'. Lightening worldwide spread. Germany considering mandatory vaccines. Lessons of Omicron. Differences between Omicron and earlier Covid variants. Booster imperative.

Live-to-air radio interview with Piers Cunningham and Brendon Telfer. Vic-NSW Covid situations compared. Fortress New Zealand closed to Aussies until 2022. Mystery of unvaccinated Africa doing fine with Covid. Central Europe reacts to more lockdowns and vaccine mandates. Vaccinating kids as young as 5 years old. AstraZeneca claims its covid vaccine is the reason UK doing better than Europe. Vaccinating the South Pacific. Judging Australia's slow vaccine rollout.