• AFP media raids: Federal Police boss Neil Gaughan on ABC and News Corp searches: he didn't explain why a serious matter of national security saw raids conducted two years after the ABC reports ran and more than a year after Smethurst's story was published. ... Mr Gaughan defended the actions of the seven officers who spent seven hours inside Smethurst’s home, rifling through her underwear drawer, bathroom cabinet and kitchen cupboards. ... He didn’t explain why then officers flicked through every page of her recipe books, as Smethurst detailed in The Australian today.
• I live-tweeted the AFP's every move as they raided the ABC's Sydney headquarters - Investigative journalism - ABC News: If you examine the two articles that prompted the AFP's raids this week, neither endangered anyone's life. They were simply embarrassing for the Government. As retired Supreme Court judge Anthony Whealy pointed out this week, there is a big difference between a national security matter and one that embarrasses a government.
• Facebook's cryptocurrency to debut next week backed by Visa, Mastercard, Uber, and others: WSJ - The Verge: Stability is a key concern, since Facebook is hoping to attract users in developing countries with an alternative to more volatile local currencies. Facebook setting out to usurp governments as the source of currency for the Next Billion.
• They welcomed a robot into their family, now they're mourning its death - The Verge: [adults understand] that companies have bottom lines and that gadgets come and go, but Jibo was also designed to appeal to children, and those kids are now learning what it means to own a robot and have no control over its fate.
• Sydney's iconic Sirius building sold to developers for $150 million - ABC News (Australian Broadcasting Corporation): Chairperson of the Save Our Sirius Foundation, Shaun Carter, said he was "not getting too excited" by the sale, which he described as "secret squirrel, done behind closed doors". Mr Carter questioned why the developer had paid a premium for the building, when others had only been willing to pay around $100 million to $120 million.
• Christopher Pyne and the revolving door of MPs turned lobbyists | Australia news | The Guardian: The former defence minister Christopher Pyne ignited fresh criticism this week when he took a job with consulting giant EY to help expand its defence business. Pyne's acceptance of the job has again put Australia's revolving door between politics and business into stark relief. Rules governing post-ministerial employment are weak and unenforced.
• Meet the Guy Who Bought a Monorail For $1,000
• Wet Plate Photography Makes Tattoos Disappear: Here's something you may not have known about the 1800s wet plate collodion photography process: it can make certain tattoos disappear in photos. ... [Photographer Michael Bradley] decided to focus his camera on the indigenous Māori people of New Zealand, whose traditional tā moko tattoos have been making a resurgence. ... Bradley realized that when photographs of traditional tā moko were captured back in the 1800s, the tattoos themselves barely showed up at all and where therefore lost to history.

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