Lance Rubin

I don't feel there is a safe space for accounting and finance professionals to really explore, hands-on the future of finance tools with Modern #Excel, #PowerBI, #AI and other apps that are going to change what accounting and finance professionals do. The #AI juggernaut is full of hype, but amongst the hype are some real game changers that are getting lost in the noise and also causing a lot of fence-sitting and hesitation. It's with this in mind that we are launching the Friday Future of Finance Lab! It's grounded in the concept of the AI-Powered Accountant! It's a fortnightly, 1-hour, FREE to join (maximum 50 people online). We will experiment on how it goes, all sessions on Zoom with an AI assistant documented so you can learn and get summaries, plus we will switch off the agents too and tackle some of her career/work challenges too. Link to register below starting next Friday. zoom.us/meeting/regist…

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Do Australians pay more tax on beer than international gas companies pay on the Australian offshore gas they export? David Pocock: “How do we live in a country that exports… one of the biggest gas exporters in the world, and we’re getting more tax from beer than PRRT.”

IT'S THE SUN, STUPID! Astrophysicist Dr. Willie Soon's new brilliant (and funny) film, exposing the CO2 climate scam. @WillieSoon8 @TomANelson @Martin_Durkin

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright demolishes Net Zero. 🔥 "Let's just engage with reality. Oil, gas, and coal are what run the world. Full stop." "We can't make a wind turbine, or a solar panel, or a nuclear power plant, without massive amounts of oil, gas, and coal." "That's how the world works."

No, this photo does not show obvious signs of having been AI-edited or AI-generated. It appears to be a genuine vintage photograph (likely from the late 1960s to mid-1970s based on clothing, hairstyles, poses, and overall aesthetic—big hair, headbands, polka dots, striped tops, flared pants, tennis rackets, etc.). Here’s why it looks authentic rather than manipulated by modern AI tools: •Hands and fingers — All visible hands look anatomically normal with the correct number of fingers (5 per hand), proper proportions, and natural gripping/posing. Hands remain one of the more reliable giveaways in AI-generated images (even in 2026 models), especially in group shots with complex interactions like holding rackets or arms around each other. •Eyes, faces, and skin — The faces have natural expressions, varied lighting/shadows, and realistic skin textures for an old photo (some grain, minor imperfections, no plastic/waxy sheen typical of many AI outputs). Eyes have consistent catchlights/reflections and don’t show the “dead-eyed” or overly symmetrical look common in synthetic faces. •Clothing and fabric — Patterns (polka dots, stripes) are coherent and don’t warp or blend unnaturally. Edges and folds behave like real fabric under 1970s-era photography. •Composition and physics — Poses on the car trunk feel casual and slightly awkward in a human way (people leaning, arms draped naturally). Shadows, depth, and perspective align properly with outdoor daylight in a park-like setting. No violations of physics (e.g., floating objects, mismatched lighting directions). •Overall vintage feel — The grain, contrast, slight softness, and black-and-white conversion (or aged look) match scanned old prints rather than AI attempts to “fake” vintage effects, which often overdo uniformity, add fake noise inconsistently, or produce too-clean results. •Text and details — The car license plate “91851” (or 91051?) is legible and consistent, without the garbled/melting look AI often gives to text/numbers in older models. Modern AI can now create very convincing retro-style group photos, but they still tend to slip on fine details like coherent backgrounds (the trees and ground here look naturally varied and unblurry), limb occlusion, or subtle asymmetries that real photos have. Without access to the original file for metadata checks, pixel-level analysis, or reverse image search, I can’t rule out very subtle modern edits (e.g., minor cleanup in Photoshop). But nothing in the visible content screams “AI-edited”—it passes as a typical scanned family/friends snapshot from that era. If you have the original scan/file or more context (where it came from), that could help confirm further!

This was my mum & her mates in Iran before the Islamists, with the help of communists and the diabolically dimwitted Jimmy Carter, took over the country. MIGA.

History happening..

Yesterday a quasi-judicial body in Italy fined @Cloudflare $17 million for failing to go along with their scheme to censor the Internet. The scheme, which even the EU has called concerning, required us within a mere 30 minutes of notification to fully censor from the Internet any sites a shadowy cabal of European media elites deemed against their interests. No judicial oversight. No due process. No appeal. No transparency. It required us to not just remove customers, but also censor our 1.1.1.1 DNS resolver meaning it risked blacking out any site on the Internet. And it required us not just to censor the content in Italy but globally. In other words, Italy insists a shadowy, European media cabal should be able to dictate what is and is not allowed online. That, of course, is DISGUSTING and even before yesterday’s fine we had multiple legal challenges pending against the underlying scheme. We, of course, will now fight the unjust fine. Not just because it’s wrong for us but because it is wrong for democratic values. In addition, we are considering the following actions: 1) discontinuing the millions of dollars in pro bono cyber security services we are providing the upcoming Milano-Cortina Olympics; 2) discontinuing Cloudflare’s Free cyber security services for any Italy-based users; 3) removing all servers from Italian cities; and 4) terminating all plans to build an Italian Cloudflare office or make any investments in the country. Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. While there are things I would handle differently than the current U.S. administration, I appreciate @JDVance taking a leadership role in recognizing this type of regulation is a fundamental unfair trade issue that also threatens democratic values. And in this case @ElonMusk is right: #FreeSpeech is critical and under attack from an out-of-touch cabal of very disturbed European policy makers. I will be in DC first thing next week to discuss this with U.S. administration officials and I’ll be meeting with the IOC in Lausanne shortly after to outline the risk to the Olympic Games if @Cloudflare withdraws our cyber security protection. In the meantime, we remain happy to discuss this with Italian government officials who, so far, have been unwilling to engage beyond issuing fines. We believe Italy, like all countries, has a right to regulate the content on networks inside its borders. But they must do so following the Rule of Law and principles of Due Process. And Italy certainly has no right to regulate what is and is not allowed on the Internet in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, China, Brazil, India or anywhere outside its borders. THIS IS AN IMPORTANT FIGHT AND WE WILL WIN!!!

Very disappointing to see the Bondi tragedy being turned into a call for more laws about' LGBTQIA' and Muslim communities. The proposed laws were rejected already and trying to use an attack on the Jewish community to resurrect them is not good. Ironically, many members of the particular community which was targeted are close to AJA and have very different views to Ms Spender about these issues.

The Prime Minister is supposed to represent Australians. Instead, he is ignoring them. When former Governors-General, Reserve Bank governors, business leaders, security professionals, judges, community leaders and members of his own side of politics are all calling for a Commonwealth Royal Commission, the problem is not the case for action. The problem is the Prime Minister. Australians deserve honesty. They deserve leadership. They deserve answers through a Commonwealth Royal Commission.

The cost of living crisis explained. This is the real impact of inflation.

Footage emerges of Anthony Albanese in close proximity to a flag of the terrorist organisation Hezbollah. Old footage of the Prime Minister's extremist days when he spoke at a rally as a flag of a terrorist organisation flew nearby. Credit Sharri Markson and Drew Pavlou

🚨SHARE! Footage from Sky News Australia shows Anthony Albanese, the current Prime Minister of Australia, participating early in the early 2000s in a "Free Palestine" protest against Israel, condemning the IDF through a megaphone, with a yellow Hezbollah flag beside him.

Today the former Chief Justice of the High Court Robert French, former head of the Australian Secret Intelligence Service (ASIS) Nick Warner, former Queensland Premier Peter Beattie, former Federal Labor minister Mike Kelly & Labor Senator Nova Peris, 100 Senior Counsel and current Labor MPs Mike Friedlander and Ed Husic joined the Jewish community and the Coalition in a growing chorus of legal, political, security and civil leaders calling for an urgent Commonwealth Royal Commission into the Bondi massacre.  I urge the Prime Minister to heed this message and announce a Royal Commission now.  It's illogical for the Prime Minister to say "we want urgency and unity, not division and delay" in dismissing a Royal Commission.  Prime Minister you have been delaying taking strong action for the last two and half years. If you want to use alliteration then what we want is accountability and action and not a Prime Minister who is in denial but one who shares our despair. Mr French's words today were powerful and pertinent. He described what needs to be done as a "moral imperative" saying "there is no requirement for governments to put on hold their responses to the (Bondi) attack pending the provision of reports by the Royal Commission. The events at Bondi Beach require a whole of Australia response which transcends politics and which by its very independence generates a powerful force for change." Mr Warner said "at the heart of the horror and tragedy of Bondi lies antisemitism, allowed to fester and grow through years of inaction. This must be addressed and acted on, and a carefully mandated Royal Commission would play an important role." In the days since Australia's deadliest ever terrorist attack, we have heard too many excuses from our Prime Minister and his senior Ministers. We have been told 'you can't legislate against hate'; we have been told 'anti-semitism didn't begin in 2022'; we have been told that it comes to the threat  'we are dealing with a circle of two'; we have been told the priority is a gun buy back not the radicalism in our midst; and now we are told we can't have a Royal Commission because it will lead to 'delays' in the response. Each excuse only compounds the pain of the last week and underscores the need for the Government to take urgent, unprecedented and strong action to secure the safety of all Australians.

Bondi Beach Shooting at Chanukah event Please pray for the Australian Jewish community. We warned so many times that this was coming. We never once felt the Government took the warnings seriously.

Bondi Beach, appears that a bystander rushed one of the shooters and disarmed them.

@sanatizen @SkyNewsAust goes you the real story.

why they just announce on tv that’s there’s a shooting at bondi beach but then didn’t say anything else

Bondi beach

I'm thrilled to share the latest session in the Future of Finance Lab on SAAS #modelling. The new video exploring the future of AI in accounting and finance. I dive deep into 5 LLMs and show how this technology is shaping what's next. I'd love to know what you think. Check it out and let's discuss! youtu.be/vUJNIiUzk2s?fe… #AI #CreativeIndustries #Innovation #FutureOfTech #Creator

Some beautiful words of reflection on the eve of Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Hebrew year.  May we be sealed in the Book of Life, with hope and strength to carry us forward.  Challenge is Not the Opposite of Blessing, It's Often the Beginning of It by Rabbi Mendel Mintz There’s a pattern in Judaism/Torah.  A pattern we don’t always want but we always need. When G-d wanted to make David a king… He didn’t give him a crown. He gave him Goliath. When He wanted to make Joseph a leader… He didn’t give him a palace. He sent him to prison. When G-d wanted to elevate Moses - he didn’t give him a stage, he gave him decades in the wilderness. When G-d wanted to make Esther a queen, (in the Purim story), he gave her a crisis and Haman. Time and again, we see:  G-d doesn’t elevate people through ease, rather through struggle. Because it’s not despite the challenge that we rise.  It’s through it. That’s how the human spirit is made and rises higher.  We don’t know what the new year will bring. But we do know this:  We were not born for comfort.  We were born for meaning. We weren’t placed in this world to hide from its problems — we were created to illuminate and solve them. And if, this year, you find yourself walking through a wilderness… or standing before your own personal or professional Goliath… Remember: that’s not a detour from your destiny. That is your calling. May this be the year G-d transforms our struggles into strength… May this year bring peace and healing to all. L’shana Tova — may it be a good and sweet new year.