Great mystery TV shows keep viewers guessing with each episode. Sometimes, this can look like the slow answering of overarching questions in a twisty mystery box series. Other times, these series present viewers with a new mystery each episode. From suspenseful thrillers to cozy dramedies, the best mystery series keep viewers entertained by the plot while getting them attached to the characters and their journeys.
Aussie~mobs posted a photo:
The building was named after the Hon. W. Forgan Smith, Premier of Queensland, 1932 -1942, and University Chancellor in 1944.
The Forgan Smith Building is the centrepiece of the Great Court complex at the core of The University of Queensland’s St. Lucia campus.
The foundation stone of the Forgan Smith Building was laid in 1937, and the building was officially opened in 1949, although not completed until 1952. Sandstone carvings are a feature of the Central Court as well as on the façade of the building around the Law and Arts Entrances. These depict historical scenes and figures, the names of great thinkers and teachers, coats of arms, grotesques and carvings of Australian flora and fauna.
(QUT info)
Season 6 of Only Murders in the Building is becoming a real Doctor Who-dunit. Two former stars of the long-running (until recently) science fiction franchise are set to join the cast of suspects, witnesses, and red herrings of the Hulu crime comedy as it ventures across the Atlantic next season, as are seemingly half the actors in the British Isles.
History, it is said, does not repeat itself, but sometimes it rhymes. This may explain the sense of déjà vu that crept over me when I read about the case of Mr Raymond Wong – a 55-year-old construction worker, not the former newsman of the same name – who appeared at the West Kowloon Magistrates Court a couple of weeks ago.
The charge against Mr Wong was that he had on two occasions thrown home-produced leaflets, or in legal language “paper sheets written with statements,” from the vicinity of his 12th-floor public housing flat into the public area of the estate.
The first time, many of them were picked up by an irate district councillor, on the second by a staff member of the estate’s management. Quite how this led to Mr Wong was not explained in court but police eventually discovered his fingerprints on two of the offending items.
Mr Wong was then charged with violating the local national security law, on the grounds that the words on the leaflets were seditious. The first batch called for action against corrupt police people, which I suppose is automatically seditious because it implies that there are corrupt police people, which – of course – is not true.
The second batch of leaflets included the phrase “liberate Hong Kong; do not vote.” Curiously Mr Wong was not charged with discouraging voters, though that is an offence. Worse, we may suppose, was the fatal phrase “liberate Hong Kong,” when – as we all know – the law presumes that Hong Kong is already as liberated as it wishes to be.
Mr Wong sensibly pleaded guilty and will be sentenced later next week.
Meanwhile, I was haunted by the thought that scattering subversive leaflets into public places had come up somewhere before. And after some searching I found it in Geert Mak’s book, “In Europe.” Mr Mak was assigned by the Dutch newspaper he worked for to spend a year touring Europe while also touring the continent’s 20th century history. The resulting pieces were published as they were written in the newspaper, and assembled into the book, which is excellent though now a bit dated, afterwards.
So, in due course, Mr Mak reached Munich, a city with a complete set of capital city kit because it used to be the home of the Kings of Bavaria. One of them lent his name to the local university, the Ludwig-Maximilian Universität. Apparently this is a rather bombastic piece of architecture.
Let me now hand the microphone to Mr Mak:
“Here at the university is where it all converges: the pompous stairways, the pseudo-Roman statues beside them (in reality, two Bavarian kings in costume), the stupendous dome covering the hall, but also the wispy innocent desperate little pamphlets that the students Hans and Sophie Scholl let flutter down from the galleries here on 18 February 1943 ‘In the name of Germany’s young people we demand restitution by Adolf Hitler’s state of our personal freedom …’. They had spread tracts and left behind graffiti on earlier occasions as well: ‘Freedom’, ‘Down with Hitler.’ That was all the White Rose did. This time, though, they were caught by the caretaker and turned over to the Gestapo. Four days later they were beheaded.”
Now, nothing like that could happen here. We do not conclude national security cases in four days. We take four years, which may or may not be an improvement but is certainly different. We do not do capital punishment.
We do not have to worry about our personal freedom, at least as long as we refrain from daring stuff like appearing in the vicinity of Victoria Park with a piece of red string or an inflated question mark.
Still, it should not be a matter of rejoicing that we have joined the club of countries where the channels of public communication have been so choked by fear and restrictions that citizens who wish to express their views are reduced to scattering anonymous leaflets.
Our government seems to have inherited the thin skin of our notoriously sensitive police force. Now even legislators – carefully vetted patriots to a man or woman – are complaining that any comment on government policy which falls short of a rousing endorsement is branded as dishonesty or worse by official spokespersons.
No doubt government policies are usually well chosen and efficiently implemented. Still, our leaders should perhaps take a word of advice from Oliver Cromwell, who famously wrote to one set of obstinate opponents: “I beseech you, in the bowels of Christ, think it possible you may be mistaken.”
| HKFP is an impartial platform & does not necessarily share the views of opinion writers or advertisers. HKFP presents a diversity of views & regularly invites figures across the political spectrum to write for us. Press freedom is guaranteed under the Basic Law, security law, Bill of Rights and Chinese constitution. Opinion pieces aim to constructively point out errors or defects in the government, law or policies, or aim to suggest ideas or alterations via legal means without an intention of hatred, discontent or hostility against the authorities or other communities. |
Seven people and two firms that oversaw renovation works at Wang Fuk Court, the site of the city’s deadliest fire in decades, have been charged with manslaughter and a slew of other offences.
Three directors and employees at the two companies were among those formally charged by police and the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) at the West Kowloon Law Courts Building on Wednesday.
The defendants face a total of 25 charges, including manslaughter, conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, attempting to pervert the course of public justice, and tax evasion.
The blaze at Wang Fuk Court, a government-subsidised housing estate in Tai Po, in November killed 168 people and displaced thousands of residents.
According to the charge sheets, the two firms are Prestige Construction & Engineering, the main contractor for the HK$330 million renovation project at Wang Fuk Court, and Will Power Architects, the consultancy firm overseeing the government-mandated work.
Among the seven individuals charged are Will Power director Wong Hap-yin, its registered inspector Wilson Ng, and Prestige Construction director Ho Kin-yip.
Wong, Ng and Ho, along with their two companies, were charged with five counts of manslaughter.
The other four defendants are: Hau Wa-kin, another director at Prestige; Chung So-fan, Wong’s wife; Hung Kwok-wai, Wong’s friend; and Lin Min, assistant manager at Will Power.
The charge sheets also included the names of the 168 people killed in the fire.
Senior Superintendent Basil Tang of the New Territories North Regional Crime Unit said at a press conference on Wednesday, “The firms and individuals responsible for the Wang Fuk Court renovation project failed in their duty of care and displayed gross negligence in their supervision of construction materials and engineering protocols.”
Police investigation found key safety violations, including the use of non-flame-retardant scaffold netting and flammable foam boards, and the removal of windows along the emergency escape stairwell, Tang also said.
Tang told reporters that the three men charged with manslaughter were denied bail and the case had been adjourned to September 2 for the next court mention.
At the same press conference, ICAC Principal Investigator Hazel Law said that Wong, Ho and Hau colluded to rig the tendering process and favour Prestige by omitting the contractor’s conviction records from tender documents.
Ng, who was tasked with overseeing the inspection and supervision of the repair work, “completely failed to carry out the inspections and responsibilities required of his professional role,” Law said.
“We suspect that this tragedy was fuelled entirely by individual greed,” she said. The defendants “not only failed to carry out their professional responsibilities but resorted to deep-seated corruption and fraud to achieve their objectives, displaying a disregard for the lives and properties of the residents.”
According to a police statement on Wednesday, the force and the ICAC laid the charges following investigations, and after seeking legal advice from the Department of Justice.
කේදාර KhE posted a photo:
London architecture looking cool and slightly strange through Lomography Purple.
LomoChrome Purple @ iso 100
Elliott Cowand Jr. posted a photo:
An old carriage house on Chestnut Street near First Street in the New Orleans Garden District neighborhood
Login![Olympus μ[mju:]-II](https://live.staticflickr.com/65535/55296480884_f296328a26_m.jpg)
