tau

@ Tau @aussie.zone

Posts

80
Comments

159
Joined

3 yr. ago

Moderating

Canberra aussie.zone

6mo ago

'Nothing' done to address gaps created by teen social media ban, says children's commissioner
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tau @aussie.zone 6mo ago
Over the last few years I think all our states have now banned phones from being visible in school, so there's efforts towards reducing usage at least within school. That's a relatively recent move though and does only cut down on usage during part of the day so I don't know if there's been a noticeable effect on the kids.

6mo ago

'Nothing' done to address gaps created by teen social media ban, says children's commissioner

Doesn’t that sound exactly like the “can somebody please think about the children” argument?

It is that, but the ban in question is being justified by that same poor argument so it might as well be fired right back again.

6mo ago

‘Glamping’ proposal for NSW national parks slammed as privatising public assets

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tau @aussie.zone 6mo ago

From my reading it's going to be the same campgrounds that already exist, but now with a commercial operator being able to book a proportion of the sites before the public can. I don't know if they will physically separate the commercially booked sites but at this point I have seen no mention of expanding or creating campgrounds for this purpose.

I am ideologically against letting commercial operators into this field - I accept the reality that camping fees in national parks are a necessary evil to help with provision of services and reduce false bookings, but I think if such fees are going to exist the money should go directly to Parks rather than have the majority go to a private company. Commercial camping operations should be operating on private land rather than public - that way public access to public land is not reduced and the public gets limited access to land they would not otherwise get to (the camping might even help fund preservation of said private land).

7mo ago

Tensions erupt in Melbourne as immigration rallies held across Australia

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tau @aussie.zone 7mo ago

Pity they swapped out one of the Canberra pictures since I read the article earlier, I found it amusing how well the roadworks sign works with a protest crowd:

7mo ago

Police investigate machete brawl at Melbourne shopping centre

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tau @aussie.zone 7mo ago

As expected, the people who were already doing illegal things with machetes don't care about the machete ban. I can't see Victoria backing down on it though, they'll probably claim safety requires expanding the ban to knives in general and screw over more law abiding people.

7mo ago

BYD excluded from Australian Defence Forces (ADF) white fleet amid China fears

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tau @aussie.zone 7mo ago

Yes, it's a fair enough point to not want a Chinese car due to data security and potential for malicious software but the same applies to basically any modern vehicle. I'd still trust the Europeans and the US more than China at this point but with the demand for (and legal requirements for) in car tech and sensors nobody is building cars without potential vulnerabilities these days.

Anyways, are EMPs real? If so, it doesn’t matter lol

They are but the chances of a normal car being the main problem in such a case are pretty low (you'll probably either be dealing with blast damage/radiation from the nuke that caused it or the power/comms infrastructure going down and taking the trappings of modern society with it). It is an edge case you'd want to consider for the ADF's combat vehicles but I can't see it being applicable to their regular car fleet.

8mo ago

Help Me Understand Nampijinpa Price

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tau @aussie.zone 8mo ago

Why would you expect Aboriginal people to all vote as a bloc? Nobody does that, regardless of heritage. Expecting them all to vote left wing because you think it would progress their interests is in the same line as someone from the right expecting all white people to vote for them to preserve perceived privileges.

We don't even have have such a clear political split in groups which would gain direct benefit from progressive parties such as welfare recipients. You'd think that would make for a clear choice between the party that wants to either keep or increase your source of money and the party that wants to cut it, but there's a lot who still vote conservative either because they believe something else in that side of politics is more important or they simply don't care enough to think through the ramifications.

8mo ago

Inquiry finds British committed genocide on Indigenous Australians

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tau @aussie.zone 8mo ago

The 1830’s??? ???

Melbourne was founded later than you'd expect given its prominence in size and historical political power, it was indeed started in the mid 1830s. Before that there was a bit of exploration in Victoria but basically all settlements of size were in current day NSW and Tasmania (the expeditions for Melbourne left from Launceston, which had been going for a couple of decades by that point).

8mo ago

ABS decision to reuse biased, coercive Census religion question puts human rights in the spotlight

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tau @aussie.zone 8mo ago

There already was a "no religion" option, in the last census it was the first checkbox under the question asking what religion you follow.

He does have a point in that the proposed question would have been a more neutral way of determining whether someone is religious, the combination of the implicit assumption in the old question that having a religion is normal and providing an single tick option for selecting common ones probably does make a small percentage say yes that would not in the proposed question. Claims of coercion and human rights abuse though seem a bit over the top and are probably coming more from a dislike of religions (and their political power) rather than a desire for accurate data.

What wasn't mentioned in the article but is something I would consider likely that the main difference with the proposed question might not be from the question itself but from extra effort of writing out a religion name rather than ticking a box - it's a small effort but there'd be a lot of people who just want to go through the questions as fast as possible.

9mo ago

Shoring up Australia's remaining industry an investment rather than bailout

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tau @aussie.zone 9mo ago

"Every closure of a manufacturing facility is a loss of sovereign capability and compromises Australia's ability to build a more complex and dynamic knowledge-driven economy."

I agree with this sentiment, I don't think it is a good idea long term to lose manufacturing capability and knowledge. I would however prefer that a stake in the company is transferred to the government when they have to spend large sums bailing out a facility due to it being in the national interest to do so.

9mo ago

Chinwag's age verification process

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tau @aussie.zone 9mo ago

This is unironically a good method.

Agreed. I think the age verification laws are a rubbish idea but if one has to comply with them this is actually one of the better options for doing so - particularly for smaller sites. Something similar is worth considering as an option for this site when necessary as it's both something I'd actually consider doing (unlike a licence photo) and does not set the admins up for potential issues regarding having to store sensitive personal information.

9mo ago

Supersized stick insect discovered in high-altitude trees in Australia

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tau @aussie.zone 9mo ago

Nah, just hand me that long stick there”

...and that's when they found the really big stick insect.

9mo ago

Legislation to reduce student loan debt by 20% passes Parliament

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tau @aussie.zone 9mo ago

Would have been nice a couple of years ago before I paid off the last of mine, but I guess one can't have everything...

9mo ago

Wood heater pollution is a silent killer. Here's where the smoke is worst

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tau @aussie.zone 9mo ago

That was buying firewood permits off NSW Forestry in the broader region around Canberra, which I looked and they're still doing at $16 per tonne (albeit only in the further away forests at this point). They give areas you can pick firewood from after logging operations, you're just not allowed to fell trees. You do have to be able to go out and saw it then haul it back yourself. If you've got a current collection area near you it's a very cost effective method, even if you have to drive a fair way it still works out cheaper than buying it elsewhere.

9mo ago

Wood heater pollution is a silent killer. Here's where the smoke is worst

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tau @aussie.zone 9mo ago

Always did through my childhood and continued on that way, would do so again if I had a place with a fire. We'd saw into rounds when collecting and load them up then split and stack at home.

Plenty of people do buy pre split wood here though, I'd expect it's the source for the majority. Not everyone has the ability, inclination, or the equipment to go out and get firewood and it gets hard to find sources to collect wood in the bigger cities.

9mo ago

Wood heater pollution is a silent killer. Here's where the smoke is worst

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tau @aussie.zone 9mo ago

Fires are horrible.

They're about the best feeling source of heat around, so not horrible.

Very difficult to controll the heat output

It's not particularly difficult to control the heat output, it's just a matter of how you load it and how much air you let in. They don't do well for extremely low heat output, but at that sort of cold just put on a jumper instead.

they also are very costly to run

Used to cost about $20 a tonne for wood a few years back when I was in a place with a fire, plus maybe another $50 per tonne in fuel for the ute and saws to gather it (so ~$70 a tonne total). Was a hell of a lot cheaper than gas and a lot cheaper than electricity.

require a lot of maintenance

It's just popping up onto the roof once a year and taking ash out every week or so, I never found it a big deal.

require a lot of space to store the wood

This I'll grant you, given how tiny modern yards are. You need a square metre or two for the wood and another couple for room to split it - not much in a traditional suburban backyard but it's noticeable in newer blocks where you have bugger all room around the house.

10mo ago

Bats the size of a small dog

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tau @aussie.zone 10mo ago

I would have classed bogongs as small or medium size, are they really that much larger than other countries moths? If so I'd hate to see their reactions to moths which are actually large, not sure of the species but I've seen a few about palm sized.

10mo ago

International students have not driven rents and inflation higher, RBA says

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tau @aussie.zone 10mo ago

i find the disjoint between the headline and article amusing - the headline claims the students have not driven up rents and inflation then the article moves directly into saying they actually did just not very much.

I agree it is a pretty overblown problem though, albeit with the possible exception of housing directly around unis as that would be more directly affected by demand from students. On a country wide scale international students are not that many people and that's the scale of the problem with rising rents and housing prices in general.

10mo ago

New electric bike license scheme to be tested on school-aged riders

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tau @aussie.zone 10mo ago

In a world where kids are already not getting enough outside time and exercise making it harder for them to ride to school seems a poor idea.

If it's becoming a problem they should be doing in person lessons on how to ride a bike and basic road manners rather than a online quiz that nobody is going to pay any attention to. Pity in person lessons have been made harder by everyone having to be so incredibly risk averse these days. For example there was that bit in WA recently where schools got told they couldn't use bikes without chain guards (i.e. most bikes) because someone managed to hurt themselves.

10mo ago

Bob Katter refuses to swear oath to King Charles

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tau @aussie.zone 10mo ago

You know you come off sounding like a misogynist twat when you use the language of misogynist twats right?

Could be worse, could come off sounding like Lidia Thorpe by thinking everything is racism and/or sexism.