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Nath

@ Nath @aussie.zone

Posts
15
Comments
270
Joined
3 yr. ago

  • ‘Copied the MAGA model’: The ‘grassroots’ lobby group funded by some of Australia’s richest

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  • I loved this teeny bit: "best of Howard"

    Mr Howard is remembered for three things:

    1. Getting rid of guns.
    2. Introducing the GST.
    3. Tampa/children overboard.

    And I nearly said "two things", as 1 & 2 are far bigger points; though you could argue that 3 had a lasting impact on Australian politics and outright lying to the faces of Australians being permitted.

    I am curious as to what this MAGA-Lite group thinks is "the best of Howard", because I don't think that means what they think it means.

  • Guzman y Gomez isn’t the reason Taco Bell is getting axed, insists CEO

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  • Let me guess: it did fine for a few years until everyone had tried it once?

    Now I'm torn between wanting to get it once before it closes to see what it is like and just not because apparently it is crap.

  • Replace Your Regular Linux Commands With These Better Alternatives

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  • The problem is the standard apps are just that - standard. I can hop onto any Redhat, Debian or Solaris 10 box at work and use ls, cat etc.

    If I went all-in on some bespoke alternatives on my special snowflake machine, I'd constantly be going nuts entering incorrect commands on remote machines and losing efficiency. Then, I'd go back to just using the standard commands everywhere.

  • IT'S ON: Albanese to call May 3 federal election tomorrow morning

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  • I was discussing this just a couple of days ago. Greens have terrible marketing and are in desperate need of a rebrand. I'm curious though: Which of their policies are you opposed to? Because honestly: if breaking up bank cartels, restoring Internet privacy laws, promoting local manufacturing, science and research as well as improving the calibre of education are bad, then I guess I'm bad.

    For me, my criticism of Greens comes mainly from putting stuff in policies that would be better suited to "dreams and aspirations". They have a tendency to put stuff in there that are unspecific or at least out of the realms of what government does. But for all of that, I struggle to point to anything on their policy stuff and say "that's an awful position". At least, even if I'm not totally on-board, I see where they're coming from. And that's another point. Their policies page overwhelms you with too much to actually go through in one sitting. But, look at the Liberal/Labor equivalent pages? Greens are super open about what they stand for and what they would like to achieve. Labor have a few bullet points and Libs have a marketing brochure.

  • What podcast(s) do you recommend?

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  • 13 Minutes to the Moon

    Season 1 is essential listening. It's not very long, and takes you through the journey of putting astronauts on the moon with tech far less advanced that what you're reading this on. It came sooooo close to failure on more than one occasion. When that lander touched down, it had something like 8 seconds of fuel left.

    Season 2 is the story in detail of the Apollo 13 mission. If you loved Season 1 and want more, then go right ahead. I liked season 2, but nowhere near as much.

  • Liberals Plan To Blow Current Educator-to-Child Ratios To 1:50

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  • we stop subsidising private schools and only give public money to public schools?

    I've always disliked this idea. I'm the product of public education and my kids are in public schools as well. I believe every kid has a right to government funding toward their education. If a rich family wants to spend fees above and beyond the government allotment so their kid goes to school with a swimming pool or rowing team, I am ok with it. Those kids shouldn't lose their government education funds because they come from wealth. They are still citizens and have the same entitlement.

    Besides, if the million kids currently in private education suddenly turned up at their local schools tomorrow to enroll in the public system, they would totally break it.

  • Deleted

    Permanently Deleted

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  • What is one relatively unknown thing that your country does much better than elsewhere, but that most people don't know about?

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  • This is all true, but there's more:

    • Our election campaigns are six weeks by definition. No political ads filling the airwaves the rest of the time.
    • We have preferential voting. You don't have to choose only between the shit and shit-lite parties. You can vote for someone else, and still put shit-lite as your preferred option if the independent you voted first for didn't get in.
    • The electoral commission will help pay for your campaigning if you secured 5% of the vote. Evens the field a bit for not-rich people to run.
    • Political signs on houses are pretty rare. Maybe a couple of diehard fans.
    • Nobody gets real angry at you if you vote for someone different.

  • Straight men, what's the weirdest thing you've been told you can't do because it's gay?

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  • Dance. In a troupe full of girls. Honestly, it was me and 15-20 girls.

    Other boys literally called me gay for dancing, while they went and played whatever sports they did and then all went into a locker room and showered together etc.

    I honestly never understood how they thought dance was gay. I don't understand it now.

  • What weird food or dishes do you eat regularly at home that you would never serve to someone else?

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  • If you are on a diet, this meal has very few kilojoules/calories. Fewer than a single slice of bread.

  • Where'd everybody go?

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  • It feels like everything in All is about an election in the USA, and that's really not very engaging to the rest of us. So I mostly hang out in Local for the most part.

  • What's the most useful thing in the room you're in right now?

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  • Your point is a good one, though I'd like to point out that electricity is so useful that if I have power and water in the room (and a bit of prep time) I can make oxygen.

  • Would you stop donating to a free service if it started putting up paywalls?

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  • I see OPs point. I donate to Wikipedia, because I love what they do and want to support them. If they decided to put up pay walls, my personal feelings on their model would alter. Even if I got access as a doner.

    I would no longer be inclined to donate, because I would no longer believe in what they do.

  • What's the most useful thing in the room you're in right now?

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  • The answer is electricity. It's so useful, we take it for granted. Your phones, computers and laptops are not useful if you can't power them.

    I'll give the people on the dunny their due: toilet paper is still useful in a room without electricity.

  • Non-Americans who have been to the US.. What is the weirdest thing about America that Americans don't realize is weird?

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  • I just sort of assume my instance gives away my location - I'm in Australia, not the UK. Not that we can talk, we also churned through about 5 prime ministers in five years a while back.

    But I could still talk about any number of issues going on around the world, because our news covers topics around the world. Yours doesn't. It's too busy talking about your election and recently a hurricane. Which I know about as it was in our news.

    That's not a criticism, I actually sought out world news while I was there, and there just weren't any local sources of it.

  • Non-Americans who have been to the US.. What is the weirdest thing about America that Americans don't realize is weird?

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  • Eggs look like this:

    They don't need to be washed with hot water and soap, they're perfectly good as they are.

    Sorry about the hospital thing. By "for-profit", I meant you had to pay to go there. That's completely alien to everyone in the first world. We have private hospitals as well, and yep: lots of them are (or claim to be) non-profit also.

  • If you could only have 1GB of entertainment data, what would it be?

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  • 20 years ago, I used to have custom playlists that I'd load onto a 64mb SD card for my commute. A 64kbit wma file is surprisingly listenable. You can fit more than a standard album onto 64mb. I'm trying to remember now how much, probably 20-25 songs?

    At that compression rate, I expect you can get a few hundred songs into half a GB. Of course, picking them would be its own challenge! It'd be the most curated playlist in history.

  • Non-Americans who have been to the US.. What is the weirdest thing about America that Americans don't realize is weird?

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  • In Australia and New Zealand: we have skim milk, and call 2% milk "Hi-Lo" - sometimes I see it branded "lite milk". Then there's regular milk. It has 4% fat, but you need to read the fine print on the side of the bottle to learn that. I've heard it called "full cream milk", but usually in a cafe setting when ordering coffee.

    My brother in the USA had something called half-and-half in his fridge. I think that one was 8%? You guys would know better than I. We don't have whatever it is.

  • Non-Americans who have been to the US.. What is the weirdest thing about America that Americans don't realize is weird?

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  • You're right, of course - I heard the same stuff referred to as "whole milk". But the only thing you're correcting about the wider point is the appropriate adjective. Which I find very funny. 😀

    It's interesting that you picked this one out. I thought the money one in particular was going to be a controversial take.