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Zagorath on the alien site.

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Real Time Strategy reddthat.com

5d ago

E-bike rules in Australia will soon change with possible ban on sale of bikes faster than 25km/h
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Zagorath @aussie.zone 5d ago
A mandatory import approval through the federal government providing evidence a bike met the definition of an e-bike was removed in 2021, and replaced with an optional advisory notice.
So, the Morrison government is responsible for starting this whole thing by allowing people to import vehicles that are dangerous and illegal to actually ride.
However, a communiqué released on Friday reveals federal, state and territory transport ministers have agreed to reinstate reference to the European standard, EN15194, into the Road Vehicle Standards (Classes of Vehicles that are not Road Vehicles) Determination by the end of the year.
Thankfully, that loophole is being restricted. The vehicles already in the country are a problem, but at least no more will be entering.
In all states except NSW, currently EN15194 is used for what's road-legal, except NSW, where 500 W is allowed. But
“NSW will rapidly move to harmonise with that standard and with other states’ approach,” he said.
They're going to be moving to a more standardised approach.
Personally, I think NSW's 500 W might not be unreasonable, considering their laws also require the amount of power put out to smoothly decrease as you get above 6 km/h, whereas EN15194 is 250 W, flat, until you hit 25 km/h. Having more power might be especially useful for people with cargo bikes who need to go up steep hills with their shopping, sport gear, or kids.

5d ago

Australia is bringing in ‘world first’ minimum pay for food delivery drivers – here’s how it will work

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 5d ago

That's interesting. I wonder why they're calling it "world first" then. I can think of three main possibilities:

There's some nuance here in the specifics. Like maybe the Canadian version has minimum pay but not insurance, or vice versa? Or the way the pay rate is set is different?[^1]
That "in some places" caveat you added. "World first" for it to be national, instead of done at the provincial level, maybe?
Sheer bluster. Made up. Not true.

[^1]: For better, or for worse. For example, maybe in Canada the following is not true: "The deal does not include penalty rates for things such as working late at night and, Veen says, the minimum hourly rate does not apply to time spent waiting between delivery jobs."

6d ago

Question: I don't agree with what Pauline Hanson did, but doesn't it kind of challenge the senate's stance on the issue to have reacted the way they did? Imagine if they had shrugged what she did off.

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 6d ago

No, not in the slightest. She appropriated someone else's culture with the specific intent of demeaning them. The only point she was making was that she herself is exceptionally racist.

6d ago

Australia’s under-16s social media ban is weeks away. How will it work – and how can I appeal if I’m wrongly banned?

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 6d ago

The group I'm looking to migrate is much, much smaller than that, so it's not something I've considered. But a quick search tells me that it should be fine with those numbers.

7d ago

Australia’s under-16s social media ban is weeks away. How will it work – and how can I appeal if I’m wrongly banned?

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 7d ago

The ITEE department at my uni had a newsgroup. One professor actually actively used it for his course, circa 2015. That was pretty much the only time I ever used it.

1w ago

Disney Spent More On ‘Andor’ Than Any Of Its ‘Star Wars’ Movies

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

Eww, Red Letter Media? I thought we had collectively finally agreed that their low-effort nitpicking style of media criticism was crap back around the time Nostalgia Critic and Cinema Sins got cancelled. I honestly can't believe RLM was ever popular. Beyond the fact that it agreed with the then-consensus of "perqels bad!!!1!1!!!", I've never been able to see any redeeming qualities to it. Asinine attempts at comedy, shallow analysis, wilfully misinterpreting the text. I've not watched it since the first time I saw it over a decade ago, but all it did was harden me in my stance that the prequels are actually not that bad, and the haters are just morons who hate anything different from exactly what they were already expected. (I'll admit, I have since softened on that stance and can recognise the many flaws in the prequels, but they're still a lot better than RLM gives them credit for, and their approach is certainly not good film criticism.)

1w ago

Disney Spent More On ‘Andor’ Than Any Of Its ‘Star Wars’ Movies

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

Personally I thought Rogue One was ok in cinemas, but I found it hard to care very much about the characters, so it wasn't any better than "ok".

Rewatching it after Andor really lifted it for me, because now I did have an investment in the characters to a much greater degree.

1w ago

Australia’s under-16s social media ban is weeks away. How will it work – and how can I appeal if I’m wrongly banned?

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

I also mostly use Facebook Messenger. In theory at least Messenger should be unaffected by this, since it's a chat app, not "social media". How that will play out in practice, with most Messenger accounts being tied to a Facebook account, is...unclear.

My other big chat app currently is Discord. I've recently started trying to convert one of my Discord groups onto Matrix. Matrix seems pretty good for this kind of thing. It can do one-on-one chats, group chats, and Discord-like "Spaces" with multiple different Rooms. For those less tech-inclined, just don't explain any of the federation details, just go to matrix.org.

1w ago

Australia’s under-16s social media ban is weeks away. How will it work – and how can I appeal if I’m wrongly banned?

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

I'm just hoping the fact that my account is, like...15(?) years old will be a pretty clear sign that I'm over 16.

1w ago

Circuits #770 2025-11-23

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

https://puzzmo.com/play/circuits/y9m6ri1rs8/share

1w ago

Australia’s under-16s social media ban is weeks away. How will it work – and how can I appeal if I’m wrongly banned?

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

I honestly doubt it. They've got very little to gain from it, and huge risk to reputation if they do it and then get hacked.

1w ago

Australia’s under-16s social media ban is weeks away. How will it work – and how can I appeal if I’m wrongly banned?

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

So the good news is that, despite the legislation saying it should apply to all social media sites, the actual regulation seems to only be being applied to certain designated platforms. Which is actually an excellent approach.

As for how it will work. Still nobody has been very clear. It's likely companies will use profiling to estimate users' age, and many people will simply not need to do anything to keep using it. If you do get detected as underage, facial recognition or uploading photo ID seems likely to be the only option.

Meta will use facial recognition provided by "Yoti" or photo ID.

Tiktok said it would have "a simple appeals process". No further detail.

Google has not given any indication as to whether it will even comply with the ban, but has threatened legal action to determine if it is even lawful.

Snap and Kick say they will comply, but have not yet shared any details about how.

X and Reddit have not given any comment.

All other platforms are, as yet, exempt.

1w ago

Crossherd #260 2025-11-23

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

Crossherd #260⬛️🟩🟩🟩⬛️🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩Time: 0:19🐐crossherd.clevergoat.com 🐐

1w ago

Circuits #769 2025-11-22

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

😲

1w ago

Circuits #769 2025-11-22

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

https://puzzmo.com/play/circuits/fldip51rep/share

1w ago

Crossherd #259 2025-11-22

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

Crossherd #259🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛️🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛️🟩🟩🟩🟩⬛️⬛️🟩🟩🟩Time: 0:31crossherd.clevergoat.com 🐐

Got thrown off by the clue to 5 across. The first half of the clue would have led me to the correct result, but the second half confused me and I deleted what I had written until getting through the rest of the puzzle.

1w ago

Crossherd #259 2025-11-22

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

Dayum. Nice one!

1w ago

WeRide: Cycling community celebrates reinstatement of e-bike standard

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

To be very clear: the case study I provided is on an exceptionally steep hill. Very few people need to climb something this steep, ever. The 350 W you get from a currently-legal ebike plus a lazy casual amount from the legs (I'm seeing varying numbers, but every number I'm seeing suggests that even a slow walk on foot uses significantly more than 100 W). And on a non-cargo bike, the sorts of normal hills many people climb every day on their daily commute can easily be climbed at a good pace at 350 W. Heck, at 300 W, even.

It's not about investment, it's about ensuring the power numbers stay low enough to reduce the potential for abuse. It's got nothing to do with purity, and nor did anything I say provide even the vaguest implication that "purity" has anything to do with it. If it was about purity, I wouldn't be starting from the standpoint of assuming 70% of the power is coming from the motor, or using 100 W as my presumptive minimum even when climbing. I wouldn't have provided the evidence with data for why even for people who don't want to put in a lot of effort don't actually need that much power, and explained how the fact that my rides do contain more power are precisely because they're an outlier.

1w ago

WeRide: Cycling community celebrates reinstatement of e-bike standard

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

Most people are not going to be at your level of fitness or investment in cycling (in both the physical and mental sense) and just want to get places without needing a shower afterwards. I can see why you want to keep a purer form of something you have an interest in

Sorry but, what part of everything I wrote makes any of this relevant?

1w ago

WeRide: Cycling community celebrates reinstatement of e-bike standard

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Zagorath @aussie.zone 1w ago

NSW finally changed their laws to a more sensible 500w

Personally whatever the regulation is, I'd prefer it be nationally consistent. That goes for more than just this. NSW and Vic being the only places where cyclists can't use the footpath is absurd, and they need to get with the time. Queensland allowing cars to park in a bike lane is absurd and we (and any other states that might allow it) need to get our shit together. NSW's even more backwards restriction on escooters and PMDs also needs updating (though at least this one appears to be in the works).

I actually have my own bugbear with EN15194, and it's the speed. I think the 20 mph (32 km/h) limit used in the US is more reasonable than 25 km/h. It's very, very easy to get up to 30 km/h on the flat with an analogue bike, and it's incredibly safe. I see no reason ebike users shouldn't be allowed to do that.

Interestingly, I checked the laws in all three east coast states and all have another category separate from the main one we're discussing. It seems mostly identical, but Vic and NSW call one "power-assisted pedal cycles", and it has a limit of 200 W. NSW mentions that this type must have an adjustable seat and weigh no more than 50 kg, requirements that have no equivalent in the main type of ebike. The main type, called "electrically power-assisted cycles" by all three states I checked, mentions a 6 km/h "walk mode" speed limit for throttles, and Vic & Qld have a 250 W limit but no other stipulations. NSW has a 500 W limit, but also says that its power must be "progressively reduced as the bicycle’s speed increases beyond 6km/h". Which, if enforced at point of import or sale, actually could perhaps be a good compromise; a way to get the increased power output for heavier vehicles without giving an unnecessarily high amount of power to lighter ones.