A showdown over one of the holiest events in a religion followed by millions of Australians, and the Vatican.
Possum
@pollytics.bsky.social
Political, economic and policy stuff. An unrepentant guitar gear hoarder. You know who I am. A social democrat on the beats - a libertarian between the human, civil and political rights sheets. The stupidity in this country is exhausting. Moreton Bay
The headline here for those 9 of us on social media who aren't Americans, is not so much the grift - because yeah - but $113k USD to put solar panels on? In Australia, that's $160K AUD - which buys well over 150kW of solar *installed*. Plus a battery or two thrown in for free.
Australia’s eSafety commissioner buried a report (released Friday afternoon) that shows the under 16 social media ban didn’t tangibly reduce teen social media use, and also resulted in parents tuning out of kids usage. We traded our privacy for no reason. theconversation.com/more-than-80...
More than 80% of kids still using social media despite ban, new eSafety report finds
The report provides more evidence Australia’s world-leading social media ban isn’t going to plan.
theconversation.com
Question: How do you know someone talking about energy is a charlatan? Answer: They reference the price of a barrel of oil right now. The shortage is in refinery capacity - not oil. No one buys oil they can't refine, so the barrel price isn't reflective of your diesel or petrol. Basic stuff kids.
These were really good as a wine alternative. "The Wild Thing - Flaxman Valley" ale was a mouthful of flavor. With a lamb shank meat tart in a super short shortcrust pastry, tomato chutney and pickled slivers of carrot and cucumber, it more than kept up with an equivalent wine pairing. Will do again
Possum@pollytics.bsky.social · last wk.I was given four bottles of these for my birthday. Have a few friends around for dinner on Saturday, so I'm going to pair them up with a couple of small dishes to see what the fuss is about. www.abc.net.au/news/rural/p...
Vibe coding is one eyerolly thing, but vibe sliding is truly ridiculous. www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...
US government map of Africa mislabels every country at global conference
State department ‘takes full responsibility’ for erroneous, widely shared chart displayed at Aids conference in Brazil
theguardian.com
The most insipid collection of books you'll ever see, whose only commonality is that they're all works that stupid people think smart people read.
Josh Taylor@joshtaylor.bsky.social · 7d agoThe new premier's reading pile from last year, posted without comment.
New: The Queensland government went against the advice of its own Olympic venue review with a controversial decision to host rowing in Rockhampton after intervention from Australia’s richest person and conservative political patron Gina Rinehart.
Rinehart lobbied Bleijie on Rockhampton rowing. Then the LNP backed it
A letter obtained by this masthead shows billionaire Gina Rinehart pushed for Rockhampton to host 2032 rowing. The state then rejected its own independent advice.
brisbanetimes.com.au
I was given four bottles of these for my birthday. Have a few friends around for dinner on Saturday, so I'm going to pair them up with a couple of small dishes to see what the fuss is about. www.abc.net.au/news/rural/p...
Single Origin Ale: Fine ale alternative to fine wine
ABC Rural News provides authoritative coverage of the business and politics of Australian farming, livestock, forestry, agriculture and primary production
abc.net.au
Is it really an ALP government panicking about an election rout without a last minute leadership change? It's almost a prerequisite of existence these days.
casey briggs@caseybriggs.com · last wk.The ABC understands factional convenors from both the right and left of Victorian Labor’s party room have agreed that Premier Jacinta Allan no longer has the support of a majority of caucus.
Can anyone remember the name of the Sydney punk band circa 1990-1993 that had a song called "Menzies Was a Union Lawyer"?
Trump placing tariffs on nations over not dealing with the importation of products using slave and indentured labour, when US prisoners provide over 10 billion of goods and services to the US economy is a lark. Especially since their own reg system of those imports is widely considered useless.
Once in a nightclub, I was leaving the toilets and saw a woman walking towards me. I held the door open for her, only for her to give me a weird look and veer left, into the ladies. The entrance to the bathrooms was not shared. I was holding open the door to the gents
If the NT can't afford to build its own hospitals and pay staff the rate required for people to work there, then we should have a serious discussion about merging it with with either WA or Qld. It's just not big enough to function with any state capacity. (Tasmania is luck it's an actual State)
ABC News Bot (unofficial)@abcnewsbot.bsky.social · 2w agoPrime Minister Anthony Albanese announces $10 million to improve maternity services at Royal Darwin Hospital, but maternity care advocates say the money is unlikely to improve staffing issues.
CATL's Tener sodium ion battery system for energy grids being deployed in China this year is going to be fascinating. JFC I hope it works in the applied environment as well as did in the lab and testing stages. If it does, it will change the world.
Social media has damaged people's noggins where any controversial issue must only be processed as binomial. It must be good or bad, on or off. You all would have had strokes if this was going on when plastics were invented, or dog forbid, the industrial revolution. You'll send yourselves mad.
The problem is that everybody doesn't know. Everybody thinks AI is chatgpt and the like. Rather than medical diagnostic screening tools, predictive maintenance on factory line machinery, manufacturing quality control diagnostics, cybersecurity and fraud prevention, chemical compound isolation etc
Anthony Morgan@admorgan.bsky.social · 3w agoCHALMERS, SPEWING ASSUMPTIONS: "Everybody recognises at the most basic level that AI has the capacity to make our economy more dynamic and therefore more productive and the best way to grow our economy over time and lift living standards for people is to make it more productive." BRAINWASHED GOOBER.
I would posit that among English speaking countries, Australia has climate change more embedded as part of the daily mainstream political discourse than any other. Among developed countries, only Denmark and Sweden have it materially embedded more.
I would like The Australia Institute a lot more if they pulled the stick out of their arse, and pursued a bit more hope and solutions rather than grievance based politics. Even considering their donors. Think tank power comes and goes, but always ends by dooming. Ask the IPA or the CIS.
I've banged on about this for years, but we're starting to see it happen everywhere in the applied world. Which makes me believe we now have only two types of economists - those who acknowledge the marginal cost of electrons can be and will increasingly be approximately zero. And those who don't.
Bernard Keane and Dave Hughes haven't been seen in the same room for quite some time
Crikey@crikey.com.au · 3w agoPodcast | Australia won't introduce a wealth tax any time soon. But Bernard Keane says we could soon see a change to another tax setting to address the "fairness problem". www.crikey.com.au/podcast/cut-...
"Better things aren't possible" Here's something good that makes things better. "No - Big Tech owns the government. The government is lying. Better things ARENT POSSIBLE! I MUST SHOUT" Maybe Big Tech owns you, which is why you are angry at everything. Fanatical anger drives the profit algorithm
Data centres will have to provide their own renewable and firming power, preferably being net exporters to the grid - good. Creators get content protection - good. Efficiency standards for water and no free infrastructure ride - good. Location requirements - good.
Possum@pollytics.bsky.social · 3w agoThe government's AI policy is good, it's policy process here is good. Wanting to ban evil rooms full of servers because of what America does is like wanting to ban Australian agriculture because American agriculture is currently giving them all explosive diarrhea
The government's AI policy is good, it's policy process here is good. Wanting to ban evil rooms full of servers because of what America does is like wanting to ban Australian agriculture because American agriculture is currently giving them all explosive diarrhea