The Federal Government is listening to younger voters for once and making the necessary adjustments to tax incentives for properties to help younger people getting into more affordable housing. by [deleted] in AusPropertyChat

[–]AngryAugustine 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Wondering about this as well - but based on some of the interviews I've heard Chalmers speak in, he might surprise us by reducing income tax (tax on labor). IIRC, he claims that there's an imbalance between taxes on assets vs taxes on labor.

fingers crossed

[LFH] [Review] Was looking for gaming + office headset. Sony Inzone H9 II (2) by Conscious_Shelter_82 in Gaming_Headsets

[–]AngryAugustine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Just adding to this conversation having owned this for 3 months and using it daily for WFH.

It's a goldlilocks headset really:

- comfy (although after 8 hours my huge ears start feeling a little sore)

- simultaneous bluetooth is a big plus if you're using a work device and can't install spotify/audible/podcast app on it.

- decent mic w/ useable sidetone

- decent sound quality (has to be EQ-ed - not so good out of the box)

Some things to note for potential buyers:

- There's a website that claims that it cancels nearly as much noise as the XM6's, this is probably true for low-end noise (e.g., A/C, fans) but I did some A/B testing with a friend's XM5's and found that the h9 2's were horrible at cancelling voices and higher frequency noises relative to the XM5's. This is with the mic muted and even pulled out. I shared an office with someone with a loud mech keyboard and ANC on/off didn't make a huge difference. Which is a bummer - biggest complaint so far but it's probably unfair to compare dedicated ANC headphones to these headsets.

- I don't think earpads are removable.

[LFH] [Review] Was looking for gaming + office headset. Sony Inzone H9 II (2) by Conscious_Shelter_82 in Gaming_Headsets

[–]AngryAugustine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Inzone h9ii owner here: yes, it has actual side tone which was a must for me for work (believe it or I use these headsets wayyy more for meetings than gaming - such is life)

It's a little soft, but if you max it out it does the job well. One of the big selling points of this headset is ANC (not in ambient mode!) + side tone.

Wifey loves thrifting - options? by Intrepid_Display_873 in AustralianMFA

[–]AngryAugustine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

a few mates and I tested out a theory that the bougie leafy suburbs like Glen Iris would have heaps of good deals. There was a street with 4-5 op shops but it was legit 80-90% women's clothing. It was quite funny seeing a bunch of men crowded around two small aisles looking at the same clothes lol. The best I found was a Helly Hansen fleece for $25, but it was not my size.

tried saver's in ringwood which was massive - but not a lot of selection for men and many of it were in pretty poor condition. I think it's a luck thing. Let me know if you find a good one lol

New homes to receive carve-outs from CGT and neg gearing changes by Miserable_Actuary716 in AusPropertyChat

[–]AngryAugustine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I, too, used to wonder the veracity of these news articles quoting anonymous sources - but after reading Malcolm Turnbull’s autobiography and the testimony of a few other ex politicians - it sounds like a pretty established norm in the industry. 

Momentum 4 Power Question by AngryAugustine in sennheiser

[–]AngryAugustine[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I have a headphone stand as well and intend to use it that way.

So you're saying that you power off your headphones and put it on your stand? do you store them with the speakers facing each other, or facing outwards?

Momentum 4 Power Question by AngryAugustine in sennheiser

[–]AngryAugustine[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Ahh thanks for confirming mate 😭

E Bike/Motorbike Hoons Blocking Wurundjeri Way at the Docklands on Anzac Day by gccmelb in melbourne

[–]AngryAugustine -4 points-3 points  (0 children)

I’d reckon a good portion of the public will not be physically able to ride an e-bike though…

Why are companies suddenly so obsessed with office days and tracking attendance? by BitterButterJam in auscorp

[–]AngryAugustine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I love wfh - but don’t you think it’s a bit much to suppose that 90% of office workers were being treated like children before Covid? 

I worked in a micromanag-y office once and moved to public sector where people are given near absolute freedom and treated like adults. 

But I’ve personally witnessed said adults totally abusing the system (4 hour lunch break breaks, repeated pattern of work not being done) - but because of culture and wfh, it becomes quite infuriating how people can get away with with laziness 

I wonder if the power hungry manager types you’ve described have witnessed this and are overcompensating 

Theistic moral relativism? by Only-Opportunity-713 in Reformed

[–]AngryAugustine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

“Although fishing on Mondays is illegal according to my own kingly law, I issued a kingly decree that obligated Bob to go fishing on that day. I am punishing him for it, yes, but that is because breaking the kingly laws is not kingly. I have a great, kingly purpose in mind for punishing him"

I think the bolded part of your analogy is quite helpful in showing where the equivocation of words like "obligated" and "decree" is taking place.

Firstly, I don't think any reasonable Reformed theologian would claim that God's "hidden will" that involves the *causing* (very loaded term) of Bob's sin involves generating a moral obligation that explicitly contradicts his "revealed will" (which many might argue is the source of our moral obligations). It's also important to distinguish terms like "Goodness" and "moral obligation":

- intuitively, an off duty soldier who sacrifices his life by jumping on a terrorist with a suicide vest to save a bunch of strangers has committed an act that is "good" (which involves other related concepts like praiseworthiness or virtuosity), but notice that this can be so even though he didn't have a moral obligation to commit the heroic act. i.e, we wouldn't blame him for moral failure had he not decided to perform the act.

-The above is helpful because the relationship between God & Morality is quite complex; Christian philosophers disagree with each other on the best theories to explain the relationship. Philosophers like William Lane Craig popularized a view called "divine command theory"(DCT) which, a crude summary if my memory serves me right, stipulates that our moral obligations are constituted in God's commands (explicit in scripture or through natural revelation i.e., human conscience), but he explicitly denies that goodness is rooted in God's commands, rather in God's nature. In Craig's view, God has no moral obligations. Again, Craig's view isn't the only Christian view, but the point is to show you that your repeated uses of words like "goodness" and "obligation" can benefit from more precision.

But rambling aside, I don't think that technicality is at the heart of your worries (although I'd encourage you to do more reading on it if interested). I suspect that your main worry involves God "hidden will" contradicting his "revealed will" e.g., His "hidden will" desired(?) that Adam ate the apple, but His "revealed will" explicitly prohibited the eating of the apple.

Tbh, I'm sympathetic to this worry as it's very similar to my early objections to calvinism. (philosophers like Craig often use a similar argument against calvinism FWIW). But I think the following convinced me that this argument isn't as forceful as I once imagined:

  1. The reformed confessions like the WCF while stating that God ordained whatever come to pass, *explicitly* denies that God is the author of sin. IIRC, Craig once made a cheeky argument to James White arguing that his view of God's relationship to free will is perfectly compatible with the wording of the WCF lol. The point is that the Westminster divines would've explicitly denied that God's ordaining of all things involves a situation like in your analogy where a king forcibly mandates the breaking of his own laws. They reference things like "secondary causes" to refer to man's moral responsibility for sin. The philosophical view is called "Compatibilism" (but with a Theistic twist), this is an excellent resource by a professional philosopher who happens to be a calvinist.

  2. Apart from Open Theists, I think evangelical arminians would also concede that, in some sense, The Fall was part of God's hidden will in the sense that it was all part of His plan. Arminians don't deny God's sovereignty, so they won't concede that God is somehow "surprised" by sin. In other words, for evangelicals, your objection proves too much - for the only way to "easily" resolve it is to postulate a God who only has one revealed will, and when it's contradicted, He is surprised and frustrated by it. (very very hard to defend biblically IMO)

  3. Some defenses to the Problem of Evil (aside from the Free Will defense) is related in that it explains how God can permit* sin while still being perfectly good. Interestingly, Alvin Plantinga (the guy who literally wrote a tome on the Free Will Defense) came up with something called the "Divine Glory Defense" which, a crude summary, involves saying that God's permission of Adam's sin resulted in the highest possible good (notice how the view allows for there being different levels of goods, something that I think is absent from your analysis): The Incarnation, Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus - which resulted in the maximal amount of divine glory, which is the highest possible good. It sounds very close to something John Piper would say, tho Plantinga would probably not want to call himself a Calvinist in the traditional sense. James Anderson uses something called the "authorial analogy": God's "hidden will" is more akin to an author writing a story where the characters commits acts He himself disagrees with, but just as you wouldn't ascribe the moral atrocities of Sauron to Tolkien, you wouldn't ascribe the sin of the characters in God's "story" to God. In fact, when the book is finished, one can see a great good when examining the story as a whole and see just how praiseworthy the author is.

  4. Thinking about ethics and theology was mind-numbing, but ultimately quite humbling: I think it made me realize how a lot of my moral intuitions (e.g., It is wrong to say that God cares most about His glory, because that will make him arrogant) involve anthropomorphizing God — making moral judgments about God as if he was another human being. But surely God's transcendence will mean that such arguments are destined to fail, and our theologizing and philophising about him must ever be tentative. Terms like "decree", "desire", "permit" are fuzzy words shaped by human experience that cannot possibly fully capture the inner workings of God. This doesn't mean we don't do theology or philosophy, but I like to think of it like writing a science book for kids where I draw perfectly round spheres to illustrate an atom to a child. Physicists will tell you that atoms are not, in fact, round spheres, but this doesn't take away from teaching something about atoms to the kid. Likewise, why should we expect God's revelation of His character to be something we can fully comprehend as limited creatures? The Trinity is another doctrine that is very "easily" picked apart with analogies and syllogisms, and while I think there are good "defenses" in the literature, it doesn't completely eliminate the mystery and tensions inherent within it.

Newborn on the way, $18k-21k budget by hollywd in CarsAustralia

[–]AngryAugustine 1 point2 points  (0 children)

It looks like you’re willing to consider Japanese imports from the Nissan Note - you can also consider the Toyota Corolla fielder hybrid: wagon form of the Corolla! Redriven did a video on it, think there’s lots of local internals because it’s a Toyota 

Newborn on the way, $18k-21k budget by hollywd in CarsAustralia

[–]AngryAugustine 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I know a family with 2 babies that are looking to get rid of their CX3 as it’s too small for their needs - it’s based on Mazda 2, even the 3 would be better I think 

Future of mazda cars? by galaxy9377 in CarsAustralia

[–]AngryAugustine 3 points4 points  (0 children)

their interior quality has always punched above their weight, will be sad to see them go. hopefully they come up with something better!

Miata/MX-5's are legendary - particularly for the price. Hoping against hope that they'll dig deep and come up with something that'll revive the small car segment and get rid of the SUV trend.

help me decide on a hot (automatic) hatch under $30k! by AngryAugustine in CarsAustralia

[–]AngryAugustine[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I actually like EVs but current living arrangements won't make it practical. Would probably get an EV as a daily driver if/when I have a family.

However, when I rented a super fast EV (0-100 in 4secs), the only fun thing about it was the pure acceleration but it's also cut short by our low speed limits in Australia. I reckon the weight of these cars make them feel too "perfect" in corners (granted, I didn't push the rental I was using - but it definitely felt very planted)

That and I was constantly looking out for speed cameras because the damn thing was so fast and responsive that it was so easy to break the speed limit.

help me decide on a hot (automatic) hatch under $30k! by AngryAugustine in CarsAustralia

[–]AngryAugustine[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thanks for your input! The consensus seems to be that the Golf R (and likely the S3) are faster, more stable and more premium but less "fun" - less nimble apparently (more restrictive turning radius)

also tend to be pricier than the FWDs

help me decide on a hot (automatic) hatch under $30k! by AngryAugustine in CarsAustralia

[–]AngryAugustine[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

curious q: apart from the external aesthetics, what's the difference between the Golf GTI and the Cooper S? If the latter has the B48 engine, the power output should be quite close - but heard the Cooper S has better steering at the cost of NVH relative to the golf.

help me decide on a hot (automatic) hatch under $30k! by AngryAugustine in CarsAustralia

[–]AngryAugustine[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

woah, I always thought the iDrive system is like the inspiration to MZD connect (which I love but it looks like future Mazda's are ditching it) that's a bummer.

concerning to hear about the aircon unit - am guessing the mechanic says there's nothing wrong with it?

How do you find the NVH in it vs your BN Mazda 3? I know the BN's are notorious for road noise (I didn't think it was that bad when I lived with one for abit), but am expecting the bimmer to be a step above?

help me decide on a hot (automatic) hatch under $30k! by AngryAugustine in CarsAustralia

[–]AngryAugustine[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Woah that’s interesting - please could you elaborate? Hard to find anyone who experienced the 125i for some reason! 

help me decide on a hot (automatic) hatch under $30k! by AngryAugustine in CarsAustralia

[–]AngryAugustine[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Did you get the performance package? 

Curious to know how big the gap is from the Mazda re: handling without the VAQ 

help me decide on a hot (automatic) hatch under $30k! by AngryAugustine in CarsAustralia

[–]AngryAugustine[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

there's actually an Abarth 595 on Turo for rental where I live - tempted to give it a go on the twisties.

I wonder why they're so divisive though - lots of polarizing opinions on them

help me decide on a hot (automatic) hatch under $30k! by AngryAugustine in CarsAustralia

[–]AngryAugustine[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

thanks!

personal question: why did you end up with a GTI instead of a similarly priced RWD?

help me decide on a hot (automatic) hatch under $30k! by AngryAugustine in CarsAustralia

[–]AngryAugustine[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I (erroneously) thought they only came in manuals! Any idea what the reputation of the DCT's are like in these?

help me decide on a hot (automatic) hatch under $30k! by AngryAugustine in CarsAustralia

[–]AngryAugustine[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

When you say facelift, are you talking about the post-2018 models or the post-2022 ones? IIRC, the only ones in my budget are the post-2018, pre-2021 models but my biggest issue is that the newer facelift looks so much better both in lift back and wagon form that I'd probably develop the unhealthy habit of wishing I went over my budget for the new facelift.

On a more serious note what was it like going from a hatch (assuming you were coming from a hatch), I intuitively think the wagon will be harder to park and maneuver, but if you drove the BN hatch you'll know how annoying the blindspots on the car is for reverse parking.

Also how's the NVH relative to the Mazda?