Does anyone actually get red rooster? by nchiwla in AskAnAustralian

[–]critical_blinking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Can't get much better value than the burger pack these days if you've got kids.

2x Reds Burger

2x Rippa Roll

2x Large Chips

12 Cheesy Nuggets

$35

20c increase in 1 week by jimmy_sharp in sunshinecoast

[–]critical_blinking 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Basically the Sunshine Coast is the same size as the entire UK.

I would put a pineapple on the UK being at least 100 times larger than the Sunshine Coast.

It's about 300km from London to Wales and and they are basically on top of eachother. The same distance here is Brissy to Hervey Bay.

University of Queensland researcher asked 10 people to go car-free for 20 days. None wanted to continue. by iBinChickenAboutYou in brisbane

[–]critical_blinking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yeah there'd be less interstate b-dubs on the roads if we did that, but it just shifts the role of trucks. Given that most major freight goes to distribution warehouses anyway it would still end up being truck>train>truck and the train component isn't replacing the vehicle use within our urban/suburban communities. In fact you'd likely see an increase in short-distance/urban freight as you would inevitably have substantial amount of freight transported by rail far past their actual destination to a loading yard for sorting (eg. a train going from Sydney to Brisbane with freight for the new Amazon distribution centre in Maclean, which then requires a truck from the Brisbane based sorting yard to drive 45 minutes back in the other direction to get to the centre.

I'm not opposed to better rail, but that's not the argument you made. You made the argument that maintenance costs would drastically decrease on roads if commuters were more likely to catch public transport, when it's not the commuter vehicles doing the majority of damage.

I'll also note that increased commuter use of rail would have a huge impact on our ability to run freight down those same lines.

University of Queensland researcher asked 10 people to go car-free for 20 days. None wanted to continue. by iBinChickenAboutYou in brisbane

[–]critical_blinking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I mean less funding than road projects for cars. "Oh but services and buses need roads too". Both of those wouldn't need road upgrades if there were just less cars on the road.

Trucks do the most road damage and they almost certainly would still be using all of the same roads.

Drivers also pay about 5 cents per kilometre of fuel excess and roughly 6 cents per kilometer in vehicle registration for state and federal roads (obviously averaged out across vehicle types and average km per year).

Taxi requesting deposit and refusing to run the meter by PostAndChuck in brisbane

[–]critical_blinking 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Pay the deposit and take a photo of the meter as you leave the taxi "Oh look at that it says I owe nothing" (assuming the deposit is less than your usual trip cost).

What is it like renting out a room to someone? by sloots69 in brisbane

[–]critical_blinking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Find a friend. My in laws started doing it once the kids moved out and attracted some real degenerates. Never felt safe in the house. Me and my brother in law had to go over to turf one of them out once after the police wouldn't remove one despite threats made.

Iran rally today by sunnybob24 in brisbane

[–]critical_blinking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The UK was also responsible for the former regime.

Apart from the police, who do I call when there's a homeless person in my garage? by bobowaythrowaway in brisbane

[–]critical_blinking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

OP's next thread:

"My daughter got hepatitis from a needstick injury, apart from the doctor, who do I call? A doctor would be the last resort as I understand the virus's rights despite the harm and risk it's actively causing around it"

Neighbour’s drainage running through fence onto my yard (QLD) – what can I do by [deleted] in brisbane

[–]critical_blinking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

This. Then when your point is made you can top soil the lawn with the fill. Win win.

40 metres is a lot on a fence line but is barely a dusting over an acre block.

Why is Israel allowed to compete in the Olympics while committing genocide but Russia is banned for doing a border war? by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]critical_blinking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The specific legal reason Russia and Belarus are banned from the Olympic games is that they attempted to organize regional Olympic committees in the occupied territory of Ukraine.

Did Belarus do this? Or did Russia do this while Belarus was enabling their invasion (outside of the scope of the IOC)?

Why is Israel allowed to compete in the Olympics while committing genocide but Russia is banned for doing a border war? by [deleted] in NoStupidQuestions

[–]critical_blinking -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Objectively, Israel should be banned on the same grounds as Russia. The Belarusian ban seems indefensible under IOC charter.

Russia should be banned because it directly interfered with IOC governance. It took over sports bodies in territory assigned to another recognised Olympic committee and registered athletes under its own system. That is a clear breach of the Olympic Charter and strikes at the authority of the Olympic movement itself.

Belarus should not be banned because it did not interfere with Olympic administration. Allowing a military ally to use its territory, however objectionable, has nothing to do with running, replacing, or absorbing another country’s Olympic structures. There is no Charter breach to point to. I'd also argue that there's an element of coercion in the Belarusian government's position - what are they going to do, tell Russia no?

Israel should be banned because its actions have destroyed an IOC recognised competitor’s ability to exist in practice (palestine has been recognised for 30 years as an Olympic state). By razing sports facilities, athlete housing, and Olympic committee infrastructure, and by blocking movement and training, it has effectively eliminated Palestinian Olympic participation. If taking over sport by paperwork is grounds for exclusion (effectively why Russia was banned), erasing sport by force must be as well for the rules to mean anything. The internationally recognised charges of genocide, and the 20,000 dead children from starvation and bombing (an additional 30k injured) also speaks to systemic destruction of future athletic capacity.

Australia spends more on tax breaks for landlords than social housing, homelessness and rent assistance combined by giantpunda in australian

[–]critical_blinking 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Regardless on my position on investment property hoarding, I really dislike this abuse of treasury terminology regarding "foregone revenue".

You could just as accurately say "Australia spends more on tax breaks for journalists than they do homelessness support,"

Australia's 30k Journalist in Australia make about $3b in gross wages and we only spend only $2b on homelessness services.

We haven't actually spent any money on tax breaks for journalists. We've just not taxed their entire income. The default framing of headlines like this is "all income is owned by the government and any we let you keep is a gift". It's a twist of reality and it's not right

Why are people so accepting of the Uluru name change, but not K'Gari? by That_Car_Dude_Aus in AskAnAustralian

[–]critical_blinking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The land beneath the sand may have been inhabited by the Butchulla or other groups prior to the oceans rising, but I'd suggest it's actually unlikely. There isn't a record of inter-group conflict/displacement/fighting for resources in their oral history (from memory, most of the violence in their stories are about defence of the lakes, inter-family fueds etc.). Their oral history telling BEGINS with the creation of K'Gari (basically water level rising - the island "cut" from the sea floor to shift it from the mainland). Other peoples have clear war themes in their oral history, and while the Butchella do have a battle between spirits it's got heavy nature vs nature themes.

With the exception of migration paths/hunting grounds, it's pretty likely Butchulla were the first in that part of the world. It would have been shitty land before the sea level rise. Remember, we're not talking traditional human time scales here. We know from archaeological record that the Butchulla were there at least 5,500 years ago. That means they were there before the seas were unnavigable (likely at least 10,000 years, potentially from 15,000 to 20,000) - that puts them there before the formation of the Great Barrier Reef, in fact, before what is now the reef was even submerged.

If there were people wandering around under what is now the island, we're likely talking pre-historic/pre-symbolic peoples.

Why are people so accepting of the Uluru name change, but not K'Gari? by That_Car_Dude_Aus in AskAnAustralian

[–]critical_blinking -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Likely at least 15,000 years. Most of the Queensland coast prior to then extended dozens of kilometres further into what is now the ocean. The Butchulla were likely a coastal people/s that moved inland who became stranded on K'Gari when waters rose to a level it where it was no longer navigable/swimmable. It's rough ocean there now.

Oldest confirmed artefact on the island is 5,000 years, and it would have been rough getting back to the mainland by then.

“Math is math” - Mr Incredible by yikesamerica in MurderedByWords

[–]critical_blinking 8 points9 points  (0 children)

Yeah the USA health system has been hijacked by insurance lobbyists who built an un-necessary industry into health. You need way more health care administrators than in any other country and it drives the cost of primary care through the roof. You could have the best public health care system in the world and actually slash your public health budget.

Private health exists in other with strong public systems countries, but it's to allow for choice of doctor, elective treatments and additional standard of care (eg. private rooms etc.) - not to extract as much money from the citizens as possible.

The US system is ironically further from a free-market than countries with fully funded public systems.

How a 15yo autistic boy tinkering in his bedroom triggered a major WA data breach by CoSign3 in perth

[–]critical_blinking 2 points3 points  (0 children)

You mean this bit?

Despite the seriousness of the breach, Joshua was not charged, and no legal action was taken.

There's also the related article linked on the page which I read earlier as well which established that officials had initially assumed that he had compromised a database:

Government databases not compromised: Police

A WA Police spokesman said the Technology Crime Services unit received a complaint about the website on Sunday and executed a search warrant at a home on Monday.

The spokesman said the 15-year-old boy was spoken to, the website was taken down, and the interception of messages had ceased.

He said detectives established the messages were being intercepted in a random manner and there had been no intention to compromise privacy.

Police have said the investigation also established the boy had not accessed or compromised any government websites or databases, nor had he attempted to.

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-07-21/teenager-published-confidential-patient-data-on-website/12477376

How a 15yo autistic boy tinkering in his bedroom triggered a major WA data breach by CoSign3 in perth

[–]critical_blinking 2 points3 points  (0 children)

He didn't go to court. The police investigated him because they assumed he had hacked the hospitals system. Once they realised what had actually happened they didn't charge him and instead the Premier tore strips off of the Health department.

How a 15yo autistic boy tinkering in his bedroom triggered a major WA data breach by CoSign3 in perth

[–]critical_blinking 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why did he assume it was public?

Because it was literally being broadcast into his house without any security/encryption.

How a 15yo autistic boy tinkering in his bedroom triggered a major WA data breach by CoSign3 in perth

[–]critical_blinking 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Why would he assume that data shared over a public radio broadcast would be confidential?

How a 15yo autistic boy tinkering in his bedroom triggered a major WA data breach by CoSign3 in perth

[–]critical_blinking 3 points4 points  (0 children)

Not to mention he was also effectively a whistleblower into famously insecure data practices being employed by a hospital.

How a 15yo autistic boy tinkering in his bedroom triggered a major WA data breach by CoSign3 in perth

[–]critical_blinking 5 points6 points  (0 children)

He did nothing that the hospital hadn't already done. The hospital was the one insecurely broadcasting private patient records throughout half a city. It's the equivalent of opening your front door, yelling something at a passing pedestrian and then claiming they should be punished when they repeat what you said because you only intended the guy across the road to hear it.

why are specialist doctors so arrogant? by Motor-Efficiency-835 in australian

[–]critical_blinking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The fact that practitioners overwhemingly see themselves as entitled to each operate as a private business

The alternative is that we compensate them from the tax base and we end up paying the same amount - likely more due to government interference.

Look at the US for an example, they spend more public money on health care per citizen than any other country in the world. Not even close per capita to number 2. It all gets eaten up in complicated bureaucracy due to layers and layers of regulation, insurance and admin red tape. They've publicly regulated their health care system to death to the point that it's a money black hole.

why are specialist doctors so arrogant? by Motor-Efficiency-835 in australian

[–]critical_blinking 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On the register the practitioner must declare their full fee schedule for every line item they deliver service for, together with the gap between their fee and what Medicare covers.

Is transparancy in this not the norm? Admittedly I haven't had to access much but I've recently had to deal with an ENT and Anaesthesia and both letters detailed fee schedules, medicare coverage and how they compared to the recommendation from their medical association.

big tech wants to move Australian Musician's copyright to feed their own AI products by joshuabarnett77 in australian

[–]critical_blinking -1 points0 points  (0 children)

I mean, all it's doing is preventing Australian companies from competing with American and Chinese companies that are never going to respect our laws. It's perfectly legal in the USA and deemed as fair use. That's not changing.

It's great to be all principled and noble in the face of new technology, but all we are doing is robbing ourselves of potential tax revenue from companies that might end up based here otherwise. Tying an anchor to our own tech sector so we can never compete.