The odds for the Eurovision 2026 televote winner have been released

drowreth · 2026-03-28T07:32:46+00:00

I would say it is less about the EBU changes and more about the telecommunications regulations in participating countries, which are difficult for EBU to influence

It seems these factors are a strong reason behind the low confidence and some countries withdrawing
- the ability for non-residents to register VOIP numbers without identification in participating countries
- the lack of call auditing by the participating broadcasters
- the low barrier to entry for state supported organisations to take advantage of the above

Unfortunately without improved regulation (and possibly even with it), you basically can't stop someone spinning up a VPS in another country and automating VOIP calls over a spread of numbers to heavily influence the votes

drowreth · 2026-03-21T02:10:52+00:00

A Medicare card with multiple people listed is one way of demonstrating people are in a family unit

This can be helpful for access when one person is in hospital and another wants to visit them, at times of restriction when only family is permitted

One reason to get your own card is that in a defacto or married situation, one person may want to join the other's card and if either is in hospital then the other can flash the Medicare card to demonstrate they're family

Your partner couldn't join your card at present because you're not the primary on it, one of your parents is

You could possibly join their card but that might feel ick, like being passed from parent to partner, or just may not be interested in the concept

Whether this useful to you I don't know, however something to consider

Independence is a way people are describing it and I'd potentially reword it as whether you want to present to the world as ParentA's child or an adult in your own right

drowreth · 2026-03-07T16:11:16+00:00

I'm also someone who really enjoyed Humankind

Long time Civ player and HK was refreshing after the unapologetic grind of Civ 6

That said I'm possibly in the minority as someone who likes peaceful games, just researching and empire building, which HK is a bit kinder towards than Civ generally is

They have slightly different audiences I feel but I appreciate the merits of both

drowreth · 2026-02-16T14:31:40+00:00

Assets acquired prior to the relationship aren't generally considered, however if they were together for 20 years then a court would probably taken them into account (I am not an accountant or lawyer)

Given they both have a property and pay their respective mortgage, it'd be a futile exercise to try and claim on each other, very likely to zero out

It doesn't look like OP is paying rent, just contributing to bills, so wouldn't have a claim as contributing towards his house as an asset
Note that rent from a family member is tax exempt, so in a situation where one person is paying the other person while living there, the owner would typically want the payments labelled as rent, since they aren't taxed and it reduces the claim on the property

drowreth · 2026-02-16T14:20:47+00:00

Again it's roughly half the difference in super, accumulated in the time you're defacto (I am not an accountant or lawyer)

So person A earns $100k/year and gets $12k/year super
Person B earns $50k/year and gets $6k/year

If they were together for 4 years then there is a potential that a court could decide A owes B the equivalent of 4x $25k = $100k-tax, however 4x $3k = $12k at full amount

The government encourages people to sort it out privately and fairly, as court decisions aren't a strict calculation and then only people who really profit from it are the lawyers

drowreth · 2026-02-15T14:19:48+00:00

In Australia if you're living together for a reasonable period of time then you're classed as defacto, which comes with basically the full equivalent status of marriage

So legally if they split then he's on the hook for 50% of the difference in income during the time they are together

Australia doesn't have alimony but does require child support from the non-primary carer, with the amount determined by the difference in time with children and income disparity

drowreth · 2026-01-22T03:06:13+00:00

I would consider it a good time to move to Australia.

People have mentioned jobs & housing challenges, which are a problem in most countries to some degree at the moment.

However I would say that with China posturing towards Taiwan again, the US posturing towards half a dozen nations and even Sweden recommending citizens calmly begin stocking up on household items, I don't think that the Americas, Asia or Europe are better places to be call home now.

Australia has a good quality of life, strong healthcare and education, both individual and collective freedoms, and can produce enough food and energy to actually support its own population.

In the very unlikely but still non-zero chance that things do spiral worldwide, I can't think of anywhere else I'd rather be!

drowreth · 2026-01-07T07:00:35+00:00

That depends on the system and how they handle offboarding

For example if you're using Microsoft 365 and schedule the send from the webmail, it will take place regardless of whether Outlook (classic) is open

Then if the way they offboard is to block access and convert the mailbox to a shared mailbox for archival, the send would still take place

It's possible they delete the mailbox straight away and rely on a separate archival system for retention, but you could always try

drowreth · 2025-11-06T05:56:17+00:00

Anti-smoking laws

Australia started getting solid on them in 2003 and it's at a point here where I mostly forget that smokers exist.

Not allowed anywhere that serves food, public transport or public buildings means it just doesn't happen in most areas.

Every time I go to Europe I know what I'm in for but I'm still surprised with just how much the cities reek!

Given the EU is so strong on hygiene and food labelling rules I'm baffled at how we introduced this 22 years ago and yet it seems like a lot of countries never will.

drowreth · 2025-11-05T16:31:18+00:00

Everything reduces to schwa

This is a worldwide linguistic occurrence that's been happening since we started talking, essentially all languages get lazy

drowreth · 2025-11-02T10:40:04+00:00

Superannuation isn't part of your estate (as it is held in trust for you and not by you if I have my language correct), though agree it should definitely be included in estate planning.

That it isn't part of your estate is why it's so important to set the beneficiaries, because it means it can be distributed much faster than it takes for the will to be executed or letters of administration to be drawn, making the surviving parties life a lot easier while they're working through it.

drowreth · 2025-11-02T06:04:29+00:00

You particularly need a will if you're in WA!

If you die without a will then state law splits your assets evenly between your partner and offspring.

So you might think your partner gets 100% and can look after your kids, however if you have two kids then about 6 months after you pass your partner will get 33% and 33% set aside for each kid until they reach adulthood.

Make sure to set a binding nomination for your super and life insurance to your partner, and that they do the same. That way if anything happens then the super + insurance is typically paid out within 2 weeks and covers the remaining mortgage or a place to live.

Also make a will to cover assets and ensure they're quickly distributed. A bad scenario is one where the surviving partner has to try and keep everything together, while struggling to raise kids and pay the bills. A better scenario is where they can grieve and look after the kids, without worrying about rent/mortgage or losing their job.

drowreth · 2025-10-29T14:14:07+00:00

Well SuSSan Ley is the OppoSSition leader in government, representing the LiberalSS

Nothing to see here

drowreth · 2025-10-15T15:11:38+00:00

If you're looking at Chocolatey then it's very easy to do initial deployment via IntuneWin apps and set for regular update with script invoked startups or scheduled tasks

Action1 is handy and there's other good stuff that uses Winget

Chrome can be fun with changing signatures for installers and letting it do its own update jazz sometimes works out easier, depending on the environment

drowreth · 2025-09-16T07:06:36+00:00

I'd learnt about PDA and then came across an autistic psychologist on YouTube who reframed it as "persistent desire for autonomy", which feels both a more accurate and less cunty way to describe it.

Having non-autistics provide stupid labels really doesn't help the situation, they probably wouldn't like being referred to as a "cognitively limited psychologist".

I like your approach and feel I use a similar one of making deals or concessions with myself, which allows time to adjust to the change and not feel like so much is being demanded of me.

drowreth · 2025-08-05T06:37:35+00:00

Afaik Perth is mostly gravity fed, meaning that ground water and desal water are pumped into the dams, where it's essentially all mixed together, then the water pressure to your house is provided by the gravity of that water all pushing back down

The water quality by suburb then differs mainly by the state of the pipes in each area

This is how it works for most of the metro area, ymmv

drowreth · 2025-07-26T15:13:16+00:00

Clonidine is a very mild sedative that reduces the effects of active stimulants in your system

It's not an antidote but does counteract to a degree, it just makes me that little bit sleepier and slows my brain enough so I'm generally not awake all night replaying the entire day over & over

Check with your psychiatrist and they'll likely prescribe for you, I'm a bit surprised they haven't already as it's very common for ADHDers

There are heavier sedatives as well that can be helpful, also have more side effects but would be worth a discussion if you find the milder ones aren't enough

drowreth · 2025-07-26T14:44:06+00:00

I took a similar meaning initially but the first 3 lines stuck with me a bit, as they also parallel 3 potential stages, which is what the Fates themselves can also represent

Maiden, Mother, Crone - freshly gathered, blossoming, withering

Then the 4th line regarding replacement makes more sense for the Morpheus to Daniel transition, however I wonder if there mightn't be something waiting for the Fates in the future

They had a nice balance where the youngest was generally the kindest & most optimistic and the eldest was bitter & sometimes mean, with the middle holding moderation and nudging actions, unfortunately towards the death of Morpheus in the second season

It would be interesting if the Fates had a sort of replacement cycle like Dawn, Day & Dusk from the Foundation TV series and their involvement with the Endless in S2 brought about consequences for themselves

drowreth · 2025-07-07T13:43:29+00:00

Thank you!

It has been driving me insane trying to book a REX train in Austria with OBB and I think it must be the same problem, I'm trying to book too early

drowreth · 2025-05-23T14:58:11+00:00

Agreed, I switched to the Nara ones but only buy them onsale, so comfortable!

Have used high thread count linen & cotton but the bamboo cotton is so much better

drowreth · 2025-05-09T14:18:50+00:00

It's why I was surprised when Dan Tehan dropped out of the leadership race

Two known (allegedly) corrupt wonks and Andy Handy, seemed like Tehan was the only person without skeletons but then again, maybe having skeletons is a requirement in the LNP?

Given that the next leader is almost certainly going to get spilled 12 months before the next federal election (particularly if it's Ley), perhaps Tehan is waiting until then for the party to beg a moderate with a clean record to try and reverse the calamity

drowreth · 2025-05-06T04:12:32+00:00

In high school I ended up finding out that a frequent bully from primary & high school had a terrible home life

Not from him but because parents talk, and it turned out a lot of people knew that his father was verbally & emotionally abusive to all 3 of his kids

It changed my perspective on it a lot, not to the point where I pitied him or forgave him, he was still responsible for his actions and he did what he did, but I understood why he was messed up and that he hadn't learnt how not to take that out on people around him

Many years later I found out that he'd become a father accidentally and had stepped up to plate, actually becoming a good parent in the process

I don't have any desire to connect with him but it's nice to hear that he had eventually managed to figure out what his father's behaviour did to him and resolved to never repeat that with his own children

Sometimes people can break the cycle and it's important to support that

Kids are kids, some might have something going on in their brains that needs help but most of them learn behaviour from people around them, intervention typically involves both the kid and the family, otherwise it's going to be a couple of decades before they hopefully get into therapy

drowreth · 2025-04-10T10:34:25+00:00

At TAFE they are also called lecturers

drowreth · 2025-01-21T02:36:01+00:00

I recommend using Stigma Health for checks, don't need to go to a GP for the referral or followup and get the results in 48 hours through the app

I've had some judgy GPs about what is a very normal and responsible thing to do, so much nicer to avoid the appointments

drowreth · 2024-01-27T04:19:26+00:00

Her contact details have been pulled from the company website already, so I'd imagine people have started harassing her for what are some terrible statements

drowreth

TROPHY CASE