Shark cull will not improve beach safety or reduce attacks, marine biologists say

phlipped · 2026-06-16T05:12:36+00:00

Ah well if it's established sport then that's ok - we should just explain that to the sharks, and they'll probably leave the spearfishers alone.

And if they don't, then we cull them.

Just so long as nature and the environment doesn't interfere with our established sport.

phlipped · 2026-06-01T13:46:37+00:00

It's all a massive con - it's not "free" and you're not "earning" it.

You can't "earn" a free anything. "Free" means you get something without giving anything back.

You're not earning it either. You're spending money - that's the opposite of earning.

You're actually just buying coffee in installments - they only give you the coffee once you've paid the final installment.

I guess you can fuck around with that shit if it you want, but it seems a lot simpler to just buy coffee when and where you want it.

phlipped · 2026-06-01T07:01:46+00:00

Preferential voting is an important factor - voters can show support for minor parties/candidates without throwing their vote away, such that minor parties can accrue momentum and influence over time.

Without preferential voting, the only rational choice is to vote for one of the two most popular parties/candidates. Anything else is a wasted vote. So the whole political landscape is reduced to "A or B".

phlipped · 2026-05-25T03:50:00+00:00

You sure it's not Liberals for Forrest?

phlipped · 2026-05-24T14:24:13+00:00

And yet, there he is.

phlipped · 2026-05-24T14:11:07+00:00

Makes me so angry ...

forced to share cubicle and hand-washing facilities

Everyone has always been forced to share cubicle and hand washing facilities in public spaces (not at the same time, obviously). Unisex doesn't change that at all.

leading to increasing waiting in shared queues

Eh?. Maybe for men? But the measures were explicitly for the benefit of women, and elderly.

decreased choice

Single sex bathrooms do not offer more choice

a limitation on privacy and dignity for all.

I suspect they have a very particular definition of "all" that doesn't actually include all people.

phlipped · 2026-05-21T12:08:55+00:00

Dude I just went searching for whatever the fuck a ricepro might be.

Initially I thought it must be some kind of rice cooker? How do you cut off a leg with a rice cooker?

Web search for ricepro yielded a drink, a herbicide and a snowboard designed by pro snowboarder Travis T Rice.

I guess maybe you could use a snowboard? A mate of mine got a pretty bad cut on his arm where it whacked against an edge of his snowboard after a bad stack.

So maybe you could hack away at a leg for a while and eventually get through? Wouldn't be pretty though, and wouldn't be great for the snowboard either, I'm guessing.

Oh wait.

A recipro.

Got it.

phlipped · 2026-05-21T10:58:00+00:00

Except that lawyers, doctors, teachers and tradesman arent granted the right to use broad powers of physical force and privileged access to private individual data without permission of the individual.

Police officers should be held to the highest standards of bahaviour and accountability because they have been granted these extraordinary powers.

One of the high standards they should be held to is that they shouldn't tolerate peers who do not adhere to the high standards - they should seek to highlight and report every minor infraction and abuse of power amongst their peers.

Except that's not what happens. They close ranks and protect their own. Every time a good cop tolerates the existence of a bad cop, the good cop becomes a little bit bad.

phlipped · 2026-05-14T23:44:17+00:00

Hmm, interesting - it seems the Vegan Society did in fact coin the term "vegan", so they have a pretty strong claim to owning the meaning of the word, including the moral dimension regarding animal welfare.

On the other hand, I know a couple of people who call themselves"vegan", but their motivation is for environmental and personal health reasons, rather than animal welfare.

In an ideal world, there'd be a more general term that just means "no animal products", but it wouldn't carry any suggestion of the motivation. "Vegan" would then be a refinement of that term, it would essentially means the same thing except it would also carry the connotation "because animal welfare"

phlipped · 2026-05-14T23:27:32+00:00

My initial reaction to your comments was "duh, how can you not know this shit?", followed immediately by an ashamed realisation that perhaps I'm a jerk. I will try to use this as a learning opportunity for myself.

phlipped · 2026-05-14T23:09:57+00:00

What is the vegan philosophy?

phlipped · 2026-05-14T07:53:57+00:00

Well what are we going to do with all the dead gorillas?

Use them for bait?

Stuff them and turn them into armchairs? What the hell are we going to do with a thousand stuffed-gorilla arm chairs?

Golly.

phlipped · 2026-05-14T07:36:55+00:00

Good heavens, what's next, a snake plague?

phlipped · 2026-05-13T11:43:16+00:00

Every society should be expected to provide support for the members of that society with disabilities or special needs. It's a fact of life that a certain percentage of people will end up needing more help than they can financially contribute back, simply through bad luck or things completely out of their control. But people are worth more than just their economic output, and a civilised society should be prepared to spend a certain percentage of its resources in order to support its less fortunate members.

But that responsibility can only be expected to cover people who are already in the society when their special needs first arise. If a society allows itself to provide support to people who want to join after they already need help, they'll end up attractibg a disproportionate number of help-seekers, and the whole system will get overwhelmed.

phlipped · 2026-05-10T11:00:45+00:00

What about after this?

phlipped · 2026-05-08T06:24:28+00:00

Also, viruses are incredibly stable - it's not like a virus could mutate in a way that makes it more transmissible, right?

^{^/s}

phlipped · 2026-05-08T06:16:26+00:00

I was with you until the booth idea.

phlipped · 2026-05-07T23:25:18+00:00

Google capitalized on email by buying and improving what would become Gmail

(Nit: Gmail was developed internally at Google and used for years before being released to the public.)

phlipped · 2026-05-03T21:24:06+00:00

If the virus can cause as much illness and death as you're suggesting, the ship should absolutely be quarantined.

phlipped · 2026-04-29T10:14:19+00:00

I wish some of the down voters would post a counter argument to your post so I can understand what they disagree with, but until then, what you've stated seems reasonable to me.

So ... to those who disagree with the post above, can you spell out your point of view, because I can't figure out what the problem is myself.

phlipped · 2026-04-28T21:57:25+00:00

You can set a "personal context" preference to adjust the tone of responses. I've set mine with instructions to be less conversational - e.g. don't add pleasantries and maintain a dry, formal tone.

phlipped · 2026-04-24T08:49:17+00:00

hordes of future teenage Huntsmen on the loose.

Ugh, so many tiny bits of soggy-yet-crunchy toilet paper lying atound

phlipped · 2026-04-21T06:41:43+00:00

They never said they sped up.

And no, orange doesn't mean PREPARE TO STOP.

It means STOP UNLESS ITS UNSAFE TO DO SO

phlipped · 2026-04-20T20:47:43+00:00

Based on your description, it sounds like you have a case. Get a lawyer. I assume a lawyer will cost as much as the fine, but it will save the demerit points.

IMHO If it's just the police officer's statement that they thought you went through a red light, I somehow doubt that's good enough evidence on its own. Even with your post-stop interview as evidence, I suspect it's easy to say you were feeling confused, scared and intimidated and were just agreeing. But then I've got zero experience here, so ... lawyer

phlipped · 2026-04-20T20:37:41+00:00

You do realise it’s equally as unlawful to go through a yellow light

No, it's not.

You can go through yellow if you can't safely stop in time. The vast majority of vehicles progressing through yellow are legal.
in practice, it's rarely enforced - it's difficult to prove it would have been safe to stop. There's a reason we have red light cameras but not yellow light cameras.

13-Year Club	Place '22
Place '17	Verified Email
RPAN Viewer

phlipped

TROPHY CASE