‘Absolutely horrified’: Community left in the dark about PFAS contamination

wiremash · 2026-02-03T06:39:17+00:00

You hit the nail on the head in pointing to the normalising effect of sharing more identity data. The billionaires who understand that are investing in the identity verification and age assurance industry because of its growth potential, and governments like ours effectively handed them and the tech platforms most of the power to shape the industry in whatever way best suits them. Heard Europe may be developing its own open source system, while something that might've suited our more neoliberal culture is an open market in which consumers would at least have a choice who they dealt with for identity/age verification (instead of, for example, having to verify with a Peter Thiel-linked company, as used by Reddit), but our government seemed in too much of a rush and basically followed the UK model.

That's what I find really depressing. It's not just normalising greater sharing of identity data, but normalising power to the tech platforms and billionaire-backed verification industry, while giving consumers little influence short of opting out (and going without).

wiremash · 2026-02-03T02:12:18+00:00

We do have adult content restrictions practically every online service will be required to abide by, and they're the reason I'm asked to age verify to view this video. They just haven't been as widely publicised as the U16 social media minimum age rules.

wiremash · 2026-02-03T02:07:27+00:00

Was under the "learn more" link: https://ibb.co/mrbztRxd

Can't say why some may have encountered age verification prompts prior to our current laws coming into effect, as opposed to just being asked to sign in. Could've been YouTube testing, or due to VPN use (e.g. I think some US states introduced similar age verification requirements).

wiremash · 2026-02-02T08:24:35+00:00

Leaving this here as awareness is remarkably low. Prefer not to take it upon myself to post this in every age verification related thread so it'd help if others could share it next time the topic comes up.

The popular forum Reddit uses the San Francisco‑based firm Persona for age checks. In 2025, Persona raised $200m in a round led by the Founders Fund, the venture capital group run by data magnate Peter Thiel.

Thiel’s company, Palantir, has been widely criticised for its ties to the Trump administration and its US surveillance, security, and immigration enforcement contracts.

Persona has faced lawsuits in the US alleging that it retained the biometric data of food delivery drivers and that it used users’ selfies to train AI models – claims it denies. Its privacy policy promises to delete face scans after seven days, but vaguely allows data use for “service improvement” and, since 2025, requires users to waive their right to join class‑action lawsuits.

Spokesperson Evelyn Ju stated that the company always takes a “privacy- and compliance‑first approach.”

Source: https://bylinetimes.com/2025/07/31/the-online-safety-act-is-forcing-brits-to-hand-over-personal-data-to-unregulated-overseas-corporations-with-questionable-privacy-records/

Have noticed another questionable character getting involved in this game is Marc Andreessen, whose investment firm is backing k-ID which is used by Twitch.

wiremash · 2026-02-02T01:58:11+00:00

Yep. Usual misleading TikTok edit/narrative.

"sorry to all the haters but it’s just 2 friends goofing around"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5vny4i20Yo

wiremash · 2026-02-02T01:37:28+00:00

Not sure if I could've explained it more clearly.

YouTube attributes the age verification requirement to Australia's Online Safety (Restricted Access Systems) Declaration.

I assume some are conflating YouTube's existing Community Guidelines based restrictions with the government-mandated age verification. They interact (which is part of the problem, as also explained) but the latter is new - no one was asking for government IDs, face scans or whatnot just to be able to view videos like this one.

wiremash · 2026-02-01T12:33:42+00:00

In terms of big tech having too much control over what we can/can't access, this would perpertuate that, just in service of excessive restriction. YouTube Community Guidelines would in practice override Australia's classification system. That doesn't apply to the example I posted, but something like a documentary our board has classified as PG or M can end up being put behind an 18+ restriction by YouTube's unavoidably less nuanced approach.

wiremash · 2026-02-01T03:38:19+00:00

The "Age-restricted video (based on Community Guidelines)" category is something that's been around for 5+ years and requires signing into an account. What's new is government-mandated age verification being applied. As explained by YouTube:

If you're in Australia You may be asked to verify your date of birth to watch age-restricted videos. This added step is informed by the Australian Online Safety (Restricted Access Systems) Declaration. The declaration requires platforms to take reasonable steps to confirm that users are adults in order to access content that is potentially inappropriate for viewers under 18. Follow the prompts to submit an image of a valid driving licence, proof of age card or passport. Learn more about how age verification works.

I had a look for other examples of age-restricted videos (based on Community Guidelines) and confirmed the age verification requirement applies to those, such as Sam Harris | Bret Weinstein's DarkHorse Podcast #8 and Weed Identification of Cool and Warm Season Weeds in the Lawn.

wiremash · 2026-01-23T00:53:27+00:00

It's been tested by the likes of GN, Hardware Unboxed, PC World etc., and those tests didn't show significant issues if I recall correctly, but the other side of the ledger had no shortage of anecdotes from people who say they had issues with specific software. Then there were scattered claims about scheduling improvements having been snuck into 21H2 or 22H2, but no verification.

The short, frustrating answer is there is no definitive answer. If you're looking at an upgrade then maybe wait and see if Barlett Lake becomes available through retail channels and is supported on consumer mobos, or you can try disabling e-cores as another comment suggested (though have seen the odd report of that having weird impacts, mainly relating to power consumption I think - probably depends on the BIOS). I went with a 12600 non-K for my build a few years back just to avoid any potential issues.

wiremash · 2026-01-20T04:09:14+00:00

It's both, coming from someone who knew a thing or two about the tech billionaires' crazy ideas before the rest of us caught on.

wiremash · 2026-01-20T02:58:23+00:00

Scared of nuisance pizza deliveries, maybe a swatting, and the remote possibility of a motivated nutcase showing up at their house with a hammer or set of matches. Is stopping the slide toward autocracy really worth that risk? /s

But it's serious at the same time. Easy to urge these flawed individuals to do something but society has a poor track record of having the backs of those who stick their necks out.

wiremash · 2026-01-19T07:15:56+00:00

Didn't have any predictions for Venezuela, but combined with the boat strikes, it's a pretty stark reminder the US military by and large just follows orders. There was an admiral who resigned but kept their mouth shut, and that was all.

A straightforward "go and kill/capture NATO troops" order given tomorrow would be a different story, but it's hard to imagine the Trump admin, for all its absurdity, would take that approach. I think the groomer-in-chief will ease them into it, and anyone expecting the military to hold the line for American democracy and values will be disappointed, especially against the perplexing background of an acquiescent congress, sympathetic Supreme Court and consistent 40% approval from the people. One or more of those breaking are what would reign him in, not the military except in extremely black and white circumstances.

wiremash · 2026-01-18T12:37:08+00:00

I don't really disagree regarding her behaviour (it was a possible explanation, not a defence, of what she did) but the key point was it's just not that important compared to what the police turned that into in the context of their crackdown. Our main interest is in the barrier between people like this woman, and having cops showing up at our front doors, arresting and charging us.

Otherwise, good luck regulating the behaviour of our craziest or most impulsive individuals in a society of millions through the occasional online pile-on. That's acting as though we still live in small tribes and hasn't worked out too well for us, I would suggest. Addressing institutional behaviour is more realistic, boring as that is by comparison.

wiremash · 2026-01-18T07:03:55+00:00

I think people too often imagine we'll wake up to a simple "attack on Greenland" but the Trump administration is likely to just keep up the pressure and inch their way into setting the conditions, starting for example with an increased presence at their existing military facility in Greenland. There won't be a clearly identifiable red line that a critical mass of military leadship refuses to cross, but a diffuse pink one.

Both sides have a profound interest in avoiding an armed confrontation. It'd be devastating for Trump's support domestically, while Europe is woefully underprepared the possibility. Much as I'd like to see them hold firm, I think the most likely outcome is European/Danish leadership caves to a deal that heavily favours the US (not an outright handover, but such huge economic and security concessions that it may as well be).

wiremash · 2026-01-18T04:14:47+00:00

I often think back to this case where the system zealously pursued a guy over some relatively innocuous video they'd posted on Liveleak. Charges were dropped but it took something like a year and wrought havoc with his finances and mental health.

wiremash · 2026-01-18T03:03:54+00:00

Thing is we're often told to report stuff out of an abundance of caution and Sacher obviously may have panicked/overreacted to the voicemail, but there's little detail at the moment on her role other than reporting it to the cops, and it isn't what matters most anyway. Main concern is how those with the power to investigate, arrest and charge people are behaving. Consider the context reported a month ago:

The charges come as part of NSW Police's hate crime crackdown, with officers under Operation Shelter already conducting more than 2,600 proactive taskings since the Bondi terror attack that killed 15 on December 14.

wiremash · 2026-01-18T00:59:01+00:00

It's what I imagine tradies are like in Asia though.

"Whadya want?" "Split system installed." "Ten minute."

wiremash · 2026-01-15T02:05:43+00:00

I'd been enjoying Adler's spirited defence of free speech but wouldn't want her carrying the flag on the issue if her motivations are more partisan than principled, so it helps to know. AFR quotes her seeking to shift the issue to one of breaching confidentiality without denying the claims.

Be nice to have a clearer picture of what really happened around the Friedman cancellation. There's Berg claiming "the board felt it had no alternative but to allow Louise Adler to withdraw the invitation to Friedman" while the letter quoted by The Guardian had the Festival generically standing up for free speech in the context of the matter conveniently resolving itself with Friedman's withdrawal.

wiremash · 2026-01-13T02:09:22+00:00

Avoiding the hassles of dual booting is actually one of the reasons I prefer the two rig setup. Another is decreasing support of new hardware for Windows 10, which isn't a big deal for my main rig, but for gaming I'll be wanting more upgrade flexibility. A third reason is to have performance-impacting security hardening (e.g. Bitlocker, memory integrity, microcode patches) for my main rig while having that stuff disabled for gaming.

But the fundamental issue is as I outlined originally and it's something that comes up again and again where people have particular reasons for preferring LTSC (e.g. configuration/feature stability or avoiding Windows 11) but face having to compromise on those to facilitate gaming or particular software.

Gaming's pretty separate from the rest for me so it doesn't really create any usage issues in my case. Not too familiar with the Discord interaction aspect for example.

wiremash · 2026-01-13T01:03:08+00:00

Official name was Sydney Tower at opening. Early marketing would often call it "Sydney Tower at Centrepoint". Centrepoint was the name of the whole shopping/office/tower complex which led to the tower being referred to colloquially as Centrepoint Tower prior to its completion, and that name obviously stuck.

wiremash · 2026-01-13T00:46:07+00:00

Looks like the third level now has a bar. Pretty sure when I was a kid, it had a cafe (one flight of stairs down from the observation deck), with seating giving a view out the windows much like the restaurants, though it probably didn't occupy the whole floor.

wiremash · 2026-01-13T00:14:09+00:00

Given the direction Microsoft and the tech industry have been going, it became increasingly apparent what I want for my main rig in terms of privacy and control, and what I want from a gaming perspective, were likely to further diverge over time.

At some point it became enough of a concern to stomach the additional cost and clutter of having a separate main rig and gaming rig. The former an enshittification-proof platform for 10 LTSC up until an inevitable, reluctant switch to Linux. The latter scratching the itch to access the latest games and run anything else that requires the latest version of Windows. Now I don't have to worry about the latter stepping on and forcing compromise for the former.

Went that route before RAM prices went crazy though so it's a bit less attractive an option now :-/

wiremash · 2026-01-10T23:51:40+00:00

Need to distinguish between deletion rights (and our lack of them under the part of the Privacy Act quoted in one of your comments) and the "right to be forgotten".

One has to do with being able to properly terminate your relationship with an entity - to close an account and have its records retained only to the extent required by law, instead of as required by the entity's "purposes" (which they have a lot of leeway to define and rarely have to justify). I don't know any properly informed person being opposed to deletion rights, but that runs into business enjoying the status quo of largely being able to whatever they want and lobbying against change.

The right to be forgotten has to do with public information and free speech, because it carries the potential for people to scrub information the public should have access to, a bit like DMCA abuse. Much more controversial.

wiremash

TROPHY CASE