Interesting things too

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factotum started the topic in Thursday, 21 Nov 2019 at 2:21pm

For when one interesting things thread isn't enough.

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stunet Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 1:05pm

"...and the 'fuck the authorities' thinking, the we don't need you breathing down our throats with laws to function over here thinking. no apparently we crave punishment, overlords and deference of power..."

Had a Canadian friend who lived here for two years and was constantly gobsmacked by how many signs there are in Australia. Signs everywhere, for everything, mutely waving their fingers at people, warning them, at first she found it twee, then as she realised how widespread it was she formed some theories, perhaps wayward, perhaps not, about how it related to the Australian psyche. Reckon she'd nod her head to some of things written in that oped.

Sometimes it takes a foreigner to describe things that the natives can't see. Think 'Wake in Fright', now considered an Aussie classic, but an outrage when it was made by Ted Kotcheff - coincidentally a Canadian.

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freeride76 Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 1:23pm

Yeah, but the book it was based on was by Kenneth Cook, an Aussie.

still agree though, NSW is one of the most over-governed places on Earth.

Lennox head has been a fishing village for millennia, first by bundjalung, then by white settlers. It's a fucking fish trap. One of the few places on the NSW coast with an intertidal lagoon where migrating fish can pause, particularly in heavy seas.

Guarans every time I pull a rod out there'll be some fukwit just hopped out of a range rover who wouldn't know a tailor if it slapped them in the face telling me "you can't fish here it's marine park"
yeah, thanks I know where the boundaries are. Now fuck off.

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Blowin Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 1:24pm

But the point is Stu, no one wants these signs or encourages the nanny state. The article acts as though incremental governmental overreach is loved by Australians because we don’t riot in the street over it.

Do you love the signs everywhere ? You’re Australian , so you are who these clowns are trying to speak for. I know I don’t love the signage or the nanny state and I can’t name a single person who does.

It’s specious bullshit written for an audience who needs their hate wank to get through life.

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sypkan Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 2:16pm

don't get me started on the signs stunet..

and this is more irony lost..., dunno who the author is, but he's clearly from the george magnanimous in all but my culture school of thought, these are the guys pushing for the signs!

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stunet Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 1:53pm

No point singling out any one individual, the issue is cultural. Signs, policies, and laws, they're all wrapped up together across three levels of government. I may not want them, you may not either, but the fact they exist, that so many of them exist, is symbolic - boom, boom - of something within our psyche. They wouldn't exist otherwise.

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stunet Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 2:00pm

...

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Pupkin Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 2:11pm

Mention of signs and the psyche?

Are we heading into the murky world of semiotics/semiology??

The treachery of images.

Interesting stuff!

And Sypkhan, it just occurred to me, were you referring to the Port Adelaide football club before?

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sypkan Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 2:19pm

maybe its the three levels of government that is the problem?

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sypkan Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 2:22pm

... it's part of the problem...

and too many morons in meaningless positions searching for meaning by imposing their shit ideas on a body of people

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Optimist Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 2:22pm

My nanny state pet hate is needing a license to catch a fish in NSW.
Labors Bob Carr and his genius idea in 2001. All it does is pay for the river police to pick on people. I watch them hassling old guys on the river and checking their bream and flatties sizes etc...pretty sad. I don't think God would like the idea of charging people to fish and feed themselves.

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Blowin Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 2:35pm

The individual dictates and reflects the culture. The individual determines and constitutes the culture.

What you’re saying is that just because you , me and everyone we know doesn’t approve of the nanny state doesn’t me we dont subconsciously love it .....bullshit.

The reality is that there exists a sub - culture within mainstream Australia called the Managerial class and its their prerogative to increase their power and reach. They do this by expanding the nanny state and therefore signage.

They don’t do this with encouragement, they do this because Australia’s easy going attitude is permissive and tolerant of virtually any indulgence by sub cultures. That’s why multiculturalism is so successful in Australia.

Australian Gay pride parades weren’t at the forefront of pushing mainstream acceptance of diverse sexuality because the average Australian has a subconscious desire to be ploughed / eaten by their best friends of a similar gender. It’s because the Australian culture is foremost accepting and tolerant. It’s the same with the incremental expansion of the managerial class’s power grab...we have a quick whinge , shrug our shoulders and accept it as mostly harmless.

The Australian culture is not secretly enamoured by authoritarianism. Australians are not fearful and weak spirited and desirous of being led blindly into undeserved punishment.....and that is the claim of that red- hot vomit of an article.

Read Facto’s link again and gather the context. It’s just another hate wank piece built on the usual foundation of lies which their readership is dying to swallow.

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Pupkin Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 7:45pm

Another idiosyncratic and interesting take there, Blow in.

I don't really understand the individual part at the start. Surely culture serves as a mechanism for bringing together individuals with many shared traits. It's the sharing element that dictates and reflects and determines and constitutes culture.

And Australia's (which parts?) easy going, permissive, and tolerant attitude? Interesting.

Using your example, Sydney's first Mardi Gras in 1978 was less of a parade than the last in a series of events produced as part of the Day of International Gay Solidarity, following a morning protest march and a public meeting. Homosexuality was still illegal in NSW in 1978.

This first 'parade', though it was given formal permission, ended in the police harrassing, bashing and ultimately arresting 53 participants.

The NSW parliament even issued a formal apology in 2016. All for the sake of an 'indulgence' (as you put it).

Better late than never, I guess.

Another line of your thinking had me thinking about the ANZACs, the legend and mythos, from WWI, and all the wars, till now.

"Australians are not fearful and weak spirited and desirous of being led blindly into undeserved punishment..."

The subconscious is a powerful force.

Then again, was that what that article was even getting at anyway? I can't recall those words being in there.

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Pupkin Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 6:22pm

And Sypkhan, not a Port Adelaide footy club fan then?

They are the most successful football club in Australia. SANFL titans. Apart from Port Adelaide region citizens, and those with close personal ties, I can see why other people jumped on board the Maggies.

Black and white.

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I focus Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 5:30pm

Didn't the stand up and tell authority to get fu(ked die with unions?

I don't see to many large groups really give it to our masters.

Australia largely IMHO have become sheep as the American culture slowly sews itself into our society and everyone considers themselves entrepreneurial potential billionaires.

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Blowin Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 5:55pm

Anyone think is weird that when people say “ I think most Australians...“ never include themselves in that bracket ?

Obviously Facto craves punishment from authority and I Focus is a sheep following American culture as this is what they claim Australians do and they are Australians , Ipso facto they are describing themselves.

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Pupkin Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 6:20pm

Bintangs?

And who said I was Australian?

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sypkan Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 8:31pm

"Didn't the stand up and tell authority to get fu(ked die with unions?"

nah not really, it's just been suppressed, contained, compartmentalised, ...elsewhere... as people lost faith in the unions

probably because the unions became obsessed with.... nah, couldn't be...

"I don't see to many large groups really give it to our masters."

you're right there, hard to get crew to agree on anything, they seem a little partitioned you might say...

Australia largely IMHO have become sheep as the American culture slowly sews itself into our society and everyone considers themselves entrepreneurial potential billionaires."

entreprenurial... yes, ...such was the conditioning of neoliberism, or 'third way' economics depending on your flavour...

billionaires... not really, most aussies still have an endearing modesty about them... for the moment...

but sheep we are, and a bastardisation of US and european ideals, as the polars fight it out in their ideological battle. not sure that model it's working

indo-dreaming's picture
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indo-dreaming Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 6:53pm

"My nanny state pet hate is needing a license to catch a fish in NSW.
Labors Bob Carr and his genius idea in 2001. All it does is pay for the river police to pick on people. I watch them hassling old guys on the river and checking their bream and flatties sizes etc...pretty sad. I don't think God would like the idea of charging people to fish and feed themselves."

Don't agree on this one, the more presence from fisheries the better, pointless having size and bag limits etc if they are not enforced.

Don't know about where you are, but in Victoria our fishing in our bays has actually got better in the last 20 years, mostly due to things like stopping netting in bays and dredging etc and just public attitude on only catching what you need and releasing big breeding fish etc

But the presence of fisheries also helps ensure people don't keep under sized fish or fish over their limit etc

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wally Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 8:50pm

When you are up a river with a line in and you see a convoy of amateur fishing tinnies approaching, 6 feet apart, with a net between each one, cleaning out most fish in the system, then you realise some regulation is probably a good thing.

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sypkan Wednesday, 19 Feb 2020 at 10:20pm

...the old social construct chestnut hey...

living proof that the agenda is more important than reality

... perhaps...

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Pupkin Thursday, 20 Feb 2020 at 12:00am

The Chinese virus has infected this thread too!

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Optimist Thursday, 20 Feb 2020 at 4:52am

Your probably right about policing waterways Indo, It's the having to have a license to catch a fish that doesn't sit right with me. Perhaps the state Govt could afford to drop the license bit and restore freedom to the masses and have waterways guys on the job as well. I don't think it raises a great deal of money anyway.

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sypkan Thursday, 20 Feb 2020 at 7:29am

thread police ....boring...

but speaking of infections, trigger points,a virus...

and the 'social construct' chestnut

https://www.realclearinvestigations.com/articles/2020/02/19/boys_will_be...

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Pupkin Friday, 21 Feb 2020 at 12:27am

The reality of dousing people with petrol and burning them to death.

"When you’re caught in a fire, the first thing that generally happens is that the hair and surface skin burns, usually very quickly. Anyone who’s singed themselves while cooking or tending a fireplace has gotten a taste of what this is like. The skin cracks, the hair burns off, and the nerve endings all fire at the same time, communicating only one thing – you’re in a heck of a lot of trouble and pain.

As your body heats up from the fire, the fat underneath the skin melts. As with all animal fats, it melts at a relatively low heat point, instantly causing some skin to slough off in flakes and sheets. Your eyes will be especially affected – the eyelids are thin tissue and will be destroyed relatively quickly, but the liquid eyeball itself will boil first, then burst, and only then burn.

If you’re exposed to direct flame, you will catch fire just like a wick in a wax candle. At this point, if you’re lucky, you’ll have a low tolerance for pain, fall unconscious, and never wake up.

If you’re not lucky, you may live long enough to watch your body fall apart. Incidentally, the voice box is relatively well protected by heavy cartilage and muscle, so if you’re still conscious, you can still scream.

Once the skin and surface tissue have melted and burned away, the proteins making up tissue and muscle are the next to cook, then burn. Internal organs heat to the boiling point, then explode, and as the muscles burn away, they too dry up, wither, and burn away.

If the fire’s not particularly hot, what will be left will be a skeleton with carbonized tissue attached to it. If the fire is sufficiently hot, the proteins that bind the minerals in your bones will burn away as well, causing your bones to fall to ashes."

C. Penn

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Blowin Thursday, 20 Feb 2020 at 1:56pm

Indian specialty !

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bride_burning

Some very interesting reading to be done within that link on the cultural development of the practice.

What would The Saturday make of it all ? Nothing....only the white culture is flawed in their eyes.

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garyg1412 Thursday, 20 Feb 2020 at 3:05pm

And the point of posting that gruesome shit on here is what?? Pupkin

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Pupkin Friday, 21 Feb 2020 at 12:37pm

Australia, not India or China? Triggered weird feminist bashing? Strange other country scurrying deflection?

The usual?

Reality, mainly, horrible Australian reality, I think, Gary.

That's where we find ourselves, yes?

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Pupkin Friday, 21 Feb 2020 at 1:18am

Speaking of reality, who would've thought that the hill the infamous right-wing cultural warriors of this country would die on would be the defence of kiddie fiddlers (using their own past parlance)?

Strange days, indeed, yes?

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Blowin Friday, 21 Feb 2020 at 12:48am

Why don’t you just fuck off back to the Auld Cuntry then if you have no love for the place or it’s people ?

It was immediately obvious what you were getting at with your grotesque post . (White ) Australians are all scum.

The chip on your shoulder is a mile wide . Another unloved import.

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Pupkin Friday, 21 Feb 2020 at 12:40pm

Quite the perception, blow in. However wrong headed.

Anyway, you seem to take some things in quite a personal way.

Why?

Bolt fan, say?

Or non-Liberal voter?

Going against the grain can be frustrating, I wager.

Perhaps more surfing is in order?

I trust you're a good bloke and will find a way.

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Pupkin Tuesday, 25 Feb 2020 at 10:11pm

Assange trial. Reportage from the public gallery.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/02/your-man-in-the-public-g...

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Fliplid Wednesday, 26 Feb 2020 at 7:33am

“Suddenly Lewis appeared to come to a decision. Yes, he said much more firmly. The 1989 Official Secrets Act had been introduced by the Thatcher Government after the Ponting Case, specifically to remove the public interest defence and to make unauthorised possession of an official secret a crime of strict liability – meaning no matter how you got it, publishing and even possessing made you guilty. Therefore, under the principle of dual criminality, Assange was liable for extradition whether or not he had aided and abetted Manning. Lewis then went on to add that any journalist and any publication that printed the official secret would therefore also be committing an offence, no matter how they had obtained it, and no matter if it did or did not name informants.
Lewis had thus just flat out contradicted his entire opening statement to the media stating that they need not worry as the Assange charges could never be applied to them. And he did so straight after the adjournment, immediately after his team had handed out copies of the argument he had now just completely contradicted.”

Similar parallels to what is happening here in Australia so Assange not likely, and it appears he isn’t, going to get any assistance from the Australian government.

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Pupkin Wednesday, 26 Feb 2020 at 6:30pm

Assange trial, day 2. Reportage from the public gallery.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/02/your-man-in-the-public-g...

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Pupkin Thursday, 27 Feb 2020 at 10:14pm

Assange trial, day 3. Reportage from the public gallery.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/02/your-man-in-the-public-g...

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Pupkin Friday, 28 Feb 2020 at 10:57am

Breaking. There is serious chatter amongst the cognoscenti, and the outward signs are there, that Turkey will soon formally declare war on Assad's Syria.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/27/world/middleeast/russia-turkey-syria-...

https://www.middleeasteye.net/news/turkey-syrian-refugees-free-passage-e...

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velocityjohnno Friday, 28 Feb 2020 at 12:03pm

Yep, watch for big geopol moves while the world is distracted & freaking out

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velocityjohnno Friday, 28 Feb 2020 at 12:06pm

Not sure whether to post here in Trigger Points or in the Daily Good news; this one was on the banner page. Check out the chart!

https://www.kron4.com/health/coronavirus/cdc-recommends-men-shave-their-...

"as if millions of beards suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly shaven off."

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Pops Friday, 28 Feb 2020 at 12:21pm

Kinda fake news that... having a beard doesn't make one more susceptible to the virus, but does make a P2 mask (or similar) not properly seal to one's face.
See also: masks are single use.

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stunet Friday, 28 Feb 2020 at 12:22pm

Who knew there were so many facial hairstyles?

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Blowin Friday, 28 Feb 2020 at 1:06pm

And that list is nowhere near complete, Stu.

Obvious exclusions :

The Suburban Hemingway

The Dandy barista

The Soyboy testosterone compensator

The bush hermit from the National Park

The Desert Rat

The recent breakup slide into slovenliness

The too stoned to own a mirror

The FIFO faux nom ( wants his coworkers to imagine he’s kicking with the Commancheros on his week off instead of getting bullied at the amateur footy club )

The Barside Snakehead ( Another FIFO specialty goatee https://www.expatden.com/thai/thai-language-thai-culture-old-snake-heads...)

Etc etc

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stunet Friday, 28 Feb 2020 at 1:19pm

And then you've got the asymmetrical options, such as the Zappa on the left, combined with the French Fork on the right.

So much untouched terrain.

So many ways to confuse the fuck out of people.

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Pops Friday, 28 Feb 2020 at 1:37pm

Then you've got these ... beauties...

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Pupkin Saturday, 29 Feb 2020 at 9:57am

Assange trial, day 4. Reportage from the public gallery.

https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2020/02/your-man-in-the-public-g...

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Pupkin Sunday, 1 Mar 2020 at 10:51am

An Australian's view and summation of the Assange proceedings so far.

https://medium.com/@caityjohnstone/this-assange-trial-is-a-self-contradi...

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Pupkin Tuesday, 3 Mar 2020 at 7:48pm
AndyM's picture
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AndyM Tuesday, 3 Mar 2020 at 11:04pm

Assange is in room 101 - the cage is on his head, the rats inches away from his face.

A brutal and corrupt mockery of justice.

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indo-dreaming Wednesday, 4 Mar 2020 at 9:37am

No sympathy for him he dug his own grave long ago just needs to face up to music, ridicules that he was allowed to stay in that embassy for so long at tax payers expense, should have been extradited to the places he is wanted to let courts decide his fate, the old saying, play silly games get silly prizes, fits perfectly..

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stunet Wednesday, 4 Mar 2020 at 10:00am

I haven't always agreed with his methods - a content dump devoid of all context isn't journalism and in many instances it was life-threatening to our allies - but it's not hard to see the connection between Assange's broader message and what's happening now in Australia.

At the more minor level is Morrisson's corrupt use of taxpayer funds to get himself back into office, the paper trail which now leads to his office, which he's now not denying but just shrugging off, seemingly scoffing at any higher power.

You can already hear the response from Morrisson lackeys to that abuse of power. Yeah well fuck you when that precedent is taken up by someone like Dutton.

More insidious is the slow creep against press freedoms and how they report on government. The LNP have slowly legislated against the right to know, sowing the seeds for any future government that isn't led by a gormless sock-puppet to concentrate power and act with impunity against those who'd speak out.

Fucking hilarious when, on one hand, you get the dolt-right up in arms at people disrespecting Western traditions, and on the other hand they cheer on their gang as they destroy said institutions.

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ojackojacko Wednesday, 4 Mar 2020 at 12:52pm

stu - hear hear