eureka
@eureka@aussie.zone
- Comment on A survey found 1 in 6 men admit sexual feelings for children. So is paedophilia increasing? (2023, linked study is worth a read). 2 days ago:
Given the age of consent is 16
Generally true for most states, a couple are 17 and there are various special cases. I didn’t realise how different it is between states and about authority rules (e.g. in some states, a person has a higher AoC for a guardian or teacher).
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent_in_Oceania#A…
I also didn’t know how recently some states passed anti-homosexuality laws, esp Tasmania.
- Comment on I was punched in the face by NSW Police, as Chris Minns' anti-protest laws crack down on Palestine dissent 3 days ago:
Like Hannah said, this violence against protesters isn’t unique and their connections and platform are a privilege that other protesters don’t have, so other victims are more easily brushed under the table.
- Comment on Australia tests new long-range missile capable of hitting targets 500km away 4 days ago:
500km isn’t even from Sydney to Melbourne. Couldn’t even launch them at Pine Gap.
- Comment on Greens and Coalition bristle against Labor’s changes to the standing orders [to allow kicking out MPs for longer and to avoid recording the names of MPs who on some motions] 6 days ago:
Yeah, astroturf (both political and commercial marketing) is common but at least it’s a lower barrier of entry to get heard, more grassroots can spring up.
- Comment on Greens and Coalition bristle against Labor’s changes to the standing orders [to allow kicking out MPs for longer and to avoid recording the names of MPs who on some motions] 6 days ago:
Cheers mate!
- Comment on Decoding a voter’s poor handwriting is subjective – let’s enlist AI to help with the Bradfield recount | Simon Jackman 1 week ago:
There’s an interesting discussion about whether forcing people who don’t want to vote into voting is a good thing.
I definitely think our mandatory voting system has some great benefits, especially that it makes voter suppression far more difficult. But at the end if the day, I’ve seen electors who couldn’t name two federal PM candidates or the party policies of the two main parties. What is the benefit of forcing such people into voting? They clearly don’t have an interest in making the correct decision for themselves or our state. So it simply makes the election less effective, turning it more into a gimmicky popularity spectacle than a decision making process.
- Comment on Greens and Coalition bristle against Labor’s changes to the standing orders [to allow kicking out MPs for longer and to avoid recording the names of MPs who on some motions] 1 week ago:
fr why are you becoming a politician in Aus if you just hate democracy and transparency
People who care about those things don’t get the support of mass media major shareholders, huge financial backers, and other corporate interests that have the power to more easily sway elections.
The bottom line is our electoral system is dominated by people who don’t benefit from democracy or transparency. Bad politicians aren’t an outlier or corruption, but the system working as it’s been built to.
- Comment on Bob Katter refuses to swear oath to King Charles 1 week ago:
I’m being sincere, they compared it to a similar event to contrast the reaction.
- Comment on Australian's criminal history went viral after annoying the wrong repair guy 1 week ago:
But I just kinda feel like “no doxxing”
Who are you quoting?
[article] For his part, Louis Rossmann denies that his videos about Better Way Electronics involved doxxing. He says any information he shared was all publicly available, including the number provided on the company’s website for customer service enquiries.
FWIW, I’m pretty sure this is still doxxing.
- Comment on Bob Katter refuses to swear oath to King Charles 1 week ago:
One of the few positions where I can agree with them. Anyone who claims to represent me in government shouldn’t be swearing allegiance of a monarch.
The small protest did not disrupt proceedings, as it did when Victorian senator Lidia Thorpe gave the oath in 2022.
I’m glad the author added this line.
- Comment on Tony Abbott and News Corp wanted to hand our sovereignty to China — so spare us the warmongering 1 week ago:
China for me, not for thee!
- Comment on Decoding a voter’s poor handwriting is subjective – let’s enlist AI to help with the Bradfield recount | Simon Jackman 1 week ago:
A test when you’re 18 that lasts the rest of your life? […]
Good criticism, I didn’t think that part through. Once every 3 or 4 years is probably to often. Somewhere in the middle would be ideal.
And the bottom line is that many people will just be in a hurry, stressed or tired. But I hope that this kind of thing would improve instinct and build habits that would reduce the impact of those inevitable factors.
And what happens if they can’t pass? Are they barred from voting?
Try again until they pass. Not registered until they pass. The test allows all the assistance that one would receive in a polling centre.
What’s the point of letting someone in the polling booth if they can’t fill out the ballot in ideal conditions? It’s not empowering them, it’s just compromising the democratic process.
That’s risky for both the reason of discrimination
I claim that if someone is unable to pass this test, their vote wouldn’t have counted anyway. It’s only as discriminatory as the election itself is.
Unless these people literally didn’t make it to year 6
That, and plenty of other edge cases too. There are a surprising amount of people who made it through school and remained illiterate or innumerate (I can’t easily find stats).
That doesn’t mean they will […] always want to.
It’s perfectly valid to nullify your vote. What disturbs me is how many people seem to unintentionally cast an invalid vote despite wanting to vote. It points me to suspect a systematic issue beyond just apathy.
- Comment on Decoding a voter’s poor handwriting is subjective – let’s enlist AI to help with the Bradfield recount | Simon Jackman 1 week ago:
Thanks for that little extra in the title.
Machine learning (well, more specifically, the marketing term “AI”) has a bad reputation. It’s a tool. And we’re so used to seeing that tool wildly abused that it’s hard not to have an instinctual reaction whenever it appears in the media. But recognising writing and text is one of the legitimately reasonable uses of the tool, so long as it’s done properly and not misunderstood as an objective replacement for humans - it may have better accuracy that a typical person but still it’s not objective and its training data will inevitably have limitations.
Rather, the court is being asked to determine more mundane questions. Is that 1 actually a 7; is that 6 an 8? and so on.
It consistently amazes me on the level of inability people have when it comes to simple tasks like filling in a ballot.
Now, I understand that I have advantages that not everyone has, like over a decade of local school experience filling exams, so I shouldn’t consider what’s natural and obvious to me to be universal expected knowledge. But at some point, the government and AEC should just have a mandatory 30 minute voting test when you enroll, so you have no excuse not to know how to print numbers clearly (hell, teach us about
7and other good habits), so you know how to read simple English voting instructions or know how to ask for assistance if you’re unable for any reason. - Comment on [Satire] C’mon Aussie! Nation gets around our Rupert after Trump sues him for defamation 1 week ago:
^this, but two land mines
- Comment on To defend our democracy, PM must disavow and abandon Segal report | Richard Flanagan 1 week ago:
10 senate seats and 12% of the vote is a bit more than a handful mate. My primary vote usually goes to parties around 0.1% before ending up at the Greens. Greens actually have some institutional platform and power, and the two main parties are no longer a majority of primary votes.
The electoral change has been slow, and too slow to have faith in if we want to save the planet (like you said, radical politics is needed), but it’s real and indicative.
- Comment on What happened to the Liberal party of Menzies? They became obsessed with virtue signalling 2 weeks ago:
Jeez, “we have to meet the people where they are”. Basically admitting they’re outsiders.
- Comment on So, will News Corp, Seven and other platforms for neo-Nazis and promoters of antisemitic theories be censored? 2 weeks ago:
What part of the article is this responding to?
Having been involved in the Palestinian movement, I’m well-aware of how censorship has been abused for political ends (such as attempts to falsely conflate critique of the Zionist Regime and its ongoing genocide project with ‘antisemitism’). I also support critiques of all the religions you listed. So I understand how these anti-bigotry laws could theoretically be abused to curb legitimate critique of religions, your concerns about that are reasonable and I agree that these laws are a crappy approach.
However, it’s clear that this article is addressing racial bigotry (as opposed to religious critique) and nonsense neo-Nazi conspiracy theories which are not based in evidence. These people don’t really care if an Yemeni immigrant is Muslim or not. Nazism doesn’t care if a person with Jewish ancestry believes in Judaism. To the neo-Nazi and other racial bigots, these people could be atheist and it would make no difference. But mainstream society still use the words antisemitic and Islamophobia to describe that bigotry, despite neither of those terms being accurate.
- Comment on Trump picks Sydney-born 'alpha male' influencer as ambassador to Malaysia 2 weeks ago:
Good choice, no point in deleting it. This one doesn’t need it, but sometimes I add an edit to my comment if I’ve been corrected deeper into the replies.
- Comment on Trump picks Sydney-born 'alpha male' influencer as ambassador to Malaysia 2 weeks ago:
Normally I wouldn’t judge or care about such things, but when a grifter self-styles themselves as a “thought leader”, “alpha male” or whatever other ridiculous nonsense, it’s open season.
- Comment on Trump picks Sydney-born 'alpha male' influencer as ambassador to Malaysia 2 weeks ago:
The US especially have a reputation for sending ignorant people to be ambassadors as political favours.
Just checking, I came across an article published a couple of days ago about Dr. Anjani Sinha, President Trump’s pick for U.S. ambassador to Singapore, being “grilled” (quoting article) in the senate. So you might have been reading about a different senator (and I don’t mean that to say “haha wrong” but rather “this happens a lot”)
- Comment on REVEALED: AUSTRALIA HAS EXPORTED F-35 FIGHTER JET PARTS DIRECTLY TO ISRAEL - Declassified Australia 2 weeks ago:
Speaking of which, there’s a protest against various F-35 component manufacturing companies starting about now in Sydney:
- Comment on adult porn is gross 3 weeks ago:
That’s absolutely it. It’s not just hypocrisy either, scum like that don’t want children to be educated and participate the anti-sex-ed movement.
- Comment on adult porn is gross 3 weeks ago:
My school did mention that sending nudes are effectively producing and possessing illegal pornography. A few people in the class looked surprised and proceeded to delete pictures they or their partners had sent.
- Comment on Discussion Thread 🦕 Tuesday 8 July 2025 3 weeks ago:
Gotta love the old bus replacement switcharoo.
- Comment on NSW government reaches agreement with rail Union. 92% of workers vote to accept 12% payrise over 3 years. 3 weeks ago:
Under the agreement workers will get a 12 per cent pay rise over three years plus back pay, they will also see an improvement to their conditions and technological advances.
Important to remember these negotiation aren’t just about the pay.
- Comment on Electric vehicle myths: almost half of Australians wrongly believe EVs are more likely to catch fire, survey shows 4 weeks ago:
I ask out of ignorance: is there much difference to how quick the ignition tends to be? I’ve seen lithium battery explosions from laptops but fee (non-Hollywood) car explosions.
- Comment on U.K. to Ban Palestine Action Group as Terrorist Organization 5 weeks ago:
Not surprising, but dissapointing. They’ve chosen the side of weapons manufacturing.
- Comment on Exclusive: data reveals pro-Israel bias in ABC coverage since October 7 5 weeks ago:
It’s good to be hesitant about -isms and racism doesn’t explain the whole story (imperialism has economic and therefore political implications) but it’s absolutely an aspect at play.
Growing up, I only really remember SBS talking about the Middle East bombings most years unless something truly exceptional happened. Not to trivialise it in any way, but when the Ukraine invasion happened, the reactions of a lot of Australians around me really showed that wars are far more important when White peoples are involved, despite being on the other side of the world, further away. Barely a peep about New Caledonia or West Papua. And to be fair, when I say “racism” I’m also talking about a casual environment of it, not any conscious discrimination. Most of Colonial Australia has a real and significant social link to Europe and the US, we see it as more relevant to our own situation than South East Asian countries, for example.
But, as you mentioned, there’s also the Islamophobia and overt racism. There’s absolutely an assumption or framing that this is a religious conflict and the evil Muslims want to kill those in the Zionist Regime simply because of “uncivilized” religious differences.
- Comment on 9News US Correspondent Lauren Tomasi hit by rubber bullet during Los Angeles protests 1 month ago:
He thought it’d be cool, so he did it.
Don’t get me wrong, they do think it’s funny and laugh about it, but this is not just a prank or joke. It’s intentionally terrorising people who bring cameras to expose their actions. We saw the same targeting of the press during BLM.
- Comment on 9News US Correspondent Lauren Tomasi hit by rubber bullet during Los Angeles protests 1 month ago:
So blatant that an aussie satire article called that out.
