shirro

@shirro@aussie.zone

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⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Discussion Thread ⏰ Thursday 4 December 2025⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
I love Lego but the kids don’t like Star Wars. There’s also a monopoly thing somewhere I think but it’s hard to get excited over boomer IP even for an old bloke. But thanks for the suggestion.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Discussion Thread ⏰ Thursday 4 December 2025⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Thanks. ACMI is already on the list. Might do the markets depending on time but have a lot of things already. Have done the usuals in the past like scienceworks, NGV, museum, aquarium. All great but not this time.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Discussion Thread ⏰ Thursday 4 December 2025⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Is there any reasonably cheap and fun family stuff (around tween age) to do around Melbourne CBD over the weekend that might not show up on searches? Visiting from the sticks so the bar isn’t all that high for something to be interesting. Any franchise/activity I can do in Adelaide is automatically disqualified.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Discussion Thread ⏰ Thursday 4 December 2025⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Micron just announced they are dumping their Crucial retail brand to focus on supplying the AI circular financing bubble financial disaster. It is crazy. I hope our super funds aren’t tied up in this crap. We will end up poorer than North Korea.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨As of December 10th, You need to be sixteen to use Aussie.Zone⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
This account will be visiting from another geolocation which isn’t subject to Australian laws and will henceforth identify as a foreign bot trying to disrupt Australian society and promote disunity. I request to be labelled as a foreign asset, not subject to age authorisation. In small print add “works for gambling industry, owns coal mine, makes political donations, VIP, mates with Albo and the Pope”
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Right faction stages walkout at Labor conference over CFMEU motion⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
They should raise a motion to investigate the SDA and put them into administration.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨When your most obnoxious coworker starts up with their bullshit again⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨week⁩ ago⁩:
Some.peiple hate her but others vote for her. Nasty little old ladies who call them selves Christians and proud Australians sit in coffee shops saying “i’im not a racist but…that Pauline makes so much sense”. They don’t give a shit about anyone other than themselves. Nasty little people full of hate.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Ministerial Direction – Treatment of gender dysphoria in children and adolescents with hormone therapy [is banned again, already. Still with no consultation]⁩ ⁨⁨1⁩ ⁨month⁩ ago⁩:
Queensland and New Zealand. Two paradises on earth with shitty unicameral parliaments where a bunch of fuckwits can get voted in and destroy the place with no oversight.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Bitter fruit: the dark underside of the booming NSW blueberry industry⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
It is probably the whole country and the whole agricultural industry. Can’t really go anywhere in a rural town without seeing bus loads of islander labour everywhere. I don’t know what their pay and conditions are like. The stories you heard when the industry relied on backpackers weren’t great so I am not hopeful. I guess Robert Towns was way ahead of his time. You would think with all the underpayments it would be reflected in Colesworths prices.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨More sunscreens pulled from shelves over SPF concerns⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
I saw a youtube video once with a person who had used Asian sunscreens wondering what was going on with the Australian ones which felt a lot worse and didn’t seem to perform as well. She put a variety on her back in squares and went in the sun. Not my usual watch but reasonably decent citizen science stuff. I don’t take health advice from youtubers but clearly basic sunscreen testing has trivial testing requirements that don’t require a lot of expensive lab equipment. That we took assurances from for profit companies that paid for profit foreign testing laboratories at their word instead of do the most basic testing to verify them is kind of crazy. I think this happens too often in this country.

Obviously you need to be careful going down this line of reasoning. People who become experts reading their conspiratorial social media feed and listening to their alternative health practitioner aren’t in a position to be influencing complicated public health matters. But sunscreen you can ab test on yourself and while you won’t be able to tell how much of the harmful spectrum a particular product blocks, which is still important, you can definitely throw out the one that gets you sunburnt much faster. It seems odd in a country that used to pride itself on innovation that nobody was doing this.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨If America descends into fascism, does Australia just grin and bear it?⁩ ⁨⁨2⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
We put our balls firmly in their vice and they aren’t moving. If anything every Australian government, regardless of politics tries to tuck a bit more in every year with the standout concessions being digital sovereignty which is truly fucked and about to get much worse. It isn’t just the military/intelligence stuff. They have massive investment here and dominate financial and digital services. Probably the best we can hope for is to be neutral where we can along with a bit of malicious compliance.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨ABC Mediawatch: possible link between new social media online age requirements and appeasing the gambling industry⁩ ⁨⁨4⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
This is the problem with any well meaning government legislation.

At it’s core I think regulating social media companies is fine as these foreign multinationals are effectively unregulated. Unregulated pursuit of profit can have harmful effects on individuals and the community and it is totally appropriate to legislate where there is a well demonstrated public interest.

As soon as you start down the path of regulation it presents an opportunity for everyone else to push their agenda. I suspect tech companies outside of social media see these laws as a chance to damage industry competitors if they can get their competitors products classified as social media. Tech vendors want a piece of age verification services. Media and advertising is looking to push their interests. It makes sense for the gambling industry to be throwing money and influence around as well.

Any support the legislation had from people hoping for the best will be buried the moment the gambling lobby is seen to be benefiting.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Petition: Bring the Affinity Suite to Linux - #AffinityOnLinux⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
An additional benefit is DaVinci Resolve is Aussie owned (Blackmagic Design from Melbourne Australia) which is great for people outside the US looking to decrease their dependence on US owned products and services.

I am more than happy with kdenlive for my video editing needs but I don’t edit video professionally.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Petition: Bring the Affinity Suite to Linux - #AffinityOnLinux⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Yep. This is a waste of time. Canva are just another US VC backed SaaS company despite their Australian origins. An affinity suite port would have been interesting under the previous UK ownership.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Rightwing lobby group Advance says it makes ‘no apology’ for support given to anti-Greens groups⁩ ⁨⁨7⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Just follow the money. Don’t even need to do that, its very obvious which industry group benefits from attacking the Greens. It is the same companies, majority foreign owned who aren’t paying their fair share of taxes.

It is hard to understand how anyone would fall for these corporate propaganda campaigns but then you think about the number of phone and internet scams and see all the fraud and weird cults around and I guess you just have to influence enough people to shift the goal posts. They must be spending a fortune per vote. Must be nice to have a licence to steal our countries wealth and not give anything back.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Tariffs on 'incredibly important' ally Australia branded 'insulting' in fiery US Senate hearing⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Need to seriously look at the taxes paid by companies with high foreign ownership, specifically American. News Corp. Tech companies. Mining companies. So much wealth being extracted from our country and so much foreign influence on our politics with fuck all to show for it for the people who live here.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Trump hits pause on reciprocal tariffs⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
I live in a civilized country under the rule of law so I won’t advocate violence here. But factually and historically countries have found popular solutions to problems like this in the past that involved mobs with sharp pointy things.

This is the furthest thing from responsible government I can imagine. Even the craziest authoritarian leaders usually commit to something then do it. Lets kill all the sparrows. Or lets shoot all the people wearing glasses. This is fucking crazy. It looks more like stock market manipulation than economic policy. The uncertainty alone has to be costing billions in productivity as businesses pause investments, orders, lay off employees etc.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Microsoft has created an AI-generated version of Quake⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Using infinite energy to employ infinite monkeys to recreate the work of one Elizabethan playwright is not a business plan.

Stop using windows, office and azure and this company and their bullshit go away.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨What movies have you watched this week?⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:

a lot less CGI than I was expecting.

Less CGI is just invisible CGI Hollywood consistently lies about the amount of visual effects used. If it is done well, as it mostly is in a movie like this, it isn’t too distracting.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Clothing retailer Jeanswest collapses, with 90 stores to close and hundreds of jobs lost⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Also there is a fair amount of ignorance. Australian unions have worked with the ALP for decades to ensure entitlements for Australian workers in these circumstances and Labor passed the FEG legislation.

We get it, the mining lobby and billionaires are a corrupting influence on democracy including the ALP. The ALP aren’t left enough, aren’t proactive enough, whatever. But also the ALP has passed a lot of legislation that benefits working Australians and unsurprisingly you hear fuck all about it from MSM or people pushing minor parties and independents.

When these companies can’t pay entitlements it isn’t the Liberal party, Greens or independents that legislated to ensure workers aren’t going to be completely fucked.

Credit where its due.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Coalition will not support Labor’s budget tax cuts, Angus Taylor says⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Our voting system gives us the freedom to do that and it would be stupid not to take advantage of it. Voting for independent or minors is a good thing as long as you also preference the parties that will actually get elected sensibly. It is important to recognize that while the mining industry can buy just about anyone, there are plenty of important things for average people that the mining companies don’t give a shit about which can make a huge difference.

These industry groups are powerful, like drug cartels, the gambling industry or other organised crime. You get some idealistic independent voted in with a balance of power and these guys can make them an offer too good to ignore. You can be set for life with a post political job. They can give jobs to family. They can fund your campaign. And that is all the stuff in public. You look at some of the shit they do overseas and its clearly an ethics free zone.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Coalition will not support Labor’s budget tax cuts, Angus Taylor says⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
He is a good communicator. Much better presentation than West and much prefer his style to FJ.

Unfortunately with the scale of money and influence from these mostly foreign owned companies state Labor governments are as compromised as the Libs when it comes legislating on behalf of these companies, not just in WA. I think any political party is going to face the same problems and it really fucks with democracy. There are huge differences in policy between parties and voting should make a real difference. We have a pretty fair electoral system too. But its a joke if the industry can buy whoever is in government or kick them out. It is incredibly frustrating.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Porn on Spotify Is Infiltrating the Platform’s Top Podcast Charts⁩ ⁨⁨8⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
The tech sector has a massive diversity problem. Lots of young men raised with one hand on their dick watching porn while reading libertarian propaganda. I get why vulture capitalists want naive, manipulable children running their businesses but I wish real adults were in charge. Fortunately better alternatives exist to all these platforms.

As a older man and father I think these people are pathetic little children and I avoid shitty social media in my house and around my family. Unfortunately they are still having a devastating impact on society.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨fuck this asshole⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
I am not the enemy and I am genuinely sorry for your hardship (though not nearly as much as for people born into poverty, war and genocide in far lass fortunate countries)

Americans trying to justify themselves on social media seems like a waste of energy and focus and its probably not good for mental health. Outside opinion that contradicts the narratives we have in our heads is important. My opinion might be wrong but its a genuine observation. My very real fear is we can’t rely on US citizens to fight for their democracy anymore and that has global implications for the world and my children’s future. Please prove me wrong. I love to learn new things. The BLM protests were huge but perhaps they turned from grass roots outrage into a social media phenomenon instead of a real effective political movement.

Protecting our kids is an issue that cuts across all beliefs, races, classes to the heart of our humanity, the most basic goodness that unites our species. I think the turning point was Columbine, 1999. I think that is when things broke down. Not the bad guys on 9/11, not Putin election interference or MAGA. That is the issue that would have really outraged most countries. Millions on the streets protesting. Politicians of all parties scrambling to act. The shootings kept getting worse every year and it was swept under the carpet. More than the homelessness, wealth inequality, healthcare, that makes me worry a lot for your future and by extension the rest of us. We are definitely drifting to the right here and are a worse society for but for all our similarities and weaknesses that is still the the most fundamental issue that separates your politics and society from ours which is why I think we can never really be in your situation.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨fuck this asshole⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
And if people think they are alone and have no power perhaps consider reading books about Abolishionists, Underground Railroad, Suffragettes, Labour Unions, Socialists, the Civil Rights Movement, Anti-war protests, Environmentalists and all the other ordinary people who made a fucking effort and delivered real improvements to our lives while the thoughts and prayers brigade wasted the last decade taking selfies and lamenting their disenfranchisement on social media. The template is there. Just read a fucking book.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨fuck this asshole⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Sorry, but I think you and those like you are deflecting. I still see posts from Americans saying this wasn’t us. We are nice people. We have no power. It is crazy. Why are you even online telling us this? You think we blame you personally?

I live in the other side of the planet. If I am going to help anyone its going to be some poor unfortunate struggling with poverty, war and genocide imposed on them.

Not delusional people from the richest country on earth who had everything and lack the will to influence their own fate.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨fuck this asshole⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Thankfully I live in a rich liberal democracy where over 90% vote and we still have a fairly decent though far from perfect society.

I can be outraged by what Americans let happen to their country because I’m human and a parent but I can’t help and shouldn’t help. American society needs to find its own solutions, in its own time and on terms it can live with.

I can empathize with a family in Palestine or Ukraine fighting for survival but it would be disgusting for me to tell them how to fight and force my own ignorant opinions onto them.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨fuck this asshole⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
Exactly. In Ukraine parents fight and die so their 4 year old will have a country to return to. In the US they let their souls die instead and leave their kids to fight their own battles.

You are a nation of Uvalde cops.

Donevote me. Argue. In your hearts you all know it is true. You are broken. You were clearly broken since at least the 90s when you met Columbine with platitudes instead of tens of millions of mothers on the streets screaming.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨fuck this asshole⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
They won’t. They couldn’t even get upset over kids being massacred every week in their schools. They are a broken people. Have been for decades. Their military.and economy didn’t fail. Their moral fiber did. They substituted thoughts and prayers and other virtue signalling for community organisation and direct action.

If you think I am wrong then don’t reply. Go outside and prove it. Nobody gives a shit what people write in social media. It means nothing.
⁨Comment⁩ on ⁨Why isn't the Albanese government boasting about falling inflation?⁩ ⁨⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago⁩:
I don’t think the ALP or RBA have done a bad job at all and I think the ALP deserve another term. But it is sensible not to make a big deal about the economy or they risk looking arrogant and out of touch.

While inflation may have slowed to a stop, many incomes are a long way from catching up. Cost of living pressures are still a huge deal for many people. There are certainly some people who have bounced back well and are taking their holidays and spending but they probably aren’t the ones who are going to punish the ALP in the burbs.