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  I mean, I don't particularly care, being 100% sport-indifferent, but... The NRL didn't put an offer to Tones and I until September 5. It's not like they didn't know when the grand final was going to be. Why did they leave it that long to approach someone to attend? Did they only give "international pop star Teddy Swims" a month's notice? Why was so little lead-time set aside? And - as seems likely to me - was Tones and I a fallback choice after their first prefe...

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  RE: https://mastodon.social/@mattsheffield/117270584730240237 Sheeran may claim that he's just not taking sides. But when you give into censorship, you _are_ taking a side.

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  The health system would have better outcomes, for less cost, if _all_ the rebates were taken away and redirected to public health. Private health insurance in Australia is a scam. Not as bad as a scam as it is in the US, but still a scam anyway. Unfortunately, it's a scam that we can't afford to buy into. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-08-30/private-health-insurance-rebates-older-regional-australians/107083218

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  How about we bring the refugees back to Australia, house them in the community, and give them an allowance of $1m a year? We'll save $8m a year per person. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jul/20/nauru-asylum-seeker-living-conditions-food-allowance-offshore-processing

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  RE: https://mastodon.social/@fesshole/116554963830105399 Damn, now I have a new life goal.

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  Stay behind the yellow lines, kids…. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-12/year-7-boy-trapped-under-train-was-caught-by-bag-school-says/106669502?utm_source=abc_news_app&utm_medium=content_shared&utm_campaign=abc_news_app&utm_content=other

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  Plans for the Trump Tower on the Gold Coast scrapped. 100% as predicted. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/live/2026/may/13/budget-2026-live-updates-reaction-jim-chalmers-tim-wilson-cost-of-living-capital-gains-negative-gearing-housing-tax-ntwnfb?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-6a03baf58f088307798708d3#block-6a03baf58f088307798708d3

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  Has the ALP killed "rentvesting" - the practice of living in a rental home whilst owning (and presumably renting out) another property? God, I hope so. I expect not though. The essence of the housing crisis is that housing is seen as an investment - a way to make money. The solution to the housing crisis is to reduce the amount of money that can be made, thus chasing off the ones who want to "buy low/sell high". We need to keep the rate of housing value incr...

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  The Coalition will never make tax brackets index based to inflation. Nor will the ALP. 1. It's too easy a way to get a bit more revenue, then reset it when they need to announce a tax cut. The political advantage for being able to deliver tax cuts that are just bracket adjustments are too high. That alone will ensure it never happens. Which is good, because it's a bad idea. 2. Indexing to CPI won't solve the problem. CPI is uneven - inflation at the low end of income te...

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  It says a lot that the most unbelievable aspect of "Men in Black", to a modern audience, is the idea of a United States that is welcoming to refugee aliens.

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  RE: https://follow.ethanmarcotte.com/@beep/116574876011931316 The lesson here is: Get efficiency and productivity gains _and then_ do layoffs, once the gains are realised. Or better yet, find something else for your newly productive workforce to do that brings in even more money - very few companies are that short of opportunities. Doing the layoffs on the speculation that you might get benefits elsewhere - well, that's not the smart thing,

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  RE: https://universeodon.com/@jaykuo/116439869594023334 You know what they say - if you can't spot the idiot in the room...

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  RE: https://eigenmagic.net/@NewtonMark/116441914455373558 There is nothing inherently wrong in using AI (or any unreliable system) to help flag potential offenders. There is everything inherently wrong with having the unreliable system send out fines without a review process. Note: this would also be true if the photos were reviewed by a person and not double-checked by another. (Also: the fact that only 4% of fines are challenged is _not_ an indication that they are 96% accurate... and if t...

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  RE: https://dice.camp/@johnzajac/116460231400459338 Meh. Western governments have never had the credibility of their beliefs. The US in particular has long taken a delight in overthrowing democratic governments just because the party that was voted in was opposed to the US. Usually because of overt US interference. Literally the only time in my life that I can think of that Western governments acted according to their stated beliefs was the sanctions against South Africa for apartheid. And ev...

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  This needs a cartoon. Something like Kanye West at the gates to the United Kingdom, with a sign above it saying: ABANDON ALL HOPE, YE. YOU WON'T ENTER HERE https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-08/kanye-blocked-from-entering-uk/106540056

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  I don't know what it is with me today, but on three separate occasions this morning, I've walked into my living room and gone to turn the lights off. Which is a bit difficult as the light is coming from the skylight which we installed 17 years ago.

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  "That is the problem of a rogue state." Yep. A problem with a rogue state is that they decide to do things like attack another country, killing the head of state, and then expect no response. Israel and the US are the rogue states in this story. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-04-11/israel-ambassador-says-strait-of-hormuz-closure-was-not-expected/106551156

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  RE: https://sfba.social/@MLNow/116381837796388517 Nobody wants to be remembered as the person who tried to burn down a billionaire's house and failed...

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  RE: https://vmst.io/@jalefkowit/116382380887017620 They'll probably send it to Australia instead of one of the Virginia-class subs they can't afford to supply...

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  RE: https://aus.social/@Qldaah/116379931682820194 Dutton is a great investment advisor. As long as you steer away from anything he recommends, you won’t go wrong.

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  Look, I'm not saying that people filling up and driving off without paying is a good thing. But - from the article - the typical person filling up their car spends about $83 on it. Someone doing a runner would probably be a bit more - say, $100. In South Australia, if the offenders came into the store and shoplifted $100 worth of goods, the police wouldn't even take the call unless you'd apprehended them in the act. It's just not worth their time for that amount...

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  RE: https://twit.social/@twitnews/116265534712177438 Hey, I thought they'd have achieved AGI when they'd made $100bn. Guess they aren't planning to make $100bn.

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  Wow. TACO Tuesday came early this week. (Context: Trump backed down on threats to destroy Iranian power plants) https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/mar/23/middle-east-crisis-live-iea-chief-says-iran-war-energy-crunch-worse-than-1970s-oil-crises-and-ukraine-war-combined?CMP=share_btn_url&page=with%3Ablock-69c11f3c8f081668c1c41c77#block-69c11f3c8f081668c1c41c77

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  Can you imagine how shallow do you need to be to look at the disaster that occured at LaGuardia and say that it reminds you of the importance of seatbelts? Now imagine that person is the one ultimately responsible for the accident, due to the fact that it was caused by the understaffing of the air traffic control system. https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c78rdze8zvjo

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  RE: https://mamot.fr/@Khrys/116286245381869095 The real question is was the library _actually_ compromised, or did somebody's AI coding tool decided that putting in malware was a predictable thing to do? Also, the review and governance of that repo is shit. This wasn't something snuck in by stealth. The commit message for the intrusion was literally the hacker equivalent of graffiti tagging. Even the most basic of pre-release reviews would have spotted it.

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  RE: https://vis.social/@bleeptrack/116263264409396503 Fighting for peace. Fucking for virginity. Vibe coding for AI Security

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  In the last 80 years, the US has won exactly one ground war – the first Gulf War. Oddly, it was the one that had a clearly defined objective ("get Iraq out of Kuwait"), and which didn't succumb to scope creep. Korea: draw. Vietnam: lost GW 1: win Afghanistan: Lost GW 2: draw, at best. This does not bode well for the chances of an American invasion of Iran... The US is really good at winning every battle but losing the war.

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  Petrol prices go up, causing inflation. RBA hikes rates, even though that will have no impact on petrol prices. Government "injects money" by lowering the fuel excise, offsetting (part of) the price increase. This apparently is inflationary (even though it actually lower prices), and will cause the RBA to hike rates. Is it possible that economists are stupid? Without arguing the merits of lowering the fuel excise, this isn't inflationary. It's not putting ext...

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  Maybe it's just me, but surely the Libs could do a better job of vetting their candidates _before_ they get selected? https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/mar/30/moira-deeming-dinesh-gourisetty-sex-offender-character-reference-victorian-liberals-ntwnfb

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  Except that's not the best way to do it. Here's a better way. 1. Test first. If the tests don't pass with your own changes, you've stuffed up. Make sure you didn't stuff up before you try to share. Besides, you've been doing this as you made the changes, right? 2. Push. If you're not up-to-date, it won't work. If it works, start a new bit of work. 3. If you're not up-to-date, pull. 4. Review what's changed and s...