Tau
@Tau@aussie.zone
- Comment on Researchers asked AI to show a typical Australian dad: he was white and had an iguana 1 week ago:
I guess you’re a prime example of someone looking to be offended then, because I really haven’t said anything racist.
- Comment on Researchers asked AI to show a typical Australian dad: he was white and had an iguana 1 week ago:
Turns out that when you go out hunting for things to be offended by you tend to find them.
The "Aboriginal Australian’s house’ one for example was clearly going to be a no-win situation regardless of the output - if the model returned the same house as the ‘Australian’s house’ image they’d be writing instead about how offensive it was to ignore traditional culture.
- Comment on Shoring up Australia's remaining industry an investment rather than bailout 3 weeks ago:
“Every closure of a manufacturing facility is a loss of sovereign capability and compromises Australia’s ability to build a more complex and dynamic knowledge-driven economy.”
I agree with this sentiment, I don’t think it is a good idea long term to lose manufacturing capability and knowledge. I would however prefer that a stake in the company is transferred to the government when they have to spend large sums bailing out a facility due to it being in the national interest to do so.
- Submitted 3 weeks ago to australia@aussie.zone | 3 comments
- Comment on Chinwag's age verification process 3 weeks ago:
This is unironically a good method.
Agreed. I think the age verification laws are a rubbish idea but if one has to comply with them this is actually one of the better options for doing so - particularly for smaller sites. Something similar is worth considering as an option for this site when necessary as it’s both something I’d actually consider doing (unlike a licence photo) and does not set the admins up for potential issues regarding having to store sensitive personal information.
- Comment on Supersized stick insect discovered in high-altitude trees in Australia 3 weeks ago:
Nah, just hand me that long stick there”
…and that’s when they found the really big stick insect.
- Comment on Legislation to reduce student loan debt by 20% passes Parliament 4 weeks ago:
Would have been nice a couple of years ago before I paid off the last of mine, but I guess one can’t have everything…
- Submitted 4 weeks ago to australia@aussie.zone | 2 comments
- Comment on Wood heater pollution is a silent killer. Here's where the smoke is worst 4 weeks ago:
That was buying firewood permits off NSW Forestry in the broader region around Canberra, which I looked and they’re still doing at $16 per tonne (albeit only in the further away forests at this point). They give areas you can pick firewood from after logging operations, you’re just not allowed to fell trees. You do have to be able to go out and saw it then haul it back yourself. If you’ve got a current collection area near you it’s a very cost effective method, even if you have to drive a fair way it still works out cheaper than buying it elsewhere.
- Comment on Wood heater pollution is a silent killer. Here's where the smoke is worst 4 weeks ago:
Always did through my childhood and continued on that way, would do so again if I had a place with a fire. We’d saw into rounds when collecting and load them up then split and stack at home.
Plenty of people do buy pre split wood here though, I’d expect it’s the source for the majority. Not everyone has the ability, inclination, or the equipment to go out and get firewood and it gets hard to find sources to collect wood in the bigger cities.
- Comment on Wood heater pollution is a silent killer. Here's where the smoke is worst 4 weeks ago:
Fires are horrible.
They’re about the best feeling source of heat around, so not horrible.
Very difficult to controll the heat output
It’s not particularly difficult to control the heat output, it’s just a matter of how you load it and how much air you let in. They don’t do well for extremely low heat output, but at that sort of cold just put on a jumper instead.
they also are very costly to run
Used to cost about $20 a tonne for wood a few years back when I was in a place with a fire, plus maybe another $50 per tonne in fuel for the ute and saws to gather it (so ~$70 a tonne total). Was a hell of a lot cheaper than gas and a lot cheaper than electricity.
require a lot of maintenance
It’s just popping up onto the roof once a year and taking ash out every week or so, I never found it a big deal.
require a lot of space to store the wood
This I’ll grant you, given how tiny modern yards are. You need a square metre or two for the wood and another couple for room to split it - not much in a traditional suburban backyard but it’s noticeable in newer blocks where you have bugger all room around the house.
- Comment on New electric bike license scheme to be tested on school-aged riders 5 weeks ago:
In a world where kids are already not getting enough outside time and exercise making it harder for them to ride to school seems a poor idea.
If it’s becoming a problem they should be doing in person lessons on how to ride a bike and basic road manners rather than a online quiz that nobody is going to pay any attention to. Pity in person lessons have been made harder by everyone having to be so incredibly risk averse these days. For example there was that bit in WA recently where schools got told they couldn’t use bikes without chain guards (i.e. most bikes) because someone managed to hurt themselves.
- Comment on Illicit tobacco is 'out in the open' but what is the best way to deal with it? 5 weeks ago:
If it’s black market, it’s still more of a hassle to buy.
Out of the three smokers I regularly work with two of them have found shops that sell black market tailormades and the other buys pouches off some internet site which is almost certainly also dodging tax. It doesn’t seem like they’re having any hassles finding and buying these things and with black market apparently being about half the price of cheap legit cigarettes you’d have to be pretty firm on your principles to take the financial hit.
- Comment on Australians, especially men, are reading less than ever before 1 month ago:
You’re certainly right that the way I did it in school felt rather performative and didn’t leave me with positive impressions of the books I had not read previously. I’m not going to say there’s no purpose in trying to understand the meanings/symbolism in a work but it’s not going to make a good impression on someone if that’s their first introduction to the book - or worse their introduction to reading books in general.
- Comment on Australians, especially men, are reading less than ever before 1 month ago:
I’ve no substantiation for these guesses but one thing that comes to mind is that boys were more likely to get into computers in the early eras of tech and that time sink meant they were less likely to build the habit of reading. TV is another possibility, Gen X was the first to grow up with TVs being widespread and boys probably spent more time on that.
- Comment on Australians, especially men, are reading less than ever before 1 month ago:
That’s a pretty concerning trend IMO, particularly when the article mentions 44% of Australians have issues with literacy.
- Submitted 1 month ago to australia@aussie.zone | 32 comments
- Comment on Wagga Wagga man charged with displaying Nazi symbols over shopfront poster 1 month ago:
If nothing else it makes for a good example of why one should be wary of laws aimed at hate speech. You can’t rely on any ambiguity within them being interpreted with common sense, particularly if you’ve annoyed someone in a position of power.
- Comment on Post-apocalypse Australia is the setting for hotly anticipated video game - Death Stranding 2 1 month ago:
I like the callout to On the Beach, fits well with a post apocalyptic Australian game (it’s a good book, albeit not one you want to read if you’re already feeling down).
- Comment on TIL about Jervis Bay Territory 1 month ago:
It’s not a fee for the beaches per se but the fee for entering the national park which covers the territory (though it is in effect paying to see beaches as that’s the main reason to visit).
- Comment on TIL about Jervis Bay Territory 1 month ago:
There’s also basically no reason to ever go there unless you’re in or supporting the military bases located there.
It does have some rather pretty beaches, best to plan on checking out all that’s there to make it feel worthwhile as they sting you $20 to see them.
- Comment on Australia’s first lab-grown meat will be on menus within weeks 2 months ago:
Good to see some progress there, it’s not going to make a huge difference at this stage but if it helps progress a more ethical meat option it will be useful in the long run.
- Comment on Aukus will cost Australia $368bn. What if there was a better, cheaper defence strategy? 2 months ago:
Although I can’t imagine an Internal Combusion Engine sub being at all stealthy
Diesel electrics can be very stealthy, with the potential to be even more so than nuclear subs when trying to hide (given equivalent level of technology elsewhere in the design). What they can’t do is continue being stealthy for anywhere near the time a nuclear sub can as eventually you need to come near the surface and run the diesel to recharge the batteries. Diesel electrics are also comparatively range limited - while they can travel a considerable distance nuclear subs are effectively only limited by their ability to supply the crew.
As a side note you need the electric part of diesel electric to have an effective submarine. Running a submarine on an internal combustion engine only is impractical as without an adequate oxygen supply you can’t operate underwater without the engine using all the oxygen, so the diesel engines are used on the surface (or just below drawing air through a snorkel) to charge a battery bank which then runs an electric motor when submerged.
- Comment on Ok where is this ? 2 months ago:
I’m going to say somewhere near this location looking towards the Gold Coast. Haven’t spent time in that region so can’t confirm but I’m liking my odds based on the skyline, terrain and view angle.
- Comment on We are seeing some vote manipulation 2 months ago:
Admins can (I believe) see all votes, full stop
This is correct, with the caveat that the votes must have federated with the admin’s instance (so other instances need a user to be subscribed to the community in question, and votes can take time to flow through).
- Comment on (Opinion) A shameful death after a supermarket scuffle shines a light on Australia’s unfinished business | Julianne Schultz 2 months ago:
Regardless of the journalism it seems to be a pretty disproportionate outcome.
If it were just him stealing then getting immediately tackled I’d be more sympathetic, but considering he was assaulting people before even entering the shop I’d put decent odds on the guard not being the one to start the fight. He still shouldn’t have died over it but if you’re going to get into fights the chance of something going wrong is non-zero.
If it was a white kid in the ghetto the outcome would and is different. Look at the deaths in custody.
Indeed, the white kid would be more likely to die in custody if taken into it. Whether he’d be arrested in the first place is another matter but I think it’s a pretty good bet that if this same situation occurred with someone of any ethnicity they’d be ending up on the ground.
- Comment on (Opinion) A shameful death after a supermarket scuffle shines a light on Australia’s unfinished business | Julianne Schultz 2 months ago:
Pretty sure that’s an embellishment, but I can’t say I ever dived into that particular rabbit hole.
- Comment on (Opinion) A shameful death after a supermarket scuffle shines a light on Australia’s unfinished business | Julianne Schultz 2 months ago:
People are not “placed” on the floor – that is what you do with bags, boxes and rubbish. But that was the word used by the Northern Territory police to describe the sequence of events to the media.
Because they’re trying to put a neutral spin on them tackling the guy, it’s no surprise.
It’s like the spin they themselves have in this article with this quote:
I try to imagine a similar scene at my local Coles, where many people who have not been winners in life’s lottery also shop for little items to keep hunger at bay, but no image comes to mind.
Implying the guy was in there just shopping for little items is an interesting way to cover walking into a shop after assaulting a woman, stealing things, and getting into a fight with security when confronted. The Eulogy Song is definitely still relevant…
- Comment on Opinion: Labor’s tweak to superannuation affects only the wealthiest Australians. To argue against it is misguided 2 months ago:
Agreed. Not indexing it seems a pretty deliberate move towards the same strategy as our tax brackets - capture more money each year due to inflation and occasionally make your government look good by raising the cutoff (by less than inflation).
- Comment on Sound it out: Victorian children improve reading ‘leaps and bounds’ thanks to phonics 3 months ago:
It seems odd that they’re talking about phonics being a recent thing. At the risk of dating myself I remember a phonics based system being used when I was in primary school in the late 90s, though I couldn’t tell you much more since that’s a while ago now and I generally spent my time in those lessons reading rather than paying attention anyway. Did it drop out of use in the meantime or something?