Tau
@Tau@aussie.zone
- Comment on Australians, especially men, are reading less than ever before 4 days 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 4 days 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 4 days ago:
That’s a pretty concerning trend IMO, particularly when the article mentions 44% of Australians have issues with literacy.
- Submitted 4 days ago to australia@aussie.zone | 31 comments
- Comment on Wagga Wagga man charged with displaying Nazi symbols over shopfront poster 1 week 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 2 weeks 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 3 weeks 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 3 weeks 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 4 weeks 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? 4 weeks 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 ? 5 weeks 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 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month 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 1 month 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?
- Comment on NSW National Parks seeking feedback on proposed changes re. camping fees and bookings 2 months ago:
Parks does often give the impression that they’d rather the plebs didn’t actually go into their parks, but I think them booking ghost camps might be a step too far given they could just reduce the nominal capacity further to get the same effect.
I would bet the vast majority of the problem is your second option of people booking out campgrounds to avoid others (with a side helping of those who aren’t sure which day they want to go out so they book all options). Looking at who has a record of cancelling bookings would probably allow one to cut out a lot of this as I suspect you’d find a bunch of repeat offenders.
- Comment on NSW National Parks seeking feedback on proposed changes re. camping fees and bookings 2 months ago:
Closer to cities where demand is higher, the campsites are more desirable and therefore the ghost booking issue is worse. A higher fee discourages that. On the downside, you pay more for convenience of not having to drive far.
The tier system described appears to be more based on available facilities though rather than visitor numbers, while it does mention demand in passing this isn’t quantified and the tier table shown works off facilities/servicing.
I would agree there does tend to be correlation between high demand campgrounds and highly serviced ones so you do have a point with high prices being necessary to some extent. I do think though that applying a state wide pricing system will end up with noticeably higher prices in a lot of places not near the major centres (or the major attractions).
- Comment on NSW National Parks seeking feedback on proposed changes re. camping fees and bookings 2 months ago:
The removal of fees and bookings for the unserviced and largely unmanaged tier of campgrounds is a welcome change, I did not like it when they introduced these.
Not getting 100% of the booking charge back sounds like it should cut down on people booking when they don’t actually mean to turn up, so I’d say that’s reasonable.
I have reservations about how expensive the higher tier charges are though, even the mid tiers are getting pricey for what’s supposed to be a cheap activity.
- NSW National Parks seeking feedback on proposed changes re. camping fees and bookingswww.haveyoursay.nsw.gov.au ↗Submitted 2 months ago to australia@aussie.zone | 8 comments
- Comment on Where will my vote go? 3 months ago:
When it comes to preferences they go to the parties/candidates in the order that you number them. Others can suggest where you send your preferences (how to vote cards being the typical method) but ultimately it’s up to you.
For the house of reps if a third party doesn’t will the seat you will ultimately end up voting for Labour or Liberals, because you have to number all the boxes. You’ll have to decide which you like more (or least) and number accordingly. In the senate you can potentially exhaust your vote before reaching the majors (assuming you reach the minimum numbering before getting to them) but unless you truly believe both majors are the same I’d advise including them.
If you vote above the line in the senate your preferences follow party lines as you have numbered them (i.e. preferences will count towards the candidates for the first party you number, then the second and so forth). You still control what parties you’re voting for and what order.
- Comment on Why wooden bridges still have a place despite upkeep challenges 3 months ago:
It was always a shame watching the old timber bridges around the Mid North Coast get replaced with the comparatively soulless concrete designs when I lived up there, nice to see that some are escaping that treatment.
- Submitted 3 months ago to australia@aussie.zone | 5 comments
- Comment on Women earn 78 cents for every $1 men paid on average. 4 months ago:
The gender pay gap is not about “equal pay for equal work”
Indeed, it seems to be primarily about making rage bait headlines.
Women work less hours on average, with considerably more working part time and those who work full time working less hours than men overall (so less overtime pay). What are you going to do to fix that gap, force women to work more? Between that and less women choosing to work in various higher paid and dangerous jobs (e.g. trades, mining) it’s no wonder there’s a difference.
- Comment on We need faster speed limits in Australia - and I'm not saying that because I'm a hoon | Opinion - Car News 4 months ago:
Indeed, so now both the roads and cars are a lot safer I would be very happy to increase speed limits - particularly on highways and country roads. The idea that speed is the root of all evil however has been pushed enough that an unfortunate amount of people believe it, as can be seen by how this post has been dogpiled with downvotes despite the article presenting a quite sensible view. I even got several downvotes for pointing out that cars are actually safer now than in the 70s, as if that was somehow a contentious point of view.
- Comment on We need faster speed limits in Australia - and I'm not saying that because I'm a hoon | Opinion - Car News 4 months ago:
I could live with that tradeoff, but I’d have to see the regional speeds raised first because I don’t believe that would actually happen given how risk-averse our governments are. Instead regional roads keep getting their speed limits lowered and any suggestion of raising them raises cries of outrage - typically from people who aren’t even in the area and who get scared of driving in areas without streetlights.
- Comment on Australia bans DeepSeek on government devices over security risk 5 months ago:
That is unfortunately true, for example I find it sadly impressive that one has a good chance of getting classified info simply by starting an argument on the War Thunder forums…
- Comment on Australia bans DeepSeek on government devices over security risk 5 months ago:
I’m not familiar with them, though I did just have a quick browse of wikipedia and their privacy page. From that minimal impression I’d rate their online service as better than DeepSeek (they do claim your data is not used for training, stored in Sweden, encrypted, and deleted after 30 days) but ultimately it’s still got the same problem as other providers in that you have to just believe they’ll actually follow what they say they do. For use with your own personal info this might be an acceptable risk if the company seems reputable otherwise, on the other end of the scale for anything security classified it’d be way too much risk.
- Comment on Australia bans DeepSeek on government devices over security risk 5 months ago:
You’d have to be mad to put important information into any AI model unless you’re hosting it locally and know it isn’t sending info anywhere (the latter being the hard part to verify). All of the online AI services really should be blocked if departments/companies are taking security seriously.