flathead
@flathead@lemm.ee
- Comment on Australia will never elect a Donald Trump – and it’s due to one national trait[: our culture of not getting too big for your boots] 9 months ago:
this is especially rich coming from a Queensland paper… how soon we forget…
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joh_Bjelke-Petersen
Here are some snippets to save you reading the whole thing…
“Within months of becoming premier, Bjelke-Petersen encountered his first controversy over allegations of conflict of interest”
"three weeks after becoming premier, Bjelke-Petersen’s government gave two companies, Exoil NL and Transoil NL—in both of which he was a major shareholder—six-year leases to prospect for oil on the Great Barrier Reef "
“Plans by Country Party members to support a Labor Party vote of no confidence in parliament were quashed after the intervention of party president Robert Sparkes, who warned that anyone who voted against Bjelke-Petersen would lose their status as the party’s candidate at the next election.”
“Bjelke-Petersen seized on the controversial visit of the Springboks, the South African rugby union team, in 1971 to consolidate his position as leader with a display of force.”
“A crowd of demonstrators also mounted a peaceful protest outside the Springboks’ Wickham Terrace motel and were chased on foot by police moments after being ordered to retreat, with many police attacking the crowd with batons, boots and fists. It was one of a series of violent attacks by police on demonstrators during the Springboks’ visit to Queensland”
“Bjelke-Petersen praised police for their ‘restraint’ during the demonstrations and rewarded the police union for its support with an extra week’s leave for every officer in the state. He described the tension over the Springboks’ tour as ‘great fun’, ‘a game of chess in the political arena’. The crisis, he said, ‘put me on the map’.”
“Bjelke-Petersen began regular media and parliamentary attacks on the Whitlam Labor government, vowing to have it defeated, and he and Whitlam exchanged frequent verbal barbs, culminating in the prime minister’s 1975 description of the Queensland premier as ‘a Bible-bashing bastard … a paranoic, a bigot and fanatical’”
“Bjelke-Petersen also vehemently opposed the Whitlam government’s proposal for Medicare, a publicly funded universal health care system.”
“In 1975, Bjelke-Petersen played what turned out to be a key role in the political crisis that brought down the Whitlam government. Bjelke-Petersen alleged that Queensland police investigations had uncovered damaging documentation in relation to the Loans Affair. This documentation was never made public and these allegations remained unsubstantiated”
“television cameras captured an incident during the confrontation in which a police inspector struck a 20-year-old female protester over the head with his baton, injuring her. When Police Commissioner Ray Whitrod announced he would hold an inquiry, a move supported by Police Minister Max Hodges, Bjelke-Petersen declared there would be no inquiry. He told reporters he was tired of radical groups believing they could take over the streets.”
“In 1977, Bjelke-Petersen announced that ‘the day of street marches is over’, warning protesters, ‘Don’t bother applying for a march permit. You won’t get one. That’s government policy now!’”
“When, after two ugly street battles between police and right-to-march protesters, the Uniting Church Synod called on the government to change the march law, Bjelke-Petersen accused the clergy of ‘supporting communists’”
"The government’s increasingly hardline approach to civil liberties prompted Queensland National Party president Robert Sparkes to warn the party that it was developing a dangerous ‘propaganda-created, ultra-conservative, almost fascist image.’ "
“Florence Bjelke-Petersen (his wife) was elected to the Senate in October 1980 as a National Party member and six weeks later Joh was successful for a fifth time as premier at the 1980 Queensland election, with the Nationals converting a 27.9 percent primary vote—their highest ever—into 35 of the parliament’s 82 seats, or 43 percent of seats.”
“In 1984 Bjelke-Petersen was created a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG) for ‘services to parliamentary democracy’. Author Evan Whitton suggests the premier had made the nomination himself.”
“A ‘Joh for PM’ campaign was conceived in late 1985, driven largely by a group of Gold Coast property developers, promoting Bjelke-Petersen as the most effective conservative challenger to Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, and at the 1986 Queensland election he recorded his biggest electoral win ever, winning 49 of the state’s 89 seats with 39.6 percent of the primary vote.”
- Comment on Mark Zuckerberg explains why so many tech companies are doing layoffs right now 10 months ago:
“It was obviously really tough, we parted with a lot of talented people we cared about" - Mark Zuckerberg
“Mark Zuckerberg made more than $28 billion this morning after Meta stock makes record surge” www.cnn.com/2024/02/02/business/…/index.html
- Comment on Two ‘unexpected’ bodies recovered from Thames in search for Abdul Ezedi 10 months ago:
It is understood they were found not as a direct result of the search operation for 35-year-old Ezedi.
A sentence with the clarity of the sediment in which they were found. Good old Grauniad.
- Comment on The probability of losing your life to a cosmic ray bit-flip is increasing daily 10 months ago:
Imagine this happening today…
- Comment on Lemmy has taught me that Firefox is the way 10 months ago:
She’ll promise you more than the garden of Eden
Then she’ll carelessly cut you and laugh while you’re bleedin’
But she’ll bring out the best - and the worst - you can be
Blame it all on yourself 'cause she’s always a woman to me
- Comment on Lemmy has taught me that Firefox is the way 10 months ago:
Do you think it’s safe to upvote this?
- Comment on Sports betting is coming to X with BetMGM partnership | TechCrunch 10 months ago:
and they will come with full self-driving
- Comment on Sports betting is coming to X with BetMGM partnership | TechCrunch 10 months ago:
Hookers and blackjack coming soon.
- Comment on How do you tell the difference between dream and reality? 10 months ago:
I’m getting laid.
- Comment on Google workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'glassy-eyed' 10 months ago:
Every day is pizza day here!!! That’s what makes us a “Great Place to Work” (GPTW^TM^)
Would you care for a chair massage?
- Comment on No, 3 million electric toothbrushes were not used in a DDoS attack 10 months ago:
Concur. Also long time user here - but prefer to skip the data collection bit. Imagine showing up at the dentist some day and being chided for missing your back molars last Tuesday.
- Comment on What were some of your favourite Australian TV shos?w 10 months ago:
I think Kath and Kim is a keeper. Like Kingswood Country, the suburban social commentary runs deeper than the gags make it appear. Based on your mention of The Sullivans, I would also recomend Power Without Glory if you can find it. That is a largely true story from that era which was very well done.
- Comment on No, 3 million electric toothbrushes were not used in a DDoS attack 10 months ago:
The primary use case is for making sure kids and elderly loved ones are brushing their teeth and keeping the brush charged. Also supposedly senses if all teeth are being properly cleaned, although based on reviews that sounds like a stretch. But yeah, the aggregated data is probably marketable somehow - I didn’t check their privacy policies.
Electric toothbrushes are a thing. It’s understandable that the vendors would like a rationale to track usage. Not beyond the bounds of possibility that in ten years it may be impossible to buy an electric toothbrush that doesn’t track usage and try to phone home to report it.
- Comment on Google workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'glassy-eyed' 10 months ago:
Great idea! Here’s a starbucks gift voucher for your initiative! Now if we can just figure out how to simulate pizza…
- Comment on Beer and Wine are vegan drinks. 10 months ago:
well, ackshually - The fishy ingredient in beer that bothers vegetarians - BBC
- Comment on Radioactive water leak from Fukushima power plant raises risk of ground contamination 10 months ago:
Hey thanks for explaining this. I trust you more than TEPCO. I do actually feel somewhat reassured now.
- Comment on Radioactive water leak from Fukushima power plant raises risk of ground contamination 10 months ago:
“Highly radioactive water has leaked from a machine to treat contaminated water at the tsunami-hit Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, though radiation monitoring reportedly shows no impact to the outside environment so far.”
I feel so reassured.
- Comment on dotnet developer 10 months ago:
wasn’t it originally idiotically named “SQL/Server”?
- Comment on World's first year-long breach of key 1.5C warming limit 10 months ago:
so long and thanks for all the fish.
- Comment on Google workers complain bosses are 'inept' and 'glassy-eyed' 10 months ago:
Quick! Somebody order more pizza and ping pong tables…
- Comment on I love Mastodon and ActivityPub. But I think Nostr is going to win. Here's why. 10 months ago:
ahem - nobody I know will use X.
- Comment on Americans are asleep, post European windows 10 months ago:
If it was solid stone (thickness of two brick skins) with additional insulating material behind the tacked on plasterboard then I’m surprised to hear that it didn’t stay reasonably comfortable in hot weather and would suspect other factors, such as metal roofing and/or inadequate ceiling insulation may be the reason for that.
- Comment on Americans are asleep, post European windows 10 months ago:
You’re describing “brick veneer” construction - with one skin of bricks and an internal timber frame - which, as you’ve apparently experienced, is not very effective at keeping the space cool (although probably better than timber/stucco cladding). Solid masonry is usually two skins of brick with a cavity or equivalent thickness of concrete / stone block exterior walls.
- Comment on Americans are asleep, post European windows 10 months ago:
Yes, temperature difference inside to out is amazing with solid masonry and ceiling insulation. No AC required.
- Comment on World’s first AI-powered restaurant opens in Southern California 11 months ago:
the best part…
“The CaliExpress by Flippy location will also double as a pseudo-museum experience presented by Miso Robotics. Guests can see dancing robot arms, experimental 3D-printed artifacts, photographic displays and more.”
- Comment on Jesus leaving Chili's the way His father would want him to on Christmas night 1 year ago:
According to this scholar: nzpod.co.nz/podcast/…/jesus-of-nazareth
It is unlikely that his body was ever placed into a tomb. Part of the point of crucifixion was the public nature of the body being on display and those crucified were not given honorable burials by design.
The academic consensus seems to be that an influential Jewish man referred to as “Cristos” or “Crestos” did exist but that the resurrection and other mystical stuff was of course all embellishment.
‘Crestos’ was a apparently a common name for slaves in Judea. I wondered if perhaps the name Christ referred to a man who rose from the slavery caste to threaten the political establishment with revolution. Most of the new testament teachings are obviously political. ‘Life of Brian’ is probably closer to the truth than you’d think.
- Comment on Relative size comparison of social media platforms (December 2023) 1 year ago:
Neither would I - you can browse Lemmy (and mastodon I think) pretty extensively without logging in. I also think we are at the start of a long term transition towards decentralization of media generally.
In terms of content I like Lemmy. I do see how concentrated the user base is - but I don’t see it getting smaller - if anything I see it growing slowly but surely. In addition to organic growth, there will probably be events that drive massive migration to the fediverse - like reddit’s nonsense but from different or more diverse sources - some media attention or a major celebrity plug and things could get crazy pretty fast. The platform will probably need a lot of extra TLC to scale rapidly if that happens.
When you see the major media companies start to stand up Mastodon instances - which I also think is going to happen eventually - expansion of the fediverse seems all but inevitable. I would be interested to see what that chart looks like in 5, 10 years. There are plenty of ways for the fediverse to grow apart from more lemmy users signing up.
- Comment on USA Will Invest in High-Speed Train to Fight Climate Change 1 year ago:
pull the other one.
- Comment on Elon Musk on X antisemitism controversy: “Don’t advertise. Go f*** yourself” 1 year ago:
If you were taught on a typewriter, you double space for life. It’s impossible to stop once ingrained.
- Comment on 15 More Free to Play Overwhelmingly Positive Steam Games 1 year ago:
thanks - to save other cheapskates’ time - these are supported on Linux: Handshakes OpenTTD Cave Crawler
