I think the quintessential NZ video involves how Dumb Monique thinks you are, and whether you’d like some Ghost Chups.

Yep - I read an ABC article this morning about the same topic.

tldr; it’s about how the government just yoinked a chunk of Arnham land away from Aboriginal people to make mines. Because the land is only reserved for first Australians until rich people have a use for it.

Well, to defend the politicians a bit: The ones who built the facility are still in power and haven’t caved to the ones calling for the facilities to be repurposed. Yet.

Hopefully after this incident, they won’t, either.

You’ve been here six decades and never heard the term ‘seppo’?

That’s … astonishing.

You’ll just have to take our word for it that it’s not a nasty term. Nobody who wants to insult you is going to use the word ‘seppo’. We have far more colourful words for that.

Don’t be. The etymology of the word is simply that it rhymes with ‘tank’, and not specifically the word it rhymes with.

It’s the same as ‘pom’ for English people. And used in similar context. Yes, it’s a little derogatory - but more in a teasing way rather than a nasty way.

People who eat pork pies are not thought of as habitual liars, but it’s where ‘porkies’ comes from. Actually, that may not be a thing for you guys, huh? Porkies a chain there, right?

I have no idea how to even begin to fix the whole “oh we owe 70% of our revenue to our international parent company for licensing and stuff” tax loophole. But that loophole costs our nation so much money that it boggles my brain. I assume it can’t simply be closed. But wow would that be neat!

And this is a company that actually paid most of a Billion dollars in tax.

You ask this like we don’t know the answer. We had the draft in living memory.

We need a proclamation of a call to war before parliament 90 days before it can be activated. The government needs parliamentary approval from both houses. All Australian residents 18-60 can be called up (not only men in the 21st century) but the government can call up a subset of this cohort (‘only men’, ‘only women with red hair’, ‘only residents of Bankstown’ or whatever ‘class’ they wish).

Then everyone loses their shit, we storm our politicians and threaten them with being the first to war or something if they even think of voting this in. It would be so wildly unpopular and I can’t see any government passing it.

It’s not something the PM or Governor General can unilaterally do. Hooray for checks on politicians in Australia.

57% vs 45%? That’s the “cluck gap”. It’s a significant gap, but also means that most people who want kids can find partners who want kids, while most who don’t can also find compatible partners.

The headline makes it sound like the “cluck gap” is going to be 90% vs 10% or something.

Also, the oldest Gen Z are still in their 20’s. Let’s see their attitudes in a decade or so. Yes, many will have unchanged stances. But if Gen X is anything to go by, some will change their minds.

I provided a statutory declaration affirming to whoever needed to read it that my friend and her English fiancée were a real couple; as well as photos I had taken of them at bbqs, concerts and zoo trips etc over the years as he was applying for permanent residency in Australia. What you are describing is a thing all immigrants go through - the white ones as well.

I personally think this portrait is rather flattering. Particularly in the context of Vincent’s other works. I think she’s far uglier in person.

This guy is about to learn that nobody likes him, isn’t he?

Even the people who listen to him and are entertained by his awful antics don’t tune in because they actually like him. He’s just on in the car and they’re a captive audience.

I don’t think there’s a realistic way to measure that.

First of all, comparing sales of five-year-old games on PC to what’s going on in console land is unfair. Also, just how much does it cost them to port a game to PC and sell it? It’s gotta be cheaper than making the game to start with.

A significant portion of that $300 Million is pure gravy. I’m unlikely to buy a PlayStation, but I’ve bought four Sony titles so far and will likely buy a couple more. If they want my money, they need to come to where I shop.

I think if I only made 300 Million dollars in three years, I’d probably wonder what on earth I was even doing with myself as well. What is even the point? 😔

I was speaking of conventional warfare - which is what it would take for a “third front” to be necessary. There’s a huge difference between the assorted military operations we’ve seen in my lifetime and total warfare. Even in Vietnam, the major powers held back. The USA hasn’t actually declared war on a country since 1942.

If the USA actually decides to go all-in on a country, that country is in for a bad time. Even if that country is China. That said, any nation that invades China is also in for a bad time. The very idea of such a war is horrendous.

In a land of spy satellites, stealth bombers and ICBMs, “hiding” critical infrastructure in your remote mountain fortress is a little archaic in thinking.

I believe all nations should have strategies to defend themselves in the event of an attack by a foreign power. I see no controversy, here.

I’m on the other side of the country, so I have absolutely no idea. Your theory is as good as anything I’d come up with. That, and people suck at keeping secrets. Particularly in a rural setting. Crimestoppers exists because it works.

The Collins project taught us that building submarines is not trivial. And that was starting with another country’s R&D (Sweden). We also have no clue how to make a nuclear submarine.

While there issues with the French Barracuda subs, I think we should have had an open conversation with the French instead of secretly entering into the AUKUS pact. The French do have nuclear tech, so using that as an excuse to change after we’d asked them to make us diesel subs is a bit rich. I don’t know whether that’d have made nuclear subs, but I know it would have been something we could have asked about.

If you are really off-the-grid, you can disappear fairly effectively. There’s a lot of country out there to hide in. All the CCTVs and cell tower surveillance in the nation will only help to locate you if you are in the areas where the people and that coverage are.