Apologies all. That user is not representative of Aussie.Zone users. We're generally a chill bunch.
I'm struggling to believe there's such a thing as an "anti-vax doctor". That's a classic oxymoron.
I grew up on the Gold Coast in the 80s. I have no memory of such a place, sorry.
I'll grant that we were poor and not exactly visiting the theme parks every week, but I'm fairly certain I got to them all at least once.
His mission was to observe the transit of Venus. The expedition was scientific in nature first and foremost.
You're speaking of the secret instructions issued to him by the Admiralty to locate the fabled southern continent and hopefully claim it for England. Tasman by this stage had found NZ and I think Van Diemans Land. Yes he found the east coast of Australia and "claimed" it for England. It was all in vain though, the distances were way too far for anything to come of it. To Cook at the time, it was a side trip.
There were two parliamentary inquiries submitted to the British parliament in 1779 and 1785 recommending colonisation of New Holland, but even then: well after Cook's death, such an expedition was seen as too expensive.
Then the English learned that the French were preparing to colonise and it was suddenly a British priority to get to Australia.
I don't see how anything to do with the colonisation had anything to do with Captain Cook. You could swap Cook out for any other ship's captain who was taking the scientists to see Venus and the rest of the expedition plays out much the same. Cook didn't colonise Australia. He encountered the Guugu Yimithirr people in Northern Queensland and tried to treat with the peacefully - mostly succeeding. He certainly didn't set about killing them all.
Arthur Philip should be the person people direct their ire at. But he doesn't have a statue in Melbourne. King George III would be another candidate that made sense. Only George III also doesn't have a statue in Melbourne.
Captain Cook had nothing to do with the colony. He died in 1779 - years before the settlers arrived. While agreeing with the sentiment that the arrival of Europeans is not cause for celebration, Cook had always been a dumb target for protesting Jan 26.
Southbank had residential high-rise buildings that were at least 60% empty ten years ago - and that's being generous. It seemed like they were nearly empty. From the outside at 8 pm, there were barely any lights on to indicate the presence of people in there.
They were owned by people overseas and kept in pristine condition to maintain a higher value. Is that still going on?
Insert "That's bait" meme here.
It'll be interesting to see what comes of this. Whoever sent this has clearly never been to a WOMAD festival, because that crowd is not likely to appreciate someone trying to influence the lineup.
I can't think of anything the better the writers of this letter could have done to Streisand Effect that crowd into seeking out some DJ that might otherwise have been one act among several.
I absolutely recommend seeing a burlesque show. But once you have, then yeah, they get pretty same-y. I've been to a few, the first one was absolutely the most fun.
That drum & bass show looks like loads of fun! I'd much prefer kicking on to that over yet another burlesque show.
I'm a tightarse, I get the RushTix emails and on the odd occasion we're free I look at what's on that day that looks good.
That said, a quick squiz at the program, the following shows look good: Boomers vs Zoomers, Tonight's Guest with Rove McManus, Embarrassed Naked Female, Sammy J - Hero Complex, Hot 6 Brass Band, Greatest Magic Show
I only got to page 13 of 43. The moral is there are loads of acts that will probably be great. I'm unlikely to get to more than about 3-4 shows the whole festival. Not helped that I'll be out of town for half of it.
'Hi. I'm an influencer who wants to come to Australia, eat at lots of your restaurants and then tell my followers what I think of them. I want you to pay for the flights, accommodation and meals. I also want to be paid for my time to do all this. It should come to about $10 Million. In return, you'll gets lots of exposure!'
I know - you're very probably already sixteen. That's why we are here.
If you've managed to miss the coming change in the law, I envy you. This silly law has taken up several hours of my year that could have been spent doing something more productive like watching Golden Girls.
But, the law is here now and we need to take "Reasonable Steps" to ensure that everyone is over sixteen. If you are wondering what "reasonable steps" is, then join the club. Nobody really knows. What I do know is that we have to start to make an effort to be sure that no young'uns are here against the law.
To that end, we have hired a helpful bot called Molly. She's an expert at being sixteen and she's just been told that it's her job is to verify all your ages. Here she is:
What's next? Well, in the first phase we ask that you drop her a Message that verifies you are over 16. She doesn't want to see your government ID. Some ideas that she would accept are:
- A passenger takes a photo of your username on a sheet of paper with you driving (please don't make this one a selfie). Faces not required.
- A photo of your username with a glass of alcohol at a bar.
- A convincing spiel that would only come from someone older than sixteen (Can you tell Molly who Samantha is?). Can you tell her about the Breakfast Club that only 70's/80's kids from Queensland would know?
- Anything else you can think of that only someone over sixteen could/would do.
There's no need to spend a lot of time on this. At this point, I'll go through the users who have messaged her and compile a list of people who have verified their age. You can be creative. Just be aware that there's an infinitesimal chance (but not zero) that whatever you send may be sent to some government agency to demonstrate that we are complying with the law.
Frequently Asked Questions:
- How do you know that the user isn't faking their submission? I don't. No method is perfect, we saw kids defeating intricate and expensive verification systems earlier this year. Kids are smart.
- How do you stop a kid from moving their account to one of the thousands of non-Australian Lemmy Instances and just continuing on with their day? I can't. The fact that the law is totally ineffectual in the context of Lemmy is beside the point. We clearly meet the definition of a Social Media platform according to the law, and we are based in Australia. So we have to comply, even if it is pointless.
- Are you aware that this is pointless and kids are going to get around it? I know that teenage-me sure would have. But again, that's beside the point. We need to comply with the law.
- Will you accept a photo of me in my undies? Ok, this one isn't frequent from previous discussions on the law, but I wanted to include it in case. Please don't send NSFW photos to show you are over age.
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Frankly, because Australia has things that the USA does not have and really needs. Australia is a stable and reliable political friend in a region of the globe that is close enough to the antipode of mainland USA. Our proximity and unused land affords our US allies with space and privacy to operate with relative comfort. Their bases in Australia also have much shorter logistic chains to operate compared with other remote locales like islands as well.
The USA would be impacted militarily if they lost Australia as an ally. Not irrevocably, they'd get by. But it would cost them a lot more than the simple civility and respect it takes to maintain their relationship with Australia.
Neither nations really needs the other. Our partnership has been convenient for both of us, and it really would be a shame for both nations if that partnership were to lapse.