23
May
19
May

drbuttocks:

thefaceofbro:

merlinwhosuperpotterlock:

I actually think this was pretty responsible. Rather than banning it outright, which would result in kids wanting to rebel even more, she offers it in her home where she can control the amount people drink. Good on ya, Mrs George. You’re a cool mom.

I think this was more of a shocking line in America.  Within private residences in Australia it’s perfectly legal and acceptable for alcohol to be served to people under the age of 18, so long as they aren’t buying it from you.

This attitude is *SO* much more healthy than the wowser attitude towards alcohol (and some drugs, imo, but ymmv).

Within private residences in Australia it’s perfectly legal and acceptable for alcohol to be served to people under the age of 18, 

Nope.

This is a myth.  Supplying alcohol to a minor is an offence in every state and territory regardless of whether they are your child and in your home.  Not only is it not legal, it’s actively discouraged with health campaigns so it’s not “acceptable” either.  For example, see this web page from the Victorian government http://www.health.vic.gov.au/alcoholunder18/minors.htm

18
May

Congratulations on Your Hit Toy Purchase for Christmas 2013! 

Congratulations on purchasing the new must-have hit toy for your child for Christmas.  Please ensure you read this manual completely before attempting to use the toy or allowing your child to use it.  Your safety is one priority.

Unpackaging the Toy

The toy is packaged in custom polycarbonate clamshell packaging which can not ordinarily be removed using household scissors, a knife or chisel.  Carefully remove the packaging and the tamper-evident seal using a bandsaw set to low.  Do not attempt to open the packaging with a blow torch, customers have advised that while this is sufficient to open the packaging it can damage the toy.

Batteries

The toy requires 3x C cells, 2x D cells, 4x AAs, 2 CR2032 watch-style batteries and 9x LR1130 batteries such as are common for pen lights.  To use the on-line portal (recommended) you will also require an N cell (LR1) battery which must not be rechargeable.  Some of these batteries are included and some are not, which batteries are included depends on the region in which you bought the toy. Insert the batteries into the twin battery doors on the left of the toy using the included custom screw driver to loosen the “#” shaped screws, exercise caution as the screws are fragile and may strip or even shatter.  It is important to note that the screws loosen clockwise and tighten counterclockwise.

The toy must be wound at all times using the handle on the rear.

Online Portal

The online portal provides hours of enjoyment for your children and allows any home computer to compliment the functions of the toy.  To ensure online portal registration is successful ensure your PC meets the following specifications;

  • A Yahoo! account
  • CentOS or OpenSuSE Linux
  • CGA monitor
  • 128GB of RAM (256GB recommended)
  • AMD Phenom X4 processor
  • 5 1/2” floppy drive for installing software
  • Adobe Flash

Registration and use of the portal is free however you will be required to enter one credit card and one backup credit card to activate your account (Visa only).  Both usernames and passwords for the portal must be 11 - 13 characters, and contain any four of the following categories:  lower case letters, upper case letters, punctuation, feelings, numbers and musical notation. 你的女儿是剩女.

Operation and Use

Always ensure the toy remains free of dust, moisture and ensure it does not come into contact with any flammable substances or solvents.  Keep the toy dry when it is being used as a bath toy.  Operating temperature is between 14 and 25 degrees celsius (75 to 95 degrees farenheit) and relative humidity is 18 - 35%.

Under no circumstances allow the toy to be sucked or chewed on.  Ensure the child does not interfere with the fans or flywheel.  Remove the protective cover before use, and allow the toy to return naturally to room temperature before replacing the cover and storing it.  

We trust you will enjoy hours of fun!

25
Apr

 

Dear Mr Bleich,

Thank you for taking the time to offer your recent suggestion that we stop downloading Game of Thrones in Australia.

Although your suggestion was impressive, a country of our standing receives a large number of suggestions as a matter of course, and due to the high volume of quality suggestions we can’t accept every one.  On this particular occasion, we have decided to adopt another suggestion.

Our decision was based upon careful comparison of the available suggestions at the time, as well as our current needs in terms of suggestions.  We appreciate your interest and the time expended in suggesting.

Our usual policy is to keep suggestions on file should we require further suggestions in the future.  If you do not wish this to be done with your suggestion please advise by return email and we will confidentially destroy your suggestion to ensure your privacy is protected.

Again, thank you for your interest in Australia and the suggestions we adopt.  I hope there will be other opportunities for you in the future.

Sincerely,

Geordie Guy

16
Apr

And so we come to the Boston false-flag theorizing, which is even stupider because all that happened was that an asshole built a bomb and set it off to hurt people, which assholes have done before and will do again. But the falseflaggers are out to explain that, no, this was military-grade ordnance that was used (based on no evidence whatsoever) and that this happened because the Gubmint wants to put more restrictive laws in place to interfere with your civil rights. Of course, the government has been doing that for decades and they haven’t felt the need to bomb anybody because they know perfectly well that they can just restrict civil rights by passing laws and nobody will say boo to a goose, most of the times, because “it’s not my problem” trumps civil rights concerns for ninety percent of the population (just ask any black person about how nobody seems to care when their civil rights are trampled), but whatever, bombs away, am I right?

But falseflaggers don’t care because their theories aren’t about logic or reason or anything at all. Their theories are about making tragedies that happen to other people about them. It’s a fundamentally narcissistic response to tragedy – to not only ask “how does this affect me” but to twist the facts of the event to create a narrative so that you are more likely to be affected. It’s an asshole move, plain and simple, and falseflaggers deserve to be treated like assholes, because they’re assholes.

Mightygodking dot com » Post Topic » #firstworldimaginedproblems (via wilwheaton)

(via drbuttocks)

3
Apr

How Good Are Online Petitions! (they are awful) 

In light of how completely and hopelessly useless they are, Internet petitions are an extraordinarily popular way of having feelings all over the place.  The list of websites to leave tears and snot on the shoulder of are seemingly endless; OnlinePetition, iPetitions, Change.org, Petition Spot… and these are before we even get to the sites and organisations who aren’t only online outburst aggregators, just primarily online outburst aggregators – organisations like GetUp.

It’s a challenge to do something about issues in public policy.  Action on everything from climate change to gambling advertising requires things a particular well-meaning Australian might not have very much of – things like resources for lobbying, their MPs time and attention, or intelligence.  What an everyday Aussie can do though, is write their name, and while that might not have very much sway on its own, if a lot of people write their names then all that sway will be a force for change.  Right?

You have to admire the optimism of people who think that if you sum enough zeros you can get a positive number, but you have to pity their grip of maths.

If you’ve been playing at home you’ll know that the government comes in two flavours.  There’s the House of Representatives which is your garden-variety government, and then there’s the minty fresh senate.  When people talk about “the government” they’re usually talking about the House of Representatives because they’re the ones that come up with all the ideas and argue about them the most, and it’s where the prime minister comes from too.   The House of Representatives flat out does not care about online petitions at all ever.  They can’t.  The rules, called the Standing and Sessional Orders, set out very specific requirements for what a petition must look like and how it must be presented, and 10,000 or even 100,000 glittering tears from “Anonymous of Reality Land” unfortunately don’t cut it.  Petitions to the House of Reps must have the handwritten signature of each petitioner.  That’s one of about a dozen reasons why online petitions are invalid, but it’s probably the most obvious one.

The rules for the senate are pretty different but they are pretty easy to understand.  In order to put a petition to the senate you must be a senator.  You can determine if you are a senator by examining whether you were elected to the senate at a federal election and have not either been voted out, stood down or excluded under the rules of parliament since.  Petitions to the senate can be signed electronically, but have to be printed out in a certain format on paper, so I guess the rules are meeting us halfway.

Like so many tiny children trying to cry out over the howl of a gale, online petition signatures never reach the ears of anyone who doesn’t care anyway.  They are void and meaningless, rejected by the rules that the government govern by.  “At least we’re raising awareness!” hurt and slightly confused proponents insist, but even that’s lighter than air.  As the awareness is raised, it drives more Facebook likes, more retweets, maybe a Google +1 or two, and it drives more and more signatures.  More valueless morsels of sentiment for the government to not even put in the bin, but take straight out to the skip in the basement car park in case they stink the place up.

So Change.org changes nothing, iPetitions aren’t, OnlinePetition isn’t and Petition Spot doesn’t.  At least people are creating the illusion that they’ve done something by writing their name though.  Thanks GetUp.

 

 

13
Mar
Urgh.
The pope doesn’t set the direction of the church like this.  If you are waiting on a change of pope for a change in the church’s attitudes towards gay people you are doing it wrong.
The pope isn’t like the Australian prime minister who sets and leads the policy tone for the country, he’s more like the president of Singapore - articulates the policy decisions of the body underneath him and executes power in fairly limited circumstances.  It’s possible, likely even, that the current pope had problems trying to get the cardinals underneath him to do what he wanted and it in part motivated his quitting.
Good news though, nobody cares what the cardinals and pope say about gay marriage and gay people.  The type of bigotry that the pope and the cardinals show is being broken down everywhere it exists (both inside the church and out, amazingly atheists can be homophobic arseholes too) and we will have marriage equality soon.  

Urgh.

The pope doesn’t set the direction of the church like this.  If you are waiting on a change of pope for a change in the church’s attitudes towards gay people you are doing it wrong.

The pope isn’t like the Australian prime minister who sets and leads the policy tone for the country, he’s more like the president of Singapore - articulates the policy decisions of the body underneath him and executes power in fairly limited circumstances.  It’s possible, likely even, that the current pope had problems trying to get the cardinals underneath him to do what he wanted and it in part motivated his quitting.

Good news though, nobody cares what the cardinals and pope say about gay marriage and gay people.  The type of bigotry that the pope and the cardinals show is being broken down everywhere it exists (both inside the church and out, amazingly atheists can be homophobic arseholes too) and we will have marriage equality soon.  

(Source: ilovecharts, via winifredjay)

13
Mar

The difference between Android and iPhone users?  Seems that iPhone users are hiding from someone, illiterate and cheating on their partner.  Android users are trying to steal wifi, use Facetime, also cheating on their partners and insecure about Instagram unfollows.