My feed is full of the US elections because of course the predominant empire doesn't feel that it should nationally-tag its political posts.
So they may as well hear my view since I have to hear their view -->>> All your elections are fraudulent because you don't have compulsory voting.
After all these years nothing has quite so reached Peak South Australia as Premier Mike Rann being beaten up by the husband of a woman Rann was having an affair with.
Happening at the National Wine Centre - peak.
The weapon being a rolled-up Winestate magazine - peak.
The public arresting the guy because the cops were nowhere to be found - peak.
The timid news initially describing the man's accusation as a "comment to the Premier" as they didn't want to defame Rann in case he wasn't having an affair - peak.
Rann's popularity increasing because SA Premiers should have a bit on the side - peak.
Rann walking around with a cut face for months afterwards - peak.
SA Police removing heavy magazines from the sites of the Premier's further public functions - peak.
Edit: reportage the following morning: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2009-10-02/premier-shows-attack-wounds/1088154
Edit: Rick Phillips pled guilty, savaged the Premier during his sentencing plea. Fined A$1000, no conviction recorded.
The EU in Brussels is having an important summit about Ukraine.
As Latvian PM Andris Kulbergs explains: “It is a super important moment because, well, if we want comfort in Europe and eat croissant, drink coffee in the morning, and don’t think about the threats, then we have to support Ukraine.”
European politics is done very differently to US politics. The hugs at this meeting have significance. They are huge and long.
The Guardian live blog is excellent.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2026/oct/16/eu-von-der-leyen-russia-sanctions-diesel-fuel-zelenskyy-donald-trump-membership-migration-latest-news-updates
The political leadership of the US does not understand that a single naval missile which kills more than a handful of Chinese workers is war.
The military leadership of the US are not much better. They clearly want to stop Chinese weapons being sold to Iran. But that runs an even greater risk of an incident.
At the moment the US Navy is just 'taking names'. But you've seen their Secretary of War.
Note that Israel chooses a different interpretation.
In case you're reading the news and looking for a definitive source, here's the text from the convenor of the negotiations:
ABC 891 Adelaide radio is just reading Reddit. Which confirms what I've often thought about Reddit's actual age group.
With all the fuss in the US you might be wondering about birthright citizenship in Australia. Are you a citizen if you were born here?
That was removed in 1986 (Labor government). Because someone dared use it in 1985's Kioa v West; and that a baby born to Tongan parents could be Australian upset both the pearl clutchers and the racists.
We're now a 'right of blood' country. And if that sounds a little 1930's to you, that wouldn't be wrong.
Practically it's also a major pain in the arse for people born after 1986. Once upon a time a birth certificate was proof of citizenship. Now you can be trawling for identity documents of grandparents.
Maximum 40C (edit: 104F). Never change, Japan.
The International Olympic Committee has decided the sex of competitors will be determined by the SRY gene marking 'female' competitors.
Of course this leads to an amusing contradiction: there will be people who are required to compete in the men's event, but who's drug testing will have to happen using women's protocols because their genes could never produce a penis.
But beyond amusement, some initial thoughts -- not on Olympic sport, there will be plenty of commentary on the elites in the media -- but on community sport.
Olympic standards are often adopted far beyond the Olympics themselves. This is a worry with about 0.1% of people having some Difference in Sex Development. A volunteer sports administrator -- who is a car mechanic the rest of the week -- is going to be telling a person that a supposedly low-stakes genetic test has results which say "sorry, you are not the gender you have been living all your life and that your exterior sexual organs suggest" and "by the way, you're infertile". They may be saying this to someone so young as to not be sure what any of sex, gender and infertility is or means for their life.
Governments need to very quickly step in here and set regulations for the conduct of the test, communication of the results, and who pays for the test and the fallout. Since the sport requires the test (rather than a simple statement of gender from the competitor), the sport should foot the bill for the fallout. Someone just wanting to swim in 'masters' ex-amateur-age swimming shouldn't be footing the bill for complex and specialist counselling because the organisation is following Olympic rules so that their swimming sessions can use a Commonwealth-funded swimming pool.
The fetishisation of the Olympics by funding bodies also needs to end. Chess has a women's category because of gender issues: FIDE recognises that women face more obstacles learning and playing chess, and wants to give women a class in which to have enjoyable and competitive games. Determining the gender class using the presence of particular hormones during puberty is to completely miss the point. This rationale is hardly unique to chess, and it at odds with the athletics focus of the IOC's approach.
Last year I had to take a massive dose of antibiotics to save my eye. Which they did <sound of cheering!>.
There have been few long-term side effects. A degree of lactose intolerance. A reaction to some fish.
Today I realise that list now includes chocolate. Damn.
Holeproof Walkers "the long sock to wear with shorts"
Aurora at Semaphore Beach, metropolitan Adelaide Australia.
We're at latitude 35° S. That is a way to the South Pole, so aurora even as faint as this are rare.
One of the things I miss from the 1980s is Sudafed working.
Got a nose that is making your life a misery by running continuously? A couple of pseudoephedrine and sweet relief. Sure you couldn't sleep because you were wired like five back-to-back Italian expressos. But your nose wasn't letting you sleep anyways.
I don't know if the fault for no access to pseudoephedrine is the government, the bikies, the druggies, the illegal chemists, or the legal chemist shops. At this particular moment of my nose behaving like a garden tap needing new washers, I am cursing them all.
I wish people used a consistent hashtag as my interest in yet another shooting at a US school is low after a short laugh at it's irony.
This is a little disappointing. As one of the terms of use the Bureau of Meteorology requires weather applications to be able to display weather warnings. GNOME Weather, which lacks that feature, somehow got a feed regardless.
Disappointed in the news coverage of the Trump Birthday Military Parade at the lack of Kremlin-ology analysing who is present and absent, and what the seating positions mean for who is in favour and out of favour with the General Secretary of The Party.
2/2
Nothing can go wrong with this
1/2
Advance Australia's "messaging also confused voters and led people to put the teals and Greens equal last which meant Liberal votes could not be counted [as the ballot was invalid]."