I updated my profile for only the second time in over four years. I added a word.

Found this. Sorry, no source recorded. Thought Pauline might be interested.

#AUSPol

Google is about to do something extremely nasty to Android phone owners. ALL Android phone owners.

If you didn't know about it, now you do:

https://keepandroidopen.org

Please boost for reach...

And don't call me Shirley!

#AUSPol

Pauline Hanson: "Under the failed policy of multiculturalism, all cultures are allowed equivalence to ours. Surely opposing that is not racist, it's common sense".

Simple question Pauline: Who is the "us" that "ours" refers to? And why exactly is that group better or worse or worth preserving or advantaging over any other groups? Don't use dogwhistles like "us" and "ours", be specific.

I'm pretty sure you mean "white people", and that is by definition racist. And common though it might be, racism is not ever common sense.

While you're at it, detail exactly how multiculturalism has failed. It's easy to say, but it's just another dogwhistle unless you back it up with facts and arguments. Since I don't think you have any facts or arguments, I'm guessing that your opposition to multiculturalism might be, hm, there's that word again, racist.

#AUSPol

RE: https://theblower.au/@troberts/116740773276342695

Unreliable tools ARE inherently dangerous, precisely because you don't know when they will fail. AI is a wobbly ladder, a chipped chisel, a cracked hammerhead, an abraded rope, a bent drill bit, a pinched electrical lead. Except with AI the unreliability - the damage - IS inherent.

Might work, might not, but the potential for disaster is there every single time. Only a fool would CHOOSE to use damaged tools.

I volunteer* at a small regional theatre. My partner, the venue manager, noticed last night that someone has been moved to tag the venue as LGBTQI+ friendly in Google.

This is good. However, the venue doesn't do anything special in that regard. No signs or whatever; as far as we know, the only specific thing is that I wear a rainbow badge and a pronouns badge when I'm working there. I'm the only person that does, and I'm not there for all events by any means.

Perhaps someone just had a positive interaction with one of the staff. Whatever it was, it seems that small things can make a difference.

* When one's partner is the venue manager and an event is short staffed, one can find oneself on duty with no conscious memory of actually volunteering...

Can anyone recommend a good Matrix server in Australia?

A lot of people - including me at times - are saying that it is simple to tax billionaires.

Serious question: Aside from the political will to do so, *is* it simple?

I hate to say I’m desperate, but I haven’t had work in *months*. If anyone’s looking for a #freelance senior #wordpress #developer, please keep me in mind. I do full, custom theme builds, specialize in #accessibility and #semantic code, and am a great communicator about time estimates and budgets! My full portfolio is www.amberweinberg.com

If you don’t have any work, I would appreciate a boost 😊

#frontend #frontendDeveloper #development #WPJobs #needwork #hireme #hire #getfedihired

Ah StarGate SG-1. The USA negotiating on behalf of the entire planet with zero even hint of a suggestion that anyone else on Earth should be involved. And likewise no hint of irony in doing so.

Sigh...

If you think Substack is okay, read this:

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2026/feb/07/revealed-how-substack-makes-money-from-hosting-nazi-newsletters

And note that "Substack was contacted for comment but did not respond."

When you read Substack articles, subscribe to Substack or share links to Substack, you are, in your own small way, helping Nazi enablers. Yes, literal, not metaphorical or hyperbolical Nazis; actual real Nazis who wave swastikas around and think Hitler was the greatest.

#NaziBar

Does anyone know - personally, not hearsay or friend of of a friend - a person under the age of 16 who has been prevented from accessing any service on the Internet because of the Australian Government's recent "ban"?

For the record, I do not.

Can anyone recommend a wearable pulse monitor that doesn't do anything except log stuff, and deliver it up via eg Bluetooth or usb, without ever phoning home or requiring Internet access?

Ushered today at the Twyford in Merimbula for "Velveteen Rabbit". It's a play for children, put on by a Melbourne company called "Born in a Taxi". Cool name :-)

Anyhow, it may be a kids show, but there wasn't a dry adult eye in the place by the end. A beautiful story, from a hundred-year-old book.

If you get a chance to see it (or read the book), do. And definitely if you have kids.

@dgar Why would you boost a mile-long text bomb?!? Jeez. I've blocked Liv, the original poster.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-27/dpp-appeal-hearing-kristian-white-sentencing/105419188

"They're [police officers] not being trained to consider, in the heat of the moment, the sentence imposed in the courts on other police officers in the circumstances."

Then they are not being trained properly, and also apparently don't have the native intelligence to be trusted with weapons, regardless of their training.

There was "no heat of the moment". This wasn't a firefight, it didn't involve multiple baddies, there was no time pressure. It was one slow-moving 95 year old with a knife. They had all the time in the world to work out a peaceful resolution. They should have known that no realistic threat was posed and if, against all likelihood, one did develop, the taser was still there as a last resort.

This was an impatient, incompetent arsehole who should get jail time and be dismissed. His colleagues, who completely failed to stop him acting as he did, should be officially and publicly reprimanded.

Sometimes I think we should bring back the stocks.

This image shamelessly stolen from

https://ieji.de/@BlippyTheWonderSlug/114697318878433292

My brother is a seed breeder, and years ago he gave me a big bag of shucked maize cobs - several hundred I'd guess. He said they were good kindling. They are - if you light your fires with old diesel, the way he does :-) While they do burn well, they take a bit to get started.

Also many years ago, a bee-keeper asked if he could put a few hives on our place, so of course we said yes. Afterwards, he asked if we'd like some honey as a thank you. Sadly one of us is allergic, so we said "how about a little beeswax? We could make some candles". Next day he shows up with FIVE KILOS of beeswax. So we made candles. After which we had at least four kilos left:-)

So I made firelighters.

I put the wax in a tin and put the tin in a saucepan of water, then simmer the water until the wax is liquid. You need enough wax to get 5-10cm of molten wax. While it's melting, I grab a few cobs and get any stray kernels and silk off them. I lay out a bit of paper and a few twigs of bamboo to be a cooling rack, then dip the cobs in the wax. One at a time or as many as will fit, just be careful not to raise the wax level so far that it spills out of the tin!

After a few seconds I pull them out, let them drain excess wax back into the tin, blow on them to reduce drippage, and lay them on the twigs to cool properly. After twenty minutes they are ready to be put into a container and be used later as fire starters.

I've been doing this for years. There has been no noticeable decrease in the number of cobs I have in the big lidded plastic container (to keep them dry and safe from pests). Nor has there been much of a decrease in the amount of beeswax I seem to have left.

I wrap a bit of waste paper around a cob and light the paper with a match. The paper gets the wax alight, then the cob burns for a few minutes, helped by the wax. By that time the fire is generally well alight. It's possible to light the cob directly, but it takes a few matches.

Here's a pic of a bunch of cobs cooling. The weird colour is because a Small Person dropped a crayon into the melted wax...

PS: Safety tips: Have cold running water available in case you get hot wax on yourself. Leave the tin in the saucepan - harder to tip the tin, and if you do the wax will go into the saucepan. If little people are involved, do this at ground level, not on a bench, move the tin from the hot saucepan to a second, cold one without hot water, and watch out for little fingers going into the wax!

Once molten, the wax stays that way in the tin for ages, and forms a deceptive skin over still-molten wax. So when you're done, put the tin well out of reach in a safe place until the wax is completely solid again.

O Schadenfreude
O Schadenfreude
...

#AUSPol