Gorth

Damn, when did that happen??? I never even noticed the moment I turned alt right... please don't tell my friends!

I suddenly feel like playing the Flash Gordon sound track by Queen again

Well, besides being on a "budget", I also refused to spend more than a total of 15 minutes researching tonight, including which nearby dealer had it in stock so i can pick it up tomorrow (edit: and trying to figure whether IPS was a good or bad thing)

Got tired of sitting hunched over my work laptop, getting a sore back and neck from starting *down* at the monitor all the time, so relegating my current PC monitor to become external monitor for my laptop (and one of the spare DAS mechanical keyboards I have) so I can sit in a proper work position at home. Bought a new Philips 28in 4K IPS FreeSync Speaker Monitor (288E2A) No idea if it's good or bad, but my "budget" for impulse monitor purchases was around 400 Aussie dollars

Actually, I'm fully behind the decision, even if it doesn't affect me personally. I would also sit it out and wait down here if AZ or JJ were the only ones on offer. Even a low risk is too much if you don't strictly need the vaccine (yet) In Denmark's case, the infection rate is manageable as is, while they wait for better alternatives (or use Pfizer, even if more pricy) Edit: Danes don't trust large companies and organisations as a rule of thumb. Just check what happened with the Maastricht Treaty. Every man and his dog of the political and economical elite recommended unanimously across the political spectrum that they should vote 'Yes'. The rest is history, no trust in what comes from the EU whatsoever.

After banning the use of AZ vaccine last month, Denmark has now also put an end to any roll out of J&J vaccine as of today. Looks like they don't like the possible side effects... https://www.france24.com/en/europe/20210503-denmark-drops-johnson-johnson-shot-from-national-vaccine-rollout On a more positive side note, looks like their own, "homegrown" vaccine is ready for human testing https://dagensmedicin.dk/dansk-coronavaccine-klar-til-test-paa-mennesker/ Not much details: https://covidvax.org/covid19-vaccine/Statens/DNA---CoVAXIX-Statens-Serum-Institut DNA based whatever that means

"If involuntary force shaping is required..." sounds very ominous But it also sounds like they had too many people in roles that had little to do with a rapid, naval based response force. I know we can't really compare them to 18'th and 19'th century marines, but there used to be a tradition for marines being effectively a ship based fighting force that could protect the ship and crew as well as secure beachheads etc.

Indeed. And the port facilities were just the tip of the iceberg... https://www.news.com.au/finance/economy/australian-economy/how-much-of-australia-does-china-own/news-story/a0a710be9cbd78923c7500c147f4e764 Dairy companies, farmland, educational facilities, real estate in center of the large cities, energy companies, it companies etc. "A number of Australian energy companies, for example, are owned by Chinese firms. EnergyAustralia, despite its name, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Hong Kong-based China Light and Power Co Ltd, while Alinta Energy is owned Chow Tai Fook Enterprises. Earlier this year, leaked documents obtained by the ABC and Nine Newspapers revealed that Alinta was potentially putting the personal data of its 1.1 million gas and electricity customers at risk with what an insider described as a “reckless approach to privacy and data”. The sale of $4 billion sale of Alinta to the Chinese energy giant was signed off by then-Treasurer Scott Morrison in 2017 under a series of 10 secret FIRB conditions, largely related to data security." I.e. selling out of Australia AND Australians including all their personal info to the Chinese government. At least Facebook tries to be a bit less obvious about it and hide it (when they sell your details). Makes it easier to keep an eye on expats and dissidents in exile I presume. It's only very recently that the Scott Morrison government decided that maybe China actually owning so much of Australia wasn't such a hot idea. I doubt he thought it up himself, as he does have a few "hawks" in his government who seems to have raised the red flags (pun unintended) at his current and previous actions. Slamming the door shut on Huawei telling them they weren't going to build and manage Australia's 5g infrastructure after all was probably the first sensible thing he (unwillingly) did. Edit: The biggest problem with getting rid of Morrison is, he has perfected the art of lying. Might have something to do with his background, being from the world of marketing. He can bull**** people like no other. His lies have sometimes been so outrageous, he makes Trump look like a sane and honest person. Unfortunately, Australia also has a large population in more rural areas who are less educated. Not stupid, just less educated and less savvy in the world of politics and believes what they hear. It really is in many ways a third world country ruled by conservative and religious forces. The church is incredibly powerful down here here, as we saw when they managed to avoid being held accountable for the thousands of cases of child rape that got revealed by a Royal Commission and even managed to get Cardinal Pell out of jail and on a plane to the Vatican in the middle of a complete lockdown, as long as the price was right ($2m dollars paid by the Vatican to get him out of jail and away from the press), but that's sort of irrelevant to the China situation, just one of the reasons a conservative government can be hard to get rid of, no matter how incompetent they are.

Looks like our glorious leader (/sarcasm) Scott Morrison is having second thoughts about his party previously selling out of Australia to the Chinese... https://www.aljazeera.com/economy/2021/5/3/australia-says-its-reviewing-the-chinese-ownership-of-a-port (Al Jazeera link because Bloomberg has a paywall) https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/may/03/darwin-ports-chinese-owner-says-it-will-cooperate-with-australian-defence-review\ Short version. In 2015 the Liberal Party (not to be confused with the US use of the word liberal, it's the governing right-wing party), sold out the rights to Darwin harbour to a Chinese company. Never mind that it was and is a very important, strategically, place. Now buckling under internal pressure, he has decided that maybe it was not a particularly clever idea... "The defence minister, Peter Dutton, confirmed on Monday that his department was reviewing the 2015 agreement between the Northern Territory’s then-Country Liberal party (CLP) government and the Landbridge Group. The review comes after Scott Morrison said last week he would take seriously any new advice from defence and security agencies. The federal opposition accused the Coalition government of dragging its feet, saying it was only now acting after “six years of warnings”, while the Liberal MP Andrew Wallace told Sky News the original deal was “absolute madness”." ... "On Monday the federal Labor party said it had long raised concerns about the Port of Darwin, which it described as a “critical strategic asset for Australia”, being under “effective foreign ownership”. The party’s foreign affairs spokesperson, Penny Wong, and her defence colleague, Brendan O’Connor, said the Coalition had voted last year against an amendment to the government’s foreign veto laws that would have ensured the Port of Darwin deal could be reviewed. “Now that it is becoming a political problem, Mr Morrison is engaging in more of his usual political management – after failing to show leadership for six years,” Wong and O’Connor said. “Australia needs leaders who will act strategically in the national interest – not someone who’s only interested in political management.” Wong and O’Connor said the Port of Darwin was used by the defence forces of visiting allies and partners in addition to the ADF, “so we would expect that Defence is also seeking their views as part of this review”. The original deal prompted diplomatic ripples with the US, with Barack Obama raising it during a meeting with Malcolm Turnbull in Manila in late 2015. The US – which rotates Marines through the NT – was unhappy it was not kept in the loop, but Turnbull suggested that US officials “should invest in a subscription to the Northern Territory News because it was not a secret”." In short, now that military conflict no longer looks like some kind of abstract impossibility, the message seems to be: Our harbour, beat it, we need it ourselves...

I've been in plenty of accidents where I should've died, but I guess near death experiences don't count Reminds of the questionnaire I sometimes had to fill out in the airplane when transiting through the US (when transiting through US airports on the way to Europe). One of the questions goes something along the lines of do you intend to commit an act of terror in the US or something similar. It's hard not to suppress a chuckle. I always wondered what the heck would happen if you ever checked that box?

I'm not much of an economist, these are the guys you'll have to convince: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/107919/1/Hope_economic_consequences_of_major_tax_cuts_published.pdf (this is the research referenced in my post)

That the trickle-down effect of tax breaks for the rich (top 1 percent ) somehow benefits the economy is an urban legend... it only makes the rich even richer and doesn't create any positive side effects, like jobs or stimulating the economy. https://www.salon.com/2020/12/27/50-year-study-of-tax-cuts-on-wealthy-shows-they-always-fail-to-trickle-down/ The result of a study spanning the last 50 years. Ediit: You can find the same study referenced on multiple sites, including nytimes and washington post, but they just offer their own take on the result.

Footage from the 3rd annual Fastracs auto football (soccer) game...

War is not a human exclusive thing apparently. I've never heard of this one before (having only watched old BBC series showing ants going to war) An analysis of the Gombe Chimpanzee war 1974-1978 when two Chimpanzee communities went to war against each other Yes, the spears are a stupid post-op by someone, the war and the bloodshed was real though...

I'm sure I once saw a TV series called Kindred (iirc). I kept thinking the old VMBL game was based on the same setting. The clans sure had similar names, so I'm curious to see what they would do with something made this side of the millennia (the old series was from the 90's).

Tim Minchin covering some very important subjects... feminism, poverty, the environment and boobs!

In a first for Australia, it's now a criminal offense for Australian citizen to return to Australia... if you travel from India that is. Australian citizens returning home from India could face up to five years in jail and fines after the government made the journey temporarily illegal. The health ministry said the ruling had been made "based on the proportion of people in quarantine who have acquired a Covid-19 infection in India". https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-56953052 "From Monday, anyone who has been in India within 14 days of their intended arrival date in Australia will be banned from entering the country. Failing to comply with the new ruling could result in a five-year jail sentence, an A$66,000 (£37,000) fine, or both. The decision will be reviewed on 15 May, the health ministry said." "Anyone" meaning Australian citizen as they are currently the only ones allowed to enter Australia (except Kiwis, who also are free to travel from NZ to Australia).

More like herd mentality, but I'm prejudiced against populist governments.

Look on the bright side. Even if you are the unlucky 10% one, being vaccinated means its very unlikely to kill you or give life long aftereffects. Your family might appreciate it

Maybe not all was well in the Fuhrer bunker? A bit of petty rivalry about who is the most favored follower? Or maybe he just forgot it was his boss that holding the leash of the head of doj at the time. Not surprised if Fox would have tried to pin it on Obama though. He's behind everything from Covid to Global Warming in their world Edit: Just kidding of course, in the world of Rupert Murdoch (Fox), there is no such thing as global warming, it's all a hoax. Not kidding about that part, he did try to pass off the bushfires down here as an organized army of arsonists running around in the bush starting fires, because there no such as climate change.

Not an anti-vax'er per se, just a bit apprehensive. Australian roll-out is a complete disaster (thank you Scott Morrison for your ineptitude), so no appointments yet. As for being apprehensive, it's a sort of traumatic childhood experience where my small pox vaccine almost killed me and I ended up hospitalized. Makes me glower very suspiciously at any needle approaching my skin with the intent to penetrate said skin

Stated a new game of Pillars of Eternity. I never completed the game. Ended up last time struggling to decide which companions to keep and which to drop. Still not sure who I want to keep this time, but I still got some time to think about it, as I only just made it to the main map. Edit: I didn't have the dlc's first time around, so as good a reason as any to pick up the game again

Not questioning the science. Questioning the Bolsonaro governments handling of the pandemic and all things around it... Ok, maybe just all things Bolsonaro and his motives. https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-56913943 "Only around 13% of Brazilians have received one vaccine dose and 6% both shots: slow procurement is one of the issues a senate inquiry will now examine, since the government turned down offers of tens of millions of shots from Pfizer last year. The parliamentary commission could recommend the president's impeachment or even criminal charges. Mr Bolsonaro has been bullish as ever, threatening to send in the army to stop states locking down. And his supporters claim the government could not have purchased vaccine doses sooner, since it was waiting for approval from Brazil's health regulator." Yeah, sending in the army to prevent lockdowns and measures that could prevent the spread of the virus. Refusing not only the Russian vaccine, but telling Pfizer to take their vaccine and leave, not wanted here.... You would think the guy really want his people to die in droves.