octave

Yep, that is because it is largely bullshit. Yep is a few airports the arrivals boards have alternated (oh my god how will we cope) but I read an article that said that the name of Brisbane was going to change to the Aboriginal name/ As far as I can see this is hysterical bullshit designed to enraged those of limited intellect. I don't say this just out of gut feeling but I have searched for this (google is your friend) the best quote I came across was this (sorry for profanity) "Shock jocks building their own strawmen and then wanking themselves dry with rage. Nothing in it" I have seen this before. mabo ooooohhhh they will take people's houses. Gay marriage, oh next people will be wanting the right to marry animals. All right-wing bullshit. These people are just afraid of any change.

Still waiting for good arguments against it. Don't just say that "if I don't understand it I should squeal little girl and reject it. Give an example of a country where this kind of thing has been instituted and the wheels have fallen off.

the thing is that you are foolish enough to fall fall the medias outrage campaign https://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/annastacia-palaszczuk-says-reports-brisbane-may-be-renamed-to-indigenous-equivalent-absolute-nonsense/news-story/c29afdc2d5029d85ab9d63cd547702c1 Change of names is not this wholesale assault you folks believe it to be

And yet you will.

Still waiting. My point is that this change if anything thing too minimal, C'man tell me how this will wreck the country. It would be preferable if you didn't quote evangelical Christian groups, US conservative groups, or right-wing think tanks. I can tell you that I am open-minded but I will not settle for "derp I don't know what might happen so I can't vote for it, cus i do not have the intellectual capacity to research the implications myself" Give me meaningful factual well-researched arguments of f^^^ off"

I am waiting in great expectation for an INTELECTUAL argument against the flimsiest change to the constitution. It won't come because it is BS

No, we used fingers. I should say that if you asked, how do we take our coffee? the answer would be "very seriously" We buy green beans and roast them ourselves.

It is lucky we don't have coffee-coloured floor coverings,

I don't normally post in gripes because my life is pretty good and I am not impressed by whingers. This morning was not the best. My first task of the day is to make coffee for myself and my lovely wife. We are in the midst of installing a new rangehood in our kitchen so things are a bit unorganized. This morning the coffee bean canister slipped from my grasp. I did not drop the container but (lid off) did do that thing where you juggle an object before retaining control of it. This resulted in a majestic arc of coffee beans across my kitchen floor. If this is a gripe then it is a gripe of a privileged white bloke and does not deserve any sympathy at all as none is expected.

Oh no Norway and Finland will be ruined Sámi Parliament of Norway And what about poor Canada Indigenous Advisory Committee Oh no, what will become of Canada? Māori electorates NZ mm strange that they suffer under the oppressive yoke of a Maori parliament and yet seem happy enough.

(1) There shall be a body to be called the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice; (2) The Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice may make representations to the Parliament and the Executive Government of the Commonwealth on matters relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; (3) The Parliament shall, subject to this Constitution, have power to make laws with respect to matters relating to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Voice, including its composition, functions, powers and procedures. I am not particularly knowledgeable about constitutional law however I do like to think I am able to seek out and understand the opinions of those who are. I am more than happy to consider arguments that are well-presented but I don't like my intellect being insulted by the argument that "if you do not know you should vote No. Anyone who uses this argument to justify their vote seems pretty pathetic to me. Appeals based on fear are not persuasive to me. The invoking of "apartheid" is ridiculous. If anyone can read the actual referendum question and explain to me how this equates the apartheid I will be happy to consider the argument. Canada has an indigenous advisory committee. New Zealand has Maori parliament seats and Norway and Finland have the Saami parliament to advise the government. These countries are not basket cases. Don't fall for the scare campaign. In fact, NZ, Finland, and Norway score higher on the "happiness index" than Australia. This could be disputed but clearly, it hasn't made life unbearable in these countries, has it????? Apart from the pros and cons argument sometimes it is interesting to be curious about those who support one side or the other. If I were for a no vote (which I am not) I would be pretty embarrassed by those who are putting money into the no case. Indigenous voice: no campaign’s deep links to conservative Christian politics revealed It does require a rigorous level of persuasion to convince me of an argument where the main protagonists are The Institute of Public Affairs, Sky News (Bolt et al) Pauline Hanson, and others of the far right and other conservative groups. Mainstream churches are for the yes case however evangelicals are against it. I do not want to align with these people and organizations. Those who are against on this forum have been pretty lame at providing a strong no-case argument.

Sky News seems to be the only source I can find for this story and it seems to be very short on hard facts. I did find this story though. Annastacia Palaszczuk says reports Brisbane may be renamed to Indigenous equivalent ‘absolute nonsense’ I would have thought that if this were true it would be picked up by more than one news outlet.

"As one of the nearest star clusters to Earth and the most obvious star cluster in the night sky, the Pleiades does not require any special equipment to view. However, while most people see six stars upon first glancing up at the Pleiades, observing the cluster in dark skies and allowing your eyes to adjust to the dark could allow you to observe up to 14 Using a pair of binoculars or a small telescope will allow you to see even more stars. If you are looking for equipment to help you observe the Pleiades, our lists of the best binoculars and best" https://www.space.com/pleiades.html

I believe the Pleiades has around 3000 stars. 6 or 7 of these can be seen with the naked eye depending on eyesight and light pollution.

Not sure about that. Pleiades When I was a teenager I was obsessed with astronomy and had a reasonable telescope. the Pleiades were great to look at. Fun fact. Back in the seventies, our family car was an early Subaru. Does this look familiar? Yes, Peiiades is called Subaru in Japan and is the symbol far Subaru cars.

Here is an interesting article about The Economic Impact of Hosting the Olympics This is a couple of interesting quotes from the article. Los Angeles is the only host city that realized a profit from the games, mostly because the required infrastructure already existed The Bottom Line Hosting the Olympics tends to result in severe economic deficiencies for cities. Unless a city already has the existing infrastructure to support the excess crowds pouring in, not hosting the Olympics may be the best option.

I had forgotten about this but the Olympic stadium in Sydney was going to be demolished and rebuilt. Sydney Olympic Stadium set to be demolished and rebuilt less than 20 years after hosting successful Games Plan to demolish Sydney Olympic stadium delayed after backlash Luckily good sense prevailed. I am not suggesting that no money should go into this kind of thing or that extensive renovations should not be done. The problem is that these things tend to become about prestige, a competition between cities.

If everything has to be built anew each time then perhaps this is not economically sustainable. The practice of building Olympic or Commonwealth facilities in a new city every 4 years does seem a little crazy to me.

I wonder why the Olympics cant be hosted without building new facilities each time. One of the problems seems to be that each game has to big better than the last one. I am sure that most capital cities in Australia already have an Olympic-sized swimming pool and courts and fields etc.

Seems like a sensible decision to me. "What's become clear is that the cost of hosting these Games in 2026 is not the $2.6 billion which was budgeted and allocated," he said. Mr Andrews said the true cost was likely to be closer to $6 billion or $7 billion and the state simply could not afford it. "I will not take money out of hospitals and schools to host an event that is three times the cost estimated and budgeted for last year." My criticism of this government would be bidding for the games in the first place.

I used to be in a situation when I was woking at 2 music schools. at one school I was an employee and I could only claim travel if I had to transport my tools of trade (which I did) At the other school I was a contractor operating my own business so I could claim all sorts of inputs. Both jobs were otherwise just about identical. Precisely In my son's business let's say a programmer is tasked to write a bunch of code. This code has a value to the business and this value is the same whether it is written in the office or at someone's home.

There are all sorts of pros and cons when it comes to work from home. Some of these pros and cons benefit the employee and some the employer. During the pandemic I worked from home. I used my own internet connection and equipment provided my own work space which I also heated and cooled. I did not get compensated for these things however I did save heaps on transport and other expenses. Working from home may be ideal for some industries and not so for others. It is not a case of good vs evil. My son has a very successful computer games development company Most of his workers do work from home and some live overseas. This is an ideal situation for working from home. Other areas of enterprise would not be so suited Driving from my home into Melbourne at rush hour is insanely inefficient. The more workers who can work from home the less congestion in the roads or public transport. Perhaps we might even discover that we do not need to continually build more insanely expensive tunnels and roads.

Melbourne is the second fastest growing city in Aus after Brisbane. I don't think it is tumbleweeds any time soon.

I know that with the Westgate tunnel, there is a fixed contract and wage rises come out of the contractor's profit (although probably anticipated) and not the public purse at least according to this article. http://West Gate Tunnel workers reach pay deal: $300k a year. A government spokeswoman said the West Gate Tunnel was a fixed-price contract, meaning any added costs relating to wages would be absorbed by the builders. The only downside I can see is this (from the same article But shadow treasurer Louise Staley said the West Gate Tunnel worker salaries were incredibly large – even for the building industry – and this deal would set a precedent for future transport projects that would ultimately be paid for by the taxpayer. In any case blaming the state government is irrational as far as I can see.

This is not a subject that I am not passionate about nor am I particularly knowledgeable. I am just wondering how much a government can influence interest rates. When comes to modern economies It seems to me that when interest rates are high in one country they tend to be high in most countries despite governments of varied persuasions. I can't see anything particularly bad or good about our position compared to similar countries. https://tradingeconomics.com/country-list/interest-rate