Huge vote of confidence for Doohan there, jeez.

"Ticketing giants Ticketmaster and Ticketek have defended the practice, saying prices were set by artists and their teams, and that demand-driven pricing mitigates the problem of ticket scalping."

People were fed up with scalpers overcharging for tickets, so we decided to overcharge in their place. Problem solved, you're welcome!

"The Biodiversity Council said a “first-pass assessment” had found the Australian government spent about 50 times more subsidising activities that damaged the environment – including clearing and degradation of nature for mining, agriculture, native forest logging and road construction – than on helping biodiversity."

This was a cheap and easy announcement for the feds, with no real work being done. Very little is done to protect continental offshore environments and we will lose the Great Barrier Reef as a result.

Nah, can't chew bro.

When I say "herbal" you say "no, thanks"

He was not given a fine, it was suspended for 12 months. He has essentially escaped consequence, which is just so disappointingly unsurprising for Western Australia.

TL;DR: "ORNL has a high level of confidence that all data indicate the material was manufactured terrestrially—albeit using an uncommon mixture of elements by today’s standards—and then incurred damage caused by mechanical and heat stressors".

My father-in-law is from Burkina, and his family, including my brother-in-law, still live there. The rejection of ECOWAS and the alliance with Mali and Niger is popular, owing mostly to what I'd describe as a general anti colonialist and, particularly, anti French sentiment, which I suppose is understandable.

The article talks about how the countries have rejected French military aid, but the overwhelming opinion I hear from any of the expats I talk with is that the French were only there to protect their mineral interests and provided minimal aid outside of that.

Ultimately, the combined military power of all three nations is not enough to fend off the insurgency. They are further hampered by inter-ethnic conflict, and I very much doubt that Russia will be able to provide any meaningful support, especially for free. This all leads to intense civilian suffering which, in my opinion, requires UN intervention. Unfortunately unless the military junta suddenly reverses its opinion on western influence, this is unlikely to happen.

Oh that's interesting, I definitely get a depth of field with the other two, but you're right that this one is much more pronounced. In any case, I didn't make them. They were produced in the early 1800s by Ben Franklin, and it wouldn't feel right to edit them (not that I have the know-how).

There's a centre of mass joke in here somewhere

And only with consent

Honestly, it sounded like my Nan when she's got her teeth out

I'd wager she decided on doing it before she lost her round.

She knew very well that it would lead to disqualification, but used her platform in a much more powerful way than continuing in the competition. Big respect, she's a badass.

Well, well, well... If it isn't the entirely avoidable consequences of my own actions.

It is, but the great barrier Reef is within the tropics and so undergoes more of a wet/dry season instead of summer/autumn/winter/spring.

All day long on the chaise longue

If you haven't heard it before, please listen to the song "The Band Played Waltzing Matilda" by Scottish-Australian songwriter Eric Bogle. That song, as well as "I Was Only 19" by Redgum, perfectly encapsulates the reason for the memorials.

The songs do not glorify our success as a military nation, nor do they portray the soldiers they are about as grand heros or defenders of freedom. They are about very young men, sent away by their country to experience unimaginable horror and suffering, only to return to a home with, at best, minimal support and, at worst, the shame of the community they once were a part of.

Each name on each of those memorials- thousands of them- represent an experience of the unimaginable, and a family irreparably changed. They are a reminder of what was taken, and of the sorrow that was caused. I do not see them as prideful, celebratory or reverential, and I do not know of anyone who does. They are a commiseration.

With regards to ANZAC, and it's place in Australian culture, you are essentially looking at modern Australia's foundational myth. In the 1950s and 1960s when Australia was having its own civil rights moment, the original foundation myth of terra nullius and the "brave", white settlers conquering an untamed land finally began to feel too untrue to most Australians, too much like a myth. Colonial Australia needed a new explanation for its existence and it is around that time that the Gallipoli campaign started to be promoted by various historians and authors as Australia's "coming of age" as a nation.

The intention was to give (white) Australians a point of reference for themselves, something they could point to and say "the things that we are, this is where they came to be". Qualities like mateship, camaraderie, larrakinism, hard work, disdain for authority or aristocracy and resilience in the face of adversity. Those were the qualities promoted as being cemented in the national psyche at ANZAC Cove. It is a manufactured narrative, but those writers were very successful, as you can see.

There's more that can be said for Australia treats it's narrative history, especially that of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders, but that's better left for another (long) post. If you're interested in how Australia viewed it's two competing foundational stories in the 1990s and 2000s, and how it effects the way we talk about our history today, look up the History Wars. Let me know if you think there was a winner.

Depends what his labour costs are. I wouldn't think they'd be below $100/hr, most nobody is these days. Did he say if he was quoting genuine or aftermarket parts? Genuine pricing of $10-$20 a plug and $150 for pads and suddenly the labour cost doesn't seem so high.