-YT-

Mad Max Fury Road is fucken wild assuming most will either love it or hate it. There's a lot of allegory and symbolism in there about life and human nature, more is fleshed out in the comics. Junkie XL soundtrack is tight - dark, moody and ominous. Furiosa probably the most kick ass female lead since aliens! Wordburger.....Tyrant

Perhaps Stu, although was more hoping it is something like people have become concerned about the direction of society, rising inequalities, mass illusions and what they will cost us all down the line, probably overly optimistic? Could society eradicate prejudice? certainly but it would take enormous effort around the same that is used to rain down approved Gov speak unto us

Tis a strange sort of world where we hype up the civilization and yet the sordid past we have barely moved on from haunts many aspects of society. Jim Crow and white Australia weren't that dissimilar in action and intent, as the emancipation proclamation wasnt exactly the end of slavery except on paper the resistance unfortunately spawns even more deviously subversive controls to maintain hierarchy like segregation/jim crow laws. Also the implied economic self determination most enjoy is precarious at best as the west's manufacturing sector has learnt - obviously those at the bottom struggle even more and potential for generational disadvantage. Has been a fair bit of protest in Great Britian past few years with all the austerity going on and very much along class and racial divides coupled with poor policy in regards to social cuts, housing issues and lack of job/wage growth very much seems to creating life times of debt/disadvantage. Been a bit of coverage albeit again mostly when a window is broken and or someone writes swears on a nationalistic symbol. We are fairly tame here compared although sure there was a moment of tension when all those cops rocked up to break up the knitting Nannas hahaha apparently with riot gear? Does raise some interesting aspects in regards to property rights being valued more than opposing ideology that are attached to living humans. The black block like smashing up shit and raising hell over in Canada but then they also have some really intelligent and innovative ideas like street theater protest marches etc

Glad you enjoyed yourself random! hoping you make it to more in the future So the next meet is on the 10th of May which is also Mothers day not sure how busy peeps will be? - depending might postpone.

Great article and fucken lame that not that many other journos leap onto this data but were more than happy to spruik the propaganda. About a year out from the election with most of the noise of the past months reflecting negatively on the coalition seems to be a mad scramble to be seen as "doing something" to generate a semblance of credibility which is sorely lacking lol, In terms of a PR clean up it seems to have worked to a degree. Morgan poll is supposed to be fairly accurate in terms of engaging a large sample of voters and wider demographics ie not just landlines on saturdays which is so like 80s.

Looking like it should be a fairly nice day weather wise tomoz. Will probably rock up around 12:30-1ish at the usual spot - if anyone needs details on where to meet pm me otherwise see ya's there

Reminder about the meet this sunday

Have been pondering lately the ongoing and potential of changes in climate and how that will affect the mycology of the south/se in the future. Some recent modelling suggests drastic drops in average rainfalls in these areas over autumn and winter, With some scenarios suggesting SA and a large part of Victoria could become desert by 2100. Any thoughts Zen/Obtuse?

Bump, Two weeks away from today (12th of April) hoping we can get a good turn out

Dunno i mean you could just like check display name history on the persons profile or is that too hard?

Meet is on again this sunday, notsure how busy peeps are with maitreya n womad on but ill be at the gardens from about midday.

The opposition is in opposition to being the opposition! Notsure if its the bias showing or not but shorten doesnt seem be getting as much media play as abbot did. When hasnt there been bipartisan support for such issues, time and again both major partys fold. Assuming the costs of all this which is quite significant will flow onto consumers? now theres some trickle down effect! lol.

protective service officers sounds weird like corporate security or something lol, does seem like we could streamline that shit with facial recognition via train & station cameras cross reference it against all that yummy meta data for uber scrutiny, re-purposing those jobs and more importantly the wasted pay checks a computer will do for free!

shit how? like the taste or effect....? Guess it largely depends on the source, but years ago there was good kava around. all depends how much dirt water you can handle but i enjoyed it more so than alcohol. Should be some older threads from years ago when the banning happened, there were a couple communities that had alcohol bans but were using kava thinking it was around northern qld maybe around your way katu? Be interesting if there's any data on the social dynamics of alcohol dry kava using communities to those without access to it ie is there less other substance abuse etc. see if i can find any infos

Heretic!!!!!!! (jokes) got sent some pseudo scientific religious propaganda from the witnessess on the evils of blood transfusions as an example of some good ole fashion madness, i thought it was funny till i realized people in that circumstance would rather die than have a transfusion over a belief... Anyways like what gtarman said about if its bunk and we do something? sounds like we would end up with a better world all round. There does seem to be indications though, how business respond to wide spread criticisms, burying/skewing of useful data usually known before the fact, deregulation of the market especially fossil fuels/Energy, mining etc, Use of state sanctioned security by private industry to investigate and potentially disrupt social dissent ie anti nuclear prostest, animal rights etc and of course the foreign interventions mostly to secure access to future energy supplies. None of which is new but highlights more so than plain greed is the fear of change, loss of power, status, control etc. You can see it with our coalition government how the ideology is at odds with the growing concerns of the public and the evidence, the mad scramble to re-establish their beliefs and suppress information in the public domain. Personally tend to feel the transition and eventual change to renewable's and all that entails for society and civilization is an inevitable process. It is obvious from history how human endeavors have changed the landscapes and impacted flora and fauna usually in detrimental ways we do not fully understand, but also unforeseen natural changes have severely marked the globe - that is generally life on earth. The current rate of consumption and expansion though is first in human history all this in a sense is new a global experiments of sorts which for the most part seems to have failed. Mainstream media has kinda gone orwellian hahah, just the basic lack of coverage on various issues and failure of journalistic integrity - proper research and asking the questions people want answered leaves much to be desired.

mmm political railroading if there ever was one...

Bump For this sunday, looking like it should be a nice day

Wasnt 12k years ago around about the last ice age? Do remember Graham hancock in one of his books talking about global flood myths which i guess makes sense with all the melting ice/glaciers after the last ice age assuming most settlements were and or around coastal areas would be devastating with the sea level rise. There was some interesting developments in research in regards in Neanderthal culture in the past few years the consensus for the most part was something like they had rudimentary language/cultural/societal & tool making development but some finds tools etc with artistic like engravings etc denote the use of artistic symbolism relating to cultural/spiritual belief/practice which perhaps leads to the thought that they might have been more culturally advanced than previously given credit for also the ideas around there hunting practices ie from being scavengers too apex predators which obviously denotes a degree of social and communicative skill/organisation. Forsure WW there are still huge gaps in our understanding of the development of our species, although there could be some possible explanations such as continent/tectonic plate/ movements/ drift, climate pressures / changing bio-regions/ecosystems conflict/migration etc not that im saying this is in any way an explanation for certain but could account for some of the diffusion/evolutionary pressures etc. In regards to concrete evidence (skeletons/bones) too give credence to any definitive theory im not so sure it will be forthcoming as such not to say we cant or will grasp a more clear cut picture in time.

yeah has been weird in terms of what we like to call the history of politics here. But the only real stand out for me is that people are perhaps again realizing the power of their vote, seems the growing discontent with both party's is starting to rise probably a while off but could be something like the Greece situation in time. Doubtful Labor will repeal vlad and or much of newmans changes like will they rehire the 14000 government sector jobs cut etc. Their track record is just as poor as the lnp and like you say the lack of a game plan should sound alarms lol

Great question Gimli! I actually did type out a more fleshed out response involving those topics but than decided to edit it lol i spent like an hour or so just thinking/typing stuff. I guess i didnt state my stance as such besides my lack of faith in the ability of the state as an arbiter of life & death policy/decision. Not so much an issue in oz but there is much data to support the failings of the judicial system in the states and many other not as constitutionally advanced nations. Recently a man from Aleppo was beheaded for "sorcery" for basic street magic ie card/coin tricks etc as an extreme example of capital punishment gone awry. Interestingly in the states 2/3rs of executions were held in the southern states and primarily the convicts were African Americans who had committed murder etc against Anglo's. Something of similarity though is the value of status via buying power ie if you can afford a good enough defense you most probably wont be fully prosecuted and or in various circumstance killed via the state something not afforded to most people of low socio- economic situation. An injustice to the inherent notions of democracy as a socially viable concept for living. The more one looks into such cases it becomes apparent how stacked the judiciary is if you arent a top notch criminal lawyer or wealthy individual. Honestly Gimli i have no idea on the prospects for rehabilitation for such offenders, obviously if you have already done a deed as such im fairly certain (at least in my mind) to a degree of reason most people are aware of what they are doing albeit disregard or otherwise fail to fully grasp the impacts, whether thats a personal failure or a larger societal fault both points could be argued. that said there are so many variables in every case its hard to make a broad generalization. Do i think they can be rehabilitated? again its hard to quantify for the most part i believe the exclusion and life confinement from society for most repeat/long term offenders with no hope of rehabilitation is a viable alternative rather than state sanctioned death. In regards to Lex Tailonis i would like to think i am a civilized person in as much as i would put my trust in the system to fairly judge the convicted, but again to be honest im uncertain heh. its something ive pondered on as a philosophical exercise of sorts, im extremely close to my immediate family brothers/sisters etc if some circumstance were to happen upon them again its so variable but in some instances i guess i would certainly contemplate retribution as most probably would (i do realise the barbarity of such but we are human lol). How would i feel about a case as such? hard to say i guess at the end of the day one would have to justly pay via confinement as is the norm within our society for the action no matter how justifiable it may be at the end of the day. So onto Myuran & Andrew should they die for their mistakes? in my mind no. but how much punishment is justifiable in this circumstance? it has been a decade which is a fairly long time in terms of human life but is it enough etc? it is worth noting how much the Indonesian government has rallied to get their own citizens off death row in other countries so i guess they are kinda hypocritical?

Interesting in terms of we have known they would eventually be executed but left it all to now to kick up a stink which primarily seems to be instigated by the media at a time with low coalition ratings im not gonna to say its an all out distraction as the topic is quite hefty. The media timing as per usual is questionable but nothing new there. There was a vigil for Van Nguyen... in Singapore no where near the support of this particular instance although social media etc probably played a role. Off course they wouldn't have turned to god/art if they were successful. in most situations people would tend to take the path of least resistance in a foreign jail i would assume it would be no different whether the rehabilitation is truly real or an affront is hard for us too answer. that said certainly some would spend the time in self reflection and indeed ten years is much time to contemplate past motivations, personal growth etc. Capital punishment has always been a heavy topic,imo not so sure the courts of men are as just as we would like to think they are certainly many instances of death being given for false convictions stacked/mock courts, ideology, emotion etc. Its kinda weird to read about some of the more high profile public executions and trials leading to them (especially in the recent past) the amount of blood lust the public exhibited was sickening.

Interstellar was enjoyable (well better than i thought it would be) probably liked the robots/AI the most lol Fury was kinda tedious, good for small insights into tank operation back then but also like American Sniper cant help but see a large propagandist element to the film. Sniper does albeit briefly touch on the personal impacts to family, PTSD etc but does fail to really show the larger societal costs how it effects broads swathes of the population/family's veterans support/issues/disability/incarceration etc etc. Also the Us vs them black&white kinda perspective of "fighting evil" was hard to buy, it does show the protagonist struggling with personal doubts although if one reads his memoirs he said he had no such issues killing what he termed "savages" in the name of freedom or whatever he thought it was for...

Next meet is 2 weeks away - 8th of feb for those interested!

Quite an interesting and deep history to consider. In regards to the loss of artisanship and the rise of industrialization along with the progressing automation/large scale production - compartmentalization and divison of labor were seen as key behavioral aspects which increase productivity whilst weakening the workers, especially in terms of bargaining power. Skilled workers could unite and demand improved conditions or strike and cost the business even more in lost profits, dividing the labor into smaller specialized roles lessening the overall skill level needed and placed most in precarious positions of employment where basically anyone could twist a nut onto a bolt or whatever. In todays world we basically have the evolved form of thus where extremely low skilled jobs in production and factory line are usually low cost, low wage, poor condition type scenarios and more often then not these are filled by the lower stratum of society in the developing nations mostly regional farmer family's. During and after the Second great migration of African Americans from the south to the northern citys and towns around 1940 to the 70s most men were working in manufacturing and production type jobs which were well payed and afforded good lives and prospects for familys relative to the climate of the still freshly remembered history of treatment in the south. When the manufacturing sector started to move offshore and many jobs where lost there occur interesting correlations, obviously poverty & crime increased significantly but especially around the time that liberation movements were gaining momentum (60s) heroin flooded the ghettos and again crack in the 80s decimating communities till this day but also it involves another labor control mechanism in prison labor and the probationary controls upon release extremely curtail many employment opportunities. The initial loss of economic self determination/gainful employ for whole sectors of communities along with education and other factors & continuation of such really doesnt bode well for the want of a healthily functioning society. Power dynamics in regards to the managerial class, cultural reinforcement i did mention think protestant work ethic or status via commodity & education/propaganda, Nonemployment as in bullshit jobs/unjobs where they are kinda basically meaningless outside the cultural paradigm and the personal and cultural effect these have are all worth further thought

It is interesting and teo did mention agrarian cultures and the medieval ages spring to my mind in terms of the societal outlay, for even those poorly serfs at the bottom where bound to their parcel of land by law and usually the only real way to remove then was with death. Another aspect is the level of artisanship employed has seen a steady decline and along with it the meaning behind it. A good example is weaving thread/fabric & pattern design once held a certain amount of inherent meaning the patterns and designs themselves and the skill of remembering and employing such designs were extremely valuable. Now certainly a large amount of cultural reinforcement is involved here albeit and again this is largely dependent of the society this may not necessarily be a negative connotation if the reinforcement involves the true cost/impact/value of the product/procedure being utilized. 40hrs does seem kinda breezy compared to the 12/14hr day in day out work we have lumped onto the developing nations