I'm already annoyed that money is buying special treatment.

If police came to my house after a family violence incident, found stolen property in my bedroom as well as drugs, I can't see any way I'd be awaiting trial outside a cell. On top of that, this guy is allowed to leave the state to go visit his mum.

It's a big club and we're not in it.

Messages, content and influencers once confined to fringe or radicalised online communities are now showing up in young men’s social media feeds. Young men don’t necessarily seek out this content, the algorithm takes them to it.

What’s striking is how these manosphere ideologies show up and spread – embedded within the culturally relevant topics and trends young men care about, such as gaming, fashion, sports and music.

For the Midland line commuters.

Who the hell is referring to a modern quarantine facility as a "white elephant"?! We were furious at the start of Covid that we didn't have suitable quarantine facilities. I'm still mad about it.

And apparently people have been talking of re-purposing the facility we built for other stuff like prison overflow or homeless people? No!! We need a safe place where people can quarantine if required! Now we have one, that is what it's bloody for!! It's not a white elephant!

Why the hell can't politicians think past next week?

In 48 hours, my parcel has managed a little under 20km and hasn't actually left Sydney yet. I was sorta hoping to get the goods by the weekend. I'll be lucky to get them in March. According to the same tracking page: "This parcel is on time. Expected to arrive Mon 30 – Tue 31 Mar".

I can get parcels from Hong Kong, including customs clearance quicker than this. 😢

I spotted a tiny blurb in the paper this morning about this incident, so Googled the case. Lots of news sites reporting it, but they're all essentially re-wording this NSW Police press release and using stock photos.

On one hand, I think just about all of us did this as kids at some point. But it was always on private land/dirt tracks. Never on a major highway at 1:30am relying on the kid to steer while dad was struggling to stay awake. This is next-level irresponsible.

I was just thinking of this dude this week and it turns out he was sentenced. Why we need politician input into that eludes me. Where is Ja Rule?

That video is wild! He truly was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. I wonder whether the driver of that Mitsubishi is aware of the bullet they dodged?

I know that road at the end - he's tearing down Birdwood Pde at 125km/h where he loses control.

The West's version of this story was all about how AI was causing people to get fined and lose their licenses. Even the ABC story is going on about AI catching people out.

Why are we as a society incapable of accepting responsibility for our actions? It isn't a speed camera's fault for catching you speeding. It isn't an AI's fault for catching you using a phone or not wearing seatbelts while driving.

Yeah, it's rough to be fined because your passenger wasn't wearing a seatbelt. If they're an adult, I think you should be able to nominate them as the recipient of the fine.

Yet again, I'm buying gifts for people and need gift ideas. This crowd really came through last year and I'd love to try it again!

I don’t want to make rules, but I think we need a couple:

1. Let’s at least cap them at $50ish. Telling people you want a DJI Drone, a Steam Deck or PS5 simply isn’t realistic. I’m not looking for ideas in that price range (even though I’d probably love all these, myself).
2. Avoid intimate stuff. I’m not talking sex toys (though avoid those too - I’m not buying my sister-in-law a dildo), but more things that are really personal like jewellery, watches and stuff that you need to know the person’s tastes to get right.

I know - you're very probably already sixteen. That's why we are here.

If you've managed to miss the coming change in the law, I envy you. This silly law has taken up several hours of my year that could have been spent doing something more productive like watching Golden Girls.

But, the law is here now and we need to take "Reasonable Steps" to ensure that everyone is over sixteen. If you are wondering what "reasonable steps" is, then join the club. Nobody really knows. What I do know is that we have to start to make an effort to be sure that no young'uns are here against the law.

To that end, we have hired a helpful bot called Molly. She's an expert at being sixteen and she's just been told that it's her job is to verify all your ages. Here she is:

What's next? Well, in the first phase we ask that you drop her a Message that verifies you are over 16. She doesn't want to see your government ID. Some ideas that she would accept are:

1. A passenger takes a photo of your username on a sheet of paper with you driving (please don't make this one a selfie). Faces not required.
2. A photo of your username with a glass of alcohol at a bar.
3. A convincing spiel that would only come from someone older than sixteen (Can you tell Molly who Samantha is?). Can you tell her about the Breakfast Club that only 70's/80's kids from Queensland would know?
4. Anything else you can think of that only someone over sixteen could/would do.

There's no need to spend a lot of time on this. At this point, I'll go through the users who have messaged her and compile a list of people who have verified their age. You can be creative. Just be aware that there's an infinitesimal chance (but not zero) that whatever you send may be sent to some government agency to demonstrate that we are complying with the law.

Frequently Asked Questions:

1. How do you know that the user isn't faking their submission? I don't. No method is perfect, we saw kids defeating intricate and expensive verification systems earlier this year. Kids are smart.
2. How do you stop a kid from moving their account to one of the thousands of non-Australian Lemmy Instances and just continuing on with their day? I can't. The fact that the law is totally ineffectual in the context of Lemmy is beside the point. We clearly meet the definition of a Social Media platform according to the law, and we are based in Australia. So we have to comply, even if it is pointless.
3. Are you aware that this is pointless and kids are going to get around it? I know that teenage-me sure would have. But again, that's beside the point. We need to comply with the law.
4. Will you accept a photo of me in my undies? Ok, this one isn't frequent from previous discussions on the law, but I wanted to include it in case. Please don't send NSFW photos to show you are over age.

... and twenty percent of the web.

Majority of Liberals wanted net zero gone
The shadow ministry met for about three hours on Thursday morning to set the path forward, a day after Liberal MPs and senators converged on Canberra for a mammoth net-zero-themed party room meeting.

Each of the 49 members present on Wednesday was offered five minutes to speak on the topic, and while there was no formal vote, Liberals all agreed that there were more people opposed to the target than in favour.

See - this is a serious problem: As a result of the party's shoddy stance on climate, despite the electorate making it crystal clear they want this, they're listening internally the few members who were elected - and not all the members who failed to be elected.

How can the party look at the success of the Teal movement, which is essentially 'Liberals who care about climate', and not see the picture being painted? Surely you should look at all the seats you didn't win and ask "why?"