Assisted by officers from the EPA, police obtained a noise decibel reading high enough to warrant entering the premises and placing the woman under arrest.

I'm sure the massive stack of previous attendances made all the difference to the response, but I do find the idea amusing that this lady was playing her music loud enough that the cops actually went in and arrested her for it - must have been jolly loud...

I've used Arch with Cinnamon as the DE for the last five(ish) years. I used to run Mint (which is what got me onto Cinnamon) on my previous desktop but figured I'd try something else. I'd often come across helpful info on the Arch wiki when I needed to look stuff up so decided I might as well go with that, and it's worked out fine (ok, I did get the system to not boot fully once due to an update issue, but I sorted it without reinstalling).

That shouldn't be a surprise - all the affordability problems are still there as the price falls are so far minimal, then add in a well publicised potential to financially screw yourself by spending years owing more than the property you buy ends up being worth.

Last year, Australia showed how unengaged and racist this country remains by refusing to insert an Indigenous advisory voice

Convenient that the author forgot to mention that the very person they're writing about was a vocal No voter. You can say many things about Lydia Thorpe but politically unengaged is not one of them, and while she might be a little bit racist it's definitely not against Indigenous people.

I'll also note that the Tent Embassy had a giant banner hung up urging people to vote No, guess they're all politically unengaged and racist...

It will be an offence to use a carriage service to access material on the manufacture or modification of guns and accessories, as well as other explosives or lethal devices.

This has such broad potential for misapplication, but apparently everyone throws critical thinking out the window because guns are scary...

I think the gun number limit is also a kneejerk reaction playing more on people's fears rather than actually being logical, but at least it's affecting less people than the above.

One of the places I work at has a display cabinet showing historical media formats and devices, seeing things in it like the zip disc and the Sony camera that took floppies always makes me feel like Elrond:

From my reading it's going to be the same campgrounds that already exist, but now with a commercial operator being able to book a proportion of the sites before the public can. I don't know if they will physically separate the commercially booked sites but at this point I have seen no mention of expanding or creating campgrounds for this purpose.

I am ideologically against letting commercial operators into this field - I accept the reality that camping fees in national parks are a necessary evil to help with provision of services and reduce false bookings, but I think if such fees are going to exist the money should go directly to Parks rather than have the majority go to a private company. Commercial camping operations should be operating on private land rather than public - that way public access to public land is not reduced and the public gets limited access to land they would not otherwise get to (the camping might even help fund preservation of said private land).

"Every closure of a manufacturing facility is a loss of sovereign capability and compromises Australia's ability to build a more complex and dynamic knowledge-driven economy."

I agree with this sentiment, I don't think it is a good idea long term to lose manufacturing capability and knowledge. I would however prefer that a stake in the company is transferred to the government when they have to spend large sums bailing out a facility due to it being in the national interest to do so.

Fernwood, a women only gym, is allowed to exist.

Because there are sections of the law which allow exemption from the gender discrimination section for various reasons, and they have successfully argued that there are benefits to having a women only gym which are important enough to deserve an exemption (to provide substantive equality). They also only allow women patrons, so men are not charged for a service that is not equally provided.

I don’t really see it as problematic for a discriminated class to seek to foster a space free from those who perpetuate that discrimination

Neither do many other people, which is why such examples as Fernwood have received exemptions from the law and why there is a specific exemption in the laws for both female and male only clubs.

I don’t think it sets a precedent for protected classes to be discriminated against as “art” because men aren’t a class that needs protecting

Allowing discrimination based on gender without substantiating the businesses eligibility for an exemption under the law absolutely would set a precedent for the courts. While you may agree with this particular case of discrimination it is not a good idea to open an opportunity for more discrimination in the future - keep in mind it may not always be the type you agree with.

I was concerned these recent stabbings would start a push towards screwing over people like me who regularly carry pocket knives, and unsurprisingly it's started. It's rather disappointing how many people go straight to pearl clutching at the mention of a knife even though I and many others have had them on hand as useful tools for decades without feeling the need to stab anyone.

You'd have to be mad to put important information into any AI model unless you're hosting it locally and know it isn't sending info anywhere (the latter being the hard part to verify). All of the online AI services really should be blocked if departments/companies are taking security seriously.

Good. I think the other option - setting a precedent allowing businesses to skirt discrimination laws by claiming their behaviour was art - would have been a rather poor decision.

I'd be happy to reduce the amount of times I have to deal with providing multiple forms of ID, particularly the insanity of having to get copies certified for places that then expect you to email a image of said copies (therefore defeating the whole point of a certified copy).

I am dubious that a digital ID will actually end up making things easier though, I give it pretty good odds that it'll just be an additional hoop to jump through. I also have reservations about what happens when the digital IDs are compromised, because that'll happen at some point no matter how secure the system is claimed to be.

Edit: Relevant XKCD

Seems like people should stop spending effort on finding a good walking stick mid walk and instead just look around at the start of the track for one that was good enough for someone else to bring all the way back...

Nothing like a good moral panic to make people throw reason out the window. Carrying a machete without a reasonable cause is already illegal and clearly didn't stop these people, banning them altogether will just make things hard for those who would use them legally.

It's the same level of thinking as some pelican near me who was calling for a 40km/h zone due to a recent accident. The existing laws against taking illegal drugs, stealing cars, staying on the road, and not speeding over the current limit didn't stop the guy who caused it, but he sure would have listened to a 40km/h sign...

Sounds like Coles has been eyeing off Aldi and wants to also get into narrowing the range down to products they have more direct control over (bet their prices don't follow Aldi though).

If you're going to eat meat it's no worse than others, the issue is that you should be able to trust that the food you bought contains what it says on the labelling.

Geez, what a bunch of pearl clutchers.

Pretty good so far, hopefully it'll continue that way