I rate Italo Disco, but the rest of their roasts are very much meh. Plus they’re pricey af - I only buy from them during Black Friday sales, and three of the last four years they’ve got my order wrong (missing or incorrect items) and I’ve had to contact them to fix it. Sometimes more than once.

All good! There’s probably far more people in your boat than mine; it was a pretty natural conclusion to draw 🙂

No one needs the internet outside of work.

As someone with a disability (and no car), the internet has played a massive role in allowing me to live independently, which in turn has a profoundly positive impact on my mental health. There are a wide variety of circumstances in which the internet has enhanced life experience - let’s not throw the baby out with the bathwater.

From Banksy’s 2004 book Cut It Out. Banksy, in turn, ‘got’ it (in its original form) from Sean Tejaratchi’s 1999 essay in his Crap Hound zine. 😅

Ahhh, yeah, that’s a bit cooked. The freedom warriors bit isn’t surprising, though. You’d expect them to be in favour of “the freedom to be as irresponsible as you like”.

Wait, are you saying BAC while driving must be 0.00 in some parts of the States, or am I misunderstanding? It’s 0.05 in most (all?) parts of Australia (except if you’re in a restricted licence category). It’s not encouraged, but it’s legal.

Figured you guys would have more permissive laws than we do.

There’s some truth to that (wonder what percentage of fatalities are hook turn related…?), though most of my “if you can survive” experiences have been with drivers overtaking on the shoulder, overtaking in the right hand turn queue and then making a dangerous turn, losing control of their speeding vehicle in the Burnley Tunnel or on the West Gate Bridge, or deciding that stopping for red lights and/or pedestrians (crossing legally) is optional.

Obviously anecdotal, with a sample size of just one, but these are experiences I’ve had as a driver, passenger, pedestrian, or onlooker from a shop/restaurant/inside a tram. Didn’t happen anywhere near as frequently when I lived in Sydney or Brisbane.

How the heck are Victorians down the bottom? Is it just the sheer size of our population keeping that number in check…?

A friend of mine (EU national married to an Australian, living in Australia) has given up on trying to ship products from her small online business to the EU. The red tape is apparently a massive headache, and that’s coming from someone who’s familiar with both sides of the equation.

Who, Jeff? He made a whole video a while back about how he doesn’t rely on YouTube, and is also on Floatplane. However, he acknowledges that a lot of viewers can’t afford a subscription service, and YT has a massive reach, so he still uploads there, too.

I grew up in an electorate that had been ‘blue-ribbon Liberal’ since the 70s, and Labor representation only a tiny blip before that. Became very apathetic about voting after seeing the LNP win by a landslide at every local, state and federal election.

I’m now in a seat that’s been either Labor or Greens since almost Federation. One seat in the House of Reps won’t change the world (or even the country, most likely), but it’s comforting to walk around my neighbourhood and know that the majority of the people I encounter are certified Non-Fuckwits. (It’s also fun on polling day to see offers of LNP and far-right parties’ how-to-vote cards declined by pretty much everyone in the queue.)