pɐǝɹɥʇ lɐᴉɔᴉɟɟoun ǝɥʇ - ɐᴉlɐɹʇsn∀

Many people argue that tourism is so important to the country that it would not be in the wider interest to curtail or even stop the New Year celebrations, but I beg to differ. The question is, if something as fundamental as a national disaster where people are dying and thousands are being made homeless is not enough to cancel the party out of respect, then what is?

This made me remember a documentary I've seen a while ago, about Great White Sharks in Australia, and how there is/was a law or something so they could kill a certain amount of sharks to avoid attacks and consequently not affect tourism. So damn disgusting, it's just like if someone started killing people in their respective homes, so then they can use that home to live or make a touristic atraction.
 
Liberals blaming the Greens and Labour for the lack of back burning despite the fact the Liberals are in Power and were the ones to cut funding to the National Parks budget which prevented huge amounts of crucial back burning.

Hopefully people in this country finally start to wake up to the crap they elected into power.
 
Hopefully people in this country finally start to wake up to the crap they elected into power.
I've been hoping for that to happen for the last six years, but I've almost completely lost hope. The Newscorp spin is too strong.

Even now, people seem to pinning the blame entirely on SmoKo instead of the Coalition, so the Libs will (probably) do what they always do and knife him and win the next election.
I'd personally rather they kept him in power so that people will remember how useless him and the Libs have been all this time (also because I'm genuinely frightened of the Potato becoming PM).
 
We have been forbidden from posting about the origin of the novel coronavirus in the coronavirus thread proper. We could do this in the conspiracy thread. But since the evidence presented here is uniquely Australian, let's do it here.

An Australian professor seems to have written a paper that is currently under peer review.

Flinders University Professor Nikolai Petrovsky has completed a scientific study, currently undergoing peer review, in conjunction with La Trobe University in Victoria

I do not know if he is genuine, or even if the institutions mentioned actually exist. Since Sky News is involved, I suppose it's possible the whole thing is a fraud.

Here we go:
 
I do not know if he is genuine, or even if the institutions mentioned actually exist. Since Sky News is involved, I suppose it's possible the whole thing is a fraud.
I just watched most of it. Firstly, the institutes mentioned - La Trobe and Flinders Universities are very much real and very well respected. He seems genuine about he saying, especially in that he didn't seem keen on giving the interviewer the sound bites she was fishing for. The lab theory was always placed alongside the natural evolution theory with the 'we need to find the origin to be certain' line. I also found an extensive publication history of his in related fields, so he isn't a generic scientist they found to be a mouthpiece. I don't know enough virology to speak much to the merits of his argument surrounding the spike protein though. It passes my initial smell test, but that is hardly definitive.
 
Citation needed.
As a polite reminder for this thread is general, while comments and opinions pertaining to the outbreak and the handling of the outbreak by various governments are welcome, I won't allow this thread to be derailed by unsubstantiated conspiracy theories or comments that either imply or support the view that the pandemic is anything other than a public health emergency.

As such, posts of this nature will be deleted.
I assume he is referring to this.
 
I assume he is referring to this.
I figured as much myself, but since I pop into the thread only periodically and I don't observe a what I suspect is a large portion of the discussion, I left the door open a hair for some other mandate.

It seems to me it is conspiratorial claptrap that is unwelcome and not genuine discussion of origins supported by scientific evidence specific to SARS-CoV-2.
 
It seems to me it is conspiratorial claptrap that is unwelcome and not genuine discussion of origins supported by scientific evidence specific to SARS-CoV-2.
The post by @Touring Mars was made when there were a bunch of unsubstantiated theories were flying around, and scientific evidence was pretty scarce for any argument. As more thoroughly reviewed scientific evidence becomes available the moderation stance may change, but that is clearly not my place to say.

Also, we had a discussion in my lab's zoom meeting last week about garbage science still making it through review and COVID related research is front and centre of that right now. Just because it makes it to 'print' doesn't make it trustworthy, which is incredibly frustrating as a scientist.
 
The post by @Touring Mars was made when there were a bunch of unsubstantiated theories were flying around, and scientific evidence was pretty scarce for any argument. As more thoroughly reviewed scientific evidence becomes available the moderation stance may change, but that is clearly not my place to say.

Also, we had a discussion in my lab's zoom meeting last week about garbage science still making it through review and COVID related research is front and centre of that right now. Just because it makes it to 'print' doesn't make it trustworthy, which is incredibly frustrating as a scientist.
I appreciate that.

I won't contribute to further derailment of the thread despite another co-opting it for the purpose of getting attention (which I gave, I'm sorry to say) with melodramatic malarkey.
 
Meanwhile... https://www.news.com.au/finance/eco...y/news-story/9318c7799e540164dd0b985b9e8969c2

Politics in Australia seem to be pretty easy to comprehend. However, for all my years on this planet, I couldn't understand why Australia were selling off so many past government owned properties to private entities.

I couldn't understand why, to me, Australian government would cave in to China on so many fronts. It's funny, but not even funny... watching Australia change through the past 12 years I'm here.
 
Because Murdochs media empire owns this country and our country has been brainwashed into voting for Liberal governments that sell anything public owned they can find to their mates and foreign governments.
 
Meanwhile... https://www.news.com.au/finance/eco...y/news-story/9318c7799e540164dd0b985b9e8969c2

Politics in Australia seem to be pretty easy to comprehend. However, for all my years on this planet, I couldn't understand why Australia were selling off so many past government owned properties to private entities.

I couldn't understand why, to me, Australian government would cave in to China on so many fronts. It's funny, but not even funny... watching Australia change through the past 12 years I'm here.

$$$ or whatever currency you have there...
 
Okay so did a moderator do it or have I somehow missed it for the last few days?
 
I like what you did with the thread title.
Something is up with the A, t and l though...
Okay so did a moderator do it or have I somehow missed it for the last few days?
Oh, sorry, I was bored when I woke up this morning and saw the thread near the top, so I wondered how it would look upside-down. I didn't realise I'd actually saved it :lol:

The upside-down characters are actually special mathematical characters - hence the wonky looks of some of them - and they can play havoc with text-to-audio readers used by the blind, so I guess I should restore it to how it was.
 
So it comes out as a University Challenge question?
I consider myself reasonably smart, but the number of times on that show that I got to the end of Paxton asking a question and not actually know what he asked (let alone an answer) was insane. The difference between that show and Jeopardy! on this side of the Atlantic is insane.
 
Back