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#Perth Central
aus-wnt · 1 month
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Don't let termites ruin your dream home. Our Pre-Purchase Inspections Central Coast will identify any hidden termite damage and prevent future infestations.
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babyangelsky · 1 month
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Non is the hidden character and in this essay I will—
—endeavor to make a really good case for it.
This theory is predicated on the possibility of Non still being alive so for my purposes, I'm going to take that as fact. I'm taking a few liberties in places (to varying degrees of clownery) but that central point doesn't change.
This is a long one so get comfy. Okay? Okay.
As of episode 9, we can now be reasonably certain that none of the creepy shit the boys saw was of supernatural origin. They were hallucinations induced by the drug that New/Tan had them smoke in an attempt to get them to spill their secrets about what happened to Non.
Which brings me to Por.
We know two things about Por. One, that something—or someone—lured him out of the house and two, that he saw a ninth person on the house's CCTV.
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Was the ninth person a hallucination? If he hadn't been lured out of the house, I'd say maybe. Since he was, let's assume he really did see someone for a second on the cameras.
Now, whoever it was didn't just get Por out of the house. He was specifically led down a predetermined path. When he gets outside and goes to the spot where he saw the figure, he looks down and sees a trail of blood.
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He follows this trail and we all know what happens next. He gets deeper into the woods, away from the safety of the house, and starts to hear noises. He turns around, sees a hooded figure following him, and gets chased into a sharpened branch.
Even though New and Phi, although to a lesser extent, are the masterminds behind this little trip to the vacation house, at this moment they are both accounted for. New is playing jenga and getting high with Top and Fluke and Phi is up on the balcony having his dick bitten by Jin. They weren't the ones who lured Por and chased him.
Non did.
What, we're meant to believe that Por just happened to hallucinate a chase that happened to lead him right into a conveniently sharpened branch? And that of all the gin joints in all the cities in all the world, he just had to walk into mine the bad luck of encountering the one branch that was at the perfect height to impale him?
Which is, coincidentally enough, the exact death scenario that Non wrote in his script?
BE SERIOUS.
The only way Por meets this exact death is if Non was the one to kill him, and that leads me to the wire that ended up decapitating poor dead Uncle Dang. A wire which I truly don't think that was meant for him.
Let's follow this line of reasoning. We know that Top and Tee took the road when they went to get help for Por on the bike. This would ultimately fail as they got a flat tire and had to go back, having themselves a hallucination a piece along the way.
At that point, there was no wire stretched across the road. Once they got back to the house, no one would come outside again until morning when they heard Uncle Dang approach on his bike. The wire could've been strung up at any point after the boys got back.
Let's say that after ensuring Por got impaled, Non stuck around to see the aftermath and saw Tee and Top on the bike. Wouldn't it make more sense then for him to have strung up the wire to prevent anyone from leaving as opposed to stopping anyone from coming in?
Because if he is following his script then...
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"But Leah," I hear you ask after having humored me thus far, "How would Non even know that the boys would be at the vacation house?"
This is where I sit back down at my vanity mirror in the dressing room at the circus and start taking some liberties.
For Non to have lived, someone had to help him. I mentioned yesterday that I was hopping on the Perth helped Non train and after giving it more thought, I'm doubling down. It's not only possible that Perth helped Non, he had to have done it, and not only because I want Non to be alive so very badly.
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Why would Perth and his cheekbones be on the promotional poster for the finale (BESIDE NON I MIGHT ADD) if his character weren't important to the plot? Why would he be there if his only role was to massage Uncle Joe's shoulders?
Allow me to posit a Wild Ass Theory a la @respectthepetty :
If Perth's character helped Non and Known Criminal Keng escape Uncle Joe, that means the video where they were captured getting on a bus was authentic.
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But because Uncle Joe and the mafia are still a threat, they can't just go chill somewhere. They have to go on the run and into hiding somewhere they won't be found.
Somewhere like a rarely visited vacation house in the middle of the forest with no contact with the outside world.
Or, alternatively, a creepy temple near that rarely visited vacation house.
Think about it. Non had already been to that house, he's familiar with it, he knows it's empty for long stretches of time and exactly how isolated it is. A terrified teenager fearing for his life is going to want to go somewhere familiar and that house (or the temple) is the perfect place to hide.
I don't think Non went to hide there with the intention, or the hope rather, that he'd get an opportunity for revenge one day. I think he just took advantage of a situation that fell into his lap.
The boys arrived in the afternoon and shit didn't start going down until later that night. That's plenty of time to sharpen a branch, lay down a blood trail, and put on his mask and cloak.
We know all the movie props and the camera and everything were still at the house so it stands to reason that Non had access to them. And we know he had access to the house because White found the knife that was used to cut Por's arms in the closet in the kitchen. The only way that knife could've gotten there is if Non put it there.
Not just any knife, by the way. It was Non's knife, the one that he brought to the house when they came to film and then used to cut Top.
I can't say with any certainty whether Non is acting on his own or with help, but I lean more toward him acting alone. Even if he escaped with Keng, it doesn't mean Keng is still with him all this time later and besides, I much prefer to imagine that ol' boy got eaten by a tiger.
One last thing. This isn't really part of my theory, more like support for it, but when Por is agonizing on the couch, he keeps saying sorry and trying to talk about what he and the boys did three years ago. It could just be a coincidence or deathbed guilt, but I don't think it is. I think Por knows exactly who killed him and that's why he kept apologizing and trying to confess.
In conclusion:
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Hope you don't mind being tagged for the DFF round up @slayerkitty ! 🙏🏼
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uboatheflesh · 1 month
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Here's me recording/performing of empathy shield live on Behind The Mirror, RTR 92.1 FM on the 24th of August 2023. photos by alt.live.perth (Jess).
Set was a little shorter due to the radio time constraints. Also gave a brief interview (the interview on the site was done beforehand over email, theres also a pre-mastered version of empathy on there, I only spoke briefly after the set on radio). Again, empathy shield was completely improvised based on carefully pre-selected sound design elements. Done in the middle of autistic burnout, where I could barely speak on radio due to slowly going into verbal shutdown . Luckily my tour hosts Jess and Amir were absolutely supportive and got me through it.
I went on to play this show a few days in later, also in borloo/perth at the Badlands Bar. It used a lot of the same elements of empathy shield. I have a few feelings about it.
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After the end of my set, I had a total verbal shutdown as soon as I got off stage and snuck back into the green room.
Worse, I managed to break the zip on my dress (got caught in the mesh I was wearing) and was stuck in it for 20 minutes before I had to ask a band for a shirt to cover the broken top half. Then several old perth friends I had not talked to in ages came in to talk to me only to find me simply unable to say hi back. I felt terrible about it. Indeed, I was in a terrible state. However - everybody around me there understood. A fellow autistic woman even gave me a fidget spinner. Even if I didn't use it (weirdly too overwhelmed to stim?), I kinda happy cry every time I think about that somebody even offered one to me non-judgementally. Only a few years ago would I have seen as a ridiculous r*tard baby for being a 'professional musician' who does this, but now it's ...its treated kinda like normal. Wish I had this kind of understanding growing up before I was diagnosed. Now, I am never the only ND at the gigs I play. Indeed, the NT's are usually the minority at them. Then theres the fact that so many other (and more well-known) musicians are being open about their autism (like Ethel Cain or Justin Broadrick) which would also be unthinkable years beforehand. It genuinely warms my heart. This is why I am loud, proud and cringe about my neurodivergence now. I don't want to be repeatedly traumatised by it anymore based on misunderstandings that we autists inevitably get, or failing to meet allistic standards. Every time I see a fellow autist get horridly traumatised because somebody (usually NT) got the ick it fucking hurts. Or when they blame themselves for failing to meet arbitrary allistic standards and fall into a horrible depression for not being 'normal'. It hurts even more if its a fellow autistic transfeminine person. I wish I could do more about it, like psychology or social work - but music is what I am stuck doing for the time being, so I'll try to do what I can here. Hence several upcoming songs /records (including the two Roadburn commissioned original compositions) neurodivergence takes a central role. It's lame, but sometimes its good to be lame. Sometimes it's necessary. We have a long way to go, but its also important to remember we have also come a long way too.
/gen
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humanoidhistory · 6 months
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Perth Central Fire Station, Perth, Australia, 1979.
(State Library of Western Australia)
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scotianostra · 2 months
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On February 1st 1865 the Highland Railway was formed from the amalgamation of Inverness and Perth Junction and the Inverness and Aberdeen Junction Railways.
Back in the day every region had it’s own local railway company covering the different areas around the country. The Highland Railway ran from Perth in Central Scotland north to Inverness and then on up the east coast to Wick and Thurso. From Dingwall, the railway ran west to Kyle of Lochalsh to serve Skye and the Western Isles. From Inverness, another line ran east to Keith, where it connected with the line to Aberdeen. Several branches were built from this core network to serve nearby towns.
This is a longer post than I normally put together but hope you get an idea of how all these wee companies ran, and ended up becoming the one company, before of course the bigger companies ate them all up. Some of the stations are now gone, but others mentioned, like Kingussie, Nairn, Keith and Dunkeld survive to this day, and I often pass through them on my travels north. It also gives us an insight intothe infamous Beeching cuts in the 60’s which butchered the rail network, if Beeching had his way there would be no railways beyond Inverness!!
Inverness was always the centre of the Highland Railway. It was the company’s headquarters and principle station. All trains led to Inverness.
The original proposals to construct railways to Inverness were made in the mid-1840s. Rival routes were proposed from Perth and Aberdeen . The Perth & Inverness Railway was considered too hilly for the locomotives of the day, but the Great North of Scotland Railway (GNSR) from Aberdeen was authorised. The GNSR struggled to raise capital in the post-railway mania period and eventually started construction as far as Huntly in 1852, opening that line in 1854.
The people of Inverness then stepped in and started building their own line from the Inverness end, initially as far as Nairn, the Inverness & Nairn Railway (I&N) was opened on 6th. November 1855 but by then plans were being made to extend this railway to meet the GNSR. After some discussion, the Inverness & Aberdeen Junction Railway (I&AJ) was promoted to build the line from Nairn to Keith where it met the GNSR extension from Huntly. The I&AJ was completed on 18th. August 1858,when it took over the working of the I&N.
The people of Inverness were never satisfied with the long journey round via Aberdeen , especially as the GNSR’s station was half a mile from that of the line from the south and connections were not always maintained. Thus was born the Inverness and Perth Junction Railway (I&PJR) which ran from Forres via Grantown, Kingussie and Drumochter summit to Dunkeld where it met with end on with the Perth and Dunkeld Railway which had opened in 1856. The I&P was authorised in 1861 and opened just two years later, being worked from the outset by the I&AJR. The two companies amalgamated on 1st. February 1865 to form the Highland Railway.
Meanwhile construction northwards from Inverness had already started, with a line to Dingwall (1862), Invergordon (1863), Bonar Bridge (1864), Golspie (1868), Helmsdale (1871) and Wick and Thurso (1874). Westward from Dingwall, the Dingwall & Skye Railway was opened to Strome Ferry in 1870.
In the 1890s, two additions were made to the main network. The direct line from Aviemore over Slochd to Inverness was completed in 1898, a year after the Skye line was extended to the present terminus at Kyle of Lochalsh. Several branches were opened from these main lines over the next 40 years, taking the final length of the system to some 242 route miles.Tourist traffic has always been a major source of income for the railways in the Highlands . The Highland Railway developed its own hotels at Inverness , Dornoch and Strathpeffer. It offered combined tours in conjunction with the steamer services of David MacBrayne. Each August it had to contend with the annual migration north for the ‘glorious twelfth.’
The railway played a major part in the First World War, when the Grand Fleet was stationed at Scapa Flow in the Orkney Islands . Worn down, like many other railways in the country, it became part of the London , Midland and Scottish Railway in 1923. The LMS continued to develop the lines, introducing dining cars and speeding up services. The Second World War again imposed a considerable strain on the lines.
On the nationalisation of the railways, the Scottish Region of British Railways took over. Soon the development of road transport made a significant impact on the use of the railway. The closure of branch lines, which had started in the 1930s, continued. The Beeching Plan of 1963 envisaged the closure of all lines north of Inverness , but this was not approved because those lines still provided a lifeline in winter. The old route from Aviemore to Forres and a number of intermediate stations on the main lines, were closed. Otherwise the main system remained intact, as it does today. Currently operated by ScotRail, the lines continue to provide a vital link to locals and bring many tourists to the area.
The Highland Railway was well known for its locomotives. Working the steep gradients of the main line, in particular, was always a challenge. Add strong winds and snow and the problems became even worse. The railway introduced the first 4-6-0s to the British Isles, commemorated in the preserved No.103 at the Glasgow Transport Museum . In the 1930s, the LMS Black 5s, locally always called “Hikers”, immediately proved their worth. The isolated nature of the country led British Railways to implement complete dieselisation early in the modernisation plan.
Today class 158 and 170 diesel multiple units work most of the trains, but you can still retire to bed in a sleeper on the line out of London Euston and wake up to the sound of a Class 67 struggling up Drumochter.
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absolutebl · 1 year
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This Week in BL
Feb 2023 Wk 1
Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most. 
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Ongoing Series - Thai
My School President (Fri YT) ep 9 of 12 - WinSound totally won me over in this ep. They were great. Their competitive style of romance, made me really happy. Double tsundere it’s so rare to get and not be annoying or depressing. Of course the mains were adorable too. 
Never Let Me Go (Tues YT) ep 8 of 12 - Solid little episode. Perth in the pool, thank U BL gods. Peeling the shrimp to rope, always a favorite of mine. Some awesome couple flirting and a nice romantic sex scene. What’s not to like about this episode?
Hit Bite Love (Sat YouTube) ep 2 of 6 - King is fucking adorable. Burger is clueless and (apparently) entirely straight. Shogun is one of the gayest characters ever put in high school BL. Heda is kinda awesome, basically a chaos wingman. Matteo is interesting. I genuinely like the central friendship between King & Shogun a lot. Queer baby besties! It’s Ming & Wayo-esk but better. Holy KINK FEST outta nowhere, BLman! I’m getting total whiplash with this show. Very Make It Right. What does it want to be? Who tf knows but I’m into it, that’s for sure. It’s accomplishing something, which most pulps don’t.
609 Bedtime Story (Fri WeTV) ep 11fin - my backup computer is down so I haven’t had a chance to watch this yet. Hopefully but next week’s report.   
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Ongoing Series - Not Thai
HIStory 5: Love in the Future (Taiwan Weds Viki) ep 6 of 10 (or 11&12 of 20) - Jonny’s hair is driving me nuts. Hai Yi’s behavior is confusing me too. Office boys remain totally adorable. Very doomy mid run ep 6. Ah Taiwan, how unpredictable you are. 
Candy Color Paradox AKA Ameiro Paradox (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 7 of 8 - these weirdos make for very strange boyfriends. Frankly? K seems like a useless bit of business, if you ask me. 
Individual Circumstances (Korea Thurs Viki) ep 5-6 of 8 - I’m just annoyed with Mr. Tsundere at this point, he’s gone from grumpy to mean. I just want him to have a really good reason for having disappeared without saying anything, and good does not mean “sensitive pathetic authorial feels.” You don’t abandon your best friend just because you fell in love with them, that’s an unforgivably shitty thing to do. 
The End Of The World, With You AKA Bokura no Micro na Shuumatsu (Japan Sun Gaga ep 1 of 8 - Stars Toshiki Seto (Senpai, This Can't Be Love). The world is about to be destroyed by a meteor, so Masumi visits his old uni library to read as much as he wants until the end. There he meets Ritsu, his player ex. It’s a bit awkward, and I’m not sure about the premise (it scares me that it might be sad). It’s racier, gayer, and has better kissing than i was expecting (again a sign it might go dark). Also Is Ritsu a big time bi-slut player or is that Masumi’s perspective? Regardless I’m intrigued if wary. 
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Finished this week
The New Employee (Korea Weds Viki) ep 7fin - They are so cute it’s unbelievable. I thought it was a good office romance ending, if not a great Bl ending. All in all this is a darn near perfect nugget of an office romance BL, sweet and much gayer than we have any right to expect from Korea. Rainbow rice cakes forever! 9/10
Between Us (Sun iQIYI) ep 12fin - It’s a serviceable series about hot swimmers flirting and dealing with family drama in a sweetly earnest manner, but ultimately it squanders the talent in play. I would’ve preferred a cleaner narrative arc, less angst and more plot, fewer couples, and a shorter series. That said, there’s nothing objectively wrong, sub-standard, or off-putting about this show. And it has lots of consent and other good qualities. It’s fine. Watch along here. 8/10
I Will Knock You (Fri Gaga) ep 12fin - I did think a lot over why I disliked this one. Because on the surface it’s just your standard slightly terrible Thai pulp, and I’m usually not that mean about them. I think in the end it comes down to the uke who just seemed to never warm to the boy pursuing him, and never really actually wanted to be his boyfriend. Also terrible dead fish kiss. 5/10 
Gossip
Apparently we have new scions (waves goodbye to BrightWin) - GeminiFourth: The Crown Princes of BL. If you’re wondering how their chemistry is so good (My School President), this article may explain it. 
In Case You Missed It
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Caught up on 2020′s The Reason Why He Fell In Love With Me. (Gaga picked it up and I’ve been wanting to see it since it got announced in 2019.) 
TRWHFILWM Series 1 - 2 teachers who work together at the same high school, one outgoing and the other reserved, start an affair. Gave me Ossan’s Love vibes and that is my least favorite kind of JBL. It’s just far too cartoonish and slapstick and I don’t like it. That said, it has several kisses, a happy ending, and they are cute together. So if you can this style BL, it you might like it. 
TRWHFILWM Special - Completely ignores the first couple and the teacher premise, carrying over just one main character, and should have been a new BL (Boys Love flashbacks). I understand 2021′s season 2 continues this tactic. But I’ll watch it eventually. 
Next Week Looks Like This:
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Not a lot actually, which is cool, I still got some 2022 catching up still to do. Why You Y Me, may be? 
Starting: 
Moonlight Chicken (Weds? YouTube) 1 of 8 -   
My Beautiful Man S2 - ??? sorry I’m scared of this one and not really paying attention, it being Japan and a desirable property, I’m assuming it will either be impossible to find or just show up on my dash in 2 places at once. 
Feb releases list is here. 
2023 forthcoming BL master post. (see comments some are inaccurate, NOT UPDATED)
THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS
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Hit Bite Love it’s classic terrible Thai pulp and I’m kinda loving it. 
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Thank you very much GMMTV. 
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FINALLY! 
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Also FINALLY. 
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More FINALLY (My School President). 
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I love the acknowledged combative nature of this relationship. It’s great. 
(last week)
Current Kpop earworm? Under the Skin by &team, eh, it’s catchy I guess
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samcampbellfans · 27 days
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Sam Campbell's 2016 show 'Zanzoop'.
"Kind of like Dr. Phil but hosted by a funny naked party-alien."
'Zanzoop' was a comedy show in (April-May) 2016 performed around Australia (Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, Sydney). Created by Sam Campbell, Aaron Chen and Tom Walker in the collective 'Feeble Minds', Tom Walker directed and won Director's Choice Award at Melbourne International Comedy Festival in 2016.
Sam plays an alien called Zanzoop, a "semi-naked space alien, hosting a sort of chat show in an attempt to fix humanity’s problems and prove himself a worthy heir to the throne of Zymbalnation. And this is one of the more sober premises of the hour." (Steve Bennett, Chortle).
Craig Anderson, Sean Conway and Cameron Whiteford also made appearances on Zanzoop (the latter two appearing in Perth shows).
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The show received 4 and 1/2 stars from Herald Sun. Here are some quotes from the Herald Sun article to get a sense of the show:
'Campbell began the show by saying "there’s a lot of reviewer c--ts in tonight. Oh, Steve from Chortle is here, it’s not as funny as a picture I once saw of Stewart Lee’s elbow!!"'
'“Youth culture baby” (Campbell does the Shaka sign)'
'Autism joke, well handled.'
'King Baby (actually played by a sunscreen-smeared Tom Walker who got a Best Newcomer nomination yesterday for his Beep Bop show, 6pm each night at Tuxedo Cat).' See picture below for King Baby on the far right.
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'“I didn’t pay my rent because I bought too many props.” - Campbell breaking the fourth wall for the umpteenth time, he’s the John Conway of this year.'
This show also included the dip and vegetables gag, which Sam has done before: you can watch it in this video: Live at Comedy Central's 'A Night of Stand Up' at the 2016 Sydney Morning Herald Spectrum Now Festival and and on this Instagram post via thecomedyloungesydney.
Reviews of the show, I recommend reading if you want to know what the show was like (there's no videos of the show as far as I know):
The Plus Ones
Steve Bennett, Chortle
Herald Sun (4 and 1/2 stars)
Squirrel Comedy
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Photo sources:
1) Herald Sun
2) pappy90 on TWT
3) Sean Conway on FaceBook (this one was at Fringe World)
4) guy_mont on TWT
5) Aaron Chen's tattoo of Zanzoop the alien
6) tomwalkerisgood on TWT, promotional poster.
Additional bits:
The strange promotion video Sam, Tom and Aaron did for Feeble Minds (thank you cowboyacaster on TWT)
Below: Aaron Chen reading the Herald Sun 4 and a 1/2 star review of Zanzoop to Sam Campbell (photo via tomwalkerisgood on TWT).
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New SpaceTime out Friday....
SpaceTime 20240315 Series 27 Episode 33
Star ripped apart by black hole
Astronomers have uncovered the closest recorded occurrence of a star being torn apart by a supermassive black hole.
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Astronomers search for new physics in the debris from colliding neutron stars
Scientists say neutron star mergers are a treasure trove for new physics, with implications for determining the true nature of dark matter.
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Rocky Earth like planets come with Jupiter like bodyguards
A new study looking at exoplanetary systems has found that terrestrial Earth like planets are often found in systems which also host Jovian like gas giants.
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Taikonauts to be on the Moon before the end of the decade
Beijing says it will achieve a manned moon landing before 2030. Central to these efforts is the development of the Long March-10 moon rocket which will be specially designed carry spacecraft and landers into lunar orbit.
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The Science Report
Micro plastics found in plaques of more than half of clogged artery patients.
The link between extreme heat while pregnant and the likelihood of having a preterm birth.
The first half of 2024 likely to see many areas to experience record-breaking air temperatures
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Skeptics guide to the world’s most haunted bodies of water
SpaceTime covers the latest news in astronomy & space sciences.
The show is available every Monday, Wednesday and Friday through Apple Podcasts (itunes), Stitcher, Google Podcast, Pocketcasts, SoundCloud, Bitez.com, YouTube, your favourite podcast download provider, and from www.spacetimewithstuartgary.com
SpaceTime is also broadcast through the National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio and on both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.
SpaceTime daily news blog: http://spacetimewithstuartgary.tumblr.com/
SpaceTime facebook: www.facebook.com/spacetimewithstuartgary
SpaceTime Instagram @spacetimewithstuartgary
SpaceTime twitter feed @stuartgary
SpaceTime YouTube: @SpaceTimewithStuartGary
SpaceTime -- A brief history
SpaceTime is Australia’s most popular and respected astronomy and space science news program – averaging over two million downloads every year. We’re also number five in the United States.  The show reports on the latest stories and discoveries making news in astronomy, space flight, and science.  SpaceTime features weekly interviews with leading Australian scientists about their research.  The show began life in 1995 as ‘StarStuff’ on the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s (ABC) NewsRadio network.  Award winning investigative reporter Stuart Gary created the program during more than fifteen years as NewsRadio’s evening anchor and Science Editor.  Gary’s always loved science. He studied astronomy at university and was invited to undertake a PHD in astrophysics, but instead focused on his career in journalism and radio broadcasting. He worked as an announcer and music DJ in commercial radio, before becoming a journalist and eventually joining ABC News and Current Affairs. Later, Gary became part of the team that set up ABC NewsRadio and was one of its first presenters. When asked to put his science background to use, Gary developed StarStuff which he wrote, produced and hosted, consistently achieving 9 per cent of the national Australian radio audience based on the ABC’s Nielsen ratings survey figures for the five major Australian metro markets: Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, and Perth.  The StarStuff podcast was published on line by ABC Science -- achieving over 1.3 million downloads annually.  However, after some 20 years, the show finally wrapped up in December 2015 following ABC funding cuts, and a redirection of available finances to increase sports and horse racing coverage.  Rather than continue with the ABC, Gary resigned so that he could keep the show going independently.  StarStuff was rebranded as “SpaceTime”, with the first episode being broadcast in February 2016.  Over the years, SpaceTime has grown, more than doubling its former ABC audience numbers and expanding to include new segments such as the Science Report -- which provides a wrap of general science news, weekly skeptical science features, special reports looking at the latest computer and technology news, and Skywatch – which provides a monthly guide to the night skies. The show is published three times weekly (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday) and available from the United States National Science Foundation on Science Zone Radio, and through both i-heart Radio and Tune-In Radio.
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notsuch · 1 year
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Reading Junker lore as an Australian is like, hilarious because it's a wild ride of being so clearly not knowing what the frick it was saying THAT MADE IT CYCLE ALL THE WAY BACK INTO MAKING SENSE AGAIN. But also, that literally, whether it's Overwatch or Other Global Forces, is to blame for the Junkers being what they are, because wow.
But to start with, the problem is essentially this: Blizzard just don't know what the frick the Outback is.
SO BUCKLE UP KIDS THIS IS A LONG-ASS POST, I GOT SOME SHIT YOU NEED TO UNDERSTAND ABOUT HOW THE JUNKERS CAME ABOUT. But there are pictures I promise. I also wanna say that I am not here to say that the Omnic war, the discussions of human-omnic relationships is like X real-world thing, I'm here to look at how the world is and how they've said it develops in Overwatch, and what that implies for the world development, that's all. I was just real excited at how averagely aussie Leah is in her portrayal of Junker Queen is and it made me want to ground it more in my home okok and I thought other people might want to understand that too.
CW: for talking about war tactics, statistics and wide-scale loss of life.
TL;DR for my post on Aussie Shit: the Outback is not a defined location. You will never be able to stick it into a GPS and find it. It is a conceptual area that can be defined as 'semi-rural to rural'. But also it's an almost folklorish concept of the Australian 'heart' that can extend over what can be seen in the below map. I will advise this is actually a map of bushland types, which is why it doesn't include Tasmania, but just to be clear, Tasmania AS WELL has Outback regions, and also, this can extend further East fairly comfortably depending on who you talk to. For instance, this map doesn't reach Tamworth OR Dubbo, buuuuuut most people would consider it as being on the edge of the Outback, for instance.
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Oh, you might now be saying, that's most of the country, isn't it?
YEAH.
And as you'd expect for a piece of land THE SIZE OF FUCKING EUROPE, it's hugely broad in its landscape, too. You will find everything in the concept of the "Outback" depending, again, on who you talk to. From the Daintree Rainforest (left pic) (around Cairns to Cooktown) to the Great Australian Bite (middle pic) (the bottom C curve between Adelaide to Perth) to the central Australian town with a population of 26,000+ people, Alice Springs (right pic).
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Yet the wiki lists it as "The Outback omnium and its Omnics were given the Australian omnium and its surrounding land after the Omnic Crisis."
UHM. BLIZZARD. 1) WHERE IS IT, AGAIN??? MEEKATHARRA IS A PRETTY DIFFERENT PLACE TO THE MOUNT ISA and 2) THAT'S A LOT OF "SURROUNDING LAND". THAT'S IN FACT, MOST OF THE COUNTRY, IF I WAS TO COUNT IT AS BROADLY AS YOU SEEM TO BE THROWING IT AROUND? IT'S A LOT OF LAND.
It takes 4 days of STRAIGHT DRIVING, NO BREAKS, to cross from Sydney to Perth. The entirety of Europe fits inside of Australia, the main block of the united states, bar Alaska, is basically comparable in scale from Washington to San Fransico. Or the furthest East Coast of Brazil to the West Coast of Peru. YOU GET IT.
This then leads to the second problem, Blizzard keeps saying that the only people out there were "a few solar farmers and people who wanted to be left alone".
WITH A POPULATION TOTAL OF 600,000 - 700,000 THOUSAND PEOPLE IN JUST REGIONAL TOWNS, NO, THE OUTBACK REGIONAL DISTRIBUTION IS NOT "JUST A FEW PEOPLE WHO WANT TO BE ALONE AND A COUPLE OF FARMERS IG".
NOT TO MENTION DARWIN. It's the little dot at the top of the Northern Territory and is a Capital City of the region. Sometimes called Australia's "Outback City", HAS A POPULATION OF 130,000 ALONE. Across it all, this map barely scratches the surface, there are over 60 Outback Towns or Settlements in total. We only have a total net population of 27 million. THAT'S ACTUALLY A WHOLE ASS 2-3% OF OUR WHOLE POPULATION.
This comes to the second point and often the hardest for people to get their heads around: whilst our population is not as high, THAT DOESN'T MEAN WE AREN'T USING THAT LAND AND IT'S NOT CULTURALLY AND ECONOMICALLY IMPORTANT TO US. No, we don't have massive inland lakes and rivers the way other places do, to have huge cities out there, but WE STILL HAVE TO SUPPORT OUR AGRICULTURAL AND MINING SECTOR THAT DOES USE THAT LAND. AND IT'S ACTUALLY. VERY. EXTENSIVE.
How extensive? Man, our largest by-land Cattle Station is Anna Creek Station, coming in at a cool 2 million acres (which is as big as the whole of Israel apparently???), or the most densely populated-by-cow one currently, Brunette Downs, which at present has 110,000 head of cattle. Don't care about cows? are you a monster cows are just slow puppos who want love omfrg WELL I BET YOU CARE ABOUT IRON, AND GUESS WHAT, WHATEVER IRON YOU HAVE IN YOUR HOUSE RN PROBABLY CAME FROM AUSTRALIA, GIVEN WE PROVIDE 90% OF THE WORLD'S IRON. Oh, also we have a shitton of uranium as well, btw. just. putting that out there.
Here is JUST PASTORAL STATIONS, you'll notice HOW MANY ARE ACTUALLY IN THE SAME AREA I JUST SHOWED:
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AND HERE ARE OUR MINES, this is not just iron, we also dig many other minerals, and including the world's largest opal mine:
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These cattle stations and mines stretch across the inland regions for miles upon miles, fuelling our jobs and our place in the world economy. Which I ask you this: If you're Cattle Hand Tinny Rogers from central Queensland who's gotta take care of Jenny the Cow whose due to give birth soon, you aren't driving 13 fucking hours to Brisbane City to get a pack of smokes, are you? No. Tinny Rogers just goes to the Longreach general store only 1-2 hours away, doesn't he? Then goes back to his property and tells Jenny it's going to be ok, sits his ass down with his smokes for the night, relieved he only had to go a little while.
And all those people were actually the first wiped out.
This is where this gets real freaking awful. AGAIN, CW: for talking about war tactics, statistics and wide-scale loss of life.
Now the only battle in Australia we are shown, is Sydney and that initially also made me go 'huh?' Because if the Omnic Core is in the Outback, wherever that might be, this is an overland invasion, internal to external, as opposed to an external invasion aka coming from the sea, why would you attack Sydney?
Don't get me wrong, Sydney is important. To our international position most especially. It's a financial centre, like New York is to America, it controls a great deal of our actual "economy" in the like, perception of 'if it falls, our economy tanks' kinda sense. It's also a manufacturing centre, meaning that raw goods from the rest of the country are turned into other goods there, and then shipping it out, Tactically, if you are trying to park ships, Darling Habour is ideal, as it's one of two 'natural' harbours in the world (the other being in Hong Kong), meaning its VERY DEEP even close to the land which makes it ideal for ships to come close. So someone attacking from the sea wants it. Lastly - probs why Blizzard picked it, is it is the identifiably 'Australian City'.
But it's not our capital city, that's Canberra, which is where our House of Parliament is. It's not where our military is, no, 40% of the Australian Army is based in Brisbane, and the largest naval base is in Perth. Darwin and Cairns are actually the biggest ports that are more directly connected to Asia in trade given it's a hop, skip and a jump from there to Papa New Guinea, which are actually our closest neighbour and with it, connects us to the whole of South East Asia. The very tip of QLD, to the bottom of PNG is more like the space of the English Channel, btw, for how close they are.
In the Omnic Crisis, the economy has ALREADY collapsed. It did the minute the Omnics attack, basically lmao. Then secondly, this ISN'T EXTERNAL, this is internal. Whether the Outback Omnium is in Kalgoorlie or Birdsville, it is in the middle of the country, and it is sending its forces from a regional location. They aren't attacking by sea, so they don't have to care about a landing bay.
AND HERE IS THE LAST IMPORTANT PART, OUR ARMY IS SMALL. It's only like 80,000 armed personnel, compared to the US and it's insanity of 1mill+, but we're bigger than uh,,, New Zealand I guess? Uh,,, yeah our numbers don't even rank in the big three armies of the world, or like, beyond our little bubble of Oceania. We also do have a pretty good navy but if you've been following along so far, uh, yeah, THAT'S going to do fuck all for Alice Springs, isn't it? Don't get me wrong, our forces are all well trained and highly specialised because of it but like, we don't have the numbers to be splitting up over many fronts, lmao.
By virtue of it all, they are in the middle of the country and will have STEAM ROLLED across these regional areas because some are big, sure but they are just towns with no defences against a rampaging robot army, are you kidding? Let alone if Anubis is suddenly using every robot, I can't imagine how many different kinds are incorporated in all the different mining regions and digging sights?! Some of them were clearly as big as the Titan Bots we see, judging by this shit still being left around years later -
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Rolling into somewhere like poor fucking Meekatharra?!
also, seriously: what is the ever loving fuck is that thing on the left why are its arms made out of the BODIES OF OTHER OMNICS JFC WHO LET THE OMNICS PLAY BLOODBORNE OR SOMETHING, I S2G.
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THESE POOR BASTARDS ALREADY HAVE TO LIVE IN MEEKATHARRA, THAT'S HARD ENOUGH, LET ALONE WHEN SKYSCRAPER-BOT THE MIGHTY ROLLED IN FROM THE DESERT.
This means that they now control all regional supplies anyway to go and target those places because they say one consistent thing about Anubis' attacks: they were efficient and direct.
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"The Omnics Advance" is what they call this so from the wiki as to the state of places the Omnics leave behind, uh, yeah, BYE MEEKATHARRA, MY MUM'S STORIES ABOUT YOU WERE NICE IG?
o ok,,,,, sure, what does all this have to do with Sydney then? Where does it fit in?
I don't want you to think Sydney wouldn't be attacked. Of course it would be, eventually.
Because it's the last populated place in Australia. They can just leave Sydney because it is somewhat tactically the hardest to attack, overall, if it has support from the others, so you leave it till last where you've cut off the support, wiped out supply lines and it is now flooded with refugees from the rest of the country.
They call it the Battle of Sydney but that's not actually what you do to cities?? You siege them, because they take time, and they're certainly implying that yes, it would have taken time. Yeah no, I am not making that up, the Battle of Stalingrad for instance took five months. I make the distinction because sieges aren't about individual aspects in conflict, it's a game of chicken between the two sides of who can hold out longest. Who can sustain the constant chipping away? Sometimes it's a matter of just starving each other out, but in others, it's a constant bombardment.
With everything I just laid out, you can probably have worked it out: Australia can't sustain itself, at this point. We are cut off from our supplies, and we are unable to get actual international support because they're all, ALSO, dealing with this, and now are flooded with escaping refugees. Perth, Adelaide, Darwin, and Brisbane are gone. Which Australia's population of 27 million, is now down to, if I'm being kind, to 10-11 million (5 million in Sydney + then escapees from Melbourne, Canberra, and maybe some from Tasmania too if they could manage it, I can't say I would have much hope for those poor buggers in Perth). Sydney could not feed all the refugees because again, it does not produce raw supplies itself, and it now no longer has the numbers to keep up the fight.
It'd be incredible if they could keep it going for a month because by then, we're not facing 'this is war and people will die', Australia is now at 'we will be annihilated and there will BE no Australian people'. 60-70% of our population is dead to the war, and the rest are getting killed every day from THE TITANS LITERALLY JUST STOMPING THEIR WAY THROUGH, starving or getting sick from bad food and water.
And Australia never had a very big population, to begin with, our army isn't big if it even really exists anymore. We cannot sustain those losses. What the Omnics were hanging over Sydney at this moment is so much worse than just 'we screwed your economy for the foreseeable future'.
They are leveraging 'there will be no Australians left.' Whether the slow eradication from disease and hunger that a siege does, or in immediate and sudden violence?
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So I have no doubt, even though Blizzard had no idea what they said, that it's actually entirely possible the Omnics said "idk we want the outback" and the Australian Government went YEAH, SURE, ANYTHING NOT TO GET OBLITERATED, IG?
And what's more, afterwards, whatever chance there might have been to take some of those places back - no one, NO ONE, was going to do more than rebuild the Sydney-Canberra-Melbourne strip on the outside to allow for better distribution. But who knows Anubis might have been a dick and said YOU ONLY GET SYDNEY. For one thing, taking back even something like Adelaide requires re-engaging, and on the other.......... they have this, now, that's alright, isn't it? It's the most modern part of Australia, it certainly seems like plenty, right? Other COUNTRIES exist with LESS and THRIVE!
I can't say I necessarily blame them, at that point it has to be a pure numbers game: Mexico City, which has also been destroyed, and it has almost as many people in JUST Mexico City as we have in total population. Sydney must have seemed, well, close enough. We're rebuilding this bit which will roughly sustain you (it won't, actually), but then we gotta take the resources to other devastated places that don't need FOUR CAPITAL CITIES, 10 OTHER IMPORTANT CITIES, A MINIMUM OF 30 REGIONAL TOWNS AND A FULL RECONSTRUCTION OF A INLAND NETWORK SPANNING THE ENTIRETY OF THE UNITED STATES IN SHEER SCALE. Things as they were, at the time, it must have seemed.... well yeah. Not worth it.
Which now - hey that's pretty intense, actually that's horrific for the sheer loss of life, how can you be sure the devastation is that severe? And that in turn everyone just did what SEEMED enough with little to no consideration of its long term impact and if it had any sustainability to us? That's extreme to insinuate?
Well if not the direct implication of '30 million orphans worldwide' that means for every orphan, there are two dead parents, and then the two families next door that DIDN'T survive, to tell you the average statistics of the war casualties......
The other is simple: Junkertown exists.
Junkertown cannot exist, if there was anything left of those cities or those 60+ regional towns, pre or post-explosion of the core. Because here is the thing, if there was a chance, a single chance, we could take back that important space of the Outback, we would. In a heartbeat. I think that's why the Australian Government allowed the ALF to exist in the first place and did not stop them when they most definitely could have.
I can explain the economics of what being an island nation at the ass end of the world means as to how we are so completely fucked economically at this point, but this part is more important, even if it's often the hardest for non-Australians to wrap their heads around because they squeal about 'how scary' it is all the time is this:
We love that land. That land is our home. Yes, even with its spiders and snakes, not in spite of, but all of it, good and bad. In one sense that yes, that literally hundreds of thousands of people lived dispersed across it, but culturally it goes beyond just that direct 'my house is there'. One of our most successful ad campaigns by a freaking flight company exists on a simple premise: 'no matter how far, and how wide I go, I still call Australia home'. (The first version of it aired in the 90s, for reference, also yes, Junkrat actually has a line that echos the sentiments of this song 'I've been all around the world, but there's nowhere that compares to home' Not sure if it was on purpose but I smiled a little to myself when I first heard it). Yeah. That's it. Not fighting or glory or power. The rest of the world is beautiful, but this one is ours, and we love it for what it is. Something that is personified in that image of red sand dunes and scrub, in the arid flatness, the wattle and the gum, even to the kid that grew up in the middle of the Sydney suburbs, as his childhood home, that tugs in his heart as much as his childhood toys.
Even though I know a bunch of Aussies just read this and were like GROAN, SHUT UP, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO, QUOTE BANJO PATTERSON, CAN'T CATCH ME WITH THAT SHIT,,,,
I fucking see you, I fucking know you. I only gotta say one fucking thing to you pretending you're above it:
RED DOG JUST WANTS TO KNOW, HAVE YOU SEEN JOHN? HE'S LOOKING YOU IN THE EYES, HAVE YOU SEEN JOHN?
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Yeah, that's what I goddamn thought.
That we'd lose all reason to do some stupid shit like the ALF attempted to recover it? Uh, yeah. We just lost most of our population, we can't bury them, and how quickly would that landscape of our home carry that memory of them, and yet, we are cut from even that.
But to reclaim all that land you need supply chains, rebuilding as you go, AN ARMY ABLE TO HOLDING THAT SPACE AGAINST WHATEVER THE FUCK A "FERAL OMNIC" IS??? SERIOUSLY, AGAIN, DID THEY DOWNLOAD THE 'FROM SOFTWARE CREATIVE SUITE' ON THAT OMNIC??? And with that in mind, and how everyone and everything is gone for us, that would require HUGE international backing.
And if they had all of that, with all that effort, like HELL are they letting a SEPERATE SOVERIGN NATION JUST SPRING UP IN THE MIDDLE OF IT, BEING A BUNCH OF VIOLENT ASSHOLES, MAKING IT HARDER by STEALING SHIT ALL THE TIME on top of BLOCKING ACCESS TOO SOME OF OUR MOST RESOURCE RICH LAND. I know this might be a struggle, but on top of loving that space, we also enjoy idk, stability? Not dying? Junkertown would compromise that, completely. Especially the dying bit, I feel. Speaking as an Aussie, I, like many Australians, do appreciate that they will in fact die one day, and hopefully, doing so by driving a ride-on mower around hills hoist chasing a goon sack as god intended for this beautiful country, but overall, just randomly dying in a Wolf Creek-like situation because you were trying to build a fuckin road, isn't how most of wanted it to go down. Some might, I will not shame my fantasy countrymen in the post-apocalypse world of Overwatch-Australia, times seem tough for Tinny Rogers and Jenny out there, and they have a right to pick how they get by.
SO YEAH, THE FUCK NOT, MY GUYS. THEY'D SQUISH THAT SHIT LIKE A BUG.
But if they are recovering from near annihilation, unsupported, told to just deal with it because they got what they got - Junkertown can do what we see, and in its strange way: flourish.
Then it comes to how it's being handled by the rest of the in-game world as to how it's just been allowed to let slide by everyone fucking else even if clearly every time one of these desert-fuckers gets out, it's a DAMN NIGHTMARE FOR WORLDWIDE SECURITY.
You hear Zarya call it "the mistakes of this country", which given how people treat the Junkers as a whole in game, seems to be a commonly held sentiment. A mistake. There is little to no comprehension of them, or what they have been victim to. Again probably because Blizzard itself has no idea what it just accidentally implied. We don't have enough lore to really say how many countries share this fate of losing 80% of their entire nation and people, and with it, almost their whole selves? Of them, how many got complete reconstruction? Given their common theme of corporate greed, developments in post-war society and their subsequent inequality, I'd say some people get reconstruction support and others don't (the interactions of Lucio and Symmetra for instance) based on convenience, and the sentiment from many powers in history has often been 'Australia is very far away, and I don't care'.
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To call it 'a mistake' then, redirects blame from those inequalities and the present-day situation having beyond anyone's possible conception.
If it's 'a mistake', it's not a self-destructive spiral of suffering people who have been pushed beyond even common sense anymore. That lash out in desperation over a loss that cannot be quantified to any sum, yet were told that a price had actually been put on it, and no one was interested in paying it, and they had to live with what they got now. Then with no other output for the misery, in some desperate bid to reclaim even a SHRED of a memory, just vent their pain for a damn second, damned themselves and their home. Everyone who was in power and authority to have stepped in at any time to give the support needed and direct it more meaningfully before this, but never did, everyone who made those choices, is now complicit in the rise of Junkertown and the Junkers due to their basic lack or inability to understand what had been lost and have empathy, has led to a situation where now there is an entirely separate type of threat in 'feral omnics' and a bunch of insane radioactive people.
Or just say it was 'a mistake'. Then it's just their fault, isn't it? It's just a small, negligible little choice that WE won't make. We can all pat ourselves on the back and say that at least because Australia is so far away, whatever is happening there, is now just isolated to them, and you can't expect help NOW that the desert is irradiated, it was ALREADY unfeasible, it's SO expensive, WHOSE going to fund that, for what gain, especially now you made this silly little 'choice'.
Acknowledging, even to stop the Junkers, means bringing their own failings to the spotlight when rightfully it comes back to 'why the fuck did these bastards exist in the first place? What made them so fucking stupidly, mindlessly, suicidally angry as to lash out like this? Why weren't they thinking, then, and why do they stay, even now? .... and why do all of them appear to be goddamn giants?'
So easier to just... let the Junkers do their thing, out in the desert. Make them the scapegoat for the tensions, a fixing point for even the Omnics (rightfully, obviously in their case) to hate, blame and fear, over more active, influential systems that have far more ability to affect the world. Especially when compared too: the bunch of crazy people in the fucking desert, who probably all die at 50 from that ambient radiation everywhere, getting new types of diseases that no one has ever HEARD of before and are apparently are like barely connected on networks to the rest of the world. WHAT KIND OF POWER TO AFFECT WORLD CHANGE DO YOU THINK THEY ACTUALLY HAVE?
Rather than acknowledge that people like Odessa Stone got their hatred probably from watching half her under 12 siblings die to omnics, and the other half to the situation in the Wasteland created by others' indifference. (And the reminder that, Odessa's mum in the first shot, is holding an infant, and the second moment of her flashback, Odessa is still roughly the same but all the kids left are too big for a 1 to 2-year-old, and Mama Stone isn't holding an infant anymore.) They do what often happens and put all the responsibility of moving on, ON the people who are literally in the middle of dying in a now 30-year war, that everyone ELSE keeps trying to desperately pretend it's over and stick their head in the sand. Thus just invalidating their pain and making them even MORE resistant. Especially when you contrast the rest of the world is getting influential people like Mondatta and Zen making changes, real strides forward, and they get......... lbr, just more graves while they're just being called crazy.
Akande says 'the world is designed to be this way', and I think part of the reason Odessa doesn't mind him, is that yeah, yeah she probably knows after she's seen other parts of the world now and its reconstruction efforts, compared to theirs, found them pretty wanting, and it's nice to hear someone else say it for once.
No WONDER Roadie says 'this isn't a city' about Junkertown, when he remembers when Australia had more than three cities total, it must seem like a mockery. But why people like Junker Queen and Junkrat have pride in it, inversely. They were children when the apocalypse came to Australia or were born in Junkertown itself, they live in the memory that must now only feel dead and impossible to recapture the life of. In many ways, their bookends to Ramattra, their first moments were taken into a life of roaring violence the world wants to pretend isn't happening, but this is all they ARE now. So they have done their best with it, even if no one wants to be reminded of what their sheer existence represents.
Yeah. 'Mistake' is much easier to swallow, isn't it?
So yeah, given ODESSA STONE IS OUT THERE IN THE WASTELAND BECOMING FUCKING GENGHIS KHAN OR SOMETHING, UNITING ALL THE WASTELAND FACTIONS, AND NO ONE IS NOTICING OR EVEN SLIGHTLY TAKING IT SERIOUSLY, whenever that blows up in their face and they cry HOW DID THIS GET SO BAD, WHAT HAPPENED, AUSTRALIA?!
Yeah. Ain't that the fucking question.
Or maybe all of this is complete nonsense and everything I just said will one day be shown to be entirely wrong as often happens because ultimately again, I don't think they MEANT MOST OF THIS LMAO, BECAUSE ONE MORE TIME: STOP SAYING 'OUTBACK'.
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judgemark45 · 11 months
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Twenty years ago, on 22 April 2003, The Los Angeles-class attack submarine USS Louisville (SSN-724), under the command of Commander Michael E. Jabaley Jr. USN, arrived in HMAS Stirling at Garden Island, Australia, for a week-long visit to Perth.
On 21 March 2003, thirty U.S. Navy and coalition warships, including USS Louisville, then assigned to Naval Forces Central Command, launched Tomahawk Land Attack Missiles (TLAMs) during military operations to disarm Iraq as part of Operation Iraqi Freedom.
USS Louisville was officially decommissioned 9 March 2021 during a ceremony near Dry Dock #5 on Puget Sound Naval Shipyard, after more than 34-years of active service.
This picture is from USS Louisville's 2003 Press Kit, USN Photo.
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aus-wnt · 3 months
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as an american, i have an incredibly deep fascination with australia and i have no idea why. it seems to be just as advanced as the us, if not more, yet also calm and almost disconnected? that’s probably not the correct term im looking for but whatever.
also sorry to make this an australia q&a but australia is fucking huge, yet i feel i only ever hear ppl talk abt like 3 cities (sydney, melbourne and brisbane) and they’re like all on the east cost of the country? do ppl live in like central Australia? western Australia? where is the outback? do you guys eat bloomin onions?
sincerely, an aussie admirer
Me: I hate this fucking place.
Also me: I’m glad you brung it up, cause I’ve been dying to talk about it for a hot fucking minute
SO, we are more advanced that the US, but we’re also significantly smaller, so of course we’re able to implement change a lot easier (do we? no. this is a conversation for another day though). We are disconnected from the rest of the world because we’re so far away, and its one of my main gripes with living here.
The main cities would be Bris, Canberra, Darwin, Hobart, Perth (this is Western Australia, so yes, people live there), Melb and Syd.
Melb/Syd/Bris are prob the main tourist attractions? But also the most built up? Idk, I’m not the one to ask about why everyone seems to only go to those three places. (fun fact, Melbourne and Sydney have had a rivalry since the literal 1800's.)
People definitely live in Central Australia, its pretty indigenous heavy, but its not as dense as the cities because its the literal outback. It's not as built up and there isn't a lot of infrastructure, so its a lot harder living, but not impossible.
My first introduction to "bloomin onions" was through a Buffy the Vampire Slayer fanfiction back in the day. They are not on menus here and I wouldn't even know where to buy one, haha. Outback Steakhouse is a literal lie, hahahaha.
Any other Australian's wanna chime in where I'm incorrect? @stardust-speckles @partoftheairforce
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mariacallous · 2 months
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With more than 12,000 killed and 7.3 million people displaced, ongoing warfare in Sudan has steadily broken down the country’s political, social, and medical services. Reports suggest more than 24 million of the country’s 46 million people need assistance; cholera cases had risen to over 8,200 by late December; and between 70 percent and 80 percent of hospitals in affected states have been left nonfunctional.
As violence and displacement counts rise, humanitarian aid efforts haven’t kept up. Instead, initiatives to negotiate between the warring powers—the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF), led by Gen. Abdel Fattah al-Burhan, and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF), led by Mohamed Hamdan “Hemeti” Dagalo—have been the priority for the international community, neglecting the suffering that ordinary Sudanese citizens have endured for the last nine months. While talks have been on and off for months, vital humanitarian initiatives remain underfunded.
It is easy to assume that with negotiations come a harmonious cease-fire and peaceful postwar society, but global history and Sudan’s history indicate a very different outcome if international actors rely primarily on good-faith negotiations to end the conflict and launch Sudan into a successful postwar society.
To rely on negotiations is to assume that one of the warring factions will win and the other will concede, leaving either Burhan or Hemeti in charge of Sudan’s reconstruction. Given U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s recent determination that both the RSF and SAF have committed war crimes—with RSF forces also committing crimes against humanity and acts of ethnic cleansing—inviting these parties to a negotiation table projects a bleak future for Sudan.
The international community has its priorities backward. Instead of prioritizing negotiations between two factions that actively reject any notion of their own wrongdoing and that citizens overwhelmingly reject as unrepresentative, foreign actors must redirect their attention to limiting foreign funding of the conflict, advocating for the inclusion of Sudanese citizen groups, and financing proposed humanitarian plans. Indeed, the central focus of international organizations and outside powers seeking peace in Sudan should be the restoration of civilian life, rather than impractical negotiations that have often failed in the past.
After former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir was ousted from office in 2019, international powers and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) eagerly supported a citizen-led democratic transition, vowing to assist in the process. But, as the U.N. Integrated Transition Assistance Mission in Sudan (UNITAMS) was shuttered this last December by the U.N. Security Council, such promises appear empty. Government officials in Khartoum deemed the mission “disappointing” as they demanded its end and blamed the violence on former UNITAMS chief Volker Perthes, forcing the U.N.’s hand to withdraw.
In managing negotiations between the factions that are barring the progress of a civilian government, international mediators continue to walk back these promises. To reassert their commitment to civilian-led initiatives in Sudan, a healthy and safe citizenry is necessary.
The continued failure of Sudan’s health system represents just one of the many failures Sudan’s public systems have suffered amid the ongoing violence. As RSF and SAF forces have made Sudan dangerous to move within, humanitarian access has been greatly limited. This has since resulted in cholera spreading to nine of Sudan’s states—threatening communities plagued by inadequate water treatment and food insecurity at a higher rate. As measles, cholera, and dengue fever spread, it becomes increasingly obvious that if guns and bombs don’t kill Sudanese citizens, the failure of the health system and lack of medical supplies will.
The ongoing conflict’s impact on access to food and resources has also contributed to massive degradation in the nation’s economy. With an inflation rate of 256 percent relative to average consumer prices, citizens across Sudan, whether in conflict-ridden areas or not, are suffering.
Most efforts aimed at assisting vulnerable citizens have been undertaken by Sudanese people themselves. With unreliable access to the internet, Sudanese people globally have used social media to advertise the best routes to escape Sudan, share which shops have food and medicine in stock, and how to send and receive money amid shuttered banks. Sudanese citizens have taken it upon themselves to do the work they’ve expected of international organizations and powers.
Stories that have emerged out of Sudan over the last nine months detail harrowing civilian experiences with ethnic and sexual violence largely perpetrated by the RSF, invoking memories of the war in Darfur, where widespread violence occurred at the hands of the janjaweed, the militia from which the RSF emerged. While that war was declared ended in August 2020 as Sudan’s newly formed transitional government promised Darfur rebel groups a role in Sudan’s democratic transition, those oaths have disappeared amid the current conflict.
The western area of Darfur remains the epicenter of violence toward civilians, as risks of ethnic cleansing, genocide, and sexual abuse mount against primarily non-Arab communities. A lack of organization within RSF ranks and the group’s history have all but authorized heinous attacks against Sudan’s most vulnerable populations, with a limited humanitarian response from parties outside of the country.
When humanitarian aid does manage to reach displaced people, it typically happens in refugee camps in neighboring countries, such as Doctors Without Borders’ work in the Ourang camp in Chad, despite the organization’s ongoing efforts to maintain a presence in Sudan. Fears of looting and violence, a lack of institutional protection, and the continued degradation of networks have made it increasingly difficult to reach afflicted communities in Sudan.
As violence rains down on West Darfur, communities are becoming more vulnerable. While around 42 percent of Sudan’s population suffers from high levels of acute food insecurity, these figures increase dramatically to over 60 percent in West Darfur. As the humanitarian crisis deepens in areas most affected by ethnic and sexual violence over the last 20 years, a lack of urgency in the international response ensures that the situation will get worse.
The most urgent initiative to protect Sudanese citizens is readily waiting, but with only 41.8 percent of the necessary funding acquired, the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) response plan has not been as effective as it could be. The plan aims to provide lifesaving assistance to limit immediate morbidity and mortality rates and keep pending risks at bay through preemptive action.
The limited funding has allowed OCHA to reach only 21 percent of targeted people in need, so increasing pressure on state actors is key to assure humanitarian aid. Of the $2.57 billion needed to fully enact the plan, the United States has provided $549.1 million of the current secured funding, but Saudi Arabia—the other key broker—has contributed only $38 million, and the Intergovernmental Authority on Development has given less than $100,000. As negotiating powers aim to bring the United Arab Emirates into talks regarding its role, its government has given less than $400,000 to the effort. Encouraging allies in the West to assist in the existing plan is similarly crucial, as it offers a more immediate response.
Using existing Sudanese citizen networks of grassroots trauma response and financial and educational empowerment of mental health services across Sudan—specifically in areas like Darfur, Kordofan, and Khartoum—is key to development. Frameworks to assist displaced people are necessary as well, as hundreds of thousands flee to neighboring countries where more danger often awaits them.
Building networks for refugees and asylum-seekers to safely leave the country and resettle with the assistance of foreign governments ensures vulnerable populations gain access to robust medical and social services that are not currently available domestically. All these efforts have begun thanks to Sudanese citizens, but without foreign intervention and commitment, these initiatives will not have a wide impact.
As peace talks continue, the Sudanese public must be represented by the citizen groups that led protests against Bashir and his government—as the loudest voice.
Even as Sudanese citizens internally and globally call for both Hemeti and Burhan to be held accountable by the international community, the former allies who served in the Bashir regime may very well end up sharing power in defiance of the public’s will. Bringing Sudanese citizen groups into the discussion could avoid such an outcome while prioritizing the health and human rights of the population. Until humanitarian efforts take center stage in discussions surrounding Sudan, there will be no winners.
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CAT, Perth, Western Australia vs SkyTrain, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
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CAT: The CAT (Central Area Transit) system is a series of bus routes criss-crossing the central district of the city. Apart from the neat name and logo (which is, of course, a cat), the great thing about it is that it's entirely free to use; you can hop on and off anywhere you like at no charge.
SkyTrain: It's the longest automated/driverless train network in the world. You can sit in the front where the driver would otherwise be and get a cool view. Most of it is elevated, thus the name, but the parts of the Expo Line and Canada Line that run through downtown Vancouver are a subway. It had an off-brand Transformer based on it when it debuted for Expo 86. It's run by TransLink which sounds like a t4t dating site or a Legend of Zelda headcanon. It has chime sounds that go doo doo doo when it's ready to leave the station and it screeches like a banshee when it goes around a curve, especially in the older cars, so I always bring earplugs when I ride it.
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