Open Thread – Wednesday 23 Mar 2022


Ophelia, John Everett Millais, 1851/52

1,772 responses to “Open Thread – Wednesday 23 Mar 2022”

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  1. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha Avatar
    Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

    Part of a longer article, from WA Today, on the shooting of Walker at Yuendumu.

    On November 6, 2019, Yuendumu police tried to arrest Walker. When they approached, Walker charged with an axe, and they stepped aside to let him run past. Their response was appropriate, as their training stresses keeping distance from an offender with a sharp weapon.

    In Victoria, police recruits are given a training drill. An instructor armed with a red pen plays an offender while the recruit, wearing a white T-shirt, has to take defensive action. At the end of the exercise the T-shirt is always slashed with red marks, showing that someone with a knife coming forward moves faster than a police officer moving backwards. The safe distance is usually considered at least seven metres.

    Well-intentioned critics question why police are trained to use guns if the offender is “only” armed with a knife. Australian Institute of Criminology figures show of the 278 homicides in Australia in 2019-20, 104 were from stab wounds and 35 from gunshots.

    Because of Walker’s threatening response, local police called for the Alice Springs IRT to make the arrest. This was when Rolfe became involved. Requests to use local police as backup were refused. A message was sent through the community to ask Walker to surrender at the police station.

    He told an elder he would surrender but not until after the funeral of a community member on Saturday, November 9. This message was apparently not passed to police.

    Despite concerns, the arrest occurred on November 9, straight after the funeral. Some police recommended it should be set for the following morning. As a constable, it was not Rolfe’s call.

  2. Knuckle Dragger Avatar
    Knuckle Dragger

    Another Michelle for the GOAT.

    Thank you very much Pakis, for your middle order collapse. Nothing like one of those on the last day of the series, handing it to the opposition in the process.

    One wicket to go.

  3. Zulu Kilo Two Alpha Avatar
    Zulu Kilo Two Alpha

    Even though the use of fatal force was initially judged as justified, and the investigation was incomplete, and Rolfe was not an escape risk, he was charged with murder four days after the shooting.

    Was he charged on the evidence or to satisfy community demand and stop possible riots?

    It is unclear who made the decision but, under the doctrine of the Office of Constable, the arresting officer must reasonably believe the suspect committed the offence. The initial investigators did not reach that threshold. One of the fresh team wrote there was a “direction” to charge Rolfe with murder.

  4. Sancho Panzer Avatar
    Sancho Panzer

    KD at 9:33.
    You have no standing.
    Zero
    Zilch
    Zip.
    Fuck all.
    None.

  5. srr Avatar
    srr

    This –

    Zipster says:
    March 25, 2022 at 6:04 pm

    ‘We made a total mistake’: Jack Dorsey questioned over Hunter Biden censorship
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vJZdEk53xo

    And This –

    ‘It’s about time’: Trump suing Hillary Clinton over Russiagate scandal

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xe9wZmNmFpU

    Mar 25, 2022
    Sky News Australia
    2.32M subscribers
    Donald Trump has officially filed a $24 million lawsuit against Hillary Clinton and her “cohorts” over their “unthinkable plot” to falsely tie the former president to Russia at the time of the 2016 federal election.

    – make things rather interesting …

  6. Knuckle Dragger Avatar
    Knuckle Dragger

    You have no standing.
    Zero
    Zilch

    You have six days to repent. Backdated to 25 October 2021.

  7. Rabz Avatar
    Rabz

    Bluddee hell, Sacré bleu – as if the Schlockeroos woeful performance last evening wasn’t enough, the Azzuri have gone from Roosters to Feather Dusters in less than 12 months. The latter will now be absent from two Woild Cups in a row. As a mate observed this afternoon, it’s like a GP without a Ferrari.

  8. johanna Avatar
    johanna

    How can anyone apologise for something with which one had nothing to do? Except in the rhetorical, Bertie Wooster sense?

    The vice-chancellor of Bond University has apologised to students who have been sexually assaulted on campus.
    Key points:

    A national survey revealed Bond to be the worst for sexual assault among students in the country
    Vice-chancellor Tim Brailsford has promised “a task force to oversee an inquiry, review and reform”
    He says “any number above zero is unacceptable”

    Bond University has the highest reported prevalence of sexual assault among students since they started studying, according to the National Student Safety Survey of Australia’s 39 major universities.

    The survey found that 13.2 per cent of students surveyed at Bond said they had been sexually assaulted — almost three times the national average of 4.5 per cent.

    Vice-chancellor Tim Brailsford has apologised to victim-survivors.

    The word ‘apology’ until very recently referred to a direct relationship between the wronger and the wrongee, where the wronger expressed remorse to the wrongee.

    Not in this post-modern world.

  9. rosie Avatar
    rosie

    How come you get a soccerball emoji?
    B!

  10. feelthebern Avatar
    feelthebern

    Mel Gibson from 1987.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ORxcC_55X6s

    And they laughed at him.

  11. Bruce of Newcastle Avatar
    Bruce of Newcastle

    Nothing like one of those on the last day of the series, handing it to the opposition in the process.

    Was at the SCG the day when the Paki wicketkeeper dropped five catches.
    Funny how that happens.

  12. Rabz Avatar
    Rabz

    So has Geriatric Joe the illegitimate syphilitic ol’ corruptocrat managed to engineer a nuclear contretemps yet?

    I’ve tuned out peoples. After those many regrettable debacles of the twentieth century, you would have hoped that humanity had finally realised that slaughtering peoples en masse really wasn’t a great way to solve various imaginary tribal problems.

    Yet here we are, again.

  13. feelthebern Avatar
    feelthebern

    Hopefully only tripled vaxxed patrons ran onto the field tonight to celebrate Buddy’s 1000th.

  14. Colonel Crispin Berka Avatar
    Colonel Crispin Berka

    MT
    ??
    ??
    ???
    ??

  15. Rabz Avatar
    Rabz

    Another year, another fact and evidence free “campus rape epidemic study”, is vomited forth, the “findings” of which are loudly trumpeted incessantly on the ALPBC until the next Cause du Jour raises its uglee head (which would be about 23 hours later).

    Give it a rest, you preposterous pious knobheads.

  16. Rex Anger Avatar
    Rex Anger

    Another year, another fact and evidence free “campus rape epidemic study”, is vomited forth, the “findings” of which are loudly trumpeted incessantly on the ALPBC until the next Cause du Jour raises its uglee head (which would be about 23 hours later).

    Give it a rest, you preposterous pious knobheads.

    All that tells you, Rabz, is that it’s Grant Season once again.

    Ditto the last few weeks of Ermagerding about the Great Barrier Reef.

    And whatever other pet projects make the news

  17. rosie Avatar
    rosie

    Biden is a wooly headed wombat.
    Looks like he’s keen to have war for all of 2022.

  18. Rabz Avatar
    Rabz

    it’s Grant Season once again

    Indeed, Rex, it’s enough to make one want to superglue oneself to the driveway of Kirribilli House, surrounded by a massive mound of flood damaged household rubbish while screeching incessantly about a non existent climate emergency, I tells ya. 😕

  19. Sancho Panzer Avatar
    Sancho Panzer

    ussr @ 9:40.
    Saving Private Whinin’.

  20. srr Avatar
    srr

    Dot says:
    March 25, 2022 at 6:56 pm
    srr

    Does Vicco have an ‘Elf Ombudsman?

    Yep, both an Ombudsman ‘Service’ –

    Victorian Ombudsman Service
    Description
    The Victorian Ombudsman is an officer of the Victorian Parliament who investigates complaints about Victorian state government departments (such as theDepartment of Health & Human Services), most statutory authorities (such as WorkSafe) and local government.

    Services provided
    Formal investigation of complaints
    Reporting of results to both parties involved
    Complaint resolution

    And a, “Health Complaints Commissioner”, so yes, two mobs to cover Govt arses re: their stuff ups in health.

    Victorian Health is sadly as bad as VCAT and our Ombudsman ‘Service’, well you know they started calling it a ‘service’ when enough people complained that the bastards never did anything for the people.

    Unless you ‘trust the system’ and happily believe them when they say, ‘nothing else can be done’, you’re best off avoiding any entanglement with those mobsters.

    Funny, to me, the best thing about the Covid scams is that finally the world’s waking up to the “Health Profession”.

    Again, good & bad in every field of human endeavour.
    Thank God when you find the good but know the bad in some can be so very bad as to be demonic.

  21. Sancho Panzer Avatar
    Sancho Panzer

    You have six days to repent. Backdated to 25 October 2021.

    OK.
    Thanks.
    That explains me being knocked down by a lightning ball on Cup Day.
    Well, a lightning ball and three bottles of Mumm.

  22. Sancho Panzer Avatar
    Sancho Panzer

    rosiesays:

    March 25, 2022 at 10:27 pm

    bosi gets his very own fact check

    OK.
    He’s jumped the shark.
    Now he’s doing figure-8’s around the shark on a jet-ski.
    With a bleeding crushed foot.

  23. Colonel Crispin Berka Avatar
    Colonel Crispin Berka

    MT
    💻🐛
    🔖🖱
    🚗📢📢
    🕵😈

  24. dover0beach Avatar

    Berka, how did you do that?

  25. Slim Cognito Avatar
    Slim Cognito

    ?
    Test

  26. Rabz Avatar
    Rabz

    Doves – I know, but I’m not telling.

  27. Bourne1879 Avatar
    Bourne1879

    Got an update from cop contact in NZ. NZ PM / Government are scum.

    “on the last working day before the appeal deadline date, the Crown announced this morning they were appealing the ruling.

    Our lawyer has reviewed the basis of the Crowns appeal and deemed it weak at best and very narrow regarding a point of law.

    It’s obvious now the decision to appeal is politically motivated as opposed to an actual legal issue.

    The Govt are trying desperately to hang on to the ‘mandate’ option which is evident by the PMs comments on Wednesday.

    According to our lawyer the JR decision seriously damaged the Govt and in turn the police.

    Regardless the appeal announcement today was upsetting for our group as it not only threatens a return to work but questions the validity of the JR”.

    They are appealing a High Court Judge who gave them a major smacking over sacking people for not taking a jab. I guess they have a Supreme Court or Court of Case also involves NZ Defence.

  28. Sancho Panzer Avatar
    Sancho Panzer

    dover0beachsays:

    March 25, 2022 at 11:32 pm

    Berka, how did you do that?

    I think we have unveiled the phantom upticker.

  29. Gab Avatar
    Gab

    ??
    ??
    ???
    ??

  30. Rabz Avatar
    Rabz

    I think we have unveiled the phantom upticker

    Pancho – a certain commenter here, who shall of course, remain nameless, revealed the secret.

    I’ve only just started the (subsequent) mining. The soccer ball above was the tip of the proverbial iceberg. 🙂

  31. Rabz Avatar
    Rabz

    Not to mention purple monsters.

  32. dover0beach Avatar

    People, you can game it with much effort, but I can do this.

    152715
  33. H B Bear Avatar
    H B Bear

    ??
    ??
    ???
    ??

    F-

  34. MatrixTransform Avatar
    MatrixTransform

    for Berka
    Yield is the rate of return on an investment expressed as a percentage

    now fuck off and eat the bugs

  35. Rabz Avatar
    Rabz

    The revelations above have caused a Panic in … 😕

    FFS, crank it, peoples – this is Rock ‘n’ Roll 🙂

  36. Colonel Crispin Berka Avatar
    Colonel Crispin Berka

    MT,
    As your comment is content-free, I guess fucking off is the only option as there’s nothing to talk about.
    Any time you want to start making sense, I’m sure you have the ability.

  37. Megan Avatar
    Megan

    People, you can game it with much effort, but I can do this.

    And we have an unbeatable winner in the Uptick Stakes! Congrats dover.

  38. srr Avatar
    srr

    Hide Your Crypto [Warning, Hillary in opening!]

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-69xOAbXFjA&t=21s

    Mar 25, 2022
    Discernable
    33K subscribers

    Government closing the last escape hatch…if you’re going to use crypto to either preserve your wealth, or to transact away from government eyes, make sure you are not relying on an exchange to hold your crypto keys.

    ‘Not your keys, not your coins’ as they say.

    Wallets are not hard to understand – so take responsibility for your own.

    This excerpt is from Season 6 Episode 2 of The People’s Project which you can watch in full at: https://discernable.io/the-peoples-project-season-6-episode-2-floods-masks-crypto-and-fear/

  39. Rabz Avatar
    Rabz

    we have an unbeatable winner in the Uptick Stakes!

    Yes Megs, but who’s going to win the figuring out the emoji lingo?

    There’ve been some not so auspicious attempts above, all of which have given me a laugh.

    It only took one “word”* to figure the concept out, peoples.

    You know you want to**. 🙂

    *Posted here about eight days ago

    **Crank it.

  40. Rex Anger Avatar
    Rex Anger

    Cats, it’s the weekend!

    And I am feeling both Arthurian and Anarchic.

    So, following the example of Howard and Vince from The Mighty Boosh, I am going to take retro music to its logical conclusion:

    Medieval Coffin Dance

    And for the Ancient Rus, Raesputane

    For the Memes, Cats.

    For the Memes….

    #AllTheMemes

    #RexIsABardMan

    #AVeryBardManIndeed

  41. Sancho Panzer Avatar
    Sancho Panzer

    All Hail the Emperor of Upticks.
    This is like a marginal booth in Ohio in a Presidential election.

  42. Colonel Crispin Berka Avatar
    Colonel Crispin Berka

    Rabz.
    You know I know.
    And I know you know.
    As the only two holders of the emoji superpower, we could divide the Catworld between us.

    Or I could just paste my Python script here and then anyone who can follow 5 instructions on their computer could join the ⚛ club, causing a mushroom cloud of emojis to blossom all over the blog at least until the novelty wore off.

  43. Sancho Panzer Avatar
    Sancho Panzer

    &#128077

  44. MatrixTransform Avatar
    MatrixTransform

    As your comment is content-free,

    a string of emojis apparently make sense ?

    you’re fucking insane

  45. Sancho Panzer Avatar
    Sancho Panzer

    Bugger!

  46. MatrixTransform Avatar
    MatrixTransform

    the fuck is wrong with you mongs??

  47. Gab Avatar
    Gab

    Hehehe ?????????

  48. Colonel Crispin Berka Avatar
    Colonel Crispin Berka

    dover,
    Yeah it would be easier if we could just copy and paste unicode characters as-is into the comment box and not have them utterly devoured by WordPress, which e.g. turns a ? (House) codepoint into question marks.
    But when that wasn’t working, I decided to write some code in Python to do it.
    Here ya go.

    “emojii2html.py”:

    #!/usr/bin/python3
    import sys

    s = sys.stdin.read()
    for c in s:
    if ord(c) < 127:
    print(c, end='')
    else:
    print("&#%i;" % ord(c), end='')

    So to use this…

    Install Python.
    Save that script to your computer, (and on Linux or Mac OS make the script executable).
    Use Character Map or https://unicode.org/emoji/charts/full-emoji-list.html to find the right characters for your message.
    Run a command line and echo whatever emoji-laden message you want into the script with a pipe.
    You can then paste its output into the WordPress comment box.

    Linux example:

    $ echo Monty eats ? all day. | ./emojii2html.py
    Monty eats 🍩 all day.

    Having said all that… I later found there is an even easier way.
    You just go to onlineunicodetools and their tool does it all for you in the blink of an eye.
    I still like my version better because it leaves all the letters and punctuation intact and only encodes the characters that need it.

    I am now the A.Q.Khan of emojis.

  49. Colonel Crispin Berka Avatar
    Colonel Crispin Berka

    And your version of WordPress does not accept the <PRE> tag either, so it messed up all the spacing and that text won’t work as a python script.
    Ah well, you have the onlineunicodetools doomsday device instead, which is more than sufficient.

  50. Timothy Neilson Avatar
    Timothy Neilson

    Come on peoples, what’s with all this bonhomie?
    No-one’s been called cock smoker all day. Lift your game!

  51. Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity Avatar
    Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

    Come on peoples, what’s with all this bonhomie?
    No-one’s been called cock smoker all day. Lift your game!

    Andrew Hastie’s entry cannot be topped.

    A German porn star would in my opinion be envious of the grogan Mr. Hastie has in my opinion unloaded onto BRS.

    Have I time to move into the electorate of Hastings, so that I may vote against Hastie?

  52. Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity Avatar
    Salvatore, Understaffed & Overworked Martyr to Govt Covid Stupidity

    How the heck did that happen? Bluddee autocorrect! Canning.

  53. johanna Avatar
    johanna

    Yep, this is one of the main reasons I follow the Cats. The unmasking of Hastie is a revelation – to think that some of us (not me, I had no idea one way or the other) thought that Hastie was a valuable asset to the conservative cause. Now we know otherwise, but the average follower of events via the MSM or worse, social media, will have no idea.

    That story about a media outfit covering his personal legal bills is just appalling. How can a Minister of the Crown justify that? He should be sacked forthwith.

  54. Knuckle Dragger Avatar
    Knuckle Dragger

    Beware military people going into politics.

    The joint’s awash with them. They use their previous military background (and, I suspect in some cases – looking at you Hastie – planning to use it while they’re still in) to gain instant cred with a large chunk of their prospective electorates. ‘Oh, a military man. Not just some layabout’ and so on.

    Too often, as demonstrated by Hastie, Lambie, Tinley (in WA), Urban (speaking of WA) and others, it’s all about them – and they use their prior service as a platform for their own profile, to hide their uselessness and to establish a firm place at the trough.

    Don’t start me on Bosi.

  55. Knuckle Dragger Avatar
    Knuckle Dragger

    No-one’s been called cock smoker all day. Lift your game!

    Not here, no. I’ve been yelling it at people outside the shops all afternoon.

    Mixed reviews.

  56. johanna Avatar
    johanna

    Tom’s toons for today at the end of ye olde fredde.

  57. johanna Avatar
    johanna

    Been here after waking up late in the pm because (a) my sleeping patterns have never been of the 24 hour variety; and (b) roofers have been working on the next door building, starting at 7 am, but basing themselves on the balcony outside my door. This means that from about 6.30 am there are shufflings and murmurs and phlegmy coughs and chuckles and bangs about 3m from my bed. Then they get on the metal roof next door wearing work boots and fire up the power tools. Usually 3 or 4 of them.

    I get that being a roofer is a hard job – even on days here when it was only 25C it would be searing hot on a metal roof in the sun. But the one hour smokos, the rubbish (discarded drink cans/bottles and food leftovers, plus boxes and bits of tape and plastic) left here and there do not endear them.

    I’m not doing an Elizabeth Farrelly on tradies here. Tradies are the bread and butter of the motel, and the vast majority of them are ordinary people, not particularly virtuous or bad. But they do work hard, and I just heard the first of them leave the carpark. I am told by management and the housemaids that some of them leave their room as though nobody was there, except for the slept-in bed.

    Could it be that because it is a hard job, roofers get away with more?

  58. johanna Avatar
    johanna

    Local anecdote time – grasshoppers aplenty around here. Presumably that means that there are many, many more grasshoppers in the rural areas they came from.

  59. johanna Avatar
    johanna

    Oh, and I note from way back the (correct) comment about Dettol not being suitable for deep wounds because it kills everything. Then again, deep wounds should not be treated at home.

    It is wrong to suggest that therefore it should never be used when the skin is broken. It’s one of the best ever household health products, along with Tea Tree Oil. Both need to be diluted at least 300% before use on skin or wounds.

  60. johanna Avatar
    johanna

    Looking up, I see that the Space Station’s still up there, despite some master trolling by Putin about where it could fall. They had an infusion of Russians in the last couple of days, allegedly wearing ‘controversial’ colours that looked like the Ukrainian flag.

    Russians said that they were allowed to choose their own outfits, but there was a surplus of blue and white, so …

    Right.

  61. johanna Avatar
    johanna

    Slugabeds Inc.

  62. Winston Smith Avatar

    Eyrie:

    Liked the bit about the diving board on the roof with the sign “Think of it as evolution in action”.

    Interesting novel.
    The social pressures that weren’t very well explored in it are probably a necessity if we are to develop Generation Ships.
    The attempt in the US didn’t – as far as I am aware – have the necessary population density or numbers to do a proper trial.
    Again, IIRC, the trial there was more about construction methods. And the funny part of that was the diminishing levels of CO2 when the curing concrete started to suck it out of the air supply and the crops were failing. You’d think the fact of lower CO2 and dying crops would have been remembered with the gerbil wormening crowd, but no, inconvenient facts are ignored.

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