Hehehe, thays good. I see why the hippo design jogged your memory.

Is someone using rhino's? What is that in Quokkas?

I disagree that incrementalism will never lead to systemic change. But i'm a believer that big change is precipitated by ten small changes. Cue Paul Kelly..

I don't feel George Monbiot put his case well. If we take Australia as the example, without the incremental changes we've individually already made its hard to believe that the bigger things we are actually doing now would be as uncontroversial as they are.

The big projects I'm thinking are the many renewables going in around the country. The offshore wind farm in NSW, is maybe the only exception, but even thats not stopping the nation like it might've a decade ago.

Plastic bag bans, container deposit schemes, removal of plastic straws, yellow top recycle bins, FOGO, keep cups, these are all examples of the highly visible incremental changes that, bu their constant presence, demand people rethink a wasteful practice.

I think he's right to say is incrementalism might be too slow. But his other option of waiting for the economic/climate revolution is akin to rolling the dice at a casino you don't own.

Mmmm... thats gona have to be my Friday night plans now you've put it in my head.

Ginger Garlic Noodle Soup w/Bok Choy

Super warming for the rainy day we've had over here in Perth*. *^That deadbeat town over the otherside of the continent ;)^

Recipe Link

Must be the same cooker who was in charge of the Liberal party registrations. Old mates struck again!

This report seems relevant to farming regions across Australia.

As farming moves away from certain areas and rewilding occurs, farmers, governments, and peeps in general should be aware that if poorly managed, fire danger could rise.

That one from Day Dawn looks eery and sad. Maybe its just the Black and White.

My lawns still crap; my partner has decided to take over its care. I have a curious feeling of failure and relief.

Whats the issue for Labor here, are there really that many people in Aus that blindly side with Israel that its electorally suicidal to come out and say, 'we're with the rest of the world'? If so, then we should look at ourselves.

Adelaide - The Arsenal of Australian democracy.

Gotta admit, it has a nice ring to it, and theres gona be a lot more work like this in the future it seems. Maybe its time for the rebrand?

Sorry, and I don't have advice. But I did, long ago. Had a grandparent with dementia. They were overseas so i never saw. My mum went over though. She said there were times when it was just like normal, and those were happy and the memories she cherishes.

Here's the problem we have. By most accounts the only reason the green light hasn't been given to Ukraine for wider use of the Storm Shadow missile (UK weapon) in their defense against Russia, is because of a US veto. A veto they apparrently only have due to a single component for the weapon coming from the US.

If this is the case, and the US is using their military technology supply chain as leverage with its allies in this way, then Keating is right, and Australians should be concerned about a critical arm of our defense structure being open to that risk.

There is however other possibilities, such as, UK wishing to talk the talk, but not walk the walk on wider military support. In other words essentially agreeing with the US about the risks of escalation, but wanting to be quiet about that fact.

Glad to see DPIRD is doing community engagement at the Royal Show, they should be using every possible community contact point to educate the rest of us on what we need to know to be an effective help for them.

Went back and watched that video, love 'not just bikes', those instore scanners are a really good idea, Costlesworthdi should have all employed these by now.

The only reason i can think they haven't is the same reason i'd assume for independents and IGA's the cost. Without knowing anymore about the costs, i'd assume its a mix of upfront payments for the scanners, etc, and a, out of proportion, per transaction clip of the ticket for 'maintenance and service costs', just like the bank cards have.

I love what you're suggesting though, use QR codes on each product so customers use the hardware in their pockets to scan out their items as they go.

It would reduce those upfront costs so much, and could be done with less memory bloat like the Maccas type apps. If this doesn't already exist we should round up some of the more tech focused users/mods/admins on aussiezone and do it ourselves, then use the revenue from that as an ongoing fund for the benefit of 'aussiezone' as Australia's Social Web alternative. Lets do this!

So, I wanted to find a good source for this, but i can't after a short search and its late, so i'm just going to reply.

but if I did care a lot about the price, I would definitely be wanting to be able to check where I'm going to get the best deal. But I do like being able to check which products they've got so I can plan my shop

Prices and range of stock are likely controlled by IGA store owners themselves, this is not Metcash.

Metcash own the brand and do the majority of wholesaling for IGA. I think theres extras, like locally sourced produce, that independent IGA brand operators sell themselves without violating terms of the IGA brand agreement.

Due to the owner/operators of IGA stores having more price and stock control this makes it harder for things like online pricing and stocking, as each store is doing its own thing supplying their local area the way they think.

Like Mcdonalds franchisees the catalogues you get with those prices require the ongoing agreement of the IGA stores themselves.

A central data collection point is more complicated for Metcash/IGA than a single entity like ColesWortAldi. Each owner/operator needs to agree/supply a price and stock level, supply their information back likely working off multiple types of in-house operational systems across the IGA stores (also stock numbers, etc), then receive reflect and display the equivalent information as everyone else.

Its actually not dissimilar to Lemmy and its many servers.

All this said, your point about technophobia is probably very true, sometimes its straight up head in the sand, but also a key issue is these owner/operators run on tiny margins. Significant upfront costs, like built/hard tech often has, with obscure pay offs are a hard sell in these people's positions, and the stores owners themselves need to put their hands in their own pockets more often than not.

Add to this that the borrowing capacity of an organisation like Metcash/IGA is a lot lower than the 'single entity operators' and you get a less competitive and slower moving beast.

Bonus though, the money you spend at an IGA is going to take a lot longer, if ever, to become leakage to some overseas investor, so a good argument for IGA's is they increase the velocity of money swirling around in the Australian economy whereas others, Costco/Aldi particularly, cause AUD leakage quicker.

Haha, extended family member said a similar thing. Those panels are 20kg at full size, they weren't sittin in that room with just liqud nails holding them up. :)

Maybe i'll leave them a note though.

CSIRO report confirms renewables still cheapest new-build power in Australia

Its a good point, but this report has and should take this into account.

Edit: thought AFR article was referring to another report, but i think its the same CSIRO report.

The government has also vowed to strengthen the use of 'use it or lose it' provisions to prevent land banking of onshore petroleum tenements and ensure more gas is brought to market over the coming decade.

Use it or lose it provisions could do with wider use in this country.

Cheap to do, expensive to prove.