Smacktard of the day...

[awaywithfairies]

Originally Posted by Mythor

It's convenient that they're finally doing something now, yes, but something does need to be done. There's a difference between respecting their culture and allowing them to continue to abuse children.

And I definitely agree that something needs to be done. Perhaps the way it was announced and some of the methods proposed could be done differently.

I've worked in health care in the Northern Territory in the past and have seen some horrific situations. And not just in indigenous communities. Something drastic needs to be done and it needs to be done fast. It's been going on for far too long.

[Gutter Monkey]

Last week, the Federal Government announced unprecedented intervention in the NT communities in banning alcohol and pornography in communities, enforcing compulsory medical checks for children under 16, increasing police numbers and quarantining welfare payments.

It has also scrapped the permit system that restricts the entry of non-indigenous people onto Aboriginal land and took control of about 60 communities under a five-year lease scheme.

It looks like they've scrapped any pretence of the communites being under their own control.
These new measures seem draconian and condescending (esp. banning alcohol & porn and quaranting welfare payments) and knee-jerk reactions. They might actually be necessary to stop the abuse as quickly as possible but the situation should never have been allowed to get this bad.

The move was prompted by the release of an NT Government report which found widespread child sex abuse, sex trades and juvenile prostitution in communities across the Northern Territory fuelled by alcohol, drugs and pornography.

So alcohol and porn are banned. I'm amazed they haven't been grounded and sent to their room as well.
Actually I can kinda udnerstand the ban on booze. (Are they going to ban petrol as well?) But what's with the ban on porn?

[susanjacobs]

Porn makes you unable to control yourself. Didn't propaganda teach you anything?

[Renee_Turner]

It's the same way sexual health is viewed in some private schools. If you're not told about it, and don't see it, you won't want to do it.

I just love that the PM called child abuse in the NT "our Hurricane Katrina". What an apt description. It's been misreported and the Government has been trying to ignore it as much as possible.

[Mythor]

Smacktard of the day for the first time in ages: dstore.com.au for offering a "special" on the XBOX 360 HD DVD "bundle" which is just the standard "bundle" Australia has had for a while - King Kong, remote control and the drive.

But that isn't why they're smacktards. No, it's because they're offering this special price while stocks last... and not making mention of the fact that stock is going to run out due to Microsoft deciding it won't be making any more HD DVD drives for the 360. Because HD DVD is essentially dead at this point.
So if $60 for King Kong on HD DVD plus a spare remote for your 360 sounds like a bargain, go right ahead!

[kebab_oner]

actually, buying the HD-DVD drive isn't as dumb or short sighted as it sounds - discs are going to be HEAVILY discounted over the coming weeks/months (eg. all the harry potter movies are $10 each on dstore), so it'll be a good way to amass a collection of HD movies for a very small upfront investment.

and lets be honest, due to the increasing proliferation of broadband, even BD's days are relatively numbered. and I'm not just talking illegal downloads either - itunes and a couple of other online retailers are already selling movies in HD.

[Mythor]

Buying a HD-DVD player may be a good idea... But you need to hook the 360 player up to the 360. If one doesn't break and need repairing, there's a good chance the other will.
If you already have one it'd be worth stockpiling HD DVDs and it probably wouldn't be a bad idea to buy a standalone player if you can get one cheap, or get one that also does Blu-Ray. My objection was more to them offering this super cheap player without mentioning why it's super cheap.

Microsoft has been doing rentals on the XBOX 360 in the US for quite a while, yeah. But a lot of people still want the physical media, since there tends not to be anything stopping them from lending the movie to a friend/relative that way. Most companies still insist on DRM on video downloads from what I've seen.
Blu-Ray won't be going away any time soon!

[kebab_oner]

I think if you look at what's happened to CD's with the ipod explosion, there's an increasing shift amongst consumers away from "boxed" media. people just need a convenient, user friendly way to get into the technology - which, apart from apple tv (which kinda sux), nobody's really nailed yet. but it'll happen, and people will gravitate towards whatever's convenient and cheapest.

and sure, there'll always be people that like to collect things - I've got 4 crates of vinyl at home.

[Gutter Monkey]

I've missed this thread. Ghandi tells us to "Be the change you want to see" so I'll resurrect it.

For today's Smacktard I'd like to nominate Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, who has got a bee in his bonnet over black holes and devils food cakes. Why would a county commissioner get upset over astronomical phenomena and delicious cakes?

'Cos he hates racism!

[Alisso]

Originally Posted by Gutter Monkey

For today's Smacktard I'd like to nominate Dallas County Commissioner John Wiley Price, who has got a bee in his bonnet over black holes and devils food cakes. Why would a county commissioner get upset over astronomical phenomena and delicious cakes?

'Cos he hates racism!

He complains about "black holes" (which is a scientific term that relates to an actual thing which is black, not a thing which is bad), being the "black sheep" (which refers to a non-conformist) and angel and devil's food cake (named for being light and fluffy, and sinful and indulgent respectively).

Racism isn't about words, it's about people, the attitudes towards them and the way they're treated. No one who talks about "black holes" thinks they're full of African Americans, and that's why things disappear there...

[unfrufru]

my smacktard is the former australian tv persionalityu at my work who yesterday tried to start a frenzy and perhaps a lynching for me because of cancer. the renovations at the office are finished and my printer was moved back next to my desk about 5 metres away from her and she started carrying on about getting cancer from the printer, running around asking people iof they want cvancer, then stating that some of the odler people wouldn't mind dying because of me cause their children are grown up but she has young children and wants to live to see them grow up and how would i like getting cancer blah blah. dragged all of management into it, had a yelling match with a bunch of us including myself and the office manager and our response was "oh course we care about getting cancer, but we're off to have a smoke.

she made a point yesterday of holding her nose and coughin every time she walked past my printer (which is 12 months old, top of the line) until she did it one more time and i was standing thre holding the cable cause i hadbn;'t actually had time to plug it in yet.

god i missed this thread.

[junglegirl_1976]

OMG, that's hilarious. Is it one of those 'no name, no pack drill' kinda things??

People are stupid aren't they!!

[Alisso]

Originally Posted by unfrufru

she started carrying on about getting cancer from the printer

What?? Printers cause cancer now?

[Mythor]

Laser ones might, yes. There's a study from July 2007 that says they might. They might also just cause damage equivalent to smoking.
Might be a more recent study debunking that one, I don't know. That's already more research than I needed to do on the subject.

[Alisso]

Well, there you go, you learn something new every day. Printer toner is carcinogenic. I've had that crap all over my hands after rescuing stuck pages, I'm probably going to develop finger-cancer...wonder if I can sue work?

She's only going to be at risk while you're printing or just after you've printed. Coughing every time she passes the damn thing - especially if it isn't plugged in *g* - just makes her a drama queen.

Tell her to change desks to get away from the printer. As a bonus, she'll be further away from you, too *bg*