Straya!

[JimC]

You'll be voting for the illiberal candidate then I guess.

Well, it's many thousands of kilometres away in Western Australia, but the current state government there is Labour Party, and has huge popularity due to very efficient handling of the covid-19 crisis over there...

[JimC]

A sheep called Baarack...

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-25/ ... f/13192872

[Sean Hayden]

Australian City Uses Drainage Nets to Stop Waste from Polluting Waterways

The simple and cost-effective solution is helping keep the town's water sources clean.

https://interestingengineering.com/aust ... -waterways

[JimC]

Yeah, that's in a city in Western Australia, near Perth. I'd seen video of them a couple of years ago, but haven't heard of whether other cities have taken up the idea. Seems both simple and effective to me...

[Scot Dutchy]

We dont need that. That is very primitive.

[NineBerry]

In the Netherlands you don't need to throw garbage into rivers. You can go to the coast by bike and throw it in there directly

[Scot Dutchy]

Sorry Nine. We dont do that.

[JimC]

We dont need that. That is very primitive.

It's true that we wouldn't need it if there was zero littering (they are stormwater drains, of course, and litter almost anywhere can be washed into them after rain). However, the reality is that littering exists. Given that, it is, as I said, simple and effective. By primitive, you really mean low-tech; high-tech solutions are not always required...

[Svartalf]

Yeah, that's in a city in Western Australia, near Perth. I'd seen video of them a couple of years ago, but haven't heard of whether other cities have taken up the idea. Seems both simple and effective to me...

Well, it's keeping solid waste that won't disintegrate out of the waterways, but it does nothing for particles smaller than the net size, or for stuff that is dissolved in the water.

[Sean Hayden]

If that's necessary I'm guessing this is further up in the process Svarty, you wouldn't throw chunks of trash into your water purifier.

[JimC]

Yeah, that's in a city in Western Australia, near Perth. I'd seen video of them a couple of years ago, but haven't heard of whether other cities have taken up the idea. Seems both simple and effective to me...

Well, it's keeping solid waste that won't disintegrate out of the waterways, but it does nothing for particles smaller than the net size, or for stuff that is dissolved in the water.

Fair point, Svarty...

But still better than nothing...

[NineBerry]

Doesn't work in Australia

[Scot Dutchy]

A great Parliament in Ozland:

Australia's prime minister vows to clean up parliament in wake of new allegations

Latest claims come from whistleblower who says he was part of a group of staffers who shared images of themselves masturbating in parliament

Australia’s prime minister Scott Morrison has vowed to clean up parliament after the latest in a series of sexual abuse and harassment scandals has rocked his government and amid accusations that he has failed to understand women’s anger at toxic male culture.

After weeks of pressure over what was seen as a tone-deaf response to the scandals, Morrison broke down in tears at a press conference in Canberra on Tuesday as he promised to use his young daughters, his wife and his mother as motivation to fix a problem that has refused to go away.

But the strain also showed when his carefully cultivated suburban dad persona slipped as he hit out at one journalist who suggested he has lost control of his staff.

It is not the first time Morrison, who is a committed Pentecostal Christian, has sought to invoke his family as his moral compass or deflect questions about the crisis, with his response described as flat-footed and insensitive ranging to increasingly peevish and aggressive.

The latest allegations come from a whistleblower who claims to have been part of a WhatsApp group of Coalition staffers who shared images of themselves masturbating in parliament, including on the desk of a female Coalition MP.

The allegations also include claims that sex workers were invited into Parliament House by a former minister and that staffers regularly had sex in a room intended for prayer and meditation. One Coalition staffer has been sacked.

The whistleblower, named only as Tom, took aim at the male-dominated culture in parliament that had allowed it to fester.

[JimC]

They're a weird mob in Canberra...

[Scot Dutchy]

A weird mob in Ozland Jim. Cant keep their feet dry with so much land. Why do they allow building on flood plains? They know surely where flooding will occur? We have had software for 30 years that tells us exactly where the flooding will happen. We plan not for the once in a hundred years flood but once in the ten thousand year flood.
Just amazing. The experts here just dont understand why you let things get this far. They say it is a very simple job.