News thread

Here in Tas our Labor is in bed with the Greens which immediately went sour as well you know the Greens and their tree hugging ways killed our Forestry industry with not allowing Gunns to make a Pulp mill which in turned made Gunns go into liquidation. (Made my Dad lose his job at the mill).

More recently there was the whole bus debacle where the drivers went on strike for a few hours once a week until recently which should have been resolved a whole lot sooner.

Yeah, the Greens are nothing but bad news. They take what might be good morals and then take them way too far. Honestly I wouldn't be surprised if they want humanity to go back to living as cavemen.

I hadn't actually heard about the bus strikes though, sounds like Labor is really screwing things up in Tasmania, even more than I'd heard.

Yeah, we're messed up something bad, the election can't come soon enough

I'm very happy to have our Green party (which sounds much the same as yours) operating at a local councillor level, without ever wanting them to be in parliament. Not that there's any danger of that, mind you.

Balladeer wrote:

I'm very happy to have our Green party (which sounds much the same as yours) operating at a local councillor level, without ever wanting them to be in parliament. Not that there's any danger of that, mind you.

They managed one seat in 2010: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/election2010/results/ That gives them a better throw than UKIP- although that's quite debatable considering that UKIP managed three times the votes.

Should have clarified: by "in parliament" I meant "running the country". One Green is unlikely to achieve anything on her own.

Ah, I almost forgot. It's been a while since the news "made up" a video game.

You know there's been a recent concern over micro-transactions in smartphone games. Well, as Fiona Bruce was reading the report, on the big screen behind her was a "screen" of a game called "Hidden Cost World". Of course, thanks to the people that run this thing having no idea what they're talking about, it looked like Super Mario Bros, but the main character was a coin with sunglasses, arms and legs. That is, exactly NOT like a smartphone game that would use micro-transactions.

I really wish I could've grabbed a screenshot of it... oh BBC News, you so crazy.

Oh boy - we must begin a Kickstarter to get Hidden Cost World onto the major formats! Play as Coin-y and pay for skills, like walking, jumping, and paying for skills!

Jimbob wrote:

You know there's been a recent concern over micro-transactions in smartphone games. Well, as Fiona Bruce was reading the report, on the big screen behind her was a "screen" of a game called "Hidden Cost World". Of course, thanks to the people that run this thing having no idea what they're talking about, it looked like Super Mario Bros, but the main character was a coin with sunglasses, arms and legs. That is, exactly NOT like a smartphone game that would use micro-transactions.

I will concede that it's reasonable for them to make up a game as a metaphor for the news report, but they should do more to demonstrate that it's an illustration and not a real game.

Also, they should occasionally do a news story about games that *isn't* about how Evil And Wrong they all are.

Terrible news about the Boston Marathon - multiple explosions with at least 2 dead so far. No explanation as to what the cause was as of yet.

Yes, that is... not good. How long before all the terrorist cells start claiming it?

I can guarantee North Korea will spin this and make their citizens believe that this was them. I'm interested to find out if it was a home-grown American nutjob or if it was indeed a terrorist attack.

Balladeer wrote:

Yes, that is... not good. How long before all the terrorist cells start claiming it?

This could be what makes GNamer hit the big time!

Yeah, the Boston marathon bombs have made me sad. The death toll is now at three, and I've read a report which says horrifying things about missing legs. I just - I don't understand.

Unsure if this qualifies as "news", but somebody went and mapped the most common surnames in various areas of the UK. Smiths, Joneses and Wilsons abound, but I had a little chuckle at "Brimblecombe" in the south-west.

Also, slightly late, David Cameron authorises a Thatcher museum. My sides would be splitting if it wasn't genuine.

I have no real place talking about UK politics, however it sounds like they are going way over the top.

As long as it's all about aged techniques of roof-building, I have no issue.

ZJ:

Thank you, thank you! I'll be here all week - tickets cannot be refunded or exchanged.

Bit of racism crap going on in the news lately which is starting to get annoying especially with Eddie Mcguire.

Back story is it was the indigenous round of the AFL last week and on one of the games a 13 yo girl called one of the Abo players a Ape or monkey, which caused a whole lot of crap over something small.
She even got booted out of the grounds over it.
In my opinion the player was (Adam Goodes if you want to see) was a big baby over it going on how hurt and shattered he as over it

Given that most of us are straight white males, I think it's a bit rich for us to complain about too much political correctness. We're barely affected by it. I'm not going to weep too much for people who make racist insults being unable to make racist insults.

It's not only AFL either.

Balladeer wrote:

too much political correctness. We're barely affected by it.

Speak for yourself, my Klan meetings have all been cancelled.






I kid, of course. I'm never going to think "someone dislikes racism" is the wrong angle.

Balladeer wrote:

Given that most of us are straight white males, I think it's a bit rich for us to complain about too much political correctness. We're barely affected by it.

I'd want to be very careful with that line of reasoning.

Ignoring the fringes of every group who has ever existed and will ever exist who will abuse their position and take advantage of such a mindset, the risk of failing to also include the majority group is only going to create resentment and make matters worse.

Take, for example, that lot of EDL protestors who turned out to be quite sensible and rational when that mosque bought out the custard creams last week instead of just calling them a bunch of racists upset at losing their privelages.

Just because one side is in the right, doesn't mean they're doing it right.

In other semi news Matt Smith is done as the Doctor after the Xmas special

Yes! Not that he hasn't been a good Doctor: he has, still better than Tennant in my opinion. But that's just why he needs to go now, before he outstays his welcome.

And Beemoh: while I accept that my point's a generalisation, I still think it can apply here. I don't think this is a fringe mindset or "failing to include the majority group". It's just a straight-out case of a fan doing something that's long been considered a racist gesture and shouldn't be acceptable, and being rightly held up for it. Maybe if she'd been invited around for tea, she'd have been more inclined to change her views, but that doesn't mean what was done instead was wrong.

Although I haven't seen Mr. Goodes giving endless interviews and speeches about it. I don't know, he may just be taking it too far. But I don't mind what's happened to the child at all.