Quantum Mechanic posted:

Hey Richard, what do you rate this thread?

Murodese posted:

Most of the problem with IT education (in WA, at least) is that the teachers fuckin suck. I've met most of the IT teachers in the state through outreach stuff we do, and there are a handful (maybe 4 that I can think of?) that are genuine IT teachers and not repurposed relief chemistry teachers.

markgreyam posted:

Amoeba102 posted:

He looks confused. What's the context?

QUACKTASTIC posted:

ahahaha
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/may/15/the-man-o-sphere-is-outraged-about-mad-max-hand-me-my-popcorn

quote:

Not to get all “Reaxxiony” on you, but the geek inside of me was excited when I saw the previews and marketing material for “1886: The Order.” Great period in Western Civilization history. An environment that one could get lost in. And technology (supported by Nikola Tesla) that promised those new, fun, fantastic weapons you’d need to take on an undead horde.

It flopped worse than Operation Market Garden.

The-Order-1886-Taipei-Game-Show-Screenshot-1

Of course, this just reiterated a lesson that my hope (1886 would be a good video game) made me temporarily forget: Rarely does a game, book, or a movie live up to the hype surrounding it. And sadly the same thing can be said for “Mad Max: Fury Road.”

If you were like me, the explosions, fire tornadoes, even the symphonic score surrounding “Fury Road’s” first trailer made your attendance a foregone conclusion. It looked like a straight-up guy flick. No loving around. Perhaps even a little, hidden acknowledgement from the director that when the poo poo hits the fan, it will be men like Jack Donovan Mad Max who will be in charge.

But then my spidey senses started noticing a couple things.

Charlize Theron kept showing up a lot in the trailers, while Tom Hardy (Mad Max) seemed to have cameo appearances. Charlize Theron sure talked a lot during the trailers, while I don’t think I’ve heard one line from Tom Hardy. And finally, Charlize Theron’s character barked orders to Mad Max.

Nobody barks orders to Mad Max.

Sure enough, what I suspected (but desperately wanted NOT to be true) was confirmed with two articles in the past week. One, Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues” was consulted by the director to consult the female actresses in Fury Road about what it’s like being sex slaves. Her presumed expertise in this area was based on work she claimed to have done in the Congo. Work I investigated and deemed “fishy” in a recent podcast (around the 1hr 6 min mark).

Two, of all the outdated, obsolete, Baby Boomer leftist rags, TIME MAGAZINE just comes outright and says it.

“Here’s a surprise: Tom Hardy, a.k.a. Mad Max, isn’t the star of Mad Max: Fury Road. Charlize Theron is. An even bigger surprise? Vagina Monologues author Eve Ensler consulted on what turns out to be a very feminist film….Theron, not Hardy, leads the charge; she also does the majority of the fighting.”

Alas, I was forced to accept reality. Fury Road was not going to be a movie made for men. It was going to be a feminist piece of propaganda posing as a guy flick. And like “1886: The Order” I would be let down, and would have to pin my hopes on something else.

The real issue is not whether feminism has infiltrated and co-opted Hollywood, ruining nearly every potentially-good action flick with a forced female character or an unnecessary romance sub-plot to eek out that extra 3 million in female attendees.

It has.

And the real issue is not whether Hollywood has the audacity to remove the name sake of a movie franchise called MAD FREAKING MAX, and replace it with an impossible female character in an effort to kowtow to feminism.

It has.

It’s whether men in America and around the world are going to be duped by explosions, fire tornadoes, and desert raiders into seeing what is guaranteed to be nothing more than feminist propaganda, while at the same time being insulted AND tricked into viewing a piece of American culture ruined and rewritten right in front of their very eyes.

Mad-Max

The truth is I’m angry about the extents Hollywood and the director of Fury Road went to trick me and other men into seeing this movie. Everything VISUALLY looks amazing. It looks like that action guy flick we’ve desperately been waiting for where it is one man with principles, standing against many with none.

But let us be clear. This is the vehicle by which they are guaranteed to force a lecture on feminism down your throat. This is the Trojan Horse feminists and Hollywood leftists will use to (vainly) insist on the trope women are equal to men in all things, including physique, strength, and logic. And this is the subterfuge they will use to blur the lines between masculinity and femininity, further ruining women for men, and men for women.

So do yourself and all men across the world a favor. Not only REFUSE to see the movie, but spread the word to as many men as possible. Not all of them have the keen eye we do here at ROK. And most will be taken in by fire tornadoes and explosions. Because if they sheepishly attend and Fury Road is a blockbuster, then you, me, and all the other men (and real women) in the world will never be able to see a real action movie ever again that doesn’t contain some drat political lecture or moray about feminism, SJW-ing, and socialism.

That and you can expect Hollywood to further condition young women to be like “Imperator Furiosa” and not Sophia Loren. In the meantime, if you want to watch a real action flick I recommend watching “Kelly’s Heroes” instead.

Stoca Zola posted:

At some point in the late 80s maybe year 5 or 6 for me, we did some typing lessons and played Grannies Garden on whatever computers we had at my primary school. I didn't see a computer as a student again until 1995 when I started uni; my first programming class we learned C but we did so from watching someone explain things using an overhead projector with transparencies, I think we only got to the computer pool once or twice for that subject. I'm glad they're at least trying to formalise what the expectations are on what kids should be learning and when they should know it by, because it's been left very loose before now and to me seemed to largely rely on what staff were available. No IT competent staff = no IT classes.

Anidav posted:

The federal government is funding a half-billion-dollar program to teach immigrants Australian values, provide accommodation and help them access welfare in a bid to prevent radicalisation.

Police, prison guards and teachers will also be trained in how to identify extremists, according to the Daily Telegraph.

The program, revealed last night by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, is a response to recommendations from a Commonwealth-NSW joint review into the Islamic State-inspired Lindt Café attack at Sydney's Martin Place last December.

It is hoped the program, funded at $545 million over the next four years, will prevent another such attack.

Social Services Minister Scott Morrison said teaching English to new arrivals and encouraging them to embrace Australian values had always been provided to new migrants, but such efforts are now aimed at fighting radicalisation.

"While not primarily targeted towards countering ­violent extremism, these community grants programs do provide a second round effect to build social cohesion which is, of itself, the best ­resilience for any community, particularly a vulnerable one, to the influences of extremist and radical practices," Mr Morrison said last night.

Counter-terrorism expert Leah Farrall said the scheme was good in theory but needed to focus on vulnerable individuals.

“People [who become radicalised] feel they’re not being listened to, so pushing and talking at them doesn’t work."

Laserface posted:

The best part is that they are mad that a good action movie was sold to them as a man getting poo poo done in the post-apocalyptic wasteland and when it turns out it could be female-lead based its just no longer a plausible story.

Bifauxnen posted:

And they have such a transparent little fantasy world where they never have to pay attention to anything a woman says.

NO ONE BARKS ORDERS AT MAD MAX!

The Arts Party posted:

The second budget of the Abbott Government is quite remarkable when compared with its last. Gone are the ideological tent-poles of austerity and impending economic crisis. Now we are suddenly in a time of (relative) generosity and have-a-go backing—Could an election be looming? We’d prefer if they waited for us to raise some proper campaign money first!

Certainly, the Government has pulled back into the political centre, virtually stepping on Labor’s toes in the process. On examination, it seems clear Australia is run in turn by one of two very similar management teams, with only minor differences in principle and style. This forces them to pounce on only a handful of issues where they can differentiate themselves to the swing voters in undecided seats.

The problem is that this reductionist approach to key issues means that the critical activities about which The Arts Party stands are not respected, properly funded and rarely addressed in the political sphere. For example, developing creative/critical learning skills and access to music and other art forms for every child primary school in Australia. Prioritising the cultural, creative and artistic lives of all Australians, through free and subsidised festivals, exhibitions and events. Recognising our creative industries as a key industry in our country’s future. Improving access to learning in every form, from free museums to affordable lifelong education opportunities for us all. And that’s just a start! We have our first policy document well underway, which will outline our ideas in detail. More on that later.

But back to the current budget. Let’s start with the good news, summed up reasonably well here. Small business (that includes many creative businesses as well as individuals doing creative work) have received significant tax breaks. Creative Partnerships Australia – an agency focused on increasing private sector support for the arts, as well as mentoring, fundraising and funding work - will be getting an extra $5.2m. There’s a better deal for young unemployed people, continued pre-school funding and investment in additional medical research.

But our major concern, once again, is spending on Arts and Culture for Australians, to create, share and enjoy each other’s talents and creativity. In this budget, spending on all arts and cultural activities will be $1.3bn from a budget worth $451bn in total - around $50 per Australian for the year.

It will mean significant belt tightening by Screen Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the proposed cuts to the Australia Council are going to overwhelmingly affect small to mid-level arts organisations across the country, the dynamos of cultural expression in Australia.

At the same time, we gain another administrative entity for disbursing these $50 notes, the new “National Programme for Excellence in the Arts”, with funding carved from the Australia Council. In practical terms, our artists and community groups will have new and different paperwork to fill when applying for funding, but that funding will first have to pay for more bureaucracy. Two entirely separate funding entities disbursing the same combined pot cannot be adding to ‘efficiencies’. Less money and more administration. Hmmm..

How about this for a crazy idea. Instead of spending $50 per Australian on a shared cultural life, what about next year we triple it? $150 each for the entire year!! Still well under 1% of the budget, but what might be the outcomes? What creative events, performances and celebrations might we be enriched and inspired by as a people, from doing that?? We can always limit it to a single year (at first) in case it might cause permanent damage to the bean counters. After all, it’s not a precedent globally. The UK spends a larger annual percentage than that on Arts and Culture already. Sweden spends a whopping 2.6% every year! Imagine that!! It means every school child in Sweden gets to go to the theatre at last five times a year. Every swedish child has access to a starter instrument in school. Is that a waste of money? I think not.

Ultimately, The Arts Party is focused on seeing actual outcomes rather than fixating on the process of funding. Will the Attorney-General bring more equality to supporting our artistic talents, recognise the importance of the small arts organisations across Australia and fund them appropriately? We hope so. It’s difficult to tell what his priorities are as this Government has never released an Arts Policy, and shows no signs of ever doing so.

In summary, this is not a budget that rewards and celebrates creativity, culture and the Arts, it offers no ongoing financial security, clear direction or priorities presented for supporting Australia’s artists and audiences. However, while there is little to celebrate right now, at the same time, this budget it is not setting a daunting baseline to leap over - it instead sets up the imperative that we as Australians make the jump.

We live in hope!

PJ Collins
Leader of The Arts Party
14th May 2015

V for Vegas posted:

Alright, time for the real budget response from the



(1600 members strong!)

Starshark posted:

I'm voting Democrats. As long as their leader whispers their preference flow to me while combing their hair.

evilbastard posted:

The B-1 was originally designed as a proper "nuclear combat toe-to-toe with the Roosskies" platform before being converted to a conventional weapons platform. It's a scary aircraft.

For example, the Australia F/A-18 E/F's would carry 2 to 4 JAASM long range missiles (depending on, say, underwing tanks or other ordinance), each of which fly just under Mach 1 and have a 350+ km range from launch.

A single B-1B can carry 24 of the same missile. It's a huge aircraft, and a major change to the regions balance of power


From left to right - USAF B-1B, RAAF F-111 (retired), RAAF F/18E/F (active), RAAF F-35 (future).

norp posted:

Good luck with that, at this rate they won't even have anyone left willing to admit they are a member long enough to preselect for a seat.

open24hours posted:

Umm, actually I think you'll find that kids these days are all digital natives.

norp posted:

Just so that people don't have to give extra page-views to the original MRA article they link..

DON'T CLICK http://www.returnofkings.com/63036/why-you-should-not-go-see-mad-max-feminist-road

V for Vegas posted:

Alright, time for the real budget response from the



(1600 members strong!)

Konomex posted:

I'm ultra confused, all the reviews I've heard have said its basically two hours of non-stop ultra violence. Even if the main character did turn out to be a woman, is the fact it's a woman causing violent mayhem the actual issue here?

Doctor Spaceman posted:

Also they've not actually seen the movie and are condemning it based on trailers and reviews.

That Return of Kings site is fantastic if you want to kill a few hours reading the products of broken minds.

Stoca Zola posted:

It's already in the national curriculum:
http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/technologies/digital-technologies/curriculum/f-10?layout=3#page=7-8
We're looking at how to implement this at the moment and it's going to be tough to get some teachers to get out of the "I hate computers" mentality.

Count Chocula posted:

This is a real game. Somebody do something funny with it. TIA.

Richard Di Natali on anti-vaxxers posted:

“Some of those people might be attracted to the Greens because of the belief that anything that is natural is somehow good for you. Arsenic’s natural. It’s not good for you.”