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Solar Quotes, the pioneering and highly regarded instant quote comparison service for the installation of rooftop PV, has been snapped up by Big Three gentailer Origin Energy, 16 years after its genesis in the walk-in robe of its founder, Finn Peacock.

Well, thats the end of Solar Quotes. What a pity, it used to be a great resource for finding information (and installers who werent cowboys).

Driving, gymnastics, break dancing (ESPECIALLY break dancing)... Anything that can't be timed or measured or otherwise objectively decided should be removed from competition.

How do you quantify "style"? How do you ensure there is not biase from judges based on their knowledge of the competitor, be it country they are representing, or personal connections, or racial / religious opinion? How do you fairly compensate for what your personal opinion considers "worth" more when it comes to a trick or routine compared to another?

Swimming, running, jumping, throwing things a distance are all things that can be measured and ruled against a standard that every competitor uses. It's fair and it's removed from any bias.

The Olympics are supposed to be about competition between athletes and shouldn't be affected by popularity or politics, which anything with an interpretive aspect to the result will suffer from.

So yeah, remove the feels sports and limit the Olympics to reals sports.

10 years / 250,000k just announced by MG in Australia - including electric vehicles (and thus batteries)... Not bad considering the anti-EV crowd are always declaring battery packs to have a 3 year lifespan!

MG has introduced the longest factory warranty ever offered by a new-car maker in Australia – 10 years or 250,000km, whichever comes first – five years after rolling out seven years of coverage across its line-up.

And unlike Mitsubishi – which in October 2020 became the first brand to market a 10-year warranty, but with only a 200,000km distance limit – there is no mention of a requirement for customers to have their car serviced within the MG dealer network to access the full decade of coverage.

While MG’s new 10-year warranty is longer in time – compared to its previous seven-year offer – it now has a distance cap of 250,000km, rather than unlimited.

In effect from today (1 August 2024) for all newly-registered petrol, hybrid and electric MG models, the new warranty applies to vehicles not deemed to be "commercial use" – such as Ubers, taxis, food delivery couriers and driving schools.

Callum feels the familiar vibration of his mobile phone. Another text from Sportsbet.

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Callum hasn't placed a wager for more than a year. Sportsbet is still trying to lure him back into action with an almost daily stream of text messages.

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I actually had the opposite experience to the complains in this article..

I'm not really a gambler, but I did fire up SportsBet for my first ever bet in my life during State of Origin. I put in $50 and lost $10 on Queensland. Then I found the horse bit and selected some random horses and apparently I'd won $100 so I took out my original $50, then threw away the rest on random horses and greyhounds, and Queensland at State of Origin again.

Outcome? Zero dollars lost, and a couple of games worth of funsies thinking I was going to become a tenionaire with my 1.xx odds win.

Sportsbet sent me one SMS, and I replied STOP.

Sportsbet sent me one email, and I hit unsubscribe.

I haven't received any communication since - no sms, no email, no push notifications, no anything.

Not sure I'm fully on board with people claiming its all SportsBets fault they're gambling and being preyed upon IN THIS SPECIFIC WAY.

I do say their constant spam during any sports match of any kind on free to air television is an absolute disgrace though.

What a pair of clowns (ALP and LNP)...

Also I really hate TikTok.

There are currently no rules at either the state or federal level to stop political parties and candidates from using AI-generated material in election campaigns.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-22/qld-premier-slams-opposition-for-ai-generated-tiktok/104126936

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-07-23/labor-questioned-over-ai-generated-tiktok-of-peter-dutton/104131228

In short:

• Live sheep exports by sea will be phased out over the next four years, after laws banning the trade passed parliament on Monday.
• Earlier in the day, opponents met with the prime minister to request a Senate inquiry into the legislation.

What's next?

• WA Premier Roger Cook says he will continue to negotiate for additional support for farmers affected by the laws.

Sky News and other similar conservative whinge rags are already posting the anti-Labor and anti-Greens headline as a response.

Personally I think its great news. Keep the value add in Australia (processing), and remove the cruelty of long ship travel followed by questionable processing practices in other countries.

tl;dr - fuck "reality" tv

In the reality TV production process, after the casting of villains and the baiting for villainous behaviour, comes the editing.

It's in the post-production suite that a villain edit can truly come to life.

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The editor says there are a few techniques to achieve these characterisations. The simplest one is being selective in what gets included.

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The second technique editors use is amplification — finding a moment amongst what the editor calls the "boring crap" that can be boosted into a storyline.

In the show, it's spun as a major conflict.

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And then, the drama is further enhanced with a technique called "frankenbiting".

Like Frankenstein creating his monster, editors will mix together unrelated elements from the footage to make their own beast.

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When the show finally goes to air, the final phase of a villain edit begins: controlling the narrative.

Now, program makers try to ensure that no narratives that contradict the edit make it into the media.

"They would remind me in a very threatening way before every single media interview that I had signed a [non-disclosure agreement]," Olivia says.

This becomes a problem for Olivia, because when the show goes to air, the backlash is swift.

Cheaper electricity, less emissions and ready by 2035 are some of the Coalition’s core promises on nuclear energy, but are they backed by evidence?

tl;dr - no

Broader adoption of keeping cats safe at home would have large benefits for cat welfare, human health, local wildlife and even the economy. So, should cat owners be required to keep their pets contained to their property?

The answer to the question is obviously "yes".

I've had YouTube Music since it was Google Music, but the price has recently doubled and at the same time I've started noticing my "Radio" keeps playing the same dozen songs over and over again. Started to feel like I was listening to Triple M.

Yesterday was the final straw as every song played on repeat until you manually skipped which is just... wtf? How does that even happen?

I have jumped on to Spotify for the minute, but find it is too heavily focused on "pop" music - it seems to choose songs that are broadly more popular, but aren't really the same as what I'm choosing to play. I somehow always end up back with top 50 chart artists in the queue, even if I started on like bluegrass or hillbilly or something. Also if I select a song or artist and choose "Radio", it always the same 50 songs and then just stops which doesn't seem like what "Radio" should be at all.

What other options are there that are accessible from Australia, and preferably have a decent amount of Australian local content? I have zero interests in podcasts being jammed in, I just want music. And preferably music that I can just say "play stuff that sounds like this" and it'll go on a deep dive to focus on things I haven't heard before.

Critical:

• No ads
• Able to actually choose the music and skip and what not, so not Sirius or similar
• Good catalogue of Australian artists
• Android and Desktop clients
• "Family" plan or similar for 2 people

Budget not really an issue.

In short: A new North West town for 8,000 people will no longer be built as part of a massive renewable energy project when it re-seeks environment approvals. The federal environment law has been criticised for rejecting more renewable projects than fossil fuel ones. What's next? The proponent behind the North West energy project expects to submit an environmental application this year.

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It would have been halfway along the lonely stretch between tourist mecca Broome and the iron ore shipping capital of Port Hedland.

A new town for 8,000 workers, their families and all the services and additional people you would need for such a population in Australia's remote North West region.

A town built using the latest in sustainability principles to service one of the world's largest renewable energy projects which covers more than 6,500 square kilometres of spinifex-dominated sand plains.

With a 26 gigawatt capacity — which is enough energy to meet a third of Australia's demand in 2020 — the Australian Renewable Energy Hub wind and solar project would have created green hydrogen and ammonia for export.

Well that was the plan.