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submitted 31 minutes ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

they do these timid little flash mobs when most people are asleep because they keep getting beaten up or humiliated whenever they do anything in daylight

Here's a recent Tom Tanuki video on the subject for anyone interested: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pXgiVhdvyiI

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submitted 23 hours ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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submitted 1 day ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
[-] [email protected] 2 points 1 day ago

I was not expecting a headline that goes that hard from the ABC

[-] [email protected] 5 points 2 days ago

This article from November last year covers Israeli "immigration" programs being conducted in Australia: https://michaelwest.com.au/lone-soldiers-new-australian-idf-recruits-due-to-arrive-in-israel-in-january/

Despite it being illegal to recruit soldiers for foreign armies, the Israeli Defence Forces recruiters are hard at work here enticing young Australians to join Israel’s army. Yaakov Aharon investigates.

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submitted 3 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

In short:

A Charles Sturt University study has discovered dance moves unique to cockatoos.

The findings suggest dance is not limited to humans, as previously thought.

What's next?

Researchers hope music can be used to improve the wellbeing of birds in captivity.

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submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

'Hunger Games': university to slash $5.58 million with first job cuts

By Madeline Link
Updated August 4 2025 - 9:46am, first published 5:30am

STAFF have likened job cuts at the University of Newcastle to the "Hunger Games", as they are forced to compete against their colleagues for remaining positions.

Internal documents seen by the Newcastle Herald reveal the Academic Division is first on the chopping block, with cuts expected to save the university $5.58 million and affect more than 50 positions.

Of those, about 30 occupied positions will be cut, 11 vacant positions will be done away with, and 11 fixed-term contracts will not be renewed when they expire.

The university's (UON) own documentation claims the Academic Division plays a "pivotal role" in supporting students and staff while "shaping the future of teaching, learning and academic success".

National Tertiary Education Union Newcastle branch president Terry Summers said the union was trying to support staff as best it could to minimise the impact.

"Anytime that people are going to lose their jobs, they get very nervous," he said.

"Staff are worried, of course, really, really worried."

With a goal of $20.6 million in cost-cutting this year, more job cuts at the university are expected to be in the pipeline.

UON's 2024 Annual Report shows its operating result, including controlled entities like NUSport, was a surplus of $61.3 million.

The university's adjusted operating result, which excludes non-core activities or one-time events like grants, donations, investment and commercial income, shows a deficit of $16.3 million.

UON vice-chancellor professor Alex Zelinsky said the proposed changes in the Academic Division were part of its 'Business Improvement Program' aimed at getting costs and spending "back in line".

"In reducing our costs, our goal is to minimise the impacts on people," he said.

"We've focused first on improving our operations and, critically, we've sought to remove vacant positions or find savings through options like early retirements."

Professor Zelinsky said the university proposed to introduce 17.8 new roles, and where new or different positions had been created, affected staff could choose redundancy or be redeployed.

He said staff in the Academic Division had received information about the proposed changes and would have the opportunity to provide feedback.

"Ensuring our staff are well-informed and supported during any proposed change is a key priority," he said.

"Affected staff will receive detailed communication from their leaders about what any proposed changes mean for them, and we'll keep staff updated and communicate with them first regarding any changes in other parts of the organisation."

UON documents show that about 10 staff on fixed-term contracts will continue in their roles on a permanent basis, and structure changes will see staff shifts across the division.

Staff losing their jobs could be gone as soon as September, with all cuts expected to be made by December.

In areas where a number of people do the same job but a position is cut, staff will have to put in an 'Expression of Interest' to reapply for their role, in what the university calls a 'ring-fenced' process.

Mr Summers said the "spill and fill" arrangement forced employees to compete against their colleagues for a job.

"The vice-chancellor doesn't like the word 'Hunger Games', and I've never seen the movie, but people tell me it's like that," he said.

"You're all competing for the same spot, like musical chairs or something, so I think that's how it's going to work.

"It's quite a horrendous process, you've got your workmates competing against each other for the same bloody jobs, it's horrible."

The university will hold an all-staff forum on Wednesday, where Professor Zelinsky will provide employees with an update.

[-] [email protected] 1 points 3 days ago

Letters in the Sydney Morning Herald include seem to align with my experience of events: https://www.instagram.com/p/DM9IfNwzD5o/

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submitted 3 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
[-] [email protected] 1 points 4 days ago

why doesn’t Osko/PayID work like this?

The article provides a probable answer to that question, right? The US would come down on it like a tonne of bricks and our government would fold immediately.

I've seen local market stalls using Osko as an improvised way of taking electronic payments, though. It wasn't integrated into any point-of-sales system, just the person behind the desk checking their bank account on their phone.

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submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

In short:

The government has effectively killed a bill to introduce legislation that would charge protest groups for police fees if they held more than three demonstrations a year.

The bill was reintroduced following the weekend's pro-Palestinian march over Sydney Harbour Bridge, which drew crowds of over 100,000 people.

Two Labor MPs told the ABC there was also "heated" debate about a motion on Gaza during caucus on Tuesday.

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submitted 4 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
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submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
[-] [email protected] 1 points 5 days ago

I can’t access the ABC article. For some reason the website won’t load.

Don't know why that would be, maybe you're blocking some javascript stuff? Here's an archive snapshot, in case that helps: https://archive.is/te8o2

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submitted 5 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]
[-] [email protected] 6 points 5 days ago

Donny Benet? https://youtu.be/EwPUtEMms4E

Also, FYI, we have [email protected] as a community for Aus music specifically 🙂

[-] [email protected] 3 points 6 days ago

Some aerial footage here: https://www.9news.com.au/national/propalestine-protesters-barred-from-melbourne-bridge/02f1a339-a25d-4c57-9d0e-32171e1ee0e9

It only seems to show small parts of the protest at any one time. You can see in ground-level shots that the crowd is much bigger than it ever appears in the helicopter shots.

[-] [email protected] 5 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Hard to find footage of the Melbourne rally. I saw a clip somewhere that showed it to be much larger than I've seen reported. Lots of media reporting seems to be downplaying these rallies, or focusing on anything other than the message of the rallies.

EDIT:
This was the clip I had seen: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DM4ibgKxTJR/
Or rehosted here: https://files.catbox.moe/6fqz5d.mp4

[-] [email protected] 6 points 6 days ago

But one people couldn’t progress north any further every one just turned back anyway.

My experience on the ground was that it seemed people at the very north end of the march actually were told by police to start going back - or at least given a message that could be interpreted that way. Nobody at my part of the march started moving south again until people started coming back from the north end saying that we'd been told to go back. I could be wrong about all this, but if there's any truth to that interpretation of events then we might hear more about it in the next few days.

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