You're certainly right that the way I did it in school felt rather performative and didn't leave me with positive impressions of the books I had not read previously. I'm not going to say there's no purpose in trying to understand the meanings/symbolism in a work but it's not going to make a good impression on someone if that's their first introduction to the book - or worse their introduction to reading books in general.

I've no substantiation for these guesses but one thing that comes to mind is that boys were more likely to get into computers in the early eras of tech and that time sink could lead to them being less likely to build the habit of reading. TV is another possibility, Gen X was the first to grow up with TVs being widespread and boys probably spent more time on that.

That's a pretty concerning trend IMO, particularly when the article mentions 44% of Australians have issues with literacy.

If nothing else it makes for a good example of why one should be wary of laws aimed at hate speech. You can't rely on any ambiguity within them being interpreted with common sense, particularly if you've annoyed someone in a position of power.

My wild ass guess would be that it's a gauge for measuring water levels, with the upper opening part being a scale to read a marker that moves up and down the pole.

Does it line up with anything on this map of Brisbane water/sewer infrastructure? That map seems likely to give you at least an idea of what system it's associated with, and might even give more of a clue about the purpose of this specific point.

You'd have to be mad to put important information into any AI model unless you're hosting it locally and know it isn't sending info anywhere (the latter being the hard part to verify). All of the online AI services really should be blocked if departments/companies are taking security seriously.

Last year, Australia showed how unengaged and racist this country remains by refusing to insert an Indigenous advisory voice

Convenient that the author forgot to mention that the very person they're writing about was a vocal No voter. You can say many things about Lydia Thorpe but politically unengaged is not one of them, and while she might be a little bit racist it's definitely not against Indigenous people.

I'll also note that the Tent Embassy had a giant banner hung up urging people to vote No, guess they're all politically unengaged and racist...

I was concerned these recent stabbings would start a push towards screwing over people like me who regularly carry pocket knives, and unsurprisingly it's started. It's rather disappointing how many people go straight to pearl clutching at the mention of a knife even though I and many others have had them on hand as useful tools for decades without feeling the need to stab anyone.

Fernwood, a women only gym, is allowed to exist.

Because there are sections of the law which allow exemption from the gender discrimination section for various reasons, and they have successfully argued that there are benefits to having a women only gym which are important enough to deserve an exemption (to provide substantive equality). They also only allow women patrons, so men are not charged for a service that is not equally provided.

I don’t really see it as problematic for a discriminated class to seek to foster a space free from those who perpetuate that discrimination

Neither do many other people, which is why such examples as Fernwood have received exemptions from the law and why there is a specific exemption in the laws for both female and male only clubs.

I don’t think it sets a precedent for protected classes to be discriminated against as “art” because men aren’t a class that needs protecting

Allowing discrimination based on gender without substantiating the businesses eligibility for an exemption under the law absolutely would set a precedent for the courts. While you may agree with this particular case of discrimination it is not a good idea to open an opportunity for more discrimination in the future - keep in mind it may not always be the type you agree with.

Good. I think the other option - setting a precedent allowing businesses to skirt discrimination laws by claiming their behaviour was art - would have been a rather poor decision.

It's a real show of how much road safety discussion is fixated on lowering speed limits when you've just talked about how significant numbers of people are now not wearing seatbelts and the topic you move straight into is decreasing speed limits and driving more slowly instead of how to increase the number of people wearing seatbelts...

I'd be happy to reduce the amount of times I have to deal with providing multiple forms of ID, particularly the insanity of having to get copies certified for places that then expect you to email a image of said copies (therefore defeating the whole point of a certified copy).

I am dubious that a digital ID will actually end up making things easier though, I give it pretty good odds that it'll just be an additional hoop to jump through. I also have reservations about what happens when the digital IDs are compromised, because that'll happen at some point no matter how secure the system is claimed to be.

Edit: Relevant XKCD