Australia

A rare Sun-skirting comet will be visible from the southern hemisphere this week as it flies past Earth for the first time in around 100,000 years.

Post some pics Lemmy Aus users as they come in!

A $10 billion cyclone and flood reinsurance pool was set up in 2022, in a bid to bring down home and business insurance premiums in northern Australia

The big question that really needs answering is: How do we move people away from areas that are disaster prone?"

The former shows why the latter is impossible. Quite the opposite of encouraging people to move away, it allows people and local authorities to be lackadaisical about climate enhanced risk.

This segues to another recent article

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-01-14/queensland-severe-heatwave-weather-storms/104813982

The air conditioner is going 24/7," she said. . "The last two years it's been a hell of a lot hotter," she said.

Yes, once again the former making it worse. Those that can't afford AC (6-7 billion or so around the workd?) can just die ?

It's seems that's all we do, make it worse.

We need to be aware of the malign influence our own billionaires have overseas.

Murdoch family falls under this idea as well, and I'm sure plenty more. Even Macquarie bank needs a kicking for how they've treated british water.

We need to begin holding our own accountable, economically or criminally, especially when their actions undermine the democratic will of our closest allies. What weakens our allies weakens us. These people are messing with Australia's National Security and our ability to rely on stable and unified partners.

I'd expect the security services to at minimum have a strong, quiet word with Ms Rinehart about her conduct here.

I live in a set of flats in Melbourne. Not inner city, but not that far out of it. My flat is semi detached, and I share a wall with one neighbour. The other neighbours has a freestanding house. All the other flats on this block are eligible to request the upgrade to FTTP, except mine.

When I entered my address into the FTTP upgrade page, it said that I can't be upgraded under this program, but may eligible under and MDU upgrade for strata managed buildings. But the thing is, neither mine nor any of the other flats actually have a strata.

I'm not sure whether they've made a mistake and just assumed that I have a strata, or they're being difficult about it for some reason. In either case, it's weird that they would assume I am the only flat on the block that's in a strata. My FTTC isn't actually that bad, it's been relatively stable, and I am able to get the full 100mbps down I pay for. But I do quite often fully saturate my connection.

Does anybody have any ideas or suggestions? I do only rent, so I could maybe badger the property manager or landlord to sort it out themselves. But they're older and obviously don't really have any reason to care about the internet speeds I can receive.

Or is it probably just going to be a waiting game until they hopefully figure themselves out? I would've just emailed them and asked, but I found it quite difficult to actually find a phone number or email, as they really want to push all contact to be done via an RSP, who I did try, but they just seemed really confused and told me they don't offer FTTP upgrades and I'd need to look elsewhere.

According to Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia has enforced autonomous sanctions since 2011 in response to the Assad regime's "deeply disturbing and unacceptable use of violence against its people".

These sanctions prohibit the direct or indirect supply, sale, or transfer of arms and technology related to energy power plants to Syria and also make it illegal to import certain fuel and oil products, among other trade restrictions.

Several persons are also sanctioned, meaning it is prohibited to directly or indirectly make an asset available to them.

I hope shit posting is allowed in this sub.

Australians' love of cheap books is driving independent bookstores and writers out of business. These prominent authors believe there is a simple solution.

Hot days and hot nights dominated much of the country this year in Australia, despite some severe cold snaps during the winter. This resulted in Australia coming away with its second hottest year on record, overall, since 1910, when reliable national data became available.

A staggering 78.9 per cent of the world's coral reef areas — from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Indian oceans — have so far been subjected to bleaching-level heat stress.

It included the seventh mass bleaching of the Great Barrier Reef since 1998, and fifth in eight years.

Contemplating an up coming Federal election, I wonder what goes through voters minds when they see all of this ?

I just got a message from Medicare inviting Me to register as an organ donor. I thought I already was. I remember ticking the organ donation box when I first applied for My drivers license.

If I'd have died in the last few years, My organs wouldn't have saved any lives. Who knows how many other people want to donate but aren't registered? I think Australia should have an opt-out system instead of an opt-in system, so that people don't need to make an effort in order to do the right thing. Doing the right thing should be easy.

In 1980, there were about 50,000 feral deer in Australia and by 2002 the population was estimated to have grown to 200,000. Now, the population is likely to have reached more than 2 million.

Saying it'll be the "next rabbit" etc.

Knew we had them, never knew they were becoming such a huge pest.

So, could something similar happen in major Australian cities – and how prepared are we? The answers are: yes, and not very.

Sorry if this isn't the appropriate community for this question, but has anyone received an offer like this before?

We requested a quote to vinyl wrap two bathroom cabinets and the attached was the business' response. I've checked and the UK company exists, just seems a little too good to be true.

Prior to Hemsworth arrival at the park, Hercules was their biggest spider, his body spanning 7.9cm long.

But now, Hemsworth has blown the competition out of the water, measuring in at 9.2cm long (from leg to leg).

A regular sized funnel webb spider (pictured left) compared with Hemsworth, (pictured right). (Instagram/Australian Reptile Park)

Varsha, a 22-year-old arts and law student, says that the older generations think gen Z is weak, but the realities of the cost of living crisis, climate crisis, global unrest and social media make her 20s a game of survival.

• Almost 40 per cent of patrons said they would use a lower dose of their drugs after having a conversation with health professionals testing their substances, according to preliminary data.
• Preliminary data indicated that for more than 70 per cent of patrons, it was the first time they had a judgement-free discussion with a health professional about drug and alcohol use.

The Hunt 1000 is a self-supported, 1,000-kilometre cycling adventure from Canberra to Melbourne which takes riders one to two weeks to complete, and is considered one of Australia's toughest and longest bikepacking events.

What the dickens !

Now i want to have a go !

In 2018, Australia set a series of national targets around the recovery of packaging and this year is the deadline. But figures show we're behind on almost all of them.

Prenups are on the rise. But as more couples are confronted with this proposition, they're having to navigate awkward conversations — and what happens when the terms aren't agreed upon?