Some of you may be interested in this free online event from Parents for Climate. They say it's a "practical, no-nonsense webinar designed to help households reduce energy bills, improve comfort, and understand what to look for when taking the next step toward an all-electric home, whether that’s now or sometime in the future...

This is a national session, so we’ll focus on principles, real-life examples, and decision-making frameworks that apply across Australia. Where relevant, we’ll point you to tools and programs to help you find local rebates and support.

**Who should attend: ** Parents, homeowners, renters, and anyone curious about lowering bills and future-proofing their home.

What we’ll cover:

• Where most homes are wasting money on energy

• How to get off gas (without doing everything at once)

• What to consider before upgrading to solar, batteries, hot water heat pumps, and efficient heating & cooling

• Induction cooking and EV charging: what you need to know (and what you don’t)

Date & Time of Webinar (by State):

May 04, 2026

7:30pm (VIC, NSW, QLD, TAS)

7:00pm (SA, NT)

5:30pm (WA)

Send RSVP: https://www.parentsforclimate.org/electrify_your_home_webinar

Great, hope-giving article.

Stephen Heydt [the Jewish man] was one of 22 people arrested at the weekend for the display and reciting of one of two expressions frequently chanted by pro-Palestinian demonstrators that were prohibited under Queensland laws last month – taking the overall total to 25...

The criminal lawyer Terry O’Gorman said the events of the weekend harken back to the dark days of police repression under the corrupt former Queensland premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.

A name synonymous with the fight for civil liberties in the sunshine state, O’Gorman compared the laws to an amendment Bjelke-Petersen made to the traffic act in September 1977 that essentially suppressed the right to street protests. Mass arrests followed.

The activist group Justice for Palestine Magan-djin has said it would be coordinating a high court challenge to the laws, arguing it was invalid law under the Australian constitution.

cross-posted from: https://programming.dev/post/49146842

Context

(Let me know if there's a better place to share these memes)

Exclusive - Murdoch Media's smear campaign against Palestinian academic EXPOSED - YT

Bonus: The Murdoch Media's Campaign Against Dr Randa Abdel-Fattah - Spty

This is a case and point in how the centralised ownership of the media in this country controls and pushes us, democratic liberal peoples, away from what is in the best interests of us as we decide it, and what is in the best interests of a few.

I've heard about a movement about keeping cash alive. However, am I allowed to exchange or keep "foreign" cash in Australia despite it being worth more? For example, I hoard cash via the following currencies: USD, BBD, OMR, KWD, PLN, GBP, EUR & AED to name a few and most are higher value than Australian Dollar.

I mean, will stores (in touristy parts of Sydney) accept the following in cash (mentioned above) directly for transactions. Like for instance: this item costs A$50 but gave them a 200€ (A$330) bill as payment, will they take that at face value due to that being worth more despite it being the second most traded currency globally?

Google confirms its latest update can scan all your photos to “use actual images of you and your loved ones” in AI image generation. That means Gemini seeing who you know and what you do. You likely have tens or hundreds of thousands of photos. They’re all exposed if you update.

cross-posted from: https://slrpnk.net/post/36830794

Climate change is already at work

As floods become more extreme, farmers are now taking serious hits – especially in Queensland.

In 2019, floods and sticky mud trapped and killed up to 500,000 cows.

In 2022, record-breaking floods caused a national lettuce shortage.

In 2023, floods hit banana, mango and avocado crops.

In 2025, over 100,000 cows died in outback Queensland due to flooding.

This summer, it happened again. Over 48,000 cattle are dead or missing after extreme flooding in northwest Queensland.

Rising temperatures also make life harder for the animals and plants we rely on. Heat stress is on the rise in livestock. When animals are too hot, their health can suffer and milk and meat production falls.

When floods devastated Lismore in 2022, the New South Wales town had empty supermarket shelves for months after main roads and freight lines were cut.

But farmers’ markets reopened within a week. As one farmer’s market manager told experts:

supermarket shelves were completely empty [but] we had all this produce.

The CIA has been stepping up its efforts to keep up with AI advances — and has developed a particularly spy-tastic way of using chatbots.

https://archive.ph/gDajY

Crosspost from https://lemmygrad.ml/post/11378730

The US embassy in Bangkok announced on Monday that all US visa applicants must set their social media accounts to public for screening.

The requirement is effective immediately and aims to enable screening to confirm applicants’ identity and legal admissibility, the embassy posted on its Facebook account.

Looking for games for my friend. She's mostly looking for a casual timewaster for a bit of enjoyable escapism. She historically liked some of the "merge games" where it's about merging icons on a grid, and a couple of the more traditional idle games but its so hard to find any without summy practices like dark patterns and abusive monitization.

So, what are some good casual mobile games? Ideally, the sort of thing your grandma could enjoy, but without the scummy practices that are widespread.

Edit: I'm looking for more "pure" casual games, rather than ones that are primarily puzzle or arcade games. Something more akin to Cookie Clicker, those old shovelware hidden object games, or Bejeweled's zen mode rather than Tetris or Brickbreaker.

Crossposted from https://piefed.world/c/apple_enthusiast/p/1052753/itshappening-gif

I know nothing about boats but I learn fast and never forget.

I’m willing to do the jobs no one else wants.

My kids are grown, I’m divorced, retired at 35. I’m not quite forty yet.

I need to get away and I need to work impossibly hard like I’m used. I need to get away from the gun in my safe calling me.

I’ll work myself to death at any shipping job.

There’s got to be a captain looking for a newbie like that.