Most posters are talking about what natural disasters they experience and less about preparedness, so I’m going to take the preparedness angle:
We have a go bag with medical supplies, very basic survival equipment, and non-perishable food.
We have enough non-perishable food at home for my wife and I for about 3 months
We have enough water for a week, and lifestraws to use local water supplies after that.
We have basic survival things like hand crank chargers/radios, solar batteries, thermal blankets, etc.
In the case of man made disaster (nuclear war) we have iodine pills.
My take on survival stuff is to be prepared but not be a prepper. Some folks take this way too far. I feel everyone who builds a bunker and has a years worth of food is going to have someone fall flat on their house and it won’t matter anyway. That being said, I want to have enough to comfortably survive a week-month, and then after that things would be so fucked that all bets are off anyway.
On #3 water filtration is often a very overlooked thing. I’ve got a Sawyer filter I set up inline with a hydration pack for when I go hiking. Water filters are so cheap and can have great shelf life, pretty much every one should have one.
Isn’t that illegal? I think it’s legal in the UK though, someone told me it’s tradition to draw a big cross on the whole ballot paper and they actually count no-votes as distinct from non-votes, or something like that.
How do you think they would verify or sanction an invalid ballot? Given that voting is secret and therefore there’s logically no personal information on the ballot, this would be rather tricky - or extremely worrisome for democracy. ;) So no, it’s definitely not illegal in any somewhat democratic nation. And yes, most countries do count invalid votes separately. This can be an important indicator that something went wrong. Eg if suddenly all districts report much higher numbers of invalid ballots, something might have gone wrong in the counting process or just the ballot design might be too confusing. Definitely worth looking into, though. And if a single district shows an unusual count of invalid ballots compared to others, that also is worth looking into.
Many that intentionally vote invalid claim to do so to show their frustration with all party options. However, this hurts democracy. Even if do not love or even like any of the parties/candidates, you still should vote.
Vote for the “least of the bad”. A vote for a democratic candidate that has a boring mix of policies planned that you don’t fully support is still a lot better than anything on the other end of the spectrum, with radical extremists working to undermine society or democracy itself. By voting invalid, your missing vote ends up being “shared” by everyone, and I’m certain there’s some on the list that you really don’t want to even have the tiniest shred of your vote.
This issue for me personally is that it’s still a choice between a douche and turd sandwich. I don’t think our political system is anything to write home about.
But to answer this, I have to go to the polling station, get my name marked off a list by some delusional person, go into a booth and hope that someone appreciates the quality of the veiny dick and balls improving over the years when they unwrap the origami that is my ballot paper.
Nice South Park reference! I guess you probably haven’t been penalised in any way or you’d know, so you can probably can get away with that. But isn’t it technically illegal to not cast a proper vote in Australia? (I think compulsory voting is stupid so I don’t blame you btw)
You’re probably right and I assume the same. And as you can tell, I’m not invested enough in our system to go look up any particulars. If they could find me out without compromising the system I’m sure I’d be hit with the fine. Of course, plenty of ballots aren’t counted because they are not marked correctly. I doubt I’ll ever read a news story about someone being fined because they couldn’t follow the ballot instruction.
When they move to electronic voting systems only all I’ll be able to do is be caught fucking it. 😞
Not really. Plus we have alot more independents/minor parties due to our preferential voting system that people can vote for. What it does is forces people to are more about politics and policy
Idiots are citizens too unfortunately, and their opinions matter. There are no fines for submitting an invalid vote (or if they exist they aren’t enforceable due to the anonymity of the ballot)
I had them as an adult. They were annoying but worth it once they were removed.
No one made a big deal about them. They could make my teeth sore when I first got them or had anything adjusted, but again - more of a minor annoyance than outright pain. Nothing to be afraid of and I’m glad I did it now.
I give a second recommendation for Quick Question with Soren and Daniel.
I also recommend Belief it or Not. They go through histories of different sect of religion. I am pretty sure one of them grew up pretty religious and went to pastoral school, but I haven’t listened in a bit. I like to get behind and binge on road trips.
Chilluminati Podcast: A mystery, supernatural, true crime, UFO/UAP comedy podcast. The cast has a lot of chemistry and they research into the paranormal with both hopeful naivety and critical skepticism.
Let’s learn everything: Three people passionate about science cover different topics and answer variety questions that delve deep into the world of scientific research.
Lateral: Tom Scott’s quiz show where guests try to answer obtuse and unexpected questions with even more obtuse and convoluted reasoning.
Cox ‘n’ Crendor show: Youtubers Jesse Cox and Crendor do a weekly morning radio show spoof where they just talk about random stuff that happens in their lives.
Play, Watch, Listen: Game devs, writers and actors, get together whenever they have a chance to talk about various topics regarding the world of video games, movies and music. Mainly Alanah Pearce (writer, God of War), but also Troy Baker (voice actor and musician, The Last of US), Mike Bithell (programmer, Thomas was alone) and Rahul Kohli (actor, Midnight Mass).
The Geekenders: Streamer and Youtubers Dodger (Brooke Thorne, Dexbonus) and Jesse Cox gather every weekend to meet a weekly guest and talk about variety topics, mostly about video games. Sort of a spiritual revival of the legendary Cooptional podcast format that was lead by Total Biscuit (John Bain, The cynical brit).
I would also list The Podcats but Daniel Hardcastle (Nerdcubed) can barely be bothered with scheduling recordings with MATN and Mattophobia anymore.
It’s easier to get a recording of a hawk that never shuts up. Eagles let out a screech too, but not often. Try stealing a fish from a bald eagle. Bring a tape recorder…and some bandages.
According to the Australian Electoral Commission, the decline in voter turnout was the driving force behind the introduction of mandatory voting. It said that voter turnout dropped from 71 per cent in the 1919 election to less than 60 per cent in the 1922 elections.
In order to address the problem, a private member’s bill to amend the Electoral Act was introduced in the Senate in 1924. At the time, it was only the third private member’s bill to be passed into law since 1901.
As a result of the law, the voter turnout at the 1925 election rose to over 91 per cent.
Gradually, states across the country introduced compulsory voting starting from Victoria in 1926, New South Wales and Tasmania in 1928, Western Australia in 1936 and South Australia in 1942.
When enrollment and voting at federal elections was introduced for Australian Aborigines in 1949 it was voluntary, and continued to be so until 1984 when enrollment and voting became compulsory for all eligible electors.
Because it’s a terrible idea? Elections are already heavily weighted towards name recognition. What are people who can’t even be bothered to go out to vote going to offer to the process?
I disagree. You would see a correlation between those people who think they are informed and those who vote.
And unfortunately, people who are smart enough to know they aren’t informed are probably the ones who should be voting. Forcing them to do so will cause some portion to read.
People who are SURE they are informed are either the very well informed, or the idiots who don’t know any better, but who will happily vote for whoever they are told.
And this is the real heart of the problem. I would love to see a ban on all political advertising while providing an easily accessible source to read the policies of each party. Without the branding and cults of personality we could have a system that actually makes decision based on policy
Motivating people to vote, in the US at least, seems like a process of whipping up fear and anger. I would argue that taking away the need to motivate people in tbis way is a positive for everyone. It also results in a more representative and legitimate government.
The fear and anger is to get people to vote for them. That wouldn’t go away under mandatory voting. Unfortunately, unless we can find a way to resolve the culture war that has spread globally now, that will always be an easy exploit
The alternative is voter suppression, which leads to unequal access. Also, given that more passionate individuals are gonna seek out a ballot vs. others, the result is going to be skewed in favor of those passionate people regardless of their understanding of reality or truthfullness.
I admit it might help the current problem, since people less passionate about the issues might be less inclined to vote for reactionaries, but I don’t think the result would be better representation. Most likely the result would be a system that leans even heavier on marketing to get brand recognition for the party to the most people
We already have a system like that in the US. Whoever has a wider reach and/or higher budget gets more turnout. A big reason why Obama won was because of his presence on social media, and Trump won because of the insane amount of media coverage he has. The current system gives prederence to voters who treat elections like simple popularity contests, whereas mandatory voting would force people who somewhat pay attention to current events and not to campaigns to be counted.
It forces politics to the centre. Parties put a huge amount of effort into ‘bringing out the vote’, and do things to appeal to the fringe which is how you get characters like Trump finding success. When this isn’t a concern, parties can focus on policies that appeal to the majority of people rather than fringe groups that they can use to guarantee voter turnout.
Yea same here but in a different way than what people usually mean. Don’t fake being rich until you are. I was and to a certain extent still am socially anxious and bad at talking to people and holding conversations. I started faking being more socially adept than I actually was by copying people I knew who were extroverts and by observing peoples interactions in the wild. Eventually I did get better with both and have no issue with either, although I do need some time to recharge later on after social interactions.
“You’ve got to love him – he’s your brother, after all.”
Yeah, he’s my brother who would get angry and destroy all my things when we were young, my brother who sexually abused my youngest sibling, my brother who launched into a homophobic rant against my mom during a time when she had cancer, a brother who cheated on and verbally and physically abused his first wife, a brother who probably drove my nephew to suicide.
Yeah I’d say that’s got to be triggering to hear. How do you respond to “advice” like that normally? Assuming it’s from someone who actually knows your brother.
I never have any response that’s likely to be edifying or helpful, so I typically respond with, “Well, I don’t,” and try to disengage. That’s usually enough.
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