Recent developments relevant to the looming federal election, mostly involving the Liberals in Victoria:
• House of Representatives Speaker Tony Smith announced this week he would retire from politics at the election, after holding the seat of Casey on Melbourne’s eastern fringe since 2001. Phillip Coorey of the Financial Review reports “leading contenders” for the Liberal preselection are David Lau, a manager with medical supplies company Ebos Group, and Aaron Violi, a manager with a company that provides online ordering services to restaurants. Both have form as political staffers, Lau with Senator Sarah Henderson and Violi with Senator James Patterson. The “controversial comments on Facebook related to abortion” that caused Lau to quit his job with Henderson appear not to have done him any harm with the party membership. Smith retained Casey by a margin of 4.6% in 2019, which has not changed with the redistribution.
• The Victorian Liberals have preselected former Geelong mayor Stephanie Asher for Corangamite, where Labor’s Libby Coker unseated Sarah Henderson in 2019, and lawyer and one-time Survivor contestant Sharn Coombes for Dunkley in Melbourne’s south-east, which Labor gained after a favourable redistribution in 2019. Brodie Cowburn of Bayside News reports other candidates for Dunkley included Chris Crewther, who held the seat for the Liberals from 2016 until his defeat in 2019, and Donna Hope, who as Donna Bauer held the marginal local state seat of Carrum for a term from 2010 to 2014.
• Queensland’s Liberal National party has preselected Colin Boyce, who has held the state seat of Callide since 2017, as its new candidate for the central Queensland seat of Flynn, held for the party on a margin of 8.7% and to be vacated at the election with the retirement of Ken O’Dowd. Matthew Killoran of the Courier-Mail reports Boyce “convincingly” won a local party ballot over Mitchell Brownlie, Ron English and Tracie Newitt.
Asha
The behaviour and attitude of certain politicians regarding covid reminds me of the conspirators that lowered the shield on the barrier city just a bit. What else would explain Gladys and her planned quarantine leak, but she actually wanted an outbreak?
Recon:
Sunday, July 18, 2021 at 7:45
[‘Talking about height. You really are a small man.’]
Height or intellect?
I usually played fighting games on arcade machines (with the limited money I had.) Street Fighter, King of Fighters, Mortal Kombat etc. Never played enough to be great though but I preferred them to the unfair, coin-eating platformers on those machines.
It can be a funny game.
After the Giants kicked seven goals in a row during Q1 and part of Q2, the Swannies have thence kicked nine in a row.
My first gaming obsession would have been The Incredible Machine, which I would play on the computers in the school library. Unfortunately, not every computer had it installed on there (I think it needed the then newfangled Windows 95, which had only been installed on some of the PCs). There used be a few fights in that library.
Anybody use a Microbee?
mavis says:
Sunday, July 18, 2021 at 8:03 pm
Recon:
Sunday, July 18, 2021 at 7:45
[‘Talking about height. You really are a small man.’]
Height or intellect?
_______
Mavis, yes I was bending height into intellect.
Wat
Special place in my heart for Space Invaders 🙂
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=F2lGJMrUUHw
Yabba, your situation should qualify, particularly since the tarp has not done the job.
Getting someone to do it might be difficult though
Pac Man is the best table top game ever.
mikehilliard:
Just don’t play the Atari port.
Next, we’ll hear from old Gene Miles, suggesting how this site’s gone downhill.
William Bowe says:
Sunday, July 18, 2021 at 8:18 pm
_________________________
What a great example of one of the crazier elements of federalism.
If we’re talking second generation gaming (like the aforementioned Space Invaders and Pac-Man), I will throw a shoutout to Missile Command and Frogger. Both of which I have racked some decent scores at in the past (despite being before my “time”.)
Apologies to all the people who don’t give a damn about the topic of video games. It’s just quiet on the political discussion front right now (other that rehashing the same rhetoric) and I am sure that this is still preferable to a rehash of the Labor-Greens flame war, or debates about China. Hopefully an interesting poll or some big news breaks.
EDIT: I am aware I am tempting the Monkey’s Paw to curl one of its fingers with that hope.
Flogger is cool.
Missile Command? Definitely a love-hate relationship there 🙂
Assume those numbers include those also in international quarantine.
The number today was 105 + 4 in hotel quarantine.
We could always combine the video games and China topics, and discuss one of the greatest video games ever made: Hong Kong ’97
https://youtu.be/M_aXcH1zDEE
Wat Tayler
The ALP-Green flame war is like pong.
You know, you could have just talked about Chun-Li or something 😆
And I was about to mention the AVGN episode I learned about it from but that’s what you linked to…
Wat Tyler @ #2216 Sunday, July 18th, 2021 – 8:26 pm
Ragnarok (later renamed Valhalla) was/is awesome. No relation whatsoever to the (much more popular) game marketed as Ragnarok Online.
Not strictly D&D ruleset either, though with a lot of similar elements. Challenging Norse-themed rougelike. Freely available and still playable today via DOSBox.
Everything bad in the world today is the fault of Morrison, Gladys, and NSW, in approximately that order. 🙂
Boring after a couple of minutes?
Wat Tayler
The ALP-Green flame war is boring but Pong can be entertaining.
I was always more of a Mortal Kombat guy.
Asha Leu says:
Sunday, July 18, 2021 at 8:35 pm
We could always combine the video games and China topics, and discuss one of the greatest video games ever made: Hong Kong ’97
https://youtu.be/M_aXcH1zDEE
______________________
How did I not know about this.
Ok, I can rise to the occasion. This is actually a vgg:
Conflict – The Middle East Political Simulator (PC Game, 1991)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8kZLVc-LuA4
William, I think Emily Barton’s figures that she thought were for tomorrow were in fact the figures for today?
How about Balance of Power on the Macintosh?
Lars Von Trier says:
Sunday, July 18, 2021 at 8:47 pm
How about Balance of Power on the Macintosh?
__________
Alas, could never get near a copy.
Recon:
Sunday, July 18, 2021 at 8:09 pm
You can be cruel from time to time – you know you are – but none more crueler than old GG following a PD diagnosis around a year ago – that in essence is my point. As for the calls to ban you, that’s crap.
WT
All cool.
I’m having flashbacks – I got to sit on the floor whilst my friends played games around me, because I always died so soon that I never got to work out how to proceed. I carried a notebook and got a lot of writing done.
David J Hunter is an Australian epidemiologist who is the Richard Doll Professor of Epidemiology and Medicine at Oxford University and a professor emeritus at Harvard University.
You call it ‘freedom day’? I call it a reckless gamble….
In any case, allowing for the economic pressures, government policy does not seem to have been thought through. As fast as they are opening, restaurants and clubs, shops and factories are closing due to a “pingdemic”. The NHS app pings people whose smart phone has been close to someone who tests positive, and with an estimated one in 95 people testing positive in the past week that means anyone in a service position, in transport or in a busy workplace is a high risk of transient exposure to someone who later tests positive. If one chef tests positive, all the kitchen staff has to isolate and the restaurant closes. As fast as the economy opens up, large components shut down again.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/you-call-it-freedom-day-i-call-it-a-reckless-gamble-20210718-p58anm.html
Player One says:
Sunday, July 18, 2021 at 5:58 pm
N @ #2084 Sunday, July 18th, 2021 – 5:53 pm
Quoll says:
Sunday, July 18, 2021 at 5:21 pm
Labor are not going to be wedged by the Greens. Get over it.
It’s not the Greens, you idiot, it’s the Planet.
Oh fie, dim-witted Player, if the Greens manage to wedge Labor again – as they have in every election since 2013 – the chances of the Reactionaries will be improved. The greater the distance between the Greens and Labor, the better will be Labor’s chances. True story.
Lars Von Trier, i learnt to program on a microbee, i still remember the limited variable names (mbasic).
Anybody use a Microbee?
——————
I did work experience in their factory at West Gosford. Does that count?
Seems Boris is a victim of Pingdemic…
Boris Johnson and Rishi Sunak have been forced into a U-turn and will self-isolate after coming into contact with the health secretary, who has contracted Covid-19.
The UK prime minister and chancellor had initially tried to avoid isolation by saying they were part of a pilot testing scheme, prompting an outcry from members of the public and backbench Conservative MPs.
Their U-turn came after only three hours amid chaos at No 10 over plans to drop many Covid restrictions for “freedom day” on Monday, and minutes after the communities secretary, Robert Jenrick, had defended their plans to continue working from Downing Street.
It means the prime minister, chancellor and health secretary will all be isolating, along with hundreds of thousands of others due to exposure to coronavirus, when restrictions are dropped across England from Monday.
Edit .. tomorrow’s UK cartoons should be a hoot… Boris’s vote will go up 2 points
Sceptic
Thanks. I was wondering why the cartoons linked by AZ had a ping meme.
Thank you Mavis. How are you going? well i hope.
Sh|t bug1. I am having flashbacks of programming on a microbee at school. I did a clock with second and minute hands moving in correct time for the main project. I lost interest with the hour hand.
Smarty pants Clancy K also decided to do a clock and got the hour hand too. I suspected she copied my code tho.
https://www.smh.com.au/national/australia-covid-news-live-nsw-reports-fourth-death-and-105-new-cases-victoria-has-16-new-local-cases-20210718-p58amx.html
NSW Police will target Sydney beaches and coastal areas with their public health order compliance patrols from Monday.
Among the areas they will focus on are Bondi Beach, Manly Beach and other coastal areas.
Bout freaking time.
Drats, no more Irrational ‘Leftist’ labels for you, but I guess that was the whole point of the change. Wat Tyler, you are no Wat Tyler!
I can recall doing a programming assignment on an Apple IIe with Basic, where you had to create a random number generator – hint being use the clock function.
Lots of GOTO line numbers did the trick…
Speaking of old video games, Anyone watch Halt and Catch Fire on Foxtel? About the computer/techno world of the 80s.
Scrambler. That was one of the mocrobee games.
And Star Trek.
”
Wat Tylersays:
Sunday, July 18, 2021 at 6:54 pm
And for those unaware and wondering, it’s not my name. It’s a historical reference to the leader of the English Peasants’ Revolt of 1381
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wat_Tyler
”
Could the story of Robin Hood originated from figures like Wat Tyler?
Gee, it’s been a while since the board’s Jaffa last rattled in his box at me.
I can assure you that your mosquito bites weren’t the reason for the name change, clem. I loathed it long before your weak attempt at name-calling.
My favourite tweet today 🙂
I think Robin Hood predates the Peasants’ Uprising but it’s possible some elements of later retellings (especially the “standing up for the poor” elements) may have been inspired by it.
Lars and nath are great movie buffs, I’m sure they will love this sequel…