Dead1

Earl Grey tea - someone has to be the responsible parent.

Great band! I love a lot of their stuff and listen to them regularly Sucks for the dude but given the amount of booze consumed by metalheads I am a bit surprised it didn't happen earlier.

New Mick Mars (ex-Motley Crue) track. Far more Euro Metal than I expected. Certainly better than a lot of Motley Crue but not one for the goat lovers.

China's collapse could be more like Japan's - atrophy and slow stagnation. That border should be the primary concern of the US military. And not just to stop illegal immigrants but also flow of drugs from Mexico and (ironically) flow of weapons to Mexico. US is biggest provider of weapons to Mexican and other cartels! You see on news many of them are switching from dirt cheap AKs to heavily kitted out AR-15s (and also bizarrely Israeli made weapons such as Tavor - US subsidises Israeli defence and Israelis sell drones to Russia, all manner of defence tech to China and small arms to drug cartels). And a wall on its own is useless. It would need extensive manning, drones, aerial surveillance. Where to get manpower and money - why scrap US forces in Europe and have the Euros pay for their own defence. That's 100,000 men and tons of dollars saved to buy drones, additional surveillance aircraft. Oh and scrap Israeli and Egyptian defence aid while they're at it - that'll free up more cash. Here in Australia scrap that stupid AUKUS program that even US Congress is smart enough to not want to sign off on despite Australian government delusions.

This is pretty cool. Almost pretty though.

I had forgotten how good this one is. Great Aussie death metal. Really did wish I had enough money to buy albums I liked on physical copy once I figured out I liked them coz I don't forget what I own!

The female vocals suck, would have been much better with death growls and black metal shrieks and being slowed down even more. I hate all these pop vocals infesting metal regardless of gender.

GG That is some great info. From an environmental perspective fertility isn't the whole picture. Populations in most high carbon/high polluting economies are still growing because they are importing surplus people from elsewhere. Does it matter Australia's fertility rate is below replacement when it's scheduled to double its population by 2100. And Australia is extremely high on a per capita pollution rate (eg carbon per capita top of OECD and 11th world wide). With environmental collapse affecting poorer countries more, it will probably just mean that even larger populations will simply move to the west which will ramp up pollution even more. And note border controls are increasingly non-existent and many elite groups are opposed to them eg opposition to Trump's border plans whilst supporting carrier battle groups based in Japan. Both progressives and business groups are opposed to border controls and free trade and other agreements remove barriers to "flow of labour".

Cheers for correction! Autopsy - Ashes, Organs, Blood and Crypts These guys really seem to be hitting hard of late. And been an absolute corker of a year for death metal - Asinhell, Autopsy, Cannibal Corpse, Dying Fetus, Obituary Vomitory all releasing some top stuff! been a

Phil Anselmo's haunted house is fucking epic!

Awesome! They played in Hobart this year but there was no way I could afford the accommodation (part of Hobart Dark Mofo festival when accommodation goes through the roof) and fuel costs, not with saving up for Europe.

You speak of population decline as it's a bad thing. If the planet is to not be turned into a wasteland and living standards are to be maintained, a huge chunk of humanity has to cease to exist. And what better way than declining population. Given westerners pollute the most, allowing their populations to crash is the best solution. China thrived because of one child policy because it stabilised out of control growth rates. Basic maths in economics is economy has to grow faster than population for there to be a benefit (modern neoliberalism broke this but anyway). If China hadn't curbed population growth, it would not have been able to improve living standards as much as it did. India's population growth impedes it - there's too many young people entering workforce and not enough jobs (hence emigration is high). That's the same problem in a lot of places in Africa and Middle East. It creates restlessness and harbours resentment and extremism. Also human population as a whole won't hit decline as other parts of it are growing out of control. Eg Africa's population is scheduled to go from 1.5 billion in 2023 to 4.2 billion by 2100. A lot of places like Egypt ( current 109 million, 205 m in 2100) and Bangladesh (population 170m) are fucked under not just global warming but even under old environmental circumstances. The population of the planet by that stage is 10.4 billion but that assumes the Africans, Indians and others actually do what demographers think they might do and stop having as many babies. However the UN keeps missing it's forecasts because these groups keep having more children and not less. In fact Africa kinda blows up every single "law" of sociology and economics. Nothing there tends to work under the established economic models. Oh and as living standards start to decline around the world due to current economic trends, you can probably expect increases in number of children even in west. A rather ominous start to your marriage! Was it you doing the brawling? Mine was shit too - ceremony was good, reception was fucked. Everyone was a right unsupportive cunt right up to it and the day wasn't much better. My parents (since disowned) were complaining throughout the reception, photographer was horrible and demanding and didn't do what we wanted her to, one of my brothers was reading a book throughout the ceremony and reception, the other was broody and resentful. We'd practised a tango properly but my wife didn't take into account her ridiculous dress so we couldn't do it. properly and it looked stupid. To cap it off this nasty "agony cunt" cunt my wife thought was her friend just got her drunk and depressed. Fuck weddings. I would have eloped if I could. My wife agreed in hindsight.

Triumph of Death - Resurrection Of The Flesh Out 10 November https://youtu.be/9hPJkx4gqJU

There's a Hellhammer....I mean Triumph of Death live album in the works and judging from these tracks it's gonna be fucking awesome!

Welcome aboard!

That's awesome! I wasn't even allowed hard rock at my wedding. Did manage to squeeze in Primus' Winona's Big Brown Beaver but that was it.

That sounds like an awesome holiday. Did you hire a car or did you se public transport (I'm, going to Europe next year so curious)

Black Knife - Baby Eater Witch Heavily blackened speed/heavy metal.

It's pretty horrific when on a list of 22 people covering up paedophiles in government services in a government report, I have worked with 6 and had thought 4 of them were quite good and honest. And hell I was talking to one of them on the weekend and they were minimising it. I didn't know they had been mentioned in report as someone involved in covering up. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-31/tasmanian-public-servants-named-potential-misconduct-concerns/103044044 It's actually quite traumatising that something like this could happen in my workplace and that people I thought were good and honest did some terrible shit or just didn't care. (Oh and sadly nothing will happen to them - they've all been quietly retired and found new jobs).

Is ecocidal a word yet? I agree. I think the problem with modern progressives is they actually stand for nothing. Economically they're all right wing or centre right at the best. You never hear about progressives talking about nationalisation of industries, curbing immigration, curbing worst aspects of international trade (exploitation and environmental destruction) or curbing consumerism. They have espouse libertarian viewpoints for certain people - freedom of choice for nearly everything (including drugs) and even tolerance of people's right to be a criminal via decriminalisation and soft sentencing. Yet they promote censorship and cancelling of those they don't agree with - cancelling people, destroying statues, removing movies, banning symbols etc. They don't ascribe to people having agency. So whilst you are free to chose, if you make bad choices that's the fault of government. It's almost perverse in that many of them would view listening to NSBM as a greater evil than actually committing a violent crime (coz that one's not their fault especially if the criminal is a visible minority). Their environmentalism is virtue signalling. They don't promote actual policies that would reduce pollution. Eg carbon zero doesn't stop pollution. It doesn't even stop carbon emissions because so much of it is smoke and mirrors. They tend to focus on extreme minorities over the welfare of all (eg focus on transgender rights - only 0.04% of the Australian population identified as transgender in 2016 ABS survey). Their main point seems to be that heterosexual white men are evil. The true left wing of old knew what it stood for and they knew what it wanted - better rights and living standards for all people. But that left wing was destroyed from 1980s onwards. Indeed this is why the working classes now vote for likes of Trump etc. And I say all of the above as a true left wing person.

That's what I love about Europe. The history is tangible - it's in the buildings, the landmarks, the statues and monuments and in the names of places and streets. It's amazing standing in a place where so many important things happened or where famous world leaders, scientist and artists lived and or worked or where things that mattered globally happened such as battles or signing of treaties.

Soundgarden - Superunknown

My comment was that you share that particular trait with most of your countrymen. That picture is accurate enough. And it's not even a sob story about lack of services "woe is us for the government does not provide". The metro buses I used to catch were big 44 seat things. They were pretty regular. They were mainly empty. On a good day there'd be 10 people on board (almost all teenagers). Most of the times it'd be 5 or less. I used to catch the bus to and from Hobart when I was at Uni. There were only 2 services a day (evening plus morning). Again the buses were mainly empty - a dozen people on a good run. Only once was it packed (some sort of festival happening). Thank the heavens government continues to subsidise both intra-town and inner city buses or they would close down. So I will repeat myself again: Australians hate public transport, hence your preference for being in the control of your own vehicle and avoiding public transport is totally and utterly rational and fully expected within the context of your culture.

How else can you explain following low utilisation rates: - Brisbane, Hobart, Adelaide - 6% - Sydney - 9% - Peth - 23% - Melbourne - 37% - a real outlier but extremely high migrant population without all that car culture baggage. Compare this to 46% in London, 70% in Paris, 54% in New York, 61% in Madrid or 57% in Tokyo. Or looking at smaller non-alpha cities - 40% for Lyon, 47% Prague and Warsaw 57%. Or the stat that Australia is 7th highest for private vehicle ownership? Over 91% of Australian households has at least 1 car and over 55% has more than 1 (actually many I know have 3 cause dad's like to own motorbikes and other toys). Australians don't like public transport and the stats show they don't use it. The fact that many places have had public transport networks dismantled or reduced to low level heavily subsidised rump services is testament to this. Excluding aircraft, I don't know anyone locally who use mass public transport (buses). Uber and taxis used by some people I know when they're drinking. I know two people in Hobart that catch the bus but that's it. Public transport initiatives in Australia tend to be torn apart by media as wasteful spending both during building and once they're built. Even supposed left wing progressive media like ABC and The Guardian attack public transport initiatives (eg Sydney light rail, Melbourne's massive rail way revamp etc) and they're meant to be pro-environment and pro-better access for disadvantage people. Great Australian dream is a big arse house with more bed rooms than you need, a His and Hers SUV, cars for the teenage kids, a motorbike or sports car for dad, a boat, an RV/caravan and a "shack" (euphemism for large weekend house). Oh and several rental properties so one can benefit from all those speculative property gains whilst squeezing poor people out of their hard earned cash. (By the way this is literally my whole neighbourhood - nice town as a whole but I fucking hate all the wannabe rich and all their waste - there are literally caravans/RVs and boats in every second drive way/yard and dad's toys like Harley's parked in open garages). It's an environmental and social nightmare.

That's pretty much the Australian way, Along with the environment and government welfare for anyone except themselves, there is nothing Aussies hate more than public transport even when they have access to good reliable public transport. Country has too much of a car culture and is too lazy. Tasmanians are worst for it - only 7% of Hobart uses public transport and most of the network is being dismantled (we just lost our main bus transit centre in Launceston). The buses are mainly empty and heavily subisidised. Well known joke among Tasmanians is they won't walk anywhere and have to park right outside their destination. It's one of those "it's funny coz it's true" things. You could put in free efficient public transport and people will still insist on driving their own oversized polluting vehicle. "Sure I could catch the free super fast train but I'd rather be stuck in traffic in my Toyota Prado paying $2.10 for a litre of petrol." "I could also walk but I don't think that is what my legs are for." I used to walk to work and catch bus home (steep hill) but then Aussie wife wanted the Aussie dream and we moved to a big house outside of town and now we have to drive everywhere. There's buses but they are $12.20 return per day per person so unaffordable. They also go the slow way so a 10 minute trip becomes a 45 minute trip. This is because they've been cutting number of direct routes due to low utilisation. It's a vicious cycle.