Comments for The Adventures of Slightly Taller Than Average Man

Comment on How does a HECS/HELP debt effect your life? by Wendy

Wendy — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 12:31:38 +0000

The HECS policy is a grossly sexist, unfair and expensive to administer system.
People who graduate and go to live and work overseas never have to pay it back.
Women who have a family before they reach the starting pay probably never pay it back. In the meantime, how many expensive public servants does it take to administer it? If we’re having a resources boom and “never been better off”, how come students went to University on Commonwealth scholarships as long as they kept passing in the 60s and went free in the 70s? Do we want the brightest educated or the richest?

Comment on Wintersun 2008 by Fifi

Fifi — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 01:29:31 +0000

so bloody jealous! can’t wait for Greazefest!

Comment on Wintersun 2008 by Wintersun 2008 - Ford Mustangs — The Adventures of Slightly Taller Than Average Man

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 10:06:35 +0000

[...] - Wintersun 2008 - Wintersun 2008 - Rat [...]

Comment on Wintersun 2008 by Wintersun 2008 - Rat Rods — The Adventures of Slightly Taller Than Average Man

Mon, 09 Jun 2008 09:51:39 +0000

[...] ← Wintersun 2008 [...]

Comment on Don’t put money in the bank, own the bank! by HiredGoon

HiredGoon — Sun, 01 Jun 2008 10:11:06 +0000

So long as you didn’t get -15% interest rates this year, you’d have been better in cash!

Comment on My own “TNT Flexy” TV and Home Theatre Stand by Craig

Craig — Fri, 16 May 2008 08:59:56 +0000

If you look closely you’ll see Optimus standing guard too…

Comment on Taking advantage of the HD-DVD fallout by Shane

Shane — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 07:26:53 +0000

I want Scarlett Johansson in HD too!
For some reason I think its for the same reasons as Rae…

Comment on Gen Y BlameWatch: Rising Rents Redux by Craig

Craig — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 23:36:27 +0000

I agree that the finding out some hard data would be much better than all this speculation about how many people are entering the rental market.

The thing is, there hasn’t been any form of population boom that is coming to maturity now - I think the birth rate has actually been declining. There’s no large body of young people about to all suddenly hit 18 years old and want to move out, so I don’t see how “Gen Y” can be blamed for rental prices increasing.

His argument may be that cultural differences between generations are placing stresses on the housing market in unexpected ways, but I haven’t seen it stated as such. An example is that young people may have a higher preference to inner city units than their parents did at the same age, and the supply of these units hasn’t kept up. But there’s not only a shortage of one type of dwelling but a general shortage, so that argument falls flat anyway.

I’m glad you’ve seen how cheap housing is in other parts of the world. My eyes were really opened when I went to Austin. It’s not until you see how the rest of the world lives then you can really understand how overpriced the Australian (and US and UK) housing market really is.

Comment on Skynet wasn’t “programmed” to destroy the world by Shane

Shane — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:43:07 +0000

Maybe the fact that it was programmed to be intelligent and think for itself could be argued that it was in turn programmed to destroy the world.

If intelligence is needed to overturn the human population and destroy the world, which I think some of which would be necessary, then, since the humans programmed it to have such intelligence, then they also programmed it to destroy the world. Food for thought…

Comment on Gen Y BlameWatch: Rising Rents Redux by Shane

Shane — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 17:37:36 +0000

Hrmm. It seems that the issue is either 1. getting more and more media attention, or 2. really is getting worse.

Whilst I agree that it isn’t a sudden influx of Gen-Yers moving out is causing the affordability of housing go down, it would be interesting to find data on the population increases in that bracket as opposed to housing growth.

Are these two factors growing at comparable rates? Is the sheer number of houses available not growing? What about those who die? Are people not dying at the same rates as before, meaning that they don’t ‘give up’ their houses for the younger generations to move into?

Being in Germany and hearing some of the rent prices for places here, its pretty scary at how expensive housing is in Australia. For example, a friend of mine purchased a very nice, large single bedroom apartment, with balcony only minutes from the city for only 60,000 Euro (roughly $100,000AUD). You would never find something like that in any of Australia’s major and non-rural cities. This is in comparison to a country which has quadruple the population as Australia!