The Census and Australian Bureau of Statistics websites have crashed on their most important day of the year [Census day for Australians], leaving Australians frustrated and unable to complete their form online. Many trying to log on to the Census and ABS sites were met with an error message on Tuesday evening saying the site could not be reached.
In a first, the census requires a full name to be filled in, though many including politicians are concerned about privacy issues. Crossbench senators including Nick Xenophon, Scott Ludlam and Sarah Hanson-Young are pledging not to comply with rules for the census will be treated like any other citizen and risk fines of $180 per day, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said on Tuesday.
Some took to Twitter to slam the ABS, with one user sarcastically saying they were "definitely technically competent enough to keep our most private data safe."
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Tuesday August 09 2016, @02:43PM
Want to live without government? You have several options:
1. Move to and take over a terra nullius [wikipedia.org] where no government claims control.
2. Move to a country with no functioning government. Somalia, for example.
3. Move to an area that's so remote, and live frugally off the land, that the government of that area doesn't even know you exist. Places you might be able to pull this off include Ninavut, the Amazon, and the Kalahari.
4. Buy yourself a boat and spend all your time in international waters, surviving on rainwater and seafood and such.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by ledow on Tuesday August 09 2016, @02:46PM
And then good luck when you fall and break your leg.
Or get boarded by pirates.
Or whatever. People enclose themselves in government-controlled countries for a reason.
That reason isn't necessarily stupid, either.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday August 09 2016, @03:18PM
Well that's just it: Many people who complain about the government existing are the same ones that rely on government services on a regular basis. There are more than a few who are downright delusional about what government does and doesn't do for them, as best exemplified by the older Americans who are completely convinced that Social Security and Medicare are not government programs.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 09 2016, @02:48PM
5. Suck the cock of Musky to earn a chance to emigrate to SPAAAAAAAACE.
(Score: 1, Flamebait) by VLM on Tuesday August 09 2016, @02:55PM
2. Move to a country with no functioning government. Somalia, for example.
Somalia is a shithole because of the people and their culture. We have non-functioning governments in Detroit and Baltimore and Wash DC and plenty of "urban" environments and they're full of (mostly) Americans and they're not that bad of a place to live. Well, mostly. But nowhere near as bad as Somalia.
As a counterexample, the government of South Africa hasn't completely collapsed (its in process) but given the residents the country is again a complete shithole of rape and street crime and violence, even though its got a semi-operational government.
I used to use Somalia as an example myself, but its obsolete. The problem with Somalia is the Somalians and no functioning government in Detroit isn't ideal but its not the end of the world either.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday August 09 2016, @03:06PM
What kind of people do Somalia, Detroit, Baltimore, Washington DC, South Africa have in common. Yep. The villain of Star Trek Beyond was a black man too.
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday August 09 2016, @04:36PM
I'm calling BS on that. If there were really non-functioning governments in that area, then:
- There would be no cops, jails, courts, and so forth. Think complete lawlessness, or the city controlled entirely by the various drug gangs without any kind of other power structure.
- There would be no agreed-upon medium of economic exchange, like the US Dollar.
- Nobody would be maintaining the roads, sewers, water supply, or streetlights.
- There would be no public school system.
- There would be no public parks.
And that's just a taste.
I live in a city that's not that much better off than Detroit in a lot of ways. But there's definitely a functional city government, and it does a lot of stuff, some of which makes my life easier.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 2) by VLM on Tuesday August 09 2016, @08:24PM
Umm, have you ever been to an urban city in the USA? I'm just sayin. Looking at the big city near where I live...
I mean on paper they have cops but they only come a couple hours later unless there's active shooters. Its not like the burbs. Occasionally they'll shoot an unarmed black citizen in the back and its like "Eh, BAU". The jail is dysfunctional and mostly used to molest kids and women. The courts are backed up and slow.
I see no reason why you need a government to use a medium of exchange. The medium of exchange needs a government to back it up but when I visit Mexico the locals are OK with dollars. One of those A implies B but B does not imply A problems. The dollar needs the fedgov but the dollar works perfectly well in areas outside fedgov control.
Public school system and parks holy cow man look up the conditions in poor urban areas. Worse than Africa out there. At least in Africa they get free vaccinations and better food.
Ditto road repair, basic infrastructure. Sign replacement is a big problem. So the stoplights were knocked out in an accident six months ago, what is the driving law about that, something like first wins and ties are broken to the right or something? Of course nobody has licenses or registrations on a percentage basis anyway so they just run red lights if the pole isn't knocked down...
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Thexalon on Tuesday August 09 2016, @11:32PM
Yes, because I live in one. It doesn't sound like you have though, because what you're describing doesn't match in any way what I've seen in the bad areas of either my city or the cities I've visited recently (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Chicago). It does, however, sound very much like a caracature of what these places were like that is used to convince white people to stay away and thus have no clue what's actually going on in those areas.
I just drove through one of the worst parts of my city on my way to work this morning, one of the most crime-ridden areas in the country, where about 1 in 55 residents will be the victim of a violent crime this year. I also did some work there as part of a tech education program. And in that neighborhood you will find law enforcement, road repairs, public schools, reliable municipal water, public parks, a fairly reliable local bus system, etc. People were basically obeying traffic laws. And yes, the signs weren't getting stolen, and the stoplights were working.
While the cops don't come close to completely enforcing the law in that neighborhood, they do catch enough of the bad guys to make a real difference and have some legitimacy in the eyes of the residents. They have gotten into trouble over killing 3 unarmed completely innocent black people in the last decade, and as you can imagine black people were (rightfully, in my view) quite angry about that, but they and the US DoJ are working with the cops to try to fix the problem. The gangs aren't completely powerless, but they're definitely not in control.
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Tuesday August 09 2016, @03:15PM
5. Wait till Australia falls apart under expected load and then take it over with a mighty libertarian horde.
It's funny how every time there's a story about the retardedness of government, we get these "But Somalia!" comments. Somalia didn't become like it is now because no government. It got that way because its government was so venal and incompetent, that the current informal situation is better. Maybe we should be more concerned about stories like the Australian census breakdown, because we don't want to make more Somalias.
(Score: 1) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday August 09 2016, @04:11PM
Buy yourself a boat and spend all your time in international waters, surviving on rainwater and seafood and such.
This option is sounding better all the time. Plus, pirates might make things fun!
- Solar/wind for electric (when not using wind as propulsion)
- Wasn't there some lab that proposed using carbon nanotubes for desalinization?
- Create a video blag on Youtube (especially the action-packed episode 24 where you fight off Somalian pirates)
- ???
- Profit!
- Pay for satellite internet and trade when you make port with said Profit! (Well, ok, it would rather be something to spend all one's time out at sea.)
Then, of course, there are bigger possibilities [seasteading.org] than just one video blagger on a boat. One could envision a 21st century high tech resurgence of communes except as floating Libertopias. Maybe the lone seasteader can tow a vegetable garden on a barge behind the boat.
We used to have these book buses that would drive around town. You could trade one of your used books for one that was on the bus (or 5 or 10). Never was curious enough to ask how it was funded (was probably 7 or 8, maybe 10 at the time). Found some really interesting books that way. Might make an interesting Waterworld-esque story about somebody who takes a floating book bus from Libertopia to Libertopia just trading books. (Or a book bus boat full of books burned on to DVDs. Imagine the bandwidth!)
Not entirely trying to be serious :)
(Score: 2, Interesting) by Runaway1956 on Tuesday August 09 2016, @08:50PM
Somalia. I wonder why you confuse Somalia with anything that resembles a "country" or a "nation". Is it your belief that Somalia was once a nation, or maybe even a "great nation"?
Somalia, a land of wandering tribesmen. Their great claim to fame is that they could fight the English to standstill. (Some will argue that isn't much of an accomplishment. A Scotsman, maybe?) Much like the Apache in America, Somalians were superb fighters. A dozen Somali warriors could tie up an entire British regiment, causing 100 casualties for every one they took.
But, Somalia has no claim to fame aside from that. They had a few villages, some fishing, goats and camels, and a great nomadic life.
Following in the footsteps of the rest of the world, Somalia was introduced to the benefits of modern medicine. Oh, wow - population explosion!! Who could have anticipated that? So, suddenly, a land that supported tens of thousands of nomads is expected to support MILLIONS of sedentary city dwellers?
Yeah, Somalia is pretty fucked up, but let's not pretend that it has anything to do with government. The British may be guilty of destroying a culture in Somalia, but there never was a "government", a "nation", or even a "country" to destroy.
Probably the best thing for Somalia, would be for the west to just go away, take away all their medicine, food donations, military and economic "aid", and let the Somalis support themselves. They'll quickly go back to their tribal lives, the nomads will take over again, and the land will be relatively peaceful again. That land will never support the millions who live there now. Let the Somalis decide how the great die off plays out.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday August 10 2016, @03:16AM
You could say the same about any place.
How long do you think New York would last without trade or a functioning government?
Let's just cut off all support and let the New-Yorkers themselves see how the great die off plays out.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday August 10 2016, @01:56PM
NYC would be pretty fucked without trade - but Somalia has no trade to speak of. What do they export, besides hungry children? They don't even have tourism, because they are so mean and hateful.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday August 11 2016, @01:49AM
So you agree that they are both unable to be self sufficient. But only Somalia should die because of it?
What about the functioning government part? How long without a government do you think NYC would last?
If Somalia did have a functioning government, they could have trade and tourism and all the other nice things.
Good luck getting one though...
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Thursday August 11 2016, @02:01AM
Reading comprehension, much? Who said that Somalia should die? I merely suggested that Somalia should be returned to it's once pristine condition of arid desert, ruled by nomadic warlords. It's "natural state", if you will. Let the barbarians be barbarians. Somalia need not die - just the excess population.
As for the larger cities of the world "dying" - the surviviors would be better off. We have many competing interests, and increasing the human population of the world shouldn't be a main priority. Let's get off the planet, find someplace for some of those excess billions to live, before we worry about maintaining our huge population.
Just in case you still don't "get it", I am mocking mankind's assumption that we live in the best of all possible worlds, thanks to modern medicine and modern science.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday August 12 2016, @02:14AM
Oh Somalia shouldn't die, just all the people who live there, gotcha.
You're still hand-waving over the whole government thing. Which was kinda your whole point at the start.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Friday August 12 2016, @07:50PM
Let nature take it's course. That's all I'm saying. If Somalians can support millions of people in the desert without outside charity, then let them do it. If they have to depend on world welfare organizations, then it's time to downsize.
What's so hard to understand about that? It is not your responsibility, nor mine, to ensure that all those millions are fed, sheltered, and clothed. If the desert won't support them, then they should move somewhere else, and try a different kind of life. Or, just die off.
But don't worry - it won't be just Somalia. I really believe the earth is going puke on all of us sooner or later. We continue to destroy habitat, in our quest for some imagined wealth. Diamonds, gold, uranium - strip mine entire regions of the world to get at them. Don't worry about how much of the environment is destroyed.
The newest thing? Mining the ocean floor. Don't worry how many animals live there, don't worry how many of them might become extinct even before science identifies them.