Tau

It's a trig point, one of many around the country which were originally used for surveying purposes. They're basically a vestigal structure now as things like GPS have made them redundant for modern use. This design is pretty common but you do find a few variations on the theme - basically all I've seen have the top circles on a post but the support structure varies.

If you check out prominent hills in your area there's a good chance that you'll find some trig points, they were very widespread and large numbers are still around albeit often in a state of disrepair or with vegetation blocking them from view

I’m forever mixing up Ginini and Gingera personally

You're not the only one - for years the wikipedia page for Mt Ginini had the top of Mt Gingera as the primary picture...

Mt Franklin is indeed a good destination for a snow hunt, it's the usual winter locked gate and if it's closed below that (like today) it's usually because there's ok snow further down the hills. The walk up to the trig point gives a bit more height and a view too. Pity the old chalet burnt down as that sounds like a place that would have been interesting to check out.

D'oh, it is indeed Coree. Ginini was where I would have liked to get to but they don't tend to leave the gate open to there in winter.

Time to bring back the 'Feel the Power of Canberra' licence plate slogan!

It's a real reminder to consider edge cases when designing systems though - if you're using frequencies reserved for radar there should really have been a fallback option for when someone actually shows up and uses their radar...

Admins can (I believe) see all votes, full stop

This is correct, with the caveat that the votes must have federated with the admin's instance (so other instances need a user to be subscribed to the community in question, and votes can take time to flow through).

Good to see this idea making its way over here, it's still very easy to get out of mobile reception so satellite messaging is a useful backup.

Note that the novelty here is satellite messaging from a normal phone, for those who want satellite messaging right now you can get it easily with a specialised device (e.g. I have an Inreach Mini for backup/emergency comms). Putting it in the device you already have with you is a solid step forward though.

Regardless of the journalism it seems to be a pretty disproportionate outcome.

If it were just him stealing then getting immediately tackled I'd be more sympathetic, but considering he was assaulting people before even entering the shop I'd put decent odds on the guard not being the one to start the fight. He still shouldn't have died over it but if you're going to get into fights the chance of something going wrong is non-zero.

If it was a white kid in the ghetto the outcome would and is different. Look at the deaths in custody.

Indeed, the white kid would be more likely to die in custody if taken into it. Whether he'd be arrested in the first place is another matter but I think it's a pretty good bet that if this same situation occurred with someone of any ethnicity they'd be ending up on the ground.

Pretty sure that's an embellishment, but I can't say I ever dived into that particular rabbit hole.

People are not “placed” on the floor – that is what you do with bags, boxes and rubbish. But that was the word used by the Northern Territory police to describe the sequence of events to the media.

Because they're trying to put a neutral spin on them tackling the guy, it's no surprise.

It's like the spin they themselves have in this article with this quote:

I try to imagine a similar scene at my local Coles, where many people who have not been winners in life’s lottery also shop for little items to keep hunger at bay, but no image comes to mind.

Implying the guy was in there just shopping for little items is an interesting way to cover walking into a shop after assaulting a woman, stealing things, and getting into a fight with security when confronted. The Eulogy Song is definitely still relevant...

There was actually this really cool news story that just came out about what people are actually using them for

There's been this really cool news story recently about what people are using foraged mushrooms for, better ban doing that pronto because it's clearly dangerous and there's no chance anyone else is doing it safely...

As far as I’m aware there isn’t a thriving jungle expedition scene in Victoria

You don't know what people actually use machetes for, but they look scary so lets make a snide comment suggesting there's no reason to have them. That's exactly the sort of knee jerk reaction which makes for dumb laws like this.

Agreed. Not indexing it seems a pretty deliberate move towards the same strategy as our tax brackets - capture more money each year due to inflation and occasionally make your government look good by raising the cutoff (by less than inflation).