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drdrehistorian.bsky.social
Historians wanna talk like they got something to say | NZ and Australian history, politics, trains, music, sport, higher ed | he/him | Melburnian Kiwi in Perth
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In college I had a history prof walk into class slam a potato down & say "this is the most important entity here. There is not one person on this campus or even in this city whose significance to human history will prove to be anywhere close to that of a potato" & ykw gotta admit he was 100% right

submitted 13 hours ago • 22 comments

New Zealand Government plans to increase its defence spending to 2.5% of GDP. Joke 1: Finally we can afford a second Bob Semple Tank Joke 2: That explains why the Government are hell bent on shrinking NZs GDP, easier target. Joke 3: It makes sense, last year we lost a naval battle to rock.

submitted 17 hours ago • 7 comments

Hey, what's up with books having sprayed edges these days? LET ME TELL YOU THE STORY! I was there! Thread: 1/13

submitted 5 days ago • 27 comments

A Polish acquaintance went to British Museum specifically to see this tablet only to be cheated by Ea-nasir from beyond the grave

submitted 1 day ago • 26 comments

The reform of WA’s Legislative Council to embody “one person, one vote, one value” is one of the best things the McGowan government did. If regional areas feel they are underrepresented, there is one simple trick to get greater representation: attract more people to live in your area!

submitted 19 hours ago • 3 comments

Going on a bit of an adventure. Lake Wānaka has an island with a lake (ok, a pool) with an island (fine! Just a rock) so I'm paddling my fold-up kayak over there and then paddle across the pool to the rock so I can then be on an island in a lake on an island in a lake on an island in the ocean!

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

I hope you are all having a happy Richie Benaud Day on this 22/2

submitted 1 day ago • 4 comments

I am a millennial. The answer to this is quite obviously the first ten or so seasons of The Simpsons (although my mates and I were obsessed enough with Fawlty Towers as teenagers that it would be a fairly close second)

submitted 1 day ago • 3 comments

Pretty sick Shihad gig in Perth last night

submitted 1 day ago • 5 comments

wake up honey new hog just dropped

submitted 2 days ago • 22 comments

Argh. Capitalism always tries to squeeze money out of knowledge institutions. This is why the Greenhouse invests in physical books on the shelf in our library. It’s the only way to avoid titles ‘disappearing’.

submitted 2 days ago • 1 comment

Books designed to be read only by human eyes are different from books designed to be read by machines, which is why Google will tell you that the phrase “shake my booty” can be found in an 1863 English translation of Don Quixote.

submitted 336 days ago • 80 comments

Shocking but perhaps, in retrospect, not that surprising - turns out the Minister canned all social science and humanities research funding **because she just didn't like them**

submitted 3 days ago • 7 comments

A quote from William McMillan (NSW) at the 1891 Australian federation convention: US constitution framers "were 100 years behind our present development—they having to make a man either a despot or a nonentity—for every president has been one or the other—[and their problems] do not exist with us"

submitted 3 days ago • 0 comments

I enjoy that TOP has now joined ACT as meaning *completely* different things in Australian and New Zealand political discourse: - Trumpet of Patriots vs The Opportunities Party - Australian Capital Territory vs a party nobody ever calls the Association of Consumers and Taxpayers any more

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

Impress your "hot date" by picking her up in an armoured car with a heavily-armed bloke alongside you. Really puts women at ease! Doesn't scream kidnapping at all!

submitted 4 days ago • 2 comments

My post about change dot org petitions has been getting shared around, which I'm very pleased to see, but it occurs to me that people often don't understand what makes a good petition, or what a petition can actually achieve. So here's a brief (lol sure) thread about petitions. 1/ #NZPOL

submitted 5 days ago • 1 comment

Confused at how we got to Clive Palmer joining Trumpet of Patriots? Here's an (abridged) look at how the Country Alliance eventually became Trumpet of Patriots ⬇️

submitted 4 days ago • 12 comments

If car drivers are regularly hitting the tim-tam separators, the solution should NOT be then to remove them so that nothing stands between the drivers and the cyclists. If you're not good enough a driver to miss a tim-tam, you're not good enough a driver to miss a cyclist.

submitted 5 days ago • 14 comments

This party began in 2004 as the Country Alliance, a "true Nats" kinda party for rural voters unhappy with the Nats, and came close to winning a seat in the Vic upper house in 2010. It took a turn in the mid-2010s, rebranded as Australian Country Party/Give It Back for the 2018 Vic election... 1/2

submitted 78 days ago • 2 comments

Already seeing a number of confused claims about the history of the party name "Trumpet of Patriots" so a thread to set the record straight. (What a time to be alive).

submitted 5 days ago • 7 comments