Someone at the paper did a great job cropping that photo.

Map of Mathematics, by Dominic Walliman

Maths map?

Everyone loves a map. I don't know why they don't make better use of maps in schools, so many things you can teach using maps!

Even that maths map that came out a few years back was great to look at, gave me a lot of understanding about how things broadly come together.

Bah, link doesn't work. But I can imagine their screeching.

I went to see if it was on the homepage, instantly saw toxic ANZAC worship (not saying respect for the ANZAC tradition is bad, just that particular brand of Stokes/Abbott ANZAC worship), then the typical article wheeling out the tired old line 'government shit, business best'.

Same shit, different decade from that rag then, the journalists there must live in such a warped reality.

I absolutely love this. I was at a volly firefighter training the other week and just about everyone gravitates to the big map on the wall. Walking on a ground map is an awesome idea.

I’m not shocked anymore.

This is a much better use of 1.5 BILLION dollars than making a glorified shed look fancy.

Today's West is trying to make out this is somehow a bad thing...

It seems like there is a push from within the party to make this happen which is a great sign.

🤞

Perth Sky Sculpture Team (L-R) Johannes Pannekoek, Chair of Perth Observatory Dr Shayne Silcox and Sandra Tinari in front of sculpture by Anton Forde, ‘Matariki’

Gona have to take the kids along to this exhibition. Little Kiwi's Matariki is one of the all time favs! See if they recognise it in sculpture form.

It is bloody beautiful down there.

Government should get into planning expanded public services now, i think the area from Albany up to Bunbury is going to become far more populous. Maybe making that part of WA look more like Queensland than the highly city centered other States and Territories.

At the very least they should be planning, and reserving rail corridors, for inter- and intra-city lines.

It really does, that convention centre is fairly new, and has already cost a fuck-ton from the subsidence, due to it being built on what used to be the swan river. Leave it alone.

We have to move on with other parts of the city, if they can't attract enough conventions/events for a place that big then i'd not be convinced some revamp is gona materially and help their situation. I'd be looking at the business model they're trying to run with that venue.

Buying a hospital seems much better than a convention centre face lift.

Yeah, thats the one, right by the river. Some of the rooms must have insanely good views.

@Gorgritch_umie_killa This is the one that used to be Mercy Hospital yeah?

Sounds like a great idea! I'm sure there'll be aome sting in the tail, thats a pretty old hospital.

The edition will be highlighted as just one of the ways Austen’s family ‘doctored’ her image after her death to create a picture of the author that fit with the moral norms of what was, by then, the Victorian age.

Be an interesting event to attend to find out the family's reasoning for the reputation doctoring.

According to the latest REIWA data, houses in greater Perth reached a median sale price of $820,000 in October 2025, up 1.2 per cent from $810,000 at the end of September and 12.3 per cent higher than October last year.

Such a stupid amount of money to be tied up in unproductive assets. The argument that you can borrow against the house for other investments is totally out the window at these prices noe. There's taking risk, and then theres jumping off a cliff with an umbrella. The quantity of cash involved in paying back outweighs the possibility of too many other risky ventures, leaving only the lowest risk investments like... buying another house.

This is so bad for business and entrepreneurship, we're looking at a lost generation for growth and productivity with Millennials, and possibly a worse fate for gen z if this inequity doesn't ease.

There is someone near where I live who runs a few goats to keep the grass down. They do a good job!

I don't know what to think about this particular situation, but the fact that councils have dragged their arses on tiny home policies when they know young people are struggling to affors, and sometimes even find housing is ridiculous.

This is an issue that i think compulsory voting in Local Government elections could help a great deal with. Right now, out of the ~30% of people who vote, i bet a far lower proportion of those voters are young people compared to the proportion of young people in the general population of the LGA.

They tried to manufacture a shit-storm about books available from the library. They went looking for sex-ed books and tried borrowing them with kids library cards..

Thats so over the top. These people are so tiring.

I agree about the sports and recreation facilities, when i went down for the whale hot air balloons earlier in the year i's surprised by that Sharks Footy stadium. Really well done.

I get that argument. I suppose there trade offs with differing options like this.

I landed on the side that the negatives oitweighed yhe positives. Having half more experienced councillors to half (possibly) less experienced could be a problem where cynical councillors use the new councillors weakness to shift decisions in favour of pet projects, etc.

But maybe i'm being overly cynical about the sincerity of councillors to do the right thing by each other.

Yeah there's certainly some very poorly run, and even corrupt local councils in the south west. Loads of councillors that just don't have the skills for good governance.

A month or so ago I posted in this community concerned about all the nutty candidates standing for election. We had 24 standing for 4 seats. About a third were mask-off MAGA authoritarians, another third were just idiots with no idea how council works, but the remaining third at least didn't fall into either of those categories and contained a couple I regard highly.

In Albany in recent years there has been elements of the community conducting a campaign against what I would call contemporary values. They tried to manufacture a shit-storm about books available from the library. They went looking for sex-ed books and tried borrowing them with kids library cards, et cetera.

The next thing was something to do with transgender usage of the change rooms or toilets at the swimming pool. I don't know the details.

Keen observers will notice their Trump style public relations - anything to generate division, hatred, and vitriol.

They use local council as a platform from which to stoke foment.

So far in Albany they've done a really great job of managing this vocal minority. Everyone gets heard but ultimately the response is balanced against community values. It would only take a few nutters on the council to change that attitude, and without compulsory voting there's a risk that the nutters could install at least one nutter.

I'm sorry to berate you with this, and that's not my intention - just something I feel strongly about.

You could be, and probably are, right. I'm a bit disillusioned by the past 2 shires I've lived in and I think that if managed well some things like education and healthcare could have a great deal more input from local government.

I'm a decentralist by instinct but whether that degree of decentralisation is achievable or even desirable I'm not sure.

That said I love the way Albany in particular has changed over the past few decades and you're right that local government is to thank for that. I'm less enchanted by how Busselton has changed over the past few decades and I think local government is to blame. I do wonder if there was compulsory local elections we might have seen less unchecked development.

As I say, I'm in the self education phase of forming opinions so thanks for your thoughts.

Hard disagree here.

It depends what you mean by "real responsibility". Our local council is responsible for implementing and maintaining all of our recreational facilities. I'm pretty stoked with what we have here in Albany and I think it's taken real vision over the last several decades to achieve it. It's a slow, methodical, and unsexy, but it's real public service.

I'm also not really sure what change you expect candidates to seek. I want candidates to represent their constituents. The only "change" should match contemporary society.

I do agree that there certainly are some self interested and vain people on local councils, and that's all the more reason to consider carefully who is elected. It's a position that state and federal politicians use to get exposure, and in that regard it really works. In this regard I think it's really important to vote for sensible candidates and compulsory voting would mitigate the risk that the nutty right wing candidates don't get up.