Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife • Hacker News Board

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#91

Post by cafard » Sat, Feb 06, 2016, 1:34 PM UTC

madaxe_again wrote: post #56

hanoz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered the UK, where on occasions one can easily feel like the only one in the pub not drinking Jägerbombs, and drinking to massive excess generally is a proud national pastime.

Actually, in the UK, it is illegal to serve pre-mixed caffeine and alcohol, but it's rarely enforced. This is why many bars will pour the shot in a highball, and hand you a can of red bull, so what you then do is your responsibility, not theirs.

How odd. I've never had the urge to drink Red Bull or Jagermeister, separately or together. But Irish Coffee has been around for ages. The people I would see drinking it always seemed to manage to walk out of the bar under their own power,

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#92

Post by exodust » Sat, Feb 06, 2016, 1:35 PM UTC

SOHO has closed! Didn't know. Last time I was there years ago, the whole club was high on MDMA. Personal space dissolves into nothing, your dancing becomes super smooth, your inner-calm is completely zen. Nobody is drunk. Nobody fighting. Nobody dosing off. People are fresh and energized until sunrise. Walking out into the sunrise is a good feeling.

The drunken trashy streets are just places to avoid and navigate your way to other places or home.

It's a sad irony that MDMA would actually stop the violence. It's simply not possible to descend into violent tendencies when your mind is expanded, as opposed to clouded by alcohol.

"Sir, you've had enough to drink. Can I offer you an MDMA drink instead".. would cause tumble-weeds to blow through the emergency department hallways.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#93

Post by tromac » Sat, Feb 06, 2016, 1:45 PM UTC

samizdatum wrote: post #83

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Money - conservative Christians don't usually cause trouble for corporations. Age - conservative retirement-age voters are far more likely to vote than the 18-30 demo. Networking - churches can, and do, bully-pulpit entire parishes. So policy is far further to the right than the population median.

Voting is compulsory in Australia.

Only if you enrol, which is not compulsory.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#94

Post by kintamanimatt » Sat, Feb 06, 2016, 1:54 PM UTC

exodust wrote: post #92

SOHO has closed! Didn't know. Last time I was there years ago, the whole club was high on MDMA. Personal space dissolves into nothing, your dancing becomes super smooth, your inner-calm is completely zen. Nobody is drunk. Nobody fighting. Nobody dosing off. People are fresh and energized until sunrise. Walking out into the sunrise is a good feeling. The drunken trashy streets are just places to avoid and navigate you…

As fun as MDMA is, it's horribly and cumulatively neurotoxic. Mass weekly usage would be a short term gain at the expense of a lot of long term health issues.

MDMA and alcohol intoxication don't seem to be best friends either IIRC.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#95

Post by chris_wot » Sat, Feb 06, 2016, 1:58 PM UTC

tromac wrote: post #93

samizdatum wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Voting is compulsory in Australia.

Only if you enrol, which is not compulsory.

Wrong. Enrollment is compulsory.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#96

Post by TazeTSchnitzel » Sat, Feb 06, 2016, 2:11 PM UTC

lucaspiller wrote: post #29

This is the first time I've heard of this, but as I understand the new laws are: - No sales after 10pm for off-site consumption - No entrance after 1:30am - No alcohol sales in venues after 3am In the UK this has effectively been the law for a long time. The actual law allows 24hr licensing (for on-site consumption), but very few places have a license to sell alcohol after 1am. Why exactly have these laws so drastica…

Perhaps there were other factors.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#97

Post by theoh » Sat, Feb 06, 2016, 2:16 PM UTC

Cyph0n wrote: post #85

switch007 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't start drinking at 5pm on a Friday, puke up twice, consume your body weight in kebab meat and then go for a greasy fry-up in the morning, you're basically a boring sod.

That sounds stupid to be honest. To each his own I guess?

Yes, drinking culture in the UK is stupid and everyone knows it's a problem. The cost to the health service means that it's not really something that should be tolerated in the long term.

See for example: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/may/10/alcohol...

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#98

Post by atomicstack » Sat, Feb 06, 2016, 2:19 PM UTC

It's also now illegal to sell kebabs past midnight:

http://stoneyroads.com/2016/01/there-is-now-a-lockout-law-fo...

Native Sydney-sider, lived there for 25 years, not sure I'd enjoy living there any more.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#99

Post by exabrial » Sat, Feb 06, 2016, 2:19 PM UTC

And people actually -want- overregulation in America. This time it's under the guise of Sanders (who wants the government involved in every part of your life), and Trump, (who seeks to alienate congress).

Here's the thing, large government just doesn't work. Learn from history.

Re: Sydney's fun police have put out the light of the nightlife

#100

Post by twic » Sat, Feb 06, 2016, 2:32 PM UTC

switch007 wrote: post #59

hanoz wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you considered the UK, where on occasions one can easily feel like the only one in the pub not drinking Jägerbombs, and drinking to massive excess generally is a proud national pastime.

If you don't start drinking at 5pm on a Friday, puke up twice, consume your body weight in kebab meat and then go for a greasy fry-up in the morning, you're basically a boring sod.

For the benefit of foreigners, i will note that this is actually optional for most people. My experience, living in London and working at a few different tech companies, is that you might go out for a "quick beer after work" one to three times a week (and almost never on fridays), stay out for one to three hours (you're rarely still there for closing time), and over the course of the evening, drink two to four pints of pretty nice beer (you can usually find either a craft beer place or a normal pub with a good selection).

You will probably get some food at the pub, maybe only some bowls of chips to share, or maybe something a bit more substantial. If you do make a habit of getting a kebab, you will eventually manage to find the one place in your territory that is actually pretty good (Best Mangal for the Old Street posse, Damascu Bite for the Spitalfields massive, etc).

In my case, i'll also go out for cocktails a couple of times a month, but that's a similar experience - the cocktails i like are so bitter and so expensive that you drink pretty slowly!