Comments on: Test your national pride

Test your national pride

goo — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:28:10 -0800

By: hanoixan

hanoixan — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:33:20 -0800

Awesomely subversive.

By: Electrius

Electrius — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:34:26 -0800

This is a strawman argument ("immigrants are productive members of society, you racist asshole") which was evidently set up to knock down another strawman argument ("immigrants are drains on society, one and all").

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:35:43 -0800

Message aside, you don't really get to kick them...it's more of a toss.

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:36:11 -0800

Apparently only five immigrants were found who contribute to the Australian economy.

By: goo

goo — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:37:14 -0800

Only five willing to be tossed, you mean.

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:39:42 -0800

Man, what was that game based on some Japanese comic book or something where you hit the guy with the bicycle and send him flying through the air and you can give him boosts and there are some girls on the ground and you want to avoid some and hit others? That was awesome.

By: patr1ck

patr1ck — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:42:09 -0800

mr_roboto: It's called Nanaca Crash!!! (Extra !'s optional)

By: Justinian

Justinian — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:43:38 -0800

I don't know if their arguments are right but they sure make a shit flash game.

By: XQUZYPHYR

XQUZYPHYR — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:45:17 -0800

Kumar Singh just bounced across eight islands in a row and it was awesome.

By: Burhanistan

Burhanistan — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:48:47 -0800

Toss lightly and you get an awesome whale spout boost.

By: CKmtl

CKmtl — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:55:07 -0800

Things I've learned from this game: 1) It's not always those damn immigants. 2) When correctly applied, whale spouts can launch asian women into outer space.

By: wsg

wsg — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:56:03 -0800

Someone should make one of these for the US.

By: ssg

ssg — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 15:58:36 -0800

Electrius: It certainly isn't a straw man argument. It isn't an unanswerable question either; the economic impact of immigration is something economists study (e.g. the impact on the labour market). That said, I think that we ought to make decisions about immigration policies primarily on moral grounds.

By: pyramid termite

pyramid termite — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:01:10 -0800

i'm not tossing them because they're migrants, i'm tossing them because they're australians

By: nola

nola — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:06:14 -0800

See what they need is a giant fence to keep them migrants out. We are about to get one buit here in the U S and I'm sure it'll fix all our problems.

By: mathowie

mathowie — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:07:10 -0800

My first toss went 900km (thanks to a couple fortunate whale blasts) but after that, I can barely get them out of the harbor.

By: shakespeherian

shakespeherian — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:10:01 -0800

See what they need is a giant fence to keep them migrants out. We are about to get one buit here in the U S and I'm sure it'll fix all our problems. The official U.S. slogan is 'Well if it worked for the Romans...'

By: pwally

pwally — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:12:04 -0800

I just cost Australia a lot of money.

By: nola

nola — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:12:57 -0800

Good point Hadrian's wall cut down on a bunch of illegal imagrants crossing the border and taking all those Roman jobs.

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:14:28 -0800

Aw fuck. I threw out a hot chick. No fair.

By: Flashman

Flashman — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:15:43 -0800

Mine keep getting blocked by stingray barbs

By: ColdChef

ColdChef — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:15:53 -0800

If you don't throw them far enough, they'll be able to swim back. No fair.

By: ersatz

ersatz — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:19:16 -0800

My first toss went 900km (thanks to a couple fortunate whale blasts) but after that, I can barely get them out of the harbor. Hey, I got 940. If we team up, mathowie, we can get plenty of Olympic medals for Australia. Noone complains about immigrants winning medals.

By: mr_crash_davis

mr_crash_davis — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:32:50 -0800

I threw one of them right into the side of a hot-air balloon. That was pretty cool.

By: The corpse in the library

The corpse in the library — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:33:14 -0800

I kicked Kasia Kowalksa out, and she must've swum right back -- she was on the cliff again next time I looked. Scrappy!

By: Postroad

Postroad — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:37:03 -0800

Hadrian's Wall was not intended to keep out immigrants, of course, but rather as a defensive measure against foreign incursions...there is a difference, and that, for example, applies also to the Wall of China, which was not to keep out American's who wanted Nike shoes.

By: caution live frogs

caution live frogs — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:54:40 -0800

1184km!!!! Thanks, whale spout! This is honestly a lot better than the xenophobic crap site I thought it was going to be. I was expecting a mess in this thread and a MeTa callout.

By: strawberryviagra

strawberryviagra — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:55:57 -0800

Nice one Deano.

By: Burger-Eating Invasion Monkey

Burger-Eating Invasion Monkey — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:56:29 -0800

Since we're all absurdly over-competitive with online games, I'll start the bidding with a 2,126km.

By: Alvy Ampersand

Alvy Ampersand — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 16:58:08 -0800

Damn, hitting Up Up Down Down Left Right Left Right BA Start used to send them directly to the Nauru sublevel, but doesn't seem to work anymore.

By: Daddy-O

Daddy-O — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:05:05 -0800

Sure, everyone wants to keep the well educated migrants who are highly productive members of society. How come we can't throw out the uneducated pregnant ones who just come here to use our welfare benefits and give give birth to an American baby so they whole family is harder to deport? Over the cliff with you, Maria!

By: Free word order!

Free word order! — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:13:32 -0800

If you're not Australian, then you're just mean.

By: dash_slot-

dash_slot- — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:19:19 -0800

800m - mine was a PhD candidate. Daddy-O seems to have not clicked the link. clue: it's not always about America!

By: koeselitz

koeselitz — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:30:22 -0800

Bah. This game is terribly unrealistic. John Howard's smiling face intoning "well done, good and faithful servant" has been replaced in this artificial version by some sort of harangue about how I should love foreigners or something.

By: flatluigi

flatluigi — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:36:09 -0800

So, anyone reach Easter Island yet? I keep seeing signs for it. (current personal best, soon to change: 1672.3 km)

By: wendell

wendell — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:39:43 -0800

It's all a matter of using the right words... don't call 'em Migrants , call 'em Illegals (whether they are or not) or Scottish Talk Show Hosts.

By: flatluigi

flatluigi — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:43:21 -0800

Also: To whoever who was trying to tell people kicking out migrants is bad, you shouldn't have made this game so damn fun.

By: miss lynnster

miss lynnster — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:45:14 -0800

They couldn't find any midget migrants?

By: Blazecock Pileon

Blazecock Pileon — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:47:34 -0800

Don't mention kicking migrants at your parole hearing.

By: DenOfSizer

DenOfSizer — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:48:41 -0800

I paid a Mexican to do this for me.

By: MaryDellamorte

MaryDellamorte — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:53:36 -0800

1895.049 thanks to a whale blast that sent me flying up into space.

By: Free word order!

Free word order! — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 17:55:10 -0800

They couldn't find any midget migrants? Sorry, aboriginals used the best projectiles long time ago.

By: hattifattener

hattifattener — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 18:01:21 -0800

What, I can't kick out these migrants? Or these? Bah! [NOT OLDUVAIGORGIST]

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 18:04:20 -0800

Cheap shots like this only props up the false notion that racism is somehow endemic in Australia. It's bullshit.

By: clevershark

clevershark — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 18:21:13 -0800

Hadrian's Wall was not intended to keep out immigrants, of course, but rather as a defensive measure against foreign incursions... So it was built by the Scots then?..

By: surenoproblem

surenoproblem — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 18:28:01 -0800

mattoxic: I know it's only a small minority doing this kind of thing, but I was minding my own business on Australia Day, eating dinner at a sidewalk restaurant in Circular Quay, when a guy wearing an Australian flag as a cape threw a beer bottle at me. It was a glancing blow to the face, and I didn't end up going to hospital. I'm an Aussie, but my parents were both born in Asia. I was completely minding my own business, just eating dinner. The funny thing is, of all the people I've told, not one has expressed any surprise. Concern, sadness, resignation: sure; but not a single person has said, "I can't believe that happened".

By: 517

517 — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 18:53:35 -0800

My migrant got blown by a whale into space before returning to earth.

By: mattoxic

mattoxic — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:24:56 -0800

surenoproblem, I wonder if the racism that does seem to surface in Sydney has someting to do with Alan Jones, Stan Zemanek et al. Melbourne fortunately does not have this type of radio, and it's a better place because of it. I also think that Howards war or political correctness and his move to the right to take the One Nation vote has given voice to the Australian flag wearing yobs that you met on Australia day. This was an interesting article

By: perilous

perilous — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:35:32 -0800

Surenoproblem - I'm glad you're all right. That guy that assaulted you? He's a dick.

By: subgear

subgear — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 19:43:58 -0800

Oh my god! What have I done?

By: jaronson

jaronson — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:31:39 -0800

"Letting the days go by..."

By: flatluigi

flatluigi — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:36:22 -0800

(water flowing underground)

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 20:50:24 -0800

1,287,224 km. Which is odd, since the globe's circumference is ~ 40,000 km. I shotputted Mohammed around the globe thirty-two times., and an extra 7,224 km to boot -- enough distance to send him to, say, Hawaii, or Iraq. In any case, 1.2 gigameters. Suck it.

By: flatluigi

flatluigi — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 21:38:25 -0800

boo_radley: "1,287,224 km. Which is odd, since the globe's circumference is ~ 40,000 km. I shotputted Mohammed around the globe thirty-two times., and an extra 7,224 km to boot -- enough distance to send him to, say, Hawaii, or Iraq. In any case, 1.2 gigameters. Suck it." ... How the hell did you manage to do that? I hate to say this, but pics or it didn't happen.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 22:13:19 -0800

you bounce your immigrant off of rocks, and rely on spumes to carry them back up. Get lucky, and you'll enter the outer atmosphere, and the sky turns black and starry.

By: taz

taz — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:13:15 -0800

I can enter space at will, and my high score is 1846km, but I'm insanely jealous of boo_radley, and will probably be tossing unfortunate immigrants in perpetuity trying to get that effect. Anyway, not enough easter eggs. Would it kill them to have a spaceship pick you up and carry you off to Venus once you reach deep space? Or for a whale to swallow you Jonah-style if you hit one just right?

By: mr_roboto

mr_roboto — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:40:14 -0800

Seriously, guys. Try Nanaca Crash.

By: sour cream

sour cream — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 00:57:43 -0800

1) So is it OK to be in favor of kicking out at least those immigrants with a negative net ec. impact? 2) All these fucking community heros. Make me look like an underachiever. Let's kick them.

By: sourwookie

sourwookie — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 02:00:47 -0800

The American version would be one of those tower defense games.

By: jeffburdges

jeffburdges — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 02:14:15 -0800

Legal migration often means there is great demand for some particular job, which is great. But it seems very unwise to grant immigrant status based upon non-nuclear family ties. Old people just don't adapt or integrate as well. So don't let people bring their parents over. Some people also receive refugee status, which is fine if you wrote a book. But I don't really agree with granting refugee status if your not distinctive somehow. So being from some economically oppressed minority shouldn't ever qualify you. Otoh, if you were an activist for said minority over an extended period of time, and were singled out by said oppressors, then sure why not, you sound like an interesting person. Another major problem is that integration isn't really being measured well. If people from your country are forming ghettos, not inter marrying with natives, etc., they really shouldn't add more f.o.b.s until the current ones have integrated. I'd also like to see religious worker visas eliminated everywhere. You've always got existing migrants & their kids for this. p.s. It's easy to control *illegal* migration, just control the number of work visas, as all nation do, *and* create stiff penalties for companies caught employing people illegally.

By: Burger-Eating Invasion Monkey

Burger-Eating Invasion Monkey — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 06:28:01 -0800

boo_radley: 1,287,224 km. Don't want to piss on the bonfire here, but are you sure it wasn't 1,287.224?

By: micayetoca

micayetoca — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 07:03:12 -0800

I paid a Mexican to do this for me. posted by DenOfSizer that's what your wife said.

By: MaryDellamorte

MaryDellamorte — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:11:31 -0800

Don't want to piss on the bonfire here, but are you sure it wasn't 1,287.224 That's what I'm thinking too since he didn't give a .xxx after his score. No matter how high the number goes, there's a decimal point with numbers after it. Why didn't he give that part of the score? I think because he mistook the decimal point for a comma.

By: MaryDellamorte

MaryDellamorte — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 12:12:45 -0800

When I went back to the game, my best score was still there. He should take a screen shot.

By: klue

klue — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 13:46:47 -0800

THROUGH ...and RUN!!

By: ZachsMind

ZachsMind — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 15:15:53 -0800

That music is fucking obnoxious. What the hell is that? [someone whispers in Zach's ear that it's Australia's national anthem] Oh. Well. That was awesome and fantastic and everything! You guys rule! Still I gotta reinforce what others have said before me. Nanaca Crash was before and better. And it didn't ruin the fun by trying to make a political statement. In fact, if Nanaca Crash makes any statement at all it's completely oblivious to me cuz I don't speak chinese. [someone whispers in Zach's ear that it's actually japanese] ...dammit.

By: fourcheesemac

fourcheesemac — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 18:27:00 -0800

A thing of rare beauty. Superb find.

By: boo_radley

boo_radley — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 20:43:54 -0800

1,287 km it is. Nanaca crash is still better. :colbert:

By: 80onelove

80onelove — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 23:27:01 -0800

Does "kick" turn to "throw" in the southern hemisphere. It's like how the toilet flushes in reverse and dolphins speak in Spanish, not English.