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It's a fairly simple equation - the easier it is for criminals to get away with it or get off lightly if they're caught, then the more prolific crime will be.

On the other side of the coin, if it's a simple straightforward question you want answered, the Google AI overview is a quick handy way to do it. I'm referring there to questions of the type that could probably only have a correct answer.

Yeah, old George was certainly the caravan flogger. But he died in 2013 and Apollo Motorhomes, a publically listed company bought his business as a going concern in 2017, and bought the rights to use his name as well. Then in 2022, George Day Caravans was merged into THL (Tourism Holdings Ltd), originally NZ's biggest RV rental operation - but the merger with Apollo, an Australian company, sent them global, and they operate in a multitude of countries. They are huge, and own all the major well-known RV rental brand names. So Georges name has gone global, thanks to the corporate global aims.

Clinton - His passing was noted on the Aircraft Pilots forum, so it seemed unnecessary to post the same info here.

It only works selectively. I use Google Chrome. I tried variations of the search, such as "-AI: What is Antonov AN2", or "no AI: What is Antonov AN2", and AI generated answers still appeared - but they were clips of text taken from websites (to which, they did add the link, I must say). I have to agree with Willie, that Google's use of short lengths of text from websites is a bit "iffy". However, they would no doubt quote "educational use rights", whereby you can copy parts of text of authors/websites, and it is regarded as "fair use" under copyright terms. And they do send you to the site quoted. However, Google generates income from doing so, so that negates the "fair use" angle, IMO.

That's odd, it's working now. Good trick. I use Floorp which is Firefox based.

I tried it Marty but unfortunately it doesn't work. Maybe that trick only works with certain browsers.

The Govts definitely have to crack down on this "Middle Eastern crime gang" activity. It's just a daily occurrence now, to have major shoot-ups and gun murders in SW Sydney. Add to that, they steal and burn luxury vehicles daily - costing us all mega-dollars in increased premiums. If someone steals a car, carries out a major crime, and then burns it, they should get 10 years minimum, and be made to pay the value of the vehicle, plus compensation to the owner for his loss and costs of inconvenience. And the owner often has to carry the cost of increased insurance premiums, because his car was stolen. Car security is a joke today, they can steal any keyless car with code generators that are easily acquired from overseas sellers. Plus, where's the savage penalties for unlicenced firearms (often handguns), used by crims? There's no penalties for additional crimes, the police hit them with one charge, and let the rest drop, because any other sentence would be served concurrently. The sentences should be cumulative, take the bastards out of society for multiple years, even decades, because they have no interest in living in a safe, law-abiding society, so they have forfeited any chance to live in a safe, law-abiding society.

I didn't think that JerryA said 'its better'. Sure. But not just USofA. It's a first step toward starting to address the sorry state of affairs in all our various democracies. All the world should be cleaning up their (our) own back yatd. More importantly for us, along with rising the ire of the voters, it brings the whole issue of corruption into the public awareness. Politicians must be aware of the groundswell of discontent. The polls have been showing it for years. We are tired of turning a blind eye to corruption whilst hoping for crumbs of integrity. It should be seen by the political parties as a big warning that the voters want a better deal - one where the wellbeing of the public is served better than the corrupting moneyed minorities (such as tax avoiding business entities)

PHONey wouldn't be woke about it, judges would be instructed to hand down a sentence of 20 years for such a crime. Build new jails to accommodate them.

The federal government already brought in gun control. What do you want them to do about this? And how would PHONey do it better?

Going from instagram postings I think we missed the passing of aviation theory writer Bob Tait also. Too much other noise going on I suppose.

Almost like George Day, I think he must have been the only caravan dealer over there. Nearly every WA van has his sticker on it.

Look at America for shooting. Where your great Mate runs the show. HE boasted he could shoot someone in Broad daylight and get away with it. Anywhere he goes the security close down the whole area. Ops Normal. Nev

Didn't you see that teenager shoot 30 bullets into a building on the news the other day? https://www.nine.com.au/australia-news/nsw/teen-accused-of-shooting-at-cartel-boss-s-wake-venue-20260609-p6059s.html

It's better that Trump's corruption is out in the open for everyone to see, but only if it means they wake up to what's going on and get rid of him instead of just accepting it and letting him carry on. I don't think he's going to make another two and a half years anyway, given the shape he's in mentally and physically.

Jerry, you're spending a lot of time defending the indefensible. Saying that it's better to have a massive amount of corrupt behaviour because it's transparently visible rather than a small amount of hidden corruption (which usually comes out anyway) doesn't seem logical to me.

The difference is that Wikipedia can be corrected by anyone. AI can't. If you don't want to get the AI guff, just put -AI after your search. For example: Antonov AN2 -AI

This is what I'm interested in. If people think the country is "going in the wrong direction", what does that even mean? What specific areas are people upset about? Is it economic? Social? Is it a conservative vs progressive thing? Then drilling down into that, is the aggravating factor something that the federal government has control over? All I'm hearing is a very non specific grumble.

I think many of us KNOW what's going on in our Backyard better than you give us credit for. As a person living here I wouldn't claim intricate knowledge about what is going on in the UK WE get a Fair Bit about the USA. Half the People in the USA wouldn't know where Australia is. When I was in France for a bit over 2 Months I got Practically No News about Australia. Its Out of sight Out of Mind. . Nev

Warning - Big post incoming At least he doesn't hide this. He is quite brazen about it.. It is neither a good thing that he does it nor thaty he is brazen about it. But it is there for the electorate to see it. Let's compare to Australia. Australia: APS employees have to sign an NDA and are under threat of losing their jobs or as we have seen, jail foe whistleblowing (as evidenced).. Everything is hushed up rather than at least made public what is happening, and often who is the beneficiary. I don't recall Dutton yelling from the rooftops giving some dodgy one man operation in Kangaroo Island a massive contract to do not much; in fact he was desperately trying to hide it. The Robodebt royal commission - think about it.. the sealed section of a public enquiry - where all the evidence was heard in public - to not subjudice potential criminal investigations against prominent politicians. How long since? What criminal prosecutions have been made? The NACC made secretive by default at a time where the Labor Party prior getting into government made strong promises of it being public? IBAC in Victoria, where an ex anti corruption commissioner was quoted in The Age a couple of days ago calling it to be made public, ironically, in the same way as the NSW ICAC. Oh, and I don't hear Albo coming out about how great those fossil fuel industry reps are paying multiple tens of thousands to the Labor party for the privilege of paying multiple thousands per head to anaonyous lunches with ministers and guess what - fracking has been approved in the Kimberly's - one of the last pristine water courses in the world. Or the Beetalooo basion contact, the Adani project, etc. We could go on.. and that is just the Labor party - the one the Juice media labels the less ship party.. Think about the crap the previopus lot was involved with, and you start to get the picture. What was meant by my American friends is you get to see it for all its glory/gory, and you can make your decision. One the first - I think you answered it. Chump is transparently corrupt. You get what you see... The electorate can then make a decision if the "benefits" he provides is worth the corruption and misconduct he commits (allegedly ;-)). We don't see what we get, but we get it and the consequences, anyway. That is the only bit about transparency. On the rest, my above bit should have addressed the climate change/environment bit. Yep - Chump takes it to the next level, but our pollies of all flavours would seem to sell out to the extent our electorate will put up with it just enough for them to make whatever it is they want and move on. BTW, check out the carnage to (I think ti was - but will have to look up later) Darling Down river system to keep the cotton growers happy.. Chump brazenly and transparently puts morons to do his bidding in charge of departments. Are you telling me the precious Libs didn't put morons in charge? And that Labor's front bench are sans morons? Even people with experience in their portfolio can be morons and we spend a lot of time criticising non Chump leaders for doing moronic things. Governments all the time will deploy as many tricks as possible to circumvent democracy to pushing their agenda. Chump doesn't hide it and has used the US constitutional flaws to full advantage while the democrats have been asleep at the wheel to protect the constitution - and some bad thing as well. But the point is, people can see it and judge for themselves. When pollies try hiding things, it leaves a much more bitter taste in ones mouth. I agree that there was Obama envy that crept into a lot of decisions. But I am not sure that the Iran agreement was really contributing to long term world wide peace. The Paris Agreements? All 198 countries have signed up to it except three - Iran, Libya, and Yemen. US has subsequently withdrawn. All remaining countries have technically implemented at least one law related to the Paris agreement. There is not a lot of consensus on how many are actually meeting all or a material component of the accords, but according to the Climate Action tracker, fewer than a dozen (less than 10%) have laws that are fully compatible with the Paris Agreement. So, Chumpo leads the world, but he is not alone in not meeting or ignoring international agreements (BTW, Australia has basically ignored its requirements under the Refugee Conventions for a very long time). If you don't think Australian governments haven't shut out media organisations, think again. It is more difficult now because of the reach of two in particular in Australia, but Jeff Kennett was one that comes straight to mind when he was the premier in Vic, threatening to limit media access. Australian governments for years have used more subtle measures - such as first access (i.e. leaks) to manipulate the press. And it doesn't mean absolutely nothing to my friends.. But what they dislike is a government that hides the ship it does, and as you can see, it is not like other governments are doing them a favour. It is a sad state of affairs. Remember, in the polls the electorate didn't like either of the main candidates. The democrats didn't do themselves a favour by keeping Biden on, who, I am sad to admit, was beyond his use by date. No one I speak to says Chump is a win; they just see it as no bigger loss in their lives. Agreed.. to say the US people aren't thinking when they pass judgement I find a little conceited, to be honest. These people live there and have to make do. I never said they thought he was good. but for them, in their situation, it is no worse than others before (of both colours), and they can see what they get. It's so brazen, it is not hidden. Again, it doesn't mean they are saying it is good. The USA practically stopped being the land of opportunity for most many years ago. There has been a progressive squeeze on the middle class for longer which has left little extra capacity to get ahead. Most of your tech bros and billionaires are not from middle class families, regardless of what their PR says. For small business, it is still probably the same as when I used to live there. Take big risks, hope it pays off. In fact, AI will probably make it a bit easier in some ways. But, yes, I agree with this. That doesn't mean he is not transparent. It means he has probably accelerated USA's decline.. But here's something to think about. I was paying network engineers $120K in San Francisco in 1999; today, in the same place they earn about the same. The obvious result is lower standard of living progressively, while in government a lot of the representatives of the lobbyists have had a field day. People feel betrayed, and they are voting accordingly. Until pollies get that through their thick skulls, Hansons of this world will benefit. Many of these systems in better countries are seen by the population as failing them (the law is an ass, ambo ramping, etc). Wars are waged all the time.. Chump isn't the first to do a stupid war and won't be the last. People are sick of suffering by themselves and want the pollies to suffer as well. It may be worse for them under a Hanson, Farage, and indeed, Chump.. But they are now beyond caring. One of the inadvertent/unintentional consequences of el Chumpo's narcissism is that it is all there for the electorate to see. They can make their mind up relatively easily// Or they may be saying to the adults in the room, we're happy to vote you back in, but this time, listen to us and act on it, or we will do it again. This is no different to a lot of the donations made to political parties in Australia - only the scale (for the record, Australian parties seem to accept less before it looks like a conflict of interest action takes place). That is my point. We see it differently to the locals. That does not mean they are not thinking about it.. Remember, the UK has gone Farage, Denmark has gone very right - Denmark! Germany has. USA always has been. And now Hanson is making a breakthrough. We all see things differently. My friends in the US I haven't caught up with later posts (it took a couple of days to get this done, I am that busy at the moment). But I really wish people would look in their own backyard as well.. There's also a lot to fix there.

The other issue I wonder about with Google AI is the revenue effect it will have on website operators. Most websites are funded by click per view payments from the advertising (sponsers) on their website. Google AI is harvesting information from their sites to use as a response to Google search questions. But if people don't go past the top of the page where the AI answer is, all those websites are missing out on site traffic which equals income. I wonder if Google pays them a royalty for using their information.

That's a new one, two bills. The only issues I've had with Origin is not entirely due to them as they are only the retailers. Energex is the provider who owns the power and lines and it was all good and simple when their staff drove around and did the meter reading. Then they farmed it out to a contracting company and their people don't like to drive off the bitumen. That means they won't come on the place and most bills are estimates. The estimates used to be based on your past useage but now are based on average household useage. I don't use much power, so I'll get an estimated bill based on the useage of a large family household. That means I have to do a self meter read so Origin can reissue a corrected bill and this happens every three months. I've got 3 phase power (three meters) but only two have ever been wired in. The third meter permanently reads a string of zeros, and when you input your numbers into their websites self read option, the software won't accept the one with the zeros because it's the same as the previous reading. Even though I've explained all this to them, after swapping emails, they get me to take a photo of the inactive meter and send it to them. After that I get an email thanking me and letting me know it's been raised with their working group team and they will keep me posted. And so it goes on and on like this every bill. Previously, it all worked seamlessly for decades until common sense vacated the corporate sector.

It's always the price they pay for being in the hot seat. When things aren't good, they're the ones caught in the headlights.

The uncontrolled immigration started under Malcolm Fraser and a Liberal Govt in 1976, when he let "refugees" from Lebanons civil war into Australia with inadequate background checks - against Immigration laws and regulations and against the advice of the Immigration Dept. It was called "The Lebanon Concession". "The Lebanon Concession" was an Australian immigration policy introduced in 1976 by Malcolm Fraser's government that temporarily relaxed standard migration criteria for thousands of Lebanese civilians fleeing the country's civil war. The policy allowed many Lebanese nationals - often categorized as "quasi-refugees" because they were escaping civil conflict rather than direct state persecution - to enter Australia without the usual requirements for employment skills, language, or assimilation ability. Implemented in response to advocacy by influential Christian leaders and the worsening humanitarian situation, the policy resulted in the arrival of roughly 20,000 Lebanese immigrants between 1975 and 1980. Prior to the concession, Australia's Lebanese community was predominantly Christian. The relaxed criteria inadvertently facilitated the arrival of a significant number of Muslim Lebanese from rural backgrounds, who made up just under half of the arrivals. Many of these new migrants settled in south-western Sydney (such as Lakemba and Arncliffe), utilizing family reunion provisions in later years to establish a major, enduring community. The Fraser government abandoned the concession in late 1976 after immigration officials raised concerns that many entrants were illiterate, and admitted without sufficient regard to "economic viability, personal qualities, or capacity for successful settlement". What is not stated that a large percentage of these Lebanese immigrants were criminals.