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Well, we're taking the jump. My wife and I test drove 3 EVs today - MG 4, MG 4 Urban and MG 5. Kate had already put down a deposit on the MG 4, but after driving all 3 we're tossing up between the Urban and the MG 5. In all 3 cars the acceleration is brilliant. Handling is great. We found the Urban and MG 5 more comfortable because we're both tall (and possibly a bit wider than we should be). Over the weekend we'll decide which way to go and switch the deposit on Monday.

It's great to see a photo of one's Dad in a museum collection. I've got private photos of my Dad taken during his service, but I got the biggest thrill when I found a photo in the Australian War Memorial collection of my Dad in a war zone. He did serve in the Western Desert, but was wounded. That crearted a disability that made him unsuitable for infantry duty (no right index finger to pull a trigger), so he was attached to an narmy hospital where he was a warehouseman. Somebody has to receive and issue new bedpans. Dad had his own copy of the photo, but seeing it in the AWM collection with him identified by name is great.

If anyone criticises the labour party you call it misinformation. You refuse to admit crime is out of control in Victoria. Because Daniel Andrews caused it Never mention the corruption labour have been involved in. Billions handed to crime gangs and union officials. Alboneses has been a communist party member since he was a teenager. Andrews and Alan are too. And banging on about one nation being racist is crap. They only want what's best for Australians and that means slowing the current migration levels and bringing in more stringent entry standards. We all know we need immigration just not the way the clowns are doing it at the moment. Hopefully this November some healing can start when Jacinta Andrews gets kicked out . But our electoral system needs to change to stop preferences getting unwanted people elected. I don't know anyone that voted labour yet albo got in by a landslide with prefences.

An old work mate has cancer and I haven't seen him since late last year. I've been meaning to ring him for a while but didn't know what to expect considering how sick he looked last time I saw him. Anyway, he rang me yesterday and he sounded great, just like his old self. It was the chemo making him sick last time I saw him he told me. His wife has cancer as well and both have been on chemo and have had a lot of success with it. They're both doing well and are back to fairly normal lives, so good news.

I watched this program on the ABC & could not believe the stupidity of the reporter. He borrowed an EV & knew nothing about the cars capability. If he did he'd know that the satnav will tell him all of the chargers within range & guide him to one. You cannot fill a petrol car in 2 minutes & pay for the fuel etc. He should have already downloaded the apps before leaving. He was at an Evie 350kW charger & if he already had the app & registered the vehicle as most people do, all you do is plug the charger cable in to the car, it charges, you then click stop remove the cable & drive away. You are automatically charged & details are stored in the app. Everything Sam Evans said is spot on. I felt like complaining but then thought why bother. Anyone with half a brain & an interest in going Electric will make their own mind up. I did & it was the best car purchase decision i have ever made. My fuel cost is zero as I charge from my solar panels. When going long distance I check the location of chargers on route & know the range. The car has a longer range than my bladder so when I need to charge I take a break & have a bite to eat. If it is down to 20% charge 20 minutes later it is at 80%. This is usually quicker than than I am. Often I will go & unplug & move the car so someone else can use the charger. It is coming up to 3 years & 45,000 km since I bought my MG4. First service in 2 years & nothing had to be done except update the software. The only downside is that the new facelift model is now 10k less than I paid but now EVs are no longer an expensive way to get in to a new car with the latest small models cheaper than their petrol equivalents.

Coincidentally, I just came across this. I will post a link but here are some highlights. https://reneweconomy.com.au/wild-attack-on-batteries-and-renewables-by-7s-spotlight-program-falls-over-at-the-first-fact-check/?fbclid=IwY2xjawRSvLRleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeRENsgXVWg03njVcjEv25LrV4q7XUJEVAYcOkDfurOU4zO3LDDzae9NSaOn8_aem_LVPR3uKcuhqbLOHAX9gfnA Spotlight, the so-called flagship current affairs program on the 7 network, dedicated more than an hour on Sunday evening on a report into the supply chains feeding into the renewables and EV industries, with a particular focus on cobalt mines in the Congo, and also activities in Australia. It was amplified on Murdoch and social media. It fell over at the very first fact-check. “Every battery, every electric vehicle, every piece of so-called clean energy technology today” uses cobalt, reporter Liam Bartlett claimed at the start of the program. Wrong. Nearly every big battery installed in Australia these days uses (LFP) lithium iron phosphate chemistry, which means no cobalt, and no nickel (that’s relevant because Bartlett did a similar hit job on the nickel industry last year, using that as a platform to attack EVs and renewables). Tesla, the biggest supplier to big batteries in Australia, now uses only LFP batteries for grid scale batteries. No cobalt. The two big batteries at Liddell and Tomago being built for AGL Energy by Fluence are LFP. No cobalt. A spokesperson for Fluence said all its batteries in Australia use LFP. “We don’t use cobalt.” Finland-based Wartsila, which is building the country’s biggest grid battery at Eraring for Origin Energy, also uses only LFP for its battery projects in Australia. No cobalt. It’s a similar story with EVs. Tesla, for instance, uses only LFP chemistry for most of the variants of its best selling Model Y and the Model 3. No cobalt. It uses NMC chemistry (which does include cobalt) only in “performance” variants, which amounts to about 10 per cent of sales. Home batteries, which are now being installed at record rates in Australia, are the same. New market leader Sigenergy uses only LFP chemistry, so no cobalt, as does another market leader Sungrow, and most others. Bartlett claims to be appalled by the conditions in some cobalt mines in the Congo, and the nickel mine in Indonesia. And so he should be. So should everyone. But the inconvenient truth is that these mines have been operating for decades, and cobalt has been used widely in many industries. The mineral is essential for the iPhone that Bartlett presumably uses, for the laptop he writes his stories on, for the jet engines that flew him from Australia to Africa, and for widespread use in medicine (hip and knee replacements), the petroleum industry, the manufacture of tools, for construction, for cosmetics, and even ceramics. The use of cobalt in EV and grid batteries is relatively new, and is already moving on. Where it is used, most EV makers are at pains to point out that the mineral does not come from such mines, and they produce blockchain style tracking reports to underline their claims. But Bartlett did not seem particularly interested in balance, or inconvenient detail. His story had three major themes – he doesn’t like the Chinese, he doesn’t like renewables and EVs, and he doesn’t like federal energy and climate minister Chris Bowen. “Bowen’s fanatical approach, aided and abetted by a conga line of true believers and latte-sipping Teal supporters is now set to send the country into bankruptcy,” Bartlett wrote in an op-ed also published on 7’s website. Bartlett – was global head of TV, creative visual at oil giant Shell in London from 2013-2015

This is where you lose me, with the kind of thinking that enables a fascist regime. It's the "yes Trump is bad, BUT..." thing. It's like saying "Yes Hitler was bad, but goddam it, real Germans could get a job." Trump is actively dismantling democracy in the USA. He doesn't have a single thought for the people of the US, except how to continue deceiving them so Donald J Trump and his dynasty can profit from them. The only reason Trump ever mentions immigrants (in Minnesota, which has less than most states but has a governor he hates) is to dog-whistle his white nationalist base and sow hatred and division. We don't need a Trump or any version of him. Democracy is not supposed to be exciting. It's meant to be calm, boring and safe. We are an immigrant nation, just ask the original inhabitants. If you can show me actual statistics that show that crime rates are higher among recent immigrants than those whose ancestors moved here between 40 years to 60,000 years ago, then go ahead. (Statistics does not mean sensationalist crap from Sky News or any Murdoch rag).

Definition of a gentleman - someone who knows how to play the bagpipes -- but doesn't.

Interesting question. I could just wimp out and say, “I’m retired now.” Music has always evolved alongside technology. The instruments available to composers today are vastly different from those available centuries ago, whether in orchestras, jazz, rock, or electronic music. Of course, AI is a rather different innovation. I think AI in music is inevitable, and like most technological change, it will bring both benefits and drawbacks. On the positive side, AI is a democratiser. It allows almost anyone to experiment with composition, arranging, and production. That could open the door for talented people who may never have had formal training or industry connections. On the downside, it may also lead to an overwhelming amount of average material. Music has often evolved because composers and performers broke the rules of their time. AI, at least in its current form, largely works by analysing existing music and reproducing variations of it. Whether it can truly innovate in the human sense remains an open question. For me, music is deeply human. I would rather hear a second-rate live orchestra or band than a flawless recording of a world-class performer. The imperfections, the spontaneity, and the sense of shared experience matter. In some ways, this tension has existed for decades, as recordings became increasingly engineered and perfected. Technology has always reshaped the music industry. In the 1940s, venues employed large big bands with 20 or 30 musicians. The arrival of the electric guitar and amplified music made it economically attractive to hire four or five performers instead. That was a loss in one sense — the big band era was awesome, but it also helped create rock and pop music as we know it today. I suspect AI will become very useful in commercial areas of music. For example, we may not always need a human composer to create an advertising jingle or background track. My concern is whether this eventually leads to a kind of musical “fast food”, content that is efficient and disposable, but lacks depth, individuality, and genuine human expression. In the end, I don’t think AI will destroy music. But I do think it may change what we value in music, and perhaps make the human element even more important.

Everyone is jumping up and down about the ISIS brides who want to return to Australia, and how they might be a threat to our security. Yes, there is a risk of that, but has anyone considered the other side? How many are there voluntarily? The Muslim religion has absolutely NO respect for women, and treat them as possessions of the males. The family (males) choose who they marry - girls as young as 9 or 10 get married off to the man chosen by the family. They do as they are told...or else! They must be covered from head to foot, including their face, lest they arouse the lust of males. They go where and when they are told. How many of them chose to travel to the Muslim countries with their "husbands", or were forced to? They have seen how bad things are over there and want better for their children, and want to bring them back to Australia. But everyone wants to throw up barricades to keep them out. Surely temporary visas would allow them to come back to be assessed, and thrown out if they don't conform to our requirements.

You know that old thought exercise about which famous people, alive or dead, you'd invite to you ultimate dinner party? People choose Einstein, Jesus, Confucius, Plato etc. I'd choose Trump, Vance, Hegseth, Putin, and Netanyahu. Catering by Erin Patterson.

NRMA also have a battery on their vehicle to transfer energy to an EV. Battery to battery can be very high speed so it does not take long to get enough charge into the empty EV battery to enable it to get to the nearest charger. using a generator would take hours to get very little energy in the EV unless it was a massive generator capable of 150 kW plus. I don't know of anyone who has run out though. EV owners are good planners, partly because the public charging network has not kept up with EV sales. Also because the cars software knows the range and can list all the chargers within range. State & federal governments are now putting a fair bit of effort into improving the number of chargers particularly in regional areas. There are plenty in large centres and along major highways. Installing chargers is a lot easier than building a petrol station & once built at huge cost it has to be supplied with fuel. Portable units are being installed in the outback. They have a large battery and solar panels & get delivered on the back of a truck. Several companies are supplying these to Outback farms etc. Larger ones have a small solar farm & big batteries to supply several vehicles at once. NRMA have one in the NT somewhere with 4 chargers. Public EV charging is only in its infancy & some of the early ones were very unreliable. Not so now & there are plenty that are capable of 350 kW way more than almost all EVs can receive. I am off on a 350km round trip tomorrow. The battery is fully charged (free from my solar system) & I won't need to top up anywhere. If I did though there are heaps of charging options. I just hit the go to button & the Satnav guides me to the neared public charger & lists all within range. Simples.

-I met a traveller from an antique land, -Who said—“Two vast and trunkless legs of stone -Stand in the desert. . . . Near them, on the sand, -Half sunk a shattered visage lies, whose frown, -And wrinkled lip, and sneer of cold command, -Tell that its sculptor well those passions read -Which yet survive, stamped on these lifeless things, -The hand that mocked them, and the heart that fed; -And on the pedestal, these words appear: -“My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings; -Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and despair!" -Nothing beside remains. Round the decay -Of that colossal Wreck, boundless and bare -The lone and level sands stretch far away. (Shelly, circa 1800's)

One for the fishermen amongst us.....

It isn't just Trump. The US has always done as it pleases. It used to be "Not our fight" as in only getting in to WW1 in 2017, then in WW2 Roosevelt couldn't get the support of Congress & only got involved after Pearl Harbor. Since then we have honoured the treaties like ANZUS & got involved in Korea, Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan sent peacekeepers to other places the US has screwed up. Trump has just insulted every ally the US has ever had as in his comments about Afghanistan. He starts a war then complains NATO won't come to his aid. NATO is a defence treaty, an attack on one is an attack on all, not if one member attacks someone then everyone else attacks as well. Complains Australia won't help with the blockaid on Hormuz when we were never asked. The list of his stuffups and insults is endless & reportedly is considering recognising Argentinas claim on the Falklands as punishment for the UK not supporting him in his crazy actions against Iran.

It's outrageously and irresponsibly offensive to suggest anyone here Hates Australia. What's left wing views? Letting the ordinary people have a fair go? Nev

Just got home from the daytime service. A large number of people of all ages attended, including kids from the three schools and the pre-school. These kids marched in the parade along the main street to the memorial, and representatives from each school laid a wreath. Seniors from the high school read the poems, At the Going Down of the Sun; The Inquisative Mind of a Child; Commemoration of the Fallen, and In Flanders Field. You know the song, I am Australian? I mentioned the Coo-ee March. We add antoerh verse: I'm a band of Coo-ee marchers, From Gil to Sydney's shore; We sailed to France Fought bravely In the muddy hell of war. I'm a digger. I'm an ANZAC I'm a proud Gilgandra son. My heart, my home, my country. I am Australian We don't have the generic war memorial in the main street with a statue of a Digger standing atop. We have a statue in the main street to commemoriate the Coo-ee March. It was sculpted by a member of one of the local families.

If you add up all of the countries that contribute less than 2% it comes to around 35%. The amount of tax I pay is minuscule by itself, so perhaps I shouldn't have to pay it.

The best and cheapest reactor is 93 Million miles away.. Nev

NASA just dropped the clearest view of Moon ever captured... by Artemis 2. You can even see craters in extreme detail. yeah, the moon has a colors, you can see them here. Moon 01.mp4

GON, you forgot to mention Trump has buggered up the American economy, having to pay $37B in taxpayer monies to U.S. farmers whose major soybean market he ruined. He has destroyed nearly every economic/trade agreement around. He's made enemies of a multitude of former Allies - then complains when they won't help with his war he started. He's done nothing to create "regime change" in Iran, and has almost certainly created a more hard-line regime there, who will just bide their time to strike back at the U.S. in bitter revenge. He's created greatly increased U.S. inflation, started wars when he claimed he was the greatest peacemaker in the world, has done nothing to stop the Ukraine-Russia war, and is preparing to invade Cuba. He's enriched himself massively by turning the U.S. Presidency position into a simple extension of his business dealings. He's lost tens of billions in U.S. military equipment losses, from aircraft to defence installations, all across the Middle East. He's had nearly all his tariff imposts overturned by the U.S. Supreme court. He's broken every election promise he made - such as, he "would stop the Ukraine War in one day". We have a good Australian name for people like him. "A Supreme Bullshit Artist".

Totally agree regarding Induction cooking. We installed a Bosch Induction cooktop back in 2008. Then it cost about $3,500.00 but the performance was amazing. While it had 4 cooking zones there was a power option than combined 2 of the zones together with the output in 1 zone. It would boil a litre of water from cold in 45 seconds. Control is superb and instant & the cooking surface never gets baked on spillages as it stays cool only getting hot from the transfer of heat from the bottom of the pot. We are renovating the house we purchased last year & installing a new kitchen. Cooking appliances are all AEG & the induction cooktop has a matt finish which is very scratch resistant & is wirelessly connected to the rangehood so the lights & fan are switched on & the speed managed automatically while cooking & both together cost less that the original Bosch from 2008.

Had an interesting morning this morning. I was at a funeral recently and bumped into an old mate I hadn't seen for many years. In the time since I last saw him, he's retired and has been making acoustic guitars for a hobby. Today I went around and he showed me a few of the guitars and where he makes them in his shed. He's a carpenter/builder by trade so already had quite a lot of the tools and some of the required woodworking skills. They're nice guitars, mostly all dreadnaughts, and all Australian timbers. He uses a lot of silky oak on the bodies and grey gum for necks and other parts. I seem to remember the Australian brand Maton using Australian timbers.

BRS, one person, claims he is innocent. Twenty soldiers who served with him and risked everything to bring these alleged atrocities to light. I support the 20 against the one.

When I mentioned probate, I was referring to the filing fee. At present in Victoria the fee is $2,471.10 for an estate worth between $1 million and $2 million. $2 million to $3 million it goes to $4,942.10, and $3 million to $5 million it is $7,396.40, and so on to a maximum of $17,297.50 for an estate of $7 million or more. My property is estimated to be worth about $1.2 million according to the Domain Real Estate website, so I have a bit of wiggle room before it goes up. If my $20 million Powerball ticket comes up a winner, I will split it between the three kids who can then cover all the bills and anything I want to buy. As you know, I live with my elder son and daughter. He was just starting primary school grade 1 when we moved here, and my daughter came here in a bassinet 15 months later. She was registered carer for my mother-in-law, and later for my wife, who had a palliative care nurse drop in a couple of times a week. She is now recorded as my carer, although all she has to do is the cooking. No nursing homes so far. The house is split between the three of them in my will.

I think that is the Chinese way. The best way to humiliate Trump is to ignore him as best you can. Xi is a statesman, Trump is a buffoon.

Nice pics, Octave. Looks like the view from my bedroom window

None, They all represent interests of themselves as billionaires.

Geez, you've really been sucking on the Trump Kool-aid bottle, haven't you? What do you think is going to be the next thing to happen? A long-lasting peace plan engineered by Trump, where the Iranians lay down all their arms, and come meekly to the surrender table to sign the surrender document? You're off with the fairies, along with the Tangerine Toddler. He's so full of sh**, it's a wonder they haven't called the portaloo collectors to come and collect him.

Everyone goes on about rising CO2 levels in the atmoshere. But rising compared to what? How does science determine a base value for comparison. There must be some way to determine exactly what "fresh air" is. Just south of the isolated north-west tip (Woolnorth Point) of Tasmania, at a place called Cape Grim, the Bureau of Meteorology and the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) fund and operates the Cape Grim atmospheric observational facility. The Cape Grim Baseline Air Pollution Station first began measuring the composition of the atmosphere in April 1976 and has been in continuous operation since that date. The air sampled arrives at Cape Grim after long trajectories over the Southern Ocean, under conditions described as ‘baseline’. This baseline air is representative of a large area of the Southern Hemisphere, unaffected by regional pollution sources. Air samples are analysed at the station to determine concentrations of greenhouse and ozone-depleting gases, other air pollutants, including aerosols and reactive gases, and radon. Since sampling began at Cape Grim, more that 3 billion measurements have been taken. Among these are measurements of greenhouse gases (GHGs), including carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O) and synthetic GHGs such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs) and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). The number of atmospheric greenhouse gases measured at Cape Grim now exceeds 50, as well as concentrations of natural and anthropogenic aerosols (particles such as sea salt, mineral dust, carbon particles etc). Some of the air samples collected at Cape Grim have been archived for further analyses as required. This picture shows some of the samples stored in "fresh air archives". Because we have these measurements and samples going back 50 years, we are in the position of being able to say that the atmoshere has changed over that time. Happily, all is not doom and gloom. The growth of some GHGs (for example methane) has slowed recently and some are in decline (CFCs and halons for example). Read more here: https://capegrim.csiro.au/

GON - There's a classic old phrase, "a Pyrrhic victory". The saying comes from King Pyrrhus of Epirus, who defeated the Romans at Asculum in 279AD. But it was at horrendous cost to Pyrrhus and his powerful tribe, and the King was quoted as saying after the battle - "If we have another victory like this, we'll be ruined". The Americans, led by Trump, have just expended vast amounts of their high-tech war arsenal, had nearly all their Middle Eastern defence sites destroyed or damaged to the tune of multiple billions, lost billions in military aircraft losses, in Trumps attacks against Iran - and he has achieved very little, except to create an even more bitter and hardline enemy than he had before. This is simply due to Trumps lack of leadership ability, his lack of war strategy, his failure to consult his allies - who has constantly abused and denigrated since he came to office - and his failure to topple any of the hardline Islamic leadership in the country. This Islamic power bloc has 150,000 Revolutionary Guard troops, who are still largely intact as a resisting power force. Australia doesn't need an ally such as the America led by Trump, because he fails to treat any ally with respect, he fails to consult allies when he takes warlike action, and fails to produce a cohesive strategy for actually winning a war against Islamic hardliners. He always wants to go it alone as a King-like leader, but he fails to understand even the basics of military strategies, and the fact remains that America now always loses every war it ventures into, because it has no plan to deal with the aftermath of any warlike action. The full cost of this warlike action against Iran is yet to be felt by Americans and the American economy - but when it does, it's going to become another nail in the American coffin.

But in answer to your question - I would start a foundation with very smart and trustworthy people at the top, with the remit to determine the underlying causes of the most urgent problems affecting people - climate change, inequality, poverty, access to health care / education / justice / clean water / food etc, and the most effective way of lessening those problems. Every billionaire out there could give 99% of their wealth to endeavours like this and still live very comfortable lives. The fact that they don't speaks volumes about their character.

Anybody intersted in talking about EVs?

Here is just one of the mistruths from a formal complaint that is being lodged about the Channel 7 story. 3.4 Environmental Misinformation (Koala Treatment) Broadcast Claim: The program alleged that wind farm clearing involves euthanising koalas with “blunt force instruments” [4]. Verified Fact: The Clean Energy Council (CEC) has confirmed this practice has never occurred in any Australian renewable project [1]. Its inclusion in a prime-time broadcast without evidence constitutes a failure to present factual material accurately under Section 3.3.1. Yes, they are claiming with no evidence that koals are being beaten to death in order to build wind farms. This comes from a viral claim several years ago and has no evidence. What astonishing overreach. I am confident that they know this to be untrue, but know a small number of viewers will believe this claim. According to AI In Australia are koalas killed to build windfarms Short answer: No—koalas are not routinely killed “to build wind farms” in Australia. But like any land development, there can be impacts on habitat, and that’s where most of the real issue sits. Here’s the clearer picture: 1) The viral claim about killing koalas You might have seen claims that koalas are being “clubbed” or deliberately killed for wind farms. These have been widely circulated in politics and media, but: A fact check found no evidence of koalas being killed during construction of a major wind farm (Clarke Creek). Companies involved said they use wildlife spotters and strict “zero harm” policies to avoid injury to animals. Claims about workers killing koalas were publicly repeated but later debunked or unsupported. So the idea of routine or intentional killing specifically for wind farms is misleading. 2) What does happen in reality The real issue is more mundane (and still important): Wind farms (like any big project) may require clearing land, which can remove koala habitat. Environmental laws require: surveys before clearing relocating animals where possible minimising harm Developers often pause work if wildlife is present and bring in ecologists. 3) How big is the impact compared to other threats? This is where context matters: Since 2012, mining has cleared far more koala habitat than renewables. Agriculture (like land clearing for grazing) is even larger again. Scientists consistently say the biggest long-term threat to koalas is habitat loss and climate change, not wind farms. 4) Important nuance There are legitimate concerns about renewable projects being built in sensitive habitats. Some proposals have been criticised or modified because of risks to koalas and other species. But that’s about where projects are built, not deliberate killing. Bottom line ❌ Koalas are not being systematically killed to build wind farms ⚠️ Some habitat can be cleared, which affects them ✅ The bigger threats are land clearing (especially agriculture), mining, and climate change If you want, I can break down one of the specific controversies (like Clarke Creek) so you can see exactly how these claims started and what’s actually in the documents.

Nobody gets it right 100% of the time, but the ABC are head and shoulders above the rest when it comes to accuracy.

I was indeed - as were you and around 63,000 other young men. But the major difference between a "lone wolf" radical, mentally disturbed assassin, is that those young Australian men were screened for mental instability and other psychological problems, and those found unsuitable were rejected from induction into the military. Those men inducted, were trained to good levels of competency, and given instructions in what to do, as regards identifying enemy combatants - and they were also given "rules of engagement", which follow the Geneva Conventions. This is a world apart from the American scene, where any number of high powered firearms are freely available to any U.S. citizen, regardless of their soundness of mind, their ethics and morals, and their beliefs. In addition, there is no requirement for any firearms training whatsoever for U.S. civilians, and adherents of the U.S. firearm worship cult, also train up their young children in the use of firearms - which to me, is the sign of a morally and ethically bankrupt civilisation.

It's been a long time between posts. My main shed renovations are at the stage of a much needed clean out, so I'm getting to the point of sorting some stored flight gear and moving on superflous multiples and unwanted items. I've decided to gift these helmets to a couple of collectors I'm associated with, one in France and the other in Greece. They're extra to my requirements and are better off where they're appreciated instead of a life in storage. I got them from a lady in Vinnytsia about twelve years ago, and realising how rare they were, I bought all of them, hence the extras. At first glance, they look much like the garden variety Soviet leather flight helmet, but these are different externally and internally and were only made in small numbers. In the years since I obtained these helmets I've only ever seen one for sale. They're rare but not valuable as in worth heaps of money. They were manufactured at Rostikinsky in NW Moscow where all the standard leather helmets were made, but the big difference is the use of the same noise cancelling headsets that the cloth ground crew helmets use. These use the glycerine filled earpads and the larger Ukrainian made speakers. The speakers are only different from standard in physical size; they still have the same 1500 ohm resistance. There's no literature or documentation on them, so I can only assume they were designed to try for noise reduction in certain helicopters, possibly the larger Mi-6 and Mi-26. Having said that, I reckon they'd go ok in the screaming Il-76 transport. The low bypass Soloviev D-30 turbofans on them are deafening. I have two of each of these helmet types spare, so will be sending what you see here to each of the collectors overseas (minus the foam heads).

Not to mention nursing home staff. My 93yo mother is looked after by Nepalese, Thai, Indian, African,Sri Lankan and Malaysian Australian staff. Barely a white face among them. She knows all their names and asks after their kids, and you can see the gentleness and respect they show her. There are certainly the job opportunities in that industry if "traditional" Aussies want them, but they don't.

Have a look at the problems the UK and Europe have now because of open border policies.

I watched a video from Spanian, the Sydney chap who spent a time in jail and now travels and eats out recording his travels. in Paris he had a guide who had lived in Sydney who was from France. She took him through the city. There were many parts where the Parisians are scared to go, at least alone and female due to the large number of male immigrants living in tent cities under the bridges and on the foot paths. Spanian is a scary enough looking dude and many of them wanted to front up to him just for being there. that type of migration is not beneficial to society. when I was younger I remember everyone talking about the Greeks and Italians that came to Australia. They worked hard, opened shops, built houses and became the new Australians I know there are other groups that have done similar. Without this type of input we would be pretty boring. All the new foods and culture brought here has been beneficial to all. gangs of youths wandering the streets with machetes and committing crime are not welcome. Some of these groups are children of people who escaped pretty bad situations in their home countries, but the youth seem to not appreciate the fortune of living in a good country, perhaps dreaming of being gangsters from too many poor influences. maybe sending these ones back to where they (or their parents) are from for punishment might be the answer, then they may appreciate what they had.

And just like a mafia boss, he should be behind bars

The moon over the Persian Gulf (Strait of Hormuz) and the International Space Station. Moon 02.mp4

What do you mean, "support one nation" - you've proudly told us many times that you don't vote!

It's not so much "immigration", but "mass immigration" created by the conjoined major parties. They ignored public opinion and went ahead with it anyway. Immigration was no longer included in the democratic process, and still isn't. You can have your say, but it inevitably falls on deaf ears. Things might be changing though, with the high cost of living and shortage of housing, the pig-headed major party politicians can't help but hear rumblings from nearly every sector of the broader community. Mass immigration drove me to support One Nation, that's how it affected me. I will not support or vote for parties who find it convenient to gang up against the Public for selfish reasons. They promise sweeteners at election time, but the issue of immigration is completely off the table. As the major parties lose their influence over the general public, as is happening now, we'll get a chance to gain power over them and tell them what we want, not what they want all the time. Mass immigration is not doing what it is intended to do, making us stronger, no, it is making us weaker in every respect you can think of. Why do we have a trillion dollar debt? Why do we have so much drug crime? Why is the nation split into 200 different groups with 200 different flags? Why did we have an anti Semitic "Bondi", and blocked streets full of River to the Sea people? We shouldn't go around with blinkers on. Take them off and look around.

Pity the Democrats, whether you like them or not. They are going to be stuck with the cost of repairing all the damage the Republicans have done, as trying to restore sone semblance of respect for the country and the rest of the world. And there will be some expectation for them to contribute to rebuilding some of the infrastructure destroyed in Gaza and Iran by Trumps indiscriminate bombing.

They don't need to anymore. Trump is doing it all by himself.

One of the reasons for granting bail was that it is going to takwe a very long time to bring these charges before a court. There is no likelihood that he will commit further offences whilst free on bail, so community safety is not endangered. The only condition that I see as not being useful is the reporting three times per week to police. That is supposed to restrict his movement from the local area of his residence. As one who was able to set bail conditions, I always felt that this was an onerous condition. Once a week is sufficient if the condition is required.