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My unexpert summary is this:- Although we wish that the government can control the big economic picture, they really can't. With the unlikely exception of major politico/economic suicide. Mostly our economy is largely influenced by the world economy, of which we are a minor part. All we can do is tinker around the edges with details. I don't see the complainers coming up with examples of great ways to 'fix' the perceived problems. Just saying 'chuck em out!' is not an answer.

No such thing as an illegitimate child. They are Legit. The problem is related to the Parents situation.. It's the fault of the Church Wowsers and holier that thou, types. Nev

Storm clouds on the Darling Downs on Thursday.

Stopped in Huonville after an excellent ride around the Channel - Margate through to Cygnet. Barely any traffic and a gorgeous afternoon. Coming over a rise after Gordon, there's nothing but water in front with a fishing boat coming in and the Hartz mountains in the background - absolutely stunning.

Trump's limo driver got arrested for possession of drugs. They found over 230 pounds of dope in the back seat.

An atheist was out rowing on Loch Ness when the monster came up and almost capsized his boat. The rower shouted "God help me!" The Lord came down and chased the monster away. He turned to the rower and said, "Why did you call for help from me? You don't even believe in me." The rower said, "Fair go, 10 minutes ago I didn't believe in the Loch Ness monster."

I was going to ask abut you.. Glad you're still here. @red750 - First, it's good to hear he is well. Maybe you can entice him back by letting him know that the Block User feature works very well? Send him our best, anyway.

Here is the device in place.

Like all powerful things, A.I. runs the risk of being used for powerful good and powerful evil equally. And it has been developed primarily to make money for it's owners. Which is a good reason for caution.

Today is the big day. I have been to the Cochlear Support Centre and received the external sound processor, which is now turned on. It sounds completely different to what I expected, although I knew it sounded different to what I have been hearing. For example, the ticking of a digital clock sounds like someone tapping a metal pipe with a small spanner. I now have a couple of months for my brain to learn to deal with sound frequencies it hasn't received in years, and for the device to be calibrated to my hearing.

I wonder if this makes payment optional?

See! We ARE multicultural!

Why don't you spend time convincing us just how bad he has been for Australians. The inflation you have at the moment is largely globally driven and Australia, which is heavily dependent on imports of fuel thanks to decisions made way back in the Howard era where Japan and China buys gas off us at knock down prices and on-sells for the profits. This denies Australians accessing their own resources at what should be these knock down prices, but also results is massively lost profits locally as a result and also increased input costs as we have to buy our energy at global rates. Sadly, your issue at the moment should be with Chump. The CGT reform - yep can be argued as a bit overboard for some asset classes and it will depend on where you sit in terms of the housing market. If you are a house owner in the cities, yep you are probably spitting a bit as the prices return to a more natural normal rather than the artificially high prices resulting from a disproportionate incentive to invest (and create unnatural demand) in an investment asset class because it was treated more favourable from a tax perspective than other asset classes. However, longer term, the prices will stabilise and those who recently purchased or use leverage to fund investment will be back in the black. But at the same time, it makes housing affordable for people.. who need housing.. Also, as I said unless you owe money on your house wyere you have seen your equity fall a bit, or you are using it as leverage, it will make no real difference as the price relative to other properties will be in synch... Pursuing net 0 is absolutely the right policy for both longer term energy security and a simple fact - it will be over the same amortisation period as fossils, be a lot cheaper. So, for the future of the country, this is vital and people who are wedded for short term pricing are just kicking the can down the road. And that is before the environmental costs kick in. There is only one developed and not too many major emerging markets that aren't pursuing renewables as a, if not the major source of generation. Yes, China is building fossil plants still; its demeand is insatiable, but its is building renewables at a much bigger rate. I am not sure where this sits, but at least a policy promise of the Albo government is to buy Australian. i.e. use public money to channel into Australian rather than foreign interests. As I said, I am not sure where it is. In the fuel crisis, Albos was far quicker than most other nations to reduce tax to reduce the burden on the consumer; many countries (such as the UK) didn't do that at all. If you compare the above to the previous conservative government (and I did a fuller analysis somewhere else), then largely Australia is better off than pursuing the LNP policies, and good luck to you if you think PHON's policies are going to result in an economic nirvana. There are some things that Albo needs to get a grip on.. definitely: Sovereign debit has increased past $1TN. Australia still retains it's AAA+ status with all major agencies, but this is something that needs to be reigned in. The Gas Excise should be applied. Look at Norway and Qatar to understand why. AUKUS is a joke - we could use that same amount to build a locally owned and controlled defence industry pumping out weapons that would really be of use to us. The Fair Work Act, I think is overly onerouos - not so much on the pay and conditions, but all of the other obligations it imposes. There was a case where an award was won under the fair work act because, as I recall, the employer didn't take appropriate steps to protect an employee from domestic abuse... I have to look it up, but it was along those lines. That is, to me anyway, clearly beyond the responsibility of the employer (maybe with some narrow exceptions). AI is coming and it is going to bite faster than people realise. Provision and structural changes are needed to insulate Australia from the worst. I am sure I have missed from both sides of the argument. Labor could do a lot better, but if we had LNP or PHON, they would also need to do a lot better if they implemented what they said they would... and they would have to do a lot more to even catch up to Labor. I am not a "socialist" by any any stretch of the word except one... I do think that people have to work for the economy, but the economy also has to work for the people. And I do believe in a fair reward for risk..Capitalism so far has the most effective allocation of resources. Of course, the fully competitive market can only ever be a theory, and I think you are mixing up true socialism with ensuring fairness in the markets. The disproportionate rewards compared to the risks taken especially at the multinational or large corporate level is currently obscene.

Many of the adopted children have gaps in their history as they grow older. Did they love me? Why was I given away? Was I not wanted? What happened to my birth parents? Were they married? Was I the result of a one-night stand? Are they still alive? Did I have any siblings or half-siblings? It's very hard for someone to discover that their parents were married and they had older and younger siblings. Why would parents give away a middle child? The reasons for giving up a child are many. The mother may only have been 15 or 16 and too young to care for a child. Casual relationships that broke up, with no support for the child. Strict parents not wanting the shame. Religious attitudes to unmarried mothers. Mixed races or religions (Catholic and Protestant in Ireland). Relationships with foreign servicemen reposted to their home country. Even for married couples, if the father is out of work or in prison. And the list goes on. Another consideration is genetic disorders passed from generation to generation. There was a couple who had to surrender their child because they couldn't afford to feed themselves, let alone a baby. They stayed married for a couple of years, then divorced. The father suffered a heart condition and then discovered it was a genetic disorder. The race was on to locate the son. The parents searched together, through the program, and located the son. He was tested and found he had the disorder. He was only months away from a heart attack, but was treated in time and saved. Mothers forced to give up their child `through parental pressure, social stigma or economic circumstances pine for their lost child for the rest of their lives, wanting to know if they had a good life, loving adoptive parents, and have made good as they grew up.

Just like IRAN? I want Freedom FROM Religion. Keep it OUT of Politics. Nev

I must say that I don't find Bush Barbie's style of comedy comes anywhere near the standard our earlier comics (non-gender term used deliberately). From the videos I've seen of her, she uses her physical appearance to attract ateention, which it sure does. However, having grown up enjoying the witty use of language and irony, both in the English and Australian styles, I think she just doesn't come up to standard.

Yay

I assume that every party compiles a shit list on anyone not in their party, and probably many in their party too. Not a good look, but judging by what everyone is saying about her, it wouldn't be a big list anyway.

I can't keep up with the bikes. I've tried leaning the Rodeo into corners but it doesn't seem to work for some reason.

Crikey I wish it was wet. Today was 30 degrees, under 30% humidity and 30kts wind. Spent the day on the fireground only 10k from home. Rough country. It was blowing hard and gusting, towards our place. There were 5 choppers running water bombing all day. We had 2 x D8 dozers cutting a firebreak but the fire jumped that about the same time as one dozer broke down. The terrain was too steep to get our appliances within striking distance of the fire front. Tonight the wind dropped, the fire slowed down. Hoping for drizzle tonight but rain would be real nice. I'm not going out tomorrow (too tired)but there will still be a dozen firetrucks out. So far about 70 hectares still smouldering.

Tom Skerritt, the Emmy-winning actor who embodied a solid, wry authority figure, whether as a flight instructor in Top Gun, a tough-but-fair sheriff on TV’s Picket Fences or the doomed captain of Alien, has died. He was 93. Skerritt died Wednesday of natural causes, his family said in a statement.

Glad someone got some good out of it. One thing I miss from Qld, is the pleasure of watching a real thunderstorm come through. Darwin is also (or only) famous for beautiful towering cu-nim thunderstorms.

I think that’s very likely but Trump also sees Putin as the gold standard for the type of political leader he wants to be and wants to do business with, and is frustrated by being pushed to impose sanctions instead, and has someone in Zelensky who stubbornly won’t give him what he wants and was responsible for him being impeached.

Quote from heathercoxrichardson.substack.com :- First: it was exactly ten years ago tonight that then–Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton told the American people that Russian president Vladimir Putin hoped to have a “puppet” in the White House, and that Donald Trump was that puppet. A scowling Trump responded: “No puppet. No puppet.” Clinton continued: “It’s pretty clear. Trump interjected: “You’re the puppet.” Clinton continued: “It’s pretty clear you won’t admit…” Trump interjected: “No, you’re the puppet.” Clinton: “...that the Russians have engaged in cyberattacks against the United States of America, that you encouraged espionage against our people, that you are willing to spout the Putin line, sign up for his wish list, break up NATO, do whatever he wants to do, and that you continue to get help from him because he has a very clear favorite in this race.” Trump shook his head disparagingly. Ten years later, Trump is openly embracing Putin and is working to destroy the strongest and most successful alliance in human history to cement that partnership, apparently with an eye to enriching himself. And so, the events of the present change the way we see the past. Had Trump strongly supported Ukraine as Congress has demanded, and stood firm against Russia, a country that is, after all, a minor economic player whose military is flailing at its attempt to absorb its neighbor, we would rightly dismiss Clinton’s warning as campaign hyperbole. As it is, though, Trump’s tie to Putin—the story he has always tried to bury by calling it the “Russia, Russia, Russia hoax”—seems likely to emerge as the central story of the Trump years. As Clinton wrote today: “In just the last few days: Trump made a deal for the U.S. to buy Russian diesel, an economic lifeline for Putin; he and Elon Musk blamed each other for an order that slowed down Starlink satellite connectivity over Ukraine, hampering the country’s defenses during a devastating Russian attack; and Trump waived sanctions on Russia that Congress, led by his late friend Lindsey Graham, had pushed for. Now, Putin has proposed a summit with Trump and Xi to decide Ukraine’s fate for them, bulldoze a century of international cooperation, and frame Russia as an equal to the U.S. and China. “We’ll see if Putin’s puppet continues to dance on his strings.”.....more....

So far he has done and said a lot of things that everyone thought a president 'just cannot do'.

Yesterday I had a calibration appointment for my Cochlear implant. It started with the audiologist connecting the device to her computer and playing a range of beeps at various frequencies, starting too low to hear, and increasing them until they were at a comfortable volume. She then read out a number of words from a printed list of about 30, with her face obscured, and I had to locate the word on the list and repeat it without being able to lip-read. Passed that without problem. Next, she placed a page of 12 half sentences in front of me. Again, obscuring her face, she read out the full sentence which I had to repeat back to her. The example I recall was: Printed: She cleaned the floor.... The spoken sentence: She cleaned the floor with a mop and broom. I passed all 12 sentences at the first attempt. She said she normally doesn't get to pulling that page out until the second month. I've had the device for 9 days. I can now hold conversations, watch the TV, and talk on the phone without the hearing aid in the other ear.

The problem really is that it is a hybrid, designed to appeal to those with a fear of full electric and rusted on range anxiety. A hybrid is the worst of both worlds. The battery is small so the electric range is woeful. The ICE engine is also small so needs to work hard to replace the energy drain from the battery. Charging a battery from an ICE engine is very inefficient. It has all the disadvantages of every ICE engined vehicle of consuming fossil fuel including maintenance and complexity. How this bloke with the Shark got 24 litres/100k crossing the great dividing range which is essentially up hill overall and 44 on the flat doesn't add up. Was he driving in to a 50-80kmh headwind on the flat with a big flat fronted 3 tonne caravan? You cannot regenerate anywhere near the energy going downhill lost going uphill to the top. Only a long sustained down hill run will increase the energy level of the battery.

An Airline Pilot I once knew went into a Hardware store dressed like that and Ordered a Bottle of Methylated spirits. He rubbed it fondly and asked "I don't suppose you Have a COLD one , do you?" Nev

I distract them by throwing in a packet of condoms.

Yeah, and I squeezed my wife's Nair on my toothbrush because she put the tube next to the toothbrushes. Now I wear my reading glasses in the bathroom.

I received a welcome email from Cochlear Limited which included the following note from a user. “Don’t expect to hear speech right away. You will hear sounds. One needs to have patience because it can take a while to hear speech clearly. The learning curve is different for everyone. It depends on how much time and effort one puts into learning to hear with a cochlear implant. It’s not like a hearing aid where you will be able to hear instantly. The more you work at it, the more successful you will be.” – Cathy, who has a cochlear implant.

One of my pet peeves. What cruel b uses the smallest unreadable font on the bottle to give me the only information I need?

Yeah, but you asked for it.

Little Johnny was playing in the schoolyard when he got a splinter in his hand. He went to the teacher and said, " Miss, I need some cider." The teacher said, "Why do yo need cider?" Johnny said, "I got a splinter in my hand." The teacher said, "What's that got to do with cider? Little Johnny said, "I heard Mum say when she gets a prick in her hand she puts it in cider."

I find it very helpful. Particularly with solving IT problems at home.

The headlines have mostly been about experimental AI models that have taken advantage of flawed rules and laboratory environments to do things they weren’t supposed to, and how that can be prevented. Industry self-regulation is a very weak mechanism when the developers are not competing to use AI for the greatest public good but to make the most money in the shortest time. AI can be used for good and it would be helpful to see more examples but I think it’s reasonable that the focus at the moment should be on where the biggest risks and potential for harm are.

I have sent OneTrack an email and am awaiting a reply.

He has disappeared for weeks and months a couple of times in the past, so I hope no cause for alarm.

17th century English explorers thought it looked like a pine cone but tasted like a fruit. Apple was a common name for fruit of various kinds at the time so it became pineapple.

There was an earthquake in Victoria this morning, at 2 am, near Leongatha. It was felt by hundreds in Melbourne, although I was in bed and didn't feel it. My daughter came to my room to check if I had. One woman on Facebook said the shaking lasted long enough for her to wake her husband and ask "Did you feel that?" He got quite excited for a second.

HEs MAD and dangerous like the rest of them. Nev

Beautiful British humour!

I was redundant years ago but the firm hasn't realised it yet so I'm still there.

I don't know where to put this... post, so this thread is as good as anywhere. Kicked off a project today that will ultimately result in my redundancy. My initial thought: I need to get it done before the big move. Some people were a little gloomy at the prospect.. I was very excited.

Donald the Dick Tator just checking his equipment. He had a damaging leak from his administration.

I stood upwind. The incineerator was in a rural area. I stoned the crows.