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I agree driver training is the answer. My nightmare stretch is the Hay plains, damn dangerous dusk till dawn. I have touched a grey in Blue mountains in a car and a big grey glanced the front wheel down south on BMW bike. No hurt no foul, both were on bush tracks and slow. Us humans have removed vast tree cover ecosystems and replaced it with grasslands and artificial water sources. A perfect Roo environment has been created. It's our fault and we have to live in harmony or at least not conflict with nature. Bounties should be placed for introduced feral animals to totally remove them from the country- the damage they do is extreme. If it does not live on your farm and managed as live stock, it should be culled to zero. That means all goats, cattle, horses, buffalo, camels, pigs, cats, foxes, rabbits, deer, feral dogs etc Dingoes and all other natives must be completely protected as they balance the ecosystem and are native. Limited culling only by professional shooters of Roos for meat, skins and welfare reasons only.. no cowboys or gun junkies. This is a role for a dedicated federal government department with a big workforce on country to implement. The employment, environmental and farm benefits would far outweigh the costs. This should be seen as a national goal and beyond politics but essential to a liveable and sustainable planet. New Zealand is aiming for Zero ferals by 2050. We should do the same.

I really, really don't want to get drawn into this subject because it is a subject where people tend to passionately believe that one side is all good and one side is all bad, when clearly the truth lies somewhere between. I will always condemn unjustifiable violence wherever the perpetrator is, even if it i my own country. No, I do not think that the land has been taken since the 1947 partition plan can be given back. The problem is, though, that the process continues with settlers expanding into the West Bank, etc. Should the Palestinians just accept their territory slowly getting smaller and smaller? Again, I do not condone violence. It was inevitable that after the barbaric acts of October 7, there would be some action by the Israelis. For me, it comes down to proportionality. I am sure it is correct that the Palestinians hate Israelis and that Israelis hate Palestinians. This problem will never be solved until the mutual hatred can be sorted out. I was going to post a bunch of videos, but as I said I don't want to get too involved in a debate that is so polarised. Some of the vids involve settlers driving Palestinian farmers out of their olive orchards at harvest time, also driving away their livestock. A video of Israeli soldiers dragging kids out of bed to check their IDs at gunpoint. How could those kids possibly grow up without hatred? Two Israeli teenage boys beating an aged farmer on his own land. To quote another poster, "Peace does not lie at the end" My point is, it does not lie at the end of a Palestinian gun or an Israeli gun. I guess to sum up, I am definitely not pro-Hamas or pro-Israeli. I merely call out barbarity where I see it. Hamas is brutal, and so are the ultra-far-right members of the Israeli government.

Using Biden's plan. He could have stopped this war long ago by stopping the weapon deliveries to Israel when they started using them to target civilians, journalists, hospitals, schools, residences and basically turning the homeland of a million people into rubble.

Religion:- Puritanism. The haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy. Catholics drink on the front porch, baptists drink on the back porch. We believe life begins at conception,” says the panel’s Catholic priest. “We believe life begins at birth,” says the liberal Protestant. “We believe that life begins when the kids are out of the house and the dog dies,” says the rabbi.

Happy Birthday. And adfter SpecSavers, let's hope you see a lot more of them.

We drove out of our place on the way for a day trip. At the first traffic light, the car behind me beeped. I assume I had raced off quickly enough when the light turned green. After we passed through the intersection, he was still beeping and flashing his lights. I angrily pulled over and threw my door open, ready to confront this person. I slammed my door closed, and as I aggressively strode towards him, he pointed to my car. There was my beloved and expensive SLR camera on the roof of the car. The only reason it had not fallen off was that the neck strap was caught in the door. The man came up and I apologised for the angry gesticulations, and we had a bit of a laugh about it.

At 85 years, Morris marries a lovely 25-year-old woman. Because her new husband is so old, the woman decides that on their wedding night, they should have separate bedrooms. She is concerned that the old fellow could overexert himself. After the wedding festivities, she prepares herself for bed and for the knock on the door she is expecting. Sure enough, the knock comes and there is her 85-year-old groom ready for action. They unite in conjugal union and all goes well, whereupon he takes his leave of her and she prepares to go to sleep for the night. After a few minutes, there's a knock on the door and there old Morris is again, ready for more action. Somewhat surprised, she consents to further coupling, which is again successful. The octogenarian once again bids her a fond good night and leaves. She is certainly ready for slumber at this point, and, after a few more minutes, is close to sleep. But for the third time, there is a knock at the door and there he is again -- fresh as a 25-year-old and ready for more. Again they ravish one another. As they're basking in the afterglow, the young bride says to him, "I am thoroughly impressed that at your age you have enough juice to go at it three times. I've been with guys less than half your age who were only good for one time. You're a great lover, Morris." Morris, looking quite confused, turns to her and asks, "You mean I was here already?"

Spare a thought for poor old Michael O’Leary, Chief Executive of Ryanair. After arriving in a hotel in Manchester, he went to the bar and asked for a pint of Guinness. The barman nodded and said, "That will be £3 please, Mr. O’Leary." Somewhat taken aback, O'Leary replied, "That's very cheap," and handed over his money. "Well, we do try to stay ahead of the competition", said the barman. "And we are serving free pints every Wednesday from 6 pm until 8 pm. We have the cheapest beer in England". "That is remarkable value", Michael comments. "I see you don't seem to have a glass, so you'll probably need one of ours. That will be £4 please." O'Leary scowled, but paid up. He took his drink and walked towards a seat. "Ah, you want to sit down?" said the barman. "That'll be an extra £4. You could have pre-booked the seat, and it would have only cost you £2." "I think you may be too big for the seat sir, can I ask you to sit in this frame please". Michael attempts to sit down but the frame is too small and when he can't squeeze in, he complains "Nobody would fit in that little frame". "I'm afraid if you can't fit in the frame you'll have to pay an extra surcharge of £4 for your seat sir". O'Leary swore to himself, but paid up. "I see that you have brought your laptop with you" added the barman. "And since that wasn't pre-booked either, that will be another £4." O'Leary was so incensed that he walked back to the bar, slammed his drink on the counter, and yelled, "This is ridiculous, I want to speak to the manager". "I see you want to use the counter," says the barman, "that will be £2 please." O'Leary's face was red with rage. "Do you know who I am?" "Of course I do Mr. O'Leary." "I've had enough! What sort of a Hotel is this? I come in for a quiet drink and you treat me like this. I insist on speaking to a manager!" "Here is his e-mail address, or if you wish, you can contact him between 9.00 am and 9.01am every morning, Monday to Tuesday at this free phone number. Calls are free, until they are answered, then there is a talking charge of only £1 per second, or part thereof". "I will never use this bar again". "OK sir, but do remember, we are the only hotel in England selling pints for £3." Have a good weekend.

Humanity has never learned the lessons of the past. Bomber Harris advocated systematic bombing of German cities in an attempt to break the German morale. It didn't work as it hadn't when the Germans were bombing the UK in the Blitz. In Germany it was also an attempt to reduce labour and industrial output. Didn't work either as the Nazis just got slave labour to resolve this. Netanyahu is being propped up by his ultra right wing. If he is ousted he is gone & will be prosecuted & jailed. More likely he will be given asylum by Trump like Assad was by Putin. The majority of Israelis wanted negotiations more than a year ago & the protests since have been growing all the time. Before the war Israel had systematically been taking over the West Bank, detaining and killing Palestinians so it is little wonder that Hamas came in to existence, then power & started to fight back, the wall went up & rockets started flying & eventually the catastrophic events of 2 years ago. This gave Netanyahu & his cronies their opportunity, their aim being to get rid of ALL Palestinians once & for all. Will Trumps declaration of Peace last. Not on your Nellie.

Israel's relentless bombing and destruction in Gaza and displacement and killing of civilians will have created plenty of incentive for new recruits to join Hamas and other anti-Israeli factions. Israel obviously had to act after the October 7 attack by Hamas, and they were justified in trying to destroy the organisation, but in many ways it will have only made the long term problem worse.

I consider all religious organisations as dangerous to the fabric of civilisation. No thinking person would believe that Hamas has made a realistic 'peace deal'. Nor do they think that Hamas believes in a two state solution. They simply wish to wipe out all the other mob - military and civillians alike. BUT.... All that applies to the Israrlies equally. Peace? Bullshit! Forty years ago, a distant acquaintance who worked in the middle east once told me... "The only way to get peace in ME? .... Turn it all into glass" Is that what you suggest, bit by bit, Jerry? Killing all Palestinians won't solve the christian/jew/moslem/power problem. Even when all Palestinians are gone, there is now so much hate that the warring will simply move along to another nearby place.

Grays Auctions, the huge online auction house, that sells anything and everything from table decorations through to cars and massive earthmovers, has been placed into administration, after being fined a record $10M - after the ACCC found Grays had sold at least 750 cars to auction buyers with false and misleading descriptions. In addition, Grays are obliged to offer redress to the affected car buyers. Grays Auctions was founded in 1922 as a family business by the Gray family, and ran onsite auctions, up until around 2000, when it commenced an online auction website. Grays entered the big time when Geoff K. Gray sold 25% of the company to a fund management company, Caledonia (Private) Investments, in 2011. In 2014, Caledonia purchased the remaining 75% of Grays Auctions, and backdoor listed the company on the ASX. However, in 2017, a Fleet Management company named Eclipx purchased the whole of Grays Auctions from Caledonia, and Grays was delisted. Then, in a quick turnaround, in 2019, Eclipx sold Grays again, to another private venture capitalist, Quadrant Private Equity. Eclipx took a major haircut in the deal, buying Grays for $179M, and then selling it to Quadrant for $60M. Eclipx claimed Grays was an "underperforming asset", but a large part of the problem would have been people with no auction skills, trying to run an auction house. Quadrant tried to relist Grays on the ASX again in 2021, but pulled the float deal before it was all finalised. I'll wager there was an inadequate level of monies forthcoming to support the float, as rumours persisted of Grays under-performance. Then the ACCC dropped a bomb on Grays, with the $10M fine, and the orders to redress the buyers losses. Quadrant took a massive haircut on Grays this week, selling Grays to Slatterys Auctions for just $2M. So much for good corporate management. Part of the sale deal was that Slatterys Auctions would pay Grays $10M fine. I don't know if that is actually going to happen. Slatterys is only a modest-sized family auction business - but apparently a fairly successful one. Slatterys have undergone a lot of expansion in recent years, expanding into divisions in nearly every State, from their home town of Newcastle, NSW. Slatterys have promptly placed Grays into administration straight after the sale, as the company is effectively insolvent. That means a lot of Grays creditors are now going to take a massive haircut. Those creditors must range across a wide spectrum, from suppliers to contractors to financiers. It appears Quadrant still have an outstanding debt to financiers from the Grays purchase deal, which debt apparently runs to $145M. Westpac is their major financier. All in all, this whole sorry saga can only be sheeted home to mismanagement by the corporate whizz-kids. Grays charge sellers anything up to 30% commission to sell items through them, and charge buyers up to 25% buyers premium - meaning Grays make a motza, coming and going. I can't really see how they could lose so much money over such a long period of time, especially with the level of trading that Grays do. They sell thousands of cars a month and also sell virtually shiploads of Chinese-sourced products, from household items to a range of industrial products. Grays also operate auctions for a Qld-based company called Excavation Equipment, who import shiploads of Chinese industrial equipment. I don't know how Grays insolvency is going to affect Excavation Equipment, only time will tell, of course. https://www.accc.gov.au/media-release/grays-to-redress-consumers-and-pay-10-million-in-penalties-for-misleading-descriptions-of-cars-for-sale-by-auction https://www.itnews.com.au/news/axe-swings-after-179m-grays-online-buy-blows-up-525037 https://www.drive.com.au/news/grays-online-enters-administration-days-after-sale-to-slattery-auctions/

Well, what does that say about your mind, still rambling on about how you were treated years ago? Get stimulated and change or you will be zombified.

Or the Brethren nut jobs insisting they can't vote but campaigning for the LNP

Question: If Sovereign Citizens do not accept the system of government and laws created by those governments, how can they use the legal system based on those laws to seek redress for alleged wrongs?

On our morning walk, we had a close look at the Young Endeavour. We had a long chat with the Captain. The people in the rigging were doing an exercise where they practised rescuing someone injured in the rigging. The Captain told us all about the "Young Endeavour" program, where they take 24 young people between 16 and 24, and teach them all the skills required to sail this ship. We found this chat to be quite uplifting. Under the scheme, 24 to 30 "youth crew" (aged between 16 and 23) join a voyage to supplement the 9-10 naval personnel from the Mine Warfare, Hydrographic and Patrol Boat Force, which Young Endeavour is attached to.[2][3][6][7] Over 500 youth crew per year participate in the scheme, and are selected for the voyages by a biannual ballot.[6] Each voyage typically lasts ten to eleven days, during which the youth crew rotate through most roles aboard the ship, stand watches, and help with Young Endeavour's operation.[6] Near the end of the voyage, the crew undergoes "command day": a 24-hour period in which the ship is entirely under control of the youth crew.[5] As part of most voyages, the combined crew takes a group of special needs youth on a half-day sail.[6] Between the scheme's inception in 1988 and mid-2018, over 13,500 youth have participated in voyages, while another 11,500 special needs youth have been involved in half-day sails.[6] The vessel is at sea for approximately 240 days per year.[7]

I don’t think there is a terrorism gene, but there is a lot of hatred and belief in martyrdom amount some groups of people. I saw a reporter one time interviewing kids in Palestine, asking them during a street soccer game would they play with kids from the other side. Their answers were unanimous that no they would kill them violently given the chance. What hope for peace is there when this shit keeps going on. Racism in our own country is a bit like this (without the extreme violence part), I come across a lot of older people who hate black fellas for no other reason than they were taught to. Younger people seem to be a bit more accepting of different people and cultures. If all the shite in other countries that people escape from was left there and we all just treated each other with a bit of respect as a society it would be a good outcome.

Trump claims to have stopped wars in Thailand/Cambodia (bit of a border dispute & still going on), Kosovo/Serbia (no war, no deaths no shots fired), Congo/Rwanda (they've been fighting for decades & no change so far), Pakistan/India (4 days of arguments over Kashmir & a couple of aircraft lost & artillery shells fired. Been going on since 1947 & no change), Israel/Iran (12 days. Trump helped start it & then illegally bombed Iran so he participated in the war), Egypt/Ethiopia ( long standing dispute over a dam, no shots fired, no fighting, no war to begin with) Armenia/Azerbaijan (been going on for decades. Trump got them to sign a peace deal but neither side ratified it so no change) What a f^%@*in tosser. https://zeteo.com/p/mehdi-hasan-debunks-trump-claim-ended-7-wars

The Martians have landed on Earth, and in meeting the world leaders, they have an audience with the Pope. The Pope looks at them and asks, "Do you know Jesus?" The Martian replies, "Oh, Jesus? Yeah! - What a great bloke! He comes and visits our planet, twice every year!" The Pope is astonished! "It's been close to 2000 years since he was here, and we're still waiting on his Second Coming." The Martian thinks for a moment and says, "Maybe he doesn't like your chocolate." The Pope looks at him and says, "Chocolate?" "Sure! Every year, we gather up all the chocolate from the best manufacturers, and give it to him as a gift, because he's such a great guy! What did you do to him when he first showed up?"

An example of publicise the losses and privatise the profits on a grand scale. Power should be a government service with only open transparent contracting to install the the actual power source if government invests to encourage competition. No Macquarie bank style schemes. The running and ownership should be in government hands for the entire grid power system. The grid would be maintained by the government by permanent staff. Yes, that means a large public service but it would employ and have the level of ability to replace the current system of private contracting. A gov grid would also maintain long term knowledge and expertise in house, no consultants or other profit gougers. It would also mean there is always a place of responsibility for the quality and price of the service. It would be far cheaper than all the for profit large and small contractors with the gravy train of inefficiency that means. You could privately own a system/micro grid and feed the gov grid, but you directly sell the power to the government grid. No multi layer ownerships and profit gouging/rent seeking capitalism. Then you can buy direct from the grid or through a retail seller who buys it from the grid at a small discount. The discount should be fixed irrespective of scale to encourage small and competitive retailers. No massive discounts for very large retailers and buyers. By having the gov grid as a default retail seller the market would be hugely competitive with tight margins and no incentive for big capital markets to game the system. Currently a far larger part of power prices are the baked in profit centres in the system of getting it to your door. The generation price can often be less the 40% of a bill. And those generators owners make a profit. No bullshit energy price market that skyrockets prices,if a generator fails it allows gaming of the system. The current game means a big operator with multiple power stations can actually profit by putting a station out of action by intent or neglect. The price rockets as do the profits with no incentive to get it back on line quickly. We have a clear case of market failure. We most certainly should not provide large consumers like aluminium smelters a heavy price subsidy. The local smelter at Tomago uses a huge 8,300 GWhr a year with a constant 950MW load, that's 10% of the states power at a minimum. Nor should we give big handouts to them to invest in their own systems. The vast majority of that is by burning coal. They must pull their own weight for renewable power. The big consumers can invest in their own power generation either alone or as cooperative groups. As could local communities of housing, new estates, councils. With solar on roofs and home batteries with electric cars combined, a local area community can be a collective grid. A large local battery and public solar shades in carparks, public seating etc can mean a local micro grid that provides its own needs at a fraction of todays current market system price. It could still be connected to the overall grid and provide stability both ways. Local businesses would bloom with minimal daytime energy costs as they use up all the excess solar when the micro grid storage is full. Any excess gets fed into the government grid and paid into the community account at a fair rate. Most grid consumers would rarely pay a bill and often get paid to make power. Electric car owners would have local charging at the carpark and home. A micro grid community would be a cooperative that owns it's power grid and only interacts with the government grid. The public grid should only charge sufficient to maintain and invest. It should not be a dividend provider of government. Currently our energy economy is fundamentally flawed and needs a clean sheet design as a fundamental service by government. I need a 🍺

It is thought that at least some of these boats were fishing boats. GON if some of these people were not drug smugglers, and the ones that were were almost certainly not headed for the USA (range of these boats not sufficient to reach the USA) do you care if innocents have been blown to pieces? Undoubtedly, not all of these people blown to pieces were not drug dealers. Two people survived an attack on what was thought to be a fishing boat. These two were not arrested or tried but sent back to their home country. It could have been a little embarrassing if they were questioned in court. Something navies are good at is stopping and boarding boats. Why not board and search these vessels and arrest and interrogate to gain intelligence about drug networks? I suspect part of the reason is to appease Trump's moron followers. Civilised countries do not carry out extrajudicial executions. Certainly, the military is not comfortable with blowing people out of the water who may or may not be drug smugglers. Top admiral steps down abruptly amid drug boat strikes On top of that, the US is building up its military off the coast of Venezuela U.S. deploys aircraft carrier to waters off South America in major military escalation Nation Oct 24, 2025 3:34 PM EDT As well as that, Trump claims that there are CIA agents operating in Venezuela, so much for that Nobel Peace Prize

Sitting at the beach at Middleton enjoying the sun. Nice twisty road to get here.

Trump is giving a lot of attention to His New Ballroom, I don't reckon he'd need much. Nev

Different sort of day today. First, off to H & R Block to do my tax returm. Their estimate is a refund of about $1200. Then to Specsavers for new glasses. (My health insurance gives a 100% refund on two pairs of specs, one long rsange, one for reading). Haven't had my eyesight tested in 7 years. Lots of tests, and happy with the results. No macular degeneration, no sign of cataracts, and only minor indications of glaucoma, too insignificant to do anything about at present. A different way to spend your birthday, but I had feck all else to do.

This was posted on Facebook.

Here's another oldie. A man was walking down the street when he saw a beggar sitting in a doorway, begging for money for a meal. The man said, "If I give you $20, will you spend it on alcohol?" The beggar replied, "No, I gave up drinking 18 years ago." The man said, "If I give you $25, will you spend it on fishing?" The beggar replied, "No, I sold my boat and fishing gear 15 years ago." The man said, "OK, come home with me and my wife will cook you a nice homecooked meal, and I'll still give you the $25." The beggar asked, "Won't your wife be angry?" The man replied, "Maybe, but I just want her to see what a man looks like when he gives up drinking and fishing."

Me? Well I do think it is OTT to flatten cities and kill 60,000 civillians just because the baddies might be hiding behind innocent people. Even in our land we have little power to control the actions of the 'governing' (ruling) mob. I suspect that regardless of their religion, the average Palestinians have little say in whether the power individuals stand behind them or in front of them.

They may have been, but I am just interested in what anyone in the same position (ex. corruption charges) wold have actually done instead given: The Gazans were regularly attacking israel via suicide bombing and other terrorist activities until Israel put a stop to it by building a wall and having a check point. By the way, the check points are there only on the way into Gaza to esnure no bombs.. without killing people and still allowing Gazans to go about their working and daily lives inside Israel. Gazans were still attempting terrorist acts, but because it was largely contained, again without killing people, Israel didn't respond. Almost Daily, Hamas was firing rockets at Israel, which occasionally landed, but because Israel spent its money to protect its citizens rather than hide behind them, not too many casualites (but there was the odd one that got through and killed the odd one that didn't make it to a bunker). When Hamas did get through, there was a response, but it wasn't too deady, but a warning, keep stroking the cat, and it will pounce back.. When Hamas, the governing body of Gaza did finally get through, they targeted your citizens, and rather brutally (like burning people alive; raping family members in front of other family members, axes through heads, and of course, their signatue beheadings) at music fetivals, in citizens homes rather than going for the military, only to retreat cowardly behind their own citizens to avoid the war they had just started You know they will continue and not care for their own citizens until they are either wiped out or they have met their aim of wiping you out - not only in Israel, but across the world (read section 7 of the Hamas Charter, and how they famously don't negotiate with Israel).. What exactly would you do different? BTW, in the conduct oif their war: They waited 7 days before entering to give citizens enough time to move... although Hamas moves with them. Before striking, they give 10 minutes notice and exactly where they strike. Yes, there were occasions in a 2 year war where Israel got it wrong.. but on more than a couple of occasions, blasts that killed citiznes that were initially attributeed to Israel were found out to be Hamas. Isarael were accused of shooting innocent civilians during aid distribution which thet set up because the UN wouldn't enter through safe corridors set up by Israelis. What other combatant country distributes aid to its enemy citizens? But the corrections to the story of the IDF killing Gazans (which are never the same as the initial sensationalism) pointed out Palestinians were running towards Israeli forces, presumably for protection, as Hamas were shooting their own, and stealing the aid for themselves. Palestinians were hungry - yes, but the so-called famine was hard to believe.. How can starving people run like that? How come the parents of emanciated children were not even skinny? Did Israel act perfectly? No, of course not. War is not perfect.. Did we carpet bomb Europe and kill how many innocent Germans? Did we (as in the west) nuclear bomb two cities in Japan after the emporer signalled Japan's willingness to surrender and kill how many innocent civilians? When you people are under constant threat and have acted accordingly by someone else starting a war, and your enemy hide behind their civilians, I am interested - what would you have done differently? Honestly? As Netanyahu said very close to the beginning of the war.. It would be over the minute the hostages were returned and Hamas disarmed. Apart form what is effectively a peackeeping force, the peace plan of Chump is essentially the same. How many were calling/pressuring for the release of the hostages and disarmament of Hamas to end the war compared to Israel to stop and effective just allow Hamas to re-arm and try again?

My gripe today is the slackness of tradies and the poor design of a lot of domestic equipment. My 94-yr-old Italian neighbour Barney rings my doorbell at 8:30 AM this morning, just as I had planned an easy day. He told me in his broken English, his "air conditioner bracket was broken". I do all his running repairs, because he's childless, and his wife died about 10 years ago, and he's totally computer illiterate and he can't find any tradies any more, because there's no more telephone book or yellow pages book. I told him I'd be over in an hour to look at it. I get over there and find his stove rangehood had completely fallen off the wall, and landed on his stove! You should've seen the bodgie setup these installers had put in, to hold the rangehood up. It was an old rangehood, at least 40 or 50 years old (Barney's been in the house since 1994, and he said it was installed long before he got there). Fortunately, that made it a pretty simple and basic setup - but the installers had used screws that were too short and too small, and they'd simply pulled out of the wall. There were large wooden dowels (about broomhandle diameter) installed in the wall and they'd hammered plastic rawlplugs into the dowels, but the rawlplugs hadn't gone in far enough - and there appeared to be previous repairs as well, because someone had spread plaster or filler around the dowels, which plaster had fallen out as well. I decided the dowels were still quite useable, we just needed to dig up some larger and much longer screws. The rangehood was covered in thick grease, which all needed to be cleaned off before I could do anything, as the grease was getting everywhere. I took the rangehood out onto the back lawn and scrubbed it thoroughly with hot soapy water, until it was nice and clean. Then we set out on a hunt for some big screws. Barney went through all his tins of screws and could only come up with some big countersunk head woodscrews. I told him we needed regular button head screws, and I thought I might have something. As luck would have it, I had a few 14G x 65mm type 17 concrete screws that looked ideal for the job. There were only two screws holding the rangehood up. I drilled out the dowels to take long rawlplugs and ensured the concrete screws would go in without any problems. They did. Then came the fun of re-installing this prick of a thing. It was heavy, and awkward, and the screw holes were right up inside the rangehood housing, with tight access - and no lighting, of course. Add in, trying to stand on a wooden chair to get enough height, and lean over the stove at the same time, as you're trying to get the screws to start in the correct spot - all the while you have to look over the back of the rangehood to see where the screw is pointing, and turn the screw from the underside of the rangehood housing! Barney's not much help of course, he's pretty wobbly on his pins, and he uses a walker fairly regularly - although he get around the house without it. He couldn't even hold my phone with the light on in the right position to put light on the screw heads, as he'd have to stand on a chair, too! Fortunately, I managed to get the rangehood to hold in position by resting it on the top edge of the tiles under it, while I managed to get the screws started. Barney helped by holding pressure on the rangehood, to prevent it from dropping. I managed to get both screws started, and then spun them in with an 8mm socket on my battery drill. One jammed 2/3rds of the way in, but after backing it out, then screwing it in again a couple of times, it went right in and got an excellent grip. I was sweating like a horse with the effort, and with the effort of getting up and down constantly, and also having to kneel on the chair as well, which my knees protest about greatly now. Both screws got a great hold on the wall, and the rangehood was fully secured. I went and got my Silastic gun and squirted wet area silicone all around the edges of it to finish it off. Barney came out with some home grown Italian garlic and $50 for my trouble. Not exactly tradies rates, it took me two hours in total! - but I'd be happy enough to fix it for him for free, he's a good neighbour, and has been for nearly 30 years. So it all ended up a positive type of morning!

A few years ago I bought a smoke detector for my house. Smoke detectors are mandatory. The alarm has never saved me from a fire. I think I should be able to get a refund.

This may seem like a GON attack post, but be thankful it only quoted 3 of the 5 multi quotes. I will keep it short: @onetrack and my uncle were conscripted as well. Did it change their lives? Undoubtedly. But they don't seemto be letting it define them not are the soveriegn citizens, so connecting conscription to jusitifying being a soverign citizen is a bit of a furphy CTP, as with any insurance policy is a transfer for of liability for a risk materialising. During your how-many years of driving, you have received that service. You don't even get to claim in this case - it would be a person you have injured or the estate a person you have killed (i.e. at fault). Cor CTP, you don't get to claim - you are paying for the service of protecting your assets in the event someone has a claim against you. You recevied that service, so why should you be due anything. Yeah, I get you may think you have had no reason for someone to lodge a claim against you (you don't get to claim TPI, compulsory or not). But higher risk activities (of which driving is) has lower differences in premium between safe and unsafe drivers, as the activity is more the risk than [most of] the drivers. Some random event can cause an accident, and they don't have to be freak events. As society has deemed, due to the nature of driving and drivers in general, it is ubiquitous, represents a real risk to drivers, has to cover situations where the driver at fault may not be insured, wants to ensure any innocent victims/estate of victoms of a crash that are injured or die will recevie requisite compensation and care, it is right that it is compulsory. By doing iut at the vehicle rather than the person, you are making sure that as much as possible, the at-fault drriver is covered. As you can't predict who the driver will be, there is no difference in premium. In short, you have received the service you have paid for; the risk profile of you has little bearing of the premium in the context, and you're whinging about the cost of doing someething. Just don't do it, then.

That is not how insurance works. I assume you are talking about 3rd party injury insurance? The premiums paid for insurance are enough to pay out for those injured, plus operating costs, plus a profit for the insurance company. The money you pay in premiums is at least partially expended on those who are injured on the road. If you are injured, you will benefit. If you accidentally injure someone on the road, the insurance should pay, instead of you being sued into oblivion for disabling another motorist or pedestrian. I have never had a car accident and injured someone, but being a rational person, I understand that the possibility exists, no matter how careful I am. I can't fathom what insurance has to do with voting. You really do seem to have a persecution complex. Ummm wouldn't remaining in the system entail being politically engaged? Which politicians? The politicians who conscripted you are long gone. I doubt you would find many politicians who are pro-conscription at this point. There may well be the odd right-wing politician who, every few years, bangs on about bringing back conscription, but I suspect society would not be up for it. Conscription ended 53 years ago. Perhaps it is time to somewhat let go of the past and concentrate on living a happy life. I know of a few people on this forum who were also conscripted, but they don't appear to let it define them or link everything bad in their lives to it.

I wonder how many of them are on social service and rely on Medicare and the public health, education and transport systems.

Q: Why are boobs like Lego? A: They are meant for kids, but men enjoy playing with them.

Charging infrastructure is only an issue if you are going somewhere in the middle of nowhere. 90% or more of EV owners charge at home like me. Many have solar power & and EV plans with their energy retailer that provides them with cheap & some free power like me. I get free energy every day between 12:00 & 14:00 which is good as I am retired. For those who drive to work most get cheap energy from midnight till 4 am at around 5 cents a kWh. The average Australian who drives to work travels less than 30km a day. This is probably fairly similar to UK drivers. That is because 73% of us live in major cities, 25% live in regional cities & towns & only 1.9% live in remote areas. I live in the country near Maclean & Yamba NSW, population 2800 & 7400 respectively. There are 2 Supercharger sites (350kW) 1 Fast Charger (75kW) within 15km & a number of slower & destination chargers. Charging infrastructure is improving all the time. I get emails from a number of charging companies every month telling me of new sites that have been added. Most people who work travel distances only 2 to 4 times a year like Christmas, Easter & school holidays. This is when you need to plan your charging stops as you will find them pretty busy. Accommodation has to be booked months and sometimes more than 12 months in advance. Petrol stations can run out of fuel at these times as well though it is not common. I talk to other EV owners all the time & the only people who seem to have concerns about the charging infrastructure are those who don't own EVs.

Those pokies will get most people in. Thank goodness, the W.A. politicians have always refused point-blank to allow pokies into the State, on a wholesale basis. They're only allowed in the Burswood Casino.

Four Cannibals apply for a job in a big corporation… "Well", says the CEO, "This is a long shot, but if I hire you guys, you have to promise to not eat any of our staff." The Cannibals promise that they will not eat anyone, so they get hired. Everything is going well for a while, and one day the CEO calls them into his office. “You’re working well and all, but we’re missing an office cleaner. Do you blokes have something to do with that?” The Cannibals swear that they are innocent. The boss believes them, they all leave the CEO's office, and once out of earshot, the Cannibals leader turns to the other Cannibals. "You idiots!", he screams. "Who ate the cleaner?" One of the Cannibals sheepishly raises his hand. "You fool!", shouts the leader. "For weeks we've been feasting on Directors, Team Leaders, Supervisors, and Human Resources Managers - and then you go and eat someone they'll actually miss!"

It's important for the PM to be on the world stage as well as at home. In my opinion he's doing bloody well. He's stood up at the UN and announced an emissions target, and recognized a Palestinian state, two things that the USA are going exactly the wrong way on. Plus he still managed to keep the orange buffoon on side and organized a face to face with him, the lack of which the LNP has been bitching about non-stop. At the moment Australia is looking like a sensible, mature and trustworthy country, unlike several others.

That is completely nuts. Most ASX listed companies (and most large companies period) pay out between 30% and 50% of net profit as dividend. This is to allow profits to be reinvested into the business for growthand a buffer against bad times.. But you know, that investment in the case of Ausgrid would be to modernise it to, amongst other things, oh I dunno, handle electrcitity generated from other sources such as, oh, I dunno, wind and solar; or modernise distribution models for batteries, etc.. you know, stuff that allows investors a decent return, but smooths the transistion rather than the big cost that everyone is claiming it will be. At leeast only 17% of the profits is going overseas with the NSW government the main beneficiary of 40-off percent ownership. The loss of jobs is a furphy.. to maintain a renewable system will require as many if not more jobs, and hthe benefit is it will spread it more evenly across the regions as by definition, renwble generation will have to be more distributed, and it has to be maintained. I have spent quite some time in the nuclear generation industry and the amount of people needed to run a nuclear plant isn't what it used to be. Bring in SMRs - and the maintenance is a whole lot less. No one is going in every day and touchign the reactor.. it is the usual stuff like turbines, pumps, etc that are being maintained. That is the same for a coal or nuclear plant. Control systems are far better when they were, and telemetry is deployed a lot more than it was. A lot of the extrra people requied to run a nuclear plant over a coal plant are the helath and safety personnel and much higher levels of security (there is a separate nuclear power police force or something like that in the UK, and they are virtually anti-terrorist units). Yes, they are the same - EPRs. Sizewell was already running late before the first pour of concrete. Hinkley point is years and billions behind (check out the vid I posted in proud parents - daughter was in it for putting the dome pn reactor 2). Bith are subssidised and guaranteed by the govnermnet - socilaise the losses and guarantee the profits. In addition, there are minimum price guarantees per mw/h. Hinkley point was guaranteed at £92 per mw/h indexed from 2012. AI tells me the average spot for wholesale electricity was about £50 per mw/hr.. That is a f$cking big difference - so much for cheap power. Sizewell has similar guarantees.. So, the government has entered a huge contract for difference.. with the exception it fdoesn't pay out for the government. So much for efficient electricity. BTW, all this meddling is not exactly free market and in other coutries, we woudl call it communism. If you want to get jobs going in Aus, supoort a new indiustry manufacturing reneables technology and sell it (or at least use it locally),. Individually renewables is internmittent, but we are not just placing it in one spot in all of Australia, are we?