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Starting a new topic, similar to the "tell us about your last flight" on the sister site, but for motorbikes. (Or whatever else you've been riding. Just remember it's a family site 😜) Had a lovely ride this morning, met @nomadpete and his better half for a coffee then down to Dover. From there I took the Esperance Coast road (which I've never done before - but it was a beautiful riding road), which comes out at Surges Bay. Beautiful day, no pesky cars in the way for most of it. Pure fun!

The Poor will pay the Price of the bribe. It just adds to the existing debt, and is inflationary. Another Con by the Don. Nev

All the talk in the news lately about artificial superintelligence and the urgent need to regulate it reminds me of a virus that's already escaped the laboratory. I get the feeling that the genie will be well and truly out of the bottle before the world's lawmakers can do anything about it.

Even if he did pay out (and he won't), most people would have lost over $5k already in price rises, loss of benefits, loss of services etc caused by the idiot's actions to date, and would lose more if they kept the Republicans in power.

Anything to do with Trump is foul.

I always wondered how many folks actually read my posts. Now I know. Thanks!

Got my bike back yesterday... I was bracing myself for a big bill haveing burned out one regulator and potentially damaged the shop's bench regulator... The total price, including VAT (20%) was £477.. This included 4 hours of labour at £70/hr (which is a little on the high side, but dealers charge £90). They only charged me one regulator and there was a few assorted other parts. It was mainly corroded connectors throughout. The regulator company credited me the burned out regulator that my bike caused. And to boot, the regulator was cheaper through the bike shop than direct - by £50. Who said customer service is dead. The bike is due its MOT (RWC) on 18th December... They are already booked out to the end of November... Shows how a good shop makes money.

Never was a problem in the good ole days - bikes had a kick starter and a magneto to make the motor go and a carbide lamp up front to light the path. Batteries? Bah!

From the workshop --> home... Electrical gremlin fixed; sunny day, light breeze, cooling weather (about 18)... traffic reasonable. Smile back on face.

This sounds like a brilliant move.... Trump's Dallas mid-term convention site has been possibly sabotaged. The address redirects to the DOJ Epstein Library. http://gopdallas2026.com/ Try it. It really does!

I'm sorry Jerry, I don't see any upside at all to AI. I'm a programmer too, not on your level I'm sure. My employer is all gung ho about AI. Obviously if you own or run a company then you want AI. Let's face it, buying or renting an employee who works 24/7, doesn't require breaks, doesn't get pregnant, isn't an alcoholic or lazy or just distracted by all the shit that happens to humans - probably seems like a great idea. But while it benefits the shareholders at the top, what does it do for society and the other 99% of humanity? We can't all be baristas, and even now it wouldn't be hard to totally automate that. Work is part of our identity. Without purpose, what do we do? Sit around all day watching AI slop?

I can see you have tried to answer my question. Thanks for that. But you seem to be struggling to name any definite benefit to the people. What is the prospectus? Will my Council rates/car rego/groceries/rent, etc, go down? Will the hospitals definitely deliver faster/more accurate/cheaper health care? Seems the promises are all couched in terms like 'might' or 'should' do lots of the above. In the past, multibillion dollar projects were only approved when there were specific itemised measurable deliverable values that warrant the investment. So far I only see wishy-washy vague half promises. And little sign of addressing any of the risks. Is it just 'build it and the world will beat a path to your door, bearing gifts of gold' ?

Bloody yanks complaining that the MCG, designed for cricket and AFL, had too much space around their postage stamp pitch so front row spectators required binoculars to see the game. I watched part of the game, a stoppage every 20 seconds, making a 15 minute quarter take more than half an hour.

Nowadays reality can be created while you wait. And history has become an evolving story, when it was once a record of the past.

Here is an analysis of Trump's $5K cheque announcement by, would you believe it?, an Australian professor of Economics living in the USA. He asks five questions whose answers shoq that this announcement is hot air. Totally impractical, and even illegal under world moentary rules. The answer to his first question is obvious - would Trump deliver? No need for me to supply the answer to you.

According to Trump, if it walks like a duck; if it quacks like a duck, it's a water fowl.

Nope.. It is c. 245m adults x $5k = c. $1.33tn. On the assumption he would follow through (apparently, previously promised money including DOGE cheques for those who effectively took voluntary redundancy haven't been paid - but I have not researched it so it could just be a rumour), and assume it would take around 3 months to permeate through the economy, it would represent a c. 3.7% of GDP stimulus to the economy, with a lot of people who will spend it. What happens when you add to the M3 money supply? Inflation. And putting that much more in - in a short period - would bring back visions of people in Germany in the 30s.. Well, maybe not as bad, but inflation will hit hard, interest rates will rise to try and stem it and that $5K is not quite worth what they think it is. The US debt is at historical highs and yields are rising now (still YoY slightly down). The world economy is starting to feel the onset of a nasty flu. If Chumpo is true to his word and the Republicans win, you do not want to have or hold anyone else's debt.

Developing and implementing all risk systems for our whole European business.

I see where a bloke from Anthropic rates it a 10% chance AI will cause human extinction by 2030. That's it, I'm definitely not buying a new car, the old one should see me out.

Almost Page 103. Nev

Come the revolution.... the enablers will rule the world. We might have more to worry about than the price of diesel.

Bob Hawke’s widow Blanche D’Alpuget has died, aged 82.

When I was young and stupid (I'm no longer young) I rode from Hobart to Surfers Paradise on my Honda VFR750 for a holiday. The viffer is a fantastic bike for throwing around corners, but it got a bit uncomfortable after 2500 km. I did it in 3 days from memory. About 800km a day is enough on a bike, especially when you're cruising at 150 and still getting overtaken by semis.

Diesel is $2.70 /ltr now. Ouch. Thanks Donold! But the USAnians are almost ready to riot over fuel goung up to $5 /gallon. Sooks! At least they are hastening the EV revolution, so that's something.

The two longest trips I ever went on were both two up with a mate on his Guzzi, sharing the riding. One was from Melbourne to Adelaide and back, around 1,500 klm, and the other was from the Sunshine Coast to Cairns and back, around 3,200 klm. There's a ton of bikes I could name that would make those trips a horror story two up, but the Guzzi was a great tourer with a nice long comfortable seat and quite low from top of seat height to the ground. I could imagine it as the sort of trip where a BMW would be good as well.

Give me an old car any day. A friend had a Mercedes. The tyres were $1000 each and had to be filled with nitrogen, not air. My sons Mazda CX-6 diesel Hybrid SUV tyres cost $550 each. Tyres for my 2004 Holden Astra start at $129 each, a number of brands at $189 each. And the techno gizmos to go wrong. My son's SUV has electric tyre pressure sensors and an electric oil gauge. For people too lazy to lift the bonnet. The only dipstick is the one behind the wheel. Even has a wiper maintenance mode for changing wiper blades.

The manufacturers would be screaming poor if that happened. Making things to last and fixable is not good business under modern standards. Look at printers, it is cheaper to buy a new one with ink in it than a cartidge for most. Fridges dont last because of the alloy tubing now used corodes from condisation and blown insulation turn to a mild acid and eat the pipes. In my old workshop i had a fridge that was new in 1991 still running with steel tubing, others i know are still runing 70s fridges in their sheds. Not the most power efficent, but better than buying a new one every 5 years. I like fixing stuff because i hate wasting what was already bought.

Hmm. That's not what "nork" meant when I was growing up. It was only used in the plural and usually preceded by the words "phwoah, look at those "

I came across another photo repair website which offered a free trial. I uploaded one of the most damaged photos I had, of my wife's aunt and cousin. here are the results.

Guess what! A splayd is an eating utensil which combines the functions of a spoon, knife and fork. It was invented by William McArthur in the 1940s in Sydney. I've still got the boxed set of Splayds that Mum got back in the day.

I think AI has great potential in things like medical and scientific research as well as tasks like coding. Our firm is actively exploring ways to use it in engineering design as well as routine administrative tasks like taking meeting minutes and summarising long documents. I find it very handy to answer random questions that Google doesn’t do as easily. My concern is the uses it could be put to by people whose motivations are criminal or hostile, or if and when it develops to the point where we don’t know what it’s doing or lose control of it altogether.

A beautiful old KB Inter

There are many industries where job losses will be huge. No longer need camera operators, editors, directors, etc. A creative writer can generate something all by themselves. That motorbike club patch took me all of 2 - 3 mins to get to how I wanted it. An that was a general LLM/Generative AI tool. Imagine specialist ones. I can see the day you need a scan - walk into the radiogrpahers (or whatever they are called today), lay down; the machine automaticaly through AI determines the correct scanning angles, takes the shot, analyses the results are of sufficient quality to pass to the consutlant AI, that examines them and provides a diagnosis and treatment plan.. all before you get home.. Yeah, there will be the odd case where they have to have a nurse., radiographer, and consultant, but the vast majority will not be required. Copwriters, solicitors, accountants and may of these types of roles and supporting roles will all but evaporate (you still will need a few). If we are getting 15 - 20 times productivity increase, that means around 5 - 7% of the workforce needed. AI is not generating enough alternate jobs to pick up the slack. That is maths. Obviously, some roles will not be replaceable for some time yet - until robotics and AI are more advanced that what they already are. Trades, ambos, etc. Basically anything that needs physical capacity coupled with dexterity roles (watch maker/repair - although with electronics, I would say that has already died). But that time will come, too. And AI is helping.

I can remember watching the Canadian football grand final on the telly when I was in Alberta in 1985. There was a bit over four minutes left on the clock and the game finished about 35 or 40 minutes later. A lot of stops and big pow-wows. One thing I noticed during the MCG match was the coaches with a speaker/microphone headset covering their mouths with the playbook when they were calling a new play through to whoever it goes to. I'd never thought about it before, but maybe the teams employ lip readers to get a heads-up on what the opposite team is about to do.

Referenced to the Royal Enfield Twin.. Nev

I wish.. AI agents aren't (outwardly) so temperamental.. and they get the issues.

Hmmmm. So your current bike has no battery and a carbide lamp?

I have grown my team from 3 to just on 100 over the last year. Well, I couldn't have done it alone and have had help. I have been in at least 100 interviews and it is gruelling. Some use AI to filter CVs; I tried, but found it was not much quicker than reading the CVs myself. But what I have found is, these days where every interview we conduct is over video conferencing, the candidates are using it real time. Initially the first interviews, which are technical in nature, were smashed by the candidates but the second interviews which are more exploratory were failed abysmally by at least 80% of the of the candidates. We worked out pretty quickly AI was being used in both interviews, but even voice recognition models were too slow to compose the answers for the candidates to read out. However, this morning, I conducted a third interview on someone. And they aced it - a little too good for my liking. So I paid closer attention and I would say the candidate used a teleprompter. So, I did a little research: https://www.lockedinai.com/ai-copilot?gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=21848747952&gclid=CjwKCAjwqonVBhA4EiwA9wYJ3Si5Hzj8rgagiXonKERUqArUhFkh9iprq5xbhOkNtAQJ3xNC_D6VRRoCMysQAvD_BwE And there is a plethora more, with teleprompters to boot. So, I find myself paying closer attention to their eyeballs than the actual answer now. I am sure there is one for interviewers as well.

Do we need that? . Nev

I'm heartily sick and tired of Trump; probably more so of the American Democracy. Every day we are bombarded withthis man's insanity, and yet there is no one with the guts to do something about replacing him.

Talking about sobering. The 1930s are coming back in Germany. AfD is, of course, cheered on by Trump and Musk. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-09-08/afd-win-in-germany-state-implications-for-europe-ukraine-trump/107127334

I only drive 10 km per day, 5 days a week, rarely more than that. Usually 50-60 kph, occasionally 70 kph, all on bitumen roads. I don't think I will have many more years driving, so the old Astra will do me.

These manufacturers really aren't doing the planet any good, yet I bet most of them have a page on their webpage saying how green they are.

I doubt that would require much of it. Alloying with steel is common for strength and corrosion resistance. Nev

Toyota has been banking on its Solid State battery technology that it has been developing for a number of years but there have been constant delays & 2027-28 is the current launch date. Meanwhile they have teamed up with arch rival BYD to use their tech in Toyotas. Toyotas main effort in the BZ4X aka Subaru Solterra has met with poor sales due to a number of factors including price & range. Japanese manufacturers should have cleaned up the market with Nissan Leaf being one of the first EVs & Toyota the biggest & longest standing Hybrid manufacturer, but they were caught & overtaken & largely pushed aside by the Chinese. Chinas electrification plan began back in 2001 & no-one took any notice & the legacy automotive market has been blind sided & left in the dust.

I handed in all my welding rental cylinders years ago, paid a fee to Gasweld for “ownership”, only pay gas price when swapping. my oxy set ones are from another swap group through local owned ag store in Tamworth. I am going to change gasweld ones to Metal land system though because the shop is 3 doors down instead of a 100km round trip now. some years I not even get a refill, so rent was dead money with 6 cylinders.

Compressed gases are dangerous things. I would trust a BOC agent to handle cylinders with much more care than a casual employee of Bunnings. There has been a lot of Comment about how Bunnings is applying the tactics of other corporate ogres such as ALColesWorth by lowering the quality of its products by replacing the traditional brands with homebrands, made to a price but lacking the quality.

You could say the same for any hot rod.

Companies who make profits in Australia often have overseas shareholders. I reckon if you compare remittances to the money going overseas to those shareholders, it'd be a drop in the bucket.