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Money spent by the government on overseas aid is not a handout, it's a hand up. It typically goes to health, education and development in poorer countries as well as direct food aid in times of famine. As for people who send some of their money back to their families to help them out, it's their money. They earned it, they work here, pay taxes and also support our economy so they are doing their bit for this country as well. Saying that foreign aid recipients expect a handout as their human right and acquire a distorted sense of their own value and worth because they benefit from the aid is nonsense in my opinion. Trump got rid of USAID, which cost the US a relative pittance in cash but a huge amount in international goodwill. People in recipient countries died as a result. Was that a good outcome? in any case, Australia only ranks 25th out of 32 donor nations measured as a proportion of each country's national income, so you can hardly say that we are an overly generous nation.

You do seem to have range anxiety and that is normal for most people entering the full BEV sphere. When you have 48% of battery capacity left there is absolutely no need for concern. You can stop at any supercharger & just take as much as you need to get to your destination. I was getting low when coming back from Noosa to home near Yamba. Distance was about 100km & range 95km. I could have slowed down & made it but I stopped at a Tesla Supercharger & got 5 or 6 minutes at 130-140kW which was easily enough to get home at 110kmh & then some to run around town the next day. The last 20% of battery capacity takes almost as long as from 10% to 80% & it is considered bad form by most of us EV drivers to charge beyond 80% especially if someone is waiting. Planning long trips is something we all do as the charging infrastructure is still in its infancy. Back in the early 1900s there weren't many petrol stations & initially you had to buy it in cans from a Chemist. EV public charging is getting better all the time. Range anxiety no longer exists in China as they have the infrastructure in place already. I often plan a stop after about 2-3 hours driving and at a fast charger (50-80 kW) at a shopping centre. These are much cheaper than a Supercharger but slower. I then have a bite to eat, use the toilet etc & when I get back after 20 minutes to 1/2 an hour or so the car is back up to about 80% & I carry on. In my old ICE car I did the same but usually did not need to fill up if I left home with a full tank. I still had to fill up at my destination anyway. A lot of hotels & motels have "Destination Chargers". These are slow chargers like the wall charger I have at home. Some have type 2 cables but some don't so having your own is handy. You can charge the car over night and often it is free. The 3 pin charger that comes with the car is called a Granny charger & in Australia is limited to 8 amps. The maximum size portable chargers are 15 Amps & have a 15 amp plug. You can get a 32 Amp socket installed by your electrician but is will require a 6mm supply cable & you will need a 32 amp 7.4 kW charger. It is better to install a 7.4kW wall charger as it has all sorts of functions allowing you to choose to charge from solar or at off peak etc. My MG 4 is now 3 years old & has a maximum of 140 kW charging capacity. At a 350 kW charger I get at least 120 kW up to about 80% full. The problem generally doesn't lie with the car but with the grid supply to the supercharger. Most don't have a supply anywhere near as big as the cars capacity to charge and have a relatively small storage capacity which will be used quite quickly especially if there are several chargers & they are all being used at once. Note in China they now have 1.5 megawatt chargers for use with EVs having 1000 volt architecture. These can charge the EV from 10% to 80% in 5 minutes. The whole issue with having various apps & cards is a pain. Why they can't just all accept a credit card is ridiculous. I do have an RFID card for a couple of charging outfits & that is simple but it still charges to my credit card anyway. The best one is a company here called Evie & once the car is registered with the company I just plug in & it charges without any other requirements. When finished my credit card is charged & I get a notification & receipt on my phone. Way simpler than getting petrol. With no engine noise and effortless power & full torque from zero rpm your stress levels are definitely lower on a long trip. The RWD on the MG & 50/50 weight distribution provides superb handling & booting it out of a corner is magic. No other hot ICE car can compare. I am sure the Beamer is the same, most likely better. I hate driving the wifes ICE car and especially hate going in to a stinky petrol station.

Just got a call from the shop. Apparently the connectors on the loom side of the regulator were knackered (though I thought I checked them... so when I pick up the bike I will see what I missed).. And also, the new regulator itself is a dud. So they are taking a video of it so I can use as evidence to get my £ back... The company that supplied me the regulator should be OK with it though, as the shop is replacing it with one from the same company I purchased from and they have good reputation. Regulator won't arrive until tomorrow and I will not be able t collect until Thursday afternoon... So to London by train this time.

Random....

I think I'm drawn to yoga....

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.

Crotchless panties are the most impractical and useless piece of lingerie ever made. Lingerie is meant to tease, hide and hint at what is behind. But these do the exact opposite. They just frame your bits in superfluous material that still has to be removed. Or, if left on, it just gets in the way. Besides, they offer no support at all for your testicles.

If you aid people where they are, there will be less needing to escape to Here.. Nev

Media being what it is, there is also a possibility that the parents may not have first heard anything from an official source. I did hear (unofficially) that the parents were likely present at the search. A sad outcome on all fronts. My heart goes out to all involved.

Being able to get that fancy gadget and HEAR is the most important thing. Nev

Yeah. Not a word of praise for the people who risked injury to carry out the seach, and the effort needed to retrieve the body. I thought the the Police officer controlled his emothions pretty well. He seemed to be empathetic to the fact that the woman had died, and how the parents felt. But he really showed self-control when these hacks kept pushing the mistaken message line. You have to remember also that he wasn't at the command centre, so he was dealing with relayed information and most likely had never been in the area himself. I'm not just sticking up for him because I remember working with him when he was a fresh-faced Constable. I lost track of him thirty-odd years ago.

I had an odd experience at work yesterday. A work colleague and I sparred quite some time ago- around the time of the election - about Chump; he was defending Chump vehemently and of course I took the opposite position. We respectfully agreed to disagree and left it at that. I probably wrote about it on this thread. Yesterday was the first time in eons we were in the office coincidentally. To be honest, I had totally forgotten our conversation, but he dragged me aside and quietly conceded he was very wrong about Chump,, Interestingly, the final straw wasn't the criminal activity nor the corruption, but the invasion of Iran...

I bet they call it 'Almond Milk', because nobody can say "Nut Juice" with a straight face.

A belly button is basically a scar from when you got into a knife fight with a guy in a mask after being evicted from your first place.

A horse walks into a bar. The bartender asks the horse if it's an alcoholic, considering all the bars it frequents, to which the horse replies, "I don't think I am." POOF! The horse disappears. This is the point in time when any philosophy students in the audience begin to giggle, as they are familiar with the philosophical proposition of cogito ergo sum, or roughly, "I think, therefore I am." But to explain that concept beforehand would be putting Descartes before the horse.

Oops sorry, PICTURES.....

A man went to his doctor, and the doctor checked him over before commenting, "It looks like you get a lot of exercise." The man replied, "Oh yes! In fact, just the other day I walked 5 miles over rugged terrain. I climbed over rocks and trees. I waded along the edges of a lake, pushing my way through tall thistles, and even slid down sandy slopes, getting sand in my eyes." The doctor was quite impressed. "Well, you sure are a dedicated outdoorsman." The man replied, "No doctor. I'm just really bad at golf."

No pictures please🤣

Tony said "Don't say my name backwards" I said YNOT?

What you are forgetting is that the money being sent overseas has already been taxed here, and it is the property of the person sending it. The owner can do whatever he wishes with his property. Just think how much money gamblers send into the coffers of bookmakers. My reason for posting that information was simply to point to something that we have never thought about. Is the practice good or bad? It is good in that it must make lives better in the destination country. It is bad because it diminishes the amount of money available to support Australia's local small businesses.

I don't think our system of preferential voting is the fault. The fault with modern elections is the contributions made to Parties by organisations. Dose an organisation have a franchise to vote? Is an organisation a person? We are coming to the conclusion that donations to political parties by organisations are bribes - a rose by any other name.

I'm sure the electoral Commission has stats on the number of informal votes. But the thing is, if voting is optional, only those who feel strongly about issues will bother. That means more goes to the extremes, which is why you have an autocratic kleptocracy in the US right now. I think our system means more people vote towards the centre, which helps reign in the more extreme policies on both sides.

You don't comb the hair over it, it's worn as shown in the second photo, over the hair. You take it off for sleeping, showering, swimming. Any way, I have a buzz cut, nothing to comb.

A diagram of how the whole thing works.

For anyone not familiar with Cochlerar Implants, here are a couple of photos. The first shows the components of the system.The grey parts are what is seen on the outside. They clip over the ear similar to a hearing aid. They contain the microphone, sound processor, the battery, and the round part on the lead contains a magnet and a loop which transmits the processed sound signal. The shiny thing in the centre of the loop on the right is a magnet. This component is implanted under the skin of the scalp. The magnets in the two components hold them together when worn. The sound signals are transmitted to the coil in the implanted component. The lead on this component is threaded into the cochlear in the ear, the 22 electrodes on the end of it stimulating the nerves and sending the sound signals to the brain. The second photo shows how the external component appears when worn.

A great number, that one. The main riff is based on John Lee Hooker's Boogie Chillen. I must admit I prefer ZZ Top's use of it if I had to choose between the two.

Don't mess with the elephant. VIDEO-2026-08-08-16-07-09.mp4

It's on topic. All these things with Toyotas happened in one local government region or another.

Seems the Globemaster was accompanied by a C130 - probably carring the catering truck. Just in case.

Hope that fixes it Jerry. What a pain.

Good thing they don't have almond cream then...

We have Tamar valley yoghurt but never the low fat version. Their normal is delicious and thick.

What I if told you, You the read first line wrong? Same the with second line, And also the third...

I thought I would ask the question of ChatGPT. Here is the link of the question and answer. https://chatgpt.com/share/6a8d541b-5b14-83ed-b954-fe3fef4f12b3 Not much in it.

I've found AI is not too bad with simple questions that are not likely to have a hugely incorrect answer. One thing to watch with things like Google AI at the top of their search page is the reference links they give. Often they link to just something some bloke has said in Facebook or on Youtube. Far dodgier than some of the Wiki references.

Sounds like drinkable yoghurt.

Well, we all know that you are rust free. Yoiu've told us many times already.

Do you recall the character in Supeman comics called Mister Mxyzptlk ? The character is a magical imp from the fifth dimension. Tricking him into saying or spelling his name backwards—Kltpzyxm (pronounced keltipzixum)—sends him away from Earth and back to his home dimension for at least ninety days.

I'm just trying to put context and balance in to the story which is just there to get people worked up and think Poorlean is the Answer. We still have triple "A" credit ratings and a Lower debt to Economic activity than Most of the rest of the best economies in the World. under the stress and chaos of Covid and Later Trump and the ME chaos. Nev

The owner probably said "sit, sit" and lisped. Nev

Money donated by some is considered a good investment. Like Gina, as a prime (and Blatant) example. Plenty of others. Support some one and get your Paddock rezoned for Housing. Nev

I currently live under a Ln optional voting and fist past the post system. I am not sure Farage would have been successful given the low voter turnout (44%) delivering him a 27% vote of the total electors in his seat

They just want a headline. A lot of them are rude and disgraceful.. Nev

I must have been to busy working and studying to Know Much about Pop Stars. I know nothing about all these People. Nev

Pretty much correct.. Corner the Market and there's no competition. If you can't compete. Put tariffs on. Whinge about everyone one ripping you off on trade DEALS you signed and not under duress either. Nev

Watching Foxtel last night. Fourteen adverts or program promotions per ad break.

When I was travelling for work I discovered that many ads are voiced and adapted locally. For example, "Kiwi kids are Weetbix kids". And many US ads were given Aussie voices, but these days they tend not to bother as we seem to have accepted US accents. And racially inappropriate actors in Aussie ads, which are simply run here without change.

Janus trialled a electric conversion of a diesel long haul tractor unit that could get from Melbourne to Sydney on a single charge or Sydney to Coffs similarly. The original had a clamshell front & the battery was swapped out by Forklift in 15 minutes. The driver though had a minimum 2 hour stand down timeframe. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i4FjettzOJg Medium size delivery trucks & even long haul tractor units in the city can get a battery swapped in under 5 minutes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qlOxqhWbsk4&t=6s

Just an update on the 600 million government support deal for PNG entering the NRL with the PNG Chiefs entering the comp in 2028. The 600 million support package is spread over ten years; 290 million goes to direct support for the PNG franchise and infrastructure, and 60 million for license and operational fees. 250 million is earmarked for the Pacific Rugby League Partnership for community, health, and education programs in the member states PNG, Fiji, Samoa and Tonga. The Pacific Rugby League Partnership is a partnership between the Australian Rugby League Commission, PNG, Fiji, Samoa, Tonga and the Australian Government.