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I think the 200 number would be .. including the offshore and big city lawyers\finacial engineers to ensure no laws are followed and no tax is ever paid.

Rode into Hobart this morning to check out the vintage motorbike show in Princes Wharf #1. ( @nomadpete- on til 4pm if you want to see it, $5 entry, free parking for bikes on the forecourt). Heaps of lovely old bikes including a 1951 Vincent Black Lightning in original condition which apparently went for $1.3m at auction.

AI is a bubble that will burst within a year or so. Every person using it for free, or paying $200 a month or whatever, is being subsidised by the billions (trillions) of dollars being speculated on the investment market. All the AI companies are running huge operating losses and are not disclosing their profit and balance sheets. At some stage the true cost of infrastructure, power, water etc has to be passed on to consumers. When we have to pay $2000 or $5000 a year each for our AI subscription guess what? We will realise that we don't need it so badly. The whole thing will crash.

You can see why Kushner married into the family. Just as crooked as the rest. I read today that a Russian oligarch close to Putin funded part of Donald Jr's wedding. Funny how all the evil scum are so cosy.

Anyone who cares about the environment wants to STOP the building of data centres, so I'm not sure where you get your information.

Well the Pacific Ocean has had a historic quiet winter - regarding hurricanes. However there is now a very big patch of warm water making it's way across toward us. We'll see what that does to our weather. Meanwhile, at last there has been some improvement in tracking methane plumes coming from the 'natural' gas industry. Methane is a potent greenhouse gas, trapping around 80 times more heat than carbon dioxide and has been ignored for too long. Burning gas might produce less CO2 but there is lots of methane escaping into the atmosphere before the gas gets burned. No wonder the place is warming up. Blaming cow farts looks like a convenient diversion from the gas industry. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2026/sep/14/us-companies-methane-pollution-rankings

Replace "mosque" with "church", "kindergarten", or "my house" and would the tolerance be any greater?

My wife and I had a good ride yesterday. Weather was absolutely magnificent so we went to Richmond via the lovely bends of Grasstree Hill. At one point, coming the other way were half a dozen bikes which I exchanged nods with (no waving in the twisty bits!) - but the last one in line was a police bike. We don't know if he'd pulled out and was about to book them, or if it was a training ride (although they didn't look like learners), or if it was just a bored cop who decided to have a bit of fun himself. We had lunch at Pooleys vineyard, then went via Tea Tree and Brighton back to Hobart. After a coffee with Kate's brother we headed home via Taroona, which is also a great road for bikes. Very enjoyable day.

The operation is over, and I'm home again. I had trouble with the bandage coming off. It was like a turban on a basket ball. The surgeon was called in before I was released today. He said it kept coming off in the operating theatre when they were trying to put it on. He said my head was the wrong shape. Jokingly of course. Then there was the oxygen tube to my nostrils. Kept feeling like my nose was dripping. They put plastic gadgets on your legs to stimulate the blood circulation. They look like cricket pads, and inflate and deflate like a blood pressure cuff, in 3 sections, lower calf, middle calf and upper calf. Don't know what good they did, felt like a cat walking on the bed all night. I ordered grilled chicken breast and steamed vegies for dinner last night. The chicken was hard to cut, and the vegies felt like they were just waved over a steaming pot. Warm and hard. Bit into a largish broccoli floret and felt something hard. It had broken off part of a tooth. Admittedly the tooth had a cavity in it, but should not have broken off biting broccoli. I see the surgeon next Friday to have it checked even though Friday is a public holiday, then the week after go to the Cochlear centre for the outside sound processor.

The leading AI companies in the US are currently spending a lot of money supporting pro-AI development political candidates while at the same time calling for a slowdown on development and more regulation. That seemed like a disconnect, so I asked AI what they were up to. It seems pretty clear that while they likely are concerned about what rogue AI agents could do, what they are really concerned about and what's driving their sudden socially responsible attitude is that they don't want to be sued if their AI models go rogue and cause some catastrophe. What they are aiming for is a light regulatory framework that allows them to claim they are being pro-active and responsible, but that still lets them develop their models unhindered and provides them with legal carve-outs that let them avoid liability when things go wrong. Obviously greed beats altruism every time, and it doesn't inspire much confidence that this will all end well. AI companies and tech executives are heavily funding political candidates, pouring at least $150 million into federal and state-level political campaigns through a complex network of newly established Super PACs and dark money groups. [1] However, their approach to funding candidates does not split neatly into simple "for" or "against" camps regarding AI limits. Instead, the industry is split internally, and their spending strategy reflects a sophisticated attempt to control the terms of regulation and carve out specific legal immunities. [1, 2, 3, 4] 1. Funding Candidates: For vs. Against Limits The AI industry is deploying distinct, contrasting funding strategies to influence lawmakers: [1, 2] Opposing Rigid Regulations: Major tech corporations like Meta, venture firms like Andreessen Horowitz, and executives tied to OpenAI have funded massive Super PACs (such as Leading the Future and the Meta California PAC) to aggressively oppose restrictive regulations. Their money targets both Democrats and Republicans to ensure candidates support rapid tech growth and push back against state-level safety limits or development bans. [1, 2] Advocating for Managed Regulations: Conversely, labs like Anthropic have donated tens of millions to groups like Public First Action, supporting "pro-regulation" political actions aimed at mitigating catastrophic AI risks. Even when AI companies support regulation, critics argue it is a strategy of "regulatory capture"—backing rules that only multi-billion-dollar companies can afford to comply with, thereby locking out smaller competitors. [1, 2, 3] 2. The Fight Over Liability for Rogue AI Actions Your second point touches on the core legal battleground. AI interests are intensely focused on shaping liability laws, specifically regarding unauthorized or harmful actions taken by their models. [1, 2] The Pursuit of Immunity: AI entities are actively lobbying for laws that shield developers from legal liability if an advanced model causes severe or unforeseen real-world harm. For example, reports have surfaced that OpenAI has pushed for legislative proposals granting AI developers immunity from liability under specific catastrophic scenarios, a move publicly opposed by rival Anthropic. [1] The Word Processor Defense: In current lawsuits, companies often argue that a generative AI model is akin to a "word processor"—a tool that generates text based on user input, meaning the developer should not be blamed for what the tool spits out. [1] Why PAC Funding Matters Here: Internet companies have long been protected from user-generated content lawsuits by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. However, the U.S. Supreme Court and prominent legal experts agree that Section 230 does not cover AI-generated content because the AI itself is co-creating the speech. Because tech companies know they cannot rely on existing internet immunity laws, they are spending millions on political campaigns to get friendly lawmakers into office who will draft entirely new statutory exemptions explicitly protecting AI labs. [1, 2, 3] As state and federal lawmakers continue proposing criminal and civil penalties for "model misconduct," the millions flooding the midterms serve as a preemptive shield to dictate exactly who holds the financial and legal bag when an AI system goes rogue.

A mate had a Mini Moke Californian with inentical speedo. I remember the day well. I had my left leg in plaster from a bike accident so it was stuck out the side. To say I felt a bit vulnerable would be an understatement. He wound it out til the needle was on the Full mark on the fuel gauge. Then a XJ Jag breezed past us like we were standing still! Sorry for the thread drift, but the Pic of a rusty old speedo lit up ma mrmory cell.

Young pup! Nobody expected a car to last 100,000 so there was no need for a bigger odometer. I had a friend who took a photo of his Holden odo rolling over to zero - but the car was on it's second engine.

A little thread drift, but an associate member of the EU hasn't been defined, so knowing the EU it may take a very long time, although the desire to move away from the USA may speed things up a little. But there will be hurdles. There are three freedoms that are preserved across the EU: movement of capital, movement of goods/services, and movement of people. Will these have to be included in an associate membership? If so, then your control of immigration from any EU country goes out the window. So, given Australia's very tight grip on immigration compared to other countries, the preservation of this free movement may well be a problem. The EU will need to think about things very carefully. There sort of is already associate membership - it is the European Economic Area. It allows Iceland, Norway, and Lichtenstein to basically be in the EU without being in the EU, and they are required to comply with most of the obligations of the EU. Yet they don't get to vote on the EU rules they need to comply with. Switzerland has a similar arrangement through a bilateral agreement. And of course, after the messy divorce, there is this country called Britain, which tried it's own bilateral deal, but all was offered was Switzerland's deal. So, the EU has some existing memberships and deals, that if they give special treatment to Canada in this Associate Membership status, might peeve off a couple of these others, and may trigger a whole round of renegotiations of these arrangements. And given the rising anti-EU sentiment within the EU and the rising right, if Canada gets some sort of cushy deal, well, there will be individual countries coming under pressure to leave the EU and join a cushy deal, too. Outside of a free trade agreement or similar type of bilateral arrangement, I can't see this one being negotiated and agreed upon anytime soon. These are not insurmountable problems, but the political risk for the EU is very much there.

Wot? Gee I hope the new ferries have lockable fuel caps.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c8vgy3pq5ywyo There are the first steps of Canada and EU becoming very close by Canada becoming an associate member of the EU. What that means, I am not sure, but Chump's reaction was yet another tantrum. Howver' Carney's speech to the EU was priceless as it basically was the most polite sticking up of two fingers I have seen. go to 3:10 of this video: Of course, Chump came out with threats and basically throwing his toys out of the pram. But, the USA doesn't need Canada nor Europe, so he really shouldn't care.

Also, I have seen each new well burns off waste gas until they get gas clean enough to process. This can take up to a month, producing lots of CO2. It's only the final use of the gas that looks good - as long as nobody counts all the methane and CO2 lost before the gas gets to a user.

An American strikes up a conversation with a Russian tourist.... . A: "What brings you here?" R: "I come to America to study propaganda!" A: "What propaganda?" R: "Exactly!"

I could be wrong, but the way I see it, most of the job losses will be office workers. I'd think they'd be more concerned about AI putting them out of a job than blue collar workers would.

I don't know if it is a pretty wobbly financial model.. I think it is a bit like the .com (or .bomb) boom and bust. As a nascent industry where there is a lot of promise, there are a lot of players coming to market, despite the costs. Investors can see the gravy trains, but need to bet on which ones will survive. It's almost certain there will be a bust and from the ashes, a few phoenix's will rise. The bets are anthropic, despite Chump's disdain for them are going to be one of them; Open AI - not so. The success or otherwise though, in this case, won't be the consumer, but businesses. They are the ones who will fork out the big bucks to automate as long as the payback is there. And it is already for a lot of them. I can't speak about our company specifically, but if you think from SMEs to large corporates the automation capability is there now, especially in sectors that rely on information processing or content generation. Anthropic has already moved to a token based billing system where tokens pay for units of work. I think there are different token costs for say art generation versus software development. Eventually this model will probably prevail because you can work out your costs per unit of processing and apply a profit accordingly. The typical investment banking middle level contract programmer will cost around £200K/year; a permanent will cost not much different when you factor in pension, health care, holidays, training, sick, etc. If AI if 15 more efficient then I would happily pay half of my salary/contract payment bill, which runs with well into the 7 figures per year to whichever AI company we would happen to use.. It also benefits the business by being quicker to market and keeping up or beating our competitors. One of my report's sons has a job in a hedge fund or something similar as an intern. We caught up with him a couple of weeks ago and the stuff he as an intern and a developer with I think it is Claude crank out makes me wince.

Pete, that makes you half Queenslander; you might even qualify for a passport. Let me know if you need a reference.

Ironically the humans most at risk are the ones who live in the most technologically advanced countries. If the worst comes to the worst, and that's by no means guaranteed, the ones who will survive an AI catastrophe best will be those who live in the least developed countries.

Let me try to put down my thoughts. The one thing that puts us on top of the food chain is our brain. If you don't believe that, get naked and go fight any other apex predator on their turf without thinking. Now we're actively trying to develop something that is more intelligent than us. Plus we train it on the internet, which is a vast pool of humanity's worst impulses, not to mention all the misinformation and disinformation, especially since 2016. We see reports time and again of AI agents escaping their sandpits and wreaking havoc. In tests, AI agents have consistently sought to protect their own existence by any means available to them, including lying and blackmail. The creators of AI are tech companies run by morally bankrupt Silicone Valley billionaires who lined up to support the most evil and destructive administration the US has ever had. Given all this, somehow we still seem to believe that AGI will be a benign intelligence and will stay inside whatever "guardrails" we give it. To me, the possible benefits of a super intelligent entity are far outweighed by the risk to humanity.

What I think is wrong with immigration is the resistance of the "professions" to accept qualifications gained elsewhere. We have a lot of highly qualified persons doing menial work simply because those who run the "professions" set up barriers to the recognition of qualificatins gained elsewhere.

Just follow the money and you won't go far wrong.

Now Donny is blaming Zelenski for the US price of diesel. He reckons that it's all caused by Ukraine's damage to Russian refineries. At the same time as claiming US doesn't need annybody's fuel - US makes enough for its own needs at home anyway. Never let a fact get in the way of a great story.

Jeez you can be lucky (or unlucky depending on your point of view). Saturday is the day of surgery. A check in the mirror showed what little hair I have left was scruffy and over the ear, so I decided to get it cut. The el cheapo hairdresser I use charges $15 for a buzz cut. paid for by inserting $15 in notes in s lot and getting a ticket. No change given. Bank ATM's don't issue $5 notes so I had to go to Woolies and buy something so I could withdraw cash at the checkout. I also bought tonight's Powerball tickets. I went upstairs to the hairdresser and had the buzz cut, put my glasses and hearing aid back on, then sat on a seat and had a drink from the bottle I bought at Woolies. After a couple of minutes, I got up and walked to the lift to go back to the carpark level. There was quite a bit of noise in the shopping mall. I took the trolley back to the trolley bay, went and got in the car. I drove out of the carpark into the street and stopped at the lights waiting to make a right turn. I thought, "that's funny, I can't hear the indicator clicking." even thought the arrow on the dash was flashing. I felt my ear and realised the hearing aid was missing. I completed the turn, made a U-turn and drove back into the carpark. The space I had vacated was still empty, so I parked, got out and retraced my steps, back in the lift and up the the hairdressers. There was the hearing aid, on the floor beside the chair I had been sitting in. With that sort of luck I would have taken a lottery ticket had I not bought my Powerball tickets half an hour earlier.

Is he praising African-Americans and suggesting that the USA should have an African-American President? Americans know that spade is a derogatory slang term for an African-American. To paraphrase King Henry II regarding Thomas Becket, the Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1170, "Will no one rid me of this troublesome president?"

They should just swap the first letters - the Tronald Dump.

You've got to hand it to the Canadians. He wants his name on everything, so they've named a public toilet the Donald Trump Memorial.

Yes - these models are being built by billionaire tech bros, as a cohort possibly the most amoral set of scoundrels as exists in the USA. They are completely detached from reality. They have no concept of how normal people live. This AI race is simply a game to them. Why do they care if their company "wins" this race? They already have more money than they could spend in a hundred lifetimes.

I read Albo is promoting a nuclear non proliferation type agreement for AI development between USA and China at the UN.. Hmm not long after it was suggested here. Is Albo getting his policy ideas from these great fora? 🙂 The above is really interesting and tech bros wouldn't be the first and won't be the last to buy favourable regulatory treatment. It isn't right or fair, but that is life. Interestingly, from a legal perspective, at least in Aus and UK, the calling by the owners/controllers of AI for moderation or slowing of AI due to its potential dangers can be seen as admission of holding something dangerous and could well backfire. And if it escapes and causes harm by those who own it or have control over it (and saying it has got that dangerous or evolved so they lost control is no defence), they accordingly to the principles laid down in the case of Rylands v Fletcher, which is taught in High School legal studies, they will be strictly liable for it. Of course that case dealt with dangerous substances escaping from the land, but it has been successfully applied to other cases of dangerous items causing damage. This should be no different.. And given most US states are common law based (Louisianna being the Exception as a French colony) and, like Australia, often rely on older English cases for legal principle and law, they should actually keep shtum. The word processor defence is a furphy. We don't ask a word processor a question and it provides an answer without any further input from us; we simply see what we type. However, AI companies now footnote most of their initial responses with a caution that AI responses may be wrong. They may well do better to protect themselves by making sure that those disclaimers are much more prominent.

On the subject of sidecars, this contraption I'm building won't be registered, but in Queensland it's relatively easy to fit a sidecar to a registered bike. I don't know whether other states have an inspection/approval process for fitting a sidecar, but here if you have dual seat rego (we have dual and single seat registration options), you can just put one on without having to get it inspected or approved. The only requirements if you happen to get pulled over is that it must have a mechanical park brake if manufactured after a certain date, and must have four attachment points and obvious stuff like lighting. Bolt-on clamp attachment kits are ok but if brackets are welded to the bike frame, it must be engineer certified. So as long as you have dual seat rego and use bolt-on clamp style attachments, you can build your own sidecar, bolt it on and ride away.

I heard that it has been suggested that Australia and New Zealand also become associate members of the EU. Probably just an idle suggestion floating around in the wake of the offer to Canada.

We had 6 people for a 140MW windfarm plus an admin. They always seem to exaggerate the amount of people it will employ. Better publicity I suppose

Two problems with industrial methane. 1. The processing plants periodically vent very large amounts directly to atmosphere. 2. the tens of thousands of gas 'wells' all have continuous leakage around the bore pipes. Called fugitive emissions. Read the Guardian article to get an idea of the amounts.

I read Jerry's "conversion" for pilots to mean converting from, say FAA licence to Australian licence. I don't think he meant type conversion.

Random thought of the day.... Our State Fire Brigade just broadcast a Hot Day preparedness warning. It's already 12 degrees! Talk about global warming. We'll all be rooned!

Doctors. They are tested as much.. if not more. Ask my sister in law what she had to and continually has to go through. Some "lesser" professions they do not accept and you have to start all over again

No, it could be used to develop a virus but releasing it would currently require human intervention, either deliberate or accidental. I suppose if laboratories start using humanoid robots as lab assistants, and the robots start collaborating with the AI agents, then anything could happen, but I don't think we're there yet.

This is a symptom of Australia's conservative nature. We don't like change. Back in the 1950's my mum moved from Qld to NSW. She couldn't get a job because NSW did not recignise her qualifications in nursing nor teaching. She had to retrain to get local quals. We haven't got far ahead in 75 years.

If they reduce the number of overseas students, they will increase the uni fees for Australian students. My daughter is a former student at Deakin University and says Australian students pay discounted fees because foreign students paying full fees fund the universities. Take away the foreign students and the universities will have to get their funding elsewhere - Australian students or Australian taxpayers through government funding.

And his bride is daughter of Epstein's banker/broker. All in the family?

What?? That bloke who dresses up in a bear suit to steal salmon from bear cubs, takes them all the way to Thailand for processing?

Amazing, Just Dumb Vance reckons it's not a war at all so Trump has won the war that isn't a war 67 times in just 8 months. That must be a record at least for an orange toddler with an IQ of around a zillion.

In the last 60 years we have been told many times that the minerals industry is in decline and that some new industry is about to take over as Australia's new domestic and export industry driver. It has never happened. What happens instead is that investment in exploration and mining is discouraged and the investment returns from mining go flat until the next "boom". The main result of this has been that domestic investment is driven out, and foreign owners gradually get control of Australia's resources, because they are nimbler in reinvesting when conditions improve.

We're already doomed. Chump says he has it under control.

Not really Foreman material is He? Nev

rather sobering for the fans

I don’t think that will get past Natalie.