Leaderboard

Well, we're taking the jump. My wife and I test drove 3 EVs today - MG 4, MG 4 Urban and MG 5. Kate had already put down a deposit on the MG 4, but after driving all 3 we're tossing up between the Urban and the MG 5. In all 3 cars the acceleration is brilliant. Handling is great. We found the Urban and MG 5 more comfortable because we're both tall (and possibly a bit wider than we should be). Over the weekend we'll decide which way to go and switch the deposit on Monday.

Definition of a gentleman - someone who knows how to play the bagpipes -- but doesn't.

Interesting question. I could just wimp out and say, “I’m retired now.” Music has always evolved alongside technology. The instruments available to composers today are vastly different from those available centuries ago, whether in orchestras, jazz, rock, or electronic music. Of course, AI is a rather different innovation. I think AI in music is inevitable, and like most technological change, it will bring both benefits and drawbacks. On the positive side, AI is a democratiser. It allows almost anyone to experiment with composition, arranging, and production. That could open the door for talented people who may never have had formal training or industry connections. On the downside, it may also lead to an overwhelming amount of average material. Music has often evolved because composers and performers broke the rules of their time. AI, at least in its current form, largely works by analysing existing music and reproducing variations of it. Whether it can truly innovate in the human sense remains an open question. For me, music is deeply human. I would rather hear a second-rate live orchestra or band than a flawless recording of a world-class performer. The imperfections, the spontaneity, and the sense of shared experience matter. In some ways, this tension has existed for decades, as recordings became increasingly engineered and perfected. Technology has always reshaped the music industry. In the 1940s, venues employed large big bands with 20 or 30 musicians. The arrival of the electric guitar and amplified music made it economically attractive to hire four or five performers instead. That was a loss in one sense — the big band era was awesome, but it also helped create rock and pop music as we know it today. I suspect AI will become very useful in commercial areas of music. For example, we may not always need a human composer to create an advertising jingle or background track. My concern is whether this eventually leads to a kind of musical “fast food”, content that is efficient and disposable, but lacks depth, individuality, and genuine human expression. In the end, I don’t think AI will destroy music. But I do think it may change what we value in music, and perhaps make the human element even more important.

You know that old thought exercise about which famous people, alive or dead, you'd invite to you ultimate dinner party? People choose Einstein, Jesus, Confucius, Plato etc. I'd choose Trump, Vance, Hegseth, Putin, and Netanyahu. Catering by Erin Patterson.

Trump, or at least, the Trump organisation, has pulled the plug on Trump Tower Gold Coast.

On my new Samsung 26 Ultra phone, I just have to ask AI to draw me up a wallpaper image that suits my description. I typed, "I want a beach scene painting and nothing else, drawn in the impressionist style". It promptly produced a very good "art-deco, impressionist style" wallpaper, with a beach scene with chalk cliffs behind the beach, art-deco style ships in the distance, and impressionist images of people and umbrellas on the beach. I'd give it 9.9 out of 10.

If you get a window seat even on a Moonless night you can often pick out lights that tell you where you are That's an early A-320 wing. The best seat is up the front om the Left. Nev

None, They all represent interests of themselves as billionaires.

Geez, you've really been sucking on the Trump Kool-aid bottle, haven't you? What do you think is going to be the next thing to happen? A long-lasting peace plan engineered by Trump, where the Iranians lay down all their arms, and come meekly to the surrender table to sign the surrender document? You're off with the fairies, along with the Tangerine Toddler. He's so full of sh**, it's a wonder they haven't called the portaloo collectors to come and collect him.

This is beautiful.

Most People who've experienced such circumstances hate war and seek something better.. Nev

The mothers may have been under the same duress as the Iranian Women's Soccer Team who wanted asylum in Australia, with threats to their family in Iran. They may have had no say in who they married, the Muslim religion treats women worse than dogs. 9 year old girls are forced to marry. The mothers did not want that sort of treatment for their children. Bringing them here gives the kids a chance to grow up as caring compassionate human beings.

It's the Prayer room in Canberra.. Nev

My positive today was a walk we did up Flinders Peak. It is a very foggy day here, but we climbed up and out of the fog into a beautiful sunny day. Then we climbed down into the fog, which still persists here at sea level. 1000011323.mp4

America had a treaty with Iran on nuclear weapons, and Trump scrapped it, purely because it was arranged by Barack Obama.

Maybe DJT was cunningly trying to implicate the other see? The holy one? He doesn't like the pope much!

Have you tried ‘bring me a beer’?

If it came down to a choice between those 2 shows, I'd read a book.

Here is a video from a musician who has a pretty good YouTube channel. This video is about how AI music will affect musicians. It is 15 minutes long, so I understand most folks are not that interested, so here is a summary of the conclusion. (created by AI of course) 6. The conclusion: art survives, even if the industry changes The overall message is cautiously hopeful. The speaker accepts that: AI is not going away, parts of the music industry will change dramatically, and some commercial opportunities may shrink. But he argues that: artists will still create, audiences will still seek authentic human connection, and genuinely creative music may become even more valuable precisely because it is human. His final idea is that true artists make music primarily because they need to express something — not just to make money — and AI cannot take that impulse away. The tone of the video is interesting because it starts from real fear and grief, but gradually moves toward adaptation rather than denial. It’s less “AI is wonderful” and more “AI is here, so what parts of music remain uniquely human?”

Lighty, I didn't realise you were that kinky. Does Barnaby know about this?

I emailed him and got a reply within 15 minutes. He is well, but has had a few system problems logging onto different sites.

Here are a couple of pieces of music trivia. During war 2, the BBC would play the opening of Beethoven's 5th Symphony (which I think everyone would recognise) before news programs. The rhythm is short, short, short, long, which is the same as the Morse code for V. This became part of the V for victory campaign. Famously, Churchill used to hold up his fingers as a V but initially got it the wrong way round, which meant something quite different. The well-known theme tune to Mission Impossible, composed by Lalo Schifrin started out with that famous long, long, short, short, which is Morse code for MI

Although I love aviation, I find commercial air travel to be mind numbingly boring. There are however usually some moments of beauty. I snapped this last night on my way home from Adelaide.

I think that the question has been well and truely answered. By its very nature, AI can only utilise what already exists. As you can say, it can rearrange what exists, in the same way that composers have created variations on the works of others. However, it takes a human imagination to innovate. Here's an example. Pete Townsend of The Who played around with reverberation using an electric guitar. No AI program would have thought to do that. When he achieved a useable result, other rock guitarists began to use the technique.

I sometimes think that bananaby's face is a reminder to take my hypertension medicine...... or put on more sunscreen. Anyone else wanting to Slip, slop, slap?

My random discovery.....

All UAE has to do is wait for the right time to activate the self destruct system they left in the aircraft.

I'm have got to stop starting posts with headline-like sentences. They are always misinterpreted. What I was trying to say was that it was a good thing that domestic solar installations were being done at a great rate and that the battery subsidy was a big help. It was my belief that the inability to store excess electricity was holding back the adoption of solar. That disability now seems to have been overcome That's good. An aside: I was nearly going to write that solar installation rates were going through the roof, but I didn't want to pun.

I never take a HTV card. Firmly of the belief that everyone who is eligible to vote should take their responsibility to engage in democracy seriously and number all boxes. It's not a big ask, once every 3 years.

Wait up..... I'm confused ...... I'll have to go back and find some episodes of 'Blue Hills' and 'Dad n Dave'...... that should clear this up.

So, since Trump is saving the world from the spread of mass killings and nuclear weapons, when can we expect him to make Israel give up their nuclear weapons?

Every ON voter questioned on TV, when asked why, said "We needed a change."

It seems funny hearing people refer to 4% as high interest rates. It was 17.5% when I took out a variable rate loan to buy my place, and the loan peaked at around 20%. My father was paying around 22% on his business loan at it's peak.

I tried the beer when I was up in the country, but it was hard to get, warm and tasted like the worst home brew you'd ever tried. Rotten egg gas smell when you opened them and no two bottles were the same. Apart from right hand drive cars driving on the right, another oddity was a couple of years later when Ne Win introduced new currency based on his lucky number 9. He also demonetized three existing notes which rendered 75% of the country's cash invalid. It wiped out most people's savings in a country that relied heavily on black market cash and hammered the economy. The military government was a bit crazy. In the first place I stayed there was a window between floors in the stairwell. In the distance seen out of the window was a big red building, and on the wall a poster with a stern government warning not to look at the big red building. I imagine in the big red building there would have been a government agent with the job of looking through a telescope to see if any foreigners were looking at the big red building. I wouldn't have even noticed the big red building if I hadn't seen the warning sign, so of course the natural response on reading the sign is to look out the window at the big red building.

I agree with you there Nev...the media in this country is shockingly bad. Journalism is now tainted with woke and left bias. Very few have any right bias its mainly left. What ever happened to unbiased fact based journalism that just gave you the facts and not the spin depending on who owns the media company The ABC used to until it was poisioned by idealogy and crap interviewers

Great man. He's done a lot for the world.

Nev's right though. For all their absolute stupidity for going off to join the caliphate, and the abhorrent isis, they remain Australian citizens with Australian passports. Any crimes they have committed over there, which are offences under Australian law or international laws that Australia is signatory to, will be charged. The children of course are innocent and should be given the same opportunity to grow up in Australia as any of us. To suggest we should somehow prevent Australian citizens from returning home is just wrong.

No need to squabble guys. Every tech answer has an application. Diversity of energy sources is like an insurance policy against one source stopping. Specifically relating to Energy, reducing the pollution caused by any industry, is a benefit to all humanity. We should wean ourselves off the fossil fuel industry because burning it causes many kinds of pollution. Sooner the better, as long as we do it progressively. And EV's are a great step in the right direction.

Random government thought......... At some point in the future there will be a need to reward a person who tells the truth. A No Bull Prize.

Aren't they called ESV's - Emotional Support Vehicles?

Have you got a NEW Cause Celebre, Mark? You can get artificial Spray on Mud for those Toorak Tractors. Enhance your MANLY Image (and that of your Wife ) when she takes little Johnie to Private school. each day. The whole 1-2 Kms that doesn't even get the engine Warm. Nev

What I can't understand is why people drive those kinds of vehicle around the suburban area. They take up 1.5 car parking spaces, and anyone in a medium sized sedan parked beside them can't see past them when exiting their parking space.

This presupposes that we are the only country attempting to cut CO2. Yes, our share is small, but all of the countries that contribute under 2% make cuts adds up to 30% (I am happy to back that figure up) How are these actions abhorrent? When you say you don't accept the science, are you saying that CSIRO is incompetent or part of the malicious conspiracy that you alluded to? I approach climate science like any other area. I have had people tell me that vaccination doesn't work or causes autism, etc. I reject this because I can see what CSIRO says. Being extra cautious, I can cross-check this with other respected sources. This seems to me to be a solid method of determining what the likely "truth" is. If you believe this is a flawed method, then suggest a better method. If the outliers in climate science are right, then why not the outliers in medical science or any other field? Vaccine sceptics also tend to cite "grand conspiracies."

I know where I was wrong. I saw the use of a switch on the guitar by Hank Marvin of The Shadows. Pete Townsends' feedback was the death cry of his guitar as he bashed it onto the floor of the stage

Maybe he didn't want any military hardware at the WW2 victory parade because he feared some of it could be turned on him.😍

The Greens get an unfairly bad rap in this ABC article on ANU polling. To quote the article: "The Greens top the poll as the most hated party, with 25.6 per cent of respondents reporting a strong dislike of the party compared to One Nation at 24.2 per cent." It's a misrepresentation by cherry picking figures, and I doubt it's intentionally dishonest; I'd say it's just amateurish, sloppy journalism. With questions like that respondents are usually asked to rate on a scale of 0 to 10, with zero being strongly dislike and 10 representing strongly like. 25% of respondents selecting strongly dislike means 75% selected a more favourable option. The article doesn't give those figures. It's entirely possible that with a polarising party, it could record the most on the bottom of the scale, but also record the most on one of the more favourable options further up the scale. Just as a disclaimer, even though this post is defending the Greens, I'm definitely no supporter of them. The point is, all parties deserve fair and honest media reporting. It brings to mind the old saying - there's lies, damned lies, and statistics. Here's the article in full for anyone interested: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-05-04/anu-polling-one-nation-economy-trust-government-coalition/106635950

That would require him to hold three different trains of thought in his head at the same time. I think that level of strategic thinking would too much for him.

Show me the country that has "first past the post" voting, and which has a far superior style of Govt to the one we have here in Australia? FPP voting is highly susceptible to gerrymandering due to unfair electoral boundary distributions. This is the reason why Trump and the Republicans are seeking to alter electoral boundaries in many U.S. States to favour the Republicans. In FPP voting, smaller parties get no representation at all. The Republicans want the poor, the blacks, and Democrat voters to have no say in what they want to do, and to have no power to oust any Republican Govt. It's gerrymandering at its best. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First-past-the-post_voting

I like this girl. This youtube discusses the issue of EV battery degredation, which is surrounded by urban myth and misinformation. I especially note in the comments - there are a lot of anti-EV trolls simply bagging out EV's.