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Last weekend I took Friday off, we deserted the kids (hey the eldest is 18 so there was theoretically an adult in the house) and the missus and I went to Swansea. I took the bike and she took the EV - strange, I know, but with Tassie you need to be prepared for any weather. As it was I was rained on every day of the weekend, but there was enough fine weather between the showers to make it worthwhile. We rode into Coles Bay on Saturday, had an excellent lunch and dropped in to Devil's Corner vineyard on the way back. On the way home the main tank ran dry 40km from Richmond. I wasn't too concerned because my wife was somewhere nearby, but as it was the reserve got me there. I was taking it very easy on the wet corners - but even so, at one point I touched the rear brake and felt the back end give a little. From then on I took it even easier. Very relaxing weekend!

Saw my first snake of the summer today - just avoided running over him on the bike, which could have been nasty for both of us.

They really are an ebarrassing couple of d*cks.

If the Landcruiser had not pulled out the accident would not have happened. Any rider with a fair bit of experience knows that many tin-top drivers make right turns in front of you and Hit you on roundabouts when you are on their right,and pull out from the side of the road without looking carefully. They ALL say "I didn't see you" as if that's a legitimate excuse. Yeah the rider was going too fast, but YOU are supposed to LOOK.

I am not meaning to be a sinophobe, but China is positioning itself to be a global superpower like no other. Like the many countries but more recent stark examples such as Japan, Korea, and Taiwan, they start with a cheap labour force and other factors of production and start manufacturing the basic goods.. almost commoditised types of goods. It is cheap, breaks and generally OK to throw away after a while But then they invest in technology and manufacturing processes and their cheap goods soon become durable and relatively high quality. You only have to look at the Chinese car manufacturing industry to see how that has come leaps and bounds in a very short period of time - about 10 years in major exports (yes, they have had a domestic car industry for much longer time and they have been exporting cars for a longer time, too.. but not at mass scale as today). Certainly in my life time, Australia never really enjoyed comparatively lower costs of labour or other factors of production. So we are always going to struggle to compete. Although there was a vibrant manufacturing sector, it was largely domestic.. Now, China is advancing into the high tech manufacturing and doing a good job of it. But unlike the other countries named, there are two major differences: the population and size of the economy as its wealth from exports increases.. and the government still has largely autocratic control and it decides on the allocation of resources, unlike western type economies where managers focusing on the short term share price and bonuses as a result decide the allocation of resources. And the Chinese government plans for the long term. With a cashed up government thanks to exports and control over industry, China is perfectly placed rise to be the (not a) global superpower. That is a little dramatic but not improbable. Sorry for the thread drift.

I wouldn't worry about getting submarines, that's one of the reasons it's such a shit deal. Yanks can't build enough for their own needs, they're not going to be giving them to us unless they're clapped out.

That's wishful thinking Marty. Banks offering solar loans. They seem to be continually cutting down what they have to offer rather than increasing it. My bank has closed most of it's physical branches, sacked most of their staff and now only offer housing and business loans, nothing else.

The problem with elections is that they have always, since way back in ancient times, been auctions. Candidates make outrageous offers involving spending money, but don't say that those offers are factual. Our system simply leads to any government formed from those elections doing things in the short term. Not that I am in favour of totalitarian systems, but look at least at China. It seems that their government is prepared to make plans for things that will not eventuate for a long time. That seems to get things done.

Banks could assist here. Why don't they offer "solar loans" - where they fund the installation of enough panels and battery that you don't have any debit bills. The repayment amount is set to the average of your last 12 months power bills. So there's no financial impact to the user but then in 6 or 8 or 10 years, you're not paying for power.

I doubt you would give them any credit for where we are no matter what, but Plenty of those contracts were done Years ago. Don't Open cut Mines damage vast tracts of Countryside and Wreck water tables? Solar doesn't damage the Countryside. You can farm or graze under it. Wind pays farmers who allow it and it provides them with a stable income. Batteries when installed benefit everybody. Nev

To look is to use sight to perceive an object. To see is to notice or become aware of objects and surroundings using your eyes. To perceive means to become aware of, to notice. Perception means coming to an opinion, interpreting a situation, based on on i the inputs of looking. There is a great deal of practical difference between looking, seeing and perceiving. You can look and see something, but be unable to perceive what the thing is doing. In my opinion, based on learning and experience, I conclude that the driver did not perceive the situation due to the speed of the bike being something the driver could not perceive due to an inability to form an opinion based on lack of experience of that partcular situation. When I was performing traffic law enforcement using radar, I would observe the approaching vehicle and, based on experience from watching vehicles approaching at speeds below the speed limit, would form an opinion as the whether the vehicle was travelling above the speed limit. Initially I never put a numerial value to that speed. The vehicle ws either 'up it', or not. Then I would release the beam of the radar and the instrument would calculate the speed and provide a numerical display. The number in the display window (if it was above the signposted speed limit) determined the penalty amount indicated on the infringement notice. I never could accurately determine the speed of a vehicle. The instrument did that for me. All I did was decide whether or not to take a shot with the beam.

Qantas has been a very privileged and protected Airline many times during it's long History. Also some questionable management. Nev.

china may end up being a more stable superpower especially since they rely so much on global trade. look at the lunatics running the other 2 super powers, who would you prefer.

Ouch, Excessive speed definitely a factor. If it's a t bone, likely the cruiser pull out in front of bike. Sad. Generally it's biker dies and car driver is unhurt.

If you had Taipans there Marty you'd want to be wearing leather pants. They have a bad habit of rearing up and striking passing vehicles. I've had one strike at a Toyota at the top of the wheel level. Tiger snakes up here do the opposite. With an approaching vehicle they do a big aerial backflip and go in the opposite direction.

This is why I don't want to drive to Sydney anymore. If I did, I have to use this route and I can tell you, it's rooted.

The ex colleague I had lunch with yesterday who has been unemployed for some time. She works at the coal face in IT and says at that level, it is now who you know and not what you know. Her last three gigs were as a result of contacts. Some of it is displacement by AI. Some of it is offshored. In the absence of a complete tax overhaul so mega profits can be taxed to support s population for which there will be very few jobs at he coal face, I suggested a tax on jobs offshored (so not technically displaced by AI). If a company has operations in Australia and a job is being performed overseas in direct support of the Australian operations, then the firm should have to pay a tax to cover the displacement of the local working population. For new foreign start ups, they have a year to ramp up their local employment after which the tax will apply. Of course there are some pragmatic hurdles that have to be overcome such as identifying the roles overseas, but governments have put in "solutions" for trickier issues.. I am sure the right brains applied could come up with something no matter how imperfect

Tell me about it! People bring in all sorts of things to the Op Shop - bags and bags of clothes, shoes, bags, bric-a-brac like crockery. We go through it all and sort the saleable from the rubbish. We end up sending unwanted clothing to go to Africa (allegedly). Yesterday I sent away 220 kgs of clothing. That was after I had taken a ute load of solids to the tip to go into landfill. We are lucky in that our local tip does not charge us for that. Getting rid of this stuf costs Lifeline and Vinnies thousands of dollars each year. On the bright side, our Op Shop has distributed over $100,000 within the community over the past three years and still has a helthy amount of funds on hand. It is marvellous how much money an Op Shop can make selling just about everything at less than $5 each. It helps that it is fully volunteer run with no wages, but rent and consumables do take a bit each month.

The cane toads must still be in hibernation. We've had 19" of rain in October and not a toad to be seen. What made me think of it is that I've been hearing a big old bullfrog today.

Beautiful day in Melbourne, today. Life is good.

From what I've seen during travels from grain growing areas to sheep grazing areas in NSW, sheep + solar works on country that it too up and down for cultivation. In grain growing areas, wind power works with grain. Nuclear -v- renewable??? It's a matter of infrastructure. A nuclear plant might not need so much ground, but water for cooling is the main inhibitor in Australia. Also, you can throw up a solar panel farm in a much shorter time than it takes to construct either nuclear of fuel powered plants. Finally, dealing with nuclear waste is much harder than how we will deal with time expired solar panels and wind turbine propellers. There's a lot of work being done to find ways to deal with waste from renewables, and we still have a few years before that ability is very much needed.

I wouldn't even take a second look at that speed. I worked the Hume Highway between Canberra and Sydney. I wouldn't set the radar's alarm below 125 kph in the 100 kph areas. I'd rather hang a bloke for a sheep than a lamb. Nowadays the same stretches of the highway are 110 kph and the road itself hasn't been upgraded to any exent.

In 1972 I lived in a sharehouse with a bunch of people and we had a lot of fun with one of those little Z50's. It was a big old condemned house that reminded me a lot of the Addams family house. Built on a steep block, you entered the top story from the street and it had two stories below. All three had verandahs. We used to ride the Z50 in off the street, right through the house and down the stairs to the lower levels. A lot of fun tearing around the verandahs on it. The street entrance was a ramp, not stairs, so the bigger bikes got parked inside the top story, off the street and secure.

Now that bloke is braver or dumber than me. Those bikes are great for small monkeys. Humans should pick safer 1200 cc bikes.

ome, that reminds me of back in the early 70's when the police used radar, they would often set up behind a tree or bushes so they were not so visible and often at the bottom of a hill to catch people increasing speed on the downhill run. One day a mate of a mate in Brisbane got on a Honda Z50 mini bike and did a run past the radar for a joke. They normally had a top speed of 30mph but it was a big long hill and he lay down flat on the tank and clocked 37mph (2 over the limit) as he went past the radar at the bottom of the hill. It was one of these:

According to Tony Barry, historical preference flows show Green voters don't closely follow their how to vote cards. In past state and federal elections exhausted green votes have gone roughly 85% to Labor, 15% to the Coalition.

IF that's all they can find to make a fuss of ,they are pretty desperate. It's just Muck raking. Nev

If it was off mike who would know? Politicians are just people after all. The problem lies in the possibility that what they say may be overheard and blown out of all proportion so they should know better.

How did they Manage to get the mists forming down wind of the Turbines? Nev

Didn't the taxpayer gift QANTAS well during COVID and they illegally fired a bunch of people anyway?

How many jobs can you go into like they do without being accused of conflicts of interest or maybe insider trading. I also don't believe they are overpaid. Corporate type positions aren't really known for job security. My last 2 employers had several "clean outs ". A lot of wandering about weather people left or were pushed. I never said Snowy 2 is not a good concept. Who would have thought that that digging tunnels wouldn't have had issues.

The government doesn't own the buildings in industrial areas. I fully agree that the businesses that do should cover their roofs with solar, it would be economically good for them in most cases.

I wonder how they determined that the bike was traving at 200 kph? At a speed of 200 kph the bike would be coveing 55.4 metres per second. I know that the specialist crash investigators will be involved, but that collision only happened a few days ago. There's not enough time for them to calculate speed at impact. I guess that the "200 kph" came from a witness who was passed by the bike and formed the opinion that it was going like a shower of sh!t. I won't deny that the bike was flying. Also, for a bike to be capable of a very high speed, it would have to be a modern bike, with electronic speed display. Anything displayed on the instrument cluster would disappear with the loss of power at impact. Another factor relates to the ability of the driver of the motor vehicle to see the bike. Wwe know from our flight training that it is difficult to determine the speed of an object approaching from abeam. Further, the frontal area of a bike is small and often dark in clour. If it is dark, it would blend with the colour of the road surface, making it still more difficult to see. Then there the environmental factors such as light and theposition of the Sun. Were there clouds creating a dull background. Unfortunately, the strict liability of the Law places the blame on teh driver of the vehicle, but commonsense says that the cause was the bike rider.

love that area.

Actor Stacy Keach has passed away at the age of 85.

Yes, that's a type IA-double here, commonly just called a double.

The management is using AI as an excuse/scapegoat but the biggest driver is executive bonuses tied to profits. Short term decisions for personal gain. Spirit of India would be a better logo. They've lost me.

Yeah - data centre proponents keep saying that AI will increase productivity. That's great for shareholders. They never mention that this will come at the expense of jobs. What's the point of great productivity if the population is unemployed?

Ignore OME Jerry, I agree with you.

My daughter asked the garbage truck driver whether she has to separate the cardboard from the glass now that she has been given a third bin. He said do what you like, it all goes into my truck and into landfill.

That should read Monday back in England is going to be fun. I was on a phone at the time, so I can only plead autocorrect (from a typo, anyway)

Here is someone who has a plan to help people. I haven't seen the whole press conference, but we need more people in politics thinking like this: Note, it is mainly foreign shareholders that really benefit from the current arrangements and yes, business won't like it, but when there's enough money still to be made, they will stay Norway, Qatar, and a host of others have proved it.

You can see examples all over the World. China is in the best Position with a Large Population able to afford stuff. No one can Match them. Nev

Interesting assessment of the likely rationale behind Musk deciding to spend nearly half a billion dollars on the election and what the Republican loss may be costing him.

My opinioon, from my experience, but not in road construction, is that it is the geology that makes constructing roads for heavy weights the problem. Over nearly all of the continent, the ground is sedimentary material. Very few places have the surface close to bedrock. That results in great difficulty building a sound base layer upon whihc to build a road. Also, the way we seal the surface of our roads is a compromise between cost and results. That's why we have our roads sealed with bitumen sprayed over gravel. Where the roads are made opf concrete, the failure rate os a lot less, but the cost per kilometre is much more.

Live a lot better, obviously. WAR is MADNESS. Nev

What would we do with all the money spent on defence if peace suddenly broke out?

Every nation is affected economically by the wars in Iran and Ukraine. Then how come the UK has had zero interest rate rises this year, USA has had 1, Canada zero, New Zealand 2 and the EU 2, but Australia has now had 5?