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I've figured out some positives. Life is good. We've had twenty seven inches of rain so far this year and the country is looking great. It's finally stopped raining and the beautiful clear and cool weather is here. I have a debt free roof over my head, lots of food, a motor car that works, I can walk, talk, breathe, hear and see and have plenty of fun stuff to do. The first photo is the front yard, the second is the back yard, and the third photo is my best mate outside the kitchen window trying to shame me into giving him some dog biscuits. I've known him since he was born, so he's known me his entire life. There's nowhere I'd rather be.

It's a beautiful day. I'm going for a ride shortly. Thinking Bothwell way.

I'm doing a lot of thinking about the Hereafter. I go to a cupboard and think, "What am I here after?"

Announced Policies are generally not believed anyway. The public has lost trust in what politicians and speechwriters say.

I didn't think that JerryA said 'its better'. Sure. But not just USofA. It's a first step toward starting to address the sorry state of affairs in all our various democracies. All the world should be cleaning up their (our) own back yatd. More importantly for us, along with rising the ire of the voters, it brings the whole issue of corruption into the public awareness. Politicians must be aware of the groundswell of discontent. The polls have been showing it for years. We are tired of turning a blind eye to corruption whilst hoping for crumbs of integrity. It should be seen by the political parties as a big warning that the voters want a better deal - one where the wellbeing of the public is served better than the corrupting moneyed minorities (such as tax avoiding business entities)

Jerry, you're spending a lot of time defending the indefensible. Saying that it's better to have a massive amount of corrupt behaviour because it's transparently visible rather than a small amount of hidden corruption (which usually comes out anyway) doesn't seem logical to me.

For a while now, finding the Money for essentials when living on the OA Pension is a big challenge and the Boss and I have a few Medical challenges. She had open Heart surgery about 8 years ago and I have a very thorough Neuro person who is always Making me do tests and imaging. Yesterday we were in Bayside St Kilda and a low flying formation Led by a DC3 flew above and out over the Bay at about 1500 feet with magnificent noises coming from it's radial Motors. That Plane would be well over 80 Years old and Pt Phillip Bay was like a Millpond. Other Places in the World are Being bombed daily by R soles. Nev

Wille, you have just described my worst fears. Although I am not alone, that path of losses and degraded quality of life is my worst dread of all. And not just for myself. I feel badly for my wife having to go through that on her own if I lose my marbles. But for now, we take each day - one at a time - and find something positive to offset the gripes - of - the - day. Last night we went out to the local historic theatre (run by volunteers fighting the boredom of ageing). Watched an engaging but forgotten old movie. Today is the first sunny day for weeks. And I have good reason to get out of bed; It's my turn to put croissants in the oven for breakfast.

The scary part about getting older is seeing the younger set going ga-ga over some historic, vintage footage, from ancient times, about 50 or 60 years ago - then you look at it, and realise you were there as an adult, and everything is very familiar! I can also recall when middle nephew (about 10) came home from school and asked his Mum (SIL) if she had any old photos for a school project. When his Mum said, "How old?", he replied, "Oh, from about 60 years ago, when you were little!" His Mum was 30 at the time! 😄

I'm writing a book. It's all about things I should do. It's called 'Oughtobiography'

I have to admit; I am struggling to see what the issue us, except that a property that has been used to reduce your normal tax liability is now assessable - and still at under the marginal rate they would have used the property to reduce from. It is in effect still a deferment of tax. Yes, I know that the reduction of your assessable income during the negative gearing years are a loss made thanks to the interest payment and rather generous depreciation rules, but the reality is, you can't offset the costs of establishing any other investment against your PAYG income - although happy to be corrected in the case of sole proprietorship or partnership - so why housing? What leaves a sour taste is the excuse of the fairness of the tax system when the government still allows transfer pricing and does not tax our fossil fuels and other assets for big corps properly.

I know polling has its limitations, but the polling suggests people are increasingly dissatisfied with DJT. https://www.natesilver.net/p/trump-approval-ratings-nate-silver-bulletin Whilst it is easy to say that all politicians are bad, DJT takes it to an extreme level. Sure, he will probably be gone in a couple of years, but the ongoing damage will take years to fix. The problem is the creeping acceptance of deviance. As a rational person, I look at some of his appointments, and I can't believe it. The health of the nation is in the hands of crazy RFK. An advanced nation is being led away from rationality. Yes, of course, I am not an American citizen, and it is up to them; however, what a powerful country like the US does has an effect on the whole world. I, too, have a couple of US friends, and they do despair at where the country is going. It is easy to judge what people are thinking from their own individual silos. The polling could be getting it wrong, of course, but we shall see what happens in the midterms. DJT is already trying to say that the elections in California must be rigged (because he doesn't like the result). Is this how elections are going to be lost or won in the future?

Hmm.. (Added bold) How am I defending it, exactly? I am putting other points of view as I see them. Regardless of how bad Chump is, there are others doing it under a pretence they are working for the people. I merely gave examples. But I think people are getting sick of being taken advantage of.. Have they got it worse under Chump? Yes, of course. But do they care? I would argue for an increasing number, no, because they probably feel that they are already at the stage that they can only get their head above water for the odd gasp of air, so they don't care if it gets worse. It isn't only economic; it is cultural as well - perceived or real - that they are being left behind socially as well. More and more middle classes have less and less... is the feeling. In my case (of course, UK), my heating bill has quadrupled in 6 years... quadrupled. What about Australia's gas scam, where the Australia institute report that the Japanese government make more from Aussie gas than the Australian government - money that could be used for better education, health, lower energy costs, and the like. Yet, what does Albo (and the libs before) do about it? Nothing while the industry lobby pays a good whack of money to party coffers for the odd lunch. Chump campaigned on doing much of what he has done. People knew, or ought to have known most of what was coming. We all did. His Doge, his tariffs, his cosying to Putin in deference to Ukraine, etc.. ICE and undocumented immigrant deportations; the wall, ignoring the constitution; They were openly committed to during the election campaign, despite him distancing himself from project 2025 at the end of the election but never what he was going to do. On the other hand, I recall in these fora a disagreement about the utility of secrecy of the NACC, and it wasn't long before the conduct of the NACC proved my position - that Labor should have enacted - as they enthusiastically promised prior to the election - public hearings and a transparent NACC. When they got into power, what happened? Secret hearings. It may be small in the scheme of things, but a) it is not isolated; and b) it is seen as them protecting their mates from misconduct. That leaves a foul taste as does all other coverups and stealth operation, especially if you voted for them in good faith of keeping what should be fairly simple election promises. People are now sick of it... Chump is a product of that - a protest vote - people probably knew they were not going to be better off; for many they are not worse off or if they are, it makes no material difference. So, may as well stick it to the establishment. Do you think Farage, or Hanson, or the other European ultra right would start becoming successful if they weren't/ We often forget there is a silent majority, and now they are starting to no longer remain silent. Their motivation may be valid if the actions aren't. If you are not as angry about what your government is doing as you are about Chump, I would argue a) you don't really know what is going on in your back yard; b) you don't care; or c) your dislike is so profound of Chump (for which there is nothing wrong with such a dislike - mine is very profound), that you're not taking that big an interest in your backyard. I agree, other countries don't proactively air much Aussie news in the MSM; but today, it is very easy to find reliable news and facts today in any country that doesn't black out its internet.

The Govts definitely have to crack down on this "Middle Eastern crime gang" activity. It's just a daily occurrence now, to have major shoot-ups and gun murders in SW Sydney. Add to that, they steal and burn luxury vehicles daily - costing us all mega-dollars in increased premiums. If someone steals a car, carries out a major crime, and then burns it, they should get 10 years minimum, and be made to pay the value of the vehicle, plus compensation to the owner for his loss and costs of inconvenience. And the owner often has to carry the cost of increased insurance premiums, because his car was stolen. Car security is a joke today, they can steal any keyless car with code generators that are easily acquired from overseas sellers. Plus, where's the savage penalties for unlicenced firearms (often handguns), used by crims? There's no penalties for additional crimes, the police hit them with one charge, and let the rest drop, because any other sentence would be served concurrently. The sentences should be cumulative, take the bastards out of society for multiple years, even decades, because they have no interest in living in a safe, law-abiding society, so they have forfeited any chance to live in a safe, law-abiding society.

SWMBO is good at booking us into shows such as rock tribute bands or classical guitarists (she loves classical guitar), so we get out and about, and dress up and socialise. It's very necessary to keep up a social life as you age, or you just become an old stay-at-home grump. That's the reason I have my block in the wheatbelt, and all my restoration projects and shed-building plans and construction. I get out into the country around 3 times a week, that in itself is invigorating. I get a change of pace, and I get mental stimulation repairing equipment, buying (and selling) parts and components, and I get to meet new people in that country town regularly. My wheatbelt block neighbour is a fencer, and has an excavator, tip truck and a Dingo, and he's always coming in looking for a BS session, help with something, or even giving me surplus fencing materials and steel he doesn't need. He can't weld for sh**, so he always gets me to do little welding jobs for him. Life is good. We're off to see the Lightscape show in Kings Park soon, we went last year, but it was July 17th, and it was absolutely pouring with rain! You can't pick your day, you get tickets for a set day and time, and that's it - you take your chances with the weather. The lightscape show last year was absolutely spectacular. I took a swag of photos, then lost them when my Motorola phone crapped itself completely. https://premier.ticketek.com.au/shows/show.aspx?sh=LSPTOURS26&utm_source=ovation&utm_medium=pmax&utm_campaign=LSPTOURS26&utm_content=conversion&gad_source=1&gad_campaignid=23841141822&gbraid=0AAAAADpZSCT_kspIAeL1Pye-3H_K2rlTo&gclid=Cj0KCQjwrZTRBhDSARIsAHidYfcriQwFvXDUHdq0eIP10u5K_mfUlQsVSlUoudQ4XtUW5aLccL7Dou4aAr1oEALw_wcB

We see a lot of normal cars and bikes with historic rego. Yeah, it makes me feel old. Worse still my bike, a model which I recall lusting after back when first seen in showrooms, is now on historic rego, same as it's owner. Not 'collectable' like OME's though. I cannot understand the logic behind spending maybe $20k and a thousand hours 'restoring' an old car that was never desirable even when new. But it seems many do. Nostalgia is an expensive thing to keep in the garage.

You know you are old when you see the first model Commodore or an XD Falcon with historic plates.

It's been a long, long time since I could wake up on saturday morning and wonder idly, 'I wonder what I'll do today?'.

I think this about cars. I had a 1927 Chev in 1977 and it was ancient. I felt very brave when I drove it from Ballarat to Broken Hill and back for a rally. Equivalent now would be a 1976 Kingswood, which would still suit me as a daily driver.

The big problem with corrugations is that sometimes you have no choice but to put up with them if you want to get where you have to go. Depending on the vehicle, sometimes it's better to travel a bit faster rather than real slow, or as Nev pointed out, drive on the other side where the wave shape is more in your favour. Which ever way you tackle it, eventually some part of the vehicle will complain.

Isn't that where your wife writes it for you?

Maybe I'm just a cynic, but.... The very first task that AI should complete successfully is to redesign itself to use far less electricity and no water. If it can't solve that problem, why should we trust it to do anything else?

Did that include the $57.45 worth of stock in the stores?

This is the satirical headline story from the Bell Tower Times - Perths equivalent of The Onion. The bloke may not be familiar to East Coasters - but he's John Hughes, W.A.'s longest-lived car dealer, and a legend in W.A. He turned 90 last December, and still runs personalised TV ads and asks car buyers to call him personally, and regularly states, he's "W.A.'s most trusted car dealer". He's also Alan Bonds BIL. Yes, THAT Alan Bond. But John Hughes has managed to evade any of the Alan Bond taint, in his business dealings.

They used to employ Nuts each side with Tapers, but it's better to Have More metal to press into The spline thing has been used for years now with No problems. Later Harley bottom ends are used for a lot of performance Specials. High interference Press fits cause distortion in what you are pressing into and you end up with unsolvable run out issues. Nev

"someone" Mentioned to Trump that "we" might have to Borrow and funnel the money but he thought they said Burrow and tunnel.. Nev

Well according to the defence chiefs, 3 second hand subs were the original preference as they would be delivered sooner. Why do we need 3 nuclear powered submarines anyway. The navy is spending $1.7 billion on a fleet of our own designed Ghost Sharks. They are designed to do almost everything that manned submarines can do at very low cost as well as low operating cost and we can have heaps of them. They won't say how many but there are apparently dozens being built. Aukus is costing at least $368 billion. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2025/sep/10/ghost-shark-submarine-drone-australian-navy-explainer

If the new system reduces fees to the large, politically connected accounting firms, it will never happen.

There's a lot to be said for a very major reform of our taxation system, one that ensures taxes are paid according to the rules, and which system would not allow "creative accounting" or "loophole exploitation", as practised by many global corporations today, and who have done so, for many years. When the GST was introduced, it was supposed to result in a fairer and simpler system. It has turned out to be anything but that.

In your example, Octave, the driver still has to focus on the screen popup temp. Certainly not something that a non BYD driver could accomplish easily. Unlike conventional controls, there is no tactile feedback to confirm the desired action has occurred.

That's just a comforting distraction. Compare: Generally people knew DJT was a liar, a cheat, etc... but there he is, at the top. Because people voted for him because they hoped he will drain their swamp and punish the over entitled partys. Generally ON Pauline has a poor record, has trouble keeping party members, and no concrete policy.... but people still vote for her because they hope she will drain their swamp and give the over entitled partys a drumming. Still a problem for us.

Do they? Screen tech has been used for many years now in critical areas such as aviation. As I intend to buy an EV next year, I have spent a long time researching. I can't really find any evidence of screens failing. I have seen evidence of faults that tend to be fixed by a system restart. Other common faults are the failure of the 12-volt battery. Manufacturers tend to supply crappy 12-volt batteries to save money. A lot of EV owners upgrade. The good news is you can easily jump-start an EV if the battery fails. I don't really agree that EVs are still at an early stage of development. Whilst the number of EVs in Australia is still low, sales in May were 20% of new car sales and if you include hybrids, almost 50% of the new car market. In countries such as Norway, where 32% of the fleet is pure EV and 98% of new sales are pure EV. If these cars are unreliable, you would expect this to show. I am not sure what bugs you mean; however, even new models of IC vehicles have problems. There is no reason you should buy an EV. For me, though, I am not conservative. I want to sample new things. There is nothing I love more than while visiting my son in NZ and having the full and free use of his Tesla. Whilst I have no wish to buy a Tesla (fvcken Elon), I would have to say that it is the easiest car I have ever driven. This is very helpful when driving on roads I am less familiar with. I'm not sure I have even interacted with the screen whatsoever, other than for GPS. It does have a great rear view for lane changing. This does not mean staring at it, but when changing lanes, you can see it as you check the passenger side external mirror. I have always enjoyed change and adapting to the new. I bought my first computer quite early on, as well as digital photography, etc.

Abbot, who Lost his Blue ribbon seat to an Independent. His new job is NOT supposed to Involve Policy Making, but that doesn't stop the Mad Monk getting straight into It. He's also on Rupert's Payroll and RUPEE's show supports Hanson.. What about thinking of the REAL liberal supporters. A top WOMAN figure in the Canberra scene has Just resigned, saying the Party is TOO TOXIC to remain in.. The Party of RG Menzies may well be finished. Nev

The difference is that Wikipedia can be corrected by anyone. AI can't. If you don't want to get the AI guff, just put -AI after your search. For example: Antonov AN2 -AI

I'm trying not to fall into the habit with Google of just reading the top section only which is the AI response to the question. The reason being it can be quite misleading. Like Wikiedia, it's not gospel and is all about the source reference. I Googled a question yesterday and the two answers AI came up with were just posts harvested from a Facebook group. What AI was saying was just what some bloke on a FB group said about the subject. It might well have been true, but not a reliable reference source in my opinion. Wikipedia can have the same issues. Sometimes the reference, if the reader bothers to check it, can be just a newspaper article and a journalists opinion only and not established fact.

Problem is Marty, the polls are showing us that an increasing amount of people think we've already got that.

And there's the rub for the government. Increasingly less and less people think they are providing wise governance. What's behind the swing to One Nation is that a lot of people are increasingly feeling like the government and opposition have failed badly and they've had enough and want a circuit breaker. It's like a mild form of anarchy; tear down the house and start again type of mood.

Nobody is just shocked anymore, they are always shell shocked. Which is a different thing entirely.

It's no news to anyone that One Nation has led the last three major voting intention polls taken. But I wonder how many people who have expressed a dislike of our preferential system and support for a first past the post system are starting to have a rethink now that One Nation is polling at number one on primary vote intention. There's arguments for and against both systems. The way I see it, with a first past the post system you could end up with a government elected on a fairly small percentage if we had a few strong parties instead of the traditional two major party dominance. That might be our immediate future, ie: an end to the two party status quo. The preferential system can have a lot more unpredictable outcomes, that's for sure. I was reading some of the views of Dr. Shaun Ratcliff, principal of Accent Research regarding preferences. He was saying based on current polling, what happened in Farrer could replicate around the country at the next election. Here's a quote from him: "In seat after seat, the Coalition is predicted to fall to third place in seats it has traditionally held, either on primary votes or it is pushed to third by Labor on Greens preferences, with Labor then losing to One Nation – usually on Coalition preferences”. That would mean One Nation defeating Labor candidates with the unintentional help of the Greens. This is my interpretation of that if I'm correct - in a four cornered contest between Liberal, Labor, One Nation and Greens, the Greens get knocked out first and Labor gets most of their preferences, pushing the Liberals to third place. It's then a contest between Labor and One Nation, and if One Nation polls well on the primaries, they pick up the Liberal preferences to top Labor. I think either way, it would be Labor with Green preferences against either One nation with Liberal preferences or Liberal with One Nation preferences. Dr. Ratcliff said the effect can magnify a small change in primary vote into a large difference in outcome. He said: “A Coalition primary vote that was just a few points higher would win considerably more seats,”. Round about now, Albo might be checking his wardrobe to see if he's still got those brown cord pants. He'd certainly be hoping for a big turnaround in the next six months or time will be running out to do it. I think the government knows that momentum will be their enemy if they don't stop it, and stop it soon.

Unlike most other bikes, the cranks on the big BMWs are extremely solid and failures or wear are very rare, same with most mechanical items. It means dirt cheap parts second hand, a friend is replacing his K1200 crank- previous owner failed to service it. The crank in perfect condition only $150 from a wrecked bike. Try finding a jap bike crank or Harley one for that price. Even better, you can remove the crank with the engine in place and box still attached, takes 30 mins to remove. Crank is driving a gear to the flywheel, just remove sump and unbolt the mains. New bearings, for crank and seals, total job under $500.

That was great. I went past New Norfolk as far as Gretna, fantastic road. Almost tempted to keep going. I was going to go through to Elderslie then back to the highway, but the cross road was gravel so I turned around and came back the same way. Very enjoyable.

Our local Reject Shop was recently renovated to match photos of Dollarama stores, changing aisles from transverse to longitudinal. It still carries the old name but is ready to be updated.

Another little-known takeover has seen The Reject Shop sell out to a huge Canadian company, Dollarama. The Reject Shop got $260M for their business, and Dollarama has plans to change all Reject Shop store branding to Dollarama. In addition, Dollarama are going on a massive expansion drive, aiming to enlarge the range of stuff their stores sell, to compete with Target and K-Mart, and even Coles and Woolworths. Dollarama plan to nearly double the number of stores from the current 390 stores, to more than 700. In addition, Dollarama promise huge savings on their product prices, due to their massive buying power. Dollarama claim that in some cases, consumers will see major decreases in pricing of products they sell, sometimes up to half the current retail price. It will be interesting to see the result, the Canadians apparently love Dollarama stores.

I noticed on that unsealed road beside my place that the corrugations run from one side of teh road to the other. It's a road that only has one vehicle at a time on it so there is no need to keep to the left. Most people would drive straddling the crown. One would think that wheeltrack ruts would form and that the corrugations would be only in those ruts. I wonder why, then, that the corrugations are right across the road.

Press fits also Induces high stress in Parts before any extra load even comes into the Picture, from an engineering point of view.. Nev

This can be a problem with Rotax 912's or any pressed crankpins.

Visited the ASC when they were building the last one and refurbishing the Collins. The guide was saying they decided they wanted them to go faster so they put a heap of fairng on them.

I've estimated there won't be much ratbiking happening until later in the year. There's a lot of shed renovations to finish before that happens, but in the meantime a bit of parts sorting and sourcing is still happening. On the shed/workshop renovation side there's still a fair bit to do. Some steel diagonal braces need to be relocated for better workbench fitment. A couple of windows need to be finished off and a couple more timber wall purlins swapped out for steel. Where one diagonal brace set is to be removed, an existing timber wall frame in that quarter section will be converted to a bracing wall with rods and bracing ply, double braced and insulated. Then a six metre long wall section leading to another shed room will be walled in for bench and shelving space. The steps leading into the other room will be removed and alternate entry to that room sorted. That gets the walls done, so then it's on to positioning existing work benches and building a couple of new ones. After that, the shelving set up. That's all the hard part. The easier, fun part will be filling those shelves and sorting out tools and bits and pieces and setting up the workship equipment. The goal is for everything to have a fixed home instead of the mayhem the shed is now. I'll also lash out and get a sparky to run permanent wiring, lights and power points. I'm over plugging leads in and out all the time. This is a bucket list goal to get the workshop set up the way it's supposed to be. It's been a cluttered half workshop/half storage area for the last eighteen years or so since I built it, and it's been hard to do any major work in it due to all the junk in there which now has to go.

Random history borrowed from another thread..... 25 years ago today, a big clash of the superpowers - the “Hainan Island Incident”, which is described in a book “Pacific”, by Simon Winchester. Hainan Island incident - Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org U.S. intelligence gathering plane operating in the South China Sea, whose air and water China considers its territory, the U.S. not so much. Chinese jet, flown by Lt. Cdr. Wang Wei -who had intercepted US planes before, getting close enough to display his email address on a paper sign through the cockpit- gets a bit too close this time and collides with the U.S. plane. Wang’s plane is heavily damaged, goes out of control, he ejects, parachute malfunctions, he disappears into the sea. The U.S. plane, with 23 aboard, heavily damaged but still flying, makes an emergency landing without Chinese permission (none of their distress calls had been responded to by the Chinese) at a sensitive military base on large Hainan Island (which is a long time target of US spying) on the SE coast of China, surrounded by armed troops upon arrival, who force their way into the plane. (Plane was later retuned to the U.S. , dismantled in wooden boxes, on a Russian cargo plane.) What was going through their minds…. “For the next 26 minutes, the crew of the EP-3 [US plane, after it was stabilized following a big rapid descent after the collision] performed an emergency plan which included destroying sensitive items aboard the aircraft, such as electronic equipment related to intelligence-gathering, documents and data. Part of this plan involved pouring freshly brewed coffee into disk drives and motherboards and using an axe from the plane's survival kit to destroy hard drives.[15] The crew had not been formally trained on how to destroy sensitive documents and equipment, and so improvised. As a result of the destruction, the plane's interior was later described as resembling "the aftermath of a frat party".[12] The air crew was interrogated and held for over a week, diplomatic crisis, etc etc. Among other things China learned from the plane in its possession —although the crew destroyed a lot of info and spying equipment aboard - including after landing while Chinese troops banged on the windows and shouted at them with bullhorns to come out— China learned that the U.S. could track its submarines via signals intelligence. The end was a letter, or letters, “the two sorries”, issued that allowed each country to save face. 25 years ago today (Bush’s first foreign policy crisis.) Could’ve been a lot worse. Let’s avoid this kinda stuff in future, shall we? Air and sea patrols have continued since then, but US crafts have learned to be much more careful since. Imagine if this incident had occurred while Trumpster was *resident…

I almost posted this in Funny Videos thread..... the joke's on us. It's time I sign up for Mandarin lessons.