Leaderboard

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.

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)

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?"

you reckon labour are doing a good job. net zero is costing us a fortune and in the end it will be dropped because it is unviable. bowen is a clown. every day we here about another labour minister abusing allowancees. labour in victoria have handed organised crime 15 billion or more using the big build as a front. jacintas idea for more housing is to build towers all over melbourne because they will come under cmfeu control. they don't get involved in residential home builds so no promoting that. daniel andrews left before he had to face the music but not before he amassed 90 million for himself. there is so much more than that too. andrews tripled workers comp policys overnight and that makes life hard for us employers . i never used to be interested in politics at all but these criminal and corrupt politicians made me take notice. i actually voted for andrews when he first ran. the other choice was napthine and his incompetent mates. now albo the liar is breaking his ellection promises and bringing far too many immigrants with no regard to infastructure. and labour believes criminals should all be set free with no consequences for thier actions. one nation might have its faults but they will be better than what we have now.

I'd actually argue that the rise of call centres is the cause of bad customer service. Businesses think that the number of calls answered and the wait times are the only KPI that matters. Staff don't have in depth business knowledge because they're hired, trained for a week then told to follow the script. A good employee who knows the business may spend 10 minutes or more sorting out a difficult problem. However if they spend this amount of time on one call they'll be reprimanded. The short sightedness of this is that the 10 minute call may have stopped the client ring back another 5 times, getting progressively more annoyed and then telling everyone they know how bad that business is.

Don't get me started, OT.. those big consultancies are the biggest scams on earth (Except, that I started with my earlier post - I think it was PWC that was consulting to the ATO on how to make changes to reduce the loopholes and were at the same time consulting to private corps on how to beat them).

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

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'

Spot on Marty. The last job I had before retiring was as a customer service operator in a call centre for a company who handled calls for a number of companies. Therefore the person sittting opposite me was taking calls for a different company to me. My KPI was an AHT (average handling time) of three and a half minutes per call. I later found out no-one else was on such a stringent time limit. This time included writing up details of the call for the next person to take a call from this customer. The customer said that AHT was not important, that customer satisfaction was more important. However, they didn't employ me, the call centre operator did. At the time I was 6 months over retirement age, so I was told it was an appropriate time to retire, because my AHT's were too long. If I didn't retire, they had "alternative plans" in mind, and voluntary retirement would look better on my resume. As the net result was the same, against my wife's wishes, I took the retirement route. Sorry for late edit. I didn't know part of my post had dropped out.

I quite like the idea of, I think it was @nomadpete's from some time ago about introducing a transaction tax - that is basically every transaction is taxed a percentage.. So, I did something not necessarily statistically valid and haven't yet validated any of it; and I think the idea would have to be refined (e.g. not to price us out of export markets, etc). I asked ChatGPT if we removed all taxes from Australians and replaced it with a flat transaction tax that is not able to be offset like CGT, and the transaction tax is applied at all levels in the Supply Chain, what would be the % required to replace the existing revenues of the government. To ChatGPT's credit, it did also inform me there are many variables and it needed refinement itself, but settled on 10%. I asked it what would be the cumulative impact on consumer prices (so not house transfers, financial investments, loans, etc), to narrow it down. I asked chat as I couldn't be bothered doing the compound math myself, and it said for a 3 stage supply chain process, 33%; 4 stage 47% an d 5 stage 63%. Ouch, but that is a raw value and it doesn't take into account some reduced costs on the way, but businesses would probably take these into profit for a time before competition started to take effect - as per the Whitlam years when he removed a lot of import duties. Also, note, you take roughly 10% off for CGT from those (not entirely accurate but for these purposes will do), as well as for some products (e.g. wine) the baked in taxes that are already there. Next I asked what would be the impact on net disposable income in quartiles from the lowest income earners (minimum wage) to the highest reported income earner. As expected, this would be regressive, but not by as much as I thought, with the lowest quartile being between 5% and 10% worse off, the next being between 3% and 4% worse off the third being between 3% a 12% better off and the top 25% of earners being between 15% and 55% better off. I didn't go into comparing to how much disposable income each quartile has against some average cost of living for a comparison as that was not the purpose of the exercise. And note, this does not include state and council stand alone revenue and I have not validated how Chat came to its answers. But it leaves some food for thought for a complete tax overhaul along these lines. The obvious risk is an increase in black market activity to circumvent the taxes. Leaving that aside, I asked Chat what non deductible tax to apply on a proportional basis to the 3rd and 4th quartile to allow the government to distribute income to the 1st and second quartile to ensure that the bottom two quartiles can be directly distributed the money such that they will be no worse off - i.e. net disposable income is the same as the current process. It was 0.55% for the third quartile and up to 2.0% on the 4th quartile. Of course, there will be lots of statistical error in these numbers, but it gives a guide that for no other than a consumption tax, the bottom two quartiles cost of living will not change, yet the top tier will be better off and with a much smaller PAYG tax rate. Of course, it leaves room to move a little more income to those on lower income and according to Chat, around 4.5% applied to both tiers would make the bottom two tiers 10% better off than they were. This would leave the third tier up to 7.5% better off and the top tier up to 49% better off.. and the government still gets the same money. It would probably be in large corporate taxation. They would now have to pay the tax where a lot don't pay anywhere near where they should be. And then you can factor in additional taxes that we should be charging like the fossil fuel export royalties to the correct level, and you have a far more fairer, flexible, and targetable taxation system. Of course, this is rudimentary modelling.. There are second and third order factors that have to be addressed. For example, the cost of compliance (accounting, legal, etc) will drop massively as there aren't complex accounting rules required for taxation. This will result is a lower level of transactions and therefore, tax. It may result in increased unemployment as you need less para finance and para legals as well as less tax compliance people in ATO, and if we went federal for all funding (local and state), less public servants at that level collecting, keeping track of, etc. Also, less transactions to billing providers, software, etc. Which can increase government costs (welfare) and reduce taxation, which can increase the transaction tax required, or increase other taxes such as fossil fuel royalties, etc. But,if we are looking at fairer taxation, then surely the whole system needs reform. (Sorry for the long post.. first day off for ages.. and I am in a boring meeting).

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.

Yep - no skills, but she wants to fly the plane.......

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.

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.

It's better that Trump's corruption is out in the open for everyone to see, but only if it means they wake up to what's going on and get rid of him instead of just accepting it and letting him carry on. I don't think he's going to make another two and a half years anyway, given the shape he's in mentally and physically.

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.

The difference to what I wrote is that the transaction tax would not be able to be offset by firms on the tax paid by them by them on their inputs. What happens today is that if I am BAS registered, I charge GST on my accounts receivable invoices (output). However, I am also paying GST to BAS registered suppliers on my accounts payable invoices from the supplies I buy. These are the inputs. At BAS statement and GST payment time (commonly quarterly, but sometimes monthly and on low revenue companies, can be annually), I deduct the value of GST I paid on inputs/to my suppliers from the GST I collected on my outputs and remit only the difference to the ATO. Also there are many GST free items - mostly around staples health, school fees, and domestic rent, etc. Unlike the UK, where a firm can charge VAT (same as GST) on its products and not all input taxes are reclaimable - e.g. VAT on vehicles, Australia permits all of the input taxes to be claimable for such companies. The offset tax model is open to abuse, because once you allow the tax to be offset, people will find ways of doing it (as opposed to avoiding it altogether as in the case of the black market). The most common way is to route as many private purchases through the company as you can. Pre GST, there was a wholesale sales tax and if a company had a VS number, they could claim it to the supplier, who would not charge the tax. The family of a school friend of mine back in the day bought as much as they could through the company quoting their VS number to get stuff cheaper. I am sure that continues today across the board. There is also invoice fixing and all sorts of stuff. If you get rid of the ability to offset or deduct- and apply it to transactions across the board, it will work better. The thing you have to worry about is the shift to the black market. All those resources dedicated to investigating taxation compliance can be shifted to a simpler function of investigating black market activity. Andf, I don't think it will be much more than it is today - well at least in the UK, where VAT is 20%. How many people, ahem, already slip their tradespeople cash because the VAT/GST Man doesn't need to know everything? I don't because of the money involved in my reno (still going) is such that should a dispute be required to go to court, not paying VAT makes the contract illegal, which is then unenforceable. Also, a transaction tax that replaces all other taxes would have very few exemptions - as I mentioned earlier it could be exports, possibly rent and of course mortgage payments. The tax on investing I would argue would be on the brokerage and other fees as most assets are already second hand (i.e. shares). As I said earlier, a non deductible income tax for the wealthy to distribute to the less wealthy to offset the regressive nature could be used - and the tax would be nominal - nothing like today's income taxes.

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.

Does that mean that ON can quickly adapt its policies to changing circumstances?

One nation can't even manage their own finances - imagine what they'd do to the budget. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2026/jun/11/one-nation-party-financial-reports-returns-fair-trading-ntwnfb

Yep their new president Tony Abbott is guiding them down the path to true irrelevance. They haven't learnt anything from their electoral failures.

It's a fairly simple equation - the easier it is for criminals to get away with it or get off lightly if they're caught, then the more prolific crime will be.

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

Which I don't really understand. I'd be interested to know which policies in particular people are having a problem with. From my perspective they could do better in a few areas, but overall they're doing a good job.

I thought that big fat grub, Clive Palmer, had disappeared off the political scene, with my unreliable memory recalling that he said he was done with politics at the last election, where his party got hammered. But this morning, I got a flyer in the letterbox from Clives Party, like they're on the campaign trail again? Turns out, he's re-registered the United Australia Party again, after burying his Trumpet of Patriots Party unceremoniously, so he IS on the campaign trail again. He's talking about spending billions on advertising, to ensure he wins the next election. He obviously believes his money can buy every Australian, same as it does in America. I've got some news for him, he may waste a lot of his money again to achieve very little again, politically.

It used to be that Americans held their President in the highest regard and showed the greatest of respect. Trump has caused those things to be abandoned. He's attending a basketball Grand Final in New York, and instead of being cheered by one and all, he is being booed unanamously. We all love sport grand finals. By deciding to attend this one, Trump has prevented thousands of fans from enjoying the experience. The comom fan has been barred from going near the venue, or to participate in the parties that are part and parcel of the event. It's probably made worse by the fact that the New York team hasn't been in these finals for years. A lot of us know what it feels like when your underdog team finally makes it to the top. To paraphrase England's King Henry II, "Who will rid us of this turbulent pest?"

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.

None are built in the USA. BMW would never stoop so low. They do however make the X series AWD cars there. The biggest baddest cruiser the R 1800 flat twin is proudly Berlin built.they are about to release a R2000, yep a two litre twin. Also a new version of the six cylinder K1600 as a wild 1800 cc. The biggest selling large bike model in the world is the mighty GS range, now the R1300GS, expensive yes, but sales envied by Harley and Ducati Adventure bikes. Some of the new small 450 models are built now in China and India using their designs and machines. This makes them as cheap as the competition. Some of the smallish parallel twins were Austrian built. As fast road machines, tourers, adventure and racing BMW have been the top of the market for the last 20 years. Now they are tackling the small Learner approved -lams market and will sell a motza. My current beasty is a 2005 K1200R motorsport, the new hyperbike that year with a mere 167hp, 138 nm and only 214kg. The fastest acceleration for a Bike on the planet, 2.8 seconds to 100, limited by Aero to 280km/h. The Japanese absolutely lost their minds when a shaft driven bike slaughtered their hyperbikes. Then BMW made a six version to take Goldwing sales for those who wanted actual very high speed touring. Then the S1000R came out and slayed the race tracks. Modern R and K shaft driven bikes have none for the rise and fall of the shaft of old generations. Handling and brakes are world class, even a tourer will scare a sports bike rider.

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.

That watchdog report revealed that more than half of the publicly identified donors coincidentally got big contracts....... Sixteen of those 27 donors have watched their federal enforcement actions get dropped, scaled back, or suspended...... At the very least, I'd say 'suspicious coincidence'. But nobody is looking closely anyway.

Just found out that Lorraine Bayley (Grace Sullivan) passed away on 28 February 2026 aged 89.

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.