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Just to let you know there is no AI on the site, there is only NI

Thanks Peter. Will try to drop in from time to time to make sure you're all behaving yourselves. I've tried to cut down on screen time but it's easier said than done. Have been co-administering an inyourfacebook group so that's taken a bit of effort and tended to drag oneself back online. So all good, still breathing in and breathing out and wearing my trousers the right way round.

Well they couldn't really say "Here LIES Donald Trump", because he's been doing that all his life.

My good friend Chatty gave me the following answer: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance argues that the deepest satisfaction in life comes from caring engagement with what we do, rather than from chasing abstract goals or rigid ideologies: by reconciling the “classical” mindset (logic, analysis, technology) with the “romantic” mindset (intuition, aesthetics, immediate experience), Robert Pirsig proposes that Quality—an unnameable but real sense of what is good—arises when we pay attentive, responsible care to both our inner lives and the practical tasks before us, whether maintaining a motorcycle or living thoughtfully in the modern world.

Make sure the oil hasn't spread onto the flywheel and coil. Take the engine cowling off and clean the outside surface of the flywheel and magnet and the section of the coil that sits close to the flywheel. Use some emery cloth to clean up the flywheel outer surface and check the coil to flywheel gap. Install a new spark plug (90% of starting problems). Use some "Carburettor & Throttle Body Cleaner" (spray can) to clean out the carburettor passageways. No sorry, all that above is made-up BS. What actually happened is, you killed the little hamster inside the engine that makes it go, when you tipped it over and left it. You need a new engine hamster.

Two men walk into a pet shop in Dingle, they walk over to the bird section and Gerry says to Joe, 'Dat's dem.' The owner comes over and asks if he can help them. 'Yeah, we'll take four of dem dere little budgies in dat cage up dere,' says Gerry. The owner puts the budgies in a cardboard box. Joe and Gerry pay for the birds, leave the shop and get into Gerry's truck to drive to the top of the Connor Pass. At the Connor Pass , Gerry looks down at the 1000 foot drop and says, 'Dis looks like a grand place.' He takes two birds out of the box, puts one on each shoulder and jumps off the cliff. Joe watches as the budgies fly off and Gerry falls all the way to the bottom, killing himself stone dead! Looking down at the remains of his best pal, Joe shakes his head and says, 'Fook dat. Dis budgie jumping is too fook'n dangerous for me!'

it's BS really. The" Majority" wants a review as things have changed since the Last Howard "thing" He's only echoing LITTLE to Be PROUD of's Line. I don't think Albanese would get away with just tightening the existing rules. Nev

I learned a bit about the changes to the Firearms Act that NSW Premier Minns is trying to make. If introduced then the administrative burden on Police will be terrible. 1. Licence period reduced from 5 years to 2. The number of staff at the Fireams Registry was already overloaded trying to deal with paperwork before Bondi. I have recently experienced dealing with these Public Servants, and they are hardworking, helpful people. But by reducing the time between renewal if licneces and permits, their workload will markedly increase. Will the Government employ more staff? If it does, how long before the new employees gain the knowledge and experience in dealing with a very complicated set of rules? 2. Maximum ownership of 4 firearms. OK, there is going to be a buy-back. During the 1996 buy-back the amount of extra work thrust onto police working at the front counteer of police station impacted the availability of police to be assigned the normal day-to-day police functions. Firearms were not simply hand over the counter and tossed into collection bins. Receipts had to be issued, and at the time these were handwritten. Maybe some sort of database could be developed to create digital records. There's the cost of developing the database that the government must meet. As well, other police were attached to warehousing duties where they were involved in picking up surrendered firearms from police stations across the State. 3. Valuation of surrendered firearms. A big joke about the 1996 buyback was the profits made by gun owners when they surrenderd a firearm. Crappy .22 single shots were bringing big bucks. Once that became known, a lot of gun owners handed in crap and then spent the money received on upgrading their firearms. Where did the money come from? Taxpayers of course. 4. Additional work for oveworked General Duties police. One of the firearms regulations is that gun owners must enable police to inspect firearms storage. I remember being assigned a list of firearm owners addresses and being told to go out and inspect their firearms and storage. This wasn't to be my sole assignment for the shift. I still had to attend to the normal calls for police service such as domestics, break-ins, shpolifters, drive-offs. Needless to say that I rarely got time to do a firearms inspection. It's all well and good to tighten the control of firearms. However, policing those controls has to be possible for the existing police staff to do within the number of personhours in a day while providing the a level of attention to the things that the Public expects police to attend to. It's easy for politicians to make grand statements and make rules, but a rule that cannot be policed with resources available both in staffing and finances is not worth putting on the books. You will note that I have not spoken about the rule limiting the number of firearms owned to 4. That is a whole different can of worms. The political backlash could effect many local Members regardless of Party since the rule changes seem to be getting bipartisan support.

You may have noticed that over the last 7 days, I have added 27 aircraft profiles in the AP site. I had a few problems with the last one, screwing up the photos and having to do a number of edits to the basic profile. Wherever possible, I include 5 photos on each profile, header and gallery. That may require searching through up to 100 thumbnail images for each aircraft, selecting the best ones to illustrate the aircraft. I try to select different angles and illustrations of features such as cabin access, folding wings, etc. I expand the thumbnail to the full size uploaded to get the best quality image and download that into a folder, one folder for each category - 3 axis, GA single engine, etc. With 1968 profiles completed, and a few more in preparation, that means about 10,000 images. However, a lot of these are far from acceptable. Most are too large, and a few are too small. I standardise all photos to an aspect ratio of 16:9, and a width of 750 pixels. ie., 750x422 pixels in size. This requires resizing and cropping. I am amazed at how badly exposed some photos are, very dark, detail in places like under wing indistinguishable, and if taking off in front of bushes or hedges, the background is a sold block of black. There are often odd items which distract from the image, such as tiedown ropes dropped on the ground, ropes and balustrades around the aircraft which I clone out of the photo. The original image is saved to an Originals subfolder attached to each category folder on my external hard drive. Therefore at least 20,000 images, just for the AP site. Here are a few examples from the last lot. They have been further reduced to 400 pixels wide, originals first, edited second.

Getting back to the oriinal idea of this thread - the governmental knee-jerk to firearm possession, it is becoming obvious that governments have been resting on the laurels of the original gun buy-back and the laws made in the late 1990s. That was thirty years ago. Are you still using the mobile brick phone you had back then? Are you still using dial-up ADSL? BY the same token, firearms have developed a lot in that time, but the classification of them for licensing purposes has not. I was watching a video about the point of the failure of firearms classification to keep pace with firearm development. As with all laws and regulations, the devil is in the definition. Let's look at teh shotguns used at Bondi. How was it that they, in particular, are legal under the classification system? The types of firearms permitted in Category A, the most commonly held licence, are: Air rifles; Rimfire rifles (other than self-loading); Shotguns (other than pump action, lever action or self-loading), and Shotgun/rimfire combinations. The type of interest from Bondi is the Shotguns (other than pump action, lever action or self-loading. One thinks of the break action shotgun, single or double barrel. We see pump action shotguns in movies and news videos from the USA, so we are aware of how they are operated. Lever action shotguns operate in a similar way to what we see as rifles in cowboy movies. Self-loading means that a fresh round is loaded by using the recoil from the round fired before the round to be loaded. However, firearm manufacturers developed another means of rapid reloading from a magazine using a loading lever similar to the idea of a bolt action rifle. This is the type of shotgun used at Bondi. As of that date, bolt action shotguns were Category A and legal to own. I believe that these have a 6-round magazine + 1 in the spout. To see what I'm talking about, watch this video from the 17:00 to 20:00 time marks. The problem with any knee-jerk response and regulations made on the fly will have consequences that firstly will financially affect firearms owners and later affect lawful activities such as feral animal control. Feral animals such as pigs, foxes, deer etc are becoming a greater problem because landowners are denying permission to recreational hunters to shoot on their properties. And yes I know all about tthe horror stories of idiot shooters. While it is good to hear politicians on both sides joining together to attack the problem, one must encourage them to keep at it, but not make flash in the pan decisions.

The first ones that should be investigated and jailed or deported are the Imams and other clerics at the mosques, sprouting and advocating this vile propaganda.

But, there are 1.8 billion Muslims in the world and 10% are radical, thats 180 million who want all the bad stuff, beheadings, sharia, wolrd domination, so are we wrong to want to stamp out these cowards and scum, the Israelis have it right starting at the head exterminate the head of the cowardly terrorists,and all western countries should deport ALL muslim s preaching thier foul hate and spew

I don't expect the employer (taxpayers) to pay for family airfares, etc. When I spent 20yrs travelling for work, my wage was somewhat higher than city based equivalents. Sometimes I delayed my return at the end of a project. I paid my wife's airfare to join me for the weekend. I paid the extra couple of days at the hotel. I was a mere technician but I did this to maintain some work/life balance, to make up a bit for my absence from home. I didn't think it fair to expect my employer to pay for that. Many jobs put stress on home life. Politician or bureaucrat is just one such job.

There was no co-ordination between the States licencing authorities for decades, due to parochial interests, and "jurisdictional claims and interests". Then, in late January 2006, a rapist/double murderer, who raped and murdered two sisters, one after the other in Melbourne, stole one of the womens cars and took off to the North of Australia. The murderer was intercepted on a lonely section of the NW Coastal Hwy, many kms from Karratha, about 3 days after the murders, by a lone police officer, Sgt Gray, who was looking for him, for driving off without paying for fuel. The murderer (a giant of a man) jumped out of the stolen car and launched a massive king hit attack on the policeman, breaking 13 bones in his face in the one hit. The policeman went down, but came back up again, and the murderer came at him again. The policeman drew his firearm and killed the murderer on the spot, with one accurate shot (he just happened to be a firearms trainer in the W.A. Police). But for over 6 hrs, no-one knew who the murderer was, who the car belonged to, and what the murderer had done. This was all due to a lack of a national database of vehicle registrations and a lack of information-sharing between State Police forces. Within a very short time after this disturbing event, a national database of vehicle registrations was initiated, accessible to any police officer anywhere in Australia, and other important information-sharing on fleeing felons and violent crimes was established. If it took just one murderous attack on a lone police officer in the Outback to galvanise the States into action to produce real-time violent crime information-sharing, and a vehicle registration database to be set up - then I'm sure Australia's worst terrorist attack on our soil, should ensure that everything that is needed, to standardise firearms laws and requirements across Australia, and to set up a national database of firearm owners, and those on terrorism watch, is rapidly carried out.

They would be happier with one that reads “ here lay Donald J Trump”

Goats are excellent mowers and tasty when the jobs done.

Far more useful than the real thing

Bought this for a lark today, I'm never going to Oshkosh at this rate ever now so it can't get any worse. I think is meant to be Donald Dump.

Black lines scream "incriminating". Call me a conspiracy theorist. I reckon there is more to hide, than a sex scandal. Everyone already knew that old mate Gropenfuhrer seems proud to be a sex offender.

Oh, I thought A.I. stood for 'Average Idiot'. (My level) Darn these acronyms!

I don't own any firearms. I don't want to own any firearms. But I can see that in the wake of Bondi there are cries for stricter firearm controls. The controls that have been mentioned often sound like knee-jerk reaction of people with little knowledge of firearm ownership in Australia. Let me say that I see ideas like restricting the total number of fireams held by an individual as being dificult to manage. Don't forget that the authroities only know about the registered firearms held by the community. We know that there are very many unregistered firearms in the community. Once again, any restriction on total number of firearms owned will only impinge on owners who are following current laws. How many is too many? A person might reasonably own several different types of firearms. Maybe one shotgun for hunting and another for target shooting. Maybe a centrefire rifle for kangaroos and another for pigs. And don't forget the .22 for rabbits and foxes. The first step that I fully agree with is the unification of records kept by States and Territories relating to licensed persons and registered guns. In this digital age unifying those records might only require the transfer of existing records from one database to another. It might need a bit of program development, but for years fingerprint records have been linked across States and Territories. Firearms licences only for Australian citizens???? Look at the ages of young Middle Eastern men using firearms in the drug and illicit tobacco wars. They are no doubt Australian citizens, having been born here. Here's the criteria: a child born in Australia gains citizenship if at least one parent is an Australian citizen or permanent resident at the time of birth; otherwise, they aren't automatically a citizen, but can acquire it on their 10th birthday if they've lived in Australia for their first 10 years. Protecting society from the misuse of firearms is an impossibility through laws, be they equitable or restrictive. Before slamming down on firearm ownership, careful consideration must be made of the consequences of any regulations proposed.

Hooray! The Epstein files are being released! And look what we learned....

True, but in those areas, firearms are "tools of trade". Criminals possess them for the purpose of carrying out their trade. Their preferred firearm is a pistol. Also they have more important things to do than get involved in racial politics. Also you are concentrating on "illegal" firearms. Actually it is the possession of firearms in contravention of the Regulations that makes most firearma illegal, although there are firearms that are intrinsically illegal by definition within the Regulations. Onetrack, widen your scope. You have honed in on people from the Middle East. Have you forgotten about White Supremists? Remember the mass shooting in New Zealand that was carried out by an Australian White Supremist?

Make your concerns known to Minns an Albo. Rules are useless if they can't be enforced.

No one should be able to act BEYOND the LAW "Including" some bosses. Check out the countries where Unions are Not allowed. You wouldn't want to Live there. Collective representation is a RIGHT Under UN declaration. Left unchecked Wages would be driven down by the Wealthy to increase Profits . Also corners get cut and safety standards Lowered. Nev

The shooters and fishers have had too much influence in NSW Politics Permitting. Shooting in National Parks is not something I Like. Responsible Gun Owners would agree some Limits must Be imposed and enforced. The Permit holder can't LEND guns or it's Meaningless. Accidents with Guns have always killed people AND they Must be safely stored. That's not easy. Being like America is not the Answer. It's INSANE over there. Nev

I grew up in the shadow of the Barrier Industrial Council. School bullies became union officials. It was oppressive, but now it all seems so tame compared with the deep corruption and underworld ties of some of our unions nationally and here in Victoria.

He had a mental and physical breakdown which he describes in the book.

Ah, 14hp means 14 Hamster Power? Thanks gents!

Its "Zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance". Riding is incidental.

Shortly after Gerry met his demise, Paddy also turned up at the cliff with a cardboard box. He walked to the edge of the cliff, opened the box and took out a hen, He grabbed hold of the hen's legs, and leapt off the cliff. Unfortunately, he suffered the same outcome as Gerry. Joe looked down, shook his head, and said, "Oi ain't goin' fook'n hen-glidin' neither."

Brass cases, so I'd say solids. They're a 2.5" case so they'd hold a fair bit of powder to push the slug a reasonable distance. I haven't seen all the footage so I don't know if they had a 12G as well, but the bolt action gun the young bloke was firing was a .410 ejecting brass cases

These people know they will be away from their family's before they take the jobs, just as ever FIFO miners does. It's a decision/ compromise they have to make.

What Hamas did is no worse than what the Japanese army did in Manchuria and Borneo, or what the Nazis did to the Jews. But once done, you can't fight a war against a segment of society. There were good Germans and good Japanese, but the bombs rained down on them all. There is no other way to fight against evil in wartime. And war is the only way to sanitise the evil. Each society, worldwide, is responsible for the actions of the groups within it.

America has never acted out of the goodness of its heart, towards anyone. It has always acted in the best interests of America, American corporations, and American people. Americans believe all other nations and cultures are inferior to them. Even as far as Australia is concerned, the Americans never acted out of the goodness of their heart to save Australia and Australians, they used Australia as a convenient base, from which they needed to stop the Japanese attacks on America and its commercial interests, and to wrest control of the Pacific region from the Japanese. The ugliest part of the Americans behaviour in WW2 was using 60,000 Australian troops and all our best military forces, to carry out the unnecessary and costly Borneo invasion campaign in May 1945 - Operation Oboe. We lost nearly 600 good men in three operations to take out the remaining Japanese soldiers on Borneo, who were all basically stuffed, anyway, with no logistics left - but the Japanese fought to the death, and often carried out suicide missions. Operation Oboe was an operation designed to cater to MacArthurs overweening arrogance and self-aggrandisement, and to promote American strength. https://www.awmlondon.gov.au/battles/borneo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borneo_campaign

Welcome back Willie, we missed you, mate.

A cuppa? I made a thermos and it still wasn’t enough!

On a lighter note.... A revolutionary play that casts Jesus as a trans woman Jo Clifford debuted "The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven" ten years ago. She never predicted it would become a rallying cry for LGBTQ rights in Brazil https://www.dazeddigital.com/life-culture/article/43680/1/jo-clifford-the-gospel-according-to-jesus-queen-of-heaven-trans-lgbtq-play The premise is:- "Supposing Jesus was born of a virgin, fathered by the Holy Spirit. No genetic material arrived. Jesus could have only inherited XX chromosomes. We are told that Jesus was the perfect MAN. Given that he has female chromosomes would he have really been the first perfect transMAN?"

I hope the American taxpayers are happy with their new plaques.

No need to if he borrowed the neighbour's goats.

Maybe you hate unions, but the changes Aussie unions led - 8 hours sleep, 8 hours play, 8 hours work led to the miggest productivity gains excluding technological improvements. I agree that unions went too far at times.. Norm Gallagher being one.. and of course, the CMFEU or CMFUE, or whatever they are called but generally speaking, absent of corruption, those countries that are unionised and respect progressive labour laws are far better places to live than the two I can think of that don't - Good ol' USA and Chy-nah! (trying a Donald Chump accent). In fact, would you want to live in the far too many places that oppress their workforce (and the majority of their population)? Nah.. Australia ain't so bad after all and you can still make a decent living as an entrepreneur (sp?) like yourself, but don't have to have the workforce being supplimented by welfare.. like the UK, for example. And then you would complain about the higher taxes. In terms of hating Labor, that is cool. .but on balance, would you prefer SFM or Albo.. I guess form mining, Albo is a little less appealing, but if you were into rare earth stuff, maybe not so... Kindest regards, The Devil's Advocate (or Avocaat) , Esq.. with a NZ mate of mine (Wolfie has made himself so rare these days).

Life at boarding school, and in mining camps has given me a very good appreciation of the bell curve.

There's some low hanging fruit. As mentioned in another thread, there should be data matching between state firearm registers and ASIO, and restrictions on people and their families/ close associates who have ever been linked to extremism.

Mr Al-Ahmed was shot in the shoulder and arm while hiding behind a tree shortly after confronting the gunman, and remains in care at St George Hospital. 'He's having multiple surgeries, he's got five gunshot wounds. It's a serious injury – far more serious than has been reported,' his former migration lawyer Sam Issa, who visited him on Monday, told The Australian. 'At this stage, he says he has no feeling in his arm. I'm no medical doctor but he said to me that it seems like one of the bullets may have hit a nerve.' Mr Issa says doctors had yet to remove a bullet from the back of Mr Al-Ahmed's shoulder as of Monday night, describing the injury as 'weird'. 'Given the fact that he was facing the shooter, how did he get a bullet in the back of his shoulder? It's strange,' Mr Issa said. There are fears that he could lose his arm. 'He said he'd do it again,' Mr Issa said.

Having now read the first chapter of "Tall Tales and True from an Adventurous Life", I am singularly impressed by the great strides you have made. You really can type! We hope all future posts are as well typed! Darn. Took so long to read, my coffee went cold.