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Starting a new topic, similar to the "tell us about your last flight" on the sister site, but for motorbikes. (Or whatever else you've been riding. Just remember it's a family site 😜) Had a lovely ride this morning, met @nomadpete and his better half for a coffee then down to Dover. From there I took the Esperance Coast road (which I've never done before - but it was a beautiful riding road), which comes out at Surges Bay. Beautiful day, no pesky cars in the way for most of it. Pure fun!

Pocock is (or appears to be) on the correct side of most issues. The trouble is, for every Pocock there's a Bob Katter, a Clive Palmer, a Barmy Joyce or a Pauline Hanson. Well that puts them in front of PHON then, who have thought bubbles instead of policies and can't even agree amongst themselves as to what they are. Look I know the Greens sometimes seem nutty. My point is that if you want to park your vote with a protest party, at least give it to the nutters who have the best interests of the planet at heart, instead of the nutters who want to destroy it.

This sounds like a brilliant move.... Trump's Dallas mid-term convention site has been possibly sabotaged. The address redirects to the DOJ Epstein Library. http://gopdallas2026.com/ Try it. It really does!

This discussion has becomve very depressing, except for one thing. No matter where on the political spectrum each of us lays, we all seem to be in agreement that we have little or no say in how our country is governed and the direction its elected leaders want to take it.

Maybe wrong thread for this, but.... Russia has been creeping up and reenforcing positions near Polish and Finnish borders Neither China or Russia nor America can be trusted and have been the enemy of peace since the end of the last World War when they all began their land grabs.

And the recycled pollies PHON have at the trough are different in what way, exactly? Jerry, they've done something else before politics. They've had real jobs and careers. It's not hard to research. Pauline fried fish, Barnaby was a bean counter, David Farley started out as a jackeroo and ended up CEO of Australia's largest agricultural company, NSW leader Mike Newman is a former investment banker and NSW trade commissioner to Japan, Luke Herdegen who just won the WA byelection is a small busnessman who owns gyms, Tyron Whitten the WA senator is a former concretor and business owner, Rod Caddies the WA leader has worked in child protection, construction, mining and as an ADF reservist, and that's just some of them. Even Malcolm has had real jobs but I reckon he's too nutty to talk about.

OMG, they allow wimmin to do anything these days! Anyway. Just you wait until you get your wind farm. Especially in summer. Every wind farn I visit has got a nice cool breeze comming off them big fans!

You've got to be kidding! Why waste a good rant by reading provided refrences beforehand?

Going back to that assessment and prediction from Tony Barry of Redbridge Group, here's a quote of his opinion (based on polling) on reasons behind One Nation support: “For about 15 per cent of One Nation voters, they self-report immigration as their key consideration. But for most, they’re looking for an anti-establishment party. It’s a rejection of the two-party system,”

I came across another photo repair website which offered a free trial. I uploaded one of the most damaged photos I had, of my wife's aunt and cousin. here are the results.

Guess what! A splayd is an eating utensil which combines the functions of a spoon, knife and fork. It was invented by William McArthur in the 1940s in Sydney. I've still got the boxed set of Splayds that Mum got back in the day.

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Being a federal politician can't be easy. Imagine the protocols, rules, how policy is developed, getting information from the APS, what to declare, how to bargain with all the others without getting screwed over, your every mistake and misstep scrutinized by the press, working and networking all hours of the day and night. So if we don't want professional politicians, then we want "normal people" from all walks of life who can also be media experts and able to understand the implications and anticipate consequences of complex legislation. Which means that in most cases they will be heavily dependent on, and guided by, their staff. Who elected them (the staff?)

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It would be good to get rid of career politicians in all partys.

Ukraine probably offers really cheap flights to Australian soldiers looking to take a working holiday.

All three have imperialist intent and stop at nothing to seek their aims. China does the long game extremely well.

I can relate to that, having never owned a new car. The newest I've bought were a couple that were around six to seven years old. Most have been in the ten to fifteen year old range. I never saw the point in going tens of thousands of dollars into debt to buy a new car when a good second hand one costing a few thousand does the same job.

Not really related to the pros and cons of windfarms, but I figured this was the best place to show this video without starting a new thread. It deals with the way the blades for these generators are made and how they are repaired. Very interesting is the fact that the person presenting the video is an Australian - and a woman as well.

Sorry to be dissecting your post, but I am trying to get down to a useful conclusion about why not the Greens?... Although I have heard the above sentiment from others, and sometimes said similar myself, most really can't list all these BAD policies for me. Well that's what we all agree that's what gets votes for ON + Clive. But not working for Greens? But also don't like the major party's politics, either. Well, we all see a lot of nutty politicians in ALL parties. Disagree there. Greens have been bumping along the bottom for ever. Not likely to peak. Totally true. But we are accustomed to major partys doing that fairly often, too. After I started typing, others have touched on similar. I am puzzling how we can break out of this BTBD cycle before we follow the USA path. (BTBD = Burn The B Down and start afresh)

Did you actually read the article? "Premier Ben Carroll said if Labor won the November election, it would work with Corrections Victoria to develop a pilot program to put supervised, minimum-security prisoners to work performing roadside maintenance. The plan would include having inmates take over basic duties such as mowing lawns, controlling weeds, removing graffiti and picking up rubbish." A photo and then "Premier Ben Carroll, who served as roads minister between 2020 and 2022, said it would free up skilled roadside maintenance crews to concentrate on fixing potholes. Low-security inmates are already involved in day-release programs doing gardening, weeding and rubbish collection in some parks." So, there is no plan to use inmates to actually fix the roads... Another beat up

Actually - I don't buy it. The biggest reason things go downhill for blue collar workers is inequality. More of the pie goes to the massively rich and trickle down economics is the same joke it's always been. Even if they blame the major parties, they're voting for the fringe party that's bought and paid for by the same rich fucks that are already ruining their lives. If they truly wanted to change things for the better, they'd vote Green or progressive independents like Pocock.

It doesn't matter.. The fact we are heading downhill slower than the others doesn't make it good nor excusable People are wanting things to turn around, not to be told it will turn around and then the same path continue. After at least two generations of things getting worse, people are saying how do we change this. They only have one really big lever. The problem is, there is no one to step up with the real fixes so the only alternative is to, as @willedoo put it - burn the house down and start again. A lot of people don't see Chump's actions as anything but that... Even one of his MAGA supporters said it is the bitter medicine America needs to heal and get better (I am not sure I subscribe to that way of thinking, but the reality is there are far too many being pushed to the margins and they are getting angry).

Good job it was an Offenhauser and not an Oppenheimer. That would have been a bomb.

I've come to the conclusion that my hypothesis is WRONG. The British did not go to Botany Bay to establish a base for agriculture and commerce. They went there to create a dumping ground to releive the congestion in the hulks and prisons which were filled with souls whose crimes we now consider to be at the lowest end of criminality. I've reached this conclusion through a bit more reading. My main source that lead me to this conclusion is the book 1788 by David Hill. (See notes below for book identification) From this book I learned thatin 1717 the British parliament passed an Act which enabled the transportation of felons to foreign shores. At that time those shores were those of the American colonies, to which some forty thousand convicts were taransported (into slavery) over the following sixty years. Convicts committed to transportatin were sold by theo goalers to the shipping contactors, who took them actoss the Atlantic and sold the prisoners to plantation owners for the duration of their sentences. In 1777, the Parliament passed the Hulk Act, which allowed for the confinement of convicts in decommissioned British naval vessels on the Thames and other English rivers and ports. This was seen as a temporary measure until the American insurrection was quashed, but those colonies were granted independence in 1783 through the Treaty of Paris. leaving Britain with no place to transport convicts to, and crowding began to get bad in the hulks. So, based on the promptings of Sir Joseph Banks that the east coast of New South Wales (as Cook named it) would be a great place, in depth plans were made to sens an advance party to establish a colony to which thousands of convicts could be sent in future. The problem with Botany Bay was/is that it is no good for agriculture. (I grew up on its shores, and I know what the soil is like - crap.) Joseph Banks doesn’t come out of it very well. He enthused about Australia as a verdant land of opportunity when (a) his own notes were less effusive, and (b) he’d seen hardly anything of the place and was only here for a week. All he had done was collect a lot of plants. He obviously knew nothing of the requirements for agriculture. If these comments raise your interest in that bit of histroy, I recommend the book to you. After reading it, you will wonder at the survival of those convicts, Marines and officials during their first few years on these Fatal Shores. You can chase up the book with these details: Author: David Hill Title: 1788, The Brutal Truth of the First Fleet, Publisher: Random House (William Heinemann) ISBN: 9781741668001

How often do we hear of any good work that our Local Member does for the electorate? As Mark Anthony was want to say, "The evil that men do lives after them; The good is oft interred with their bones." If those good works were publicised, then a Local Member would be assured of continued support.

I suspect one root cause of the malaise, is that politics has become a business dominated by professional politicians. Their greatest motivation is a desire to keep their job and rise through the ranks. They act as though it's a game of 'say whatever it takes, to get the votes'. The electorate no longer believes anything any of them says (even the honest ones). To restore trust they will have to get the punters to start saying 'Hey, thank goodness, xxxx did this for us! '

You are having a bad day. Don't feel bad, it could be worse. Imagine running into a wall with a boner, and breaking your nose first.

Hmm. That's not what "nork" meant when I was growing up. It was only used in the plural and usually preceded by the words "phwoah, look at those "

The knork is a combination knife/fork with a sharpened side to cut food and eat it. It was developed for Horatio Lord Nelson who had lost his right hand and allowed him to eat without having his food cut up for him. The original one had a knife blade attached to a fork with a screw.

Sorry, I self censured my post.

And that, M'Lord, is proof positive of AI slop.

The USA has considered the Americas its domain since the collapse of the Spanish and Portugese empires. The Monroe Doctrine is a United States foreign policy position that opposes any foreign interference in the Western Hemisphere. Originally concerned with European colonialism, it holds that any intervention in the political affairs of the Americas by foreign powers is a potentially hostile act against the United States. The doctrine was central to American grand strategy in the 20th century. President James Monroe first articulated the doctrine on December 2, 1823, during his seventh annual State of the Union Address to Congress.

Of course we have "Some" good politicians .You find out if you Look hard who they are, but that's not fashionable. We don't live in a Perfect world, especially Lately so to expect an easy ride is not reasonable in such circumstances. There's a few complete drop Kicks Nev.

Everything else Marty said already applies to our current politicians. They have communications teams, speech writers, media experts, are heavily dependent on, and guided by, their unelected staff. In due course, once the oligarcs have dissolved democracy and implemented their corporate dictatorships, this debate will be forgotten.

I'm not sure that would be a good idea. It would leave us with government run by hobby politicians..... Or more likely by oligarcs, in their spare time!

I hope they have the chants. I love the chants, timed to the hammers hitting the rocks.

Here's another old and not very good photo. It's the FJ ute I learned to drive in. My dad bought it second-hand in 1961. It was that old light green Holden colour. It had some lead bog in it from a previous rollover repair. I was a late starter learning to drive and would have been nine heading toward ten. Reason was, I was a bit shorter than average as a kid and had to wait until the legs were long enough to reach the pedals. Once the legs grew enough, it was just a matter of packing enough pillows behind the back to be able to sit close enough to the wheel to reach the pedals. I had mates that were driving trucks by that age as they were that much bigger. I didn't get a burst on until grade 8 when I grew about a foot in one year. I remember that old ute toward the end of it's life had the tie rod ends held together with wire. It would occasionally come undone and the ute would head off the track into the paddock. We had a Dachshund that loved that old ute. She could perch her rear legs on the seat back, and with her long body, get the front legs right out on the window sill for a bit of wind surfing.

Just love Rosie's videos!

We had our local show this weekend. I got the chance to speak to representatives of the mob which is in the process of gaining approval for an eighty-tower windfarm within 20 kms of my place. Eighty towers seems like a big crowd, but when I was shown to proposed location of each tower, I saw that they were separated from each other by close on a kilometre. My first thought when I heard of the proposal was that teh towers would be visible from the Newell Highway which is located to the east of the proposed area. I learned that the closest tower woulod be about 5 kms from the highway, with a line of low "hills" between them. So that's no longer a concern to me. I think I've whinged before that around here it can be pretty windy, nd said that it would be ideal for a wind farm. Seems I'm right in some ways and mistaken in others. I experience wind as air movement within about 10 metres of the ground surface. That air movement is very turbulent compared to air movement 100 metres above ground where the turbine blades are. That turbulence, caused by the moving air particles colliding withthe ground and trees and ricocheting into air particles higher up. These collisions rob the air particles of energy due to loss of momentum. If the air movement is free of the turbulence, then there is more energy for the collision between the moving air and the turbine blades. That's why the towers are so high. I was also told that studies locally have shown that the most consistent air movement begins at these heights after sunset and stay pretty good until just before dawn. That means the turbines are best able to produce electricity at night in complement to solar panels. That sounds good. What about the effects on farm incomes? The builders don't resume the land they need like the government does when it wants to build roads etc. It seems that the land is rented from the landholders at a rate determined by the generating capacity of the turbine. An example was that of a property with two towers on it. Based on the generating capacity of the intended turbines, renting the land for two towers would return $100,000 p.a. CPI-indexed for a contract period of thirty years. That's got to provide a degree of stabilisation of farm income. I bet any landowner would love to get that sort of money, especially in the present circumstance when it looks like a drought is on the way. Why does it take so long to get a windfarm up an running. Would you beleive that it is in part due to the very people who pursue a renewable world? One of the environmental reports required deals with the effect of the turbines on bats and birds. Getting the data required a study lasting two years. Then there are the Native Heritage studies and gaining clearances from the local indigenous community. Then there are the geo-technical studies, planning permissions yadda yadda. We should consider the economic benefits. It is said that the workforce required to create the windfarm complex is about 500 persons. These people will be newcomers who will have to be fed, housed and entertained for several years. Already the local Council has allocated an area for an accommodation camp. Someone has to build it. An extra 500 people will hopefully boost local trade, although the proximity of the City of Dubbo, about 30 minutes' drive away might not do good for my town. Still, it's money coming into the district. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong with this project. Really, it is going to be 'out of sight, out of mind' to teh majority of the population. And kn owing what I know about smart crows and blind bats, I don't envisage too many mid-air collsions with revolving turbine blades.

You mentioned nutters before. Is that the full list?

There's my point. You start by saying you'd only vote for them if you had a lobotomy, but end by saying the environmental destruction in your area would have been less if they'd been in power. So people vote against their best interests... why?

To save the world from pollution, I'd mandate that no person be allowed to purchase more than one vehicle in their lifetime. At present, cars are expected to be replaced every couple of years and the industry is geared up to make cars that quickly go out of fashion. We could save enormous amounts of manufacturing energy and massively reduce CO2 And other pollutants) produced by unnecessary duplication of product. It would encourage better quality engineering and construction. The modern motor car is now close enough to the pinnacle of its development.

Nobody is really disputing all the above. The problem is that the rest of the big party politicians are tarred with the same brush. And often enough it is sufficiently true to drown out any good they actually do.

The major parties have had 125 years to get it right. In all that time you'd think they would have learned that democracy means more than just having an election every three years and then treating the electorate with contempt. They're simply not the kind of people we want governing us anymore, they've had their day, their psyches are no longer fit for purpose.

Sometimes we don't know how lucky we are. We often have gripes about this and that, but life and nature can throw some people incredible problems, yet thet learn to cope with them and get on with life. Some are not expected to live a few days or more when born, but somehow live on into their 40's and 50's. A new series on Foxtel highlights these Extreme Humans. There have only been 2 episodes so far, each dealing with 2 persons/couples, but the show runs every Monday. Here are the people shown so far. From Turkiye, the world's tallest woman at 7ft 1in. She is 29, and studying computer science. She is so tall, she cannot sit in a car, she travels in a van, lying in the back on a matress. She has the largest ears. This couple from Brazil hold the Guinness World Record for the smallest couple in the world. They are both only 2ft 11in tall, yet live a comparatively normal life. The husband can drive, they go to the supermarket to do their shopping, they have to ask for help to reach items above the 4th shelf. They use a kiddies shopping trolley. When the husband puts the shopping in the car, his head is no higher than the rear seat. Naturally, door handles, benches and the sink in their home are lowered to their level. This girl from America is amazing. Her legs were badly deformed at birth and she gets around walking in her hands. Callipers on her legs as a child did not improve things. But she can drive an automatic car and rides horses. This chap from Brazil wasn't expected to live more than a couple of days at birth, but he is 48. The photos illustrate the contorted effects he has had to live with. It makes you wonder...and be grateful.