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On a positive note, yesterday's election results showed that democracy is not completely dead in the US and that the electoral system works despite huge sums of money being spent and plenty of vicious politicking. That's encouraging. Even so, a lot of the vote was a widespread vote against Trump rather than a vote for the Democrats, even by the democrats themselves. But at least now there's an opportunity to stop the ship from sinking totally. It's going to be a hard road to get things back on track and sort out the many problems, so I hope the new Congress and Senate can show a bit of leadership. They've got three months to get themselves organised, set a sensible and balanced agenda and then implement it. Hopefully the cooler heads can keep things on track and the hotheads under control. There's plenty of potential for it all to come unstuck, but at least they're off to a good start.

Closing the Southern border may have been a success but Trumps reliance on ICE which appears to be run as a total authoritarian outfit by its hierarchy has completely backfired. The only other thing he has been successful at it enriching himself and his family and lowering taxes for all of his billionaire cronies.

See! We ARE multicultural!

A couple of weeks ago there was a heat wave in NSW and due to various factors including coal generators outages due to breakdowns and maintenance, the spot price soared to over $2,000.00 a MW. As a VPP my system immediately began to sell power to the grid. It see sawed rapidly for an hour or 2 due to this occuring from numerous battery systems doing the same thing. Anyway I ended up with a credit of $65.00 over the 2 hours & my monthly bill just received is now in credit foe $70.00. This includes charging my EV once or twice a week.

Just another grasp at straws to try and discredit renewables

Lame duck l'orange.

Jerry, don't forget to take into account that it doesn't matter how big, long or how much weight a truck carries, it's the axle weights that mainly impact the roads, ie: the ground pressure. A tandem axle grouping on a B-Double carries no more weight than the tandem axle grouping on a heavy rigid class truck like the bogey drive tip trucks we see everywhere.

He kept saying "Imagine I'm on the ballot." America did, and said "Up yours."

Trump can VETO everything and probably will. What a silly system they have there. Republicans will ARC up too. There's too much Power to a President. SCARY. Nev

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

According to Google, at the moment, from public records, the government is currently committed to around $2bn in spend under AUKUS. Of course, this is from what information is available publicly. But, these contracts will have escape clauses just like that of the French - especially since the US and the UK are under no obligation to deliver anything.. So, yes, it is likely we will lose some as we did with cancelling the French contract.. some $3.5bn in the end.. But even if we are on the hooks for say $10bn, it is still < 3% of the total budget of the program, so I would be happy t cut that cheque to be rid of it. And yes, I still pay tax in Australia.. The last guy setting it up excuses the cost of abandoning it; it doesn't excuse the continual accrual of a white elephant of a project to Australia committing that much money to it. Remember c. $5bn is allocated to uplift US shipbuilding capacity

Aussie F1 legend Alan Jones passes away aged 80.

Which needs to be ditched. Independent review (because the government wouldn't do it) has absolutely slammed it. We need some courage from Albo and the cabinet now.

No tax on tips and overtime expire in December2028 but tax breaks for the rich don't expire. That's not good. Finding waste and fraud in government is a perennial aim of all parties but DOGE was a complete financial and moral failure. What he wanted tariffs to do was punish countries he thought were taking advantage of the USA because he didn't understand how trade worked. By nature, he's pathologically opposed to cooperation for mutual gain.

The only good thing I think Trump has done is stop uncontrolled migration across the border. Everything else has been a disaster for the country and the world.

Our OP Shop has to give an annual report to NSW Fair Trading. It has to be done online, and the required fee paid with plastic. Here's the gripe: The payment of teh fee can be done by credit card. It can also be paid using a debit card, provided it is a Visa debit card. The Op Shop banks with the only bank in town - Bendigo Bank, which is not tied in with Visa. A physical debit card works well for the shop since it can't be used for fraud by anyone associated with the shop. The payment of the annual fee to Fair Trading is the only payment that would require the use of a credit card. The annual fees for a credit card would exceed the fee to Fair Trading. So, in order to pay the fee, one of the members who has a credit card has to be with the Treasurer at the computer in the person's home ( we don't have in the shop because we don't need one) so that person's card can be used and then the Treasurer has to reimburse the person. The job gets done, but how inconvenient? The coming problem for a lot of people is that Banks will not issue personal credit cards to pensioners, but will issue debit cards. It seems that the officials at Treasury, who are in employment so can get a credit card, are not aware of this problem and blithely introduce payment systems that are impossible for amny people to use.

Here is an example of a good use for ChatGPT, and I suppose Calude and the others.

Jeez, that's a long game! 😁

Lst night I watched an astonishing light show in the clouds. Usually one gets intermittent lightning flashes, but this storm light show was just like New Year's fireworks. The storm was way off in the distance, but I did get about 12mm of rain in a couple of very heavy showers. However, this is a storm that moved over tjhe NSW Southern Highlands yesterday.

I agree with your skepicism. Sure, it's still early days. But so far the returns don't seem to be ramping up in proportion to the collective $billions being 'invested' in data centres and A.I.

Australia is actually doing alright but you won't see that expressed often here.. Nev

Ball and socket joint

They upped the Max Weight of them some years ago, and I blame that for a lot of the Problems. Nev

Sad. I remember his awesome driving with Colin Bond in theyellow Ignis Alfa GTV in the touring cars. A little 2.5 litre taking it to the big V8s. Trounced everything in its class and often bettered the big boys.

It won't be easy. If you got it wrong you could lose the Lot. I'd like to see who got the Kick Backs on that one. (And the Japanese one). Nev

He says "he will work with them" IF they behave themselves?? 2 years to go. He might not live that Long. He certainly won't behave in a more rational way. He's a person where "everything is NOT Enough". They won't be installed for a couple of Months, but the results are astounding. Nev

He said that four democrats had already called him after the election - two senators and three congressmen, and there were two more calls waiting. My guess is the actual number of calls was zero.

The thing Australians call a split pin was patented in the USA in 1925. https://patents.google.com/patent/US7413391B2/en This patent seems to be for an upgrade of pre-existing similar items. An earlier patent was granted in in the USA in 1902, and that item is of cruder design. https://patents.google.com/patent/US691730A/en 1902 version 1925 version There have been a number of later patents issued for amendments to this design, but these have been minor tweeks. The wedge-shaped piece or bolt that is/was used to fasten a pedal crank on a bicycle is known from the 1640s The word is of uncertain origin, perhaps a shortened form of cotterel, a dialectal word for "cotter pin or bolt, bracket to hang a pot over a fire" (1560s), itself of uncertain origin. Cotter-pin is attested by 1849. It would seem that the Australian term for the item provides a better description of how the pin is used and effectively differentiates it from the bolt-like thing.

Google AI says they're one and the same, generally called split pins in Australia. They use AIMS Industrial Supplies as a reference. The AI also says the Brits call them split pins or split cotter pins, the Americans call them cotter pins, then it goes on to describe a true cotter pin. https://aimsindustrial.com.au/blogs/product-guides/split-pin-cotter-pin-guide

Tocumwal is a great destination for a flying coffee.

In the USA they call split pins cotter pins. Everywhere.

That's why we don't have them. We don't manufacture anything that the majority of consumers want.

I didnt know they finished after Trumps term...the Dems will for sure put it all back on again as they are spendriffs the same as Labor here. The Dems give money away to all sorts of worthy causes like Trans education in Somalia or other ridiculous things Well if thats true then why is austrlia hit with tarriffs from the EU and many other countries despite us not charging them tarriffs..sort of a oxymoron there dont you think? We dont charge tarriffs on the incomming here although the USA thinks the GST is a tarriff but then again you have to remember they have always thought of themselves as the centre of the universe. European Union There is no FTA in force yet (negotiations concluded in March 2026, but the deal is still going through domestic ratification processes in Australia and the EU). As a result, many Australian agricultural products (especially beef, dairy, grains and some processed foods) face relatively high EU Most-Favoured-Nation (MFN) tariffs or restrictive tariff-rate quotas. And there are many others China Most goods enter at zero or low rates under the China-Australia Free Trade Agreement (ChAFTA) and RCEP. However, China currently applies a 55% additional safeguard tariff on Australian beef that exceeds the annual country-specific quota (around 205,000 tonnes). The quota was filled in mid-June 2026, so the higher rate has applied for the rest of the year. It resets at the start of each calendar year.⁠ We dont charge them anything for their goods no matter what it is...is this fair? No different here with the tax on the rich..they system is designed so that a lot escape them. Companies like Apple whose offices are based overseas for tax purposes..I think theirs is in Ireland and so are a lot of others. Heaps rag on Gina Rhinehart but she and her companies pay her taxes at the correct rates Hancock Prospecting (Gina Rinehart’s main company) paid about $2.3 billion in Commonwealth and state taxes for the financial year ended 30 June 2026.⁠Hancockprospecting This figure comes from the company’s 2026 annual report and media release (around 31 October 2026). Key details include Net profit after tax of $2.8 billion. Total comprehensive income of $5.2 billion (including investment portfolio gains). Over the past decade, Hancock’s total federal and state tax contributions reached $24.5 billion (plus additional taxes via employee salaries). The core mining division, Hancock Iron Ore, accounted for roughly $1.59 billion of that (corporate tax, iron ore royalties, state payroll taxes, and Native Title contributions). The remaining ~$710 million related to other interests. Apple Australia (primarily Apple Pty Ltd) paid approximately $188–200 million in corporate income tax to the ATO in the most recent reported period. Apples income for last year was about 13.1 BILLION dollars where Hancock prospecting was only 5.2 Billion

Cotter pins are used to hold the carnk to the crank shaft on bicycles. Generally old ones, newer are different.

You're right. He's been a roaring success based on those measures. I was thinking more about what might have been seen as good in terms of his official job, the one he never understood and still doesn't.

https://www.facebook.com/reel/1167549079294119

Hollywood has lost another beloved star. Elke Sommer, the German-born actress who became one of 1960s Hollywood’s most recognizable faces in comedies and espionage films, has died at 85. Speaking to the German news outlet Bild, her stepson Sebastian Walther said Sommer died at home in Bel Air, in Los Angeles, on Wednesday, OCtober 28.

No. It was a Dad joke.

It's an example of the ability to use the English language for wit. I'm glad that you undersrtood it.

There will be huge losses from the AI ponzi scheme. This is probably the start.

History repeats itself???? The Wall Street Crash of 1929 occurred from October 24 to October 29, 1929. The same week in October, ninety-eight years later, Wall Street suffered a big drop due to off-selling of stocks related to AI businesses.

You forgot the RAT RACE. That's everywhere but the BUSH. Nev

I'm happy to use non-fossil electricity. Presently expecting a $200 credit for this quarter. That projects to a break even at about 6 years, but considerably sooner after we get a new EV to use the excess that presently only goes out to the grid at 8c/Kwh.

Another great actor gone - Patrick Stewart, best known as Captain Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek.

This may well have been posted before.. But in case

Tom Skerritt, the Emmy-winning actor who embodied a solid, wry authority figure, whether as a flight instructor in Top Gun, a tough-but-fair sheriff on TV’s Picket Fences or the doomed captain of Alien, has died. He was 93. Skerritt died Wednesday of natural causes, his family said in a statement.

I actually remember when John Howard sold off australia's gas for 5 cents per liter. I was the only person who took the time to convert petajoules per something to cents per liter, so this was not known at the time, or ever after from that point of view. I don't think that Howard was so bad, I reckon he thought gas was infinite in australia.