Bruce

Yep,OME, we see the power of advertising a lot. You can actually get people to vote against their own interests if you advertise enough. Look at Trump: a rich guy who presented himself as anti-establishment and lots of poor people voted for him. I read today how the US is so unequal that the richest 1% have 39% of the wealth, while the poorest 50% have minus 1.8%. Yet with advertising, a lot of the poorest 50% voted for less taxes on the rich.

We have a surprising inability to understand the extra risks of bad weather. Remember the story about Keating and the Polish presidente... smart guys all I guess, but unable to see that bad weather made flying unsafe.

And space, if you read about the arrival of the first fleet into Sydney harbour, you will read that the local aborigines didn't even look up from their oyster-gathering while the boats went past. Compared to D-day, not much of an invasion huh.

I reckon I've lived in Australia for longer than a younger aborigine so why should I be subject to them? Because their ancestors were here longer than mine? What a nonsense argument. If that were true, then those with the most australopithecine genes would be in charge. As for taking their land, well that sure was not me or my ancestors. They all worked hard and paid the going rate for any land they owned.

Copper was used for internal water pipes in houses. These days, plastic is used and it is much cheaper and easier to install. Aluminium, wrapped on a steel core, has been used for overhead power lines for years.

I agree onetrack. Right now I am modifying a farm buggy to electric and the electric setup is way simpler and quite cheap. About $1000 for the job. Electric cars should be cheaper than IC cars. As far as electric bikes go, they used to sell for $3000 but now they are down as low as $500, which is still quite a lot.

It's amazing that these calls work well enough to keep them at it. Years ago, I got a recorded message from John Howard before an election. Gosh, this will cost them big time, thought I... anybody who gets this will now vote against Howard's party. In fact, although they lost that election, the swing was less in the electorates they did that test.

I sure have Nev. A few weeks ago I was near the local courts and wondered about going in and being a spectator. A good way to learn the facts of life, I thought. But too busy so far. Does anybody know if you can just wander in?

Thanks litespeed, I had wondered about that aspect of the case where stolen files were used. Gosh we have fewer protections than in the US in some ways, or is their version of the ATO just as bad? I would have fought the republic referendum by asking people if they really wanted to remain subjects or become free citizens. Alas you have to be old to even remember the event. Another protection we seem to lack is double jeopardy. The ATO appealed the original penalty and my mate had no money after his first case to defend the appeal. And I wonder if there is any regular sanity test for judges? What if one gradually succumbs to alzheimers for example?

I thought it was the failure of Australia to support NZ that caused those rainbow warrior french agents to get away. Is there something I don't know? And it is my understanding that NZ have only applied the same restrictions against nuclear ships that San Francisco and New York have done. Now I know that the US refuses to say which ships are nuclear, at least to foreign countries. Good on NZ say I. It amused me to see that a nuclear ship was berthed in Melbourne for 2 weeks and the greenies who would protest against a nuclear power station near Broken Hill were conspicuous by their absence.

Nope OME, the active ingredient in head n shoulders is zinc pyrithione. There is another anti-dandruff shampoo that uses the selenium stuff. I think they first found selenium by spectroscopy of moonlight. Sorry to be pedantic.

I sure agree with OME and with space about the ATO. They probably sit in a dungeon with torture machines around while they hatch their plots of extorting money with menaces. A mate of mine was prosecuted by the ATO using evidence stolen from his accountant by the accountant's bitter ex, who had the keys to the files from the time the accountant had employed him. He stole random files and gave them to the ATO in order to punish his ex-wife. Fruit of the poisoned tree? A classic example. Maybe a rich man could have fought it on those grounds, although this is not the US. I don't know if there is that defense in Australia.

I think we actually owned a 79 Corona. The one we had used a 4 cylinder Holden engine. It was noteworthy in that it satisfied the pollution requirements of the day by means of blowing fresh air into the exhaust system to dilute the pollution down to satisfactory levels. This is not done nowadays, so I hope the pollution requirements have been better framed. When I figured out that that blower actually did, I removed the whole thing. This would have reduced the pollution from that car by the amount that was attributable to running that blower. A pox on that car, said I, thus anticipating the Corona virus by many years.

That global rise in sea levels 10,000 years ago might have some connection to the terrible Kangaroo Island fires. Aborigines who had lived on KI died out about 10,000 years ago and were not replaced by new ones. They died out as a result of selenium deficiency. Remember they used fire to help them hunt. A bad result of this is that KI has dense undergrowth, such that you couldn't walk through it, but a fire sure would burn better.

On the police state argument, personally I don't feel like I live in one. I go about my business with no fear of the police whatsoever, and I bet all you other guys are the same. Yes, we are over-regulated, but so are the police I know. For example, this mate of mine, who was at the time a policeman, didn't feel free to have a single glass of wine with his meal when visiting us on a weekend day. Why? Because it would be bad for him at work to have any alcohol in his system if randomly breathalized on his way home. I put the blame for over-regulation on the fools who want the government to protect everybody all the time.