willedoo

That's a good way to do it. Buy a basic cheap pizza and add your own mods.

On the back of election results in Queensland and the US my bet is that Albo's government will fall as well next year. In the US, apart from all the sensationalist stuff, the economy and cost of living was a big factor in how a lot of people voted. I'm no fan of Peter Dutton but I can see his point about voters feeling a disconnect from government when they are struggling to pay the bills and feel the government is not up to scratch. My only personal experience with a tier of government speaking with a forked tongue is as an age pensioner hearing our local council bleat about cost of living pressures and then deliver a 30% rate increase this year. I'm fully aware of opinions that governments aren't responsible for all rising costs, a lot of it is out of their control, what's the opposition going to do that's any better, and a myriad of other excuses. The problem is they don't mean a thing if the majority of voters don't hold that opinion. The US election has shown that voters are prepared to sweep a bit of craziness under the carpet if they think it will be better for the economy and themselves financially. Whether that happens or not is irrelevant; it's the perception that determines election results. I think next year will see PM Dutton in based on voter discontent with cost of living pressures combined with an underwhelming term of government from Albo and Co.. This is a cut and paste of Dutton's comments on the US election. It's from one of those ever changing news blog sites. [ Opposition Leader Peter Dutton says there’s “an eerie parallel” between Australian and US voter sentiment over the cost of living. Speaking on Nine’s Today, Dutton was asked if Trump’s successful campaign, based on the economy and immigration, gave him confidence in his similar strategy. Dutton suggested that the key similarity was the feeling that the government isn’t listening when people say they are struggling with the cost of living. “They just felt a real disconnect,” Dutton said. “To be honest, there’s sort of an eerie parallel with what’s happening here in Australia, in that sense”. Referring to messaging that the peak of inflation is now behind us, Dutton said the government was trying to tell Australians that “you’ve never had it so good”. “I just don’t think that washes because the lived experience, the reality for lots of families sitting around the kitchen tables at the moment, is that they’re pulling their hair out, and they can’t pay the bills, and people are having to sell their homes because they just can’t afford the mortgage repayments.” But Dutton concluded that while there were some parallels, there were other parts of the US election that “don’t have an equivalent here in Australia”. ]

The Republicans might get the trifecta with it looking like they will get a majority in the senate.

putin will be getting the champagne ready.

A so called expert or analyst or whatever his qualifications are was saying on the radio that there's a future for hydrogen power in shipping and possibly aviation, but he gave a few reasons why he thought it won't be the future for vehicles. The way he explained it, it didn't seem to stack up against electric.

It varied a lot state by state. NSW and Victoria were the most regulated and Queensland and Tasmania the least. In Queensland, longarm firearm licenses and firearm registration was introduced in 1990. Concealable firearms had been restricted for decades previously. Until 1990 in Queensland you didn't need a firearm license or have to register firearms. To purchase them you had to show proof to the dealer that you were over 17 years of age. You could buy .22 calibre rifles from Kmart, sporting goods stores and camping and disposals stores without any license. It still is the domain of the states when it comes to legislation, but Howard's 1996 national agreement between the states and territories brought them mostly into line with each other. There still are some differences between the states but these days the differences are mainly regarding lower level classes like replicas and gel blasters.

More confusion over the 3G shutdown, 000 and blocked phones: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-11-03/brand-new-phones-unable-to-make-calls-3g-shutdown/104541440 The section in that article that related to phones purchased overseas being blocked got me thinking about second-hand sales of phones. With the 3G shutdown making my old Samsung Galaxy S5 obsolete, I bought a refurbished S10e on eBay. I wonder if any eBay phone sellers here in Australia source stock from overseas. Mine is working ok but I haven't called 000 to know if that part works. Apparently it's up to the telcos to block models they think might not be compatible but it sounds a bit arbitrary.

That's one of the reasons why they've got money. They don't like parting with it.

In the January 1992 floods we had 33 inches in 24 hours. I was away up at Fraser Island so missed seeing it. The most I've personally seen here is 14 inches in a day. We had 14 inches one Sunday and another 14 inches the following Sunday. It cut the road to the coast for five weeks. The first 14 inches had a week to soak in and waterlog the soil so it took much longer than normal for the second lot to get away.

He'd eased off on the orange for a fair while, but photos of him in the last couple of weeks shows it caked on in volumes. He must be applying it with a trowel now. As the election gets closer, he's decided to go for double orange. It looks weird and a little bit spooky with those pink eyelids peering out from under a face of orange. At least he didn't have to dress up for Halloween.

Fun and games with computers is never ending. I use Firefox for a browser and for a few days it's been as slow as a wet week. This afternoon it crashed and when I restarted it, it's been super fast. Firefox has a bad habit of playing up after updates.

The other problem for Harris is that for a lot of the saner Republican supporters it's all about policy. They're prepared to put up with Trump because they believe Republican policy is better for them and better for the country than the Democrat alternative. I think there's more chance of it being very close as opposed to a major victory by either side. I'd agree with the suggestion that it might come down to which side has the most motivated voters to actually register a vote. There's been a bit of delusion among Harris supporters expecting her honeymoon period to result in a major defeat of Trump. One bunch on YouTube were all excited over stats showing the increase in vote among white collar college graduates. Clinton increased it 5%, Biden 9%, and polling suggested an increase of 18% for Harris. Well whoopy doo, that's great if you restrict voting to white collar college graduates. It would be a bit like taking a poll among Canberra public servants to get an idea how people will vote in Bundaberg or Broken Hill.

It would help Harris a lot if they kept Biden sedated at home until the election is over.

Not long to go now. I'm not a betting man but I'm tipping a Trump victory.

That leaping was me, not the toad.

I had a run in with a cane toad tonight. He jumped onto my bare foot when I wasn't expecting it, resulting in much leaping and a twisted knee. The toad and two of his mates are no longer here.

Paraquat is the one that has been in the news a lot lately with possible links to Parkinson's mentioned. I'd agree on the improper handling part of it. I used to see it here all the time, farmers spraying with no cabs on the tractors, out in the open without a mask, shorts and short sleeved shirts. One farmer with Parkinson's was being interviewed on the ABC radio yesterday and he said that's how he sprayed for years. It's difficult to have sympathy for stupidity. Paraquat in it's concentrated form is very deadly. One young bloke was adding it to a tank and spilled it on the front of a football jersey or some similar tight fitting top he was wearing. His sister found him dead no more that 15 minutes after she last saw him. It appeared he's tried to take the shirt off and passed out by the time he had it up over his face. In another case up north, someone put paraquat in a coke bottle and put it in the fridge. When this bloke had a swig of it, he spat it out but still died in hospital a few days later. I think it wrecks your organs and there's no real antidote for it.

Trump's Truth Social stock market valuation is now greater than the estimated value of Musk’s Xcrement. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/oct/29/truth-social-trading-suspended

I'm not sure whether it was a statewide directive from the Greens in the Queensland election, but in my region all the roadside corflute signage for the Greens had them dressed up in khaki uniform. It was a bit comical with them all looking like the Irwins in the Australia Zoo ads. The signage made it look a bit fake, but then again most campaign signage looks a bit dodgy. I can just see Adam Bandt sitting in the Qantas Chairman's Lounge with his short sleeve khaki shirt on.

Day three and the sky hasn't fallen in yet.

I better not show that to my feathered mate; he'll expect cake instead of the dog pellets.

Seeing $1,300 would have been a bit of a shock.

You learn a lot on this forum. I've always pulled the Honda engine onto compression when not using it, but this afternoon I gave the muffler a squirt as noted.

That would be wishful thinking on Luka's part. The Belarusian military is one that the Russians really could beat. They're not much better than Kadyrov's TikTok warriors.

Another thing I'm getting used to is WhatsApp. So far I only use it for calls to friends who don't have a very good signal for a normal mobile phone calls. They get a lot of dropouts so use WhatsApp for calls whenever they can.