onetrack

There's a lot to be said for a very major reform of our taxation system, one that ensures taxes are paid according to the rules, and which system would not allow "creative accounting" or "loophole exploitation", as practised by many global corporations today, and who have done so, for many years. When the GST was introduced, it was supposed to result in a fairer and simpler system. It has turned out to be anything but that.

This is classic, check out the detail in the cartoon, even down to the instructions on the kneecaps...... The cartoonist is David Rowe.

Yep - no skills, but she wants to fly the plane.......

I have enough trouble trying to get my new Samsung phone to work properly with a screen swipe. It often fails to respond to a finger swipe. It's the most dubious activation of any operation you can devise - as compared to the accuracy and positivity of a switch. As regards voice commands - they are also on a par with screen swipes. I never use them, because I have poor hearing, and verbal communication is always a hassle for me. I don't use sat nav because I can't hear the womans instruction. I have great difficulty in understanding women speaking, due to the pitch of womens voices, which pitch is where I have greatest hearing loss. In addition, I do not trust any global corporation taking a record of my voice, and doing all sorts of things with it, in that they refuse to tell me what they are doing with it. Then there's the problem of several people talking, while you're trying to talk to a voice-activated screen, and the screen microphone picks up activation commands that weren't directed at it. I often hear SWMBO talking to our smart TV, trying to get it to carry out some action, and then she resorts to the remote control. AFAIC, touchscreens in cars are anathema to what driving is all about. It means distraction from the road, and other vehicles around you, and safety authorities have long treated screens inside vehicles as a major road safety problem.

Essentially, the near collapse of the Liberal Party and its dubious and deficient policies has seen disaffected right wing voters vote for ON and Teals in the hope of getting rid of Labor from positions of power. But not one of the parties currently vying for leadership of the nation is addressing the elephant in the room - rocketing house prices that are unjustly enriching property investors, and which prices are making housing unaffordable for the younger generation who missed the property/housing gravy train. At least Federal Labor has recognised the problem and is trying to do something about it by tackling CGT rules and negative gearing rules. But of course, that brings howls of outrage and bitterness from those property owners who do not want to see ANY downturn in housing or property prices. That large cohort are nearly all conservative voters. Unfortunately, history tells us property bubbles have a way of exploding by themselves in a very hurtful and shocking manner, if Govts don't take measures to rein in property investment exuberance. Just like the shock kids get, when a party balloon explodes, a lot of property investors who are sitting on millions in gains, are going to get a nasty shock, when there's a sudden and severe economic downturn, and the property bubble does go bang.

Kia has already issued a worldwide recall notice for a wide range of their models, whereby a software error causes the screen in these vehicles to go blank. The old Windows problem recurring? 😄 As Kia and Hyundai use a lot of common design and components, I would expect Hyundai to start having similar problems soon. Give it a year or three, and I'll wager we'll see quite a number of reports of screen failures in Chinese cars. As parts supply is poor for most Chinese cars, I can see major issues, and customer dissatisfaction, looming in this area.

Nev, my take is that LCD/LED screens are the manufacturers taking the cheap way out, as a screen and software would only be a fraction of the cost of the buttons and switches. Add in the fact that these screens have a vastly increased failure level and increased susceptibility to damage, as compared to switches and buttons, and I know what I'm going to buy in any future vehicle purchase. No, I haven't driven any EV yet and I'm not rushing into doing so. I consider current EV technology is still in the "further development required" category, and I'll wait a while yet before I try out the technology. I'm conservative by nature, and have always abided by a policy of never being an early purchaser of new technology or new models, until the bugs are sorted out.

The move to ensure new cars have familiar buttons and switches for the primary basic controls in a car is gathering pace, and it's being pursued by safety authorities. It's long overdue. Every car should have a similar familiar layout, to enable easy transition from one vehicle to another, without confusion or distraction. The safety authorities are becoming concerned that touch screens with many of the vehicles primary controls on it, are a safety and distraction hazard. Manufacturers are starting to agree that they went too far in trying to make cars into mobile phones on wheels. The comment from Aston Martin director of design is very relevant. He speaks of how touchscreens take away from the driver, the feel to be able to properly use the car. It's interesting to see that the ultra-conservative Toyota is still using the approach of retaining buttons and switches for the basic vehicle controls. Numerous Chinese and European and Korean vehicles have gone too far in making touchscreens the primary control device in cars, and now a number of them are admitting, they have to return to a Toyota-like, controls design. https://www.carsguide.com.au/car-news/big-touchscreens-to-give-way-to-physical-controls-as-car-brands-ditch-annoying-feature-and

Yeah, old George was certainly the caravan flogger. But he died in 2013 and Apollo Motorhomes, a publically listed company bought his business as a going concern in 2017, and bought the rights to use his name as well. Then in 2022, George Day Caravans was merged into THL (Tourism Holdings Ltd), originally NZ's biggest RV rental operation - but the merger with Apollo, an Australian company, sent them global, and they operate in a multitude of countries. They are huge, and own all the major well-known RV rental brand names. So Georges name has gone global, thanks to the corporate global aims.

Clinton - His passing was noted on the Aircraft Pilots forum, so it seemed unnecessary to post the same info here.

It only works selectively. I use Google Chrome. I tried variations of the search, such as "-AI: What is Antonov AN2", or "no AI: What is Antonov AN2", and AI generated answers still appeared - but they were clips of text taken from websites (to which, they did add the link, I must say). I have to agree with Willie, that Google's use of short lengths of text from websites is a bit "iffy". However, they would no doubt quote "educational use rights", whereby you can copy parts of text of authors/websites, and it is regarded as "fair use" under copyright terms. And they do send you to the site quoted. However, Google generates income from doing so, so that negates the "fair use" angle, IMO.

The Govts definitely have to crack down on this "Middle Eastern crime gang" activity. It's just a daily occurrence now, to have major shoot-ups and gun murders in SW Sydney. Add to that, they steal and burn luxury vehicles daily - costing us all mega-dollars in increased premiums. If someone steals a car, carries out a major crime, and then burns it, they should get 10 years minimum, and be made to pay the value of the vehicle, plus compensation to the owner for his loss and costs of inconvenience. And the owner often has to carry the cost of increased insurance premiums, because his car was stolen. Car security is a joke today, they can steal any keyless car with code generators that are easily acquired from overseas sellers. Plus, where's the savage penalties for unlicenced firearms (often handguns), used by crims? There's no penalties for additional crimes, the police hit them with one charge, and let the rest drop, because any other sentence would be served concurrently. The sentences should be cumulative, take the bastards out of society for multiple years, even decades, because they have no interest in living in a safe, law-abiding society, so they have forfeited any chance to live in a safe, law-abiding society.

The uncontrolled immigration started under Malcolm Fraser and a Liberal Govt in 1976, when he let "refugees" from Lebanons civil war into Australia with inadequate background checks - against Immigration laws and regulations and against the advice of the Immigration Dept. It was called "The Lebanon Concession". "The Lebanon Concession" was an Australian immigration policy introduced in 1976 by Malcolm Fraser's government that temporarily relaxed standard migration criteria for thousands of Lebanese civilians fleeing the country's civil war. The policy allowed many Lebanese nationals - often categorized as "quasi-refugees" because they were escaping civil conflict rather than direct state persecution - to enter Australia without the usual requirements for employment skills, language, or assimilation ability. Implemented in response to advocacy by influential Christian leaders and the worsening humanitarian situation, the policy resulted in the arrival of roughly 20,000 Lebanese immigrants between 1975 and 1980. Prior to the concession, Australia's Lebanese community was predominantly Christian. The relaxed criteria inadvertently facilitated the arrival of a significant number of Muslim Lebanese from rural backgrounds, who made up just under half of the arrivals. Many of these new migrants settled in south-western Sydney (such as Lakemba and Arncliffe), utilizing family reunion provisions in later years to establish a major, enduring community. The Fraser government abandoned the concession in late 1976 after immigration officials raised concerns that many entrants were illiterate, and admitted without sufficient regard to "economic viability, personal qualities, or capacity for successful settlement". What is not stated that a large percentage of these Lebanese immigrants were criminals.

I thought that big fat grub, Clive Palmer, had disappeared off the political scene, with my unreliable memory recalling that he said he was done with politics at the last election, where his party got hammered. But this morning, I got a flyer in the letterbox from Clives Party, like they're on the campaign trail again? Turns out, he's re-registered the United Australia Party again, after burying his Trumpet of Patriots Party unceremoniously, so he IS on the campaign trail again. He's talking about spending billions on advertising, to ensure he wins the next election. He obviously believes his money can buy every Australian, same as it does in America. I've got some news for him, he may waste a lot of his money again to achieve very little again, politically.

"Keep the change, ya filthy animal". The famous line from the gangster movie being watched by Macaulay Culkin in Home Alone.