onetrack

Giving her a beer mug?

I couldn't see Gina fitting into the back of a 172!!

They got outfoxed.

The amount of electrical power generated by house rooftops in Australia is more than all the public and private power stations combined. All that's needed is electrical storage, and most States are addressing that angle as we speak. Here in W.A., the State Govt is installing massive batteries at Collie and at other locations, to stabilise the grid and to make use of the power generated by house rooftops during the day. A large percentage of people aren't home during the day, so the power being generated just needs to be stored. https://www.synergy.net.au/Our-energy/SynergyRED/Large-Scale-Battery-Energy-Storage-Systems/Collie-Battery-Energy-Storage-System

When global corporations and local huge companies can afford to employ teams of double degree account/lawyers, who can drive Mack trucks through legislative loopholes in tax laws, ensuring those corporations and companies pay only lip-service levels of tax, it's time to resort to a flat tax on transactions and get rid of the current company tax system. Nissan Australia paid a grand total of $476 tax in Australia over the 3 years between 2015-2018, despite earning $7 billion in vehicle sales. That's just wrong by anyones measure.

W.A.'s Kwinana oil refinery, just S of Perth, was Australia's newest and biggest oil refinery. But it was built in 1954, by the "Anglo-Iranian Oil Co", which became British Petroleum. However, it was shut for good in 2021, as BP stated they couldn't compete with the oil refinery running costs of the S.E. Asian refineries - which all had huge capacity and cheap labour. The bottom line is, we are dependent on overseas oil, regardless of whether it's refined here or not. As Jerry says, EV's are the way to go, with many EV's having 400kms range today (or battery options to increase to "long range" ability) - and with many people having solar systems on their house, it's free energy from the sun, right where you are - and no amount of warring or global upsets can beat that.

The part that gets up your nose is that over 80% of our petrol and diesel comes ready-refined from huge refineries in Singapore, South Korea, Japan and China. These refineries source their crude from probably 20 or 30 different crude oil sources - then blend it to make it suitable for their particular refinery feedstock. It's not like a slowdown in Straits of Hormuz oil shipping is going to affect our fuel supplies or prices to the levels we're currently seeing. Maybe 15% - 20% at most, not the 70% - 90% increases we are currently seeing. We're being reamed senseless with a large pineapple with no lube, when it comes to fuel. Only 25% of the worlds oil moves through the Straits of Hormuz, so that means 75% of oil supplies are unaffected.

Chip shortages still plague most car manufacturers, bu the Chinese seem to have gotten around it by using less chips, and cheaper varieties - and by ramping up their local chip production. They're satisfying themselves with older-style chips, and by eliminating high-tech options that require cutting-edge chip technology.

Just watch out if that red-headed woman gets the ball! Once that happens, she'll claim she owns the game!

Yes, you are covered for personal injury, loss of earnings, and death in a motorcycle crash with your rego, because there's an MAIB (Motor Accidents Insurance Board) insurance premium included in the rego cost. I think W.A. was the last State to go with the personal injury and death insurance scheme included in vehicle registration cost. It was introduced in W.A. in 2016, following other States adoption of the arrangement much earlier. It's no-fault insurance, so you get paid out, regardless of who or what caused the crash. In W.A., it added about $100 to the annual average vehicle rego costs. In W.A., rego is still called "licencing", not "registration".

They got outvoted.

EV sales will rocket now, as the combination of high fuel prices, a large supply of cheaper Chinese EV's, and ever-improving batteries and range make them a no-brainer. If you want an IC-engine Toyota, Toyota have "major supply constraints", and you're usually on a wait-list for a new one. But the Chinese keep shipping in cars by the shipload, and you have instant availability of any model, colour or options. There are holding yards full of Chinese EV's.

What a tiny boner? 😄

Terrorists specifically hold people as hostages to gain the ultimate power in decisions being made. They also kill people on a random basis to instill terrifying fear into the remainder of the family, group, nation, or power bloc. The Nazis used refined terrorism via the Gestapo. The Gestapo would kill dozens and even hundreds of unarmed civilians simply as a warning against trying to oppose the Nazis. On that basis, neither America nor Israel are currently terrorists, with their actions designed to destroy Islamic terrorism promoters. They are reacting with long-held hatred from previous terrorism attacks against them by Islamic terrorists, to destroy those Islamics they see as promoting terrorism against the West, and against the State of Israel. But both America and Israel have utilised terrorism in the past. The State of Israel was founded on terrorism of the British (and the Palestinians), and specifically by acts of terrorism by the Zionist Stern and Irgun gangs. American terrorism acts were were funded and encouraged by the CIA, often employing locals they'd trained. In places such as the Middle East, South American countries and Asian countries, where unstable Govts or dictators who were seen to be rabidly anti-American, the CIA set out to create disruption, cause regime collapse, and even carried out political killings. The assassination of President Ngô Đình Diệm in South Vietnam in 1963, by a group of Diệms army officers, was actively encouraged, funded, and supported by the CIA. Further back, the Americans killed a lot of Native Americans in what was essentially acts of terrorism, designed to acquire their lands and resources. The Wounded Knee Massacre is possibly the worst example of Americans killing unarmed or disarmed Native Americans.

Lots of shortcomings in Claudes answers, and "he" constantly probes for more information from Margaret, to add to his knowledge bank. Give it 20 years, and we may struggle to determine if we're speaking to an AI robot or a real human being.