onetrack

The bottom line is, tanks are now a liability in war, it's drones that carry the punch now. The mob who can produce the best and deadliest drones, will win this war.

Jerry, there's no problem with NBN speeds in all the Australian cities, it's the rural regions where the population is much lower, and where the installation of infrastructure can be difficult and costly, due to terrain and ground conditions, is where the communications gaps show up. Just tested my internet speed, it's fine. I'm around 5kms NE of the Perth CBD.

The first polymer $10 notes are worth good money now, depending on serial number and signature. https://www.therightnote.com.au/product-category/decimal-polymer/10-dollars-decimal-polymer/

And the bottom line is, for all this electronic payment stuff - the ordure hits the rotating blades of the cooling device, big time - when the power goes out!! https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-01-19/kalgoorlie-locals-frustrated-by-widespread-blackouts-in-heatwave/103367380

Octave, you should have read to the bottom of the Drive article - where it says.... "Compared to the dip in electric-vehicle sales, demand for hybrids has surged, up 113 per cent year-to-date – and up 71 per cent for the month – led by Toyota. Last June (that's June 2023), EV sales outpaced hybrids by 23 per cent; 12 months on, it is hybrid power that is 60 per cent ahead."

Peter, your link only goes to a Google search for "Dacia".

You must be using some cheap airlines. I think the last fares I bought, the CC fee was around $16 or $18. I didn't know you could buy airline tickets without a CC? I'm sure if you paid the airlines via any form of money transfer, they'd find a fee for it.

There has been a small drop in sales percentage for EV's in the last couple of months, but the sales percentage is up for the first 6 months of 2024. Toyota is actually on a winner with hybrids, they're offering buyers the security of a dual source of energy, and Toyota hybrids are selling in much bigger numbers than EV's right at present. Toyota had major supply problems in 2022 and 2022, which allowed the likes of Tesla to grab a large slice of market share - but Toyota have now solved their production problems, and there are actually plenty of all types of new Toyotas currently available for sale. https://www.drive.com.au/news/electric-car-sales-fall-in-australia-june-2024/

The trouble is Octave, the ACCC is a toothless tiger that slaps businesses over the wrist with a wet lettuce for major law infringements - and they have only just started recently on this attempt to rein in CC charges, when it's been going on for years. I have yet to see any business taken to court over excessive CC fees.

I went to a talk by Michael Leunig maybe 15-18 years ago, he was very interesting and related the major level of cruelty he endured in his upbringing. He was really brutalised in his workplace as a young teenager, he ran into some co-workers who raped him regularly, and he couldn't, and didn't know what to do about it. None of the bastards ever got caught for their paedophilia. One would think he would've become an embittered and angry person, but he wasn't, he just had this quirky view of life, and the ability to put it into cartoons. This is his 1998 view of what we should have on our new Australian flag, this was when the Republican movement was in full swing.

It's all explained below, Spacey. In essence, GST applies to credit card charges if the underlying supply cost incurs GST. If the underlying cost is GST-free, then the card charge is GST-free. https://legalkitz.com.au/gst-on-credit-card-fees-implications/#:~:text=The application of GST on,will be subject to GST.

The problem is the Electoral College gerrymander the GOP has managed to refine - meaning that a presidential candidate can get a majority of the popular vote, but the EC gerrymander ensures it doesn't translate to a win. In 2016, Hilary Clinton got a higher percentage of the vote than Trump, but Trump still won, thanks to the crookedness of the EC voting system. It's electoral corruption at its finest.

Plenty of businesses I deal with, have substantial card charges - and it's a percentage of the purchase. So, they charge 1.5% and on a $100 item, they get an extra $1.50 - but on a $10,000 sale, they make $150 out of the card fee!! It's a blatant rort.

He weaves stories together simply because he's the greatest BS-artist, the world has ever seen. Every single statement he makes is unable to be verified with provable facts. Yet he continues to make statements and claims that can never be verified. Even his lawsuits can't get off the ground, simply because they're based on total, fact-deficient BS.

It's now been revealed that the rifle photo and story is simply BS, and possibly put out by someone with an axe to grind. Commander Yaste WAS relieved of his warship command - but not due to the rifle photo. It turns out that Yaste has probably been hung out to dry for a major level of U.S. Navy engineering and senior command failures - because his destroyer has major steering problems, that the U.S. Navy has never been able to fix properly. He was ordered to put to sea on exercises and then his ship almost collided with an oiler during refuelling, thanks to a steering failure on his destroyer. So Yaste was blamed for the near-collision, but the problem lies far deeper in the U.S. Navy command because no-one in senior command has ever been able to ensure the regular steering fault of his warship is fixed. Yaste was blamed for not following procedures during the near miss, but I tend to think there weren't any Navy procedures to cope with the steering failure. The whole story just makes you wonder about the U.S. Navys competence today. https://www.marineinsight.com/shipping-news/u-s-navy-fires-warship-captain-after-steering-issue-led-to-dangerous-near-miss-in-the-middle-east/ https://www.reddit.com/r/navy/comments/1fatgih/the_us_navy_sacked_a_destroyer_captain_after_a/

Bruce, "Willard Peckham" is an AI spammer or troll.

There's one forgotten factor about FB that virtually all FB users forget - FB tracks you relentlessly - even when you're not logged in. That is the ultimate in devious and treacherous behaviour, and one that keeps my anger fuelled against FB. What FB also fail to reveal is that they monetise your data - which you give to them for free. Data gathering and data centres are the biggest money spinners in the world today - witness the Bangladeshi/Australian accountant who has just sold out for $23 BILLION, after starting his data centres with virtually nothing, just NINE years ago. And all that money was made on people letting the likes of FB have free access to all their data. Talk about Robber Barons of the 21st Century!! How to stop FB from tracking you - https://allaboutcookies.org/how-to-turn-off-facebook-tracking#:~:text=FAQBottom line-,What data does Facebook collect%3F,information about your online activity. Australia's newest multi-billionaire built his fortune on data - https://www.watoday.com.au/business/companies/the-new-billionaire-behind-one-of-the-biggest-deals-in-australian-history-20240904-p5k7s9.html

I don't trust FB any more than a black snake. It's a harbour for criminals, online abusers, trolls and scammers. It has a zero level of moderation, and we can see this with the current criticism of FB allowing children to view violent and psychologically-disturbing content. I've previously notified FB moderators of scam ads and their fake user profiles, and the answer always comes back the same - "We see no reason to delete this ad or this user". The owner of FB is a devious individual with a low level of ethics, we've seen that with his performance in Congressional inquiry interviews.

I was replying to the image question. I don't really understand the alphabet question.

A

OME, don't leave us hanging!! What's the conclusion? 😄 I find it quite interesting that Google Search is now picking up on the level of use of this forum, and it's starting to produce links to posts on here, and even link discussions on Social Australia, with videos and sites it wants to project. In other words, Google algorithms and AI programming are picking up that this site has serious social media value. On that basis, "monetising" (ahh, our favourite tech word of this century) this site in the form of some small and non-intrusive Google ads is probably the way to go. Another Heavy Equipment forum I frequent, has done this. This is a screenshot of my recent Google search for "Social Australia".

Winter left us for just one day - on Monday - then it has returned for the remainder of the week, Showery, squally, blustery, some suburbs got hail, and it got down to 8° last night. But I feel that Spring isn't too far away. However, I wager it will lob a 30° day on us, out of the blue, and we'll think we're dead. It's been the rainiest Winter for 28 years. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-09-05/western-australia-weather-wrap-winter-spring-perth-weather/104310520

A former W.A. Govt - a Liberal one, believe it or not - actually organised a deal (in 1984) with W.A.'s initial major N.W. Shelf gasfields owners, that ensured 15% of the gas produced from the N.W. Shelf was reserved for W.A. customers. Interestingly, this was never legislated as Law in W.A. Govt Statutes, it was simply a contractual agreement between the W.A. Govt and the gas producing global corporations. However, now the Govt is working on legislating this policy into an Act, and ensuring that it applies to all gas producers, current and future. Of course, the corporations advisers are trying to find a way around this forthcoming "Govt BS". Maybe some Eastern States pollies just need to have a read up on W.A.'s gas production and agreements. While the East and West Coast are certainly different gas producer and gas user setups, there's still plenty of common ground, to ensure that the W.A. style of gas production reservation for domestic use, is applied to the East Coast gas production. https://www.allens.com.au/insights-news/insights/2024/08/major-changes-proposed-to-wa-domestic-gas-policy/

A poodle leading an old lady aged 77, whose name just happens to be Sally Field! 😮