onetrack

Maybe I've got a sick sense of humour, but this one really tickled me....

I have the same problem as Willie, but I've never found a phone pouch that works satisfactorily. I've tried belt-mounted ones, and upper-arm mounted ones, and they all suffer the same problems - with the primary problem being the one, that you can't get the phone out quick enough to answer calls. This is not helped by the fact that mobiles only ring for just a few rings, before they stop ringing and go to messagebank.

I found the YT links were usually a lot of clickbait crap, anyway - with every second link showing a photo of a near-naked female, which had no relevance to the crap in the rubbishy video, most times. You could remove 90% of YT videos and you'd never miss them. "Instructional" or "Important Advice" videos which have zero value, and are solely airhead entertainment videos, make up a lot of the rubbish on there.

I've read that when you lose weight, your cholesterol level goes up. This is because the fat and cholesterol which is stored in your body organs, and especially the liver, has nowhere to go but into your bloodstream. Thus, your blood tests show up elevated cholesterol levels for some time after you've initially lost a fair bit of weight. The cholesterol levels then eventually come down to normal levels, once the fat and cholesterol in the bloodstream is eliminated. I'm fortunate in that I don't have, and have never had, a cholesterol problem - despite eating a lot of red meat and also scoffing lots of butter. My most recent blood test came back with excellent results for every single item on the list - except for my PSA, which is elevated by about 30% on the last test. My GP was concerned enough about the elvated PSA level, to actually phone me to check to see if I was O.K., and to check I had another appointment with my urologist soon. I assured him I was fine and my next appointment with my urologist was the following week. When I saw the urologist, he wasn't unduly concerned about the rise in the PSA level. He says PSA goes up and down substantially, can be affected by strong exertion (I told him my PSA level was likely to be up because of the amount of exertion I indulged in, shifting my entire workshop contents. I lost about 4 or 5 kgs as a result of that effort) - and he said PSA can vary considerably from person to person. He said PSA was only one of the factors they look at, when keeping up surveillance of prostate tumours, and it can be unreliable.

Jerry, your girl has exceptionally long fingers, which makes her extremely artistic. Does she possess a great deal of artistic skill in any one area?

What is it about Victorian magpies, that they're so vicious? I can't remember the last time I was attacked by a magpie, the West Aussie magpies must be more laid-back. I can recall a story (I think it was last year) about a bloke in Melbourne who just sat down on a park bench, and a magpie landed in front of him, then flew up and pecked his eye out, blinding him! The bloke didn't even have any interaction with the magpie - maybe the Melburnian magpies are just all crazed pyschos? Something to do with Melbournes weather?? 🙂

It's not quite as stupid as it sounds, Marty, apparently the cheque presenter made a convincing case and was very persuasive. It was probably more than 20 years ago, might have been 30 years ago, I can't find any record online of the incident now. It was in the pre-internet era where cheques were presented daily, and normally honoured. But yes, the sheer size of the cheque would raise suspicions - but there's plenty of people who are quite capable of producing a payment of that level, without batting an eyelid. One of the things that interests me about Lotto is the number of obviously very wealthy people who buy tickets. They spend huge amounts on tickets, I've seen them spend $200-300 at a time, but it's obvious they don't really need the money. Some interesting stories on Reddit - and one of the outstanding things about Lotto wins, is how few people can handle their wins wisely, most blow it within a short time and are back to a 9-5 job with no money. My workshop neighbour had a mate who won $30M, he reckoned you would never know, he didn't splash the cash in an extravagant manner, but he drove a top of the range Beemer. The in-laws of one nephew of SWMBO won $1.9M around the early 1990's. The ticket was shared by two women, one of them was SWMBO's nephews MIL. Her hubby was just a taxi driver. They got $950,000 and enjoyed an "upgraded" lifestyle for about 3 years - then the taxi driver got cancer, and died! I suppose at least he had 3 years of good worry-free lifestyle. https://www.reddit.com/r/australia/comments/15f4iyf/do_you_know_anyone_that_has_actually_won_lotto/ I'm convinced some people are just plain lucky, time after time. The son of a former farmer client, an already wealthy family, bought a "scratchie" when they first came out in the early 1980's. The top prize was $50,000. So Ross buys a scratchie, and wins the $50,000 first prize! But wait, it gets better. The Lotteries Commission had a "second chance" draw of $25,000 on the scratchies, whereby you placed your losing ticket in the second chance draw. So Ross buys another scratchie and loses - and puts his losing ticket in the second chance draw - and wins the $25,000!! This was only about 18 mths after his $50,000 scratchie win. Then Ross moves in closer to Perth, and buys quite a few hundred acres in a very nice high rainfall area about 80kms NE of Perth. He does very well out of the farm, over about 30 years - then a mining company rolls up and starts drilling on his farm. Next thing, the mining company announces a massive find of platinum group metals on his and neighbours properties - with a mine planned in the next couple of years - so they offer to buy Ross's farm at DOUBLE the market price!! Bear in mind that farmland prices have already gone ballistic, tripling in value in the last 15-20 years - so Ross walks out with another mega-million dollar win!! The bloke has the Midas touch!!

It would take an army of helpers and you'd run out of time to buy all the tickets - and the ticket numbers are not limited, they can keep increasing up to the cut-off time, thus increasing the total prize pool. There was an idiot here in W.A. about 20-odd years ago, who thought they could win first prize by buying half a million dollars worth of tickets - with a fraudulent cheque. They spent about $480,000. The newsagent had to employ extra people to print the tickets - then found out the cheque had bounced. It sent the newsagent bankrupt, and there was only about $180,000 in win money to cover the loss. The bloke was jailed for fraud, but I guess that was little comfort to the newsagent, who lost everything.

The difference with America is that gun ownership is a Constitutional Right - every single person in America, no matter how crazed, is ENTITLED to as many firearms as they want to own. In Australia and the U.K. and N.Z., gun ownership is a PRIVILEGE, to be earned by showing you NEED a firearm for a specific use, and that you're not mentally unstable, or deemed to be a violent offender.

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.