onetrack

The cardboard cutout of Daniel Andrews taken to Scotland was a stunt by the Herald-Sun, and Sky News is making a feast of it. But no matter how you look at it, it was certainly a massive waste of Victorian taxpayers funds by Andrews. https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/politics/scots-thrilled-with-daniel-andrews-over-decision-which-forced-victorian-taxpayers-to-pay-for-glasgow-games/news-story/c5dec288c6f5e84f4fea28383b26aaa5

Canberra is the home of Teslas, they have Tesla ownership levels that are the highest in the nation, and more than 50% higher than NSW overall. https://evcentral.com.au/teslas-by-postcode-where-evs-in-australia-are-most-popular/#:~:text=Canberrans big on Teslas&text=That gives the ACT the,31.1 Teslas per 100%2C000 people.

I was absolutely staggered to see the level and cost of the damage and destruction in Western N. Carolina from Hurricane Helene. It's been costed at US$53B just for that State. It will be interesting to see how the Federal compensation plays out, whether it becomes a political football (as the Republicans would no doubt like), or whether the North Carolinans will become more favourably disposed to vote in Kamala ,when they receive Federal disaster monies. What I find appalling is that the ordinary, everyday North Carolinan is bearing the brunt of the hurricane losses - largely due to the fact that 93% of the population is un-insured against flood or crop losses. It appears there's a combination of factors at play - U.S. homeowners unaware that their insurance doesn't cover flooding, insurance companies keen to avoid payouts, and trying to deal with mounting losses caused by increasing natural disasters, and Govt flood maps that are seriously out of date. https://www.aol.com/north-carolina-government-calculates-hurricane-212213021.html https://www.wired.com/story/hurricane-helene-shows-insurance-industry-that-no-homes-are-safe-north-carolina/#:~:text=Many homeowners in North Carolina,in which disasters are covered.

Canberra is the home of rich and powerful people. The average wage in Canberra is substantially higher than any other State, and the positions they mostly hold in bureaucracy, ensure they wield substantial levels of power over us mortals.

I just remembered I have an old rotary dial phone - in pieces. I have no recollection of how I came by it, apart from the fact, that a mate who worked for the PMG, gave me number of boxes of phones and components at least 10 years ago. I have no idea of how it works, or how it goes back together. Pete, do you want another project? I guess these things have some collector value now, but I guess the value varies substantially, too. I seem to recall the mate gave me some switchboard items, too. It could be a while before I find the rest of the items, after my huge workshop move, everything is still in disarray. I know there's quite a number (perhaps around 15 ) of the later 800 series phones in the collection, which are probably "antique" to the internet generation!

At 56 secs into the video, you can see two small puffs of smoke to the lower left of the doomed aircraft, this is the pilot and co-pilot ejecting. Follow the ejection smoke as it travels downwards (and to the left of the frame as the camera pans right) - and at about 1m 00sec, on the left of the screen, inside the bracketed frame, you'll see two parachutes moving slowly earthwards. Surprisingly, not everything on YooToob is true! More high-value Russian POW's to swap for Ukrainian POW's, at an exchange rate of 10 Ukrainians for 1 Russian!

I didn't know that Ron Eli's son, Cameron, stabbed his mother to death in 2019. Cameron was then shot by police in what appears to be typical U.S. police force over-reaction. It seems that Cameron was in the grip of drugs, and possibly even intent on "death by police shooting" when he was confronted by police. It must have been depressing for Ron Ely to try and cope with the knowledge, that despite ceasing acting work to spend more time raising his children, it was wasted effort on his son. https://people.com/crime/fatal-shooting-ron-ely-son-cameron-determined-justifiable-homicide/

One of the best things we can do is ignore Lydia Thorpe and her need to be continually angry and bitter, discontented, and abusive. You give her more exposure, it's the oxygen she thrives on. Nothing would make this woman happy, apart from turning back the clock to 1788 - which, as we all know, is impossible. As with many Aboriginals, she thrives on abusing whites, while she takes advantage of every generous offering given to her by Anglo-Saxon culture and development. She wouldn't be alive today if her tribes were left in the state they lived in in 1788, she would've died an early death from starvation or simple diseases, for which her tribal society would've had no cure. As a woman in her tribe, she would've been voiceless, and regularly sexually abused, with no-one to turn to for retribution. Her tribes laws would've been patriarchal and cruel. It's only because of the vastly improved cultural, legal, medical, engineering, scientific and technological life that she now lives, that she can now get up in an orderly House of Govt and protest about colonisation events that no-one can change - and for which events, the Indigenes have been adequately compensated for, on many fronts - with the financial and land rights compensation given to them, being more than any other country in the world. She has no grounds that gives her the right to abuse the current people in control of our style of Govt. In former times she would be accused of sedition and overthrow of the Govt of the day.

Sean is starting to look like he's 84, instead of 64. It must be the result of the effort in shagging a 30 yr old girlfriend. I really cannot understand why young women shack up with much older men, apart from the money.

I've been totally digital for ages.

Yeah, the old whooping cough is a nasty complaint. I had it when I was about 5, there was a whooping cough epidemic swept Australia in the early to mid 1950's, most kids in that era caught it. It's a dreadful disease, I can still remember gasping for breath. It can lead to pneumonia. I read where there was a National programme for whooping cough vaccination for kids since the 1940's, but I don't remember being vaccinated against it. Maybe it wasn't compulsory then, as many of the early vaccinations are today. I must look up my old vaccination card to see if it's listed there. I didn't start school until I was 6, and I do recall school vaccinations, so maybe I caught WC before I was vaccinated under the school programmes. https://www.aihw.gov.au/getmedia/303c1ab7-9b04-4544-9c5d-852c533ac87a/aihw-phe-236_whoopingcough.pdf.aspx

Well, there's an upraised digit to the brain teaser judges.

We're having a party for my stepdaughters partners father on Sat. He was 90 in July, but the party was postponed, possibly because he wasn't well at the time - and he wanted a party in warmer weather! He's not in too bad a condition, he was a carpenter all his life, so a pretty fit bloke. But he's had a few "downs", such as a bypass operation a few years back, and now his heart is apparently only pumping at about 35%. He keeps plugging along, but I'll be surprised if he lasts any more than a couple more years. He's a great musician and will go to any show where he can get up on stage, play an instrument, sing, and be the centre of attention. It must keep him going. His son's musical too, he's a drummer with his own Irish country/folk band, and the old bloke wants a jam session on the weekend! It's going to be a really nice day, 12° to 24° and cloud clearing.

Petrol fumes igniting in boats have destroyed a lot of boats, and caused many serious injuries, and even fatalities.

Yeah, and the Hondas, and many other small engines, don't hold a lot of oil in the crankcase.

How unbelievably dangerous is that bloke standing on the handrail of the scissorlift! Look at all the cardboard boxes he could've stood on, instead!!

Happy Birthday, Peter, you're now officially a GOF, a Grumpy Old Fart.

She's an angry, nasty piece of work, and operates on the same principles as Trump, sowing division and hatreds. But she's happy enough to take as much of our white money as she can get.

The pre-pay bowsers have a dollar amount that you select, this dollar amount is taken as a "holding charge" against your credit card, but when the tank is filled, the dollar amount actually taken is recorded, and the holding charge on your CC disappears after a day, to be replaced by the exact amount of fuel purchased. Costco operate on this basis all over Australia, they do not handle any cash.

And combustion also produces a considerable amount of acids, which do serious damage to engine internals. Oil contains additives such as detergents that deal with acids from combustion by neutralising them.

So, what you're implying, is ..... the head count often failed to come up correct, when flying out of Tassie?? 😄

They worship Guns, Money, and God in that order. They claim to trust God, but their real trust is shown to be in guns. They even take guns to their churches, showing their lip service to their God. They put God on every single note of their currency, but once again, it's lip service, and the real God is money, worshipped by the vast majority of Americans. It's interesting that in the Biblical records, God became angry with the Israelites for turning to worshipping Baal, symbolised by the Golden calf. Baal represented wealth, prosperity, and the acquisition of gold. It's no coincidence that Wall Street has a massive statue of a bull as its centrepiece, and it's no coincidence that Trump worships gold like no other American does.

25.

I never buy anything but Roma tomatoes if I can. They're "meatier" with more flesh, than the other varieties.

Bruce, salt in the air from ocean spray rarely carries any further than about 20 to 40 kms inland. Nev is correct, the salt is still leaching out of our soils, because we have the youngest continent of all the continents. In planetary ageing terms, it only popped up from under the sea yesterday.