Jerry_Atrick

Why can't Australia make cars? OK, Slovakia probablky has a lower wage.. But you really don't need an army of people to make cars anymore.

FFS! Despite spending an amount that would materially add to my pension on the heating in this place, it has bloody well gone again, just when we need it most (so far this winter). In the 7 years we have been here, we have had two winters without any heating; and 4 with a decent interruption to it. This time, there is something wrong with the boiler and it is blowing fumes back into the house. The CO2 detectors aren't ringing, but there is that smell of burnt jet fuel (they are oil burners). A plumber came out and issued a safety notice, so it is illegal to ignite the boiler until it is repaired and signed off.. and he can't come out until the end of next week! Marble Bar, WA, here I come!

It is a great video..

Looks like Albo has started a trend to resuce u/16s. https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/22/house_of_lords_votes_to_ban_under_16_socmed/?td=rt-3a Good on him.

I have had a bit of experience on trail bikes.. mainly Honda XL's (75, then 250) In time for the lad, as we want to do a fairly decent adventure.. DR650s (Suzuki) may be the order of the day.

Although my phone as no real links to my social media, I am hesitant to visit the USA, which pains me a bit because a good mate has recently contracted Parkinsons and I would dearly like to visit him.

Well, I still can't ride the CBF, but I can ride the little Yamaha YZF-R125 that belongs to the boy. The reason is it is a hell of a lot lighter than the CBF, and I can support the lean on my right leg to get the leg stand down. Unf, I took the rain cover off the CBF to show the boy something or other, and by the time we finished, it started raining and hasn't stopped since (crikey, it's wet!) So, the poor bike has been rained on for about three days now. As soon as the leg is better enough, I will get it into the garage, which is at the bottom of our steep drive. In the mean time, the lad's confidence is growing and we are planning our first weekend ride to Exmouth, which isn't far, but has some great twisties. Hopefully in two weeks time we can do it.

OK.. Back to the thread.. though this is more the effects of what el Chumpo has done. Mark Carney, distinguished economist, ex governor of the Bank of England (RBA equivalent) and now Canadian PM has made a candid speech at Davos: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2026-01-21/carney-blasts-trump-canada-davos-world-economic-forum/106252354 OK, he has struck deals with China and Qatar, both not high on the human rights records, but importantly, Canadian pension funds are invested heavily in US government debt, and if they offload it and stop buying it, el Chumpo may need to increase those tariffs a little more anyway. Lucky Canada has successive governments that have taken a fairer slice of the wealth from the resources, unlike successive Aussie givernments that seem hell-bent on giving ours away for almost nothing in comparison (then compare to Qatar, Norway, and even Alaska, which are even better at retaining wealth). Imagine the leverage we would have if we accunulated the wealth from our resources properly. Anyway, Carney's speech I think officially heralds the beginning of the end of US domination.

Leave lovely Susan alone. She is a pilot - didn't succeed commercially, which I guess is why she went into politics. (I haven't watched this, but I remeber reading an article in The Age about it).

I resisted the urge to answer to avoid thread drift... Ahh, it's not just me 😉 I guess sooner or later the orange one will grace this thread without the drift. I know some want sooner, but I don't with that on anyone until their time has come to a natural end. Out of respect to those listed above on this thread, I will leave it there. (Also out of respect to those listed above, I would prefer a separate thread when the oramnge one kicks the bucket).

He's grown some man-boobs in the process

I think you mean in vino sunt ineptiae 😉

The joke in the kitchen is where I stopped watching, but it was funny (in my childish mind, anyway):

To be fair, most Americans I have met are really nice and quite resourceful.

I am a paid subscriber to the Financial Times, though I recently cancelled it, so some time in February, my access to the articles will run out. It is owned by Nikkei Inc, a Japansese media company. It has been for some time. Why am I leaving? Because is has become a paper reporting more on politics than finance. Also, at over £300/year, they restrict the articles I can see. Effing ridiculous. They do have a good reputaion though. However, it is still, in my opinion, embellisdhed. Twice I have read articles about subject matter I am directly involved in, in a professional capacity. And twice, they were not terribly accurate. One was during the implementation of the EU financial directive and regulation, together referred to as MiFID II. It doesn't matter what it is about, however, the story they wrote was for a particular part of the regulation I was working on was that the regulation was nebulous, that the industry working groups had no idea what to do, and it was effectively unworkable. That article was read by the managing director of one of the businesses (effectively a CEO), who sent me a sharp email referring to the article and a please explain given the progress updates I provided to him did not highlight this dire situation. My response was that there were some minor questions on the meaning of a couple of paragrpahs in the regulation, that the regulator had porovided clarification, and not only was it well understood by ourselves, but the industry groups had also understood it.. and that our bank as well as three others I was in contact with had implemented the systems to meet the rule - 18 months before they had to! They also reported that the total number of paragrpahs for the regulation and all of the supporting officlal clarifications, technical standards, implementation standards (EU law is bloody verbose), came to over 9 milliion. Well, I haven't read all of the EU member states extensions, but I had read all of the EU and FCA regulations, clarigications, explanatory notes, technical standards, and implementing standards, and bugger me, it was no where near that. You pay for BS with any media - they want you get read it for eyeballs sell advertising. The more hysteria they can raise, the more people will look, the more advertising they will sell. (p.s. in Aus, I may have kept the subscription as I could probably write it off against my taxable income; over here, they are tight-arses..)