Jerry_Atrick

I am about 6 months since my last haircut. I am starting to look like I did in Covid lockdown. I can't pay the same as someone with a full head of hair that takes at least twice the time to cut as mine. So, I wait at least doublew the time I should so there's almost enough hair that I get my money's worth. Haircuts around here are expensive at £10. I normally pay around £7.50

Sounds like the many inappropriate applications of technology to me. I understand the system but it still doesn't answer why it's needed... and poorly designed

The spot Brent Crude price is still less that the peak post Covid and presumably from the Ukraine war. As I understand, the issue is not the capacity to supply as much as the delivery because most of the ME oil comes out of the Persian gulf through Hormuz. So, it isn't even a case of turn around the ships and go another way. I am guessing there are no alternative ports/terminals they can use for transporting non-Iranian ME oil. According to Google. Iran is the 4th largest behind Saudi, UAE and Ira. These three could boost production and send the oil overland to ports/terminals in Saudi if there are any, and ship through the Red Sea., but the Houthis, who are Iranian backed, basically patrol the waters. The obvious conseuences of this energy crisis is a switch to renewabls and electrification. It may also put pressure on Ukraine as the west may well (as Chump has hinted) start taking on Russian oil - ooh.. wouldn't that bre great for his war chest. Recession is likely, and as the western governments have largely exhiaseted their reserves and debt ceilings, creating the soft landing as per the Covid/pre-Covd times is unlikely to be sustainable, but it may well hold off a full blown recession. Chump, though his alienation of his allies, and the growing resentment to the war at home maibkly because oif the inflationary and recessionary impact it will ahve, will put pressure on him to end it soon. He won't want to concede, so he will either find some "pallatble" story, or he will send the ground trrops in, which there are already reports. I can only see it ramping up at his stage.. Chump will want to end it ASAP and won't back down. And one conseuence is it will hit a critical point where allies of both sides will need to get involved.

Why on earth do you need to buy a docket to get a haircut? What happened to just paying for it?

There's no credible evidence for the above post. The NYT websie itself doesn't appeat to report such damage and destruction (there is a report of the Saudi base being attacked with 13 deaths and 300 injuries to US personnel. But the only references I coud find toi the NYT report in the above were some YT and facebook posts, so I am not treating them as terribly credible at the moment. Of course, there could be some truth to it as the US DoW may want to hide the scale of destrcution, but you can bet your bottom dollar - with the scale of destruction - if there were such reports in the NYT, other outlets would be referencing it in their stories - and there are none. Sorry - but both sides of politics can lie... if Occupy Democrats is anything other than a group of people commentating on politics, anyway. It even may be someone purporting to be them.

Since when? Sounds like a British import

I could have done better typos than that

No news is good news they tell us

I agree with most of the above, except if we are to do a tax that takes into account a vehicle tax of the damage done that has to be repaired, then the cost per k would vary per vehicle or attributes of vehicles. And it isn't that simple. Although redicing, the emissions of manufacturing EVs is higher than ICE cars thanks to that battery, and although it has been rediuved from an average of 5 years on normal driving conditions/mileage to 3 years, that is the time, on average that the emissions for whole of life are in balance, after which EV emissions for whole of life drop. Then there is excess weight that damages the roads. But, despite how far emissions controls have come, ICE engines will always spew out toxins/poisons that have an effect on the health of the population and increase health costs, etc etc etc. So coming up with a truly fair formula is very difficult. In the UK, ICE vehicles (outside od trucks/commercial vehicles over a certain weight) are taxed (rego fees) according to their emissions. Pre 2017 HSV Commodores (known here as VXR8s) will be sligged at £720/year. My XC90 is about £400/year. The mini was £260 year. EVs up until the end of this financial year (April 5th in the UK), are zero. The government which is both broke and buying votes at the same time, decided a change so cars post 2017 such as a VXR8 (if there are any) will only pay a higher tax for the first five years of their life, which will equate to something like £700, after which it will reduce to around £245/year. That doesn't seem like a goverment using tax to affect behaviour to meet net zero (but they seem to be more unpopular than the previous Conservative government). EVs road tax went from zero to £10/year this financial year. Next financial year, there will be two tiering of road tax. Those over a certain value will be treated as luxury cars and attain the same tax as an old VXR8. I think the value os over £40k. Those under will be subject to a 3p per mile tax for BEVs and 1.5 p per mile tax for hybrids (in the basis, they will consume petrol/diesel for hald of their journey over the year). At an average of 10,000 miles per year, the road tax is said to average for EVs of £300 and £150 for hybrids. The justification for this is domestic electiricy use is VAT free. They estimated the average distanc per car travelled, the average rate of tax paid, and divided the average rate of tax paid by the average miles per car.. The will work by estimating your annual mileage. When a car is sold, or when it has its annual MOT (RWC), the mileage is already recorded; if they are close, there will be no adjustment; if they are materially different, there will be an adjustment either way - a credit for the next year's tax or you add the difference to the next years' tax. TNote, for the first three years from new, you don't need to get a MOT, so you can submit your mileage or wait to you sell, have your first MOT, whichever comes first, and then you will be slugged or receive a credit. They will eventually roll out the tech to record the mileage - dog knows there are enough camerals already around the place - it would be a matter of a software update I would guess.

I don't know that all states are happy with it: https://www.theage.com.au/politics/federal/the-gst-is-broken-and-hurting-nsw-and-victoria-badly-20260324-p5tuev.html

Why are you all so critical of Chump. He may publicly be all about fossil fuels and stuff the environment and renewables, but secretly, he is an ardent environmentalist and has shown the lengths he is prepared to go to save the planet by staring a war with Iran. It is about oil, but to stop using it: https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/iran-war-fuel-crisis-gives-electric-cars-long-term-boost-2026-03-24/ We all should be thankful for Chump's extraordinary leadership. (pls take it with the sarcasm it was meant).

I think that is what I meant by I trust London drivers more than Melbourne ones (can't really speak for other capital cities in Aus). In London (and on motorways that are backed up), drivers will shift their cars away from riders to give more space. I have never had one move towards the marker to close the gap. Sometimes, because they are trying to get a view, they are already close to the side of the lane and sometimes they don't move when in that position.. but honestly, they are very courteous to motorcyclists over here. Actually come to think of it, on a backed up motorway, a truck driver I was scooting up on a lane closure and did plonk his semi in my way, but there was so much space at the time, I just went around him. I don't know if he did it out of spite or positioning for a lane merge as a result of a lane closure and didn't see me.

You wouldn't be the first to call me yellow... 😉

Whenever we buy most things, we pay tax - GST.. Maybe we should all get PAYE/PAYG tax decreases? Or at least get the same breaks as companies - Other costs such as transport, more formal clothing (regardless of whether it has a logo on it or not), should be able to be deducted? We should be able to contract ourselves out to a no-tax jurisdiction, and charge ourselves a massive amount for our labour out of the tax haven more than we get in our salary to build up the losses, claim that against our salary as a tax deduction and not pay tax at all... Then we are levelling up the playing field.

Where you have untrained, unlicensed, and uninsured people able to operate vehicles that, for the most part, have the same capability as those which come under the road regulations, what should be done? Yes, motorcycles are capable of well over 100kpoh, but we are talking urban use where speed limits are between 30kph and 50kph for the norm. sometimes 60 and 80.. and on the freeways 100mph. Force = Mass x Velocity.. Even an electric scooter and 16 year old hitting you at 60kph is going to hurt and as we have seen, can kill.. I am one that is against spoiling it for the rest because of an errant few, but this has the potential to get out of hand. You should see the issues in cities in the UK. If a notty 15 year old bangs into the side of your car causing $1,000's of damage despite not injuring anyone, I hope you;re happy to pick up the bill.. More and more kids are getting these, and more and more are modding them, the laws of maths tells me this cannot be good without some form of restrictions. And in some cases, banning seems the most appropriate - much easiuer to enforce than checking each bike to see if it has been modded.