Jerry_Atrick

Care to name the offender.. there was a lot of disinformation about the key players in the saga I am thinking about.. The Aussie Human Rights Commission basically said nothing to answer to.. Despite this, the club decided to pay up anyway

Sorry mate.. that's all I can say

Jeepers. that is a bit dark.. did he cause grief in your life?

I saw an article that Chump's approval rating had improved significantly afte the Iran bombings, but can't find it. Most say it is the same, improved a little but still negative. Personally, I think he is doing a better job than he was.. not because of the middle east, and definitely not because of Ukraine, nor really, any of what he is doing. But any president who drops the F Bomb like he did rises, in this case, only very slightly, in my estimation. Still quite low, but, he was talking about Carlton, after all..

Yep.. Same with large/mega projects around the world - both public and privately run. Just looik at Hinkly Point C, which is run by EDF: https://www.thechemicalengineer.com/news/hinkley-point-c-could-go-28bn-over-budget-as-edf-predicts-further-delays/ That is a private company, too, although majority owned by the French government. There are big winners in those projects and big losers - the losers are the taxpayer/consumer.

I have had to do something I haven't had to do for a long time.. water our outdoor pot plants.. One I think was too thirsty for too long; the others were looking wilty, but OK... I can't recall the last time I watered an outdoor pot plant - with no losses to pot plants yet.

When I moved from nuclear/energy to banking, I got a contract in wholesale credit risk projects. On my induction, the global head of credit, who had a balance sheet bigger than Australia's GDP, said that they don't want to lend to those who need it and bust a gut to lend to those that don't. And yes, when they have large exposures to a corporation that turns sour, it is their problem, not the corporations. And their recovery team works hard to see their teetering client can stay afloat well before drawing the curtains on them.

'Twas a tongue in cheek comment (hence the emoji). I have spent a lot of time in Europe on client sites at nuclear facilities, so they tend not to be in the glitzy, glamorous part of town. And like you, especially when working, I mix with the locals. And over both Western and central/Eastern European countries, apart from the old buildings, many of which are designed for their climate pre-heating/airconditioning times, and therefore are more environmentally friendly. I don't recall much more dog poop than in streets of Melbourne. Europe not cheap? Are you having a laugh? Maybe for the Aussue $ it isn't. but Australia is definitely not cheap, either. Last time I was in Aus (2018), I was aghast at the prices.. $4 for a loaf of bread (Tip Top's the one). Warbutons (equivalent main brand) was, at the time, about £1. 500ml soft drink at the servo was about $5, whereas here it was about $1.30 at the time. I am telling my family that they had better get used to less material things and treats on the move to Aus. And Europe in general is cheaper than the UK.. however, you can't generalise. Nordic countries are a lot more expensive, at least on food and drink. And western European countries are generally more expensive than Eastern European countries within the EU, let alone those outside the EU, with Solvenia being the notable exception. So, it depends on where in Europe you are. As to cleanliness, I find that also depends as well. You would be surprised at how clean some of the Eastern and Central European places are. Our family holidays tend to be in Cyrprus, and yeah, they do have a problem with their rubbish in that it is just piled in these massive wheelie bins and in holiday season at holiday hotspots is often overflowing.

While the west argues about whether or not to adopt EVs, often with the facts distorted by those with vested interests, China just gets on with it with few problems and a vision. We say the US dynasty is in its dying throes, but I can't help it is the western cultural and political system that is.

You are kiddign me.. Got a link?

Jeepers.. that is absolutely shit, isn't it. It sounds like it coincided with when Monte Carlo simulations were introduced into finanacial risk management, although this method is usually used for capital markets (traded products) rather than lending products risk management. I am guessing other statistical methods were also being brought in at the same time.. Beta Logit, Tobit, etc all came in around the same time. My guess is that the banks ran their simulations, checked them, and then started the process. This was under the Basel I accord (Bank of International Settlements in Basel) captial and risk management requirements, of which, to be honest, I have no real idea what was required. They came out in 1988 but would have taken a while to implement. I don't know, because: Isn't that great advice, and if given sufficient education as part of the schooling system, is something you would have known before having to learn the hard way? Yeah - you may have lost the value of your debt, or a bit more as they have to apply a haircut to the collateral, but you would know that and could esnsure they weren't overreaching. I can't speak for Aussie financial law, but certainly these days, this would be hard in the UK. There was a recovery (or loan workout) unit of then RBS called Global Restructruring Group (GRG), Look it up on Google, but RBS was eventaully compelled after a class action and the press picking it up, to pay compensation to many victims of their conduct and resulted in changes to the law. I am glad you have come out the other side of it ultimately positively, but your example is why banks need better regulation. Sadly, not much has come out of the Royal Comission...

From the article: "Australia has the highest rate of mammalian extinction in the world," That is a sad indictment of such a wealthy country.

soon or allegedly but soon seems odder.

You must have taken the el-cheapo holidays or something 😉 Yep, at some sites, thee are too many people.. Don't go during the peak holiday season. I was in Frankfurt a couple of weeks ago and inadvertently ended up in a deprived (and depraved) area.. Yep, it wasn't too great, but not much worse than similar areas of Melbourne. I also walked a couple of miles from the centre of the city - sort of going form central melbourne to maybe the beginning of Sydney Road, Brunswick distance. Once outside the CBD area, well curated tree-lined streets, local taverns where locals were enjoying a drink and dinner al fresco - all nice and calm - no nutters driving about in their V8s dropping burnouts, and the like. Everything relaxed, and no dogship, either. Made me question my move back to Australia. Although I am probably not welcome there as I did mention ze war... Which is exactly why pupils should be universally educated at an early age then. We teach our kids the three Rs at an early age to build the foundations. And these are needed, but because these two subjects govern one's life even before they leave the relatively protected life of school and transition into the big bad world, don't you think we should educate them on how it works so they can navigate the minefields a lot better than they do now? Knowledge is power. As it stands, only those that proactively want to gain the power, whether it be for vested interests or protection of others. The more power everyone has, the less predatory those two elements of society become. Also, I wasn't talking just economics, but the financial system.

5'5"

I was in the pub last night enjoying a tapas eveninng, and having a chat to a mate, who is a deputy head of a local school. At the end of the conversation, I was amazed at how little people know about the foundations of probably the two most important things that govern our lives - the law and finance. I am only talking foundations, not the complexities. And when I look back on my and my kids educations, it is profound how missing these things are from early years of learning. In the discussion, he had fallen on some hardship, which we didn't know about, but it culminated in asking for a one month pause on paying a mortgage which he as held for years with an otherwise unblemished record. This is when you learn retail banks are not your friends. Although I have little more than a basic understand of the practices of retail banks, they are not your friend. But he seemed perplexed when they took a hard line with him. I then explained the basics and how their threats were hollow and designed to get him to cay up come what may, and explained a little of how loans work, and it was clear he had no idea whatsoever. That is because we are conditioned to follow a set pattern of behaviours and if they are not within our sphere of interest, we just follow that conditioning. He was armed with a few basic tools to use when he next wpeaks to the bank and we will see how it goes. Similarly, most people have no real appreciation about how law works and when they find themselves in a pickle,. have made wildly inaccurate assumptions based on what can only be the mass media and shitty Amercian drama shows. It is almost criminal that the education system is still largely what it was like when I was a kid. Knowledge is power, and of course, it would disrupt the apple cart if the population had more of the power. For kids and grand kids, make sure they start the foundtions of financial and legal education earlier rather than later.

I guess in the real world, there is no such thing as a free lunch. So I did a Mr. Google search on: What is the average number of kms driven per year in Australia for non-commercial use: 12,600km. Divide that by 365, gives a tad under 35km/day. Lets make it 40kms a day. Yes, for rural based people it will be more, and urban it may well be less. what is the average range of a battery EV: 354 - 485km. Let's use 354 kms. So, for the average number of miles per day and lower end of average number of kms range (yes, there are cars with less), let's say 300kms, as the official figures are usually optimistic. Some quick mental maths tells me that the average number of days between charges needed is 7.5 days. Average lifetime of a BEV battery. It quoted 1,000 - 2,000 cycles and between 10 and 20 years of average driving habits (that is a wide range), is what Mr Google quotes. However, on the lower end of the average range divided the an upper estimate of the average number of kms driven per day, and lets take the lower of the average number of cycles to recharge, I make it 1,000 cycles x 7.5 average days per charge divided by 365, which gives me 20 years of life at the lower end of the scale. Obviously, Mr Google gets his data from amny places, some accurate and some not. And that is just the start: To do a proper comparison of the total cost of ownership, one has to calculate all sorts of things, including, financing costs (or opportunity cost), insruance, maintenance, depreciation, servicing, replacement parts, fuel, relaibility (unscheduled outages due to breakdowns) and associated costs, etc.. And these have to be annualised, so will be measured based on the average kms per year. If you google "Average total cost of an EV v. Diesel v Petrol car in australia over the average car's lifespan", you will get basically it is cheaper to operate an EV than an ICE car over the average lifespan. Now, I have no idea of how statistically valid it is, and I am not 100% sure it is grounded in fact, so I am not going to comment, except to say, that when people look at costs, etc, they tend to look a slice of the total rather than the total. And I would suggest it is probably not as divergent as most people claim. That is for the average,. However, when buying one, although we are often indoctrinated into the average mindset, we should be looking at our personal circumstances. From the above, it is clear, removing depreciation and insurance from the equation, EVs would be the best from a cost of ownership persepctive for lower-kms per day usage than ICE engined cars. This is because the longer period of days between charges results in a longer battery life and the operating cost differential would work well in the favour of EVs. From the above, you could argue for higher km cars, ICE engines may be as good, if not better from a total cost of ownership (ex. Insurance and depreciation) because for each charging cycle the battery will degrade by a minimum amount, and as there are more charging cycles within that set period of time, the cost of the battery will offset any savings. And, with some exceptions, if one looks after their ICE engine, many hunderds of thousands of kms are achievable before significant work, let alone a replacement is needed. If 20 years of driving is the lower end of the average (which the numbers from Google suggest it is, but the actual response suggested otherwise), then you have to looka tgthe differential of operating costs. According to Mr Google, when searching, "what is the cost of an average annual service of an EV versus petrol versus diesel in australia" it said an EV saves on average $300 - $400 per annually on maintenance. Let's go conservative and $300 * 20 years = $6,000 more. Dang it.. Some $10K worse off using an EV v. ICE engine on average kms/year and average maintenance cost. So, lets look at the difference per year for fuel costs: "what is the average annual cost of fuel for EV v petrol v dielse cars in Australia doing the average number of kms per year". And the response was: "In Australia, an electric vehicle (EV) is generally cheaper to fuel than petrol or diesel cars, with potential savings of up to 70% on fuel costs. For an average Australian driving 12,000 km per year, the cost to charge an EV is around $500 annually, while petrol cars can cost around $2,500. This equates to roughly $0.04/km for EVs and $0.20/km for petrol cars. Diesel vehicles, while potentially having lower fuel costs than petrol, still tend to be more expensive than EVs for the same distance" OK, so forget diesel. The average annual saving according to Mr Google is $2,000 per year. Over 20 years, this equates to $40,000. So we have a total op cost saving (ex insurance and depreciation) over 20 years at $46,000 for EVs over petrol, at least. Take away $16,000 to replace the battery in the EV, which will give another 20 years of life, and that may well change the costs significantly, it would appear, running an EV, at least on some average or mean basis, will save you $30,000 over 20 years, if you say you will install a new battery and then trash the car. Depreciation and insurance differentials, based on todays numbers at least alluded to by the press, would erode much of these savings I guess, which means there is no free lunch. But, I can't help but think, most people who have moved to EVs will never go back. Some do. I guess it is up to your circumstances.

I counted 5

I can't believe how imaginative the story line is.. goes to show mind bending substances were rampant even then.. Ok bad sick joke time (YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED) what is the definition of Dracuka's teabag? A used tampon (Sorry.. wolfie was about)

The other thing to point out is good luck taking your diesel car to major European cities. Because of the desire to rid the road of these most toxic ICE engines, you will find that many have or are introducing charges to traverse their cities. In London we have the ULEZ charge, which is £12.50 per day. Birmingham and Bristol have introduced their own version as well. I am sure others have do., Google "cities in Europe with an emissions charge" and the AI generator will list quite a few. Add the cost of that to youe fuel.. as well as the cost of maintenance compared to EVs, and you will probably find any small saving that could be achieved using diesel over EVs will evaporate quickly. Not to mention the very public health costs associated with the respiatory diseases that flow.

Not stoopid does not equal genius.

I don't think anyone can predictably look into Chump's mind and try and work out what he is going to do. You all know that I will nornally (after doing research, I hasten to add) present the Israeli side of the story.. But, on the assumption the Jon Stewart vid I posted above is reasonably accurate, the 6 weeks away of Iran having a bomb 12 years ago tells me on this, either the intelligence was way off, or it was stirring up justifications for attacks. Either way, I have to ask myself why does Iran have a nuclear research facility installed well within a mountain designed to avoid attack? In the same breath, why would Iraq do something that stoopid if they know the western world would descend on them in a not too friendly way? But then, over the years, Mossad has struck many of the lead scientists, etc.. if they didn't, would those 6 weeks have materlaised into a nuclear threat? I don't know, but what I do know is at the moment, US inteliigence has reported to Chump that Iran is not a nuclear threat, and Chumpy has decided to go ahead, after he has said he will pursue all diplomatoc avenues, and then flipped into the 2 week thing. OK.. I am goiong to say something that many will disagree with.. Chump -as much as he is one - is not stoopid.. You don't get to that position becuase you are. But that doesn't mean his aims are wholesome, either. His aims could be quite evil. I am not saying they are.. He may have some vision of a beautiful world but realises the route necessitates a trip to hell to get there. Apart from some screaming parts of the media, I am not sure too many are too conceerned at the toppling of the Iranian regime - as long as it is placed with something better and stable; not a power vacuum. They wa I look at it, maybe it is the US cleaning up its mess by providing a regime change in the '50s or 60s from a liberal regime to what we have today.

Start at about 17:35 of this vid... It is not Chump per se, but oit is what he embodies. Most of the vid before it is pretty compelling watching too, except for the intermission , which tells us why British humour is so much better than US humour.. But that is another debate, another time.

Whale

I tried the windows voice recongition module. The recording is attached. This is what it produced.,.. Got confused very quickly and I have a reasonably powerful machine. The recording is here: Recording.m4a . The speed I was talking at was the fastest I could get it to reliably come up with anything but jibberish.. Was going to recommend Nev to try it.. but jeepers you'd end up throwing your computer out of your window. The "it lost it" comment early on was because Windows decided I told it to take the focus from the text box to one of the page numbers.. and you can see why at the end I said I had no idea what it was doing. This is A test of V windows voice recognition software I actually thinkthe I calledspacetime Even I don't stuff it up that bad!