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.

Tell me about it. I was going to lay on a TACO trade, but decided even this was too big for Chump to go flippantly into TACO mode. How wrong was I?

High or low sulphur?

A lot of people these days (and I am sure in days gone by) have substituted real happiness with material happiness.

Despite the CBF1000A haviong a notorious reputation for buffet with its standard screen, my short posterior stature must hit the sweet spot, as I don't get any at high speed. Of course, when I am passing a boxy vehicle like a van or a truck, the wholle bike likes to do a minor boogie dance in their turbulence, but I had that on my VFR750 and ER6F as well.. Yes, debris can be a real pain at these speeds.. I have had the odd stone thrown up and hit me, but the protective gear makes it noticeable but not hurt. However, it is rare. The motorways here are really well looked after and there is little of it. In fact, I can't think of any debris that has hit me on the motorways.. it has been on A roads - usually the A303. It is about risk assessment and the Motorways here are brilliant for higher speeds.. Or at least the ones I travel on mostly, which is the M3, M4, M5 and occasionally the M40. When I last rode, I also used the M1, which was also excellent. I must admit, it is one thing I am really going to miss about the UK when I return to Australia. I heard a rumour that some Australian states banned filtering in heavy and slow moving traffic, but a check of Google tells me that it is legal in all states/mainland territories. Phew!Although, I have to admit, I trust London divers far more than at least Melbourne drivers when it comes to filtering.

Anyway, quite timely in my YT feed:

Ha Ha Ha.. Probably both 🙂

And adopt a righty mindset? Well mate, I hope you're not on a state pension as that will eat into their sponsor's profits, so you can expect that to be eroded.. and any of the local services you get will probably come under the knife, too. Health? Privatise the lot. You don't have to look too far to see what is likely to happen.

That may be true, but I think that is also a product of our society, and statistics.. I thought I was a baby boomer, but actuall am Gen X (just). I lived and was schooled at both ends of the socio-economic ladder (although, we really were on the lower end where my father made sacrifices to get me into a well reputed grammar school in Melbourne for a couple of years). The state education system at both ends of town were very much around learning enough to get through, get a job, retire. The government will look after your health and welfare needs beyond that. Work hard, and you will be able to afford the house, a car, 2.5 kids, a dog and life will be sweet. Don't worry about anything, don't think about anything (as it will upset the apple cart), and just vote the way you normally do. Everything will be sweet. That was the same in the deprived areas of Melbourne I lived and the upper middle class area I lived (for state schools). The grammar school was different in that it tried to instill leadership. This is not a slate on the teachers - the most important teacher in my life and the person I credit to transforming a troubled child into an almost functioning adult is Claire Kelly - a unionist lefty, socialist, I think lesbian who came to my rescue in the darkest part of my childhood/early adolescence while living in what is an economically depraved area of Melobourne. There were many good teachers in state schools at both the lower and upper end of town, and they were no better nor worse than the private school teachers I came across. The difference is the system that constrains them. I digress.. So, you have a system that produces people who are trained not to really think outside getting a job and the rest will fall into place.. and we wonder why they don't think about it beyond they did what they were told and, despite there being battles to be had, things were generally OK. Now, their kids can hardly afford a tent in a caravan park let alone a house, prices are skyrocketing, the corruption or favoured treatment is so rife it can't be contained and no one is really doing anything serious about it, they can barely afford to keep their cars on the road after being told that fossil fuels are the way to go, they are taxed to their necks while those with the money seem to avoid it nicely, and all their life theyt have been told no worries - don't think too hard the government has got your back.. I guess they missed the bit of the knife in the back? You're right - they aren't thinking it through.. Or maybe they are? I mean, more of the same is just a slower walk to oblivion, but we will get there the way we are going. Get someone in who will bring that oblivion forward and maybe it will be cleaned up in their lifetime - may be exactly how they are thinking. Look at the problem Australia has with its fuel reserves. It is neither ALP or LNP that you can blame. It is both. A part of the nations critical infrastructure; a vital part of its securtity (I don't think fighting forces are electrified yet), and we are toast. This and so many other every day things seem to be abandoned by the majors. Its not liek just the governing leadership have lost vision and become stale; it is like the whole political system has. So, yep, they may not be thinking it through, but they are probably thinking anything is better than what is there today to shake things up. This is the message that is being lost on the major parties.

Looks like the pedals are an add on to get around the law

She is in the enviable position, to paraphrase el Chumpo, she could walk down Ann street in Brissie and shoot someone and no one would care. There is so much disenchantment with the poltical establishment, that a vagabond to that establishment has got sort of Ned Kelly status. As the article says, you can't attack PHON at the moment. Well, you can, but you do so at your political peril. It's the same here with Farage and BoJo when he was in power. If it were up to the people, BoJo woudl still be PM. This larrakin like approach to politics is winning over the disenfranchised, and like a lot of people who's values/agenda are corrected by fact, they tend to ignore the fact, or interpret it in a way that confirms their bias. The rebellion is starting, I guess.