Jerry_Atrick

Have been a bit quiet lately as the work has slowed right down. Had to replace as sparkie as he was only fitting us in between jobs, but as the days are starting to close in, we needed to get someone with more time. Anyway, today, finally the worktops to the kitchen islands have been fitted: Note in the abice, there is no tap; we have a combination always boiling water tap, and it will need to be fitted by the new sparkie; early next week. We have an induction hob (never go back to standard electric and certainly not gas). This one has a self-extractor. However, it is deeper than the one in the showroom, so we have to cut the back of the drawer under it and paint it: And we had to cut out for power points (we were going to have them inside the drawers, but it was in the end easier to have them out): Note, the sides of the Island don't go to the overhang.. We are debating whether or not to fix it. Downlights are almost fitted.. The new sparky had issues tracving the previously installed cable by the other sparky (just differences in style, by the sounds of it). But, he did leave as a switch which is safe not to be installed. (you can see the other downlights in one of the kitchen island photos, above). Integrated fridge freezer installed and the Microwave, oven, and warming drawer: Just waiting for the panels to be fitted, but they will be cone after the sparkly does his stuff, early next week). And a couple of photos from when I took my 18 year old daughter who finished A Levels (HSC/VCE equivalent) to London to view the Royal Courts of Justice and have lunch, before taking her to a pub called Dirty Dicks on Bishopsgate (look it up; very sad story); and then to another pub to meet a mate who flew in from Melbourne: Forgot to mention that when we got the train back the pub I stay at when in London, bumped into a couple of fellas I used to work with and lived around the corner form where I lived when in London. They had about the same imbibement as I did; was a good evening.. Daughter now wants to embark on her chosen career. Trick is go get her to want to do it on Melbourne or Sydney.

Tanks probably are; as Kyiv has successfully used drones to attack Moscow: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-destroys-ukraine-launched-drone-flying-towards-moscow-mayor-says-2024-09-09/?utm_source=Sailthru&utm_medium=Newsletter&utm_campaign=Daily-Briefing&utm_term=091024&user_email=05308c15b9e41fa6287a07f984c4e11ffb45f7c2bfebd28f727e59b16eaec231&lctg=63b3be66253bc2261a0e8a8d

House

Yeah - well I wouldn't hang around if Trump spurred a crown on to hang me, either. Steve Bannon may well still be lurking in the background from his prison cell (if he is still in there). If this was any other country (maybe except for China) no-one could give a flying f!ck and we;d all shrug our shoulders and remark they (population) will get what they deserve. How on earth did the most powerful country on earth rise with such a huge portion of the population as clear numpties when it comes to choosing their political leaders? Something tells me money, corporations, and greed that sponsor them has something to do with it.

I remembe running the line at a soccer match around Glen Waverly back in the mid 90s. A pesky little bugger was dive bombing me, but even though he connected with the back of my head on occasion, I never felt a beak.. Maybe I'm just thick. But from the vids I occasionally see on YouTube, it seems they have learned that we don't really fight back too much and have become more emboldened over the years. There is something stirring in the Iberian orca population as well.. For only a few years, they have started to taking to ramming boats. There are plenty of theories as to why, but no one knows for sure. Partly, becoming emboldened when realising those pesky humans are defenseless must come into theit through pattterns.. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/orca-whale-attacks-boats-mediterranean-b2399817.html Both magpies and orcas are farily intelligent.

Blimey - you must be high in the pecking order!

My point was more the Harris camp shouldn't take anything for granted; a day in politics is a long time and Shorten did manage to rip defeat from the clutches of victory. A few on here were indicating they thought he was a bit smarmy and conceited, which never bodes well. I think the policies were tested before and received a resouiding "don't take it to the polls"... I thiink part of him being politically unsafe was the same as when Keating said while Howard's the leader of the Libs, Labor will never lose power.. and conceit set in.. until Labor lost to Howard. Although it is clear the majority rejected him at the ballot box, I wonder how much of it was the press didn't like his policies and swayed the electorate without putting all the facts before the electorate? Now a policy of the Greens, I understand. But don't fret; the UK has dental on teh NHS, but no dentist provides an NHS service (wwell, only to kids and the elderly). Sounds like the other Bill... Hayden...

Yeah - the Democrats may not want to do a repeat of Bill Shoten with respect to "it's in the bag" against Morrison: https://www.theage.com.au/world/north-america/donald-trump-leads-kamala-harris-by-a-point-in-fresh-national-poll-20240909-p5k8wn.html

In terms of who pays, the lampposts and bollards charging is public (council) owned. They can get a grant from Central government and seek private investment. They then charge for the electricity used and if there is private investment, some of that goes to the investor. I am not sure of the point you are trying to make.. should the council give free electricity to EV owners? If so, then won't you complain that ICE car owners who pay rates are subsidising EV owners running costs? My point was that while councils may not give free electricity for your EV, there are places you can get it free.

Difference is a gun is designed to kill... and those in the US tend to buy the ones designed to make sure they kill in rapid succession.

Councils may not give free charging, but some do. When was the last time you regularly got free petrol or diesel? I'd wager never. https://carpart.com.au/blog/are-there-free-ev-charging-stations-in-australia There are two or three companies that provide lampposts and bollard charge points. This appears to be the bigger one: https://ubitricity.com/en/charging-solutions/ac-lamppost/

I think I mentioned ages ago the use of lampposts as charging stations over here. Isn't Sweden rolling out wireless charging lanes? https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/sweden-building-worlds-first-permanent-ev-charging-joseph-mucheru-zrkbf#:~:text=Highway Details&text=Construction began in 2023 and,sensors that trigger power delivery. Quite often, Aus does not get the latest gear for a while; the market is small compared to the USA, Europe, and Asia.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/article/2024/aug/31/australian-executives-pay-jumped-in-the-last-year-so-did-the-gulf-between-ceos-and-the-average-worker Still a tidy sum... There is a joke about a low-cost country in there, but I will refreain from it.

Uggh! One of the selling points of moving to Aus is that we can get (in the cities) reasonable speeds via NBN. If they are unreliable, then I am not going to let the family see this thread!

If there is no cash, then a handwritten note that thei fairy has transferred the sum into their card account, and they are free to use it.. Admittedly, it has been close to 30 years since I have attended an Aussie election... Here ya go: https://www.screwfix.com/p/sum-up-solo-smart-card-terminal/532JF?kpid=532JF&cm_mmc=Google-_-Datafeed-_-Electrical and Lighting?kpid=KINASEKPID&cm_mmc=Google-_-TOKEN1-_-TOKEN2&srsltid=AfmBOoq1wvGYb12t2BKvtJXRbsx9JT2pr7Yuz2ajM_hMpxcEcmwOofLT3eA

Here is the thinking as far as I can see. Pure EVs have a more expensive up front cost, but compared to ICE and bybrids, a far lower (even if you don't have solar) running cost. The queston is, at what point does the EV total cost of ownership beat the ICE and/or Hybrid total cost of ownership. In theory, hybrids should be fine to use electric when using as a runabout and ICE when touring. But its like city-based 4x4 owners - how much of their driving is done actual 4x4-ing. How many people drive more than a couple of hundred k's in a go more than a handful of times per year? In the cities and even bigger towns, I would suggest not often; In rural areas, I would suggest reasonably often. In my case, I am in a big town, but because of the cost of the train compared to the car, I do drive around 500km a week - 250kms roughly each day for 2 days per week. Even then, with better ranged EVs, I am quids in. If trains were cheaper here, the car wouldn't get a look in at more than about 30 ks in a day for all but maybe 10 times a year - and I live about 142ks from the town. For me, EVs would make sense assuming the difference in running costs cover the difference in purchase price over a 5 or so year period.

The church next door has a swiper; you select the amount, and swipe your card. I have never used cash to teach my kids about money. I want them to save and invest; I have been teaching them to move their money between accounts; keep tight reins on what they are spending through their cards (by having two accounts - one to spend from, which they top up, and one to hold their cash... when the bank tells them they have no more cash left, it is only in their spending accounts); and how to top up their investment accounts (note, we have things called ISAs (Independent Savigns Acocunts, I think they are called - you can invest up to £20K/year and all of the income that flows from them is tax free. You can invest in stocks and shares, and I think ETFs now, too; government bonds, or just take the interest). Still use cash as the corner shops (milk bars) still accept it. Our village fete accepts cash, but all the stallks have a mobile (cellular phone network connected) card reader. Aren't they free anymore? oh - and for the above, wherever I have said card, I also mean phone or watch. The one scenario I often think about is the homless or beggars.. They are the ones most likely to miss out.

I use whatsapp for calls, too, but remember, it is owned I thinbk by Meta, who owns FB, so I think the same reason to be weary of provacy should still apply.

BTW, this came up in my YT feed:

The cost of carrying cash largely depends on the business. I used to work for a werll known chain of show shops and a well known army surplus chain and neither used Armourguard or similar services. The banks did, however, charge us a very small amount for withdrawals; but as I recall not for deposts. And the cost was the same whether you withdrew $1 or $100,000. For those businesses that don't need to sanitise their hands, cash can be a very competitive. There is a hidden cost to society for cash handling. Although working for reputable chains, we didn't do it, but there were and probably are still many small businesses that don't quite declare all of their cash income, and therefore profits, and therefore paying tax. Individually, it is not much, but collectively, that can be denying the taxman, and utlimately society quite a bit. However, you could argue as they don't have the means to afford the big ticket accountants, lawyers and structures to help funds trasnfer type tax avoidance.. er minimisation, this is their way of taking the pie. Before we start saying there have been no convictions or even institutional accusations of excessive merchant fees, a couple of things to consider: Getting a merchant account isn't automatic. I was working for a dot bomb startup in San Francisco which at the time had $20M in the bank, and no merchant provider would touch us. We were building an international premium wine exchange; had all licences in place, but didn't have revenue, as our revenue model relied on, you guessed it, card transactions. Of course, that was over 20 years ago before card/eelctronic payments over the internet were the norm. Large companies that have massive cash payments going through them (thinking retail here - such as Amazon) will pay next to zero for their merchant fees because of market position; small business will be slugged the full list fees, which is illustrated by @onetrack, above. This, piled onto the fact smaller businesses don't have the purchasing power, tilts the cost favour to the bigger businesses - yet another hurdle. Merchant providers are taking a chunk, no matter how small in terms of their larger customers, of every transaction that is made. Think about that; as the developed world at least has moved more or less to card and equivalent payments, a good 90% of transactions involves the merchant skimming the cream. And then you have sponsor banks as well as the card companies themsleves. How many billions, if not trillions a day of transactions are there that are put through here? The money is mond boggling, yet, as long as the banks maintain sufficient cash inventory in their vaults, the only real cost of this is movign a few electrons here and there, with some hardware and software costs - all of which are far cheaper than bank tellers and branches. Even bPay (direct debit here) results in a fee to the seller. Of course, it is much wider than that. For example, although I think Australia lags in this, most debit card fraud, once established is a genuine fraud, is repayed by the banks to the customer, although in the UK, it is only voluntary conduct and some backs do not do this. If you're mugged of your pay packet in cash, you are unlikely to see that money, even if the perpetrator is there. The EU (and Britain had it as well), that was something like it is illegal to add card processing fees to the cost of goods at retail. This is remarkably similar to the merchant contract I had with one of the big 4 in Aus when I had a software selling business. The term of the contract was I was not allowed to offer my goods cheaper to cash buyers over card buyers (this was the days of swipey machines; I don't think EFTPOS was born then, or if ti was, it was the preserve of the bigger companies). What it means is that there is recognition that there is mass adoption of the payment system, and the prices should not discriminate between the payment system used by the customer; and yes, there were businesses that as a result, no longer accepted cash. Also, transaction fees for retail customers do not exist at all in the UK or through Western Europe. For me, that is a rort and a half.,

Are you sure about that? I read most of what he has said is able to be verified with provable facts... to be BS :-)

Back to the photo; I wonder if it could have been them all having a bit of a laugh on deck, and somehow social media got hold of it and crucified the captain?

End of an era

Oi! Don't do that! I will be ostracised... ;-) Can you have sections and threads as per this site on farcebook? Either way, I am with OT, and you can bet your bottom $ it ain't as private as you think. This is a great site and am happy to chip in..

Here is the problem: Quite simply, power corrupts.. this from the party that fights for the "little" people