octave

Life is mostly pretty good

I forgot to vote in 2 council elections in a row. On both occasions I received a penalty notice. The notice said I could a avoid the fine if I had a reasonable excuse. On the back of the form was a long list of reasonable excuses for me to choose from. I avoided a fine on both occasions. The opportunities to vote have never been greater. I don't think I have voted on the actual election day in years. I either go to an early voting centre or vote by mail. GON I don't know how remote your residents is but you must be able you to buy food. I would have thought that these shopping trips would afford an opportunity to vote postal or early When I lived in a rural area neighbours would ring and say they were going into town and did we need anything. Where I lived the posty was happy to pick up mail. Your user name on this forum includes the word "Grumpy" maybe it is just more difficult for grumpy people to get favours.

When we choose where to live we have to weigh up the pros and cons. We lived in the bush for 21 years and enjoyed the good things and accepted the things that were inconvenient and above all we did not whinge. You can't have everything. If you enjoy your seclusion you just have to accept that it comes with disadvantages.

In the last five years, around 1500 citizens of New Zealand have been deported from Australia after being found guilty of criminal offences in Australia. It is unclear what these crimes are but I am assuming more serious crimes.

The laws apply equally to all non-citizens. However, New Zealanders have been disproportionately affected by the laws, with more than 1500 deportations of New Zealand citizens occurring since the laws were passed. Some of those deported had lived their whole lives in Australia and had never even been to New Zealand. A lot of NZ citizens are now detained in Australia’s immigration detention centres, while their legal challenges to the decision to deport them are processed. Reported cases of NZ citizens who have been deported have included those with intellectual disabilities or mental illnesses who had no ties to New Zealand. Deportation of New Zealand Citizens

In my opinion, the dreadful situation in the US is partly caused by the low voter turnout. A non-vote is a vote for "I don't give a sh1t" If you don't like the two-party dominance of our system then vote for an independent. Even if your candidate does not win it still sends a message to the party analysts. In the US the Republicans benefit from a low voter turnout.

My wife and I use Astroglide

French scientist denied US entry after phone messages critical of Trump found France’s research minister said a French scientist was denied entry to the US this month after immigration officers at an airport searched his phone and found messages in which he had expressed criticism of the Trump administration. “I learned with concern that a French researcher” on assignment for the French National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS) “who was traveling to a conference near Houston was denied entry to the United States before being expelled”, Philippe Baptiste, France’s minister of higher education and research, said in a statement on Monday to Agence France-Presse published by Le Monde. “This measure was apparently taken by the American authorities because the researcher’s phone contained exchanges with colleagues and friends in which he expressed a personal opinion on the Trump administration’s research policy,” the minister added. “Freedom of opinion, free research, and academic freedom are values that we will continue to proudly uphold. I will defend the right of all French researchers to be faithful to them, while respecting the law,” Baptiste said.

https://www.horiba.com/int/scientific/resources/science-in-action/where-do-microplastics-come-from/

RFK Jr.’s Strategy for the Bird Flu Epidemic: Spread, Baby, Spread The New York Times reports that Kennedy has been suggesting that to defeat bird flu, you first have to let it get its groove on. The Times quotes a recent Fox News interview, in which Kennedy told the news channel’s listeners that America “should consider maybe the possibility of letting it run through the flock so that we can identify the birds, and preserve the birds, that are immune to it”—a notion Kennedy has offered multiple times. Dr. Gail Hansen, a former state veterinarian for Kansas, told the Times that Kennedy’s plan was “a really terrible idea, for any one of a number of reasons,” also calling it a “recipe for disaster.” Experts like Hansen seem to agree that giving the virus a free pass to spread would just allow it to mutate and grow more powerful. Indeed, other current and former federal officials and scientists that the newspaper spoke to all said that stepping back and letting bird flu ravage domestic chicken populations was really only a recipe for lost farm profits and more dead birds. Kennedy’s strategy (and the apparent worldview that informs it) also seems to hammer home the point that he is, on a fundamental level, unqualified to head the HHS. The Times writes:

This is not a serious answer. I have been on this forum since 2007 and during that time I have had many disagreements with some forumites who have a different view to me. I respect these people because although I disagree with them they are willing to engage in a dialogue and they are happy to further explain their views. Nasho you just come in with one-liners and you rarely go into detail. This is just childish. I suppose you consider yourself a "tough alpha" and anyone else somewhat less of a man. I think most of us gave up thinking like this in our teenage years.

Bullsh1t. Attacking allies whilst sucking up to Putin. Trying to ruin the Canadian economy so that he can make it part of his empire. I am not sure where you get your news but you surely must be aware of countries reconsidering purchases of American fighter planes and other defence equipment. You surely must be aware of the serious erosion of the separation between the three arms of government and the dangers this poses. Nasho you are not particularly astute when it comes to US politics are you? I think back on Feb 4 you said this: " He won't threaten tariffs on anything else because we don't send our illegals over there to cross their borders. And as far as I know, we don't try to smuggle illicit drugs into the US." Well that prediction did not age well, did it? Like Facthunter I think you are just here to troll. Perhaps treating you with "ignore" might be the way to go. :

And yet..........

I will certainly contribute a generous amount.

Nah, I like to take photos. I may use a waterproof bag for getting in and out of, at other times, there is little chance of it ending up in the water. Anyway, as it turns out, my phone has an IP68 rating The '6' in IP68 means the Pixel 6's body is designed to prevent dust, dirt, and sand from getting inside of it. The '8' represents the Pixel 6's water resistance, allowing it to be submerged in up to 1.5 meters of water for up to 30 minutes at a time.

Mrs Octave and I had an enjoyable paddle on our local river, however it was not all smooth sailing. While getting out of the kayak, I stepped on the concrete ramp which had a green, slippery plant life covering. For a moment I was in that position of one leg in the boat and one leg on the ramp. The kayak started to move away so I had to commit. With both feet on the ramp, I started to slide towards the water in the manner of a ship being launched. The ramp was quite steep so I could not stop myself. This was not such a problem until I realized that I had my phone in my pocket. Despite being completely submerged, my phone still works. PXL_20250309_225720168.mp4

Why not vote by mail? I haven't voted in person for many years.

Well, that is purely your incorrect interpretation of the word.

Is being forced to drive on the left a dictatorship? I really think you don't understand the definition of a dictatorship. Here let me help you. What is a dictatorship in simple terms? A dictatorship is a government or a social situation where one person makes all the rules and decisions without input from anyone else. Dictatorship implies absolute power — one person who takes control — of a political situation, a family, a classroom or even a camping expedition.

When I first saw the Enola Gay story, I thought it must be satire, but no.

Just to be clear, Trump was not referring to conscripts, but he was referring to soldiers in a war cemetery near Paris. He also did not want to be seen publicly with injured veterans at a proposed military parade. https://www.axios.com/2023/10/02/trump-troops-fallen-soldiers-john-kelly Former President Trump didn't want to visit a cemetery near Paris for Americans who fought and died in World War I because it was filled with "suckers" and "losers," John Kelly, his longest-serving chief of staff, said in a statement to CNN on Monday. Trump saying at a 2017 Memorial Day event in Arlington National Cemetery: "I don't get it. What was in it for them?" Kelly said Trump did not want to include military amputees at a White House military event in 2018 because it would make spectator's uncomfortable, and added that Trump had said their presence "doesn't look good for me." Kelly also noted that Trump in 2016 publicly belittled the parents of Humayun Khan, an Army captain and Gold Star recipient who was killed in Iraq in 2004, after they criticized him for his anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Holy sh1t $500 a month. I know what I would do. I would forgo the money put into this policy over the years and think about the $6000 a year I was forking out. I would redirect that $6k into an account and then after a year I would go on a nice holiday.

His sycophantic fans will ignore anything in order not to criticise the dear leader. Trump knows this.

For many people, work brings dignity. Alina Habba said “We have a fiscal responsibility to use taxpayer dollars to pay people that actually work. That doesn’t mean that we forget our veterans by any means. We are going to care for them in the right way, but perhaps they’re not fit to have a job at this moment, or not willing to come to work.” I think many veterans would find the asserion that they are "not fit to work" offensive. If people need to be sacked, why do it in such a brutal manner? I watched a series of interviews with veterans who had been sacked, and they claimed that the reason they were given was "poor performance" even though most of them had had positive assessments. This would make it difficult for them to get a new job. Why so cruel? There is an assertion in Habba's quote that those workers sacked "don't actually work" You must surely agree that the Trump administration has made some embarrassing and dangerous errors such as sacking workers involved in nuclear safety and bird flu prevention only to scramble to rehire them. There seems to be a mentality of acting in haste. Musk actually waving around a chainsaw is the perfect metaphor for what is happening. If he could just put down the chainsaw and use a scalpel and intelligence, it would not be so problematic. VA Crisis Line Employees Among Those Fired Amid Federal Workforce Purge