octave

Same here.

We went for a bike ride/hike along the Timboon Rail Trail today. Twas absolutely beautiful. Old train bridge Some kind of rail equipment We were amused by this. It seems to be particularly unambitious engineering.

I see your recent medical misadventure has not affected your humorous posts (in either direction)

http://www.helistart.com/helicopters/Cessna/CH-1

That is not quite correct. https://www.aec.gov.au/referendums/learn/the-count.html#:~:text=Votes cast outside of the,any of the state counts. "To pass, a referendum needs the support of most voters nationally, as well as a majority in at least four out of the six states — the ACT and Northern Territory aren't included but their votes do still count." "Votes cast outside of the six states, such as from the Australian Capital Territory or the Northern Territory, are counted towards the National Majority but not towards any of the state counts."

I was interested to see who the supporters of the yes and no case were. The no-case supporters are not really my people. "No" campaign[edit] Lead lobby groups[edit] Australians for Unity, created on 11 May 2023 and led by Warren Mundine and Jacinta Nampijinpa Price. This is a merger of two key former campaigns:[107] Recognise a Better Way, led by Warren Mundine and including former Nationals deputy PM John Anderson, and former Keating government minister Gary Johns.[1] The campaign, launched in January 2023, was set up by a group called the Voice No Case Committee. They argue that the Voice is "the wrong way to recognise Aboriginal people or help Aboriginal Australians in need", and is "racially discriminatory". The committee included four Indigenous members: Mundine; Jacinta Nampijinpa Price (who left the group in February 2023 to join Advance[1]); founder of the Northern Territory Kings Cross Station Ian Conway; and Bob Liddle, owner of Kemara enterprises. It proposes a different plan.[108][109] Fair Australia is a No campaign led by Jacinta Nampijinpa Price under the auspices of Advance, which emerged during the 2019 election, attacking activist group GetUp!, supporting Tony Abbott against the independent Zali Steggall (who won the seat), and campaigning against David Pocock.[1] Notable individuals[edit] Keith Windschuttle, conservative academic[110] David Flint, conservative academic[110] Andrew Bolt, columnist and commentator[111][112] Peta Credlin, Sky News host, former advisor to Tony Abbott[113] Gary Foley, co-founder of the Aboriginal Tent Embassy in 1972[114] Marcus Blackmore, executive director of Blackmores[115] Steve Baxter, Australian investor and entrepreneur.[116] Blair Cottrell, far-right activist, former leader of United Patriots Front (UPF).[117] Anthony Mundine, Aboriginal Boxer[118] Politicians[edit] Federal[edit] Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott Senator Jacinta Price Peter Dutton, leader of the Liberal Party (since 2022) Pauline Hanson, senator for Queensland; founder and leader of Pauline Hanson's One Nation.[119] Alex Antic, Liberal senator for South Australia.[120] Ralph Babet, United Australia senator for Victoria.[121] Barnaby Joyce, former Deputy Prime Minister of Australia and leader of the National Party (2016–2018; 2021–2022).[122] Jacinta Price, CLP Senator for NT.[123] John Anderson, former Deputy Prime Minister and leader of the National Party (1999–2005)[124] Warren Mundine, former National President of the Labor Party (2006–2007). Gary Johns, Former Labor MP (1987-1996).[125] Cory Bernardi, Former Senator 2006-2020, Former leader of Australian Conservatives 2017-2019.[126] David Littleproud leader of the National Party (Since 2022)[127] Cory Bernardi, Former Senator 2006-2020, Former leader of Australian Conservatives 2017-2019.[128] Clive Palmer, Former MP, Leader of United Australia Party[129][130] Phillip Thompson, QLD Liberal National MP (Since 2019).[131][132][133] Colin Boyce, QLD Liberal National MP (Since 2022).[134][135] Luke Howarth, QLD Liberal National MP (Since 2013)[136][137] State and territory[edit] Jeremy Hanson, Deputy Leader of the Canberra Liberals (since 2022); former leader of the Canberra Liberals (2013–2016)[138][139] Bev McArthur, Liberal member of the Victorian Parliament.[140][141][142] David Crisafulli, Leader of the Opposition in Queensland and Leader of the Liberal National Party of Queensland LNP (since 2020)[143][144][145] Libby Mettam, Leader of the Liberal Party of Western Australia (Since 2023). (Mettam supported the Voice as of April 2023)[146] [147] However by August 2023, Mettam walked back her support.[148][149][150] Lia Finocchiaro, Leader of the Opposition in Northern Territory and Leader of the Country Liberal Party (Since 2020).[151][152] Merome Beard, WA state National MP (Since 2022).[153] Michael Ferguson, Deputy Liberal Premier of Tasmania (Since 2022).[154][155][156] John Pesutto, Opposition Leader of Victoria and Leader of the Liberal Party in Victoria (Since 2022).[157][158][159] Former Prime Ministers[edit] Scott Morrison, 30th Prime Minister of Australia (2018-2022) and former Liberal MP for Cook [160] Tony Abbott, 28th Prime Minister of Australia (2013–2015) and former Liberal MP for Warringah[161][162][163] John Howard, 25th Prime Minister of Australia (1996-2007) and former Liberal MP for Bennelong [164] Political parties[edit] Federal[edit] Australian Christians[165] Australia First Party[166][167] Australian Protectionist Party[168][169] Democratic Labour Party[citation needed] Family First[170] Katter's Australian Party[171] Liberal Party of Australia (federally)[172] National Party of Australia (federally and in some states)[173][174][175] Pauline Hanson's One Nation[176] United Australia Party[177][178] Liberal Democratic Party[179] Socialist Equality Party[180][181] Western Australia Party.[182][183][184] Australian Communist Party[185] State and territory[edit] Australian Family Party (South Australia)[186] Freedom Party of Victoria[187] Some state and territory branches of the Liberal Party: South Australia[188][189][190] Western Australia Some state and territory branches of the National Party: Northern Territory (rank-and-file only)[191][192][193] (affiliated federally with both the Liberal and National parties) South Australia[194] Victoria[195] Western Australia[196][197][198] Religious organisations and leaders[edit] Australian Christian Lobby[75] Australian Jewish Association[199][200]

So today I had to drive from Geelong to the airport to pick up my wife who has spent the week interstate (tonight should be a big night). Whilst driving along the Princes Freeway there was a truck parked on the side of the roadwith a billboard spruiking the no vote. I would really have loved to stop and photographed it but alas it was not possible. It was hard to take the whole sign in at once. I think the first sentence said that 80% of traditional didn't want the "Voice" The second sentence stated that "they will take your land". This is pure scare tactic BS.

Yep School education is for 13 years, divided into: primary school for 7 or 8 years, from kindergarten or preschool to year 6 or 7 secondary school for 3 to 4 years - years 7 to 10 or years 8 to 10 senior secondary school for 2 years - years 11 and 12.

This must surely be the maximum rather than the average. School education (primary and secondary) is 13 years. This leaves 8.5 years which I am guessing must be tertiary education, which I think sounds like an advanced degree. The chart that Nomadpete posted perhaps takes into account that some may spread their uni degree out by studying part-time, which is not necessarily a bad thing in my opinion. I don't think the average years of education for the average person is as high as 21.5 years. Here is a table of mean years spent in education https://www.worldeconomics.com/Indicator-Data/ESG/Social/Mean-Years-of-Schooling/ It looks like 13 years is the mean

I do think people have a negative bias when judging our education system. Whilst there is much about the education system that I dislike (we homeschooled) I think there is a lot about it that is good. Looking through various lists of top education systems Australia usually comes within the top 10. Best Education System in the World – Top 20 Countries Countries by education index Australia Ranked Third-Best Higher Education System And many more. These lists use various criteria however it is not possible to find a list where Australia is near the bottom. Here is an example of the negative bias in reporting from News.com NAPLAN test scores reveal one in three participants below expectations "One in three of the country’s 1.3 million school students who sat the 2023 NAPLAN tests failed to meet literacy and numeracy expectations in the latest sign that Australia’s educational standards are continuing to slide. Aggregated results from the 2023 National Assessment Program, Literacy and Numeracy testing, released on Wednesday, showed about 65 per cent of students fell into the “exceeding” and “strong” categories when test scores were averaged across year levels and testing domains. But 23 per cent and 10 per cent were in the “developing” and “needs additional support” levels respectively, The remaining 2 per cent were exempt from sitting the test." The headline could also read "two thirds of students are in the "exceeding" and "strong" categories It is not clear whether standards are sliding or not. The assessment system changed for the last NAPLAN which makes it a little unclear. What do the NAPLAN test changes mean for schools and students? New standards "Another key change to NAPLAN is students’ results will now be reported against four levels of achievement instead of the existing ten “proficiency bands”. These new levels are “exceeding”, “strong”, “developing” and “needs additional support”. Some media commentary has suggested the new standards will “water down” existing expectations. However, there will actually be a higher threshold for students to meet the new minimum standard." The News.com article then groups together "developing" with "needs additional support" I would suggest that these 2 categories are lumped together in order to get an overly negative headline. The headline could surely be "Ten percent of students need additional support." We do need to be always striving for better and be on the lookout for any declines however we also need to appreciate the good.

The problem with school is that it is very much a one-size-fits-all-all system. During my work as a private music teacher, I taught all sorts of students and I had the luxury of teaching individually. One of the last students I taught before retirement was Aspergers or I think it is now called Autism Spectrum Disorder. This boy was a bit of a challenge although it was made clear to me by his mother that she did not expect great results. This boy's school life was at the time hell both in the classroom and in the playground. My philosophy was to impart some knowledge when possible but otherwise make his lesson something not to be feared or hated. When Covid hit the music school transitioned to online which strangely seemed to work better for him and we started to make progress. The year before last I decided to retire. I received an email from his mother saying her son was devastated and was there any way I could continue teaching him online. I could not really say no. During this year he really started to find his way. He became interested in jazz and improvisation. Sometimes some lessons would be not so good but generally things were going well. I was going to be teaching him again this year however he decided that his real passion was composing and he wanted to concentrate on this rather than playing. To me, this was great news. Before I taught this boy he had numerous other lessons on other instruments (piano, Guitar) but unfortunately, those teachers gave up on him because he did not fit the mould. My last contact with this family was this lovely email (warning this is a little bit self-congratulatory) On Sat, Feb 11, 2023 at 9:13 PM ******************************.com> wrote: The point is that this would have gone differently if I had presumed him to be stupid, poorly raised or perhaps just badly behaved. Also understanding the science of autism spectrum helps. This kid is not stupid and has not been raised badly Things like Autism have always existed we just labeled them as weird or dumb. this boy is actually highly intelligent.

The larger Tesla battery is 82. It would be when charging from empty 82x0.65 = $53.30. The average efficiency of a Tesla charger is 94% Tesla charging stations charge between $0.43 and $0.69 A Tesla Model 3 Long range is supposed to use 13.1KWh per 100km. A return trip from Sydney to Brisbane say 1800km should cost around about $170 at a charging price of $0.69. Of course, it could be less than this. Your initial charge would be from home. There are good deals for off-peak charging such as this one. An energy plan designed specifically for Electric Vehicle owners 6c/kWh super off-peak discount applied to your overnight market rates between 12am - 6am local time.

Quite some time ago. Date % Voters Issue Result 9 March 1949 56.40 Six o'clock closing Three-to-one majority to retain 23 September 1967 71.20 Six o'clock closing Two-to-one majority for later opening

I don't think anyone is going to change anyone's mind. This is why I now only say what I believe and I don't tell others what they should believe. There are several countries that are similar to Australia in that they were colonized and have a pre-existing population. Canada, New Zealand, the USA, Sweden, Norway and Finland. All of these countries have some form of treaty or indigenous parliament and or constitutional recognition. The question I ask myself is, "Are these countries more divided than us?" Are thier indigenous people doing better or worse than our indigenous people? Are there other countries that don't have either some kind of treaty, constitutional recognition or advisory arrangement? It makes sense to me to examine other country's systems in order to see which things work and which things don't. The one thing we can all agree on is that the present system does not work.

I am a prolific photographer (not necessarily a good one). I came across these photos I took a few years ago and I thought they qualified as photography and aviation related.

And that is one of the reasons I am voting yes.

Yes, to allow for the differences in brightness. Most astrophotographs use a little cheating such as colour enhancement or stacking. "To take advantage of the moment, Stewart took several images and composited them together in post-production to get the best possible result. “The photo consists of three images. The first is an image taken when Saturn was coming out from behind the Moon,” Stewart tells My Modern Met. “I then shot images of Saturn and the Moon separately just after the event and processed them to give better results. Then, I overlayed the two good images over the original one. It is a bit of a cheat, but because of the high surface brightness of the Moon and low brightness of Saturn, it's impossible to get a good image of the occultation with just one shot.” Here are a couple of my meager efforts

I recently had to sell my mother's house on her behalf. She lives in a different state. I was quite surprised at how many legal documents I was able to sign online. I suspect it won't be long before we tell kids about the times when someone would ride past every house in the country, every day to deliver letters. We will explain that letters are like emails but you write them on paper.

Isn't this it? Constitutional amendment The proposed law that Australians are being asked to approve at the referendum would insert a new section into the Constitution:

The referendum booklet arrived in my letter box today. It presents both the yes and no case.

Can you please post a link? I believe that the government is not funding either side. Yes, there has been funding to run the referendum. Both the yes and no sides have received private funds from various organizations. https://www.rmit.edu.au/news/factlab-meta/government-spending-on-education-campaign-not-yes-case-for-voice#:~:text=The verdict,-False.&text=The federal government did not,taking sides in the debate.

I don't much care which way people are going to vote but my plea is not to accept false information or fear-mongering (on either side). At the heart of Trumpism is the notion that verifiable facts are not important and that asserting something loudly is enough. No public money for 'Yes' or 'No' campaigns in Indigenous Voice to Parliament referendum

According to the AEC in the 1988 referendum, just .86 percent were informal votes due to ticks and crosses. In terms of language barriers, I would assume that election materials are produced in a variety of languages. Either way, I don't think it is a result-changing issue. I do worry though that Dutton et al could go down the Trumpian road if the referendum is passed and claim that it was rigged. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/peter-dutton-cross-about-aec-tick-ruling-on-voice-referendum-20230824-p5dz7q.html