octave

When it comes to public toilets I can think 2 facilities that are unisex nearby. One is by the water near the pier. It is two long columns of cubicles with a long row of sinks. The other is in the arts centre. This facility is pretty swish. It is a large area of sinks, mirrors hand driers etc and around the outside of the walls are cubicles some marked unisex others marked male or female for those who care. As FH pointed out this is old news in many countries. I remember my father telling me that when he travelled to Japan 40 years ago. He was momentarily surprised when washing his hands at a sink that there was a young woman next to him putting on makeup. He had not realized at first that it was unisex and thought maybe he had gone into the wrong toilets, but he was fine with it. Whilst I can see that change causes issues that will need to be sorted such as sport, I can not see why people get so flustered by this. I have a neighbour who moved in about 5 years ago. This young woman seemed very reluctant to engage in conversation, That was fine, I am naturally inclined to chat to anyone. Gradually I noticed that they were transitioning. It did sadden me that this person probably thought due to our age that we might be hostile, nothing could be further from the truth. Four years later my wife and I are pretty good friends with this person. Their defining characteristics for us are their wit, intelligence and kindness. I don't give a toss what their chromosomes are.

Oath. Perhaps not having his hand on the bible is like making a promise with your fingers crossed behind your back.

Yes, we should rely on peer-reviewed science from well-respected scientists and organisations, not from unqualified think tanks masquerading as scientists.

Many people are saying that Trump is only deporting criminals, not too sure about that - Man votes for Trump, wife gets deported

Yes, Heat Reduces Solar Panel Output. But Not Enough To Worry About

I think that is probably right. I guess it is a matter of what credit in the success of a company is due to its CEO. Hiring the right people is very important. I think like Henry Ford, Musk as a human is extremely flawed (which is the polite way of putting it) You can be innovative as well as a scumbag,

GON I am curious, do you support Trump's pick for health secretary? Also, did you watch any of the confirmation hearings?

I have no idea what Musk's intentions were I would not assert anything. Prominent far-right-wingers have posted suggesting they believe he is one of them. He surely should be making it clear to those far-right-wingers that is not what he meant. He then addressed the German far-right AfD party. BS Anyone on this forum knows that I have been an enthusiastic supporter of Tesla such that until recently I owned shares in his company. I still think he has achieved amazing things in the EV field and in the space industry but he is a right-wing crank. You must surely agree that the stills going around of democrat pollies are misleading. I have no opinion on what Musks gesture meant and I don't care. Perhaps just the weird behaviour of someone on Ketimine (that's not an allegation he admits it)

Yeah, I watched the Senate hearings. Trump's learned pick for health secretary is a dangerous nutjob.

It is a silver 2004 Holden sedan, I looked it up on rego check. I can give you the VIN if you like 🙂

Here is the first one it recommended It seems pretty straightforward.

I just went to this site https://compare.energy.vic.gov.au/ to check out if there were any better deals. All you need is the NMI number from your electricity bill and it downloads your data and gives you a list of deals. As it happens I am happy with my present deal but it is not rocket science to make comparisons.

The point is the poster was complaining about having to research a product which they thought was too difficult and that they should not have to do that. Whether it is banking services or electricity or buying a house or any goods or services the bottom line is you have to do your homework. I did my homework.

This is the beauty of the smart meter and app. I can see what I am being charged for each 30-minute increment. I can also go back through my whole history with them and see what I was charged 4 years ago on a particular day or even half. I also have a graph that compares this year with the same time last year or a particular day. An increase in charge would be obvious. My retailer is a quite straight forward price structure.

This is not particularly new. When you buy a car you don't just point and say "I'll have the blue one" Most people will look at reviews ask friends etc. I think in the past the price of electricity was pretty standard all round. Yes now it is not so straight forward but you can save heaps if you really want to. My elderly mother used to enlist my help to get a good deal. When I first moved to Vic in 2011 (after 21 years living off grid) my first electricity bill was over $600 for 3 months (I think around $580 with the paying it on time discount). Now my bill for a whole year is a bit over $600. Each to his own but I know I would rather spend my dollars on things other than power. Yep I acknowledge this. Increasingly batteries will ease this. This power is not totally wasted with the albeit small these days feed-in tariff. We load the dishwasher in the morning and if we are going out we press the "start delay" button. The hot water comes on in the afternoon.

There are plenty of options out there. My bills are extremely cheap and I am not a lawyer or economist. For a start for those in Victoria, there is this site https://compare.energy.vic.gov.au/ When we did this we were paid $250 just for uploading a bill which they compared to other retailers. As we already knew we were on a good deal anyway. We did this 2 years in a row so we scored $500 over 2 years. If people think that sounds unbelievable $250 Power Saving Bonus Program I think this scheme may have finished now but there are similar schemes running. In addition, I seem to get a $ 75-a-quarter credit on my electricity account from the Vic government. My electricity bill before applying these rebates is about $650 a year (all electric - no gas) By using the monitoring software from my retailer and also the app for my solar system I have been able to tweak my usage. It is not that I am continually monitoring my power system but early on I learnt how to use power more wisely. We run a dishwasher once a day however we used to put it on in the evening. Now we put it on around midday when it usually would be entirely powered by solar. Hot water only comes on in the afternoon and is likewise powered mostly by solar. It is not really rocket science and actually, I find it enjoyable. With effort comes reward.

GWPF (Global Warming Policy Foundation) is not necessarily well thought of in scientific circles. I have no interest in prosecuting this old argument again however I urge people to be thorough in accepting any source and preferably look at many sources. This is worth a read The Global Warming Policy Foundation

Pity he pardoned Jan 6 thugs many of whom are extremely violent. One of these criminals has already been killed in an altercation with a police officer.

There are a lot of tin foil hat conspiracy theories out there

Fair enough but why raid farms and factories rather than starting with those who are actually sponging off society?

I like the information smart meters provide. I can see in 30-minute increments what is happening. Here is a random day Yellow is solar and orange is power used or displayed as money in (solar) and money out (power I take from the grid)

Here is an interesting figure - About 8.3 million U.S. workers in 2022 were unauthorized immigrants, an increase from 7.4 million in 2019. The 2022 number is essentially the same as previous highs in 2008 and 2011. If all of these workers are deported US citizens will need to do this low-paid and often back-breaking work or wages and food prices have to go up substantially.

A bit late for you Peter but maybe this is helpful to others. We had a blocked external drain. When a tap was on water would bubble up from the drain and flow across the courtyard. We searched for a plumber who advertised after-hours service. This service had a $90 call-out fee on top of the fee for service. Two idiots turned up and confirmed that the drain was blocked (brilliant deduction) They quoted $750 but said it could be more depending on what they found. They also said that they had had a long day and they were tired so they said they could come back the next day (but still wanted to charge the emergency call out fee, which we refused to pay ) We said we would call them back the next day. We decided they were useless but did not know how to go about finding someone better. We eventually went through RACV trades. You organise it online. You detail the job needed and RACV puts it out to tender amongst their approved tradies. You then get a quote back. We got a quote for $550. Two super efficient tradies came out put a camera through the drain and then used a jet wash. They kept at it until the drains were squeaky clean. We paid after they left through RACV. The RACV guarantees the work. A couple of weeks ago my parents-in-law (in their 90s) had a fault with their rooftop solar. They did not know how to go about getting it fixed, so we organised it (We live in Vic and they live in SA) We organised a trade through the RAA (on their membership) and someone came out and fixed the problem for $200 which I think is pretty reasonable and again the RAA guarantees the work. We have decided that we will always use this method when we need a tradesperson. I would assume that NRMA would offer a similar service.

Colombia has taken back immigrants in the past without all the controversy. Colombia has accepted deportation flights from the US in the past. In 2024, 124 planes carrying deported migrants from the US landed in the country. But President Petro appeared to object to the return of deportees on military rather than civilian flights - and to the way the migrants may be treated on those military flights. Trump and some of his followers are only happy when Trump as bully. You might say who cares? We live in a world where China is challenging the US for power and influence. The US being world bully only serves to drive countries towards China. For Trump respectful negotiation is of the table. His brand is being obnoxious. If you believe that Trump achieved a great coup by returning these immigrants then surely you should have even more praise for the previous administration who returned 124 planes in 2024.