nomadpete

Curious. The google pic seems to show two previous bridge pathways. Maybe the collapse was a complete coincidence related to our discussion about government project incompetances?

It's great to see there are still nice people around. She probably thought she was just helping one old bloke. Never realising she made half a dozen others feel good all day at the same time.

Not all my experience involved curious decisionmaking. Some was just corporate inexperience (I hope). One engineer got a company award for 'on time on budget' while we ground dwellers were still frantically trying to iron out the bugs to get it all working. Then he took his wife on a trip around the world on the frequent flyer points he got from comany funded travel. That was a $5 million comms project that used cutting edge unproved wonder electronics. For a GOC.

I often wondered. There were some suspicious free trips to europe for 'product training' by engineers connected with the product selection - operational techs didn’t get invited.

Did I hear that USA will be starting to burn the witches (and other democrats) next year? At the weekly book burning conventions.

Humerous is on the end of my elbow.

Where else could I put this news item ..... "UFOs Latest Pentagon report reveals hundreds of new UFO sightings" Even the aliens are leaving town. I'm going to watch 'Men In Black' tonight to get the facts.

Fear? I fear running out of popcorn. There will be a lot to watch next year. Or should I wait for the books to come out?

Really? Proof please. I haven't seen enough examples to make it an axiom.

I'm not so kind, Nev. In my work life I have repeatedly seen foolish contractual conditions on multi million dollar projects. In those cases, really costly over runs were due to binding contractual conditions that the business allowed a supplier to put into the deal. Hindsight is one thing but falling for the same clauses in the next contract smacks of incompetance, whether it is a government or private project. In these cases I don't blame merdok.

Well I gotta say... Trump delivers! He is already delivering more entertainment in politics, ethics and human rights than ever. I see a great future for this thread!

Don't bring logic into it. Car purchase is an exercise in trying to make a logical excuse for an emotional decision. If it looks nice and sounds great, it is desirable. Just like women.

Marty, please. This thread is called "But I Like Donald Trump". You are starting to sound like you don't.

Or to hold a backstabbing knife. Look how far we have ad-Vanced since we came down out of the trees.

Obviously infrastructure is a long term investment. The fact that everyone expects cost blowouts on every major expenditure, shows that as Red sed, "Either their estimates were w-a-y off, or they mismanaged the whole thing. " Successful builders do their contingency plans to protect themselves from all known possible unexpected blowouts. Such things as tunnel geological holdups should be reasonably scoped out by geologists. They claim they do this but are repeatedly caught out. The poor track record of most government projects suggests that they consistently fail to do comprehensive professional planning and contract writing.

That's a nice thing to say Nev..

This thread is so unfair. For instance.... I just got a picture of yet another school reunion. All I could make out was a bunch of wrinkly, grey haired old blokes sitting in a pub, with walking sticks lined up around the table. Glad I didn't go. There was nobody I knew there!

Not arguing the importance of infrastructure. But ...... Spending exceeding income always equals misery.

Self assassinated by failure to immunise?

She was a beginner. The smarter ones don't make the call until they have at least three identity facts about you. I'd love to know how a scammer got my whole name and correct rego number and phone number. Luckily my mobile phone identifies most odd phone numbers and alerts me of suspect frauds while it still rings. But it is only a matter of time before they start spoofing better caller id.

Long term? Well last time Vic was going broke, Kennet sold off every asset he could. Back again going broke, but this time there isn't anything left to sell off. That looks like Victoria is only slightly worse off now than they were 40 years ago. They just have to stop trying to build infrastructure they can't afford.

Long term vision is something we really lack. Also, many places do gain from the long term consistency provided by a unimpeachable dictator. But that advantage wears thin when compared with the negative side of dictatorship.

Sadly, all governments (& hopeful gov'ts) have trained the voter to believe that 'only they' can fix the problems of the day. That is how they get elected. Subsequently, when the winning party (or pres) fails to improve the things that are outside their control, they get voted out. Hence the regular irrational turnover of government & consequent lack of long term stability of policies.

Every time you say that..... it does!

It was the workers who were living on peanuts. Whilst good old Joh made his money by renting harvesters to nut farmers.