willedoo

It's hard to know what to read into putler's reshuffle of positions of those in his close circle. Sergei Shoigu has been removed as defence minister, being replaced by an economist. Some commentary sees this as a recognition by putler that they need to tighten up manufacturing and supply for a long extended war. Previous to Shoigu being dismissed from the defence minister's job, his second in command was arrested on corruption charges. Possibly putin thinks a civilian economist can get a handle on the waste, theft, and manufacturing problems in the defence materiel sector.

Security chief Nikolai Patrushev has also been relieved of his post. He's the one most talked about as a successor to putin. The talk has been that Shoigu will take over his job. That makes sense for putin as Shoigu is a long trusted associate. Perhaps putin thinks having Shoigu overseeing the security branch will prevent Patrushev plotting against him. I haven't seen any mention of Patrushev's possible new position. From his point of view, probably as far away from the window as possible.

The NRL women's game is growing. Last night's NRLW State of Origin game one drew a record crowd of 25,492 at Lang Park in Brisbane, almost double the figure of last year's opener. NSW won the day in a well deserved win. This is the first year the women's State of Origin will be best of three games in line with the men's competition. TV ratings were up 40% as well, with nearly a million viewers tuning in.

Putler won't be pleased. One of his two NATO lapdogs has been shot in an assassination attempt. Pro Russian Slovakian PM Robert Fico was shot in the stomach with the injuries described as life threatening. I doubt anyone in Ukraine will shed a tear. Fico had vowed to block Ukraine from joining NATO, stopped all military aid to Ukraine when he was elected last year and holds the view that Ukraine is not an independent and sovereign country. He has also been accused of repeating Kremlin claims that the war was started by Ukrainian Nazis. This will certainly shake his Siamese twin Viktor Orban in Hungary.

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-05-15/slovakia-prime-minister-robert-fico-shot/103853772

4 hours ago, Marty_d said:

What, Donny's going to have his way with him then pay him to keep quiet about it?

The Orange Clown spanked with SFM's bible. Followed by the laying on of the hands. Maybe he can cast out some demons while he's at it. Exorcise a big orange turd.

I wonder how long it would take Gina to earn $300.

3 hours ago, red750 said:

You really need photo editing software. I use PhotoScape (not PhotoShop).

 

A link to the colourising system is here.. You upload the image to the website, select a couple of options and click "Start". A few seconds later, the process is finished (you don't see it happen), then a "Download" button appears and you save the coloured version to your hard drive. Note: colourisation in some photos is barely noticable. I guess it depends on what information is in the original for the algorithm to work on.

 

 

Peter, do you know where that photo was taken?

I read a report that in the San Francisco Bay area thieves are cutting off the charging cables for the copper. It would be a lucrative business as they have a lot of copper in them.

Now that it's banned, everyone will want to access it to see what the fuss was all about.

I saw it. Took 30 seconds to focus.

Australia has some previous form with book bans. I don't remember the exact case details as it was a few years back, but we've had books banned that are legal in every other part of the world. I also don't remember the exact state or book title but there was a case a few years ago where a book was state banned and legal to buy in every other state and territory.

I had my own domains for quite a few years via GoDaddy.com. They were good and cheap to start with but eventually their prices crept up which is understandable. I've only got one with them now which is parked up for possible future use or sale. The problem with domain names is all the basic ones are already taken. For example nomad.org is already taken. GoDaddy has a simple search function and also lists other similar available names.

https://www.godaddy.com/en-au

A bit off topic, but I'm in a shared room in hospital with an ex Victorian who played AFL from the age of seven & currently coaches a local women's team. I've had some interesting conversations with him about AFL & footy in general and learned a bit about the Aussie Rules game. Our TV screens in the room are about 2 metres apart and last night at the same time he was watching an AFL match while I was watching the NRL Dolphins vs Manly. 

15 hours ago, red750 said:

Further to my post above about the guy from the Shed who passed away at Easter, I got a text from the supervisor this afternoon to say another member passed away yesterday. This chap had not been in good health for a couple of years, had been to hospital a number of times this year, and had suffered a couple of falls. Last Friday the supervisor warned us the doctor had told his wife it was just a matter of days, so not unexpected. Sad all the same, he was a good friend. Just goes to show, there we are in God's waiting room.

It's like that lately at the museum I volunteer at. Most volunteers are getting on a bit. I started there in 2015 and we lost one bloke soon after, but no more until the last 18 months thereabouts where we have lost several. They are a big loss to the museum due to their past industry or service history and experience, plus all good blokes as well.

It's been said that these Russian 'Turtle' tanks are becoming more common. It severely restricts turret movement so they must be getting concerned about their tank losses.

So far I think their casualty rate is ten times the total in Afghanistan.

I was listening to Nightlife on the ABC radio and the presenter had a lengthy three way conversation with Bill Browder and Professor Paul Dibb on the state of the Ukraine/Russia war. Paul Dibb said he was expecting it to be a long war which could run for several more years. As it stands, it's over ten years since the start of the conflict in Crimea and the Donbass and more than two years since the start of the full scale invasion.

2 hours ago, red750 said:

Got a reply this morning. He has been working 12-14 hour days and hasn't had a chance to get on the forums. He says he's fine.

Thanks Peter, great to hear he's ok.

Still no sign of onetrack. It will be three weeks tomorrow since he was here, and almost as long since he was on the other site.

There's been a lot on the radio lately about criminalising coercive control. It would be a tricky one to legally set a line there, but in general the intention is good. I have seen it years ago in a couple of my friends who have long since divorced. Coercive control was the biggest factor in that marriage failing.

2 hours ago, old man emu said:

t is just that having had to deal with DV in the past, and that was before the widespread use of Speed, there was always some sort of addiction that caused problems. Ever heard of a golf widow? Times change and addictions come and go. I wonder if alcoholism is as prevalent amongst the 18 - 35 group now as it might have been 50 years ago. Isn't the addiction of choice nowadays based on stimulant drugs?

If you wind the clock back far enough a stimulant drug like methamphetamine was rare in the general recreational drug use community. In the 70's for instance, there were the pot smokers and heroin addicts in the regular use category. Back then, speed was really only prevalent among interstate truck drivers and their use was mainly limited to just taking enough to stay awake and do their job. The pot smokers were usually too stoned to be violent and the heroin addicts were only a small percentage and mainly concerned with just getting the next fix. Drinkers made up the majority in DV cases, but the grog would only be a primary cause in a smaller percentage of cases. I think the grog was more of an enabling factor in people with underlying frustration and aggression. These days the use of speed derivatives is so widespread that the numbers are showing up in DV cases just as alcohol once did and still does.

I don't know enough about methamphetamines to comment on whether it can turn a normally peaceful person violent, but there are anecdotal stories of some ice addicts being violent.

All ex presidents are entitled to Secret Service protection for life. At one stage they sunsetted it to something like 10 years for all post Clinton presidents, but Obama reversed it and now they are all eligible for life long protection. If Trump did go to the big house, it would have to be in a secure section with 24 hour Secret Service oversight. Bubba would be disappointed.

It would be interesting if he was jailed to see how Secret Service protection would work in a jail environment.

I'm having a mixed degree of luck changing my email address in various accounts. I thought I'd successfully changed it over in Facebook, but not so. It's allowed me to add the new email address but won't let me delete the old one and they are still sending email notices to the old address. The problem is my internet plan has dynamic IPs, not static. Every time I connect I'm assigned a different IP. That makes Facebook think I'm logging in on different devices. For security reasons, they say they will only let me change the email address after I've logged in a few times on the same device, which is never going to happen.

The photo of Pierce Brosnan is of him in character for an upcoming sports drama. Added glasses, hair made to look thinner, different hairstyle etc..

https://people.com/pierce-brosnan-unrecognizable-playing-prince-naseem-hamed-trainer-movie-photos-8639080

One of the first things I did when I got Windows 10 was to uninstall onedrive.