willedoo

Modern seats are a great thing. They've come a long way since the early ones. I've got an old KK-1 MiG-15 seat and the pilots wouldn't have survived an ejection like that with a KK-1. Their biggest fault was lack of a stabiliser resulting in a lot of end for end tumbling before being able to open the chute safely. With a low level inverted ejection like that, a KK-1 would have run out of sky before getting a functioning canopy. In the same period of history as the Russian KK-1 (early 50's), Martin Baker had drogue chutes for stabilisation. They had a fairly crude deployment method, but it worked and saved a lot of lives.

The greens were hoping to end up with up to six seats in the Queensland parliament, but it looks like they could lose the two they started with.

That's the way he wanted the campaign to run, with everyone seeing him as Mr. Nice Guy. Unfortunately for him, his true colours come out when he's under the blowtorch. As someone said about the campaign, the more people saw of him, the less they liked what they saw. Under pressure he comes over as slippery, evasive, and generally untrustworthy. Like a lot of the LNP, his strong point is slogans. Time will tell if they can convert their slogans to any sort of competent government. I think if pre-poll voting was restricted to one week and the campaign went a week longer, the LNP might well have failed to get a majority. We could have had a Labor minority government with the KAP guaranteeing supply. A lot of pre-poll votes are traditionally locked in as favouring the conservatives due to the older demographic pre-polling. But this time around, pre-poll votes were in such high numbers that they wouldn't be restricted to the traditional demographic. By the high numbers recorded, there would have been quite a few voters who locked their vote in early before the LNP campaign ran off the rails. A lot of those voters would have flipped their vote if they'd left it later and been able to vote after all the cards were on the table. Regarding the backlash for Federal Labor. Queensland is normally strong for Labor on a state basis, but the LNP does far better on a federal level. The electorate has given labor a kick up the bum in the state, so might go a bit easier on them at next year's federal election, but they might not. It could also go the same way for the federal election. Cost of living is such a big issue now that voters are running out of patience and willing to try something new. Queensland was a good example of that, swapping a reasonably competent government for slogans. I'll suck a boil if the cost of living here is cheaper after three years of an LNP government. I don't recall any period in history where costs have gone down right across the board and made life easier for everyone.

Nev, that should read most of the last 35 years. There's the Goss Labor government from 1989 to 1993. Labor has been in power for 30 of the last 35 years. Since 1989 the conservatives have been in twice before now. The Borbidge coalition government for two years, 1996 to 1998, and the Newman LNP government for a full term, 2012 to 2015. This lot now are only the second to win a general election since Joh did in 1986. Borbidge's Liberal/National coalition took over part way through a term when a by-election changed the numbers.

Yes, I heard that about the federal effect with the Qld. Greens. At this stage it's the pre-poll votes to come in later which could sink Labor. If they do lose, it looks like Steven Miles would have saved a lot of furniture for the next election, albeit on some small margins.

I'm not sure why, but the Greens are going backwards. That could be a problem for Labor in regard to Green preferences adding to their total.

I don't know where that leaves Tasmania. When I went down there in 2016, it reminded me of Queensland 40 years ago. So that's 40 + 20 =

A fairly daring movie considering it was made in the same era of the Andy Griffith Show and Mister Ed the talking horse.

One thing I noticed in Killdozer - early in the movie when the two operators start up the D9 and the smaller dozer, both dozers have the engines running and are standing still but they include the sound effects of squeaking track pins that you would only hear when they're moving.

Clint Walker at his best. I wonder how many times he had to rehearse his often delivered line of "Let's get out of here".

Today is the big day. We might know by tonight whether it's business as usual or we set our clocks back thirty years.

They don't get any better than this - Killdozer, 1974, starring Clint Walker. A bulldozer goes on the rampage after coming into contact with a rock from outer space. Riveting stuff.

In his first term he had some relatively sane people around him. Not all of them, but some. The worry this time around is that he'll construct the executive government entirely out of nutters. That Kennedy nut as health secretary for example. And Elon.

One possibility - they saw a human move in and thought it might be a good food source, in the hope of picking up some food scraps. If the chicks are there then the nest is probably not too far away. They build a new nest every year so if they see a threat in your area they might move away a little bit further for the next breeding season. The problem with trying to chase them off is getting them to take you seriously. I think they get as amused by our antics as we do by theirs.

Noddy has blown the LNP's commanding lead in the polls. A robo-poll survey last night put the LNP at 51% to Labor 49% on a 2PP basis. That could mean a narrow one or two seat margin for the LNP or on the day it might go either way. The problem for Labor could be the high number of pre-poll votes, currently around 30%. A lot of voters would have decided and voted before the LNP campaign started to unravel. I guess that would depend on the number of swinging voters voting pre-poll. A lot of pre-poll votes often favour the conservatives due to the high number of older people who vote early.

Today the butcher bird was sitting on a tree branch outside the kitchen window and singing away in full song mode. The resident raven was sitting about four feet away from him, quite content watching the butcher bird sing. The mickey birds even got in the act. The raven doesn't seem to mind a mickey bird sitting only two feet away from him. They all get on well together. The only exception would be when there's food involved, the raven and butcher bird compete. Being honeyeaters, there's no food competition from the mickey birds. Their only interest in my place is the bird bath, a place to drink and bathe. Noisy miners normally don't tolerate other birds well, but that's probably when they are defending territory. I think they all see my house and yard area as neutral ground, a bit like a public common. My place is the centrepiece of the raven's territory, but the butcher birds and mickey birds live a bit further down the hill and visit here on a daily basis, often a few times per day. It's interesting seeing how the different regular birds get to know and trust the human. I'm sure the butcher birds and mickey birds can differentiate me from another visiting human on the place. Recently I was down at my shed which is about 100 metres down the hill from the house and fairly central to the noisy miner's territory. I was standing outside the shed beside a tree when I heard a mickey bird commotion. A few of them flew over and landed on a branch right beside me and started calling out loudly. It wasn't usual behaviour and I couldn't figure out why they were so close to me until I looked around and saw the neighbour's cat walking up the driveway. Obviously the miners knew and trusted me enough to see me as a source of protection.

The latest Newspoll has aligned with the previous couple of polls and shows a 5.7 percent swing to the LNP which would translate to a two seat LNP majority. It looks like the formerly predicted LNP landslide might have evaporated.

These days the new god is science. A scientifically proven, peer reviewed god that gets us to the moon, helps fix us when we are crook and gives us great toys. It has our unwavering devotion.

When I was down for the count it was just black, no white light at the end of a tunnel. But then again the heart was still beating I think, so not dead, just not breathing. For a lot of people their reasoning is stuck around themselves. I haven't seen a flying saucer, therefore they don't exist. I haven't seen a ghost, therefore they don't exist, etc, etc, etc. It's all about me.

Korean Air Lines 007 + 0

It's a funny use of language. You stand for election then once elected you sit.

You can't blame any party for having the desire to grow and gain more support and seats. This is what's happening in Queensland with the Greens eating into Labor support. But there's the rub. The Greens take votes from Labor but generally not the LNP. Unless Labor and the Greens are prepared to enter into a coalition, growing Green support is a gift to the LNP, the Greens' traditional arch enemy.

Nice looking floor Jerry, it reminds me of hoop pine.

Three more sleeps to election day. It should be an interesting night on Saturday watching the election coverage. The last couple of polls have shown Labor narrowing the gap on the LNP. If those results translated to election day the LNP might be in with a two seat majority instead of the massive landslide that was predicted earlier. It might be a miracle if Labor gets back in but stranger things have happened. When Can-Do Campbell Newman got the boot after the LNP's one and only term, Labor under Annastacia Palaszczuk's leadership went from seven seats in opposition to winning minority government. Labor won an extra 37 seats in that election. To put it into context, Labor lost 44 seats in the election three years earlier. There's no doubt the abortion issue has hurt the LNP. Talk of the LNP scrapping Queensland's voluntary euthanasia laws can't be helping either. The LNP are trying the small target tactic and didn't expect Robbie Katter to throw a hand grenade in the form of an abortion issue front and centre. The LNP have said they will scrap the ban on property developer's political donations. They argue that if Labor is allowed donations from unions, the LNP should be able to accept donations from developers. The LNP have also said they will commit to permanent, ongoing coal fired power generation. Queensland has no upper house so a majority government is free to introduce whatever legislation takes their fancy.

That reminds me of a mate who said when God was giving out ears, he thought he said beers and asked for two big ones.