willedoo

On the otherside of the coin Boeing and Airbus use, or did use, Russian made parts. They were doing so only a handful of years ago, don't know if they still are. I know they made undercarriages and brake systems. Russia had high hopes for the big joint venture with Boeing they were building, but I think going to war with Ukraine stuffed that.

I had a look on Google Maps and zoomed in on high res, and that's exactly what it is - a big pile of scrap. Some have been craned on top of others. The big one is an An-124. It's most likely a section of the airport where all the workshops are. It would be a variety of scrapped planes not worth fixing or in the case of US and Ukrainian (Antonov) planes, they can't get vital parts. I remember back when Iran and Russia were looking at a deal for Iran to license build the Sukhoi Superjet and the US knocked the plan on the head as they had the veto call due to the percentage of US made parts in the Sukhoi. I forget the percentage, I think it's around 10 or 15 percent content and they can block things. At the time I was surprised at how many airliners Iran has and needs for domestic use.

I'd say they are all scrapped aircraft just stacked there as a source of parts. With sanctions they need every spare nut and bolt they can get.

I think it looks better the way it originally was in the second photo. Will see what happens when I see the end result. It's not hard to revert it back to photo 2 condition. The first photo is more embedded rust; the second photo is just light surface rust after a couple of salt and vinegar applications.

Just a Ratbikehelm update: since posting the original photo of it (second photo), it's had regular applications of a salt and vinegar solution for a couple of weeks, followed by leaving it out in the 230mm of rain we recently had. In this updated photo it's had a couple of applications of lanox. I might give it a couple more to get well and truly into the crevices. When it's all nice and dry and cured, it will get a coat of home made beeswax polish and a light burnish. Then all it needs is the ear flap leather trim put back on. At some time in the future I'll make an inner support so it can sit on a head.

I'm fairly sure our laws here in Queensland are that you can cross the double line if it is safe to do so to maintain the one meter distance from a cyclist.

Jerry, I'm a bit confused here. I though if you write on a ballot paper it's marked down as informal. ie: you fill out the ballot correctly then write a message on it = informal vote.

It's important to the comrades and that's why they have a quota system. They love their social engineering.

That's a bargain onetrack. I had a seat sent from Germany a few years ago, about 34kg, and it cost over 400 USD in freight. On top of that was 800 AUD in charges to get it released from the airport. Customs charges, Border Force charge, Quarantine charges, brokerage and many more , it was a full A4 page listing the fees.

If it's still under control, it's statistically safer to stay with it. If they've lost control, it's near impossible to get to the parachute to don it, let alone bail out safely. They replaced the harnesses with safety harnesses for all the crew members.

Our local federal member is LNP and fairly safe. Last election he got his margin halved to 7%, but should get in ok next time. His only real opposition is Labor, and the way the preferences flow, he should get back in ok. Even if One Nation take a heap of his support, it's an area where the Greens poll 10%, so their preferences will go to Labor and should knock One Nation out of the contest. ON preferences (with Family First and Palmer's) will then flow back to the LNP and top Labor. Demographics are on the side of the LNP here - part rural and one candidate due to the LNP amalgamation, a big small business population, and a big population of Victorian self funded retiree migrants.

Unfortunately the parachutes were removed from the KC-135s in 2008.

Not their fault, Howard made them build it.

octave, picking up letters is long gone. It might happen somewhere but would be fairly rare these days. Contractors in our area put in a low price to get the job and tackle it like a car race. You often find letters lying in the mud in the stormwater drain. I've kept my PO box in town for secure parcel collection because the contractors are so bad. Been that way for years now, every new contractor is as bad as the last.

I've only got 12klm to drive to vote, but fairly safe from wombat and roo hazards. The biggest hazard is when you get to the polling centre and our dickhead local member tries to grab your hand to shake it.

I can understand why young people are turning away from the major parties. Over time Australia has become a country where a whole generation of young Australians will never be able to own their own home. It doesn't matter how hard they work and save, it gets them nowhere. A lot of people make excuses and give various reasons why the country is like that, but the fact remains that it degenerated to this under the stewardship of one of the major parties or the other. Whether or not they are totally to blame, they have that job and the buck has to stop with them and they carry some responsibility for letting it happen.

Hopefully they won't blink and will finish what they started. Getting rid of the regime is the only way to provide any hope of it not happening again. The've kicked the can down the road for years and deluded themselves that you can negotiate with terrroists. The regime has been taking the mickey out of the west for years. Putin uses similar tactics, dangle the hope of negotiations and a settlement in front of suckers to string them along so you can evenntually get your own way. There's still a lot of mugs calling for negotiations; I just don't know when they'll realise you can't talk to people like that.

I bought a copy of it back when Howard had the republic referendum to compare the proposed changes.

Pete, I haven't read the constitution in a long time but from memory it was designed the way you describe, representation by elected members rather than a party system. I don't think there's much in it at all about parties. Most of what we do in parliament is by convention and not by constitutional rule. As an example, there's nothing in the constitution to stop the Labor party winning an election and nominating Angus Taylor as PM. A lot of the constitution is about day to day rules for pollies.

That would be interesting. Problem is they'd need a party leader in the lower house. Barnaby is the only lower house member via defection, but he'd have to win the seat again under ON to be there. There was some talk of him running for a senate seat but I don't know what that was about. Early days yet, I guess they'll figure out a battle plan depending on their support as time moves closer to the election. They've always been relatvely strong here in Queensland but are more so lately. A lot of people joining the party, particularly younger people. They appeal in country areas, but where Labor will have to be careful is that a lot of working class, so-called little Aussie battlers are swinging to them. They were always Labor's domain but Labor's losing them. Not enough to harm Labor yet, but it's no time for them gloat; they need to watch their base.

Antony Green in his election blog has listed the seats he thinks ON would have a chance based on the three-candidate preferred result in 2025. It doesn't appear to give them any seats, but he said if they poll 25% at the next election they will sweep up seats all across regional and rural Australia, mainly at the expense of the Nats and Libs. The Farrer byelection will be a big one for them. Some polls have them leading the primary vote but the preferences will make it hard for them. If they do win it, it will have a big momentum value for ON. https://antonygreen.com.au/one-nations-poll-surge-the-first-25-seats-to-watch/

In Queensland the Labor government brought about the abolition of the upper house in 1922 because it was blocking their legislation. One of the Labor MPs went on to be Lieutenant-Governor, then appointed fifteen Labor people to the upper house who then had a majority to vote to disband it. The problem is, once it's gone, no government wants to have it back as they have a free run for passing legislation if they have a majority government. On the bright side, if numbers are close between government and opposition, the government members will make sure they show up to parliament. Sometimes if one is crook and can't be there for a crucial vote they will do a pair arrangement. On the subject of the LNP amalgamation in Queensland, it's the opposite of what a federal amalgamation would look like. In Queensland, the Nationals were always the bigger party of the two and even governed alone without the Libs for six years. One aspect of the amalgamation was to do away with three cornered contests. With the federal Libs being the much bigger party, I doubt the federal Nats would be too keen on amalgamation. I think Pauline and Co. would be happy to see a federal amalgamated LNP as it would possibly deliver them a bigger slice of the vote on the right.

Hard to fault that list onetrack. Patsy was just incredible, right up there with Amy Winehouse and Billie Holiday. The three best contraltos that ever lived.

I think the way things are at the moment, the powers that be in Iran would know the first two or three might get hit. It would make sense to stick a couple of fall guys in initially. Expendables, so to speak.

A commentator on the radio said tonight that Junior was wounded in the early raid and that's why he hasn't been seen in public. Not badly wounded I don't think. The Israelis have said he's on the list. Another legitimate target considering he's just taken over as supreme commander of a prescribed terroist organisation (IRGC).