hihosland

as wild as it gets around here most days,

saw an Eastern brown a week or so ago,

the New Holland honey eaters have driven off the Blue Wrens

the knowing magpies tease the pup

and I can't stop the starlings getting into the roof

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divesting

Now that's an idea

worth thinking about

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What, nothing with an actual Kiwi on it? Or a sheep...???

No sheep

But more interesting is the lack of a long white cloud or Aotearoa

the design guidelines prohibited any living thing or person hence no kiwi (or sheep)

but no choices featuring a long white cloud I can't fathom.

Ah!! then 80kts won't have to make a choice from this lot then

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in the grand referendum for NZers to chose a new flag.

An interesting demonstration of democracy in action when a popular outcry resulted in the NZ govt

increasing the choice of flags from 4 to 5 by the inclusion of the "red peak" design in the line up

presented for the first of two flag referenda.

Eighty knots says two things

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and

Me too, even the 264 candidates in the NSW Tablecloth Election of 1999

Quoth Old Koreelah Voting "above the line" sure simplified things, but I'm amazed there has been no High Court challenge to it. The Constitution says that our reps will be "directly elected by the people"; by voting "above the line" we empower each individual party to select and prioritise our representatives.

An idea with which I heartily agree.

Also without a massive amount of preference "fiddling" Ricky Muir would never have been elected and yet he is shaping up to be a realcontributor.

If he manages to stay there for a couple of terms we may well be very pleased to have him there in our "chamber of review"

When they introduced the "above the line" vote system

I, out of sheer perversity, continued to rank every candidate

The Westminster system as practiced in Westminster is not burdened with ballot papers requiring 50 or more candidates to be listed in preference order.

I see merit in a preferential voting system that limited the preferences to no more than three

Not strictly Australian politics but a fair, if humorous, assessment of the politics and the religion of the Syrian conflict

http://www.702.co.za/articles/6301/syria-situation-explained

"If you believe that any Western "democracy" is still in any way democratic, you're a victim of propaganda."

said Scott

All those representatives in parliament only got there by virtue of the votes of people in whom the said representatives had so much faith that they went to enormous trouble and expense to issue "how to vote" cards.

To my mind anyone who needs a "how to vote" card should be disenfranchised.

The lovely maroon thing is straddled by one of my brothers in NZ.

The bike was sold a couple of years ago and shipped back to the UK,

Re the Henderson;- a quote from Google

via

http://www.knucklebusterinc.com/features/2010/07/15/1930-art-deco-henderson/

The bike belongs to Frank Westfall from Syracuse, NY. According to some info I found online, the bike was originally built by O. Ray Courtney in 1936 and is based on a 1930 K.J Henderson. The bike is powered by inline four cylinder (not a scooter as some have said, check the shot of the motor below) and as I’m sure you can gather by now, is a one-off custom.

What I can confirm is it does run and while it looked a bit unwieldy, Frank could be seen riding the bike around the Fairgrounds all weekend. But let’s be honest here (and maybe I’m wrong) - you don’t have this bike in your stable to go out for a long Sunday afternoon ride to get some ice cream.

That said, it was pretty awesome to see the bike being ridden (even when rain started to come down) instead of being sheltered behind a velvet rope, never to see the rubber touch asphalt again.

The bike is a fantastic piece of history, the craftsmanship is absolutely stunning and it’s surely more of a museum piece than a daily rider. Frank has obviously spent an incredible amount of time meticulously restoring and rebuilding the bike to its current gorgeous state. Hats off to Frank for the amazing work he did and for sharing it with all us gawkers. Frank, if you see this and want to send in more info about the bike, I’d love to share it.

1930 Henderson Art Deco , one off with 4 cyl in line motor

I found it some time ago when researching Douglas motorcycles

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200,000km coming up on a 2004 Territory with an LPG injection system and I cannot recognise any difference in performance between the two fuels.

Price differential for the fuels is very attractive in Melbourne, less so in regional Victoria and in the far north the difference is trivial and supply very scattered.

Where you are going to do the most mileage will make a big difference in the economy or otherwise of LPG.

and

that spare wheel takes up a large amount of the boot space,