onetrack

In our laundry trough, I installed the half-turn taps with the ceramic sealing washers, that take little effort to turn, because SWMBO has arthritis, and she struggles with regular taps. It was made worse in our laundry because the taps come out of the wall on the RHS of the trough, so you need to turn your hands at 90 deg to twist the taps. The ceramic disc taps are about $40 from the big Green Shed and they simply insert into a regular tap housing, you just have to take out the regular handle, spindle and tap washer. They require very little effort to turn, and the best part is, the ceramic disc replaces the regular tap washer and lasts indefinitely, never needing regular replacement, like normal tap washers.

In the early 1990's, I bought 3 x $200 Australian gold coins. They were the first gold coins minted in Australia for multiple decades. I seem to recall they had about 1/3rd ounce of gold in them, and because they had a face value of $200, you could always get $200 for them, regardless of the gold price. In the late 1990's I fell on some really hard times, and I needed some money, so I sold them to a bank for $200 each. Of course, it was one of the worst decisions I've ever made, because those coins are now selling for $1,500 to $2,000 each!!

Here's an interesting story about a (obviously extremely wealthy) European coin collector, who started collecting the most outstanding coins of the world, almost 100 years ago. Following the 1929 Wall St sharemarket crash, the wealthy gent obviously sought a better method for storing his pocket money wealth. So he set out on a coin-collecting binge that amassed some of the worlds rarest coins. It appears that taking the coin collection with him on his travels was dangerous, and possibly became illegal under the Nazi's - so he simply buried the stash in aluminium cans in his garden, when the Nazis started on their warpath! He died not long after WW2 started, but his wife and his heirs didn't lose the location of the stash. The stash was recovered a few years ago (maybe after the death of his wife?), and now his heirs are auctioning it off. It's reported the collection will bring upwards of $100M. One of the rare coins up for auction is a one-off Port Phillip One Ounce coin, a rare pattern piece minted in conjunction with the 1854 Melbourne Exhibition, and later shown in Paris in 1855. This coin was minted by the Kangaroo Office Mint, a short-lived attempt to start up a privately-owned Mint in Victoria. https://canadiancoinnews.com/historice-traveller-collection-hidden-for-50-years/

We've actually got an impossible triangle artwork in the centre of a roundabout in East Perth. The building in the background of the first photo (with the radar dish on the roof) just happens to be the Chinese Consulate in East Perth.

This is probably going to be the dirtiest election in a long time, aided by the Australian Trumpers who will try to create havoc for Labor, as the Coalition desperately seeks to regain lost seats and restore some kind of relevance for the Liberals, to an Australian population whose demographics have changed substantially since the last election, thanks to an ever-increasing level of people of Chinese, Indian, and numerous other "foreign", ancestries.

A great piece of mathematical and graphical impossibility, the first of which, the "impossible triangle", was devised by Oscar Reutersvärd in 1934, and then expanded on by Roger Penrose and others. The drawing above includes the "impossible trident" in the threaded support drawing, but other equally confusing graphical designs are the Shephard Elephant, and the Impossible Staircase (also called the Penrose Stairs). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shepard_elephant https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impossible_trident https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penrose_stairs

This is American writing we're discussing here, if they can make it look/read/spell differently to standard English, they will.

I must be a genuis, because I spotted it instantly, too! 😄

One.

The CSIRO has been getting some undeserved bad rap in recent times and the Age is keeping it up. If the CSIRO research was valueless, why has the CSIRO set up licence agreements with more than 20 international companies, and has received around A$430 million in licensing revenue, from their Wi-Fi research? And how did they get the 2012 European Inventors Award for their Wi-Fi contribution? The truth is often very nuanced. https://www.csiro.au/en/research/technology-space/it/WLAN#:~:text=Slow wireless networking&text=CSIRO has licence agreements with,to send and receive information. https://www.naa.gov.au/visit-us/events-and-exhibitions/disrupt-persist-invent/wi-fi Don't forget the CSIRO has produced over 600 useful inventions from their research, and hold over 3000 patents. They invented the Atomic Absorption Spectrometer (which the mining and chemical industries rely on enormously today), polymer banknotes, Aeroguard, "Softly" Woollens detergent, developed myxomatosis and calicivirus for controlling rabbits, invented DME for aircraft, and produced the Relenza flu drug - along with a host of other useful products. They deserve better than a critical, incorrect put-down, in a cheap-shot media source.

Did you tell them the bloke who drew up the plans was named Archie Teckt? 😄

RGM, my kidney function was checked, all is fine, the last blood test result showed everything within a satisfactory range. PSA levels and an enlarged prostate are all I have to worry about now, but even the last PSA reading was back to an acceptable level. I was surprised to find my urologist wasn't overly concerned about an occasional high PSA reading, he reckons they bounce around, and are not necessarily an accurate indication of prostate problems. Litespeed - Sorry, I've become very attached to my kidneys, and don't feel like sharing them with anyone. Although normally, I'm a caring,sharing person, I draw the line at sharing my kidneys. 😄

I'd avoid architects at all times unless I wanted to burn up a lot of money. They're good at producing offbeat designs, but often, they're impractical or costly to build. Some can produce superb results. I've found a young structural engineer, he's great, I tell him what I want, I draw a sketch, and he produces the designs and plans in a straightforward manner, and even does all the council paperwork, ready for submission. Here on the Left Coast, there was a big change in the building permits setup in 2012. Previously, you submitted plans, and the council had to do all the legwork figuring out if it was legal and safe, and met all the requirements and laws. Now, you submit plans, and either you, or your engineer, have to personally guarantee they meet all the regulations and safety standards, and all the councils have to do, is look over all the paperwork, and either pass it, or reject it.

The docs discovered I had high blood pressure when I injured my left shoulder about 2-1/2 years ago. The Asian woman doctor I went to first, went ballistic when she found my blood pressure was 200 over 100. I told her it was because of my injury and pain levels and simple stress of being in a doctors surgery, but she went on a rampage about my blood pressure and concentrated on that, and barely looked at my shoulder injury. She put me on Perindopril Arginine, which is an enzyme blocker, it stops the enzyme that hardens your arteries. It seems to work, my blood pressure came down, I went off the pills for a couple of weeks and my blood pressure shot back up again. I like to think I'm pretty healthy, but the internal damage with advancing age is unseen.

There is a way to express dissatisfaction with an elected representative, and it's called a petition. You need to gather up a lot of signatories before a petition can be presented, though. In many other countries, a process called Recall Petition is used and it has electoral and legislative support. A Recall Petition can be brought to the Govt of the day to express disenchantment with the elected members performance and to request that they be replaced. In Australia, there is no Recall Petition process - simple petitioning must be used. There have been discussions on introducing a Recall Petition process, but the discussions have bogged down in how the fine details would be worked out. https://www.parliament.nsw.gov.au/researchpapers/Documents/recall-elections/Recall Elections E Brief.pdf

Litespeed, I owned a business and employed a number of people (up to 103 at one time, much later in my business career), and a lot of the utes were "work" utes. But they were all registered in my name and I drove them all at various times, some a lot more than others. Sometimes I'd drive them a lot myself (mainly when new), then they'd be utilised by employees. We used to rack up some miles, often working 75 and 80 miles from home base. Over that distance, we'd camp out in caravans, motels, or whatever other form of accommodation was available. A lot of work was remote, so not too many facilities. I was in business from age 16, and I've never worked for anyone else in my whole working life - apart from 2 years National Service.

I think there's been a substantial degree of original photo manipulation in all of the above! 🙄

That's quite a large degree of heating!

Oh dear, talk about "knee-jerk" politics! She sounds like Gina Rinehart! I wonder if she's going to propose poisoning all the Aboriginal watering places, too!! - like Gina's old man suggested!!

Well, I can't complain about those old Holden "classics", they served me very well over many years. I've owned no less than 52 Holden utes, starting with an EH fitted with the optional 179 engine. I did 105,000 miles (yes miles) with it, and traded it in on a new HK Belmont ute, and it still didn't burn much oil. But the drum brakes were crap, and only a VH44 booster fixed them to a certain degree. From there, followed a big succession of HQ, HJ, HZ, and WB utes, a HQ 308 sedan, and even a 4WD F100 (with the Cleveland 302). I've still got a WB 1 tonner, it was the Melbourne Airport runway ute, and it's painted in the CAA safety yellow colour. It will get restored in due course, it would've been an easy restoration if the 2nd owner of the 1-tonner (out near Warragul) didn't get it bogged to the gunwhales in a creek, and let water stay inside it, for possibly weeks - so the floorpans are in poor shape. You can't blame the design for mistreatment and abuse. The Holden utes took me places that are declared "4WD Only" to todays drivers, and I regularly towed 1000-gallon fuel tankers with the Holdens, and even carried 1-1/2 tons once in the back of the EH. However, it was a short and slow trip! The brothers boss carried 2 tons of clearing chain, draped between a car trailer, and his EK Holden ute!

Strokes can be very devastating, but it's amazing how many people actually recover some quality of life after a severe stroke. However, I know a former farm machinery mechanic in a small country town, who sold up and retired about 18 yrs ago, and bought a motorhome to travel around in. Then only a couple of years later, his wife had a massive stroke, which totally disabled her. He has to spend all his time within a short reach of her, as she's virtually helpless. No more than 20 mins away. He's 83 and in a gopher himself now, and he's been caring for her constantly for more than 15 years. He confided to me, "This is not what we planned, for our enjoyable retirement!"

Marty already gave you the correct answer a day ago.

It's a lot easier to manipulate a small turnout of voters, and it's even easier when you have multiple billions at your disposal. If we had a voting system like America has, Clive Palmer would already be our President - but with our better system, Clive has SFA chance of even having a say in running the country, and that has to be a very good thing.

GON, the Nomad aircraft was a badly engineered piece of equipment from the word go, and it would have needed billions to re-engineer it to make it durable. One of the problems with it, was a decision to use thinner aluminium sheeting than originally called for in the design. There were a substantial amount of additional design flaws, including faulty engineering calculations, that made it a death trap. Don't forget it killed its chief structural engineer and test pilot on a test flight, and it ended up with a Godawful safety record. It was a disaster from go to whoa, and you can't blame Fraser wholely and solely for the Nomad fiasco. He took the correct decision to scrap it, because it was a national liability. I wasn't a fan of Fraser either, but he did make some good decisions occasionally. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GAF_Nomad

Dutton already has form when it comes to deporting undesirables from Australia. But neither Dutton, nor Australia, is alone with this system, many countries already carry out the same deportation of violent criminals. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-tyne-53095334