onetrack

I'd estimate about 95% of health problems are related to alcohol consumption. It shows up in your advanced years. One day, I'll wager the researchers will find a link between alcohol consumption and dementia. I'm fortunate in that neither of my parents drank to excess, nor did they smoke. I think my father smoked a little during his younger years, as 90% of the population smoked in the 1920's to 1950's. My fathers religious views rated pubs as "dens of iniquity" (which wasn't too far wrong) and we never went to pubs, nor did we have boozy gatherings. Mum and Dad drank a small amount of wine or aperitifs. I detest beer and always have, I like a scotch occasionally, but a bottle of scotch lasts me at least 12 or 18 months, and even longer today. Even SWMBO ceased all alcohol consumption probably 20 years ago, which is something, given her (distant) Irish ancestry! She says she feels better for it, and regrets drinking as much as she did when she was younger.

Yes, you have little option to avoid constant changes and updates in technology. I hated leaving Windows 7, it was the best system ever, as far as I was concerned - but it became untenable to keep using it, so many sites and programmes started telling me I needed to upgrade to keep using their sites and programmes. The biggest issue is increasing security needs. Windows 11 has massively increased security over previous versions. I personally don't think Windows 11 is as user-friendly as Windows 7, a lot of common menu items are now hidden under sub-menus, which is bloody annoying. MS continues to harrass you to buy all their "necessary" products, most of which are not necessary to me at all. I've been on Windows 11 since last year and I'm gradually getting used to it. Windows 7 is utterly obsolete now, and support for Windows 10 from MS will cease shortly. Windows 12 is not far off. The scale of ongoing development and modification of electronic devices and programmes is staggering, it never stops. It means all electronic stuff over about 5 yrs old is obsolete. One of the things that caught me out when I rebuilt my desktop computer last year, is that you can't simply go from Windows 7 to Windows 11, you have to upgrade to Windows 10 first. I couldn't get Windows 11 to load, it was frustrating in the extreme. I ended up going to a computer expert who sorted the problem by loading Windows 10. It cost me $120 to find that out.

Yes, the weather picture in NSW is staggering in its extremes. The Hunter Valley region is being washed away with 200mm rainfalls, while the Riverina and the Murray are in massive drought, which is still ongoing. Welcome to Australia, land of fires, floods and drought. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-20/weather-warnings-for-nsw-live-blog/105311220#live-blog-post-181767 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-20/farmers-sell-stock-as-drought-deepens-riverina-southern-nsw/105300140

Well, the primary problem is timing. Introducing a massively-increased emergency services levy at a time of severe drought is mind-bogglingly stupid and shows Jacinta Allans Govt is out of touch with the people affected. But the Victorian Govt has invested massively in new equipment and vehicles and no doubt has a major fund set aside for hiring large water bombers. None of this comes cheap. I see where some volunteer brigades are saying they don't need all new gear with the latest bells and whistles - but the problem is, emergency equipment must be fairly new to be reliable, once you get to 20 yrs old with equipment, parts sourcing becomes a problem. Plus, the latest equipment is faster, more efficient, easier to operate, has better protection for operators and has more features. Someone has to pay for all this, I can imagine the howls from the squatters if volunteers rolled up late to a disaster in buggered old equipment, that broke down as soon as they went to operate it. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-05-20/emergency-services-levy-protest-victoria-state-budget/105309740

We had the hottest Summer I can recall since the heatwave of 1962, then we had a little bit of rain in March, and absolutely nothing since. It's been an endless Summer, we had 34° on the 9th May, nearly a record high for May. It's been endless sunny days, and no real rain in sight. The weather pattern is like Mid-Summer, huge high pressure systems sitting in the Bight, blocking the cold fronts and making them slide away to the S.E. without any impact on the State. A lot of farmers are worried that it's going to be a drought year. There's talk of the 80 year drought cycle coming around again, there was a huge drought in 1944-45, and the Eastern States were worse affected than W.A. in those two years. The BOM reckons there's a decent cold front coming through on Friday and Saturday, but I'm convinced we won't see any rain until the first week of June. We have a lot of rainfall catch-up to do.

Well, he certainly sounds like a born loser, still backing Tony Abbott and John Anderson and telling us that Labor are driving the country to total ruin. It's the same-old, same-old, Liberal fear-mongering BS and a vast numbers of voters have just shown what they think of the Liberal Party and its policies (well, their non-existent policies - unless supporting continued use of fossil fuels, easing taxes on the extremely wealthy, and supporting mates in big business, rates as policies?) In W.A., the Liberal Party could hold their meetings in a hallway closet, so low are their numbers. Someone probably needs to declare the Party an endangered species.

Not enough gold on it, to be a true Trump product. It must be a fake watch.

Yes, when you end up in jail, you're effectively screwed.

And he's giving it a blow job, too! 🙂

Just looking at John Gaults FB page leads me to understand why he's whingeing about an increase in the emergency services levy - he's a dyed-in-the-wool, silver-spoon-in-the-mouth Liberal! Still backing imbeciles such as Tony Abbott!! And still trying to figure out why the Liberals were beaten to a pulp at the last election!! Time for him to wake up to himself, and to understand his privileged position of massive wealth, and that it doesn't automatically bring great entitlements!

Property owners are extremely well off by any measure, in this day and age. They are best situated monetarily to fund emergency services, and they have most to lose in fires, floods and earthquakes. I don't have much sympathy for John Gault, he's almost certainly a multi-millionaire, as are all farmers today. In my neck of the woods, farms are selling today for 10 times what they were 20 years ago, and it's all corporate money being ploughed into them. One of my previous clients just sold his farm for $22.5M (in less than 3 weeks, I might add), and around 20 years ago he would've been struggling to get $2M for it. Pay the levy John Gault, you can easily afford it, you're a member of the "landed gentry", and you probably got your land for a relatively small outlay, or inherited it. Drought is part and parcel of farming, I've endured it, and had to wear it. I changed business direction and put in 2,500 acres of crop in 1980 (which turned out to be the worst drought year in 80 years), and I harvested ONE 8 tonne truckload of wheat off that 2,500 acres at the end of that year - when I should've harvested at least 1500 tonnes. And a big parcel of that cropped land was leased land, too - it wasn't even my land. Then I had to put up with diesel going from 10c litre to 40c a litre in the space of 18 mths - along with interest rates going from 7% to 23% in the same period of time! No Govt cared about whether I could survive in my line of business, I just had to suck it up, and live with my losses. Farmers are pretty good at whinging about what they pay out, but they say nothing about what they get in, in good years, or in capital gains with their valuable land. I've seen a bloke sorting out a recently-deceased farmers affairs, and this bloke confided he'd discovered a bank account belonging to the deceased farmer with $100,000 in it, that had been untouched for years. And that was in 1984, when $100,000 was serious money!

The message goes well with Trumps MAGA America. Get reamed out the minute you arrive, and probably on the way out, as well.

The general talk a little while ago was that Chump was greatly in favour of devaluing the US$, saying what a great thing it would be. He expressed this view in his first term, but did little to weaken the currency back then. However this time around, he appears more emboldened to try every lever he can get his hands on. For his simple mind, a weaker US$ means U.S. exports and manufacturing boom, thus producing his highly-desired crown of Making America Great Again. But American consumers will suffer the most, as everything becomes dearer for them, as they losing purchasing power.

I'm still ROFLMAO over that image, and SMWBO is looking at me, very puzzled. It's simply because it's too close to the bone, as regards her cooking style!! 😄

It's a sad day in Louisiana, as the news comes to hand that one of the States finest Southern Plantation mansions, Nottoway, on the banks of the Mississippi, 100kms NW of New Orleans, has burnt to the ground, and been totally destroyed. The place has been owned by a local lawyer for many years, and he spent multiple millions on restoring it, and operating it as an "event space", and living slavery museum. It was a major tourist drawcard for the State. The gloom is palpable in Louisiana today as the collective sadness descends on them, that such an outstanding piece of surviving colonial slavery history, and all the historical items it contained, has been destroyed. It was a magnificent place, I'm surprised it survived being burnt by the Yankees in the Civil War, and I would hope it can be rebuilt. No information is available as to whether it was insured or not - or if it was, whether the insured value was sufficient to cover a total rebuild. https://www.axios.com/local/new-orleans/2025/05/16/nottoway-plantation-burns-antebellum-louisiana

Yeah, right. I can see this becoming a roaring success - Not. The illegal immigrants are in America simply because they're fleeing a crap life where they came from. Imagine, you're a Haitian? - you fled Haiti because the murder rates and gang crime is abominable, there was no work, little hope of long-term survival, or any chance of life improvement (unless you joined a gang, and became a random murder merchant) - and after a long and arduous struggle, you finally made it to the Land of the Brave and Free - and life improved out of sight for you - even though you had no American documentation and no American SSN. Now, the Trumpian cultists have offered you a free airline trip out of the country, and are giving you a $1000 goodbye gift. Where are you going to go? Haiti? Fat chance. You never want to see the place again. So you choose Australia! - Land of the Free and Democratic Way of Life! Glorious opportunities abound in Australia, it's everyones dream, to go to safe and happy and rich Australia, to live! You land in Australia, Border Force starts grilling you about how you got here, why you're here, have you any support in Australia, do you have any skills to offer Australia? You've seen the Border Force shows on TV, they're pretty ruthless. Any previous criminality records? Do you have access to adequate funds to enable you to stay in Australia without you becoming a burden to Australia - or start to indulge in criminality? Why did you leave the country you came from? Oh dear, we're sorry, we can't admit you to Australia, you fail to meet most of our immigration requirements - we're deporting you straight back to Haiti, which is listed as your birth country!

Many of the original media articles are totally wrong, misleading, and alarmist. There are no "Chinese solar panels with kill switches", it's a huge beat up. The truth of the matter is, some Chinese inverters have been discovered to have electronic components in them, that are not listed on the bill of materials in the components list. This was only discovered when communication security checks were being done on Govt installations that had installed the Chinese inverters. No-one has yet produced any evidence that the devices found were nefarious, had inbuilt shut-down abilities, or were even installed by the manufacturers. They could have been installed by anyone, anywhere, along the manufacturing, transport, or installation trail. The electronics experts are still trying to figure out the purpose and operational abilities of the devices. They may simply be wi-fi devices that send back equipment usage information to the manufacturer to enable the manufacturer to determine usage methods, styles, modes, etc, that enables the manufacturer to gain insight into how the device is used, and to enable the manufacturer to improve performance, or to add desirable features to a new improved model. I have a Canon printer that does just that. Canon ask you when you set the printer up, if you will allow the printer to send aggregated usage information and other data back to Canon occasionally, so Canon can identify methods of usage and modes, that will improve their knowledge of how the printer is used. Every now and then, when I'm using the printer, a pop-up message appears saying the printer is sending information to Canon. All printer operation stops while this is being done (about 5-8 seconds), and then the the pop-up window disappears and printing operations can then be resumed. Canon stress that no identifiable personal information is being sent to Canon - and really, I don't care too much if it is, anyway - what is Canon going to do with a small amount of information about me, that only relates to how I use my printer? It's not like it contains my licence or banking details. If there are unspecified wi-fi devices in the inverters, that are used in critical infrastructure, then that certainly raises questions as to why they're not listed, and what they're capable of. I'm sure the electronics and communication security people will be right onto it. I'd have to say its simply a possible lapse in documentation - after all, the operations manuals will be in Chinglish!

If the F.R. Simms Motor Scout had a 1.5HP petrol engine, why did it have pedals?

The letter "R" - "Contract".

Spacey, the truth is a little more nuanced. Not all conscripts in the AMF (Australian Military Forces) were "forced to fight in Vietnam". Conscripts placed with Infantry Battalions were sent to Vietnam, when their Battalion was sent there, without them being personally asked if they wanted to go - all other conscripts had to volunteer to serve in Vietnam. If they were placed in Infantry when conscripted, they would have known this fact. All conscripts were given a choice of Corps they preferred to be allocated to, and most got their choice of Corps. Most conscripts who had trade skills or other qualifications, were placed with Corps that could use their skills. Only those with low skills levels, or skills that had no application in the Army, were allocated to the Infantry Corps. I was a conscript and went into the RAE (Royal Australian Engineers), and I volunteered to go to Vietnam, and was sent there accordingly, as a reinforcement. I think GON is basing his argument on the 2013 SMH article below, written by a conscript who believes he was mistreated, and who does raise some points as regards conscripts entitlements, that should be addressed. https://www.smh.com.au/politics/federal/conscription-was-an-abuse-20130118-2cz0x.html As to 200 conscripts losing their lives on the roads whilst in the Army, I think this figure may be overstated. 200 conscripts were killed in Vietnam service - but no figures on conscripts deaths on the roads in Australia during the conscription period can be found, because they're lumped in with the total road toll. I must admit I was somewhat amazed to find the National Road Toll hung around 3,500 deaths annually in the late 1960's and early 1970's. In the same vein, I personally know of several Vietnam Veterans who were killed in road crashes AFTER they came home from the Vietnam War. https://www.infrastructure.gov.au/sites/default/files/migrated/roads/safety/publications/1998/pdf/Stats_Aust_8.pdf

It is possible the house is under the control of a Trustee who is looking after the affairs of either a Trust, or someone who is incapacitated, and unable to attend to their affairs. I have seen both cars and houses left seemingly abandoned for years, but they have been under the control of the Public Trustee during all that time, as estates are settled or run by the Trustee, as the owner is either deceased and the will is being disputed, or they're suffering from dementia, in a coma, or something similar.

Looks like a spoof ad from MAD magazine or something similar. A little overdone.

GON makes the point continually, that it's conscripts he wants a Govt apology made to - not Veterans. He's aggrieved that conscripts who stayed in Australia are ignored to a large degree, while Veterans receive preferential treatment, in GON's eyes. But he fails to understand that Veterans who served in a War zone, placed their lives on the line daily, whereas conscripts who stayed in Australia, stayed safe, and faced virtually no threat to their lives. The conscripts who stayed in Australia had enjoyable weekends spent in civilian life, partying and finding girlfriends and partners - the servicemen in Vietnam in bases, only got Sunday afternoons off, with no time outside the camp or secure compound, and they got one day a month off for R&R in places such as the Badcoe Club in Vung Tau. Every 6 mths, they got a break for a week, when they could return to Australia, or go to friendly countries such as Thailand, Taiwan, or Hong Kong. And the servicemen in the combat patrols got no rest at all, every minute of every hour of the day and night, the enemy was planning to kill or maim them. They went out on patrol for 3 weeks at a time and wore the same clothes day in and day out, and the only body washing you did was out of a water bottle, or a reasonably-clean-looking creek - and it was the old infantry "ABC wash" - slather a tiny amount of water around (under) Arm, Bum and Crotch. It was mostly to stop the enemy from smelling you. At the end of the 3 weeks, on return to base, the greens (clothing) that were worn on patrol, were thrown in the bin. They were essentially rotten. Even those of us who weren't in combat units still had to do jobs such as night piquetting of the compound, and carrying out Standing Patrols. On a Standing Patrol, you go outside the "wire" (the secure compound fencing) with a 3 man patrol, and set up a Listening Post, watching for enemy movement, and reporting by radio on anything you see that rates as suspicious. You only have your rifle, no other armament. With 3 men in a Patrol, you get 4 hrs on watch, and 8 hrs sleep, over a 12 hr Patrol period. Naturally, you have no protection if you just happen to be overrun by enemy while on a Standing Patrol, you're just told to "make your way back to the compound as best you can". The Govts approach, differentiating between civilian service, and overseas service in a War zone, is the attitude and policy towards Veterans, that has been in place ever since Australia sent servicemen overseas to War zones, and nothing is going to change it. https://www.au104.org/Veteran_Stories/vetstory89.html And I might add, I worked and camped on Courtenay Hill, so the above Vets story resonates with me. I had a day job as a Military Engineer, doing construction work, and at all times, you could be caught up in unexpected combat. If GON had spent some time in a War zone, he might have a different appreciation of how easy conscripts in Australia had it.

Kevin, how long does it take to charge the MG4 on the granny charger? I presume that charger simply uses a standard 10A, 240V socket? Is the 7kW wall charger a 3 phase unit? What did the installation of that charger cost? I'm surprised they're measured in kW, I would've thought the charger would be measured in amperage capacity. Do you get lower charging costs late at night, or in the wee small hours, when power demand is normally much lower?

Trumpet of Patriots was formed in 2021, but was unable to be registered in time for the 2022 election. As a result, many ToP candidates who had intended to contest for ToP, ran instead for the Australian Federation Party. So the "previous election voting percentage" refers to the votes the AFP received in the 2022 election. In that election, the AFP received 0.39% of the votes for the Lower House and 0.22% of the votes for the Upper House. It's a total schemozzle (to quote Borat) of Party organisation, typical of Palmers inability to get anything right. I can only give thanks to the Almighty (and Palmers constant transparent BS), for sparing us the prospect of Palmer gaining any form of political clout. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trumpet_of_Patriots