old man emu

Wow! The Liberal NCP coalition is no longer. Obviously they will both vote against anything Labor proposes, but now there does not appear to be a way that those of a conservative political bent will be able to gain government.

At the moment I'm watching a patch of rain skillfully skirting around my place as it does with regular monotony. The wind is blowing strongly and it is overcast. When knows when it will rain here.

The computer will take Win 11. The advice I'm seeking is 'should I do it or not?'.

I don't know what to do. I am bombarded with competing opinions regarding the switch to Windows 11. One side says that if I don't switch, one day I won't be able to access the Internet. The other side says that for the way I use the Internet and the few programs I use in MS-Office, she'll be right. So, do I upgrade to Windows 11, or just keep using Windows 10?

Talking about intoxicants like nicotine and alcohol, did you know that there is a problem in Arnhem Land and other parts of the N.T. due to the smuggling in of kava from the Pacific Islands? Possession used to be restricted to about 2 kgs for personal use, but Scotty from Advertising removed the restriction. That led to increased usage with the adverse effects on the indigenous population. Kava is a sedative. Then the N.T. government banned it and a black-market sprang up. Now a kilo of kava costs $1000. More 'sit down' money being diverted away from families.

I read it as "Everything's up the date ..."

No. They are Shaun.

Huh??????? What was that all about?

Because at the time it was built, engines attached to vehicles based on the bicycle were started by pedaling. I imagine that there must have been some way that the front sprocket could be disengaged once the engine started.

What about a Rotabuggy? This was an eqrly 1940s British idea for the delivery of ground transport vehicles to paratroops. The vehicle is the standard Jeep to which is fitted a rear fuselage and an unpowered rotary wing. Only one prototype was made and flown. Being a new aircraft, it had to get bugs ironed out. During the time that the bugs were being dealt with, troop carrying gliders were developed, which could carry a Jeep internally. So the one and only Rotabuggy was put away and forgotten about.

That implies an interest in purchasing a vehicle. Purchasing vehicles involves parting with money. I've got none to part with. But I would like to try a familiarisation drive, just to see how different or similar they are to ICEs.

I have a burning gripe with the media today is the way it reported the result of the election of Susan Ley as the new leader of the parliamentary Liberal Party. Susan Ley has been the Member for Farrer since 2001. Twenty-four years' political experience. In that time she has held a number of important posts in both Government and Opposition. Despite her being a member of a Party I do not vote for, I can at least respect her political abilities. So what is my gripe? It's the fact that the media has published reports with this headline: Sussan Ley elected first female Liberal party leader. If the leadership ballot had gone the other way, and Angus Taylor had won, would the headline read Liberal party elects a male leader ? I think not. I don't give a rat's about the gender (and I use that in the 2025 meaning of the word) of the leader of any political Party. I'm just looking to the competency of the person to fulfil the role. Are we going to see a repeat of the sort of misogynistic attacks that plagued Julia Gillard's time as leader of the Labor Party? One would hope that society has moved on from that era.

What I meant by that was the type of speech that a person uses talking to friends or in a workplace environment - the way they speak casually. As a Grammar Policeman, the hairs on my neck rise when I hear people, especially on the ABC making the mistake of not matching the verb number with the noun. Nouns must agree with their verbs. A singular noun needs a singular verb and a plural noun needs a plural verb. However, this error is o prevalent that I am beginning to accept it as an example of the evolution of English grammar.

Somewhat distantly related to the content of that ad, my daughter-in-law showed me an email she had received from one of her staff. When I rad it, I figured that I could not have written in using my most formal writing style and quick access to a dictionary of thesaurus. My D-i-L told me that the writer was a young woman of limited education. The email had be composed using AI. Without addressing the subject of the email, my D-i-L simply replied asking why the sender had to use AI. The response was that the sender did not want to sound bitchy. I'm sure that the sender would have received a better response if she had used words and phrasing that were part of her normal speech.

I agree with Onetrack about the Nashos who did not go to Vietnam. My wife's first husband was given an exemption because his father was dying. He served his time in a transport base at Holdsworthy and was able to come home every night when he wasn't away transporting stuff. His time wasn't stressful. I have a mate who actually was a Reg in the engineers. He did his stint in Vietnam. I really haven't broached the subject of his service with him, but I can say that he is getting counselling, provided by DVA.