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old man emu

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Everything posted by old man emu

  1. Isn't that what globalisation has done to a lot of consumer product manufacturing? Smaller companies produce a few components which another manufacturer uses to assemble a bigger component which then goes to the major assembler to be put into the final product. Just think of vehicle electrical components. Remember Lucas, Bosch and AC? The biggest differences between similar products from different manufacturers can simply be the name badge. Take power tools for instance. In many cases the "skin" is the same general form, with changes to the colour of the plastic, but the internals are basically the same. The only difference with the internals is that the cheaper versions for DIY use might have nylon gears while the ones for professional use have metal ones.
  2. Howard was lampooned as the little kid whining about not getting the things he wanted. Think of the song by Moving Pictures, What about me? Well, there's a little boy waiting At the counter of the corner shop He's been waiting down there, waiting half the day They never ever see him from the top. Based solely on appearance, Albo strikes me as another little boy who is being ignored or picked on. It's that physical appearance and his voice (as well as possibly a slight speech impediment) that fail to give him the Leader image that is essential for a Party leader.
  3. Reminds me of Paddy and Mick who were looking for work and saw a sign in a stock & station agent's window. It read "Tree Fellers wanted". Paddy said to Mick, "Sure, it's a pity ders only two of us."
  4. I wonder who scored that as a birthday present.
  5. But does a 10 year warranty this year mean that the car is better than it was last year with only a 7 year warranty? Seem that increasing the warranty period is more a product of the Sales Department than the Design Department.
  6. Insufficient detail. Please resubmit.
  7. Hunting with firearms is either banned in some locations, or landowners will not give permission for shooters to come onto their properties. Recently the NSW National Parks Service has begun a trial of controlling feral cats by shooting. The numbers of feral cats has exploded due to the recent good seasons. Similarly the numbers of feral pigs have risen. Of course, the reason that landowners won't allow shooters on their properties is due to the absolute minority who do stupid things.
  8. I just reviewed my budget this morning. I have a credit union account with three sub accounts. I had my daughter create an Excel spreadsheet so I could enter the various amounts that I need to put aside for future bills. I have a sub account for monthly bills like Telstra and vehicle insurance; one for vehicle registration and CTP, and another for savings. Any payments come out of the main account and I simply top that up from the sub accounts as required, when I remember, but the money is always there when it's needed. While this method makes financial management convenient, what I find is that it has done is given me a growing nest egg. I am squirrelling away more money that I ever have, and that is despite the money I spend on materials for the renovation. Nowadays I don't worry about getting work done on my car because I know the money is there to pay for it. In fact I really like to receive the bill from my mechanic and be able to sit down at the computer as soon as I get home and pay it. Having worked in aircraft maintenance where owners a notoriously slow payers, I feel that paying immediately gives you kudos with people. Sometimes I even get my mechanic to obtain parts and I pay for them before the car even before I drop off the car. I don't see why a small business should be required to carry my debt.
  9. We tend to think that the Australian culture is uniform, but it is not. We've sanitised the differences by ceasing to use the term "class", but now we refer to socio-economic groups, a rose by any other name ... The recruiting stations for these groups which base their membership on racist ideologies are located in those areas where the financially disadvantaged have been dumped. Financial disadvantage over several generations creates a subculture which differs from that of the economically comfortable and more so from the economically advantaged. It creates an anger towards those who are different, and manipulators can channel that anger to suit the manipulators' agendas.
  10. I wish you well!
  11. Big money in old tractors, especially if they have been kept under cover.
  12. When I moved from Sydney, I just threw all my household goods into boxes and they have been sitting unsorted since then. Today I decided to make an all out attack on what were the contents of the linen cupboard. I've got more bath towels and bed sheets than Conrad Hilton. So into a heavy duty plastic bag went the first lot, mainly tea towels and orphan pillow cases. I'll need to get some more bags for the rest of the bath towels and doona cover sets. I also went through all my shirts as well as hoodies and such and pulled out the ones that were either too big for me now or that I just didn't like. On Monday I'll cart it all to the local OP Shop and give my sister something to do puting it on the shelves. Amongst everything else she does in the community, she volunteers at the OP Shop. Can't stop the girl, and she is my elder sister.
  13. Playse explaynn.
  14. I expect that if the weather is somewhat normal, the temperature will remain above 30 C until autumn where I am. It's 3:45 pm (2:45 sun time) and the temperature is 28 C. But a fairly firm wind has been blowing all day, so the windchill factor is keeping the apparent temperature below 25 C. The shade temperature can be in the mid-30s or above, but if there is a wind blowing, those temperatures seem bearable. Of course once the temperature gets to 37 C and above the direction of heat flow is from the atmosphere to the body - basic thermodynamics.
  15. We've spoken about what to do with time-expired wind generator blades. The problem was dealing with the carbon fibre in them. If only there was some other, easier to recycle material from which the blades could be made. Here's an interesting video which shows the use of balsa from seed to blade.
  16. Then it's good to live in a country where the rights of women are almost 100% equal to those of men.
  17. 2075 High School Final Year American History Examination. Q.1 Who were the winners in the 2024 US Presidential Election? A. The lawyers.
  18. That doesn't relieve the end consumer from making the tax payment. A wholesale tax becomes one of the costs in the price of an object. The wholesaler would merely tally all those costs and that would be the cost price to the purchaser, plus the wholesaler's markup. Let's face it. There is no escaping tax on consumer items. The only way to attempt an escape is for the end consumer not to buy taxed items. But then, what is the point of earning money if not to obtain more than the essentials for survival?
  19. As I said earlier in the piece, if Trump gets in and whether his Project 2025 gets implemented, or there is massive civil unrest, be prepared for a global economic depression.
  20. I arrived in the area I'm living in now for the 1974 wheat harvest. I got a job driving a Chamberlain, pulling a PTO header. No cabin, and only a beach umbrella for shade. Having grown up seeing backhoes with their typical tractor seat, I was amazed by the bench seat of the Chamberlain. After the harvest, I got back onto the Chamberlain to do ploughing later in the summer. These young farmers today wouldn't even jump on one of these Chamberlains to drag a sled loaded with pig food to the sties.
  21. Is Robbie Katter trying to create a MAQA movement along the lines of MAGA? Leaving aside one's personal beliefs regarding abortion, does any elector have the right to limit what another does with their own body? Suicide used to be a crime, so attempting it was a crime. Sure, there are lots of approve controls on things that can damage a person's body. Smoking, drug taking and alcohol consumption are the usual examples. However, those controls are in place more to ease the burden on the various public services that are required to deal with the effects of that consumption. But walk through any shopping centre in Australia and not the number of people who have decided to have tattoos mark their bodies. Getting a tattoo is an alteration to the body, but no one demands that it no longer happens. I firmly believe that I don't have the Right to tell a woman what to do with her body. Afterall, prostitution, carried out in accordance with some minor rules, is legal.
  22. "Hypocrisy" often refers to advocating behaviors that one does not practice. If we harken back to the proofs of a criminal offence, then "advocating behaviours" is akin to the concept of mens rea. Mens rea refers to criminal intent. The literal translation from Latin is "guilty mind." So there has to be a degree of knowledge, not lack of knowledge. Stupidity is a lack of intelligence, understanding, reason, or wit, an inability to learn. It may be innate, assumed or reactive. In Trump's case, I'd say that his stupidity outweighs his hypocrisy.
  23. Today I Learned that Taiwan is the leading producer of silicon chips, producing around 90% of the world's most advanced semiconductor chips, and is a major supplier to Apple and Nvidia. Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC) is the cornerstone of Taiwan's "silicon shield," the idea that the world's reliance on Taiwan's microchips protects it from invasion by China. Without those advanced chips which China buys from Taiwan, there would be no mobile phones, tablets etc. The design of the chips is carried out by US companies such as Apple. That is why the US maintains naval forces close to Taiwan in order to protect its intellectual property as well as the manufacturing facilities for the chips. China knows that if it tried to invade Taiwan, it would result firstly in the drying up of the supply of chips it need to manufacture whatever nowadays needs a chip, and then military action against the US. China is too smart to make that mistake. However, moves are afoot to establish silicon chip manufacturing in Arizona by about 2030. If that happens, then the US will no longer have such a great interest in keeping China away from Taiwan. It definitely wouldn't go into an all out war with China if China moved to absorb Taiwan. Taiwan has a history of colonisation very similar to Australia's. The original Taiwanese were like our Aborigines. Then in the mid-1600s Ming survivors of the invasion of the Manchu people fled to Taiwan. That's where the Chinese part of the culture came from. The Manchus established the Qing dynasty, ruling from 1644 C.E. to 1911/12. The Qing dynasty surrendered the island to Japan after the First Sino-Japanese War (25 July 1894 – 17 April 1895). Japan held it until 1945 and during that time modernised it. Then in 1949 it became a refuge for the Nationalist Chinese under Chiang Kai-shek fleeing the Chinese Communists. Now the Chinese Communists claim that it is a rogue Chinese province, despite its having been ceded to Japan in 1985, and declaring itself independent for a few weeks after WWII. A recent publication, Rebel Island, the incredible history of Taiwan by Jonathan Clements ISBN (13):9781915590275 ha recently been published and goes into the history of Taiwan from prehistoric times to the present.
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  24. I'd say a Cessna Caravan, executive model.
  25. Remember Hewson's birthday cake? Willesee: "If I buy a birthday cake from a cake shop and GST is in place, do I pay more or less for that birthday cake?" Hewson: "...If it is a cake shop, a cake from a cake shop that has sales tax, and it's decorated and has candles as you say, that attracts sales tax, then of course we scrap the sales tax, before the GST is..." Willesee: "OK — it's just an example. If the answer to a birthday cake is so complex — you do have a problem with the overall GST?" Basically, simple foods do not attract GST - meat, milk and vegies. It is only when those basic ingredients have been used to make a food product that the GST is applied. I'm just looking at my docket from the supermarket today. These things attracted GST: crushed mixed nut (for ice cream and chocolate sauce desert assembled at home), a block of chocolate and cinnamon donuts. Oddly enough, devon, beef sausages, chicken burgers, diced bacon and hamburger rolls didn't attract GST. although their production did involved what could be called a "service", in the form of labour and machine inputs.
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