octave

https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/8140203/we-are-so-sorry-pm-apologises-to-vietnam-veterans/

It is often a case of not knowing what you don't know. I spent most of my working life teaching music, and I have had more than one of these students, four lessons in, and they believe they are close to knowing it all, whereas those who have been learning longer tend to appreciate how much they have yet to learn.

There was a belated welcome home parade in Sydney in 1987. I know this because I took part in it as a musician in the RAAF band. From memory Hawke gave a speech. I believe there were about 2000 vets marching. I am not saying this is enough but times have changed somewhat.

GON inflation is not an ever worsening problem that we did not have on the "good old days". For some years before COVID inflation and interest rates were low. Inflation is now starting to go down. Whilst this is difficult for many the situation is improving. Housing prices seem to be a problem around the world to varying degrees. I am not sure what the answers are. Governments can tinker around the edges but I don't think they can wave a magic wand and lowe prices. GON, do you have any suggestions?

Oh dear, that prediction did not age well. I seen to remember you also assuring us that Trump would not impose tariffs on Australia because, blah blah blah fentynol. It is hard to see the outcome of this election as anything but a repudiation of those things that you and the Trumpsters hold dear.

Dutton looks like he could lose his seat

Crash of a Consolidated PB2B-2 Catalina on Lord Howe Island: 7 killed

I have fond memories of Lord Howe Island. When I was a musician in the RAAF, we made many visits there. The landings and takeoffs in a C-130 were always exciting. These trips were in the 80s, and from memory, we used to perform at "Founders Day" events. Back then it was a big deal, and we seemed to have some celebrity status. We would be put up by the locals and shown a good time with boat trips, etc. On one occasion, I was able to get my wife on the RAAF flight. On another occasion, after takeoff, the crew put a cargo strap across the rear of the aircraft, and they opened the back ramp as we flew past Balls Pyramid.

Nah, not offered but I am not particularly a "sausage man" In and out as quickly as possible. Another observation is that it seems to me that most people don't take "how to vote" material from the party people outside the booth. I haven't done this for many, many years. I used to take a brochure from the party or candidate I wanted to vote for and then one from all the others so as not to signal my vote. We did our research before we went, and I suspect this is what many people are doing.

Well, we voted this morning. We were discussing the popularity of early voting, which a large percentage of the population seems to like. At the polling booth, there are signs listing the acceptable reasons for voting early. At no point were we asked if we were eligible. It seems to me that in practice, it doesn't matter. I think the days of having 1 day in which to vote are outdated. Given that many more people work on weekends these days, a voting window of one day seems a little restrictive. Rather than maintaining the fiction that voting early is only for people who would be overseas or otherwise unavailable to vote, perhaps the voting window could be one or two weeks, and political campaigns could cease before this voting period. I get the idea that significant announcements in this present campaign might be made after my vote, however, I don't tend to vote on individual promises that may or may not be kept anyway. I tend to vote on a candidate's philosophy. I am, and have always been, progressive, therefore, I am unlikely to vote for a party whose values are conservative.

I have relied on a refund from a credit card company refund for goods that did not turn up or were not up to standard on a couple of occasions. The process was quick and simple.

Because in Australia in 2022 (3 years ago), only 13% of transactions were made by cash. Logically (and logic is very important to me) it is a big ask to expect a company to invest large sums of money in the technology required to take cash and to pay people to go and retrieve that cash and do the accounting and then deposit that cash in the business's account. I suspect that those for whom operating only with cash are very unlikely to adopt new technologies like EVs.

Red, that sounds correct. The Tesla network is easier because it requires no apps, you register the car and the charger knows which car is being charged. I saw a YouTube clip this morning about Norway. They have had, I think for about a year now, a law that says all new chargers must have a card reader or tap and go facility. This avoids the need for apps. In NZ I have noticed that there are loads of petrol stations that are unstaffed. These stations, which appear in towns and out in the sticks, are just like a normal petrol station minus the building. In other words just the pumps and an awning. You swipe your credit or debit card, put the fuel in and then it spits a receipt out. I think one of the reasons this is not more widespread in this country is that petrol stations want to get you inside so you might buy other items.

We did exactly this. We were in an air BnB. My son rang the owner and asked if they minded us charging overnight. They were fine with but this was a granny lead maximum 10 AMPs this is not a problem compared to running a heater all night. Using a standard PowerPoint imposes limits. Motels sometimes have proper chargers that do use larger quantities of power. These are a business decision, and either it is a third-party installation in which case I suspect they take a cut of the profit or they supply it to attract customers. I don't really care whether people here want to buy an EV or not. I won't buy one until my present car dies, it is simply not economically viable given the few km I drive. I do think people tend to come up with a multitude of reasons why they are unviable; often, these reasons are not based on real-world experience. Likewise, it is easy for enthusiasts to not understand to downsides. This is why I posted my original post (which I regret now)

That is not quite correct. My point was that whenever we needed to stop for the toilet or food we also took the opportunity to stick a bit of charge in. It always not a case of wondering around blindly hoping to stumble on a charger. The route planner gave numerous options along with co located facilities such as food or toilets etc. We stopped twice in 4 hours one of these was to buy supplies and coffee and the second for tor a toilet break. This at least for me was little different from a petrol driven trip I posted of an account of the trip because I thought it would add some useful input.