octave

Not bad, but as Mrs Octave said it is not exactly the Orient Express but quite a nice way to travel. We will probably do it again.

So today I am on my way to Adelaide. This is a trip we make every 3 months. Flying is the usual method but this time we thought we would try the train. Anyway when it comes to celebrating the positive this picture really reminds me of a good day. In 2018 my son who lives in NZ had planned a campervan trip around NZ south Island with his business partners. About a week before they were due to depart he messaged us and said "why don't you book an RV and tag along?". Long story short, we did and had a brilliant time. I have many great pictures of this adventure but this one always seems special. We arrived at Dunedin, parked the vans and walked into town. We chose to walk along the beach although it was late afternoon and pretty cold and windy.

When it comes to fear, my wife is more concerned about these things: Speaking to the media in Bondi on Sunday, NSW Police Commissioner Karen Webb said she had received reports the man was motivated by a desire to attack women and it was "an obvious line of inquiry" for the investigation." and Three women killed in Ballarat: Australia’s violence issue in the spotlight after brutal VIC alleged murders These things seem to pose a greater threat than someone who started out life male and now has essentially the body of a woman and more importantly the hormonal profile of a woman. I am not aware of cases of females being assaulted or harassed in a toilet or changeroom by someone who has transitioned but every few days a woman is murdered. According the Australian Institute of Criminology around 125 women are murdered per year and 94% of the perpetrators are male. This is the real crisis we face. https://www.aic.gov.au/sites/default/files/2020-05/tandi124.pdf

that is also my question. They make the assertion but don't provide an explanation.

In the video, she says at about 20:40 "if we lose women's rights cease to exist in international law, that's whats at stake""

OME this forum is about discussing things and of course, we will often disagree. I don't believe anyone has done anything other than offer a counter-opinion. You don't need to pick up the Mr Sheen and you are absolutely free to criticize the counter points.

OME I have watched most of this video and I will watch the whole thing but I have a couple of points. Firstly let me just say I have not expressed an opinion on THIS case either way yet. This video is only one side of the argument, I note that the YouTube channel is "The New Culture Forum" which is a right-wing think tank started by Peter Whittle a prominent member of the UKIP party. While this does not negate every point made in the video it does make me wary just as articles from the ABC may make you wary. At around the 9ish minute mark, she mentioned the ABC and says they will not report on it and yet they actually have. I don't know if this was true at the time of the interview or not. The interview was very much a soft-touch affair from a socially conservative think tank. As I say I have not formed an opinion other than the sky is not falling. By the way the other day I met a neighbour who has lived next door for 5 years but we have never spoken. They always seemed ultra-shy or extremely private. When they moved in they were female in appearance and have transitioned to a male appearance. It was great finally meeting them and now we can have a brief chat while passing. I have no idea whether they have a uterus or not (and I don't give a toss) but I assume they were born with one. I am wondering whether they would be able to join the app or would be excluded. As I say I don't have any particular opinion on the actual case. Perhaps it will come down the way you want it to and then that will be good for you won't it?

Does the video have a leaning? Fair point however.... https://www.skynews.com.au/opinion/peta-credlin/disaster-sal-grover-to-defend-complaint-against-womensonly-app/video/df41f3388b0f6b07f4bd5063e6c69c44 https://www.theaustralian.com.au/subscribe/news/1/?sourceCode=TAWEB_WRE170_a_GGL&dest=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theaustralian.com.au%2Fnation%2Flandmark-transgender-discrimination-case-gets-to-the-heart-of-the-issue%2Fnews-story%2Fb22d1b53bf48a5db1686015c38d7306e&memtype=anonymous&mode=premium&v21=HIGH-Segment-1-SCORE&V21spcbehaviour=append https://www.aap.com.au/news/judge-to-ponder-what-is-a-woman-case-as-hearings-wrap/

I am not trying to be deliberately picky here but I was already aware of this case and it has been in the MSM that I read. https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2024/apr/11/what-is-a-woman-court-asked-to-rule-on-definition-in-transgender-womans-case-against-giggle-for-girls-platform https://theconversation.com/tickle-vs-giggle-in-a-world-where-transgender-people-are-under-attack-this-is-a-test-case-for-australia-227702 https://www.abc.net.au/news/2024-04-11/transgender-woman-seeks-damages-giggle-for-girls-app/103696500 Social change has always thrown up conundrums that eventually get solved. I don't believe this is some terrible crisis such as the likes of Trump and DeSantis bang on about.

Why is it that males pose a safety risk to females? Perhaps there is a problem here that males must address.

No, not much here.

We went out to a local brewery for lunch today (retirement is hell) and I noticed they have installed complementary EV charging.

You can replace all phone batteries yourself however it is a bit of a pain. You can pay to get a non-replaceable battery replaced. New legislation in the EU will require all phones to have replaceable batteries by 2027 so things are going in the right direction. I have been lucky lately as my still tech-savvy 90-year father inlaw replaces his phone every few years and hands me down his old but still good phone.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holden_Hurricane

Same. We have two subscriptions, one is free because we cheekily piggyback off our friend's account and the other one changes month to month. We subscribe to Britbox until we have watched everything that appeals to us and then ditch the subscription and move to another platform. We find that after you ditch a subscription you often get offers of one month for free which we take up and cancel before the end of the period. We probably spend between $10 and $15 a month. We don't have much trouble finding 2 hours of quality a night.

As a measure of how cheap solar panels have become, we built our own house in the bush in 1990. There was no power available in the area so solar was the best option. We designed our own low voltage system around 3 x 60-watt panels. Today this would be considered a comically small power system. Each of these panels cost $595 which back then was a lot of money. Now for a little over $300 you can get a 475 watt panel.

Rooftop solar is lowering the wholesale price of electricity. Record rooftop solar output slashes wholesale electricity prices I am not fully aware of how the solar subsidy schemes vary between NSW and Vic but I don't recall a minimum bill requirement. If this is true you perhaps need a few high usage quarters to qualify. We certainly did not get "free solar panels" Our $10 system cost us $5.6k But this has now well and truly paid for itself.

Drilling for oil is not the environmentally friendliest of industries and of course, once you have burnt it it is gone forever. The biggest miner of lithium in Australia. Cobalt is the mineral that gets the most negative attention because a small proportion of it is mined in countries with poor standards. This is an issue for many products and I believe cobalt is also required in the fuel refining process. The amount of cobalt in batteries is rapidly decreasing. Battery chemistries are also are also changing (LFP and sodium). If we reach a point where the mining industry can no longer supply the required minerals then the products that use these minerals such as EVs phones computers etc. will begin to become expensive and these industries will either adapt or fail. At least the minerals used in new tech are not destroyed and can be used again.

Not a Tesla? The horn on a Tesla is exactly where it is on any other car. https://www.tesla.com/ownersmanual/model3/en_us/GUID-DEB259CC-ABAC-4BFC-8D10-B7B1BBCFCB1F.html

At faster speeds tyre noise is indeed the major source of noise whatever the source of power. At lower speeds, EVs are quieter. In fact many in ,any areas sound generators (acoustic systems) are mandatory under a certain speed. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_vehicle_warning_sounds#:~:text=The vehicle must make a,a maximum of 75 dBA. There are many complaints that at least at low speeds EVs are in fact too quiet. Power steering. https://www.vehicleservicepros.com/service-repair/article/53084009/the-rise-of-electric-power-steering This is done electrically and indeed is increasingly being utilized in IC vehicles. With the widespread use of Electric Power Steering (EPS) systems in recent years, the automotive industry has undergone a substantial upheaval. These systems provide better fuel efficiency, improved driving, increased reliability, and have almost completely replaced the conventional hydraulic power steering systems on most vehicles. Air con in an EV is an electrically operated heat pump. the Tesla aircon uses between 1 and 3 Kw. Nothing beats being out on a hot day with the car parked in the sum and being able to turn on the cooling 30 minutes before having to get in the car.

This does not represent the women in my life does it represent the women in your life? My wife received nothing for complaining about being groped at table tennis and ultimately gave up doing something she loved. Of course not every allegation has merit but the notion that men are wonderful and it is evil women causing all the trouble doesn't stand up. The woman who went jogging in Ballarat and was killed is not an isolated event. As I have said I spent 30 years in tiny teaching rooms with people of all ages but mainly young girls and boys. I have never even had the hint of an allegation. I also co-managed a music school and other than the teacher caught with child porn (of the most hideous kind) never a problem. I suspect the overblown fear of being subject to an allegation has more to do with a backlash over changing social ways of interacting. It was suggested that my lack of problems in this area was due to luck. I would suggest it is due to understanding what is acceptable and what is unacceptable. I am definitely not saying men bad women good. I did present many examples of bad behaviour I have witnessed but often these things are justified as a joke or he doesn't mean to be groppy. The "you can grab them by the pussy and they cant stop you" thing is a belief I have come accross before I find it quite sad that this forum is only populated by older men but perhaps that is the way people here prefer it. Personally, I am looking for a forum that is a little more varied.

Nomad, I am not sure where in my original post in response to the video I went into the subject of domestic violence. I was responding specifically to the video about men not wanting to work with women which I believe is exaggerated.

Domestic violence perpetrated on anyone regardless of gender is terrible. The notion that women have an easy time reporting domestic violence or sexual violence I think is probably exaggerated. Certainly when female-on-male domestic violence occurs men are reluctant to report it. There are many biases and assumptions. People will say "If he or she hits you then why don't you leave" without considering the difficulties of that. The post I was reacting to was not actually about domestic violence but about men supposedly not wanting to work with women because they may be accused of something, that is what I am reacting to. I also call into question how strong feeling is amongst men. I have been looking at the research. 27% of men avoid one-on-one meetings with female co-workers. Yep, that’s right, almost a third of men are terrified to be alone in a room with a woman. or to put it another way 73% express no such reluctance. 21% of men said they would be reluctant to hire women for a job that would require close interaction (such as business travel). or 79% of men don't see a problem with this 19% of men would be reluctant to hire an attractive woman. or we could say that 81% of men would not be reluctant The 2018 survey results found that more than 10% of men and women said they expected to be less willing than before to hire attractive women. or put another way around about 90% did not think this.