Old Koreelah

3 hours ago, onetrack said:

Octave may have gone into a period of mourning, along with about 500,000 Indigenes - because the Voice referendum failed.

I can’t speak for him, but I left that discussion long ago. I have to protect what’s left of my mental health, which has taken a considerable hammering in recent weeks. I am disappointed at how easily my countrymen were manipulated and distracted from the simple issue at the centre of the Voice. I have been appalled at the ugly things said by people around me who I used to respect. I am shocked that Trump-style misinformation and baiting has infected Australia’s political landcape. 
 

During the last thirteen years I’ve recovering from the biggest trauma of my life, when I discovered- the hard way- just how few people I could depend upon. I’ve built a new and better life, with better people; these forums were a significant part of my recovery, but I’ll be staying away from this one.

I totally understand Shane Howard:

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-10-18/goanna-shane-howard-returns-oam-referendum-result/102989978

4 hours ago, nomadpete said:

Sometimes yhe wife is more cunning than the husband.

 

Edit.....

This is the Housing Shortage thread.

 

I think the husband experienced sudden housing shortage - like a cyclone, when she leaves, she takes the house!

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

A possibility, but how do you determine an equitable tax on that? My first thought was on average mileage a tyre is expected to be useful for, but then you have to factor in things like wear rates. A tyre for a small passenger car is likely to last for more kms than the tyre for a truck, and a motorcycle tyre wears fastest. (I think)

Exactly- so just tax rubber tyres by weight. The more rubber a vehicle uses, the more load it puts on our roads. Bicycles could finally pay for their road use, but at a rate commensurate with their impact.

20 hours ago, facthunter said:

No one can expect to use the roads without contributing to the cost. The issue was of states being able to apply this COST…

Perhaps a more equitable method of paying for roads would be to phase out fuel excise and replace it with a national tax on the thing every vehicle uses: tyre rubber.

If my large family is anything to go by, a marriage licence is no more guarantee of wedded bliss than living in sin.

1 hour ago, old man emu said:

…an ultracrepidarian observation.

OME you often cause me to reach for the dictionary.

This one sure opened a can of descriptive terms!
 

Or, to put it more clearly:

Many seek Paradise, but few find it; those that do often make the mistake of telling everyone else and pretty soon Paradise is Lost!

A flying mate has used a few caravan trips to reconnoitre remote airstrips with a pub and bore baths. Only after being sworn to secrecy has he taken us on a flying trip to them.

16 hours ago, Jerry_Atrick said:

When we talk about corruption, we inevitably talk about the pollies and public servants. But the media is an industry that holds a lot of unaccountable and unelected power by virtue of it being the information source to most of the population. However, probably because they are the information source, there is rarely discussioin about corruption in the media. Murdoch et al are pushing barrows that are ultimately paid for by their advertisers.. and those with the biggest pockets get the barrow pushed the hardest. Anything anti-corruption should also include the media within its remit...

Every day I have the utter frustration of being surrounded by ordinary people who have no idea how much they are being influenced (manipulated?) by the insidious Murdoch media machine. Copies of The Daily Terrograph are everywhere and people pick them and let the poison in. They have no idea how even a lurid headline seeps into their unconscious mind.

This is how he makes his money:

11 hours ago, spacesailor said:

In a seismic area build in. ' Wood '

Just like NZ does.  Then after the " rattle  " just hammer those loose boards back together again...

Not much wood available across the earthquake zone from Italy through Greece, Turkey, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Thousands of years of cutting down forests and overgrazing by sheep and goats.

A recent clever innovation to lay ropes in the mortar helps keep mud brick buildings together, but I bet the stupid Taliban ban that idea, along with any other Western influence.

10 hours ago, willedoo said:

I saw recently where the Ukrainian sappers said they had encountered anti tank mines that the Russians had booby-trapped by placing a grenade underneath. Specifically done to try to kill the sappers when they are de-mining.

We’re starting to see more of that evil tactic. Russians lobbing in an extra missile just as rescue workers arrive. Second car bombs being laid, timed to kill first responders. Utterly without humanity.

This thread could do with an introduction to Real Estate Agents:

16 minutes ago, old man emu said:

…When you see toddlers in strollers using mobile devices with ease, you soon realise they the toddlers live in a different world from their parents. And teachers are often from the age group that is the grandparents to the toddler.

All true, but kids still need to learn to read. From the earliest age they benefit from picture books, then progress to basic readers. Some already have started reading and writing before they start Kinder. Others begin school with no bluddy idea how to turn the pages of a book. They came from households without books. I’ve taught kids from those sort of homes, with parents who confidently proclaimed that all their kids needed to learn about was computers. 
 

By far the greatest factor in a child’s educational success is parents

36 minutes ago, Marty_d said:

Getting that magical creature, a teacher who can inspire, is what every kid needs.

Someone who can take that dusty curriculum and bring it to life for their pupils.   Someone with enthusiasm and a love of the subject. 

I don't know how you get that in every class, especially with the money driven system we have,  but when a kid gets someone like that they remember them their whole life. 

I know talented teachers who were crushed by the out-of-classroom workload. Too much time spent on tedious compliance paperwork. Technology could greatly streamline the planning, evaluating, analyzing and recording. 
There are some rays of hope on the horizon. Last week I spent a day in a big hospital (my brother got trampled by cattle and my sister was trying to get her heart out of AF). The visiting surgeon was accompanied by a young bloke (perhaps an intern) who typed everything into a big console, presumably to free up the doctor to do what he does best. 

3 hours ago, spenaroo said:

…The Japanese brands would almost never recall motorcycles.

they would issue a service bulletin to dealers and with that give warranty processes to fix the issue.

Not my experience: my first purchased-new Japanese bike (CX-500) was recalled to address a main bearing a few microns out of tolerance. At the same time, my wife’s Moto Guzzi bearings were way outside of the factory’s already sloppy tolerances and nothing was done.

3 hours ago, spenaroo said:

…as opposed to Ducati,

who issued a recall for the smallest of issues.

Crickey things must have improved since I bought my 860 in 1975. Bits fell off from the first minutes, but there was no support!

Although Leunig drew this little picture decades ago, it still resonates. 
I feel like that person.

10 hours ago, facthunter said:

They also go for Nucular rather than Nuclear.  Nev

The yanks also seem unable to pronounce the word Arctic; they say Artic.

Lithium batteries are still in their infancy, so hopefully will continue to improve. 
Despite the benefit of more than a century of development, traditional lead acid batteries are still not perfectly safe. I’ve seen them start ferocious fires in crashed vehicles resulting in death and amputations. Almost as bad is the plurry acid they spray around when smashed; you might only find out about that a few days later when your boots fall apart or holes appear in your clothing.

Across Australia there are thousands of perfectly good radios that are no longer used. As technology improves, they are replaced with newer units that can cram more channels into the spectrum. 
Most were imported at great expense and are still functional.
Surely a resource worth keeping in reserve for some future need.

Our VRA trucks have a bank of radios- any of which is likely to talk to you- plus heaps of switches for sirens and flashing lights. It’s definitely a two-person job; when driving I can’t afford to give them any attention.

Mobile phones are a hazard because you need eyes on them just to accept an incoming call. A radio mike hanging within reach is much less distracting.

Australian troops were part of the invading armies that toppled the Ottoman Empire. It may have been on its last legs anyway, but for centuries had been remarkably successful at keeping a reasonable peace between dozen of ancient ethnic enemies.

Outsiders sure bugggered up that peaceful co-existance! Australian airmen returned home from the post-WWI skirmishes in what became Iraq with a form of PTSD. They felt they were in the wrong side, being required to attack the villages of Kurds- honourable people they admired- yet defending local Arabs, who they learned not to trust at all.

In case anyone thinks Christians have some sort of monopoly on good government, The Moslem Ottomans did a pretty good job of keeping the peace; some still do:

All true, Jerry. Thousands of Palestinian families still carry the keys to their ancestral homes, from which they were forced by Israeli terror gangs, generations ago. Many joined resistance movements we regard as terrorists.

How would you or I react to having our country stolen?

I find it amazing that Bible Belt Americans give total support to Israel as it gradually squeezes Christian Palestinians from their homes in Biblical places like Bethlehem.

I have no solutions, but we cannot be blind to the brutal realities of this conflict.

12 hours ago, facthunter said:

There's PLENTY of HATE to go around in that region and when a glorious death assures Martyrdom  that would have some appeal compared to a death by a thousand cuts with gradual extinction of any hope of a separate state for the Palestinians.  Nev

Much as I admire the gutsy Israelis, their state is built on stolen land and broken agreements; who’d want to be a Palestinian?

Egypt claims to have given ample warning to Israel about the Hamas offensive. If so, why was Israel not ready?
Perhaps the odious Netanyahu allowed the attack to justfy a massive assault on Gaza.