The Random thought thread

[Marty_d]

2 hours ago, onetrack said:

My SIL had a female blue heeler that would be at the door, the instant SIL picked up her purse. The dog knew it was "ride in the car" time.

Yeah, it's all good until that ride ends up at the vet for that little operation...

[nomadpete]

I stole this from another thread. I think it captures the level of the world's respect for TACOtrump.

Apologies to it's originator....

 

Around the world, non-English news outlets are finding creative ways to translate the phrase “chicken out” for news consumers who are more familiar with an egg-laying bird than the proverbial presidential clucker in chief, and to explain that the acronym has no relation at all to Mexican food.

In Japan, TACO was introduced in news headlines last year during Trump’s repeated tariff announcements and reversals. At the time, it was a new English slang term spreading in the financial services industry for buying stocks cheap after a U.S. tariff announcement drove the markets lower, then selling for a profit after shares inevitably rebounded from a Trump reversal.
This week, the word was back in the news, with commentators discussing the difference between TACO and “tako,” which means “octopus” in Japanese. A news segment on Fuji Television explained to viewers the origin, meaning and connotation of the acronym with the fastidiousness of an educational program.

“T-A-C-O,” a newscaster spelled out, before enunciating: “TACO.”
“Tako? An octopus?” another asked, mimicking the tentacles of an octopus with his arms.
“Among friends, you might say, ‘Don’t chicken out,’ but it doesn’t feel like appropriate slang for a president,” a third commentator said, noting the element of scornful criticism in the English meaning.

The term became so widely used this week on social media and in news coverage that shortly after the ceasefire announcement, a popular illustrator, Irasutoya, released what appeared to be two new Trump drawings: one with the president wearing a taco (of the Mexican cuisine variety) as a hat, and another of him wearing an octopus on his head. One Japanese economist invented a new linguistic format: “TACO-ru,” using a Japanese conjugation to turn the acronym into a verb, meaning, “to TACO.”

In the French press, TACO has turned into “Trump always deflates,” while in Italy, some of the national papers used an Italian turn of phrase that translates roughly into “always wets himself” — pejorative takes implying fearfulness.

In the Arab world, several media outlets have published explainers on the acronym, largely translating it as “Trump always backs down.”

A Spanish television segment described it as “doing the chicken,” while showing an illustration of Trump carrying a chicken.

As the term gained popularity last year, a Mexican news outlet made sure to distinguish that when it came to “Mister Taco,” it was not referring to the food but to Mr. President.

South Korea’s version of Wikipedia, Namuwiki, has an entire entrydedicated to TACO, complete with AI-generated photos of Trump dressed in a chicken suit. It translates the phrase as: “Trump always gets scared and runs away.”

The term originated last year in a Financial Times column describing the “Taco trade” among investors making sense of the quick fall and rise in the markets in response to Trump’s tariff announcements.

Trump has bristled at the term, and the White House and some Trump supporters describe his approach more generously as strategic unpredictability.

The use of the term to describe Trump’s change of mind on Iran has drawn criticism even from some Democrats, noting that a decision to spare the lives of 90 million Iranians shouldn’t be minimized to a meme.

But in many countries, TACO has become a shorthand to make sense of the president’s extreme threats that reverberate around the world — from tariffs to military attacks — and a TACO moment can have severe repercussions for the global economy. In oil-dependent Asia, for example, the prolonged Middle East war has resulted in economic tumult and a supply chain crisis comparable to the coronavirus pandemic.

In China, where the term “chicken out” does not exist in Mandarin and the taco remains an exotic dish in many parts of the country, state outlets and social media users have come up with various ideas to make the TACO meme more accessible. Chinese state broadcaster CCTV uses the phrase “back down at the last second” as its translation.

Some commentators are harking back to the term “paper tiger,” an old proverb that Mao Zedong popularized in his description of American imperialism — someone that appears powerful but is weak when challenged.

Others compare TACO to stalled “rotten-tail” property projects, a notorious problem of abandoned construction projects in China’s housing bubble that create legal and logistical headaches for property buyers left in a limbo. On TikTok sister site Douyin, at least one user proposed using the transliteration “Takou,” literally a “mouth/verbal flop” — a faux pas, something you shouldn’t say or you’d regret.

A viral meme compared Trump’s claims of an imminent victory over Iran to e-commerce giant Pinduoduo’s gamified marketing stunt in which users are encouraged to invest a lot of time trying to clinch unattainable rewards. Another shows Trump casting a TACO spell — with firepower emanating from his hands — in a game of cards as a last resort for salvaging the stock market.

Zhang Jiaqian, a meticulous translator of Trump’s social media posts, said he has not yet seen a perfect Chinese translation of TACO but shared his own view that the TACO behavior is not a sign of weakness but a scheme to maximize gains — in this case, squashing Iran’s nuclear ambitions.

“We can laugh at TACO all we can want,” Zhang said, “but shouldn’t underestimate the results.”

[facthunter]

Don't over egg it. He simply Has NO idea what he is doing   and his Massive ego Motivates most of it .Nev

[nomadpete]

29 minutes ago, facthunter said:

Don't over egg it. He simply Has NO idea what he is doing   and his Massive ego Motivates most of it .Nev

Pretty sure you are right.

 

I just wanted to justify my view that pretty much the rest of the world now has a dim view of the American administration and the whole country. Their leader is a source of global ridicule.

 

[red750]

Had some incredible luck today. In my previous post (last post previous page) I said that the appointment with the ENT specialist was on July 3. I decided to take the letter of referral and test results to his office this afternoon. The receptionist was serving another patient and said "Take a seat in the waiting room. I'll be with you in a minute and get some details."

 

There was another patient in the waiting room. His door opened and she was called in. She was out again in 5 minutes. The receptionist came around and said "His next patient is not here yet, you can have a word with him now if you like." I went in and explained my situation. He checked my ears, looked at the test graphs and told me a few things to do before my scheduled appointment.  Then the receptionist collected information like my pension number, medicare number etc., and said she would organise a pre-cochlear test. So effectively, moved things up 3 months.

 

She said "Don't tell your GP. Nobody gets to see him on day 1."

[red750]

[red750]

I'm afraid I'm very behind the times with prices these days, I must get out more often. I had a session at physiotherapist falls and balance clinic this morning. One hour session $185. I don't know how much I will get back from Medicare. Have to do exercises so I can stand on one foot with my eyes closed. Try this if you are my age, early 80's. Stand upright with your feet together and eyes closed. Hold that for 30 seconds. Not easy. have something close to you that you can grab onto for support. 

 

Also, there's a 4 bed, 2 bath, 2 car space home across the road from me up for rent - $690.00 per week with $3000 bond. That's more than the single pension, although a single pensioner wouldn't need a 4 bedroom home. 

 

[willedoo]

A lot of physiotherapists live in a dream world. Standing on two feet with your eyes closed is a pretty good effort for anyone in their eighties, one foot is unneccessary risk taking in my opinion. Most people aim to do it on one foot with eyes open.The only physio I've ever been to that knew what she was doing was a young lady who migrated here from Mumbai. All her assessments and advice were practical, common sense and effective. And it was all verbal with some written take home instructions, very old school. Most of them these days are all about box ticking. They take your money and send you home with an exercise programme where you have to log in every day to their site and tick boxes saying you've done the exercises. Not worth two bob. There's heaps of physio mobs jumping on the bandwagon to hoover up medicare dollars via care plans using BS like that. It's a license to print money.

[willedoo]

I heard on the radio a couple of days ago the median house rent in Brisbane is $780 p/w and $650 for units. It makes you wonder about the top end content in those median prices and how many affordable places are still out there. It would be interesting to see numbers of houses in various price ranges that result in those averages.

[facthunter]

Physios have their Place. Chiropractors are More Likely to cause injury, Backs Need Movement, I had 3 desiccated discs in the Lower back and now they are all moving with No Operations on my back Needed. . That's done entirely with appropriate exercises. Twisting with No Weight on the spine. Nev

[onetrack]

The house directly across the road from me, is rented at $1500 a week. It's rented by a couple in their 30's/40's with 2 kids, and I have no idea what they do for a living, but they both appear to work at good-paying jobs. She drives an Audi SUV and he has a Subaru WRX Sportswagon. They moved in last September. I haven't spoken to either of them, they tend to lead a busy life, and don't take much notice of us oldies opposite them.

 

The house was built in 2009 by a Police Detective, replacing an early 1950's house that obviously didn't fit their lifestyle. This couple divorced in 2010 and the house was sold for $948,000 to a bloke who did Mining OH&S, he worked as an OH&S manager for one of the big miners and would have been on about $300,000 a year. He was married to a black Kenyan lady who was a social worker, and they had one young teenage girl who was "on the spectrum".

 

He moved to Canada last year and rented the house out, while they decide if they will stay in Canada permanently. Apparently, they had been there before, and loved the place. The house is now reported as being worth around $2,000,000. The mining bloke put in the pool, it cost him $55,000, and they were quite proud of it. It appears the mining bloke was worth millions, his deceased father owned a farm that was sold for something like $6,000,000, and the mining bloke got a sizeable share of that as an inheritance.

 

https://www.domain.com.au/property-profile/140-wood-street-inglewood-wa-6052

[rgmwa]

The house across the road from me in the Perth Hills is just a 2x1 on half an acre. We were good friends with the owners for many years. His wife died some years ago at a relatively young age, so he eventually sold up and moved about 5 years ago. He wanted $280k but it was sold within a week for $340k. The people who bought sold it 18 months ago to a young couple for $720.

We built our place in 1992. The block cost $39k and the house $130k. For the first 15 years it was worth about $180k as property prices in this area were stagnant. It's now worth about a million according to a real estate agent I spoke to recently. That was his estimate without even looking at it. He said he sold a house in this area 18 months ago for $1.2m and would list it now for $1.5m. Prices around here have gone through the roof. Rents have seen similar price increases. Paying $600-$700 per week is common now. I really don't know how young people can afford to live or buy anywhere decent these days. 

Edited 19 hours ago by rgmwa

[old man emu]

Ironically, $600-$700 per week would be sufficient to service a mortgage, if there was a house to purchase.

[pmccarthy]

My random thought today is what would you do if you had unlimited money. Like the tech bros or the head of Qantas, once they retire and are in their mid 70s. I don't really need anything more, possessions come with problems. Perhaps I would like a classic Bentley or a Hispano Suiza or something that costs millions, but only if I had a mechanic to look after it. I have a little plane, a Vixxen, and cannot think of a different make or model that I would rather have. I could travel more, but travel can be tiring as you get older. Maybe a couple of overseas trips each year, first class. I don't want a holiday house. But whatever I think of would not make a dent in the annual salaries those people earned, and they earned them for years or decades. How would you spend that money?

[facthunter]

It becomes just a GAME to them.  Nev

[rgmwa]

17 minutes ago, pmccarthy said:

 But whatever I think of would not make a dent in the annual salaries those people earned, and they earned them for years or decades. How would you spend that money?

I don't think that ultra wealthy people think about how to spend it like we might. For them it's about having it, and for many it's just a by-product of their wheeling and dealing which is what they are really interested in. I recall one of Jerry's posts where he was talking about what motivates them to make money and why whatever they have is never enough, and what sets them apart from the rest of us. 

 

[facthunter]

To the extremely rich, it is Just a Game.  Death is the final Leveller, You can't take it with you . Others will try to steal it from you. Your Health is much more important than Money .Nev

[Marty_d]

1 hour ago, pmccarthy said:

My random thought today is what would you do if you had unlimited money. Like the tech bros or the head of Qantas, once they retire and are in their mid 70s. I don't really need anything more, possessions come with problems. Perhaps I would like a classic Bentley or a Hispano Suiza or something that costs millions, but only if I had a mechanic to look after it. I have a little plane, a Vixxen, and cannot think of a different make or model that I would rather have. I could travel more, but travel can be tiring as you get older. Maybe a couple of overseas trips each year, first class. I don't want a holiday house. But whatever I think of would not make a dent in the annual salaries those people earned, and they earned them for years or decades. How would you spend that money?

Ruining democracy seems to be the activity of choice.

[Marty_d]

But in answer to your question - I would start a foundation with very smart and trustworthy people at the top, with the remit to determine the underlying causes of the most urgent problems affecting people - climate change, inequality, poverty, access to health care / education / justice / clean water / food etc, and the most effective way of lessening those problems.

Every billionaire out there could give 99% of their wealth to endeavours like this and still live very comfortable lives. 

The fact that they don't speaks volumes about their character.

[pmccarthy]

I think Bill Gates was trying to do that. But relationships (with his wife and Epstein) have got in the way.

[facthunter]

You can't trust a LIARS word. How would you react to Trump IF you were Running China?. Israel is running Trump in the ME.. Trump is hitting the Eu to reduce competition. Trump has No ethics. I have the Power and will use it. Just try me. Iran is another unwinnable war. When will they EVER learn? Americans don't want it either.  Trumps days are Numbered. He is NOT a nice or trustworthy person. Nev