Early Risers.

[monkeysarefun]

1 minute ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Random breath testing is (universally?) illegal

 

 

Not here its not!

 

Edited April 11, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

4 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

we are no longer a tax haven

I was talking about the Cayman Islands. Monaco, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Bermuda are higher up the list as well.

[New Haven Neil]

2 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

I was talking about the Cayman Islands. Monaco, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg and Bermuda are higher up the list as well.

 

I note the shaded areas on your post.....

[Dave Hunt]

17 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

Dave, do you mean the English colonists*? Or their 19th century descendants on the great plains?

 

* Starting more or less with King Philip's war in 1675.

 

The history of European colonization (by whichever European power) - wherever in the world: Ireland, the Americas, Australia, Africa**, etc is fraught with such tragic examples.

 

** not intended to be a comprehensive list. I haven't forgotten Asia.

 

There's this oldie (allegedly) as well.

 

 

I don't think that the behaviour of the American government, army and westward migrants in the 1850s - 1880s can be directly blamed on English colonists.

 

Dave

[Ozexpatriate]

10 minutes ago, Compound2632 said:

the fear that the British Government was determined to place limits on westward expansion ...

And had already done so with the Proclamation of 1763 in the wake of the Seven Years War.

 

It is, in my opinion, the singularly most significant reason that the southern states joined the rebellion. New Englanders were never fans of the monarchy from the outset.

[Ozexpatriate]

11 minutes ago, New Haven Neil said:

I note the shaded areas on your post.....

I didn't shade them Neil. It's from the linked Wikipedia page. The shading designates "territories, and countries not included in the IMF report".

 

My apologies for any unintended confusion.

 

Edited April 11, 2023 by Ozexpatriate
link

[Gwiwer]

17 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

28 minutes ago, monkeysarefun said:

I assume like everything else there's some constitutional reason behind it

Random breath testing is (universally?) illegal in the US. "Probable cause" is required - which is Amendment IV of the Bill of Rights.

Likewise in the UK.  There must be "Reasonable suspicion that an offence has been or is about to be committed" before a breath (and / or drug) test may be administered.  

 

In Australia, however, anyone anywhere is fair game.  Random stop-and-test applies in all states and territories.  The booze bus is often parked just around a corner out of sight until you cannot avoid passing it; try to avoid and the traffic car will be onto you in no time.  And they bleat about a lack of advance warnings for speed traps being "un-Australian" ....... 🤷‍♂️

[pH]

In the last 30 minutes we have had a heavy snow shower on the mountains across the inlet from us, then a couple of thunderclaps, then a short but heavy sleet shower at the house and now brilliant sunshine lighting up the new snow on the mountains.

 

I wonder what’s next?

[Ozexpatriate]

3 minutes ago, pH said:

I wonder what’s next?

I'm happy to report that the rain (an atmospheric river aka pineapple express) has stopped after raining continuously for well over 24 hours. We've actually reached a surplus for the 'rain year' after being behind for months.

 

Northbound I5 between Portland and Seattle was completely cut off for about four hours yesterday after a landslide covered all the travel lanes.

 

Happily Detroit Lake (in the Cascades, providing water for Salem and the central Willamette Valley, and was quite low) filled up 10' in the last week or so.

[Tony_S]

53 minutes ago, Ozexpatriate said:

apologies for any unintended confusion.

 

I should imagine many of my friends in Ireland would like to get anywhere near the per capita income for their country in that table.  

[Ozexpatriate]

2 minutes ago, Tony_S said:

I should imagine many of my friends in Ireland would like to get anywhere near the per capita income for their country in that table.  

Indeed. The page does (accurately) note that "GDP per capita is not a measure of personal income".

 

I imagine corporations listed as being headquartered in Eire per "Celtic Tiger" strategies are the cause of the Republic being so high on the list.

[BSW01]

Good evening everyone 

 

The day started out sunny, but by mid afternoon it had turned grey and wet, with quite a strong breeze. By the evening, the strong breeze had turned into strong gusts of wind, it’s still blowing quite hard now and it’s still raining! 

 

Well I didn’t get much work done on Inkscape as I’d hope to do, as the monitor gave up on me, all of a sudden, the screen went black then smoke started to come out of the back, pah! At that point I switched off, left it 5 minutes and switched it back on, but nothing, double pah! 

 

So, it was off to the Trafford Centre to see what I could buy over the counter, all the ones at John Lewis were unfortunately they were all too big, the tech guy I spoke too said they had a better selection on-line. But as I was already at the TC, I decided to call into Curry’s, but they have now closed down, so I came back home empty handed. Once home, I made a muggertea and perused the interweb and ended up ordering one from John Lewis, but it won’t be in on Thursday, but I did get £10 off, as was able to use a discount voucher. So this afternoon, instead of working in the office, I read the latest copy of BRM, which dropped on my door mat last week. 

Edited April 11, 2023 by BSW01

[BSW01]

Goodnight all 

[PhilJ W]

Evening all from Estuary-Land. It seems to have taken ages to get here, I've no idea where the evening went.  Despite the damp weather Arthur Itis is quiet but Nurofen has been taken. Busy week this week so not much time to spare.

[PhilJ W]

Goodnight all.

[monkeysarefun]

9 hours ago, Gwiwer said:

 And they bleat about a lack of advance warnings for speed traps being "un-Australian" ....... 🤷‍♂️

 

 

No.....we bleat about a  government relying on unmarked cameras pinging you for 5kmh over the limit then sending you a fine a couple of weeks later and cynically trumpeting that its  a critical part of the  fight to lower  the road toll. That is UnAustralian.

 

In comparison, random breath-testing has essentially universal support. It hasn't eliminated drink-driving because there'll always be the self-entitled and the risk-takers but we accept  a couple of minutes personal  inconvenience  when the return is that society as a whole is less likely to pay the cost in money and lives because  of selfish barstewards who think a couple of extra  drinks is fine cos they've only got a little way to drive, or are convinced  that they are careful drivers no matter how p!ssed they are. That  is not UnAustralian.

 

I guess it comes down to wanting a country where the drunks have a chance of being taken off the road BEFORE  they've caused a tragedy, rather than have them confirmed as drunk AFTER.

Edited April 12, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[monkeysarefun]

1 hour ago, Tony_S said:

I should imagine many of my friends in Ireland would like to get anywhere near the per capita income for their country in that table.  

 

 

I feel for the people of the Cayman Islands. A population of 68,000  has 117,000 registered companies - when do the poor bu99ers get a chance to sleep?

Edited April 11, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[jjb1970]

The most international news coverage tends to be in small countries, partly because there isn't that much to report at home and partly because they are often worried about what the neighbors are doing. Even then it tends to be regional, so in Singapore the news tends to be about the ASEAN region, and especially Malaysia and Indonesia.

 

The USA is an exception in terms of the news overseas as it is probably the one country about which domestic affairs and politics are widely reported globally. Which has an effect that many people have an opinion of the USA in a way they don't about other countries for the simple reason that as you expand beyond the neighbors few really know much about any other countries.

 

I find there is a deeper parochialism in the news. The obvious level is the parrot stretch, or the old line along 'tsunami in Indonesia kills thousands, no xxxx involved'. That level is pretty obvious, and most foreign news isn't reported for the simple reason few are interested. However a more subtle and perhaps more consequential parochialism is that foreign news which makes the cut tends to be reported in the context of local politics, commercial interests and social values which gives a very distorted impression of other countries.

[AndyID]

4 hours ago, monkeysarefun said:

 

 

Not here its not!

 

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by AndyID
moinfo

[AndyID]

Quelle bummer.

 

(That's French BTW.)

[AndyID]

Completely irrelevant of course, but a white-tail deer just hopped our fence and is now grazing on what I loosely refer to as our lawn.

[monkeysarefun]

Just received this base-wide email:

 

ALL STAFF,

                Be advised a red belly black snake was spotted slithering under one of the parked cars  at Medical/Dental.

It would be prudent to traverse the area with caution.

 

I like how they don't tell us which car - snake roulette!

 

At least medical assistance is close at hand..

 

Edited April 12, 2023 by monkeysarefun

[Ozexpatriate]

38 minutes ago, AndyID said:

Completely irrelevant of course, but a white-tail deer just hopped our fence and is now grazing on what I loosely refer to as our lawn.

I saw a coyote crossing the street in a neighbourhood near the high school the other day - I had never seen one locally before. Deer yes, but not coyotes. It was relatively close to me and we ignored each other.

 

Today a sign appeared at the entry to a creekside trail in a park >1km away (as the crow flies) inscribed with "You are entering coyote habitat" or some such thing. I was thinking that, at this point, the whole area is now coyote habitat, not just the creek.

[BR60103]

One monetarily efficient investment might be more signs warning of radar traps, plus the occasional equipped car.

 

We had a door blow off in the wind today. We were sitting with the neighbours across the street and the side door to the garage blew open and was then hanging from its bottom hinge. A quick look showed that it had pulled the screws out from the top and middle hinges.  The neighbour came over and we were a little surprised to see that the screws were #8 x 1". He popped back for his drill and a box of longer screws. (I could have got mine, but he was gone.)  It did take two of us to hold the door up to do the work.

I've just ordered 4 new tires (or tyres) for the car. They're down to minimal tread. They'll be replaced and then we'll have them switched with the snow tires. And have the 100,000 km servicing done.

 

We live near Canada's biggest city. The news from there has trouble with the geography west of Hwy 27 (as if London were unsure what's beyond the Tower.)

[jamie92208]

Good moaning from the Charente.  We see a lot of deer as we drive around and very rarely, wild boar, but those are usually at night. 

 

We got one of this year's income tax forms  through the post yesterday so spent a hour or so reading  an online guide and updating the spreadsheet I use.  Another hour was used trying to reduce the file size of an old Ordnance survey map that I've just bought.  Eventually I managed to crop it correctly to show just the bit of Keighley in 1909 that I need. Now I need to get access to transatlantic passenger lists from the 1870's.  No not family tree research but trying to sort out the history of a little known wagon works.  When I was in the UK last week I spoke to two cousins who are in their 70's. They are great granddaughters of the firms founder.  

 

Out to some friends this morning then drinks with some more this evening.  It's a busy life. 

 

Jamie