So spring storms hit Qld, but with particular vengeance. Always storms in Qld come the warmer months.

But coincides with the Bureau of Meteorology updating their user interface.

(Seems there were storms in Victoria too, but who cares, because Victoria.)

And basically the new interface is just ... fuzzy.

Back in the day, 2 days ago, you could click on individual radars and get quite distinct rainfall shadows and could zoom in and get a real idea of what is rolling in.

Now it's a fuzzy mess of combined images from multiple radars.

BOM are getting extreme amounts of shit, deservedly, because their new ui is complete crap.

https://www.stuff.co.nz/culture/360866050/isla-fisher-says-shes-really-shocked-nicole-kidman-and-keith-urbans-split

To the minute and cutting edge as always.

@nzzp all the same to us uneducated

Yep, a big one to work through. Got our Cricket Club one sorted over winter.

Oct 8  /  New Zealand Tom Phillips' parents apologise for 'trouble' caused to community Tom Phillips' parents apologise for 'trouble' caused to community

In a letter to the editor, Neville and Julia Phillips said they were sorry for the loss of privacy and inconvenience their son caused to locals.

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"We in no way supported him or agreed with any of his actions in the past 4 years. We are truly sorry for all that you had to endure."

So after discussions around a PW3 it turns out to be a 2 after all.

Anyway the thing is finally fucking installed - 4 months after the original breakdown, and it's quite good, 8 hours in.

The installer slipped me full home backup while he was at it, which usually comes in at around $1k so happy with that. Tested it a couple of times and it works very well

Not really a channel, but I'm slowing working thru all the Howard Goodall music stuff. From "How Music Works" thru to in-depth analysis of composers like Cole Porter, Bernstein and Lennon/McCartney. Some great stuff.

"More than 2500 swooping incidents were logged in Australia last season."
Gee, she has popular laundry.

I learnt that in 19th Century NZ, NZ government had Chief Rabbit Inspector, Benjamin Bayly.

@booboo

Yeah. Great player. Great team man. Great AB.

Soooo.....
For my entire life, I've assumed I would never buy a brand-new vehicle. That's for chumps, I thought.... why spend all that money on something I could buy nearly the equivalent - but used - for less than half the price?
But then I made the mistake of visiting Triumph of Seattle before Seattle Used Bikes.
And quite quickly found ways to rationalise it... seppo consumer protection laws (the "Lemon Law", for example); paperwork around private sales looked horrific; and finally... fuck it, I can afford it.
(although I decided to "finance it" - as the Credit-Score system here is ass-backwards... and I need to incur debt to improve my non-existent rating... and they're properly fucking me in the process)

TL;DR... ended up with this sitting in my lounge:
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Triumph Speed Twin 1200 RS. My Pretty.

And have spent the last couple of days spending even more money on accessories/gadgets/etc, and poring over maps for potential first rides. Have ridden it around the local streets a couple of times - showing it off to the various barmaids at the local breweries. Hoping to get out onto open road this weekend... meet some new barmaids at farther afield breweries.

@voodoo Those guys are just dunces. I cannot say anything more.

Graham Thorpe's inquest is underway in the UK. A really sad story which seems to have been made worse by the ECB's handling of his sacking. Great batsman who deserved more.

Jul 23  /  UK news Ex-cricketer Graham Thorpe ‘spiralled into depression’ after losing job, inquest hears Ex-cricketer Graham Thorpe ‘spiralled into depression’ after losing job, inquest hears

Loss of England batting coach job after 2022 Ashes series was ‘start of decline of his mental health’, widow says

@Bones said in Help with a travel itinerary to NZ:

@nonpartizan right! And yet last time I was home, every plonker was moaning about the state of the roads and traffic. I live in south London and the main way out is the M25 or country lanes...

Yup, driving in NZ is awesome. Even if you screw up and make a wrong turn there is always a gap in traffic or a slow moving car coming the opposite direction to enable you to turn around or get across traffic.

@NTA said in Travel:

Connecting flight Sydney to Osaka I meant. The cheaper fares look to be short layovers in Singapore or HK.

The only direct flights to Osaka are JetStar I think and fuck. that.

It just seems like a bit of a waste to ride another shikansen for the sake of having a direct flight, and probably another night in an hotel in Tokyo.

I flew from Cairns to Osaka on Jet Star last year as it was the only choice, flight was almost totally empty, dream stuff

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A bit more on those poor kids living in the wilderness. No surprise that they have names like they do.

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Maverick reminds me of someone…..

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