Open Thread – Tues 16 May 2023
2,023 responses to “Open Thread – Tues 16 May 2023”
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The public will more easily swallow a sob story of ‘giving land back to indigenous folk’
Probably not if they were told nearly 60% of Australia is already in indigenous hands under one form of title or another, and that figure will continue to increase as claims in the administrative and legal pipeline come through.
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I like the idea of China using coal fired power to make cheap EVs to sell to clueless whiteys.
Even Their ABC is vexed by this enigma wrapped in a paradox and shrouded in a conundrum:
How ‘dark underbelly’ and forced labour is helping to fuel Australia’s love affair with cheap solar
Mr Shoebridge said that apart from the ethical questions [Uighur slave labour] surrounding Australia’s demand for cheap Chinese solar panels, there were big energy security implications.
“This stranglehold that the Chinese government and companies are building over the renewable energy supply chain will give them a lot more power to coerce countries and populations that are dependent on them than the Russians have been able to exert with their energy supply into Europe,” he said.
Luckily, the Clean Energy Council has a ripping idea:
As a first step, Dr Aberle said consumers should be given more information about the origins of their solar panels.
In the longer term, he said Australia should look to diversify its supply, including by bringing some manufacturing onshore.
The Unicorns are strong in this one.
Technical Note: There is a reason why China dominates the world supply of solar panels. And it’s not due to Australia withholding it’s manufacturing superpowers.
(There is a helpful graphic in the link that shows how absolutely China has cornered the solar end of renewables market. The West has wandered into an economic bear trap that it happily installed itself.)
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Domestication news.
Will you be adopting a pet jackal soon? (16 May)
In Israel, golden jackals have been living in close proximity to human populations for many years. Jackals thrive in the urban habitats and are considered an “overabundant species.” Anyone walking in Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park or its surrounding neighborhoods has probably already seen golden jackals disappearing into the bushes or heard their howls after dark. Wildlife and municipal authorities ask the public not to approach the jackals or feed them, but a new study conducted in the Golan Heights reveals the possibility that the existing closeness between humans and jackals is leading the jackal to become a domestic animal in the future.
‘I rescued a puppy to nurse it back to health – but people are telling me it’s not a dog’ (1 May)
A woman found a “whimpering” and “shivering” abandoned puppy at the bottom of her garden, only to learn that she was actually taking care of a wild animal.
Meg Alexandra is a mother who was getting her family prepared for tornado season when she discovered a newborn injured puppy in the corner of her garden who has extremely cold and hungry.
She immediately wrapped the helpless pup in a towel and took him inside to feed him some milk, but soon learned the puppy was actually a baby coyote.
Interesting to see how Ms Alexandra goes with her coyote. Foxes don’t domesticate but that doesn’t mean that coyotes and golden jackals aren’t domesticable. Dogs and dingos may be resentful of new competition for the hearts of mankind.
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Rogersays:
May 17, 2023 at 10:49 am
The public will more easily swallow a sob story of ‘giving land back to indigenous folk’Probably not if they were told nearly 60% of Australia is already in indigenous hands under one form of title or another, and that figure will continue to increase as claims in the administrative and legal pipeline come through.
Hmmmm, 60% of the nation in the hands of 3% of the population (actually less, because it is the Land Councils and their equivalent, a very small proportion of the indigenous population, who control the land).
This is the kind of wealth distribution that would usually get the PC proponents of the InVoice up in arms, except on this occasion. I (don’t really) wonder why?
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Cassie:
“It is racist in concept and most Australians are not racists.”
Correct.
Agreed – but we are getting pissed off at the insinuation we are all racists because we’re getting cranky at the Aboriginal behaviour which appears to be on the level of a 5 year old getting told “No!”
Again, I make the point it is the culture, not the skin colour that is annoying us.
For myself, I no longer listen to people who demand things from me, and when I say no, they then resort to racial abuse. -
The smart R play is to boost support for Kennedy. DNC will of course rig the primary so their preferred candidate wins and then smart R play is to hope that work done through primaries will make a portion of his supporters vote for the populist R candidate that supported some of Kennedy’s policies or don’t vote at all in the general. Pretty much what happened in 2016.
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Expensive nuclear is a meme the Australian green left have made into their Frankenstein’s monster lover.
They exaggerate the price of nuclear and compare it to the subsidised price of ruinables – but the real price of ruinables is what we pay on our bills and what how much of our tax money is handed over. The latter is invisible to all intents and purposes.
Add to the subsidy that reliable sources can hum away but if their is a gust of wind or a cloud scuds away from in front of the sun the ruinables get instant preference and get to bill customers, while the reliable (still humming away loyally) is deprived of money – so it looks less efficient because it is working 24hr/day but cannot bill $24/day.
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I doubt if most Australians know that the population identifying as Aboriginal receive around $30 billion per annum in benefits. This had risen to such an enormous sum because of the ready availability of assistance & the recognition of this by the new recipients.
Of course if this was used in the No campaign the other side would immediately claim it is not about money. Too right it is.
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He maintained his position for decades by having blackmail material on everyone that mattered, so pretty powerful I’d say even then.
The Mob had black mail material on Hoover dating from the 1930s, that was the real reason he kept his job for 48 years.
That, and being a Mason.
In the end it didn’t help him, he was murdered anyway. -
The US is still assessing to what degree the system was damaged…
Saliva Ukrazis losing their minds over the video of the battery spaffing its load was hilarious.
Showing Ivan going Iron Hand on it was betraying it’s location to Ivan.
Apparently. -
The public will more easily swallow a sob story of ‘giving land back to indigenous folk’
I suspect the warm feeling of righting historic wrongs will have a rather short half life.
Australia is facing serious economic struggle; dealing with Covid debt, the manifold impacts of high energy prices, global and local inflation, out of control unfunded welfare spending, and likely a property crisis.
In 5 years, the spectacle of the Professional Aboriginal Industry, screeching over the distribution of treaty spoils like seagulls on a spilled bag of chips, will have worn thin with the paying punters.
The social cost of refilling Pandora’s Box will be significant. The one thing you can bet on is that none of the Voice Boosters will be visible when the political invoices start landing.
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m0ntysays:
May 17, 2023 at 11:09 am
Oh no, China is passing on massive savings to Australian consumers through government subsidies! We must impose tariffs immediately lest we be overrun by the Yellow Peril!!1954 called, it wants its economic policy back.
LOL channels O’Bummer in 2012, trying to put Romney down with “The 1980s called, they want their foreign policy back”.
And which country is now the great bogeyman to leftards? Why, it’s Wussia, the one Romney designated as the greatest enemy.
Try again, idiot, and try to understand the context before tramping on your 20mm dick with hobnailed boots.
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dover0beachsays:
May 17, 2023 at 11:11 am
The smart R play is to boost support for Kennedy. DNC will of course rig the primary so their preferred candidate wins and then smart R play is to hope that work done through primaries will make a portion of his supporters vote for the populist R candidate that supported some of Kennedy’s policies or don’t vote at all in the general. Pretty much what happened in 2016.It doesn’t matter if DemonRats don’t vote in 2024, their votes will still be counted. The only sure way is to get them to vote populist, regardless of who is the candidate.
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lotocotisays:
May 17, 2023 at 11:18 am
The US is still assessing to what degree the system was damaged…Saliva Ukrazis losing their minds over the video of the battery spaffing its load was hilarious.
Showing Ivan going Iron Hand on it was betraying it’s location to Ivan.
Apparently.Shoot and skoot.
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How ‘dark underbelly’ and forced labour is helping to fuel Australia’s love affair with cheap solar
It is kind of funny when Cats (for example) identify a problem with something the ABC champions and then, with the utmost seriousness and as if their gigantic rippling brains have managed to pry from begrudging confusing nature a rare golden nugget of insight seeing light of day for the first time, say exactly what we have been saying all along.
It reminds me of that scene in Die Hard where the terrorists start shooting down at the police and the flatfoot says to his Captain “They’re shooting at the lights.” Then a couple of the kliegs lights shatter and go out and the captain makes the connection and says “They’re going after the lights.”
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I doubt if most Australians know that the population identifying as Aboriginal receive around $30 billion per annum in benefits. This had risen to such an enormous sum because of the ready availability of assistance & the recognition of this by the new recipients.
A large part of the problem is that these programs are not subject to serious review.
Apart from the annual “close the gap” talkfest, benchmarks are never set and thus progress, or otherwise, can never be quantified.
“Just throw more money at it” is the easy way out for governments.
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It is kind of funny when Cats (for example) identify a problem with something the ABC champions and then, … say exactly what we have been saying all along.
The ALPBC (and Leftists more generally) aren’t particularly good at unintended consequences and second order thinking. See: practically every Greens policy ever advanced.
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Monty seems to think Australia is a free market. It isn’t. It’s a totalitarian fascist market, otherwise there’d be no “renewable energy” except isolated small projects in remote locations.
China does not believe in climate fairies, that’s abundantly clear from the climate science papers they come out with. But they do like to destroy their enemies, and as Sun Tzu didn’t say “never interrupt your enemy when he’s making a mistake”.
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Apart from the annual “close the gap” talkfest, benchmarks are never set and thus progress, or otherwise, can never be quantified.
This has become the favoured Australian model of governance.
Combine motherhood projects with a big electoral payoff and an eye watering cost – done on the back of an envelope, with pluck assumptions, and no real delivery accountability – and Bingo, billions washing out of the door.
Whether they are spent wisely, or if they deliver any value, nobody knows.
NBN
NDIS
Snowy 2.0
Submarines
Electricity grid
Quarantine stations
Highways to nowhere
Olympic Games and stadiums of every sort.It’s the way we roll with OPM.
Nobody notices. There’s always lots more. -
m0nty says:
May 17, 2023 at 11:12 am
It used to be on the Cat that there was a battle between globalist free market economists and cultural conservatives who wanted to use mercantilism to further their herrenvolk socialism. Since the Doomlord withdrew, it’s protectionism and isolationism all the time..
It’s as if the last three years never happened with you.
You still think it’s wise to put most of the world’s manufacturing capacity in the hands of a single Marxist state which has demonstrated over and over again it’s willingness to use economic leverage to accomplish it’s political aims.
Where do people think the funds come from to promote all the woke garbage and from whence do they think all the drugs and homelessness ultimately originate.
https://www.hoover.org/research/beijings-woke-propaganda-war-america -
Pasta Prices Soar 20% in Italy – The Return of the Pasta Cartel?
“Italy’s Industry Minister Adolfo Urso called for an emergency meeting to discuss the sharp uptick in food prices. Pasta alone is up nearly 20%, and this is a major problem in a country where 60% of residents report eating this item daily. Some provinces are seeing a 58% increase in this staple item. Siena, Tuscany, reported pasta rising from $1.50 a kilo to $2.37 a kilo within in a year. The European Central Bank stated that inflation reached 8.1% in March, so what is driving these food prices?
Some may point to wheat, the main ingredient, as the recent usurping of farmland and the Ukraine war had an impact on prices. However, wheat prices have actually declined in recent months. Durum wheat is down 30% since May of last year. The only other ingredient required to make pasta is water.
Coldiretti, Italy’s biggest farmers association, said that farmers are not seeing an uptick in revenue and are struggling to make ends meet. “There is no justification for the increases other than pure speculation on the part of the large food groups who also want to supplement their budgets with extra profits,” Assoutenti president Furio Truzzi told the Washington Post. Yet, food manufacturers are claiming that this spike in pasta costs in temporary and a result of pasta produced during the beginning of the Ukraine war and energy crisis.
This is not the first time that Italy has seen a rise in food prices. Italian authorities raised 26 pasta manufacturers in 2009 and fined the industry 12.5 million euros for creating what Reuters described as a “pasta cartel.” Around 90% of pasta makers in the country were in on the price gouging scheme that operated from May 2006 until May 2008, during which pasta prices rose 51.8% for retailers and 26% for consumers. Barilla, the largest pasta producer at the time, received the largest fine of 5.7 million euros.
Food inflation is a major problem across the world. In Italy, overall food prices rose 12.6% in April 2023, marking a slight decline from March’s 13.2% reading. This is unsustainably high. The overall inflation numbers put forth by government agencies are always the best-case scenario as they do not want us to see the true damage of inflation.”
https://www.armstrongeconomics.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/02/etupasta.jpg
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Schrodinger’s wookie.
Obama says leaving White House helped his marriage (16 May)
You have to think from the latter story that if he wants to be First Man then it’d only be at the cost of their marriage. We’ll probably have to open the box to see if the whole thing is still alive.
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Do you have a link please Ftb?
The amount of shit coming out about the Democrats says they now have to keep the Presidency forever or – as Clinton said “We’ll all hang from nooses.” If they fall, they’re doomed, so they have to keep cheating.Robert, I have the substack pinned at home.
I’ll share it later. -
Chinaman.
Biden Issues Rare Veto, Third Of His Presidency (16 May)
President Joe Biden issued a rare veto on Tuesday against a bipartisan measure that aims to reinstate tariffs on solar products from Southeast Asian countries after U.S. officials found China companies using these nations to get around trade rules.
As Surber says Biden’s most notable feature is he stays bought.
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“…most Australians are not racists…”
That’s just your “white fragility” talking – don’t you know that denying being a racist proves you are racist? When so accused, the only (correct, leftist) response is “Yes – please forgive me! I WAS UNAWARE! Oh, woe is me. I promise I’ll check next time and not use yesterdays ‘acceptable’ list. Please let me stay on the ‘good people’ list.”
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The Voice: where does the money go? What are all those committees doing?
in this week’s Federal Budget nearly $2 billion has been provided for various Indigenous-related programs and services. That’s $2 billion that doesn’t include ongoing funding for various initiatives and individual welfare and housing payments. The total of federal funding to assist Indigenous Australians is much higher.
Importantly, though, advocates for the Voice have been very clear that none of the existing programs and funding should be dispensed with if the Voice is established.
There are real decisions being made right now that help Indigenous Australians, there are voices being heard already, we have a real constitution and real money being spent now. Where is it all going?
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H B Bearsays:
May 17, 2023 at 9:39 am
It concerns me that Sofronoff’s inquiry will tie a bow on this as a merely local thing.
Unkind people may suggest that’s exactly what the Terms of Reference were intended to do.
Which is why Janet Albrechtsen’s work is so good. She is casting the net a little wider than the tethered goat DPP. I think Drumgold’s projection about political interference was the last straw, and has opened him right up to examination of that from the Liars side.
Look, say what you like about the Oz (and it has it’s faults), but Janet’s articles on Britnah, and Hedley Thomas’ work on the Lying Slapper’s slush fund are first class, and largely untouched by other mainstream outlets. -
feelthebernsays:
May 17, 2023 at 12:15 pm
Latest poll has Voice at 53% to 47%, nationally, which means a few states have moved into No category.
The Voice will get up with a yes vote close to 60%.
I don’t think so.
The trend is your friend and it is trending “No” months out from the referendum.
I fully expect there to be a “shy No” vote swing of 1%-2% on the day from opinion polls to the ballot. I suspect there are a few people out there who will avoid revealing their “No” position to anyone until they are in the privacy of the polling booth. -
I don’t think so.
The trend is your friend and it is trending “No” months out from the referendum.The SSM thing was presented as sugary sweet and as something that would not affect other people.
The Voice is being championed by extremely angry people who are trying to make people feel bad. Also it is becoming clearer that the Voice will not be some benign entity that will impact no one else, they are feral and are already demanding reparations and the power to veto laws (how ever much they are calling it ‘advice’).
And they are going to get worse.
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The downrampers on my penny dreadful are hilarious.
Yes, there are also the shorters as well as the pump and dumpers.
I used to visit it for a larf.
I was following HC threads on a former employer of mine after departing due to “musical differences” (notably the failure to sack thieves and forays into the brave new world of renewballs, about which we knew naffink). I was 93.1% sure one of the guys pumping the stock on HC was from within the company.
Sure enough one of the renewballs projects went tits up and sent them into liquidation … about three months after they tapped the market for $100 meg telling investors everything was hunkey-dory.
Litigation continues and I hear my nemesis at the company (who was central to the cock-up) is having sleepless nights and is in and out of hospital with stress.
I still get a recurring schadenboner when I think about it. -
Enjoy watching a real reporter shred a elitist Dem Congress-critter during testimony
A definite mic-drop moment.
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C.L. – Kennedy is indeed gaining a lot of traction. I suspect from both Dems & Reps. His stance against the mRNA vaccines will be helping in spite of his known opposition to all childhood vaccines.
RFK would win me over on the basis of what he has said about the unholy partnership of big government and big business, big pharma being an example, especially recently. I could even grant him a temporary pass on the CO2 thing, in the hope that he would add ‘big wind and big solar’ to his list of big lies.
And if he released the Kennedy documents, that would be a bonus – at the risk of awakening the usual suspects, I have shot a 6.5 Carcano, and considered the ballistics of what was claimed. Again, I found some ‘curiosities’ 😉 (short summary – a near impossible series of shots)
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“I don’t think so.
The trend is your friend and it is trending “No” months out from the referendum.
I fully expect there to be a “shy No” vote swing of 1%-2% on the day from opinion polls to the ballot. I suspect there are a few people out there who will avoid revealing their “No” position to anyone until they are in the privacy of the polling booth.”It’s interesting you write this. I caught up with someone on Sunday for a walk and she told how last Saturday she went to synagogue and she sat next to a woman and they got chatting. Then the woman’s voice dropped and she whispered to my friend “do you like Senator Jacinta Price?”, to which my friend answered “yes”, and then the woman whispered “what do you think of the Voice”, and my friend answered “I don’t like it as it divides people on race”. The woman smiled and whispered that “she will be voting no”.
I think there are a lot of shy voters out there. It’s a sad indictment of the times where people are scared about expressing their opinions for fear of being denounced as “racist”, “far-right” and “Nazi”. But this isn’t new, such self censorship has been going on for years now, witness Brexit, Trump in 2016 and our very own 2019 election, and then the left get a very big surprise. Because the left now dominate the public and professional spheres, they make it virtually impossible for people to speak up and engage in public debate about issues because, as mentioned before, if we do pop our heads above the parapet, we’re shouted down as far-right bigots and so on. I hear it here in my own workplace, progressives aren’t shy about speaking up about their favourite topics, whilst people like me keep quiet.
The whispering woman was older, and it confirms my theory that it’ll be older Australians, rural Australian and migrants who will vote NO. They’ll save Australia, it won’t be the Teal electorates and it won’t be the indoctrinated young.
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“QAnon is a Mossad operation.”
Sancho, Sancho, Sancho – it’s not the Joos this time, it’s those damned Black, transgender, gay, left-handed, midget, albino Eskimo’s.
They’re EVERYWHERE!
And they have their fingers in EVERYTHING!
It’s ALL their fault!
Bastards.
If it wasn’t for THEM, we’d all be living a life of luxury plugged into the meta-verse with AI slaves to do our bidding in the physical world – and nothing could possibli go wrong.
I say: where are the bloody Darlek’s when you really need them? They’d sort ’em out, quick smart! -
Chills bro…
Foundry worker puts wet scrap metal in furnace
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in this week’s Federal Budget nearly $2 billion has been provided for various Indigenous-related programs and services. That’s $2 billion that doesn’t include ongoing funding for various initiatives and individual welfare and housing payments. The total of federal funding to assist Indigenous Australians is much higher.
Importantly, though, advocates for the Voice have been very clear that none of the existing programs and funding should be dispensed with if the Voice is established.
There are real decisions being made right now that help Indigenous Australians, there are voices being heard already, we have a real constitution and real money being spent now. Where is it all going?
Exactly. And how about what is now 39 Billion Kangaroo Dollars being spent per annum. How about an Annual Audit on everyone of the over 3,000 Indigenous so called ‘Charities’ that get money from the Australian Taxpayer. If we had such Annual Audits that were reported to the Australian Parliament, then we may be starting to get some where to find out.
BUT No one including the Lieberals wants to know. BUT the Australian Taxpayer wants to know.
Quite obviously the money is not getting to those that really need the help but others are lining their pockets – all of the Scammers that is.
How many more years can this Racket go on for?
And they want another Racket called The Voice’. We already have a massive ‘InVoice’ and it is fast becoming unaffordable. FFS.
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If it’s running 53-47% now and they need a majority of voters in a majority of states plus a 60% overall majority…I suspect they’ll be cooked.
Albanese has hung his reputation and his…ahem…legacy on this one and everyone knows it. The more agitation and whining and nagging, the less likely people will choose accept it. Especially as they ramp it up in the days and weeks prior.
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used to be on the Cat that there was a battle between globalist free market economists and cultural conservatives who wanted to use mercantilism to further their herrenvolk socialism. Since the Doomlord withdrew, it’s protectionism and isolationism all the time.
Monty, 1980 called, it wants its ideological tropes back.
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QAnon is a Mossad operation.
Mossad is a deep state operator so that suggests QAnon is not a Mossad operation.
The Israel deep state is a sort of cheap mini-me of the US deep state. It quite real though.
The Left never give up, never rests, and never evinces an actual working brain. -
Colorado man allegedly tries avoiding DUI by switching seats with dog
“The dog does not face any charges and was let go with just a warning,” police said.
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Look, say what you like about the Oz (and it has it’s faults), but Janet’s articles on Britnah, and Hedley Thomas’ work on the Lying Slapper’s slush fund are first class, and largely untouched by other mainstream outlets.
That’s basically why I maintain a subscription. Ignore Mavis,Prof van Wrongselen and Fatty Adams. You have to be prepared to pay for the good with the bad.
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What was once considered a head cold is now the Black Death.
Maybe. But we have both contracted a very nasty “cold” in the last week. Haven’t had a cold or flu for many years. So, even though we had one dose of Omicron (very mild 3 day thingy) this is quite a shock. Reckon it is because we have all been so freaked out by contact with any source of germs, that we have deprived our immune systems of learned immunity. Eg I caught myself automatically avoiding touching a public stair rail yesterday! Idiotic.
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A true life “spooky” story to lighten the day.
I was at Mt. Scopus College in Burwood, Melbourne yesterday to empty 9 secure document bins. These bins are protected by, of all things, very secure locks. Two of the locks had become rusted and at first attempt the key would not engage all the way, thus not unlocking. After emptying 7 of said bins I returned to the obstinate little b@stards and tried again. With some wiggling, of the key, I managed to fully insert and unlock one of the locks. Good for me. The last one however would only accept the “tip” of the key and no amount of wiggling a jiggling would work.
This is where things get spooky.
I returned to the cab of my twuck to get my trusty bolt cutters intent on removing the obstinate lock. Returning to the bin I found that the lock was now……….hanging open.
I was completely alone. The lock was fully locked when I went to the cab. The locks are VERY secure and designed to fail locked. Either I missed something or him upstairs has a very warped sense of humour.
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