female competition creates the glamour gap and you are a loser
Open Thread – Wed 15 Nov 2023
- Guest Post: Wally Dali- Archibald Prize predictions
- TULIP versus ruinous Labor
- Open Thread – Weekend 18 May 2024
- Bumtree #15
- Bumtree #14
“Spitfire” tells the story of the lady Air Transport Auxiliary pilot, who, when flying a Spitfire, found herself in thick…
the blade batteries in BYDs were supposed to be virtually incapable of self combustion. speaks to low chicom quality and…
Doomsday for China’s EVs: New EVs Self-ignites During Transport, People Abandon Firefighting
Philip Pilkington@philippilkOkay so it looks like China are selling off Treasuries and recycling the money into gold. If the US…
Thancho the problen for Luigi is first finding your Tory. Since he can’t find one, a bit like ASIO trying to find all those right wing activists, you know the ones who are the biggest threat to Australia and Grampian nasties, he’s got nothing left. All pastry and no filling.
How much warning did the government get from the High Court that the law was unconstitutional and the detainees would have to be released?
Could Albo and co have sat back and deliberately done nothing, expecting that the release of detainees could be used to inflict political damage on the Liberals?
OldOzzie
Nov 17, 2023 2:15 PM
Should I buy a 2023 Nissan Patrol or a Toyota LandCruiser?
You KNOW the answer.
One of the best cars we have ever owned (& husband being a “car nut” has had every type of car from track cars to family wagons to 4WDs) was an 80th Anniversary Landcruiser. That car did about 500,000km all over Oz. Only once did she let us down – & even then gave us plenty of notice. It was a particular problem – an inner front axle bearing – which was brass – & only is ever a problem in outback conditions after going through water a lot). We were lucky to find a group of mechanics hanging around in a garage in Kununurra on Saturday afternoon – who agreed to fix it on Monday. Finally, she had done too many km after we bought a farm & travelled almost every week between Central Tablelands & Sydney. “Can’t go on guys…” Our farm Landcruiser is the latest 200 Series (Diesel) – fine – but not a patch on the old girl. Too much digital frippery, Sat Nav is crap, seats nowhere near as comfortable as the 80 Series.
Still – wouldn’t have anything but a solid Landcruiser to do all the km between city and country that we do. Farm ute is also a Toyota – gas/petrol – although we only use the petrol facility.
Have also city cars – mine is about 14 years old now, low km & still is a looker. Husband’s is only couple of years old – too embarrassed to say the model – Lizzie & Hairy know.
The idea that one of Hamas’ main command bunkers is located beneath Shifa Hospital in Gaza City is one of the worst-kept secrets of the Gaza war (2014 article).
Top Secret Hamas Command Bunker in Gaza Revealed (And why reporters won’t talk about it)
Danger Dan Reviews:
Xi embarrasses Biden. APEC Joe Biden Xi Jingping
Wall Street Journal: Ukraine war is over. Russia won.
Bzzzzzzttt! Wrong!
My 2006 Nissan Patrol Wagon 4.2 is the ducks nuts. East-west and then West-east across the Simpson (no van), up the Tanami and across the Gibb towing our van, Cape York (van up to Coen only), south to north up the Canning (no van). What a truck! A true Toyota recovery vehicle!
(But the 80 series Cruiser was and still is a bloody good vehicle.)
P.S. Yet to speak with serious 4WD friends that have had a 300 series since the start of this year but understand that they are very pleased.
The Patrol, whilst impressive I believe, looks big and boofy.
Something I forgot about was that apps all spy on each other. Your wallet app will spy on your web browser, emails etc.
Recycling is a marginal activity at the best of times. Nothing says “We are out of ideas” like trying to resurrect a former PM.
This isn’t knowledge work per se. AI should just be part of the toolset analysts use now on top of the stats, maths and analysis programmes and data management they use already.
As for checking stats, at a high enough level, it requires human judgment. Has AI read the literature? Can it implement everything it has scraped the web for?
[Has it read Springer’s Credit Risk Valuation: Methods, Models, and Applications?]
“Enhancing websites” – how? How can AI know if a website is better looking than another? Humans can always invent something else.
It should have always been done in-house, instead of teaching boomers how to rotate PDF files.
AI simply isn’t as good as real artists. The day it is better or equal to them and not derivative is the singularity.
Zulu. FYI. An acceptable alternative, for me anyhow. ~$100. Cheers! ?
https://www.danmurphys.com.au/product/DM_5512/laphroaig-10-year-old-scotch-whisky-700ml
“During its search of the hospital, the IDF said it had found an “underground tunnel shaft” as well as Hamas weapons. The claims could not be independently verified.”
“Israel’s assault on Gaza has killed more than 11,000 people, according to Palestinian officials, and hospitals have gradually ceased operating as Israeli forces have advanced deeper into the enclave and restricted shipments of fuel, water and food.”
Right – so IDF claims “could not be independently verified”, but the same is NOT noted about “Palestinian officials”.
One wonders whether they independently confirmed them or just didn’t bother to tell us they hadn’t done any confirmation on that claim.
I suspect they “independently confirmed” neither claim, and their bias against Israel is showing.
On a long enough timeline…………..we end up at Minority Report. Don’t say Phil Dick wasn’t prescient. And the Amish.
I may have just committed a thought crime.
“How much warning did the government get from the High Court that the law was unconstitutional and the detainees would have to be released?”
Any answer other than “none” is unacceptable – no court can or should state to either the complainant nor the respondent that they are about to lose. They MUST hear the entirety of the case, then make a decision, which is announced to all at the same time. Anything else is indicative of potential bias / conflict if interest, and I would expect would make the decision appealable.
Yes … and yes, very effectively!
oldozzie, I wouldn’t buy any car made after 2015, the new cars are full of so much ‘safety’ crap that driving them is a chore. My wife just bought a new Kona, it constantly has alarms going off to warn you of stuff that any competent driver is aware of. Every time you pass a speed limit sign it bings, if you go 5km over the limit it bings, if it thinks you’re not looking at the road it bings, it tries to steer you where it thinks you should go and bings if you don’t, so if you dodge a pothole it tries to steer you back toward the hole and bings at the same time. Seeing as the speedo reads 5kmh faster than the actual speed it bings a lot when you are only doing 1 or more kmh over the limit.
There’s even more stuff than that to drive you up the wall, some of it can be turned off however it all restarts again everytime you turn the engine off. Stick with the older cars if you want a pleasant drive.
Daily Mail.
bespoke
If the US were to become isolationist, not just Tucker, in my opinion, that would be a Good Thing.
“…some of it can be turned off however it all restarts again everytime you turn the engine off.”
Not if you find the binger-bit and cut the wires to it 🙂
local oaf
Nov 17, 2023 2:42 PM
And for a two-in-one, also exploiting the emergency to pass some vague and slightly exploitative regulations (which I predicted).
Well in fact the bill as passed contained retrospective legislation.
https://parlinfo.aph.gov.au/parlInfo/download/legislation/bills/r7114_aspassed/toc_pdf/23214b01.pdf;fileType=application%2Fpdf
So anything they did after the end of the Bridging (Removal Pending) visa that would have been illegal for the non-citizen to do under such a visa is something they can be retrospectively punished for, even though no such second visa existed at the time.
Such as complying with the monitoring conditions.
As for vaguely worded laws, how about this:
Five years for not complying with a visa condition on a visa which didn’t exist at the time of the non-compliance. Any lawyers want to fact-check my opinion, please go ahead.
If I was buying brand new I would get a landcruiser. Second hand I would get the patrol. Someone else would have worn a much bigger depreciation and it would take forever to make up the difference in additional fuel consumption.
I’d have a bit more respect for Gawenda if he hadn’t been part of the problem for so long. It doesn’t carry a lot of weight when the only reason you jump off the bandwagon is because the rabid socialist left ferals might impact on you personally.
Sancho, I was responding to Johanna’s prideful comment that the Dutch (as a generic collectivity) had one major important trait in their National make-up, which was a type of stoicism, which stood them in good stead in wartime.
I responded to this view about stoicism in the Dutch tradition, which was being used to berate Cassie for her ‘weakness’ in the face of anti-Semitism in Sydney, by pointing out that during wartime the Dutch were also known for a less honourable trait. This was simply correcting a prideful comment about the Dutch population during a wartime occupation, not making any claim about Johanna. I am sure she is an extremely stoic person, for that view is all that can possibly emerge from what I said. This in no way implicates Johanna in what happened in Holland during the Nazi occupation. It simply says to be more measured about those things in which you have pride when it comes to war.
A lesson for us today too.
After trucks v trains I suggest it is too soon for Landcruiser v Patrol. Take that to some beer garden for the afternoon.
This, by the way, is a disgraceful piece of bullying.
When I need to apologise for something, I will, and I do.
I see no need to do so here.
Dot,
While browsing recent Hill Bills, this one came up:
Sounds like a recipe for AI to auto-classify movies and streamed videos.
If these “accredited classifiers” aren’t doing that already, they will soon.
kneel, not possible on most modern cars, they have BCM’s (Body Control Modules) these computers control everything except the engine and transmission, if they detect a fault they will do strange things and may even put the car in limp mode. If you replaced the binger with a dummy load it would probably work but an open circuit would be trouble. I just bought a 2012 BT50 for work, I bought it from a yard and it failed the RWC when they took it in, the front left hand indicator wasn’t working, they don’t have flasher cans the BCM does it all and it was faulty, cost the yard $1200 for a new one. New cars would be even worse.
I had a 1996 Holden Rodeo, which was actually an Isuzu. Best car ever. No electronic/computerised horseshit. Want the windows down? Roll them down etc.
Flippin’ Hyundai I drive now, the driver’s window mechanism shat itself. Kerching!
Old mate maybe 10 years back when I lived in the country had a ’90s Commodore that had an alarm you could set if you went over a certain speed. His Leftoid control freak missus had it set at 100kph. Try driving the down the freeway from Ballarat to Melbourne which is 110kph. “Can we turn this thing off?” He didn’t know how LOL.
“I suggest it is too soon for Landcruiser v Patrol.”
One last comment then:
Up until the mid 1990’s ALL Landcruisers had points ignition, not electronic.
I lost count of the number of mechanics who regularly serviced such vehicles who didn’t know that until they were chasing a miss and asked me for parts.
“Have you changed the points?”, “It doesn’t have points!”, “Yes, it does – remove the plate and have a look!”… next call 30 mins later: “Oh, you’re right. I never knew that and I’ve serviced this thing from new!”
In Knowing Who Butters Your Bread news, Tom Minear following the Pwime Minister:
Well yes Albo. Trade negotiations are difficult I would imagine. That’s why you are there? Maybe, I don’t know, engage in constructive dialogue instead of saying he would leave it to the Chinese government to resume trade on lobster and beef.
As for his shambolic immigration policy that allowed rapists to be set free, put them all in Grayndler.
“…they don’t have flasher cans the BCM does it all and it was faulty, cost the yard $1200 for a new one. New cars would be even worse.”
I don’t know if they actually did it, but they were talking about using a single wire running to all “bulbs” in the car, and running a data channel “on top of” the 12V supply. So each and every “bulb” was specific to its physical placement – “left front indicator” bulb different from a “right front indicator” bulb and so on. Saves on wiring, because the same two wires go to every bulb. Ugly getting spares though, especially if there was no standard…
On the topic of war and what nations are prideful about with regard to war, I have just finished reading Top Ender’s excellent leader in this week’s Speccie, which is fantastically illustrated on the front cover with a take-off on Penny Wong.
Top Ender perfectly presents the ambiguities of what is necessary and sufficient in warfare. As a student of soldiers at war down the ages in all of its brutality, he cautions that war is still necessarily brutal. He has good and recent examples that could sent anyone’s ethics aflounder about the dilemmas of the frontline of advance.
I’ve read about war and watched TV series on war to immunise myself against decrying its awful necessities. War is something I’ve tried to comprehend. We need our own ‘rough men’ in our armies of the West more than ever now, for we see plenty of rough ones on the other side in our city streets, ready for mayhem.
Kneel, I don’t think they’re quite as simple as a two wire setup but run on similar lines to what you say. Either way it makes it expensive to fix a minor fault.
Certainly not, Humphrey. It’s a perfect subject for a midnight stoush at the Cat.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Lizzie, just for the record, let it be known that I have never denied the veracity of your perky tits.
The negatives are available for sale.
Re the annoying warning alarms in the Kona, I was able to turn a lot of them on in our two year old Santa Fe, except for ones I want like someone coming past when I have in reverse, red light camera and collision warning.
Turn them off I mean.
Landcruiser vs. Patrol. Is this a sequel to Ford vs. Ferrari?
apparently jeep are the worst. Apparently if you break off a door handle in a grand Cherokee, have to replace the entire door panel.
As I said on a few earlier posts
If Mrs Stencho Pantyhose does not like the Poms then the Gov’ment should ship the muzzles or mozzies next door to the Stencho. And see how that works out. Question to Stencho. Who has caused the most problems in Horse Tralia? Missies or the Poms? Don’t hold back now as I know that you are person of history. GO NOW. In fact just go now.
My husband of 42yrs was born in Amsterdam’s Jordaan and lived there, with the exception of the 2yrs he served in the Dutch Marines in Dutch New Guinea in the peace keeping force, and on his arrival back in Amsterdam he applied to come to Aus and landed here Oct ’58 at 22yrs of age. He had lived just a street or two from Anne Frank’s house which was close to the border of the Jordaan. He had never heard of Anne Frank when many years later I showed him an article about her in the Women’s Weekly. He said to me that there was nothing unusual about her story. It happened all over Amsterdam. He had seen his neighbours homes boarded up and heard of no more. He was almost 9yrs of age when the war in Europe ended and had been sent to distant relatives, he had never met, and worked on a farm in the north of Holland for the last year. He was from a family of eight children and they were starving.
The other night Bolt had on an immigration lawyer – I’ve seen him on the show before but can’t remember his name.
He said the govt could extend these ex-detention non-citizens to, say, a Christmas Island Visa only. And as for the likelihood of compensation, pass a law that the maximum payment would be $1.00.
How the residents of Christmas Island would feel, he didn’t countenance on the show, but there’s definitely a plan in that.
JR, my Dad always said that the worst import to Australia was the Pommy Shop Steward. Now, if asked, he’d probably qualify that statement with a reference to later imports.
Re the BCM that puts car into limp mode:
My city car has suffered this limp mode from new. It only happens when I “put my foot down hard” – which, around town, is almost never. If you pull off the road & turn the motor off, it will reset. Around “town” it virtually never happens.
Fine – except on the few occasions that I drive it into the country & need to be fire on the throttle to overtake. A damn nuisance. I now refuse to drive my car to the farm on the rare occasions I need to – I will drive the Landcruiser by choice.
BTW won’t take it to the local dealer after the poorly trained techs did damage to the car last time.
Mr. Bean is at his best when he is not using words, but I am equally at home in both verbal and nonverbal expression.
– Rowan Atkinson
One of the penalties for refusing to participate in politics is that you end up being governed by your inferiors.
– Plato
I fixed it.
He said the govt could extend these ex-detention non-citizens to, say, a Halls Creek Visa only
The greatest wealth is to live content with little.
– Plato
Should I buy a 2023 Nissan Patrol or a Toyota LandCruiser?
The Audi of course.
And never get a Range Rover, they are piles of shit.
When I get rid of this problem I shall do a guest post on the abomination it is.
If we accept the notion that terrorists will have immunity because as they fire on civilians they hide behind civilians, then this tactic will be legitimized and the terrorists will have their greatest victory.
– Benjamin Netanyahu
So I say, just burn them and blast them to hell.
Yeah a couple of friends of mine when I lived rural were Ambo volunteers. They got a call out one night at 1am etc. Some meth head chick living in a rented dilapidated farmhouse had a sore tummy, and any panadol forte etc.?
And never get a Range Rover, they are piles of shit.
They all seemed to work quite well in all the James Bind movies that I watched.
Maybe you got yours from a dodgy Wheeler Dealer.
Name a solicitor-general that wasn’t an activist before, during or after they held that role?
You’d have to go back a long long time.
I’ve been unkind to Vagina Trolley on twitter.
Virginia Trioli
@LaTrioli
Sydney-Melbourne
@Qantas
flight this morn delayed, then delayed again, then slowed down by ATC, then plane moved incorrectly into landing bay and had to be towed back out to meet aerobridge and now they can’t find our bags.
My reply…
thefrollickingmole
@frollickingmole
·
2m
Replying to
@LaTrioli
and
@Qantas
That’s the punishment for being a climate criminal. Greta smiles at your inconvenience
So anything they did after the end of the Bridging (Removal Pending) visa that would have been illegal for the non-citizen to do under such a visa is something they can be retrospectively punished for, even though no such second visa existed at the time.
Retrospective punishment is not illegal (Polyukhovich v The Commonwealth [1991] HCA 32). In any event the second visa condition is not retrospective, it is a continuation. The illegality of these people has not ended; nor should their punishment if the alternative, removal to another country, is not possible.
Whoops. I mean James Bond of course. Another typo.
Just like Spike Malligna, the well known typing error. LOL
Mole, but islands are far superior as controllers of miscreants – just look at the convict experience.
Heard Island?
After reading that JC has COVID again, I feel my boasting of my COVID freeness this morning was poorly timed.
If you end up in hospital JC, avoid that Lennox Hill one.
That’s the one with the terrible hiring practices.
Retrospective punishment is not illegal
The ATO lives by that creed.
They recite it every morning.
I wouldn’t blame them if they did. The cost both Iives and cash has been immense.
Having said that. It wouldn’t be good for us Israel or Taiwan and like it or not globalization is here to stay.
Well done Mole.
20 upticks.
Bar Beach Swimmer
Nov 17, 2023 4:37 PM
Missies or the Poms?
JR, my Dad always said that the worst import to Australia was the Pommy Shop Steward. Now, if asked, he’d probably qualify that statement with a reference to later imports.
The Shop Steward may have been Scottish, Not to say that the Poms were not unionists. I remember going into my first Pub here in 1976 in Canbrrrr and the Bar Tender said to me – “You Pommy Bar Steward”. So I said thank you very much, but I have never worked in a Bar in my life.
Boom, Boom and so said Basil Brush.
After reading that JC has COVID again, I feel my boasting of my COVID freeness this morning was poorly timed.
If you end up in hospital JC, avoid that Lennox Hill one.
That’s the one with the terrible hiring practices.
Head prefect is crook again! It’s the cigars.
Bern
Again? It’s the first time I’ve seen two lines on a test. Lennox Hill? It’s literally a stone’s throw. Three blocks. What’s wrong with its hiring practices?
Bar Beach Swimmer
Nov 17, 2023 4:58 PM
Id normally agree, but would defer to the Chinese chaps who tried to escape Port Hedland detention centre by jumping on a train.
Which was surely taking them to Perth.
In Summer.
/spoiler: The train wasnt going to Perth.
So ‘swimming in the sea without a facemask’, ‘driving alone in a vehicle without a mask’, ‘ standing whilst ordering a beer – without a facemask’, 93yo on a killspree with a butterknife whilst in control of a zimmer frame, and ‘filthy grandma needs to be pepper sprayed’ in a public place – contrary to CHOs orders, all failed to make the top 10 this year?
Knock it off, Cronkite. I’m picture of health. I blame the US as there’s just too many people.
Weren’t you an OG COVID?
The original? if not, I’ve confused you with someone else.
Vicki
Nov 17, 2023 4:38 PM
Re the BCM that puts car into limp mode:
Vicki.
look at THIS is the ULTIMATE Scan Tool’s better version but is it BETTER? D8 Review
My daughter is looking at 2nd hand 2020 Peugeot 5008 second hand (depreciates quickly) which elder sister has, and has been very pleased with it – we have our old Saab Service Dealer nearby who also does Peugeot
As I do 4WD with newer vehicles and have been hit with limp home on many occasions, from having fun to being a necessay tool in the outback, looking at purchasing
https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=x+tool+d7&crid=2DQ5240MR4BF4&sprefix=x+tool+d7%2Caps%2C226&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
or
https://www.amazon.com.au/s?k=x+tool+d8&crid=19Q6X72X7X44N&sprefix=x+tool+d8%2Caps%2C229&ref=nb_sb_noss_1
https://obd2australia.com.au/product/xtool-d8-smart-diagnosis-system/
Lennox hill had to get rid of one their doctors because they were celebrating the Oct 7th butchery.
Retrospective punishment is not illegal
The ATO lives by that creed.
They recite it every morning.
I should qualify the point by noting the retrospectivity cannot create the crime. David Hicks however managed to avoid that condition.
feelthebern
Nov 17, 2023 4:58 PM
I would like to know whether Junior Cretin has ever had the Jabs or the Boosters.
If so, it serves him/she/it/whatever right the Pompous Windbag.
Safe and Effective – Yea right. Wot’a load of Bollocks.
Maybe that Fat Pizza might help. And maybe not.
Sictoria. The cleva state. LOL
Could be all that’s needed is reseting a fault code, Vicki.
I can’t abide by this, we were coerced into it. Remember the left-wing press like Vice mocking anti-vaxxers for saying the jabs would be compulsory in February 2020?
A lesbian couple I know have a Ford Everest.
They are genuine 4WD’ers and sing its praises.
I’m not sure why I mentioned their sexuality.
It has nothing to do with their car choice.
That’s a good question.
Someone should ask Hamas why is apparently halal to delay burials.
Though the six babies and toddlers I saw were real, and really dead and not AI.
And he should reply stfu! None of your business, Stasi!.
Really Rottenhead, it serves me right in getting COVID, does it? In that case, I hope you get it and bleed from every freaking orifice, you filthy limey pos. Really, it serves me right? Seriously, I hope your lungs bleed and you choke, you limey slime-ball.
Peace is purchased from strength. It’s not purchased from weakness or unilateral retreats.
– Benjamin Netanyahu
bespoke
Nov 17, 2023 5:13 PM
My city car has suffered this limp mode from new. It only happens when I “put my foot down hard” – which, around town, is almost never. If you pull off the road & turn the motor off, it will reset. Around “town” it virtually never happens.
Could be all that’s needed is reseting a fault code, Vicki.
bespoke,
road testing new 4WDs in outback, 2000-2017 If you pull off the road & turn the motor off, it will reset. was the 1st go to fix.
Farm ute is a gas/petrol
Vicki.
Fire is my first thought.
Replace that ute with a diesel before you do anything.
Biden: Israel’s Gaza operation will end when Hamas no longer able to murder Israelis
US president says terror group has been proven to have HQ, weapons below Shifa and possibly other hospitals, urges IDF to be ‘incredibly careful’ around medical centers
JC
Nov 17, 2023 5:20 PM
With you eating all that Fat Pizza it serves you right for being such a Pompous Windbag and sick person.
I will be 71 years old on next Tuesday and I’m in rude health. My Mum is 92 and the same.
We have good genes.
Poms bringing in good genes and I am the eldest of eight. And we are all still alive. You sound a bit sick BTW. Try eating better food and stop smoking you fat arse. big nose
Agent Rotten over and out.
How Marvel ruined cinema – and sowed the seeds of its own destruction
The mega-studio’s latest blockbuster has bombed at the box office. After 15 years, is its crown finally starting to slip?
By Robbie Collin, FILM CRITIC
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has straddled cinema invincibly for 15 years – but this week, should you lift your nostrils to the wind, you might detect a faint whiff of kryptonite.
The latest instalment in this $26-billion-grossing media franchise, titled The Marvels, opened around the world last weekend, and the reception has been distinctly un-super.
The second standalone adventure for Brie Larson’s Captain Marvel, which teams the B-tier Avenger with two allies from recent Disney+ series, took just $47m in the United States: the lowest opening weekend of any MCU film to date. (The original Captain Marvel opened with more than three times that sum in 2019.) Meanwhile in the UK, its £3.4m was the series’ third-lowest after 2008’s The Incredible Hulk and 2011’s Captain America: The First Avenger, which were both released when the brand was still finding its feet.
Turn to YouTube for answers – rarely a wise idea – and you’ll be told The Marvels bombed due to wokeness. Female star, female sidekicks, racial diversity, no blokes (aside from Samuel L Jackson; a constant): it’s all an affront to the faithful male millennials who underpinned the MCU’s early success.
Trouble is, the data don’t bear it out.
In the MCU’s immediately pre-covid heyday, its audience was almost exactly gender-balanced (it skewed 55 per cent male, on average) and also notably young (40 per cent were under 25).
The Marvels, however, drew a predominantly (61 per cent) male crowd over the weekend, of which just 19 per cent came from the coveted Gen-Z 18-24 age bracket.
(And apparently teenagers couldn’t care less: just seven per cent were 13-17s.) In other words, the rump of diehards are the same male millennials they always were. So if Marvel isn’t suddenly floundering over wokeness, why is it stumbling now?
The truth is, the series sowed the seeds of its own destruction 15 years ago: the roots just happened to choke its rivals first.
By the end of its first four-year streak – Phase One, in MCU terms – the model had become so successful that every rival studio had dropped what they were doing and were scrambling to copy it. It turned apparently worthless intellectual properties – what ordinary person cared about Iron Man, Thor and Captain America? – into goldmines.
It was building its own stable of movie stars, both rehabilitated (Robert Downey Jr) and newly minted (the Chrises: Evans, Pratt and Hemsworth).
And it was a massive, perpetual trailer for itself, with each instalment firing fans’ enthusiasm for the next. Barring the initial dip from Iron Man to The Incredible Hulk, every solo film made more than the last – while the first team-up, The Avengers, became the highest-grossing film Disney had then ever released.
Marvel’s formula became known as the Cinematic Universe model, and was like nothing Hollywood had previously seen.
And the recipe ran as follows. Take a pre-existing pop culture franchise with built-in nostalgic appeal.
Make the individual films interconnected, rather than just successive chapters in a sequence. Make lots of them – more than one per year on that initial four-year run, rising to three annually, plus streaming series. And shape them to the tastes of the widest possible global audience: 12As and only 12As, with nothing to goad social media or enrage Chinese censors.
Soon enough, four rival Cinematic Universes were whirring away.
Disney themselves applied the Marvel rules to Star Wars, which they acquired from Lucasfilm for $4.05 billion in 2012, the year of The Avengers’s release.
Warner Bros fast-tracked one into existence for their own DC Comics brand, hitting the first team-up (2017’s Justice League, featuring Batman, Superman and Wonder Woman) in three years.
Sony had a grab-bag of Spider-Man villains on their books, like Venom and Morbius, so a Sony Spider-Man Universe got underway too. And New Line got a horror version up and running, in which popular ghouls from The Conjuring series – a haunted doll called Annabelle, a spectral nun – could peel off and terrorise ad hoc.
Then there were the failures, smouldering by the roadside as the zeitgeist tore past. Universal’s Dark Universe, a revival of the studio’s portfolio of classic monsters from the 1930s, was abandoned after a single film, 2017’s poorly received, Tom Cruise-led reboot of The Mummy.
And Paramount tried – still are trying – to weld its Hasbro action-figure properties into a sort of Toys-R-Us-verse, which puts GI Joe into the same world as Transformers (and M.A.S.K., Visionaries and Micronauts).
Yet Hollywood ignored the second law of movie-going thermodynamics: even the most stable Cinematic Universe will eventually collapse in on itself.
First, running costs keep rocketing upwards, as constant reshoots and last-minute reworkings of visual effects are required to keep the broader plan on track. (It’s thought that The Marvels cost Disney $275m; Ridley Scott’s Napoleon, with its teeming cast and epic, devastating battles, may have been made for $70m less.)
The fixed house style also becomes an issue: what was fun and glossy a generation ago now feels desperately dated. (Think how often the conventional long-running series, like Bond, Batman and Star Trek, try out different looks and tones.)
Joining the stable of stars holds less appeal too, as actors’ multi-film contracts become career-stranglers. Brie Larson won the Best Actress Oscar in 2015, and was cast in Captain Marvel the following year. And since the release of that film, she has appeared in a total of two non-Marvel ones: the legal drama Just Mercy and the tenth Fast & Furious.
Most devastating of all, though, is consumer fatigue.
The Cinematic Universe model depends on customer appetite swelling in line with studio output – in other words, exactly against the tried-and-true laws of supply and demand.
The question posed by studios is “How much more can we make?” As for “How much more can we take?” – who cares?
Over at Star Wars, the streaming series keep coming. In the last four years, almost 40 hours of new viewing material have been pumped out: nearly twice as much as was made in the prior 42 years.
But Star Wars isn’t almost twice as beloved now as it was in 2019.
Rather, its horizons have narrowed: there’s no role for imagination to play in Star Wars any more, because the content glut instantly fills all the cracks.
It floods the market too. Eight of the ten most commercially successful films released in the 1990s were either wholly original ideas or had been adapted from books.
(The two exceptions were Star Wars: Episode I and The Lost World: Jurassic Park.) But by the end of the 2000s – the decade the franchises began to take over – the ratio had exactly reversed: all but two (Avatar and Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone) were sequels.
And during the 2010s, when the Cinematic Universe model was in its pomp?
Seven ‘universe’ titles (five of which were Marvel), two ordinary sequels, and one remake. The first non-franchise film came 46th on the list, and that was Bohemian Rhapsody. The first original story? Christopher Nolan’s Inception, which by the end of the decade had fallen out of the top 50 entirely, outshone by such cultural lodestars as Aquaman, Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle and Ice Age: Continental Drift.
What’s most striking about that top 50 is how extraordinarily boring it is – a toddler’s menu, with turkey dinosaurs every night of the week.
Has the death spiral begun, or is The Marvels’ failure merely a blip?
The extraordinary success of Oppenheimer this summer – Nolan again – bodes well for audiences who want to be treated like adults.
And in the UK, Martin Scorsese’s Killers of the Flower Moon has steadily taken £9m over the last four weeks: if it outgrosses The Marvels, that’s poetic justice.
Per TS Eliot, whimper rather than bang seems the likelier mode of decline.
But the vanishing of 15 years of dominance overnight is a significant shift. Like westerns and musicals, two of Hollywood’s prior unhealthy fixations, the superhero film will survive.
But as in both of those earlier cases, the genre’s new tragic aura may be hard to shift.
BBC, on their quick trip to Shifa
[And] we uncovered a lot of computers and other equipment which could really shed light on the current situation, hopefully regarding hostages as well.”
The laptops, he says, contain photos and videos of hostages, taken after their kidnap to Gaza. There is also recently released footage, shared by Israeli police, of their interrogations of Hamas fighters arrested after the October attacks. The BBC was not shown what was on the laptops.
I mentioned it yesterday. Since yesterday, I’ve seen reports that Hamas had blocked off the entrance/s to the bunker with concrete.
bespoke
Nov 17, 2023 5:19 PM
So I am waiting for the Gawd Oracle twat to say something ingenious.
Rude Health?
You’re here 24/7 either posting ridiculous quotes and hanging on the Leavenworth economist’s stupid crap. When you’re not doing that, you flicking ticks trying to wreck the blog. You’re a filthy slob, Wodney.
That reminds me, someone posted the question why The Killer had such a limited release.
The reason is it was made for Netflix.
But to qualify for the awards it had to meet the cinematic release threshold.
Not sure why they bothered.
Killers of the Flower Moon is going to win all the major ones this awards season.
OldOzzie
Nov 17, 2023 5:32 PM
How Marvel ruined cinema – and sowed the seeds of its own destruction
The mega-studio’s latest blockbuster has bombed at the box office. After 15 years, is its crown finally starting to slip?
Because people want real films with real dialogue like in the Old Days.
Like the 1900s.
I like the idea of a Range Rover. Not sure about the reality though. The pricing on the new Defenders is a bit full too.
JC
Nov 17, 2023 5:38 PM
No Junior Cretin, you are a lurker and a Pompous Windbag.
Have fun lurking on this Bog, I mean Blog,
No, no.
Not bunker.
Wine cellar.
Moving amongst you now….
Twenty-seven foreigners handed freedom after a High Court decision overturning indefinite detention have committed “very serious” crimes against children or women, or high-level violent crimes.
Another 35 are subject to adverse character rulings following “violent, sexual or exploitative offences”, while 21 have committed national security, cyber crime, organised crime or gang-related offences.
Documents tabled in the Senate on Friday confirmed the vast majority of the 92 asylum seekers freed or due to be released are subject to serious security concerns.
Nearly 85 per cent cannot be deported due to legal protection findings, while 14 are stateless or unable to be removed for reasons beyond Australia’s control.
The documents reveal Afghans make up the biggest nationality group among the cohort (19), followed by Iranians (17) and Sudanese (10).
Six of them have been in detention for more than a decade, while more than half have been detained for more than five years.
Oz
KOFM will win:
best director;
best picture;
best actor;
best actress;
best supporting actor;
best adapted screenplay.
The pricing on the new Defenders is a bit full too.
That 2 door super charged Defender goes for 300k.
Only premier league players & drug dealers drive them.
Give yourself 40 upticks for each comment, Wodney. That way people here will think you’re really smart.
Six of them have been in detention for more than a decade, while more than half have been detained for more than five years.
Meaning the current chief justice was the solicitor-general when at least some of these dirt bags were detained.
What advice did he give the minister of the day at that time?
Why isn’t Janet A asking this exact question?
No.
But that doesn’t excuse the parties before the Court from doing a bit of contingency planning.
So why didn’t Luigi have legislation drafted and ready to go, with the opposition on board to get it through the Senate?
Because he thought it would both placate the Greens and also provide a stick to hit Dutton with.
There goes his chance for a Darwin Award.
Climate activist Gregory Andrews taken away in an ambulance on day 16 of hunger strike on lawns of Parliament House (Sky News, 17 Nov)
But, wait! We have another competitor for the top prize!
Second climate activist joins Gregory Andrews’ hunger strike as former ambassador carted away in an ambulance (17 Nov)
Think of the wonderful result of success guys. Not only that you would improve the human gene pool but you’d also save on all that CO2 you’d otherwise breathe out during the rest of your miserable lives!
Reuters.
Was reading argument on extwitter re intercepted communications in Gaza, specifically the baby stroller conversation.
One hamas lover said fake because they only use landlines.
(Apparently they do in the tunnel system and that was crucial in 7 October planning)
This conversation however was clearly on some sort of two way radio and someone pointed out it was likely that hamas were now using a variety of communication systems
Apparently a US ship parked nearby has a specific drone that can listen in to anything .
The Biden administration has not declassified the sources of the U.S. intelligence “because some of those same channels are being used to monitor the status of hostages,” a knowledgeable source said.
The intelligence “is definitive,” said the source, and includes communications intercepts of Hamas fighters. The intercepts were first reported on Wednesday by the Wall Street Journal.
I thought it was a strike to the death not until my body tells me to stop.
That’s a lot of Woodstock cans, bern.
Give it a rest.
You made a very clear reference to the Dutch handing Jews over to the Nazis in response to a comment from Johanna.
Fairly ordinary thing to say, along with the hyper-bowl comparing Johanna to Hamas.
Don’t go the full Nurse Betty claiming it was “just a cultural reference”. The intent was clear.
So, as I say … you posted it, you own it.
I am not falling for damsel in distress smelling salts/fainting couch “Wah, wah, wah … I’m being bullied” routine.
JC
Nov 17, 2023 5:53 PM
I don’t give a shite about down thumb bum bums but you seem to do .You paranoid prick. Cock head to boot as well.
Take all those virus shots and boosters as well, You Fat Pizza Plonker. And I hope it helps with everything. The Anger Management Classes await you. LOL If you can make it on the way to …………………
The Nation’s favourite Institute makes an appearance in the Media Watchdog. Woof woof.
The purpose of the Jewish state is to secure the Jewish future. That is why Israel must always have the ability to defend itself, against any threat.
– Benjamin Netanyahu
Politics makes people inferior. It makes them behave like sheep, to submit to groupthink, to sacrifice their cognition and conscience for the sake of party solidarity. Politics makes people lie, distort the truth, twist the facts to support party solidarity. The long term consequences of functioning in such an environment is the erosion of integrity, the refusal to think deeply because it is easier to follow the party line, to support party policies in fear of being ostracized by people you have spent the last decade socializing and working with.
And nor should you, Winston, for they have been around for years. 🙂
Lawfare unless you give me a 50% share of profits, all costs go to your half.
Callout one night in Wilcannia:
“Chest pain young aboriginal male.”
It was an Aboriginal Health Care Wukka who wanted eye drops put in at 0200 while he was on the piss.
When I asked for details so he could be billed for the callout – 1 RN on call out rates, 1 driver, 1 Ambulance – he laughed. “I’m aboriginal – it’s free.”
Second climate activist joins Gregory Andrews’ hunger strike as former ambassador carted away in an ambulance
A newer and better comedy routine presents itself!
Climate activist and musician Reverend Bones is currently in his fifth day of a solidarity hunger strike after being inspired by his “friend” Mr Andrews.
Ol’ mate said from the ambulance as he was carted away to Maccas:
“Gregory is a dad and D’harawal man, a former Ambassador and public servant for 30yrs. He is also my friend,” he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
However, unlike Mr Andrews, the second striker is only refusing to eat until “political leaders” agree to meet with his friend, who has already surpassed 16 days with no food.
Ambassador? Reverend? Reverend Bones even! New guy looks like a cosmic layabout….
Sometimes this stuff just writes itself. I’m here all week – don’t miss the veal!
Of course you do, Wodney. Only last week, you were counting up the number of down ticks I had received on a comment. You referred to it it on three occasions. And it was you posting the ticks too, because of the way they were being done. There was an additional tick one every 45 seconds. You’re a filthy dishonest piece of shit. Also, as soon as you post a comment there’s a few ticks in the matter of seconds. You’re about as popular and insightful as a dried turd.
Go give the ladyboy a big wet kiss.
Or King’s Counsel running a vineyard as an ego booster and a tax deduction.
A woman is in an induced coma after falling down six rows of seats at a Robbie Williams concert in Sydney on Thursday night.
It is understood the woman, believed to be aged in her 70s, was attempting to climb over rows of chairs at Allianz Stadium when she slipped, tumbling down six rows of seats.
Good on her for being out & about.
The end of the evening, not so good.
MSM are very focused on the controversial.
Another article suggested around 5000 hamas terrorists have been killed so far.
Wasn’t aware that hamas had attempted another incursion into Israel in late October.
update from the long war journal on how IDF are doing in gaza
JC I hope you recover well, and soon. Ideal time to toss the smokes.
Bad luck to come down so quickly, but it does get it over with.
Enjoy your stay in the crazy US. Best wishes.
in relation to nothing here except its the end of the week & time for some okie funk ….
I got the same old blues – JJ Cale
And not one too few either.
Elander & the News
@ElanderNews
WHO – Soon the WHO will rollout the Global Health Certificate The G20 committed to.
It will list vaccinations the WHO decide are needed for you to travel. All attached to your Digital ID & eventually your Carbon allocation.
You did not vote for this.
Thanks Liz. I can’t believe it.
Schools encourage KIDS to march for Palestine – ‘What in God’s name is going on?! | Richard Tice
bespoke
Nov 17, 2023 5:03 PM
Winston Smith
Globalisation will end the day the first cluster of Ebola appears at the US Southern border.
If Biden tries to let them through for treatment, the US will riot, and the citizenry will shoot illegals on sight.
Politics makes people inferior.
People do that themselves.
There are 3 choices for social organisation. Western democracy, war and tyranny and sport.
I didn’t know about this one – an interesting site Rosie linked above:
JC
Nov 17, 2023 5:53 PM
As usual Junior, you are being so stoooopid.
But then again, what to expect from a retard who likes eating Fat Pizza.
And, who doesn’t know a tick from a down thumb bum bum.
Sictoria most certainly deserves you along with Dan the so called Man.
The Muzzies are now on there way to your area. So, who let them in? Ask your friendly MP that’s who. And dopehead Albasleazy. Vote Laybore. You know it makes cents.
Might be some foot stomping going on.
SMH possibly paywalled
Not our place to use terms like genocide and apartheid, says ABC boss
Yes JC hope the anti vitals do the trick and you get well soon and enjoy thanksgiving.
Re the disgusting antics at Parliament House- another canbra shitshow. Sounds like a joint foreign affaires-ABC production.
cohenite
Nov 17, 2023 6:38 PM
That is four.
anarchy? feudalism? one nation under a groove?
humans are good at exploring these social org things …
BBS, clear cache and cookies and the error message disappears…until next time.
On Covid, still haven’t caught the wretched thing. It must fear me.
Update on my Dad – he’s off to rehab. Apparently, in a country awash with social workers, there is a long waiting list for assessment to get into assisted care. There is a room and a bed waiting for him in a lovely local facility, but the jobsworths must shuffle some paper around first.
Stupid country.
Get real, Winston.
Have a can of the good stuff.
Show’s what canbra’s priorities are and it’s not the cost of living and vicious criminals being released into the community.
There are 3 choices for social organisation. Western democracy, war and tyranny and sport.
That is four. And too many ands. LOL
Matrix said never said that
what Matrix did say was that any participant here that belongs to Meta-Cat and spends too much time intentionally misquoting, re-framing and generally bull-shitting is a wanker
when did Matrix say that?
… just now
This week’s Watchdog is the usual star studded affair with Liar storyteller Mavis featuring in the correspondence section.
That is four.
Four what?
LOL
That’s bummer JC.
Looks like getting it is a luck of the draw jabbed or not, I had to get the wretched thing injected to stay in business, so far, touch wood alright.
Get well soon, best of luck.
I made a comment up thread regarding my husband and his family. I’ve met all of them except for his mother who died two years after our marriage.
My husband’s father stayed a month with us in 1968 and another month in 1972. We got on like a house on fire.
I’m proud of my Dutch name as are my children and grandchildren. Yet on this blog I’m constantly bombarded by derogatory comments re the Dutch in WWII.
They’re the same people. They just barrack for different luigiball teams.
In Bergen.
Beautiful little city, it has burned down so many times nothing remains of the original.
C.L., rosie and other Catholics will be amused by this…the Lutherans did a big purge of Catholics here. As in destroy the monastery and nunnery, kill the religious, give everyone else the flick.
Fast forward a couple of centuries – the huge pile that is the Lutheran cathedral is empty. No congregation. Nada. Doors closed. The little rebuilt Catholic church across the road is packed to the rafters…five services on Sundays and likely to grow some more.
Common sense dictates that the Catholic congregation move over to the larger building, but no dice. 🙂
Re: all the advice on the limp mode –
Yep. If you just pull off the road & restart the engine, it is back to normal. But to do so is a pain in the proverbial. In real time – it happens rarely as the car is driven almost all its life in suburbia & rarely on the open road & throttled on. Husband refuses therefore to take it to Dealer to investigate (at great cost) any fault.
Re JC & Covid – my sympathy JC. The latest strain is quite unpleasant. After a month I still have an occasional cough & blocked eustachians. Dr. Peter McCullough & others predicted a “mutating down” in severity (although more contagious). Geert Van Den Bossche, of course, reckons that vaccinating during a pandemic will likely make it more virulent, due to “antigenic escape”. It is somewhat concerning.
Matrix, I thought you were just having a bit of a joke about “God Oracling” with the apprentices and other employees.
Confession…we all do it.
MatrixTransform
Nov 17, 2023 6:48 PM
I agree and Junior Cretin is a wanker.
Anyways, dawn has broken at around 8:30am, so I’m off to the funicular for a better view of the fjord. The hotel is beside the water and I watched the ferries pulling in full of workers over breakfast.
That 2 door super charged Defender goes for 300k.
Woodstock can $7.90 (really??? BWS)
37,974 cans of woodies.
or 1/66,666th of a Maocolm snowy river tunnel project (at a lazy $20B)
Enough said.
Nothing like some interfaith rivalry to spark debate.
I agree and Junior Cretin is a wanker.
If Junior Cretin is so good and all that then he/she/it/whatever should not be a problem.
However, being the shit head that the person is – The person is a problem.
Have fun on this Blog.
Woke etc.
Report: Rhodes College Chaplain Tries to Hold Unsanctioned BDSM Workshop (16 Nov)
She’s quite pretty, for a chaplain. But I wouldn’t attend Rhodes College, nor her church, if she has one.
I only hate two things in this world. The Dutch, and the Poll Tax. (h/t Michael Caine character in Goldmember)
thefrollickingmole
Nov 17, 2023 7:01 PM
That 2 door super charged Defender goes for 300k.
Woodstock can $7.90 (really??? BWS)
37,974 cans of woodies.
or 1/66,666th of a Maocolm snowy river tunnel project (at a lazy $20B)
And poor old Florence – It is very cold in those Snowy Mts.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F8gOT3KqnPY
Apart from shitbreds in Whittnigton etc, whose single mothers fed them Coca cola as a baby, is there another demographic that drinks Woodstock?
Chilean and Polish migrants Calli?
I remember trying to find a Catholic church in Copenhagen when I was there with my children.
Nothing that was open despite trudging a long way to at least find one.
of course it was bloody joke
The High Court did not rule the law to be unconstitutional. There was no such law. Indefinite detention was based on precedent. I may be wrong of course. Happy to stand corrected.
They have become irrational over most things, he can only see the one where he differs from them. In other words, Gawenda is himself irrational about most things.
Former Lutheran.
Bishop Who Was Drawn to Catholicism by ‘Wondrous Heritage of Her Saints’: Growth of the Church In Norway Coincides With an Awakening to Faith
Bishop Erik Varden of Trondheim discusses the roots of the expansion of the Catholic faith in Norway and the challenges that it represents in a highly secularized country.
I remember trying to find a Catholic church in Copenhagen when I was there with my children.
Nothing that was open despite trudging a long way to at least find one.
Maybe you should have gone further south. Like near ROME.
I wouldn’t take it personally. .
Most of it is in jest, mostly.
Like this.
How does an Italian get into an honest business?
Through the skylight.
They are now in the process of pissing of almost every other country. They won’t like what comes after.
No No it’s fake! Propaganda! No rockets have ever been fired at Israel from Gaza! Iron Dome is just a laser show! It’s all part of the plan to build a tartarian canal.
I’d say try the veal, but apparently, it’s gone off.
Goodness. I suppose we see what we want to see. I haven’t noticed that.
My Huguenot ancestry has copped a few serves though. And they’re almost Dutch. Very into fen draining and building dykes against the sea, just like the Hollanders.
Luther would be spinning in his grave about how the Lutherans have been going, from what I read. I hope there are unwoke ones like Sydney Anglicans are actual Christian Anglicans. Poor old Luther just wanted to get the Church to fix all the stupid stuff that it had accreted onto her and kaboom, the whole thing exploded.
calli earlier
I have just got involved in our local community owned aged care home.
(Stick your head up, shoot your mouth off and you end up with an honorary helper job).
The assessment process is part science, part black art, and those responsible are paranoid about undercooking the assessment and not getting enough funding.
“Supt. Longhorn, who heads the State communications division, urged the public to dial 131 444 for non-urgent matters.”
I bet Supt Longhorn never got a go in the sexual offences squads. That name is right up there with ‘Ferken Derya’.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/patricksmith/furkan-derya
Anti vitals?
Dr Freud to aisle five, please.
Misquoting, re-framing, Wanker, bullshitting.? When did trans say that?
Solipsistic derivative wankers.
Ruh roh!
the driver’s window mechanism shat itself. Kerching!
Just replaced the mechanism in a Merc 430E. Almost $600. Essential job though.
How else do you a flip an offensive finger at mobile speed camera operators?
Winston, there are at least five downtickers here who can’t take a joke.
And they have to show the world that they can’t. They’re proud of it, ffs.
What a humorless place this can be.
I sometimes muse on what these downtickers must be like, IRL. But I can only vaguely picture it, with ‘we can’t have that’ and ‘this’ll show her’ writ in their moronic eyes.
They always come up as male. I don’t like to think of my own sex as thumb screws.
rosie
Nov 17, 2023 7:31 PM
I always liked laissez-faire
And fark the French.
JR
Military lawyer guilty of leaking war crime allegations
Dominic GianniniAAP
Fri, 17 November 2023 2:45PM
David McBride has pleaded guilty to leaking allegations of war crimes by Australian troops in Afghanistan.
This bastard should be stripped naked and tethered in a field of rutting male goats.
One could argue that the Moosley in Australia has been engaged in more spectacular but isolated anti-social activities than any other group.
However, for widespread and persistent sabotage of Australian industry, you can’t beat the Brit shop-steward.
Australia can’t afford a third lived experience from this incompetent woman. She has got to go and as soon as possible.
insults at ten paces, flying in multiple directions, the best of entertainment.
Elizabeth (Lizzie) Beare
Nov 17, 2023 7:51 PM
Winston, there are at least five downtickers here who can’t take a joke.
And they have to show the world that they can’t. They’re proud of it, ffs.
What a humorless place this can be.
Oh my goodness. And these people don’t know the difference between a down tick/up tick and a down thumb/up thumb. No wonder this Country is going to pot.
And the humourless can’t spell for chicken shit. Probably USA’ns or Anals. Like Tennis Elbow.
Noa Marciano’s body has now been located and extracted ‘adjacent to Shifa hospital’.
Aha. In my skim scrolling I only saw that bit. My dad always used to call himself the old man, and his dad too. So I thought it was about family. A sort of humorous reference, about being head of the family, he who must be obeyed etc.
Maybe the Cat is losing its sense of humor.
Has anyone looked under the sofa?
I’m at a loss as to why slagging off the French would bother me.
Interesting to see the post-mortem results for Noa Marciano.
I hope it was quick. Poor young woman.
Nope not even my Huguenot ancestry is bothered.
Buy the ticket, go on the ride (the Tele):
By the time this is over (at least, this chapter is over), the public opinion so relied upon by the Palis will be non-existent.
All that needs to happen is for the Next Big Shiny Thing to come down the pipe, and the fashionable protests by handpatters, social misfits and affluent ignoramuses will have a new target.
Rereading the announcement it appears she was killed on the 7th.
I am definitely the head of our household. Mrs D is the neck. The head can only go where the neck takes it.
‘Mind mah tea!’
must just be bad sentence construction as she made a vid four days after being taken hostage.
Crossie
Nov 17, 2023 7:54 PM
When the Brits turned up in 1788, why, why, why? And so many questions?.
And here we are in 2023, still asking questions of our so called leaders. Who are NOT leaders at all. They are Rulers just like King George the Turd. Tennis Elbow where are you?
Nope.
When the Brits turned up in 1788, why, why, why? And so many questions?.
And here we are in 2023, still asking questions of our so called leaders. Who are NOT leaders at all. They are Rulers just like King George the Turd. Tennis Elbow where are you?
Lonnie Donegan – My Old Man’s a Dustman (Live) 1/6/1961
feelthebern
And never get a Range Rover, they are piles of shit.
I gather you have had one so am interested to hear your forthcoming critique.
Most of the shitcanning of Range Rovers is from those who have never had one, let alone even driven one.
My experience is different. A proper Range Rover. 2008 L322 supercharged AJ 4.2L V8 400BHP (Factory figure) so it’s quite the weapon for overtaking trucks given it’s weight. I’ve had it for 6 years. Paid 1/4 of new price at 50K km so minimal depreciation since. It’s now done 170K mainly country km and has been totally reliable. Normal maintenance costs only, rotors and pads, tyres and 2 suspension bushes. Never seen a fault light.
I’ve had Toyotas. Good cars but boring. Fridges on wheels. That’s just my opinion but.
Rodeos got a mention earlier also. My Rodeo ute is a 2001 3.2 L DOHC V6. Really sweet Isuzu engine. It’s done nearly 500K km. You shake rattle and roll as you row it along through the (nice) 5 speed manual.
Happy motoring.
cohenite
Nov 17, 2023 7:53 PM
Im not sure, it looks like a double betrayal.
According to this sharticle it looks like he contacted their ABCcess because he thought the special operators were being overinvestigated.
The ABCcess has grabbed his files and whipped up the war crimes angle themselves.
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-11-17/military-whistleblower-david-mcbride-trial-leaked-adf-war-crimes/103119808
The court heard this week that, while serving as an army lawyer in Afghanistan, McBride became concerned by what he believed was the “over-investigation” of alleged misconduct by special forces troops.
Prosecutor Patricia McDonald noted that McBride believed the investigations were “excessive” and undermined the soldiers’ safety.
The whistleblower handed classified documents related to these investigations to journalists Andrew Clarke, Chris Masters and Dan Oakes.
The ABC later published what became known as The Afghan Files, which detailed Australian troops’ alleged illegal killings in Afghanistan.
To quote the classic animal house “you F*cked up, you trusted us”…
Let’s see if this will be played off as a joke.
————————————————————————————–
Zafiro
Nov 16, 2023 10:22 PM
Hamarse are a sideshow controlled by Mossad. Tell me I’m crazy!