The totally off-topic thread

[Nigelinoz]

Sad news tonight that music industry identity and AIDS activist Vince Lovegrove has died in a car accident near Byron.
Another good man lost .
R.I.P.

 

[medhead]

John Winston Howard had some good advice when it came to hubris.

 

[ReLoad]

As long as banana and pineapple production is unaffected, then Queensland is all good

 

[drmikki]

This afternoon I get to have a tour of the KLIA air traffic control tower, armed with my camera. Now, I know there are a fair few airport geeks here - any questions you want me to ask or pictures you'd like me to take if allowed? I am by no means an enthusiast, just an interested party who got offered this opportunity and jumped at it... probably means if I ask the questions I may not understand the answers! I promise to try though....

 

[docjames]

I'm surprised you're allowed a camera tbh.

Can you ask what the policy is regarding "near misses" in the controllers sectors? ie. if they make a mistake, what is the process? (Is it similar to Australia?)

 

[Simo]

As long as banana and pineapple production is unaffected, then Queensland is all good

As long as they don't stuff up our resources sector all is good for the govt

 

[drron]

Well my rant for the day is the decreasing inability to source my food from Australia.Set off by picking up the new packages of Angas Park dried fruits(as it is now owned by the Chinese).Apart from the muscatels all the other dried fruit was now -Product of south africa whereas previously most was Australian sourced.I note that most of woolies tinned fruit also is a product of South africa or Israel.
Our local Coles is marginally better than Woollies as it does have our local Maleny Milk and my favourites sauces and salad dressings from Tasmania.Sure we can blame the high Aussie dollar but what happens if it goes into freefall again-farmers have pulled up their trees,no Aussie production so our prices skyrocket because the majority of our food is now imported.
Rant over and I feel better.

 

[docjames]

On that topic, a lot of the F+V is shipped interstate even if the same product is grown locally. It all ends up in consolidator wherehouses for Australia-wide shipping. At one stage, fruit grown in SEQ was being shipped to Western Sydney before being transported to Far Nth NSW.

 

[markis10]

+1 to DRW airport's social media team for being on top of new arrivals
-10 to DRW airport's social media team for not being on top of the airline contacts details on the very same page!

Welcome to Darwin Silk Air, we would ring you but we dont know your number!

 

[drmikki]

I'm surprised you're allowed a camera tbh.

Can you ask what the policy is regarding "near misses" in the controllers sectors? ie. if they make a mistake, what is the process? (Is it similar to Australia?)

Turns out I wasn't allowed a camera, unfortunately - hotel-provided info was inaccurate. Fascinating to see how it all works up in the tower, and a great view across both runways and the apron and taxiways. If anyone is a member of the GHA Discovery hotel loyalty program, it's one of the "local experiences" at Platinum level offered by PanPacific KLIA and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to everyone. If you have an interest in aviation, it's wonderful to see what really goes on in coordinating takeoff and landing and asking all your questions; and if you have no interest whatsoever in aviation and no understanding of the technical side you get a great view of the local area and you can watch the planes taking off and landing. (One of the hotel staff accompanies you and it was pretty clear she had NFI what the controller and I were talking about, but she told me later she enjoyed watching the aircraft movements :mrgreen

Unfortunately docjames I didn't ask your question - it was in my list of questions to ask but the controller was giving me a funny look after I was asking about backup plans in case of emergency (eg power failure etc) and I thought asking about errors might make things worse. Or get me arrested as a terror suspect! Sorry... My interest in disaster management and human error management may yet get me in trouble...

 

[QF WP]

Thanks serfty, saw our media star medhead...

As I posted earler:

 

[cove]

I knew there was a time gap between the rest of Australia and Queensland. With the opposition now able to run around in an old Toyota Tarago it may provide a chance to close down that gap.
Wasn't our tv star a few days ago?

 

[markis10]

I knew there was a reason I don't normally pick a mid to rear seat on the milk run in FNQ, deodorant is optional apparently.

 

[medhead]

As long as they don't stuff up our resources sector all is good for the govt

I see Clive Palmer is in the paper today ranting about government approvals. I'll limit my counter-rant to "if mining companies tried consulting with government while developing their plans and didn't dump a 10,000 page EIS on them with a demand for a 3 week turn around then they might actually have a $&#%ing point".

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.


Sent from the Throne

 

[medhead]

Wasn't our tv star a few days ago?

I can send you a mpg for your iPad, then it can be everyday.


Sent from the Throne

 

[Mal]

Clap, clap, clap for ge.

My new coles mc has my name as <initial> <complete middle name> <complete surname>.

My old card had all in full but it appears they've decided to economise on characters.

Haha. Idiots. Ill probably ask them to reissue it.

Sent from my GT-I9100 using AustFreqFly

 

[amaroo]

I see Clive Palmer is in the paper today ranting about government approvals. I'll limit my counter-rant to "if mining companies tried consulting with government while developing their plans and didn't dump a 10,000 page EIS on them with a demand for a 3 week turn around then they might actually have a $&#%ing point".

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.


Sent from the Throne

Sounds like a mining tax consultation

 

[medhead]

Sounds like a mining tax consultation

Only in reverse. I should say I've seen good consultation as well that allowed a quick response when they said "here it is approve it next week or we're going to shut down." :shock:

Anyway, I'm sure Newman is glad that Clive Palmer won him the election. Who knows what would have happened without mad conspiracy theories.

 

[Hvr]

Slightly on topic here, CX888 opened its door at JFK at 0653, I was second off the plane (sat in 1A). By 0700 I was in the taxi line.

Too tired to try the train.

I am a convert to carry on luggage only.

TR to follow.

 

[ozbeachbabe]

I see Clive Palmer is in the paper today ranting about government approvals. I'll limit my counter-rant to "if mining companies tried consulting with government while developing their plans and didn't dump a 10,000 page EIS on them with a demand for a 3 week turn around then they might actually have a $&#%ing point".

Been there, done that, got the T-shirt.

Does Clive really think the CIA are trying to protect the US coal market at Australia's expense???

Clap, clap, clap for ge.

My new coles mc has my name as <initial> <complete middle name> <complete surname>.

My old card had all in full but it appears they've decided to economise on characters.

Haha. Idiots. Ill probably ask them to reissue it.

That's so Hollywood Mal. You've joined the ranks of high powered movie producers et al!