mike carey

You might note that some personal information has been redacted from the opening post in this thread.

I agree that it's appropriate for the responsible government to force owners' corporations (or whatever the local law calls them) to have adequate reserves. Doing so crystallises potential liabilities and takes away the ability of the corporations or individual owners to hide expenses purchasers may face. There are instances here where owners would reject efforts to create necessary reserves preferring, perhaps understandably but shortsightedly, to minimise current costs. This forces their hands. You could argue that it's up to buyers to do their due diligence, but making due diligence difficult for them should not be an option for corporations or owners. What about non-compliant corporations? My short answer is 'tough shit', but the longer answer is to force them to comply. Issue directions to them to levy contributions to the reserve fund so that it shows up as a liability for individual owners rather than a contingent liability for the corporation. How the corporation enforces the debt is a separate question, they could allow it to be paid off gradually and charge interest on outstanding amounts. (Under the conveyancing laws here, if the owner has to sell, any debts to the corporation are paid from the proceeds of sale before the balance is paid to the vendor.) If they don't comply, then the government should legislate to allow it to fire the corporation executives and appoint an administrator to make the building compliant. I was on the executive committee of my development 10 years ago when the territory government changed the law to require owners' corporations to hire professional assessors to produce a 10 year maintenance plan and for us to budget a sinking fund to cover the anticipated expenses. We had a special assessment at the time but haven't had one since. (The development is single storey with only duplex and rows of four units, so under our law that's a class of development in which owners are responsible for most building maintenance so for us it was a relatively simple effort.)

That's how I read @SirBillybob's comment initially but as I read on concluded that he meant 'it' not he had touched down in Stockholm.

If your interest is to invest in emerging markets, doing so through their banks and buying stocks through various foreign stock exchanges can be a casino play. It will also become incredibly complicated if you want to repeat the steps in multiple countries. It would be simpler to invest via US intermediaries (and not Honest Billy Bob's Third World Stocks Inc), either a US broker who handles foreign stock dealing, or through an emerging market mutual fund or exchange traded fund. It may be feasible to deal directly with foreign stocks and currencies in developed countries, but keeping track of the market trends AND the variations in their exchange rates with the US would make for a complex management task for you. Take professional advice. If your intent is to take your funds out of reach of the IRS, basically you can't. Well, unless you renounce any US citizenship you have, or aren't one in the first place. For US citizens, all income domestic and foreign is subject to US taxes, and from what I understand, they take a dim view of off-shore investments that tax-payers try to hide from them.

Moved to the Lounge.

This was all over the ABC news yesterday, including an interview with Professor Manga. I don't recall whether it was him or another talking head that said the amount of water could be enough to cover the Martian surface to a depth of up to 2 metres (although that assumes that the surface is flat, which it's not, for example the volcano Olympus Mons is 21.9 km high, 2.5 times the height of Everest). I found it amazing the detail they can deduce about the Martian interior from the returns collected by a seismograph.

I'm certain many faces, familiar and otherwise are looking forward to seeing you again, both here and in person. Welcome back Danny! I know someone who is looking forward to it immensely!

Finally, about time too.

Waddaya mean, it only seems like yesterday when Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean were skating to gold in Sarajevo to Ravel's Bolero. Torvill and Dean's legendary 'Bolero' performance | Music Mondays OLYMPICS.COM Jayne Torvill and Christopher Dean memorably receive sixes across the board following their skate to Ravel's Bolero at...

Are you saying Cornhuskers aren't your thing? (BTW, I think I still have a t-shirt emblazoned with 'Omaha Nebraska, known for absolutely nothing '.)

I last heard from him a month ago today. We had a long phone conversation about the big commemorative para jump he organised in Oregon in April. He sent me a shit tonne of photos and videos of the event. He seems fairly busy with those sorts of activities. He was last on WhatsApp 36 hours ago so he's still around, but we haven't spoken or exchanged any texts.

Then it must be rocket science.

The OP edited the post to convert them to live links.

Australia usually gets off to a flying start (well, not literally) in the medals tally and then tanks as the games go on. We have always been strong in the pool but other sports not so much, or at least not as much as other big sporting countries. So a top four place after three or four days is not unusual but ending up three or four places lower. This year after 12 days we are still at number three (based on number of golds with silver and bronze as tie breakers, not total medals). It is already our best Olympics ever with 18 gold, passing the 17 at Athens (2004 not 1896) and at Tokyo in 2021, and yesterday was our best day with four, in the men's 4000m team pursuit, sailing, men's skateboarding and women's pole vault. That could well be all, but those of us who pay attention are nevertheless in a state of mild euphoria. I posted previously about the heart-warming back-story of the women's BMX win, but another set that caught national attention was sisters Jess and Noemie Fox (born in France to a French Atlanta bronze medalist mother and fourth-placed GB Olympian father who both moved to Australia to coach in the lead-up to Sydney 2000), who between them won the three women's canoe-slalom gold medals. Our usually strongly-performing men's and women's hockey teams and the perennially hopeful men's basket-ballers all lost in the quarters, but the women are into the basketball semis.

What's the saying, a pitch in time saves nine?

When you write a review on RM it gives you the option of whether it appears on your profile. Some may choose not to for whatever reason. Maybe they don't want to be contacted, or don't want anyone to have a ready list of how many guys they have reviewed. I wouldn't say it means they are not real clients, or that they aren't credible reviews, but it can mean that others don't have the perspective of whether they are consistently positive or negative, both of which can be ways for others to read between the lines in the text they have written.

And then there was only one.

He was in San Diego when I was planning my post forum weekend stay and was impressed. Of course he was only visiting and wouldn't be there by the time I was. *Sad face*

This was a climate-related comment but not a random one, it's a reference to the second stanza of Dorothea Mackellar's famous poem My Country: I love a sunburnt country, A land of sweeping plains, Of ragged mountain ranges, Of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her jewel-sea, Her beauty and her terror – The wide brown land for me! Perversely, many of the subsequent years (although not immediately after this 2018 comment) were more notable for the second part of that line, featuring record breaking floods on the east coast and in the Kimberley.

https://x.com/masonsixtencox/status/1819613509627576493 This morning Saya won the women's BMX gold medal. Kai's response when asked what it felt like was a simple 'Awesome'.

https://rent.men/PoseidonXXX

Well, there are some very tall buildings in New York that would offer that high level experience he seeks. He could even add some world trade to the experience.

Bon anniversaire!!

Welcome to the forum, @luccaalpha. It can be fun and there is a huge range of people and interests here. It can also be a place to build a good reputation for your business, and you seem to be off to a good start.

Being Carmelites, I'm not surprised they were having none of it for so long.