mike carey

Gentlemen, a mod's reminder to talk to the issues and not attack other posters because their subjective assessment of what happened in Sydney conflicts with your subjective assessment (nor to attack them on any other pretext).

Lol, I don't have a lifetime pass! Especially not to national parks in the US. The passes I have bought in the past have been for New South Wales parks and are annual, and not age limited. (And about $AU60 a year.) [And I don't have one now as I've just changed cars and they are offered when you renew your car registration, which comes up in December for my new(er) car.]

I would assume that there are other long term passes but perhaps the 'lifetime pass' is a seniors' thing. I'm sure the NPS website would have info about their range of passes.

Nice try, the conceit of thinking that others owe you a substantive response and when they refuse to engage with your arguments its because they have no argument to offer. Could it be that they refuse to do so because they know it's a waste of time? A response to a predictable claim about an issue, or to arguments that appear not to have been made in good faith could well be an eye roll or a simple comment of 'predictable' or 'what a tool'. Not that II would say that about you, of course! You don't get to determine what other say here, and it's presumptuous for you to think that you do or to infer anything from their silence.

Unless it's recent he hasn't retired, but since the pandemic he hasn't been touring as much and has other pursuits. His RM ad has expired but shows future travel plans so I wouldn't read to much into the 'expired' bit.

National parks are in a sense uncurated museums of the world that we live in as opposed to curated depictions of an aspect of it, so in a sense they are 'museums'. Whether this topic belongs in this forum or in the Lounge is something for @foxy, the moderator to decide. Whichever way that goes, this is a worthwhile discussion to have. I've had an annual pass to national parks in NSW that I've bought at a slight discount when I've renewed my car registration (the pass is linked to my car number plate, not to me). There are terrific national parks in many countries, so it's not just the US and Canada, and Australia. Think of the Kruger NP for example. Which was the World’s First National Park? – National Parks Association of NSW NPANSW.ORG.AU Bob Crombie, First National Park, October 2014 When people ask, “Which, of all the world’s national parks, was the first national park?” the obvious approach is to...

No comment!

A spammer picked my birthday thread as the random old thread they bumped with a comment. I don't need extra birthdays! (The spammer's comment has been deleted.)

If that happens I'll make sure I have an appropriate soft drink, because we al know Things go better with coke.

A sobering documentary about the fires in Canada (mainly Alberta) and also with a partial focus on the international brigade that is helping to fight them, from ABC TV's Foreign Correspondent.

Don't know, but I've heard Benedictines are. But this thread is about Liam Sanchez, not an off-topic discussion about a whole nationality (or order of monks).

Also, bear in mind that even if you hang up it's possible for the scammer to keep the line open so when you try to call a known number for the bank the scammer will be the one that takes the call. So call your bank from a different phone. (I'm sure it's possible to disconnect their call [maybe call someone else and if that works you can infer that the scam call has been disconnected, but don't quote me on that] if you don't have an alternate phone.)

One of our two big supermarket chains reported yesterday, and among the issues they mentioned was a 20% year-on-year increase of shrinkage. They attributed it to cost of living pressures but the commentary I have seen saw the increase in self-service checkouts as also being a significant factor.

The AFL is apparently the only major sporting code in the world (well, it's major here) that at the senior level has never had a out gay male player, either current or retired. The women's AFL (AFLW) has many, and four non-binary players. At the turn of the century the Australian government served notice on all professional sporting codes that they needed to have policies and procedures in place to prevent discrimination in general, but including LGBTIQ+ discrimination, or face the possibility of litigation for failing to provide protection. The government wasn't talking about prosecutions but rather about private actions. Apparently they have basically done nothing, as an ABC investigative journalist discovered, and they are incredibly defensive about it. The AFL director of inclusion (a first nations woman whose focus has been more on racism) was surprised at what the journalist had discovered. The result of the investigation was a 45 minute documentary aired on Monday night in their flagship current affairs program. It's an interesting story to watch.

Do you think you might be doing it wrong if you're using ketchup packets?

¡Viva España! And in a side note, HM Queen Letizia attended the final in Sydney this evening and was on the pitch celebrating with the team after the match. HRH Prince William, the Prince of Wales, chose not to attend despite his role as Patron of the Football Association. Football isn't 'coming home'.

I would have thought it was obvious. By 'we' he meant you and he have different ways of evaluating ads.

I guess one outcome is that you have been part of an unintended experiment to determine the utility of being RM of the Day. If you didn't before, now you know! PS it's always a delight to chat with you when I've been in PS.

Economists have successfully predicted 23 of the last two recessions.

Bon anniversaire monsieur Vache!

The South is not homogenous.

I like the taste of lamb but mutton is a bit too much for me. My sister-in-law doesn't like lamb either so sometimes when I've visited them she'd have something else and my sister and I had lamb. Most lamb in shops here (apart from those shanks) is basic roasts or 'refined' cuts and minimal fat. Lately one place has started selling stewing lamb pieces that are great for things like curries and other slow cooked dishes. Perhaps not surprisingly it's halal so it's there to cater for middle eastern and subcontinent communities here. (There's an Indian takeaway at the railway station near one place I stay in Sydney that has goat curry. I've enjoyed other things from there so I plan to try the goat next time I'm there. We have a growing export trade in goat meat, mainly from marginal outback range land, but it rarely makes it to shops here.)

They're not on the keyboard as far as I can tell. I used an app on my laptop which lets me select all sorts of symbols and other alphabets. If I can't be arsed I use the three letter abbreviations like GBP EUR CHF etc. Same as i sometimes use USD AUD CAD rather than $US $AU or whatever.

I'm truly shocked at this omission! Happy anniversary!