When I say in exasperation “it’s always in the last place you look”, before saying “well you aren’t going to keep looking once you’ve found it, haw haw haw”, please consider the following.
What I mean by this, is that an exhaustive search was conducted over the space of all possible plausible locations, and that upon completing the last term of this exhaustive search, the item was found. This means that it was in fact “in the last place i looked”, since I had exhausted all other search options prior to this.
So, if you wish to avoid being stabbed in the face, please do no make such a comment.
A man was recently charged with careless driving, after he cut off the acting police minister, while talking on his mobile. Good-o, I say, this is the sort of thing that needs to be enforced.
However, here I sit, four months after being hit by a car performing an illegal u-turn, with probably at least another three months before I go back to work, wondering why it is that a driver who was 100% at fault and caused serious injury, gets a slap on the wrist, in the form of an infringement for performing an illegal u-turn (the same as if you did a dodgy u-turn at a set of traffic lights and didn’t cause an accident). Not even “failing to give way while performing a u-turn”, let alone Dangerous Driving Causing Grievous Bodily Harm, which is the charge that fits.
What this goes to show me is that if you piss off a police officer, you are fucked. But if you do something wrong that is a bit hard to prove (or you do it to a minority group that the police assume are guilty until proven innocent – such as motorcyclists) then you get off scott free.
Is it any wonder that Traffic Police are hated, let alone not respected?
From http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/02/01/2806594.htm
Nermin Hodzic leaves Brisbane’s Magistrates Court after being fined $500. (ABC News: Jason Rawlins)
A man has appeared in the Brisbane Magistrates Court charged over a traffic incident involving one of Queensland’s most senior police officers.
The court heard Nermin Hodzic, 22, from Calamvale on Brisbane’s southside, was driving north on the Gateway Motorway early last month when he weaved in and out of traffic while talking on a mobile phone.
Hodzic narrowly missed a car driven by Acting Police Commissioner Kathy Rynders who was off duty at the time.
She was forced to break heavily to avoid a collision, which in turn forced motorists behind her to also break hard.
After several attempts she managed to intercept Hodzic and he was charged with careless driving and using a mobile phone whilst driving.
Hodzic was fined $500 and convictions were recorded.
Some pictures of pillion pegs on a 1996 XT600.
 1996 XT600 LH pillion peg - closeup  1996 XT600 LH pillion peg - closeup  1996 XT600 LH pillion peg  1996 XT600 LH pillion peg
I would like to propose a new unit of measure – the Geezerbyte.
The Geezerbyte is a measure of the technical ineptitude, typically of older populations, although this could apply equally to any age group.
For example, someone saying “My new laptop has 2.8 gigabytes of hard disk” would rate 2.4 Geezerbytes, whereas someone saying “My new laptop has 15 inches of DDS RAM and a 320 giggabytes CPU” would rate 17.2 Geezerbytes.
I’ve noticed recently that my health insurance company’s privacy policy has changed so that when they call you, they need to check personal details to verify your identity before discussing your account. Sounds like a good idea – make sure they always verify your details, so they don’t give out personal details which might lead to identity theft.
But hang on, they call you, and ask you to give them your name, date of birth, address, phone number, policy details? Sounds like a great identity theft scam to me.
Now, I do actually know that the times i have been called by my health insurance company it actually has been them. But really, if i wanted to scam some identities surely it wouldn’t be hard to pick a common company (whether health insurance or some other service provider), blindly ring numbers (without sending your caller id) and pretend to be checking some account details.
The other side to this is that, often when they do ring, I’m out at in a public space. A public place is not somewhere i’d like to recite my personally identifying details for anyone to hear, just like i won’t use an submit personal info over an unencrypted link, especially not when using a free public wifi access point.
It is reassuring that companies are taking identity theft more seriously, but blindly implementing measures without thinking them through? Seems like security theatre is expanding it’s audience.
A few notes on my recent experiences with Australian Unity Health Insurance – I could never recommend them after all the shit I’ve been through with them. So, here’s the story:
In September last year I was involved in a motor vehicle accident. The details aren’t relevant, except that I received multiple injuries, one of which required immediate hospitalisation and surgery. No worries, I thought, I’ve got private health insurance. Off to a private hospital with a good surgeon to get fixed up. Paid my excess and thought little more of it. As is often the case, I received a letter a few weeks after discharge asking me details of the accident. I gave them, and provided them with my lawyer’s contact details. Nothing more till about three months later, when I was preparing to go in for a second lot of surgery related to the accident.
On pre-admission talks with a lady from the hospital, she checked my excess and it turned out I had to pay one. This was a bit funny, seems as I’d paid one in September, and I’m not supposed to have to pay more than one excess a year. I mentioned that the surgery was related to a motor vehicle accident.
Suddenly her tone changed and I felt as though I’d turned into a leper with bad debts and no health insurance.
I was told that Australian Unity refuses to pay the hospital if it is a motor vehicle accident. Full stop. The hospital policy was that in these cases, they required full upfront payment of estimated hospital costs on admission, no exceptions. Apparently no other insurance company does this except Australian Unity.
So, with Australian Unity, if you have a motor vehicle accident, you effectively have no health insurance. At the time you need it most. This must be what it’s like to live in America.
It turns out that, about a month after I’d returned their questionairre after the first hospital stay, they sent my lawyer a letter. A letter, which when read by any reasonable person, would be interpreted as saying “we notice that this bill is related to a motor vehicle accident. if you receive any compensation, we expect that you’ll pay us back”. It turns out, however, after many heated discussions and explanations, that what it actually said was “we notice that this bill is related to a motor vehicle accident. We aren’t going to pay, so you sort out the bill, and if they refuse to pay, then provide us written evidence and we might process it”. Bear in mind that, the way it was written, this conclusion could only be reached after many careful re-reads by my lawyer, after someone from australian unity had summarised the meaning for him.
Right about the same time I was being told by the second hospital I’d have to pony up their estimate of $8000 on admission (this was a Friday, I was being admitted Monday morning) or else not get the surgery, I received a phone call from the first hospital. They were asking why it was I hadn’t paid the $14500 bill from my first stay in September, which was now very overdue. Not happy.
So, in the space of a day, I found out that I’d have to pay $8000 on admission to get my surgery done, and that I owed $14500 for my first hospital stay, which was overdue and ready to be sold to debt collectors.
If not for the pain, I would have laughed at Australian Unity’s hold music which extolled the benefits of being with Australian Unity Health, how you could skip the public health system and have private surgeons, when where and who you wanted, with no waiting or fuss.
I was at absolute breaking point at that stage. Thankfully, my lawyer stepped in and told me he would take care of it. And that he did! Sounded like an absolute shitfight, but he managed to sort out the first hospital bill and avoid me having a $14.5k debt sold off. Since I was admitted first thing Monday morning there was nothing he could do about the pre-payment of fees, but luckily we had the credit capacity to handle this. It did get sorted in the end, but god knows how much it cost me (it took him a couple of days to sort, and he charges $400 and hour…)
What just makes this whole episode so fucked up is that there is just no reason for Australian Unity to have been so difficult. They have a process whereby you sign an irrevocable indemnity, where basically you say that if you receive any compensation, then you’ll pay them first. It’s no big deal, and very standard in any sort of insurance. Think of your car insurance – if you have a crash and make a claim, they don’t tell you that they think someone else might be liable, so ask them for money first and come back if you don’t have any luck. You pay your excess, they sort it, then they chase after the other guy if they think he was at fault. Apparently every other health insurance company works this way too. Australian Unity, once an irrevocable indemnity is signed, works this way too, but it was an absolute shitfight to get them to give us one to sign. Add this to all the bumbling and ineptitude around regular claims, and I’ve just had so much trouble dealing with them.
Ultimately, health insurance is one of those things that “is there for when you need it most”, but with Australian Unity, it isn’t.
If you’re in a motor vehicle accident and wish to obtain a copy of the Queensland Police investigation documents (for example, if you are fucked over by the police) there seem to be two ways to go about getting a copy:
If you speak to police officers, it seems that the official method for access to your report is via CITEC. This costs (as at 2010-01-20) $70.70, and only actually provides you with a copy of the textual body of the report. Any attached documents, photos, scanned notes, drawings, or even statements which have been attached, rather than included are not part of the CITEC report, nor or they held by CITEC at all. The “Other Documents” mentioned in the CITEC Confirm application won’t get you these either – apparently it is for things like blood alcohol reading documents and other such things. As mentioned before, the police don’t actually transfer anything but the textual document to CITEC.
The other way, which I found out after I’d gotten a CITEC report and wondered where the hell all the information was, is to request a copy of all documents via the Queensland Government’s Right To Information (RTI) Act. This is a recent replacement of the Freedom of Information Act, and seems to work in a similar manner. A RTI request costs (as at 2010-01-20) $38 (unless the documents only contain personal information about you – probably not the case if it is a motor vehicle accident), and you can request copies of all relevant documents, not just textual information which is sent to CITEC.
I’m still waiting on my RTI request, but at this point I would say don’t even bother with a CITEC confirm report and go straight to a RTI request. It is much cheaper, and the CITEC confirm report is woefully inadequate in this sort of case.
After a few (regretful) years without an SRX6, I’m back! I picked up this one last week. It’s an 88 model, which has a 17″ front wheel, single 320mm disc, 4 pot caliper, but still has rear twin shocks and is kick start only.
This one’s had some serious work done to it too – wiseco 11:1 high compression piston, race cam, keihin FCR33 flat slide carbs, oval stainless exhaust and WP rear shocks.
Its currently unregistered and off the road (as am I, in a sense…), so I haven’t been able to test ride it yet, but I can’t wait. With all the work it is going to be an absolute rocket!
More pics and details to come soon.
Phil
After reading about Golok’s on OldJimbo’s page I decided to give one a try. Initially I was going to get one from Valiant, however I found this one on ebay, (from this seller) and ended up getting it for AU$42 delivered, versus AU$85 for the small survival golok.
After doing a bit more research, it seems to me that it is more like a bolo than a golok as was indicated by the seller, due to the tip heavy blade shape compared with a sabre-like shape as seen on Valiant’s goloks. I could be wrong, as I’m certainly not even close to being an expert on blades. In any case, I’m going to refer to it as a bolo.
Construction is very nice, with the blade being around 4mm thick at the spine near the handle. This is thinned off towards the point. The edge has a convex grind. The finish on the blade is quite rough, with a lot of dents (forge marks?) present over the surface, and a raw finish. I cleaned this up a little by running a sharpening stone over the flat, but due to the dents lots of bits were missed.
I’m unsure of the handle construction method, other than it is not a full tang handle, but it is very solid.
Now, in use! This is the result of about 5 hours work (and no, Harry wasn’t particularly helpful)
It is a hibiscus shrub which I’ve been wanting to get rid of for a while. Springy saplings from 1 to 4 cm in diameter. Unsupported and springy, the bolo got through the thinner stuff in a single slice, with thicker bits taking a few chops. When chopping the saplings into shorter sections on a hardwood chopping block, it got through everything in one chop – about as much effort as using a hatchet.
The edge held up very well. While the edge was not great to begin with – inconsistent sharpness, uneven edge, it did not lose any sharpness at all after all that cutting. After testing with a file, it seems that it is differentially tempered, with the edge much harder than the spine.
The one area which did let it down was the handle. The carving near the butt, which is possibly meant to act as a hook for draw cutting, was quite sharp and caused blisters. This might be less of an issue for someone with smaller hands, but it still had hard edges, as the shape had been cut rather than sanded. A quick touch up with a rasp and some sandpaper made a big difference, although now I will need to re-lacquer or oil the handle.
Overall i think a fantastic buy for AU$42, and I will surely get plenty of use out of it.
So I’ve been putting together survival kits of late, and come across a number of cheap options which I thought I might share. I’ve been thinking that it would be better having 5 slightly lower quality items that I’m not afraid to lose, than 1 fantastic ultra reliable item that will make me cry (or worse, in a survival situation) if i lose or break it.
This sort of survival kit on the cheap is, I must say, all made possible by the wonderous cheap stuff coming out of china. Since most high quality, genuine name brand stuff now also comes out of the same factories in china, the knock-off stuff is now pretty good, if a bit hit and miss sometimes with the quality control. While it may not be as good as the real deal, for the price I think its worth it.
One great example is the pocket knife below – the gerber knock off shown below is less than a tenth of the price of my CRKT M16-13LE. Now, there’s no dispute that the CRKT is a far better knife, but the cheapie is still very solid. Steel is a bit softer, but it still holds an edge decently and is easy to sharpen. The CRKT is my EDC, but the cheapies go into the various kits I have.
Folding knife – Tanto blade, probably 440a or 440c not properly hardened or similar steel – holds an edge fairly well, but is quite easy to sharpen. Quality control is a potential issue – 1 of 3 had a poorly made liner lock which required repair before it locked properly. At around AU$7.50 each delivered (3 to 5, cheaper for higher quantities), i bought a bunch for my various kits.
LED torch (“Flashlight”)
This one runs from AA, AAA and CR123. Runtime on a rechargable CR123 is about 60 minutes. It has a constant current constant voltage regulated driver, as it gives consistant light intensity right up until the battery protection circuit kicks in. With AA and AAAs you get a dimmer light. Different brightness modes would be nice, but the battery flexibility I think is a bigger bonus. At around AU$11 each delivered, one goes in each kit.
Fixed blade survival knife. A number of chinese sellers on ebay sell these for around AU$25. Full tang, very solid construction, nice handle scales. Blade geometry is nice for slicing (eg skinning), and a nice size for survival work – not too large. The only downside is the sheath, which is functional, but not particularly good.
Fire starters
Again, dealextreme to the rescue! They have ferrocium rods ranging from small to large, from AU$2 up to AU$5 each delivered.
Another handy one is a small cylindrical zippo style lighter. This one features a screw on lid with an o-ring, meaning that the zippo fluid (aka coleman fuel, naptha, shellite) doesn’t evaporate like normal zippos.
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