Certified Legendary Thread Covid, Life, UFOs, Food, & Wordle :( Part 2

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This time last year I was at Head of School Girls watching the daughter do her thing. Can’t say I’m missing the early starts but kind of wish she had kept going with it.

Oh well.
 
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This time last year I was at Head of School Girls watching the daughter do her thing. Can’t say I’m missing the early starts but kind of which she had kept going with it.

Oh well.
My 2nd son stopped rowing after school but he's kept up his fitness regime
 

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My 2nd son stopped rowing after school but he's kept up his fitness regime
My daughter is good too, on the exercise bike every day and has got a part time job as a swim instructor.
 

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Speaking of dick swingers,
Here’s an article that shows the original dick swingers and their complete lack of empathy for other human beings.

Not much point posting Age articles any more as they are always hidden by pay screens. It used to offer 5 free articles per month.
 
Not much point posting Age articles any more as they are always hidden by pay screens. It used to offer 5 free articles per month.
Not my fault if your a HeraldScum reader….

Anyway..

The supersizing of our world is consuming our cars. Let’s eat jumbo-sized muffins, live in McMansions with no garden space, lust over phones that don’t fit in a pocket, and drive to work solo on urban roads in cars that are technically trucks. I reckon these mega-machines – which go by names like Ram, Gladiator and Raptor – are symbolic of everything that’s wrong with our world.

Monster vehicles are all about “me, me, me”, with no regard for “we”. Road safety started with seatbelts and airbags for the benefit of those within a car, but this focus on personal safety seems to have morphed into an arms race to win the “car most likely to crush everything in its path” award.
How dangerous are these oversized cars for other road users? I can’t
answer that, as vehicles like Rams are classified as “light trucks” (despite being able to be driven on a normal licence) so they are not subject to Australian ANCAP safety testing.
What I do know is that a Ram’s front grille is at shoulder height and the highest point of the bonnet is at my ear level. Sure, I’m short (just over 152 centimetres), but I’m taller than most kids, who research has shown are eight times more likely to die when hit by even a “regular” SUV as opposed to a sedan or hatch. That’s due to being hit at torso or head height, not to mention the force created by a 2000-plus kilogram vehicle that’s likely travelling faster at impact as all that weight requires increased stopping distances.

Yet, how many hunka-chunka vehicle owners defend their purchase with concerns for the safety of their own children despite apparent disregard for everyone else’s?
Mega trucks are also evocative of our society’s problem with aggression. Just look at the names. “Ram” might have originated from an ovine hood ornament, but when the letters R-A-M are all you can see in your back window when one of these behemoths is tailgating you, it’s not male sheep that come to mind, but the dictionary definition of “strike with violence” or “make compact by pounding”.

Then, there’s the Raptor (Ford), the Gladiator (Jeep) and the Rogue
(Toyota). Are these words that inspire speed-abiding, considerate driving? Or do they encourage owners to bully other road users?
Ram’s current slogan – “eats everything else for breakfast” – strikes me as being a poor-taste apology for bad behaviour on the road (“Sorry officer, I know I was speeding, tailgating and cutting in front of others, but you see, I was just eating all the other cars for breakfast”).


As a small-car driver, I find sharing the road with these truckzillas intimidating. I accept trucks, buses and vans as part of our road system but not work- and school-run vehicles so big that my car’s bonnet almost fits under their bumper.
Mega vehicles are another example of the “US-ification” of Australia. The stereotype of an American guy driving his massive pickup truck is now an everyday reality on Australian roads. Oversized cars are reminiscent of another all-too-real US stereotype – the idea that it’s OK to protect yourself (think gun ownership) even though the end result (mass shootings) is far worse as a direct result.


Bloated cars are effectively holding up a knuckleduster-decorated middle finger in the face of climate change. These cars are enormously resource-expensive both in manufacture and fuel consumption. Exactly how much fuel is a secret because vehicles like the Ram are exempt from disclosing fuel consumption figures, though Nine’s Drive suggests an average of 18.8 litres per 100 kilometres, which is three to four times more than my small car. A more recently understood environmental threat from released tyre particulates is also upsized with heavier vehicles and their larger tyres.
Increased impact on the climate comes with real costs, and these, along with other public-focused costs, should be part and parcel of choosing to buy a car of this magnitude.

Despite purchase prices ranging from $75,000 to more than $200,000, as well as the extra fuel, tyres, maintenance and insurance costs – part and parcel of these mega-expensive vehicles – owners are not (yet) being slugged for their negative impact on our climate, roads or public safety.
Instead, these supersized vehicles have received free marketing and huge affordability boosts through generous tax incentives. Just like when it comes to public dollars funding private education for rich kids, oversized vehicle owners are effectively being subsidised by everyone else.
If car parks need to be upsized to accommodate these cars, their owners should be paying. If public health bears the cost of more and worse accidents, owners of bigger cars should pay far more third-party insurance. If weight negatively impacts roads, heavy cars should contribute to their repair through higher registration costs. And, here’s an idea – if a vehicle is classified as a light truck, let’s make people get their truck licence before buying one.
Perhaps the worst aspect of monster trucks is that they are making SUVs, which have always been too big for suburban streets, look average-sized. When the “new normal” is too big, we’re on a trajectory for trouble. Are mega-domestic vehicles a metaphor for our modern life? Sadly, I think so
 
This is possibly the best version of this song ever. So wish I was in the audience that night.



RIP Steve. Gone to soon.


Think the bloke on the drums in the Rock Wiz band (forgotten his name) is a Pies fan. Have seen him at our games.

And guitarist Ash Naylor, often in the band, definitely is. See him at games too.
 

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