In Australia, it’s illegal to use a phone while driving. (Although police aren’t hesitant to hand out fines and penalties, people do still use their phones while driving). There is also a cultural recognition and discouragement towards phone use while driving which is slowly changing accepted behaviour, similar to the slow change away from tolerating and encouraging drunk driving over the past few decades.

In our rental houses, we have always used foil on the north-facing windows (I’m in the southern hemisphere) in summer. Leave a window open an inch or so to allow air flow, but also open a window on the other side of the house so you get a draft from the cooler side to the hot side. Sometimes nights can be cooler; if that’s so, open as many windows as possible at night to cool the house, and close them again before sunrise.

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I’ve had a bowl of cereal with a cup of coffee for breakfast for years. This week, for no apparent reason, I had toast and Vegemite instead of cereal for breakfast. Maybe an unconscious craving for vitamin B?

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But can it run Doom?

Reversing trucks. “For safety”!? I don’t need to hear a truck reversing half a block away on the other side of the road! If you could sell a sound laser for trucks, you’d start a new business.

sitting there waiting to be accessed by anyone with a key (it doesn’t have to be her key)

wait, what!?

• Boxing
• Cross country skiing
• Gymnastics

He died while the procedure was being performed at a private clinic in March 2019

I wondered why he wasn’t answering my calls! Why are we only just finding out about this now?

Give me a fucking break. So Cisco is going to release an age verification update to literally millions of devices? How do I install this age verification update on my Nintendo DS, Macintosh IIvx, or my Nokia 110? And who is going to go door to door to verify that all my devices with operating systems have been updated? Is there a bounty for reporting my neighbours or coworkers when they don’t update?

First step to sending probes to Venus that survive more than a few minutes.

None of his business, tell him to fuck off.

• Real estate agents
• President of the United States
• Politicians in general
• Used car sales-persons

Interesting, I’m spending less on groceries and more on alcohol.

A blonde walks into a bar and asks for a double entendre.

So the barman gave it to her.

Religion

In Australia.

I went to the doctor complaining of weird headaches and vertigo, so she sent me for X-ray and MRI. They discovered holes in my bones that proved I have blood cancer (myeloma). Further blood tests proved that I was not long for this world and organs were failing, got pushed to the top of the list and sent to hospital the same day that the blood tests came back. At this point, treatment hadn’t cost me anything.

In hospital for four weeks with IV medications and chemotherapy, sent home with chemotherapy and a whole bunch of other tablets. Spent a year not responding to chemotherapy, told to get my affairs in order. At this point, treatment hadn’t cost me anything.

A specialist recommended a stem cell (“ bone marrow”) transplant, and then because it worked so well, another one six weeks later. In hospital for two weeks each time, with IV medications and chemotherapy. At this point, treatment hadn’t cost me anything.

I then spent 18 months taking chemotherapy tablets daily; these cost the government $28,000 a month; I paid $6.50 a month. Another twelve months on weekly immunoglobulins, which cost me nothing.

Six years after diagnosis, I’m now in remission (although “myeloma always comes back”). I’ve been two years with “no evidence of disease”.

I’m grateful and lucky that I live in Australia and have the public health care system. I would not have been able to pay for any of this in a country with healthcare-for-profit.