Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt

Everything was beautiful album inspiration list

- https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpllqzgq8wPYAVRHIoC3vzo4Mxtm3XUar

(background details here - http://moby.com/news/moby-announces-intimate-album-launch-live-shows-new-york-los-angeles  )

Innovating feed protein sources

Worthy reading

- https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/12/12/569399249/waste-not-want-not-drink-beer-to-feed-fish-and-help-save-the-planet?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=business

Australia....do you really know it?

Wow you look at sailing/surfing videos in WA like this and wonder how many people have ever actually surfed this break?? - https://youtu.be/UCZlU5T8eaM?t=3m13s








This is where they are located...... - https://www.google.com/maps/place/Montebello+Islands/@-20.4391538,115.4862195,12z/data=!3m1!4b1!4m5!3m4!1s0x2c07fb49158c8acd:0xde93033f690e46c7!8m2!3d-20.4391678!4d115.5562599

First Snow 2017

So pretty out there.

Of course tomorrow it will be the "pure as New York snow" we all love to hate.  :)

Obama facts....

So you think Obama is a cool dude.....
- https://www.stpete4peace.org/obama-fact-sheet

If you find SM 'bad' then you are doing it wrong.

Just read Brad Felds post that he is no longer consuming facebook or twitter…..though sees it essential that he posts ‘out’ content.

I understand what he is saying…..but if you aren’t ‘in the discussion’ you lose your right to bitch about ‘the state of society later’.
- https://twitter.com/deancollins/status/937410698916876288

If you are unhappy with the content in your SM feed folks…..you are doing it wrong.

Unfollow people and start following smart, interesting people that challenge and feed your desire for knowledge and don’t post photos of their cats/food/holiday boasting photos etc etc.

There is a lot of really interesting dialog happening on SM folks…..if you don’t see it then you are missing out.

A Man For All Seasons

Its rather ironic that we went to see "A Man For All Seasons" the same day that the Michael Flynn guilty plea was entered......

The play is primarily about the split if the Church Of England from the Vatican (so that Henry VIII could get a divorce and marry again). But what I think its really about is really about is leaders surrounding themselves with fools and yes men and the execution of Sir Thomas More a man who stood up for his principles in the face of certain death.

If you are in NY its well worth seeing and runs until Dec 17th

https://www.broadwayworld.com/off-off-broadway/article/A-MAN-FOR-ALL-SEASONS-Opens-at-Heights-Players-in-Brooklyn-20171201






ROPER So now you'd give the Devil benefit of law!
MORE Yes. What would you do? Cut a great road through the law to get after the Devil?
ROPER I'd cut down every law in England to do that!
MORE  Oh? (Advances on ROPER voice roused and excited) And when the last law was down, and the Devil turned round on you-where would you hide, Roper, the laws all being flat? (He leaves him) This country's planted thick with laws from coast to coast-man's laws, not God's-and if you cut them down-and you're just the man to do it-d'you really think you could stand upright in the winds that would blow then? (Quietly) Yes, I'd give the Devil benefit of law, for my own safety's sake.

There are now over 1200 gTLD's !!

Wow had no idea we were up to 1200 gTLD’s

I’m @NowWatching icann nyc readout now.

- https://livestream.com/internetsociety/icann60nyc?origin=event_published&mixpanel_id=136bcbdee9b6e-007947519-13134557-1fa400-136bcbdee9c115a&acc_id=25782506&medium=email


lol apparently so many gTLD's that icann now have over $230m in "excess fees" they are now trying to work out what to do with this surplus......lol

Death Taxes

http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21731626-case-taxing-inherited-assets-strong-hated-tax-fair-one?fsrc=scn/fb/te/bl/ed/ahatedtaxbutafaironeinheritancetax

Shame that the article doesn’t actually propose any real answers.


I'm not anti-death tax, especially because it doesn’t apply (in the USA at least until $5.5m+......that said....i am anti-death tax because its a tax on income already taxed AND because its 40% which is an outrageous figure.


If someone was trying to save a family farm or business or estate etc and it was worth $20m then they would have to come up with 40% of $15m......that a pretty big burden to carry-even for an inherited asset.

#TooBigToFail

Watched #TooBigToFail last night and this morning found this awesome graphic.....we really are screwed.
 :)

The value of Australian housing is $7.4t

So much interesting content in this slide deck.

1/ Australian Super is now worth more than the entire AU-listed stocks

2/ That althought there is $1.7t in residential mortgages there is $5.7t in equity.

3/ I was also surprised that only $300b in sales happened last year (eg 1/20....i thought it would have be higher as a percentage of value).

Bottle seawater for sale as hydrogen?

What are peoples thoughts on this? is it really financially viable to split sea water and then ship it via sea tanker overseas

- http://www.smh.com.au/business/energy/csiro-launch-program-to-make-australia-hydrogen-fuel-leader-20171107-gzgxfh.html

35 countries where my taxes "pervert democracy"

Someone told me recently...."remember we are the good guys"


hmmm I'm not so sure any more some days - eg here are 35 countries where my USA taxes "pervert democracy"
https://www.alternet.org/world/35-countries-where-us-has-supported-fascists-druglords-and-terrorists


.....yet somehow we are the ones flagellating ourselves over "Russian Facebook Advertisements" all while ignoring our own influences around the world.

Whats wrong with the NBN........

I've been putting off watching this video for the last week.......5 mins in....blood pressure rising - grrrrrrrr


- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QLXhfKjV6U
 

PPOR Mortgage changes......

Interesting to see that fewer than 3% of home mortgages in the USA are more than $500,000, according to data from CoreLogic.

Very surprised by this figure as basically 80% of apartments in NY would have to be above this....I knew it was lower in the midwest/south but not that much lower....


https://www.nytimes.com/2017/11/02/business/economy/tax-housing.html?partner=rss&emc=rss (and yes this will affect us eg $450k X 3.5% x 35% or around $6kpa)

Baby Animals

Friday music for you that you might not have come across before.

Check out Baby Animals - http://amzn.to/2ymimUl

Old school, lead female rock guitarist band that should have gotten way more airplay globally than they managed. (though back then very different times).

Suze Demarchi dominates the entire album and I recommend this to everyone once they've heard of Cold Chisel, the Angels, Screaming Jets etc etc and looking for something along similar lines from Australia.

Rock the House! Play it loud.

Even though was released in 1991 still sounds fresh and viable as anything you'll hear today.

Australian expat property investors....taxation without representation?

Some of us aussies are getting together Wednesday night to discuss recent govt changes to expats who own property in Australia.


With the recent budget hikes for our rental income and capital gains returns its getting ridiculous to continue owning Aussie property eg we now pay 41c minimum tax (instead of say 20c in USA equities) and last years tax changes on PPOR may be the final straw for many of us working here temporarily in New York.

Its a free seminar from the guys at SMATS so hopefully we can get some insights as to is it going to get worse before it gets better....and should we be investing our savings where they are appreciated.....

Register here - http://www.aussieproperty.com/Events/Property-Update-Seminar/New-York-11Th-Annual-Market-Update-Seminar-2017/32a440e8-36a8-1423-1542-c7c089329145/720370b1-7599-4856-a918-98e697e52f9e



In 2012 the Capital Gains Tax Rules were changed in Australia to remove the 50% tax discount for owners living out of Australia. This signalled a change of intent from appreciating foreign investment to seeing an opportunity to increase Government revenue.

Since then, there has been an escalation in the costs of Australian property ownership with dramatic increases in land tax and the introduction of buyers fees, additional stamp duty and the new vacancy tax. All of this at a time when lending for offshore investors continues to be problematic.

The latest proposal is now to remove the tax free c...oncession for expatriate's principal residence if their former home is sold when living out of Australia. Where do these changes end and what can we do to try an halt the aggressive attack on foreign investors in Australian property market?

With media fuelling the fire and foreigners an easy blame target for lifting prices, there is little sympathy in Australia to the plight of overseas owners, so any change will need to come from our own efforts.

Join us for this seminar to find out:

• All the recent changes in ownership and acquisition costs for foreign investors and expatriates;
• Strategies to protect yourself against rising costs;
• If it is time to consider selling your property;
• The current position of Australian property markets and the outlook for 2018;
• How international markets may track in the coming year;
• If the recent uplift in the Australian dollar is sustainable; and
• Current lending options and costings.
Free Admission

Is it time to get rid of cd's?

Nope never going to give up cd collection, they are the last form of technology where you actually "own the content" and your rights cant be pulled ona whim by some company saying.....we want to change the T&C for your rights.


Dont get me wrong i cant remember the last time i listed to the cd but i purchase ALL my music on cd, rip it to my media server, then share it to all my media players/mobile devices etc from my private server.


This isnt like BluRay or DVD's where there was atechnical advantange so apart from a few indie bands i follow who dont release cd's......i've never missed out on anything by not signing up to iTunes.

Victorian Government overstep in the rental market?

The government will also abolish "no specified reason" notices to vacate....

What's next telling investors when they have the right to sell.....?

http://www.propertyobserver.com.au/forward-planning/investment-strategy/property-news-and-insights/76772-victorian-residential-landlords-to-loose-right-to-up-the-rent-twice-yearly.html

Bananarama concert.......squeee :)

I seriously have the best wife in the world. She fully accepts that i'm an 80's music junkie.....and thats why we are going to a Bananarama concert in Feb 18 :)






Tickets for PlayStation theatre just went on sale this morning in case you are also still a closet fan. https://www.axs.com/events/344316/bananarama-tickets

Australian property expensive compared to shares....or its just compound interest

Great article here comparing the long term returns of shares and property in Australia

http://www.yourinvestmentpropertymag.com.au/expert-advice/john-lindeman/a-bedtime-story-for-housing-investors-240981.aspx

When we compare the performance of shares and housing over the history of our nation we can see some interesting similarities, but also some crucial differences. The graph shows how each has performed since 1901 using a common index so that we can easily compare the critical changes that have taken place over the years.

Some of the easily noticeable external events are
•    1929 – The arrival of the Great Depression
•    1952 – The start of the Korean War
•    1960 – The Menzies Government Credit Squeeze
•    1974 – The ‘petrodollar’ crisis and Stagflation
•    1990 – The recession “We had to have”
•    2008 – The onset of the GFC

Proving yet again we don't have super expensive housing......Australians are just shit at calculating compound interest and both housing and shares rise about 7-8% over the long term, yes there will be dips and variance....but at the end of the day you need to be able to calculate 7-8% compound interest in your head.

The only reason our housing is expensive compared to say the USA is we keep insisting that everyone lives 20-40 mins commute from the center of 2 cbd's and until we decide to start populating tier 2 cities.....Australians will be paying over the average for our housing costs.


http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/build-a-new-melbourne-every-decade-or-face-more-congestion-20161211-gt8x8c.html


The older I get the more I fail to understand why Australia doesn't understand the need for more than 2 big cities and 5 country towns.

Until we realize that Canberra, Bathurst, Orange, Port Macquarie, Nowra  etc etc MUST be allowed to expand into fully fledged cities with self sustaining industry and jobs we are stuck in a vicious cycle of trying to squeeze more and more people into an expensive situation in Sydney and Melbourne.

Its time for Australia to grow up.

We need more #Tier2cities and we need them now.

The Reith Lectures

I'm @NowListening to @BBCRadio4 "Brian Cox on Robert Oppenheimer"
- http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p05hctvq

#WorthyContent

TPP's demise....damn the maths of economic thinking you intellectual

Reading this article makes me wonder....did the romans notice the burn, "on the night of", or when it was all over and the light of day bought hard facts



https://theconversation.com/how-the-tpps-demise-threatens-us-national-security-and-pax-americana-67514

BTW you should really be following Marina Whitman on Twitter as genius truly runs in her family (you mean you dont know who her father is? ....you should).
- https://twitter.com/marinavnw

Vangelis "Elegy" (played by Boris Andrianov)

Really enjoying this piece that I found via a link of a link of a link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_KfcdVhsYo&index=14&list=RDmOi65CjR8Tg

Nailed it first time

New toy for the BBQ, bought an electric rotisserie.....not bad for first attempt :)

This is the unit I bought from Amazon - http://amzn.to/2xWnSOq

OneGrill Heavy Duty Universal Grill Rotisserie Kit- 37'' X 1/2'' Hexagon Spit Rod & 50 lb. Stainless Electric Motor

CCleaner was hacked....

Ugh CCleaner user here....makes you realise every app you download (to pc's or phones) increases your attack vector.
- https://thenextweb.com/security/2017/09/18/ccleaner-hacked-malware-distribute/#.tnw_1kBbizVA

Ridiculous that the "release notes" for 5.34.6207 make no mention of the hack and only say "minor gui improvements" - http://www.piriform.com/ccleaner/release-notes/5.34.6207/b1/a0

Happy Friday everyone

Looks like its going to be an awesome weekend.

- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jISrnID-CI

Brushfire fairytales
Itsy bitsy diamond wells
Big fat hurricanes
Yellow bellied given names
Well shortcuts can slow you down
And in the end we're bound
To rebound off of we

Well dust off your thinking caps
Solar powered plastic plants
Pretty pictures of things we ate
We are only what we hate
But in the long run we have found
Silent films are full of sound
Inaudibly free

Slow down everyone
You're moving too fast
Frames can't catch you when
You're moving like that

Inaudible melodies
Serve narrational strategies
Unobtrusive tones
Help to notice nothing but the zone
Of visual relevancy
Frame-lines tell me what to see
Chopping like an axe

Or maybe Eisenstein should just relax

Slow down everyone
You're moving too fast
Frames can't catch you when
You're moving like that

Well…

 

Ticketmaster so called "verified fan"

So uhm Ticketmaster looks like your verified fan service is a bust based on number of Bruce Springsteen tickets being scalped



https://www.stubhub.com/bruce-springsteen-tickets-bruce-springsteen-new-york-walter-kerr-theatre-10-5-2017/event/103128880/?sort=price+asc

2976

Something for us to consider on this day.......

It still perplexes me that Americans still have never stopped to ask "why did 9/11 happen in the first place" even after this many years.

More productivity or just more people....?

Geat article on the difference between increasing productivity.....and increasing GDP through immigration only


- http://www.smh.com.au/business/the-economy/sorry-but-using-migration-to-boost-growth-isnt-smart-20170909-gye6tg.html


This said.....Australia needs more immigration, we need to grow our inland tier 2 cities asap !!

A Town Like Alice

I'm @NowWatching  #ATownLikeAlice Jodie thought of it a few weeks ago and we managed to find a second hand copy of the DVD in Australia.

Really enjoying it but crazy how much better quality HD16:9 is today compared to old sd4:3.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0081949/?ref_=nm_flmg_act_69

Google Domains Dynamic DNS configuration

I don't know why this answer was so hard to find.... (or why its not explained on the google support page)


- https://webmasters.stackexchange.com/questions/76739/what-is-the-update-url-for-dynamic-dns-for-google-domains


For Google Domains supports Dynamic DNS to work, I usually need the following info:

• Update URL
• Hostname
• Username
• Password

Of the four variables above, I know three. From Google, I can get Username and Password. I also know my server's hostname. However, I do not know the Update URL. In other words, I do not know to what the UPDATE URL is to make google dynamic dns domains work.....


The answer which was posted above and allowed me to get google dynamic dyndns2 system working with my Zywall 110 is


DYNDNS Server :  domains.google.com
URL                     :  /nic/update?hostname=www.domainame.url





Ugh.....took forever to find as not answered in any of the Zyxel support pages. (Hey zyxel how about you pick up your game and add this to your support pages like you have for Noip etc).

Who is Ednaswap ?

If you were alive in the 90's you're in for a shock......


I had no idea Natalie Ibruglia "Torn" was a cover.

More here

- https://www.buzzfeed.com/andyneuenschwander/people-are-finding-out-that-natalie-imbruglias-q?utm_term=.djeWKQ4Zl#.kfJm4eQdO







Yeh I know....wtf??? Very different....but still awesome.



Off to go find more Ednaswap (btw if you like them check out Bettie Serveert one of my Top 20 bands - start with Dust Bunnies then Bare Stripped Naked )

Blockchain, Bitcoin, and smoke and mirrors

I'm reading this article....- https://www.fastcompany.com/3067778/the-blockchain-is-going-to-save-immigrants-millions-in-remittance-fees

I'm the first person to say one of my best attributes is I'm always happy to ask the dumb questions to get to the bottom of a topic/problem…..but seriously is it just me as “I’ve never understood how Blockchains will help make money transfer more efficient”?

eg you still need someone “locally in Africa” to receive the bitcoin transfer and hand over the cash……..which means they have to obtain the “local cash” from somewhere – either by selling local bitcoin to someone “in Africa” or more likely…”selling the bitcoin back overseas and getting their hard currency outside of the country….but then needing to send it back to themselves locally.

I hope that makes sense.

The 2%-10% of “fee” or “Cut” that they charge for offering the “local cash” is to pay for “interest in having cash sitting around” OR the process of changing far end cash into local cash.

Sure if you can buy a goat in Africa with Bitcoin then having your hard working son/daughter in America sending you bitcoin to buy said goat is a good thing as “zero local fee” BUT…..then this is a bitcoin ecosystem issue and NOT a blockchain related issue.

Like I said….happy to be proven wrong and lots of smart people who can maybe explain what I’m missing better.

I just feel a lot of people use “technical jargon” like “blockchain” because they want to sound smart instead of saying “distributed ledger”….otherwise known as excel spreadsheet.....which I guess doesn't raise investment funding as fast.

Cheers,
Dean 

Samsung are offering a $425 rebate to Note 7 customers

http://www.zdnet.com/article/were-you-a-samsung-galaxy-note-7-owner-get-almost-half-off-on-a-note-8/

Sorry Samsung Mobile USA but the problem is i paid $747.50 for a S7 and now you want to give me $425 for it....?


How about you refund me the cost of the S7 i purchased 8 months ago then i pay full price for the Note 8 which would make me whole before you and T-Mobile decided to brick our Note 7's against our wishes.

Betting on the house

Australia's real estate obsession driving us to the brink.

"I think it's a powder keg." says investment consultant "The statistics are startling. Australians are carrying more personal debt than ever before".

For every one dollar earned, on average, Australians have nearly two dollars of debt. We hold the dubious position of having the second highest level of household debt in the world. Much of this stems from our obsession with buying real estate. http://www.abc.net.au/4corners/stories/2017/08/17/4719901.htm

So on the whole......i'm 50/50 about this, on one hand it was full of gotcha journalism and the most ludicrous cherry picking of facts. Sydney is not Ireland or Detroit - happy to discuss specifics on why but you've probably already heard them from me before.


On the other hand......its good to give the general public warnings but lets face it when you have the ANZ pensioner who receives a cold call and 48 hours later is signing of mortgage on an investment property in QLD with no income....seriously what was she thinking?


She deserved to be separated from her money (a fool and their money)....and no amount of warnings will help her.


In addition how many investors did they film and reject before they settled on the clip of "Beavis and Butthead - Pina Colada" investors...?


Seriously if you are in your 40's and only have $300k for your retirement any actuarial table with a 4% drawdown will tell you that you have a retirement income of around $12k pa in addition to your superannuation (or in their case most likely pension) or about $115pw per person.


You arent going to be travelling around the world drinking pina coladas on $115pw.
(There is a longer post about Beavis and Butthead on propertychat.com.au and details on their financials are on the Binvested website).

Yes Syd and Melbourne is expensive.

Yes property investors overspent on WA/QLD properties driven up by FIFO mining workers......but if people invested in mining company equities.....they have also fallen.

Are mining company investors also crying into their beer that they over invested on margin and got a margin call??

Nope.

Likewise.....neither should property investors be crying foul and claiming ..."the banks mislead me your honor and i was a poor naive victim of their trickery".

One final point i do want to make that "wasnt really highlighted by Four Corners" about our industry experts.

Why do you think they are appearing on TV talking about the future potential crash of Aussie property".....
This below was from a 2016 post

"The dream run is about to end. Price to income ratios are very high,” Mr Tepper said. “Anyone with a pulse could essentially get a mortgage,” he said.​

Hempton discloses has a short on the Australian housing market. Tepper has told 60 minutes, he will probably do the same.​"

Yep Jonathan Tepper – founder of London-based research house Variant Perception, known for his bearish views on the housing market has a short position and will make money when the Aussie market crashes.....

Lol btw as the market has gone up at least 10.9% in the last 12 months....Mr Tepper is most likely currently underwater on his own investment...........

But hey what do i know.

Filed under....where have you been and why didnt i do this sooner

Among its many awesome features, Microsoft Outlook allows you to easily map a contact's address using Bing Maps, making it simple to find their location. If you would rather use Google Maps instead, a simple registry edit will fix that……
- https://lifehacker.com/use-google-maps-instead-of-bing-for-contacts-in-outlook-1561303707

 

Where have you been all of my life…..very happy to have found this.

Preppers ....dumbest or smartest?

As an Australian before I moved to the USA I would have chuckled reading this article in the SMH - http://www.smh.com.au/business/world-business/for-doomsday-preppers-the-end-of-the-world-is-good-for-business-20170813-gxvfri.html

How loco are those Americans....what do they think is going to go wrong.

Having lived here in NYC for a few years I now understand how "out of the loop" and safe Australians feel. Our geography is a blessing and a curse.

Its a blessing that we don't feel the "knife edge" of potential change the way they do in Europe and we definitely don't feel the population struggle the way they do in Asia where just feeding the family is a daily win.

So feel free (and rightly so) to feel superior in your safety Australia, but remember decay and change "is" the status quo. You only have to ask an older person in Europe about "stable govt" and do they think they could see yet another change within their lifetime?

Or ask an economist in the USA.....how sure are you we wont see another 08 yet again......?

There are currently 4m people in Sydney..........and the food supply in Coles and Woolworths has a 72 hour turnover.

How many of those 4m could grow and feed themselves for a month should some kind of widespread event occur there?

Do I prep....you'll never know but I do know that the average human requires 3 liters of water per day (+2 liters for sanitary) and the average human will consume 50,000 calories a month so for a month....you could store everything you need under a single box spring mattress.

But hey....lets joke about NK and how loco preppers are (btw I also think NK is a joke.....but lots of other things go bump in the night).

BTW don't have enough space for 1x2x0.2 storage then get yourself a Waterbob from Amazon in the very least - http://bit.ly/WaterBob

Cryogenics

Would you cryo if it was cheap enough?

- http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2106762/husband-chinas-first-cryogenics-subject-keeps-his-love-and-hope

#WITBragDay

Pretty cool hashtag
- https://twitter.com/hashtag/WITBragDay?src=hash

Madman

Hampton Institute

The US has 800 military bases in 63 countries worldwide, and military personnel presently active in 156 countries.

The US has been at war or in a military conflict for 224 of its 241 years in existence.

The US defense budget is over $610 billion yearly, which is higher than the defense budgets of the next 8 countries combined: China (215), Russia (69), Saudi Arabia (63), UK (48), France (55), India (55), Japan (46), and Germany (41).

The US is the only country that has ever dropped an atomic bomb on a population, killing about 200,000 people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

A December 2013 WIN/Gallup poll asked 67,806 respondents from 65 countries, "Which country do you think is the greatest threat to peace in the world today?" 24% of respondents said the US. The next highest perceived threat was Pakistan at 8%. 5% believed North Korea was the greatest threat.

The US has 6,800 nuclear armaments. North Korea has less than 10.

The US has overthrown or attempted to overthrow 57 foreign governments since WW2. North Korea has overthrown or attempted to overthrow 0 foreign governments since 1953.


........Pretty much about sums up the "conflict."

Home grown challenge

Great challenge for people to consider taking up :)


We are so far removed from where our food comes from I think it would be a huge game changer for society to ground us back to reality.


- http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-08-10/sydney-resident-lives-off-land-for-a-year/8792498

SNB revealed equities buyer

Still think that market drop is coming....?

- http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-08-09/mystery-central-bank-buyer-revealed-snb-now-owns-record-84-billion-us-stocks

EMP

Doesn't really tell you anything you shouldn't already know.....but at least it does mention the 2012 near miss.

http://modernsurvivalonline.com/emp-survival-101/

Final episode of #WestWing and moving on to #ER

I'm #NowWatching final episode of #WestWing lol finally got the Nancy and spend more time with your mother joke.
:)

It was really weird watching the last ever episode of #WestWing last night eg thinking the next time we ever watch this series we'll probably be living back in Australia etc......

To cheer us up that we are done with the Bartlett administration and moving back into Trump reality we watched S1:E1 of ER last night as well....was awesome TV to watch.

So many people we knew and amazing 'story telling' not sure if its just the nostalgia sweeping over us that made it fun but really looking forward to watching this series end to end......lol though its a bit of an epic endurance eg 15 seasons with 330 episodes..... http://amzn.to/2eFz7Cz

Cash on sidelines at lowest levels ever......

Want to know why stocks are at all time highs..... I'll just leave this here.

- http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-07-21/no-more-cash-sidelines-private-client-cash-levels-drop-record-low

All fun and games until the music stops (prob not until 2020.......but it WILL stop)

Australian super under performs yet again

Yet again Australian funds underperform USA market

- http://www.smh.com.au/money/super-returns-add-140b-to-national-retirement-savings-pot-20170719-gxe8t2.html

We're just lucky we are saving more as a percentage of income than most other countries.

We need more competiton for our Super in the Australian market as they currently arent delivering the results seen elsewhere.

Tori Amos

Scored tickets to Tori Amos concert on Nov 8th at The Beacon
- http://www.toriamos.com

Ticking another one off the bucket list. Really looking forward to this one.

Sydney public transport

Great advice around public transport, one of the things that Jodie and I have learnt about living in New York is that subways=smelly BUT awesome.

There is no faster way to get around and it makes me sad that Sydney isn't doing enough to increase its infrastructure investments.

https://www.domain.com.au/news/five-lessons-from-tokyo-a-city-of-38-million-people-for-australia-a-country-of-24-million-people-20170711-gx8t15/

Dockless bikes coming to NYC

Ugh just saw on NY1 this morning that they are talking about bringing "dockless bikes" to NYC in order to compete against CitiBike.

As much as I don't like some of the locations that CitiBike chose for their docks its been great for the city and one of the reasons it works is that everyone uses the same platform, If you have competing platforms......then you are duplicating the resources so less efficient.

My other real issue with dockless bikes is because they can be "locked by themselves" you can basically leave them anywhere.....so people end up leaving them..."anywhere" as once you've locked it up and walked away from it then its not your problem (similar issue to Car2Go cars that don't get parked in parking stations and instead are parked anywhere often causing issues with alternate side parking days here in Brooklyn heights).

lol don't think this is a problem.....check out whats happened in Beijing where there are a number of these companies competing - http://www.scmp.com/news/china/society/article/2062595/more-500-rented-bikes-many-vandalised-left-dumped-piles-near

Yo its Monday

"It goes a-1, 2, 3... Hey yo, it's just another bombtrack"

lol....awesome track to start a Monday with :)

I'm NowListening to Rage Against The Machine (1992)

- http://amzn.to/2qDvoa3

Metric vs Imperial

To all my USA friends, repeat after me...... 60x60cm tile does NOT equal 24x24in

No i dont care what it says on the box !!!!! Would you move this POS country to metric for freaking sake. !!!!!

We didnt have a challenger shuttle disaster here today but yes we did have an expensive mistake here this morning :(

Living anywhere but Sydney is camping out

I've said it before and i'll say it again, there will not be a USA style housing crash in Australian property.
1/ Most USA loans are non-recourse
2/ People in the USA relocate far more often for work (think a bucket where water sloshes from one side to the other). There are over 100+ tier 1 cities in the USA and people will move about on a regular basis (not talking the collapse of Detroit style....just regular moving from NY to Atlanta for a new job style).


The closest thing we in Australia have is the mining boom/collapse in Perth where miners/construction people have vacated Perth to move east to take up construction jobs in "infrastructure" projects causing rents to fall. But there is no way that 30% of Sydneysiders are moving to Perth in the next 24 months.......no matter how bad the economy gets in Sydney. -


http://www.smh.com.au/business/property/property-prices-in-capital-cities-tick-up-20170619-gwts7h.html

Location checkin using QR codes

Neat qr code use (location checkin) – www.doggernyc.com just saw this video and thought it might interest some of you https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flnOyBT8a-g

Senator Brandis decides he wants to outlaw maths

Yet again another govt thinks that they can outlaw maths.


If i'm Hezbollah, Isis, Jemaah Islamiyah or Eesa and i want to communicate via encrypted messages.....you can use off the shelf tools that make it impossible to crack without massive amounts of super computer time and this is all done with Simple Maths.


So Brandis......why dont you come clean and tell people this isnt about terrorism but its about surveillance of the population.
- http://www.smh.com.au/federal-politics/political-news/how-the-turnbull-government-plans-to-access-encrypted-messages-20170609-gwoge0.html


You cocked up the NBN and pretty much everything else in the last few years, why should i trust you with this?


I wouldnt trust you with my lunch money let alone access to every social media account in the world.

Australian annual budget review

I was at the New York version of this talk last night - http://www.smats.net/media/budgetseminar.aspx

Lots of interesting nuggets of information in the slide deck. Especially the Tasmania "jump".

Not sure if any of you ever saw the tv show Fat Pig Farm, but if you didn’t try and seek it out, shows the “foodie” side of Tasmania so wondering if people moving there are “grey wanderers” looking for a cheaper lifestyle than Melbourne/Sydney.

Eg http://www.abc.net.au/news/2017-06-08/dark-mofo-spikes-hobart-accom-and-flights-prices/8601196

I’ve also seen some people here on Property Chat talking about yields etc and with such a small market its easy to tip it to overload quickly so might be over before it even starts etc

Disagreed with Steve about the "inland rail" being a white elephant, like I've said here before ruralisation of Australia is the only thing that can take the pressure off Sydney/Melbourne property prices.

Anyway hopefully some of you find it of interest.

Disappointed in Forza 6 local multi player

So recently Jodie bought me an Xbox One (long story....plenty of you have heard the joke).

We recently hooked it up to play Forza6 game and after using /r/xboxone/ to find out how to do "head to head split screen racing" (as not really obvious) only to find out that there are no other bots in the race against each of you ???

Am I missing something basic? or is XboxOne really that badly designed?

I've been really dissapointed in the co-opt selection of games and the basic gameplay on even marqee titles.

Have Microsoft designers forgotten that couches mainly sit 3 to 4 people.....or are they that nerdy they only have "online friends" for multiplayer?

Noora Noor

I'm #NowListening to Noora Noor - Forget What I Said

What a find.....never heard of her until recently and bought the cd from Amazon - http://amzn.to/2rhNiQF

Looks like she only released 2 cd's even though she sounds awesome.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEP72XorgdQ

Sovereign bankruptcy

Interesting article.....(and hopefully should explain to my Australian friends why Australian property isnt a bubble compared to the USA-but thats a side note).


The bigger issues are countries/cities/states claiming bankruptcy.


https://mishtalk.com/2017/05/26/chicago-population-shrinks-most-in-entire-us-berwyn-cicero-and-peoria-worse-per-capita-high-taxes-1-reason


Bankruptcy protection should ONLY be offered after all assets are sold off.


Too many states/cities love to borrow borrow borrow but then want to claim bankruptcy whilst still retaining valuable assets.


Doesn’t matter if we are talking Greece, Puerto Rico or Illinois….. you should only be able to claim bankruptcy after ALL assets have been sold off to pay debtors.

#ManchesterBombing

I hate to be a bummer.....but seeing no one else is pointing out the irony about what sort of person kills innocent children - i dont know but we gave one of them a Nobel Peace Prize


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Nobel_Peace_Prize  


https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jan/09/america-dropped-26171-bombs-2016-obama-legacy


In 2016 alone Obama dropped 26,171 bombs.....but we seem to care only about "one" that went off in Manchester last night.


I feel for any parent who lost their child on Monday night.....but it never ceases to amaze me that we never seem to ask....Why?

Twitters Terms and Condition changes

Heads up on Twitters new T&C's.

They are now tracking your mobile phone movements
They are now tracking your browsing movements.

Uhm pass, uncheck and hit save.

Obsession

Jodie and i saw Obsession last week. Not as good as Hedda Gabler but still very much worth the $20 tickets that they charge for NTL.

If you have a local cinema that shows NTL live broadcasts then very much recommend you check these productions out.

Two comments......

Jude Law can really act (was very surprised at this), its the small movements and intonation that he truly is a master of.

Second is.....what the heck happened to Ivo van Hove as a child that he has this thing about liquids "gushing from above"?? (if you've seen his production of A View from the Bridge and now this you'll know what I mean).

Rent affordability in Sydney

Was listening to a friend on my FB list posting about property investors are greedy and how the government needs to remove negative gearing, get rid of capitals gains discounts, and that the rent in Sydney is too damn high and his landlord is ripping him off at $490pw.

I posted a few screen shots of "reality calculations" in an excel spreadsheet

eg
100% property cost + purchase costs/stamp duty/legal expenses (for his 2br Sydney apartment based on other local sales around $700k)
x
current mortgage rates (used 4.5%)
+
Annual expenses including Rates/Strata/Water/Insurance + avg repairs pa of $1k

Which means his current apartment actually costs $700pw and that his landlord collecting only $490pw is actually losing $210pw

(ignoring probably wouldn't have 100% mortgage and didn't purchase property "yesterday" at current market rate etc, but very accurate calculations apart from that).

Australian renters have never had it better and are actually benefitting from Australian tax policies in a big way.

When I pointed out that his apartment actually cost $700pw his response was.....in this shitbox no way I'd live somewhere else....im not stupid enough to pay that much.

.....sigh.

Prometheus

Im @NowWatching #Prometheus on BluRay in anticipation of seeing #AlienCovenant next weekend. - http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1446714/?ref_=nv_sr_1

The second time around it doesnt piss me off as badly at the bad direction choices and the lack of scientific protocols.

Lets fly half a galaxy away and get laid.......

Rage Against The Machine

I'm #NowListening to Rage Against The Machine (1992)
- http://amzn.to/2qDvoa3

Forgot how amazingly awesome their baselines are....perfect timing with their step fall driving beat.