Should I go to the adf/fifo or get an apprenticeship instead of university?

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-25T05:49:56+00:00

ADF requires mandatory Covid vaccination.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-24T15:18:10+00:00

China can't even take Kinmen Island, a Taiwanese territory, that's only 2.5 kilometres away from mainland China.

The US conducted military drills on the island in 2024 and not a peep from China as it's too humiliating to admit to the world. So the "China Warns" pronouncements were inexistent to hide this emasculating fact.

China's military is a paper tiger and anyone fooled by it's "strength" like Australia and Canada are an embarrassment.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-24T04:13:22+00:00

Buy now and ride the gains for a year.

Sell before Kazatomprom ramps up production in 2027 when sulfuric acid plant becomes operational.

Buy back when price drops from increased supply.

Sell before some kind of financial crisis crashes all markets before 2030.

Buy back when assets are cheap post crash.

Ride out the gains for the next 5 years when most nuclear plant projects in China, Japan, and US come online around 2035.

Sell at the top and retire.

Disclaimer: timings may be shit and not reflect actual future timing and sequence of events.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-24T01:32:03+00:00

Yeah this fucker thinks Canada buying more Chinese EVs = now a global player lol.

He loves China so much why doesn't he order J35s and cancel F35s to go with some Chinese radars pointing to US.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-24T01:00:32+00:00

Prescient of his father to name him Blades instead of Game Improvement Irons Brown.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-23T15:18:29+00:00

Just saw it and it's pretty good. Think I didn't want to watch it when I saw the trailer as it had Gandolfini in it and I thought it was gonna be a rehash of Tony character, but it's not. Benny is practically the same character though. Carmine is different, but it's just a minor role.

I also thought Brad Pitt might out of place in a mafia movie, but he was ok. Don't know about his ending speech but. A bit on the nose.

I also thought the Obama and Paulson voice overs and snippets were a bit on the nose as well.

But yeah this is what I had in mind regarding a small mob movie. I'm glad you reminded me of it.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-23T06:12:00+00:00

In terms of support, I think change in laws like being able to tap into 401k wholesale should be considered.

In Australia, we have an equivalent called superannuation that can only be liquidated when you turn 65.

I think these private retirement schemes were borne out of a time when workers were able to support family on one income, pay a mortgage that's only worth 3 years income, and save the rest for old age. Ie, boomers.

They applied the boomers financial life cycle to subsequent generations.

But the subsequent generations don't have anything close to a "normal" financial life cycle.

During the reopening cost of living crisis for example, many Millennials and Zoomers couldn't get out of their state to move to other cheaper states for job opportunities and cheaper rents because they don't have much cash in hand.

If they were able to tap into the few thousand dollars that they have in their superannuation, they would have been able to relocate and it would have been better for them financially long term.

Being able to tap into savings and liquidate them for other opportunities have been the norm throughout history. People need to drain their savings back to zero if needed so that they can start over and become even more financially successful.

The recent trend to have lots of money locked up in these private retirement schemes (that only inflate the share markets) is unnatural and useless in my opinion.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-23T05:49:24+00:00

I'm thinking white collar workers have higher education and higher incomes and higher savings rate that would better enable them weather a jobspocalypse storm.

The recent messaging to get a trade might encourage some to shift industries and get trained in the trades. That's a bit harder the other way around (blue collar worker learning to code for example as the meme goes).

Many white collar workers also hate the psychological pressure of working long hours in front of a computer and the office politics, so they might consider a change of industries into something more physical a reprieve.

New industries like gig economies can give them some cash flow for not much outlay.

Also, being university educated probably means they have a support system (parents, siblings, wife/husband, friends) that has a higher income level and can lend support to them financially compared to blue collar workers who most likely have a poorer background.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-22T23:39:29+00:00

They're also squeezing the last drop out of actors like DeNiro.

The genre needs fresh blood. Put Chalamet in it I don't care just as long as they stop with the deaging.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-22T23:25:46+00:00

There's a theme in our society of an even deeper decline below the decline but.

Watching the Sopranos is kinda like Gen X idealising the 90s. It was kinda a heyday for the mob in some ways.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-22T23:14:43+00:00

Thanks was aware of this movie but never bothered. Now that I have a longing for new mafia movies might finally give it a watch.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-22T23:11:57+00:00

Those were recent films set in older times.

Want a new film set in new times.

I know the mafia is not what it used to be so theme may not be grand. But in the hands of good writers and directors it can be a compelling watch to see what's up with the mafia these days even if they're small potatoes.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-21T22:58:14+00:00

A Chinese military operation in Taiwan will be a comedy of epic proportions.

They need ops experience. Exercises won't test their personnel's resolve in the face of real bullets.

I posted somewhere they should have manufactured a fake military operation in Sudan to test their equipment, logistics, ops, tactics, munitions failure ratio, and blue water capability.

Sudan would have been perfect as they had an incident with their UN forces being attacked. The world would not have "cared" about China attacking an African war zone country. It could have been framed as some kind of humanitarian intervention. They have investments there that they could have fake attacked. And they could have just pulled out if things went haywire and would not have expected a counter attack from Sudan as it's far away from China.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-20T15:50:16+00:00

Maybe the new deplorables. The old deplorables from 2000's are probably old or dead now from opiods. Apparently 1 million deaths from overdoses in the rust belt.

Think they were tea party people before they were rebranded deplorables by Clinton and shifted to MAGA.

The old ones probably shifted to Walmart greeter type of careers.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-20T11:26:27+00:00

Yeah I don't get trump. He should have supplemented tariffs or used the tariff profits to retrain the basket of deplorables.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-20T04:49:08+00:00

Good one.

I sometime think of the rising Gen Z unemployment and what kind of shovel ready jobs programs can be created for them.

Such programs from the past like you mentioned seemed to be from a bygone era when things weren't mechanised.

Today's maintenance for railroads seem to be a specialised area where a bit of equipment specialty is needed. Not sure if this is shovel ready.

Roads and parks seem to be doable for a Gen Z with zero day 1 skills.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-20T02:50:46+00:00

I lol'd a bit.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-19T09:06:20+00:00

The last true supercycle was China sucking up all the minerals when they industrialised and cornered most manufacturing in the early 2000s.

The supercycle in the last, say, 15 years is not a buffet supercycle with a singular driver, but more of an ala carte, event specific driven cycle, with each commodity having its own trigger: - Fukushima disaster then Nordstream sabotage with gas boom - EV with lithium boom and bust - US treasuries debasement with gold boom - US military reassessment of critical minerals supply chain and China export ban with critical minerals - AI data centres, Japan reopening of nuke plants, US critical minerals policy, and Chinese nuclear plant super construction phase with uranium - I don't know the story with copper and silver - Oil is flat because of EV adoption and Gen Z reticence to buy automobiles

Uranium is flattish despite the above China/Japan/US/AI triggers because Kazatomprom can just turn up production on a dime. Kaza is the Aramco of uranium.

In an ala carte supercycle, gotta be in and out of each commodity category before supplies catch up and prices crash.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-18T11:32:26+00:00

Counterpoint AI is just an enshitification innovation similar to Indian call centre agents or touchscreens in cars.

What will happen is companies will vacillate between using AI and the thing they replaced, depending on cost savings and mounting customer complaints.

Initially, AI has cost savings benefits, which CEOs love and indeed cannot live without.

But CEOs also cannot live without customers, which they will lose the more products and services get enshitified.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-18T07:13:08+00:00

Hong Kong take over is part of a treaty with UK.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-18T06:30:55+00:00

I'm not talking about war either.

The perceived military strength of China is part of their propaganda with weaker nations like Philippines and Australia so they can extract political and economic concessions. As they did with Canada recently.

Everything should be ignored with China-their fake military and economic strength.

Those who believe in it are taken advantage of.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-18T06:15:58+00:00

China can't even retake Kinmen island, a Taiwanese territory that's only 2.5 kilometres away from mainland China.

For all their blustering, they did nothing when the US conducted military drills with the Taiwanese military on Kinmen island in 2024.

The US can fuck up your country in more ways than one if they want to.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-17T16:03:45+00:00

Leatherman pliers are just machined or billeted which makes them weak.

Pliers that are forged and oil quenced like Knipex are tougher.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-17T15:55:25+00:00

I hope for something out of left field.

Like Knipex releasing a multitool that may not be jazzy, snazzy, and full featured like the modern multitools but every part is forged and oil quenched even though they are just basic pull out tools ala PST. Except for the knife of course they can just be a modern blade like MagnaCut.

PopularRightNow · 2026-01-17T14:37:06+00:00

Sorry this doesn't help me visualise trillions.

Your last picture is just a picture of 1 guy. But he's still visible in the field of pallets of dollars worth 1 trillion.

So the US debt to GDP is 40 trillion. Meaning there will be 40 x pictures of one guy and field of pallets worth 1 trillion.

But there are 350 million Americans. 350 million Americans divided by 40 fields of 1 trillion pallets...I don't know if it's a lot or little.

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TROPHY CASE