yeah some rural areas do tend do waste a bit of it because you go outside and see that the dam is full or the tanks are up, so you might splurge out on a bath or water the lawn, but i assure you on our property its very rare. we dont irrigate either. Some farmers continued to drip for a while but its so obivious when you have a green lot in a land of brown and red. they were so unpopular at the local on a friday let me tell you!

also the areas in surveys like these classify places like the NSW central coast and surrounding areas as "country" areas. which they aren't. i now reside here and people call it "the country" and its just as much conjested as the city is. (well, nearly)

during the drought there were warning to please do not water your garden and if you really need to only do it at night (so it wouldnt evaporate immidently) some of my city neighbours would leave it on ALL night. water spilling blocks down the street. DUH.

The Aussies are getting KK's...oh what a joy they are...like little pieces of heaven in your mouth.

Hmmm...might be time for a late-night run down to Cottman and Bustleton...

krispy kreaames with locust sprinkles.

yikes, I just got home from the Block of Orange ( near Disneyland) and there was a Krispy Kreme on the way to the freeway. Very difficult to fight the temptation. The worst part is if you buy a dozen sometimes they give you another dozen for free!!

Oh, about the locust at least they don't hang around too long I don't think. I hear they're nasty little creatures.

But, are they kosher?

Texas size roaches!
 

Nothing a little DDT can't fix!

I knew an old lady that swallowed a fly. It wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her. I don;t know why she swallowed that fly. Perhaps she'll die.

Leah, would you like to come visit my office when the 17 year cicaidas attack philadelphia?

Sorry for going so far off on a tangent, but:

I know an old lady who swallowed a fly, I don't know why she swallowed the fly, perhaps she'll die.

I know an old lady who swallowed a spider, it wiggled and jiggled and tickled inside her. She swallowed the spider to catch the fly...

I know an old lady who swallowed a bird, isn't that absurd to swallow a bird. She swallowed the bird to catch the spider...

I know an old lady who swallowed a cat. Imagine that, to swallow a cat...

I know an old lady who swallowed a dog, what a hog to swallow a dog...

I know an old lady who swallowed a goat, she just opened her throat to swallow the goat...

I know an old lady who swallowed a cow, I don't know how she swallowed the cow...

I know an old lady who swallowed a horse. She's dead of course (song ends immediately)

Ok I'm feeling the need to weight in here.
First of all, it's NSW, they deserve it. (joke, I'm a melbourne boy).

Secondly, while those of us in the city are not watering our fucking potplants the bloody farmers are often using OPEN DITCH irrigation with a total water loss of around 90 fucking percent.

The only reason nothing is done about it because the fucking electoral regions give a stupid amount of power to the 15% of the population who don't like in major population centres. If you choose to live in buttfuck, rural victoria, don't expect world class hospitals, high speed broadband and perfect 3G coverage.

Why is that, Jag? :confused:

Because the area and location of each seat was set in another time and unsurprisingly I'm sure legislation to reduce their power in line with their percentage of the population wouldn't be that trendy. Catch-22 really.

I'm just so sick of the 'little jimmy suffered severed burning after he accidently poured petrol on himself while having a smoke and had it took an hour for an ambulance to come, in the city, it's only 40 minutes! O

Or that fairly recent case where a family where the mother was blind and the son suffered from a severe type of asthema moved to an extremely remote location. Their phone line went down, it took telstra 5 days or so to fix it, in the meantime, the kid had a severe asthma attack and died. They tried an action against optus coz their mobiel was out of range. If you're blind and have a son with a severe medical condition and you choose to move to the middle of fucking nowhere you deserve what you get.

Are the phone and medical services state run, monopolies or free market services provided by supply/demand constraints?
The "electoral regions" have equal say in the government, regardless of the population in them?
Any of you other Strines have 2 cents to add?:)

The vast majority of health infrastructure is public, there are some private hospitals. Telstra is 51% owned by the government and owns the existing copper network, it must provide competitors access to this network to varying degrees in different ways. Optus, now owned by Singtel has a cable network in most major cities that it also provides phone services over. There are 4 major competing mobile networks.

Yes on the electoral power.

But don't, for one second point to the american model of privatization as the answer to these problems. I find your health system morally reprehensible at best and your mess of a utility system a joke. I've firsthand witnessed privatization and attempts there of in various countries over time and seen nothing but increased costs and declining services, often with little or no government saving and on occasion, increased governmental costs. Putting essential infrastructure in the hands of private enterprise neither has any real benefits for the consumer and gives companies little or no motivation to upgrade or improve infrastructure. It's a fundamentally flawed idea with little or no merit.

Calm down, Jag. I wasn't setting you up, just curious.:)